Family values & goals for 2014

After a few weeks break over Summer, we started back today with our Family night! 

Rather than starting straight into regular story routine, this year we decided to look at what are the things important to our family and create some values and goals. Each of us took time to think about the things we'd like for our family. This included things like eating dessert, being kind, argueing respectfully, getting personal fish & fish tank, family games nights and some other great ideas.

We came up with some great ideas that we shared together. Then went about voting on our favorites with stickers. We came out with our top 6 values & goals for 2014. What do you think of them?

Looking forward to what 2014 holds for the Butler family.

Around the walls of a nursing home

Tonight was Lily’s turn to lead ‘Super Family Bible Night’ and after last week’s episode of army men mime – I was a little concerned. Lily flicked through her bible and chose her story because she like the pictures, interesting because the story she chose was ‘A wall falls down – Jericho’.

This week was drama week,  Lily played the part of Joshua, Daddy & Toby the 2 men sent to check out Jericho, mummy was narrator/Rahab and whoever else was needed along the way. As we read the story we acted it out along the way – although Toby was quite disappointed that he was able to really hid in the roof like the 2 spies did in the story, and disappointed he had to settle for sitting on a table.

For those who don’t know we are currently house sitting a large nursing home, (for about 6 months so - with no residents) so you can imagine the fun and noise we had when it was time to walk (we ran) around the walls of Jericho. Firstly once every day (6 times), then 7 times on the 7th day. All the while shouting and playing our pretend instruments along the way. There are a lot of walls to run around in our mini city and we were exhausted by the end of it and collapsed on the ground to listen to the end of the story and pray.

This week was certainly a week to remember, we had a lot of fun and Lily especially loved being in charge and playing the part of Joshua. Mmm... think there may be a leader in the making there.

Blessings to you and your family!
For more information on bible engagement or Milk to Meat resources please go to http://www.milktomeat.com.au/

An Ark made of clay

Well what a distressing week it's been. This week has seen massive floods in Queensland, NSW & Vic and bushfires in WA. It's been a week full of disturbing images on the tv which our kids were exposed to as well, when national disasters happen it's really hard to shelter your kids from such events and so we in the evenings we prayed with them about the people, the homes and stories they'd seen. But I think it is these terrible circumstances that led to Toby's choice of bible stories for this week's 'Super Family Bible Night' – Noah's Ark.



Toby reading bible story


Toby had prepared well this week, he spent the evening before reading the bible and thinking creatively about his topic. After reading for much longer than usual, he promptly said "Mum I need clay for Super Family Bible Night". Interesting I thought, what does clay have to do with Noah's Ark but I went along with it anyway and so we spent about 2hours the next day trying to find baking clay. Thankfully, we eventually found some (I wasn't looking forward to having to make baking clay to appease an 8yo).



And so the night began, Toby read the story of Noah's Ark, asked some questions and prayed. He then produced a well constructed plan of just what we were going to do next. He had drawn the Ark, with explanation of the type of roof, the door shape, the amount of animals and how it was to be created. I was astonished as the amount of detail we were going to have to create with CLAY!!! (Maybe he's got some architecture in him??)



Toby's in depth explanation of clay Ark making



And so the creativity began... well.... the boys were extremely creative and made fabulous Ark's and animals, on the other hand... Lily & I decided to work together and make something that at least resembled a boat. It was a fun night and we had clay everywhere. Toby had done a really great job of unpacking Noah's Ark and letting us all get involved in the night.



I think Adam might be impressed with his creation



Toby's ark



On another note, you can now sign up to receive this blog via email, just fill in your email in email subscribe box to the right and you'll never miss our 'Super Family Bible Night' blog J

Enjoy your family and God this week.

You can also check out our other blog on bible engagement - tips, tools, and resources here
http://milktomeat-journal-kyliebutler.blogspot.com/

3 sauce bottles in a furnace

This week's 'Super Family Bible Night' was one to remember – a bit of pantry and video fun!

Toby with his angry men



Angry men are stuck onto 2-min noodles



It was Adam's weeks and he had a draw faces: 3 happy men, 3 angry men, 1 little king, 1 big king and an angel – and we were all interested as to what he was going to get up too. Obviously from the pic above Toby chose to draw the 3 angry men. We were even more intrigued when Adam pulled out 3 packets of 2-minute noodles, 4 sauce bottles and 2 Milo containers. Just what did he have in store?



Milo statue and Milo king



Sauce in a firery furnace



Well this week we started with the kids seeing how loud they could make their armpits burp and ended with video posts done by Toby & Lily on the story which are hilarious but unfortunately I can't upload them because a certain little 5yo refused to wear pants.

Thankfully, we were able to convince her to do it again the next day, with pants, so we could show you.

However, Lily did give an interesting retelling of the story (so please remember this is a 5yo retelling). The re-enactment goes a little bit wrong towards the end. But check out Lily's video of Super Family Bible Night, based on the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (or as Lily calls it Shadrach, Bendigo and Indigo).

Enjoy God's Word with your family this week and we'd love to hear about it! Send us a comment or email on your experiences.

Esther and a flute

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Year and during the break were able to spend time with your family and friends and especially able to connect with God during this season.

We've had a busy season, but have spent lots of time together swimming at beach, pool and enjoying BBQs with friends. One special adventure we headed to the Sand Sculptures for a picnic and family day which was great fun (although we all got burnt). The Sand Sculptures are well worth a trip if you're on the Mornington Peninsula this summer, however my kids are wondering why I can't do sand castles like them.

This week 'Super Family Bible Night' it was my turn and I decided to do one of my favourite stories in the Old Testament, 'Esther'. I did some internet searching and printed off the story with colouring pages. After reading the story together and asking a few questions about the story, we set about colouring the pages and putting it together into a book that we could put in the bookshelf to read again later. I thought it would be a good idea to have some boiled lollies on the table to be able to nibble on while drawing together but they were more interested in seeing how many lollies they could eat than on colouring.

Both Toby & Lily love making their own books and I often find my stapler missing because they've raided my stationary stash to create another book or "creative art". Being able to make a book was a great way to get them involved in the story and to understand it more.

After finishing our colouring we all prayed – Toby thanked God for his Christmas money and being able to buy a game and Lily prayed for her Auntie Jenny cause she's got a flute (flu).

So how'd the night go, well apart from the distraction of the boiled lollies, the kids really enjoyed the story and colouring in the pages of the story and putting the book together.

A wedgie from a donkey

This week it was Lily's chance to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' and being a few days before Christmas, she wanted to do 'Jesus being born'. So Lily and Adam headed off to discuss secret 'Super Family Bible Night' preparations and came out bearing sheets, angel wings and a hobby horse. And so... it was a night for dramatic interpretation.

Lily of course played the lead role of Mary, Toby was Joseph, Mum was the angel Gabriel (Lily made sure I knew that "that angel is a boy mum, but you'll be okay") and poor Dad got relegated with reading the story and being the inn keeper. The hobby horse was the donkey and Lily's dolly 'Olivia' played the part of baby Jesus. So with all parts assigned the story began...

The angel appeared to a very surprised Mary (I think Lily has some acting ability) and then Joseph took her on a donkey to Bethlehem. Toby's role was to lead the donkey while 'Mary' was riding it however the temptation was too much and he decided to give 'Mary' hobby horse wedges the whole way (Lily was not impressed). On arrival to Bethlehem, there no rooms available so we headed to the kids bedrooms (aptly named the stable). In the stable was Lily's doll cot and all kinds of stuffed animals playing parts of the stable animals.

The big moment arrived and Jesus was born, and there was a very proud mother 'Mary' who made sure Jesus was snug and warm, well fed and that Toby looked after him, although she was not impressed with Toby holding baby Jesus at all.

Lily finished the time with a shy awkward prayer – but it was prayer.

So how was this week – Lily had been preparing her story for a couple of weeks and was very excited to be able to finally lead her story. There are always some interesting and funny parts to Super Family Bible Night and tonight was no exception.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and able to celebrate and remember the reason of Christmas – Jesus.

