Will we remember?

Boo taking his first steps with a "Goofy" puppy?





Cousins CAN be best friends?



The Seniors make us feel so all feel so special?







Dreams really do come true?



Aunts rule? (and Theo does too!)






Hugs will always be this special?


I know I will...

And we're back!

Don't we look like a bunch of tourists?!
We arrived safely home on Sunday evening and it has taken me a few days to get back into the swing of things around here. Disney was fabulous. For some wonderful reviews and great pictures, you can visit Mickey Miss's blog.

I can't recall the last time I felt so relaxed. Last year, at the first Shine event, we had such a wonderful time, but the relaxation factor wasn't very high as I was 36 weeks pregnant and came home to a bit of a panicky situation with Hurricane Rita heading our way.

This year, I enjoyed the true meaning of vacation. Relaxing, no worries, enjoying the company of my wonderful family. What more could anyone possibly want, except more? I suppose that's why vacations are so great... they only happen occasionally and for short periods of time.

I'll post over the next few days some of the events and photos of our trip, but tonight, I wanted to share one of the most meaningful experiences that I had while on vacation.

On Tuesday night, we all had the opportunity to dine at O'Hana's in the Polynesian Resort. 18 of us showed up wearing our SHINE T-Shirts ready to eat and enjoy each other's company.

Towards the end of our evening, the Chef came to visit our table. He inquired as to what exactly "SHINE" meant. I was somewhat stumped. It was one of those moments that one knows something in their heart, but can't quite put it into words. SHINE is one of those things that SHOULD be put into words. So I thought about this long and hard the rest of our trip. My beloved Brother in-law, Deo, stated that in his view, SHINE represented our family's ability/willingness to come together, putting aside any differences that we may have and just loving one another. Beautiful. And how blessed we are to have that opportunity. I don't know many families that would be able to do something that sounds so simple. I don't know many extended families that could or would ever want to spend 8 days together in the same house doing everything they possibly could together without getting into some sort of scuffle about something. How truly grateful I feel to be a part of such a family.

Don't get me wrong. We are far from perfect, but one thing is for sure, we love one another. More than words can say. We are honest with one another, sometimes too honest, but we always love each other. This family is the one I married into, and is the one I have always dreamed to one day be a part of. How blessed am I to be a member of this clan. The term, "in-laws" I find offensive. These folks truly are my brothers and sisters.

Whilst thinking about what SHINE means to me, I had to elaborate a bit on what Deo stated.

What exactly is SHINE?

We put all differences aside and share our love with one another. Why? We do it to glorify God and all of His goodness that is represented by the familial bond. We do this because He asks us to.

As a member of this family, it is important that we find good works to do as a family so that others can see His mercy, kindness, and glory.

We strive to continuously honor and thank Him for all that is good, just, and right.

We SHINE for Him!

For me to have the ability to call these people "my family" is one of my greatest blessings of all.

And we're off!

We are heading out in the morning for our big family vacation. I can't believe the time has already come for us to leave. It seems like just yesterday when we were relaxing in Galveston on our 1st family retreat AKA SHINE I.

I don't know if I'll be posting much until after we return.

Here we come SHINE II!!!

I am off to see Mickey!!

While checking out some of my favorite blogs I overhear...

"Foo, come on! Are you going to play Ace of Cakes or not!"

"Hang on Em. I'll be right there!"

Just a bit too much Food Network around here.

All the while The Phantom is STILL playing in the background. So much for my study of Handel this week.

Our Father's Hand

Watching Boo this past two weeks has given me a wonderful reflection on how I think Our Father must look down upon us.

For the past 18 months, I have been doing all that I can to nurture, protect, and provide for my newest son, as I have done with all of my other children.

Last week, he finally learned to crawl. As any parent quickly learns, a crawling baby takes a once orderly, peaceful environment and turns it upsidedown, overnight!

