Sing it, girl!

This past Thursday was the last meeting of the women's Bible study that I have been attending. We had a wonderful brunch and sharing time to celebrate was God has taught us through His Word and through each other in the past 8 months. We also received a special treat as the older children came into the sanctuary to share with us their Bible verse and two songs that they have been learning to help them learn the stories of Ruth and Esther. I cannot say what a blessing it was to know that while I was sitting in a room with 200 other women, studying God's word, there were even more women in the classrooms with our children, faithfully teaching them the truths about God's love and faithfulness at the same time!

Psalm 8:1-2 (NLT)
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.

Happy Earth Day!

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Psalm 24:1-2 We have had such a great time in the garden over the past few weeks. Spring is coming and rain is plentiful right now in our Valley. Our good friends, the Lentells, graciously offered for us to plant a garden together this year. They have heard us talk over the past few years about our desire to eat local and grow our own food, teaching our children the ethics of hard work and getting their hands dirty at the same time. We are still planting a few things in our own tiny space, but are so excited to spend this time with our friends and watch how our garden, and our friendship grows over the summer! So far we've planted hot peppers, bell peppers, big and small tomatoes, squash, pole beans, snap peas, English peas, radishes, carrots, watermelon, sunflowers, potatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, cilantro, basil, and even three rows of sweet corn!

There is a passage in Isaiah that my brain remembers every time I step in the garden. It has been a prayer and hope for many generations. May it continue to be my (and maybe even your) prayer this Earth Day 2010.

The Sovereign Lord will show justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise Him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, filled with young plants springing up everywhere. Isaiah 61:11 NLT

Happy Birthday Audrey!

This week we celebrated Audrey's 9th birthday! We did lots of fun things to celebrate during the week! She spent most of her actual birthday surrounded by friends, as it was a school day, and she went to Good News Club after school as well as church in the evening. We also sang Happy Birthday that morning to get her out of bed, and again when we tucked her in that night. She had a yummy dinner cooked by Daddy at the end of the day! And lots and lots of hugs throughout the day. Friday night Randy took her on a Father/Daughter date to In 'N Out Burger and to see Alice in Wonderland. Audrey had fun taking her biggest purse (her Mary Engelbreit one from Grandma Janice) filled with Crunch n' Munch, Jelly Beans, and other Easter candy into the theater. I think that quite funny and apropos considering my mother always does the same thing. My mom considers it unjust that "they" would charge so much for a little candy or popcorn in the theater, thus vindicating her actions in "sneaking in" the food. I'm not judging; I do the same. She taught me well to pinch my pennies when possible. Or I could just learn to not eat during a two-hour stint. But I digress.

As if Audrey didn't feel special enough already, she had TWO parties on Saturday. She invited a few friends over around lunch time for a Backwards Party. What does a Backwards party include? Well, the invitations were printed backwards (you had to hold them up to the mirror in order to read them), and the whole party ran backwards. We greeted people by saying "Morning Good" and "Thanks for coming", but Audrey was a little embarrassed after a few greetings and said she didn't want to do it anymore (yup, it's starting already...the pre-teen embarrassment of perceivably un-cool things). ANYWAYS...after everyone arrived, we sang "You to Birthday Happy" and had cake!
Audrey wanted me to make ice -cream cone cupcakes, and the plan was to serve them upside-down, but Audrey thought that would be too messy. They turned out well and all the girls thought they were neat! Continuing in our backwards way, Audrey opened presents next. Littlest Pet Shop characters were the pick of the year. I think Audrey now has close to 40 little pets total...please, stop the madness! Then outside for a piñata, which they had to hit...you guessed it, backwards. It was great, considering we didn't need a blindfold, and they couldn't hit as hard backwards, so it took them a bit longer to break it open! Next we did some backwards relays. We split into 2 teams and set up cones, and they ran back-to-back with a partner. Then they ran backwards. Then hopped backwards. Then crabwalked backwards. They had a blast and screamed and cheered each other on! The team that won the most relays got to eat lunch first. But then we handed out the award, and in true backwards fashion, by winning they actually got to go last! Audrey helped me set the table with a simple lunch, and she made labels for all the items. We served sgod tod, spich, dalas tiurf, and sknird (the girls thought that word was especially funny). After lunch we brought out chalk for backwards hopscotch to keep them occupied until their parents came to pick them up. What a great party! After they left, I remembered the nametags for the girls, on which I was going to write all their names backwards. Bummer! My friend Christa joked, "But you remembered in the correct order. Wouldn't you get nametags ready before (or rather, after) a party?" Ha, ha.

