Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup...

Dreary, rainy days call for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Which is why that's what we had for lunch =)

Last weekend was pretty busy around here.

It started with Squish needing help finishing his supper.  Girly was more than willing to help him do that.

Then their cousins from MN came for a visit.  By the end of the night all three of them were beating up on their Uncle Les.  

Saturday Sarge and Junior had a chance to go to an FCS championship football game.  They were able to see North Dakota State and Sam Houston battle it out.  North Dakota won it of course =)

Sunday was a train show.  Squish was in heaven. 

And they got to ride on Thomas, which was the coolest thing ever!

And being nice to the puppy.  I love watching how gentle he is with her.  He lets her do just about anything and will only get up when she gets too rough.

Monday we started a new year of homeschool.  Junior is in 3rd grade, Girly is in 2nd and Squish is starting K.  We are trying a mix match of things this year instead of a set curriculum.  So far it's allowed me to teach all three of them on Bible, Language Arts, History, Social Studies and Science.  Junior and Girly are at different levels in Math and Squish gets the attention he needs to learn how to read.

I'm liking this approach so far.  It's allowing me to focus on their strengths and weaknesses without *school* being dragged out all day.  Girly has a much better attitude about Math already =)

One of my goals this year is to find something everyday that brings joy.  Some days it's something really small- like the kids not killing each other after being cooped up in the house because of the rain.  But today, I was really reminded of how joy comes in small packages.

We were heading out to run some errands, and Junior and Girly were sitting in the back of the van challenging each other to find Bible verses.  Girly told Junior to look up Psalm 4:4.  And then Junior read it:

"In your anger do not sin;
    when you are on your beds,
    search your hearts and be silent."

And it hit me.  What an awesome teaching moment!  So I asked them if they understood what the verse meant.  I was able to explain to them that getting angry at their sibling causes them to sin- either because they hit them or take one of their toys away.  I explained that instead of letting anger rule, they needed to take a time out and find another way to deal with the situation.

And then I was reminded that I need to do the same thing.  It's so easy to get irritated with things that people do (or don't do).  I need to remember to take a step back and find another way to deal with the situation.

How are you finding joy in every day?