33 Things

 My birthday was last week on Sunday.  I turned 33 and although I always think it'll be weird to be a new age, it's really not. I enjoyed a nice day with Aaron on Saturday while the kids had a sleepover with one of their grandmas.  We had so much fun!  On Sunday, the kids gave me their gifts right after church and we ate dinner at my parents' house in the evening (it was so good!).  Since I've been super bogged down this week with lesson plans and required school modules, etc., I haven't had much time to blog.  I figured I'd close out the month of April with a random selection of 33 things now that I'm 33.  Stay tuned for a recap of the fun that Aaron and I had on our day together!

1. I love quirky and/or sentimental coffee cups.  I have a whole wall devoted to these. 
2. My favorite colors are blush pink and light mint green. 
3. I detest writing with a pencil. 
4. My favorite dessert to make is classic Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies. 
5. My favorite thing for Aaron to cook is Asian food (and he's a pro!).  
6. I do not mind folding laundry but it's such a task to actually put it away. 
7. I'm teaching myself how to play the violin.  Aaron bought me a violin for Christmas and I'm working my way through learning the finger positions and slowly finding YouTube tutorials. 
8. I love the Auburn Tigers and jump at any opportunity where I can go to Auburn (city and campus). 
9. I love reading with my kids. 
10. I really enjoy any chance that I get to hang out with my brothers.  My younger brother and I got to hang out together on Wednesday evening of this week and it was such fun!
11. I prefer wearing my hair down rather than up (I guess Avery comes by it honestly). 
12. I only have one earring hole in each ear.
13. I shop in stores like I shop online (by adding things to my cart and then slowly returning them and deciding I didn't need that impulse purchase). 
14.  I love sending things in the mail to people!  And I love getting mail.  One of my best friends sent me some daisies for my birthday and that was such a sweet fun surprise!
15. I constantly put myself under pressure at school and feel super stressed until I get ahead. (This is why I haven't been able to give myself enough freedom to write many posts lately). 
16. I do not wear high-heel shoes.  I'm most comfortable in just flats. 
17. My favorite things to read are books that leave me feeling happy and upbeat.  (These can include fiction or nonfiction books or autobiographies).  I don't mind the occasional thriller, but it's certainly not what I want to read all the time. 
18. I enjoy watching serious competition shows like Top Chef.  
19. One of my favorite evening snacks is Late July "Sea Salt by the Seashore" chips with jalapeno queso from Costco.  So good!
20. I enjoy doing puzzles but I know my children aren't quite old enough to allow us to keep a puzzle out on a table in our home yet. :)
21. I enjoy fresh flowers but I hardly ever buy them for myself because I feel like it's a waste. 
22. I enjoy chocolate desserts much more than fruit desserts. 
23. I purposely wear most of my clothes a size bigger than I am because I don't like being constricted. 
24. My favorite snack chips are nacho cheese Doritos (or Classic Lays, but only in a turkey sandwich!). 
25. I prefer Golden Oreo Thins to regular chocolate Oreos. 
26. For most of this school year, my standard breakfast has been a few Mary B's Biscuit Thins (they come frozen and I just toss 2 or 3 onto a cookie sheet in the morning and bake for 13 minutes at 375. They're very small-- hence the multiple biscuits.)  This breakfast keeps me full til lunchtime which is nice since I don't always have time for a snack and I don't always bring a snack to work. 
27. I drink two cups of black coffee every morning. 
28. The rest of the day I drink water (sometimes flavored with sugar-free flavoring liquid). 
29. I like playing board games but prefer card games. 
30. My relationship with my husband and my children are hands-down my greatest blessings from God. 
31. I enjoy being a mother so very very much. 
32. Aaron is my absolute best friend and I love spending time with him. 
33. I'm really close with my parents and always feel at home when I'm at their house and hanging out with them. 

I hope you've enjoyed this random assortment of things!  Here's to 33!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Iris Surprise!

We've been living in our house for 5 years now & never once has my iris plant in my backyard bloomed. In fact, last spring I intended to move it to a sunnier location but just never got around to it. However, on Easter Sunday when I was in the backyard with the kids, I noticed that it bloomed!  It produced lovely deep purple irises and they're just so pretty! Noah called me outside a few days later to show me that more had bloomed so I could take another picture. It's just so exciting!

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

My Anti- Covid Protocol

Since I'm around roughly 100 different kids every day (plus additional kids that I'm around in the hallways), I figured I needed to stick to a consistent vitamin routine this year. I get most of my vitamins from Costco (the Kirkland Signature brand) but the same vitamin type can be found at other stores or on Amazon. If it doesn't say Kirkland Signature then I ordered from Amazon or bought at Walmart. 

Everyday I pack a combination of these tablets and I take them at lunch time. I take one of everything, but 2 of the elderberry tablets. 

When I get to school, I use part of a water bottle to fill up my Keurig (priorities) and I use the rest for a packet of Emergen-C vitamin C powder. 

At bedtime I add an acid reducer (Pepcid AC) to combat acid reflux during the night. Apparently this also helps decrease the ability of covid cells to latch on to cells inside the body, so it's killing two birds with one stone. Even people without acid reflux are taking this in order to lessen the security of covid symptoms (obviously I'm not a doctor, so check with your Healthcare professional before adding it to your routine). 

