This week’s sermon and scripture reading both featured the story of the feeding of the 5,000. We also packed boxes of donations to feed troops who are far away from home. In that spirit, feed your head as well – learn something new as a family!

Veterans Day is this Thursday, and the annual parade is back! The parade begins at Montebello and Central at 11 am on 11/11, and your family can come and honor our veterans in person. If you cannot make it, you can pay your respects from home by observing two minutes of silence beginning at 11 am. If you’d like to deepen your experience, we invite you to take note of all of the 11s in the preceding sentences, and use them to guide your observance of this day.

Happy Halloween, Desert Mission families! This time of year is full of candy, whether you’re trick or treating, trunk or treating, or buying candy to give out. If November 1 finds your family with more than you could possibly eat, why not share some of the wealth?

Last week in Sunday School we heard the Creation story, and this week we moved on to the Ark and the Flood. Seeds, and the green, growing things that come from them, play an important role in both stories. We’ll bet your family can think of some other “seed stories” as well. These stories take on a new significance during the fall, when apples, acorns, and pumpkins are everywhere you turn. So this week, make some seed art to go with these seed stories!

Making friends is always challenging, especially for kids, and those who don’t find it easy have surely had an even more difficult time of it over the past year and a half. There is some really helpful guidance out there for those looking to help their young people make friends, among it a piece of advice that lends itself perfectly to creating some great family memories along the way: learn some jokes!