I remember in grade school (Reading Jr. Academy) my girlfriend Shannon would bring a big bag of popped popcorn mixed with Brewers Yeast flakes and salt... ahhh a delicous and nutritious treat - rich in amino acids and vitamin B. My kids have yet to try this.
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| Thanks to Facebook - my friend Dawn posted this picture of some early school days! Judging from my awesome Dorothy Hamill wedge cut - I'd say this was late '70's... so I was in, maybe 4th grade? My friend Shannon is smack in the middle of the pyramid! Miss you, my friend... and our yummy popcorn snack! |
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| www.garrettpopcorn.com |
Last year, our family traveled to Japan for my 40th birthday and what we remember most about our Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea experience is the ridiculous amounts of popcorn being sold! The lines at each kiosk were super long for various flavors like strawberry, black pepper, sea salt, carmel, soy sauce butter, honey and even chocolate. A new flavor was introduced soon after we left - Milk Tea Popcorn. Hmmm... not too sure about that one!
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| Tokyo DisneySea, Mia napping & the 3 kids with Daddy ready to get on Tower of Terror... Dani wearing the Japanese Disney Souvenir Popcorn Bucket around her neck! Yes, this bucket has gone back to Japan twice! |
Well tonight we had evening worship at Karla & Charles Reel's home! They introduced us to a new POPCORN. It's called Popcorn Prayers. Standing in a circle... there were 10 kids & 6 adults all joining hands. Their youngest son Cameron started the prayer... and then everyone POPPED their thoughts, concerns, praises... anything that came to their mind- and then their oldest daughter Kassandra closed the prayer. It was fantastic! Even little Mia popped her thoughts! I couldn't help but smile while peeking at her through prayer! She was smiling and jumping up and down waiting to interject her thoughts, like everyone else!
"I'm thankful for butterflies"... and then another time said, "I'm thankful for flowers!"
I heard my kids POP in with, "please pray for my PopPop and Daddy", "thank you for good health", "thank you for family", "thank you for LIFE". I JUST LOVE THIS IDEA!
Of course, before we even started the Popcorn Prayer... Mia whispered to me, "Mommy, are we eating popcorn here?" Turns out we did! She even helped pop it!
I didn't realize this... but I am a popcorn prayerful kind of person - blessings and concerns. Throughout the day, I thank God for even the smallest blessings. And the best part, is hearing my kids also recognize and voice their blessings, too! I loved this idea of popcorn prayers and will definitely incorporate this in our family!
Ryan was so cute the other day - I let them all pull Mia in her red wagon and go to the little mini-mart that we have near our house. They love using their money to buy snacks there and I love that it's showing them the value of their money. It's funny when they have to use their own money... they're very careful about NOT overspending. It took them about 1/2 an hour. By the time they got home it started pouring rain outside... and Ryan looked at me and just smiled his charismatic smile and said, "small blessings, right?" So glad he gets it!
Here are a few of my blessings that POP in my head -
- Thankful for my family.... and so thankful for SKYPE so we can see & hear Dale in Kuwait!
- Thankful for keeping us safe while driving... somehow just this week I was able to avoid 2 car accidents!
- Thankful for the kind man who I asked to show me how to fill my right front tire at the gas station.
- Thankful for awesome neighbors who drop off food to share because they made extra.
- Thankful for awesome neighbors who offer to bring my kids hiking, swimming and to just hang out.
- Thankful for awesome neighbors who offer to take my daughters forgotten backpack to her at school.
- Thankful for the father and daughter who found our military ID's on the ground outside the mall and took the time to look for us and hand them back to me with a smile!!
- Thankful for my church family.
- Thankful my kids play along so well together and they have each other to lean on.
- Thankful for my good friends that reach out and check in to see how we're doing.
- Thankful that my husband turned off our water heater when we left for 3 months, hard to believe that we had a Guam Electric Bill for only $85.00 (unheard of)... typical bills run $400-$700 a month here on Guam - so thankful for the Navy that provides the stipend to cover these costs! So thankful for that!
- Thankful for a great sabbath yesterday... wonderful church service, delicious felllowship lunch, Dani enjoyed an afternoon at the pool with her classmate and friend, Maddie, while the boys hung out and played at their friend, Cameron's house. We ended the evening at the REELs home having evening worship, singing and doing animal charades and POPCORN PRAYERS. Just when I thought we were about to leave - Popcorn & Smoothies were made, Mia was playing dress up and the card games came out. We played a LOUD round of PIT/spoons and Rook!
We left our house at 9:30am... and returned home at 10:30pm. Exhausted and blessed!
Ephesians 6:18 (New International Version)
18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
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