Sunday School Teachers

We are appreciating our Sunday School
teachers and helpers tomorrow.

Have you heard of Wordle?

The kids have been working
the entire year
on learning a song
with all the books of the Bible.

Let me tell you,
they rock it!

So I put all the books into Wordle,
played around a bit,
and came up with a few choices.

Books of the Bible I:



Books of the Bible II:



Books of the Bible III:



I think it's gorgeous as art,
but it's practically a puzzle
because I can't help
but start to look
for the books in order!

My biggest tip would be to put a ~ where you want the words to link together.
For example, I put "1st~2nd~Chronicles"
and it came out "1st 2nd Chronicles"

Have fun!
Feel free to copy these if you're interested.

Teacher Appreciation

I agreed to head up
Teacher Appreciation Week
again this year.
I love doing it.
I love our teachers.
Our school is the perfect school for us.

Have you discovered picnik yet?
LOVE it.
Like really love it.

I used it to make this subway art for the teachers.


It could not have been easier!

I googled "gray background image"
and uploaded that to picnik.

Then I edited the image to a perfect 4x6 size.

Next I added all the words
and played with their fonts and colors.

I used some obvious words for appreciation
but I also included words unique to our school
to make it really special and personalized.
Our school has dual-immersion, so I included "thank you" and "gracias."
I included our school motto "safe, responsible, respectful"
We have an incentive program where the kids collect "gotcha's"
I even thought about doing individual prints
for each of the teachers
that had their own name on it.

Then I remembered I have four kids.

:o)

This was easy and fun.
I will definitely do it again!
Go try it!

Somewhat of a Catch-up & The Post about Dr Pepper

How can I talk about Christmas and Easter in the same post?
Because I'm BEHIND.

Christmas was great.
Made lots of gifts,
didn't take pictures of most of them.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Oh well.

We did our annual
cram-everyone-into-the-photobooth
picture.



Love it!

Don't know how much longer we'll all fit!

In other news....

Lent started yesterday.
I gave up pop.
Actually, I'm trying to decide if I gave up pop
or just Dr Pepper.
But all pop is the greater sacrifice
so that's probably what it should be
and OH MY, I'm having a hard time!
I'm shocked. Is it possible to go through pop withdrawal?
This is crazy.

But then I found this post
that talks about going without a different luxury
for one month at a time and instead giving the money for water.

This month's challenge is coffee. I like coffee but it's no big deal for me to give it up. Dr Pepper..... there you go! I bet I spend close to $20/month on Dr Pepper! That same $20 could buy water for 20 people for 20 years. Um, yes, SIGN ME UP FOR THAT!

I can choose to sacrifice for one month so that others can have water for 20 years.

And then can we pause for a moment
to consider the privilege of my life
that giving up Dr Pepper
is my "sacrifice"?


If you are interested,
here is the post that got me thinking.
They are building wells in Liberia, West Africa
through charity:water.

Handwarmer Tutorial

This Mom-Of-Four thing is killin' me.
And I mean that figuratively,
of course.

My craft time is close to extinct these days
but my mamatime is through the roof.
Through. The. Roof. I tell ya.

So hang tight.
I'm planning on a homemade Christmas.
I've got the materials
now I need the time.

Here are some handwarmers
that I whipped up
out of necessity
during One's soccer season.


Cut four pieces of fabric (mine are 4x5)
I did two cotton and two something-fuzzy



Put front and back pieces right sides together
and stitch around all four sides
leaving a hole for turning



Turn inside out and stitch around outside again
still leaving the hole open (this time for filling)



Fill (I filled mine with rice) and sew opening shut.

(I will probably fill with something bigger than rice next time.
Maybe lentils? I'm hoping they might hold the heat longer.)

That's it!
I used scrap fabric.
It took about 10 minutes.
Super easy and would make a great gift
for teachers or any number of other people.

Just microwave and enjoy!

Sunday Drive

Sunday

After One's first soccer game
where they "didn't keep score":

but we won, 5-1.
:o)

Two's Crafty Gift

A crafty girl needs a crafty gift!
And at 5yrs old, it needed to be "big girl".
I picked out an embroidery hoop
and loosely woven embroidery fabric
needles, needle threader, and needle holder,
embroidery thread in her favorite colors,
and her own pair of craft scissors



and packaged it in a cute carrying case.


It was a total hit!!!

She loved it and very much appreciated
what a big deal it was to get real crafting materials.
She's already asking for a sewing machine!

Two's Birthday Party

Two had a ballet party this year.
Her friends wore dance clothes to the party
and I hired a teen from our church
to come as "a real ballerina"
and teach them all a dance.


They had so much fun!


They even put on a performance at the end.

For party favors, I made each girl
a monogrammed bag.
The bags were $1 each from Joann's
and a quick test told me I could not applique
directly to the bag, (the bag totally melted!)
so instead I ironed on the letter to some coordinating fabric
and then hand-stitched that fabric to the bag.


Although in all honestly, they weren't all done
when guests started arriving,
so several of the moms helped me
tack the fabric onto the bags!
ha! What're friends for?!?
I think they turned out really cute!

Wordless Wednesday: Fun Times in MuchoLand

Not Quite One Million Pillowcases

These are my pillowcases
for CraftHope's Project 9.


Not even close to one million,
but if everyone pitches in...
Three pillowcases is
three more than zero!

There was a special request
to remember boys and teens.
These flew together,
took me 30 minutes tops for all three.

Sew a few yourself, would you?

For more info on CraftHope Project 9, click here.
Find where to send pillowcases
to your local ConKerr Cancer chapter, here.

Air Show Sunday

DaddyMan took the big kids to the airshow.
He managed to get one (yes, only one)
picture of them.

One *loved* it.
Two thought it was boring.
When Three got home,
he would point to the jet pictures
and then point to ears and say "loud"
and then look for ear plugs in my ears.
(Don't worry, they all wore ear plugs.
I definitely want to make sure they can hear me
when they are teenagers. :o) )

I stayed home with this cutie.

Master Muffin Mix

Awhile back I found this site

that looked like Muffin Heaven!

A Master Muffin Mix
with just about every option possible
for add-ins to make different muffins.


Lemon poppy seed muffins? You betcha!
Cranberry orange muffins? Yes!
(Those will run you a few bucks each at Dutch Bros!)

But wait! There's more!

Peanut butter banana muffins?
Kisses and Hugs muffins?
Seriously???

Here are the ingredients:
(oops, plus sugar - I used splenda...)



Warning: If you are going to make these,
you will need a BIG bowl!

(Two, with my biggest Tupperware, a 32 Cup bowl!)


We made the lemon muffins this first time around.


Pretty sure something with chocolate will be next!

I don't want to step on any toes,
so head on over here for the recipe
and let me know which one you try first!