Happy New Year!

We have had such a happy New Year's Eve today! We had a somewhat lazy Saturday morning. I did Big Daddy's laundry and packed his bags for next week (he'll be gone again). I cooked mini burgers for lunch, we did some fun shopping and then ate Japanese food and went to red mango for frozen yogurt. We ended our day of family fun by watching Toy Story 3.

Maggie and Ellie had a hard time this week after having Big Daddy home for six whole days. They have soaked up every bit of time with him today. We had a very happy day and I can only hope that 2012 holds many more days like this.

Tomorrow will start another attempt at a better lifestyle for me. Eating better, moving more, trying to be more patient and present with the kids, being a better wife and trying to make a little more time for me. I'm going to try to take everything day by day and just try to make it through the day at hand knowing that it will make all of the tomorrows that are coming, a little bit sweeter.

For the past couple of years there has been lots of talk about choosing "one word" for the coming year. I couldn't even come up with one word last year, but it was so easy for me this year.
Patience.
I want to be more patient with Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and myself. Doing this will help a lot of other things fall into place.

Monday we will start a few new things in our home school and I'm really excited about that. We took a little Christmas break last week and I feel like I haven't had school in months! Of course, teachable moments are found each and every day.

Happy 2012!

Christmas Recap

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a roller coaster with all sorts of "exciting" things going on, but I'm going to skip right over to our Christmas.

For the past several years we have visited Big Daddy's family on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with my mom, dad and my sister and her family. My extended family (mom's side) gets together on Christmas Eve, so we miss that. I don't mind too much because we see them all on Thanksgiving and throughout the year as well. It's fair to say that I do not enjoy spending Christmas Eve at the in-laws house for a variety of reasons, but this works best for us. (It would no doubt blow your mind if I told you just a few of the things that she "attacked" us with this year, from homeschooling to church all the way to what I do and do not eat.)

Every single year, my mother-in-law waits until a day or two before Christmas and asks what the girls would like. She always waits until my mom, my sister and I have done all of our shopping and most of the Christmas lists have been checked off. This year, I ordered a present for each girl (Disney Princess baby dolls) and gave it to her so that she could give it to them. Therefore, our "Santa" gifts were scaled back by quite a bit.

My mom and dad bought both of the girls "horses on a stick". I had ordered boots for both girls and my mom needed one more gift to give them, so she took the boots. Maggie & Ellie both have new horses, new boots and a new cowgirl hat, as well as a few other things from Nana & Poppy.

After we had opened Christmas gifts on Christmas morning and were getting ready for church, Maggie asked if she had received everything on her (very long) list. I reminded her that we never get everything on our list and as if she wanted to prove my point, she said, "You're right. I really wanted a horse on a stick and I didn't get that." She was very happy to open that gift from my parents.

I wrapped the Santa gifts a day or two before Christmas Eve and realized how little we had purchased for the girls. Big Daddy and I both had the same reaction: go buy more gifts. We didn't and everyone was still happy. While we know and celebrate the true meaning of the Christmas holiday, it's hard not to go all out for the kids. On Christmas morning, Maggie & Ellie each had four gifts and a stocking full of fun things. They also received a (giant) easel to share. They have enjoyed the easel SO much already and we are looking forward to using it when school resumes on January 2!

Our church was only offering one worship service on Christmas morning and there are normally three. They were offering childcare for preschoolers, but the older children were not having children's church or Sunday school. We made it to church plenty early, but it was a full house! We chose to take Ellie into the service with us. She did okay and managed to make it an hour. We missed the last fifteen minutes, so we were pleased.

Now, the pictures!

Maggie & Ellie's stockings and gifts.

Maggie with her new Barbie and her Barbie "styling head", as she calls it.

Ellie loved her new "buggy" and was excited to push around the Snow White that Grandma & Grandpa gave her.

