Archive | December, 2012

Merry Christmas!

By on December 20, 2012 in news & updates

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from our home to yours! We are enjoying a peaceful holiday season, embracing some madness while we organize and deliver Angel Tree gifts to children in our community, but otherwise, we are treasuring sweet moments doing our advent celebrations together, reading A Christmas Carol with the kids, snuggling in and watching Christmas movies, caroling with the elderly, and anticipating the birth of Jesus and a time of rest with family and friends! Now to go make some traditional Cranberry Candy Canes and venture out to enjoy Christmas lights!

May your homes be filled with the joy of our Savior’s birth and be renewed to jump into a new year with the strength and courage that He supplies! Thanks for sharing life with us here at PH!

Merry Christmas!

The Edmonds Family – Aaron, Lindsay, Karis, Titus & Eden

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Our Top 10 Classic Christmas Movies

By on December 11, 2012 in building the family

It’s not too late to enjoy the joys of the holiday season with a fun family Christmas movie. This is one of our favorite things to do during the holidays. Snuggle up with some yummy white chocolate peppermint popcorn (yes, this was sooo yummy!), or maybe a cup of hot chocolate stirred with candy canes. We love adding to our Christmas movie collection with a new title each year and pulling them out for the holiday seasons. Here are some of our favorite classics (in no particular order):

1. The Bishop’s Wife - A sweet Christmas story emphasizing the importance of treasuring the gift of family (Watch instantly through Amazon rental here).
2. Christmas in Connecticut - I love this one for a good laugh! A young woman writing about her made up farm and family life has to entertain for Christmas without any true. experience. (Watch via Amazon Instant Video here).
3. Going My Way (watch via Amazon Instant Video here) – Bing Crosby plays a bishop seeking to minister to poor boys.
4. Belles of St. Mary’s (sequel to Going My Way)
5. White Christmas (watch instantly here) – another great Bing Crosby film full of fun, singing, dancing, and a sweet story line.
6. The Nativity Story (watch instantly here) - Enjoy the story of the birth of Jesus in a beautiful realistic way/
7. Holiday Inn (watch instantly here)
8. A Christmas Carol - this Patrick Stewart version is by far the best rendition and most accurate to the original story of Charles Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge. Use caution when watching with little ones because of the spirits.
9. It’s A Wonderful Life (this one is surprisingly not available to rent instantly, but I have seen it available to watch on YouTube.) – What would Christmas be without this sweet family film?
10. Miracle on 34th Street (1947 edition) (Watch instantly here)

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

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Helping Give Other Mommies the Day Off

By on December 7, 2012 in missions & ministry

1 Peter 2:17 calls us to “Love the brotherhood.” I was recently praying for a practical way that I could serve other sisters in Christ in my church and community without taking me out of my home and away from my primary responsibility of nurturing and discipling my own children. I want to be intentional with every moment that the Lord gives me without over taxing myself by dragging my little ones here and there.

One of my personal favorite birthday events is to have a mommy’s day off. This means I drop off my children at the grandparents and just have some alone time to plan and prayer over the upcoming year, do some fun shopping, or whatever my heart desires. I am so thankful to have relatives close by that enables me to do this. But I know many of my friends, sisters, and neighbors, do not have this blessing. So…why couldn’t I offer to watch their little ones so these Mommy’s could get out for a little while and even get a date in with their hubby’s?

So this is exactly what I decided to do. When a friends birthday comes around (and thanks to Facebook syncing with my calendar, I always have these birthdays on my calendar), I will look for the opportunity to watch their little ones for a few hours so the Mommy’s can have some personal or date time (whichever they choose). I’ll invite the children to come over after our nap-time and stay through dinner time. I’ve done this on two separate occasions now, and it has been such a simple way to serve and a fun way to bless the recipients. It doesn’t require too much extra work because the children play together with my own. It’s also easy to let them watch a little movie if things get a little too wild or read books together or organize a little craft.

