This verse felt fitting for our family this month because as a two year old boy, Graham is currently very interested in strength. And I have been in a season of feeling prompted to lay down the miscellaneous good in order to make space for the truest good. I’ve grown distracted by chasing after all the good things instead of starting with the truest good and allowing it to trickle down through the rest of my life. The good things are only good within the context of proper relationship. If our relationship with God is out of alignment, then we can’t hold the good things well. They become idols and…
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A Book of Emotions
This project has been a long lingering item on my to do list, but now that it’s finished, I love flipping through the pages with the boys. It’s been such a simple, helpful tool for nurturing emotional growth in little ones. Since Graham was a tiny baby, I’ve attempted to capture a spectrum of emotions with hopes of documenting the fleeting seasons. And the more that I documented, the more that I wanted to eventually put them into a book as a tool for building an emotional vocabulary. It’s been a priority for us from pretty early on to give him words for expressing what he’s feeling. We wanted to…
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A Book About Me
I’m so excited about these new book projects we’ve been working on! I’m finding myself prompting Graham to show everyone the book he made, because I’m just so happy about the way they turned out. They’ve been a fun way to channel creativity into a long form project instead of once and done crafts and they’re something I expect they’ll enjoy looking through once they’re finished. It has also been such a fun way to connect with them and offer new language and concepts. I’m excited to finally share them here for you to make your own. Some of the pages are self explanatory, but I’ll walk you through a…
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Animal Movement Cards
It’s presently winter and while we still try to get outside each day to run off some energy and breathe in the fresh air, some days are too windy or wet or frigid. And yet, energy abounds in toddlers. These cards are useful when children are in need of redirection. When their energy started to lead to movement that was too much for indoors, we would sometimes use these cards to satisfy the desire for movement. Depending on the age and imagination of your child, simply naming an animal might be sufficient to spark some pretend play. But for a one and two year old, the visual of the animal…
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Psalm 28:7 | Memory Verse Collection
There are many potential themes for the songs we sing with our lives. We can sing songs of accomplishment, songs of anxiety, songs of self-sufficiency, songs of overwhelm, songs of hurry, songs of importance, songs of the almost good. But allowing our song to be one of praise suggests an anchoring, a steadiness throughout the chaos that is life. Praise is the song that is appropriate for every occasion, when other songs become irrelevant. It suggests that for every circumstance, we turn to the God who is present and faithful and enough. It suggests that even when life is hard, God is comfort. That when life is good, God is the…
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8 Valentine’s Day Activities and Crafts
Children have made Valentine’s Day significantly more fun for me. Both as a nanny and parent, it’s been fun to incorporate that theme into some of our day to day activities and make some keepsake crafts that I’ve been genuinely happy to put on display. I wanted to collect some of our favorites from this year to share with you all in one place. All of the activities are suitable for toddler and preschool aged children. Several of the crafts would also appeal to school aged children. They’re ones that I imagine we’ll return to each year with new inspiration and skill sets. Color Sorting—We did the same color sorting…
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Free Valentine Cards Printable
The boys are still drawing and painting almost daily, so I made a printable collection of 12 Valentine cards for your little ones (or you) to decorate and spread a bit of love. Graham is getting to the fun age where we can make a card with a particular person in mind and I can ask him what he might want to say in the card. One of his Valentines to his dad read, “Dear Dad, I love you so much. You are very clean. Would you like to go on adventure with me?” Those are some of my favorite cards because their innocence shines through so clearly. A few…
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Genesis 1:31 | Memory Verse Collection
This month we’ve been exploring the creation story and delighting in the fact that God is one who creates good things. We slowly unpacked the story of creation: from chaos, order; from nothing, life; from darkness, light. I crave rhythms that remind me to speak truth into Graham’s life because I know how prone I am to forgetfulness. But I am also leaning into impromptu moments of speaking truth over him as it comes to mind. Today before nap time was an instance, “Did you know God loves you? The same God who made the stars and the moon and the flowers made you and calls you good. I love…
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DIY Alphabet + Number Playmat
We do number and letter activities often and so I wanted to create an inexpensive, but durable mat for number/letter matching, recognition, and counting. I ended up making this simple mat with a rug from Ikea that had never found a good spot in our home. I was super pleased with its simplicity and the boys have enjoyed playing with it. Right now they mostly enjoy the counting side and have shown exceptional preference for counting edible things, like Cheerios. But I like that it’s pretty open ended in how it can be used and can continue to be used down the road for more advanced activities as well, like…
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Revelation 21:5 | Memory Verse Collection
As we begin afresh with another year, I’m thankful for the promises of newness we find scattered throughout our lives. Each new year. Each new season. Each new morning. With every sunrise, I see this verse displayed and am filled with gratitude that we are made new in the same way the days are made new—over and over and over. I find this act of being made new to be less destination focused and more a matter of process. There is beauty waiting not just at the end, but also in the becoming, in the unfolding of that beauty along the way. I find encouragement in the way that after…
