Believe Conference

This weekend we took 6 middle schoolers to the Believe conference. It was a focus group of our students to see if we want to take our whole middle school group their in 2010. The answer was YES, YES and YES!!
Sara and I. The weird, fun crazy thing about youth is that you get to work with students you've known since they were little. Sara's family is family to us. I use to babysit her in the summers and it's been incredible watching her grow into a young women.

Always cool to travel with your own kids on these events. In this pic I had just missed Kev and Justin doing some crazy clapping together during worship.

They had large sheets of paper hung where students could paint their name, prayer requests or whatever middle schoolers have on their mind to paint.

Hacky-sack. We were terrible. We went from feet to hands. Other groups turned to chucking their hacky-sacks across the arena and then in a few seconds it came flying back at them. With middle schoolers it gets crazy!!!

Eating lunch with our Superheros.

They had huge inflatables- Justin D. and Delaney went nuts of these, I busted out laughing just watching them!

During worship Eric Timm welded, painted and carved some really cool pieces of artwork. It was amazing. Check out his website and some youtube stuff of his at the bottom of his website. All I gotta say is: we gotta get him in our youth wing.

Got to!!

Some of his artwork. The weekend was on the life of Jeremiah and how we're all formed and set apart for God. To speak, to be reminded that He is with us and then to encourage, defend and share with those around us.

Here's the gang!

Leaving there my heart goes out to middle schoolers. Working with high school this year has been great but there is something about 11-14 year-olds that gets in your bones, in our soul and just sits there. Life is such a rollercoaster with them but if you know me, I love a good rollercoaster. I find it's best to strap in, hold on, smile, laugh and scream with everything you've got!

-Michelle

Love it!

I'll never peel potatoes the same way again.

Update

This last week has been busy. Friday night I picked up Erica, the girl who really got me hooked on Twilight, and we headed to Wal-mart for the Twilight release party. We arrived at 10pm an quickly found several friends we knew. We then waited for 2 hours until 12:01am when they started handing out the movie like candy before we all made a mad rush to the checkout. We did our best to shop around while waiting, I think I read every birthday card int he Wal-mart stock.
Erica, the Twilight Queen, and I.

Then there's Jess. She met us there after she got out of work. I love this girl, if I was in the 11th grade we'd be BFF. We just have so much in common, and instant bond. I a blessed. (we even took a few minutes to pick out bathroom towels and rugs, not that either one of us is looking to buy them)

And then thee were these students? Not sure how they left the house looking like this but thy did. Not sure what comment should even be made. So Ill move on..

My mom spent all day Saturday here sewing me a new purse. Here she is buy at work while I sat around reading articles to her, drinking coffee and keeping her work area clean. Now I just need a picture of the purse.

I also got in some precious Guitar Hero time. Priorities people, priorities.

The there was Steve drilling a hole through his finger- straight through. That deserves a post of it's own.

Well I'm off for another busy week and weekend, then the month of April is booked- yes ALL month. When you're a Yankee living in Florida, 3 miles from the beach and 1 hour from Disney, company starts moving in around this time of the year.

Good times!

-Michelle

Works For Me Wednesday- Pancakes with Character!

This is a fun way to jazz up pancakes. I learned this from my Aunt Carlene when visiting her in Maine in 2001. I suggest Bisquick pancake mix, it's the best!
First use a teaspoon to drop batter onto hot skillet in a smiley face.
Let that sit for a little bit and then begin to fill in around the features.

Continue until it's looks like a regular, round pancake.

Cook as usual, flipping to see this beauty!

You can do initials, other expressions, the ideas are endless.

Add some syrup (homemade maple syrup from Vermont is recommended)

Enjoy.

Yum!

Works for me!

WFMW for more tips and ideas!

-Michelle

Home School Math For Sale

I have 2 Saxon Math curriculum for sale.
I'm asking $20 for each.
Both include D.I.V.E. Cd's to go along with the text. You can check out DIVE here. I am basically giving you a deal on the CD's, they sell for $50 each and the text for a little less. You'll need to purchase the Test and Worksheet booklet, I think it can be bought through ROCK Solid Inc. Both CD's have been used by 1 child. (child #2 doesn't learn the same way)

First is Math 6/5 in good shape with CD to match the edition.
Next is Math 7/6 is in fair shape with CD to match the editon.
$20 each.
E-mail me at vintagesheet@yahoo.com if you'd like them.
Thanks
Michelle

Today in Science...

