A friend of mine linked to posts in which people listed 25 random things about themselves.
I am not sure that I even HAVE that many, but I suppose.... I will have to see what happens.
1. I love to cook! Baking is my favorite.
2. Knitting is relaxing to me.
3. I have to read before I go to sleep.
4. I really enjoy reading aloud to my two children.
5. Ya gotta do the voices if you are reading aloud.
6. I like to grow plants, but I don't know much about it.
7. I have become the plant rescuer for my mom... her cat eats them.
8. Italian and Mexican are at the tops of my food lists...IF we eat out.
9. I actually cook breakfast for my kids every weekday....weekends are out.
10. I am a rare breed that even cooks breakfast for hubby each weekday at 6 am.
11. I really don't like Facebook. It is visually too busy. I am too busy.
12. I have never even looked at Twitter.
13. My 14 and 10 year olds still let me read to them at bedtime. We like to find weird, cool books like the Wingfeather Saga.
14. My husband is funny....most of the time.
15. I play too much solitaire on the computer at times.
16. I cannot just sit and watch a movie. I must be knitting or doing sudoku or something.
17. I love routine! Not a strict schedule follower, but the order of the routine is peaceful to me.
18. I have kept a written daily journal almost everyday for the past 6 years. It's kinda boring, but I use it to remember some special events.
19. I am usually mesmerized each Tuesday during my daughter's music lesson. Watching her attention and diligence is humbling.
20. My son's sense of humor is both annoying and captivating. Depends on the moment. :)
21. I LOVE to hang out with my kids. They are fun people.
22. I cannot read a short sentence with comprehension if someone is talking to me. Yet, I am a perpetual multi-tasker....go figure.
23. I get up at 5:28 am just to have time to write in my journal and read my Bible before everyone is up and talking to me.
24. I have been making my own laundry soap each month for the past 4 years. (Even though my son says it makes me sound like a Beverly Hillbilly.)
25. I do not like to talk. I much prefer to listen. Please talk to me. :)
Wow...I didn't think I could do it. (Though I cheated by putting the kids in there. But they count...right?)
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Planning
I LOVE planning.
Putting things in order, finding a place where things belong, figuring out a great way of doing something...oh what fun!
Really, I do.
I have always delighted in digging through all of the marvelous material available to us as homeschoolers. Reading, downloading sample pages, putting prices in the spread sheet to fit the amount of money I have. Oooooo, it gives me shivers of joy!
I am a little bummed this year. I really don't need to go do all of that searching. *sigh* I already know what we will be working on for next year. *sigh*
I am perfectly happy with the choices, since they are all continuations of what we are doing now. I have really enjoyed the choices we have for this year. I see no need for change.
All that is left to do is compare prices on a few websites. *sigh* There is little thrill in that. Necessary, but not challenging.
Of course, I have a history forum that I read in which all the parents of their 3rd and 4th graders are pushing them to get tons and tons of material under their belts. I did those same things.
Now that we are at the "high school" stage, I know the course work my boy needs to cover. I wonder why I was stressing over all of that stuff then. THEY told me not to stress, but I did anyway.
Well, the planning is mostly done and I won't even need the next material until August. We will go ahead and purchase it in April or May anyway.
I guess it is time for me to try to plan a family vacation. Except that is planning for someone else. Not near as much fun...
At least I know I will enjoy the company along the way.
Putting things in order, finding a place where things belong, figuring out a great way of doing something...oh what fun!
Really, I do.
I have always delighted in digging through all of the marvelous material available to us as homeschoolers. Reading, downloading sample pages, putting prices in the spread sheet to fit the amount of money I have. Oooooo, it gives me shivers of joy!
I am a little bummed this year. I really don't need to go do all of that searching. *sigh* I already know what we will be working on for next year. *sigh*
I am perfectly happy with the choices, since they are all continuations of what we are doing now. I have really enjoyed the choices we have for this year. I see no need for change.
All that is left to do is compare prices on a few websites. *sigh* There is little thrill in that. Necessary, but not challenging.
Of course, I have a history forum that I read in which all the parents of their 3rd and 4th graders are pushing them to get tons and tons of material under their belts. I did those same things.
Now that we are at the "high school" stage, I know the course work my boy needs to cover. I wonder why I was stressing over all of that stuff then. THEY told me not to stress, but I did anyway.
