Creation Calls

I saw this beautiful video at my friend Jennifer's blog...the girls and I loved it!

Busy week of beginnings

We started home school on Tuesday, and God heard my prayers--their attitudes were great, especially Mikayla!!! She said it was "actually fun."

Rebecca started kindergarten last Wednesday. She is in the "Penguin Room" (all the rooms have themes here) and her teacher is Mrs. Briggs. I was nervous for her all day--kept wondering what she was doing. I said good-bye at home, and Mike took her, which is easier for all of us. (Except maybe Mike, but that's okay.)

I picked her up at 2:35, and she chattered all the way home, happy as could be. Phew! She even had one girl in her class that she knew from preschool.


Mike's leadership team came back into town on Thursday, and they all came over Friday night for hamburgers. It's always so much fun when the students come back!! They hung around a while and jumped on the trampoline, and played croquet and Uno Attack and on the piano. I loved it.

The freshmen moved into the dorm yesterday, and have orientation today, so Mike had an on-campus worship service for them this morning at the BCM. He gets it put on their orientation schedule, and they went around campus telling people about it yesterday, and we had a great turn-out! Ran out of chairs! I hope they all come back on Tuesdays.
We'll have a lot more beginnings in the next few weeks...I'm trying not to stress out about them. I'm Cubbies director again, and I'm putting together a Bible study for the college girls, and I'm co-activities coordinator for the home school coop (that's a lot of co's in a row), and...phew...I think I'll stop there!

Me, creative?

(note: Okay, so I'm more creative but apparently still technologically challenged. I don't know why these pictures are coming out sideways...they're not even sideways in my picture file! I didn't even take them sideways! Aaargh!)

I don't know if it's because of being cooped up due to rain or heat, but I've actually been feeling a little creative this week!
I started by working on Rebecca's Christmas alphabet book.

When I was in high school, my best friend Amanda and I both had sweet little toddler nephews. Her mother got us together and helped us make them Christmas alphabet books using old Christmas cards. I loved it. So years later, when I had Jessica, I made her one.

A few years later, my Idaho best friend Denise and I got together and made some for Mikayla and Rachel.

I've been saving Christmas cards ever since, so it's about time I got started on Rebecca's!
I've also been getting ready for home school to start, so together the big girls and I made these daily assignment sheets, which I'll write on with a vis-a-vis. It keeps us all on track, and the stickers make it fun. Well, a little more fun.

This morning I woke up thinking about the raspberry croissant I ate at Madeleine's Cafe & Bakery in Spokane,

and remembered a can of crescent rolls in my fridge. Hmmm...I spread strawberry jelly on them, rolled them up, baked them, and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. They were delicious!!
Now I need to apply all that creative energy toward the college girls' Bible study I'm leading this fall. I'm coming up with my own material, which I've never done before, and I'm recruiting and organizing a bunch of other women to help lead, which is not my natural ability. So please pray for me!

Video fun

I usually have a hard time uploading videos, but I'm going to give it a shot. Why did the giraffe cross the road?
To thrill the tourists. Oh. My. Darlin'.

Here are the hippos after the crocodile incident of 2009. Make sure your sound is on--I love the background noises.

Vacation pictures, part 2

Here are the rest of the pictures, in Lewiston, Idaho; Clarkston and Asotin, Washington; and Joseph, Oregon. It's a beautiful country!

Vacation pictures, part 1

These pictures were taken the first week of our vacation, when we were in Spokane, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho, where we used to live.