A couple of weeks ago I saw Kristen’s post about Mason nerfing cancer, and his wish to hold the WORLD’S LARGEST NERF PARTY! I knew we needed to join in, because we love Nerf, and we have a family friend named Joshua who is in battle with cancer right now – he is 12 years old and just started chemotherapy this week. So to honor Mason and Joshua, and to satisfy our love of Nerf, we found some super fun Nerf guns (of the pellet and the ball variety) and have been having fun with them for the past couple of weeks.
I had hoped to have Elias’s best friend over for our official Nerf party, but due to scheduling conflicts, it wound up being just us. And I didn’t get many pictures, because as one of the main targets, I was constantly on the run. But here are pictures from prep time…
I am writing to you from my brand new MacBook Pro! Last week Lydia spilled a glass of water on my old laptop and it died immediately! The only computer I had was my husband’s work computer. It’s not a Mac and it felt like I was using all thumbs and one eye to type. I’m an official Mac-girl and was lost! So, I’m sorry I wasn’t around last week. I couldn’t get here and I was missing you!
While we were computer-less, it decided to snow again. So random in Georgia. Especially because the day before we were outside playing in 65 degree weather! So, when you are computer-less AND snowed in you need some fun and quick ideas to entertain and teach.
I finally decided to make a sensory tub for the kids. I just poured in a few bags of dried beans and gave the kids some measuring spoons. They did not move for a half an hour. Just pouring the beans in and out, hiding their hands and letting the beans drop through their fingers is an adventure!
I’ve read about sensory tubs on other blogs but for some reason never thought to do it. I didn’t understand what it was. And I still don’t–all I know is that my kids love it! It’s great when I’m cooking, they can sit right beside me and stir, mix and play.
Or they can throw the beans on the floor and make a mess while drooling all over your measuring spoons.
Elohim means “Strength” or “Power.” He is transcendent, mighty, and strong. Elohim is the great name of God, signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and a covenant relationship that He is ever faithful to keep.
Genesis 17:7-8
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
A little puff of our “wind” can move a cotton ball across a room. God’s mighty power is shown in His wind, which is greater than any wind we can blow.
Continuing on our theme of respect, we are learning to respect God’s word! I have a couple verses we will be sharing about God’s word, and we started with a new memory verse… Do not merely listen to the word. Do what it says. James 1:22
I really want to impress on Elias that God’s word is truth, and we need to not only listen to the word (stories, rules, promises, etc), we need to actually do what it says. I want this to help lay the foundation for respect and obedience to God.
So in the spirit of doing, we did a memory verse activity game – something to get Elias moving and doing…
To prepare, write and cut out 2 sets of the individual words in the Bible verse… we’re doing another matching game, so the different colors for the words help a lot.
Then we placed one set of words at the far end of our living room, and I sat at the other end and handed Elias the words of the Bible verse in order, having him run to the other end of the room to match up the words and bring them back. I have a video to illustrate (and some words to say about the video: see note at bottom of post):
Elias had a lot of fun doing this – and despite Donovan’s fussing in the background, he had fun, too – once I made sure he had 2 pieces of paper in his hands, just like Elias. If you have a chance, double check yourself with the words – I was missing a couple words on the coffee table, so the nice little edit you see in the middle of the video was actually me running to the other end of the room to figure out what I did wrong, tripping over both boys in the process, and generally creating mayhem. Ehem…
After the activity, we strung the words together to hang our verse up – this is so easy! I’ll be making banners like this for everything in the future!
All I did was punch a hole in each top corner of the word and string them on some yarn – WAY too easy! Not as pretty as some of the bunting that is out there right now, but a quick and fun alternative!
I really like that this is out in the main rooms of our house for everyone to see – I already have it memorized, and it is a constant reminder for me to set a good example for the boys, and really work on obeying God’s word in all I do.
**Note on video – a quick apology for the state of my living room – you get a far away view of my sewing corner… and the coffee table is pushed over to the side like that to prevent the boys from playing with my sewing stuff. It’s just how our home functions on a daily basis, and it’s not the showcase I’d like it to be… and now I know why Josh thinks I talk too loud. Man – I am loud! OK – enough apologizing about the video – I’m just nervous because it’s my first time to post one… and now I’m over it!
Our newest Fruit of the Spirit is PEACE. We taped our little scratch-n-sniff peach to flat-Lydia, we read the story of Jesus calming the storm and all week we’ve been saying, “Peace Peach! Peace Peach!” So, today when I got Lydia up from her nap, I told her I had something very special to share with her about the Peace Peach. We read 1 Peter 3:11b:
Look for peace, and go after it.
I didn’t explain it or talk about it. I just had her grab her easter basket and we headed downstairs. I had hidden four peaches in the living room. I let her go on a peach scavenger hunt. She was wide-eyed…jumping up and down when she found a peach and searching hard when she couldn’t. When she’d get stuck I’d say, “Look for peace and go after it!”
Once her basket was full, I told her just like she looked for the peaches, she needs to look for peace. When she’s afraid, look for peace. When someone is being mean, look for peace. When she’s angry, look for peace. I know as adults we’d be asking for a lot more instruction than “look for peace” but that’s what the Bible says and a 3 year old can take it at face value. We just have too look for it and go after it. Period.
She loved it so much she’s been carrying her basket around all day. And then hid the peaches again so her Daddy could find them when he came home.
It wasn’t the most exciting thing we’ve ever done. It didn’t require a lot of set up. It didn’t even really take us that long. But it was just another little way to get God’s Word into her heart in a fun way.
Oh yeah, and then we cut a peach up and ate it. Yummy.
Yesterday my car died. It’s a completely long story and I’m so aggravated. BUT, instead of going to the puppet show like we planned*, my daughter and I went nest hunting.
When we first moved to our house, my dad found a robin’s nest. It was so cool. Robins use mud to keep their nests together. And here in Georgia, we’ve got red mud! So, the inside of robins’ nests are red. The folklore is that robins get their red breast from squishing that red mud into their nest. Isn’t that cool?
Well, we saved that nest for months. And I was hoping it might just have fallen off our porch and was some what intact below it. But no such luck.
Anyway, as we began our nest hunt, we talked about the letter N and our N verse. Then when I realized I wasn’t going to find a nest, I remembered the next best word for outdoors and the letter N: NATURE!
I yanked the camera out of my purse and we started taking pictures of all the “nature” we could find. I just told her nature was the outdoor stuff God created.
We found all sorts of fun things including an amazing spiderweb complete with mama spider and eggs. *shudder*
So, there you go, an impromptu activity to impress your kids with…the letter N!
*my mom actually did come and pick us up so we went to a puppet show
about a dinosaur that made a NEST in a little boys closet…coincidence?!
