Vacation Bible School

As mentioned in an earlier post, this week has been our church's vacation Bible school. Marshall and Shaylen have practically fallen into bed every night and awakened eager to attend VBS the next day. They have been memorizing their verses, doing their best with the extra assignments (drawing pictures, doing puzzles, etc.), and paying attention to the Bible and missionary stories. They've done a great job!

Because of the points they've earned, they've been able to go into the VBS "store" and get prizes. Shaylen purchased water balloons on Tuesday. Marshall decided to wait, save his points and "purchase" a flashlight on Wednesday. Fortunately for Shaylen, she was able to "crack" open a dinosaur egg on Wednesday morning and found 20 points so they both were able to get the coveted mini-flashlights. Today they each had 100 points to spend! Quite a lot for two little munchkins. It was like they had earned the moon! In the end though, Shaylen bought candy (I'm not surprised!) and Marshall bought a pack of colored pens.

The other day someone brought in a costume of a dinosaur and had their son dress up in it for the morning exercises. He looked so cute! In the afternoon, the mother asked Marshall if he wanted to wear it and he would have NOTHING to do with it. It was "too scary!" Shaylen on the other hand got right in and helped with the penny offering and singing of songs. It was the cutest dinosaur that I have ever seen!

The week has flown by, but a lot of memories have been made. They are already talking about going to VBS again next year.

They've Got Daddy Pegged

Taigen has always loved telling a joke that he made up when he was a kid. It goes as follows:

What do you call someone who loves to eat cookie dough?
A doughnut!

I don't know what got the kids going on jokes today, but they were making attempts during dinner tonight. They were baaaad. I suggested to Taigen that he teach them his joke.

He said, "I've got a joke for you guys! What do you call someone who loves to eat cookie dough?"

Without hesitation AND in unison, they both said, "YOU!"

And Speaking of Cookie Dough...

We have VBS this week! This is the first time that the kids are able to go and so they are very excited! The theme this year is Dino Detectives: Digging into God's Word! The church is all decked out in dinosaur figurines, cardboard dinosaurs and a dig site. It's been there for two weeks so the excitement has been building to say the least!

For VBS snack time, we signed up to bring 8 dozen M&M cookies. I wanted Marshall and Shaylen to have some tangible way to help out with VBS and baking provided the perfect opportunity!

We had so much fun together Saturday morning! I love listening to them count out the measurements and then encourage each other to "pour slowly!" I thought I would post a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Our Latest Visitor

It seems that our feathered friends haven't been too hospitable! We haven't been seeing any new birds lately. We've been keeping an eye on the feeder but have been able to name all that have come to munch.

This morning while I was doing the breakfast dishes I noticed a big bird sitting on the ground beneath the feeder and ran to get the camera. It is a woodpecker, specifically a Northern Flicker. I think I'm going to like having them around because, according to my book, they like to eat ants. He is welcome to come and eat as many as he wants and as often as he wants!

Dress Up

Our friends, the Perdues, gave us a bunch of their kids dress up clothes when they outgrew them. It has taken a lot of time to finally persuade Marshall and Shaylen that dress up is FUN. We've had kids over here who devote hours and hours to dress up and it's worn off a bit on the kids. Not as much as I would like, but at least we're headed in the right direction.

The other day Marshall and Shaylen were playing David and Goliath. Marshall had on the armor and helmet (which in the past functioned as a pirate's hat, but Marshall is scared of the skull...it's usually on backwards) and Shaylen was using the bat as her sword. They told the story beautifully, but when Marshall wanted to be David and Shaylen didn't want to be Goliath, someone had to step in and fill the vacancy. Fortunately, Max didn't seem to mind. (I wonder if the Geaumont children will recognize him!)

Habanera

We try to instill in our children a love of classical music. They're gonna LOVE this one.

Good Kids: A Thing of the Past?

On Monday while blueberry picking in our yard, I got a bite on my left index finger. It was itching yesterday and this morning I noticed a red trail going up my finger towards my hand. I knew a bite wasn't supposed to do that so I called my PCP. They were able to get me in for an appointment today. I had to take the kids with me and as we pulled into the parking lot my only instructions to them were to make sure to be good and quiet.

When we got into the doctors office with the nurse, one of the first things she said was, "Oh my! They are SO good! We never get kids this good in here anymore!"

Now, I think Marshall and Shaylen are good kids, but I see both their good and bad points all day long. I thanked the Lord that they have chosen to obey today. They sat quietly in the office and looked at their books that they brought from the library. They didn't make a sound. I winked and smiled at them.

As the nurse took my weight (ugh), blood pressure and temperature, they sat quietly. She began to type in my medical history and again commented at how good the kids were. She said to me, "The kids that we see come in here are never this well behaved and their moms do nothing to stop them either!" She paused and told the kids, "You guys be sure to ask for a sticker on your way out!"

