In the swing of things...

Today's picture is of my little man and his amazingly wonderful teacher, Ms. Tonia. She's a huge blessing to us!

I headed back to work yesterday. I was ready for routine and structure and Cooper definitely needs it too. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have 2 more weeks off but I'm not a stay at home mom so I might as well embrace being back. :) My kids seem to be doing well and from what I can tell most of them appeared to read over the break at home. If you're a parent out there reading this please, please, PLEASE know that nothing will help your child more than reading to them and with them at home. Ask questions, have your kids make predictions and think about ways that the books teach you new things. **Stepping down off my soapbox now...** Today on the playground as I was walking laps with some of the students who had that as their consequence I stepped on something. I looked down only to find that it was a used condom. Seriously?? The wrapper was close by. I'm just thankful that I found it and not a child as they are more than likely to pick it up and bring it to a teacher. Ugh! I'm pretty sure that throwing on some rubber gloves and picking that up is not in my job description, but it's what teachers do to keep kids safe. All in a day's work, I suppose. Thank your child's teacher today, will you??? :)

Other than all of that excitement, things are still moving on along for us just fine. I started doing the Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred thanks to Katie and Kimberly. Wow. Intense. I'm finally not in pain every time I laugh or move or really even just breathe. If you're looking for something to point out all of the ways in which you are out of shape, give it a try. :) I am actually very glad I'm doing it. I'll let you know how it goes...

Burns came back for good this weekend. He is currently staying with friends and we are both going to see a counselor and we're working on what it will look like when we're finally living under the same roof. I'm very glad he's back. He has been blessed to work a ton since he got home. He worked about 18 hours yesterday (yes, you read that right - 18!) and that will help a lot as he's trying to get insurance for his car and take care of a couple of other things that he's needing to pay. I'm simply trying to make it to payday as several unexpected things have come my way in the past few days including end of the year medical bills and even a broken brake light on my van. It looks like it's a good thing that Coop loves the Great Value chicken nuggets and I can deal with balance bars for lunch! :) It's just always a long time between my December paycheck and January...you'd think I would remember from year to year and get better about planning. Oh well. This too shall pass!

I hope this post finds you all well. As always...thanks so much for reading and for praying for us! I treasure each of you in a very special way!!!

{And my God will supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.} Philippians 4:19