Tag Archives: giving

Feb15

Little Things, Valentine Edition

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Little Things, Valentine Edition

Of course, there is lots of serving to be done on Valentine’s Day. There are ways for each member of the family to let the other members know they are loved. So here is how my family did that this year.

On Monday night, we had our normal date night. (Thanks, Hannah!) Jason found a new little cafe, and we enjoyed dinner together. (Well, I enjoyed my pulled chicken sandwich and mashed potatoes. Jason really didn’t care for his meal. But we enjoyed being together!) Oh, and we had Starbucks, which is pretty much a given on our date night. I had a Venti Soy Cinnamon Dolce Latte, thanks to my free birthday drink. I’m pretty sure that is why I couldn’t get to sleep till midnight….

Tuesday began, um, rather unexpectedly. I woke up out of a dead sleep at 5:40 with Jason saying, “Are the kids up downstairs?” We got up and walked down the stairs to find several lights on, and the three oldest kids out of bed. Clare and Miranda were cleaning up the family room and “decorating” it with hearts. Grant was sitting on the kitchen FLOOR, pouring cereal into bowls (and he had just spilled Rice Krispies all over the floor). Now what? I knew they were doing all this with a heart of love, yet I really did not want them up this early. So we thanked them and asked them to go back to bed for a little longer. Unfortunately, no one actually went back to sleep, so when Jason got up for work, we had a family breakfast!

(We won’t talk about the fact that we had 4 tired and grumpy kids all day. And how there was 1 tired and grumpy mommy trying not to lose her cool. Needless to say, all 4 kids ended up taking a nap in the afternoon!)

For my hubby, I decided to make a pecan pie for dessert after dinner. He LOVES them. Every time my mom comes for a visit, he begs her to make one. I have tried my hand at them two or three times before, and each time I bake them so long that the crust burns, but the middle still does not set up. So I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I tried a new recipe with good success. The pie turned out pretty good. My mom should be very happy though, because Jason still loves her pie the best!

One thing is certain, I will not forget this Valentine’s Day. I will not be letting my children forget this Valentine’s Day either.

How were you served on Tuesday? What did you do to serve someone else?

 

Image Credit: Free Pixels

Dec20

Christmas to Others

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Christmas to Others

Since we moved to our new home in June, I’ve been looking and praying for ways to reach our neighbors with Jesus’ love so that they might come to know him the way we do. I’ve had a few ideas that fell through for one reason or another (one being a mini fall festival on our street), and that I intend to implement next year….hopefully!
As Christmas rolls around (very quickly, I might add!), I am impressed again in my heart with the urgency of being a witness to those around us. I know God has put us in the middle of this street, these houses, and these people for a reason. It is MY responsibility to use every opportunity possible to ‘be Jesus’ to my neighbors. However, we don’t often see our neighbors. We speak to them every chance we get, but those chances are few with the busy lives we all lead these days. We’ve managed to meet all of our surrounding neighbors, and they are all very nice. One family in particular has reached out to us – bringing snacks over the day we moved in, letting me know they are available and will be watching out for me when my husband is out of town on business, and calling to ask how the kids liked the first snow we were getting at the house. We know they’re religious….but we DON’T know if they truly know Jesus. Another is an about-to-be-single-mom, who is also related to another one of our neighbors. Across the street is a nice grandma and grandpa who love to do yard work (we’ve asked ‘advice’ on occasion to make conversation :) . These, among others, are our neighbors – all of which need the Lord.

So we decided to purchase Christmas cards with the story of the candy cane poem. We didn’t want to waste this witnessing opportunity with an empty ‘Merry Christmas’ card.  The candy cane poem gives just enough truth without being heavy with religious opinion. Then we baked some fresh, ooey gooey cinnamon rolls in some throw away aluminum pans and passed them out to each of our neighbors. They were all pleasantly surprised. And maybe this will get us one step closer to verbally sharing our Lord’s saving grace with them. And just maybe as we talk to them, they will remember this act of kindness and think “Maybe this person ISN’T a religious nut. Maybe they have something worth listening to.” And isn’t our purpose on this earth sharing Jesus with everyone we meet?

