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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas in Retail

December,

In Retail this month is anything but calm and reflective. I go to work and I see so much stuff and I think I should get that or this. What a deal - maybe we should have 2 or 3 as a matter of fact. No time to use it but hey at least we will own it. :) I pray and I usually see that I do not need any of it.

This is the first December that we have both worked and I am thinking it is not my favorite thing. I am so Thankful for my job and His but I miss the baking and the crafting and the sleeping in and the staying up late. This is the place God has me and I will walk in this place and I will be Thankful for my beautiful Children and my amazing Husband and my job.  I will try to be wise with what money we have and not desire more, I will try to care for the things he has given us including our marriage and children even when I am tired and crabby.

We celebrated our 13th Anniversary on the 17th and I am so happy to say I Love my Justin. 13 years and a million moments later and the Love God has given us for each other is amazing. Such a gift to know that even when we disagree, argue, crab, and annoy we LOVE each other with the Lords help.

So this Christmas week we will remember Christ and his Birth and his Death, we will Love family and friends, we will be content with what we do have and not covet more, and we will reflect on everything the Lord has done for us. Which of course is EVERYTHING



Here is a pic of our sweet neighbor Taylor paying us a visit the other day as her Dad and Mom ran an errand. Pretty sure she could not possibly have had more attention paid to her. :)

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Happy Birthday Katie

Happy Birthday to a wonderful 7 year old Katherine


 Here is her silly big brother modeling some of her Birthday gifts. :)
Blow out the candles
Posing with the head of her horse pinata
Some pictures of the kids waiting to break the pinata

Two silly girls
Birthday Beauty
My Beautiful Lady
Big Brother
Little Brother (still no smiles for auntie)
My Crazy Boy
My Little Man
My Grumpy Boy ( I took away a handful of unasked for candy right before this picture) hehe
Charming little lady
Sweet smiles
All Giggles
My Momma and the Midwife that delivered me. :)
What the cool kids do at parties
Crazy straw building
I made Katie a birthday skirt but I will have to get my sister to get some pics of it in action. :)

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pumpkin Patch trip 2012

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch with some Douglas County Home schoolers.
The day was lovely and we only had a sprinkling of rain.
Sweet Jadon just will not give me a smile for the camera
Evangeline posing perfectly with her pumpkin
Katherine who just turned 7 and is far to beautiful and mature looking in this picture.
Timothy using his pocket knife to cut the pumpkins from the vines
Christopher who was all smiles
I told him he could bring any pumpkin he could carry. :)
Enjoying some refreshments. Delicious
This trip to the pumpkin patch was a reminder to me that last year we were blessed that Daddy could join us. This year we are amazingly blessed that he could not join us because he has a job. :) His one year anniversary is quickly approaching and I never want to forget how God provides even when the world can not see a way.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Weekly Wrap Up - September is nearing the end

Week 2 of school

Friday we did a science day with cousins- We did a little study on digestion and then we made our own stomach to see how acid breaks the food down. Here they are squeezing out the stomachs to see what the acid(vinegar) did to the food(bread)


Squeezing the stomachs(balloons) to break up the food with the acid. ewwwww


After one of Evangeline's Bible readings this week she was supposed to do a quick sketch of something in the story. I always do this with her and we use the white board. Look at our lovely art. :)


For science Evangeline was supposed to test beak types and try and catch popcorn. The boys enjoyed helping her with this. We decided that birds with big paper beaks can catch food the best.  (just joking)




Evangeline is finally more than halfway through her guide and doing very well at being mostly independent. Timothy is not as far along as her and still codependent. I have learned that by breaking math up throughout the day in between everything else it does not overwhelm him as much and things go far more smoothly. The little boys are loving math which is very simple at the moment and I will be starting more serious phonics with them this week.

If you wish to join in with your own weekly wrap up visit weird unsocialized homeschoolers

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Nature Journal Making

We will be getting together with my Sister and Cousin once a week on Fridays for Nature/Science study. A little extra to give the kids a chance to get out and hang with there cousins and friends. :)
The kids are supposed to bring a Nature Journal so they can draw or journal whatever we happen to be studying that day. Our budget is super de duper tight right now so I decided we would just use paper on clipboards. So we did that last week, I even tied there pencils to the board with a string so they would not lose it.

Sadly they ended up being a tad too bulky and Mommy ended up carrying two of the boards by the end of the walk, plus the papers came out a bit to easy for rough little boys.

So week 2 and I decided to make some kind of homemade journal. So here is what I made.

The materials I used:
Cardboard pieces,
A drill to make the holes. :)
Paper and a paper cutter
Hole Punch
Glue Stick
Sugar and Cream cotton yarn (embroidery floss was too tight after it was tied and ripped the pages)
Duct Tape
Stickers

This was all items I already owned and I think they turned out really cute. Lets hope they hold up to some rough kidlets for some nature and science exploration.




Friday, September 14, 2012

Falling

I can feel the taste of Autumn in the air and in myself. I Love this season.
 So full of color and renewing. Everything sheds last years newness and settles into just being what God made it to be somehow.
 I feel myself taking things slower taking care of those little things that since January I have been putting off. I finally notice the unfinished mending, the cluttered laundry room floor and not only do I notice but take a few minutes to actually do something about it.
The house is still a turmoil, my mind still tells me it is far too imperfect to reflect God to others, myself still feels that bit of shame when someone stops by, but there is more Hope within me that I am who God made me to be and He Loves me.
 Why a new season is needed to remind me of that I will never know, but I am happy it always comes and renews me because I weary far too easily.

Today I rejoice




 Nature Friday with some cousins.
 The first day of school

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Long Break

In January my life was overfull and busy and I stopped writing. It seemed very much as if no one would wish to hear my thoughts at that moment. :) Pretty sure I was trying to avoid them myself. Life is still full and still busy and we keep moving forward and God keeps us on our feet when we sometimes feel like laying down.

We had to reroof the house this year or lose our insurance. We were so amazingly blessed to have family and friends come and donate time and sweat to help us. Our home is once more protected from the rains just as the Lord has quieted and protected my heart this year. Now we wait for the insurance to okay us once more.

Now we start the process of painting the house a little at a time and attempting to figure out a Household budget. The budget has been hard to build since we have had so many financial changes this year. It is time for us to get serious and somewhat drastic and that will take some serious prayer and trust in the Lord. It can be so hard when you have to say no to simple things and other people just do not always understand.

The kidlets need to start school soon, very soon. Am I prepared? How did I get a 6th grader? How will I teach 4 at the same time who are different levels? How will I work it into our work schedules? Once more I trust in the Lord and know that he will carry me through.

So I am back to writing, what that means? I do not know.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Snow Day

The snow made a small visit to Oregon. It did not stay long and it did not bring many of it's friends.

It caused smiles and giggles
Icy cold fingers
Hot chocolate and a pile of wet clothes
A bit of sibling play time
anticipation and excitement.

It really does not take very much to cause sheer delight in a child. :)