The website began with a passion for crafts made from cardboard tubes – toilet paper roll crafts! I love the simplicity of them – they’re basically just color, cut and paste paper crafts but using the tube as a base for the craft makes them three dimensional characters that you can use as action figures when you’re telling stories, toys during free play or models you can display. And when they get lost (or chewed on by the dog) I never feel like we’ve wasted our money – instead it’s just an opportunity to make some new characters and learn some new stories. Of course, making the projects always results in a glorious mess so make sure you leave a bit of time for cleanup afterwards and encourage everyone to pitch in. Kaitlyn has always been a great “tidy up” helper and prides herself at putting things back in their place – she’s actually better at that than I am *laugh*.

The story of Samson and Delilah is one of my favorite tales from the Bible. It has heroes and a plot that feels full of action and drama. I’m sad to say that despite my love of the story, I always had trouble sharing it with children in a way that stays tied to a Christian message and doesn’t drift too much toward the “once upon a time” fairy tale stories that I love. My sister in law Sharla wrote a children’s version of the Samson and Delilah story for me a few years back and I’m very grateful to her for it – she’s blessed with the ability to share her beliefs in a confident and understandable way.

We had fun making both characters – Samson and Delilah. We got dad to show off his big muscles for us and then threatened to shave his head bald to see if they’d shrink. He figures his hair’s falling out quick enough without anyone’s help, hehe. It was a nice autumn day so we did some of our work outside in the back yard and then we played with the characters, played with the leaves and watched the squirrels playing on the tree in the backyard — they sure were busy. It was perfect family time – one of those times when we were all just present in the moment (no i-phones invited).