the Story of My World

sooooo reason not to do youth groups.....

2012-02-01T23:34:00.001-06:00

the new youth interim "girls"-- because it is two 19 year olds, asked Kaitlin again tonight about going to youth services that are held on Wed night. Kaitlin sweetly said it was okay, she wasn't going and the "girl" pressed her and asked where she would be and Kaitlin motioned to the fellowship hall where the adults had fellowship/ bible study on Wed night. The "girl" then proceeded to ask Kaitlin if she liked going there...

{{{sigh}}}

So Mama decided we would just go ahead and nip this in the bud here and now. I walked out of the other office and hooked arms with Kate and let the "girl" know that we didn't believe in youth group and Kate would be attending service with us-- but occasionally on a Monday for a special girl time or an occasional Friday night activity we would be glad to come and participate--all said really upbeat (think almost sugary!)

"GIRL" stood aghast! MOUTH open wide. NOT BELIEVE IN YOUTH??? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!!!!

{{{me smiling inside}}}

So a few more thoughts between me and the "girl" and I made sure she knew it was a family decision and THOUGHT I had gotten across that we were passionate about it and then the "girl" asked...

"WELL IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO CHANGE YOUR MIND OR CONVINCE YOU?"

{{{insert maniacal laughter}}}

Um no "little girl" you cannot. ;0)

SOOOO later on I am relating the conversation to Dave and I will tell you that I felt myself getting even more worked up inside. I mean here I am with my daughter explaining to the "girl" who wants ME to put my daughter under the authority of --- QUESTIONING ME AND DAVE'S authority in front of Kaitlin---

the nerve of the "girl"

REASON number one why we don't do youth group little "girl" you have just PROVED my point and made me even MORE steadfast in my stand against youth groups!

If she had come to me privately and asked out of curiosity what our reasoning was or even asked our reasoning in front of Kaitlin that is one thing...

BUT she said to Kaitlin:

"girl" : "Hey Kaitlin I am sorry you have such stupid, unfair parents that are totally holding you back from having fun and getting to be with cool awesome people such as myself-- I am trying to get you out from under their GRIP!"

Didn't you hear her say that? Well, okay she didn't say it but in my opinion her actions did...

Sunday Sum Up: Day 89-93

2012-01-29T23:01:00.001-06:00

Monday:

I allowed Matt and Emily ONE hour of Wii play from 9-10 as I did laundry and cleaned off the school desk, so at 10:10 we started school. Matt and I had to discuss that his ASSIGNMENT for Sing Down the Moon wasn't done. It was the first time to give him all week for something and apparently we need to work on it. I have printed out an assignment sheet for it so he can check off some each day of school--- we shall see.

Both Matt and Emily had a writing assignment today-- Matt's went fine but Emily's were TEARS, defiance and non cooperation- after a consequence and a call to daddy... all was well and the assignment got done. She had to take a story out of the BIBLE and retell it in her own words. SHE FREAKED OUT. But like I said once it was done, she had done a great job.

But that took a junk of the morning!

Emily did her reading curriculum.

They both played multiplication games online.

Matt did a Delta Math U See lesson

Emily finished up the money workbook that I had already started her on a few weeks ago... so now she will fully focus on multiplication! Let me reiterate that I think this will go fast for her.... I hope that it does. I don't want multiplication drama ( says me with a pleading voice)

Emily did skip counting worksheet also.

Matt did our devotion and his Dave Ramsey devotion.

He also worked on his Sing Down the Moon unit.

After Kate got home we worked on our history worksheets, picked an assignment for the next lesson and picked a new book to read.

We also read a chapter in Little Woman.

AND WE SURPRISE_ SURPRISE worked on the school room! :0)

Tuesday:

We started a little late-- I was really tired this morning ( Brenda I have no pregnant excuse!)
We started with talking about 1 Corinthians 13: 3-6
(the kids later used it in an English assignment for abstract nouns-- I love when things LINE up!)

We did our Dave Ramsey devotionals and listened to The Super Red Racer a book on tape from Financial Peace Jr.

All the kids did English. Emily acted liked she had never heard of a predicate while we were doing practice out loud but then she diagrammed them all in like seconds! What is up with that! She even diagrammed the "(YOU)" command without being prompted!

We did online math drills and we played math bingo. This led to us playing two rounds of Lego bingo because I am trying to be a YES mom.

We went through our Physics journals and wrote all the answers to the pages we had skipped to just get everything up to date, don't know why we hadn't done those 5 pages, but I counted it as our review time so it worked out. We read our next chapter and found out that by chance that one of the scientist we learned about was a creationist scientist. Kate asked if James Joules was French and since google is my friend... I googled him and found an amazing article. So we read all about Mr. Joules and his beliefs... wonderful!

Photo credit given to Wikipedia

On another occasion, Joule wrote that “the phenomena of nature, whether mechanical, chemical, or vital, consist almost entirely in a continual conversion . . . into one another. Thus it is that order is maintained in the universe—nothing is deranged, nothing ever lost, but the entire machinery, complicated as it is, works smoothly and harmoniously . . . the whole being governed by the sovereign will of God.”1,8

All the kids are working on reading their current books.

We read another chapter in Little Woman.

Emily did her Rod and Staff Reading.

Tomorrow our SCHEDULE wall goes back up! Actually a "replica" of our schedule wall is going back up because I want it smaller! Yeah!

Wednesday

We started a little late again because mamma can't get her act together-- I am not sleeping again at night (meds are having ZERO effect) and well put two and two together.. couple that with only drinking water and well I am tired.

Anyhoo. We started at 10:00. but left to go get Kate's math book we are borrowing from a friend before the sky opened up and the rains fell from the HEAVENS! We barely made it back!

The schedule wall is up... WHOOP WHOOP.

It will take a few days to acclimate to it again plus one of our laptop chargers has still not been found so it messes up two kids doing TWO things at once--- GOTTA find THAT CORD!

We did Bible.

The kids did typing and math drills online.
Matt and Emily did math and KAITLIN did math because my awesome friend BRENDA let us borrow their math book till I can get Kate's (it is currently back ordered). We don't have the student book but we shall muddle through! There are online worksheets for most of the chapters.

Kate and I played Fraction dominoes. Just getting her saying all the different 1/5s, 2/8s, 3/6s....

Emily did Rod and Staff.

All three kids did English-- nouns, nouns and more nouns!

They did their 30 min Wii exercises!

We worked on some organization charts and making things run a little better at the house-- so that took up some of our time. Things ARE getting organized REALLY!

And that was our Wed!

Thursday--

NOT ONE LICK OF SCHOOL. DIDN'T EVEN GO UPSTAIRS.

oh well.
I picked up my dry cleaning.
I deposited checks.
I got my van washed and vacuumed it out.
I returned my library books so my ONE of my fines (Harris County) is down to 100.00 now. {{{sigh}}}

I went and had dinner at my moms.
I took the kids to Mardels so Kaitlin could spend a gift card she got for CHRISTMAS a month ago!
I also picked up a G.A. Henty book for Matt-- gonna see if he is ready.
I socialized with other home school moms and I socialized my kids!

I guess all is well with the world-- we will pick up spellin' and math learnin' tomorrow!

Friday--

Well as I woke up with ONE more child than I normally did... but who knows when she comes to Mrs. Carrie's house she does what we do-- school went on! Poor Emily thought there would be no school.. Bah- ha-ha-ha....{{{insert maniacal laughter}}} They think a little thing like an extra kid is gonna stop me!

We got up and because I had two small blond children begging for pancakes that they wanted to cut out shapes with cookie cutters (that I stupidly left on the counter and gave them the idea for) we had pancakes! They cut and sprinkled and ate to their hearts content...

Next we started school... we begin with Bible and going over 1 Cor 13: 4-7 and our Luke reading about Simeon, Jesus in the temple and did some worksheets.

We read a biography on Albert Einstein...

The kids all practiced math drills online and played Typer Island.

Kate and Matt did English-- a lesson that brought Kaitlin to tears. Poor. Girl. English makes me feel that way too.

We did some mental math questions.. which my kiddoes rocked and I need to find harder ONES. We will switch between the mental math questions and logic activities.

Matt and Kaitlin worked on their Sing Down the Moon unit study and they each have a page or two for tomorrow and they are done-- I think it was more work than I thought or I didn't plan enough time for them... gotta think the "assignment" giving out a little better. I think I will copy all the pages and put them in a folder and then assign each page a day....

We worked upstairs... now we can walk into the closet upstairs-- I didn't manage to take much out but was able to at least rearrange it better to get in and out of it. After we set up another set of shelves in the attic space we can clean out that closet better, but we gotta move the stuff in the attic.... EVERYTHING HAS TO HAPPEN FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN!!! ARRGGGG.

I left the kids (Matt and Kate) alone today for about 15 minutes -- it was the first time here in Pasadena. I knew that I would I just had to work back up to it! Hard Momma stuff!

Lets see is that ALL??? I think so. I would say over all we had a pretty good week!

Saturday...

We shopped for dresses for the girls to wear to the Father/ Daughter Valentines Dance...

Dave mowed the lawn so that we aren't THOSE people. ;0)

We worked on the house.

I went to Hobby Lobby.

Matt bought the game RISK-- and is totally excited about it!

We went to bed.

That is all.

American History: weeks 27-30

2012-01-25T22:37:00.000-06:00

We are well into the Civil War now. Between Thanksgiving, Florida, Christmas and of course moving...we are behind our schedule! But it is all good. The kids are learning a TON and that is what we want to see happen.

Topics, battles and main ideas we have studied over the weeks:

battle fronts
Union/ confederacy way of naming armies and battles
Bull Run/ Manassas
Union capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson giving them major water ways
Ironclads
Shiloh defeat
enlistment/ conscription acts
African army enlistment
woman in war
Clara Barton
Battle of New Orleans
Stonewall Jackson
Robert E Lee
6/7 battle- McClellan's failure to capture Richmond
Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
Antietam Creek
Battle of Fredricksburg
Emancipation Proclamation

Okay peeps--- OUR book lists

We are not all done with these but will be done with them within the end of the week.

We are in the middle or reading Little Women.

Matt and Kate are finishing Sing Down the Moon (actually they finished the book but are doing a unit study on it)

Rifles for Watie

Across Five Aprils

Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words

Red Badge of Courage

Billy Yank and Johnny Rebel

We have also perused but not read all of these books:

Unconditional Surrender U.S. Grant and the Civil War

Lost Cause The End of the Civil War

We are ALMOST to Gettysburg....we are chugging along! If only we could find a way to keep all the generals and leaders of each side straight! I mean the main ones of course--- but the others... we keep going over it. In the long run I know it is not important but.... one thing they will not forget for a while is this.

After Antietam Creek which was the bloodiest battle of the war- McClellan (Union) allowed his army 3 weeks rest, just to re coop, repair stuff, mend bodies, hearts and spirits. Most likely a good plan. But Lincoln, in his haste to move on sent a note asking McClellan...

"If the general did not want to use the army, he would like to borrow it for a while."

Soon after McClellan was ordered to hand the army over to General Burnside-- who caused even bigger problems for the Union and HE was ordered to hand the army over to General Joseph Hooker who was Burnsides BITTER RIVAL.

So MUCH DRAMA..

IT IS LIKE HOUSEWIVES OF THE CIVIL WAR!

Candid/ Posed shots: family :0)

2012-01-24T08:27:00.001-06:00

I took a cute shot of Emily and myself. and yes, I did just say I took a cute shot of Emily and myself...I know you read that a second time didn't you. Anyhoo.

I really liked it and it was totally candid.. we just took a pic. BUT then I was like ohhhh.. I want one with all the kids.. and henceforth, they became posed.

I love my family.

Project 365-- Week 3-- Day 15-21

2012-01-23T21:59:00.001-06:00

Sunday day 15--repost just to NOT mess it up further.. closet fix up- after.

Monday day 16--
Kirsten reading about how cowboys dress at history on Monday-- while decked out cowboy style!

Tuesday day 17--
Family Game Night-- Our new FAVORITE game Hedbanz

Wednesday day 18--
their new pastime...comics.

Thursday day 19--
jelly fish @ the Downtown Aquarium.

Friday day 20--
I will miss the days when army men no longer cover my table.

Saturday day 21--

okay it's not a pic but I couln't have done anything but filmed this right! Kate and Emily are in there!

Okay I am going to HAVE to get better at taking a picture every day!

Sunday Sum Up-- day 84-88

2012-01-22T22:57:00.002-06:00

Monday--

Without rain to change the "normal" Monday plans I got a taste of how it will be... it will take some tweaking but I think I like it.

I was able to start Matt on an all week project of a unit study of Sing Down the Moon.

