A Month in Pictures

Oh look--a month has gone by since I put anything on here.  I've thought about it a couple of times.  But then something else would come up and it wouldn't get done.  And I really don't want to write several posts to get caught up.  So here's a month's worth of living in picture format.

Sewing.  Lot's of sewing.  The first is a skirt that was supposed to be #1's, but I messed up on the measurements so it became #2's.  It looks nothing like the picture in my head.  But she likes it.

Family movie nights.  Carmel popcorn always makes it better.

A spur of the moment trip to go see my sis-in-law, Mom, niece and nephew.  Missed my brother this trip.  But enjoyed our time on the farm.

That would be #4 with Rapunzel hair.  It's actually an old Moby wrap my sis-in-law used.  Braided like my brother braids his heavy duty extension cord.  Because he's creative like that.

A trip to the gator farm with our homeschool group.  It was amazing!  We had such a good time, despite the heat.  We're probably going to be going back with my in-laws in September.

More sewing.  The skirt is more like what I saw in my head this time.  Hooray!  The bottom is a tablecloth I'm making for my parents.  Sewing a large rectangle, no problem.  Adding a colored border around it, mentally taxing.  This is the method I finally went with.  Still not completely sure how it's going to turn out, but there is no going back now!

A birthday party with a mustache theme.  Those things did not want to come off. 

VBS this week.  We did more than just bowling, but since I was helping I didn't really get any pictures.  And those aren't actually my kids bowling.  Because apparently I'm good at remembering to take pictures of my friends' children, but can't remember to take them of my own.  We did have an awesome week at VBS though.

Notable mention with no pictures:  My Mom came to visit for a few days.  I miss my family coming to see us, so I was glad she was able to come. 

We went to a pottery painting place with some friends.  Lots of fun! 

The three oldest went to their first sleepover.  They've had friends over to spend the night, but this was their first time going somewhere.  I hear they stayed up till 2.  There were no bad attitudes, so I didn't care how late they were up.

Bought #1 a bike for an early birthday gift and Hubby one for Father's Day.  We've gone riding 3 times a week for the last three weeks.  We love it.  Hubby is the only one who gets chased by dogs.  Hmmm....

And now we have a week left before going to visit family.  A bit of relaxing before beginning a serious search on finding a smaller place so we can save some money on rent.  Yay for moving during the hottest part of the year!  Again!  Maybe this time we won't be doing it the day after a hurricane blows through!

Vacation Bible School

Our first VBS for the church here is officially over.  It was kind of decided upon late, but I think it was a success.  We had about 15 kids each day.  Hopefully when we do it next year we can get the word out a little earlier and have more kids join us.  Or not--I don't really think the number of participants determines whether your VBS is a success or not.

We started off each day with songs.  I love the fact that Hubby is not afraid to act silly when he is teaching these songs.  His ability to really get into the songs and the motions and laugh at himself helps put the kids at ease and hopefully helps them want to participate as well.  One of the Moms told us today that even though her girls didn't necessarily sing the songs at the VBS, they were singing some of the songs at home.  That to me is a success!

After songs Hubby told the accounts of Esther, Joseph and David.  Our theme was Kingdom Kids so the point of the stories was to show how God used people who were young and not very important to do great things.  Once again, Hubby did a great job drawing the kids into the story by having them make sound effects while he was telling the account.  This isn't necessarily an original idea, but I think it is an effective one.  I can still remember going to a youth meeting when I was a teenager where a preaching did the exact same thing.  I remember which Biblical account it was, as well as the sound effects the audience made.  Hubby's assistants were not always perfect at holding up the prompts for the sounds effects, but that is what he gets for pulling them up front at the last second.  Want to guess who was an assistant all three mornings?

Next was crafts--my portion of the morning.  Are you wondering why I, of all people, was put in charge of crafts?  Me too!  But since I also didn't want to come up with games or provide food, crafts was the only thing left.  Luckily for me, Oriental Trading has these great crafts that come all pre-packaged and are no-brainers at figuring out.  My kind of crafts!  The biggest mistake I made was thinking I could have an older kids craft and a younger kids craft.  I should know from have four children of different ages that once the younger kids saw the older kids doing something they would want to do what the older kids were doing.  We made it work, but next year there will be one craft for everyone!

Moving cotton balls with your nose

Throwing cocoa puffs at the whipped cream plate

Dressing up and singing

As soon as the crafts were all done we played games.  The Mom in charge did an awesome job coming up with activities that encompassed a broad range of ages and kept everyone involved as much as possible.  I think no matter what games you play you'll always have trouble keeping small children's attention for longer than a second, so I think everything she did was awesome!  Especially since I didn't have to do any of the planning!

We ended up by watching the Veggie Tales movie of whichever person we talked about that day.  Watching the movie was Hubby's idea and it turned out to be a perfect way to settle the kids back down before eating lunch.  Some of the older kids said that they thought the movies were boring, but I noticed that they sat and watched the whole movie every day.  Imagine that!

Of course, our mornings would not have run as smoothly as they did without the other adults who were there providing support, running to get anything we forgot, bringing lunch and just generally being there for anything that popped up.  We couldn't have pulled it off without everyone who was there!

Today to close everything out we went bowling.  It ended on a slightly sour note with an injury, non-bowling related, but other than that everyone who came had a good time.  Our girls really loved it.  Which means that I'll probably have to make sure I actually take advantage of the Kids Bowl Free program we're signed up for this summer!

I really think that the VBS was a great success.  My favorite part about a VBS, or really anything else the church does that involves all the kids, is how much closer I feel to everyone who came.  There was fellowship with the other adults in the short moments when we weren't busy doing something else, and we got to know all the kids better as well.  I love it when I see the kids at church after something like this and they talk to me about their favorite song or which craft was their favorite.  They may not remember what all we did at VBS for very long, but hopefully they'll at least remember that they had fun!

Feeding the crowd

I made dinner tonight for everyone at church.  The congregation here has a meal before services every Wednesday night.  I'm not sure why they started.  And to be perfectly honest, when we first moved here I wasn't so sure I was going to like it.  Turns out, I actually enjoy it quite a bit.  First of all, it isn't a potluck.  One person provides the entire meal for everyone and we rotate who cooks by signing up for it.  That means that I only have to cook one Wednesday night every 6-8 weeks.  Granted, that one time I have to cook is quite an undertaking, but still.  5-7 weeks off, even for one night a week is awesome!

The first time it was my turn I was actually nervous.  Trying to come up with something that you think everyone is going to like can be a little nerve racking.  But I finally decided on taco salad and it went over pretty well.  Everyone especially loved the brownies I made.  I take no credit--they came from a box. 

The second time it was my turn I made white chili.  I've never had so many people ask me what a dish was in my entire life.  Or so many looks of trepidation when they tasted it.  I think most of them told me they were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good.  I chose not to look too closely at the trash cans to see how much was thrown out.  Ignorance is bliss!

So tonight was my turn again. I considered chicken enchiladas, but that is what I make for pot-lucks.  I don't want to make them eat the enchiladas too often, then I would have to stop bringing them to the pot-lucks.  Right now I always come home with an empty dish so I decided not to mess with a good thing.  So I went back to taco salad.  I figured it had been about three months since I made it the first time.  I was feeling pretty good about how it all turned out until one of the elders walked in tonight, looked at the food and exclaimed, "It must be Anita's night to cook!"  I never did find out exactly what he meant by that, although I believe the general gist was that I can be counted on to bring something Mexican related.  I tried to tell him that the white chili wasn't even close to a Mexican dish, but he just smiled at me and shook his head.  I told him that since I was in such a rut next time I was going to only bring turnip greens and it would serve him right.  Unfortunately for me, he actually loves those nasty things so he would enjoy that meal.  Cajuns...

The plus side to all of this, is that even if I am constantly bringing food to this congregation that they don't know what to do with, they all love the desserts I make.  Most of them have gone over pretty well.  So even if most of the actual food gets thrown away, at least I can enjoy the compliments about the desserts!