just a little house

Christmas

2010-12-02T02:49:00.002-05:00

It is that time again...time to Celebrate our Savior Jesus Christ, time to Decorate, time to Shop, time to Cherish our Families and Friends and time to Give! I love Christmas! I love the lights, the decorations and the genuine feeling of love that surrounds most people at this time!
This year is different for us since we are in Texas! It is colder than I thought but also warmer than VA. Our decorations are in VA (no room on the truck) so that simplifies things alot! Although it is VERY hard for me to not decorate it has been nice to not be so consumed with decorations - oh! what a feeling Simplicity brings!!!
We are reading the third book in this series for Advent- Tabitha's Travels. We love these books! It is really neat to read and for them to remember the people and things we read in the previous years! I have also collected quite a few christmas books and we have been reading those during the day!
Enjoy the Season!!!

I'm Baack!

2010-10-30T11:39:00.004-04:00

I have felt like I have fallen off the face of the earth and I am sure it seems like it since I have been around on my blogs!! I haven't fallen off - just landed in Texas!
I have really struggled with depression since we got here but I am starting to feel the fog lifting off of me - Praise the Lord!
We have now been here for almost 3 months and life is getting groovy! It is not Home but I am feeling a little settled since we found a church(we think) and have met some fellow homeschoolers!

Anyways - I wanted to share some pics........

The first good rain since we got here flooded us in for the day!

The boys went out to the pond and down to the street looking for creatures after the rain stopped. Don't you love Alex's boots?? He borrowed them from me!

Alex reading....a miracle???

we got chickens! we now have 3 more chickens and a new rooster. as beautiful as this rooster is - he was mean as all get out and attacked us anytime we went into the yard - he had to go!!

These three love to take baths in my big tub - so do i!!!

We miss VA but we are getting used to being here and are starting to find friends.

pictures from Texas...finally

2010-08-30T14:50:00.003-04:00

this is my new best friend.....the yellow garden spider
there were quite a few of these on the outside of the house(until i powerwashed them off) and still are a few on the garage! they are totally harmless but they are BIG and just creepy! We are waiting to see the babies come out of this sack - homeschool science!!

Our plans changed last minute when we got here and we are renting a house 1 mile down the road from Dan's parents house! The boys are loving that! We are about 20-30 minutes from all the other family - Dan's 3 sisters and my sister!

We got here at the hottest time of the year and had a very long run of over 100degree days - it was gross and hot and yucky! We ended up being inside all the time!
The boys have had so much fun playing with all of their cousins - it has been so neat to watch!! We miss VA so much but it has been a true joy to see the boys surrounded by so much family and just loving it!!

the pictures of the house and yard are totally out of place but I just don't have time to switch them around for you...sorry! it was get them up this way or not at all!!

the main living room looking from the kitchen towards the front of the house

my favorite thing in this house.....how gross is this???????

the living room from a sideways view

what you see when you open the front door

the rest of what you see when you open the front door

the front of the house with the garage

the house...ain't she cute???

the back of the house from outin the field a little bit....lovin the porch!

the boys hunting for grasshoppers(TONS of them all over the yard) for their trip to the pond...pics below

the yard to the right of the driveway(from the house)

the pond at sunset...beautiful!!!

the boys collect grasshoppers and go throw them into the pond to these crazy fish that eat them up so fast you never see the fish.....fun for the boys!! we have grasshoppers by the thousands in our yard!

boys headed out to the pond. the little barn is cute - hoping to get some cows....

this is the yard to the left of the driveway

the upstairs room - the tv is one area and the school table and books are towards the left on that wall and under the window. small but it works!

the downstairs room before we put furniture in it - lovin the big tree in the living room!!

We miss VA soooo much!! But we are confident this is where we are supposed to be right now so we are pressing on and getting acquainted with Texas!! It is hard but it took us awhile to buidl the relationships we had in VA so we have faith that God will build relationships here too!!

Bella....

2010-08-27T01:49:00.004-04:00

is our new family member! We got her free off of craigs list about 2 weeks ago! She is probably the craziest thing we did in adding to the stress of moving but she is worth it!!

she catches and eats the grasshoppers

she sleeps alot!

isn't she cute????

Texas...here we come

2010-07-31T10:12:00.003-04:00

Chaos - our life these days!!! Everything has seemed to happen so quickly yet is moving so slowly! Our house didn't sell so we decided to rent it so that we can all go together as a family to Texas. It just didn't feel right to leave me and the kids here and Dan go ahead of us while we waited for the house to sell! Who knows how long it would have taken and we didn't want to be without our hubby and daddy for that long!

We had found a house to rent through a homeschool group in Texas but when we got there another house - 1 mile down the road from the Grandparents - was available. We had to make a hard decision but we think it was the right one and we will be living just down the road from the in laws. We feel this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity for the kids so we will take it!! The boys are so excited to be able to ride their bikes down to Grandma's house! We couldn't resist the 22 acres that come with the house!!

I will send pics as soon as we get there and get internet set up! Right now we are in VA but will be packing up the truck on Tuesday and heading out Tuesday night! We are planning to get there by Thursday am!

Very exciting but sad! We have been so blessed by friends and church here in the Valley and we are really sad to go! So many people have been in and out of our lives over these past 5 years - it is hard to even begin to try to say good-bye to all of them! This makes me grateful for internet!!

Happy (late) Anniversary

2010-07-10T13:59:00.002-04:00

My husband and I both FORGOT our 10th Anniversary!!! We were driving to Canada when I realized we had forgotten. Dan looked at me like I was crazy and Alex couldn't believe we had both forgotten - what a pair we are!!! Guess we have a lot on our minds these days!!!

Niagara Falls

2010-06-30T10:57:00.005-04:00

....the Canada side of course......

the America falls as we rode past on the Maid of the Mist

another pic of the America Falls from the boat

that is where we were on the boat taking the pics above.....so totally cool!
HorseShoe Falls from the wall above

on the Maid of the Mist.....YES - YOU GET WET!!!

these 2 were having fun!

Alex brought his best friend Zach along for this last trip to Canada

it was a long drive......

the America Falls are behind the boys

the Horseshoe Falls as we drove out of the Mist and were NOT getting soaked anymore!!

the cameras went into hiding while we were literally at the base of the horseshoe falls!! It was awesome but very wet!!!
Zach & Alex - 2 cool dudes!!

soaking wet but still in awe of God's amazing Creation!

I finished this yesterday.......

2010-06-18T00:29:00.002-04:00

I was hired by a friend to paint a mural on her daughter's wall and this is how it turned out! I know the tree is smaller than the butterfly but - oh well! It is super cute and I must say I was pleased with how well it turned out!

The flowers across the bottom are my favorite!

This flower is alone on the wall behind her bed.

I did this for her on canvases with decopauge and paint. Again - I love how this turned out - super cute! It looks really good hanging above her closet and the colors are the ultimate girly girl!

DeCluttered

2010-04-29T23:10:00.002-04:00

Okay - it is done....the house is officially decluttered!! We got rid of 2 couches, 2 chairs, 4 bookshelves, 1 loft bed, 2 side tables, 2 desks, 1 buffet and that is just the BIG stuff! I am sitting back in shock looking at that list - how did I let that happen - okay, okay I know. it is my love of thrift stores and yard sales!
A friend was here today helping me pack up some stuff and she kept saying how big my house looked with all that stuff gone and my oldest keeps saying how clean it looks!! I guess I should really listen to what they are saying since I am LOVING how clean my house looks!!
This has been a very busy 2 weeks of cleaning out and I know I keep talking about it but maybe that is because God keeps talking to me about it and convicting me to NOT do this again!!
There are so many more important things to do with my time and I am so excited to have the space and the mindset to be able to do them!!!

Yard Sales

2010-04-24T22:40:00.002-04:00

I LOVE yard sales. I LOVE a good deal, a bargain and the search for a bargain but boy has that gotten me into trouble!
With the moving, comes the selling of our house(obviously) and with that comes the decluttering and cleaning of the house we have lived in for 5 years! I always thought I was good about decluttering and selling stuff every year at a yard sale. Until.....we decided to move and I was told we only get 1 truck and we will be moving ourselves! That put a whole different spin on the idea of decluttering and getting rid of the stuff that is not a necessity -aaarrrggghhh!!!
We had a yard sale this weekend - after I spent the past 2 weeks decluttering, shuffling things around and really taking stock of what we need and what we don't need but we have for some reason or another(couldn't possibly have anything to do with my addiction to thrift stores and yard sales)! We had a very good yard sale, got rid of alot of stuff and made some money but boy has God been working on me thru this process! I have been asking myself all day if having a 'good' yard sale is a good thing or a bad thing? Yes, it is a good thing to make money off of the stuff but why did we have that stuff to begin with?? Because of my sinful desires to get a good deal and letting my creativity control my actions! It has been so refreshing these past couple weeks to not have any desire to go into the thrift store or to be changing things up and creating more stuff to go on the walls or shelves or wherever I can put them! Don't get me wrong - I love being creative and I will never stop doing that stuff but I do need to learn to control it and not try to recreate everything I see that I like or try to redesign every piece of furniture that comes across my path! I have really enjoyed this whole cleaning out process and the simplifying of all that goes with it and I am really praying that God will help me to continue to feel this way and not let it take over our lives again!!
Here's to a successful yard sale!!!!

We are Moving.....

2010-04-18T23:29:00.003-04:00

....to Texas!! While we were in Texas for vacation Dan had an interview with Target in the Frisco area for a possible transfer to that area. Well - it seems that God wants us in Texas - they have a position for my hubby in the area where all of our family is living!!! We are not sure exactly what store he will be in yet but we do know he will be in that general area and that is good enough for us! Dan has 3 sisters(and their families), his mom and dad, 2 aunts and 1 cousin and his family and they all live within 20 miles of each other. My sister and her family will be moving to that exact same area this summer also!! Once we found out my sister was moving to that area we immediately started praying about what God has for us here in Harrisonburg and if moving to Texas was something we should pursue or not. We felt he answered with a very sound 'yes' so we started the process of asking for a transfer and it just worked out that Dan was able to interview while we were there on vacation!!
God has definately been guiding this decision and has his hand all over this and we are believing and trusting in him completely(or trying to) to work out all the details to get us there! Selling our house is gonna be the biggie! We are believing in God that it will all work for the good!!
This is a very hard move to make! We have never lived near family and it has been good for us but also bad and sad for us as the kids are getting older. We have been blessed by so many families and people in so many different ways since we moved to the Valley that it has been like having family around us! Every step of the way, thru the good and the bad of our 5 years here in the valley, we have been surrounded with love and support and friends and we are truly going to miss the people that have had such a huge impact in our lives!! We have all grown tremendously, in our faith and our walk with God and our commitment to family, since we moved here that it is easy to look back and see why God brought us to this place when he did!!
It has been hard at times to not have the unconditional support of family that this is exciting for us to be able to move to a place that we will be surrounded by family members!! We are fully aware this can be stressful at times but it will be worth it for my boys to be able to play with any of their 12 cousins that will live within 30 miles of them - any time they want to!!!
We are sad, excited, hopeful and trusting that the things God has in store for us cannot be measured - good and bad!!
God is Good.....All the Time

Shiloh cont...

2010-04-10T22:52:00.002-04:00

I forgot to tell the end of the story with Shiloh.....we had to put her down. We took her with us to Texas in hopes that she would get better with the steroids but she didn't. She got worse and so we had to make a hard decision and it sucked!!
I don't think it really hit us till we got home. I keep looking for her and waiting for her to join us when we go outside and to sit with us on the couch every night. The boys have mentioned almost every day that they miss Shiloh and wish she was still here with us.
I didn't realize what a part of our lives she really was and I miss her - even though she is just a dog!

Texas

2010-04-06T11:18:00.004-04:00

We drove 20 hours to visit our family in Texas over Spring Break. It was a VERY long drive but it was soooo worth it! All of my hubbies sisters and his parents live near Dallas and we hadn't seen the sisters for 3 years! There are also 2 cousins and their families and 2 aunts that live in the same area!! It is just a BIG group of nothing but family!!!

The grandarents have 14 Grandbabies - the oldest is almost 16 and the youngest is 6 months. They are quite the crew!!

My boys had the absolute best time hanging with all their cousins and just playing and playing and playing! It is such a blessing to us that they all get along and enjoy each other's company!
They have heard these names for so many years but they didn't remember all of the faces and who they really were - now they will!! Thomas was a baby when we were there last so he didn't know who any of them were. He was so excited to meet them all - it was cute!

Now we are home and the 2 weeks we took getting ready to go - I had to paint gifts for all of his sisters and buy new clothes for my big butt so I wasn't wearing paint stained clothes all week - are forgotten and life is back to normal!!

I made these for each of the sisters.....

I also got to paint while we were there - I had someone to paint for...Yeah!!!
This was a vinyl piece I bought to do something else and it didnt work so i made this and it is hangin in one of the sisters kitchen!

