NP and I have had some tiny Christmas budgets in our 7 years together. TINY. Like, “he’s been in graduate school for 4 years and our only income is from me teaching in a Christian school” tiny.

It’s a good thing we’re decently creative.

Correction: NP is insanely creative, and I do what I can. :) [Ie: right now NP is sitting on the floor, ripping strips of wrapping paper and craft paper to wrap around Styrofoam wreaths... and they look awesome. He will be suspending these creations from the ceiling with fishing line over the armoir in our living room. When I show pictures of our Christmas decorations I'll give you a peek.]

If you’re looking for some frugal DIY gifts, here are some ideas that might spark your creativity, however buried it may be.

Framed Photo Collage Message

Now, technically this was a Valentine’s Day gift from NP before we were married. But I think it could be adapted to be a lovely Christmas gift to Grandma or another loved one!

He made large signs on foam board – “I” “Love” “You” and “Happy Valentines Day”. Then he coerced his roommate to go along with him to some scenic locations and take pictures of him holding the signs. Then he framed the pictures! Simple and so awesome! I can just picture this being the kidlets holding “We love you” signs for their grandma. :)

Framed Verse or Song Lyric

NP is very good at lettering – I love it when he makes me stuff. I could probably fill several posts with the awesome things he has made me. But that might turn into bragging about my man. ;)

One thing he has done for me and for my parents is write out favorite verses or song lyrics that we treasure, and then matting and framing them. He wrote out a part of this song from Fernando Ortega for me, which was sung in our wedding. He did this for my dad with Ephesians 4:13, which was an “emphasized” verse in our house growing up! They are treasured pieces.

If you’re not confident with lettering yourself, format them with a cool font on the computer and print them on beautiful scrapbook paper.

Rice Neck Wrap

If you have some basic sewing skills, you can sew a rice neck wrap fairly easily. These are wonderful – you fill them with uncooked rice, and when you heat it in the microwave for a minute or two they give off wonderful moist heat that is so soothing. Some people even add lavender or other herbs to make them smell wonderful! There are some ideas for how to do this here.  [I also love this tutorial - such cute fabrics!] Last Christmas I gave one of these wraps to my mother-in-law, who was sick with cancer. We gave it to her along with a gift box of herbal teas, and I think it was appreciated!

Circle Journal

One of the fabulous ideas I have seen in the past and have had filed away in my “mental file drawer” is a circle journal. Find a nice journal or high-quality spiral notebook with an attractive cover and give it to a family member or close friend who lives far from you. Write in the notebook a letter to that person – make sure you date it. Explain in the letter that this “circle journal” will be a written record of your friendship. Now it is her turn to write a letter back to you on the next page(s) and mail it back. Continue to mail it back and forth, filling up the notebook as you go with priceless memories in the form of letters and pictures.

Do you have any DIY frugal gift ideas that have worked for you in the past? If you’d like some more inspiration, click over to Works for Me Wednesday, the gift edition! :)

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!

As I explained in Gratitude from the Ashes, if the act of giving thanks is more challenging this year than it has been in the past, I understand. Perhaps, like Solomon, you are wrestling with the realities of death or sin and injustice. Perhaps it has just been a difficult year in many small respects; the pounding surf of the mundane can be deafening after a while.

How can we give true thanks to God when our souls are tired and weary?

Today I’m going to give you a peek into my box of little treasures. When I graduated from high school, we were given a free cedar memory box from a local furniture store, and we could have a small plate engraved for the top. I had a few things I had collected at that point that were treasures to me – physical tokens and reminders of God’s goodness and faithfulness in my life, or of major lessons He had taught me along the way.

I had the personalized plate on my box inscribed with “she treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.” Indeed, these are small things, but they are treasures. When I open this box that is bursting with cards, letters, pictures, funeral programs, hospital bracelets, and even a rock… I am overwhelmed by the goodness of my God- I am reminded that He has been my shepherd all my life to this day.

No matter how difficult my present circumstances are, these things serve as a physical reminder that God is with me, that He is active in my life, that one day He will make something beautiful out of the fiery trials that seem overwhelming… and someday I will have something else to add to my box of treasures.

Today I want to tell you a story about one of the more “random” items in my box. Someone who didn’t know the story might think it is an overlooked piece of trash that made its way into the stack of memorabilia, but to me it is priceless.

The summer after my sophomore year of college, God very clearly placed me as a counselor in a small Baptist summer camp. [Providentially, that is where my husband and I met.] :) It was a fabulous summer – I truly loved it. Working there was probably one of the only times in my life when I have relished getting up in the morning. I loved stepping out of my cabin while all my campers were sleeping, feeling the slight chill in the air, smelling the fresh outdoorsy aromas that seem to rise up with the sun. I would get ready for the day, grab a cup of awful coffee that was made palatable with hot chocolate and flavored creamer [I had laid claim to an old mug that said "Worlds' Best Dad" on it and used it every day], and start my day with the Lord watching His creation sing around me. I often am nostalgic for camp mornings – they were sweet indeed.

One morning I woke up late, and realized that my alarm had died. It was still plugged in, we had power, but my alarm clock was shot. My sweet morning time was gone as my campers were waking up with me and we were all going to be late for breakfast. It was a frustrating start to the day, and I was discouraged because I didn’t know when I’d be able to get to town to replace my alarm clock. While counseling at this camp we were with our campers 24 hours a day from the time they arrived on Monday morning until they departed on Saturday morning, and since it was mid-week, I would be without a clock for several days. Not a tragedy, but frustrating and a serious dent in my morning routine.

Later that day, I made my way to the staff lounge while my campers headed back to the cabin for their rest time. I dutifully checked the counter for mail, not expecting anything, when I noticed a box addressed to me. Weirder yet, it was from my grandmother. My maternal grandparents have been Jehovah’s Witnesses since long before I was born, which means we never got Christmas or birthday presents or cards. I have seen my grandmother’s handwriting on mail only a few times in my life, and I certainly was not expecting a box to arrive at my Baptist camp for me!

I opened it up, and in that box I found an alarm clock, complete with batteries, and a short note explaining that she saw it at the store and thought I might like it.

This happened over 9 years ago, and I’m still teary as I type this.

That clock would have seemed like a weird gift to receive any other day of my life. But that day, I needed an alarm clock. God knew. He had worked to cause my grandmother to purchase that clock, remember batteries, pack it up, and send it on just the right day so that it would arrive at the exact time I needed it.

I love the story of when God provides for Hagar and Ishmael in the wildnerness – when she feels completely alone, that everyone who knows her has forgotten or abandoned her, when she thinks she will have to be a witness to her son dying of thirst, God provides for her exact need. She responds by naming Him El Roi- “the God who sees me.”

Sometimes when life is difficult, it is easy to start to question if God sees our needs, sees our pain, and if He cares. This tiny treasure from my box, a plastic sticker that covered the face of my alarm clock God used my lost grandmother to send me, is a physical reminder that God does care. He does know. He sees me when no one else does.

I can praise God and give Him true gratitude today – for He is my El Roi. He is the one who sees me.

My box of treasures definitely “works for me.” What are you remembering and praising God for today?

Image from FreeFoto.com

Can you believe that Christmas decorations are already out in the stores??! Every year the fall flies by faster and faster and suddenly Christmas is upon us.

As I mentioned last year, I have wrestled for several years with having a proper balance with Christmas. Our whole year seems to center around Christmas, when Biblically speaking, it should center around Easter!

I love Christmas. I love decorating. I love the music and the smells and the sights that are unique to this season.

I also feel at odds with Christmas. The extreme materialism of it all. The facade of religiosity all around us – hearing Mariah Carey sing “O Holy Night” while shopping with a throng of rude and greedy bargain hunters never sits with me quite right! Even as well-meaning believers in Jesus, I think we can easily lose focus and begin worshiping tradition rather than the Savior this season is named after.

So, as the season approaches, I’m trying to be prepared now to have a correct focus. To think more and more each year about how to use this season to truly honor Jesus Christ and teach my children to revere His name.

Here are some ideas that have been rolling about in my head – I’d love to hear more of yours!

• I have always tried very hard to do my Christmas shopping throughout the year. For the past 5 years or so, it has been my goal to be done with my shopping by Thanksgiving. Not only does this allow me to be frugal and grab things when I see them on an excellent sale or available with an unbeatable rebate, but it also keeps the frantic pace of Christmas in check. [If you have kids on your list, be sure to enter the huge Christmas giveaway of my favorite Christian kids' books!]

• Another important item that I have been discussing with my mom and husband is limiting the number of gifts we give and receive. I love this idea of having only three gifts per child – one for gold, one for frankincense, and one for myrrh. Not only does this limit the excess that detracts from the purpose of our celebration, but it also provides memorable teaching time with our children as we talk about the meaning of the magi’s gifts. If you’re interested in implementing a tradition like this, you might also find this post useful.

• Another idea I picked up last year that I would like to implement is focusing on the names of Jesus throughout the advent season. I can’t find where I saw this, but a blogger suggested putting a basket beneath your Christmas tree with 25 plain ornaments in it. Decorate each ornament (with puff paint or a decorative tag, etc.) with a different name of Jesus – Emmanuel, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, etc. Then each day during December, have your children pick out an ornament to hang on the tree. Look at what name of Jesus is on the ornament, read the Scripture passage where it is found, and discuss with them what that name means.

We’re planning to do a modified version of this idea – we’re not putting up a large indoor tree this year {gasp!}. Partially because of space, partially because LB would love to destroy it, partially because we’re trying to simplify, no big tree. So, we bought a bunch of beautiful red ball ornaments and some crafty supplies, and Nate and I will be working together to make those ornaments gorgeous little reminders of the names of God. I’ll post pictures when we are brave enough to do it. ;) Then, we’re going to add one ball per day to a beautiful glass punch bowl that a friend of mine gave me – it will be our dining room table centerpiece.

Here’s my favorite part of the plan – it will be all beautiful and shiny and royal looking, and then the night before our Christmas celebration I’m going to take it away and put our simple nativity set in its place. For Jesus robed Himself in humanity – and although His glory was veiled, He was God in flesh. Emmanuel – “God with us.”

• Simplify, simplify. This one is tricky, but I feel very burdened about it. No matter how often we say, “Christmas is all about Jesus,” what we often display through our celebrations is that Christmas is about food, decorations, and gifts – with maybe a birthday cake for Jesus thrown in there somewhere. Christmas is all about excess – and isn’t that why most of us love it?

If the heart and soul of Christianity is Good Friday and resurrection morning, why does planning for Christmas consume so much time and energy, while Easter slips by with relatively very little notice?

Would my 3 year old recognize that the resurrection of Jesus changes everything, or would she see by the way that we celebrate that Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year?”

Keep our hearts set on you, Lord. It’s only September, but prepare our hearts for the season ahead, that we may worship You for who You really are.