Theology with Kathryn: EPC children's addition

I am the choir director at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. I direct the adult choir and I also do the children's music. Whenever I start to teach them a song about Jesus or any of the Bible people I try to make sure they know a little background on what they are singing about. For example they sang "Go Down Moses" so I taught them about Moses and how God sent him to set the people free from Pharaoh. We have also talked about Zacheaus in the tree and Jesus being born.

Well with Easter coming up in a couple of weeks we started to learn a little Easter song. I started out by asking the children what we are celebrating on Easter. They looked at me with somewhat blank expressions and I said, "I will give you a hint, it has nothing to do with Easter eggs or the Easter bunny." A few children then raised their hands so I pointed to one. This child said "We celebrate Easter because Jesus was born on Easter!" so I said "I think you are confusing Easter with Christmas, Jesus was born on Christmas." Then another child said "We celebrate Easter because that is when Jesus died!" and I said "Not quite, actually Jesus died a few days before Easter, and on Easter we are celebrating that he has risen from the dead!" At this point I was getting some very skeptical looks from these 3-7 year olds. One in particular, who has an awesome country accent, said: "BUT IF HE WAS DEAD, HOW DID HE COME BACK TO LIFE!!?!?!?!" so I said "Because God brought him back to life."

Then I asked them if they knew why Jesus died....I got a few "for us" from them and we talked about how Jesus died for our sins so that we could be saved. Then, and I don't remember how or why this happened but, we got onto the Holy Trinity! So here I am trying to explain to the 3-7 year old set about how the trinity is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.....so we repeated several times what the trinity was and how they are three in one.

Pam, who is over the music program and plays piano for me during the children's music, said that every time the children asked another hard hitting, complicated, question that my eyes got a little bigger! I finally had to kind of just move on into learning the song!

As hilarious as some of the things they said were, I am glad that I was afforded the opportunity to explain these things to them. I know they are being taught these things in Sunday School but when they are that age they really need to be hearing it from as many places as possible!

Klutz!

My poor, sweet, precious Bella....today has been an accident prone day! While playing at the chruch playground she was swinging in a big kid swing. I had been pushing her for a long time and it was scortching hot so I stopped the swing and said: "Ok Bella, now just slide out of the seat." She didn't budge or stop holding onto the chains, so I gently removed her hands and said again: "Bella slide on out." She did not "slide" out, it was not "gentle".....she totally face planted on the pebbles! I mean arms thrown out to her sides, flat on the ground. So screaming happened but she was unhurt and got over it as soon as I gave her some lemonade.

Now fast forward to about 5 o'clock, I woke Bella from her nap and carried her to the living room. She was extra droopy so I sat her in my wing chair and was waiting for her to get settled so I could cover her with a blanket, and wouldn't you know, she managed to lose her balance and fall out of the chair sideways with her arms and legs sprawled out! She started screaming immediately and I had to hold her and love on her for a long time to help her recover. Meanwhile Daniel was trying not to laugh out loud at her, because sadly enough, the way she fell looked absolutely hilarious!

All in all though we had a really fun day together playing at the park and kicking a red ball around....here is some photo proof!

Good form Bella! Good form!

Daddy looking extra excited to be playing ball!

Bella and daddy running and kicking together! So precious! Look at Bella's happy face!

Now for the extra gross, mommy needs a shower, shot! Atleast we were having a fun picnic!

Papaw and Bella

I just wanted to share a couple of sweet pictures of my sweet dad and daughter!

Look! Aren't they cute?

Love these two! This is an awesome picture of dad especially!

Dad looks pre-occupied, Sesame Street will do that to you!

I am counting my blessings today that I have this sweet girl and that my dad is starting to recover from his deep depression! God is good and HIS love endures forever!



An Awkward Moment

I had the wonderful good fortune to meet my sister-in-law Jeneva for lunch today. We decided to meet at the Olive Garden. We had a wonderful meal and wonderful conversation. As out lunch date was coming to an end we both needed to go to the restroom. I told her to go ahead and go first and I would stay with our things and then we could switch. I sat and waited for her then we switched, on my return from the restroom I walked around the corner and saw that an unfamiliar woman wass sitting in my spot at the table talking to Jeneva. I thought maybe this woman was from Jeneva's work or church...boy was I wrong.

