Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Social Network Christmas

I just had to share what greeted me on Facebook this morning. Such a simple and yet profound way of presenting Jesus' birth and the events leading up to it. Could you just imagine? I can so totally picture Joseph and Mary facebooking if Jesus' birth was this year rather than just over 2,000 years ago. The little flirtation at the beginning and the "so-and-so likes this" comments throughout the video were adorable. My boys and I have a joke about being "facebooked" when they do something cute or silly. "Don't put that on facebook!" is a common plea in our home. So imagining Mary changing her profile picture to include her new baby, friends' comments (hurtful & supportive), and Joseph typing out the name of his precious newborn, brought this amazing, life-changing, world-altering, prophesy-predicted Event that much more to life.
I just made my boys watch it with me. My 9 year old had to read some of the parts to his little brothers when I could not because of the lump in my throat.
My mother and I have had this silly unofficial contest of trying to make each other cry (in a good way) and as I hit the "Publish Post" button below I will be wondering how many of my readers will cry (in a good way).




Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas Trees

A friend of mine wrote about Christmas Trees on her blog and as I was adding a comment I started remembering and writing all sorts of things about my past Christmas trees. My comment turned into a post. And here it is.

What is your ideal Christmas Tree? Real or plastic? Do you bundle up and head out to the wilderness in search of the perfect tree to cut down yourself or do you shop at a lot in town? White or green, if fake? Do you like colored lights or white lights? Are your ornaments predominantly homemade or store bought? Does your Christmas Tree have a theme? I have a dear friend who wants to have a Charlie Brown tree this year. I'd love to see that!


After about 8 years of fake trees, mostly with colored little tags at the base of the branches so you can tell which hole to fit them into, we are finally getting a real tree this year!
During our first several years of marriage hubby and I did not have much money. We rarely felt that purchasing a live tree was something we could afford so we used hand-me-down fake ones. One year my hubby and his brother surprised me with a real tree. We didn't have a truck but Dan did so he met us at a tree lot. The tree lot was next to the grocery store I was told we were heading to. Dan has been in Heaven for over nine years now. That December, seeing him standing there by those trees, is one of my favorite memories of him. He was always so giving.

I love the elegant look of white lights on a tree, but as long as I have kids in the house I just have to have colored lights. I tried white lights a few years ago but it just didn't seem as cheery.


Tinsel is not my favorite. Last year I purchased a couple of boxes of the silvery stuff with the intent of using it to hide the ugly little tags and other monstrosities on our ugly plastic tree, but I was afraid my kids would eat it and die, so I never put it on. My dad always liked tinsel. My mom always hated it. One year Dad threw tinsel on the entire left half of the tree. What a compromise!

I love my ornaments. I love unwrapping them one at a time relishing the memories of how they came to be in my home. There were a few years when I was single that I thought I wanted a cat-themed tree. Thus many of my ornaments are cat figurines. My husband grew up on a farm and my sisters used to tease him about farm animals so for a few years we inadvertently collected little sheep ornaments. Our poor trees have never been themed and probably never will. It just may be impossible to have a single theme when most of the members of the family have ADD. "Look, a squirrel!"

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

New Directions Kind Of

I know I said no blogs until after NaNoWriMo, but I have a thought I wanted to be sure to follow up on in December.
First of all, I have written over 19,000 words. Woo Hoo! I am so proud of myself! It is hard to write a novel. I always just figured my biggest enemy was in not applying myself and not writing. But now that I am writing I am struggling with things like plots and character development. Since my novel is set in 17th century Ireland I am forced to do a ton of research while I am writing. And because the major premise is conflict between Protestant and Catholic characters how do I portray the truth without being judge-y? I have been consistently behind in my daily word count but I know I can still make it.
That was not my thought, but related somewhat. One of my biggest character flaws is laziness. I am great at coming up with ideas and I know what I should/need/want to do, I just don't. This writing business and actually being close to achieving such a huge goal has fired me up a bit.
Have you heard of Hannah Help Me? She is this mom who goes to other mom's homes and help them in their overwhelming lives. She sells a coaching program where she will send daily e-mails with a 5 minute video to help with everything from married life to budgets. All for only $39.95. I have been so tempted. I have at least 8 parenting books and more self-improvement books. I am a die-hard FlyLady fan.
The thing is, I know what I need to be doing. I plan to journal/journey starting in December, after I write 50,000 in my novel, in this blog about what I am doing/not doing to get my life on track. Putting God first, husband second, kids third. Budgeting, homeschooling, home-making, and you get to join in on the fun!
That's it until December. I have a house to clean and a novel to write. We have a pastor visiting from the other side of the country and members of our church have signed up to cook dinners and lunches for him this week. I signed up for tomorrow. Don't know why I did during NaNoWriMo. Don't know what I was thinking! Other than that it will be nice to meet him and kids will get to see service. Something they don't witness from me nearly often enough.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Snooze Buttons

