Giving Thanks

I just wanted to write a fast post just thanking God for blessings in my life this week. Last week was a very hard week for some of the ladies in my family. Namely me and my sis! I have been having some severe pain and problems with my recent dental procedure and my sis is early in her pregnancy and was experiencing some spotting and also some extreme nausea. Needless to say a rough week all around.

Yesterday I went back to the dentist and today I am feeling SO much better!! Almost 100%! God really answered my prayers, the pain was just something I couldn't handle. I have a great amount of respect for people who deal with chronic pain due to illness or other reasons. I barely got through last week.

Before my dentist appointment yesterday I got to go with my sister for her ultrasound. Her hubby had to work and knowing that miscarriage was a possibility she didn't want to go alone. Praise God there was one healthy wiggly little baby in there!!! I am Super excited about my new little niece or nephew!! I have to tell you though I am hoping for a niece =0) Then it would be an even 3 boys and 3 girls for their family and for some reason I am all about even when it comes to kids!LoL Its a good thing we have had 2 boys and 2 girls so far!

God really is just so wonderful. He truly is watching over each of us and I am so very thankful.I am also thankful that last week while struggling with the pain and the trial of that moment I still felt Gods goodness and strength carrying me through. I hope this week for all of you is just as blessed. I pray you feel God lifting you through your trials.

Homeschooling myself

Ok so I have to say I really love to get feedback on my blog. Comments are always appreciated. This week I got a comment from Heather over at Gentle Art of Chaos giving me some great advice about creating my own course of study.

I love to cook and bake. Culinary school is something I know I would love but as I said in my post HERE it is not the best option for our family right now.

Like I said Heather had some fantastic suggestions and I am super excited about sharing with you all what I will be doing. I have to make a few decisions first off. Do I want to be super relaxed in the whole thing?Setting loose goals. Like trying one new dish and one new cooking technique a month. Or do I want to be more specific and organized?Writing out a whole course of study modeled after the course I was considering taking at the local culinary school.

I do know that I plan on including my kids in all of this. All three of the older kids LOVE to help out in the kitchen. I know I really want to broaden my horizons as far as technique goes. I know I want to explore lots of different cooking styles and philosophies too.

I’ll be sure to keep you all posted as my plans solidify and I get started on things!! Lots of pictures to come! Oh and what good culinary school doesn't have a uniform?? Here is a picture of the new apron I’m buying for the occasion!

Too cute right?!

Good,Better,Best!

Some things in life are cut and dry, black and white, right and wrong. Not everything is though. Sometimes our choices and decisions take us into the gray area. Or the way I like to look at it Good,Better,Best. The decisions I make for my family and myself,what I deem as “Best” may not be what is best for another family.

I’ve had one of those sort of decisions on my mind lately. Being a home school mom I LOVE to learn. A few things on my list to learn are: Massage therapy,culinary school,sewing, and becoming a sign language interpreter.

I discovered through my late night ramblings on the internet that there is a culinary school about 40 minutes from our home in Washington. I thought about all the things that would make culinary school an option right now or rule it out.The two main things were:

• Cost
• schedule/would it interfere with home school

I got some information and neither thing actually ruled it out!The cost was no where near as bad as I assumed it would be and being a military family we have several financial aide options.

The schedule although not what I would have wanted wasn't bad either. I was hoping for something part time, maybe two days a week late evenings so that the kids would be with Daddy during that time.The schedule was actually  five days a week from 6am to 9am. We don't start school before 9 on any given day so that schedule wouldn't interfere with school. The major downside though would be that I would have to wake all four kids early and take them to a babysitter.

Now I could rationalize that being with a babysitter in the early hours of the day and still being together as a family all day wouldn't be bad.That it wouldn't interfere with school at all and that the skills I learned I could use at home to benefit my family. This really is a good option for me and my family.

As I have spent the week praying about the decision though God has pointed out several things to me.What is BEST for my kids is being with me  not a babysitter.What is BEST is to not put extra financial strain on my family for something I can learn on my own.That what is BEST is learning new skills along with my children.That what is BEST is taking this short season I have to raise my children and really devoting my whole self,my time and energy to them. I have the rest of my life to pursue my own goals and interests.

Going to school is a good thing.But its not what is BEST right now. Its really encouraging to know that I can happily devote myself to raising and nurturing my family right now and down the road I will still have plenty of time to focus on myself. I know it may be stating the obvious here but God sure is smart! To every thing there is a season =0)

weekly wrap up the Vicodin edition!

This week has gone in a completely different direction than I expected it too! Monday what was supposed to be a simple wisdom tooth extraction turned into oral surgery. Since then I have been on pills for this,that and the other! I am happy that on some of my feeling better moments we did get some health, math and reading done =0)We learned about our nervous system this week and talked about what it would be like if we couldn't feel things.I was tempted to wish for no feeling!Just in my mouth though! Math was all review worksheets. Simple to do and independent, which is exactly what we needed this week!  I did have a silly mom moment this week. On a day when my mouth was feeling better rather than worse I decided a good long read aloud was in order… I definitely regretted that one after the fact!!

