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This past weekend my sister invited me to attend her church’s annual women’s retreat. It was a wonderful weekend of encouragement and fellowship. If you have never been on a women’s retreat before I highly recommend it!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite tidbits of encouragement from the speaker, Margaret Ashmore.

The main idea of the weekend was that the joy of our salvation should be on our hearts every day. Margaret said, “the more I have of Jesus on the inside, the less I need on the outside.” We are driven by so many needs: the need for acceptance, unconditional love, and security. Nothing in this world can satisfy these needs, only God can meet our needs!

C.S. Lewis once said, “To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?” We must let our needs drive us to God because only he can satisfy the desires of our heart.

The only way to have more of Jesus on the inside is to spend time with him through prayer, devotions, and quiet times of waiting and listening for his voice. This is the main point I took away from the weekend. I have made a new goal to start every day with Jesus so that no matter what I encounter, I know that he is with me guiding my steps.

I hope that you feel encouraged by these tidbits. I would also challenge you to make time every day for Jesus. Start there. Make the time for him and he will find you!

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This Sunday is Father’s Day- a great day to celebrate such a meaningful person in my life! And, fun for us, it happens to be our dad’s birthday on Sunday, too!  Here are 2 fun and easy craft ideas to make your dad or your children’s dad feel very special on his day!

(1) For the last few weeks, we have been minimizing STUFF in the house so Bethany and I thought of a way to create a sentimental gift without it adding to the stuff in the house. We are making a bag of ALL THINGS POP! Pop, or Poppa, is what we call our Dad, but don’t worry you can still do this idea if you don’t call your Dad Pop! What we are doing is finding all types of foods and treats that have pop in the name or things that pop- the other way to do this is just to make a grab bag/basket/crate/bucket of all your dads favorite things or even use ideas that utilize all different names for Dad! You can even make the treats theme specific to your Father’s Day plans! Our list includes…

POPcorn

POP Chips

POPsicles

LolliPOPs/Blow POPs

Homemade Rice Krispie Treats (Snap, Crackle, POP)

Bubble Gum (Goes POP)

Soda Pop (If your dad likes Root Beer, it’s cute to get Dad’s Brand for this gift)

POPpyseed Bagel

Cake POPS

(2) Another cute idea I found from The Dating Divas…Let your dad and/or your children’s dad know how much you love them with The Dating Divas Printable (find it here) or make your own!

What you need:

Frame

Photos

If you choose not use The Dating Divas printable, you will also need…

Letter Stickers

1. Find a frame (12×12 or 11×14) and a piece of card stock and letter …

This past weekend we moved Ellie into her new bed: A big girl toddler bed. We were nervous about the transition since Ellie is such a great sleeper. Nevertheless, we have a new baby on the way in October and only two cribs. It was always the plan to eventually put Ellie and Hanna in the same room, we have just been putting it off.

The transition has been really smooth so far and I thought it would be fun to share what we did. I don’t think of this as advice, just sharing a fun success in our house.

We had a nice time rearranging the room as the girls made a mess of things around us. They of course thought it was quite fun to throw all the books on the ground and sit on them. Once we found the right set up, we introduced Ellie to her new bed. It immediately became the new “trampoline!” I tried not to make too big a deal of it and instead focused on teaching Hanna how to get off the bed safely. She picked it right up and has been doing great.

At bedtime, I wanted things to be as normal as possible. We stuck to our routine until it was time to talk about the bed…

Do you ever have those rare parenting moments when you actually come up with a good idea? Well, today just happened to be my day. We had gone to a birthday party earlier and Ellie was talking all day about presents. I thought this would come in handy to put a small reward system in place for Ellie’s new bed. I decided to tell Ellie that each time she slept in her bed and stayed in bed until I got her she would …

Routines for me are the secret ingredient to get through most of my parenting days. We have our morning routine, a meal routine, a nap routine, a bed routine, and so on and so forth. Now that my nap routine is fairly successful, it is almost enjoyable. Once I turn off the lights and turn on Hanna’s white noise she lays her head down on my shoulder pops her left hand fingers in her mouth, her right hand twirls her hair and she’s ready to lay down. It’s like magic!

I also love our night routine – laughing together as a family as the girls run around being silly. Followed by pajamas, brushing teeth, stories, prayers, and a little “I love you” song I sing to the girls passed down from my parents. Now Ellie sings it with me:

I love you Ellie

Oh, yes I do.

I love you Ellie

‘Cuz you’re so true.

When you’re not with me

I’m blue.

Oh, Ellie

I love you!

I’ve also started a fun routine to take pictures of the girls. It is hard to capture all the adorable memories, so I try to take a quick picture of them every few days in the same spot before we leave the house in the morning.

I think it also needs to be said that although routines can be great, it is also fun and important to break them occasionally. I think my favorite is breakfast for dinner! Today we tried a new little hiking adventure with our friends. It was during nap time, so I was a little nervous, but we had a blast and I always leave a new experience feeling proud that I tried something new!

What are some routines that get your family through the day? What are …

Valentine’s Day is one day each year that reminds us to focus on the people we LOVE! I absolutely LOVE everything about showing LOVE to others but my philosophy is to focus on loving others EVERY day of the year.

Wikipedia summarizes the history and folklore of Valentine’s day

“Saint Valentine’s Day, also known as Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them. St. Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14….. A popular account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell.Today, Saint Valentine’s Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church.The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine’s Day, albeit on July 6th and July 30th, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni). In Brazil, the Dia de São Valentim is recognized on June 12.
The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed …

Good morning friends,

Each week Rachel writes a newsletter that automatically goes out to all our subscribers. It is a great way to receive a reminder to check out our blog and it gives you a short recap of the articles written the previous week. I decided to post these newsletters each Monday for awhile to increase awareness and to increase our number of subscribers. To receive this newsletter as an email, just click the link at the bottom of this post or go to the bottom right corner of our blog anytime and hit the link to the subscriber form and you will begin to be a member of the Growing Weisser subscriber’s community.

 Welcome to your weekly wisdom with Growing Weisser.

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As I write, Bekah and Ashkon are literally taking off from the San Francisco airport for their last 5 months of their adventures in Grenada…yes we did get up at 3:30 am and drive them to SFO and we are safely home and it is only 6:20 am. So I volunteered to author her post today since they were up packing until late last night and are now on their flight bound for Grenada.

Their adventure began one month after their wedding in the summer of 2012. With six 70 pound suitcases packed and checked in and two carry-ons each, they boarded a plane bound for Grenada to begin Ashkon’s medical school education at St. George’s University Medical School.

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Christmas Blessings to all of you. We are so grateful for your devotion and enthusiasm as we have endeavored to establish a website that brings encouragement, hope and joy to families and friends; old and new. We hope that your holiday is full of fun, laughter and joyous celebration. We are taking a two week break from blogging to enjoy our family time. We will be back to posting in January with some exciting new ideas for our blog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!   …

It is Rachel’s daughter Elliana’s second birthday today! Even though she can’t read, or use a computer, we wanted to say Happy Birthday! We love you Ellie!!   …