whipping out a boy's kind of craft: S.L.I.M.E

Generally my idea about arts & crafts is this:

coloring counts, right?

and they do these in school, I hope.

However, next week we are holding our first Arts + Crafts Day for the Momtourage.

15 kids doing all sorts of various projects.....

brilliant or what was I thinking?

we.shall.see. =)

Enter........Pinterest, of course!

Awhile back I had pinned this concoction for making slime and figured it was

The One for my craft station. Seemed simple enough, but I also figured I better try it with Graham and make sure it worked.

(it did. and super easy. who discovers these things?!)

Here's all you need:

• 1 Part Elmers Clear School Glue (I used 1/3 c.)
• 1 Part Liquid Starch (used a little less than 1/3. c.)
• food color (2 drops worked for us)

Put the glue in a bowl, then add the starch & coloring.....and that's it! (add a little more glue if it's not getting gooey) Mix together, we used a spoon first until it got more gooey and then hands are good.

Contrary to what you might think, it actually wasn't messy at all!

The orginal post is here.

Of course Mister I-Don't-Like-To-Get-Messy took a few minutes of convincing to actually play with the stuff! 

 And then it was fun!

The more you play with it, the better the consistency. And by the way, the big bottle of liquid starch was at Walmart in the laundry aisle, for about 3 bucks.

So there's my craft experiment for the year. And I'd say it was pretty painless.

Maybe I might even go a little crazy and make some of this

Liquid Sidewalk Chalk next!

ROOTS.

7 years. 3 States. (MN,VA,PA). 4 houses.

That's been our story since we got engaged.

After we got married, we moved to Va Beach where we spent a lovely 4 years. Made many great friends there, but we always knew that God had something else for us in the future. 

Following Andrew's graduation, we moved to Pittsburgh to help with a church plant. Thus began our transplantation to Pennsylvania. We really loved living in Pittsburgh. We met a lot of great people, found so many fun things to do, established the Pgh Momtourage and loved that it was not only a very affordable city, but a great place to raise a family. This past summer, after moving across town for Andrew's job, Andrew began looking to pursue a place of vocational ministry.  As we sought God's leading for our lives, He led us to a church that was only about 2 miles from our house, Three Rivers Grace Church. In a very short time we felt our hearts very knit to so many amazing people and found great encouragement & refreshment as we began to form friendships. Unbeknownst to us, this church has actually been looking to fill an assistent pastor for over a year. They had several possibilities, none of whom ended up working out. {hmm, a little Providence?} But as Andrew & the pastor got to know each other and he began to learn the direction we were heading - ah-ha! Talks, interviews, conversations began happening........and this past Sunday the church officially voted to approve Andrew as a part-time Associate Minister! We could not be more thrilled & excited at how God so clearly was directing, long before we could have even guessed what He had in store.

I recently saw this quote...............

The providence of God is like Hebrew words--it can be read only backwards.

~John Flavel

So we are excited about this new path. There is one challenge: The church only can afford to pay someone part--time, so for now Andrew will continue to work full-time at his current job and just work a few hours each week for the church. His first immediate task will be to oversee the worship services (the job description they sent could easily fill a full-time job!). As time progresses, he may look to find another job which would allow him to give more hours to the church. And of course the hope of us and the church is, that the church would continue to grow and thus allow him to come on full-time.

So I think that's as concise as I can be.....so much more that could be shared.
We are so thankful for this church family, how kind and welcoming they have been!

We praise God for His kind providence in our lives and I am now officially planting my first garden. How's that for roots? :)

St. Patty's Day fun

You would think we would have more 'kelly green' in this house.....but this was the best we found!

I do believe we were the least green-dressed people at the parade, but E for effort. :)

Downtown for the St. Patty's parade 

In the parking ramp, our reflection across the road 

patiently waiting.............. 

Andrew split to head to see some NCAA games, so I couldn't have done it without Kristin! 

snack time

there were a lot of bagpipes. a lot. 

a 20 minute break in the parade...kids getting restless.....

Finally, Mr. Joe Biden literally comes running down the road among about 50 Secret Service.  

LOTS of interesting characters out. :) 

We left watching the parade after about an hour & a half. We hung out downtown, got some lunch and the kids ran in the park. The weather was so perfect!

When we left downtown after about 3.5 hours, the parade was still going on!

Apparently people really are into their St. Patty's Day.

 Let's take a nice sibling picture.

Or not. :)
(we'll take the above sweet hand-holding shot!)