I am thankful for…..

1. Curly Hair

2. Comfy sheets.

3. Miracles on 5.17.2012.

4. The ability to pray.

5. The love of my Savior.

6. The old rugged cross.

7. Baby Magic smelling toddlers in new footed jamies.

8. Daisies.

9. Outakes

10. Crushed ice

11. the ability to learn

12. helpers

13. swiftly approaching summer break

14. fans

15. a husband whom always keeps me guessing.

16. Fresh pizza dough

17. May 24. 2012

18. Sock Monkeys

19. Fourth of July

20. Quiet nighttime hours

21. Fridays

22. Vintage

23. dreams with happy endings

24. the ability to change

…..more to come.

Have you read 1,000 Gifts? It’s heart changing stuff.

]]> http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/18/gifts/feed/ 0 http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/17/two-week-meal-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=two-week-meal-plan http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/17/two-week-meal-plan/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 05:37:40 +0000 just a night owl http://justanightowl.com/?p=5545 Since we gave up credit cards three years ago, we are committed to cash only and the grocery store is a place that I can go over budget all to quickly. To avoid this scenario, I began planning meals and snacks, so that I only buy what I need. This keeps me on budget and works like a charm. The added benefit is I no longer hear….”WHAT’S FOR DINNNNNERRRRRRRRR?” The kids can just look at the fridge and see for themselves.

With our new way of eating, I feel like a fish out of water sometimes trying to plan meals. This is only the start of the third month, so I am definitely slowly adding in new recipes, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and will continue to add more variety as we go.

My meal plan is nothing fancy. I download a free sample from this site, change up the lame font, and then fill it in accordingly. Once I am done, it is printed out and hangs on the side of my fridge. I have to say that I rarely go in the order of what its actually planned for that day. However, I always use all of the meals and snacks planned and cross them off after we eat that one. It all works out in the end.

Everyday I plan breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. The meals are in bold and the snacks are not.

When I say cereal-it is Shredded Wheat, Oatmeal from scratch not packets!, or homemade granola. The kids almost always add a few frozen blueberries, strawberries, or sometimes a bit of honey or maple syrup. I let them choose whatever they want to do for cereal days.

When it comes to sandwiches- it is grilled cheese, or pb and j, or honey. On occasion, we have sliced turkey.

I don’t deviate from the meal plan if the kids don’t feel like what is listed. They know they can skip it and wait until the next time to eat. I also don’t allow them to eat at any other time except those listed, unless it is carrots. They can always eat carrots, whenever they want, just because I’m nice like that.

Feel free to check out the link below. I am not technically savvy enough to have links on my calendar to the recipes for you. I am pretty impressed that I was able to even attach it! If there is a meal that looks yummy, feel free to ask for the recipe and I’ll get you to it!

May2012

How does meal planning look in your house?

Some estimates are that Americans eat 22 teaspoons of sugar a day (teens eating up to 34 teaspoons). Prior to our 10 day food challenge, I would have absolutely said that that did not apply to my family, but rather to the ones who let their kids eat pop tarts, oreos, sodas, and candy. After the 10 day food challenge, which forced me to read every label, I would absolutely say that we did eat that much. The food challenge started me researching chemical dyes (seriously, we have to chemically color something that has an intended purpose of making my children healthier?), preservatives (even my beloved Chick fil a has MSG in their chicken?), oils, breads, and sweeteners. It had me watching documentaries like Sick Fat and Nearly Dead, Food Inc, and Forks over Knives. You know what my conclusion is? This food situation we have in America is depressing. Bottom line. Where is the food in our food?

I wallowed a little, got angry, and then decided I can do the best with what I have available to me. I have improved five bajillion percent for my family and I am proud of us. It is in every way worth it. The bottom line is I never thought that the food we were eating before was “unhealthy”. I didn’t ever think about it. I mean really connect it. But now, why would you eat all these chemicals if you can eat the same food without them? Yes it is harder. Yes it is more expensive. However, when I consider the benefits vs the risks, I see no choice that needs to be made.

These days it is no longer even as much about WHAT you are eating as it is about how it is made. You can eat pizza. Just not Totinos Pizza, please. There are healthier ways to eat our favorites that involve actual real food. There are also new favorites waiting to be found. One of my families new favorites is some whole grain pasta with sugar snap peas, corn, and carrots mixed in. Add a little balsamic vinegar and some fresh grated cheese. It’s so yummy.

Bread crumbs recently taught me a valuable lesson. I just never would have thought to read the ingredients in the standard bread crumbs. After all it is B R E A D C R U M B S. Wrong. You can buy healthy bread crumbs or ones with a whole bunch of words that challenge even the best readers. The same is true for many products and we need to invest the time to read the labels.

So, my husband and I have landed in the following place. We will not eat preservatives such as MSG and others. We are no longer eating chemical dye of any kind. We go for whole grain always. We go for organic, local, cage free, free range, pasture raised and however else you want to phrase it. We are researching and learning to become more educated. We are reading and questioning what we are putting on our table. We are trying to stay within our original food budget prior to our change in eating, which was $600 a month for a family of 6. I am struggling to do that and we will likely need to raise it to $800. We are willing to do that if necessary. We cancelled cable already and will do other things to make it work. Our health is too important to say we can’t afford to eat this way because the truth is we can. It is all about where we are going to spend our money. We will still occasionally eat sugar, but it will be for sugar sake. For example a cookie or a birthday cake. This will be and can be done much healthier than the ways we were doing it before. I am still learning what those are.

I would consider myself far from properly educated on all things healthy food related, but I am learning. When I use the word WE it implies my whole family. My thirteen year old just attended a swim party where there was junk food galore. He passed it all up because he said it wasn’t good for him. The next morning at church when the leftovers where present he caved and ate 5 Oreos. We have some work to do, but one out of two times is 50% better than it was before, right?

I wish that true food education was easier to come by. Marketing is so deceiving. Fresh n Easy may carry some healthy things but they are not a health food store (you still have to be careful), there is really no such thing as a healthy fast food restaurant, Nutella is not a healthy breakfast option, and on and on… It’s amazing to me that Kellogs and other companies manufacture the same foods in Europe without chemical dye as they do here in the USA. They have the recipes. It can be done. Strange.

I am currently grocery shopping weekly for perishables and bimonthly for non perishables. Every meal and snack is planned out for 15 days at a time. This morning I bought several things that I have never purchased before and  I was cracking up a little bit. I have a bunch of new recipes to try in the next couple of weeks. As I was asking the Whole Foods worker this morning what Tahini was because I needed some for a new recipe I was going to make, I could only crack up. How far I have come.

 and you may be asking why I keep talking about this?

Basically because my family feels fabulous.

It’s so worth it.

Stacks of coloring books with big spaces for coloring, those little detailed pictures annoy me. This year on my sweet 12 year old daughter’s birthday, she requested a long overdue coloring party. Our neighbors, who also homeschool, joined us. There were seven kids in the house (ages 2 months through 16). I am not sure why people make such a fuss over homeschool kids being the unsocialized ones.

All of our curriculum for next year has arrived. I love that it is all here and I have four months-ish to look through it, get it ready, and figure out ways to make my kiddies fall in love with 2nd, 7th, and 8th grade.

I have a philosophy that is driven not just by my own personal love for change, but rather actual common sense. If my kids attended school outside of our home, each year would be different. It’s own somewhat stand alone chapter. A different routine, different classroom look and feel, different expectations, and different schedule. I whole heartedly buy into this concept.

…and so the great yearly makeover has begun.

First, if you are new around here, let me catch you up to speed on my psychoticness hard work.

Year one of homeschool brought no clue of what I was doing and a traditional style classroom in our 5th bedroom downstairs. It was a fun place complete with class fish. However, half way through the year, I was irritated beyond belief by my romper room status and a makeover ensued.

Then I got pregnant and we made the decision not to send the kids back to school. I quickly realized that a separate classroom in the back of the house that was just 12×15 would not work for a teacher, three children, a newborn, and an onslaught of baby apparatuses. SO we (meaning I, my poor husband was probably at work and never really knows for certain what the house might look like when he returns) made the decision to move the classroom up into the front of the house that was intended to be a formal dining room and sitting room.

Year two of school commenced with a classroom in the front of the house, that for the life of me I can’t totally remember what it looked like. A combination of continual obsessive rearranging, insane allergies, and the fact that I am forty are my current excuses. I do know that this was one of the walls.

Year three of school, brought us to yet another classroom with the addition of the chicken wire wall and new lockers.  That chicken wire wall has made my heart sing all year long. But as all good things do, it too must come to an end. This past year we also added a first grade closet and I had a fun little office. It has worked well.

The fact of the matter is that we do change up a lot of stuff each year and I love a new start and what it does for all of us. This year we are getting rid of the workboxes for my older two. They are both in middle school now and are going to move to these planners instead. WHICH I would like to point out that the white colored one that my daughter will be using has a glow in the dark spiral binding. I think that is important. We also decided to bring the computer into the classroom. It used to be at the built in desk upstairs, but as the kids get older and do more on the computer, we decided that the computer needs to be right out in the open. . I also have found as the kids have gotten physically bigger the layout needs to work just a bit different. I need to separate the areas where they are up and around (like the lockers) from the areas where study is going on.  Finally, I do have a thirteen year old son now and while I wish to permanently reside in Neverland, I am trying to grow up our learning rooms a bit.

First stop has been the paint. It literally broke my heart to paint over my Ralph Lauren Shale Blue. However it has been six years and it needed a paint job. I went with a cream color. I can honestly say that I have never chosen a white or off white paint in my life. I’m trying something new.

I have a thing for maps. I love them. I really want one of those vintage pull down types like I imagine Laura Ingalls used. That would be glorious. However, my split decorating personality has also fallen in love with the four foot by six foot canvas map at Ikea. It is fabulous and will find the perfect home on that big giant wall. I have been eyein’ that thing for three years now, at least.

We have a lot of commotion and happy chaos in our house and I really need the learning rooms to be more mellow. Calm, cool, and collected, so that when you throw our crazy into it, it is the perfect blend of fabulous.

I’ve got plans…in progress….as usual and I am considering bringing back the class fish.

Thank goodness for Craig’s List. I would be quite lost without it.

Just three more weeks until summer.

Can I get an AMEN? !!!!!

and since I have overloaded you with links tonight, I thought I would add a couple more.

There is nothing like a good holiday to send blog land into a sea of fantastically sentimental posts adorned with gratitude, delicious eats, and some of biggest tug at your heartstring kid pictures around.

So without further adieu, My favorite Mother’s Day Posts…

Enjoying the Small Things   Kelle Hamptons writing leaves me LoL’ing all the time.

Living the Yeh Life   My friend Cara rocks the camera like no other and being a camera phob, I love her for it.

Life According to the Christians   Perspective.

Blissful Blooms    I am now craving donuts, thanks Amy xo.

]]> http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/15/week-33-coloring-parties-books-makeovers/feed/ 4 http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/14/surrender/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=surrender http://justanightowl.com/2012/05/14/surrender/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 07:40:09 +0000 just a night owl http://justanightowl.com/?p=5470 Surrender. It’s not something I am good at. In fact, with each passing year I grow increasingly aware at how my heart struggles with this word on a daily, sometimes minute, by minute basis.

I have written many posts about my health. From the completion of our 10 day food challenge, to the incident with my yoga pants, and everything in between. What I haven’t truly written about is the core deep down issues that God has revealed to me over the past year. I walk the fine line with this blogging thing because I tend to be an overly open person and at times there is wisdom in what to share and what not to share. However, if I have ever been amazed at any one thing, it is the number of women that I have become fast friends with and bonded over this common issue of struggles with our health. It just goes to reinforce the knowledge that Satan’s interest in knocking us out of commission is his first priority….and what an area to choose. The struggles we face with weight, body image, and health, no matter how big or small, can be debilitating. It’s incredible. So while my head screams to muzzle it, my soul says to fight it. I will remain open about my issues because there is healing in vulnerability, there is strength in connection, and in the middle of all of it, there is Jesus.

I think it is no secret these days that a great many Americans struggle with obesity. Most everyone has heard of the Biggest Loser. Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper have become household names. If you watch the show at all, you have undoubtedly seen that they teach with great urgency, if the problem that brought the contestants to this unhealthy place is not fixed, the weight loss will not remain. I set out on a similar quest to reclaim healthy, in all areas of my life. The deep down buried heart included.

I have never been super significantly overweight. For me, the issues with my health, took a little different spin. At the root of it all lies my biggest problem, surrender. I had a very tight unhealthy grip on my physical body. Control was to be mine. No one else’s. At some level I was aware of this, but a big huge vat of denial lived on the surface. I can tell you that I can’t even fully understand the behaviors that I have engaged in over the years, but I can tell you that they were wrong. I can also tell you that they plagued me with a deep sadness, a deep frustration, and an unbearable pain. I am watching the healing power of God change this in me. Why now? Because I asked, I listened to the answer, and I am doing what He says. No excuses. With the intense vulnerability accompanied with surrender comes the beautiful rushing in of healing. Peace like a river.

For years I engaged in behaviors to “control” my weight and keep me thin. I threw up everything that went in my mouth, all day long. It left me with bleeding gums, raw skin on my knuckles, chronic sore throats, and broken blood vessels on my eyelids. I sincerely didn’t think it was a big deal. It made me feel powerful and victorious. Food became the enemy because I knew if I gave in and ate, I would have to throw it up…and that was miserable.  I took all kinds of over the counter pills with no regard for their instructions. Multiple times they left me unable to get out of bed. When those were no longer enough, I moved on to prescription ones. With the common sense reality that these could in fact kill me, I obeyed the proper dosage instructions, but not without being tempted to overdose.

I lived a life of self inflicted punishment. I lived on 500 calorie a day diets, would wake up and jog in place in the middle of the night for hours in my bedroom, and put “you’re fat” notes in strategic places to “encourage” my intense workout routines. I was truly sick. It pains me to write that. It pains me to think of how many women have these struggles along side me. I know they are out there, I have heard their stories.

Looking back, the intense struggles that I faced sat between a great conflict. It was the overwhelming desire to be perfect, vs. the taking care of the wounded soul that haunted my every breath. I desperately wanted to not have issues, to be supermodel thin because surely that would prove that I was o.k. The physical pain that I dealt with on a daily basis, didn’t hold a candle to the pain in my soul. I am not sure I will ever quite understand the psychology of all of this. I am not totally sure that I need to. The Lord is gracious to reveal things in His time.

While I found a way years ago, to manage the physical destructive behaviors, my crippled heart remained an issue. A couple of years ago, the desire to truly heal from all of this and mend this wounded heart, became a very large driving force in my life. When the Lord led me to Made to Crave, I think my journey to healing really began it’s story. It is a story that there may never be an END to because my struggles were deep and I know that despite the victory I have seen God do, the pitfalls remain lurking in the shadows. It will likely be a very lifelong struggle and I am o.k. with that. His power is made perfect in my weakness.

The crossroad between my want to and my how to came at the foot of the cross. My healing began when I truly said YES to Jesus in this area of my life. I said yes before I knew what He was asking of me and that was key. It was finally, for the first time, a yes with no clauses and no excuses. If I am going to stand before the creator of the Universe and demand that He tell me what I will have to do before I will agree to His plan, well then let’s just ship me out to sea on a boat named crazy and call it a day. I don’t wanna give this up, and I’m entitled attitudes are all sin-plain and simple. If it starts with the word I, you can bet a red flag is flying somewhere. It’s all about Jesus, not me. I don’t get to call the shots on my health. I don’t get to hang on to my psychotic over intense work out schedules, have violent throw up sessions with my food, and nurse in the comfort of my bff {aka as diet coke}, all day long. I just don’t.

A big revelation came one day a couple years ago when a counselor asked me if I listened to cues that my body was giving me. I knew I was in for it because I didn’t even understand the question. Sensing the obvious stumbling for words, she continued. Do you put on a jacket when your cold? Do you go to bed when you are tired? Do you eat when you are hungry? Um no, no, and more no. It was a big deal, that question. Gut level revealing in its simplicity. God made our bodies. He made them with signals. HE did and we need to listen. I did not listen to them, or to Him. I listened to me.

This has been an unbelievable slow and painful process. I can sympathize with the best of them about the discomfort felt in giving up control. We control for a reason. Giving it up is un~believeably difficult and even more scary.

There is hope and healing in my heart and on the horizon. Peace is invading the pain, the fear, the sleepless nights, and the torturous days that I have lived with for years.

I understand the…I’ll do better tomorrow. I can’t tell you how many times I have said I will stop throwing up, I will eat healthy, I will count calories, I will just get my crap together…tomorrow. People who don’t struggle with these types of issues have verbalized to me, “why don’t you just do the right thing?” “What is stopping you?” That’s the thing. There is something stopping all of us who struggle in this area. Take the amount that you desire to be healthy, to be thin, to be peaceful…it’s intense right? Figure that the thing stopping us is stronger. It’s time to make this a spiritual issue. To look at the fact that many times, this is not even about food. It’s about something much deeper. Food just happens to be the prop. I fully believe that the struggle in these areas can be equal in severity to alcohol, drug, and sex addictions. Let’s figure out the thing that’s stopping us and recognize that the power of God is able to overcome, to heal, and to set free. Grab a hold of it. These issues are serious. They are no small deal. They are trivialized all too often.

As in all things in the world, there are people who endure so much deeper heart ache and those who have a seemingly simpler road. The fact is we all have our own different desperate situations and challenges. There is a common thread that unites us, however. Life is what you make of it.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? ~Mary Oliver.

Whether it’s been poverty, abuse, accepting special needs, depression, failed relationships, or loss, we are together learning that overcoming the unexpected takes work and sacrifice. It also yields rewards, even if it simply means we say we survived, we learned something, we helped someone else. ~Kelle Hampton.

This is one of my heartaches. Part of my story. A skeleton in my closet that I have invited out to dance with me through this miraculous life that I am living.

I have learned something and I want to help someone. I have stared in the face that overcoming takes work and sacrifice and I WILL survive. I will thrive….and by the grace of God I will heal and be set free.

For the road to healing, the road to Jesus…..it starts with surrender and ends in His arms.

It’s a beautiful thing and He alone is worthy of my praise.

2. I spent Mother’s Day morning, snuggling in bed, watching the Happy Holidays Edition of Elmo’s World with my baby. I don’t care if it is the wrong holiday, I like Jingle Bells, he likes Elmo. It’s a perfect combo.

3. Never tell a five year old little boy that one day you will no longer be able to pick him up because he will be to big. His baby blues might shed some tears and break your heart. This was not the first, nor the last mistake I have, or will be making with my first born child. #guineapigparenting.

4. Being a mother is my gig. It’s my heartbeat. It makes me who I am. It makes me overwhelmingly joyful and insanely crazy. I praise God for the four little beings who fill my days and teach me the very definition of selfless. They truly fill my heart and thrash my house in the very best way possible.

5. Chevys gives away long stem red roses and chocolate covered strawberries on Mother’s Day. Uh huh! Gorgeous!

6. I miss the rain and am already looking forward to fall. I hate spring. Yes, I said it. I’m sorry, but I do. I do like summer and the super hot temps around here, but we had SO little rain this year, I am still somewhat deprived.

7. Mother’s Day lunch. We brought our own entertainment. Turning a pacifier sideways and scrunching up your nose while people are laughing at you is captivating and adorable. Right?

8. I have a story about a shoe. A couple of months ago, I lost a shoe. Just one. After a long time of looking and being irritated that the remaining shoe lay abandon in its shoe pocket, I decided to wave the white flag and throw the shoe away. Yesterday, when I was cleaning out my closet, I found it’s soul mate. So now again, I have one shoe. Fortunately, little man put it to good use and I successfully acquired my high school year book embarrassing photo. #twobirdsonestone

 9. We are still eating healthy. Still finding our balance and how to navigate real life through all of this. It’s not a diet. It’s not a plan. It’s not a book. It’s not a gimic. It’s eating as unprocessed as possible. As different situations come up, it has been interesting to tackle them one at a time. Birthday parties, weekends away, Children’s programs, Mothers Day. The thing that is amazing when you aren’t eating like C R A P 24/7 then the occasional 8 milk molasses chips and diet caffeine free soda will not do you in. That is if you can truly handle the moderation gig and your moderation doesn’t become three times a day! No more than once a week is my goal.

10. This is on the wall of the pediatric ward at a nearby hospital. #creepy #confused #massivenightmares

Happy Mother’s Day, my friends!

May you feel loved today wherever you are and whatever stage of life you find yourself in!

The other thing I realized is that in the thirteen years since I have become a mother, I have become much smarter.

There is not a day that goes by, that I don’t stop what I am doing and sit down and build blocks with this fantastic little human. My house is going to remain dirty. My little man is not going to remain little.

Thirteen years ago, I thought I could do it all. Now I know I can’t.

And because there will come a day that stacking blocks and kicking them over with your mommy, ceases to become acceptable behavior… (my oldest child is living proof of that)

and the house truly never is going to be as clean as it “should” be…

I’m going to play and realize that is the absolute smartest choice that I can make.

Happy Friday.

I recently read BLOOM. Who knew that in a matter of days my own net would be thrust into a situation where the call to rally would be as loud as they get. Some of my most dearest friends are standing on the edge of death’s door as they watch their 19 month old angel, fight for her life.

The beauty that unfolds in the midst of unspeakable heartache has the potential to leave the magnificence of the most radiant of sunsets falling short. I am captivated as I am watching God be glorified, BY THE VERY PEOPLE  who would have every justifiable reason under the sun to fall apart. They choose Jesus. This mommy is home for an eight hour break after days in the PICU and chooses that it is a priority to declare God’s glory.

I have witnessed God’s peace. I mean tangibly seen it in the eyes of parent’s who choose to recognize that the power of life and death is alone in the hands of God. Who publicly say, He’s a heavy blanket of peace placed lovingly across my shoulders by the prayers of thousands around the country and world. I have watched people rally, both friends and strangers. Rally to become the hands and feet of Jesus, to pick up the needs and fill in the gaps. Who truly give because there is a need. End. Of. Story. Who think not of themselves, or the glory they can attain, but find a hole and know the shape to fill it. A wonderful and intricate web of united people who are living these days with one common goal; to try and ever so slighty lighten a load of some dear friends. The support of this family is first and foremost, but let me just tell you that the behind the scenes support of people helping each other, so that others can help this family is unmistakingly fantastic.

The needs here are too great. They can not be filled by human hands. The medical case is too rare and too complex. Hearts are not meant to watch this type of suffering. Families are not meant to be separated for this long. B U T our God is greater and our God is stronger and our God is able and PRAISE HIM, OUR GOD IS BEING, OH SO GLORIFIED.

At the end of our rope there is so much more room for Jesus. I sat in church on Sunday and as the worship started, so did the tears, and the outstretched arms reaching for Jesus in a way that I wish I could capture on a daily basis. Livy’s mama said to me recently, “this has changed me”, and she is so right, it has. So. Much. It has changed many. I have seen hearts more focused on Jesus. People asking for wisdom and guidance in all things. People hugging their babies just a little bit longer. When you watch a little girl suffer. It changes you. When you choose to enter in to a situation that is painful, it changes you. When you stand in a cold hospital corridor and hold your friend who is sobbing and having the rawest and most real exchanges with her Savior over the heartbeat of her daughter, it absolutely changes you. And while every fiber in my being wishes that this trial was not before them, I marvel at the pattern that I have witnessed in my own short life that in the depth of tragedy comes our most fantastic shining moments of growth. Because at the end of the rope, you either let God do His thing, or you fall. You are out of any other options.

Around this community hearts are full, emotions are raw, things move quick, hours are uncertain, and personally the need to express this emotion in ways to properly convey what I have seen the hand of God do becomes overwhelming and seems unattainable. Words seem to fail me. As I replay events of recent days, the tape in my head is typed out, erased, and left blank only to be filled up with Jesus…Jesus.

This IS what life is about.

Jesus.

What this precious little girl is teaching hundreds of people is so beautiful it leaves me in tears.

May we never forget.

Please pray for Livy.

One of their twin girls is in the hospital right now entering kidney failure. She was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome weeks ago and has been unresponsive to treatment. I don’t want to go into too many medical details, for fear I will tell them wrong. The bottom line is they need prayer. She needs prayer.

