Some Tuesday Randoms

1. We are supposed to get slammed by more storms this evening. The town where my mom lives {about 2 1/2 hours south} was told to expect horrendous storms with the possibility of causing ef4 to ef5 level tornadoes. Needless to say, this weather is scary.

2. My mom has a friend who's husband is doing search and rescue in Joplin, MO. He said that the level of devastation down there is absolutely overwhelming. Her friend also has a friend that lives there and she still does not know what has happened to her husband. I simply cannot comprehend the loss and devastation. My heart and prayers go out to everyone affected by this weather.

3. Adison only has a 1/2 day of school left. I cannot believe how quickly 2nd grade went and how much she has changed and matured. It's staggering really.

4. Abby has a new word. "Up" Although she doesn't just say it once. Instead we hear, "up up up up up up up up up up" It darling and it melts me, a lot.

5. Ainsley, well she being her cute, sassy self. She said something REALLY funny earlier and now I can't remember it for the life of me. Sigh.

6. Do you remember me telling you about Annabelle? Well, she went home today!!!! Isn't that such amazing, wonderful news! It makes my so happy for their family and I am so grateful to God.

7. I have actually been sleeping the last few nights. Shocking, isn't it!?!

8. Add on that shocking news is that all three girls have slept in the last two days, I have actually had to wake them up. N.O.W. if only I can get that to continue into the summer, I will be a happy lady.

Okay, that's it for now. I have to go get Adison's costume ready for her assembly tomorrow. I hope that you all are doing well and staying safe.

xoxo, me

A soul satisfying day

I have been feeling a bit out of sorts lately.

Like I have little to no margin in life.

The feeling where life just keeps coming at you but you NEED to take a break.

I had been feeling that way.

There is nothing wrong.

Just a feeling of being overwhelmed.

K had realized this feeling welling up inside of me.

He has been extra helpful lately.

I even got out for a bit yesterday by myself and had coffee with my Dad.

It was so nice to have that time with him.

To sit, to talk, to laugh or to be silent.

The rest of the evening went swimmingly well.

K even made dinner last night, he grilled, it was delish.

Today was wonderful.

I met up with two of my dearest friends at the park.

The kids laughed and played while the mamas laughed and talked.

We did that practically all morning.

Then the littles and I met up with K to run an errand and have some lunch.

Afterwards we came home so Abby could take a nap.

Lee and I rested and napped a bit too.

Adison is almost done with school and had a field trip today.

Today was wonderful, cathartic and just what my soul needed.

A day of laughter and ease.

A refill when I was feeling like I was running on fumes.



Awful weather and some needed prayers

Yesterday I wrote about the storm that came through our town. It was such a scary moment that really brought home the fears of living here in the Midwest. But, We are safe, a tornado didn't touch down.

 I heard last night that a tornado ripped through a town here in Kansas. One person was killed and 20 homes were destroyed.

This evening I just heard about a storm that ripped through the town of Joplin, MO. The town was hit very hard. The hospital itself took a direct hit.

I feel so awful for everyone affected by these storms.

I know from our sermon from yesterday that we are called to not be fearful. However, this is a scary time. There is serious hurt and need going on.

Will you please join me in praying for all of those affected by this?

Blowing dandelion seeds

For some reason these photos and this moment captivated me.

They are those magical moments that seem to make the world go round yet stop it so that we can relish in it.

Abigail is growing up and changing rapidly.

She is learning new things and embracing life experiences.

Saturday is was blowing dandelion seeds.

I can't wait to experience more of these moments with her.



We had a nasty storm roll in

Update:
The storms in the Midwest have been truly awful.
Someone died from a tornado in our state last night and 200 homes were destroyed.
I also just heard about another tornado hitting the town of Joplin, MO. From reports it sounds awful.
Please join me in praying for all of those affected by this terrifying and cautostrophic weather.

This evening we attending church.

The key verse that our pastor was speaking about was Philippians 1:27.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see your or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

He was mainly focusing on the fact that we, as followers of Christ, will experience salvation and suffering. A main point of suffering that he was speaking on was fear. We were about 3/4 of the way through the service when we heard the tornado sirens going off. This, in and of itself, was not a huge deal. {We live in Kansas after all.} However, the fact that we were in church when it went off was a first for us. We picked up the little kiddos from the nursery and met with Adison downstairs in the basement. Her church program is down there. Since there were so many people in the basement {and a ton of children} our pastor said a prayer regarding fear and our current situation. Our pastor is REALLY funny, so he had all of us laughing, kept the mood light and just handled the situation perfectly. Then our worship leader started playing some music. It was really fun and a pleasant time. {Keep in mind that we live in tornado alley, so tornado sirens going off in May is not a big surprise.} Ainsley is apparently NOT a fan of loud music though as this was her position pretty much the entire time.

