Proud Teacher Here!!!

     Because I work at a University Model School, we are not only focused on learning but also on student performance meaning what they can do on demand. My 4th graders took a quiz on volume in math. Out of 44 students 42 passed. Out of the 42 that passed 34 made a perfect score! My first graders rocked their science vocabulary quiz as well! I'm so proud of my students! Watching my students master concepts brings my heart so much joy!!!

   

AWANA Night

Tonight was BARF (Bring A Real Friend) night and ice cream party night at AWANA. The friend Logan wanted to bring has been sick all week. This afternoon Logan invited Uncle Josh to be his friend at AWANA. Uncle Josh came and participated in all the activities with Logan. Logan got his bring a friend section passed and they both enjoyed ice cream sandwiches. Lucas got some love from Uncle Josh at the end of the evening too. They both received awards tonight as well! So proud of my boys for working hard to memorize Scripture!

Lucas Update

Well it's been 3 days since our trip to the ER. Lucas' butterflies are gone. He pulled them off during rest time yesterday. Cutting his head open hasn't slowed him down at all. I can't tell you how many times he has gone running through the house, tripped, and almost hit his head where it was cut open. Oh and he's still wrestling!

Lunch with Gram

Our Story

     This morning Joshua and I shared part of our testimony with our church family. It's been the biggest part of our story. One of my sweet middle school girls Bayli videoed it for me. Our friends Heather and Joel had asked us to video it so they could see it. Joel was our student minister and is now serving at a church in Arkansas. They were and continue to be a huge source of encouragement and support for our family. Bay did an excellent job filming it, but it was done on my phone. I'll be very honest I hate hearing my recorded voice so I just listened to a couple of seconds to make sure the volume was decent. Our prayer for you if you watch this is that you would see God's grace and restoration through our story.

Lucas' Trip to the ER

     Tonight Lucas made his first (and hopefully only!) trip to the ER. Logan and Lucas were wrestling near the fireplace. Joshua had just told them to knock it off when Lucas tripped and cut his forehead open on the fireplace. He has a pretty deep gash, but thankfully it did not bleed a whole lot. Here's a picture taken right after it happen and right before we left for the ER.

    Here we are waiting in the ER. He was happy and acting fine the whole time. It was hard to keep him from running and climbing all over the furniture while we waited. We were so blessed that we did have to wait very long at all. I kept telling Lucas to make his sad face and he couldn't do it. He told me, "Mommy I'm happy. My head hurts though".

     After the nurse took us back and checked his vitals, they gave him two sheets of stickers. One was Spiderman and one was Cars. He was so sweet and asked the nurse if he could have some stickers for his brother. 

    Logan was so upset and worried about his brother. When we left Logan and Grammie prayed for Lucas and Logan just layed in the bed worrying about his brother. Logan was so relieved when we got home and he saw Lucas was okay. Our friend Siah told his mommy and daddy that Lucas would probably get glue beacuse three year olds are too little to get stitches; it might hurt his brain." Siah was right. Lucas has been glued and butterflied back together and is back to running around. 

Lunch with Logan

Lucas and I had lunch with Logan at school today. We took him McDonald's. I'm so thankful I can have lunch with him at school and not have to worry about taking care of a few things before rushing back to get my own students. UME Prep has been a such a blessing to our family in many ways.

Peaceful Sleep

I will lie down and sleep peacefully, for you, Lord , make me safe and secure. (Psalms 4:8 NET)

Double Take

   This picture of Lucas

reminds me of this picture of Logan at the same age.

I didn't realize how much Lucas looks like Logan at the same age (except for the hair and eye color of course!). Time flies so quickly and they grow so fast.

Story Time

Logan reads to one of us almost every night before bed in addition to any assigned reading homework. I love reading and want him to love it too! Tonight Logan choose a book from his school reading bag to read to Daddy. Of course, Lucas had to get a book and read to Daddy too! It was so cute listening to Lucas read the story by looking at the pictures.

Snuggle Bugs

I love that my boys still love snuggling. Lucas is good for snuggles anytime and always has been. Logan wants to be held and snuggled when we're settling down at night. Most times, I secretly love that they fight about who gets to snuggle with Mommy and want Mommy's undivided attention. But there are those nights that I wish they fought more over Daddy and gave Mommy a little break.

Caught!

Logan is really great about playing with his toys and entertaining himself especially when I'm cooking dinner. However, Lucas takes advantage and uses it as an opportunity to get into any and every thing he can. Lucas is also great at staring at the TV and pretending he's not getting into things. I don't know what I'm going to do with that boy! Notice Lucas in the background.

A Lesson From Lucas

     This morning we took the boys to run errands which included getting new shoes. On the way to our first stop Logan asked if he needed socks to try on shoes. Of course he asked this because he didn't put socks on with his tennis shoes. One of our stops was at Target so we tried to find him a pair of socks in the dollar spot. Of course, they didn't have boy socks in his size. Logan picked out a cute pair of monkey valentine socks to give to his friend Rachel. We decided he could use those just to try on shoes at the store. He was HORRIFIED, but we finally talked him into it. Because Logan picked out socks, Lucas wanted socks and picked out some Elmo socks.