We have a great big God who is in control and we are thankful. Their family has a great faith in God.

Our people our rallying around this family. It takes a village and we’ve got one, a good one.

BUT there are deep needs. Physical and emotional. It’s hard for a mama to watch her sick little girl and it is hard for a mama to be away from her other four kids while she is in the hospital with her sick girl. Its hard for four little ones who are used to having their mommy, not be with their mommy. It’s hard for daddy to hold down the fort with a job and four little ones at home while his wife and other daughter are temporarily living at the hospital. It’s hard for mommy and daddy to be apart and it’s oh so hard to be a little girl and not feel good.

Could you pray?

Pray for peace, wisdom, physical healing, and medicines that work. Pray for no complications AND that my dear friends, all seven of them, will feel the arms of Jesus holding them so tightly.

http://lifeaccordingtothechristians.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/easter-joy/

Today, I had the most fabulous day ever. I drove about an hour away and got my hair did at the most fantastic little shop called Pin Ups. I am telling you, this crew could have had their own reality TV series. My hair cut? Fantastic. I was just SO entertained. The salon in Legally Blonde 2? Very similar. I seriously was waiting for the bend and snap session to begin at any second. Oh, the stories I could tell…..Great times.

Awhile back, my most favorite water bottle ever was discontinued and I have never found a good replacement. It’s the little things ya know? Last week I finally found a great one. Since my break up with soda this has become a very important accessory, as it is with me constantly. My new one is glass and wrapped in a funky little rubber design. I am however, a tiny bit terrified of dropping it. So far, the only issue has been a small incident involving a 17 month old sending it into flight and a mother’s eyeball that stopped it.

There is a perfect caption for this photo floating around in writer’s space somewhere. I can’t quite find it. All I know is that it does NOT start with those weird unsocialized homeschoolers…

I have the most fantastic friends. I am not kidding you. The people that I travel amongst in my day to day are those kind. The ones that will drop everything to help someone. Offer money, time, and talent to get the job done. The kind that pool together resources and make master plans to pick up the pieces of those in need. I am a blessed, blessed, SO blessed girl. There are few things that scream my love language louder than watching someone drop everything to fill a need. Big or small. With no regard for the should I, or whatevers…ya know? Ugh, how I love these people.

Have I mentioned my allergies have been somewhat troublesome? Tonight we used the grill for the first time this season. I made homemade tortillas, tons of veggies, and salad with a little bit of steak. We all sat around the fire outside for a picnic dinner. Now I am huddled upstairs in bed cursing the very existence of the little pollen men…The number of times that I have sneezed has now reached the thousands and I’m having some snuggle time with my visine. Pretty fabulous way to spend a Friday night. I know your jealous.

I am head over heals and madly in love with my 17 month old. He kisses me constantly, wraps his feet around me like a Koala bear when I hold him, is incredibly bashful with strangers, and says “shhhh” complete with hand motions. He just started shaking his head no, calls everything with four legs a dog, and dances like the little white boy that he is. He is as calm and peaceful of a kid that I can imagine. He just goes with the flow. He climbs on everything, crosses his legs constantly, and squeals with glee when the garage door goes up and down. He has the most fantastic curly blonde hair and is smitten with his sock monkey. My world is a better place with him in it.

I am giddy with planning and organization right now. The end of the school year and the wrapping up of a year’s worth of studies is around the corner. Multiple boxes of shiny new books are nestled in the corners of UPS trucks all around the country making their way to us. My classroom began the yearly makeover and clean up process. I am deciding on fresh paint colors, filling in new planners, and figuring out the great puzzle that upon completion will become our daily routine next year. I am dreaming up celebrations that will hallmark the final day of a year’s worth of fabulous effort on the part of my most favorite three students on the planet.

Speaking of people who will drop anything and help you out. I just texted my husband, who is downstairs, to ask him to fill up my water bottle and bring it up to me.  Oh and to also to take a fabulous picture please before you bring it up.

Finally, I just prayed with my 13 year old before he went to sleep. It ended with “and please help pollen leave the world and never come back. Amen.” Miracles can happen, right?

Have a fabulous weekend.

Do something spectacular.