Posts Tagged ‘church’

I have the most amazing friends and sisters in Christ! For every expecting mother, the ladies of the church throw a baby shower. When I heard the planning was in the works for me, I was a little uneasy with the idea. This is my third boy and we've kept everything and don't need anything! It's been less than two years since the last shower they threw me at the church. I just didn't want them to put in effort and money. Usually people would have a "diapers and wipes" shower, but we're still cloth diapering and there are only a handful of soaps and replacement covers that we could use these days. Well, the church ladies had a better idea — a non-baby baby shower where the motherhood is celebrated and the ladies and I were pampered! I loved it!

Chrissy, Shyne & Elicia planned a beautiful evening full of delicious food and fun girliness. There was a masseuse to give head/neck/shoulder, foot/leg or shiatsu massages (I loved my head and shoulders massage!) There was also a manicurist there to give me a spa pedicure and a manicure, which was wonderful! My feet soaked in milk, honey and rose petals as I ate my dinner, then gave me a chocolate scrub and some pretty French tips on my toenails. She also did my fingernails (I picked a bright, summery coral color in spite of all the snow outside!) I got to sit on my own special little throne with a canopy and my friends were always coming up and asking if they could get me anything. I felt like such a princess! All the ladies had stations set up to give each other manicures, they got massages and chocolate facials, and enjoyed fruit and marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain!

I received some very generous gifts. I got a bunch of gift certificates for more pampering (yay!) as well lotions, soaps, stress-relief baskets (are they trying to tell me something??), chocolates, and candles. They also all went in on a new swing for baby (Rhino & Heron wore the old one out!!) Mrs. Popwell gave a heart-warming devotion about being a mother of boys. We played some games and a bunch of us won prizes. A few teen girls provided child care in the nursery, so the boys came along too because Matt had to work. They had pizza and played and seemed to have a great time!

I am so thankful for the amazing ladies at our church! They are so thoughtful and generous. I love that even though I'm thousands of miles from my mothers and sisters, that I have a loving family of beautiful women who care about me. The boys adore all the ladies that help out in the nursery and the 2s and 3s classes and I know this next one will too!

When I was younger, we had a few Christmas Eve traditions. We always went to the late, candlelight service at church then drove home and looked at the pretty lights around the neighborhood. Sometimes we were allowed to open one gift before the church service. When we got home, we changed into pajamas and Mama put on some hot cocoa. My brother and sister and I each prepared a special Christmas Eve presentation for the family (usually reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, reciting a poem, playing a carol on the piano, etc.) We opened all the family gifts on Christmas Eve and saved Santa gifts for the morning. It was always a late night!

We're working on having our own Christmas Eve traditions. Matt's family goes over to Mom-mom and Pop-pop's house and runs around barefoot in the snow! I would like to adopt that one when the boys are a little older and their toes aren't so tiny. Our church doesn't do a Christmas Eve service, so we don't do church on the 24th (unless of course, it falls on a Sunday!) We do drive around and look at the lights and have hot cocoa. I'd like to do the presentations when the boys are a little older. 

This year I baked up a bunch of cookies for all our four and five year old King's Kids Flyers Club students at church. We packaged them up in cute Japanese gift boxes and delivered them to everyone personally on Christmas Eve. We were going check out all the lights on the way home, but the boys fell asleep in the car so we'll save it for Saturday night. The boys were in bed at 8 and Matt and I had a cozy few hours to ourselves. We munched on cookies and drank hot cocoa by candlelight, cuddled up and watched TV, and put out presents for Christmas morning. It was such a lovely Christmas Eve and I'm so excited for Christmas day, too!

