Our Unexpected Guest: Harold, the Turtle March 30, 2014

Hello dear ones! Last Tuesday we had quite the surprise. A turtle showed up in our yard, most likely the hawk dropped him.  The little fella had a scratched up shell and part of it was bleeding just a bit. You may remember my story about the hawk that attacked Penny, our hen.

Best Hens Vs. the Hateful Hawk: A Valentine’s Story

Any ways, we can’t think of any other way the turtle got in our fenced in yard. For a moment I imagined he could be the baby turtle we had bought at the beach a couple years ago. It escaped out of the pool. But there’s no way it could’ve survived in our yard. The hawk probably caught Harold (I named him) in the nearby park and dropped him on the way to his nest. I hope the hawk doesn’t start dropping ducks or worse….snakes!

We decided to keep Harold until he healed. We set him next to Snowball, our guinea pig.  He, he, he…the pic reminds me of the Wonder Pets. Well, Harold recovered quicker than we thought. The next morning Michael ran to tell me that Harold had disappeared! Low and behold our little turtle had escaped and fallen on the floor! So sadly we decided that Harold was ready to be free. After church we took Harold to a pond and released him. It took a bit for him to swim away. We had to give him a push. He was happy to float and sun bathe. He really did look happy. I lingered a bit. I’ll miss the little guy.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Being an Honorary Tooth Fairy

Hello dear ones! Little man finally lost his top tooth. We do make believe different. Here’s how I became the Tooth Fairy. 🙂

So if you’ve followed this blog for long you know that we don’t teach that Santa or the Easter Bunny are real. We’ve had fun with leprechauns and other creatures of the imagination but I have a strong belief in lil man not putting real faith in the make believe.  So when little man brought up the Tooth Fairy I was surprised. He knows that these things aren’t real. Surely he was pulling one over on me. Michael had a mischievous glimmer in his eye when he said his tooth fairy had to have wings.  So in good fun I donned a pair of wings, grabbed my feather boa & wand, and became an honorary tooth fairy.

Usually I just stick money under Michael’s pillow but this time Michael was excited. We’ve been waiting on this one tooth to come out for awhile. So I found a tooth receipt online and I made a tooth pillow to stick a quarter in (the tooth fairy was broke). I had hoped Michael would wake up and see me so he could get a good laugh. He was sound asleep so I took a picture of myself and shrunk it. Little man still played innocent the next day when he said “I didn’t know you were a tooth fairy”.  Silly rabbit. Anywho, I printed out my own copy of the receipt so I could keep track of the teeth he’s lost. Then I placed it in my hiding place. Michael begged to be told where I keep his teeth but I didn’t divulge. A good tooth fairy keeps her secrets.

Tooth receipt: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/82824080621837094/

 

Ya know, I really enjoy playing with my son and I encourage him to use his imagination. We have a lot of fun, though we do things differently. I know that some people worry that kids will miss out on fun if they don’t actually believe the imaginary is real, but it’s not true. I’m a fantasy writer and my imagination takes me to amazingly fun places. I know it’s not real but it’s still fun. The same goes for my son. I prefer that he has faith in the one who can come through for him in times of need, Jesus Christ.

Santa, the Easter bunny, and the Tooth fairy are great but they’ll let you down if you put your worship and trust in them. They make lousy gods. Fantasy is great. I love it. But it doesn’t do much when you need a prayer answered. I’m not here to judge. I just want to put out there, that it’s possible to do things differently and you don’t have to fear that you’re ruining your kid’s childhood. Stick around my blog a  bit…my son has a blast yet we do things different.  However you parent, God bless you. You’re the parent of your kids not me.  I want to encourage those who are getting slammed because they don’t do make believe the traditional way. It’s okay. Your kiddo will be just fine as long as you love them & point them to God’s love.

