Preparing For Christmas...


It's already December 4th, but still early enough to talk about preparing for Christmas!  Today's post isn't about decorating and gift buying...I will get to some of that in another post.  This one is about preparing myself for blessings during this season of advent and working on renewing my attitude of anticipation and joy for the second coming of Christ by reflecting on the events that led up to His first coming. How do I do that? I am intentional with my time and make it a priority to read the bible and pray each day. I also try to focus outward and think of others and I try to do things that bring joy to others.

I have quite a collection of advent calendars...this one is a favorite and I have used it both at home and at school back in my teaching days... For each day there is a book that tells the progression of the story of the "first Christmas."  It is very sweet and a great way to encourage young readers.  But any age can benefit from the simple message. This one I put out every year is probably 15 years old.  It must be popular because I saw one in Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago...or was it Books-A-Million (hmmmmm)!

 

 

While Nicole was in town for Thanksgiving we made an Advent Ring Calendar for Claire to use with her favorite story bible

 

 

We used chipboard cutouts of different Christmas shapes that were on a ring (2011 find at Michael's) .  We covered them with scrapbook paper, typed out the daily readings, printed them on stickers, and put one on each cut out!

 

 

Claire, Mommy, and Daddy have a special time each day to put aside the busyness of Christmas stuff and focus on the more important aspect of the season!

 

I decided to make myself an advent scripture ring after working on Claire's... cause you know how I love index cards and fabric!  There are lots of resources for advent daily scripture reading on the internet.  I used one that I found on  pinterest  and "tweaked" it with scripture from other advent calendars I already had!

 

I know I will enjoy this every year and the beauty of it is there are still blank cards that I can write on and add to my advent calendar in years to come!

 

I hope you have an advent tradition that you look forward to each year for opening your heart to the true gift of Christmas.  If you don't, use one of the ideas above...I promise you it will be a blessing beyond measure!!

 

Books, Books, and Yes, More Books

It's been a busy "book" week...

I have joined an online classical book club hosted by Edie from http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/ (if you have never read Edie's blog, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and prepare for an inspiring read)!

This is our book for the month of September...

 

...I am admittedly a bit intimidated even though I taught

The Iliad to eighth graders back in the day.

 

To get my mind geared up for serious reading I have been working through

The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. I highly recommend this book if you want to take yourself back to those days in college when you read this stuff with one eye closed and thoughts of everything "college" was running through your mind (that's not what I meant to say and not that I did that...Chelsea and Katelyn and any other college-aged reader of this blog). 

 

Last night I started the new bible study at my friend, Bobbie's, church.

 

 

If you have never done a Priscilla Shirer study you are missing out on a beautiful and authentic voice encouraging women to move from knowing God to experiencing our living God!  Amazing stuff!!

 

It is September, and I am heading back to Girls Inc. for a school year book club that starts with the building of the in-house library!!  I am really excited to get back with the girls on Wednesday afternoons.  I love to read and value the benefits of a book-filled life.  I have been collecting books this summer and have a long list of books to be ordered...and my mind is whirling with ideas...and more ideas (I have a notion Chelsea is a bit relieved to be off at pharmacy school and not trying to keep up with me...as if ;)

 

While looking through books here at the house I came across this little gem by Eric Carle. 

 

 

I opened the book to find my grandmother's beautiful handwriting... sending Chelsea a birthday message.

 

 

So, my thoughts on this, give a book as a gift to someone you love and

remember to open the cover of the book and write a personal message.  Sixteen years later it will still bring a smile to the heart :)

 

Tornadoes and Rescues...

This last week has been soooo crazy, I don't even know where to begin!  Chelsea and I didn't go to Georgia to look for an apartment last weekend.   Weather happened...need I say more?  So I stayed home and the upside was that I could be here for Kate's spring break arrival on Friday night.  She was flying in from Nashville...need I say more??? She was supposed to leave for the airport around 5:00...and then it started...

