Menu Plan Monday

This morning, I turned on Tiny Tots for the girls before we started school. My littlest one, Laura, LOVES Tiny Tots. And wouldn’t you know it. It happened to be one of the programs that Laura was in! She was so excited to see herself on TV. She said, “This is the best day of my life!!” Tiny Tots comes on 3ABN, a Christian television station. If you have dish network it is channel 9710. We always DVR the program so we can watch it on our own schedule.

Here’s this week’s rather plain menu:

Breakfast

S – Cheese Grits and Toast
M – Granola with Soymilk
T – Fried Eggs, Grits, Toast
W – Pancakes with Homemade Apple Syrup
TH – Eggs Benedict
F – Cream of Wheat with Honey and Sweet Cream
S – Cereal with Soymilk

Lunch

M – Salad with Boiled Eggs and Homemade Dressing
T – Leftover Rice Stewed Tomatoes
W – Pasta and Bean Salad
TH – Chickpea Salad Sandwiches, Orange Slices
F – Tomato Soup, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
S – Tacos

Supper

S – California Rolls and Ramen
M – French Lentils with Rice and Cornbread
T – Crockpot Potato Soup, Crackers
W – “Chicken” and Dumplings
TH – Falafels, Hummus, Tahini Sauce, Salad, Naan Bread
F – Sloppy Joes, Macaroni and Cheese, Steamed Veggies, Potato Skins
S – Leftovers

Snacks

M – Grapefruit
T – Kiwi
W – Celery with Peanut Butter
TH – Peanut Butter Crackers
F – Sliced Oranges

Baking

W – Feed Sweet Sourdough Starter
TH – Bake Sweet Sourdough Bread

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How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

Church was canceled this morning because of the foot of snow on the ground. So… I have spent the morning watching 3ABN. New Perceptions from Andrews University – Pioneer Memorial Church came on a bit ago and the choir sang this song. I love this song!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Summer Adventures: Part 4

Nathan Greene

One night during the Camporee, a famous artist, Nathan Greene came out on stage. I caught my breath because I just love his work! He was wearing his Pathfinder uniform (lots of patches!). I wispered to Laura, “That is the man who painted the picture of Jesus that is in your bedroom!”

I had framed a postcard of one of his painting and placed one in each of the girls bedrooms. Laura loves art and paints and creates daily. She was so excited to see him on the stage and we learned that he was teaching a painting and drawing class in one of the hangars! Laura begged to go meet him the following day.

So, bright and early, after breakfast, we headed across the air field to the hangar where he was located. By the time we got there, his class was booked for the entire week. I was disappointed! But I was able to introduce him to Laura and told him how much she loved art. I told him how she had a framed picture of Jesus that he had painted in her bedroom and that when she found out who he was she was sooo excited and hadn’t been able to stop talking about it!

He told her that as a young child he was very shy. He said that when he was 4 or 5 years old he started painting. Laura got her picture taken with him. He was very nice!

I was so thankful for Laura. She was so happy! If you are not familiar with his work, you should be! He has the most beautiful painting of Jesus I have ever seen! You can read more about Nathan Greene here and view his painting here.

Tiny Tots

Not only did Laura get to meet Nathan Greene, but she got to to be on TV, too!

About two weeks before the Camporee, Laura wrote a letter to “Auntie Linda” from Tiny Tots – one of her favorite television shows. She asked Linda if she could be on Tiny Tots. I was so afraid that her heart was going to be broken if it didn’t work out!

Two days before the Camporee we were watching Tiny Tots and as usual, at the end of the program, Auntie Linda pulled two letters out of her basket to read. Well, she only read one of them! Laura looked at me, crushed and said, “That other letter might have been mine!” I said, “Oh, no, honey. I am sure Auntie Linda hasn’t gotten your letter yet.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that particular show had been taped a long time ago! But I knew she was really wanting to go to Tiny Tots!!

Well, at the Camporee, it just so happened that Kids Time and Tiny Tots had a booth in one of the hangars. We went over to check out the free coloring books, and while Laura was busy, I said to the man behind the table, “I know this is going to sound like a really silly question, but my precious little girl here REALLY wants to be on Tiny Tots. Is there any way?”

And he said, “Why don’t you ask Linda yourself.” She had walked up behind me and was talking to another lady!

So, I waited patiently (and anxiously). When I got my chance, I said, “Linda, I don’t know if you remember me – we came last year and volunteered for Kids Time. My husband, Mykal Ringstaff…”

Anyway, to make a long story short, she did remember me. I explained to her the situation. And she said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I had a little girl cancel on me for Monday. Can you be there?”