After the nurse left Marshall and Shaylen piped up with a dozen questions about the room, the equipment, the purple gloves, the tongue depressors, the cabinets and the neatly arranged cubicles with medical paraphernalia in them. When the door opened, it became silent again. The nurse must have said something to the doctor because when the doctor came in she said, "I hear there are two kiddos in here! Two very good kids! Would you like a sticker?" She brought six stickers; three for each. The doctor looked over my medical history and the information that the nurse had put into the computer. After a minute or two she looked up at Marshall and Shaylen and emphatically said, "We never see kids like this in here anymore. This is just like the olden days!" (Side note: We got a similar comment like this at the library earlier today!)

Now as Marshall and Shaylen's mommy, I want to be the first to admit they are NOT perfect children, there are many things we are definitely working on. I am definitely NOT the perfect parent either. There are certainly things that I'm having to work on, too! The doctor's and nurse's comments got me to thinking however about how popular child-rearing techniques are touted as the latest, best and only way to raise children these days. If they are so wonderful and work so well, why is it so rare and shocking to have two children that obey in a doctor's office? Or for that matter a library, restaurant or grocery store?

I remember something Judy Endean said to me, "Everyone knows that kids disobey. What they are wanting to see is how you deal with that disobedience." So true. When we got out of the building I thanked the kids over and over for being so good. I told them how proud I was of them and how much they pleased the Lord!

While I know I have a lot to still learn about parenting, I was reminded again today of why the Bible is still sufficient for all of life and godliness. I'm thankful that it is not out-dated and irrelevant.

It has and always will work.

Um...Just What IS This Bird?

We were finishing up with breakfast when we heard (as Shaylen put it) an "awful noise". I peeked out the front screen door to see a strange looking fowl on our front lawn. I took this brief video and then walked outside to see if I could get a closer look and a couple of pictures. I've never seen anything like this before.

I can't find any turkey, grouse, pheasant, chicken or ptarmigan in my bird book that looks even remotely similar to this bird. Does anyone have a clue? Marshall thought that maybe it was a dinosaur (which cracked me up). It has to be the strangest looking bird that I've seen for quite some time.

You Know You Live In New England When...

They sell Hamburg Rolls instead of Hamburger Buns.

Beach Time

This afternoon we packed up a light dinner and headed up north to meet Janelle for some beach time! She took us over to Pine Point, ME. There is a really nice beach area there and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Shaylen was eager to jump over the waves, but Marshall was content to just sit in the sand and dig himself deeper into a pit. Give a boy a shovel, a pail and sand and he'll be entertained for hours! It was the perfect evening for the beach. It was slightly overcast and not too humid.

It was really nice to spend some time with Janelle. She will be taking off for Zambia in September if she is able to gain all the support she needs. We will miss her so much!

Future BJU Ministry Team Members

Many of you know that Taigen traveled twice for Bob Jones University on their ministry teams; a music team and then a drama team. I traveled once on a musical ministry team. After we were married the university asked us if we would lead out teams for a year. We took out three musical ministry teams to the Central, Mid-West and Western United States. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. In the past we've always talked about how wonderful it would be if our kids would be able to do that. How neat would that be for them to serve the Lord in music alongside one another? Could we instill in our children a love of music and have them serve in the same capacity we did while in college? You can't plan your kids' futures, but it would be the opportunity of a lifetime. We mentioned this again last night as we were driving home from church and the kids were singing in the van.

BJU puts out a new recording every spring during their annual Bible Conference and this past year's recording was tops! It is called King of Love and it was produced by Dan Forrest (a phenomenal composer/arranger and excellent pianist) and directed by Dr. Warren Cook (conductor/teacher extraordinaire and one of my favorite professors). This recording is probably the best I have heard from BJU and we play it all the time. Marshall and Shaylen love track number 6, "How Marvelous Are the Works of the Lord" and they sing it at the top of their lungs when we have it playing in the car. This morning I put it in our kitchen CD player and caught the end of the song on tape.

It makes our hearts glad to know they eagerly sing praise to the King of Kings. We hope it is a lifelong practice.

Cut and Paste

Kindergarten is just around the corner for Marshall and Shaylen and I've been slowly getting ready. I've ordered the curriculum, desks and chairs and some office supplies in order to keep me organized and sane during their educational process! This past week I went out and bought a few smaller items that they would need this fall: scissors, glue sticks and notebooks.

When Dad and Cathy sent my birthday gift a couple of weeks ago, they included a couple of workbooks for the kids. One of those was a workbook devoted in its entirety to cutting and pasting. We've never done anything like that so I wanted to see just how ready they were.

