Last May, I showed Summer and Colton pictures of the home belonging to our missionary friend in Haiti.
(bedroom)
(kitchen)
(shower)
(bathroom)
Summer was shocked and immediately wanted to do something to help. And thus was born the idea of an Art Sale, using her talents to raise money to help people who don't have as much as she does.
Summer and Colton were very excited about their plans and busily worked all summer making 100ish pieces of art including clay pieces, decorated paper airplanes,
and original artwork of all kinds.
I absolutely love Colton's "snail", "roll", and "handle" pictures, as he titled them!
A small sampling of their artwork
The project we chose to support with their fundraising is http://www.thesheridanstory.com , an organization that partners with local schools to buy food for kids in
our own district whose hunger is satisfied during the school day through free and reduced breakfasts and lunches but who go hungry on the weekends. It costs $130 to provide food for one kid on the weekends
this school year. Our goal was to support at least one of those kids. We decided to hold the art sale on Monday August 31st from 5-7pm and donate 100% of the proceeds to the Sheridan project.
The kids did a great job advertising their sale. Summer wrote a flyer and the kids brought it to Uncle Eric's work (he works as a copier salesman) to make copies. They then (literally) ran all over the neighborhood during 3 separate half hour+ time periods to distribute the flyers to newspaper boxes. I was amazed at their energy and how much they loved it and didn't get bored! They loved "delivering mail".
Summer's flyer
Running to the next set of mailboxes to deliver fliers
Many people who live outside of our neighborhood heard about the sale and pre-ordered art through the mail and were very generous in their donations. Here Summer is mailing the first of three installments of art that have already gone out in the mail!
On the day of the art sale, the kids each wrote on one side of the sign we put by our driveway. Colton wrote this side...
Then, the three of us worked together during Larkyn's nap to string up their artwork using clothes pins and paperclips onto a string tied between two trees. The very windy day made this job quite interesting!
Clay peices, etc were on a table. I LOVE Summer's red fuzz ball "snorkler" with the pipe cleaner snorkle! She is so creative.
Summer worked the cash box. We also set up a laptop so people could watch a 5 min clip of about what they were supporting. Click here to see what our shoppers watched.
It turned out to be an AWESOME sale with such amazing support from friends, neighbors, family, former students, and even parents of my former students! The kids raised over $300 (money is still coming in from mail orders so I am not sure of the exact total) which will be enough to support over TWO kids! Thank you to EVERYONE who supported our excited artists and the Sheridan Story!
After all the mail-order money comes in,
we plan to visit the Sheridan Story warehouse for a tour, bringing in
the kids' cash box so they can hand-deliver their donation. I am so proud of their heart
to help others!!
As many of you know, two years ago we started doing the "verse of the week", where each week we would write a Bible verse on the "door" chalkboard in our kitchen and recite it at mealtime and/or in the car, with the goal of memorizing one verse each week.
Our theme verse for this endeavor is Deuteronomy 11:18-20 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
During the school year, we memorize the verse that goes with our Bible lesson from BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). In the summer, when BSF is not in session, we have done different things. Last summer, the kids took turns picking a book of the Bible and then we would memorize a verse from that book. Last May, we decided to attempt memorizing an entire passage over this summer, adding on one verse each week while keeping up the previous verses. We picked 1 John 4:7-21, as love is a great topic for siblings to be memorizing about ;). I wasn't sure how it would go, as it was a rather lofty goal for a 3 and 4 (almost 5) year old, but both kids exceeded all expectations (their memories are AWESOME at this age) and we did it! There is nothing like teaching a verse to kids to help ME learn right along with them - I too can recite the entire passage (with maybe two helps from Summer ;) ). To memorize the verses we often put actions with the words or tried singing the verse to a song such as "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" or other songs whose rhythm fit the words of the verse.
This is the passage we memorized:
1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us because He has given us of his Spirit.14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.17 In this way love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like Him.18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.20 If anyone says I love God yet hates a brother, he is a liar. If anyone does not love his brother, whom he has seen, he cannot love God, whom he has not seen.21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Without further ado,
Here is Summer reciting 1 John 4:7-21
Here is Colton reciting 1 John 4:7-21
And here is a cute one of them saying "the Colton verse" (the one talking about loving your brother ;) ) together.
