i was going through Instagram and Facebook, seeing so many posts on what they learned this year.
and their word for the year.
i felt blank.
i thought… did i learn ANY thing?
my brain was feeling like mush from the holiday crazy schedule.
then i looked through these photos.
i see love.
and being loved.
color.
life.
dreams.
strength.
JOY.
courage.
creativity.
focus.
change.
FUN.
this year i found out how to love my kids deeper than i ever have.
this parenthood stuff is HARD and crazy amazing all at once.
it’s no joke.
and i am so proud to be their mom even when things get hard.
I’m happy to walk through life beside them too.
this year i realized i had dreams in my heart i hadn’t validated.
after a little working through what that means… 2015 is the year to make them happen.
i feel like jesus is saying “enough stalling Meg!”
what i reflect on again and again is that through it all God is so good!!
that doesn’t mean everything is perfect.
it’s not.
life is messy. (sometimes a complete disaster!)
everyone has struggles.
no one is alone in that.
but God’s Grace covers all of it.
He takes our offering of brokenness, weakness and failure and FLIPS it upside down.
He says “i love you. You are mine. You are new.”
we are not our mistakes.
we are not our past.
we are not what people think of us.
we are made new through Him.
God is good. He gives me HOPE. He carries me through.
Kellyn -just thank you. Thanks for being you!! that is all 😉
have a blessed craft weekend!
Lori -I never get tired of your beautiful photos!
Courtney-Those photos are soo great! It was the motivation I needed! I have to print mine out and take more in 2015! Time just slips by way too fast. Great documentation of your year! Congrats!
annette -great post – i think taking pictures really helps us remember where we have been… wondering where you got your ‘Jesus loves me’ t-shirt?
Sue Linse -Love the pictures Megan! (does anyone call you ‘Megan’ anymore?…or is it just Meg. Anyway – only comment – love any picture of Stanley – SO cute. And Annie is freaking Adorable – should be modeling for GAP or something. Miss you as always 🙂
jennibell-Wow. What a beautiful, reflective post. You are inspirational to so many Meg!!!
Kate @ Songs Kate Sang-So many beautiful smiles! And I can’t wait to watch your dreams unfold!
Carol S.-I like your photos and perspective. You’re one of my favorite bloggers…real…colorful…most important, faithful. My blogging schedule has been reduced to one a year, lol. I don’t know how you do it, but sure am glad you do. Jealous of all your adorable pics with hubby. My husband ducks when camera comes out!
Kimberlee Jost -I loved all of the pictures!
amy jupin-i share so many of these same thoughts and emotions, especially in the message i keep hearing from jesus.
“don’t be afraid. stretch, grow, follow your passions!”
i push it down again and again.
what does it possibly mean?
what if i blow it?
we need to follow his lead and fight for our dreams!
they are important. so, so important!
i am with you, friend.
i am for you too.
happy new year meg!
Tammy -Happy New Year! Thanks for always being such an inspiration Meg!
Amy-Cheers to 2015! I’ve loved following along with you here and on Instagram. Thanks for sharing your life with us!
well we are at the end of the year already?
it feels super weird to me.
and like everyone else… this past week of celebrating has been a blur.
but for the most part it’s been the good kind of blur.
we decorated gingerbread houses.
i cheated a little and bought them pre-built from the bakery at target.
but what matters is we did it.
and even BEFORE christmas this year?!
the most fun addition this year was the Air Head Extremes rainbow stripe candy!
and the Alpha Bits cereal was a good idea but it turns out there are hardly any N’s or S’s which is annoying.
they have so many jokes and voices and stories together that make each other laugh constantly.
and they were cracking each other up this day.
(of course they fight too but it’s so much more fun to capture them laughing)
we had several family christmases… and i took a few pictures at my parents because my dad got me a wide angle lens!
it’s so fun to play around with!
my mom made a big dinner for us all!
cousins in their new socks!
and then my kiddos in new jammies on christmas morning.
sleepy faces ready for breakfast and gifts.
we pulled off surprising talby with this piano!!
craig and the boys went and loaded it up… hid it behind a bunch of other things in the garage till christmas eve.
then pushed inside after talby went to bed.
i did no work other than find it… i am so grateful for strong men.
i googled around and found out it’s over 100 years old!
it sounds great to us and talby remembers so much from her lessons in the past – i was shocked!
craig found a ping pong table to go over the pool table. 🙂
and now there is a ping pong championship on the line!
every family does christmas in their own way… your gifts, traditions or ideas may be different from ours and that is O K!
we do one gift of something they want (like a kindle or new phone or speakers or a piano)
and then “stockings”
and somewhere along the way… the actual stockings became gift bags.
lauren
annie
scott
talby
sean
and i got some beautiful gifts too from lots of lovely people in my life.
🙂
i felt quite spoiled.
this year my kids hit a new phase in their sibling life.
they EACH picked meaningful things for each other.
ALL of them.
i was so proud to watch them open gifts from each other… and see their faces when the brother or sister liked it.
that’s the good stuff.
and you guys!!!
my mailbox has been BURSTING with christmas cards from YOU!
i read every one of them and announced the state (or country) when we opened them.
annie was my helper.
it was really sweet and i appreciate all of them.
reading all your notes made me remember why i love blogging.
and refreshed to keep going.
t h a n k y o u.
