A heart of thankfulness

Being thankful.

It's a theme I keep hearing.

I think the Lord really wants me to get this, to apply this, to live this.

After talk on blogland about this book, One Thousand Gifts, I ordered it and have truly enjoyed reading it.  It's one of those books that takes some time to read and process, one I want to re-read and see what I might have missed.

The book has challenged me to be more thankful

really thankful,

in all areas and situations in my life.

To look for and acknowledge the daily blessings, grace and love God gives me.

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

Psalms 69:30

Then this morning during our morning devotional from this cute book, Jesus Calling, it talked about rejoicing in the Lord.

How do you rejoice in Him?

With joy and thanksgiving!

There it is again, being thankful.

When we express our thanks to God, we are showing that we know it was Him who gave us those blessings.

A lot of my prayer time is now more focused on praise and thanksgiving.

I hope to teach my girls to be thankful in everything

to rejoice in the Lord

to look at what they do have and

to see the Lord in their life daily.

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4

Happy Days

 We went out on our very first family bike ride yesterday.  And since the weather was so nice, we decided to go again after dinner.  All in all a total of 4 miles.  It was great.  Jason lead us around the subdivision, Abigail followed right behind him (it was funny, if J moved a little to the left, Abigail would move a little to the left ... adorable), then Ash and I bringing up the rear.  And in case you are wondering, yes Jake was in there too, running right along.  He might have been the happiest dog ever ... running, hanging out with his humans, getting out of the back yard, sniffing everything, yep happiest dog ever.

I loved it.  The whole family together doing something we all enjoy, I'm looking forward to many more happy days just like yesterday.

A not so 'stay-at-home' mom day

I get very comfortable with my typical stay at home mom days.  But Thursday was not one of those, I felt like I was on the run all day.

Our first stop was to the Fire Station for the first part of Ash's field trip.

 The kids got to see the firehouse, look in the fire truck and ambulance and then pose for a picture in the driver seat of the fire truck.  They also practiced stop, drop and roll.

Next,we made a pit stop to moxie java, 

(a reward for being out of the house so early)

and then headed to the next part of the field trip, Krispy Kreme.

(This was actually our very first time there.)

Ash said this field trip was her favorite, she loved watching all those doughnuts go down the conveyor belt.

After a yummy doughnut and some chocolate milk, we headed out ... with a dozen doughnuts of our own to share.

Next, we met J at my parents house to do a switch-a-roo. 

I headed back to Kuna to volunteer in Abigail's class and J and Ash went out for lunch and ran a few errands.

I ended up getting done a little early at Abigail's school, ran home to grab a bite to eat, and then back again to pick up the kids.

What a day of running around 

but a nice change of pace for this stay at home mom.

What's up?

We just had a nice visit with Grandmama.

Shopping, eating out, movies & time together, you couldn't ask for a better weekend.  The girls were sad to see her go,  both cried after we dropped her off and Ash said the sweetest prayer for her at dinnertime.  Thanks for coming Beverly, we love you!

I'm kinda getting use to my braces.

I'm still only eating soft foods, which means I have to let my cereal sit and get a little soggy.  It's still a little painful to chew, plus difficult with the new way my teeth line up, but I've made huge improvements.  It's nothing like those first 10 days, those were miserable.  I wanted to rip the braces off my teeth and if I could have I would have.

I realized just how much I took for granted the ability to chew, the enjoyment I had in eating, and the ease of eating whenever, where ever.

I also began to realize that I was letting this one little pain take over and affect everything else in my life.  I started to think about those who live with constant pain, deal with a hurt or brokenness on a daily basis.  How do they still put a smile on.  That has helped me remember to continue to smile even though this new smile hurts.

But during all this I was still able to enjoy a cup of coffee.  And actually treated my self to many mochas.  Something about the warmth of the drink made my teeth, for that moment, feel better.

Can you believe all the snow we got?  I couldn't believe that it just kept snowing.  Of course this is the weather we had the day after I just bought a new bike.  Yep, I'm now a bike rider and thrilled to have one!  I can finally keep up with the girls.  They always pick to ride their bikes on our walks, leaving me way behind.  No more!  Now we just need a bike for J too.

 Can it be March 8th already?  That means I'm going to have an 8 year old very soon.  Crazy!  Abigail really wants a party even though I keep telling her it's our off year for doing a friend party.  But, I have a sneaky feeling she's going to talk me into throwing one.  

Soccer is soon approaching, I can't wait to watch her play and grow in her ability.  I guess I should find out if her cleats still fit.

{imagine a cute picture of Ash inserted right here}

And Ash.  Everyday I look at her and can't believe how old she looks.  Next month we sign her up for kindergarten.  Crazy!  

She's also going to play a sport this spring, T-Ball.  She can hardly wait, last night she came down stairs in her new baseball pants and one of Abigail's old T-ball shirts, she looked adorable!  I can't wait to watch her play too! 

 I could go on about everything swirling around in my head but I'll stop here ... maybe I should just blog more often. ;o)