34 acts for 34 years

When you are a young child your birthday is all about the presents & the party. When you become a teen it's more about just the presents. When you become a young adult it starts to be more about the party again but a different kind. When you become the wife & the mom it's more of a stay at home & have dinner & maybe some cake. But when you become that daughter of a King it's about a whole different thing.
This year I didn't want much. I didn't want presents. I didn't want breakfast in bed or to be waited on all day. I didn't want to go away. I didn't want the material things that at the end of the day truly don't matter. Now don't think I'm completely crazy. I mean all of those things would be amazing. If my husband could have thrown me in a car & taken me to the beach for the weekend I wouldn't turn it down. If a friend brought a gift to my house I wouldn't throw it away. But at the end of the day those are just blessings that I would be lucky to receive & I know there are people out there that have it so much worse than I. While I dream of my husband having a job where his family gets to actually see him more than we don't I know there are wives out there that just pray their husband could get a job. While I dream of a beach get away I know others are dreaming of having an extra $5 to buy their child a birthday present.
This year I have been blessed to wake up & turn 34 years young & because of that I set out to do 34 acts of kindness today. I had to have a list b/c I couldn't think of 34 randomly while out especially with 2 children in tow but the list wasn't set in stone. Some of the things were dropped & some things just happened.
If you are a true friend of mine, like not just a facebook friend because our children go to school together, or because we attend the same church but like a friend that has watched me squirm in fear of stepping out of my comfort zone & by that I mean having to ask where the bread aisle is in the grocery store. I am crazy shy, I don't talk to strangers, people make me so nervous so I tried to do most of my things today without actually having to make contact with a person. Some of the things though just weren't going to happen without me having to open my mouth & talk with another human being. But I felt compelled to not only show others the love of Jesus but to show my kids so He helped me through it. I didn't get nervous one time while talking to anyone today. Did I feel silly at times, absolutely. Here is this crazy girl walking up to you saying hey it's my birthday would you mind if I gave you a gift? But I never had nerves once. Thank you Lord for making that happen. Here are my final 34 things....

  Pay for the meal behind me in the drive thru

Pay for someone’s gas

Leave money on a drink machine

Leave money on a toy machine

Give someone a gift card for the grocery store

Leave a book at the playground

Leave a coloring book at the playground

Leave money at the laundry mat

Leave detergent at the laundry mat

Leave money at the car wash

Attach $1 to a toy at the dollar tree

Attach $1 to a bag of candy at the dollar tree

Attach lotto tickets to gas pump

Buy flowers & give them to someone coming out of the store

Buy flowers & leave them at someone’s door

Leave a mom a note inside a changing table

Leave a note on a bathroom mirror

Attach a bag of popcorn on a redbox machine

Take food to the outreach center

Be courteous to other drivers (I have crazy road rage)

Left a kids CD on the window of a vehicle with a car seat

Gave a kids DVD to a woman & child walking out of a store

Left a coloring book in McDonald’s

Took another customers tray of food to them so they didn’t have to come back up to counter at Mcd’s

Take my mom lunch at work

Left sidewalk chalk in a mailbox of a home where children live

Buy my kids happy meals (this seriously never happens)

Went to my moms & washed her dishes & vacuumed

Send a card to a friend

Put all change I had on me in Ronald McDonald House box at McD’s

Adopted a soldier

Send gifts to friends kids

Gave a card to my hubby

Prayed with hands on my children as they sleep on the living room floor. Letting them be little but preparing for them to be grown.

The woman who I gave the flowers to at the store was one of the people I had to talk to today. after she finished loading her things I walked up to her & told her it was my birthday & wondered if I could give her the flowers I had in my hand. She looked at me as though I lost my mind & then said well hunny if it's your birthday why do you want to give me something. I told her it was just something I felt I needed to do because there is just to much ugly in the world. She then said well what if I kill them. LOL
I told her if she did that was between her & the flowers. She then told me that this was the sweetest thing & she would gladly take the flowers. She then gave me a hug & told me happy birthday . The kids were watching out the car window & were just as excited as I was. The kids drove me crazy off & on throughout the day but overall the day was amazing.

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
Deuteronomy 16:17

Summertime school work

I've been finding some pretty good things on pinterest lately to keep us from sliding to much this summer. We have a pretty nifty little list for reading along with a chart that will reward our soon to be first grader when she does the reading herself. I wanted to make sure that there was a way to keep her interested in reading during the summer  so far it’s been working. I came across an idea on pinterest of 100 places to read but I wasn't really feeling that just having them be places would make it fun enough for my 6 year old new reader. With that being said I changed it up a bit for us &  made a list of 100 Books 100 Ways Now there are still quite a bit of places on the list but they aren't just your typical places. 
            
Besides reading I don't really want her to fall behind on basic school work & I also want to help my soon to be preschooler get a little more prepared for the fall. Once again I've been able to find some pretty helpful learning pages on pinterest but they either lead to nothing or are on teacherspayteachers so I've had to get a little creative with making my own pages for them which is quite a simple process as they aren't all covered in cute little cartoons for them to be distracted with by wanting to color it's just boring work on boring paper :)
I created a sheet to help X with colors & shapes with a tiny bit of counting involved. Then I created a sheet to help little Miss with greater than & less than.feel free to check them out to see if they are anything that your littles could use.colors & shapes and Greater-Than-Less-Than

Thankful God knows what we need

 I can't believe school is already done for the year. My little girl is done with kindergarten & will start school with an actual number. Who would have thought 1st grade would sneak up on us so quickly. We had a rough start to kindergarten, well that's actually a lie. I had a rough start to kindergarten. I put in some requests for Serenity's teacher & was so upset when none of the people I had wanted were chosen to be her teacher. Like really upset. Like I cried & I cried & I cried. It took me probably a full month & a lot of talking to God to finally understand He put her where He wanted her and for that I'm so thankful.  We always think we know what's best for our lives & for our children but our Father is the only one who really knows. I was making my pick solely on who I wanted just because I wanted them. No other reason than that. I wasn't thinking about the type of classmates she could have, the type of influence she would have the opportunity to be, the kind of non school related things her teacher could teach her I was just thinking boohoo this isn't what I wanted. I'm glad that God knows what we need when we don't. We have had an amazing year with an amazing teacher. Her & Serenity fit so well together. She pushed Serenity where she needed it & encouraged her & praised her as well. This school year has been amazing & I feel Serenity wouldn't be the little girl she is at this very moment if it wasn't for Mrs. Butler. We love her & are so thankful for a great year with her. 

little miss turned 6

6 years. 6 whole years is how long I have been a mama. I can’t believe we have a 6 year old baby big kid. She had a wonderful birthday at school & then finished it off with her final night of CAMO. But before all that was the birthday party.Oh the birthday party. Once again I tried my best to be less stressed, especially since Serenity had the great attitude of "I'll just have fun with whoever can make it."
I love how at least 95% of her life is spent being the most unselfish child that I know.

We went with a simple butterfly for 2 reasons. Number one, she happens to like butterflies. Number 2, I already had invitations with butterflies on them J
since we had her party at the same place we had X’s the décor was going to be limited so I had to theme the party out with the food once more. I think it was success. 

always have to have your butterfly eggs 

 She had a great time with the friends that were able to make it & we lucked out with no bad weather that day. So happy that she was happy. So happy that she is amazing. So sad that she is already 6

just can't get to that butterfly without first being a caterpillar 

the next step of course was just a simple hot dog wrapped with a crescent
not an actual chrysalis no need to worry :)

simple M&M goody bags for the guests that looked like butterflies

and I'm so super thankful my hubby saved me with the cake
because I was starting to turn this stress free party into something

Easter tradition

One of my favorite things about Easter when I was a kid was the clues the bunny would leave us hidden through out the house for our present. one of the most memorable times for me was when I found a new barbie hidden in the freezer.
There are lots of traditions Skip & I  have started with our own family but there are many traditions I had growing up that I have loved carrying over as well. The Easter clues is definitely one of them. My mom, I mean the Easter bunny when I was a kid had amazing  clues. Always rhyming, making us figure out where to go next. Me, I mean the Easter bunny, on the other hand, has always just been kind of like..... "go where you take a shower."  Not much to that really but this year the bunny is trying to put a little more effort into it since they are older & getting more excited for things like this. This is what  the Easter bunny came up with this year. Not as good as when I was a kid, but definitely on the right track. The first clue is left near their baskets & then the hunt is on. 

