Sunday!

I love my Sundays!  The day starts early as we all get up and start preparing for our day in the Lord's House!  I usually go over my Sunday School lesson one more time and pray for my class.  It's a day where everyone finds their own breakfast, so that usually goes smoothly.  Brenna and I try to leave for church by 8:45.  Patrick, Beth, Silas, Callie and Micah leave on the bus to start the bus route around 9. 

 Once Brenna and I get to church we set up our Sunday School materials.  (She teaches 4-7 and I have 8-12) , we also get out the breakfast that we will give to to students.  Then, we practice our offeratory for the morning as well as the congregationals.  We are loving having two pianos to play in the auditorium!

Then, the bus arrives around 9:40.  I love to see the kids get off the bus and run into the Sunday School room.  They are so excited! And so am I!  We've started a new curriculum to use for the next 12 weeks.  There are pros and cons to it and I don't think I'd choose to order this one again.  Maybe I'll do a post soon on the curriculums that we've tried and our thoughts on them. 

After Sunday School it's off to church!  I find myself at the piano and get everything in order.  I also try to squeeze in a few minutes to shake hands.  I don't get around to everyone like I used to, our church is really growing!  But, I'm so thankful for the wonderful people to greet and say hello to.  We really do have some amazing Christians at VSIBC!  Then, we enjoy a great Sunday Morning service.  Our church is very traditional and as my husband puts it, "We're not Old-Fashioned, just time tested!"  We like it bright in our auditorium and we still sing from our hymnbooks.  I love it!  We fellowship and love being together!  Our main focus, though, is definitely the preaching!   Most people have their Bible right on their laps and follow along as Patrick preaches the message the Lord has laid on his heart.  He encourages everyone to follow along and see for themselves what God's Word says.  I love that!  I love that when my husband calls out a scripture to find that when someone finds it they say "Amen!"  Soon, you hear many "Amens" around the auditorium as people find their place in the Bible.  Love it!

After the Sunday Morning Service is over, it's Brenna's turn to ride the bus home and Beth and I hop in the car to head home.  Our Sunday afternoons are pretty relaxed.  We eat an easy-ish meal and then everyone just relaxes and does their own thing.  Maybe read, maybe play a game, sometimes color....everyone enjoys a few hours to relax.  Then, at 4:30 we head for choir practice.  Josh is doing such a great job with our little choir.  I sit next to Tabitha in the alto section.  Maybe that isn't such a good idea.  We end up getting the giggles way too often!  We really do have a great time at choir!!

The evening service is probably one of my favorite services of the week.  We talk about the many blessings from the morning and what God is doing in our church.  No one seems in a hurry to go and everyone enjoys the fellowship.  We sing, have preaching and make decisions for Christ.  It's amazing!

Sunday nights we go home and if the Eagles are playing we're watching!  We usually have a few people come to snack and watch football.  It's a great ending to the day.

I love my Sundays!  And in my devotions this morning I read in Psalm 92: 13-14

"Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;  they shall be fat and flourishing;"

There is no substitute for being "planted in the house of the LORD"  God is faithful to bless us when we are in His house.  So thankful for a wonderful church, church family, and super busy Sundays.  No other way I'd rather spend the best day of the week!

The Power of Encouragement (and chocolate!)

Last week Patrick did our family devotion on being an encouragement to one another.  One of the things he talked about is the importance of encouraging notes.  That morning our house began filling up with notes of love, drawn pictures, and lots of encouragement.  I love it!

Each word is treasured!

Encouragement truly is powerful and we each had a joy as we started our daily tasks!

But this little note and gift I'm not so sure about.  Coke?  Chocolate?  While watching Bible class first thing in the morning?  and don't tell Mom??? Hhhhmmm. :o)

Callie's Yellow Sponge Cake

My Callie Grace has become my little baker.  Last Christmas we bought her cupcake supplies and I taught her how to follow the instructions on the back of a cake mix box.  She has done amazing! While writing a short story for school she mentioned the girl making a yellow sponge cake.  She then told me that she's always wanted to make a sponge cake.  Really?

So, we found a recipe for a Daffodil Sponge Cake. 
We had lots of giggles and silliness working on the cake together.

