This is all Ava. She held up a popsicle stick and a feather and said, “Mommy, let’s make a turkey puppet!” It was also her idea to make it a “mommy turkey with a hat” and so on. We just used items we had on hand. If you don’t have popsicle sticks, just use a piece of sturdy cardboard, and substitute any of the other materials with ones you do have. Our flower is made with a garbage tie, and we used Elmer’s all-purpose glue to hold it all together.
Generally when friends want to communicate with one another, we do it through words. We say it or write it. If we are excited and are jumping up and down, the other person probably doesn’t understand what we are excited about unless we tell them. In the same way, our words are important to God and they are powerful. However, our relationship with God is not limited in the way we communicate with Him and He with us, like our communication with a friend is limited. Besides the words that we speak, God also sees the meditation of our hearts, the actions of our hands, and understands our very being.
So, why do Christians limit their worship and praise to God with just singing songs. Why do we not allow our whole being to glorify God? He understands it. He created it. He deserves it. When I think about what the Lord has done for me, I can’t help but be moved (literally). I want to dance or shout. Sometimes I want to bow down or be still. Sometimes I want to sing at the top of my lungs in victory and sometimes I want to whisper in humility.
Maybe it’s time we stop communicating with God like we communicate with the sales clerk. Maybe it’s time we start really communicating with Him – in all the fullness He has given us and longs to receive.
In my walk with Christ, I often discover meaningful songs that just get me. The words are so true that my heart bursts to sing them and my whole being longs to communicate it to the Lord. Here are the lyrics of one of them…
It Is Well With My Soul
words by: Horatio G. Spafford, 1873When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Satchel – See the photo to understand how to cut the box. Fold the new top to make a lid and add holes and ribbon/string to make the strap. Your child may enjoy painting and decorating his/her new satchel. This would make a fun satchel for collecting pieces of nature when outdoors taking a walk or having a nature hunt.
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| Back of play barn. |
If you like, a large box can also become a castle or a cottage or a…. whatever your imagination comes up with! Be sure to cut the door and/or windows on the box for added fun. (I intended to cut our barn door so it would open, but after cutting the back with scissors because I couldn’t find our box cutters, I just didn’t have the will power to go for it.)
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| A box covered with colored yellow construction paper (marked with crayons) and tied with string makes a pretty good bale of hay. |
For Landon’s birthday party, Ava and I made streamers from construction paper cut into squares and sandwiched between two pieces of contact paper. Then I cut them into a spiral and we hung them up. They turned out pretty cute. We also made some smaller ones simply by cutting a sheet of construction paper into a circle/oval and then into a spiral. Here is another way to do it with shipping tape and tissue paper at Frugal Family Fun blog.
Ava made her very own cardboard pizza, complete with toppings to customize any order and a receipt to make sure she gets paid! If you have cardboard and paint or markers, you can make your own version of our pizza.
Here is how we did it…
Materials:
Paint the round cardboard to look like crust and pizza sauce.
Create cheese by cutting copy paper like grass and then cutting across it. I didn’t want shreds of “cheese” all over my house, so I had Ava sprinkle the cheese on contact paper and then I covered the other side with contact paper, as well. As a result, the cheese is one topping just like the others. An added bonus is that the contact paper adjusts the coloration of the sauce below and makes the whole pizza look better. 
No input from me this time – just the perfect Word of God…
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
– 1 Peter 1:3-9
One of our books which Ava and I both particularly like, is My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. The other day, Ava wanted to pretend she was the character Mr. Fox from the book, so we began acting out the story together. I was surprised at how well she knew the book and understood the story line. Obviously, some books are easier to act out than others, but it’s an idea you may want to try sometime with your child(ren).
For Landon’s first birthday, we had a small farm-themed birthday party planned. We began by making handmade invitations, and at first, Ava and I made the animal face on the front of the card and the tail on the back just to be cute. But then I thought it would be much more fun if they became puppets instead of cards. So we came up with the idea of making the card/invitation become a puppet when the young recipient glued on an enclosed popsicle stick…
Materials:
– blank card and envelope
– popsicle stick
– crayons or markers
– glue & fun materials (googly eyes, felt, yarn…)
1) Create your animal. Decide on an animal and then color the card (front and back) the same color or pattern as is appropriate for that animal. Add googly eyes, felt, feathers, paper, and other materials to create the face on the front and the tail on the back. If ears are needed, open the card flat and use the edge of your scissors like a box cutter to cut the tops of the ears so they will lay down for mailing and stand up for viewing.
2) Write your message. Your child can include his message or party details inside the card (either on the card itself or on a removable piece of paper attached to the inside).
3) Make it a puppet. Now add a small message on the inside left of the card instructing the recipient to glue the popsicle stick to the inside of the card and then to glue the card closed to make a puppet. Enclose a popsicle stick loosely in the envelope with the card, and you are done! (The popsicle stick will fit in a standard card-sized envelope without any trouble and no additional postage will be needed.)
The card can now become a cute puppet with a front and back side. How fun for a little one to find this cute card in the mailbox or with a birthday gift! It’s an added touch that will turn the mail your child sent into a small memorable gift.
Ava and I made this pretty going-away-present for her Grandma. Ava picked up the acorn from our backyard and I made it into a bead using a little bit of cord wrapped around the stem and then secured with some krazy glue. We used the same cording and some pretty wooden beads to complete the necklace.
The two ends have a bead tied to them and are secured with more krazy glue. Putting one of the beads on a small loop, makes it possible to close the necklace by simply pushing the other bead through the loop, and allowing gravity to do the rest. Very simple.
Yes, that’s one of our painted autumn paper sacks which we used to present the necklace.