Gems Girls Club

I've been leading a Gems Girls Club for Mara for the last 4-5 years.  It's been wonderful!  This next year I am planning to lead a group with Lila.  I love getting to know their friends and encourage them in growing in their faith.  I don't know if I do a good job or not, but I try.  Mara's friends have grown up so much.  They are all becoming young ladies and growing in beauty inside and out. 

So, I will start making plans for Lila's group of girls.  I absolutely love to brainstorm ideas.  I will share some of what the Gems girls are up to this next year.  For Mara's group, or maybe just a Mara & Mom time, I am looking at another curriculum called Becoming a True Woman, http://www.mytrueteen.com/.

Jewelry with the Gems girls

I had fun making necklaces with Gems Club tonight - the group of 10 - 13 year old girls that I lead in my home. One of the girls brought her jewelry making supplies and showed the girls how to make necklaces and earrings. We talked about maybe having a table at a farmer's market this summer and making crafts to sell. 

GEMS stands for Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior. I have really enjoyed leading the group for the past couple of years and watching them all grow up. This year the theme has been on prayer and next year it is on living passionately in our faith, Ignite the Fire!  In our Gems meetings we pray, do Bible study devotions, make crafts, do service projects, have fun, and hopefully grow closer to God.  For more info on Gems, http://www.gemsgc.org/.

Homeschool Testing & Pillowcase Challenge

Today and tomorrow the kids are taking standardized tests for homeschool evaluation.  They are always glad to have these done.  Kyle only has one more week of Geometry!  So we are slowly finishing up some of the core subjects for the year!  Yay!  We'll keep doing school, but have a little more time for "specials"  like creative writing and art.  Mara is working on a fiction story to self-publish for Lila.  Kyle is working on a book on the country of Liberia.  I'm still trying to finish up Lila's adoption story.  So maybe in the next month or so we will have 3 new books by the Gellerstedts.

I'm also working on a service project for the Gems Girls group that I lead.  We are going to take the Pillowcase Challenge - by making pillowcases to donate to charities.  Interested in taking the pillowcase challenge, go here:  www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases/index.html.

Cake decorating with Gems!

I had a lot of fun with Mara's Gems group decorating cakes. I really love doing GEMS: Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior! I think it is a great organization and I love doing it with Mara and her friends. I made eleven 6 inch cakes for today - the most cakes I've ever made at one time.

What to do tomorrow ...