Modesty Monday - What My Young Girls Wear

Today's young girls have so many influences. They are influenced by the shows and movies they watch, the stars in Hollywood, their favorite musicians, magazines and more. What is sad about all of these influences is that seldom are they encouraging our girls for good. When young people saturate themselves with the influences of the world, there is little room left in their impressionable hearts and minds for the Lord.

My husband and I decided long ago that we would raise our children in an A-typical fashion. Our home isn't a home where the latest movies are watched. It isn't a home where the popular music artists of our day can be heard singing from our radios. Neither is this a home where we bring in secular magazines filled with articles and pictures that don't encourage a walk with the Lord. Before we were even married or knew each other, we individually decided that our home would be one in which the Lord was at the center. Everything we would do, we decided, would be founded in Him first.

Our home is not perfect, not by any means, but it is one in which we are unified in our desire to protect our children from the influences that can so easily push the Lord out of their hearts and minds.

One area in which we are "A-typical" is our dress. Our family dresses very conservatively. Now please know that we do not look down at those who don't share our conservative style. We know all too well the danger of raising kids to criticize the way others are dressed, or to have an ugly spirit about the way someone else dresses. Our children know that we dress the way we do because we believe it's correct according to the scriptures. There will always be those who don't agree and that is fine. We are to do what God wants us to do, live as He calls us to live. And that is all. Thankfully our kids have always had a great spirit in this area.

I have been thinking for a while about sharing the little outfits that my oldest two girls put together. It's funny to watch them because while my oldest tends to dress more stylish with scarves, bracelets and layers, my second daughter has a more quirky style of dress. I love both of their clothing choices and allow them to embrace their different tastes in clothes.

Since we are a large family, 5 children, we usually purchase all of our clothes at second hand shops or  they get gifted to us. This is okay though because we usually acquire more than enough nice clothing pieces this way.

So for my first post, here is what my girls put together for our Sunday worship services. Nothing spectacular, but cute modest apparel. I hope you enjoy and find that their outfits give you ideas for your young girls as well.

This cute little polka dot dress has gotten a bit too short for my daughter so she layered it with a longer white skirt for modesty. Those boots she is wearing were a long awaited Christmas present and she loves them. 

This was a more casual Sunday outfit for my oldest. She usually dresses up a bit more but chose to be a little more relaxed today. :)

Now, I am curious. What styles do your girls gravitate towards? What little tricks do you have to make clothing a bit more modest for your young girls?

November Birthday Girl

Another birthday post from us! It's so funny how things turn out. Our birthday season starts in August and goes through November, skips December and picks up in January and February. Since we have a family of 7 we alone cover more than half the year! My poor Mom!! :)

Anyway, this post is a spotlight on our 2nd daughter. She just celebrated her 10th birthday yesterday but due to a sick baby I am posting this a day late. 

This girl is as crafty as they come. She LOVES to create and bake. She made her own birthday breakfast of french toast, which she chose and helped to bake and frost her own cupcakes.

She also shares my love of sewing. She is always trying to create something with fabric. It's fun to watch. We let her pick something out from Hobby Lobby for her gift from us and she picked out the coolest Special Occasion Fashion Designer set. It has been thoroughly enjoyed! 

We are so thankful for this 2nd daughter of ours! Love you Ari, Happy Birthday!!!

Fall Nature Wreath

A couple of times a month we get together with another family and have what we call a "mini co-op"

of sorts. Since between our two families there are 9 children ages 11 and younger we try to keep our meetings simple and easy. We have done a park day, a back to school party, cool crayon canvas art that I need to show you all, and our most recent, a nature adventure with a Fall theme. It's always a fun time and the kids (and I) look forward to our get togethers.

I found the idea for our last activity while browsing through a magazine and immediately thought that it would be perfect for our little group. I was especially excited that it met our criteria: quick, simple and cheap!

Here's what you need:

Poster board cut into wreath forms - this is simply a donut shape cut 7 inches diameter

glue - either tacky or hot glue (2 glue guns would be great)

paper clips, small hooks or anything you have to use as a wreath hanger

paper plates - for the glue

sponge paint brush

plastic ziploc bags for each child

access to a woodsy area

Okay, the first step would be to find a woodsy area that is safe enough for the kiddos to roam around in. Thankfully our friends live in the country so we were able to take advantage of the area surrounding their property. 

Next, we gave each of our kids a plastic baggy and let them fill it up with anything that they like. My

youngest filled hers with mostly rocks (which we didn't use) while the older ones found nuts, pinecones, pretty weeds, dry pine needles, colorful leaves, etc.

Once everything is collected, go back to the house and give each child a wreath form. We had ours

 glue on the leaves first. We just painted their wreath forms with tacky glue using a foam brush and then they covered their forms with the leaves. Then we had each child position the rest of their decoration on the leaves as they wished and us Moms manned the glue gun.

We did have to help quite a bit thus there are no pictures of this part. It was a little crazy but so worth it! I love the way these things turned out. I hung mine using small 3M hooks but you can use paper clips, or whatever else you have on hand.
This was our first nature project that turned out this nice. I think we will try to do this every year.

What nature projects have you been working on lately?

Prairie Apron Tutorial Preview

Made this almost two years ago but haven't finished the tutorial yet. Well, now I'm gonna make myself!

TUTORIAL COMING SOON!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday!!!

5 months old

5 years old

I can't believe this little spunky thing is turning 5. What a wild, fun, energetic, crazy and adorable girl she is. We are so thankful for this 3rd Pink!!

