So Much Snow

Winter lately has had this cycle. The weather warms up, some snow melts, it snows buckets, the roads are covered, it gets bitter cold, everything is icy, it gets warm again, it snows again.  And so on. I love the warm parts when it is beautiful and snowy...because it's warm. 

They kids went out for a tiny bit yesterday because it was above freezing and so therefor it was snowing. Addyson was mad because her snowman kept breaking, the snow wasn't wet enough. 

House Tour - The Office-

I am by no means a clean/organized person, I have had this pointed out by a lot of people.  But, I want to post pictures of my house and I wont do that unless a room is decent.  And there is no way with 3 littles that I will ever have every room cleaned at once.  Instead of never, ever, ever, posting walk-through pictures of my house, I will just do it a room at a time.  And the room that happens to be semi-organized would be my office.  It isn't all cute and decorated yet, in fact non of my rooms are "decorated"  I plan on doing some things to all of the rooms still, but this is probably how it will be and stay for the next yearish.

To me it is kind of funny that this is the first room I show you, because it is kind of the room where everything goes that doesn't have a place.  It is also MY space.  I feel bad that it happend that way, but it turns out I have a lot of stuff.  Kades hobbies end up being outside stuff, like tools, cars, machines, and whatnot.  Between, school books, crafts, sewing, photography, and exercise equipment this room turned out to be mostly all of my stuff.

Here is the progression

Moving night, everything stuffed in the corner.

Mess getting messier before it gets better.

Lex showing you how to use a treadmill, bahahaha. 

Duck face

HERE IS THE NOW

If you walk in the front door, this is the view.  Living room to your left, dining room & office in front of you, a hallway to your right.  

Lex, sitting on the desk, being a trouble maker. 

The room where I spend a lot of time finding myself.  

Do you see my barbell in the left corner?  That was my Christmas present....I'm working on my muscles.   The closest gym is like 25+ miles, so I am working on buying a personal one.   I never would have thought that exercise equipment would get me so excited.  

 A picture from a typical day, Lex interrupting a workout.  Because, the yoga mat is great for legos. 

Addy will do a workout along with me, following along, or sitting and watching me.  She sometimes will color or do homework when I am in the office.

Drake is not normally one to workout with me, he gets bored easily, and rather be alone.  If he wants screen time, he reminds me, "mom you need to go workout."

January 2016

How is it already a new year? As always I am waiting for life to slow down but am surprised to find out that it NEVER does.

I was just at a church training meeting and a thought was shared. When we recognize all the good we are doing we often have some destructive thoughts as well. These thoughts often are a list of all the things we haven't done or didn't do as well as we could have. We often tear ourselves down when we do any good instead of being excited for our accomplishments. And it's easy to do because there is always something we can do better, but we need to rejoice in the good things we do too. We are not enough on our own but the atonement is always there to fill us and we are never alone. 

This 

http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/19/drops-of-awesome/comment-page-12/

Is the story that was shared. And it touched my heart. 

A weakness of mine is comparison. My awesome friend wrote a blog post yesterday. I so enjoyed it and I thought I to myself that I needed to write one, I'm not nearly as busy as she is. And then came all the things I clearly don't do well as she does and that she is just amazing and I'm not. 

And today as I'm sitting in my meeting I can't help but think of how I'm failing to teach my 3 kids to be reverent in the church. They run and scream down the hall...I miss half of the talking points because I am changing diapers, feeding, or scolding. 

I often am reminded, all day, how I'm not enough. I'm hoping God will continue to have patience with me because I'm learning. 

We all know, even I know, these thoughts are LIES. 

This year I'm REALLY trying to replace any negative thought about myself with this phrase. That isn't true, I am ______,_____,and_______ because our (my) brains need to be re-wired. When we tell ourselves something that isn't true or exaggerated about ourselves negatively it just brings depression and more negativity. We need to correct it, not dwell on it.  It isn't true that I'm failing as a mother, I am kind, creative, and more than enough. 

Soooo the take away. You are awesome and we all need the reminder that God loves us and he intends to have as many of his children saved as possible. Keep doing your best, because it is enough. And you are more than enough. 

Do you have some goals for this year?  

New Years 2016

This year was low key, we were invited to a few parties but we didn't want to leave our kids out.

Jake got a smoker for Christmas and Kade really wanted to try it.  The steaks turned out AMAZING!  We had a few appetizers and watched a few movies. 

Kade fell asleep at about 10 and I woke him up for a NEW YEAR KISS!

Lex kept taking his shirt of HAHA.

Happy New Year! I am hoping to work on my health, all around, especially my mental health. I am ready for a great 2016.