Rachel -I have the Nikon version of that lens and love it. It is making shooting our renovation so much easier! Glad you are having so much fun with it.
Juli -Meg, where did you find the afghan laying across your chair/couch? The colors are fabulous. Please don’t tell me it is vintage. The vintage ones I find are never that pretty! Thank you!
Kristine -I sent a card but no note! Yikes. I’m qtsmom on Instagram! It was the rejoice card with two teenage boys- The Clines!
Duh! I was just so giddy about sending a card to my fave blogger!
On another note, the look on your face looking at Annie and Olaf…so hilarious!
Thanks for sharing your family Christmas traditions!
Happy New Year!
Tabitha -Fantastic gifts! Can you tell me where you got Talby’s “Love” shirt? It’s awesome!
jennibell-You are such a FUN mom — yea! You truly inspire me to be “better” (more available, more fun) and your blog helps with the ideas because they just don’t come to me easily/naturally.
Happy 2015 Meg!
Andrea @ This Pug Life-Fly Away Home was one of my favorite movies – brings back memories!
Kelsey -Another request for the horse (unicorn?) hat source! I love it and Googled to no avail last night.
Amy -It looks like a great Christmas! Gingerbread houses are such a fun tradition. 🙂 Blessings to you and your sweet family in the New Year!
Library Momma -Meg! Lovely ideas. When did you start doing gifts this way? This is very enticing to me as we are trying to teach our young children life is family, experiences, traditions, not “stuff.” Santa is till alive and well in our house so this is slightly a delicate balance.
Amber -It looks like you had a lovely Christmas! I’m curious how you handle gifts between siblings. I’m preggo with my fourth and I’m just not sure how to handle it. My kids are too young to have the kind of money to purchase gifts on their own. It’s a struggle I have right now to keep a handle on how much we spend and yet teach them to enjoy giving as much (or more) than getting. I. Not really sure they can make each other something yet either. Or maybe a scribbled picture is enough? I’d love your two cents. Happy New Year!
Janine -Gorgeous piano. PLEASE do not paint it! I know you love painting everything but give restoring the wood a try. A simple first step is to clean it with Murphy’s oil soap and then make your own mixture of equal parts lemon juice and olive oil and polish it up. You will be amazed at how gorgeous the wood looks after that. And if it still looks worn out after that, then resort to paint *shudder*!!
Katherine -I, too, want to know where to find a hat like Annie’s!
Gevay -Happy New Year!
Dawn -Funny how stocking gifts can get away from you. Stocking shopping is the most fun. It looks like you had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!
Meredith -Hi Meg! Happy New Year’s Eve! Could you please tell me where you found Talby’s ‘be awesome today’ sign? Thanks!
Lori -I’m happy you got so many cards and had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New Year to you!
Amy-It looks like your family knows you well! Where did you find Annie’s horse hat? My daughter bought her own horse this year and would flip for that hat!
Tiffany -Loving the Ping Pong Tabletop, such a good idea for indoor fun that helps you get off your bum.
mary-bravo on how you do your presents!
i think that is how it should be done, my mom tried that way
years ago and some very spoiled siblings had an all out fit
and yes after they were in their 20’s.
happy new year to you and your whole family meg!
jamie -LOVE THIS! i need to add so many things to my amazon wish list! and can we talk about the {annie} soundtrack? i love it!
every year craig’s side of our family has a fondue night at christmas.
like… craig’s WHOLE life.
kind of a fun traditional that i am glad they still keep up.
several people on IG asked for more information so they could do this with their family.
i will try my best to help you out.
it’s not really MY thing so i may miss some details.
we usually host which means i make sure my house is clean and there is space for every one.
then the other family members bring the food and set it up.
there is usually one pot of oil and one pot of broth to cook meat.
we have steak & chicken cut into small pieces & shrimp every year.
occasionally there have been chicken nuggets or meatballs too.
then bbq sauce, ketchup, cocktail sauce, A1 and…. i can’t recall what other sauces.
i think you could have any sauce you wanted.
there is always a cheese fondue. this recipe would work fine or something like it.
we dip bread and veggies into the cheese.
someone cuts the bread into cubes with an electric knife.
this is the place i have a hard time staying away from.
melty cheese and bread.
YUM.
someone makes a caramel dip and a chocolate dip for fruit, marshmallows and angel food cake.
(this is the kids favorite area)
and then everyone brings their christmas snacks from home too like muddy buddies and sugar cookies.
this year i didn’t bake ONE single thing so i purchased cream puffs and eclairs from the freezer aisle.
it counts for something. 🙂
We have all kinds of ways to make this work.
we have an Oster Fondue Pot that gets used every year…varies what is in it though depending on the needs.
the cheese dip was in a ceramic dish on a Hot Plate.
it works!
we have LOTS of Fondue Forks to keep track of which food is yours.
although some people still like to steal your meat if you don’t get to it quick enough.
You want to make sure that cords are out of reach from children to avoid burns… obviously.
we have even taped down cords in the past before we had an island with electrical outlets.
safety first for all of your guests.
do you have more questions?
do you have suggestions for us – something that your family does differently?
what kind of food do you see missing?
let’s hear it!
Sue Linse -We also do Fondue every Christmas day. Have tried to do it at the table, but too many people so I want to try the island idea. For meat sauces, we also have honey mustard, horseradish sauce and teriyaki. For the chocolate fondue, we include maraschino cherries, pound cake and clementine oranges. Fun tradition.
