Grandkid weekend

Adam and Jill felt they needed some time away so we watched Hannah and Sophia for 3 days while they took a trip to Kansas City. The girls had lots of fun!
Hannah playing in the playhouse under the stairs.

Here is Sophia calling her mommy.


We went to McDonalds.

Hannah doesn't look so happy, but she really was.

She loves to go out to eat!

We had to go shopping for pasghetti and meatballs.

We had lunch at

Hannah's Fancy Restaurant!

Our waitress and cook, Hannah.

"Do you want some more water?"

The girls enjoyed painting.

Sophie thinks it funny to paint her hands.

These past couple of days she said so often

"It's funny!"

or

"I'm happy!"

Hannah loves to cook. In fact, she has helped me

in the kitchen since she was one year old.

They lived with us for 8 months and it all began then.

She is quite the cook!

Here is the recipe for the Men's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies that we made:

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Mix all together until blended.

In another bowl, mix together:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

Add to the sugar/egg mix.

Add:

1 cup nuts, walnuts or pecans (or more!)

2 cups chocolate chips

Drop by rounded spoons onto baking sheet. I line mine with foil. Bake 15 minutes in preheated 325 oven. Very soft and delicious!

(Hannah wanted oatmeal in them, so I substituted some of the flour with oatmeal. )

There was quite a mess afterwards but it is easy to sweep the flours, wash down the cupboards and the child and the dishes too.

For many years now, I have kept a bottle of Joy on my sink.

There is also a verse I keep there that says,

"Be joyful always,

pray continually;

give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thess. 5:18

Always a good reminder when things are not going the way I want. Oh and what a joy it was to watch the grandchildren this weekend!! Thank You, Lord for the gift of these little children in our lives!!

October

I LOVE

FALL!

It is my favorite season!

So fun to decorate the house!

I found the most unusual gourds.





Marilyn Reimer introduced me to the mix of candy corn and nuts.
Yum! It has become a tradition at our home every fall.


Oh and I love the smell of apples!

October is the time we start up Mom2Mom again at our church. This is a program at our church to support and encourage moms of all ages. We meet once a month and have both a morning and evening edition. Child care is provided in the morning session.

Caryn Harder made a beautiful centerpiece!

This year our theme is "Managing Life: Living out God's Plan with Passion & Purpose". Our verse for the year is Philippians 2:13 "It is God who works in you giving you both the desire and the ability to do His will."

Our first program was "Managing Your Spiritual Life" and Bobbie Friesen was our speaker. Bobbie is the wife of Steve, who is our pastor of counseling & discipleship. Steve is an MK (missionary kid) from Japan and his sister and I were even room-mates at CAJ, our highschool in Tokyo. Bobbie grew up in Guatemala, also an MK. After they were married, they spent several years in Japan as missionaries but we are so grateful to have them here at Grace now!

We had wonderful food! At the Tuesday evening session, we had soups and in the morning, pumpkin and nuts breads and a yogurt cup (yogurt, mixed fruit, granola).

Coffee and teas too.

And lots of laughter...

...and friends.

Bobbie led us in a worship choreography.

They are getting down!

Some of us weren't coordinated enough and just watched.

One of us had a really good excuse.

Bobbie gave a wonderful analogy of the spiritual life and our own physical life.

And spoke of God's grace in our spiritual growth.

If you are able, please come next month!

It will be a combined session on November 10.

"Managing Your Home Life" with Karla Conner.

Fall also means Awana. I am helping with Awana on Wednesday nights, listening to the little Cubbies say their Bible verses. During game time this week, the kids played with the parachute. They had so much fun!

I know Christmas trees are already in stores, but I sure hope I can hang onto fall just a little.

Be ready!

Arkansas

This past week I drove to Arkansas. I had planned to help Josh and Staci get the baby's room all ready. Well, we ended up deciding to wait to paint the room. I actually like the chocolate color - it matches with the bedding. We thought we'd see what it looked like all put together. So we began to put the bed together, but the borrowed crib didn't work out (missing pieces) so they ended up ordering one. It will come next week. So we didn't accomplish much there.

But I did get to go to a lovely shower hosted by Staci's friends!

The outfit Staci wore matched the icing on the cake!

I had fun playing with Emeri!

Emeri loves to read books. We read tons of them!
I took along a craft/story for us to do on the Shepherd and the lost lamb.
It was fun to do with her!
I'm soooo glad that our Shepherd seeks us. His love overwhelms me!

