Opportunities...

Tonight I received a call to be the pianist next week at a nearby Baptist church's revival. I gladly accepted. I feel that God just gave me the talent to play the piano. It's hard to explain, but I never had to learn to play, per se, I just picked up either on my own, or by watching others. I have no reason to brag on myself, so I'm not--God gets ALL the praise.

Last week, my husband, our friends and I had the opportunity to minister all week in music and song to a local campmeeting. We really were blessed by being a blessing. I can't think of a much greater satisfaction than being a blessing and using the talents with which God has gifted us. The bottom line is I just love singing and playing the piano--especially when it's with those I love!

I have recently begun teaching a couple of students piano. I was sort of skeptical of my ability because of my lack of training as a music teacher. I decided to go full speed ahead and rely on God. He has truly come through! My students are doing great, are practicing hard, and God is guiding me in teaching them. It's exciting to see them learn with each week.

My husband ministered to us at church last night with a great sermon on "Pilgrims and Strangers". He is not officially a minister, but we both feel like he has a calling in that direction. God is definitely leading us that way and we are looking forward to doing His will. I'm excited for my husband and what God is going to do for him.

So thankful tonight for the opportunity to serve God with the talents He has given me! Are you using yours?

New Focusing for this week..

Before I get into my post, I would like to report that I am fine from my massage/table crashing incident. My legs are really sore-to-touch and bruised, but I am good. Our table is fixable, we believe, and is in the floor with the legs up in the air, waiting to be fixed. Quite a conversation starter, if we have guests. :o) Thankfully, noone has shown up since the accident. :o)

Earlier in the week, I got out my binder and worked on some tweaking to my schedule. My goal with my schedule is this: To keep my house clean and orderly without it being the consumption of my time and energies. To maintain a healthy balance between taking care of my children's needs and my home. I would love to get everything on my schedule done each day and not be consumed by it, yk? So, I have reevaluated it and decided that my daily cleaning chores and going to get done first and foremost--that way I will not put them off and they not get done. Also, I can get them over with and spend any extra time in the afternoon doing homeschooling or reading to the kids, playing, working on projects. Second of all, I haven't been working on any projects since I started my schedule. I have lots of clutter spots and entire rooms that need working on. I had to figure out a way to squeeze in some project time. Thirdly, I haven't been homeschooling diligently. This is NOT on my top priority list because Emory is still only 5 and I'm going to enjoy not doing homeschooling for 8 hours a day while I can. I don't want to push the issue. I still do want to do some, tho, even if it's just reading, copywork, memory work, and some math. That is my goal. Lastly, my house was STILL being a near disaster zone. So, instead of my 15 minute LR/DR pickup, I'm installing 3 10 min pickups at intervals during the day.

Here is my revised schedule (I'm sure it will constantly be revised):

1. Get up (I do not have a set time, anytime between 7:30-8:30 usually)

2. Laundry (different person's laundry for different days)

3. Chore #1 (ex. sweep/mop front of house)

4. Chore #2 (ex. sweep/clean off front porch--those were today's chores)

5. Bible reading/trampoline (this is not 'set', I do it when I have a quiet moment..when the kids are playing good and Evan is not clingy)

6. Clean room/Get dressed

7. Breakfast

8. Clean Table/Stack dishes (revision: I used to wash them at this pt, but for sake of time, I'm waiting until later in the day to wash bf, dinner, and supper...save time)

9. Devotion (I do a short devotion with the kids..for example, today we read about the Good Samaritan and talked about "Compassion")

10. Kids' room (make bed and clean room...kids help)

11. Get kids dressed

12. Hang out laundry (I hang out ALL my laundry except towels/washcloths)

13. Recess (revision: kids play outside while I hang out laundry..this is long enough..it is SO hot..I used to have this slotted for 45 min-1 hour)

14. Ten Minute Pick-up--added(we pick up all toys they have out at this pt...just a general straightening)

15. Lunch (we don't eat a big lunch..today we had watermelon!)

16. Homeschooling (they did 2 worksheets a each today..Emory had reading lesson)

17. Story Time (right now we are reading, "Pinocchio")

18. Nap preps (Bathroom, water)

19. Naps (they don't nap every day, but I make them rest)

20. My Time (Prayer time, general chores--i.e. sweeping, trash, dishes, etc--PROJECT time--right now I'm decluttering our future school room which is now a junk/movie room)

21. Supper Preps (kids play with table activities during this time and any other time they need to calm down and play structured)

22. Supper

23. 10 minute pick up

24. Family Time

(From here on, I really don't have a schedule...we either are going to church or to my mother in law's to visit, or spending time as a family...they do the baths and teethbrushing, stories, prayers, bedtime, have another 10 minute pick-up, etc.)

