Compassion Bags

Not sure if any of you follow my Carlykins Boutique blog so I thought I would share this here too.

Here is my latest blog from Carlykins (in purple), you will have to read this to understand what I am talking about.

Compassion Bags

After much prayer I have decided that from now on I will be doing MORE with the money from Carlykins. I felt so honored to be able to help my friend April earn money to help 3 orphans from the Ukraine this year for Christmas! I want to keep the Spirit of giving going.
A few weeks ago I found a post/pin on pinterest.com about "Compassion bags" (Compassion Bags are basically anything you can fit in a ziploc bag that a homeless person could use. i.e. soap, toothpaste, tooth brush, crackers, apple sauce, juice, note about Jesus etc......). Later that night after the kids went to bed I talked with my husband about it and told him I wanted to start doing this with my Carlykins money. He was very supportive. I then sent an email to my DGL (discussion group leader) at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) about somehow doing this as a group for the area homeless.
Long story short, she talked to the other leaders and as it just turns out one of them does this with her children. The next MOPS it was talked about with the whole MOPS group AND a sample bag was sent home with everyone!! So everyone could make their own decision with whether or not they want to do it and not feel forced to do it as a MOPS activity.
How cool is that!! Even if just 5 of the women in MOPS decide to do it, and if they make 10 bags each with a little prayer card in there, that's 50 homeless!! COOL COOL COOL!!!
Please pray for this mission!! 

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I would like to take this idea even FARTHER!!

Again I went to my husband and told him I wanted to do even more.

My thought was, If Jesus were to come on Christmas day how would he want us spending the day of his birth? Would Jesus want us all sitting around a tree exchange silly gifts to each other that none of us really NEED? Or would Jesus want us out spreading the word and giving to the needy?

Clay and I have decided to take half the money we have planned to spend on Christmas gifts for the kids and take the kids to buy all the supplies to make compassion bags and then spend Christmas afternoon handing the bags out.

Cuddle time

Clay is on a "Clay weekend" at momma K's beach house in Morehead. It is so nice having momma K's beach house back!!
Abbi has not been feeling well which means not sleeping at night. Last night I was up with her till 2am. I ended up falling asleep sitting up in my bed with her on my chest. Boy she tossed and turned for the longest time. Then she sort of snuggled in at my side facing the ceiling and I guess that opened up whatever was clogging her up so she could now breath and suck her pacifier at the same time and she conked hard. She was snoring just like when she was a newborn sleeping on my chest. I was so tired but all I could do was smile and smell the top of her head. I finally laid her down and got on Clays side of the bed and went to sleep. I got 4 hours in which I think I conked hard after 2 sleepless nights I so needed a hard conk ;)
This morning about 6 I felt her tiny little hand on my cheek. She is such a dear sweet baby. I grabbed her in close and she just cooed and giggled, which made me giggle. I am so in love with being a mom!! The thought of not having another baby makes me so sad but I know that chapter is over for me. I will take full advantage of the time I have left with Abbi.

Days like this.........

Momma said there'd be days like this!!!


Ever have one of those days??


Today is that day for me. What better way to handle it then through humor.......

Ohhhhh Carly

a conversation with Carly and Clay from this weekend just popped in my head and I want to cherish it forever!!!
Carly: "I have a crush"
Clay: "I know you told me about him last night"
Carly: "I did? Whats his name then?"
Clay: "I dont remember"
Carly all giggles
Me "Carly whats his name?"
Carly all giggles
Clay "Greg, John, Michael, Carter" etc.......
Carly all giggles "He was behind me in line at the slide during recess and asked me what his name was, I said ____ (sorry cant remember the name she said) and he said "No" and I told him it was"
Carly starts giggling again
Clay "So you were arguing with him about what his name was?"
Carly all giggles "Yes"
Me "Carly?!?!"
Carly all giggles with a snort
Clay "That's my Carly"

She is 1 in a million!!
Some man is going to be very "LUCKY" one day!!
I just cant figure out who she reminds me of??

Fun with Letters (Part 2)

I had so much fun doing this craft with Katrina that I just HAD to do one with Abbi!!
Today I taped off the poster board and broke out the finger paints. Katrina made hers with washable poster paint and a brush.
I wasn't quite sure how Abbi would feel about getting her fingers dirty. Carly seems to be my only child so far that will stick her fingers in absolutely anything.

 
At first Abbi wasn't too sure about it,

but then she really got into it, thus the blurry picture.

Right after this shot the paper went FLYING off the table!! 
Abbi could not get enough!

I think she would still be sitting there painting if I had let her!  

When I switched up the colors her curious face was priceless.

Her finished painting!!

I love it!!
LOVE IT!!
I am so excited to take the tape off of it but will definitely wait till tomorrow since a lot of it is GLOBBED on there!!

Fun with Letters

Katrina is one lucky kid!!
I guess I did crafts with the other kids when they were little but nothing like what I do with Katrina!!
This large order with Carlykins for Basil the Cat on Etsy has really changed things around here!! And in a GREAT way!! I did not want to just stick Katrina in the living room in front of a movie every day whether it was an educational movie or not. So I started thinking of different crafts she can be doing ON HER OWN (just across from me at table) while I glitterized flowers. It has been so much fun watching her learn and enjoy and just be a kid all while I "work" if I can call it that?!?!
This latest craft was one I found on Pinterest.com. It is so simple yet so fun!! Get a poster board and tape out the childs name with painters tape, then let the child go crazy with paint!!
Katrina had a BLAST!!!
AND I think it is by far one of my favorite crafts!! I am going to frame it that is how much I LOVE IT!!

Here it is with just the tape. 

Katrina painting it.

Before removing the tape.

Finished product.

Sweetness & Love

Yesterday when the girls got home from school I had a basket sitting on the kitchen table with pink unmade headbands on my computer. Of course Carly and Paityn were very curious thinking it was CRAFT TIME again!! My girls are like me and LOVE new crafts! They started asking questions about the basket and I reminded them about the orphans in the Ukraine that I am trying to help raise money for with Carlykins. We had a short little conversation about it all and I put the basket away so no little fingers could get everything dirty and I went about preparing dinner.
In the middle of making dinner the girls started fighting about the markers and who was using which one and so forth. I typically try not to get involved in sibling fights cause then my involvement would be never ending. I turn around and ask them what they are fighting about and how they can solve it like I usually do then saw what they were working on and got curious my dag gum self. I asked Carly what on earth they were doing and she told me "working on some crafts for the orphans"
My heart melted! She wanted to show the orphans LOVE and AFFECTION through crafts!!
How flipping cool is that!!
Thank you God for letting me an influence on my children like this!!

AND Thank you God even more for showing me and not letting me miss it by cooking the family dinner!! Thank you for the sibling bickering! You always know how to get our attention dont you Father!!