We had so much fun "doing school" yesterday. We did lots and lots of worksheets, but their favorite was the cutting and pasting. They did three worksheets of those, but they had a blast laughing over a gorilla and pig that they had to do. It involved cutting out the eyes, nose (snout) and mouth and then pasting them on. Marshall, who tends to do better with his fine motor skills, quickly snipped away and had it done. Shaylen, who is stronger with language (reading and spelling), got frustrated and cried a bit ("I can't do this!"), but finished with a smile.

We've been plugging away at different Pre-K workbooks this year (with a brief respite during our move and adjustment to HBC) and I'm excited to know that they are ready. School starts in about a month!

Moms and Muffins Ladies' Fellowship

"If you are a mom, if you have a mom, or you know a mom you're invited..." That's how we worded it in the bulletin for the upcoming Moms and Muffins Ladies' Fellowship at our house. During the "regular" year, our ladies have monthly Treasures of the Heart meetings on the second Tuesday of the month. It is a great time to fellowship, have some munchies, get an update on a missionary wife, have a time of prayer and then a brief devotional. They generally last about an hour. I love them!

I decided that it would be nice to do something with the ladies during the summer too and thought of a brunch time in our home. We had our first Moms and Muffins time this past Saturday from 9:30-11:00am. It was mostly a time for fellowship, but we also sang a few hymns and I gave a very brief challenge from Ephesians 4:1. "That ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."

There were three batches of muffins: blueberry (from our yard), cranberry orange, and chocolate chip. Two coffee cakes: sour cream coffee cake (thanks to Martha Faulkner from ME) and banana bread. I had a fruit platter with divine fruit dip (Laura Hertel's recipe...YUM-O). There was no lack of food (Shaylen was excited that there were leftovers) and everything was delicious. However, I think the hit of the morning was Renee Wright's recipe for Mocha Punch. It is out of this world and many ladies just wanted long straws to drink directly from the punch bowl.

So many times we have our little sphere that we function in at church and we don't always get chances to talk with those that sit or function in a different "sphere". Even though we're trying to invite families over to our house on a frequent basis, we haven't gotten to everyone yet. I wanted the opportunity to talk with some of our dear, sweet ladies and get to know them better. This was the perfect day for it.

One Evening in Maine

During the summer Cornerstone Baptist Church in Scarborough moves their mid-week service to Tuesdays and invites a New England pastor to speak. CBC faithfully prays for a different New England ministry every Wednesday and this allows the church people to get to know those they are praying for. This past Tuesday, Pastor Endean invited Taigen to come and speak. He was honored to be asked.

It is always so neat to go back and see our friends. Many of them read this blog (howdy folks!), so they know what is going on in our lives, but it is still nice to get hugs and see them face to face. The only problem is that I don't get to have a lengthy conversation with each one of them. Hopefully (hint, hint) they will stop by when they are down in the area. Kittery, ME has some great outlets that I know they hit from time to time. We're not that far from there.

Marshall and Shaylen always love seeing their "old" friends and it didn't take them long to get reacquainted. They promptly make themselves at home after the service by being silly, playing hide-and-seek, and make believe with some new stuffed animals.

Pastor Endean and his family took us to Tim Hortons after the service and it was great to sit back and enjoy a casual conversation with them. Katelyn sat with Marshall and Shaylen. They LOVE her. She allowed them to take pictures with her digital camera and then she colored with them. When we stepped outside, Judy Endean noticed a huge moth. It was honestly the biggest moth I've ever seen. Tim caught it (some kids never change Hee hee!) and showed it to the kids. Marshall and Shaylen thought he was so brave! When he let it go, it landed in Judy's hair and seemed quite content to stay there, but Judy was NOT! That was really funny to Marshall and Shaylen! They were still giggling about it yesterday.

It was a late night and we were tired, but it was a night full of good conversation and definitely worth the journey.

Fun In The Sun

On Monday it was hot and humid! Our neighbors (truly the most friendly neighbors we've ever had) brought over some hand-me-downs for Shaylen and a fun hose for the kids. We hooked it up and threw the kids into their swimsuits. They had so much fun!

While they were running around getting wet and cooling off, I got wet another way. I went around the perimeter of the yard picking blueberries. I was dripping with sweat when I was done and covered with bug bites. Even though I had sprayed myself with bug spray, the mosquitoes feasted on my arms and ankles. I guess the Skin So Soft isn't appalling enough to them. Funny thing is, I thought I was getting a ton of berries this time around, but when I was done, it only amounted to about a cup. That's okay, they're free, delicious, and there's more to come!

First Church of Joos

Marshall and Shaylen are little mimickers. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Aren't all four year olds? When they turned four, they moved up into the 4 & 5's Sunday School class and also were able to come up after Sunday school and participate in the beginning part of the morning worship service. They hear announcements, singing, reading of the Bible & offertories. They stand and sit when told, put their pennies in the offering, and attempt to turn in their hymnals and Bibles when they are told. They soak it all in. They traipse downstairs for children's church during the last hymn of the morning.

