Saturday, January 25, 2014

Snow Tub

A couple of people asked me what the heck is snow tub from my last post.  Well, without any further ado...

Today's snow tub was food themed


Drea said, why are you taking a picture like that?

The girls dug two holes to sit and stand in

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Winter Break Extended

We have been bombarded with snow and cold temperatures here in north central West Virginia.  The last day we were at school was January 17th.  We had off Monday for MLK Day and have had snow days the rest of the week with another one coming tomorrow.  The outlook doesn't look good for the beginning of next week either.  Even with the cold and snow we have managed to stay busy. 

On Monday we made a trip to Walmart because I didn't have any food in the house.  I am thankful we did because we basically have been stuck in the house since then.  I usually like to take the girls out and play in the snow, but with the cold temperatures I thought it probably wasn't a good idea.  We did sneak out to Mountain Creative to finish a pottery project that Drea started a couple weeks ago.  The rest of the week we have stayed indoors.

In no particular order this is what we have done.  Polly pockets, monster high dolls, TV shows, movies, board games, card games, snow tub (this was a lot of fun, how could it not be, a tub filled with snow!), arts & crafts, indoor picnic, parties, playing the ipad, tablets, and computer.  On top of all of that, plenty of eating.

The neat thing about most of this stuff is the girls planned it on their own.  On Tuesday night when Drea learned we were not going to have school on Wednesday she decided Charlotte and her were going to have a picnic.  I wasn't invited :(  Drea and Charlotte both planned parties with snacks and presents.  I have told them repeatedly, how proud I am of them both for getting along so well.  I can not think of a time that I had to referee a fight or punish either one of them.  I really think they have enjoyed just relaxing and playing.

Tomorrow's plan is baking cookies and decorating them with homemade icing.  Then a little Wii dancing to work off the cookies.  Barring a cancellation, they have dancing in the evening and we will follow it up with movie night and popcorn.  We will round out our weekend with swimming at Healthplus and hopefully a fresh start to a full week of school.  But if not I am sure we can find something to do.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Sometimes that thing you don't want is pretty Amazing

Every Christmas my friends from small group and I do a Christmas gift exchange.  The gift exchange basically is all gag gifts with a few hotly sought after items.  Typically, the items that are desired are geared more towards the women.  Probably because they are the ones getting the gifts wrapped and ready to be exchanged.  Of course this year was no different.  However, there was one item that all the guys wanted.  To be fair some of the women wanted it too.  It was exchanged several times throughout the group, eventually ending up in my hand.  I was super excited and I thought, just maybe I could keep it.  What was it you ask?

It was none other then a gift card for Chick-fil-A.  It was perfect and it was going to be mine.  But, unfortunately someone else stole it and I got this...


I seriously felt like I got stuck with this stupid CD.  I don't even know who Matt Maher is.  I assumed he was a Christian artist based on the title, but I never heard of him.  Anyway, I guess it could have been worse, I could have received the bunny rabbit basket.  Come to find out, I knew a few of the songs.  I listened to it a few times, most of the time skipping most of the songs to listen to the ones I knew.  Then a few things happened.  The first thing was Drea knew the title track.  She got super excited and said, "Daddy, I know that song, we sing it at church on Saturday night!"  The second thing was I started listening to the entire CD.  Now, I can't stop listening to it.  It's great.  I am glad I got stuck with it and don't even care about that gift card.  Even though this is just a small thing, I encourage you with the bigger things that you feel like you have been stuck with.  It might be a job, a negative friend, your boss or spouse, and who knows what else.  Give it a chance, because you may find out what you have is pretty Amazing.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Revisting a Story that I Read

A few years ago a read a book, called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller.  I really enjoyed reading it the first time.  In fact, I blogged about it then, here is the link:  http://wvniessners.blogspot.com/2010/05/if-you-need-book-to-read.html  I think when I read it then, it made a difference to me, but not like it has this time.

Fast forward to last week or would it be rewind?  Either way, I needed something to do.  I needed an outlet.  Something, but what?  To be honest, I am not sure how it happened, but for whatever reason, I thought I needed something to read.  I typically don't read books twice.  I cannot remember a time when I read something more than once.  Well, other then books for the girls or text books at school.  But there it was just sitting on the shelf, so I picked it up. 

As I reread this book, which is about creating a great story with your life and really so much more, I began to think.  A lot.  What story am I creating?  What am I doing with my life?  I thought about numerous aspects of my life.  What story am I creating for me?  What story am I creating professionally?  What story am I creating for the girls?  What story am I creating with friends?