Somewhere in here, I let my kids watch one video every other day. Usually it's while I'm doing my morning chores. They play really good with blocks and whatever I set out for them.

This is basically our day--with lots of hugs and kisses in between times!! :)

A Day Out

Yesterday Dh and I were out saving a few figs from being devoured by hungry birds and I spontaneously suggested that we go to the beach (which was suggested first, the shopping part was suggested later and we see what we actually DID) so my Dh (the KING of spontanaiety..lol) said, "Let's Go". So, we had a LOT of prepping to do and it was actually after lunch before we headed out. We asked my MIL to go with us and she helped entertain the kids on the little over 2 hour drive to the coast. I desperately needed to get Emory some new shoes, so we stopped at the outlets on the way in. He has to have Wide Width or better yet, Extra Wide Width, so I got him 3 pair from Stride Rite. I hope these hold up for him at least until we make another trip down at Christmas. Just as desperately, Erin needs some new church dresses, especially since our annual campmeeting is coming up, so I went into Strasburg, definitely not thinking I would be able (read: afford) to buy her anything. They had some in season markdowns and had an additional 20% first item markdown, 30% second item markdown, and 40% third item markdown. Anyway, I got Erin 2 gorgeous smocked dresses and Evan a little jumpsuit (to match!) for a little over $100. I was really pleased with my savings!!

It is a little after five by this time and I am getting hungry. I enjoy eating 'on the beach' at an authentic seafood restaurant. However, I DID NOT KNOW that it is near impossible to eat on the beach near seven o'clock, on Saturday, without waiting forever! The first place had a TWO hour wait, so we said no way. We piled everyone back in the van and drove to a second place. It had a 45 minute wait so we put our names down. We changed our mind and drove to about 3 more places, all having a huge wait. We wasted about 30 minutes looking/driving, so we came back to the second place and figured our name was about to be called. We got out and waited about 30 more minutes, but it wasn't too bad. The weather was sort of rainy and cool. The food was good, but you know it's never as good as it was anticipated. :o) Especially after the ticket is paid and you have nothing to show for except for a too-full tummy and a sick feeling! :o) Maybe one day we'll learn in that area. Anyway, I just enjoyed today. BUT, it was so late when we got finished eating that the public beach was closed. We had taken some clothes to spend the night, but my MIL didn't really want to. It didn't matter too much to me, but I was very bummed for my children's sake that they didn't get to see the beach. again. (The same thing happened last time we came...too much shopping...no beach) I felt so bad for them that at WalMart on the way home, I got them a toy. :o) I never do that, but I really felt bad. They didn't throw temper tantrums or anything, which I was so proud of them, but you could tell they were disappointed! :o/ I sure hope we can go back soon and just take them to the beach (and go to Shakes, baby, to get a custard...yum). We had a miserably sleepy ride home and got home at near one o'clock.

All in all, it was a good day. I got some good bargains. If I had it to do over again, I would go shopping, eat somewhere away from the beach (Mellow Mushroom which was first sugg by my dh), have time to go to the beach for about an hour (that is plenty, imo, with small children), then go get ice cream!! ;O)

I'm so glad to spend time with my family. I love being with my mother-in-law too. My kids adore her and she is the most unselfish person I know! She hadn't seen her hubby all day and I can't blame her for wanting to go home! ;o)

Tomorrow is my birthday and a perfect day to me is a day just like this one with my family. Having fun and being together!! ;O)

My Week, updates, ramblings....

I started to title this post, "Haven't Blogged cause I've Been Clogged" but decided against it for various reasons...lol. You will see why that title is appropriate on down the post.

This week my schedule has been off kilter and we've barely done any homeschooling. I mean hardly any to speak of. First off, we (my dh, and our dear friends) had to sing at a nearby campmeeting for the special singing and altar music. Every night from Sunday to Friday. :o) It was pretty fun--I love singing and esp with my dear friends--they had a good sound system (from OUR side of the stage..ha)--and the spirit of the Lord was there every night, so it was really a good time. When we think about why we do what we do it's not so much a drudgery. Well, I had to have a sitter just about every night so we split up kids between my mom and my MIL and then some nights I would take one or two, so it worked out. I prefer having my children in church with me, but with our being onstage for a major part of service, it just wouldn't be as feasible. I just say thank God for good grandparents who will come through unselfishly for their children/grandchildren!! :o)

