The Days are Just Passing By (LONG post of catching up)

I don't know if I have ever gone 2 weeks without blogging unless I have been traveling to Africa.  Even then, I would blog a couple of times.  There are many reasons for this.

1.  Cody is playing high school basketball, Abby is doing gymnastics, and Sam is playing basketball.  There are some days that I look at my calendar and cannot figure out how I am going to make it all work.  The kids are at 3 different schools.  I am driving a minimum of 50 miles a day IN TOWN.  Cody has practice or a game every day except Sundays.  Some mornings we are taking him to practice at 6:00 AM!  UGH!

2.  3 of our 6 kids regularly need my computer for homework.  If I don't blog during the day, it is not going to happen.

3.  Rick's 4-day work trip to Dallas turned into a 6-day trip because of flight cancellations.

4.  Sam had his 10th Birthday, which is a milestone bday in our house.  (Oh, and Rick had to miss it because of his flight issues).  I will share in a separate post about the 11-boy sleepover he had while Rick was stuck in Dallas.  I am still recovering from that one.

5.  I began doing an eating plan called the Whole30 on Jan. 28.  It is from the book "It Starts With Food."  It is pretty restrictive.  Basically, I can eat meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and healthy oils.  This requires every ounce of emotional, physical, and spiritual energy that I have.  I will write more about that later, too.  The thing I love about this book is that it explains very specifically how our bodies respond to different foods when we eat them.  I can see how the foods I am eating are hurtful to my body rather than someone just saying, "That is bad for you!"  I am not getting any younger and I have 7 people depending on me.  I just can't justify an unhealthy lifestyle anymore.

6.  Lauren has been in the throws of her science fair project.  The fair is this Friday.  We will all be relieved when it is done.  Blog post to follow.

So, as you can see, blogging has just not been an option.  I want to catch up on the day-to-day things that have been going on in this post.  I blog so that we can remember these days.  I blog so that my kids will be able to look back at their childhoods and also, hopefully see my heart for them.  I blog to share our lives with others!

Laila went to her friend, Sarah's, bday party.  Now, that may not sound like a big deal, but for this little introvert, going to events with several people is almost painful.  Leading up to it, she starts to get really emotional and just wants to give up going.  I kind of made her go and agreed to stay with her, because I knew it would be a good experience for her.  I knew it would be a good "entry" type event to try, a small party with several little girls, at her friend's home.  It was a "My Little Pony Party."

She got a "cutie mark" on her hand

 She got her nails painted

 They also colored coloring pages and made unicorn horns.  

She had so much fun and left inspired to have her own friend party.  

We'll see if you she changes her mind before her Birthday in June.

 Isaiah go to have a mohawk for about 30 minutes when we got our haircuts last time. 

 Why didn't he get to keep it, you may ask?  His school doesn't allow it.

 He totally needs a gold chain around his neck in this one!

 Abby had Renaissance Day

 I got to go away overnight to a hotel!!

This is the look of a woman who is about to have 24 hours to herself!!

 Sitting in my bed, eating my dinner, watching "Say Yes to the Dress."

 The books I took with me.

 It was 24 hours of glorious relaxation.  I am so thankful that my hubby allows me these times away.

My kitchen looks like this at least once a day.  It is just the stage of life we are in!

 While Rick was in Dallas, I bent up the truck a little.  

I would have gotten really upset about this a few years ago.  Now, I just roll with it.  My life is too complicated to let this be an issue.

 I have to share this pic just because I am so excited about the deal I got.  

Sam came to me one day last week and his shoes were literally ripped at the seams on both shoes.  They were a few months old.  We went back to Kohls, where we got them to look for new ones.  They gave us our money back on the shoes and with the deal I got on these new shoes, they basically payed us $10 for Sam to have new shoes!!  I. LOVE. KOHLS!  This is not the first time we have had a pair of shoes tear up in a way they shouldn't.  They are so good about giving us new ones without any problems at all.  Keeping these kids in shoes is one expensive task.  It is nice to get our money's worth!