This is the extra large easel. I was reminded that objects inToysRUs appear smaller in that big store. When Ellie starts more homeschooling, we will be turning the bonus room (currently Big Daddy's man cave) into a school room and the easel will live there. Until then, it's happily residing between the living and dining area. Ellie is quite obsessed with Toy Story, so she likes to pretend to be Cowboy Woody or Cowgirl Jessie. The girls love that movie and received several (7) Toy Story books and a couple of Woody and Buzz Lightyear figures too.

Merry Christmas!

We are having a busy and fun-filled week so Merry Christmas! (Just in case I don't make it back for a while!)

Sort of like a dream come true

Monday mornings are usually pretty nice around here. I try not to have anywhere to go and just concentrate on doing housework and then homeschooling and then more housework. By the afternoon, we are finished with school and housework and ready for dinner and dance class. Yesterday was a different Monday. It sort of felt like my Christmas morning.

Big Daddy left to go out of town again, but he didn't leave for work until sometime after lunch. I loaded up lots of Christmas gifts and the girls and left around 10:00 to go to Sanford to visit our friends.

We started with a great lunch at Cracker Barrel with my friends A, her little girl and K. We had a nice, two hour lunch ans the kids were very well-behaved. We missed having the little boys (they are in school)there, but girls only lunches are fun too. We exchanged gifts and all walked out with big bags of fun goodies. A gave us monogrammed cups and Bath & Body Works goodies. K gave us Bath & Body Works soap and candles and my birthday gift- you guessed it, Bath & Body Works stuff. I gave scarves, candies and my new favorite lip balm.

A, me and K (photography by Maggie)

We drove across town to tell A that yes, she should get that pair of shoes that she's had her eye on and then we tried on hats and scarves. A's hair has started to shed and she is worried that she'll lose all of it when she starts the next kind of chemo.

We said our goodbyes and I took the girls back across town to visit our friends from my old office. We visited, the girls received more treats and then we drove back across town to visit Gammy Gladys. Maggie & Ellie left with a bag full of goodies and new mini Pillow Pets. Gladys gave me something really pretty that I may share a little later. Since we were just a mile or so from my old real estate partner's house, we dropped by there too. We had a nice visit with him and his wife and then hit the road for home around 5:00.

We arrived home at 6:00, the girls had mini-breakdowns and we left at 7:00 for Maggie's parent observation and Christmas party at dance. Ellie went to the potty three times in 20 minutes, but we saw most of the displays of mad dance skills.

We pulled in the driveway a little after 8:30 and were happily in bed by 9:00. I went to bed a little after 10:00 because a day full of fun, wears The Mommy out!

Last week was lots of fun too! Big Daddy arrived home on Tuesday evening just in time to get into the car with us for Maggie's sign language Christmas concert. She did a great job and we really enjoyed all of the performances.

Maggie is the fourth little person from the right.

On Friday night, I took Ellie to the Preschool Birthday Party for Jesus at a local children's museum. She had a blast and they were having a special Curious George exhibit. (Maggie has a bounce birthday party for Jesus this weekend)

Just a bunch of words

Big Daddy and I send each other multiple texts during the day. I usually end mine with a heart or some sort of smiley.

Cousin Callie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs. Maggie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs, but they are to or about God. It's quiet sweet. I made the decision a year or more ago to really censor what music was playing in the car. While we listened to mostly country music, (which I thought was pretty tame) I realized that a lot of the lyrics were suggestive and almost made me throw up in my mouth when they were being sung from my daughter's lips. (I tried to let her watch a country music awards show one time, but you quickly realize that can't happen when the first song was "Kiss My Country A$$".) So, we we started listening to only Contemporary Christian music in the car and the occasional children's cd. We also have a Taylor Swift cd (which I censor what songs we listen too) and a couple of Big Daddy's cd's in the car. Maggie is a big fan of Casting Crown and David Crowder Band. She loves that the songs we sing at church are also on our radio.

Lots of people don't agree with the way that we parent and think that we are too strict, but I think it has become painfully obvious that too many parents and families aren't strict enough these days. Of course, I also let my children dress like clowns more often than not. I like to think that I'm keeping the balance right.

