Chocolate Bananas

September 4th, 2011

chocolate-bananas

Growing up in Guatemala, I used to eat frozen chocolate bananas called “chocobananos.” These frozen bananas were covered in a hard shell of chocolate. I thought to myself, “I bet those aren’t that hard to make, and they are healthy, too.” Plus, I want my own children to experience the joy of eating a chocolate banana.

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My friend that I grew up with in Guatemala told me to buy chocolate almond bark. You find it in the baking section of the grocery store. Don’t forget to buy the bananas, and make sure you have some popsicle sticks.

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Peel the banachocobananonas and cut them in half. Stab them each with a popsicle stick. Place them on wax paper on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Let them freeze overnight.

The next day, melt the almond bark over medium heat in a pot on the stove. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Dip the bananas into it. The chocolate instantly hardens, and you can eat the chocolate bananas on the spot. Yum. Oh, put the leftovers in the freezer for a treat tomorrow, unless you’ve already eaten them all.

 

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Posted in Cooking and Baking, Fun Summer Activities | 4 Comments »

100 Boredom Busters for Kids (Free PDF)

September 3rd, 2011

boredom-busters-for-kids

One of my sons walked up to me at the beginning of the summer and said that he was bored. “What? Are you my son?!” I asked, and he looked bewildered. I continued, “I don’t think I’ve ever been bored in my life. My mind is too large for boredom. I’ll tell you what… I’ll make a list of things you can do.” Here is the list I typed up and gave to my son one afternoon:

  1. Make a blanket tent.
  2. Draw and stain a treasure map.
  3. Catch an insect in a jar.
  4. Put on a puppet show.
  5. Watercolor.
  6. Play croquet in the backyard.
  7. Put together a puzzle.
  8. Wear costumes and put on a play.
  9. Practice magic tricks.
  10. Build a house of cards.
  11. Play board games.
  12. Learn how to whistle.
  13. Draw a picture.
  14. Have a tea party with your sister.
  15. Teach yourself a musical instrument.
  16. Ride a bike.
  17. Draw with chalk on the driveway.
  18. Get an empty wastepaper basket and toss a ball into it.
  19. Earn money by doing extra chores.
  20. Act like spies and investigate an area for footprints.
  21. Create a new invention.
  22. Have a deep conversation with someone.
  23. Climb trees.
  24. Shine a lamp on a dark wall and make shadow puppets.
  25. Toss a frisbee around.
  26. Learn photography.
  27. Read a book.
  28. Build a city with Legos.
  29. Draw and color a cartoon strip.
  30. Practice cursive writing.
  31. Listen to music and dance around.
  32. Put together a talent show.
  33. Get CD’s from the library and learn a new language.
  34. Write a fun story.
  35. Make crafts.
  36. Play with magnets.
  37. Fly a kite.
  38. Have a water gun fight.
  39. Bake cookies.
  40. Make a terrarium inside a jar.
  41. Practice cartwheels and head stands.
  42. Learn how to type.
  43. Play a game of marbles.
  44. Do scrapbooking.
  45. Play tag in the backyard.
  46. Learn origami.
  47. Make a delicious 4-course meal. Dress up.
  48. Play cops and robbers with a secret hideout.
  49. Write a letter to a friend or relative.
  50. Make a sculpture with clay.
  51. Look at random stuff under a microscope.
  52. Race matchbox cars across the floor.
  53. Start a rock collection.
  54. Play with an electronics kit.
  55. Blow bubbles.
  56. Make a bird feeder and identify the birds who eat the bird seed.
  57. Learn how to pray properly like a real prayer warrior. Throw your heart into it.
  58. Look through a telescope at the rings on Saturn.
  59. Identify 25 plants in your neighborhood. Find out which ones are edible.
  60. Write a comedy show and perform it.
  61. Play cowboys and Indians.
  62. Write a poem.
  63. Cross-stitch (or learn how to sew on a button).
  64. Pretend to be a sailor on a ship, exploring new lands.
  65. Sew tiny clothes for dolls (if you’re a girl).
  66. Go for a walk.
  67. Look for wild animals in your backyard and observe their habits.
  68. Paint a mural.
  69. Do leaf rubbings.
  70. Make the best sandwich in the world (or the tallest). Eat it.
  71. Prepare and give a speech.
  72. Plant a garden.
  73. Make a snow fort (or a mud sculpture).
  74. Go share the gospel with your neighbor.
  75. Learn how to harmonize for singing.
  76. Record interviews with family members.
  77. Make breakfast in bed for mom or dad. Bring it on a tray with a flower.
  78. Do something nice for your brother or sister.
  79. Study the Word of God about a topic. Use the concordance. Tell your family what you learned.
  80. Make a collage.
  81. Dress up and have a fashion show.
  82. Make homemade instruments and play them in a band.
  83. Read a fun Bible story and act it out with costumes.
  84. Do a science experiment.
  85. Invent a new soup. Make sure it’s delicious. Bake fresh bread to go with it.
  86. Design your future home.
  87. Build contraptions out of K’nex.
  88. Rubber stamp cards and stationary.
  89. Make homemade gifts for people.
  90. Make an obstacle course.
  91. Get flashlights and investigate a dark room in your house.
  92. Play hopscotch on the driveway.
  93. Learn sign language.
  94. Throw a softball with someone and catch it with a mit.
  95. Make a cardboard box into a house and play in it.
  96. Create a restaurant in your house. Include menus and music.
  97. Set up toy soldiers and learn real battle tactics.
  98. Write a new song. Sing it to your family.
  99. Memorize a poem or Scripture. Recite it theatrically.
  100. Film some fun home movies for your grandparents.

