Friday, June 22, 2012

Ca-razy Goodness

Occasionally I do something crazy. (someone else might say it is far oftener than occasionally)
I have had a wonderful group of teenage girls working with me this week, doing two vacation Bible schools. They have done a marvelous job. We started out last Friday with a whole afternoon of training.  And then they dove right into teaching and leading on Monday.
Just for some back ground...my church has a big tent that we set up in the side yard. We invite kids from the neighborhood between 5-12 years of age. We have been using the theme of "Running well in God's Race." We have been doing a VBS in my yard in the mornings, and the church yard in the evenings. It is all based on Hebrews 11-13. We talked about signing up by faith in Jesus Christ. We talked about following Jesus Christ-He made up the Christian race, ran it first, and finished triumphantly. We talked about how every good athlete has a trainer who trains them to run better. Who outlines what to give up-good and bad-in order to perform the best. God is our trainer, discipling those He loves. Getting us to lay aside the weights and sin that holds us back. We talked about our great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. Those Bible characters who ran before us, and are surrounding us, cheering us on. To learn from what they learned. To run with endurance. To serve God strong and in faith. Today we are going to talk about race packets-those things you get from every race, that makes race day go smoothly. T-shirts, maps, number, timing chip, etc. And Hebrews 13 is full of instructions for our race. God gives us everything we need to run well.

I can't stop taking pics of her-notice the foot

Anyway, we invite out these kids, and we have been having over 30 every night. We stay in the tent, and sing, have an athletic intro tied in with Hebrews 11-13, tell a story about a character from Hebrews 11, play some games, have a skit, and teach a memory verse. It has been packed full of goodness. I think yesterday was the best. Each girl dressed up like a character from Hebrews 11, and told that person's story, giving a lesson they'd learned from their faith. 
The girls have worked hard. They have taught every aspect. I am doing a bit of teaching, quite a bit of supervising, but mostly just trying to stay in the back ground and let them learn by doing.
It has been an amazing thing to watch them grow this week! To grow in new skills. To grow in confidence in leading and teaching 30 kids. To grow in their own faith in God-His enabling and provision. Plus, the props they came up with were very creative. Props aren't my thing so much. I am not creative in that way. But they totally hit it out of the park in that department.
So, here is the something crazy I did. I wanted to give these girls something to thank them for their efforts. To thank them for encouraging me. To thank them for helping me and working with me. Mr. Hippie was right on board. I had been stewing about it. And he suggested the idea of a gift, before I even said something. I knew it was a "God prompting" then.
I hauled out a sugar scrub recipe, made a Meijer run, and put together little baggies for each of them. The "craziness" comes in with me being at Meijer at 9:30 p.m.. With LC and I mixing up and packaging sugar scrub at 10:00 p.m.. With Mr. Hippie and I labeling and tying bows at 11:00 p.m.. Crazy because this Barefoot Hippie Girl is always in bed by 9:30.=)
Here is my 3 crazy projects of this week in pictures.


strawberries for pie and jam

natural beauty

smooshed for jam

9 cups crushed berries, 6 cups sugar, package pectin.
boil until thick.


isn't it gorgeous!


hot bath-15 minutes.
pie crust-make it or buy it

4 ingredients-strawberry jello-2 boxes

2 cups water
2-1/4 c sugar
6 T cornstarch-
boil until thick
add jello

hull and wash berries

stack in baked crusts

pour on glaze and refrigerate.
This is affectionately known in the Barefoot Hippie Household as
"Strawberry Goodness."
I'm sure you can guess why.


hard at work

my sugar scrub partner

loving the pajamas

new recipe-3 cups sugar, 1 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice.
(going to add more lemon-either essential oil or juice- for scent next time)


I think they are pretty sweet looking

fantabulous Friday linkup

this could be yours-plus a toe ring
(they are getting those too, I just didn't have them last night.)
100 FB likes, or 50 "members" on blog=Barefoot Hippie Girl drawing.
Get the word out!!!=)

Hippie offspring-living the dream
Today we finish up both morning and evening VBS, plus I get to enjoy a big slice of Strawberry Goodness with the BFF.
It's going to be a great day!!!