Family
Lessons Released
My husband and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary yesterday, so marriage was definitely on my mind – looking back on our favorite memories from the year, having conversations about what we want for this next year… I reread an email last night that I received from FamilyLife with a Happy Anniversary message. The top suggestions for marriage that they shared from couples who have been married a long time were CELEBRATE, FORGIVE, and KEEP GROWING TOGETHER! It continued on with Dennis Rainey, the President, CEO and co-founder of FamilyLife, and his 40 years of marriage. When Dennis’s and, his wife, Barbara’s 40th anniversary occurred, he decided to create his list of “40 Lessons for 40 Years of Marriage.” These lessons are so important and vital to a strong, God-centered marriage. They include keeping God #1 in your marriage, praying together, forgiveness and more! Below are the Top 10 Lessons – the link for the full list of “40 Lessons From 40 Years of Marriage” is at the bottom of the article. These are life lessons I want in my marriage to create a strong foundation for our family, to edify one another, so we can continue celebrating for years to come!
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40 Lessons From 40 Years of Marriage
Four decades ago, I married Barbara Ann Peterson. Looking back now on the first 12 months of our marriage, I’d have to describe myself then as an idiot—repeatedly ignoring the dignity of the woman that God had brought me.
But after six children, 19 grandchildren, and decades of married life, I’ve learned some things. I think of them as 40 lessons from 40 years of marriage … and family … and life.
1. Marriage and family
A Tribute for Fathers
Father’s Day was on Sunday and it was the first Father’s Day that my precious husband spent the day without any of his daughters, son-in-laws and now 7 grandchildren around him. But we had a joy filled day because …….we hold them all in our hearts. My husband is faithful and devoted to his family. He is a hard worker and dedicated to his profession. He is well respected and a blessing to his patients and their families.”Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged, and the glory of children are their fathers.”
Proverbs 17:6
“The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.” Proverbs 23:24
“I have written to you, fathers because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you…” 1 John 2:14
A friend wrote a beautiful tribute to her father and had the compassionate and insightful quote….”We are born into families with either a dad who heads his family with breathtaking responsibility or with dads who struggle their entire lives to ‘get it right’……..in spite of the confusing examples of some less-than-perfect Dads, we all have access to a Perfect Father. We really do! And this is what gets me so excited: We are invited into a relationship with this Father. We are warmly invited to be the son or daughter of the Father who loves us without restraint…….He loves us intimately and gently and well-as a Father should.”
Take a moment to think on this concept and share it with a friend who might struggle on or around Fathers Day.
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Passion Perspective Giveaway Winner and Bethany’s Birthday Tribute
Thank you for participating in our Passion Perspective celebrating the launching of Bekah’s Etsy shop A Line & A Lighthouse. We hope you have all taken the time to visit her Etsy shop and are considering who you would love to bless with a gift of a Bani Banner.
We are happy to announce the winner of the Giveaway…………Kelly Hyder-Hanlon….and what a fantastic winner she is!!!! Congratulations…..Bekah will correspond with you to give you the details of how to redeem your coupon!
Today we have another important event to celebrate…..today is Bethany’s 29th birthday! We want to honor her this day. She is such a precious part of our family and we all owe so much to her for how she encourages each one of us to be the BEST we can be in our life as we celebrate each day.
Rachel’s birthday message: “Happy Birthday, Bethany. I am continually amazed, inspired, and challenged by you. Your posts are filled with love and a deep understanding of God’s word and his will for our lives. You are such a blessing to me!”
Jessica’s birthday message: “Happy birthday Bethany! Your joy and enthusiasm for life makes everyone around you want to live life to the fullest. Thank you for encouraging me and pointing us to Jesus. I hope you have a wonderful, much deserved birthday! I love you!”
Bekah’s birthday message: “Happy birthday Bethany! I hope this is the start to your best year yet! I’m so glad that we’ve been only a few hours away instead of countries between us for the last few months! I admire your faith and your courage and how much you care for others…and I love that we still match by accident all the time! Love you “twin”! Happy birthday!”…
Read MoreRelease Your Stress
If you know me you know that I love fitness.
