Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean

Our nativity scene...with a guest (far left):




You can tell we have some Mr. Bean fans around here. :)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

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Click here and leave a comment for a chance to win 100 customized postcards from UPrinting.com!

A little housekeeping

I haven't been doing a good job of promoting my giveaway this time around...but I've been busy doing stuff...really.

I'll be the nursery director in our church for 2010, and I've had dozens of ideas bubbling around in my brain. If only those ideas would get in line...instead, they bump around each other and make me a little crazy. ;) One of the things I've been working on has been creating a design layout I could use for the postcards I'll be receiving from UPrinting.com. I have been looking around online for some ideas for reminder postcards for the nursery volunteers, and there's really not that much out there. So, here's my take on the project, using a 6x4 layout like the UPrinting postcards will be:

Front

BackI also created a new front for the ones we'll print off ourselves so we can use a little less ink and it'll still be cute. :) Plus, I don't think the guys on the nursery rotation will appreciate the girly wreath photo too much...

If you happen to have a need for this kind of thing, email me and I'll be glad to send you the files in either Publisher or PhotoShop for you to customize, either for if you win my postcard giveaway or for another use.

Please click here to leave a comment on my giveaway for the 100 postcards from UPrinting.com! The giveaway ends on January 5, 2010, so there's still time. And so far your chances are very good that you will win. ;)

Just think of it as an encore performance...

I have some more Andrew Peterson for you--one serious; the other...notsomuch. :)

I'll give you the humorous one first: A song about cheese. And not just any cheese, but it's the gooey white cheese you get at Mexican restaurants. Intrigued? Well, you should be. Check it out! You will laugh and then laugh some more. :)

On a more serious note, this next one is a song I would recommend to our praise and worship leader if I thought I had the spiritual gift of song selection.

Oh, I kid.

(But I also would be glad to loan him our Andrew Peterson CDs...)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)


Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
Revelation 21:5 (NKJV)

Happy New Year!

It was not a silent night

Labor of Love
By Andrew Peterson
Performed by Jill Phillips

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Calloused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Lyrics were found here.

Merry Christmas, everyone...

One of us would make a really great elf...

My sister-in-law Cindy sent this to us recently...click here to see our family as ELVES. Grace's reaction was "I'm as big as Daddy!" And I don't know how many times I've heard, "Mom looks like a boy!" So thank you, Cindy... ;)

Also, click here to see Retooning the Nativity. It's a clever little video commenting on the details of the Christmas story.

Merry Christmas!

She'll call this "Christmas Road"!

As we were driving along one evening, Josiah pondered the whole Christmas light thing...

Josiah: I wonder who came up with Christmas lights...

Grace [with all of the pep of a three year old so excited about Christmas she can hardly stand it]: I did!!

Everyone laughed; Josiah continued to ponder...

Josiah: When did people start putting up Christmas lights?

