Spring Cleaning...a little early

I told the kids that since we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend, yesterday was going to be spring cleaning...to which Kensey replied, "It's not Spring, it's Winter!" Tomato, tomahto girl....we're cleanin' this PIT!!!

So, we cranked up the Radio Disney...because that's the only way to motivate Kennedy kids...dancin' while we work!

Can I just say that I did not realize my son had that many fish hooks?? I found fish hooks in his "special" drawer, his sock drawer, Karis' doll house (??!!??), under the bean bags where they play Wii, even in his underwear drawer! (Wouldn't that hurt??! I mean seriously!!)

And, I realized my precious Karis Danae is a hoarder! Her mother is as anal retentive about cleanliness and decluttering as they come and she is an absolute, certifiable hoarder! What in the world?! I had to keep sending her downstairs to put stuff away so I could throw all her "creations" away! We really don't need to keep every drawing you've ever done sweetie!! And, she used an entire roll of tape on all the stuff she had taped on the walls! Really?! Quit taping stuff to my walls!!!! And...when I said "organize your dress-up clothes", I did not mean put the stuff that is preventing you from closing the lid between the box and the wall so I cannot see it!!
It is no surprise that we are missing the match to 3 pairs of shoes!! This child needs help!! How am I supposed to train her to keep her own house clean when she's grown?? I do not want to see her on some reality TV show seeking help from a professional! I am a professional organizer! I owned my own organizing business!! C'mon girl!!

And then there's the ever-independent Kensey...who decluttered her entire room on her own. And even though, when she proudly displayed her work, I found several things I would have done differently...I held my tongue and said, "Great job Sugarbear!!" (Small victories people...I was a little worn out from Karis' room.)

And so it was time for the 4 of us to head downstairs and try to put the laundry away that we had kept going throughout the day...oh but wait...WHAT IS STUCK TO KENSEY'S SWEATER?! Is that gum?! NO...it's silly putty!! And before I could yell at the usual suspect...Koleman, Karis sheepishly says, "I didn't mean to! I forgot!" AUGH!!! Well, you girls start hanging up your clothes while I remove this silly putty with this stinky Goof -off stuff! (awesome...rassum-frassum piece of monkey smack...I was muttering under my breath.)

Thankfully, Daddy came home from work and offered to make his fantastic spaghetti for dinner. I adore that man!!!! So I took off for my walk/run...cranked up the music...and let the stress sweat off of me. Glorious!

And I woke up this morning to a beautiful, decluttered home :)
The End...oh wait...I have to cook and clean today...again...like 3 times...(sigh)

Rah rah rah!

Well, today was Kensey's first cheer competition and can I just say I have traveled into some seriously uncharted territory? Competitive cheer moms are rabid! These teams had chants, lit signs, bells, whistles...you name it! I saw every kind of "Cheer Mom" accessory I could have imagined today! This is a whole new world, people!!


So, our sweet, precious Cornerstone Christian Academy girls came into this crazy arena and shone like stars. We did not win Grand Champions today. There were many things we can fix before we compete in Nationals on Jan. 29th. But our girls were joyful, supportive of each other, MODEST (which was a rarity today), and I was genuinely proud of them!

Dancing with Daddy

Last night was a very fun family night at the Kennedy home. For some reason, everyone decided they wanted to help with dinner...and so we all crowded into the kitchen, turned on the music, and worked together to make dinner. There was lots of laughing, lots of spilling things, lots of singing, and lots of dancing...SOOOO fun!!

Need to vent...

OK, I need to vent for a moment...

Now, before I do, let me be the first to admit that my children are not at all immune to this problem...

OK, so that being said, there seems to be a common problem among pretty much all the students I've ever taught...and parents, I'm not sure we realize this is a problem! (or maybe we do and we don't know how to fix it!)

I started back to school yesterday after a fantastic 3 week break. Our school is a University Model School, which means we go to class on MWF and we do our independent practice at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday, we had a snow day, so the students had to review on their own, at home, on Tuesday before they came to class on Wednesday. I was amazed and very dismayed at the lack of effort put forth from my high school students. They did the least amount of work possible and therefore, did not seem to ready for an intelligent conversation about the material when they came to class on Wednesday. To top it all off - they did not bring all their supplies. I teach High School Math classes - so they need a calculator...but so many said they forgot. What?! You had 3 weeks to get your stuff together and you forgot?! AND - in anticipation of the assumed procrastination, I sent an email on Tuesday reminding them to bring their supplies: vocab books, calculators, etc. So, you can imagine my frustration!

So, here are my questions of angst...parents and educators...
HOW do we motivate our students to WANT to learn????
HOW do we encourage them to take responsibility for themselves????
HOW do we communicate the need to be responsible, self-motivated, life-long learners????

Even yesterday - a student asked me "when am I ever going to use this?" We were discussing the quadratic equation that goes with a rocket launch and how to graph it on a calculator. So the answer is...unless you're an aerospace engineer, I DON'T KNOW!!! But, I do know, that you will need to go to your job PREPARED! I know that if your boss asks you to complete a report, he actually NEEDS the report on the day he requests it! I do know, that you will need to be able to figure out technology, so figuring out this calculator will absolutely help towards that goal. I do know that you will need to be able to make connections between things you learn, in order to solve problems on your own...so making connections now and solving problems now will only help towards that goal!

I saw some snippets from a horrible movie the other day...I don't even know the name of it...but the premise (from what I could gather) was that Americans had gotten so stupid from years and years of lazy education. This spoof, set in the future, was making fun of what the world would be like if we continue in our current pattern. Now, before you hear an attack on our education system - let me clarify! Our education system ROCKS!! American teachers are some of the hardest working, most dedicated people I know!! We work hours that you could never imagine. We are constantly being trained on the latest findings regarding learning and education. We are constantly researching new and better ways to teach. We are constantly evaluating and being evaluated regarding our effectiveness at actually seeing results. We push ourselves to the brink of mental and emotional strain every day...

...and then we walk into class, prepared, confident, ready to impart this awesome wisdom we worked so hard to make sure would be clearly communicated...

...and a student interrupts our introduction to say,
"Miss...I didn't have time to finish my homework."
"Miss...I forgot my calculator."
"Do we have to write this down?"
"Do we have to draw the diagram?"
"When are we ever gonna use this?"

...and so we walk out of the classroom defeated, down-trodden, and ready to cry because yet again, our research and study was for no avail...they didn't get it...they don't care...

...so what do we do?? We TRY HARDER!!!!!!!!!!

Alright...I feel better! Now, I'm going to make my children do their homework and do it RIGHT!! And, I'm going to make sure they are prepared to ADD to the class discussion tomorrow! And if they do not, I am going to pray and ask the Lord's wisdom for the appropriate consequences. Because God gave these 3 children a brain and He intends for them to use it to solve problems for HIS kingdom! And it's MY job to teach them how!!!

Scrapbooking

During this past holiday season, I found myself MAKING memories rather than spending time scrapbooking them. The older my children get, the more I just want to spend time with them as much as I can. It's not as fun to sit in my chair and scrapbook, when we could be laughing and playing together. So, as a result, I only finished 2 spreads for my scrapbook during the entire holiday. It was fun to document Summer memories, sitting by the fire!

I'm very behind, so these first 2 pages were from way back in June. Our friends, John and Jill Holland, took us to Maui with them on vacation! It was such a wonderful get-away for the 2 of us, but my children had a wonderful time as well! They spent the week with my parents in Abilene. Mamaw and Papaw always have so many fun things planned for them! During this visit, they went to the park, played in Papaw's hammocks, cooked, played dress-up, played games, built things, went swimming, saw Toy Story 3 at the movies and just had all kinds of fun!

