2/10

day 2 of cwc's 10 day congregational fast.

it's been exciting to hear what people are fasting. everything from the internet to different foods or drinks.

i was talking to the junction kidz (kindergarten-4th grade) last week at church about fasting & their prayer requests. they totally get it. most of them were more than willing to give up something for 10 days.

i even had a hard time not telling them to give up too many things to make it hard on themselves. some of them listed 4-5 things! important things like the wii, tv, their favorite book, dvd players, barbies & cd players.

they are great examples of faith even as children.

i loved to hear their prayer requests too. these kids love to pray out loud. each week we make our list of prayer requests & praises. we always fill an entire sheet of poster-board sized paper. then they practically argue about who gets to pray out loud!

so, we divide up the list & give each person that wants to pray out loud a few. if they can't read we help them when it's their turn. or we just let them pray for whatever they want to.

it's awesome to hear their simple & sincere prayers. they know they can talk to God about anything from their teachers to helping them sit in class to healing the sick.

we, as adults, can learn so much from them. they are serious about fasting & prayer.

for the 24 hour day of prayer next weekend the kids will meet from 10-11 am on saturday to pray. then we're going to finish off with pizza & root beer floats.

it's good for us to keep each other accountable for the next 10 days (& beyond...). as i was talking to the kidz last week about fasting i had written down pop & chocolate. we kept talking about how it's important to give up something important to you so that it really means something. i thought, wow, what really means anything to me? it really wouldn't be that hard to go without pop or chocolate for 10 days even though i like it.

so, what did God tell me to do?

fast from reading fiction.

whoa. did i hear that right? do i need to pray about that some more?

nope.

i love to read. fiction. a good story. purely for fun.

so...for the next 9 days i will not read any of my regular fiction books.

yesterday we went to north platte. do you know that one of my favorite places to read is in the car on a trip? brad was glad since i actually talked to him instead of reading silently in the passenger seat.

it's good for me. i know that. i'm only reading my bible.

so in the car i was reading the life journal selection from yesterday, judges 1-3. i read aloud to brad about ehud killing the eglon kind of moab who was a "very fat man."

you'd better go get your bibles & read about it for yourself. interesting reading, i tell you.

road less travelled

lamar, chase county, nebraska, was stop #230 featured wednesday on ntv's road less travelled.

they had to search for even 1 person to interview about the town since there isn't a lot left there. emma mae colson, age 100, proved to be the perfect candidate as she told of living there for over 90 years.

brad said he saw the car with colleen williams on the side of it on their road, but they didn't stop at lamar fertilizer. i'll bet everyone there would have had some stories to tell...

huff & puff

i look outside at the drifting snow & think of the big bad wolf huffing & puffing to blow the house down.

whoa. it's bad out!

there were serious cheers at the school this afternoon when they announced an early dismissal. then even more serious cheers when they announced a late start in the morning.

the kids were so pumped that parker decided to walk home instead of taking the bus.

huh? it's blowing snow & freezing cold, school gets dismissed early & he chooses to walk home?

yeah. he said it was fun but his feet sure got cold.

rock star

cooper is a movie buff. he can quote lines off all of his favorites. he's always been that way, since he was a tiny little guy.

there was the "let it go dad!" from the ratatouille commercials, "we got ourselves a nodder." from cars.

now it's alvin & the chipmunks.

when he burps he says, "'scuse me the rock star."

i've got to record him doing it. it's great.

actually i'm not really sure where that is on the movie, but the kids tell me it's off of that film. i guess i need to watch it a few more times...

5 little hotdogs

chloe has a pancake supper for her preschool this friday night. guess what she's going to sing as her class performs.

yep.

5 little hotdogs. a classic for all rainbow promise preschoolers. not sure if other preschools use this little ditty, but it's definitely been my kids' favorite as students there.

sing along... (tune of 5 little monkeys)

5 little hotdogs
fryin' in a pan
the grease got hot
and 1 went BAM!

(count down to 0)

NO little hotdogs
frying in the pan
the grease got hot
and the pan went BAM!

do you realize (as i recently did) that i have only 1 more child to get to sing the hot dog song? i'm sure it'll be cooper's favorite also.

i remember so clearly hunter singing it to us in the car on our way to kearney when he was a preschooler. we thought it was so darn cute.

bnb

yep, that stands for brand-new-baby. i got to hold baby olivia joy just a few hours after she was born.

i love it when babies are so new they are still all curled up in a little ball when you hold them.

misty & jared welcomed the little 8 pound bundle into the world at 1:50 pm today. both mommy & baby are doing well.

bedtime tonight was a little challenging, it took about 2 hours for all to finally be quiet. this is not highly unusual for our house anyway, but we have brianna, madeline & andrew at our house also until jared, misty & olivia are home. i started giving baths this afternoon at about 3 pm to make sure all 8 kids got through there today.

the kids are having a great time together. they are memories in the making.

CWC Amazing Race

We had a fabulous time last Saturday. Jane, Norma & Alice planned an "Amazing Race" for Crossroads' women. How much fun can you pack into 10 hours?