The second highlight of the week is I got mastitis (hence the 'clogged' title). I had a painful lump in my breast that turned into an infection, complete with fever, chills, aches (including a headache). It was not fun. The only plus to it was it wasn't contagious and I got some rest. Of course, my house did not clean up itself, but we managed. I don't stress over an unkempt house anymore. I have learned two things (and this is such a profound statement(s) to me that perhaps I should do a whole separate post on this) 1. People only drop by or come to visit when your house is at it's worst or near worst and 2. There is no way to keep a house straightened when you have clutter (i.e. too many toys, clothes, what-nots, mail, papers, etc.) in places. Clutter that needs ALL DAY to tackle and one cannot do that while taking care of three kids (which is more fun that tackling clutter, btw...ha). Anyway, it's funny that I should mention this because in the past two weeks, I have had 4 or 5 people that I could name that have just 'dropped by' (which I love company!!!) and my house happened to be at wreckage state due to late start on the day or my being sick and not feeling like straightening. One day I was decluttering the kids' room and couldn't get to the rest of the house. Anyway, my house IS clean. I change the trashes every other day, I clean the bathrooms once a week, my laundry gets done weekly on schedule, I mop weekly and sweep every other day, I dust weekly. But.....alas...it still gets messy. :o)

So, I don't know how I even got on that!! :O) My dh stayed home with me the day I was sick and that was nice!! I enjoy him being home so much that my selfish side sometimes wishes he had at least a part time work-at-home job so he could be at home more. :o) I am so very thankful for his job, tho.

Well, I told you it was ramblings!! My mastitis is better and I'm on antibiotics (which I have needed to be on for various infections this year, but I know it creates more candida in the body, but, gotta get better)

God Bless!

Book Recommendation

If your child is 4 or 5 yrs old and shows signs of wanting to read, I really recommend this book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I ordered it from Amazon. It is direct-instruction, phonics-based. We are almost to Lesson 30 and Emory is reading words like, cat, at, mom, sit, ram, sick, sack, etc. He is reading sentences like, "See the ram sit" and "The rat is sad". I'm so excited!

Just a short post--I just finished mowing the grass and I'm about to go get the children from their grandmother's.

God is still good even today! :O)

The Harvest is Plentiful....

No time to get on the computer much this week. Even now, it's 12am and I'm putting up peas (taking a break while they are on the stove). So, you just get a few photographs for now!

I put up 4 or 5 bags of tomatoes, 11 bags of peas (I think that's how much it's going to be) and the squash keeps coming.

Check out Evan's dimple on this picture! I got a bucketful of squash out of my garden just today! This watermelon is my FIRST!! It's in the frig waiting on me. Let you know how it turns out.

Hope you, my dear readers, are having a great summer!.

Ramblings and Gone Explorin'

Well, yesterday my No Greater Joy (http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/) magazine came and as always, I had to say, "Ouch" after reading a couple of the articles. Michael Pearl sure knows how to shoot it straight. Anyway, he had an article in there about Boys acting silly and he talked about how silliness in boys can create foolish young men. I'm so guilty of indulging my son in a little silliness and oft times I am plain silly with him. I just thought of it as fun, but I see where folly as a youngster can create foolishness as a young man. Anyway, today the two oldest started with silliness while memorizing their scripture verses (Psalm 1). Actually, my daughter started it, but oldest son soon joined in. It was so hard for me to say, "Stop being foolish", because they were being really funny, but I did. They quit pretty quickly when they saw Mama wasn't participating. I am a fun mom, don't get me wrong. I will make up for the lack of silliness by engaging them in more tickling session or hugging marathons. :)

Again, the Pearls talked about how destructive the entertainment world can be upon our children's moral lives. My daily struggle is with this. My kids LOVE to watch movies, play the computer, Emory loves his Game Boy, and he will even play games on my phone if I will allow him. I feel like I'm saying No all day long. Kids are so bored these days. MY kids. And it's all thanks to the entertainment industry. Makes me want to smack em' (the entertainment industry, that is...lol). If I have a stack of dishes and my children have already done table activities till they are green in the face, then I will allow them to watch a video. Let's see--weekly, my kids (youngest excluded) probably watch a total of 4-5 hours of TV per week. Sometimes a bit more (when they are at grandparents') and sometimes a bit less. But every bit bothers me. This evening they played probably 2 hours total with blocks and animals. I love it when they do this.

Anyway, what I'm posting is, I don't like letting my kids have any entertainment. With the least bit, I do worry what the damage will be. BUT, I know they enjoy it and I hope that a 'little bit' won't hurt. Anyway...enough ramblings and to my subject...

Yesterday, after reading the Pearls' it got me geared up to do something with the kids. So, I decided on a Nature walk. They had to clean up their room first, so I set the timer (blessed timer) and they did it pretty well. We made us a list of all the things we wanted to see on our nature walk--a checklist--and headed out. At 1:30 in the afternoon. Oh my. Anyway, we have some trails around here, but none are favorable for a stroller, so I had to pull Evan in the wagon. We ended up not seeing but about 4 things on our list (boy, we had a list...moose, elk, 'cantelopes', deers..lol), but it was a good time. Hot, but adventurous.

Try it sometime. PS. The first picture is before we make the trek. The last picture is at our destination (this is actually a camp site for my dh's first cousin and her family--it is so pretty there)

Flea Market

No, I didn't go to it, it came to me!!!



My first cousin had (past tense) two hound dogs, very nice dogs, but they had fleas, awful. My puppy who gets bathed at least once or twice a month and who is on Topical flea medication would get a few fleas on her because of these dogs. When these dogs would come around (read: all the time), I noticed we were starting to have fleas in the house. I would pick a couple off of me and the kids every day or so. I would see (one time, SIX) some in my dirt pile from sweeping. The past few days, I haven't seen any other than the occasional one I would get off of me.

Fast forward to Monday night, I thought I had gotten into red bugs, because I had some really itchy, red whelps the next morning. I had cut grass the day before and hadn't taken a bath that night (okay, so I fell asleep during the family devotion/read aloud time) so I thought that must be it. I made sure I bathed really good the next day. Wednesday morning, more bites. I thought I just haven't gotten the red bugs rid of. I was putting creme on around the clock and even took a dose of Benadryl. This morning, I woke up at 5am itching. I went to get a drink of water and stopped by the kids' room for a looksie in their mirror at my back. I had 3 FRESH bites. I decided to strip down. After two look overs in my pajamas, I found not one, but TWO fleas residing inside my pajama bottoms. They met their doom and I went to check out my sleeping quarters.

Evan had a few bites on his back (sleeping next to me) and I really got upset at these blood suckers. I checked him over really good and the covers and decided to go back to sleep. Yeah right. It's the same feeling you had in school when they checked everyone for lice. Your head itched the rest of the day even if you didn't have it. You felt crawling in your head all day. I finally got up at 5:30 and did the quiet time/housekeeping thing. I enjoyed the jumpstart on my day, but I am not happy about my bites.

Speaking of them, I counting all my bites today. TWENTY THREE.

ICK

Update on a few things...

I was glancing down my blog, and I saw a few things I need to comment on.

*First off, I haven't commented on this at all, but I'm going to be an AUNT again! My sister, Ashley, is pregnant with her third baby due in February. Her youngest is 4 yrs old and for awhile I didn't think she would have another one. I'm really excited. She's really hoping for a boy since she has two girls already. This will put my parents with EIGHT grandchildren under the age of seven. YIKES.

*Secondly, I posted a couple of posts down about Evan's horrible sleeping, etc. Well, we have stuck to just laying him down at naps and nighttime and he is doing great. Within a few days of starting he will fuss a maximum of 3 minutes. Sometimes he goes right to sleep. He still doesn't sleep for a long period of time and this is due to two reasons: I have other small children in the house who do.not.know.how.to.be.quiet, and sometimes he will 'do his diaper' before he falls asleep and who can blame him for waking up pretty soon after falling asleep?? Other times, I don't know what it is. He has never slept for over an hour and a half for naptime since I have been home and even that long is RARE. But, God has helped me and has given me patience about it and I just joyfully (well, er, most of the time) go pick him up and we have a good time. He is crawling from one end of the house to the next!

*Another thing was my asthma/no sweets deal that I had going on. Well, I have to report that I haven't had to use my inhaler (no trouble with breathing) since the very night that I posted the post about asthma! I haven't given up sweets either (*hides*) and the only thing I can attribute to this (other than divine intervention which I say, Thank you, God) is I have been exercising! For two weeks now I have walked 2 miles 3 times in a week. So, I don't know. It is nice to be able to breathe. As for the yeast/sugar related issue, I knew about a product and it was brought to my attn again the other night which is called, Three Lac. It restores healthy bacteria to your stomach and rids your body of extra yeast (the bad kind) you don't need. I'm still researching it because I'm still nursing. I want to be careful. The good news is you don't have to give up sweets! :o) I don't go around eating sweets all the time, but I do like sweet tea, a homemade goody every now and then, and a bowl of ice cream at a special function!! :o)

I can't remember if there is anything else to update!?! My schedule is going well, still. Some days I don't get everything done, but I just get up earlier the next day and do it! This morning I was up at 5:30 (more about why in another post) so I just swept and mopped, swept off the porch/sidewalk, watered plants, straightened living room, and did my usual chores. So nice to start my usual day (time that I normally get up) with an already clean house! :o) It takes hourly 'pick-ups' it seems, though!

Okay, off to clean the bathroom and maybe get in a couple more posts before the day is up!