Farewell.

Over the past few weeks, I've had to face a rather hard decision. This blog is going to stop. I had meant to make it into an online magazine, but after really praying about it, I still wasn't having peace and I felt God telling me to spend more time with my siblings instead of telling others to.

I'm leaving the blog open so that anyone can stop by and read past posts.

The only reason the blog would not stop is if someone else leads it. I an not pointing fingers or hinting at anyone, but if there is someone out there who is interested in picking up the Sibling Blog and leading the team of wonderful writers I have for it, please let me know. If I don't have someone by April 1st, I'll assume God wanted it to just end here.

I might still post every once in awhile about siblings on my personal blog: http://walkinthytruth.blogspot.com, so do stop by there if you want. :-)

May you all be blessed,
~Hannah Grace {Laura}

Hot Chocolate (the best recipe in the world!)

Here is a recipe for hot chocolate that will set the perfect mood for your Christmas Eve doings.

For one serving, blend in one mug a spoonful of King Arthur cocoa mix*, a spoonful of plain white sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, a pinch of cinnamon, and a pinch of ground cloves. Boil a cup of water on the stove, then pour over the dry mixture and blend. Scatter some marshmallows over the top and drink piping hot. :-D

*You can also substitute a spoonful of powdered cocoa mix and two spoonfuls of sugar, or sweeten to taste.

This spin on hot chocolate is delicious with hot cookies! I hope you all enjoy your Christmas and that God blesses your new year.

Goodness...

I don't think its my day to post or anything, but its been awfully quiet over here! And I haven't been around for quite some time! I want to thank Emma for covering for me! Christmas is drawing near, and my family always love making cookies, sittings by fires with Hot Chocolate and listening to Christmas music. I love this time of year when you can curl up in a blanket on the couch, read a book and drink something hot. Christmas music playing in the background is always lovely, I enjoy it immensely! What are some of your favourite Christmas songs? I recently came across a new one (For me, I had never heard of it before) The little Drummer boy. I really like that song. I've found several different version's of it, but my two favourite versions are Jar's of Clay version and Celtic Woman's version.

Little Drummer Boy

Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum
A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

So to honor Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
When we come.

Little Baby, pa rum pum pum pum
I am a poor boy too, pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gift to bring, pa rum pum pum pum
That's fit to give the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum,
On my drum?

Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum
The ox and lamb kept time, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my drum for Him, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my best for Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum.

What are some of your favourite Christmas songs? And what do you enjoy doing on a cold winter's day?

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

God bless!
~Lauren

Buttermints

My apologies for not posting on Saturday. Here is a recipe that I made yesterday that I really like.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buttermints:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
• 2 Tablespoons cream
• 4 to 5 drops of peppermint extract
• 3 drops of food coloring
• 4 cups (1 pound box) unsifted confectioners’ powdered sugar (10X)

Preparation

Place butter, cream, peppermint extract, and food coloring in a large bowl. Beat until well-combined.

Add confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time, beating on high speed until combined.

Knead the sugar dough, as you would knead bread dough, until smooth.

Roll pieces of the sugar dough into long ropes about ½-inch in diameter. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1-inch pieces and place on baking sheets. Cover loosely with paper towels and place in a cold oven overnight to dry and harden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Note: These are very rich and sweet mints!)

~Emma~

A friend loveth at all times. -Proverbs 17:17

People Puppy Chow

Hey ya'll! First of all, let me say, I'm very sorry for being late in posting. I was sick on Monday, so I was unable to post. =P

A little side note, Monday was Emma, my youngest sister's, 13th birthday! =)

Now for the real post. Here is a recipe my family just loves to make.

People Puppy Chow

1 box Chex cereal (corn or wheat)

1 stick butter

1 c. smooth peanut butter

1 (12 oz.) bag chocolate chips

1 box powdered sugar

Melt butter, chocolate, and peanut butter. Pour melted mixture over Chex cereal and stir carefully until all of it is covered. Sprinkle the entire box of powdered sugar over everything and stir again. Freeze and enjoy!

Golden Grahams will also work for this recipe in replacement of the Chex. I hope you will enjoy it!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Taylor

I love you!!

This past Friday was my sister (Hosanna's) birthday but we were busy that day so today Monday we are celebrating her 11th birthday:) she is a joy to all those who meet her and a help to everyone!! she and I are very close and share all kinds of things...Hosanna

Happy
Obedient
Sweet
Amazing
Nice
Neat
Awesome



I love being the sister to you Hosanna!!
I love you!!

Hope S.

