Wordless Wednesday

Homeschooling

I never thought I would call myself a homeschooling mom. Still don't know if I really consider myself that because I'm only homeschooling preschool right now I don't really have any plans of doing more than just that. But I've learned in my life to never say never because you never know where God will lead you.
I don't really have any huge reasons for doing it. When my children were babies I didn't really get to bond with them the way most mothers get to. I was in survival mode. Just needed to get those diapers changed and get the babies fed. Now we are under no kind of schedule as far as having to be somewhere at a certain time and I can just enjoy spending time with them and teaching them the basics.

We only started a short time ago, but the kids are loving it and so am I. I have a curriculum that I ordered and we use that along with practicing writing our letters and numbers. They love to do crafts and games. I know that after this year I will treasure all the memories we made and I'll look back on it with fondness and will never regret taking the time to sit down with them and just enjoy them when they are still young.

Even if you send your children to preschool or any school, don't forget to take a little time out of your day to just enjoy your kids even if you have to schedule it on your calendar. You'll never regret that time even if it means your house is messy or your laundry isn't folded (like mine) or you have grilled cheese for supper instead of a gourmet meal.




I've set up a schedule to have preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I am back to a schedule just like when they were little but I find that a schedule helps us to be consistent and to not put things off. Like I said, we have a curriculum but I try to keep it fun too. So on Tuesdays we do a craft and end up with fun things like colorful painted spiders

and a beautiful basket of flowers. Which both went in the garbage today because now I have pictures to prove that we did them.

We were supposed to go on a little field trip tomorrow with some other Homeschooling Moms to a Dairy Farm. But Isaac has had a pretty bad cough so I didn't want to infect any of the other kids we were going with since there were going to be some pretty young children.

If anyone else teaches their kids preschool I would love to hear your ideas on things you do or crafts, games, anything that you think would be fun to do.

More Blessings

It's been a rough week.

Not that anything horrible has happened, just been one of those weeks where things seem to keep going wrong. The kids have been crabby, I've been crabby. Kids have been fighting a lot, I've been yelling a lot. Kids haven't been feeling 100%. I've been up with coughing kids at night.

One of those weeks where I don't really feel like being thankful and a week that it would be easy to just skip this post. But a week that I need to really look at my life and be thankful because the things that have me crabby are really nothing and God has blessed me and my family with so much!

139 ~ Fall is here!

140~ noticing some trees with leaves starting to change color, a beautiful red!

141~ wind rustling the leaves

142~ a pumpkin scented candle

143~ kids crafts that double is fall decorations

144~ a night out with the family

145~ some time alone to do some leisurely shopping

146~ a trip to the pool store, I showed up after they closed but thankfully the employee was still there to help me so I didn't have to come back the next morning

147~ singing a well-loved hymn in church

148~ a convicting message

149~ a pastor who is passionate about God's word and living it

150~ my son telling me that he needs to love God more than me

151~ Children eager to learn God's word

152~ the love of Christ

153~ God waking me up to start a new day!

Fall is Here!

We started out our Fall by heading to a White Sox game. It was Joshua's second game and Alex, Amanda, and Isaac's first game. Thanks to the Sox Kids Club we were able to get free tickets and even had 2 extra that we were able to share with someone from the kid's soccer team and his dad.
We actually had pretty good seats for being in the upper deck, right behind home plate. After we sat down it took Isaac about 3 whole minutes to ask where the playground was. (The Railcats have a playground.) Overall they said they had fun asked about 200 times if the game was almost over. Actually, Joshua was very excited about the whole game and was sad when we left after the 7th inning. We were treated to some home runs which brings fireworks but we were not treated to a win. I guess you win some and you lose some unfortunately the White Sox have been losing more than some! As the Cub fans say, there is always next year!

Along with fall I usually get the urge to bake. A couple days ago I made some Apple Crisp and it was delicious!!!! Yesterday I put on my list to take out the Fall decorations and then went to locate them and found that I really only have about 5 decorations. Needless to say I was able to cross that off my list fairly quickly! Fall is here and I am excited! My favoritest season of all!

Frugal Friday

You asked for it! Oh no, wait - you didn't ask for it, but you are going to get it anyway! My deal of the week. Wednesday I stopped at Old Navy and saw my favorite sign, "50% off Clearance Prices!" I also walked in armed with a $10 Off Rewards Coupon.

I walked out with these cute dresses for my girls and 3 shirts for myself. Do you know how much I paid? Drum roll please..........................$8.77. That is right! I got home and looked at my receipt and I paid $1.69 each for these dresses. I got a shirt for myself for $1.01, another for $3.04 and a third for a whole whopping $.78!

Thank you for sharing in my excitement! Feel free to share with me any great bargains you got this week, I'd love to be excited with you!

