A Day in the Life...

Copper, Dakota, and I went for an evening walk. We froze but took a pretty picture. We also dog-sat Red's brother Hoke this past weekend. They are goofballs together... Micah and Kota's Wishlists... Micah: get a dog, go to Universal, sleepover with friends, get a black belt, finish the Bible, meet Jesus  (the first 3 are a no-go... I don't know where she comes up with these things) Kota: I-pad, ice cream, Lava Hot Springs (all are possible except the first) Copper protecting her kitty from Hoke, except the threat was non-existent Doing a family challenge where we had to write nice texts to other people... Copper is laughing at the one she wrote Maci... I got this pretty little dehydrator and I'm out of control with drying veggies, making them into powder, and sneaking them into my children's meals...  

  I'd forgotten how fun it is to put curlers in the girls' hair. Copper has a-m-a-z-i-n-g hair! I'm not a Valentine's Day lover but I did get the girls a bag of popcorn, a shirt, and wrote them a nice note.  That's as good as it got!! I don't know why I took this picture, except I was feeling really overwhelmed with gratitude for some of these work folks. This was at a leadership meeting I went to and about halfway through I just had a thought that I was so grateful to get to know some really incredible people. I came on board at just the right time, I believe. Okay. Magic Puzzle Company FOR.THE.WIN. Their puzzles are seriously the most fun puzzles I've ever done.  Amber lent me this one.  They have the cutest puzzle pieces in the cutest shapes; super cool.  It was weird to think they all connected together in one puzzle, but they did! When I was done, it ended up into three big pieces that slid together.  Puzzling, hahahahaha....  In the box is an env...

 Tim had a birthday last week! We celebrated at his mom's the week before, then used a gift card from his brother to go out the Saturday before.  The girls and I stayed up late the night before wrapping gifts and decorating. Since it was a Tuesday, we low-keyed it at home with steak fajitas and games, with homemade peanut butter bars for dessert. I sure love Tim! He's the best. I'm so grateful for everything he does for his family and everything he is.  Underneath the sarcasm, the jokes, the pretend-apathy, is a guy that cares deeply for his family and God, and I love that about him. Happy 41st!! We also celebrated Stevie too! In the winter, Tim wears a jacket over his white shirt, but otherwise, it's still the only thing he wears... hahaha

Quiero aprender español de nuevo. Cuando era niña, soñaba en español. Hablar otro idioma fue fácil. Pero se me olvidó. I want to learn Spanish again. When I was a little girl, I used to dream in Spanish. Speaking another language was easy. But, I forgot.   Six weeks ago I decided I wanted to relearn it. It was a thought that kept softly pricking my mind. So I finally downloaded an app and started listening to Audible stories in Spanish.  I practice about 10 minutes a day; I'm on a 21 day streak but have only missed once or twice in a row. Celine Dion's It's all coming back to me now  plays in my head when I think of what I've studied so far. Is that song in  your head now? Last Thursday at an elementary school, I met a nine year old girl and she cried and cried in my office for 90 minutes because she moved here from another country and doesn't speak a lick of English.  She's had some significant trauma in her life, and then uprooted. "It's the food, the...

 Things I dislike about my new job: I'm actually gone longer than when I had my last job because I don't/can't do much of anything from home.  I hate long days away from home, so this stinks.   The furthest school I go to is 35 minutes away. It doesn't seem long but it is... There's way too much work to do to be stretched across three schools. I think I see 80+ kids, which means some of them I only check in on once a month. So... not getting to know kids deeply, and I miss that. I don't like running groups in elementary schools. Sounded fun to me but it is not! Right now I'm running a group for elementary kids who have had big shifts in families- divorce, separation, death, etc.  Give them to me one on one and it's good... all together and it's crazy.  Office space sucks. The middle school has an office to give me, though they keep the "coke fridge" in their and just barge in whenver they like. So I had to put up a sign when I'm with ki...

This past weekend we checked the mail and found a wrapped book and letter.  Isn't it the nicest thing? I started crying, because I am a crier.  :) The book is full of "scratch off" family adventures, and a charge of "you have to do it" after it's scratched off. We did the first challenge, which was for parents to choose a song for kids to lip symc and for kids to choose a song for parents to lip sync.  It was funny. The girls picked Wellerman  for Tim and I to lip sync- piece of cake. Tim and I picked Black Betty , but the didn't really know it, so then we picked Get Along , which they all knew. Then we all just picked random songs. It was pretty funny. Micah and Dakota hate to lip sync, hahahaha. Copper got pretty into it!  I love the thoughtfulness of whomever it was. Obviously they want to remain anonymous, but I'm curious to know who is thinking of us. It definitely coincides with my views of ministering to others- know people's lives, let th...