So its Dec 13th which means we have 12 days until Christmas!  Whoo hoo!  I think technically the “Twelve days of Christmas” is really talking about the twelve days AFTER Christmas leading up to Epiphany, but just go with me on this one!   Both Kellye and I are HUGE fans of the blog www.impressyourkids.com and so I was delighted when the author, Amanda White,  published an e-book called Truth in the Tinsel: an Advent Experience for Little Hands.  I thought you might enjoy an idea to make the twelve days of {leading up to} Christmas fun and memorable for you and your kids.   The suggested 12 day outline below, taken directly from her website,  could result in your own handmade nativity scene  The crafts are PERFECT for preschoolers but I know that even my 7  year old will LOVE doing these.  I love the e-book idea because it’s an instant download (no waiting for the FedEx truck!) and its so affordable   For a mere 4.99$  you can download the book and have a full 24 days worth of Christmas scriptures and crafts, supply lists and templates included! 

December  13th: Day 1 {Light}

source: www.impressyourkids.com

14th: Day 4 {Gabriel}

15th: Day 5 {Mary}

16th: Day 9 {Joseph}

17th: Day 14 {Stable}

18th: Day 15 {Manger}

19th: Day 16 {Swaddling Clothes}

20th: Day 18 {Angels}

21st: Day 19 {Shepherds}

22nd: Day 21 {Star}

23rd: Day 22 {Wise Men}

24th: Day 24 {Cross}

If 12 days is still too much for you, don’t worry! She has 4 alternate schedules in the back of the ebook–

Just the Basics (with 6 activities), 

By Book of the Bible (6+ activities), 

Characters (10 activities) and 

Prophecy (7 activities).

So, this can work for every busy Christmas schedule this year!  I originally bought the book the day after Thanksgiving with plans of doing all 24 days in December, but we’ve had a most unexpected kind of pre-Christmas season ( more on that in a future post hopefully…)  So we will instead be doing  a mere sampling this year! But I’ll say it again, even if I start to sound like a broken record,  a little bit of intentional discipleship is better than none right?

And if you enjoy having a little community, you can join in the Facebook fun by clicking here:

the TruthintheTinsel:an Advent Experience for Little Hands Facebook Challenge 

May you have a wonderfully blessed “Twelve Days of {leading up to } Christmas!”

Susie

We dive deep.  We bend knees.  We soak up.  We open heart and ears and eyes.  We listen.  We run hard.  We transform.  Is there anything more beautiful than loving Christ?  Loving him fully?  SO fully that it spills over and out and down and into the ones we love and lay down our very lives for.  And so fully that they imitate that love.  AH!  This is the heart of discipleship!!  I wish I could somehow covey my expression in words. Maybe I should take a cool webcam pic of my face !   I am AMAZED that Christ makes this possible.  I am OVERWHELMED that this beautiful model of discipleship we see in scripture can be made REAL in our home.

I peer around the door, quiet and listening, to a small conversation between two brothers.  The younger asking the older about Moses and the Red Sea and the stick and the waters.  With great confidence the small one boasts how Moses parted the sea with a stick but he is lovingly directed deeper by the older of the two.  The one he looks up to, the one he follows everywhere.  He is just barely seven.  And I am amazed.  He explains with great gentleness and conviction ”There was no power in the stick, and Moses was just a man.  It was God who parted the waters, He just used Moses and the stick to accomplish His will.”  My jaw dropped a little, my mind raced, did I teach him that?  Did I say those words in a moment along the way?  Here he was pointing his 4-year-old brother to the underlying truth of a Bible story… discipleship?  YES!  I think it crazy and amazing and beautiful that these small people can teach each other truth.  That they can imitate Christ to each other.  The family discipling the family, what a picture.

I was in college when I really got discipleship.  Two beloved ladies (Laura and April to you my heart will forever be grateful) poured their lives into teaching me.  They walked me through healing, pointed me over and over again to the Word, celebrated victories with me and bore my heavy burdens alongside me.  Notice the common theme?  Me.  I was focused on me….my growth, my issues, my joys, my life.  Not much thought to the legacy that would be coming.  I’m not sure if I ever thought about how my daily running after Christ could one day spill over into wee little ones at my feet.  But now, now it is a heavy joy.  A great responsibility desperate for great grace.   I am humbled by the reality that when I am NOT loving Christ and running hard after him my children see that.  And imitate that.  And put their treasure elsewhere.

