Say 'Cheese!'

It's that time of year again - our mailbox is filling up with Christmas cards!  Something about a stuffed mailbox just says 'somebody loves me.'  :-)  I love opening all the pretty envelopes to see what's waiting inside, and since many of our friends have small children - like us! - lots of cards are made with pictures of these adorable people.  Several of my friends use Shutterfly, an online photo company that allows you to upload your own personal pictures to share and print them.  I've always enjoyed this site for viewing their photos, but after checking into it a bit more carefully, I've found some really great products.

As much as I love photo cards, I do sometimes miss the beautiful Christian 'reason for the season' that can be a bit more prevalent on regular storebought cards.  I love how there are photo card options that combine both a true holiday message with a photo!

For the past several years, I've made photo calendars for my parents with both old and new family pictures, birthdays, anniversaries, and all sorts of funny pictures included.  Each calendar ended up being a very personalized gift with a ton of photos, and they seemed to enjoy them a lot.  The process could really be simplified with Shutterfly.  Shutterfly prints calendars in a variety of sizes, styles, and backgrounds - just upload your photos and choose your preferences. You can even add photos and text to the boxes on individual days!

Sometimes, you've met all of your stationery needs but still have gifts to buy.  Grandparents seem particularly difficult to shop for - but what do they like more than tiny smiling faces?  From jigsaw puzzles to jewelry, Shutterfly has a wide variety of photo gifts.

There are some great Shutterfly deals happening right now ... I might have to go place an order!

The Fire Station

The fire station has been, in my opinion, one of our most informative visits so far. Maybe that's because one of their main goals is to educate so that they aren't needed - but at any rate, the firefighters who visited with us were wonderful.

The fire fighters took us back to their training room first and we watched a short cartoon about how quickly a fire can engulf a house and how make an emergency plan - planning an escape route, meeting place, and knowing the exits from each room of the house.

Then they modeled their gear and let us hear how the air tanks sound. They gave each child a backpack full of coloring books, stickers, informational pamphlets, keychains, cups, etc. My little firefighter wears his backpack - ahem, his air tank - around the house now when he's fighting a fire!

After that we went out to the bay and got to climb on some trucks. The firefighters answered questions about various parts and purposes and let the kids really check it all out.

Some even posed for pictures.

We decided that the giant bumpers made great places to pose for pictures. What cute firefighters!

This small vehicle is ridden by the fire chief in parades. This was by far the kids' favorite - it was more their size!

My little firefighter became so into fire safety during our study of it this week that we ended up having a whole family discussion about it after visiting the fire station. We designated a neighbor's porch as our emergency meeting place and even practiced climbing out of a window (to alleviate our daughter's fears of how it would work). Our smoke detectors have new batteries and we still pray that God will guard us from a fire, but should it happen, my short fire crew of fire fighters knows what to do.

If you've never visited your local fire station, give them a call. Who knows - you might learn something, too!

Visiting DOT

Visiting a construction site was high on my list of things-to-do, but how could our little ones get up-close-and-personal to a working dump truck? I was stumped for a bit, and finally called the local government office in charge of road repairs. I was referred several times, but finally sent to our local DOT headquarters (I didn't even know we had one!) where the man in charge generously agreed to all an unknown number of preschoolers visit.

When I arrived at headquarters on DOT day, I was amazed to find 12 little ones. How wonderful! Two great tour guides greeted us and escorted us out to the yard, where they had lined up about five trucks of different types. They began to tell us about each one and then, to my surprise, they helped each eager child to climb on. Imagine our surprise when they actually started up each truck and allowed the children to raise and lower booms, honk horns, and push all sorts of buttons! Several of the little ones were afraid of the noise (who knew a dump truck had such a LOUD horn??) but most were fascinated.

My son - so shy! - loves wheels. We had to take a picture of him with one. Look at how large they are!

These boys were just fascinated with the asphalt lying near one of the vehicles. They had never seen it in loose form before - and because the day was so hot, it was even a bit sticky!

As we prepared to leave, our wonderful tour guides handed each child a real construction vest. Have you ever seen such a great-looking group of construction workers??

All in all, we had a FANTASTIC visit to the DOT headquarters. I definitely recommend this as a place to check out!

Starting a Play Group

Last year our local MOPS group unexpectedly closed, taking with it our plans for regular social interaction for this school year. My little princess was starting kindergarten, but my construction foreman is three and was really beginning to enjoy playing with other little boys. Over the course of the summer he developed enough imaginary friends to form a baseball team, and I really began to brainstorm ways to get him around other children on a regular basis.

Out of that need grew an informal playgroup. My little foreman is all male - totally into trucks, wheels, and anything mechanical. I decided to set up visits to local community helpers so that we could learn about their jobs and see their vehicles up close and personal. I sent out an invitation via Facebook and found out who might be interested and then set a day and time that seemed to work for most people. My goal was to keep each visit as close to free as possible and include some kind of educational opportunity.

After that I developed a small list of places that we could visit. It looked something like this:

Construction site

Post Office

Park

Fire Station

Police Station

Doctor's Office

Cook

Dentist

Musician

Now, a few months later, other moms are sending in ideas for visits - and they've got great ones! It looked at first as if we could only meet when the weather permitted since we lack a meeting place or host sponsor, but so far, by being creative, we've been able to continue meeting even as the temperatures have dropped by visiting places that are indoors and by using a local church who has agreed to share their facilities sometimes.

Read on for more information about some of our field trips!

'The Way Home'

Randy Simpkins is a worksholic husband and father who's trying to appease his wife with a family vacation. Starting behind the eight ball by having gone in to work when he was supposed to be packing, the day gets worse when their youngest son, two-year-old Joe, disappears only minutes later.

It is difficult to remain impartial in the beginning of this movie as each parent presents a timeless, valid viewpoint for their recent actions that most married parents can identify with. As the movie progresses and the search for Joe continues, the plot deepens to include their struggles not only with each other, but also the scope of their faith. At times the action is maddeningly slow as it seems that the search will never progress, but at those times the emotion of each parent is most real. The entire movie forces the viewer to evaluate how s/he parents and if s/he is intentional and purposeful with the time given to them as parents.

I will definitely recommend this movie to my friends. Every parent can use a reminder of the preciousness of their children's lives, and this movie provides that in spades.

I was provided a free copy of this movie by Thomas Nelson in exchange for an unbiased review.

Purim

Here's a webpage that is written from a Jewish perspective that describes Purim - it's background, modern customs, and even contains a recipe for Hamantashen, a traditional cookie eaten during this celebration. I thought you might find this interesting!

"Faithful" by Kim Cash Tate

Cyd's world turns upside down on her fortieth birthday - and her friends aren't having such an easy time, either. Cedric, the best man at her sister's wedding, is attractive and smooth, but he doesn't share her faith. Dana caught her husband in bed with another woman, and Phillis wants her husband to share her faith more than anything and is depressed by his unwillingness to even listen to her heart. The members of the Daughter's Fellowship hold each other up through thick and thin - but will they be able to help each other through all of this??

Cash's book was not what I expected, and at first, as each woman's life fell apart, I was disappointed by the blunt and worldly view of sex that was presented. As the plot continued, however, more of God's truth entered the picture. By the end, a realistic view of sin and how to handle temptation had been presented. Cash's characters were believable and and real. I will definitely look for her next book!

I was given a copy of this book by Thomas Nelson in exchange for an unbiased review.