Pillowcase Dresses

We are making pillowcase dresses to take with us to Rwanda this summer. Want to help? I KNOW YOU DO!!!!



It is sooo simple and doesn't take long at all. Here is a link to show you how to make one. This one calls for an embroirdered pillowcase but we will take any pillowcase. We have just been using plain ones or ones with pretty patterns.  These are great for the little girls!
http://bumblebeelinens.com/pillowcaseDress.php


Here is a link to make a skirt out of a pillowcase. These are great for the older girls!  You could do this too...
http://www.kids-sewing-projects.com/pillowcase-skirt.html

Here is a picture of one that was made and given to us to take...

See, super simple!


The Keepers at Home class at co-op is going to make some. We would love for you to help us by making some and sending them to us too. Of course, any little dress (tshirt dress, sundress, etc.) will work. It doesn't have to be from a pillowcase. You can mail them to:

Winston

PO Box 1781

Huntsville, TX 77342



Thanks so much!

~Brogan

Co-op Week 23

Wow!  Week 23 already? 

In one way that seems so hard to believe.  The school year is well on its way to being over. 

On the other, it is a relief.  I am sooo ready for co-op to be over.  This preparing every. single. week. for multiple classes for multiple children is wearing on me.  I don't know that I will teach a weekly class again.  Every other week is good enough for me!

With all that said, the kids are still having fun and enjoying their classes.  And that my friends, makes it well worth it!

Here are the highlights for this week:

My community service class did a food drive for the Hospitality House inviting all members of the co-op to participate.  We then delivered the supplies and made a visit to the house.  The kids learned about the house and helped to clean it so that it was ready for their visitors the upcoming weekend.

I was able to get the Master Gardeners here in town to come out to the co-op to teach the kids about gardening.  We have a class of 7 students...a great group of kiddos!!  The Master Gardeners are holding 9 classes and touching on composting, butterfly gardening, bugs, propigation and so much more.  It is as intersesting for me as it is for them!  I am so glad that this group has offered their expertese to our kids!

Valentine Math

For math on Valentine's Day I made this heart and filled it with heart candies.  Christian had to estimate how many hearts there were and then count them to find out how well his guess was.  After that he grouped them by color and then graphed them.  It was a fun math day but still filled with learning :D

Rylen got a shot at it too...

Gearing Up

We have 22 of these little guys! 

Gearing up for Walker County Fair at the end of March!

Angels are Rejoicing

Christian has a cracked skull so we have slowed down and limited our activities outside of the house.  During this time we have been taking the time to do home church rather than venture out on Sundays.  We have been praying for several specific things during the last few weeks and have spent much time in prayer as indivisuals and as a family.  Christian has been asking lots of questions and yesterday Jeremy told him when he was ready to take the questions, and answers, seriously to let him know.  Right after we finished up with our church he went over to Jeremy and said "Daddy you told me to tell you when I was ready and to remind you to talk to me."  Jeremy sat down right then and talked with him a little bit and asked him some questions.  Christian said he was ready to pray and we prayed with him.  I even caught Brogan stopped in the hallway praying with him also.  Christian accepted Christ as his Savior!  And, once I thought about the date I realized that it was exactly 8 years ago on the same day that I was baptized.  How cool is that?!  Super cool!!  He was so excited the rest of the day and walked around like a totally different little boy.

Thank you, Jesus, for coming to our rescue!!

Blocks

We are having a garage sale for our mission trip this summer and a friend gave us some things.  In all of the stuff was a block game kinda like Jinga.  Two people play and remove one block at a time from the bottom and put it on the top until the tower falls.  Well, we are always a fan of blocks so we kept the game.  Here is Brogan playing the game by herself.  She took a long time to make some of the moves and was vey calculating, that is, until it fell.  And when it did the "UUGGGHHHH!!!" was very clearly spoken with a cute little shreek.

Once Brogan was finished Christian had a turn but didn't want to play the way Brogan did.  He set off to make something and I didn't pay much attention until a bit later.  Once I looked at what he was doing I realized it kinda resembled Stonehenge.  I found Stonehenge online and we talked about it a little bit.  He was very excited that he had made something that was "real".  Learning in the littlest things :)



Devotionals

I am horrible about keeping this blog up.  UGHHH!!!  I had good intentions starting off the year but I just can't seem to keep up.

Well, we have been continuing our devotionals and, we have been doing at least 3 a week which was my goal for us this year.  Most weeks we have been able to do more but we haven't made it every day.  Not yet at least. 

The kids are really chipping in on them also.  All but one that is.  Our little 20 minute devo time sometimes runs into 45 minute conversations.  I love that!  I get as much out of them, if not more, as they do.  Several times they have brought me to tears.  That is just sooo unlike me.  The younger kids laugh and the older ones just have this "what just happened" look.  They have been great and I will try to do better at posting about them.

In the meantime, something that has really been on my heart lately is Satan and how he is so rampant and in so many places.  Our family is, and has been, facing some tough times.  I have always known Satans presence but I am now fully aware of how infiltrates every place.  Our Christian schools and businesses, churches and friends and acquantences that profess to be "Christian" are being taken over by the Devil.  So many people in leadership positions and they are clearly NOT following Biblical principles.  It is hard to see your children and your family persecuted for taking a stand and standing on the side of the Lord and in return they get no support from those that should be supporting them most.  (I can't imagine what true persecution would be like as those that face it knowing their lives may be in jeopardy!?  I can only imagine how it was for Jesus as his was so much more than ours is.)  The grey area that so many people live in and then want to justify.  Wanting to be "Christian" on Sundays and when it suits them best.  I pray that we train our children to be true Bible, Jesus following Christians.  I pray that we are the same. 

Please join me in praying for our churches, schools, friends, families and communities.  Pray that they will not be taken over by Satan and that Christians will stand up for Christ.  Even when it is not comfortable to do so.

Please pray for our family that we can be living examples of the Word and for open doors wherever it is that God may lead.

Most of all, just pray.

Devotionals: Week 1, Day 2

Jeremy lead our devotional tonight and we looked at Phillipians 1:19-26.  James 3 came up again as did Romans 10:10-12. 

Did you know that to succeed, truly succeed, at something you have to put in 10,000 hours of work toward it?  10,000 hours!  If you start today and worked at it just 1 hour a day it would take you 27 years to master it.  Okay, lets speed it up and work 3 hours a day at it.  Now you are down to 13 years.  WOW!  We talked with Joshua, Codey and Brogan about what they want to do.  What are they interested in or want to excel at?  Where are they at heading towards the 10,000 mark?  We encouraged them to find one thing that they wanted to excel at and start working towards it today.

We also gave them a mission going into the first day back at school.  Find someone to lift up or encourage that you don't normally talk to.  They will be asked who they lifted up and how.  This is going to be hard for them the first few times I'm sure.  Praying they have the strength and courage and that they find just the right person!

We reviewed Proverbs 13:3 (Brogan almost has it down) and Brogan and I closed us with prayer.