AWANA hair night

In Truth and Training (Emily and Melissa,) they had a hair night where there were prizes for the most beautiful, most things, most colorful, and most creative hair-dos.  In Sparks (Laura) they had a fancy night.  I took the girls in and had their hair done.  Here are the end results.  Emily and Melissa both won prizes for their categories.

AWANA

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed--Taken from II Timothy 2:15

We are well into our new Awana year.  I say "well" because though it has only been two weeks, it seems as if we have done a lot of work.  And we have!  Our first week was close to 60 children, and this week we were over 60.  Now to get the Gospel message out to each child...

I have been helping the secretary again this year.  This involves getting information about the child, permission slips, books, vests, membership cards, record cards, finding last year's information if necessary, organizing the folders, coloring pages, verses tally sheets, etc.  The first week was mostly passing out books, this week mostly giving vests and membership cards, next week will be putting rank patches on vests, and the next giving wings and jewels.  After that it should start to dwindle down a bit.

Farming

Well, I will have to admit that my free moments have turned to farming lately. I don't have a farm like my friends do; I've been trying to build a profitable farm on Facebook. I get to have a few of the pleasures of having a farm but without the smell. :) If you're on Facebook and have a few extra minutes, please send me some trees and/or animals.

Today we had a family over for lunch before Mike had to go to work. They have seven children and are expecting another later this year. It was lots of fun, and Tracy really enjoyed it because she had friends to play games with her. I made a couple roasts with the potatoes, carrots, and gravy to go with them, and they brought some chocolate chip cookie bars. Of course, the bars went over better than the meal. :)

Tonight the kids and I went to Awana. Melissa brought snacks for her age group so we made and frosted cookies for that and brought grapes too. Emily finished the hardest section in her book (John 10:10-18,) Jason finished his book, I'm not sure about Aaron, and Tracy got to go swimming. She's been helping with the 3rd through 6th grade girls, and those that were at least half way in their books got to go swimming.

Tonight was "Take a Picture with Sparky" night. When Laura and I got back from dropping Melissa off, Sparky was already there. Laura stood there looking and looking and puckering and puckering farther and farther before she finally started to cry. She sat on my lap, holding me with a "death grip" and eventually fell asleep. Later in the evening I happened to mention "Sparky" while she was on the floor coloring. She dropped the crayons and climbed onto my lap again and wouldn't let go. I'll have to say that it was one of the calmest Awana nights having to take care of Laura without Mike there. :) We didn't even try to get a picture of her with Sparky this year because of her extreme fear, but you can see her last year in this post.

AWANA

Tonight at Awana Emily not only said the books of the Old Testament, she went on to say Psalm 23. I did not even know she was working on that. For "years and years" I've been teaching the kids the books of the Bible for part of their schooling (we review them every fall,) and the picture below shows how I've always tried to make it interesting. This past time I made the things it was just with brown, but I usually make them colorful and have colored the letters in. I also teach how they are divided into the 5-12-5-5-12 pattern for the Old Testament. It works for us. Several have fallen or have been taken down because I need the pins for Melissa's school letters we're hanging on the wall.

John 3:14-16

I need to add two new verses to my knowledge since I'll be teaching them to children this year. Though I've read them, I've never committed verses 14 and 15 to memory.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
15 That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

AWANA

It was strange taking just two girls tonight. Emily got three sections done in her new "Be _____" book. They run on themes such as be thankful, be kind, be helpful, etc. and add Bible verses. She's also hoping to be able to memorize Psalm 23 soon.

We did some cleaning today as the kids trashed the place out. I just had a lazy day and watched a few movies. The kids had some fun outside in the sticky snow, but we didn't get our snowmen built. Oh well; tomorrow we may have another chance.

We will be working on some school work tonight as we didn't do much today, and then tomorrow we'll have to pack for our trip to the Winter Retreat in Bemidji. I think if they keep pushing the date out, they'll have to change the name to "Spring Retreat." We'll get to meet up with Tracy again. Hooray!

Awana

Tonight we went to town early so the kids could play on the big snow pile at the church building.

I ran some errands, got some supper and a few groceries, gas, and a big box (dryer box) for Laura for her birthday. I was trying to find a ball for her, but they were all squishy instead of firm like a new ball should be. A free box was all she got for her birthday from us so far. :) She doesn't care though. She has a daddy, mommy, Tracy, Aaron, Jason, Emily, and Melissa (and others, I know) who love her; that's all she needs. :)

We ate her birthday cake and ice cream for breakfast, and I'll try to post a few pictures either later tonight or tomorrow.

AWANA

Tonight I was the secretary at AWANA since our main secretary was gone. It went well overall.