It turns out that this woman was sitting at the table across from us and had overheard mine and Jeneva's discussion about relationships. Well, this lady apparently thought that Jeneva looked like a good person to talk to. I walked up not knowing what was being discussed but quickly found out that this woman had been talking to a man online and that the man had some, uhh, how shall I say, expectations for if they were to get in a relationship. Lets just say, the woman was talking about things that you would go to Romantic Escapades for.....YEAH, in public, to perfect strangers.....

Then she talked about the expectations she had set forth for the man and they weren't quit as terrifying but still a vast over share. The woman said that she was very turned off by the man's requests, I said "you need to go with your gut on that" as I reach over her to retrieve my purse! I very quickly gathered up my things and poor 7 month pregnant Jeneva got up and we started walking quickly out of the place!

We were not even out of the building before Jeneva was gaffawing and I was saying "Was that for real?  Did that really happen???"

Oh and did I mention that this woman had terrifying eyebrows that looked like Captian hook's out of  the movie Hook? This just made the awkward discussion even more terrifying!

I'm Back!

My last blog post is dated July 6th....wow. I have totally slacked with my blog. There have been so many huge life changing things happen since July 6th. But I don't think I want to live in the past by trying to tell about them all, because frankly, it's just too much! So, instead, I will share with you about what is happening today!

Today my dad had to go to the hospital to have some diagnostic tests run, we are praying that all the doctors find is arthritis, no terrible C word.

Today Bella and I had the best time doing something we saw on Pinterest! Now, I love Pinterest, but I have not actually done that many things I have seen on there. Today I decided to change that and actually live something I saw there! I decided to make liquid side walk chalk. It is really easy, it says 1 cup of corn startch to 1 cup water and then food coloring to make it your desired color. I made four small batches of 1/4 cup of corn startch and water then made blue, green, red, and purple "paints". We went outside and sat down and made a huge mess! Here is some proof!

Here is Bella! The sun is in her eyes but look what a cutie she is!



See that big blob of purple paint? Thats what happens with you just decided to dump the whole bowl out!

Here is daddy Daniel....doesn't he look thrilled to be seeing this hot mess???? This project is prob not best for a toddlar with a super stressed parent, you have to go into it knowing that there WILL be a mess!

That is supposed to be a butterfly....I tried!

There is my girl! Red in the face, painted all over, and so, SO, happy to be doing her thing!

All and all we have had a blessed and fun morning. Sweet Daniel made us delicious pancakes before we went out for our paint session on the porch!

I hope you all are having a blessed day as well!

Why I Love You

I was thinking today about how negative people can be (I am one of those people). I decided that I wanted to be decidedly more positive and the first thing I wanted to do was tell some of the people closest to me why I love them. Now some of these reasons may seem silly, but to me no reason is more important than another. I love each of you for many more reasons than the one I choose to list!

Adam I love you for acting as my stand in husband. When Bussell has to be away over night and I am too chicken to stay at my house alone, you come and hang out with me and keep the murderers away. You even protect Bella and me from the possessed baby monitor.

Ashley I love you for being my motivator. You always motivated me to do my best. When I wanted to slack off and take a not so good grade, you would always push me not to give up. You would sit with me for hours on end as we both poured over music history, opera, or whatever other work it was. You pushed me to be great in school and you made me want to beat your grade (which rarely happened) and this in turn made me be on Deans list my last 3 semesters of college.

Callie I love you for being my oldest girl friend. I remember when you were 7 and I was 8 and you moved next door, and I told you that you had dirt on your leg....and you indignantly informed me that it was in fact a birth mark. Through the years we loved each other, hate each other, stole each other’s cloths and even threw people’s rock collections in the yard (I’m still not over that one J). Through all that you were the closest thing to a sister I had and we had some awesome times....Like that time you were spending the night and fell out of the bed and crashed into the furniture and walls...HILARIOUS!

Daniel I love you for being a Jack of all trades. You amaze me all the time with how much you know. If I ask you a question and it’s an off day and you don’t know the answer you will find the answer. Sometimes I think you just make up some stuff, but honestly? I don’t care cause you are awesome and your made up reason is probably better than the conventional reason.

Jeneva I love you for your amazing amount of Ambition. You are so driven and strong. I am so proud of your hard work to climb the corporate ladder. I’m proud because you know what it is you want and you are working really hard to get it, I really admire this about you.

