catching up: part one {easter and spring break}

It's the end of April and I know I haven't blogged in quite a while (again). It's been on the to-do list, but I just haven't had the spare time...or made the time, rather. And we've had a lot going on (more to come on that later...).

Easter was nice. Joe's family was all here, and the rain that threatened held off until the afternoon. Hannah and Joseph got up early enough to check out their baskets before Daddy had to leave. I took the kids with me to the sunrise service, dressed in their new Easter clothes. Hannah went last year but it was special having them both there this year.

We came back home to make Empty Tomb rolls, a tradition we started last year. I love the focus this activity puts on the real meaning of Easter. I really try to make Easter about Jesus, but it is not easy to do with all the parties, egg hunts and baskets of candy and toys. Of course I love putting together baskets for the kids filled with stuff they'll love, and have no plan in stopping that, but I try to keep it under control.

Once Gran Gran and Poppy, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Betsy, Liam and Marshall were all here, we went to the church for the egg hunt and worship service. I got tears in my eyes as we sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" as is so easy for me to do.

We came home and had lunch - or feast, actually - prepared by Gran Gran. The kids played outside, getting their nice clothes all dirty but having a great time while we watched.

Meme came in town for the night and brought Easter goodies for all four of us. It was back to school on Monday morning and one more week of school before spring break. Hannah and Joseph had their last soccer game and Joseph missed a couple days of school with strep. I don't like when my babies are sick, but I love the special time I get to spend with them alone.

That Friday we hit the road.

We enjoyed a full, but fun, spring break. Joe performed a wedding for a church member on Amelia Island and we enjoyed the little getaway. The kids had plenty of fun playing with Meme in Savannah, including celebrating Joseph's birthday early at their favorite "cook-on-the-table" Japanese place.

In other news, Hannah lost her two front teeth!!! Not kidding, one that Tuesday night and the other one the next. In between, on the one day they had at home during the break, they played Jesus in the backyard. Completely thought up on their own. I looked up from reading and Hannah was "washing the disciples feet".

There was also plenty of silliness, as there usually is with these two.

Granddaddy and Mrs. Renee went to Hawaii and sent surprises which these cuties were happy to model:

And it's time for school pick-up. Second (and way fun) part of spring break ahead. To be continued...

lent

Today is Good Friday and I am thinking back on the last almost-40 days. It has been a very different Lent for me. I challenged myself to spend one hour in God's Word every day. This hour was to be separate from my morning daily-devotion time. It proved to be quite a challenge. Harder than anything I have ever given up for Lent.

Joe put together a read-through-the-book-of-Luke calendar for our church and that is where my focus has been. He gave me a great leather-bound study Bible on our 3rd anniversary (the year of the leather-themed gift) and so not only have I been reading the selected passage, but also all the accompanying notes. It ends up taking quite a bit of time.

I have learned so much more reading the Bible this way - in small doses but with heavy concentration on the words, characters, and context. After studying scripture, I reflect and pray. This has been fun actually. Oftentimes I found myself walking around the backyard (and getting sun in the process!) talking to God. I tried to do this routine before picking up the kids from school, but many days I sat in the backyard or on the playroom sofa while Hannah and Joseph played outside. Occasionally, I did have to try to ignore the little guy driving circles around me on his motorcycle or tractor. Such is life with little ones!

But this was a hard commitment and I was not 100%. There were many days when I found it time to get the kids and, telling myself I would do it later, never found the time (or made the time) until bedtime. And, yep, there were a few days when it didn't happen at all. Sometimes I thought it would have been much easier to give up something I ate or drank, but I'm glad I made that decision on Ash Wednesday. I certainly learned a lot - about my Lord and about myself.

I am thankful for this time of learning and growing in my faith. Challenging myself now to continue this practice year-round.

So, since I'm here and I haven't blogged in a while, I'll post some photos from the last couple months.

Date with Dad, February 5th:

Delivering Girl Scout cookies and selling at Walmart:

Valentine's school parties, making hearts for Daddy, and after-church special Valentine lunch:

Hannah's World of Coca Cola field trip with the Oratorical Club. I got to go, too!

Celebrating Cousin Stella's 1st birthday party in Savannah, February 20th!

Back home...being cuties:

(In Uncle Ben's sweater, he thinks he's pretty cool.)

