Free Admission to LA County Arboretum

Saint Patrick's Day
FREE Admission L.A. County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007 (map) Wear green when you enter the arboretum without paying green!

It's FREE admission to the 127-acre L.A. County Arboretum every 3rd Tue. Parking is FREE, too. No tram but the garden is a great place for stroller walks.

Don't forget your bread crumbs to feed the ducks and turtles at the pond!
For more information http://www.arboretum.org/

St Patricks Day Crafts

Need some St. Patty's decorations? Remember our Fall Leaves Garland - well here's the Shamrock version from No Time For Flashcards.


Or make your own pot of gold at Make And Take's.

These ideas came from The Crafty Crow, which we've featured before, because well, it's just a fabulous blog full of wonderful crafty things!!

Tomorrow after the Arboreteum my kiddos and I will be getting Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds and watching VeggieTales Sumo of the Opera. What?! Did you read that right? Yep, in the middle of this Veggie video they tell the Story of St. Patrick. The rest of the video regarding perseverence is entertaining too, but the section of St. Patrick is great!

Will you be doing anything special for St. Patricks Day?

Arky, Arky

Bedtimes have been a bit of a battle lately. Audrey is just having a hard time when I announce its time for bed. And it doesn't seem to matter if I give her plenty of warning and stick to our normal routine.

What does help is rocking her, which she's always loved. But even that lately has been tiresome as she wiggles and talks and distracts herself. I've sung to both girls while rocking them from the beggining, but we've got a new sure fire stop the crankies and settle down song.

Rise and Shine. The old Arky, Arky childrens song. Audrey calls it the animal song. Not to be confused with Old MacDonald which is also a favorite, but usually referred to as the moo song.

So seeing as how my mind can not remember all the verses from Vacation Bible School all those years ago, I looked it up for my and your reading pleasure. If you don't remember the tune, you'll have to ask me in person the next time you see me or if it's urgent give me a call. My kids have not yet heard all of these verses as I'm just now remembering them, but then, if I sing them to them, I'll have to remember to make the bedtime routine start even earlier, as I won't ever be able to sing a shorter version again. Anyway, here ya go:

The Lord told Noah: There's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord told Noah: There's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy, Children of the Lord

(Chorus) So Rise and shine, And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine, And give God the glory, gloryRise and shine,
And give God the glory, glory, Children of the Lord

The Lord told Noah, To build him an arky, arky
The Lord told Noah, To build him an arky, arky
Build it out of gopher barky, barky, Children of the Lord

The animals they came in, They came in by twosie, twosies
The animals they came in, They came in by twosie, twosies
Elephants and kangaroosie, roosies, Children of the Lord

It rained and it poured, For forty daysie, daysies
It rained and it poured, For forty daysie, daysies
Almost drove those animals crazy, crazies, Children of the Lord

The sun came out and, It dried up the landy landy
The sun came out and, It dried up the landy landy
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy, Children of the Lord

How Sweet the Sound...

Amazing Grace sung by Il Divo at the Coliseum in Rome.
Listening to it gave me sweet time with Jesus this morning.
Just click on Amazing Grace above to see & listen.
Have a wonderful weekend!


PS Following it up with, Don't Breathe by Anita Renfroe would really send you off
into the most fabulous weekend ever !

Purse-onality by Anita Renfroe

We watched a clip of Anita Renfroe on Purse-onality this morning, I searched for it, but it's not on youtube!

But in its place I did find these.

We've seen this at GUM before, but in case you missed it, I thought I'd start with the wonderful Momsense song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiz1CuOX0II

And here's one you may not have seen yet... Dadsense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtNGFh-dCe0

Sorry, I'm on a roll - rolling on the floor laughing that is.

One more: Don't Breathe ... for your marriage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uFRr67Dhic

More thoughts on today coming soon!

Meet Alejandro

Alejandro Josue Gutierrez was born at 11:06am on February 27 to Janeen and Jose Gutierrez. He weighed 8lbs, 5 ozs and is 21 1/4". Welcome Alex!!!

Boost Your Marriage

Okay, so now I thought it might be fun to throw out some ideas on how to tangibly work on your marriage. Read the books in the previous post and try one of these ideas:

31 Days of Praying for Your Husband This link has an outline for 31 days of focused prayer for you husband. Ex: Day 1 Pray that your husband will grow spiritually and consider his accountability before the Lord. Pray that he will guard his heart by developing spiritual disciplines—Bible reading and study, prayer, meditation, scripture memorization, etc. (2 Peter 3:18; Prov. 4:23)

365 Reasons I love my Husband - Yep, that's a lot of reasons. And you could do it in short periods, like one month, but I would challenge you to an entire year. Keep your reasons written down somewhere you can both read them. But I would encourage you to share each reason with him daily.

And my new favorite, shared by Lindsay in our last GUM newsletter!
Date Club. Start your own date club:
1. Find several other coupels who want to develop more togetherness in thier marriage.
2. Choose a date night for the group (once a week, every other week, or once a month).
3. Find regular childcare.
4. Pick a theme for each date (use a resource like 10 Great Dates to Revitalize Your Marriage).
5. Take turns with the other couples in facilitating your 15-20 min "date launch". Intro the theme for the date and encourage couples to have fun!
6. Then have fun dating your mate!
from Children Change a Marriage by Elisa Morgan & Carol Kuykendall

Share with the rest of us other ways you've built into your marriage!

Marriage Resources

Last week we had the opportunity to hear from Bob Noonan, a marriage and family counselor, who shared his thoughts on marriage and parenting. It's taken me almost a week to write this post because I've been busy and out of town, but also because its an important topic to me, and I knew I needed to mull it over some more. In the process its changed forms a few times. Know that what is written below comes from deep in my heart.

Here is what I've come up with as the crux of last Thursdays discussion:
If our marriage isn't healthy, then we are going to be raising unhealthy kids.

Plain and simple that's the honest truth. No matter how much we love them and teach them right from wrong and how to be in relationship with others - if we aren't living it out in our daily lives, in our marriage with our spouse, then we aren't doing much at all.

Bob mentioned the percentages of divorce within the church are rising. Does this bother you? It's sobering to me. And not just because Bob shared it, but because I've seen it. In the last 2 years I've know 5 couples who were dealing with major life shattering crisis in their marriage. And it breaks my heart. It's been much too devastating to watch friends walk this dark road for me to not say something now.

Work on your marriage. Now. Don't wait until its so overwhelming you aren't sure you're going to make it to the other side. Don't hide your head and pretend you're immune. We aren't immune because we're believers!

So take a stand. Be proactive. Work on your marriage. Your kids will be blessed because you did.

Here are some of the resources Bob gave us:
Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes
Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes
The Seven Desires of Every Heart by Mark Laaser

And the list of five needs for every man and woman from
His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair-Proof Marriage by Willard Harley

Men:
Sex (plus affection)
Companionship/friendship
Taking care of her appearance
Partnership in the home (helpmeet)
Appreciation (thank-you’s help)

Women:
Affection (touching)
Communication (talk to me)
Transparency (no secrets)
Financial stability (not wealth)
Commitment (this is permanent)

You can contact Bob Noonan through COD's church office.

Meet the Twins

Abra and Jeremy Maclennan have two new baby girls! Evalina and Brielle Maclennan were born Saturday, February 14th at 6:45pm. Weighing 5lbs 1oz, 19 inches and 4lbs 15oz, 18 inches respectively by emergency c-section. Abra, Evie and Brie are doing well and they will be meeting you all in person soon.