Bless your Favorite Gal Pals with Galentine’s Day Bath Bombs

It has been a crazy, busy year, and, as I keep reading articles like this one, I’m reminded that it’s been an especially difficult time for moms and working moms. I’ll confess I wasn’t very excited for Valentine’s Day this year as it’s just another holiday we’ll celebrate at home, but as it approached, I was reminded of another, equally awesome holiday I’ve always wanted to celebrate: Galentine’s Day.

If you aren’t familiar, you should stop reading this and go watch Parks and Rec, because it is literally the best show ever. You can also check out this quick explanation of Galentine’s Day, but really it’s way better if you just watch every Leslie Knope moment that exists.

I would love to gather all my dear friends in one place for an enormous Galentine’s Day breakfast, but since that isn’t possible this year, I wanted to find another way to bless my (very tired) mom friends. Here’s what I did: I made some homemade bath bombs (recipe below), packaged them with some fancy chocolate and rounded things out with a few other goodies specific to each friend. A few will go in the mail and the rest will be delivered to local friends this weekend.

Pandemic life has been crazy hard and the reality is it’s not even close to over yet. The only way we’ll get through this is by encouraging one another. Celebrating silly holidays, showing up to wave happy birthday from the driveway, reaching out when we don’t feel like we have the energy is what will get us through. So hold one another up this February 13 by blessing your own gal pals with fun Galentine’s Day treats! I guarantee you’ll brighten someone’s day.

Bath Bomb Recipe:

This is adapted from this recipe and this recipe both from Kiwi Co. The cornstarch slows the fizzing process so that the bath bomb lasts longer, but you can omit it if you want a more simple recipe. Citric acid can be found in most major grocery stores near the other canning supplies. You can also include essential oils when you add the olive oil. This recipe made about 15 bath bombs with the molds I used. Larger molds will yield less, smaller molds will yield more.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup baking soda
• 1/2 cup epsom salt
• 1/2 cup citric acid
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• food coloring (optional)
• water

First, mix together the baking soda, epsom salt, citric acid and cornstarch. 

Before adding the liquids, make sure you’re ready to stir as soon as possible. You’ll likely see some fizzing when you add any liquid to the mixture, but we don’t want things to fizz quite yet, so you’ll want to begin stirring as soon as possible after adding liquids.

Add the olive oil, mixing quickly after it’s been added. Once the olive oil is thoroughly mixed in, add food coloring (if you’re including that), mixing until it’s all combined.

Finally, you’re going to add water. I use a spray bottle for this as it allows me to add small amounts of water and reduces the fizzing a bit. You want to add water until the mixture feels like wet sand and holds a shape. You don’t want it fizzing a lot, that’s a sign that you’ve added too much water. And you don’t want it to be dry and loose, that’s a sign that you’ve added too little water. I spray a bit of water and mix everything together, than feel a bit of the mixture to see if it’s right. If not, I add more water until I have the right consistency.

Now, you’re ready to make your bath bombs into shapes. You can find a lot of different molds for bath bombs, but an easy option almost anyone will have on hand is a plastic Easter eggs or small paper cups. I used the really fun bath bomb maker that came in this Kiwi Crate for mine.

Press the mixture firmly into the mold. You’ll leave it in the mold to dry so you’ll need to have enough molds for all your mixture.

You’ll want to let your bath bombs air dry for at least 4-6 hours. I like to leave mine overnight. Then remove them from the molds and share them with your favorite gal pals!

5 Fantastic Advent Devotionals for Busy Families

It's hard to believe that Advent is less than a week away! Being that it took me this late in November to write up a post of Advent suggestions (in the craziness and busyness of mom life!), I figured I should focus on easy, approachable Advent devotionals that will fit into any family's schedule. Here are five of my favorites this year:

Jesse Tree: God's Big Advent Story from Faith Formation Ministries

This fantastic free printable resource includes just four simple steps each day: breath, read, wonder, pray. This is a great option for families looking for something simple, but that goes beyond just reading a Bible story. You'll be amazed at the discussion sparked by the wondering questions, and there are countless ways you can use the beautiful symbols. You can check out just a few examples in this helpful post: Super Ideas for Making and Using Jesse Tree: God's Big Advent Story.

