10 Things Thursday

!0 things about today.

1. I forgot it was Thursday. For some reason I was all mixed up this week about which day it was. Weird.
2. It was my kindergarten class's day to lead chapel, which means two girls lead the Pledge of Allegiance and two boys lead opening and closing prayer. We learned that one of my girls loooves the microphone and one doesn't so much.
3. Another teacher covered my class for a while so that I could go to some local businesses asking for donations for our school's annual fundraising auction. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it as much as I used to. And I discovered a cute little Italian place that I want to try.
4. I got done with my donation list a little early and stopped at Arby's for lunch. All by myself. And sat there and ate. And only felt a tiny bit guilty.
5. After lunch, I graded my afternoon class's spelling pre-tests and was happy that I had two 100%s, two 95%s, and one 90%. I wasn't so happy with the rest. (Note to self: work on spelling more with the struggling ones.)
6. After that we read about industrialism and inventions in the early 19th century. Did you know that in his lifetime, Andrew Carnegie gave away $350 million and John D. Rockefeller gave away $550 million?! Me either.
7. A bird flew into my window on the way to school this morning. It was dark when we were coming home so I'm just going to assume he jumped up and flew away as soon as we were out of sight. And that he had a bunch of little birdie friends hiding on the side of the road waiting to laugh with him about the look on my face.
8. I'm glad it was a bird that hit my car and not the moose we saw earlier this week.
9. The boys and I got haircuts after school. I was thrilled. They were not. Mean mama won't let them be shaggy.
10. Tomorrow is Friday. I know that's not about today, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

Blessed Sunday

My 11 year old son leaning over in church and whispering to me about his sister who was sitting on his other side, "I love her so much!" That's a blessing.

10 things Thursday

10 of my favorite things from today.

1. Hugging on my favorite niece in the hall at school.
2. Laughing multiple times in chapel.
3. Discovering a new way to get my kindergartners to work quietly.
4. Answering the question about why my afternoon class was eating suckers with the reply, "Because I gave them suckers."
5. Making Kathy hiss "shut up" at me.
6. Hearing Patty's story about her call from the mayor.
7. Seeing how excited my kindergartners got about the new seating chart.
8. Tacos for dinner...even if I did have to cook.
9. Quiet reading time.
10. Bedtime.

(9 & 10 are still to come... but I know they'll be on the list.)

10 Things Thursday

In honor of A Butterfly Moment soon surpassing 40,000 page views, here are the top ten viewed posts (and number of views to date) on my blog.

1. The Story of How I Came To Sit Beside Ellen Travolta (1418)
2. Why I Don't Go To The Mall  (498)
3. Tragedy (375)
4. A short story... (326)
5. Potty Training 301 (316)
6. 32 + 1 (294)
7. Yeah, Minnie! (220)
8. 10 Things Thursday (184)
9. Disney on Ice (178)
10. Pronounced (173)

And the top 10 countries to view my blog.

1. United States
2. Russia
3. France
4. Netherlands
5. United Kingdom
6. Germany
7. South Korea
8. Malaysia
9. Canada
10. Australia

Show and Tell

stuffed penguin with green mittens and scarf named Pengpeng

doll named Rainbowlicious whose "...eyes close when she lays down and when she stands up her eyes are open."

plastic, purple snake

Zuzu pet puppy

Huggy Buggy the fat butterfly

dog Dream Lite*

Velveteen Rabbit--"Her first name is Velvet and her middle name is Velveteen and I haven't decided her last name yet."

plastic baby bottle shaped like a bunch of grapes

dog slippers used for beds for littler animals

pirate ship shaped like a dragon

Christmas flipbook

unicorn Dream Lite named Rainbow (last name Party--nickname Dreamy)**

eagle and shark toys "This is my eagle and I like to play with it and this is my shark and I like to play with it."


*The dog Dream Lite was the one thing Julianna wanted most of all for Christmas. She loves it! It really does shine the stars and shapes on the ceiling. I would have loved it when I was little!

**I love when stuffed animals have first, middle, and last names. I think the nickname was a first after many years of show and tell. And a rainbow party would be dreamy!

Blessed Sunday

Over the past two days I have been blessed to spend time with some of the sweetest, cutest, snuggliest babies in town. Yesterday I was able to play and snuggle with my sweet nephew, Asher. He is such a wonderful little guy. He smiles and laughs and giggles almost all the time. He is funny and talkative and adorable. He sat with me and we read and sang and discussed all the wonderful things outside while watching the other kids play in the snow. And for a few sweet moments, he snuggled on my lap and slept. What a sweet face he has! I love him all to pieces and treasure all the baby moments with him since he's the last baby in our family for a while.

Then this morning during church services I was asked to watch the babies in the nursery. There were six little ones to enjoy. They were all so good and we had lots of fun playing and emptying out all the toy boxes in the whole nursery. They are all very special babies with very special families.

So here's what I discovered from all the baby time I enjoyed this weekend: I'm glad they went home with their mommies and not me. I am done with babies. And although I love them and loved every minute spent with them, I am glad to not have to change their diapers and get up with them at night and follow them around with a broom and a handful of baby wipes. Baby-ness is wonderful and I will always be grateful for my time of mommying babies. But those days are over for me. And I can finally say that that's okay. It took a long time for me to be okay with it. But I am. I really am. I'll just love on other people's babies and then smile as I hand them back to their mommies as soon as they start crying or stinking. Now that's what I call blessed.

10 Things Thursday

10 things I got for Christmas.

1. Boots from my dad on our pre-Christmas shopping trip. I love them. I have wanted some like them for a long time, but never bought them for myself. They are my new favorite shoes...at least until sandal time.
2. Silverware from mom (and dad). The silverware we had been using was a wedding gift, I think. We were down to five forks after all these years. And there are five of us. So I had to wash forks after every meal. Or plan meals that didn't need forks.
3. Cups. Which doesn't sound so exciting, but they are my favorite kind of cups with lids and straws. I use one every day to take ice water to school. And since two of mine have disappeared (NOT to Arrty's office), I needed a few more. One was filled with socks and one had a TJ Maxx gift card in it.
4. CDs. Three lovely, thoughtful, mixed cds from my sweet sister. One is titled "to chill to." One is "to sing to." And one is "to move to." I love them all. They make me smile...and chill...and sing...and move.
5. Brave. The movie. Not the adjective. Although it is both my favorite animated movie and my favorite adjective.
6. A mug. With lots of big words that I had to look up on dictionary.com. It is perfect for tea and hot chocolate. I love it and the person who gave it to me.
7. A journal with butterflies on the front. Just perfect for lists and reminders and book ideas.
8. Fuzzy, polka dot socks. Which are comfy and warm and make my feet happy.
9. A romance novel. That I picked out for myself when I couldn't find "The Life of Pi." I read it Christmas week. Let's just say I should have waited for "The Life of Pi." It was terrible. Just terrible. And still I read the whole thing.
10. Another book that will most certainly be better than "The Christmas Bride" and a Hastings gift card. With which I will buy "The Life of Pi."

Bonus: Adam gave me a fuzzy, gray blanket that he got as his gift at the youth group Christmas party. It was so sweet of him to pass it on to me since he knows how much I love a nice, soft blanket.

I also got a big, red mixing bowl, a cupcake carrier, chocolates, pens, pajamas, movie tickets, a monkey cup, homemade fudge, a calendar, chocolate covered graham crackers, a brush, a Texas Roadhouse gift card, a Dutch Bros. gift card, a cupcake ornament, a beverage warmer, Diet Coke and Oreos, and probably more that have been used, put away or eaten.

I'm very blessed and a little spoiled.