Being Grateful

One of the things the moms at my church do is a 15 week challenge entitled "From Stressed to Blessed".  Our fearless leader, Carmalyn, posts the weekly challenges on Facebook.  The purpose is to find and/or recognize JOY!  It is a very simple online group of women who make lists of things that relate to our weekly challenge.  Things that we are thankful for, things that make us smile, things that make us happy.  You get the idea!

I love to participate because it reminds me that I have more than I deserve in my life.  I have many, many things which make my life great.  There is way more good in my life than bad or even slightly not good.  But, the daily grind sometimes takes it toll on my mind and more importantly my attitude.  When this happens I forget about all the great things and can only focus on the annoying things about my day.  If my attitude is crap, then things typically don't go well at my house.  My attitude eases its way into my kiddos and their behaviors become even less desirable.  It is such a horrible cycle and I am guessing I am not the only mom who repeats this cycle on occasion.

So, I was super happy to see this little challenge begin this week.  It has helped me focus less on what I have to do and more on what I get to do.  For example, after baking and assembling a 7 layer cake last week, I had to bake 50+ cupcakes for Jonah to take to the gym on Tuesday.  I was not thrilled to be baking again, but I was happy that Jonah has a great group of people who wanted to celebrate his birthday and eat cupcakes. 

These little list reminders show up on Facebook almost every morning and it is a great way to begin my day.  Check it out....Stressed to Blessed!  Anyone can join and maybe your day will be a little better!

My challenge from yesterday was to list five things I was thankful for in my house.  It forced me to focus on the positive and not see my "to do" list! My list was my comfy bed, my breakfast room table, my new shower head, the sound of my kids voices, and our blackboard!

So, readers what are you grateful for about your home or life or morning or whatever today?  Or, who are you grateful for today?

Share and hopefully we will all gain a little thankfulness from everyone's lists!!

Wordless Wednesday

I managed to convince my family to take nice pictures when we were in Galveston.  By nice, I mean we combed our hair and put on real clothing!  The backgrounds are too washed out in some of them, but I think it was a success with only a few strange looks from Elena!

Jonah is 7!!

Seven years ago today, Jonah came roaring into the world on the heels of Hurricane Rita.  You were 6 days over due.  My labor was crazy fast (think 30 minutes tops).  You were healthy and perfect after some initial scary moments.  Then just like that, you were so calm.  Jonah, you slept and ate perfectly.  You did not cry much.  You were such a go with the flow kind of baby.

Boy have times changed.  You are so different from those first few months.  You are a live wire all the time.  You have more energy than I knew could be possible.  You never sit still.  Maybe never is a strong word, but I am thinking 98% of the time you are moving.  Registering you for gymnastics was one of my best decisions.  You love it and get to move your body all the time.  If Daddy and I would let you go five days a week you would!  You like the challenge and none of it seems hard.  I pray you continue to love it and always remember that when it gets tough!

You feel deeply.  It does not matter if you are happy, sad, or indifferent.  You feel it 100%!  You can cry big tears and smile a big smile!  Once you feel an emotion, it is with you.  You stay sad for a long time or happy for a long time.  Jonah, I hope I can teach you to let go a little quicker.  I hate to see you so sad for so long.  Feel and move on buddy boy!

You are a character.  You enjoy being silly.  You make up dances.  You make silly faces.  But, you are also a rule follower.  You like for things to go as expected. Remember to be flexible Jonah.  It will make your life easier I promise.

I know this year is going to be a great.  First grade will be so fun for you.  You love to learn and to be with your friends.  Gymnastics will be awesome.  You are going to shine with your new skills and confidence.  Trying basketball this winter will be a fun challenge.  I cannot wait to see you play a team sport!  And, you are now a Tiger Scout.  Phew, you are going to be busy and I know you will love every minute of it.

I am so proud of you silly boy!  You are confident.  You are strong.  You are amazing!  You are a true delight and I am so proud to be your mommy!

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”  

Hebrews 10: 35-36

Galveston Weekend

When I asked Jonah how he wanted to celebrate his birthday he said he wanted to go to the beach.  That is easy!  To make it even more fun, Drew and I decided to spend the weekend at the beach to celebrate Jonah and to have a mini vacation.

We took Emma and Jonah out of school early on Friday hoping to miss all of Houston's fun Friday traffic.  We arrived at our condo just before 4pm and were at the pool by 4:10.  After some quick swimming we headed to the beach.  Jonah loves the beach.  He loves to run in the water.  He loves to try to body surf.  He really could spend all day in the water.  Emma and Samuel were much braver here than this summer.  Granted the water was calmer so it was much more kid friendly.  Elena likes the water, but is still nervous.  She prefers to play in the sand.

The condo complex also had two pools.  The one was an infinity pool which was very pretty.  The second was a lazy river pool with a small swimming area as well.  With all these great places to swim, the crazy kids wanted to spend time in the hot tubs.  It was 90 degrees so why is beyond me.  I stayed in the pool!

We celebrated Jonah's birthday early on Saturday (it is really on Tuesday).  He wanted tacos for dinner...his favorite.  He asked for a 7 layer cake because he is going to be 7!  I baked 3 8x8 chocolate cakes and 4 8x8 vanilla cakes and assembled them at the condo.  It turned out so much better than I imagined and tasted great as well!

 Jonah wanted 7 candles on the big cake and then the #7 candle on his piece of cake!  I think he just wanted us to sing twice and make two wishes.

Drew and I realized that this is the very first vacation that just the 6 of us have taken...EVER! We definitely made the correct decision to go to Galveston for the weekend.  We had a great weekend playing and just being together.  It was really wonderful!