My husband, after being told I was having girl problems, tried to smother them out of me with a pillow. Isn't he ever so helpful?

My friend overheard her four year old daughter telling her big sister in a warning tone, "Don't you shush me again!"

I have an associate who dabbles on the dark side. It used to really bother me. It still does, but not to the extent it once did.

What do these little accounts have to do with Snooze Buttons? Well, I'm glad you asked. My Bible Study this morning was about letting the Holy Spirit within you lead you. And after I fell asleep on the couch afterwards rather than dive into my day and get homeschooling going, and writing done, and morning routines, it occurred to me to ask; How many times do I feel the nudging of the Holy Spirit and ignore Him?

I smother those feelings, shush His voice, and as a result, things that should bother me don't.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

NaNoWriMo

I apologize about my lengthy absence. We were planning a trip to Texas and Texas was the only thing on my mind. I did not want the world (at least not local criminal types) to know we were going to be out of town. We're back now and had a BLAST! We visited hubby's brother and family, went to the Texas State Fair and The Alamo. On our way we explored Bent's Old Fort in La Junta. On our way home we explored Carlsbad Caverns and Santa Fe. Our little GPS, who my crazy hubby uploaded a squirrel's voice to, told us we drove for 52 hours in our 9 day trip. The kids were wonderful in the car. I guess that would be a miracle considering how long we were driving. Hotel rooms were a different story. They were wanting to be awake and doing things WAY before we were. It was also tough getting them to stop fighting over blankets and pillows before falling asleep. Overall it was a wonderful vacation. Here are some of the highlights:
  • The squirrel stuck in the Nuvi - AKA the GPS with a squirrel voice. Bob had also uploaded a "scary" voice but he had a British accent and was NOT scary. :) Bob promptly switched to the squirrel who randomly exclaimed such things as, "If you see a squirrel run in front of the car, it's probably my uncle Frank. He's crazy like that!" and "Do you think the gas station would sell walnuts?" and "Sometimes I get a little distracted... Hey do you want some peanut brittle?" All in this cute, sometimes grating, squirrel voice. When bro-in-law drove us around in Ft. Worth he did not appreciate the squirrel. He made disparaging remarks when he veered off course and caused squirrel to exclaim, "Oh NUTS! Don't worry, I'll get us out of here!" Poor squirrel.
  • Rhianna did not like driving in the dark. "I want to go home and watch Dora!" "I don't like the freaky stuff!" Daniel had asked her about Texas, "Do you like Texas, Ri-Ri? What do you think of Texas?" "I don't like Texas. There's no sun!"
  • Mike bought us fudge. Yum? No! It was HOT! What was hilarious is that his piece was not hot and he did not mean to buy hot. So he says. He did seem genuinely surprised at our reactions. Brendan was fanning his mouth. Rhianna had tears in her eyes, fist in her mouth and was drooling. Later we walked past another candy store and Ashton told Mike, "No fudge!" It was pretty funny.
  • Carlsbad Caverns is a MUST SEE. It was a little disconcerting walking underground. Daniel was quite nervous and Bob talked to him on the way down. I was shaky and did some self-talking myself. But the scary part was brief. The lighting, shapes, colors, crevices, and tranquil pools were breathtaking. It was amazing. God was there. The boys asked how long we had been underground after about 2 hours. I reminded them about watching the miners in Chile coming out of the mine after being in there for 69 days. Just no comparison.
  • Some pictures below.
We are all happy to be back home. Well, except Bob who had to fly to California two days after we got back and is currently driving 12 hours in one of their new police cars. 7 states in a week. Poor thing.

