Just Our Thoughts

Yes.I.am.writing.on.my.broken.keyboard.

The.final.touches.are.going.on.the.new.design.

Stay.tuned.

I.love.it!

More.about.it.in.the.next.day.or.two!

No.party.no.prizes.but.lots.and.lots.of.excitement.for.me!

I.like.the.bright.fresh.and.new.colors.that.are.coming.

I.hope.that.you.like.it.too!



Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Look for blog changes in the near future.

In our home, we are thinking about moving the girls around. The three of them in that one room with all their clothes and them not sleeping at night is driving me to insanity. Starting with decluttering their clothing to 4 of each item - 4 tanks, 4 ts, 4 long, 4 sweaters. 4 shorts, 4 pants, 4, etc. You get the idea. We'll see how that goes. I wash clothes at the very minimum every other day so it's not like they won't have enough to wear. I'll just have less to wash. :)

I need to update on my One Year To An Organized Life reading. It got put to the side with the SSDR Launch Party coming up. Plus with my keyboard on the fritz I'm not doing quite as much at the computer and feel very disorganized in my computer and office work.

Anyway, that's a little update here.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

We've had a couple of long days. Good days, but they've seemed long. Especially to little W. He misses his daddy when Daddy is gone. J got a couple of days of work helping a local farmer and then the fire department has been busy too - not with fires, but with community stuff. Anyway, W's been spending quite a lot of time asking where Daddy is. We are just so used to having J around. I don't know what we will do when he goes back to work full time. But I'm trying not to worry about that now and just keep enjoying the time we are spending together as a family.

Baby R turned 8 months old today. She is a frustrating little cutie right now. We love her to bits but she's tiring this momma out! Long nights of little sleep. Longer evenings of an over tired baby who won't sleep except in Mommy's arms. Early mornings of dirty diapers and messy beds! Ugh. What a week. And then this morning!

I sat down at my computer, to do some email with my morning coffee and to nurse Baby R. Just like we always do. Every single day. Well, wouldn't you know it that between her and I we knocked my coffee over. Down went the tired baby to sit on the floor. Up scooped the towel from a recent shower (and Flylady says to clean up after ourselves!!). And I wiped and tried to rescue papers (that would have been cleaned up if I cleaned up after myself and actually filed papers when I was done with them). Well, I did what I could, but it wasn't enough. The keys were sticking and typing was not fun. And then the space bar quit. I was typing like this:

Oh.my.goodness..I.don't.know.what.i'm.going.to.do..i.wonder.if.i.can.take.it.apart.and.clean.it.

or like this:

ohmygoodnesswhyisthishappeningtomeagaintoday?howmanycupsofcoffeedoigettowearbeforesupper?

iwonderifmycomputerguycanfixitorifhehasanewkeyboardicanbuyoffhim.

UGH!

Earlier tonight, I wanted to get a shower in, so I could just go to bed when I got tired enough. Well, Baby R, true to form will not sleep alone. So as soon as I set her down she was awake and screaming. Last night I waited until J got home around 1AM to take a shower, but I didn't want to do that tonight because last night made me cranky with J for being out so late when it really wasn't that big a deal. So, I took my screaming baby, her Bumbo and her bottle and we went to the bathroom, shut and locked our new door and let her cry.

Finally I got sick of her crying, so I started to sing. "Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Mumma's gonna buy you a mocking bird." It got quiet. I stopped. The crying started again. I started again. Silence. Pause. Cry. Sing. Silence. Sing. Sing. Sing. I think I sang all the verses four or five times over. And she was listening and quiet until I was almost done. At least it worked for a while. She seems to really like music. I think it's cool that I can see those little preferences in my babies so early in their lives.

It's late. That's all I have to say. Good night, fair readers! Leave me a comment. Answer the polls at the very bottom of the blog. Leave a comment about that too! I'm almost done Free Range Kids! I'm loving it so much. I'll tell you more soon. And you need to watch for my review of this common sense book over at Simply Sensational Divas Review. Check out my sidebar for a link. (Too lazy tonight to do it; it's harder to do on the laptop top. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.)

