Chinese Lantern Festival

January 15th, 2018

chinese-lantern-festival

My family attended a super cool Chinese lantern festival here in Spokane, Washington. Since the people that put on these shows travel from city to city, you could easily find a Chinese lantern festival in a city near you to attend this year, if you wanted this cultural experience.

colorful-lanterns

Since I’m a multicultural person myself, I enjoyed taking my children to see the artistic designs of paper and cloth lanterns of various vibrant colors, lighting up the night.

peacock-lantern

The two peacocks were probably the most detailed of all the lanterns. They were standing in the midst of red roses.

panda-lanterns

The panda bear display was also spectacular. The bears were hanging in a bamboo forest, which was like a backdrop for the scene.

flower-lanterns

Beautiful orange flowers glowed against the dark night sky. They were enormous!

chinese-boy-lantern

Several Chinese warriors lined one side of the path. Their faces, headdresses, and clothing shone in bright colors. My family walked along a dirt path as we saw this whole Chinese lantern display, which was almost like walking through a city. It also reminded me of driving to see Christmas lights, but way more magnificent.

flower-lantern-canopy

Several arched walkways were lit up thematically. This blue one had flowers and swirls. We felt like we were walking down a tunnel.

lantern-tunnel

This was my favorite display–a lot of beautiful paper Chinese globe lanterns. Looking up, you get lost in the beauty of the paper umbrellas and lanterns. My entire family loved this cultural experience!

Most Popular Blog Posts from 2017

January 8th, 2018

most-popular-blog-posts-2017

These popular blog posts include spiritual posts, hands-on learning activities, travel adventures, and themed cakes. The ages range from early childhood to high school.

My top ten most popular blog posts from 2017:

Cool Themed Cakes:

  • Dry Ice Volcano Cake: Watch this active volcano erupt with rolling smoke!
  • Army Tank Cake: This is the most awesome cake ever for boys. It came out even better than I envisioned, and we lit a sparkler at the front of the tank.

Hands-on Learning for High School:

Hands-on Learning for Early Childhood

Travel Posts

  • Our Guatemala Adventure: God provided miraculously for us to visit the land of my childhood. My family had the opportunity to meet our Compassion child. Enjoy the virtual tours of a jungle, a castle, a boat ride, and zip-lining!

Spiritual Posts

I wrote two exciting series this year, with accompanying videos for each. As the days grow darker spiritually, we need to know who we are in Christ and how the enemy works:

  • 31 Days to Regaining Your Identity: Know who you are in Christ. You are accepted, loved, forgiven, valuable, wanted, honored, and rejoiced over!
  • Unmasking the Enemy Series: One of the reasons the enemy wreaks so much destruction in our lives is that we don’t recognize his work and disarm it. This series shows you how to overcome the enemy by unmasking his tactics.

My Favorite Post (bonus)

  • Our Family Muppet Show: One of my favorite shows growing up was The Muppet Show. My dad bought my kids some Muppet puppets, so we performed our own show, including the Swedish chef, a music number by Miss Piggy, and various humorous scenes.

And there you have it! Those were my most popular blog posts from 2017. If you missed any of them, now you have a chance to see the ones that really resonated with my readers!

My Most Popular MK Memes and Pins

January 1st, 2018

popular-mk-memes

Having grown up as a missionary kid and written a book about it, I decided to start a Facebook page that would resonate with missionary kids. If you’re an MK or enjoy reading about MK’s, you will love our community over there. I post original MK memes, videos from my recent trip back to Guatemala where I grew up, blog posts I’ve written about being an MK, poignant blog posts from other sites that apply to MK’s, news that would interest MK’s, travel stuff, humor, etc. Come join us by liking our page!

Top 10 Popular MK Memes on Facebook:

So far I’ve created 86 original MK memes. These are the 10 most popular, in case you missed them. I’ve linked to the actual FB post after each meme {in brackets}, in case you want to share the meme to your friends and family, to reminisce and sigh and re-live the good old times:

