Raffle Winners!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for buying raffle tickets to support the Sedlacek family.  A little over $700 was raised and we sold 1457 raffle tickets!!  

Please pray for their family as they travel up to Rochester on Monday.  Pray for Sean and Rebecca’s mom on Thursday as this is when the transplant will take place.  

The winners of the raffle are:

#1:  Hot Pink Night on the Town Purse:  Jill Stanek

#2: Accessorize yourself—hat and bracelet from Ana Patricia: Jennifer Almquist

#3:  Focus on your house—Uppercase Living & Scentsy gift certificate: Melissa Langer

#4:  A Special Night out in Lincoln—Misty’s gift certificate: Deb Hershberger

 #5:  BaldwinTote: Barb Weibusch

#6:  Health & Wellness basket from Arbonne: Jenny Gibbons

#7:  Stock your pantry—canned goods and Walmart gift card: Jo Farabee

#8:  Click and Smile—Photography from Kelly Yant Photography:  Rene McQuinn

I will be contacting you soon so you can claim your prize!!!

May Day anyone?

Raffle ends this Saturday!  Transplant is in less than a week away...pray...pray...and pray again that everything goes smoothly!!!  Check out this link ....raffle.... to find out how to buy a raffle ticket!!  Thanks!

May 1st is May Day!!!!  Do you celebrate it?  Don't ask me what May Day really is...I honestly have no clue.  But growing up I remember making little baskets and filling them with popcorn, candy, and sometimes flowers, delivering them to our friends doorsteps, ringing the doorbell, and the running away.  Apparently my friends who grew up in other states did not celebrate this day....and neither did my husband.  Maybe it is a Nebraska thing?? Well I am carrying on the tradition with my kiddos.  They all think it is a fun little activity.  This year the kids chose a few local friends to make baskets for.  Their list was quiet extensive, so I had to narrow it down for them...sorry if you didn't make the cut:(  Actually I have several friends who live in the same neighborhood, so we just went from street to street making deliveries.  The kids had fun making them and seeing a few of their friends.  Most of the supplies used for this year's May Day were given to our kiddos for one reason or another...including the cups! (thanks Angie):)

So now the question is....do you celebrate May Day?

Getting ready to make the baskets

Having a picnic before we start assembling the baskets

Each basket had something different in them

After we delivered all of the May Day baskets, I made baskets for the girls...while Easton was napping.  He is only two right? and won't care if gets one....here is what I sat on the porch....

 and the second I did that I got ready to softly knock on the door and I looked up and saw this....

 One sad little guy....so I had to run back in the house and scramble to make him a little basket and then I rang the doorbell and this is Jocelyn's reaction:

 and then they all came out and collected their baskets!

and Easton was happy once again!

This post has been linked up to the Homeschool Creations blogspot/  Check out the link below to see more awesome homeschooling ideas!

Tea Party Ballet Camp!

Just a few more days until the raffle ends....have you entered yet?  Ends Saturday night at 6pm (CST)  Click here:  raffle   for more details

Ever since last December Jocelyn has been asking me when she could go back to a ballet camp.  She had so much fun at the last camp that she attended and couldn't wait for the next.  I kept telling her I didn't know when another camp would be or if there would be another one.  

Last week I received an e-mail that the gal who hosted the last camp was going to be back in town for the week...she lives and works in San Diego.  So we signed Jocelyn up and of course Katelyn felt a little left out again, because she was too young to go.  So I was THAT mom and asked if my 3 year old could attend a camp that was meant for 5-9 year olds.  We heard back the night before the camp that Katelyn could come! Turns out Katelyn says she did not have fun and she would have rather have gone to Runza to get a smoothie with me.  Lovely.  The camp was truly meant for 5-9 year olds.  This camp focused on tea party etiquette.  They learned about manners, made a craft, made an invitation for their tea party, and enjoyed snacks and tea!  

Jocelyn had a good time as always.  

Below is a video of a simple dance they learned and a few pictures from their day.  Not quiet sure about their outfits..I sent them in really cute dance outfits, but they changed...oh well....can't win them all!

Enjoy!

Titus 2 in Tennis Shoes

Before you read this post....don't forget...only 6 more days to enter the raffle....HERE!!!

A few weeks ago I did a review on the Nebraska Christian Home school Conference and I mentioned at the end of my post that I would do a little summary on the Titus 2 in Tennis Shoes workshop that I attended.  It has been on my heart to write a post about it…and one of my friends asked me if I was going to still write one…so here it goes.

Have you read Titus lately?  Good book…I always say that don’t I?  Well it is.  I attended a workshop presented by Gloria Wissmann.  She is a wife and a mother of 13 kids.  She focused her workshop on Titus 2…more specifically the women’s role in as the Bible lays it out.  I am going to copy and paste it at the end of this post in case you don’t have a Bible…(if you don’t…there are many free ones online).  This is the New King James version from:  http://www.biblegateway.com

Titus 2 is a great reminder for men and women as to how they should act in the world we live in today.  I hear time and time again that a marriage should be 50/50.  The wife shouldn’t have to listen to what the husband has to say and should be able to do as she pleases.  Wives should be strong and be in control of their families.  Men can’t “properly” lead a home.  My husband isn’t strong enough to make his own decisions.  You don’t know my husband…if I let him be in charge…things would be a disaster.  Times have changed…women are more superior!   Ever had anyone say these things to you?  I have!  Do you think this way?  What does the Bible say about these things?

It says that the young women should love their husbands and children…to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands…  older women should be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, teachers of good things…be good role models and guide the younger women.  More importantly the WORD OF GOD SHOULD NOT BE BLASPHEMED.  

