Why My Kids Smell Like Little Old Men Today

There's a strong odor of Old Man Cologne in my house today.  It's coming from my two-year old and four-year old. 

Here's how this went down:

Thing One has been really interested in colors and mixing colors.  So today we played with colors.

 

 



 

Honestly, it took a lot more patience than I thought it would.  Thing Two dove right in and played, but I had to take the time to instruct Thing One on what to do.  He followed the directions, but it took some time to get through it!

 

Then we painted rainbows and talked about God's promise in Genesis: 

Thing Two just kind of did his own thing, like any good two-year old will do.  But he did manage to get all the colors of the rainbow in there...and on himself...and his white t-shirt.  Good job, Mom!  I'll put that on the List of Things I Should Have Thought Of.

 

But Thing One really got the hang of it!  And he was so proud of himself!  It's one of the first times he has willingly finished an art project and painted as much as he could, which shows a little bit of maturity, I think.

 

Afterwards, they were covered in paint, so I took the opportunity to throw them in the tub with some shaving cream, which is fun to play with...AND also cleans the bathtub.  Mwah ha ha ha!  (That's my evil laugh.)

 

Thing One had a blast.  A squishy, menthol-smelling blast.

 

Thing Two, on the other hand, despised me squirting shaving cream on his feet.  And he let me know, like any good two-year old will do.  Maybe he didn't want to smell like a little old man.  Because man do they smell like my Great Uncle Clarence. 

 

Next time, I'm going with UNSCENTED shaving cream!



Taking Church out of Church, Part II

I want my kids to be useful.  Heck, I want to be useful.

But how do we find our purpose?  Our identity?

Most people spend years and years trying to "find themselves."  I want my kids to grow up knowing who they are and what they believe.  Sure, they will question it.  They NEED to question.  Otherwise, how do you know what you believe? 

I don't want them to have any doubt what we believe.

So here's another way I brought church home:

My kids love Play-Doh.  I think that's a requirement for being a kid.

So I capitalized on their love of rolling and squishing and cutting it.

 

 

Okay, Thing One is not exactly showing the love in this picture, but sometimes he gets tired of posing for pictures.  I also think he was a little "hangry".

 

 

While we were playing with Play-Doh, I read this verse:

 

"Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand." (Jeremiah 18:6)

 

Naturally, this went right over the boys' heads. 

 

So I asked what the Play-Doh was for.  And I got no response.  Ha.

 

"It's just a lump of dough, isn't it?"  I asked.

 

Thing One nodded.

 

"What if I take it in my hands and make a bowl?  What can I do with a bowl?"

 

"Eat out of it!"  Thing One shouted.  Definitely "hangry."

 

"Right!  And then it has a purpose; it becomes useful.  That's what God says in the Bible.  He says that we're like giant lumps of clay, and he molds us and shapes us and gives us a purpose."

 

"Oh, okay," Thing One replied. 

 

Thing Two just kind of stared at the dough. 

 

But that's okay.  Because later, they'll remember this.  We'll do it again.  I will remind them.  We will talk about it more and more as they are able to understand it more.

 

We also did a color and cut/tear activity with via Brown Bear, Brown Bear:

 

 

The first activity was God-inspired, but the second was all Pinterest!

 







Taking Church out of Church

I love church.  I really do.  It inspires me, corrects me, and allows me to worship with others.  It's a great support system.

But church is more than a building. And it's more than just a group of people who believe the same thing.

It has to be a way of life, not just something you do on Sunday mornings.

So we're taking church outside of our building.  And into our family, into our everyday lives. 

I read this statistic that says 50% of kids who are "raised in church" will deny their faith by college.  BUT kids who see their parents live their faith, that it's sincere and genuine and ingrained in every part of their lives, they will take their parents' faith and make it their own.

So we're trying to put our faith in everything we do, everything we talk about, and it's not easy. 

But we're trying to teach our kids the simple basics of faith.  We want to lay a foundation and show our kids that this is WHY WE LIVE.  Because if it's just something we do on Sunday mornings, then it isn't really real.  And kids know that.

Here's what we did last week:

SINK or FLOAT?

 

We took a tub filled with water and put the items on this sheet in to see if they sank or if they floated.  The boys loved it!  It was fun to guess which ones would bob up to the top.  (Yeah, I drew the pictures.  Yes, I know the rubber duck looks like a banana.  Trust me, my kids pointed it out.)

After the game, we read the Bible story about Jesus walking on the water.  While we worked on these pictures...

...I asked what would happen if we tried to walk on the water.  Initially, Thing One said he could walk on water like Jesus.  Haha! 

So I asked what happened when he got in the bathtub.  He realized he sank.  :)

Then we talked about how Jesus was different from anyone else because he could do things no other person could do.  He's different because he's God's Son. 

If my kids don't get this, if I don't get this, then what's the point of church at all?  If they don't understand who Jesus is, then they aren't going to do what He says to do.  And this is the very cornerstone of our lives.  This is why we do the things we do. 

(By the way, I didn't come up with this activity.  We did this at Agency D3 Vacation Bible School two weeks ago.  I took it straight from the kindergarten planning book.) 

We taped the pictures up on the kitchen windows so they could show Daddy and NaNa.   

And now there's a little bit of church in our house.  :)