April 11, 2013 by Allison Hendrix

20 ways to fill your child’s love tank on their birthday

It only happens once a year, so why not CELEBRATE! In my experience, it is rarely the gifts my children remember. It is the feeling of excitement when they get out of bed, the element of surprise throughout their day, and the enthusiasm surrounding them. This week, my baby turned 6. We each need two hands to share our age and I’m not sad at all; I’m thrilled.

With 3 kids, I’ve accumulated a variety of birthday ideas with the hopes of filling my children’s love tank on their birthday. I think we should pool our ideas, borrow freely, and be inspired to make those we love feel special. Isn’t that our goal? I slightly cringe when I see a mom relishing her recent DIY project while another looks on, feeling defeated by her sense of inferiority. I tap into my sister’s bag of tricks all the time when I am just not feeling it. So, here’s what’s in my birthday bag this week: 20 Ways to fill your child's Love Tank on their Birthday [the House of Hendrix}

Build the excitement with a COUNTDOWN. There are many ways to do this. This week we counted down with a chalkboard.
Decorate the Bathroom Mirror. Use a window marker, dry-erase marker, or lipstick. Balloons, streamers, it’s all good.
Window Marker your car with “Honk! It’s Lily’s 10th birthday!” This has delighted my children for years. With every honk, we all cackle with joy. (You can buy them at here for a few dollars).
While they are sleeping, decorate their room with streamers and balloons. Even just the doorway makes a big effect
photo by Sidetracked Mom
Candles in their breakfast, why not?
photo by lilmissbossy
Put Water Balloons in their bath
photo by Learning4Kids
Use the special “Celebration Plate”. We made one years ago at a painted pottery place. We’ve used it on birthdays, potty training milestones, soccer goals, and when loved ones visit.
Declare it a Screen-free Day for the parents. If the child is awake, put your cell phones down and turn off the tv/computer. Be present, not distracted.
Wrap each food item in their lunchbox. Throw in a balloon if it will fit. Pure delight.
Measure them. We have a very messy wall with dates, ages, and heights of our children, nieces and nephews, and neighborhood children. Kids loved to be measured!
Retell their birth story. Even get their baby book out. My baby books stopped after the 1st child, but they delight in hearing about their first cry in the delivery room. My mother still calls me at the exact hour I was born with “Oh, I feel a contraction. Ouch. I think you’re coming today Allison.” I love it.
Make or buy them a special shirt or socks with their new age on it.
Get a pair of socks that say, “I AM SPECIAL”
Allow your child to pick the dinner for everyone.
Eat at the fancy table. We have a formal dining room table we NEVER use. Last year we used it to eat the delivery pizza for my daughter’s birthday. We light candles and the kids knew without doubt, that day was SPECIAL.
Have siblings serve them, clear the table, and do their assigned chores for the day.
It is a tradition in our family to play “My favorite thing about Palmer is…” and we all go around share. Our cousins even call in with their favorite thing
Celebrate the Waiting – in a world where we get everything right now, it’s tough to teach kids to wait, especially for good things. We thought we’d give them some practice in small areas (chewing gum, makeup) so they’d have some experience waiting for the bigger things like intimacy. We make our kids wait until they are 10 to drink soda, then have a cooler full on their birthday. We celebrate those Waiting Milestones big time.
photo by Michelle March
Fill their closet or the kitchen cupboards with balloons. When they open them, they will fall out. Delight!
photo by A Subtle Revelry
Teach siblings that the most important thing on somebody’s birthday is making them feel special. When we go to a birthday party, our goal should be to make the birthday person feel special. This can be especially difficult in a society when the party favors are sometimes nicer than the gift brought.
Make a party hat for your pet. I’m kinda kidding on this one, but kinda not. It doesn’t make your child feel special, but it sure is funny.
Let your child know that your greatest joy in life is that you GET TO BE THEIR MOMMY! They need to hear it…and often.

Click here for 14 More Ways to Fill your child’s Love Tank on their Birthday

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March 27, 2013 by Allison Hendrix

The Stinky Feet of Passover

Today is the beginning of Passover. Last night our family read the Old Testament story about when God “passed over” the blood-stained homes of the Jews. A lamb had been the provision of escape for His chosen people. We then switch to the New Testament story in which Jesus celebrates Passover with His Disciples.

Here is the excerpt from the Jesus Storybook Bible that had my children rolling with laughter in a not so funny story:

“Jesus and his friends were having the Passover meal together in an upstairs room. But Jesus’ friends were arguing. What about? They were arguing about stinky feet. Stinky feet? Yes, that’s right. Stinky feet. (Now the thing about feet back then was the people didn’t wear shoes. They only wore sandals, which might not sound unusual except that the streets were dirty – and I don’t mean just dusty dirty – I mean really stinky dirty. With all the cows and horses everywhere, you can imagine the stuff on the street that ended up on their feet!)”

Why did Jesus voluntarily do such a chore?

Do you think He needed to be reminded?

We talk about what it means when Peter asks Jesus to not just wash his feet but “ALL OF ME.”

We pray together and ask God how he wants us to respond to this story...which leads us to today’s Holy Week activity.

Lily told her brothers about an activity we had done on our missions trip to Malawi. We had washed the feet of the African ministry leaders who tirelessly serve those in the villages. We were there for 10 days but these faithful servants spent EVERY day feeding and ministering to the needs of the poor. They are truly the hands and feet of Jesus, and we were humbled with tears for the privilege of “washing their feet”.

My children select a beloved teacher who has touched each of our lives in a special way.

They get a bowl and some towels.

Campbell comes to me with a handful of random travel-sized shower gels, “Which of these is the most expensive?” We study them and are certain by the smell we had found the most precious.

Ding Dong at the teacher’s door. Hugs are given. Chairs and towels are laid out. Hot water is added to the bowl.

They wash. They dry. They lotion.

I’m convicted for all the stinky feet I didn’t want to wash; for the times I grumbled allowing another to compensate for my selfishness. Not just my feet Lord, ALL of me.

“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.” ~Saint Teresa of Avila

5 Other Holy Week Activities to Prepare your Family for Easter.

March 25, 2013 by Allison Hendrix

6 Activities to spiritually prepare your family for Easter

I awoke this morning to the rumblings of a thunder storm and the excitement of a day in our jammies; the first day of Spring Break! As I think about our upcoming week, I commit to making this not just another Spring Break because it isn’t. This is a week in which we remember Christ’s suffering on a cross and His resurrection.

Jesus knew it was His last week on earth.

If you knew it was yours, what would you do?

Doesn’t it make you want to read the scriptures of that final week to see what Jesus did? I’ve been rereading Max Lucado’s book called “The Final Week of Jesus” which walks you through just that.

So this is my challenge, how can I prepare my heart and home to receive, and see clearly, all God wants to teach us this week? I have planned a different activity for each day of this Holy week. Today we start.

DAY 1 – Crown of Thorns

“The soldiers wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. “Matthew 27:29 “They mocked him and spit on him”.

When I think of a crown of thorns, I like to imagine it differently. I don’t like to think about the blood dripping down Christ’s cheeks or the piercing sensation of constant pain.

I ask “What it means to suffer at school? Has anybody ever spit on you, hit you, insulted you?” How did you feel? Why did Jesus have to suffer?

We pull up grass from the ground and weave it together into a crown. We pierce it with our sin, toothpicks. The kids are both eager and reluctant to put on the crown.

A few minutes later, Campbell hurts his elbow. He comes to me sprinting. There was nothing I could do, but he wanted me to know his suffering.

We are each going to experience periods of suffering. I take comfort knowing that God knows my human suffering first hand.

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all of my tears in a bottle and recorded them.” Psalm 56:8

DAY 2 – Palm Frond Crosses

It’s Palm Sunday, a special day in our home because it is the source of our son’s namesake. When I was pregnant with my 3rd, with no agreed upon baby name, Lily came home from school waving a palm frond. She explained that the people waving palm fronds as Christ entered Jerusalem were called “palmers”. I went into labor on Easter and our Palmer was born the next day.

Today we are making crosses out of palm fronds. Now I do feel compelled to tell you that Palmer thought the crosses were more fun as guns. Bang Bang. Here is a great tutorial:

How to Make a Palm Frond Cross Tutorial:

Day 3 – Simplify

I was inspired by an idea on Pinterest this morning called “Get rid of 100 things this weekend”. Yes! Simplify our surroundings. Clear the clutter so that we can breathe…think…hear. This is where our family is starting; a practical exercise in simplifying.

I explain to my crew that God desires to be seen by us. He wants to be heard but sometimes our crowded and cluttered lives distract us from His voice.

We discuss the idea of simplifying; cutting back the stuff to make more room for God. I propose the challenge.

Can we each find 100 things to give away? It can be clothes, toys, books, toiletries. We set up bins for donations, consignment and garbage. We crank the music and begin.

Day 4 – Beauty for Ashes

About a month ago the forest immediately behind our home caught on fire. We watched as the fire moved from hundreds of yards away onto our property. As it crossed over our brick wall, I was advised to grab what I could. A reverse wind came blowing the flames in the other directions permitting just enough time for the firemen to push it back. For a week the tall pine trees sizzled and smoke filled our home, but we were thankful.

For today’s project, my husband and children hopped the brick wall towards the burnt remains. They found the perfect logs.

With rope and humility, Jimmy ties the ash stricken trunks together. The mid-afternoon sky turns black. The skies thunder and gusts of wind begin blowing. We all race inside later learning tornadoes were passing over our area.

We talk about the parallel between our afternoon and that Friday in Jerusalem so many years ago when the skies turn black and the earth shook as Christ died. This cross, made from the ashy wood which absorbed the fire that could have destroyed our home, is now a physical representation of not only God’s sovereignty over our family but the freedom to live because we are not bound by our sin.

“He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory”. Isaiah 61:3

5. Resurrection Eggs

This activity came from my children’s school. In an empty egg carton, place 12 plastic eggs. Within each plastic egg, put a symbol about the Biblical story of Easter.

The 12 symbols are:

cracker = last meal of Jesus with the disciples
dime = Judas betraying Jesus with silver coins
purple cloth = they mocked him by dressing him in the royal color.
toothpick = crown of thorns
cross = carried his own cross
nail = He was nailed to the cross.
sponge/spear (drink sword)= a sponge filled with vinegar was attached to a spear and given to Jesus to drink
dice = The guards threw dice to gamble for Jesus’s clothes.
small piece of white material/or cloves = Jesus’s body was wrapped in spices and white cloth when he was placed in the tomb
rock = to cover the opening to the tomb to prevent Jesus’s body from being stolen.
Empty Egg – the resurrection egg. Empty because the tomb is empty.

6. Washing Feet

After reading the Passover Story in the Bible, my children decided to “Wash the Feet” of a beloved teacher as modeled by Jesus during the Last Supper. Read that experience here. This is quite a powerful activity, particularly for the person receiving the washing.

7. Colors of Christ Easter Egg Dying Printable

I just found this printable over at Detail-Oriented Diva and loved the idea of using the egg colors as a spiritual lesson. As you dye your Easter eggs, use this chart to talk through the “colors” of Easter. You can print it over here.

May your Holy Week prepare your hearts for the celebration of Easter.

♥ Allison

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