Well, the planning is mostly done and I won't even need the next material until August. We will go ahead and purchase it in April or May anyway.
I guess it is time for me to try to plan a family vacation. Except that is planning for someone else. Not near as much fun...
At least I know I will enjoy the company along the way.
Friday, February 3, 2012
STUFF
Do you have any STUFF?
STUFF is different than stuff, some how. Stuff is the accumulation of things I need now.
STUFF is the accumulation of things I once thought I needed, but now just don't have the heart (or guts) to pass on.
In 28 1/2 years of marriage, we have done a lot of things. We used to take vacations, I taught first grade, we were part of a fun-family-style church, we had pets, we had extended family. Then after 14 years of just the two of us, we added our boy. We moved from a mostly rural area to the Boonies. After 4 more years, we added our girl.
All those things add up to some really wonderful memories.
We had people live with us for short periods of time. We added on to our house down south. We had some fun vacations. Our nephews and nieces grew. Our children are growing. We are aging.
I don't even remember much of my life without my precious husband. I was only 13 when we met, after all. We attended the same high school and college. We were part of the same youth group at church and did all those things together. We have worked together in praise and worship for over 20 years. We like doing things together.
However, as I look around here, at our rent house, and then more out at our property. We have a lot of STUFF. Some of it is good stuff that I would never get rid of.
How could you ever get rid of your personal testimony translated into Portuguese for that mission trip you took when you were 16?
I have gotten rid of a lot of things. How did we ever accumulate so many THINGS? We never have been very rich, even when both of us worked full-time and we had no children.
Some things are well worth keeping, like my great-grandmother's tea cup collection. Books, now those are hard to part with.
I am slowly, so slowly, chipping away at the STUFF. But I sure enjoy the memories that STUFF pulls up.
Even if my kids do roll their eyes and wonder what I am talking about.
STUFF is different than stuff, some how. Stuff is the accumulation of things I need now.
STUFF is the accumulation of things I once thought I needed, but now just don't have the heart (or guts) to pass on.
In 28 1/2 years of marriage, we have done a lot of things. We used to take vacations, I taught first grade, we were part of a fun-family-style church, we had pets, we had extended family. Then after 14 years of just the two of us, we added our boy. We moved from a mostly rural area to the Boonies. After 4 more years, we added our girl.
All those things add up to some really wonderful memories.
We had people live with us for short periods of time. We added on to our house down south. We had some fun vacations. Our nephews and nieces grew. Our children are growing. We are aging.
I don't even remember much of my life without my precious husband. I was only 13 when we met, after all. We attended the same high school and college. We were part of the same youth group at church and did all those things together. We have worked together in praise and worship for over 20 years. We like doing things together.
However, as I look around here, at our rent house, and then more out at our property. We have a lot of STUFF. Some of it is good stuff that I would never get rid of.
How could you ever get rid of your personal testimony translated into Portuguese for that mission trip you took when you were 16?
I have gotten rid of a lot of things. How did we ever accumulate so many THINGS? We never have been very rich, even when both of us worked full-time and we had no children.
Some things are well worth keeping, like my great-grandmother's tea cup collection. Books, now those are hard to part with.
I am slowly, so slowly, chipping away at the STUFF. But I sure enjoy the memories that STUFF pulls up.
Even if my kids do roll their eyes and wonder what I am talking about.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Communication
I love my family!
I am so blessed to have the four of us. Then we are triply blessed since we have 3 of the kids grandparents living close by. Wow! The kids have never even had to have a baby-sitter. And the legacy of watching and learning from them first-hand is even better than just what we tell the kids.
However, we do have quite a bit of extended family, too. Most live in this same state, but we don't see them often enough.
How do I attempt to keep in touch? Well, unfortunately, I am not very good at it. I try to send email birthday cards (since I don't think about it the week before).
But, some of the family only seems to be on Facebook (which I only go look at and don't spend time there), one has a blog, some only do email but don't have 'real' Internet access. I even have one person that doesn't even have a computer at her house! (Can you imagine that?)
In the past few months, I have been making an attempt to actually sit down and write a real letter to my non-electronic family member.
When my boy was little, and even for the first couple of years of my girl, I regularly sent out an email to family that I called "Boonie News". I always got comments when I saw family, but I didn't hear much from them. Mostly, I did it as a journal for myself, I thought.
Recently, I have been asked to do a similar thing at least once a month for some of my email family.
