Painting, STOMP, and Rainbow Cupcakes

Whew...March has gone by so fast! I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day. It has been a busy month for this Barb family.

We took some of our students on a spring break mission trip to Princeton, KY. It was only about 2 1/2 hours away and we spent the week serving at Bright Life Farms, a community for mentally or developmentally challenged adults. We spent a majority of the week painting the inside of one of their homes (maybe not the colors I would have chosen, but they wanted something bright....and it was indeed!) We also got to spend time interacting with the residents by playing BINGO, doing a craft, washing their vans, singing songs, and just hanging out with them. It was neat to get to hear the testimony of one of the residents who had been in a bad car accident as a teenager and was lucky to be alive. We heard the story about God's work in developing Bright Life over the past ten years...and that the director's daughter was a resident there too. She began having seizures as a 3-year-old and had brain activity loss because of the continuing seizures. It caused me to reflect on how life is so fragile and things can change so quickly! God is definitely at work at Bright Life and they really view everything as a gift from Him. I was a little timid going in as I just don't have much experience or knowledge about relating with special needs people, but it was so wonderful! It gives me an even greater respect for my sister-in-law who teaches high school special needs.

After returning from Kentucky, Eric and I went on a whirlwind trip for a few days. We went to Farmington on Saturday to watch my cousins Andrew and Melanie in their high school musical, "Guys and Dolls". They both did wonderful! We continued on from Farmington to Rolla for my cousin Stephanie's baby shower. She is excited and anticipating the arrival of Josalynn at the end of May. She got quite the load to be able to spoil and love on that baby girl. We then traveled up to Jeff City to meet with Stonebridge, a church that we love and miss so much! The next couple of days were spent at the CORE Conference, where we served and were challenged about becoming disciples, missional living, and leadership development. Eric and I love the time we get to spend with our Jeff City friends...too bad we live almost 4 hours away!

So after getting home on Wednesday, we finished the rest of the week with the Acts 1:8 Missions Conference hosted by the association and one of the local churches down here. It was exciting to get to meet and hear from missionaries around the world, to get to share the story of the BSU, and to help people in Cape Girardeau area answer the call to be missionaries. And in the middle of that, we took a little jaunt to St. Louis to cash in on Eric's Christmas present....tickets to STOMP! It was such a fun show and left us wanting to bang on pots, pans, and any other thing that can make noise. We snapped one picture before being informed that we were not allowed to take photos. So it's not the best, but it's the only one we have!

And what post would be complete without showing something that I have recently baked? I tried to come up with some creative desserts while we were on our spring break trip. Well, maybe not really creative...but I wanted pie for PI day (3.14) and then something festive for St. Patrick's Day. Instead of sticking with the original green for St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make rainbow cupcakes....you know, the leprechaun in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This was really simple as I just made a white cake mix from the box....but then divided the batter into 6 separate bowls, colored them, and then layered them in the cupcake liners.