After that, I was working on a page about our Book Club. LOL!! Yeah - that was my brilliant idea this Summer to have a Mother-Daughter book club and read "Anne of Green Gables". Somehow, I forgot that Summers are CRAZY!! We ended up only being able to have ONE meeting! :) But that one meeting was very fun and ended up being a great play-date for the girls during the lazy days of Summer!

What a glorious Day!

I absolutely LOVE the body of Christ God has blessed us with!

This morning, the girls and I were able to serve in the nursery. We were in charge of the 3 year olds. They were so incredibly cute! I loved greeting them, singing "Deep and Wide" with them, doing puzzles and coloring. It was so fun to watch the excitement on their faces as I told them the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and the Spirit descending on him like a dove and God SPEAKING! It was hilarious to watch the horror on their little faces when I explained that baptizing meant they had to put their faces under water. And to watch their eyes get huge when I said God spoke from the sky! Little Daniel Morgan was pointing to the ceiling and excitedly saying, "da sky, wain falling from da sky!" (It was raining this morning.) And then when I told them God said, "This is my Son in whom I am well-pleased!" They got confused. So I asked them what "well-pleased" meant and little Tanner Lewis said "I don't know." So I said, "Has your Daddy ever said, 'I am SO proud of you!' ?" And ALL their little faces lit up. (I love that! Good job Daddys!!) Little Grayson Owens said, "That means he loves me!" You're SO right, my friend! So we talked about how God basically said, "This is my Son and I am so proud of Him!" (What an awesome thought, by the way!) Anyway, we tried to keep "dove" feathers off the floor by blowing them, and we made some dove. It was so fun!!

THEN, we cam home and had the delicious pot roast Karis and Rose Hendley made for us last night. Oh man! It was delicious!! I love that Karis loves to cook!!!

It began to snow as we ate our lunch and of course the kids were ecstatic about the first snow of the season. I LOVE that people began to message each other so we could all play in the snow together.

My husband was, of course, the target of MANY snowballs. But, he is such a good sport!!
And now, I'm sitting here in my fluffiest, coziest jammy pants...a fire in the fire place...my family all around! Seriously?! What an absolutely glorious day!!!

Let's begin again...

I think I want to start blogging again. There is just something very cathartic about writing down one's thoughts and memories. Also, I have been inspired by my friend, Tricia, to make sure I remember! I'll write more later, after church, but I knew if I didn't post this commitment, I'd talk myself out of it! :)

What a blessing

A few Sundays ago, I had the privilege of witnessing a tremendous blessing...Kensey's praise team led worship for our entire church. It was so incredible to watch those 4th and 5th graders lead our congregation! My absolute favorite part was watching Kensey sing next to her friend Sandra. This is the little girl I blogged about earlier - that Kensey had been sharing with at recess. What an awesome picture of God's faithfulness!!
PS - I'm sorry I'm singing so loud - I couldn't help it!

4 day weekend

We have had quite the relaxing 4-day weekend around here. I guess our time in Colorado makes this whole snow shut-down hilarious to me! We had 2 days of playing in the snow with our church family...I've also had lots of time to scrapbook by the fire...This was Kensey and Daddy at the duck lease on the last morning of duck season. They had a great time eventhough they didn't really see any ducks.


This was Koleman's first stitches. He fell when he was running outside, and hit his head on a landscaping rock. Good thing he's got a Kennedy hard head!!


And this was Kensey's preteen camp that she went on right before she went back to school and prayed with her friend Sandra. What great memories for my sugarbear.

I also did some pages for the church bulletin board:
These were the families that joined our church this month.


These were from our Valentine Banquet. Our "empty nesters" class each brought one of our senior adult ladies and they all had a banquet together. It was a BLAST! I laughed so hard I had a headache! Such wonderful people!!!

Khris and I were also able to celebrate Valentine's Day because our friends (the Hollands) took us to a very nice dinner with them. Again - I laughed so hard I had a headache! (I'm seeing a pattern...)

And last night, Kensey got to babysit (at our house under supervision) and she did such a good job! I'm so proud of how responsible she is! She had those babies laughing, making crafts, in jammies, teeth brushed, and in bed on time. She made a list of what they did...so cute!!

Of course, I did the usual umpteen loads of laundry and house cleaning for showings (since our house is on the market) - but that stuff's boring!! :) Although - I must mention that my whole family helped clean for the showings...I'm so blessed!!

And now, I get to go worship with my wonderful church family and hear about the D-Now weekend that our youth had. Several of my students came, so I'm anxious to hear how it went.

(contented sigh)...Life is just too good!!!

So proud I can't see straight!

My sweet sugarbear, Kensey (10), has been sharing about Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, with a little girl who recently moved to her school. The little girl had never heard of Jesus' love for her. Kensey wanted so badly to be able to buy her a Bible, but she didn't have quite enough money. So, Khris and I decided to help her out and we found a wonderful Bible for kids that had daily devotionals in it. We bought Kensey a copy of the same Bible so she could do the devotionals with her friend. She and her friend have spent every day at recess having a little Bible study on the playground. Her friend was soaking it up! Kensey has prayed for her, prayed for her family, and studied different ways to share God's love with her. This morning, Kensey called her Daddy, crying, because she just had the ooportunity to pray with her friend as she asked Jesus to come into her heart and forgive her of her sins. How exciting!! I am so thankful for the wonderful teachers who have helped us teach Kensey to love the Lord and share the gospel. I am so thankful for our new children's minister taking our 4th and 5th graders to camp this weekend where they spent 12 concentrated hours talking about scriptures on how to share their faith!! I am so thankful for my Sunday School class who has been praying for my child and her evangelistic heart. My heart is full!! I am completely unworthy to be blessed with this precious little girl!! Thank you, Lord, for allowing her to participate in your kingdom today!!!

Competitive

OK - so it has been brought to my attention that I am a little competitive when it comes to Nertz. Nertz is a very fast card game...speed solitaire against others, if you will. We played the game last night, at our Super Bowl party (um, no...I was not watching the game...SHOCKER!). Anyway, in my attempt to slam a card down before the opposing team (which I did, and mocked the poor lady while I was at it) I bruised the side of my thumb so badly, it swelled up and turned purple! Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right??

Bored...

There's nothing good to watch on TV these days, I haven't found a good book to read in a while, my house is staying clean because we're trying to sell it, I did the budget and all the paperwork yesterday, and we're having another showing today right after church, so I can't make lunch! I've checked my email, read all my facebook, downloaded scrapbooking stuff, and drank my cup of coffee...and it's only 6:41 am! Gracious!!!

So, I decided to update my blog...

Khris and I are still waiting anxiously to hear from someone in Haiti who needs us to take care of one of the many children who need help right now. Our church has 11 families who are at the top of the list for 3 different organizations. But, there's so much red tape and rebuilding occurring, that they haven't processed any new children yet...so we wait.

Today will be our 8th showing this week!!! That's awesome if you like a clean house!! tee hee The good news is, no one didn't like the house...it just wasn't "the" one. So, we're still praying for the right family to come through. I'm so excited for the day when we are debt-free!!!

Kensey is still on a junior dance company and absolutely loving it! Karis is still in chef school...after a brief haitus in ballet which she hated...and she now says she will never quit chef school again! Koleman is back in karate, now that football is over.

Our church family is going through an awesome time of worship together called 40 days of desperation. It has been an incredible experience for all of us! God is definitely doing some amazing things in Prosper!! Last night, 2 of our life connection classes (the Senior Adults and our Empty-nesters) had a Vaentine party and it was SOOO much fun! We laughed so much my head hurt! What a wonderful group of people!! Today, we'll be enjoying the Super Bowl with 2 more life connection groups - mine and the other class of people our age. What a fun weekend!

I finally scanned in all the extra pictures people had given me from 2009 and finished scrapbook pages for them...



OK...I have talked about nothing ling enough...time to find another activity!!!

Koleman's first BB gun

Our men's dove hunt at church was this weekend, and Khris took Koleman for the first time. Of course he didn't get any pictures, but he said Koleman was so funny! They didn't shoot any birds because everytime Koleman saw one he'd yell and point with flailing arms, "There's one daddy!" Or, Khris would look over and he'd be off shooting a cactus or a tree...LOL!!! So funny!!

But, I do have some pictures of his first shots with his new BB gun. Khris sat him down in the living room to make their list of what they needed to bring and said, "OK, son, what's the most important thing we need for hunting?"
Koleman: "A gun!"
Khris: "Well, I've got my gun, where's yours?"
Koleman looked like he was about to cry, "I use your Wed Widuh BB gun"
Khris: "No, that's my gun...go check the gun case for YOUR gun"
(Khris had the unopenned box sitting in front of the gun case.)
Of course his eyes were very wide and he was very excited!! So here's his first shots:

The last hurrah...

I had the most wonderful day! Now...to be fair, we woke up to this this morning:
But the precious angels who did this (the girls in our church youth group) came back to clean it up at 10 am...well, 2 of them did - Kelly and Julie - thank you sweet girls!

Then my parents came for a visit and we had a great time. Momma and I went shopping and I got some GREAT deals which included 2 new pairs of shoes!

My Dad's birthday is Monday, so we made him some "chocolate greatness". Koleman was so excited, he sat in front of the oven for 8 minutes (that's right, Koleman sat still for 8 minutes!) waiting for it. He started counting down at 30 seconds left. So funny!

As always, the kids had a great time with Mamaw and Papaw, but the favorite today was my dad's new iphone. He and Koleman were having so much fun playing games! So cute!!
And now, my summer is officially over...Monday I start school. I really am very excited about it. Our team was awesome last year and I think it's even better this year!! What a great way to end the summer!

Koleman's playing football

I just had to laugh last night at the dinner table, because I could not squeeze a word in between Koleman telling us about his first football practice. I haven't seen him this excited since he got his four-wheeler. Khris said he was one of the most aggressive boys on the team...he dove to the ground with abandon, and ran as fast as those little legs would carry him. He was talking about how he tripped his friend Cooper on purpose, so he wouldn't get his flag (it's flag football) and he asked, "Is that appropiate in football?" (I know how to spell - that's just how he says it:) ) And of course, my husband who is relishing every moment of this responds, "Whatever it takes, son!" LOL!! Koleman was one of only 2 boys on the team who caught a touch-down pass! I normally don't care anything about football (I'm so sorry hunny!) but I cannot wait to see his first game!

The Innertube Fiasco

At the request of many...I have decided to post the innertube story in correct chronological order, so you can grasp the full hilarity of the situation:

We went to Splashtown in San Antonio and we wanted to go on the "lazy" river. Khris made sure everyone was safely on their innertube and then decided to get on his own, he picked a 2 person tube at first so he could spread out on top...he jumped on...and fell off...
Huh...OK...let's see here...
How, in the world, am I supposed to get on this thing?!
Let's try laying on my belly...WHOA!!
Ok...just get situated...almost there...
Alright...let's turn over...CAREFULLY...
AH...see...
Whoa...rassum frassum...
No wait...I got it!!
Um...no he didn't...he flipped right after that picture..."Are you serious?!"
Daddy...you just lay like this..."Thanks son!" (with a lip curl)...
So he kept trying....


And kept trying...this time I was laughing so hard, I forgot to put the camera down...


And kept trying...


And finally made it into the tube and decided it was not worth the effort...they don't make those tubes for men as strong and powerful as my man!!! (You like that hunny??) LOL!!!

We're home!!

My sugar bear is home, safe and healthy. I want so bad to be overjoyed - but I'm actually feeling very humbled and sobered. As I walked around that hospital, I saw so many children who are not leaving healthy, so many who obviously have cancer or severe injuries, so many little bitty babies. I feel bad about saying, "Yeah - God answered our prayers!" Didn't all those families pray the same prayers? When my cousin died of a brain tumor when he was 11, it certainly wasn't after a lack of prayer. When so many of my friends have faced challenges and deaths of their children - it wasn't for lack of prayer then. Now - for fear of starting a very slippery slope - I FIRMLY believe God calls us to "pray without ceasing", and "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective", and that God tells the elders to come annoint with oil and pray - which we did. Our wonderful elders annointed Kensey with oil and prayed over her in the ER. I think what I'm trying to say is that I don't deserve for my daughter to be leaving healthy! I don't deserve to be home safe and sound. I am absolutely not any more righteous than any of the other mothers who are still sitting at the children's hospital! I am so thankful and feel so unworthy of God's faithfulness to my family. My heart breaks for every mother who is fearing for the life of their child! Would I still sing the Lord's praises if the outcome were different? If they found something horrible in Kensey's brain, would I praise the Lord? Would I still acknowledge that God is good despite my circumstances? I want to be able to say yes. I want to be able to claim that God is good no matter what, even when His answers to my prayers are not the answers I asked for. I can almost guarantee Mary, the mother of Jesus, prayed for her son's deliverance! We know Jesus prayed that "this cup" could pass from him. I'm confident He was a "righteous man" and that His prayers were powerful and effective! I guess what I'm trying to vocalize is:
"Thank you my Lord, for taking care of my Kensey this week. We committed her to you when she was born, and she is still Yours to use as You need in Your plan! May her life bring You glory and draw people to YOUR name!! Thank you for allowing her to stay in my arms a little longer! Thank you for the outpouring of love and prayers from the wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ You have allowed us to do life with!"

Waiting...

Isn't waiting always the hardest part of any trial?? We are still at the hospital, waiting for the neurology team to read the MRI, MRA, and MRV and work their magic. Kensey and I both slept well all night. And the nurse put fresh coffee in my blingy mug this morning. I haven't had even one moment to worry from all the texts, emails, and facebook entries. It really is wonderful! I feel so incredibly blessed. People all over the world, LITERALLY, are praying for my baby!

Scary Night!!

It all began last night around 6 pm. We were on our way to drop the kids off at the church so Khris and I could go to an elder meeting. Kensey said, "OW! There's something in my eye!" I told her to look at me and I noticed that one eye was fully dilated and the other was very small. I had her close her eyes and open them again - and the same thing happened. After we had her look into a bright light and the same thing happened, we decided to get her to the ER. On the way to the ER, she got a horrible headache, nausea, and dizziness. At one point, her eyes rolled back in her head and she couldn't make sense when she was talking to me. It seemed like forever by the time we reached the ER. Within hours, they were using very scary words...brain tumor, aneurism, stroke, cancer, blood clots, etc. They did a CAT scan and found nothing. Then, they did a CAT scan with contrast and still saw nothing. So, by 1 am, they decided to move us to Children's Hospital in Dallas. By 5 am, I was finally able to lay down with the thought that my baby will probably be OK.

Since we've been here, the doctors and nurses have been absolutely fabulous! The neurologist really thinks this is migraine related, but we're waiting for an MRI, MRA, and MRV. So, we still have no idea what's wrong, but the doctors really think it's much less serious than we first feared.

I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from our church, community, coworkers, friends, and family. It is a very good thing we have unlimited texting!!! :) Our elders were wonderful - they annointed her with oil and prayed over her. Tons of friends have come by!! We are VERY blessed!!

Please continue to pray that we find answers and there is a good solution that will allow my precious Kensey-bear a long and healthy life!

Not enough hours in the day...

I know I'm doing a HORRIBLE job of keeping up with my blog, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need to accomplish! And, I feel guilty for blogging when I'm not done with important things like laundry and preparing meals!

But, here's pics from Koleman's test for his yellow belt in karate and the girls went the Daddy-Daughter dance.