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours

Holy, holy, holy – wouldn’t that get boring?

Well it is the silly season and things have been a little crazy with kinder concerts, school concerts, and Christmas production rehearsals and so I'm a week behind on writing this blog – and we've even missed a week totally. So here is last week's blog... J

This week's Super Family Bible Night was run by Toby and he had been planning it since his last one, my only concern was that he wanted to do a story in Revelation. Now I love (and get totally confused by) Revelation and so how was an 8yo going to lead us in this bible story?? Well, thankfully, Toby was working off the Kids Bible which was a lot tamer and understandable.

Toby read the story of John's vision of heaven, of how the doors of heaven were opened and he saw what heaven would be like. When he got to the point in the story where the flying creatures looked too Jesus and fell down at his feet singing "holy, holy, holy", Toby stopped and stated – "wouldn't that get a little boring if all you did all day was sing 'holy, holy, holy'?" We had to laugh at the honesty and bluntness of an 8yo.

Toby had some creative ideas for this week - we'd make paper doors to open and inside we would each draw what we thought heaven would be like. We got the paints and paper out and with all our creativity set about painting our picture of heaven. Each person painted their own idea of heaven – Lily & I painted Jesus on his throne with a rainbow, Adam painted a new earth (amazing) and Toby packed his page full of ideas of heaven- Jesus on his throne with some red carpet, the flying creatures singing, a new earth and interestingly Toby playing on his skateboard! How great would it be if we could all skateboard in heaven!! lol

Afterwards, Toby had planned what questions to ask us each about heaven, our pictures and what we'd like in heaven and then he had thoughtfully written down his prayer and prayer points, and prayed an amazing and caring prayer.

So how'd it go? Well, our kids now really look forward to each week of Super Family Bible Night and they particularly like the weeks that they are leading it. I'm amazed at how much they remember from these nights. So as we come to the end of a year and look back on these nights I am thrilled, amazed and have to laugh at how each week went – but what is important is that we spend this time together getting into God Word in a fun, interactive and applicable way. Why not have a go in your family!

3 Wise Men and googly eyes

This week is was Adam's turn to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' and the kids always look forward to Adam's night – they are always very clever, creative and fun! And this week's was no exception. Although it didn't start off so well (or end so well for that matter). Toby (8) has been learning piano and we'd printed off some music for him to learn how to play some Christmas Carols, however I got a little over excited and decided it was about time that I learn how to play the piano too – or at least learn how to play Silent Night. So the first 10minutes of Super Family Bible Night was with me and the kids trying to play and sing Silent Night together – completely out of tune much to the delight of us 3 and with Adam smirking and rolling his eyes at us all. Mental note – don't try and learn piano on a 'Super Family Bible Night' it will only end in singing – lol.

With piano practise aside we officially began the night. Adam's story was of the "3 wise men" a great idea to look at the stories around Christmas – I can't believe it's only a little over 3 weeks until Christmas. I do love the Christmas season. Adam read and discussed how the wise men saw the large star in the sky, and followed it to Bethlehem. What was doubly brilliant was that Kids Church this week spoke about this same story and so Toby was able to share lots about what he'd learnt in Kids Church. Toby & Lily had even been playing with our Nativity scene the day before, and so Toby had been teaching Lily about the 3 gifts that the wise men had brought for Jesus. Kids Church had even found mirth and Toby shared how disgusting it smelt – although Lily kept calling it "Perth." (I love my church!) This made it easier for Adam to talk about the story because the kids already knew lots about the story.