Mom and Dad I love you both for your overwhelming amount of Generosity. I have never in my life known two people more dedicated to sharing what they have with others. Be it financial, pretty things, kitchen things, plants, bread, or talents you both will stop at nothing to share with others.

Kate, this may seem like a lame reason BUT, I love you for your Calendar obsession. When we were talking about this the other day it made me so happy, because I have never met anyone as obsessed with planning and using calendars as I am, and well frankly it made me feel better about myself J Just today I was working on making a calendar on my computer and I am now color coding things because of you!

Kendal I love you for two very important things Hair and Harmony. My first thought for you was hair. You are by far the best hair person EVER, you have never given me anything other than an awesome cut or color, you are amazing! Then I also thought about those times in the car when we would be singing along with a cd and we would be harmonizing and it would sound so good and give me chills!

Kevin I love you for being my Guardian. Whether it was tackling Sam so I could get out of the huge pile of leaves, or taking the time to talk to me when I was sad, you have always been really protective of me and watched out for me. I have never taken this for granted, and I know that even now if I needed you for something you would do everything in your power to help me, cause that is just the kind of awesome friend you are.

Marissa I love you for all the things we both love. Be it pearl studs, Aubrey Hepburn, Toblerone candy bars, Sarah Jessica Parker, or a huge drink from sonic you and I have so many shared loves. One of my favorite shared things we loved was going to the Foxglen pool. We would get some Pals to take with us and a book and we would go bake ourselves by the pool. When we got tired of that we would have or mock Olympics! How much fun were those days?

Renee I love you for being a fierce Momma bear. I admire you for being a protective mother. I think young mothers everywhere get scared into the corner and back down thinking that they should just trust everyone else to know best. But not you, you know that there are times when only you know what your children need, and you are not going to let anyone walk over you. You have your children’s well-being at heart all the time and that is awesome!

Sam I love you my brother for your Hilarity. You could be the life of any party with your sense of humor and your impeccable comical timing. Humor is such a gift and I have never known anyone that could make me smile and laugh as much as you can.   

Sasha I love you for your Passion. I don’t think I have ever known anybody who was more passionate. You are passionate about your family, friends, music, life...the list goes on and on. Whatever you set your sights on to be passionate about I know you will succeed at.

These are a few of my favorite things!

I have decided to do a post about some of my favorite things, things that can perk up even the most challenging of days!

1.) Morning snuggles with my Bussell! I know this is gag worthy but its just the truth! When I know my day is going to be epic it ALWAYS make it a tad easier to have that little snuggle time. Case-in-point, yesterday Daniel was going to be leaving to go to Johnson City for two days and I was honestly dreading it. We were going to get up at 8, but when the alarm went off we snuggled up and slept for another hour, and it was PERFECTION! The picture below is what I think we look like snuggling.

 2.) Seeing my girl Bella in the morning is generally a pick-me-up (I say generally because sometimes there are scary diaper situations). Yesterday when I walked into her room she threw her arms up and yelled "SURPRISE"! And then gave me hugs and kisses! What could be better? Look at her sweet, angel face!

3.) The obvious next step to a good day is a good cup of coffee! Now I generally have Level 4 Seattles Best at home. But certain days require Starbucks, in particular an iced, quad (4 shots of espresso), caramel latte! INCREDIBLE.

4.) After a nice hot shower using many fruity, delicous, floral, sented thing. I like to use Clinique Happy body smoother. It is AMAZING. I love the smell of Happy, but some days actual perfume just feels too overpowering, and this body smoother has the perfect amount of scent, while also moisturizing your skin with shea butter.

5.) Another kind of pampering product sure to make me feel better about life is Burts Bees tinted lipbalm in Rose. It gives the prettiest, subtle hint of color and softens your lips!

6.) Wanna immediately feel classy? Perhaps a little like Audrey Hepburn? Then you need some white pearl studs. I dont care if they are faux or real because either way they will lift your spirits. My absolute favorite earrings are large white pearl studs!

7.) Once I'm in the car to start a long day of here and there errand running I have to have music. Lately, my favorite c.d. is by Christina Perri. Her sometimes folk, sometimes edgey, songs and vocals are engrained into my mind and I sing along and happily pass the time.

8.) If all else fails and I'm about to explode from frustration with terrible drivers, there is only one thing that will truly help (besides a heavy dose of prayer that is) and that would be oversized sunglasses. They are a must. End of story.

Now if I really need an attitude adjustment I just take a gander at this picture...