I Have Three Winners!

I'm happy to say Tina, Karen and Carolyn Moon are the winners in my Happy Times Magazine subscription giveaway! (You'll find the review at this link.)

Thank you Tina, Karen and Carolyn for reading grandma's cookie jar (please email me - lyndagcj@gmail.com - your mailing address, so I can forward them to Concordia to fulfill your subscriptions) and thank you Concordia Publishing House for making these subscriptions available for me to give away!

Be Intentional & Join Us at the Legacy Grandparenting Summit!

I have been a grandma now for eight years - years filled with an amazing and wonderful joy! Yes, as you can clearly see from my posts on this blog, I love being Josiah's, Caleb's and Shane's grandma! I take being a grandma seriously. Yes, I have lots of fun with my three sweet rascal grandsons, but I know there is far more to being a grandma than just the hugs, snuggles and fun. I have a big responsibility as a grandma to do the following . . .

Focus Upon Helping Our Grandchildren Be Truly Thankful

As I have said a number of times, one of the most powerful things we can do as grandparents is to pray for our grandchildren. Over and over in Scripture, God promises to hear, listen to and answer our prayers! Many grandparents believe this and are focused prayer warriors for their grandchildren.

There is also another very powerful thing we can do as grandparents and this is to model to our grandchildren what it means and looks like to be people who are thankful. Think about it for a minute. Are you thankful? We tend to be quick to turn to God in prayer - and He wants us to do this, but are we just as quick to thank God when He answers our prayers? Do we thank God for the big and little everyday ways He shows His "fingerprints" in our lives?

2016 Christmas Reviews & Giveaways!

Three months from today, Christmas will be past. Yes, just three short months. For grandma's cookie jar, this means in just a few short days I'll begin my 2016 Christmas Gift Reviews and will be starting to announce my 2016 Christmas Giveaways! For those of you who have taken the time to read this blog in years past, you know throughout the month of October I review a wide variety of things and announce giveaways for most of them. Then the month of November I hold the giveaways!

I'm very happy to say I have received some really wonderful things I'm looking forward to sharing with you . . . and which will make fun giveaways! So, please plan to join me throughout October for the reviews and as I announce each giveaway and then in November to see who wins! I'd also appreciate it if you shared grandma's cookie jar with the people you know! Just four days until the fun begins!

Use Our Words to Love and Give Hope!

Growing up can be difficult. Trying to figure out "who" you are and what you are going to "do" with your life, are not the easiest things to do. Children sometimes receive messages which make this even more difficult. It is one of our greatest responsibilities to be absolutely certain the messages our grandchildren receive from us are ones which build them up, encourage them and give them a positive view of themselves for many reasons, but one of the most important reasons is, because the way a grandparent sees a child is often the way they will see themselves.

Stop and think about this for a minute. How do you see your grandchildren? More importantly, how do you talk about them? Do you choose your words carefully when they can hear you, so the words they hear from you are ones which build them up? Words which convey how you believe they are amazing people who can do incredible things? Words which give them hope and a positive view of themselves and their future? Or, do your words discourage them? Do your words harm the way they see themselves?

"Teach Me Your Way, Lord" . . . Let's Make This Our Prayer

As we go through the coming week, let's draw our thoughts and prayers for our grandchildren to Psalms 86 -

"Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me."

"I Want to Laugh!"

Yesterday I shared with you a video of my grandson who took such joy in singing the Hairbrush Song! It makes me smile, so I shared it with you!

When I filmed my grandson singing, his younger brother had have me film him, too! I asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to laugh. And laugh is what he did!

Enjoy!

Taking Delight in a Silly Song

As you know, I review lots of things throughout the year - many of which I give away. Several years ago I reviewed the BigIdea's Veggie Tales Sing 'n Dance Larry. This toy is Larry the Cucumber and it "dances" while singing part of the Hairbrush Song. I had it in my closet; I intended to give it to my grandsons, but kept forgetting it was there.

Last night Caleb was "exploring" in my closet . . . my grandsons know I put things in there which they may find interesting and from time to time they "explore" to see if they can find anything interesting. He found the Dancing Larry and fell in love with it!

Since then we have been hearing the toy "sing" and Caleb sing as well . . . I absolutely love the way his little voice "cracks" when he sings, so I love listening to him! I filmed him singing and decided to share it with you today! 

Tasters Welcome!

On the wall by the entry to my kitchen is a sign . . . it says; "Grandma's Kitchen - Tasters Welcome!" My grandsons believe this sign . . . especially when I'm baking homemade cookies!

I'm glad they believe it, because it is true - they are always welcome to, "taste" in my kitchen! It puts a smile on my face when they "taste" and especially when they enjoy what they tasted!

"Grannie Ellies" Make a Difference . . . So Do People Grandparents!

Last winter I posted about an article which had been "floating around" the internet where it talked about elephant grandmas and wanted to share it with you again today. Apparently research showed baby elephants are more likely to survive if there is a grandma elephant in their herd. Newsweek Tech and Science reported on this; they said - "Turns out grannies are very important to baby ellies. New research conducted over four decades in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park shows female elephants with a living mother have better chances at reproduction and give birth to babies more likely to survive." They studied 3,000 elephants in Southern Kenya for 42 years and discovered, “having an experienced mother, one who knows how to respond to their calf's demands and how to keep them close by, makes a huge difference in whether a baby elephant survives—having a grandma adds much needed extra help.”

Our grandchildren definitely benefit from having grandmas - "experienced" moms - active in their lives, too! And, unlike with elephants, where they do not have the involvement of grandpas with the little ones, our grandchildren benefit greatly from the involvement of their grandpas as well!

Happy Times Magazine - I'm Giving Subscriptions Away!

One thing we do as grandparents is look for resources we can use to pass faith to the children we love. Concordia Publishing House recently emailed me a couple of their Happy Times Magazine which is designed as a tool for parents/grandparents to use to pass faith to preschool age children. Today I'm happy to let you know about this resource which you could use with your grandchildren - and announce a giveaway as well!

Experience Joy!

How often have you heard grandparents and parents say, when talking about the children they love, the most important thing to them is for their grandchild or child to be happy? Our world chases after happiness. We think more, bigger, better, newer, cooler will all equate to happiness. But it does not. Oh, yes, people may be "happy" for a few moments, until what they have is no longer more, bigger, better, newer or cooler.

Happiness depends on situations, and as we know, situations change - all too fast. What people are really looking for is joy, and it is not found in things. So, where do we find joy? God's Word tells us - look at Psalm 100 . . . 

grandma's cookbook - Six Minute Microwave Caramels!

As I browsed Pinterest this morning I found a fun and easy recipe for tasty caramels! You'll find the full recipe at this link - it is definitely a fun treat I'm going to try for my grandsons - since the recipe says it gets really hot, I'll make them and let my grandsons enjoy them!

Perhaps I'll have them decorate nice containers and then we could take some caramels to share with neighbors or to give to our local police. 

Enjoy!

I Have a Winner!

I'm happy to say Melody Black is the winner of The Bot That Scott Built (you'll find my review at this link). Thank you Melody for reading grandma's cookie jar (please message me your address by September 26, 2016 - lyndagcj@gmail.com - so I can have it sent to you) and thank you Sterling Children's Books for sending one for me to review and for making another available for me to give away!