     We headed out to the Nike outlet next. When we got there Joshua changed Lucas' pull up while I put the socks on Logan. We got in the store and both boys picked out shoes. We went to try them on and Lucas realized Logan had on the Target socks and started throwing a screaming fit for his Elmo socks. We tried to reason with him: you can't try on the shoes without socks; Logan has those on because he didn't wear socks from home, etc. We threaten no shoes, a spanking, time out, nap, etc. Nothing. Finally Joshua took him kicking and screaming from the store while Logan and I got in line to buy his shoes. Almost the entire time we're standing in line we can hear Lucas screaming and they're a good 20 feet from the door to the store. Apparently Lucas was screaming on his belly trying to crawl away as Joshua was trying to get his socks and shoes on him. Then Lucas realized he wasn't getting shoes so he started trying a fit about that.

     Thankfully by the time Lo and I got out to them, he had finally calmed down. Joshua told me Lucas had something to tell me. Lucas apologized to me and then asked if he could get shoes. We explained he could if he left his cars socks on. So we went back in the store to find someone else trying on the shoes Lucas wanted in his size and it was the only pair left. So we picked out a different pair but Lucas kept telling us he wanted the red ones. Thankfully the person who tried them on their child decided not to get them. So we let Lucas try on both pairs and he choose the red ones which were the ones he originally wanted.

     When we got home, Joshua looked at me and said Lucas almost lost a $30 pair of shoes over a dollar pair of socks. It hit me, how many times do I get fixated on my version of Elmo socks and almost miss the bigger gift or blessing God has for me because I want to hold onto a small thing or stay in my comfort zone instead of letting it go and trusting that He wants to give me something better? How many times am I internally throwing a fit when He just wants to give me something better? I was reminded of these two verses:

"If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"

Matthew 7:11 (NET)

"All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change."

James 1:17 (NET)

     What are our Elmo socks? What are we focusing on when God has something must greater that He wants to give us? We just need to let go of our Elmo socks and ask. 

Winter Has Finally Arrived

The winter weather finally seems to be here pretty consistently. Logan doesn't understand why he can't wear shorts to school. As soon as he gets home he changes into shorts and a t-shirt. Lucas, on the other hand, wears his hoodie all the time! We can barely get it off for bedtime and pictures. This past Tuesday we had a winter mix of precipitation. It's one of my teaching days and thankfully school was just delayed an hour. It didn't affect Logan at all because he goes at 10:30am. I love that it's finally cold enough for Lo and I to enjoy hot chocolate and apple cider at night. I hate how empty the house looks after Christmas, so this year I decided to leave out the decorations that were more winterish for a while longer. I love warm pjs and all the extra snuggle time with my boys.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
(Ecclesiastes 3:1 ASV)

Psalm 11:7

     I've committed to memorizing 24 verses this year. I am doing this through Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries' Blog.  I used to be in the habit of memorizing Scripture pretty consistently. I got  lax during my college days, but seeing the joy and excitement Logan and Lucas have about memorizing their verses for AWANA has motivated me to start consistently memorizing Scripture again. I'm currently working on Psalm 11:7.

"Certainly the LORD is just;

He rewards godly deeds,

the upright will experience His favor."

     Here's a brief moment I caught tonight when the boys were actually making their wrestlers have matches rather than wrestling each other. I think it lasted maybe 5 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

Mini Me

Lucas (and Logan too) love Uncle Josh so much and want to be like him. Here's a few pics of Lucas and Josh I took at Calli's house tonight. They were both wearing their hoodies. Logan was home with Daddy.

Pepaw's Boys

"Grandchildren are like a crown to the elderly"

Proverbs 17:6a

Stand Up

     Our pastor preached a thought provoking message this morning on standing up for and standing against. His message was rooted in the following verses:

"1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 

2 Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. 

4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." (Jude 1-4 NIV)

     Pastor Monty made a couple of points this morning that really resonated with me. The first one being that we are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). This is an area of my life God has been working on me for a LONG time. I mean since I was a child and first started my relationship with Jesus. I have always been very much "This is the Bible and this is what God's says, and that's the way it is." Unfortunately many times in my life the truth was spoken by me, but it was not in love or even remotely with any kind of tact. I've made huge strides in this area, but still have a long way to go. I firmly believe in the timeliness of God speaking into your life; so I'm pretty sure this reminder will be needed by me very soon. 

     Secondly, that to stand for something means you stand against something and because of that we are often labeled intolerant. For this point, I really felt like God was speaking to me about my boys. That as we raise them, they need to understand that if you stand for something (like God's Word) that means you stand against some things (murder, lies, homosexuality, etc.) and circumstances don't allow us to compromise our beliefs especially when we are talking about God and His Word. Modeling this is so important, but this is an area where we definitely need to give explicit instruction as well. 

    As Christians if we are being labeled intolerant then we're probably not standing for and/or against the things we should be. 

Celebrating Papaw's Birthday

     We celebrated Papaw's birthday today! The boys were so excited. We baked brownies (his favorite dessert) last night and got his gift ready. We went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch-another one of Papaw's favorites. Here's a few pictures from lunch today.

Happy Birthday Papaw!!! We love you!!!