Handmade Spinny Speller

After seeing this Spinny Speller over at Chasing Cheerios, I thought it would be perfect for my boys (ages 4 & 6). The younger one is learning to write and likes to watch his brother take his vocabulary tests. Now with the Spinny Speller they can both work on words together. This item can be purchased at a very cool store: Let's Explore and the owner, Amy, has provided a downloadable worksheet to write the words out. Since my Dad built a garage to house all his woodworking machinery, I thought this would be the perfect project for him! So while we were there at Thanksgiving I showed him the picture and he made them in one afternoon! Way to go Dad! I used different lowercase letters for each. If you want directions on how to make this, I found them at Little Hands, Big Work. My Dad said he used a 5/16th size dowel so adjusted the whole size to fit accordingly.

On Christmas morning I nestled them in the tree. I can't say that my boys passed up their new Star Wars legos to construct 3 letter words, but they have enjoyed using it since!

Down with Santa and other ponderings

I’ve pulled it together to get another entry on my blog. During the holidays, I really have to be careful about my time and I’m afraid blogging has taken a back seat.

This week started out on a much happier note (going to a birthday party). The previous Monday, my 4 yo son stood on the side of my shopping cart (which had his sister and a cart full of groceries) and tipped it over right on the floor. Thankfully all involved only suffered a few bruises. My emotions didn’t bounce back so quickly but I am so thankful to God that there were no injuries.

We finished making our Advent calendar and have been doing various activities such as making ornaments, baking cookies, eating snowman, and my favorite: picking a family member’s name and doing something special for them until Christmas without them knowing who did it.


We have also focused sometime each day to read passages about Jesus' birth and discuss why we celebrate Christmas. It is important to my husband and I to center the excitement about Christmas on the Savior and not on what kind of gifts they get. If you would like to read a helpful article discussing a Christian's perspective about Santa you can read Thabiti Anyabwile's article entitled: "Down with Santa." I would also love to hear any suggestions you have in teaching children how to respond with grace and kindness when asked "What is Santa bringing you?"

I’ve been encouraged by the various spiritual conversations I have had with our boys recently too. The other day my 4 yo said he wished he was a grown up and the older one said “I don’t because then you die.” When I explained only God knows how long we live and that’s why it’s important to accept Jesus in your heart so you can live with Him forever, he said “Mommy, can you pray that now for us?”

I’ve also been humbled and convicted. My husband graciously offered to put away all the dishes from the dishwasher. When I reached for a glass I realized they were totally all mixed up. Now instead of being grateful for his extra act of kindness, that night as I was putting away his socks and t-shirts, I decided to mix everything up. How would he like to dig under his t-shirts for his underwear or find his socks at the bottom of the drawer? Well this lasted for about 10 minutes until I was reminded of Prov. 31:12 and realized that I am certainly not doing my husband good. So I went back and re-arranged them correctly :)

I am grateful for God’s everlasting love for us and that He is patient with us. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people." Luke 1:68

Head on over to Home Sanctuary for Company Girl Coffee and some great reading!