Family Favourites and Links for the Weekend – Canvas, Cookies and Happy Easter!

We are nearing single digit number of weeks left before school is finished, and definitely finding it difficult (for me :D) to keep up the motivation! Having a schedule in place helps a lot (and I haven’t made one for a couple weeks, oops!) and taking a morning walk break for some fresh air allows us to refocus when we’re home. Having a 5 day weekend this week is almost like a mini spring break, giving us a taste of what is to come!

Speaking of a 5 day weekend, Happy Easter! It’s a busy one – our service on Good Friday, then 3 services between Saturday and Sunday as I am singing in the choir. Family were over last night, then friends for lunch and after service today, then heading to my parents’ tomorrow for Easter dinner. Trying to squeak in laundry, clean up, groceries and finishing Easter baskets between is a bit chaotic! Fortunately we don’t have many weekends like this, so once in a while we can survive.

This week’s activities have centered around Holy Week preparations, and we have been really enjoying our Sense of the Resurrection study, as well as the Behold the Lamb Easter wreath. We finally made a resurrection garden and it sprouted! This may be the only garden we have this year :0/

We also did a couple canvas art projects for spring and Easter.

Yesterday afternoon was spent decorating cookies.

What are your Easter weekend plans?

On to the links!

The Heart Stuff

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus is a book I have been eager to read for a while. But it wasn’t quite what I thought it was about. After hearing this interview from author Jessica Thompson, I want even more to read it!

Tea Time Discipleship: 5 Minutes at a Time! – each of our kids needs connection, and each one responds in a different way to how they are mothered. I love this idea from Sally Clarkson on connecting with your kids, taking that quiet, personal time with them to hear their hearts.

Nourish Before You Drain Coffee and how it affects you. I don’t even want to go here. But I think I need to….

Another great podcast I listened to this week is on Teaching our Kids Bible Study Skills. We love Grapevine Studies and Dianna has some great wisdom and ideas for getting our kids to interact in bible study.

Speaking of Bible study, we received this Illustrated Family Bible Stories book from New Leaf Publishing.

It’s a beautiful book full of over 200 stories from the bible with illustrations and extra details about different aspects of the story, history, and culture.

For the story of Daniel in the Lions’ Den, it talks about the Babylonian world, Darius and the Persian Empire, helping you to understand a bit of the context surrounding the story.

The pictures are eye catching and definitely draw in the reader! This will be a great addition to your bible study bookshelf! You can win one if you join in the Book and a Bite Facebook Party with Master Books, coming up on April 29th at 7 CST.

The Home {School} Stuff

The Vinegar Myth: Why Vinegar Is Not A Great Natural Cleaner ”

So vinegar definitely still has an important role in a green and natural home. It’s best to use vinegar as a rinse to help to disinfect a surface after you have cleaned it with a soap-based cleaner. ” I’m glad I read this one! Not that I’m using it for a whole lot anyway :0/

How to Plan Your Garden A city girl can dream, right?