My Daily Ramblings...

This sums up our week.

I've not been feeling too good lately. Probably a combo of late nights and early mornings, coupled with the cold that was shared so graciously with me.lol

We started our Advent studies on Sunday. We've never studied Advent before, but we're all enjoying the time together. Evie is THRIVING on this time! It's amazing to see her happily listening to the study, coloring her picture, and then listening to Jothom's Journey. I sweeten the pot by handing out a handful of candy to everyone at the beginning, right before we light the candle.

I am trying to make this Christmas season more memorable and more focused on Christ. We are getting the littles excited about what we are doing each day, not just on the presents that will be there on Christmas day. We're also scaling back the presents this year. It's been a tough year financially for us, but instead of that being a bad thing, it has allowed us to see what we really want to be doing at this time of year. What do we really need? I think for us, we need to come closer to God and to form better bonds with our kids. We're spending more time together, we're making gifts for others, we're spending more time in the Word together, we're happy! It's been a blessing and a gift in itself.

I've been scaling back my computer time lately. Just not enough of me to go around. It's all I can do to get everyone's medicines delivered on time each day, but I WANT to do more! I've got my list and plan to work my way through it as I can.

Allison is really trucking on her school work! It's amazing how well she's doing. She's been a reluctant learner the past few years, so to see her working hard again is a blessing. I went through all her work this past weekend and she's set to finish some subjects by January and all the rest by February! Good job Allison! She's taking more subjects starting in February, but to finish full credit courses in less than a year, takes stamina! She'll be graduating in no time if she keeps this pace.

Jon is doing well....now.LOL We had some issues with laziness so he is now taking about 10-12 different subjects. That should help. He's taking MUS Algebra 1, Jacob's Algebra, 10 Things all Mathematicians need to know, Keys to Geometry, Abeka History, Abeka Science, Apologia Biology, Abeka Literature, Understanding the Times, two biographies on missionaries, Abeka Health, Japanese, Matin Latin, and a few more things I can't remember off the top of my head. Hopefully, once this year is over, next year's work will look like a walk in the park.LOL

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm in the process of making a grocery list, going through my coupons, and ironing a million clothes. lol

Blessings,

Our Thanksgiving Day...

The tree is a work in progress. The littles can't be trusted within twenty feet of the tree without dismantling it, so it changes hour to hour. We had to move all breakable ornaments to the top of the tree, along with all the candy canes and Isaac spends all day knocking all the bottom ornaments off the tree so it's not ever going to look like something that you'd see in a catalog or movie BUT they love it and that's all that matters.lol


Voila!


Here is our very first homemade icecream pie! The kids want this as our new tradition from now on. We got this idea from De'Etta's and Kathy's blog. We used chocolate crust, chocolate icecream, three Musketeer's candy bars, Cool Whip and melted Chocolate chips drizzled on top. Yum!


All in all, it was a good day. I think the littles had fun and I think the older kids had fun and that's hard to do with that big of an age span! We had issues but life has issues so I'm calling it good.LOL

Blessings,

Our Thanksgiving Day...

As our fabulous house was coming together, the kids started getting a little goofy. I really don't know why, perhaps it could have been the candy...nah, I'll just chalk it up to an "off day".lol


Evie pretending to be a model with the wind blowing in her hair. Really, she's a natural...lol


Isaac being cute...


Notice his hands are in both bowls...


Mick Jagger I presume?


Now you all know my secret, we have a huge sucking machine above the dining room table to keep messes from hitting the floor...


Please don't make me eat this candy pose?


Voila! Our masterpiece! :snort:


Well, I think I need another post just for the tree. That part of our day went just as well.LOL

Our Thanksgiving Day...

Our day dawned bright and early with the exciting hum of the Nebulizer. Yes, Sophia was wheezing like an 80year old chain smoking asthmatic. We started the treatments and are doing the 5am, 1pm, and 9pm routine for now reserving the right to change and do the 5-11-5-11 plan. After her treatment and subsequent buzz wore off, I accidently (oh, who am I kidding?) fell asleep.lol My Thanksgiving day restarted at the ripe hour of 10am. Yikes! That got me in gear.lol I got dinner started and set the older kids to bringing in the Christmas tree and decorations. The littles were overexcited and my living room can attest to that.lol

I made the executive decision to have the kids begin the annual Gingerbread house assembly. Nothing says gingerbread like the sound of a hair dryer...feel the fun folks...

Jon was an expert roof holder togetherer...

He also made a great model...

Here they are decorating the house while my younger ones look on in a candy induced stupor...

Here's Jon showing the proper way to adhere the candy to the house...

I'm breaking up the excitment into two parts because I don't want to overwhelm you all with our exciting day...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! We've got all our prep work completed and plan on just enjoying tomorrow. I love the fact that everything is closed tomorrow. It's so nice to have a day with nothing to do but spend time together. If you all could pray that we begin to feel better, that'd be a real blessing.

Take care,

Christmas Calendar layouts 2008

Here is what Allison has been working on for the past few weeks. We finished the calendar today and ordered it from Snapfish. I think Allison did a great job this year! Well done!

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December



What a huge undertaking this is! Allison worked until 12:30 last night and then got up and did the finishing touches this morning. I love the backgrounds and her collages!

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

I live with a bunch of sickos!LOL We've all been battling illness this week and we are worn out. I can't wait until we're feeling better. Until then, here's a collection of photos...

My baby wearing hubby...


My soda swilling girly...


Here's a new trick...


What a sweet baby!


She just learned to stand and now this...















TaDa!!! Look at that proud face...


I can't believe how fast she's growing up! She's only almost 9 months old and she's really getting around. Eric said she tried to walk to him yesterday and she's already trying to talk! She's getting good at Uh-oh. (She must hear that a lot.lol) Well, I must go and wipe more snot. Really, it's a never ending job.LOL

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

Here are some photos from the last few days...


Jon knitted some socks for the coming winter...



He is so creative! I'm proud of him!



Here is Allison and Isaac feeding Sophia. I LOVE the look of pure joy on Isaac's face! I know this photo is blurry but I still love it.



Here's the little stinker right now...right after a bath. After a whole day of temper tantrums, it's nice to have a nice photo to gaze upon.LOL




Here is the mess that the littles can make in 5 minutes time. I still can't believe it and I'm the one who will have to clean it up! They're cute though...lol


A puzzle, a ball for each hand and life is good!







I have some bad news for you all.



I'm a Ramen Noodle Flunky. On Tuesday, I made Ramen for Evie and Isaac since they are sick. Isaac wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, but Evie ate her bowl and asked for Isaac's too. I thought, "Wow! How great that she's hungry!" While I was washing the bowls, I realized that I forgot to put the bouillon cubes in it. Yep, you guessed it. Evie ate two bowls of noodles and water.lol

Not to be deterred, I tried again on Wednesday. This time, I made sure to put the cubes in FIRST so I wouldn't forget. A half-hour later I hear this sizzling sound and go to check it out. Yep, totally forgot about the Ramen and all the water boiled out leaving this wonderfully hard crust to scrub off. At this point, I decided to hand the job to Jon. HE had no trouble.LOL



Blessings,