Friday, April 17, 2015

Friday Five-O #54 {Flowers and Fruit Galore!}

Good Morning, Loves!
I hope this finds you doing well!

This has been a LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG week!
So much has been going on
that I feel I've barely had time to catch my breath.

Why don't you grab a pillow and a blanky
and settle in for a nap 
(Lord knows I'm going to as soon as I get done writing this!)
...after you read all about my week on today's:

Friday was the first full day after mom's shoulder surgery...
so basically my day was spent taking care of her.
She was, obviously, very sore and therefore, 
required pain meds every four hours.
The pain meds made her drowsy so she did quite a bit of sleeping.
During one of her numerous naps,
I made a break for the outdoors 
and snapped this LOVELY photo of my magnolia tree.

I so LOVE this tree!


Don't you?! :)

Due to mom's surgery, the weekend was relatively quiet.
I only left the house for about an hour
on Saturday and Sunday to run errands.
Monday morning, though, it was back to work with my TJ darlings.
And during coloring time,
this happened.

The Hunger Games fanatic in me lashed out sharply,
"That. Is. MAHOGANY!"
LOL...couldn't resist...

On Monday I also took a moment
to capture another lovely image of my sweet magnolias.

They smell so HEAVENLY!

Tuesday I was FINALLY able to capture a photo
of TJ's resident attack squirrel...

 This little dude, 
who happens to be named Ralphie Ferdinand Chubby, 
is literally not afraid of anything!
He comes right up to people 
whether you are screaming in terror or not.
He even tried to come into the school building
and was only persuaded otherwise 
by a foot kicking in his general direction.

Wednesday night was the long-awaited debut 
of my new ministry position at church.
I recently volunteered to step up and help coordinate
the Quarterly Kids Care Group.
What this entails is as follows:
Four times a year 
instead of holding a regular Wednesday evening church service,
the adults of our congregation meet to worship in five or so private homes.
The children are still brought to the church
where a group of loving, qualified individuals take care of them 
teach them a Bible lesson, and generally have fun with them.
This has been occurring for approximately 18 months now with mixed success.
The wonderfully lady that had previously been orchestrating the event
was simply being pulled in too many directions 
and was in need of some help.
Enter me. :)
Together, she and I planned out a curriculum
that is going to cover the next four quarterly care group meetings.
And Wednesday night was the first one :).
We decided on a Fruits of the Spirit theme.
The children were split into two classes 
(three if you count the infants in the nursery):
6 - 11 year olds
and 3 - 5 year olds.
Each class had age appropriate activities to do
and in general I'd say its safe to call the night a success :).
The younger class got to play with their food at snack time
to make Octi the Octopus 
who is a visual illustration of the 9 Fruits of the Spirit
(don't forget to count the apple in the center!).

I have to say...I'm kind of in love with it! :)
And I'm excited about the next quarterly care group meeting
that's coming up in July.
Here's a tiny sneak preview idea
(this is NOT set in stone yet):
Kool-Aid Water Fight.
dum dum dum!

Yesterday at TJ,
my little angels...were not being little angels
to say the least...
So in an effort to save my sanity and that of my co-worker,
we skipped homework and took the children outdoors
to run off some energy.
While outside, this happened:

Ok...so here's the story about this photo:
There is a lovely cherry blossom tree
(at least that's what I think it is...) at TJ
that I have been wanting to take a photo of.
Also I was REALLY looking forward to the sweet smell
that would invade my senses when I took a deep breath
while standing under it.
So imagine my surprise
when a very UNsweet and UNpleasant smell greeted me instead.
Nonetheless, the flowers were still pretty
so I decided to take a small branch of them
as far away from the stinky tree as possible
to take the photo.
Just as I was about to do so,
one of my darling little kindergarteners limps up to me
 with a shoe in her hand.
I immediately thought something was wrong
and asked her if her foot was okay.
She replied, "Yes, it's fine"
as if I had just asked her the most absurd question in the world.
Then she continued,
"Just look how cool in the inside of my shoe is!"
And, thus, this photo was born. :)

I tell ya, these kids keep me on my toes! :)
What have your kiddos done this week
that make you shake your head and laugh?
Are your flowering trees in full bloom?
Do they all smell good?

I would love to hear your stories!

Thank you so much for visiting today!
I hope you come back soon!








Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Friday Five-O #53 {I know, I know...I'm late!}

Good Morning, Friends and Family!
I know I'm late posting this edition of

BUT...Believe me when I say that there are good reasons for this!

First of all, I am currently deprived of my personal laptop.
I cracked the touchscreen (yet again...
*sigh*...I REALLY wish I would stop doing that!)
and had to send it off to be fixed by the magic-makers at Dell.
Secondly, my mother had surgery last Thursday
and I was very busy in the following days taking care of her.