So that is why I haven't blogged recently. And this post's title is why I will not be blogging in November. November is National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo. I am fixin' to write me a novel! It will be like number 4 in my priority list; after Bible study, Bob, and homeschooling. But I figure since I will be cutting out Facebook (cleaning), blogging (reading & writing) and movies (cooking), I should be able to reach the 50,000 words.










Friday, October 1, 2010

The Birthday Princess

Our little Princess is 3 years old today! Isn't she a doll? I need to remind myself that sometimes. She and I actually had quite a little discussion yesterday about how it was the last day she would be 2, so "NO MORE Terrible Twos!"

This afternoon I went to a neighborhood dollar store to find a princess doll for her cake and a homeless couple got in line behind me. Have you heard that the olfactory sense is one that provokes the strongest memories? Well this was one of those times! Reminded me so much of when my little one and her brother first came to live with us just over two years ago. Their biological mother has been homeless for most of her life. I was told that the little family had spent the night in a tent once because they did not get to the shelter in time. A baby girl and her brother in a tent. Not for fun. I've been crying most of the day since the dollar store trip.


I have been thinking about her bio mom today. What is going on in her heart? I wonder about her little baby. He is less than a year old. Every time I hear about them they are just losing another house. And I wonder about her other boy. The one who entered our home and left, but will always be a part of us. And ...I can't go there. So I'll push it aside for a time and save it for another day.


Back to the Birthday Princess... I could not find the right princess doll at the dollar store so I went to K-mart where images of the dollar store homeless couple followed me and I came home with a Disney Princess comforter when I had already gone over budget.


I can't take away her past. I can't let her live with her biological mother and biological brothers. I can't guarantee her a Happily Ever After. But I can buy her a princess comforter for her birthday. And way more important, I can teach her about Jesus and assure her that she is not just our little Princess, but she is God's Princess, too.



Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Few Little Discoveries

I went to my first Writer's Conference this weekend! It was affirming, inspiring, and free. I chose not to go the the afternoon session I had originally signed up for; marketing and publishing. I chose instead to attend the panel on writing different genres. I loved it and learned a lot. I even took away a few blogging tips. A friend of mine attended the marketing/publishing session and came away slightly overwhelmed and discouraged. I was so glad I didn't go to that one. I am not in that place in my writing. It would be good to actually finish a piece first, don't you agree?

This afternoon, as I was looking around my living room, trying to figure out how to make it more Nester'ly, it occurred to me that I am slightly overwhelmed and discouraged in my attempts at decorating my home because I am not in that place in my home-management.

I am closer to this:



I dream of this:

Tivoli Console Table, Artisanal Black stain


The blogs and television shows that I am thoroughly enjoying reading and watching are these:

inspired room

stash

DIY Blog Cabin 2010


The blogs and television shows that I will benefit more from at this point are perhaps these:


So now I am off to de-clutter our home-school table. My decorator dreams will be placed on the back burner until I have a better handle on the management part of keeping our home. Thanks for letting me share. I'd love to hear suggestions for other blogs and t.v. shows that I would enjoy or benefit from. Does anyone want to share their dreams and realities?



Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday CHAT

I would love it if you would CHAT with me every Monday.

C = Challenge
H = Habit
A = Action
T = Time

Here's mine for this week.

Challenge: I just read The Nester's post this morning titled Meaningful Beauty. She offers a challenge to her readers: "My encouragement to you today is to be intenional about surrounding yourself with PERSONAL meaningful beauty." After I read that I walked around my house and found basically nothing, besides my books, that would qualify as "personal meaningful beauty." So that is my challenge this week. Purposefully place items around my home that would be meaningful to my family. I've been wanting to frame some of the kids' artwork.

Habit: Go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30.

Action: Go to the gym or walk up the neighborhood hill 3x this week.

Time: Something I desperately need to spend some time on today and possibly throughout the week is my form for our vacation. The school we signed up under this year will pay for part of our trip. It has to be pre-approved and I keep procrastinating.

I'll update on Thursday to let you know how I'm doing on my CHAT. I'd love to hear about some of your goals for the week.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

"I Saved His Name In My Heart."

