I’ve Got a Case of the Mondays

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Today has been one of those Mondays. You know, the ones where you fight with your spouse, your kids stopped listening to you as soon as they woke up, you slept funny and have a horrible pain in your neck, your to-do list has 20 things on it, you keep remembering more things to put on the list that HAVE to be done today and honestly can’t wait til tomorrow, and your dog emptied her bladder all over the carpet while you were at the grocery store picking up yet another thing you forgot. 

It’s been a day of hurried phone calls and feeling anxious and getting my feelings hurt. It’s been a day of feeling defeated and overwhelmed. 

BUT (don’t you love it when there’s a “but” on these days) it’s also been a day where my kids put on a ridiculous play for us involving the Star Wars theme song, a knight, a pirate, some dragons, and a hilarious fight between the pirate and knight. It’s been a day of pausing and remembering how faithful God is. (I may or may not have listened to “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” four times in a row to remind myself of this fact.) It’s been a day of hot chocolate and Yahtzee. 

At church yesterday, my pastor read the story of the woman at the well. She’s a Samaritan, she’s a woman, she’s had five husbands, and the guy she’s currently living with isn’t her husband at all. And when the disciples saw Jesus speaking to her, they “marveled” at it. I’m thinking “marveled” is a nice biblical way to say they freaked out. Next thing you know, they’re telling Jesus it’s time to leave and get something to eat. Jesus replied by telling them that while they have a saying about the harvest coming in four months, in fact the harvest is ready and waiting. In other words, they’re so wrapped up in their idea of what’s right that they’ve missed this beautiful chance to speak truth and love into the Samaritan woman they scorn. 

Man I have identified with those disciples today. I have brushed off my husband and my kids and put my to-do list first. I have allowed myself to get worked up and man have I “marveled” at the demands of this day. 

I had to run by a coffee shop to pick up some gift cards today. I was hurrying the kids into the car, we were all miserable, and my focus was on all the stuff I had to do. And then I felt like God was telling me what an opportunity this was to slow down and let Him in. To focus on what He wanted to do, not what my to-do list said. So while we were there, I bought the kids some hot chocolate and a wedge of some incredible cinnamon roll concoction that was bigger than Noah’s head. 

We sat down and played Yahtzee. It was beautiful. I’m a stay at home mom, and you’d think all my time is devoted to spending time with my kids and developing our relationship. That’s what I thought it would look like before I became a stay at home mom, anyway. But so very often I’m focused on things that just aren’t as important, and I’m grateful for the times when I stop, take a deep breath, and say, “God what do you want right now?”

I still have a lot of things to do today. I’ll probably be up late getting it all done. But I’m not feeling ragged and angry anymore, my kids are happier, and I’ve let God put things into perspective. 

Here’s to hot chocolate and Jesus. ❤ May I always take the time to let Him still my heart and show me what I’m missing. 

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Sock World : A Look Back 

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To put it simply, the Rogers family had the time of our lives at Legoland last week. We walked what felt like a million steps, laughed til we cried, froze our rear ends off in the hotel pool, rode rides, watched shows, ate apple fries, and just enjoyed being a family together. 

This trip happened to coincide with the one year anniversary of Anthony cutting nearly all the way through his thumb. What a beautiful way to celebrate what God has done for our family and acknowledge that time with our loved ones is so very important. 

I have two mental images I’m holding on to from this trip. One is Noah giggling uncontrollably while we watched the Battle for Brickbeard’s Bounty, a really adorable live action water ski show. Noah’s my strong-willed boy, and hearing him just let go and enjoy himself is music to this mama’s ears. 

The second mental image I’m holding on to is “riding” the Kid Power Tower with Annabelle. I say “riding” because this was really an upper body workout in disguise. Basically you and your kid sit in a seat on the side of a tower. When the ride begins, you start pulling your seat up the tower by grabbing onto a rope and hoisting yourself slowly to the top. Once you get to the top, you let go, fall to the bottom, and start all over again. By the end of this ride, my hands were raw (seriously they should pass out gloves on this ride), I had broken into a sweat, and my arms were jello. But Annabelle giggled and squealed every time we fell to the bottom, and by the end was brave enough to throw her hands above her head as we descended. Totally worth the effort. 

We’ve been back in the real world for a few days now and I’m reminded how nice it was to not adult for a few days. We all got to enjoy life like a kid and come back to real life with refreshed hearts. 

I could really do with some more apple fries, though. 

Sock World : A Story

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We’re having a blast at Legoland! We spent all day in the park yesterday and we are in the park again today. 

If you ever come to Legoland, we highly recommend staying in the Legoland Hotel, as the following story will illustrate. 

We were adorably optimistic when walking up to The Quest for Chi, a ride we missed yesterday. 

“Those people are dripping, soaking wet, but there’s no way that will happen to us!”

Wrong. We were so very wrong. Annabelle and I spent a good portion of the ride huddled together trying not to panic as we sat under a torrential waterfall. Anthony and Noah didn’t get hit by the waterfall, but we all ended up more wet than I care to remember. 

Here’s our personal verdicts on the ride : 


One out of four loved it!

We are now back in the hotel room in a dry change of clothes. It was amazing to take a two minute walk back to the hotel and not worry about missing too much time in the park. We are eating our lunches and prepping to go back in to Legoland. 

Hopefully we will stay dry this time!

