A Post of Complete Non-Importance Whatsoever

Okay. I've realized that pressure is my issue. I got so serious there for a bit that now I feel like everything I post on here must be of some significant spiritual weight or something. When really the only reason I decided to do this whole blog thing was to have a quick place where I could journal things about the kids that I didn't want to forget. Those little rays of sunshine while I'm raising my little acorns.

So here is a post of total silliness but I had to get it down.

Jonah used to say "lellow" for the color "yellow".

I loved it. It made my heart get all warm and fuzzy.

Bear would roll his eyes every time & say, "Don't you think that a teacher's kid who has a Master's degree in reading....language....whatever it is that you have..should say words correctly? Like "yellow" for example?"

I would smile & say, "He'll get there. It's not a big deal. I think it's cute" and we'd move on.

Until the weekend I went to SSMTC. I left for TWO DAYS and came back to "yellow". :(

I was heartbroken.

Fast forward to a few nights ago.

We were walking around the neighborhood as is our usual custom after dinner and the kids were eating popsicles for dessert. Esther Grace was done with hers and went to throw her stick on the ground.

"No, Esther Grace. Don't do that. Just give it to Mom," Jonah said when he noticed what her intentions were. As she handed me her stick, he looked at me and said, "I gave you my stick when I was done because..................

because I didn't want to glitter."

Be still my heart.

He said "glitter".

Bear made a weird look on his face, laughed, and said, "Hey Buddy Boy, the word is said-"

"NO!" I hollered with my hands up in the air. I pointed straight at Bear and said, "Don't touch that one."

I'm so glad that I have a husband who understands caters to my need for my babies to be little for a just a bit longer. After all, they're aren't oak trees yet.

First Day of PreK



We're now into our fall routines...and it's 102 degrees outside.

Crazy.

Actually, this week hasn't been too bad with an ever so slight breeze outside. It's been fairly chilly in the low 90's.

Jonah started PreK yesterday! Last year he went to Mother's Morning Out twice a week and this was the face of an excited three-year-old on his first day of breaking free from Mama's apron strings....

So precious.

(Note the high-protein/low-carb breakfast. I'm pretty sure he ate more than just sausage. Maybe.)

This is the face I got yesterday from an experienced four-year-old who knows practically everything one needs to know about life in general....

I'm serious. That is the face he gave me. I used my best high-pitched "Aren't you excited!!!!????!!!" and he gave me that.

(I'm glad to see that in addition to sausage this year, we have cinnamon toast and cheese grits. Good to see we're back on the carbs again.)

Later on, he got a little more into it...

"Inja" Style

[Click here if you need more explanation.]

Oh yeah, baby! We're excited now!

Finally, a serious one to appease Mommy.

Good friends of our's told us to pick a spot in your house and use that same spot to take the "First Day of School" pic every year so you can see how they've grown. This is said after raising two boys. Their youngest had his "Last First Day of School" pic this year. I'm pretty sure the facial expression was probably the same as Jonah's breakfast picture.

Gosh, he's so big! And yes, that's the same bookbag. It was practically unused so we're using it again. And note that we're going to Lunch Bunch this year! I'm telling you, the boy's pretty much grown.

He was nervous getting in the car. How could I tell?



Every toy had to come with us. Last year, everyday at the same red light we would pray for Jonah's day. This year, we reached the same red light and I asked him if he would like me to pray for his day. He nodded.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 

I snuck a picture. Don't you just love that he's big and tough and Mommy is absolutely insane to take a picture at breakfast but it's completely normal to stroke Lovie's ears when you're nervous and want to pray? I love it. Big...but not too big....yet.

After we prayed, he was all smiles.

He said, "Mommy, I'm SO excited about my big day!"

     "I am too, Buddy."

     "Why are you excited? It's not your big day, it's my big day."

Gotcha. Still all about you.

He went right on in and had a blast! And he left every single toy in the car...after kissing and hugging Lovie good-bye, of course. Did Mommy get a kiss and a hug? No. {sigh} Oh, well. I'll make him when he goes off to college if I have to tackle him in the dorm and sit on top of him in front of the whole hall. Just you wait.

This morning, everything was back to normal...

...including a Pop Tart for breakfast in the car and pulling up about 5 minutes late. It's gonna be a great year. :)

Substitute Blogging

Starting tomorrow, we officially begin our fall routines with Jonah's first day of Pre-K which means back to blogging ritual. I think. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

If I had blogged in the past TWO MONTHS it would've looked a lot like this....

[The Cannon's Canon]*

Please enjoy. I about wet my pants reading about my own life. Stephanie, you have a gift. :)

Significant Summer: An Update- Spiritual Goals

Summer consists of inconsistency for me. Can you tell? Every year I determine that we're going to get so much accomplished and every year, the enemy whispers that I've failed. Well, it may seem that way, but I have not! Here are just a few of the things we've been doing....

....Okay, could someone please remind me how to hook up my camera to the computer to share pictures? Good grief! Has it really been that long???!!!!

Seriously. That's never a good sign.

Well, one of my spiritual goals was to have a family devotion all together every day. This is a challenge because Bear sometimes leaves at 4:30 a.m. and sometimes he's here until 9:00 and we never know what the next day will be like. I once read in Beth Moore's Feathers From My Nest how she used index cards to help with her family's devotions. The Scripture for the day would be there and each family member signed his/her name both acknowledging that they had accomplished their quiet time for the day but also promising to live it out. If it can work for Beth I figured it could work for us, right? After all, you  know we're tight...Beth and I.

