Those Silly Sisters Book Giveaway

I have a friend from college, Erica Stidham, who has recently published a children's book called Those Silly Sisters: Swimming in the Rain.

Here's the book description:

Katie and Claire absolutely love adventures. But even more than adventures, they adore being silly. Thankfully for them, their Mommy loves that too! In their first adventure, Katie and Claire wake up excited for one of Mommy's special "promise days". Unfortunately, they quickly discover that a cloudy, rainy day has put a stop to their plans.

Luckily, Katie quickly thinks of a way to turn the day into one of their most memorable ever! Be sure to join the silly sisters as they embark on many more amazing adventures!

I'm so excited for her that I want to give one of you a copy of her book.

Leave a comment on this post telling me a favorite memory from your childhood. I'll use the Random Number Generator to choose a winner on Thursday, my birthday. Open to anyone...I'll pick up the shipping if a non-US resident wins (the books are shipped from Texas).

And if you don't win, you should definitely pick up a copy of the book for your daughter, granddaughter, niece, sister, or friend!

Thankful Tree

Andrea invited us over last Friday to make a thankful tree (or "think before tree" as Levi calls it). You can see her post about it here, including the inspiration behind it.

Andrea procured all the supplies (not an easy task here!), and all I had to do was show up. I love projects like that! Andrea did hers all nice and neat with iron-on backing, but I just glued mine together. ;-)

All the pieces are glued on except the small leaves with writing on them. Those are our thankful leaves...what we each are thankful for during this season of our lives. They will be removed and replaced with new ones next year.

If you read my Facebook status recently, "Jesus died on the cross" should not surprise you. (For those of you avoiding Facebook, Levi was shouting at the top of his lungs last week as we were leaving dinner, "JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS!")

So many things to be thankful for, and we're adding new ones all the time. I love this tree because it is something tangible the boys can see. (When Caleb saw that Levi had said he was thankful for Mommy and Daddy, Caleb had to have one just like it. Cannot be outdone by little brother!)

Think Before

Tonight during "think before" (that's Levi-speak for "thankful for"), I told the boys they could list one thing they're thankful for. It usually turns in to a five-minute list of everything they can think of or see in front of them (pajamas, curtains, beds, stuffed moose, light, air conditioner, toy car, train, window, etc.). All of those are wonderful things to be thankful for, but I just wasn't in the mood to go through the entire list tonight. I just wanted them to list one thing, and I was sure it would be one of the little toys they were holding.

Levi's one thing tonight: Jesus made the waves stop (we read the story of Jesus calming the storm today)

Caleb's one thing: Jesus died on the cross

These kids amaze me sometimes. Before bed Caleb was telling me how Jesus and God both loved him so much. Then we started talking about how Jesus and God are the same but separate but the same...and then I decided trying to explain the Trinity to a five-year-old might be a little much!

I love them SO much!

Just a Little Light Reading

I go through phases in my reading; some months I read a lot of fiction, and some months I read non-fiction (some months I'm too tired to do anything more than get my weekly study done and prepare for the one I teach). These are the books I've purchased recently and are currently in different stages of being read. Dig Deeper is a great book about tools to help in Bible study. Doing other people's studies is a good thing, but I really want to learn to study the Word better on my own.

That orange book? Scares me to death. But I know I need to read it. I need to take a hard look at Jesus' teachings and evaluate my life against them. I'm just afraid of all the yuck I'm going to find (in my life).

But I want more of Him, so I'm diving in.