Third Annual No School For Homeschoolers Day

Every year on the first day of public school I like to take my kids out to do something fun. We celebrate the flexibility of homeschooling. My kids learn again to appreciate the fact that they are not stuck behind a desk all day long. Most of the time we have other homeschooling friends join us. It's a lot of fun.

This year we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I have been reluctant to go there. My memories of Chuck E. Cheese were of loud, chaotic, madness. It was so not that today. The music was a little loud and annoying, but the lights were nice and bright. I had a clear view of the door from our table. It was pretty empty (school being in session and all) and honestly compared to other places I have gone with the same atmosphere the prices (with coupon) were not all that outrageous.

We will probably do it again.

Altogether we had twelve kids, four moms, two dads and a GG (great grandma). Another dad joined us just for lunch before he had to go back to work.

Like a dolt I forgot my camera so you will just have to believe that we had a good time!

I'm looking forward to some more fun outings with these moms and kids.

Do you do anything special to celebrate homeschooling?

Be Blessed!

Welcome

One of the things I like best about having these new floors is that I feel free to open my home again. As I cleaned today and made a salad for some friends coming over for lunch I thought of how much I enjoy just inviting a friend over.
I stirred the lemon aide and hummed a merry little tune. I'm grateful for friends. I'm grateful for a home I can invite friends to share with me.
I need to do it more often. I really do enjoy the feeling of opening my home.

Be Blessed!

The one in which we solve all the problems....

on a Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday mornings I gather with a group of ladies. Supposedly for Bible study.
Right now we are enjoying working our way through the video study by Elizabeth George. A Woman After God's Own Heart.

A lot of times though we spend hours fixing all the world's problems. For instance before, during, and after the Bible study this week we discussed: adult children caring for their parents, versions of the Bible, Sarah Palin, raising children, Barak Obama, George W. Bush, our church.... by lunch time we'd recessed for the day.
We have moms, grandmas, great grandmas (GG, isn't that a cute great grandma name?). We have married folk and widows. There are kids playing quietly in the background. (Ha, Ha, Ha, HA!) We pray for one another, for marriages in our church and outside of it, for our leaders, for our families, for the sick, for the lonely... we pray! We study God's word. We discuss. We agree. We disagree. It's ok. We do that with laughter.

Any one of us would drop anything for the other and come running in a minute. We load the kids up in a car and rush to help a friend.

We have different spiritual gifts. You want the truth mixed with love (I try)? You want to know something in black and white.. come see me! :) You want mercy, compassion, and sympathy? Check with Melodie or Jennifer. I know I do. LOL

We are more than friends, we are sisters. Others are invited to our time of fellowship. Some come and stay for a season, some (Jennifer) set up camp and dive right in, some walk away shaking their heads. If you come once and don't get it, try again. We want you!

We have differences. We have similarities. If the President wants some advice he should definitely call us because we have it figured out.

They are my prayer warriors. They are my girls. They are my Tuesday Chicks.

And I have to add because this is just the type of friend I am... especially number 1!

True Friendship

None of that Sissy Stuff

Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good, But never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card- Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad -- I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on mountain dew.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much Worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay away from me until you are well Again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy butt while I help you up.

9. This is my oath.... I pledge it to the end.. 'Why?' you may ask; 'because you are my friend'.

Friendship is like wetting your pants, everyone can see it, But only you can feel the true warmth

How do you say thank you?

I am blessed to have a lot of great friends. I am even more blessed to have four different ladies that I know are my dearest friends. I have three here, that I picked up at different times in my life and one in North Carolina. Today I want to talk about my friend Michelle.
Here is a picture of us together..... OK it's not really us, but it could be. :) I don't have any pictures of us together uploaded. I have a few from high school. Especially prom night, remember, Michelle?
I have known Michelle since about 7th grade so that would be... about 1991. I did not get to know her until our Senior year. Up until then we were in different groups. I was friends with some of the people in her group she was friends with some of the people in my group so we knew each other slightly.
Our senior year was the BEST! To tell you about it I have to tell you a little about my past. I had lots of different friends in high school, but the group I was with the most were the... well, easy girls...for lack of a better word. I WAS NOT! I was a good little church girl scared to do much more than hold hands with a boy. But these were my friends. By my Senior year I was pretty tired of the boyfriend swapping and the drama that accompanied it. I'd met another girl the year before who was a good Christian girl, Jessica, and we started hanging out more.
I really think one of the reasons Michelle and I became friends is because we had a crush on the same guy! Michelle and Jessica had also become friends at the time. There is a whole story behind the guy, but that's for another post. :)
So the last few months of our Senior year we spent a lot of time together. That summer was awesome. I loved the group I was hanging out with. There was no boyfriend swapping, no TMI, no drama. It was wonderful.

