Ocean Devotions: A vacation memory verse and activities

Ocean Devotion Memory Verse Activities

 The night before we left for our beach trip, God put Deuteronomy 6:5-7 on my heart which says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the read, when you lie down and when you get up."

Repeat them to your children...talk about them when you walk along the road...

Preparing for a road trip to the beach had that circling in my mind, and I knew I needed to do something to keep God's word in out hearts and minds while on our trip. I wanted something connected to our ocean destination, and a song based on Psalm 139 that I'd learned at summer camp in high school played in my mind. I opened the Bible and found just the verses that mentioned the sea, teach us something about God, and have simple enough ideas that my kids (9, 6, 4, 2) have some chance of understanding.

I quickly threw together some activities to have them copy the verse, fill in the blanks with increasing difficulty and search up the words so that for 4/7 days of our trip, there was a set plan for focusing on the verses at some point in the day. I also went online and searched Pinterest for ideas on family devotions that were ocean themed, and I found a blogger that shared 3 from her book "God, you and the ocean blue." These didn't use the verses we memorized, but they did remind us about truths about God connected to the ocean.

During our road trip down, I had an activity planned for every 100 miles we drove (4 activities for the day). One of them was to write out or trace our verse on story paper and then illustrate it. I gave the kids cookie sheets from the dollar store to write on.

4yo tracing and drawing

 

6 yo writing and drawing

 

9yo writing and drawing

When we arrived at our beach cottage, I used painter's tape to tape their writing on the door we left from, on the bathroom wall across from the toilet, and on a wall they often looked at by the window so that the words were in front of their eyes. 

As they completed the fill-in-the-blanks and word searches, I posted those around too, "writing them on the door posts" as Deuteronomy encourages parents to do. Doing it with painter's tape means you can put them up anywhere with no damage to walls and paint, wherever you may find yourself!

I didn't end up reading all 3 devotionals, but we did 1 of them one morning, and had just seen dolphins in the water the day before! Our 9 year old had the verses memorized the second day, our two year old loves to repeat the verse phrase by phrase after me, and the middle girls did the activities but won't say the verses out loud. What can you do? That's the work for the Holy Spirit, but I hope this can be helpful to you, if you're feeling the Spirit remind you to talk about Him on your vacation!

Here's a link to the activities via Google Drive. You can make a copy and adapt the activities as you see fit! Let me know if this helps you in the comments.

Meadow takes to blogging again

Hello world.

I left you hanging with part 1 of what I envisioned would be 4 parts of our grand European adventure. There was to be London, Paris, Italy and Switzerland, and the French camp. Only I didn't end up posting beyond London. And then I didn't end up posting anything ever, and I lived my life and made a human and bought a house and now that human is 10 months old and I'm breaking my blogging fast to tell you about that French camp experience.

The camp is put on by a Christian organization called La Ligue which has a longer name, something with the Bible in it, but La Ligue is their hip re-brand. Anyhow. They put on about 10 summer camps all over France with different themes (Horses! Surfing! Baccalaureate preparation!) including "American!" The draw of the American camp is that you can come face-to-face with living and breathing Americans. The camp's programming is run by two churches in Nashville TN and Orlandoish FL. I found out about the camp through BIOLA University's magazine that posts info about their grads in the back, one small blurb announcing that a couple who lived and worked in France was looking for people to come and help out at a summer camp in France. I called Randy Kent and told him a bit about myself and let him know I was interested in being at the camps, and he let me know he was interested in having me, because the more the merrier as far as round-the-clock translating and interpreting goes.

The main building with some dorms and the dining hall.

Dean and I planned our European adventure to butt up against the dates of the camp. Dean flew home and I waited at the airport with no way to contact anyone but my notebook with "LOL and Sun and Fun" scrawled in messy letters and held hopefully out to passengers escaping customs. After about 5 hours someone looked at the sign and said, "That's us!" We met up with all the other people and bussed the 2 hours to camp.

We had a day to decorate and meet in our teams before the kids showed up. There are two camps that run at the same time, one for elementary aged kids, and one for jr. high and high schoolers. I worked with the littler kids and was the main translator for the morning meeting, recreation and craft time. In the evenings a Frenchman and local school teacher came and we split translation duties for the evening meeting. It was exhausting and exhilarating. I was using my language skills in ways more important and critical than ever before. I spent my off-times reading through the passages of the Bible we would talk about next, looking up words like forgiveness (they say to give grace), confess, fishing nets, a great light appearing from heaven. And all though I felt inadequate at times (kids are so hard to understand sometimes!) the level of my French and the words in my vocabulary were perfect for those 5-11 year old hearts.

