It is done

This is the archive of my blog posts. For newer blog posts click over to Keepers At Home.

Ch-Ch-Changes

In the next few days I am going to figure out how to archive all of my old posts and start over. I don't want to switch to a new blog name so I'll be doing some experimenting.
I want to get back to the original purpose of this blog AND hold myself accountable to things I want to change around here.
I'm hoping that I will be able to keep this updated more as well.
Anyway, just an FYI! :)
Be Blessed!

What to post!?!?

Well, I started on Thursday to post about our adoption day. We celebrated but the weeks leading up to it were hard and very personal. The struggles we have encountered with one of our children has really been at the front and center of our lives lately. Before it was just an occasional disruption. Lately it's an everyday disruption. I deleted that post because some who would have read it would not have understood it. I don't know that the relationship with this child will ever be fully restored. It was that bad. But we are praying through it. God works everything together for the good.

Yesterday I tried to find quotes or excerpts about front porches. Thus, all the front porch pictures. I must have really stunk at that search because I could not find anything. Please feel free to add some in the comments section if you know some.

It was just a front porch kind of day yesterday. I spent it in the house sick as a dog, but it was beautiful outside. :)

Then I was reading about some people who are facing or still facing unemployment. I thought, "Oh, I will talk about how we have survived over two years of unemployment." Then, I realized that some of my suggestions were kind of personal and I better check with my husband before I post them. So, later on this week I will post about our journey through this wilderness.

So there you have it. A whole lot of nothing. But hey, I posted. :) I guess you could just enjoy the pictures?

Be Blessed!

Finally a post

If I was more patient I would have all new pictures to show you. Pictures that are uploading right now I hope. They are taking a long time so I'm not sure they will make it. :)
So, in honor of Lily's 10 months on this earth we will look at the first couple of months again.

We've been busy lately. We are back to following a lot of suggestions in The Well Trained Mind. Karly and Kelsie are working through CLE Math and LA and we are adding in for them Writing With Ease 1, First Language Lessons 3, and either All About Spelling or Spelling Workout. We will work quickly through WWE 1 as I just want to get them used to the type of copywork, narration, and dictation we will be using. FLL is to give them some supplemental work in areas they need more work in. I'm torn with spelling for them. I think AAS might be a better program but I think SWO would fit better with our family right now.

We are also going to work through Grammar stage Earth and Space Science as directed by TWTM. I decided to use Story of The World Volume 2 for everyone. Right now I am asking the questions in the AG and writing down every one's answers. Then, Karly and Kelsie copy what I wrote. Soon I will have Karly and Kelsie write the answers to the questions in complete sentences. We are making it work.

Around the house things are changing slowly but surely. My room was clean, but now it has accumulated stuff again. I don't really know what is up with this. I need to figure it out.

I am working on my closet this week. I will start by taking everything out. I am doing this because I had to make a late night run to Walmart last night to get pants for Jonathan's suit because his pants were missing.

I am making room to keep every ones dress clothes and shoes in my closet. I am so tired of missing Sunday shoes, tights, socks, slips, sweaters, ties... so now Sunday clothes will be in my closet and we will decide what to wear the night before.

Also for some reason there is a pile of clean clothes in the corner of my closet. Usually I hang everything up when it comes out of the dryer so... I'm not sure where this pile of clothes came from.

We were given 11 diaper boxes full of clothes from 6m to 24m for Lily. I sorted through all of them and now I have a stand alone closet full of clothes arranged in boxes by date. I also boxed up her clothes she's outgrown and I need to make room in the corner of my closet for these boxes. We really have no where else to store them and I do want to hold onto some of them.. just in case. :)

Last Sunday was our last Sunday at the church we have been at for the past 10 years. Well it's actually a split off from the church we went to right after we got married. This church has been around for about 5 years. But it's a lot of the same people. It was hard, but it was such a God thing. About 6m ago God really started showing us that we really needed to expose our kids to families who were more like us. The past few months have brought some things to our attention and we started really praying about a more family oriented church. Then a few weeks ago I noticed a church up the street was changing their name and it indicated it might be more family oriented. I went online and sure enough they worship together as a family. They do have age segregated Sunday School but they do not have a youth group. They are also reformed and the Preacher's preaching is more expository. All things I love. We listened to some of his sermons and were impressed. Some friends of mine go there and she answered a lot of my questions. Next Sunday we will visit there. I'm very excited. I am leaving a denomination I have been a part of since birth, but I totally agree with everything in their statement of faith.

