January

January is one of my favorite months of the year. While some may find this month depressing, with the holidays behind us and the somewhat dreary weather, I find it rejuvenating. For me, January is a time to slow down, relax, regroup, & reorganize. It is also a time to catch up on that ever-growing list of books I long to read and simply a time to enjoy being at home, cooking, watching movies, playing games, tackling pinterest-ing projects, and spending time getting to know my family again. While Samuel is playing basketball, the demands of running boys here and there are minimal compared to other more demanding months of the year. So what have we been up to? Well, I finally got around to reading "The Hunger Games" trilogy and LOVED it. I also read Nicholas Sparks latest novel "The Best of Me", watched The Help with Joseph & Samuel and loved it as much as I did the first time around (not quite as much as the book, but the movie is pretty awesome as well). Rarely does a movie do a book justice but this one does a pretty good job. A must READ and see if you haven't! We also watched a couple of great family movies with the boys such as DolphinTale and Soul Surfer. My parents gave Joseph a book for Christmas called "In Step with God" by Charles Stanley and it was powerful. This book led me to another book by Stanley called "the Wonderful Spirit Filled Life" which I am about halfway through and I'm just trying to sort it all out. I'm taking one day at a time trying and failing and trying again to apply what I am reading. Random.... Hobby Lobby opened yesterday after it was completely destroyed by the April 27th tornado. So very excited to have HL back in town! More Random.... Samuel is making us so proud these days. First, his love of reading really blows us away. I don't even know how many books he has read since Christmas but I do know that his favorite was Tim Tebow's book "Through My Eyes". Since then he has become hooked on a couple of authors, Tim Green and Mike Lupika (check them out for some great reading for boys). For the last couple of weeks, we have had to make him turn his lights off, put the book away, and go to sleep most every night. Never thought I would say that... and I am not complaining, but he does need to sleep! In addition to having to make him go to bed, he made a New Years resolution to set his own alarm clock for 6:00 AM so he can take his shower in the morning rather than at night, and have some time to read before he goes to school. He is growing up! Also, his 5th grade class just elected Who's Who and he was elected Class Scholar. That makes us proud! His basketball team is doing well and he has made some progress at being more aggressive on the court. It is not his natural tendency to get up in someone's face and scrap for a ball. His dad tells him before every game that he wants at least X number of attempted shots and X number of personal fouls. Baseball practice has begun also. This will be the first year since 2005 that he isn't playing at Kentuck. He is playing exclusively on his Travel Ball team from the last couple of summers - The Northport Tide. A great group of boys and families. John Michael is growing up as well. We just signed him up for Kentuck t-ball. So, while Samuel is leaving Kentuck behind, we begin the Kentuck experience with John Michael. I couldn't be more excited! We have loved Kentuck over the years and are proud to have such an awesome program available to our boys. John Michael will also start kindergarten this Fall, which I honestly think just can't be right. These years have flown by even more so than they did with Samuel. A recent morning out at Barnes & Noble & the playground....

While Samuel may struggle with being aggressive, John Michael DOES NOT! John Michael struggles with the opposite... self control! However, from what we have read, self control might be easier taught than trying to make a child more aggressive. I just hope he learns a little more of this particular fruit of the spirit by August - before he starts kindergarten. Bless his heart, he does try. It just isn't easy for him! As different as our boys may be, they are both equal blessings from God and we cherish every moment we have with them.