Around the fire

 There was hiking, kickball, foursquare, cup-stacking races, painting, gluing, cutting, racing, singing, campfires, delicious meals, tears and whining, scrapes and bruises, laughter, loving. There was summer camp, quoi.

View of Guebwiller from the upper field.

Singing and dancing.

Tagine for dinner.

Both camps together.

Small group time.

This summer, Dean and I are going back, with Ward. This summer I will be working with the jr. high and high school campers, which is so perfect. I love older kids. It's what I've made my career, bringing knowledge and Truth to students. I'm looking forward to the challenge of answering the tough questions these students will ask and getting to engage with them, hopefully more personally, about what it means to be a follower of Christ. I'm excited for the chance to continue the relationships we will make at camp on Facebook and other social media because the older kids are online. I'm excited about the opportunities for discipleship and mentoring we will be able to establish.

Are you interested in helping us get there? We're putting together a prayer list for people who would like to be praying for the teams going and for the hearts of the kids attending. You can sign up here. We've set up an account at GoFundMe. If you would like to support us financially, you can do so there. Would you like to know some other ways you can help? Let me know by sending me an email at meadow.brianna@gmail.com.

Thanks for joining with us!

Europe part I: London

 Here a few severely delayed pictures from our fabulous time in Europe this summer. 6 per city, I'm limiting myself to.

Dean's first Guinness in London. A small piece of heaven.

 

At the British Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square

Discovered the wonder of Fortnum and Mason. It's beautiful.

Buckingham Palace.

A view of the London Eye.

My favorite sculpture ever: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

A swan in Hyde Park

A couple of kids in Hyde Park

My husband, CPA

Dean found out on Monday that he passed his final exam for his CPA. I am so proud of all his hard work over the past 3 years to persevere and continue to pursue the goals he set.

On Monday I also was offered my job back at BV. Monday was a good day. We celebrated with a homemade meal and a bottle of sparkling wine.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Love Story Tea Party: the food

To read about the theme and décor of the shower, go here.

To create foods that went along with the theme, I tried to come up with two foods that could have been eaten by each couple (Elizabeth and Darcy, Ariel and Eric, Anne and Gilbert, Victoria and Albert, Alicia and Devin). I had "discreetly" interviewed A some time before ("So...what would you say your favorite fruits were? mmhmm, and how about your favorite kinds of desserts? Chocolate? Milk or dark? Oh, I see, mmhmm...") I also wanted to maintain a balance of sweet and savory foods so that there would be something for everyone. Because the shower was also a tea party, I wanted several "traditional" things that you might find if you had high tea someplace fancy.

The place to start was with tea sandwiches. Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches have been a must at an tea party my mom has had growing up. I also happen to love chicken salad, so I thought I would do both to have a veggie and non-veggie option. Chicken of the Sea came to my mind, which made me think of Ariel and Eric, but of course they could never eat fish again, so I made "Chicken of the Land" and "Sea" Cucumber sandwiches. Couple #1, check!

A most memorable scene in Anne of Green Gables is when Anne accidentally gets her friend Diana drunk on currant wine, mistakenly thinking it is raspberry cordial. Jello is always a colorful option at parties, and cheap, so I decided I would put Jello in plastic stemware and call it raspberry cordial gelatins. Doesn't have to do with Anne and Gilbert, but oh well. The second treat I came up with was based on an experience the bride to be had had the summer before when she visited Prince Edward Island and visited the Singing Sands. Apparently the beaches there, when you walk on them, make a lovely noise. I had just come across this pin on Pinterest, so Singing Sand Pudding it was! Couple #2, check!

For Pride and Prejudice the first thing that came to my mind was "frosty hearts cookies," glazed sugar cookies, because Elizabeth and Darcy were quite frosty towards one another for most of the novel. A told me she loves raspberries, so I also thought of raspberry upside-down cake, since the emotions in the novel are so topsy-turvy. I'd never heard of raspberry upside-down cake, but Pinterest assured me it was possible with a variety of options. I went with this one, and then changed the nectarines for apricots which are in season right now. The gingerbread cake with the fruit and brown sugar made a great combination, imo. Couple #3, check!

Too many sweets. Need more savory. Victoria and Albert had me briefly stumped. I needed tea things that were savory, and not a lot of work. I entertained the idea of ordering some sweets from the bakery, but they were all things that I could do myself, so easy it was. I thought a cheese platter could be nice. Then I remembered that Prince Albert was a prince from Germany. England, Germany, a marriage of cheeses! And some American crackers thrown in! I knew it would be easy to find English cheddar (or any other cheese from the UK could work). I wasn't sure about the German cheese. I searched several stores and googled any names that sounded German. Most were American from the midwest, including Limburger. It was originally from Germany so it could have worked, except the wikipedia article mentioned something about B.O., so I rejected it. Champignon de Luxe was a French-sounding brand with a German sounding "knoblauch" cheese. Google told me it was German for "garlic" and that it was, in fact, a German brand. Score. Couple #4, check!

