In Like a Lion

The end of February has come and another month has begun. And boy, has March BLOWN in! What is the old saying, "In like a lion, out like a lamb?" This is the 4th day of March and the winds have certainly been blowing! Today, as I did my long distance run in preparation for my 2nd half marathon (which is in 2 weeks!!), I was FIGHTING the WIND!! Whew!

Anyhow, I need to include some things from February that I haven't had time to post about yet. Let's see...where should I start?

Oh, we had so much fun going to watch our favorite girls, Madison and Mary Leslie in their school play, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. The cast did an awesome job! And Mary Claire loved ELVIS aka Pharoah! She kept asking when he was going to come back out on stage, so I had to get her picture with him afterwards. This is Madison holding Mary Claire with Elvis standing beside them. :) Mary Claire got ALL SHOOK UP when he came over to see her...she turned on the shyness and wouldn't talk to him at all!

We love you, Madison!

John Owen did an excellent job in his Presidents' Day program at school. The 2nd graders performed a Presidents Day Rap Song in white tshirts and blue jeans. It was GREAT!

Jan, my mom, and I completed our Winter Cross Country Series last Sunday afternoon with a 10K trail run in Shelby Farms. Jan did great!! He ran faster than me on all of the trail runs. I am definitely slower in the woods! And the mud...oh my goodness!

(My mom placed 1st overall in her age group for the whole series! Go, Mom!!)

With the slippery mud, I was so afraid of falling and hurting myself. I kept thinking, I can't get hurt. I have to work and I have 3 kids to take care of and a mountain of obligations and responsiblities!!!I can't get hurt!! Praise be to God, none of us got hurt. A little sore, yes, but that comes with the territory. Jan and I both finished 15th in our age groups, and we are in very competitive MRTC age groups. Jan will run his first half marathon in 2 weeks with me as we compete in the Germantown Half. I am super excited for us to do this together! And my kids have been super supportive through it all. They went with us to 3 out of the 4 trail races! It was a family event.:) My dad was gracious enough to sit in the van with them or play with them at the park while we ran as quickly as we could. hehe They would wish us luck, and then we were off to the start! Thanks, Daddy Nick!!

My parents celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary on February 27th, and we treated them to dinner at a local restaurant since it was a school night.:) 42 years of marriage is an accomplishment, and I know that with God's help and guidance, they have weathered the storms of life. Mom and Dad, thank you for being a Christian example of marriage. I have learned what love is and what marriage takes through your example.

Now, March has begun and we are starting the month off with sickness! That's right, I said SICKNESS!! Mary Claire came down with some sort of virus Wed. night and has already missed two days of school. It looks as if she will miss tomorrow as well since she is still running a fever. I am praying she will be much better tomorrow or I fear we will be calling the doctor. John Owen missed school Friday due to a fever, but he has been fever free today, so it's back to school for him tomorrow. Jan's not feeling well now, and I am praying Jonah and I can HOLD OUT and not get whatever these other guys are dealing with.

With John Owen and Mary Claire at home sick Friday, Jonah and I had a special day at school celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday! I was the Cat in the Hat, and he was Thing 1. Our friends, Lane and Bo, also had fun dressing up for Dr. Seuss's birthday, and they joined us for a quick picture Friday morning at school.

The kids at school got a kick out of seeing me dressed like this all day.

March things we are looking forward to include daylight savings time, half marathon race, St. Patrick's Day wedding with Mary Claire as the flower girl, and SPRING BREAK! Woo-hoo!!

But right now, as I hear the wind kicking up outside the window I sit next to, I think I'll go turn on the weather channel and check out the forecast. :)

Or maybe I should google some good kites to order for the kids...

Science Anyone?

Lately, John Owen has had us ALL involved in different scientific discoveries. For Christmas, he received these Smithsonian Science Kits and so far, we have completed 2 out of the 3! (The final project should take place this coming up weekend. We have already opened it and read through the directions. Now, we just have to block out some time and get to work.)

Our first project was making crystals. This required alot of parental supervision, and I did not take a picture while we worked. Wish I had! There was waiting period involved, but it was worth the wait to see John Owen's face when he saw the crystals that had formed. Next, we moved on to the volcano project. You all know the project I am talking about...a little baking soda, a little red food coloring, and THERE SHE BLOWS! All 3 kiddos got into to this project. We first had to build the volcano, then paint the volcano, then wait on volcano to DRY! I did manage to get some pictures of this...

