The Rumley Family in Grand Rapids, MI | Luke, Lacey, Grace, Caleb, Ava, and Jaden!

Adventivities: Days 6-10

December 13, 2012 by {lacey} 3 Comments

And the celebration continues! (For days 1-5, click here.)

Day 6: Hang snowflakes in the school room!

My little tape dispensing helper

My snowflake stringers

My little snowflake hander-over (so I didn’t have to jump down from the chair I was standing on)

As the one with the longest arms, I got to be the hanger-upper.

Day 7: Make peppermint cookies together!

This is one of our annual traditions, and we all love it! We especially love eating the results.

I’m not sure where I first came up with these, but they are super easy and really scrumptious.

All it takes is some butter crackers (Ritz-style, Townhouse-style, or Club-style all work), some semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted in a double boiler…oh, how I LOVE my double boiler), a tiny bit of peppermint extract, and some crushed candy canes.

First, have the kids crush the candy canes using a meat mallet. Trust me, they love this job.

Then melt the chocolate chips and add a little bit of peppermint extract. Trust me, a little bit goes a loooong way with peppermint extract. Roll the crackers in the chocolate, place on a foil-lined sheet, and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Refrigerate until firm. Voila! A tasty Christmas treat!

Day 8: Make Christmas sugar cookies with our Perry friends!

I think Kathy got some pictures of the kiddos actually helping on this one, but for some reason, all I got was the adults! Silly me!

The kids really did cut the shapes out of the dough, and then we baked/frosted them. And you will see in the next pictures that the kids had a grand time sprinkling the cookies.

This is what my kitchen looked like after this little “adventivity” was over…

I swear it looked worse in person. Or, at least, it felt worse in person.

Day 9: Listen to “Christmas in Two Acts” on our way to Aunt Margie’s house!

I don’t have a picture of the audio book itself, but if you’re interested, I bought it from here. It tells two short stories by O. Henry. They’re short and sweet.

We did take a few pictures at the Christmas shindig, though. We had a great time, as always. A huge highlight for the kids is the annual pinata whacking. My Aunt Margie makes these pinatas every year, which always turn out to be as hard as concrete, and my cousin Jake always has to be the one to actually break it open at the end. But the kids love trying anyway.

We also got a picture of all the kiddos with their great-grandma (my grandma, my mom’s mom). My last great-grandparent passed away when I was two, so I think it’s neat to be able to take advantage of these opportunities for my kids.

Day 10: Go caroling in our neighborhood with our small group!

Despite the misty/freezing rain, our small group walked around our neighborhood to sing Christmas carols and hand out bags of cookies to our neighbors. Some people weren’t home, but others answered the door and seemed happy to see us. The older people seemed to be the most receptive. It was a great time, even though Jaden and Ava were sure their faces were going to fall off because they were so cold.

Our cookie hander-outers

We came back to the house and warmed up with hot chocolate, coffee, and snacks.

Stay tuned for more Adventivities…They’re happening every day…

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: advent, adventivities, anticipation, caroling, cookies with LOTS of sprinkles, peppermint is strong, pinatas, small group, snowflakes, treats

Adventivities: Days 1-5

December 5, 2012 by {lacey} 6 Comments

We’re living it up at the Rumley house now that the celebration of Jesus’ birthday is ON! We have a little advent calendar (thank you, Joann Fabric after-Christmas clearance from last year), and we have the Jesus Storybook Bible.

Each day, we’re taking in an advent reading from the plan posted here. See? Here’s Luke reading to the kids one evening.

We highly recommend this Bible for children. Not only are the illustrations beautiful and more ethnically accurate (Jesus was NOT an Anglo-Saxon, folks), but the content is great, too. It presents Scriptural events in the light of Jesus’ coming. Notice the subtitle? “Every story whispers His name.”

Along with the reading, we’re also doing a small-to-medium activity from our advent calendar. Sometimes they have something to do with Jesus, but mostly they’re just fun, get-excited kind of activities.

Here’s what we’ve done so far…

Day 1: Make peppermint milkshakes for dessert.

YUM to the O, and super easy. And a bonus – the kids always love crushing things with my meat mallet.

Day 2: Visit the dollar store to shop for your siblings for Christmas.

Don’t worry, Melissa, Karl, Alonna, Dan, Em, Erin, Tobin, Betsey, Micah, Zach, or Elyse. This one was just for our kiddos. Your gifts are not from the dollar store.

I also didn’t take a picture of the event, but rest assured that our kiddos love visiting the dollar store, and they were so sweet to fund the event from their own “spending” jars.

Day 3: Turn the Christmas music UP and have a dance party!

