Some Flowers to Brighten Your Day

During the winter, I always like to have some real flowers blooming in my house. They make me happy.


We planted this amaryllis about 5 weeks ago.
It has been fun watching it grow. and grow. and grow.

These sweet little primroses were only 99 cents at Aldi.
I love that they were selling them in the midst of a giant blizzard.

Aren't they happy??

Blizzard of 2011

I woke up this morning and this is what I saw outside my dining room window.
uh oh.

This is what I saw outside the garage door.
uh oh.

This is what I saw outside the back door of the garage.
uh oh.

The kids had a blast in the snow . . . it was soooo deep.

Ummmm . . . where did our pool go??

The task of shoveling (no, we do not own a snowblower) seemed very daunting, but we managed to clear it up within a couple of hours. 
I have received several compliments about my husband's beautiful snowpants . . . he said he just didn't want to get lost in all that white snow!)

Luke helped shovel.

Jake was one happy guy since there was no school.

Caroline was pretty happy, too.

Luke was just happy to be with Jake and Caroline.
:)

When the kids weren't outside, they were in playing Wii.

And eating cookies!!

We are so excited because we found out that tomorrow is also a
SNOW DAY!

I Spy with My Little Eye . . .

Yesterday at lunch, I was playing "I Spy With My Little Eye" with the kids. 

It was Luke's turn.

He looked straight at me and said, "I spy with my little eye something that I love."

I (hopefully) said, "Me???"

"Yup. You guessed it."

Swoon.

My Word for 2011

The other day on K-LOVE (my favorite Christian radio station ~ "positive and encouraging") they were urging everyone to find a key word or phrase for the year 2011.

I decided right away that I needed to find MY WORD!

I have been really thinking about what word I should focus on in 2011.

I asked for suggestions on facebook (I will have to say that I love facebook for times such as these). . . here are some of the suggestions:

"gratitude"
"contentment"
"be there"
"courage"
"intentional" (because so often we just randomly go through the day or go through it on auto-pilot.....It applies to how we treat each other, how we do our work/homework, what we say, what we eat....)
"clear" (as in transparent, free, pure, defined, without distraction)
"simplify"
"declutter"
"trust"
"perspective"
"peace"
"recover"(...not in the sense of RECOVERY..like with an addiction, but rather like the idea that Grace for our mistakes and shortcomings gives us the ability to RECOVER quickly.. acknowledge the mistake, learn and MOVE FORWARD... no wallowing allowed (that is prideful and self-absorbed).. as to RESET, and to shake perfectionistic thinking out of the mind...that is a trap.)

Wow . . . some really good ideas, right??  I really like all of them, but I think the one I will probably choose is "intentional".  This word means "characterized by conscious design or purpose".  I want to really put a lot of thought into everything I do.  (no more flying by the seat of my pants!!)

I want to be intentional in:

• the words I say
• the time I spend with my kids and my husband
• what I read
• how I (we) raise our children 
• the work I do at home and when I'm tutoring
• my friendships  
• my thoughts
• my relationship with my husband
• what I eat
• how I decorate and organize our home
• the time I spend with the Lord
• my plans 
• the money I spend
• how I use my time
• what I cook for my family
• what I sign my kids up for (sports, music, etc)
• everything I do!

I have also chosen a word for our FAMILY for the year 2011, but that will have to wait for another post.  I am intentionally ending this post now so I can go get some much needed sleep. :)


By the way . . . what is YOUR word for 2011??

Meet my Family

I post a ton of pictures of my kids on this blog . . . but I want to introduce you to the rest of my family . . .
My mom, my dad, my sister, Diane, and my brother, Steve.

They are my number one support system.  They are my friends. They are who I call first when I have a problem.  They are the ones who have made me who I am today.  They are my prayer warriors. They are my advice-givers.  They know me, truly know me, but love me anyway.  They are my family . . . and I love them and appreciate them so very much.

 We all got together this New Years and we had a great time.  Steve's wife, Rebecca, and Diane's husband, Colin, and of course, John, are a great addition to our family and also love and appreciate them so very much!

“The love of a family is life's greatest blessing”

Chicago Sports Day

My Chicago sports fans are happy campers today.
One of John's students gave him tickets to the rematch of the Stanley Cup today. . . and he loaned them some jerseys for the day . . . how nice!! 
(If I had money, I would love to do things like that . . . give things to people. Wouldn't that be fun??)

Go Hawks!!

And, of course, the Bears will be playing the Packers this afternoon.

My boys are Bears fans even though I grew up in the Green Bay area.  People ask me why we don't root for the Packers.  I guess it is because I was never a big football fan.  (I can't even remember ever watching a Packers game)  When Jake came along, he was invited to a few Bears games (thanks Diane!!) and he naturally became a Bears fan . . . I guess I will be happy with either team winning.  :)  They are both great teams.

Three Sickos

I had three sick kids at home today.
:(


It wasn't so bad . . .
We watched a lot of this,

. . .  and these. (Have you watched any of these DVDs yet?? If not, do!! They are FAN-TAST-IC!) 

We played with a lot of these. . . I was getting way too involved with these, actually.  I knew it was time to move on to something else when I found myself yelling at telling Luke to not touch what I was making because it might fall apart.  Hello!!

Oh, and we drank some of this.  Usually, you would not find pop (they call it soda around here) in our house, but I was so excited when I saw this kind at the store . . . NO High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Finally!  If they can do it, all pop companies can.