And, yes, that's us...still sporting the Christmas pajamas in February!:)

RED PAINT!!

John Owen has just recently completed his first research project for school. He had to choose an animal, research the animal's habitat, then create either a diorama or poster showing his research.

He chose to create a poster about the Tomato Frog!

Honestly, I didn't know there was such a creature, but apparently, he did!

Here's his finished project...

So, I guess we'll call February...Science Month!

Before this fabulous month ends, we'll see how we fare with a rock and gem dig project!

Happy Valentine's Day

What's the best way to spend Valentine's Day? With the ones you love most, right?! I love the people in this picture with me more than anything!

This picture was taken as we enjoyed a Chocolate Tour on our town square this past Saturday. We had a lot of fun despite the COLD temps, and we ate more chocolate than we should have. :) But it was GOOD!!

 

Gimme some chocolate and nobody gets hurt!!

How many pieces of chocolate can I put in my mouth at one time?!

Somebody looks like they have had TOO MUCH chocolate.:)

My big boy pausing to take a look at this...

Birds! (and lots of them)

After the chocolate tour, we headed home to warm up and work on these...

Mary Claire and I had so much fun making these crayon hearts for her class!

 She enjoyed giving them today at her party!

We spent Saturday night making treats to give our teachers for Valentine's Day: Mint chocolate heart-shaped brownies with strawberry icing and sprinkles:), peanut butter blossoms, and candy hearts. (Sorry I didn't snap a shot of these treats, but they turned out YUMMY!)

Jan gave me these beautiful flowers and a couple of other special gifts.

Today, we spent our Valentine's Day afternoon at the doctor's office. Jonah had an appointment with the pediatric surgeon. He has an umbilical hernia that has not corrected itself, but the doctor stated today that surgery is not really necessary for our Jonah. He gave us a choice, but after discussing it, we opted to pass on the surgery. Hopefully, as Jonah grows, the hernia will become even smaller and not cause any problems for him.

So, after the appointment with the surgeon, we headed out on our "Family Date" to none other than the fabulous, ever-so-fancy Chik-Fil-A!!:) (This is Mary Claire's favorite date place.)

We had a wonderful time riding in the car looking at all of the valentines the kids got from their classmates and spending time together.

I hope you all got to spend today with the ones you love most!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ode to Amos

I almost feel bad that I have not included a post about the 4th "child" in this family...Amos! Amos is now 3 months old, and growing like a weed! He is a good dog. Smart, active, and pretty well acclimated to life with 3 young children. :) He has mastered going up and down the stairs in this house which made me nervous, just like it did with my other 3 little ones. He is very good at night. From the start, he settled in with our routine and hardly makes a peep after he goes into his kennel at night. (His kennel is in our bedroom, so you can imagine how grateful I am that he is so good at night. Of course, his little sounds of tossing and turning sometimes wake me up, but I'll take that any day over whining or, dare I say, BARKING!!) Here is he is, still "hangin' in there" with the rest of this family. Good dog, Amos!

Few things to add about Amos:
1. Jan is still his favorite person!!
2. He weighs about 10 pounds now.
3. He is a PIGLET, and will eat anything you put in front of him. We have really had to monitor how much dog food the kids give him. :)
4. He loves being outside. With the mild winter we've had thus far, he has spent a great deal of time outside.(I have never had so much GRASS in this house!)
5. He and Mary Claire are slowly warming up to each other. We began to think they were engaged in some sort of alpha war, but I think they are SLOWLY beginning to like one another. He is like the typical little brother for her. He loves to get her toys, her shoes, her clothes, anything she has, and chew it, drag it around the house, hide under her bed with it, etc. I love it!! And she can't stand it!!
**AMOS STORY: Weekend before last, Jan and I went out on a date and my parents came to babysit. They thought they had lost Amos after they let him out to go to the bathroom, and the boys were pretty much in tears as they walked around our cove with my mom looking for Amos. But Mary Claire's reaction was much different...She simply told Mimi and Daddy Nick, "When I find that dog, I am gonna spank his bottom!" :) (That is, without a doubt, Jan Hensley's daughter!)**

Life with Amos is definitely interesting, but in a good way.

