Hi, its jack. The first thing I did for christmas decorating.Was put up the lights. 1st my dad me and Sam raked the yard. Then we bagged the leafs and there were about 6 bags of leafs. Then dad put up the roof lights. Then me and Sam straightened the strands of lights. Took the stakes attached to the lights and stuck them in the ground. Inside we set up electronic stuffed animals that sing songs.We also set up advent on the wall. In advent we have a countdown with fun things to do inside. Then we hanged up our stockings. Then we put christmas snacks in jars. Then we put nativity scenes by the fireplace. Then we brought our tree inside. Then we put it on our stand,and put our lights on.Then we put the ornaments and candy canes on. The house looks nice. MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Question answering
Hi, it's Jack. The first question I will answer is from Ms. Amanda. She asked, "did you dress up for halloween?" Yes I did. "What was your costume?" I was Willy from Duck Dynasty. My costume was hot but people liked it. The second question is from Ms. Meredith. She asked, "what was your favorite football moment?" I had 3 really good runs, 2 of them I almost made it to the 1st down line (50 yard line). The other one I was tripped right before the touchdown. The last question I will answer is from my Gigi Ruby. She asked, "what is your new puppy's name?" My puppy's name is Waffles, he is a black Golden Doodle with gold on his paws and I would describe him naughty. Thank you for the questions. I appreciate you reading my blog "That's all we have for today folks! "
Monday, November 25, 2013
A case for the celebration of Thanksgiving
I opened my inbox this morning to a flood of junk messages proclaiming Black Friday deals and Thanksgiving store hours. A radio station here is already playing Christmas music. And teaching about giving thanks on Thanksgiving to a bunch of kindergartners was a little difficult since 50% of them already had Christmas decor up at home.
So in this mad rush to Christmas, I think it best that a case be made to celebrate Thanksgiving. True, the holiday is a nice opening ceremony to the Christmas season, but I'd argue that it has a bit more value than that. And I know that other countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving and I know that our Thanksgiving has some questionable history in it's origins. But I'm not sure any of that is a reason to skip this particular holiday.
Like I told my kindergartners, the purpose for the holiday is in it's name. Thanksgiving -- to give thanks. There is something to be said for a purposeful, intentional slowing of our lives with the sole goal of giving thanks. I teach my children after all, say thank you prompting them throughout the day.
Naturally, the act of being thankful should be, ought to be, a daily, moment-by-moment act. But the designation of a specific day to be thankful doesn't negate our daily thanks giving. In the same way that celebrating a birthday doesn't negate the love we have for the person of honor but rather highlights, emphasizes that love, so too the celebration of thanks giving.
Here's why I love Thanksgiving. It is the one holiday that doesn't pull on family to celebrate. I don't have to juggle schedules and timetables; I don't have to worry about things being just so. No one calls to ask about last minute gift ideas and I don't have to worry about making sure there is enough room in the car for all the loot. The few days before Thanksgiving, I am able to spread out on my kitchen table all my beloved recipes and choose just the right ones for the celebrations. I spend time in my happy place, cooking with love for those I love. And then on the day of celebration, all we do is spend time together. We don't have a time table, other than a rough time for the meal to start. There is no pretense, no fancy clothes or table linens. Just good food, and lots of family. So many opportunities to look around, in quiet or in cacophony, and give thanks. The kids aren't focused on themselves (any more than usual anyway). They understand that the day is just to be thankful; in so many ways, is just to be. I always wish Thanksgiving was a multi-day celebration, wanting just one more day to just be, to sit and be thankful.
I think it's important to slow, pause, be thankful. The season of advent starts a few days after Thanksgiving. A time to purposefully prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. How better to start than by thanking the God of heaven. To spend time doing nothing but being thankful. Not asking for anything, not expecting anything. Just saying thank you. Just acknowledging that every thing is from above.
I started a thankful journal a while back. My goal was to get to 1000 things. I never made it -- not because there aren't 1000 things but because the act of being always thankful is so contrary to our lives. I keep returning to it, though. Determined, committed to finding those 1000 things, to seeing my life through a lens of thanks. I highly recommend you read 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp; let her lead you into thanksgiving. Actually read it twice, as a review I read said, it's red meat -- give it some time to digest.
So this week, despite my mind already swirling with the demands of the holiday season, I'm going to purposefully pause, intentionally quiet and give thanks. When the din of dinner is all around, I'm going to let me mouth be silent and offer a prayer of thanksgiving. For the good, for the bad, for all. Because from Him comes all because of nothing but love. And for that I am forever thankful.
So in this mad rush to Christmas, I think it best that a case be made to celebrate Thanksgiving. True, the holiday is a nice opening ceremony to the Christmas season, but I'd argue that it has a bit more value than that. And I know that other countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving and I know that our Thanksgiving has some questionable history in it's origins. But I'm not sure any of that is a reason to skip this particular holiday.
Like I told my kindergartners, the purpose for the holiday is in it's name. Thanksgiving -- to give thanks. There is something to be said for a purposeful, intentional slowing of our lives with the sole goal of giving thanks. I teach my children after all, say thank you prompting them throughout the day.
Naturally, the act of being thankful should be, ought to be, a daily, moment-by-moment act. But the designation of a specific day to be thankful doesn't negate our daily thanks giving. In the same way that celebrating a birthday doesn't negate the love we have for the person of honor but rather highlights, emphasizes that love, so too the celebration of thanks giving.
Here's why I love Thanksgiving. It is the one holiday that doesn't pull on family to celebrate. I don't have to juggle schedules and timetables; I don't have to worry about things being just so. No one calls to ask about last minute gift ideas and I don't have to worry about making sure there is enough room in the car for all the loot. The few days before Thanksgiving, I am able to spread out on my kitchen table all my beloved recipes and choose just the right ones for the celebrations. I spend time in my happy place, cooking with love for those I love. And then on the day of celebration, all we do is spend time together. We don't have a time table, other than a rough time for the meal to start. There is no pretense, no fancy clothes or table linens. Just good food, and lots of family. So many opportunities to look around, in quiet or in cacophony, and give thanks. The kids aren't focused on themselves (any more than usual anyway). They understand that the day is just to be thankful; in so many ways, is just to be. I always wish Thanksgiving was a multi-day celebration, wanting just one more day to just be, to sit and be thankful.
I think it's important to slow, pause, be thankful. The season of advent starts a few days after Thanksgiving. A time to purposefully prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. How better to start than by thanking the God of heaven. To spend time doing nothing but being thankful. Not asking for anything, not expecting anything. Just saying thank you. Just acknowledging that every thing is from above.
I started a thankful journal a while back. My goal was to get to 1000 things. I never made it -- not because there aren't 1000 things but because the act of being always thankful is so contrary to our lives. I keep returning to it, though. Determined, committed to finding those 1000 things, to seeing my life through a lens of thanks. I highly recommend you read 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp; let her lead you into thanksgiving. Actually read it twice, as a review I read said, it's red meat -- give it some time to digest.
So this week, despite my mind already swirling with the demands of the holiday season, I'm going to purposefully pause, intentionally quiet and give thanks. When the din of dinner is all around, I'm going to let me mouth be silent and offer a prayer of thanksgiving. For the good, for the bad, for all. Because from Him comes all because of nothing but love. And for that I am forever thankful.
Friday, November 22, 2013
How I did in school after disney
Hi it's me Jack again. I had a hard time getting started on school, because I just got back from 8 days of fun at disney. I forgot about some things while I was at disney. Some subjects were easy to start. Math was the hardest to get started on, because I forgot some fraction rules. I fought through all the forgotten things and, calmed down took a few deep breaths. I concentrated by looking closely, focused and used the things that weren't forgotten. Then things got easy; I was able to do school work; math turned out good and fractions went well.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Thankful things
Sitting at a picnic table in Mobile, Alabama...thinking of thankful things instead of Facebook things
-- soft breeze blowing across the water
-- in the shadow of the USS Alabama, reminder of others and their great sacrifice for me
-- stomp stomp of little girl feet
-- oohs and ahhhs of happy little boys, marveling at the size of it all
Monday, November 4, 2013
Apparently the app needs some work
I tried using the blogger app this weekend. And did you see a new post Sunday? Yeah me neither. I'm going to try to work on it to see what I can find. The whole post was about why I'm off Facebook and here more. We'll see if I get around to re-writing it. The condensed version? I'm off Facebook because it was messing with my head. I'm here now, trying to write more. That is, if the app will cooperate.
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