It's Only Tuesday?!?

I feel like this week is laughing at me as it slowly inches by.  It has been a crazy week so far.  We had a power outage at school yesterday for the majority of our day and then we had to take cover today because of tornadoes in our area.  We've been joking about what more could possibly happen this week!  We're praying for the next couple of days to be completely normal!

I've been a really bad blogger lately.  It's not that I don't have anything to post about.  It's that I'm beat when I get home and don't feel like doing much more than snuggling with my little ladies.  Speaking of them, they're as awesome as usual.  I love being their Mommy.  It's the best and most fulfilling job ever.

What other random things are going on around here, you ask?

This is too important to be called random...but, we celebrated my Mom's birthday last Friday night with a party at our house.  The whole family was here and we cooked out, laughed, and celebrated my awesome Mom.  The girls were so excited about the party.  They love their Gigi and I love my Momina!

I planted flowers!  Yes.  Me.  I planted flowers!  I've really wanted to do something to perk up our yard and so I bought some geraniums and begonias.  So far, so good!  I've been watering and making sure they are looking alive.  I love the way they brighten up the yard.

I signed the girls up for swimming lessons!  I can't believe it's already that time of year again!  We are almost 8 weeks away from the end of the school year.  It's amazing how fast it has flown by.  It's, as always, so bitter-sweet.  I'm always sad to lose my class, but so excited for their success!  I can't begin to tell you how weepy I can get thinking about Gracie Claire being a 2nd grader and Sydney being a Kindergartner.  It stirs up way too many emotions to even begin to list.  These two are hilarious.  Today they decided to give themselves beards with the soap suds after washing their hands.  Of course, they had to have their pictures taken.

I got some new Toms.  I heart them.  They're the ballerina flats.  I don't think they're as comfy as the originals, but they're not bad!  I've been wanting some leopard print flats for a while, so I was so excited to finally get these! 

We've been working on clearing out and organizing our garage for the last couple of weekends.  I loathe cleaning out the garage.  It's seriously one of the worst jobs ever if you have way too much stuff, but we sifted through it all and have success!  We're selling lots in a garage sale (more on that coming soon) and we've almost finished organizing.  Go us!

I got a new coffee mug from Anthropologie, thanks to my lovely MIL, Janice.  Isn't it cute?!  I love that store...it's just I'm too cheap to shop there.  Cute, cute things at ridonculous prices.  I will NOT pay much more than $20 for a shirt, let alone $98...or more!  But, I will happily drink my coffee in style.  :)

Paul got new glasses after wearing, what we lovingly refer to as "his glass" (glasses whose earpieces have been broken off) for several years.  They look very handsome on him.  We have an inside joke about how glasses fit his face, but he did good with these frames.  Anyways, the girls HAD to try on Daddy's glasses! :)  Sidenote:  Both Paul and I thought that Molly and Sydney look so much alike in this pic.  So crazy!

As Gracie Claire and I were leaving for school the other day, the sky was so cool.  I'm sorry (OK, no I'm not), but this kind of beauty did not just happen out of no where.  The Master Artist created this masterpiece. 

And let me just end this post with these 2.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having Gracie Claire at school with me during the day!  But, I sure do miss these two and love the time I get with them when I get home.  So thankful for silliness and snuggles!  Peace out, friends!

Fruit & Veggies

I went and picked up my basket this morning from the co-op for the first time!  I'm so, so excited about it!  We got a ton of produce for cheap and it's all great quality!  We can't wait to get eating and try the new things that came in it that we've never tried before.  Look at all of this loot...

Oranges, Tomatoes, a Papaya, Apples, Bananas, Potatoes, Romaine Lettuce, Green Onions, Cucumbers, and Kale



Blog Topic Mish-Mash - Post 2: Spring Break, A Change, & Sickness

I'm back with the rest of the things I've been wanting to post about.  Here we go...

Topic 1:  Spring Break
We've been on Spring Break this week and, sadly, we are at the end of it.  It has been so much fun just hanging out with my girls.  We didn't plan any big trips or big activities, but it has been relaxing and just the break that I needed.  I did something this week that I very rarely do.  I made special breakfasts every single day.  We had muffins in the shape of cute bugs on two different days and we had pancakes on two different days.  It was fun to make the girls something special.  We've done lots of other fun things too, like...

eating lunch and having ice cream at Chick-fil-a,

shopping for new swimming suits (yay for summer!),

going to see The Lorax (we loved it!),

playing at the park...alot,

playing dress-up and having a fashion show, and...

making homemade pizza and peanut butter cookies!

We've had such a fun week!  Sadly, my car has been in the shop for the last two days, so we've been stuck at home, but we've tried to make the best of it!  As usual, I'm sad to see our Spring Break come to an end, but am loving the weather and the fact that summer break is right around the corner! :)

Topic 2:  A Change

For the last year or so, we have been talking about making a change at church.  We love our church and have been there for years.  We met there, got married there, all of our babies have been loved on by the great people who minister there.  Our church has been growing in many ways.  They've opened up a campus in Southlake and their newest campus is in West Fort Worth.  I think we both really felt led to try out the West campus.  We love it and decided to make that our home campus.  This would be "our church", but just at a different location.  This change also meant getting up on Sunday mornings to be at church.  We loved ourselves some Saturday nights at the main campus, but have loved doing Sunday mornings too.  This campus is a bit smaller, but we are really hoping and praying for a way to serve and be way more involved here.  We LOVE the worship time, the girls are loving Power Kids and their Sunday school classess, and we love that we are getting the same preaching we were getting anyway.  We really feel like God has led us here and can't wait to see how he might use us. 

Topic 3:  Sickness
The last couple of weeks at our house (and my school) have been full of germs, flu, and strep.  Molly was hit first.  Kelly, our babysitter, texted me at work to let me know that Molly had thrown up in bed and was burning up with fever.  I'm so thankful that I was able to leave and get home to her.  She was so miserable.  She slept on me the rest of the day, which is a sure sign that she was really sick.

The next day she seemed to be feeling a lot better (and she stayed better), but then Gracie Claire started saying she wasn't feeling very good.  She had a low grade fever, but woke up on Sunday morning fever free.  By the end of the day, though, she was running a higher fever than before, so I called to get a substitute, typed up sub plans, and got ready to be home with my sick girl.  We headed to the doctor on Monday and it was strep AND flu.  My poor, sweet, girl.  I ended up staying home with her on Tuesday too.  She felt so much better once she got some antibiotics in her.  The week went on as normal and then I started feeling a little inkling of a sore throat on Friday night.  I ran a low grade fever over the weekend, but headed to work on Monday.  (It is so much easier to go to work when you aren't feeling well than having to prepare for a sub.  Teachers aren't able to just take a day off.  Taking time off means a couple of hours of extra preparation.  I'd just rather go to work.)  Sadly, I wasn't feeling so great when I got home, I was still running a fever, and so I headed to Care Now just to be sure.  You guessed it...strep AND flu.  I had to miss the next 2 days of school.  Those two days included Open House and a crazy, crying phone call to my principal.  Being sick makes me a little crazy.  :)  We seem to be completely better now.  I'm so thankful that Sydney and Paul have stayed healthy!

Well, I think that catches me up!  This concludes my Blog Topic Mish-Mash! :)

"For I Know the Plans I Have For You..."

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

If you'd have asked me 3 years ago if I thought I'd still be teaching next year, I would've, very quickly, said, "No way!" My plan had always been to be at home with all of my girls until they were all in school. As you know, if you know our family or have read my blog for a while, God had His own plans for us. I am in my third year of teaching 1st grade since going back to work. I said from the beginning of all of this that I would quit again after no more than 3 years. Well, think again friends. Obviously I can't say it with certainty, since I don't hold my future, but Paul and I have been praying about the possibility of me going back to work next year. And, get ready for this...I have complete peace about it. Paul has been given a job that would provide for us if I chose to stay at home. He is also completely supportive of me if that is what I wanted to do. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be home with my Molly for a couple more years. My heart yearns for that. She was only 8 months old when I went back to work. But sometimes what your heart yearns for isn't what God has planned. Do I want to do what my heart wants or what God wants. It's a completely easy choice. If nothing else, I've learned over the past couple of years that doing what I want isn't always the best decision. 

I've prayed, made a pros and cons list, seeked wise counsel, prayed some more and I have this overwhelming peace about going to work again next year. I feel like I'm there for a purpose. Sure, the extra income is a great bonus, but that's not the reason I feel like I should stay. When I went back to work a couple of years ago, I wrote about seeing a video of Pam Cope (the author of "Jantsen's Gift" A definite must-read!) See that post HERE. She said something in that video that has stuck with me. I really felt like God was talking directly to me through her. She said, "I now understand that being a Mother means that we make ourselves available to other children." Being a teacher is my ministry. If I do nothing else in my classroom, I want every one of my sweet, precious students to know that they are loved and important. I want their parents to know that their kids, who they entrust me with each day, are precious to me. I want to be an example for anyone I come into contact with. 

God has been so faithful to us through all of the changes, ups and downs, and especially when I doubted Him.  He has never left us.  He has provided for us right when we needed it.  His love has never failed.  He has carried us to a point in our lives that I would never have imagined.

"Don't live any longer the way this world lives. Let your way of thinking be completely changed. Then you will be able to test what God wants for you. And you will agree that what he wants is right. His plan is good and pleasing and perfect."  Romans 12:2

His plan for us IS good, pleasing, and perfect.

Blog Topic Mish-Mash - Post 1

I've been a blog slacker lately, but I've been making a list of things that I've been wanting to post about, so I thought I'd do a couple of posts about all of them.  I'm starting with the post about the less significant topics (not including topic 1...the most important topic!)  :)  Topics I love, but not as important as the others.  :)
Topic 1:  My Little Ladies

I can't do a post without, at least, a picture of my ladies.  We're on Spring Break this week and having a great time just hanging out together.  There will be a Spring Break post to come, but for now I just had to share this picture.  I think it's definitely one of my top 3 favorites!

