Parenting Series--ABCs Christian Parenting--Part 6

This week in my parenting series we are going to talk about a subject that I am sure for some is difficult to do, esp. when it comes to our child. That subject is forgiveness. Like I said last week, each of these topics are getting to be a little more challenging.

FORGIVE your child’s wrong doings as the Lord forgives you and start over together with God's grace and love.

When I read that sentence several different thoughts started pouring into my mind. Thoughts like "do unto others as you would want them to do to you" and Ephesians 4:32--"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." and "forgive as God forgave you"(Colossians 3:13)

These verses just don't apply to us when we are dealing with other adults but they apply when we are dealing with our child too! With being a stay at home mom, I can go days without interacting with other adults(besides hubby). However, I interact with my children on a daily basis and I can tell you that they are not perfect and they do wrong and yes I have to discipline them. In an effort to be a good example, I make sure that I take the time to forgive them as well after I explain to them why I felt that they had done wrong.

I am sure that forgiveness doesn't come easy for some of us(I know it doesn't come easy for me). We want to be angry and hurt rather than forgiving. It is so freeing though when we do forgive, esp. when our children do something to hurt us. Something as simple as them breaking our rules that we have established can hurt us. Or having a teenager that rebels and goes totally the opposite way that we as parents have taught them can hurt us as well. In each of those instances, we are to take the "high road" and forgive them. We might not like what they have done but they are our children and we need to forgive them.

Elizabeth Elliot said it well in one of her Back to the Bible broadcasts, "Now in order to forgive others, you and I must know that we have been forgiven, that we have received grace, that we have had our sins canceled on the cross. How can we forgive someone else if we have not received the grace of God that forgives us? But the deeper our recognition of our own need of that grace--the worse our sins appear to us to be, the more we marvel at the amazing grace of God and the more humbly we accept the grace that He gives to us--the more ready we will be to offer to someone else the grace of forgiveness, someone who has abused or cheated or betrayed or lied about us. We must receive God's grace for ourselves first."

Once we realize that we have God's grace we can share it with our child!

Don't let that guilt you feel because you think you didn't raise your child right, hence the reasoning behind their waywardness, get in the way of you forgiving them.

All about "E"

We have gotten a little behind with our letters! I have been busy with household duties and getting my older boys back on track with their schooling so my daughter and I have not done "school" every day.

Anyway, here is a list of things that we have done for the letter "E".

We talked about our planet, Earth. We did pages from the space theme over at Learning Page(to access the pages become a member for free). The pages were talking about the moon going around the Earth, the planet Earth is the third planet and identifying Earth from other objects. We talked about the fact that we live on planet, Earth and that God created it. Our verse for the week was Genesis 1:1.

The number we worked on was "eleven". We counted different objects up to eleven along with learning how to write two ones close enough together so that someone knows it is "11" and not two separate ones.

We talked about "ears" and how they are needed for listening. A common question around here this past week was "Are you using your ears to listen?" I also showed her that different living things have different kinds of ears. Human ears are different from elephant ears. Dog ears are different from bunny ears.

We also put together both the "short e" and "long e" books that were in the First School's E Lesson Plans.

We talked about envelopes and what goes in envelopes. We also talked about mail carriers because according to my daughter they carry alot of envelopes!

And what would the letter E be without talking about elephants! We walked around like elephants! (sorry no pics of that! LOL)

We also watched Sesame Street to see Ernie and Elmo!

We ate eggs and egg noodles. I was going to make homemade egg noodles this week but got too busy so we just ate store bought ones.

I hope that this gives you some ideas as to what activities you can do with your preschooler or kindergartener where they are learning and you are not having to "break the bank"!

Works For Me Wednesday--Entertaining

When one thinks of a kid's party it is the hostess that does all the work by making all the food and the guests come bearing gifts(that really are not needed) and eat all the food and usually the hostess is the only adult at the event. However, that can make a party quite expensive line item on one's budget. It also can be very nerve racking trying to keep them all entertained so they do not destroy the house.

So Hubby and I take a different route when it comes to having parties(or even the holiday celebrations). We invite families! This way, the kids can play together and the adults can interact together. This helps hubby and I to get to know our children's friends' parents as well not just the kids.

Okay I am sure that you are thinking how can inviting families actually help not make the party sooo expensive? It would seem to me that the party would be more expensive because there is more people, hence more mouths to feed!

Welllll the answer to your question...instead of requiring the families to bring gifts, we ask them to bring a dish to share. If it is during the summer months, we also tell them to bring meat for their family to grill.

We have plenty of food, and fellowship! Hubby and I feel that having the fellowship with friends is more important than the material gifts one receives at a "party".

Hubby and I follow the "potluck ways" even if we are just inviting friends over for dinner or for the holidays and there is no reason to party! It definitely helps to not break the bank when entertaining in our home.

So not being afraid to ask for help with meals for a gathering or "party" works for me!

To find out what works for others, head over to Shannon's blog--Rocks in My Dryer

Smelling like Fall!

Today the temps around here were in the high 30s! You look out my windows and you can see the leaves changing! You step outside and breathe in the crisp, cool air! Fall is definitely here in my part of the country!

So I am now getting in the baking mood! Today I focused on the pumpkin smell in my house!!


I made this awesome moist pumpkin bundt cake! It has a mild pumpkin flavor and just melts in your mouth! The kids had it for snack today hence the cake being half gone already!



Since I opened just a 15 oz can of pumpkin I didn't have enough for another "big batch" of something so I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins over at Hillbilly Housewife that only called for 1 cup of pumpkin! So I baked up that recipe! Of course, I changed a couple of things in the recipe! I didn't have quite a full cup of pumpkin to put in the batter sooooo I used 1/4 cup of cooked butternut squash along with 3/4 cup of pumpkin to get my 1 cup of pumpkin! I also did not use a 1/3 cup of melted margarine but instead used 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce!! The muffins will make a good compliment to breakfast in the morning!

Both of these recipes made my house smell soooo good and fall-like!

Go take a look at the many other Harvest or Halloween type recipes over at Life as a Mom or share some of your own!!

More of Sonshine's Fall Recipe Collection

Autumn Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Autumn Pumpkin Bundt Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

1 pkg(3.4oz) box instant butterscotch pudding mix

4 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup veggie oil(or applesauce)

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Whipping cream, optional

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine the cake and pudding mixes, eggs, water, oil, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and beat on low speed for 30 seconds; then increase the speed to medium and beat for 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated 350° oven for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. If desired, serve with whipped cream.

Sonshine's notes: I did not preheat the oven! I did not flour the bundt pan! I used applesauce and not the veggie oil. Once I took it out of the oven I waited about 5 minutes and turned the cake out on a plate and set it on my cooking rack. The batter is thicker than regular cake! However, this cake is moist and melts in your mouth!

Also for other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace!