In honor of Digital Scrapbooking Day, I spent yesterday working on a new layout.

My favorite digital scrapbooking store, Scrap Matters, was having a huge sale and I used a free mega kit from my purchases in this layout.

The page is about Will’s first birthday, so it’s a blast from our past. We spent the day opening presents, visiting with friends, watching a video message from my husband who was deployed at the time, and having cake with our FRG at the PX food court. Will was such a cute baby!

I already blogged about his birthday celebration, and now here’s the scrapbook page to complete the memory!

Credits: A Slice of Life mega kit by ScrapMatter and Pixie Plate Template by Neverland Scraps

Welcome to this week’s Friday Favorites! Friday Favorites is a weekly blog carnival that I host along with Hoosier Homemade where we share links to our favorite posts, articles, recipes, crafts, etc. of the week. It is fun to see what everone has linked as a favorite. I always find soemthing new and interesting!

If you would like to join in on Friday Favorites, just write a blog post linking to all of your favorites from the week and sign the McLinky with the permalink (specific URL) to your post.

Parenting:

Alphabet Scripture Verses: A to Z from Impress Your Kids

31 Days of Praying for Your Child by The Homeschool Post

Crafts:

Autumn Leaf Turkeys for Thanksgiving by Impress Your Kids

Walnut Shell Turtles by No Time for Flashcards

Ornament Wreaths by U create

Inspiring Reads:

Friend Blessing by (in)Courage

Dinner Date with God by Jill Savage

Daylight Savings Time & The Working Mom by Oh Amanda

SOAP: Go into All the World and Preach the Good News…all from your computer by Mom’s Toolbox

Homeschool:

Tips for Keeping Young Children Interested in Homeschool by Blissfully Domestic

Cooking:

Homemade Applesauce in a Crockpot by Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Parmesan Potato Wedges by Lynn’s Cooking Adventures

Homemaking:

Freezer Tips by Cents to Get Debt-Free

How to Cook with Kids (or in Spite of Them) During a Big Cooking Day by Life as Mom

Thanksgiving Dinner for Beginners by Smockity Frocks

10 Tips for Perfect(ish) Cinnamon Rolls by Amy’s Finer Things

Now it’s your turn! Sign the linky with your Friday Favorites post and share your favorites from this week. And if you don’t have a blog or don’t have a favorites post to share? Well, have fun visiting all of the Friday Favorites posts linked up below!

Saying prayers with the kids before bedtime has always been a special time.

Just as adults often do, they seem to sometimes get into a routine of saying the same things in their prayers and I have had to learn to be okay with that and accepting them where they are.

My husband and I have had discussions about how we need to teach them to pray through our own prayers and even through the teaching of some memorized prayers such as The Lord’s Prayer. He also made a good point that they are just trying to express themselves and their feelings in the only way they know how. I am thankful to have a really great husband who gives me lots of balance!

Recently, EA’s prayer goes something like this…

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for this day. Thank you for hows we have a good day tomorrow. Thank you for hows my mommy helps me to learn.

In Jesus name,

Amen.

It really blesses my heart that she is taking the time to pray for me and for our time of learning in homeschool. I wouldn’t trade this experience with my children for anything in the world.

It really doesn’t get much better than that.

I love it!!!

Note: This post is being linked to Things I Love Thursday at Diaper Diaries and Finer Things Friday at Amy’s Finer Things.

I have a guest post up at The Happy Housewife on Surviving Deployment as a part of her series on Making it in the Military.

The Happy Housewife is a God fearing, military wife, stay at home (schooling) mom, to seven kids ages 5 months to 15. She loves to read, sew, bake, recycle, and bargain hunt and writes about all of those things on her blog. I am happy to call her my friend and honored to guest post for her.

As many of you know, we have survived two of my husband’s deployments with the military. I have eight steps listed that I fould that helped us to not only survive that time, but thrive.

Visit here to read and comment!

Because there are only 53 days left until Christmas, this week’s Works for Me Wednesday is a themed holiday edition.

So, I am reposting this from last year. It’s an explaination of how we’re “doing” Santa in our family. I can’t wait to see your comments and suggestions on how you handle the Jolly Ol’ St. Nick in your home.

I love Christmas!

It’s a time of year to focus on the birth of our Savior.

It’s a time to cherish family, and friends, near and far.

It’s a time of tradition…adhering to the old ones and making new ones.

What I don’t love about Christmas is the commercialism and materialism that it can create. No, not that it creates, Christmas doesn’t create this, but there sure is a lot around at this time of the year and it’s just no good.

In that, I have been thinking a lot about how we’re going to approach Santa.

It’s something that I have been pondering since my girls were babies and now that they are three, I think my husband and I have come up with something that is going to work for us.

I don’t want my children to view Christmas as just a time when they get stuff from Santa. That’s what the world would have them believe. So many children are totally focused on making their lists of “wants” for this time of the year. So, far, this has not touched our family and I want to avoid it if possible, and I believe that it is possible.

Last year we went to a wonderful Christmas party for one of the companies in Keith’s unit. Santa showed up at the party and handed out gifts to the kids there. EA received a “Barrel of Monkeys”, MC received a cute little baby doll with wild curly hair, and Will received a plush toy phone.

Throughout the year, EA and MC have referred to those small gifts as what they got from Santa. MC will quickly tell you that Santa gave her that babydoll. And it is one of her most prized babies. She sleeps with it more often than any of the others. And EA still asks to play with her barrel of monkeys. For weeks after the party last year, she could be entertained by sitting in a chair and playing with her monkeys, she would take them out one by one and look at them. They were special because they came from Santa.

I have noticed that sometimes children don’t receive anything from their parents…it all comes from Santa.  Last year, because they already had their special gifts from Santa, the girls saw the presents that were under the tree Christmas morning as coming from Mommy and Daddy, not necessarily Santa. We didn’t design it that way on purpose, it just kind of happened.

And that’s how I decided how to “do” Santa in our family.

They will have gifts under the Christmas tree. These will be gifts from family and friends and from Mommy and Daddy.

Santa will bring our children one special, small gift, possibly one that will fit snugly in their stockings. One that they will be able to cherish as coming from Santa Claus.

Have you struggled with avoiding the commercialism of Christmas in your family to focus on the real reason for the day?

What have you done to address this?

Does your family have a special way of “doing” Santa?

To see what works for other moms during the holiday season, visit Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Famly.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom for more Wordless Wednesday participants.