I wrote a poem a couple of weeks ago while waiting for Isaac to finish his testing. Its been years since I've attempted one and back then my poems were a bit odd and dark. So this is quite a bit different. I wasn't going to post it but my husband convinced me too so here goes:

Jesus my Salvation
Come and save this dying nation
Come and fill our hearts with a desire
to lift you, oh Lord, higher and higher
When the darkness falls,
Lord shine your light on all
Like a beacon burning bright
So Lord is your Heavenly sight
When we knock on the door you will answer
Casting out the evil that consumes us like cancer
We forget that it's One nation under God we pledge
Lord lead us away from this dangerous ledge
The answers we seek are not hard to find
If we place our faith in the divine

We had a great Easter we went to mass, had an Easter egg hunt and then dinner with family. It was a very nice relaxing time, except for the cooking and cleaning part LOL. We are enjoying the warmer wheather and trying to spend more time outdoors. The kids and I have started going for walks every day after lunch, we walk about 2 miles and it's so nice getting out in the fresh air. We even got Isaac's bike out yesterday. Its still pretty wet out and there's still snow but it's dry enough for bike riding:)

Isaac finished up his testing for school and after next week he will be done with school for the year. We amazingly are going to finish the 4th grade a little early:) School here gets out May 16th so Isaac gets a few extra days of summer vacation. I'm excited to get to spend some fun time with him before he leaves for the summer. I can't believe its less than a month away and he'll be gone:( I'm going to miss him so much. I thought this year would be a little easier since I've gotten to be with him all day everyday but it's actually harder, but I'll survive and do my best to stay busy this summer and Madelyn and Josh are great distractions;) Isaac also tested for his yellow stripe in Taekwon do on April 10th and had to break a real wooden board with a front snap kick and he did awesome! It was so great to see him go through his testing with confidence and skill. I'm really proud of him and he is really proud of himself. So now he has his yellow stripe and next up is a yellow belt. He may test for that in May.

Isaac getting the yellow stripes put on his belt

Yesterday was Earth day and Madelyn was so into it. I taught a mini-lesson about the environment and she made up a song about the Earth:

"I love the Earth lalalala, I love the Earth lalala, it's my favorite place to live, I love the Earth yayayaya I'm going to make it cleaaaaannnnn"

That was her song and she did clean up all the garbage around our house yesterday with out any prompting from me it was her idea. She was even upset with me for not bringing trash bags with me on our walk yesterday so she could clean up and everytime she saw a soda can or a plastic water bottle she'd put her hands on hips and shake her head sadly and tell me how they could have been recycled. It was so funny and cute. I may have a little environmentalist on my hands.

The kids doing their school work "Earth day lesson"

So its break up boot season and I've pulled out the kids rain boots from the very back of the closet and Madelyn and Josh were so excited that they've been wearing them around the house for days. Josh is in love with his boots. He'd sleep in them if I let him but he's settled for tucking them neatly under his bed and putting them on first thing in the morning before coming down stairs. He's a funny little guy. He's cutting in his top/back molars and was pretty miserable last night...poor baby I didn't get him to sleep until 11pm last night and it took two tylenols and some teething gel and snuggling in mommy's bed before he settled down. But I think he actually slept pretty good after that.

Well it's about time that I get the kids ready for the day and start school.

Life has been busy, busy and glorious spring is here!! The sun is shining and the snow is slowly melting! It's supposed to be 40 degrees today:) On Saturday I took the kids to the mush for kids event at Pioneer park, its an event they have every spring with dog sled rides for kids, craft activities and fire trucks and ambulances to explore. This sounded like great fun and fresh air for me and the kids so we went. Michael has class on Saturdays so I was going it alone with the children. They were excited the whole short drive there but when we arrived and went into the park things started to go down hill. The kids didn't want to ride on the dog sleds, or do crafts or explore the fire trucks. Madelyn who normally loves puppies and keep can't herself away from them decided that she wanted nothing to do with them and Josh whose normally timid around dogs went right up and petted them. You can never predict how kids are going to behave or react to things, they tend to surprise me alot! So basically I just ended up pulling two crying kids around on a sled while Isaac ran ahead jumping in the snow banks. At least we got some fresh air I guess! On Sunday Walmart had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids and the Easter bunny was there so we took the kids and they had a blast finding eggs full of candy. The Easter bunny they had though was a bit creepy looking. The kids had their picture taken with him and surprisingly nobody cried. Michael and I had to join in the pictures since Madelyn and Josh wouldn't go by themselves. Sunday was a nice family day! We haven't had a chance to go on an outing with Michael lately because of his school schedule he misses a lot of the things I take the kids to do.

The kids actually smiling for a moment at the Mush for kids event

All of us with the Creepy Easter Bunny

So Isaac was supposed to take his state mandated standardized tests today so we woke up at 6 o'clock this morning so we could be there to sign in at 8am. I packed activities for Madelyn and Josh to keep them busy and packed lunches the night before and we get there sign in and wait around for 30mins waiting for testing to start only to find out that earlier this morning someone broke into the veichle carrying the tests and stole all the 3rd and 4th grade test booklets. So we ended up going home. Who would steal test booklets for elementary school it so strange. Isaac on the other hand was thrilled to get out of a day of testing, now I'm just waiting to find out if there's still testing tomorrow. Hopefully they retrieve the test booklets and we can get these test days over with. Isaac is also testing for his yellow stripe on Friday in Taekwon do and is very excited about it. He is so eager to earn his yellow belt. He may even have it before he leaves for the summer. We'll see:)