1st Pinewood Derby

This weekend was an exciting one here. This was the first time that Garrett got to participate in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He has been working on his car for a couple of weeks. He learned how to use a coping saw, a wood file, and a wood chisel. He found out that he really likes 800 grit sandpaper and that painting details can be tricky (he had more details than there was space on the car). Saturday morning he was up early and he isn't a morning person, but he was ready to go. With his car in hand and Dad by his side they went to the weigh-ins. He was 5.1oz so they had to drill out a little bit more wood. Then he patiently waited and checked out the competition. 54 cars were entered in the race this year. When his car was up to race he stood at the end of the track. If he won you could hear "YES" and if he lost he quietly took his car back to the table to await the next race. He won 6 races and lost 4. His car ran well, but there were a LOT of fast cars this year. Twice he had to rerace it because the lights didn't go off and the judges couldn't tell who won - so some very close calls.

Frozen "Marbles"

Okay, with the extreme cold that we have had recently , it seemed like a great time to try the "Frozen Marbles" that I have seen on Pintrest. Well yesterday morning, the boys had a little time and we grabbed the balloons and food coloring. I hadn't shown them what the outcome was, just said that we were doing a science experiment while they were are school. We actually tried this 2 different ways. First we filled the balloon and then added the food coloring. Worked great for balloon number 1, but number 2- well let's say we had blue water EVERYWHERE! So we then put the food coloring into the balloon and then added water- this seemed to work a bit better.

The boys sat them on the porch swing in the "deep Freeze" at temperatures barely reaching 15 degrees yesterday. When they came home, they were very excited to check them out. But when they went to pick them up- they weren't completely frozen. So we waited over night and this morning they were solid.  We picked them up and peeled the balloon off of them. They are so pretty at this drab, cold time of year that they look very "cheery". So you might want to find ways to use the cold rather than hide from it.

Things that you might want to try:
Have you ever blown bubbles in freezing temperatures? Sometimes it is really cool!
How about which freezes ice cubes faster- the freezer or outdoors?

So how do you use the outdoor cold for fun?

Snowflake Children's sermon

I was having problems with this post, so I will try it again, but I'm sure it won't be exactly as I first wrote it. sorry if you have seen this earlier and it's not the same.

This is a children's sermon I did a few years back, but it is always fun. So I begin "so have you been enjoying the snow? (Assuming that you have snow- it's a good lesson for a wintry weekend) Have you been sledding? Snowman building? How about just checking out snowflakes? What do you know about a snowflake? Did you know that is starts as a speck of dirt? Did you know that snowflakes grow? They all have 6 sides but did you know that they all are unique? What does that word mean? Unique! Well that means that each 1 is different, there isn't any 1 snowflake exactly the same.  Here let me show you. I have asked a couple of adults to help me today, if they would stand. Now they have NO idea what they have agreed to, but I need to ask them to agree to the following rules. First rule- you won't look at what the other adults are doing- please do your own work. Second- You can't ask any questions. And finally that they will do their best to follow the directions. (Once the adults have agreed to this they each receive a square piece of paper like what you would cut snowflakes out of)

Okay adults here we go- (make sure that the children can easily watch the adults) Please fold your paper in half and then in half again. Now tear the top right corner off.

We will continue by having you fold your paper again in half and again tearing off the top right hand corner. And we need to do that one more time- fold your paper in half and tear off the top right corner. (now have the adults open their snowflakes)

 

What they aren't all the same?!? What happened? Did the adults follow the directions? They did? Oh I get it  this is how God works, we are all different.  You are just like the snowflakes- you are each unique and if we look into God's word in Psalms 139:14 it says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  So you see that we have been told in the Bible that no matter what others may have said or told you, you are perfect just the way God made you. Just like the snowflake- you are unique exactly the way God wanted you to be.

 

With that we closed in prayer.

 

Daily Bible Readings

Did you know that there is a Proverb per day of the month? Each day for 1 month you can read 1 chapter from the book of Proverbs. There are 31 chapters and it is full of wisdom. Amazingly if you read it more than one month, you will find other things that you missed the month before or things that may apply today that didn't apply last month. The Proverbs are written by King Solomon - the wisest man , so there HAS to be something there for each of us! Take a minute and look into the Proverbs and see if it applies to your life.

The Christmas Story with a Twist

Well this year, I decided that I wanted to share the Christmas Story in an interactive way. But how? After a couple of days of thinking and several readings of the Biblical story, I arrived at the following family gift. I typed out the Christmas Story from Luke2:1-20 when there was a word that linked to a gift I put a number in parenthesis. I had gifts wrapped and numbered, most were 1 gift per family member but a few were family gifts. So it looked like this:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a degree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World (This was the first census that took place while Quirinus was Governor of Syria) and everyone went to his own town to be taxed (#1) Here they opened gold dollars - 1 per family member

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem to the town of David, (#2) Here they opened an atlas which I had gone through and put stickers where everyone lived. because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger (#3) Here they received a feed bucket because there was no room for them in the Inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks (#4) everyone received a pair of wool socks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them , and the glory of the Lord shone (#5) each received a LED flashlight around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; his Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying (#6) Here we added a Praise Cd for them to listen to during the Christmas season
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another "let's go to Bethlehem  and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word, (#7) Here we added the movie "The Nativity Story" concerning what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (#8) Here we added one more family movie "Christmas with a Capital C"