Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! 

This weekend we had a lot of fun running around and being crazy kids!

Friday, we finished our Valentines and someone had to test them out. ;)

We visited with my grandparents, and the boys loved it! Apparently in this picture, she was being Lois Lane and he was being Flash. I love that my grandma plays with my kids like this! <3

We also introduced my grandma to Snapchat. I can't handle the picture.

After one grandma's house, we obviously had to go visit the other great-grands! While we were there, this group of crazies put together seven puzzles. Seven. Glory.

Saturday morning, we made a trip to the store with the circus (aka, my sister and her two kids, my mom, and me with my two kids). Someone decided that he needed to wear my "funny sungwasses" because the sun was so bright.

Saturday afternoon, Tim and I were off to Winter Jam STL to hang out with our youth kiddos. What a great night!

I don't know if any of you make the trip to see Winter Jam, but you should. And if you do, you should definitely pay the extra money to join Jam Nation. Sure, tickets are higher, but you get early entry (huge bonus, especially if you're with a group) and to see the artist Q&A session. We actually ended up getting passes this time that will let us into multiple shows early- so I'm taking a few of our kids again Thursday night! :)

While walking to the venue, we passed a guy outside talking on the phone. Turns out that it was Dave (the lead singer from Sidewalk Prophets)! These two decided to go back and get their picture taken with him, and he was super cool about it!

Love this man and his heart for serving and teaching these kids.

Okay. I love me some Sidewalk Prophets. Always have. This night though? They pulled a girl on stage that wants to be a singer... and gave her some spotlight time. How awesome?! 

Also, Matthew West and his band are Cardinals fans. ;)

While we were there, we found these two! Well, sort of. We saved seats with our group for Tay, and found out once the concert had started that Kay was there... and in some terrible seats. When the people in front of us left for three bands, we decided to share our good seats with her group! I love these two (and the other two in our bible study group) and getting to spend time together!

We got home from STL, dropping youth kids off, and picking our kids up a little after three Sunday morning (we knew it was going to be a late night, so we stopped for coffee once we got out of the city). Our Sunday looked like this:

Dinosaur fights at the Mexican restaurant. 

Hope you have a great start to the week!

Fri-YAY!

My absolute favorite thing this week? The fact that I am currently on my third snow day in a row! And honestly, I'm that weird teacher who is all for snow days. I don't mind staying at work until the beginning of June, because 1) I don't like to sweat, and they keep my school freezing. 2) I don't like to drive on the snow. 3) June 1st is not too late into summer. Basically, give me all the snow days!! As of today, we have used 4 of our 5 built in, so we might as well use a dozen more. ;)

Here's what we've been doing this week:

 First off, these are just a few of the giant dinosaurs that the boys got for Christmas. Obviously, they need a few more. ;) Really though, the boys love lounging on them, and they make a great crash pad for their crazy! I might have snuggled with them for a nap or two this week. Shhh. :)

Snow days mean that we stay in jammies extra late and that Mommy gets all the cuddles!

My mom got us a gift card to Fresh Market for Christmas, so I used it to pick up stuffed chicken breast. Ohhhh dang. Guys, it's delish. Get some. Also? That edamame salad was great too!

Monkey man and I went to the store a few nights ago before the storm hit- I love getting to spend time with each of my boys one-on-one!

Obviously, powdered donuts are needed for snow day breakfasts!

SNOW FUN!

Also, I'm not a big Snapchat user, but these pictures... I died. The boys both loved getting to make faces with the different options, so we spent a good 45 minutes on my phone a few nights ago! 

Today's plans? Make the boys' Valentines to give out at church. I found them at Target, and knew we had to get them, Think of the pictures! 

Tomorrow we're taking our youth group to STL for Winter Jam! Hope you all have an awesome weekend!! <3

Happy Reading!

Okay, I'll quit being a slacker. I guess. ;)

We got another snow day today! Monster is so excited because the snow is actually the good kind to play in and the temps might get high enough that we go outside for a bit this afternoon (probably 30 minutes at the most). He loved the snow last year, so I'm excited to see how he feels about it this year!

So normally, I don't make a New Year's resolution. Mostly because I never keep them. Also because any time that I would make one, it ended up being about not drinking soda or as much coffee, and let's be totally real-- there's no way that's going to happen. 

This year though, I made a commitment (see- different word. So far it's working!) to write a note/scripture from my bible reading each day. I usually try to read 1-2 chapters each day, and I always write in my bible, so I thought this would be something extra I could do to help me really internalize what I was reading. 

Let me start by saying this: The bible I use is from high school. It's the first thing I bought myself after I started working through high school (before this I always used a KJV bible, and it was just too much for me to handle. To me, I want something that doesn't give me a headache when I read it!). It's been to all the mission trips with me, though college, to most camps... I've got a lot of history with this thing, and I love it. Another fun fact- my bestie that I went to church with had the same bible, so one of us would always find the page we needed and just tell the other. We're good like that. 

On the inside, I've got all sorts of things. Underlined verses that I liked; notes from sermons and bible studies, important statements that I loved; pictures... my bible is definitely one of my favorite things.

I picked a few random pages, along with the two covers to show you. Also, just to letcha know- my absolute favorite pens to use in my bible are the Flair pens. Every year before camp I buy the rainbow pack ... and then don't share them, because I'm a teacher too. ;)

Also, sorry they're turned. Blogger hates me.

