Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Neighborhood Harvest Outreach

I dislike Halloween - immensely. I don't like taking my kids trick or treating, I don't like other kids trick or treating at my door, I don't like the idea of adults purposefully scaring kids and I don't like houses decorated in spiders and ghouls. I just don't like it. We usually run away, go see a movie, spend the weekend in the mountains, or go out to dinner. Anything to get away from the holiday.

But.... we have been praying for our neighborhood, going on prayer walks, bringing goodies to our neighbors, anything we can do to try and be a light and reach out to our neighbors for Christ. Usually, our church does a Harvest festival as an outreach but the entire church has been learning about telling others about Jesus and getting out of our comfort zone and making relationships for the purpose of outreach so this year they have asked us to bring the Harvest festival to our neighborhoods.

Oh, what to do? Did I mention that I dislike Halloween, but how often do kids come to my door asking for something (other than the girl/boy scouts) and the entire neighborhood is out in force? We have also been reading about missionaries that came to the people where they lived and began amazing ministries by merely making relationships and loving the people for who they are. Which again brought to mind all the families that would come to our house. It seems like an opportunity that shouldn't be missed.

So, I am busy planning an Harvest style outreach in my yard for Sunday evening with some friends. I think we'll have apple cider, some games borrowed from church, apple bobbing and who knows what else. I'm trying to think of something to give out with the candy that will bring light to the darkness. Any ideas?

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Great Resources

I've been planning our Christmas lists and our Christmas unit study and came across some of my favorite resources so I thought I'd share.

The Family Nights Tool Chest from Heritage Builders. I love ALL of them and have used them since my kids were young. There is a Holiday:Family Night Tool Chest which I love and have used until the kids have memorized all the devotionals. Great, great, great books! Amazon has them.

Seeds Family Worship cd's. Seeds of Courage, Seeds of Faith, Seeds of Praise etc... We love listening to these great cd's that have good music (not annoyingly kiddy) that help us to memorize Bible verses.

Jotham's Journey - a nightly advent storybook. It gets a little monotonous but it really helped to make sure to set aside time to do advent nightly. There are two other books in the series.

I'll add more as I think of them.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Food TV

The Food Network is either my new best friend or my worst enemy. I can't decide. It all depends on the moment. Like whether they just taught me how to make Slow Cooker Oatmeal that cooks overnight and is amazing in the morning or it's 10:00 at night and I'm watching, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate : Sweets". Seriously, 10:00 p.m. is too late to watch a show about dessert because it's too late to go find those desserts and if I did find them, I know I would be 10 lbs heavier in the morning. It's just cruel.

Anyway, this is just a public service announcement to all of you busy Moms. Alton Brown's , "Overnight Oatmeal" is so quick, yummy and creamy that you HAVE to give it a try (click on the blog title for a link). It's healthy and delicious! Then to make it even better, his "Leftover Oatmeal Bread" is some of the best bread I've ever made and again, it's healthy and delicious. I mean breakfast and bread made in no time at all, it doesn't get any better than that.

You can thank me later. Really, I expect thanks for sharing.



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