I had seen this saying that someone had painted on a canvas and loved it so I found some junk wood and used that to make one for each of his sisters! I think they turned out pretty ok! any chance to paint is just great with me!!!

Shiloh

2010-03-22T23:04:00.003-04:00

Today has been a stressful and sad day at our house. When we got up today Shiloh couldn't use her back legs and I had to carry her to go potty. We took her to the vet and she has had some kind of disc misplacement in her back - I don't remember all the proper terminology! They gave her a steroid shot and we are giving her some steroid pills in hopes that the swelling will go away and she will be able to get better without having to have surgery! If the steroids do not work and surgery is the only option we will have to make a VERY HARD decision weds. morning when we go back to the vet. It is just not possible for us to pay a couple thousand dollars for her to have surgery.

There have been a lot of tears today and lots of prayers for our sweet doggy! I have been a crying fool all day! I didn't realize how much a family member the Dog was until today and the thought of having to make this choice is possibly upon us.

Georgia or Bust.....

2010-02-10T16:25:00.002-05:00

On Sunday night we changed our plans and headed south as fast as I could get the car loaded!! The younger boys and I had originally planned to leave this coming Friday but when I saw another snow storm headed in our direction - WE LEFT!
When we left our house at 7a.m. Monday it was 5 below Zero! When we arrived at my sister's it was 55 degrees! Today - it looks like we have brought the cold weather with us because it is now very cold here and windy!!! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!
At least we are cooped up in a different house with our cousins - that is much more fun than being cooped up at home with our mom!!!
Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

More Snow Pics

2010-02-06T17:02:00.004-05:00

Thankfully, we only have 2 snow shovels and since all the boys came outside with us -I didn't have to shovel anything!! So - I took a bunch of pictures of what the snow looks like now that it has been snowing for 2 days straight!

Thanks to the snow plow we have quite a fun mountain in the front yard!

Take your eyes off the cutie pie smiling at you long enough to notice the HUGE accumulation of snow on top of the picnic table....

Shiloh LOVES the snow! She was almost completely covered and had to jump to get thru it!

The tree branches have so much snow on them they are hanging way low!

The snow reaches the bottom of the swings!

MORE STINKIN SNOW

2010-02-06T15:02:00.005-05:00

I am so tired of all this snow! It has been snowing for almost 2 full days now and we are officially 'Snowed In' this go round of storms!

Lasy night Stephen and Alex were outside for a little bit and shoveled the driveway, had a small snowball fight and made a couple of snow angels!

The street had just been plowed so the 2 of them laid down and made snow angels!

There is nowhere else they can make snow angels because the snow is so stinkin deep!

This what we woke up to - after it snowed all day Friday and all night!

It sure does look pretty!

After lunch Stephen went out again - can you believe how deep the snow is.......

This is what it looks like out the back door onto the deck! We cleared off the deck before this storm started so this is all from the new storm this weekend!!

Danny and I are headed out to shovel the driveway again - I think he has done it at least 4 times today!! He still is hoping we will make it out of here for church tomorrow! And he will have to go back to work tomorrow! They actually closed Target today so Danny got a snow day today - that was a nice suprise!!!

My hubby just told me that it is supposed to storm again on Tuesday - I am leaving with the boys and going to FL till May!!!

MoRe Snow...

2010-01-31T01:52:00.002-05:00

I want to move to Florida and get as far away from all this cold and snow - I don't like it anymore!! It was fun the first time we got 2 feet but this is what? the 3rd snowstorm? or the 4th? This cold weather sucks!!!

I am done whining now......got it out....thanks

Getting Shanty with it......

2010-01-13T11:00:00.001-05:00

It is show and tell time and I am gonna show off some of the things I made guided by Shanty 2 Chic!

I have been going a little crazy ever since I sat up till all hours of the night and read every single blog post from shanty2chic!! I have been to quite a few different thrift stores looking for wooden candle holders(cheaper than buying new ones at michael's) and glass jars to make a couple of the things they have posted. i am in awe of how creative they are and I love how other peoples creativity get the ideas going in my own head!!

This is the first official project i did following the rules from shanty 2 chic!!

This bookshelf was my grandma's and it was your standard stained wood with a poly finish. Blah! I love the little shelf and I love that it was my grandma's so the girls gave me some ideas.....
I spraypainted a primer over the finish so I didnt have to sand (worked out rather nicely) then I used this gorgeous turquoise color I had left over from painting my bedroom(yes - my bedroom walls are this color and the accents are RED - love it!) to paint the shelf. I got out my 80 grit sandpaper and gave it some aging then I applied my smoke ralph lauren glaze to complete the shanty.....
I love how it turned out!!!

I did learn a few things from my own shanty2 chic experiences (copying this idea)I would love to share with all of you....so you don't make the same mistakes I did!

None of my stores had Gorilla Epoxy so I had to use Loctite. It came with this great nozzle thing that mixes the epoxy for you - don't use it! It didnt really mix it and I had to redo my first attempt at gluing with epoxy! The second time around I squirted it out onto an old piece of wood, swirled it together with a plastic fork and applied it using the fork - much better results were achieved the second time around! I also did the duct tape trick the girls recommended the second time around! This stuff really works - it is pretty amazing!

Make sure you read all the info on their blog about each product before heading off to the store! I went to Home Depot 3 times for the glaze. The first time I was near there and so I went in to get the glaze and the guy was like - it doesn't have any color to it you need to tint it and I was like huh?? So I left empty handed but I did now know it was going to cost me $15 for a pint of the stuff!!

Trip #2 was the day after christmas. I went in got my glaze, completed the rest of my shopping and came home. Yeah -I can finally start my projects!! No - I then read something about the tint color and realized I had not read all the details and I had forgotten to get the glaze tinted. Trip #3 back to HD to get the glaze tinted! Now - I can get started on my projects!

The Shanty girls use the smoke tint but I did read another blog just recently who uses the tobacco. I think it is darker and I might like to try that color glaze too!

I used my acrylic paints to paint instead of spray paint - it is cold outside and I would never get it done if I did use spray paint. It took a couple of coats and I kept trying to get it perfectly covered - until it dawned on me that I was gonna take sandpaper to it anyways and if it wasn't perfect - it would be okay!

This is my version of the jOy plaques. I have wanted this word somewhere and thought this would be perfect! I love it! I still can't decide of I like it without the burlap or not????

I have done 2 show and tell posts today because I have been rearranging and redecorating since I put away all the christmas stuff and that involves being creative and lots of paint around my house!! So - you will see where Pray ended up in the next post.....

Show and Tell #2

2010-01-13T00:58:00.006-05:00

I didn't realize how much I have been doing until I went to post for show and tell today...I have been a little bit busy but having fun!!! It is so much fun to reorganize, redecorate and rearrange after all the christmas decor ahs been taken down...fun, fun, fun!!!

This is where my shanty piece of work ended up! The hutch was moved from the kitchen into the family room and it needed some decor. So....

This is where the bookshelf i talked about here ended up. also in the family room.

This table has needed a special spot since I prettied it up last summer. So - with a little hutch movement we have a new home for the table! And the fantastic shelf wall thing I found at a yard sale last weekend.

The wall shelf was a very country blue color that does not fit into my decor but with a little antique white, some smoke glaze and 80 grit sand paper she turned into quite a nice shelf to display my pics of old schoolhouses and my funky chickens!

the round frames I also found at the yard sale and gave them a nice coat of heirloom white spray paint. They are displaying Winslow Homer and Beethoven - our musician and artist that we have been studying in school! The big picture is the picture by Homer that we have been studying for a couple weeks now - it is time to change it! I love including school stuff in the decor because homeschool is a huge part of our lives but our house doesn't have to look like a class room!

my hubby heard this word and said I want you to paint that and put it up in the house. so - 3 months later - here it is! every time i see the word there is something new i think of that we are victoriuos over and it just speaks of God's amazing work in our lives!!

we hung it on this little wall that you pass under as you walk down the hall and into the kitchen!

i painted the wood and then decopauged different pieces of scrapbook paper onto the board that the letters fit on. The letters are chipboard that I spraypainted black and then decopauged to the paper. i think it turned out cute and fun!

the wall of bookshelves in the kitchen also got an update after the decor was put away!

i love pigs and I have a new infatuation with funky chickens and roosters - maybe it is from living in the country! the silhouettes were an idea I got from a blog last year some time. easy peasy to do! and that empty space in the middle turned out to be the perfect place for our ocean box we made in science today!

the new lantern(the crack in the back piece of glass got me a discount at Ross) paired with my $2 pig is on the top of the left bookshelf.

this is what's on top of the right hand shelves. the flag was a father's day gift a couple years ago and i just painted the little sign over christmas break.

i have been collecting colorful and old glass vases for a couple years now and every once in a while i find a vase that i like that doesnt fit into the collection or is too big to go with the others so I put them in other places around the house - like here!

this stuff is on the other side of the middle shelves! my version of the shanty apothecary jars with an old schoolhouse pic I love because on the chalkboard is written - I will obey my teacher.

The other pic is stick figures of all the boys fishing - done by a friend of mine who has some amazing talents!

i filled the jars with sand i have had from our favorite beaches. my hubby asked me to do something like this a few years ago and the sand has been sitting there waiting for the perfect spot to put it...here it is!! i still have to paint the top of the back jar black and add it's tag but until i get it done it will sit right here!

i made this big fork about 2 years ago. i cut it out of mdf with my jigsaw. it has been ina closet since i made it and i finally put it on the wall about 2 weeks ago! for some reason i have been hesitant about putting up all the things I have made or painted.

a bench from a yard sale that cried out for some chicken fabric and some new paint. the barrel i found at an antique shop - LOVE IT!

well - that is it for now and probably for awhile! coop starts back this week and we have some catching up to do in school so my playing days are over....till I get another great idea I just have to do!!!

Show and Tell

2009-12-30T14:38:00.003-05:00

It's wednesday and that means time to show off....YEAH!!! I am in th emiddle of a couple projects that I can't wait to show off so I thought I would link you to some of my older posts that I did before I had a place to share my show offs!!!

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/08/busy-busy-busy.html

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/ive-been-painting.html

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-finished-it.html

As I was going through old posts I realiezed I have been blogging for over a year now - wow. That seems long to me!! It was fun to go back through and see all the things we did! I will have to do that more often!!!

Show & Tell

2009-12-23T17:13:00.005-05:00

I do love this idea and have been anxiously awaiting this week's Show and Tell to show off what I did with the nativity and O Holy Night I purchased from I Show Off.

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This board is leftover from some bookshelves my dad and I made over thanksgiving. I painted it balck and then sanded it down. I learned a cool technique to crackle so I tried that with the white center. I think it turned out pretty nice! When it was all dry I put on the vinyl and then put a clear coat over all of it!
to do the crackle effect: just use regular old elmer's glue!! i dont know what the actual crackle stuff you buy looks like when it is done but this worked well enough for me so I have done it a couple of times now!! i forgot to take pics during the process - sorry!
step 1 - paint your base color - the color you want to show thru the crackle - Let Dry
step 2 - apply elmer's glue to cover the whole area you want to crackle. not thick but not too thin just a nice coating
step 3 - let it dry but not completely. it will be just a smidge tacky
step 4 - put the top color on top of the glue. do it in one direction. don't keep applying to make it thicker. you are going to want to cover in one stroke going in the same direction and then do the next stroke. the more you go over it and the thicker you make the paint on top the less it will crackle.
dont hesitate to email me with questions - you will be suprised how easy it is and how fast it works! you should see it start in a couple minutes!

I love these nativities and knew I wanted to do something with them so...I bought them! She was nice enough to size them down a little for me so I could put them on this star as an ornament. I traced the star onto a piece of wood and cut it out with my jigsaw. It required a little sanding and then I painted!

on the back I wrote the different names that were prophecied in Isaiah 9:6.

I have a red one on my tree and Ijust love how they turned out - cute!!!

I am looking forward to cruising around all the other show n tell's!!!

Snow......Glorious Snow.......

2009-12-20T11:25:00.004-05:00

the Grand Total at our House was 20 inches after snowing from 5pm Friday through about 8pm on Saturday

I love the way the snow looks on the wreaths...so pretty!

of course it would look even prettier if I didn't take a picture of the broken window that is duct taped!!

Stephen and Ben headed out at 830 and we didn't hear from them for at least 3 hours!!

the snow started falling harder again about lunchtime

after lunch daddy had shoveled the driveway and walkway and built some nice walls for the boys to climb on. thomas finally headed outside after lunch...

the snow was a little hard for Thomas to walk in....

Thomas and Shiloh had fun in the snow although I htink Shiloh had more fun than Thomas!

Big Brother walked outside and immediately fell over too!

This is the first mound of snow created by our neighbors clearing their drives and the snow plow. The mound has since doubled in size and will provide hours, days and weeks of snow play for the boys!

The boys wait for the snow plow to come through and create this huge pile of snow for them! This year our neighbor had a little bobcat out here shoveling his drive and dumped all the snow in this pile for the boys!!

