What I've been up to

Wow, I haven't posted in a while.  Life has been so busy lately and I've only really had time online to read messages.  No time to reply much either.

Some highlights since my last post:

• dance class
• AWANA
• walking everywhere (my attempt to not gain weight this holiday season and save gas money)
• coffee with a friend
• parties
  
• our church's live nativity went really well and we had a larger cast this year, and therefore more costumes to be made, plus more sets along the drive-thru
• Christmas projects with family and friends (decorating, cards, gifts, baking, etc.)
• practice so we have singers for our Christmas eve service
• caroling with our homeschool co-op
• everyday things (library trips, grocery trips, trips to piano lessons, laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.)
• educational pursuits (helping the kids with these)
• planning for a New Year's Eve get together at church
  
• sadness over situations within my family (please pray)

And now, I really should go to bed because I have more to do tomorrow...

Live Nativity

Our church is putting on its second live nativity (December 4 & 5) and I'm the costume coordinator again.  A group of us work on the costumes and those days have been teasingly dubbed the Grace Fellowship sweat shop ;-)

(You can see a hint of the costumes to the left but that's only about 1/4 of them)

There are 80 volunteers involved this year and they aren't just from our church.  Wow!

Its fun and exhausting but so worth every minute of it.  Especially when you hear how much it blesses people and reminds them why they celebrate Christmas to begin with.

To all the volunteers..........THANK YOU!!!

What characters are my family this year?  Noelle is Mary, Kyle is a shepherd, Kirk is a wise man, and I'm a villager (so I can help where needed and take pictures :-)  Hopefully, I'll get us together (in costume) for our family Christmas photo.  Some of the families did this last year and the pictures were great!

I am taking off today through Saturday to focus on Thanksgiving and enjoying my family.  I just wanted to share while I had a few minutes.

What is it

with my weekends being so busy lately?

Last Saturday (5-30) we traveled to Erie. We needed to buy Kyle a paint ball helmet for an upcoming air-soft battle with 9 other teens. We decided, since we were going anyway, to make a day of it. In addition to searching for the helmet, we also ate lunch at Ponderosa, watched Race to Witch Mountain at the discount theater, shopped for a baby shower gift, and wandered around the mall. Sunday morning was church and then the baby shower. Poor Noelle got stuck, along with two other girls, watching the little ones. She didn't find it fair (but handled it very maturely), she wanted to see what gifts the baby got, especially the look on Cheyenne's face when she opened the gift from us (an absolutely adorable little blue bathrobe that Kirk picked out).

Last night (Friday) was the air soft battle and Ky had a good time but came home exhausted. Kirk picked him up so that this morning Noelle and I could go to the community yard sales in Pleasantville (I haven't missed this in 4-5 years). We got up early to pick up Cindy and help her get her sale set up (Barb let her set up in her front yard), then off we went. Lets just say it involves a lot of walking because Pville may be small but it is spread out. We found many bargains and a lot of good food to eat. Tomorrow we have church and an evening fellowship time around a fire. It was going to be a dinner but changed, now I need to return at least one of the bags of fresh spinach I bought for the salad I was going to make. See what I get for being prepared ;)

Another weekend...

Friday -- walked around town going to yard sales, payed bills, perused some stores, road our bikes to the library, walked to the store for a rotisserie chicken and some Italian bread for dinner, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD from Netflix

Saturday -- did laundry, dishes, played on the internet, worked on my CQ square, found some cross stitch projects I started years ago and did some work on one (the bee sampler to go on a pillow for Noelle), made a pasta salad for dinner, Kirk and Noelle went to Walmart for a giant sub for dinner and to get Noelle some shorts, watched The Andy Griffith Show on DVD (another one)

Sunday -- Kirk had to work today, kids and I went to church without him, I had power point today and recorded the sermon from our guest speaker Ed Black (a missionary to Croatia), took Noelle to Walmart to exchange her shorts (dad let her buy a size too small), got home and did dishes, walked to the store, made coleslaw and chicken drumsticks for dinner, did dishes, relaxed for a while, then wrote on this blog :)

Off to bed now, night all!

The Weekend

On Friday Kirk and I looked at washing machines (decided against the used one) and bought a Maytag. Here's one of those purchases that I would love to have been American made but those were a couple hundred dollars more than we could afford. Lately, it seems as though everything we own is wearing out.

Noelle and I attended our church's mother/daughter brunch Saturday morning and had a really good time.
After we got home I spent most of the afternoon learning needlework stitches and working on my CQ square. Later in the evening we watched the movie Faith Like Potatoes.


Everyone else went to bed and I stayed up late mixing together the dry ingredients for the scones I was baking in the morning. I promised Ermagene I would make her two dozen and planned on giving the rest for cafe.

Breakfast Scones

2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sour milk

Mix dry ingredients together well. Cut in butter. Add milk. Kneed dough on a floured surface a couple times then form into a log and cut in half. Pat each half of dough into an 8 inch circle and cut into 8 wedges. Separate wedges and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a pre-heated, 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes. Makes 16 scones.

Kirk stayed home sick from church so the kids and I went without him. The rest of the day everyone lazed around and I practiced more stitches for my CQ. Dinner was a simple affair of ham, eggs, and waffles. Kyle got invited to go listen to Eric Hovind speak at a nearby high school and even spoke with him personally afterwards. He got home about 9:50 p.m. and really enjoyed himself.

A Journey

I have some friends who are finding their way in regards to what they believe. I am on the same journey myself. About a year ago I heard a message preached by Paul Washer (Shocking Youth Message) and it so completely confirmed my thoughts on what I read in the Bible. I must strive to compare my walk with Scripture, not what I feel or others think. Here is a video compilation of one of Paul Washer's sermons (Examine Yourself ).



If you want to listen to more of his sermons then go here.

A lot of discussion has mentioned the term "Churchianity" so I did a Google search and found this wonderful article. What a great description of the True Church, the Bride of Christ!

However, I don't think it is wrong to be a part of a body of local believers who gather together to fellowship and worship together. I also fellowship with a body of believers online. I worship with my family and on my own.

I don't have it all figured out, I'm continuing to learn and grow. This is why I like unschooling so much. Christian Unschooling is about helping/letting my kids find their walk with God, as well as finding my own. He created us all with a purpose - To have Life in Him.

Here is a video of the true Gospel, not the watered down version that is so prevalent today.

Live Nativity

Our live nativity over the weekend went really well!! It was a great outreach to our community with 234 cars and 634 people going through (yes, we are a small town). Many people commented that they were blessed and wanted to know if we were going to do it next year? Yes, we're planning on it.

It was more like a Journey through Bethlehem than a live nativity but since I don't get to decide on the name of it, it works ;) I think we should add more to the town of Bethlehem (blacksmith, carpenter shop, etc.), a lot more people, warmer costumes, and many other areas we didn't see a need until we actually did things the first time.

My mom and step-dad went through and commented that they liked all the people walking around in costume along with many animals (not just posing at stations), it made it feel as if you were going through a real town.

The weather was cold and clear the first night, cold and gently snowing with a little wind the second. We tried having replacements for all the roles but didn't have quite enough people to do that. Hopefully more will join us next year now that we've actually done one. I know I'll be involved next year.

What was my character? I was a market vendor (even spent a little time filling in as Mary). Kirk was a wise man, Kyle was a shepherd, and Noelle was a servant at the inn.

All I have right now are some pictures I took during the building of sets and sewing costumes. As soon as I get some pictures of the actual event, I'll post them as well.

This was taken the first day of building with rough lumber

Our church "sweat shop" (My machine is the one in the foreground)

Holiday Mood

Our church is putting together a live nativity this year. A church in a nearby town had been doing it for a number of years but decided not to this year. Now its our turn. :)

I am the actor/costume coordinator and am enjoying this opportunity as well as the fellowship of my fellow seemstresses at church. I wasn't sure how much of a sewer I was before we started but have found that I'm pretty good at it and really enjoy it. Our best costumes, by far, are the Roman Soldiers -- Way to go Pat!

All of this is definitely getting me in the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can post some pics to share with you later on.

