ManyThanks

The Simms family is so thankful to have Jon back well and safe with us this holiday season.  Last year just wasn't the same without him.  This has been a year of blessings after a year of sacrifice.  There are many material things that we have been blessed with this year, but overall the closeness we have in our family is what we are most grateful for.

 Erin

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I'm thankful for....... My Jesus who gives grace. My sweet husband for always being there for me, I grow to love him more everyday. My girls, they are teaching me about myself everyday.  And of course my coffee!

 Ali

 =================================================================================I'm thankful for health, joy, laughter, and imagination. I am thankful to be marrying a man who loves me for me and comes from a godly family that loves spending time together. I'm thankful for friends who push me to be exactly who I desire to be. I'm thankful to daily (re)discover who I am and Whose I am.

 

 Abbi

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 I am thankful for all of God's blessing in my life.

My family, they are always there for me.

From my husband, offering me love and support everyday and encouragement to press on in the hard days. to my mom and dad and brothers and sisters, any of them I can go to for an ear to listen, to my neices and nephews who make me laugh and remind me to really experience life, not just live it.

I'm thankful for my friends who are as close to me as family.

My school, which most of the time I do not act thankful for is really a blessing in my life. It is teaching me what I need to know to fulfill my purpose in life. It is close by so I can walk to school. And even though I complain about it all the time and say it is too hard, I am thankful for my clinicals and the children that I get even just the slightest chance to be a good influence on (when they are not pulling my hair or calling me bad names ;)

I am thankful for my work whereI get to practice compassion and love on every person that comes through the door (some are more difficult than others). And I get to share with others why I love people like I do, no matter what they have done or what they smell like ;).

Most of all I am thankful for how all of these things work together to bring out the life that God has brought to me. It is a blessing in itself to have the feeling that you are fulfilling God's will in your ife through everything you are doing.

Lastly, I am thankful for this school break. A time where I can rest in Jesus, spend time with my family and friends, catch up on school and work a few extra hours. Life is good. God is good.

Wow, mine is sappy. That's not like me ;)

  

 Katie

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This year, more than ever, I can honestly say I'm most thankful for my family and friend relationships. I'm beginning to see that at this time in my life, they are the only things that matter. Working with students, who have no positive family unit to which they belong, has opened my eyes to how truly special my family unit is (special and weird! But in a good way...) I'm also so blessed with amazing life-long friendships. Two people (Besides Cody who is my best friend) come to mind when I think about life-long friendships. Mike Hodnett and Jeremy Baldwin. I love those guys as if they were my very own brothers. What was my life like before I knew them? I can't express in words how thankful I am for these rich relationships. My heart threatens to burst every time I think of it. Thank you God, for my family and friends.

Anna

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I am thankful for the response to God that my family has, from my dad all the way to my youngest son. 

 

 Dirk

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I am so thankful for the love of my family and the love they have for one another.  And I am also blessed by the new relationships that I have found this year, many coming from the on-line world!  Are you one of them?  

 

 Robin



Add your thoughts to ours.  What are you thankful for this year?

Shopping at the ER

I have an addiction.



I love shoes.



It started when my oldest sister Erin worked at Dillard's in the shoe department. She would bring me home tons of free shoes of all different types, thus birthing my shoe addiction.



My husband is not too fond of my shoe addiction because my sister does not work at Dillard's anymore so shoes are no longer free.



Except for my last pair:



This weekend while working in the Edmond Medical Center ER I took care of a lady who fell down ten steps, broke her nose and hit her head pretty bad. The ambulance brought her in from a wedding reception with her up-do disheveled and her panty hose torn. We fixed up her nose, gave her a pain pill and started giving her the discharge instructions when her husband came up to me, her high heels in his hands and said,



"She says she will never wear these again, and wants you to have them. If they fit you, they're yours."

 

The Circa Joan and David shoes just happened to be my size. I accepted them, laughing at the surprised looks on my co-workers faces.



Don't worry she didn't go home barefoot. In return I gave her some of our comfy red  hospital socks, with extra slip guard!



I guess it pays to work in health care.



Although I don't have much of a chance to dress up, I am very excited about my new fancy shoes.

 

Maybe next time someone will trip on her cute boots!  :)



Have you ever been given something under unusual circumstances?





Katie

Our Thanksgiving Unit Study

After my last blog done on unit studies I had a few people ask me exactly how I went about planning and carrying out the theme.  In this look at our Thanksgiving unit I will go into a little more detail about how I planned it.



