Life with my Cowboys

I thought I had everything planned out when it came to our Christmas school. I had everything pinned, printed, and was in the middle of prepping each day's activities when it hit me: All throughout the year, we have been prepping for this month of learning, for this time set aside to really delve deep into the birth of Christ. All year, we have been using the Jesus Storybook Bible for our Jesus connection, seeing how every bit of bible history points to our Savior. This realization hit me hard, I was trying to plan out an intentional three week study, trying to make it fun and engaging...and I was putting WAY too much thought into it! What my son really needed most, was simply Jesus. So, previous plans scrapped, I went back to the basics. 25 paper bags labeled by day, filled with all supplies needed. The Jesus Storybook Bible. That's it! We started before we traveled 14 hours to visit family out west and kept on going once we got there. Here and there, we doubled u...

Been a blur of holidays, birthdays, get togethers, and school around here! I've taken off two months and am back as of this week! See you soon!

Thankfulness is something that can't be summed up on one day a year. There's just no possible way to put all of the grace-filled, God's-glory moments into the few hours that surround one meal on one particular day. This thankfulness that we're trying to learn ourselves as we pour out on our children, family, and friends; this grace-filled life we're trying to hastily explain in a few moments after the meal. It isn't possible to play catch up for all of the other days of the year when we should have or could have been already experiencing a thanks-filled life. But it is possible to begin. Sometimes, we get caught up in the daily rhythm of life, and all of the to-dos that we loose sight of what's really important, what's probably one of the most important things we need to be doing. Instead of devoting one day out of the entire year, we should devote the entire year to the concept of that one day. It's Thanks- living . It's starting now, ...

Birthdays are special to me, and not just my own, and not just because there's usually cake involved. No, birthdays are extra special grateful days. Grateful for the gift of life itself and all of the blessings that come with it. Grateful for little little babies eating lemons and making funny faces. Grateful for mustached Hubbie, funky tights to wear, Hubbie to lean on, and funny pig snout shaped cabbage. Grateful for two crazy parents who never stop laughing. Grateful for time spent as a family, and yes, grateful for blowing out a candle on a large slice of chocolate cake! Grateful that I'm a mommy to three wonderful boys, especially when they are goofy and eat an entire package of butter at the restaurant Grateful for a friend inviting my grumpy Monkey over for a play date with her son all day after he made me cry all morning. Grateful to have him as a son, even when he makes me cry. Grateful for all of these moments I've been blessed with, every d...

Tweed Ride 2013 was amazing, the weather was sunny and warmer than it had previously been that week, and Hubbie and I rode a tandem bike the entire way!  The ride ended once again at the Marlay House , where we partook of many a free Bailey's Irish Cream Coffee!  These two are the masterminds behind the Tweed Ride! Last year, with Baby Bear in my belly , and this year! I can not wait until next year's Tweed Ride, I'll be sewing my own outfit from a thrifted tweed jacket!

My little Monkey has been praying for trees ever since he started praying on his own. The house we used to live in had one solitary tree, a beautiful river birch in our front yard that never quite yielded enough leaves for much fun during the Fall. As soon as November's breezy weather took over, our river birch leaves would blow away from our yard. Well, prayer answered, our new house lots of trees! And lots of leaves on these lots of trees, and during the Fall,lots of leaves on lots of trees means lots of raking. Now, our children have never experienced the joy of jumping into a pile of leaves, in fact, my first attempt to get them to play in leaves was a failure, they instead started to load up their dump truck to take the leaves to the curb for yard waste pick up. So, you can imagine their confusion when they saw that Daddy had raked up a large pile of leaves in the middle of our front yard and then told them to play in it ! We all had a blast running to the pile ...

I am NOT the kind of person who likes to rearrange things. In fact, I do my best to avoid all such nonsense. I like to just leave things the way they are once they're set in place, that's just where they will remain until we get rid of them. With the exception of the classroom. I'm always trying to make sure it's well organized and that I'm making the most of the space I have. It's a bit of an obsession some times. There are a few more things I want to do, more clothesline for hanging artwork, more magazine folders for books, little touches like that. But, when it comes to major furniture rearranging, I believe I am done (for now!). Among the more recent changes are this train table and desk. When I first got the train table, Little Bear wasn't able to reach anything on it, so it was great for when we needed to work on something that he didn't need to get into. Now, he can reach ANYTHING we put on it, so I have to be careful when he's in the...