Posts Tagged ‘top ten’

10 Creative Uses for Wrapping Paper

Friday, December 2nd, 2016

creative-uses-for-wrapping-paper

Have you ever had extra wrapping paper that you don’t want to store? Or maybe you saved your used gift wrap because you were given a large present, and the paper really wasn’t wrinkled. (Growing up as a missionary kid, we re-used gift wrap all the time!)

Why not use that extra gift wrap in some creative ways?

10 Creative Uses for Wrapping Paper

  1. Cover a book or a journal.
  2. Wallpaper a doll house.
  3. Make a greeting card.
  4. Cover a checkbook box as a drawer divider.
  5. Create a fun pencil holder.
  6. Use it as a matting in a picture frame.
  7. Make a reusable gift box by wrapping a shoebox inside and out.
  8. Wrap the outside of a larger box to store toys, photos, or momentoes. Match the gift wrap to the topic. For sports trophies, choose sports gift wrap for the lid and box.
  9. Glue patterns of wrapping paper on a gift bag. Use patriotic paper for a star shape in the middle of the bag, or flower wrapping paper in the shape of a flower.
  10. Create clothing for a paper bag puppet. You can make changes of clothes with the different wrapping paper, and put tabs on the edges (like paper doll clothes) to keep the clothing on the puppet.

There you have it! 10 creative uses for all the extra wrapping paper scraps that are lying around. Can you think of any other unique ways to use gift wrap? Share your ideas in the comments!

10 Fun Facts About Myself

Sunday, November 18th, 2012

My new bloggy friends were asking me to list 10 fun facts about myself, to get to know me before we meet at a cafe in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to meet these godly women who love blogging as much as I do. Okay, here goes:

  1. I grew up as a missionary kid in Guatemala.
  2. I lived in England for 3 years as an adult (one year as an exchange student, two years as a teacher).
  3. God has healed me from a brutal rape, although it affected my marriage for years.
  4. I’m married to the most patient man on the face of the earth, and I am truly one with him.
  5. I have a passion to see godly marriages. My husband and I have done a couple of marriage webinars online, and we went through training to be biblical counselors.
  6. The reason I started my website is that our family was about to go bankrupt. I have a homeschool business based on hands-on learning, and I enjoy speaking at homeschool conferences.
  7. I have about 100 costumes at my house which I collected for $1-$5 at yard sales over the years. I started the collection before I was married. (I was the drama director at the school in London.) My pirate costume in my profile picture was $5 for the complete outfit.
  8. I sometimes get in trouble for speaking the truth.
  9. People think I’m funny, but I got my sense of humor from my husband. He makes me laugh, even in the middle of horrendous sorrow.
  10. I don’t want my life to be wasted. I want my children to follow the Lord. I want to bring glory to God with every breath I take.

Top 10 Reasons to Rest

Monday, October 15th, 2012

reasons-to-restToday I will be sharing the top 10 reasons to rest. In our modern society, rest has fallen by the wayside as productivity seems to be all-important. But if we don’t take the time to rest, our bodies will suffer in many ways. In order to avoid these negative effects, we must remind ourselves daily to actually rest!

Top 10 Reasons to Rest:

  1. Rest makes you more productive. If you feel refreshed, you can get more accomplished than if you are tired.
  2. You get sick more easily if you don’t rest.
  3. Rest helps you to think rationally.
  4. You eventually get burnout if you don’t rest, and it takes longer to recuperate from burnout.
  5. Rest helps you to deal with your emotions in relationships.
  6. You have better conversations when you are rested.
  7. Rest helps you to not be as stressed.
  8. Rest helps you feel more optimistic about life.
  9. God invites us to rest (Matthew 11:28), gives us an example of rest in the week of creation, and includes Sabbath rest in the Ten Commandments.
  10. Rest gives you an opportunity to reconnect to God.

Top 10 Ways Your House Falls Apart

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

house-falls-apart

I’ve been thinking about this Top 10 humorous blog post for months now, dissatisfied with it, wanting to throw it in the trash. It was in my “Unfinished Blog Posts” folder, just rotting there. My problem was that after reading it, I wanted to cry rather than laugh:

  1. Turning the handle to flush the toilet is like playing on a Vegas slot machine. You never know when an out-of-control cascade will come out of the thing. Looking around helplessly, you find it impossible to keep the pot from dispensing its contents all over the floor.
  2. The paint on the outside of your house is chipping. It has needed a coat of paint for years now. It looks like an abandoned ghost town, except for the children running around.
  3. You try to open a drawer, only to have the handle come off in your hand.
  4. Your kid hangs like a monkey from your towel rack, and the bar falls on the floor with a clang. It’s still on the floor months later, because you haven’t gotten around to re-hanging it.
  5. The faucet is constantly dripping. There’s a trick to shutting it off, you know. As you’re falling asleep, you incorporate the dripping into a rhythm so that it’s not so irritating.
  6. The sprinkler system leaks every spring, no matter how much you empty it before winter. Checking it for leaks is like one of those games at a carnival that sprays water unexpectedly at you when you think nothing is happening.
  7. The instruction booklet on repairing appliances was written by someone who obviously doesn’t speak fluent English. How do you make heads or tails out of the abrupt, unintelligible sentences?
  8. The remote control for the garage has to be disconnected from the sunshade flap and aimed out the window to get the garage door to open. It’s like the remote control is a gun, and your house won’t let you in unless held at gunpoint.
  9. The cream carpeting has so many stains that your guests naturally assume you have a polka-dotted carpet. Or they ask if you’re still potty training.
  10. The spin cycle on the washing machine goes “ka-clunk, ka-clunk, ka-clunk” and sounds like it’s going to fall apart any minute. You never know when one of your appliances is going to explode. (Refer to the Exploded Cauliflower post to hear how one of my appliances exploded.)