So I'm a little late. Woops! I had a fantastic Mother's Day! Matt sort of blew off the last two years, but I think I got on him enough last year that he made sure to do something this time around! I know that the boys aren't that old or anything, but they can still get involved a little and it's still nice to be appreciated by my husband! We went to church in the morning and I got to go to my ladies' Sunday School class then taught the 2 and 3 year-olds junior church during the service. Afterward, we went out to Global Kitchen, one of my favorite lunch spots out here. This was a good idea in theory, but they were having a Mother's Day special and it was very busy. Sunday is all-you-can eat and brought out on tiny plates whenever you order. We usually do two or three ordering "waves" and leave happy. We waited SO long for our first round because it was so busy on Sunday, that we left without ordering anymore. The boys had a good time playing downstairs with all the toys and the food was still good, we just didn't want to get home too late (it was all ready 2:30 by the time we did get home!) When we came home the boys napped and we just relaxed, which was really nice. We skipped out on evening church and went over to Muriel's for a Mother's Day barbecue, which was a blast. A bunch of her friends were there and I was sure there would be at least one husband. Nope! It was all wives and children … and Matt! He's a good sport though and had a pleasant time. Muriel is a new friend of ours and she is awesome! Her husband, Jacob, and Matt his it off really well (Jacob just deployed last week) and their three kids are so sweet! They just moved here in February, so I don't have to worry about them leaving us any time soon! As for Mother's Day presents, this year was wonderful! At the Misawa Parents and Me Playgroup last week I took photos of all the kids for picture frames. I snapped one of the boys for mine. Rhino painted the back side of puzzle pieces different colors and did beautiful work! Then we glued the photo onto a cardboard rectangle, placed the colorful puzzle pieces around as a border, and Rhino stuck flower and heart stickers around it. We secured a piece of string to the back so it can be hung on the wall. It is adorable and I love it so much (even though I probably did more than half the work!) and will definitely post a picture soon. Then on Saturday Matt and Rhino went to the 100 yen store and picked up some goodies. Rhino got a flower pot, filled it with rocks, and placed little pinwheels, a "My Garden" sign, a bucket on a post, and some pretty wires he twisted around his finger to make them curly in the pot. It is really cute and he was so excited about it so he gave it to me on Saturday night. I can't wait to put a plant in it! And Matt went overboard a little bit, but we justified a large Mother's Day purchase because it's something "for the house." In my biscuits post I mentioned my new KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer. Matt ordered it for Mother's Day and it came much earlier than expected, so I opened it early. It is beautiful and our hand mixer finally died last month and I love this new, green beast so much! We just might get a little chunkier this year with all the dough and batter mixing I'm going to be doing! It was definitely a great Mother's Day! I miss my moms (Mama and Matt's mom, too) and wish I could have spent it with them. They both have been so good to me and such great friends, too. I really appreciate their chatting and video Skyping, all the encouragement, letting me vent, and just being there even if we are across the globe. I couldn't choose a better Mama or mother-in-law! I love both of you! I hope all the mamas out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, too!

On Easter morning we woke up to bake Resurrection Rolls for breakfast. These were such an amazing idea and we will be making it our Easter tradition from now on. What a fun (and delicious!) way to teach about Jesus’ resurrection! Rhino had fun coating the marshmallow and placing it on the dough and, of course, loved chowing down on the empty, cinnamon-y rolls!

We went to church for Sunday School and the morning service at Faith and it was wonderful and uplifting! I stayed late to take photos of almost all the families at church, per Pastor’s request, so he could look upon our photos as he prayed for the church members. We invited Katy and her boys over for lunch afterwards. We had a symbolic Easter meal of rosemary chicken, asparagus, and potatoes. I couldn’t find purple potatoes, so I just roasted up some yummy new potatoes.

Rhino and his buddy Carson hunted for Easter eggs that Matt and Casey had hidden in the yards. Rhino was on such a mission and zipped from egg to egg, really cleaning up. Carson was so adorable and would stop to thoroughly celebrate each egg he found! They had such a good time running around and cracking open the eggs to find all sorts of goodies. They crashed quickly for naptime and Katy and her family went home.

