Mac Day

Although Mac is our pet guinea pig, he is considered by the kids as the sixth member of our family.  Okay, so in all honesty he IS the cutest little guy with a lot of personality and much intelligence.  How can he not win anyone's heart?!  April 28th was the celebration of Mac's adoption to our family.  It has been one year and I am grateful to say that the excitement and novelty of having a pet has not worn off in the slightest.  We all will really miss him this summer.  That is if we can find a summer Mackie-sitter so we don't have to pay 2/3rds of an adult ticket price just to stow him under the seat.  So ridiculous!  I degress.  Mac did indeed get a cake and birthday song and the kids were tickled about the celebrations.

The kids really wanted you to see a video of Mac.  They are not the most skilled videographers yet but this snippet was the the least nauseating segment I could post.

Easter Vacation

This year the kids had a total of six days for Easter vacation.  We stayed close to home although we would have liked to get away for a day trip it just didn't happen.  The weather was kind of touch and go with rain and much cooler temperatures.  Being home is a good thing too and we had lots of crafting time leading up to Easter.  Emma created Easter baskets for her and the boys and was constantly asking what else she could make.

Eggs made with wrapping stratched string around water balloons

Emma's Easter basket creations

Sock bunny

T-shirt scarf (Better than trashing a too big tee)

Learning how to iron and loving it

We enjoyed Easter with our colleagues, Catherine and Melissa.  It was a relaxing day as all the food prep was succesfully accomplished on Saturday.  

He is Risen!

Easter Eggs

Sundried Tomato and Basil Deviled Eggs -- ooh, so yummy

Our new teammate, Melissa

The Monday after Easter "Pasquetta" is a holiday here as well.  It is a day for picnicing in the mountains or grilling with friends and family.  We were invited over to the Farina's for a cookout and so we spent the afternoon there with them.  It was a pleasant day with friends and good food and we are glad we took them up on their invite.

Tuesday was the kick off for our first home group meeting and meal for "Percorsi".  No matter how simple I try to make things, it always turns out to be an all day preparation for me.  So Tuesday was a busy day.  Once I get in a rhythm of preparing a meal for 6-8 additional people each week, hopefully I will get faster and hit my stride.  The study went well and we were pleased with our time of interaction and reflection on the material.  Granted I was in and out trying to manage 6 kids in the other room.  Thankfully, last night was an exception to having 3 kids come so hopefully next time I will be involved in full partcipation and discussion.  We survived though (and our house survived their energy too).

First thing this morning I headed out to house hunt with Melissa.  She is placing a proposal on an apartment tomorrow and hopefully will receive a positive response by next week.  Six weeks until we hit that June 1st move date, and it would great to not have to postpone that move.

Lots on our plates and things seem to be compounding as we move closer and closer to that June 9th departure date.  I think I can, I think I can...I know I can, I know I can...by God's grace and strength!

Luca's 6th Birthday

Luca turned six years old last week on March 29th!  Seriously?!  I think I am still in shock that my "baby" is such a big boy.  He is definitely still Mamma's boy--no doubt about that.  For all the 100% boy in him, there is this tenderness especially for his Mamma.  He loves to cuddle, picking me flowers, being a little helper, giving me kisses and just in general likes to hang out with Mamma.  I'll take as much as I can get for as long as it lasts!

Luca had a daily countdown to his birthday since March 1st.  And he made sure everyone knew.  He is super good with numbers loves math!  He even at one point was counting down the days until I would start to make his cake.

 T-1: Helping with the cake instead of rest time was A-OK by Luca

I was expecting one out of control boy for his birthday, but actually he was rather pensive and quieter than I expected.  Don't get me wrong, he loved his day...it was just greeted with a bit of timidity with all the attention.  He wanted to eat his cake first thing when he woke up because he was sure that he could not be six until then.  Funny boy, but he was serious in thinking that was the magical moment of age change. 

 I'm SIX!

Luca celebrated with his friends at school along with another classmate who shares the same birthday.  He actually ate the cake we bought this year, so yeah for trying something new.  For lunch we took him out to eat at Old Wild West and then to a movie.  Then it was home for presents, cake and birthday dinner.

A special gift from Uganda - thank you Papa!

Star Wars was the theme and #1 request for this young Jedi

Need help with Star Wars trivia, just ask our boys

Star Wars Venator Attack Cruiser

Not many options to choose from Luca's approval list for a birthday dinner, but pancakes and strawberries it was.

