the slow down

We are 16 days into 2015 and life around here has been nice & slow.  

Slow is not a word I think I have ever used on here before...usually life is CRAZY.  {Yep, in fact, searching my blog when give you at least 75 posts where I used the word crazy!}  Now I do {love} the crazy, and I know we will definitely be back there probably sooner rather than later, but slow is so needed right now and such a breath of fresh air! 

This year is about me trying to be intentional.  Instead of focusing on lofty goals, I merely want to try to live my life intentionally.  This means being intentional with my time {when to say yes & when to say no} & intentional with my relationships.

I am trying to intentionally embrace this slowness right now in our family.  That means not trying to fill our time up with the crazy, like I am often drawn to do, but instead feel blessed by what we have going on right now in the little, daily things.  When my kiddos were little & I was just starting to stay home with them full time, I yearned for doing things and felt like we never had that much going on.  I would fill up our time with attending lots of things {like 2 different story times in one week...yes I did...it is sometimes nice to have 3 different libraries in a very close proximity to your house ;)}.  Now that our schedule is so full {trust me mamas with babies & toddlers...your schedule will be completely packed one day and you won't realize how it happened}, I cherish these brief moments where things aren't so crazy!  Intentional.

Here's what has been going on so far this month.

Lots of coffee & lots of reading actually....I would say that's the best way to embrace the slowness ;)!  Ryan & the kiddos got me free Starbucks for the month of January...{love} my coffee!  This month in my reading I have finished The Scorch Trials {Maze Runner series}, Serena {who's going to watch this movie in March with me??}, and now I am on The Death Cure {Maze Runner series}. That's pretty impressive for me lately.

My real Christmas tree was finally taken down...I think it left half of it inside my house in needles!  I {love} Christmas decorations, but it's also so refreshing when it all comes back down and my house feels so uncluttered again!

The kiddos had a nice LONG winter break.  Really the last week of it we just kind of hibernated at home and hung out together.  It was so nice not to have to go anywhere and just be slow, especially when they are playing nicely together!

We did have to get back to our normal schedule of school & nannying & MOPS & church...but things aren't really crazy right now because no one is doing any after school activities besides Wednesday night church, so our nights are still pretty open to just spend time together at home.  

This sign I made at MOPS at our first meeting back...love it & a good reminder!

Back to early mornings after 2 1/2 weeks with no alarms, but this sunrise is pretty great!

Most of the beginning of January was freezing cold so that made a lot of playtime inside...poor Bella...she had to be an army/cowboy with Evan and even had guns hidden in her shirt :).

We hadn't gone many places so far this month, but the boys said they really wanted to do something one day after school.  I asked them what they wanted to do and they said they wanted to go to the library...{love}!  Yes, they may get just as many movies as books, but that's a start right ;)??

Not only have I been doing a lot of reading lately, but the kiddos have too! I am so happy about this because reading time is one of the first things that went before when we were in a crazy busy stage.  I want to be more intentional about keeping reading strong in our household, especially for my boys who haven't quite taken up a love for reading yet...

This girl however, maybe she will be my reader!!!  One day Ellie came to me and said Evan taught her this book.  She sat down and just read the whole thing to me!  Now it is a very emergent reader with picture clues & repetitive text and Ellie memorized it all, but she did so great for just turning 4!!  I am so proud of her!!  We have been working on other books now too and she seems to love "reading"...I hope she continues this passion!

On the other hand, this boy...loves destroying my very organized book shelves.  He loves getting the books out and counting them.  He said he was playing library and he was trying to find all the dog books...oh boy.  I was just amazed at how he completely shuffled all the different types of books together in such a short time...

because this is how they were found...  I can't handle his disorganization!  And nope we don't have enough books and no this is not even half of all of our kids books and yes I have a problem with getting rid of any book {my attic is still full of all my classroom library books from my teaching days and I had a TON}.

We do have quite a stack of books we are working on reading together every night after dinner.  I have found that reading at the dinner table before the kids even get up is the best time for us...bedtime just wasn't working because by the time they are ready for bed, I just want them to GO TO BED :).  Yes, we are reading a little from all 5 of these books currently & I love it!  No my kiddos are not the best listeners, not by a long shot {just ask Ryan}...I often have to stop reading due to screaming, crying, needing something...but I try to power through them as best as possible...it helps a little if they are still eating {if their mouth is full then they can't talk over me as much :)} or if they color while reading.  If you are wondering the books are:  Lego Friends  {Ellie's little "chapter" book}, The Long Winter {yes we are on #6 book of Laura Ingalls Wilder series that we have been reading since this summer...I am so proud of this accomplishment and they have pretty much loved it...it's the best "listening" I have seen Evan ever do during a chapter book :)}, Magic Puppy:  Snowy Wishes {Avery is not a fluent independent chapter book reader yet, so this is the book that Avery & I take turns reading out loud together...he reads every other page}, The Amazing Story of Leo Messi {Avery has idolized Messi since the day he heard his name, but he didn't really know much about the guy so I got him this biography for Christmas that I read out loud a chapter every night...so far Avery is loving it...Evan wants to know why there's no pictures :)}, and finally Star Wars Character Encyclopedia {this is Evan's "chapter" book...we read about 4 Star Wars Characters every night...exciting stuff ;)}.

And finally I leave you with our outside playtime that has happened the last two days!  It has finally warmed up so we need to enjoy it while we can before the next big freeze!  This is what I love about the slow down...to be able to enjoy this!