Our Sunday Pictures

SNOW!

Lots Of Snow!

Cooking for Lots!

A couple of weeks ago Chris and I had a first. We fixed food for a little over 100 people.

Chris is the Education Director for the congregation that we worship with and so we organized a Teacher Appreciation Luncheon for the people who taught classes last year. It was lots of fun.

When it was all over, Chris looked at me and said "I guess we make a pretty good team - huh?" WELL, YES, ABSOLUTELY!!We learned a few things about cooking/hosting a meal for lots of people and I thought I would share.

#1 Convection Ovens and Warmers are your friend when making 24 Chicken and Rice casseroles. Actually, your friends that let you borrow all their 9x13 dishes are pretty awesome too!

#2 When you are stumped for a simple and inexpensive centerpiece, sit in the middle of your kitchen with all of your cabinets open and think. You will finally realize that your beautiful Ice Tea Glasses are, for this event, a centerpiece waiting to happen. Some tissue paper, some ribbon, and ta da....

#3 Don't be scared to have bread and salad on the tables ready to eat to buy you a little extra time in the cooking/serving time period of your lunch. Very helpful. (Thanks for that idea Mom!) Also, don't be scared to let someone else make the salad and the bread for you so you have one less detail to worry about.

#4 Always Always Always call on my wonderful friend Elizabeth for great tasting, beautiful cakes for dessert!
#5 Assign someone to be a picture taker for you. This wonderful opportunity that Chris and I had to honor the people that help us so much and that work so hard, and I don't have one picture of any of those people. Very Sad.

#6 Go ahead and ask someone to help you with the kids the day something like this is going on. Really. It will be your saving grace. We had a load of help with Hannah and Justus and we just could not have gotten it all done and still had all our hair in our head without them. Thank you Claire, Meltons, Rodgers, and Pritchetts.

#7 Let yourself feel blessed that you have the opportunity to show so many people how much you love and appreciate them. Make it so special - for everyone - even you!

Be Brave

Hannah got her teeth cleaned at the dentist for the first time today. I think she was pretty brave and good - considering.

Let me tell you, though, she can talk a BIG game..... but she got upset when the time really came.

She did do good enough to get her Cinderella tooth brush and a big hug from Dr Swang. Next time will be even easier - I know it!

Teaching All The Time

Do any of you know my mom?
Well, you should.

Do any of you know how brilliant my mom is?
Well, she is.

Do any of you know about me and my mom?
Explore that at your own risk!

Do any of you know how we communicate?
Well, we try to communicate in every way possible. Email, Phone, Blog, Facebook, Snail Mail, In Person (preferred), Text (if she had it on her phone), WHATEVER!

Well, because she is brilliant, and because we like to communicate, we started a new blog together.

She teaches 2nd and 3rd grade for the church.
I teach 2 year olds for the church.
I am a part of teaching at a Day School that is in our church building.
I have all her old teaching supplies here, and she is 7 hours drive away.

SO, we found ourselves trying to get ideas from each other, and wanting to know what the other is doing in their classes. We would also sit on the phone and try to remember what we did for a certain lesson a few months ago or what someone else said we should do for a class and wanted to share or.... whatever.

This blog (Teaching All The Time) is a way for both of us to put some lesson plans and ideas in one place and we will be able to search it any time and get ideas all the time. I am really excited about it.

Check it out if you want. Take the ideas for your class. Let me know some ideas you might have and we can share them. Please Know! These are not all our original ideas and we do try to give credit where credit is due!

Have Fun!

Hide Me, O Lord!

Hide me away, O Lord (Hide me away, O Lord)
Hide me away, O Lord (Hide me away, O)
In the day of trouble
'Neath the shadow of your wings
Hide me away, O Lord (Hide me away, O Lord)

Give me your peace, O Lord (Give me your peace, O Lord)
Give me your peace, O Lord (Give me your peace, O)
In the day of trouble
'Neath the shadow of your wings
Give me your peace, O Lord (Give me your peace, O Lord)

Safe in your dwelling place (Safe in your dwelling place)
Safe in your dwelling place (Safe in your dwelling)
In the day of trouble
'Neath the shadow of your wings
Safe in your dwelling place (Safe in your dwelling place)

Our Sunday Pictures

My camera and my computer were going against me today.

I have no idea why my pictures were so grainy and I have no idea why there was SO much red eye thruout every picture.

THEN, I have no idea why my editing program would not take care of the red eye automatically like it normally does!!

Well, that was our day! It is just how it goes sometimes, I suppose!

Urggggggg!

It Snowed

(Those of you who live where I live know just how late this post is! I am behind!)

So, I am that mom.

I don't get down and play with my children often. I mean, I read books to them, I play a board game with them, I cuddle with them, I talk to them, but I don't really just play with them often. I am getting better at doing that, but I really have to think about it. I don't know if this makes sense.

Anyway, put that together with the fact that I don't like being cold and you get a pretty boring mom on a snow day home from school.

SO, as soon as Daddy got home, the kids were so excited because he came in, gave me a hug and kiss, put on the kids stuff, and took them outside to play in the snow. They had a blast. I thought it was great (watching from inside the warm house, as I made supper)!

Yes, there was not enough snow in the yard so Chris let Hannah lay on the street to make a snow angel. For some reason, that makes me laugh.

New Book

Christmas Jars Reunion was Great!! Just what I needed to start out my new year. Very uplifting but still an easy read! Now, I just need to read the James Miracle. That is the only one of Jason F Wright's that I have not read. Anyone have a copy I could borrow????

Chris read (yes, my husband) Christmas Jars last year and when he was finished he said that he wanted a sequel. Lucky for him.. There is one... So I think Chris will be the next to read Christmas Jars Reunion.

ALSO, don't forget that Jason F Wright's next book, The Cross Gardener, is coming out March 2010! Yipppeeeee!

Next up... A Love Inspired book. It has been a while since I have read one of those and I think it will really hit the spot. April in Bloom by Annie Jones. I will let you know how it goes.

Us

Promise! This is the last of the Christmas pictures.

This is US.

You know -
The C and M in the CMD Family!
The way this whole thing got started.

Chris,
I hope to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you for the next 80 years or more. I love you!

Our Sunday Pictures

Sorry that they are late.
If you know what Chris and I did this weekend then you understand.
I am sorry for you that they are late, but I am not sorry I went to bed early last night instead of staying up to blog.

My children and my hubby and I were at the church building more than 2 hours before worship started and my children were literally taken out of their bed and put into the car with their pj's on. So, we (with BIG help from Mrs Pritchett) got them dressed at the church building and took their Sunday pictures at the church building. Craziness I tell you!

But It Was Fun!!

Cousins!

WHAT FUN!!!!

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Words and Music by Helen H Lemmel

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.

What a sentence.
If you want the things of this earth to grow dim, just look FULL into His face!
Why does this seem so hard sometimes?

Silliness

Of course, for the children...





All of our silliness is always for the children.






It has nothing to do with us wanting to be silly or us wanting to see each other be silly.





It is really all for the children.....














Have I convinced you yet?
:-)

At Maw Maw & Poppa Bob's

What fun moving all our noise to Maw Maw and Poppa's house! And, yes, Christmas is still going on. Just take a look.

The under-the-chin pose! Great!

Justus is very serious!

I know he is not looking up but can you see that smile?

Seriously. Who thought of a Dora book and DVD in ONE?? Genius!

My sweet hubby oh so excited about his NCSU toboggan.

Wow! We are so Blessed!

Our Family

My Dad captured this moment.
There is something about it that I really love.
I think it captured a little bit about our family, even though we are not all looking right at the camera.