Harvest for Hunger

What generous Day School families we have! Thank you for participating in our Harvest for Hunger in such a big way. We have filled the food pantry with bags and bags of food, some beautifully decorated by the children. At chapel we had the children present cans of food or bags of spaghetti and we talked about helping others by sharing. I hope you will be able to continue this discussion throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons by focusing on giving to others in need. Through your donations, you have become blessings to many families who will have food to put on their tables.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Striving for a Stress-Free, Christ-Centered Christmas

Please join me for one of our next Moms' Coffees, either Thursday, Nov. 14th or Monday, Nov. 18th from 9:15 - 10:00 a.m. in room 105.  David Seamon, Assistant to the Pastor here at IPC, will be joining us and together we will share some ideas to help you and your family re-focus your Christmas on the birth of Jesus. We will be talking about de-stressing the Advent season by rethinking and simplifying your giving, your traditions, and your role as what seems to be the Christmas Magician.  We would love for you to share anything you and your family have done to move away from a chaotic holiday agenda to a celebration of family, love, generosity, and Christ. We look forward to seeing you!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

With another pumpkin at every turn, it is definitely fall in Alabama. Halloween to be exact, though I enjoy keeping my pumpkins around as long as possible. If you and your children are not keen on scary pumpkins, there are lots of Christian poems about pumpkins you can google that basically involve preparing and carving Christian symbols into your pumpkin and talking about those with your children.    My very creative daughter shared this picture of a pumpkin she and her husband carved with their children after receiving the instructions. This could certainly allow you as a family to reiterate some of the great tenets of our faith:
Hearts for eyes symbolize God's love for us, the cross as a nose reminds us of Christ being sent to save us, and the fish mouth, which I love, reminds us all to be fishers of men and spread the Good Word. If you put a candle in yours, talk about God being the light of the world. This may be familiar to your children since as we leave chapel each week, we talk about taking God's light out of the chapel and sharing it with our friends and family. Happy carving!

Since we are trying to focus on healthy recipes at the Day School, I also wanted to share a recipe for roasting those pumpkin seeds left after cleaning out your pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds - makes 1 1/2 Cups

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees

1 1/2 Cups raw, whole pumpkin seeds

1 pinch of salt (and garlic or another spice if your family prefers)

2 tsp. butter, melted

Toss seeds in a bowl with salt and melted butter. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet or two. Bake 45 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally.  Serve warm or cool. Enjoy!

Blessings, Kathy