FOREVER AMISH from Kate Lloyd! Enter to win a Kindle and an Amish-made prize pack!

The latest book in Kate Lloyd's Legacy of Lancaster trilogy, Forever Amish, introduces us to a young woman about to uncover a shocking secret and find an invitation to a new way of living. This is a story of forgiveness, legacies, and the ties that bind through generations.

Kate is celebrating by giving away an Amish-made prize pack!

  One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire
• A Qillow (A pillow with a lovely surprise inside! It opens to a 40” X 60” quilt ideal for traveling, sports events, and home.)
•  A Center Diamond wall hanging (Hand-stitched by Old Order Amish quilter Emma Stoltzfus of E.S. Quilts in Lancaster, PA. It measures 42” x 42” and is a traditional Old Order Amish design.)
• Darling Amish-made faceless dolls (Hand-crafted in Lancaster County, PA. Each measures 12 inches and is individually named. Meet Martha and Henry!)
• Forever Amish and the rest of the Legacy of Lancaster trilogy by Kate Lloyd

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on June 29th. Winner will be announced at Kate's blog on July 1st.

Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning and be sure to stop by Kate's blog on July 1st to see if you won!

SEAGRASS PIER | Pre-order @ColleenCoble’s NEW book for just $4.99. Enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire!

Don’t miss Colleen Coble‘s latest release in the Hope Beach series, Seagrass Pier. The book releases July 1st, and Colleen's publisher is offering the ebook at a special pre-order price of just $4.99 between now and 6/30 everywhere ebooks are sold.

PLUS . . . between 6/9 – 6/30 Colleen will be hosting a Kindle giveaway.

One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire HDX
• Seagrass Pier and the rest of the Hope Beach series by Colleen Coble

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on June 30th. Winner will be announced on Colleen's blog on July 1st.

Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning and be sure to stop by Colleen's blog on July 1st to see if you won!

Hearts for Home Blog Hop - June 26, 2014

Introducing ... the Hearts for Home Blog Hop!  A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for this weekly link-up, which means that every Thursday you'll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post.  If you're a blogger, we'd love to have you link up your posts and join us.  You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked-on post from last week was Fun Summer Reading for Girls.
 
Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

-  Exploring Disney's Animal Kingdom

- Fun Summer Reading List for Girls

-  Benefits of literature-based unit studies

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our 'Featured Blogger' buttons!  Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Featured300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 
Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link
back to this one. Happy hopping! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CoHostH4HButton300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

    Please share your family friendly posts with us!
By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts' blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Get Your "Life with Lily" Literature Activities Now!

Enter the current giveaway here.

It's time!

If you've been wanting to host your own kiddie book club or start holding literature circles with your family or in your classroom, I've got a great place for you to start:

with Life With Lily.

This book makes the best book club events!  Lily is mischievous, adventurous, and fun.  Her family provides wise counsel in response to her adventures, and because she's a young Amish girl, the possibilities for fun activities are endless.  Lily bakes, sews, has animal adventures, and is involved in lots of science experiments.  You won't lack for fun projects with Lily around - and my new Literature Response packet has more than 25 activities, recipes, hyperlinks, and projects to keep the Lily fun - and the Lily learning- coming.

You can find the brand new Life with Lily Literature Response activities here - and don't forget to enter to win a copy of A Surprise for Lily's Literature Response activities!

Mid-Week Missions: Kids in the Church

Serving is important.  Mission work is important.  I see blog posts all the time listing varieties of ways for our kids to be mission minded and to think of others first.

Those are all good things.  Great things.

But if we want to keep them in church, then they need to be involved in church.

Church leaders don't just pop up out of nowhere.  They must learn to lead.  Their talents must be groomed.  They must practice and learn.

Think about it:  We don't throw concert pianists at a baby grand and expect Mozart.  We don't throw brain surgeons into the OR and wish them "Good luck!"

So we should be teaching our children the ways of faith, too - and that includes how to serve within the church.

(I realize that different denominations handle this issue in different ways.  Some churches are very strict about who performs certain tasks within the church.  I do not mean to hop into that fray.)

Our children see us working within the church.  I work with kids' ministries and help to plan events, and my husband serves in one of those after-hours, banking-so-the-lights-stay-on kind of roles, and they help us.  Sometimes that means that they stamp envelopes for him as he works, or they help me rearrange tables and set up for events.

But one Sunday I realized that they were ready for more.

Our pastor was explaining that we needed volunteers to do all sorts of things around the church:  mow the yard, run the sound board, fold bulletins, assist with Communion, read scripture, etc.

The words read scripture jumped out at me.  I've got two excellent readers in my house.  They are certainly capable of doing that task.

At first both resisted.  Stand up and read in front of the whole church?  No way!  

But after some thought, My Big Helper asked to volunteer.