Probably one of my favorite fitness activities is yoga. I love yoga. There is yoga for strength, yoga for energy, yoga for stretching…you name it–there’s yoga for it!
Today I want to encourage you to set aside 30 minutes for some relaxing, stress releasing yoga. Enjoy this video and enjoy releasing your stress!
Yoga with Adriene – Yoga for Healing and Meditation
What is your favorite way to exercise to release stress?
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Memorial Day Fun and Crafts
I love our preschool co-op. Yesterday I hosted and the theme was “Memorial Day.” Just in time to share some fun decorations and crafts with you.
Decorations:
I was very excited to pull out this Red, White, and Blue Felt Garland that I made last year for Fourth of July.
Attire:
Free Time/Sensory Time:
I made Star-Spangled Slime combining the idea from icanteachmychild and this helpful video from about.com.
Here’s how I made the slime:
You will need glue (clear glue for transparent slime or white glue for opaque slime), borax, water, food coloring (optional), and star confetti.
Mix 1 tsp borax in 1 cup water and stir to dissolve. In a separate bowl, combine 1 container of glue with 1/2 cup water. You can add food coloring if you want your slime to have a color. Mix the two solutions and add the confetti. HAVE FUN. Store the slime in an air tight container or zip lock bag.
Circle Time:
To introduce the theme I shared with the kids that Memorial Day is a day to honor the men and women who died serving our country. It is a day for peace and prayer. I introduced some vocabulary words about Memorial Day and had the children take turns matching the words and pictures to the words and picture on my easel.
I passed out small flags to the children and we sang two flag songs from a great pdf file I downloaded from oopseydaisyblog.
We counted to 70 using groups of 10 stars. I used simple star stickers that I purchased at JoAnn’s.
Snack:
For snack I had the kids make their own flag designs with graham crackers, blueberries, strawberries, and marshmallows.
Crafts:
1. Flags
We sang a song about the American Flag to teach the kids …
Read MoreRemembering…
This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day. Now we all might not have lost someone in war who is close to us or that we know of that has lost their life. We may not even know anyone that has fought in a war or served our country. But we can celebrate the day. We can still celebrate those lives. We can all share in the pride of our country. We can share in what it feels like to experience freedom. We can share in the gratitude and the respect for the people who have served, the families who have lost loved ones, the sacrifices that have been made.
So this memorial day. Celebrate. Remember. Think of those who have lost loved ones. Think about our country. Think about those that are serving right now. Remember our fallen heroes. Remember the men and women that went to serve. The ones who have won our independence. Don’t take what they have done for granted. Celebrate them. Remember them. And live with the gratitude of living in a free country. People had to make sacrifices. Be thankful for their strength. Be thankful for their endurance. Live thankful.
“Thus, the men and women we honor this Memorial Day are all those who have served this nation from its founding 239 years ago–since the Revolutionary War, we have lost 1,010,485 men and women in combat–as well as all those who defend us now against the threat of global terrorism.” (Dilenschneider, Robert; Huffington Post) As with the motto from September 11, Never Forget. Kids today didn’t live through September 11. They don’t know yet what our country means, what our freedom stands for. Never forget. Never forget by talking about it and remembering it. Talk about our Founding Fathers. Talk about the struggle of war. …
Read MoreOh! The Places Your PackIt Can Go
I love my busy, fun, on-the-go life with my girls. Sometime it gets a little crazy, but I find that we work better when we get out of the house every day. This is why I love my PackIt and why it is such an essential part of my every day routine.
Packing lunches for myself and the girls keeps us healthy and nourished throughout our day. I love to fill our PackIt with our cold food and snacks. Our family favorites are cheese, nuts, sandwiches, veggies, salads, scrambled eggs (yep I’ll eat them cold!), and fruit.
I have a small Lunch size PackIt for most days or days i just pack snacks, and my Picnic PackIt is essential for day trips.