After the story Adam's creative side shone through again. He'd purchased some little gold boxes and he pulled out the craft box, and spent some time decorating our little gifts to remind us of the gifts that the wise men had brought to Jesus. There was pipe-cleaners, glue, stickers, sparkles and even some googly eyes (left over from our week on ladybirds ***blog insert here***) that was until the googly eyes decided they didn't want to stick onto the gift boxes and kept sliding off. Thus begins the tears... "My eyes won't stay on... sob... my eyes won't stick mum... bigger sob and the beginning of anger... why won't my eyes stick?" At first I was able to contain my amusement of how upset Toby was getting about his googly eyes and give him some thoughts on how to get his googly eyes to stick on his gift box but when he began hitting the googly eyes with his fists – my small hidden smirk – came out as a little giggle and then a good ole belly laugh. I know I shouldn't laugh at my children but sometimes they are so funny and I can't help it. So after some more tears, anger and a few camera shots Toby was able to calm down and I had to promise not to put up any photos of him having his googly eye tantrum. Of which I will keep. We then finished off our gift boxes and hung them on the Christmas tree for us to remember of the gift of Jesus.

So in summary how did the night go? The story was a fantastic idea especially leading up to Christmas – the craft idea was perfect especially since we'd just put up the Christmas tree the day before. The only downside of the night was the distraction of Silent Night piano practise and those rotten googly eyes. Mental note – consider throwing googly eyes out!

Moses & the placemats!

This week it was my turn for 'Super Family Bible Night' and we decided to look at Moses, the baby in a basket. I considered for a split second that we could do a dramatised version of the passage but then thought about the use of water and children and thought that combination wasn't a good choice just before bedtime. So I went with a crafty option.

I grabbed the Kids Bible and read them the story of Moses being placed into a basket as a baby. I purposely chose not to show the kids the pictures as I wanted them to be able to use their imagination for the 2^nd part of the night. After I'd finished reading the story everyone chose a coloured piece of paper and we spent some time drawing a picture about the story of Moses. Lily of course was infatuated with the princess – and made sure she was the first part, Adam being the very creative one in the family included the Pyramids and heaps of detail, me – well, I drew some blue lines for water and some reasonable stick figures. Toby on the other had created a magnificent picture. However, I am a little concerned, as you may be able to see in the photo – there is 2 sharks in the Nile River. Now I'm pretty sure there weren't any sharks in the story I read and I'm pretty sure there aren't any sharks in the Nile River – so that made for an interesting discussion (although they are pretty smart drawings of sharks).

So after some time, and a request for more time - we each presented our pictures and explanation of what we'd drawn. I was surprised at how much the kids got into drawing a picture of the story and we've decided to laminate the kids pictures and they can use them as placemats (I decided put mine in a very special place - the recycling bin J).

This week worked really well and it was super easy! And Toby & Lily have a lasting memory of Moses on their placemats!

The ‘exercise ball’s’ been rolled away

Tonight was Lily's turn for 'Super Family Bible Night', and she was super excited. She been planning for awhile – this was her 'most favourite' story and she couldn't wait to do it. The story required a grave, a stone, grave clothes, swords, a cross and angel, mean people and friends. Can you guess what story she chose – yep – Jesus' death and resurrection!

Tonight was a bit cooler so we stayed indoors – and headed for the kids bedroom, we created a grave with the kids bunk beds with a sheet and a large blue exercise ball to create the grave, an old sheet to become the grave clothes, we found some of dads wood and string to create a cross and of course fairy wings for the angel – however we had a dilemma – 'no sword'  (I know I can't believe it either) – what were we going to do?? Thankfully Lily had an idea – Barbie dolls!! I have no idea how Barbie dolls could also be a substitute as a sword. But it was Lily's night so I didn't bother questioning.

Lily had all the parts allocated for the night – she was (of course) Jesus, the rest of us swapped between friends, mean people, guards, angels and then friends again. We began with Jesus praying in the garden and his friends falling asleep and Jesus had to keep waking them up (Lily loved being able to wake us up over and over again). Then Judas arrived to betray Jesus. Toby was thrilled with the idea of being Judas until we told him that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss (meaning that he had to give his little sister a kiss on the cheek) he was repulsed at the thought and didn't want to be Judas anymore, but after some coercion he reluctantly gave Jesus (Lily) a kiss. Jesus was then taken to the court to be judged and then crucified. Although I think Toby enjoyed the 'nailing Jesus to the cross' part a little too much. After Jesus (Lily) died (a quite dramatic death might I say) we wrapped Jesus up in the grave clothes (old sheet) and moved Jesus into the grave (bunk bed) and rolled the stone (exercise ball) into place. On the 3^rd day and 'angel of the Lord' appeared (aka Adam) and informed the friends that Jesus was no longer dead but was alive – the friends were thrilled to see Jesus again.