Topic 2:  Downton Abbey
Has anyone else been watching?  I love this show.  It's set in the early 1900's and is about a rich family and their servants.  Here is a plot summary I copied from IMDb.  It doesn't really even do the show justice, but it will give you the idea...
Lord Crawley sees his family heritage, especially the grand country home Downton Abbey, as his mission in life. The death of his heir aboard the Titanic means distant cousin Matthew Crawley, a Manchester lawyer, suddenly is next in line and accepts moving onto the vast estate with his even more modernist, socially engaged mother, who clashes with his lordship's domineering, conservative ma the dowager. Marrying off the daughters is another concern. Meanwile the butler presides over a staff which serves the family but also lead most of their entire lives in the servants quarters, intriguing amongst themselves.
We watched the 1st season on Netflix and the 2nd one online.  Can't wait for the 3rd season!



Topic 3:  Bountiful Baskets

I am so excited that I contributed to a fruit/veggie coop today!  I think it's going to be a great way to save some money and get better produce all at the same time.  I've heard nothing but really good things about it from people I know who've done it before.  It seems so easy too.  I just went to their website, which you can find HERE, read the instructions, made my contriubution, and all I have to do it go pick up my basket on Saturday morning!  I LOVE the idea of it!  Can't wait to see what comes in my basket! :)



Well, all of the rest of my topics are way more important than a TV show and coop.  Stay tuned for more to come! :)

Butterfly Kisses

Our church holds a Daddy/Daughter dance every year and our two big girls got to go this year with their Daddy.  The theme this year was "Butterfly Kisses."  (Our littlest lady was a little sad that she wasn't old enough, but she'll get her chance next year!  Mama and Molly had a great evening at the park and watching a Dora marathon.:))  Gracie Claire and Sydney asked several times during the day if it was time to start getting ready for the dance yet.  What little girl doesn't like to get all dressed up for their Daddy!?  I did their hair up fancy and they helped me pick out their dresses.  They could hardly contain themselves!  I tried to get Paul to take the camera to the dance, but it was a no go.  I'm sure they had a much better time without the camera nazi in their faces! ;)  It was a smart Daddy decision! :)  The girls and Daddy had dinner, danced, did girly crafts (they each got to bedazzle a new jewelry box and a cute little cross to hang in their rooms), they went on a carriage ride, and each got a framed picture!  What a night!  They loved, loved, loved spending a special night with their Daddy!  We are beyond blessed to have him in our lives.  He is the BEST husband and the GREATEST Daddy!  The girls have the best example of a man when it comes to how a man should love his wife and love his daughters!  I'm so thankful for him! 

First up...my little dressed up ladies doing some posing!

 Molly wanted her picture taken too...so, of course, I had to oblige her!

 Sister pics... :)

 Getting silly! :)  Love these girls so much!

 I'm pretty proud of my hair-doing skillz!  Not bad if I do say so myself! :)

 Poor Molls...she had a hard time not being able to get all dolled up! :(

 Sweet pictures with Daddy!

I LOVE that they will have these special memories!!!!

Funnies From My Ladies

The girls say funny things all the time and I wish I wrote more of them down. Here are a couple of conversations we've had lately...

GC after taking a bite of something she didn't like: Ewww! That tasted like when you stick your finger in your ear!
Me: You mean earwax?
GC: Yes!
Me: How do you know what earwax tastes like?
GC in a matter if fact way: I've tried it!!
Hahaha!!

Molly: I'm getting married!!
Me: To who?
Molly: To my husband!
Me: Who is your husband going to be?
Molly: It's a secret! :)

Sydney after playing Temple Run on my phone: Mommy, is this my highest score?
Me after seeing that she scored over 300,000: Yeah Syd! That's really high!
Syd: I know. I'm an expert at this thing. :)

Oh how I love them!

They're Sweet & Sassy

I took Friday off to spend with the girls for their birthdays!  We had such a fun day!  We started it off at Sweet & Sassy...totally and completely worth it!  They loved every second!  The sweet girls that worked there even let Molly join in on some of the beauty treatments.  It was so fun to watch the three of them be pampered!  After our morning of beauty, we headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch and then to the dollar movies to see "The Muppets."  It was so, so awesome to spend the whole day spoiling my little ladies.  I loved every second of it.

First up...nails!

Make-up was next!

Molly worked the runway while her big sisters got their hair done.  She was perfectly happy about this! :)

 

Gracie Claire looks SO much older to me in this picture...just a little glimpse into the future?  *Sigh*

The Sydster chose "The Princess" hairdo. :)

Gracie Claire chose "The Fashionista." :)

Now the big girls get to work the runway! :)

Oh how I love them!



Happy Birthday to my 7 & 5 year old!  Thank you for bringing me so much JOY! 

Love,

Mommy