Ice Is On The Way

Over the past few days the meteorologists have been predicting ice/snow for today and tomorrow. I just went online to check the current conditions since I noticed my car was wet and my cousin's facebook status said something about her son's school closing. When I checked it I noticed that all the area schools had closed around 1:00. I started telling Megan about it and she said with great excitement and enthusiasm, "Mommy, all the other kids have to go home from school and I get to still have school because we do school at home!!! I love homeschool mommy!" Yet, another confirmation that this is the right thing for us.

On a different note, here is a picture to share.



We love you Mark, Michelle, Micah, and Arianna. Hope you are doing well in Siguat!

Blessings

Last week was a hard week for me. I was feeling quite down. I was frustrated with my kids, my husband, the lack of organization around my house, the lack of time to clean, cook, wash, fold, put away, etc... The list could go on and on. Thankfully, I made it through the week and we got away for the weekend (see previous post).

This week, in contrast, has been full of blessings.

(1) Megan and I have stayed on track with school and she has been so great with it. She mostly loves doing school but once in a while she just isn't in the mood. She has had such a great attitude about getting her work done.

(2) I got to do my grocery shopping for the week... BY MYSELF!!! It was kind of late Monday night, but I went alone and actually semi-enjoyed myself. I bought the things I needed to do quite a bit of homemade meals to eat this week as well as freeze portions for future meals.

(3) I have already done a good amount of my cooking. It feels good to see my freezer filling up with good homemade food rather than things like Tyson chicken nuggets and chimichangas.

(4) I exercised at home on Tuesday morning (the kids joined me and it was quite funny!) and went to Body & Soul on Wednesday morning. Despite the fact that I feel like I'm struggling to learn the routines, I had a good time being there.

(5) I got a call from a friend that I rarely get to see. She was going to be in the area and wanted to have lunch together. Even though we had to bring my little zoo with us, we had a wonderful time catching up and visiting.

(6) Megan got invited to have a play date with her friend Grace for a few hours this afternoon. So after lunch I dropped her off. She has missed spending time playing with Grace so I know the girls will have a wonderful time together.

(7) While Megan has been with her friend, I got both Joshua and Sofia down for naps. When I started this post they were both asleep. Joshua is now sitting in my lap watching me type and Sofia just started crying. That's ok though. I got about 45 minutes of quiet time. Enough to feel refreshed for the rest of the day.

(8) This afternoon while I was in my car the temperature said 68. 68 in January!!! The windows are open in my house and it feels so good! I believe God sent this warm day just for me! It's exactly what I needed. Everyone else in this part of the country is getting to benefit from my extra special blessing! Your welcome!!!

(9) Tonight I get to go to a bible study that has been "on-hold" since before Christmas. Many complications have come up among the group of ladies that I meet with. We are having a casual get together tonight to catch up with one another. I have missed these ladies so much and look forward to spending some much needed time with each of them. Even if I have to bring all three kiddos with me, it will be great to see everyone.

So, that is a little about my week... and it's only Thursday. I'm sure tomorrow will be wonderful too. I have plans to get together with another friend and her son. The kids love playing together and I know Sara and I will enjoy some time to visit too.

Here are a few pictures of the kids from this week.








Hope you had a wonderful week too!!!

Weekend Family Getaway

This past weekend we took off to Branson to have some much needed family together time. We stayed two nights at the Grand Country Inn. The hotel has an indoor water park, which is free to hotel guests. We all had a great time playing in the water, even Sofia. Here are some pictures and a few videos of our time there. (Sorry there's no sound for the videos. We have an old camera.)

Catching Up - Christmas

This is my third attempt at posting pictures from Christmas. So I'm gonna keep it short so I can get something up on this blog.

Catching Up - Thanksgiving

I know Christmas is past and I haven't even posted pictures about our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan and Illinois. We had a wonderful time. It was well worth the long road trip. We first went to visit Jaime's aunt and uncle in Holland, MI. There was snow, which the kids enjoyed. Being that we live in Arkansas, it's possible that is the only snow they will get all winter. We'll see, I guess. Here are some pictures from Michigan.

After a few days of fun in Holland we drove down and around Lake Michigan to my sisters house in Libertyville, IL. These first few pictures are posted just because I think they are cute!

This is a picture of my grandma with 6 of her 7 great-grandchildren.

These next few pictures are from our day down in Chicago.

We also went to Millenium park to see the Chrome Bean. I thought I had pictures from that but I can't find them. If you're ever in Chicago I recommend going to see it. It was really neat!

