Christmas Fashion Show

Our Jesse Tree

Well, Christmas is over now and it is time to take down the decorations (at least it is at our house). As I was taking down the tree, I decided to take a picture of our other tree, our Jesse Tree. What is a Jesse Tree? There are several different answers to that, but the one I like the most is that it is based on Isaiah 11:1 - "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots" and is a way of teaching the Old Testament background for the Messiah, and showing how all of God's promises have been fulfilled. The Advent season is a wonderful time to reaffirm God's faithfulness, and the lessons of the Jesse tree help do so. I wanted each ornament on our tree to point to Jesus. That is a hard lesson. Some were rather easy, but some required much more thought and prayer. In the end it was a beautiful tree. My daughter loved the tree more than the regular tree. Each night(or every few nights, as the schedule permits) we would put on an ornament (or ornaments) and read out of the Bible and a bible story book. The story book took a long story and made it very short while keeping the main idea. We usually only read selected verses from the Bible, but sometimes the entire story came from it exclusively. This is a tradition we will keep and each year we will learn more and understand more as God opens our mind to his wisdom. Our list of ornaments came from http://ourjessetree.blogspot.com/ This lady has completely laid out the entire calendar with pictures of her ornaments. They are great ornaments, but you won't get them all in one year. It will take years of collecting to get them and that is great. It keeps our minds on the real reason for Christmas, Christ. Several ornaments you can make and we did. I did change one of her ornaments this year. Next year I might change more. I am seriously considering purchasing the devotional book from http://www.jesse-trees.com/devotional-book.html They also sell ornament kits, but they are pricey. I like the idea of making/collecting our own over the years. We printed out our own on cardstock as we needed them and just hung them with a hook. You can google Jesse tree ornaments and get lots of picture ideas.

Gymnastics Funmeet

Gymnastics Funmeet

Tyler "competed" in his first ever Gymnastics funmeet. He did quite well for to have only taken lesson for 3 months. There were 4 categories. He got a ribbon in each and a trophy at the end. We are so proud of him!!!

Singing Sweeties!!!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Well, my friend, Amanda, is a genius!!!!! She took her video camera to Bible Study this week and captured the above video of our kids singing. They did awesome, even when the cd skipped. Thanks, Amanda, for sharing with us. Enjoy!!

When Chances Come Again

Here is a poem that my pastor read at our Sunday service. It speaks for itself. Now is the time to tell others about Him, Jesus. It is Christmas so we have a reason to be speaking about Christ. Strike up an conversation while standing in one of those long lines and see where it leads. Maybe it will lead to new life for the person.


"When Chances Come Again" by Willo Lou Clark

If you had been a lowly shepherd who heard the angels sing,
would you have left your sheep alone to find the baby King?

If you had been the innkeeper- pressed and hurried since the dawn,
would you have done the best you could or told them to move on?

If you had been a wiseman- due respect and courtly graces,
would you have left it all behind to search for Him in unknown places?

We cannot know what we'd have done if we had been there then.
We only know what we do now when chances come again!

Nature Walk

Today was a beautiful day! We took the opportunity to go on a nature walk not far from our house. The trees have very few leaves and we could see the outline of their branches. We took our nature journals and sketched some of God's handiwork.

It was a lot of fun. I then took the opportunity to take some picture of the kids. We all had such a good time.

Maybe next time we will take some paper and do some rubbing on the tree bark. Many of the trees are labeled so it would be great to learn how to identify a tree in the winter with no leaves. Some are pretty easy, but some are quite difficult.

Homeschool Open House

My new friend, Tammy, over at Lattes and Lollipops is having a homeschool open house today, so go on over and check out her blog. From there you can add your link and check out the blogs of other homeschoolers to see what goes on in their lives. Go on, Check it out. But, before you leave, scroll on down and check out what we have been up to.