This last picture is but one example of the war my daughter and this dog are engaged in.

Who's kennel is it?!?!

She was saying,"I'm in your kennel! Na, na, na, na, boo, boo!!

(Glad I had my camera close by to capture this moment.)

Is January Almost Over?

I need to post some recent events in the lives of this family, and unfortunately, tonight my mind is tired and my foot is wrapped in an ice pack, so I'm gonna post a few different things tonight for the sake of time. (I'll explain the ice pack in a minute.) :-)

Let me take this back to the START of this lovely month we call January...New Year's Eve was spent with some of our dear friends, the Whites and the Cranfords. We kept it simple, but fun, and I think the kids enjoyed every minute of ringing in the New Year! They LOVED the hats and noisemakers!!
Here's some pictures from our New Year's Eve "party".

As you can see, Jan is quite the "bearded one" these days. He says it's gonna stay until the grass is green. :-)We'll see about that.

Ah, yes! Upward Basketball is in full swing. Our family in spending every Sat. morning from now until the end of Feb. "camped out" at Oak Grove. I can say I have seen some improvements in the boys' "game" since last year. Especially, Jonah...People are no longer coming up to me and suggesting he try out for football since last year he thought the objective of the game was to "tuck and run" with the ball down the court. hehe I love this child!

I managed to get a still picture of Jonah in his uniform, but not John Owen. (I have lots of video, I promise.) Not sure what the "L" is for...I certainly hope he's not implying anything about the photographer.

 And who celebrates Christmas in January?! We do, that's who! We gathered at Aunt Dinah's house in Somerville on January 8th for our last Christmas celebration. My grandmother, who is 92 years old, is seen here telling the great-grandchildren seated on the floor about her favorite things in the Bible. She is the BEST storyteller, and even still, she captivates her audience. (She told them all she was going to ask questions at the end to see if they were listening, and they all did a wonderful job.) Christmas with these folks is one of the things I look forward to the most.

Here the great-grandchildren showered Jenny with her Christmas gifts!

One last shot...everybody smile!

O.K., so here's some other things that have happened in January. John Owen and Jonah both did wonderful on their recent report cards...2nd time to make principal's list (all A's) for John Owen and all +'s for my man, Jonah! Way to go, boys! Mary Claire has started back into dance and is loving it! We have decided to wait until summer to continue with music lessons. Mama's daily planner screams "busy", and something had to "give" for the sake of some family time. But, the boys do want to try some gymnastics right after school, so we are going to give that a shot this week. It's close, it's convenient...
Jan is seriously improving in his running! I don't know if I mentioned this, but he decided to take up running after I did, and I think he is bound and determined to beat me! Well, honestly, he did beat me on our first Winter Cross Country Series race. It was 1.8 miles through the woods, and I made the mistake of trying to run TOO FAST at the start. Stupid strategy, I know. He passed me towards the end, and I just didn't have the "gas" to catch him. Last Saturday, he put in 11 miles in a single run, thus marking the farthest distance he has run and I am SUPER proud of him! He has signed up to do a half-marathon with me, maybe even 2 half-marathons this spring.
With that being said, let me explain the ice pack on my foot (which I have now removed as I finish this post). Last week, I ran 6.35 miles on Sunday afternoon, then turned around and ran 6.0 more miles the next morning. After the second run, I felt a pain in my right foot that I had never felt before. I kind of ignored it, and kept going. That night, I took Ibuprofen and when the pain didn't let up the next day, or the next, I decided maybe I should ask the professional opinion of someone. :) I made a last minute appt. with a foot specialist who did an xray and informed me that I have arthritis in my BIG TOE JOINT! The first question he asked me was if I had played sports most of my life. Well, yes, I'd say that's true. This, according to the doc, is fairly normal for someone who has spent years playing sports. But, not to worry. I have researched some exercises for my hallus limitus and I will try to "ice down" after my runs (which, oh my goodness, is probably more painful than the arthritis itself) and take my prescribed medicine so that I may continue to run. Heck, I've got a race this weekend and 2 half-marathons to train for. I can't let this big toe slow me down:) There's always hope that this might only be aggravated by colder months, right? Can you believe January almost over? :)

