"A Glass of Forgiveness"

For her birthday, Ellie received a really great book, "Beakers, Bubbles & the Bible" from The Moons. Ellie's been begging to try out the science experiments so we decided to make a little family science time and we experimented with lesson one. The girls had such a blast that I'm going to go ahead and copyright this and give you all the lesson in case you want to experiment for yourselves:

A Glass of Forgiveness
Learning Forgiveness

1 John 1:9- If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lab Equipment:
candle
clear drinking glass (taller than the candle)
coin
flat plate
food coloring
match
water

Before You Begin:
Add food coloring to the water in order for it to show up against the plate

Experiment:
1. Place the candle in the center of the plate & light it
2. Set the coin on the plate several inches from the candle. Pour enough colored water around the candle so that it completely covers the bottom of the plate where the coin is.
3. Place the clear drinking glass over the candle and watch.
4. When the flame goes out on the candle, the water will be drawn into the glass, leaving the coin by itself on the plate.

Observation (We talked about the the following questions while repeating the experiment several more times. Then, we had the girls color their observations in "science journals" like Sid the Science Kid).
What happened to the flame when the glass was placed over the candle?
What happened to the water that was around the coin?

Discussion
1. Each of these things in our experiment represent something. The candle is God, the water is you, the coin is sin and the glass is when God forgives you.
2. With these representations in mind, repeat the experiment asking questions as you go. Ask the significance of each item as you put it in place. When the candle, water, and coin are in place, ask where the sin (coin) is. It is in you (water)
3. Read 1 John 1:9. The Bible tells us that if we confess our sin, God will forgive us for disobeying Him. When we confess our sin, there is something different about our lives. What is different about where the sin (coin) is once God forgives us?
4. When God forgives us He pulls us away from our sin and close to Him. He doesn't want that sin to be part of our lives anymore.




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Christmas Traditions

Every year we travel to visit our extended family over Christmas and that equates us celebrating our small family Christmas early. Now that Riley and I have been married seven years, and the girls are getting older, it's been fun creating traditions of our own. While growing up I loved baking huge batches of cookies with my dad, and then delivering them to all of our neighbors nights before Christmas. I've enjoyed carrying this tradition over to my family and my girls love it too. Last night we delivered our cookies to neighbors via a wagon ride with hot chocolate in tote. This year Ellie insisted on being the one to hold the packages, ring the doorbells, and give out the "Merry Christmas" greeting. After our cookie delivery escapade, Riley made a fire in the fireplace, we opened our stocking stuffers and ate lots of appetizer treats. We read the Christmas story and went to bed. When the girls woke early this morning their stockings were filled with candy from Santa & lo-and-behold, the donuts left out for Santa had all been eaten. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out his candle a'top the cranberry muffin, and then shared breakfast together. We, then, took turns opening the gifts under the tree. Our last activity was sending the girls on a scavenger hunt to find their final gift, and this was an event Riley remembers as a child. Ellie quickly caught onto the concept of "clues" and "scavenger hunt" and Saedi was doing her best to keep up. I'm sure next year we'll add a few more traditions, but we've got our collection started. It's easy to get caught up in the fun & hullabaloo of Christmas, but I'm proud that my girls understand that Christmas is about giving...just as Jesus was born on earth to give us life.
Cookie Delivery

Making the fire

New panties!

The girls experimenting on me with their new doctor's kit

Finding the final gift...a mini-tramp!




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Vintage T-Shirts

While this is not one my thrifty finds, it is a worthy find to make mention of. So, check out these cool vintage t-shirts AND know that in purchasing one, you're helping the orphans in Ethiopia. Also, click here to find more great gifts to help the people in Ethiopia. Perhaps, you can let your kids pick out an item from the catalog while teaching them a mini geography & poverty lesson. Or maybe you & your hubby can reduce your Christmas budget for each other this year in order to give to genuine need. You could even get a group of friends, and purchase an item in the catalog. Let me know if any of you decide to go for it. Myself, I'm leaning towards purchasing a new water well. Happy shopping!



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Udder Covers

Hooter Hiders, Udder Covers, Nursing Wraps. These are just a few of the names for this modern nursing tool. My friend Jodi made me one of these when I was expecting Saedi and I loved it for making nursing convenient, but still private. Well, I learned tonight from my friend Jen that if you go here and apply the code, "Christmas" you can get one of these nursing lifesavers for only the price of shipping ($8.95)!