That evening, some family and close family friends joined us for a dinner of home-made pizza, salad, and upside-down German chocolate cake (my final attempt at keeping with the party theme). Between dinner and cake we had a wonderful sharing time where everyone had a chance to share something about Audrey, either a special memory from the past year, a way they have seen Audrey grow, maybe a spiritual gift they have seen blossom in her for the year, or whatever they'd like to share to encourage her. This happened quite spontaneously last year at Audrey's party and we decided to do this for each family member's birthday last year. Now, it is a tradition I hope we can keep up! Audrey was so blessed to hear so many great words from her family and friends (much better gifts, in my opinion, than the material ones she could open with her hands). These, she can unpack in her heart and mind for years to come (since I've written them in her journal).

Thank you for all of you that came to her party, called from far away to wish her a Happy Birthday, sent her a card, gave her a hug, or encouraged her with your words. If you'd like to add to my list of encouragements/memories from the year, feel free to leave a comment and I will show it to her and add it to her journal. She had a wonderful birthday!

Student of the Month

Can you get a better birthday present than finding out you are Student of the Month? We are so proud of Audrey for being named the "trustworty" Student of the Month. At the beginning of the school year I asked our kids about any goals they had for the year. Audrey named three, running cross-country, performing in the school musical, and being Student of the Month. I must say, I was a little nervous with this last goal. The first two goals are accomplished simply by her choosing to participate. The third goal was a bit out of her control. She could try her hardest to be a good listener, respectful, and hard-working, but ultimately the choice is up to the teacher. Yesterday she received her award, and she wanted me to come and take a picture of her on the stage...of course! Here she is, proudly displaying her certificate, as well as her shirt that she received for running at the MCC sale. She also was only one of two students in her class that had perfect attendance for the quarter. Since the other student happened to be her great friend, Kharma, I asked if I could take a picture of them together. Way to go Audrey! We are so proud of you!

MCC Sale!

Last weekend was the West Coast Mennonite Relief Sale (MCC Sale). Our family loves to go every year! This year we went on Friday night to enjoy German sausage, homemade pie and ice cream, perusing the items in the Ten Thousand Villages tent, watching a local man make brooms (super cool...the kids were amazed), sitting in the antique auction for a bit, and looking at art by local Mennonites. The art room also had a table with children's artwork, which included pictures by Audrey and Isaac! I smiled all weekend as I watched Audrey run from person to person that she recognized, giving them a smile and saying hello. Yup, she's already got this MCC sale thing down!

Although we were at the sale until almost 10 o'clock on Friday, we woke up before the sun on Saturday morning to be at the Fresno Pacific track by 6:45 a.m. to run/walk in their annual Run for Relief. Randy ran the 10K race, finishing 3rd in his age category! Audrey ran the 2 mile with her Auntie Christa, both of them crossing the finish line in under 20 minutes! Way to go gals! And I walked the 2 mile track with Isaac and my friend, Kristen. Kristen and I both pushed jogging strollers, she pushed her 3-year-old son. I pushed Violet. Although Violet is fully capable of walking the 2 miles herself (we walk a mile to school and back every day), I figured she'd be tired from the late night prior. I'm so glad I brought it. Although Kristen and I, along with our kids, finished last in the 2 mile pack, we beat all the 10K runners (not true last year)! After the race we headed over the pancake breakfast, then wandered around to the Kids' World area, back to Ten Thousand Villages, and into the quilt auction. Even though Randy wasn't with me (he had to leave after breakfast to go to a work function from 9-3), I managed to sit in the auction for almost 3 hours! The kids enjoyed wandering around the mezzanine, crawling in and through benches with their new found friends (children of other mothers that were interested in watching the quilt auction)! Once the kids had had enough, we left the gym for one more loop around the campus, a fabulous lunch of authentic carne asada tacos (there a quite a few Latin American Mennonite Bretheren, LAMB, churches in the Valley), and a trip to the used book sale where each kid picked out a book for a quarter! By the time we pulled into our garage at 2:45 Violet was napping soundly in her carseat and the other two were looking ready for some down-time. Whew! What a weekend! And, praise the Lord, the sale raised over $200,000 for world relief!