I know a lot of people don’t care about what the Bible has to say…but as I am raising my girls at home my goal is to teach them to be good wives and mothers.  I want to teach them how to run a home.    If they don’t want to pursue a career where they need the credentials from a college, then I am not going to push them in that direction so they can waste their time (and money) and have a greater chance at getting lost in this world.  Trust me…college is a complete waste of time if you go…just to go for the experience.  (Off my soapbox now) and back to the workshop summary.  Gloria gave some great examples as to how she has used the direction from Titus 2 to help raise her daughters.  She has taught them how to properly run a house…cook…sew…cater to company…help care for other siblings…clean…

Along with the help from her husband they have worked to instill values and morals with their kids to have Christ be the center in their lives…and not the world.  They pray that their children will take what they teach them at home and continue to live for Christ when they grow up and leave the home.  Gloria’s husband Loren also did a great opening workshop on this exact topic.  He gave some alarming statistics…I should have wrote down the exact percentages…but he gave the results of a study conducted by the American Baptist Society saying that an extremely high percentage of college graduates, who were raised in a Christian believing home walked away from their faith.  

Our kiddos are young and we have a long way to go with them, but I pray that Sean and I will do our best to be good role models for our kids and demonstrate what Titus 2 lays out for how we should be.   Kids don’t just automatically learn how to be good wives and husbands.  They have so many outside influences that are trying to tell them how they should behave and act, that society often forgets that the parents…with guidance from what the Bible says… should be the ones that help instill the real values for them.  

Some Bible verses to chew on:

Ephesians 5:21-24: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives , submit to your husband’s as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."

Colossians 3:23:  "Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men."

1 John 2:15:  "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

And now for:

Titus 2:

Qualities of a Sound Church ¹ But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: ² that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; ³ the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— ⁴ that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵ to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
⁶ Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, ⁷ in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, ⁸ sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.
⁹ Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, ¹⁰ not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

Trained by Saving Grace
¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, ¹² teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
¹⁵ Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

Death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

 Stop....before (or after) you read this blog post...make sure you check out the raffle items that I have listed in this post....raffle.....

This week has been a busy one for us.  In school we focused on the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: his death, burial, and resurrection.  We don't really do Easter around here, but since everywhere we turn someone is talking about Easter, I thought it was fitting to cover these stories with the kids.  So if you are around my kids and your kids are discussing what the Easter Bunny brought them...watch out...my girls are pretty vocal about telling other kids that the Easter Bunny is not real.  Sorry in advance.

If you would like to read all about these events surrounding Jesus Christ's death burial and resurrection you can read many different accounts in the Bible in Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-20; Luke 24:1-49; John 20:1-21:25. 

Remember the ONLY way that you can get to heaven and become saved is by grace through faith and by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ...that he died for your sins and rose again.  It isn't by going to church every Sunday... or by being good.... or by completing a certain set of steps that some guy at your church told you that you need to complete.....

Bible Verse:

  The girls' memory verse for this week was:

John 10:25:  I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will never die.

 I also taught them a song that I learned in camp that goes along with this verse.  I should have videotaped it, but as I write this my little ones are napping and Jocelyn is doing her quiet time.

Resurrection Rolls:  We made resurrection rolls.  The idea was to pretend that the crescent dough was the tomb of Jesus Christ and the marshmallow was Jesus Christ.  For the anointment we used butter, sugar, and cinnamon.  We wrapped the marshmallow up (Jesus) in the crescent roll (tomb) and then baked it.  After it baked the kids were supposed to be surprised that the marshmallow was all gone...relating it to Jesus resurrecting and not being in his tomb anymore, but our marshmallows creeped out of the crescent rolls, so it wasn't a very good analogy.  The kids liked the activity and enjoyed the snack.  Lots of variations to this activity online.  Just do a key word search for "resurrection roll" and have your pick.

 Resurrection Cookies:  We also did another baking activity.  I will attach a link to the one we used.  We pretended the ingredients represented the different aspects of the resurrection story that we read in the Bible. The kids loved the activity and loved the end product...I however thought they were gross.  Here is a link to the cookies.

Beating the walnuts (like Jesus was beaten)

Sugar= Jesus' sweetness in his tears

Right before we popped them into the oven

Sealing the tomb (oven)

Other activities:

The girls decided to do a dance for me.  It started off by being a re-enactment of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but then turned into a dance.

I got these fun little dice (not sure the name) for Jocelyn.  She rolled the numbers and filled in six blanks and then added up the numbers.  Fun for her and it made her feel like she was in control of her math problems, instead of me giving her the questions. 

Jocelyn doing her math

Katelyn counted rabbits instead, for her simple addition problems.

This link has been linked up to the Homeschool Creations Blogspot.  Visit her site for more great activities!

A wonderful Saturday! Go Big Red!

STOP-- Before reading this post...have you looked at and bought a ticket for the raffle I am hosting for a dear friend of mine?  If not click here.... RAFFLE....  thanks!

Last Thursday and Friday it was raining and snowing here.  Yes..it was the middle of April….who would expect it to be raining and snowing?  I sure didn’t.  We promised to take the kids to the Husker spring game this year, so I was a bit nervous about the weather situation….but….it ended up being a beautiful day!!! I even got a sun burn on my face…ooops.   Who would have thought?  Here are few pictures from our day!

The scoreboard

The team running out on the field

This is just a spring game...who would have thought?

and this poor little guy got left at home....but still all smiles and supporting his team!

 Then after we went to the game we went home to get ready for our weanie and smores roast!  We love having people over and hanging out around the fire.  I got kind of busy socializing, but snapped a few photos.  After a busy day like this, I could hardly function when it was all said and done...and then Weston was up all night after that.  Babies!