As FUN a sthe snow is - I am about to go crazy from all the clothes and towels laying all over the kitchen so they can dry in between plays! I am soooo grateful that everyone but Thomas can dress themselves!! Oh how it is the small things in life that make me happy!!

It is beautiful outside with all the snow covering evrything.....Thank you, God - you Rock!!!

Decorating for Christmas

2009-12-18T02:57:00.001-05:00

I do soooo LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it - except the shopping! But - I especially love decorating for Christmas. I love getting ALL the boxes out from under the house and opening each one to see what is inside. I love the moment of remembering those items from last year and the little smile that I get from those memories. I love opening a box that is full of all the clearance items from the year before I bought to use this year and trying to remember what I was gonna do with that??? I must admit that a few items got put back into a box this year because I had absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I bought them and couldn't figure out what to do with them this year!!!
I was so excited when I found this tour of homes hosted by The Nester so I could peek into how you decorate and get some ideas for next year!! But - I missed the cutoff to join in her party and through her Ifound these other Holiday Home Tours to join and visit! Hooked on Holiday House Tours and Home for the Holidays .It is gonna be so much fun for me to look thru all those homes.

I hope you enjoy the tour.......

This is our new card tree. We love this idea and will be doing it from now on! I can't wait to see what it will look like the day before Christmas! It has already doubled since I took this picture!

This ledge just recently got put up in the tv room and has yet to be decorated - except for the window - so it was fun to put all our christmas frames on it and give it some life - finally!! I have painted the frames each year and we try to put our christmas morning pic in them but there are a couple that we missed so it is just the card pic from that year!

The three wisemen are ornaments that my hubby hates putting on the tree becasue they are so heavy! I think they found a nice home!

this was fun to decorate with ribbon and bright little ball ornaments

kitchen table centerpiece

our house is just a little house and we do no thave any mantels so the stockings hang in the front hallway. I did this last year and I tried to put them on a bookshelf this year but Stephen requested I put them here like I did last year - so I did!

Our tree.....when we first got married we went to the farm and cut down our tree and brought it home and it was such fun a nd smelled so good. After child #4 came along it was no longer fun it was just plain torture with a lot of yelling and crying involved from mommy and small, cold children so we bought a fake tree! It is nice to be bale to put the tree up on black friday and leave it up till i feel like taking it down! But we decided this year to get a real tree next year since the boys are older and we do miss the smell of the real tree!

My hubby works retail so putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving doesn't usually happen as he is busy with all the Black Friday madness. So the tree ususally gets put up during that weekend at some point! It is a family event and all must be present before we can start! Mommy is in charge of the ornaments and the boys get fussed at quite a bit to "be gentle" with the ornaments throughout the process but it is pure family fun we all love! It is so much fun to remember the ornaments from year to year and see the ones the kids made from year to year and to open a new one from Grandma each year. The boys take turns each year putting on the star. It was Thomas' turn this year and he was just so stinkin' proud of himself - it was way too cute! I love sitting next to the tree and just enjoying the lights and the ornaments!

I took these pics below because I thought it would be enjoyable to show off the giant clumps of ornaments and the big holes in the tree that have no ornaments! This drives my hubby crazy and when he tried to be all sneaky and move some of them around the kids actually noticed and got upset with him!! So we now have a very badly decorated tree but it adds to the charm and beauty of it and the lights are still pretty!
i wrote on the pic but you can't read it...

Alex started a little tradition of his own with his brothers a couple years ago - He hides baby Jesus in the tree and on Christmas morning the little ones have to find him. They love this and can't wait to find the baby Jesus christmas morning!

front door wreath I just bought at JoAnn's for 75% off and quickly came home and took down the berry one we have had for a few years now! I would really like to have a big P to put on it but I can't find the bigger wood letters around my small town so it will remain bare till I travel to other parts of the world in search of better craft stores!!! I love the rusted bells. I found some rusted stars at Ben Franklin the stoher day that I think I will add to this one of these days!

I love putting up ALOT of christmas lights outside and I especially love driving home after being gone all day and it is dark and all the lights are on - that is my absolute favorite part!!! It is worth all the work for that moment!! I would keep the lights up all year if I could!

not enough lights yet...we are thinking we should put some around the windows too!

I must admit that I do tend to skip right over Thanksgiving and move straight from Halloween(which I could easily skip as well) and go straight into Christmas! I tried to put up Fall decor this year and keep it up till Thanksgiving but I just couldn't hold out - I caved - like 2 days before Thanksgiving!! I'll try again next year!

This is our Advent Log. My dad drilled some holes into a 2x4 for me to put the candles and I decorated it with garland and holly and berries that each have symbolism this season! Each night we do an advent reading and the boys take turns lighting the candles. The white ones are the sundays of advent and the last one will be lit christmas morning before we do presents! This is the first year doing the log. Last year was our first year doing advent and we used a wreath. I saw the log at a friend of ours mom's house and loved it and wanted to do that instead of a wreath. I could never bring myself to use the purple and pink candles that are traditional advent candles - red and white work just as good for us!! They still have the same meaning just not the right color - Oh well! You should see these all lit up - it is gorgeous!
We also celebrate christmas morning with a donut cake for Jesus' Birthday.

Thomas' turn - notice the concentration - this is hard work

My Santa's are one of my favorite things to put out! Quite a few years ago my mom started buying me one of these Santa's every year and I LOVE them! She hasn't gotten me a new one in a few years because they no longer go to SC on vacation! So they are scattered all over the downstairs and even on the bookshelves in the hallway upstairs!

Show and Tell

2009-12-16T16:31:00.006-05:00

I am soooo excited! I found a blog that does show and tell once a week - wooohooo!!! Now - I can show off some of my creations and possibly get some feedback on some of my stuff!! It will also be nice to show off all my fun painting stuff I like to do!!!

This is my first time doing show & tell and I am excited to show off some of my christmas things I made to sell at a local coffee shop! They aren't flying off the shelves like I had hoped but it was fun making them so I guess it is okay! Whatever doesn't sell I will just give as Late christmas gifts!!!

These actually sold pretty well!

I saw this idea on a blog at halloween and she gave directions on how to number the blocks(i never would have figured that out on my own) so I gave it a go and I think they turned out cute and fun!!

not christmasy but i did paint it for the shop so I put it on here!

a christmas gift for my sister.....

another countdown to christmas......

I can't wait till next week to show off what I did with these fantastic nativities I found from one of the past show and tell's!!

2009-12-13T17:25:00.002-05:00

I have a LOVE of all things polka dot but red with white polka dots is my absolute favorite! So - when I saw this chicken at Ross the other day I just HAD to have it!! The fact that it was only $5 made it a little easier to justify the purchase of a red polka dotted chicken!!!

This is where the chicken will roost!

Since I took a picture of that side of the cabinets I figured I may as well take a pic of the other side. These are all my colored vases I have been collecting for a couple years now at antigue shops, thrift stores and flea markets!!! I had to stop because I ran out of room to put them!! My hubby put sdome white lights up behind them and they look so pretty!

It's Christmas Card Time

2009-12-09T21:02:00.002-05:00

and I am soooo not ready for it! We sat down to figure out what we did this past year and it was the same old stuff that we do every other year!! The only person who did exciting stuff was Alex and I don't want to write a whole christmas letter about what HE did all year!! Do family and friends really want to hear the same old same old year after year??? I don't even know where to start and it is already Dec.10th........aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!! What to do? What to do?

Memories.....

2009-11-13T15:00:00.000-05:00

Look at those little cuties.....this is Stephen and Ben at Great Falls,VA. We used to live near the Falls and so we took the little boys one morning and went to see the Falls...Beautiful!

I got this picture out so I could frame it to put up on the wall - which I haven't done yet - and I just keep looking at it on the computer and marveling at my cute little boys and how much they have grown!! I really do miss those little boys!!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-12T00:36:00.003-05:00

we took the boys to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin to carve and mommy got some fun gourds to decorate with!! I do love the wackiness of Gourds!

Mommy's Boys...what a crew!!!

Ben liked the little pumpkins

Thomas picked out some fun gourds for Mommy!

Stephen was soooo dissapointed when we told him he had to choose one or the other

Alex made quite the spectacle of himself riding down the hill over and over again in these tube things.....Stephen was happy to give his big brother a Push.....

You roll down this little hill and the hay bales are supposed to stop you. well - Alex went right over the top of the bales and then stopped - it was hysterical!!

Mommy even took a turn but we will not be sharing those pictures with all of you!!!

Alex had done these before a few years ago and was very excited to do them again!

The Corn Maze. The boys were so excited to go into the corn maze - until they got lost! They were in there for quite some time and I was getting a little bored waiting for them when they came busting out the side of the maze and onto the tractor path - clearly not the Exit of the maze!! Do you notice Alex pointing to his father and tattling on him???? He didn't waste any time telling that it was daddy who made them do it!!!

Carving our Pumpkins. Thomas would have nothing to do with touching the guts inside the pumpkin so Stephen did it for him!! I was surprised because Stephen has always been the one who didn't want to touch gross stuff!!!

WOW!!

2009-10-30T00:14:00.002-04:00

I have a pretty amazing teenager!! He definately has his faults and issues and troubles but he is such a Joy!
This week has been busy for him! Monday night he was in a One Act Play competition between the 4 high schools in our area and Broadway came in 2nd Place - YEAH!!! Those kids worked their butts off and it was such a rewarding experience for them! Now they will go to a Regional competition - he is so excited!!!
Tonight was the All City-County Choir Performance of the same 4 local high schools and their choir's. Alex is in choir so we also attended that! It was incredible!
There is some serious talent in our high school kids and truly a pleasure to get to enjoy it!!!
I am the proud, bragging mom tonight - I hope that is okay!!!

O' Christmas Tree

2009-10-24T02:36:00.003-04:00

For some reason we have been having LOTS of discussions about christmas already and putting up the lights(the outside goes a little towards trailer park trash and WE LOVE IT)! Since we can't put up the lights outside - the boys asked if they could put up their tree today? They have a tree that goes in their room and they have their own decorations and they just love it....so we put it up! It was so much fun!!
I just couldn't resist when Stephen said to me - "Mommy, I just love having the tree up and all the lights" I do too!!!

Alex

2009-09-30T00:19:00.003-04:00

Did I share with you that Alex is the Freshman class President at his new High School? I am proud and bragging - yes I am!!! The boy has no problem making friends and fitting in or not fitting in and making himself comfy in whatever situation he is in! I am truly amazed time after time at his ability to fit in and get along with just about everybody. There have been very few people he has ever not gotten along with in his lifetime. What amazing skills for him as he grows up and ventures into new and scary situations!

He went to his first Homecoming dance last weekend! He was NOT allowed to take a girl or dance too close to any girls but he still had a blast - big suprise! He was a dancing machine all night - so he said - and just had a really good time. He was all wired and pumped when he got home and just talked about nothing else for 2 straight days!

It is scary and exciting to watch him go through this phase of life. I did let my Fear take over a bit and probably will again but God worked it out and now it is a little better for Mom to handle all the girl stuff and growing stuff that comes along with high school and teenagers!

Craziness

2009-09-16T01:16:00.003-04:00

Our lives spun out of control in a matter of minutes and I am still reeling!!!

Alex has adjusted to High School without any problems whatsoever! He is now the Freshman Class President!! He didn't even go to public school last year and he got elected President within the first 2 weeks of school!! He also tried out for a one act play and got the main part he tried out for! My son is quite the socialite!! It is going to be a BUSY year for us with his new schedule! Now we will just have to see how his grades do with all the business!!

or this is how we all are gonna feel......

Last week Alex brought home some wonderful flu/cold and it hit us all - HARD!! He had a cough and sore throat for a day or so. Then Danny got it for a couple days, Stephen had a cough for a day or so. Thomas got a runny nose and Ben had a cough for about a minute. I got it on Thursday and I STILL have it!! I cannot get rid of this runny nose and sore throat - it is miserable!!!

being sick brought everything to a halt - real quick! but it didn't stop the fact that I started back to work at the Family Christian store on Monday & Tuesday! YUK!! It is only for christmas and it will be worth it to get some debt paid off!!

the little ones enjoyed it because they got a day or 2 off of school due to mommies sickness!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Fasting from the TV & Computer

2009-09-06T22:32:00.002-04:00

A call was put out by some friends of ours to fast and we didn't do very well with the whole food fasting idea so we decided as a Family to fast from the Tv & Computer for a week! Starting today we will no tbe watching any TV or using the computer for games or such for a week. Yes - I know I am on the computer - but I am on it to tell you that I won't be on it for a week!! I am allowed to use it to check email and some other things because I have some books for sale and other things I need to be able to respond to but no blogging!! It is going to be a LONG week for me!! I am addicted to this computer and talking to you is my release at the end of the day!!
I am excited to see how God works in us this week! We have some verses posted around about worship and we will be praying those and some others every time we want to blog or turn one of the screens on!! I am looking forward to an amazing week of some spiritual changes in our house!!!

