Fruits of the Spirit.

Yesterday over lunch my husband and I were discussing what fruits of the spirit we each had.  Obviously we are all capable of displaying and holding every fruit of the spirit but do we?  Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." I have been pondering those ever since we had that conversation and this morning after getting my little dolly ready for a photo shoot she decided to dump a whole bowl of yogurt over her head.  Ahhh about to freak out the Lord gently whispers "self control Apryle."  I just can't get enough of HIS word, there is so much truth and guidance there.  So back in the shower Violet went and we managed to get some great photos for {Birds of a Freckle}.  Thank You Lord for keeping me on track

{Birds of a Freckle} has beautiful hair accessories for little girls and women. You can find her on facebook.com/birdsofafreckle

I LOVE......

With Valentines Day approaching I decided to do a post about the things I love. Here are my top 14 to go with the theme of Febuary 14th. Oh how the list could go on and on.

1. I love Jesus with my whole heart. I love the truth of His word and faithfulness.
2. I love my amazing husband who has been my sweet heart for almost 9 years now.
3. I love our two little children.
4. I love all of our family and friends.
5. I love our dog. Oh how I miss him.
6. I love how my kids call me Mommy.
7. I love worshipping our God through music.
8. I love church and bible studies.
9. I love white mochas.
10. I love eating healthy organic foods.
11. I love boots and pretty accessories.
12. I love decorating.
13. I love photography.
14. I love this life I have been blessed with.

Okay I may have cheated a bit by adding some "ands" but hey my heart is overflowing with Love.

What do you LOVE?

Pre-school fun.

Ryden is currently doing preschool here at home, it is what worked best for us with the move and only having one car for the past five months.  Right now we are using a program my mother in law passed on to us; Bob Jones University.  He watches his school on a DVD series and follows along with their curriculum.  On there he has two different teachers and I help him with their instructions through out the activities.  It seems to be working well for now but today we switched things up a little.   Ryden got a kick out of calling me "Teacher" and Violet was able to do everything with us.

Here is how our day went.  First we discussed the calendar; what month it is, what day today is, and the date.  Following that we sang a song "the days of the week."  Next we talked about what season it is right now which lead us into our craft of the day; making snowflakes.   I kind of just went on from there, math, reading, letters, science, and then closing with our daily bible story.  Im wanting to base this week around space so today I tried to incorporate the moon into most of his studies.  I took some pictures along the way.

 This is a math activity I named the Rocket Number Game.  I drew the numbers one through six inside the rocket and then Violet, Ryden, and I took turns rolling the dice.  Ryden had to recognize what number the dice landed on and then find and circle that number in the rocket ship.  Everyone seemed to enjoy this game;)

 This next activity was Math matching.  He had to match the numeral, the word, and the correct amount of dots.  I just introduced this game so the pile of cards were in order for him so he could learn to recognize it first.  After a while I will mix up the pile a bit more and then ask him to match them correctly on his own.

 More math and colors.  I asked him to build towers with by matching the colors.  After he built the towers he was asked to put them in order from shortest to tallest, starting with the one, two, three and so on.

 Good night moon is the book we read today during story time even though he knows this book by heart.  The reason I choose this book is because it displays different phases of the moon which lead us into our next activity.

 We did this fun little activity with newmans oreos.  It may have been a tad over his head but it was still fun discussing and creating the different phases of the moon.  Honestly I think they really enjoyed the eating of the cookies the most.

 The letter M was our letter of the day.  We talked about how the word moon starts with the letter "M"  and then he practiced tracing the upper and lower case M.

That was the better part of our school day with a little house work, laundry, eating and playing in mix.  Hope you had a blessed day as well.

Dirt-biking in Colorado

The weather has been nice here in Colorado the past two Saturdays so we took advantage and made our way out into the sunshine.  We loaded up the dirt-bike, kids, and lunches and headed to the track.  I really enjoy being in the fresh air, letting my children run and play in the dirt, and watching my husband ride one of his favorite toys.  Soon we are hoping to get Ryden on a little pw 50 dirt-bike and Violet and I will continue to cheer them on from the sidelines.

Home remedy.

Those little, red, itching spots known as the chicken pox can be quite an annoyance for our little ones.  My son handled them quite well but our little girl was a bit more uncomfortable.  In order to soothe her pain I have researched some natural home remedies.  Here are a few we did.

First get out some oatmeal.  Some resources say to cook it first and others say its fine to use uncooked.

Next place the oatmeal into a cloth bag or old sock, tie a knot on the top to keep the oatmeal contained.

Put it into the bath water and then squeeze out the milky water from the bag pouring over child's spots.  This helps soothe, dry up, and heal the spots. 

After taking you child out of the bath be sure to lather them up with some good coconut oil.  This too will help with scaring and healing.  We do this already after our daily baths.  If you are not using it for cooking as well you should start.  It has tons of great benefits.

See even pretend veggies like to be cooked in coconut oil:)

 The final thing we did was get out into the sunshine with little or no clothes depending on the temperature, in our own backyard of course.  Sunshine helps kill the virus and gives us our daily vitamin D.  

Lastly find fun crafts and projects to do since you will be home for at least two weeks. We have been making Valentines and doing fun science projects!

Sneak Peak at a pretty creation.

My very talented sister in law made me a pretty kitchen aid cover for Christmas.  I absolutely love 

everything about it; the fabric, the burlap, the pockets for all the gadgets, the cuteness of it as it sits on my 

counter.  Im excited to say she will soon be adding these to her etsy shop, Jack and Jill Quilt Shop.  If 

you haven't visited her shop yet you must go check out all of her lovely creations. Another one of my 

favorites are her one of a kind picnic blankets.  So what are you waiting for go pay her site a visit 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JackandJillQuiltShop 

New Season New Friendships

As I take a walk down memory lane I re-visit the age of five to twelve and remember being involved in a girl scout troop. At the end of every meeting we would gather together holding hands in a circle and sing the song " make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the others gold." Oh how that song still remains true today about 20 plus years later.

Here I am, half way across the country and missing my friends more than ever. I try and remind myself  that this is an opportunity to make new friends. Friends who are probably going through many of the obsticals I am, a bit lonely perhaps. Friends who may also need prayer, a good hug, or just some adult company. As my alarm went off this morning and I peeked out my bedroom window to watch the snow cover the ground I began to have second thoughts. Second thoughts about bundling and loading the kids up to head out in the ten degree weather to meet for our first bible study but the Lord gently pushed me to go. Boy am I glad I went, this morning I met with an amazing group of ladies who made me realize our Lord brings new people into our lives for a reason, he wants us to have silver and gold! Our God doesn't want us to go through life alone. He wants us to be connected with present and far away friends, held accountable, and encourage one another in his word. Today I am so grateful for the opportunity to make new friends.  It gives me a happy heart and really does lift my spirit.  Frienship may take a little work and be a little risky to put myself out there but it is so healthy for my soul. "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." (Proverbs 27:17)

Here is to a season of new "gold" friendships while staying connected with my old "silver" friendships far away.