The Year keeps on Marching Along

Wow! I can't believe March is already over! It's been a good month but boy has it gone by fast.

Some fast facts from March:

• I turned 32 and had a Wonderful Birthday!
• I had 6 days off from school--wahoo!
• I made beef stew at least 4 times...I'm trying to perfect my recipe!
• The kids made it through another month with no sickness...both have perfect attendance for the first 3 quarters!
• Dan and I got to have 2 Friday afternoon dates since I was off school and he doesn't work Fridays!
• I learned 3 new Bible verses with the kids at school and several more with the kids in AWANA.
• Awana Grand Prix was this month and Jaron took 3rd place in design...we still have yet to win for speed.
• I have a greater love for my family, a bigger heart for my God and I desire to know HIM more!

Some quick goals for the Month of April:

• Complete all the work I have put on myself at work!( I may have bit off more than I can chew!)
• Enjoy my family all the time....especially when I am tired and not feeling good.
• Figure out our family vacation plans for June.

The Saga of the Heat

This is my furnace, my wonderful furnace that brings us the heat in the little ol house of the Jonathan's..This is the furnace the really sad furnace that stopped working one week during the cold and stopped providing the heat for the little ol house of the Jonathan's....
This is the Thermostate our brand new thermostat which can handle the signal which comes from the furnace to help give us heat in the little Ol house of the Jonathan's...

This is the snow, the really cold snow that gave me such stress, when the thermostat and furnace were giving no heat, for the little ol house of the Jonathan's...

This is the ice that fell before the snow, that coated the trees and the roads, and made it much more difficult for the man that was coming to fix the furnace that gives us the heat for the little ol house of the Jonathan's....

This is the snow, the beautiful snow that I can appreciate so much more, when the furnace has been fixed and is again providing the heat for the little ol house of the Jonathan's!

The END.

Round Two

The heater stopped working around 4 am last night....now I am waiting to call the emergency number to let our landlord know. I don't like calling people really early on a Saturday...I'm not sure if they will get someone out to look at it...so we are using our bathroom space heater and I am planning on using the oven today to keep the main family areas warm.

On a side note...we live in Kansas City which is notorious for not knowing what the weather is going to do..so the question really is ...Will it Snow today or not?

Baby it's cold outside...

We had a cold snap this week....both inside and out!

Outside there have been a few cold front pushing through this month. It was nice for the week I was off but this week it hasn't really been out of the forties and fifties. Well, last week I turned our furnace off and was running a fan in the house to bring in cooler air. It was nice to get the fresh air in the house as I was cleaning. On Tuesday, I thought about turning on the heat again but it wasn't too bad with a forecast of near 60 and sun which warms the house up during the day. Well, Wednesday morning was chilly and I thought, okay lets turn the heat on again to warm us up. I go to the thermostat and turn it to heat and nothing happens. So I flip it to Air Conditioning and nothing happens, it doesnt' turn on. I go and check the breaker box, no circuits are flipped. I turn on the fan and it turns on but it's only blowing cold air. Oh no, not good, but I gotta get to work.

During the day I often communicate with Dan by texting. So I asked him to check the thermostat and see if he can get it to work... He can't get it to work either and tells me to call our landlord. So Thursday morning I call and the furnace guy comes and checks it out...no luck, they need a different part and will fix it today. A little before 1pm Dan texts me and says that the house is only 54 degrees inside(We have an internal thermometer) and the furnace guy hasn't come yet...so I think, should I call, I want the heat! There is a chance of a serious snow storm this weekend and it's cold! I hate calling on things...well, as I am getting my kids in class down for nap the main office calls and says that they are on their way! Around 2:30 today Dan texts me again and tells me we have HEAT! I got home today to a nice warm house!

It's the little things like heat that you don't really appreciate until they are gone...well I am very appreciative of the fact that my house has heat and my furnace is working again!

Kids say the Darndest---prayer edition

Every day when I teach Bible story I pick a boy and a girl to pray before me. Today this was the little girls prayer

Dear God,
Please help me to be better(she isn't sick)
Help my friends to be good.
Help my mom and dad to be(unintelligible)so that they don't cry any more.

Amen

The little boys prayer went like this

Dear God
Thank you for my friends
Thank you for the teachers markers and don't let anybody mess them up!

Amen

Usually I finish with a nice prayer today all I could manage was this:
Father God, thank you for the prayers of children--Amen!

First time in my classroom experience when the markers got prayed for! I wanted to laugh out loud but couldn't!

Fear

Rainstorms are hard for us. Ever since last summer any time it rains in the middle of the night there is a feeling of unease and unrest. Janea in particular is really struggling. She is afraid of the rain and the night. She is afraid that we will experience flooding again and that she will have to swim for her life. She is also afraid for her brother who isn't able to swim. She worries that her dad won't be safe as he drives home in the rain. It's a real big fear for her.

Yet it also is that teachable moment, that place where you have to simply reach out and trust that there is a God who is bigger than anything you can imagine. There could have been so much more pain and suffering for our family on that evening in June almost a year ago. There could have been death and agony and the feeling of what if...but there isn't. My baby is here and she is alive and God is Faithful! God brought her safely through that basement and brought us out of a major trial! We emerged from that evening more together, more full of gratitude than I could have ever imagined. It is on evenings like this when I listen to the rain, and hug my daughter close that I can't help but be eternally grateful for that trial. It's nights like this when I shed a tear and say an extra prayer for my children, my husband. A prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer of hope, a prayer of seeking the right thing for my family. It's times like this that I am so thankful for my Wonderful God who holds everything in his hands and won't let us slip or fall. It's this that makes me able to sleep and wake refreshed for a new morning.

