Week of Crafts

     We have had a busy week! Well, Sadie and I have. We like to do crafts during the day while Taylor is at school. This keeps Sadie occupied during the day before she goes to school. Wyatt isn't really into it. Usually he will just cut paper or color. As I had posted previously, I went through a lot of our old clothes and cut them into fabric pieces we could play with. We put some of the pieces into good use by making fabric letters. We made A-E and still have F through Z to do. This is a neat idea to help children have fun with spelling out words. Sadie had fun with this! We also had a little fun painting glue on newspaper and balloons.. The mess was worth it! Sadie also tried her hand at a little sewing project. We had some felt paper which we poked holes into to form the shape of a butterfly. She then weaved yarn in and out through the holes with a round tipped needle. I have strictly limited the kids t.v. time, so crafts come in handy! They are allowed to watch one show in the mornings, one show when they get home and then a movie the last hour before bed. By doing this, I have greatly reduced the fighting between them. Now, they must rely on one another more to play instead of being glued to the t.v. Here are some pictures of us using our imaginations! 

Fabric Crafts

I love crafts. I love making my own and I love working with our children on theirs. I've seen some crafts that we can do with fabric. We can use new fabric bought from the store and we can use fabric from old clothing that we do not wear anymore. Let that be a reminder that everything can be reused instead of just tossed away! I've seen little fabric books we can make, Taylor and Sadie can sew little dresses for their dolls(well, more like I can sew dresses for their dolls) and fabric letters and numbers to practice reading and counting. Taylor and Sadie are very good counting to 20 and 30, but after that they will start to skip numbers. One second they will be saying the number 45 and the next they are saying 81. I'm constantly trying to teach them to remember all the numbers in between. So, when I had some spare time today, I picked through their old clothes and began cutting them down the seams to separate and make usable fabric. I even was able to obtain a few cute buttons from shirts and pants that can also be used. I had chicken boiling at the same time to prepare for chicken and rice, so this was the perfect thing to keep me occupied. I'm planning on having fun with all of this with them over the weekend, so pictures of their work will have to be shared! 

GENERATION ME

     Today's children are called "Generation Me". They are the generation known to be the most self-absorbed, disrespectful and unruly generation. How are the adults who are raising this Generation Me? Are the adults any better? Are they disciplining? Do they know what the child is doing and who they are doing it with? When the adults leave the house to go on their weekly date night while leaving a teenager in the home alone, do they know for sure the child is the only one in their home? Do they know the child isn't sneaking away somewhere and returning back again before the parents making themselves seem trustworthy? Do adults put too much trust in children? Are the children failing school? These are only a few of the questions that proactive adults should be focusing on.
     When we look at the teenagers walking amongst us, we can see the majority of them lacking any kind of discipline. Young men are joining gangs, vandalizing,  impregnating young girls and all too often they lack any respect for adults. Teenaged girls are walking around in push-up bras, ripped jeans the adults wasted money on, and  fake eyebrows on their face that took the majority of their morning getting ready for school.
     Today, teenagers are self-indulged in the media and technology. 85% of teenagers 14-17 have cellphones according to a survey by the Keiser Family Foundation. On these cell phones they have social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to name just a few. Snapchat has been linked to pornography, sexually-explicit photographs and the number one social media site for predators to use to take advantage of children. Snapchat features allow the user to send a picture or video that will be permanently deleted after only a few short seconds once the recipient sees. Yet, teenagers and even younger children are permitted to use this site. The adults do not  have the child's password and aren't "friends" with them on their social media. Keep in mind, being friends with the  child on one social media does not mean the child is posting the same kind of friendly content on the other social media accounts the adult has no access to. Especially when the child is not "friends" with any family members or even mutual friends with the adult. The fake portrayal is unnerving to say the least. The ignorance of the adult is more sickening.
     The connection between the over-indulgence in social media and the child failing school is undeniable. Almost 25% of freshmen fail to graduate school on time. But nearly 100% of these same freshmen manage to log in to social media five minutes early. These freshmen will earn almost $200,000.00 less in their lifetime. These are the same boys and girls skipping class. These are the same ones who are most likely to become high school dropouts. In the U.S., highschool dropouts commit 75% of the Nation's crimes.
     Today's children are called Generation Me. But what should the adults be called? Generation Lazy? Generation Ignorance? Generation Don't Care? It's a wonder what the teachers of the students think when they are repeatedly emailing and calling the child's home regarding class failure and class absences but then see the child come to class, unprepared with unfinished homework, no assignment to turn in after being assigned for a week, but have baggy pants or fresh makeup on their face. It's more of a wonder why these adults take no action. But, in truth, it's not something that wasn't foreseen beforehand for most. In most cases, one can guess if the adult will be more of a standby friend and if the child will be the one to be able shove their own life in the pits. Sadly, in most cases, these children do not become any different as adults and continue to continue the cycle. 

Craft time when not feeling well

     What can help a child when they are feeling a little under the weather? Crafts of course!! This morning we had plenty of time to make lots of fun little things. One of the easiest ways to teach a young child about our Lord and Saviour is to put your teaching into a fun project. It's not only fun for the child, it also helps everything they learn stick with them. Here is what little Sadie made this morning! I love all of her work, but my favorite is the black and yellow circle. It represents what God created in 6 days. This one is darkness and light. Needless to say, her mind was occupied and I couldn't tell she wasn't feeling well.

Child #4!!!

     I am happy to further announce that the Shaffer family is expecting to greet another little life around the end of September! This baby will make for the fourth one we have had. We are not sure of the gender due to being too early yet, but I can tell you that my husband wants another boy. It would be great to see Wyatt become a big brother to another he can grow to play with and teach all of his learned lessons to. 
     So far this pregnancy has been the most difficult to endure so far because of the nausea. I wouldn't call it morning sickness. It's more like all day sickness. Carbonated drinks like soda help with me being able to manage feeling sick, though I try to remember not to drink too much caffeine. But, with any luck, the nausea will subside once I enter into my second trimester...which his in one week! Already??!! 
     God has most certainly blessed my husband and I with the most precious blessi ngs he can give to us in our lives. Children are a blessing from God. One that I intend to keep having for as long as God allows me to. I'm sure there are those who may think "Why not "get fixed", why don't you get on birth control?". My answer to that is the same as that in which the Bible has.  "Getting fixed" and birth control are abortion. My husband and I are married and able to have children. We are not just boyfriend and girlfriend living with eachother(that's living in sin).  When God sees it time for us to no longer have children, he will make it known to us. No truly born-again, SAVED Christian would ever follow through with birth control if they know the truth from the Bible. Christians are not to be of the world but of Christ. If God permits us to have ten children, then I would be even the more blessed. 
     Moving on, my husband and I do have names picked out. He has picked the boy name and I the girl. For now, we aren't sharing that with everyone, but I'm sure it will be revealed with the gender in just a few weeks! 
   
     
     

Picture Time!

Hahaha! I love this! In this one picture you can definitely understand the hardship that comes along with trying to take a DECENT family picture if you are a parent! The children couldn't care less if your picture that you want to show off to everyone turns out well or not and then you have the husband throwing his hands up. After everything is said and done and you are left wondering if this picture THIS year will look like you all are humans and not rabid dogs, you chuckle a little inside when you finally get a look at it. Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Whether or not you be humans or rapid dogs. Lol