I write love notes to my best mommy friends. Nine times out of ten, we end our messages to each other with "I Love You" or "xoxoxo". Sometimes I blush. Since Ms. A is dealing with all of the cancer-stuff, I realize how much it means to tell even your friends that you love them. I have spent more time than I can count praying for her, worrying about her and trying to explain all of this to Maggie. Maggie knows so many people that have died from cancer, so it's hard to explain that Ms. A will have treatments that will not be fun (she's going to have a stronger chemo than we thought), she will feel bad, she may look different and yes, she may be bald.

The thought of A losing her hair has been hard for us. I finally talked with her about it on Tuesday night. It's very possoble that she may lose her hair and she's taking that news very well. She's not doing well with all of the other stuff. I told her I would do anything that I could and I told her that I'd totally let her shave my head. She is a beautician, after all. She laughed and then said, "really" in the sweetest tone. And yes, I would. In a heartbeat. Maggie overheard all of this and doesn't want anyone to lose their hair. I think that may be one of her most sincere prayers now! Many times when I have heard that someone was facing a potentially life threatening illness, I would think about how it would impact their, spouse, family or me. With A being sick and especially after talking with her last night, I worry about how she feels and what she fears.

There was a mass shooting just a few miles from our church on the Sunday before last. It happened while we were in church and we only found out about it later that evening. I'll keep the details short, but a lady shot the married man that she had been having a multi-year affair with, two of her children, her son's girlfriend, and two children that had been left in her custody after their mother had passed away and then shot herself. The shootings happened at three different locations, so there was some confusion. There was only one survivor, the married man and five children between 8 and 17 were lost.

Our church is quiet large and literally center of this community and it has been the location of a candlelight vigil and counseling provided by the local school that most of the older children attended. Our pastor shared lots of details about what had been going on at church behind the scenes. None of the families involved had a church family. Some of the youth in our church coordinated the vigil and even picked out and lead the songs for the vigil. The pastor has spent time with all of the families and I can only imagine how hard that has been for him. The visitation for all of the victims will be at our church on Thursday starting in the afternoon. On Friday morning, our pastor will conducting the funeral for the six people that lost their lives and the church will be feeding their families on both days. In all of this, the saddest part for me was that none of these people were affiliated with a church. I have had lots of people say critical things because we don't go to the church that I grew up in and because we go to such a large church, but there is a big reason.

Christmas Is Coming!

Today marked Maggie's last sign language class for the semester. As we were driving home she said that she felt like class had just started. She has enjoyed it SO much and she will probably take it next semester too. Today was my day clean the downstairs of the church where we meet. Each family signs up for a cleaning day. Two people are assigned for upstairs and two for downstairs. Of course, I was the only one that showed up to clean downstairs (an ongoing problem with the lazy homeschool moms), but Maggie helped. We took out lots of trash, swept and did a little "tidying" in the bathrooms. (Maggie loves the word tidy) My mom was kind enough to keep Ellie so that I wouldn't have two cleaning helpers. I enjoyed quiet time in the car and managed to get our Christmas cards addressed while Maggie practiced for her concert. It's next Tuesday and she's so excited!

I think it's safe to say that I'm finished with Christmas shopping! The attic is holding the presents that need to be wrapped and I'm sure I'll to get to that soon! I bought several things for myself this year, but they'll really be from Big Daddy and the girls. I think I'll probably get a surprise too. Big Daddy is hard to buy for because he buys what he wants/needs throughout the year. Since becoming a SAHM, I limit my "me" things.

I spent nearly all of Friday working on our decorations. Big Daddy was doing homework upstairs, so both of the girls "helped" me. Ellie wasn't all that interested, but Maggie was in the middle of everything! Therefore, it took about 8 hours. The longest it's ever taken. It was fun to go through all of the ornaments and Maggie wanted to know where every single one came from.The Foyer
(I decided to add a little garland to the table because I had some sort of light/garland mishap with the mantle. I used extra garland and lights on the mantle and didn't have enough for outside of our TALL front door, like I did last year.)