In the morning it’s time to eat
breakfast goodies are such a treat

You go here to brush
and you go here to flush

You don’t have to go far

 just find a car

You are just about there

 but go do your hair

which do you like more,
the computer
or your scooter

The ended up finding their present outside with the scooter, b/c Xavier knew that was what they liked more :)

thoughts & questions

Why don't we leave the Easter bunny snacks like we do for Santa?
How does the Easter bunny get into the house?
Does he come down the chimney like Santa?
Does he have a special key to come in the front door?
He couldn't use the windows, that's just not appropriate. 
Maybe he has special little bunny helpers. 
Maybe the bunnies have wings b/c they are a special kind of bunny. 
Maybe he has a flying car.
Maybe he uses something like a magic dust to get around.
Can we leave him some carrots & water, that's what bunnies like and that would be the polite thing to do?

put all of these questions in a conversation that lasted for about 30 minutes & you have talked to my kids for a portion of your night just like I did 

Cheese

Xavier: mom, do you use milk to make cheese?
Me: yes you do
Xavier: well can you go make me some cheese?
Me: I don't know how to make cheese son.
Xavier: I have an idea, how about you just pour the milk onto the white cheese & then that would make the cheese?
Me: I'm not quite sure that's how you do it.
Xavier: yes, you just pour the milk onto the white cheese & it will make more cheese. 

No Media, No problem.... well maybe a little

I can’t believe we are getting so close to the end of  the 7 Experiment  .
There have been a few times that I really thought I could handle whatever the week had in store for me but then God kindly would remind me that I wasn't him & was so not prepared. This last week was media & wow do we watch a lot of tv. For the first day the facebook thing bothered me, but I've had a few times over the past couple years where I have stepped away from facebook & felt so much better. I can’t ever say that I’ll stay away forever though because it is by far one of the easiest ways to stay in contact with my family & friends considering the majority of these groups don’t even live in a the same state or even a surrounding state for that matter.

It was crazy to notice how much I think my kids are obsessed with tv though & in reality they didn't miss it too much. Mommy on the other hand……
I always like to stay awake until hubs gets home from work but found it very difficult to do without anything to watch. I believe on the very first night of no media I was asleep on the couch by 8 pm.

Oh & the texting. Oh my stars how I missed texting. I'm not a talker. I mean I love my friends & my family dearly but I really don't want to talk to you if we can just text. When I'm talking I feel like I have to sit & do nothing else but give you my undivided attention & who has time for that I mean really. Yes, I did just say I don't even want to make time for people I want to have a conversation with. But honestly aren't we all like that to a point. We are all so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't even want to take 10 minutes from our schedule to think about anyone else. It's crazy, it's selfish, & it's just rude. Must try to make some changes to that as well.

My body was very thankful for media week & I believe my soul was too. The kids & I spent more time outside just listening to life. We would just sit & quietly talk about all the amazing things we saw & heard & how great it was that God made it all for us.

As much as I’m glad to have my internet & my DVR back I will say that there are definitely things that we will have to change in our home with all the screen time we use.  

Xavier turned 4

I'll write about it tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, well finally for a birthday party that was on the 9th to celebrate a birthday on the 8th, tomorrow is today.

This little boy of ours sure loves himself some dinosaurs so what would make more sense than to have a dinosaur birthday party. It was something he couldn't quite decide on for a while. I would let him look around pinterest with me at times to see if anything looked like a fun birthday party theme. For the most part all I think that did was make the decision making process harder. Everything was cool & that made him change his mind more & more. Finally mommy had to put her foot down & say, Son, you like dinosaurs so I think a dino party would be great. His response, "ok."

     So simple I don't know why we as parents stress about these things that we are teaching our children to stress about. It's a party to celebrate your birth it's not suppose to be stressful it's suppose to be fun & that's what I tried to make it.      Thank the Lord that he gave us amazing weather to work with for the second weekend in March. We had his birthday party all set up at the local boy scout camp. They have the most amazing pavilion & playground for the kids to run out all that energy. Since we were having it somewhere that wasn't our house this year I knew I couldn't do much with decorations so I decided to try my best to stick the dinosaur theme to the food. Wandered around pinterest some more & found some great ideas. His original cake was going to be in the shape of a dinosaur but mommy made the cake a little too moist & the icing just didn't do anything except make the cake crumble. I started to stress out about it but Skip reminded me that they were kids and that Xavier never knew about the dino shaped cake so he'd be just as happy with cupcakes. Luckily I had picked up some small dinosaurs to stick on top of cupcakes in case that was the route I decided to take in the first place. I guess deep down I knew cupcakes were the easier, kid friendly way to go :)