I'm also daydreaming about how we'll decorate our house for Christmas this year. We have two artificial trees but I have never put them both up before. We always put the newer one up in our living room to put all the presents under. I want the other one up in my craft/den/library room where I'll be spending a lot of time making presents for family and friends. You know, to keep that holiday spirit fed :)

A new tradition I want to start with our family is celebrating Three King's Day (Epiphany) on January 6th. I want more truth in our celebrations so am leaving the wise men out of our nativity display until then. Jesus was a child living in a house in Bethlehem when he was visited by the magi and given the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I'm not completely sure just how we'll celebrate that day as I am still doing research on it.

For Thanksgiving, we will have dinner at my Aunt Alice's house and then travel to Kirk's parent's house for dessert later on. We always have somewhere to go so never have leftover turkey which is a bummer. So I started having a special turkey dinner with friends during Advent, problem solved.

May all of you have a blessed holiday season!!

Praise Dance

Our dance team Praise in Action was part of a local festival Ministerium Night last night. The band Unforsaken was playing as well and made room for us on stage. They worked it out for us to dance during their breaks from playing and to give us a break before our next dance. It was a real blessing and we appreciated all that they did. They even announced us before each dance :)

The road to last night was not an easy one. When we were initially asked to do this (February), I was so excited for the opportunity and so were the other dancers. A new dance was found for us to work on in May and then people's schedules, dislikes, fears, and a pregnancy came into play and it was beginning to look like there wouldn't be enough dancers to fulfill our obligation. I was plagued by nightmares, doubts, and fears that made me wonder if the request should have been accepted in the first place. I hadn't been having these kind of struggles with our dancing before, so where was all this coming from?

Looking back on it all now, I believe it was a spiritual attack. The new dance was a dance of spiritual warfare, something new for us. When we take a stand against darkness, it tries to convince us that we are not worthy and will put whatever stumbling blocks in our way that it can. I also believe God allowed it to happen so that I would learn to trust Him even more.

Last night was testimony to perserverence and trusting God. My daughter stepped up and filled a spot in the first dance, two dancers that initially didn't plan on dancing were in the last two dances (we'd done these ones in the past), we received many affirming comments afterwards, and the band leader even joked that one of their members was leaving the band to join our dance team ;)





Note: We did three dances to the songs "Till the Walls Fall" by Martha Munizzi, "Shackles" by Mary Mary, and "Sovereign" by The Parachute Band. (All these dances, and more, are available here.)

Busy, Busy!

Our church joined with another church to do Power Lab VBS this week. On day one we had 53 kids! I don't know what the count was last night but it was much much more than day 1. I have been busy taking pictures. Some of these were placed into a slideshow each day to be played for the kids at closing (there is a really neat software that helps you do this easily) and I have been told the kids look forward to these :)

We've had practices for our upcoming dance, July 16th......

A meeting for our homeschool co-op........

Getting Noelle to play practices on bicycle............

Running errands on bicycle............

Today I'm running more errands with the van (I can't haul my friend's yard sale stuff out of storage on my bike).............

Community yard sales are tomorrow..............

Sunday is our family reunion.....................

I also have all my household chores to do...........

I thought Summer was supposed to be a time to relax?!?!

Fellowship

We have special guests at our church this weekend. Apostle Jeff spoke last night. This morning, the men will have breakfast at a restaurant with Apostle and the ladies will have brunch with Cindy, Apostle's wife, at our church. Tomorrow morning they will both speak at our church service. I like these kind of weekends a lot. I like belonging to a church that gets together and has fellowship.

One thing that always gives me a chuckle though is that the women all bring things they've made to the brunch but all the men have to do for their breakfast is show up, order their food, and eat. Shouldn't us ladies get a break once in a while and go out to eat? I don't mind cooking/baking its just so stereotypical the way its always done.

Yesterday

Realized I hadn't blogged in a couple of days....

Needed a copy of our dance routine song. My cd burner doesn't work so downloading music to copy onto cd's is not a possibility. You'd think since I owned the song I could transport it to another computer that has a cd-burner? HAH!

No one showed for dance practice last night. I remember specifically being told that Thursdays were a night she could be there, hhmmm ......

Instead, went in and prayed for the upcoming VBS our church and another church is putting on in July. I'm going to be the resident photographer and video presentation person. We have a booth at a local festival to raise money for the VBS becasue we are believing for a lot of kids........

Forgot to buy garbage bags the first time, forgot my debit card the second time, rode my bike to the store the final time.......