SNOW DAY!

Yes, I'm still blogging ... though not very much lately, huh? Sorry! :( 

So in the midst of this busy month we were given a gift yesterday ... the gift of a SNOW DAY, a rare Tuesday off where no one had to go to work or school or even leave the house for that matter. School cancelled, work cancelled, basketball practices cancelled ... the only thing on the agenda was family time.

The night before we had heard the forecast, so we set our Elf, Jingle up with a question -- Snow day? Hoping and wishing that it would come true! Sure enough it did. I got up, realized there was no school/work and went back to bed for awhile. When I got up later around 8:30 I made my coffee and the snow started falling hard and fast within a few minutes. 

We spent most of the morning relaxing. I had my quiet time and coffee while Jill played on her ipod and the rest slept in. Then they sat around watching TV for awhile while I went online. 

Around 11:30 we got all bundled and went for a hike in the woods. It was SO pretty, it looked just like stepping into Narnia! 

In a lot of places it was really overgrown and we had to climb under the snow covered branches and avoid all the prickers. It was a fun little adventure though!

When we got back I headed in to warm up, but the girls made slushies out of snow and soda. 

For lunch we made grilled cheese and tomato soup - a classic snow day lunch!

Then we pulled out a bunch of old home movies from when the girls were little and watched those for awhile. I also had a little snooze for about a half hour and then a yummy cup of mocha when I got up. 

At Bob's request we made Chocolate Chip Cookies. His fave. =) 

We put a movie on sometime mid-afternoon - it was called the Amazing Panda Adventure and it was really good! The girls and I really liked it ... 

These two snuggled up and fell asleep during the movie! So cute! 

After the movie we got some games out, first up was Pick Up Sticks. {I won!} Bob had made some delicious homemade meatballs earlier in the day and put them in the crockpot all day ... so we got some pasta and breadsticks cooked and got ready for dinner. 

It was DELICIOUS! Comfort food at it's best! 

After dinner we played Apples to Apples until it was time for the girls to go to bed. Then Bob and I watched Couples Retreat until I went to bed. 

It was truly a fabulous, relaxing, fun day. So thankful for SNOW DAYS! 

The Heavens Declare ...

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

 

 

On our recent trip to NH I took out my real camera and spent a lot of time searching for beauty in nature ... it wasn't too hard as we hiked through the mountains - the beauty was all around us!

I kept thinking of this verse from Psalms as we hiked ... the world we live in is such a beautiful place, a glorious creation given to us by God to enjoy. Here are some of my favorite nature pictures from the weekend ...

Fall

WOW, y'all ... where has time gone?

I completely missed the whole month of October as far as blogging ... sorry!

 Life has just been SO busy!

 

Here is another one of my famous 'catch-up' blogs - only made possible today because

 I'm home from work feeling sick! Guess my body was telling me I needed a day of rest ...

 

Anyway, here's just a little glimpse of what we've been up to:

 

I went to the Women's Retreat at Camp Berea at the end of September.

There was a group of us who were all connected to each other in some way. We had SUCH a wonderful time ... fellowship, fun, food, gorgeous weather, encouragement ... it was seriously such a blessing to attend!

 

One of my besties, Lynn went this year! So fun, we had a great time!

AND ... the speaker was author Shaunti Feldhahn!

It was such a pleasure to meet her and have her sign my book ...

she was an absolutely AMAZING speaker!!

 

On Columbus Day we had our Fall Family Fun day ...

we picked apples and pumpkins, went out for lunch and came home and carved them ...

 

We went up to NH for a little fall getaway with my in-laws.

This is seriously one of our FAVORITE weekends of the whole year and we look

 forward to it every year. We had 3 full days and 4 nights. We went hiking all 3 days,

did some shopping, swam in the pool and soaked in the hot-tubs,

had a date night and just did lots of site-seeing and relaxing ... it was WONDERFUL!

 

I work at the best school ever! We have so much fun!

 We had crazy hair day last week so this is how I went in to work ...

 

And, that brings us to Halloween ...

another fun year with friends!

Here are my beautiful girls, they are getting SOOOOO big!

 

Bob went as Moses and I was just a crazy lady with my curlers and green face mask and bathrobe...

I really can't believe it's NOVEMBER already! Where has this year gone???

 

Right now we are getting a little break in our busy life as soccer has ended {except for one last tournament this weekend} and basketball doesn't start up for a few weeks ... kinda nice to just BREATHE for a couple weeks!