The Mantle
(Big Daddy sent me flowers a couple of weeks ago and they came in that vase! I bought a few red berry branches from Hobby Lobby and it worked out great as a little something different!)

Our Tree

Both girls have their own trees again this year. I love the way their rooms look when I tuck them in at night. They look so angelic under the glow of the Christmas tree.

Ellie's tree is white with silver balls and gingerbread men. Maggie's is a pink tinsel tree with multi-colored balls and a few of her small ornaments. I MADE her put her big ornaments on the big tree this year.)

Olivia (the hamster) has her own tree too!!
(White lights and red berries)

We have our first holiday party this week! We'll be going to our homeschool group Christmas party on Thursday afternoon. That evening will be our town's Christmas parade. If the weather cooperates, we'll be there!

Our church has something Christmas-related every weekend in the month of December. There are different musical performances, plays and a "Birthday Party for Jesus" for both preschoolers (at the Children Museum) and K-5 grades (at a bounce place). Lots of opportunities for celebration.

Maggie is counting down to Thursday! She loves the first day of any month, but is especially excited to start the season of Advent and get a chocolate treat from her Advent calendar too.
We will also be doing a daily devotional leading up to Christmas during our morning "Circle Time". It's a great way to share a little bit of the Christmas story everyday.

If you celebrate the season of Advent I'd love to know how!

Long Story Short

I'm not sure how nearly two weeks have passed since my last post, but a lot has been going on.

I've been raking leaves, having migraines and Christmas shopping to keep me busy.

And speaking of Christmas shopping, my mom bought me that pair of boots that I was really wanting. Big Daddy has told me to buy what I want/ need. I'm thinking that I need something to wear with those boots!

I ordered Christmas cards from shutterfly and cardstore.com this year and the cards have been sitting on my desk waiting to be addressed.

My friend A found out that her cancer has returned. Needless to say, we are devastated. The doctor is hopeful that it will be zapped with one radiation treatment and chemotherapy. They have told her that she will most likely not be able to have any more children, but I haven't had the heart to ask if she'll lose her hair. (It sounds silly, but it's not when it's your best friend) I am able to hold myself together when we talk on the phone, but my heart just breaks for her.

Maggie started tying her shoes...finally. We worked on it for a while and then I decided to out it on the back burner because she would get so frustrated. Sure enough, it finally clicked and she tied them a couple of weeks ago when we were getting ready to leave for Awana. I was in the kitchen and she yelled at me from her room. She was so proud.

Ellie has a new haircut. Of course, we are probably the only ones that would notice, but in my eyes it made a big difference. She has quite a bit less hair than Maggie did at this age.

Big Daddy and I are really longing for Disney World. We talk a lot about our next rip, but it probably will not happen until next fall.

And that's it!

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!!

Mid-Week Randoms

We've had a busy start to our week, so I'm making today a lazy day! We have no place to go until church this evening, so we may even have a pajama day. I always have all these little things going through my mind and I thought I'd share them today. Things like this are always fun for me to go back and read in weeks, months or years.

• I googled "What is Pippa Middleton's job?" one day last week. It had been bothering me for months and I was relieved to finally find out where she was "commuting to" in those photos that appear on People.com where they go on and on about her style. Google it for yourself if you're curious.
  
• I have never watched The Duggars (we only have free tv) and probably never will. I don't care how many children they have because it is none of my business. Lots of people seem to think that they shouldn't have so many children when their are orphans that need parents or other couples struggling with infertility. None of that makes sense to me.
• We don't watch a lot of reality tv, because it's. not. real. I believe that Survivor was real the first season and then everyone started talking about "alliances". I prefer sitcoms and dramas. Big Daddy and I like Two Broke Girls, Rules of Engagement, The Mentalist, Hawaii Five-0 and The Big Bang Theory. (we only watch these shows if/when the kids are in bed. I also really love and look forward to Revenge! Big Daddy has been out of town every week since it has been on, so I've watched it alone, but it has been a happy place for me.
  