And then for the feature couple! I had also, discretely interviewed the groom about what he liked ("Say, D, for no particular reason at all, what would you say are some of your favorite foods?") He sent me back a list of some good junk foods, most of which would have been hard to dress up for a tea party. But he did say he liked little smokies. Having seen mini versions of pigs in a blanket disappear at many a fête, I decided those would be "his" food. A had mentioned how much she liked the combo of chocolate and raspberries, so I thought of chocolate mousse in a chocolate basket with raspberries to garnish. If you want to make chocolate baskets, check out this post from Childmade Tutorials (my level of finesse!). Skip the balloon dipping business. That was a disaster for me.

For each food item, I made a sign explaining what the item was, and why the guests would love it. It's also a helpful place to signal any allergy-inducing foods (gluten, nuts, dairy, etc) for your special food needs guests.

Here is my recipe for chocolate mousse, from Julie Andrieu's French cookbook Le B.A.-ba du Chocolat
"Mousse au chocolat classique"
400g chocolate 70% cocoa or higher (I just used semi-sweet chips...)
100g (1 stick is close enough) butter
10 egg whites
100g sugar

Melt the chocolate over low heat or in a double boiler. When the chocolate begins to melt, stir it gently with a spatula until it is melted. Add the butter in cubes and stir until the mixture is smooth.

In a large bowl beat the egg whites on high with an electric mixer. When bubbles begin to hold add the sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form.

Add a little of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir to aerate the chocolate. Then add the chocolate to the egg whites and fold them together with a supple plastic spatula. (See here for a tutorial on how to fold properly). You want to be sure you are folding, not mixing, so you don't break the egg whites.

Let the mousse sit at least 2 hours in the refrigerator before serving.

To put it in the chocolate baskets, pipe it in with a pastry bag and large star tip.

Love Story Tea Party: the décor

For my dear friend Alicia's bridal shower this weekend, I wanted to plan a party that would feature the love story of her and her husband-to-be, as well as show parts of her personality to the ladies who were coming to celebrate her.

I began by asking A what her all-time favorite love stories were, hoping they might provide inspiration. Her list came back: Anne and Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables), Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), Ariel and Eric (The Little Mermaid) and Victoria and Albert (Queen and Prince, history). Three of the four have tea times involved, being British or Canadian, and tea parties being an appropriate sort of shower thing, I decided on a love story tea party.

The décor was initially influenced by the wedding colors, which are water shades of blue. I learned that Tiffany blue is the bride's special favorite shade, so I kept my eyes tuned to that color. The first purchase for the shower was a clearance priced yarn from Beverly's in the Tiffany blue and powder blue shades. $2 per skien, and I have tons left over! I used it to decorate the stairs and to make a banner declaring LOVE.

To create a focal point in the "gift room" I asked their engagement photographer (who is also a personal friend) to send a few of his favorite shots of them. I ordered an engineering print from Staples for $3.55 for a 24"x36". It is big, people. Too big if you have much else on your walls, but it worked on the mantle.

Name tags at showers were introduced to me by my beautiful maid of honor at my wedding shower. I am a believer! Usually wedding showers include mixed groups of women, and being able to see someone's name you don't know right there on her shoulder makes it easier to say hello and begin to chat. I have gone over-the-top in my making of name tags before (I once strung individual pennant flags on thread for a mini-bunting name tag for 25 women...never again!) This time I paired it back with a simple hand-stamped name and a tea cup. The tags were made of two layers of cardstock in shades of blue with a pin hot-glued on the back. They can be a bit fragile (moms with babies often lose theirs before long), but they do the trick.

On the main food table, I included pictures of the characters from the love stories A chose, to provide an extra layer of fun (and to reinforce the theme!) Some of the characters (I used a picture from the movie The Young Victoria) may have been unknown to the guests, so I thought pictures could help.

The final bit of décor was the favors. I happened to have teapot shaped cookie cutters, so I made cookies and packaged them in treat bags with "Love" seals, also scored in the Beverly's clearance bin. Learn how to get beautifully iced cookies using the flooding method via Martha Stewart.

Stay tuned for the food and fun!

Pink Slipped

This year I've moved up in the ranks. No more am I a lowly temporary employee. Nay! Now I am probationary. As a probationary teacher, they have to officially lay me off each year. Thus, last Tuesday when my principal came to me to inform me that I would be receiving my preliminary notification (that I would be laid off), I chose gratitude and thanked her. Then I thanked God that he had provided a job for me for the second time in a row with almost no effort on my part.

So I'm giving thanks that I had a job this year, and I'm waiting on God to see about a job for next year.