these days...

i had planned to run some errands today, but i woke up not feeling so great (sore throat, sinus stuff - yuck!) jesiah and jaelyn also have runny noses. so i decided to take it easy and put those errands off for today and declared it pj day. i do this way too often during the week, it is so much easier to stay home in our jammies on days where we don't have to be anywhere. i finished working on the laundry and making some phone calls, so i thought i would write a post. caution: it is very random, my brain isn't thinking too deep today. but i thought i would fill you in on what is going on around here these days, its been awhile since i was random like this, so here goes....

finally, it's february.... i think january was the first month in a long time that went by kind of slow. i was glad for time to slow down a bit. but why did it have to be during such a cold month of the year? so i am glad that long winter month has come to a close and i am welcoming february because it is a month closer to spring! i long for warm weather!!!

i heart dvr....after not having cable television for seven years, around this time last year we had cable television installed! woo hoo! and just recently we upgraded and now have digital cable and dvr! oh my gosh, how i love dvr. it has so changed how i watch tv!!

bible reading and study....in the fall i did a marriage bible study (love & respect: motivating your man God's way by sarah and emerson eggerichs) led by my friend and amazing leader, lisa shea. last week, i started a new study led by lisa. we are reading a leader in the making by joyce meyer. i am loving this book so far. i am so excited to see how God uses this book in the group of women that are in this study. i have been busy reading the assigned chapters for our study, in fact i have to finish my reading for tonight's meeting. balancing that reading and the new thru 30 reading has been a challenge. thankfully i love to read. i am a day behind on my new thru 30 reading, but i will catch up. this is the last week of the reading. it has gone by fast and i have loved reading the new testament in 30 days.

serving on sundays again...after an extended maternity leave i felt it was the right time to start volunteering again - i was really missing it! towards the end of december i stepped into a new volunteer position at church serving in our children's ministry, ekidz. i am the safari coordinator at the providence campus. the safari area is for our sweet little ones who are 6 weeks through 3 years old. i serve with our volunteer leaders and volunteers making sure that everything is running smoothly in our babies and toddler rooms. i am so excited about this new role and am really enjoying serving in this capacity!

boys & basketball...both of the boys are playing basketball this season, it has kept us busy with two nights a week of practice and saturday games and mixing that with jordyn taking dance one night a week, wow, we are busy! jesiah is kind of getting the hang of the basketball thing. he still likes to do his own thing on the court. but he has come along way since the first game. joshua loves to play and loves to have his daddy as his coach. as for me, as much as i love the boys being involved in sports, i think we may take the spring off. we need some saturdays at home for spring cleaning!!

weekends at elevation....that brings me to what our weekends look like these days. with jamil's role as an armor bearer for our pastor which is saturday night and sunday, and with my new role in ekidz, we get to spend a lot of time at church. i attend the saturday night service at our matthews campus with the kids, while jamil serves. and then on sunday the kids and i head over to our providence campus so i can serve and jamil is with pastor steven. so far, we are all loving our new weekend schedule at church. the kids have so much fun being at church both days! it keeps us busy - but a good kind of busy!

school update...the big kids got their report cards from school last week. they are doing so good in school. we were so pleased with their grades! both josh and jordyn are very bright and school work comes pretty easily to them. i am so thankful for that. they have adjusted to being in school. our brief experience with homeschooling is a distant memory for all of us! i feel so at peace with the decision to put them back in school. we are praying about putting them back into the lottery for union academy again. they both miss their old school and there are some things that i miss about it as well. so we will just see how God leads!

three in school soon....this week is kindergarten registration for the schools in our area. so since jesiah will be five next month he will start kindergarten in the fall! wow! i am registering him at the school the big kids are at. and then if we decide to do the lottery at union academy, and he would happen to get in, he would go there. i just can't believe he will be in school and i will only have one child at home with me. i have no idea what that will look like!!

family photos....you may have seen my last post with the link to our photographer's blog. if you haven't, our new set of family pictures are posted there! please go and check them out and leave a comment on their blog! our last set of pictures received so many comments, that our photographers have challenged us with some prints and discounts if we collect 25 -100 comments on their blog - so when you go there you have to leave a comment on their blog! please pretty please do this for me!!! so go here right now!!!

lots to celebrate this month... so this month is full of special birthdays, special occasions and valentine's day! we will be celebrating a lot and i am looking forward to birthday cake and parties! i am trying to come up with some fun things to do to celebrate valentine's day. if you do something cute with your family, leave me a comment with what you do, i could use some ideas!!!
i hope that you are all enjoying your first week in february!!!