Welcome March! Joe and Hannah, looking very liturgical in their purple:

My scripture-reading distraction, Officer Buck patrolling the backyard:

Pocahontas encouraging "Sharkie" with his shark-hotel building skills and then saying she's got to go kill a deer to eat for dinner. (Not making this up!)

Hannah's very favorite Sunday tradition, "helping Daddy" close up the church and walking from worship back to the office (currently relocated during construction). 

Soccer. Lots of soccer! Hannah has loved it and looks forward to every practice and game. She has come a long way and is playing great. Joseph is Ferdinand the Bull (if you've read the children's book, you know exactly what this means). While he loves to kick the ball and play at home, he has no interest in playing with the team and prefers to piddle on the sidelines, playing in the dirt or with the water cooler. He does get excited when he can play goalie.

St. Patrick's Day...in Sandersville for the third year in a row. Hannah had pink eye and couldn't go to school so we watched the parade in Savannah online. That night I co-hosted girls supper club, so I wasn't home, but Joe made the kids a fun green feast!

Palm Sunday, March 20th. Hannah walking with Joe again. Joseph is excited about Reese's cups given to them during the children's message. It was about it being Palm Sunday but also Passion Sunday and therefore a day of mixed emotion. Rev. Sidney gave them the illustration of funny things that go together (like sweet and salt) and gave them chocolate and peanut butter. They loved it, of course and Joe did too (Reese's is his favorite candy).

Joe has had a few appointments in Athens for physical therapy. What started as a running evaluation given to him by my mom became treatment for injuries and pain relief for his back. The therapist is great and we are hopeful that he will eventually find total pain relief from all accident-related injuries. On two occasions, we made it a day-date and I went with him.

And today. I have a hard time with Easter parties and egg hunts on Good Friday, but I understand how it has to work with school. My cute Monkey before heading into school. She has a super fun field trip lasting most of the day:

Well, that update didn't take too long. Maybe I'll be back with more after Easter. :)

DISNEY: day six {leaving and review}

On Saturday morning, we woke up and walked/ran over to the resort's main building for breakfast. It was the windiest (making it feel the coldest) it had been the entire time and we were thankful we were not heading to a park! This was also the day it snowed back home in Sandersville. We used the rest of our quick-service and snack credits from our dining plan and shared a breakfast platter and pastries.

Soon after, we were packed up and on our way home. I kind of thought the kids would crash in the car but, other than a short nap for Joseph, they were awake the whole 7-hour drive. Too excited thinking about all the fun!

In review, I thought I would include some notes on our first trip to Disney...

One thing we found very helpful was the Disney World My Disney Experience app. We would pull it up all the time. It was our map, how we checked wait times, how we decided where to grab something to eat and know where characters were at any given time. It's accurate and easy to navigate. On the homepage, it has my plans, which would include anything we had FastPass or dining reservations for, along with any additional notes I added. 

The food throughout Disney was very good and going with the dining plan was the right decision for us. We had heard that using the credits can get confusing and the plan can be a waste of money, but we didn't have that problem. We like to eat and we didn't want to worry about paying everywhere we went for everything. If you do it right, the meal plan can save you a lot of money. 

We chose the middle plan where each person gets a table-service meal, a quick-service meal, and a snack per day. You can spend the credits however you want. For example, the meal at California Grill at the top of The Contemporary took 2 table-service credits per person. That left us with one day without a table-service meal. Fortunately for us, we wanted to eat breakfast at the Beast's castle on Friday. Be Our Guest is a table-service at dinner but at breakfast is a quick-service, so we were good. See...research pays off. :)

I left the dining plan credit figuring-out to Joe. As he's our chief meal planner at home, I thought this was perfect! He kept a note on his phone and would edit it accordingly. This was so like him - made me laugh as he'd plan how to best use our credits.

We picked an off-peak time of year to go, leaving shorter lines and far less crowds. It was perfect. And it certainly wasn't hot. To give you an idea of the crowd size, this what it looked like mid-day at the Magic Kingdom:

The weather was chilly - chillier than I would have liked for Florida, but we were prepared with jackets, hats and scarves. They all came off by lunch and the sun was mostly out. Only on Friday, our last park day, did we have bad weather. It rained on and off until mid-afternoon but it wasn't terrible; didn't slow us down at all. Again, I was prepared with jackets and rain boots! Most days, we ended up in just one layer.