I just want to make my home available to serve and love on the lives of others! Are there friends and neighbors in your community that could use a day off? Invite these children into your home and serve in this simple tangible way. This could be a powerful way to reach out to an unsaved family in your community as well. Of course it may take time to build trust in the relationship, but it is worth the effort to share the love of Christ.

Matthew 5:16 states, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

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Fun Educational Gift Ideas for Little Ones

By on December 3, 2012 in learning at home

My goal this year was to focus on simple educational resources for my little ones that would be fun, could be enjoyed together or independently, and would help stimulate their brains and critical thinking skills. We have more than enough toys in our house and find they get old very easily. I grow tired of the clutter of toys anyway, so even with gifts from the grandparents, we ask for family memberships to a local museum that could be enjoyed again and again, or gift certificates to local children’s plays or musical performances. These are some of the best gifts that I have discovered that really build the thinking skills but are tons of fun at the same time, most appropriate for 2-6 years of age (although many are suitable for older children as well)!

LOGIC / BUILDING TOYS

Day and Night - this is a great little smart games toy perfect for 3-5 year olds in which you try to copy the picture by using the included blocks in a stacking pattern on the stand included. It has two different levels so can easily extend its use as your child gets older. I got this for my 3 year old son this year for his quiet time learning bins time.

Camelot Jr - another logic puzzle similar to Day and Night in which you build different road patterns to join the knight and the princess together but more advanced for ages 4 and older. Both are appropriate for boys and girls!

Wedgits - We bought these blocks for our learning bin time and the kids have had a blast creatively nesting, stacking, and linking these blocks together! This 30 piece set has a wealth of different creations you can make! Tons of fun! You can also get Wee Wedgits which are suitable for 12 months or older.

PUZZLES

You can’t go wrong with a good collection of puzzles! We enjoy the huge collection of Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles with 12 to 24 piece collections. While recently studying the solar system, we bought the Solar System floor puzzle and had hours of fun and learning time building it together. The GeoPuzzle collection (pictured above) is a wonderful resource for teaching geography and have fun assembling these continent puzzles at the same time.

GAMES

Candyland and Chutes and Ladders are fun but not very stimulating in my opinion. Here are some really fun games that are educational as well!

Spot It! - my kids loves this simple game in which you have to find the matching items between each card. There are many different variations to this game, but its fun to know that every two cards have some similar item to spot. Once you find it, you yell, “Spot It!” My daughter is actually quite superior at this game then myself.

Hiss – this is a new game to our collection this year! As the description states, as each Hisss snake slithers its way across the playing area it introduces color identification and visual logic: Does it make sense to have a snake with two tails and no head? Are those two colors the same or not? Even elementary counting skills come into play during scoring at the end of the game.

My First Uno – a fun stocking stuffer! Learn color and number identification with this fun and simplified version of Uno for ages 3 and up.

Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks Game - another fun stocking stuffer game for your little guy that reinforces numbers and counting with a favorite book theme that we all love! Classic Memory Game – you can’t go wrong with the fun game of Memory in this classic and beautiful edition. Eeboo makes multiple different memory games that are all colorful and of high quality. My 3 and 5 year olds both love this game and I have been amazed at how well my little guy does at it!

Richard Scarry’s Busytown - Before we take our annual vacation every year, our tradition is to buy a new board game that we can enjoy together on the trip. This year we picked up this Busytown game (because we love the book!), and had a blast using the magnifying glasses to find all the items hidden throughout the town. Great teamwork, matching, and object identification game!

Zoologic - An addictive game of deduction and logic. Players fill in the grid with the animals and food tiles, while avoiding chaos. Can be played together or independently.

Brain Quest - these learning card stacks are a favorite at our house! I love cuddling up with my little ones and looking at the pictures and answering the questions of each set in this collection that teaches essential learning skills advances with their age. I’ve been using the My First Brain Quest & Brain Quest for Threes as part of our preschool one on one time with my 3 year old son and the Kindergarten set with my daughter. Great stocking stuffer!

For other ideas, check out our Tools Instead of Toys post for a collection of wonderful real life tools and resources to invest in for your children’s development and education.

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