Tomato Cage Christmas Tree!

How do you display your Christmas cards? Hung on a doorframe? Taped to the wall in a tree shape? In a basket? I am typically frustrated with constantly propping them back up on my mantle, and couldn't wait to try this super-cute AND decorative display idea that Tara ran across...using Tomato Cages!

We realize it's probably a leee-tle bit late to make a Card Holder for this Christmas, but maybe you'll want to tuck this idea away for next year. Tara happened to have two colorful cages in her garden just begging to be trimmed for Christmas. Plain wire ones (new or charmingly used) would be just as cute! She tied the legs together with floral wire to make the tree top, and we each had an instant wire tree.

I wanted to decorate our Card Tree on the cheap (free, actually), so I pulled out some pages from an old book, retrieved my craft bin, and we spent a couple of fun hours creating little ornaments. My kids loved tracing Christmas cookie cutters and then outlining them in glitter glue. I folded some pages like fans and then glued them into circle shapes, adding colorful scrapbook paper accents. A snowflake wearing a little fabric yo-yo with a button center formed our tree topper.

We tore paper into snowmen and added scrapbook paper buttons and faces. Paper strips glued together made stars. We clipped everything in place with mini-clothespins and mini-binder clips.

We love our little Card Trees...and how they proudly display each lovely card received from family and friends!

A Thankful Tree

November 1st...are we all shocked to be this far into fall already!?!

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am reminded again that I want to practice gratitude in response to God's numerous daily gifts, as Thankfulness opens my eyes more fully to my Saviour's amazing love and grace in my life. I want my children to understand that Thankfulness is so much more than merely a holiday one Thursday in late November. It is a heart response to a God who so intricately and mercifully weaves our moments and our days into a beautiful pattern of His good choosing.



To give us a visual reminder to stop and acknowldege some of the daily benefits and blessings of our great God, we put together a Thankful Tree today. It was as easy as gathering a few bare branches to arrange in a vase, and cutting a pile of simple leaf shapes out of scrap cardstock. My daughter's job was to punch a hole in each leaf to thread them onto the branches.



The leaves are ready in a little dish so we can quickly jot down (or children can draw a little picture) of whatever we are thankful for throughout the day. Our Tree sits on the counter in the center of our home so it's always in view. I can't wait to read all of these blessings together as a family at Thanksgiving!




A little different variation you may want to try is a Blessing Board. This is an idea I saw and copied last year from Julie at her blog, Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss. It's a fabulous idea to hang on a wall or lean on a mantle and change out each week. Check out her full tutorial here.





I hope your November is off to a wonderful start...and that there is much to be thankful for each day of this beautiful month ahead!

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." I Thess 5:16-18

4th of July Aftermath. Late Nights, Early Mornings.

When two out of three kids fell asleep in our laps during the grand finale of the Fourth of July fireworks display, we knew it had been a fun-filled family day. Although he was exhausted, my little guy still managed to be up bright and early this morning. He was less than chipper though, and his hair looked a little like an exploding firework as you can see here. 

(This is what happens when a sleepy, sweaty head is ground into a pillow all night.)

The fourth of July is always a great day for family, and yesterday it included the 4 “C's”: Cookout, fun with the Cousins, lots of Croquet (essential for my husband's family), and Cars 2—my big kids and husband both thoroughly enjoyed this movie, especially since they saw it for free using some credit card rewards points we had been saving.

It was a hot and muggy day, but the thunderstorms held off and we enjoyed an amazing display of booming explosives in the night sky. Even though the 4^th always marks a bittersweet mid-point to summer and reminds me that fall is inevitable, I enjoy these holidays more each year. Now that the kids are big enough to “ooh and ahh” and play with cousins and wave small flags and attempt to play croquet and sing made-up songs and eat lots of ice cream, all while scratching dozens of tiny mosquito bites, I know they are catching these moments like snapshots in their minds. I hope they will remember every detail of these hot summer nights when our family sat together under the booming sounds and colorful celebratory lights.  What are some of your family traditions and favorite 4th of July memories?

What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.  ~Cynthia Ozick