The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Calendar by Sally Lloyd-Jones 

This is a free printable resource that goes with The Jesus Storybook Bible. I especially like using this with young kids as it's short, but meaningful. The readings move through the Old Testament, anticipating Christ with each story. The guide has been updated this year, with beautiful circular symbols that can be made into ornaments, a coloring page and activity page, and a Christmas playlist from Sally Lloyd-Jones.

The Christmas Countdown: Creating 25 Days of New Advent Traditions for Families by Margie Harding

One of the things I like about this Advent devotional is that each day includes an adult challenge and a child prompt. Each week also has an overarching theme. In addition to the child and adult prompts each day includes a scripture reading, a key verse, a devotional and a family activity. Many of the days also include a Christmas carol you can sing together as a family. 

The Advent of the Lamb of God by Russ Ramsey

I read through this last Advent and really enjoyed it. Ramsey retells stories from the Old Testament in short narrative style chapters. It was a great way to bring the biblical account alive in a new and different way. This is a great read for a parent's Advent study, but would also be a great read aloud option for slightly older kids. The chapters are fairly short and easy to get through each night.

Advent Wreath Readings

Not sure you'll have time for any real devotionals, or readings? Keep it even simpler! Put together a simple wreath (I've written up several ideas in this Network post) and then light the appropriate candles for whatever week it is in Advent each evening at dinner. You can keep it really simple and just remind your children what week it is each night as you light that candles, emphasizing that Advent helps us prepare for and remember Christ's coming. Or, you could also use one of these simple readings from Reformed Worship to assign meaning to the candles each week.

Interested in checking out more Advent resources for church and home? Check out this Advent Resource Roundup I posted on the Network this week!

This Week's Favorite Books for Nurturing Kingdom Kids: Back to School Edition

My son starts kindergarten tomorrow so I have back to school on the brain! The wonderful thing about all of these books is that you can read them to prepare for back to school or at anytime in the first few weeks of school as many of them deal with some of those early year anxieties and issues kids may face.

School's First Day of School, Adam Rex and Christian Robinson
Age: Kindergarten-2nd
Type: Picture Book
What I Love
This is the first day of school from the school's perspective and it's absolutely adorable and completely hysterical all at once. My son laughed out loud for several minutes when the book complained about having milk shot out someone's nose and onto him (the school) during recess. It's a very sweet story and gives kids a sense of how they should respect their school space as well as their classmates and teachers.

All are Welcome, Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman
Age: Preschool-3rd
Type: Picture Book
What I Love
This is a great way to let children know that they'll feel welcome on their first day. It's a bit more positive that The Day You Begin (which I write about below). The diversity throughout is absolutely beautiful. I think it would be helpful for kids returning to school, kindergartners going for the first time or children attending a new school. It reminds them both that they will be welcome and that they should be welcoming to other kids.

The Day You Begin, Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael Lopez
Age: Kindergarten-3rd
Type: Picture Book
What I Love
This book reads almost like an encouraging poem. I like how it talked about a kid not being sure they had great enough adventures over the summer and being anxious about what to share with their classmates. It also shares anxieties over the way you talk, dress or what you eat. It's really beautifully done and a great read for any kids starting a new school year.

We Don't Eat our Classmates, Ryan T. Higgins
Age: Preschool-1st
Type: Picture Book
What I Love
This book is just adorable and funny. The dinosaur actually does eat his classmates, so be ready for that! But don't worry--he also spits them back up. This book deals with the difficulty with making new friends in a really fun, low-key way. And the diversity throughout it is beautifully done.