• I have been items to my fantasy Christmas list like crazy. I thought I would jot a few of my wishes down, but it hasn't happened. I still want a sewing machine and I saw a pair of boots at Target that were straight out of my dreams.
• About those boots...they were so pretty. I saw a pair last year that I loved and then once I tried them on they were dead to me. I "need" and want so many things that I decided not to walk over to the boots because I may love them if I tried them on. It sounds silly, but if I had them I would also want stuff to go with them and I feel like we spend so much money on things that we have to have to live. While we have plenty of money and live comfortably, I am a stay at home mom, have no income and do not like to buy frivolous things that are just for me.
• Potty training Ellie is going well. I felt like all the girls her age were trained, but now that she's pottying I realize there are lots of girls older than her that are still in diapers. I am all about following the child's lead and I think Ellie was ready.
• Ellie has a cold today. That means that Maggie and I will probably have it by the weekend and we had an extra-special Saturday planned that I'll probably have to cancel. I will remain hopeful until the weekend, though.
• I feel sorry for Kris Humphries. I haven't really followed the whole Kim Kardashian/Kris Humphries thing, but I check People.com daily (guilty pleasure). I don't think the whole wedding was orchestrated for publicity or income, but I think they might have gotten caught up in everything. I had a small, private wedding and would not have wanted to cancel it beforehand. I can only imagine the pressure that they felt to go through when it was a multi-million dollar production and was being filmed for tv. I think marriage should be taken seriously and I'm not so sure that girl knows how to do that. I hope they both find happiness.
• I'm one of those people that hopes that everyone else is happy. I
  
• We had Big Daddy home for four days and then he left this morning and will hopefully be back next Wednesday. We picked him up at the airport this past Friday evening and Ellie was almost arrested by the TSA. If you give Ellie a line and tell her not to cross it, she will.
• After my post last week declaring that things were going well without our fearless leader, things fell apart. Big time. There are so many times during the day that I just want to say "EPIC FAIL" and hit a restart button.
• I pray daily for patience that surpasses all understanding and sanity.
• I keep thinking about how much less-stressed I would be if Maggie went to school everyday.
  
• Everyday I am thankful to be homeschooling Maggie.
• Ellie is hilarious and sweet and has such a kind heart. She also likes to pull Maggie's hair, but usually it's in self defense.
  

The New Normal

I'm trying so hard to get into our routine, but I admit, I am struggling.

We have been homeschooling since July, but changed to first grade curriculum and I had to adjust. Then it was time for Awana, dance and Maggie's homeschool elective class to start. Once you mix all of that with Big Daddy's heavy season of travel, you have one worn out mommy!

Things are going fairly well without Big Daddy at home during the week. He has traveled 7 of the past 9 weeks, but one of those weeks we were in Disney World, so he was traveling with us. Maggie and Ellie usually cry for him at bedtime and Ellie cries for him if she gets in trouble. We went shopping with my mom on Monday and Ellie freaked out and started screaming for him when I got out of her sight. It's hard on all of us.

Big Daddy and I had a little date night this past Saturday. It had been a pretty good while since we had been out for dinner and a movie. We went to see "Courageous" (I cannot recommend it enough- especially for men) and then had Japanese food and walked around a little. It was a much-needed break. Maggie & Ellie stayed with my sister and played with Callie and put on make up!

I went shopping on Monday with my mom and the kids. I'm happy to report that nearly all of my shopping for the kids is complete!! We were able to split up so that I could get a few things without them seeing. There's one thing on Maggie's list that I couldn't get and I still need a couple of things for Ellie. I am very pleased with my progress!

My sister, brother-in-law, nephew and Cousin Callie came over to trick or treat in our neighborhood on Monday evening. We seem to live in THE place for trick or treating. Thankfully, our hose is in a new subdivision at the end of the street and our house is the last one on the street and we kept our lights off and no one came by! I was NOT going to open the door to strangers in costumes when I was the only parent at home. The girls all had fun and we got a small amount of candy.

Other than that, things have been as busy as usual!

Busy is my new normal.

