Tea Party Fare with Flair

The high school girls at our church have a discipleship group called “Ladies In Waiting" which meets weekly. Various moms provide the goodies for the tea-party-themed refreshments. Because I have no girls, I feel a “frou-frou” deficit quite often. So I volunteered to be responsible for goodies for a meeting. I finally got the call!Bad news was they only needed savories; another mother was delivering fruit & someone else was making the sweets. heavy sigh…Ah well, all is not lost! I got to make the puffs I’d been planning – I just decided to make bacon Swiss gougères and fill them with a light pesto cream cheese.I also tried my hand at some fiesta pinwheels.Oh, yeah… I ended up making turkey sammies… just in case…spread them with a lovely smoked paprika compounded butter

 

topped that with spinach

then sliced oven-roasted turkey…

spread the top with cranberry cream cheese

and cut into triangles -- YUM!

Holding the rope

What are you doing with that rope in your hands? Are you assisting a friend as he ascends the heights? Do you come along side with others to help a friend in need?

My Kindergarten Sunday School lesson this week was Mark 2:1-12. We read the story. We showed pictures of the story. We acted out the story.

We also ate the story.

Holy Ground

In our Kindergarten Sunday School class we’ve been discussing Moses’ life. Last week we talked about how God used the burning bush to get his attention after he’d run away to tend sheep in the desert.I wanted to make their snack something that would remind the students of that miraculous encounter with God.These “burning bush” treats were quite simple:Just two ingredients!All I did was nuke microwave the candy melts until I could pour it over the chow mein noodles. Just a gentle stir until everything was coated. And then used a soup spoon to divide it into the baking cups.The most difficult part was deciding whether these were cookies or candies…

(Not really – it was pretty tough explaining to the people at the Asian market what a bagged and fried chow mein noodle was. One lady even said, “Wow! Does that even taste good?” hahaha! Americanized cuisine!)

Trust

My little Kindergarten Sunday School lesson was from Exodus 17:1-6 this week.
Water from the rock.
Our theme for this month was trusting in God. (Our memory verse is Proverbs 3:5) So far we’ve learned that Abraham trusted God & moved his family to an unknown land. Next, he trusted God to fulfill His promise of a son. Last week the lesson was about the Israelites complaining about having no food after leaving Egypt, so the Lord fed them with manna and birds. Sooooooooo, this pattern of provision being established, don’t you think the children of Israel should’ve trusted God with their thirst?
No?
Am I the same?
I do believe at times I am the most “trustless” person in the world! Repeatedly my Father takes care of needs & wants; yet still I whine about being thirsty in a desert.
Anyhoo… Lesson finished. Kinda.I made water-from-the-rock cookies. (Actually, they’re just blue Jell-O cookies in disguise.)Quite easy to mix up: you just cream 3/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, & a 3oz. pkg of Jell-O. After that’s light & fluffy you add 2 eggs & flavoring extract if you want to accent the flavor. Then you add these dry ingredients that you’ve sifted together in a smaller bowl: 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder & 1 teaspoon salt. Preheat the oven to 400°. Roll dough into 1” balls, roll in sugar and place 2” apart on prepared cookie sheet. Flatten with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 6 minutes. (any longer & they’ll brown… badly…)So, while my first batch of water-from-the-rock cookies were baking, I was finishing up the little snack baggies.Ran off some labels with the memory verse.Added grapevines to symbolize Moses’ staff used to strike the rock. (by the way – never knew licorice wasn’t gluten-free… pays to read the label prior to stuffing one’s face eating several whips tasting…)
Everything was going smoothly until I took the pan of cookies out of the oven. I neglected to get hold of the parchment paper while at the same time taking the pan out of the oven at a slight angle. First batch = total waste!Next batches came out relatively trouble free. So I finished packaging them up & took them to church the next day.

Cinnamon Scrolls ~ a lesson on Philip

I am blessed every week to be able to share God’s love with Kindergartners at church. I love finding ways to make the Bible come alive for them.

This week the story was from Acts chapter 8 where we have the account of the apostle Philip making a divine encounter with the treasurer from Ethiopia. This influential man from Queen Candace’s court was reading from the book of Isaiah, but had no idea of the meaning of the passage.

God directed Philip to explain to him that this was all prophecy regarding Jesus. Eventually the man comprehended that the Lord of the universe loved him & wanted a relationship with him. He asked to be baptized right there along the road out of Jerusalem.

Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. ~ Jeremiah 15:16

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! ~ Psalm 119:103

 New American Standard Bible (©1995)

Easter shared

Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Love, shared?That’s the way my day turned out. Praise God – because that wasn’t quite the way I would’ve orchestrated it…

I began my morning too early, due to my periodic insomnia. But that allowed me to accomplish a delicious dish for my family’s breakfast.I was blessed that all five of us were able to sit together for one of the Easter services at church. (Because we usually have one on the other campus for college-aged programs; one upstairs for high school during our service – this hasn’t happened for years!) But, I had to leave early to teach my kinders. Thankfully my youngest volunteered to help.In teaching my lesson, I was sobered by the fact that only two of the thirteen attendees for the week had any idea of the Easter story. (And yes, these are all “Christian” families that attend church “regularly”…)I was thankful for the visual that I had prepared:

(not all my original creation; idea borrowed from here)

Needless to say, I was slightly tired by the time we arrived back home. The ham in the oven was “beeping” to get out & the rice in the crockpot smelled delicious. All the guests brought food to share.

My Aunt Margaret shared a young couple from Japan with us. (They’re attending a local graduate school & wanted to spend the holiday with a “normal” American family. How they ended up at my house, I’ll never know… )She also shared a jigsaw puzzle.(Auggie does not share the fascination!)

a mom moment

There  are those instances in a mom’s life where her heart swells up with so much love & pride there’s no place for it to go but to spill over in tears.

The Sunday before Christmas was one such day for this momma…

Our middle son decided it was time to publically proclaim his own personal faith.

Alec

I pray he will always be able to say with such boldness, “Yes, sir!”

those who serve

The Sunday lesson for my kindergarten class this week was Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.  Such an incredible example He set for us! Nobody performed the customary foot bathing as the disciples entered from the dusty street for this last meal with their Savior.  There were no volunteers to even provide the water & towel so each man could even cleanse his own feet. (If they were like my sons they were probably nudging each other saying, “You do it.” “No, you do it.” “I’m not your servant. I’m not gonna touch your smelly feet!”)

Jesus did not announce His intention. There were no banners unfurled that stated: Look at Me. I’m going to serve! After the meal He simply & quietly removed His long outer garment and took up a towel & basin to carry out the duty of a slave.

The lesson here is humility and service shown in the life of a leader.  I know some very strong men who would not think twice about stooping so low…

… and I know a few men who would disdain picking up a towel or basin; even for the ones they profess to love.

I don’t know how much my young class will retain of the story & its meaning; but they fought over the “Jesus costume” and wooden bowl & towel. (One boy was complaining that so&so wouldn’t sit down and take off his shoes – he was running around the room trying to chase him down…)

I baked some cookies to remind them of the story.

I made little “towels” from some scrap fabric.

The envelopes were velum cut to 8” squares; and I used mailing labels for sealing them shut.

I took my grandmother’s old wooden fruit bowl for my basin & used a plain ol’ tea towel to illustrate my point.