Makin' Bread

2009-09-04T23:35:00.002-04:00

I made my first loaf of fresh ground whole wheat bread! I do love the taste of whole wheat and with a slab of real butter melted onto a piece of freshly baked bread......My mouth is watering......YUMMY!!! I got a new bread maker so I can make bread every day - the boys boycotted me making bread and freezing it and I don't mind throwing a loaf in the maker every day! It seems to get eaten so it is worth it!
I borrowed a friends grinder and ground some hard red and some hard white and I am excited to experiment with each of the wheats to find what we like best! So far I have made 2 loafs of bread with the same wheat but a different recipe. I don't know how to fix the recipe if we don't like it but I don't mind trying new ones till we find the one we like the best! We already did this with the pancake mix and determined that they like the hard white the best BUT mommy likes the hard red!!
It is weird for me to be this excited about cooking and bread making but I am really excited about the benefits for our family!!!

If any of you have a great breadmachine bread recipe you want to pass on I would love to have it to try!!!
It just dawned on me I should have taken a pic of my first loaf to show off!!!

Friend Makin Monday

2009-08-31T22:41:00.005-04:00

I did this a couple weeks ago and it was fun so here I am again - tryin to make me some friends!! My answers to the 20 questions - I hope you will still be my friend after you read my answers!!!

1. Do you cook every night?
Not if I don't have to!! I really do not enjoy cooking! But you gotta do what you gotta do - right? and if we are going to change our eating habits - which I posted about yesterday - then I am going to HAVE to cook every night - YUK!!!

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?
I used to use the costco brand int hat big huge container but lately i have been buyin whatever is cheapest! We have this great store around here that has super cheap prices on food items and some other odds and ends so I have been buying laundry detergent for 3.49 a bottle for a few weeks!

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?
I do it whenever the mood strikes and it is usually when we run out of undies! I usually end up doing it 2 or 3 times a week a few loads at a time.

4. How often do you eat out per week?
NEVER.

5. Where do you usually eat out?
if we do - it would be to hit the drive thru at chick-fila or mcdonalds

6. What is your favorite retail store?
I do soooo love Thrift stores!! But real stores - my favorite is TARGET - and since hubby works there we do get a small discount!!!

7. What is oyur favorite thing to drink?
Dr.Pepper but it has to be fountain soda!

8.Do you take vitamins? What kind?
i was taking mellaluca but it has been a few months since i got them

9. What percentage of the household chores do you do?
80%

10. Do your children do chores?
yes - alex does the 2 bathrooms(not mine), sweeps and mops the stairs and hallway, vacuum downstairs after dinner
the little ones empty the dishwasher, scoop dog poop, clean the van, clean their room, and they each have a dinner chore - get drinks, set the table, wipe the table
Here are some pics of the chore charts and schedules I recently made for the boys.

11. Do you go to church?
ABSOLUTELY

12.Do you have a housework schedule?
HA!HA! I wouldn't keep it but the OCD in me would sure have fun making one!

13. Do you keep a working budget?
Dave Ramsey all the way!!

14. What do you do at night as a family?
we always eat dinner together. we watch movies, play games

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?
I wish I planned out my school week on sundays. I have tried to do a meal plan but so far I havent done so good with that!! Other than that I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants and take it as it comes - I would not recommend this method!!!

16. What do your mornings look like?
In reality - i roll out of bed whenever the boys come pester me to get up. then we have breakfast, do our morning chores and get started with school. there is no set time for any of the above but I am trying to follow the same routine every day!

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?
during the week I set the alarm for 7:00 and usually hit snooze till about 8:00. on the weekends I sleep as long as they will let me but i am usually up by 830 or 9!

18. What time do you go to bed at night?
I would like to be in bed by 11 but so many nights i am up till 1,2 and sometimes 3!! Now that we have started school I am better about getting to bed but alot of times it is 12 before i hit the pillow!

19. How do you manage all the paperwork that comes into your house?
Anything that needs to be attended goes staright ont he calendar whitha s much info as I can fit and then the piece of paper goes into the trash can! if i need the paper it gets attached to the door to the garage with a magnet( it is right next to the calendar) or it goes around the calendar ona string I have hanging there attached with a clothespin. I have a bill/money file taht all that goes into until bill paying time. all phone lists are in 1 binder in a central spot by the calendar.

20. How do you keep your household organized?
I think my answer to 19 would qualify here as well! Pic here of my wall calendar system!

Healthy Eating

2009-08-30T13:00:00.001-04:00

About 6 months ago I started making our own bread and it has been a good change for us. That is about as far as I got in the healthy eating dept until recently. The other day i found myself listening to Sue Becker of the Bread Beckers on one of the MP3's from convention. I was mesmerized and God just struck something in my head and heart and said listen up because this needs to happen in your house! We do love our cereal, popcorn, chips and all sorts of frozen goodies like chicken nuggets and pizza rolls but hubby and I have gotten sick of the way we eat and so we knew it was time for a change!
The 2 things that really struck me were 1) shop for REAL FOOD. do not shop the inside aisles of the grocery store - only shop the outside perimeter and only buy real food. I didn't understand at first but I just so happen to go to the grocery store a day or so later and was floored by the reality of what she was saying! It will mean I will have to actually cook and make food for my family instead of opening a bag or dumping it onto a pizza pan but i feel like God is behind me on this and will keep me fed with ideas thru the internet and friends!
2) grind our own wheat. this will be a little harder since I don't have a wheat grinder and I sure don't have $300 plus to drop on one! But I do have a dear friend who has one and is willing to grind it for me! I was totally convinced just listening to Sue Becker talk about what they do to the wheat to make it have a shelf life of undetermined time. I have been blessed since we decided to make this change by realizing half my friends eat this way and are so willing to share recipes, hints and tips and even help me get started(I really have NO desire to cook - I would much rather be painting). Any recipes or tips YOU want to share I will be so blessed to have!!!
Those are the 2 things we are gonna slowly strat to change around here!

I will be more than happy to make you a copy of her talks and send them to you if you want to listen to what she has to say!

Once I started researching recipes and figuring out other things to eat for breakfast and lunch I started thinking about my son's acne and if this change of eating might be helpful to him. I found nothingt hat said 'these foods cause acne' but i found multiple articles that had found correlations between caffeine - soda & chocolate, dairy products and all the preservatives put into food and acne! Are you suprised? I was - just a little bit - but the more I learn about what things are being put into my food the less and less I am suprised by what a change in diet can do for us!!

My hubby, Alex and Ben are okay with the idea of change but we haven't had the full effect of it all yet - there is still cereal in the pantry and chips so as soon as those are gone it could get UGLY around here! Stephen and Thomas are my picky eaters and when I say picky I mean they will go hungry rather than try something(which is almost everything i put in front of them). Stephen actually GAGGED when I made him try a bite of a wheat pancake I made with our fresh flour!! I have always given them the option to have a bowl of cereal if they didn't like what we were having for dinner but we are going COLD TURKEY on the cereal and they will have to take a NO THANK YOU bite before they can turn it down and refuse to eat! I am sure we will still have some frozen items for lunch now and again - I love pizza rolls and tater tots as much as they do!!

God give me strength to make these changes and stick to them for our family and the benefits we can receive by eating the way you intended us to eat!

Yard Sales and In-Laws

2009-08-29T20:34:00.004-04:00

I spent the week getting ready for a yard sale at my house this weekend. I LOVE yard sales! I love going to them - I love having them and I love getting rid of stuff! We have bought very few pricey things - most everything we own has come from thrift stores and yard sales so it is easy to get rid of stuff every year because there is not alot of emotional attachment! But now that the boys are getting older we are putting more thought into what we buy them so there is less and less need to get rid of stuff!!

Ben had a blast selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup! He was very patient and sat there all morning waving and saying hello to folks and asking them if they wanted to buy lemonade! He made $12!!

I would sooo buy lemonade from him if he smiled at me like that!!!

My In-Laws will be arriving Monday or Tuesday and I am a total stress case! They are never here long but when they are it is very stressful. I have been cleaning like it was 'spring' and i still have a LONG way to go!!! I love them dearly and they are awesome, God-lovin' folks but they are just different than I am and my mother in law does not hesitate(at all) to tell me how she is feeling, what I am doing wrong and how ugly the color on my walls is! It is very hard to prepare myself mentally for the put downs..aaarrggghhhh!! The biggest problem is that they are the most wonderful people EVER and it is so hard to remember that sometimes!!! God has truly blessed our family with them but sometimes it is just HARD!!!

on a side note.....I found an old Dave Matthews cd when cleaning and I am just chillin' listening to it right now - I love the instruments he uses in his music!!!

2009-08-19T10:07:00.004-04:00

I love to paint and be creative and use bright colors!! I started painting about 5 years ago - from the encouragement of a friend whose art I kept buying - and I haven't stopped since!!

Frig Frames are my absolute favorite thing to paint and to gift!! I can be as colorful and fun as I want because most people aren't worried about a frig magnet clashing with their decor!!I love to have my frig full of them!

I love to mix old and new with the use of color and patterns. I love to look at something at a yard sale or in the thrift store and think how I can make it my own!

For years I have also wanted to figure out a way to make some extra $$ from my art - we always need extra $$$!! I tried a website but right as I got it set up we decided to homeschool and there was no way i could do both at that time! I tried some craft shows around here but I don't think my style was quite country enough!! So - I gave up and just have painted to give as gifts and to decorate my house with the random person buying stuff from me here and there.

Well - a friend encouraged me to try again at a local coffee shop - so I did. I met with the owner yesterday and she liked my stuff!! I am excited! I am going to start with a couple of small things that I have around the house and see how it goes!

Bowl.....

Lazy Susan.....

and Frig Frames - of course!!!

We have 2 colleges near us so I am gonna try to do something with their school colors too!!

I am really excited and hopeful that maybe now is the right time to try to make something of my passion!!!

Lady Julie

2009-08-15T21:45:00.002-04:00

I was Knighted today!!! We went to the Medieval festival today and I was knighted along with the boys. It was fun! It was a small festival and we were so looking forward to the Jousting Tournament but it turned out to be not what the boys were expecting. Oh well - we enjoyed getting to see the period costumes and all the armor and weapons that they wore!
I totally forgot my camera so no pictures - the memory will just have to be etched into my brain forever!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-08-14T22:14:00.004-04:00

My sister just recently turned me onto the whole coupon shopping craze and a fantastic website that does all the work for me - southernsavers. She goes thru the coupons you get in the paper and matches them up to the store sales for each week. It is truly amazing what you can save by adding coupons to store sales - which I never knew you could do!!! Now - I have not experienced the amazing deals my sister has but I have found milk for only $2.17 a gallon and eggs for $.89 - that works for me for now!!! I plan to get a little more into it now that we are home from all our vacations and we are starting to get back into our routine!! It seems to take a little bit of work but I think it will be worth it for the savings!!!

I have been painting in my free time the past couple days. I started working on my sister's LATE birthday present and couldn't stop so I got a few other projects done that had been sitting around waiting for me to finish!

like this stool that I bought at least 6 months ago, painted it orange and then it sat around and waited for me to do something to the top of it.....

my sisters late birthday present!

a little something for the wall in our family room!!!

tomorrow we are going to a medieval festival and we get to watch a jousting match!! should be fun!!

The newest Pasiecznik has arrived.....

2009-08-08T20:45:00.005-04:00

isn't he stinkin cute???

our neighbor had puppies and the boys just fell in love and we thought Shiloh needed a brother so........

look at how he just loves on him.....i couldn't resist!!!

Meet Jack........

Legos HURT.....

2009-08-06T10:33:00.003-04:00

Who knew legos could cause some serious damage when you step on them?? I didn't!
I was helping a friend paint yesterday and I stepped down off the ladder and stepped right onto a lego. That thing jammed up into my foot and I literally had to yank it out! It hurt so stinkin' bad! Now I have a gash in the bottom of my foot, it is all swollen and painful to walk and I am in bed with my foot up! There are gonna be some changes in our clean up process around here!!!

we are home...again

2009-08-02T00:45:00.003-04:00

We are home to stay this time!! no more vacations - although they were all really fun and well worth it - we are glad to be home! We went camping this past week and can I just mention it RAINED the WHOLE week!!!! It was yucky, wet, more wet, smelly but the kids had a lot of fun! They played in the rain with their cousins, they cooked smores when it cleared for a little bit, they swam in the lake and jumped off the high dive for hours in the rain, they played in the rain some more, we took a hike or two during brief respits from the rain and we had FUN! But - we are glad to be home - even the boys are glad to be sleeping in their own beds!!

I told a small fib - it didn't rain for about 1 1/2 of the days we were there!

I am having trouble loading pics so maybe later I will be able to put some up!!!

Vacation....again

2009-07-24T23:07:00.002-04:00

We are off to go camping with my sister's family and my parents for the whole week next week! We will not be so lucky as to be roughin' it in a tent for the whole week though - we will be in a cabin!!! With real beds - Praise the Lord!!! I love camping and I don't mind roughin' it but we have yet to find an air mattress that actually holds air and you don't sink into the floor in the middle of the night - which then means NO SLEEP!!!!! I am usually quite grumpy by the time we come home from just 2 nights camping I couldn't imagine sleeping in a tent ON THE FLOOR for 6 nights - YUK!!! Maybe a cot is in order for dear old mommy???
I am pretty sure we will be off the airwaves for a week so talk at you when we get back in a week!!!