On Sunday, I went to New Heights Fellowship. Josh led worship. It makes a mom feel so grateful to see their child serving the Lord! I have prayed for each of my children to follow Christ and use the gifts He has given them for His honor. That morning they had the student ministries pastor from Fellowship speak. Instead of a "normal" sermon, he gave a monologue about a young business guy who's into himself. He dies. And this is a story about what happens after he dies. It was riveting! captivating and convicting! If you can, you should listen to it!! Listen here. Scroll down to 6/7/08 to Matt Newman, The Bema Seat Monologue. You could even down load it and listen to it on your commute.

Looking forward to a return to Arkansas soon!
Baby Elijah will arrive shortly!
Even if the baby room is not all in order!

Shopping Day

This morning Jill, Sophia and I went to Wichita. Picked up Mindy at her apartment and went to our very favorite shopping place - Target!

The girls always have to climb on the red balls outside the store...

...and we always have to stop at our favorite drink place! We drink our lattes or mochas while we shop. Today we shopped 2 hours!! There is a lot to look at and try on and debate over.

After a successful trip, we headed to Cinnamon Deli's for their turkey/avocado/sprout sandwich. Today we also tried out some of the Wisconsin soup in a bread bowl. Oh my. Sooooo good!! We happened to see Mike Miller, the inventor of the famous Knork. He went to school with our kids.

You can see that Sophia thinks dessert should be eaten first!

My girls - Mindy and Jill.

Sophie sacked out on the way home.

I spent the afternoon cooking - enchilada casserole, taco salad, tossed fruit salad. In big quantities.

We had our community life group tonight. Allen and I began a young marrieds small group ministry in our church around 7 years ago. Joel and Kendall Smith were with us from that first year on. They were newly married. It has grown and grown and now most of them all have young families. And the couples we had are now leaders of their own community life groups. So now we are starting over with a new group of young marrieds. There are actually enough new young marrieds that there are 2 groups starting!

A few of the couples in our group have only been married 2-3 months. And one is going to be married this coming Saturday! (Our new youth pastor, Brian and wife-to-be Christina!) We had a fun time sharing our very first paid job and also our current job. Some prefered their first job! Then we all shared advice with Brian about married life. We wrote the first half of the advice on one sheet of paper, the last half on another. We mixed them all up and they were pretty darn hilarious. We are proud to report that he is well informed now and will be a good husband to Christina. (Ha!)

Allen had us look up 1 Cor. 3 and also John 15. We discussed growing in Christ. The analogy of physical growth and spiritual growth. And how can we grow as a couple. And also with each others encouragement. We charted our own spiritual graphs and shared that with our spouses.

I am really looking forward to learning to know these "kids" (we are in our 50's and have been married longer than these guys are old!)

Grand Canyon

Allen spent this past week hiking the Grand Canyon with a couple of his pharmacists and family members.

Can you read this?? "Getting to the bottom optional, getting to the top mandatory." There was a rescue just a day or so before, where a girl broke her ankle and had to be rescued by helicopter. It is VERY expensive, in the thousands.

When they applied to go hiking a year ago, they were to write down their 3 choices of trails. They ended up getting assigned their 3rd choice - Hermits' Trail. It is very rugged.

Al is reading the map. Sometimes the trail is not easy to see.

Landslides cover much of the trail.

They did not get to the destination they had planned on the first night. They were ready to quit when they got to the springs. They had one hour of daylight left. This is called "Hermit's Rest" because a hermit actually used to live here.

Here is my hermit!

Al's birthday was Tuesday so Michelle, Troy's wife gave him the cards we had secretly sent with her. She also provided "cake"!

They did get to the river the next day.

Al is posing with Loratab, the pharmacy mascot (a weasel) who has gone on many trips around the world; Rome, the Vatican, Paris, New Zealand, Mexico, Africa and all over America.

Day #3 - climbing out of the canyon

They had to rest a lot!

They made it!

This from Al: We made it. The Hermit Trail was actually much more difficult than we thought. The backcountry office did warn us, multiple times, and they were right. The word I use to describe the trek is "grueling". Some of the inner canyons were gorgeous, and seldom seen by mankind. Made the sore muscles, blisters, etc all worth it. As I studied the canyon for the trip, it became clear that the bulk of evidence points toward its formation by the receeding waters of the flood. Thus, it was not formed as part of the original creation, but as a result of God's judgement on a world gone bad. Interestingly, the day before we drove through some rain, revealing a beautiful double rainbow, visible from end to end - God's promise that He will never again destroy man and the earth with a flood. And even though man continues to gradually fall farther and farther away from God, He patiently waits for us to turn to him. Eventually, His patience will run out, and the Day of the Lord will come, like a thief. Then the heavens will disappear with a load roar (big bang), the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. In the meantime, he calls us to live for Him. That I pledge to do.