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!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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!Saturday, January 3, 2009
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!)
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!
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