Bible in a Year

I have been thinking about starting a year long bible reading program for a few weeks now. Since it wasn't January 1st I procrastinated a bit. Then on Karen's blog this weekend she mentioned a reading program that you can start any month. So I went to check it out and it is exactly what I was looking for. You can choose from 5 different plans. Many different translations and you can start today.
I just read Day 1 Matthew 1-4.
To discipline myself I will not allow myself to get on the computer until it is read. After all it should be the most important reading of the day and it should have priority. And I know myself well.
Anyone want to join me on this journey?

http://eword.gospelcom.net/year/

Obey

Our children's ministry for 2nd and 3rd grades this week was teaching on Obedience. I love my church! We talked about the difference between obey and obeying all the way. You see we can obey and not obey all the way. You know, you ask the kids to clean up their room. They have a few options.
1. Ignore you and hid out in the room.
2. Shove things in the closet, under the bed or wherever they can to get it out of site.
3. Put things where they belong.
Option 1 complete disobedience. Option 2 they obeyed, the room IS cleaner. Right? Option 3 they did it as asked and the room truly is clean. This would be what our church called obeying all the way. The kids went back to their rooms and acted out different scenarios of how they can obey or obey all the way. Obey may include doing it but grumbling and complaining the whole way only to do it half heartedly and at your own sweet time. I am sure some of you parents can relate to this response.
It was Sunday where I learned one of our new family mantras. The lady teaching large group time shared it with us all. In her family it is, "Obey right away, all the way and with a cheerful heart." Brilliant!
This is now the response in our home. Obey right away. When mom or dad ask. Not 10 minutes from now or after your TV show is over. Obey all the way. Completing the task to mom and/or dads expectation. Obey with a cheerful heart. No grumbling or arguing. No throwing things around. No pouty faces. Cheerful. It is revolutionizing our family time.


Colossians 3:20
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Phillippians 2:14
Do everything without complaining or arguing

Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

Colossians 3:20 is our memory verse of the week. I really like it.

Did You Know...

that if you put baby or mineral oil over a band-aid a few minutes prior to removing it will make it pain-free?

It really works I just tried it. No more ouchy removal.

Media Tickets

I spent the afternoon with my sister-in-law yesterday and had fabulous adult conversation. She mentioned how they had cut their TV time to one hour a day per family member. We talked about how this made more time for family time and decreased nagging and such. I have been wanting to do this for a long time and have just not implemented any sort of TV policy. I brought up the idea of tickets, giving each kid 7 one hour tickets and allowing them to allot their time for the whole week. So if there was a 2 hour special they wanted to watch they could turn in 2 tickets, which would mean no TV on another day. I also did not want the kids to turn to the computer or video games to make up for time they may have spent watching TV. Here is how the ticket reads:

THIS TICKET ENTITLES
(Insert Child's Name)
to 1 hour
of media time

It may be used for TV,
computer or video games.

I color coded the tickets and printed them out on card stock. I then made a sheet of 30 minute tickets so they can turn in an hour ticket, watch a half hour show and still have 30 minutes remaining.
Last night DS decided he wanted to use a ticket to watch a show with me. 1 down, six remain. Little girl woke up this morning and I showed her the tickets. I asked her what shows she would like to watch today and she said, "Franklin and Little Bear." I turned on the TV to see what time they come on. 2pm. While the TV was on her beloved Dora was just beginning. She asked if she could watch Dora and I told her she could and it would be her ticket. She thought about it for a second and said "No, I want to watch Franklin and Little Bear." YEAH!!!
She is currently contently playing in her room with her dolls and school is about to begin. These media tickets could be a very very good thing for our house.