We recuperated a little bit in the afternoon, but really should have napped with the boys. We returned to church for the evening service. The choir and some church members performed an Easter Cantata, which was beautiful and powerful. Matt worked the sound for the performance and had spent the last few weekends practicing with the choir. It was really something!

It was Heron’s first Easter and I wish I had made a bigger deal out of it. I didn’t buy the boys snazzy new clothes or take special photos. I did decorate eggs for each of them and we read the Easter story together. They received Easter baskets from Grammy and gifts from Grandma and Grandpa (lots of chocolate, a truck with dinosaurs, a stacking toy and a rubber duck for Heron, and some cute paints for Rhino. Thanks, Mom & Dad and Mama!!) Next year I want to do baskets for them, too. I didn’t want to have fancy baskets this year because Heron’s not eating sugar yet and Rhino didn’t really need any more with all the candy-filled eggs he collected. I do want to get them little gifts and sweets later, though.

We celebrated a little early this year. On Friday our church had our annual Valentine’s banquet at the club. We got all dressed up (woops, we didn’t get a photo of us together this year!), dropped the boys off at their own kids’ party (thank you Vira + teens!!) and had a lovely dinner with other sweethearts from our church. We had a nice dinner (we always get one of each – chicken or beef – so we can split it in half and share), and chatted it up mostly with Jason + Tanya and Eric + Katie. There was a sweet message from our pastor after dinner, then we played some games, as usual. Matt and I volunteered for the first game, which was was round 2 of the blindfolded, no-hands Ho Ho eating contest! Last year Tim amazingly (disgustingly?) sucked that thing down in probably 4 seconds! I thought we would have had an easier time, but we had some serious hangups. We sat across from our partner, couldn’t use our hands, couldn’t see, and had to unwrap and consume a Ho Ho together. I held one end of the wrapper between my teeth and Matt attempted to rip open the other side. In the 45 seconds it took the winning team to swallow the Ho Ho (including some plastic…) we had only made a small hole in one end of the wrapper! That’s all right — I didn’t really want to chow down on it, haha! Then we were given questionnaires and played a Newlyweds-type game. We left in the middle of that because Matt still had to go home and change for work. It was a great time, though! Oh, and the boys seemed to have a great time at their little party! Heron only cried a little bit, but didn’t get any sleep (it was way past his bedtime!) Rhino had a blast eating lots of sugar, singing songs and playing games, coloring, and hitting at a pinata!

We did have special Valentine’s treats for the boys (Heron didn’t get any chocolate this year.) Once again, Rhino got into Matt’s chocolates and ate half of the box. He needs to stop leaving them where Rhino can snatch them up! We did get each other gifts – I gave Matt a new Wii game and he scheduled me for an hour-long massage (which I go to on the 22nd.) I made a heart-shaped red velvet cake for him (again – no photo of this year’s, but it was prettier) and splurged and also made a delicious red velvet / chocolate pudding / raspberry / whipped cream trifle. I really wanted to use my new trifle bowl! We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day extravagantly, but it’s nice to have a special day with my sweetie (and now my mini-sweeties, too!)

We were a little lazy about having Heron’s baby dedication! I know we had Rhino’s dedication when he was eleven days old, but we just weren’t on the ball with it that early this time. There’s nothing wrong with having it postponed, though. Any time is appropriate to dedicate ourselves to raising our child according to God’s word.

We chose to dedicate our children before the church because it is important to us to publicly ask for wisdom and grace as we carry out the responsibilities God has given to us as parents, as for support from our church, and pray that our children will one day come to trust Christ as their savior. We were presented with a certificate documenting the day as well as a small blue bible for Heron.