We are doing a study on friendship in small group (which is like bible study for those of you who don't go to church with me).  So I started thinking about my friends and what story I am creating with them?  Most of my friends help me create a pretty good story, and to be honest there probably are a few that don't.  Ultimately, I am the one creating my story and I am the one controlling what type of story I want to tell.  This makes me think about some really good friends of mine.  I look at the story they are creating and I am amazed.  They are so deliberate in everything that they do.  I admire that about them.  Everything they do is for a purpose.

As I was reading, I started thinking about other aspects of my life.  I thought about fourth grade.  Not because I teach fourth grade, but when I was in fourth grade.  Specifically, when my family moved to Millville, NJ.  When you are the new kid and more importantly a boy in the fourth grade there are a couple of truths.  One there is always a handful of girls that think the new boy is cute.  Which I mean, does make a ton of sense, I mean, I didn't have this fantastic beard, but I was cute 30 years ago.  If there are a few girls that think you are cute, then it goes without question, there are a few boys that are not to fond of you.  There is a point that I am getting too...

Back to the story...My family moved and I was the new kid and not only was I the new kid, I was the son of a preacher (cue music).  At some point I got picked on by these boys for being the preacher's son.  That is when I didn't want to be a pastor's son any more.  In the minds of fourth grade boys, he was a dork.  He was not accepted and it hurt.  I think I decided to keep that part of my life quiet.  I wanted to be accepted.  At the same time, I loved being the preacher's son.  He was accepted at church and it was wonderful.  I am not saying I was living a double life or anything like that.  I know I cannot be perfect and I am not saying that either.  I just feel like at times I have let the devil compromise who God has created me to be.  He has used that fear of not being accepted because I am the preacher's son or a Christian against me.  It's funny how that works and how the devil uses that against us.  Probably, more than anything, I feel like I have missed opportunities to share my faith and help others come to know God.  I have decided I am not going to live that way any more. 

As a single Dad that splits custody of our girls, I have time.  I think on more then one occasion I have said, I have all the time in the world.  When you are raising two girls fifty percent of the time by yourself, the other fifty percent feels endless.  Some have suggested some ideas for my spare time, and many of them were great ideas.  But they weren't mine.  I think I have to come up with things to do on my own.  I think I have finally reached that place.  I have a bunch of plans and ideas that I need to accomplish to create this better story.

Which brings me back to Donald Miller, and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. This is the place where I create the story that God has created for me to live.  The story of the boy that is accepted for who he really is and who he really wants to be.  The story that is deliberate.  The story that is begging me to tell.  The story that tells itself like a great movie or book.  Just like Donald Miller's book, read it, it will make you want to rethink what story you are creating. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Drea's Birthday Blog

Yesterday was Drea's eighth birthday.  We celebrated her day by going out to eat at Golden Corral for the first time.  It was delicious.  Every year we let the kids pick a place to go out to eat and this was Drea's choice.  Who knew they could put cotton candy on the buffet?  She was pretty funny all day because every time she wanted to do something she said we should let her because it was her birthday.  Her party was this past Saturday.  This year Drea followed Charlotte by having her party at Casey ATA in Morgantown.  I really like the party that they provide.  It seems like the right amount of time to play, eat, and open gifts.


Lining Up

Warming Up for some Karate


Hi-A

Getting Instructions for a Relay race


Fighting the punching bag


Practicing Kicks

Theo getting involved in the act

Getting ready for Cake...

...technically they are cupcakes

Opening gifts

 
The party would not be complete without singing Happy Birthday,
I like what all the kids are doing while we are singing
 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Snow Days

It is that time of year again.  Snow Days, Snow Days, and more Snow Days.  We enjoyed our Christmas break and headed back to school for a day, and have not been back since.  We enjoyed a very pleasant day off on Friday, and then another day off on Monday.  They have been calling for cold temperatures on Tuesday and as I sit here on the couch the thermometer reads 7 degrees.  I believe all 55 WV counties are off already on Tuesday.  It was way to cold to play outside the last two days, but we enjoyed the snow on Friday.  Here's what seems like our annual snow day pictures...

Drea's attaire, her words, "I wanted to look like Cotton-candy"

Charlotte helping shovel the snow


Just playing in the snow


Without fail, Drea always makes a snow angel...


...it turned out great!
 
One more of Charlotte, right before she messed up the snow angel...
We will enjoy our last day off, as the weather is supposed to warm up on Wednesday.  I am so thankful for days like this because we always have so much fun.