The SG Notebook

Did you receive our newsletter last week? We hope that you are enjoying meaningful mealtimes with your family. We had a lovely family dinner last week as my parents and sister joined us for my daughter Selena’s birthday. Talking, togetherness, and tasty food are all wonderful components to a successful meal!

Speaking of tasty food, here is a great resource for children’s recipes. I was excited to see that there are even recipes that preschoolers can participate in! The Happy Face Sandwich is something we might try soon. If your child enjoys pizza, the Breakfast Pizza will tickle their fancy!

What fun things have you eaten lately?

In Him,
Beverly

Free Original Clipart at Designed to a T

Well it’s that time again, and it is so hard to believe that it is here already. Yes, our kids are going back to school. Whether your children go to school outside of the home or are homeschooled, you might be starting to think about organized lunch making. Here are some websites that may be helpful:

Lunch Ideas

Article on Essential Vitamins and Minerals Kids Often Miss (and how to get them!)

Paper Bag Lunches

8 Healthy Lunch Box Ideas

We hope these links are helpful to all of you as you thinking about feeding your children healthy and energy providing foods!

In Him,
Beverly

“Instruction, advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel.”

~ J.C. Ryle, From The Duties of Parents

We’ve said over and again, that here at Speakable Gifts, we have a heart for children. Both my mom and I have a commitment to finding and providing wholesome resources for these little ones. When my mom wrote Bright Gems For His Crown, she definitely poured her heart and a lot of love into every section. For those of you who are parents, I think we’d all agree that we want our children to develop important character qualities from an early age. From time to time, we’ll be suggesting books that we feel will be wholesome for your children.

I post over at another blog, the Christian Children’s Book Review with a group of lovely ladies who have this same commitment. I’d encourage you to follow this blog, as it is a great resource for parents.

I reviewed a book that I’d like to share with you. It’s called Sammy and His Shepherd, and SG recommends it. You can read the review here.

With Love,
Beverly

Spring cleaning has just gotten a little bit easier for me in the past week.  We have two girls age 2 years and 6 months old, and you may be able to imagine that messes abound in our house. I also have chronic hip pain, and lugging our reliable but heavy vacuum cleaner around really takes a toll.

The Dirt Devil Versa Power All-in-One Vacuum Cleaner is four pounds, my friends. Four. Pounds. When it arrived last week and I first picked it up I could have danced. This little friend isn’t for heavy duty cleaning, but it is perfect for households with little children and/or pets. It works wonderfully on those crumbs, tiny “bits” of whatever, hair on the bathroom floor, or stairs. It also has one attachment that gets in corners or atop dusty baseboards.

Things I like about my new friend:

·         Its four pound lightness!

·         The fact that it can be a stick vac, hand vac, and utility vac – whatever  you need

·         It doesn’t use a vacuum bag – it has a dirt cup that you empty

·         My two year old actually vacuumed her room with it – all by herself.

Any of you moms out there have a favorite household “friend?” Tell us about it! And while we’re talking about spring cleaning, don’t forget to check out our Spring Sale! We are offering great items for your young ones – my favorite deal is the Dover Activity Books (9 pack) for only $4.50!

In Him,

Beverly

Believe it or not, I’ve just discovered ANOTHER helpful blog with craft projects to do with your kids! You’ve got to go there and check it out. I just heard about it on one of my homeschooling groups and wanted to pass it on to folks here as well. Lots and lots of free gift ideas, recipes and printables. As Vicki from the group said, this is a VERY talented grandmother who is giving of herself on her blog. You know how I am, I’m always ready to put in a plug for a grandmom who is doing something constructive with her life!

As soon as you can, go over to see “Happy Bird” at her Crafting Haven. I’ve already bookmarked it on my computer for future reference. I will be very surprised if you don’t do the same. Here’s yet another resource for helping your kids learn the fine old art of making things themselves. Those of you who are homeschooling will especially love it!

Blessings and Happy Crafting,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

In last May’s newsletter, I wrote an article about how children might honor their moms and dads by making homemade cards for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, with a few included links to help out. If you’d like, you can read this article in the newsletter archives at our site.

My reason for writing now is to tell you about a great blog which I just discovered. There you will find good ideas for crafting cards and other nifty things. Try some of these projects with your older children–there are some lovely ones which I think you may appreciate .. The blogger is Kelli and the site is “There is No Place Like Home.” Apparently there are lots of neat activities that will capture your interest, such as giveaways and a weekly show and tell. Scoot on over!

For His Glory,

Maxine

Everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn’t we? That’s right, here we are, telling you about our first giveaway. And what will it be? A board game for you to play with your children! We’re even giving the winner a choice between two games. We’ve just purchased these two games, one for one of you out there and one for either my household or Bev’s to keep for gift-giving. Board games are great for family entertainment and growth, in my estimation. But then you already knew that, right?

We have the junior versions of two of the most popular: Monopoly and Scrabble. Some folks are big fans of either or both of the adult versions. For me, it’s Monopoly, but I know a host of Scrabble fans. I can’t tell you how many hours of fun we had when my younger daughter and I would take some time in the evening to play the junior Monopoly game. It’s supposedly designed for ages 5 through 8, but honestly I enjoyed it as much as she did, and when older siblings join in to play with the younger ones AND a parent, it makes for a truly nice family building time. It’s not as time consuming and intense as the adult version and much can be learned by the younger kids. My guess is that the same holds true for the junior version of Scrabble. By the way, both games are for two to four players at a time.

So here is how our giveaway will work: Your name will go in once for each of the following:

1. You comment on this post, telling us you would like to have one of the games for your family or to give as a gift. If you have no children or grandchildren to play it with, then surely you know it would make a great gift for another family!

2. You subscribe to our feed. If you do, comment again and tell us so. The feed is at the top of the page and also on the sidebar after all the links.

3. You tell about our giveaway at your blog and link back to us. (Click on the title of this post for the link.) You would be doing us a huge favor by doing this, as we want more people to know we are here! If you do, please comment again and tell us.

4. You subscribe to our bi-monthly enewsletter, “Helping Children Grow.” More information and a form to subscribe is here. If you do decide to subscribe, please comment again and tell us.

So your name will be entered up to four times for any of the above, or a combination thereof. This is so much fun, don’t you think? Bev and I are excited about seeing who will be our first winner. If it’s you, you will go down in history as the first official Speakable Gifts giveaway winner! Now that is quite an achievement. And needless to say, we will link back to your blog, if you have one, and tell others a little bit about it. But non bloggers are welcome to enter also.

Thanks for coming. Thanks for entering. I suppose I’ll post a quick note to let folks know when we’ve closed comments. One of our husbands will pick a winner early next week. Since this coming weekend is a holiday, we’ll probably let this go until Wednesday to announce.

For His Glory,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

From one of my groups, I found out about a really neat blog site. Scripture Lady.com is one lady’s ministry which has the purpose of helping others get kids interested in the Word of God. Now I would say that’s a pretty worthwhile cause, wouldn’t you? From what I see of it so far, it’s geared primarily toward’s younger children, so there’s probably not much for our high school here, but definitely there are probably some ideas for teaching Sunday school and perhaps VBS. But for those of you homeschooling younger ones, this seems to be a good site to bookmark. I’m sure going to.

I think it’s so wonderful how various people have found meaningful ways to use their blogs to be a help to others.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

I’ve just joined up with a group of other ladies on a blog which just may be of help to you. Lots of tips and hints for your household. Come on over and see. I have a sneaky feeling that you’ll like it:

Hands and Hearts_for Him

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna