family movie night

 

Our family watched a great movie last weekend, the  Ernest Green Story.

Have you heard of Ernest Green? Little Rock Nine? I am sure in my American History class we studied the Little Rock Nine at some point but I know it got lost among everything else I studied that year. My  husband grew up in Little Rock and he is the one who told me about the Disney movie The Ernest Green Story. I'm so glad he did. It's a story we all need to know and remember. 

In 1957 and 1958, Little Rock, Arkansas became ground zero in the segregation battle. The Supreme court had ruled in 1954  that separate was not equal and that desegregation must occur "with all deliberate speed". Little Rock had already begun the desegration process. They had desegregated it's public buses, zoo, the library and parks. The Little Rock school board had decided the high school would be integrated in 1957, the  junior high the next year and elementary schools the following year. 7 out of the 8 state universities had also been integrated. Everyone thought integration at the high school would be fairly easy. 

There wouldn't be an Ernest Green Story though if the integration had been fairly easy. The Governor of Arkansas called in the National Guard to block the entrance on the first day of school for the nine students and that began a battle that waged all year. The movie tells the story of how these kids, their families and supporters  went up against pure evil and triumphed. 

Go watch this movie. Go learn their story!  If you are like me, you will spend a lot of the movie just wanting to hit someone but you will also see God work through "average" people to battle against injustice.

hidden place of service

“Lord Jesus, only you can change our hearts, and grace always runs downhill—always. We tremble to ask this, but expose our pride, humble our attitudes, and soften our hearts. Make us prefer the hidden place of service over the public place of being noticed. Make us glad to be your servants, wherever you place us. We pray in your tender and powerful name”

                          - Scotty Smith, Everyday Prayers 

fall craft

I recently made a  book page pumpkin and apple for craft night at Julia's cafe. I thought I would share the tutorial on here. Its easy, quick and super cute! 

Supplies needed  are red and orange spray paint, soft cover book (1 book for apple and one for pumpkin), pencil, scissors, glue gun, small sticks from yard, ribbon/twine and template for each. 

I used card stock to make the templates. 

Take off the front and back cover of the book. Lay the template against the spine of the book and trace around it. This is the apple template.

This is  the pumpkin template. 

Trace around template. Take five or six pages at a time and cut out around the shape. 

Once you have cut out the pages, carefully pull them away from the spine. 

Take the template and start all over. 

Trace, cut and repeat. I love easy crafts! 

This is what it looks like all cut out.  Before I began fanning the pages, I trimmed  the pages to be a little more even. 

Take the last page and glue it to the first page. 

Take the book pages and start spreading them apart. The two books I used I bought at a used bookstore. The books had not been read so I had to do a lot of fanning. Next time I will look for books with more wear and tear on them. I roughed up my book pages by folding and scrunching them a bit.

I kept working on it until it was full and I got the look I desired.  Fan, scrunch, wrinkle and repeat.

Once the apple and pumpkin were fanned out. I spray painted the edges. I took the small sticks I found in our yard and hot glued them on to the top and attached ribbon/twine. I also hot glued the ribbon and twine to the apple and pumpkin. This is the final product.

Have a great weekend! 

good kids

I'm enjoying this book. It's challenging me. I'm guilty of wanting to raise "good kids". I'm guilty of wanting the approval of other adults for how well my kids act. That is not gospel parenting that's moralistic parenting. I'm not good, how can my kids be good? Only Jesus is good. My kids can follow our laws outwardly to perfection but if the heart hasn't changed it doesn't matter. As Tullian Tchividjian said, "the law shows us what a sanctified life looks like, but it does not have sanctifying power. It's the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God honoring animation to our obedience.

 I never realized until seeing it laid out in this book, how I am works based not grace based in my parenting.   We all want obedient children but the problem comes when we tell them they are good and they can obey God's law. What we need to be telling them about is their desperate lostness outside of Christ. The Bible isn't about us, it isn't  learning about the Bible heroes and how we should copy them, it's not about making good little boys and girls better...its about Jesus, the one and only hero in the Bible and his love and grace for us. Gospel parenting starts and ends at the cross. As I am reading this book, I know the Holy Spirit is doing something in my heart and I'm thankful he doesn't leave me where I am. 

Raising good kids is utterly impossible unless they are drawn by the Holy Spirit to put their faith into the goodness of another. You cannot raise good kids, because you are not a good parent. There is only one good Parent, and he had one good Son. Together, this Father and Son accomplished everything that needed to be done to rescue us and  our children from certain destruction. When we put our faith in him, he bestows the benediction upon us: "These are My beloved children, with whom I am well pleased" (see Matt.. 3:17). 

Give this grace to your children: tell them who they really are, tell them what they need to do, and then tell them to taste and see that the Lord is good. Give this grace to yourself too. 

                      -Give Them Grace, chapter 2 

craft night brought to you by Julia's

I love fall. Pumpkins, mums, apple picking, pumpkin spice lattes, football, cooler weather... You get the picture! I have a great way for you to get a jump on fall decorating and  help out Habitat for Humanity at the same time...craft night at Julia's cafe. Please join us on Thursday, August 22nd from 6-8 to make a craft out of used books. We will be making either a book page pumpkin or apple. Just like the ones in the picture.

I'm sure you have heard of Habitat for Humanity but you may not know about Julia's. Julia's is a coffee shop located in the Wendover Road Habitat for Humanity Re-store.  All of the profits from the drinks and goodies and used books that Julia's sells go directly to Habitat for Humanity.  

As you can imagine, the Habitat Re-store gets tons of donations of used books each week.  While Julia's is able to put out many of those books to sell in the bookstore, there are still many they can't use (you wouldn't believe some of the books they get!). Here is where craft night comes in...we will be using those books that can't be sold in the store to make our crafts. All proceeds from craft night go to Habitat. 

Please join us! 

Here are the important details...

For $19.98 we’ll provide all the materials you’ll need for a book-page project and a local blogger to lead you through the process. We’ll even throw in a drink (we have caffeinated and decaf options). All you have to bring is your creative side. The letters are perfect to hang in your home or use as bookends. All proceeds from Julia’s support Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte. For more information, or to register, visit Julia's or call 704-295-4585. Julia's is located at 1133 Wendover Road Charlotte.

we have a...

A fifth grader

A third grader

and a preschooler!