monday morning.

guys, i'm so pumped.
the boys {and AJ and i} worked hard and got all their homeschooling done on friday and this weekend so we have none to do today!
that includes finley's rock collection project.
woo. hoo.

i really wanted them to get all their homework for tuesday done so that we could do christmas baking and crafting today.
i have been trying to do it for weeks and can't seem to squeeze it in.
cooking is therapeutic for me lately so i am really looking forward to it.

i'm also looking forward to spending time with the boys, thinking about others....who we are baking/crafting for....blessing others....giving is better than receiving, etc.

okay i have to tell you about friday night.
avery had a birthday party to go to so we all dropped him off and the rest of us went to chic fil a for dinner.
on our way to pick him back up, AJ pulled into the embassy suites.
he stopped right by the door and pulled out my overnight bag.

i, of course, started bawling.
he said, "you're staying the night by yourself.
your laptop, bible, journal & clothes are in the bag."
he also said i wasn't allowed to feel guilty and that i deserved it.

oh. my. word.
couldn't believe it.
best. gift. ever.

seriously.
peace and quiet.
i could do whatever i wanted.
and there was nothing that needed to be done.
i could completely relax for a night.

it was truly wonderful.
i took a bath, watched a little hgtv and mostly read and slept.

he also packed my 1000 gifts that i have had on my nightstand waiting to be read.
perfect timing.
i'm two chapters in and it is so. good.
just what i needed.

this is the first time AJ has ever done anything like this.
i was so, so surprised and thankful.
it was so refreshing and recharging.

i'm pretty much on a high from it and keep thinking about how wonderful it was. :)

okay friends, i'm off to start my day....

also, if you think about it, would you mind saying a prayer for sawyer?
he woke up throwing up in the night and is currently asleep on the bathroom floor.
please pray that he gets over this quickly and that it stops with him.
thank you so much.

blessings to you today!


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sometimes we make plans. . .

oh hi there.
how was your weekend?

ours was . . . weird.

good parts and not so good.
i'm sure you all have those too.

you all know that i have been so tired and worn out lately.
{and i have heard from so many other moms that i am not alone}.
we mamas tend to overwork ourselves.
i am taking some good advice and asking the Lord to show me what to say no to.

anyhow, all that to say, my sweet husband ordered me to go to bed early on friday night, which i did.
like right after 9. crazytown.
he told me to sleep in.
when i woke up the house was quiet.
i didn't even know they had left except that i had a text on my phone that it was daddy donut day.
yay!!
they stayed gone until 9:00.
that was a wonderful refreshing time...i slept until 8 and then sat in my bed with coffee & carrot cake and did some online christmas shopping until they got back.
while listening to christmas music.
yeah, it was pretty awesome.
it was so needed and filled my cup.
i have a good, good man.

okay so let's move on to saturday night.
we had planned to take the kids to see the christmas lights at silver dollar city.
our kids love it, but we haven't seen it all lit up for christmastime.
we've been seeing commercials for it and had been planning to take the kids sometime around the holidays so they could ride the train, see the lights and enjoy the park all christmasy and magical.

can you see where this is going?

okay some things to note:
we said no to going out on a group date with some friends of ours because we wanted to make sure we got to SDC before it got too cold to go.

apparently aj had a feeling that we shouldn't go to SDC that night but just brushed it off and didn't say anything because he didn't want to be curmudgeony.

sooo.. we decided to leave in the afternoon since we were just going for the lights anyway {bad idea #1} and ruby and saw could get naps in.
we got on the road about 1:45.
our usual 2 hour trip ended up taking 3 hours when we got about a mile to the turnoff and the traffic was completely stopped.
this is the moment our hearts sank and we had the feeling that we just wanted to turn around and go home.
we pressed on.
and waited and entertained and sang christmas carols for about an hour until we got to our parking space at the very farthest spot imaginable in the farthest out parking lot.
then we realized dressing our kids in hoodies with no extra hats or gloves was a bad idea for walking around outside at night in december.
oh and at this point ruby was over it.  awesome.

