Preempted

Our lives were momentarily preempted due to soccer tournaments this weekend. Our regularly scheduled lives should resume tomorrow, once I've recovered from non stop soccer since Friday night.

Stay tuned for pictures, books and general fun Christmas activities tomorrow! :D

TOS Review - Good Morning, God

These commands

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.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 

And so begins this beautiful picture book we were recently given for review from Apologia Press.  Good Morning, God by Davis Carman, illustrated by Alice Ratterree, recommended ages are for 1-8 (but all my kids loved this book and their ages are from 1-13!).

Good Morning, God is a story of a four year old worshiping God throughout his week.  He worships, learns and thanks God through play, song, work and as he's going to bed. The beautiful illustrations tell the story as much as the simple sweet words.  There are a mixture of black and white drawings and full color illustrations, one on each full page that might inspire your young artist to want to get out their crayons and do some coloring! If that is the case, as it is in my home ;), you can purchase a go along Good Morning God coloring book ($4.00) to keep your book free from any of your little Picasso's work.

The author has included suggestions on how to use this book beyond a simple reading. There are questions at the end of the book broken down into each day of the week that can help you use it as a discipleship tool.  If you want to dig even deeper and use this book as part of your daily devotion, the author suggests reading the book everyday, including the scripture, discuss what aspect of worship the boy engaged in that day and how that relates to your child and family and use the questions in the back for each day. It will definitely get your littlest guy or gal thinking about all the wonderful ways we can show God how much we love Him.

This beautiful book retails for $14.00.  You can see a sample chapter, as well as to purchase a copy, here.  While you're there, make sure to check out the other great products put out by Apologia Press!

To see what others on the TOS crew thought of Good Morning, God, click here.

 I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it.  I received no other compensation for this review.  The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions.

Day 9, book 13

Tonight's book was Jan Brett's version of the Ukrainian folk tale, The Mitten.

We enjoy Jan Brett's books with their incredible illustrations. There is so much going on in the main text as well as in the margins, we always find new things every time we read her books!  I love how she weaves what's coming next into her margins, little previews of what's to come. So clever. :)

We have a few versions of this story of a boy who's grandmother knits him a special pair of mittens and tells him to be careful and not lose them while he goes out to play in the snow. Of course the mitten falls out of his pocket early on and the animals of the woods use it for shelter from the bitter cold winter weather.

Such a fun, fanciful story. My kids particularly enjoy this story because it's Ukrainian, just like Great Grandma and Grandpa! We don't see a lot of things labeled "Ukrainian" around here, so whenever we do, they are all very excited. :)

Day 8, book 12

Tonight's book was, Corduroy's Christmas, a book based on the character created by Don Freeman, illustrated by Lisa McCue.

This was a book I bought when my oldest was just itty bitty. This cute little flap book takes Corduroy through all his holiday traditions leading up to Christmas day.  My oldest loved all those types of books w/ flaps and different textures to feel, so this book was always a favorite (as you can tell from the binding ;) ).

This year my little K. was the one who got to discover Corduroy's surprises underneath the various flaps. She was so excited to see what was underneath each little flap. It brought me back to when my E. was her age. :)  Later in the evening, J, my 4 year old, came up to me and asked if he could look at, "That book with all those flap things."  He then sat down and "read" Corduroy enjoying opening all the flaps w/o a toddler to get in the way! LOL

This book is definitely not a literary giant in the world of publishing but how can you not love Corduroy? :)

Holiday Traditions - More Nativities

Last night my homeschool support group held an ornament exchange Christmas Party for our Mom's Night Out. It was a great evening of fun, fellowship and fabulous food! (how's that for some alliteration this morning :) ).

Because I wasn't home, the evening events here didn't follow their normal sequence so after our advent readings our traditional pick the Christmas book didn't happen. I was told they watched a Christmas movie instead. Something about Dogs and Caroling? I'm sure it was a classic. ;-) So I won't be sharing a book today but I will share the rest of my Nativity sets. :)

This fuzzy little snow globe nativity was my very first nativity scene that I received when I was a very young girl, maybe 5ish?  The water needs to be refilled and the plastic is all scratched up, but what a precious little snow globe that I have managed to keep through the years. :)

I should take a better picture of this sweet Precious Moments snow globe nativity!  This one is actually A's but she graciously lets me display it in the nook of our entry way. A. loves snow globes and nativity scenes and well, just about everything to do with Christmas. She is my resident Christmas decorator now and I love watching her create her magic throughout the house. This plays Silent Night and sparkly "snow".  So pretty and peaceful.

This nativity I bought through Christmas Around the World. I don't think it's around anymore. It was one of those MLM companies where you'd host a party, your friends would buy goods and depending on the total sales, you got free merchandise.  Their products were actually really good and pretty decent quality so when I hosted my party my friends and family purchased a bunch and I got a lot of free merchandise.  I still have quite a bit of decorations from that party and they have held up really well for, ahem, well over 2 decades!  This nativity was one of my free gifts.  It lights up (you can see the cords and battery/light holder under the stable hehe) and plays Silent Night.  This is another sweet little nativity.

My next nativity is a mantle scarf that I found at the Brass Pig Tea Room in Springboro, OH.  We enjoyed eating at The Brass Pig when we lived in Ohio, especially at Christmas time. They would set up this huge Christmas display with all sorts of beautiful decorations. I fell in love with this scarf when I saw it and was so excited when I was able to go back and purchase it. I only took pictures of the different scenes. I'll come back later with a full view picture of the entire mantle. :)

 The middle portion has the manger scene

 On the left side are the Wisemen following the star

On the right are the shepherds

 Along the top, is the little town of Bethlehem

 My special nativity is the one from Willow Tree. I love this nativity. I started with just Mary w/ Jesus and Joseph w/ a few of the animals and through the years added another set.  I love all of Willow Tree figurines, the nativity is my most favorite display of all. :)

I think that's all of my nativity scenes, except for the one's on ornaments. If I found anymore, I'll add them in! :)

Day 6, book 11

Tonight's book was, If You're Missing Baby Jesus by Jean Gietzen, illustrated by Vickie Shuck.

If You're Missing Baby Jesus is a sweet book based on a true story and really shares what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. I was given this book by my CBS core leader my first year attending CBS. For our Christmas luncheon she handed each of us our copy and then attempted to read the book to us while we were enjoying our lunch. She warned us ahead of time that she never gets through the book without crying and about half way through, someone else took over reading for her.  Truly a very sweet, encouraging story that inspires my family to want to reach out every year and help those in need.

Holiday Traditions - FIAR Ornament Exchange Tree

We've gotten so many fantastic ornaments through the years from our FIAR ornament exchange I finally did what many of my fellow rowers did many years ago, we bought a tree just for our FIAR ornaments! :)

We've put it in our school room and have all of our ornaments lovingly placed on the tree. The kids have really enjoyed looking at all the ornaments from years past all in one spot. We don't have our big tree up yet, so they are enjoying this small one w/ all these special ornaments all the more. :)

Our new tree with our newest ornaments

 All decorated. :)

 another side

 close up of another side

 another close up of the ornaments on the bottom

 More close-ups

 Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Rag Coat, Lentil

 

Harold's Purple Crayon, How to make an Apple Pie and See the World, Ping, Ferdinand, Snowflake Bentley (a few of those up there. :) )

 

ABC Bunny, Hanna's Cold Winter, The Pumpkin Runner and Ping

 

 The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

 Night of the Moonjellies and Ferdinand the Bull

 Follow the Drinking Gourd

 The Gully Washer

Aren't these fun and unique? We love our FIAR community. 

See an ornament you made?  Leave a comment and share which one it was. :)