We also started his new Math U See Delta--- He is going to FLY through this for a while and I am going to let him! I am giving him the test right now and as long as he gets 100% we are moving right into the next lesson so basically a week into one day. SO like I said FLY for awhile.

Emily started Gamma... she is excited about multiplication-- and will be until she actually has to LEARN IT ALL. :0) We started her chart and she is thrilled to already know the 0's and 1's! She actually knows more than she thinks because she learned a lot with Matt but she doesn't KNOW she knows it. So I think it will be pretty easy for her as far as the memorization of the facts- and we will go as slow or fast as she needs to go.

I am using these worksheets and these and this for extra practice each day for ALL the kids--- plus flash cards. Here are some games.

and of course the Math U See drill page

Kaitlin needs to start Epsilon but they are back ordered--arrrggg. So I have her reviewing multiplication facts right now which NEVER hurts her!

Also on Monday I had Emily do Rod and Staff reading and we did her English-- we started with a review, which was great since we haven't done it for a while! I had her read aloud- I need to do a lot more of this!

Then we left for history and Mom had a lesson on cowboys in the old west...

Tuesday-

We read of chapter of Little Woman, math, history worksheets, Bible devotions, English, All About Spelling and PHYSICS----with our wonderful science partners the family revised (neither of us took pictures-- great bloggers that we are)

Whewww FULL Day!

Wednesday-

We read Little Woman, did math, Bible devotions, English and then we worked on the house-- because it is still bothering me A LOT. The kids read- and got new reading assignments.
Thursday-

We were gone ALL day for a field trip, but we learned a lot!

We had a class on animal training- where we learned the difference between teaching an animal "tricks" and training animals to do things in order to get certain behaviors (i.e. to stand on hind legs to check stomach and front paws).

Also a class on the rain forest and where different animals live in each level of the rain forest.

The last class was the physics of flight-- the kids got to learn about what allows a bird to fly- shape of wings, and how the tail feathers help the birds slow down (drag) and a lot of other physics principles.

LOADS of learning. We also went through the aquarium

had a wonderful lunch with friends and road rides! IT was a great day!

Friday---

We did math, read Little Women, did Bible Devotions, worked on reading assignments, drew and worked on pictures and descriptions of our science experiments from Tuesday...and then worked on the house some more... because YES, IT IS STILL BUGGING ME. But it is getting there-- truly!

Currently.....

2012-01-20T21:51:00.000-06:00

Okay- stealing from one of my FAVORITE BLOGS... Lemonade Makin Mama!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Currently loving... all the teal/ turquoise/ MY COLOR stuff at Target right now! It is affordable or at least in my saving range and that makes me love it!
Currently listening to... Cyndi Lauper- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun---- sorry but Pandora is set on an 80's station right now- YES, I am THAT person.

Currently reading... Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst and Little Woman with the kids as read aloud.
{insert--Richard Marx- Right Here Waiting}

Currently waiting ... to know what the BILLs are going to be in the house for us. I mean we have an idea from mom and dad but more people and different companies... just itching to know!
Currently excited about... the fact that drinking only water isn't bugging me IN THE LEAST. It is a God thing because.. well you know how much I love Sonic coke,tea and if course COFFEE right! But it has been FINE. I am not even having caffeine withdrawal headaches!
Currently missing... my little house, and just a little bit my "hood". I loved living in the Heights. I miss driving through... not enough to not LOVE all my room, but still just kind of miss it. Also I REALLY miss Dave being home for lunch and stuff. :0(
{insert-- The Bangles-Walk Like An Egyptian    REALLY You don't dance when this comes on!}

Currently trying... routines and schedules... slowly building on them. Glad to be getting back in the swing of things, and it feels good to have routine.
Currently working at... making better food choices. Not so much in what I always choose but also in quantity. all in moderation right!
{insert--Crowded House- Don't Dream It's Over}

Currently enjoying... Pandora and Netlix on the TV in the living room... {{{sigh}}} such a luxury.
Currently snacking on... nothing but I had some baked Cheetos earlier with Emily. yum.
{insert--REO Speedwagon - Take It on the Run   not my favorite but love Reo Speed Wagon I mean they did give us Can't Fight This Feeling!}

Currently using..."Bar Keepers Friend" cleaner for some deep cleaner and wow-- it works and is cheap!
Currently wearing... jeans, polo-- SHOCKER!
Currently planning...four field trips, a trip to Dallas, 6 weeks of school plans (that SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRST ON THE LIST), my next crafty creation!

Currently needing... ohhh let me count the ways. trash cans- I used to need 5, now I need 9. paper towels-- ALWAYS need paper towels!
{insert--Modern English- I Melt With You   love the accent and I always sing it with the accent too}

Currently learning... to just take a drink of water.
to say yes.
to take a breath before I speak. (ha)
to look for ways to be helpful
and to reach out.

Currently wishing... that I had bought a more neutral couch. Also that all the shelf heights in the school matched. Oh and world peace-- gee whiz!

{Insert---Okay- Beat It- just came on [smile]}
Currently doing... organization of the school room -post move all the boxes are unpacked, but I moved a lot of bookcases and stuff around trying to make things more workable-- actually to keep it real I needed a place to hang my ALL About Spelling board on the wall. :0)

{insert-- Bonnie Tyler- Total Eclipse of the Heart. I love this song}
Currently praying for...for patience, for a particular child/ parent thing, for a family member, for the right candidates to be picked....and for wisdom.

Currently dreaming of... my house being all in order, my finances to finance themselves and for food to NOT be such a big deal.
{insert--Journey- Open Arms}

{{{my dirty little secret is out.. I am a lover of 80's music}}}

Extreme Couponing or Extreme field trips...

2012-01-18T23:21:00.000-06:00

If you have ever watched the show Extreme Couponers you KNOW the moment they get up to the register and the FEAR and PANIC that sets in because...

will everything scan.
did they count right.
are things in the right order.
are their coupons going to SCAN!
are they going to hassle them.

You know they didnt' bring any money with them so if the total is over $7.73 they are going to be putting back A LOT of merchandise.....

SOOOO I am feeling that FEAR and Panic set in with the field trip I have set up tomorrow!

I have done the aquarium field trip at least 4 times--maybe even more than that.. so IT doesn't bother me but my numbers DO. Plus I am doing it with a group that I haven't done it with! Double Panic.

When I go to the booth and check us in I will pay 653.00 for classes and admission AND another 385.00 dollars at meal time. On my own wee little debit card-- wish I had MILES! :0)

No really. all the monies are accounted for minus an annoying 12.67 cents right now! BUT for a total of 88 people on a field trip... 84 class participants and 56 kids meals I will EAT the 12.67 cents!

I was telling a friend that for a aquarium field trips I didn't KNOW that I could PLUNK down my Laundry's Reward Card when I paid for the food.

NOW. I. DO.

Plunking that baby down.. and 4-6 weeks later Dave and I can go on a date.

Suckers.

No really. Just a pleasant, nice bonus.

Here we come Salt Grass-- your spinach salad, potato soup and delectable chicken beckon me.....

Project 365--- Weed 2 Day 8-14

2012-01-16T21:55:00.000-06:00

Monday- day 8
Yes, yes I do think it is normal to walk out of my room and see this. Don't you?

Tuesday- day 9
a picture of pictures... my pretties.

Wednesday- day 10
bought all my Made to Crave "stuff".

Thursday- day 11
this is called please trim your beard, you look like a mountain man.

Friday- day 12
a goat at the barn.

Saturday- day 13- TRUTH I took zero pictures on Saturday so I am using one from Sunday.
closet fix up! before...

Sunday- day 14
closet fix up! After

Sunday Sum Up: Day 79-83

2012-01-15T20:42:00.000-06:00

MONDAY
We actually started off our week getting up at 7:00, eating breakfast and starting school at 9:00. I know miracles DO happen. Mondays are weird school days because Kaitlin is at choir all morning and then we usually have history in the afternoon, so I am going to use Mondays to simply focus on Matt and Emily.

however this Monday mom picked Kate up and got to Amy's and came right back because of the rain!

So we just ended up doing some regular work-- I am still not prepared completely for school but we accomplished stuff!

We read two chapters of Little Woman- did vocabulary, worked on our character traits and did comprehension questions.

All three kids did math.

We read chapter four in our history text book...All American History book 2

Matt and Emily read history books before Kate got home-

Emily is loving the American Girl Kirsten series!

We made out our chore charts for the month... yes, I know it is the 9th. Anyhoo!

Now on normal Mondays-at least the first 3 of the month it will be different and the last I will be gone all day

Emily will be doing out loud reading, lap books and starting a project that she can work on mostly independently for the rest of the week.

Matt will be given history reading to do, along with a fiction read and vocabulary. He will also be working on a bible study with me that we will do partly together on Monday and he will do alone the rest of the week.

I am going to see how this works for me.
As long as we get up and going on time... this shouldn't be a problem. (I know insert. laugh. here.)

We had a break and the kids played.. then the cable guy came-- lucky he could get through THIS mess....

and by that time I was done and it was almost four so I let them go! DAY OVER-- but not bad for a first day back!

Tuesday

Whoo hoo... day two up at 7:00.
We. are. on. a. roll.

We got chores done.

Math done.

History reading done.

We worked on science-- got caught up on reading and did our review cards for the past chapters. The kids are remembering pretty well so I am happy-- especially for such a long break!

We read Little Women.

we worked on the house.

Wednesday

We got up late and actually left for the day to do stuff so no school except for a chapter of Little Women...I hadn't been in a store since two days before Christmas! wow! So I had some returns and just errands. Kaitlin had a choir lesson which is all the way the other side of the Woodlands-- really the New Cainey exit! We were there for over an hour.

We did some more errands and got to church right in time to eat and fellowship.

Emily and Matt are starting a new kids musical called The Bible Tells Me SHOW. IT is like a game show of Bible trivia-- it is very cute!

Thursday--

We had a busy Thursday. We started in the school room with such GOOD intentions but the "MESS" got the best of me and I started moving stuff. I hauled boxes and moved furniture and got the school ALMOST 100% back to normal-- we need to work on the Lego/ Wii area but plan to this weekend. Also I am getting two more bookshelves for the rest of the book boxes-- I think I still need at least two MORE! :0)

We rushed to get ready and left to get Kaitlin and Matt to our home school group who are doing the Dave Ramsey class Generation Change together. They had a really good time in the class and also just fellowshipping!

We left to go to Becky's but she had a problem with a friend so we ended up going back home and taking Mary Faith back with us- so the girls had fun playing!

We ate dinner and went to Christian skate night... the kids were SO excited to go again! Dave and I got to visit with friends and everyone had a good time.

Friday--

We got the basics done-- bare basics! I worked on the house and spent about an hour on up coming field trip stuff. We left to go visit with friends at 1:00-- my friend Margaret and I are planning a Father/ Daughter Valentines Dance as a fundraiser for Valentines Day.

After our meeting we went out to her friends barn to see all the animals-- my kids were in heaven.

Saturday--

Kaitlin and I left at 6:30 for the long awaited Regions auditions. YES. you read that right 6:30, we had to drive all the way to Tomball. We got there and wow if there isn't another thing in the WORLD that could cure a home school mom from wanting to send her kids on the big yellow bus-- it would be entering a gym with 889 junior high students (and their chaperone's). I say 889 because OUR home schooled students only took the number to 900. JUMP BACK-- I KNOW!

However after the extremely long, long, long day after HOURS and hours and hours of being in the gym with said junior high students we finally got results at 4:00! 6 of our 11 students made regions. Now proportionally I want you to realize that maybe 10 schools were represented and out of the 900 kids they took 270. I think our kids did really good! Kaitlin did not make the cut-- however we didn't think she would we wanted the experience and fun, her director thought it would be a really great thing for her... so we went. Out of the 60 girls that Kaitlin auditioned against she was number 32 and they took numbers 1-20.. Her director was VERY pleased with that and said Kaitlin had DONE great! So she was pleased and proud of herself and is ready to go back next year! I didn't get to take pictures because there were ZERO electronics allowed.

What is that you say.... kids survived for 8 1/2 hours WITHOUT electronics in this day and age. WHY yes, they did. They-- all 900-- played GAMES. Imagine that-- it was quite a sight to behold.

Made to Crave Challange: Day 3

2012-01-13T16:37:00.000-06:00

So I heard about the book Made to Crave a while ago, and saw that there was going to be a challenge and I know that what I do is join that stuff and then not finish it after having announced on my blog that I was going to do it. So I thought I won't announce it I will just quietly do it and go about my business, but it specifically calls for having accountability... so here I am, asking you for accountability!

If you have not heard of Made to Crave it is written by Lysa Terkeurst the founder of Proverbs 31 ministries. She is speaking at Grace Community Church at the end of Jan but they are sold out! I asked a friend who works there to see if she can buy me a tape of the night--fingers crossed!

