In Christ Alone

The words from this song really spoke to me in church today. Try an internet search to listen today.

"In Christ Alone"

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

**I found the words through a quick Google search but there are probably some official ones somewhere. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nataliegrant/inchristalone.html

Meet Our Fairies

We borrowed this book from the library called Felt Wee Folks by Salley Mavor

Inside are the most adorable and easy to make fairies and little felt folks.  They are made of pipe cleaners wrapped in embroidery floss with little wooden beads for heads.  The clothing is made of silk flowers and felt.  At the beginning is a simple pattern for kids.

TJ's fairy Fazooza

Although the projects were too advanced to the boys to do alone, TJ still got quite involved as did cousin E.  TJ painted several wooden beads (orange and purple) for heads.  He helped me to take apart the fake flowers we picked up at the dollar store.  And of course he provided guidance as he picked out the colours to be used.

Mommy's fairy Woodlet

After making one for himself when cousin E was over to play, TJ decided to make one for each of us.  We have been having a wonderful time playing with our fairies for hours this past week.

MJ's fairy Flower

Don't forget to check out Magic Onion's Fairy Garden Contest.  We are currently making some furniture and will be sharing pictures of our space soon.

For more incredible inspirations and activities for kids, please visit the following websites!!! 

This Post is linked to:

It's Play Time!

Happy Family Times

Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons

Sun Scholars

What are Little Boys Made Of

Ultimate Blog Party Welcome!

Welcome everyone to Raising Our Family. This blog is an eclectic mix of family events and photos, crafts I am working on, activities for the kids, faith moments and more.

About Us
You can find a lengthy version on the My Family page at the top. We are a Christian family living in Southern Ontario.  We have a family business called Integrity Fire and Control Systems Inc.  I do all the office work while my husband in the man in the field.  Our company is growing, praise the Lord, which keeps us busy along with two young boys. If the Lord is willing we would like to homeschool our boys, we blog about the many things we do during the day.  I am still researching and working on what our homeschooling adventure will look like.  At the moment we are moving towards a Waldorf inspired lifestyle (this journey is for another post if I get to it).   I love to do all things crafty so you'll see a lot of that in this blog. I encourage you to use the links along the right side and look around to find out more.

Some of my past most popular posts were:
Monster Shirt
Messy Rainbow Spagetti
My Favourites from this new year include:
Dress-up-clothes
Melted Crayon Art
Fairy Houses

The Store
I have been selling these adorable sock monsters on Facebook for a while now with great success.  They are designed to be a great stuffed toy that can also be used for the tooth fairy.  Our life is a bit busy at the moment because we are selling our house, growing the business, raising a family, etc... so I have not yet started an Etsy store. I hope to sell my upcycled creations and other unique items.  For now if there is something you like or think I can make, please contact me.


Thank you for stopping by.  Please leave a comment so I know you visited! Enjoy the party.

My favourite posts from 2011

Happy New Year and welcome to my blog!
In the world of blogging many people are sharing their favourite posts from 2011. I linked up through the Imagination Tree. I have found it so hard to choose because I try to write from the heart so I love all my posts.

I love this post about Playing with nature because it reminds me of what I have been trying to work towards with my boys.  In 2011 I began to learn a lot more about natural parenting, simplifying our lives, being more peaceful and enjoying creation more.  We are still evolving but we did spend most of the summer outside and have begun to find some fun things to do in the snow too.

One of my posts was featured on another site, so that was fun.  I had made table setting placemats.

My most popular post was from a blog hop in which I met many wonderful people and began following so many more fantastic blogs!

I do hope you'll look around and see what other crafts and things we did last year.  Do come back and see what this new year will bring!

A Happy Ending

Today ended so wonderfully that I just had to write about it.  My boys played mostly by themselves today, nicely, without needing me too much, for over half an hour!!!!!!! I still can't believe it happened.

It all started this morning...

TJ and his incredible memory remembered a toy that he wanted to use.  He tried to describe it to us but both mommy and daddy were thinking of something else and mistakenly told TJ that we no longer had it.  So after a melt down and slightly stressful pancake breakfast, TJ tried again to describe what he wanted.  Once we clued in it began an early morning hunt all over the house for a Playmobile tractor.

As soon as MJ saw the tractor, he wanted it too so they started to fight.  I had a revelation and remembered that we had a tone of Playmobile in storage, so Jon dug out the ladder and went looking.  We found another large tractor and a helicopter.

It was like Christmas came early for those two.  All day they played with these toys without stopping.  MJ would twirl around in circles to make the helicopter fly.  TJ loaded the tractors with millions of different loads. One load included my Blackberry which ended up outside in a compartment of the Skidoo (thanks Jon for finding that one!)

TJ pulling a toy pot full of random things

MJ driving a tractor on the couch

In the evening they chose to play with these toys instead of our sensory bins!  MJ is learning to play and copy how TJ drives the tractor around to pick up loads.  He tried many times throughout the day to join in our imaginative play.  TJ attached the helicopter to many different containers and made deliveries.  He even helped MJ fix his tractor when the trailer came off.

TJ with the helicopter pulling a flatbed truck

MJ and the tractor with his Taggie blanket

On a side note it was also a very productive day.  I got more leaves cleared, finished TJ's christmas present (will post on that soon), did some house work and Jon and I put some company labels on his truck! Oh and MJ has been trying to sing to me.  He is copying a song from Baby Signing Time called sunny day.  It comes out more like "sun sun sun a guy", he is trying to say "sun sun sun in the sky".

Apple Picking

These photos are from last month but it's taken a while to get them off my camera.

Fall is in the air, he leaves are changing colour and the apples are ripe for picking.  The boys and I took the opportunity to go to our local apple farm before the called for rain hit.
We had a great time as usual at Frootogo

TJ found his favourite wagon with the biggest wheels

Lots of apples!!

TJ showing off his first apple

MJ planning which row to run down next

TJ searching for the perfect pick

MJ searching for an apple to pick

TJ leads the way through the corn maze

MJ looks a bit lost

MJ playing on the toys

It was a pretend tractor!

I love the fall!  We are faving so much fun.

New look

So how do you all like the new look for my blog?  During the M.O.B. Society BlogHop I won a blog redesign by April McKinnon.  I am so thankful for all her work.  She is extremely creative and so easy to work with.  I love the design it fits my personality very well!!

I asked April to share a bit about herself with us all:

How did you get in to doing web design?

I am actually in school for website design and when my classes began taking me away from the basics and more into the design aspect, I really began having fun with tweaking and changing my own blogs. As I got further in school and began having even more fun with design, I thought, "I could do this. I could design blogs for people." And so, the idea was born. I have not set up my design site just yet (hopefully very soon; it's a work in progress), but am more than willing to discuss designs/re-designs with people. I just love it!

You have your own blogs.  Tell us a bit about them.

Right now I have two blogs - one is my personal blog and one is a review blog. My personal blog, Blessed Beyond Measure, is simply about me, my life, being a parent/single parent, God, faith...basically whatever comes to mind that day. I have found that not only is writing therapuetic but it is also a form of reflection, contemplation, and quiet time for me. God has really grown me through writing. My review blog, For What It's Worth, is a place where I write reviews of books, movies, TV shows, products...basically whatever I feel like reviewing. Most of my reviews so far have been book reviews as I am an avid reader, however, I am beginning to branch into some products coming up very soon and I am very excited about it!

What advice can you give to other bloggers?

Simply this...be who you are and write from your heart. If you are yourself, if you speak from your heart and soul, with passion and conviction, then you will be successful. When I started my blog two years ago next week, I didn't expect to have consistent readers or to get very far with. I honestly expected that it would be something I would eventually quit doing, like all other writing I had tried to that point. But thankfully God had different plans. 

April McKinnon
http://amblessedbeyondmeasure.com/

Thanks again April for all your work.  I encourage you all to visit her blogs.  I have been meeting the most wonderful people from the blog hops. It is especially exciting for me to meet other Crhistian moms with boys.
Have a look around my great looking blog and have a wonderful day.

Featured at Layers of Learning

I am very honoured that my table setting placemats were featured over at Layers of Learning.  I invite you to go check out the post.

Layers of Learning is a wonderful site with so many educational ideas. The site and their curriculum is created by two homeschool moms who are sisters.

Friday's Favourites: I Spy Alphabet Game

This week TJ has been learning the alphabet.  We borrowed the Leap Frog movie Letter Factory from the library.  I think he has requested it several times a day all week.  Amazingly TJ has leaned the alphabet and all the letter sounds just from watching the DVD.  I was planing in the fall to do a little program/ activities and such with him, but I guess there may be no need.

I was thinking of a way to practice his letters when the idea came to me.  Most people know how to play I-Spy.  You think of an object and the other person guesses what it is.  The only clue they have is the colour.  For example "I- Spy with my little eye something that is green."  Oh I bet you didn't know it was my PJ's (I'm blogging very late at night).

Here is how we play, because TJ hasn't quite grasped the concept of the real game yet.  He just looks around to find anything that is the colour or starts with the letter I give him.

Mom: "I spy with my little eye something that starts with M."
Mom: "What does the M say?"
Tim: "mmmmm"
Tim: "I know mmmm, Mommy!"

He has been asking to play all week.  We've also been practicing what the letters say by going through his Thomas the Train Alphabet cards.  We also try out the ASL sign for the letters too.  We watch Signing Time videos to practice our signs.

What alphabet activities are you doing?

The Ultimate Blog Party!!!

Welcome to my blog.  I hope you take some time to look around.  Although I'm new to blogging I have lots to share.  If you have come from the Ultimate Blog Party a special welcome to you.

Wow I'm so excited everyone.  I was blog hopping around this morning and came across the Ultimate Blog Party which starts today.  It is quite simple.  Just write a blog about the party and add your link.




All About Raising Our Family
I decided to start a blog to remember all the wonderful moments I have with my sons, and a spot to write about my crafting addiction! In this blog I try to keep to a schedule somewhat:

Monday: Missions - a Christian focus on how God is working in our lives.  I sometimes share ideas, tips and sites to help us all raise our families God's way.


Tuesday: Tips - here I share a small tip that has helped me to run our house smoothly.


Wednesday: Crafts - I love all types of crafts.  Right now I'm on a sewing kick.  I often share the crafts I'm working on, tutorials, and contests I've come across.


Thursday: Our Week - this is obviously sharing either generally about our week or some special moments with the family.


Friday: Favourites - I'll post something that was my favourite for the week.  It could be anything so keep tuned.

I always love hearing from you.  Please let me know what you'd like to see, how you found me, what you think of my blog.  I'm always up for improvements too and can't wait to meet new people.

Meaghan

http://raisingourfamily.blogspot.com