SO, when the camporee ended late Saturday night, we tore down our tents, packed our trailer, and pulled out of there at 12:30 am. to head to Louisville, KY to drop off Julina and the babies (her husband met us there). Talk about a long miserable fight to stay awake! Then, we headed back up to Thompsonville, IL to the 3AN television studios. We arrived around 6:00 pm on Sunday night.

Laura got to be in 6 or 7 different episodes in the Nature Walk segment. So, if you are able to watch tiny tots in the next few months, you’ll have to look for her!

It was so cute because after we had intially talked to Linda Johnson, Laura looks at me, shrugs her shoulders and says, “How did that happen. Here we were standing there looking at the coloring books and she just appears!”

I told her that Jesus had answered our prayers. When we got back to the tent, she said to her daddy (who had tried to explain to her that just because she wrote the letter didn’t mean she would be on Tiny Tots just days before…), “I told you I’d be on Tiny Tots!”

You can watch Tiny Tots on 3ABN (channel 9710 on Dish Network) or on the SonBeam Channel. You can watch 3ABN online here – Tiny Tots comes on during the week at 4:00 pm.

There are more adventures for the month of August I want to share… so stay tuned for Part 5!

It’s Campmeeting Time Again

May is one of the busiest months of my entire year. In fact over the next two week all I will be focusing on is the preparation of my program for the Primaries at Campmeeting. On May 17th or 18th I will be heading over to Portland Tennessee for two weeks to set up and then teach our 21 classes to 90 – 120 children.

Last year was soooo much fun. Mykal and I had a blast. The program I wrote was called Out of Egypt and we had an absolute blast. My husband grew out his beard and was Moses. (He still has the beard and it is much longer now…. which has to do with the Kid’s Time television program that he was invited to do a part on the Bible Story segment. The kids and I were “extras” in the background. It was a lot of fun! Anyway, we are going again, hence why he is still growing out the beard and looks like he has been in the mountains of Southeast Kentucky a little too long, hee hee.)

Here are a few highlights from last year:

That is my husband above as Moses.

In front of this backdrop we took pictures of each child standing like an Egyptian and had them printed out and given to the children before they went home from campmeeting. The well you see there was built by a wonderfully handy man for me and painted by some talented young ladies. It is cut out on top and I used one of those big blue tubs you can get at Wal-Mart and filled it with water.

The “sand” on the back drops was sponge painted. And I used the acrylic paints to paint the pyramids and camel as well other things which are not pictured here.

You can see Pastor John here – he was a Hebrew slave as was I. The tent was purchased at Wal-Mart and then, I used the donated sheets to make the walls of the tent and secured them with lots of safety pins. To dye the white sheets, I took brown paint, watered it down and dunked the sheets one by one then laid them out in the grass and sunshine to dry. The “sky” on the backdrops was a brilliant idea from my campmeeting coordiantor – we used blue construction chalk and a paint brush. Just sprinkle it on and brush! Perfect and super easy!!

Here you see Pastor Brian as the evil Pharoah (he is a really tall man)! The kids loved it! You can sorta see inside the tent – I got a bunch of kinda ugly knits donated from a kind lady at the Woodbury, TN church. We used these by cutting them into lengths to look like blankets and covered the floor of the tent. We also made a cool looking fire (which I will be reusing this year) out of big rocks and some sticks that I had pastor’s kids gather during Camp Pitch and a spot light with a red bulb. It really looked all lit up!

This was the school principal’s son – he really got into the program! Sooo cute!

So, for this year I wrote a program called Adventures with Jesus. Our theme is around the Adventurer Club. We will be decorating the room like a forest/ campout. Last year, I made my own palm trees – 14 of them and designed my own fronds out of felt – my daughters and I sewed like 123 of them. The trunks of the palm trees were donated old carboard carpet rolls which we covered in burlap and the stands were made from scrap lumber. One of the pastors cut little blocks for the tops of the carpet rolls, nailed them in and drilled holes for each palm frond. The palm fronds had a little pocket sewn into each one where I put 12 gauge wire lengths that another pastor’s wife cut out for me. This meant we could bend and shape them. Perfect! The trees were wonderful and I am still using them to this day in my own churches here in Southeast Kentucky. This year, we purchased 16 Christmas trees after Christmas from Wal-mart. Just like last year, I have asked for donations of old bed sheets from hotels, which I will be sewing together to create our back drop for the room which has 12 ft. high ceilings and is 35′ x 47′. You can see the backdrops I created last year in the picture above. Actually, I was saved by another pastor’s wife – I am forever indebted to her because when I got there last year the room was bigger than I had envisioned and I had not originally planned on sewing them together. Thankfully, I had brought my sewing machine! She came over and asked if I needed help – she saved me from utter humiliation!! She sewed them all together and made it look seamless – beautiful!!