Somehow a bird got into the house today.
I first noticed him in the kitchen and he flew to the living room and got himself stuck between the not-finished curtains and the window. We managed to open the window and remove the screens and he flew out!
Never a dull moment.



For the record, my first reaction was: how can we keep him as a pet?
I have a problem.
-Michelle

Works For Me Wednesday- Homemade Spice Rack

It was time to organize my spices.
I found an old shoebox and cut the lid to be a little smaller than the main box area.
I then cut the box so the lid could slide undeneath.
Here's a shot of the lid under the main box area.

Tada! Here's the finished product!

Works for me!

WFMW for more ideas!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

This is a family night for us. We tend to eat and visit and eat and laugh. No fancy ideas for games and totally copied cake idea,but a great night with my family,I am so blessed.

So I made the rainbow cake I saw on Jacinda and Heather's blogs. Well I didn't actually make the cake they linked to. I had planned on making it then I realized it was some sort of diet cake. No way- we have sweet tooths around here so I decided to make a regular cake, you know one from a box.
I ended up making two boxes of cake mix.
Here's the pretty batter. By the way I went out on my own and didn't use the gel food coloring suggested, since I already had traditional food coloring I used that.
I dumped the different color batter in three separate spots, layering red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. I filled in the other areas of the pan with various colors.

I baked it for 45 minutes and here's what it looked like out of the oven.

We put green frosting on it and a shamrock in sprinkles.

A few years ago my boys would have loved to have helped mixing and baking the cake. Today, this is what the do:

We have fun visiting and sharing since the laptop, PC are housed in the kitchen area. Steve had to work late so he meet us for dinner, until then we enjoyed one another.

Oh yeah, this is what the dog does on family nights:

We packed up the cake and headed to my mom's. My mom always puts on a good meal and sets a pretty table.

Vaughan and Richard, my mom's "friend", were the first to sit down.

Luke read on the sofa before heading out to Boy Scouts.

My grandmother.

Mom made Cottage Pie, Irish bread and a fruit salad with spinach.

The cake looked great once cut! Yummy!

Happy St Patty's Day!!

More family night ideas- go to Whittaker Women.

-Michelle

Out of Office...

... sorry, I'm gone today, the beach is calling.
-Michelle

On the Nightstand

As I get new books on the nightstand I'll update the list.
I'm not a book reviewer and am pretty easy to please, if I get past the first chapter chances are I like the book on some level.

In progress:
June 2009
Daniel Bible study with 11and 12th grade girls, see summer of 2008 below for book photo

Sadly that's all for right now.

May 2009
Blue Like Jazz
by Don Miller
Love this book- but it's been many years since the first reading.

The Appeal
by John Grisham
I always like a Grisham book.

Stopped reading this one, just couldn't get into it- although it was good- and my late fees kept adding up so returning it seemed liek the responsible thing to do.

Books Completed:
April 2009
Skin
by Tedd Dekker
First one by this author. Good, suspenseful, I couldn't figure it out. The end was a little long but over all a good read.

Dreamers
by Angela Elwell Hunt
read it, OK book I ended up skipping some parts, I'd rate it a "C"

March 2009


Finished it. Interesting look into this society/cult. Look forward to the movie coming out. So far so good. True story of a 35-year-old mother of 8 leaving a polygamist life/culture.















In progress:
Winter/Spring 2009


Love studying the Bible. Love learning history. Love it when the two combine!





Ongoing:



Because I have adolescence.













Because I have boys who I pray and desire to remain sexually pure.









February 2009


A MUST read for all Christ followers. One of my top 3 books.
Hope to do a study with the high schoolers or FUEL stdents.
Read this asap.








Fun, easy read for my first ever book club.
I was surprised at the depth of conversation that came from this book.










January 2009


Good book, but took me a while to get through it.










December 2008

My last in a series of Angela Hunt books.
Takes place in a town not far from me
Second in a series, I tried the first book but it didn't cut it for me.










Loved it!
What a twist.










November 2008


I really like Angela's writing.
Some slow parts but overall a good read.









October 2008

Recommended by my 11th grade girls at church.
Liked it way better than the movie.










Fall 2008, second time through


Thursday night group did this.
I can always use a reminder to mesh my theology and reality.








September 2008


Tried to read this over the last 4 summers, finally did.
Good book, will open you're eyes to the spiritual world.
Told from the perspective of: humans, angels and demons.





Summer 2008

Thursday night group.
I loved this.
I love studying the Bible, learning the original words in the Hebrew and Greek, the culture and the way it all fits into history.
I also have learned over the last 10 years how much I love history!