1-25-16

Thankful this week...

for Hudson saying  "cracker" when eating a cheezit. {Convo goes something like this: "Mom cookie Haha please" meaning: Please give Hudson a cookie. Me:"Cracker: Does Hudson want a ccccracker". Apparently you're supposed to point to your mouth and over emphasize the initial consonant sound...  Hudson: "Cracker please". (If only all the conversations were that easy and quickly repeated!! We will take the progress and rejoice :)) The expressions on Harrison & Hannah's faces when he did it was priceless. Complete awe for him that he said something "right!"


that Harrison got a compliment from his band teacher & that he and I got a Barnes and Noble date. Letting he and I loose in a book store, with gift cards was very time consuming. We both have the great "I want it all disease", especially all things Penguins and Valentines! but.... we narrowed it down and yay for my Teacher discount there :)

that Hannah discovered her BFF Hannah will be playing softball with her this Spring. {Thankful that Hannah will be playing softball at the same park Harrison does baseball. We love every bit of baseball season & we are excited to cheer on Hannah at  "bitty ball". }


for Matt's love of creativity. His new kitchen gadget, the Vitamix, has taken his love of cooking to a new level. Although I am not a fan of the price tag, and laugh that it wasn't me this time who fell victim to the great salesmen at Costco... I am quite impressed that it 1} cleans itself and 2} makes HOT soup?! His miso soup is divine. 3} grinds avocado pit. Yes.. PIT.. apparently that has tons of health benefits?! Who knew. 4} for the crazy healthy fruit and veggie drinks he gets our kids to slurp down.

Avocados are well known health promoters that are packed with vitamins and antioxidants that do wonders for our skin, blood, tissue and organs. But the seed is actually where most of the fruit’s nutritional potential resides. The seed holds 70 percent of the avocado’s antioxidants, including the well-respected polyphenols associated with green tea.

But … that’s not it! Avocado seeds have more soluble fiber than even top tier fiber providers. It has antioxidants that help regulate intestinal function and have even been shown to prevent tumor growth. Additionally, the oil within ups the amount of collagen in our skin, keeping it young and wrinkle-free, as well as shining up the hair so that we remain good-looking, too.

thankful for new procedures in my classroom {I loved how 8 years of teaching literally means nada in my current gig. each day I learn what true differentiation looks like, what assessments look like for these kids and what battles to forge ahead with. Some days it's a shaving cream writing kinda day... all day... and some days all lessons get taught... this week my bipolar chica decided to calm her sweet self down, and even though I get her angry eyes & constant back talk, she has not thrown anything THIS WHOLE WEEK! And all the students said... Amen :)  and that same sweet girl was the one to spark a prayer in my room. We were eating our munchkin snowmen that we made, and she said "thank you Jesus". One boy was like "did you just say thank you Jesus?" I was like ohh I love it! Lets pray! And right there and then I broke all one million school laws and prayed with my kids. Eyes closed. Hands folded. "Thank you Jesus for our munchkins". And we all sang Amen. It was beautiful & I still have a job ( for now ;))

for a fun Dutch Blitz game with friends ... the night was full of yummy food, good laughs and highly competitive spirits

for all things lovey, pink and glittered being in the stores now! Oh I L.O.V.E Valentines day.

thankful for quotes, with fun fonts and images to make walls and screens look pretty, at the same time sharing wisdom & daily encouragement. James 1:5

for being able to watch Super Bowl 50 in 2 weeks completely stress free...no nail bitin' here...not like last year! Wowzers!! Love you Pats, but you totally bombed yesterday's game... offense where were the blocks so Brady could actually make plays?! Man Denver brought  their defense!! and that kick Gostkowski...that  kick...

Off we go... 5 day work week... last week of January...PGM Bible graduation to look forward to midweek...  all things Artic & Penguins get busted out & yay for the adorable Pebble & Penguin movie on Friday :)

XOXO

1-18-16

Thankful for a great dreamer.



Thankful for the Pats moving on! 


Thankful for Harrison rocking his "Book Talk". I think these projects test the parents abilities more than the kids ;) Planning, reading, speech prep, bag decorating & prop finding was homework for all of us & I was proud of what a planner Big H was. He has learned to not procrastinate & his grade reflected that. His energy for his speech and his "hook" for the audience cracked us up.

Thankful that Hannah is learning how to decode sight words. Hearing her read those sweet take home readers is wonderful.

Thankful for Starfall! This website is any teacher's dream, but also so helpful for my own kids! {Somehow I find fun strategies to use in my classroom but I totally don't bring those ideas home?! But this week Hannah was on starfall each night & the reading is more like a game than a chore & she was LOVING it :)}

Thankful for staying warm despite these frozen temps.

Thankful for my mom dropping by with fresh outta the oven pumpkin bread! Pumpkin anything is my love language!

Thankful for a fun recipe of snow dough. Yes it's very messy, but the 2 ingredients of corn starch and shaving cream are washable :) I used this for a science experiment on day 1, then had it in my free choice area for the rest of the week. We have cars in the box too & yay for imaginations of snow buried cars and car washes :)

Thankful for Susanna who was brave enough to take care of our trio, so Matt's great brainstorm of a city date could actually happen!


Thankful for a fun adventure of trying new eateries (and staying somewhat Whole30 Compliant!)
Indian buffet for lunch, their curried veggies were ahhmazing, but holy heart burn!
Yuzu sushi for supper. Best.Sushi.Yet. Very impressed by the urban, romantic vibe, the crazy music & the amazing quality of the fish. We most definitely did a cheat treat with "lands end" sundae by Ghiradelli. Eating this monster on the window seat of our fave hotel ever "Hotel Monaco", overlooking the frosted city, was the best ending to a great day :)

Thankful for a 4 day work week!! 

