Sunday Date Day and What I've Been Doing for "Work"

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Here is the story of how you two ended up in matching blue outfits eating chocolate frosting sprinkle doughnuts on a Friday morning. 

The story starts about 2-3 months ago, I was working through a devotion that basically had me examine my passions in life. I listed 3. 1) Following Christ in an authentic way 2) Family and 3) Helping kids get out of the cycle of poverty. I thought to myself, well, right now, I can pursue #1 and #2. Someday, I'll be able to do #3 again. Closed the book and didn't think much about it afterwards. Well then, the very next day, one of the pastors from church messaged me and asked me if I would be interested in helping out with coordinating a mentoring program at a nearby elementary school. Well, God could not have made it clearer that this is what I was supposed to do, but I doubted. With your baby sister on the way, I was thinking that this was just not possible. But I continued to pray about it and over and over again, I was constantly picking up messages like "step out of your comfort zone", "trust in God" more than ever and when the pastor said that he would be able to help out when I have your sister, it was an offer that I couldn't refuse.

So this mentoring program is pretty cool. It's through Academy 4, which is a program that targets 4th graders in title 1 schools. (More than 40% of the kids qualify for free or reduced lunch. At this school, the numbers are more like in the mid 60's) The kids get to participate in 2 different clubs and on top of that, each and every 4th grader is paired up with an adult mentor for 90 minutes.  So, what I've been working on these past few months is finding people to lead the clubs and I am still working on finding 90 mentors. So, if you are reading this and you live or work in south Austin, and you have the opportunity to take off from work or school from 1:15 - 2:40, consider being a mentor!

So, let's continue with the story. Aug. 4th was academy 4 day, and our church prayed for the program and a few of us met up and did a prayer walk around campus. You guys were pretty good for the most part, until you started to fight over who got to hold the scavenger hunt paper. I should've printed 2. Lesson learned.

Afterwards, we went out for doughnuts. That's it.

So that morning, you two actually woke up quite early and played by yourself for awhile before coming down to wake us up. Nathan, you picked out some clothes for Hannah and Hannah, you were so proud to wear Nathan's old clothes because that meant that you are getting big like him.

You definitely adore him so much. But you still need to work on not swiping things away from him. Use your words and be patient for your turn. I feel like I say this to you 1,000 times a day.

Nathan, on the other hand, you are very dramatic when Hannah acts like a bully towards you. I am proud that you don't hurt her, or take things from her, but you also need to be able to stand up for yourself. I'm still trying to figure out how to help you figure out a good middle ground.

On Saturday, we went to another one of Home Depot's builder workshops. You both love doing this so much. We ended up going with 2 friends and saw many other friends at the workshop. It's quite popular.

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 Hannah, your baby Goldilocks was getting pretty gross. When I mentioned to you that we needed to give baby Goldilocks a bath, you pulled out the baby tub and proceeded to try to give her a bath and then when I suggested that we just put her in the washing machine, you looked at me like I was crazy. And then when you actually found out that I had snuck the baby in the machine, you got so upset and was really worried for the baby. Reminded me of how Auntie Momo used to be so attached to her little Sally bear.

 On Sunday, after church we had part 2 of our dates. Nathan and Daddy went ice skating. Daddy took a few videos of you holding on to the walls at the beginning, but after a few minutes, you were skating around by yourself.

 You really love the zamboni. I'm pretty sure plants vs. zombies has nothing to do with it. But even during dinner, I heard you say to yourself, "Zambonis are so cool. I love Zambonis."

 Hannah and I went to a chinese restaurant and we ordered shrimp and scallops because that's what Hannah wanted to eat and since Daddy is allergic to shrimp, we don't have it too often.

And then we went to Michaels to make some cool slime. It was perfect for an almost 3 year old. You had all the glitter, foam balls, googly eyes and dye that you wanted to use to make some cool slime.

 Afterwards, we went and picked up some frozen yogurt. I love seeing your decide things for yourself, rather than just follow in Nathan's footsteps.

 And then, afterwards, we went to Costco...I know, boring, but Hannah, you love going there and you often ask to go...like almost every day. You love going into the cold section, and you love the samples.

You continue to not nap in the afternoons. Some day you will get a 10 minute nap in the car on the way home from somewhere and oddly enough, that 10 minutes will get you to bedtime, and you are happy for the most part. But then on the days where you don't nap at all, you get cranky, and then on days when just play through the afternoon without any screen time, dinner time becomes this:

 Well, we have a busy week with grandparents visiting, birthday parties, and church events. I'll be sure to take lots of photos.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy