Two of my Sunbeams

Our house is so quiet without Joseph being here. I really miss him. I think I have a harder time having "good days" while he's gone... I really lean on him for strength. Besides Christ, Joseph is my rock. He truly is my best friend, and I don't feel complete when he isn't near me. I feel like the best part of me is missing when he's away. Honey, if your reading this, I love you and can't wait until your safely home again...

Of course I've had the kids here to drive me crazy keep me entertained! We've had some fun Mommy and Munchkin time once we got past the arguing over who gets the blue crayon (even though there are 3 more blue crayons just like it), or my children's innate ability to want to play with the same toy as the other at the same time... It's not just me, right?

Last week, I got to go up to Ansley's school and do class pictures for her class. Her school is permanently closing down this Friday (much to my dismay), so I volunteered to do pictures for all of the classes. It was a challenge, but a wonderful blessing.

Ansley wasn't too thrilled to have to "share" me with her classmates, but her mood did a complete 180 when I got to pull out the cupcakes I made the night before for her big pizza party! (She wanted to eat them for breakfast and was less than happy with me when I told her no!)

MMMmmm! Don't they look yummy? And yes, I made them myself! Just call me Betty Crocker! HeHe.

Of course, I took Mr. Eli with me since Joseph is away and the pictures were a "last minute" idea. He played in the Toddler class while I did everyone's class pictures, but he was able to join everybody at the pizza party. Wouldn't you just know, Mr. Charming found himself a girlfriend in the first 5 minutes of walking into the room!

Of course, Joseph's reply will be "That's MY boy!"

Speaking of school... Ansley's class made masks' today. She made a tiger mask, so this is what I saw when I walked through her classroom door to pick her up...

Talk about an unexpected blessing! Of course her jumping up and down and giving me her biggest"RRROOOOAAARRRRRR" was an added bonus! And you know Eli had to try the mask on too...

We were able to make it to the park this past weekend as well. I needed to get out of this house for a little while, and I was so socially deprived I found the courage to attempt taking my two energizer bunnies to the park by myself. I love being a stay at home mom, but boy do I miss adult conversation. Anyhow, some crisp, clean, fresh air seemed like just the ticket to end my case of stir crazy-itis (that's a disease, right?)

Ansley had a blast! She raced everywhere...

And Eli,... Well, I guess even the energizer bunny needs to recharge sometimes!

My sweet little Ansley, God love her, has even found a way to make doing laundry interesting for me since the discovery of pockets! She collects the strangest things. I'm scared I'm going to pull something slimy or alive out, but so far I've been lucky. This is all I've pulled out so far...

I feel like I've been talking about Ansley and awful lot, so I'll start wrapping up with this cute little picture of Mr. Eli...

I know I'm skipping around here a bit, so I apologize. My mind is in a million different places tonight, but I really wanted to share another "things I have to be thankful for" post. I could go on and on about how much I miss Joseph, or about how much harder it's been to deal with my grief these past few weeks... but I'm not. I'm just going to say that in spite of dark road I've been walking, God has blessed me with rays of sunshine to light my path, and for that, I am so incredibly thankful! I hope you enjoyed the pictures of two of my brightest sunbeams!