Amanda - Small Home Big Start-So much fun!! We do cheese fondue every couple of years for my brother and sister’s birthdays in December. My fav things to dip in it are bread (obviously), sliced apples and blanched broccoli. The leftover cheese is great cooled in the fridge and then grated over steamed broccoli and cauliflower as a gratin. This is the recipe we use: http://smallhomebigstart.com/2012/02/cheese-fondue.html
Kimberlee Jost -I love this so much. It makes me want all of my cousins to live near me so that I could gather them up for a party like this. Hmmm…maybe I’m going to have to adopt some people. I think I know who and it involves Circles. 🙂
Rebekah -Meg, you needs tripod so that you can take pictures and actually be in the picture and not just show your face at a weird angle!!
Jennifer Andersen-A chocolate fountain would totally fit in there. Love the whole idea. Well done.
Amanda -Our family loves fondue too. It’s the time and conversations that you have that make it such a nice option to a regular meal. We like to end our meal with a round tube of refrigerated biscuits. Take one biscuit and place an unwrapped Hershey kiss and wrap/roll the uncooked biscuit dough around it. Then cook it in the oil fondue (no fork required just drop carefully to not get burned by oil). When done, it is like a doughnut with melted chocolate in the middle. Roll it in powdered sugar or regular sugar. Yummy!
lisa -What a FUN tradition!! All of those choices sound super yummy. My one thing is how do you make sure that the meat is cooked through!!? & that no one eats undercooked chicken? My under-cooked & raw-chicken-sitting-out-at-room-temp-too-long anxiety wants to know!! {sigh – lol!!}
Tiffany -Traditions, big and small, are such a sweet way to bring family together. Thanks for sharing this one.
Michelle -i have zero experience with fondue so please forgive my ignorance. Does having to cook the meat cause a big hold up in the movement of the supper line? Also is the meat seasoned with any salt or other seasoning before it’s cooked? this seems like a really fun idea, just trying to wrap my head around the full concept. Thanks!
vanessa schroeder -My family used to do this but sitting around the table. If your piece of food you dipped into the pot fell off the stick we had to give the family member on our right a kiss on the cheek! Sometimes we got Grandma & Grandpa to approve hugs as the cousins got older!
Kelly-We got SMART this year after learning from a chaotic celebration last year and since a bunch of family lives in town we split up the “kid present night” from the “grown up present night”. We got a baby-sitter and my mom treated us to million dollar spaghetti, a terrific salad, rolls, etc. and caramel fondue for dessert. We used to do that a lot as teenagers in our house but hadn’t had the fondue in ages. I thought the cream puffs in your photo were one of our favorite dippers at first – the toasted coconut covered marshmallows! Super yummy! I know it is over the top but I also like brownies dipped in fondue. Angel food cake is probably my favorite though so yay for that! Fun tradition! Kelly
Emily -Thank you so much for sharing this family tradition. I’m always looking for fun things to do with extended family when they come to my house to visit. What a great memory to create. I will be looking up those woks and crock pots. Thank you for all the info!
chrissi -we were just talking about having a fondue party. your party looks like so much fun. reminds me of growing up with lots of cousins and kitchen chaos. the best kind of memories.
Julie-Yum – my first and only cheese fondue was tried in Switzerland many years ago. Such a fun way to eat. I have to ask though, what is a muddy buddie?
Janel -I love love to do Fondue… Another fun alternative
is using a Raclette Pan. You can even find Raclette cheese for this very purpose. You basically grill thinly sliced potatoes on top and underneath the grill you melt your cheese in single serving pans. When the potatoes are cooked and cheese melted, you plate your potatoes and pour melted cheese over top and eat. Repeat repeat repeat…
I have done thinly cut meats and veggies to change
It up. What I haven’t done yet is fruit..I think that would be fun!
I purchased my Raclette pan on amazon
And googled my way thru for the best outcome.
i was asked by Unilever & SheKnows Hatch to share some words about hunger in our communities. i watched their videos and looked through their websites and i was immediately aware of how uninvolved my family was.
please watch:
i have so many intentions of helping but life is busy.
i have a busy family life… my husband and i both work… our kids are in activities everyday… we have so many things to do…. does this sound familiar?
as i watched those videos or stop & think for just five minutes about hunger in my community, it breaks my heart.
no matter how “busy” i am i know that i need to take action… and so do you.
but WHERE do we start? WHO do we ask? WHAT is the need?
i started simple.
i texted my friends….”hey… i am writing a post about local hunger/poverty, ways to help out, getting involved and talking to our children about those issues… any suggestions?”
i loved hearing their thoughts!
they had all kinds of suggestions of kindness that weren’t just hunger focused:
– run in a race that supports a good cause
– donate to the Angel Tree throughout the Salvation Army at christmas
– pay for the family behind you at the drive through
– join an organization called Circles, USA
– bring a dish to a community meal
– volunteer at a homeless shelter
– have a simple meal of rice & donate the money you would’ve spent on your meal to a food bank.