So, I am hoping to get these sheets sewn up just as beautifully. I will be doing the construction chalk sky again. Also, painting green grass and great big pine trees on the backdrops. We will have a camping tent, a picnic table, camping accessories, a little creek with river rocks, pine needles all over the floor, and more. I can hardly wait to see it all come to life!

I will definitely be sharing more about this in the weeks to come! If you live in the Nashville, TN/ Portland, TN area, you should come see me at campmeeting!

Kids Time 2008 – On the Set a 3ABN

Find more photos like this on A Virtuous Woman

Back Home Again

We arrived back home last night around Midnight – just in time for me to watch the rerun of Sean Hannity on Fox News. I was anxious to see the Sarah Palin interview. Anyway, about the trip to 3ABN!

We stayed in a lovely guest house on the grounds behind the Thompsonville Church on Angel Lane. We arrived at the 3ABN Kids Time studio on Tuesday morning bright and early. We were thinking “How long could it possibly take to shoot a couple of 5 minute Bible story segments?” As in, we really thought we would be done by lunch and gone for the day. We learned a lot about what it take to create a television program, and we also learned what is apparently an industry saying across the board – “Hurry up and wait.”

So, we had actually shot two of the stories we had planned to help with. I was lucky and didn’t have to pretend to be an actress – they had someone who was quite good at that there to take my place! I knew going in that I am just not an animated kind of person – something I told my dear husband many times before we arrived. He, on the other hand, is. So, he got to “star” in the story of Aninias and Sapphira and also a couple of others, which for the life of me can’t think of at the moment. However, we ended up staying for two full days and helping with about 11 or 12 different stories. My sweet little girls and I and Mykal (after his stories were done) were “extras” in the marketplace serving as needed backdrop for the main story tellers. It was a lot of fun. The girls were excited about being on television around the world in a dozen different episodes and I was so proud at how well behaved and helpful they were. Especially considering the long days (about 10 hours) on a very hard concrete floor on our feet. Mykal and I are feeling the effects of that worse than they.

We also plan to go back next year to help. They shoot all of the segments in two week slots for the year. (Bibles Story, Songs, Pastor Time, etc.) They also “insisted” that Mykal have his wonderful thick and long beard next year. It took him about 6 months to grow it out (never once trimming it!), so I guess now, he will have a beard from now on for at least 6 months out of the year! I must say, he really looked the part!

Something else that really impressed me about Kids Time – everyone is a volunteer. Except for two or three of the camera men, everyone is a volunteer. The producers, the costume designers, the actors, the extras, the set designers – everyone volunteers their time for the children. On Tuesday while were there, Pastor John Lomacang came in, did a scene and left. I appreciated how everyone was there to serve the Lord, give glory to HIM, and do their best to ensure a good quality program was produced for the precious children around this world.

We met some wonderful new friends there and amazingly enough ran into friends we have not seen in years! It is amazing how small this world is. I have found that within the church – we never go anywhere without running into someone we know. I imagine that is a little bit what heaven will be like. It will be so wonderful to finally be there. I can’t wait for the Lord to come and take us home! What a reunion that will be!

Oh, and we went to a little vegetarian restaurant/ health food store on Tuesday evening after getting off “work” hoping they would still be open. We arrived about 5 minutes after they were closed, but the couple running the place saw us drive up and invited us in. I was so excited because we rarely get to go anywhere like that where I live. And there are no SDA owned shops near our home. We bought a few items and then spent quite a while making new friends with the husband and wife who managed the store. They were so kind, loved the Lord and even offered us a loaf of freshly baked bread (as a gift) before we left. The shop is called Manna. If you are ever in Thomsonville, Illinois I hope you will stop by and say hello to them!

3ABN – Kids Time

Tomorrow we are driving up to Illinois to 3ABN Television. On Tuesday Mykal and I will be taping 3 Bible story segments for their children’s show, Kids Time! I will have to let you know when the shows air. You can watch online if you do not have a satellite that picks up their station.

We will be in Illinois for three days, returning home on Thursday. We will get some free time to do some fun things, kinda like a “mini-vacation.” Hopefully the taping will go well and we will not have to do too many takes! I am a little nervous, but excited about it. It should be fun!

As for today, we are busy trying to catch up on chores – so far so good!! And we are enjoying our first fire today in the Family Room. I love this time of year!