Even though our week was not heavy on the traditional academics my kids have learned a lot about being a family, taking care of each other, being humble and saying we are sorry and lots of other really good things.

I hope everyone's had a wonderful week this week!

Being real

I wanted to have a real moment on my blog today. I have this beautiful little two year old named Hannah.

See she really is a total cutie! Well this cutie has been pushing every limit,law and boundary we have in our home lately. After having gotten two other children past this age I have come to know that kids just do this sometimes. They know the rules and they push them. They are checking to see if the rules are still the same AND whether mom and dad will enforce then.

It just so happens that right now Hannah is in one of those phases. Biting brothers,taking toys,making intentional messes and laughing about it and doing things right after I tell her not too. I had been fairing decently  well with the whole thing. That is until yesterday.

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment, I wasn't really looking forward to it because I was having my last wisdom tooth pulled but the last three had all come out easily and with no issues so I wasn't worried either.AAhh how silly I was to assume that things would go as smoothly this time!

After being pulled,tugged,bone shaved, who knows what drilled and five stitches in my mouth( let me repeat IN MY MOUTH) I was done and the tooth was out! The tooth ended up needing to be surgically removed. The doctor put me on vicodin,a steroid for swelling, an antibiotic and ibuprofen to alternate with the vicodin.

Last night Hannah was having another bought of harassing people and the last straw finally came when my son Isaiah came to me to tell me that Hannah had smeared toothpaste all over their bedroom carpet…. I grabbed that little girl, laid her in her bed and didn't go back! She cried for ten minutes and then fell asleep.

Today had been a bit better until dinner rolled around. Since my mouth was essentially cut open and sewn back together my diet is limited to mushy and soupy right now and tonight soup it was! Hannah proceeded to fling her brothers spoon all over the living room and then dump her other brothers soup on the floor as well. I’d love to tell you that I patiently told her that what she did was wrong and then placed her in a time out.But that would be lying! I swatted that girls behind and put her right in her bed. It being so early she did not stay in bed to sleep but she was there until the mess had all been cleaned and I had calmed down a bit. I am not an advocate of spanking and I try to be more calm and gentle in my discipline but I really failed in that today!! I’m going to blame it on the drugs! =0)

Some random thoughts =0)

Several things have been on my mind lately. One thing I have thought a lot about is how exactly did women begin to believe the lie that they cant be fulfilled “just” being a mom. I am really confused when I sit with a group of women at church and they are spouting these same lies. I wonder what the room would say if I told them that I thought the best thing my daughters could do with their lives is to become Godly mothers and wives.Helpmates for worthy spouses.To teach,love,serve, and encourage in their own homes. I think some would smile and nod their heads in agreement. I worry that many more would look at me with confusion or pity or even disgust. I am not a perfect mother. I am not the epitome of humble housewife either. I am not perfect. But I am trying to live the life God would want of me. I am always grateful to hear from other women sharing this journey.I think that's one reason why I enjoy blogging so much. I can read about other women considering the same questions I am.Other women striving to become the person God created them to be. Its good to know I am not alone.

Even though I feel this way I know that God has made us all different, God loves us all and He would not want me to judge others. He would not want me to have the attitude of being “better” than someone else because of the different choices we have made. I’ll be honest here and admit that at times I do feel that way.I have felt that way. It has been something God has brought to my attention lately and it is shameful and wrong. That I would ever put someone down or look at myself as better because I made what I felt was “the right choice”. This is something I am working on. I am praying for Gods spirit to be in my heart when I think about and look at others. I would love and appreciate any scriptures that may help me or enlighten me in this area. I am thankful for God placing so many wonderful examples in my life too and I am trying to emulate their loving and kind attitudes. =0) Thanks for listening to my thoughts today.

Weekly wrap up the artistic edition

This has been a really nice week! Things in our homeschool have slowed down considerably and I am enjoying it! We are on review mode for math and spelling. We have a few things that we haven't achieved mastery in yet. So for the rest of our school year (as we do school anyhow!) will be review and working towards mastery. Skip counting and math facts are on that list as well as remembering some of the spelling rules from all about spelling level 1.Science and history are all wrapped up for the year as well.The highlight of the week for me was the art we did. If you know me then you get what a weird statement that is! I am not at all artistic. I can appreciate beautiful things and I enjoy looking at painting and such. But as far as “doing” art. Well it just doesn't happen that often around here!

Mid week we went for a really nice walk. On the way we saw some graffiti on an underpass. We got to talking about it and I told the kids that graffiti isn't always bad. That it can be a form of art as long as you do it somewhere you have permission. Well that did it! The boys wanted to do graffiti. After being inspired not to be a dream killer I fought my natural instinct to say no to anything “artsy”. Instead I said “Sure lets do it!”

I have to admit that I actually enjoyed this art adventure.