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!