Since I love browsing all of the menu's posted in Menu Plan Monday, I thought I would join in the fun....

Monday-

Chicken and Vegetable Fajitas

Mexican Rice

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Tuesday-

Swiss Steak

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans and Applesauce

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Wednesday

Chili

Hot Pretzles

Veggie Platter

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Thursday-

Beef and Vegetable Stirfry over Rice

Friday-

Homemade Pizza

Saturday-

Chicken Nachos

I have been sick, sick, sick.  It's been a very long time since I have felt this awful.  I was hardly able to get off the couch over the past week, but Praise the Lord, I am feeling much better!  The girls have all had colds and coughs too, but they are doing much better, so tomorrow it's back to reality!  We have been able to get schooling done this week, but some of the extras have had to be set aside so we need to get back to those.  Also our schedule has been non-existent.... I am ever so ready to get back to normal!! 

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So tonight I have a few things to do to get on track:

1.  Finish writing out the weeks lesson plans

2.  Help the girls get their outfits together for the week.

3.  Make sure my calendar is updated with appointments

4.  Make sure my budget is on track

5.  Get too bed EARLY!!!

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That's what is going on around here!  I will update more tomorrow!

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Also, my poor Mom that helped me soo much this week while I was sick is now sick herself!  I'm sorry Mom!  Pray for my mom...

No it's not a child, or even a pet..... It's a KITCHENAID!!!!

I have been wanting to get one for a long time, but just could not justify spending the money, so I thought I would just wait patiently.  Well we went to see Joel and Beth (Jeremy's brother and sister in law) and she had this one that she had gotten when they were married a few years ago.  She had never used it, so I said "you should sell it on e-bay."  Then I got to thinking and said "how much would you want for it, I would buy it from you."  Well she ended up just GIVING it to me!!!  WOW!!  I felt really bad and asked a number of times if she was sure, but she was.  What a blessing to me!!!  THANK YOU BETH!!!

The girls love the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  So they had the idea that we would put on a play of the story for Daddy.  It was fun and cute to watch them.  They knew all of the lines, even Tatum, because I have told them the story so many times.. 

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Papa Bear (Me), Mama Bear (Lauren) and Baby Bear (Tatum), realizing their porridge is too hot to eat right now.

Goldilocks (Chloe) tasting the porridge.

Goldilocks prancing over to try the chairs.

Trying out the bears' beds.

Baby Bear discovering that her porridge is all gone.

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The girls got a rousing applause from Daddy and wanted to do it again right away.  I told them we could show it to Teetee sometime (so mom you may want to get some tickets to our show.)

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Blessings!

Amanda

"Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sadrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

-1 Sam. 15:22

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To obey is better than sacrifice.  My desire is to love the Lord with all of my heart, mind and strength.  To be pleasing to Him always and to walk continually listening to His voice.  It seems that even more in the past few months that God has spoken to me to make this my prayer, and if it is not my desire to love Him that way, that He would fill me with the hunger to.  In these past few months as I have been praying that continually, God has really begun to pinpoint some things in me.  Most recently He has shown me that many times I choose sacrifice over obedience.  I choose doing, and doing and doing, "sacrificing", all the while disobeying what He clearly told me to do.  You know the truth is that I only have a few, very small examples of this, but what I do know is that it is a heart issue.  When I am asking God to make me be pleasing to Him at all times, He will show me how to be more pleasing to Him! Hmm... imagine that!

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Really this came up because I was considering doing something that would take me out of my house for probably 1-2 mornings a week and I would have to get a babysitter for the girls.  I would be serving somewhere, working for the Kingdom of God, it would be awesome to be a part of it in that way. BUT, the more I thought and prayed about it and asked Jeremy, the more I felt like it wasn't what God wanted me to do.  What I heard God say was "Obedience is better than sacrifice."  God showed me that anything that I would do that would take me away from the girls consistantly, be it for His Kingdom or not, at this point would be disobeying Him.  He has given us clear instructions that I am to be training up our children at all times keeping them near and to be training them up IN MINISTRY.  I am to find a way to serve and further His Kingdom while taking our girls and leading them in that way also.  So, I obeyed.  I said no.  (Not really to anyone because I hadn't volunteered yet, just to the decision.)

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We are blessed in our obedience.  I am asking God to show us what to do, what doors will He lead us into that would fulfill His word to us.  And I am waiting excitedly, expectantly and obediently. Waiting.  Peacefully too.

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Are there areas where you are sacrificing (which would normally be good) but forfeiting obedience?  Ask God to show you and He will.  Then be blessed in your obedience.

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"My son, forget not my law, but let your heart keep my commandments:  For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to you."

- Proverbs 3:1-2 

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January 9th, our baby turned two!!

"Good Morning." Her first picture as a two year old.  No, I did not tease and spray her hair to make it look that amazing.  It's naturally fluffy.

Birthday party fun.

About the time our girls have turned two they start asking for "eerwins".  So we have made it a tradition to get their ears pierced when they turn two.  She did really well, only cried for about ten seconds, it was too cute.

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Also, when the girls turn two we start letting them apply and wear makeup.  What?  Is that too young?  Well I'm just kidding about that one, this was after ransacking mommy's purse. lol

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I really can't believe my baby is two.  Tatum was a surprise from God as Chloe was only eight months old when I found out I was pregnant with Tatum.  And though we were surprised we were very excited!  I said before that Tatum means "cheerful, bringer of joy" and that she is.  I am so thankful for Tatum and each of the blessings that God has given Jeremy and I!

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Here it is, past Christmas into the New Year.  I have yet to do the wonderful Christmas blog with the wonderful pictures that I took, but I will.  We have been enjoying life, and enjoying eachother.  I had basically all week free, besides get togethers with friends and the like, and Jeremy had three whole days off this week.  So we had some wonderful family time.  It was so good, no agenda except to be together, and yet we still accomplished a lot.  I love these kind of weeks, but I am ready to get back to schedule, and so are the girls.  We are starting school again Monday, but it's not going to be normal schedule, because I will be keeping my nephews and niece Sunday evening through Wednesday afternooon while their parents go to California for an anniversary get away.  We are really looking forward to having them!!  So this is set to be a busy week: we are keeping the kids, I have to babysit three days this week, we are hosting an OHIO STATE BUCKEYE party on Monday night, Tatum is turning TWO on Wednesday (:sniff: my baby!), and we are having a little party for her Saturday night... Phew. Takes my breath away just writing it all down.  But it will be fun!

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I am going to try to post that Christmas blog tomorrow!! 

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GO BUCKS!!!

I like to make plans, and lists and plans for lists.  It's a joke with some of my friends that sometimes I can't fall asleep because I'm thinking about the lists I have to make for the next day, sad but true.

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Here's the problem:  It takes ACTION to accomplish my lists. Where does the time go?  I get a good start on the day, and then it just goes away from me.  It's almost Christmas and we didn't do half of what I wanted to do.  Sheesh.  Maybe I put too much on my lists and don't consider that life is happening around all of my "to-do's".  I don't know - but I will let you know when I figure out the answer (or how to add hours to my day).

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Obviously I haven't blogged in a little while, because there was too much else happening, but hopefully I can get in the swing of it soon!  Here is a pic of the girls and me just being silly..

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And here is my precious Chloe bo Boey when she fell asleep on the couch..

I did move her over after I took the picture so she didn't fall or have all of the blood rush to her head..

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I am going to try to post some Christmas pictures soon!  I wanted to do the parade of homes over at boomama's blog but I just haven't had time..  oh well.  I'll add it to my list for next year!

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Amanda

Wednesday we had our first snowfall for the year, and it was Tatum's first time ever playing in the snow...  I was gonna post this for Wordless Wednesday but photobucket wasn't working... so here it is Saturday and we've had a bunch more snow.  Jeremy took the girls out and made a snow man today and I will try to get a picture of that later.  They had a so much fun with Daddy!

"I'm ready Mom!"

Stepping out....

She had to be helped by Lauren because she couldn't make it through the snow.  Chloe did not want to go out.  She doesn't like to be wet or messy, she kind of freaks out.  But she did go out for 45 minutes with daddy today!  I was happy she did!

