Sukkot 2011/5772

Sundown tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish feast of Sukkot. (Also known as Tabernacles because we are to "Tabernacle with God").

For forty years, the Jewish people traversed the Sinai Desert, following the Exodus from Egypt. During this time miraculous "clouds of Glory" surrounded and hovered over them, shielding them from the dangers and discomforts of the desert. Ever since, we remember God's kindness and reaffirm our trust in His providence by dwelling in a sukkah--a hut of temporary construction with a roof covering of branches--for the duration of the Sukkot Festival (on the Jewish calendar Tishrei 15-21). For seven days and nights, we are to eat all our meals in the sukkah and otherwise regard it as our home.

Sukkot is also called The Time of Our Joy; indeed, a special joy pervades the festival. People fill the synagogues and streets with song, music, and dance until the wee hours of the morning.

This time also represents our becoming one flesh with God (through Jesus Christ/Yeshua our Messiah) and is a "dress rehearsal" for the wedding feast when Jesus comes back for his bride!

Sukkot Blessing (in traditional Hebrew, Transliteration, and English Translation.)

Blessing for dwelling in the Sukkah

Baruch ata Adonai Elohanu melech ha-olam asher kedshanu b'mitsvotav vetsevanu leisheiv ba-sukkah. Blessed are you Adonai, king of the universe who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to dwell in the sukkah.

This is how we celebrated Sukkot in our home today. We did this instead of our traditional workbooks for homeschool. Hannah was glad for the break!


Our Sukkah:

 Inside the Sukkah:

Crafts we did to decorate:

Hannah relaxing and enjoying her homeschool day:

Caleb having a blast:

Here is a good picture of a "traditional" outdoor Sukkah:





I hope you guys have enjoyed this look into our day and maybe learned something new!


To learn more about Sukkot/Tabernacles visit this website:
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/4457/jewish/How-is-Sukkot-Observed.htm

Scriptures that reference Sukkot:
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Zechariah 14:16-17

Saying "Yes" to Pappa

One of my prayers lately has been for God to break my heart for what breaks His. To give me the eyes to see people the way He sees them and to love them the way He does. Basically, just to have His heart and love for those hurting, suffering, and seeking anything of meaning in this life. I have also been telling God that I am an empty vessel open and willing to be used by Him.

If I am being completely honest there are a few things I didn't expect...
For one, I didn't expect to have to make good on my promise so soon. Two, I didn't expect to have to die (to self, sometimes daily) and how truly hard that would be. Even if it meant doing something I am excited about but still having to give up something in return. And finally, as we humans are so notorious for doing, I think I completely underestimated what God has planned for me.

I've grown quite accustom to this life and I'm more than a little apprehensive about change, but I feel like I am standing on the edge of a precipice. I have the choice to stay safely on the ledge loving my life, refusing change, and trying to peer into the future God has prepared for me, but never being able to see it clearly. Or...I can let go of everything I have ever known and dive unabated into what God has created me to be and destined me to do. Yes, it will be an unknown and maybe a little bit scary at times, but I also know it will be exciting, exhilarating, and all together glorious! I have a feeling one of my frequent sayings will be, "You can't make this stuff up!".

I have made my decision. Have you?

They won the victory over him because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life so much that they refused to give it up.
-Revelation 12:11 (God's Word Translation)

I leave you with two songs of inspiration...

Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the one's forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Hosanna by Hillsong United

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

Sowing Seeds Through Prayer

I recently had someone tell me that I should find someone who was doing something similar to what I am trying to do with making and selling jewelry and to pray for that person. He said that through those prayers not only would that person be blessed, but I would be as well. I had never thought of it before, but I now see how praying for people is like sowing seeds. And you know what they say, right? "You reap what you sow." Is there something that you need to come forth in your life? I encourage you to find someone with a similar need and pray it into their life. Then watch and see how the Lord blesses you both!

Happy sowing!

New Jewelry Supplies!

Some one very special to me sowed a seed into my Jewelry business! Love you Nissi. :)


Bead mat and ring mandrel (sizer):

New glass beads and key charms:



Happy beading! :)

Getting Creative with Creation!

For Hannah's science we had been working on the days of Creation. To make it easier I figured I would only cover one of the days of Creation each school day. Well....after a week and a half, she still didn't know what was created on which day. (Partly my fault because science was always the last thing we worked on and by that point she was ready to be done.) So today I figured I would mix it up a bit and we would do science first. We were reviewing what was created on each day but still weren't really making much progress in the way of remembering. So I had to get a little creative. I decided to have her paint what happened on each of the days. Of course she thought this was a great idea but wanted me to help her paint. So she painted days 1 and 2, I painted days 3 and 4, and she covered 5 and 6. Now she has a much easier time remembering each day. She still gets a few days mixed up (especially day 4 since I painted it), but much better than before! Here are a few pictures of our paintings...


