Too Cool for School?

Last week we celebrated Dr. Seuss/Read Across America Week at our school.  Each day had a different theme…

Monday – Oh The Places You Will Go: Wear something from some place you’ve visited.

Tuesday – Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss’ birthday): Wear red & black & white

Wednesday – One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish: Wear red & blue

Thursday – Fox in Sox: Wear crazy socks

Friday – Hop on Pop: Wear a tie or scarf.

My kids had a great time dressing up each day.  My absolute favorite was Friday.  I HAD to take some pics to show off…

 

Sambo ~ stylin’ and proflin’ (He did his own hair!) ;-)

 

 

Jay-Man ~ not thrilled about “going on the blog”… He he!! 

 

 

Emmie-G ~ rockin’ the specs and the silk scarf. You GO girl!!

 

Look out Jo-Bros and Selena Gomez!! The Reeder kids are in DA HOUSE!! ;-)

Courageous Prayer

Good morning, all!  It’s such a gloriously beautiful day here in Sunny South Carolina.  I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful start to the week.

As I was going about my business this morning, I decided to clean up a few of the folders in “My Documents” on the computer.  I came across this prayer from my “Having A Mary Spirit” study, a little while back.

Lord Jesus, I give you my life.

I invite You to have Your way in me.

Take me and break me. Shake me and make me.

Fill me and spill me. Change me and rearrange me.

But whatever You do, Lord…don’t leave me the same.

Spirit of wisdom and revelation, I welcome Your work.

Open my eyes so I can see…my ears so I can hear…

I choose truth over comfort, challenge over complacency.

Lord, make me forever Yours.

And most of all, make me like You.

Amen

Wow.  What an awesome prayer!  What courage it takes to pray a prayer such as this.

You see, God has been dealing with me greatly in the last few months.  While I have been praying for healing and restoration from a certain set of circumstances, He has decided to dig deeper.  He is bringing up and bringing out things that I have been holding on to for such a long time… not even realizing it.

I am not going to lie.  Pruning hurts.  As He digs deep into my heart, down to the roots of some issues, there is a lot of  pain and discomfort.  But oh the sweet relief of a lesson learned, a hope revealed, and a dream restored.

My prayer for all of us today, is that God would give us the audacity to pray a prayer like this… for “truth over comfort”… for “challenge over complacency”…

Only then can we experience true the healing Jesus offers us, and the real, full, abundant life that He came to give us.

Here I am, Lord… Have your will and your way in my life… but whatever you do, don’t leave me the same!!

Family Night Q&A and a Winner!

Thanks so much for joining in on all the Family Night fun this week.  You guys are so sweet with your encouraging comments. 

But, some of you had some questions that I thought I would address in this last and final post:

1. Do we have family night every week? Yes and no.  We have “family time” blocked off every Friday night, but we only do one themed family night each month.  I like to keep the ideas fresh and don’t want the kids to get bored with it.  Also, one Friday night each month Chris “dates” one of the children.  They rotate month to month.  January was Jake, February – Sam, and March will be Emilee’s turn.  We also have one Friday night that we call Pizza & Movie night, where we order in and the kids get to take turns picking the movie.  So, we have something planned almost every week.
2. What kind of chores do my kids do for commission?  Well, it really varies by age. But to give you some ideas, here’s a copy of the chore charts that I came up with for each kid.  I keep these on file in my documents on the computer, but the kids copied them on their FPU chore charts.
3. Is one of the prizes a Chore Chart?  Yes and no.  One of the prizes is the FPU Junior Kit… the chore chart is included.
4. Will I compile an eBook with all my ideas included?  I’ve honestly thought about taking each of these posts and making a book out of them, but I get so many of my ideas from the Family Fun and Amazing Moms websites that I don’t want to plagiarize. I will keep it under advisement, though. If nothing else, I’d like to print out a book as a keepsake for the kids. We’ll see…
5. What is the FABULOUS PRIZE??? Well, like I said, it’s more of a “prize package” but here is what it includes…

I told you it was FABULOUS!!!!!!

And last but  not least…  WHO IS THE WINNER???

Drum roll please….

The fabulous prize package goes to…

My Sweet VALLEY GIRL, Tammi!!

YAY!!! I am so excited!!  I have it all ready to go on my Amazon.com account so just RE-forward me your snail mail address (via email) and I will get it shipped right to ya! ;-)

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend full of family fun!!

Family Night: Bringin’ In 2010

This was a very special Family Night celebration, not just because we celebrated a new decade, but because Papa and Nana joined in the fun with us!!

The kids and I baked all day.  This was our menu:

Magic Cookie Bars

Peanut Butter Cookies

Crockpot Meatballs in BBQ/Grape Jelly Sauce

Chicken Tenders w/ sauces

Chips and Salsa

Fresh Veggies w/ Ranch Dip

We spread out the food in standard “party style” (a buffet line around the kitchen counter) so that we could “munch and go” throughout the night.

Since it was cold and rainy out, we knew we wouldn’t be able to set off fireworks, so we had to come up with a “Plan B”. We inserted sparkly confetti into white and black balloons and hung them from the light fixture in the living room.  We also made our own noisemakers by decorating strips of neon cardstock and gluing them to empty water bottles.  We filled the bottles with black and white beans, put the lids back on and tied brightly colored ribbon around the tops.

After singing, dancing, and playing a few games, we gathered around in the living room to create a “time capsule”.  I found an old mason jar and we covered it with black paper and decorated it with a gold glitter pen.  Then each person wrote one goal they have for this year on slips of paper, folded them up, and placed them in the jar.  When everyone was done, we put the sealed the lid on top, and packed the jar away with our Christmas decorations.  When we pull them out next year to decorate for Christmas, we will see how many of us achieved our goals.

The night ended with watching all the fun on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and seeing the ball drop.  At midnight we popped the balloons, shook our noisemakers, and sang “Auld Lang Syne”.  Then we prayed for the new year, and the new decade, and whatever God has in store for our family throughout.  It was a very special time of reflecting and dreaming.

The evening couldn’t have been any sweeter.  What a perfect way to ring in 2010!!

(P.S. - These pictures were obviously in the same file as the last ones, and have disappeared! Makes me so ill!! ARRGH!!)

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That concludes my Week of Family Nights!! Tomorrow I will announce the winner of the Fabulous Prize so don’t forget to leave your comments to be entered to win!! (And yes!! The more comments you leave, the better your chances!!)

Before I go, let me leave you with the final prize/clue:

I’ve embedded several informational links within this post.  One of them includes the prize!

Happy Hunting!! ;-)

Family Night: Roll Tide!!

This was our second Family Night of 2010. Of course we had to celebrate our beloved “Tide” going to the National Championship game!  So glad I did… we had to do something to lighten the atmosphere… Chris Reeder was as nervous as a long-tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs!

Anyway.  I digress.

To get started, I had all the kids go and get all dressed up in their Bama gear.  Then we painted faces, and made our own “GO BAMA” pennants.  (Making the pennants was very simple.  Chris cut out the triangular shapes from poster board, and the kids used images I had printed out from the computer to draw, trace, and glue their own designs.)  When they were all done, we hung them up with pride!

Our dinner menu consisted of tailgating fare: barbeque sandwiches, potato salad, and veggies & dip. For dessert I picked up some football themed cupcakes at Wal-Mart.

While the kids were finishing the meal, I gave them each a whistle to wear around their necks.  (Found a 6 pack of plastic whistles at the Dollar General and scarfed ‘em up!) I told them that anytime some one got caught saying the words “Bama” or “Tide” they had to surrender their whistle to the one who caught them.  At the end of the evening the one with the most whistles won a prize. (Emilee dominated this one!)

Then we played “GUESS THE SCORE”.  I made a small poster and recorded each one’s guess. At the end of the game, the person whose guess was closest to the final score also won a prize. Of course we all assumed that Bama would win! (Jake was our winner, here.  He guessed that Bama would win 31 to 17.  The final score, as you may recall, was Bama 37, Texas 21.) ;-)

At this point we moved to the family room and got all settled in for kick off!  We jumped and cheered as Bama took the field; the kids were WAY excited!

At half-time we played these games:

• Football Charades – using classic football terms such as helmet, cheerleaders, coaches, team, etc…
• Football Tossing Contest – kids took turns throwing a Nerf football through a hula hoop, moving backward one step after each round.  Last one standing won the prize.  (Jake was a natural!)
• Dizzy Kicker – Each child took a turn being blindfolded and being spun around 3 times. After the third spin, the blindfold was removed and they had to try and kick the “football” (a balloon) through the “goal posts” (Dad’s arms).

During the third quarter, I gave the kids each a packet (manilla envelopes with their name written in a football shape) of activities that included football coloring pages, mazes, and word puzzles. (All printables that I found online by googling “Football” and “Crimson Tide”.) I thought they would get bored after a while, but they didn’t.  They stayed “in the game” til the end.

When it was all over, we celebrated the victory with whoots and high-fives, and distributed the prizes. (I had gotten little trinkets from he dollar store to hand out for each game. I don’t get it, but they love that junky stuff!) ;-)

Then we “hit the showers”; brushed our teeth, put on our jammies, and said our prayers (in Sam’s terms)…

“Bless Jesus, thank you for letting us have a very fun family night, and for our prizes, and our Mommy, and Daddy, and for helping Bama win the game!”

That’s right folks, God is a Crimson Tide fan! ;-)

(Sorry about the lack of pictures, somehow the file didn’t get copied to the computer, and is nowhere to be found!!)

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One more Family Night post is coming tomorrow, and then Friday I’ll announce the winner of the “Fabulous Prize” package.  So don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered to win. 

Oh yeah, I decided that since THREE Family Nights are being featured this week, there should be THREE parts to the prize. So here’s another (this one rhymes) clue:

To help you find ideas, and know just where to look…

I have the perfect resource, a nifty little _________.

Tune in tomorrow to see what the final clue/prize will be!

Family Night: Treasure Hunt

Okay, so like I said yesterday, we’re going for a week’s worth of Family Night posts in order to get all caught up on all the fun we’ve been having in 2010. :-)

That being said, instead of starting from the beginning, I want to go in reverse order, starting with the MOST RECENT Family Night: Treasure Hunt.

While Chris and I were retreating in Hilton Head last month, one of the things we did was plan how we could incorporate the principals from the Dave Ramsey’s FPU, JR. kit that we had recently ordered.  What better way to unveil the new plan for chores and commissions than a “treasure hunt” theme?

We began the evening by playing a “speed round” of Monopoly, Jr.  After the game we had dinner (no theme there, just home-made chicken noodle soup and fresh fruit), but the kids were given a menu and required to purchase their meal using money that had been distributed earlier in the evening.  (You should have seen their faces when we told them what the money was for!) After dinner, we moved to the family room to read “The Super Red Racer – Junior Discovers Work” by Dave Ramsey. 

  

At the end of the book there was a clue.  Each clue lead to another book in this series of 6.  As the kids found each book, they found another clue.  Taped to the back of the last book was the last clue, which lead to the “Big Prize” that included an FPU, Jr kit, and two extra “supplement” packs (so that all three kids were well equipped for the rest of the evening.)

Then, we all gathered at the kitchen table, and Dad and I casted the vision for how this program would work for our family.  Emilee, Jacob, and Sam were all given Chore Charts to fill out according to the chores that they had been assigned each day. The kids had a lot of fun with this.

The kids were also given a glass jar each, in which to store their money.  Inside the jar they placed three envelopes entitled “GIVE”, “SAVE”, and “SPEND”. We also did some dreaming about what kinds of “treasures” we would like to save up for.  The kids then drew pictures of these items and placed them on their “Saving to Buy With Cash” boards that we placed on the wall beside their chore charts.  This way they get a vision for what they are working for.  It really helps that these are magnetized dry erase boards that fit nicely on the back door to the garage. ;-)

After the charts and goals had been completed, the kids took a few minutes to decorate their jars to be placed in their rooms.

After all the “hard work” was over (kiddos didn’t think this was a very exciting family night, but agreed that it was very beneficial) we put together a “treasure” snack of popcorn and Hershey’s Nuggets (wrapped in silver and gold), and gathered back in the family room to watch National Treasure.  Even though they weren’t too psyched about the chore part of the evening, the were excited about saving and spending, and they absolutely LOVED the movie!! So much so, that we had to go out the next day and purchase (WITH CASH) the sequel, National Treasure 2.

Well, that’s our first installment of the Family Night series.  Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered to win a “Fabulous Prize” yet to be named.  In the spirit of the scavenger hunt , I will give you a clue… one of the contents of the prize package was featured in this post. ;-)

I’ll announce the winner on Friday, so STAY TUNED…

A Week of Family Nights

Okay, since I’m back to (semi) regular blogging, it’s only right that I should catch up on my Family Night Blog posts.  (You can read about how we got started here, and go to my sidebar “Labels” to click on more Family Night Fun.)

Now… back to catching up.  Since I haven’t posted A SINGLE STINKING BLOG about our family nights in 2010, it’s about time I got started. 

Instead of boring you with one long post and muddying the waters with different themes and gobs of pictures, I thought I would post a little each day this week to get us caught up.

So, I am saying all of this to say: STAY TUNED… there’s more to come.

In the mean time, answer a question for me:  Do you have “Family Nights”?? Why/Why not?? (Leave a comment with your answer.)

Oh yeah… every time you comment on my blog this week (on any/all of the Week of Family Night posts) you will be entered to win a “Fabulous Prize”.  Wanna know what it is?? Well… that is “To be continued”, as well.

Don’t worry.  It will be worth the wait, I promise!!

Hungry???

Since January (when I wrote this post and said that one of my goals for 2010 was to read my Bible more and use the SOAP Method to journal my thoughts) I have been a total SLACKER!

Here we are, nearly two months into the year, and I have not read one.single.chapter.  Sure, I get my “Daily Devos” via email, and I also get a little scripture in with each of the three books I am reading (see sidebar), but it’s not the same.  And it’s not enough.

I am hungry for more.  And the only true satisfaction my soul can find, is in the sweet Manna from heaven that the scriptures provide…

So I have decided to commit to a daily reading plan.  I found one over at Discipleship Journal that I love because it mixes up the Old and New Testaments, and adds a Psalm, Proverb, or passage from (my favorite book) Isaiah to each daily reading.

So starting March 1, I will be following the “Book-at-a-Time” plan, and journaling again.  (I have already begun reviewing the book of John, but I wanted to “officially” start at the beginning of a new month, and a new book.) :-)  I am excited about pulling up to the table, and savoring every morsel that the Master provides.

By the way, there’s plenty of room here at my Master’s table, and the banquet is plentiful.  Care to pull up a chair and join me?

What’s Going On???

Hello gang! Since my kiddos (2/3 of them) are at home sick today, I decided to carve out a few minutes for some blog time. YAY!

Here are some things that I am enjoying right now…

• Reading through Beth Moore’s So Long Insecurity with some precious friends. (We’re also following along on the LPM Blog.) Seriously!! This book is hitting me right in the goody locker! I swear, sometimes I think that “Mama Beth” has a hidden camera in my house! How else could she know me so well?!? ;-)
• Substitute Teaching. Wow. As a former classroom teacher, I sure never thought I’d hear myself say those words, but it’s true! I love ministering to the children AND the teachers at our school. I especially love getting my “teacher fix” and then being able to GO HOME, and not have to bring all that work with me! ;-)
• John and Staci Eldredge’s new book, Love and War. Seriously, if you are married (or engaged to be) YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK! It’s chocked full of such inspiration and wisdom. So much so, that – you guessed it - it’s going to get an ENTIRE BLOG POST of it’s own… coming SOON!
• Livestrong.com – if you are on a weight loss (or “get healthy”) journey of any kind, you REALLY need to check out this site. So many cool tools… my favorite of which is the My Plate feature that helps me count calories and keep track of water/exercise all at the same time! It’s so easy a CAVE MAN could do it!! ;-)
• Attending services at PDCF. Lots of love and encouragement going on there. Big thanks to “Pastor B”, and his wife Kim, for leading such an awesome group!! (Tim and Tonya are pretty great, too!) Excited about being there each week, and watching God show up and show out!
• My PDCF Home Team. We meet at Pastor B’s on Wednesdays and we are discussing the book One Month to Live, as we share our hearts and lives together. So, so, so COOL!!
• Yeah, as you can see, I am reading a lot… but LOVING every minute of it!!
• Getting ORGANIZED. If you remember from this post, that’s one (actually, #1 and #2) of my 2010 goals. I now have a (faux) moleskin to keep track of all my notes, thoughts, planning, and to-dos, and a Blackberry (Thanks KISA!!)to keep me on schedule and connected! I have also managed to go re-organize all but 6 (those will be done TODAY!) of my kitchen cabinets and replace the shelf paper in each. Next Week: My closet and chest of drawers! Thanks to the FLY LADY and her “Baby Steps”, before long, my whole house will be CLUTTER free and D.O.N.E. with chaos!!

There you have it. That’s what’s going on in my world! What have you all been up to lately??

I’m a Bad Blogger!

There.  I said it.

It’s been CRAZY busy (but in a wildly good way) around these parts lately, and I have barely had time to string a few sentences together - as in have an IRL conversation with a friend - much less a few paragraphs!

You can tell from our recent Retreat Photos and family Snow Montage that we are still very much alive and well, and going through a wonderful season of rekindling our faith and family.

Just wanted you all to know that I think of you often, and that I really do have about three posts started and saved as drafts in my handy dandy Windows Live Writer account. If we all keep our fingers crossed, and hold our mouths just right, maybe one of these days here real soon I will be able to finish one, or two. Dare I say, all three? ;-)

Life’s like that sometimes isn’t it?  We hit a lull in a particular area, for what might feel like forever, and then next thing you know, BANG!  It’s on like Donkey Kong!

Hopefully before too much longer, I’ll be throwing a few barrels of bananas your way!