It's a new adventure, but God has really been leading us in this direction. I can't wait to see what happens!!

I hope you all had a great Easter!!

LOVE!

Random thoughts about family size

When I was a young girl I knew I wanted to grow up, get married, have lots of babies and stay home. Sometime around my highschool/college years I decided I wanted to homeschool them. I always have other careers lined up for when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. In my heart though, I knew, I wanted a family. I don't remember when exactly, but I did at one point decide I wanted 10 children. People, mostly my family who knew me all too well, scoffed. I actually have one aunt who loves to tell me how amazed she is at the responsible person I turned out to be. LOL I was just not a responsible hard working child. I was not. People are always commenting on what great people we are for adopting all these kids. Should I tell them it was all part of my plan? LOL Don't get me wrong I KNOW it was all God's plan, but well, I had to get the desire from someplace right?? I was so excited to find out that Lily was on her way. You see, we have run into some issues that might mean we never step onto that adoption train again. I'm not writing that in stone because God is truly the author of our story, but we would definitely pray long and hard about it. It's always been in the back of my mind that I would not mind adopting again, but it would be with much caution. The fun part was the fact that everyone was so accepting and excited about our pregnancy. I remember at one point looking at my DH and telling him that if we ever found we were expecting again we should be prepared for some reservations from some people. No, I'm not expecting right now, but it's never far from my thoughts. I hear some sad, sad stories from some of my friends online. People who are afraid to even tell grandparents because of the reaction they usually get. Grandparents. That is so sad. While, my mom might not necessarily agree with our decision regarding family size she has never been anything less than thrilled to welcome another grandchild. I would love to have another baby. I think that we will someday. God gave me Gideon's name for a reason. I have some other girl names I would love to use as well. A boy or two after Gideon would have some fantastic names from my list. :) I'll admit part of me really hopes that God waits until Roy has a job. Then, he did provide so that we had minimal debt from Lily's birth. We are still paying for her birth, but God has provided. A big part of me would love to see Roy get a good job soon and God bless us again soon after. Jonathan is 4.5 years older than Lily I would really love for her to have some closer in age siblings. Plus as hard as it is I think it's cute to see two or three little people around the same age running around together. LOL, yes, I do have everything together so well that I think three or four kids under age five would be fun. Right. Not fun. Cute. :) Well, I guess I will close the random file for tonight. Be Blessed!!

Babble, Babble, Babble

STUFF!! EVERYWHERE! Seriously, why is this taking me so long? I get started and the baby cries. I get started and someone needs help with math. I get started and it's lunch time. I get started and it's 11 p.m. Sigh. But I would not change it for anything in the whole wide world. I love being here with my kids. I love knowing every little thing that is happening in their lives.

I do have some babblers in my house. Babble, Babble, Babble. As I caught myself getting short with one today and rolling my eyes in exasperation with another I thought about all the times I have listened and caught one or two sentences that really revealed something about what the child was really saying.

I also realized that time is FLYING! How soon will it be that my house is eerily quiet and empty? I know, I know some days those days seem so far away. ;) Today though as I watched Lily climb onto a box I realized that all of my kids grow a little older every day.

Yes, I need to finish my bedroom. Yes, I need to organize the rest of the house. Yes, I need to train up my girls to be homemakers. I also need to stop and listen. To relish in the babbling for just a few minutes.

Be Blessed!

