89/365

It was a beautiful Easter. He is risen! What an amazing blessing. I'm saved by his blood. We celebrated at church, family lunch, Egg Hunt, dinner, and another episode of the Bible.

88/365

I love the online yard sale sites for Bloomington-Normal. This is a picture of a Saturday meet up.

87/365

We spent the day in Springfield. We went through the Old Capital Building and The Lincoln Museum. Gabrielle was so moved by it that she cried. I did too. Say what you will but Lincoln fought to end slavery. I know racism and discrimination is still alive and well but we've come along way. Thank you Lincoln for all you gave, including your life, to make this country closer to free and equal for ALL people. My daughter couldn't have been born in your time. Her father and I would have probably been hung in your time. Thank you Mr President.

86/365

Easter eggs!

85/365

We love our Children's Museum. But we wanted something different. So we drove 45 minutes to a different one. It was only $7 for us both to get in. The place was only a 1/4 the size of the one in Normal. Gabrielle had fun but ran out of things to do. They had some neat features that our museum does not have: live animals that you can pet, a steam boat, vet hospital, and castle. But that probably names everything there. So in the future we'll stuck to the one here. Her favorite part was the vet hospital with the microscope. We also got to eat at a local small diner for lunch. It was yummy.

84/365

Last year today we were on a beach in Marco Island at a place called Quinn's on the beach. This year we are sledding. As much as I prefer the beach what really matters is that Gabrielle is having a blast.

83/365

The aftermath of a snowball fight. Day one of spring break was lots of board games, snow ball fight, running around in the backyard, and lots of reading.

82/365

Snow on our spring break boo!!! Last year we were in Naples. And the weather here was beautiful. We stay home this year and the weather stinks. Oh well. Last year beaches this year sledding.

81/365

I'm the Easter Bunny!

80/365

I made my first casserole tonight. It was a huge hit.

79/365

Gabrielle said I had to take a picture of my iPad case because it's new and super cool. She said that it should be my picture of the day. Here it is;)

78/365

Seriously this is the weather for the first day of spring. Yuck.

77/365

This is Maisy judging me. This is the dog who eats poop but she hates baths. She kept coming in the bathroom, peeking at me like you're gross so taking a bath.

76/365

Happy St Patrick's Day!

75/365

This painting was done by an 85 year old. It was part of a fundraiser at an aging conference I went when I was a social worker. I love this painting it hangs in our bedroom. Fall is my favorite season. My hubby had this framed as part of an anniversary gift.

73/365

I'm so excited about this. I'm a huge Veronica Mars fan. I've watched every episode several times. I hated that the show got canceled and didn't have a proper ending. I donated to this cause. Now there will be a movie and closure to the show!

72/365

This book made me bawl likes baby. books do not move me like that. I'm passionate about reading. But this book touched my heart. Gabrielle and I read it together. It's so sad to think of what those little children went through just to get an equal and fair education. The hate from the white students and parents breaks my heart. It breaks my heart to know there are still people like that in our world today. There are people out there who wouldn't like/accept Gabrielle because she's half black. There are also people out there who won't accept/like her because she's half white. It's heart breaking.

71/365

I'm reading this book as a challenge from my church's children's pastor. It's amazing. It makes you realize how one moment can have such a huge effect on the life of a child. I love helping children. This book reminds me to take that extra minute to show a child love and compassion.

70/365 Acts 4:20

Our church is doing a pretty cool thing this month. Everyone is asked to wear these orange bracelets. The bracelets say Acts 4:20. The verse is: Ad for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. And at 4:20 each day pray for courage to be a bold witness and pray for those we personally know who are lost. The bracelet is a reminder to pray daily, witness to others, and a great conversation starter.

69/365

We had a great family day. It started with a moving sermon at church for us adults and a great big idea for Gabrielle. Then we saw the Junie B Jones musical. It was pretty funny. Then we had dinner as a family.

68/365

We saw Oz the Great and Powerful. We loved it. But we are also so excited for this movie's release.

67/365

She loves laying in suitcases and book bags. She'd rather lay there then a comfy bed.

65/365

Gabrielle has never really had assigned chores like on a chore chart. Instead she knew her room and her stuff she was in charge of cleaning. Also if the grown ups were cleaning while she is home she is expect to help. Her favorites have always been windows and vacuuming. She wanted to start earning allowance. So we made a chore chart of what she is expected to do weekly. Also there are extra chores on there that she'll get paid if she does them. An example of an extra chore is scooping out the litter box. Her daily choirs are picking up after herself and feeding the animals. She decided tonight at 7:45 that she wanted to do some of her weekly chores, the bathroom mirror and bathroom counter. She's been doing pretty good with her chore chart.

63/365

Big mommy-daughter moment today! I told her this summer that she could get her ears pierced whenever she was ready. She told me Friday she was ready. So we went to Claire's to get them pierced. (That's where I went to get mine done back in the day.) she said it didn't hurt at all.

62/365

This was the Bible verse for our family devotion. I love this verse. For incredible for us to be able to come closer to God and He will come closer to us.

61/365

One of the millions of reasons I love my hubby is he'll see a movie that he isn't interested in just because I want to see it. That's part of marriage. You compromise. He'll see movies about zombies even though he hates zombies because I love zombies. And I'll watch shows he likes that I don't really like. We have tons in common but we support each other's differences as well. PS movie was as good as the book. It was really funny.

60/365

This picture is part of a sign of Family Rules in our living room. I'm starting a new journey of thanking one person a day with a heartfelt note. I read about a man who did this for a year and how it changed his life. I'm not sure I'll stuck with it for a year. But I'm going to try it everyday for awhile.