Amazingly, Kate's flight out of Nashville was delayed by only 40 minutes and she was in Florida at 8:50 pm!!

In Birmingham, Nicole and family dealt with their share of tornado sirens and testy weather and hunkered down at home! 

Chelsea, kinda bummed about my change in game plans, checked out the weather Friday after she was finished with classes and headed on over to Atlanta...eventually she and Stephen ended up in Athens (these two have a history of weather adventures...like two February's ago driving through a freak snowstorm in southern Georgia to go to Tallahassee...) and I wonder about gray hair!!

Sunday morning while getting ready for church, Nicole called to tell me of David's birthday surprise for her that night...a babysitter, dinner, and tickets to Wicked!! She was soooo excited...and then Claire started throwing up!!  Seems that Claire didn't escape the flu bug going through her daycare...she just postponed it till the weekend!  I commiserated with her and hung up.  A few minutes later I told Rich the story and he simply said "You can be there by 2:30. Sounds like GiGi needs to go to the rescue."  By 9:30 I was on my way up hwy 77.  Thank goodness we have driven this road enough times we have mastered the shortcut!  Door to door in 4 hours + a few minutes! Claire was napping and was actually past the throw up part of being sick and so she and I had a lovely time together Sunday evening playing tea party and doing puzzles!

My plan was to possibly come home Monday evening or Tuesday morning when they left for work.  At 11:00 am David called me on the way home from work...he was sick!  3:00 pm...Nicole is still at school trying to get stuff organized for HER sub...she is sick!  Claire and I had another fun afternoon and evening together...at this point she is fully recovered...her parents are quarantined in their bedroom...occasionally opening the door to report...

this is awful...my thinking is just go back in there and shut the door (as I wash my hands yet again:)

Miraculously, I didn't get it (unless I am waiting for this weekend when Chelsea is home for spring break so she can take care of me...she being the "medical" person in the family;) David had recovered by Tuesday morning and was eating and drinking coffee.  Nicole...well she still had some recovery time ahead of her but they were all home and so I headed back to PC...after all Kate was home!!

Stay tuned cause I returned to a funny farm...complete with angry squirrels!

Some days it just hits me...no really this is my life!!

March is coming in like a Lion...

February 29th...the end of the second month of 2012...where does time go??  March comes roaring in like a lion tomorrow and with it three separate spring break weeks which will bring each of my three kids home!!  Kate comes home this Friday.  After this week's midterms she will pack up on Friday and thank you Southwest...only 65 minutes from Nashville to PC.  I will actually be up in Georgia with Chelsea apartment hunting, but her dad will be here as will Gabby and all of her friends have the same spring break (all of this to say, I think she will survive without me :)  The next week starts Chelsea's break...no word yet on the particulars for her but she will be here at some point!! Finally, Nicole, David, and Claire will come the next week and stay out at the beach...it will all be too much fun cause...I can admit it...I miss my kids!!

In and amongst all of that fun I will be working on a couple of March Resolutions. Other than getting the attics finished and the garage back in order, I am going to put house projects to the side until April.  March is going to be about finding some new challenges in the world of exercise!! I have started going to a yoga class again and wouldn't you know it my hip hasn't been bothering me...
So yoga twice a week...walking 5-6 miles twice a week (this is also my social time with my friends)...and twice a week something that has a cardio aspect???? My gym has options so I will be trying some different classes and hopefully will love something enough to do it once a week at least and I can always do the elliptical or treadmill once a week. I am committing to this for March because I need to.  I eat better, feel better, sleep better, etc. when I am exercising consistently.  Another reason...I am not going to let this menopause business get the best of me. There I said it, it's out there, and thankfully for my sweet husband who insists on being my number one blog fan, I am not going to go on and on about it.  After all, if you're there you already know about it and if you aren't well then it's what my girls call TMI :)

That seems like a pretty tall order to me...all that exercising and eating only really good stuff...but I am also going to continue through March keeping daily devotions and prayer and bible study the priority.  I am finishing a really great bible study on James and am sad that it is almost over.  This past week Job came up in the study and I've been thinking about him ever since. I am so intrigued by him but even more so by this...

