Follow Faithfully

Our church’s second VBS session is going this week. This time Macey is attending and I am the Crew Leader for her class. It’s so much fun!!

I have some book reviews and posts to catch up on and I will do that soon. But, for now I’m going to go enjoy some quiet time.

Peace,
Kelly

As I stated in yesterday’s post, Macey is going to afternoon VBS at our church this week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the kids are encouraged to bring in various donated items for several charitable organizations in our area. On Tuesday they brought in hygiene products, Wednesday was non-perishable grocery goods and today is baby related items. Well, if you’ve ever read my blog or know me, you know I love a bargain. I definitely wanted to send Macey in with donations every day because this is a great way for her to learn about giving to others, etc. So, I clipped coupons, shopped sales and went to a wholesale club for our donated items. Check this out…

For right around $30, these are the items we donated this week:

3 tubes of toothpaste
3 toothbrushes (2 of them were in with the toothpaste tubes)
1 bottle of men’s hair and body wash
2 regular size bottles of shampoo
3 cans spaghetti sauce
2 boxes spaghetti noodles
1 bag rice
2 bags instant mashed potatoes
1 big box that contained several packages of baby wipes

Isn’t that cool?! Please understand that I am not posting this to brag in any way about our giving. Not at all. What I want to show is that giving can be done on any budget. There is so much good that can be done without breaking the bank. Clipping and using coupons plus shopping sales is a great way to make grocery dollars go a longer way. Shopping wholesale clubs is a great way to stock up on various items that are commonly used around the house as well. Remember, too, that there are always organizations that could use donations. If you ever run across great deals and you feel like donating, there is always a need. You don’t have to have big bucks to do good things, just a big heart. We can all do something and I feel blessed that we have been able to help in some small way through VBS this week.

Our church just had a mission team depart for Kwambekenya, Kenya yesterday. They will be there performing God’s outreach until April 26th. It is my honor and privilege to be a Prayer Partner here at home for those who are serving in Africa. I had hoped to go on a mission trip to Africa this year as I feel God is laying a calling on my heart for me to serve there. But, for me, this is not the year. Still, I can do my part here at home by remembering the mission team and those they are serving in prayer. If you feel so lead, please join me as I pray over them all.

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Mark 16:15 (NIV)

The time has rolled around yet again for our church to put together a church directory. (No small feat for a large church, by the way) Our family had our portrait session on Friday evening. Macey was so excited about this because she absolutely loves looking at the last directory which she refers to as “the church book.” She will get the directory out, flip through page by page and pick out everyone she knows. She has long loved this book! And, since the last one came out a couple of years ago, Mariana wasn’t even a twinkle in our eye yet and it’s been bothering Macey that her sister isn’t in the church book.

So, off we went on Friday. All dressed up and ready to shoot our church book portrait. We arrived a bit early and the photographer was ready for us, so we got a head start. We told him we have never gotten a good family portrait of all four of us, so his work was cut out for him. We have to give that photographer ALL the credit in the world because he tried so hard to get us that perfect family posed portrait. Didn’t happen. Mariana either wanted to get down and run around or she would sit stone-faced for the camera. Macey was smiling, but her pose position was a tad awkward for her at times, so she would have to shift. Yea, it was definitely an adventure. But, really, the photographer went above and beyond to try to get both girls smiling and all of us looking at the camera at the same time. The best we could do was a shot where Macey is looking somewhat startled, Mariana has a smirk and there sit Mickey and me, smiling like big happy cheesers. The photo was certainly good enough for the church book and we’ll take our free 8×10, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy extras. We wanted to because the photographer tried SO hard, but we just couldn’t bite that bullet.

The quest for a great family portrait continues. And, if anyone knows how to get an almost two year old to sit still and smile for photos, do let us know.