        So trying to stick with the dinosaur theme through the food worked out pretty well I believe. Everyone seemed to enjoy it especially the birthday boy.  Here are a few pictures of the food but of course I know you want to see more pictures of the party & you can do that over here at  our photo page

And what kind of party would it be without
 some awesome dino hats for the kiddos 

some yummy chicken wings disguised as  "pterodactyl wings" and
some grapes , uh I mean "dinosaur eggs" and we washed it all down with
some "swamp water" which for some reason the store calls hawaiian punch

"velociraptor claws" were thanks to a bag of bugles

slices of watermelon to look like the spikes of a stegosaurus

just your standard veggie tray but had to dino it up specifically for those herbivores 

Chocolate cupcakes & chocolate icing per the request of the birthday boy

"fossils"  sugar cookies with dinosaur foot prints smashed into them

Medieval Times

So yesterday I won some tickets to the Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament show here in Atlanta. We picked Serenity up from school & headed straight there to make sure we would get great seats.
If you have never been, every time your knight wins one of the games the princess gives him some flowers to pass out to the ladies in his section. well last night.....first round of flowers was about to be passed out, Serenity stopped eating, got her hands all wiped off but he had already given all the flowers out. Second round of flowers gets handed out & she's up on her knees (we were in the front row so he could totally see her, getting there that early did pay off ) he was right in front of her, she was super excited, but then he said I have something special for you & continued down the row passing out flowers. she sat down a little sad but then I told her to just wait because he said he had something special. The games continued, he passed out more flowers but not near us. finally the games were over & the princess gave all of the knights a sash to deliver to the "queen of the tournament" in their section. He walked right over to us & said "hmm, who shall I give this too." she had no real clue what was going on. then he pointed his lance towards her & told her to grab the sash. She smiled so big & was so excited. for the rest of the evening that was HER knight. at the end of the show you can get the knights, the princess, & the king's autographs but all she wanted was HER'S. needless to say, mommy & daddy were a sucker for the picture they took of her because it came in the most adorable frame :)  They thoroughly enjoyed it which made this blubbering mess of a mama shed a few tears throughout the night. -which of course it was dark so no one saw me ;)

The 7 Experiment

we have started a new woman's bible study at my church and if you ever have felt like you may not be in a close enough, real relationship with God then let me tell you how we are just barely into it & I can already feel the changes he is making in my life. Things just seem so much clearer & it's crazy because when you take a moment to think about it, suddenly it hits you..... He's been here the whole time waiting for this.
There is an amazing support team of great Godly women who are going through this study with me & I know that God put us all in this study at this time for a reason; it is just up to us to know what that reason is.  For me, I know for me it's as simple as helping me understand I'm not the only christian in the world to fall down, I'm not the only christian in the world to have bad days and most importantly I'm not the only christian in the world that thinks sometimes this thing called life is just way to hard. If you feel like checking it out, which I highly encourage, I've included a link to Jen Hatmaker's website where you can watch a little video that may just change your life for the better.  The 7 Experiment  

Bibles

As some of you may recall, Serenity has felt for a while that she needed to provide bibles to people, she just wasn't sure who. We have encouraged her to pray about it & we have done the same. She kept just saying places to me & when she would do this I would encourage her to keep praying about it & God would be sure to let her know.
Well with this crazy weather we have been having we have also been doing a lot of praying & talking about people who don’t have homes. We have discussed that some people live in their cars while others live on the street. Randomly the other day she told me,

 “Mommy, I need to get bibles for people who don’t have homes. They need to have a bible so they can read about Jesus & know that even though they don’t have a house right now, that he still loves them. They need to have the bible so they can learn all about Jesus & know that they will be ok.”

I think she has finally received the answer to her prayers and now it’s just up to mommy & daddy to help her with this. So proud of her prayers & of her love for God & how much she wants to make sure that other know the love of Jesus.

