WOW- Three blogs in one day. :)

So, it's been 5 weeks now that we have been without a church family. It has been tough for sure. We've only had a chance to visit 2 different places because we've been at the ER on two of the Sundays. (Chase had croup and Mike had a back issue.) Both churches were wonderful. Sometimes when you have been at the same place doing the same thing your entire life you forget that there are other Christians out there that are just like you.

Last Sunday evening I took Abigail, Ethan, & Blake to the Christmas program at one of the churches. It was AWESOME. I was truly blessed. I closed my eyes a few times and just breathed and listened. I totally felt the Lord there and wished Mike had been able to come along. He was home with the two littlest ones because of his back issue- they were both sleeping when we left. I should have pulled out my cell phone and started recording some of it. WHY didn't I think of that???

My kids are doing GREAT in the Awana program they have been part of. I finally went in and bought the boys' vests and they have each earned a few jewels. Blake is younger than Ethan but he seems to memorize easier. He's a tad bit ahead of Ethan. Abigail is in a different age group. It warms my heart to hear my children memorizing/reciting scripture. Here's a pic of the boys on the night they got their vests:

I put this on my Facebook but I thought I'd put it here too in case someone reading this isn't my friend on FB and didn't see it-

When I was a kid someone from our church made us this felt hanging Christmas tree thingy and each day we pinned up the next felt ornament onto the tree. It was a countdown to Christmas. Anyway, my Mom passed it down to me and so my kids have the pleasure of the same tradition. We are down to the final four ornaments so I threw all 4 names into a bowl and started drawing out one at a time to see when each person would pin up their final ornament. They all hoped I wouldn't call their name until last because apparently they all want to hang up the star.

After I had drawn the names a couple of the kids were complaining and griping over and over and OVER again. It was frustrating and I said LOUDLY to the kids, "What is the big deal? You all will hang up the same amount of ornaments. There is NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE STAR." Ethan said, "Oh yes there is." (A this point I thought he was trying to rub it into Abigail's face since he had been picked last and was going to be the one hanging up the star ornament." I asked, "What is so special about the star??" Ethan said, "The star is special cause the three wise men followed it to find where Jesus was." I got a good chuckle.

PS
I took care of my issue from my Dec. 6 post. We took the kids out to get church shoes. AND I have been laying out clothes on Saturday evenings so that I'm not rushed/stressed out in search of church stuff.