 

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Nov28

Christmas Is Here

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Christmas Is Here

Well, the kickoff to the Christmas season has begun. Crazy shopping is underway. Santa is in stores. Toy commercials have doubled on TV. The “Christmas-themed” movies are playing each evening. It is kind of funny to me that some of the movies attempt to tell kids that “Christmas is not all about the presents”, yet everything around them is screaming, “Yes it is!”

While we give gifts, and go shopping, and watch a movie here and there, I am always searching for ways to keep the focus where it is supposed to be. On the Savior who was born to save the world from their own sin. This blog post from Keeper of the Home offers several ways to do this, some you may already use and others may be new to you.

I especially like #6 about how they keep gift giving under control. It is a very intentional way to plan the presents. I’ll let you go and read all about it. Here is the link:

11 Ways to Celebrate Christ This Christmas

 

 

Nov11

Finances for Kids–Money Lessons

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Finances for Kids–Money Lessons

You can find all other Finances for Kids posts here.

Many of the lessons that we want to teach our kids about money, are the lessons that we know they will need in adulthood. This is the main reason we have chosen to use a work and reward system in our home. As parents, we do hope to shield them from some of the mistakes we made. Some things, however, just have to be learned through experience. I would rather them learn as many financial lessons as possible with $20, rather than waiting until they have $2,000.

Here are some lessons I see that are good to learn now—and that they will hopefully practice as they get older.

1) Money isn’t just handed to you. You have to work to earn it.

2) How diligent you are determines, in part, how much money you earn. Obviously, this isn’t as cut and dried once you reach adulthood, but how hard you work can affect how much money you make. Right now, they could be earning as much as they want by doing chores around the house. As I write, I have one child with two stickers left on her chart to earn (then it’s pay day!), and I have another child with 23 stickers left to earn. Child #1, who is almost finished, started her chart in August, Child #2 in July. While it kills me on pay day to reward 1 child and not the other, I have to stick with our system if I want Child #2 to learn to be diligent. And, it does work at least temporarily. :) There is always a rush to get enough chores done to finish a chart when someone else gets paid!

3) Initiative can help to earn extra money. When the kids find jobs on their own and do them, I often give an extra reward. Doing a job because someone told them to do it is good. Doing a job because they see it needs done is great.

4) All your money should not be spent in one place. This one becomes more important once they are grown, but the discipline can be taught now. Giving, Saving, Spending—split it up instead of plunking down every last dollar for the greatest toy ever.

5) If you don’t save money, when a need (or want) arises, there may not be enough to cover it.

6) Also, saving is required if you want to purchase “big ticket” items. Some things are just out of price range, unless you save over time.

7) Planned spending is wiser than impulse buying.

I can think of several more in-depth lessons that we will be prepared to teach once the kids reach their teen years. Things like debt, investing, continuing expenses after the initial purchase (such as insurance after buying a car), etc. But for 6 and 7 year olds, I think we’d better keep it simple!

Next week, I’m going to show you a project that the kids can do. Though I don’t think they are ready for an Excel spreadsheet and budgeting, this will help give the kids a visual for how to divide their money into categories.

What lessons have I missed? What money lessons do you try to communicate at a young age?

Photo Credit: Free Pixels

Nov9

Giving Is Serving

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Giving Is Serving

Once again, my girls’ history lessons are teaching me! I posted about Ben Franklin’s life of service a couple of months ago, and this week my eyes have been opened to the Alcott family, just in time for the holiday season.