Crawling Around

Once again I am on Karly's netbook so no pictures. Just think of my cute baby while I type this. It's really easy. She's so stinkin' cute.
She is all over the place right now. She is crawling, cruising, and even starting to stand up by herself. Yeah. It's crazy. The Doctor said yesterday to watch her because she'll be taking her first steps any time now. I believe that.
She is very spoiled and LOVES to be held. Her second favorite position is down on the floor with NO barriers. She does not like the barriers in the play yard though she is learning to accept them.
It's really easiest for me to put her down in my room while I work on the computer in here or do my walking workout.
To do that I have to make sure the room is safe. I have to close the bathroom door because she loves to crawl in there and EEWW... it's the bathroom. It's clean but it's the bathroom. LOL I have to make sure there is nothing heavy she can pull down on herself. I have to make sure the room is swept and mopped really well.
We have cats so we have lots of cat hair around the house. We also have laminate floors so the dust bunnies try to take over. She loves to chase the cat hair and dust bunnies so we have to make sure they are all up.
Her favorite thing to do is to empty a basket or box of clothes. When I want to keep her occupied in our room I will put a couple of boxes of the clothes I have packed up for her down and she will go to town.
All of our outlets in this room are plugged and we have all the cords out of her reach.
I am working this weekend on moving out some of the other clutter that is in my room so she can roam all over the room. She loves to explore and I plan to put various things she can explore in different parts of the room.
She'll be happy and I will be able to work on some stuff on the computer.
It's fun to watch her. I enjoy making a nice room for her to learn in as she grows.
I have taken some pictures of my room. I will finish up this weekend and take some more to post next week.
Be Blessed!

How many times do I have to go through this?

"I'm done!" "I can't do this anymore!" "I'm just going to send them all back to school!"
The past few months have been filled with these phrases. It's been hard. You all know that. I have whined about it plenty. You also know I am heading out of the slump and into a new day. My love for homeschooling, homemaking, mothering, and all that goes with it is back.
Want to know what I am figuring out?

We ordered the CLE books at the level *I* wanted the children to be at.
Tomorrow we will do the diagnostic testing CLE recommends to figure out where you *should* place your children.
I LOVE CLE so far but I have to face it, my kids are really, really, really far behind where they should be. Did I mention it's been a rough 2 years?
Tomorrow I will take a deep breath and deal with it. That's step one to getting my kids education back on track.



The next step REALLY surprised me. You see, I have gone astray from my original homeschooling goals. I have wandered away from where I found my passion for homeschooling. I decided it was too hard and too much work to follow the plan.
Now, I am swimming upstream and kicking myself.
As I read through the Well Trained Mind boards I realized what I realized back in 2006 when I started this journey.
I LOVE the classical education model. I LOVE The Well Trained Mind. I really do. I love the way they do History. I love the way they do Science. I love the way they teach writing.
As this realization dawned on me I dusted off my copy of TWTM and started to read again.
Yes. YES. YES!! Now I remember!


I don't know what Classical Education and The Well Trained Mind and Teaching The Trivium will look like around here this go round.
I'm still working through that. I know it will include CLE for Math and Grammar. I know it will involve backing my 6th and 5th grader up in the writing department and working through the skills they need to be great writers and communicators. It will mean adding in a writing program for my 3rd graders. It will mean a lot more reading around here. It will mean a lot more writing around here.
It won't look like the first time around when I crashed and burned. I'm going to figure out how our family can be successful. I am not going to worry about content as much as skill.
I am excited to be excited about homeschooling again. I know I have a long road ahead to make up for the years I gave away.

Be Blessed!

P.S. My next post should be a homemaking post. :)

Our family and youth group

From their earliest ages we have kept our children with us in church. We have taught them how to be respectful by listening quietly and sitting still. Yes, during the toddler days we had to take them out a few times to show them we meant business but it was only a few times. We searched the scriptures and could not find any instruction for Children's Church. As a matter of fact all we could find was families being taught together. That sealed the deal for us, since God's word is our instruction manual for life we decided that our children would worship with us.

We were uncomfortable with youth groups as well. We could not find the purpose in them. We prayed and prayed and searched the scriptures some more. Nothing on youth groups. In fact it looked like young men and women were expected to begin acting like adults. Hmm.. we began to think when our oldest was about 10 that we would probably forgo the youth group as well. Around the time we made that decision I read about this guy and his book.

