Sweet Life in the City

I teach the Bible lesson every day to my preschool kids. I love that I get to share with them my favorite stories and get to tell them how much Jesus loves them and has big plans for them. I know they are little, but each time I know that God is planting seeds of His love into their hearts and I pray that one day these Truths would come back to remembrance. I don't always know what the lesson is going to be that day. Usually the other teacher I work with hands me the Bible story card and I teach. Today she hands me the card and I notice that the lesson comes from John 11. The story of Lazarus. The story where a message is sent to Jesus that His dear, beloved friend is sick and needs immediate help. The story that Jesus makes the statement that this sickness everyone is talking about will not end in death, this story is unfolding according to God's plan and in the end God will be getting so much glory. He waits two more days before heading to see Lazarus. Before He heads to see ...

The year was probably 1992. Beauty and the Beast was a new Disney animation that came out in 1991. I say 1992 because we were watching it on VHS because you see it was considered wrong to actually go to the movie to see it (I am going to leave that right there). It was my sister's favorite movie. We watched it probably 100 times. She had Beauty and the Beast posters and other items to do with the movie. It continued to be one of my favorite movies and loved sharing the animation version with my girls a few years ago. So it is natural that when it was announced that a real life version of the movie was going to be released I was so excited! When I found out that Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley from Downton) was going to play the Beast I was completely sold. A few weeks before the movie was to premier I got on FB one morning and my news feed was blowing up about the changes the creators of this movie had added and with pitchforks raised we as Christians were to boycott this movie and ...

My husband wondered from my post yesterday why I put the thermometer in Samuel's mouth in the first place. He noted that he was big enough to put it in his mouth by himself 😆. He obviously missed the point of my post 😏. Today was parent teacher conference for the kids so we were able to sleep in a little bit and then headed to school for a short while. Samuel and Emma are doing amazing. All "A's"  for the semester and just doing well all around. Chloe had a little bit harder quarter and had mostly "B's" and a "C". We are going to have a more detailed conference with her teacher when Jeremy and I can both attend. I am so proud of all three of them and it's hard to believe that we only have one quarter left to go before school is out for summer. In between the girls and Samuel's conference, there was a preschool conference that needed to be done with one of our students that has had some struggles. We met with the mom and just shared ...

After I posted my blog on Tuesday I came downstairs and did another check on Samuel. He is a pretty easy patient. He brought the PS3 upstairs to the big TV and basically laid on the couch playing games and watching movies. Of course I would ask him every hour or so if he needed anything. It was usually a "no" or "mom, I can get it". He got up to get a Gatorade, so I decided I needed to check his temperature before he drank something cold. I put the thermometer in his mouth and I had a terrible squeeze in my heart as I realized that I had to raise my arm to put the thermometer in his mouth! Last night he was sitting down, all the other times he was laying down, this time we were both standing and I had to look up to fully see his face. It was in those brief seconds that 12 years came rushing back to me. My tiny baby boy that would only fall asleep laying on my chest for so many months. That sweet boy in my arms and in my lap was now standing in front of me becoming a...

Growing up my dad gave us all ( all in terms of anyone that would listen) a spiritual gifts tests that was created by the Institute of Basic Life Principals. It was determined that my gifts leaned heavily towards service to others and mercy and I actually agree 100% with those results. I live my life trying to help whenever and wherever I can and the mercy part comes in when dealing with people in general. I give so much of myself to others that I forget to recharge. I forget to rest. I have been very clear on how busy our lives have been the last few months. My body was giving me warning signs that I needed to get some rest but I just kept pushing on through the pain. I mentioned Sunday that my jaw was starting to hurt. I know I have TMJ and my jaw pops every time I chew. When I go on trips I usually wake up at least one morning with my jaw completely locked from the stress of traveling, but I do not usually experience days of pain with it. Monday morning I woke up and my jaw and my w...

You guessed it, another busy week around the Riggs' house. Tuesday was spent cleaning the house. I think I have mentioned this before, but I seriously have a serious problem with the thought of people seeing my house even slightly messy. I am not talking like a little troubled by the thought, I am talking full out panic attack. I have tried to have a pep talk with myself and convince myself that people really do not care if my house is not spotless. The truth is only the first person in the door gets to admire my spotless house 😉. Wednesday night we have our real community group over for our weekly time together. It is always such an uplifting time together and we are truly  blessed to be a part of a church family that we can walk this crazy journey of life together. Thursday night was family game night at school for the girl's grade. I took the kids for a little while. Jeremy was just dead tired and well let's be honest, it's March Madness, Baby (in best Dick Vita...

There are days as a teacher that we dread. The days before and after holidays. The days where it has been raining/snowing for days on end and you are now on day 13 of indoor recess. The days that you know that there is a full moon coming soon are usually the worse. No joke, full moons put some kind of spell on children of all ages 😲. Today was the perfect storm here in Chicago. It was a Monday, the Monday after a time change, a snowstorm, and you guessed it, a full moon last night. It also did not help that I was actually subbing in the Kindergarten class today, so dealing with all of those factors with another teacher's children made for a tiring day. Tonight has been pretty low key so just thought I would share some random things going on in our family. 1. We are addicted to Pop-Tarts these days. Mostly the Brown Sugar Cinnamon. I am sure it is one of those phases and soon I will buy a few boxes and they will not be touched, but for now they are gone before I usually get one (...

Once upon a time we never had any plans and we never had to go anywhere. We did not have any friends, support system, or any social interaction either, so I guess I have to pick my poison 😏. Seriously, we have been so crazy busy that this is really the only time I have had to sit down and actually write. Although it has been busy it has been filled with doing amazing things and spending time with the people that the Lord has surrounded us with.Tuesday I ended up subbing for the 2nd grade teacher who caught this nasty bug that is going around. Tuesday night we went to an orientation at World Relief Chicago with our community group to see what options we have to help refugee families. With the current ban on refugees coming into the country there is not as great of a need at the moment, but our group wants to be ready for action when the need comes up. We took our children with us to the meeting. They are old enough to hear all that is being said about refugees and I wanted them to get ...

We have had another busy week. I sat down several times to write, but something else would require my attention. Yesterday marked my 13 years of being cancer free. March 3rd is always a day of mixed emotions for me. I celebrate my healing, but a great sorrow surrounds me this day as I think about what was lost. Many of you know that I have a weird memory (thanks to my dad). I guess I could be labeled as having  a photographic memory. As I have gotten older that ability as wavered some, but memories from the past are still unbelievable. The events of March 3, 2004 have been made into a movie in my memory. A see the memories like those old movie reel films on the projector. I don't turn that movie on very often any more, but when March 3rd rolls around each year it is the only feature shown on that day. So all day yesterday the events of that day 13 years ago rolled through my mind. I remember every detail of that day. Getting up, showering, what I was wearing, what the people around...