Church Picnic/Carnival

One of the main places that I "serve with love" is church. J and I realized early on that investing ourselves deeply in the church and other believers was important to our own spiritual walk and growth. There are many times that I think we're too far in and need to pull back a bit, but we both are "workers" - we don't want to sit on the sidelines.

When a fellowship committee was formed, I jumped at the chance to be part of it! I love planning events and also have wanted to see more family (all age) friendly activities offered at our church. A few weeks ago, we helped with some aspects of our annual church picnic. We gave it a carnival theme and had a great day of fellowship together. I wish I had taken some better pictures, but I wasn't exactly in the blogging mindset at that point.

We tried to stick tight to the red/white carnival theme. There were penants hanging in the tents for decoration and also carnival striped table skirts on all of the game/activity tables. Speaking of games and activities, we had a variety available with different prizes at each: face painting, colored sand art necklaces, a photo booth with fun props, sawdust scramble, beanbag toss, water gun challenge, and ladder ball. Phew! I would now like to have a moment of silence in honor of Oriental Trading. Seriously y'all...how did we live before this?!

 

 

  

This was my favorite fun thing (thanks for the idea, Pinterest!) To make this vendor box, I simply covered one [of the MANY!] diaper boxes I have with a red vinyl table cloth and secured it on the inside. I spraypainted the picture areas of the box first so that there wouldn't be a chance of naked babies showing through when the sunlight hit it. I then secured some red & white polka dot ribbons to the box, using the handles already cut out. My Cricut came in handy for cutting out the letters and swirly jobby. Stuff that baby full of cotton candy (also from Oriental Trading) and the kids loved it!

 

That night, Bear fell into bed, eyes half-closed and exclaimed, "Mumma- dat was a good party!" From a 3-year-old mouth...that is what I will claim as a success! :)

Make Like Jonah...

My husband and I recently made the decision that I should be a stay at home mom.

I dreaded the acronym SAHM, it makes me cringe a bit even now to type it. Ok, so that might be a little harsh, but it's true. It was never my heart's desire to stay at home. I should preface that by saying that I have nothing but undying admiration for the parents that I see doing the stay-at-home parenting (there are dads too!) thing so beautifully. I think that I never wanted to do it because I thought I wouldn't be good enough at it.

I'm not so disillusioned to believe that it's all picnics, parks, and play-do! I know that it's hard and takes incredible sacrifice. I know that there will probably be days when they make me cry before breakfast is even served, when they greet dad at the door with love and excitement after being rotten to me all day, and when I lock myself in the bathroom just to talk myself back to sanity. I didn't think I was up for that.

That's why I was so very suprised when both my head and heart started tugging me home. I knew that (once again!) God was calling me to a place I never wanted to go. Part of me still wants to make like Jonah... but most of me is so excited and anticipating how I can invest even more into my babies' lives.

I started this blog to document our journey and to give me an outlet. As difficult as the journey gets, I want to remind myself that we are called to love and serve.