I’d also like to say that it is possible to still have fun with make believe yet not put actual faith in it. This past Christmas we learned about Saint Nicholas. Little man pretended that he was Santa while we did random acts of kindness. He doesn’t pray to Santa but Michael could have fun with it. I kind of see it as not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Whatever you choose to do, it’s all about the heart. My main concern is hope, faith, and worship being put in the wrong things. Even real things and people can be idolized. It’s good to have an ongoing talk about who our heroes are. Superman and Batman can become idols just as much as Santa and the Easter Bunny. Mom and Dad can become idols too. It all comes back to pointing our kids to Christ as the main source of life, love, and goodness. He is the only one that won’t fail us. It’s a good idea for Mom and Dad to remember that too. Children weren’t mean’t to be gods either. Believe me, I’m preaching to the choir.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

PS: Do you have any Tooth Fairy traditions? Do you leave money or do something completely different? I’d love to hear about it. I’m sure we will have lots of fun with this in the future. I kind of like my wings…

 

St. Patty’s Day 2014 March 29, 2014

Hello dear ones! One of my favorite holidays is Saint Patrick’s Day. I love the story of how Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland. I love how he used the 3 leaf clover to explain the trinity.  I’ve got some great resources on last year’s post: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/crafty-monday-st-patricks-day-celebration-with-the-homeschool-group/

I found cute St. Patty’s decor at the Dollar Tree, like the huge leprechaun on my door. My Mom got me a St. Patty’s purse for my birthday.  Mom and Michael put together a rainbow chain and I added the cloud. Our leprechaun from a couple years ago came out but he didn’t get caught in the trap this year. Last year, we had a fun leprechaun hunt: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/my-family-rocks-sundaydates-with-our-son-hunting-for-leprechauns-pet-parade/

Michael and I wrote a limerick & put together a 3 leaf clover with the Trinity on it. We listened to Irish music and did a leprechaun jig. We had some amazing corned beef pies for lunch, along with green veggies and fruit.  For supper we had our traditional Irish beef stew (I couldn’t find lamb) and Irish soda bread. I added “leprechaun” brownies to the mix.

Do you have any St. Patty’s traditions? If so, please leave it in my comments. God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

 

 

St. Patty’s on Pinterest:

Purim 2014

Hello dear ones! Last year we had a big Purim celebration. This year we were able to use crafts from last year. So we had a very laid back Purim. If you don’t know, Purim is a Biblical feast that celebrates how God used Queen Esther to deliver the Jews from genocide in Persia. It is an amazing story of faith and bravery. If it wasn’t for Purim then Jesus would not have been born on this Earth.

Our favorite tradition is making hamentaschen (Haman ears or hats). Haman is the man who tried to have all the Jews murdered. In the end, Haman was hung on the gallows he had made for Mordecai, Queen Esther’s cousin.  Hamentaschen are very good cookies with various fillings. We used raspberry jam.  We usually watch “One Night with the King” for fun but this year we watched the Veggie Tale’s version of Esther.  We got this great Purim board game at the Holocaust museum last year. We finally got to play it and it was really fun. It’s called : Queen Esther: Dancing Dreidels.

We didn’t use the noise makers this year but usually we read the story of Esther in the Bible and we cheer for Mordecai and boo for Haman. You can see that we have paper haman ears for decor. I also like decorating with peacocks and bright colors to feel like we’re in Persia.

Here’s last years post: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/my-family-rocks-sunday-purim-princess-bride-date-night/

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Purim on Pinterest:

 

The Holy Spirit & Fire: A Balanced View

Finally, a balanced sermon on the Holy Spirit.  It may surprise you. Enjoy this vid by Shane Idleman. Remember email sub. to come to my blog to see the video.

I’ve spent lots of time in Baptist AND charismatic churches. I left the charismatic movement because of the pseudo holy spirit of kundalini that was brought into many churches (Hinduism). One day Lord willing, I’ll talk about what it took to bring me out of a movement I had been in for most of my Christian life. It’s great to hear a sermon about the power of the Holy Spirit that’s based in truth and discernment. Now, I go to a Baptist church but I still believe in the gifts and power of the Spirit. I believe my Pastor does too. I’ve even had people lay hands on me for prayer.

