MY CREATIVE DAUGHTER...

did not make this.


I made it back in 1970-something. I had forgotten all about it until I saw it displayed with the Easter bunnies at my mother's house. Lovely, isn't it? Yes, the words are spelled with dry spaghetti noodles. One of those things only a mother could love!

THE BEST THING ABOUT EASTER THIS YEAR...

Midnight Truffle Blizzard from DQ! It's a serious dessert for dark chocolate lovers. Since we don't have DQ in Oklahoma anymore, I get pretty excited when we are out of the state and I get one of these!

Okay, so maybe it was the second best thing...

This really was the best thing! I have to beg the family to stop for a group picture nowadays...and this gorgeous background beside the church Sunday morning turned out to make a beautiful family photo. Not to mention no one needed a haircut and everyone looked pretty decent! Pretty amazing now that they are paying for their own haircuts. All except the little one. :)
And, just throwing this one in there to let you know old habits, like a basket full of Easter goodies, die hard. I brought these sacks of goodies from home for them to open the night before Easter. They opened them in the hotel room while we watched the end of the "Ten Commandments" and they oohed and ahhed over everything to satisfy their mama.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MY HU GIRL...

We drove in to spend Easter/Spring Sing weekend with her. She had us to meet her at her 3rd home, as she calls it. Midnight Oil, a coffee house on the edge of campus, is where she sits for hours at a time, studying, and drinking coffee.
Walking through the gorgeous old campus! Azaleas blooming like crazy!
A couple of pictures of the apartment...isn't college great? Probably the only time in your life you would have pink curtains in your kitchen and dining area!
And a cool pottery barn catalog tree on the living room wall...
After a bite at Subway, onto more important things: The Knight's Joust! The Knights are banned from Spring Sing for a few years (don't ask me!) so they put on a jousting show for the visitors.
Orange box knight

Shopping cart knight
This guy got it good with the shaving cream!
The 3 amigos with their golden taco knight!

On to Spring Sing. Their SS show is very different from what I'm used to - very good club shows, but only 6 of them. They have some other kinds of acts too. Probably the main difference is this is not a student-run show. It was pretty funny to me that they had syrupy sweet ads for the university between some of the acts in the show. But it has its own personality, and there are so many things to love about this place!
On to dinner in Little Rock, at Zaza's! Can you tell they are getting a little tired of me and my camera?
And the gourmet pizzas...which concludes our wonderful day in Arkansas!

SOMETHING YOUR KIDS NEED TO KNOW, PT. 2...

My 15 year old really enjoyed reading the letters on the retreat. Guess what? We got a letter in the mail back from him this week! So the youth minister had asked them to write back. I won't reveal all of the letter but I did ask his permission to quote one of his sentences that will melt your heart!

"So yeah...I'm on a mountain right now overseeing the camp and its surroundings! You've got mountains, lake, and farm all around, what can be much better than this? Heaven."

SOMETHING YOUR KIDS NEED TO KNOW...

Your faith story! Recently the teens went on a retreat, and all the parents were asked to write their "faith story" and put it in an envelope. They would be given to the students while they were having some quiet time on the mountain. I'm sure I have mentioned most of these things to my kids at different times growing up, but never in story form, like this. So I thought it was a really good idea. Let me encourage you to tell and even write out your faith story for your children, too. Here's what I wrote to my 15 yr old:

My Faith Story 4/10/11

I can’t really remember a time when I did not believe in Jesus. It came naturally to me, growing up in a Christian home. I was blessed by parents and grandparents, who were believers and encouraged me by bringing me to church, praying with the family, and making sure I knew God’s plan of salvation. I also had many wonderful Bible teachers, youth ministers and Christian friends that influenced me for good.

But, my parents did not force me to get baptized. They let me make that decision on my own. I appreciated that. I got baptized at age 14, at the Del City Church, by my youth minister, Bill. We were at a Tuesday night event for teens, called Summer Youth Series. I had known for a couple of years that I had sinned and needed to be forgiven and start a new life in Christ, but I remember thinking, “Can I really do it? Can I live a life that pleases God?” I would try to go a week living like a Christian to see if I could not sin – and I would always fail! I would be disappointed in myself and think, “No, I’m not ready to be a Christian.” So I waited a while longer. Well, obviously I didn’t understand God’s grace, or that I didn’t have to be perfect, or try to live life by my own power. I got baptized that night, not totally understanding everything, but wanting to obey God’s word. And also because my friend Karen went forward and it gave me the courage to follow her down the aisle and get baptized. What a great feeling it was to be cleansed of my sin!

There certainly are stages of life, and I believe we all grow a little differently. Meeting your Dad was a boost to my faith. He sang loud and strong and wasn’t embarrassed about it. His Christian family also attracted me to him. Having children was another great boost to my faith as I re-learned the Bible stories I was told as a child and taught them at church and read them to my children at night. It reaffirmed to me how big and interesting and wonderful and loving God is. At about age 38, when I vowed to get physically fit and reached my goal I realized, “Wow, is this as good as it gets?” and I realized my body will never be perfect and I will never be as beautiful as some, but I am made perfect through Christ before God the Father. If I want to be in heaven someday I had better start working on my relationship with God rather than my earthly home and body. That’s when I really started praying and studying more intentionally. My Dad’s death of cancer made me long more for heaven, and your Dad’s accident gave me confidence that God is a God of healing.

My faith has grown tremendously since then, but it hasn’t always been an easy road.God doesn’t promise us a life of ease, but he does promise he will be with us! My life has been full of ups and downs, but I feel very blessed and can say that it has had many more ups than downs. Every experience leads me back to God in prayer.

That’s my faith journey so far. I have every hope that no matter what happens God will be with me. I still hang onto this verse with faith:

God makes me strong, God gives me peace, Psalm 29:11!

SELF-INDUCED STRESS...

Yes, I do it to myself most of the time. I'm a Type A personality, first-born, perfectionist kind of person. Well, I think I'm not so perfectionist anymore. I got over being perfect about the time my 2nd baby came along and he was colicky.

So besides feeding 85 kids in the musical at the high school every night this week, I had the big LAST BIBLE STUDY OF THE YEAR LUNCHEON. I really enjoy my group, we've been studying the book of Luke since last September. But when I asked for someone to decorate the table for the luncheon, nobody really jumped at the chance to do it. So there you have it. I DID IT. I DID IT MY WAY. Hmmm...sounds like a song. Of course I spent hours on the internet looking for cool ideas, which there are none. Because I wanted to do something with NEWSPAPER, in keeping with our theme "Good News of Great Joy." So I've sweated over this the last few weeks. Here is the fruit of my sweat:

That's a bicycle planter, if you can't tell. Newspaper placemats, newspaper sign, newspaper flowers, etc.
The sign just in case you don't get the theme.
Newspaper roses - okay, I did find this idea on the internet. Click HERE to learn how to make them!

Here's some other cute ideas from the luncheon, for you centerpiece junkies:

One member of this group crocheted potholders for everyone.
Classic Christian
City of Jerusalem
Wow! Color-ful!!! I think the tablecloth was actually puzzle-piece fabric and everyone got a little puzzle cross made of fun foam.
Exotic colors and shapes - I always like the use of burlap!
The Food Drive table - they had canned food from their group in the middle of the table to donate to make the rest of us feel bad for making ours pretty...

ADVENTURE RACE WINNERS OF...

a door prize! Yes, that's right, we went all the way to Mt. Ida, Arkansas for an Adventure Race this weekend and got owned! The Ozarks are so hilly there's no way the Okies can compete. But thankfully, my competitive husband gave way to "enjoying himself" with the kids.

