If you haven’t looked through 5 Minutes for Mom’s huge Christmas Giveaway, make sure you do!!! I just entered to win a whole bunch of stuff – that would definitely make the season even more bright! :)

Today I have the great pleasure of introducing you to to another dear blog friend. We’ve only recently started getting to know one another, but Teri Lynne is one of those people I wish lived near enough to grab some afternoon coffee together and talk. I love her, and I think you will too!

Enjoy our “interview,” and then I highly encourage you to hop over to her lovely blog Pleasing to You to say hi, poke around, and hopefully subscribe. She’s got good stuff to share!

1. Tell us about yourself in 3 sentences or less!

I’m such a mess ~ I’m an outgoing introvert, a contemplative soul who craves silence yet adores having TONS of people in my home. Daily I am in awe of the God who has given me so much – an incredible husband and child who encourage, inspire, and adore me in addition to the abundant life He has given me through Christ. All I want is to live in a way that pleases and brings honor to Him.

2. Flashback: you’re a senior in high school and you’re wearing your favorite outfit today. Describe your “look.”

That would be tight-rolled jeans with keds and a popped collar shirt … HUGE hair (thank you Aqua Net!) and probably a little too much make-up.

3. What is your favorite “fun” thing to do?

I’m pretty simple … we like Family Movie Nights and going to the theater to see whatever the latest kids movie is. But I also love seeing musicals & plays. Basically, I am content to do anything with my husband and/or child. On my own, I am a reader, no a CONSUMER of books. I devour them.

4. What is your most dreaded household task and why?

Definitely dusting. I hate to dust. We have so much “stuff” (and we like it that way) that has to be moved in order to dust. I put it off as long as I can. Please come visit me … but leave your white gloves at home!!

5. What is your favorite thing to do with your daughter?

Casiday & I love to watch the girly Disney movies … any girly movie really. We also like getting our nails done and going to look at jewelry and purses. We scrapbook together.

6. You have babysitting for the whole day on a Saturday – what will you and your husband do?

Let’s see … sleep in! Then go get breakfast and shop … maybe see a movie or maybe go home and watch a movie. We’re pretty fortunate with only one child who is nine that we get a lot of days like this … between slumber parties and people who volunteer to keep the girl, we have been blessed with lots of husband/wife time! I am so thankful for that.

7. What are three other blogs that you enjoy reading, and why?

Three? That’s far too few …. Okay, here goes … Michael Hyatt’s blog is one I read daily because I am working on a book and want to get as much insight as I can into the process of getting it published. I also love (in)courage because they have several writers who always challenge me and inspire me. And … I have a group of bloggers that I adore and read daily – because they encourage and teach me … Run the Earth, Watch the Sky, Heart for Him, A Life In Need of Change, and Argyle and Apricots. These four women are the ones who help me sort ideas, write when I can’t, and keep me grounded. Don’t know what I’d do without them! {Sorry that was more than 3 … but that last group HAD to be mentioned!} [we'll forgive you.] :)

8. How long have you been blogging, and what motivated you to start blogging?

Pleasing to You is my fourth attempt at blogging. I started in 2007 and it took until March 2009 to “find my voice” so to speak. Once I figured out that I really wanted to share what God was showing me in daily life and quit worrying that no one else would read it, I found out that I felt more free and actually had people who did read … and were blessed and in turn became rich blessings to me!

9. What five words would you use to describe your blog?

Fun, encouraging, challenging, honest, and (I hope) pleasing-to-God (I hyphenated so it would be just one word. Is that cheating?) [Maybe a little] :)

10. Freebie: anything about yourself or your blog that you want to share!

I often say I’m just a girl who loves the Lord and wants to live in a way that is pleasing to Him … and that’s really the whole point of my life and my blog. It’s not so much about the journey of life but about WHO I’m walking beside … and I’m learning that as I walk with Him, He teaches me and gives me the privilege of sharing that with others. What a joy for this girl who never dreamed she’d be useful to God.