Best. Day. Of. The. Week.

Another busy week is behind us and I'm finally taking the time to post about it.

Monday was dance day and they let the children wear their Halloween costumes if they wanted too. Maggie chose to be Pocahontas, but I didn't take a picture. :-( There was an excessive amount of drama over wearing full dance gear (footless tights, leotard and tutu skirt) under the Pocahontas vest and skirt and how on earth were we going to incorporate a feather into a ponytail!!?? I was nearly in tears by the time we walked into the studio and just forgot all about snapping a picture.

Tuesday was Maggie's half birthday and I bought the stuff to make Whoopie Pies. (We bought some at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and Maggie is a fan!!)Lots of people (including my mom and sister) thought that celebrating a half birthday was silly, but sometimes a girl just needs to celebrate. Big Daddy has been out of town so much lately and while the kids seem okay, it causes quite a bit of extra drama and sadness and I want my Daddy-fits at home. I thought making Whoopie Pies would be fun and a good way to use math in a practical way.

I woke up around 5am with a horrible headache. I was just going back to sleep around 7:30 when Maggie came into my room to cuddle. And then Ellie woke up and agreed to cuddle with us instead of wanting to eat as soon as her feet hit the floor. We stayed in bed for 30 minutes or so and when I stood up I became extremely nauseated. I assumed and hoped it was from the headache. I waited a little bit and then forced down some toast, coffee and headache medicine. The headache went away, but the nausea remained. I got partially ready so that we could go to sign language that afternoon and then I made Whoopie Pies with my girls while wanting to hurl. Maggie did her homeschool work in the living room while I was on the couch.

To make a too long story short, my sister came by to bring me a bubbly drink to help with the nausea and I started throwing up. She took the kids to my parents house and I was sick and completely alone for the rest of the day. I was still sick that night so Poppy came to get sleepover stuff for Maggie and Ellie. I was alone in our house for 20 hours which has never happened before. I was busy getting sick, wanting to die and trying to sleep. I was awake most of the night, but was better in the morning.

Wednesday started out rough, but I managed to eat breakfast and shower, get gas and then GET MY GIRLS. To say that I was lonely without Big Daddy and them is a huge understatement. I didn't teach my class at church on Wednesday and spent most of the day trying to recover.

Thursday is one of my favorite days. I really enjoy taking Maggie and Ellie to the library and we were also having our Halloween Party. Maggie was "Raggedy Ann" and Ellie was "Cinderella".CinderEllie and Raggedy Maggie

It was fun to see our library friends all dressed up and Ellie was excited about the costumes!

Cousin Callie had an early release day from school, so we had lunch, did our school work and went to Nana and Poppy's house to jump in leaves. It was a really nice day and I was able to sit in the sun with my mom and sister. My sister has some sort of crud and stayed out of work, but we let her sit outside with us anyway!

Fall is quickly becoming my most favorite season because of pictures like the one above! The girls played in the leaves (and dirt) for over 2 hours.

And my girls were worn out at bedtime.

And I totally love homeschooling.

And being SO nauseated for about 12 hours makes a girl never want to be pregnant again.

How Can I Be SO Busy!!??

I'm a stay at home, homeschooling mom of two little girls and I am SO busy!!

I feel like I live from one load of laundry/ dance class/ sign language class/ Awana to the next that's not even counting all of the homeschool lessons that we do on a daily basis.

I could never have imagined that this would be my life.


I'm completely sure that homeschooling Maggie is right for us and we really do love it.

The highlight of my day today: Doing Maggie's lessons at the dining room table with the windows open. We could hear the acorns falling off of the trees outside and Ellie playing with seashells and muffin tins in the living room floor.

Pure bliss.

Our First Trip to Disney World

I could go on and on and on about the details of our trip or helpful hints that we have to pass along on how to save money while having the time of your life, but I'm not going to. If you want to plan a trip to Disney World I'd love share our travel agent and a few tips. (Email me!) I completely planned everything, but she booked it. Using a travel agent is a free service and it gave us one person to contact if we had any problems. Thankfully, our trip was perfect!

