Let it snow

Rearranging the furniture and toy boxes ....and toys...and books...and more toys....and then some toys...multiple times in Myles' room isn't going to necessarily change the space I have to work with when I get the second crib in there...so i should probably find something better to do with my time.....

Punctuality

....So.....if you're going to tell me that I need to be ready and have three kids fed and ready and a days' worth of stuff ready.....so we can be on the road by 8 a.m......then YOU need to be ready too.....I could have slept for another fifteen minutes at this rate.  coffee time. awesome.

Grinding stones

We have been hittin' the books hard .....still on track to be done with school by the beginning of May...leaving us a whole extra month to work on any leftovers of school without me feeling behind in case this little girl that's coming slows us down more than expected.

I have nothing to make fun of or even anything witty to say.  I am blessed with my children and blessed with my marriage.....for better or for worse and honestly feel the only way I can even come close to showing any sort of appreciation to the God who is responsible for such treasures within a world of such suffering is to do my best with what He has handed me to do and commit to seeking Him and His will for my life.  It's probably easy to think that I'm writing this at a time where things may be going well.  Not necessarily.  They aren't going horribly either.  However....we do owe quite a bit on property taxes at the end of this year and have no idea where that will come from just like many other families. Diapers are almost out..bills are monthly....but we have Christmas gifts to buy, and a baby on the way in NO time that will add significantly to the diaper cost and a few other costs at that....is a dog really a good idea right now?  But it's CHRISTMAS! .... I have challenges with home schooling that leave me beyond frustrated at times....but I accept that as a reality of teaching...I have challenges in my marriage that also leave me beyond frustrated.....(that is definitely the understatement of the year)....but I accept that as a part of being married.....Somehow ...someway...through prayer possibly...through the effort made to seek out God.....or more likely His free and abundant grace my heart has been altered...and continues to be so.....it doesn't stop when you ask Him to be Lord of your life....it continues growing and changing because He has continued growing and changing me....all He truly did require was for me to pick up my cross and follow Him.  How guilty I am of stopping along the way and resting....or sometimes complaining....even arguing....but my eyes are opened to many of His acts of faithfulness, provision, unconditional love.....I could not turn and leave His side....especially not when He never leaves mine...even though I probably will still have days where my lack of faith, obedience, and trust is shameful....I finally know what it feels like to be in love with Christ...and what a silly concept that used to be to me only a year ago....to be in love with Jesus as opposed to simply loving him.    I know He blessed this marriage and blessed me with it...I know He planted the desire in my heart to homeschool and has been my strength...I know He has forgiven me not just for what I have done but spoiled me with blessings in return like a child at Christmas.......He could have stopped at forgiving. I would have understood, expected that.....but instead He has not stopped giving to me what I do not deserve.  How peaceful it feels to be loved by Him.

what your locks say about you

..." if you have fine hair that lacks body...it could be a sign of an underactive thyroid...." No YAHOO....it's hereditary. It's a sign of genes...there is no cure....but thank you for making crap up to try and trick me into hoping for something I'll never have. awesome.

say AAAAAHHHHHH!

I love getting root canals. I wouldn't feel right if I had made it to the end of this year without shelling out at least 2500 in dental expenses.  

Neat

My tactic of just calling the spaghetti squash Ruby in hopes that my husband would just be brainwashed into liking the name back fired on me and now he's more against it than before. Oh well.  At least I know I can cross that off my list of strategies for the future.  

doy

On my cracker box it said that if I wasn't satisfied then I could return the unused portion to them and they would replace it...WHAT....WHAT ON EARTH? If I don't like them then why would I want them to send me MORE OF THEM?????   Think people. PLEASE JUST THINK.  ....and it said that they were savory...GUARANTEED...really? you're going to guarantee something so arbitrary?  okay then...you asked for it.

What's in a name?

While I'm searching through a list of "S" names to see if there are any I like for the new little girl coming soon I came across these priceless features: Sushi, Swastika, and Supreme.  I'm so sure I'm going to name my daughter Swastika....WHAT ON EARTH!

