Well, hello! Welcome to the Speakable Gifts blog. It’s great to meet you. We’d like to introduce ourselves.

Ours is a family organization, owned by Maxine Randall and Beverly Smith, mom and daughter.
We offer publications,

Gift boxes,

Our Touch of Grace Favor Bags ,

and other items to help your family live & give.

All of our gifts have a message. The message may be in a frame, in magnet form, or printed on a bookmark or label. We package our gifts in cello bags, boxes, paper bags, and organza bags.

We are SO pleased that you stopped by! Please find us on Twitter @SpeakableGifts, and search for us on Facebook! Let us know who you are and we’ll pay you a return visit.

Enjoy the rest of the party,

Maxine and Beverly

While working for “Meals-on-Wheels”, an organization that delivers lunches to the elderly, Paul used to take his 4-year-old daughter, Lois, with him on his afternoon rounds. Lois was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the walking sticks, triangular walkers and the wheelchairs.

One day Paul found Lois staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As he prepared himself for the inevitable barrage of questions, Lois merely turned and whispered, “The tooth fairy is never going to believe this.”
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Nathan, after his first day at school, returned home and told his mother, “I’m wasting my time at school. I can’t read, I can’t write, and they won’t even let me talk.”

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Have a great weekend with your kids and grandkids! Be thankful for the smiles they bring!

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

Hope your kids will take a try at playing this great game this summer!

For His Glory,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

Everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn’t we? That’s right, here we are, telling you about our first giveaway. And what will it be? A board game for you to play with your children! We’re even giving the winner a choice between two games. We’ve just purchased these two games, one for one of you out there and one for either my household or Bev’s to keep for gift-giving. Board games are great for family entertainment and growth, in my estimation. But then you already knew that, right?

We have the junior versions of two of the most popular: Monopoly and Scrabble. Some folks are big fans of either or both of the adult versions. For me, it’s Monopoly, but I know a host of Scrabble fans. I can’t tell you how many hours of fun we had when my younger daughter and I would take some time in the evening to play the junior Monopoly game. It’s supposedly designed for ages 5 through 8, but honestly I enjoyed it as much as she did, and when older siblings join in to play with the younger ones AND a parent, it makes for a truly nice family building time. It’s not as time consuming and intense as the adult version and much can be learned by the younger kids. My guess is that the same holds true for the junior version of Scrabble. By the way, both games are for two to four players at a time.

So here is how our giveaway will work: Your name will go in once for each of the following:

1. You comment on this post, telling us you would like to have one of the games for your family or to give as a gift. If you have no children or grandchildren to play it with, then surely you know it would make a great gift for another family!

2. You subscribe to our feed. If you do, comment again and tell us so. The feed is at the top of the page and also on the sidebar after all the links.

3. You tell about our giveaway at your blog and link back to us. (Click on the title of this post for the link.) You would be doing us a huge favor by doing this, as we want more people to know we are here! If you do, please comment again and tell us.

4. You subscribe to our bi-monthly enewsletter, “Helping Children Grow.” More information and a form to subscribe is here. If you do decide to subscribe, please comment again and tell us.

So your name will be entered up to four times for any of the above, or a combination thereof. This is so much fun, don’t you think? Bev and I are excited about seeing who will be our first winner. If it’s you, you will go down in history as the first official Speakable Gifts giveaway winner! Now that is quite an achievement. And needless to say, we will link back to your blog, if you have one, and tell others a little bit about it. But non bloggers are welcome to enter also.

Thanks for coming. Thanks for entering. I suppose I’ll post a quick note to let folks know when we’ve closed comments. One of our husbands will pick a winner early next week. Since this coming weekend is a holiday, we’ll probably let this go until Wednesday to announce.

For His Glory,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Isn’t that ever an important truth to teach our children? So many things in life, when taken alone, will never give us real insight into what God’s big plan is for us. His ways are right and good, though oftentimes we are unable to see that rightness and goodness at a particular time. Some of those “things” are difficult and painful. Some bring joy and gladness. But if we are to trust this beloved passage of Scripture and embrace it, we have to believe it in the dark times as well as when the sun is shining.

Sometimes children go through darkness; life isn’t always bright and carefree for youngsters. There are times when sickness comes, either in their own bodies, or in that of someone dear to them. I know some young children for whom the latter applies at this very time. Actually, there are often valleys which children have to go through, more than we may think, if it hasn’t touched our own kids’ lives yet.

I have a suggestion: use jigsaw puzzles as a means to teach this truth. How about finding one where the completed picture is one which will be pleasing to them, a picture of something they enjoy or like. Work on the puzzle together, pointing out that some of the pieces have colors which are not very attractive when taken alone. But then you can tell them how those particularly “unattractive” or darkly colored pieces are each a necessary part of the total. In fact, the finished work would be lacking without them.

My oldest granddaughter, who is two, is beginning to love doing jigsaw puzzles and I LOVE doing them with her. She even (with just a little help) did one of the United States, and was she excited about it! I was too, let me tell you. I sure do hope she continues to enjoy doing these puzzles and that her parents will take every opportunity to help this activity teach her Romans 8:28. Hopefully, I can have some input too. Perhaps this will be an incentive for you to make use of this important tool for teaching many spiritual truths.

Do you like the word “tickle?” I do. Now I said I like the word, not the feeling you get when someone does it to you. But we all like to be tickled through the eyegate and earwaves now and then, don’t we? Well, as a service to our friends and customers, don’t be surprised if a “tickle” shows up on this blog now and then. No special reason other than to help us all feel better. So for all of you who have or love babies (isn’t that everyone?), here are a few for today:

What did the baby corn say to the mommy corn? “Where is pop-corn?”

What snakes do babies like? Rattlesnakes.

Why do mothers carry their babies? Because the mothers are too heavy for the babies to carry.

Why did the Army begin drafting babies? It was trying to build up the infantry.

Have a nice day!

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

(Riddles from Lots o” Riddles, published by Barbour Publishing, Ind. Used by permission.)

If you are rusty on the rules for some of the old games or would like suggestions on different ways to play, there are a few links with the article.

Obviously, I am a proponent of many things old fashioned and this is one area where I have to admit I fall in that category. I think our children are hooked on far too much technology. Much is good about it, so don’t get me wrong. But I certainly would like to see more moderation in that area.

Just my two cents worth.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna