I Just Wanted One Cute Picture

 

Just say Cheese....

Bennett, don't cry....

 

Don't touch each other...

 

 Bennett, open your eyes...

 

 Put your hand down...

 

Oh well. 

New Fire Spring 2018 Season

In the bag!

The spring season dates are always iffy because of our crazy Arkansas weather.  And although he had to do some shuffling, Christian didn't have to add extra weeks because of storms.

Here's some of the cuties.....


These guys got to play on the same team.



With their dad coaching....



Waylon did so much better this season.  He didn't play soccer better as much as he was able to participate without freaking out.  It was good to see him in a social setting and do well.  Such progress!




Trying to get a game in before the storm hits!
Most moms seem to enjoy the tiny kids' soccer best but I much prefer THIS.
Christian's competitive team did great this season. 



Don't let this picture fool ya.  He takes the camera with good intentions but gets so distracted with the game that he hardly takes any!

Best buds

The new uniforms are sharp!

These guys were swapping hunting stories during half time. Love the South!

See those wet heads?  We didn't miss all the rain but at least it wasn't a downpour.  And I love watching my boy coach. 

Here's what you do when you're tired of soccer but your brothers are still playing and Mom won't let you leave. 

BJ

Here's some (kinda) recent fun from my bullet journal....

First off, remember how plain my BJ used to be with just the solid blue cover?  NO LONGER!!
Meg made this for me and I couldn't love it more.

Hello March! 

I'd rather this said something about being thankful instead of lucky.  But with March and shamrocks and all that, I thought it was cute anyway.

March is the first time I've added monthly cover pages and gratitude trackers.  I love them!  And lest you think I'm all that creative, I totally copied those from another jounaler.

 

Did you have a great Easter?  OH I wish I could tell you all about our worship service at church.  It was so amazing.  I'm still not over it.
 

This dinner spread sets my mind free.

I am in full-blown school planning mode.  I'm almost done.  And even though it's the end of the school year for everyone else, it is the beginning for us.  I didn't like anything about last year's school and since I have most of the new stuff already I didn't see any need in waiting.  Schooling year round has some nice perks like that.  Not sure my kids would agree...

This is the most important page in my BJ for my kids.  Their behavior chart.  They know right where it is so they can flip to it quickly and check their color.

 

I'm working on a cleaning page with our new chore schedule as well as updating my reading list.
All of that is sorta tied into our new school year so it's not completely nailed down yet.  I'm excited to share it when it's done! 

Some Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

I've read My Utmost For His Highest for years.  And in the beginning there was so much of it I didn't understand and went way over my head.  There still is sometimes, but over the years I've become accustomed to his writing style and his theology and I feel like I'm uncovering a new jewel of truth each time I read it.

Today's reading was about intercessory prayer.  Such perfect timing.  I have an aunt that had a stroke and is on the edge of eternity and an 87yo grandmother that is precious to me and just had major surgery.  I have unsaved family members.  I have threats in my own family that I feel are dangerous and eager to pull us apart.

It will do me no good to worry over these or complain or (especially) try to fix it myself.  I'm reading in Joshua right now and how the guy barely had time to breathe before he was thrust into the next war.  Wars that God won.  Wars that totally annihilated the enemy.  Joshua sought the Lord and showed up.  God showed Himself strong.

I am wanting to be a Joshua in fighting for my family/church/friends.  The battle is God's and I am showing up in prayer.  Oswald Chambers said, "The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is b/c we have only a sentimental interest in prayer.  Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other.  Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray."

I'm on the last couple of chapters of Oswald Chamber's biography and so far it is my favorite book of the year.   God has used him in big ways in my life over the years and I am glad to be able to learn more about his life. 

That One Time I Dressed Like An Adult

I am the worst at dressing for the right weather.  I always tend to dress for yesterday's weather which means I end up freezing or looking like I'm ready to play in the snow while everyone else is in shorts.

But get this.

Last week I got it right.  Like perfect right!!

It was cold and raining and I had errands to run.  So I wore leggings under my jeans, a real coat with a hood, gloves, and ready for it??.......Laney's rain boots!  Plus I even had an umbrella.  Not one of the 3 broken ones either.  An umbrella with all the parts that work.



I was ridiculously proud of myself. 

10 Reasons I Love My Small Town

 We've been here 5 1/2 years already.  But I wonder why in the world we didn't move here 30 years ago.  I love the space and the dark nights and the occasional neighbor's pig or cow that gets loose in my backyard. 

The drive to the "big city" for groceries and big errands can be a pain.  But it's also a good time to knock out some audio books.  And when I hit the beer can silo (fancy!) I know I'm getting close to home.  Here's a few reasons I really love living here....

1. You never have to show your library card. 

2.  Or your drivers license at the bank for that matter. 

3.  You can park your car and walk from the bank to the courthouse to the church to the flower shop to the doctor's office to the cleaners to the drug store to..... it's all right there.

4. The feed store man knows what kind of dog food your dog likes even when you forget.

5. And while you're there you can grab some farm eggs too.  But if the guy's asleep with his hat over his eyes you can just leave your money on the counter and get the eggs out of the fridge yourself.

6. You don't stand in line to vote.

7. Or to renew your tags or drivers license.

8.  Paper or plastic?

9. Even though most of the town knows your business, they are pretty good at keeping any "real business" out of the paper.

10.  The school principal still paddles your kid if he needs it.  

Dollar Store Haul

I got to run errands today with Mallory and Zeke and one of the most important ones of all was GOT TO GET MORE GLASSES. 

Last month I could see fine.  But this month...nope.  I have no idea what happened except I'm a whole month older and all of a sudden I can NOT read without those old-lady kind of reading glasses.  

Last year I bought some at the Dollar Tree because I thought maybe...just maybe my eyes were changing a little.  So I picked out some cute black ones with flowers on the side.  I played with them a couple of times then put them in the drawer and didn't touch them again.  

But now.  Well I dug them out and I carry them everywhere which also means I leave them everywhere and have no idea where they are half the time and sound even older than ever as I exclaim, "Does anybody know where my reading glasses are?  Anybody??" 

So the only thing to do was to buy more.  And I'm glad they are not expensive so I can buy all the cute colors.  Today that meant purple and orange. 

We got some StarWars place mats since our place mat situation is needing an upgrade and also some stencils for me to play with in my bullet journal. 

See the little race track sunglasses?  My babies have bright blue pretty eyes and I know from experience that light colored eyes have more trouble with the sun.  I'm trying to remember to get in the habit of having them wear sunglasses on bright days. 

And the beach is coming up y'all.  87 days.  You need sunglasses for that.  Bennett still has his Spiderman ones from last year but Waylon needed some that fit well.  

I also grabbed them some artsy things to do because now and then they will do those sorts of things if you sit right beside them. 



Birdy is such a good teacher and Waylon's fine motor skills are really coming along.



As for Bennett, he just wanted to take the marker apart.  

Happy February

One whole month of 2018 is over.  How's it going for you so far?  I've had a kid that's been sick the whole year and 2 more that have been back and forth.  I'm sure hoping that whole groundhog thing is wrong because we are needing some spring over here!!

For school yesterday I had my kids do a 10 minute journal with the prompt, "February Goals".  They are keeping it on their cork boards and we will review them every week.

Here are my own February goals and how they line up (or don't) with my year-long word of REST.
 I already know this weekend will not be restful.  But that's ok.  I'm spending it with family and friends doing fun stuff....

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad workshop tomorrow.  I am so looking forward to this with Meg and Christian.
 I'll have to get some things in order at home so I can leave in peace and come home to dinner in the crockpot. =WORK =FUN =LEARNING

2. Bridal Shower Sunday.  A good time to see some friends I haven't seen in awhile and Mallory adores every kind of ladies' event.  Truth: I hate them.  Especially because they are always on Sundays and I fiercely guard Sundays for REST.  But I also want to show up and love my friend.

3. Super Bowl Party!!  Our menu: Sliders, jalapeno poppers, cheese dip and salsa, 7 layer dip, pigs in blankets, banana pudding, rice crispy treats. =WORK =FUN

4.  Valentines Day!!  We are a day behind on our  Valentine count down activity .  I plan to make this this afternoon.  The kids loved it last year and it'll help Waylon and Bennett understand the fun a little better.

I've taken a few kids shopping for their Valentines (they draw names with a $10 limit) and some of them have little treats planned for the whole family that will need a little bit of my help.

My kids don't know this yet but we will be going skating with our homeschool group on Vday.  It's been a long time since we've done that.  And then we will have a family party on the 17th with yummy food and fun.  =WORK =FUN

5.  Finish painting my room/bathroom.  I started last weekend and it looks so pretty already.  I also took down the ugly brown mini blinds and gave them to Laura so I wouldn't be tempted to put them back up.  Problem is the other window treatments I want cost too much money so there's nothing on the windows right now.  I love the sunshine but my man feels like he's living in a glass house.   :-)

Painting is a lot of mess and work but it also speaks REST to me.  I'm not in a hurry.  I'm creating something beautiful and making my house pretty.  I'm listening to an audio book with Laney while she helps me and I love every minute of it.

Our bathroom is small and the ceiling needs scraping.  My boys have some experience with this from the rent house and since it's already a mess, I'm going to have them work on it next week.  =REST

6. My church is doing Fighter Verses and I'm loving it! I had never heard of it before but I got the $3 app on my phone and it's helping me memorize more Scripture.  I also love discussing it with the ladies in my group.  = REST

7.  I'm also participating in a mentoring ministry at church.  It's an 11 week study I'll do with a young girl to build into her life.  I'm planning on Mallory doing this right along with me and maybe even develop a friendship with someone she might normally not seek out.  =REST =WORK :-)

8. Honey won a new Fitbit at work and gave it to me.  I ordered a new girly band for it and I'm loving it! So I want to continue to get in my 10k steps and drink 64 oz of water.  =REST =WORK

9. Lots of reading! Right now I'm working on 4 books.  =REST 

10.  And the BIG ONE!!......Christian will be moving out this month.  So many changes for him this year!  He graduates college in May and is buying a house that will close this month.  My momma heart is so happy he will still be close.   I'm super excited for him and I've been working with him trying to get his paperwork in order and all the millions of things when you buy your first house.  =WORK =REST

A Peek Into Our Week

Look at this. 

I know there are people that love this.  But those people do not have toddler boys. 





 
speaking of toddler boys....Savers shopping with my girl and I scored this awesome Batman shirt.  Whenever I wear it, Bennett looks at me with hearts shooting out of his eyes and says, "I love your shirt Momma." 

 
 And here's what happens when you stumble across a bag of peanuts and don't want to share.

 
 My parents are the BEST!!  Mom sent a big cupcake piggy bank full of money for us to have a family party!!  Such a fun surprise.  I promised we'd have some cake and ice cream and take lots of pictures.  And she told us to put the leftover money in the vacation jar. 

VACATION....Yes please.  We paid our down payment on our condos this week!!  119 days.  I am so excited.  And so is everyone else.  Almost every day someone will ask a new vacay question.  "Am I going to sleep in the same bed as last year?", "Can I sit by Nathan in the car?", "What time will we leave?", "Can I look on Amazon for a skim board?"  

Yeah.  It's a thing. 

 

Zekey is fantastic at making eggs.  My kids would eat eggs for breakfast every morning if they could.  And since eggs are $.89/dozen at Aldi right now they get to have eggs almost as much as they'd like.  It takes about 3 dozen to feed the whole family so that's a cheap breakfast. 

2018 Bullet Journal

New Year = New planner 

Some of my girls got new planners too and we had a fun planning night getting them all set up and ready to use.  I had this beauty on my Christmas list....

leuchtturm1917 dotted a5

Of course you don't need a particular notebook to start a planner.  But I love this one.  It lays flat, has 2 ribbon markers, a dotted grid, index, and a strappy thing to hold it together.  The binding is tight and the pages have a good weight.  It's worth the money.  I need something to decorate the outside though. 

Cover page.  I don't do monthly cover pages.  But I'm hoping this will last the whole year so I did a yearly one with my word REST.

In the front of my journal I set up all the trackers I knew I'd need and use all year.  I'll make more as the year goes on, but I like having these all in one place right now.



