Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books

Birthdays are pretty exciting to kids, and it doesn't have to be their birthday for them to eagerly anticipate the celebration. Mom's birthday, Dad's, a sibling's, or a friend who has invited them to a party all are reasons to get really happy about birthdays. 

At our house, birthdays were always celebrated whether you were a child or a grownup. We still decorate with streamers and balloons, funny hand-made signs ("Happy Birthday," proclaimed one written by my teenaged son to his sister, "23 is such a prime number!") a selected meal, presents, and a birthday cake of the birthday person's choice. I wanted our kids to know they were dearly loved and an important member of our family and God's family. It is my prayer that these birthday traditions helped them feel seen, known, and loved by God and also loved by us.

Cake decorating is NOT my forte, but one year when I was feeling particularly ambitious, I made a princess castle cake for my daughter, which she in turn improved on and made...

Are you a New Year's resolution kind of person? Do you make goals at some point for your kids and your family life, or do you mostly go with the flow? I haven’t always written down my family goals, but I do tend to be goal oriented-I find I get stuff done more when I have time to gather my thoughts, hopes, and dreams, and write them down. Sometimes they just live in my head and I veer my actions toward them instinctively, and sometimes they live in my head and just annoy me because I do nothing about them. 

Goals are signposts. If our actions repeatedly line up on the road the goals are pointing to, we form habits that help us achieve the goal. For example, we might have a goal to exercise 3 times a week this year.  We join the YMCA. Then we go once-it takes a huge amount of motivation because it is unfamiliar and takes extra time. We go again because it felt good.(repeated actions, forming a habit)  Pretty soon we are carving out time 3 times a week, and it is a good habit in our liv...