Spring. It’s just my favorite. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right. 70’s and sunny. The pollen isn’t my favorite, but eh, you take the bad with the good, right?

Learned.

It’s no secret that I love listening to Jamie Ivey’s Happy Hour podcast.  There is all sorts of wisdom to be gleaned there.  On a recent episode with Rachel Hollis, I jotted down this wisdom:

• When you see someone being really successful in one thing, know that they are failing somewhere else.  Priorities.  No one does it all.
• Nobody gets to tell you how big your dreams are.  If you can’t find a door, go through a window. (This said in reference to self-publishing her book when other publishers said no.  It is since a best seller.)

I also re-learned (is that even a word? If not, I’m making it one.) that I love having my nails done.  I was given a gift card as a Valentine’s Day present and went to have my nails done before our beach trip.  It just makes me feel more put together and well, pretty, to have color on my nails.

Read and Reading.

I’m currently making my way through Sandra Brown books.  She has quickly moved to the top of my favorite author list.  I’ve slowly been reading Fervent, one chapter at a time.  I’m going back through the InCourage book study, too.  Priscilla Shirer is so wise and I find myself reading in her voice.

I got sucked into an Amazon special and have read several freebies, including Brazen by Maya Banks.  It’s romance and it’s complete smut but it’s mindless reading and I loved it.  Definitely the type of book to read sitting out by the pool or beach this summer.

TV.

Oh.my.gosh.  You guys.  We are totally swept up in Blindspot on NBC.  We are eagerly awaiting the reappearance of The BlackList on April 7.  I’m wanting to jump back into Pretty Little Liars as well, if I can convince Justin.  I watched a few episodes back when I was running and was definitely tempted to go all out Netflix-binge.  I didn’t, but I’m feeling the pull again now.  As in, I’ve already gotten my hands on Season 1 and 2 on DVD.

Music.

The Biebs has made quite the come-back and I am enamored.  We’ve been jamming to Sorry and Love Yourself pretty often.  He’s come a long way since his “Baby” days.  Also on repeat:  Break Up in a Small Town(Sam Hunt), Burning House (Cam), and Hands to Myself (Selena Gomez).

Things I Love.

For Spring Break, we slipped away to Panama City Beach with our friends, the Hodges.  We had the absolute best time–I’ll be sharing all the details in a future post.  One of my favorite parts?  The closeness.  It was a one bedroom, two bath condo and we were all together, all the time.  But it was so great.

Easter happened.  I feel like that deserves its on post as well, but here we are all dressed up.  Last year, we participated in Forget the Frock but I ran into some issues with the website this year when trying to order, so we missed out.  Thank goodness GraGra stepped up to the plate and got our attire all worked out.  (This picture makes me laugh–my Papaw took it on burst, so there were about 27 copies of the same image.  He didn’t understand that we wanted him to move closer.  We couldn’t get the dogs to move out of the way.  Real stuff.)

Favorite Blog Post

Ugh–It’s a tie! I can’t choose between Babies Wearing Glasses and Building A House:  Tips For Choosing A House Plan.  Apparently, neither could you guys–both posts are sitting equal with the same number of views!

Favorite Instagram

Linking up times two today: Leigh Kramer and Emily P. Freeman. Pop over to their blogs if you want more cool stuff.

Libby still wasn’t feeling well today, so it was just Kyndall and me heading out in our St. Patrick’s Day greens.  She was a little unhappy about only having on a little green, but the only solid green shirt she had was a dri-fit tee.  Normally, this would be fine but today, her class is taking a field trip to the theater.  She needed to be a little dressier for today that usual.  (Notice I said a little.  It’s a battle getting this girl dressed in the morning!)

When we walked out the door, Libby was still snoozing.  That sick baby needs her rest!  She did text me from Meme’s phone when she woke up though….

With Spring Break coming up, the library is hopping.  All the kids want to swap out their books before we are out for a whole week.  I shelved no less that 40,675 books just before lunch.

After school, we had an appointment for Easter pictures.  A sweet friend of ours who is a retired photographer scheduled some sessions to raise money for her upcoming mission trip.  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity.

We have talked about getting chickens again for a while now, and then Mallory snapchatted this image to me today.  (Is snapchatted a real word?  If not, we’re making it one!)

She picked up seven chicks and two ducks for us to take to our Easter pictures.  Jase was amazed.  He would reach out and touch one and then just start giggling.

Tina had a rabbit, too, so we had our pictures made with all sorts of animals.  After pictures, we went home and had grilled pork chops for supper.