They Need Our Words

It's sad to admit, but the new book I mentioned that I was reading in my last NYC trip post hasn't been picked up and read since the first part of December. Not that 52 Things Kids Need From A Mom isn't a good read, because it most certainly is, but the new book took a back seat to Christmas presents, cooking, multiple functions to attend, and somewhere in between all of that, an occasional sleep session. I picked up with my book this past week and thumbed my way through to where I left off.
I read the #22 thing kids need and the #23, and both offered wonderful insights to this mom of three, but I found the #24 thing kids need from a mom to be quite interesting. And all of you "blogging moms" out there will be happy to know that the author says that moms need to have a family blog. :) I laughed out loud when I read this, and I immediately told Jan what I had just read because he sometimes gets frustrated if I am on the computer blogging late at night. The author went on to say that she started a family blog because she believes our kids need our words.
I completely agreed with her that kids need to hear (or later read) about their family...the good and the bad, too. This is OUR STORY! And it's too quickly becoming our history with the days flying by as they do. They need to hear our story, even if they don't grow to appreciate it or truly understand it until later. (That's where the printing of your blog in a "family yearbook" is such a great idea. We pull ours out every now and then and look at the pictures and read the posts.) I want my children to read what I have written about the events in our lives and know how I felt about them and the times we have spent together. I want them to see how I dealt with joy, fear, and struggles when I pour out my heart in a post.
So, even if I have to stay up a little later at night to try to fit it in to my "schedule", I will do it. For the sake of my children and our family's story.

Our heavenly Father, I thank You for the gift of motherhood.
Help me as a mother to seek Your guidance for my children.
Grant me wisdom, strength, patience, faith and love.
Create in me the willingness to dedicate myself and my children to You..

What's Ahead?

I am choosing to look at taking down my Christmas things as the process that takes place when getting ready for the New Year, for what's ahead, and trying NOT to think about how sad it kinda is to see it all come down. I love Christmas decorations!! I love the lights in the house and ornaments and everything! Today, I finished taking all the Christmas decorations down and simultaneously, putting up our "Let It Snow" (winter) decorations. (You know, snowmen, icicle/snowflake ornaments...leaving some red berries and greenery from the Christmas "stuff" up as they will work for another month or two, right?) Oh, and I always leave our Christmas cards up until well into January so I can look upon the faces of friends and family a little longer.
I have been working off-and-on since Monday. It's really hard to work without interruption around here, so that explains why I am just now getting it wrapped up TODAY! 3 Children to be played with and taken care of, a house to keep "afloat", plus the added interruption of an 8 week old puppy that needs to be watched like a hawk and taken outside frequently as we try to house train him. (What was Santa thinking?!)

Additionally, my grandmother has been in the hospital since Chistmas night. (That's another story in itself.) She had hip replacement surgery Tuesday afternoon, and she is recovering now. We hope she'll be able to return to the nursing home in the next few days. Her dementia has progressed to such a level that communication with her is very difficult, almost impossible. Last night, she smiled at me and she touched my face twice as I fed her, and I just hoped that was her way of letting me know that somewhere deep inside her she recognized me. For selfish reasons, maybe, I wanted her to recognize me. But the truth is, we all love her no matter what's ahead and will do what we can to make her comfortable. My mom has been the one that has been with her most since early Monday morning. When I went down yesterday, I took Jonah with me, and Mom and I left Jonah with my brother, Christopher, while we went outside to jog around the hospital. (I was glad I had worn some appropriate shoes! Not running shoes, but shoes I could jog in.) This Saturday morning, I have signed myself up for a 10K in Collierville. (Gotta end the year on a "running note", you know?) I have only run once and gotten on the elliptical two times in the last week and half. I might be dragging the New Year in!:-)
We don't have any set New Year's Eve plans yet. And it's not that important really. Having big plans for ringing in the New Year, I mean. What is important is remembering to celebrate God's blessings every day, every moment, in whatever is ahead...what He will give in what's left of 2011 and that to come in 2012.
From my devotional book: (And because I thought it pertained to this.)
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us. Psalm 67:1 NIV
No matter what lies ahead, Lord, I will trust in You and Your plans for me, my family, and my friends. I ask that You use me as You see fit, and that my heart be open to the paths You will lead me down. In good times and in bad, I will look to You. Amen.