Big Daddy wanted to go for his girls, but he had a great time too! I had prayed that he would enjoy it since he used a week's vacation and financed our trip. Our only complaint was that we were SO tired at the end of each day. Our hotel had a Disney movie each night by the pool and that was a great time for a little rest before bed. Big daddy watched the movie with the girls while I showered and organized our stuff for the next day.

We arrived on Sunday and departed on Thursday and spent two days in Magic Kingdom and one day in Animal Kingdom. I'm thankful that we didn't stay any longer! Due to the age of our children, three days was about all that we could handle! I'm delighted to say that we are planning another Disney World trip in the not so distant future! We'll probably stay longer the next time.

Now...picture overload!!

The Happiest Place On Earth...

makes for lots of laundry, lots of housework to catch up on and a very tired Mommy and Daddy.


And two very happy little girls!

Three

I'm not sure how this is even possible.

It has been three years since we found out that we were expecting our second child.

I'm so thankful that my sweet friend, A, was the first person that I was able to tell the news too in person. Yes, Big Daddy was second.

This morning, Ellie picked out the shirt that Maggie was wearing in the picture that I took of Maggie holding the positive test!

(Originally posted on November 16, 2008)

Testing...Testing

This is a test post!! No really it is a test post! See the pregnancy test that The Muffin is holding? It says "Pregnant"!
This picture was taken on September 29 and we showed it to Big Daddy when he got home from work. He thought I had taken a picture of The Muffin with a thermometer. (She was just getting over a case of croup and bronchitis, so he wasn't completely crazy!) I took The Muffin to the bathroom, gave her the real test and Big Daddy thought that she wanted to take his temperature!
We spent the rest of the evening talking about the Baby-to be and making plans for the future.

Finally Fall

Maggie has been patiently waiting for the first day of fall for weeks. When I reminded her that today was the big day she said, "Oh my word, I almost forgot".

We decided to put our fall wreath and scarecrows up last week. Unless something drastic happens, that is the extent of our seasonal decorations for fall. We'll buy a pumpkin in another week or so and I'll be planting pansies as soon as I can, but that's it.

This week has been a busy week! This was the first week of our fall school/activity schedule with Big Daddy home. I guess busy is our new normal.

Ellie has started putting together the most amazing sentences and she is so funny! She loves to ask," Where are we going next?" when we're running errands and getting in and out of the car. Ellie likes her new Sunday School class and going to Mission Friends on Wednesday evenings. She has discovered glue sticks and loves art at church and the library.

Maggie has been something lately! She is still enjoying school and her homeschool elective (sign language) class. She seems to be enjoying her Awana class too. She has been creating lots of fun things this week- from puppets to paper dolls. She has a great imagination and has also started writing songs,

I want, I want, I want!!!

I'm in one of those moods where I can think of a million relatively small things that I want! These are the days that before I had kids I would have treated myself to a little shopping trip. I started making a list in my head because my wants covered so many different things from paint to a new (Missoni) scarf.

Blessed as I am, I have a free gift coming tomorrow. He should be here shortly after Ellie's nap and Maggie's school and free is always good.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather that is coming our way for the weekend (Hello, Fall!) and hoping that Big Daddy has a peaceful re-entry back into the family. He is way behind on homework and will probably have a few work-related projects that he'll be addressing over the weekend, but he'll be upstairs!! We're praying that he arrives safely and on time!

Keep The Balance Right

The past few weeks have been overwhelming at times. We are about to start what will be our "everyday schedule" for fall. I feel like we have fallen into a nice rhythm with first grade schoolwork and I have managed to get Maggie weekly work binder put together in an hour (or an hour and a half) on Saturday afternoon and now we're going to shake things up a bit!

