Lists and Links and a Free Christmas Bucket List Printable

Last year, inspired by some of the bucket lists I saw online, I made a bucket list for fall. My kids enjoyed that bucket list so much that they asked for a Christmas bucket list also.  

A simple list with some important reminders.  A festive list with a few fun ideas.  A place to write down the names, the dates, and the places.  A bit of inspiration to slow down in the rush of the season . . . to make sweet memories . . . to mark the moments.

I've updated the Christmas Bucket List for 2012.  If you'd like to download and print a copy, click here.

If you're not familiar with the Jesse Tree Readings for Advent, (mentioned in the bucket list, above) the stories from Scripture that trace the lineage of Jesus, the root of Jesse, you can find a beautiful rendering of these stories over at Ann Voskamp's place, A Holy Experience.  Ann has made the Jesse Tree Journey devotional available for free, with the full Bible text for each reading included and beautiful, full-color as well as black & white illustrations to cut out and use as you mark the days of Advent. This is my favorite way to count the days of Advent!  Click here to find Ann's Jesse Tree Journey devotional.

And as we mark the moments in preparation for Christmas, I'm continuing to count His endless gifts and grace . . .

#1579  kids and husband hanging lights on the house
#1580  Christmas music playing while we work
#1581  white lights and a red bow on the reindeer out front
#1582  a festive wreath on the door
#1583  nutcrackers on the mantle
#1584  red plaid bows on the candlesticks
#1585  coming home to the house all lit in Christmas lights
#1586  small town Saturday night
#1587  bar-b-que for dinner
#1588  live band playing country music
#1589  French toast for breakfast
#1590  Jupiter blazing next to the full moon in the night sky
#1591  cranberry orange tea with honey
#1592  homemade apple bread
#1593  10 little fingers & 10 little toes...new little one in the family
#1594  impromptu dinner with Gram, Grandad & Granny
#1595  troubleshooting...figuring it out
#1596  leafy greens with feta, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds
#1597  listening to the Lifeway Women cd 
#1598  skimming through books at the Christian bookstore
#1599  morning fog hanging low in the field
#1600  getting the squirrel out the door
#1601  the laughter that followed the frantic frenzy of a squirrel in the house
#1602  boy-child jumping up and down, so excited to find ice cream in the freezer

And give thanks for everything

to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:20, NLT

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Whispers of Fall (with fall bucket list printable)

On the last day of September, I pull a sweater out of the closet and slip my arms into its sleeves.  The sun is sliding away behind the limbs of the oak trees, and I can't remember ever before wearing a sweater in September.  But there's a delicious tang in the air, and the whisper of fall is on the wind.

My boy-child has stockpiled a whole arsenal of acorns by the front door...ammunition, he says, for the acorn wars he and his buddies have been waging in the street and in the yard.

At the grocery store, pumpkins pile high in bins, there are bags of caramels stacked beside the apples, and I'm thinking we might light a stack of wood in the fireplace.

It's fall.  The calendar has said so for more than a week, but the red line on the thermometer says so now, and we are grateful.

The kids have asked for the bucket list*, so I've printed it out for the fridge.  And I'm sharing it with you, along with the recipe for our family's all-time favorite fall treat.

Happy Fall, sweet readers!  May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you.  And may you know that He is good!

Continuing to count His gifts and grace . . .

#1500  sweaters in September
#1501  acorn wars in the front yard
#1502  toddler giggles
#1503  pumpkin muffins hot from the oven
#1504  mugs of apple cider
#1505  first pumpkin spice latte of fall
#1506  scent of fall in the air
#1507  that he got the job!
#1508  Hillsong/Brooke Fraser's song, "Like Incense"
#1509  Gram cooking my firstborn's birthday dinner
#1510  Grandad working with my boy-child's Webelo patrol to earn their badge
#1511  finishing the task even when things went wrong
#1512  phone call from my brother just to chat

This is the day the LORD has made!

We will rejoice and be glad in it!

Psalm 118:24, NLT

 

 

*Note:  I saw a similar "bucket list" online last year, and that inspired me to create my own.  If you'd like to download and print our bucket list, just click here.  If you'd like to check out some of the other fun bucket lists online that inspired me, you can click here or here.  Or, even better, use ours and the others as inspiration to create your own! You'll find lots of fun inspiration online!

And to download and print our family's favorite fall treat, with tips for modifying the recipe for loved ones with food allergies, click here.

 



 



 



 

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We're Not Perfect (The Blessing, part 2 - free printable)

We're not perfect.  Sometimes our tempers flares.  Sometimes stubborn streaks blaze like lightning in a midnight sky and angry tongues sear tender hearts.  More times than I want to remember or count, I've had to say to my children, "I'm so sorry.  I was wrong.  Will you forgive me?" 

Some days, we spend more time working on our fractured hearts - asking the Lord to do some major renovation there - than we spend working on fractions and identifying predicate adjectives.

Lots and lots and lots of times, when a child's bad choices have blazed like lit cords to explosives, I have hugged that child tight and said again, "All you really need to know right now is that I love you, and nothing you do and nothing you say will ever, ever change that."  And by God's ever-amazing grace, we realize again that just as His kindness leads us to repentance, so our kindness does the same for our children.

So when I tell the stories of our days, when I share what we're doing here . . . know that we're just everyday, normal, regular people like you are.  We make a lot of mistakes.  We don't have it all figured out.  We have more questions than answers on most days.  But we're leaning hard into God's grace, clinging tenaciously to Him, counting on Him to guard what we've entrusted to Him.

Tonight, as you pray the Word over your children, know that it's not a formula for perfection, but it's a conscious leaning into Him who is perfect and good and trustworthy, into Him who is the only one worthy of our praise. It's a faithful planting of good seed and trusting Him to make that seed grow.

The rain and the snow come down from the heavens

and stay on the ground to water the earth.

They cause the grain to grow,

producing seed for the farmer

and bread for the hungry.

It is the same with my Word.

I send it out, and it always produces fruit.

It will accomplish all I want it to.

And it will prosper everywhere I send it.

You will live in joy and peace.

The mountains and hills will burst into song,

And the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:10-12, NLT

More of the verses we pray over our children, these seeds planted in their lives . . .

Click here to download the free printable.

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The Blessing, part 1 (free printable)

I guess she was about 4 years old at the time.   I was putting her brother down for a nap, and she said, "Mommy, I will say his verses."  It wasn't the typical pattern of naptime, but I figured I'd go with it.

"Okay," I said, and watched to see what she would do.

She moved over to his bed, and as he lay his head on his pillow, she placed her hands on his head and on his back.  Then in that sweet, preschool voice, she said slowly, enunciating every syllable, "This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight . . . "

My eyes grew wide.

"that you may be able to discern what is best"

My eyebrows arched in wonder.

"and may be pure and blameless"

I think my mouth dropped open at this point.

"until the day of Christ"

Really?

"filled with the fruit of righteousness"

Yep.

"that comes through Jesus Christ"

Really.

"to the glory and praise of God."

From the time she and her brother were tiny, we had placed our hands on their heads and on their backs and blessed them, speaking God's Word over them each night at bedtime.  "May you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind and all your strength . . . "

"May you grow as Jesus did, in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man."

"May your life be filled with the fruit of God's Holy Spirit . . . "

It had never occurred to me that they were actually listening, absorbing every word.


Over the years, as they grew older, they began to ask questions.

"Mommy, what is the fruit of righteousness?"

"What is the day of Christ?"

"Mommy, what is self-control?"  I'm so glad you asked!

Those questions have given opportunity to discuss, explain, explore God's Word.

We've realized, as we've spoken the Word over our children, as we've prayed Scripture over them night after night, that the blessing extended far beyond what we had asked or imagined.  Beyond the spoken blessing, beyond the prayers offered to the Lord, those words were being written on the very hearts and minds of our children.  As they listened night after night to the Word spoken over them, the Lord was recording those words in the annals of their minds, engraving them on the tablets of their hearts.


Want to join us and pray God's Word over your own kids?  I'm including a free printable to get you started. 

And if you're already praying the Word over your children, already speaking Scripture over them in blessing, I'd love to hear your stories!  Just click the email link, below, and slip me a note!  How has the Lord blessed you, your children, your family?  What is He teaching you? Do share!

In the coming weeks, I'll post more of the verses my husband and I pray over our children, the verses the Lord is writing on their hearts.

I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you . . .

Praise be to you, O LORD;

teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:10-12, NIV1984

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