Anyhoo. Her THING is that although we were made to need food for our body we weren't make to DO the things we all do to our body-- we were made for GOD to meet all our needs, and we so often meet those needs through food. At least I do-- hello stress eater!

I have to be honest with my struggles. As she says I need to be gut honest, and kick my excuses to the curb.

I don't need food to comfort myself. R.e.a.l.l.y.

Psalms 42--

As the deer panteth for the

water so my soul longeth after You.

Rarely do I long for God as much as I long for Sesame chicken or Rocky Road ice cream!

Here is a podcast she has out-- till Friday.

Here are the top 2 strategies top 5 choices the health person she has says you can make are to make the most difference:

strategies:
1. diet and excercise

2. accountability

health choice
1. reduce calories. 100 extra calories a day equals 10 extra pounds a year. DUH.

2. fiber- 25 grams a day. your body will tell you that you are full.

3. eat fish. (they list the best of course- salmon my favorite) at the least take fish oil.

4. polyphenols- super foods blueberries, cacao, green tea

5. excercise- 25-30 minutes a day hard, heart rate pumping.

Here is an online Bible study: Melissataylor.org that sounds really neat... they post assignments, have a few special speakers, small prayer groups and lots of accountability!

The Made to Crave study starts Jan 15 online at Melissataylor.org right now there are 6000 women signed up!

OKAY-- so we are supposed to pick one thing to choose to give up for 6 weeks-- to pick ONE healthy choice and I am going to pick water. I will only drink water for 6 weeks. AKKKKKK. You all KNOW that is a hard one for me! I might still have to drink it in Sonic cups!

I am BTW on day 3 of only water... and I have so far survived. BUT 57 days is a LONG day!

Letting Geese find true north...

2012-01-11T08:47:00.007-06:00

I tend to have control issues and often find it hard to rely on God's providence or to believe easily His Hand on my life... but I do know it is there! I know that my steps are ordered by Him. I believe it.

photo credit: Texas Goose Hunting

I was watching a show the other day and a character on the show had made some artificial geese---but they weren't flying North at the same time as all the "real" geese and he was curious what he had done wrong in all his love and care of these fake geese. At the end of the show he realized that in building in a compass he had made it TOO sensitive and the geese were having a hard time recognizing TRUE North. His point was that in his FEAR that the geese wouldn't know what to do or not do that the right thing he had TRIED too hard to make them perfect ( i.e. made their compass TOO PERFECT).

I find I do this with my children. I am often fearful of the day that one of them "wanders" from the way of life Dave and I want for them, or the call of God on their life, or chooses to not perhaps make some of the same choices as we have for our life ( I don't mean repeat the bad ones!)... I want to control them-- NOT to be controlling but so that I can make sure they go the right way!

Imagine how God feels! Imagine GIVING your children COMPLETE and TOTAL free will and letting them go, free to choose completely for themselves?

We as parents don't even do that! I train, teach, retrain, reteach and retrain some more in hopes that they will choose the "right" path! We remember that they have free will but we often FIGHT the free will to conform them to the choices we have for them!

I am not advocating that we allow them to run of the house-- I am just saying we truly do not have any control over choices they will make when they are not under our authority.. we can train and teach them, we can raise them in a certain way, we can pray over them and do all the "right" things but they will go their own ways.

Some of them will find "TRUE NORTH" right away. Then there will be others who will turn off course and wander a bit before getting back on the right track and still others often don't find their way at all. We can't control this...

GOD is in control. GOD knows what is going on. GOD is a good GOD. I can worry and "control" and that is SIN on my part and it isn't helping anyone.

Here is to us raising AND letting our Geese go..regardless of their direction.

this is what I sent to the museum of fine arts about booking field trips....

2012-01-10T21:25:00.000-06:00

Hello, my name is Carrie Thompson and I have just received confirmation for my Learning Through Art tour- Feb 28 @ 10:15. I just wanted to verify some information... I have read the PDF file and will just begin with saying that I have set up multiple guided tours in the past 6 years but have had so much trouble in the past two years that I literally do not WANT to set up a field trip and literally have panic attacks on my way to the field trip. :0) I find it very stressful. So in order to hopefully stave off such need for panic I thought I might head off some problems early on.

Here are the reasons why the PDF file information doesn't work well for us: (homeschoolers)

1. Your Pdf (system for field trips) are set and based on a school group from a school coming with students and teachers. It is not really accommodating of a home school group with multiple families, ages and vehicles, especially in the area of meeting, parking, dropping off, chaperon numbers- and payment.

2. your workers-- some of the door people and ticket people in other areas of the museum have zero tolerance for school tours, children and do not know or care to have explained your policy for school tours. (i.e. I have had more than one lady ARGUE with me that I had to pay for all the students.)

3. As for my own group we are not only a home school group, but we also have a wheelchair and have in the past had both tour setter uppers (I know not a word!) and docents tell us in advance to meet in the Beck building vs. the Law building (I might have those switched, but the point being the one that most school groups DID not meet in generally) and the people (see point 2) have been unbelievably rude to us telling us we are doing the wrong thing to the point of us calling down the head of departments. (I might even be on a wanted poster in some one's office!")

4. There is a lot of confusion in the payment system. 1:10 ratio to me says that we get ONE chaperone in free for every 10 students we have-- and we would gladly pay for the other parents. I have had people (see point 2) argue that we pay for all chaperone's because we are not "real" teachers (and yes that was said at one point. :0) and I have had people argue that we all get in free (and weirdly I tried to argue that we should pay for those not in the 1:10 ratio number count)-- the pdf does say chaperones get in free with students and technically DOES not specify how many chaperones you can have-- so are they all free?

5. I went to a meeting once where I was asked and asked questions-- I forget what it is called---my husband informs me it was a focus group but they were trying to change policy and wanted input. Nothing got better for home schoolers.

I have had conversations with multiple persons at the museum and nothing has gotten better for home schoolers. I love that y'all tried to do home school Thursday and understand that it did not work out well... I LOVED the home school day at Bayou Bend (amazing!). I am a field trip girl-- schedule them ALL the time! But I just have to say that the MFAH is difficult.

I am hoping this note is turning out more like a funny rant, I am trying to be sarcastic and not rude--- because it is NOT intended rudely. It is intended to express a lot of frustration coupled by an intense desire to do field trips at an amazing museum without panic attacks. :0)

If there are now systems set in place since my last visit which was more than 6 months ago I believe- I would love to know if you can tell me where to meet as a home school/ wheelchair group and make sure that people know we are going to meet there so that I don't have to have more darts thrown at my wanted poster. :0)

Thank you very much from-- a person who loves the art museum and loves to visit without panic.

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting....

2012-01-10T20:15:00.000-06:00

Okay.

obsessed.

admit

it,

addicted

to.

but fyi don't watch other Cee Lo Green videos. :0)

But my obsession is not with the song, although it has always been a catchy tune, but with a fat,

black and white bear named Po.

Watch the clips, they will make you smile.

Project 365.... 2012--Day 1-7

2012-01-09T19:10:00.000-06:00

Okay-- gonna do it.

One picture, every day of the year. I will post the weeks worth on Mondays....

So here is Jan 1-7

Jan 1

New bathroom faucet.

Jan 2

Emily's new bedroom--excited girl

Jan 3

Kirsten built herself. lol.

Jan 4
um danger Will Robinson, danger.

Jan 5
Shall we dance?

Jan 6
broken in move, mended by mom. I. was. a. hero.

Jan 7
coffee. no. other. words. needed.

So there is week one! Only 51 more to go!

Weekly Wrap Up: day 73-78

2012-01-08T23:50:00.000-06:00

So I am looking back and my last weekly wrap up with a day number was October 28. I don't have my days of school marked since then.. so I gotta round it out and just "guess". I pretty much can say we did zero "school" work in December although we did plenty of learning so I give us 7 days of school-- trust me we were learning stuff! Going back to November we did do a fair amount of school but not a lot of full days, loads of half days... so I am going to go with 10 days. How does that sound to y'all? Fair enough. NOW we do lots and lots of learning even when we are not schoolin-- trust me!

So this weekly wrap up will be day 73-78. This puts us finishing up our 180 days in the year 2015. :0) No, really... we should finish the second week of June and that is with ample breaks. As long as we finish this year by the end of June I am a happy camper. We will take most of July off and start August 1 for the new school year. So good with that!

Okay lets get to what we ACTUALLY did on day 73-78..

Well we unpacked loads of these...

which is math, geometry, measuring, logistics, PE, Reading and character training.

Then we watched lots of this...

which is geography, drama, character training and world view.

After which we did some real learnin' about the Civil War during history on Monday. We are at the battle of Shiloh presently. Grant is almost handed his walkin papers for the number of losses and although the confederate army retreated they are still sitting on cloud 9.

We played this game that I picked up at Fort Pickens in Pensacola. It is awesome. Civil War memory game but loads of ways to play AND secret missions to accomplish for whichever side of the war you were on!

We started our Little Women Unit Study-- I loved this book growing up, however I will say that as an adult with a little bit different worldview now I see how very liberal it is. There is LOADS of good.. great moral to a lot of it and a heartwarming story of family... but still the suffrage movement and feminist movement is carefully woven throughout the pages. One of the questions in my unit study actually talks about the distribution of wealth during the late 1800's vs. what it is today and the huge gap between the wealthy and the poor. (um.. hello middle class-- not because of distribution of wealth but because of opportunity given from the LAND OF THE FREE) okay soap box over.

We are doing character studies of each girl: listing her traits, character, physical description, likes etc.

We read Pilgrims Progress two years ago and because it is talked about a lot in Little Women I thought it would be good to tie in with "resolutions" for the year. So next week I am going to have the kids each put their "sin problem" in their bag and carried them around for a while, until they drop off. We will find verses to help combate whatever "sin problem" the kids pick for themselves. So update on that--

Kate had region practice on Saturday for FOUR hours. It was really the first time in her life that she has been surrounded by public school kids. She knew ONE girl- the other girl who was in her choir. She was probably one of a VERY SMALL handful off non public school kids there. The girl who she was next too and talked to said she didnt even know home school kids could be in choir-- I told Kaitlin she is breaking down the myth! Dave stayed the whole time and just sat in the back-- pretty much the only parent out of HUNDREDS of students. Next Saturday at the actually regions I seriously doubt we can stay... but we are just moving on. Kate will have her phone. I will spend my week in prayer, say a prayer for me too!

this is just the girls.

this is just all the girls singing their part.

I am going to start doing my "weekly wrap up" on Sundays and I am going to call it Sunday Sum up... I always feel rushed to do it on Friday because I am still DOING Friday- and since I rarely link it up anymore I thought I would change it up.. feel free to join me if ya want to!

Word of the year (2012)....

2012-01-06T11:50:00.000-06:00

Okay everyone in the whole entire blog-o-sphere is picking a word for the year, well, maybe not everyone! Anyway, I decided I shall play a long because it does truly seem beneficial to me. Our school motto this year was Do everything you do to the Glory of God with this Steven Curtis Chapman song as our theme song--

and I love it! So with going with that them I think I will simply choose DO.

DO say yes to my kids.

Do the things on my planning list.

Do give.

Do be kind.

Do save.
Do make amends.
Do love people.
Do set a standard.
Do live up to the standard.
Do share His love.
Do shine.
Do train my children.
Do be a wife to my husband.
Do stay on track.
Do let my yes, be yes and my no, be no.
Do be honest.
Do be friendly.
Do be active in church and activities.
Do forge into the unknown even though it scares me.
Do be wise with money.
Do help others.
Do cook most meals at home!
Do chores and errands when they need to be done.
Do (not) procrastinate.
Do spend time with my family.
Do meet my kids needs.
Do make time for special things.
Do spend less time doing unimportant things.
Do pray.
Do thank God.
Do please Him.
Do read and learn.
Do teach my children.
Do accomplish tasks set before me.
Do pick up my cross daily.
Do learn something new.
Do not be afraid.
Do trust God.
Do let things roll off my back
Do be more easy going.
Do (not) allow anxiety to rule.

Do. Do. Do.

Loss.

2012-01-05T08:58:00.001-06:00

I just found out that a friend lost her husband last night. It was very, very unexpected. He had no conditions. He had no warning signs. They were watching the Iowa returns and she went to bed, he said he was going to stay up a while. She got up later to check on the kids and the light was still on and she found him dead.

I am in disbelief.

I just cannot imagine... my heart is grieving for her. I don't understand how you do that. I mean I can say the right words about God and faith and peace and all that and I believe it ALL. I can quote verses for others, but I just think unless you are in a place like that you just can't know.