Mommies New Toy

2009-07-23T23:14:00.004-04:00

we were given this wonderful hammock as a gift last week in canada and my hubby just put it up for me today.......

Thomas & Ben thought it was great fun to twist mommy up and watch her twirl around and around! It was great fun!!!

2009-07-20T12:17:00.004-04:00

I don't really have a story to share so I thought I would share our favorite places to go on vacation!

We have 2 favorite vacation spots.....

Canada - we stay at my in-laws 'cottage' at the Ukranian Bible Camp on Pigeon Lake near Peterborough. We spend our days at the lake playing in the sand, canoeing around the lake and just enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods. The boys also do alot of fishing and we eat alot of fish! We spend our evenings by the campfire,that is always going, and chatting with the in-laws and any other relatives that are there at the time. This year we had 4 wheelers that we got to ride all around the camp - that was way fun!!!

the Lake.........

the Cottage........

Outer Banks - my boys absolutely love the beach! This was the second year that we didn't get to go to OBX(finances and our vacations have to be to visit family since we have NO family near us)

and we are all very sad about this change in our vacation spot!! We always stayed in the same house that was about a block from the beach and on the other side of the beach road was the sound where the boys would spend hours crabbing and fishing! We really, really miss the beach!!

Vacation Dreams......

1. To get back to the beach every year!

2. Drive across the US in an RV! I want to see all there is to see - the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Park, that big forest in CA that I cannot recall the name of right now and all the other amazing places we have right here in our own country!!! I also want to stop at all the funny places along the way like - the biggest ball of string, etc.. It has to be in an RV though becuase if we tried it in our van we would most likely all go crazy!! Plus - the whole RV experience seems like it is a must and that it would be super fun!!!!

3. Swim with the Dolphins! This is my ultimate dream! I have always wanted to do this and I will someday!! I love Dolphins!

4. Alaska & Australia. They just both seem like must visits!!

5. Jungle Trek! I so would love to go on a Guided tour thru the Jungle/Rainforest. All the animals and mystery leave me breathless!!!!

Digital scrapbooking

2009-07-18T00:45:00.003-04:00

I am hooked! Sometime last year I got a whole bunch of FREE digiscrap stuff off the internet and I couldn't wait to start scrapbooking digitally instead of the regular old way with lots of stuff strewn around. I finally got around to getting some pages done while we were in Canada and all I had to bring with me was the laptop!! It was fantastic - every night I could scrap away and I didnt have any mess to clean up after I was done and every single piece of paper, mat, sticker or other embellishment that I put on the page was FREE!! I have gotten so much stuff free that I could seriously scrap for quite a few years this way without having to buy a thing - except the scrapbook itself and the pages to get printed!
Now - on the other side of it I have spent hours since we got home downloading NEW Freebies and Goodies so I can get completely caught up when we leave again and go camping next week! We will be in a cabin so I can bring the laptop for late night scrapping!!!! Fun, Fun, FUn!!!
I tried to upload some pages to show off but becuase htey are such big files they wouldn't load!!

Family Vacation.....Canada

2009-07-09T15:26:00.005-04:00

We still have 5 more days of vacation but I wnated to show off some of the pics I have taken already! We are in Peterborough Canada - well actually we are in an ever smaller town but that is the closest town that is on the map! This is one of our absolute favorite places to come for vacation and we are having so much fun! We stay in the in-laws cabin that is on the property of the Ukranian Bible Camp Retreat Center. The lake is just a brief walk down the dirt road and we are surrounded by beautiful trees and quiet! Fishing, Playing at the Lake and the campfire in the backyard - that is always burning - are the highlights of our vacation! This year we have 4 wheelers to play on and they are so much fun - Mommy rides the big one more than the boys do! Stephen has mastered the little yellow one and zips all over on it with the biggest smile on his face but Ben and Thomas ride with mommy, daddy or Alex. Daddy and Stephen rowed the canoe ove rto the island that is across from us on the Lake and Alex goes over by himself! He wants to go exploring over there so hopefully it will stop RAINING long enough for him to be able to go! In between rain showers - which it has done every day since we got here - we have meanaged to get in some playtime!!! We also go to go strawberry picking with Uah - that was fun and dirty!!! Enjoy the pics........

Uah & Tat's backyard and house...beautiful!!!

I Painted...

2009-07-02T13:00:00.001-04:00

...again! The Boys went to Canada with their grandparents a couple days ago(we will join them after we pick up Alex in Va Beach on friday) so I had a couple days to myself!! Big Suprise - I painted some things around the house!

I have been wanting to change the color on the stairs so I used some leftover paint and painted the wall in the stairs. When we first moved here I painted the walls very colorful and then when I started painting more of my own stuff and putting it up on the walls and it got to be way too colorful so..I have slowly repainted the walls in lighter colors and it makes the colors in the things I paint and like really POP!! It has been fun to find my style!!

This frame has been hanging on the wall for awhile now with our calendar and other necessities clothespinned to it. Yesterday I got a wild hair and painted the inside of the frame with chalkboard paint so when I need to write down a number or note real quick - it is right there!! I do love chalkboard paint!!

I found this adorable table at a yard sale for $4. It was plain and green when I bought it and now it is burnt orange with lots of fun squares decoupaged to the top with the words 'when God is in your heart - love is in your home ' around the edges! it is fun and random anad the colors are so much brighter in real life!

I have been eyeballing a silverware caddy at Target to use during school time for pencils, markers, crayons and such but since it costs money I got creative and created my own. I had this wooden box from somewhere and I used frosting containers to put everything in. Now - of course I had to decorate the containers with scrapbook paper because just plain white doesn't cut it!!

This was so fun to paint! I painted a flat canvas in fun colors and then wrote this quote from Dr. Seuss that I saw on a blog I like and I have been wanting to put it up somewhere in our school room - okay, kitchen - for awhile! A friend had given me this old frame made out of barn wood and instead of putting it inside the frame I glued the canvas to the top of the frame. it really looks good - i think! I love the contrast of the barn wood and the bright colors!

the more that you read the more things you will know, the more that you learn the more places you will go! i just love it!!

Leaving a Legacy

2009-07-02T00:53:00.002-04:00

You have got to listen to this pastor - Voddie Baucham - speak about leaving a legacy for our kids and our families. He is incredible and this video is amazing. He spoke at our homeschool convention and we were all just blowna way by his talks about family, worldview, and education!
If you google him there are lots of other videos of his that you can watch! I really hope you will listen to him and that your spirit will be as moved as mine was!!

Lemonade Stand

2009-06-29T01:56:00.003-04:00

Ben is highly motivated to earn money so when he saw the neighbors were having a yard sale and there were lots of people coming and going he ran outside and had himself a Lemonade stand!! He made $3.50 in an hour selling .25cent cups of Raspberry Lemonade!!

Happy 9th Anniversary

2009-06-24T23:52:00.004-04:00

Today is our 9 year anniversary - well actually yesterday because (of course) it is after midnight when I started writing this!! I don't have any pics of us on our wedding day up around the house and it wasn't the digital age yet so I had to take pictures of the pictures in our wedding album I made!! They aren't very good pics - I just thought it would be fun to share!!

can you guess who this little guy is?? This is the boy we dropped off at Boot Camp three days ago!! Can you believe it?? Alex was Danny's Best Man - way too cute!!!

Me with my mom and dad

Danny & I with his parents

This picture has always been my favorite picture from the wedding and I think it has to do with the symbolism of family and parents giving away their kids!! I just love all of us together!

We had a very casual and small wedding at the clubhouse where my parents live. It had a big deck outside which is where the ceremony took place and the reception was inside. It was such a wonderful day full of laughter, smiles, JOY and love!! He is my man and I am lucky to have him as a husband and friend for the rest of my life!

One of my favorite things is when we go to bed together(which I really struggle with since I am the night owl) and are able to just talk. The kids are in bed, the house is quiet and we just hang out!

In 9 years we have had 3 boys plus a stepson, Danny got his Bachelor's Degree, moved twice, had 5 cars, 1 dog, 3 new couches, lots of laughter, some fighting, and an absolute faith in God and thankfulness for blessing us with our crazy life on that 24th day of June 2000.

Boot Camp

2009-06-22T23:47:00.004-04:00

We dropped off Alex at Boot Camp on Sunday afternoon! He is a part of a group called Sea Cadets which is a program for kids who are interested in the military. This particular program is thru the Navy and he is way more interested in the Marines but since they are part of the Navy and this is the only program available to him - this is what he will be a part of!!

He LOVES it!!! He was so excited to go to Boot Camp he couldn't sleep the night before we took him!! I am a little bit nervous about it all but I truly believe God provided this oppurtunity for Alex and that it will be good for him! I wonder if he will still LOVE it when he is done?

Anyways....pictures.......

Grandma was the only one who could tie a square knot on his dress white uniform!

The HAIRCUT.......

We had been joking about him getting his haircut when he got there but I had no idea it would be this short!! I wonder what he thought when he looked in the mirror????

Not quite done......

Almost......

DONE.....

Where did my son go? When did he grow up and become such a young man???

WOW! He looks all grown up!! Looking Good!

Off he goes......

We will pick him up in 2 weeks and get to watch him Graduate from Recruit Training!

My Boys are HOME

2009-06-17T02:37:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday I went to the Homeschool convention and since my hubby had to work the Boys(the little ones) went to stay at Grandma's house in Hampton. She met me halfway in Richmond and the boys happily trotted off to Grandma's. Their cousins were also at Grandma's so they were beside themselves with excitement to get out of my car and into hers and get going!!!
The plan was to trade back Saturday evening when convention was over! While talking to Gma on Sat we decided that maybe the boys would just stay with them since we were all driving down on thursday anyways....sounds great doesn't it????
I missed my boys!
I got home Sat night and hubby and I headed to church Sunday morning - by ourselves - weird!!! In front of us was one of the boys little friends and watching him just made me want my Boys home with me!!! I was excited to have some time to get some school planning done while they were gone but I was not prepared for the enormity of how much I missed them!!! We found out monday that Thomas had to go to the Dr. on Thursday since we will be gone for so long after that so we made plans to meet at 7 tonite to get the boys. I called my mom at lunchtime and asked if we could meet earlier - I wanted to love on my boys!!! It was so nice to hug them,kiss them and have them sitting all over me when we got home!! I truly hope that I remember how nice it is and will enjoy it longer and not fall back into complaining because they are always all over me!!!!

Summer Travels

2009-06-15T23:48:00.002-04:00

We have got quite a busy summer!!!
I just came home from the Homeschool Convention(which you can read about on our homeschool blog) on Saturday night.
We will be heading down to Grandma's on Thursday to visit and go to the beach and to drop off Alex at SeaCadet Boot Camp!! He is so excited to go get yelled at and tortured military style for 2 weeks!!!
Stephen, Ben and Thomas will go to VBS next week when we get home from Grandma's and on July 3 we will head back down to Virginia Beach to see Alex graduate from Recruit Training! Then we will drive all the way to Canada to stay with my In-Laws for 2 1/2 weeks - until the 12th of July.
We come home for approx. 6 days and then leave again for a week of camping with my sister and my parents! Can you believe all that???
They will all be good trips but alot of driving and time spent in the car will surely make us all crazy! I am for sure that we will not be going anywhere in August!!!

How does our Summer get so full so fast??? We are just simple people who live a simple life and every summer it seems like we turn into world travelers!!! Having just one child who is in public school really limits our ability to travel at other times of the year - if we want him to go with us - and since none of our family live near us we spend our summers visiting them!!! We used to go to the Outer Banks but we have decided that it is more important to visit our family! We do miss the beach trip but it is worth it!!!

Here's to all Your Summer Travels - make them Fun!!!!

I've Been Painting

2009-06-10T23:58:00.004-04:00

I found these little wooden stand up plaques at the Dollar Tree! I bought a few and am thinking of making them as Christmas Presents - what do you think??? Would you want these as a gift?

I also found this one.....

They were all just plain old wood - which I can't stand - so I took my paintbrush to them!!!! I think they all turned out cute!!! Especially since each word only cost $1!!!

I found these little chicken cards at the Nursery and I just had to have them! I painted some frames I already had, glued them to scrapbook paper I already had and they will sit on

I got this idea from going here and from there I went here

I liked it so I went straight to Wordle and created some of my own! This is the only one I have finished and it is for my sister who I will see tomorrow - do you think she will like it????

Cleaning is such fun

2009-06-08T04:23:00.003-04:00

While the boys have been gone I tackled cleaning their room, the playroom and my room - basically the upstairs. It took me close to 3 hours to get their room picked up, toys put in the right places and vacuumed!! We had to get a new vacuum because ours completely dies and with 4 boys you can't really go without for too long! This vacuum has lights on the front of it that tell you when the floor is clean or if it is dirty(weird I know) red is dirty and green is clean. I am vacuumning and vacuuming and vacuuming and th elight just keeps being red!! It would flash green every once in awhile but it stayed mostly red!!! How sad is that! I guess our old vacuum didnt work long before it died or could it be that I haven't vacuumed in forever????
I will post pics of what I painted tonight - after all the cleaning!!! I had funa nd went a little crazy!!!

The boys are going camping...

2009-06-07T01:54:00.003-04:00

Woohoo!! The boys are going camping without me!! They are leaving after church tomorrow and will come back on Monday afternoon! What to do with a quiet house???? Well - I discussed with a friend of mine that I desperatley need some one on one time with God and now I will have it! She did warn me(knowing me very well) that if I try to sit still at home and not do projects it will be very hard for me!!! I am going to give it my all because God and I have drifted way too far away from each other and I need to be Renewed in his Love, Trust, Faith and some more of His Love!! I am very excited to have this quiet time with my Lord and Savior!!!
Maybe I will float around in the pool while I am quiet????
Do you think I could paint a room as long as I am Quiet and hanging out with God while doing it???
It is so hard for me to sit still and do nothing. It is even harder to only do one thing at a time!!!

Thomas' cast

2009-06-03T13:45:00.003-04:00

Look at this little bitty cast......

Life is much better with it on but it is going to be a long 4 weeks of healing!!!

Mommy - I only have 1 hand is all I hear!!!

Alex

2009-06-01T21:21:00.006-04:00

Alex is my oldest son - he is 14 years old. Now - I did not give birth to Alex but I am the mother in his life - I think of his mom as his friend. Alex has always lived with his father and when we got married he was 5 years old and has always been with us!! He calls me Julie and I am his favorite stepmom!!!

Anyways....Alex left for Mexico today on his first Missions trip!! He graduated from 8th grade at his Christian School(pictures below - ain't he a cutie???) this year and the big thing about this year at his school is the Mexico Missions trip the whole 8th grade class goes on.

Now - this year was a huge disappointment for Alex and us(his dad was going with him) because the original trip - that these kids have planned for all year long and have been anticipating for years before that was Cancelled......Swine Flu!!!! They were supposed to leave a week after the big swine flu breakout in Mexico and because of the concerns and everything being shut down they had to cancel the trip!!! This is the first time anything like this has ever happened at the school and so there really wasn't a back up plan - the kids did some local mission work with some local charities and got to go white water rafting for a day!!!! Nothing in comparison to the Big Trip!!! Praise God for his goodness and Mercy because an awesome parent who has gone on the trip since the beginning(11 years) and has a relationship with the church in Mexico said he would be more than happy to take a group if they wanted to go!! Of course Alex wanted to go - so after much prayer we decided this was an oppurtunity we didn't want him to miss - so he went!!! He is with another parent watching over him because his dad couldn't go and 2 other classmates(there was only 9 in his class) and their parents! They will be working with a local church doing whatever they need done to help out, they will be doing some group activities with the kids sunday school and an after school care group that the church holds and they might do some sightseeing!! I am so Blessed that Alex has the heart and the desire to want to do this work and wants to go and share the love of the Lord with others around him!!! We are praying for many Blessings on this community and on Alex from this trip!!! He will be back next Monday night!!! I hope I will be able to share lots of pics!!!!

Graduation Pics (Mommy missed the whole thing because I was in the ER with Thomas)

These boys decided - on their own - to go all out!!! Alex borrowed his Dad's tuxedo!!

The whole crew!!! An amazing group of kids that have the Lord's fingerprints all over them!!!!

A gift from us and the school - a cross necklace that has our favorite verse for Alex on it.......

1 Timothy 4:12

Getting the official 8th Grade Diploma

Always gotta take a pic with the brothers!!!

Top 30 Picture Books

2009-05-31T23:51:00.002-04:00

Over at the Bookworms Booklist she has listed these 30 Books that have been given the title of THE Top 30 Picture books by School Library Journal! She has challenged us to see how many we have read from this list! I marked the ones we have read in blue. I would love to see your list!!!
I was totally shocked at how many of these we have actually read - considering Froggy is a big hit in our house - but I was even more suprised by how many we own but have not read!!! We will be doing some reading this week - a little good literature never hurt anybody!!! I love that so many of htese books I read when I was a little girl!!!

#1: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
#2: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (1947)
#3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (1979)
#4: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
#5: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (2003)
#6: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)
#7: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955)
#8: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)
#9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)
#10: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)
#11: The Story of Ferdinand y Monroe Leaf, ill. Robert Lawson (1936)
#12: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (1994)
#13: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (1948)
#14: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, ill. Lane Smith(1989)
#15: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (1996)
#16: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (1987)
#17: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
#18: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (1970)
#19: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (1982)
#20: George and Martha by James Marshall (1972)
#21: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)
#22: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, ill. by Mike Smollin (1971)
#23: Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban (1964)
#24: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, ill. Lois Ehlert (1989)#25: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)
#26: Corduroy by Donald Freeman (1976)
#27: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902)
#28: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, ill. Ray Cruz(1972)
#29: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)
#30: Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr., ill. Eric Carle (1967)

I am Guest posting at Today's Housewife...

2009-05-30T12:26:00.002-04:00

go over and check it out http://todayshousewife.blogspot.com/. You should also peruse their whole blog - they have some really good posts and lots of helpful info!!!

Lots of Ice Cream

2009-05-29T11:59:00.003-04:00

will be eaten in this house for awhile while the baby has his owie!! Every once in awhile the tears break out and he will scream that it hurts but so far it is going much better than I thought it would!!! He was screaming for me to get the splint off this morning(wait till Monday and the real cast goes on) but it seems okay now! He still has his stickers he got from the hospital and doesn't want to take the shirt off.....

Could you resist this face and his ice cream pleas???????

ANOTHER Owie....

2009-05-28T23:19:00.002-04:00

Thomas broke (fractured) his wrist tonight! He was playing on the playground at Alex's school (we were there for his 8th grade graduation - more on that tomorrow) and fell off and must have landed on his wrist. The poor little guy was in so much pain - it was horrible to hear him just crying and crying. We headed to the ER - again - and he was fine after they put in an IV with pain meds!!! He even told the xray guy that it was okay and could take as long as he needed it too!!! I was in awe of how quickly they took care of the little guy - we were outof there in less than 2 hours! He has a splint(which is lamost just like a cast) on his right wrist and we will head to the ortho tomorrow to find out what will happen next!! We know for sure he will have to have a cast!

the Pool...

2009-05-25T22:47:00.002-04:00

is now empty!! We went to sleep and when we woke up it was almost empty!! The spot where we put it was not completely level and so it tilted and I guess I put too much water in it because the water knocked over the top and emptied right out!! El sucko!!! My in laws are here and my father inlaw is sweet enough to help me fix it so he started to make a level spot for the pool with mulch and dirt and timbers - it is going to be sooo nice when it is full - again - and we can play in it!! My hubby keeps asking is it worth it?? YES!! Even when it is only part way full the boys will play out there and have so much fun and mommy doesn't have to drag all our 'stuff' to the pool every day because it is in our backyard!!!

Summertime is Here......

2009-05-21T04:00:00.004-04:00

The Pool is full - it only took about 4 days off and on - the water bill is going to suck!!! It is going to be so much fun once it warms up - the boys have been in but it is still WAY too cold for mommy and especially Daddy(it might be august before daddy actually gets in it)!!

The Ice Cream truck has started coming and that means summer around our house!!! Lucky for us he comes every Tuesday and slowly makes the turn in the cul de sac we live on becasue he knows that all of our kids will come running! They are usually already out front waiting for him because they heard him coming at least a mile away - if not further!! Another item we are going to have to add to the budget Because - I dont know about you but - I just don't have the heart to say NO to the ice cream truck!!!!

A friend or two came running as well!!!

This is the second time alex has gotten his tongue stuck to this exact same flavor popsicle!!! The first time(last year) he was crying it hurt so bad because he stupidly YANKED it off his tongue - along with about 3 layers of skin!!! This time he ran to the hot water and it came off very nicely!!! Every time, we retell the story of how Grandma got her tongue stuck to the jungle gym bar when she was a little girl and how she was stuck there and how they got it off!!!!

The boys are going camping on Friday and leaving Mommy home alone - NOW that is what summer is all about!!!!

What's Up....

2009-05-18T00:16:00.002-04:00

Alex had his second weekend of Sea Cadets and got to go for the whole weekend this time instead of just saturday. He LOVES it and is so excited to be doing this and all the military training! He has got his whole next year of promotions and skills trainings planned out and we are just loving watching him be so into this! The driving 2 hours to and from one weekend a month might not work out so well for his brothers - we left at 445 saturday morning - way too early for anybody in our house(except daddy who wasnt even going for the ride - next time)!!!! It might be time to invest in the dvd players for the car!!!Hmmm!! Target has some on sale this week....

The other boys and mommy messed around with trying to get the pool set up this weekend. We didnt get it up because it has to be on level ground and the only level ground in our yard is the front and we will not be having a big blue pool in the front yard for the next 3 months!!! Tomorrow the boys and I will be getting mulch or sna dto do what w ecan to make it a little mor elevel so the whole pool doesnt tilt and spill over!!! We got this 16ft buy 3.5ft pool at walmart last year on clearance for $25 and we are going to make it last as long as possible!!!

I finally got to hang my laundry out on the clothesline(it stopped raining briefly) that my hubby and father in law built for me last year and I was so excited!! there is just something about hanging those clothes on the line and watching them blow in the wind hanging on my line that just makes me feel like a real country girl!!! Am I weird???

I am now headed over to the homeschool blog to share what I have been working on tonight to be ready for our back to school day tomorrow!!! I needed a week vacation from life to get ready to get back on track with the boys now that I am no longer working so tomorrow our time is up!!!

TV Guardian...

2009-05-13T13:47:00.002-04:00

I used to work at the christian bookstore and we sold this thing called clear play which would bleep out language and some violence but I could never bring myself to pay $70 for it!! Well - i have had several customers come in and say they wished we still sold TV Guardian and that is so much betteer than this clear play - I don't know as i have never had either...until Today!!!
I just got the TV Guardian at a thrift store for $2!!! I am soooo excited and can't wait to see if it actually works!!! It is supposed to be able to determine when bad language is cominga nd it bleeps it out!!! We soooo need that inour house - the boys love things like batman, hulk, xmen but mommy hates the language so.....I will be praying over this little contraption like crazy till my hubby puts it in to make sur eit works!!! I am totally stoked at my find today!!!

I have soooo missed you guys....

2009-05-10T21:39:00.004-04:00

I am having total blog withdrawals and now that life has calmed down a little.....I am back!!! It started out by offering to help a friend get ready for her yard sale, then I had to get ready for my own yard sale, have the yard sale, then I was working on a couple gifts and things for the house - which I will gladly post pics of below - and next thing you know weeks have gone by - my goodness!!!

These are a couple of things I did awhile back that I couldn't remember if I showed you or not so....here they are!!! The mail thing is something I saw someone do on another blog and I loved the idea so much I had to try it - of course!!! The bench was a find at the local thrift store and I found this awesome chicken(or rooster) fabric and knew it just had to go on this little bench!!! I painted the bench with some left over paint I had and then distressed it!!

I keep seeing these banners all over on other people's blogs and I decided I wanted to make one! Some new scrapbook paper, a few embellishments and my creativity went to town!! You can't see it real well in the picture - it says Spring and looks super cute hanging on one of the many bookshelves we have in our house!!!

Do you remember those houses I posted a couple months ago and wanted ideas on what to do with them???? Well - I decopauged paper onto this one after painting the background and then decopauged this saying I saw on some artwork at work! I made it for a really good friend who abandoned us and moved to Texas!!! I really hope she finds somewhere special for it!

That same friend was throwing away this lovely bulletin board and I was able to rescue it for my own uses!!! I painted the corkboard part with LOTS of coats of chalkboard paint and the outside edge with(once again) leftover paint and then I wrote the verse from Deuteronomy 6 around the edge! I painted a little tin cup black, filled it with chalk and an eraser and hung it up next to it! Super cute and way practical for school!!!!

And last but not least - I made these for a girl at work who graduated from college this weekend! Ilove them and how they turned out! I have had the idea for awhile - I got the frames from super duper clearance at work after christmas(i have lots more too) and have had this idea but noone to do it for...so...I found someone to make them for and I do like how they turned out!!!

That is why I have been offline for so long and I must say when I see all the fun stuff I got to paint I am not as sad as I was at not blogging when I started this post!!! I am now off to get started on teacher gifts - a week late!!! I will share when i finish them - I have 8 to do!!!

Is it just Me????

2009-05-09T22:22:00.002-04:00

I was just picking up and vacuuming because the house is a pit(as always) and I found two new(brand new but cheap - $$store) toys that are already broken laying on the floor!!! Are my kids the only ones who terrorize almost every toy they get and rarely ever play with it the way it is intended?? Is it because they are boys? Is it because I don't watch them close enough?? They have fun - there is no doubt about that but to what extent!!!!!