Have a great Tuesday friends :) XO

1-11-16

Thankful this week for...

an exciting & encouraging outreach idea meeting for our church.

healthy eating week 1 done. {recipe love of the week: turkey meatballs with jalapenos over zucchini pesto zoodles}

an easier than expected transition back to work & school.

news that Hudson's speech is covered under insurance

S*n*o*w

news that I was picked as one of a few teachers to tutor after school & I get to do 1st grade ( My true love grade! & the tutoring days are on days that actually are good with our schedule!)

my 3 month teaching time with Sunday School beginning again

memorization of scripture challenge

Matt's new cologne

Hill Christmas
{I love that our family loves food. I love that Dustin was able to get a good deal on an entire Prime Rib. I love that we were able to extend Christmas this late. I love that we hadn't seen each other for a few weeks so it was so good to chat through all our happenings. I love the look on Hudson's face when Ray brought out his trike. I love that even though he has not mastered his words yet- the way he was dancing and pointing and laughing truly was so so so cute! I love that I have a sister..and one with great taste.}

 okay honesty time ;) I might have had fun using the spray tan photo editor on our family picture :) For everyone... even Hudsie ;)

 The rest of the photos we are all back to normal ghosts. 

This is Hannah. Our dreamer and creator. Not a huge fan of the present and attention overload. 

Quietly sitting at home, post celebration...in Crayola bliss with this great gift :)

XO

New Year News 2-0-1-6

Happy 2016!


Isn't it awesome to get a fresh start, on the 1st of the new year? Maybe we will be in Heaven by the end of 2016, or maybe we will still be on earth trying to fight the good fight and run the race... either way I did some reflection from 2015 & will share.


My motto for 15 was "fiercein15".
Below is the not so pretty, but much needed- written, marked up, reminder that was taped to my journal...

It was interesting to see that I was super intentional with many of them which was awesome but the physical ones, like run more, train harder and lose weight did not even come close to happening!! Oops! 

This year- I didn't come up with a fun #, but decided to work on 4 areas... for 2016

1) Sing more, complain less. 

2) Apply scripture to my daily life & heart instead of just head knowledge.

3) Read more books : these three are my top...

4) Fitness Fun:

 eat better, work out  harder & smarter (more weights!), be a better example to our bambinos               ( example: less Dunkin stops means less donut traps, so that is our 1st mission ;)) 

What is your focus in 16? 

My focus verse was Galatians 6:9 & I really enjoyed having one special scripture.

This year... 

Thankful thoughts ...

Thankful for an amazing Christmas get away...

My favorite memory from the trip was hard... it was a toss up between Disney and the all you can eat pass at SeaWorld... :)

Disney: Pros: All of us met the height requirements for all the fun rides. (Yes we spiked Hudson's hair so he literally squeaked in all the good rides;)) 

We got to walk right on our 2 favorite rides: Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. 

The crowd although big, was pretty manageable & the kids did a great job sticking together. 

We  got to have a dance party with the cast of the Incredibles

Cons: Hudson is scarred for life from the drop and splash on Splash Mountain- so every ride from that point on had him either in tears or buried in my lap. Even It's a Small World. He did eventually come around during Buzz Lightyear. We discovered that Lilo and Stitch's adventure show thing was THE WORST scariest thing EVER. Lesson learned. 

Only bringing a single stroller. (Jill I need your stroller!!)

 What a day ;)

Thankful for the amazing all you can eat pass at Seaworld. So here's the run down- it was 34.99 for Matt and I each, and Harrison & Hannah were 19.99. This meant unlimited food all day. They said it was limited to once an hour ( we laughed at that - as if anyone can eat more than once an hours... oh contraire my friend;) We might have beat the loop holes ...  Seaworld HAS to get better about that system or they will literally sink. We felt like we got the entire fee back in Dasani water bottles & diet cokes alone, let alone the pretty decent salads, sandwiches, desserts etc! Needless to say our Christmas feast, was just that... amazing.


Thankful to have found a Lifetime in Tampa!

Thankful for our many crazy wrestling matches & for a 10 year old that still lets his mom dress him in skinny christmas pjs.

 Thankful for our beach time & amazing sunsets.

Thankful for walks in the ocean (Hannah is our multitasker- hair brushing as she walks ;))

Our trip home! We loved our vacay but I was SO ready for home sweet home, even with 19 degrees and snow :) Something about routine, our own bed & home cooked food was exciting :)

 Thankful that our kids learned how to share, love and cooperate. Reality is that we were in the care about 17 hours each trip & although there were annoyances between  them, they rocked it.

 She is our "can sleep anywhere" princess. She needs her sleep & just announces "I'm going to bed" and boom, out. Praise the Lord for zzzz's!

 Happy & "driving"

 Sleepers :)

 Home!!! We literally walked in & went straight to presents. Hannah was asking about opening them since Kentucky :)We didn't buy the kids anything, except stocking stuffers, so the Hebert's spoiled us rotten! It was pretty special to extend Christmas and we are looking forward to the Hill Christmas on Saturday :)

 We love Lego!

 Missing my dad tons during the holidays. He loved Christmas shopping & one of his & my special memories was Christmas Eve shopping at Burlington Mall in MA, and waiting 2 hours in the parking lot just to leave, while jamming to Mariah Carey's Christmas CD. Why do those random times stick out? Maybe it was because it was just simply quality time together. I am praying I can embrace giving my time to my kids this year & enjoy the simple, mundane, amazing presents of presence we get each day.

XO