My kiddos take gummy vitamins each day (the boys take two and Avery takes one since she's not four years old yet). I also add in one elderberry gummy for the boys. I don't give one of those to Avery since the label says it's for ages 4 & up, and because she's not in a daycare setting around lots of kids. 

This is just our basic routine. I know others add in more things but this is what works for us for now. 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Spring Break

This year for Spring Break, we had virtual learning days on Monday & Tuesday before actually getting to enjoy the week.  Therefore, early on Wednesday morning we headed to our beach town to enjoy the property and meet with a contractor about rebuilding possibilities for our beach cottage. We rolled into town at lunchtime & went to a local seafood restaraunt for lunch. Then we checked into the accommodations and headed to the beach for the afternoon. We chose to stay in a little cabin at an RV park less than two miles from our beach property. My parents were able to come with us and stayed at the same RV park in their camper. 

The RV park was a great choice. It was reasonably priced & offered a playground and a swimming pool (which was too cold to use this trip but we look forward to using it on a future trip). The kids LOVED the playground and we went back to it a couple times. We also made use of a playground in the town that we'd been to with the boys in the past (pre-Avery!). 

Our meeting with the contractor was okay but we faced some extreme sticker shock. Covid has certainly increased the price of building materials. We are now reviewing our options for how we'd like to proceed with a rebuild but it either won't be a traditional stick build or it'll be quite a ways into the future when building prices finally decrease. 

We rented the tiny little cabin til Friday morning but chose to come home on Thursday night in order for kids to sleep during the majority of the trip and to give us all of Friday at home to relax. We arrived home around midnight on Friday morning & we really enjoyed the benefit of not having to travel on Friday. Overall it was a fantastic trip and we so enjoyed the time with our kiddos & my parents. 

This is a trip we'll probably do again in the future! 

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

More Books!

 I love to read-- always have.  I lost the drive to read for leisure during my pursuit of my Master's Degree but it was so freeing to get into a pattern of reading again.  Whenever I feel super stressed about upcoming lesson plans, I drop off of the reading vigor for a while because I feel as though I need to spend that free time learning more about my subject material than to read a fictional story.  Once I gain confidence in my teaching topics though, it's back to the leisure books!  

I've had a few bouts of reading success lately and was so eager for Spring Break and all of the reading time that I actually obtained and finished two books before Spring Break even began.  Therefore, towards the end of Spring Break, I was yearning again for something to read so I borrowed a book from my dad's vast collection and I'm working my way through that one now.  

One of the books I read prior to Spring Break was In Bloom by Kayla Aimee.  I found this book on super sale at lifeway.com and grabbed it while I was searching for a few more Bible story books for my kids.  The subtitle intrigued me: "Trading Restless Insecurity for Abiding Confidence." Insecurity is something most women struggle with.  Then when we add in different layers of life such as being a wife, mother, colleague, friend, etc. the insecurity can ripple outward and become overwhelming.  Women are faced with criticism on several accounts and these judgments can make us question what we know to be truths: that we're loved by God and that we're beautiful, and that we're called to the purposes that we're in.  It's not our job to shame anyone else.  We don't become "less than" when someone else experiences success.  We can truly experience joy with one another, and we can rest assured in what God thinks of us (and that His views of us are all that really matter).  I love reading books that speak these truths to women, and Kayla Aimee wrote with such honesty that I felt like we had been friends for years.  Her storytelling is captivating and the book was an easy read.  I was able to devote little pockets of time during the week leading up to Spring Break and finished this book before we set out on our little overnight trip. 

The other book I read during the first weekend of Spring Break was a library book and a new release.  The Wife Upstairs is written by Rachel Hawkins who lives in Auburn!  I read a description of the book on Erika's blog and when I got to the part about the book being set in Birmingham, I was hooked.  I don't live in Birmingham, but I know of it and travel through it and I love when books are set down here in the South.  Rachel Hawkins took a classic (Jane Eyre-- one of my favorites from high school) and re-imagined it in modern times and set it in the hills of Birmingham's elite.  It followed the Jane Eyre story pretty closely, which made me want to race back to the library and check out the original and see if I understood any new parts that were over my head in high school.  The Wife Upstairs is a suspense book, but not intensely so.  This book was so well written that it hooked me from page one and I finished it in six hours.  Granted, I was able to devote time to reading it on a Saturday when I had extra time.  (Side note: there's a lot of language in this one, so read at will.)

After finishing off these two books, I was hungry for something else to read.  I do go back to books that I already own and re-read several things, so I've been working my way back through Crazy Rich Asians over the last couple of months when I can't make it to the library as often as I'll be able to during the summer.  However, I saw a book at my parents' house when we were over there for Easter dinner and I grabbed it and have been reading it in pockets of time over the last week.  I anticipate it'll take me a while to get through it since I'm currently only on chapter three.  

The book is Think by John Piper.  It centers around the idea that thinking and feeling go hand in hand, especially when it comes to God's word and how Christians are supposed to view the world around us. It's incredibly interesting, but written very intensely and provokes a lot of thought while reading.  The chapters don't even really seem to be that long, but I'm not making swift progress and that's okay with me.  I look forward to continuing it and to applying what I learn. 

Our fourth quarter of school started last week on Thursday, and I'm looking forward the longer days of summer!  Let me know if you read any of these books!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba