Saturday Morning Outings

Last weekend was the first weekend Allen was on turn-around, and I spent Saturday at a conference (with childcare) away from home so he could sleep. Today, I had to be a bit creative to get us out of the house. Allen insists he can sleep when we are home, but it is stressful to me because I feel like I am constantly shushing the kids, Ramses (cat), and Shadow (dog). With us out of the house, I don't feel like we have to be as quiet.

I had a few things in mind when we began the day, but a few things added themselves in as we went. We started out at Target picking out Valentines for school, though we found a few heart-shaped window clings that we picked out for later.

Next, Will noticed in this morning's paper that Mike Huckabee would be at Lifeway for an hour and he really wanted to go meet him. It turned out that we got there just in time. He signed a book for us, then signed one more and was out the door. Will was really excited! I thought it was a neat opportunity to encourage Will's enthusiasm for politics.

Our next planned stop was actually Lifeway, anyway. We wandered around the store for a few minutes until the Compassion International exhibit opened, then we went through tours of Uganda and Bolivia. Like a similar exhibit last year, we got to see the countries through the eyes of children in the Compassion program.

We went to our church and did a prayer walk. This is the first weekend a new youth center at church is open, and there were prayer stations. I hosted the prayer walk for a couple hours yesterday and had done most of the stations while I was working it, but this time I took the kids through it. The first station was about praying about God and his power. The second station was to pray over the classrooms, teachers, and youth, and to write a letter of encouragement to one of the teachers or students who would be using the building on a regular basis. Maddie and Jon both wrote letters to a teacher and student we know. The third station was for praying for the church to be a light to the community and to write a prayer, scripture, or note on a fabric wall. Most of the kids did that, but theirs was the first of the kid-writing on the wall. The fourth station was a place to tie a colorful fabric strip for each prayer over five different areas (friends, family, church, world, and something else I can't remember). The kids each tied several strips and took awhile praying there. The fifth, and final, station was a place to pray for unity within the church and community and to add our thumbprints (leaves) and name to a painting of a tree. All of us did that, too. It was a neat way to share the building and the praying with the kids.

Finally, we stopped by a gas station for Icees -- a sweet treat after a great day. I think that is when Will piped up, "I like turn-around... I feel like you are spoiling us though." As soon as we got home, we got all the heart-clings and decorated Allen's car windshield. We even turned a few hearts into Ws and made it say, "We LOVE U." I am not a fan of spelling YOU with just the U, but we were working with two packages of hearts and two sets of the word LOVE (with the O being a heart). One of the hearts tore and we cut it into the pieces of W and U. It was cute and the kids all thought it was a hilarious prank and couldn't wait to see Dad get mad about it. I knew better... he didn't get mad... not even when one of the red hearts stained his steering wheel pink :P

We had lunch at home and it wasn't long after that that Allen woke up and played games with the kids for the afternoon.