I can't believe I didn't think of this before

My house is usually messy. Toys everywhere. I get so sick of picking up and begging people to pick up after themselves. I started having to be more scheduled with my days and Monday is now my cleaning/laundry day (actually always was) and it is the only day to get it done. If it doesn't get done that day, it most likely won't get done at all.

Last Monday, the first day of my new schedule, I told the kids to pick up all their toys while I was in the shower. It happened to be at the end of the day since I was busy cleaning. I let them know if I came down after my shower and it was still a mess there would be NO TV the next day. This is something that is actually kind of a punishment for me too and I really didn't want to do it. Since my kids don't nap, it gives me a little break in the afternoon. Well, I came downstairs after my shower and although it was picked up some it was not completely clean. As much as I hated to do it I had to enforce what I said. I even wrote "NO TV TUESDAY" on my marker board so I wouldn't forget (not that I'm forgetful or anything).

Let me tell you, since then, my house has had the cleanest week that it has ever seen in over 5 years. If I tell them to clean up, it gets done! Sometimes I don't even have to tell them, they just do it. They actually have conversations in the morning about what they are going to play with because they don't want too big of a mess to clean up.

I'm hoping I never have to pick up another toy again!

Gifts 128-138

128~ Discipline - an opportunity to teach my child about God

129~ my red patio umbrella that brightens up day when I look outside

130~ my kids surprising me by cleaning up the whole house

131~ our health

132~ smell of fall in the air

133~ cool mornings

134~ safety on the roads

135~ when Alex comes running to me and starts a sentence by say "Mom, I have Good News!" and then proceeds to tell me some small little thing that happened to her

136~ Amish Friendship Bread, so delicious!

137~ An article in the newspaper about Christian family and their dependance on God. What a huge witness!

138~ That I have been saved by grace through faith, not of myself but a gift from God! Ephesians 2:8

Join the Gratitude Community and start recording your gifts from our heavenly Father.

A Trip to the Zoo

A year and a half ago my friend Beth and I went to the zoo. Here are all the kids in our quad strollers. We got a lot of looks that day and a lot of questions.

Beth has twins that are a few months younger than Isaac and then she also has another son that is less than 2 years younger than her twins.

We went to the zoo again last week. I have since traded in my quad stroller for a wagon but she still has hers. I gave her one of my kids. Now she gets the crazy looks and people think I'm normal. That sure was a nice switch!

Music to my Ears

It is not an understatement when I say that Isaac loves music. Any type of music comes on and his toes start tapping, head starts nodding, hips start moving. I love that he loves music because I do also, unfortunately I just don't have the talent for it that I wish I had.

In the beginning of August the kids went for a sleepover by their grandparents house and were going to a parade that next morning. I guess there were some older kids that had taken some of their toys and were having a little garage sale close to where my kids were sitting. Isaac eyed this guitar and kept asking grandpa if he could have it. Finally grandpa gave in and told him it could be part of his birthday present. He came up the driveway that day just beaming because of his new guitar. He walked in the door and told me that he was going to use this guitar to praise God. He loves to sing and you can often find him strumming his guitar and doing just that, singing praises to God.

Unfortunately, he also loves the drums and had asked me for them for his birthday. I told him that it wasn't going to happen this birthday, so now he is asking for them for Christmas. He must know that his mom played the drums in the grade school band and secretly wants to be like me.

Now the kids have assembled their own band. The other day I walked into to the living room to find this.

Since I won't buy him drums, Isaac has made his own drum set using Lincoln Logs for sticks, two plastic baskets upside down and his big bouncing ball. Him and Joshua take turns on the drums and the guitar, Amanda sings and Alex plays the piano.

Time Spent Together

The last couple weeks it seems our family has been able to do a lot of activities together. I am always so thankful for these times. It's good to just forget about the house, it doesn't need to be clean, we don't have to have fancy meals. Many days I do get frustrated because it seems I didn't accomplish much or the house is a mess but it's the time that we were able to spend together that I cherish.

I continue to count these blessings and all the other little things in life.

110~ that I am able to stay home with my kids and do my work on the computer in my pjs

111~ doing a puzzle with Joshua

112~ our camper and all the memories that will be made in it

113~ sitting around the campfire

114~ roasting marshmallows

115~ hot dogs cooked over the fire

116~ a day at the beach

117~ kids who are filthy but having fun!

118~ sand dunes to climb and of course running down them which is way more fun!

119~ smooth set up of camper and smooth take down of the camper (I don't think we even fought once!)

120~ a child's imagination

121~ a special treat of lunch at McDonald's (a treat for them) with well behaved kids (a treat for me)

122~ a fun day at the zoo

123~ seeing all the animals God created

124~ kids running through the water on a hot day in their clothes

125~ 6 kids in a kangaroo

126~ drying off on the rocks

127~ enjoying a great steak dinner with the family

Join the Gratitude Community and start counting your blessings.

