Crafts

How To Make Homemade Crayons & Link-Up Party!

November 6, 2012 by Courtney 10 Comments

I am not a very crafty mama but this is one craft we do yearly…after I explain the steps you’ll see why.

How to Make Homemade Crayons:

1. Have your children peel the paper off of worn out crayons. (This is great because it should keep your children busy for a long time while you get work done or read a good book – like your Bible!)

2. Get out metal cookie cutters (if you don’t have these on hand you will need to purchase them – but they are usually quite cheap at dollar stores this time of year!)

3. Break the crayons into pieces (this is a little messy but it’s so worth it…the children should enjoy this part!) and sort them in piles according to color (again another time consumer !)

4. Then put foil around the cookie cutters (if you don’t use the foil the crayons won’t stay in the cookie cutters.)

5. Place the cookie sheet in a 300 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, or until melted.

6. Then place them in a freezer to cool (or in our case, out on the back porch!). The crayons should separate from the cookie cutter just enough that you can pop them out easily!

Now give the children time to color with their brand new homemade crayons and enjoy their new works of art!

Walk with the King!

If you have never taken the time to check out these other bloggers – you are missing out! The ladies that link-up below are amazing writers and creators and I just know that one of them is going to encourage you today! So you’re invited to come on in!

Join the fun, do a little blog hopping and don’t forget if you link-up below -please add the Women Living Well Wednesdays button to your post so your readers can find us here!

(Posts can include the topics of marriage, parenting, homemaking, homeschooling, finances, recipes, organization and more!)

To find the code go to the sidebar – or right click and “save as” the button and then upload it into your post!

Filed Under: Crafts, Women Living Well Wednesdays

A Thanksgiving Craft and Giveaway

November 19, 2010 by Courtney 6 Comments

Today’s post features a super “Fun Mom” – Leslie from FunMoms.org

She writes: As moms, Thanksgiving should be one of our favorite holidays. Sure, there’s a lot of cooking and cleaning involved, but it is also a time when family is treasured, and our Father is praised! What a great opportunity to share with our kids how blessed we are, and who deserves the praise for those blessings!

This month I’m teaching Landon 1 Chronicles 16:34, which says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good…”. This verse is a good reminder (for he and I both) to count our blessings…our mercies. Webster’s defines ‘mercies’ as, “something for which to be thankful; a blessing that is an act of divine favor.” Divine favor…for us! Matthew 6:26 tells us that God cares for us because He loves us, and because we are valuable to Him.

Here’s how I’m teaching these important truths to my little boy this year…

1. We made a (yummy!) Mayflower Mercies Ship. Here’s the steps:

* Cut a half-gallon carton lengthwise (I used an X-acto knife).

* Lather it with chocolate frosting, and then cover with pretzel sticks.

* Eat as many ‘chocolate covered pretzels’ as you can, and be sure everyone is having fun!

* Cover two Dixie cups with frosting. Poke small dowel rods, kabob sticks, or skewers through the tops. Once the frosting is dry, you can hot glue the cups down if needed.

* Add sails. Simply fold a medium-sized piece of cardstock or construction paper in half, hole punch both sides, and slide down the sticks. You (or your kids) and personalize your sails too!

*At dinner each night before Thanksgiving, have family members think of one mercy they are thankful for that day. Add each blessing to the Mayflower, and then, on the big day, take turns reading them aloud over the festive feast!
2. We explored this amazing website. Very neat! http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/

3. I read this book to him. He LOVED it. We’ve actually read this for 3 nights in a row…his choice. The book gives a great overview of the pilgrims journey on the Mayflower and settlement in Plymouth. Tonight after we finished reading, Landon looked up at me and said in a completely genuine and sincere voice, “Mama, do you think we could invite Squanto to come to OUR Thanksgiving dinner?” I laughed aloud, and then starting considering the idea of trying to convince my father-in-law to wear a headdress to our family meal…talk about history coming alive! To be entered to win this book for you and your kiddos, please click over to FunMoms.org, and leave a comment under the “Mayflower Mercies” post.

Thank you Leslie for your crafty ideas!!! Now let’s all take a little time this weekend to have some fun with our kids. Make memories and be sure to take pictures – because they grow so fast!

Walk with the King!

Filed Under: Crafts

I Want To Be A Fun Mom!

October 9, 2010 by Courtney 20 Comments

One of my desires is to be a fun mom! I have to be honest. I know without a shadow of a doubt my kids think their Dad is super fun. My husband is funny, silly, goofy, creative, and would turn the house upside down creating some amazing game that they can all play. They laugh hard, run hard, wrestle hard and play hard. My husband and I work in the nursery on Sunday mornings and he is outrageously goofy and the babies LOVE him. He can take a child who is out of control crying and turn their frown upside down. He just has a knack for entertaining children. (which comes in handy for me I must admit!)

But I on the other hand need some help! Recently I discovered Leslie at FunMoms.org. Crafts are NOT my forte but her ideas are truly easy and fun! So, rather than trying to come up with something creative to do, I’m following her lead.

So let me introduce you to her and recommend her to mommies like me who want to be more fun – but just aren’t very creative.(and by the way she’s a huge fan of Sally Clarkson as I am – so that knit our hearts together immediately!!):

Leslie: is a stay-at-home-working mama to a very active and imaginative little boy (Landon, 3). She enjoys her morning (okay, and afternoon) coffee, is crazy about her high-school-sweetheart-turned-hubby, loved (just about) every minute of being an elementary teacher before becoming a mom, thinks sleep is overrated, and has a passion for all things colorful and creative. She is SO thankful for Jesus, is being stretched by secondary infertility, and is usually in the midst of about 8 projects. She started http://www.funmoms.org/ in May of 2010 to encourage moms to have messy, silly, crafty, good ol’ fashioned FUN with their kiddos.

So the first craft I chose from her website is one I made as a child - Fall Placemats and Suncatchers. We went for a walk collecting leaves. The children loved this part and I explained to them that just as each leaf is different and beautiful in its own way, God has created them different and beautiful in their own way.

Then I wrestled with the contact paper and won woohoo!!

And voila – instantly I was a fun mom!

Check out Leslie’s website here and go be a fun mom!

Edith Shaeffer says in the Art of Homemaking “If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and gave you the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to his creation. Creativity is his gift to you and the ‘raw materials’ to be put together in various ways are His gift to you as well.”

Walk with the King!

Filed Under: Crafts

Back-To-School Organization Tips and Link-Up

August 13, 2010 by Courtney 15 Comments

Are you ready for school to start? It’s time to get organized!

If you Follow Me On Facebook, then you know that I have been working on a new school schedule. It starts with me rising at 5am – ugh! But it seems to be the only way to get it all done. I will post my schedule after I’ve lived it and tweaked it a bit.

But today I want to share some organizational tips from a friend I’ve known since high school (pictured on the right is Erin and her lovely family!). I want to invite other bloggers to link up any organizational posts they have below. If you do not blog – feel free to write in the comment box any good tips you have.

I’m looking to learn something here! Organization of stuff is not my forte.

Here’s Erin’s tips:

1) Cups – I was finding that some days there would be 10 kid cups in the dishwasher after one day at home. I bought cheap (3/ $1 at Flower Factory) stretchy bracelets, and the kids use those to label their cups. We have extras for friends/cousins. This way each kid uses one cup for water all day. Less to wash, and less mess!

2) Back of doors. I think the backs of our doors are great places to hide things and to keep organized. There are 3 pictures from doors in my home.

a. The backpacks/lunchbox are on the inside of our basement door. I bought heavy duty 3M adhesive hooks. They have been hanging for 2 years w/ no problem. This may not work as well with very heavy backpacks, but it’s great for the lunchboxes, dance shoes bag, etc.

b. Costume jewelry is inside my closet door on a horizontal towel rack. Bracelets hang from plastic baby toy links. Works perfectly- no tangles, full view of everything, and in the same space where I dress.

c. Hairbows are inside my daughter’s bedroom door. The flowers are attached to small 3M adhesive hooks. I hung strips of 1 inch grossgrain ribbon from the flowers and clip all of her hair bows to the ribbon.

Aren’t those great!!! Now join me below in the link-up. There are no rules…link-up any post new or old below that has to do with getting organized. You do not have to link back to me. If you are not a blogger, share in the comment section below any tips you have. I simply want to have a good resource of organizational ideas.

Honestly, this is one of my weakest areas and my husband wishes I improved in this area. I am good at making schedules and keeping them, I am good at waking early, exercising, having a consistent quiet time, keeping a blogging schedule, homeschool schedule, loving on my man and reading the Bible to my kids BUT when it comes to managing stuff – well lets just say my closets are SCARY lol! Helpppppppp!

Walk with the King!