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The Nasty 23rd

Riley participated in his 3rd marathon on Saturday in Huntsville, Alabama. His first goal in finishing this race was to qualitfy for Boston this Spring, and his second goal was to break three hours (or Keving Toth's time of 2:59 something). While he achieved his first goal and even pr'd by 4 minutes, he wasn't able to pull off his under-3 goal. I was able to watch Riley at the start, mile 11, mile 19, and then at the finish line. He looked strong the entire time until the end. At mile 23 his legs were cramping too badly to hold his super-fast pace of >6:45 min miles. It amazes me every time I watch Riley race because he's one of the few people I know who are fast enough to start in the front of the pack, and he's one of the most stubborn people I know, which holds him in lead. I knew he would finish, but I'm proud of him for gutting out the last three miles even when his body was burning and he knew he wouldn't reach his goal.
Race Stats: 63rd place overall (maybe out of 1500 or 2000), 11th place in age group, time of 3:05:43.
Riley (in bottom left corner)starting the race

Mile 11

Coming around the bend to mile 19

Almost to the finish line


A slightly disappointed done







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Christmas Tree

A few weekends ago we drove out to Dover, TN to cut down a Christmas tree at Dave & Jodi's house. The girls always love going out to he Kenney's where they can see Dixie the donkey, the dogs, and the chickens, and their friend, Peighton, of course. We haven't had a real tree since the girls were born, but we decided this would be the year to re-ignite the olden' days. The cedar tree we chose didn't look that huge out in the field, but once we got it inside Riley had a lot of trimming to do. The tree is a larger version of Charlie Brown's tree, but we love it!




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Another great deal

I heard about this great deal from another frugal friend of mine.
If any of you are planning to send out Christmas cards & have procrastinated like me, here's a super cheap way to do it! Kudos to Ally for the great find!
-go to seehere.com
-create your photocard (be sure to save it)
-put '50' in your quantity
-at checkout use promo code 'newbaby'
-you do have to pay shipping but it's only $3.19
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Happy 4th Birthday, Ellie!

Birthday Girll with her Tinkerbell Cake

Oh, there's so many wonderful ways I love my Ellie-Belly:
She's my firstborn and there's a special bond attributed with that
She's got motherly intuition at a ripe young age
She's compassionate to those hurting
She's a vibrant, energetic, strong-willed, dynamic leader
She makes new friends better than anyone else I know
She's confident
She's an excellent artist and enjoys making up stories & songs
I love you so, my Bird-Bird growing up too quickly for me!
Fairy Friends: Emmy, Brooke, & Ellie

Feeding the 5,000

Opening Presents

Miss Natalie's Dance Party Extravaganza

Lovin' on Mia

Ellie & Kendall-Roo






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Wise Shopping

Christmastime is quickly approaching and the art of frugality is a favorite pastime of mine. All that said, I wanted to turn you on to my latest favorite blog. I check this site multiple times a day for some great deals and freebies. I'm always looking at the Target and Walgreens deals, but there's so much more out there! Just yesterday I was able to make a photo calendar for FREE (shipping and all!), and a few days ago I was able to get some awesome magazine subscriptions for just $5! And my latest? Well, I'm in the drawing to win Riley a Glacier Outdoor Combo Pack for fly-fishing. So, whether or not you've got thriftiness in your soul, check out the website for practical savings.

And, if you're the crafty type, I have two ideas for you. Check out this adorable crayon roll tutorial! I've made several and they're inexpensive & simple to make. Just know that if you have little people living in your house, that's what they'll be getting for Christmas this year from the Post family! Last year, I made these Superhero Capes for Ellie's 3rd Birthday party. While not as cheap nor easy as the crayon roll, these still made great gifts. Oh, and there's always a personalized apron or art smock. Let me know if you attempt any of these... I'd love to see your finished gems!

Thanksgiving in Ohio

Dave, Dad, Ellie, Riley, Me, Saedi, Steve, John holding baby Logan, Scott, Laura, Blake
Megan, Mom, Nana, Jenny holding Hailey, Theresa, Nathan

Last-minute, we decided to trek up to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Ellie is a trooper during road trips and sleeps like a champ in the car. Saedi, on the other hand, can never seem to get comfortable. Needless to say, we spend many minutes singing, playing random made-up car games, and manually holding up the computer so the girls could watch a movie. It's funny that Riley and I both prefer driving over having to entertain the girls in the car! Oh how times have changed. No more passenger side sleeping! Regardless, we're glad we went up for a few days as this is the first time my whole family has been together in over a year.

Ellie playing masks with her cousin, Nathan. Can you guess which one is her?


The girls playing momma to baby Logan. Of course, both girls wanted to give him his bottle, but their attention span lasted seconds. As they got distracted Logan's bottle would slip out of his mouth until intervention was made.


Story time with Aunt Meg. Saedi kept saying, "Jesus loves me!"









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