Now, letter writing, blogging, journaling and emailing..... Are folks really that interested in us? I suppose it doesn't even really matter what I say, just that I thought of them when I sent it.
Hmmmm....that's worth writing for.
I am so blessed to have the four of us. Then we are triply blessed since we have 3 of the kids grandparents living close by. Wow! The kids have never even had to have a baby-sitter. And the legacy of watching and learning from them first-hand is even better than just what we tell the kids.
However, we do have quite a bit of extended family, too. Most live in this same state, but we don't see them often enough.
How do I attempt to keep in touch? Well, unfortunately, I am not very good at it. I try to send email birthday cards (since I don't think about it the week before).
But, some of the family only seems to be on Facebook (which I only go look at and don't spend time there), one has a blog, some only do email but don't have 'real' Internet access. I even have one person that doesn't even have a computer at her house! (Can you imagine that?)
In the past few months, I have been making an attempt to actually sit down and write a real letter to my non-electronic family member.
When my boy was little, and even for the first couple of years of my girl, I regularly sent out an email to family that I called "Boonie News". I always got comments when I saw family, but I didn't hear much from them. Mostly, I did it as a journal for myself, I thought.
Recently, I have been asked to do a similar thing at least once a month for some of my email family.
Now, letter writing, blogging, journaling and emailing..... Are folks really that interested in us? I suppose it doesn't even really matter what I say, just that I thought of them when I sent it.
Hmmmm....that's worth writing for.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Bindings
Happy New Year! I do hope to be better at blogging. Maybe once a week?
Bindings... We all seem to have them. Things that we do that we blame on our childhood, or how we were traumatized, or something else that happened TO us as some point in time.
I have begun to wonder more and more why it is that I have to be bound to things from 20+ years ago.
Really? I mean, I have been married for 28 1/2 years. Why am I still categorized, labeled, and think of myself as that foolish, floundering teen? And I do it to myself.
II Corinthians 5:17 says, "...all things have become new." New? One of the definitions for new is "not known or experienced before".
One teacher said, God doesn't just refurbish us. He doesn't just take our old junk and turn it into something that might be reusable. He actually makes us new.
I am slowly learning that when a brother hurts me, I have a choice. When my husband disappoints me (only about once every 10 years, ya know), I have a choice. When my children frustrate me, I have a choice.
I can choose to be new or I can choose to be bound. I can choose what God is doing in me or I can choose to take up the mantra of the enemy that has been whispering since my teens, or before.
I am trying to make those choices that will allow me to choose to be new.
Bindings... We all seem to have them. Things that we do that we blame on our childhood, or how we were traumatized, or something else that happened TO us as some point in time.
I have begun to wonder more and more why it is that I have to be bound to things from 20+ years ago.
Really? I mean, I have been married for 28 1/2 years. Why am I still categorized, labeled, and think of myself as that foolish, floundering teen? And I do it to myself.
II Corinthians 5:17 says, "...all things have become new." New? One of the definitions for new is "not known or experienced before".
One teacher said, God doesn't just refurbish us. He doesn't just take our old junk and turn it into something that might be reusable. He actually makes us new.
I am slowly learning that when a brother hurts me, I have a choice. When my husband disappoints me (only about once every 10 years, ya know), I have a choice. When my children frustrate me, I have a choice.
I can choose to be new or I can choose to be bound. I can choose what God is doing in me or I can choose to take up the mantra of the enemy that has been whispering since my teens, or before.
I am trying to make those choices that will allow me to choose to be new.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Mom's Special Day
On this day 14 years ago, I officially became a mama at home. By that I mean, I actually got to bring my 3 1/2 month old son home from the hospital.
He was a whopping 4 lbs. 4 oz on the day he came home. He had been in the NICU 103 days. It is amazing to think that he doesn't hold the record. He did come close, though.
We had real concerns. He was on oxygen for over 6 weeks. How would that effect development? Was his vision okay? Was his hearing okay? Would he be functional or have special needs?
At that point, I didn't really care either way. I was just so thrilled to be a mama!
It took him quite a while to start catching up in development. He was so tiny. In this picture, at about 7 months old, he was weighing in at 8 pounds. But he still liked to explore and check out his toys.
In this picture with Dad, he was about 8-9 months old. That means he was weighing about 9-10 pounds. He was getting stronger and stronger.
