Friday, March 14, 2008

Warning: Dangerous Levels of Cuteness

Friday, March 14, 2008 by Dawn B
You've been warned.

Adventures in Kingdom Baking

Friday, March 14, 2008 by Dawn B
Do you ever just wake up and think, "I want to bake a big batch of cookies so I can help send soccer balls to kids in Sudan?"
Well, we did. Our church had a cookie sale to raise money. There's a big school over there that we helped to build. About 1200 students with only about 12 teachers. (How's that for a classroom ratio?)
Last summer, the kids at our church helped raise money to buy the children at the school much needed sandals for their feet, since all of them walk to the school, often many miles from home.
Our good friend, Mr. Roger, with inspiration from his grandson, decided those kids needed something to play with. The answer: soccer balls! Since our church is really good at baking, Mr. Roger asked us all to make cookies.
So we donned our Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-sponsored aprons from Home Depot and went to work!
Mommy's world-famous Cookie Monster cookie dough got turned into letter cookies! Althea is really into letters nowadays. Her favorite, for some reason, is the letter "A."
Daddy turned another batch of the dough into secret treasure cookies. We would show you pictures of the process, but it's a secret.
In the end, our church raised over $1100. That's a lot of soccer balls. Yeah God!

A Lenten Reflection

Friday, March 14, 2008 by Dawn B

On Ash Wednesday, we had a service with the imposition of ashes. Althea hung out in the nursery with her good friend Karin. After the service, she found mommy and was very puzzled about the "someting on you," pointing at the ashes on my forehead. I explained that they were ashes. She grew thoughtful as only a two-year-old can do. She noticed that many people had "someting" on their foreheads.
"Ashes," I repeated to her.
While I held her, I imposed ashes onto the foreheads of a few people who had been serving during the service, including her buddy Karin. She watched it all in an uncharacteristically still and silent mode.
Then, she hesitantly reached towards the ashen cross on my forehead.
"You can touch the ashes. It's o.k."
"Ashes," she repeated.
Then, she made a connection in her mind, and with a very serious look, said to me, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
Indeed.