A Break For Me! Hallelujah!!!

 This sweet lil guy LOVES school! After 2 weeks of finishing 1st grade he begged & begged & begged to start up 2nd grade. I really did NOT want to, I needed a break! This past year was a whirlwind adventure in opening up about my past & the Lord opened many doors for me to travel & speak. As if being a full-time homeschooling momma didn't keep me busy enough, I was off doing events & press conferences a LOT! 

Now I completely loved every bit of it, even when it was hard, & depressing, because I know the Lord had me doing exactly what He had called me to do. But I'm tired. Worn out. Spiritually, emotionally, physically, & mentally exhausted! I had prayed & asked God to give me a break, some rest to regroup, refocus, & just be. Then my precious Brady comes begging & begging to do school again & I caved in. We started a little, but things kept coming up, knocking us off track & then he & his middle brother got very sick for almost 2 weeks. 

So in the midst of my tiredness & wanting a chance to relax I overloaded myself with more schoolin, not fully prepared & then stuck in the house with sick kiddos. I was at a breaking point. I cried out to God to show me what to do, where to go & He gave me peace, stillness, time to reflect. I asked Brady if we could please hold off on 2nd grade, Momma needed a break. And his reply?

"Sure. I just wanted to be in 2nd grade so I could be in class at church with my 2nd grade friends before they went to 3rd grade. But my teacher told me I couldn't change until August."

I died out laughing! So now, praise the Lord, I get a break! We are still practicing his math facts & reading of course & doing fun stuff with Rylan because I'm still doing preschool stuff with him. I must say I am so relieved! This summer we have a lot of fun stuff planned with VBS, play dates, & this will be Brady's 1st year to go to church camp! Lots of fun adventures await us.

I pray you all have a great summer as well!!

By the way, please come on over & visit us at  Schoolin The Boys!

Sicky McSickens

Oh my word! Cabin fever has set in on us. Last week my precious middle son same down with a fever that never came down. Rylan was miserable. His fever ran as high as 104 & even with alternating Ibuprofen & Tylenol every three hours it wouldn't fall below 101.7. He even missed his last King Singer performance at church for the year. It was not a good week. After taking him to the doctor all he could say was that it was a severe sinus infection, hooked him up with an antibiotic & sent us home to recover.

Each day Rylan seemed to improve & then night time would come & so would the raging fever once again. After 5 days of this he finally woke up Friday morning feeling better, but his big brother did not. Brady ended up getting a viral infection & was having trouble breathing & his fever was scorching hot as well reaching almost 105!!!

So here I am a full week later & I'm still locked inside my house with a sick kiddo. I have enjoyed the extra cuddles & snuggles that sick lil ones need when they don't feel good, but with that has meant missing the fun of swimming & play dates we had planned. Brady has had to miss baseball practice & now a game. I don't know who's more bummed about that, him or his daddy ;P

I have been able to use these days to reorganize some homeschool stuff, do some deep cleaning & getting rid of stuff. Overall I must say that I am ready for everyone to be well & to get back our normal routine of things.

Wishing you & yours many WELL wishes & prayers for all the sickness in this house to leave are VERY appreciated!!!

A Gift from God & some Kari Jobe!

As a new mommy again I find myself being very busy with the same stuff, never getting it all done. My days are full of breastfeeding & caring for an infant, potting training & wrangling a toddler, & homeschooling an almost 6 year old who is very smart & always has a million questions or things he wants to tell me. Then there's my house with one problem after another, still waiting to be fixed, the never ending laundry & dishes on top of other house duties, caring for a dog I could live without but my kids can't. Trying to be a parent & a friend to my 20 year old niece who lives with us & I assure trying to find a balance in letting her make her own decisions, good or bad, & trying to guide her isn't an easy task! Then there's being a wife to a busy husband trying to further his career & being a mentor/leader to teen moms, & most importantly my relationship with Jesus! Oh wait, I forgot about the ongoing battle of food I have & trying to lose weight.

I'm sure I've left some things out :)

Now please know I am NO WAY COMPLAINING!!! I LOVE my life! I have 3 amazing boys, a wonderful niece who is a GODSEND! A husband whom I love &that works hard for his family, a ministry I'm proud to be a part of, & a roof over our heads that WILL be fixed...eventually. All are great blessings, but sometimes Momma just needs a BREAK!!!!

Well here's God's special lil gift for me...my niece, Britany, offered to watch ALL 3 boys Friday so I could go shopping with my friend Karen. That's 2 gifts right there! The weather...well it was a BEAUTIFUL spring day in JANUARY!!! That should count as 3 gifts right there :) Our day was going great! I was out of the house, with a good friend, shopping & actually finding some things for myself, good conversation; couldn't have planned a better outing for myself!

So we decided to eat outside at Corner Bakery because the day was just getting more beautiful by the minute! As we sit down we notice a group of about 10 people eating next to us. They dressed pretty eclectic/rockish & I told Karen the girl in the headband looked REEEEEAAAALLLLLYYY familiar! For the life of me I couldn't figure out who she was or how I knew her. Karen checked her phone then looked at me with widen eyes & asked if I thought the girl was Kari Jobe. To our utter surprise & great delight IT WAS!!!!

Kari had really Tweeted that she was in Jackson & that's how we knew without a doubt that one of our FAVE worship leaders was eating right next to us. We were like giddy lil girls :) Kari was incredibly sweet, took pics with us & autographed my CD that just so happened to be listening to in my car! God-thing...ABSOLUTELY!



As if my day wasn't already wonderful, a nice gift from God to give this momma a break, He goes & puts a GIANT bow on top of the gift in the form of KARI JOBE!!!! How amazing is He!? I was also happy when my friend Marie showed up too! She sings a lot of Kari Jobe & I was thankful she was able to meet her as well.

I so wish I wouldn't have been such a "fan" & actually told Kari how much her songs mean to me! But I have a great sense that I'm going to get to meet her again one day & then I will actually tell her. Sunday night I was able to see her perform at a local church & it was an incredible night of worship! She has such a pure heart for the Lord; it's incredibly refreshing!

So now it's Monday & back to the usual chaotic busyness of Mommyhood, but with a great big smile on my face, feeling renewed & refreshed! All thanks to God, my Father, my loving Bridegroom who knows just what I need when I need it & throws in something special unexpectedly just for me....