"...And so it often is....

....Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements.  We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes.  What we are offered has to do with another world altogether."

Sleep

...been up since three....or something of that nature....

daughter coughing a lot.....

hot tea is good.....made granola......my hair dryer exploded.....myles still asleep...of course he is.

YESSSSSSS!

I have four followers!  That officially makes me popular.

Love and Marriage

It's too bad you don't figure out how difficult marriage is until AFTER you get married.  Only I had a chance prior ...I just assumed that since this husband wasn't abusive, unfaithful, an alcoholic or addicted to cocaine that it would be easier....Nope.  Just a completely different challenge even with the good ones.

Back by popular DEMAND........

Yes yes here I am.  I've been busier than usual simply because not only did my long lost sister from deep in the hills of Hollywood take time away from her eventful life to come visit but I also have been trying to complete some long over due house projects.  I figured I shouldn't have to wait on Alex for something I'm fully capable of handling.....of course none of them will turn out how he had envisioned but that's what should be fun about being married to me.....I have to go on about how exciting it is to be married to me because he won't.  

Today is Myles' first birthday...however since we had a giant party for him last Saturday I almost forgot.  We won't really be doing anything for him today since he's only one and doesn't know any better...I may squeeze him more than usual or bite off his feet some more...other than that...he's getting the same old apple sauce for breakfast.  He is fortunate however that apple picking just happened to be planned for this evening.  However he probably won't be much use there either....maybe he and I can just munch on some of the apples that overflow from the buckets while Finnegan and Sydnea do all the fun work.  I would hate to miss out and spend my time eating but as a mother I'm used to sacrifice.

The day

Today 

*Had coffee with my buddies

*I finished  making my second baby hat

*Cut my thumb with scissors

*learned about coniferous forests (again.)

*learned that I detest dealing with home insurance representatives and their silliness....I'm so sure you're gonna try and tell me you mailed us the check two weeks ago and act like it's normal that we haven't received it yet.  whatevs.

*started another argument with my husband over one thing simply because I'm irritated by something else, only to realize what an idiot I am and have to call and apologize for what seems like the 730th time in these last almost couple years of marriage

lost

*lost my other half on facebook....but only on facebook...she's still alive and well and that's what matters

*realized that it's okay not to try and fix things...sometimes I just have to understand there are instances in my life where it IS completely up to God...my only job is to be faithful and prayerful.......

*In that same moment I realized how often I fail at consistent prayer...or remembering to pray for certain things at all.....

*found out I didn't need a tapestry needle to sew a pom pom onto a baby hat but also learned that Gayle was right to my own humble discovery...the pattern for my pom pom baby hat is NOT the right one and indeed too square.......stupid 

*Decided that Amber better start having lots of kids so I can start getting rid of the baby hats I'm making for no good reason

*Forgot to call Brenda (crap...sunday is fast approaching)

*Forgot we're approaching Alex's birthday for probably the 20th time this week...hopefully tomorrow I remember...when it matters.

*Realized that my whole evening is thrown off simply because Alex didn't come home to say hi real quick before he went to the auction but at least he did go to the post office......but was it worth the sacrifice?  No.  Next time I won't make such a big deal about something getting mailed that very second.

*Understood that no matter what I have GOT to learn that I should be pleasing God not man....or woman...or child for that matter....and that when I try to be pleasing to God just deal with the fact that at times it's not pleasing to man...woman.....or child.....

*Kept the banister ledges cleared ...SWEET

*And had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and that was pleasing to child, woman, baby, and surely God because we made good on the food He's provided for us. (I left out pleasing to man..because man is at auction where he gets a free meal and it's probably ten times better than what I just made....oh well. to each his own.)

Expertise

and let me just say I have no idea how people are setting up these fancy pages...I was just scrolling through blogs  most of which held no interest for me pretty much like mine holds pretty much no interest for most people...anyway....I don't get it...I've gone to ever tab and can't figure out they're setting all this up....I mean it pretty much took a lifetime for me to just get this far.  