First I picked a theme - hmm . . . Thanksgiving (don't ask me how I decided on that one!)  ;-)  This unit was particularly fun because I had a friend that was doing the same study so we bounced ideas off of each other.



I started with reserving books at the library on that theme.



Next I opened a new folder on my internet "my favorites" menu under "school" and called it  "Thanksgiving".



I typed in several different searches such as, "Thanksgiving crafts, Indian crafts, Thanksgiving activities, Mayflower online games, Thanksgiving songs, Thanksgiving video clips, pilgrim coloring pages, Thanksgiving snacks . . . you get the drift.



I selected activities, crafts and online work that is appropriate for the ages of my boys - and of course things I feel comfortable doing.  (I'm not real artsy so I need easy crafts that have lots of pictures showing me how to do it.)



I remain flexible with each of our school days and don't push too much at once.  If we never end up doing something I had planned that's totally OK!  My main intent on doing things with my kids is to develop a love of learning in them and if they (or myself) aren't having fun, then it's just not worth doing.



Here is how our unit went:



We read books about the Mayflower journey and the first Thanksgiving.



We watched this video clip (thanks Donna!)



We made Indian headdresses and vests

We went on a field trip to the Museum of the Great Plains with our friends

We made a map of the Mayflower and a mini Mayflower

We still plan to make turkey pine cones



And will take these yummy snacks to our Thanksgiving Day Dinner (thanks Donna!)





Hope this gives you some great last-minute ideas to do with your kiddos, or gets you on your way to doing your own unit study.



What Thanksgiving craft do you most remember making when you were a child?







Erin

Dear Robin...

I'm gonna need some help.

Okay, so tell me. How am I going to explain to my little ones (2,4,6,&9--mostly the 4 &6year old) how their aunt (my 19 year old sister) is going to have a baby, when she is not married. She just found out today so I have about 6 weeks before I plan to tell the girls, but I'm guessing they are going to have questions! So... what are the answers??



So? 



How about practicing your parental skills (even if you’re not a parent).  Do you have some answers for this perplexed mom?  What would you tell a logical thinking 6 year old?





Robin

Deli Chicken

This is super easy crockpot recipe. It tastes just like those deli chickens you can buy in the store.

1 whole chicken
Lawry's season salt
Foil

Take your foil and wad into balls and place in the bottom of your crockpot. Clean chicken and place breast side up. Season with salt. Cook on high(won't turn out on low) 4-6 hours.

Enjoy your meal!

Next I'll show you a recipe that I make using the leftover chicken.

What's your favorite way to cook chicken?

Do you use your crock-pot?

Ali

Bible Graffiti

I mark up my Bible . . .  A LOT.  There's nothing better (for me) than looking back at passages that stuck out to me at one time, or to easily find something on a particular subject that I marked before.  I have a method to my madness though.  Through the years of Bible studies, reading Christian authors and just plain experimenting with a method that works for me, I have come up with some codes to keep things right at my fingertips when trying to find something in the Bible.  Unfortunately I don't remember where some of these came from, so I can't give the right credit, but many of these I adapted myself.  Here is some of my coding:



On a new Bible I highlight the chapter number after I have read it.  Ahh . . .  the feeling of completing a new Bible and seeing all those pretty markings on all the chapters throughout the Bible.

When a particular passage sticks out to me I either highlight, underline or put brackets around it.  Don't ask me my method there.



There are certain words like faith and hope that I circle.



When it talks about love I put a heart.



When it talks about Jesus on the cross I draw a cross with a heart in the middle.

 

When it's a direct promise about life I put BP, for "Bible Promise".

 

When it talks about something to do with children or generations I put a little stick figure by it.

When it's something about a wife it gets the "special" pink highlighter.



When it's about a husband or marriage in general it gets the double wedding rings.

 

Sometimes I cross out the word "you" and put "Erin".



Sometimes I circle and put "For Me".  I like to put the date on stuff like that so I can look back and think about what I was going through in that time of my life.



Other times I journal about what's going on in my life, of course with the date.



Ok, that's the art that I give my Bible.



What graffiti do you leave in your Bible?



  



Erin

What Do You Think?

“Beware of making a habit of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God.”  --Oswald Chambers



What does this quote mean to you?

 How has this played out in your own life?









Robin