Awana approaches

I have begun preparations for the upcoming Awana year at our church. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my month+ of time off between wrapping up last year and starting this year, it is sadly coming to an end.

I have spent several hours yesterday and today working on various documents to hand out. I guess I just really wanted to share how much I like Microsoft Publisher!

I made this flyer to hand out to the kids at VBS next week:

And this calendar to hand out to the workers I plan on browbeating into serving in the next few weeks.

You can absolutely make things prettier, but we don't have a color copier at church, so I'll stick with B&W and save my printer's ink.

Anyway, I joke about my free time coming to an end, but I am super-excited for this Awana year to start. I accepted the "commander" position way late last year and am loving having all of this time in advance to plan and really get things ready so no one is rushed or overworked (namely, me). I can once again put my obsessive planning tendencies to good use, and remedy all the mistakes I saw last year but didn't have the time or energy for which to plan a "workaround".

I love Awana, and love having a part in teaching kids to have the love of God's word that I have. It is incredible.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

LET ME OUT!

I sent Julian to his room last night during dinner - he sent me this note from under his door....

A Pain in the Neck

As I'm sure most of you know, Jason has had some pretty significant issues the last several weeks with neck pain leading to pretty bad headaches (which put him in bed for several days, sometimes).

After gently nudging him for a visit to the family doctor, today he was prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine and will start short term physical therapy on his neck.

This is wonderful news! It will get better quickly, we hope. Therapy actually starts tomorrow. He was not clear on the frequency or duration, but I would assume he will need to go until he notices a difference in his pain.

Please pray for Jason that his pain would ease quickly, and that the muscle condition he has will improve long term. This has really been a struggle for him.

No Admittance

This morning, as I was checking email, reading my e-news, and drinking my coffee, I heard several ominous thumps coming from Kathryn's room. I went to investigate and found Julian jumping off the bed. Probably not a terrible thing, but Kathryn's bed is a slat bed, and the darn things fall out every time they jump off, so....

I said (before full daily coffee ration, mind you), "No more jumping on or off the bed."

To which they replied, "We weren't jumping!" HA!

Being quick on my feet, I replied, "Fine. Don't start jumping, and you need to leave this door open."

BIG MISTAKE on my part, and lesson learned, for sure.

Several minutes later, after some ominous quiet, and then hushed talking, I again went to investigate.

It seems Kathryn had been sent to the hospital. She had severe "allergies" and was on bed rest.

Because of this, and because of my previous edict to leave the door open, Julian had begun construction of a wall to give Kathryn privacy in the hospital.

Said wall was being constructed using all of their soft things - blankets, pillows, dress up clothes, stuffed animals and even babies (the wall actually grew by a couple of feet after this was taken).

Ok, so not a big deal. They are creative and imaginitive, and I love it. I don't mind them making messes, unless I am the one that has to do most of the clean up - they are getting way too big for Mommy to do their chores - and today I don't feel good. So I made Julian look me in the eyes and told him he could only build a wall if he promised to clean it up when we did lunch time clean up (you must remember, Kathryn was tragically ill with allergies in the hospital).

I'm sure you can see how this is going to end. When clean up time came, of course Julian's promise was forgotten. After an hour of "clean up" (which was actually them playing with the various compents of the wall and Julian teasing Kathryn so she would cry), and postponing lunch as long as I could (Kathryn gets very grumpy when she's sleepy and hungry), I told them clean up was over. Now Mommy would do it, and they would each have quiet time this afternoon to make up for not doing what they said they would. (I know, harsh). This picture is the room after their hour of clean up, before I started.

Not bad, I guess. But I'll definitely be much clearer in the future on the conditions under which walls may be built in the house!

A Rose is a Rose . . .

Ok, I promise I am not some kind of flower nut! I have barely spent any time outside this year, but this rose bush is beside my front porch, so we pass it each time we go out the door. My first batch of roses was eaten by some kind of fungus, so this one was especially appreciated. I took this picture after a thunderstorm this afternoon - the water droplets are pretty!

Our Fish

(Julian helped me compose this)

This is Squiggly.

Squiggly is a common goldfish.

Squiggly is always hungry.

Squiggly grows a lot.

This is Clue-y.

Clue-y is a Neon Tetra.

Clue-y has a twin, also named Clue-y.

The Clue-ys do not eat a lot.

The Clue-ys swim fast sometimes.

This is Albert.

Albert is an algae eater.

Albert chases Squiggly away from his food.

Albert is scared of people.

Albert likes hiding in the snake rock.

Freeze for Bees Ice Cream Shop

Welcome to Freeze for Bees Ice Cream Shop.

Established in the summer of 2007, this ice cream shop features some of the most interesting flavors offered on the east coast. Some flavors available (shown in pictures below) include: strawberry and lemon, orange and grape, fish and egg (my personal favorite), steak and onion, red pepper and pear, and potato and brocolli, to name only a few.

Each bowl of ice cream costs $1.00, and is served with a complimentary cup of tea.

This charming establishment is run by a brother and sister team, who converted a bedroom in their home.

Hours are: 8:30 - 5:30 (closed for nap time each day, and whenever either owner has to spend time in the "time out" chair).
The owners do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, at their discretion, and to close the shop for no apparent reason. Renovations are also very common and take place several times each day.

Come in and enjoy a scoop and a cup of tea!

If you add your name to the "Fans of Freeze for Bees" list, you do receive free ice cream and admittance to the shop even outside of normal business hours. A very good value!