Statements like..."Quick, move the dog food!" "What's in his mouth now?!?" "Where did this come from? I just vacuumed?!?!" "How come he can't pick up a Cheerio, but he can pick up microscopic pieces of lint from the same color carpet!?!" fill the day and night.



From crawling, Boo immediately learned to pull up on the furniture and start cruising around the house all the while holding on for dear life to anything which he can grab hold of. Sometimes, even with me standing directly over him, he falls over. I have never seen a child get as mad as he does when this happens.

I imagine Our Lord looking down upon us as I watch over my son. He watches us as we stumble around life. As we fall, as we try to pull ourselves up again. He rejoices when we take our first steps independently. Actually He rejoices each and every time we take those steps. His love for us is deeper than any human love could possibly be. I wonder if He cries with us when we cry. Or if He hurts with us when we fall. Then I am reminded that He does.

I watch my littlest son as he tries to crawl, pull up, and walk. I have to watch him fall time and time again. I try to keep him as safe as possible, but we all know that if a baby doesn't learn to fall, he'll never learn to walk. It pains me to watch him struggle with things, but I need to let him do it on his own, else he might never learn.

Our Father watches our struggles, as well as our triumphs. He is always present encouraging us to try again. Try again. Try again. Just the way that I will stand over my little boy today encouraging him to try again...

Always learning

Two things I learned tonight..

1. New shoes WILL make a difference when running

2. Eating a slice of pizza right before trying out those new shoes - not the best idea. Takes the whole,"boy do I feel great" thing and tosses it right out the window, along with the pizza...

Nine Days

Nine Days until we leave for our trip. I haven't a list made, a thing packed, an iota of what to pack and three sick kids!

I've been trying to get back into running, but feeling a bit overwhelmed with the illness factor. Then I saw this mom. If she can do it, I have no excuses!

Back to mommying...

A smathering of our life

I haven't been able to steal much time away from things around the house this week. Boo has really started moving! He finally started creeping last week and this week moved into full blown crawling! The very next day, he decided it would be a great day to learn to cruise the furniture and anything else he can pull up on.

I've gone from having a pretty docile little guy to a very active one without much of a transition period!

Foo has been helping with his Homer express, however on this day, Genivive Foster's Abraham Lincoln's World, was the accompanying read.




With a bit of time, Boo finally caught his nap...




Boo also moved from crawling to this...




While I am so very proud of him, I am also sad. I know that this new phase means that much of the old phase of snuggling, snuggling, and snuggling some more will happen less and less. Hence the invent of the read alouds!

Another strange set of events has been occurring around here alongside all of this excitement. My children have become particularly obsessed with Phantom of the Opera. It began with Bean, but has rapidly spread to the other children, and finally, after my husband had the opportunity to view the movie last night, he also succumbed to the mesmorizing music that accompanies this production.

There has been great debate over which music score is best, either the original broadway score or the movie soundtrack. We have listened to both almost non-stop for about four weeks now, and we have decided that both are fantastic, each with their own unique signature pieces. As I type this, Bean is in her room practicing her best Sarah Brightman renditions.

This exposure to Phantom has re-inspired Bean, Lem, and even Foo to try to plunk the tunes out on the piano. Last Sunday, as I lay in the dark upstairs nursing Boo to sleep, I was serenaded by the voices in my home singing (and beautifully, I might add), to my Sister in Law playing All I Ask of You on the piano.

And who said we weren't doing composer study this year?? I have several of Andrew Lloyd Webber's other pieces, such as Evita, waiting in my queue at Netflix.

The other strange phenomenon that seems to be happening is that my children are actually enjoying Latin! I am also loving our sessions of Latin study each morning. My son, Foo, actually is asking for more translation exercises because he finds them FUN! We do try to make our Latin time more entertaining. He and I will both do the exercises in a sort of competition style. We don't share our answers until we are ready to correct them, and then we compare who did the best. If we both get the answer correct, we high-five one another, sometimes I even do a crazy little dance (which could scare some people), if not, we encourage one another and then learn from the mistakes that have been made.