But with all that said,
I do have quite a bit of stuff to tell you
about what happened last week.

Friday (April 3) was Good Friday.
Honestly, I was more than a little bitter about having to work,
but whatever...I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.
The children at the YMCA
(remember, Spring Break at the YMCA was in FULL Swing!)
were very excited to discuss the full meaning of Easter
and that put a big ole Smile on my face!

I had a proud moment when they excitedly called me over
to where they were playing to say,
"Miss Sarah! We made the whole Easter story out of blocks!"
They showed me the Garden of Gethsemane, Pilate's Palace,
the Temple, Calvary's Hill, and the Empty Tomb. :)

Saturday (April 4), along with some pretty (and SCRUMPTIOUS!) treats,
I set off on a new reading adventure!

If you haven't read Red Queen,
what in the world are you waiting for?!
Stop what you're doing...and go get it...NOW!
You won't regret it!

Easter Sunday (April 5) was relatively quiet around my house.
I spent most of the day at church
(as usual...that's just my life on Sundays!
and I wouldn't have it any other way!).

Hallelujah! He is Risen!

Tuesday (April 7) was ECSTATIC
to get back to my "normal" routine at Thomas Jefferson.
No, my little TJ lovelies are not perfect
and sometimes I think they are intentionally trying to drive me to insanity,
but they are SSSSOOOO much easier to handle in our own environment
rather than at the YMCA.
Now, that's not to say that EVERYTHING
about Spring Break at the YMCA was terrible.
Quite the opposite actually,
we had some really fun times over Spring Break.


See? :)

Thursday (April 9) I got to spend LOTS of quality time
with my very own pink Grandma.
It was very wonderful of her to accompany me
to Great Plains Orthopedic Surgery Center
for mom's shoulder surgery
(more about this later).
As usual, Grandma couldn't just sit and visit,
she had to keep her hands busy while she was at it! :)

Grandma hands are NEVER idle! :)

How was your Easter/Spring Break?
How do you celebrate Christ's Resurrection?
Have you read any good books lately
that I should know about?

I would LOVE to hear your stories!

Thank you so much for visiting today!
I hope you have a great week!


Friday, April 3, 2015

Friday Five-O #52 {Spring Break at the YMCA}

Good Evening, Lovelies!
THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!
(And Happy Easter!)

This week has been EXHAUSTING!
I don't think I've been this excited about the weekend
since Summer Camp two years ago
(the last time I spent 5 8-hour days in a row with 30+ 5-12 year olds).

Kick off your shoes, grab a cup of tea
and I'll tell you all about my week on today's:

Last Friday initiated Spring Break 2015 at the YMCA.
For those of you who don't know,
this means that I had to run a mini "camp" all week long.
As I said last Friday,
how come I don't get a week off for Spring Break?!
Anyway...in an attempt to get Spring Break off to a nutritious start,
I gave the kiddos these lovely red apples for their morning snack.

As the saying goes:
"An Apple a day...keeps the doctor away!"

Last Friday was chilly, but sunny and we decided to risk
the 40 degree temperatures and take the kids outdoors to run off some energy.

Most of them weren't excited at having to bundle up in their coats,
but once we got out to the wide-open space the playground sits on,
they were thankful.

Despite the chill in the air,
the sun was GLORIOUS!
I can't even express how glad I am that Spring has FINALLY arrived!

This lovely view reminded me of a song from long ago:
"Sunshine will come my way! Chasin' the night away!..."

Sunday after church,
my family and I went to Famous Dave's to celebrate
me and my cousin, Amber's birthdays :).
While there, I took the opportunity
to be photographed with these two beautiful munchkins! :)

I don't get to spend near enough time with these precious kiddos
(or their parents and baby sister!).

Monday morning it was back to work at the YMCA
with the kids out on Spring Break.
I really wasn't looking forward to it
(especially since my boss was out of town
and therefore all the responsibility fell on me...)
so I decided to have a soothing cup of tea
before I left the house.

All I can say is:
Thank God for Twining's English Breakfast Tea!

Tuesday's weather was absolutely GORGEOUS!
The kiddos and I spent most of the day outdoors enjoying it.

A lovely pine tree + a Glorious blue sky = SPRING!!!!

Earlier in the week, I had made the mistake
of trying to run after the kiddos wearing flat boots
(I thought my feet were going to fall off!).
To say the least, I righted that error the very next day
and have worn nothing but my precious All Stars
every day since! :)

I LOVE my Converse!

How did you and your family spend Spring Break?
Have you been out enjoying the lovely Spring Weather?
What shoes get you through your run-around-like-a-crazy-person-days?

I would love to hear you stories!

Thank you so much for visiting today!
I hope you come back for a visit soon! :)