not many words

I love this boy.  And his amazing sense of fashion...he once told me that his favorite color was blue, like mine.  :)

Isn't he precious?  And every bit as sweet on the inside.

I re-purposed some things in my kitchen today.  {In case you don't know what that is, it's taking things from other parts of the house and reusing them in a new place.  I do this at least once every year, because it's the cheapest way to decorate.}

I also cleaned out every cabinet in my kitchen.  I blame my friend Jennifer for that one.  ;)

In cleaning things out, I pulled some things out that had been hidden for a little while, like this tray and chalk board, in the above picture.

And I'm glad I did...

...so this sweet lovey could leave me messages like this.

Be still, my heart.

Love to all.

{Linking up with Time-Warp Wife, Titus 2uesday}

 

things I love

I haven't done one of these in forever, and thought it sounded fun for today.  Enjoy!

My current favorite show right now is The Voice.  We watched for the first time last season, when Cassadee Pope from Blake's team won, and we are officially hooked.  Adam's team is totally going to win this season~he has four amazing girls on his team.  {The coaches are Adam Levine, Shakira, Usher and Blake Shelton.}

I love my new phone, the HTC Incredible 2.  I recently got this new phone to replace the LG Spectrum I had.  I liked the LG Spectrum, but since I got it back in August, I have been having problems with it.  My hubby convinced Verizon to ship new phones to us, and since having this one, I love it!  I love the apps, the HD screen, the way a folder looks when I put several apps into a folder, everything about it, I love.  :)

I love Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb.  In a perfect world, I would have time to enjoy their hour long show after The Today Show, every morning.

I love watching cooking shows.  I don't know who I love more~Giada De Laurentis or Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa.  It's definitely a toss up.  Right now, I'm leaning more towards Ina after seeing what she just made.  It's a good thing we don't have smell~a~vision.  I'd be in serious trouble.  {Are you sensing that I love to watch television?  I promise I don't do that all day~most days it doesn't even get turned on, at least during the day.}

I love seeing the boys use their imaginations.  Since homeschooling all four of them, I've witnessed many late afternoons spent playing with cars or Legos.  You never know when you might stumble upon one of their masterpieces, so if you do, don't move it!  {I've learned my lesson a time or two.}

I love talking to my friends.  I don't even mind if it's through text, I'm just so thankful for the ladies God has blessed me with.  Two times today I stopped and talked to a girlfriend~one in a text that she sent me asking me how she could pray for me {Thank you, Andrea!  I love you!}, and one in a phone call after lunch, so we could share accountability stuff.  I promise to try my hardest to never take one of these friends for granted.

I love organization, but you probably already knew that.  A picture I took today prompted me to organize my kitchen cabinets.  All of them.  :)  It makes my heart so happy!

Well, the laundry is calling me again...we need to get the covers back on the dog beds.  Love to all!

catching up

I love our weekends.  I usually don't get on Facebook that much, I usually don't post on the blog, I just spend time enjoying my family at home together.  How was your weekend?

Ours was really good, even though Todd worked with the sheriff's department both Friday and Saturday nights.  On Friday night, the only ones at home were Graham and me.  We had a yummy dinner together, then we settled in to watch a movie that he picked out~Get Smart.  It was so nice having some alone time with him, and I loved that we were laughing in all the same parts of the movie.  It does my mama's heart good, nights like that. 

{Drew did end up coming home.  He had been invited to see Iron Man 3 with a friend, which he said "freaked him out", and Jonah and Noah spent the night with their neighbor friend down the street.}

On Saturday, I had an unexpected morning and early afternoon out with my mom.  She had to go to the mall and didn't feel like going alone, so I tagged along.  It was fun.  Even though a couple times, we freaked out at what was going on around us.  But still...memories were created and fun was had.  I always love an excuse to go to my favorite place to eat what I love the most~Firebirds and their BLT salad and salted caramel brownie. 

We had dinner with Mom and Bill Saturday night, and he made us something new and yummy~lettuce wraps!  I could drink the peanut sauce that Big Daddy made...oh my word.  There are not proper words to describe how amazing it was. 

Our last day of the weekend was every bit as relaxing.  After church Todd and Drew watched Get Smart, since it was still available on our On-Demand channel, and I made everyone a really good dinner.  We ended our night by watching the season finale of The Amazing Race.  I won't spoil the end for you, but it was a great episode.  ;)

Today I will get caught back up on laundry and will re-stock our fridge and pantry.  I need to get a plan for what we'll be eating this week, and I need to put some thought into the fact that Mother's Day is this Sunday.  :)  I love Mother's Day~I love how special my boys {all five of them} always make me feel. 

