SNOW!!!

6 inches fell yesterday and today and the boys couldn't be happier. I'd be happier if it weren't 13 degrees out, but even though, it was still fun to go out and play today. I've enjoyed being "snowed in" these past 2 days - forced to slow down. It's probably back to school tomorrow, so I'm going to enjoy these last few hours (I can see Brian and the boys sledding down our hill as I'm writing this)!

more basketball

Ethan may have been waiting for a few months to play basketball, but Elliott has been literally waiting for a few years. The last time he played an organized sport was 3 year old soccer, and he really could have cared less. In fact, every time we ask him if he wants to play soccer or t-ball or whatever season it is, he always answers that he'll just wait for basketball and football. Well, he's been waiting a while since I checked all over the place and you had to be in Kindergarten to play basketball. THEN, when the time came, he wasn't sure he wanted to do basketball. Ugh!

He ended up signing up and the other night was his first game. Let me tell you - that guy was more excited about that than I've ever seen him (well, maybe Christmas morning)! He could hardly contain himself. He did great dribbling and threw some good passes. He was very upset that his team didn't score at all (although I believe Ethan was more upset about it than he was!).

Very fun to watch

basketball

Ethan has been waiting for this day for months now....first day of his basketball camp. For a few months now he has been coming home from school saying that he has basketball practice at 4. Or that he doesn't have practice today cause he already practiced at school. But on the days that he does have "practice", he usually goes up to his room and starts shooting some hoops. Very dedicated boy I tell you.

Now he's doing a basketball camp for kids his age and loving it. Of course, he's not totally satisfied cause he wants to actually compete in a game (almost killed him that Elliott got to play in a game and the scoreboard was even on the other night). Your time will come, big guy!

shout out to my mops girls!

It was so nice to get together with my MOPS group tonight - it was really a great night of just sharing, laughing and having fun. I love all the girls in there! I wasn't sure about MOPS at first cause I'd never been in a MOPS group before and all of a sudden found myself on the steering team - yikes! And not only did I not have any experience, but I was kind of feeling like my "preschool" mom days were coming to an end - Ethan was much more independent and sometimes (even still) I had to remind myself that he was only turning 4.

But, once again, God has quickly shown me that his plan is so much better than mine! I have met and gotten to know some really awesome girls and am developing friendships that otherwise probably wouldn't have come about if it weren't for being with them in MOPS. I didn't even realize I NEEDED new friendships - ha!

So, you know who you are, and I just wanted to say thanks for the laughter and friendship tonight (and every other day!).

gift of journaling

On Monday, Elliott came home from school with his journal from the first half of the school year. Every morning his teacher asks each student to write in their journals - they draw a picture and then write about something they did the day before or just whatever is on their minds. As I was thumbing through it I noticed what a change has occurred in his writing skills already, but I realized something even better. This is a daily record of what was really important to him the last few months! What a gift his teacher has given us in sending this home with him for us to keep! I saw that he wrote about wanting to go to the beach and to go camping. I saw that he was excited that we went to Applebee's one night. I saw that he was incredibly happy that Daddy came home after his weekend in Georgia. And I liked this one pictured above the most. In case you can't decipher it (you have to read it in columns - left side top to bottom, then over to the right side bottom to top), it's a picture of our church and says "I like my church. I like to learn about God." Melt my heart! I'm so glad that was important enough to include in his journal.

ethan's getaway

Ethan was so excited to get to go stay with Aunt Meemer this past weekend. He was quick to remind us that WE were not going - didn't even want us to linger when dropping him off. It was a huge deal to him especially since Elliott had never done it before - he got to be the big guy for once!!

They had a ton of fun - Jupiters (where our incredibly blessed guy won 1000 tickets on one of those spin the wheel arcade games) and the Globetrotters on Friday night. Then hanging out with Erin and Jeremy on Saturday afternoon. Even Wii time with my cousin, Tara, and Tyler. He was tired to say the least!

Thanks for being such an awesome aunt, Amber!!

simplifying - two thoughts

I was reminded twice this week of two thoughts that I believe have had (or will have) a great impact on the quest to simplify things and thought I'd share.

