Kingdom Under Construction

We just finished our Vacation Bible School.  It was another amazing week as VBS usually is!  This year our theme was "Kingdom Under Construction."  This had a duel meaning.  First, there is major construction going on outside of our church building making it very difficult to get into our parking lot.  Second,  God is still working to build His kingdom and we are a part of it.

As I have done since 2005, I wrote a skit to go along with the message for each night.  This year, our speaker was Joe Hawkinson.  He did a fantastic job.  The kids really enjoyed him.  We had a total of 73 kids!!

On Monday, the kids learned about King Saul.  In the skit, the princesses disobeyed their guardian, Dorma Fairy, and spoke to the evil queen's 2 daughters.

Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  'Honor your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with promise: 'that it may be well with you and you will live long on the earth.' "

As the kids first entered, they were met by this guy:

And then greeted by 3 smiling faces here:

After they were signed in, they entered through these doors 

And sat here for singing and the message.

On Tuesday, the kids learned about King David.  In the skit, the princesses realized they needed to confess their sins if they truly wanted to serve King Matthew.

1 John 1:9-10 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

After the message, the kids split up.  2 families (teams) went here:

For crafts:

And the other 2 went to the courtyard for games:

On Wednesday, the kids learned about Pharaoh who did not listen to God when He sent Moses to free His people.  In the skit, the Jester warned the evil queen, Queen Lucinda, that she needed to listen to King Matthew or her household could be cursed.

(Played by me)

Proverbs 3:33-34 "The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the just. Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble."

After games and crafts, the families either went here:

For some snacks

Or here to learn their nightly verse taught by MaryRuth Moore.

On Thursday, the kids learned about King Nebuchadnezzer.  In the skit, as he was dying from his fight with the queen's dragon, Prince Shane forgives the people for not believing in him and he gives a warning about the evil queen whose daughter was also losing her life.

2 Corinthians 7:10 "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."

Then it was time for the kids to go back out for more crafts

And games

On Friday, we invited the families to attend.  We learned about the King of kings - Jesus!  All the other kings sinned, but Jesus is perfect.  He took our punishment for our sins and died in our place so that we may live, forgiven of all of our sins.  In the skit, King Matthew announced Prince Shane as the rightful heir to the throne and the evil queen and her dragon were cast out of the kingdom forever.

Acts 4:11-12 "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'  Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

When the kids returned to the Great Hall, they got to enjoy the skit.

King Matthew, the Jester, and Queen Lucinda are missing

Thursday evening, a huge storm came through with 80+ MPH winds.  It blew down huge branches and some trees.  We were forced to move the games inside and the crafts up front in the foyer.  All of the seemingly chaotic changes were handled extremely well!  This is also when I took most of these pictures so that's why the games are pictured inside.

When VBS ended that evening, this is what we walked outside to...

However, we lost part of our power!  Our AC went out, microwave and oven didn't work, dryer didn't work, and most of our lights were off.  We were able to plug in a window AC unit, charge devices as necessary, and run an extension cord to keep our refrigerator running.  We finally got all of our power back today!!

It was a great week and I look forward to next year's VBS!!

Thank you to everyone who worked hard putting it all together!!!

12. Years. Old.

Do you ever have those moments where you just cannot believe you're actually an adult?  You go back to your childhood when you would dream about the future and wonder if you would ever get to that point in life.  And then, since you have reached that point in life, you are still in disbelief that you are there?

I have a 12-year-old son.  J had a birthday yesterday.  I just cannot wrap my head around that!  He was born a few months before 9/11.  We moved to Kansas when he was just weeks old.  New baby, new job, new city, new state....talk about completely life-changing!

Well, life has been crazy busy.  As I looked on the calendar, I was having a hard time finding a day we could even celebrate his birthday.

After K's birthday, Seth's grandma passed away.  So, the following Thursday, we drove to Topeka and spent the night with some friends.  Our kids all got along great!  Early Friday morning, I took Seth to the Kansas City airport where he left to go to Idaho for the funeral.

On Sunday, J and K went to Kansas Bible Camp.  It was just Little A and me for a few days.  We went swimming.  We helped get things ready for VBS.  We enjoyed special treats.  We just had some good 1-on-1 time.

On Wednesday, we were going to leave for Kansas City at 9:30 in order to pick up Seth at 1:45.  However, his flight was delayed.  And delayed.  And delayed.  We left at about 3:30 and we still had some time to kill.  We wandered around Cabelas for about an hour.  Seth's plane landed around 8:45 Wednesday evening.  We picked him up and didn't get home until after midnight.  Seth had been awake for nearly 28 hours.

Friday, Little A and I traveled to the camp to pick up J and K.  They had a great week.  By this time, I knew we had just a few hours available to celebrate J's birthday so I told him the plan.

Saturday morning, I went to a town about an hour away for a Thirty-One meeting.  The local meetings were both during VBS so I had to find a different one.  I came home about 1:00 and we had lunch.  Then, it was time for a birthday celebration!

I got the presents and he opened his gifts and cards.

 

We sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out all 12 candles on his cake.  I didn't realize how long it took to light 12 candles!  lol  However, since lunch was so late and supper would be soon, we saved the cake and ice cream for later.

 

 

For supper, J wanted to eat at HuHot.  Since we couldn't have that option on his actual birthday, his Saturday celebration continued there.  HuHot is a family favorite.

 

Then, I had to go to our VBS skit dress rehearsal.  VBS was right around the corner.  It was fun seeing everyone's costumes.  And we ended sooner than I had anticipated, which means the skit was coming along very well!

 

Once I got home, we enjoyed the cake and ice cream.

 

Sunday, we got to sing to him at church.  Then, I stayed all afternoon for our VBS training.  Of course we have another skit practice immediately following the training.  This is just to clean it up, fix the details, make sure everyone is in his/her proper place on stage.  Since everyone was doing so well this year, it didn't take very long.  I was exhausted when I got home.

 

Monday was his actual birthday.  It was his day, his choosing of what to do until 4:30.  He received a package in the mail, so he did get to open one gift on his birthday.  It was from the Piearson family, his aunt, uncle, and cousins in Iowa.

 

 

 

We had shells and cheese for lunch.  He played the Xbox most of the morning.  Then at 2:00, he decided to go swimming.  So, we quickly got ready and headed to the pool.

 

It was a short swim, but it was fun.  Both J and K jumped off the diving board.  And all of us tried to teach Little A how to swim better.  We left her life jacket at family camp last summer so I really want her to learn how to swim soon.  She does fine in the shallow end on her own.  She knows how to swim...she just doesn't know how to keep herself above water.

 

After swimming, we rushed home to change and headed back out for our first night of VBS.

 

Seth was going to have to work in the same town I went to on Saturday.  But he had to be there by 4 this morning.  At first, he was staying in a hotel, but then decided to sleep in his own bed and leave here around 2:30.  So, he was home and got to wish J a happy birthday.  That was a nice surprise.  :)

 

So, even though life has been busy and we've  put a lot of miles on the van this week, I think J enjoyed turning 12.  He is growing up into a very nice young man who loves the Lord.

 

 

Happy birthday, J!  I love you!

She's 10!

Yesterday, my older daughter, K, turned 10.  She has been looking forward to this birthday for 2 years.  And in this family, turning 10 means a big party.  There were a few friends she invited for a sleepover.  I had to put a limit on that.  Then more of her friends came for a big party the following day.  She had difficulty choosing a theme, however.  She wanted a princess theme (of course) but she knew that would mean boys wouldn't come.  So, she was torn.

At first, we started planning a spy-themed party.  We had game ideas and started looking at decorations and cake.  Then, she went back to being undecided.

Finally, she settled on an all-girl princess themed party.  After discussing on how to make this a big girl princess party so that it didn't seem too babyish, we decided to have a princess training party where her guests would go through various "tests" (AKA games) in order to earn their tiaras.  But how?

Well, I do my best thinking at night.  After the kids were in bed, I went online and did some searching.  Nothing seemed to work.  I mulled over everything we had talked about.  And then it hit me.  I suddenly knew how to do the games so that it would be a fun party but still have that princess training theme.  I was so excited, I ran upstairs to wake up K to tell her my ideas.  She loved them.  And so the party-planning began...

She invited 5 girls to spend the night.  1 girl couldn't make it and another one was a bit late due to a family emergency.

The girls began their fun with makeovers.

K was then presented with a special Princess sash by one of her friends.

Then the girls played a few games on the Kinect.

It was soon time to settle down and watch a movie: Barbie Princess Charm School.

All of her friends had already seen it, but it fit so well with the party theme, we had to watch it.  Thankfully, it was a favorite among her friends.

The next morning, I brought the girls donuts and we all got ready for more party-goers.  As more girls arrived, we began the princess training with making pizza.  After all, every princess should know how to cook.

I cannot tell you how thankful I am that we got this new table the day before the slumber party!

It was well initiated into the family when the girls made their pizzas.

I created a special playlist on my ipod for the party.  One song was from the movie they watched the night before.  As soon as that song started playing, 5 girls started screaming and jumping and dancing and singing while one girl complained about hearing that song too much and the others looking at the screaming girls like they were crazy.  Hahaha

When everyone was finished eating, we had the first game.  Every princess should know how to dress properly.  I had 2 thirty-one bags filled with dress-up dresses and shoes.  The girls were split into 2 teams.  They would run a relay race, running to the bag, putting on a dress or shoes and running back to her team so the next girl could go.  The winning team received princess nail files as a prize.

Then it was time for the princesses to learn how to sit in her throne.  The girls played musical chairs.

The winner received a special ribbon.

Then it was time to open presents.  We went back inside and K opened all of her gifts from her friends.  Everything she got was perfect.  Her friends know her very well (or I described her well enough to the parents who asked what she would want).

And of course, what is a birthday party without cake and ice cream?  The cake was supposed to be a crown, but I think it looks more like a castle.  Either way, it fit the theme and K liked how it turned out.

Finally, the princesses needed to protect her kingdom by slaying a dragon.  This particular dragon was filled with candy and all the girls had the opportunity to beat it down.  They all earned their princess crowns.

For her actual birthday, we had a little fun around town.  First we went to a park where the kids and myself received our first sunburns of the season.

Then we went to a nature center, where we walked the trail and fed some animals.

Ducks, turtles, fish

This guy did not move off this log the entire time we were there!  He didn't care how much bread we threw at him, he stayed put.  I joked that maybe the other turtles bet him he couldn't stay on the log for a certain amount of time.  He was determined to win that bet.  He finally crawled off and dipped into the water just as we were leaving.

When daddy came home, it was time for presents and later cake and ice cream.  She was excited to get her first thirty-one bag.  I even got it personalized for her.  :)

I think she had an amazing 10th birthday full of fun memories.

Happy 10th birthday!!  I love you!

Coffee part 2

Back in October of 2011, I wrote a little blog on Coffee .

Well, wouldn't you know it, there's been a bit of a change in this house!  Let me start at the beginning...

Neither Seth nor I drank coffee.  My parents do not drink coffee.  Seth's parents do.  I have had coffee occasionally.  Seth couldn't stand the stuff.

A few weeks ago, Seth and our son left early on a Saturday morning to work at a camp to help get it ready for summer.  J ordered a mocha from McDonald's.  Seth was surprised that he not only ordered it, but also drank it.  So, Seth decided to try some himself.

He fell in love.

My husband left that morning a coffee-hater and returned a coffee-lover.  Whaaaat?

He then found himself getting a coffee at work, discovering the difference between "good" coffee and "bad" coffee, knowing which coffees to get and which ones to avoid, and craving a good cup of coffee.

He eventual broke down and bought himself a coffee maker.

Yep, this is now in my house:

 

 

And these:



 



I have not tried it yet.  Seth and all 3 kids have had some.  I do have some good reasons why I have not tried it yet...and I do mean "yet" because I want to try it.  But, I don't know how to work it and Seth is gone before I get up in the mornings.  I cannot do caffeine in the evenings.  And I didn't know how my new gallbaldder-free body would react when he first brought it home.  I think I will be ok now so whenever he's home in the morning and making himself a cup, I'm going to ask if he'll make a cup for me, too.  :)

Crazy + Prayer = Peace

Life has really picked up and gotten busy!  With VBS coming up next month, we've started our skit rehearsals.  We're trying to get as much school done as possible.  And I'm trying to plan K's 10th birthday party.  If that's not enough to juggle...

My sister had a baby girl!

I had my gallbladder removed and I'm still recovering.

We went to J's Middle school for an open house and discovered information we were not happy with, but we do think this is the right school for our children as they each reach this age.  He already knows his way around the school better than I do!

My parents have been in town, my mom has been here for a week and my dad will be returning to Wichita tonight to see the new grandbaby.  That makes a total of 11 grandkids!  More company could be coming soon.

My sister-in-law is also expecting and she is due in November.

My niece is graduating from high school.

2 of my Sunday School students are graduating from high school.

My thirty-one business is going extremely well!

BSF is about to end.  Due to my surgery, I don't know if Little A and I will make it to the last one (tonight).  I'm kinda sad about that.  It has been an amazing study in the book of Genesis.  No matter how well I know some of those stories, I love discovering new things within them.  God is always teaching.  :)

Both the older 2 have June birthdays and will be going to camp in June, right before our VBS.

Our license plate got stolen a few weeks ago, completely destroying the plans of that day.  We got it replaced.  It reminded me of the time my family was on vacation out east.  We were driving on the NJ turnpike when we heard a loud BANG!  If I recall correctly, we were passing a semi truck at the time.  I have no idea if that had anything to do with it, but obviously, something was wrong with our van.  So, we pulled off the next exit and took it to get fixed.  Meanwhile, we had to find a place to stay.  We are tent campers but since this was an unplanned stop, we stayed in a hotel.  The next morning, as we were packing the van, we noticed our license plates were gone.  Screws were left on the ground.  Then, we had to go to the police station.  Since this was near the beginning of our trip, we still had about a week and a half of driving around NJ, MA, NY, and elseswhere without plates!  We made up a cardboard plate with the stolen number and put it in our back window.  We were warned that driving around with a plate number that was reported stolen might cause us to get pulled over a few times.  Thankfully, that never happened.  Although, we did have a cop follow us for a while at one point.  It is because of this incident that my family has a bit of a grudge towards New Jersey.  Don't worry, it's mostly just a joke to us.

I bought a new desk to help organize my business and hopefully our school supplies for next year.

Our TV went out and we bought a new one.

I'm singing with the choir at our church.

Little A has lost 2 teeth and she got a haircut.  Since she no longer has her 2 front teeth on the top, she looks and sounds so much differently than she did a week ago!

And I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting!  This just covers my last blog to the end of June.  In July, we're planning on driving to Boston!

How on earth do I handle everything?  Well, God has been teaching me to let things go.  I have to choose to not stress out.  I have to choose to go with the flow.  I have to choose to not get upset when things don't go as *I* have planned.  I have to choose to let God handle the details and to trust Him.  If I start to feel overwhelmed, then I'm trying to do God's job.

If I were feeling up to it, I'd post some pics, because I have some!  But, maybe that will have to wait until I am a little more mobile.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, more craziness on its way.  But it's a lot better than sitting around being bored!

Enjoy the life God has given you right now and He will bless you beyond your imagination.

Rest Time is Over

I had a very relaxing non-stressful 6 weeks of rest!  All I focused on was my home, my family, and homeschooling.  It was actually very nice.

Near the end of my break, however, I signed up to be a Thirty-One consultant!!!  Now, you may be thinking why would I add such a huge endeavor to my life when I was supposedly taking a break from any and all extra activities?  I agree.  That is a perfectly valid question.  I had been praying about doing this for about a year.  I just love Thirty-One and their products.  I have purchased 10 items in the past few years and I love everything about them and I keep wanting more!  I finally decided that this was something I could sell.  But, I was planning on waiting until May to sign up.  Then, it was brought to my attention that if I signed up before April 1, I could get a full rebate on my enrollment kit if I sold a certain amount in my first 30 days.  The possibility of getting my enrollment kit for free was tempting, so I did some more praying.

