A new kind of work

Since I am I still waiting to land that killer design job, I agreed to tag along with the Janine Mallardi to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Tuesday afternoons. Janine has a lot of energy and motivation, which seems to wear me out by the end of the day, but I do enjoy hanging out with her! She has been DCE at Prince of Peace for almost three years, and she is married to a third year seminary student (Rocco), so she has a lot of good stories (and wisdom) to share!

The trip up to the church is a solid 40 minutes, so the boys and I rode up with Janine and her 11 month old, "baby" Caleb. The boys kicked back in their car seats to watch "Harold and the Purple Crayon," while Janine and I gabbed like little old church ladies ;) Once we arrived at the church, Janine set up a barricade to keep the babies out of trouble and I tackled some craft project assembly while Janine prepped for a 3:00 meeting.
 

As the clock struck three, we began our meeting for the second session of the Kidz Klub program which I volunteered to help out with on Tuesdays. The Kidz Klub is a group of about 11 ladies and the pastor who volunteer from 3:30-5:30 every Tuesday to provide crafts, music and a bible lesson to local K-6th graders after school. I was assigned to work with "Megs" leading the K-1st graders group, which includes learning lines for a "Passion Play" which we will present in April. Hmmm...we'll see how that goes ;)

 

Luckily, our little ones slept during most of today's meeting and "big" Caleb sat on my lap and quietly drew pictures around all the blank areas of my lesson materials. The meeting wasn’t too intense, and it was good to get to know some of my fellow church ladies, but after the final clean up and wrangling the kids back into the car, I was incredibly exhausted! 

So, we finally headed home (on yet a different route than any of the three previous trips to POP with Janine), and she introduced us to the most inexpensive Chinese take-out in Fort Wayne! I think we were all pretty hungry, but you would've thought Caleb hadn't eaten in a WEEK the way he devoured that sweet'n sour chicken!


It was a good end to a good day.

Artwork of the week!

Here is something Caleb came up with today. "Dad, this is you winning your basketball game! See your big shoes, Dad? And there are your eyes and that is your smiley mouth!"

Standing a mere 5' 7" I don't even know that Kevin has ever set foot on a basketball court—to play basketball that is...

Home again, home again

Happy New Year everyone!

We were so blessed to wrap up 2009 with a trip home to Fargo for the holidays! And to add a little icing to the cake, we extended our visit even farther west to Bismarck for New Years weekend. We are so thankful have spent so much time visiting family and friends over winter break, and I am so impressed with how well the boys handled all the bouncing around. It wasn't until the last 60 miles from Fort Wayne, Caleb sighed from the back seat of the car and said, “I’m ready to be home.” Amen Caleb, Amen!

Following the climax of the holidays, it took a solid week to find our routine again. Kevin started classes and has already been assisting Pastor Jim Elsner with the service at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Stroh, Indiana. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to observe Kevin in his new role, because I've been sitting with our very shy 4-year old through Sunday School. But according to Kevin it's going well and he is anxious to be doing more!

Behind the scenes at Prince of Peace, the Director of Christian Education asked me to help teach the Children's Sunday School class for a couple weeks in February (one of the other teachers will be having her FIFTH baby in March!) Since I still haven't found myself a job, I am pretty excited to have something to do! In addition, Caleb and I volunteered to bring 10 DOZEN cookies for fellowship in February—busy is good, right?

Outside of Sundays, we’re still contemplating if we should send Caleb to preschool for the next few months. This morning he sat down to “read” a book to Ethan and me. It’s adorable to see what he has learned from watching his preschool teachers in Fargo. Today was a little different than past experiences however, he actually moved his fingers along the words and spoke slowly as though he was sounding them out. "As though" being the operative phrase—he isn't actually able to do that just yet, but I think this implies that he is ready! Now just a little help from his mama :)

As for Ethan, he battled his first visit to the doctor for stitches last week (just one stitch actually). He was just running through the kitchen when Caleb peeked around the corner to surprise him, and the poor guy landed face first on the hard kitchen floor. If you know Ethan, your familiar with his tendency to smile with his bottom lip tucked into his mouth, but as a result, those top teeth cut right through his lip leaving a pretty nasty gash :(

The good news is the little ones bounce back the quickest—today’s best belly laughs were the result of simulated sneezing (just another tactic he picked up from good ol' big brother). It’s amazing what will make a little boy giggle! and giggle! and giggle...one of those moments you can only hope to recreate later and capture on video.

Overall, I thought we had a fairly uneventful week, but this first blog has me second guessing... ;)