Lily loved being able to lead this week, she especially loved being able to play the part of Jesus – it was really interesting to see how excited she was. She even told me this morning that her favourite stories in the bible – 1 Jesus death & resurrection and 2 Jonah & the whale. Interestingly both of those were ones that she led in 'Super Family Bible Night', and it made me realise that she was really engaged in the nights but she was especially loved it when she was the one in charge. It made me realise how much my kids were learning and loving these nights.

 Summary – although I was a little concerned about how the re-enactment would go on the death of Jesus the kids did a really good job of it, and I think they actually began to understand the sacrifice a bit more. It was a big one to cover – and I think our little 5yo did a pretty good job of it. She even had a magnificent prayer time afterwards thanking God for the cross, for the bible and for her family – priceless (and a tear jerker). The only problem was that most of the night I had that song "The Stone's been rolled away" in my head but instead of stone – I kept thinking "the exercise ball been bounced away" – didn't have the same ring to it.

Talking Donkey & a cricket bat

This week was Toby's turn for 'Super Family Bible Night' and he was very excited – that could have something to do with the fact that it involved a cricket bat and a donkey - Or maybe it was just the Word of God – mmm but I'm guessing for an 8yo boy it was the former. As you may have guessed Toby's choice was the passage in Numbers 22 about the talking donkey.

 

We were directed onto the grass in the backyard but we were missing someone, Toby couldn't be found. It was his night to lead 'Super Family Bible Night' where on earth was he???

 

Little did we know that hiding behind the trampoline was a little boy dressed as a donkey. So with all family members accounted for, 'Super Family Bible Night' began. But just what did Toby have planned... yet again we were acting out the story. Toby played the part of the donkey, (I don't know about you? But don't own a donkey costume, so Toby held a hobby horse and covered up with a brown sheet) Lily was Balaam (which looked totally funny in her nightgown and gumboots), Dad was narrator and Mum was king and also marvellously transformed into an angel.

 

The story began with the king commanding Balaam to put a curse on God's people, and Balaam agreeing (glad we were reading from a kid's bible that explained a curse much better than I would have). So Balaam left on his journey with his donkey, to curse Gods people but then an angel (amazing transformed from a king) appeared, and the donkey saw it and went ballistic. Balaam was so angry...

 

Lily knew this bible story and was looking forward to her part which involved a cricket bat and her brother (I mean a donkey, or maybe it was her brother). We had strictly advised her to only hit the donkey's head (the hobby horse) not Toby. Thankfully she listened, but I think it took everything within her not to hit her brother with a cricket bat. And so she gave that poor little hobby horse a hiding.

Back to the story... cowering the donkey, spoke to Balaam and asked why he was beating him, then suddenly to angel appeared to Balaam and instead of cursing he blessed God's people.

Summary: a very fun night, however it could have been a very dangerous night with the inclusion of a cricket bat and permission to hit a donkey. Mmm very thankful that it turned out as well as it did.

 

Next week is Lily's turn, and just what will a 5yo have in store for us??

And on the 7th day God created... cars

This week 'Super Family Bible Night' was my night and I thought we'd do creation! Genesis Chapter 1 ... [Insert singing here ... "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"]. It had been a very crazy busy week, and so my prep time was limited to 20minutes beforehand, although I had thought about it during the week.

I collected my supplies (I thought we had a blow up ball with a map of the world printed on it – but it turns out I'd chucked it whilst on one of my 'cleaning sprees' to the horror of my kids. Oops, who would have thought a large blow up ball of the world would actually come in handy). So we had no globe. But I found toy animals, sea animals, cows, sheep, fish etc.. I found a blue bath mat for the sea, a bed-light for the light, darkness was pretty obvious – just turn off the light. And so we began...