She's now in the regular rotation of readers for our church.  She opens the service with a call-and-response type reading from the Psalms, and she does a great job.

One day she'll try out something else.  She might try those other jobs - assisting with Communion, folding bulletins, singing in the choir.  She's learning to put her faith into action publicly.  To stand in front of other people and speak.  To accept responsibility for a job from someone other than us.

She's learning that we all have talents and gifts to give to Jesus' body.  That the Church needs all of us.  That our gifts are meant to be shared.  That we can all serve best when we work together.

What kinds of jobs might kids be able to do?

Maybe ....

• bulletin folding
• scripture reading
• acolyte
• assist with Communion
• help an adult to prepare the altar for Communion or to clean up afterwards
• make announcements
• ring bells
• sing in the choir
• provide special music
• serve as greeter
• serve as an usher
• pass out special bags or supplies to kids
• pass out bulletins
• run remote controls for audio-visual equipment
• give children's sermons
• help in the nursery

How do kids serve in your church?

GratiTuesday - Girly Art Time

My Little Man has been out and about a lot lately.  With basketball camp and baseball practices in full swing, he's been hard at work - which means that My Big Helper and I have had lots of time to ourselves.

Last week she decided that we needed to paint.  We pulled out canvases and our art supplies and got to work.

Since the weather was absolutely gorgeous, we took our supplies out to the deck and sat in the shade while designing our paintings.  

I've never painted on a canvas before, though I've often wanted to.  It was fun to hang out together, mixing and blending and dabbing.

My Big Helper has painted on several canvases but has only rarely blended colors, and since that's my very favorite part of painting, we talked through different ways to do that while she worked on her latest sunflower project.

It was a fun afternoon.  It was fun to pull out the art supplies and fun to relax and be creative and fun to spend that time with My Big Helper.

Sometimes, those pockets of time created by sports or other random activities are my very favorite things - because then I get focused time with one child or the other.

I love that.

For more GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.

Odyssey Adventure Club – join today for just $5!

Are your kids in need of a safe and fun environment where they can explore, create and imagine, all while developing their faith and learning biblical truth? Enter the Odyssey Adventure Club (AOC)!
 
For a limited time, you can join HERE for only $5 (regular monthly membership costs $15 for up to six users)!

Families will be able to stream the Adventures in Odyssey library, plus listen to exclusive new monthly episodes.  Busy families will find 24/7 access to the content through the Odyssey Adventure Club mobile iPhone app.

Children can also read daily devotions, interact with hands-on activities and view video documentaries featuring a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the Adventures in Odyssey stories. Parents can feel confident their children are safe on the Odyssey Adventure Club website — Focus on the Family staff will be monitoring all comments before they’re publicly posted.

A portion of each Odyssey Adventure Club membership will benefit Focus on the Family partner relief organizations, including Christian Veterinary Mission, Operation Christmas Child and Compassion International. This provides parents with an opportunity to teach children about the value of giving and serving others.

Coming in July, Odyssey Adventure Club members get to listen to the brand new album, "The Ties That Bind," FIRST before it's available ANYWHERE ELSE!

Click here to join for only $5!

Want more summer activities for your kids inspired by the Odyssey Adventure Club? Check out this post.

Guest Posting & A Giveaway!

I love to read.  I think books are such wonderful pathways to adventure and learning that we spend a lot of time reading here - for fun and for school.  Usually those two purposes become pretty blurred, because school can be really fun.

One of the ways that we play around with books is to hold monthly book club events.  I say "event" because this is no round-robin discussion.  We don't sip tea and nibble on cucumber sandwiches while secretly wishing that it were over already.

Instead, we do what the characters in our stories do - and one of our favorite characters of all time is Lily Lapp.

Why is she so special?  I'm guest-posting today over on Suzanne Woods Fisher's blog about that.  She's the author behind The Adventures of Lily Lapp series.  Hop on over here and find how to start your own - or kick the adventure up a few notches - in your kids' book club.

I'm also writing book club guides to accompany our favorite stories.  The first is now available in my TpT store.  These packets include everything that you need to host a great book club event with your kids.  You can find out more here.

Want to win one of your own?  Use the widget below and enter to win your own "Response Activities for A Surprise for Lily."  
 

Entry-Form

Hearts for Home Blog Hop - June 19, 2014

Introducing ... the Hearts for Home Blog Hop!  A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for this weekly link-up, which means that every Thursday you'll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post.  If you're a blogger, we'd love to have you link up your posts and join us.  You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked-on post from last week was Finding Joy in the Unexpected.
 
Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

-  Nautical Door Decoration

- 8 open-ended play ideas your kids will love!

- Summer Beverages

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our 'Featured Blogger' buttons!  Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Featured300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 
Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link
back to this one. Happy hopping! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CoHostH4HButton300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

   

An InLinkz Link-up

"A Surprise for Lily" Response Activities Are Here!