I want to say that I am not completely new to these home-based selling companies.  I once sold Mary Kay.  I enjoy Mary Kay products.  I still use it and it is the only brand I use on my face.  But, I jumped into selling Mary Kay without prayerfully considering it.  It was an on-the-whim decision.  I had never used Mary Kay before I became a consultant and knew nothing about the company except that it sold makeup.  When I attended my first meeting, I was so put off by the director.  I did not understand the excitement of Mary Kay.  I couldn't sell it because I wasn't excited to tell others about it.  Shortly after becoming a consultant, I became pregnant with my older daughter.  Throw in the exhaustion and hormones of pregnancy while dealing with a toddler and a new business that I really wasn't all that excited about just lead to failure.  I was in it strictly to make a little extra income for our family.  It required a lot more effort and time and money than I could give or was willing to give.  I made a whopping $42 the entire year I was a consultant and I just let my status as a consultant expire.  It was not worth it to me at that time.

So, you can imagine how leary I was of any home-based selling company that I ran into from then on.  I considered selling Creative Memories - a scrapbooking company, but my family didn't scrapbook and I didn't know where I would find a good customer base.  Then, another scrapbooking company came along called Heritage Makers.  It sounded appealing as well, and since it was an online scrapbooking company, it might be better.  But, still, no one felt like they could give me business.

Then, I attended a Thirty-One party.  I had never heard of it before and I had no idea what kind of a company it was.  As I listened to the consultant talk about the items and passed them around the room, I started to fall in love.  I thought of uses for almost everything in the catalog.  I had my eye on several items, but could only afford to spend a small amount of money at the time.  I bought my first item and left wondering if I would ever have the opportunity to buy anything else.

I soon realized that I was not the only one introduced to this new company.  My sisters had a few Thirty-One items as well.  Perfect!  I had to get more.  I had to find a consultant.  Thankfully, I discovered that my cousin, Deidra Rankin, sells it.  I bought a few items from her and was ecstatic when it arrived.  I was hooked.  Finally, I decided it was time to make it my business.  I didn't join for the money.  I didn't join for all the rewards I could get.  I joined because I love the product and I want others to know what great products they are!  As I learned with Mary Kay, you can't sell it if you don't love it.  :)  So after much thought, a lot of praying, and several months, I joined the Thirty-One career and I am having a blast.  And, yes, I did earn my rebate!!

Last week, I had our spring break.  It was a wonderful end of my weeks of rest.  Easter Sunday was amazing.  The music was absolutely beautiful.  I didn't even once wish I was up there singing with them.  I truly enjoyed just listening and getting chills from the blends and talented voices praising God.  We even witnessed a young girl get baptized, showing the world that she has made a commitment to follow the Lord.  I sent the kids on an unusual Easter egg hunt that afternoon.  Instead of just searching for eggs, they were required to correctly answer a question or complete a task in order to keep the egg they found.  It was very fun.  Later, we made resurrection rolls, representing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  This will be an Easter Sunday I won't soon forget.

Then, it was time for me to dive in to VBS planning.  Our theme this year is a kingdom theme.  As I do every year, I wrote a skit to be performed each night of VBS to go along with the theme and reinforcing the speaker's message.  As my Thirty-One business took off, and VBS on my brain, and getting back into school routine after spring break, I think the rest did its job.  Thank You, Lord for giving me the wisdom to step back and get myself refocused on what is really important.

So, here I am, back in full swing of everything I love and everything I am called to do.  I need to stay focused on the Lord and serve only Him.  I need to bathe my day in prayer, asking for wisdom and strength.  I need to forget trying to please others.

For those of you who have no idea what Thirty-One is, you can check out my website at www.mythirtyone.com/lauramh.