Friday Favorites: Soaking it Up

This week has been a regular week full of regular happenings for the Selph fam. Nothing spectacular going on but just the everyday highs and lows (mostly highs), joys and challenges (mostly joys) of raising our babies. Weeks like this one are such a blessing. We're still tired come Friday from the busyness of the week, but mostly we're just grateful. These are the BEST days. They are filled with challenges, laughter, craziness, loudness, and all things little boy but these days that are making up these years of my boys' childhoods are the best. We are living and experiencing the good old days right now. And that's something I want to enjoy, soak up, savor, and appreciate. I was reminded again yesterday how short life is and how fast time flies, and weeks like this one make me slow down and really appreciate this life we're living. It's not always easy, fun, and wonderful but it is always full of blessings. It is always worth it. It is always a privilege. Thank you Lord for my precious family and the life we're experiencing right now.

Here are my faves from our week...

*Opening Ceremonies (and 2 first games!) with my biggest boys. We do it all over again tomorrow in the cold. Brrr!

*Baby cuteness! We've been able to get outside some this week and my littlest love has been oozing cuteness while he enjoys our strolls.

*Terrell's Granny is all done with her rehab and back at home with Terrell's parents now. We are praising God for her recovery and her full of life personality that hasn't changed a bit! We enjoyed a fun visit catching up earlier this week.

*School night books and snuggles on the couch after Layton went to bed. I'm so thankful my big boys still love being read to and still love sitting in our laps. =) Soaking it up big time!

*Sidewalk chalk fun and getting outside after a rainy, yucky day. Sometimes after being cooped up all day you just need to get out and run around and draw some pictures on the driveway.

*Austin and I are wrapping up our theme on the 5 senses. This week Austin completed a taste test and he pretty much loved it. =) After tasting bread, chocolate, cheese, a pickle, a chip, and a skittle blindfolded, we decided to do a "skittle taste test". We both participated and tried to guess the skittle flavor/color based on taste alone. It was a little trickier than I thought. Haha. We also went outside and made a list of everything we could see, hear, smell, and touch. I still have one more little game and then we're calling it a wrap. It's been a fun theme.

*Bingo for Books with my big boys at Garrison's school was lots of fun! We got to see AnAn, won 2 books each, and a had a fun time playing.  Layton and daddy stayed home for some quality, quiet time. =)

*On Sunday our Sunday School teacher encouraged us to get by ourselves somewhere quiet and to read the Word out loud. So you're not only seeing it and reading it, but hearing it. I've been able to do this a few times this week and have loved it. I've read short passages like Deuteronomy chapter 6, the first 9 verses in Joshua, and Hebrews 11. I definitely recommend it. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

*My middle man was my assistant yesterday as we bagged pickles for the PTCO. We bagged 6 jars (although that last jar was mostly just me, haha) while the babies napped. Austin was a great assistant opening bags and holding them for me and counting pickles. My grand total for the day (I bagged during afternoon naptime too) was 162 pickles. And that wasn't even all of them. Hope all the kiddos at the school enjoy their pickles today!

*Favorite read of the week... What Would My Mom Do? This is so good. And true! And funny! And needed to be read by lots of mamas! While I do believe parenting toddlers and preschoolers requires a fair amount of entertaining and planning and structure, I also believe we put waaay too much pressure on ourselves to create "magical childhoods" and that we are in fact guilty of "precious parenting". I'm still in the preschool and toddler/baby stage with two thirds of my kiddos but this summer I'm going to work hard to "pull back as Cruise Director and adopt the 'what would my mom do' approach and see what happens..." This is a must read, mamas! =)

I soaked up lots of of everyday life this week and really savored my blessings. Now we're looking forward to a jam packed weekend...a haircut for me, braving games in the cold, a birthday party, a date night, and Palm Sunday. Happy Friday!!