Well, Fresno isn't the only town to have an MCC sale, there are many sales all over the U.S. that raise funds for world relief. If you want to know more about MCC, click here. If you want to find the sale nearest you, click here.

Isaac's yellow belt!

Congratulations Isaac! He has continued to study hard, learned four more katas (routines), and memorized 20 more Japanese words to successfully pass his blue belt test and earn his yellow belt! Great job!

Palm Sunday videos

Here are the videos I took of Violet singing on Palm Sunday.

Easter Week

We did lots of fun things this past week!

Violet sang in church on Palm Sunday (sorry, I have a video but have not been able to transfer/post to youtube yet).

This year for Spring Break I let each of the older kids pick a day to attend Adventure Camp at the Chaffee Zoo. It is from 9-4 and covers a different topic each day. Isaac chose to go on Tuesday for 'Poisonous & Venomous'. Audrey chose to go on Thursday for 'Zoo Doctor'. They both had a great time and learned lots! Since Violet was bummed that she couldn't go (it's for 5-11 year olds), we all went to the zoo yesterday and enjoyed the bird show, as well as an Isaac-guided tour of the Reptile house (since that was where most of his day was focused), and an Audrey-guided tour of a couple exhibits where she helped (salt-pills for the seals, medicine to a black swan, and a paper-mache Easter egg for the elephant to play with).

Tuesday night we had dinner with our friends, the Lentell's, and then went to work in their garden (I'll share more about this in a later post). We had a great time and got in all our seeds before it started to rain!

Friday was our church's annual Easter Egg- stravaganza in the neighbor- hood park. The kids had a great time, as always. I helped lead some singing with my guitar (it actually helped keep me warm on a rather chilly day, all that strumming, singing, and moving around). The kids sang, made a craft, watched a drama, and hunted for eggs. Violet moved so quickly from egg to egg that I barely got a clear picture of her!

Saturday we took a trip to the snow! As I have mentioned in prior blog posts, we have had lots of rain and snow in the Central Valley this winter. We took advantage of the fresh snow fall from the week and took one last trip to the snow! We brought up our grill to cook some hot dogs and beans for lunch! All the girls enjoying their food. The back of the Subaru worked great for our spread of veggies, chips, and desserts. The boys sat still long enough to eat at least. Violet in the sled with Rod. She LOVED going down the sled run! She had a huge smile on her face, laughing the whole way down! Even after her second run with Alyssa went sideways and they bailed out to stop themselves, rolling and face-planting in the snow, she still wanted more! Violet, Kaitlyn, and Alyssa. Woah Audrey! The boys gave up on the sled run after awhile in order to build a snow fort. Randy, Violet, and I managed to all fit on the sled! After lunch, snow play, and sled runs, we walked from the Columbine picnic area down to the Big Trees' grove. Here's all the kids! And happy parents too! We were home Saturday afternoon in time to start paska that would come out of the oven about the same time as The Ten Commandments movie ended at 11:45 (I still have yet to see the whole thing...I turned it on 2 hours late, and still watched 3 hours). If you grew up in a Mennonite church, chances are you ate paska (pronounced like pasta but with a k sound) on Easter morning. It is a sweet, egg and yeast bread that is spiced with cardamom, and topped with butter frosting and multi-colored non-pariels (at least that is how I've always eaten it). I attempted to make paska last Easter for the first time and I didn't cook it long enough. We woke up to loaves fallen in the middle...big bummer! This year was a success! Yummy! Easter afternoon was spent with Randy's mom and brother, enjoying lunch, an egg hunt, and even a little time at the park before it started to rain. Baskets in hand, ready for the egg hunt!

Whew, what a week! We hope you had a wonderful Easter week, hopefully celebrating with family or friends. He is risen! He is risen indeed!!!