We love to fill our PackIt with our favorite snacks and you can join our Wellness Wisdom Campaign to get your free Growing Weisser snack list printable here.
Experience all the places you can go with PackIt by getting your own! BUY A PACKIT.
We want to see where you take your PackIt and how it fits into your life. Post a picture of yourself and your PackIt adventures on social media with #packitandgo and tag us @growingweisser and be sure to add #gwwellnesswisdom anytime you enjoy one of our favorite snacks!
AND Click the link below to be entered to WIN A PACKIT.
Mickey says, “Oh boy. These PackIts sure are swell! Make sure you get one and see ya real soon.”
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Read MoreThe Best Way to Keep Your Pack-N-Go Snacks Cool
Did you all sign up to get our FREE PRINTABLE – “Top 20 Healthy Pack-N-Go Snacks”? If not, check above to sign up or click here ! Once you sign up, you may be thinking…
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Summer is coming which means HOT, HOT, HOT! One of the top challenges in the summer is keeping your snacks cool when the sun is shining. So, what should you do?? We have a solution for you:
PACK-IT Freezer Bags!
Check out Pack-its reasons for Why It’s Great!
Pack-its are our FAVORITE cooler/freezer bag for our
On-the-Go Snacks! We use them for Day Trips, Road Trips, Daily meal packing, and more!
There are so many Shapes & Sizes for any type of occasion to keep your snacks, food, or drinks cool, including Baby Bottles!
Rachel uses her Pack-it in her Smart Planning for Day Trips!
“I LOVE LOVE LOVE my pack-it cooler. It is so easy to just pull it out of the freezer the morning of and “pack it” with my food that needs to stay cold. Because the bag itself is insulated, I don’t have to add bulky ice packs.”
Now that you know how passionate we are about the Pack-it products…..you can purchase one:
And, we have a treat for you! We are giving away one Pack-it Freezer Bag! Enter the giveaway below!!
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Puzzle BOGO!
My girls LOVE puzzles. This is one of their favorite quiet time activities.
Our favorite puzzles by far are Melissa and Doug puzzles. That is why I am so excited to share this! Click the link below to start saving!
The deal is buy one puzzle get one puzzle 50% off. Just use the code PUZZLEBOGO at checkout.
In addition, you can get free shipping on orders over $40 with the code FF40 at checkout.
The puzzles shown here (Left to right) are Safari Chunky Puzzle, Barnyard Animals Jumbo Knob Puzzle, and Farm Chunky Puzzle.
Happy Puzzling!
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Beautiful Butterflies
A few weeks ago I visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park butterfly exhibit with my mom, my grandma, and my 3 daughters. It was a wonderful experience!
It was great timing because we had just visited one of Ellie and Hanna’s sweet friends that had her very own butterfly garden! The girls were very interested and excited to see her caterpillars and it reminded me of when my sisters and I used to have our own butterfly gardens when we were growing up. It is such a neat and fun way to teach kids about science and life cycles.
I decided to get the girls their own butterfly garden so that they could observe the caterpillars growing and moving through the different stages of their life cycle. They have really enjoyed checking in on the caterpillars each day and watching them grow. We bought this garden from Insect Lore on Amazon and it came with a coupon to get our 5 caterpillars for only $5.
It was also perfect timing for me to teach a lesson on butterflies for our preschool co-op. In addition to our regular curriculum here are the butterfly and bug specific activities that I shared with the kids.
Circle Time:
During circle time I incorporate these fun movement/action songs:
“Butterfly Butterfly flutter around
Butterfly Butterfly touch the ground
Butterfly Butterfly fly so free
Butterfly Butterfly land on me
Butterfly Butterfly reach the sky
Butterfly Butterfly say good-bye”
“Five little butterflies by the door, One flew away and then there were four
Four little butterflies by the tree, one flew away and then there were three
Three little butterflies up in the blue, one flew away and then there were two
Two little butterflies out in the sun, one flew away and then there was one…
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