The Blue Thunder

Here it is, just as promised......soccer pictures. I'm sure you've all been waiting all day for me to post these. (note sarcasm)

Here is Joshua ready to throw the ball in. Alex looks really ready doesn't she?

Time to take a break. I think the girls were more interested in telling their coach about their life. I'm not really sure where they get their love for talking from. (note more sarcasm)

This is what most of the game looks like, everyone just in a big huddle following the ball around.

I was very proud of Joshua (well I was proud of them all) but he played last year and he has improved so much since then. He scored 2 goals today!
Of course it does help that there is no goalie, but considering most the time they are in a big clump it does make it a little hard to score.

Randomvis

I haven't done a random post in awhile, thought it was about time.

Not sure if you all remember this post about my closet back in June. But it finally got fixed a couple weeks ago. My husband finally said something about it so I figured it was about time. Besides that, it was cool one night and I had to dig to the bottom to find a coat.

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The kids also started AWANA this past Wednesday. For those of you not familiar with AWANA it is a program at church for kids to go listen to Bible stories, memorize scripture, sing songs and have fun. They had a lot of fun and Isaac was already asking when he could go back. Their age group is the Cubbies. Since we live near Chicago and are White Sox fans, I am not particularly fond of the name but I guess I don't get to choose. I am helping out with a group of Kindergartners while the kids are in their class.

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My kids have always loved doing puzzles but they tend to be a little easy for them. So for Joshua's birthday my dad gave him a 300 piece puzzle to challenge him a little. Last week he took it out and wanted me to do it with him. At first he was a little frustrated by it but I sat down and we finished it together. He did it another time with Brad and now he sits down and will put it together twice a day all by himself. He's gotten so good he doesn't even look at the box to figure out where the pieces go.

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The kids also had their first soccer practice yesterday and their first game is tomorrow. They are all on the same team - Blue Thunder. I'm sure you will all be on the edge of your seat just waiting for those pictures!

Wash, Wash and more Wash!

As much fun as camping can be, it brings one thing that is not very fun. Laundry! I spent a big majority of yesterday afternoon and today washing, folding and putting away clothes. This is a picture of most of the clean clothes, towels, etc. before I folded it. The sad thing is, I still had a load in the dryer at this point and it also doesn't include half a load that had some of the kids blankets in it and pillow cases. I also had about half a load left downstairs to wash.

Looking at all of this reminded me of this Bible verse:

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

God will supply all my "need" and by this picture you can tell he has supplied our family with much more than our need! And so this big pile of laundry reminded me that we have a lot to be thankful for!

The Great Outdoors

I haven't blogged in a week and I could tell that everyone missed me by all the emails I received no one noticed, oh well, I'm back! Mondays are usually Multitude Monday but instead I'm going to share our camping trip with you. It's not that I haven't been counting my blessings, I have and next week there will be a much longer list because I will be doing 2 weeks worth.

Friday afternoon we left for the Indiana Dunes State Park. As a child, every year we would go with a whole group from church for Labor Day Weekend and I have a lot of great memories from that and I hope my kids will too because this year we were able to start that tradition with our family. Some friends of ours have a whole group from their church that they go with every year and they happen to have an extra site so we were able to glom onto them. We had a total of 10 sites and I think there were around 50 people and 30 of them were kids. There were a lot of kids running around!

We spent a lot of time at the beach on Lake Michigan. The kids had a ton of fun just running around from camper to camper with the other kids, getting dirty, playing baseball, climbing sand dunes, playing in the water, digging huge holes at the beach and playing in them and sitting by the fire and eating smores. Feet were black, clothes were filthy, the camper was a mess but we had a lot of fun! It was great to see friends that we don't get to see all that often and the kids loved making new friends.

I'm not going to share too many photos this time, since I was told I put up too many from our last camping trip and I also shared one that had some people in the background that should not have been in the background. Hopefully no more mishaps this time. There were a couple instances that I wished I had a my camera with me but I didn't and both times were in the bathroom.

Both my girls are a little short for the hand dryers, so often when they would dry their hands they would have to have them up in the air and the air from the dryer would be blowing in their hair. Once Alex was drying her hands and was in her own little world. Wind was blowing in her hair, her eyes were closed, arms started waving everywhere then "BAM!" Clobbered the lady walking by. She did not miss a beat just continued on with her arms waving all over.

Sunday morning I went to take a shower and noticed there was a little friend in the shower for me. A small little orange frog, he was about an inch long. As I showered I kept my eye on the little bugger as he climbed the wall, I was just waiting for him to jump on my head. All of I sudden I saw this flash in front of me. That thing had flown from the wall on one side of me to the wall on the other side of me and started climbing up that one. Thankfully he stayed there until I was done. I wish I could have shared with you all how cute this little guy was, it was just not real cute that he was in the shower with me!