Wednesday's dose of cuteness

Seriously...could Jonah be any more of a mess?  I must teach him how to eat a donut more neatly!

How am I FOCUSing?

I decided this would be my year to FOCUS.  For me, FOCUSing means

F:  Fully be in the moment and don't worry (so much) about what is happening next

O:  Open my eyes and heart to new experiences, ideas, and opportunities

C:  Cuddle with Emma, Jonah, Samuel, Elena, and Drew every day

U:  Use my and my family's gift to serve others

S:  Simplify our house and our lives

 

One-third of the year has passed by and I would say very quickly.  I found it hard to believe I was flipping the calendar to April on Sunday morning and sending my kids to school for only nine more weeks on Monday.   Time if flying and I don't think I am FOCUSing very well.

I will say that I am pretty good at cuddling.  Who does not love to cuddle with their children and hubbies?  I pray every day they know how much I love them. 

I am definitely working on simplifying our lives.  I have given lots of things to NAM and taken kids clothing to a local resale shop.  I have noticed small changes, but I need bigger changes.  The toys are next on the list.  Watch out kids!!

The F, O, and U are harder for me.  They are not my strength areas so I struggle.  Our sermon on Sunday was about living in a Kingdom that serves other.  Jesus came to serve...not just to hang out and do cool miracles.  He served everyone.  I can no longer say that my kids are too little.  Emma and Jonah are old enough to serve others so I plan to open my eyes to those opportunities. 

Finally, I AM going to be in the moment.  I actually thought to myself last weekend "don't ask Drew about his afternoon plans until we enjoy the race and its post activities"!  I was quite proud of myself.  Being in the moment and not thinking too far into the future is hard for a life long planner.  I am trying...baby steps!

So, for the next three months I hope to improve my FOCUSing skills!

A family bike ride and slushies!

Yesterday I had the brilliant idea that we should all go on a bike ride after dinner.  That means Elena is in the trailer and everyone else is riding.  To make the ride even more fun I suggested we bike to Sonic for dessert.  The kids were on board with my plan already, but the promise of a slushy made them totally excited.

So off we went for the two mile ride to Sonic and 45 minutes later we arrived.  To say that it was slow going is quite the understatement.   Samuel is great on the bike, but his four year old legs only pedal so fast.  He ditched his bike twice instead of riding through a sprinkler resulting in something happening to his one training wheel.  This made the journey a little slower.

After the sprinkler incident, Jonah fell when his skidded on the path.  He cut his knee, danced in pain, and cried.  In the end he decided he could continue the journey toward his wonderful blue slushy. 

Not five minutes later Emma fell.  How this happened will forever be a mystery to me.  She was riding on the path and BOOM...down she goes!  She really cut up her knee and more tears followed on this short 2 miles bike ride.  Again, the lure of a slushy proved great and she decided to keep riding.

Lots of drama later and nasty thought swirling in my head we arrived!  Everyone was happy for 15 minutes!

It was pure joy and then we had to ride home.  Thankfully we arrived home much quicker...the power of the slushy!

Palm Sunday

My kiddos are in there somewhere!

Today we celebrated Palm Sunday with the kids processing into church singing "Hosanna!" while waving palms.  It is a wonderful sight and one of my favorite church moments of the year.   The children enjoy being in "big" church!

Following church more fun occurs with a petting zoo, lunch, and Easter egg hunt.  It is crazy busy and fun for everyone.  Elena was able to really enjoy all the activities this year!

Inside the petting zoo

All ready for the egg hunt

This is also one of my favorite days of the year to take a family picture.  Most of our pictures are in casual clothing.  I like having one of us dressed in our nice stuff!

I love this even though no one is looking at me

My sweet family!