Reenacting

My sisters and I are homeschooled, which naturally leaves a lot of space open for creativity to help us put learning into a certain perspective. Some of my favorite memories from lower grades (I'm a senior this year, graduating in May) have sprung from days when we decided to make history or literature, or some other subject, come alive. Wild science experiments, dressups like book characters, little skits that helped us to remember what we were learning about...our photo boxes are happily stuffed!
But reenacting a Bible story, building a food pyramid out of plastic food, or any other sort of fun hands-on approach to integrating these bits of knowledge into the brain doesn't have to be school-related. Sometimes it's much more fun to come up with something entirely on your own, gathering your siblings together to put on a show for your parents or taking something you learned that morning and making a performance out of it. Giving life to what's on your mind or your lesson plans is one of the best ways older siblings can get involved, and younger siblings to remember what they learned. My parents have often been pleasantly surprised when we decided to perform something we learned on our own; it shows them that we value what they teach us enough to spend unstructured time dabbling with it.
I'll give you an example that happened just today; my two little sisters have been learning about the pilgrims on the Mayflower, so we cut up some cheese and salted some lunch meat, got out some Saltine crackers, and put some leftover rice in a bowl for porridge. We draped a bedspread over our dining table and everybody, including Mom, crawled underneath the table and we all pretended to have a Mayflower meal! We rocked back and forth for the waves and "hurled" into a water pitcher. We substituted cranberry apple juice for ale, but it was still a big hit. If you've read any posts about my family prior to this, you can guess there was some hiccuping going on. But the point is, it was a great way for the Girls to associate something with their study of the Mayflower pilgrims. We actually did this activity a few years ago, when I was learning about that time period, locking ourselves away into a closet with much of the same foodstuffs.
Be creative with this and really make it your own. You might get some "book larnin' " out of this, but you're sure to get some great memories and photos! Post them on your blog and put a link here; we'd love to see what you come up with!
(It should be noted that soon after our Mayflower meal, my baby sister knocked an entire bottle of Italian salad dressing off the counter, and while we were all cleaning it up, my other sister says, "Well...sister Mary barfed again.")

Quotes

Here are some quotes about siblings I'd like to share. (And just for the record, I don't know who a lot of the people who said the quotes are.)

Sisters

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child. ~Linda Sunshine

You can kid the world. But not your sister. ~Charlotte Gray

Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood. ~Louisa May Alcott

A sister smiles when one tells one's stories - for she knows where the decoration has been added. ~Chris Montaigne

A toast once heard: "To my big sister, who never found her second Easter egg until I'd found my first." ~Robert Brault

The mildest, drowsiest sister has been known to turn tiger if her sibling is in trouble. ~Clara Ortega

Sister to sister we will always be,
A couple of nuts off the family tree.
~Author Unknown

Brothers

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero. ~Marc Brown

After a girl is grown, her little brothers - now her protectors - seem like big brothers. ~Astrid Alauda

(Sorry, I couldn't find a lot for brothers!)

Brothers and Sisters

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega

I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. ~Maya Angelou

~*~*~*~*~*~

Soli Deo Gloria!

Taylor

Frog and Toad

I know that when I was younger, I loved it when my mom would read books aloud to me. My absolute favorites were all of the "Frog and Toad" books. If you have younger sibling, and they enjoy reading and/or being read to, I highly suggest these books.

The two main characters of the stories are Frog and Toad. Frog is a rather relaxed and optimistic character, whereas Toad is pessimistic , a lot of the time he is very serious, but usually very kind. Frog is particularly tall and green, but Toad is brown, short, and stout.

They are very cute stories. They have their fun little adventures together, sometimes something happens that they think is scary or startling, but everything is always end up being okay.

(Considering my own opinion of these books:) I have nothing in them that I don't like. I love the characters, the humor, and the cute illustrations. Arnold Lobel did a very good job on these books. (I also suggest reading "Owl at Home" by Arnold Lobel.)

~Emma~

National Bible Bee 2010

The National Bible Bee Competition is a series of events designed to help parents encourage diligence in Bible study, Scripture memorization, and prayer in their families. There are two focal points: 1) Bible memorization and Bible knowledge competition held at Local Bible Bees organized by volunteer Hosts and Local Event Teams in various locations throughout the United States, and 2) The National Bible Bee competition for the 300 top-scoring contestants from the Local Bible Bees. Family discipleship is reinforced during the time leading up to these events through planned voluntary social interactions around the Word, memory verse games, and Christian fellowship.

On August 28th youth and children across the US competed in what is called a local Bible Bee to see who would go to nationals in November. Someone would volunteer to host it locally and then the competitors would go to the place hosted that was near them and compete against each other reciting Bible verses and then also doing a written test and whoever got the highest score would go on a list to see if they made it to nationals. There are 3 different categories: Senior, Junior and Primary: I had a sister in primary and 2 in Senior. They all studied very hard through the summer and then attended the local on Aug. 28th and all did a fantastic job!! But 1 of my sisters in Senior (Haylee by name:) was anxiously waiting the time when they announced who all was going to nationals: 300 young people total go... 100 from each category. Haylee just made the nationals and has been busy packing and studying for the coming day. She will fly out with Dad and head to Chicago to compete on Nov. 11th-13th. She is flying out late tonight and will be in Chicago at 5:30pm and will be (hopefully) ready for the day she will be on stage competing:):). To check out the prizes and for more info or to watch it live go to: www.biblebee.com and there you have it:) I would like to ask you all to please be praying for Haylee and my Dad as they fly, and also Haylee as she competes!! GO HAYLEE GO:)!!!