This site is not very user friendly at all. That's a complaint.

Fool me once

I just need to take a moment to recognize Nick Jr.  They did such a wonderful job of entertaining my 11 month old son by talking about deciduous and coniferous forests this morning while I was trying to work with the other two on coincidentally the same exact thing only probably a few levels more in depth......I thought wow what a boring thing to be talking about to pre schoolers but apparently it has my almost one year old intrigued...I haven't heard a peep out of him since I turned it on....

well then I heard some clattering about down the hall and realized that he was so bored out of his mind he had decided to go make a mess of my daughters room instead. I don't blame you kid....that is way more exciting than talking about forests...I know this first hand because I've had to talk about them since pretty much the day we started school.  I mean how much more can be said about maple and pine trees and opossums and caribou...and shrubs and canopies....however of course I act like it's very exciting when I teach it....which doesn't seem to really fool the kids any...they're too old I guess to fall for that now anyway....which brings me to something else...

I stopped taking my kids to this pediatric dentist that I did love and am now bringing them to a regular dentist mainly because the regular dentist doesn't charge as much.  I guess you're at liberty to pretty much rob your patients' mothers when you're trained to tell lies to your patients in order to convince them to sit still and quiet in order to get a cavity filled.  It was when Finnegan finally said to me  "I know she's not painting a car on my tooth. I know she's filling a cavity."  is when I realized...oh ...yes...I guess they're older now.  Not to mention I DON'T tell them that crap.  I say something to the effect of  "hey listen here, remember how I told you your teeth will rot if you don't brush them better like I taught you to?  Well they are...and now you have a cavity.  It won't hurt much and as soon as you get it taken care of we can go back to eating ice cream until our next visit."    Maybe that isn't word for word but it's pretty darn close.  Either way they're off to the dentist next week. Hope all checks out well....if not....well....I tried very hard to get the point across about proper dental hygiene.  Kids are still able to make their own choices.

Lists

Kids dental appointments scheduled (six months goes by WAY too fast)-CHECK

Kids eye appointments scheduled -CHECK

My dentist appointment scheduled (still trying to find ways to avoid it)-CHECK

My eye appointment scheduled (eventual blindess is not serving me well.)-CHECK

Returned books to library-CHECK

Went to bank-CHECK

Cleaned my house....doubt it.

I like to brag about my  progress .....

The TRUTH

Be bold in sharing it....and I know now that I must definitely share it since the grace has been given me to possess it.  I'm no more deserving than the next person and it is not His wish that any should perish... so my wishes should be aligned with His.  How much more difficult that is to accomplish when love for His children...the lost and the found...is absent.  So first, I must ask daily for His perfect love to be evident through me....because I cannot achieve that on my own.  I'm not perfect....as evidenced by each day that I spend simply alive...I do not love as I should because I don't choose to....so.....I will probably be asking him for His help a lot more frequently than that.

1 Tim. 1:15-16

2 Pet. 3:9

Psalm 37:4

2 Cor. 12:9

 

my mama didn't raise no sissies

today I nearly sliced the tip of my finger completely off....I made it half way through the nail.  thanks to alex's cooperation we bandaged it well enough so it should grow back together.  my nail is another story.  Maybe I'll hide it under my pillow...

slicing apples is a dangerous occupation.

Scam

Well I got so far as clearing some grass and trees on my plot of land in Frontierville....I had a pretty green dress and my hair looked really great.  There was a snake on my land but he never bothered me.  I even dug up a fiew skulls.  Then I ran out of energy apparently...so an old deranged looking man popped up on the screen saying I needed to eat more.  Well in order to eat I had to pay with horseshoes.  How interesting...I don't remember Laura Ingalls identifying horse shoes as a form of currency when reading Little House on the Prairie.  No matter, I bought some pie because they didn't have much else I could afford.  Then I ran out of energy again.   Bought some more pie.  Then I ran out of energy and horse shoes so the old man pops up on my screen again saying I need to get more horseshoes.  No doy.  How can I get more horseshoes I say?  Well pay for them of course.  They wanted me to give my credit card number and everything. I AM SO SURE THAT I"M GOING TO PAY ACTUAL REAL LIVE MONEY FOR THE FAKE MONEY THEY GIVE ME JUST SO I CAN EAT SOME MORE FAKE PIE!  STUPID. I do NOT recommend this game.  You'll clear your land only to be disappointed.

One more day. Or a little more

OMG. I just saw they have a game called Frontierville.  This is more excitement than i can handle.

Finale

Two hour finale of Whale Wars tomorrow night?  Yes please.

Yes Please

Yesterday I had the chance to hear our little baby's heart beat.....I almost said "his" little heart beat...and then sometimes I want to say "her" little heart beat.  IT is the size of a lemon. Perfect. I love lemons.

pie

is so good

Congratulations......

....to Pete Bethune for making Whale Wars worth watching. ...and apparently a lot of people agree with me because there is a ridiculous amount of pictures of him on the web.......

Preoccupation is my occupation

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG  new episode of whale wars on tonight. I nearly forgot with all of this teaching business.  

Below you will see two casualties of the war......or I'm sorry...as the Sea Shepherds crew would refer to it: their "clients."  I wonder what kind of reimbursement their "clients" are following through on right now.....are they charged hourly?  Monthly?  Per campaign.  Or in this particular situation...do the Sea Shepherds just cut their losses or go after another family member still swimming around in order to collect the remaining balance....so many mysteries...it has me hooked!

Friday AGAIN???

My weeks always seem to fly by.   Hence the title of this post.  That's all I have to say about that.

BREAKING NEWS II

NEWSFLASH!

6 earthworms have been collected from the compost site.

I'm sorry EHOW for trying to discredit you.

Thanks for everything!

Never trust ehow

I've tried to do two things now according to EHOW.Com's instructions and have failed.....and no I do not believe it's error on my part. I'm too perfect for that.

I can't remember what the first thing was however we are currently experimenting with the second thing and it doesn't seem to be working either.  If you're ever in need of earth worms do not try to set up a compost pile that you have to water everyday.  First of all the stray cats int he neighborhood come out and eat all of the old food that EHOW told me to put in the pile.  Next, it doesn't work. We've been doing this since Friday and still no worms. I'm going down the street to get some from the live bait section at the gas station.  Dumb. why didn't that idea come to me earlier?

HOWEVER....if you want to teach your children piano and don't want to fork out the money in this economy to do so Ehow is a great resource that gets them pretty far.  So I guess that means I've tried three things.  Well....two fails out of three does not gain a solid vote from me.

On second thought

Tuesdays are always nice days for me because I don't really do much with the house simply because we're out of the house most of the day.  Of course I have to make up for it on Wednesday...leaving that to be one of my least favorite days.

Anyhow, when Alex came home for lunch today he kept sniffing about and making claims that the house smelled like poop so he goes about the house sniffing rooms and people's shoes like a drug dog only to find his way into the kitchen and declare that NEVERMIND it's only the chicken I had been cooking in the crock pot.  whatevs.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

OMG omg omg omg omg.....EVERYONE go to Babycenter.com and they actually have A WHOLE article on how to raise a successful child!!!!! OMG....our troubles are OVER!  what on earth??!!!! I'm so sure. I'm so sure babycenter all of a sudden has the magic ingredients on how to raise a successful child.  give me a break.

2nd Week

2nd Week of school...I'm pretty much a pro now.

Amber's birthday was yesterday....and what a wonderful birthday it was ...too bad she won't come read my blog and become one of my followers.  mean.

We're getting a half hour late start....oh well at least we're actually getting started.

Deck work this week.

BOOOORING!

Surprise Surprise

Well CONGRATULATIONS.....to the show Whale Wars for actually being worth my time after a whole season and a half.....and I'm using the term "worth my time" fairly loosely but at least I can finally say that much.

Almost as good as Friday

I am relieved that after nearly 12 weeks of nausea and low low energy I'm half way back to normal.  It's good to see some production going on around this house ....for a second I thought I was actually getting lazy.

School went fantastic...it's so much easier when I'm not trying to teach them junior high science....

I started crocheting a blanket for my 7-year old daughter.....and since I like to start things and never finish them...it'll make a nice little scarf I'm sure.

Nothing to report on.  All is well.

However.....

3 things:

1)Amber you should be my first follower.  DO IT NOW

For anyone....Some things to read and ponder....because they are looking strangely familiar.

2) Cloward-Piven...look it up. (I will be happy to list any websites if you can't manage to Google

3) Weatherman Underground manifesto...look that up too. (ditto)

Time for a little hit the deck.

Relief

So it turns out that the reason I was behind and confused as to why I was expected to teach the six different realms of eco zones on the world map to a 9 and 7 year old is because I WASN'T supposed to be teaching that to them. I failed to recognize that it was an extra in the curriculum if I so happened to be teaching a 7th or 8th grader......now if only I would read EVERYTHING...THOROUGHLY....doubt I will learn that lesson this time though.

Next:  Apparently the Little Bear show on PBS or Nick JR. or whichever channel it's on is supposed to encourage social and emotional development in children.  How interesting...seeing as how whenever Little Bear does ANYTHING he typically starts up conversation with inanimate objects or objects in nature... ie: "Hello Wind..."...... and...."Goodnight books.  Goodnight toys."

That doesn't sound very socially developed at all. The last thing I want to see is my 10 month old...later on down the road when he's able to speak.....socializing with his books and toys....I would hope he would be able to socialize with other HUMANS...seeing as how we were created in part to foster relationships with other HUMANS.  Not books.  Or the wind.

How convenient that people actually want to believe that the television will be sufficient in teaching their children emotional and social development so they can be relieved of that responsibility..... I'm pretty sure that A LOT of learning will come naturally in these areas simply by following the parents' example.  Rest assured Little Bear will not do the trick so don't be piling all your eggs into one basket.....and in addition, don't be striking up a little chit chat with the wind or your book shelf  because that will do the very opposite of fostering social development for your child.  

Good grief WHO in the world comes up with this stuff???!!!!!

School...is this really such a good idea?

This day was even MORE riveting than yesterday!  I've managed to get even FURTHER behind in science and it's only the second day!  NEAT!  We haven't even touched on music...or art.....how is this HAPPENING to me?  What this is ...is what some people refer to as sticking one's foot in one's mouth.  Not even a couple weeks ago I was patting myself on the back after hearing a friend say that they technically hadn't EVEN finished last year's school yet...and here they were playing around in the pool.  This particular friend is the master of being a control freak...so imagine my surprise and of course pleasure and satisfaction in knowing that not only had WE been COMPLETELY finished with school since the second week of May...but to add to my wonderfulness..I had also already filed and been getting prepared to start school again on Aug. 9th.  Boy did I think I was the greatest thing alive.  Now I know why she didn't finish.  It will be a miracle if I even do half as well as she this next year.  Since I'm a believer...in God that is...not buddha...or mother nature.....or President Obama....or cows.......there is definitely hope for miracles...therefore hope for me....and my poor children.  

Well whatever.  Dinner awaits my family. 

Ham pie.  Correction: Savory Ham Pie

The recipe comes compliments of Vickie Hartzler....not only will she make an excellent representative for us in Congress but she is a good cook too....all the more reason to vote for her come November.  GO VICKIE.  

and GO HAM PIE!

Back to School

Here we are ...starting the second day of school.  So yes, that means yesterday was the first...and what an encouraging day it was...I can't even tell you how excited I was to find out that on the VERY FIRST day of school I had to postpone the remainder of the science lesson due to my lack of knowledge on ecosystems.  However, I was easily consoled when apparently GOOGLE doesn't know much about the six ecosystem realms of the world either.....however then I was back to feeling discouraged again when I realized that if these kids fail science I can't blame it on GOOGLE.