January in review...

wow, January 2014!  I almost can't believe how quickly time.marches.on.  I'm so glad to continue to pour over our lives & see how blessed we are - because sometimes we can get caught up in the overwhelming.chaos that sometimes swallows us whole.  How easy it is to set our ship back upright by looking over pictures of our boys playing paper violins...  Thank you Lord for how easy my mind is made easy by your simple.grace.  Thank you for the days that my mind wars with itself over my own failures & imperfections, because it makes me grateful all the more.

Downtown Jax library had a quartet with their story time!

The boys were given cardboard violins & straws as bows!!

The proses are back to running.  We are prepping for the Gate River Run in March & this will be our 3rd year running it, but the first after having 3.babies!!  The process of getting into shape is daunting, but also refreshing & rewarding & encouraging & frustrating & painful.

its amazing how fast little legs GROW (3 months time)

This January has given us quite a few cold nights - more than normal & hard freezes!  We've had quite a few plans die, which is again, unusual.  But we've enjoyed disabling our gas fireplace in favor of recapturing the capability to have a regular wood burning one.  My hubs has enjoyed it most of all. ;-)

We got back into the swing of preschool & the boys have continued to grow&learn from their experiences.  Mommy has continued to be thankful for that one day every week that I have some quiet during Calvin's morning nap.  A blessing for sure.

One of my favorite things in January is printing my blog book!  Of course with James' birthday as well as our nephew's party & our niece's birthday also, January is always full of happy celebrations.  Starting out the new year with a sweet chance to look back over that last is by far my favorite way to 'ring in the new'.

I've never been one for much resolution when January rolls around, but this year as I continue as a stay-at-home-mommy with no major changes in sight, I have felt I could benefit from more intentionality in my daily living.  It seems to me that most logical way to 'achieve my goals' in the sense that I desire to grow deeper in my faith but also grow as a mom & wife, would be to make time each day to work towards my 'life goals'.  I even checked out a 'goal setting' class with The Influence Network by Hayley from The Tiny Twig, but didn't really connect with her ideas.  Luckily, my lovely friend Meredith from Hazel Hive was in the class with me & we brainstormed what 'goal setting' could look like practically for us.  So as far as 'yearly goals', I have simple ones like running a race & being a part of our family's celebrations, but I'm grateful for the encouragement to carve out the daily time needed to work towards the 'life goals' that I'm living out.  I'm so grateful for dear friends, near & far.

Speaking of dear friends, I re-worked our Orange Cat Photo gallery wall & decided it would be more fun in chronological order.  I just had too many photos that I really love that sweet Dana took!

The prose-boy-pyramid

Our other major project of January was having our pool fence installed & taking down our (rotting) red privacy fence that separated our driveway from our backyard/pool.  I absolutely love how open our yard feels & being able to see my driveway from my kitchen window!  I love it.  I.love.it.  Can't wait for the next phase of gardening this spring!  ps. Craigslist does it again!!  The pool fence was second hand & installed very inexpensively by an pool contractor off-season.  whoohoo!

Family fun event - we took our kids to the circus!!  haha, I'd never been to the circus myself, but we braved the crowd & vendors (holy smokes!) and had a great time seeing the acts.

The boys were really good for the show, which was long, and ended later than we had thought.  But, it was a fun, unique experience that I hope our kids enjoyed!

I had no idea they really held each other's tails

and they actually do this with lions & tigers

This January marked 10 years since Matt & I met at Crossroads World Wide's Winter Conference in Gatlinburg, TN.  It marked 8 years since Matt & I got engaged over the same MLK weekend at the same conference.  It is amazing to me that we've been best friends now for a whole decade.  BLESSED.

The awesome view with the red fence gone & all our kiddos ready to join us for a run.

Ending our month with Daddy's on call weekend & going with him on his calls for the day turned out to be a great Saturday.  5 calls, 4 hospitals & a ton of ambulances that the boys spotted.  Donuts for breakfast, lunch at our fav place in St. Augustine & riding the carousel.   Loved having some time away from our normal, enjoying the sunshine, & each other's company.

Happy January 2014!!  Here's to the rest of the year...