I hope your day is fantabulous, in spite of the rain you might see if you're nearby to me.  Love to all!

thursday

I am so excited about something my boys get to do tonight~they get to help their Mimi and Papa at the Newsboys and Britt Nicole concert at Memphis First Assembly of God.  My in-laws go to this church, and since the concert is there, if they help in some way, they get to attend for free. 

Pretty cool, huh?

They are so excited.  :)  My sweet father-in-law called me and gave me their assignments for the night...Drew will help backstage, Jonah and Noah will be runners for whoever needs anything {they're hoping the band will need things!} and Graham will help my mom-in-law sell things at the product table. 

So, even though our homeschool group is over for the summer, Graham and Drew will still have to go on Thursday for gen s.c. meetings {student council}.  Today is their first meeting.  Following the meeting is praise band practice, then we'll hurry home so they can shower and change for the concert, then I'll drop them off at the church. 

That's pretty much how our day will be spent~running around all over the place.  I don't mind, though.  I know that all too soon, they'll be able to go off on their own, or with a friend, and I will miss this time spent in the car. 

I do need a "Mom Taxi" sticker for my car, though.  ;)

Jonah and Noah are glad to be alone for the afternoon~I think they miss our time together.  On some days, I do too, like when they're all upstairs arguing over something dumb.  The weird thing about twins~they don't fight.  I can count on my hands how many arguments or fights they've gotten into.  The number is not very high.  That is so not the case for Graham and Drew.

Well...I need to run.  It's almost time to leave, and I hear laundry calling Drew's name.  Love to all!

Wednesday What~Not

1.  {Yes, this will be a numbered post.  Just because I'm feeling special tonight.}  Todd, Jonah and I are enjoying a Duck Dynasty marathon.  The episode that's on right this minute is the one where all the guys go to the doughnut shop in order to win the r.v.  Love!

2.  I created a new Facebook page today, for the people who are memorizing Scripture with me.  Back in January, I created a Facebook event for the year, but I noticed that after January passed, the event was not recurring, and it became difficult to access.  So, I decided to just create a new page for it...I named it Quest.  I liked the definition of the word~"an act or an instance of seeking".  Pretty cool, huh?  We should all be on a quest to draw closer to God.  I created the page because {in case you don't know}, I'm memorizing Scripture this year.  I did this in 2011, and what God did in my life as a result is indescribable.  Last year, in lieu of doing this, I read through the Bible in chronological order.  I'm back to memorizing in 2013...we'll see what the future holds for 2014.  ;)

3.  In other news, why must people use Facebook as a way to share news stories?  Call me crazy, but when I stalk people {tongue in cheek}, I want to see fun statuses, or Bible verses and fun pictures of them or their families.  Not how horrible our world is right this moment~if I wanted that, I would tune into to a major news network.  

4.  Tomorrow night is a rarity in my house!  My husband is working a maintenance night for the sheriff's department, and after that, he is going to volunteer to assist in the training of our local law enforcement.  It's called "active shooter training", and it's all about what might happen if {God forbid} there was a school shooting here.  He gets to play a "person down" and is super pumped.  ;)  It's from seven at night, till like three a.m.  I don't know if he'll stay that long, but he'll at least be there until one a.m.  I'm excited, because I get to have a girls' night out with my Bible study girls!!  I can't wait~we decided we're going to go to Swanky's so we can eat outside.  :) 

5.  I think I'm border-line obsessed with my blog.  I would love to "grow" it...but I have no idea how.  Any suggestions?  Maybe my posts are too random...there's no rhyme or reason to the way I write...I just seem to spew off whatever might be on my brain at that moment.  If you have a blog with a lot of readers or followers, feel free to share the love and comment.

6.  Another thing I'm obsessed with are the Yada Yada Prayer Group books!  I'm re-reading them, and I'm on book four in the series of seven.  I cannot seem to put them down...and I can't believe how much I had forgotten in the years it's been since I've read them for the first time.  If you're interested in them for your reading pleasure, they're written by Neta Jackson.  After this series comes at least two more series, possibly three.  The same characters are sprinkled throughout. 

I can't write anymore.  Especially after writing about my Yada Yada books.  I need to go read.  Thanks for reading.  Love to all. 

un-school

I love that word.  Well, maybe it's not a real word, but a made up one that I enjoy.  I saw this poster on Pinterest, or maybe Facebook, that says something like, "We're not trying to exactly replicate what public school looks like here at home.  We're trying to take our every day lives and incorporate those moments into part of our curriculum."  Or something like that.  Of course, along with these every day moments, we do actually have school work~math, language, science, health, spelling and poetry, history and reading.  And home economics.  Lots and lots and lots of home economics.  ;)

I tell you this, because as part of our school today, we started working on a gift for someone special.  I'm so excited about this gift~I've never given anything like this before, and it's so good, that I'm jealous!  I told the boys that I wanted the exact same thing for Mother's day.  ;)  We'll see if they remember.