If you would like to print out this list, here is the PDF:

 

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Posted in Fun Summer Activities | 12 Comments »

Medieval Unit Study

September 2nd, 2011

medieval-unit-studyThis video shows you the hands-on activities we will be doing for our Medieval Unit Study. The activities include building large and small cardboard castles, shield-making, catapult and trebuchet models, archery, and a Medieval feast.

Medieval Unit Study: Hands-on Activities:

I’ve linked to a few activities to get you started with this time period:

Life-sized cardboard castle, medieval feast, cathedral tour, and more in the Unit Study Treasure Vault!

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Posted in History | 8 Comments »

Spiritual Warfare

September 1st, 2011

spiritual-warfare

Before I said good-bye for the summer, I had one last interview online. Beth Jones interviewed me about the chapter I wrote for her book about spiritual warfare, The Hands of a Woman: Everyday Women in Everyday Battles. To be honest, I was so exhausted by this point due to a long and agonizing trial that I didn’t even prepare for what I would say. This is the first time I’ve gone online live without having a thoroughly prepared outline. I cried out to God the day before the interview, and I jotted down two things about the trial that was just coming to an end in my life. Other than those scribbles, since the entire talk was supposed to be an interview anyway, I just told her to ask me about prayer, since that’s one topic I have a passion for.

I dedicated the show to God, like I always do before workshops, and asked for Him to help me say what He wanted me to say. The interview lasted a full hour, and Beth Jones asked me some unexpected questions that I was only too happy to answer. It was the most relaxing interview I’ve ever had in my life, and some strong truths about spiritual warfare came out:

  1. The enemy can plant thoughts into our minds, and these thoughts come to us in the form of an “I” statement so that we think that it’s coming from our own thoughts. Thoughts of suicide, for example, come from the enemy who wants to destroy us.
  2. If we call upon God through prayer in the name of Jesus, incredible things can happen. I share a personal experience about this during this interview.
  3. Don’t focus your mind on the demonic. Talking about the demonic only leads to fear which is not from God. Instead, focus your mind on Christ.
  4. Hormones sometimes cause women to be emotional about things, and if they stew about certain situations, the truth becomes distorted and is no longer the truth. Satan is the distorter of truth, and he loves it when women do this, because it causes strife.
  5. Despair is another tactic from the enemy to incapacitate Christians to make them unproductive for the kingdom of God.
  6. Satan uses logic to convince us to do something contrary to the will of God. For example, suicidal people believe that the world would be better without them, and that they are doing a good thing to rid the world of themselves. In the chapter I wrote for this book, I share another time when Satan used logic to drive me nearly to insanity, although I do not share this in the interview itself.
  7. Use Scripture to combat the enemy.
  8. We shoot our own wounded in the church. We attack each other as brothers and sisters in Christ instead of drawing closer to God. This is one of the primary tactics of the enemy to incapacitate the church and destroy it.
  9. If we don’t plug into other people in the church, we cannot function in the body of Christ, and our spiritual growth will be stunted. So many people use logic or excuses to stay away from the church (or leave immediately after the service without connecting to anyone) because they’ve been burned. This is exactly where Satan wants us.
  10. Satan sees the people who are effective, who are actively ministering in the church, and strategically takes those people out. He will do anything to incapacitate those people.
  11. Pride is rotten. If you become good at your spiritual gift, you will be tempted to become prideful (because people are praising you right and left). The pride will cause you to stop relying on God, and you will rely on your own cleverness and become less effective for God’s kingdom. Pride is definitely from the enemy, since that’s how he fell with a third of the angels following him. Satan was thrown down from heaven because of pride. Pride is the core of all evil and is the root of all sin in the church.
  12. Prayer is one discipline that the enemy will do anything is his power to distract you from, because he knows how effective prayer is.
  13. Being quiet during prayer to listen to God, especially when you’ve asked Him a question, is one way to walk powerfully by the Spirit and know what His will is.
  14. Actively getting rid of sin in your life will also make you more effective. Satan wants us to think that we are stuck in our sin and can’t ever get out, but that is a lie. The entire Christian life is miraculous, an inward transformation into the image of God. To assume that you can’t break out of a habit just because “it’s part of your personality” is a deception that the enemy wants you to believe.
  15. Satan leads us to believe that we won’t have problems if we are Christians, that life is not supposed to be hard. But the truth is that life is actually harder for Christians (except for the presence of God who helps us through it), because transformation into the image of Christ involves pain. There’s no way around it. Scripture says that we will have tribulations in this life.
  16. Apathy is another tactic the enemy uses to cause us to be ineffective. If we are lukewarm in our walk with God, He will spew us out of His mouth. God would rather we be cold (or against Him) than to be apathetic, which gives God a bad name.

I invite you to listen to the interview: (To download audio, right click “Save as,” and choose “Desktop.”)

Spiritual Warfare Interview

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Posted in Christian Living | 4 Comments »

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