Although she was the smallest of all our children, she certainly has the biggest personality. She keeps me praying and seeking the Lord for wisdom on how to parent her. I am always learning new lessons with her and I pray that God will grant me the wisdom to continue to train her in His perfect way. In the way in which SHE needs.

We interviewed her for her birthday. You can watch it below. She is silly. We love you sweet girl! Hope your birthday is amazing!!

Thanks for stopping by!

How We Homeschool-Bible Memory

Been 22 days since I blogged, told ya I'm only an occasional blogger! ;)

I am back today to share another snippet of our homeschool with you. If you missed our first post about how we even came to homeschool in the first place you can read that here.

I feel led to dedicate this post to my favorite area of our school, our Bible memory. Why is it my favorite? Well because although all of the other things that my children will learn are important, I know that nothing, nothing will impact them more than the Word of God. If they take only this one aspect of our schooling with them into their adulthood I will be happy. Happy because above all else, more than all of the grammar, math, reading, spelling and activities that we will absorb, only the Word of God is that which can transform them into the young ladies and young man that God wants them to be. That is what my husband and I want. Children that grow into adults that God desires.

So, how do we hide His Word in our hearts? Well about 3 years ago or so I came across the Simply Charlotte Mason blog. (Lots of great stuff there!) Somehow, I happened upon the post about their method of Bible Memory and became intrigued. An organized, purposeful way to memorize God's Word? We needed that. So, I read, learned and put the method into action. Can I tell you that this method works? It is systematic yet simple and effective. Our family has never memorized Scripture so effortlessly! And you don't just memorize and forget, you retain because...well, I'm babbling, let me just dive into it and you will see for yourself.

First you need to gather your supplies:

• Large index box (I guess you could use a smaller one until you outgrew it I have just always used a large one.)
• 41 tabbed divider cards (if they have numbers or letters on them that's okay, just buy some stickers to label your own. See my pic). OR get a free printable of these divider cards here.
• small labels for your dividers *optional
• blank or lined index cards

Next you will need to label your tabbed dividers (or stickers if you are using them) as follows:

• divider 1 - Daily
• divider 2 - Odd
• divider 3 - Even
• 7 dividers - Days of the week (Mon, Tues, etc.)
• 31 dividers - Numbers 1-31

Now you will need to put those dividers into your little box and get ready to fill 'er up! Decide which passage of Scripture or which verse you want to begin with. We started with Genesis 1:1-5 and are currently working on Philippians 2:1-8. We currently have 31 verses memorized...never counted until today. Wow.

You can choose any verse or passage that suits the needs of your family/studies. For example, we are memorizing the verses in Philippians because we have been studying humility as a family. We are doing this study. However, when we first began this system I also printed out this list of suggestions from Simply Charlotte Mason and keep it in my brain homeschool notebook for reference/ideas/inspiration. Alternatively, you can go here and download a 12 file pdf of the verses from their site. This is the first I've seen of that so yes, I downloaded it.

Next, you will write one verse on each card. Our current passage has 8 verses so we have eight cards. Put your first card behind the Daily tab and the rest in the front of that tab to be studied later.

Each day you will do the cards behind the Daily, Odd or Even, Day of the Week and Date of the Month tabs. Of course when you first begin you will only have the Daily card but you will acquire more and more as you go along.

For example, if today were Monday, the 7th, you would do the following dividers:

• Daily, 
• Odd (because 7 is odd),
• Monday 
• and 7. 

(If don't you have that many verses don't worry, just do what you have and your little box will grow.) 

The next day you would do 

• Daily, 
• Even (cause it would be the 8th), 
• Tuesday
•  and 8.

Is that clear as mud? I hope it's clearer.

Okay, final step. As you learn the verse behind the Daily divider, you will move it to either the Odd or Even depending on which divider is first for you. The card that was behind say, Even, will be moved to Odd and the card that was behind Odd would move to Monday and Monday's card goes behind Tuesday. You will just keep moving those cards back one divider as each new verse is memorized.

***This is where I do mine differently than what I learned on the Charlotte Mason site. If we are memorizing a passage of Scripture, I don't move those cards separately, I like to keep them all together. So yes, it takes longer for the cards to be moved around but doing it this way makes more sense to me. I like that we are always reciting entire passages together instead of splitting them up. Once we have them mastered, we will move all of the cards from the passage back one divider. I usually allot a week per verse unless they are short. If I have two short verses I will combine those onto one card.***

The genius in this system is that you are constantly reviewing the Word of God so you don't have time to forget any of it. I have changed a lot of things about our homeschool over the years but not this area. This has been the one constant in our lives. I am in love with this system of Bible memory! 

Okay, well, that's it. I hope you have enjoyed reading about this and I really hope that sharing how we do Bible memory in our home has inspired you to look for ways to integrate Bible memory into yours as well.

If you already have a system in place feel free to share your ideas in the comment section below. By the way, one random statement, I am just loving this cooler fall weather. Hope it's cooler where you are too!

In my next post I hope to show you how our large family of 7 schools in a 1400 sq. ft double wide. Nothing spectacular but it works for us!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Happy Birthday to Our Blue!

Can't believe it's been 8 years since this boy has come into our lives. Doesn't seem like it's been that long!!

We are going to celebrate his birthday while on vacation next week but for today we treated him to chocolate pancakes with icing and sprinkles and a special birthday interview! Here are some pics.

His icing melted cause the pancakes were so hot. Lesson learned!

And here is our Video Interview:

Thanks for stopping by!!!