This was it, everything I wanted to say but could not find the words for. When DH read it he asked if Pastor Baucham had a recording device in our room listening to our words of late. He'd echoed so many of our thoughts.

Recently in our church a new youth group began. My oldest is 13 and in 6th grade now. We were approached a few times with encouragement for her to attend. We really, really thought about letting her try because we trust the leaders. In the end we were not comfortable with it. Then we saw this video. I also had a conversation with a mother who'd homeschooled and let her kids go to youth group. She said her kids were strong in their faith and growing so much that she let them go to the church youth group. She said her youngest who just graduated is the only one still living a life of faith and going to church. She said by the time she saw the damage in her older children she only had time to pull her youngest out for the last few years. Once again our conviction was confirmed.

No, I don't think every child who goes to youth group will wander away. I did not. The argument that slays me is when people tell me that because my kids are not in youth group/children's church they will probably rebel. Really? So, if my kids are in these programs you promise they won't rebel? Sorry, I don't buy that.

If God does not instruct us in youth group why do we think we need to rework God's plan. Plan A (God's plan) so let's revamp it and call it Plan B (Youth Group). We know kids today and they need this.

Not my kids.

Be Blessed!

Cleaning up

I have been thinking for awhile of cleaning my blog up some. I have been blogging for awhile. I love looking back and seeing how I have grown and changed. It's also been a source of serious conviction in some areas. This past winter as I was dealing with being allergic to winter I read through some posts and realized that what was missing in my life was my passion. I used to be so passionate about my duties here at home.
I feel that passion coming back and I am so excited!
I don't yet know what I'll be changing around here.
I guess we'll all just have to wait and see!

Be Blessed!

Excitement

I am using my daughter's notebook computer to type up this post and I don't have any pictures on it, so a picture free post. I do have some cute ones to share if I can ever talk my DH into giving me back my computer. ;)

I have had a feeling welling up inside of me for the past few days. I was not sure what it was until today. I am excited again. Excited about homeschooling, excited about being a mom, excited about being a homemaker... just excited.
I love winter so this is going to be hard for me to say, but I think I may be allergic to winter. Ever since the sunshine started showing her sweet face again and the flowers started to bloom I have felt so much better. I know there is a technical name for being allergic to winter, but it's just so S.A.D. ;0).
Maybe it has to do with getting our new curriculum. We are using Christian Light Publications LightUnits now.
I used to be totally against the "boxed curriculum" for my family, but with everything going on school was falling behind. This is my solution. It's saving all of our behinds. LOL

I am working on getting my house into shape again. This also means making this house work for me. Yes, we still have plans to move, but with the unemployment and the housing market I don't know when that will be. So, I am working smarter. Starting with getting rid of anything that will not fit into this house. I used to love decorating my house but when the house started getting cramped I removed a lot of my decorative stuff and began boxing it up to use again someday. Well, someday might be a long time from now. I took inventory of what I have and really I don't have anything I can't replace one day. So out it's going.
We are moving our school room and play room into the great room. The kids are the majority in this house so it would just make sense that we make that their main room. I am thinking even of really decluttering my kitchen to the barest essentials and making room for us to eat in there freeing up our dining room for something more.
Once the school room/playroom is finished I will take some pictures and post them.

A few weeks ago we went to a church 4 hours away to see Pastor Voddie Baucham. He is such an inspiration to me and I am thrilled to say that as much as my husband enjoyed his books hearing the man in person sealed the deal. For almost 3 weeks straight we have had family worship almost every day. He's leading it and initiating it. He's always believed it but I think it overwhelmed him. Pastor Baucham laid it out step by step and my husband took it and ran with it! AMAZING. Pastor Baucham even stopped to admire my sweet baby. Missing his own baby girl I am sure. :)

Well, after all the hum drum posts I have put up I just could not wait to put up a positive post! Thanks for hanging with me. I'm hoping this will last. :)
Be Blessed!

The Ground Beef Post

This week we are a little short on cash but we have a freezer full of ground beef. I sat down and thought of cheap meals we could have out of the pantry.

Here is the list I came up with:

Spaghetti: I buy tomato sauce and stewed and diced tomatoes at Costco by the case so we always have enough on hand to make pasta sauce. Spices and brown sugar finished off the sauce. Last time we were at Costco they had Whole Wheat pasta by the case so I picked up three cases.

Chili: I buy bags of beans and cook and freeze them all the time. So we have kidney beans in the freezer. The cases of Tomatoes and sauce come in handy here as well. Just add the ground beef and spices and top with a little cheese, that we also buy in bulk and the it's dinner time. I have cornmeal so I will probably make corn muffins to go with the chili.

Shepherd's Pie: Frozen mixed vegetables, some BBQ sauce, ground beef, mashed potatoes, and cheese.

Poor Man's Stroganoff and frozen broccoli: Whatever noodles I have on hand, ground beef, sour cream, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. It's much better than it sounds. :)

Hamburgers and baked beans: ground beef, dried onions, garlic powder, Worcester sauce mixed together and made into a patty. Topped with cheese and tomato on a hamburger bun.

"Hamburger Helper" and frozen corn: my own mix. Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, some spices, ground beef, and shredded cheddar all mixed together with whatever noodles I have on hand.

Of course if we get tired of eating off of our ground beef stash I also have lentils and black beans and rice that I could make.

We go to Costco about every two-three months and stock up on meat, cheese, and tomato products. Sometimes we get other stuff but so far those are the things that seem to be the cheapest at Costco. It's amazing with those three things on hand how many meals I can make.
I get our rice and pasta there sometimes. I love their frozen broccoli and we get a few bags of that, but we don't really like a lot of the other frozen veggies there.

At the store yesterday all I had to buy was frozen veggies, two packs of lentils, sour cream, eggs, a couple of tomatoes, flour, grits, tortillas, hamburger buns, and bread.

I have not gotten back into making our bread yet so I still buy the best I can at the grocery store.

Just a little peek into our menu for the week. :)

Be Blessed!

So much to say

I have a few quiet minutes and I have so much to cram into this time of blogging.

First I do want to follow through on the grocery post but we have not done a lot of grocery shopping the last couple of weeks. Just eating out of the freezer/pantry.

I will try to work through it and figure something out. :)

DH is still unemployed so we are doing all we can to make our money stretch. In March it will be 2 years. It's really taught us a lot about trusting God.


I am working through a Bible study book called Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa TerKeurst. It's been a real blessing in helping me to get back on track. One thing I read that just blew my socks off was that there is a battle going on for you and your affections everyday. Of course the devil does not want you to spend quiet/quality time with God so he will fight for your time. When I read this I thought, hmm, who do I want to see win? Do I want to see the devil have ANY victory? It has really helped me to be more committed to my time with God.

We are still in limbo with homeschooling. Finally I decided I had to switch some stuff up. I thought we were going with Math U See, and we still might, but in researching I found Christian Light Education. Someone from the Well Trained Mind message board said she used it for Math and Language Arts and I thought, YES! I have tried so hard to stay away from workbook type curriculum that it never occurred to me to use them for the necessary and not so fun subjects. It will really free me up to spend more time with the fun stuff like History and Science. Also CLE really fosters independence which I so very much need from my older kids right now.

I might even order the Science books so I can make sure they are getting science and then add in more living books and hands on stuff as I get the chance. As soon as we have a little more money I am going to order the next set of God's Design For Science. I really enjoy those books for Science. For history the younger kids are using Story of the World while my 6th grader is using Mystery of History.

For writing my 6th grader is using Writing Strands. My 5th grader is doing copy work and my 3rd graders are using A Reason For Handwriting the transition book.

Lily is growing so much. She is crawling and standing and even doing a bit of cruising. She is 8m old today. I was pushing a cart around the children's museum the other day and she was holding on to the back and taking a few steps. I can't believe that it's already been 8 months! I feel like I was just having her yesterday. Last night we found her very first tooth poking through. What am I going to do with this baby?

She only weighs about 14 pounds and she is so short that her 3-6m clothes all still fit her perfectly. It's a good thing because when I looked at the 6-9m box the other day it was a pretty empty. I have some clothes but it looks like a trip to the consignment store will be in order. I love it there so it's no hard thing for me. :) I can get the cutest outfits for $2 and $3. A little more pricey than the thrift store but I know the clothes are clean and intact.

Well my quiet time is coming to an end as I hear little people stirring. I had fun sharing what is going on with us. I do love to blog.

Be Blessed!

When your floundering

Before I start this post I just wanted to tell you that the pictures are of my little Jonathan. He just turned 5. He is growing up so much!!
I know I was supposed to come back last week with menus. I was hoping it would jump start me back into blogging. Not so much. Things kept coming up that kept me too busy to get back here. Mostly things that are opening my eyes up more and more to the need to get back to basics around here. When I started this journey so many years ago now, I had passion and vision. I believed in myself and God. I just knew that I could accomplish great things in my home. I knew where I was headed.

I still believe in God and slowly but surely I am clawing my way back to where I left Him. I don't know if that's the right wording. I still believe that God is totally in control and will provide all my needs! I have faith, but as I said before that faith is weak. I am climbing back to that place where I had passion and purpose and vision. I keep slipping and sliding backwards but I KNOW that I am headed in the right direction. I am climbing into His arms for a time of regrouping.

As I reflected this year on how much I wanted pure beauty in my life and in my home I realized I need to start with simplicity. I have to simplify my life more. I need to get rid of the clutter, physically and mentally, that is clogging up my life. Robbing me of being able to focus on the important things in life.

My vision of a rigorous Classical Education for my kids is being put aside for a simpler, gentle Charlotte Mason type education for my kids.

My vision of a great organized home is being replaced with a clean, efficient home. One that is simple and neat and peaceful.

My vision of the perfect family with obedient ,compliant children all the time is being replaced with a family that loves together, laughs together, and lives together. Not that I won't expect obedience but maybe a little less tightly controlled in some areas.

I'm letting go. I'm going to stop floundering and start floating.

Be Blessed!

In the kitchen

I'm sure I'm double posting pictures but they are so darn cute! Also, I just did not feel like downloading more pictures. LOL
Last year I started couponing. Just a little at a time and it was hit or miss. When I did coupon I could usually feed our family for the week with $50 - $70 out of pocket for that week. I like Southern Savers because she puts all of the sale items on her website not just the ones with coupons.
She uses her price book and when she sees an item go to the lowest price she will post it on a shopping list. She will also post all of the coupon deals with matchups and links to any printable coupons.
I do clip all of my coupons and keep them in a binder. I tried just clipping them as they came up but it was too overwhelming for me so I clip them one night a week while I watch a movie on Netflix.


We shop at Costco about every two months or so. We spend about $300 though if I went alone I could spend as little as $100. I can get 2 months worth of meat for $100. Ground beef and chicken breast only.

When I really stretch I can feed our family for about $80 a week. I don't buy a lot of junk food even though coupons are for junk food. Once I get back to making some stuff from scratch it will be even less. I had to give that up for awhile so I can get back on track with my kids.

This week I will chronicle what we eat. I think it's a soup heavy menu this week.

Be Blessed!

Lily's Journey to our family

Sarah noticed that it took 9 years for our family to be blessed with a biological child. She wondered about what we did to conceive this baby. In one word, Faith! I knew God had promised a baby to us. I still think he promised a little boy so we have at least one more on the way. :) In the meantime we kept busy bringing in the children who did not have a home. We both believed that this was God's way of kick starting our family. Lily Grace is so blessed to have such wonderful, loving brothers and sisters.

I cried out to God over and over for a baby born of our love. My husband told me over and over that he could not find one time in scripture that this prayer was not honored. Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth.. to name a few. We both continued to pray.

At one time we did see a fertility specialist. I was diagnosed with PCOS with that diagnosis came Diabetes testing. I was started on oral meds to control my blood sugar. We did not pursue further fertility appointments. We decided to just go with the flow. Around that time we decided to become foster parents. Then we started getting kids who were coming up for adoption. Before we knew it we had five kids to call our own. It would be four more years before Lily entered the picture.