Pay-It-Forward

I recently won a pay-it-forward giveaway from my dear friend, Elizabeth. Thanks girlie!!! I will enjoy every moment of my whatever-I-want-to-get-and-eat/drink-it-all-by-myself Sonic item. So, since I won I now get to bless three of my readers with something. Since it's so close to Christmas and I don't have a lot of time on my hands to get creative I'm going to keep it simple and give something close to my heart - coffee! I will give a $5 Starbucks gift card to three people. All you need to do is leave me a comment by Christmas day of what your favorite Starbucks drink is and agree to keep this going. You don't need to spend a lot of money. It can be anything. Be creative if you want. Just agree to bless three of your readers! Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you!

Redneck Fun!

Oh the fun that can be had on a Saturday afternoon!

(Just in case you can't tell...David is watching Jaime's shot through binoculars, the diaper box is FULL of hickory nuts for the sling shot, and on the ground are golf clubs and a bow and arrows. Thankfully all children were asleep during this activity.)

I just had to share...

...this story about my kids. I have finally stopped laughing enough to be able to sit and write it down. After lunch today I put Megan and Joshua in the tub for, what should have been, a quick bath. Sofia likes to be entertained so I strapped her in her seat and put her in the bathroom as well to watch them. Since all three were "contained" I decided to dust and sweep both of the kids rooms real quick. I was almost done when I started hearing hysterical crying coming from the bathroom. I heard both Megan and Joshua's voices so I determined no one was in serious harm but ran to see what it was all about. When I got in there I nearly fell over with laughter. There were brown chunks everywhere. Joshua pooped in the tub!!! He and Megan were both so upset about it and their shreaking cries upset Sofia as well, so all three were crying! I ran to get my phone and call Jaime. When he answered all he heard was hysteria for the first few minutes until I could stop laughing enough to talk. When I told him what happened he joined me in the laughter.

Ahhh, life with three kids. Gotta love it!


This is an after-the-poop shot.

It's been a while

I know it's been a while since my last post. I, like my friend Holly, have about 10 posts in my head but haven't had the chance to get them on here. Mostly due to the fact that I wanted to include pictures but couldn't until yesterday. Jaime reinstalled windows on the computer recently and just yesterday he installed the software needed to get the pictures from the camera to the computer. So now I can add pictures. Yahoo!

Much has been happening around here. Two weeks ago today, Sofia (and Bekah) turned 4 months old. A week ago yesterday, Joshua turned two. Yesterday was Sara and David Leiffer's 6th anniversary. And today is Jaime's 32nd birthday!!! This year November has been (and will continue to be) a full month. On Saturday we are heading north. First to visit Jaime's aunt and uncle in Holland, MI then down and around Lake Michigan to spend a few days with my sister and brother-in-law.

As time (and children) permit, I will try to post more about all these different events that have been happening around our house.

What can you do this holiday season?

As the weather turns colder and the leaves begin to fall, I'm reminded each day that Christmas is just around the corner. Almost as a constant these days are my thoughts of what to buy my kids for Christmas gifts. What do they need? What do they wish for? Nothing of any great value comes to mind. We, as a family, have so much. God has blessed us greatly. We would be buying things just for the point of buying things. Which brings me to my point of this post. Should I even buy much or anything at all for my kids this year?

I love the idea, that has become popular among many ministry organizations, such as CAM or Samaritan's Purse, to "buy" gifts for others around the world, often times in place of buying something for your own friends and family. Although I have never participated in something like this, each year I have the desire to do so, as I see the enormous need around the world. Instead of buying my son a new toy car why couldn't I buy a soccer ball for kids who have not one toy. Or instead of buying my new baby another cute outfit, that money could be used to buy blankets for a cold family or milk for hungry kids. I'm sure my 5 year old would love the idea of knowing she helped poor Honduran children have a healthy meal at school. It would be something that would impress on her so much more than another doll to add the collection of 20 or so we already have. Wouldn't your husband just love fish or a llama this christmas? Or how about a bridge, some water or a floor for your in-laws?

So... we each can ask ourselves, "What can I do?" or the bigger question "What SHOULD I do?"

What would Jesus do?

School

Megan has completed her first quarter of kindergarten and her teacher said she's doing great. I believe that's true because she already learned everything they're doing when she was in preschool. I think she's bored at school and incredibly tired from the long days. (She's at school 7 hours a day. That's 35 hours a week!) So, Jaime and I have decided we'd like to have her home more, while she's still interested in being home with us, and I'm going to begin homeschooling her. I'm a little nervous but excited. God has been teaching me to cherish these moments I have with my kids, because all too soon, they will be gone and I will wish I had them back. By recommendation from a friend, I bought an internet based phonics program for her to use. She has already done two of the lessons and LOVED them. This morning before heading out the door to school she asked if she could do one more really quick. You can go here to take a look at it. There is also a link on the right column of my blog. I will keep you updated as to how things are going with homeschool.

