Advent Reading

I know this is 4 days late, but it is only 4 days, plenty of time to catch up!

Over the weekend, I was perusing Pintrest looking for a craft for Miller and Ella's school Christmas Parties.  While browsing, I saw The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Reading pinned over and over again.  

But first, if you do not own The Jesus Storybook Bible, you need to go to amazon right now and buy it!  It is the best children's Bible out!

The illustrations will immediately catch the attention of your children, filling them with anticipation to see what is on the next page.

But what will draw your children in (and you!) is the wonderful way in which Sally Lloyd-Jones articulates the gospel in every single story, reminding us how every single story in the bible points to the love of God and the work that Jesus did to rescue his children on the cross.

If you do not own this book, stop what you are doing, and go buy it HERE!

Even if you do not have children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews or neighbors to read this to, buy this for yourself!  Many nights Murray and I do not finish reading without tears on our cheeks.  In every story, you are reminded what a great love story we are involved in.  One in which we deserve nothing and yet God sacrificed everything to bring us back to himself.  

In the introduction to the Story, we are reminded that the whole Bible is about this very special baby.  

The baby that we are celebrating this season!


This Advent Reading Plan is in a lot of different places, you may already have it.  But just in case you do not have it, I have included it in this post.  I believe with all my heart that using the Jesus Storybook Bible for your Advent reading will greatly deepen the meaning and understanding of Christmas for your entire family!



Day 1:   The Story and the Song
Day 2:   The Beginning: A Perfect Home
Day 3:   The Terrible Lie
Day 4:   A New Beginning
Day 5:   A Giant Staircase to Heaven
Day 6:   Son of Laughter
Day 7:   The Present
Day 8:   The Girl No One Wanted
Day 9:   The Forgiving Prince
Day 10:  God to the Rescue
Day 11:  God Makes a Way
Day 12:  Ten Ways to Be Perfect
Day 13:  The Warrior Leader
Day 14:  The Teeny, Weenie...True King
Day 15:  The Young Hero and the Horrible Giant
Day 16:  The Good Shepherd
Day 17:  A Little Servant Girl and the Proud General
Day 18:  Operation "No More Tears!"
Day 19:  Daniel and the Scary Sleepover
Day 20:  God's Messenger
Dec 21:  Get Ready!
Dec 22:  He's Here
Dec 23:  The Light of the Whole World
Dec 24:  The King of All Kings

Birthday Month

December 1 marked a special day in the Lee House.  It marked the first day of Miller's Birthday Month.  Why celebrate just the day when you can celebrate the entire month???

And what better way to start the month off than with Chocolate Chip Pancakes?

Miller thinks it is so cool that he gets to share his birthday month with Baby Jesus!

To our sweet, sweet boy, we are so happy to celebrate you all month long!

AOC

Speaking of my good friend Jessica (taught the photography class I took mentioned in the last post)....

Adam, Jessica's husband is our worship leader at Cahaba Park.  He also happens to be the lead musician in the band Act of Congress.

Act of Congress is awesome! 

And they put an awesome Christmas album out last year!  (the only bad part about the album is that it only has 4 songs!  Adam, we want more!)  

And last week, they were listed as #1 Christmas Album on Pioneer Woman!  Pretty good exposure!  

Way to go Adam and Act Of Congress!

You can get the Holiday Album on iTunes.

O Holy Night is especially awesome!!!

Photography Class

I took a photography class a few weeks ago.  

It was just a one hour, quick over view of getting better  acquainted 

with your camera and all that it does.  

I have spent a little bit of time reading about my camera and tried to grasp those bizarre terms... 

ISO, aperture, F-Stop, shutter speed....  

On my own, I have become vaguely familiar with these terms 

and made several attempts at using the manual setting on my camera.  

But after about 10 minutes I usually just give up and go back to that safe "green box."

My good friend Jessica taught the class.  I have by no means become an expert, but I have taken more pictures on the manual setting than the green box since the class!  

Big improvement!!  

There have been lots of times that I just cannot get the light right 

and give in and turn that dial right back to the green box.  

But I am not giving up.  I am going to keep trying.  

And hopefully with the help of Jessica (lots and lots of help!), my pictures will get better and better:)

 **These pictures were taken (all on Manual) on our Gruffalo hunt over Thanksgiving.  The Gruffalo is one of The Lee Kids' favorite books (there is actually a dvd out now which we have not seen) and over the last couple of years we have seen lots suspicious Gruffalo activity at the lake.  We make sure to try to rid the lake of any Gruffalo every chance we get!


***Jessica is planning on hosting more photography classes in the next year.   For all of my Birmingham friends, I will let you know when these classes are open to the public.  

A Thanksgiving Psalm

Psalm 66

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;

sing the glory of his name;

give to him glorious praise!

Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you;

they sing praises to your name.

Selah

Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in deeds toward the children of man.

He turned the sea into dry land;

they passed through the river on foot.