First, my friend, Beth Moore, (yep, she's my friend like Becky Higgins is my friend, too - right Vicki and Nyla?) reminded me of something that I learned from her in our last study:

She said that every morning as she gets out of bed, she asks God to be the Lord of her life that day. Everyday. I started doing this and what a difference it has made! In Joshua 24:15, Joshua tells the Israelites to decide whom they will serve and that he and his household will be serving the Lord. Making a conscious decision and commitment to this everyday really puts the day in perspective and reminds me of what my priorities are for that day and everyday. It also reminds me to do my best to live within the limits God has set for us - and I've slowly learned first hand that this gives us freedom and rest. What a simple thing to do each day that has such a profound effect!



That brings me to the second thought - this quote from the end of the chapter that I'm reading in the book I mentioned earlier, "Little House on the Freeway" by Tim Kimmel (the 2008 version):

We give our family and ourselves an incredible gift when we make the decision to live within God's limits. It opens the door to genuine rest in our lives, and perhaps even more importantly, it models the pathway to rest that others can follow as well.

Simple things for my resolution of simplifying!

bowling

Went bowling with the Martins last night. Elliott kept saying he went "real" bowling. This is because he goes "fake" bowling, I guess, on the Wii. Anyway, it was tons of fun, and kudos to Brunswick for a smoke-free place to play!

doin' the happy dance

Today was full of little things that would only make me happy at this very moment. It was actually a pretty busy and unusual day since I left at 8:30 this morning and didn't get home until 4, but when I did get home, good things started happening....

I found my Project 365 kit propped against the front door. Feeling very blessed to get one of these (plus, I happened to remember that I had ordered pictures from last week while I was at Walmart so I even have pictures to start on it tonight!)

My favorite current magazine was in my mailbox this afternoon, and look who's in one of the articles - one of my favorite TV personalities, Kate Gosselin.

We got paid today, so I was able to buy new scissors. I know, seems like a very little thing, but when you've been using kids scissors for the past week or so to do all of your cutting (especially with wrapping paper), this is a true blessing. AND, they were only 97 cents so I bought two pair!

I got an email from Ann Taylor Loft. The boots I had ordered, then received, then returned due to a defect, then re-ordered, then had the exact same pair of boots start out my way again (thankfully one of the girls at the store remembered that I had just returned them the day before), then got an email saying the order had been cancelled, then called and confirmed that they were still ordered, then didn't hear anything for a week, then inquired about the order again and found out TODAY that the order had been miraculously found and they did still have another pair in my size in Henderson, Nevada and the boots should ship out tomorrow. Whew! Now, I hope I still like them as much as I thought I did the first time - the good thing is that I got a really great deal.

Now, I'm forcing this last one to be a blessing today. Elliott wanted to go to the used game place by our house and as we were leaving I noticed this scene right beside the GameStop:

There used to be a sign at the top that said "Cold Stone Creamery". Ugh. Closed. Forever. I had to take a picture cause I knew it would end up being the picture of the day. I'm very sad about this cause I loved going and creating our own ice cream concoctions, and it was so yummy! But the blessing is that I will no longer have such convenient access to so many sweet fat calories....I know, I'm grasping at straws here.

bedtime

There are a few things that are guaranteed to happen once we announce that it's bedtime at our house.

1. Ethan will whine about something - usually that he doesn't WANT to go to bed. He's NOT tired. He doesn't NEED to go potty - get the picture?

2. Negotiations from Elliott....tonight, for example, he says "whoever gets me something to drink better than water like orange juice or something doesn't have to lay down with me" Nice try.

3. The content of Elliott's prayers: "Dear God, Thank you for this wonderful day. And please make me not think about fires and if there is a fire let us all get out safely. And please keep the bees out of our house. And I love you very much. Amen" Not sure about the bees - one night he woke us up saying there was a bee trying to get him. He had even shut his door after he left to come into our room to keep the bees. out of the rest of the house. For some reason he is very concerned that there is going to be a fire in the house while we are sleeping. He was really upset that he couldn't stop thinking about it at night, so we reminded him that the best thing to do is pray about it. So that seemed to help and then one night he said it wasn't working anymore and that it was too hard to trust God to take care of things (yes, that's a difficult thing to learn). So I tried to think of a good example of a story from the Bible that illustrated how complete trust in God was the best course of action. Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea was what popped in my head and that brings me to the next guarantee.....