If you don't know what an Adventure Race is...well it is craziness, if you ask me! It's like a marathon x 4: Canoeing, Orienteering, Biking, Rappelling, and basically running around in between, finding checkpoints. This race is designed to last 8-12 hours. My crew went hard for 11 hours, in a place we had never been before (another disadvantage). This was my first time to go and support. Which means making peanut butter sandwiches and refilling camelbaks with water at designated transition points, driving from one point to another, and finally, picking up the dog-tired team that no longer cares they will get disqualified by receiving help... and bringing my breakfast casserole to renew their strength at the end of the day!

I didn't get any pics of the really good stuff - because I wasn't with them at those moments. But they had several good stories to tell: wipeouts on the bikes, the wild turkey that flew down from a tree and about scared them to death, the impossible to find checkpoints, etc. But here's a few I did get from the transitions:
Our girl and her friend from HU came to join in the fun!
He loves it, can't you tell?
That canoe's pretty heavy after rowing 13 miles!
Plotting the given points on the map!
Off they go trekking...
and trail biking...

The weary team and the "prize" I got for them...actually I gave it to my daughter because she loves "memorable" days like this!

Thankfully we had a nice resort to stay in and comfortable beds to fall into at the end of the day. Fun times!

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE?

So I was thinking about what should be my next blog post, and I came across these pictures I took of an event recently. Our Bible class decided that it would nice to honor our elders and their wives at a dinner. Each table was decorated with the hostesses own china/stoneware, and we had a delicious dinner along with a little entertainment. It was a fun evening and we enjoyed the opportunity! Here's a look at my favorite tables:

Christmastime
Leopard print
Spring flowers with different colored napkins
Elephants
Imported blue pottery
Seascape
Pink paisley

Which one's your favorite?

NOT JUST FOR OLD LADIES...

It's been interesting to me sitting and serving on various committees in our church throughout the years. I've been active in the Women's Fellowship Committee for a while now. We try to offer several different kinds of activities during the year and this is one that has been around for a few years. It's a BOOK PORTRAYAL, kind of a one-act play. Unfortunately a lot of women attending have been of the older generation and they feel like it has gotten the reputation of being an "old ladies thing." Well, I'm here to tell you, it was a fun evening ANYONE above the age of 12 would enjoy.

What's a BOOK PORTRAYAL? Not reading a book, but feeling like you have...watching the story told before your eyes, by a woman who becomes the main character. Add in lots of fun finger foods and it's FREE - pretty good evening!

Last night's book portrayal was the autobiography of Beverly Sills, the opera singer. I learned several things about her, including how she really broke ground on the art of opera in the U.S., which back then was considered a "European art." How she struggled with depression after the birth of 2 disabled children, and how her loving husband was a tremendous encouragement to her, and even her successes in opera and business did not compare with the love of her family. It was a wonderful story of encouragement to anyone, young or old.

So next time this rolls around, be daring. Bring your friend or neighbor and enjoy an "old ladies thing."

The youngest participant! Maybe she should have gotten a prize?
Some other young ladies that came!

Carol "becomes" the main character of the book and tells her story.
My kind of dinner!

SERVICE WITH A SMILE...

Just a shout out to our ministers in the children's department of our church...they have been doing a really great job of supporting the Village of Hope ( a Children's home) in Africa. They continually challenge the children to pray, raise money for specific items, and have even extended it to the entire congregation. A few months ago they gave us all the opportunity to help. We could give money, but what I really loved was that they had projects for the making - flipbooks, puppets, etc. A way to get me, a SAHM in Oklahoma, personally involved in something that would educate children in Africa. I admit it drove me a little crazy this week, having 20 pages- I always bite off more than I can chew! But after 5 days with it spread all over my kitchen, here are some of my favorite pages:

I was especially excited about the cover with mirror paper where the title used to be. Thought it appropriate considering the title.





Now on to laminating and binding! I had a lot of fun doing this - I don't think I had made a flip book for about 20 years! Us old ladies are still good for some things. Now if I could just get caught up on my scrapbooking...