Wednesday Thoughts

All our kiddos went back to school today.  I am sitting in our house…alone…and I hear…wait for it…nothing but the grumbling of my own stomach.  It’s lunch time and I’m going to eat a quick lunch and share none of it.  Whoa.

I went to Target solo this morning.  I grabbed supplies for some orders at Joanns and I was in and out in 10 minutes.  It was a Wednesday miracle you guys.

I finally broke down and bought a brand new pack of Micron pens for my Bible journaling. Micron is my pen jam. I’ve been using the same pack for about 18 months and figured it was time to re-stock. I love the classic black. If you are wondering about Bible journaling supplies I use you can read THIS POST which I’ve added some updates to.

As we drove to school this morning I prayed over the kids’ day, their teachers and friends.  I cried.  80% of the time I do because I’m a lost cause when it comes to my wild little tribe.  They are mine and my love is fierce like a momma bear.

Speaking of momma bears…Hudson and Amon were sick on New Year’s Eve unable to attend a family party, so we watched Bears.  Amon loves bears and Hudson knows it and he pretty much has a heart of gold so he chose Bears because he knew Amon would be giddy.  During the avalanche part I overheard Hudson talking under his breath to himself, “That must be so hard on the bears, so so hard.”  I died from his empathy and sweetness.

Yesterday while driving I made all the kids jam to Everclear.  They are pretty much the soundtrack to my middle school days.  Forget the majority of their music makes you depressed upon taking a listen to the actual words and probably isn’t that appropriate for children.  Great beat though.  Parenting win #1.

At dinner last night we all chatted about our hopes and dreams and things we are looking forward to about 2016.  After all our clamoring voices chilled a bit I thought I would try and have a good spiritual parenting moment.  I said something along the lines of, “Okay you guys.  What’s really the greatest thing we can do in 2016?  What will really matter?”  I just knew they were all going to say “To love Jesus and love others. ”  I just knew it.  And then they all yelled simultaneously “Go to Disney World.”  Parenting win #2.  You can send all your parenting book requests for Josh Kelley and myself to my email.  We will begin writing immediately.  Chapter 1: Creating Spiritual Discipline In Your Children’s Hearts

Tomorrow is Ethiopian Christmas and Friday we are having all our family over for a traditional Ethiopian dinner.  We are so excited.  I didn’t even attempt the food, but alas acknowledged my limitations and ordered food from a great little Ethiopian restaurant in Nashville.  I love traditions and use to be so hindered by thinking traditions had to be something we’ve done since the beginning of us, but then a new day dawned and I realized traditions can begin at any time…you just have to start them.  This is our first Ethiopian Christmas dinner and it’s not perfect or totally authentic…we won’t be walking around our place of worship 3 times with lit candles while praying…but we’re going to gather together with people we love and light candles, eat yummy Ethiopian food, snack on popcorn, drink Mexican glass bottle cokes and devour homemade brownies and ice-cream…per Solomon’s dessert request.  I think it’s going to be one fine tradition.

 We had a home visit this morning.  While intently talking to our caseworker I looked over and our current littlest had opened a bottle of fingernail polish, dumped it on the floor and was painting her fingernails vigorously.  This should probably count as parenting win #3.  I told our caseworker “All she needs is just a second.  That’s it.”  Thankful for our sweet caseworker who just laughed her head off.

 My new favorite go-to lunch consists of:  deli chicken, almond crackers, carrots, mustard, pickles and some cheese all throw into a bowl.  Then I devour.  The pickle obsession around here is getting a tad out of hand.  Viva la pickles.

And I’m making THIS for dinner tonight.

 Thanks for stopping by to read.  Thanks for always being kind and crazy encouraging.

Happiest of Wednesdays!