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women among other things, grew up in an extremely poor family. At times, they only had bread and milk, or water, for their meal. The story is told that one morning, instead of eating their bread and milk, they cheerfully delivered  their meager meal to a poorer family down the street. They literally ate nothing for breakfast so they could give to others in need. Another time, in the dead of winter, they had one armload of firewood left to last them through the night. A neighbor knocked on the door, asking for some firewood to keep his sick family warm. They generously gave their last load of wood to this man. Later on that evening, another neighbor brought an armload of wood to their door, providing for their need.

When I read of such poverty and need, my first thought is, “I’m glad we don’t have those situations today.” But how ignorant I am! I have been so blessed never to have experienced such things, but those dire needs exist just miles from my warm, cozy house. This is why our family is giving this season. I want my children to know these needs exist and to have a strong desire to meet those needs in whatever way possible.

We found out on Sunday, that our church is participating in an endeavor to feed families for Thanksgiving. We brought home a laundry basket, like this:

The brochure inside gives instructions for us to fill it with a Thanksgiving feast. The shopping list is inside, and all we have to do is purchase the items on the list. I love to bargain shop, so my goal is to see how cheaply I can fill up the basket with good quality ingredients. I’m keeping track of how much I spend for each item. Anyway, we are going to be given the name of someone in need, and we get to personally deliver this basket full of food. My girls are already talking about how excited they are to be able to do this.

Another thing we are planning to do this coming week, is to fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. I read this touching story of how a shoebox blessed a poor teenager from Peru, on one of my favorite blogs. The recipient contacted the giver of her box 10 years later to let her know what a blessing that box had been to her at the time.

We may be giving to help a family in need, but we are not sacrificing our last meal. Thank you, Lord, for the abundance you have blessed us with!

How do you teach your children to give to others? Do you have any special holiday traditions that include giving?

Nov4

Finances for Kids–Christmas

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Finances for Kids–Christmas

If you’d like to catch up on previous posts in this series, click here.

I thought this topic was an easy transition from last week’s post on giving. Christmas is one of those times of year that people, children especially, feel extra generous. The desire is often there to give, even when the funds are not available to purchase expensive gifts.

And as parents, we know that most likely the small amount of money they do earn will not buy many gifts. So what do we do to encourage giving during Christmas? We really like to see the joy that giving brings to our kids, so we usually take the kids to the dollar store or Target’s dollar bins individually and allow them to pick out something for each member of our family. They don’t pay for it, but they do get the joy of choosing something for everyone. They also get the joy of seeing the gift they picked out, opened on Christmas morning. And this doesn’t require Mom and Dad to spend a bunch of money.

This year, I am encouraging my girls to set aside $5 of their own money for another Christmas gift. Our church serves the community during Christmas with a food and gift drive. The last couple of years, it has really become a big deal. We have been able to help about 150 families with food and gifts for their children, when they could not otherwise afford it. We also partnered with a local food pantry to provide a large amount of food for only $5 (including meat, bread, fruit, vegetable, soup, juice, and other things), several times this year.  We have actually been able to personally help pass out the food and talk with the families a couple of times, so I think it is a very visual way for them to actually see HOW their money is helping. It is neat to be able to show them the biblical mandate to care for the needy, then assist them in following through.

Giving gifts is so fun to them, that they are constantly saying things like, “When I get my chore chart finished, I’m going to buy Grandma a —– for Christmas!” I don’t discourage this because I think the heart is right. They have a chance to give and to be a blessing to others, and I want them to keep that heart. However, I do try to provide some handmade options that they can help me with, for these types of gifts. If they are able to make their Aunt or Grandma something nice, then they won’t feel badly when they don’t have the money to purchase that expensive gift. As a matter of fact, I just ordered some supplies online last week for this very reason. I can’t go into detail because some of the family actually reads this blog, and we don’t want to give it away! :)

I guess if the children are older, and if they start saving in January for Christmas gifts, then they might be able to accumulate enough to purchase their own gifts. For our younger ones though, I don’t want them to miss out on the joy of giving to others, so we help out where we can.

How about you? Do you give gifts from the children in your family?

Photo Credit: Free Pixels