what to do with all that snow...

snowpocalypse. snowmageddon. whatever you want to call it. (and really, can we justify such severe terms when we call every year's best snowstorm by the same end-of-the-world hyperbole!?)

but we do have a good five inches, with a rumor of up to ten more. (i'll believe THAT when i see it!)

anyway, i realized today that for the first time in my life, i have both an ample supply of fresh snow and real maple syrup.

Little House fans will remember the scene in "Little House in the Big Woods" (perhaps my favorite of the series), when the family goes to visit Grandma Ingalls and help with the maple sugaring. that night, the whole clan has a celebration, dancing while Pa plays his fiddle, and meanwhile, Grandma slaves over a hot kettle of maple syrup until finally she calls that it's ready. there's a rush to fill every available pan with fresh snow, and they drizzle out curlicues of boiling syrup, barely able to wait until it's cool enough to taste...

it's a maple taffy that results, and i have a vague recollection of trying this as a child, unsupervised, with nothing but Laura's recounting of the story to guide me - and without realizing that pancake syrup is not maple syrup.

thankfully, today was different. after all, we have the internet now. and real maple syrup. file this away under "fun with kids". want to try it? here's a good recipe, but let me tell you a few things i learned the hard way:

1. for this recipe, plan to have two big 13x9 pans of snow - or several smaller pans.

2. fill the pans and pack down the snow. if it's not packed down, the syrup will just melt right through it, and you'll be licking your candy off the bottom of a cold, wet pan.

3. i used a ladle and didn't exactly get the curlicue look i expected. next time, i'll make indentations in the snow to make separate puddles of taffy.

off to find a "safe place" for the candy before matt gets home...

we're expecting, but it's not what you think...

it's been a bit under-wraps for the last four months, but we have news!

matt and i are growing our family a bit non-traditionally: we're becoming foster parents. we're not able to have kids biologically, and we have a heart for kids in need. we have a home full of love, and we're eager to add a few kids into the mix.

we're nearing the end of the "home study" process now, which is an in-depth study of our home and family. we started in mid-august, and we've filled out 44 pages of personal information, done our fingerprinting, TB tests, worked through 36 hours of training, baby-proofed (uh, and adult-proofed) our house, which included a whole lot of unusual tasks, like locking up all of our medications, and we've done a whole lot of thumb-twiddling while waiting for our really wonderful, but very over-worked, licensor to work her magic.

so here we are, four months after jumping into the paperwork. we had a really great meeting with our licensor yesterday, which included an inspection of our home and property, and a whole lot of personal questions. (i wonder how many other parents consider how their family of origin will affect their parenting methods before conceiving... my guess is not that many!) we thought this would be the final step and have us licensed within a few days... we were wrong. in our discussion, she told us that there was an option for us to go with a new program called a "unified homestudy" which would save us some trouble down the road, when we're ready to adopt. we opted to go this route. the good news is that it won't take any longer to complete the license; the bad news is that we have some more paperwork to do. and also, we were wrong about anticipating our license within a few days - it'll be more like another month.

oh well! we have a busy month ahead of us anyway, so i'm sure the time will go quickly...

Helping more kids discover, trust and love Jesus.

[This is part 3 of a series highlighting each goal of our NEXTgeneration Kids Ministry Leadership team for 2011-2012. See part 1 and part 2.]

This goal doesn't really stand on it's own - it's the result of our participation in the first two goals. When God made clear to me the goals we would set, He identified that if we do the first two (Building our team as a team and serving with greater excellence), He would bring more kids to us, entrusting them to us, so that we could combine our awesome team with our A-game excellence to help them discover, trust and love Jesus.

That is why our work on the first two goals is so crucial.

We haven't officially "met" those goals yet - they're a bit ongoing, aren't they? But we are seeing progress.

And you know what? We're seeing progress on this 3rd goal too. When we put the goals to paper in June, we were averaging 87 kids each week. In October so far, we've averaged 97 kids each week. That's progress, my friends. That's progress.

Keep up the good work.

Serving with greater excellence.

[This is part 2 of a series highlighting each goal of our NEXTgeneration Kids Ministry Leadership team for 2011-2012. See part 1 and part 3.]

Around here, we describe "serving with greater excellence" using the words "bringing your A-game".

Excellence is what sets the Hilton apart from the Motel6. It’s easy to slip into the hum-drum pattern of bringing your “C-” game, and pray that the Holy Spirit makes up for the difference. But if you really want to see God work through you in ministry, be sure you’re bringing your “A” game! The Holy Spirit always brings His best, so when you bring your “A” game, and the Holy Spirit brings His best - look out! It’s going to be incredible!!

We do this in a few different ways

1. Be Prepared: Start preparing early. Whether it’s praying for the kids you’ll meet and the families you’ll greet, or planning the lesson you’ll teach, don’t wait until Friday. Start on Monday!

2. Arrive on time: Be in your classroom - with your coffee - 30 minutes before service begins. (Hint: Did you know you can leave your order at the cafe, and they’ll deliver your coffee to you!? Just tell them what room you’re in!)

3. Pray with your teammate: This is a great opportunity to build relationships with your team, and also to have a quiet moment before things get hairy.

4. Sick? Realize that you’re not available? Find someone to trade with by emailing or calling your teammates. This is a great way to serve your team leaders, who work hard to coordinate and schedule!

5. Provide feedback - Right/Wrong/Missing/Confusing: We send a weekly email on Sunday nights to the whole team, asking for feedback (from the parent's, the leader's or the child's perspective). You can help us evaluate what was “right”, what was “wrong”, what was “missing”, what was “confusing”. Whether you served that day, or simply experienced our Kids Ministry as a parent, your feedback is incredibly valuable.

Redecorating Bug!

When we moved in, Matt selflessly gave me the largest of our three bedrooms as my "crapcraft room" - which we call "studio" {lest we invoke images of dusty closets overrun by pom-pom balls}.

My master plan has always been that when the current TV room needs to become a bedroom, my studio would become a family room. But that wasn't going to happen without a whole lot of purging. Over the summer, been collecting ideas for finishing up that space to make it easier to convert when we're ready, and the climax of that was my big focus in August.

I did lots of deep cleaning, purging, and organizing, and spent about $220 on furniture, paint, hardware, curtains and a few accessories. Ready for a tour?

My sewing desk - spray painted a buttery yellow, and dressed up with new knobs. Also painted the frames, showing off a hunk of my great grandmother's quilt and some vintage patterns, and covered the lampshade with a scallop pattern of a white gauzy cotton.



This bookcase replaced an old set of wire cubes. I'm not a fan of cheapo laminate, but we needed a quick and easy solution. To pretty it up, I bought several sheets of a gorgeous blue print with birds and cherry blossoms, and used spray adhesive to "wallpaper" it to the backing piece of the bookcase.


I've been in love with the idea of a scalloped paint-line for a while, and I knew this was the perfect place to make it happen. The curtains were one of my spendiest changes - I splurged on fabric that brought in the playful, summery feel I want for our future family room.





My work desk is much clearer, having made use of the vertical space! I also created a few mason jar holders, using trim and hose clamps, to hold attractive and most-used supplies.






A bit of pegboard in a fancy, thrifted frame makes a tidy place to keep my tools. Spray painted both, and added a pennant string to the pegboard for some playfulness.


More pennant string! This is a thrifted shower curtain on a tension rod to close off the closet. I used scraps from my stash to create the pennant string, just sewing across the top of the pieces. The curtain itself was too short, so I added a ruffle and pom-pom trim as well - see below.




A few more details:

{Cute little display shelves for tiny things that make me smile.}

{Jars painted on the inside, using acrylic paint.}

{Covered the thermostat with orange patterned paper for the sake of de-uglification.}

Building our team, as a team.

[This is part 1 of a series highlighting each goal of our NEXTgeneration Kids Ministry Leadership team for 2011-2012. See part 2 and part 3.]

Backstory: In March 2011, my Kids Ministry Executive team suggested we have a dinner for our entire Kids Ministry team (about 70 people). I agreed, reluctantly (the details daunted me). In April, I had no idea what that dinner would look like, except a bunch of people eating. In May, I went on an amazing trip to learn about leadership in some model churches, and a few days later, God gave me very clear instructions about our goals for the coming year. So when the dinner came around in June, I was ready, and I was pumped.

Goal 1: Build our team, as a team.

Over the last few months, we've identified 35 openings on our team, because of the rate at which our ministry is growing. Filling these roles will help us make sure we're ministering to families at our best.

I love inviting people to serve with me! It's exciting to know that I'm making a difference - why wouldn't others want to make a difference too? But if only one person is inviting others to serve, that person will become the bottleneck.

So instead of one person doing all the inviting, what would happen if all 70 of us were doing the inviting?

Here's how:

1. Identify two friends who aren't already serving on a ministry team at Creekside. (But what if all my friends are already serving?)

2. Tell your friends about why you serve on the NEXTgeneration Kids Leadership team. What do you get out of it? How are you blessed? How has obeying Jesus' call to serve others affected your life? Tell them a story from your experience with the kids - funny, sweet, cute, whatever. (If you're just doing this out of obligation, we should talk.)

3. Ask them if they'd like to serve alongside you. In most cases, we can rearrange things to allow your friend to serve WITH you. And serving with friends is so fun!

4. When they say yes (and experience tells me that 4 out of 5 will), grab them a Leadership Application from the Hosts Station OR give me their name and I'll mail one to them.

5. If they say no, keep sharing those stories about your experiences with the kids. It's good for them to hear that you love what you're doing.

Keeping Your Kids Busy

i'm a big fan of busy kids!

i don't mean busy families - who have over-packed schedules and don't get to relax and enjoy one another. i mean kids who have fun things to do that don't involve the TV or video games.

i mean that when the words "i'm bored" occur - and face it, they will, regardless of how many toys or games a kid owns - the child is challenged to find something meaningful and creative to do.

this morning, i got to share with our awesome M&Ms group at church - moms & munchkins, or moms with kids around 5 years and younger. i compiled for them a list of my favorite ideas and brought in some fun samples to show and share. i hope they left feeling inspired!

wanted to make sure i shared it with those who couldn't make it so: here are my favorite ideas for keeping your kids busy this summer** and here is an excellent list of activities in our area - stuff going on nearly every day this summer - compiled by a friend of a friend.

**Note, this is a list of ideas i've compiled from around the web - very few (if any) are actually my original ideas!

June in Review

a bit for me to remember june:

• we're thoroughly enjoying our backyard these days - so relaxing!
  
• grew stuff successfully in my brand new garden beds!
  
• threw a big dinner for our kids ministry team
  
• celebrated matt's birthday!
  
• did a bunch of house projects, including cleaning out the front flower bed, finishing painting the shutters, patching the drywall where the "fireplace" used to be, some touch-up painting, etc.
  
• had a bunch of kids and some of our leaders over to celebrate our new 5th and 6th graders.
  
• said goodbye to our 7th graders and shipped them off to student ministry... i have mixed feelings. ;)
  
• preparing for my ordination exam
  
• planning for our big kids summer overnight at the end of july!
  

leaders lead in morale

recently, i posted about getting back my vision for ministry after a season of hard but passionless work. this got me thinking: leaders need to lead in every area. you can't ask someone to do something you're not willing to do. leaders set the example in everything.

and that includes morale. i, as a leader, must manage my own morale. good attitudes and sunny dispositions are contagious. so are bad attitudes and crankiness.

leaders, (whether you lead children or adults, employees or volunteers) don't fool yourselves. if you're frustrated, exhausted, tired, cranky, angry, bitter or dried up, the people you lead can sense it. if your morale is low, theirs is too. the team morale will never be higher than your own morale. so, lead.

what i read: courageous leadership by bill hybels

i love this book and feel like it's a must-read every two years or so. while it's definitely not without it's dry parts, it does include lots of useful training in leadership...

what i liked:

• stories - hybels has an allegory or illustration for everything, and sometimes multiple (see below). i do enjoy the illustrations for the way they help you imagine his principles playing out.
  
• hybels helped me identify the kind of leader i am from a list of 10 different descriptions. i like self-assessment.
  
• doesn't just talk about vision, but talks about how to turn vision into action.
  
• gives great coaching on raising resources.
  
• spent more time focusing on the internal disciplines and the spiritual health of the leader than he did on the principles.

what i disliked:

• some dry stretches...
  
• stories - two-edged sword. toward the end, when i just needed to reach the finish line, i started scanning and skipping over the illustrations - which are quite numerous.