She has a young 3 year old and 6 month old twins.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the LORD.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Love your loved one. Don't let moments go by. We shouldn't need reminders like this....

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T10:49:00.002-06:00

Doing, doing, doing... yup.

2012-01-03T09:22:00.002-06:00

Okay-- still unpacking, rearranging, cleaning out, putting together furniture, changing closets, moving boxes.

Yup.

It's all good. I found a library book-- guess I can take that 20.00 off my VERY. LARGE. FINE.

Yup.

I walked out of my room to find hot wheel track going from the stairs, to the fan and into the kitchen.

Yup.

Emily told me the first night in the house (that we have been living in for three plus months, but now it is minus my mom and dad) that since it was the first night in this strange new house could she sleep in my bed.

Yup.

Dave took the kids to Petsmart to buy crickets and to Walmart to return a present ----with a grocery list. He came home with no groceries. {{{amature}}}.

Yup.

I have 7 boxes of various zip lock bags and no gallon size.

Yup.

I can't tell the difference between most the silverware owned be myself and my mom because we both have like 4 different kinds. {{{need. new. silverware}}}

Yup.

I plan to join up on a bunch of Project 365, 52 week DECLUTTER Project, 90 day Bible reading...because I have time like that.

Yup.

Today my son used the word battering in a sentence about a return---"I don't want this box to take a battering so that I will still be able to return it mom". Thank you Star Wars series.

Yup.

I havent gone to bed before 12:30 in about 3 weeks. However there are 8 seasons of Law and Order on Netflix.... I am on season 1 episode 8.

Yup.

I also got introduced to Shutterfly-- scrapbooking.

Yp.

If you have every watched Storage Wars (addicting) you know that YUP sounds like this.

YUUUUUP.

USS Alabama- the grand tour.

2012-01-02T09:21:00.002-06:00

We had stopped at the USS Alabama on our way to Orlando but there was only an hour till closing and with not enough time to tour everything we opted to return on our way back-- even knowing we were coming back Dave and Matt walked the grounds for almost an hour looking at the planes and tanks.

When we arrived for our tour-- which I opted out of (small places, narrow stair cases are not for me- not to mention that the kids would have more fun without my anxiety... :0) Dave ended up only taking Matt and Emily on the tour.

They started out on the USS Alabama and ALL the following pictures were taken by David (some of which he even laid down on the deck of the ship to get the right "angle" for ME--

{{{sigh. be. still. my. beating. heart.}}} true love)

after the ship, they toured a submarine, another building with more planes and stuff and then the rest of the grounds... all in all we spent over 4 hours and Matt could have kept going!

They didn't even tour all of the ship! Wow--- Matt was having a blast and Dave was reveling in the Daddy/ Son talk. Here's to all the soldiers...we salute you.

Ringing in the new ..... throwing out the old.

2012-01-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

We stood outside at 11:59 last night all five of us together and as the clock struck 12:00 we whooped and hollered.. Dave and I smooched (as Emily reported) and we rang in the new year.... we have a very low key new years eve... no party, no games, no themes! We had my friend Becky over and some Mamma Mia's pizza and that was IT. I was so good with that!

But I am even better with it being NEW YEARS DAY.

I don't suppose there are many ways that you can physically ring in with the new and throw out the old besides MOVING. We are all up to our necks with ringing in the new and throwing out the old! Everything either has, is or will be moved! Closets have been emptied and are now slowly being filled again. New routines and methods must be formed- quick! Change, change, change.

I am excited. I mean of course for the space, of course for having all my stuff unpacked, of course for the kids getting their own rooms.. but mostly because it means settling and routine.

We have had pretty much zero routine since September. We got here and settled in best we could and we did school, I made a chore chart we designed a place to hang coats, put our shoes.... but it is not enough. I CRAVE schedule, routines, meal plans, coupon savings, budgeting sheets, school days, curriculum being finished, a place to put everything, organization...

I. am. so. excited!

Today however is all about the cleaning, moving and arranging. I also need to finish printing out a few worksheets for their "worksheet" week and pick up a few things for our Little Woman unit study for this week...

I am making lists. I have three ongoing ones right now and about to start a fourth plus one for each of the kids and a HONEY DO list for Dave.

I am putting things in place- knowing things might be changed around again as we find better ways of using space or a different need arises.... but for now things are being put in PLACE. Slowly.

I do feel overwhelmed, but it is almost a good overwhelmed... does that make sense? I kindof like that there is so much to do. I will get tired of course and the "overwhelming" good feeling with turn into something else... but right now we will stick with GOOD FEELING. :0)

I have great plans for this year- I always do! Out of the plans change will come---some plans will come to fruition.. some will NEVER get off the ground, some will fizzle out..... but regardless change will happen.

Well here's to change--may it be the change I am looking for and may it be productive!

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman

more vacation pic--- Clear Water Marine Aquarium (Winter the Dolphin)

2011-12-30T23:28:00.000-06:00

Earlier this year we took the kids to see Dolphin Tales.... amazing movie! So we were very excited to learn that the marina was only 1 and 1/2 hours from Orlando and immediately made plans to go visit Winter!

When you pulled it it was EXACTLY like in the movie---

which was very cool (in fact a lot of it still looks like it did after the hurricane!)

after paying some exorbitant entrance fees (for a hurricane riddled, partially operational aquarium with two large tents and a trailer as the ticket office and port a potties at the "facilities") we got to learn what REALLY happened to Winter! For instance he did not bang against the side and break the model to pieces... dramatic flair! He did however let them know in his calm, dolphin "esq" way that he wasn't down with the thing touching his skin that sheds like once an hour verses OURS that sheds like every three days. So the good doctor came up with the sock-- which has bolstered many other awesome medical advances since then!

We saw the trap that harmed Winter and learned that it took days and days for the tail to break down and til they finally amputated and was really very painful for the dolphin.

We walked up rickety stairs into what in the movie we saw as the entrance (grand hall-- remember where the boy met the Pelican, who by the way DOES NOT LIVE AT THE AQUARIUM) and it is all gift shop. and it is NICE! State of the art... and then you walk out of the gift shop into old, worn down pretty much yucky facility. Good thing there was a cute dolphin there! :0)

They kept announcing all the "ways" you could add expense onto the exorbitant entrance

fees over the loud speaker-- it was great.

Okay so on to the reason for the visit-- and the good part.

WINTER, the Dolphin.

It was worth the drive to Clear Water-- especially all the cool water ways you go to go over from Tampa

and it was worth seeing Winter and well that's all folks.

Rent the movie-it's great. BTW-- oh and no Harry Connick Jr. at the aquarium either, bummer.

Curly Girly....

2011-12-28T11:12:00.002-06:00

I bought some of the cheap foam rollers for Emily's hair. So today we put on Tangled-- because it's all about the hair--and went to town.

When we took them out I could not believe the curls!

Emily hated it. She just thought she looked stupid.... I don't think she will go for it on a regular basis-- I said we could just use the large rollers and get a different look, we will see.

I promise I am not going all Toddlers & Tiara's on you. :0)

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas...

2011-12-27T23:12:00.000-06:00

but instead...............................

I got.

a Keurig Coffee maker from Hal and Vickie-- TOTALLY unexpected and awesome!

and a starter bracelet from my mom....

I want to say although there were other things I could have used, or would have loved, but

these are the two BEST presents I could have gotten!

They were both unexpected and complete surprises and

are BOTH very, very loved and appreciated!

We had a wonderful Christmas... plenty of giving and getting. Family and togetherness.

I am ready for what this new year brings... hesitant to imagine or set goals

that I never feel I achieve, but still holding onto the hope that I can.

I have a few quiet personal goals and of course the

normal lose weight, save money, blah blah goals!

I guess I can just take the year one day at

a time... do what's right and move on.

We are packing up mom and getting our own stuff ready to remove around the house once mom and dad are moved. The movers come on Friday.... I feel slightly overwhelmed. I want to start school but know that getting the house set up will take some priority of the next couple of days... so I will probably start school on
Jan. 2, but we will go light and start with math, reading, language and a LOT of books.

I have a unit study of Little Woman to do during this week which will be fun.

The following week of December 9 we will hit it head on full force!

So I have two weeks to pack, unpack.. lesson plan for the next 6 weeks and school some. No problem.

It's all okay.. this is the year of tackling challenges head on...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night... 2011

2011-12-24T23:54:00.001-06:00

Here are my beautiful children-- lovely.

Christmas Eve service at our church-- lovely.

Trains, Trees and Treats....2011

2011-12-23T23:11:00.001-06:00

Today we did some getting ready for guests, cleaning and last minute decorating.... we watched a few more holiday shows and a few episodes of Storage Wars { let. me. just. say. addicting.} but amidst the cleaning and watching we made some treats and worked on our Sea of Trees "Gingerbread" idea for this year...

We made these YUMMO and cute treats!

My Sea of Trees idea was the decorated upside down ice cream cones..(really no gingerbread involved!) and because we saw the Sea of Trees at Sea World the theme was born.

and then later that evening we headed down to Alvin for the Christmas Train....

So gotta get me in that holiday spirit...

2011-12-22T21:47:00.001-06:00

I thought the trip had caused me to feel un holiday"ish"... coupled along with not really having decorated with my things. But I think it is all these things wrapped together! I just did not plan anything for the week getting back and it has become the lost week... however, this week I wanted to do some holiday"ish" things! I am however fighting a serious cold/ possible bronchitis etc thing! I feel so very terrible!

I wanted to actually DO some of my pins on Pinterest! Some baking, some crafts....

I planned on holiday movie watching...

a drive around town for Christmas lights--- of course.

We missed Wed church because Dave's truck broke down and we had it towed-- SO not on my Christmas list.... (((stress))) and Thursday was a Christmas celebration with extended family but Dave and I couldn't go as we are still sick and my cousin Laura (well anyway we couldn't go and get around her and possible get her sick)... tomorrow we are hopefully go to the Living Stones Christmas Train and Saturday is a candlelight service at church.

SOOOOOOOOO............ you know we will fit it all in right!

(((((( extra big sigh))))))

I did get SOME crafting done today, and some baking..... and the holiday movie watching is going!

Taste of Texas 2011

2011-12-19T23:39:00.001-06:00

Our annual trek to The Taste of Texas....yummo.

I am destined to not get a great picture of the kids this year.... (((sigh))) and yes Emily is giving Matt the bunny ears.. I tried to soften it but I still SEE IT and know you DO TOO! The pic is all fuzzy and I was frustrated that night, but it was crowded and it's all good... we had a GREAT dinner!

However, I saw on Facebook the other day a friend lamenting the fact that she cannot manage to get a good shot of her family- no one looking awesome at the same time, and she is AN AMAZING photographer! I mean ama.zing. So I don't feel so bad anymore. yeah!

We will keep working on it though....

but let there be steak first.

Don't Be Afraid Brigade--- musical

2011-12-18T21:38:00.000-06:00

Emily was in the church kids choir musical-- she LOVES choir! She loves performing! She is pretty good at it too!

Time Shares... are all the rage with me

2011-12-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

I do not own a time share... I am however BLESSED to be connected to family who do! Twice we have benefited from the blessing of said timeshare! Last time was our trip to Branson....this time was our trip to Orlando....

7 days in a beautiful, 3 bedroom apartment.

I had a fellow bloggy friend ~~brag~~ update us on her posh digs over Thanksgiving.... and I can one up her rain water faucet thing--- which I agree I would not like. I was the lucky recipient of a two seater jacuzzi tub AND a baday.... which BTW... is spelled MANY different ways!

I mean how much more fancy, smancy can ya get than a baday?

The kids enjoyed having their own space... one kid bunked on the couch so each kid had their own bed each night and their own TV to themselves.

Oh, and washer and dryer, in house. SUCH a huge blessing for a vacation!

I was able to do all our breakfast in the room, some of our lunches too and all our snacks and drinks. We were able to save a lot simply because of this fact.

I wanted to share that I made quite a deal about being very tight, money wise and we did

everything on our list PLUS some, we were not overly chintzy and came back home with

over 200 dollars to our name. Whoo hoo!

One thing that really helped was that we gave the kids each $50.00 in spending money.

My mom gave them some money as part of their Christmas present

and Dave's aunt and uncle gave them their Christmas money too.

Needless to say the kids had plenty of spending money and pretty much got to buy what they wanted.

But it stopped some STUPID buys!

For instance at Lego Land, you could buy a "license" after going through the

Ford Driving School for a small fee of 14.99 before.

Emily was not quite ready to hand over 14.99 when it was her money and

quite ready for me to just make her one with my printer and laminator!

Day 2 of Seaworld....

2011-12-13T23:43:00.000-06:00

So today is the big day at Seaworld-- Yesterday we were only here about 7 hours, but today we were here a total of 11 hours! Such a long, long day! Seaworld was having all their Christmas shows and so on top of the regular shows they had extra ones too! It was hard to fit them all in!

First thing we headed for Shark Encounter-- which Matt had really been looking forward too.

We headed to the other side of the park towards Shamu's Happy Harbor but stopped to ride the Flamingo Paddle Boats...

Happy Harbor was HUGE---

From there it was the Polar Express Experience... I did not experience this ride/ exhibit and missed seeing the polar bear but I went to get seats at the next show and was just unsure that I would like the ride--- I also inadvertently took the camera away with me!

We saw Clyde and Seamore in their Christmas Tale next.

We went to the Nautilus Theater to see O Wondrous Night--

it was a take on the Story of Jesus birth and it was really, really good. I want to say that I am really impressed with Sea Worlds emphasis on Jesus, Christ and Christmas.... The play was told from the view point of the animals in the manger that night and it was really, really cute.

There was amazing singing and dancing!

There are so many photo opportunities and and so many beautiful things to see...

of course the finale of the evening is Shamu--- but on this wonderful Christmas season special Shamu was followed by a Christmas ice skating special AND a firework show...

Seaworld--- It's not a small world after all...

2011-12-12T16:59:00.001-06:00

Being in Orlando and not going to Disney--when you KNOW how incredible Disneyworld is, especially at Christmas is hard-- just so you know.

However, we knew when we heard about Lego Land that it was a must and we already had passes to Seaworld San Antonio that afforded us

half price tickets to Seaworld Orlando so it was sort of a no brainer, right.

I will say Seaworld Orlando is way BETTER than Sea World San Antonio and I love our Sea World! There is just MORE to see and do, plus there is a polar bear, and human snow globes.... just sayin'!

You get to see the "real" Shamu AND you get to pet the dolphins while feeding

them much easier than at our Seaworld!

We ended up deciding that two days were going to be needed

and THEY were!

In fact we were hard put to get things done and we didn't ride a single ride

-- imagine if we had spent time waiting in lines for rides?

We did watch the Whale and Dolphin Show... which was great!

and of course PENGUINS!!

and lest we forget Clyde and Seamore....

In a galaxy far, far away from light sabers.... we found Goofy's Candy Co.

2011-12-11T09:22:00.001-06:00

and the rest of Downtown Disney... which honestly wasn't much as we were tired, tired people!

May the force be with YOU...

2011-12-10T18:02:00.000-06:00

Matt knew for weeks and weeks that a large part of his souvenir money would go to making his own light saber. He looked forward to it... so he was very excited when we made our way to Downtown Disney to the Once Upon a Toy store on Thursday night....

Baby it's cold outside.... except if your in Florida

2011-12-09T16:47:00.001-06:00

As all my fellow Texans were freezing your patooties off... we were basking in the delightful 70 plus degree weather that central Florida has to offer...

and the December swimming that goes along with it!

and if you are wondering why I do not have a single picture of my eldest it is because she spent the entire pool time underwater.... I swear!

The LARGEST McDonalds in the world...

2011-12-08T23:55:00.001-06:00

It is official.

yep.

We are the best parents in the entire universe.

we.

took.

the.

kids.

to.

the.

best.

McDonalds.

in.

the.

world.

TWICE.

Yep.

Its.

true.

Finally... the Peabody Ducks

2011-12-07T21:13:00.000-06:00

If you have read my blog long or know me IRL you know that I have wanted to see the Peabody Ducks for years! I have mentioned it on several trips where for some reason or another we have missed seeing them! However today was the day--- we arrived at the hotel with time to spare-- got an awesome valet who parked our car for FREE (we tipped him well) and even got a front seat to view the waddling ducks.

There were five ducks. You could tell that they KNEW it was close to five because they kept getting out on the side of the fountain and quacking.

Once the gentleman came to lead them to their own PERSONAL elevator, their steps were put in place, red carpet laid down and away they went.. quacking and NOT staying in a neat little row. They really wandered this way and that way a lot! I was surprised that it wasn't more "make way for duckling" ish!

I will say that it truly did make me happy to see the ducks waddle down the stairs and down their little red carpet. I know that seems silly but I just think it is such a wonderfully neat thing to have in such a nice, upscale hotel.

The story goes that Mr. Schutt, who was the general manager of the Peabody in Memphis in 1932 went duck hunting and came back very drunk, along with another friend decided to put three live duck decoys in the marble fountain in the hotel as a joke. Well everyone loved it and they were soon replaced with Mallard Ducks.

In 1940, Mr. Pembroke, who used to be a circus trainer, decided to train the ducks to come to and from the fountain on their little red carpet and because Peabody Duck Master of the Peabody Duck March for the next 50 years!

Now all Peabody Hotels have their own fountains and duck teams- with their own Duck Master. The ducks are raised by local farmers. When they are not in the fountain they live in the Royal Duck house on the roof of the hotel.

There is NO duck served in any Peabody hotels, even though they have french chefs. Also they do not name the ducks! Each duck team has one male and 4 female and only serve as the Peabody Ducks for 3 months before they retire to a farm and another duck team is brought in.

Lego Land..... a review!

2011-12-05T17:43:00.001-06:00

Well.... we have officially been tourist of Lego Land. The dream has been realized. The desire has been met. Momma can check that off her LIST! Is it weird to say that I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest? I mean this was something that we all knew was such an intense passion of Matt's...I wanted to meet that passion!

We woke up to the news that Kirsten had fever and we were opting to either go without her or wait and hope for her to feel better so that we could all go together on Thursday. However with the concern that all the kids had been around her the day before and COULD likely get sick as well by Thursday we ended up going as to avoid that happening and us not being able to go!

It was fabulous! Here is the good and the bad:

cost

We paid 75.00 for us adults and Kate (13 and up) and 65.00 for Matt and Emily--- honestly it was fine, you get a FULL days worth of activities. There are games and souvenirs but not a TON of "other" costs throughout the park-- so MOST of the activities are included in the cost. For 15 dollars you can add another day... which is a great deal! You do not have to do it that day all you do is come back with your ticket within 7 days and you can get in for 15 dollars.

Our hotel offered discount tickets for 69, also Triple A gives a 3 dollar discount but I was concerned that you couldn't add on a second day for 15.00 with a discount ticket-- this fear could be resolved by simply calling and asking!

Parking was 12.00 and 20.00 for preferred (PLAN ON preferred---TRUST me at the end of the day it will be the best $8.00 you've spent!)

Food

I choose a pizza buffet because to be honest pizza and buffets make MY family happy people. It was kind of expensive 10.99 for adults and 6.99 for kids. --this did include a drink so at least that was a bonus, also they included Kate as a kid. There was pizza, pasta and a salad bar. It wasn't bad food but not the worst. You could absolutely eat cheaper at the park though.

We did not get any snacks except as we were leaving Kate and I shared Apple sticks (fried pieces of apple / covered with cinnamon and sugar with whip cream -- wow good!)

Atmosphere/ park/ rules/ workers

The atmosphere was great-- I mean it's no Disney but it was still very well done and we caught many small things that "MAKE" the difference!

the park was bigger than we thought and we walked A LOT. We were tired by the end of the day, let me tell you. It was open from 10-5 If we had 3 more hours we could have done everything so two days is really needed to get everything done, however usually you won't need to do everything!

rules- there was no smoking except for out of the park which was awesome. We had zero problems, minus some attitude at the pizza place that was taken care by another worker.

workers-- I want to say besides the above mentioned they were awesome! They were ALL kind, helpful and really great. I had one awesome experience involving my (fat) self and an attendant who bless his heart wouldn't say I was fat and handled the situation so wonderfully! I also witnessed another experience with a worker and another child who happened to have CP and they were awesome with her and dealing with the situation.

I also needed to check on a seat size on a ride to see if I could ride with Emily or not and a
worker helped me go through a "special employee" door to see the cars, which I thought was great!

Rides

When they say the park is for kids 6-12 they really do mean it. There was a good portion of the day that Kate was bored without being able to do something or simply just thinking it was too young for her. If you have a very small 13 year old it might be different though.

Our favorite ride was the LOST KINGDOM ADVENTURE... We as a family could ALL ride it and it was a blast. (If you have been to Disney it is like the Buzz Lightyear ride where you use the lazier gun to get points.
I will point out that I beat EVERYONEs score..... in fact I think this area was our favorite.

The FORD Driving school was very well done and Emily thought it was the coolest-- but then again what 8 year old doesn't want to earn her license!

Emily also liked the Boating School-- they did not work it out between themselves to share the turn driving so bud wasn't happy but they should have worked that out! :0)

There was a safari ride, a water ride and two other roller coaster type rides that we didn't get too or didn't choose to ride.

Kates favorite part was of course MiniLand...

Here are some pictures of the REAL vs. the MINI LAND version!

Dave's picture of Lumbar Street from his San Fransisco Trip vs. Lumbar Lego Land

The REAL Painted Ladies from Daves trip vs. Lego Land Painted ladies

Matt pointing out Lego Land Golden Gate Bridge and Dave's picture of the Golden Gate Bridge

Our picture of the capitol building in Tallahasee and Lego Land's version in Mini Land

Overall

-- we had a GREAT day. Very stress free. Very fun. Very entertaining. Very kid friendly for younguns. Very dream fulfilling!

One of the best things was that we were able to be a part of the VERY FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING EVER at Lego Land and yes, folks they call it a Christmas tree.

Some important Lego guy was there, a local Floridian who was a hurdler in the Olympics and Santa Clause HIMSELF was there on sight for the lighting... very exciting!

And that's all folks.....

Vacation in Pensacola: Fort Pickens

2011-12-04T21:44:00.001-06:00

So I was driving and Dave was resting... I said something about exit 57. A little while down the road Dave must have woken up and said Oh we just passed exit 57, what was there? I said never mind--- but he kept pressing me. Finally I had to spit it out, all the while wishing he had just left me well enough alone-:

Who in the world wants to have to admit such a sickness as this....

But because I generally feel I am pretty honest with you guys on this blog I shall share it with you all.

I have a sickness while I am traveling. I is called

"IFEELTHENEEDTODOEVERYTHINGUNDERTHESUNSICKNESS"

It is very difficult to recover from, there are no 12 step programs and the sad thing is that often GREAT good comes from it!

Oh yes, I said I would be honest. On exit 57 there is apparently a store that sales THE BIGGEST GUMMY BEARS IN THE WORLD. Now who on Earth wouldn't want to see that! I have since found that they sale them online so we didn't miss much!

photo credit to Vat19

They are 5 lbs and equal to 1400 regular size gummy bears.

Anyway-- after passing up this GREAT GEM.... we headed out from our hotel to do all the things in Pensacola that I couldn't pass up doing!

We went to the bluffs on the scenic highway-- which ended up being a TON of steps/ boardwalks and piers that went on for ever and Dave and I were VERY sorry that we started it in the first place because what comes DOWN... well in our case it had to go back up to get back to our van! :0)

Next we headed to Pensacola Beach across Gulf Breeze Island to the outer barrier Island to Gulf Islands National Seashore. IT was so beautiful... white sandy beaches... dunes, waves crashing onto the shores, salt air, practically NO one there.... we went to the far end of the island to FORT PICKENS. It was a fort held by the Union during the Civil War-- after the Confederate fired on Fort Sumptner they attempted to take over Fort Pickens but the Union held out and because of keeping the fort, they basically stopped the Confederates from gaining control of Pensacola Bay--which was a big deal Naval wise.

The kids explored (literally crawled down hallways, and went in dark rooms and tunnels with a flashlight-- it was hilarious! They had a TON of fun and kept exploring for over an hour!

The fort was also used during World War 1 and 2 for defense against possible invaders, but was shut down and then reopened in 1976 as part of national park.

Vacation.... we're on vacation.

2011-12-03T20:35:00.000-06:00

Whenever we go on vacation Dave sings and does this little dance.. I kid you not.

I'm on vacation! I'm on vacation (sung to the little diddy La cucaracha, la cucaracha)--whilst doing a little dance.

Well by the way do you know what the ACTUAL lyrics to that song are.. just a little tidbit of information for ya!

La cucaracha, la cucaracha    (the cockroach, the cock roach)
Ya no puede caminar             ( Now he can't go traveling)
Porque no tiene, porque le falta (Because he doesnt have, because he lacks)
Marijuana que fumar.                 ( Marijuana to smoke)

Ya la murio la cucaracha    ( the cockroach just died)
Ya la lleven a enterrar       (and they carried him off to bury him)
Entre cuatro zopilotes         (among four buzzards)
Y un raton de sacristan.      (and the sexton's mouse.)

Okay... so now that you KNOW that! ANYway, so Dave sings this little song and we head out on vacation. This vacation went pretty darn well as far as preperation, packing, and the carrying out of the actual LEAVING ON SAID VACATION. We hit the road and everyone was in good moods, traffic was in our favor, all was well.

We opted to go through New Orleans as I have never in my life been... we checked to make sure they were not playing at the Super Dome-- they weren't and down I10 we headed. As we got into town headed to the French Quarter we noticed little girls in short sparkling outfits and lots of batons... not a good sign! The farther we got into the town the more orange blockade signs we saw. We were one street away from Canal and realized that the parade MUST be close to starting because they werent allowing cars to turn left anymore.. so we hightaled it. As we stopped at the next light two blocks down we realized that cars were reversing out of the intersection between US and Canal... As soon as our light turned green we got across the intersection... and barely made it out! Whoo!

Anyway, the kids got to see a little and I get to say I have been there! From there we headed to Pensacola...checked in at our hotel and went to eat at Steak and Shake--- yummo!

Weekly Wrap up--

2011-12-02T23:59:00.000-06:00

Well this is a week full on NON accomplishment, we did zero school, we are getting ready for our trip and just hanging out at home. We vegged out!

The kids and I went and saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever done by the A.D. Players which was awesome! Go see it if you can!

I took Kate to see We Bought a Zoo last Saturday for a sneak preview-- it is a great movie! There were a few cuss words, disturbing artwork that is appropriate in content (the boy just lost his mom to cancer) and otherwise it is a pretty great movie! I wouldn't take a young child, but Kaitlin was fine seeing it and even Matt would have been.

Monday Kate had choir and her choir Christmas party but I had to take her guinea pig to the vet--- 124 dollars later... YEAH, we have meds for the little rodent. I really am done with pets- Have I said that enough but keep getting them? ARRRGGG.

Wednesday Emily and Matt had one of their last practices for the church Christmas musical-- it will be on the 18th and it is very cute!

We are packing and leaving early tomorrow morning!!! Whoo hoo. If only I could leave without packing! It is the bad part of a vacation! We are pretty much right on target of our budget but just barely grazing by with no extras... I thought we would have more to play with but we ended up buy clothes and shoes-- you know those needed items! But it's all good they would have been bought sooner or later, right? We are going to have so much fun and I am very excited!!!

Tonight is Kaitlin and Kirsten's choir performance---

she is in the back row on the left side (looking at the picture), 2nd girl from the boys

SHE did beautifully--- Kirsten did too, but I don't have pics of her on my camera---I was taking pics with Amy's!

and that about wraps up our week!

PS... did I mention we are leaving Saturday morning!!!!

the picture where we tell the kids that Lego Land Florida exists...

2011-12-01T09:41:00.001-06:00

wordless wed

2011-11-30T09:16:00.001-06:00

BELATED----Happy Birthday Kaitlin

2011-11-29T14:50:00.000-06:00

My girl turned 13 a few days ago... I will admit that this birthday got me.

We are opting to not refer to her as a teenager-- we prefer to refer to her as a young lady or young woman. We are going to VERY slowly work into a few more privileges but I do mean slowly.

I don't really think privileges need to come with age as much as they need to come with maturity and timing, but we are working on things and teaching and training.

She is doing wonderful at choir, she has a concert on Dec 2 and is participating in a regional competition in Jan.

Kaitlin is still a lover of animals! She currently has three geckos, two hermit crabs, a drawf hamster and a new guinea pig she got for her birthday.

She is still drawing and her ability amazes me....

Kaitlin is growing up... I can't stop it! I don't want to really, I want to see the woman she becomes. However I will forever miss the baby, toddler, 5 year old, 7 year old, 9 year old, 11 year old etc that she was....

Advent: 2011

2011-11-28T08:04:00.000-06:00

Advent begin last night... I felt frustration because I have none of my Christmas stuff out and we are leaving for vacation so we will be gone on the road for two Sunday's. Sigh....

but it's all good.

I worked it out. I ordered a magnetic advent set (yes, you lose some of the loveliness, but hey hotels and candles don't always go well together!) from CBD catalog.

So we "lit" our first candle last night, we sat downstairs with moms tree and twinkling lights

and it was peaceful.....

I read the first day of our book for Advent, Jothams Journey--- out loud.

next the kids got to open their first ADVENT package----

a Lego City Advent Calender that will start on Dec 1

So we are definitely doing it differently than last year, but its just how things are working out this year-- an 11 day trip in the middle of December kind of throws everything out of whack let me tell you!

I don't know if I will do a trip on these dates again....

a gratitude post

2011-11-21T11:35:00.000-06:00

a little worrying-- but the worry was over what I should do not over the actual reason for the situation in the first place

but mostly I just calmly dealt with the situation and wondered what I should/ could do...

We moved out of our rental property on September 30 and the landlord has 30 days to get your deposite back to you... well our landlord who is the sweetest "old" lady in the world has recently become extremely ill-- like deathbed ill and her son has taken over the properties.

We were concerned as he was not really taking care of things as they should be taken care off.

We have attempted to be in contact with them but trying to be tactful of his mom who is literally no longer able to speak with a breathing machine-- LIKE i literally check the obituaries every other day to see if she has passed away (morbid I know but what's a girl to do?)

NO, for a little money I would simply let it go but this was a substantial amount of cash, well over a thousand dollars, which to be honest... we need.

So anyway we were patient, discreet and understanding and TRULY wanting to be patient, discreet and understanding!!! but also truly wanting our deposit back if you know what I mean... I was unsure what would happen if she did pass away---?

I didnt want to file legal paperwork- I did not want to just forget about the money so were were just in limbo... waiting on the son.

Well I recieved a text this morning that he has mailed the check!

Thank you GOD. I am proud of the way Dave and I have responded to this. The kids and I have all prayed for both Mrs. Martha and her son. It was a learning experience of real life and a "what can you do situation" or better yet "what should a Christian do" situation...

I believe we handled it properly and am so happy that it is done and over!

I am glad for the money but truthfully I am more glad that the situation is over... does that make sense?

quick thought

2011-11-16T21:46:00.000-06:00

Our pastor said this during our Wed night Bible study...

If you are busy giving God the glory, you won't be busy saying woe is me.

I like it.

:0)

I love this family!

2011-11-06T10:25:00.001-06:00

Cant it just be easy?

2011-11-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

so I am on day 11 of daily meds for my headaches and the side effects are pretty awful, not sure I want this instead of headaches. I feel pretty bad.

what's a girl to do?

I am in contact with the doctor about the side effects and she is aware and has lessened the dose and has me taking them till Monday and will reevaluate whats going on then-- I also have another appointment on the 18th.

I am so weary of putting these drugs into my system that I KNOW do horrible things but yet I can't really live with the headaches either.

Please pray for something to give.

I would like to get back to some normalcy-- I would like to just feel like doing stuff with some consistency. I would like to not have headaches...

on the flip side I think the meds must have a weight suppressant of some sort because I do feel as though I am "hungry" less, now if only I was feeling better so that I don't eat out of boredom from just sitting and feeling bad--- which IS happening sometimes (although truthfully NOT that often, so that is great!)

Bloggy catch up...

2011-11-03T09:53:00.001-05:00

I cannot express my gratefulness that it is now November! For one, I DETEST the holiday of October-- we are one of the non celebraters....not. at. all.

I feel grieved most of the month to be honest... just a heaviness in my spirit. it is in every shop, comerical, show, radio station.... it is everywhere devouring the wonderfulness that is fall. the leaves turning, the hot weather fluttering away, the jeans being dusted off, the flip flops being stowed away (okay that is pushing it).... but really I just wish it didn't devour the whole month! I with it was all cutesy costumes and without gore... and I wouldn't mind as much...

Being at the parents house they had bought candy to give out but after gore doorbell number two they shut off the light and we ate the candy our self! :0) Yeah.

SO anyway---- on to our NOVEMBER... whoo hoo! I have yet to snag me some pumpkin patch pics.. might just not do it this year! The kids DO. NOT. COOPERATE. very well and I end up not happy so much.

I might not be much of a celebrater ( I think I might be making up some words and verb usage this post) of October but November and December are my MONTHS! Bring it all on! The smell of cinnamon pine cones, wreaths, glitter, bells ringing, music, wrapping paper, hot chocolate, turkey and dressing....yes. I. say. YES.

I also am a fan of daylight savings time being OVER. I mean I love long summer days but I am also over it by now... when it is 7:00 o'clock and I am gearing up to get the kids settled down with baths and on the way towards bed I like it to be DARK OUTSIDE! Plus when I cozy next to hubs with a movie or show I like it to be DARK OUTSIDE.... so it is always a bonus for me when we hafta change our clocks!

I got my FIRST Gingerbread Latte of the S.E.A.S.O.N last night! Oh. YES. I. Did. So very exciting! I will tell you they have gone up in price and I will not be getting many of them over the next few months unless I am gifted those purty little gift cards BUT still tonight's splurge was nice because I just had my oldest girlie girl in the van with me and we had a STARBUCK date after church!

Okay last catch up and there are PICTURES....the grandparents took the kids to the carnival-- one of our favorite season past times! YOU know fall is in the air when you hear the Carnie yellin down on Spencer!

BTW... the best catch up of all is the ALL three of my children got baptized last Sunday and pictures are coming SOON! :0)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T21:43:00.002-05:00

Weekly Wrap Up: Day 52-56 Plus history wrap up Week 27

2011-10-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

Finally.. starting to get into some tiny sort of routine or schedule! It is only a beginning but at least the ball is rolling that way!

We have done school EVERY day this week--- not TONS of course but we are moving along! We had a hiccup in math this week but are dealing with it and we have had some character issues pop up but we are dealing with those also!

Not by day but just overall of week....

Bible- We finished our Survival Guide and I am very excited that the kids are all three getting baptized on Sunday...we are also still working on our memory verse--- please don't judge me by this next set of pictures.. I allowed the kids to use the Nerf guns to "shoot" the reference for each verse we are learning... it got them into it.... I am sure there is something VERY fundamentally wrong with this...

Math- we did Math U See worksheets on Monday but this rest of the week we have done some fun math worksheets printed off the world wide web... math games, puzzles etc... all using the same skills as the MUS worksheets but just a little bit of fun! We are drilling multiplication facts, mainly for speed at this point and starting Emily!

English- We wrote paragraphs this week and continued work on topic sentences.

History- We are at War-- brother against brother...patriot against patriot... fellow country men against fellow countrymen. Yes, the civil war is at hand.

We learned about:
Sojourner Truth
John Brown
Election of 1860
secession
Confederate States of America
Confederate Acts
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's Inaugural Address
after math of address
Fort Sumter
call to arms NORTH and SOUTH
more secession
naval blockades
moving of confederate capitols
Jefferson Davis
length of civil war
Virgina split
and even more secession!

We have also continued reading Across Five Aprils

and played this new history card game I bought at The Children's Museum

Top Trumps Presidents

Science- we have reviewed most of this week but began reading our next lesson on Thursday and will do an experiment with Daddy over the weekend!

BTW... the MASS= how much it weighs was a topic of conversation.. mass does not equal how much it weighs but how much matter it is comprised of... just so you know I am teaching them accurately! :0)

Our atomic model

Skills- haven't picked up much in this area BUT are hammering out chores and stuff right now. We did however use clay for art-- can we count that as skill--- AND we evacuated a building on Wed for a fire, does that count as skill? oh and the girls baked and embroidered with mom on Friday!

Art- studying Remington and started our clay sculpture and baked it and then on Thursday we used the hardened clay to make a mold in soft clay and poured plaster of Paris into that mold making our ART! On Friday we painted it....

Composer-- still listening to Franz Liszt .. made a small lap book (really should be considered a notebook page!) of his life and accomplishments.

Matt drew this for me as we were listening to the music... VERY cute! :0)

Stop with the worry...

2011-10-27T09:53:00.001-05:00

There are three particular situations right now that I find myself worrying about... two of which DO not really even have anything to do with me but yet I am worrying about it. I mean it touches and affects my life but I have no power over it.... does that make sense. I really need to LAY IT DOWN. I cannot continue worrying about things.... even if I DO have control over soemthing I still need to stop worrying. So here are some scriptures that I am meditating on....

Cast all your anxiety on him

because he cares for you.

(1 Peter 5:7)

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matthew 6:34)

Do not fret-it leads only to evil.

(Psalm 37:8)

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

(Luke 10:41-42)

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

(Luke 12:22-23)

So do not worry, saying "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

(Matthew 6:31-32)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:6-7)

The Lord watches over all who love him.

(Psalm 145:20)

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has

been pleased to give you the kingdom.

(Luke 12:32)

Don't be afraid; just believe.

(Mark 5:36)

When I am afraid, I will trust in you.

(Psalm 56:3)

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust

and not be afraid.

(Isaiah 12:2)

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

(Psalm 34:4)

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything.

(Philippians 4:5,6)

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

(Psalm 46:2-3)

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever

trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

(Proverbs 29:25)

Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the

faith of the gospel without being frightened in any

way by those who oppose you.

(Philippians 1:27-28)

Wordless Wednesday....

2011-10-26T09:42:00.001-05:00

Give a goat...

2011-10-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

So the kids and I poured over our World Vision magazine today and decided what we are saving for! So exciting.

The kids opted to save $160 dollars towards their "gifts". They have 52 days to save! We told them that they have to earn or donate the money themselves either by doing jobs, "saving" by not buying something or by giving money that is their own to give. We wanted them to "feel" the give this year, does that make sense... so far our giving has been a family affair but with Dave and I footing the bill and I think the kids need to learn about sacrificial giving by actually GIVING something of themselves or giving up something they want.

(picture credit to world vision.org)

With the $160.00 the kids will give the gift of

13 animals (10 ducks, one chicken and two rabbits)

$25.00 towards helping a disabled person get a wheelchair or other need

2 soccer balls

and mosquito nets for a whole family

We reminders of what we are saving for and how long we have to do it on the wall and started our jar out with $3.00 dollars already!

Weekly Wrap Up: Day 48-51 (the boring one with no pics)

2011-10-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

I am not going to wrap this up by day but give summary's of where we are at in each subject... One reason is to put on paper where I think we are and what I need to focus on when I do lesson plans this week for the next 6 weeks. WE are completely OFF any schedule I had with packing, moving, unpacking, unexpected trips, migraines and camping. But it is all good right!

Bible:

We are still working through our Survival Guide book... we are almost done but behind on our verse memorization. the kids know them pretty well but are not doing well with reference. So this week we are buckling down and working on WHERE the verses they have memorized are in the Bible .

They are reviewing their cards, reviewing with each other and we have tried playing a few games to review. I gave a "verse" test on Friday and they have made a lot of progress!

We should finish this by the end of next week. After that we will start our New Testament study--- which I am VERY excited about! We will focus on the Life OF JESUS.

I need to find new devotionals for the kids so am searching the wide world web for ideas.

English-

Matt and Kate are on lesson 14--- we will begin hitting this harder. I don't really care that we are behind but still want to just move through it, so I will do this 3 to 4 times a week instead of 2-3 times

We have started paragraphs and discussed main ideas and topic sentences.

Emily- likewise

All About Spelling:

We are on STEP 15. I would also like to keep this flowing so moving on! I have seen improvement in Emily's spelling but still not in Matt--- I am unsure what to do at this point (BRENDA- any clue?)

Math- we are doing review worksheets printed out from Math U See.com right now and will order their new books after November 1... we are also drilling flashcards (have been since before the move) and playing math games!

History--- this has been sooo put on hold but hopefully next week we will get back on track. We have finished Uncle Tom's Cabin and listened to Abraham Lincoln and the Heart of America by Jim Weiss. We are now starting as a read aloud Across Five Aprils and Kate and Matt will be reading My Brother Sam is Dead.

Other subjects: any other subject has REALLY been put on hold as I have struggled to only do the basics if any.. but this week we started back up with our ARTIST study and COMPOSER study--

art: We are learning about Fredric Remington and working on making a sculpture using plaster mold and then painting it...

Music: Our composer is Franz Liszt...(LIST- for those uninformed peeps who don't know how his name is pronounced--- I HAD TO GOOGLE IT.) feel. so. uncultured.

Skills: we are still not doing skills but this week we are working on our NEW schedule, routines and chore charts for the new house! Even when I don't keep a schedule or routine perfectly ... it is still there in the background... helping me keep things in check... so I am ready to get back to it!

This is blog worthy.....

2011-10-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

Garner 2011

2011-10-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

rocks

scenery

hawks

deer

trees

fresh air

smooth pebbles

trickling streams

soaring birds

scurrying rabbits

sticks

rock jumping

wet jeans

slippery rocks

climbing

fire

marsh mellows

early rising

card games

french toast

dessert

hard beds

bathrooms and spiders

cactus

river bed

hill country

flashlights

Nerf war

family time

tag

park rangers

chasing

night drive

raccoons

water shoes

bathing suits

goggles

towels

rapids

tubes

picture taking

dirty kids

laughing

playing

minnow catching

scooters

scraped knees

teasing

park 20 mph speed limit

Old Baldy

hiking

kayak

swim suits

back packs

t-shirts

packing and unpacking

rope

wet towels

dirty feet

chasing

screaming

Monopoly

coffee and creamer

Dominoes

crock pots

knitting

crafting

Wi-Fi

gas fill ups

sleeping bags

crazy kids running around

flip flops

sliding rocks

lightening bugs

crickets

chili

low cell phone coverage

knife

whittling

Lego playing

craft time

30 minute drive to town

sunset

sunrise

screens on windows

cool night air

hoodies

card playing

wind in your hair

band aids

insect stings

bike riding

long walks

water bottles

puzzles

jokes

teasing

ants

Kaitlin and the EWOK-- Molly

2011-10-13T10:20:00.001-05:00

quick 1600 mile drive this weekend...

2011-10-12T16:22:00.000-05:00

We made an unplanned/ quick trip to Missouri this past weekend. We left Friday night at 7:30 drove till 3:30 and slept in Little Rock... headed out the next morning and got to Union, Missouri around 5:00.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Sarah, Robbie and the kids- although Robbie had to work most of the time....

This is the Emily Jean GIRL---- 4 years old.

This is the Ethan Drake BOY--- just turned two!

It was just Dave and myself for the trip so we had HOURS in the car to ourselves... it was nice.

We haven't been away for that many days in a really, really long time and we enjoyed it.... even as spontaneous as it was...

Dave and I stayed at their place and Emily Jean had to sleep with her GANDMA.... good times.

Sarah and I cut Ethan's hair (see the first pics and then later pics), it wasn't the best job as he was screaming and wiggling ALOT but hey it got cut!

Emily and GANDPA worked on getting us REDBOX and ice cream and had to go shopping for batteries for her computer-- THAT is what GANDPA's are for, right!

Sarah and I went to the grocery store on Sunday night and bought up supplies and got her 8 freezer meals ready.... in record time. So she has at least 8 easy meals plus their leftovers for the next couple of weeks!

We left Missouri Monday at 1:30 and ended up driving straight through and getting home at 4:30 on Tuesday morning--- we were exhausted!

Now to pack and ready stuff for four days of camping at Garner....

Whewww... I am gonna need some vacation from my vacations! :0)

St. Francis Sanctuary for wolves

2011-10-09T10:07:00.000-05:00

Kaitlin and mom went to a wolf sanctuary on Saturday-- it is located in Montgomery County. They had an annual open house type event and Kaitlin got to pet a wolf! Very exciting for the girl!

Pinterest... my first attempt at something I found on Pinterest. #1

2011-10-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

I love Pinterest. I mean love. However I dont want it to JUST be a digital binder full of ideas I love but NEVER do! So I am trying to actually DO the wonderful, neat, amazing, ingenius things I PIN!

So try number one.... with many, many more on the way.

Through the Years Thursday... Garner 2008

2011-10-06T10:24:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday...

2011-10-05T10:54:00.002-05:00

Radically Saved...

2011-10-04T13:55:00.000-05:00

Saturday night we went to see Carman at a church in Pasadena... if you are unaware of Who Carman is... YOUTUBE is your friend. We are huge fans of Carman--and have seen him a few times in concert, own all his Cd's and grew up singing Radically Saved and The Champion.

Here is Matt standing with the other MEN of God who stood up, unashamed and proclaimed they loved Jesus.... LOVE IT! Matt who rarely ever sings at church and is a quiet worshiper--- got completely into the whole concert and I LOVED. EVERY. MINUTE. OF. IT.

I don't believe that all Christianity is based on feelings and I don't believe that it needs to be all hype-- but I will tell you I DO believe in our Sons and Daughters getting excited about the God we worship.

I do believe in our Sons and Daughters seeing us raise our hands to Jesus and praise His Holy Name.... however I do that at church, up alone in the balcony, at home and in my car (one handed).... I can praise His name anytime--- not just in a hyped up concert, but it was exciting to see the kids excited about Jesus.

We had a wonderful time and so enjoyed his message and his music.... here is a taste of a quiet worship song of Carmans

and also one of my favorites The Champion---

if you go listen to YouTube make sure and listen to Lazarus.... also a favorite

oh and Sunday's On the Way-- another favorite... NEVER mind just listen to them all!

School room unpacked and ready...

2011-10-03T21:22:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have zero excuses tomorrow! The school room is 100% ready to use for learnin'...

For those who don't know or cannot visualize-- this is the large "game" room upstairs.

We don't have all the bookshelves we need and about 40% of the books are still packed but all my "schooling" books and stuff are out.

We will get two more cheap bookshelves after the 15th and then wait for the rest until after Jan.

The keyboard is just set on Emily's desk right now... it is not always out.

Also the "entertainment area" will change in Jan-- all the white bookcases will go to Kate's room and we will have a black 8 square shelf (like the one under the window) there in their place.

I don't have everything exactly where I want but mostly things are good.

In Jan all the pets will be in Kaitlin's room also...

So there is the new school room--- Look for a Weekly Wrap Up on Friday of all the learnin that took place!

Marbles and Matter and Molecules....

2011-10-01T10:04:00.000-05:00

We went to the Children's Museum on Friday for a little while---- we headed to the other side of the museum where we never end up because the kids get sucked in to Metropolis. It was fun-- we worked together to build a Marvelous, Majestic, Marble Masterpiece.....

Next we went to make up molecules in the lab....

Goodbye Heights House....

2011-09-30T23:55:00.000-05:00

We have loved out little adventure in the city... and I feel like that was what it was. We loved the neighborhood, we loved the "feel", we loved our park, we loved a LOT about the house, we loved the area, we loved how close Dave was to work, we loved that we were so close to the church, we loved being by the library and walking the path to Target...

Yes, we have loved our little city adventure...

Onwards to a new adventure....

Wordless Wed-- or at least almost wordless

2011-09-28T10:51:00.001-05:00

Whewwww...

2011-09-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

Okay so we are moved..... again with the whewww.

I will say that we hired movers... my family decided that they would chip in if they didn't have to lug the contents of a three bedroom house out of said house and into different two story house!

But.... I have still moved, packed, shuffled, unpacked, shuffled some more, re- moved, shifted around, carried, hoisted, lugged more boxes, book cases, crates, tubs and containers than I care to THINK about right now... or ever again!

I am tired... my body doth protest.

None the less... it is done, I mean I have to unpack... and in three months re- pack a fair amount that we unpacked so that we can move, shuffle, unpack, shift around, carry, hoist and lug the boxes, book cases, crates, tubs and containers AGAIN.

But who is focusing so much on the future.. I want to live in the NOW! :0)

So for the now... I will unpack what we need:

toothbrushes, clothes, some toys and books and THE ENTIRE SCHOOL ROOM.

I will say that I am ready to get back to learnin! Ready to snaz up some lesson plans and put those kids minds to work as much as their muscles have been put to work lately!

I need to create! Remember last year when I itched to craft... well the time is here again. I have some cool things PINNED on Pinterest I am going to try my hand at. I see lap books and a unit study in our future and I am ready for some PHYSICS experiments-- Brenda!

American History: Week 22-26

2011-09-22T09:14:00.001-05:00

We have moved on towards the Civil War....

these past few weeks we have studied:

Texas revolution and entrance to US
adding of new territories and states

The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Missouri Compromise of 1850
The Kansas/ Nebraska Act
presidents- Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce
abolitionists
Dred Scott case
Harriet Tubman
Levi Coffin and the Underground Railroad
The Fugitive Slavery Act
The beginning of the Supreme Court
The Know Nothing Party, the Free Soilers Party, the Whig party and how they all became the Republican Party (not the one we know today!)
secession

We have studied the beginning of the Oregon Trail
Pioneers, with food, activities and books.

and we began reading Uncle Tom's Cabin (abridged version)

Whewww. :0)

Catch up.. very random.

2011-09-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

We introduced the kids to Pinkie and the Brain. It makes me happy.

I worked on my macro setting.... can't get my focus right. (((sigh)))

the kids were in the FASCAR activity for Word of Life program at church-- it was great, Dave had as much fun as the kids. :0)

We are packing...

and packing...

and packing!