– leave a treat for your mail man
– visit elderly neighbors
– talk to the new kids at school
– invite people over who may not have a place for the holidays
– “adopt a family” for the holidays by giving a meal or gifts
– donate food and gifts to your community center
– donate to the food bank (food or money)
– volunteer at the food bank
– join meals on wheels
– volunteer or donate to your local clothes closet
– call the local schools and ask how to help
doesn’t that list just get you excited?!!
i had never been to our county food bank.
and i will be honest… i just never put much thought into it.
i didn’t even know where it was.
i called and asked all kinds of questions.
and the bottom line of our conversation was “just do something”
so we did.
i talked with annie about what a food bank was and why we have one.
i asked her to come shopping with me for items we could donate.
we talked about what it might be like to not have any food or enough food for a thanksgiving dinner.
But then we decided to get foods that someone could make a thanksgiving meal with.
i had her write a list for the store. 🙂
we also added other items that seemed like a good idea not thanksgiving related.
we each got a cart and i let her do all the shopping for her list.
annie mentioned several times “this one is on sale”.
i loved seeing her take notice of that.
we asked our store to bag her groceries separately and
then we drove it straight from the store over to the food bank.
it was easy.
but you don’t have to shop! You can donate food right out of your own pantry.
my encouragement to you is: just do something!
Call the organizations in your community and say “what do you need and how can i help”
go to the Project Sunlight website to learn about all of these options.
About SheKnows’ Hatch, the Hatch Hunger Project and Unilever Project Sunlight:
SheKnows’ Hatch teamed with Unilever Project Sunlight to help families build awareness and take action around child hunger in America. The facts are startling: 16 million kids living in the United States don’t know where their next meal is coming from. That equates to one in every five children – enough to fill 18,000 school buses and 223 football stadiums. On average, those who live in food-insecure households have only $36.50 to spend on groceries every week. That means that 80 percent of children may not understand the everyday struggle their peers – many of whom could be their own friends or neighbors – confront when there’s not enough food on the table. The Hatch Hunger and Project Sunlight video and workshop aims to create empathy by showing kids what it means to shop for healthy, filling meals for an entire week on a thrifty budget. It teaches important math and teamwork skills. Finally, it is about action, empowering kids to have a positive impact on their community to Share A Meal with a family in need and donating food and canned goods to local food banks.
will you share with me ways that YOU are already involved in your communities?
i would LOVE more ideas of ways to help!
every little thing adds up to a lot of BIG things when we are stepping up in kindness.
patty -I am a 4-H leader. About 10 years ago our State 4-H project was called Massachusetts 4-H cares about the community – and we were charged with doing something to donate food to a food bank. Some clubs fundraised, put tubs to collect food at local grocery stores. Our club (the kids) raised money during the year and chose to spend $500 doing something, so we decided lets just split up the money and take the kids shopping.
This is our clubs FAVORITE field trip each year. No one misses it, even on a busy Thursday night. We give each kid $30-$50 dollars in an envelope, and send them off in groups of 2-4, and tell them to purchase things that if their family had to go to the food bank, they would want to choose.
It is FASCINATING to see how they arrive at what to buy. Some groups use a calculator to budget and buy store brand. Some buy healthy food. Some buy Starbucks coffee and cheese doodles because even at a food pantry there should be some specials (the teens ; )). Afterwards we weigh it and divide it to be delivered to towns that our members come from — the go for pizza where we talk about how they chose things and methods of budgeting and shopping.
This year a family from our county lost their home to fire and were starting over so we chose to donate to filling their cupboards. The kids sent 496 lbs. of food to this family who then decided to split it with another family whose house burned down on the same night.
Sorry for being so wordy, but honestly this is the most fulfilling community service project — it is so REAL to the kids and shows them that helping someone else can be thoughtful, fulfilling and most of all a FUN thing to do with their friends and family for their community. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy holidays to you all ; )
Erin Ussery-Loved this post! Thank you for sharing about your trip to the food bank with Annie. It’s so cool when our kids get into giving back!
Our church Life Group was challenged to complete a service project in the Spring. We spoke to a local school social worker who pointed us in the direction of school uniforms. In our town, the public schools have uniforms (basic pants and different colored shirts for each school), which is great! When you can afford them. So we hosted a two week fundraising drive and raised enough for 244 shirts, 170 pairs of shorts and over 50 packs of underwear! So in the summer we decided to file as a nonprofit in our state and go BIG. We named our group Lowcountry Dress for Success. This Fall we completed our second drive which raised $16,549 in THREE WEEKS! How it works: People donate online or by check in the mail (the Flinstone method), we partner with local social workers in the school who tell us what sizes and colors they want, we order it, pay for it, and deliver them to the schools for the social workers to deliver them as they see fit. God has provided in amazing ways! It has been awesome to see our community come together to take care of its own. We started our third drive this week called the HO-HO-HOodie Campaign. $15 purchases a full zip fleece hoodie that adheres to the school dress code and will keep a child warm this Winter. Feel free to read more about it at http://www.lowcountrydressforsuccess.com
Can’t wait to read about what others are doing! This is awesome!
stacey -We volunteer at a local toy drive where parents come get toys for their kids because they cannot afford to buy presents for them. The toys are donated and all new.
Kathleen W. -My kids and I just went and helped to fill bags with food for our schools backpack program, Falcon Pack. It was a great experience for my kids to realize that not everyone has enough food to eat over the weekend and that these backpacks provide meals on the days kids aren’t at school. We plan to go and help again. On another note, my son’s Cub Scout pack is having a baked goods auction next week. The scout families donate baked goods, auctioneers volunteer their time and we raise money for the elementary schools “Warm and Fuzzy Fund”. The money helps families in our school to provide Christmas for their kids. Great post Meg !
Michelle -I take $20 from every paycheck and shop for my community food pantry. I alternate food one week, toiletries the next week.
Call and ask your food pantry exactly what they need. Mine has enough peanut butter and dried pasta to last through the apocalypse, but is always in need of paper towels and toilet paper (things you can’t buy with SNAP). Paper towels may sound like an unnecessary luxury, but when you have to choose between buying food or doing your laundry at a laundromat, not having to wash kitchen towels or cleaning rags can mean one less load of laundry and a little more food in the shopping cart.
kare-I lead a guild which makes blankets for pediatric hospital patients called “Katie’s Comforters Guild” at Seattle Children’s Hospital. We don’t raise funds; we raise new quilts and blankets, made of new cotton, fleece or yarn, to bring comfort to patients. We support pediatric cancer research through the Katie Gerstenberger Endowment, whose funds support the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and The Ben Towne Foundation. We are #strongagainstcancer (with Russell Wilson, as you may have seen during half-time of the Seahawks’ game on Thanksgiving day)! Thank you for asking, Meg! Blessings to you!
jodi-our church partners with the Salvation Army or other local food bank every year to do a Thanksgiving turkey drive, and sometimes at other times throughout the year we help stock a food pantry as well.
Our kids go to Awana at a church just down the road from where we live, and my favorite is that they ask the kids several times a year to bring cans and/or peanut butter to help stock their food pantry. Because they’re directly asking and talking to the kids about it, it really helps get them involved and gives us things to talk about. I love it!
molly-my church is very involved in fighting hunger in our community and the surrounding area. we have sack sunday every month were we are urged to bring in a sack of food items to donate to our local food pantry. we also have an agape garden where an amazing amount of produce is grown to be given to the food bank. it is just amazing to see what they grow and give away. and finally one of the most touching programs is called backpack buddies. during the week bags of food items are packed and then on fridays are delivered into the backpacks of children who would likely go without meals over the weekend. it is an amazing program that gets food into the hands of children who really need it.
colleen-Annual pre-thanksgiving competition at my kids middle school- each class brought in a specific type of canned food or nonperishable item to make a whole celebratory meal when put together -then the teacher made it interesting by offering country cow (a local deli) egg sandwiches for breakfast for the whole class if their class brought in the highest number of food items, My daughter’s class won and she alone donated 14 cans of peas which we also shopped for together- can only imagine what the total number of cans from her homeroom was!
Ginny -This is such a great blog post and real tangible ideas for people to do and ways for kids to get involved. I just love it!
Amanda -This is awesome!
jeannie -Our family did the same last year at Thanksgiving and made the decision to also volunteer once a month. Even someone as young as Annie is able to help at our local food bank, and your bunch would fill a whole shift. I enjoyed this post. I agree it is hard to fit in more commitments, but this once a month commitment is always positive and always a win-win. My kids enjoy working with the clients that come in and definitely enjoy helping in a personal way! May your Christmas be merry, but especially blessed!
JL -Our small Jr/Sr High School holds a “Can the Teacher” event on the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. The students bring canned goods and other items…the school weighs the items and for every so many pounds donated, a teacher’s door is “canned”, meaning they can’t teach that day. As you can imagine, the students get really involved and gather enough items that they’ve succeeded in “canning” all the teachers the last several years. Since it’s a day they probably wouldn’t do much anyway…it’s a win-win!!
Stephanie -We always give to the Post Office’s food drive when they ask. I agree with you that we could do more. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in my own big family that I forget to minister to others more than I do. One thing I LOVE that our small town does is a community garden. That is such a productive way to feed people. It’s the “teach a man to fish” concept.
Kelly -and that’s why I adore you… You make me want to be creative, but you also give us thoughts on a creative heart too. I just looked up a number to a lcoal church that has a food bank and going to contact them on what I can do to help out. Hugs to you~Kelly
Sarah-Our community has a project called Packing Friendship. This started when a teacher sent a grocery bag home with a student for food over the weekend. Otherwise, they would not have had food outside of school. Now, I think they send out a couple hundred bags of food on the weekends. Numerous local churches collect specific foods that can be used. Pretty awesome.
JulianneB -Thanks for sharing. The video is so good. My 10 year old daughter and I have had a lot of discussions about this lately. This week her school is collecting food to give to 116 children in her own school. They are collecting specifically so they can have food over Christmas break to eat. Before we moved to a different town, we used to help with Blessings in a Backpack. I always want her to be aware of the needs around her.
Gevay -It’s so easy to think of this as a problem that is far away, but it’s right here in our own communities. My boys and I volunteered at a local food bank before Thanksgiving, sorting their donations with our home-school group. My older son has chosen to give his “something you need” gift during our advent celebration to Feeding America. My younger son chose Blood Water.
Michelle -Doesn’t have to be big to make an impact….if you haven’t seen it, check out Matthew West’s song “Do Something”. They showed it at our church last weekend and it was pretty awesome!
our family is kind of crazy for movies.
we always have been.
i have loved to watch movies since i saw my very first one…. ET.
i have told craig “movies are my love language”
i love escaping into a movie.
one of my favorite places is a dark theater… two hours with nothing to do but be entertained.
i have even started going to movies by myself because i just want to see one and i have the time.
my plane ride to and from africa had personal tv screens in the seat backs with 100s of new movies to choose from and i thought it was absolutely fabulous! 10 hours with nothing to do but watch movies. i was SO HAPPY.
every year in my kids stockings i add new dvds.
we have a pretty big collection of dvds.
i asked them which were the ones they liked the most out of our choices.
the list was long.
so… maybe this will help you with stocking stuffers?
or an idea for a movie night?
i didn’t add any big Disney movie because we all know about those.
Frozen, Tangled, Toy Story… yada, yada, yada – they are all awesome and everyone knows that.
these are other movies, some new and some old and we let our kids watch these.
maybe you wouldn’t… but you get that choice of course. 🙂
I’m pretty sure that at least 90% of these movies are under $10 too.
my kids are older… these movies are mostly for that next stage after animated movies.
probably the most bad language is in the Goonies… 80’s movies are dumb like that.
but it’s the goonies!!
i had to put it on the list.
what is your favorite family movie?
what did we forget?
is there a movie i need to know about?
Jenny Mullins -I love this list! I feel like my family 11 year old boy and 9 year old girl would enjoy movie nights at your house! We love fairy tales. So here are two movies we recommend Ever After – A Cinderella Story with Drew Barrymore and Mirror Mirror with Julia Roberts.
I also love Little Women with Winona Ryder or any version of this story at Christmas time.
So really I have 3 recommendations.
Thank you for this list, there are few we haven’t seen and I know we will enjoy soon!
Jenn -The Great Outdoors! My whole family loves that movie 🙂
Rachel B. -Apollo 13—my 7 year old and 4 year old love it!
Stephanie -Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken. Disney made it and it is based on a true story about a “diving girl” (diving horses off of a pier in Atlantic City) in the 1940’s. Fabulous family movie. Buy it! Watch it! You’ll love it!
Michelle Whitlow-So many of those are our favorites, too! Goonies, ET, Back to the Future, Matilda…etc. In fact, we went to see the Goonies house in August when we were in OR 🙂 I’m getting my son The Last Starfighter & my oldest daughter Quarterback Princess (I probably haven’t seen that one since the 80s!). We’re big movie fans in our house, too! And Guardians of the Galaxy will be making it’s way to our home this month as well!
Sarah-Life has been dreary lately with some teenager drama going on.
I love looking at your blog, with ALL the fabulous color combinations! It helps to brighten my days.
Anyway I just had to tell you how excited I am to start a new quilting project with rainbow colors! When I cut the fabric strips and made a nice pile, it reminded me of your rainbow of colors on your blog.
Thanks.
Brook -My oldest daughter and nieces love The Labyrinth with David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.
Tanya -ET was my first movie too 😀 I wanted yarn bows in my hair like Gertie. 😉
We L.O.V.E Annie at this house and I just introduced the kiddos to the original Parent Trap this weekend. My mom intro’d us to all of the musicals really young and I plan to do the same thing.
Can’t go wrong with Goonies!!
Tina J -Great List!! Daddy Daycare, Dr. Doolittle, Adventures in Babysitting, the American Girl Movies!
Erin -Thank you for this post. I’m bookmarking it. My kids are 13, 11, 8, and 4. We are always looking for movie ideas (especially for the older 3). I had forgotten about a lot of these!
Jenn -My 13 year old daughter and I just watched Walter Mitty and LOVED it!
Have you seen “The Mighty Macs”? One of my favorites.
Debi Meyers-AND … “Little Women” with Winona Ryder, Claire Danes… the Christmas opening is my favorite 🙂
Karen in NYC -Hi Meg, it’s Karen in NYC.
That’s so funny about Walter Mitty. I saw it in the theaters last year with 16-year-old Ross, and we loved it but felt like we were the only people in the world who saw it.
Your list is great. You and your family would also love these:
Must-See Adventure:
Star Wars (The original from 1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1960s and 1970s Fun:
Freaky Friday — the 1970s version starring Jodie Foster
The Parent Trap – the 1960s version starring Hayley Mills
80s Fun:
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which includes the swearing that so many 80’s movies have)
Big
Hilarious:
Airplane!
Top Musicals:
West Side Story
Sound of Music
Fiddler on the Roof
Comedies in Black and White:
Bringing Up Baby
Some Like it Hot
The Two Best Christmas Movies in Black and White:
Miracle on 34th Street (the old one starring Natalie Wood as a child)
It’s a Wonderful Life
I have a separate list of great movies to watch with teenagers, that I guess everybody but Annie is ready for.
Sarah -Thank you for this – perfect timing! The Chronicles of Narnia link takes me to the Goonies movie, but I could be doing something wrong. 🙂
Debi Meyers-great list, Meg… Secondhand Lions! Holes! Here Comes the Boom!
If you are a family that enjoys slower, noble, great tenderness against harsh realities: “The Book Thief”, and “The Straight Story” (know your kid. My son at 7 loved it. contemplative)
Musicals:
Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver Twist, Sound of Music, Cinderella (so fun…with Brandy & Whitney Houston)
Boys Adventure:
Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” with James Garner
Christmas:
“A Dog Named Christmas” Hallmark movie
“The Homecoming” (pilot for The Waltons series)
Slightly ‘scary’ movies:
so for older kids, but again, excellent themes.