We have been having a ball learning about the first Thanksgiving at our house. It all started innocently with some pilgrim hats. AG loved her bonnet SO much that she wore it all. the. time. To the grocery store, the library, in the car, around the house. I felt compelled to sew her an entire costume.

She loves it. It was a giant pain, and was the biggest clothing-type sewing project I have ever taken on. Hence, it is not perfect, but AG absolutely loves it. In case you’re wondering, I used Simplicity pattern number 3725. Thank you, Lord, for Simplicity patterns being on sale for $1 and the fabric being $2/yard! Hooray!

I must say, while the hats and costume were time consuming, they were definitely worth it for the amount of “pilgrim discussion” they caused. AG would sit at the table with me while I worked and asked a lot of questions about the pilgrims, and I think it gave her a much better understanding of how difficult life was for them. One day she was talking about how it was taking me a long time [thanks a lot], and then asked, “was it this hard for the Pilgrims?” We discussed for a while that I had a sewing machine and iron that used electricity, and we could go to the fabric store to buy whatever we needed rather than having to make it ourselves. It would have been much more difficult and time consuming for them to make their clothes, and they had lots of other work they had to do!

Speaking of difficult work, we also did the classic project of making your own butter by shaking heavy whipping cream in a jar. AG shook it for oh, 10 seconds, and then announced that she was tired and asked if it was butter yet! With prodding she did it for a while longer and then NP inherited the project. ;) Again, this was a very hands-on learning experience for her that the pilgrims had to work hard to do anything! We enjoyed our fresh butter and honey on homemade bread made with fresh-milled wheat at dinner. Yum.

I was so excited to come across this great website with tons of pictures of Plymouth Plantation, the Mayflower II, and the reconstructed Wampanoag village. Again, this really helped my concrete-thinking three year old to grasp more of what life was like. After we looked through those pictures, we were all ready to make our Indian headdresses!

Of course we’ve also been discussing lots of things that we are thankful for, and have greatly enjoyed our Thanksgiving crayon leaves that we made. Our Psalm 100 leaves have also morphed into a border around our dining room. It’s very festive in there. :)

Here are some of our favorite books that we’ve enjoyed learning with:
• One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy – cute rhyming text and colorful illustrations. Both kidlets love this one!
• This First Thanksgiving Day: a counting story by Laura Krauss Melmed – this book is so cute. I love the illustrations and it’s fun to read. Both the kids are fans, and so am I!
• Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons – this book is a simple but well-done overview of the Pilgrim’s journey to America, their first winter, how the Indians helped them, and their celebration of their first Thanksgiving. It also ties in how our feasts today are similar to theirs, which is nice.
• Our Thanksgiving Book by Jane Moncure – AG really likes this book. This story centers around children who are learning about Thanksgiving in their class at school. It includes some simple craft ideas, making butter [AG was thrilled when she saw that they did what we had already done!], and a simple overview of the history of the Pilgrims and Indians. They also discuss Indian words and names – AG decided she wanted “Little Flock Bird” to be her Indian name!! =}
• Thanksgiving Day Crafts by Arlene and Herbert Erlbach – some great easy craft ideas in here – we’ll be pulling some things from this next week!
• Give Thanks to the Lord by Karma Wilson – this book centers around a modern Thanksgiving celebration, with a continual refrain of “it is good to give thanks to the Lord” from Psalm 92.

The links and images above are from amazon.com. I am an affiliate and will receive a small percentage of the sale of this or other products resulting from clicking through from this site.

For more preschool ideas, click over to Homeschool Creations’ Preschool Corner!

As I discussed in Radical Discipleship, Scripture memory and comprehension is something I am convinced must be the center of the training of our children. We cannot content ourselves with teaching our kids about God and His Word – they need to know God and know His Word for themselves.

In the summer I shared the Scripture memory system we started to use. I love this idea, but we don’t sit around the table and use it at this point. With a 3 year old and 1 year old, quiet time at the table with focused attention just doesn’t really work!!

