Parker's Class

Parker changing the class calendar.

Getting ready for P.E.

Listening to the Guidance Counselor.

kindergarten life

we are so fortunate to have miss vikki helping in kamrie & parker's classes. several times a week she sends me photos of activities the kids have done. it is great to feel like i know what they are doing! i appreciate you so much vikki! you are a blessing to those kids! thank you for loving on them each day.


kamrie & charlotte, mrs. cupp's spider.
(dad what would you do to this spider? :))
in dad's defense, he was bitten by a brown recluse spider a few years ago...he doesn't have compassion for any type of spiders now. can't say i blame him.

kamrie, brit & sadie in p.e.

kam at lunch

kam making a sunflower

kam's class wearing their johnny appleseed hats & t-shirts

kam's painted feet. they got to go outside & walk across this poster they'd made for homecoming week. it said, "watch out for the stampede!"

thrilled

i am so excited. i have the privilege to take part in the daniel bible study with my imperial friends. we have 40 women from here in 3 small groups. it is so awesome!

i guess i didn't have enough faith to begin with, we only ordered 15 workbooks. then after the first official sign-up at church we ordered 10 more. a few days later we grew & added another small group, so we ordered 10 more. after the first meetings, we had newcomers & are awaiting our 4th shipment of books!

what have i learned?

order MORE books the first time! i should have known that God would use this study in a huge way in our little town. when i had the opportunity to do this study last winter in kearney with my sonrise friends, it really impacted me. it's no surprise that God wants to use it to impact other women as well.

the best part? we have nearly every church in town represented in our 3 groups. it is so exciting to think about all of us coming together even though we may worship in different buildings on sunday mornings.

chore: raking & photo session

i stood at the window watching kam rake leaves on monday. she was out there singing & raking & throwing the leaves up into the air.

when i wanted to take her pictures doing it she was cooperative only for a few shots. then all of the sudden she said, "no more pictures."

um. ok, then. guess the photo shoot is over. she continued raking.

the real chore, evidently, was the photo shoot. she asked me to put raking on her chore list. but then later informed me she wasn't going to rake again until it was on her list so she could mark it off.

guitar heroes

i was looking for hunter a couple of weeks ago after youth & finally found him upstairs with the praise team as they were practicing. hunter was on guitar. he was having a great time thanks to aaron & wyndand. after playing awhile wyndand told him if he wanted to stay after the next week he would teach him a few basics & chords.

it was all hunter could talk about all week. so, true to his word, wyndand & ryan showed hunter a few things about learning how to play the guitar.

michael has a guitar he is letting hunter practice on, so they were both jamming the other night. i'm thinking future garage band?

anyway, i am so thankful we have Godly role models like wyndand, aaron & ryan for hunter to look up to. they are the real "guitar heroes." they take time out of their busy lives to "mentor" our youth. what a powerful way to help hunter learn about how to grow up & be a man of integrity.

major mess

thankfully this was a major mess with minor injuries. there were 6 kids & i right next to this when it fell over on chloe. she opened the doors & it leaned just enough that it fell right on top of her. i didn't even realize she was under it until she'd been trapped for a few seconds. brad quickly lifted it off & she cried for quite awhile, but no major injuries. God spared her of really being hurt.

it hit cooper, michael (hunter's friend) & hunter on the way down. cooper cried for awhile because he hit his head, but was fine after that.

see all those marbles & broken glass? i vacuumed for about 20 minutes over & over the same spot to ensure i got all the glass cleaned up.

whew!

Irrevocable

Interesting tidbits from Esther.

The King's order authorized the Jews in every city to arm and defend themselves to the death, killing anyone who threatened them or their women and children, and confiscating for themselves anything owned by their enemies.
Esther 8:11 MSG

King Xerxes had authorized Haman to write the first law (Est 3:9-12) to destroy the Jews. It was written in the King's name & sealed with his ring. That meant the law couldn't be revoked (Est 8:8). All the King could do, after learning the law would include killing lovely Queen Esther, was write a new law authorizing the Jews to defend themselves on the day they were to be destroyed.

King Xerxes made a choice and had to live with the consequences. That choice affected many, many people. Even though the Jews couldn't control the law the King wrote, they had to face the consequences of the action. King Xerxes did what he could after realizing what he'd authorized. He tried to make amends, even though it required the Jews to defend themselves, even to death.

The Jewish people fought to defend themselves & Queen Esther even asked the King for one more day so they could fight again. Here's another interesting point it said more than once in chapter 9. Even though the law authorized them to, "they did not lay their hands on the plunder."

They didn't want the stuff, they just wanted their lives & freedom. Isn't that cool?

Physical Training

Do you notice how great you feel after you exercise regularly? Up until our move to Minden & back again I was running regularly. I had more energy, felt better physically & my clothes fit better.

Then, we started packing & moved. By the time I was ready to start running again, we were thinking of moving again. So now it's been well over a year & not much physical exercise.

Sonja & I ran in the 5K run for Breast Cancer Awareness yesterday. We got 2nd in our age division! Yeah for us! Don't ask how we did overall...

I digress. Even though neither of us had been training regularly for this run, we did it anyway. We ran what we could (did a bit of walking) nice & easy, not giving up until we crossed that pink & white finish line.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 says

Have nothing to do godless myths and old viwes' tales, rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

As I thought about this verse while doing my Daniel homework, I realized how much BETTER we'll feel & how much more our Godly training is than our physical. If I feel so good after running regularly, imagine how I feel after studying my Bible regularly.

One thing that has hindered my studying in the past is guilt. Guilt of not doing my life journal everyday or guilt that I couldn't make myself get up in the morning early & do it. That was an attack from the enemy.

In the front of the life journal it says to give God the best time of your day. It doesn't have to be a certain time, just give him your best. If you aren't a morning person, don't do it in the morning. Do it when you're at your best. If you miss a day, don't feel guilty, just get back at it the next day. If you are doing the life journal, don't feel like you have to "make up" all the days you miss. Just keep pressing on & you'll read those selections next year.

Just as it said in our Daniel workbook, not one moment you spend in Bible study will ever be wasted.

Cute Bobs

The girls got their hair cut today. They look adorable. Chloe got about 4-5 inches cut off & Kamrie got about 6-7 inches cut. This was their first real cut, rather than a trim. Chloe was sure she wanted her hair cut to her shoulders but didn't talk as specific about what she wanted done as Kamrie did. Kam said, "I want it cut to here & curled under. I want bangs that I can push to the side, not on my forehead."

God's House

m: "goodnight cooper. i love you & Jesus does too."
c: "where does Jesus live?"
m: "in our hearts."
c: "God's in here." (pointing to his body)
m: "yep."
c: "our heart is God's house."

out of the mouth of a 3 year old. amazing.