New Blogs

Check out two new blogs.

One is NEW and the other is just NEW to me!!

Both involve a giveaway today so hurry over!

New Blog

Screaming, Running, Naked . . . . Down the Driveway of Life

Go meet Kimberlee, you'll love her blog.

I met her in college.

Without even really knowing each other we went on a 24+ hour road trip together
 cause that's what you do in college!
We ran out of gas on that trip in the  MIDDLE of the night in WYOMING!
Scary!
Stopped at a random house.
For a city girl this is terrifying  . . . you don't just knock on a stranger's door in the MIDDLE of the night!
That's asking to be shot!
It was a cops house.
He called the gas station owner.
Gas station owner opened up his station.
We got gas.
Gotta love a small town.
The four of us college kids were on our way again!
Great memories!

Kimberlee is great!!
Go show her some love!

Her husband and mine played college ball together.

He's great too!
Another reason to go say hi!

Blog new to ME! 

Blessed Little Nest

                                                         

This mom has a sweet story. 

I'd say I hope you win one of their giveaways but I'm hoping I win. 

Join me?

Beth Moore is one of my favorite bible teachers.
I love her because she's passionate, challenging, gets you into the Word, and she keeps it all real.
I also love her crazy, passionate personality. She's Texan, you gotta love her!

I'm taking her up on her invitation on her BLOG to join her and many others to read her new book, it's released today!
"So Long Insecurity, You've Been A Bad Friend to Us"
Maybe insecurity is one of your biggest struggles.
Maybe it's only an issue when you are in certain situations or with certain people.
Maybe it's only seasonal for you.
Regardless I'm sure we can all learn something from Beth.

Check it out and join me.
You can get the book at Amazon.
If you decide to join in I'd love it if you'd leave a comment!

Yeah for Mail!

I love the mail!
Yesterday it turned my day around.
My afternoon was filled with a variety of circumstances (unrelated) that made my heart so full and my head spin.
It left me feeling anxious, uptight, and then down.
I then went to check the mail and . . . .
MOOD CHANGED!
I received a few checks I was waiting on.
A few late Christmas cards.
A HAND WRITTEN letter that had me laughing out loud. (You rarely get those handwritten letters anymore.)
AND
Drum roll please!!!
a big box!!!
I saw the box right away and was confused because I couldn't remember ordering anything.
I wrote it off thinking it was probably more seminary books for Jason.
NOPE, the package had my name on it.
It took me a second and then it hit me.
Drum roll again!!!
MY BLOG BOOKS!!!
I wasn't expecting them until Feb.
I turned my 2 years of blogging into books and LOVE THEM!!
I was giddy with joy.

I started to reread some of my very first posts and was laughing again out loud.
When I started blogging the twins were 3, Tots 1, and Ian 5.
If you need a laugh about motherhood with several little ones check out some of these old posts.

http://nicsdays.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-just-won-mother-of-year-award.html


http://nicsdays.blogspot.com/2008/03/monday.html


http://nicsdays.blogspot.com/2008/04/mcdonalds.html

I went with a site called BLOG2PRINT
I checked out this site first but decided it had to many options for me and would require time.
I didn't want to spend time altering pictures or choosing layouts.
There were a few other little things that made me go with blog2print but I think both would give you a great book.
It's simple and it's all in there!!

If you are wondering . . . today was a much better day than yesterday . . . a very good day.
2 Peter 5:7  "Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you."

I WON SOMETHING

I'm following a new blog by a pastor's wife on the east coast. They are church planters and it's been very encouraging to me. She's speaking on Mother's Day at her husband's church and she wanted help coming up with "You know your a mother if . . . " comments. She had 100's of comments and I submitted a list of 6 or more. She has all boys so I appealed to some of the "You know you are a mom of boys if . . . . " but those weren't even the ones that sealed the deal! GUESS WHAT ?? I WON!!! How fun to open an email saying I WON something! The prize is awesome too . . . a PINK FLIP CAMERA!!!!! How awesome is that!? Check out her blog and the announcement of the winner!

You may have also noticed how much easier is it to get on my blog. I have taken the password off of the login. It's now an open blog. If I begin to worry again or feel I need to I can always add it back on!

So many different things . . .

I hate cramming so many different events/topics into one post but I haven't had time to blog and today is no exception . . . so I'll just group it all together.

Let's start with this . . . GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE . . .
As a mom this is one of the hardest things. It takes so much effort to get out of the house. That's usually when I lose my patience, lose my cool, and many times lose my keys. My kids ask questions like; When are we going? Where is my other shoe? Can I take 100 toys? Are we all going? I begin thinking things like; Maybe we should just stay home, Why didn't I get up at 5:00 am instead of 7:00am? How can I get things more organized so everyone is self sufficient? I'm pretty good at planning ahead and being organized but regardless of how prepared I am those last five minutes are just frustrating . . . . BUT once we are out the door it's ALWAYS worth it. On Saturday we decided to take our first SPRING hike!!! It was a beautiful day, there was no exception with our "out the door hassles" but the second we were out and my eyes could capture these moments it reminded me how worth it is to trudge through the hassles. Everyone loved the hike!!

Topic number #2 - I made my friends blog. Check it out . . . remember the blogging friend I said I was going to meet. Well she took pics that day of us and the kids playing and posted them. She has many blog followers and has appeared in some magazines for crafts she's done. She's super talented. Check it out HERE

Next topic . . . On Friday I had a day for me . . . my good friend and I went to an all day Scrapbook Exp. We left at 9am and returned as midnight!! AHHHH!! We scrapped all day, laughed, watched people compete in dance competitions for prizes (my back hurt so I didn't enter the contest, ha!). We were so lucky to have a HS girl that watched the kids until the hubbies returned. The girl even skipped school. (Don't worry her mother knew; she just had electives that day and playing with our kids sounded like more fun to her.) She'll never know how much of a gift she gave us girls until she's a momma. THANKS JORDAN!! That evening the daddies and kids did a hot dog roast in the backyard. No one even missed mommy. I haven't scrapped traditionally since September (the last all day crop) - I've been digital scrapbooking. I worked on Tatum's baby book and did 20 pages!!!!!!!! Here's some of them!

Here's pics from last week's preschool activities . . . I think if I had to name our little home preschool (it's just myself, the twins, and sometimes Tatum if she's up) I'd call it NAKED PRESCHOOL. The twins are always in underwear!

I found two blogs with great preschool activities. Both our linked on the side of my blog. The Crafty Crow and Preschool Daze. You can steal my ideas or check out these blogs. The Preschool Daze goes ALL out - what a fun preschool to attend!

We made rainbows out of pipe cleaners and the foam blocks used for silk flowers. (I'd use styrofoam if I did it again.)

Then one day we did an activity with skittles. They each had a bag of skittles to graph and see which colors they got the most and least. Then they did AB and ABBA patterns with them. They loved doing patterns in their real preschool so they loved doing this. Plus it included candy!

The twins have really started asking about when they'll get to go back to preschool. I think they just miss going to school like Ian does and they miss some of their friends. I miss it too but am enjoying being able to use my creativity and do things with them. These years with them are flying by. It's also fun to see how they both do things a little differently when working on a project.

Just a moment ago they were all doing a Slime Science Kit that Ian had earned and they wanted to smell the slime they were making. I taught them all how a scientist smells something - they waft. It was HILARIOUS watching them all waft the beaker to see if it smells. Science is my LEAST favorite topic but I think it may become my boys favorite. AHHH!

I think I've covered enough topics for one blog. Time to get some things done on my list. More slime is being made I better supervise a little better.