Lem is doing very well with Latin. She is learning the Sanctus and many vocabulary words.

Fish is counting up to 20. It goes something like this:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. He can't seem to get the "thir" sound yet, but HE knows what he means!

I have a goal this week of trying to put grades into my new Homeschool Tracker program; that is if I can find time between Latin, attending the Opera, and chasing my newest walker!



Of course, then there will be that small little matter of preparing for "SHINE II...

shhhhhh...

Can you hear Boo? I think he said, Mr. Reeeenooooo... I wanna be on the Tiger Team!!

Well little boy, now that you are crawling on all fours, it will be sooner than you think.

Hop on the Homer Express

Today was a day to be the baby in this house! Foo was feeling mighty energetic (and has been since his surgery three weeks ago!) He decided it would be a great day to turn himself into a train for Boo. The best part was that Foo also decided to finish The Children's Homer while he pulled the load.

He was so happy to finally finish this book. It was not one of his favorites.




Hard to say if he is truly comfy...





OK... He looks pretty content now!



Lem said that Foo should be careful because Boo might want him to do this more often. I informed them both that if Boo didn't ask for this kind of entertainment, I would just to keep him entertained!

Hop on the Homer Express

Today was a day to be the baby in this house! Foo was feeling mighty energetic (and has been since his surgery three weeks ago!) He decided it would be a great day to turn himself into a train for Boo. The best part was that Foo also decided to finish The Children's Homer while he pulled the load.

He was so happy to finally finish this book. It was not one of his favorites.




Hard to say if he is truly comfy...





OK... He looks pretty content now!



Lem said that Foo should be careful because Boo might want him to do this more often. I informed them both that if Boo didn't ask for this kind of entertainment, I would just to keep him entertained!

Never forget, pray for Peace

Sometimes, in my less than wonderful moments, I think about how it seems that I am doing the same things today that I was doing almost 19 years ago. Taking care of babies, nursing babies, grooming pre-schoolers, etc. I love my vocation as a mother, however, I will admit that there are those days when I wonder if I was meant for something else. (not more, just something else)

But then today, I woke up and remembering that tragic day five years ago, I turned on my tv to see if there were any memorials playing. There were. MSNBC was running their broadcast from five years ago as a tribute via living history.
I was never so happy or felt so blessed to be doing the exact same thing (nursing a baby) whilst watching this event today as I was five years ago.

I'll never forget that horrible day. My infant at the time (Fish, who just turned five) was happily nursing and I was enjoying that early morning snuggle with my newborn son. His godmother called me and told me the news. I turned on the tv and watched in disbelief. Surely I was experiencing a nightmare. But no, I wasn't. We all were.

Today, reflecting back on the events of September 11, 2001, I am so thankful that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I am so grateful to those who strive to protect us. I am so blessed to be doing the exact same thing that I was doing five years ago.

Elegant Simplicity

I've been reading with great interest, several bloggers who are implementing what they call "elegant simplicity" into their homes. I love this idea and have really tried to begin to implement somewhat around here. You can read some posts here, and here.

The best approach to this is truly baby steps. One room at a time; one corner of a room at a time.

I seem to struggle with wanting live more simply, wanting to enjoy the quiet moments which in this home come far too infrequently, yet still yearn for material things that I can treasure.

There are so many women of inspiration who blog about how they achieve the peace that I long for in my home. I am bringing much of this to prayer with me each night as I try to incorporate many of the ideas I read about into my daily life.

First and foremost, I want my children and my husband to feel that their home is a place of refuge. I want them to long to be here. I wish for it to be simple, yet comfortable, pretty, but not too ornate. I pray that it is a place where they feel that they can let every guard they have down and enjoy curling up with a good book, a cup of hot cocoa, and snuggle on the couch with their siblings or their parents.

Amazingly, I am finding that a life of simplicity takes a lot of work! Go figure! I suppose for someone like me who tends to take on too many things, especially things that go on outside of our home, it is work to say no. It is work to focus on doing one thing at a time and not be in a constant state of multi-tasking.

I am also finding that multi-tasking is not all it is cracked up to be. I usually get many things started, but I finish very few. This adds up to frustration and disappointment in myself. I set myself up to be a complete failure most of the time.

I envy my husband in this respect. He starts a job, he finishes it. He doesn't take on anything extra either. Work, family, home, church. Once in a while he may play a game of softball, but all in all, he keeps things simple and his expectations low. One day, I pray this trait rubs off onto me.

For now, I will pray each morning for the blessed Mother to help me to provide the atmosphere in my home that my children require, desire. I will pray that I can focus on homeschooling, our prayer life, and our relationships one another, putting these things before all else in our lives. This post at Alice's cottage helped me to put things into perspective. Her post and the fact that my baby has already started creeping! The time has flown by again, my baby is growing up, and my children are learning from me each day. Exactly what will today's lesson be?

For today, I'll leave you with a photo of Boo helping me set the mood of our Elegant Simplicity for the day... Next year at this time, it will be a whole new world!

Mid-way through

We are mid-way through our first term and despite the efforts of the evil anti-homeschooling forces, we are skating along fairly well. I'll admit we are a few days "behind" our schedule, but it is not to the point where a few days of extra work won't catch us back up.

The new focus of our curriculum is wonderful. We are all enjoying the Latin-centered approach. Wouldn't it be a hoot if Boo's first words were "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus?!"

We have structured our days beginning with Latin, followed by Math, then English studies, Christian Studies, and Modern Studies. I am really trying to follow up with more narrations, dictations, and copywork as I have found, after 8 years of homeschooling, that this truly is the key to successful writing.

What better way to learn about writing than by copying from the masters?

This first 4 weeks has seen it's share of bumps with a nasty virus making its way through the house during the first week, the second week it was another broken wrist. The third week saw a tonsillectomy followed by a week of TLC for the patient, poor Foo. Today seems to be the first great day he has had since the surgery, thank goodness he is coming around.

In spite of the above incidents, Mom, aka mean ol' teacher, still expected a certain amount of schoolwork to be completed. Granted, the kids may still have been in their jammies, taken naps through-out the day, and had to endure nothing but Ramen noodles and chicken broth for nutrition (because of the sore throat), but we plugged ahead and continued our learning experience.

I found a cute site where one can create a Sponge Bob Latin Calendar. I am not a big fan of Mr. Sponge, however, the calendar was a big hit for the kids.

I am praying the next 4 weeks go by with a bit less chaos, however, given our track record, it would take a miracle for that to occur. So, I will press on with our studies, enjoy what we can, learn what we can, and love while we can. Then we'll head out to SHINE II, return in October and begin our second term.

Can you tell a difference in this child?



Here is a picture taken on August 31, 2006, right before bed.

Below is a picture taken September 1, 2006, right after morning chores.
What is different?? (answer below)



My Fish is Five!!!

Happy Birthday, Fish!

It seems like only yesterday that I held you when you looked like this.

My how Fishes fly...

The carrot truck

Hey mom... I don't know what happened, all I know is that I was sitting here, minding my own business and this carrot truck came out of nowhere and blew up all over my face!!!

This is how I know I'm loved...



This is how I know they love each other...

Shine II

Only 37 days until our family reunion/vacation in Orlando! The kids are getting excited and the adults even more so.

My brother designed this logo by taking a picture of a few of those of us attending the vacation. These will be transferred to T-shirts to be worn on our trip.

We can't wait to see the Michiganites!! For a more detailed description of our Shine Trip, you can read my sister's post here.

Interesting start to the school year

We are already into our third week of school here and despite the evil forces that seem to try to cloud my success as a homeschooling mom, we are moving along nicely.