G'nite!

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

I realized again this week, that we will not be on this earth forever. I learned the importance of family; I realized how important my mom's 50th birthday party was for my siblings, for me and for our parents. I learned this week, again, that a life can end unexpectedly, suddenly, and over something that for the most part is small. On Sunday, my uncle died; he had pneumonia.

Uncle R was my dad's oldest brother. He married late in life; late enough that I remember. He waited a long time (at least to my memory) for my aunt B. When he married her, he had an "instant family" as she had two boys. I gained two cousins. I can't say that I got to know them very well. We moved around a lot and when we finally "settled down" for a few years, it was far far away from both extended families. But I have some specific memories of Uncle R. Memories I will cherish now more than ever.

My sadness is not for Uncle R. I believe he's in a better place; he's sharing some time with my son, whom he didn't get to meet here and with his mom! Instead, my sadness is for Aunt B and the boys. My sadness is for my dad and the other siblings. Besides a baby sibling that died in infancy, he is the first of them to leave this world. My sadness is deepened for them in that it feels that they just barely lost their mother very suddenly. Grandma died in 2005.

I learned, this week, that J and I really really need to use this time that he is off work to love on our kids, to build bridges and tie heartstrings. We need to grow those relationships. I learned this week that we have been given a great opportunity that not many get (or take) and we need to embrace it and run with it. And it is not just at this time either; it's all the time. Life is too short. Our children are growing so fast; and we are getting older too.

Proverbs 16:9 -
A man’s heart plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.

To those of you who loved Uncle R, who knew him better than I, to those who miss him oh so much, our prayers and our thoughts are with you this week and in the months to come. Words are not enough. J and I know that, more than some. I am so sorry for your loss and I wish I could take your pain away. (And then I second guess, was that the right thing to say???) We love you, and we loved him.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

I don't do Tackles very often, but I'm starting to get back into this meme. It helps to give a little focus.

This week I am tackling my routines, getting back on track and organizing myself and my home.

And for the next few weeks, until August 1, I will be tackling finding reviews and giveaways for Simple Sensational Divas Review for our launch party! Stay tuned for more details!

More great tacklers can be found at Five Minutes for Mom.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to post the song my dad played at my wedding reception.

This meme is hosted by Signs Miracles and Wonders.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

The book I'm reading is called Free Range Kids. You can find out more about it here at Amazon and at the author's blog.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Would you be so kind to as to help me with my curiosity again? There is a second poll at the bottom of the blog?


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Can you scroll to the very bottom of my blog and answer the poll you find there? I'm reading this really cool book and it's made me curious. More to come when I'm done the book. Thanks so much!


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Well, wow! Spring went so fast, in the reading department. But so slow in the weather department. We seriously thought the warm weather would never hit us! But at last it has. As a wrap up for the Spring Reading Things 2009 I am going to answer the questions posted at Callipidder Days:

• Did you finish reading all the books on your spring reading list? If not, why not?

No, I did not finish my list. I was over ambitious. I am a mom of 5 and busy busy busy! That's my excuse!

• Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?

I changed my list as I went along, but ended up staying pretty close to my original list. (My original list is posted here. And an updated list here and here.) I mostly added to it, but didn't really read any of the additions.

• What was your favorite book that you read this spring? Least favorite? Why?

My favorite book that I read (almost finished) is by George written by Wesley Stace. I am really really enjoying this novel. (I can't wait to be done so I can review it and move on to others!) I didn't have a least favorite.

• Did you discover a new author or genre this spring? Did you love them? Not love them?

Wesley Stace is a new author to me and so is John Rosemond. I enjoyed both authors very much.

• Did you learn something new because of Spring Reading Thing 2009 — something about reading, or yourself, or a topic you read about?

I learned that I don't take nearly enough time away from electronics to just sit and read! I need to curb my "addiction" to electronics because I really do enjoy reading. I need to get outside more, watch my kids play and read a good book. I've fallen into the trap of needing to be entertained by electronics. I'd like to get away from that again.

• What was your favorite thing about the challenge?