At the time that Lily was conceived I had started a new diet. I was eating a more whole foods diet. Healthy fats that others said were harmful, coconut oil, whole milk (raw when we could get it), real butter, olive oil. Whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal. Also we were not eating hardly any processed foods. I had lost about 12 pounds. My primary care Dr. upped some of my oral medication because my blood sugar was still a little high but my blood tests were coming back great. Almost as if I did not have high blood sugar. I felt pretty good and was exercising.

On December 23 I took a pregnancy test on a whim. I'd been tired and my blood sugar was shooting up for no reason. I thought it was the stress of loosing my papa and MIL in just a few short months. Looking back I do remember not being able to eat any of the freezer meals we'd prepared because they all had chicken. I thought it was just some type of freezer burn or something though the rest of my family said there was nothing wrong with the food. I was not sick. I'd had some light bleeding throughout the months but with PCOS sometimes you skip a month here and there so I thought nothing of it.

The pregnancy test was pure whim. LOL When the two pink lines appeared I fell apart. When your used to one pink line it's a little disconcerting when the second one appears. I don't think I will ever forget that feeling.

I made it into the OB on January 7th I think. That's when we heard her heart beat. He also gave me a EDD of July since we had no idea when I'd gotten pregnant. He sent me to a high risk OB for sonograms. On January 20th the sweet sonogram tech said, "Oh there is too much baby here for July. Your going to have this baby in June." She then asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. I knew it was a boy. That's what God had promised. Nope, the sonogram tech said, "It's a precious baby girl!"

On June 18th Lily Grace joined our family and it has not been the same since!

Be Blessed!

My day off

Today I took the day off. The kids are vegged out in front of the T.V. The baby is nestled in someoneelses lap until it's time to eat again. Yeah, I think she is watching the movie as well. I asked sweetly for the computer to veg in front of, or maybe not so sweetly, who knows? Roy pulled out Karly's netbook and he is busy changing the world via Reddit. Yep, it's that kind of day.

I have been reading the blogs on my sidebar. Yes, all of them. It's been fun catching up. It's also been fun getting some ideas for the New Year. I think that this years theme will be staying home and making beautiful happen. I want to stay home as much as I can this year and work on getting the kids back on track with school, reading aloud as much as we can, and learning to be content with one another. That being said, I did sign up for co-op through our group this year. We will be meeting every other week and our co-op will be a 4-H group focusing on Gardening. The kids have piano and dance on Tuesday. It's Upward Soccer time again and I am going to sign up Adrian and Jonathan. So I do have some outside commitments. I have to plan five birthday parties this year as well. Of course we have to see Michelle and the boys occasionally. :)

So, yes, I will not be a complete homebody, but I will not look for excuses to leave the house either.

As far as make beautiful I want to focus on many areas. I want to make my relationship with my family beautiful. I want to make our home beautiful. I want to make our life beautiful. I am so not talking about magazine beautiful or worldly standard beautiful.

I am talking about the beauty of a mother and child sitting together over a cup of coco talking about something important in that child's life. I am talking about the beauty of a home filled with joy and laughter. A refuge from this crazy world. I am talking about the beauty of a brother and sister cuddled into the big chair reading a book together.

Of course there is also the beauty of changing a diaper and just being glad there is a baby in the home that needs to be changed. The beauty of correcting something in a loved one that will help them grow and mature into a beautiful adult.

It's not all fun and games, but we can find the beauty in the everyday.

Be Blessed!

I fully intended to come back on Monday and follow up that last post. Sorry. It made it seem as if I was letting the negativity take over. There were so many blessings in the last two years. I hate to not dwell on those. Mainly, I was just trying to get a grip on what was weighing me down.

There was the blessing of friends stepping in to help us out during all of these hardships. There was the blessing of God's provision during the lean times. There was the blessing of our family becoming closer as we all learned to lean on God. Of course there was the blessing of my sweet baby girl. There was the blessing of knowing that we could rely on God.

