Renewing my Mind

The kids and I have been doing a lot of memory work in home school this fall. So far, without even really planning this in the beginning, we have memorized six poems together as well as several memory verses.
We attended a family retreat in early September where they challenged us to memorize chapters of the Bible rather than select verses. The idea was to get the entire context of the verses rather than just pulling them out at random. We chose Philippians 4 for various reasons, and we have been working our way through the chapter ever since.
We were also encouraged to put the verses to rhythm or song, and, after some deliberation and many rejected tunes, we settled on a classical piece. We sing the verses every school day, and S has come to recognize the tune. He will "dance" to it when we sing it, and he always receives it with a big smile on his face.
I have found myself singing the verses at odd times throughout the day, and I occasionally hear the kids doing so as well. I have even found myself thinking of the verses at night as I try to go to sleep. Usually, my mind races with everything that has happened that day as well as what we plan to accomplish the following day. When the verses run through my head instead, I find I have a much easier time falling asleep.
Memorizing this passage with the kids has positively influenced our lives. I look forward to completing this passage and tackling the next one. It is so much easier to meditate on His words day and night when they are such a built-in part of our daily lives.

Jellybean Jars

I saw this link online about a Lent activity for kids using jelly beans and jars. Each color represents something different, and they have an opportunity to earn one of each color each day. White represents the grace of God, and it cannot be earned. On Easter they will find the remainder of their jars filled with white jelly beans.

I thought this would be a great activity to do with my kids over the next few weeks, so yesterday, I bought a couple of bags of jellybeans and some small canning jars. We sorted the jellybeans by color, and the kids were very curious as to how they could earn jellybeans for their own jars. Today, they went out of their way to model the appropriate behavior for each color, earning jellybeans for forgiveness, kindness, sacrifice, and more.

Although we started this craft a tad late in the season, I am looking forward to the discussions and behavior this activity will inspire.

Liturgical Ballet

K's ballet teacher put together a liturgical ballet performance last Saturday. K was the youngest dancer, but she didn't let that intimidate her. Upon arrival, she changed into her dress and dance shoes and waited patiently for her turn.

K's dance was second on the program, and she began by reciting the 23rd Psalm. She then danced to "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" before taking her bow and exiting the stage. Due to a mistake on my part, we missed filming the whole performance, but I do know that I couldn't stop smiling proudly the whole time.

I think it is great that she was able to get up in front of a group of people with no fear. It is a skill that will carry her far in life.