blessed beyond measure

What a difference a warmer day and a little melting makes. Cabin fever taking over, we carefully traveled the couple miles to Nana and Granddad's house, where this round of snow was completely redeemed. Had. A. Blast. And even though there are who-knows-how-many pictures of the boys above, I have been so badly wishing for really good photos of the boys to use for their one-a-week, and the snow provided the perfect spontaneous moments. So here you go, one picture of each boy, every week, doing their thing. Love.

Day-after-blizzard. Under mounting pressure by both boys, we headed out into the frozen terrain. While they did find ways to have fun, the completely non-sticky snow made snowman-building and even snowball-forming basically impossible. The sled wouldn't slide. Their boots got stuck in the eightish inches and came off their feet. The frigid winds and blowing snow burned our faces. It was a short run, and maybe not our favorite, but we're thankful for the snow and the time to play together!

Snowmageddon. It's happening around us as we speak. The first wave has passed, dropping maybe six inches or so. Any moment now, the real snow is supposed to show up. They're saying the word "heavy" a lot. So who knows what we'll wake up to in the morning. The past week, at least from say Tuesday on, has been about preparing for this storm. It's life in the south - blizzards just turn us into a hot mess. And when those crazy weathermen started putting up graphics with the numbers 18 and 24 near our house, well that's rather panic-inducing. On Tuesday, we had our heating oil tank filled. It's cold, y'all. On Wednesday, I made a ginormous trip to Kroger along with about eight hundred Black Friday-style shoppers. Definitely didn't want to add to the chaos and kept my cool well through the whole thing. Of course there was one that one moment when I crawled in front of a couple ladies browsing what was left of the bread. There were exac...

Aden:  Let's play doctor. (hands me some coins) Here, you'll need these. He grabs his play doctor kit and pulls a chair up to the bed. I lay down. Aden:  Hi, welcome to the doctor. Mama:  Thank you. Aden:  You need to pay me first. I hand him the coins. Aden:  Well that's not enough. You can give me more later. One five-year-old well versed in American healthcare. Aden:  So why are you at the doctor? Mama:  My foot is itchy and it just won't stop itching. Aden:  Oh, OK. Well let's do this stuff first, then I'll look at your foot. Checks my reflexes, peers into my ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Aden:  How does that hangy ball thing move? Mama:  It just does sometimes. Aden:  That's funny. Now, what was wrong with you? Mama:  My foot is itchy. Aden:  Oh yeah. Does it hurt right here? (points to my knee) Mama:  No. Aden:  Here? (points to my shin) Mama:  No, my foot. See the toes? Right...

The boys love school. They really do, despite evidence to the contrary. 8:42 PM on the night before school resumed following Christmas break, after Trey's eleventh random question, a water bottle fillup, a sudden desire to floss his own teeth, and a few trips to his backpack to "check things" Mama:  Trey, you need to go to sleep. Your brain's not going to work right for school tomorrow. Trey:  But I'm not tiiiiiired. I don't want to go to school! I want this break to last forever! If I don't have to go to school, I never have to go to bed! 6:30 AM, um, every single morning Mama:  Aaaaaden, time to get up. gentle wiggle/tickle action Aden:   6:40 AM, after increasingly loud greetings and more intense wiggle/tickle action Mama:  ADEN! GET UP NOW! Aden:   (whispered, lips barely moving) Too sleepy. Mama:  But you're going to be late for school. Aden:   (whisper continues) Don't like school. And so it goes. But they really enjoy...

Had no plans to choose a word for this year. From my seat, the last four years that I have invoked one-words, I have failed them. Grow up Steward Choose Stop Failed because, honestly, am I a better person? I've learned a heck of a lot. But better? Highly debatable. So to me it looks like failure, though that tends to be the only lens I am capable of looking at myself through. Brandon, er, we'll say encouraged me to pick a word anyway. Thanks, babe. Been thinking a lot about it, praying about it, knowing I didn't want to walk into failure again but also knowing that to stop trying is already failure. What came to me is that maybe, just maybe, one-words aren't pass/fail. Maybe they are journeys. So I'm taking the journey. Didn't even have to choose a word because with the very first prayer about it, it was chunked into my lap. Restore Definitions are many, but the two I am focusing on are reestablish and rebuild . There is so much, after the...