I leave for Haiti in a few days, so stop by and read all the new posts from incredible guest bloggers.

Moms, I found this super cool blogger Frugal Upstate that had a great article on snowy day activities to do when school is closed and your kids are starring at you to be fun!  I came up with snow ice cream, but Jenn came up with 40+ things to do outside & inside.

40 Things to do on a School Snow Day- click here for list!

“When I was a kid having a school snow day was like an unexpected gift-suddenly, for no reason you get a WHOLE DAY, right smack in the middle of the week.  No school!! The thrill! The joy!

Every time there was so much as a flake in the sky we’d scramble for the radio and listen anxiously hoping against hope that in the regular mix of morning show banter and songs we’d get that magical list of schools that were closed.  And oh the anxiety if we caught the list half way through. . . we’d have to wait another 10 minutes until they ran through it again!

As an adult with 2 primary school aged children to entertain I have to admit that snow days don’t fill me with quite the same joy they once did.  I work on letting go of my anxiety about all the things I’m “supposed” to be getting done and use it as a special day to connect with my kids.  With a little thought and inspiration you can use snow days to build special memories with your kids-even teens!”

To get you started on your own snow day fun, here are 40 fun things to do on a school snow day.

 

#1 – Thank you Ijames Family for the amazing Christmas cookout and hayride- it was the wildest ride of my life (aka Jack Bauer!)

#2 – This was my mom’s 15th annual Christmas Cookie Party. You throw the best parties, mom!

#3 – Christmas Night. Santa visited our home before we left for our 14 day road trip (thanks Santa!!)

#4 – Road trip craziness!! Headed to CO and AZ with 1 van + 3 kids + fun!

#5 – Gibson girls enjoying the snow and sun!

#6 – I love my big, crazy family!!

#7 – Sisters-of-the-heart

#8 – Zoie wonders if that tongue could really be real?

#9 – We had the best day at the Phx. zoo! We have our own “Bear” in the family (way to go Michael)

#10 – Hannah wearing Nanny Gibson’s wedding dress.

It’s easy to be a guest blogger:

1. Email me your story ready to post- you are the writer & editor. karigib@gmail.com
2. Share 1-3 photos of your family or subject clip art.
3. Include your blog link to share with readers (if you want)

Please send me your guest posts before Jan. 20th. Thank you so much!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Zoie!!!! We thank God every day for you!!

Personally, I am a big fan of art projects that allow children to be completely creative rather than “color in the lines” or follow a pattern.  But in spite of this, my daughter loves to color as well as draw and do every kind of art.

I recently ran across this adorable nativity scene printable and knew Abby would love making and admiring it throughout the Christmas season.  She did!  And as you can tell, she was plenty creative with color choices!
This is a great project for your whole family to do together, and  you probably have all the supplies already on hand: crayons, paper, glue sticks or tape, and…..maybe….cardboard tubes (toilet paper, paper towel, gift wrap).

In this photo you’ll notice we made only shepherds and sheep visiting baby Jesus’ family at the manger.  The artist who created these printables makes wise men and camels available on her site also.  Maybe one of these days I’ll draw a little house scene and toddler Jesus for the wise men figures to visit.  Or we could make some wise men and and camels and put them on the other side of the living room to demonstrate they have a long, long journey ahead.

If you don’t have cardboard tubes on hand, this project will work great if you print the pages on paper or cardstock and simply roll each piece and tape its seams together in the back.  If I do this project again, that’s how I’ll do it.
printables available at:
http://catholicicing.com/2009/12/diy-printable-nativity-for-kids/

OK, blogger friends- what’s your favorite craft for the holiday season? If you have a craft to share or want to link up your post here … we’d love your ideas.