Family visitors

This past weekend was craft fair weekend in NWA. My grandma, Aunt Linda, and Uncle Hal came down to visit us and do some crafting. They had not seen the kids for a little over a year and this was their first time to meet Sofia. We all had a wonderful time together. Here is a picture of gram, holding Sofia, and Aunt Linda, holding Joshua. Megan had already gone to school, so she missed out on the pictures.

Rainbow

This is what we saw out our window one evening right after dinner!

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago we went to a pumpkin patch with our community group from church. We all had a great time together. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

Three Months Old

Has it really been three months already? The time has gone by so quickly. Sofia started out as a somewhat difficult baby. Much more difficult than my first two. But, thankfully, she is doing so much better now and we are having so much fun with her. She's smiling a ton and we all just love that!



My cousing Kristen came over today and, of course, brought her camera. We got pictures of the girls together. What cuties!



Rebekah is a bit stronger than Sofia and she likes being on her tummy. Sofia HATES it!!! When I look at this picture I think Bekah is looking at Sofia wishing she could say, "Come on girl, hold that head up! Quit suckin' on my blankie!"

Sick Day

For the past few weeks a not-so-fun cold has been making its way through our household. Megan is the last to get it. Monday morning she ended up in our bed saying her ear was hurting, which, of course, means ear infection. Later that afternoon we were at the pediatrician's office. Throughout the day yesterday she was showing signs of feeling a little bit worse. This morning she was coughing more and wasn't acting like she was all that well. So, I made the decision to have a "sick day". I think my husband was less than thrilled about the idea of keeping her home but he didn't say not to. The way I see it, she's only in kindergarten, she hasn't learned anything new...yet, and the more we push her to keep going the longer it will take to get over this cold.

I was glad I made the decision to keep her home when at 11:00am she was laying on the living room floor saying, "I'm tired, mommy." Those of you who know Megan, know that is a rarity for her. She is like the energizer bunny. She just keeps going and going and going and... well, you get the picture.



It's almost 3:00pm and we are all still in our pj's. It has been a fun day at home chillin' with my kiddos.

A beautiful day in the Ozarks!

Yesterday we spent some time working around the house but decided to get out and have some fun in the afternoon. It was such a beautiful day! We first headed out toward Garfield, AR to see the view of the Ozarks and Beaver Lake from Whitney Mountain Lodge.






After our visit to the lodge we drove around the area a little bit. Then headed toward a pick-your-own raspberry farm. The kids had a great time picking raspberries. I think they ate more than they picked!






Once we got home and got everyone bathed and in bed, I made some raspberry sauce which Jaime and I enjoyed over some vanilla ice cream. Then this morning we all had french toast topped with raspberries and raspberry sauce and vanilla yogurt topped with raspberries. Yum!

Cloth Diapers

So, some of you already know that I have been using cloth diapers with Sofia. Those of you who didn't know this are probably going...WHAT!!! Yes. It's true. I use cloth diapers and I love it! I did a lot of research on the internet to learn as much as I could about this whole concept and, in the process, fell in love with the idea. After doing some reading and more reading and more reading about the different types of diapers I decided this is what I was willing to try. The bumGenius 3.0. It's a one-size diaper, which means that you can adjust the size as your baby grows, so there's no need to buy more diapers over the 3 years or so your child is in diapers.



I found a store in Fayetteville that sold these diapers and bought one. At almost $20 a piece I didn't want to buy more than one until I was sure I would really stick with it. I eventually ordered 6 more from this website, with plans to buy about 5 more, for a total of 12. I think that should be a good amount to have for Sofia. Unfortunately, Joshua is too big. I can get them on him but he gets so mad. He is a big boy and the diaper is too tight around his chubby thighs.

Maybe now you're wondering what I liked about it so much. There are several reasons. (1) Disposable diapers are so expensive! Research shows that over the coarse of a childs lifetime in diapers a family will spend between $1500 - 2000 in diapers compared to about $300 or so (depending on the type of diaper you purchase) in cloth diapers. (2) Environmental reasons. Disposable diapers take years and years to decompose. I like knowing I can do my part, albeit small, to help the environment. (3) Health reasons. There are so many chemicals used in disposable diapers to make them so absorbant. I feel it's better to have cloth around such a sensitive area of my baby's body instead of all the chemicals that are in disposable diapers.



Here are a few pictures of Sofia in her bumGenius diapers! What a cutie!!!

If you have ever considered using cloth diapers I would encourage you to give it a try. If you want to go super cheap, it can be as hard as it's reputation says but it doesn't have to be! Cloth diapers have come a LONG way from when our mom's and grandma's used them. If you are interested here is some more information about cloth diapers. Give it a read. I'm so glad I did!