“Lady In The Water”, “Signs”, and “The Village” (<— this has a bloody scene, but is one of our favorite love stories of all time, and AMAZING SOUNDTRACK).
all 3 have creatures lurking in the dark… jumpy, tense… 🙂
heidi e. -What a great list! And I love the idea of a dvd in their stocking! We just watched Cool Runnings, and it was hilarious! Now we run around asking each other ‘Sanka, ya dead?’… hahahaha
Stephanie -Oh! I LOVED Second Hand Lions. And laughed SO hard at Over the Hedge. Thank you for recommending Earth to Echo. Maybe we will do that for our next family night. I feel like we are running out of acceptable movies. One I loved when I was a teenager was The Journey of Natti Gann. I haven’t seen it since the early 90s, but I love a good adventure.
Rachel-Nacho Libre!!!!!!! 🙂 Mary Poppins!!!!
Great movies listed!
FLWendy -Funny how your list is full of what we have in our DVD library. What about adding some Studio Ghibli films? We have Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. All great films. My children loved them when they were young and still love them today (late teens, early 20’s).
Brittany-Great list!! Our kids love the Nanny McPhee movies!
Jenn-Father of the Bride 2 and Sister Act 2!!!! Apparently, we love sequels!
Jill-We are huge fans of Christmas movies…. so many! But one that few people seem to know about is “Prancer”. A beautiful movie! You should watch it!
Cathy Shealy -We like Robots (also with Robin Williams) RV, again with RW, You’ve Got Mail, Holiday, Christmas with the Kranks (we actually wore one of these out a few years back). Ratatouille
Heather S. -Our girls are 10 and 12 and we are all gaga here over the National Treasure movies (and desperately hoping they’d get done with number three soon). And yes – totally agree on the bad language with Goonies. We watched it with our girls a year or two ago and just thought, “seriously, what is up with all the bad words?” Such a classic, though!
Stacey -All of those and Secondhand Lions!
Peg Graham-Prancer, Fly Away Home, Little Women, While you were Sleeping…
Amy -It’s super old but my kids think The Court Jester with Danny Kaye is the funniest thing ever. Its free on Amazon Prime. They also love Surf’s Up.
Colleen -Hook is a great film (with thoughts of Robin Williams,) Akeelah and the Bee and Flyaway Home (for Annie)
Southern Gal-You’ve got a great list! We would add Secondhand Lions! Superhero movies especially Thor and Captain America; animated, The Croods, Over the Hedge; Christmas movies Elf and Home Alone.
Libby Herwig -Elf!!!!!!! The first Harry Potter also. We like the rest but they get quite dark.
Angela -These are great! Some are new to us. I would add Mrs. Doubtfire and Star Wars- the original trilogy.
Amy-We love Second Hand Lions and we recently watched Million Dollar Arm and it was great! Thanks for the list!
this.
Blue Lily sent us our photos.
and i absolutely LOVE them…. every single one.
wendy you are SO TALENTED!!!!!
and now i need to order some!!
Blue Lily has made their 2015 schedule.
its WORLDWIDE.
i think you should get on their schedule!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
family photos are such a gift… you never know when life is going to change.
they freeze time.
we will have that night – that hour – forever.
and it was a really good one. 🙂
Jeanie -Meg, you have a beautiful family! And I have to tell you – when I first looked at the pictures – I thought “where’s Meg?” You looked like one of the kids! How do you keep yourself so young – with so many kids, so many activities, schedules etc? I need your secret!
ellen patton-there’s a lot of love in these photos!
jen -Such great pictures! Thanks for sharing them.
Mindy-Beautiful photos done in perfect light. What a lovely family you have and great memories captured.
Kristin -Gorgeous pictures, with so much love shining out of them!
jaimie-beautiful! i love the poses, lighting and the outfit choices…you can tell from the pix what a lovely, tight-knit family you are! happy holidays!
iralee poore -these are simply amazing!!!! i love love love the lighting!!!
bethr -oh Meg, it was so fun to see all these beautiful photos of your family! The outfits, the light, the smiles and connection you 7 seem to share- all so touching!
Amy -LOVE!! You guys are gorgeous!!
Lori -Great pictures 🙂
Diana Yarborough -Beautiful family pictures! We need to do them like this one day!
On a totally different subject, is there a sewing machine you recommend? I really want to get one, but am obviously a beginner.
Leslie Humphrey-Absolutely beautiful – your family and the pictures. The love just oozes from each shot – thanks for sharing!
Stephanie -I have tears in my eyes for some reason. Good pictures do that. Your family is so beautiful and reminds me of my own in so many ways (we have seven kids). I love love love when big families are all captured in one shot–looking happy and in glowing light. You have quite a job picking one picture out!
martha -okay…so I’m just commenting to wish you luck picking your favorite picture! usually there is never a shot where everyone looks good and all of these do! ps. we don’t get a glimpse at your eldest daughter very often- she is just lovely! thank you for sharing your family with us!
Flower Patch Farmgirl-Stunning!!!
The one of the girls together…or you and the boys. Agh! Such pretty people. And the stripes were the right choice.
Kristin S-What perfect light. How did you capture so many great shots at that perfect light?
I love that last one.