Quite a bit! We hustled to figure out clues that took us to Grant, Madrid, Sutherland, North Platte & Ogallala. It was really fun to see the competitive nature of some women come out! I didn't even have time to park the car for the shopping race at Wal-mart. Sonja & Sherri were in & out in 4 minutes 6 seconds!

Now THAT'S gotta be a record!

JAN girls, thanks so much for all your planning & plotting. It was a great day. Precious memories were made.

love this

i love this picture. this is one of my parents before they were baptized in the jordan river in israel a few weeks ago.

chloe & kamrie have both taken their small smooth stone from the brook of elah for show & tell & parker took his bookmark.

during 2nd service at church pastor todd does a lesson about an object that one of the kids brings for show & tell. last sunday was chloe's turn, so she took the stone. todd had just heard a teaching about david & goliath, so he had a few things to share that i didn't know. he asked why david chose 5 smooth stones.

colton said, "in case he missed?" :)

but pastor todd shared that goliath had 4 brothers & david was prepared to have to fight each one. i thought that was very interesting.

fasting

in the next week, our congregation will be doing a 10 day fast.

i'm trying to think of creative ways to tie fast-teaching into the crossroads kidz children's ministry.

anyone have any ideas?

we are going to make cards where the kids can write what they are fasting from (foods, tv, video games, etc) & also ones they can write their prayer requests.

our congregation is also doing a 24 hr prayer vigil at the church the weekend of palm sunday, where different people sign up to be at the church to pray for 24 hours straight.

we're hoping to have an hour when the kids meet & can pray during that time, too. so, parents, keep that in mind!

don't trip

tonight while 12 of us ladies where in small group, i felt something at my feet.

i thought it was brooke playing footsie with me, but it was a little guy (w/his mommy at small group) under the table untying everyone's shoes!

it was really funny.

family night

i love wednesday nights.

we have family night at church, where they serve supper for families, then have activities for all ages. the bus takes the kids to the berean church for awana, the 2-4 yr olds have crosstraining at our church, there are adult small groups to choose from, the 5-12 grades have youth.

then the bus brings the kids back to the church so the parents don't have to worry about getting out right at 8 o'clock sharp to get their kids from awana.

it's great.

tonight, when going home, hunter & jared (hunter's friend) liked the video they watched.

it was juicebox christian. hilarious video about an adult who is satisfied with his non-growth as a christian.

thanks for sharing the video emiley!

fyi: this video was filmed at lincoln christian school in the 1st grade class.

soccer

the dillan's will be at soccer fields 3X a week through april.we'll be faithfully following 3 teams, hunter's, parker & kamrie's and chloe's. all of chloe's games will be in imperial on saturday afternoons and hunter, parker & kamrie's teams will be played either in ogallala or imperial on saturday's. the great thing about soccer?  all the running & kicking sure does tire the kids out.  all were in bed by 8:30 last night. 

not-gonna-eat-em

we're kind of a 2-3 vegetable buying family.
green beans.
corn.
sometimes carrots.

pretty much that's it.
if you look in our pantry,
it's all you're going to find.

the last few times i've offered
green beans
to cooper, he simply replies,
"but i don't like green beans."

sometimes i'll get him to try 1 or 2.
but
tonight he took control of the situation.
he didn't complain.
he just quietly & efficiently
removed each bean from his plate.
then ate his lasagna
every last bite.

He'll be with us.

God showed me something cool through our Bible study tonight. We're studying the different Hebrew names of God & learning how they reveal God's character.

Session 7 is about Jehovah. Quick Fact: When you see LORD in the Old Testament & wonder why it's in caps, it's when it's been translated from the Hebrew word for Jehovah.

Anyway, tonight's study was about "Jehovah" or The Self Existent One.

Interesting, it was.

In Exodus 3:11 God appeared to Moses in the burning bush & tells him to go to Egypt & deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh's rule. Moses answers God, saying "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh & bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

God didn't rebuke him for questioning the call. He didn't say, "Moses, you are a good man. You are capable of doing this." He didn't even give Moses an answer to the "Who am I?" question posed.

Instead, God answered, "I will be with you."

It didn't matter who Moses was. It didn't matter Moses background, his experience, his education, his anything. The only thing that mattered was that God would be with him.

It doesn't matter who we are either. Our education, our experience, our knowledge, our family, our anything. God can use any old bush to set on holy fire. (to quote Kay Arthur) God can set us on fire for Him.

The only thing that matters is that He is with us.

self-haircut

i'll never make fun of sonja for not noticing colton's self-haircut. kamrie cut her own bangs recently & it was several days before i noticed. see if you can tell in the pictures. they are VERY short, but she is pretty lucky her hair lays just right so you can't tell unless you pull it back into a ponytail. she's informed me that no, she doesn't like her bangs & she will not do it again.

i actually feel pretty good that this is self-haircut #1 out of 5 kids in 11 years. not bad odds.

tongue rolling

i didn't know tongue rolling was something you could teach yourself, but evidently it is. i thought it was one of those things you could either do or not do. but chloe has been working on it for the last several weeks & has polished the skill.

I Pledge.