Snow Days

Snow days in Georgia..... why yes, we've had a few. The kids of course love it & although there are times when I was thinking oh my goodness can't we get back to our normal schedule, I loved having the time with the kiddos playing in the snow. Here are a few highlights of our snowy fun filled day :)

Greatest grandpa you could get & I got him

there is no one I would rather have to be my kids great grandpa & my grandpa than the one God blessed us with. He is an amazing man & no matter how much he doesn't agree with things you may do or say he supports you no matter what. I don't know the exact story but somewhere around 3 years old I may have gotten mad at him & told him "I don't love you." I think I broke his heart but have done my best my whole life to let him know that I was only 3 & I do truly love him with all my heart. no one makes me laugh or feel loved quite like my grandpa. Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa 

80th Birthday Party

My family is very blessed. One of those blessing was celebrated this weekend in the form of a surprise 80^th birthday party for the greatest grandpa in the world. It was a lot of hard work put into it but to see his reaction was well, well worth it. The goal was to not slip up & let him know about the party (which we did have a close call on that one once didn't we Jill? Hehe) but he was genuinely surprised, I don’t think he could have faked the way he walked into the door threw his arms in the air & went running back out J
          It was a great day all around. Getting to see family we hardly ever see, getting to see my kids run around & play with cousins they didn't even know about, and of course like my cousin Bobby said, it is great to see a new generation taking care of the clean up.
          I know there were a lot of people that couldn't make it but we know they were there with us through stories & in spirit. Can’t wait to do it again at 90.
I added a video link to him walking into the party. enjoy

The Entrance

chore charts

This is the year that I’m going to actually put my pinterest page to use. There are a few things we've tried here & there but mostly it’s still just electronic hoarding. Well, many moons ago I pinned some chore chart ideas but never did anything with them. We also implemented a token system into play with the kids. At the beginning of the year we decided we needed to revamp how we distribute the tokens since the kids are, sniff sniff, getting older. I decided to blend the chore chart with the token system. They of course can still earn tokens by making the right decisions, being helpful, being thoughtful and the like. In the same way they can still lose them by being mouthy, rude, & disrespectful. But now in addition to that they are learning that when they apply themselves to being a part of a family and help one another as well as focus on learning they will earn even more tokens. So far this is working amazing. As soon as I printed the charts out today Xavier wanted to mark off what he had done & asked what was next on his list J
When I told him after his “school work” he had to lay down for nap time without complaining and he would get another token he asked if he could watch tv. I told him that no it was time to rest and if he wasn't tired he didn't have to take a nap but he did have to rest with no tv & no lights for at least 45 minutes. I was surely expecting him to start throwing a fit right them. But he instead asked, “so if I lie down and be calm I get a token?” and my response, “yes.” He laid right down and within 10 minutes he was asleep. Although this is only day 2 of our new system in full working order I’m super excited about it and I think the kids are too. Having their own charts to follow I think is going to be really helpful for them as well as me.

Thanks to a great friend for the layout of a chart she had given me once before to get myself in some kind of organized fashion, I decided to just turn it into charts they could use. 

2014

My family had a very great Christmas & I’m so thankful for all the blessing we have. We also have had a great start to the New Year. We started our new year off in a way that I wouldn't have ever thought. If you had asked me just a few years ago if I ever thought my kids & I would be spending New Years Eve with my dad I would have told you that you were out of your mind. If you told me years ago my dad would even be staying with us for a few days on Christmas break, once again I would have reminded you how absolutely crazy you were. But both of these things happened and I’m so thankful.  My kids are still very young so they will never really know that their mommy & papa only really just started having a relationship. When they are older and things come up in their lives that make them ask any types of questions about it I’ll be more than happy to answer. But as for now, they have their papa and they couldn't be happier. I have a dad & although it’s a bit weird still to think sometimes, it’s nice.
We had a great new year’s eve. The kids stayed up till midnight. Well I guess not everyone. X fell asleep about 3 minutes before the ball dropped. We did an activity every hour and they loved it as did mommy. After such a long night we all slept in like crazy on January 1^st. so when I woke up at like 11:15 I figured what better way to start the new year than with a big ol’ brunch. I cooked breakfast while I let everyone just kinda wake up on their own. My mom even came over both times. It was pretty cool for the kids I think to have their papa, their gramma, and their nana all here. (although, both the kids kept asking why their granny couldn't come visit with their papa)
all in all it’s been a pretty good start to 2014 and I just hope it continues.