Eventually one of our friends got married, then another, then me, then Michelle. The other two couples moved away but Michelle and her DH and me and my DH became "couple friends". How fun was that! Trying to get together every week and have dinner or do something fun. Once DH and I hijacked their trip to Tampa and went along to see one of the above mentioned couples. It was fun.
Then the babies started coming. I was there in the delivery room four years ago to witness the birth of her first baby. Two months later my 13m old was delivered to my door! We were mommies together. Going through all that mommy stuff. She went back to work while her husband stayed home to finish school, but we still tried to get together as much as possible.

Things got busy and we did not see each other as much. Though we never lost contact. In January of 2006 my baby was born in a hospital to another woman. But he was already mine. A week later her baby was born. At her house. Did I mention I love the fact that she tries things for me? LOL Our boys are all great friends. It's a good thing she has boys because most of my friends have girls. :) She stayed home and Dh finished school. Now we were stay at home mommies together with zoo passes! Yes, we go to the zoo together. She homeschools and I homeschool so we are always passing information back and forth.

She thinks I am super woman! I love her for that. She knows all my flaws and still loves me. I think she is the greatest mom ever! Her little boy calls my kids "his friends" and gets so excited when he gets to see "his friends"!! My little boy calls her little boy, Keif! He says it like this, "Keif! Keif! Keif!" Not just once but three times!

She always makes me laugh. She always has an idea for me. She says great things about me. She wins things for me. How do you thank someone like that? How do you tell them how much they mean to you? She is so patient and kind. Never getting mad at me for ignoring her. She knows, accepts, and understands that busy households can get the best of you. I love having friends you don't have to explain that to.

Well, I will do my best with this blog post. I love you girl!! :)

Did I mention she wins things for me??? :)

Be Blessed!!

Best Friends

Their mom and I are best friends also! :)

"A friend is someone who sings your heart's song back to you when you have forgotten the words." ~ David Coppola, Ph.D.

Time with friends.

We had a wonderful time tonight. We went and had dinner with some friends (MICHELLE HERE YOU ARE IN MY BLOG!!) They have the cutest 1 year old boy. He and my 2 year old are great friends. They got to sit by each other tonight Keith (the friend) in his highchair and A my baby in his booster chair. They giggled together, ate together, whined to get down together, and then had a good time staring at each other. Keith was so cute he wanted to get up so he would say in the cutest high pitched voice, "Up?". Now my A he just whined... "Wanna get doooowwwn!".
Michelle is expecting number 2 in January. Im so excited. She is a great mommy and Ricky (Her husband-Look Ricky your here too!) are amazing parents. They are doing such a good job. I got to be present at Keith's birth. It was such an amazing honor to be asked to be there. I believe with all my heart that God will one day grant me a baby from my own womb BUT if he does not I got to experience Keith's birth and for that I will forever be grateful.
We were also joined by another friend whom I had not seen in a long time. It was nice to catch up with her. (HI JESSICA!) I went to highschool with Michelle and Jessica and we met Ricky through another friend we went to highschool with.
We were laughing tonight because my oldest daughter whom I will be adopting soon was born in April of the year I graduated from highschool. We figured at our reunion I will fit right in. Most of my "friends" were expecting or had a baby at graduation. I told them about twelfth grade Anatomy and Physiology where I was surronded by girls who talked about diapers, formula, and vaccines during class. I was such the odd man out! Now I have to admit that these girls I sat around were to be "admired" in a sense. We went to a college prep public highschool. Which means it was a bit harder than most highschools. All of our classes were gifted or advanced and we graduated with more credits than we really needed. These girls stuck it out and passed with good grades and college prospects. Im not admiring them for having a baby so young but for taking a tough situation and making the best of it. I heard them condemed and could not help but think that the baby they had was still a gift from God. God still had something special planned just for that little person.
Anyways most of the point of that was to tell you all I had a great time with friends tonight.