I want to be a disciple of Jesus.  I want to disciple my kids.  I also want to foster an environment in our home where they can learn together and FROM one another.  Have you prayed through this?  Done this?  Please share!!  This is what I have so far…

1.  At night, let the oldest read the Bible to the others (or take turns if they can all read!).

2. Ask for them to retell stories to each other (aka Bennett, tell Nate about…and help along the way if needed).

3. Have them memorize scripture & song together.

Probably all things you have done.  Know they are things that matter, simple things that foster a beautiful place for children to learn of a living God together.  Do share….

Giving thanks this season for the gift of our children and the things they teach me daily.

Kell

Hurray for Fall! Hurray for Thanksgiving! Hurray for Holiday madness!  

As someone who was an avid follower of RaisingDeepRoots LONG before I was ever a contributor, I just have to give a big shout out to Kell for all the wonderful work she put in this time last year posting all her great Thanksgiving and Christmas posts.

 My Thanksgiving tree (see above image) from Thirty Days of Thanks continues to be a work in progress but I seem to get enough leaves up each day JUST in time for our family devotional time over dinner  I hope you are getting a chuckle out of the fact that there are only numbers on half the leaves and no “give thanks” letters yet.  But some encouraging words I read recently said

“God desires Praise, not Perfection.  Life in Him is about the Gratitude not the Grind!”

 Just what I needed to hear! My tree might not be perfect but my tree is an attempt to intentionally  live in gratitude and offer up Praise to the Lord, God Almighty! (Just a side note, I did find the professional, premade trees at Pottery Barn this year if you are interested in taking the plunge and buying one!)  If you want to join in on the gratitude and praising fun,  check out Kellye’s post and her suggested list of 30 days worth of thanksgiving.    A dear friend of mine did her own spin on the thanksgiving tree and simply printed out the devotionals on strips of paper, put them in a jar, and each day her family picks one out of the jar!  I know we are well into November at this point but even 15 days (or 3 for that matter) of thanksgiving is better than none right?

 Here is another idea you might like to try.  I found this cute jar idea on Pinterest, complete with ideas to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness in your family!

Source: somewhatsimple.com via RaisingDeepRoots.wordpress.com on Pinterest

November is also a great time to start pondering about what kind of advent devotions you might like to try.  Again, I am so grateful to Kell for introducing our family to the Jesse Tree.  We definitely had the best Advent season ever last year using the Jesse Tree idea to help us focus on the joy of the coming of Christ. Over the next few weeks we hope to point you to more great resources to make the most of

“the most wonderful time of the year!”

Blessings!

Susie

If you read my latest post, you’ll remember that we had started a family tradition of turning October into a month of extra focussed, extra intentional, home devotional time that used the Halloween costume of choice into a theme for some extra special family fun.   The Noble Knight gave me SO much material to work with.  Click HERE to read all about it.   What on earth was I going to do with a SKELETON theme?  No begging or bribing on my part was going to change my son’s mind.  SKELETON it was to be!

Defeated, I plopped on the couch. Skeleton? Really? Lord? How on earth am I going to teach the truths of your love and grace and mercy to my two boys using a skeleton theme?  I expressed my dismay to my hubby and in about 2 minutes flat he turned to me and said “Valley of the Dry Bones from Ezekiel?”  Jackpot!  Thank you Lord for speaking through my hubby!

I acknowledge that Ezekiel 37 and the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones may not be a story that is taught much in Sunday School lessons!  In fact, a quick google search on “Sunday school lessons and Ezekiel 37 ” came up pretty empty.  Honestly, I’d hazard a guess that many of you are scratching your heads right now, wondering what this bizarre Biblical reference is anyway!!   But if you’ve ever sung the song, “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!”  You’ve sung this scripture!  You know how it goes!  Do the actions with me!  ”The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone’s connected to the knee bone, so hear the word of the Lord!”  Speaking of the Word of the Lord, Here it is:

Ezekiel 37      The Valley of Dry Bones

¹ The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

Read the rest of the Scripture passage HERE

This scripture passage has always held a special place in my heart because I live in a valley – a beautiful valley full of people who need to hear the gospel of love .  I  long and pray for the Lord to breathe His LIFE into the lives of the people who live here, and that they would know HE is the LORD.  Oh what a perfect opportunity to remind my boys that only God’s breath gives life to our bodies of  bones, tendons and skin.  And only through Jesus can we change from being spiritually dead in our sins, to having new, holy lives that last forever and into an eternity with Him.

So here is a quick run down of the fun we had!  Ready?  Let’s Go!