I love sharing fun and educational ideas with you.  

I love great books even more.


That's why Suzanne Woods Fisher's Adventures of Lily Lapp series is so wonderful for kids:  it's a high-quality story with wise characters, fun adventures, and brimming over with learning opportunities that are fun for everyone.



I realize that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for digging into a book and finding all the great things that you can do with it, so I've done it for you!  New in my TpT store tonight are sixteen pages of science, cooking, sewing, history, discussion, art, and mission activities that are all pulled from A Surprise for Lily. Everything that you need to host a kids' book club, literature group, unit study, or family read aloud time is here.  

By digging into the story literally and trying your hand at Lily's activities, your child will be able to relate to Lily much better.  Your child will be able to understand Lily's choices and discuss her trials and triumphs with you.  S/he'll be able to compare his/her life with Lily's from a knowledgeable perspective - and you might just discover some new talents at the same time.

So hop on over to my TpT store and check out Responses to "A Surprise for Lily" for yourself!

GratiTuesday - Walking Away

My Little Man isn't so little anymore, but he's always been with me.  He's my buddy.

We go to the store and on field trips together.  We snuggle and read books and gather rocks and plant the garden together.  

Because I worked in a preschool, he's even been with me there - in the room next door or in my own classroom.

Until this week.

This week he chose to go to basketball camp, a half-day camp happening at our local high school.  It's a skills-based camp for boys, and since he played his first season of basketball this past winter, he loves the sport.

So for the first time ever, he's getting up early and getting dropped off somewhere.  Without us.

It's rather difficult to watch him carry his new water cooler up the steps and through those big doors, but then his face lights up when he finds a friend, and he takes off across the gym floor to join in a game until camp starts.

This is our role as parents.  This raising and teaching and discipling and preparing for the leaving.  As much as we revel and stress in the everyday, the point of it all is to prepare them to leave.  To leave us confidently and strong, ready to follow Jesus into the unknown of their futures.

So this basketball camp is an important step.  It's nearby and only a few hours and he probably won't encounter anything dangerous (yay!) but he's on his own.  Sure, it's a controlled environment, but it won't always be that way.  This is his chance to be a man of character when Mommy isn't looking.  To learn the consequences of his actions (I pray they're good ones) and to take responsibility for them.

It's just basketball camp, but it's so much more.

I'm glad that he's ready.  I'm glad that he wants to take this step.  It's hard to see him walk away, but it's necessary.  Walking away now will help him be prepared to walk away towards bigger, more important things.  

So while I'm rather sad to see him leaving, I'm thankful for that bounce in his step that tells me he's ready for this.  That he's not scared.  That he's ready to go and make new friends and try new things.

This hard parenting thing - we're seeing some fruit this week.

And it's good.

What are your kids involved in this summer?  And how goes it?

For more  GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.

Hearts for Home Blog Hop - June 12, 2014

Introducing ... the Hearts for Home Blog Hop!  A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for this weekly link-up, which means that every Thursday you'll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post.  If you're a blogger, we'd love to have you link up your posts and join us.  You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked-on post from last week was Why I Deleted Over Half My Facebook Friends.
Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

-  Eating the Americas: Summer recipes

- Visit to Ben Franklin Nat'l Memorial & Institute

- Art Project: Bottle Cap Buggies

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our 'Featured Blogger' buttons!  Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Featured300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 
Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link
back to this one. Happy hopping! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CoHostH4HButton300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 
Please share your family friendly posts with us! By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts' blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post. 
 

An InLinkz Link-up

GratiTuesday - Stickin' Together

Eleven years ago Saturday my husband and I said "I do."

A lot has changed in those eleven years.

Some of those things are good, and some ... not so much.  We're both a bit rounder, a bit grayer, and hopefully a bit wiser.  

We understand more about what it takes to spend your life with someone else.

There's no turning back or getting out.  We're in it for the long haul.  We decided to strike that deadly "D" word from our vocabulary before we said our vows.  

That's reassuring.  We're committed.  Our culture has forgotten the value in that, but we're not giving up on each other.  We're determined not to "grow apart," but to "grow together."

I don't say this because things are particularly hard right now - they're not.  On the contrary, it feels good to know that we're on the same page.  That we have the same purpose.  That our changes are okay because we're doing it all together.

Eleven years ago I would've wanted some sort of romantic evening.  Something with candles and sunsets and sweet, whispered words.

Except now I know that those aren't my thing, and they're not my husband's, either.  We talked about what to do.  Fancy dinner?  A movie?  Shopping?  Nothing seemed quite right.  Neither of us were thrilled with any of those ideas.

So we chose a baseball game.

Yup.  Baseball.