During the first week, every child in this house, all on the same day, came down with some horrible virus that left each of the children with fever, sore throat, and just a general feeling of yuck. DH and I were able to escape it somewhat, just a lousy bout with allergies.

Our second week, we geared up for making up a few things and moving right along. As I am making up my schedules week to week, it was no problem to just move over the things we were not able to accomplish on week one to week two. (note to self, the planning and preparing I sweated over the last two weeks of summer were worth the effort!)
Week two granted us with a broken wrist, yes, another one. If you are keeping score, that is two in 6 months. This one belongs to Lem and thankfully is a buckle fracture which can be splinted instead of casted and should heal within 4 weeks or so.

Week two also confirmed what we had been thinking about Foo. He needs to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. He is going to have surgery tomorrow, so please keep him in yours prayers. At 11, he is a bit too aware of what is going to happen...

Which brings us to Week 3. We are still catching up a bit here and there, Matthew will have to most to catch up with because of the surgery, but all in all, we are really enjoying the new focus around here. We all are congragating around the kitchen table, starting our day with Latin and Math, and then moving on to other studies throughout the day. We pause frequently to tend to the littler ones, and we capture moments like this









At times, I seem to lose my patience, but then I see images such as this and all is well again



Finally, when the days seem long, and the nights don't offer much rest, I can get pretty frustrated with myself. But once I see this precious smile sent from God, I can only offer thanksgiving that He has chosen me to be the mother of these wonderful children.

Is there a bit of resemblance here

Homeschooling Meme

Thanks to Karen Edmisten for tagging me! It's my first tag! I have no idea how this works, so I'll just take a shot at it.

This originated from The Bookworm, (Hi Kathryn!!) and looks like a fun meme.

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED

I would have a very difficult time picking one, but the one I always go back to is A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola.



2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT

The support of my husband and other homeschooling moms!


3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT

Saxon Math... it still gives me nightmares!! I know it is a wonderful program for many people, but we are true blue Math U See students around here!

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR

The Mater Amabilis curriculum

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR

Drew Campbell's Latin-Centered Curriculum

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY

Catholic Mosaic, by Cay Gibson This gets my vote! I have been dying for a copy!!

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED

Two of me and 10 more hours in each day so that I might actually get to all of those great books just waiting to be read to all of my children.


8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING

The Classical Teacher by Memoria Press
Rainbow Resource (also handy as a major paper weight)
Catholic Heritage Curricula


9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY

Mater Amabilis and Ambleside online. I also love looking through the Reading your Way through History website.


10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS

Smithflections
Running River Latin School (when you feel better, Drew)
Dog Day Afternoons (come off the hiatus for a day, ok??)
Life in the Two Acre Wood
Danielle Bean

10 months today!

Newest Fishism

Photo taken by Fish himself


Mom: Fish, you need to go up and make your bed. (5th request, daily scenario)

Fish: But Foo needs to help me! (daily answer)

Mom: Where is it written that Foo needs to help you??!! (mom says in an exasperated tone)

Fish: In Chapter 47


who told him about The Book of Cuz...?

The Story of the Book of Cuz will follow soon...

Some days are just for the birds...

Am I doing enough?

I have spent the past several weeks, months really, refreshing my mind, reading, praying, and at times agonizing over the curriculum choices I needed to be making for the children this school year.

With my husband's help and the input of a few people that I really trust, I was able to finally formulate and execute what I thought to be a wonderful plan for this school year.

Then last night, I felt Him speak to me. I was reading the gospel for today, John 12 24:26, and I couldn't help but wonder to myself, am I doing enough?

Have I become the seed that is willing to die so that I can bear fruit for Him?

Bean has been struggling with a few things of late, not to be unexpected at the age of 15. She is truly an inspiration to me. I only wish I had had half of the insight, faith, and intellect that she has when I was her age. Shoot, I wish I had it now!