Family Devotional Book

Mighty Acts of God by Starr Meade

I know I always appreciate getting good book recommendations for our kids.  So here is one that we are almost done with and have greatly enjoyed over the past several months.  This book is definitely more for the elementary age child, but one can never underestimate what younger ones have the capacity to learn and understand!  There are 90 stories in the book and are written from a strong reformed viewpoint.

Here is what the author has to say about her approach to writing this Children's Bible story book:

"In this storybook, the focus in each story is on God, not on the human characters in the story. The stories are not presented primarily as moral tales giving children role models to emulate, or as accounts of how God always meets people's needs (as do genies in fairy tales!). Instead, the book's goal is for children to rightly see the God of Scripture, as he presents himself in the Bible's narrative accounts. In this way, the book as a whole provides an overview of the character and attributes of God.

"Taken together, all the stories we read in Scripture of God's mighty acts relate the story of God's mightiest act: his work of redemption. When Satan's schemes and people's sin seemed sure to thwart his plans, God's purpose never faltered; he continued to perform one mighty act after another, all working together to accomplish the plan of redemption he had devised before he had created anything."

It is not uncommon to find Samuel drawing things that he is learning.  On Wednesdays at school they have religion class in the afternoon.  We have opted for Samuel not to participate and therefore, he gets put in another class to sit quietly and read or draw for the afternoon.  We could keep him home but then that would not go over well having Emma returning and not him and visa versa for Emma on Tuesdays. Anyway, Samuel will often come home with something Biblical that was on his mind.  One time he wrote out all the books of the Bible, and yesterday he came home with these drawings.  You can tell from his drawings that the New Testament stories are what we have been reading recently.  So precious.  Thought you would enjoy seeing these too.  We highly recommend this book!

Samuel - Age 9

Food and Jesus

A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community and Mission around the Table by Tim Chester.  I do not anticipate getting an author's comment on this post, but Jonathan has met the author and sat under his teaching last month at a conference.  We so appreciate Chester's perspective on ministry from a European perspective and would highly recommend any book he has written.

The basic premise of A Meal With Jesus is that sharing a meal is far more than just getting a bite to eat. By looking throughout the New Testament, Tim shows us example after example of meals that Jesus was involved in and how often the meal was the setting for something profound. That is true even today. Meals shared with others represent times of fellowship, gatherings of the church, community witness and of course opportunity for mission. As Chester walks us through Luke's Gospel account, we see meals as enacted grace, enacted hope, enacted promise, etc. 

This is not a book about "How we do it and why you should to" but instead "This is how Jesus did it and why He did it and we should all do likewise". 

This is an extremely convicting book that forces you to reevaluate hospitality in your home.  We ourselves have much growth to make in this area.  Hospitality is huge to our ministry and we can and should be doing more to gather people together around a meal.  No excuses, like lack of seating or feeling like the meal needs to be a huge production...I need to keep it simple, approachable (meaning not perfect with my list of high expectations), and see people as the focus, not the food or a clean home.  I appreciated the theological background that Chester gave and then of course some practical helps.

We are attempting to incorporate more meal sharing in our home and will soon endeavor to host a weekly meal for our church family (divided in 2 small groups) followed by a discussion time as we work through the Porterbrook material.  Trying to lead by example in this area for our church family.  And if you will be hearing our furlough presentation this summer, these themes of meals and hospitality will be a huge focus.  Looking forward to sharing with you more in person!

Easter Project

Here is a great little project for your little ones, that helps them focus on the coming celebration of our risen King.  This took all of ten minutes to assemble, including gathering needed items from the yard, and makes a great center piece.  The kids water it with a spray bottle a couple of times a day and hopefully in 3 weeks time we will have a lovely green covering like the one pictured above.

Instructions:
1. Use a tray base from a plant pot
2.  Place a can on the base and cover with potting soil
3.  Add pebbles for the pathway and large stone to cover tomb
4.  Sprikle grass seeds in dirt and cover with a light layer of top soil
5.  Create crosses out of sticks and insert in soil
6.  Keep the soil moist by watering with a spray bottle
7.  Watch, wait and anticipate his resurrection

Note: We have now replaced the potato "stone" with a real one we found on our walk to school today

Rollerblading

We have had spring weather all week, meaning it has been in the upper 60's, almost hitting 70°F.  And although, we are still 3 weeks away from springing forward we are definitely enjoying the longer hours of daylight, meaning the kids get some extra playtime in after school.

The kids have been all about rollerblading since our snow melted.  Emma picked up on it almost instantly and the boys are coming along.  They wanted me to post a video for their grandparents to see.  So here you go!