I have tons and tons of pictures (Dad found my CD!!!) The kids and I could spend all day pouring over them.
After 14 years of marriage and 2 miscarriages. We were just so amazed to have baby at all.
Four years later, that boy began praying for a sister. So when she arrived, he was thrilled to pieces. And I got double blessed.
I do get tired. I do get frustrated. I do stay confused. I do try to stay on my knees knowing how to the next stage.
However, this has been an amazing, thrilling, precious, precious adventure.
Here he is at 14 laying on the crib mattress before it was sent away. Boy, has he grown!
I am so thankful that there is still more of this journey to be had!
He was a whopping 4 lbs. 4 oz on the day he came home. He had been in the NICU 103 days. It is amazing to think that he doesn't hold the record. He did come close, though.
We had real concerns. He was on oxygen for over 6 weeks. How would that effect development? Was his vision okay? Was his hearing okay? Would he be functional or have special needs?
At that point, I didn't really care either way. I was just so thrilled to be a mama!
It took him quite a while to start catching up in development. He was so tiny. In this picture, at about 7 months old, he was weighing in at 8 pounds. But he still liked to explore and check out his toys.
In this picture with Dad, he was about 8-9 months old. That means he was weighing about 9-10 pounds. He was getting stronger and stronger.
I have tons and tons of pictures (Dad found my CD!!!) The kids and I could spend all day pouring over them.
After 14 years of marriage and 2 miscarriages. We were just so amazed to have baby at all.
Four years later, that boy began praying for a sister. So when she arrived, he was thrilled to pieces. And I got double blessed.
I do get tired. I do get frustrated. I do stay confused. I do try to stay on my knees knowing how to the next stage.
However, this has been an amazing, thrilling, precious, precious adventure.
Here he is at 14 laying on the crib mattress before it was sent away. Boy, has he grown!
I am so thankful that there is still more of this journey to be had!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Photos - My Age is Showing!
I LOVE photographs!
My husband and I have at least 3 photo albums (the old kind) full of photos from our high school years together.
Of course, we have an album of wedding pictures.
Then we have double albums of some of those vacations we took since we didn't have children to spend our money on.
My son has one big, full photo album of just him during his first 6 months or so of life (including the 3 months of NICU). Very humbling, but now it is delightful.
However, about the time he was born, the world was slowly making the shift from film to digital. We compromised during that time and had our film developed AND they put the pictures on disc for us. That was wonderful!
By the time Little Girl came along, 4 years later, most of the world had gone digital and I had not had time (or money) to figure out how to do anything with all of those digital images. Honey burned some CDs for me, but I am not sure if we know where those are.
Now I know how to transfer them from my digital camera onto my computer. I even know how to Photoshop them enough to make them a decent size for sending in email. (But I don't know how to make me look better in photos.)
But I really miss photo albums! At this point, I can't just take these thousands of images in and have them printed. My honey doesn't make enough in one year to let me do that. *sigh*
I do flip through my photo files sometimes. The kids and I giggle and retell stories. But it isn't the same as being cuddled up on the couch to do that.
My kids roll their eyes at my moments of longing for the "old" ways. And please tell why the old ways are so bad. Thank you very much!
My husband and I have at least 3 photo albums (the old kind) full of photos from our high school years together.
Of course, we have an album of wedding pictures.
Then we have double albums of some of those vacations we took since we didn't have children to spend our money on.
My son has one big, full photo album of just him during his first 6 months or so of life (including the 3 months of NICU). Very humbling, but now it is delightful.
However, about the time he was born, the world was slowly making the shift from film to digital. We compromised during that time and had our film developed AND they put the pictures on disc for us. That was wonderful!
By the time Little Girl came along, 4 years later, most of the world had gone digital and I had not had time (or money) to figure out how to do anything with all of those digital images. Honey burned some CDs for me, but I am not sure if we know where those are.
Now I know how to transfer them from my digital camera onto my computer. I even know how to Photoshop them enough to make them a decent size for sending in email. (But I don't know how to make me look better in photos.)
But I really miss photo albums! At this point, I can't just take these thousands of images in and have them printed. My honey doesn't make enough in one year to let me do that. *sigh*
I do flip through my photo files sometimes. The kids and I giggle and retell stories. But it isn't the same as being cuddled up on the couch to do that.
My kids roll their eyes at my moments of longing for the "old" ways. And please tell why the old ways are so bad. Thank you very much!
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