Spring Break Happenings

I wasn't as productive as planned... as usual.

We've been continuing with our themed meals in small group.

GREEN week & MINI week

We took a drive down to Ark City to eat some of Ike's donuts.
Boy, does he make a good Hot Ham & Cheese donut!

We ate with some other friends throughout the week.

Good times! Good {rainy} weather. Good break.

Snickerdoodle Muffins

(from scratch)

• Cream the butter and sugar until soft about 3-5 min. Add the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time.
• In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
• Add the flour mixture and sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture. Start with flour and end with flour.
• Scoop the muffin batter and drop into a shallow bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin around in the mixture until it is covered.
• Place in the muffin tin. You should get 12-14 muffins. Bake for 20-22 min. at 350 degrees or until golden brown.

A Seuss-ational Meal

We decided to have a Dr. Seuss themed meal
for small group this week in celebration of his birthday.
Brilliant idea!

I brought...

Green eggs and ham treats
Cat in the Hat fruit hats
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish jello

There was also...

Green eggs and ham
Cat in the Hat cake hat

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. (Dr. Seuss)

I think my favorite Dr. Seuss book growing up was Green Eggs and Ham. That Sam-I-Am! He was so persistent, and it paid off in the end. This is very applicable in many areas of life. 

What's your favorite 

Dr. Seuss book? 

 

A couch full of boys.

Photo Recap

Christmas hats

A visit from friends

Sour gum contest

New Year's video games

Dress-up play

Whenever Times was Good

Gotta say, this is AMAZING.
I had fun being a part of it.
I hope it's not the last film we make together.

Family Night at Hope

What a blessing our church body is! I hope we can have nights like this often.

Family night tonight was a success. The food was great. Sloppy joes, yum! Conversation was good. Little boy Brown was entertaining at the dinner table. The home group performances were fun.

Our group's movie was a success! (Hopefully it will be uploaded to Youtube soon so I can tag the link to it.) Everyone (adult and child) seemed to enjoy it. I'm glad it was so much fun to make too. Our group's leader definitely deserves an award for Best Director. He did an amazing job editing our video clips together.

Thank you, Lord, for so many friends, a wonderful church body, and laughter.

Small Group Lovin'

Small group lovin'

had me a blast!

Small group lovin'

happened so fast.

I met some people

crazy as can be

Met some people

like family...

Small group friends hangin' out

oh-oh

many days or nights.









I enjoy our crazy times. I enjoy our serious times. I love this unique group.

My Battle

We continued our discussion from a couple weeks ago in small group tonight. We ended up mostly discussing tonight, spending less time in the Word, but it was good discussion though.

Sinful nature vs. life of Spirit... Round 2

We referenced the God-breathed message of Romans 7. Boy, do I feel like I can relate with that passage lately. "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." Nasty sin nature! I wish I could have a surgery to remove it!

I want to follow Christ. To live in Him. To live for Him. Why do I still struggle in some areas? It is so frustrating sometimes! I want to be His servant.

"So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

I love Romans 12. [This is one I have taped somewhere in the house.] It says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's what I need. A renewing of my mind. Is that a daily thing? Like taking up my cross? Or should it be a once and for all thing? Because right now, I'm feeling like it needs to be a daily thing.

Simultaneously, though, my mind, a slave to God's law, conflicts with my sin nature.

I think it's interesting how Romans 7:25 talks about being a slave to God's law. Then, 8:1-2 talk about being free thanks to the law of the Spirit.

Hmm... More to come, I'm sure.




P.S. I decided to study the Old Testament since I haven't done a great job of it thus far. I'm starting at the beginning. I'm trying to go through it in a meaningful way, writing down my thoughts, interesting information, or questions along the way... I'll probably blog about that every so often too. I don't have a timeline since I've been trying to read through in a meaningful way. It'd be nice to get through in a year, though. Is that too much time to give myself? I will say that I started on Saturday, and I am already to Genesis 8. We'll see how long this project lasts.