A Wonderful Book Opportunity

If you have never seen an Usborne book, you are in for a treat! And no, I am not a paid rep, but was introduced to them years ago as a parent and teacher and love them. They are beautiful, educational and high-interest level books for babies through high school students. The variety is incredible. We have an exciting opportunity to purchase these outstanding books on March 19th and 20th. The representative from Usborne Books will be in the Day School foyer (entrance from covered walkway) from 8:00 to 1:00 on these days.  Don't miss out on this chance to purchase gifts or to contribute to your growing home library.  A link is provided below for your convenience if you would like to check out these books ahead of time. You may order on-line or during those 2 days at the Day School.             http://IPCDayschool.ReadUsborne.org

A Round of Thank You's

Wow! What a crazy day last Tuesday turned out to be. Our chapel lesson topic that morning was Thank You God For Winter and boy did young and old get to experience it in all its snowy glory. A huge thank you to all the Day School teachers who remained calm and made other arrangements for their own children so they could stay late into the afternoon until the majority of our students were retrieved by parents of neighbors. By the time they left, walking was the only option and many walked as much as six miles to get home. Another huge thank you to the seven teachers who stayed with me and a precious child whose parents could not get to him Tuesday night. With the church personnel who were also stuck here or elected to stay and help we had a great group of sixteen. Mr. Perry, our security guard, got the trooper of the year award.  He stayed up all Tuesday night on "watch" and would not leave until everyone was safely left late Wednesday.Thankfully, again, we had Kim with us to create her wonderful meals. Along with eating well, we had comfy sofas, tablecloths and blankets for our covers, we celebrated a birthday, shared phone chargers, had great fellowship, and a great game of Charades, all with lots of laughter.

Another huge thank you goes out to our wonderful parents who have been so diligent and creative to help make our transition to a completely tree nut and peanut free school seem so easy. If you do accidentally send a product we cannot serve your child, you will see an "Oops" sticker in your child's lunch box. It lets you know not only there was something he or she could not have, but lets you know we served your child a lunch we keep for just such occasions. All the teachers have enjoyed seeing what interesting things you are sending in the lunch boxes, and we are borrowing some of your ideas since we can't bring items containing nuts either. Our parents are the best!

Christmas Blessings

The Day School celebrated Christmas with meaningful chapel lessons, a wonderful music program by our 3 year olds, a beautifully done Lessons and Carols service by our 4 and 5 year olds, lots and lots of glitter, lights and elves, an array of Christmas attire, very creative Christmas crafts, more glitter, and sweet class parties organized by our moms. It has been a joyous time with our children!

Our wish for each of you is that you and your family have a meaningful, stress-free, Christ-centered Christmas. Think about these four things: worship fully, spend less, give more (of yourself), and love more. Don't worry about perfection, that's not what it is about. Remember, God's greatest expression of love came to us through the most human of all experiences, the birth of a child.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Blessings,
Kathy

It's Time To Be Nut Free

As we rapidly approach our Jan. 3rd date of being tree nut and peanut free in the IPC Day School I wanted to share the short list of easy acceptable snacks.  You can always check http://www.foodfacts.com which allows you to check ingredients about any product and www.SnackSafely.com which posts a lengthy list of safe foods and updates it monthly! You can sign up through email for the monthly updates to that list. As always, READ THE LABEL on everything you send to school! We have a very positive attitude about this new policy and will work through it together to ensure the safety of our precious children.

         Quick peanut and tree nut fee list

Goldfish

Potato Chips (not kettle)

Pirate Booty

Cheese Curls

Chick Fil A - They do use peanut oil to cook, but parents report because of the high heat during cooking their children with peanut allergies can eat the food.

McDonalds and Wendy's nuggets are fine, too

Dominoes Cheese

Graham Crackers

Vanilla Wafers

Rice Krispie Treats Blue Wrapper

Blow Pops

Skittles

Starburst

Marshmallows

Vanilla Ice Cream cups

Fruit

String Cheese

Gogurts

Cookies made at Magic Muffin (must request peanut and tree nut free)                                  Publix -  Special Requested tree nut and peanut free cupcakes

Blessings, Kathy Leaver

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