Around the House:
I am on a serious decluttering kick. I mean like a show no mercy kick. I will blog more about why later. Its something I have been convicted about lately. All the stuff in our living room that is going on Freecycle is in a big box. I have already put up like 4-5 posts to get rid of some things. Im thinking for the next month or so Im going to try not to make any unneccessary purchases!
I have finally completed all the laundry from our trip.
The girl's room is almost livable.
The boy's room for some reason has started to go down hill again so I have to get on that.
Homeschooling Preschool is going great! The children are enjoying it and Im excited that it seems to be working out.
Unfortunatly we veered from our MOTH schedule a lot this week. But Im ready and raring to go tommorrow morning. We have only craft time tomorrow and after that I will be decluttering like a mad woman!
Ok going to bed now so I can get up at the right time! :)

Friendship that lasts

Today is going to be a good day. I woke up with no headache or stomache problems. YEAH! Im pretty excited. Its been a learning experience having an 8 year old. She can do more on her own than my younger children BUT she is still just a little girl herself. The trick is trying to decide what she is old enough to do and what she still needs to be helped with. *Sigh*
I was hoping to go to North Carolina this weekend to see my friend and her family but I still have an extra child and my van has gotten no bigger. The children start school in just a few short weeks and I dont know if we will make it up there before then. I have already asked hubby if we could maybe go up the week of Thanksgiving. I would like to go for a short trip before then though.
Let me tell you a little about my friend. When I was a young teenager we met this family at church. They had just lost a little boy in a terrible car accident. They asked in lieu of flowers that a donation be made to the church for a children's program they really wanted to see started at the church. AWANA. With the donations we were able to start this program and through working together to get it started I became close to this family. Before long I was spending many weekends at thier house. They had three small children younger than the boy who was killed. I was going over there with about 4 other young ladies from church. They had thier problems but I have to tell you most of my spiritual growth came from the fellowship in this small one bathroom house. Before long the husband who was in the Navy started bringing home young men for dinner and inviting them to church. Before long we were literally one big happy family. I learned about prayer, encouraging, teaching, and learning over there. She kept in regular contact with my mom and my mom told me she never felt slighted. I had always wanted a big brother and now I had three and three or four big sisters at any given time. I was the youngest and everyone looked out for me. When I had a bad relationship my "brothers" threatened to talk to that boy. When I needed clothing advice or skin care advice my "sisters" were always there to help. Some people thought it was odd all the boys and girls together and thinking back I dont think its something I would be comfortable letting my children do but honestly nothing ever happened we were brothers and sisters and that would be gross.
Fast forward.... the years went by and people went thier own ways BUT I could not let this family go. When the husband was transferred to North Carolina in 1999 I cried for a week. But when the wife was literally kicked out of the house with her four children while the husband was out to sea due to a bad real estate contract I drove with her and the children up to North Carolina to try to help her find a new home... all by herself. A few weeks later my husband (then my boyfriend) and I went with her to move into the house we found. She and my husband took turns driving the moving van and we all took turns driving her van full of children and pets. It was an adventure! Now years later we go up there at least once a year maybe more. The Lord has so greatly blessed them with a MANSION! I mean many many bedrooms and bathrooms. :) A big step up from getting 28 people ready on Easter Sunday Morning with one bathroom and still getting to church on time. Her little children that I knew as toddlers are now hulking teenagers. She still opens her home to the world. The doors are never locked and you never know who is going to walk in. They are busy tearing down walls to make a larger gathering room since it is not unusual on a Sat or Sun night after church for the whole church to gather at thier house for fellowship. She taught me about hospitality and how it can bless you. Im still learning. :) Now I get to run to her with questions about my little ones. She always has great advice. She has recipes to feed large families (PRAISE THE LORD) and this year she is going to homeschool so I can even pick her brain over this! I am so impressed with this godly, praying woman! Her children are now 10, 13, 15, and 17. She is emabarking on the "hard" years of homeschooling. As I babystep through these first few years I know that I will have a mentor for the coming years!


Around the House:
ALL THE DISHES ARE DONE!
LAUNDRY IS MANAGABLE!
This is how I judge my home by the above two statements. If I can accomplish these two things I feel I have done something.
The children are right now in the process of destroying the playroom. We have added all of KA's toys to our mix and it is quiet a haul they have. It wont last. I dont allow broken toys or useless toys and I see many of her toys are just that. She and I talked and we are going through them next week and getting rid of the broken ones. I dont mind if they destroy the playroom because they have to clean whatever mess they make and let me tell you I dont let them pick up a few things and walk away oh no I mean clean!
Im reorganizing my bedroom with all the file cabinets I got and its starting to look better.
Hubby is going to mow the grass when he comes home so Im cooking him a special dinner of country ribs and mashed potatoes.
Still need to sort through closets and get an efficient system set up. I want to seperate the girl's clothes so they can find them easier. The boy's closet needs the same thing done.
Well I better get back to dinner.