Plant the Seeds and Watch Them Grow

Emma has been the most excited of all the kids about growing her money seeds. Hers are doing the best, too. Her enthusiasm must be contagious, and her seeds have caught it. She has a nice seedling started and lots of little bitty seedlings.

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She watered all the pots at first. Then the others complained that she was doing it, so I made her stop.

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So she only watered hers, but the others didn’t water theirs, so now she has the best start. The others are starting to see some green seedlings, too.

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I reminded them today that these growing seeds remind them that their money is growing in the bank, too.

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They have tried to figure out how much 1% is, but it’s not all that encouraging, so I keep telling them they can add more money to their savings account, and it will grow more.

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They have been looking for things to do around the house, but they are choosing prizes from the treasure box instead of earning money right now. So their savings accounts might not grow too fast until the treasure box is emptied out!

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Garrett’s (and Katie’s) Space Story

My name is Garrett
And I WANT TO GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Three days in the darkness of space
and no rest stops!!!

I wanted off this rocket
before I got on!

I’m from Texas…
Call my Mom!

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Garrett’s assignment in his Phonics book was to use as many words as he could from a word box on the page and write a story. They wanted him to write something about walking on the moon, but he and Katie had other ideas.

Belated Birthday Party and Growing Money Trees

We had a birthday party for Shawn. His birthday is Jan. 5. We had his party on Feb. 19. We also celebrated Kelsey’s birthday at the same time. Her birthday was July 20, but on her birthday we had just moved here and none of us liked this house or neighborhood (too crowded!), so she wanted to wait until we moved to celebrate her birthday. It turns out that we have had to stay here for now, so I didn’t want to wait any longer or we might never get to celebrate them, so we just went ahead and celebrated Kelsey’s and Shawn’s Birthdays in February.

We have been well-provided for by the Lord, even though Gary still doesn’t have a job. So I felt like we could go ahead and throw a nice party for them now. I’m typing this on March 4th. We have been without an income since November 27th, 2012. It has been over 3 months. God has supernaturally provided for us over and over again! Praise the Lord!

Here are some pictures and a video of our birthday party in the Twilight Zone:

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Our bank has started a program called Sprouts to encourage children to save. They offer savings accounts for children that pay 1% interest so that kids can see their money grow. To reinforce the idea of their money growing, they give the children green dollar signs that have wildflower seeds embedded in them. The children plant the money sign, and little plants grow up, and they see signs that remind them that their money is growing in the bank, too. So we started savings accounts for 7 of the kids and planted their dollar signs in pretty little pots that I found at Dollar Tree! Appropriate, huh? I just made that connection as I was typing this. Well, they are pretty excited. I’ve had to keep Emma and Abby from playing with their dirt, but after a couple of days, we do have some sprouts growing. Emma’s has a nice-looking little plant growing in it now. I will be showing more pictures of them as they progress. Here’s the whole gang with their new flower pots:

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