Wordless Wednesday: Making Himself at Home

Sticky Situations

I had been looking for a devotional that I could use with my children each morning during breakfast. I wanted something that would be appropriate for all of my kids, but especially Morgan and Landon.

As I was searching for a devotional, I remembered some friends had told us about a book they were using with their kids. We had the book and have used it sporadically over the last two years.

This year, I wanted our time at breakfast to set the tone for our school day. This devotional has been wonderful.

The book is set up with a devotional for each day. There is a short story where a "sticky situation" is described. The "sticky situation" is not resolved. There are four different resolutions listed as well as a bible verse to reference to guide the children in finding the correct resolution. In the back of the book the answer for the "sticky situation" is given as well as three or four questions to discuss with your children and a short statement about why the correct resolution is what God would want from His children.

My kids are enjoying this book and look forward to our devotional time each day. It is a great way to start conversations about some "sticky situations" and it is interesting to see how my kids would respond in those situations. I am loving this time with my kids each day.

Wordless Wednesday: Game Face

Seattle Part II

We couldn't be in the Seattle area without spending time around the water.

We started the day at the Seattle Aquarium. It was incredible. The aquarium was hands on and very kid friendly. I was impressed with all the volunteers who were extremely knowledgeable, answered our questions, and encouraged the kids to interact with the animals in the pools.

The highlights at the aquarium were touching the sea stars and the sea anemones, seeing the octopus, sea horses, and jelly fish, and watching the feeding of the sharks and fish.

After a full morning at the aquarium we had a picnic lunch in an open area next to the aquarium on the water.
Once we finished lunch we ventured to the World Famous Pikes Place Market. The market was amazing but it was definitely a bit overwhelming. The flower and produce stands were incredible.
As part of our tour of the market we had to go to the fish stand to watch the fish flying through the air. The kids loved it! One of the workers pulled the kids out of the crowd and let them touch a fish and then gave them a squid. Lovely! The squid was promptly returned to the fish bin. Of course we had to see the original Starbucks in honor of my brother-in-law who works for Starbucks.
Once we finished at the market, we did a drive by of the Space Needle on our way to
Fisherman's Terminal where we went to an outdoor festival. There were booths that contained craft projects, games, and activities for the kids... all for FREE! The kids had a great time and it might have been one of their favorite parts of the entire day.

These pictures are for you Denise. She told me before I went to Seattle I needed to hug something in Seattle... maybe a fish. I am not a fan of fish but I found one to hug just not a real one.

Seattle Part I

For part of our fall break this year we decided to travel to Seattle to visit Lance's sister, his cousin and their families.

We made a list of things we wanted to try to do while in Seattle. One of the places I wanted to visit was IKEA (aka Disneyland for mommies as named by Denise). Over the years we have heard about this store and wanted to see what all the hype was for ourselves. We enjoyed looking at all the room set ups and I loved all the containers/systems for organizing.

One of the reasons we traveled to Seattle was so that Morgan and I could go see the musical Wicked. It was fantastic!! We loved every minute of it. It was so fun to see how excited Morgan was to see her first "big" show.

the paramount theater in downtown seattle

the ladies before the show

morgan - so excited

morgan and i waiting to go into the show

morgan just as the show was starting

Sneak Peak

The party planning has begun. The month of November is busy in our house with Morgan and Mauryn having birthdays within three days of each other.

Last night we started working on their invitations and party details.

Morgan wanted a very hands on roll this year with her party from making the invitations to selecting her theme and decorations. She choose to have a swimming party with a luau/hang ten (since it is her 10th birthday) theme. Here are her invitations:

Last spring Mauryn got a pair of pajamas with mermaids on them and since that time she has wanted a mermaid birthday party. I wanted to stay away from The Little Mermaid theme and focus more on mermaids in general or an under the sea theme. I hit the jackpot with this website that detailed a mermaid party and I could purchase blank invitations, decorations, and thank you cards.

I made Mauryn a shirt to wear for her birthday party. I wish I would have put the circles closer together but for a first try not so bad!

Hitting My Stride

When I run it takes me about ten minutes to get into a good rhythm for my run.

I knew when we started our school year those first few weeks would be like the first ten minutes of my run - there would be no real rhythm. The kids were finishing up swimming lessons and Morgan still had morning practice for gymnastics so we were fitting in school at odd times.

Up until a few weeks ago, I thought we were getting into a good routine and then Morgan's gymnastics practice schedule changed for Mondays, we left to go out of town, and we had our fall break.

I had great intentions for fall break to get caught up on so many projects but not many of those items were marked off the list. I am thankful we had the week off to deal with the little things that came up without interrupting school but it is also a little disappointing to not get everything accomplished I had hoped to over break.

My goal is to get us back into our routine. I need to find a balance between school, errands, chores, blogging (this poor blog has been neglected for two weeks and i have a list of posts -one of these days i will get caught up), exercise, quiet time, time to read, time to sew, and the list goes on.... I have been focused on protecting our school time: no phone calls, no errands, no trips to the gym, and no appointments unless absolutely necessary. I know the kids needs to see that our school time is important and therefore protected from distractions/disruptions.

So to my dear faithful (few) readers, I am here, alive, well and trying to hit my stride and balance life. I hope to carve out some time each day to get caught up on reading and posting. I am open to any tips on balancing it all!