My IRL friend Tara loves to plan party's, and she plans wonderful, extravagent partys.  This past Saturday she had "The First Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange".  She invited 11 other women, and we were each to make 12 dozen cookies, or Christmas candy or whatever, and then at the end of the party we would come home with twelve different types of Christmas goodies.  After much deliberation, and by the request of a few of the ladies that were going to the exchange, I decided to make Pumpkin Rolls.  Let me tell you, I have heard from so many people that pumpkin rolls are just too hard to make and they could never do it, but I have told them all THEY ARE SOOO EASY!  And that was my thinking, they are easy, I will make 12.  I had great plans all week to make a few every day so I wouldn't have to do it in bulk, but my plans did not succeed, so the girls and I made them all on Friday.  I learned that as easy as it is to make one pumpkin roll, or two... twelve is a little bit more of a project. (duh ;-))  We had a good set up and I had excellent helpers...  The three girls and I made the first half dozen in the afternoon then we let those cool.  We came back to making them about 4:45 so I was needing to start dinner too (just pizza).  Lauren started mixing up the batters and she ended up making all six that we had left to do!  I was so proud of her and thankful for her help. She would finish up a batch, I would put it in the pan and bake it and she would start the next batter.  She had it down!  I really don't think I could have done that and everything else I had to do without her help.  She has really come a long way in the past few months and I almost cried because I am just so thankful for what God has done in us and for us, and that He showed us His desire for us to homeschool and His plan for how to raise our children, and I am just blessed!!!!

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The pumpkin rolls were a hit and the party was wonderful! ***Thank you Tara!***

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Lauren hard at work... the kitchen was a mess but it was worth it for all the help and they helped with clean up too.

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After all of her hard work.  She put that flour on her face to make sure she looked the part... (she must have seen that on a movie or something, it cracked me up that she thought of that).  Notice how messy she is??  We all were!

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The finished product.

My precious little Tatum Grace has become a high powered tornado, leaving devastation and disaster everywhere she touches down.  Neither Lauren or Chloe have ever in their entire life created the messes that Tatum has made in the past two months!  I truly don't know how she does it!  I have been tomato staking the girls for a little while now so she is rarely out of my sight.  She loves to help mommy, she loves to be where I am, but she also relishes those moments that she is able to sneak off and make trouble.  I  notice basically right away when she's crept off and I sound the battle cry, "Find Tatum!"  Panic ensues.  If one of the girls finds her, they let me know with a "MOOOOOOMMMYYY, Tatum is in here  ______." (fill in the blank. Use your imagination, she definitely uses hers.)

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Most recently, like in the past week, she will not leave her diaper on!!  The child is ready to be potty trained, mommy has been far too slow to see the obvious clues.  Tonight my MIL was here, along with my nephew and niece, we were all in the living room having a nice little chat, Tatum was on my lap.  My phone rang and it was Jeremy calling.  I answered it and I am going to relay the conversation just so you know how fast Tatum works.

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"Hello." (me)

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"Hi honey.  I'm on my way home, but I wanted to know if you remembered to get milk when you were at the store today cuz we were running low."

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"Yes I did."

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"OK see ya in a minute.  Love you."

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"Love you too. Bye."

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**click** phone hangs up.

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I say to my MIL, did you see where Tatum went?  She said no.  So I said, be right back. I took off to the bathroom, because that is one of her favorite places of mischief, and there she was:  Diap*r off, pe* pe* in the potty, po* po* on the floor. (or actually on the clothes that Lauren and Chloe didn't put in the hamper when they got out of the bath a few minutes before that.) She said, "Uh oh Mom. Mess." (did I mention she won't be 2 until January?)  She did that in about 30 seconds. The child works with lightning speed.  Mommy read this clue loud and clear, and we will potty train now.

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Basically Tatum's rules are as follows:

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If I see a glass of liquid, I will dump it.

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If I see a pen I will write with it, on walls, chairs, floors, clothes, myself, and they will look "pitty".

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If I see a bottle of shampoo or soap in the bathtub, I will make sure to empty it.

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If I see a chair within a ten foot vicinity of a counter, I will push the chair, climb upon the counter and create mayhem with anything I can find inside of the cupboard.

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And on and on and on, but you get the picture.  Tatum means cheerful, or bringer of joy.  Her name has been prophetic.  It is Tatum.  She laughs all of the time, a contagious chesty laugh that we can't resist, she loves to play, loves to smile, loves to talk (her language skills are far above her age), loves to "read", loves to sing, loves to dance and.... loves.... mischief.

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I am doing my best.  Relying on God for sanity and wisdom to train her as His daughter.  Truly, Tatum is a joy to me, as are her sisters.  Everyday is a blessing!

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Poopy on the floor, however, I could do without.

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Tatum...