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I am a part of a wild and crazy family who love big, talk loud, and who individually wrestles with God’s role in our lives.  Early in October I had the privilege of spending a month in Washington helping care for my 92-year-old Grandmother and it was by far one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  During that time, I witnessed beauty and passionate love in a profound, unforgettable way as I watched my mother, brothers, and sister-in-laws tenderly love and care for Grandma and as I witnessed my Grandma face death with dignity and grace.  She was a darling woman who had cared unselfishly for her family for countless years.  After our Grandfather passed away, she lived alone for more than 30 years in her home until the day she went into the hospital.  She rarely complained, loved relentlessly, and laughed easily.  Her home was a safe haven for all who entered and the mixture of Tide laundry detergent, Downey fabric softener, and baking … created an enticing aroma I have tried to replicate in my home to this day! She rarely verbally professed her faith and for most of her life seemed to wrestle with her spiritual connection to a loving Savior.

Though her mind remained sharp, her body began to deteriorate and we struggled to keep her comfortable.  In a short period of time she went from being able to care for herself to hardly managing simple hygiene or walking from room to room. Once in the hospital, however, she remained compassionate and patient with doctors and nurses and her sense of humor kept us laughing throughout the day.  The amazing thing about her attitude was that she was in excruciating pain that became increasingly difficult to manage.  As the doctors experimented with combinations of medications in an attempt to keep her comfortable, Grandma began to experience hallucinations and confusion. A member of our family was able to spend nights with her in the hospital and one evening when her mind was extremely troubled, I decided to read scripture out loud to her.  When I came to Psalm 23, she began reciting it along with me as I read.  It was obvious she had hidden this Psalm in her heart as a young girl.  On several occasions she would ask my brothers and me, “What day is it?”  She would then say, “Well, honey … you pray for me when you go to church.”  I absolutely loved holding Grandma’s soft hand praying with her.  One evening when my youngest brother stayed with her, he said she recited Psalm 23 over and over throughout the night.  In the end, Grandma was at peace with her loving Savior and understood God’s abounding love for her.

I learned some very valuable lessons from this experience and have come to love my crazy loud family even more.  I saw beauty, compassion, patience, love, and understanding in them in ways I have not recognized before.  JJ Heller is my “new” favorite singer/songwriter and in her song “What Love Really Means,” she captures the essence of unconditional love … “dear God won’t you please send someone here who will love me for me … not for what I have done or what I will become.”  I love that!  And I want to be the kind of daughter, wife, sister, mother, and friend who will love like that … here on earth.  Because I believe that ultimately God wants us to share His kind of love … a kind of love that shouts, “… I will love you for you, not for what you have done or what you will become, I will love you for you, I will give you the love, the love that you never knew.”

I confess I have let petty differences and misunderstandings stand in the way of loving my family BIG at times.  Loving them simply for who they are without expectations of what I think they should become.  Through the pain of watching someone I loved dearly walk into the arms of a loving Savior … I have learned a valuable lesson in loving others … with God’s crazy kinda love!

You can personally email Kit at khoeck@suddenlink.net. I hope you will leave her a special comment today- it’s a gift to all bloggers.

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1 bag of chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

2 sticks butter

30+ club crackers (I also use saltine)

Now, start singing your favorite Christmas carol and mix it all together.

Preheat oven at 400.  Cover a jellyroll pan with foil and spray with non-stick spray.  Layer the crackers side by side on the bottom of pan.  Melt the butter and 1 cup of sugar until boiling.  Pour the melted butter over the crackers.  Bake in the oven for 12 minuets or until golden brown.  Pour the bag of chocolate chips over the cracker mix & bake again for 10 SECONDS ONLY!  Spread the melted chips over the top evenly.  Refrigerate or freeze until hard. Before serving- peel off the edge of foil and start breaking into pieces.  Santa’s Warning: you will eat yourself sick with Kringle Krunch and you will NOT have any leftovers.  I want to know what your crazy kids say when you make this special treat!

What’s your favorite treat to make for Christmas- leave your recipe link in the comments.

Layer those yummy crackers.

Pour the melted butter over crackers.

Bake & pour chocolates over- 10 seconds only!

Break or cut into squares!

No, this is not our home, but we all want to have a house that smells really good all year long!

Here are a few tips I found when selling your home, you must have everything looking good — and smelling good. Every house has a “smell,” whether it be good or bad, and you definitely want your home’s smell to be good. Sometimes you don’t have a lot of notice to show your home, so a few quick fixes to get your home smelling nice might prove useful.

1. Giving away 4 mission trips to 4 blessed bloggers!
2. Taking over 7,000 headbands YOU sent for princesses and princes in Africa!
3. Providing shoes to hundreds of orphans in Ethiopia- 300 turned into 782!
4. Watching Hannah hug Taylor Swift.
5. Sharing with my readers that we are moving to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2012!!! (I can’t WAIT to share more)

What are you thankful for today?

FREE ENTRIES TO WIN MISSION TRIP GIVEAWAY:

Here’s how you can get MORE entries into the drawing for the Visiting Orphans Mission Trip Giveaway:

1) Click here to buy a super stylish Simply Love or Man Up tshirt from our online store. 1 shirt = 1 entry and they make great gifts!!!

2) Between now and November 30th, you can get an additional entry into the drawing by first buying a mission trip tee and then spreading the word online to your friends and family about it. You can facebook Share or Tweet about it! Let us know via email that you helped get the word out and we’ll add an extra entry into the drawing for you! It’s that simple. And if you’ve already gotten your mission trip tees  – that’s ok – just spread the word and let us know that you did and we’ll still give you an extra entry!

EMAIL: admin@visitingorphans.org

Somebody IS going to win a free trip to any of our 13 countries. It COULD be YOU!!!!

Mission Trip Winner will be drawn on December 2, 2011 at our Give 2 Go Event in Nashville, TN. You do not need to be present to win.  

We are SO thankful for the thousands of team members who have gone on our trips and loved on precious children in our 13 partner countries. You have been the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of these. You have planted seeds of the Father’s love and reminded His little ones that they are not forgotten. You have made a difference. On behalf of each and every child that you have met, held, touched, loved and impacted – THANK YOU for being willing to get out of your comfort zone to Go. Be. Love. to orphans around the world.  

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Paula Deen’s corn casserole

You’ll need:

1 can whole kernel corn (drain)

1 can cream-style corn

1 package corn muffin mix (8 oz.)

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup shredded cheddar

This couldn’t be easier: 1) preheat the oven to 350 degrees 2) mix all ingredients, minus the cheese, together 3) pour into a greased baking dish.

After the casserole has baked for 45 minutes, or is set in the middle and golden brown, sprinkle with cheddar and put it back in the oven. Let the cheese melt, take the casserole out and enjoy this ridiculously buttery, semi-homemade dish.

Sandra’s mashed baked

You’ll need:

4 cups frozen hash browns

2 packages of butter and herb mashed potato mix (if they are 4 oz. each—or 1, 8 oz. package)

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups boiling water

2 cups french-fried onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the hash browns. Let them cook for about 5 minutes and then drain, being sure to keep 2 cups of the boiling water. Mix all ingredients together and then add the boiling water. Put in a greased casserole dish and bake for 35-45 minutes. Sprinkle with the french-fried onions and bake for another 5 minutes.

C’mon .. you know you luv craziness.

9 MORE DAYS LEFT TO ENTER MISSION TRIP GIVEAWAY- ENDS 12/2

Crazy Links I Love:

We are adopting a beautiful baby girl from Ethiopia and are hosting a fundraiser to help raise the funds to bring her home. Our agency told us we would probably have to wait up to a year for the referral of a healthy baby girl even though we were also on the special needs list. So we were unprepared when God started things moving faster and we got our referral after only two months. Now we are hurrying to pull the funds together before we leave for our court trip on December 1st. The fundraiser is called Give Five. We are asking people to donate $5 to help us raise $6,000. At our website www.projectfindher.org you can read our call story, our blog and follow our progress as our airplane graphic flies to Ethiopia and back. We also have a new t-shirt design on our site. Please come take a look.

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By: Brenda Arnold
“This is a very easy recipe for a delicious pot roast. It makes its own gravy. It’s designed especially for the working person who does not have time to cook all day, but it tastes like you did. You’ll want the cut to be between 5 and 6 pounds.”