I can't wait to give it!

We have done lots of loads of laundry today.  I'm so glad that the boys are such willing helpers~they help me with all the laundry.  We are some laundry-folding fools!  We sort it all into piles~they do pants, boxers, socks, pajama's, and I do all of mine, Todd's and their shirts.  It works...and it's teaching them to be independent someday.  You know why~because I'm just not raising boys, but future husbands and fathers.  I want them to know their way around a kitchen and laundry room.

They also unload the dishwasher after breakfast, and start it each night.  I figure this is a fair trade, because I cook all the meals around here.  ;)  And because right now, they genuinely like to do this activity.  More power to them, right?!

Graham is my grocery-shopping buddy.  That boy has mad skills when it comes to maneuvering his way around our local Kroger.  He is great at finding the best deals, too.  A lot of times he also helps with meal preparation.  All of them do that, actually.  I love putting them to work with a knife and a cutting board...they're awesome little choppers.

Drew and Jonah have asked me to let them do the laundry and the dishes everyday.  I'll gladly give that up to them...even though I don't mind doing it myself.  I'm really, really old-fashioned in my role of stay-at-home wife and mom.  I figure my job is to take care of everything involved with our home.  Todd's out working all day, and many nights, and I figure it's the least I can do.  I would feel differently {probably} if I worked outside of our home, or if I was a full-time employee somewhere.   I know he would help me if I needed him to do something, but I'm blessed with good help and don't often require the extra help. 

A weird fact about me is that I love being a stay-at-home wife and mom.  I love doing laundry, I love folding shirts, I love cooking and I get extreme satisfaction out of cleaning the home that the Lord has blessed us with.  Call me crazy...but I seriously love doing all this.

I don't know why I'm writing all this, except for the fact that I came across a really cool chore chart for kids the other day.  How do you feel about chores?  We expect a lot from our kids, I'll give you that...but I think it's a homeschool thing, too.  Lots of families I know who homeschool have kids that work a lot around their house.  Chalk it up to the fact that school doesn't take seven hours at home, and you need extra activities to fill in some gaps, and you get your reason for the why that I know you want to ask.  We don't pay them money, either...their payment is getting to participate in privileges, like going for ice-cream, or hanging out at the bowling alley with friends, or other similar things, like the occasional movie or church outing.

Do your kids do chores?  Do you pay them?  What do they do? 

Share the love and comment!  Please.  Help a girl out.  Since N.O.B.O.D.Y. commented on yesterday's post.  ;) 

Love to all. 

how do you give praise to God?

I'm assuming you're the praying type, just by my title.  If you're not, you might want to skip over this post.

I've really been convicted of my prayer life since February/March-ish.  And since then, I've been on this roller coaster ride of trying to learn what God is teaching me about prayer.

And the thing I'm learning is not that I'm not praying enough, but that I've been giving God this laundry list of prayer needs.

I'm not saying we shouldn't ask for anything, but it's in the how we go about doing that asking.

I've had prayer broken down for me, and only a short part of praying is intercession and petition, or praying for others and ourselves.  The other parts of prayer include thanksgiving, praise, singing, confession of our sin, being still and quiet before Him...there may be more parts, but those are what I remember for now.

I understand most of the parts, but the praise one kind of stumps me.  We're supposed to praise Him for who He is~His attributes.  {This differs from thanksgiving.}  And some of those attributes are Creator, Healer, faithful One, Love, all-knowing, Provider...

But other than just saying, "Lord, I praise You because You are Creator"...how do you give Him praise?

I don't think there's a right or wrong answer.  I'm just curious, because personally, I'm stumped.  I don't want to sound robotic in giving Him praise.  I want my praise to be passionate, heart-felt, joyful. 

I guess I'm in a rut in this area of my prayer life.  {And I wish I could tell you how many times I've heard people speak on prayer in the past couple months.  It's almost funny, how God seems to be pounding this into my head.}

So this morning in my quiet time, in hopes of getting out of this rut, when it came time for me to give God praise, I opened up my Bible to the book of Psalm.  I thought I would share a little of what I told Him this morning...these verses are from Psalm 119.

{v.57 &58}  You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey Your words.  I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.

{v.76}  May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant.

{v.105}  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

{v.114}  You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in Your word.

I wish someone would talk just on this topic of praise...and how to give God the praise He so deserves.  What I say or do never seems to be enough {who knows, maybe it is enough!}, and I don't like feeling like I'm in a rut.  I'm asking for YOU to share with me what you do in this area.

I like the thought of us sharing with one another.  So, will you leave a comment?  This wondering mind would really like to know.  ;)

Any and all advice will be well received and appreciated, I assure you.  Thanks in advance!  Love to all.