All in all we were in the basement for about forty-five minutes. After we were given the all clear we decided to run an errand and head home. We had just stepped outside when someone commented on the wall cloud outside. This is what we saw. Then the sirens went off again.

I have to say that I have lived in the Midwest the majority of my life and have had my fair share of bad weather. I have NEVER seen a wall cloud like this before. I took all of these pics with my phone and the storm was actually closer than it appears here. The storm was moving the opposite way of us so we were completely safe.

I talked with my mom about all of the weather and mentioned to her the fact that our neighborhood was COVERED in leaves. It looked as though someone had picked up the trees and shook them around a bit, there were leaves everywhere. Luckily though there weren't any fallen limbs. As I was sitting in the driveway talking to here I mentioned the fact that we didn't appear to have gotten any hail at our house when I looked down and saw all of this.

I measured the hail in the bottom picture and it measured 1 1/2 inches across. After K got home I mentioned the hail to him and he told me that his friend that lives over by us called him to tell him that we had baseball sized hail by our house. Yikes!

Thankfully we are all safe and sound. We did have another storm pass through, but it just had some thunder and lightening. I am praying that the storms are done for the night.

I hope that you all are safe and had a fun Saturday!

Five Question Friday

 

1. Do you and your spouse go to bed at the same time?

2. A question for the ladies...What kind of facial hair do you like on your man?

3. What's the worst vacation you've ever taken?

4. What's the first-ever blog you followed?

5. Do you enjoy amusement parks?

 

 

1. No, hardly ever. Actually so infrequently that I would go so far as to say never. Hubby is a night owl, if it were up to him he would stay up until about 4 every night {morning?}. Me, on the other hand, I stay up until about 11.

 

2. K has this little strip under his bottom lip, either that or his has kind of a goatee. He has pretty much had some sort of facial hair the entire time we have been together. It throws me off when he shaves completely.

 

3. I can't think of a completely awful vacation, but we did one time stay at an AWFUL hotel. We were up in Michigan for a family reunion for my family. Adison was about 9 months old, crawling and we had apparently picked the most disgusting hotel to stay at ever. Adison has accidentally spilled something on the carpet and when I went to clean it up the rag turned black from the dirty carpet. Bleh, thinking about how dirty that hotel was still weirds me out. K and I still talk about how gross that place was.

 

4. I think the first blog that I ever followed was my friend Jaime's. I then started reading a few others and was hooked. I love it!

 

5. I used to enjoy amusement parks. The faster the rides were and the more they spun around the better. Then I had kids and apparently my equilibrium disappeared. Now I get motion sick when my three year old pushes me on the merry go round at the park. I do enjoy roller coasters still {kind of} but mostly love the memory making of it all.

InstaFriday

I love Instagram.

Seriously love it.

So much so that K gets annoyed because practically ALL of the pics I take with my phone are taken with Instagram.

Sorry, honey, love you :)

This is Adison's drawing of the tooth fairy.

She wrote the sweetest letter to her asking for one of her teeth back.

Don't worry, I will be posting it later :)
Yep, I'm melting here of the sweetness of it.

Hi.

It's me.

Me after a long day of life, with crazy hair.

How are ya?

After dinner last night K was reading a book to the littles and they were listening to music together.

This picture makes me happy.

See this happy girl?
I have not seen her this happy and fun and laughing and dancing for way too long.

I am beyond thrilled that she is feeling better.

This is our cat, Lily.

She is a super shy cat, she always hides when we have company over or the kids are awake.

She was laying on my the other night {which never happens} and I took the opportunity to take her picture.

Ainsley's rock.

It's not in her stomach anymore.

All is well right now.

The fair is in town right now.

The girls are itching to go.

In fact, it's all I have really heard about for since yesterday afternoon.

The only problem with this is that it is supposed to rain for the next week.

Sorry kiddos.

I loved the bright colors of everything and couldn't resist snapping a few pics.