Monday, April 28, 2014

Cookie Baking Night 04/29/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, and Alli. 
Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota, and the snow has melted. We decided to celebrate with flower-shaped sugar cookies. 



I made the cookies ahead of time as making dough, rolling and cutting out cookies, baking and cooling them, and then frosting and decorating them would have been more than we could have comfortably accomplished in our 3-hour evening together. 


However, the children made the frosting and colored it. 




Yellow


Purple 


Blue


Then they decorated


And decorated 


and decorated


Pretty Fancy!


Tonight we finished our book Sammy and His Shepherd by Susan Hunt. We read chapter 11 "And I Shall Dwell in the House of the Lord Forever". It was a beautiful ending. I cried. The author did such a nice job of summing up the role of the Good Shepherd (Jesus) and the role of other sheep in the flock (His Church). 

This is what Precious (a sheep) said she learned about the Good Shepherd. "He's merciful. He bought me when I was sick and dirty, and he has cared for me so that now I'm strong and healthy. He's good. He always does what is good and right for me. He has forgiven me when I've disobeyed him, comforted  me when I've been fearful, and rescued me when I've wandered away. I have finally realized that I'm a precious jewel to him, and that I will dwell in his flock forever."

This is what Precious said about her friend, Sammy (another sheep from the flock). "You have shown me that the more we know our shepherd, the more we become like him. He is good and merciful, and when we live with him we become good and merciful, too. Being with him changes us from silly sheep to faithful followers."

This book was based on Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul. 
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, 
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. 

I highly recommend adding this book to your bookshelf and revisiting it with your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, neighbor children, etc on a regular basis. 

That sums up the Cookie Baking Night report for this time. As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Cookie Baking Night 04/14/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evneing: Ethan, Carissa, and Alli. Since spring has arrived to Minnesota and the snow has melted (for now anyway), we thought we would celebrate with our "Spring Bird Nests" cookie. Chow mein noodles, peanut butter, choc chips, butterscotch chips, and some candy eggs, and you have quite a cute and tasty treat on your hands (literally).







Tonight we worked on a little art project that we'll be using during the Cookie Baking Nights ahead. Phase 1: Decorate a paper heart. Check. (More to come on that later). 

Instead of reading from Sammy and His Shepherd tonight, we talked about Good Friday which falls at the end of this week. We read (lesson 40) "Jesus Died For Us" from Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Scholland. In this candy egg culture that we're living in Good Friday is certainly being ignored and why we celebrate Easter at all is getting pushed to the background (even among the church-going crowd). We talked about why the Friday when Jesus died could be called "good" (forgiveness of sins) and what happened the following Sunday (he rose from the dead). Ethan read John 19:11-18 for us from the Bible. 


As usual, a fun time was had by all!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Katrina's Musings (1,000th post)


                                                  1,000


                                      


This is my one-thousandth post to this blog. I praise God for sustaining it thus far. May it bring Him glory or may it cease to exist forever. 

Today was my 5th chemo session with Taxol. 5 down 7 to go. I'm happy to report it was pretty uneventful as chemo days go. I didn't h...