2 Simple bookshelves to track the books I want to read and the ones I've finished.  These will include the read-alouds I do with the kids.

My kids' behavior/color chart.  This is super important to them and I keep the striped bookmark on this spread so they can find it easily. 

A work in progress.  Just some food ideas to pull from when I'm making a menu.  The other page will be Crockpot, Emergency Meals, and Instant Pot hacks. 

A tracker to remind me of some things I want to keep track of.



Bennett is a good napper but Waylon hardly ever naps even though he desperately needs it.  But I do need a quiet time.  So I pay my older kids to sit quietly (as in silently and don't say a single word) with him and read for at least one hour in the afternoon.  This helps me keep track of how much I need to pay to each kiddo on allowance day.

Plus a basic school schedule.  Don't let this fool ya.....we never run on time. But it's a goal to shoot for.



All of January is blue.   Next month I'll use pink or red for Valentines Day.  Menu plan for the month.  I do this in pencil in case I need to change it up.  Not because I want to be perfect, but because when I make next month's menu I can look back and see when we ate certain things so I don't repeat it too much.



Regular daily spreads that help me live my life.  This is where I keep the solid color book mark.



Then I flipped to the last 2 pages to make some Christmas notes since Christmas was still fresh on my mind.

And that's it so far.  I'm always looking on Pinterest for new ideas.  Some people are SOOO artistic and crafty.  I love looking at their spreads and getting ideas for mine. 

Like this one..... Look at this adorableness! This may find a page in my BJ sometime this year.

A Peek Into Our Week

We are starting to settle back into routine after the holidays.  Honey went back to work and the college kids start back Tuesday.   I love me some routine!!  

Here's a peek into our week....

Isn't she just so beautiful? 

We had some left over popcorn from one of those popcorn tins.  Mallory spread it out and drizzled white and milk chocolate over it all.  

Hand-me-down tinker toys from friends! 

I hate the mess that onions make in my fridge.  I cleaned it all out this week and put all the onions and garlic in this bowl. 

Honey and I have been married 29 years and in all that time we have never had a new mattress.  All of our mattresses have been hand-me-downs....until now.  This was our Christmas present and it finally came!!  They shipped it all rolled up in this duffel bag.  When you unroll it on your bed frame it lays flat immediately but you have to give it some time to poof up.  It has a forever warranty and you don't ever even need to flip it.  It's much firmer than we thought it would be but it takes some time to get completely poofed up I guess.  Anyway, we like it. 

Happy New Year and My Word

Happy 2018 everybody!! 

I just love new starts.  New planners.  New goals.  Big dreams.  Plans.  Changes.  All of it. 

I have never felt more sure of my NY goals than I do this year.  Picking one word seems to be the thing to do and this is my first year to pin it down to that ONE THING. 

My word this year is 

REST

Our little love QBall went home to his family before Christmas and it has been just us.  No more fosters.  And a chance to see what our family looks like complete with our 2 newly adopted sons.  We had a crazy intense year of 3 toddler boys all under 3.  Then watching them grow a little older and into new things.  Then the highs of adoption and the low of sending "our baby" home. 

And we are tired. 

We all need a hard re-set.  A season of rest.  To sleep and think and read and be quiet.  To reconnect as a family.  I need to get back to cooking and eating the way I like.  To get out of survival mode.  To stop and listen and look people in the eye...and smile.  To breathe.  Rest. 

I'm pretty good at going and doing.  In fact, I feel guilty when I take a nap because it seems so lazy.  So I'm still trying to figure out what it will look like.  But I figure it will be saying No to the things that stretch me thin and make me feel overextended.  Making sleep a priority (with no guilt).  Doing the things that fill me up....reading, a project, cleaning my house, reading to my kids, walking with my neighbor, cooking, writing letters to my grandmother, and blogging. 

But then what?  Because I'm pretty sure that if I'm not careful it'll become boring and feel lazy after awhile.  So I don't know yet.  I don't know about our future in foster care or what the year holds for my older kids and how we will need to support them.  I want to trust God with it all. 

In the meantime, my kids have been sleeping more, playing more, and Xboxing more.  This whole year of rest is off to good start.