BSF

This past year I've been attending Bible Study Fellowship. I take the kids too, and they have a program for them while I'm in the adult study. One of the genius things about BSF is that they teach the kids the same thing as what the adults are going through. At first, we were going through Acts and each week I would tell Elisa what my "story" was about. She would look at me with wide eyes and say, "We had that story too!" Lately the adult study has been going through different epistles, so it's a little harder to know what they are talking about with the kids.

It's been funny to see some of the things they are picking up on in their classes. Last night Jonathan took a little notebook out of Grammy's purse. He told me, "It's the Bible." Then he held it facing out, like an adult doing story time would hold a book so that the kids could see it. And he repeated over and over, "The Bible is a treasure book, it has true words." He has also taken to hopping around the house like a frog, which looks extremely tiring. I'm pretty sure it's a BSF strategy to get 2-year-old energy out.

Sometimes the things they pick up on come out in unexpected ways. A few months back Elisa and I were playing a game with a couple of wands from her dress up stuff. We were taking turns waving our wands and then pointing them while saying magic words. We started with old favorites like, "Bippity, boppity, boo" and "Abracadabra" and then progressed to silly nonsense phrases like, "Ella McStella" etc. We had been going at this game for quite some time, and all of our magic words had been used and reused many times, when all of a sudden Leesi pointed her wand and exclaimed, "In the name of Jesus Christ!" It was so surprising, it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. Later I was thinking about this, wondering where she could have gotten this phrase. I decided it must be from BSF. After all, we were going through Acts, and there were probably a few times where people did things in the name of Jesus Christ.

It's been awhile.

Okay, so I've been terribly absent from blogging lately. And here's the reason...

I've been busy growing a baby in my belly.

We are expecting a little girl, due August 27th!

So far my pregnancy has been much like the last two. To sum it up in a word: hard. To use three words: fatigue, nausea, vomiting. But I am so thankful for the wonder drug Zofran which recently went generic, which means that insurance companies will now pay for it for pregnancy. It has made a huge difference this time around. We still had what we refer to as "survival mode" for a couple months... but it was bearable. I am now officially at the halfway point. And now I am expecting and hoping for my pregnancy to continue to be like the last two. I've had very easy last halves of pregnancy, and very easy labor and deliveries.

We are all very excited around here to welcome another little one!

Easter Festivities

We had a great Easter weekend. Couldn't have asked for any nicer weather. We had a lot of fun with friends at our church's annual Easter egg hunt. Then went to church on Sunday and then headed out to Grammy's house for the afternoon.

I taught the 3-5 year old class during church. Which, honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to. I was envisioning a lot of extra kids in class... and it can already be a little crazy in there. But there ended up being fewer kids than normal, and it was a complete pleasure to spend the morning with them. It was such a privilege to tell them the Easter story. Of course, most of them have heard it by now, but they're still young enough that it's somewhat new. We talked about how we all do wrong things that make it so we can't be with God, but Jesus took our consequence, so that now we can know God. One little girl adamantly refused to admit that she had ever done anything wrong. When I asked if she'd ever gotten a time out she said that once a really really long time ago she had gotten a time out. One little girl was looking more and more serious as the story went on. Then when Jesus raised from the dead she looked relieved, and broke into a little smile. For some reason, being with the kids made Easter fresh and real to me in a way that sitting through the service wouldn't have. It ended up being a total blessing.

After I had told them the story, we broke out a small set of resurrection eggs that I had made up. I just did 6 eggs (bread, cross, cloth, rock, angel, empty) and had a child volunteer to open one and show it around. Then had the kids tell me about that part of the story. It's such a great activity for kids this age. They loved it, and we ended up going through them twice. Today, I had Leesi go through them with Jonathan and tell him the story while showing him the eggs. They did it quite a few times, and then Leesi said that she wanted to do it with Arthur (a baby I watch), so she did it with him too. Arthur did his part by happily chewing on an egg.

At Grammy's house we had a wonderful lunch with the family. Then relaxed (I even napped!) for awhile. Leesi and I made resurrection rolls in the afternoon. When Jonathan opened his up we explained that it was empty just like Jesus' tomb. Jesus isn't there anymore, he's risen! Jonathan kept on looking in his roll and then saying, "It's empty! He's not there. He went away." I don't think he had the slightest clue what we were talking about, but it made some sort of impression on him nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Chocolate face after the church Easter Egg hunt.

Dying eggs.

Jonathan kept asking, "Can I eat it now Mommy?" I finally gave in, and he spent most of the time peeling and eating the eggs while the rest of us dyed them. (By the way, he's wearing an apron, not a sundress... at first he didn't want an apron, so we took his shirt off. Then he decided he did want one, so we put one on... made for quite the fashion statement.)

Doing a fun cross craft from my friend Christa's blog. As we were doing it Leesi told me, "This is going to be the most beautiful craft I ever made." So sweet.

Easter morning and on our way to church.

Leesi proudly showing off the eggs she found in Grammy's yard.