Each night Joe and I packed one of my Baggu (reusable grocery) bags to take with us to the park. It held snacks, the pillowcases and fabric markers for autographs, Mouse ears, and a few other things. {On a whim I decided to bring a little coloring book and markers and that was really useful at restaurants or in line.} By the end of the day, we stuffed hats or jackets and souvenirs in there as well. We kept it in the stroller (or on the visor when both kids were riding) and it was bright turquoise making our stroller easy to identify among the other rentals when left outside attractions. We also had a small soft-sided cooler holding a few bottles of water and juice boxes. Other than that, I carried a purse.

To give the character something to hold and bear down on when signing the pillowcases, we brought Hannah's little dry erase board which she uses to practice her letters. I packed her dry-erase markers in our daily bag giving her something to do when little brother was coloring.

About the pillowcases... I wanted something for the kids to get autographs, but didn't necessarily want to go the book route. My mom got them both for the Disney Cruise. The autograph books were by Amanda at Dixie Delights. I added pictures of the children with each character in there, as well as wrote a diary laying out each day's activities. They turned out really cute and sit on the shelves in the kids' bedrooms. But we also did pillowcases, leaving them at guest services once we got onboard the ship, where they were signed by the characters (princesses for Hannah, Mickey and the gang for Joseph).

Truthfully, the kids like their pillowcases the most and love sleeping on them. I'm still glad we did the books on the cruise but for this trip, I went with just pillowcases. We weren't planning on trying to get a bunch of autographs this trip either. We met most of the characters the kids wanted to on the cruise. I reserved a Fast Pass for the Anna/Elsa meet-and-greet and planned to see Pocahontas at Animal Kingdom. Of course, we had to make sure to see Mickey and the gang! Other than that, all other character encounters were a bonus.

We ended up meeting a bunch of characters and were so excited how the pillowcases turned out.

I did not bring my nice camera and so glad. We decided to go with the Memory Maker after hearing mixed advice. Best decision. We got professional pictures in front of the castle and at other iconic places, all of the pictures/videos from the rides and any character encounters. This was great for me because it meant I didn't have to worry about being behind the camera, worried about trying to get a good shot, and could instead be in the moment.

I also had my phone and took plenty of everything else. As you could tell from earlier posts, I came back with tons of pictures of our first Disney experience!

The app also had all PhotoPass pictures that had been taken of us. And it was super fast being updated. We'd have a picture taken and a few minutes later it'd be there:

I planned and planned this trip. I asked for lots of advice and read stuff online and in The Unofficial Guide to Disney. I think some people thought I was a little silly with all the planning and booking things in advance. But, you know what? It paid off.

We did everything we wanted to do and more. We ate at all the places we wanted to eat. We were prepared and organized. But we also were flexible and allowed ourselves to be spontaneous. I think that's the big difference. I wasn't the crazy lady with the moment-by-moment itinerary and incapable of diverting from it; we did, in fact, many times do just that. And we weren't rushed.

Hannah and Joseph had an amazing time. We heard very few complaints. They even squabbled a lot less than usual. I know how stressful trips to Disney can be and have heard people say they have no interest in going or those who have gone say they don't want to go back. Thankfully, that was not us. We all got along fine and, other than a couple times trying to reach a reservation, we really didn't stress at all.

Exhaustion, on the other hand, did not escape us. How can you not be exhausted after that?! After four packed-full park days, we arrived home that Saturday night definitely needing to rest and catch up on sleep. While everyone felt fine during the week, the last night was rough and Joseph and I both were not feeling well, ending up on antibiotics for colds turned worse. We were just glad it was after the trip!

On the car ride back home, Joe and I talked about our time in Disney and what we would have done differently. Honestly, we couldn't think of anything, at least anything significant. It was just right. We had so much fun and have a ton of memories from our 6 days spent in the land of magic.

And I can't believe I'm saying this so soon, but I'm looking forward to going again in the hopefully not too-distant future!

With that, I close the book so to speak on this Disney post series. I did it primarily for our own family record-keeping but if it helps anyone else out there that's a bonus. Now I need to make a photo book while the memories and details are still fresh in my mind.

See ya real soon!