Did it. Took pictures. Not allowed to post the pictures.

Day 4: Watch Elf and eat popcorn!

Also did it, without pictures. We <3 Elf, and yet I was so tired that I slept through the first half of it. Oops!

Day 5: Visit Frederik Meijer Gardens to see the Christmas trees!

We are very fortunate to have a membership to Frederik Meijer Gardens. We enjoy the children’s garden in the spring/summer/fall, the Christmas trees in winter, and the butterfly exhibit in the spring.

We partook of the Christmas tree exhibit tonight, and each person in our family chose their “favorite tree” to take a picture with. Here we go…

Ava’s favorite: Korea. Score one for Uncle Dan!

Luke’s (and Jaden’s) favorite: Spain. I think Luke felt an affinity for this one because of its great height.

Grace’s favorite: Slovak Republic. It made Luke and me think of our friends, the Rices, who live there.

Caleb’s favorite: Africa. Not sure why a whole continent only got one tree to represent?

My favorite: Ukraine. It was mostly decorated in white, with spider web decorations all over it. Look up the Ukrainian legend about the Christmas tree spider webs sometime. Pretty cool.

Grace’s and my second favorite: Iceland. It was really gorgeous, decorated in whites and silvers, with red ornaments interspersed.

Caleb and Ava’s 2nd favorite: [I cannot remember the country - oops!]

That’s all for now. Day Six is coming…

And the ultimate purpose of all of these things is to ANTICIPATE THE COMING of our LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST! We are SO ASTOUNDED at His incarnation!

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: advent, adventivities, Christmas, Christmas trees, dance parties, Frederik Meijer Gardens, milkshakes

Science: Phases of the Moon

December 4, 2012 by {lacey} 1 Comment

We’re using Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Astronomy this year, and we’re all loving it! So far, we’ve done a broad overview of the solar system, and then done more in-depth studies of the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the moon. Next we’ll be on to Mars!

During our study of the moon, we discussed the phases of the moon, and I remembered this fun pin from my homeschooling board on Pinterest. It was easy AND tasty – always a plus!

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: apologia, homeschooling, Oreos are scrumptious, phases of the moon, science can be fun!

Type 1 and Type 2 are Different!

November 29, 2012 by {lacey} 8 Comments

My father-in-law was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes. I think you can see why they stopped calling it that. Dad Rumley is NOT OLD by any means, but early 50s isn’t exactly “juvenile” either, is it?

Most of you know that my awesome hubby {Luke} and our firstborn {Grace} are also both Type 1 diabetics. Luke was diagnosed at age 10, and Grace at age 4.

Gracie girl at the endocrinologists’ office, the day after diagnosis. February 2009.

Our dear friends also have a little guy who was diagnosed a little over a year ago, at the age of 1 (just a few days before his 2nd birthday).

Grace and Zachy, the diabetic duo

So, I write this post in honor of these, my dear loved ones who deal with diabetes every day…and every meal.

____________________________________________________

Let’s get our facts straight.

You might not realize it, but there are many common misconceptions about diabetes, and I would love help clear them up.

First important point: There is a big difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease (where the body attacks itself). Type 2 is probably a metabolic condition that may be rooted in an auto-immune reaction. (It’s being debated.)
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas no longer produces insulin (a hormone that deals with sugar in the blood). In Type 2 diabetes, the body still produces insulin, but doesn’t USE it correctly.
Type 1 diabetes is ALWAYS treated with insulin shots (or an insulin pump) – with insulin that mimics a “healthy” person’s body. Type 2 diabetes is treated with diet/exercise/pills…and occasionally insulin shots.

Most people are more familiar with Type 2 diabetes, so let me say this…

You canNOT get Type 1 diabetes from eating too much sugar.

You can also NOT get Type 1 diabetes from being overweight. Have you ever seen our family? Our two diabetics are the thinnest in the bunch.

Grace with her awesome Daddy on her 7th birthday

And that brings me to the next important point: while a Type 1 diabetic should eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, they cannot control their diabetes with their diet. They eat whatever they need/want to eat, and count how many carbohydrates are in the food. Then they administer insulin depending on how many carbohydrates are to be eaten.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me, “Can Grace eat this?” And I so appreciate people’s sensitivity to our little girl…but I can tell you the answer every time: YES! She can eat anything (within reason, of course), as long as I can calculate how many carbs are in it and give her some insulin to cover it.

I wouldn’t call myself a diabetes education advocate in the strictest sense of the term…but I am a wife and mama who deals with finger pokes, insulin doses, carb counting, site changes, high blood sugars, and low blood sugars ALL THE TIME. I want you to be able to understand what’s really happening in our world.