But I have to truly ask myself, am I doing enough to encourage her to live for Christ? Am I helping her to replace vices with virtues? Am I relying too much on the knowledge that she is a good kid and is close to her family?

Am I raising her to yearn for Heaven? Am I doing enough? I am not so sure.

The truest way that I can possibly show her any of this, or any of my children for that matter, is to live it. Every day. Constantly. Without fail. I am failing.

I feel as though my spiritual life comes in waves. At times it is at the low tide. Not much going on, not feeling much, not doing much about it. That's where I've been for awhile. Probably since mom passed away. But I feel the undertow. I feel that high tide coming. Am I ready for the next wave?

Recap of Celebratory Events

In spite of the previously mentioned virus making his way through my home at present, yesterday was a glorious day.

My first thought upon waking was mom. I heard her voice singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was always her job to be the first to call and sing loud and off key this traditional song. Even when she felt her worst, she would call. Then the brothers started trying to beat her to the punch, and sometimes they would win, so they all started getting smarter about this impromptu competetion and would call me at o'dark-thirty. I got a bit smarter, remembering to turn the phones off before I would go to bed.

Well, yesterday, even though mom isn't here to call, I still heard her singing. I awoke, glanced at her smiling face which sits upon my dresser and instantly heard her singing and laughing.

After this, I dragged my older, however much wiser, behind down the stairs to beautiful childrens' voices saying, "Happy Birthday, Mommy!" (is there anything more wonderful than that??!!)

The phone began to ring. First my brother in Mass. His annual call. We joked about the fact that I never hear from him unless it's his annual birthday call. Then my eldest daughter Alicia showed up and brought these



She wrote a wonderful card which brought tears to my eyes. It would have brought tears to your eyes too, especially if you are a mom...

Not long after she arrived, my dear friend Mary and her daughter stopped by to deliver these




She told me they were her favorite colors. And they are beautiful!

Later in the afternoon, my brother, Kevin stopped by to wish me a Happy day and then asked me if I had received his text message. I had not turned on my cell phone, so I had to run and check it. Sure enough, at 12:00 am exactly, I was text messaged the "Happy Birthday" song... cute, sweet, but mom still wins... I actually heard her singing...

As the day gave way to runny noses, fevers, and sore throats, I was pretty sure the celebration would be quite muted as the children were not up to Red Robining or much more than chicken soup and bed. But they did not give in so quickly.

Fish was so precious as he delivered these




He was so proud that he picked them out himself and suggested that we place them next to our blessed Mother and the image of the Sacred Heart.

Then Foo presented me with these



Not only are they my most favorite flower, they are my favorite color!! Beautiful!

Finally, Lem offered her gift to me and my heart was singing because these were always mom's favorite



My wonderful husband, seen here doing what he loves to do



prepared a wonderful spaghetti dinner, complete with my favorite, GARLIC BREAD, (yummy!), birthday cake, and ice cream. And I abandoned my sugar fast and indulged completely!

His gift was over the top. A 19" flat screen monitor for the computer. Yes, folks, no more 13" screen for me! I can now sit more than 6" away from the screen to do my work and still see it! Thank you sweetie! My eyes really love you right now!

Boo's godmother stopped by on Tuesday and gave me a wonderful gift. I have never read "Jane Eyre", however, it is now adorning my bedside table waiting to be read. (I know, I know, how can it be that I have never read this??!!)

I had several other calls, emails and visits that were so much appreciated. Do I feel loved?? You bet! And my home looks so sweet with all of these beautiful flowers.

Thank you to all for the well wishes, prayers, and happy thoughts. They have been well received!

Happy Day, sort of!

Well, today was the day I celebrated the big 41... Older than dirt now, I suppose, but really good dirt, ya know...

Unfortunately, as much as the kiddos wanted to celebrate by relieving me of my "teacher" duties, I did not allow them that priviledge, until they started dropping like flies!

