Tahoe

The timing could not have been any more perfect. Uncle Jon and Aunt Jen had a house rented in Tahoe and we were lucky enough to join them for the weekend! Fun times skiing in the pow, rock wall climbing in the lodge, gaming, squirrel house mapping, and more!

Too much fun!!

Powers Out

We might have the only girls in town that LOVE when the powers out. School gets cancelled so you get to play outside in the snow all day, tea parties by the fire, candle light dinners and night lights, baths made with water heated on the wood stove, laundry drying by the fire..... its just like the "olden days"!!

But when the outage stretches on for 7 days..... it's time to get out of town!

Naughty Leprechauns

After skipping over our house last year with no plausible explanation (I mean why would the leprechauns visit the school and not our house??), those naughty leprechauns did indeed come to our house as well as the classrooms!! They made a mess!! They wrote on Adalie's homework, made rainbows in the sink, threw laundry all over the house, made foot prints in the flour.
Adalie's trap almost had one of them.... it appears they chewed through in order to escape!

Worse than our house though.... were the classrooms!! It seems that the leprechaun traps upset those little leprechauns!!
It was ALOT of cleaning up!!

Can't wait until next year....

Failed

I love this picture of the girls and me because it was a day of being intentional. A day where we got to focus on one another's faces and words. A day where I got to play with my girls without distraction.

Today, on the other hand, was a complete failure. If there is one thing that plagues my mind each night as I review the day .... it is balancing my tiny amount of uninterrupted time with my girls. I struggle with it each day. We have chosen a lifestyle that is full of fun activities. This has been an intentional decision. We love it, but we also realize that it limits our quiet time with each other to listen to each other's thoughts. My heart's desire is to dive in with my girls, to play baby dolls, fun pretend games and discover the world with them .... but there is still dinner to be cooked, mail to be opened, kitchens and bathrooms to be cleaned, wood to be carried in ... and still yet the more selfish things like emails to check, books to read, moments to sit and be still, and blogs to post. Tonight I was plagued with remorse when Adalie said to me .... "Mommy, today you did not play with me..." One might think I am too hard on myself... but when my little girls asks if I will play with her and then I allow myself to get consumed with the mess of life around me.... I feel as if I have failed.

Tomorrow will be a new day.

Tomorrow I will not waste my chance to be intentional.

China Peak

Well, Josiah had trained all winter for this first race - China Peak's Giant Salome. We missed the first 2 travel races, so while the other members on her team were well seasoned, she was surprisingly nervous! This is the first time that competition has given her "the sick look" (it's a facial expression that Jonathan and I donned whenever we got nervous)!

We arrived on the mountain on Friday just in time for her to get one run down the course hill before they roped it off to groom and set gates. It was steep, and it was long! Thankfully she has got some strong legs, because this course was going to take some endurance! We spent the rest of Friday having fun on our skies, enjoying some ski time with Grammy and Papa.

Saturday morning, Josiah was noticeably nervous and excited! Thankfully we didn't have to be on the mountain at the crack of dawn because the big kids raced first and the weather was going to hold out for at least one more day!

All the racers get to slip the course at least once and then they line them up to race. Once on the start hill, they can see the top of the course, they check their equipment, they put their poles over the electronic start gate and they are ready! Josiah's coaches were fabulous. One stayed by her side all the while she waited for her turn to race, then followed her up the race hill and stood by her with encouraging words. Her second coach, further down the race course, radioed last minute instructions to her. Then she was ready, poised, skis on the edge of the start hill, looking down the course.... racer ready 5, 4, 3, 2, .... she's off! It was so exciting to watch her fly down the course!!

And while I had wondered and doubted a million times in the past 2 days whether we should have her in competition because she seemed so nervous, when I zoomed in on the 1 still shot I got of our little racer and saw she literally had a smile from one ear to the other, I no longer doubted .... she loved it!!

2 races on Saturday and 1 race on a blizzarding Sunday left Josiah with 2 medals! Fourth place on Saturday and 9th place on Sunday. We were so excited on Saturday night when they called our Josieroo for 4th place - this was a big race with over 30 racers in her age group!! And Sunday was even more amazing, after a near miss of 1 gate and having to cut back up hard to catch it, losing most of her speed at the bottom of the course in a white out blizzard.... she still manages to medal!!

Fun weekend!!

Thank you to all her coaches that dedicate their time to these young skiers!!

Panic

Our Josiah l.o.v.e.s science books. Her AR library is filled with book titles like "Snakes on the Hunt," "Birds of Prey," "Tornadoes," and "Great Whites." She comes home with crazy fun science facts almost everyday. One term however, that was a recurring theme in these books was the dreaded "mating and breeding."

Panic ensued I tell you.... sheer panic!!

Thank goodness for a perfectly timed distraction that allowed us an extra day to think!!

And thank goodness she does loves science because it allowed us the perfect out.... remember Noah's Ark. The animals came 2 by 2. One male and one female. Well, what would have happened if Noah goofed and put 2 female elephants on the ark. Josiah's prefect answer.... "elephants would have been extinct!"

AH HA!! ..... we have our first definition of family!

God designed family to require both a male and a female!!

Penguins need a Mommy to grow the egg and a Daddy to keep it warm. Ospreys need a Mommy to sit on the nest while the Daddy's hunt. Lion cubs need a Mommy for milk and a Daddy to teach them to crouch....

Ahhh, we do love science in this house!

Grace

Today I find myself over flowing with joy from experiencing God's grace. Grace in receiving an extra day to answer a tough question, grace in having Mom friends who share my heart and are 1 step ahead of me, grace in not just receiving their advise, but also the wisdom they had gathered, grace in being encouraged, grace in being affirmed, grace in just the right words to say.....

Today I basked in grace that replaced anxiety and there are no words to describe its bliss.... it is beyond comprehension!