While driving my seven year old home from his speech session this afternoon, I was trying to find out some of the kids' names in his group. He could only remember the two girls' names. Go figure! Then he says, "There was Adam. From a long time ago." "That was a long time ago." After he thought a moment he said, "I saved his name in my heart."
Isn't that beautiful?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Last Days of Summer

I am sitting on my Driveway Swing, (kind of like a porch swing, but it's in our driveway instead) watching my boys swim. The neighbor kids, poor little darlings, will be in school for another hour. We are so blessed! My hubby found a blow-up fighter jet (Gotta love Woot!) that all 3 of my boys are able to float on. Although currently the two youngest are on it and the oldest is "rocking" it.
I read a touching article on Heart Of The Matter this morning by Sheri Sears listing the reasons she homeschools. The point that I have been reflecting on ever since is:
  • I don’t want my children to grow away from each other as schools seem to promote. They need to know that while friends come and go siblings are forever.
So this day, probably one of our last that is warm enough for swimming, is extra sweet to me.


Sunday, September 12, 2010

All I Want is a Dress for a Little Girl!!!

Oh, and I don't want to pay $50 for one. Is that too much to ask? I invited my sister to go dress shopping at our local mall for my 3-year-old girl for her adoption next week. I thought it would be a simple task. But no! There were no cute, inexpensive dresses. There were plenty of skanky, expensive, grown-up, 80's punk-Cyndi-Lauper-ish, or just plain ugly ones. We finally found a cute one on clearance at Target. Yay! Should have gone there first.
And, of course, when I looked online to get pictures of some of the horrible dresses we found, see below, I found lots of adorable dresses and they were on sale, too. Figures.

Tiered Ruffle Dress

Saturday, September 11, 2010

When Mama Ain't Happy...

It's not that I'm not happy. It's just that I'm not happy. The difference is subtle but important.
My hubby and I can tell when we're in sync with each other. We finish each other's sentences. We crave the same foods. We want to watch the same kinds of movies. Then there are times when we're out of sync. We're off. Occasionally one of has to proclaim, "We're so off!" Well lately, we've been fine, but I've been off. I don't want to write. I've been sleeping 10+ hours a night. I've been napping.
Fortunately I know exactly the steps I need to fix the problem.

Read the Bible every day. Things are so much clearer and brighter when I start with God's Word.




Practice His presence throughout the day.

Practicing His Presence [Book]




Exercise at least 4 times a week.




Make and follow an eating plan according to my two favorite "diet" books.


I will be back to chipper self soon!
In the meantime, I will be writing more regularly.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Eyeballs... really, eyeballs!

My wonderful father watched the kids for me yesterday morning so I could go to my Optometrist appointment to fill my contact (or eye-tact as my 8 year old calls them) prescription. I tend to stretch out their use for as long as I possibly can. I confessed this to my new eye doctor and he told me exactly, in gory detail, why it is a bad idea to wear disposable contacts for months longer than they are intended to be worn. I won't give you all the details, but if you are interested, here is a link: http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/fungal-eye-infections.htm.
After looking through the 2nd or 3rd machine at my eyes he made an interesting comment, "I've been doing this for years and have seen hundreds of eyes. It never ceases to amaze me how different and yet how similar each one is." Not knowing his beliefs I hesitated a moment before asking, "Proof of a Higher Power, huh?"
"Exactly!" He told me that in one of his classes there was a discussion about evolution. Evolution in a science class, you ask? Seriously, this was good. There are apparently only six types of eyes on earth. Six! Well, in his class, they were wondering about the fact that the Giant Squid's eye is the same type as the rhinoceros or hippopotamus. His classmates were, "Wow, isn't evolution something?" And he was more, "Hello! This just screams Creator!" I'm paraphrasing the quotes, by the way.
I just love how Creator God works. I love how He put an eye, just one, in a giant squid, and gave it the same kind of eye as a pachyderm. Why? So doctors-in-training can see Him in a science class? So an Optometrist can casually mention to his patient that perhaps there is more to creation than random acts of morphing? Isn't He amazing?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

NOT Back-To-School

Not Back to School Blog Hop


Beginning our school day with PRAYER!























Reading...
(2nd picture - Daniel is so excited about learning how to read! I love that he showed his big brothers the word he figured out.)











Recess



Science - After drawing the butterflies the kids set them free in their own backyard!




