We went to an apple orchard on Saturday. It was so beautiful to see all the trees full of apples. But it was more fun to pick and eat them! We picked a peck of apples (whatever that is) and then bought 2 more bushels. If you don’t know how many apples that is…well, let me tell you, it is A LOT! I have apples everywhere in my kitchen. We eat apples for every meal. We’ve made an apple pie, apple muffins and even an apple sausage quiche. Today we are going to conquer applesauce!

Since we’re up to our eyeballs in apples, I thought an apple verse might be a good idea. But does the Bible say anything about apples? Actually it does! The Bible refers to US as the apple of God’s eye! Isn’t that awesome? Then I found another verse in Proverbs 7:2 that asks us to make God’s Word the apple of OUR eye:

Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

Today we did a little apple stamping. This isn’t a new idea, in fact I think we’ve posted about it before on the blog. But I did add a new twist—I put those little corn cob holders in the top and the kids could easily pick up the apple to stamp it! Works for me!

Then we cut out the apples, glued them to some red paper, punched holes and ran a piece of yarn through them for a memory verse banner! Isn’t it pretty?

As we made our apple stamps and banner, I tried to explain the “apple of my eye” phrase to the kids. We looked closely at each others eyes until we could see our reflections in them. I told them only a special person you loved could see the reflection–someone CLOSE to you.

Then we talked about how God is that close to us and he calls us the apple of His eye. After we read the verse a few times we talked about keeping God’s Word and his laws close to our eyes and our hearts.

Then (and this is kind of a stretch AND mixing metaphors) I cut the apple around the equator and showed them the pretty hidden “star” inside. (Lydia said it was a flower, of course!) We talked about how it was hidden and close to the middle of the apple. I explained that God’s Word should be THAT close to us and our hearts!

Like I said, it’s a little bit of a stretch, but I think it helped them understand the point of keeping God’s Word close!

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someday crafts

My kids fell in love with Chip and Dale while we were at Disney World. One day as we were walking to a resort for dinner we found some enormous acorns on the ground (like the size of a silver dollar!) and the kids grabbed them, took them to the hotel and put them in their drawers so they could hide them from Chip and Dale. It was like the best souvenir ever!

Coupled with the fact that it is officially Autumn I thought a good acorn craft would be appropriate for the kids this week! I cut out a few acorns and tops from craft foam. Then wrote their colors on them.  They matched up the colors and even Asa got one or two right!

Then I flipped it over and wrote Psalm 104:24 on it. Psalm 104 is one of my very favorite chapters about God being creator. This verse just says, “Lord you have made so many things!” We talked about the different things God made (including chipmunks and acorns) and then I let them match the acorns up again. (Of course, I had to put them in order to read the verse correctly…)

Finally, Lydia just mixed them all up and we read the verse with “red” “green” and “yellow” thrown in. But it was nice because the gist was, “Lord! Look at all the amazing colors you’ve made: red, green, yellow, brown, red and white!”

It ended up being a better lesson than I intended but not as much as a real game as I hoped! Regardless, the kids had fun and a seed was planted. (Heh.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about impressing my kids lately.  And this great post a while back had me thinking about the verses that this blog is based on:   Deuteronomy 6:4-9… Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NIV)

These words are also in Deuteronomy 11:18-21 – I didn’t realize that until I started this post and I realized that the verses I referred to in the NASB were the verses from chapter 11.  How wonderful is it that God gave us these instructions twice?  How important is this to His heart that he told His people again to teach His words to our children and surround ourselves with them each day – by talking about them and by writing them in places we see every day!?

I want to be sure I memorized these verses – and to keep them always in front of my eyes, I made a tray for my “homeschooling supplies” with the verse on it.  The tray only holds our crayons, colored pencils, our 100 jar (for counting to 100), and a small box that has our flashcards, buttons, and scissors in it.  Things that we use everyday but didn’t fit into our paper box… a tray that I see everyday as I work to impress God’s words on my sons’ hearts.

It’s a tray that I picked up on clearance at a craft store – and it had some lovely-antiquey roses on the bottom… roses that don’t really go with my I-live-with-3-males decor.  And it was an easy transformation – I already loved the white-washed wood on the outside of the tray, and the rustic handles… I just needed to do something to the bottom of the tray to cover up the lovely roses.

I decoupaged a lime green sheet of card stock cut to size onto the bottom of the tray and made sure to get all the bubbles out as I pressed the paper down.  Then, as I waited for the decoupage medium to dry, I stamped Deuteronomy 11: 18-19 on the paper.  I eye-balled it as far as spacing goes, and I like how it turned out – you definitely can tell it was hand-stamped!

There were no numbers in the stamp kit I used, so I made up my own numbers out of letters from the kit.  Then I decoupaged over the top of the whole thing to seal it all, and I added some ribbons to the ends (because my paper wasn’t big enough to cover the whole bottom of the tray).

I really love my little homeschooling tray – not only does it make it easier to lug everything around, it helps me remember each time I sit down with my kids why I am homeschooling them and what my purpose is as their mother – to raise men of God who know His word because it is impressed on their hearts.

linked to these fab parties: Making the World Cuter Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Made By You Monday, and DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land.