I am so proud of their perseverance in memorizing these verses and am so excited they have God's Word hidden in their hearts!
Our future plans for Verse of the Week are slightly different for this coming fall. We are actually not going to be attending BSF this fall, as Summer is starting half-day kindergarten (more on that later!) and the pick-up time for the end of her day (11am) conflicts with the BSF ending time (11:30). Instead, I am VERY, VERY, VERY excited for this years plans to continue their Bible training through AWANA on Wednesday nights. Colton will be in the Cubbies program (with Paul as his leader) and Summer will be in the Sparks program (with me as her leader). In these programs, kids have handbooks with scripture memory, community service projects, and stories that teach them more about God, his Word, and how to love others. As they pass sections in their handbook, they earn awards. Furthermore, the evening is filled with fun games, a message, and lots of fun! I know first hand, because I went through the program and LOVED it and credit AWANA as the biggest contributor to my knowledge of the Bible and understanding of the salvation message. I am beyond ecstatic for my kids to have this same experience!
We picked up their handbooks and vests at the Awana Registration Night tonight!
My sister and I as Cubbies!
My sister, two cousins, and I as Sparks :)
SO, our future for the "verse of the week" this fall? We will use our verse of the week chalkboard for Colton's weekly Cubbies verse, and I will work individually with Summer to help her memorize the longer verses she has in her handbook. I am so excited!
Larkyn turned 14 months yesterday! She continues to grow in personality, words, and activities.
This month Larkyn started pulling up, figuring out stairs, walking with a walker, and learning how to slowly "cruise" along the side of a table, etc. She is still in the very beginning stages of each of these things, however. One interesting personality trait I am picking up on with Larkyn is that she is the opposite of daring! She wants to feel completely safe in an activity before she will do it! With several of the above activities she would refuse to try even though she was physically able, and cry until she could "walk" holding our hands! It will be interesting to see if this trait continues as she grows. In the meantime, she makes it easy on mom, keeping herself a lot safer than many kids her age!
I got here all by myself :)
Larkyn has really started exercising her will this month! For that reason, this month has been one of the most challenging months with her. The battles have mostly been surrounding two things - walking and mealtime. With walking, Larkyn ALWAYS wants to walk - like, ALL the time - but she wants me to hold her hands! As you can imagine, a mom of three cannot always oblige this request and thus come the gut wrenching sorrowful tears from little Larky Loo! The other battle has surrounded mealtime. Our "non-picky" eater has suddenly grown opinionated! She absolutely LOVES strawberries and grapes, and when those fruits are in the vicinity (i.e. on the table or on someone else's plate) she will refuse to eat anything on her tray and will point and scream until given strawberries or grapes. Fighting this battle (the one of "you must eat what is on your tray before you get anything else" has made for many loud mealtimes and very prolonged tantrums from the smallest member of our family. After a long three weeks of consistency, Larkyn FINALLY learned! Now she knows she must eat what is on her tray first. When that is gone, she very likely will get herself a grape or a strawberry ;). The battle was completely worth it, but was not fun for the rest of the family, for sure. It was good, though, I think for Summer and Colton to see the same rule they live by enforced upon their little sister, and I think they learned a lot from watching the whole scenerio about how it looks when they decide to buck the rules with tears :). In any case, Larkyn's tearful tantrums are SO MUCH LESS now and she truly is a much better behaved little girl after coming through these tough three weeks.
Success! Eating her turkey and cheese sandwich with a smile even though her brother and sister have strawberries on their plates! (Yes she did get quite a few strawberries when she finished!)
Larkyn continues to bee-bop to music and loves her "good morning" song the older two and I sing after bedtime and naps. She is officially down to one nap a day, and is in her crib from 2-4pm. We finished the second round of Larkyn's Beginner Bible this week (we read it each day after her nap) and we continue to pray that as she grows she will understand Christ's gift of salvation. She is starting to look older now, I think, as she is now wearing "big kid" velcro shoes and adding a ponytail to her hairstyle repertoire. I am absolutely smitten by your smile, dimple, and cuddles Ms. Larkyn! I love you SO much!
Look at my ponytail!
Here are a few random videos of Larkyn from this past month...