Is your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?, Audrey Vernick and Daniel Jenney
Age: Preschool-Kindergarten
Type: Picture Book
What I Love
This is best for kindergartners, obviously. I loved that it dealt with a lot of the fears children entering kindergarten might be facing, but it was assigned to a buffalo so it wasn't telling of the fears in a way that would cause the child to worry about those things if they aren't already.

Two other great books that didn't make my top five, but are wonderful are 

• How to Get your Teacher Ready--This one helps kids to think about how a teacher might feel going through a school year for the first-time.
• The Kissing Hand--A classic that is especially great for kids that are new to school.

Happy Back to School, everyone!

Easter Relief Crosses

Apparently I've had a busy month! I just noticed that my last post was almost a month ago. I have no idea where those last 30 days went, but I suppose I'll just chalk it up to the busyness of the Easter season when you work at a church.

That busyness is also why I'm sharing this post now, instead of a week ago, when you could have actually made plans to use something like this on Easter Sunday. (sorry!) Luckily, cross crafts are helpful things to include no matter what time of year! This is one of my favorite crafts I've done with the kids at my church.

We read The Garden, The Curtain and the Cross, on Easter Sunday. What a fantastic book--if you don't have it, I would highly recommend ordering a copy. As an OT scholar, I love how it relates the sin in the garden to the temple curtain to Jesus death on the cross. It's such a beautiful snapshot of the biblical story from beginning to end.

To remind our Children and Worship students (age 4-2nd Grade) that Jesus' death on the cross allows us to once again be in relationship with God, we made relief crosses afterward. This was a fun combination of process and project art--I made a ton of different art supplies available and let kids pick which ones they wanted to use. Options included:

• Pastels (Amazon affiliate link)
• Chalk (Purchased at Target)
• Paints (Amazon affiliate link)
• Crayons (I used Twistable Crayons because the kids love them!)
• Markers

I was amazed how evenly spaced the kids were--there really was someone who wanted to do everything. I taped the crosses to card stock ahead of time, using this painters tape (affiliate link), but you could also have the kids tape them. After the kids were done filling the paper with color, we peeled the tape away and voila! Beautiful cross picture!

Just so you're ready, the tape did stick to a few papers, but I just slowly kept pulling it off and found that only a small top layer of the paper came off with the tape. I love that this craft allowed all kids to make a beautiful picture, no matter their art skills. The kids seemed to enjoy it and it was like magic peeling away that tape and seeing the beautiful picture that remained.

A stiff-necked people

We did the Golden Calf story in Children & Worship and in my Bible Study last week which reminded me of this piece I wrote in July 2018.


Lunch today was rough. Partway into our meal I saw my son sucking grapes into his mouth. I’ve caught him doing this once before—it’s hard to explain with words, but he sucks them in with such force that you can just picture them hurtling back and getting lodged into his wind pipe. I can be overly paranoid sometimes, but I decide this isn’t one of those times. I ask him to stop, explaining that he could choke. My husband agrees—confirmation that I’m not being overly cautious.

At this point I should add that my son is going through an obstinate phase. Lately, it seems to be his goal in life to disobey any request from his parents. So it shouldn’t have surprised me too much when I turn a minute later and see his wide eyes, shocked face and mouth open in a way that shows he is clearly choking. I alert my husband and as he pulls my son out of his chair to give him the Heimlich, the grape, thankfully, dislodges from my son’s throat. My daughter, son and I all dissolve into tears as my husband stands staring—all of us in shock.

