Activities For Kids

This week, I have not blogged much at all. I know. I have been, however, working on a new page for this site. It is in no way exhaustive or complete as to what I want it to be. But check out the page titled “Activities for kids” You will see puzzles they can do online, and I am compiling other links to kids activities for projects, printable coloring pages, and ANY activities that would interest your children. So keep checking back to the page for new creative idea. And if you have any fun links you would like to share with us, please let us know about them and I will add them to the page.

Thanks and have a great weekend!
~Angel

Carpenter’s Glasses

People are like tea bags – you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are.

I don’t know if this is true or not, since the author is unknown. But I do know this is how God works in my life….

“My mother’s father worked as a carpenter. On this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to orphanages in China. On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone.

When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what had happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for China!

The Great Depression was at its height and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning.

He was upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. It’s not fair, he told God as he drove home in frustration. I’ve been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.

Months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came to speak one Sunday at my grandfather’s small church in Chicago. The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting him.

But most of all, he said, I must thank you for the glasses you sent last. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses.

I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived.

When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.

The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in.

Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued:

Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas. But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way.

There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him!”

Perhaps we ought to try to thank Him more often. May GOD bless your week. Look for the perfect mistakes.

‘Lord, I Cannot, But You Can!’

My sister sent this devotional to me by Joseph Prince. I felt it very encouraging, and wanted to pass this along. It really supports, and states better, the point I was trying to drive home last week in “Grace For All Of Us”. 

for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.Philippians 2:13

Have you ever tried to break a bad habit on your own? You probably found that when you tried to stop it by sheer willpower, you saw improvement for a while, and then bounced back to square one. Worse, you found yourself binging on the very thing that you were trying not to do. And your condition is worse than before you started your “I’m going to quit” program!
The changes were temporary because it was you doing it.

A church member who had been a chain-smoker used to believe that with willpower, he could quit smoking. He would tell himself, “If there is a will, there is a way!” But he discovered that with willpower, he could stop smoking for a week or two, and then he would succumb to the pull of nicotine again.
When he turned his life over to God and learnt about God’s grace, he told God, “I realize that I cannot stop smoking. I cannot, but You can break my habit, Lord.” And every time he lit up, he would say, “Lord, I am trying to stop smoking, but I cannot. I am trusting You.” He would even say, “I am still righteous because of Jesus’ blood.”
Well, in the very same year, all his cravings to smoke vanished! When asked how he succeeded, he would say, “It is entirely God and none of me! It is all by His grace.” This man lost all the desire to smoke. That is true transformation.

When you receive the grace of God to do for you what you cannot do, you will experience effortless and permanent change on the inside, which in turn changes your actions on the outside. The Bible tells us that God works in us to give us both the will and ability to perform what He desires. It is God who removes the old want to’s and gives us new ones. And He even gives us the power to carry them out!
Beloved, look to His grace to do what you cannot do. Say, “Lord, I cannot, but You can!” Then, what you experience will not merely be behavior modification, but true and lasting inward transformation!

Lumpy Heads Make for Soft Hearts!

Endings are better than beginnings. Sticking to it is better than standing out. Don’t be quick to fly off the handle. Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head.
Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 TM

Last Saturday I was ready for an afternoon of errands and finishing up back to school shopping. As I came downstairs from my bedroom I hear my husband call “Honey, we have a prooooblemmmm”. “Ahhh, man. What now?” I thought to myself. Our sewage had backed up in the toilet and tub and flooded our entire downstairs. The girls rooms, their closets, the hallway, part of the living room. It had run everywhere, and quickly. I said “well I will call the carpet cleaner to come out, you call Michael (My brother is a plumber) and we will get this taken care of. That process began at 2pm in the afternoon, and once the cleaners had sucked water several times, and our floors and baseboards were still soaked we realized we had a bigger problem than we thought. It was 11 pm before we closed the day.

We called our Home Owners Insurance. We were told we would have to leave our home, as it was not safe to be here breathing in toxic bacteria and other yucky stuff. I was keeping my sisters daughter because they were out of town for a funeral. So I took them to my sisters house, and we were able to stay there for the 3 days while they aired out my home.

We immediately began calling those we knew in the flooring business. I was fine and moving through the problem at a calm pace. My thought was as long as I had everything back in place by the time school started in a week (August 11th) then I was fine. And hey, we could now do the hardwoods in our home like I have wanted for awhile, right?

After several days of dealing with Insurance adjustments, and looking at flooring, we had chosen our floors, and cleaned the mess out. The floors would start on Thursday, and would be finished no later than Tuesday. What?? Tuesday? That is two days after school starts. This was not working according to my plan. But o.k., take a deep breath, it will be fine. The girls will sleep in the room with us, and this will soon come to an end, and I will have beautiful new floors, right?

Wednesday night my husband and brother decide to go ahead and rip out the carpet in my living room and dining room. After all, the more prep they did, the less for the installers and the quicker they could get things done. As they were ripping carpet in the dining room, I ask “what is that on the floor?” “where” my brother asks. “Right there, it looks like it is wet.”
Well, under our carpet was yet another problem. There is moisture in the concrete. We can not have hardwoods. What? Well, they can dry it out, sand it, and seal it. O.k. so one more day of process. I am becoming annoyed now, but take a deep breath and focus on your new floors.