Jenn -What stunning photos of your beautiful family! Just lovely! These are indeed true treasures that you will cherish and look back on for years to come. Many happy blessings to you and your family this holiday season. I am a thankful reader whose life is enriched by the inspiration you share. Thank you!
i was sitting down to write and looked over to this scene.
some would say “what a mess” and… it IS.
but look how pretty?!!
i couldn’t help but smile.
i sewed curtains for talby’s room last night with the turquoise fabric on the table (hobby lobby) so that is still out with the sewing machine.
new pillows coming to the shop… annie’s next project to go to class…. more zinnias from the craft house…newly painted mirror propped on the wall awaiting placement… and of course a bongo drum???
when messes are colorful it is easier to not worry too much about them.
we painted pumpkins on sunday night.
craig was sitting right beside us watching the Royals and we listened.
wood floors ROCK.
there was no worry about the paint at all!
it’s just craft paint.
i am sure they wouldn’t last if it was rainy but our porch is covered and there is no rain in the forecast.
talby REALLY wanted to make the melted crayon pumpkin we’ve seen around.
i will be honest… i tried to talk her out of it.
i am glad she was persistent.
it is AWESOME!
annie had to make one too…. because little sisters always want to do whatever their big sisters do. 🙂
we took the labels off the crayons using an exact0 knife.
then hot glued them into place.
we used a hair dryer on high and the whole thing was done in less than five minutes.
then monday night they each carved a pumpkin too.
i don’t care too much for this process so i let them do most of it on their own.
annie needed my help on the face and said “yeah mom… you’re an expert. you’ve been doing this on your own for like FIVE years now!”
HA!
five years? what a funny girl.
this has nothing to do with pumpkins… but when i look at this picture i think “you need to make this house more “YOU” Meg… cause this porch is NOT”
but then i get tired and think “CUTE PUMPKINS!”
do you have halloween costumes all done?
annie is the only one i feel like i need to worry about anymore.
the others are in charge of their own costumes.
they are old enough.
and they change their minds too much.
so i ordered something off amazon for annie… and it’s checked off the list.
Laura-Thank you for inspiring me to add more color in my life! 🙂
Heather -WHERE did you get those napkins?!? I love them. I kind of want to marry them.
Angela -I love the fabric for the curtains, so pretty! I don’t miss buying or dealing with costumes now that mine don’t trick or treat anymore, I am a bad mom. 😉 lol
Julie-The pumpkins look awesome, but I think the pick of the photos is the zinnias and fabric. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing them.
Aimee -I love your colorful pumpkins. When you painted pumpkins a couple years ago I loved it so much that my boys and I did it too. They had fun. We have costumes done. My youngest is going to be a slice of pepperoni pizza (from Target), my oldest is going to be a cheeseburger (from Amazon) and the dog is going to be a hot dog for the third year in a row. This is the first time the boys are doing a theme and it’s going to be awesome.
Su-love the polka dot pumpkin 🙂
and I HATE carving pumpkins. . that is a mess that is not pretty. I cannot touch that slime that comes out of a pumpkin. For many years, my dad came over and carved pumpkins with the kids which I was thankful.
Michelle -those are some of the happiest pumpkins I’ve ever seen! I’ll have to remember for next year 🙂
Angela -I love color just as much as the next person, but I have to say the white pumpkin that someone doodled all over is my favorite!
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that gets used every year…varies what is in it though depending on the needs.
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to keep track of which food is yours..jpg)
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Napoleon Dynamite
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Facing the Giants
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The Emperor’s New Groove
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this has nothing to do with pumpkins… but when i look at this picture i think “you need to make this house more “YOU” Meg… cause this porch is NOT”.jpg)
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Kellyn - just thank you. Thanks for being you!! that is all 😉
have a blessed craft weekend!
Lori - I never get tired of your beautiful photos!
Courtney - Those photos are soo great! It was the motivation I needed! I have to print mine out and take more in 2015! Time just slips by way too fast. Great documentation of your year! Congrats!
annette - great post – i think taking pictures really helps us remember where we have been… wondering where you got your ‘Jesus loves me’ t-shirt?
Sue Linse - Love the pictures Megan! (does anyone call you ‘Megan’ anymore?…or is it just Meg. Anyway – only comment – love any picture of Stanley – SO cute. And Annie is freaking Adorable – should be modeling for GAP or something. Miss you as always 🙂
jennibell - Wow. What a beautiful, reflective post. You are inspirational to so many Meg!!!
Kate @ Songs Kate Sang - So many beautiful smiles! And I can’t wait to watch your dreams unfold!
Melissa - Amen! Here’s to 2015
Carol S. - I like your photos and perspective. You’re one of my favorite bloggers…real…colorful…most important, faithful. My blogging schedule has been reduced to one a year, lol. I don’t know how you do it, but sure am glad you do. Jealous of all your adorable pics with hubby. My husband ducks when camera comes out!
Kimberlee Jost - I loved all of the pictures!
amy jupin - i share so many of these same thoughts and emotions, especially in the message i keep hearing from jesus.
“don’t be afraid. stretch, grow, follow your passions!”
i push it down again and again.
what does it possibly mean?
what if i blow it?
we need to follow his lead and fight for our dreams!
they are important. so, so important!
i am with you, friend.
i am for you too.
happy new year meg!
Tammy - Happy New Year! Thanks for always being such an inspiration Meg!
Amy - Cheers to 2015! I’ve loved following along with you here and on Instagram. Thanks for sharing your life with us!
Lisa - Well said! Here’s to 2015!