Back to School

We are back in the swing of things around here now that school has been back in session for two weeks, so I thought now would be a good time to TRY to start blogging again. Once again, I can't promise I will keep it up.

My Lucy is in first grade this year and this is her first experience with "all day school". Here are a few first day pics!

In Pre-K she was finished at 11:15 and in kindergarten she got out at 12:15. So this getting out at 2:40 thing has been an adjustment for all of us. I've had to put Abby down her a nap earlier so she'll be finished by the time we need to leave to pick Lucy up from school. Thankfully, this has been a very easy adjustment.

Lucy is dancing again this year, and Abby will start next week. We have also added soccer to the mix for Lucy. She has been begging to play for about three years and we finally gave in and are letting her do two activities. She was beyond excited to go to her first practice last week.

On top of that, Michael and I are back in school too! We are both taking online classes through the college Michael attended after high school. So far it's going great.

We are looking forward to an exciting year for all four of us!

Love More. Eat Less. Live Better.

New Year's resolutions....can anyone honestly tell me that they have ever stuck to one for an entire year? I certainly haven't. At best, maybe three or four months. That said, I think a new year is a perfect time to try to start a life change. Otherwise, I'd keep saying, "Maybe I'll start on Monday....."

This year I have resolved to do a few things. In no particular order, here they are:

1. LOSE WEIGHT/EAT LESS. This is the one resolution I've made in the past that I've actually been successful at for more than a week. But I've never been able to keep the weight off long term. A long term solution to my weight problem, I know, is simply making better choices- controlling portions, getting active, and choosing a bowl of chicken tortilla soup at Chick-Fil-A instead of a chicken sandwich value meal- UPSIZED OF COURSE! :( I am one of those people who believes that food makes everything better. If I'm bored, I eat. If I'm sad, I eat. If I'm alone, I eat. And that has to stop. A friend of mine, who has lost over 50 pounds since July, told me that she asks herself- "Why am I eating?" If it's not to satisfy hunger, she doesn't eat. That is my goal this year. To stop looking at food as the focal point of every life event- even the little ones. To eat for one reason- because I have to eat to live. I will never stop enjoying food, but I have to stop indulging.

2. LOVE MORE. I resolve to stop judging other people's choices and to LOVE people like Christ loves me. I feel like I'm getting better about this, but I still have a long way to go. I want my children to be compassionate people, and they won't know how without an example.

3. PRAY WITH LUCY EVERY MORNING BEFORE SHE GOES TO SCHOOL. This one actually just came to me this morning. Today was the first day Lucy has had to go to school since the shooting in Connecticut. I hugged her way more than I normally do before sending her off to school- and I'm a hugger on a regular day. I decided that the only way I could send her to school without being a nervous wreck all day was to pray. So I asked her to join me. She has no idea what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary, thank God, but we prayed together that God would watch over her, her classmates, and her teacher. This is something we should have been doing every morning anyway...it's sad that it took a tragedy to remind me how important this is.

4. LIVE BETTER. I think the three things above will help me accomplish this goal. If I do all these things, I will be healthier, happier, and more at peace......LIVING BETTER.

Homecoming, Halloween, and Weekend Fun

This morning Lucy's school had their Homecoming parade. She was very excited to watch the parade with her class and wear her special SPIRIT SHIRT- which is basically a fancy name for the shirt they make you buy at the beginning of the year to wear on field trips. She's four so the extent of her involvement in the parade was sitting on the curb with her classmates trying to catch candy, while also trying to get the attention of all the high schoolers she knows who were actually in the parade. She came home with a football shaped cookie and several pieces of candy. In her book, this was a successful morning.

After the parade we went to Target to get my nephew a birthday present. We picked out his gift and then decided to peruse the Halloween costumes....I think it's important for you to know that since June, Lucy has wanted to be Belle, Rapunzel, and Wilma Flinstone. But today everything changed when she saw a Jessi costume...you know, from Toy Story. Or is it Toy Story 2 or 3? Or is it 2 AND 3? I don't even know. Lucy has seen the Toy Story movies and liked them, but they are not what I would consider family favorites around here. I'm here to tell you, though, that when Lucy makes up her mind about something it's hard to change it. I must have asked her 20 times if she was sure and told her that if I bought this costume this was IT. She was going to be Jessi, END OF STORY. And then she proceeded to tell me that she was "100 and 25% off sure" that she wanted to be Jessi. Well, I guess that settled it. We are now the proud owners of a Jessi costume.

Tonight we'll go to the Homecoming game and Lucy will stay up WAY past her bedtime....Tomorrow afternoon is my nephew's third birthday party. And then- tomorrow night- FLORIDA VS. ALABAMA. In.the.swamp! I'm so excited, and I think it's going to be a much better game than Alabama fans are predicting. And kudos to my sister AND the Gator football scheduler people for planning their respective events at different times. I love Tivo, but Florida-Alabama is not a game I want to watch on a delay. On Sunday we'll go to church and then the Jags game....and a win would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath!

Have a great weekend!

And now, for the fourth time, I'm really committed to blogging and sticking to it....

I am not a good blogger. I have tried in the past- several times- and just don't seem to be able to stick to it. But the fact of the matter is, I probably post way more "guess what cute thing my kid did today" statuses on my facebook page than people really care about. So my goal here is not only to keep the three of you who actually do care about every adorable thing my kids do informed, but also to start saving them somewhere so that I will be able to remember them myself. I'm sure that along the way I will post things that are totally uninteresting to everyone and I will probably once again slack off in the blogging department at some point....but my intentions are good! So here we go.....