4. Elliott will want to read about Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea. Tonight I found him thumbing through his new Adventure Bible saying "I'm just trying to find Exodus." The other day he said that Moses was his 2nd favorite story. The one with the little breads in the cloud was his favorite. Huh? Oh, the manna falling down. Let me tell you, he has some GREAT teachers at church!!!

5. As I'm leaving Ethan's room after tucking him in, he will call after me "Will you check on me?" Yes. Goodnight Ethan. See you in the morning. "See you in the morning...I'll eat breakfast with you!" Those may be my favorite words of the day - I love knowing that he's already ready to see me again in the morning. And breakfast really is my time with Ethan. We're the only early birds, so I get to spend a few minutes just with him before the other two wander down the stairs.

Goodnight!!

slippers and sweats day

Got a phone call at 5:30 this morning - yep, no school for the boys again today. Seems there was a little freezing rain that visited us while we were sleeping the night away. Blessed that it wasn't enough to cause a lot of problems and that we got a day to stay in our slippers and sweats today! Even got the playdoh out and fashioned a Spiderman, Incredible Hulk and some odd looking animals. The rest of the day was reading, laundry, work for me, playing MarioKart on the Wii (Rosalina and I are becoming fast friends), football helmet shaped sandwiches, a drive-thru at McD's, baths and bedtime. Loved it!

a photo a day

I've decided to do a new project this year with scrapbooking. It's called Project 365. The concept is not new, but the talented Becky Higgins came out with a kit to make it oh so easy to do (they went on sale yesterday and I feel incredibly blessed to actually have gotten one cause they sold out in just a few hours and the website kept crashing, etc. - lots of angry scrapbookers - can you imagine?!)

It involves taking a picture a day for a year. The idea is that you collect snippets of your real everyday life and document them a week at a time. I've already started taking pictures last Sunday, and I have to say it's made me think about getting the camera out more already.

It also goes along with my "simplify my life" resolution cause all of the page protectors are divided for the 4x6 photos and journaling already - I don't even have to get out scissors or adhesive - just a pen to write the journaling. Aaaahhhh. I love doing full layouts, but I love that I'm going to capture the whole year in this easy way. It's easy and it gives me time to catch up on all the layouts I haven't finished from last year (and the year before that).

Anyway, here's one of the pictures from this week:

Brian got an iPhone for Christmas and I haven't seen him without it for more than 10-15 minutes ever since. I didn't realize that they were so cool, but he's always coming to show me a new application he's found or telling me about something new he's figured out about it. I love how excited he is!

Simplify

This is my one and only resolution for myself (which will definitely benefit my family). These past couple of weeks of not having to run around everywhere or fulfill all of my responsibilities outside of my home and family have made me realize just how complicated and busy our lives have become. It's inevitable to be busy in our lives, but it's definitely time for me to re-evaluate and simplify as much as I can. I was talking to Amber about this, and she was telling me that she remembered someone once mentioning that an acronym for busy is Being Under Satan's Yoke. Ouch!

I saw a book in my MOPS leader magazine called "Little House on the Freeway" and the description said it was about how "hurried" families can slow down and simplify. Of course I was too cheap to actually buy it and checked it out from the library instead. What I didn't notice was that the library copy was written in 1987 - my first clue was a reference to the upcoming 21st century on the first page and the real "aha" moment came when the author was talking about a man who had to have every new gadget, including a cellular car phone! Yeah, I'll be getting the revised edition tomorrow. I'm still reading it cause it so struck a cord with me about wanting to slow down.

Anyway, hope everyone else has at least one resolution for the new year (I think the retailers are hoping so, too!)

Off to a great start

This was the scene that Brian and I walked into as we said goodbye to our neighbors and walked upstairs to see if the boys were still awake at 12:45 am on January 1st. Elliott, of course, was still going strong on the Wii, but Ethan just couldn't take it any longer. I decided to re-implement quiet time for everyone the following afternoon when Ethan still woke me up just a few hours later at 7:30 wanting breakfast. There were tears (for everyone - except Brian who was fortunate enough to avoid the afternoon meltdown by attending his work party) at first, but after a few minutes we were all happily snoozing. I love lazy afternoons!