march

So March. I've come to the conclusion that, at this season of life, once a month is what I can do on the old blog. That's ok because I still want to recap and remember for our family. Old posts pop up on my facebook memories and I LOVE going back to reread them. So March 2017:

• We had some serious rains at the beginning of March that relocated water at our house and the YL office. We purchased a new shop vac since our old one is SEVENTEEN years old. It was time.
• Lent started. I gave up chips and salsa. I mostly gave it up because I eat 2-3 bags of chips a week and several jars of salsa. I eat it as my 10:00 am snack, 3:00 pm snack and 9:00 pm snack. Well, the 9:00 pm snack is usually a toss up between popcorn or chips and salsa. But it was getting a little out of control. Chips and salsa are also my go to when the kids have leftovers or mac and cheese for dinner. A friend texted me the below picture. Also, Scott tried to send me a gift of chips and salsa as an appreciation gift. I told him how sad I was that I had given it up for Lent. He understood the gravity of what he had done!

• I went to assignment team training for 3 days. It was a great time being with the team. I also saw assignment from a totally different perspective and have some thoughts on how to bring spouses in on the action. 
• I also went to our church's women's retreat two weekends ago. I spoke at one of the sessions and was part of the program team. The program involved certain housewives of which I was the weird, awkward one. I'm deeply grateful for our church and the women we have who use their incredible gifts and talents.

• March was full of lots of hard deadlines that made us feel like we were constantly up against the clock. New leader placement. Parent Nights. Fundraisers. Speaking at the retreat. Work crew applications. We're winding down on a lot of the hard deadlines and really winding down the semester as a whole. Our leaders have one month classes left and then this semester is over!
• I spent two days in Pittsburgh getting the van fixed.
• Ben spent 3 days in Charleston for the high school boys state basketball tournament. It's his favorite week of the year. Good friends, good food and lots of basketball.
• We officially hired a Young Life College Director to start in June! (Cue the hallelujah chorus!)
• Sophie is loving Taekwondo. A couple of weeks ago, the Grand Master of the American Taekwondo Association came to our studio. Sophie got to do a workout with him (and 40 other people). It was a pretty cool experience.
• We finished up basketball with the Grafton tournament. We didn't do very well. It was time for basketball to be over. The 3 week break in between basketball and baseball has been very nice.
  
  

It is the absolute best when Ted and Wyatt can be on the same team.
 

The sisters at the basketball games.

We celebrated the end of the season at the trampoline park.

March was weird weather-wise. My phone tells me the temperature every evening for the next day. There seemed to be a 25 degree or more fluctuation regularly. April is turning out to be similar. Two days ago it was 75. Today it snowed. It's supposed to be close to 80 early next week.

Nicer weather means the boys are back outside in between church services every week. This is the BEST.

I've taken to lattes.

Ben has been cooking dinner once or twice a week. For some reason, that has been a real struggle and stress for me lately? Why in the world does everyone have to eat all the time? I am grateful for any and all meals I am not responsible for.

Ted was looking up some song to play on the trumpet. I'm a terrible instrument practice parent. (And spelling words and school projects.) Being home in the evenings is for family and playing outside and eating dinner together. Not spending the evening practicing and doing home. Too bad others don't see the same.

We hit up our one and only gymnastics meet this year. We stayed from the Star Spangled Banner to the end of the meet and great line. It was really fun!

My Christmas gift from Ben was to repaint the living room over spring break. And that's exactly what he did. I picked the color on a whim (because I didn't have enough time between Christmas and spring break!). I'm mostly happy with it. It's better than the dark purple that was there before. It really brightens things up and makes it look bigger.

And made for some good close up television watching.

The kids and I drove to New Martinsville for a Saturday. We hadn't seen the grandparents for awhile so we spent some time talking, playing games, seeing cousins and eating. I'm trying to convey to my family the love of LISTENING to books (Ted HATES reading), so we listened to a book on the way instead of watching movies. It was a good change and they both really enjoyed it!

Talking with Doh

Snuggling with Pap while we watched the Mountaineers in the NCAA tournament.

Helping fix lunch.

I didn't take any pictures at my parents. Oops! We played games and hung out with Reed for awhile.

It's monkey bar season again. Sophie had multiple amazingly huge blisters on her hands so she had to do this a few days.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

No events on my calender

This NEVER happens