Another part of this equation is that I am a big believer in learning and teaching chunks of Scripture rather than focusing exclusively on short verses with small kids. This summer AG learned all of Psalm 23 and could rattle it off by herself. For the past week as we’ve been discussing Thanksgiving, AG and I have been learning Psalm 100 – she already has it most of the way memorized and only needs prompting for the words at the beginning of the sentences. She most definitely can handle learning long passages like this, but she cannot handle sitting perfectly still and quiet to learn these and recite them!

God gave us the solution to this problem in Deuteronomy 6:6-9-

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Teaching God’s Word to our kids is one of our main jobs as Christian parents. To do it effectively:
• You need to know it yourself – “these commandments are to be on your hearts”. Study it, meditate on it, memorize it yourself. Are you a newer believer or just never learned much Scripture? This is a great time to start – nothing ingrains Scripture into us quite like intentionally teaching it to someone else. When I am pursuing God and studying His Word daily, teaching my kids is a natural outflow of that.

• Think seriously about how to “impress it on your children”. How can you make it memorable? Make learning Scripture into a game, make it into a song [doesn't need to be fancy!], use sign language, incorporate it into your craft time – do anything and everything you can to help it stick. If this isn’t really your area of strength, I highly recommend you check out Leigh and Amanda’s ideas over at Impress Your Kids – they do a great job with creative Scripture teaching ideas!

• Talk about and review your verse(s) all the time – when you sit at home, when you walk [or drive!] along the road, as they lie down at bedtime, when you get up in the morning or over breakfast. I have found that 3 year old AG (who is rather stubborn, by the way) will sometimes resist having a defined “Bible time”- she will clam up and not want to work on her verses or listen. But if I sneak it into our everyday life and conversation, she is very receptive to listening. For the most part, I don’t require her to sit still and listen – she often will be spinning around, playing dress up, playing with toys, etc. while we’re reviewing verses.

• Write them on your house! :) If your kids are learning to read or know how to read, surround them with their written verse. Yesterday we wrote Psalm 100 out on leaves I cut out with an Ellison cutter and artwaxed, and then we stuck them up on our dining room wall! It was a great review – I had AG help me remember the words to our verse as we wrote it, and then had her hand them to me and review it as we stuck it on the wall. She is so proud of it and loves to read it together.

You also might have seen our Psalm 19:1 craft we did a couple of weeks ago:

If you’re stuck on what verses to teach your kids, here are some suggestions:
• I definitely recommend that you teach your kids all of the classic “salvation verses” – John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Acts 16:31, etc. If you haven’t done much Scripture memory together, start there!

• If you are dealing with specific behavior issues, incorporate the Word of God into your correction process and review it frequently. For instance, if you’re dealing with complaining and arguing, work on Philippians 2:14. Sibling squabbles? Work on Ephesians 4:32. Does your child have a tendency to brag or try to “one up” other kids or adults? I’d recommend Proverbs 27:2. You get the point! Once again, if you are learning God’s Word for yourself, you will know what Scripture addresses the situation – teach it to your kids! If you aren’t familiar with Scripture yourself, acquaint yourself with a good online keyword search like this one – just please be sure to look up the verse in context and make sure you are using and teaching it correctly!!

• Be sure to incorporate verses that teach Truths about God’s character – for instance: Psalm 86:5, Psalm 57:10, Leviticus 11:45, 1 John 3:1, etc.

• Teach Scripture that makes sense seasonally and allows for more discussion of Truth. At Christmas last year, we worked on Luke 2:8-11. As I mentioned, for Thanksgiving we are learning Psalm 100.

• If you’re working on a verse that makes more sense in context (most do), don’t limit yourself to that one verse! Consider expanding it and learning a whole chapter or longer section together – your kids can do it, and it’s good for you, too! :) You will be giving your kids the gift of seeing scripture within its larger context, and that is a valuable treasure, indeed.

• Alright now… go get memorizing!!

If you have more tips that have worked for your family, please share!