We took a day off and went to the lake. Just because!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Back to School

I love this time of year. I love shopping for Back To School things: New crayons that smell so yummy, folders with pictures of adorable animals, mechanical pencils, Trapper Keepers.... Whoa! I just dated myself there, didn't I?
This is our first year of starting home schooling from the beginning. My sisters recently took my niece and nephew to do some big-city school clothes shopping. Lots of money was spent. Yet another public school tradition I don't miss. Well, maybe I miss it a little. But not my spending my grown up money on boys' jeans that are going to rip out in the knee within a month anyway! What I miss is being young again and having my mom and dad buy all my new school clothes. One of my fondest childhood memories is lying in bed at night planning my wardrobe for the first few days of school. My sister's and my conversation would have been similar to this:
"What are you going to wear on the first day of school?" I would whisper.
"My red corduroy jumper with the yellow flowers on the front and my yellow socks." My sister would excitedly reply. "What about you?"
"My blue and green striped shirt with the jeans that have the flowers at the bottom. What are you gonna wear the second day?"
We had at least the first three days planned out every year.
Every once in awhile I feel a bit guilty that I am depriving my kids of memories like that. Not that I can imagine my boys being that excited about what they will wear on days 1, 2, and 3. Although they do like getting dressed up for church. I just sometimes wonder if they will feel they missed out.
Then I look at those memories and traditions they will get to enjoy instead. Things like taking two weeks off from school to drive to Texas in the fall. Reading lessons in front of the fire place or snuggled up under a blanket on the couch. Learning fractions by baking cookies.
Are we crazy for doing this? Probably. I know we are doing the right thing, though. We have already grown closer as a family. My boys are not always excited about doing school work, but they are still happy that their mommy is their teacher.
And now we're off to attend a local Home Educator Conference!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Cop's Wife

I love my husband. I LOVE my husband! There hasn't been a man, since Louis L'Amour created his last hero-cowboy, who "works for the brand" like my husband does. There hasn't been a man, since John Wayne, who speaks his mind (and is usually right), like my husband does. There hasn't been a man, since the Marx Brothers, who makes me laugh like my husband does. I LOVE my husband.
Lately he has been coming home from work late. There have been extenuating circumstances. Mostly having to do with his first two traits mentioned previously. I admire him. I respect him. I love him. Or did I already write that? However, at the moment, as with many moments around evening-ish, an hour or so past when he is due home, I am mad at him. Because I am the wife of a cop, it is an emotional thing to be mad at my husband when he is late coming home from work. I know he's fine. Okay, I know he is probably fine. But he's a cop. What if instead of his patrol car pulling into the driveway, a different patrol car pulls in and two grim looking officers walk up to my door? A girl with an overactive imagination on the best of days can get quite carried away between the time a cop-hubby is supposed to be home and the time he finally arrives. When he does come home I'm torn between wrapping my arms around his waist in complete happy relief that he's safe and wrapping my hands around his neck to throttle him!
Anyone been there? My mother was the wife of a coal-miner and she totally relates!

On an unrelated note...
My eight-year-old son just ran to the window hollering, "Daddy!" It wasn't daddy. It was the Schwan's Man. My husband and I have a running joke about "the ice-cream man" being the "other man." I thought it was hilarious that my son did that! So what did I do? I shared the running joke and the funny son-hollering-"daddy" story with the poor ice-cream man. And now I'm blogging about it. Have I no shame?

Monday, February 22, 2010

Winter Blah-Blah-Blah Blues

Blog hopping can be a good thing and a bad thing. I am finding that many homeschooling mamas get a little less-than-enthused this time of year. One of my favorite things about blog hopping is that I love finding out that I am not the only one. After Christmas Break it was extremely difficult to get back into a school schedule. My kiddos want to play and I want to, well, blog hop. Hmmm.... and there's the bad! This is our first year of homeschooling and I am dizzy with all of the information out there in the Wonderful Wide Web. My latest curiosity is Workboxes. These could be just what this not-very-organized teaching mommy needs.

The original workbox system can be found here: http://www.workboxsystem.com/

A blog I've been exploring tonight with helpful information about workboxes is here: http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/inside-our-workboxes-photo-journal/

I am off to go plan for tomorrow. "I think I can... I think I can..." Chug, chug. Puff, puff. Up the hill I go...

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Goals With a Capital GO!