[Crazy thing- I actually wrote this post last week but forgot to schedule it to post up on the blog. Beth wrote about her index cards on her blog yesterday! Crazy, huh? What are the odds? I'm taking it as a little pat on the back from God...and encouragment to keep it up.]
I started with this-

I love related Scripture and could follow a bunny trail forever but apparently, four year olds don't cross-reference. (This was from the day/week/month that we worked on our attitudes and I got my SSMT verse.) So I thought I'd use all of these Scriptures for our entire week. You know, one per day. Nothing huge. Um, not gonna happen. I've now settled on this approach-

One verse.

One illustration for those non-readers in our house...and I'm not necessarily talking about those under 30 either.

One topic.

Many weeks. This one we began about two weeks ago. It came from my study that I'm doing with some mother/daughter pairs from our youth group.....loving that. Jonah and I have been talking about how we're God's treasured possession so we should our behavior should reflect that. I'm about to move on with this concept and talk about treasuring what He treasures. Any Scripture suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :)

So far, this has worked really well. It's posted up on our fridge so I can refer to it constantly throughout our day. I'm thinking our next verse we're going to memorize with hand motions. Yeah. Definitely.

Another spiritual goal of our's was to help serve lunches to kids in our community with the Fish4Kids program once a week. That has been my absolute favorite part of this summer! We've been up there several times each week handing out about 175 lunches each day.

Jonah loves to go door-to-door. He knocks on each one and instead of yelling "Fish4Kids!" he hollers, "This is for kids!" I tried to let him know that we're not passing out Trix cereal and that we're actually saying "Fish4Kids" so that the people will know who's at the door. I got the oh-so-frequent-mom-doesn't-have-a-clue look and he responded, "Yeah. This (holding up the lunch) is for kids."

Is anyone else's four-year-old getting a little too big for his britches lately? I think that's all I do around here. Anyways.....

We haven't had any family theme nights yet. I worked out a deal with our neighbors of us watching each other's kids on Thursdays and alternating every other week for free babysitting/date nights. I was going to do our theme night when Carter and Riley Kate could join us but we haven't been able to get it together yet. I thought it would keep the kids entertained while they're over here. Once we finally get that together I'll post pictures of how it went.

How's your "Significant Summer" going?

Significant Summer: An Update- Relational Goals

Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking.

"Wasn't one of her relational goals to post here at least three times a week?"

Yes.

"Wasn't her last post dated June 5?"

Yes.

"Isn't this June 22?"

Yes.

But I've really been having a significant summer! I've got all the details written and saved so you can read about them as they post this week. I decided to start with my area that needs the most improvement.

Relational goals.

I am not a phone person. I've tried and tried to be but I'm just not. Some of my friends know this about me and gladly accept it as part of my flawed, quirky self and love me anyways. But when it comes to new people, they occasionally get their feelings hurt if I don't call and check up on them from time to time.

My husband? Great phone person. I used to think that girls were the phone hoarders but he does an exceptional job holding members of our small group accountable, catching up with friends we have living all over the country, etc. Of course, he's in a truck all day long driving around Metro-Atlanta and has banned radio from his truck so he needs something to do.

I'm relieved that he's started calling people because he used to use that time to memorize Scripture. He would have about 10-20 index cards filled with verses all across his speedometer, dash, and lower windshield. At one point, he was memorizing John.

Yes, John.

The book.

I can just picture that conversation with the police officer now. "Um, yes. Officer? The reason I plowed into the back of ___________ was because...well, you see....I'm memorizing the eigth chapter of John. If you could just hold this Bible for me and double-check, I'll show you how far I've gotten." Yeah....

Anyways- I digress. So blogging for me has been better than the phone. I just don't want it to get like my phone habits because there's something so special about our little world here, you know? The encouragement and connectivity I get from living out your lives via pictures and stories is priceless. Knowing that I'm not the only mom who doesn't have it all together keeps me going. Knowing that there are other women out there who love Christ with everything they have yet struggle with worldly desires inspires me to battle on. Even though I may not be writing, I sure am reading. Whether it be a quick scan of pictures or reading on my phone while filling up with gas, I'm there. So I hope y'all don't quit posting! :)

On to my next two goals:

1. Calling my sister every other day.

This has lengthened to a few times a week but I'm very proud of myself on this one. (See above.) I try not to call her earlier than 9:00 and be her daily alarm. I also try not to dominate every conversation with my hair. (For those of you who don't know, Katie is a crazy-gifted hair stylist and cuts my hair. She also is crazy-gifted with make-up, coloring hair, and all things trendy. And she's stuck with me: a 30-year-old "Old Soul", as she's labled me, who has an education background and struggles with the love of appliqued sweaters and wooden teacher jewelry. Just imagine the dynamics there.)

2. Date night with Bear twice a month.

Hmmmmmm....yeah. Um, does the Free Friday Concerts in Downtown Monroe count? With kids? And Katie and Cobb? And our neighbors? And their kids? And the entire rest of the town? Then, yes! We've had one.

Actually, I had a free babysitting scheme planned with our neighbors. They watch our kids one Thursday and we'll take theirs the next. Sounds great, right? Apparently, us and the Hodges have extremely demanding social calendars. We just can't get our Thursday nights....or any nights for that matter....together! Hopefully, this week is it. Oh, wait. That's tomorrow. Well, maybe. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Becky, who started this whole Significant Summer for me, asked for updates a while back on her blog. Here are her posts. What are y'all doing for your Significant Summer?