so we head to the line to wait for the trolley.
this normally takes about 10 minutes to get on and ride into the park.
we waited foreverrrrrr.
maybe an hour?
then it ended up that avery, ruby and i got on a tram and aj, saw & fin had to wait for the next one.
this was ridiculous.
we were separated from each other and our phones would not work.
so then we spent the next however long trying to call and text each other and not finding each other.
avery and i were waiting by the entrance, entertaining ruby while she played in dirty water on the pavement.
somehow AJ got past us and into the park and had no idea where we were.
finally our phones work and we got reconnected but i was out of sorts by this point.
we get in and start looking for a warm place to eat dinner.

we also realize at this point how difficult it is to keep track of four children in an amusement park in. the. dark.
with what seemed like 4 trazillion people there.
stressful. in a word.
we tried to keep chipper and make the best of it for our kids...pointing out the pretty lights and exclaiming over how beautiful everything was....but inside we were mostly just in survival mode.
we saw a quick light show and then wandered all over and finally found a place to eat dinner insideish.
it was a typical $30, not that great of food dinner that we ate with cold hands.
at this point i'm realizing that i'm a fair weather friend of SDC and i need to just stick to going when it's super warm.
this mama doesn't like to be cold.

okay so we do a bit more wandering around.
we stopped for hot chocolate and the sweet, sweet man there gave us a giant cookie for free.
he said "are these all yours?"
i smiled and said, "yes," preparing for the typical "you've got your hands full!" but instead he reached in the warmer and got a big plate sized cookie out for us.
so sweet.
i actually cried thinking about it as we were walking.
i knew it was Jesus loving on us and showing us that He was there.

i take ruby and sawyer on the carousel.
we go towards the train depot and realize the line in insanity.
like wait 2 hours kind of deal.
so we break it to our kids that we can't do that.

luckily we had told avery from the get go that we probably wouldn't be riding rides, that we were just going for the lights and holiday stuff.
we looked through the christmas shows and found the shortest one available.
Frosty was a 20 minute show starting at 8:00....yes that is our kids normal bed time and about 2 hours past ruby's bed time.
thumbs up.

thankfully it was really cute and all but ruby really enjoyed it.
they all wanted to do some more things but we said it was so late and ruby was done.
we had to go home.
i think we finally made it out to our car about 9.
so, it was honestly pretty disappointing to make a four {five} hour round trip, spend four hours there and basically eat dinner and watch a 20 minute show.
somehow, though, we were able to roll with the punches and chalk it up to a learning experience.

sigh. live and learn.

okay the fun doesn't stop here.
thankfully on the way home 3 of the 4 kids fell asleep almost immediately.
i was dozing in and out until all of the sudden AJ is slamming on the breaks so hard and honking the horn.
i squeezed my eyes shut and just waited for the hit, saying, "Jesus please, Jesus please."
the hit didn't come so i opened my eyes to see a huge cow standing in the middle of the highway right in front of us.
thank. you. Jesus. that we did not hit that thing going 75 miles an hour.
thank you Jesus that it had white spots on it that AJ barely saw.
thank you Jesus that no one was behind us.
thank you Jesus for protecting our little family once again.
whew....i could almost see the angels pushing that cow back.

so we get home around 11 pm and start hauling our sleepy children inside.
and then we hear it.
the dripping.
and then we feel it.
squishy carpet.

this is what we came home to:

only i took this picture yesterday after we had cleaned up the mess.

you can't tell in the picture but that carpet is sooooaked.
water was literally dripping out of the ceiling.
AJ ran upstairs to our bathroom to find the toilet pipe spraying water.
who knows how long that had been going on.

thank you Jesus that we did not stay the night in branson like AJ had thought about.

anyhow, i got the kids in bed while AJ frantically got the water turned off.
then we spent the next hour, cleaning up popcorn ceiling off the carpet and using every towel we own to sop up the carpet.
it was insane.
honestly, the night had been so crazy, this didn't even surprise me.
AJ was just sick over it.
we did all we could do and finally crashed into bed in the wee hours of the morning.

yesterday it was looking much better.
we had fans on it all day and took our freshly washed and dried towels and did another soaking up session last night.

we made it to church yesterday and honestly had a really good day.

so....our take aways...

