Our fruit this past week was goodness and we used a lime for representation.  Don’t ask me why.

It seems pretty obvious, I’m sure, but I just had to use the parable of the Good Samaritan for our Bible story.  I had to explain to the kids that Jesus was saying that EVERYONE is our neighbor and we are to love and “be good/do good deeds” for our neighbors, i.e. everyone.  They didn’t quite get the geography or culture of it all in context, but they definitely understood that the Samaritan was the one who did the right thing and the other two men did the wrong thing by passing by and not helping the wounded man.

My kids love seltzer water.  So during lunch, we drank seltzer and I had them try it plain first.  Then I said, “You know what will make this seltzer really GOOD?  Let’s squeeze a lime into it!”  So cheesy, I know.  But the craft we were supposed to do was a sun-catcher which would go with our verse for the week and a lime slice could make a cute little sun-catcher which is maybe why the two correlate.  I knew we wouldn’t get a chance to do the craft, so I had to just make it work.  (Emmalyn tried some lime, too.  You can see how that went over…)

Emmalyn wasn’t a huge fan of the lime. Who can blame her?

Our verse for the week was Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine in front of others.  Then they will see the good things you do.  And they will praise your Father who is in Heaven.”  (See how the sun-catcher craft would’ve been perfect?  Oh well, you can’t do everything.) 😉  When I introduced this verse, I asked the kids what the Good Samaritan did as his “good deeds.”  Then we made a list of what good things we can do for others, which led to a conversation about the difference between “good” things and “kind” things.  My kids seem to think that coloring a picture for someone cures all and is really the only thing they need to do for anyone. After some gentle prompting, our list grew and went in the right direction. 😉  Oh yeah, here’s some proof that I do actually teach my kids… (I’m not one to be in front of the camera much!)

Speaking of good deeds, did you pack an Operation Christmas Child (OCC) shoebox this year???  We were able to pack two: one by Abby and one by Noah.  We included letters and pictures in them and are hoping we might get to hear back from the child who receives the boxes, but who knows.  Either way, it was a fun process!  I was able to be a volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse this year as a relay center coordinator which was fun and a lot of work!  We’ve been counting boxes, packing boxes, and praying hard over the boxes!  If you’ve never heard of OCC or Samaritan’s Purse, check out their program! www.samaritanspurse.org/occ

I wanted to share one more GOOD thing with you!  We had another Saturday brunch this weekend (it’s seriously one of our favorite things to do with friends) and I made sheet-pan sausage that was amazing!  I got the recipe from my Food Network magazine and you can find it here.  It’s really not labor-intensive, though it might look it by first glance.  And the sage that’s in it made the house smell just like Thanksgiving!  I’ll definitely be making it again sometime soon! 🙂  It also makes several portions–hello, leftovers! 🙂

This sausage, drizzled with a little maple syrup… seriously, the best!

Maple Pecan Scones. Very good, just not ready to share the recipe yet. 😉