 She did amazing with the recipe!  She learned many new techniques like separating the yolks from the whites of the egg. 

 She was very diligent with each step!

The finished product was a beautiful cake for all of us to enjoy!  Oh I like having a baker in the family!!

The Many Faces of Freedom!

 Our Freedom Joy is growing so much!  Look at how she's holding her cute little head up!  She's such a joy and has so many adorable expressions!  I thought I would post some so you could enjoy a few of them.  (Although I think I'm posting more than a few! They're all so adorable I couldn't delete ANY of them!)

Isn't baby drool one of the most cutest things?

 Look at that dimple!!

Are you ready for some football?

The Gimenez family definitely is!  If you have read my blog for a little while, you know that my husband is a Philadelphia Eagles Fan.  Big Time!  When we married I decided to jump on board and be a fan too.  We love this time of year!

We always decorate and get the house all ready for our first game. 

Then, we all get on our Eagles gear.  Even Freedom Joy gets in the football mood!

And then we plan the food!  Us girls love this part!  We decided that for this year we would make a dish that would be served in the region of the opposing team.  The first game we played Washington Redskins.  After reading online, we found out that the Washington area is known for dipping their wings in Mumbo sauce.  (I found the recipe here)  So, we decided to make it.  And we loved it!!  The next game we have is against the Detroit Lions.  We're going to make Coney's with coney sauce.  I'm planning on using this recipe.  You can't go wrong with hot dogs!  At least not in this family!!

We're off to an okay start.  1-1.  Lots of cheering and excitement around here!

"Little Women" Ladies Conference

I was so thankful that the ladies of VSIBC were able to go the the Little Women Ladies Conference at Peoples Baptist Church again this year!  12 of us were able to go and we had a great time!

Sometimes the journey is half the fun!   It took us way too long to get there as we stopped for drinks and ice cream and, of course, plenty of potty breaks!

Peoples Baptist Church always does such a great job for the Conference.  They have great music, wonderful portions acted out from the theme, games, crafts and wonderful sessions with lots of Biblical teaching.  We just had such a great time!

I'm so thankful for a fun group of ladies!  They participated and competed in lots of the games.

 

Brenna played the oreo game where she had to get an oreo from her forehead to her mouth.  Poor girl tried, but she didn't win.

Bro. McCoy brought the devotion and it was so neat that the text he used was the same passage Mrs. Lynda Rushing used the session before him.  I think God wanted to send us a message for sure!

Tracy and I enjoyed the whole conference and especially loved scoping out the building and making plans for our building project.  We decided that we want a waterfall!  Sounds reasonable, right?

We made adorable hankerchief dolls.  So cute!!

Brenna has been burdened to reach out to more of her classmates from Veritas Baptist College.  She loves doing school online, but misses making friendships.  She was so excited to chat with Morgan a couple week before the Conference and was super excited to learn that she is a member at Peoples!  The two of them were able to meet "face to face" and enjoyed getting to know one another.  Isn't it neat how the Lord works out things like that!

So thankful for lots of laughs, giggles, growing closer to each other and to the Lord!

Twain Missions Month

 It's that time of year again! Time for Missions month at VSIBC!
 I love how we bring back out our decorations for the theme for the year and focus more towards missions and reaching our world for Christ.

 Our theme for 2019 is Twain. We are being encouraged to go the Second Mile in our walk with Christ, in our service to Christ and others, and reaching the world for Him!

 At the beginning of the year I made it more of a snowy winter scene on the mountain tops. It was a lot of fun as we brought in a lot of logs and sticks and twigs and Christmas trees. We put a lot of fake snow around and it just really set off the theme for the year.

 But since it's summer and heading into fall I decided to still keep the mountaintop scene but make it more of a rugged, hiking look with greenery. We had so much fun decorating!

 My girls and I had a fun time painting the mountain scene for entryway. Lots of paint. Lots of giggles. It's just a joy to serve the Lord with my family!

Just a few more weeks until our missions conference! This is one of my favorite events at our church as we focus on reaching our world for Christ! This year we are doing a dessert fellowship from around the world. Ladies are getting ideas of what to bake and tables to set up. It's going to be a great evening!