A Love-ly Day

The more I explore the blogging world, the more amazed I am at all of the creative women out there! One fantastic mom I'm always inspired by is Melissa at A Little Loveliness. The creativity she puts into every occasion for her family blows me away. I think everyone should follow her blog.

And speaking of blog following, I found Melissa through my friend, Allison, at Sweeter and the Bubbas. She is an amazing photographer and is participating in the 365 project, so there's another great photo up on her blog every day - love that! Gotta follow her too!

But all that to say, I was inspired, by Melissa, to make this Valentine's Day a special one for my kiddos. So we started the day with a book for each of them at 'their' spot on the dining room table.

And of course, Daddy bought us all flowers - here are mine in the fabulous $6 vase from Hobby Lobby. I love a 50% off sale! (Ribbon from my own personal stash. You know, from that summer when I decided I was Martha Stewart and I was going to make ALL of ML's bows myself??? That totally worked out. Or at least worked into an awesome ribbon stash!)

And then there were the school parties. Oh, the candy! The cards! The pencils! The stickers! And the ever important snacks!

And then we came home and attempted Bakerellas Cheesecake Pops. I used a pre made cheesecake from Target. The $4.99 version yielded 12 pops, more than enough for our family of 4. Super easy, just like Bakerella said and totally decadent. I couldn't eat more than one after dinner. Uh-mazing.

Yum. O.

And then, this was where I pulled out all the stops for the kiddos. I dug out the red chargers and napkins from the Christmas boxes and added a few Valentines touches.

A scripture verse marked each place setting.
After dinner, while enjoying our cheesecake pops, we read all the Valentines each of our children received and talked about how lucky we were to have so many people to love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ Romans 8:38-39

All you need is love.

Fear Not I am with thee

Quite often, I find myself singing the words to the second verse of "How Firm a Foundation."

"Fear not I am with thee, oh be not dismayed

For I am thy God and I will give thee aid

I'll strengthen and help thee and cause thee to stand

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand"

The greatness of my God never ceases to astound me and now I face the challenge of passing on to my children an understanding of the love He has for us. How great, how long, how wide, how deep, how endless is His love:

My sweet ML is struggling with her fear right now. She can't stand to be separated from her father and I for even a second. She is afraid of being alone in her room. She is afraid of being alone in the bathroom. She is afraid of being alone in her playroom. She is afraid of the dark. She is afraid of (and I quote): "Monsters, strangers, and tornadoes."

"But monsters aren't real, right Mommy?" "Yes," I reply, "that's right.

"Well, sometimes. Sometimes I wish monsters were real so they could scare away all the strangers and tornadoes."

Ha! Well, at least she still has perspective! But what I really want for her, is to see God's promise breaking through the cloud of her fear:

And so I will continue to remind her that God has cast out all of our fears. That in Him we have nothing to fear and that He has not given us a spirit of fear. And I will continue to sing the words of "How Firm a Foundation" (which also happen to be the words of Isaiah 41:10 - thank you BSF!) and rest in the knowledge that my prayers that she would lay claim to His words will be answered in due time.

Because she is never alone.

In the mean time, I foresee a LOT of trips to the bathroom for us both.......

I want to be at the Beach.....

More snow today! As much as I love the snow, I don't like the cold that comes with it - ironic? I think so.......

So, my thoughts turn toward the beach and lovely 70 degree weather.

Big Daddy's parents have a place in South Florida that they generously share with us. It's not right on the beach, but it's certainly closer than we are right now!
We were lucky enough to visit 'the condo' (which is what we call the place in Florida) three times last year. Looking at all of the wonderful memories of those visits warms my heart. Now if it would only warm my toes...........

Wishing you warm memories, no matter your weather!

January

Our January didn't necessarily come in with a "bang," but it did come with a nice balloon drop! For the second year in a row, we rang in the New Year with R's parents in Chicago at the Kid Party NYE party at their Club. Fantastic time, and since the balloons dropped at 9pm, we were all home by 10! Now that's my kind of party. :-)

My lovely nieces and ML:

ML and myself (don't even ask about my footwear, you do NOT want to know - Stacy wouldn't be proud!):

I L-O-V-E this one of R and his Mom:

Balloon Drop:

And then we got home from Chicago and it SNOWED! In the South! And not just a little snow:

Measurable snow! Which meant we had to pull out this:

And climb a lot of these:

My favorite picture of ML in her snow suit:

But by the end of the "snow week" we were all a little antsy. ML got so bored she took this photo of the desk in the office....... and about 150 more of her stalking our poor pets. But most of those are a little scary, so I'll just show you this one. Hehe. Makes ML look more like a budding photographer, and less like someone who needs to have a PETA intervention. After all, this is a blog and I'm supposed to only show you the best of my life right? :-) Make you think everything is all 'artsy desk photos' and sunshine perfection over here? Right........ sure...... perfection. :-)

Lovely winter month.

January is here, with eyes that keenly glow,
A frost-mailed warrior
striding a shadowy steed of snow.
- Edgar Fawcett