Sock World : Revealed

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Car trips with kids always take about 12 times as long as they are supposed to take. After a stop to replenish the leaking refrigerant in our car’s air conditioning system, 100 bathroom breaks, a gas stop, traffic jams, more bathroom breaks, and a quick stop for dinner, we made it! 

Check out the following video for the big reveal and our kids’ underwhelming response* :

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That’s right, folks, Sock World is really LEGOLAND!
We are staying in the Legoland Hotel.
We are in a kingdom room, complete with Lego spiders, shields, and a frog prince.
I’m loving the little kid friendly touches – a step stool in the bathroom, a smaller toilet seat just for the kiddos that fits inside the lid, and above all, the separate room with bunk beds for the kids. 

Tomorrow we will spend the day in the park, and the kids cannot wait. The adults are pretty excited, too, now that I think about it. 

It’s been so fun keeping the secret of Sock World up to this point, and it’s all worth it for these adorable smiles – 

*Disclaimer – Annabelle was pretty much done with being in the car and very concerned with putting together the toy she got from Wendy’s and didn’t really want to discuss anything pertaining to Sock World, God bless her sweet little heart. 

Sock World, Here We Come!

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We spent our morning at church, getting confused looks from everyone who doesn’t know about our trip when they saw our family in matching crazy socks. We wore them with pride. 

And now, the Rogers Family is finally on the road. Sock World or bust!

Sock World : Blue Skies and Three Fingers

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We have packed and washed ALL the laundry and shipped the dog off for a fun vacation at my parents’ house. Tomorrow, we go to Sock World!

I asked the kids how they feel when they aren’t at Sock World and this was their response : 

(Noah obviously needs to work on his sad face.)

When asked how they would feel when we finally get to Sock World tomorrow – this is what happened :


They still have no idea what lies ahead. 

When we told the kids about this trip I thought they would be full of questions. I forgot that I have taught my kids to be excited about the little things in life. They are over the moon about a trip involving crazy socks and a place with a ridiculous name. That’s all they need to know. ❤

I did ask Noah to draw me a picture of Sock World. I know it’s hard to see, but it was too cute not to share. Blue skies, a hotel with lots of windows, and three-fingered versions of Noah and Annabelle. 


Stay tuned for the Sock World reveal!

Sock World

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Back in the ’80s, my Uncle Brad requested that everyone keep his birthday simple and give him a pair of socks. My dad played this up and had my seven year old sister, Erin, start thinking of ideas for memorable socks.

My dad was going to be away from the family for a few months due to work and planned a special day with Erin before he left. They would be heading to Sock World, a marvelous invention of my dad’s imagination, to locate the perfect pair of socks for Uncle Brad.

Over the days leading up to the trip to Sock World, my sister took her responsibility very seriously. On the day of, the conversation during the 45 minute car ride centered around Sock World and what kind of socks she hoped to find. She wasn’t distracted by the incredibly large parking lot my dad pulled in to, the trolley ride to a ticket booth, or the lines of people waiting to get in to Sock World.

In fact, it took my dad encouraging her to count the flags waving in the breeze for her to realize they were, in fact, at Six Flags Over Georgia and Sock World was just a fabrication.

Sock World has always been a beloved family joke. In keeping with the tradition, the Rogers Family will be taking our very first family vacation to Sock World in just 10 short days. 

Noah and Annabelle have been informed that they must wear crazy socks to be allowed entry to Sock World. To say my sweet children with their adorably low expectations are excited about a trip to this magical place would be the understatement of the century. We have purposefully shared very few details about Sock World and let their imaginations run wild. All they know is that we will be gone for four days, staying in the Sock World hotel, and that crazy socks are a must. Our version of Sock World won’t have six flags waving over the entrance, though, so stay tuned as the journey unfolds to see where the Rogers Family is headed.

It’s the first day of April! Congratulations!

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I’ve been doing a terrible job of writing blog posts, and one of my goals is to be more consistent with it. So today I had every intention of writing a post about the upcoming Rogers family trip to Sock World. 

Annabelle had other plans for me. 

It’s rare that we don’t have to wake up earlier than we’d like, whether to an alarm or to the kids. So we were very relieved to go to bed last night and not set an alarm for the morning. And our kids decided to play quietly in their rooms this morning instead of waking us up. 

Or so we thought. 

I finally got out of bed, bleary eyed and silently thanking my angel children for putting their parents’ need for sleep above their own desires. What blessed children our Heavenly Father has bestowed on us. 

I opened our bedroom door. And then the smell hit me. 

Strangely enough, it wasn’t a bad smell. It smelled fresh and nostalgic all at once. In fact, it was rather pleasant. 

I looked in my daughter’s room and this is what greeted me. Amongst the teeny Calico Critters’ accessories and the pull ups and the blankets and random clothes thrown on the floor, I found the contents of an entire bottle of baby powder. 

I didn’t even know we had baby powder. I’ve been decluttering the house for Lent (and I’m quickly realizing I need longer than 40 days to get it done) but I haven’t gotten to the inside of Annabelle’s closet or wardrobe yet. I’m assuming the baby powder has been sitting there for years, patiently waiting for its day to shine. 

Annabelle cleaned the mess up by herself, enjoying it way too much. 

As we all watched her vacuum, Noah happily exclaimed, “Well, it is the first day of April! Congratulations!”

Congratulations, indeed.