Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!




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Sunday, November 20, 2016

Living Like a Saint~ Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque


"My Divine Heart so ardently loves men that, unable to contain within itself any longer the flames of its burning love, it needs must spread them with your assistance, and thus it will show itself that all men may be enriched with it most precious treasures."

~Words spoken by Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

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Thursday, November 17, 2016

Traveling Thursdays~ A Search for Garfield




Like most children of the 1980's, my sister and I were huge fans of Garfield. We had stuffed animals, posters, pajamas, cups, and t-shirts.
Garfield, the famous cat cartoon, was created by Jim Davis. Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana.
While driving west, we stumbled upon Grant County, Indiana. As we were driving,  the kids saw a Garfield statue. This would be one of many we would see.


Grant County, Indiana actually has a Garfield Trail. 
You can download a map to follow and find all 12 of them. 



Paws for Thought Garfield
Scream for Ice Cream Garfield
Along the Lazy River Garfield
A Worldly Cat Garfield
Firefighter Garfield
Basketball Player Garfield
The Cool Cat Garfield (James Dean)
Golfing Garfield
The Big Boom Garfield
Doctor Garfield
Rails to Trails Garfield
Speed King Garfield



This was a fun scavenger hunt to do. It definitely broke up the long hours driving in the car for the kids. We found about half of the Garfield statues. 
While searching, I definitely suggest stopping by Ivanhoe's Restaurant. 
They have delicious ice cream. 
They offer over 100 milkshake and 100 sundaes!


If you need to get out and stretch your legs for a bit. There is a beautiful garden in Marion, Indiania. It's is absolutely breath taking It's called The Gardens in Matter Park. It reminded me of te English gardens in London. I wish we had a garden back here at home. 
Sadly, I completely forgot to take my camera with us.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wordless Wednesday~ Fall






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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

TOS Review~ Commissioned from Chara Games

Board Game

Does your family enjoy playing games and spending time together? Our family loves playing board games. We try to have at least one night a week that is game night. I will admit that there are some weeks this doesn't happen. We get too busy. Even when times get too busy, I always keep my eye out for fun new games to add to our collection. We were thrilled to add the game Commissioned from Chara Games to our collection.


History

Chara Games is a Christian company started by Patrick and Katherine Lysaght. The company was started to offer families creative and fun games with a Christian theme. Chara is the biblical Greek word for unshakable joy. Chara Games want to help families find joy with each other while building those special relationships that grow when families spend quality time together. What better way to spend time together than to play a fun board game. Of course, building a close relationship with God will fill us with so much joy. A family that plays and prays together stays together.


Bible History Game

So What is Commissioned?

For this review, we received the historical and biblical themed game Commissioned from Chara Games. Commissioned is the first game available from this wonderful company. You can purchase the game through amazon or at your local store! The game costs $44.00 and already has 5 stars on Amazon. They now have the game 3 Seed available too.

History


The game is a cooperative strategy board game that 2-6 players can play. It takes about one hour to play. The first couple of times the game is played will take a bit longer as you try to figure out what you are doing. Be sure to watch the instructional video online. Commissioned is recommend for ages 14 and up. Both my kids are under fourteen, they are 11 and 13. The did fine with the game once we understood what we were doing.

The game comes with the following pieces.....

1 Double Sided Game Board
5 Double Sided Scenario Cards
6 Apostle Player Boards
6 Wooden Player Pawns
96 Faith Cards
27 Trial Cards
4 Wood Missionary Meeples
75 Wood Church Member Cubes
1 Wood Elder Staff
30 Double Sided Stop Tokens
5 Double Sided Extinguished Tokens
1 Converted City Leaders Token 
1 Roman Legion Token
1 Die
1 Rule Book
1 Theme Appendix Book


As players play the game Commissioned, they will be placed into the roles of the early Christians, the Apostles. Players will travel back in time 150 years. Players have to work together to build their faith decks, grow the early Christian church, collect the books of the New Testament, and overcome the trials and persecution the early Christians had to face.

So How Do You Play?

First off, this game it not very easy to understand when you first start playing. It has a lot of components that take some time to get a hang of. After reading the instructions, I will admit I was lost. Thankfully, there is an instructional video to watch. 
Since the game is a cooperative game, players must work together. This is a little different from most games. Usually in games players are trying to win and beat their opponent. With Commissioned, players are learning to work together! This is great for working on teamwork and cooperation. The game is a little tricky to explain, but I'll try m best to briefly describe it. 
The game is played in three rounds...Arm, Live, and Mature. 

Christian


~Arm Round~
Players draw 6 faith cards to play with during the game

~Live~
This round has 5 actions
Trials
Pray
Share
Move 
Grow

~Mature~
After completing the 5 actions during the Live round players use their faith cards to get more faith cards.

This may seem a little confusing, but if you watch the video it will all make since. I promise!

The first thing players do when they start playing is to choose a scenario card. This will determine what side of the board players will be using during the games. They do make recommendations for new players. Players then become one of the Apostles. 

Strategy Game


Players can choose from Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, Thomas, or Barnabas. Each Apostle has their own board, pawn piece, and faith cards. Once these things have been decided, players will start going through the rounds I mentioned above.


Strategy History Board Game

What Did We Think of Commissioned?

The game is extremely well made. The boards are thick and sturdy. They definitely seem like they would last a long time. The game is colorful and the drawings are very well done. 
My biggest issue with the game is learning to play. It's very confusing. I didn't find the directions very helpful. I actually found them very confusing to follow. When I started reading the directions and trying to play with the kids, we all became a little frustrated. The kids were more so and were ready to quit within a few minutes. Thankfully, Chara Games has a video online that shows you how to play. It explains the game and makes it easy for players to understand what is expected. I highly recommend watching the video! I would suggest watching it and figuring out how to play before bringing the kids into the equation. Less stress for mom and the kids. 
The first few rounds take longer than an hour. I'd say the first 4 times we played, no one was really enjoying it. I will say that Therese and I are not big fans of strategy games, so we may not be the best people to ask. However, by the 6th time playing everyone was getting the hang of it and was starting to have some fun. 
If you have a strategy game lover in your family, they will thoroughly enjoy Commissioned from Chara Games. If you are not a fan of strategy games, this might not be as much fun for you. Out of all of us, Michael enjoyed the game the most. He loves these types of games. Therese didn't find the game all that exciting. 

Just in time for Christmas, Chara Games has a new game available for families to play. 


The new game is called 3 Seeds. 3 Seeds is a strategic card Christian theme game. The game is for 2-5 players and play lasts in between 30-45 minutes. Players use the 3 seed cards (time, money, & labor) to complete crops, use special event cards to earn bonuses, and find hidden harvest cards. Players need to remember that it's not just what you sow, but where you sow. 



Some of the crew review members will be reviewing, so be sure to stop by and see how much they've enjoyed this new Christian game from Chara Games.


Find out more about Chara Games.....



Want to see what other families thought of Commissioned?
Click the link below and read the reviews!

Commissioned {Chara Games}
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Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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Sunday, November 13, 2016

Living Like a Saint~ Saint Martin de Tours


Prayer to Saint Martin de Tours

Blessed Saint, You were born under pagan ways but since your childhood you were chosen to be a Prince of the Church, and as Bishop of Tours, many souls were redeemed and liberated from the satanic forces through your prayers, austerities, and blessings.

We humbly ask for your intercession before Our Lord Jesus Christ because we want to be worthy of the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit that lead us from darkness to light into the eternal kingdom, forever and ever.
Amen.




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Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you

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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Traveling Thursdays~ Our Cross Country Vacation




This past September, we went on a 3 week cross country vacation. 
Three weeks in a car!
We left the east coast and headed west to Yellowstone National Park. 
We traveled almost 6,000 miles! 
We just missed  the 6,000 mile mark by about 34 miles. 



So we........

traveled for 21 days
drove 5,966 miles
 and went through 17 states!

Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, 
Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, 
Wyoming, Nebraska, 
and Iowa.



That's a whole lot of time in the car......
It's way too much time in a small car!

So how did I help the kids pass the time when driving for hours?
A variety of ways!

We packed travel games.


Connect 4




Blokus to Go



Battleship

I packed some fun activity pads for the kids to work on.

Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman, Dots & Boxes, and more





and the good old stand-by Mad Libs.


Of course, the kids played Travel Bingo and the License Plate Game!
They were only missing 2 states....
Hawaii and Rhode Island.



I discovered some great printables online. I found everything I needed over at Edventures with Kids. 
They have 40 FREE printable road trip activities for kids.
They offer pages for kids of all ages. I printed out a few pages, lamented them and added the pages to the kids travel binders.


In their travel binders, I included notebooking pages for the National parks and monuments we would be visiting during our trek across the United States. I wanted the kids to have a way of writing down their memories from this amazing journey. I found all my notebooking pages at Notebookingpages.com. If you remember I reviewed this wonderful company a few months ago.

Stay tuned...over the next few weeks I'll be sharing all about our journey across the United States.
We went from 90 degree temps to 34 degrees. It got cold. We saw all types of terrain and lots of wildlife.



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Sunday, November 6, 2016

Living Like a Saint~ Saint Charles Borromeo


"Such is the nature of faith that the greater are the obstacles it encounters, the more ardent it becomes."

~ Saint Charles Borromeo


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Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Wordless Wednesday~ Wildlife Cuteness




While traveling through the Black Hills heading into Mount Rushmore, we spied this mountain goat eating at the side of the road.





Even more of a surprise was when I was clikcing to take the second picture, this sweet little baby goat popped his head up. 
It seemed like he was saying, "Hello, you can take my picture too!"


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Please Note~ This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you. 

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