An Online Christmas Reading List

Our Homemade Advent Calendar, with bags with candy in them for each day of Advent.

I know I’ve been unusually quiet. God has been doing so much and teaching me so much that my brain and spirit are still processing all of it, in addition to recovering from bronchitis-that-just-wouldn’t-leave. I’m apparently a hospitable host. In the mean while, I wanted to share some fantastic blog posts and articles that others have shared with me, which I’ve enjoyed in the last few weeks or so. Many of these I’ve shared on Facebook too.

Not all of them are Christmas related, but it made the title sound better. Hee hee.

First off, my oldest dear daughter got me hooked on Pandora.com, whose “Christmas” channel is really fun. Click thumbs up for music you like, and thumbs down when it plays a song you don’t, and soon you’ll have a personally catered radio station.

When Christmas Gets Radical:Whose Birthday is it Anyway? by Ann Voskamp (A Holy Experience) is a fantastic post about Christmas and giving. I always love Ann’s gorgeous prose and encouraging way. Her book A Thousand Gifts blessed me earlier this year.

Have Yourself a Merry Thrift Store Christmas. Jamerill Stewart over at Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling has a really great ebook for FREE that is a blessing.You just have to subscribe. I was thinking of Jamerill the other day when we went to Sally’s Boutique (aka Salvation Army Store, as we call it) for a black blouse for dear daughter to wear for the church Cantata, and found several items in the Christmas section to bless others with (in addition to the black blouse). But as I walked through good ole Sally’s, all I could think of was, “All of this was once a Christmas decoration or a gift someone thought was a good idea….but never got used….” There were so many items that were still in their original packaging and with tags still on, including the black blouse.

A Simple Christmas at Money Saving Mom. Crystal at Money Saving Mom has some really good ideas in this post for simple Christmas craft ideas and teaching tools.

Amy at Raising Arrows has some really wonderful and FREE Christmas Listening Pages that should help you when occupying younger children in church meetings during this time of year. She also has a lot of other great articles.

The Advent Conspiracy has been a concept that has challenged me. It goes well with Ann’s post. It’s a whole website and not just as post, but there’s lots of good stuff on there.

Vinegar Tips…I know this one may look like “whihc one of these doesn’t belong” (~smile~) but as I continue to seek ways to save more and more money in our budget, I’ve been re-thinking our cleaning supplies. Jamerill at Holy Spirit Let Homeschooling first got me thinking about using vinegar with this post on Money Saving Laundry and Cleaning Tips. I’ve been using vinegar now for this entire month, and it’s been great. So clean!

Bless Friday is another one of those websites that I stumbled upon while trying to do something else. I have been out on black friday before, but it makes me sad. I love good deals but I didn’t love being around the ugly attitudes. So, this isn’t a criticism of Black Friday sales or any such thing. I think it’s great if you can get a deal without pepper spraying people right after Thanksgiving But this idea here, similar to the Advent Consipiracy,  thought was a good idea…unique…a way to reach out…People are SOOOO Open this time of year, but we need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives to open our mouths and extend our hands.

Simplifying the Toy Collection by Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking is another one I stumbled upon. I love this post, because I can relate to feeling overwhelmed by clutter. Clutter makes me nuts, but somehow I married a pack rat and over the last 20 years of marriage we’ve helped each other not be so extreme . My kids are older now, and as most of you know, we’re losing our home, so we’ve taken the time between now and eviction to declutter in a huge way. (I’ve been doing a lot of that too by the way)… kids need toys and kids need clothes, but after a while it seemed like we had way too much of both, mostly graciously given to us. And, there were those around us less fortunate who we could bless, especially with our kids being older and not so into “toys” per se anymore. Lindsay gives some tips for controlling the toy clutter, and there are many more tips found in the comments section below the article shared by readers.

Why Does the World Hate the Duggars? at Get Along Home….there’s been a lot of anger unleashed about the announcement of the Duggar’s 20th child on the way. Cindy shares why the world seems to respond with such anger at the Duggars.

Open Letter to Suze Orman by Smockity Frocks is about the topic of “can we afford a second baby”. So many people think that having children is a huge expense, and they roll out some random number they heard on the news. Thankfully that isn’t the case.