1) If you followed Kellye last summer during her amazing Alphabet Adventure, you will be familiar with these great magnet pages available at www.makelearningfun.com  How do we see our amazing bones?  X-rays of course.  As a radiation physicist, I was REALLY tempted to go into the physics behind x-rays but decided to wait until they were just a teensy bit older

2)  We had so much fun making skeletons out of pasta! Enchanted Learning provided  the inspiration!  You know what I loved about this?  Jake simply glued his pasta pieces all over his page, unable at his young age to really make a skeleton out of it.  To me, it looks just like the Valley of Dry Bones.  Dry bones, lying scattered about.  But Owen managed to copy the pattern and make the skeleton – It looks just like when God told Ezekiel to prophesy and then God caused the bones to come together and form the new body that he would breathe life into.  Love, love, love how things work out in a way I never even thought of doing on purpose!

3) There are all sorts of great books about our amazing bodies.  Head to your local library and spend time in awe of  God’s amazing creation – the human body!

4) Get up and dance with your kids!  Find a version of “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones” and sing along and do the actions with them!  They’ll LOVE it! Seriously, you don’t even need the song to sing with – just do it a capella!

5) This was absolutely the best part.  By some miracle ( again – I didn’t plan this, the Lord just paved the way for this without me even knowing!)  I found on clearance for $1 a set of skull cards.  Yup! BEFORE we ever started the Skeleton thing.  Have no idea why I picked them up! Well, I guess I do now right?  We cut them in half.  We glued the white skulls onto a large black piece of poster board.  Then we took the back half of the cards, and drew faces of people on them.  We glued the happy, living faces on a blue poster board with green grass thrown on for good measure.  As the boys looked at the skull poster, we talked about being dead in our sin and needing Jesus to rescue us from death.  Then we looked at what happens when we accept God’s grace and forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross – new lives that are full of joy!  We cut out a cross and glued it in the middle of the two posters as a way to demonstrate the cross as the bridge from death to new life in Christ.  Don’t you just love the look of “Oh” on Owen’s face?  I love those Aha moments!

Click to view slideshow.

Finally, this is just for you parent.  I’ve always loved the song “Valley of Dry Bones” by Michael Card.  I found this YouTube version of it.  His awesome song put to a slideshow.

May you be reminded, every time you see a Skeleton this Halloween, of God’s great love and mercy.  The God that breathes life into our bodies of mere bones, tendons, and skin, is the same God who loved you enough to send his only Son to rescue you from the grave and give you new life in Christ!

I don’t know about where you live, but here, Halloween is huge. I mean HUGE! People go all out decorating their homes and yards, and every store has a display scary enough to make you jump out of your skin. I find myself quickly veering my little 3 year old away from certain aisles so he doesn’t encounter the skeleton with the blood covered knife stuck in the skull. Even the local grocery store turns into a scary place. So what’s a parent to do? Well, my husband and I have adopted a motto for our parenting :

Insulate not Isolate.

Instinctively, I want to isolate my kids from the evil influences of this world but I choose instead to pour the truths of God into their precious minds and hearts. I will instead help them grow such deep roots in the Word of God,  that as we go out into the world, they are insulated and equipped to make a difference in the Kingdom. While I will continue to avoid the freaky displays and a some yards for a few weeks, I will do what I can to redeem Halloween!

By some miracle, a few years ago, I was organized enough to have picked out our costumes by the end of September. I had been wanting to do some fun at-home devotional lessons with the boys but honestly had been at a loss as to where to start. When I looked at my big boy in his Knight costume chasing after our roaring little guy, all adorable in his Dragon costume, I saw an opportunity to do some character building. The Noble Knight! I knew I was feeling the tap of the Holy Spirit encouraging me to make an intentional effort, and that He, the Great Teacher and Equipper, would give me the ideas and ability. All I had to do was join in the fun with Him. I am so grateful I accepted the invitation. We had so much fun together as a family that we now have an annual tradition of turning our Halloween costumes into a theme for the month and having great Family Fun focussing on the truths found in God’s Word. 

Year One: The Noble Knight!

Let me tell you, the knightly topic gave us so many things to talk about and work with I almost ran out of month! LOL!  Here is a sample of some of the great fun we had.

1) What does a Knight wear? Armor of course! A super fun devotional is to take Ephesians 6:10-18 and put on the costume one armor piece at a time, taking the time to talk about the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and so on. We actually took several nights to do it until he was fully dressed!