There did we rejoice in him,

who rules by his might forever,

whose eyes keep watch on the nations --

let no the rebellious exalt themselves.

Selah

Bless our God, O peoples;

let the sound of his praise be heard,

who has kept our soul among the living

and has not let our feet slip,

For you, O God, have tested us;

you have tried us as silver is tried.

You brought us into the net;

you laid a crushing burden on our backs;

you let men ride over our heads;

we went through fire and through water;

yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

I will come into your house with burnt offerings;

I will perform my vows to you,

that which my lips uttered

and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.

I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,

with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;

I will make an offering of bulls and goats.

Selah

Come and hear, all you who fear God,

and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

I cried to him with my mouth,

and high praise was on my tongue.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened.

But truly God has listened;

he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed by God,

because he has not rejected my prayer

or removed his steadfast love from me!

Thankful

I form light and create darkness,

I make well-being and create calamity,

I am the Lord who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:7

This verse was mentioned at church this past Sunday.  I have held tight to it this week.

It goes on to say...

"Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,

a pot among earthen pots!

Does the clay say to him who forms it,

'What are you making?'

or 'Your work has no handles?'"

45:9-10

and even further on...

I made the earth

and created man on it,

it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,

and I commanded their host.

I have stirred him up in righteousness,

and I will make all his ways level.

45:12-13

I am Thankful today for a God who is the creator of everything.  And not only the creator, but actively working.  Even when it seems like calamity in my eyes, there is nothing that is outside of God's work.  He is just as much responsible for the well-being as the calamity.  Everything, EVERYTHING (even when we don't understand) is for God's glory and our good.  I am thankful to be in the hands of a God who is always actively working for our good!

*Miller's asthma flared up again last week.  This is the first time he has gone on a steroid since MAY!  That is a huge praise!  Last year he had steroids July, August, September, October and November.  So, we have much to be thankful for!!!  But in the middle of dealing with asthma, even when we can see how much better Miller is from last year, it is still hard.  But we know God is the author, even of Miller's asthma!  And so, we praise Him for that!

T-Shirt Dress

I have not made one of these dresses in years!!!  

All Ella wants to wear are comfy knit dresses with leggings or tights.  Because of this, I have not really sewn very much for Ella lately.  It is just much easier (and usually cheaper) to buy knit dresses.  (Not to mention the fact that I am not the best sewing with knits, I just find them very tricky.)  

I have found some really cute/not too grown up dresses here and there and felt like Ella's closet was full.  But when I started using this fabric making the sandwich bags, I could not stop thinking about it as a dress for Ella.  I have not sewn a dress for Ella in sometime, so she was thrilled to have something that I made just for her that met all of her wardrobe requirements.

 

As I started making the t-shirt dress, I remembered just how easy these dresses are to make (not to mention they are super cute!).  You may have made tons of these for your little girls.  If not, you may now.  They are very easy, very cute and 100% guaranteed to make any little girl thrilled!


All you need is a t-shirt and about 3/4 yard fabric (fabric length just depends on how long you want the dress).

Measure the length of the t-shirt from the shoulders (I used a different dress of Ella's for the measurement).

and cut the bottom off of the t-shirt.

Measure fabric to desired dress length plus 1/2 inch for seam allowance and desired hem length.  I think I did an 1.5 inch hem on this dress.

One thing that makes this dress so easy is there is only one seam.
Sew the fabric together, selvage to selvage, making a big tube.

 (fyi, it was very difficult to take a picture of a tube of a piece of fabric this big.  this was my best effort)

Finish the edge.  You do not have to have a serger to finish your seam nicely.  Your zig-zag stitch works great.

 Next, sew in your gathering threads (set your straight stitch to the longest length.  do not finish the stitch at the beginning or the end so that you can pull the threads).

Side note:  even though I had read in lots and lots of places you should always sew two gathering threads, I never did because when I am sewing I am usually trying to get the most amount of sewing I can in the shortest amount of time.  Sewing an extra gathering stitch seemed like extra time I did not want to take.  That was until I got almost all the way through gathering a skirt or ruffle and my thread broke.  I now always sew two gathering threads!  It is time well spent!

Mark the middle front of your dress (the middle back will be the seam)

and the center front and center back of top.

Gather the skirt.

Gather the skirt to match the top.

Match the centers together with right sides facing each other.

Pin the top to the skirt.

Sew top to bottom.  Finish the seam with either zig-zag or serger.

 I really debated using elastic thread to attach the top to the skirt like I did here in the dress I made for myself this summer.  I never used elastic thread when I made these dresses for Ella when she was younger, but with more fabric pulling on the t-shirt, I don't think it would be a bad idea for older girls.  It might help give a little more shape to the dress.  I will let you know if I try it:)

Sew in the hem.

 And I could not resist adding my new tags to the back of the dress:)

 Ella loves having the tag on her dress!

If you need a quick, easy dress for your girls (or you are just beginning sewing) this is the project for you!  I hope your girls are as happy as Ella is about her new dress!