   One day the sons of God (angels) came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.  The LORD asked Satan, "Where have you come from?"  "From roaming the earth," Satan answered Him, "and walking around on it."  Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job?  No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil."
Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven't You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns?  You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face."  "Very well," the LORD told Satan, "everything he owns is in your power.  However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself."  So Satan left the LORD's presence.    
                                Job 1:6-12 (the Holman Standard Christian Bible)

Makes me want to read it...again.  I know there is a new "word" in it for me that I didn't receive the last time I read this book.  God's word is so amazing!!

No pictures today...it seems odd to me too :) 

The Christmas Story...

...In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greeting, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

  http://youtu.be/6RVTZDgcpqM



In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to his own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. 

http://youtu.be/jyPMDD8fGeA

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them. "Do not be afraid,  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

http://youtu.be/UOttNo_JaOU

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.  "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied.  "for this is what the prophet has written: But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: for out of you will come a ruler  who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.  "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.  So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.  And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son.

http://youtu.be/oj13W3dDtsY


At long last the Christmas season has arrived.  My gift to you is one the most precious of stories of our Saviour.  I have taken it from the bible from the passages of Luke and Matthew. I have included some beautiful music that I snagged from youtube.  I hope that you are blessed by this.  Merry Christmas to all...may it bring you joy, peace, and Christ.

December Books...Picture Books and All!

December picture books always takes me down the road to days gone by in my years of teaching.  The transformation of the classroom from Fall Fun to Christmas Magic was fast and furious...depending on the day of the week that the calendar changed.  If we were really lucky we would have a weekend to change our classrooms...but honestly some of my best memories are of Tuesday afternoon transformations. No matter the challenges of that day, the afternoon came alive... fueled by a giant Starbucks Peppermint Mocha (or 2) and lots of support from fellow teachers who were knee high in red and green bulletin board paper.  We were like a bunch of elves with only 5 hours "to get it done!"  The trees would go up...the paper chains would be hung...the Nativity sets for daily devotions placed...and then the picture books would come out.

I loved Christmas picture books...I mean...LOVED them.  The simple joy of getting them out and displaying them around the room and reading them aloud to the kids...indescribable!!!  As I moved through the grades teaching...I would leave behind books and probably a few of those were Christmas books...but I kept my fairly extensive personal Christmas library and no matter the grade I would put them out each year and yes, read them aloud...even to Eighth Graders (I had to do something to keep my sanity sometimes ;)!! 

Here are a few of the Christmas books that I have displayed around the house this year...

 This advent calendar has traveled all the way through my years at Holy Nativity! Each numbered book tells a little of the story of the birth of Christ.  I know that it will be a favorite with Claire (and all those other grand babies that will come along through the years)!

I have a well-used and much-loved collection of Christmas home decorating and cookbooks.  This one by Susan Branch was my grandmother's and so it has a special place in my heart and somewhere in the house every year!

Pop-up books...I love them!

One of our favorite family vacations was our trip to NYC and Vermont during Christmas break 2009.  We bought this pop-up book to commemorate our trip!

Mrs. Legg...she was my teaching mentor...a master with a pair of scissors...and a prayer warrior!  She gave me this copy of the classic Frosty the Snow Man...all of my HNES friends immediately recognize Leslie's handwriting, second only to her very unique midwestern voice!!

This book comes with high recommendations from Rich!

      This is one of my favorites...and I am rereading it this Christmas!

I am always on the lookout for beautiful and fun Christmas books to add to
                                                my collection...

You gotta love Olivia...can't wait to share these with Claire!

And this beautiful version of The Twelve Days of Christmas is this year's find

Whatever your Christmas season brings this year I hope you find time to enjoy reading...There are lots of choices...but I would start with this one...it is sure to bring joy into your day and peace into your heart!