Want a fun book to read to help you go through the armor with your little guys? I just discovered this book this morning in our preschool collection at church.

2)  Memory verse for the month.  Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my Shield. I trust him with all my heart….”

We also cut out a shield shape out of poster board, painted it up super cute and  put our memory verse on it. We hung it up and it served as a great reminder that the Lord is our shield when things got scary – like when that flyer from the costume store with the half decayed zombie on the front slipped out of the newspaper or when the neighbors begin to hang ghosts and goblins up in the trees in their yard! You see, no matter how hard I try, I’ll never be able to isolate them, but I can sure partner with God to insulate them!

3) Characteristics of  a Knight! We talked about makes a knight so worthy of being a knight! A fun thing to do with our older son was to write out the word KNIGHT and think of words that described a knight. Here was our brainstorm :

Kind
Noble
Integrity
Generous
Honest
Takes risks for others

Did I mention we got a LOT of mileage out of this theme?

4)  Family Movie Night – we loved “The Sword in the Stone”

5) Best of all, we pulled out one of our favorite books of all time called  The Squire and the Scroll. Its a wonderful story that explores the topic of purity of heart.  “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.”  Psalm 119:9.  

Side note: This spring I discovered that a companion book has been published called “Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll”. Holy Moly am I excited. This summer my husband and our oldest embarked on some weekly daddy-son adventures that we call “Squire Training.”  CAN. NOT. WAIT. to blog about how that has been going! stay tuned!!!  And don’t despair if you have a girl – The Princess and the Kiss will not disappoint!

Stay tuned  for our next Halloween post on how we managed to turn a Skeleton costume into a theme about God’s grace and mercy!

So what do your kids want to be for Halloween?  Let’s brainstorm some ideas for each other!  We’d love to see your comments!  And boy do I need your help. Both boys want to be Bats this year!  Ack!  What on earth will I do with that?  Help me!  

Susie

The last few months have not been conducive to blogging!!!!  Despite my co-bloggy mama’s urging to get back on the bandwagon, my lack of sleep has given little motivation!!  So please dear friends and readers, forgive the absence but a new root has sprouted in my house !  Lincoln Daniel was born on August 10th at 7 lbs 3 ounces and 19 1/2 inches.  He is a precious gift and God has truly been so gracious to us…..let me testify & count the ways!!!

There was a lot of prayer that went into the birth of this sweet child.  My previous c-section had been extremely difficult and I knew having a fourth c-section would not be easy on my body.  I expected the recovery to be longer and caring for the other children to be more of a struggle.  I also had a dose of postpartum depression after my third that I expected to pay another visit.  All of that plus a difficult *almost* 2-year-old with lots of health problems when Nate was born exaggerated everything.  Needless to say, there was a lot of prayer that went into this baby….me and a few faithful friends….bathed every detail.  And praise be to my God, He answered every request and blew me out of the water with how very good He has been.

My c-section was so peaceful and the recovery has been the easiest of all four (what in the world??!!!).  I look back over the past weeks and can’t believe how minimal the pain was, how quickly I was exercising again, and how truly joyful I have been even during little sleep, screaming baby & fighting siblings.  I get “that question” a lot….the one with heavy words asking how it’s going….meaning “am I actually surviving?”  And my response is always the same, my God is a God who truly answers prayer.  He has heard my cries & He has answered me.  He has been gracious and merciful and loving in the most intimate of ways.  As much as I want to say I deserved a little bit of a break after the last two babes I birthed and all the trials and hardships that came with them entering this world, I deserve nothing.  It was His loving kindness poured out on me and I am humbled and grateful and my soul does magnify Thee!!!!

So here I am, officially making my re-entry into the blogging world with an extra ”root” to bathe in prayer and love for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Can’t wait to share more life & learning with you all.

Kell

Few words conjure up more summer time memories than ROAD TRIP!  Summer seems to be full of days of piling into the car with your kiddos for your day trip to pick berries, heading out for your camping trip, driving across country for your family vacation or maybe just heading up to the closest Walmart to beat the heat and kill some time!  Regardless of the reason for your automobile adventure, I’m sure you have a collection of favorite CD’s…wait….let me get more current…I mean your smartphone plugged in with some of your favorite i-tunes cranked.  Here at RaisingDeepRoots, we’d love to make some suggestions to add to your automobile audio repertoire!