Emily had her eye appointment and she has progressed SO much that her doctor took her off patching for 3 months and on Dec 20 when we go back if she has maintained her progress she gets to stop patching for another 3 months... if she has regressed, we will start patching again. She is very excited to have a break!

As a reward/ treat I took the kids to the Chocolate Bar in the VillageArcade.. YUMMO. Matt decided to have Swirl (which is next door to the Chocolate Bar), Kaitlin had ice cream, two scoops and Emily decided on design your own chocolate bar--- she chose white chocolate with gummy bears, gummy worms and marshmallows. She enjoyed it!

And then today we went to see the A.D. Players Treasure Island... Emily's friend LR got to come along with us....

so there is my random catch up!

Ocean: week 8-10

2011-09-17T09:01:00.001-05:00

More about ocean life:

We studied about fish... we bought this fish who very sadly died two days later...we are a death sentence to pets.

We learned swim bladders and did an experiment to learn about how they work.

We learned about different size and shapes and how they are distinct to each fish and how they live....

and dot arted some fish...

We took a field trip to an aquarium store-- cheap field trip and saw all the different kinds of fish!

We watched a movies...The Incredible Mr. Limpet

We of course did all our notebooking...

After fish we are skipped ahead to coral reef's...

Weekly Wrap Up: Day 31-40--- the one that is boring with NO pictures....

2011-09-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

We had a light week this time...

Monday---

this was Kaitlin's first day of choir but there was a parents meeting (which I later found out isn't till the 12th) so we left early but then Matt spilled gasoline all over him so we came back home and left again for choir.. just one of those things!

Had choir.

Left for a funeral all the way in Friendswood-- choir is at the Beltway and 45 north.. so it was quite the drive... by the time we got home from the funeral I was DONE and the school day never got started!

Tuesday...
basics

Wednesday...
we got some school done in the morning but had history and pretty much straight to church from there... so another partially lost day. :0)

Thursday...

We got started late after telling the kids we were moving... and got stuck on some English problems and then Matt's handwriting and seriously by the end of all that I WAS DONE. Later we picked up math and reading but that was it! Oh and Emily reached the castle in her typing program which is a REALLY. BIG. DEAL. for her and she was totally excited!

We watched Summer Magic with Haley Mils in honor of us "flitterin'... packin up our stuff and flitterin' far"... although it's not that far!

Emily got a number of consequences.. she was in EXTRA rare form! But ended the day well and I even felt sad when I had to put her to bed at 7:45 for an earlier consequence.... SO. HARD.

Friday... I dont even have anything to write for today!

I wrote this on the 2nd and never posted it. We SHOULD be on day 45 and I would say counting some REAL learning we are on day 40-- we will just go with that M'Kay!

We started Physics and had a history lesson which I will post separately about...

We have done math, spelling but not everything, every day, and we are behind in most things...after the move I will re-evalute our "time off" and adjust as needed... I had given us basically from before Thanksgiving until Jan 3 off so we are still good!

I am going to pick up a consumer math workbook and do some "money" stuff, all the kids need to know how to handle a money box-- we had some issues at the garage sale! :0) I love "finding" our deficiencies that way vs a TAKS test! I see an area we need to work on and we do!

So anyway this is my weekly "s" wrap up for three weeks... it will get better after the move!

guess I shouldn't take too long a break on schoolin'

2011-09-15T11:02:00.002-05:00

SOOOOO....

2011-09-14T08:47:00.000-05:00

I am sorry I am neglecting you so much poor blog... you are having to pay the price for my overload and I apologize to you immensely! I promise once I am moved that "I'm gonna hug you and kiss you and love you forever"... well at least I will actually blog, m'kay.

packing box number 5,432,345 today out of 78,345,234. Gotta get to it.

But first lesson plans for the day:

School today: measurement (room design), volume (how much will fit in this box), colors (paint samples for room), community helpers (post office for address change), math (if I drive my vehicle back and forth to Pasadena twice today what will my gas mileage be), logic (estimate how much we will make at the garage sale), science (mark all matter at the garage sale with a price sticker), consumer math (attempt to find a way to stretch non existent budget for two more days), PE (run up and down stairs a zillion times bringing stuff to the garage sale)

Do you think I can count today as a school day?

okay... again.

2011-09-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

Just so everyone knows... I am packing. That's all folks.

I am a little over my head right now but I KNOW that there is a clear, clear date where a HUGE part of the overload will be done. So that helps.

A lot.

I will say that now that I have actually started packing I feel better. I mean there is still a lot to do but since I am taking action... I just feel better!

random... what would you do if?

2011-09-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

If I had the capacity to INSTANTLY change one thing about myself it would be my weight.. closely followed by my teeth.

If I had to grab 5 things, not counting mammals of any kind.. I would grab: the external hard drive, my folder of important papers, my box of negatives that have not been scanned in, as much school books/ stuff I could handle and ME some clothes because it is hard to dress a fat person (I am just sayin).

These choices are assuming that my purse and camera are already safe in the car! :0)

If I could do ANYTHING right this instant I would book a vacation.

If I count days already booked full of stuff and take out time for schooling, eating, sleeping and other such normal day activities... I have 9 days of packing.

If I could eat ONE thing every day that did not cause me to lose weight or any other problems it would be ROCKY ROAD ice cream.

If I had the ability to have ONE thing fix itself perfectly every day on my kids it would be their hair- always neat, brushed, braided and cut etc. (material not character)

If I had 1000.00 to spend on ANYTHING, but it HAD to be for fun... I would eat out and take a mini vacation!

If I could stop time for 20 minutes every day at what point would I stop it... maybe Dave leaving for work?

If I could instantly change a bad character trait in myself: anxiety.

If I had to eat at ONE restaurant every day for the rest of my life it would be...Crackerbarrel (such a wide variety)

If I could pick ONE tradition I wish we had started when the kids were little and kept up CONSISTENTLY it would be... family devotion time.

If I could still be friends with one person who I am no longer friends with...Amy Kulik.

If I could turn back time, if I could find a way I'd take back those words that hurt you and you'd stay... just seeing if you are really reading!

If I could go back in time I would make sure I paid better attention in English.

If I could go back in any time period and just be a "fly on the wall"... I think I would choose to hear Jesus preaching or see one of his miracles performed.

If I could learn a new skill easily it would be: photography!

If I could buy one thing for decor in my house right now it would be frames....

If I could get a gift card to decorate my house right not it would be to Ikea.

If I could experience going to any of the wonders of the world I would go to the Great Wall of China.

If I could retire anywhere in Texas it would be near Garner State Park.

If I had to listen to a sound all the time I would like to be the ocean (minus seagulls and people).

If I could have an unending source of something coming in to my home it would be sonic cokes or electricity.

If I could sing in any Disney musical it would be The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.

If I had the opportunity to change how someone feels about ONE thing... I would possibly change Matts eating habits. ;0)

Wordless Wednesday....

2011-09-07T15:12:00.001-05:00

I mean really what words are necessary... doesn't everybody have a daughter who ties herself to their bunk bed in order to achieve the ballet stance they would like?

Don't they??? Don't they???

“Size matters not, ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?”

2011-09-06T18:50:00.000-05:00

So Yoda says.......

with this child I believe it.....

okay....

2011-09-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

So all that was accomplished on Saturday was us getting boxes (and visiting with my SIL which was nice!). But really that is all that happened.

Sunday we got home from church and it is like this despondency washed over me. The house was not cleaned up and the thought of starting to pack while the house was not cleaned up just freaked me out. We started cleaning up and that led to where do we need to take this, and put this aside to give to them, and oh here a library book that was lost so go return it, and oh we have to do this before we do that....

and my attitude got more and more unsettled.

So Dave and I left.. we gave the kids their jobs (clean up their rooms) and we hit the highway.

We drove thru Sonic and I kid you not their card machine was down! I am NOT sad to be leaving this SONIC! Last week after running out of coke.. they gave me a drink with NON Sonic ice. REALLY!

We stopped by CVS to get a few cards to send and just drove around.

We got a text that went like this...

Kate: what is em supposed to be doing
Me: cleaning her room
Kate: she is helping Matt
Me: is her room done?
Kate: no
Me: Why is she helping Matt?
Kate: he is paying her in Legos

and there you have it.. Dave said very enterprising but not gonna work today.

So we headed home.

Sent Dave out to get stamps to MAIL said cards and return the library books we found (stupid library with their outrageous lost book replacement cost..... its a racket I tell you!)

I made dinner.... threw away Matt's gasoline soaked clothes from last week-- they were a lost cause.

The girls started packing some of their stuff but honestly there were so many questions I probably could have done it my self faster: but breathed through it and let them at.

SKILL LEARNED: How to use a tape runner and put boxes together!

All I can say is I am REALLY glad Dave has off tomorrow for Labor Day because we have a lot of labor we need to do around here!

:0)

Ultimately everything boils down to a choice...

2011-09-01T12:26:00.000-05:00

We are going to move in the next 30 days back to Pasadena... we will be renting mom and dads house from them..

Big changes are happening.

It is not really a 100% perfect decision for us but we are just simply looking at it as a choice with benefits.

Some of those benefits include:

a large house
3 bathrooms (we currently have 1)
a large school room/ game room
a bedroom for each kid (not necessary in life but we are happy about it currently)
closer to some family
close to some of my friends
a POOL
a large master bedroom and bathroom

did I say three bathrooms?

Negatives are:

we like where we are living (not in LOVE with my house) just like the area and close proximity to Dave's work.
I have gotten involved over here and will need to keep some of those commitments for at least this school year.
Dave driving to work
Dave not coming home for lunch
Dave not being 10 minutes away
farther from church-- where we will stay put for now
NOT 5 minutes from a Whole Foods ;0) I just like SAYING that!

So there you have it.... our current choice! We are excited... as usually most positive changes in life bring some excitement! The kids are ECSTATIC. Beyond ECSTATIC.

Hence these pictures...

Wordless Wednesday....catch up.

2011-08-31T09:03:00.000-05:00

GOHSSG Swim Party August 2011

2011-08-31T00:20:00.001-05:00

For those who do not know GOHSSG (Garden Oaks Home School Support Group) is our support over here in North Houston! This was our first major event with the group... the back to school swim party!

It was very fun.. I am very glad we went. The kids had a blast and we at least got to see some new friends that we will be sharing activities with throughout the year.

Please take note of the second column of pictures.. that would be Emily achieving one FULL rotation on her flip! Whoo hoo. Larry, Emily's friend Lauren Rose and a fellow church member gave her a few tips and she DID it!!!

On the bottom right side is my friend Julie--who has a blog but DOESN'T blog.. go leave her some comments on her last blog entry to make her feel good!!!

On the bottom left hand side would be Kaitlin underwater which I just happen to think is the COOLEST picture... however not as COOL as my bloggy friend at Family Team, but I am sure hers was an underwater camera!

And Matt is just well CUTE as can be in the picture of him!!! He is not always cooperative in my picture taking so I am always pleased to get a good shot of him!!!

One Thousand Gifts.. A practice in Gratitude- 12

2011-08-29T10:27:00.001-05:00

327. for a paycheck, and for wisdom to use it wisely
328. for two excited children showing me their nature find
329. for the sound of the back door squeaking.... kids playing outside
330. kids understanding about no donut hole monday...
331. little girl with wild morning hair and sleep eyes
332. tennis shoes lasting a few more weeks
333. sleeping on fresh, clean sheets last night
334. dinner out with friends
335. breakfast with just Emily this morning-- girl talk
336. sweet little toes in my face this morning
337. splashes, sun and swimsuits
338. a morning all to myself
339. loved one coming out of surgery fine
340. a blessing being able to barter with services instead of money
341. for a special two days with my girl and seeing the joy of meeting new friends
342. a dad at home willing to work on school things with the kids
343. paper airplanes shown by an excited son when I walked in the door...
344. driving for the first time in a LONG time by myself (for a long ways)
345. a lost library book found that I don't have to pay for
346. a laptop to use for the kids extra school stuff-- a scheduling blessing
347. a great coupon trip
348. rocky road icecream
349. a new recipe that hubbie likes
350. friends..
351. being able to bless a friend by doing her a BIG favor (Becky-- I love you!)
352. my new came3ra

Spa Day....

2011-08-27T23:49:00.000-05:00

Well.. Becky and Joel went and got themselves stuck in New York because of the hurricane-- all planes were grounded and so they rented a car started driving to Texas! They are currently in Kentucky-- only 15 plus hours to go! Mary Faith is still here and has taken the change in plans smashingly! Really I am proud of her!

The girls decided to make a spa in my bedroom... Dave and I have always wanted to experience getting high and well I think we might have! :0) Just kidding... but I am sure we were close!

They were being so sweet! Each painting the others nails, rubbing feet, applying make up and arm sparkles... it was a girly, girl time!