Weekend stuff

Another weekend is over … I'm glad I got to spend it doing things I truly love doing! Spending it with three energetic grandchildren is just the thing; although honestly, there were many moments throughout the weekend that I wished I was 30 years younger!

Our Bible story this week was from Acts 4:32-37 and then all of Acts chapter five. There was lots going on in this passage from the Bible, and we tried to study all of it. I've been keeping a file folder with all of my notes as I study throughout the week, and I can't share all of it here … it would just take too long! To summarize though, we talked about how God answered the apostles' prayers for boldness to speak in His name, how He revealed Himself over and over again to them with the wonderful miracles and healing they were able to do in His name, how the new believers shared all of their possessions and helped each other, and how God was WITH THEM (just like He promised) every single minute. We ran into a couple of rascals in our study this week, though! Two people by the name of Ananias and Sapphira. We had a very interesting time learning about how they loved money and fame more than telling the truth; and about how when they lied, they were acting like Satan was their father instead of God, and had actually lied to God! There was a terrible consequence to their actions (death), and great fear came upon the early church!

 We talked about what it means to be afraid of God, and since we have been reading "The Chronicles of Narnia," it was easy to tie these stories together. We remembered when Peter, Susan and Lucy had asked Mr. Beaver whether or not Aslan was "tame" … was he "safe?" And Mr. Beaver burst right out laughing and responded, "Is he safe? NO!! But he is good!" We talked about our mighty and awesome God, who is also gracious and good … certainly, He is to be feared!

We also read about a "great escape" of the apostles from prison! The chief priests and temple leaders (who were Sadducees and did not believe in angels, heaven, hell, spirits, resurrection from the dead, etc.) had thrown the apostles in prison and God sent who? An angel was sent to free them! I thought that part was funny! As the angel was setting them free, he told them to go back to the temple and share the "message of life" with everyone! And what a great message! There IS eternal life to all who turn from sin and turn to God! But even with all of the happy things in this story, there was still suffering happening to the apostles. The religious leaders who had re-arrested the apostles, set them free AFTER flogging them. 

Emma added FIRE to her picture
because of how God judged these two
for their lies 

The children did more art while I was getting the Beach House ready for bed ...

 And then we kind of settled down, watched "Closed Circuit 2" and were soundly sleeping at our usual midnight hour. 

The kiddos really slept in Saturday morning. I had to wake them up and tell them there were surprise donuts waiting at the table for them!

But it took them awhile to rouse themselves from the comfort (?!!) of the Beach House floor ... 

 Later in the day, we went over to Pine Island Elementary School to play on the playground and athletic fields.

It's a very nice playground. The kids took me all around and told me some of their recess stories. 

This is a little "educational" area about trees and birds that is used during the school year.

Matthew wasn't sure there was anything very fun to do and was moping around for a bit, even though I brought his soccer ball and everything! I told him there wasn't one single reason to be dreary when it was such a beautiful day. We hiked on over to the soccer field where Matthew decided to run the length of the soccer field 9x (because that is his age) and score NINE goals! Matthew is a very fast runner! 

Christopher and I tossed the football around for a brief time … mostly because I'm too old (!) and I'm not a very good quarterback or wide receiver. Christopher didn't complain, though! 

 Emma did a little soccer too … she has nice long legs for running and kicking the ball.

After we were thoroughly pooped out, we drove back to the Beach House and made pizza together. It was very fun watching the children design their "rectangle" individually. 

The cooking of the pizza went beautifully … I didn't burn it! However, I will say that it certainly didn't taste like the pizza I love ~ there was just something bland about it! I love a good greasy, salty, spicy pizza and this just wasn't any of that! But I never said anything until we were totally finished eating. We had some fruit and raw veggies to eat as well, along with cheese curls and other stuff that wasn't very healthy … sigh.

Emma sketching her finger puppet squirrel,
ISABELLE

By the time our Saturday came to an end, I was pretty tired. We finished up the last chapters of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Wow. What a great story! I loved reading this out loud to them so much. Next week, we get to start reading, "The Horse and His Boy" which is one of my very favorite stories ever!