I never did the post about our visit to the Creation Museum that I wanted to do...  I just wanted to tell a little bit, and share a few pictures (we were to busy reading and talking and looking to take many pictures) because it was so amazing.

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They have done an amazing job..  I can't even do it justice to try to explain what it's like, but you can read about it here.  We had a wonderful time, and the girls were amazed by all of the displays and all of the interactions.  I saw once again how awesome our God is!! He thought of everything.  You really must go if you can!! 

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They have a planetarium too and that was one of my favorite parts.... How big space is and yet God is bigger.  Wow.  What a Mighty God we serve!

Lauren and me...

Chloe and Me...

Lauren getting eaten..

Jeremy and Tatum crossing the rope bridge in the garden...

Lauren and Chloe crossing the bridge.... the guy in the background was jumping up and down on the bridge.  I wanted to ask him if he could until my girls were off the bridge before he started taking his life in his own hands!!  (really the bridge is completely safe, it just feels rickety.  Chloe was a bit scared to cross)

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We had a wonderful time, it was a perfect day!!

You know... there are so many things that happen every day in our house... so many things that are funny, important, keep us busy, make us think.. then when I get time to blog, I can't remember anything!!  So, I think what I'm gonna start doing is blogging a little bit during different times of the day, and then I don't have to sit down and try to think of everything that happened.  It will be like our lives in action!!  I just know you will love it and will be on the edge of your seat waiting for the next post!! lol ;-)

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Soo... check back often...

Not much...  We have had a good week.  We started our novel study of Pinocchio and the kids are really enjoying the book.  I have never read Pinocchio before, but it is much different than the Disney movie... the book is really funny, and some of the humor I wasn't sure if the kids would get, but they're laughing at all of the right places.  Good sign I guess.

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We have also been talking more about creation (which reminds me I never did the Creation Museum post) I will have to do that.  It's amazing how much the children understand regarding Creation vs. Evolution.  We've been comparing  the Truth of God's Word against the lies of evolution - and I can see that they really understand.  I bought a book at the Creation Museum called D is for Dinosaur and it is sooo good!  The kids love it and it has a lesson plan to go with each letter.  It's basically a beginning in Creation apologetics. 

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The children just finished making their Creation Booklets so I have to get back to them now... but I will leave you with this....

The other night Chloe and Tatum were taking a bubble bath and they were just laughing and laughing.  I said from the kitchen "What's so funny girls?" Chloe said, "We're decorating Tatum!"  This is what I found: Tatum Claus!

Taken from my front porch.  My Father is the artist, the sky His canvas..

"The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handwork.  Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge.  There is no speech nor spoken word [from the stars]; their voice is not heard.  Yet their voice [in evidence] goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world.    -Psalm 19:1-4

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"For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks).  SO [men] are without excuse..  -Romans 1:20

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!

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Our girl turned 7 on Thursday!!  This is from her party on Friday night... she asked if we could make her cake together, so we thought we'd make a cupcake number 7.. it turned out cute and we had fun!

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Lauren and Chloe and cousins Noah and Ethan icing cupcakes.  (I must tell you that I didn't get too crazy, I iced the ones for the "7" myself, these were the rest of them.  But still... I can really see where God is changing my heart... they made a huge mess and I had a bunch of people coming later and I didn't even get stressed!)

Ethan and Chloe after they licked the cake beaters...

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Thursday for Lauren's birthday, I took Lauren and Chloe to see "The Bee" movie as a surprise for Lauren.  (Tatum took her nap at Mawmaw's house and Jeremy had to work)  We had a lot of fun and besides a few evolution references that the bee's made of having worked for "27 million years", the movie was cute. (We did talk about those references as false, and Lauren said she already knew that because we've been talking about Creation)  Chloe knew about the surprise for two whole days and she didn't tell Lauren although Jeremy and I did have to stop her a few times...

The birthday girl on her way to her surprise..

We bought Lauren a kids guitar for her birthday...  she is already learning piano but she has been very interested in playing guitar with Daddy.  Jeremy said "Honey we homeschool, let's let them learn a variety of instruments."  So, she is getting started on guitar too (and we have a drum set, I'm gonna include that too ;-) )

We have a tradition in our family that we always tell the children their birthday story on their birthday.  When I was telling Lauren hers, I was once again overwhelmed with God's plan... His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  We were married when we were 19 and had a "5 year plan" before we had children.  But God had other plans, and Lauren was conceived 6mos after we were married.  What a blessing to us! 

