I've missed You

I still can't see my blog on my computer. I did finally have a friend tell me that its not blogger that I need to call apple and have them help me. Now we are getting somewhere. Just waiting for the kiddos to get to bed tonight and hopefully I can call and get it fixed.

I'm not gonna lie, it's been rough couple of months. There have still been a lot of really good things going on, but I have been suffering from ovarian cysts and they have pretty much taken over my world since June. But thankfully after trying multiple meds I am getting better. I am laid out on the couch today with my third one since thursday, but they are a lot less painful and intense than before. So I am heading into the month of THANKS, a little extra thankful.

So hopefully tomorrow I will be back at it. I have written thousands of posts in my head, and I have a lot to say!

Still Trying

This is getting frustrating. I can see my blog on any other device, but not my own computer. I have reset Cookies and emptied cache like blogger suggested, but still nothing. URRRRR!

again...

Ok, getting really frustrated with this darn blog.

hello

testing again 1.2.3.

A little frustrated....

My blog isn't working on my computer. It isn't loading properly and I can't see many of the elements on there. Hence the lack of posts. I'm working on it and hope to have the person who designed my blog redesign it and see if it can be fixed.

Dinner for Three

testing....

1.... 2.... 3....

Slip N Slide Summertime

17 Months Old

Miss Ellie is continuing to grow and do new things. Her little personality is so fun. She's really tiny for her age, but is very spunky. We call her scrappy because she is so agile and can get anywhere including out of the two different attach- to chair- seats we had! So I have been stalking craigslist for about 6 months now waiting for something decent. And lo and behold I found it!

One morning two weeks ago, Shane was out of town, and I was...let's just say not my most pleasant of attitudes when Miss Sass decided to once again NOT EAT and climb out of her chair and nose dive to the ground. Thankfully I was close enough to catch her at the last minute. I had had enough! I said a few ugly words in my head and then repented and then got on craigslist.
This is the exact highchair I had been stalking on some baby websites, but didn't want to spend $160 on it. I got it for $70! And Princess CANNOT get out of it. Oh the surprise on her face when she tried that very first time. And I could not hide the triumph in my eyes as she looked up at me in frustration. I smiled just thanking God a million times as my eyes closed for the night. Maybe not babygirl will put on some weight!
Here she is hanging out in the van while we were at the Mary Ingles Draper farm on July 4th. A downpour started so we headed for cover and air conditioning!
This month she finally noticed the television. She is so busy that it is hard to get things done as she is constantly into stuff or getting herself into a pickle. So to finally get her to sit for 5-10 minutes has been awesome.
Her hair is finally long enough for her first pigtails. LOVE!!

Bathroom Update

The paint looks brown, but it is a silver gray color.


My plan is to embellish the shower curtain with ruffles along the bottom with some fabric that I bought from www.hawthornethreads.com

We are almost done with the bathroom remodel. Woohoo! Tile, wainscoting, paint, fixtures are all in. Now it's just some touch-ups, decorate, and find a missing shower curtain ring.

painting makes me insane

I have painted four new things in less than 24 hours. So far... a chandelier, a bulleting board, a chalkboard, and now my kitchen table. And as I sit here typing I am mentally listing off all the other things in my house that I should drag outside and give a fresh coat too.

The insanity? I have a bathroom torn apart, company coming in three days, hubs on a business trip, and some laundry to get done.

But really, who has time to blog, I remembered something else I need to paint........

A new little project

I was trying to make a checkbook cover, but without a pattern I ended up with a coupon holder. Either way, it turned out ALMOST what I had in my head. Now that I tried it tho, I know how to adjust it to make it better for a checkbook. Did I mention the checkbook didn't fit because my measurements were off by a centimeter? Yeah, annoying. But it still turned out cute and I'm going to use it despite it's crooked lines and funky corners.

New Bathroom, sort of

BEFORE
AFTER

Well we decided we couldn't take the builder's grade bathroom anymore. So on a whim Shane and I tore out the fixtures and floor (when I say Shane and I---I mean mostly him). I painted the walls classic silver (a behr color) and Shane has put wainscoting, trim, and is now tiling the floors.

A note about the color grey. I really wanted a bluish hint to the grey. The originial color we bought (grey timber wolf, sherwin williams) turned an ugly shade of purple in our bathroom. It looked like the charcoal color that I wanted, but it was nasty. So it ended up costing more and an hour of looking at every shade of grey at three different stores before I found a true grey color. We had even looked at 10 different samples at home in the bathroom before deciding on the wolf color, but it just did not look good at all. So color is always trial and error. In ten years of painting I have only "whoopsed" twice. I think that after painting four houses that's pretty good odds.

I just realized the photos are sideways, sorry about that. I'll post more when done. I can't wait to decorate!

Now I have two homeschoolers!

The last few weeks have seemed like a blur. My baby graduated from preschool. We decided that although Reece was only four because he really wanted to do school home with Avery we would graduate him a year early. So now I will have a first grader and kindergartener homeschooling next year. Wow!

He absolutely loved his experience at preschool, but we realized that he felt like he was really missing out at home. So this summer I am going to work on a few basic skills with him to get him ready for the kindergarten curriculum. Because he is younger I will not pressure him to finish all his books in one year. The funny thing that happens with homeschooling is the younger kids seem to start wanting to school earlier and earlier. And because they are involved in schoolwork with their older siblings they end up picking up way more than I ever thought.