I have learned much in the past two years. As James tells us, our trials make us stronger. While I feel wiped out right now I know that my spirit is stronger.

This year is going well so far. We have done some school everyday and I think my older girls are actually on schedule. I feel good about this year. I am looking forward to it.

Be Blessed!

In 2009 we watched as our dear friends marriage began to unravel. Our van broke down and we had to get a "new" van. We went to Disney world with our new 9 year old, the next day Roy was "right-sized" from his job. We went to Disney world twice in one week, once with our new 6 year old and once with our new 12 year old. Roy's dad had hip replacement surgery so we packed up the kids and headed to S. FL to stay with his mom for the LONGEST week of my life. Two days after Roy's dad came home his mom fell and had to go the hospital. Roy and I left the kids with my mom and travelled back to S. Florida to help his dad out, who still was not getting around well and could not drive to go see his wife. Our "new" van broke down and we ended up being able to repair our other van for a lot less than we thought. A week later we got a surprise phone call that Roy's oldest sister would not make it through the night. We left our children again, travelled to S. Florida to get Roy's mom and dad and then drove like lightening to get to Atlanta. We did not make it. We spent a week in Atlanta tying up loose ends. A few days later our A/C quit working. We went to Disney World a fourth time with our new 8 year old. My papa got very sick. We travelled to Philly for a wedding and stopped in D.C. on our way home. I did not have a Philly Cheese steak. It was depressing! My papa died about a week later. We had a family birthday party for my MIL that did not end well. A week later we got a surprise phone call that she'd passed away in the middle of the night. We left the kids AGAIN and went to be with Roy's dad in S. Florida. It was our 9th anniversary. A week later I decided for kicks and giggles to pee on a stick. Where there was usually only one line, for 9 years, a second line appeared. I was stunned. We finished the year on a high note.

2010 Roy was still unemployed. We had one more trip to Disney World with a new 4 year old. I have to say I love all my kids but his was my favorite trip because it was his first time ever. I started Drs. Appointments that would soon run my life. My mom had surgery on her leg. I became her sole source of transportation for 3-4months. I found out that I was actually almost 4m along in my pregnancy. Woohoo! I started insulin and all the fun highs and lows of that. I had monthly sonograms and Dr. appointments. I started a Bradley childbirth class. My oldest turned 13. I started twice weekly Dr. appointments. We went to Orlando for some pool fun before baby. I went into labor a week early. After almost 13 hours in labor and only 6cm I threw the Bradly book out the window and took the dreaded epidural. After 5 more hours of labor I was almost there but there was a problem so they started talking C-Section. I cried and begged God. I laid on one side and felt the epidural wear off. An hour later I was pushing. Two hours after I started pushing my baby was born. Healthy and beautiful. I continued to battle weird blood sugar. I successfully learned to breastfeed. My mom had surgery on her other leg. We never got school started again. My granny got sick and died suddenly. We went to Disney World one last time with our free Volunteer Day. We stayed the week in my mom's condo. Our COBRA subsidy ran out. Our Unemployment ran out. Roy interviewed for a part time position that would pay for him to finish his schooling. He has two years left. It also has potential to be full time soon with benefits.

WHAT does 2011 hold for our family? Oh, please let it be a little more tame than the past two years. A job for Roy? School for Roy? Children learning to read and do math again? A move? Maybe another baby? (No, no announcement, just a hope!) The purchase of an 8-12 passenger vehicle? Walling in a room of our house for another bedroom? More kids getting saved? Five, count them F-I-V-E birthday party's. Two that were supposed to happen last year but did not and three that are supposed to happen this year. Another trip to Orlando with Adrian since he does not get a birthday party. We are taking him to DT Disney to go to the Lego store. Meeting an online friend who I am pretty sure is my sister separated at birth. :)

I look forward to this year, albeit a little apprehensively. I know God holds our future in His hands and He longs to prosper us and not harm us. I believe that. No matter what I am glad that HE is in charge and NEVER surprised.

I hope you are blessed this year!

Just no death or illness this year, please?

Another Year