Prayer

How about you?  Do you pray?  As a Christian, I know my heavenly Father desires to talk to me and to hear my thoughts a regular basis.  In fact, He says we should pray continually.

       1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) 

                 ¹⁶Be joyful always; ¹⁷pray continually; ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in    Christ Jesus.

Yet despite prayer being my lifeline to God, along with the Bible, I just don't do it enough.  I certainly cannot say that I pray continually.  I cannot even say that I have a special time devoted just to prayer during my day that never changes.  


What I can say is that I am ever thankful for the grace that God gives me daily.  He gives me so much more than I deserve!  And he extends His mercy to me, too. 


Easter may be over, but I am ever thankful that Jesus died for me.  That He willingly gave himself up...for me and for you.  Without His blood, I'd be eternally separated from God.  


I know I'm not the only one who struggles with prayer, so I just wanted to remind you about the book that someone will win tomorrow.  It's called A Praying Life and you can win it by going here.  You don't need a blog to enter...just make sure you leave your email address.  It's a great book that has really addressed some of the issues that I (and many others) have regarding praying.

Helping Hands

After a messier-than-usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I explained to M, our three year old, that E's hands needed to be washed, she took it upon herself to help him, just like Mommy sometimes needs to help her.  

"Suds, suds, suds."  She even dried his hands!

We use an adult two-step stool in our powder room for easy access to the children.  It was not until today that learned two children fit on it though!  If you have a short toddler, I highly recommend a bit sturdy stool!  (It's great for M when I "need" help in the kitchen, too.)

If you are curious why M uses the words "suds" instead of "soap," it's because of a little book that we have that she enjoys called Rub-a-Dub Suds.  It's a First Start Easy Reader.  We like it because it has simple words that M has been able to say for quite a while.  She loves it because it's all about Tammy, a pig, who loves suds during bath time.  M can relate!

Mrs. Wishy-Washy Early Readers

Recently Hameray Publishing Group sent me several books in the all-new Joy Cowley Collection to review. Joy Cowley's beloved character Mrs. Wishy-Washy was introduced in 1980 (just before I was learning to read) with lots of titles and additional characters added over time. These books offer high interest stories written at the first and second grade reading levels.

My 3 year old loves these books. The mom and former elementary teacher in me loves every bit of these books, too! M truly enjoys each book, but Meanies in the House and The Hungry Giant's Baby are by far the ones she requests most often (and sometimes multiple times in one day). We also have Mrs. Wishy- Washy and the Big Wash, Smarty Pants at the Circus and Dan's Lost Hat.  Problem solving seems to come easily with these stories, whether by the characters in the book or the child reading the books.   The characters are fabulous and return in additional books (not listed here).  Our three year old laughs out loud to the incidents in these funny books!

ABOUT JOY COWLEY:

Joy Cowley is a multi-award-winning New Zealand-based author of more than 800 titles. She is widely recognized for supporting literacy programs and writing materials for struggling readers in the primary grades.

For her services to children’s writing, Cowley was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen of England in 1992. Other honors include an honorary doctorate from Massey University, and a Dame Order of Merit from the Royal Crown in her native New Zealand.

ABOUT THE JOY COWLEY COLLECTION:

The all-new Joy Cowley Collection is specifically written for early readers. The Guided Reading Levels of the titles within the series range from H to M, and the Early Intervention Levels range from 14 to 20. Teacher notes are included in the back section of each book.

What I Like: Everything! The stories and illustrations are engaging, yet short enough for young reader to not be frustrated. The stories rhyme! The font is large and readable. They often have some bold-faced words repeated throughout the book that is especially fun for a pre-reader. Every book has a teacher notes in the back. Each book states the word count. Whether you are just a parent reading with your child, a homeschool family, or a teacher, it's very helpful to have the teacher notes right there.  

What I Dislike: One thing that I think would be helpful would be to have the Guided Reading Level and Intervention Level written on the book. As a former teacher, I do understand why it is also beneficial to leave it off. Children in a classroom "compare notes" and know which books are more difficult than others and who are reading the "easy" books and who are reading the "hard" books.

If you are interested in purchasing these books you can click on the above links. You can also find many more great books and resources at Hameray Publishing.

If you are a fan of Joy Cowley's books, you can show it by becoming a fan of Mrs. Wishy-Washy on facebook.

Thank you Hameray for the opportunity to review these books.  

Winner!

Congratulations to Lisa! Random.org picked #10 as the winner of the What's in the Bible video giveaway!

If you are interested check out our current giveaway!

Have a blessed week!

Prayer Cards and a Book for YOU

A new giveaway! Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day for the other giveaway. With my Bible study at church, we read through the book A Praying Life

by Paul E. Miller. Honestly, I was not thrilled about reading this book. I guess I just thought it would say the things that I had already heard or read that just didn't work for me. I WAS WRONG!

This book was so real and refreshing. I found that it spoke to my heart about prayer. It was an easy read on a difficult subject.

It also gave me a great idea for using prayer cards that is actually working for me. Prayer lists and journaling had not been too effective for me.

I have permission from NavPress to share Paul E. Miller's guidelines for creating prayer cards.

1. Use short phrases to create a snapshot of a person's life to help the cards work for you.
2. When praying for the person, pick out one or two key areas and pray for them. Miller doesn't linger over a card for more than a few seconds.
3. Use Scripture to express your desire for the person or a situation.
4. The card does not change much. Miller may add a new line once a year or so for something that is an ongoing area of the person's life that needs prayer.
5. Miller does not write down answers since they are obvious to him.
6. Miller sometimes dates a prayer request by putting the month and year.

The prayer card helps me to focus on one person at a time. As you can see in the picture above, I "bold-faced" some key words by going over my handwriting twice. You can see many of the verses I chose to use for us. I spent a lot of time in the Bible looking up verses on different subjects deciding how I really wanted to pray for us. Now these cards are actually helping me to memorize more Scripture...an added bonus.

Above are my immediate family members' cards. In chapter 27, where Miller discusses the prayer cards, he also explains about cards for those suffering, non-Christians, and friends.

I keep my prayer cards above the kitchen sink. It works for me, though I don't change the cards with wet hands. My cards are a bit larger than the suggested 3x5, but they work for me for now.

This blog post shares enough to get you started, but if you are interested in reading A Praying Life, NavPress has agreed to give a copy to one of our readers!

For a chance to win A Praying Life, leave a comment below telling me why you would like it. Make sure I have a way to contact you!

For a bonus entry, leave an additional comment if you follow me through Google Friends Connect. (If not, just click the button to follow in the sidebar!) Giveaway ends Sunday, April 11th, at 9pm. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller, copyright 2009. Used by permission of NavPress, all rights reserved. www.navpress.com This post is just about a book that I like and a system that works for me. I was not provided the book for review.

Happy Easter

May your day be blessed as you celebrate the risen Christ!

 ⁶"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him


~Mark 16:6

Polka Dotted and Striped Eggs

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

We had some fun making these eggs.  M's favorite part was squirting glue all over the paper eggs!  Last year we made button eggs, but this year we added the rickrack to them for stripes.  I think it adds a great touch!

Two cautions: 1) Little girls with long hair need their hair in pony tails, bun, hair net...something...so that you are not attempting to scrape glue out of her hair for so long.  2)  If you have a 1 1/2 year old child...they might be a bit young for this if you have not done many other crafts together.  E put four buttons on an egg, but really he wanted to eat the buttons and play in the glue.  Silly me.