This Week’s Menu

Leonardo Davinci Lesson

We are using Illuminations from Bright Ideas Press this year to help tie subjects in with our core which is The Mystery of History. I just wanted to share with you one of the things the kids did as a project while we were studying Leonardo Davinci this week.

This was part of the literature lesson.  The book read was Leonardo da Vinci by Diane Stanley and one of the hands on projects was to draw a self portrait. My youngest took a picture of himself using his Nintendo DSi XL and used it to draw his portrait. I think he did a pretty good job too!

Do you use The Mystery of History or Illuminations? Share your link!  I would love to come see what you and your children are learning about too!

Fruit of the Spirit

In our lesson from The Mystery of History today, we talked about Girolamo Savonarola.  One of the activities for younger children mentioned the Fruit of the Spirit. I don’t have any children in that category but the activity was interesting so I read it to my kids. They couldn’t remember all of the fruits so I decided it would be fun to make something that would give them a visual reminder.   They made the fruits using craft foam and labeled them using the Fruit of the Spirit list from DLTK.   We then added yard and hung them from the ceiling.  So simple, yet will serve to remind my children of the fruits they are supposed to grow.

PopATot

While wandering around at the Southern Women’s Show in Memphis, I came across a vendor selling something that I wish I had thought of years ago…like 16 years ago!  This is PopATot.

As you can see, it has the same concept as those folding camping/sports chairs that you can put in a bag and carry around.  I saw it and wanted one!  Ok, so I didn’t buy it because I don’t have any little ones!  I do think it would be a great baby shower gift and would be PERFECT for daycare providers!  So much easier to store and clean than the bulky walkers and those bouncy play center stand things.

They also have it available in cute designs:

If you are an active family with a wee one, I highly recommend this product!  Go order yours today!

Wonderful Weekend

It’s Sunday night and as I prepare for the upcoming week, I am reflecting on the events of the weekend…it was wonderful!

My kids are all doing the P.O.D. (Pursuit of Discipleship) class at church on Saturdays so I drove them there and dropped them off. While they were there, I had my nails done.  It is nice to be able to just let someone take care of me for awhile 🙂  That night was the Junior Auxiliary of Tipton County’s Charity Ball and since I didn’t want to drive hubby’s truck downtown and try to maneuver it into a tight parking garage, I rode with some of my JA Sisters…that was fun!  We had a good turnout and it seemed as though everyone enjoyed the band and food.

Since I knew I would be out late Saturday night and we had time change, I had already asked for a sub for my Sunday School class and last week I won tickets to the Southern Women’s Show so my sister and I decided to take our daughters.  We had so much fun! My sister was an hour late getting here, not because SHE didn’t change her clock (she did!) but my niece didn’t and thought it was earlier than it was.  HA HA  My silly niece 🙂  We spent about 4 hours looking at the various products at the show…I will be posting separate posts about some of my favorite booths.

As I think about this weekend and why I enjoyed it so much, it hit me…I took time away from my regular responsibilities. I didn’t teach my Sunday School class, I didn’t work in City Lights. I didn’t even turn my computer on today and didn’t stress about not getting the lesson plans, menu and grocery list done or  websites updated…I just took some time for ME! Wow…what a concept!  I laughed.  I watched a movie with my husband.  I enjoyed LIFE.

I am going to have to start making these WORK FREE times more of a priority.  If not, all of the “stuff” I take on is going to take over me.  I need a day off occasionally and I am going to start taking them more often and have lots more wonderful weekends.

Relay for Life

A few years ago, I participated in my county’s Relay for Life and haven’t helped for the past few years because I was just “too busy”…well, I decided that I wanted to be a part again this year so I signed up and am serving on the committee and am a team captain.

Relay for Life is an event where people in the community come together to celebrate the lives of those who have fought Cancer and remember those we’ve lost to it as well as raise money and awareness.  Each team this year at the Tipton Relay for Life will be focusing on a type of cancer which we will educate the community about.  Our team’s focus is prostate cancer.  This really makes me feel good to know that we can raise awareness about this particular type because my uncle Don had it and lost the battle.  We are the SOLE SISTERS and we are making strides for the misters.

At the event, our team will camp out overnight and take turns walking around the track to raise money and awareness to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

Why Overnight?

Relay for Life is an overnight event because Cancer does not stop for night time.

There is strong symbolism in this. Cancer does not sleep, so neither do we. Relay For Life starts at dusk and ends at the next day’s morning. The light and darkness of the day and night parallel the physical effects, emotions, and mental state of a cancer patient while undergoing treatment.

Relay starts when the sun is going down. This symbolizes the time that a person has been diagnosed with cancer. The day is getting darker and this represents the cancer patient’s state of mind as they feel that their life may be coming to an end. Just as darkness brings an uncertainty of what the night will hold, being diagnosed brings a feeling of uncertainty.

As the evening progresses it usually gets cooler, darker and quieter, just as the emotions of the cancer patient do. Around 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. represents the time when the cancer patient starts treatment. They become exhausted, sick, not wanting to go on, possibly wanting to give up. As participants walk or run, they also are tired, perhaps feeling a bit weaker and not wanting to go on. But just as cancer does not sleep, neither do we.

The sun rising represents the end of treatment for the cancer patient. They see the light at the end of their tunnel and know that life will go on. They are still tired, but the morning light brings an excitement about looking ahead to the future. Participants are tired, but know that the end of Relay is nearing and that they still have many great days ahead of them.

Please join our team or make a donation. The impact we can make together is much greater than what any of us could do alone!

Plum Reward

PLEASE HELP ME!!I’m trying to earn a complimentary $20 Target GiftCard® from Plum District, the leading deal site for savvy moms and their families to make their lives easier and more enjoyable, and I need your help to do it.  If I get 4 people to sign up for Plum District today, I’ll get my gift card. If you sign up, you may have a chance to earn a complimentary gift card, too! Just click on the image below to get started.

Host a Weight Watchers Ice Cream Party

I must say, I got a little excited when I got the email from House Party about this one!  I love the Weight Watchers desserts and I thought “Yeah, I can do this!” and then checked my calendar…I will be at the National Association of Junior Auxiliary‘s Annual Educational Conference with my sisters from Junior Auxiliary of Tipton County SO I can’t do it!  Boo-hoo! Oh well, I hope one of you gets chosen. Not sure what House Party is?  Check out this post I wrote about it a few months ago. Go apply here. If you happen to live in my area and host this later in the day, maybe I can pop by and taste!!  Just let me know.  Happy House Partying!

Facebook Profile vs Fan Page

Yes, there is a difference and every time I see someone using a “personal profile” page as a business page, it makes me want to message them and tell them that they need to be careful because it is against Facebook terms to use a profile as a business.  They can come in and shut your page down and what happens to all of those friends you had?  THEY ARE GONE!  You would have to rebuild your contact list…that’s no good for your business is it?

What IS good for your business is a fan page that is updated regularly with plenty of interaction with your followers.  I hate seeing a business Facebook page that has not had any activity on it or has people asking questions and the business isn’t answering…looks like bad business to me!  I move on.

Want your business to be found by search engines??  Yeah, having a Facebook FAN page (not profile) will help with that! It’s because Fan pages are indexed by search engines. Profiles are not. As a business, you WANT people to find you, right???

What about when your business really takes off and everyone wants to be your “friend”??  Did you know that a personal page only allows you to have 5000 friends?  Well, that kind of limits your business growth now doesn’t it?

You can have ONE profile, yet manage many Facebook business pages…I manage a large number of them myself.

So, lesson here is this…if you want to grow a business, then act like a business and get a business page.

While you are on Facebook, be sure to join my Christie Jarvis Connects page where I share various tips I find.  It may be about saving money, fun educational ideas, recipes, events…ya never know what connections you will find!

Menu for Week of 3-6