Man Shall Not Live By Bread (Donuts) Alone

This week we had a trip to Krispy Kreme.  All the kids had a blast picking out their donut, and watching the conveyor belt carry the donuts under the glaze waterfall and onto the racks to set.  Even though Lily undoubtedly never had a donut in China - she loves them!  Matthew loves them, too.  They are probably his most favorite treat.  Last year for his birthday, that was his request - and we actually found a mom and pop donut shop that makes a giant donut that can be served as a cake.  It was about 1 foot in diameter, and we put candles on it and served it up as his birthday cake when he turned 10.

We usually do our morning devotions together over breakfast, so we brought our stuff to Krispy Kreme to do it there.  You can see how Lily has scribbled all over  decorated our record of Bible readings.  We are going through the Psalms now - one a day.  We are also reading Egermeier's Bible Story Book.  Do you have any resources or routines you have used for devotions for family or kids?  Another one we absolutely LOVED and have gone through many, many, many times is The Jesus Storybook Bible.  It is wonderful!  I would love to know how you do family devotions.  Always looking for more inspiration!  We have done other things in the past, too, like Keys For Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Leading Little Ones to God, The Picture Bible, Read-n-Grow Picture Bible through the years.  

To keep it real, it is a struggle to get through our devotions most days.  Lest you think that my kids sit quietly while I read to them - a typical morning involves me corralling them back to the kitchen table (my kids love to eat and run, even when they are eating, they are only sitting on their chairs halfway), and then we are interrupted by Lily flipping the pages of the Bible or book to another place, or Aaron asking me if he can have another egg, and then finally by me giving them a lecture about how we should only interrupt if it is an emergency and defining what constitutes an emergency (blood or fire).  But we get through it - and they are improving.  Every time we have added a new baby though - things definitely are very hairy for a while.  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear any tips, resources, books, etc. that have worked for your family!  Have a blessed day :-).

Makin' Pizza and the Scale of the Universe

This is a little video I shot a couple of weeks ago when we took a field trip to Pizza My Heart.  The kids got to make their own pizza.  Even Lily was able to do it with minimal help from me.  They had loads of fun, got a free tee shirt, and the experience of eating their own yummy pizza that they designed.  Sorry, didn't get any footage of Matt.  He was there, I promise, just sitting a bit further away.

I *LOVE* Nathan's pizza.  It is very *him.*  Still waiting for the pineapple here to make the teeth.

There's Matthew!  I love how they had all the toppings within reach of the kids.

Aaron, very slowly and deliberately putting his pizza sauce on just the right spot.

And something that a friend sent to me that is SO COOL.  It's about the scale of the universe.  Click HERE to visit this amazing and thought-provoking site.  You will want more than a few minutes to look at it.  My boys spent a good 20 minutes there, and then had to get off in order to go to bed =).

I was going to post this link as a separate post, but I realized that they are related so I am going to keep it here next to the pizza post.  

You can certainly see the mind of my children in their very individual pizza creations.  Their preferences and their personalities are evident in even something as small as a pizza they made.  There is also pride of ownership and artistry.  

The awesome site I mentioned above makes me think of this verse:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen and understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Romans 1:20

Makes me think of the mind of God as He created things - from the most infinitesimal to the most grand.  How we can "see" who God is through His universe.

Wow.  Very cool!

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.   To him be the glory forever!  Amen."
Romans 11:36

California History

We did a fun project for California history. Matthew is in 4th grade now, and so for social studies we are studying our state. The first thing was studying the geography of California - where it is located, and the different terrains and geographical forms, where the capitol is, and so forth. We made a relief map out of. . . cake, and chocolate chips, and blue and green frosting! It is complete with a compass rose and a key as well. We ate it - yes, almost the whole entire thing - the next day.

This will be an interesting year. I actually did this very same project with my 4th grade class I taught my first year of teaching way back when. It was MUCH more manageable with only 2 students :-). When I did it at school, I had it as a center, and groups of 6 students or so would rotate through. Aarbear was snoozing, so we got to do this without him trying to eat all of the chocolate chips or squirting frosting everywhere :-). I never did learn my CA history properly, though. Even when I had to teach it, I only did it that one year (and it was pretty here and there). The three other years that I taught 4th grade, I team-taught with my neighboring teacher so that he did all of the social studies and I did all of the science and health. It will be extremely educational for me to be teaching CA history again. Maybe I'll learn it for real this time :-).