My favorite thing about the challenge is the accountability! I had somewhere to report and posts that I had to make as part of the challenge. I read more than I have just prior to the challenge. It is fun to read with others. I would definitely join another such challenge!

• The final list with my accomplishments.
  

• by George - almost done.
  
• Financial Peace Revisited - as part of a course, so still working on; should be done by the end of June.
  
• One Year to an Organized Life - a year long project.
  
• The Innocent Man (mp3) - just started, didn't get back to it.
  
• Created To Be His Help Meet - I've read before but was re-reading. It's been put away again.
  
• The Migraine Brain - Didn't open it!
  
• Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends - Didn't get to this one either.
  
• Beautiful In God's Eyes - I've started this one a couple of times but didn't get to it this round.
  
• The Magician's Book - This one is still on the list too.
  
• Shepherding A Child's Heart - Nope, one day though.
  
• The Shack - I was going to do this one on my mp3 player, but I didn't get to it.
  
• Six Point Plan for Raising Happy Healthy Children - DONE!
  
• The Homeschooling Book of Lists - skimmed this one; wasn't that interested in it; I have what I do that works for me and didn't need any new input.
  

I am so thankful for the father my husband is becoming. I have seen him change and grow so much since January. In January, he took parental leave benefits to stay home with us for the summer. We are loving having him around and he is loving being here. It will be very hard for all of us when he has to go back to work. Maybe we'll get back into it slowly.

For more thankfulness, check out Women Taking A Stand.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Okay, so I promised bathroom renovation pictures. Right? So here they are:

Baby R is crawling in a scooting style crawl. She is really starting to get around! It's only been a couple of days that she really started moving. And tonight she tried to climb the stair to my desk. My desk is on the stage and she was reaching for a toy at my feet. She's a mover and a shaker! I've got my hands even fuller all of a sudden. And yet, now that she's moving around on her own, I'm not so much at her beck and call; she can come to me now.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Copy and pasted from Simply Sensational Divas Review:

Go check out the I Love Costa Rica’s Rainforest Writing & Art Contest For Children at Smart Poodle Publishing:

A total of nine winners will be chosen. There will be First, Second and Third Place Winners in three grade categories: 5K-1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade and 4th-5th grade.

First Place Winners will each receive (Value listed):

- Rand McNally Personal Journeys World Pinable Wall Map ($84.99)

- Rand McNally Hard Bound World Atlas ($24.95)

- Kids' Travel Activity Bundle ($15.80)

Second Place Winners will each receive (Value listed):

- Rand McNally Traveler Series Kids Illustrated Wall Map ($64.99)

- Kids' Travel Activity Bundle ($15.80)

Third Place Winners will each receive (Value listed):

- World Knowledge Bundle ($22.90)

This contest is free. No purchase necessary. The deadline to enter is September 30, 2009. Entries will be judged by a panel of travel and education experts. Winners will be announced on October 15, 2009. Winners’ stories will be published on Smart Poodle Publishing as well as on Rand McNally. Further details & entry form can be found here: I Love Costa Rica’s Rainforest Writing & Art Contest For Children.

Looks like a great contest. Too bad about the US only. But you go enter, great prizes!

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Oh the lazy days of summer! Where are you???? I hope June isn't an example of the rest of the summer! I don't want to be so busy and feel so disorganized. The end of May saw us preparing for company. Company has come and gone. Birthday parties are over. Baseball tournament is over!

Now to catch up! And move on to other fun things. Laundry (clean) is piled high and waiting to be put away. My blog has not had my attention as much as I would like. Still posting but not so many memes and such. I like doing memes. You can see the ones I like to do most on the side bar!

Speaking of my blog, do you remember me mentioning that I also write reviews over at SSDR? Well, we've been plugging away over there trying to get it off the ground, but life happens. One of the Divas moved; there were deaths in families, new jobs, job losses, new babies, etc, etc. So it didn't get off to the start that we had envisioned. So, we're thinking, and hoping that life has settled down a little for the most of us and we are planning a launch party! A P-A-R-T-Y!!! I am so excited. We are lining up some great reviews, some incredible giveaways and just a lot of fun! When?? JULY! The whole month of July. If you could see my email inbox and the activity the SSDR is giving it, you would be as excited as I am! No sneak peeks here, though. You'll have to wait until the PARTY! Where??? http://www.sensationaldivasreview.com and Twitter . I'm sure we've got other things up our sleeves that I don't even know about yet. lol. Our head coordinator, Christy, from Shake The Salt, always has something up her sleeve and ideas coming from who knows where. It's so very exciting!