We all know that Super Woman is not real. I have not been affected by the illusion except in looking at the chasm of the woman I see myself as and the woman I so desperately want to become. This evening I decided to play with my markers and some blank pages from one of my kids' art tablets. I love color and the possibilities of a blank page thrill me. I pictured, today for the first time, a large gap between where I am and where I want to be. So I drew it.
I brought my just-sharpened pencil to the left side of the long bright page. I drew a frumpy, wrinkly, sad, frazzled, Me with a bad hair do, bushy eyebrows, five chins, and a little globe on one of my shoulders. On the right side I drew a skinny, poised, high-heeled, lady with an "S" written on her chest and her hair just so - the Me Who I Want To Be.
In one color of ink (I chose grey) I wrote words randomly around the Me on the left. Words like; not worthy, ugly, frazzled, out of shape, not dependable, messy, and whiny. Around the picture on the right I wrote (in red); super mommy, put together, wise, fit, thin, sweet, gentle, energetic, and others.
Writing down some of those words and phrases made me cringe and some made me giggle out loud. I was glad my children were occupied on the other side of the house. They don't need any more proof that their mama has lost her mind! It occurred to me that my self image is not realistic. What an a-ha, huh? I crossed out some of those things that are just not true. I crossed out such things as; stupid, not worthy, bad mom. I also added words to make some statements truer. For example, I inserted an "always" between "not" and "dependable." I added "often" to "late."
I did the same thing with those lofty red words on the right. If it was unrealistic or impossible I crossed them out. Super mom, young, perfect, and thin were some words that ended up with lines drawn through them. Then I circled those things that I figured I really already am, at least to some degree. I circled; insightful, creative, witty, and wise. I added "can be" to "organized" because I really sometimes can be! Really!
I was having so much fun and learning so much about myself that I almost forgot that chasm between the two. So in pencil (I didn't have enough room for ink!) I jotted down some ideas of what I thought might be keeping me from being who I want to be. It did not take very long because I was realizing that the real problem was that who I am now and who I want to be are the same person. Just needs some tweaking! I wrote, "bad habits, lack of good habits, poor me attitude, feeling of worthlessness, accountability or lack thereof, time, tired, lies (to myself), schedule, and kids not minding."
Those red words that were left I considered them to be wishes or goals, things I would like to see in myself. I grouped them and then grouped them again. I was able to narrow them down to 5 goals/wishes/ideals.
  1. Be Purposeful (from such words as ambitious, goal-achieving)
  2. Faithful (patient, kind, gentle, sweet, role-model)
  3. Energetic, Fit, Youthful (energetic, muscular)
  4. Dependable, Neat, Put Together (dependable, neat, put together)
  5. Author
All of my red words could be combined to fit into that small list. It was fun placing them in order. Being purposeful could sure help out in every area of my life so that came first. I waste a lot of time flitting from task to task without accomplishing much. I decided the second on my list ought to be Faithful. The logic here is a little different. Since "kindness, gentleness, and patience" are Fruits of the Spirit, I figured that these will be accomplished in spite of me not because of me. God will be doing the work for those particular objectives. Scary how my mind works sometimes!
I do realize that it won't be easy.
My final task was to revisit the chasm-causers like; bad habits, being tired, and having a "poor me" attitude. I wrote a brief to-do list.
  • Quit Whining!
  • Make a schedule (and stick to it!)
  • Set a time for sleeping and waking
  • Be honest with myself
  • Establish habits with end results in mind
No mystery. Not really. But by doing things backwards this way, I have been able to see more clearly how skewed my thinking has been.
And look! I'm blogging again! So I can cross off #5!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Back to Blogging!

Ahhhhh, I'd forgotten how good this feels! I just reread some of my posts and spent a few minutes catching up with some of my favorite bloggers. Our life has settle down a bit over the past couple of weeks. The house is almost in order. Still work to do, but that will always be the case around here. Homeschooling has had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. One thing that has surprised me is just how much I LOVE having my kids home all day. It can be hard and we get frazzled at times, but overall so much better than sending them off to school.
Here are a few snippets of what you can expect to read about over the next month or so.
* Homeschool
* Bible Study
* Foster/Adopt issues
* Writing
* Addictions - Facebook, Pepsi, Food
Kids are fighting, gotta run!