Daily Prayer

Lord, let me be kind, loving, softhearted, warm, interested, affirming, affectionate, involved, strong, consistent, dependable, verbally communicative, understanding and patient towards my husband and children. Thank you Lord that by the Holy spirit I can do all things.
Amen

Digital Nature Scavenger Hunt

The fall weather has been marvelous lately, so last week the girls and I took the camera out to the park for a nature scavenger hunt. I made a list of things for them to find and take pictures of.

3 different leaves
3 sizes of pinecones
3 different colored rocks
berries
something plastic
animal tracks
nut/acorn
feather
stick
something faster than a snail
something that fell out of a tree
3 leaf clover
flower
bug
moss
pine needles
spider web
wasp nest
moth
something with thorns
maple key
nail
mushroom
tree fungus
Y shaped twig
write name with twigs or acorns

Today's Doings

We have speech class this afternoon. The girls are to do a reading or recitation up to 1 minute long. All the girls are doing poems.
Bella has been practicing aloud with me for a couple weeks. The older girls, I've not heard them yet. So hope they can get it together by this afternoon!

My mom and her GFN ( Good Friend Nancy) came up yesterday to pick up my gramma and take her back to Austin for the month of November. Mom and gramma will come back for Thanksgiving, and then go back. My mom runs a baking sweat shop ( not really) in November. She will be putting my gramma to work baking up thousands of cookies for the annual Lone Star open house.

The girls and I will go down the second Friday of December and help set up and serve at the open house. It is fun, the girls really enjoyed helping out last year.

Anyway back to today. After speech class, we have a short meeting for the film club, then we will be going to my gramma's to visit for a while. We might have time to go the library, but I'm not going to stress, I mean it, no stressing.

Not to late!

YUG! This morning for some reason it dawned on me that I once again I am late in starting to plan for the holidays. WHAT? You may ask, well, I'm sure I'm not the only one who says every year that I'm going to start early, involve everyone and actually enjoy the holidays rather than work, stress, and fuss.
This 12 Week Holiday Planner is just the thing to keep me on track. Only I"m starting a month late, ( shhh).

Each week has a list to things to plan, work on,or purchase. And not just Christmas either, but Thanksgiving as well. That is a real bonus. Is it just me or does Thanksgiving seem to get pushed aside? We are all so focused on getting and giving at Christmas, that we often fail to slow down at Thanksgiving to be thankful and worship the One who gives us all things.

Anyway, gift ideas, crafts for the kids and family, a Holiday journal, meal planner plus some recipes. Buy once and use it year after year.

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Heritage Builders Podcast

Passing along a heritage of Christian faith to your family is a parent's highest calling.
Heritage Builders' goal is to encourage and empower you in this great mission with
practical resources and inspiring ideas that really work and help your children develop a lasting love for God. We exist to equip, train and motivate parents to become intentional about building a strong spiritual heritage.

By providing tools that help equip and train parents, Heritage Builders is a successful ministry that reaches around the world. Check out the free podcast family seminar! Also download a free Family Night pack, start building your family's spiritual heritage.

Heritage Builders was founded in 1995 by six parents with a passion for helping others be intentional about passing on a Godly heritage to their children. From 1996-2006, Focus on the Family developed the ministry expanding its resources and presence. Our resources have been featured and offered by Family Life, Promise Keepers, and the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. In 2007, Heritage Builders was spun off to focus on its primary calling of training and equipping parents to pass the faith to the next generation. The ministry not only works with parents but also with and through churches to educate, equip and encourage parents in the spiritual formation process at home.

Scraping History

We have used History Scribe- for elementary and Jr High

And I have History Scholar for High School

Both on sale very inexpensively right now. Each one has areas to draw and to write about the topic. The History Scholar includes a time line on each double page spread, with smaller areas for a notable figure in history, an important event, or whatever student might want to write about. Think of it as scrapbooking history. There are also fairly deep essay questions that can be skipped if you so desire.

In the Kitchen

I got my love of cookbooks from my mother, both of us have way more cookbooks than a person can use, but we love them.
2 years ago I asked for Dining on a Dime for Christmas. My dear husband got it for me. What a great gift!

Lots of down home recipes using real food for real families!
This is a great cookbook to use for beginning cooks. Not only are there recipes, and money saving tips, but also fun kid recipes for face paint, bubbles,and soap crayons. Plus "gifts in a jar" and gift basket suggestions.

Fall into Hot Chocolate

Fall is my favorite season, and with the cooler weather we love to cozy up with a hot chocolate.
Here is a homemade Hot Chocolate mix that my family has used since I was a little girl.


One large Chocolate milk mix powder
One large ( 16 oz) Dry coffee creamer
One box (8 qt size) dry milk powder
One cup sugar

mix together and store in a large Tupperware container. Use 1/3 cup mix and 1 cup hot water.

With the flavored coffee creamers out, you can have hazelnut hot chocolate, vanilla hot chocolate, or amarretto hot chocolate.