Monday-dance class for an hour in the evening

Tuesday- Maggie's sign language through music class in the afternoon, Ellie will be in a preschool class and I'll help out where needed (these classes cut into ou school time and Ellie's nap, so we may not take them again in January)
Wednesday- Awana- I'll be teaching Cubbies again, Ellie will be in Mission Friends and Maggie and Callie (she's coming along this year) will be in an Awana class
Thursday- Storytime at the library in the morning

Even though the activities only last for an hour or so, I feel a little overwhelmed. I decided that it may be best if Maggie doesn't do children's choir at church on Sunday evenings,but I'm thinking that she'll be doing it in January. If we hadn't already signed up for the sign language and preschool classes through the homeschool network, we'd do it. It's a Christian homeschool network, so the songs that Maggie does will be faith-based. I already have a list of things that we'll be doing or not doing after the first of the year. I want to mix fun and educational things, so Maggie may take a children's literature class or something like that through the network. We'll see how our schedule looks.

Big Daddy and I have always wanted Maggie (and Ellie) to be involved in extra curricular activities, but we have seen too many children that seem to be over-scheduled. I want to have a good balance of fun, educational, free time and family time. I'd like to have a little free time too, but I feel like that will come later. Even though I have only two children and really only work at homeschooling one of them, it takes quite a bit of planning, commitment and time. When things seem so busy, I remember that this is only a season in my life...or maybe two.

I'm going to try and put together a post of Maggie's weekly work binder and our curriculum choices soon. I'd like for her to look back on what we did one day and it may be of interest to someone else that's homeschooling.

Better

I feel much better and much less "poor me" today. I had a little girl's morning out with Maggie and Ellie. Maggie needs a few things for fall (and before we go on our Disney trip) and we needed a couple of things from Target. We ended our adventure with lunch.

Ellie just woke up from a very short nap and we are baking bread (recipe will come later if it's a success) and going to the library to check out a few movies for an all girl weekend.

I have a feeling we'll be going to the zoo in the morning and then Maggie & Ellie are going to play at my sister's house for a couple of hours. I'm going to dump all three toy boxes out in the living room floor and attempt to throw away, donate and organize our toys. If I do it when the girls are here, they start playing with everything and we both decide that we can't part with half of the stuff. I'm pretty excited about purging the toy boxes without interruption!

Big weekend plans, huh?

So much for plans

Big Daddy was out of town all of last week and was supposed to be out of town this week and next week, but we had plans for a date this weekend and I was SO excited. He was in a meeting tonight when I sent him a text, so he texted me back to let me know that there was a problem and he wouldn't be home this weekend.

I haven't felt this disappointed since the time that he left for Georgia and I kept telling myself that it was only for the week and then he didn't come back for two weeks. Then there was the time that he was supposed to be away for two weeks and it was three weeks because of a business trip.

Things like this happen and we're always aware that problems come up. Of course, it's hardest on the kids. Ellie has been having trouble going to sleep because she like for Mommy and Daddy to put her to bed. Maggie had a BAD day on Tuesday because she was just so upset that her Daddy was leaving again. Today was great, but I'm not sure how tomorrow will be. I'll be doing something special with the girls this weekend.

Anyway...I actually had a few posts in my head, but they all left and I decided to have a pity party.

Happy Labor Day!

Kristin over at We Are THAT Family does a Labor (the hardest work she's ever done) Day post every year and I love it!

Baby #1- In the hospital for a scheduled induction at 40 weeks and 4 days. After 4+ hours of PItocin my wonderful midwife broke my water. She left for lunch only to return with a frightened look on her face. She got in bed with me, did an internal exam and didn’t remove her hand/arm until my baby was removed during a crash c-section. I missed her birth because they had to knock me out. We had undiagnosed Vasa Previa, Velamentous Cord Insertion and a succentriate lobed placenta.

Baby #2- In the hospital for a scheduled induction (39 weeks, 6 days)because we moved an hour away exactly one week before. The same awesome midwife was in attendance. I was induced with Pitocin on day one and after 8 hours they stopped my labor. It was started again the next morning and after 15 hours of labor and over 3 HOURS of pushing I had a successful VBAC. Turns out baby wanted to be facing up instead of down and got a little stuck. I’m thankful for vacuums.