Make it: Advent wreath

So, I'm officially fed up with the crazed commercialization of Christmas. My kids are on complete overdrive! It seems like the second that Hallowe'en was over, Christmas advertising started.

Recently, we asked our boys why we have Christmas - their responses were expected: Santa! Presents! Christmas Tree!

Boy oh boy - we have some work to do.

I asked them if they knew WHY we celebrate Christmas? Nope. I asked them if they knew what Advent was? No clue.

We decided that this year, as a family, we would work on what Advent means to us, as Christians in today's world. It's a time of preparation, of anticipation, and rejoicing. To help remember these lessons I made an advent candle wreath for our home, which we will light with the boys each Sunday evening of Advent before they go to bed. That, along with the advent calendar of books I'm preparing (another post) we're hoping to have some real, honest, open discussions with our boys about why we celebrate Christmas, what we believe, and how to make that a part of our everyday lives.


Onto the project!
I started by gathering supplies:

  - Grapevine wreath (Michael's $4.99)
 - votive candles (Walmart, $1 ea)
 - White pillar candle (Walmart $2)
 - Christmas decorative sprigs (Michael's $1.69 ea)
 - side cutters
 - scissors
 - LED light pack (Michael's $7.50)
 - labels
 - twine or leather stringing

Step 1

 Cut apart the decorative sprigs using the side cutters and weave them into the top of the wreath for some colour

 Note the quality control inspector ^

Step 2

 Weave the LED light string into the wreath from the bottom

Step 3

 Using hot glue, glue the four votive candle holders evenly spaced around the wreath.
Step 4

 Create Hope, Peace, Joy & Love labels for each of the four votive candles. The Joy candle is the pink candle
Step 5

 Using leather stringing or twine place a dot of glue on the back of the candle holder to start to attach the string, wrap a couple of times around the votive, slide on the label, and then keep wrapping until the end of the string. Secure with hot glue.

Place somewhere in your house and put the white Christmas/Christ candle in the centre.

 Voila! Family advent wreath. :)

Here's a couple of resources for Advent and kids that I have been using to help me prepare for this season with my kids:

http://ministry-to-children.com/advent-lessons-nativity/
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/preparing-children.html
http://simplekids.net/advent-2012/
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/holidays/making-meaningful-christmas-memories/celebrate-advent.aspx

How are you celebrating the season of Advent with your kids? Do you have any go-to resources?
Here's to the season of waiting, anticipating, and preparing.

Tea.

What Mama Wears: Easter Morning

Easter Morning! I sing in the praise team at our church, and on Easter Sunday we were asked to wear "dark coloured bottoms, light tops, and a splash of spring colour"... well, I would say technically this Mama stuck to the dress code ;) Plus it was exciting to get a chance to wear these great shoes again. They're so fun and springy!

What mama wears: Graphic Print Shirt

Warning: This post is graphic!

Okay - not graphic like GRAPHIC more like graphics. Like prints and stuff.

You know what I mean.

Just wanted to share this outfit that I rocked for our church directory photos. Oh yeah - you know it.

Nothing like a bold graphic blouse to say - Hey church peeps! Here I am!

So here it is:

Also - seriously rockin the pink socks... you know it! Not that you could see my feet for the pic, but I wore my boots to the church. Duh.

Lenten Photo a Day challenge

So I saw this compelling pin come up today on a friend's pinboard... and while I'm not affiliated with the United Methodist church, I followed the link and read through an interesting project that I'm going to take on during this Lenten season.

 The concept is simple: each day take/post a picture that represents the word for the day. It should help me to consider many aspects of my life during Lent. I don't generally "give anything up" for Lent as I've never found it to be especially meaningful to me - but I feel like this speaks to who I am and will help me to "rethink" Lent. 

Unplanned hiatus

Hello blog-o-sphere,

So - I've been on a bit of an unplanned hiatus. For a few reasons. The main/first reason was that I was planning/organizing a super-amazing worship night at our church. We do them a couple of times a year, and I'm usually PART of the organizing type group, but for a few different reasons I felt like it kind of ALL came down to me this time. For that reason I was out of my head busy with song lists, order of service, powerpoint, interactive worship planning/prep, videos, dance prep, timing,  etc etc etc. Plus I had 3 practices a week being in the worship band and the liturgical dance group. So all of that, plus my regular stupidly busy life made me a little bit... ca-razy. But it's done now, it was a fantastic night, everything went fairly smoothly (one little powerpoint hiccup and the wrong music at the start of one of the dance offerings, but nothing's perfect).