I clearly win the award for best blogger of the week, right? I was late getting Monday’s meal post up and then I pretty much vanished off the face of the planet after that. You would think with a stack of weather days spent at home with my family, I could manage to spend a few hours at the computer. I’m linking up with Darcy & friends to share a few things with you today and I’ll be back next week with more food, another chapter of our love story and lots of things to say about Ella’s baptism.
ONE I’ve never been a morning person and despite my desire to spend time in the Bible and in prayer every day, I am not nearly as diligent about this as I want to be. We’ve been talking in our small group about changes we want to make in our lives this year and one of those things is giving God our “firsts”. The first of our paycheck, the first of our thoughts and the first of our days. We decided to create a “texting tree” where we are each responsible for waking up one other person in our group and hold them accountable for their daily devotion time. Jennifer is texting me bright and early at FOUR FORTY-FIVE on weekday mornings so that I can spend some quiet time alone with Jesus. It is hard. I am not good with mornings. I try to stay under the covers until Josh physically removes me from the bed after the snooze button starts to bother him. What I am finding, though, is that this time together in the mornings is so precious and everything about my day goes better. I have time to read and study, get myself ready for work, pack the girls lunch, do dinner prep and get to work ahead of the traffic. If you aren’t doing this, I challenge you to wake up thirty minutes earlier and see just how much better your day will go!
TWO // Much of the deep south got another round of snowy weather this week, but not us. My girls were pretty disappointed, but we did get to spend lots of time together at home. On Tuesday, I went into the office late and let Taz tag along. I needed to clear my inbox and grab my computer in case the wintry weather continued. Wednesday, I started working from home, but our office ended up closing after lunch. I made another last minute run for supplies {milk, toilet paper & Dr. Pepper… priorities, people!} and we prepared for several inches of snow. Unfortunately, we only got a few flakes for about half an hour and our yard wasn’t even completely covered. The girls were out of school again yesterday, though, so we managed to drive our sweet daddy insane while he was attempting to work for the third day in a row. He was so happy when we all went back to work and school this morning!
The girls decided Wednesday night to make a pallet on their bedroom floor with every pillow, blanket and stuffed friend that we own to celebrate another snow day. I swear they will sleep in the most awkward of positions and places. Josh went to play cards with some friends and took the girls so that I could get a few things done before the weather got bad. While they were gone, Queen B decided their pallet looked pretty stinking comfortable and took herself a little nap. I am happy to report that all three girls slept here peacefully and their room still looks exactly like this. Maybe we’ll make their bed one day next week.
THREE // I know I shared our Valentine’s Day treat tutorials last week, but we had to make a tiny change to Sophie’s before she carried them to dance on Thursday afternoon. I loved both the cards and the candy, but they didn’t hold up very well and the slits kept tearing where we pushed the Twizzlers through. Luckily, my girls are always down for a project and we set out on Wednesday afternoon to make it right. Ella helped me cut the candies into smaller bites and we put them into these 3 inch bags by Wilton that we just happened to have in our stash. I modified my printable just a little bit and stapled them right on. These look SO much better than our first go ’round. And just in case you were wondering, Josh gave me the side-eye when he caught me redoing these. Yes, I am THAT mom. I like a pretty Valentine and I’m not ashamed to make them. Twice, if necessary!
FOUR // It’s race weekend!! Y’all know I’ve had a rough month of training and I don’t feel nearly as prepared for the half-marathon as I did this time last year. The difference is, with two years of consistent running under my belt, I feel more prepared over all to deal with the dilemmas of the day. I have experience on my side this year and my pace is improved enough that even if I need to take a walking break, I should finish within a respectable amount of time. I am a little concerned about the weather, though — the high is 61* and I don’t love warm runs. I was super excited about the top I bought to wear {pictured below — how adorable is the back?!}, but now I’m concerned that I’ll be a hot sweaty mess.
The race expo is today, so I’ll be running over at lunch to pick up my packet. With less than 48 hours before race time to go, there is no backing out now. I have several friends running the half and my friend, Holly, is running her first full. Josh will be there at the finish line and I cannot wait for a yummy brunch at Carrabba’s afterwards. Holy pasta, it will be calling my name!
I’ll be sharing a post of all my favorite race day items on Monday, so be sure to check back.
FIVE // Speaking of the weekend, this is going to be a good one. We decided not to do too much for Valentine’s Day this year and I’m actually looking forward to it. Somehow we managed to have an entirely child-free weekend. Josh’s parents wanted all of the grand-kids tonight and the girls are staying with my parents tomorrow night because of the race on Sunday morning. I have big fat steaks to grill and a yummy, clean dessert planned for tonight. Josh has baseball practice* in the morning, so I’m planning to sleep VERY late, get my hair cut, read a book and maybe squeeze in a quick two miler. We’ll be headed out to carb-load before I go to bed as early as humanly possible tomorrow night. I know I’ll never manage to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, but laying down and resting as much as I can before Sunday morning will be good. 4:30 is going to come awfully early.
* I got a sneak peek of those baseball pants yesterday and they did NOT disappoint.
Have a GREAT weekend, friends!!