Day 1 & 2: 1-Light and Darkness & 2-The sky (heavens)

Day 3 & 4: 3-Land, sea, and plants & 4-sun, moon, and stars

Day 5 & 6 (with added captions so you know what everything is!): 5 Birds and fish & 6 animals and people

This is how we did a little of her math today. Magnets!

My First Etsy Sell!!!

I made my first Etsy sell! Woo hoo! Thanks to a wonderful woman and my Spiritual Mama, Shari Norvell.  Thanks so much! I love you Ma!

The new jewelry she will be sportin' very shortly...

BlueFlame inspired nest ring:

Turquoise and brown beaded bracelet:

If  you want to check out more of my jewelry check out my Etsy shop. (Link is located up and to the right --->)

Hannah's School Work

Here is some of Hannah's work from today.

Here are all the sight words she can do (33 in less than 2 weeks!)...

A big thumbs up after we completed todays school work!

Hard at Work

Been busy making more jewelry. I've been experimenting with different types and techniques. Let me know what you think!

New Jewelry!

Been a little busy this morning. :)

Blue wire wrapped nest ring:

Blue (freshwater pearls) egg nest necklace pendant:

White egg nest necklace pendant:

Glass pearl nest ring:

Amethyst wire wrapped necklace pendant:

New Goodies!

Made a trip to Hobby Lobby tonight to get new jewelry making materials. :)

Here's my box of goodies!

I'm not a Martha

Ok so with all this new stuff going on this week, homeschool, making and selling jewelry, blogging, and my Etsy shop, I have kind of let the house go a little more than normal. I know what some of you are thinking...is that even possible?! Sadly, yes. But in the midst of the craziness this week I did manage to wash 2 loads of laundry and clean up the living room a bit. The laundry, however, only made it out of the dryer and onto the couch. *Sigh* There's always tomorrow right?!

A hard day's work...or school!

Homeschooling went a little rougher today than I had hoped for. There was a lot of complaining, but we finally made it through! We got everything accomplished and even painted some pretty pictures. Tomorrow will be our last day of school this week. I've decided we will only do 4 days a week. Makes for a nice break! Here's to hoping tomorrow will be awesome!

This is Hannah's picture:

Here's mine:



On a lighter note...I made 3 more sales today! I have one more lined out for Friday with the possibility of more! The Lord keeps blessing and we're only getting started! Thank you Pappa!

Daily Bread...Pray and Listen

We have been starting our mornings by praying and asking God for our daily bread. Daily bread is in reference to the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6. It is revelation of His will done. He has something prepared for us every day. We just have to seek it. How sweet of Pappa to set aside something for each of us every single day! Today while we prayed and listened to what He would reveal to us, Hannah told me that God told her to paint something beautiful. When we finished praying I got the paints out and she asked me what she should paint. I told her that she should ask God what He wanted her to paint since He told her to do so. A little while later she came up to me and showed me that she painted a mouth. When I asked her what it meant she said that she didn't know it was just what she had seen when she prayed about what to paint. I instructed her to pray and ask God what it meant. She then prays and tells me that God said it was His mouth and He wanted her to talk to Him. Wow! I love that He speaks to my 5 year old just as well as (sometimes better than!) He speaks to me and that she has total trust and faith in what she's hearing. That's just proof that there isn't any Jr. Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that lives in us as adults lives in our children. I hope this is inspiration to you to pray and to listen to what God wants to tell you and to encourage your children to do the same. He wants to communicate and speak to each of us daily. The amount of time we spend "talking" in prayer should be the same amount of time that we give God to respond back to us. This time should be spent quietly "listening" to what He wants to say. We could all use some practice developing our listening skills! Blessings!

Here is Hannah's picture...

Me + Hannah + First day of school = Success!

Our first day of kindergarten was a sweet success! I'm so proud of my daughter. She did so well. We got all of the work accomplished that I had set aside for today, plus some extra stuff I hadn't planned on. :) There was relatively little complaining going on which I'm thrilled about! I just pray that everyday goes as well as today did! (Or at least the majority of them!)

Here are a few of the "art" projects we did....

Here's to a great tomorrow!

A lot of firsts...

       There will be a lot of "firsts" this week. For one...this blog. I've never been one for writing, but figured since there are a lot of things getting ready to happen in my life, I might as well document them.
       The second "first" will be my daughter, Hannah's, first day of school...homeschool that is. It will be an adventure for both of us! I'm praying that some of my creativity will flow into her school work. She's going to need it since she gets bored easily.
        Another "first" is selling jewelry that I've handmade. I made my first sale today...two actually!  And I have requests for a few more! Yay! Praise God! I'm hoping to be setting up my Etsy shop this week. I'm praying that the Lord will bless this "business" exceedingly, abundantly, above all I could ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20)
        With all this excitement and ideas floating through my head, I'm hoping to be able to shut my brain off long enough to fall asleep. I need to be well rested tomorrow to teach and mold my daughter for her future.