One by one each appeared with runny noses, sore throats, and finally fevers. Fun. Even the boo bear has a fever. He was kind enough to pose for this cute picture though!

School began Monday for us here at Holy Oak Catholic Home School. It is going well, despite the illnesses and threats of birthday celebrations.

I am planning to post our curriculum as soon as I can figure out how to post them as a link. I'll be calling in the Bean for help on that one.

For now, I must go, Boo is not happy and actually calling MAMAMAMAMA!!! He must NOT be feeling well!

We did it!

Saturday marked a day of celebration after many months, truly years of hard work and dedication.

The morning began with Fish testing with his Tiger Team and achieving his Cheetah patch! He did a great job and so did his fellow classmates.

The afternoon promised to be full of wonderful moments as my three older children, Foo, Bean, and Lem all tested and then participated in the Black Belt ceremony.

Foo became an official 2nd Degree black belt, Bean and Lem both passed their mid-terms with flying boards, I mean colors, and even my sister and I made the transition from white belts to orange, with our wonderful classmate, Misty! (you go girl!!)

I became extremely nervous about an hour before the testing. It came upon me very suddenly and I suppose it was because I really wasn't thinking about the fact that I was testing, rather I was consumed with making sure that the children all had their things together, uniforms pressed, and snacks in tow.

Once they headed up to the school to help get things started, I began to realize that I was testing and the nerves hit, HARD!

I didn't do as well as I had hoped on my form, but I did have a great time, especially watching all of the other students testing and breaking boards, sparring, etc.

Seeing our friend AW was a wonderful treat and a great source of support. Thanks for coming AW!!

I am so proud of my kids, my sister, my buddy Misty, and all of the great kiddos at the TKD school. It is so wonderful to have such a great sense of extended family.

Congratulations to all who tested. You make all of us so proud!

Since I can't seem to upload pictures tonight for some reason, check out MickeyMiss's blog!!

Sad News

Nothing life threatening or earth shattering, but I now remember WHY we don't grow tomatoes here...

For the past several weeks, the kids and I have painstakingly watched over and cared for our 4 tomato plants only to produce ONE, I'll say it again, ONE stinkin' tomato.

It was a beautiful ONE, perfectly shaped, great size, and days from becoming ripe.

I have pondered in my mind how, once this lovely specimen was prime for harvesting, I would split it between seven of us. I thought to myself, self, take a picture of it with the kids, you know, for the blog update!

Well, the other day, shortly after noticing that the tomato was on target for harvesting according to our calendar dates, the tomato went missing! AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Some lowly critter has apparently been eyeballing our fruity attempts and took advantage of our inexperience in gardening swiping the relished reward before we could harvest it ourselves.

We have several disappointed folks around these parts, and inquiring minds as to why out of 4 plants we have only been able to grow one tomato.

On the other hand, the basil is doing well! I guess critters don't like basil...

I am coming out of my self-imposed blog restriction for a brief moment. I want to share with anyone who reads my blog my current music obsession.

Mainstay was discovered quite by circumstance by my daughter and FANTASTIC sister MC a few months ago.

At first, I really didn't "get" the music. They are a Christian band, yet the lyrics didn't really seem to promote Christianity in the way I have been accustomed to. Then my darling husband, (he has no blog, so I can't link to him... HINT) found the lyrics online with an explanation behind them.

Once I read the thoughts behind the words I was blown away. This is hard-core, in your face, accountability laden, Christian music.

It's been in my CD player for about 6 months now and has yet to come out. I doubt it will anytime soon, unless they cut another CD soon!

Check out their music. You won't be sorry!

Feeling Buried!

It's been too long since posting, but I have been totally enveloped with planning our school year, set to start on Monday.

I think I finally have our studies set, which leaves me to divide it up week by week.

My brain is really tired, so any posts I would have would most probably be very uninspiring.

Back to scheduling and planning now...

I hope to return full force next week!