A baseball game was perfect.  We had a quick snack at a favorite Mexican restaurant just outside the stadium before hurrying in to see the opening pitch.  The weather was perfect - pleasingly cool with a light breeze, under a blue sky and puffy white clouds.  We had great seats along the first baseline, my husband's favorite, and he was happy to explain a few rare plays to me.  I was happy to sit and listen to his voice.  We watched several double plays, a trick play, and our hometown team finally win.  We talked throughout the game, about nothing special, really, just enjoyed being together.

Afterwards we walked to a restaurant with outdoor seating near a small waterfall and ate a late-night snack under the stars and some white Christmas lights.  We walked around hand-in-hand and then headed back home.

It wasn't a fancy evening.  It wasn't a quiet evening, or even a kid-free one, since the couple sitting in front of us at the game had a few rowdy preschoolers.

But it was perfect for us.  Together.  The New Us.  The older-and-wiser us.  We were both willing to throw out ideas and talk them over until we found the perfect thing. Until we realized that what we really wanted was to be together.  

Not stressing about the cost of a fancy dinner.

Not eating in a restaurant that was too loud to converse comfortably.

Not sitting side-by-side in a dark movie theater, each alone in our movie experience.

Together.  Being loud and silly, clapping and cheering ourselves hoarse and ... together.

It's not always easy to find your 'together,' but it's definitely worth the effort to find it.  

And then, as it evolves and changes and you find it again, to enjoy the ride.

What's your 'together?'  

For more GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.

Hearts for Home Blog Hop - June 5, 2014

Introducing ... the Hearts for Home Blog Hop!  A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for this weekly link-up, which means that every Thursday you'll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post.  If you're a blogger, we'd love to have you link up your posts and join us.  You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked-on post from last week was Fiction for Boys.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

-  Fiction for Boys Age 7 Up - Get Ready for Summer!

- Family Movie Night Ideas

- Free Summer Reading Log and New ebook

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our 'Featured Blogger' buttons!  Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Featured300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 
Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link
back to this one. Happy hopping! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-hosts/" title="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.marriagemotherhoodandmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CoHostH4HButton300x300.jpg" alt="Hearts for Home Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Please share your family friendly posts with us! By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts' blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post. 
 

An InLinkz Link-up

GratiTuesday - Saying Goodbye

About a year ago I wrote about saying goodbye to our pastor and his family.  People with whom we had become friends.

And now it's time for us to say goodbye again.

Several years ago, while attending another church, I was searching for a guitar player for a special event.  I wanted someone charismatic and talented; someone who could get our uncertain crowd enthused and praising.  When I was about to give up, someone pointed me to Everett.

I didn't know this guy, but his "resume" was impressive - and more importantly, he was willing to lead us in a special worship event!  He came and was fantastic, and we talked about maybe connecting our churches for other events in the future.

But then we left that church and began searching for a new one.  For a new home.  We heard that Everett had begun a contemporary service at his church, and we eventually ended up there.

As did many other people.  This service soon proved to be energetic and active, full of people who were willing to step out in new directions on faith.  It turned out to be exactly what we were looking for.

And yet there hasn't been time to get comfortable.  That service has been in transition since we got there. The worship team has swelled and grown and then shrunk again as people have moved on.  The pastor left to plant a church a few hours' away, and our interns come and go each season, each with their strengths and gifts, enriching us and then moving on.

Now it's Everett's turn.  He's a most gifted worship leader, but God has called him into full-time ministry, so in just a few more weeks he'll leave us and head off to seminary.  To his own church.  

We'll miss him.  We'll miss his leadership and communion with the Spirit.  We'll miss his laughter and sarcasm and jokes.  We'll miss his ability to sing the perfect song at the perfect time, every time.

We'll miss his family, too.  His energetic kids and his kind and gracious wife (whom my Big Helper has developed a special attachment to).  

It's hard saying goodbye.  Quite frankly, I don't like it, and I don't look forward to it.  At all.

But I know that, like with our former pastor, this is ultimately a Good Thing.  It's a God Thing.  He's planned it.  He's called this family.  We've been blessed by their ministry for years, and now someone else needs them.  

We won't be left behind.  While we can't go with them, God has called someone else to lead us next, and he's good, too.  It's going to be okay.

It's still hard to say goodbye, but it's also a blessing to see so many people following God.  Leaving the familiar and comfortable and known to venture out in faith.  To follow God wherever He leads them.

It's a great example.  It's a Hebrews 11 thing.  It's an Abraham thing.  It's a Ruth and Naomi thing.

It's a great lesson for our kids.  For us.

So, with mixed emotions and teary eyes, I'm glad.  I wouldn't want to keep them if it's not where they're supposed to be.  I wouldn't want any of us to settle for less than God's best.  

So if you see me looking rather weepy, remind me of all of this.  Okay?

For more GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.