Then as the flooring guys are at my house on Thursday, and therefore I am at my sisters, I receive a phone call. “As they were sanding, they ran into more moisture. They can not lay flooring on that until we are sure it is not a leak, and then we can not do the hardwoods.” My husband reports. At this point I am in tears because they are leaving, nothing they can do, and my brother is on his way to check for a leak. We are another day further from having my floors done. I am more than annoyed, and now in tears. To some, you may be saying just chill it will be fine. I must say that this is true, however when it comes to things like having everything in order for the first day of school, “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed brings out a little type “A” personality in me. Chaos is not something I deal with easily.

Finally after finding no leak, and having only guesses as to how the moisture is getting there, we have decided to seal the floor and “float” a good laminate hard wood. So I drive back to the flooring store to pick out more flooring. When all is said and done, at least for today, it will be next Friday before all is done.

I forgot to mention that we had already scheduled to have my kitchen remodeled, and the lady came and took our cabinet doors, and we had to move everything out of our kitchen. So basically our entire downstairs sits in the garage right now. While she said she would wait, my husband said “Hey it can not get much more chaotic than it already is. So go ahead and let’s just rip the band-aid.”

Last night, I was so tired and frustrated. I could feel myself taking it out on my husband and girls. I knew I needed to take a deep breath, but I had taken so many I thought I would hyperventilate at some point. I left with my daughter to go to the grocery store and began praying for God to give me peace. (NOT the other “p” word” 🙂 ) As I did, I heard a still small voice say “God uses every circumstance to teach us. Your attitude can change your circumstances. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And until you change your attitude, your circumstances could potentially continue to throw you into walls.” GULP!!!!! I quickly repented, and thanked God for my blessing of new floors I have actually prayed for a couple years now, and had to call and apologize to my sister and husband for the attitude I had for the day.

Then this morning I read the above scripture. I felt quite ashamed to feel that I had been acting so foolish, but I had the lumps to prove it, and could not deny it. Today, I am attempting to change the way I look at these circumstances determined to make lemonade from my lemons, and hopefully carry a little softer heart, yet again.

Tracy Says…

Tracy, over at TracyHurst.com, had a really great post that I wanted to share, and comment on.

I think all of us have heard the phrase, “When someone mimics or copies you, it is the best form of a compliment.” And although this statement may be true, when someone imitates us in one way or another, we have a choice to make: Will we become fearful and insecure or will we remain confident that our destiny is secure in Christ and speak blessings over them?

I have met this challenge myself. When you meet someone who is so close to you in personality, gifting, and talents, you may appreciate them because they are like you. But then you begin to wonder, sometimes, if both of you are necessary. Though personalities, and talents may be similar, God has uniquely created each of us with a specific call. No matter who comes and goes in our lives they can not take away your place. Read more of Tracy’s post here…

Grace for All of Us!

Quote of the Day: “We are trying to obtain by our efforts what God wants to give us by His grace.” Joyce Meyers

Selah! Think about this for a moment.

Ever had circumstances in your life that seem to have no resolution? You battle in your mind how to correct a problem in your life, how you can change the situation.
We can run something through our mind a thousand times to work it out.

There are times we are to put our hands to the plow, and there are times we are to rest in His security. I think our struggle is accepting His grace in every situation we fret about. Whether it be potty training, or our child’s education, our spouse (or lack there of), our waist lines that will not go away (Hello! I will raise my hand in guilt here) We feel that if we do not do something, then the world will spin off its axis and come to an end as we know it. 😉

He wants to give us the grace to walk with confidence to know He will work it through. I have heard grace defined as “The Strength to do what we can not do ourselves”… What circumstances have you tried to work through yourself, and found yourself making it worse? We actually can make it harder for God to get through, by trying to do it in our own strength. I think we forget that God has not only given us grace for salvation, but for every aspect of our life.You know that there was no way you could save yourself from sin, and you did not dare try. You allowed yourself to be saved by ….. GRACE!

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (emphasis mine)

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:26-34

Let grace become a reality in every day of your life, not just a word you use. I need grace to get up some mornings, grace to forgive myself, grace for every day to be a mother to two girls who look to me as an example. And I need grace (Strength to do what I can not do on my own) to conquer my waist line. 🙂 What do you need grace for today?

Getting Back to the Journey

 

It would appear that I have taken a long journey and decided not to include my friends at 1smartmom.  True, I have been “journeying”, but not without thinking of you.    So, with that said, I’ll bring you up to date on my journey and I will get back to talking with you on a more regular basis. 
According to Zach we have had a very ordinary Summer.  I suppose from a 10 year olds’ perspective that is a fair assumption.  As the Mom in the house, I see it a bit differently.

We’ve had long days roll out before us with nothing to do, but eat, maintain the house and enjoy each other’s company. (Sometimes broken up by time with friends and the back and forth to a couple of day camps.)  My treat this Summer has been to actually lay down for a bit of time each afternoon and put my feet up.  Gabe (20 month old) is now taking one 3 hour nap and that is bliss to me! 

While I’ve been journeying I have decided that cloning me would be optimal for my family because then each son would have the “mother type” they need.  Being a mom of a 10 year old, an almost 9 year old that lives in Romania, and a toddler can make this one woman a bit crazed at times.  I have a new healthy respect for all those moms who have and are parenting a wide age range of children.   Many days I find myself blowing bubbles for the toddler, while discussing the trajectory of the sprinkler with my 10 year old.  All the while wondering, if the 9 year old was home would it be any easier? 

Probably not, but we would be happy.

Aww, the days of Summer.  I haven’t read one good book yet and I am not my usual tan self, but I am feeling pretty rested.  SHHHH!  Don’t tell my husband.  School starts soon enough and this now “part time” home school mom is not ready to give up her naps! 

It’s good to be back!  I look forward to blogging with you for the rest of the year.

~Journey’ With Kelly