Cooler Weather

It's finally here! You can tell around our house because the cat can be found on top of the vent.

He can also locate any little sliver of warm sun.

Sunday School — Queen Esther

Lately our Sunday school lessons have been on what I'll call the typical children's Bible stories. It's been a challenge to come up with an interesting way to teach the lesson since I'm sure they've heard the story and know it.

Sometimes the activities in the lesson book aren't conducive to second graders (the lesson plans cover both first and second grade ages), or they require lots of prior planning and work, collecting unusual materials and such. That means that I need to come up with some type of game or activity to help reinforce the lesson.

Last week our lesson was about Queen Esther. Of course since the lesson was for younger children, she had already been chosen Queen when the lesson picked up. I started out by asking the kids some questions to see what they knew about the story of Esther. I figured I'd get something just because there is a VeggieTales movie based on the story.

I was surprised I didn't get much. They couldn't even tell me the names of most of the main characters. Of course once I said the names they all remembered them, which I expected, but they couldn't come up with them on their own. This encourages me in teaching the lessons now — I want to make sure they get the story, even the ones I think they already know. I also want them to see God's hand in the story.

In the story of Esther, her uncle Mordecai raised her. At one point after she was crowned Queen, Mordecai found out about a plot to kill the King, he told Esther, she went before the King and told him (giving Mordecai credit in the record books), and the two men were put to death. Mordecai was not recognized for this good deed at this time.

Toward the end of the story, after the King and the evil Haman had dinner with the Queen the first night (she invited them the next night too), the King couldn't sleep. He had the scrolls brought in to be read, and part of the chronicles read to the King that night was the record of Mordecai saving his life by exposing the two men who wanted to kill him. He realized Mordecai hadn't been honored, and the story goes on from there.

So our activity was to make scrolls to record our Bible verse for the week, Proverbs 3:5,6. Esther trusted God and didn't lean on her own understanding.

We started out with straws. I only have bendy straws, so we cut off the bendy part.

We cut a regular piece of copy paper in half lengthwise.

We taped each end to one of the straws.

We wrote our verse. Some wrote it vertically and some wrote it horizontally.

Roll up one end halfway.

Roll up the other end halfway.

Hold it and twirl the straws to tighten it a little.

Swipe some of Chatty's tiny little black hair rubber bands and don't tell any of the kids what they are and use them to hold your scroll closed.

Quick and easy!

Broccoli-Romaine Salad

Last night at small group I made something a little different for our not-dessert snack (we always have a dessert and a not-dessert, or a sweet and a salty, or whatever).

I've been running out of ideas for something new and different, so I made a salad for the grown-ups, and if the kids ate it, it would be good for them.

When you look at the picture, just remember that I doubled the recipe below.

Broccoli-Romaine Salad
from my mom

1 bunch of broccoli, chopped, or a package of broccoli wokly
1 bundle of romaine lettuce, chopped (I had one bunch of red and one bunch of green and chopped them up pretty good so they were smaller pieces)
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (which you know would qualify as food in my food and was not included, because it's nuts)

Brown and cool:

1 package of ramen noodles in 2 tablespoons of butter, without the little seasoning package.

Dressing

1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda my mom said)
1/2 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Shake or stir dressing and refrigerate. Add just before serving along with the browned ramen noodles. You'll have to shake or stir again.

None of the kids ate it, which is a good thing, because the grown-ups (including me!) were vultures. It's a good thing I doubled it.

Not BlueAlternately Titled "The Room That's Glowing"

This is the bathroom that Sparky, Buddy, and Caboose share. I'm hoping that once the shower curtain goes back up it helps deflect the glare coming out into the hall.

Seriously. After one coat last night there was a definite green glow in the hall when the light was on in that bathroom.

I'm waiting for the second coat to dry today.

It appears to match the Garnier bottle. Could that be considered a plus?

Blue

Does this give you a better idea what was going on in these pictures?

It's a little more obvious here. The color and the in-progress mess.

That's one long wall in those two pictures. It's the length of a three-car garage. It took a full gallon of paint for that one wall. Two coats. Behr Ultra Paint plus Primer.

In the last week I've used nine gallons of paint...all by myself...Hubby's out of town.

Upcycled

Chatty got our old (as in previous) white bed skirt when we got our king-sized bed a couple of years ago. She's the only kid with a queen bed and the bed skirt has a scalloped trim, so it fits for her.

Then we have a single panel floor length drapery that the girls had when they shared a room back in Illinois. They had a walk-in closet, and we removed their closet door because they were able to have their dolls and toys in there and play with them there. It was a pretty big closet. We hung the panel on a simple spring-rod at the top of the door frame so you couldn't see into the closet and then it added a little cuteness to the room.

We haven't been able to use that drapery panel again, but it's moved with us. I almost got rid of it as well as the bed skirt. Then I saw an idea in a catalog or magazine using a white bedskirt with different colors of ribbon attached all the way around it. I decided I could use the sheer colored strips from the panel that had flowers attached to them, cut them into the lengths I needed, and then attach them to the bed skirt.

My favorite way to attach stuff when I can is hot glue. I used low-melt so I could touch it. I think hot glue guns are the girl version of guys and their duct tape.

When the cord reached, I put the glue directly on the bed skirt.

When the cord didn't reach I just put the glue on the strip and then stuck it on.

I pressed each one down.

Lots of cuteness.


I actually had the bed skirt out in my garage sale last year and it didn't sell. I kept it out when I took things to the Salvation Army a few months ago knowing I planned to do this. I'm so glad it didn't sell. And I usually don't say that after a garage sale.

Piranha!

This is the kind of cool gift a 14-year-old boy gets from his sister when she returns from Bolivia.

He's roughly as big as my hand. Or she. Look at those teeth!

Looks great as an accessory with little baseball helmets.