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God, You are so good!  Thank You for my little girl!

Jeremy took a few days off of work... what a blessing to us.  He is getting ready for the Holidays (I mean Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, I'm not using the generic term :-) ) in a very busy retail store, so a few days off now will give him some rest for the crazy season.  So we took a mini vacation... 

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Thursday, Jeremy had to go to a training class near Columbus so the girls and I went to the Columbus Zoo.  We arrived right at 9am and although it was a little chilly it was a beautiful day!  It was wonderful to go at this time of year because it wasn't crowded at all and though I took the double stroller all of the girls walked with me and explored most of the time..

This is the girls and I sitting on a metal shark.  A nice older man and woman walked by while I was taking a picture of the girls and asked if I wanted them to take a picture of all of us.  I thought that was sweet..

This is the girls pretending to be scared of a stone crocodile..

By a little elephant.. Lauren likes to pose for pictures, can you tell?  The elephants were Chloe's favorite.  She couldn't wait to see them all morning, and when we did see them there was a little baby elephant that was 3 1/2 years old. "Just like me Mommy!!"  That made Chloe's day.

The tiger was Lauren's favorite, but we were all enthralled by it.  It kept pacing back and forth by the window and it would just stop and look at us. 

This is Tatum and the Tiger staring eachother down..

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I was completely amazed by the Lion, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  It's face and eyes were amazing to me. The lion was sitting quietly just watching everyone but just looking at him I could see his strength and confidence.  What amazing and creative God that we serve!  So many varieties, so many things to make each animal different from eachother, BUT so much more for us who were created in His image... I am truely amazed.

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After the zoo, the girls and I went to lunch with some good friends that we haven't seen in awhile, I always miss them and it was wonderful to even spend a little time together! Then we picked Jeremy up from his class and headed to visit Jeremy's brother, and sis-in-law and their new baby.

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I need to get to bed, but tomorrow I will try to blog about our visit to the Creation Museum.  It was incredible!

Here's a little update on the schedule..

It actually worked pretty well for me.  I find it very helpful to have some time guidelines, so I can check and see if I'm progressing well for the day.  I used to have a list of things that needed to be done for the day, but not when I should have them completed.  This new schedule seems to be keeping me on track.  I do have to confess that I didn't get any workouts in this week.  None. Nada. Argh!  The major issue is that dh and I have been going to bed way too late, and I know that if I don't workout I can sleep an extra hour.  So, it's all apart of self control and self discipline- I am going to be accountable to get that in the routine this week.

Schooling went really well this week - we accomplished a lot and we are right on track for where I wanted to be.  Next week is the end of our first quarter so I am happy to know that we are not behind at all.  This week in Bible we talked about our need for a Savior and what Jesus did for us.  It was really awesome to see Lauren and Noah, who have both given their lives to the Lord, really have a revelation that Jesus took the punishment for their sins.  They illustrated a picture of Calvary and wrote the caption "Jesus Took My Place", and I saw a true gratefulness for that. 

Child training is going well.  We've been "staking our tomatoes" for about two weeks now and I see so many improvements.  The girls have tested quite a bit this week, but I have been consistant and we are changing dramatically in this house.  Chloe who is 3, has always been my little moody, tempermental, controlling girl.  I have always tried to deal with her recognizing the attitudes and character as ungodly, but I haven't always required her to change her face and do something joyfully.  Well that has been one of our new requirements, and this morning showed me that it's working.  She decided that she wasn't going to obey and tried to push for her way.  So I told her calmly that she must go to the corner because she wouldn't obey, and she threw a fit. I walked her to the corner, and for about 5 minutes I had to stand next to her, because she kept trying to leave and I would put her right back.  After that I commenced teaching Lauren and Noah, and she stood in the corner crying for another few minutes.  I kept my eyes on her the whole time and she wasn't moving a muscle, just crying.  Then she got quiet.  I left her there for a time longer, and finished up the lesson.  I walked over to her and said "Chloe look at Mommy."  She turned to me with the biggest smile on her face, and said "I'm sorry Mommy, I will obey you."  I told her to do what she was suppossed to originally do, and she did it smiling and happy the whole time.  I almost cried.  Because before the stinky attitude would have gone on the next couple of hours, no matter how many times I corrected her she would have remained sour.  But she now has clear instructions and understands what I expect from her and her heart is changing.  Praise God!!  I also have been completely calm.  I am not naturally a yeller, but I have always just gotten frazzled when all of that is going on at once, but God is changing me too, and just giving me peace to trust Him and obey Him and see how HE works!! 