1. Furlough: a fake vacation where you drive all over kingdom come, only stopping to visit churches and have your cheeks pinched. (“Look how much you’ve grown.”) {FB} 199 likes, 181 shares

furlough-is-a-fake-vacation

2. You know you’re an MK when singing in front of an audience was not optional, even if you were mortified… {FB} 157 likes, 32 shares

singing-mks

3. You know you’re an MK when you’ve heard the same furlough sermon over and over. {FB} 94 likes, 32 shares

same-sermon-over-and-over

4. You know you’re an MK when this looks normal. {FB} 70 likes, 66 shares

this-looks-normal

5. You know you’re an MK when you hesitate before drinking tap water. {FB} 68 likes, 15 shares

hesitate-drinking-tap-water

6. You know you’re an MK when you spread out American food like it’s contraband. {FB} 63 likes, 27 shares

contraband

7. You know you’re an MK when you will never see your childhood home again… (Hey, when I wrote this meme, I believed it, but guess what? I saw my childhood home last summer and filmed it! Watch it here.) {FB} 61 likes 20 shares

never-see-home-again

8. You know you’re an MK when you can pack all of your belongings into two checked bags and a carry-on. {FB} 60 likes, 11 shares

packing-bags

9. You know you’re an MK when you see your family picture hanging on someone’s refrigerator. {FB} 56 likes, 14 shares

prayer-postcard

10. You know you’re an MK when you long for the beauty of another world. {FB} 51 likes, 2 shares

beauty-of-another-world

My first MK meme ever: Missionary Kid Bat Mobile (aka furlough car) {FB} 47 likes, 12 shares

mk-bat-mobile

My 10 Most-Pinned MK Posts:

1.2K pins = You know you’re an MK when you hesitate before drinking tap water. {pin}

709 pins = You know you’re an MK when this looks normal. (bus packed with people) {pin}

144 pins = You know you’re an MK when open markets remind you of home. {pin}

open-markets

133 pins = Furlough: a fake vacation where you drive all over kingdom come, only stopping to visit churches and have your cheeks pinched. (“Look how much you’ve grown.”) {pin}

109 pins = You know you’re an MK when the maid was a part of your family. {pin}

maid

106 pins = You know you’re an MK when your thoughts are not the same as a typical American. {pin}

not-a-typical-american

95 pins = You know you’re an MK when you’re homesick for a place you will probably never see again. {pin}

homesick

94 pins = You know you’re an MK when you long for the beauty of another world. {pin}

93 pins = You know you’re an MK when singing in front of an audience was not optional, even if you were mortified… {pin}

91 pins = Missionary kids have to be perfect (blog post) {pin}

If you would like to follow my MK board on Pinterest, click here.

To watch the video playlist on YouTube of our Guatemala Adventure, click here.

Buy the book here.

 

High School Government Series

December 4th, 2017

high-school-government

If you are a parent of a student in high school, at some point your student has to take a class on government. To make the study of high school government more enjoyable, your student will LOVE these goofy videos and hands-on activities!

High School Government Videos:

  1. Types of Government: A fun video re-enacting dictatorship, oligarchy, monarchy, republic, true democracy, and anarchy. Includes my kids dressed up as playing cards.
  2. How a Bill Becomes a Law: My daughter (a bill) is pushed around by her brothers (Congress and the President) through the process of making a bill into a law.
  3. Preamble to the Constitution: A simple reading of the Preamble to the Constitution, with skits of various kinds to humorously bring to life each segment.
  4. Presidential Line of Succession: The President keels over, to be replaced by the Vice-President; who keels over to be replaced by the Speaker of the House; who keels over to be replaced…
  5. What are the Federal Executive Departments? Each of the Federal Executive Departments are dramatized by goofy kids in order to understand each department better.
  6. How the Judicial System Works: A Chicago gangster is counterfeiting money in his basement. Two federal agents break into his house and tell him he in under arrest. The remainder of the short video depicts how the judicial system works.
  7. The Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution are dramatized in this fun video.
  8. Make Your Own State Tourism Brochures: We take a break from all of our skits to show how to make a tourist pamphlet for your state. A couple of my kids have humorous pamphlets.
  9. Typical Campaign Promises: A silly skit by a candidate running for President, promising outlandish things that can never be fulfilled.
  10. How Government Gets Its Money: No matter what you do with your money, the government will want a piece of the action. Watch each scene from federal, state, and local taxes to see how the government holds out his hand for money to be forked over.

A couple of other hands-on activities go well with the study of high school government:

  1. Civitas Government Game: My kids loved this game, re-enacted it, and filmed it from the roof of my house. Make their risk worth it by watching their video, which was created, filmed, and edited entirely by my teen sons.
  2. Government Activity Books for High School: These Dover Publications books include pop-up Presidents, a 3-D White House model, and activity books that include other hands-on craft ideas. There are detailed coloring pages that can be used for notebooking, along with word searches, crossword puzzles, and code breakers.

Hopefully these skits and hands-on activities will make your students enjoy their study of high school government!