We all sat on the floor in darkness and I had memorised the first few sentences of Genesis (until the part where God created light) so that we could hear and sense the idea of the universe being blank and dark, kids thought the darkness was funny and an excuse to be silly. So we moved quickly to the first day, where God created 'light' so I could actually see what the munchkins were up too. As we read through each of the days we brought out items that reflected that day and as with each new day we went back over the days before so by the end they remembered what God had created on each day.

Day 1 – light (used a bed-light)
Day 2 – sky (swung hands in the air – couldn't figure out an item for this)
Day 3 – water & land, trees, fruit & flowers (we had a blow-up palm tree – go figure???)
Day 4 – sun, moon & stars (if you have those glow in the dark stars that'd work really well here)
Day 5 – sea animals, birds (we have plastic animals of these)
Day 6 – land animals & humans (thank you to Fisher Price for farm animals & Little People)
Day 7 – rested (sleeping)


This was a pretty simple but fun night – although I did leave the box out that I'd collected the land animals out of, which it also had the trucks and cars in it and every new day Lily would ask if she could play with the cars, and each time we said 'no'. And so by the 7^th day when God rested Lily was very disappointed that God didn't create cars because she wanted to play with them. Toby asked 'So what day did God create cars? Why didn't he do it instead of resting?'

 In summary, a really fun night, with lots of laughs and the kids actually remember the order and days that God created the universe & earth. Love it!!

Jonah and the whale and a gumboot in the head

Tonight was Lily's turn to run 'Super Family Bible Night' and she'd been looking forward to it all week. And of course she chose Jonah and the whale (which she was going to do last month until 'Window biscuits' – if you haven't read that one have a look here http://milktomeat-kyliebutler.blogspot.com/2010/09/jesus-likes-window-biscuits.html ). Lily had lots of ideas for telling this story and the most important aspect was that she was going to be Jonah. The night began with Adam and Lily locked away in

secret meetings discussing ideas for the night – Toby and I were very excited to see what they would come up with – and as Adam ran into our backyard and Lily stood guard at the door refusing to let us see out - we became even more intrigued as to what this night would offer.

Once everything was ready – Lily instructed us that we all needed to rug up – coats and beanie's on – Super Family Bible Night was going outside!! All rugged Adam began the story inside with Jonah (Lily) hearing God tell him to go to Nineveh and Jonah running away, with that we all headed outside to our boat shaped cubby (did I mention that I have a very handy hubby who made the kids a cubby out of fence paling). Once inside the 'boat' (very cramped – and cold) the storm came and we acted out being on a boat in stormy weather (including some pretend sea sickness – which Toby loved – and continued to 'faux vomit' a little bit longer than we'd have liked).

Then we came to the part where Jonah was thrown overboard and so we tried to 'throw' (climb out) Jonah out the window of the boat, unfortunately Lily got a little excited with the 'acting out' of being thrown into the sea – she swung her foot a clocked Toby in the face with her gumboot – which resulted in many tears and we had to put Super Family Bible night on hold for some TLC.

After TLC, we came back to Jonah being tossed around by the waves and then being swallowed by a whale – which was very cleverly created by pegging a tarp over the top of our trampoline – we read and acted out the remainder of the story from the belly of the whale (on the trampoline) until Jonah is spat out of the whale's belly (enter 'faux vomit' noises again). We then tried to go to the more serious part of the evening, however as we were chatting about obeying God and sharing God's love with other, the temptation of the trampoline was all too tempting (especially with the tarp on) and so we cut that part short and had a jump on the trampoline together.

Summary – this was a very fun and creative night. Being outside added a great element to the night and I think this is one night the kids will definitely remember. A very fun night – well except the part where Toby got a gumboot in his head.

For more ideas and resources on Bible Engagement or to buy Kylie's 'Milk to Meat' book go to http://www.milktomeat.com.au/