The reason I believe the terms  “baptized in the Holy Spirit” and “fire” are scary to some is because people think of the crazy stuff that’s going on in the emergent church. These terms were NEVER mean’t to correlate to so called “men of God” knocking people to the floor and Christians barking like dogs. The baptism of the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with holy laughter, seeking angels, and gold dust. I spent a good bit of time in that camp and it took God shaking me up to get me out of that. It was a very scary time in my life. I experienced some junk.  But on the other extreme you have those that believe the gifts have ceased. After I left the radical side of the charismatic movement, I was terrified of even the music I heard in the movement. I ran to theology and later into major legalism. Legalism felt safer than the demonic disorder I had experienced in the emergent church. But legalism is just as dangerous and it kills relationship.  So I completely get this message. I’ve been to both extremes but the Bible challenged both and God called me to balance.

I’m still trying to sort real faith and real movements of the Spirit verses the weird stuff I experienced for years. I’m still healing and learning to hear God’s voice. Discernment, Truth, and God’s power are supposed to go together. I like what Brother Shane says about the circus vs. the cemetary. Lol…animals verses zombies. Sorry, had to go there. Oh Lord, bring us the balance found in your word. Baptism is all about identity. It’s not what we see on “Christian” t.v. So you may be surprised by this message. I did an indepth study on Acts through Bob Jones University which is a conservative Baptist church. It lines up with what Brother Shane is preaching.  Anywho, I’ve said enough. Be blessed!

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Mardi Gras & Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

For Spring break my family and I took a colonial road trip from Savannah to D.C. This post is not about that but Lord willing, that post is coming. However, on the way we had two fun holidays: Mardi Gras & Dr. Seuss’ Birthday.

Our Dr. Seuss celebrations weren’t as elaborate as last year’s : https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/my-family-rocks-sunday-dr-seuss-birthday/

I knew we’d be on the road but I didn’t want to miss the holiday completely. So we bought a new Dr. Seuss book for our collection and we put together a bookmark. It worked well for our road trip. Michael and I took turns reading our Dr. Seuss books and the book mark came in handy as Michael was starting the Narnia trilogy (By the way, Aslan is on the move ;). It’s coming! Hint hint).

We didn’t get to celebrate Mardi Gras on the day itself. We were exhausted from touring D.C. I brought everything along to celebrate but we just put it off until the weekend after we returned home.  This was our first year celebrating Mardi Gras as a family. I didn’t know much about this holiday until my friend Rachel taught about it at our homeschool group last year: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/crafty-monday-gods-love-hearts-galore-plus-mardi-gras-celebration/

I hid a plastic baby in our corn bread. Yeah, I didn’t have time to make a king cake. “Surprisingly” Michael found it in his slice. Since Michael found the “baby Jesus“, he had the honor of throwing the beads and moon pies while parading around in his jester hat. We all wore masks and blew horns. Then we read our Lent devotional since by this time Lent had started. We talked about the wise men coming to see Christ as a baby/toddler. We talked about the colors of Mardi Gras and what they symbolize: Purple (Justice), Green (Faith), & Gold (Power).  We talked about the history of the holiday and different ways it’s celebrated. I truly enjoy holidays..if ya haven’t noticed ;), but I like to know why I celebrate something. I want Michael to know why, too. Sometimes it’s just for fun, other times there are Biblical lessons to be learned. Mardi Gras has both. Any holiday that celebrates Biblical events, whether Purim or Lent, gives us a great opportunity to dig into God’s word & to make history come to life. We also like to put our own family twist on holidays. We don’t necessarily celebrate the same way as others. Christ is our core & we chuck any traditions that would challenge our morals.  That being said, we had a blast boogying to jazz music in our living room. It was a short and sweet celebration but it gave a pinch of color to our evening.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Dr. Seuss Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/dr-seuss-day/

 

 

The Hunger Games Date Night March 25, 2014

Hello dear ones! Today I’m reviewing the Dating Diva’s Hunger Games date night. I gave it the “Amber touch”.  This date was perfect paired with Catching Fire, the second movie in the Hunger Games trilogy.  You can find all the printables here: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/just-the-two-of-us/hunger-games-catching-fire-dinner-and-a-movie/

I really liked the second movie because it felt truer to the books. Catching Fire showed the evil of the Capitol. The games weren’t as glamorous.  Okay, so this date night wasn’t anti-games at all. Chris and I went to war ;). But it was all in good fun.