Heron is a little picky about who holds him! He is just now warming up to Matt and in the nursery would usually rather sit in the swing than be held by a lady who isn’t Mommy. Occasionally he’s in a good mood and let someone new hold him, but not too often. There are two people in our church who he has never complained for, though! He loves spending time with our friend, Tanya, and our pastor. Pastor says it’s because he’s a “Papa” and Heron can tell. While Pastor Popwell was holding Heron during the dedication, Heron would stare up at him and babble a little baby conversation to him. He’d respond enthusiastically with coos and gahhs whenever Pastor would ask him a silly question (like “your mom and dad should keep working on filling that quiver, shouldn’t they?”!)

It was a sweet moment with Heron and I am so thankful that we have a close church family standing by us with support, advice, and prayers as we try our best to raise our boys. I do pray that one day they too will know the joy that is a relationship with our Lord and an eternity with Him.

Dearest Heron,

Hello, sweetie! It’s been so wonderful spending time with you these past two months! You’ve grown so much and have been such a joy in our life! At your five month doctor’s appointment, you weighed 17 lb 7 oz (72nd percentile) and were 25 inches long (25th percentile.) You are sitting up on your own and reaching for toys, rolling over, passing objects from one hand to another, and babbling nonstop!

You love your brother Rhino so much. Whenever he’s around, you watch him, smile at him, and laugh at him. You can be in a terrible mood for me, but Rhino can almost always cheer you up! He likes to play with you and tickle you. You aren’t yet too interested in playing with him, but I’m sure soon you two will be having so much fun together!

In the past two months you’ve had your first Thanksgiving (but no turkey for you!), have met your Aunt Jen, starting attending the nursery in church, and had your first Christmas and New Year’s! You loved Christmas, playing with (chewing on) all your new toys and crinkling the wrapping paper. You also like going to the nursery in church where you can swing and watch all the other babies and toddlers. You usually get a little hungry and I come and visit with you, but I’m told you are usually very calm throughout church. Your brother liked nursery at first, and then eventually had some separation anxiety for a few months, so I won’t be surprised if you start to experience the same feelings soon.

You are starting to sleep better throughout the night. You still sleep in bed with Mommy (Daddy works at night so he never gets to sleep when you do.) You used to stay up with me and sleep downstairs or wait to go to bed until I did. I’ve just started being able to put you down at seven in the crib where you’ll sleep for a few hours before I come up to bed and snuggle down with you.

Daddy and I (and Rhino!) love you so much and can’t wait to have more fun with you next month!

Lots of Love,
Mommy

The ladies of Faith Baptist Church regularly have a fellowship, with potluck snacks, our pastor’s wife giving some sort of devotion, and lots of chatting. This month’s was a Christmas fellowship, of course, and we were all to bring ornaments to exchange. Mrs. Popwell stood in front of a decorated tree and spoke on ornamentation while we sipped punch and munched sugar cookies. Then she set a wrapped ornament in front of each of us and read to us the story of Jesus’ birth. Each time she said the word left or right (which was quite often!), we were to pass our ornament to the person sitting beside us (right or left, depending on which word was said.) This was fun and got moving pretty quickly, it was a little confusing at times! When the story was over, we unwrapped our ornaments. I got a sweet, little Hachinohe horse (like the horses here.) It’s red and has Misawa and the year painted on it. I love ornaments like this, that will remind of us where we’ve been and what we were doing. I made a felt gingerbread man, which turned out really cute. I wanted to do a snowman also, but just didn’t have the time. I just freehanded the figures onto paper, cut it out and pinned it to the felt as a template. Then when the felt pieces were cut out, I embroidered details on to each side and blanket stitched around the edges. I like it a lot and think I’ll make more (and snowmen, reindeer, etc. in the same fashion) for next year’s Christmas for our own tree!

Matt’s sister, Jen, flew in to visit us for a week and a half! She came in on Friday and we’ve been having a good time, just hanging. I’m so glad she’s able to be here and spend time with the boys!