Oh and I've had a few enquiries as to whether we're having another baby. Apparently little M has been spreading this rumor. The answer is no. Baby R is only 7 months old, not that another pregnancy hasn't happened this quickly before. However, I need a break. What that means I don't know exactly, but what I do know is that we're not going out of our way to increase our numbers right now. :)

In other news, I don't think I have other news. But there are other things coming up that we will be participating in. The fire fighters are helping (I don't know it what compacity) with the Fallen Four Relay and Show 'n' Shine on the 20th of June. K and CJ go back to the dentist on the 23rd. On Canada we'll be celebrating here in town. J plays golf the second week of July; I need to clarify this "playing" of golf. He drives the cart. They (his team of four) attempt to get the best score or rather the WORST score. I think last year they got the prize for the most lost balls. I guess that's not very busy at all. There are a few other things here and there, but mostly we're just going to hang out! I'd like to take a couple of trips to the river as a family or with our church, but we'll see how things go.

Oh, yes, I have more news! I've been working a little bit with APH Boutique to get my new blog design up and running. I have yet to see what she's got figuring, but I'm excited just the same. Click here to see some of her work.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Here's how we've been making our electrolyte juice:

Frozen concentrate pink lemonade
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup iced tea powder
2 L water

The iced tea powder is just to disguise the taste. I would drink it without the iced tea. Some of the others in our family don't care for it.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

My little M turns four today!

Happy

Birthday

Sweet

Girl!!!


I can't believe that she's 4 already. Where has the time gone? She is such a sweetheart and has most of the family and a lot of those who know her wrapped tightly around her little finger. You know the poem . . .

That's my little M! She's the one who goes blue and passes out in anger and pain. She's the one who will bring you flowers and kiss your owie. She can take a joke and give it. And she can loose it on your head if you push her too far.

She's a great little helper and loves to mother her younger siblings. She plays a great pretend game of "house" or "princesses". She loves to dress up and will often wear a dress up dress all day long. Well, really, she would rather wear a dress - any dress - than pants any day.

Daddy calls her "China" because she can be (pretends to be) quite "fragile". She doesn't want to do this or that for some lame excuse. And other times she'll go get'em with the rest of the bunch. It all depends on the mood she's in.

In the past year she learned to use the toilet, she learned to spell her name and recognize many letters. She loves to do "school" and insists on being included in our homeschooling adventures. She is learning right along with the rest of them!

Happy 4th Birthday, M!

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

My mom has a birthday this week (Tuesday) and she is hitting a milestone! She is Fabulous and Fifty. We are so proud! She blogs over here. We planned a great great surprise for her. I don't have photos yet because my brother is making us a disk of the almost 1000 photos that we snapped this week.

But on with the surprise.

Since the beginning of the year, my brothers and I have been planning a surprise for Mom and for Dad, but mostly Mom. In April, my brother, his wife and 2 children (who live in one of the southern states) booked their flight to visit here for a week. Dad was planning a surprise for Mom at one of the camps where he works often, and so we were going with the plan, but making changes without him knowing - going over his head and around his plans. KCKK (my bro and fam from the US) were going to fly in and get to the camp, but an unfortunate turn of events in my life (dh lost his job) through a very large wrench into Dad's planning and ours! We couldn't go! So Dad canceled his plans, told Mom that no one could come to the surprise he was planning and so they made arrangements to just come visit me and my family. Dad made arrangements without Mom knowing for some of the boys and their families to be here too, but he knew nothing about KCKK. Well, then, we had to change our plans too and find a way to get everyone to my house, without telling anyone!

We left so many people out of the loop. We just had to, or we wouldn't have pulled it off.