I'll start with a little background info on me and my family, just in case anyone out there doesn't know us. I know the chances are slim to none that anyone outside my circle of friends will ever read this, but you never know. I could be the next Big Mama, who by the way, is the author my favorite blog ever- www.thebigmamablog.com.

I am a stay at home mom of two beautiful girls, ages four and a half and 18 months, and a wife to a man who works super hard to take care of our family. He has a very demanding full-time job and also works part-time as the children's pastor at our church. Sometimes I give him a hard time about not helping around the house more, but the reality is if I were him I would probably want to come home and go to sleep as soon as I walked in the door. And the reality is that if he were me, he would probably want to do the same. Fortunately for me and the girls, he does not go to sleep as soon as he walks in the door. He is greeted at the door by two giddy girls every night, and he is the official bath giver and bed time Bible story reader. I am so very blessed!

Our oldest daughter (L) just started pre-K last month and is doing great. She is attending a Christian school and we are amazed by what she has already learned in such a short time. We've always known she was smart, of course, because we're not biased at all. At four years old, she is currently working on memorizing the 23rd Psalm. She is in her second year of tap and ballet, and she loves to perform for us at home. She has quite a personality and you never know what she's going to say....she definitely keeps us on our toes.

Our youngest daughter (A) is 18 months old and she also keeps us on our toes, but in a totally different way. She is into everything! She has the sweetest little personality, but also quite a temper....and did I mention she's into everything? I probably say, "Put that down", "Get down", and/or "Sit down" 30 times a day. And most of the time, she laughs at me. Fortunately (for her), she has these enormous brown eyes along with a unique ability to make YOU feel bad for HER after she's just blatantly ignored you.

My life pretty much consists of taking care of the kids, making sure our house doesn't look like a tornado hit it (and I'm not always successful), and trying to be a good wife...most importantly, I'm trying to live my life the way God has called me to- and unfortunately, I'm not always successful at that, either. We are very active in our church....my husband is the children's pastor so of course I help him with that. I also sing on the praise team and am involved in our women's ministry and church council.

I really do plan to blog often.....but only time will tell!

I brought you some candy....from Jesus!

My oldest daughter is hilarious. I'm sure every parent thinks their kid is the funniest kid on the planet and I'm no different. She's so random. Like yesterday, when she came up to me holding her plastic Halloween jack-o-lantern candy bucket and said, "Mommy, I surprised you. And I brought you some candy.....from Jesus. Say 'thank you Jesus'." Then she proceeded to reprimand me when I didn't immediately thank Jesus.

Disclaimer: I do not keep Halloween candy in my house until June. Her bucket was empty. So essentially she was asking me to thank Jesus for non-existent candy.

I'm pretty sure Jesus doesn't even want us to eat candy anyway, but I didn't argue because I've been trying to stress to her the importance of being thankful for what you have- which means thanking Jesus for all her blessings. And I guess if she considers candy a blessing she should thank Jesus for it. And her dentist should thank Him, too.

Spending Time in The Word......

I have really started feeling guilty about how little time I spend reading my Bible. And when I say little, I mean hardly ever. I pray a lot. I'm almost in a constant state of prayer. But if I'm not in the Word I can't possibly be fulfilling God's purpose for my life- at least not all of it. So I've decided that I'm going to start small and work my way up. I have never read the Bible in its entirety and my plan now is to do just that. I'm going to read it in chronological order, three chapters at a time. I started yesterday with Genesis 1-3, today I will read Genesis 4-6, and so on...until I finish. There may be days when I have the time to read more and I will, but my goal is to read no less than three chapters a day. I have no idea how long this will take, but I won't stop until I'm finished. If anyone feels like joining me, please feel free. It's always more fun to do things in a group!

Some girlfriends and I went to see the movie "Julie & Julia" last weekend and right away I started talking about how I can't wait to read the book. I love to read, and sometimes I will read for hours at a time because the book I'm reading is just so fabulous I can't put it down. Why don't I put the same effort into reading the Book that my beliefs are built upon, the Book that is the basis for who I am? The only answer I can come up with is that I'm a little lazy when it comes to spending time in the Word. Honestly, it's much easier to read fiction. It's easier to understand. I know that when I open my Bible not everything will always make sense to me. But that's okay. I'm not skilled to understand. I know that if I spend time reading the Bible every day God will bless me in some way and I will begin to walk closer to Him than I do now. I talk to Him daily. It's time for me to allow Him to speak to me through His perfect Word.

Baby #2

Baby # 2 is on his or her way! I'm due in March, just nine days after Lucy's birthday- and two days before her actual due date. So it looks like we're going to be flat broke in the month of March for the next 18 years..... :)

We went to my first doctor's appointment last week and had an ultrasound. My doctor told me that it looked like there was only one sac and that he thinks there's only one baby, but that they would confirm it at our 12 week ultrasound. Silly me, I didn't even think to ask what in God's creation he meant by that. Instead, I waited until we were back in the car and asked my husband what he thought it meant. And he didn't know. So I'm just assuming that there's a small possibility of twins (and yes, they do run in my family) and that if there's only one sac they would be identical. I've always wanted three kids anyway, but the idea of twins is frightening. At the same time, now that I've been told that there's even a remote possiblity that I could be having twins, I will probably be disappointed if I find out I'm not. I know, it makes no sense. Either way, we are very excited to be expanding our family.

Please remember us and our little one in your prayers. :)