A few hours later, I get the kids settled down for naps and collapse in front of Parks and Rec, knitting in hand. Now that I’m sitting and still, the events from lunch rush back to me. Eventually I turn off the TV (you know it’s bad when Leslie Knope can’t cheer you up) and open my Bible. I land in Exodus and read about the Golden Calf incident. Tears fill my eyes for the second time today as I once again see my obstinate son staring at me with wide, scared eyes, unable to breathe:

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

My child has a stiff-neck. Oh my goodness, does my child have a stiff-neck. He never would tell me what caused him to choke, but I’m fairly certain he either sucked in another grape or tried to get it lodged into his throat. He’s curious so I’m sure he just wanted to understand what would happen when he choked. (Thankfully, I don’t think he’ll try that again.) As I read in Exodus, I'm smacked in the face with the realities of the fall—the realities of human nature. Why do we insist on doing what is bad for us? This is the story again and again throughout history. It starts with Adam and Eve eating the fruit when they know they shouldn’t, but it doesn’t stop there.

In Exodus 20, God gives Moses the 10 Commandments, which includes a command that his people must not have any other gods before Him. Two chapters later, Moses tells all of these commandments to the people of Israel and they proclaim, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses returns to Mount Sinai to receive further instruction from God and, while he’s gone, the Israelites get impatient. So Aaron, Moses’ brother, makes them a golden calf. The people worship it, saying, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” (32:4). From Adam and Eve, to the Israelites, to me, to my dear son—we are a stiff-necked people.

In the time of ancient Israel, there were clear examples of stiff-necks. They would have worked with donkeys and mules regularly and realized how difficult it can be to convince the creatures to do what you want. “Stiff-neck” would have brought to mind the master trying to turn the animal’s head to direct it, only to have the creature outright refuse to move its head. This is a helpful visual for me. I spend my days trying to direct the steps of my precious children. Many days I feel like they are outright refusing that direction.

Sure there are times I’m directing them a certain way because that’s what I want or need at that moment. Just as the owner of a donkey would be directing it to do his work—not necessarily something the animal wanted to do, but something that needed to be done. But there are other times when the animal’s master is directing him for his own good—directing him away from a pit or a steep precipice—moving him away from danger. Why, oh why, do my children have to have stiff-necks in these moments? Why can’t they recognize that I’m only trying to keep them safe?

When God tells Moses that his people have rebelled against him in the verses I quote above, he declares a desire to just wipe them all out and start over with Moses. But in the end, God doesn’t destroy his people. He does punish them, but he still remains committed to them as his people. He still takes care of them and ultimately he still gives them all the blessings he has promised. Shortly after he agrees to spare their lives, he reveals himself to Moses, declaring the following:

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

If I’m honest with myself, I’m just as stiff-necked as my kids. I’m stubborn and insistent on getting my way, even when it’s not the best thing for me. Yet the Lord extends mercy and grace to me. He is slow to anger, even in my repetitive disobedience. He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness for me, even in my fallen, depraved state.

Back to present day. My children are, of course, not sleeping. I am, of course, exhausted and in need of sleep. I want to do everything but forgive my son right now, but that’s what I do. I forgive him for disobeying. I forgive him for terrifying me. I forgive him for every time today, this week, and this month he’s done something I’ve told him not to do. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but neither do I. So I extend to him the gracious, loving forgiveness of which I’m a grateful recipient.

Celebrating World Down Syndrome Day

The kids and I sported our crazy mismatched socks for World Down Syndrome Day today! My son immediately thought it was so fun and couldn't believe I was telling him to put on different socks. But he, of course, also wanted to know why. I thought I was ready for this question--I explained the reason different socks are used to celebrate Down Syndrome. I started with the idea that socks look a little like chromosomes and people with down syndrome have an extra chromosome. I then realized I had to explain what chromosomes are so I threw a quick, simple explanation of that in. I then talked about my Uncle Dan and how he had Down Syndrome. By the end, I think my son may have been starting to grasp the idea for different socks, but he also was clearly mixing up his Uncle Dan with my Uncle Dan. It was definitely not my clearest explanation.

Which made me realize how little I've equipped myself for this conversation. Having two healthy kids, I haven't really thought much about how I would share with them about genetic conditions. This is a little crazy to me, because there was never a point in my own life where I didn't know about down syndrome.

Growing up with an uncle who had Down Syndrome, I always knew what it was. Because he was a family member, but not a sibling, most people didn't know I had a connection to someone with Downs unless they made some insensitive comment. But my understanding of and connection to Downs was something I always carried with me.

My uncle was a truly amazing person. When he was born, they told my grandmother that she shouldn't even bother taking him home since he likely wouldn't live through the night. My grandmother was one of the most stubborn women I've known. At times that made life difficult for me and my family. But I'm grateful for her stubborn nature, because I know that's what made her firmly say, "He's my son and I'm taking him home." He lived into his late 40s--a long, healthy life for someone with Down Syndrome.

He loved country music and always had a particular album he was hoping for at Christmas or his birthday. Wanting to make sure he got it, he would tell everyone he knew what he wanted. Of course, as a result, he ended up with, not just one, but many copies. He was so beloved that no one could resist buying him whatever he asked for.

Eventually, I'll pass all of these stories on to my kids. We'll look at old pictures and I'll tell them all about my Uncle Dan and what a special person he was. I do some of that now, but it's hard for them to fully grasp the meaning of the stories.

But I'm encouraged that I feel this burden to pass on to them a love for and respect of those different from them. It would be easy not to deal with things like Down Syndrome until my kids are exposed to it, but I would encourage those reading to have these conversations now--even if they're tricky. My uncle grew up in a time when no one knew about Down Syndrome and I think that was often difficult for him. Awareness can be such a game changer when living with something like Downs. My hope is that by having these difficult conversations now, when my children are young, I'm raising them to celebrate differences. Long term, I hope this will enable them to respond to those who are different-abled with kindness and love.

Craft Time: Paper Chain Lent Countdown

For some reason this is the first year my kids have really acknowledged the season of Lent and I have to say, they are very confused by it. We've talked about how it's a time that leads up to Easter, which they understand. But then, when they ask how soon Easter is, they are confused that it's still so far away. I think what is especially hard is the length of Lent. At 46 days, Lent is almost double the length of Advent. It's especially hard for my kids to understand how long this time is because we don't have a lent equivalent of an Advent calendar that we can move through. Each day they are closer to Easter, but they have no visual representation of this movement.

I was thinking about all of this when I came across Sally Llyod-Jones suggestion to make a paper chain to show the length of Lent. This seemed like the perfect solution! It gives the kids a visual for the length of Lent and was something we could make together. Here's how we made ours:

I wanted to use this project to recycle some of our paper grocery bags, so to start, I used my quilting mat and cutter to cut out the sides of three grocery bags.

Then, we painted the insides of the paper bags. We used simple washable paints, like these, and these dot markers (afiiliate links).

Once our artwork had dried, I cut the paper bags into 2" strips and then cut those strips in half to make the links for our chain. Be sure to cut enough strips. You'll need 1 for each day in Lent, plus one for Easter morning if you want. If you made it today so that you can start taking chains off tomorrow, you would need 41. (Remember, with Sundays, there are 46 days in Lent, not counting Easter Sunday. We are on day 6).

Then we began to assemble the chain. We taped our edges, but you could also use a glue stick. I let the kids do the taping, which they loved.

As we went, I wrote the names of the stories we'll read from the Jesus Storybook Bible on the back of the chains. That way, as we take the chains off, they'll tell us what story we should read that day.
(I left the Sunday chains blank since those are catch up days.)

Here's our completed chain! We'll take one link off each day until it's Easter Sunday. We had so much fun making it and the kids have such a better sense of Lent now that they can see how long the chain is. 

It took us a couple hours total to make our chain, but if you do something more simple--construction paper with numbers--it would take even less time that that. Since I wanted to reuse paper bags, we had a larger process for making ours. We only finished ours yesterday so, even though Lent has already started, I would say it's not too late to make one. No matter when you start, it will be a helpful and fun activity for kids.