Last summer our family took 2 days to drive to our vacation destination and I’m so pleased to say we managed it screen free!   I really wanted the boys to have a chance to stare out the window for hours and get lost in their own thoughts.  Of course, they only stayed lost in those thoughts for so long and then well….you can guess the rest  Thank Heaven for our stash of “Adventure of Odyssey” CD samples we found in the glove compartment!

I’m not going to win any awards for creativity on this resource recommendations but we have finally joined the millions of parents who LOVE listening to Adventures in Odyssey with the kiddos.
“Adventures in Odyssey presents original audio stories brought to life by actors who make you feel like part of the experience. These fictional, character-building dramas are created by an award-winning team that uses storytelling to teach lasting truths. Maybe that’s why over 20 million products have been distributed worldwide. So dust off your imagination and join the kids in Odyssey for inspiring adventures that are flat-out fun!“

Based on the 30 or  so”episodes” we’ve listened to, I’d say best age range would be 6-13 or so.  Some of the stories are so exciting and intense that the mystery of it all might be a bit much if you have sensitive young ones listening in.  However, my 4 year old seems to handle them just fine.  Every once in a while he loses interest if the plot is too complex but for the most part he is an Odyssey fan now too.  Its been super fun to share these with some dear friends and get the same delighted response from them.  In fact, we just traded a bunch of our CDs around as her family is heading out of town tomorrow for a….ROAD TRIP!

For the Odyssey home page including ordering information (available in MP3 format or CDs) click here.

For some suggestions for parents on how to make the most of the “lesson learned in the story” and turn it into some great family discussion time about your family values and character building in your child, look here.  Actually, who am I kidding? Character building in all of us!

Now while I LOVE LOVE LOVE providing opportunities for the boys to use their imaginations and I would much prefer to allow for the story picture to unfold in their minds, I would be remiss to not mention the fabulous new animated versions of Adventures in Odyssey now available on JellyTelly.com.  What is JellyTelly you ask?  A new website from the makers of VeggieTales and Focus on the Family that serves as a:

 “a Bible-based alternative to video and gaming sites, JellyTelly provides families with a safe place to learn and play online.“  

Check out JellyTelly here to view these amazing animated versions!

And for those of you who are thinking, but what about my preschoolers?   Never Fear!  Life at the Pond is here!  Shout out to my friend Jennifer for sharing these with us! Check out here for some super cute stories for the younger ones that even older brother will enjoy – not to mention mom and dad.  I’ve been known to laugh out loud while driving down the freeway listening to these adorable stories!  And I’ve found myself referring to the great lessons taught in the stories to my sweet boys several times this week.  ”Do you think you might be acting bossy like Marilyn the Mouse?”   ” Are you being kind and including the new boy who moved in next door when you play with your friends just like Tony the Frog was so nice to Bill the Duck?”  Great stories, great lessons!

What are some of your favorite, Bible based, character building stories your family likes to listen to?  Let us know! Oh and for my Marin peeps, if you want to trade around some CDs we’ve got quite a stash to share

So here’s to summer time fun, to fabulous family adventures on the road, and especially our prayers for safety and some great lessons learned along the way

Susie

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God’s Big Promise is about His promise to make Abraham into a great nation….Abraham’s doubt….and how Abraham turns out trusting God’s promise.  The kids and I got out my Bible and read back to see the kind of life that Abraham lead and why he specifically was given such a wonderful promise.  You can imagine what story in his life intrigued everyone the most….Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac.  It was a great lesson in obedience for the kids.  We keep obedience pretty simple around here: obedience =  blessing, disobedience = consequence.  That is just our daily explanation to choices they are making and it is clear in SO many places in Scripture.  This was one of those good moments to reinforce what we teach with how God parents his children too.  We see clearly how Abrahams life and choices bring about a truly beautiful promise.  This is a great place to bring out Matthew’s Begats by Andrew Petterson to show children how his obedience did not just affect his immediate family by giving he and Sarah their long-awaited blessing of being with child….but his obedience blessed the nations, blessed you and me, ushered Jesus in through his line.  It’s an amazing moment when a child can grasp that from one man’s life came a whole line of people leading to Jesus.  Puts obedience in a whole new light for mom and babe.

We used chalkboard paint for the sky in this one which made involvement by all three easy easy.  Nate & Bennett drew with chalk & Logan used a silver paint pen.  The Bible Timeline is such an easy way to get the kids to understand the whole of Scripture, not doing anything with your kiddos?  Consider this, we are loving it and eating up and it’s so nice and low maintenance!!!!  More to come, check the old Bible Timeline’s out to begin!!!