tjandlily.com

I’ve decided to blog every Monday, once a week instead of once a month! So you can keep me accountable!

So… It’s Monday afternoon and I’m in our room at the Morton’s, our “home” in the mountains where we all share a room. I was tired from a few nights of low quality sleep, but here I am still awake but I don’t want to wake the kids up and go out, So I’m writing on my phone!!!

TJ left for Colorado on Saturday for a couple weeks to enhance his ministry skills in evangelizing to a certain religious group.   I’ve decided it’s single mom awareness week!  Praise God for you women out there who are doing this thing singlehandedly in a godly manner! I realize TJ only left Saturday and it’s Monday.. But regardless I’ve been asking God for grace, patience and help in parenting my children in these days. I called TJ and told him yesterday, “I asked God to help me with my children today”. And he said “you should be asking him to help you every day!” And I said “I know, but I truly, sincerely asked for his help today”, which is okay, I think God wants me in a humble place of leaning in him and asking for guidance. Especially with our kids… this can be hard! But I feel like God is asking me to seek him in this area! So I am, pray for me! I am reading “New Kid by Friday” right now, and I have found some wonderful principals in it, but I don’t agree with all of it, however I’m not finished with it yet! Next I’m gonna read “to Train Up a Child” so I have a feeling these are gonna give me a couple different perspectives, and I’m looking forward to the things God is going to reveal to me!

This week has been kind of crazy, we got to vacation with my parents last week in Santa Cruz, and go to the “beeeeeeach” as Penny kept repeating. I haven’t been on any amusement park rides since before I was married, actually since the last time I was in Santa Cruz, which was 7 years ago!  TJ and I went one night and left the girls with my parents, I felt giddy like a little girl again, I was so excited, I felt like I could get on any ride and it would be great!  We we’re standing in line for the Big Dipper, talking about my mom and making fun of her because 7 years ago, the last time I rode on this thing she wrapped her neck with her sweatshirt to keep from getting whiplash, well after we got off we said “We should have wrapped our necks like my mom!” And we were serious!

On 4th of July there are no fire works allowed in Santa Cruz, and the city doesn’t do a fire work show, so this year they were hard core on not letting people on the beach with fire works, when night time came there was NO ONE on the beach!!  Staying one block from the beach in the jam packed residential areas you can imagine what it was like to walk out your door and watch random people shooting up BIG fireworks in the middle of the streets, and in back yards, people setting them off and running away, or riding there bikes or skateboards away, however we were ALL for it because we were ready for a show!!  Ava and I dashed from street to street searching for fireworks, it was quite the adventurous evening!  If we saw cops coming down a street, there was most likely not going to be fire works on that street, so we would just move on to he next one, it wasn’t long before there was 2 cars on fire along with a power line pole and eventually the big beautiful tree. We watched as it all went up inflames…

Pretty exciting 4th of July for us!

I love all of these precious ones!

First time eating cotton candy… they loved it of course!

MaryBeth has Ava and Penny cleaning the house now! 🙂

First time on a carousal