Once Upon a Child's Heart

So it begins!  The most anticipated time of the year, the Advent season.  I love this time of year!  But I just hate that last stressful crunch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It leaves me distracted, tired and completely unprepared for the Promise of Christ.  It leaves me no room for the contemplation that should happen during that time, during Advent. Four years ago my good friend, Kim, introduced me to a book that revolutionized my families Advent season.  It’s called “To Dance with God” by Gertrud Mueller Nelson and published by the Paulist Press .   If you want to truly have more meaning in your Advent and Christmas season this book is a must read.  Admittedly, you should start on Advent preparation way before the first day of Advent, which happens to be November 27 th this year.  However, don’t be daunted.  Use reading this book as your own personal Advent this year.  Don’t be tempted to add anything to your Ad...

Torture your guests with a story when their mouths are full of pie on Thanksgiving Day. My extended family always roll their eyes when I bust out my holiday stories.  I'm teased mercilessly by my sisters.  It's funny how if I don't bring one to share they complain.  So don't be daunted by a few skeptical comments.  They'll get over it. O. Henry is one of the best loved classic writers.  Here he writes a story for the adults and your Biggers.  The Littles may have trouble following it but there's nothing in it to harm them.   Two Old Thanksgiving Gentlemen by O. Henry InternetAccuracyproject.org There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Bless the day. President Roosevelt gives it to us. We hear some talk of the Puritans, but don't just remember who th...

  Thanksgiving is upon us.  You need a story or maybe even two.  Start with this Native American story. Ooo...some popcorn would be perfect with this story!   The Spirit of the Corn An Iroquois Legend by Harriet Maxwell Converse (Adapted) Apples4theteacher.com There was a time, says the Iroquois grandmother, when it was not needful to plant the corn- seed nor to hoe the fields, for the corn sprang up of itself, and filled the broad meadows. Its stalks grew strong and tall, and were covered with leaves like waving banners, and filled with ears of pearly grain wrapped in silken green husks. In those days Onatah, the Spirit of the Corn, walked upon the earth. The sun lovingly touched her dusky face with the blush of the morning, and her eyes grew soft as the gleam of the stars on dark streams. Her night-black hair was spread before the breeze like a wind-driven cloud. As she walked through the fields, the corn, the Indian maize, sprang up of itself from the ear...

The Advent season is my very favorite.  After all it is preparing us for Christ's birth on Christmas day.  Instead of the typical countdown advent calendar why don't you try something different this year?  How about a count down using stories? Two years ago my sister-in-law gave us Jotham's Journey: an advent story book .  It has become one of our families most favorite Advent activity.  It has all that a child could want.  Adventure, love, mystery, suspense, and a happy ending.  Here is the Amazon description of the book. "In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem."  The best part is there are at least two other Advent story books to follow this one.  By the t...

Anyone who knows me well, knows I love stories.  Especially stories for kids.  Even more particularly I love making up stories for my own kids.  It gives me a way to connect to them a way to reach their heart a way to tell them I love them.  No matter what happens during the day if I end the day with a story and a back rub then at least the last thing I've done with my children was positive. I have stories that want telling.  So I've decided to tell them and share them with you.  I am not a professional storyteller.  I can't spell nor do I claim to be a writer.  Thankfully my kids don't care. They just want to be told a story.  My hope is that you will pass these stories from my heart on to your children.  And that eventually they will become your stories.  I will here and there post a story for you to read or practice telling to your kids.  Sometimes it will be a story game, a story challenge, or a book review.  Perha...