Jason and I were so busy in the month or so before the party. We borrowed a camper. We put in a bathroom floor and a door. We wrote a menu and bought groceries. We tidied up the yard. We steam cleaned floors and walls. We were so happy to host this event. One SIL has an allergy to cats and I have three indoor cats! We weren't sure how everything was going to work out, but in the end the whole 4 days went very very well.

When Mom and Dad pulled into the yard, they of course noticed the extra vehicles (Dad knew about JBNM and JR). So that alone was a surprise; she didn't expect the "more" that was inside. We had all the grandkids that were awake (some were having an afternoon nap) greet them as they walked in with video and still cameras pointed ready to shoot. Well, she was surprised to say the least. She started hugging (big group hug) all the grandkids without even realizing who was there. Then she looked up to give me that "you stinker" look and happened to see the two adults from the states. Well, then the tears really flowed! And Dad, when he really realized who was there, almost fell down! And he was crying too! And then she realized who she had been hugging! lol. Priceless!!!!

We were so very glad to have pulled it off. We kept saying about the text and phone messages Mom was sending - nope, she doesn't know; if she knew she couldn't keep quiet; she has to tell when she's figured out the secret!

I tell you, it was sooooo hard! I couldn't blog about it! I couldn't Twitter about it! I couldn't Facebook about it! I had to keep quiet. I had to keep the kids off ooVoo so they couldn't tell about the party we were preparing for, that they only knew was a party, not what it really was. I moved from video chat to text chat with Mom, just so she couldn't see my face when I was answering questions. One of the other SIL's said the same about phone conversations she had with Mom.

This was the first time I'd been together with all my brothers at the same time since I got married in 2000. In 2000, I was the first of the four of us to get married. So since 2000, we've added 2 spouses and a girlfriend, and 10 grandbabies. Some of those in attendance I had never met! We'd never all been together before. I think the last time I'd visited IRL with the oldest of the boys was in 2002. I hope it's not another 8 years until we are all together again!

Thank you to my family for all the effort and expense you put out to make this happen. Thank you to all of those who were in on the secret and didn't spill the beans!!! Thank you to Tammy-Lee for your help on this end - organizing, lending, giving, cooking, taking photos! We have some great shots. The memories will last our lifetime and longer, maybe. Thanks, Dad, for your part too; you made it difficult to plan around you, but it was well worth it to see the look on your face!!!

Oh and the gift. Besides having her whole family together. We bought a white apron. Using fabric paint we had each of the older ones place a handprint and the two babies did a footprint. We put names and ages by each print. All the adults signed it. At the top we put "Count Your Blessings" and "50". The children had so much fun making it. I'm sure she'll write about the time we had together on her blog too. (I linked it at the beginning.)


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

My mom's birthday party surprise was pulled off. Will post pics and such soon.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

1. Get all the information before you speak, even (or especially) if that speaking is on Twitter and Facebook.

2. Real friends are so very important in my life.

3. I am a very selfish and angry person. I need to and am working on changing. It is a daily, moment by moment battle.

4. I wouldn't have the friends I have today without the internet, but my IRL family (and friends) need to come before (or rather in balance with) my "virtual life". That's not to say that you "virtual friends" aren't as important or aren't real people. Rather, there are very few people in real life that I speak with every day, so you might be seeing a little less of me online. Oh but mostly it was that nasty addicting app called Farm Town, which as of this evening has vanished from the face of the planet that we call Facebook. And I am sooooooo sad. Anyway, moving on.

5. I expect much less of my current 2 year old boy and almost four year old girl than I did of my now 6 and 7 year old girls when they were those ages. Lil M is whiny and lazy in comparison. And that Cutie Boy gets away with WAY TOO MUCH, just because he is so very extremely cute. And not due to the fact that he's the only little boy in this house of girls. Needless to say, there are some changes coming for Little M and W in the next little while.

6. DH and I make a freat team; okay, I already knew this too, just realized it again.

7. I can keep a secret from my kids! They still don't know their grandparents are coming this weekend. I've known for awhile and I didn't tell them. Go me!

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,