Califoregon Living

The world has lost an incredible man.  God called him home a few weeks ago.

Bishop Sherwood Carthen was the lead pastor at the Bayside of South Sacramento.  He was a guest speaker at our church on a regular basis.

I did not have the privilege of meeting Bishop Carthen in person, but was blessed many times over hearing him preach ay Bayside Granite Bay.  While at Mt. Hermon this past summer, when my husband and I heard he was speaking there next summer, we did not hesitate to sign up for his week.

Two moments I want to share with you that will remain in my heart forever:

1) I took my boys to see the inauguration ceremony for Dr. John Jackson, at William Jessup University.  I sat there, witnessing Godly men of our community, speaking words of encouragement and affirmation to the new president.  I was particularly taken by Bishop Carthen’s message.  Not only was it affirming, it was also a charge for accountability.  I sat there, crying over God’s positioning of these incredible men all in this region, a region we had recently moved to, heeding a call from the Lord, but not knowing why we were here.  I realized that Bishop Carthen and these other leaders would be the men speaking into and helping to shape the lives of my boys.  Even though Bishop Carthen has passed on, through technology, his teaching will continue to be a facet in our family devotions.

2) I have a friend whom I have known all her life (that’s 44 years!)  She has lived a survivor’s life, and was against God for many years.  These past two years, though, I have seen a softening of her heart, and whenever she visited us (she lives in Washington), she would join us at Bayside (Granite Bay).  A few months ago, she paid us a visit and we attended the Bayside service, with Bishop Carthen speaking.  Later that evening, she shared with me that a couple weeks earlier she had given her life to Jesus.  Before entering the Bayside service, she prayed silently, “Lord, please show me what to do next.  I need to know what to do next.”
During that service, Bishop Carthen actually said, “If you are a new believer, and you need to know what to do next, here are the next five things you need to do.”  My friend was shocked and stunned that the Lord used Bishop Carthen to answer her prayer so quickly and so exact. I am forever grateful for his mesage to her that day.

The boys and I decided to attend his memorial service.  Our church opened up their video cafe for people to watch it streaming video instead of going to Sacramento for the service.  We chose to do that.  It turned out to be an incredible five hour sharing of government, community, faith-based leaders, family, and friends.

Instead of it being called a funeral, or memorial service, it was a “homegoing celebration”.  There was a running joke from one speaker to the next over who his best friend was.  The mayor of Sacramento, the Sacramento police chief, and Chris Webber of the Sacramento Kings were a few sharing.  Our own worship pastor, Lincoln Brewster, spoke on behalf of our pastor, Ray Johnston, who was recovering from shoulder surgery.  All who spoke did an incredible job honoring and incredible man.  Even his precious wife spoke and shared.  Only by the power of Jesus love was that even possible.

My dapper young men…

‘R’ was thrilled to discover that the Kleenex provided by Bayside was all pixelated.  He was disappointed to discover that it was only the plastic wrapping.  It was a five hankie event, one per hour…

This past weekend, our Pastor Ray complemented his talk on 2 Timothy with a montage of his speaking at Bayside.  You are welcome to watch it here and I pray you are blessed by it.

Bayside Shares Carthen Video

Boys graduated to brown belt!

I received a phone call from a friend of mine from our church.  She asked if our homeschool group would be willing to make peach cobbler for the wake of one of our pastors….for 250 of his family and closest friends.

Would we be willing?  We were honored!  The ladies rallied and we submitted between 25-30 trays of peach cobbler.

The boys were huge help.  They peeled and sliced around 40 peaches!

It’s such a blessing to be able to share life with my two boys.  I get to witness their emerging strengths, weaknesses, talents, interests, gifts.

I enjoy watching ‘R’ interact with nature.  He is always exploring and touching everything.  I have to constantly remind him, “leaves of three, let them be”, because we have poison oak all around.  He is also developing quite the photographer’s eye and is often asking to borrow my phone to capture  something.

Here is one such interaction.  He was amused by a little inchworm…

We receive a box of organic fruit and veggies from a local farm every week.  We received a fun surprise this past week in the form of kiwi berries.  They are the size of a grape and taste like kiwi.  We all snacked on them and they didn’t make it past one day…

‘R’ found this little cutie in the bathroom at church!  We set him out on a tree…

It’s days like these that I feel so grateful to homeschool.  The days where fun and learning occur simultaneously.

My friend, Grace, and I, took our boys to spend the day in Sacramento.  Since she is from there, Grace had a few fun spots up her sleeve.  I, however, was able to provide our finale, based on an article I read in Sunset magazine…

First stop…ABC Bakery.  They make these wonderful asian pork buns, called “bao”.  You can either get them baked or steamed.  We opted for baked, per Grace’s suggestion.  So good!

Next stop…Sacramento Zoo.  A nice, little, perfectly manageable for a half day trip.
Breakfast!
 

They have a great reptile house, with quite a few I have never seen.  I love this frog.

Hangin’ with da gator…

…and the roos…

The tiger exhibit had a ledge with a glass window.  Mama and son were resting on the ledge.  This picture does not do it justice, but I loved the pattern on mama’s back…

‘R’ took this picture.  He’s pretty amused by it.

The gift shop sold ‘Salt and Vinegar Crickets’.  Not one to shy away from a new culinary venture, ‘A’ asked me to buy some.  Except for the prickly legs, he thought they were terrific! (I tried one.  It reminded me of ‘Bugles’).  ‘R’ wanted nothing to do with it.

Lunch time. An adorable vintage shop/cafe, with a charming back patio for dining. Bow and Arrows.

Last stop.  Sunset magazine recently had an article on a Sacramento landmark.  They are celebrating their 50th year in business.  The article stated that Osaka-Ya has lines wrapping around the block during the summer for their snow cones.  They  are so popular they even have their own service window dedicated to the snow cones, so customers don’t clog up the small Japanese grocery store.  I knew the boys would be totally into this for dessert.
Imagine my surprise when upon entering the store, ‘R’ shrieked, “MOCHI“!!  This little grocery has a wide variety of homemade mochi.  I gave the boys an option, and they all chose mochi over snow cones.  (They were pretty yummy…)

It was a fun, fun, day!