“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” —Galatians 5:22-23 I’m “behind” on our monthly verse series. I like to share a new verse here each month to meditate on and memorize together, but I’ve not been quite ready to move past the fruits of the Spirit. This passage has really been speaking to my heart in this season and it’s also wonderfully applicable for little hearts and minds. There were a few months of this toddler season that were leaving me rather exasperated. I read the books and tried the tactics, but listening remained a struggle. All the little things felt…
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Nature Scavenger Hunts
These free printable scavenger hunts are a great tool for encouraging children to immerse themselves in nature and look a little closer at the world around them with deep appreciation. This sort of play magically manages to nurture physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social growth in children. And they’re fun for adults as well! Our typical day involves a fair amount of time outside and while most of that time is devoted to simple free play, from time to time we’ll take one of our more structured activities or art projects outdoors. My days are currently spent with two two year olds and so I wasn’t sure what the response…
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Deuteronomy 6:5 | Memory Verse Collection
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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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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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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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…
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4 Free Advent Resources for Families
In my years as a nanny, I’ve spent a lot of time searching for Christmas and Advent activities and resources that would invite us to a place of remembrance together without feeling too rigid; activities that weren’t too expensive and that wouldn’t leave behind excessive clutter. Over the years I’ve collected the following resources and wanted to gather them all into one central location to share with you: Rob Wilson Nativity—I love the illustration style and design of this nativity. I first found it last year and we simply cut out the pieces and glued them to Cheerio boxes to make them sturdier. This year I cut them out and…
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Ephesians 3:19 | Memory Verse Collection
I’ve already made about twenty lists to organize myself and my thoughts for the Christmas season: people to see and gifts to buy and cookies to bake and ornaments to make and menus to plan and blog posts to compose and cards to send, etc. I’ve already gone to the craft store far more times than one should and have spent far more time than I’d like perusing Amazon for the perfect toddler gifts. There’s been very little quiet and stillness and it actually has nothing to do with the fact that we have a two year old in our midst. My mind just grows exceptionally chaotic this time of…
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Free Christmas Cards Printable
My Christmas memories involve a lot of creating and crafting. It felt as if our dining room table was just as frequently a crafting table as it was a place for eating. It was often covered in pine cones and jingle bells and cinnamon cutout ornaments and ribbon. I look back on it all pretty fondly now. We would create amongst ourselves all season long, but it was also something we would casually invite friends to join us in because while cookie decorating is fun, one can only consume so many of those. All of this is simply to say that creativity has become deeply entwined in the way that…
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8 Prayers to Pray with Little Ones
The habit of prayer is something that I’ve been striving to better cultivate in my own life and that I wanted to invite Graham into as well. I value the way that prayer invites us to a place of gratitude and how it recenters us as we request that God work in our hearts and lives to make us more like Him. The prayers gathered here are rooted in these two particular aspects because I think they’re a solid starting foundation for introducing children to prayer. One of the greatest obstacles for me about instilling rhythms of prayer in my own life has been simply remembering to do it. Meal…