Marshall and Shaylen love to imitate that at home. They gather the piano music in my basket beside the piano and all of their "friends" and have a service. Marshall is always at the piano and Shaylen leads the singing. "Please turn in your hymnals to 20 329. Let's stand and sing!" It's usually the same hymns over and over: "Blessed Be the Name" or "Nothing But the Blood", but their "congregation" doesn't seem to mind.

My Birthday Cake

Janelle was down from Wednesday through Saturday morning and we had a great time! One of the things she did while she was down here was spoil me by making me an ice cream sandwich birthday cake. It was awesome! It is something very easy and cool for those hot summer days or when you're serving people who love ice cream!

Here's how you make it.
You'll need:
16 ice cream sandwiches
Large tub of Cool Whip (16oz)
Chocolate syrup
Some form of candy for the top (we used M&M's since they are my favorite)
8x11.5 casserole dish

First you place one layer of ice cream sandwiches in the bottom (it took 6 full ones and 1 cut in half long-ways).
Spread Cool whip over these and then drizzle the chocolate syrup over that.
Then layer remaining sandwiches (8) on top of that. You'll have to cut some to make the puzzle fit.

Spread remaining Cool Whip on top and then sprinkle your candy of choice on the top. (We thought it would be good to use the peanut butter sauce in the middle and then either Reeses' Peanut Butter cups (chopped) or Reese's Pieces. Wouldn't that be good?)

As you can see, Marshall and Shaylen loved it! I'm thinking we will definitely make this one again.

First Fruits of Harvest

On the 4th, we were outside playing around and Taigen mentioned that he had seen some berries on the blueberry bushes. I got really excited and decided to go and check it out for myself. I looked over every bush that I knew existed and gathered the tiny berries. These are much different from "regular" blueberry bushes. These are tiny, and very sweet berries. These are wild and the glory of it is...they are free!!! Marshall helped me pick and he also enjoyed eating them like Sal from Blueberries for Sal. I had a colander though, so the berries wouldn't go "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk."

It was a meager first picking, the entire contents would fit in my two hands, but there are plenty left on the bushes that will ripen in the days to come.

Happy Independence Day!!!

We hope you have a terrific day celebrating the birthday of this great nation. May God bless the U.S.A.

Mystery Bird

We are at a loss of what this bird is that we saw at the feeder yesterday. He/She was pretty fearful of me and flew away shortly after I snapped this shot. Any input? My guess was a Northern Mockingbird, but it's not a clear enough shot to be absolutely sure.

I got this picture today (07/05) and added it to this post. Does this help at all? Very skittish! It is definitely not picture friendly.

More Beauty To Be Had

When the snow finally melted around our house, it was time for me to spruce up the front garden area. When I did that, I noticed and cut back a bunch of ugly, brown vines growing around our banister leading up to the front door. I didn't know at the time what it was. It just looked like a bunch of overgrown weeds. I whacked it back to about 10 inches off the ground. (I'm wondering now if my neighbors were mortified to see me doing this!?!)

When the shrubs up front started to take on some semblance of life after the hard winter, I also noticed this plant growing back. I knew by the look of it that it was NOT a weed so I left it alone to grow and do what it wanted.

Little did I know that it was a beautiful, healthy clematis vine with vibrant, purple blooms. I think the cutting back did it good! There are dozens of blooms on it right now and it brightens up the front porch area nicely. It's just another sweet reason why we love this house so much.

Sabbaday Falls Journey

On Saturday, a couple from our church and their daughter decided to treat us to a bit of the beauty of New Hampshire. They love the great outdoors and frequently take their family away to go and hike or kayak and camp. We hardly ever do this kind of thing I'm ashamed to say, so when they invited us to come along, we jumped at the opportunity.

They took us up to see Sabbaday Falls. Click on the link to see more pictures and read up on how it got it's name. It is tucked away off the Kancamagus Highway (say that 10x fast!) on a small trail so that if you didn't know where you were going, you'd miss it altogether. We took the trail up to see the falls and then trekked back for lunch. We then enjoyed poking fun at "Friendly Fred" as he grilled some bratwurst and hot dogs and then enjoyed even more laughs around the picnic table.

It was a perfect day for an outing too. Not too hot, and not too cold. It was overcast (perfect weather in my opinion) and it rained a little bit early on in the day(hence the ball cap on my head!), but stopped once we got to the falls.

After lunch we went on over to North Conway to see some of the unique shops there and then headed back home with a brief detour to Eastern Mountain Sports for Debbie's sake! We had such a wonderful time. Definitely something we need to do again.