Today was our church’s Thanksgiving Fellowship. It was initially supposed to be a meal for the singles on base who don’t have a family to celebrate with, but not many singles showed up, so it was just another great church fellowship! It was a long day – we had our Sunday School then morning service, followed by the fellowship meal, then our evening service was moved up to after the meal. The boys handled it well, though! At last year’s church Thanksgiving, Rhino was just starting to eat solids and enjoyed just a little bit of mashed potatoes. I was hoping this year he’d dig in more, but he just wanted a bite of bread and lots of cranberry sauce! The meal was great, as always. I like that we did it the Sunday before Thanksgiving this year rather than on Thanksgiving day. Last year we had two Thanksgiving meals because we had the Armstrongs and the Kisers over for dinner as well as a church fellowship. This was all a little easier! We love our church family and they have been really good to us while we are so far from the rest of our family. I’m thankful to have them another year here and so glad that Jen share in an important part of our life.

Happy early Thanksgiving!!

Over the summer, our church started doing the King’s Kids program for all our youth ages 2-18. We knew that the church needed teachers for Wednesday nights and that they preferred couples. Matt and I have never taught anything in church before; it just sounded like a lot for two young Christians who don’t have it all figured out! I mean, what if someone asks a question we don’t know the answer to? What if a child wants to be saved? We certainly couldn’t handle that! Matt actually suggested that we give it a try, which was a little surprising to me! We figured teaching teenagers seemed a little intimidating, so let’s go for a little kids class. Oh, they need a teacher for the 4 and 5 year-old? Sure!

We’ve been teaching 4s and 5s (the Flyers Club) for almost six months now and have really enjoyed it! Each child is given a booklet of bible verses to memorize. At first, I was trying to work weekly lesson around each of these verses, but it got a little difficult. The kids wound up working on different verses from each other, due to absences or needing more time to memorize it. Sometimes I just didn’t come up with enough material based on the verse for a whole 90-minute class. We had some good ones though, mostly about creation in the beginning.

I started looking online for Sunday School / Children’s Church lesson ideas and came across so many great troves of information! My favorite resource site is Danielle’s Place. I’ve been picking lessons off the site and adjusting them as I need. We did the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) lessons for nine weeks, which was a huge hit! Each week we focused on a fruit (e.g. cherries and lemons) and a spiritual fruit (e.g. joy and peace.) I think it helped them remember all the fruits of the spirit when they associated each one with an actual, edible fruit. It made snack time easy, too! When we learned about patience, we also learned about pineapples. Matt picked up a fresh pineapple and cut it up for them. They had to sit patiently as he cut off the skin, picked out all the spots, sliced it, cored each slice, and cut them up. When we learned about love and apples, we made little hearts out of apple slices. There were of course lots of other fun games, crafts, art projects, and songs too – not just snacks. It was a great lesson and now all of my kids can name all the fruits of the spirit and give examples.

Since then, we’ve been doing sort of an ABC format class. We did an A lesson about ants and how God says we should be like them (Proverbs 6:6-8.) The next week we did a B lesson where we learned about bees and how we are God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10.) It’s been fun!

Our church decided to do different themed nights for each week. We’ve done sports night, bible character night, missionaries, etc. I’ve been trying to tailor the lessons to somewhat fit the themes, so I’ve strayed from the ABCs. Next week will be a lesson about fall, leaves, and how even though the leaves are changing, Jesus and his love never changes (Hebrews 13:8.) There are so many pretty leaves still on the trees and out and they won’t last much longer! Then I’ll have fun with Parent’s Night (maybe an “obey your parents” lesson) and Thanksgiving (we can do lots of things with that!)

It’s been challenging working with this age group, but it is all ready very rewarding. It’s so great when our members’ children bring guests who don’t ever go to church. I just pray we can make it fun and make them want to come back and learn more. The church talks about this program being permanent, so Matt and I plan to continue teaching this class until we leave in 2012. Rhino will actually get to be in our class for a couple of months at the end!

I’d like to keep up with blogging more specifically about each class, so be expecting updates on each fun Wednesday night King’s Kids lesson!