My Fall Festival "Cake Walk" cakes

For the past two years, I've been able to make cakes for our school's annual Fall Festival.  It helps raise money for the senior class.  Cake walks are a lot of fun to participate in.  Everyone walks around on numbered squares taped to the floor while music is playing.  When the music stops, the moderator picks a number out of the hat and whoever has landed on that number gets to choose a cake off the table.

The cake on top says "happy harvest", spelled out with Necco wafers.  I used alphabet stamps and gel food coloring to stamp out the words.  As I let that dry, I placed more wafers all around the sides of the cake.  The second cake was made by first placing candied nuts all around the sides of the cake, then placing fake flowers on the top.  I bought disposable cake carriers at my local grocery store for about a dollar.  Hope this gives you a couple simple cake decorating ideas for you to use at the next cake walk, birthday party or get-together.

A book for the book enthusiast

My husband LOVES books!  He can spend hours at a time reading.  Because of his busy schedule he doesn't do that so much anymore, but he still finds time every day to read.  For last year's birthday, I thought I'd make a book for him to record all the books he's read.  He has a few loose sheets that he can't always find, so making this book journal was the best thing for him.  All I did was buy a blank book and used scrap booking paper to decorate it.  I did this on the front as well as the back cover.  I found paper that had the words, "dream", "imagine" and "explore" and cut those out to place on the front cover.  I titled the book, "books!"  I used rub-on transfers to spell out those words onto a tag that had a metal border around it.  I also used metal brads for a decorative touch.  There you have it--a journal for the book lover!

On Giving Thanks

There is so much to be thankful for....but how many of us wait until Thanksgiving Day to give thanks?  We can read many chapters in Psalms and understand that giving praise and thanks needs to be a continual thing in our lives.  I love Psalm 118:1, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever."  I am learning that even in hard times, I need to give thanks.  With my physical condition, I can be thankful that it isn't more serious.  I think the hardest time to give thanks is when we're going through hard times.  But--we can know that God works all for our good.  Everything He does in our lives is part of His perfect plan.  We can rest in that promise.

This last Sunday in our bulletin, my pastor shared with us the first Thanksgiving Day proclamation for December 18, 1777.  This is what it says:

That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor;  and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor;  and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance;  That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole.

Isn't that awesome?  The praise is to our God, not on the material blessings of God.  It is a great perspective to have when giving thanks.

This morning, my husband and I are finishing the last few things before heading out to be with friends today.  We are really excited to have this day to reflect on the goodness of God and be with fellow believers.  For Thanksgiving, I like to read a unique story that talks about the goodness of God and providence of God.  When I taught Kindergarten, I read the book, Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas.  His life is very similar to that of Joseph in the Bible, and it's neat to see how God took him through some hard things but at the end it was all for good.  If you can't find it at your local library, look at cbd.com to purchase it.  Your family will really enjoy this wonderful story.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! 

Objects of Praise

Tonight our church had its annual praise service which is always held the night before Thanksgiving Day.  Each year our pastor comes up with a different way for us to share our testimonies of praise.  This year we were asked to bring an object that we could use to illustrate something we were thankful for.  Many people participated and they were all so good! Children said things like, "I brought my stuffed bear to show that God is strong like a bear is strong."  A couple of my favorites were the following:  a concealer to show that we can't hide sin and that God forgives us;  a flashlight to show that God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path;  a band-aid to show that God cares for us.

I brought in a CD to share that God is the Creator of music and that just by looking at nature we are moved in our hearts to sing praise to God.  Music is also orderly, just as God is orderly and orchestrates every thing in our lives.

We ended our time together by singing the Doxology.  Do you know how it goes? 

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;  Praise Him, all creatures here below;  Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!  Amen.

Let's remember to always praise the Provider rather than the provision.  God is good all the time and I hope that you can give thanks today for all that He has done for you.  

My Praise Book

When I was in college, I began a journal called "the praise book."  It was just a little fat notebook that I jotted down answers to prayer.  It was so encouraging to see how God was working in every little detail of my life. These last few years, I've not kept up with the journal, but I have gone through it from time to time.  Seeing all that He has done in the past encourages me that He will continue to help in the future.  With this Thanksgiving season I've been realizing that I need to keep writing down those praises, no matter how little or big they are to me.  We are to praise God continually with our mouths, and the Bible also tells us to be thankful in all things.  When we share the praises with others, it will also encourages them to make God a part of their every day life.  It helps us all to see that without Christ, we can't do anything.  So, what are we waiting for? Let's get out that little notebook and begin writing down prayers of thanksgiving to our wonderful Creator.

Home made books on CD

For the two youngest nephews in the family we decided to make our own books on CD.  With our MacBook, we can record anything we want to, so my husband and I got busy in producing a CD that the boys would love. We found a Winnie-the-Pooh book at Wal-mart.  Then, we read the book a few times and figured out which characters we would be.  I think we were each 2-3 characters, so we had to practice a few different character voices.  My husband thought it would be neat to use a pot to clang on as the page turn signal.  We practiced reading the book out loud a couple times before we recorded it.  This is a special gift because we don't see our nephews very often and they can learn the sound of our voices by listening to this CD.  They'll eventually learn to follow along in the book, too, as they get older and learn how to read.  This is definitely an idea that any adult can do, but older kids can do these as well.  Their cousins and friends would enjoy receiving something like this.  When I did this project another time, I sang a couple kid songs that went along with the theme of the book.  A book on CD is another great gift you can give to any child that is part of your life.  

Science and Art in a box!

Two nephews and niece were with us (with their parents) last year for Christmas.  We all stayed in our small 2-bedroom condo.  It was cozy that's for sure!  For the two older kids we thought we'd make things that they could do while they were with us.  If they couldn't complete their projects, it was something they could definitely do when they went back home.  For the nephew, we made a "science in a box."  I covered a shoe box with brown kraft paper and placed bug stickers all over it.  Inside were a few science projects described on cards as well as the supplies that went with them.  I got ideas from the book, 365 Simple Science Experiments with everyday materials (by a few authors produced by Sterling Publishing Company).  For the niece, I bought a cute handbag at a dollar store and put in a few art projects.  One thing she really enjoyed was painting a piggy bank.  They really loved these gifts.  This may give you some ideas to do for the small relatives in your life.  Put together a box of things that they really like.  Get creative; they will absolutely love it!