Fun at church

We had a dinner at church last night - to celebrate Independence Day, and to share our vision of where our church will be in the future. I wanted to share some pictures of the kids.

Playing some sort of volleyball - the rules changed so often, I never could quite figure them out!

Jason

Jason made dinner tonight, as he does a lot of Saturday nights. On the menu: pepperoni pizza, made from scratch. It was yummy! And of course, on his breaks, he played his guitar, his current project is "Bridge over Troubled Water".

Ah...Perfection!

No "man" could create something so beautiful as this ... with just a word. Praise God for His beautiful creation!

(If only you could see it in person, the picture just doesn't do it justice)

ANTICIPATION!!!!

This is my favorite flower, the most beautiful when it is blooming - a gladiolus. I bought these bulbs from the dollar tree two years ago. I have to say, they have been SO worth the dollar I spent on the 6 bulbs. I lost almost all of my bulb flowers in the frost we had back in March, I think, so I have been so excited that these lived and seem to be thriving. Our fence is 4 feet tall, and the flower is towering above the fence. You can see that the bottom flowers are just ready to bloom. I just can't wait to see the whole flower in its splendor!

JUSTICE

I have been reading My Utmost For His Highest, and the devotion for today really hit home (like it does most days!) It says (in part):

"Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will begin to grouse and to indulge in the discontent of self-pity - Why should I be treated like this? If we are devoted to Jesus Christ we have nothing to do with what we meet, whether it is just or unjust"

We should never expect justice from the world, since the world is not inclined to give justice to anyone. If we focus on the injustice of the world, we show distrust in our maker. However, if we live our lives seeking God's will, we have no say over where we end up, or in what circumstances. We can just trust that we are exactly where God wants and plans for us to be - as long as we are seeking His will. This may mean we have less things than someone else, and that there are struggles in our lives.

The great thing is, God gives exceedingly abundantly above what we could think to ask. ("...to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." Eph 3:20 NIV) I've got a pretty good imagination, so that is pretty impressive! I guess we just need to adjust our focus daily to what God desires for us versus what we desire in our human nature for ourselves.

BIKE RIDING

Going for a bike ride is not as easy as it sounds when you live where we live. There are no flat places to ride around our house, so our favorite place to go practice is an old school about 1/2 mile down the road. It is an abandoned school being converted to something, we're not sure what, but the conversion seems to be really slow. No one is ever there (since it is an abandoned school with broken windows and poison ivy on the trees). Our kids love it because it has one road and it is fairly level, so Julian can do circles - back and forth, back and forth.

It was pretty hot when we left to ride last night after dinner, but the humidity was OK, so it was not terribly uncomfortable. I'm sure Jason would disagree - after working outside all day, he is no big fan of outdoor activities.

Lucy loves going with us, but I'm not sure she appreciates being tied up while the kids ride. She really wanted to make a certain squirrel's aquaintence here.

Kathryn is pretty patient and enjoys riding for about 10 minutes, and then it get way too hard for her to pedal, her helmet is too hot and there are too many sticks on the ground.

At that point, she dismounts and walks THE WALL. This is an endless facination, I've never seen a child that didn't want to walk on top of a high wall.

THE MAKING OF A TV

We are going on 1 whole month since Julian got out of school. I have constantly struggled to keep my children occupied - and by occupied, I mean, of course, that they are not screaming AT each other, and no one is in danger of injury. There is so much pressure to give your kids a meaningful experience each day - heaven forbid they have any time in a day to entertain themselves! No, as parents, we must always have something for them to do - or a camp to send them to.

Yesterday, Julian had a great idea to make a TV (complete with remote control, of course). We spent part of the morning creating (cutting, taping, coloring) our TV:











It started so well with the kids collaborating. Julian was so encouraging and even helped Kathryn decide what color to use. Kathryn is drawing the buttons (which later, of course, Julian changed to make better).












By this point, Julian has completely excluded Kathryn from the construction of the TV. She now stands - just watching.










Overall, they had a great time making the TV. They're favorite "program" to broadcast is the weather channel. Julian always looks at my desktop sidebar to check the weather for the day - even in pretend everything needs to be "just so"

THE FINISHED PROJECT











Julian wanted to be IN the TV. We are working on inserts (Drawings) that should fit nicely into the screen, and may save a crimp in Julian's neck. He is getting so big!











Notice, the remote control is an almost-exact replica of our digital cable remote.











And the piece de resistance - we watch the real TV through our pretend TV!!

I love being a MOM!

A NEW START

Guilty secret: I have been spending time on MySpace for several weeks now.

At first, it was lots of fun - looking up old classmates, old friends, people I knew casually through the entire spectrum of my 29 years. Weird, I actually sat one day trying to think of people I may have forgotten to search for. Keep in mind, these are people I had not thought of and couldn't recall their last name, exactly. But of course, they were now of utmost importance. So important, in fact, that I had to ignore the screams of my youngest coming from my oldest's bedroom ("Mommy, Julian punched me in the nose!" - Ok, not really) in order to recall that elusive name. Oh yeah! That was the name of my best friend's cousin in the 6th grade. How had I forgotten her?!!

Seriously, isn't it funny how easy it is to get sucked into it? So, I have decided to take a step back from the aforementioned circus and focus on BLOGGING, since there seems to be at least a little merit in it!

Blogging is a great word. I actually didn't even know what it meant a year ago - I must say I am a little behind the times. I am excited, however, to begin my BLOG.