As we walked outside to come home, we saw the eclipse starting and now it's in full force. :)

We got home, I took Melissa out of the car and she threw up on me. I wonder how many people we infected tonight. Jason went to bed last night after watching a movie and slept until 2:00 today then came out and slept for three more hours. Mike said he slept most of the time we were gone. Laura was just the opposite; I guess she cried the whole time I was gone.

Beth, I hope you're still immune from being sick at your house! Sorry about this. I suppose they were contagious yesterday.

The Aussie-dog is doing well. He enjoys being out in the snow. He's a snowplow. I hope to be able to get some pictures to post of him plowing one of these days.

Sorry for having to add the word verification; I have been getting spammed on here so wanted to try and stop that.

Laura and Sparky

AWANA

Tonight I was given the cutest picture of Laura sitting on "Sparky's" lap at AWANA last week. She doesn't look thrilled, but I knew nothing about it. Big brother Aaron was taking care of her so this was all a surprise to me. I'll see if it'll scan well tomorrow and post it. In the mean time, here's a picture of her hiding in the cupboard. I hope it's alright to post the same pictures as my daughter. I guess it'll be the "fight" to see which one of us posts first. :)

AWANA

While heading to Awana tonight, the van was acting strangely. I had left early to do some grocery shopping but decided to pull into the car place instead. We were running solely on battery power. We had a problem at Christmas time also so the rebuilt alternator we got then did no good except get us home. Plus, we have been using the anti-freeze. After many times of me telling them there was something wrong (almost a year,) they finally found the problem in the radiator. What a day to have it happen. I'm so thankful it happened tonight and not tomorrow on the road with six kids in the car. It's FREEZING (about 20 below) out there! I love living in Minnesota. If we don't like the weather one day, we can stick around for a few more and it will change. :)

AWANA

Tonight we went to AWANA. As we drove into town, we washed the van (which we had just washed Sunday on our way home) because it got terribly salty driving the icy roads yesterday morning. We dropped Melissa off at Cubbies where the three and four year olds and some five year olds who haven't started kindergarten go. She said her verse very well because she has a star in her book, I noticed. Tracy took Aaron with her because they were having popcorn and it was a good bribe. Emily's learning more and more verses and can out-say me now, I'm sure. I'll have to work on that...
I didn't get the picture card loaded onto the computer before Mike shut his off so I'll have to try to do that tomorrow. I took a picture of the tray of cookies when it came home too because there were several left; usually the tray gets wiped out. (Normally there's more chocolate stuff though.)
Thanks for visiting, and have a great evening!

AWANA

Today was the last day of AWANA for the year. It was candy cane night so the kids got one candy cane for coming and one for each section signed.

AWANA

This week at AWANA we had a much warmer night. In fact, the secretary was even hot! Next week I get to be the secretary as our regular one will be gone. My five-year old finished reviewing her handbook so got a workbook to work through. Though she seems excited, I don't think anything will compare to her excitement of actually getting to go to Sparks for the first time earlier this fall and then the excitement of finishing her book. I didn't bring the baby tonight, which was a first. It's the first meeting she has missed because she was even there when she was one day old! I sat up in the balcony and watched while my husband brought her all around so the kids could see her.

We bagged up some Christmas cookies and gave them out to a few friends while we were there. The girls stamped on brown paper sacks earlier today, we filled them with cookies, and then we stapled them closed. It worked very well and I'll probably do that again for next year. Usually we try and use small plates, but the Saran Wrap always sticks in funny places so cookies fall out.

AWANA

We're heading into town for Awana again. My 3-year old has Cubbies snacks tonight so we made these baby Jesus figures out of Nutter Butter cookies and chocolate chips with smiles (and glue for the eyes) of almond bark. The hay is the haystack cookies we make for Christmas out of chow mein noodles and melted chips only flattened them. I just quickly made a "stable" out of a couple cereal boxes and put all the babies in it for the kids to enjoy. We'll also bring some grapes to make it a tiny bit healthy. The other picture is a Nativity scene my son made of Legos this afternoon.

AWANA

Tonight my husband bribed the children to go to AWANA. He said they could get out the Christmas lights after they got home if they went. Everyone did well saying verses, but they were excited to get home--especially the 12-year old. The five-year old has five verses left to finish her book and then she'll get a workbook to work on.

Our baby turned nine months old yesterday. I totally missed that so forgot to take a picture. I did get one this morning of her with a big smile. I'll have to post it tomorrow after I get the pictures loaded to the computer.

AWANA

Some of my children have been attending an AWANA program and enjoy the challenge of memorizing verses. I think it's important for them to be memorizing verses because it's so much easier to memorize when you're younger. They also enjoy getting the opportunity to be together with other children their ages and play games.