hello....thursday...

this week has been one of those weeks.

one that is best described as starting out as a teeny tiny snowball rolling down the mountain side and then growing bigger and bigger and bigger as it starts to swallow up whole trees and houses.

quickly growing out of control.

that was this week.

from maggie having another ear infection last friday to tim not feeling well to weird things happening to me at school to running behind to get to ellie's (oh soooooo good conference) to tim having to work some long hours to me having conferences two nights this week to cece not feeling the best to cece's not feeling the best turning into a stomach bug to ellie getting sick in the car to needing to get to practices and activities to the WEATHER.

this week has been out of control.

but we are making our way through.

the girls and i are home resting up today. everyone seems to be on the mend.


but the weather. there is nothing we can do about that. oh winter. its a love hate relationship for sure.


anyway.

we are home today. girls are resting and i am disinfecting.

i don't know about y'all but when we get a bug in our house all i want to do is get it cleared out of here.

my steps to disinfecting

1. wash the bedding. i have a fairly good routine for washing bedding. but when we get sick, that is one of the first things i wash. this includes those gross  pillow pets and stuffies.

2. wash other blankets and pillowcases. these would be blankets and pillows in our living room that everyone uses.

3. throw toothbrushes in the dishwasher. and just throw away old ones.

4. clean the bathrooms. enough said. germs live there.

5. disinfect surfaces. i send the girls on a mission to wipe down doorknobs, remotes, light switches, etc.


this time i am also gonna give our snow gear a wash. coats, hats, gloves, scarfs. cleaning it all.


fingers are crossed and prayers are being said that we can kick these bugs to the curb and we can stay healthy.

kindness

kindness. 

it has been on my mind a lot lately. likely not a coincidence. 

i have been teaching bullying prevention units to both my 6th and 7th grade classes. and february 10th through 14th was random act of kindness week. 

then last week my devotions included these two verses. 

these verses pretty much sum up how we should be behaving. 

how we need to treat each other. what we need to be focusing on. how i want to be living my life. these verses apply to every single relationship in my life. 

every. single. one. 

man that bible. it sure is spot on. :)

side note: i sure do love a good printable. one night last weekend while tim was on a road trip i sat up late whipping these up. it sure was fun. 

a little more kindness.

a little more sensitivity. 

a little more forgiveness.

a little more positive thinking.

a little more looking for the good.

a little more praise. 

all those little things would go a long way.

a long way in making those around us feel a whole lot more uplifted. 

a long way in making us feel a whole lot more happy.

a whole lot more of what i want in my life. 

kindness. it's a good thing. 

volleyball y'all

ellie jo started playing volleyball this winter.

she is loving it.

and it shows.

she works hard and she has fun.

she is getting all competitive and stuff.

its cool to watch.

her team played in their second tourney this weekend. boy they improved a bunch from their last tournament. they went 5-1 in pool play and then lost 1-2 in their bracket game. they even got a bump, set, spike. it was impressive.

lots of focus from jojo.

Volleyball, it is pretty cool.

happy Wednesday.

this girl...

18 months ago she stole our hearts.

she pretty much runs this place.

we all are just head over heals in love with miss maggie. 

and why not?

she is sweet, happy, spunky, always on the go, spirited, full of love. 

basically, we just love her a whole lot. 

after we had cece and we were still living in arizona, tim and i talked very seriously about how we would be done and we would be a family of four. maybe not what we had always hoped for but it would be good. it was just so hard living away from our family. hard to be on our own all the time. hard to get back home to iowa. we knew more children would just make all of that hard stuff just harder.

then so much changed.

dreams we never thought would come true, came true.

miss maggie you are a dream come true.

God had a plan for us and He had a plan for you.

sometimes i look at her sweet face and i am overcome with Joy. beyond blessed to be her momma and to have her in our lives.

she is so good.

God is so good.

 definitely one of my favorite pictures of miss maggie

oh magpie. you have our hearts.

hello Monday

hello snow, snow, and more snow. it just keeps snowing. we had a late start this morning....i was hoping for a snow day. but a late start will do. also, if i ran the schools every monday would be a late start. it was lovely.

p.s. fringe boots have more fun. especially in the snow. just sayin.

hello valentine boxes. what can i say....we love cats and cece loves pet the cat. also my girls got personality. 

hello ice cream cone after school snack. this is what happens when cece is in charge. it's all good.

hello snowman building. 

hello sweet sleeping magpie. it is just doesn't get much better than a sleeping babe.

hello sweet sleeping cece. i love the hands above the head.

hello post bath magpie. please excuse the dirty mirror. 

hello valentines.

hello volleyball tournament. the strikers played well, i kept the littles busy, and maggie has a new shirt that she will wear for the next five years.

hello sledding. it was maggie's first time. she kept telling me "no" and pointing to the car. she also kept trying to sit backwards in the sled. she did however really enjoy watching her big sisters sled.

hello summer dreams.

happy monday.

i love love

happy valentines day from our sweethearts....

oh just some randomness

1. i am loving this picture of maggie. the light might not be quite right, but the cheesy grin is all good. the other pictures are pretty good too. 

2. magpie has an obsession with nana's buckets. as soon as we get to nana's house she finds them and tries to carry all of them around. and by all i mean all ten or so.

3. cece loves washing sinks. like l.o.v.e. loves it.

4. these two. there is just something special between these two. so fun to watch. such a blessing.

5. they love taking off papa's shoes.