I was super tired and not feeling so great, so I passed bath duty off to Justin for the night.  My parents stepped in to help, of course.  Divide and conquer and all that 🙂

Jase hasn’t been sleeping well AT ALL this week, so it was a battle just to keep my eyes open until bedtime.  Around 8:00, I tucked the girls into my bed and attempted to watch a few minutes of a Blacklist rerun with Justin, but I didn’t make it long.  We transferred the girls from my bed to the couch and fell asleep ourselves around 9:00.  Fingers crossed Jase sleeps a little better tonight!

Wednesday morning began much like the rest of the week.  Everyone up, showers, breakfasts.  Today, Meme came to the house to keep Jase, so I didn’t have to pack his bag or get him dressed for the day. Libby whined all morning long about a sore throat.  (Libby isn’t usually the best at mornings so I didn’t think anything about it.)

There is an entire extra bed and an extra leg of this couch that one of the girls could sleep on, but they insist on sleeping side by side.  This is the beauty of sisters.

At school, I had a meeting with Scholastic about an upcoming book fair.  Libby came to see me in the middle of my meeting, around 9am, again complaining with a sore throat.  Like the good mama I am, I shared my Mt. Dew and sent her back to class.  (No fever, no missing class.)  A few minutes later, when the meeting was over, I walked down to check on her.  She looked like she didn’t feel well, and since she was sick all last week, I decided to call the doctor.  Of course, the doctor wanted to see her.  I walked back down to her room to tell her teacher she would be checking out and when I hugged her, she felt warm.  The nurse confirmed a 101 degree fever.

I called my emergency help—Meme–and she came to take Libby to the doctor.  The verdict?  Strep throat.  Yep, good mama I am. Sheesh.  This is how she was when we got back home from school:

Hannah took Jase outside to play so I could love on Libby for a few minutes.  Another great thing about living with my parents right now?  There is never a shortage of helping hands!

Wednesdays are our Jayden-days.  He usually comes home with us a few random days a week, but he always comes on Wednesdays.  He comes home with us after school and we take him to church and then back to his home afterwards.  We so love this sweet boy and his mama!

I took the big kids to meet Justin at Jack’s and he took them on to church.  I spent some time with Libby.  Jase curled up with Pops in his recliner and read a few books, watched a little tv.  Jase has become really attached to Pops over the last few weeks.  Sometimes I think he even prefers him over me, which is so not ok.

Kyndall and Justin were back home around 8, so we took a few minutes together to talk about our day.  The girls were asleep by 8:30 and I fell asleep while trying to get Jase to sleep, so I wasn’t far behind!

Tuesday morning, my alarm went off at 5:30.  Ten minutes later, I rolled out of bed and hit the shower.  Typically, our morning routine is the same.  I wake up first and get my shower.  Justin wakes up and gets dressed, then wakes the kids up and supervises their getting dressed.  I do everybody’s hair (except Justin’s- ha!) and then they all go downstairs for breakfast and to pack lunches while I finish getting ready.

Jase went to Papaw and Nana’s again today, so we were all dressed, packed up, and out the door by 7:05.   Papaw meets us at the car as we pull in his driveway, so drop off is quick and painless.  The girls and I are walking in the school door by 7:30.  Today, both girls have to run a timed mile as part of their physical fitness test.  Kyndall is excited and already has her competitive mindset going.  Libby could care less and will probably finish near the end–athletics just isn’t her thing!

Libby and her friend Brook-Lynn just happen to come to the library at the same time to exchange their books, so I snapped a quick picture.  She is loving the Field Trip Mysteries books right now and is quickly making her way through the entire series.  As expected, she jogged her mile and finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Running just isn’t her thing, and that’s ok.

A little while later, I caught up with these girls in TAG.  They are such sweet besties.  My future-Olympian ran the mile in 6 minutes and 56 seconds.  She was the first girl in her class to finish and the PE coach said she sprinted the entire thing.  She came to the library to tell me, all red-faced and out of breath and beaming from ear to ear. 🙂

On the way home, we jammed out to Break Up in A Small Town by Sam Hunt.  It’s the girls absolute favorite song right now and we keep it on repeat.

When we got home, we spent a few minutes doing homework and the rest of the evening outside.  It was a gorgeously warm day and we soaked up every single ray of sunshine.  Jase played in the driveway for a while.

And then hung out in the hammock with Mallory.  The girls piled up in the hammock after this picture and read their books for a while.

Mallory, Hannah and I ran again.  One mile in 9 minutes and 20 seconds, much slower than Kyndall’s mile but we aren’t ashamed.  We even threw in a few sprints for good measure.

Being on the farm means bath time needs to happen every night.  The kids play outside and get stinky and dirty and a hot bath is much-needed.  Bedtime is at 8:00.  Justin was working late so after all the kids went to sleep, I curled up in bed with my newest Sandra Brown book and read for a while before going to sleep.

I’m not even sure what time Justin came in.  The overtime check will be nice and goes a long way towards saving for our new house, but I miss my husband! 🙂