Monday

It is naptime on Monday afternoon, and I am enjoying a hot cup of creamy Bifferdoodle while I listen to SCC sing and JCT play with his Fisher Price Batcave. The house is peaceful and quiet, and I am soaking it in prepping for the craziness that is to come later this afternoon when the littles wake up and Joshua returns home ready! to! play!

Next Monday I am going to begin doing my weekly menu plans again, but this week is Joshua and JCT's birthday week, and it is crazy to say the least!!! Two cookies cakes must be made to take to the boys' classes, and then all the preps for their party on Saturday!! That combined with a week full of evening activities means that we will be eating quick easy meals like pizza, chicken nuggets, and loaded baked potatoes!!!

And, next Monday I plan on beginning another little habit ~ recording some of the things from my thankful list. . . I began a gratitude journal last October. I got the idea from Holy Experience's blog (I'm not sure of the address. I access her blog through bloglines). And, she has a Gratitude Monday idea where you list things you are thankful for each Monday. I like that idea! So, I am going to pick my favorites from the week prior and record them on my blog each Monday. Let's see if I can remain faithful???

A few things that are making me smile these days. . .

1.) The cold of true winter returned for the weekend. Oh, how I've missed those low temps!! Erik and I bundled up to take Rain out Friday night, and it. was. freezing. cold. And, I had the biggest grin on my frozen face because I love winter weather!!! My mom says it must be the two years we lived in North Dakota when I was a little girl that makes me love the cold and snow so!!! I get giddy when the national weather service issues a winter weather advisory! I watch the weather channel and access weather.com over and over just to see what is headed our way!!! The thought of getting snowed in thrills my soul!!! If only snow came without ice!!!

2.)

Enough said.

3.) JCT came home from school a couple weeks ago with this paper!! How sweet is this. . .

After I read his paper, I asked him, "What do I smell like, JCT?" And, he said, "You! Smell! Great!" And, my heart smiled so big!!!

4.) A sweet real little boy sort of friendship is blossoming between Joshua and JCT. And, I can't tell you how much my heart loves to sit back and watch. They love to play football outside together until they are frozen and it is so dark that they can't see well enough to play any longer.

They had done exactly that this particular evening. When they came in, I was cooking dinner, and they crashed on the couch to watch a movie together. . .

I love that they play hard outside. It is such an important part of being a little boy!!! I make them wear their "play clothes" when they play outside because they will destroy their "good clothes" if I don't! Check out JCT's knees after an afternoon of pure fun. . .I love it!!! They are the marks of little boy joy!!

5.) This next one made me laugh out loud! On Friday we got a great deal of freezing rain, and Joshua got out of school early which made for a fun afternoon for the boys. They couldn't play outside because of the weather, so JCT begged Joshua to play dinosaurs with him. Guess what big brother came up with to make everyone happy. . .

The stegosauruses versus the tyrannosauruses. . .

Dinosaur arena league football!!

Boys! Boys! Boys!