FREE....FREE....FREE....

2009-05-04T15:12:00.003-04:00

I just found about this and wanted to pass it along....This website Learning A-Z has freebies all week long - all you have to do is register!! I have been downloading goodies and having fun looking around - hope you do too!! Pass it along!!

I just gave my 2 weeks notice......

2009-04-30T11:42:00.002-04:00

YAHOOO!!! Praise God!!!! I am jumping and dancing with Joy - you just can't see me!!! it has been a really rough month of trying to do it all and we just decided that me working is not worth the extra stress it is adding to our lives!! I have worked almost every night for the past 3 weeks and it is sooo not worth the gas money, the kids crying, I haven't seen my hubby in weeks, the stress it adds to mommys day, the way mommy yells because she is stressed and tired all the time! This is not the life we want for our family and that comes first!!! There is such a peace in my spirit right now and the joy it brought to the boys faces was even more worth it!
We have been a 1 car family for over a month now and with me working it was causing way extra stress and we will be a 1 car family as long as needed(it all depends on how much it will cost to fix danny's car)! We have been following Dave Ramsey's plan for getting out of debt and with the last 2 paychecks I make we will have Baby step 1 - which is our emergency fund - and so that was the cincher in me being OUTTA THERE!!!

Saturday.....AAAHHHH....Saturday

2009-04-26T23:41:00.002-04:00

On Thursday night I was able to get someone to cover my shift at work on Saturday and I couldn't wait for saturday to get here!!! The weather was supposed to be hot, my hubby was off and with me not having to work we could all hang out at home all day and putz around!!! For me that meant sleeping in, projects and hanging out with hubby!!!!
I almost finished painting the picnic table for the deck, almost finished spray painting a new bookshelf i got at a yard sale - these two projects will have to be completed sometime this week in my spare time. We got a queen size bed - Praise God because our old bed(King) was so horribly misshapen and my back was on fire from sleeping in it - from the same yard sale and my hubby moved some things around for me in our room to make it look a little nicer!!! Sleep was so good last night and we made it loud and clear that the new bed doesn't accomodate small children so we flew solo all night long last night!!! We will see how long that lasts but for now I will enjoy the quiet of my new, Hard bed with just me, my hubby and Shiloh!!!
Hubby and I also got to go on a date sat. night!!! We went to a free concert at JMU performed by their girls christian accapella group - they were fantastic!!!! Now - the concert was free but the groceries, the garden supplies for my dear hubby and the other non essentials that were picked up at a few stops we made along the way - were not!!! It was so nice to get to hang out with just my main squeeze for a couple hours!!! I highly recommend it!!

Life has been CRAZY around here.....

2009-04-22T21:33:00.004-04:00

and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any at all!!! I have barely seen my hubby and my kids in the past 10 days between his work, my work, track meets, and all the other Life that has happened in between! We have helped my in laws move out of their house in MD, spent a few more hours in the ER getting Ben's stitches out, driven across town and back again to look for lost backpacks and so much more that I can't even remember!!!

We are back to a one car family again - after a $400 repair bill it died again after about 3 days and who knows if we will be able to fix it again and when!

Alex and I spent all day Saturday in Roanoke at SeaCadets. It is a really neat program run by the Navy for young people ages 11-17 who are interested in the military. This particular program is run by the Navy and Roanoke is the closest one to us so we visited on Saturday and Alex loved it!!! He will go to training once a month and this summer he will attend a Boot Camp that is an intro into military life! Next summer he will be able to go to Boot Camp that specializes in a more specific area of interest that he has - like Seal training or marksmanship!! This is going to be an interesting journey for Alex and for us to see if the Military is really a path he wants to pursue!!! I can't wait to get pics of him in his uniform to show you guys!!!!

Talk about BLISS.......too cute not to show off!!!

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T20:10:00.004-04:00

Yesterday our church had a 10,000 egg hunt! It was a chilly day but that didn't stop the boys from eating sno cones, bouncing/sliding in the bounce house and hunting down alot of eggs Full of candy!!! Our church Rocks!!! Uah & Tat (danny's parents) were here to join in the fun with us.

Some pics for you all to enjoy......

Hospitals and Owies......

2009-04-08T10:49:00.005-04:00

We have spent way too much time and money dealing with both things these days! I am guessing that instead of having all the extra girly type things to buy and spend extra money on we are going to be blessed with dr. bills and hospital visits!!!

Stephen had some kind of abcess on his finger that had to be drained(more than once) and that cost us close to $300 and tons of tears!!

A month later he broke or fractured his sternum - crazy I tell you! We are currently dealing with the orthopedics on this one but at least the swelling and pain has gone away! Poor guy! The bills haven't started arriving for this injury yet - can't wait!!

Ben fell on Sunday and cracked open an old scar under his chin and we spent a couple hours in the ER getting 4 stitches! This was very exciting thanks to Ben's extremely out of control habit of crying hysterically!!! Praise God for fabulous friends so I didnt have to drag the other 2 little ones with us!!! All is well now and we will get the stitche sout in 7 days! I am on pins and needles waiting for the bill for this visit!!! Because you know I am going to get a bill from the dr.,the nurse, the hospital, the anesthesioligist, the receptionist, the security guard and his entire team that were on duty that whole night, the linen company for the sheet thathe got blood on......okay okay I know I am exaggerating just a little but it is a bit ridiculous at the bills that come after every hospital ER visit!!!

just in case you wanted a close-up view of the stitches(ben did)!!

A New Blog....

2009-04-06T23:08:00.003-04:00

I just created a blog that focuses on our Homeschool journey.....come on over, check it out and become a follower - followers are Fun!!
http://boysschoolandfun.blogspot.com/

2009-04-06T18:55:00.000-04:00

I LOVE DIRTY JOBS!!!!

Homeschooling...a way of life.....

2009-04-05T23:47:00.003-04:00

In no way am I judging anyone or criticizing in regards to the choices you have or have not made - I am simply stating my recent observations and how they have made me feel. My ramblings from my head!!!
I have had a couple of conversations this past month about the mindset of homeschoolers and this is what I have realized - homeschooling is THE reason we have become a better mother, father, brother, family, learner, teacher and lover of all things that happen in the world around us! I have learned to stop and smell the flowers, to look at the stars, to not be in a rush(okay we still are some of the time) when we leave the house and to truly Love, Appreciate and Enjoy the Blessings God has given me in my children! I used to laways rush thru whatever they wanted so I could get back to what i wanted and I have had the most Joy brought to my life by the Lord convicting me to HS and to stop being consumed by me, me, me and to change my idea of what I want from the time I have been given with these sweet boys of mine! Don't get me wrong - I am still the Queen of projects, rearranging furniture and redecorating from a recent thrift store adventure but I am not consumed by it!!!
I recently read an article where a lady was talking about how at the end of the school year they had decided to start homeschooling the following year. That summer they went on a car trip and instead of sitting in the front reading her book, fussing(yelling) at the kids, breaking up fights and whatnot (as she ahd done in years past) - she was in the back with them - reading, laughing and enjoying the time she had with her family. Her mindset had changed in just the decision to HS - they hadn't started HSing yet and that I think is one of the biggest differences between us HSers and the other parents - our mindset is different.
I think we look at our kids different, we learn from them as well as them learning from us, we truly have Fun together, the boys are friends - not just brothers, we enjoy each others company, our kids are definately more aware of why we make the decisions we make and how they affect All of us, they live alot of their school - not just read about it and I could go on and on.....
All of the above reasons are why I am learning to not feel so terribly quilty about how far behind we are in school due to mommy having to go back to work! The boys have learned way more than I thought they had in areas I didnt even realize I was teaching and our family has grown in ways we never would have if the boys were at school all day long! As soon as I can quit - I will and that will be time enough to get all caught up!!
Now - I do have 1 in school all day but I believe he has benefitted from all of this as much as the little ones have because he sees the changes around him and he responds to what all of us are doing - as we are all more on the same page than he might be!! Because of that mindset we have adopted it affects everything around us and how we deal with life!
Thanks for letting me ramble!!!

Twilight...

2009-04-02T21:54:00.004-04:00

Oh my goodness....we watched this movie tonight and I am totally hooked!! I have just been scouring the internet to find the books at the library or from paperback swap and neither of them have them! I want to read them - I want to know what happens next - it is killing me!!!
I may have to give up eating this week and buy them!!!
I am off to watch the movie again.........

Co-Op....

2009-03-30T14:38:00.002-04:00

I want to go to co-op but my kids don't - until now! We visited last Friday and now they are gung-ho and whining becasue they can't wait to go back...aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!! Why are they never happy! I have been pushing co-op all year and they wanted nothing to do with it and now they won't stop talking about it!!
What is co-op? Is it a place for your kids to get classes like music,art and maybe science with actual experiments that they might not get at home? Is it a place for homeschooling kids to socialize? is it a place for moms to socialize?? That is what I would like co-op to be but how in the world do you meet all those needs in one place?? I think if we could figure it out we would have the perfect co-op!! But until then........we will stay home - just kidding!! We will make do with what is available!!!

School, School, School......

2009-03-23T12:35:00.003-04:00

I went to bed with a sense of renewed spirit and faithfulness in the Lord - an amazing night of loving the Lord at church last night - and with the idea that I was going to get up and get it right today!! Didn't happen - again! Big suprise there! I rolled out of the bed at about 930(i went to bed at a halfway decent time) with 3 little ones jumping all over the bed and hollering at me(the cartoons they like are now over) and I was all ready to get our day going(a little late) on the right track. I grabbed the laundry and hung it out on the line - I love hanging my laundry on the line - I feel like such a country girl and I just Love it! We all had a little something to eat and we were ready to go.....
We are reading a little bit each day of this book I got called the Story of Easter to get our hearts prepped for Easter and refreshed of all the events that led up to the cross. They were like wild animals while I was reading and so I tried the whole stop reading until they get quiet routine - they did not get quiet! They just looked at me and then continued on with their playing! so I did what any mother would do - I yelled at them! They listened for approximately 2 minutes and then they were crazy again. I go thru the story and they were gone - I yelled again. By this point I didnt even know what I wanted to do with them so I just let them go - this is where being an unscheduled, non routine person is of no use to anybody!!! I have such great plans about all that we are going to do and then I get sidetracked or off the subject with them and it is all gone! The curriculum that we use has it all right there for me - what pages, which book, what to say but if I dont follow it for whatever reason then I am at a loss. I am also very bad about looking it over prior to opening the book to do the days lesson so I realize i dont have what I need or I didnt finish yesterday's and I am once again scrambling!! I am a MeSS!!! And then this warm weatehr has come along and I have nod esire to be inside doing school - I want to be outside as much as they do and it is so hard to keep them in after being inside for months on end! Somehow the boys are learning - a little bit here and a little bit there so I cant be failing them completely but I sure do feel like it!!!
And now I am so done with the history we have been doing that I have just decided to sell it and start with next years - is that horrible??? I was able to borrow almost all of the curric and the books we will need for next year so I am ready to just start and I figure since we are going nowhere fast(doing bits and pieces here and there) with this years curric that I may as well just start with the one i really wanted to do all along anyways! From the moment we started hsing it has been my greatest desire to learn history chronologically - starting with creation. That has been the plan all year is to do a brief intro to american history and start the cycle of history next year. Now that I have the stuff in my possession I cant control myself - I want to start so we are!!! The boys dont care one wit - it is all about me! Is this crazy or what??? We are going to have to do school all summer anyways because of my work schedule messing us up here and there so we may as well do what I want to do - right????

one project done....

2009-03-21T22:36:00.004-04:00

I finished the sign I have been working on for my room today!! My hubby was sweet enough to hang it for me and I love it!!! I am always very critical of the lettering when I do stuff because I am too impatient to use a stencil - so the lettering is not perfect by any means but it sure does look cute on my wall!! You can't tell in the picture but the walls in our room are a beautiful shade of turqouise and the colors on the sign look so good against it!!! I do love to paint and decorate!!

This cost me nothing! I had the boards in the garage(they are old cabinet doors I bought last year at $1 each and i have a whole box of them) and of course I have lots of paint upstairs!! I wanted the sign to be bigger because the space it is in is bigger but to buy a different board or canvas it just wasnt worth it!!

warm weather means PROJECTS.......

2009-03-17T15:43:00.003-04:00

at least for me it does!!! I have been waiting for it to get warm for these two projects and I am having such fun!!! One of them is an old barn window that I am going to paint and do something with - havent decided yet and the other is a sign for my room that says always kiss me goodnight! hopefully i will have pics in the next day or so!

my mom was here this weekend and we worked on my quilt some more and I just wanted to show off what the main body of it is going to look like because I love it!!!

the edge that falls over the side of the bed will be red with white polka dots!!!

off to play outside.......

Such Fun.....

2009-03-16T15:03:00.003-04:00

Do you celebrate Easter with baskets and chocolate and eggs and such?? We used to but once the oldest found out the Easter Bunny was us and the little ones hadn't really picked up on the whole idea of Easter = presents we decided to just make it about Jesus and nothing else and forgo the baskets, presents and candy! Noone has ever been the wiser......but me! I miss the little trinkets you put in Easter baskets and all the chocolate and the Easter egg hunts!! Walking past all that fun stuff in the dollar spot at Target makes me want to make easter baskets for the boys!! We saw the cutest stuff in Walmart, too and is was just a fleeting thought (and an expensive one) but it would have been fun to make the baskets!!!
We do color eggs - like crazy!! That was one thing we couldn't stop - the boys just love to color eggs and they associate that with easter so......
We did decide to have an Easter Egg hunt here at the house for all their little friends so that should be fun and i can do some cute things for that - right???

How do you do it all???

2009-03-09T00:07:00.002-04:00

There are so many electronic avenues to explore and keep in touch and follow that I am overwhelmed! It started with blogging which I loved and still do - I love that i can just write absolutely random thoughts and some of you out there have them too!! Then I got on Facebook - finally if you asked a few friends and my son(the whole reason I got on facebook) and was found by my HS and it turns out there is a 20 year reunion coming up this summer - can you say DIET??? aarrgghhhh! Then I was aked to join another online community that is about homeschooling and i did! On top of that my regular email communication with friends and family and I am about done in! How in the world does a person keep up with all this stuff?? i cant imagine those of you that have even more than that! I almost go into panic mode when I look at the computer because I know I am going to be sucked in for hours on end checking out all the comments, emails, blog updates and discussions!!

Today was another Snow Day......

2009-03-02T23:09:00.004-05:00

and I just had to show off a couple of pics! we went across the street to the hill behind the high school and did a couple of runs. we went twice and mommy forgot her camera the first time so i didnt get any of alex or ben(who sat in the car the whole time and refused to go back). it was very cold and windy the first trip so we went back after lunch and it wasnt as cold but it sure was windy so we only lasted about 30 minutes! but - it was fun!

I was coming down the hill on the sled with my camera so I took some pics of Stephen waiting till the last possible minute to get out of the way!!! I almost took him out becasue I was not dropping the expensive camera!!

Visiting the Grandparents

2009-03-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

we went to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend...........

Ben and Thomas wanted to ride in the elevator - constantly! Thomas went in the 'vator' every time he went up or down and could get an adult to ride with him!!!

Thomas was glued to grandma's side the whole weekend. Everything we did he wanted to know if grandma was coming, where's grandma??? It was just too cute!!!

we went to Yorktown for the morning on the way home and toured an army encampment and a colonial house and farm.
Alex was the water boy!

Here dinner, dinner, dinner!!!

Thomas is all about daddy's ipod! He knows how to work it better than daddy and loves to listen to it! Isnt he just too cute???

calling all creativity.....

2009-03-01T22:06:00.002-05:00

I found this...........

at Michael's for 29 cents - yes you read right - 29 cents and i had to buy them ....all!! But I am not sure what to do with them......do i decopauge scrapbook paper on the front and maybe embellish with an initial or verse or word??? do i paint them to look like a house?? myhusband suggested putting a verse or initial in the roof and afamily photo on the bottom part??

i love the saying - Home is where your story begins and that is what I was thinking of when i bought them but I need ideas.......any ideas......all ideas are sooo welcome..........

Moses...

2009-02-26T23:20:00.002-05:00

The boys and I have been reading a book that is about a little boy and his family and it revovlves around the ten plaques and the freeing of the Israelites. It is a very good book but it has brought to light some random thoughts.....
The people didn't like Moses! He was causing all these horrible things to happen - ultimately for the good but at the time it wasn't just hap[pening to Pharoh's people it was also happening to the Israelites - that would have sucked! I can only imagine the anger and fear these people were feeling because here comes this guy who was raised with Pharoh and he has been gone for all these years and he comes back and all these horrible things are happening to free the people but they are happening to them as well and it is making life worse for them than it was before! I am sure Pharoh was punishing the Israelites for what Moses was doing - making them work harder, punishing them more severly,etc.. - and yet these people were supposed to be on Moses' side and okay with what he was doing?? I dont know if I would have been on his side - even if I did have faith - that would be hard! I would be downright pissed at Moses and I sure wouldnt want to be glad about what he was doing. I wonder how hard it was for some to trust him and do what he said? I wonder how many lost their lives before they were able to leave because they didnt do what Moses said because of their anger or fear of all these crazy things happening around them??
I have always seen this story and heard it from such a positive angle - I mean what he did was incredible and the people did get their freedom and God is always right in what he does - but I never thought about the fact that everyone had to suffer throguh each of the plaques and Pharoh's anger to gain their freedom.
Crazy I tell you....God is so stinkin Good!! but not always fun in the way he gets us to the good!!!!

Winter Jam Rocked......

2009-02-25T00:13:00.003-05:00

the concert was sooooo much fun! we got to the scope at about noon and we were like 20 in line!!
my hubby has never waited in line for concert tickets in his life so he didnt understand why I wanted to get there so early - on a cold rainy day none the less!!! he was ever so thankful for my wise experience when we got such awesome seats!!!

hanging out for hours in line was fun but got oh so boring towards the end!! it was cold and drizzling and windy so we couldnt play cards or anything! alex joined a youth group playing games near us so he was entertained for awhile and dan and i chatted with the family in front of us!

we were like teenie boppers we were so excited to be in the front of the line!!

do you see those miserable faces??? about 90 minutes before the scope was to let us in people started getting feisty and pushy so we abandoned the chairs and stood to protect our spot in line.....then it started to rain! big drops of rain and wind - for the last hour we waited - it was crazy!!!

BUT OH SO WORTH IT!!!! do you see the stage behind us?? we were in the 6th row on the
floor - awesome!!!! i will never go to a concert and NOT sit on the floor again!!

the Line Up was........Stephanie Smith, Francesca (i cant remember her name but she was good),
Pure NRG,NewSong, Hawk Nelson, Brandon Heath and Toby Mac. It was $10 a ticket and an incredible show! There was a speaker named Tony Nolan - incredible youth speaker - who gave a little talk and a lot of prayer - AMAZING!!! Toby Mac was our favorite by far but we knew he would be before we went - he is a favorite around our house! You should have seen my hubby jumping around like a teenager - it was great!
we are sooo going next year! we are already praying for warmer weather and no rain!!!

I finished it....

2009-02-21T15:50:00.002-05:00

I just finished the Table Manners canvas I made for my give away so I thought I would share how it turned out!!! I changed the style of writing a little and was able to personalize it for her family.....let me know what you think???

to Grandmother's house we go....

2009-02-20T13:12:00.002-05:00

We are off to Hampton for a fun filled weekend at my parent's house. Mommy,Daddy and Alex are going to a concert Sunday night - Winter Jam 2009 - with a bunch of our favorite christian artists in Norfolk. I can already see the embarrasment on Alex's face when we start dancing like the old fools we are and singing and carrying on - should be fun!!!!
On Tuesday we are going to go to Yorktown for Homeschool days and check out the place where the American Revolution ended - the little ones are very excited for that!!!
I will have lots of pics to share when we get back!!!

they needed me...

2009-02-18T20:36:00.003-05:00

this morning my phone rang at 845 and since my hubby was home - I slept on!! then it rang again at 915 and i heard the tail end of a conversation which made me holler down at my hubby...who was it??? well - it was my work (both times) calling to see if I could come in for a couple hours and help out this morning. my first reaction was anger at my hubby - why didn't you come wake me up the first time and tell me? I was upset for a brief moment and then I realized - I dont want to go to work today or any other day so why I am getting angry at my hubby??? They Needed Me - little ol ME was needed - not wanted NEEDED and boy did it feel good! They werent whining or fussing at me because they wanted me to do somehting for them - they genuinely wanted me to come to work becasue they Needed ME!!
I think working has taken away some of my Joy at being home with my family and I dont like it! At work I get compliments, I laugh & smile almost the whole time I am there, there is a whole lot of satisfaction in a job well done with lots of OCD elements on the side and I am good at it!
Dont get me wrong - I am a happy person almost all the time but there are no instant rewards in being a mom & teacher and I have gotten used to that instant gratification of things at work and it is making it harder to not expect it and have higher expectations of my kids at home. It took a long time for me to get to this place of joy and contentment and it is scary to me how something so trivial can change my outlook!! Now - I do realize I have to have let this happen so something is not right and what does it boil down to - as always - my relationship/walk with the Lord! At least that is my take on it!!!
It was nice to be Needed for ME today!!!

ants in our pants.....

2009-02-17T23:28:00.002-05:00

we are all very excited around here and having trouble containing it - we get our new laptop tomorrow!!! Yahoo!! Yippee!! we cant wait to use a computer that doesnt take at least 5 minutes to open a page(and that is with dsl) and that doesnt slow down even further every time we put new pics or whatnot on it!! hopefully i will be blogging from my bed tomorrow night at this time!!!
I cant wait to play with my digital scrapping stuff! i have it all on the computer but it takes so long to load each element when I am working on a page that I havent been able to use it very much and I am so looking forward to creating some pages! I found a ton of free stuff online and it is all waiting to be used so I can make some pages, get them developed and see if I am even going to like the way digital looks in the scrapbook! I have seen it in other peoples albums and I am not in love with it but I want to see what it will look like for real and get used to the idea! I love that I can also make pictures to put in frames with fun embellishments and paper and stuff - that will be super cute!!! I am sure I will come up with a gazillion uses for the digital scrapping stuff!!
aaaaarrrggghhhh....that is me screaming becasue i just sat here for 5 minutes waiting fo rhte add image window to pop up and then becasue i double clicked on it in my impatience it didnt open at all so I GIVE UP!!! I wanted to add a nice photo for your viewing pleaure but no such luck......until of course we get the new laptop up and running!!!!
till then..........

we got our tax return...we got our tax return

2009-02-10T23:55:00.002-05:00

and that means a new laptop computer for us!!! I cannot even tell you how excited we all are to get a new computer - especially one that can travel all over with us(or me)!! Our current computer is almost 8 years old and once we started looking at new ones we were mortified at how ancient this thing is!! We ordered it from Dell and so now we are waiting for it to arrive - they gave us a shipping date of feb.20 - whatever!! I wanted it tomorrow!!! In the meantime - the current computer must know he is being replaced becasue it is being grouchy and messing up way more often than it used to! I am soooo excited!!!
we also will be able to pay off a bunch of hospital/dr/dentist bills which is even more fantastic than the computer!!!
I just cant wait to play with my new computer - this is going to be the longest 10 days of my life!!!

Sickness...

2009-02-07T00:10:00.003-05:00

is making it's way around our house and I am the last to catch it - of course! The boys have all had a cough,runny nose,sore throat,fever and my hubby was the biggest baby of them all with his sad eyes and runny nose - it was hard not to feel sorry for him!!! I am now having all the goodness of the sick plus this horrible headache that keeps coming back - I feel so sorry for people who suffer with migraines I dont know how they function! I had to go lay down today becasue my head hurt so bad!

Maybe it is because the Pickle People were here........

i handed the boys some glass chalk and this is what they did to my kitchen windows! They also did it to the patio doors but I forgot to take a picture of those! This was done to keep the Pickle People from seeing us.....NO idea who the Pickle People(prettyc ertain they are from a cartoon on pbs) are or why they would be watching us but the boys had fun and that is all that matters!!!!

I have been neglecting school,family house and all that stuff to paint these last couple of days and it has been fun! I do have to get back on track after I finish all the goodies for my sister but in the meantime I thought I would show off the signs I made for my sister - upon her request

I am also doing a couple of frames for her that I will be glad to show off when I finish those - in the next day or so!!

PreSchool

2009-02-04T02:04:00.002-05:00

I was pestering a friend of mine to put together what she has been doing with her preschooler in a book and sell it to me and she in turn directed me to a site that was recently recomended to her http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/ So I checked it out. It looks so doable and I love that it is simple and Biblical - I am so gonna do this with Thomas starting next week! I figure he follows me around everywhere I go I may as well take advantage and teach him something while he's back there!!! I am still gonna head over to http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ and check out what she did and I am also going to use this one http://totallytots.blogspot.com/ which is awesome for the little ones!!! I am excited to do somehting special for Thomas - I am hoping it will get him into the swing of things a little better than I have done with the older 2 but I also think it will be fun to have some Thomas time!!

And the Winner Is.......

2009-02-01T00:59:00.002-05:00

Michelle from http://lifewiththree.blogspot.com/ Congrats Michelle! I really hope you will enjoy it!! This was fun but it was hard to pick a winner! Here is what I did because I knew I would peek - I wrote down all the names, put them in a bowl and each boy picked a name. We then put those names in the bowl and Thomas picked the winning name! He carried the name around for a couple hours - he was quite proud of himself!!!
For those of you that didn't win - I would be thrilled to make you a canvas for $20 plus S&H! Any excuse to paint works for me!!!
Thanks to all of you for such nice comments about my work! Those meant a lot to me!