Grace [with that same pep]: When I wuz born!

~~~~~

When it comes to decorating with Christmas lights, I figure you have three basic types:

The pretty type, with white lights and red wreaths

The type with more lights and figures

And, finally, the type where you wonder just how much their electric bill is during the month of December...because all of this is at one house, and I didn't even get all of their decorations in these shots.

And now you have seen what Grace calls "Christmas Road." Except it's so much cuter when she says it...'cause she still sometimes says either "Kwismus" or "Quitmas." ;)

Do you drive around just to look at Christmas lights?

Giveaway: Postcards!

Postcards are perfect as invitations, thank you cards, or note cards. And because of the generosity of my blog sponsor, UPrinting, one of my readers has the chance to win a set of custom postcards. Plus, I will also receive a set of custom postcards for hosting this giveaway.

Giveaway Prize: 100 Postcards for one (1) lucky winner
Size: 4x6
Paper: 14pt Cardstock Gloss
Printing: Full color both sides
Shipping: Sponsored bloggers and Winners have to pay for shipping.

This is what I have done with one of my previous orders for UPrinting postcards:

(Front view of a postcard for children who visit our children's church program, Adventure Kids, with space to write the visitor's name with a Sharpie.)

What would you do with custom postcards? Here's one idea...If you haven't gotten your Christmas cards out yet, and don't see yourself getting that job done in time, perhaps you'd like to put a family photo on one side of the postcard and a message to your family and friends on the other. Or you can leave the message side blank and write your own personal message.

Starting or promoting your own business? UPrinting has templates for a variety of industries, so you don't have to build something from scratch unless you want to.

What are your ideas?

Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment on this post telling me how you plan to use the postcards. I will randomly choose a winner from the comments at noon on January 5, 2010. If you receive my blog via email or feed, you can leave an extra comment. If you blog about my postcard giveaway and link back to this post, you can also leave an extra comment, giving you a total of three possible comments. Make sure I have your email address to contact you if you win! (You can click on "View my complete profile" on the sidebar and email me from there if you wish.)

The winner will be awarded via email with a coupon code on January 8, 2010.

You Capture: Lines

This week’s theme of the You Capture blog carnival hosted by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is lines.

(I can't wait to see what everyone else did with this theme!)

Let's see...there are the lines on the road as we traveled to Athens on Saturday


A line of babies beside my sleeping daughter (Three of those babies are named Emily. The one with the hair bow is the only one who gets her own name: Miss Muffy.)


Chocolate chip cookies lined up during our cookie baking day at my friend Kim's house



My Dad riding on a scooter last Saturday when we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. I just had to include these...there are lines in the background, right?



Last but not least...these are some really great lines. I could say that these are my favorite lines, but that might just be wrong. ;) We finally joined the 21st century and have gotten away from dial up! Whoo hoo! So here is our DSL modem:


And if you are still on dial up and are looking for a great deal, AT&T has an online deal for people who have never had DSL. This is what we have now--it's $10 a month (I know!!) for DSL Lite. You buy the modem ($75, which you can pay in full or spread out over 10 months interest free) and you have to keep the service for one year. Here's the link. Scroll down below all of the various offers they have in the boxes, and look for "New to DSL?" You type in your phone number to see if you qualify, and go from there. If you are already a Bellsouth/AT&T dial up customer, I believe you get the modem for free. I don't work for AT&T in any way; I'm just thrilled to have DSL for as much as we were paying for dial up. :)

Check out I Should Be Folding Laundry for more You Capture participants.

Overhead: The Food Edition

When we went to Savannah for my cousin’s wedding last month, Jason and I drove past a Chuck E. Cheese on the way to the rehearsal. Knowing we would pass by the dreaded mouse house many, many times during the next two days, we devised a plan…

Every single time we approached that area, Jason and I would take turns saying things like this with as much excitement and enthusiasm as we could muster while pointing to the opposite side of the road:

“Look! It’s a Bennigan’s! Athens used to have a Bennigan’s, but it closed down years ago! I haven’t been to a Bennigan’s in so long! It was pretty good, from what I remember!”

Really, we gushed and babbled so excitedly about Bennigan’s, I was sure the kids would catch on, perhaps during an especially dramatic roll of the eyes--but it worked, even with all of the groans from the back seat with every comment we made. And Jason and I secretly high-fived each other with every pass along that route even as the boys wondered if we'd lost our minds.

We never ate at that Bennigan’s while we were in Savannah (for obvious reasons), but we did eat lunch at one on the way back home. As we were leaving, Robert said, “I don’t know what you loved so much about that place. It wasn't that great.”

See? No clue. And, for those of you who know our family in real life, let's keep it that way!

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Josiah: I think better when I eat.

Good thing he wants to eat all the time, huh?

~~~~~

Each of the kids put in their 2 cents about where they wanted to eat one day, which is interesting because that’s about as much as they could have contributed to paying for the meal…Anyway, Grace really, really wanted what she calls a “chicken burger”--the little chicken sandwich from Wendy’s. I told her we weren’t that close to Wendy’s, so that wasn’t an option, but she could still get a burger (which she normally loves). Her response?

Grace [cheerfully]: OK…I’ll just pretend it’s a chicken burger!

OK, and I’ll just pretend you’re always that easy to please.

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Me: Come on to the table--it’s time to eat.

Josiah: "Eat"…I love that word…

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Josiah: Now I feel like a real man!

Robert [laughing]: How does this make you feel like a real man?!? You’re drinking hot chocolate out of a little cup with a smiling snowman on it, with miniature marshmallows!!

There's nothing like a big brother to burst your bubble.

So maybe you really can rush Mother Nature

My son Josiah is known for his kooky ideas inventions, such as the giant birdbath, an interesting desk, and a swing on one of the trees in the front yard.

He does the best he can with what he has on hand...like a tree that isn't the kind of tree that would be good for a swing.

His most recent invention was born out of impatience. He is anxious to rake leaves, and the vast majority of ours are still, well, firmly stuck on the trees.

So...he's going to help them fall with what he calls

The Leaf Swacker.

Swack!

Swack!

Swack!

You can see it's going to take him awhile, even with this marvelous invention. ;)

It makes a great "rock star" prop, too. ;)

Patent pending...

You Capture: Food

This week’s theme of the You Capture blog carnival hosted by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is food.

Now, that's not too much of a challenge this week, is it? ;)

I could show you what I fixed for supper last night...chili.

I used a new recipe for the chili. Actually, I used bits of two chili recipes together to make this. And I didn't write down anything about what I used and how much I used and what I didn't use, so there's little chance of perfectly replicating the taste...but that's OK. I think my husband is almost used to my methods of cooking. It's usually a little different than the last time. ;) (Still good, according to him...and that's what counts.)

But what about today, on Thanksgiving? This is what we ate for Thanksgiving dinner:

I get off easy at Thanksgiving...I merely bring green bean casserole (I know, I know...you either love it or you hate it!), macaroni and cheese (so Robert, my picky eater, will eat something besides bread), and something for the dessert table.


I hope each of you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jesus said, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

(John 6: 27-29 NIV)

Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

(John 6:35 NIV)

Check out I Should Be Folding Laundry for more You Capture participants.

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!

This was an idea I had bumping around in my head for a couple of years, after several trips to a variety of zoos and more animal photos than I knew what to do with. I recently remembered my idea when I was going through some boxes in a closet and found a framed photo of a lion and another one of a tiger, plus a blank frame.

I was just waiting for a good photo of a bear.




And now I had one!

No, not that kind of bear (but thank you, Jason, for filling the empty frame that I had already put up on the wall)...

This bear replaced Winnie the Pooh today.

Are there any Wizard of Oz fans out there?

If you give a girl a protractor

If you give a girl a protractor

she's going to want to trace it.

So she'll ask for some paper and crayons.

When she gets the crayons and the paper, she will draw the cutest rotund girl with a dimple at her chin.

(Grace always draws a dimpled chin when she draws faces of people!)

...And then the little girl will tell you that she drew a picture of you.

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The next morning, the little girl's Daddy will hold up the protractor and ask, with a gleam in his eye,

"Can you draw a picture of me?"

And the little girl will say,

"No, Daddy, you're too big!"

And you will laugh and laugh...

You Capture: Sunsets and Sunrises

The theme for this week's You Capture challenge is sunsets and sunrises.

To which I said, "Yeeeessss!"

I kinda like sunsets. If you've been coming to my blog for any length of time, you know I take shots of sunsets whether Beth tells us to or not. ;)

There is the subtle, glowing kind...






The light, feathery kind...


And, my favorite, the dramatic kind, where you take shot after shot because the sky changes so quickly...

As a bonus, here is a guest photographer's work...my son Robert (age 12) took this shot of a gloriously colorful sunrise.

To see what everyone else captured this week, head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry for more You Capture participants.

And join in the photography fun next week! New participants are always welcome!

If you are looking for an honest babysitter, I can recommend one for you...

Last week, Jason and I had a babysitter. (Whoo hoo!) When we came home from our date, we found Grace, who doesn't like to go to sleep in her own bed, asleep in the sofa cushions beside the babysitter.





The babysitter sighed and, nodding towards Grace, wistfully said, "I'm looking forward to having one of those someday."


I chuckled and told her, "You have to be careful, though, because sometimes you have to earn one like this," as I gestured towards the boys' bedrooms.


Without skipping a beat, our babysitter said, "Well, you earned her."

;)

Giveaway winners

With the help of my goofy lovely assistant

(That's a pink turtleneck shirt she is wearing for her "hair.")

who drew the numbers for me, I am pleased to announce this week's winners:

• Cindy won the thank you cards.
• Dawn S. won the 16x20 rolled canvas print.
• Leah won the 18x24 poster print.

Congratulations! Look for an email from UPrinting on November 20th--The email will have a coded link for you to claim your prize.

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For those of you who found me by way of Angie at Many Little Blessings, all of my giveaways have ended. However, I typically have giveaways each month, so you can check back again soon. You can also sign up to receive my blog posts via email by entering your email address in the little box near the top of my left sidebar. (Your email address will not be used for any other purpose except to receive future posts from this blog.)

You Capture: Real Life

Real life is messy.

Real life is colorful.



Real life is about fulfilling our roles to the best of our abilities.

Grace pretending to be Josiah's teacher

Real life is full of suprises.

A morning glory I found in our yard at 5:00 p.m. today!

Real life is, hopefully, sprinkled with lots of laughter.

See? The photo shoot that seemed to last forever wasn't that bad...

And real life can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ.

Photo taken at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Jesus said, "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."

(John 10:10b )

Check out I Should Be Folding Laundry to see more You Capture participants' real life.

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Click over and leave a comment for a chance to win with my current giveaways! You could win a poster print, a canvas print, or thank you cards. These giveaways end on November 15, 2009, at 10:00 p.m. All giveaway products are totally customized by you and professionally printed by Uprinting.com.