If you know us in real life or you've been following this little blog for the last year or so, you know we're missionaries in training. The organization we're with has missionary families raise their own funds in a way of growing a real, integrated support team who will be personally invested in the mission through prayer and monetary donations. Suffice it to say, our mission to the Celtic People of the British Isles has been met with curiosity but not a lot of support! As in, we're still below 10% of our budget needs after 10 months of fundraising! That's a record low.
Anyway, we met someone last fall who works for the Outlook, a paper for this region of our church that is sent to all members living in the Midwest (approximately 30,000). We were asked to write an article on how we plan to reach out to our new friends in the British Isles and it was published this month! We're super excited to be printed and hope our ideas can be used by others in their sphere of influence too. Here's a link to the online article if you're curious.
While we're on the topic of our mission, Gary was asked to present in the Beginner's class at church. These kiddos are 3-5 years old. Gary did a great job telling them a story about a prayer that was answered and relating how the kids we're going to be living near (showing where on the map, yes, he looks like a pirate!) don't know about Jesus and how He answers prayer, so what should we do? A little boy shouted out, "We need to go tell them!!!" Loved that moment!
We've had a touch of illness lately. I love the empathy my older and youngest son are showing their brother when he didn't feel well! Jared napped on and off and didn't eat anything I can remember, slept really well that night and was back to his rambunctious self by morning!
Jonathan is WAY into space shuttles and rockets. He builds small lego shuttles that are quite accurate looking. These with large legos don't look so much like the real thing, but he likes that the boosters explode when they're detached after launching. What boy wouldn't? Jonathan took these pictures with my cell phone, chose the background color and added the "stickers" on the app too.
This little goofball calls himself "Jos-iah". His name for me today is "Jos-mommy". Can't get any cuter! Another cute Jos-iah-ism happened at supper:
Daddy to Josiah: I love you!
Josiah to Daddy: I love you too!
Josiah to Mommy: I love Daddy. And I love YOU. And I love chips.
Wow, I'm right up there with chips!
Jonathan loves to volunteer at Sabbath School. Which made me realize he's older and bigger than all the other kids in that class. (We were visitors for a long time, the boys wanted to be together, we compromised on the 3-5-year-old class.) So I promptly promoted him to a more age-appropriate class. After building it up, of course. He's so brave and getting so big! He brings his Bible and does his lesson and memorizes his scripture and just can't wait to see his new friends and do crafts! This picture was from his last week in the younger class.
We were invited to go hiking with friends at Schramm State Rec Area. It's about an hour away and it was quite a little jaunt through the muddy woods, but we all had fun. It was good to get out, good to have new friends, good to get some sunshine and exercise!
There's a long story behind why I was drilling things in my room, and you probably will never hear all of it. But soon I'll actually show you our room and the story might unfold itself. Meanwhile, I'm that mom who lets her 6 year old play with her drill. How else is he gonna learn? :) Jonathan made a cross. And colored it with crayons and markers. And played with it for a couple days before propping it on his headboard where it still lives.
We're still homeschooling! It's a little touch-and-go, depending on how many kids I'm watching on a given day. And the weather. This day we did a few activities with their little friend. Lately it's been warm enough to let them play outside, so we're making up for all the days trapped inside during the winter!
Speaking of homeschooling, I was invited to be a guest blogger on a friends homeschool blog! I'll let you know more about it when I post my first blog.
This day was hard. Lesson learned. I had seven kids under age 7. Never again.
May I just observe, by the way, that my Instagram use has gone down? Yeah, we're home most days and I'm caring for other people's kids, and when I think about taking pictures it's bad lighting or the moment is gone, or I just want to be IN the moment and not step back and document it all! How about you? How do you find balance in what to document? Cell phones and Instagram/Facebook have made it easier to capture moments, but have they made it better?
I'm gibsongirl726 on Instagram and I'd love to follow you!
