Many of us have tried many times to read the Bible through one year without success.  I’m one of them, as is my husband.  I’m determined to conquer this seemingly monumental task this year with the hope that I can read alongside my blog friends.  Will you join me and read the Bible together?

The reading plan I’m using is originally devised by Discipleship Journal, and made available and formatted by Bethlehem Baptist Church.  With this plan, you read different selections from four different books of the Bible each day.  There are 25 readings each month which means you can catch up when you fall behind.  I especially like the bookmarks (click through the aforementioned link to print your own bookmarks) which are designed to be placed at four different points in your Bible to track your reading.

So, what say you? Will you join me?

On this Christmas day, we started with a special breakfast: pancake art with powdered sugar.

Then Daddy read from Luke 2 and reminded us that the meaning of Christmas is Emmanuel: God with us.  What a blessed truth!

Finally, the kids opened their much anticipated presents.

Tea set for the girls:

Uncle Tim’s gifts to the boys:

Even baby Bethany got a present from Uncle Eric and Aunty Mae though she was too sleepy to appreciate it.

And by popular demand, an up-close photo of our youngest member at 1 month of age:

The word problem for my son’s math lesson today was:

Stacey drinks 6 glasses of water each day.  How many glasses of water will she drink in one week?

Even though we’ve been working on this type of word problem for several weeks, my boy still struggles with grasping the concept.  Once again, I explained the word problem in ways that he could understand.  Although he was able to come up with the equation and the answer in the end,  I felt he didn’t grasp the concept entirely.

So, I turned to the principal, a.k.a. my husband, for help.  I wanted his input for finding another way to explain the problem.  Turned out that his explanation was same as mine.  However, my husband gave me a valuable insight concerning teaching math concepts: I have to make it fun and relevant to my son.  He explained that a word problem has to express a worldview our son understands.  What are some of the things that interest him?  What does he value?  What does he like?  What kind of situations does he regularly experience?  Use his life experiences and come up with a word problem.  With that in mind, my plan is to come up with an interesting, funny, or relevant word problem on our white board each day, and my son is to solve it any time during the day.  Such an approach is fun with no pressure involved.  Here’s today’s VERY relevant word problem:

If Bobo [our newest baby’s nickname] poops 7 times a day,  how many poopie diapers will she have in one week?

When I asked my son to check out the word problem on the board, he laughed out loud and solved the problem in lightning speed.  Afterwards, he made sure that I would give him another funny word problem tomorrow and of course I’ll happily oblige.

(Bowel movements are very relevant in this household and we have plenty of soiled diapers to prove it.  Remember the homemade “Do Not Disturb” sign my child made? Don’t forget the customized furniture as well.)

I had the opportunity this morning to sit on our my children’s pre-school Sunday School class today, which is taught by a terrific mom of 4-year-old twin girls.  I so appreciate her patience and persistence, week after week, in helping to reinforce the things we teach our children on a daily basis from the Word at home.

As part of today’s lesson, she taught them to “sign” through John 3:16.  This evening, just before bedtime, I decided to have some fun and lead all of them in the same activity.  Enjoy:

A couple days late, but last Thursday we had a fun Advent activity that’s always popular with the kids: making “s’mores!”  For the uninitiated, a s’more is a toasted marshmallow with a piece of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers.  We even had our friends over to participate, which their daughter loved.  And boy that was a lot of sugar (the very next day was our church’s Gingerbread House fellowship.  Don’t even ask how much candy was ingested there)!

And in case you’re curious, we didn’t use a traditional campfire: we used a portable butane stove that we use for Chinese table-top “hot pot” meals (cooking food in boiling broth).

Tonight for our daily activity in the advent calendar, we did some Christmas ornament crafts.  We were inspired by a post on Skip To My Lou to make some “pom pom ornaments.”  Here’s some photos of the festivities, the colors were entirely chosen by each child:

The finished products:

Many Christians celebrate the season of Advent which begins today (Nov 30) and continues up through Christmas Day.  It is a way to build anticipation and often Biblical, Christ-centered excitement as a family/church in contrast to some of the messages we hear (e.g., from retailers and marketing experts).  Our family has done different things over the past couple of years, including a “Jesse Tree” and last year an advent calendar with stockings on the mantel.  Lois discovered today a free resource that looks excellent to help believers who want to focus on Advent in a devotional format:

Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC, has put together this Christ-centered devotional for families and churches.

The devotional provides helpful background on the celebration of the season of Advent:

The celebration of the season of Advent (which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day) dates back to the fourth century. It  is a time that focuses our attention on Jesus Christ’s birth and ministry as well as his Second Coming when he will return to redeem all of creation and rule with all power and authority. Since we can’t anticipate the day or the hour of Christ’s return, we are flled with both a sense of  joyful expectation and humble reverence, with our spiritual focus being on lives of prayer and preparation.

We’ve downloaded and printed a copy of this free resource; each day’s devotional includes a short reading, a Scripture passage, an “adult’s” prayer, and even a “children’s prayer.”  In addition, each day also includes a hymn complete with sheet music — some of which are familiar, some less so.  Fittingly, the first is one that our church sang together this morning: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

We invite you to join our family as we celebrate the season of Advent, and re-ignite our hearts with the joy of Christ’s coming!