First Night of VBS and I Am Sick!

I always help with VBS at my dad's church and this year is no exception. This year I am doing crafts with the kids. Last night was awesome but of course I forgot my camera. We made bean bag (rice) puppies from socks. They were really cute and all the hard work of that we did in preparing really paid off last night. The kids loved them. Tonight we will be tackling something a little harder and I think the kids will love them too. I will try to remember to take my camera so you can see picutres.

And today, I have no voice, which is not a good thing when you have to give directions to groups of rowdy children. They will just have to settle down and listen really close. My throat started hurting on Wednesday and by Friday I could not swallow at all. So off to the doctor (dragging 4 kids, no doubt). I just knew I would have strep but the test came back negative. I was diagnosed with non-strep tonsilitis. And boy does it hurt! I have been soothing my throat with chamomile tea and lots of strong coffee. I have used Chloraseptic and lozenges. Nothing seems to relieve the pain for very long. I have been taking an Antibiotic since Friday and the pain is better but now I have a really dry cough, my chest hurts and I have laryngitis. So hopefully, this will all be gone soon.
We have our church VBS next week and then my sister in law and her kids are coming. So I am going to be very busy. I just need to find a couple of days to rest in the midst of all the busy-ness.

Moo! Moo!

I promised pictures and here they are.

This was before we left the house.

Here we are at Chic Fil A enjoying our free food.

I forgot to get a picture of everyone turned sideways so you could see their tails. So I snapped this one of Jack swinging his tail around.

I used white t-shirts and painted black cow spots on them with acrylic craft paint. Then I bought cow patterned bandanas and cut them into strips. I wrapped flip flops and headbands in the strips. I attached fur ears to the headbands. And we all wore black shorts. Jim refused to dress like a cow so we had to pay for his meal. But if you were dressed like a cow you could pick anything from the menu you wanted to eat and it was free. It was really fun. The kids liked it. And the food was good.

Our Cow Costumes Are Ready

It is Cow Appreciation Day at Chic fil A. We are headed out there tonight dressed as cows. Jim refuses to do it but the rest of us have our costumes. I made them last night. I'll post pictures later so you can see. The details of this fun promotion are here.

The Story of Tomatoes

At the beginning of the summer, I had great drams of having tomatoes that we could pull from our own plants. Those dreams have been shattered.
I planted 3 tomatoes (2 cherry tomatoes) in pots and buckets(trying one upside down). While I was in Atlanta, no one watered my plants so when I got home, needless to say, they looked awful. Poor things! I had Jim plow up a little rectangle section beside the deck. I was going to plant herbs there but with the tomato crisis, I decided to plant them there to see what would happen. So I pulled the little cherry tomatoes out of the buckets and planted them One plant two little green tomatoes but Jack and Maci Clare immediately pulled them off. We had a storm that night and my big tomato (that I left in the pot) broke at the bottom. I immediately planted it deeper to try mend it. So here's what I have now.
This is the broken one. I have it tied to a tomato cage and there are two little green tomatoes. One is turning red. The plant has remained the same. It hasn't died but it is not getting bigger.
The two tiny twigs are the cherry tomatoes. They look awful but the one on the right has two tiny green tomatoes so it is still producing.
I planted this one later. I realized if there was any hope of having tomatoes I had better get a new one so I did. It looks marvelous but no fruit yet.
And I found this one at Walmart and because it was a little bigger I decided to buy it. It is not in the ground yet but will be this weekend. It looks like this one is the most promising.

So if I can keep my children from pulling green tomatoes, there is still hope for juicy red homegrown tomatoes.

Help Me!

I need some help. It is Works for Me Wednesday again. And this time I am asking for help. My children have watermelon juice stains all over several shirts and I can't get it out. I have used Borax, Grease Lightning (Southern thing!), and hair spray. Anyone got any ideas how to get these stains out?

It's Not About You!

The last couple of weeks I have felt that every word of every message I have listened to has been God speaking straight to me. In June, the sermon series at our church was on Jonah. I know the story of Jonah. I have for a long time. I am a PK. But I guess I didn't realize that Jonah was such a whiner. Last week as our pastor laid out the last installment of the story, I couldn't help but think that God was talking to me.

Our pastor said one thing that really stuck with me. "IT"S NOT ABOUT YOU!" Amazingly enough, I have always thought that if God chooses to use me, then it is about me. Sure, God may be trying to teach you something. But most of the time, you are a tool that God is using to bring Him glory. Isn't it just so human to think of yourself as Jonah did? Jonah whined and complained and thought God should immediately destroy the Ninevites. He tried to tell God what to do without thinking that God knows what He is doing. But was that God's bigger plan? No! His plan was to save thousands of people not just Jonah.

I will be the first one to admit that I think like Jonah. First I think of many excuses not to do what God wants me to. "My kids are too young and I can't leave them." "I am too old." "It takes me too long to get to church." There are so many things that I could say to get out of doing what God wants. I can whine just like Jonah. "Why, God?! Why me?!" I can try to tell God how to do what I want Him to but I do not know the best way. God has a purpose and a plan. We watched the pastor from Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, this morning during our normal worship service. He said, "If you knew God's plan, you would fall flat on your face." I agree. If I knew what God had planned for me, I would never get up in the morning. That is the reason, God reveals to us a little at a time. We don't need or shouldn't want to know what God's way is. That is why we have to trust Him in everything.
I need to learn to trust God more and to lean on Him. It is not for me to say, "God, you don't know what you are doing." How can I say that when I can't see the big picture? What is the big picture? God knows and God will take care of you and me. I need to trust Him to tell me what to do. I do not need to be like Jonah and try to tell God how to do his job. He can take care of little 'ol me. After all, He created the whole world. So with all that said, I am waiting patiently to find out God's plan for my life. I know it will be great because God uses the most imperfect people to do great things. But I'll have to post about that another day!

4th of July

Our 4th of July was spent with friends and family. We started out with burgers on the grill (charcoal grill). Yummy!! Then we spent the whole afternoon in the pool.
We have a tradition on the 4th of July. We make t-shirts every year. I didn't get a great picture this year because of the lack of cooperation but you can tell what they look like and I'm going to try to get a better picture today.

Our little town always has a big 4th of July celebration with a small carnival. Everything is free. We never go to the carnival because it is soooooo crowded. But we do take advantage of the fireworks. My pictures are really crappy but I did get a little video. It is blurry but you can hear how loud it was.


Usually we have to wait forever for the fireworks but this year they actually started on time. I always pack a little bag of goodies to keep the kids busy. This year after the fireworks we hung around and I pulled out my goodies.

We had Sparklers!

Zane said he was the Statue of Liberty and then he ran wildly around in circles.Of course, Jack followed his big brother and would hardly slow down for a picture.

Gabe just stood in one place (His hand still hurts from the wreck). Gabe has on my shoes because the fire ants (it's a Southern thing!) were so bad.

We also had Neon Glow Necklaces and Bracelets.
Turning off the flash was the only way to get a picture of the glow.

Finally, I pulled out Air Head Whistle Pops. They were really cool because they were slide whistles. If you slid the stick up and down while blowing, it made a cool sliding sound.

And this is what Maci Clare did during the whole thing. I don't know how!