By Quiet Waters

Embracing the Full, Hard and Good Life, While Pausing Often by Quiet Waters

Your Magnificent Chooser

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Your Magnificent Chooser Your Magnificent Chooser

Your Magnificent Chooser, by John Ortberg, a Tyndale Kids Title.

This book is a precious, delightful story introducing children to the concept of choosing, and also to feeling and thinking.  The concept of choosing is linked directly to the WILL, which even the smallest child has!

“God gave you two eyes, two ears, and one nose, ten wiggly fingers and ten useful toes.  But of all of those parts, the big and the small, your chooser just might be the best part of all.”  And so the story begins.  It is a tremendous job, to share the will of a child and train them to choose, and to choose wisely, of all the abundant relational, material, temporal opportunities in life.  The choices we make in life are limitless!

 

Your Magnificent Chooser“Will you wake with a smile or start with a frown?”    The Chooser, the will, wields a lot of power, yet each one of us must train ourselves, and practice choosing right.  This wonderful story, with cheerful and gentle illustrations is a fantastic and enjoyable book to have on the shelf, for the choosing.  And I am choosing to do just that!

I received this complimentary book from the Tyndale Blog Network, in exchange for the thoughts and opinions shared here.

Where Does Love Hide? Children’s Book

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A cheerful new book is available from TyndaleKids, with a simple but most important message; Love hides in each of us, until we give it away. Then it grows!

This cheerful book arrived in the mail on the same day that Miss Joyness’ beloved Papa arrived home from his work in North Dakota.   When I first opened the package and looked at the book, I wasn’t sure Miss Joyness, at almost 4 years old would take to it.  She’s getting quite big, you know?!  But lifting flap to find where love might hide became a delightful activity.  I think the storyline is a little abstract at first, but with some conversation Miss Joyness began to understand  a little better.

On each page of “Where Does Love Hide” there is a question about where love is hiding, in many different situations a child would be familiar with.  Under the flap, the hiding place is found, along with simple Scripture to make the connections of truth and love.

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Quilts and Pinterest

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Quilts and Pinterest

Pinterest became a most frequented place for me this fall.  I got bit by the quilting bug and have been pulling out fabric and looking up ideas to make a few quilts for my daughters.  In 2007 or 2008 some women from our former congregation offered a quilting class, and I excitedly signed up!  The small quilt I made in that class was a sampler with Christmas fabrics.  It became part of our Christmas traditions, and was named the quilt of Christmas Dreams.

During Advent, the quilt of Christmas Dreams travels between the daughters who live at home, each getting to sleep under the quilt all cozy and warm.  Last year my grand daughter got in on the fun, only she wasn’t pleased when her turn was over and the quilt moved on.

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The Quilt of Miss Joyness’ Christmas Dreams

 

So,during a visit to JoAnns, I found some lovely winter and also Christmas fabric.  During that visit, an idea grew, and grew.  Two quilts have been finished, another quilt will have the final binding stitches completed this week.  Two Winter Blues quilts are under the tree, in anticipation of a couple of new dolls for a certain Miss Joyness.   A 9 patch stack is growing, and uncut fabric sits on the shelf above my sewing machine, calling to me.  Yes, thanks to my need for some fringe hours creativity and pinterest, I have been bitten by the quilting bug!

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doll quilt

 

Way back when I made that first Quilt of Christmas Dreams, and a few Story Quilts I used prefolded binding from the fabric store.  I knew that I didn’t want to do that this time, and while Pinterest has a lot of tutorials, I needed more help.  A sweet friend from our congregation had me over for a couple of hour and taught me how to make my own binding, how to attach it, and how to finish it.

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This idea grew a bit crazy when instead of a new Christmas quilt for just my youngest  grand daughter, quilts for my daughters were started.  However, I’ve found this creative expression extremely fulfilling and satisfying.

Christmas Quilt

So quilt ideas are what I’m pinning these days, and actual quilts are keeping my hands busy and my creative side happy.

What are you pinning and what is inspiring your creative side?  Are there any Christmas crafts that might spill over to bring color and delight to the winter days ahead?

Advent Books and Resources

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The Advent season is a search for quiet in the midst of busy, a search for meaning in the midst of over abundance.   My family has found just a few books we love, resources we use.  And we enjoy the freedom to change as the years pass and the children grow older.

Advent Resources

3 Advent Books or Resources

For many years we read aloud through the books for families by Arnold Ytreeide:  Jotham’s Journey, Batholomew’s Passage and Tabitha’s Travels.  Now those books take a special place on the living room shelves each November, sitting in ready for afternoon reading by the tree.

 

Advent Resources “Watch for the Light ~Readings for Advent and Christmas.”  This book is published by Plough Publishing House and is  exceedingly beautiful.  With readings written by Aquinas, Bonhoeffer, Eliot, L’Engle, Lewis and many others the book is full of the richness and beauty of many voices, to go beyond the hustle and bustle of each day and to really look into the hard places of truth and sacrifice.  The writings are not the easy, happy tidings one can easily find during the Christmas season.  No, the writings contemplate the harder places, the battle within each of us to even want to be still and be quiet.  Quiet enough to think about what this season really means.

I have found the readings to be heavy,  Heavy, but good, nourishing.  It may take me a year or two to make it through.  I’m like that, a slow walk through a deep book is best for me.

One other resource that I am excited about using is Asheritah Ciuciu’s “unwrapping THE NAMES OF JESUS ebook.  While many of the other resources I listed are good, and will be used in one way or another this season, “unwrapping THE NAMES OF JESUS“ has me very excited.

So these are a few of the Advent resources on our shelves and table for this Advent.  What are you reading this season?

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Busy Bags, Keeping Little One Positively Busy

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busy bags keeping little one positively busy

Busy Bags, for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Keeping little ones safely occupied for 10 or 15 minutes can be difficult.  When my children were toddlers and preschoolers, I didn’t know anything about “busy bags”, but I am thrilled to have a basket of busy bags for my grand-daughter.  They keep her attention for 15-30 minutes, and many times longer, depending on the activity.  The activities in busy bags help to promote reading readiness, number awareness, fine or gross motor skills and creativity.  It is not uncommon at all for these activities to lead my grand-daughter, Miss Joyness, into more creative play.

Today I’m going to share some of the ideas with you.  These ideas are for the younger crowd, but might still be a little fun for a preschooler.Continue Reading

Where to Eat in the Florida Keys

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Where to Eat in the Florida Keys?

Eating on Vacation

During our Florida Keys Vacation we found a vacation house rental, and for the first time, eating on vacation was an absolute pleasure.  No stress about hotel breakfasts or blowing the budget on eating out.  Instead, we prepared most of our meals at the house.  We had a good breakfast every morning, loaded a cooler for each day’s lunch and often ate dinner in.  I LOVED being able to choose when to go out for a meal and enjoyed each of those meals so much more than if we were juggling food from hotel rooms.  This is the house we rented.  It was fantastic!

aruba beach cafe

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