Merry Christmas from the Harmon Family!

Our beloved family and friends, we pray your hearts will be lifted in praise this Christmas for the precious gift of Jesus and the joy He brings.

We treasure you among the blessings and gifts He gives! Thank you for sharing your life with us.

In the video above, you can see the highlights of our 2012. And below is our digital Christmas card.

This is same scene shot from the waist down. This is what we didn’t want to show in our Christmas photo.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year!

First of all, I’m sorry I’m late with this! I am posting from Phoenix-area, Arizona. Leading up to getting here I got a little busy and neglected to post the winners of the whiteboard weekly planner giveaway. Better late than never, right? And with this giveaway, it is worth the wait, believe me!

And now… the winners of Paper Tree Designs Family Weekly Planners are…

• Dorothy A.
• Sue B.
• Charissa S.
• Bill M.
• Sam W.

Thank you, Deb, for sponsoring such a lovely giveaway. Winners, I’ll email your info to Deb so she can get in touch with you. Everyone one else — put one of these on your wish list.

My friend Deb from Paper Tree Designs makes lovely, whiteboard, dry-erase, magnetic, family weekly planners. I keep mine on the fridge.

With this planner, we know at a glance who needs to be where or do what during the coming week. Workshops, youth group, meetings, church, homeschooling events, get-togethers with friends… Each person gets a column and we fill in their activities for the week.

Not only functional — but beautiful. Mine is green like the one pictured. Deb also makes them in blue and pink.

Would you like to win one?

I know you do! We’re giving away five of these beauties to anyone, anywhere. The giveaway details are below.

Before we get to that, here are few words from Deb about why she created this planner. She’s a busy mum of three from Australia.

It’s a common complaint of busy parents that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Families can take a sigh of relief with the launch of Paper Tree Designs My Family Weekly Planner; a reusable un-dated organiser.

Utilising a reusable, soft A3 size whiteboard, this weekly family calendar features a strong magnet backing, which is simply attached to any magnetic surface, such as the kitchen fridge – allowing all members of the family to contribute. A unique feature of the family organiser is its un-dated layout, meaning its reusable year-in, year-out and is ideal for purchase at any time of the year.

The My Family Weekly Planner is the brainchild of Debora, a busy mum of 3. Like all mums Debora was busy juggling sports, a part time job, music lessons, school activities, a busy social calendar and a myriad of shopping lists and notes. Debora was convinced there was an easier and environmentally friendlier way, but could not find what she was looking for and so the daily planner was born. Debora says “I love the fact that no longer is there a need for endless paper, notes, post it notes and scribbles in my kitchen as it can all be tracked on the weekly planner and then cleaned off and reused. So clean and simple and the kids love to use it.”

Australian designed and made, the planner is available in a choice of three gorgeous colours. Priced at only $24.99, the weekly planner is ideal to assist the busy family stay organised and keep a track of the many activities each week. Featuring planning space for mum, dad and up to four children, the multi-feature design allows Paper Tree Designs Weekly Planner to be used as a weekly or daily planner, chore chart, reward chart or menu organiser. The planner also has a tracking area ideal for the endless shopping and ‘to-do’ lists, notes and reminders.

Taking careful steps to ensure that the business is environmentally and socially responsible, Paper Tree Designs utilises recyclable materials and donates $1 from every sale to World Vision.

For more information please visit www.myfamilyweeklyplanner.com. Please like the Paper Tree Designs Facebook page and visit my blog!

Giveaway: 5 Weekly Planners from Paper Tree Designs

Five readers will win a whiteboard weekly family planner from Paper Tree Designs. Details about the weekly planners are here.

Use the widget below to enter the giveaway. This giveaway is open to anyone anywhere. It begins today and ends Thursday, June 7, 2012 at midnight Eastern. I will announce the winner on Friday, June 8, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for your help sharing about Deb’s fantastic planners with your family and friends! Best wishes, everyone!

Disclosure: Deb sent me a planner for personal use, and I love it. I won’t receive any other compensation for hosting this giveaway. I just love this planner so much and am excited to help Deb get the word out so other families can take advantage of this great organizational tool.

Other chickens would choose to lay eggs in broad daylight — on the tractor seat, in the old Red Flyer wagon, on the work table. Don’t ask me their logic, I don’t understand. But I do understand that it creates problems — like eggs rolling off and breaking and chickens eating their eggs because they’re right there in front of them. Basically, less eggs for us.

Other chickens laid eggs in the grass, in little dirt caves, and elsewhere we probably haven’t found. Last fall, one hen laid a clutch in a woodpile in the calf’s pasture (unbeknownst to us). We found out what she’d been up to the day she walked up on the porch followed by eight chicks. This was a delight, of course, but proved to us that we did not have a handle on our eggs.

So… making nest boxes that our chickens would actually want to use sounded like a good idea. Keep all our eggs? Yes, that’s the idea.

Saturday, Jeff and C. set out to make nesting boxes — or rather, one big nesting box with plenty of room. The goals were clear: 1) doable in a day, 2) very simple yet works, and 3) built out of things we already have. Thus, our nest box/boxes probably look nothing like any official plans you’ve ever seen. But do they work? Keep reading.

The base: layers of pallets on piers. Plywood between the layers to provide a base for the top pallet, whose spaces would be the nests. This is in one bay of our barn. Another bay is where they roost at night, coming and going freely.

Designing the sides and cutting out doors for the chickens to enter.

The sides are in place, as well as a door on three of the four sides.

This is the top. They cut in half for easy handling.

The girls filled the bottom with hay to make it cozy. Our chickens love hay — most of our eggs to date have been laid in the hay.

Putting the top on. The halves can be easily lifted to check for eggs. They aren’t tacked down at all, just laid on top.

A space between the side walls and top so the boxes have good airflow. They stacked up logs in front of each doorway so the chickens could get in.

A chicken came to see what was up.

The first day, one egg was laid in the new location. Yesterday (Monday), twelve eggs were laid inside. Today, we’ve found three in there. Clearly, there are up and downs. But we’re pretty encouraged.

…and hung it on my rack aka “dresser” to begin making my bedroom more like a bedroom and less like a storeroom.

It is only pinned up to clear the floor so will need to be hemmed properly.

It could also bear to meet the iron.

I like how the shower curtain S hooks make hanging it off the rack so easy and pretty.

Want to come to a book signing in Sutherlin, Oregon?

Some old papers I wanted to burn rather than leave behind should something happen to me. No, I’m not foreshadowing anything. More than anything, it was a chance to play with fire with C..

C. likes old things. He thought this charred airmail letter was cool. So I let him keep just one. Okay — I let him keep three.

In spite of my silence, I have spent the last 6 months slowly-but-surely getting my life back in order.

Things are looking and feeling better! Today we are going to test hang new curtains (they might be too short). First better clean the windows! Good-bye dusty and ugly blinds (I hope).

A.’s collage.

Cutie-pie, isn’t she?

Merry Christmas from the Harmon Family!

To family and friends far and wide — we’re grateful for your love and friendship. This video shares some of our family’s memories from 2011. As we look back on 2011 and see all the blessings God has given, we can’t help but be excited for 2012.

We pray God’s best for you in 2012! Merry Christmas!

P.S. This more personal video is not the same as the Christmas video I shared at GNOWFGLINS.