My MIL got me a planner type thing for Christmas, which I am currently using for my notes. I love it because there is enough room for lots of writing per day. And I can add in the days as I go, which is super fun. I also really like that I can go through and read the inspirational message on each page. I don't know that she meant for me to use it like this, but I still am. ;)

^Notes from only two sessions at Passion. What a weekend!

Our pastor challenged us on Sunday to make sure we read each day from our bibles. I'm already doing that, so I'm going to challenge you, too! <3

Show & Tell Tuesday

1. If I don't want the boys to get into a snack I bought myself, I fib and tell them it's for the "the kids at school."

2. While wrapping presents, I don't like to hide in my bedroom (we have a small house, so there's not a ton of floor space, and the bed just ain't cuttin' it for wrapping), so I wrap on the stove (it's electric, so it's basically a standing desk for this shortie!). If Monster sees one that is his, I fib and tell him it's for one of his buddies at church.

3. The boys aren't allowed to eat in the car. I do on the daily.

4. Being able to drop the boys off in the nursery at church literally is the best thing for this tired momma.

5. I'm a big ol' grouch at bedtime. My caffiene is worn off, the boys are spazzy, and I have no more patience left. After they go to sleep though, I miss them like crazy. <3

Snow Day!!

Good Morning!

Guess who has the day off today- me!! Hallelujah for snow days!!

This weekend we did a whole lot of nothing, mostly because we had a church snow day yesterday... so I don't even have any new pictures to share! Apologies for me being a slacker momarazzi.

So, in the spirit of snow days- I'm signing off and I'll see you soon! :)

Weekend Favorites

I was going to write my Friday Favorites last night after the boys went to bed... and then Monster was up until 1:30 this morning, so that was not going to happen. 

My favorites this week:

Passion. Obviously. Such an amazing experience, and I'm beyond blessed to have spent the weekend with some of my favorite people.

This weekend, I also started reading this and No More Molasses Classes. I love them both. RCA, I wish I could make the trip back to Atlanta so that I could visit! If you're a teacher, I 100% suggest reading these for some added pep in your step!

I also started Genius Hour with my Science classes yesterday. The premise behind GH is Google's 20% policy (workers get to spend 20% of their work time on projects they are passionate about if it has the potential to help the company). The ideas that my students came up with blew me away! I have some that want to create design sketch books, create inspirational video series, implement anti-bullying clubs at our school, create video games, design working robots, find ways to help engage other students in reading... AMAZING!!

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Here's (most of) the things my kiddos are passionate about!

I'm excited to see where this takes us in the coming weeks! At the end of the session, students will have to make presentations of their findings. I'll let you know how they go!

I also started Book Clubs with my reading class! I have three different groups that are reading different novels, and I had them do the planning!! Basically, I told them they would be meeting every Thursday afternoon during class, and what the last day was for them to meet on these books. Each person in the group will be taking a week to lead discussion and questions, and I will spend about 15 minutes each week conferencing with the group to see how things are progressing. 

 Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Passion 2016

Guys. If you ever have an opportunity to attend (either as a student or a leader) DO IT!!!!

This was such an awesome experience! I wish I would have known about this when I was in college- that's how great it is.

The speakers that we got to hear were Louie Giglio, John Piper, Raavi Zacharias, Levi Lusko, and Christine Caine. Now let me just preface this with the fact that I don't particularly enjoy listening to speakers on the Internet. I just can't stay focused enough. However, most of these people I would 100% listen to in the future, and have already started checking out!

Louie was entertaining, and overall tried really hard to be relatable to the college students, which I think is great since that was who the conference was trying to target.

John was crazy knowledgable and made some points that I doubt I would have ever thought of on my own (also, whoa.).

Raavi was totes one of my faves, and really made me miss college and the professors that made me forget that I was in class.

Levi Lusko made me bawl my eyes out during his interview, but I ordered his book once we got home.

Christine Caine - we all agreed that she knew what she needed to say, and she didn't care about who was offended by it. Hands down, she was the group favorite (at least for our crew). One of my favorite quotes from her session is: "We pray for God to send us a revival, but He looks at us and says 'I did! It's in you.'" Dang, girl. She also talked about how she isn't sure that a generation of people that is so apathetic is going to be able to be servants for His kingdom. Preach. Also, she was salty. I loved her.

The bands that were there were sooooo good! We got to see Matt Redman, Rend Collective (who jumped way up my list of favorite artists... also, one of my coworkers told me he was "Totes jelly." which is basically teacher speak for "I'm more excited than our kids get about snow days."), Hillsong United, the Passion Band, LeCrae (and a few other rappers that I don't remember who they were- not so much my style, but man they were impressive!), Chris Tomlin, Crowder (talk about a group that knows how to make an enterance!)... so much good music, and an even better time of fellowship and worship. If you were there and didn't feel the Spirit moving, you weren't there for the right reasons.

Every year, they ask the college students to work together to complete some type of service. This year, we donated money towards building a NICU hospital in Syria. It was supposed to be just under $600,000 to get it built, but here's how you know that God does amazing things through young people...

Basically, I think it will be mine and Tim's plan to return as long as we have students that want to make the trip. From the promo stuff we saw for next year, we think Francis Chan is going to be there... and I would love to get to hear him in person.

I know I was a slacker to not post pictures tonight, but here's a link to the Passion Insta. I'll post mine Friday for my favs! :) Have a good rest of the week! Only two more days!