Young Moms

For many years now, Sarah and I have led a young mom's Bible study group.  Here is a photo from one of our first groups.

It all began when we mentored the wives of the young couple leaders at church.

The past few years, we have opened up the Bible study to any young mom who wants to get together to study the Bible.  Every year it is different as some girls go on to other opportunities and new girls come seeking a place to find friendships and get to know their Saviour more!  Here is this year's group minus a few who were missing due to illnesses.

We had lots of illnesses this year.  So much guck going around!!  

We've also had lots of babies over the years too!  Here are this year's babies:

                                                            

This one is hiding his face.

This year we studied this book.

Here is a preview I read about it:

The Promised One is a 10-part study guide for women which "is uniquely designed to help you to look into the wonder of the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis —and see how it prepares for and points to Christ". The controlling scriptural passage is Luke 24:27 in which Jesus instructed the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The verse reads, "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (ESV). On this foundation Guthrie writes, "Most people see the Bible as a 'guidebook for life.' But Jesus is saying here that the Bible is not about what God wants us to do but about who God wants us to see. And it is Jesus we are going to see as we study Genesis together" 

 We took 2 weeks to do each chapter so it lasted the year for us.  What an overview to see the whole of Scriptures pointing to Christ!  Beginning in Genesis!  We did find some of the questions hard to answer, but the chapter reads were good.  And the girls did NOT like filling out the charts!  Well, some of them might enjoy that kind of thing.

As the year came to a close, we decided to have a fun movie night at church.


We ordered pizza and we all brought some munchies too.  This is a favorite!!  Sarah calls it White Crack, because it is so addictive!  Very true!

6 cups Crispix cereal

3 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal

2 cups pretzels (I use small pretzel sticks)

2 cups dry roasted peanuts

1 lb M&M's plain chocolate candy

1 lb plain chocolate or vanilla almond bark

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients except almond bark in a large bowl.

Melt almond bark in a double boiler or microwave.

Pour over all ingredients.

Stir until well coated.

Spread on wax paper until cool.

Break pieces apart.

Warning:  1/15th of the recipe is 506 calories!  23 g of sugar!  Yea.  Not the healthiest.  But it sure is yummy.  

 

These girls were being silly and playing with an app that tries to guess your gender and your age.  Too funny!!

Incidently, this young momma had her baby yesterday!!!  Congratulations!!!

We are all so blessed with all these little ones!!

 It may have gotten a little late for some of these mommies.

 Coffee helps though!

Have a great summer, gals, and looking forward to next year for those who want to join us!  We are thinking about doing this study:

You know your mom’s advice.
You know the parenting trends your friends are following.
But do you know what the Bible teaches about parenting your children?

Entrusted with a Child’s Heart moms' study is a 22-week plan for creating a loving and disciplined family life based on specific truths from God’s Word. Find hope and direction as you begin to learn biblical solutions for  parenting. Gain confidence and timeless wisdom each week as you listen to practical teaching from seasoned mom and counselor Betsy Corning. Then make new friends and receive encouragement from your time with other moms during group discussion time. 


We did this study awhile back, but the moms who did it said they could use a refresher!  Their kids are older and being a mom is hard, no matter the age of the child!  Even Grandmas can learn new things!

May + end of school = programs

It is May!  

We have a tradition on May Day where we take flowers to the kids' house, 

put them on the door knob, ring the doorbell and run away.  

This year, they happened to be outside so they saw us.

I think if they catch you in the act, you are supposed to give them a big kiss!

I brought them a May Day dessert.  Ice-cream in a plastic cup and placed inside a little flower pot.  Add crushed chocolate cookie on top and add a flower.  I used fake flowers, but if you use a real one, just put a straw in the ice-cream, then insert the flower.

May means school is wrapping up!  

There have been lots of programs!  

The first program we had was Sophia's ballet recital.

Great job, Sophia!!

Because she takes lessons from mommy, she didn't have a piano recital, but she plays some pieces for us when we go to their home.  Learning it well!

She was ill the day of her school program.  Sad.

Hannah had several "end of year" events.  First, she and a couple others from her class were selected to enter the PLTW (Project Lead the Way Kansas) competition at WSU!  It is an engineering scholarship program for high schoolers, but a few elementary age kids were also invited to participate.  What an honor to be chosen!

They built a pulley structure that could lift items 

too heavy to carry into a tree house.

Papa has a few words of wisdom.  I think he missed his calling.  He is definitely teacher material!

Interlocking furniture design

We liked this idea! - a tailgate model that turns into a ramp for easy loading.

Of course, if you're in the big city, it is a good excuse to go out to eat!!

Another evening, Hannah had a school program we went to.

Hannah isn't in the band, but Al had Claire on his lap and he said, 

"Claire, look at the trumpet!" 

"No.  Look at the Amerigo fyag!"  

(she LOVES the flag!) 

Hannah is taking guitar.   

They offer lessons at the school and she has learned so much!

So on another evening, we went to her guitar recital.

 Daddy helped out with accompanying with the djembe and also on the guitar.

A good time to hang out with friends and watch their older siblings perform.

My grands in Arkansas also had end of year activities.

Eli had his last "alone with Mommy on Monday" activity.

They went hiking and had lots of special time! 

He also graduated from training wheels!

Emeri had award day and here was Staci's e-mail about it:

The school had an award ceremony today and each child was given a character award. Emeri's teacher gave her the character or virtue. And she also got the highest achievement award for having the highest grades in her class!  She was so excited. And one of our carpool buddies got the award for her kindergarten class so we went out for ice cream (and it was Eli's half birthday AND he had his interview for Kindergarten in which the teacher said he is MORE than ready for kindergarten!  Not surprising, that boy cracks me up! ) Then we had a cookout around the fire pit with some friends and neighbors. It was awesome weather. This time of year is so fun!!!  The only bummer of the day was that I didn't get a medal. I wanted to yell out "where are the momma metals?  We all need one! " lol!

 And Claire?  We are still waiting for complete potty training!  It will be soon, I think!

We must have a little celebration for that!

Oh yes, Staci, you mommas and daddies need medals too!

Bravo to you!!