First, I had to add my touch by putting together my Katniss outfit. It’s not quite like her’s but it works. I donned a leather jacket, boots, and I braided my hair.  I set the scene with a cornucopia in the arena. I didn’t have much to work with…literally a basket, a plastic cloth, and Annabelle’s baby pen. I filled the cornucopia with our “weapons” for the “games”. 

I met Chris at the door in my outift, with Hunger Games music, and said “Welcome to the 75th annual Hunger Games. May the odds ever be in your favor!”

We took the Hunger Games quiz and put our names in the reaping cup for every time we missed an answer. Our names were in the cup several times so we were destined to be in the games. We had a nice feast on the way to the “Capitol”. We started the movie then paused it half way to go to the “arena”.  The games included: Career Dodge Grenade, Tracker Jacker Tag, Camoflauge Cookies, Nerf Gun Wars, & a Knot Tying Competition. 

We had a blast. My favorite game was Tracker Jacker Tag. I don’t want to spoil anything for you but I will share this one game. We each had stickers for Tracker Jacker stings. We set a timer and played tag. Chris won for sure as you can see in the picture. We laughed so much. What a creative idea. Thank you Dating Divas for another awesome date!

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Keep up with all my date posts:

Other Date ideas:

My Family Rocks! Sunday:Dates with our Son, Hunting for Leprechauns, & Pet Parade March 17, 2014

Here’s what we did last year as a family. We had St. Patty fun with a leprechaun hunt and Lucky Charms pancakes. I’ve got tons of pictures. God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

amberdover

In this Post: The importance of one on one time with your kids (our special times with our son), actual St. Patty’s came & we had a fun leprechaun hunt at the park (also Lucky Charms pancakes!), and lastly our pets got a not so professional photo shoot (looks good for an amateur).

Hello dear ones! I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. It has been chilly here with crazy weather. We had hail last week and that is extremely unusual for March in this area. I’m praying it’ll be sunny and warm on Easter and Michael’s upcoming birthday party. I think everyone is sick of this long winter.

Well, here is a taste of the pet parade pics at the end of this post. Here is Snowball, our guinea pig, in all her glory. She’s enjoying clovers under the trampoline. We have a dog, a cat, a guinea pig…

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Crafty Monday: St. Patrick’s Day Celebration with the Homeschool Group

Here’s last years St. Patty’s party. I made some delicious Irish food, had a rainbow balloon, an inspiring craft from That Artist Woman, and read a book. There are links for your own St. Patty fun! God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

amberdover

Hello friends! Thursday it was my turn to host our homeschool group. I chose St. Patrick’s Day since it’s coming up soon. Enjoy the pics and maybe you can use the ideas :).

Michael’s Painting this year. The Shamrock represents the Trinity and the sentence says “God is found in the smallest of spaces”. Idea from thatartistwoman.org

St. Patrick’s Day is one of those small holidays that most people know nothing about. I would probably be clueless if it wasn’t for my Dad and I listening to a lot of Adventures in Odyssey when I was a kid. One day I heard the broadcast called “St. Patrick, a Heart Afire”. I was inspired by St. Patrick’s story. It’s surprising that a celebration inspired by a man of God bringing Christianity to a nation, has turned into a drinking fest where people pinch each other.

Don’t get me wrong…

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy Saint Patrick’s day, dear ones….lads and lassies! I want to share this great veggie tales video that A Homeschool Mom posted. Don’t forget to wear green ;). God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover