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Merry Christmas! What’s up now?

December 28, 2017 in God - Faith - Hope - Love, The Singing Nurse Music

Hi Friends,

Hi, what’s up and did you have a great Christmas? Below is a picture before we opened presents this year. We gathered as a family, combining 4 families and all the kids gifts. We have such abundance don’t we?

The days preceding Christmas we traveled 14 hours along highway 81, snacked, ate, spilled, bickered and tried to synchronize our potty stops, yeah right?
We ate and ate, tried to sleep, rock climbed(inside of course because it was in the 30’s brrrr in Tennessee),went for walks to help kids expend energy, wedged in naps and ate some more.
We saw the “Polar Express” movie, very fun movie with awesome 3D effects, baked cookies for the local fire department and took a walk to deliver them, the kids really enjoyed it.
We did a lot of laughing and watching how the kids interacted with each other, cute and very entertaining and did I say eat? Of course, lots of eating and snacking.
We love our kids and grand kids but it is good to be home and get back to “normal”.
So what else have I been up to? I created some cute t-shirts for the grand kids…”Strong Kids Eat Plants “ with pictures of all of them making muscles with a carrot, apple, pear and broccoli, and gave one to each of their moms and auntie.

If you have any interest in having one let me know. It can also be customized with your child/children’s picture.
So what about the future in 2018…
I am taking a Plant Based cooking course in January because in the past couple years I changed to a Whole Food Plant Based way of eating and I am enjoying the health benefits like lowering my cholesterol. I’m a nurse right? I want to learn more tasty ways to get in more fruits, veggies, beans, potatoes, legumes and quinoa etc., you know all that healthy stuff that comes from the earth. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about it.
I continue to do fun projects with my patient that can be transferred to home or classroom activities with your kids.
I would love to hear how your Holiday Season has gone. Do you have any funny stories any healthy recipes, any questions or ideas?
All of this sharing to bring us back to what Christmas is really about. Here are the words to a Christmas song I wrote awhile back when I was getting sad one Christmas. It’s so easy to get caught up in the commercialism and activities of the season and miss the point.

“People and Presents” Lyrics

People and presents, all around the tree
But what Lord, oh what, have You received from me
A sentimental mind, thinking only of me
Wondering what gifts I’d receive
Forgetting all about You

Did you get the gift, you felt you deserved
Were you let down, or were you hurt
A sentimental mind, thinking only of me
Wondering what gifts I’d receive
Forgetting all about You

And on that star filled night
When shepherds came to see
The One who came to die
For you and I, for you and I

Well we almost missed, the point you see
The gift God has given, for you and for me
What shall we give to Him, on this very day?
We give You, we give You our praise
We give You, we give You our praise

What shall we give to Him, on this very day?
We give You, we give You our praise
We give You, we give You our praise
By Dawn Ginese 1980’s

I hope you had an awesome Christmas and Holiday season,
Blessings to you and yours…
Have a Happy New Year too!
Ms Dawn, The Singing Nurse

Link to a personal Christmas video on YouTube
Link to a germ lessons & poster
Link to TSN songs

Advent Giving Tree Tutorial, Creating an Attitude of Giving

December 11, 2014 in God - Faith - Hope - Love, Nurturing the Child

Advent Giving Tree Tutorial

Christmas can get cluttered so easily can’t it? Christmas time sometimes brings my head down, the way it is so commercialized. I have to remind myself that it is an awesome opportunity to share the love of God in Christ.

It seems there are so many distractions from the true meaning of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an old party pooper who wants to squash everybody’s fun. It’s just that sometimes other “things” are replacing remembering the greatest gift God gave us.

This is a tutorial on creating an Advent Giving Tree…

I started doing an advent tree with my children way back when. We tied money to the advent tree. Daily we collected the money from the tree and when we saved enough we purchased canned goods for the local food pantry. Sometimes I would slip a lollipop in as well. Now I will encourage the kids to give to the bell ringing Salvation Army and continue with the purchase of canned goods for their local food pantry.

So below are my old and new advent giving trees, the one on the left is the old one, not too bad eh? And the one on the right is the one I made this week. I am giving it to my older grandchildren. I know this post should have been written and delivered just after Thanksgiving, but what can I say? I just had a new grand baby girl and she is awesome. I was busy :D.

resized new g treeresized

The items you will need: 3/4 inch ribbon, glitter fabric glue, scissors, 1 dinner mat. ribbon or string

glitter cloth paint

I picked up a dinner mat at my local Family Dollar Store for just a buck. I had the ribbon and glitter fabric glue already.

Cut Ribbon into 8, 4 and 2 inch strips

2-8 inch ribbon strips

8-4 inch ribbon strips

9-2 inch ribbon strips

Lay all the pieces on your dinner mat first to make sure all of them will fit. My largest pieces were a little less than 8 inches. You may need to adjust the size of your pieces if  your mat is larger or smaller. So the top long pieces going down are the 8 inch pieces, then use the 2 inch to jut in. Go back out with the 4 inch, and 2 inches jut back in again and repeat 2 more times. Square off the bottom with 4 inch strips and create the trunk with 3-2 inches strips. Glue all your pieces to the mat with the glitter fabric glue.

Use any piece of cloth to create a star, cut it out, glue it and outline the edges with glitter fabric glue.

resize ribbon tree

 

glue along treeOutline the outside edge of your tree with a thin line of glitter fabric glue.

Cut 25 piece of string 10 inches long, tie a knot in the middle of each string/thin ribbon. Lay the 25 knotted strings on your tree to see how they will fit. I used this combo going across 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 2, 3. Next you glue the knotted string or ribbon to the tree.press knot with pen cap

Put a dot of glue and carefully place the knot of the string in the middle of the glue dot. I used a pen cap to gently press it in place. Add a little glue across the knot on top, it make it lood like a button. As you can see I used 2 different strings, if I were to do it over I would only use one. If you really want to use 2 different strings just make sure they are of the same material, yarn and ribbon are not a good match because the yarn stretches. 

This  process takes a few different sessions as you don’t want things to get moved and stuck to each other. It could get messy and ruin your project if you don’t take your time here. The glued knots need to dry in between before adding more. You can apply about 2 rows at a time by moving the string tails in positions that allow a 2nd row. Very carefully…This is not a project for young children.

 

resize add ties

When all 9 of your rows are added and dry, you can now add your scriptures.

I printed my words in a dark wine color and used a heavier stock of paper. When you glue the paper to the dinner mat put your glue on the outer edges. I applied mine in the center and it smudged the letters a bit because of the glues moisture. 

Put a line of glitter fabric glue to overlap on the dinner mat and paper. weigh it down with coins so it will not move.

resize scripture  coins to weigh down  

Scriptures I used are…

” …Walk in the way of love,

just as Christ loved us and

gave himself up for us…”

Matthew 5:1 NIV

 

” Jesus himself said:

‘It is more blessed to give

 than to receive.’ 

Acts 20:35 NIV

g tree cellTie your dollars to the tree.

Some awesome family advent resources:

Preparing to Celebrate Christ’s Birth“Arrival” by Billy Graham 

Our Daily Bread App info.

I will redeem my tardiness and make this a project one that you can use in the near future. Create the same idea but use the shape of a heart for Valentines Day. Talk about how loving is an act of giving. 

Have a Wonderful Christmas Season!

Ms. Dawn

Now be a sweetie and please share this post. Please make a comment to let me know if you enjoy this sort of post.