January Happenings

It's been a good month at our house, getting back into the swing of things after school starting back up and everyone getting well… for the most part. 

Here's a few of my favorite things as of late:

• Volunteering in Josiah's class every Friday for an hour.  
• I enjoy this very much! I love getting to know the kids in his class, seeing Josiah interact with his friends, and seeing and helping with what they are learning. It is fascinating to me to see how fast they are soaking up knowledge. This past Friday a small group of kids were reading to each other! I am so impressed with Josiah's reading skills, he's further along than I ever thought he would be in kindergarten! It's amazing. He has an incredible teacher, I am in awe of her ability to teach 25 rambunctious, stinky, absent-minded 5-6 years olds. She deserves an award for her patience and control over the class, and her creative ways of teaching. 
• Riding in the car with the children.  
• This is never dull. Someone (Paul) is always telling me to turn right or left or shrill yelling because he wants to talk the entire time and won't let anyone else talk to me, when all he really says is "Uhh, Mom, huh, I just love that red sign. Uhh, Mom, how about you not crash into any cars today, okay? Uhh, Mom, uhhh…LEAH I AM TALKING!" Most of time they are all talking at once. :) 
• Watching Justin do lunges.
• We have been exercising for 4 weeks in a row, 5 days a week. Our goal is to complete 10 weeks. We have enjoyed much laughter together during our 30 minute basement dates, laughing at each other's bad coordination, lack of the ability to breathe 10 minutes into the workout, and amused by our children's amusement at seeing us trying to do all of the exercise moves. It is nice to have a live-in workout accountability partner. 6 years of church planting, pregnancies, babies, no sleep, stress, and comfort food eating has done a number on us both and I'm excited to be doing this together. :) 
• We've also been trying to limit our sweet intake and Justin has almost completely cut-out soft drinks. He has one once a week. Likewise, I indulge in a sweet baked good or chocolate once a week. We can both already tell a difference in our waists and we can see muscles again in our arms and legs again. And we have more energy! Also another huge plus is Justin's blood pressure is now at normal levels! His BP lowered is what I am most thrilled about. I couldn't be prouder of him for sticking it out and making steps to get healthy with me. 

• Completing a lego table for the boys.
• Best investment ever. 
• I got the idea from HERE.  Took us an evening to do it and it works fantastically! We used to have legos all over the kitchen table, we couldn't even eat on it! Now it's all tucked away in their room and Josiah can make creations and keep them safe from Leah's destruction while he's at school. 

 

• Mommy and Me Dance with Josiah.
• There was a Mommy and Me Dance at his school and so we went on a date and dressed up. He was not trilled about dressing up but we got there with only a few tears. 
• Beforehand he was excited about the dance and then once we got there he was not so much. He just wanted to act crazy with his friends and run around… but I made him dance with me. I finally got smiles out of him and we had a good time. 
• His friend Emily was a dance machine, we were completely in shock at her fearless dancing. Her mother had never seen that side of her before! 

• Hanging with friends.
• One day when the kids were out of school, we went on base with some friends to an old airport hanger turned into a multi-use place. My friend runs a bounce house business so she brought a small obstacle bounce house, we brought balls and their bikes and they had a blast just running around in the wide open space. Since we've been stuck indoors since October, this was perfect, we had such a great time and use moms finally got to sit and chat. 

I had so much fun talking I only took these 3 pictures! 

• Now this isn't so much my favorite thing but we continue to have more vomit and more sickness and I'm continuing to learn to serve my family with joy whatever the night or day may bring. 

She fell asleep in the middle of the boys room while we were all playing one day.
Not a good sign to start the day at 10am when she usually fights her nap at 1pm.
She looked like a perfect sleeping beauty.

• Paul and Leah playing is another favorite thing of mine lately. They are (mostly) sweet together. They have their moments where she can really push his buttons, like little sisters do, but for the most part, they have a good time! She plays with his cars and airplanes and he will house or doctor or cook in the kitchen with her… or they combine all of it together for an elaborate play world. They have a neatest imaginations! 

The water children. They could stay in here all day and splash until there was no more water. 

Her beautiful auburn ringlets! I just love them!