Back to the Regular Routine

Tomorrow I go back to work. Spring Break will be over for me...sigh...but on the other hand I am looking forward to getting back to our regular routines. The break was much needed and I feel more with it, feel like my house is more under control, so it's all good. The good news is that now there are only 9 more weeks of school...whoo--hooo!

My little Baldy

My darling son...the crazy little person he is...decided that he needed to trim chunks of his hair off at school.

So we had to buzz him again....I didn't really think he had that much hair!

The small pieces are everywhere! It's so sad it's comical!

One more...one more..

One more day of Spring Break...then it's back to work

One more day of Spring Cleaning...hope I get it all done.

One more weekend to spend with my family!

One more reminder of all I have to be thankful for!

Awana Grand Prix

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Picking through the Piles

Since I am on Spring Break for a whole week and the kids only get 2 days we are spending time at home. It'll be a week of stuff that normally doesn't occur. We have Awana Grand Prix this Wednesday night so last night was time trials so we are painting our cars and getting them glued together and weighed and measured.

I am also using this week to Spring Clean...my house has become a big pile of junk and stuff this winter. I am attempting to sort through all the piles and bring the house back under control. Over the weekend Dan went through another pile of flood stuff that we had brought with us. We went from 3 small shelf units full of stuff to 3 boxes under Jaron's bed. We now have piles of garbage in our cans but I will let the Garbage men worry about that! We have piles of leaves outside that need to go into Leaf bags to be hauled away and Janea and I will tackle that later. We are working on making the house a bright cheery clean place for the Spring! It's nice!

Time with the Kids

Last night was a Girls Night/Boys Night. Jaron and Daddy got to spend the evening together and Janea and I got to too! We did different things but spent some quality one on one time with the children. Next time, Dan and Janea will do something and Jaron and I will hang out together!

Daddy and Jaron spent the evening shoe shopping and playing Jaron's new Spongebob Video Game! They had a good time together!

Janea and I got to go and see the Calvary production of "Annie Get Your Gun"! Grandma and Grandpa Spry were involved with the production and so we got front row seats! We had an enjoyable time together seeing the play and now we have songs stuck in our head! My favorites being "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, and Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night"

I treasure these moments of time with the kids where we get to do something fun and not nagging to get something done! We just spent time enjoying being together! Its such a blessing!

Time for Us

Dan and I got to spend the afternoon together without the kids. It was nice to get to run to the bank, to CVS, to the school to make a trash bag pickup, the bank and then grocery shopping. We even slipped in a late lunch together. We had an enjoyable time just hanging out! It's been a while since we have been able to reconnect with one another. I am very thankful to get to have quality time!

I am a Cleaning Queen...

and boy am I tired!

Today I was working at school all day to clean and organize the classroom. We tackled a massive project of cleaning out an entire cupboard and the closet which was stuffed full! Took us all day but now the closet is clean enough to walk in turn around.

Then when I got home Dan decided to tackle a project we started last week(he took the night off) and I decided to work near him and tackled cleaning the kitchen...got a lot done...looks much cleaner.

I am tired, tired, tired. Yet I feel strangely good...

My foot, my class the nuts of it all!..

My foot is feeling much better! I can walk without limping and the pain is only there if I really stomp hard. Dan was looking at the staples today and couldn't believe how long they really are...we are so thankful that it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

My class is nuts, completely nuts! I am so thankful that Spring Break starts for them on Friday...we still have a teacher inservice day but that's okay! They need a break and so do I!

I shoulda, coulda, woulda...

Boy do I wish I had watched where I was stepping! It would have saved me a whole lotta pain.

This is the board with 3 staples sticking out of it. I had placed this in an unsafe spot on the floor as I was cleaning the kids room...I was trying to keep it safe and out of Jaron's hands!

This is my foot, about 5 hours after I stepped directly on it with just socks on! I had forgotten where I had placed it and in my hurry to move something, I stepped directly on the staples, leaving 6 smaller puncture wounds in my foot!
I adjusted the contrast so you can see exactly how swollen and bruised my foot is!

A Good day

Yesterday I turned 32...not tramatic at all...It was a good day!

Here's what the weather was like before I left for work! 51 and rising! Love the warm weather!

Here's my handsome little man wishing me a happy birthday!

Janea made me a beautiful picture for my birthday!~ Now I just need to get it framed!

The kids got me a new volleyball for me to use this summer!

An ocean scented candle and goodies from my co-teacher!

Plus, Dan is treating me to some new clothes and a shopping trip today~! We had a yummy dinner of Mexican food and just a relaxing evening at home! One Happy Birthday!

Relishing the Silence

It's not often quiet here in the Jonathan household. We are often running around shooting each other with dart guns(future post), jumping off the furniture, talking a mile a minute, soaking Momma's bathroom, watching TV, singing, dancing, playing, and enjoying. Some evenings I think I will go crazy from the loudness of it all! I do contribute to the noise so I am not shifting the blame just some days it's amazing how loud we are.

Weekday mornings are a pleasure....I get up before the kids and I get a silent house. I have time to think, to plan, to meditate, to pray, to just say awww...and on the mornings when I am up and the house is quiet those are good days. I am filled with peace and don't have the rush of a busy morning and gettting everyone out the door.

I relish this time to feel like I am gathering my thoughts, to spend time with God on a deep level, to not answer a million questions...it's so wonderful!

A Bowl of Beef Stew

Thanks to my handy dandy crockpot I get to enjoy homemade beef stew tonight for dinner. I made it last night all night and get to eat it today...so good, so warm, so fabulous! Crock pots are phenomonal...I am so thankful someone invented them!

Craziness in Practice

I walked in the living room to find that Jaron had put his coat on his legs. One of the joys of motherhood.