Reece has been sitting in on Avery's school most of this school year. Thankfully the Sonlight curriculum we used was easy to adapt so that he could participate. He did all the science and history activities with Avery and wanted to do "independent" work when Avery did.

I am even more excited for this coming year. I've decided to break from buying a complete curriculum box and piecing mine together from different companies.

History: Story of the World

Math: Singapore

Science: Apologia-- Land Animals (this covers geography, landscapes, experiments, etc)

Bible: Character Sketches (this is what the Duggars use)

Literature: Living Book approach (meaning we will read classic literature and base assignments off of that... on my NOOK I was able to download 50 classics for $2.99!) Some of the books on the list are Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Swiss Family Robinson, Anne of Green Gables, Bobbsey Twins

Reading/Writing/Copywork: Sonlight first readers. Explode the Code, Handwriting Without Tears

This is the basics I am teaching. There will be lessons on manners, nature walks, P.E., and socialization mixed in there too.

People ask how I keep the kids socialized and active and here are some of the things we've been doing.

Avery is in ballet, gymnastics, she will starting piano and soccer in the fall, she is with friends at least 3-5 x's a week

Reece is in gymnastics, will start soccer in the fall, and is also with friends 3-5x's a week

What a week...

This pic has nothing to do with the blog entry. It just makes me smile.
Well, some kind of digestive yuckiness hit our house this week. Not fun for mommy at all. Shane was gone this week on a business trip so I was determined to get a bunch of projects done. Ha! That was my first mistake. Instead it was a week of total survival. Not one night of sleep (hard to do when each person is sick on a different night), cabin fever, rain every day... well let's just say it was a perfect storm and epic fail as a mom. We did get some outside time yesterday so that helped a lot. And last night was the first night sleep. Of course at 5 a.m. Reece came in to sleep with me and peed in my bed. Awesome. ha! Seriously didn't make a dent in the laundry pile because I had to keep washing everybody's bedding over and over again.

All this whining to say, that I am thankful that there's always a new day, another new week. To try again. And hubs comes home tonight....thank goodness.

Catching-Up

Whew.... what a crazy two weeks it has been. As previously posted, my sweet little man had pneumonia. Of course he didn't know he had it. He played and ran around like nothing was wrong. How can kids do that? He stayed home for two weeks from preschool and I attempted to keep a four year old little boy calm and rested. Did I mention the steroids yet? Oh my word.... seriously insane. I have not had any contact with steroids myself or with the kiddos yet. I had no idea they made little boys mean and nasty. Normally Reece is active, but fun-loving. He turned into Evil Reece. Pushing his sisters down the stairs, hitting me, screaming, spitting. It was disturbing. Thankfully that was only 4 days, but some of the longest of my life. It was a minute by minute kind of week.

Thankfully my buddy is back to his lego building, mighty machine watching, digging in the yard self!

Then I had a stomach "episode" that was a lot of fun. Had an ultra sound and I may have a spastic colon. TMI? I thought so. So it's just been all kinds of awesome around here.

The last two days are finally feeling more like normal and we have a fun weekend coming up. The awana grand prix, mother's day lunch. Fun Fun.

I have been spray painting like crazy. I went into re-decorate/organize mode. As soon as I get a chance I will take lots of pics to post on here. No room, drawer, closet, or knick-knack is safe. And apparently my 6 year old daughter has my disease. She drew three "design" books like she watches on HGTV (yes, she loves that channel and I love her ;) ) So we rearranged the girls room, much to her demands, and I love it even more. Reece may even have some of the sickness as he then insisted his room be "changed" too.

The above picture is a sneak peek. The funny thing? It's two weeks old and things are already really different! But that coffee table was a new find. Just needs one more coat of paint!

Whewwwww.....

Just to let you all know, Reece has had pneumonia so I haven't been blogging for awhile. He is doing much better.

Little Boys are so Silly

Life is Amazing

Tonight I sit at my dining room table next to an incubator. Yes, you heard correctly. Today is hatch day. For a school project to go with our Eggs and Chicks lesson we decided to attempt to hatch some chickens. (yes I've been a city girl most my life, stop gasping) Homeschooling kind of does that to you though. You suddenly find yourself wanting to not just read about it, but do it. So we are.

And right now I see 11 little eggs just waiting for their potential to be realized. The craziness.... I hear chirping. I see these little eggs shaking and can even hear scratching. Not one has hatched yet. I feel like the day my kids were born (not the pain or the love). I'm talking about the anticipation. The awe with life in general. How completely precious and fragile. Because even now I don't know if even one will end up hatched alive. There is still a chance that none will make it. And yet the hope and excitement is still there. Willing these little beings to make it. Praying my kids have something to see in the morning.

Oh the waiting! The hardest part. I didn't think this took that long. But holy cow they take their time. I will probably be up most of the night. Because who can sleep when life is being born. When the miracle is right in front of your eyes.

It's just amazing. The Creator could have come up with a million ways for chickens to hatch. And he came up with this. A shell, a yolk, heat.... LIFE.

If there are chicks... tomorrow there will be pictures. And a new journey begins. As chicken farmers. At least for a couple of weeks ;) ..............

More Pics from the Birthday GIrls

Ellie's Birthday Party