testing of our faith produces endurance.
we are thankful for that rough night so that we appreciate the easy ones all the more.
we are thankful that we saw God's provision and protection for us in so many ways.
even in harder times we realize it could always be so much worse.
when we have those nagging feelings that we should or shouldn't do something...we need to take the time to pray and listen to the Holy Spirit. :)

i am thankful that we were able to make the best of a night that was not what we expected.
i think the kids will see it as a good memory even though it was hard on us.

from here on out i only want to go to theme parks on weekdays.

the end. :)




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hi, monday.

i always try to make the best of mondays . . .  but, honestly, no matter how you slice it, mondays aren't my fave.
i want to enjoy everyday as a gift from God and be thankful for it.
but some days sure are easier than others....like saturdays for example. :)

we had a great weekend.
lovely and laid back and fun.

friday night, aj and our friend zach took all the kids {minus ruby} to a razorback basketball game.

erin and i got to stay here and have girl's night.
we ate candy and cookies and literally talked the entire time they were gone.
so nice.

saturday morning we went and got donuts at our favorite donut place and then spent rest of the day hanging out at the house.

i had some quiet time to craft and watch you've got mail and eat candy.
it didn't last long but it sure was sweet while it did.
i crave those moments of solitude in an otherwise crazy life!
i'm learning more and more that i need alone time regularly to keep my sanity.

i spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen...like cleaning out the fridge, cleaning the stove and mopping kind of cleaning.
it felt so good to get that done.
it had been neglected for too long.
and i honestly loved the alone time. ;)

saturday night we hung out with zach and erin again and helped them work on packing up their house.
i love packing.
especially when it's for other people and i don't have the stress of trying to figure out what to keep and not keep.

sunday was church and brunch and grocery store and potter's house and family hang out day.
very full but still a really nice day.

it's more fun but also just easier when aj is around.
four kids by myself on weekdays is sometimes {often} overwhelming.
so thankful for the reprieve that a weekend brings.

something our pastor said on sunday stuck with me and i keep mulling it over and over.
he said, "work your tails off for the kingdom."
it was in the midst of a bunch of other really great words that he was charging us with.
but that one line just stuck with me.
it was very encouraging.
to keep it up.
keep working.
push on and do the good work that God has called me to.

comparison is such a bad thing.
i try so hard not to compare myself to others.
but there are times that i look at other people and think that they have an easier path.
even though i know that the path i am on is the one God has called me to.
those words from our pastor were such a good refocus.
this is the work, Heaven is the rest.

i need Jesus help, daily . . . hourly, to help me pour my life out like a drink offering.
to be that cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty.
mostly . . .  mostly, i feel pretty selfish.

today is a new day.
a fresh start.
praying that i make the most of it.
praying that i can keep my eyes, heart, and mind focused on Jesus.


praying for a sweet monday for you all too..... :)





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so i guess i'm a runner now.

no big deal.
you know, AJ is a running super stud.
he ran track in high school and has ran half marathons for the last five or six years.
i never, ever, thought i would like running.

i've run one 5K before and quit promptly after the race was over.
i've run here and there over the last two years but not much.
plus i was pregnant for a good portion of that time and we all know that i don't do a stitch of exercise when i'm preggers.

i finally started running again towards the end of this summer.
and again, it pretty much felt like torture.
i prayed every time i ran that one day i would love it.
well, i don't think i'm quite to love yet, but ohmyword, i am actually enjoying it.
and that, dear friends, is a miracle.
seriously. wonders never cease.
i am the least athletic girl you will meet.
and somehow, by the grace of God and a really encouraging husband, i am a runner {a really slow runner, but a runner nonetheless :)}.

like, i just ran a race this weekend and i'm planning to run again this week.
and i'm looking forward to it.
i can hardly believe it myself.

i knew that i needed to sign up for a race to get myself motivated to start running again.
i signed up for One Heart for Justice race that was on saturday. {A partnership between titus task, ezekiel rain and other local organizations for Jesus' justice in the areas of adoption and human trafficking}.

and, of course, after weeks of running in 65 degree weather, it was low 40's, feels like 30's.
with a little sleet mixed in for fun.
mercy.

you know,  i am not a cold weather girl but i was so excited for this race that i was alright.

my sweet boys were the best cheerleaders.

they yelled for me and  kept saying, "good job mommy!"

they were so excited for me.

love them. 

and my sweet husband. 

he is amazing. 

do you see he's videoing with one phone & taking pics with another?

he is seriously so encouraging. 

he made such a big deal about this race and made me feel so special. 

sometimes i can't believe he's mine. 

so thankful. 

after my race we had about an hour until AJ & Avery's one mile fun run. 

we went into a sweet little coffee shop/bookstore to warm up with hot chocolate and coffee. 

since it was so cold, ruby stayed home with grandma while grandpa came and braved the cold with us {and took lots of pictures...thank you! }

we were able to watch the half marathoners run by while we warmed up. 

very fun. :)

avery was super pumped to run his race. 

he pushed hard and finished with an 8.39 minute mile and got 2nd in his age group.

even though it was a chilly morning, we had a great time and loved running for such a good cause. 

i'm already looking forward to my next race..... in warmer weather. ;)

p.s. thank you all for your sweet & encouraging words!

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a january weekend

friday night we had a date night. 

we came home by 8:45 because we're old fogies.  

we brought dessert home and ate it in bed while watching The Middle. 

yes, we lead a glamorous life. 

saturday we got to sleep in until, like, 7:30. 

it was awesome. 

we ate breakfast, lazed around the house and i read blogs until it was time to head to the boys' basketball games. 

i did a necessary grocery shopping trip in the afternoon and stocked. up.

it might last through the week. 

i go to walmart way too much. 

saturday night the boys had a boys' night and watched the broncos.

my little artist avery, made a tim tebow sign for the game.  

i left to go have coffee and girl time.  

sunday we had church and some friends over for lunch. 

i made bbq chicken sandwiches.   

in the afternoon i watched netflix, drank hot tea, {are we starting to notice a theme?} & started making an "our home" tab for the blog. 

last night we got back to our sunday night ritual of having a "picnic" in the living room & watching a show together. 

we usually do afv, this week it was cosby show.

after the boys went to bed we snuggled up on the couch & watched the next three days. 

it was really good. 

so it was a pretty uneventful weekend but nice to have a lot of relaxing time after the christmas crazies.  

ruby is a very good blogging buddy.


so what about you?
what did you do this weekend?




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weekend wrap up

it was so nice to have a weekend at home.

on friday, aj got tickets to a naturals' baseball game.
it was a fun family outing. . . mostly.

the boys were very excited.

sawyer lasted for about 4 minutes.
then we took a little trip to the concession stand to get cotton candy & sprite.

that bought us about 10 more minutes with sawyer.
he just wasn't in any mood to be contained.
so sawyer and i walked around while aj and the big boys watched the game. 

we walked until my swollen feet could take it no longer.

he went under the misters a few times.
he played on the playground for a few minutes.
but mostly he wanted to go wave at all of the costumed people walking around...aka, the koolaide man, the cheeto tiger, a big walking subway sandwich {sawyer was not a fan}, strike {the naturals' mascot}, a cardinal guy, etc.
he got a baseball signed and also met ronald donald who was actually really creepy if you ask me.

all in all, it was a good family night.
tiring, but fun.
and there are no photos of me because in every photo i either look fat or like i have a lazy eye or a double chin.
delete. :)

on saturday we went for donuts and then drove around talking while the boys watched a movie in the back. :)
aj humored me and stopped at some yard sales.
i bought 3 glue guns for a quarter each.

at lunch time my mom, niece, nephew & little sister came over to eat & swim.
it was a really fun afternoon.
i mostly laid on a raft while children & my husband splashed around me. :)

later that afternoon we worked on moving sawyer into the big boys' room.
now they are all 3 sharing a room.
we only have 3 bedrooms and baby sister just has to have her own girly nursery.

saturday night we went out to eat mexican with my dad, step mom, uncle & little sister for father's day.
after we got the boys in bed that night, aj and i watched you again.
it was so good!
it was funny and very clean, which is amazing and makes me happy.

on sunday/father's day we spent the day with just our little family of five.
i love any chance to celebrate my aj.
he is the rock star of this family, for real.
we are all enamored with him. :)

oh man i love those four boys!!

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