Next week we are doing our pantry empty so I can begin cooking healthier and more whole..  DH has some time off next week so we are going to the Creation Museum (the kids are very excited), and to visit DH's brother and sis-in-law near Columbus.  Can't wait!!

Blessings-

Amanda

So.. Lately the Lord has really been dealing with my heart on a few things..

   1.  Am I honoring Him and seeking to please Him in everything that I do?  Do I love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength?  I know that I don't, but I also know that I want to!  This is my prayer, that I would love my Father and seek to please Him in every thought, intention, attitude and action.

  2.  Am I looking to honor and serve my husband in every possible way?  I haven't been.  That used to always be on the forefront of my mind- then when I started to be really busy- I kind of left him to fend for himself with some things that I used to always do (such as iron his work clothes).  I apologized tonight for not serving him in every way that I can to make him king of our home, and then I asked him what he would like me to work on... (He was sort of afraid to answer, I think he thought I would be mad.  I said "honey, I'm sorry.  This really is not a trick question."  And he was able to answer with a few things in our house that he would like me to be more attentive to.  So I will.

  3.  Is the schedule (or lack of) that we are working with honoring God and my husband and my children?  No.  Here lies the problem, I have an outline of the day which is good.  I usually start off pretty well, but then I get lazy and want to take an extra looong break or something or the little ones get rowdy while I'm working on school with the olders, and instead of training them the way we have been working on I get lazy and off schedule just so I don't have to deal with all those things at once.  (I do have to say though that for the past two weeks that God has dealt with our hearts and we have really been training our children, I have seen some major improvement in the girls.  But just as I tell them 100% obedience, I have to be 100% consistant.)  So what I've decided is that I need to give my schedule some tweaking and more time outlines.  I know that it will take some work and re-doing, but this is what I'm going to start with:

5:00am Mom up.  Start laundry, empty dishwasher, get work out clothes on.

5:30am  work out at YMCA

6:30am Home.  Reboot Laundry.  Shower and get ready for day.

7:00am Mom's Bible and Prayer Time

7:30am Girls up and dressed.  Bedroom chores.

7:45am Prepare Breakfast

8:00am Breakfast and morning devotion with the girls.

8:30am Table chores and finish morning routine. Reboot Laundry.

9:00am School starts.  Bible and Math.  Little girls play with playdough or puzzles.

9:50am 10 minute break.  Weekly plan chores.

10:00am Reading (Friday - Spelling test and Creative Writing).  Preschool with little girls.

10:30am M, W, F History and Literature.  T, Th Science, French

11:30am Piano Practice.  M, F.  Large Motor skills game.  W Art.  T, Th Sewing

12:00pm Lunch Prep and eat lunch.

12:45pm Table chores

1:00pm Quiet time. Tatum takes a nap.  Chloe rests and reads stories.  Lauren- typing practice, drawing, reading, writing. Mom- complete some chores and nap if I can. :-)

2:00pm  More preschool time with Chloe.  Work on zone chores with Lauren and Chloe. 

3:00pm Start supper prep. Lauren practice piano.

3:30pm Tatum up by now.  Read alouds by mom. Lauren read to little girls.

That's the main part of the day I need to work on... let's see how that goes and then I will tweak and add in the evening stuff...

I want to do everything that God speaks to my heart, no more and no less.

Blessings,

Amanda

Today we took our first field trip for the school year!  There is a place near us that has paths to hike on and huge rock formations and caves to climb in and on.  We all had a blast!!  My three girls and I went, my dad and mom, my brother and his three children, my sister from Idaho and her husband and baby.  It was nice too since I didn't get my work out in this morning!  Just a plus!

This is a pic of me and my girls.  (sorry it's so blurry.. my camera was having major issues today :-[ )

This is Lauren (1st Grade) in the roots of a huge tree.

Tatum, Lauren, and Chloe posing in front of a rock formation.

Tatum (22 mos) and Chloe (3 yrs) playing in a cave.

Anyway... we had a whole bunch of fun!! It was a day to remember.