Last Week in a (Sorta Big!) Nutshell

Last week was a very busy, but fruitful and fun, week! While our oldest son went to a week-long camp last Sunday, the other three boys and I piled into the family van and drove a couple of hours southeast to my parents' home in Delaware for the week. The reason for the trip was to participate in the Daily Vacation Bible School my parents' church was having all week long. I was asked to teach the 2's and 3's which is a class for children of that age whose parents are working at the DVBS. I had six little ones, including my son Benjamin, and on two days, when there was no nursery, I had my son Nathaniel and another little girl. Fortunately, I had a great helper, too, so I wasn't by myself. The theme of this DVBS was "Digging for the Truth of God's Word" and the Bible stories were basically Creation and Noah's Flood. So, we did a lot with dinosaurs and animals which was really fun for me and the kids. Here are some photos to show you some of the fun things my little group did...

...we put on dinosaur masks and played "Dino Tag"...

...we stenciled dinosaurs onto t-shirts with sparkly fabric paint--too cool!...

...and we made dinosaur hats!...

Of course there are many hilarious stories to be told after working with this age group, but I won't get into all of that! Suffice it to say that it was very fun, yet extremely exhausting, and I was more glad than sad when the week was over!

Another happening last week was that our youngest son, Nathaniel, now 10 months old, finally figured out how to pull himself to standing pretty consistently. In fact, the toy box in our classroom served as a great stability object to do just that. Here he goes...

You can see he's pretty tickled with himself! I guess the toys were a big motivator for him, and he figured that since he was with the "big kids", he ought to start acting like one! (Now if I could only have Benjamin use that logic when it comes to going on the big boy potty!)


After the busy week of DVBS, I deposited the children with my hubby, and my mom and I went to Valley Forge on Saturday to attend the Creating Keepsakes Convention there. We had a blast shopping all the vendors and taking a few classes. When I totally complete the projects, I'll make sure and post photos...they are pretty neat if I do say so myself!



As icing on the cake, I received some pretty nifty stuff in the mail this past week. What a nice treat to come home to! Remember my post about Postcrossing, the site where you can send postcards to people around the world? Well I received two postcards this week, one from Indiana here in the US and one from Finland. I am really enjoying being a part of this site. Here are the postcards I received:






And last, but certainly not least, in today's mail I received a huge surprise treat from my good friend Beth at Red Yarn...Benjamin Bear (and other goodies!) made by my new friend Kathy at Lizzie Jane!

What sneaky gals, I must say! Ever since I saw Benjamin posted on Kathy's blog, I was enamored with him...and now he's residing at my house! Thanks, Beth, for being such a thoughtful and wonderful friend, and thanks, Kathy, for making such delightful creations!

Wow...I wonder what this week will hold! Whatever it holds for you, have a happy one!

My Weekend

I apologize for the little blogging break I took, but after the events of last week, I crashed this weekend emotionally and physically. It was nice to spend Saturday at a Creative Memories crop with my mom. It's been awhile since both of us had done any scrapbooking, and I, for one, am WAY behind! I spent the entire day scrapping Christmas photos from 2002 and 2003. In my chronological family albums, I'm only on 2000, so I'm a little better off on my Christmas photos than my every day photos! I really need to make it a priority, especially in light of last week's events. My cousin's wife and her sister were both scrapbookers (the younger sister introduced her older sister to the craft) and now both husbands are thanking their wives for leaving behind so many well-preserved and organized memories. I know it sounds morbid, but I really want to get caught up for Dave and the boys in case something happens to me. (And no, I'm not getting paid by Creative Memories!)

On Sunday I taught my fourth grade Sunday School class. Ironically, the lesson revolved around the hope we have through Jesus Christ. I shared with the class how apropos this lesson was to my week, and then they shared the difficulties they face on a daily basis...everything from passing the PSSA's this week to the death of a pet to divorce in their families. It was refreshing to be able to reiterate again how the hope we have because of Jesus's resurrection from the dead enables us to face whatever comes our way. Our God is a faithful God, and is the same yesterday, today, and forever...praise be to His Name!

So now I'm back to my normal weekly activities...grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, ebaying, blogging...but I'm not the same person I was a week ago. I've changed somehow...and that's okay. God works ALL THINGS together for my good, and I know He knows what He's doing! More later!