Wild Horses

I know a few months ago I said I was going to update my blog once a week.

I did well for a while and then we went out of town a whole bunch. And then..........

my dad fell off a galloping horse at Thanksgiving and I just didn't have it in me.

My brain did not work, my house was not cleaned. I think my children were fed. We were visiting cousins who live on a farm outside Nashville. 5 of us had already ridden the horse. My dad decided to go and when he got back we were all going to go inside, drink beer, and watch Alabama whip up on Auburn. Well.....one out of three ain't bad, right? Last I checked Alabama did whip up on Auburn and then Florida too. I do love Tim Tebow, though. That's another post entirely. Now I'm off on a tangent.

I'll save you the nasty details and say that my dad is doing GREAT. He is still healing, but is expected to make a complete recovery from the accident. I am finally starting to get the constant replay of the horse galloping with my dad out of my mind, although I don't think it will ever completely go away. Nor will the feelings I got from having to be the only nurse out in the middle of a pasture helping the injured party (her own dad--yikes). I do think that time heals most wounds, especially those of a physical nature. What I KNOW is that God heals every wound and even though I would like for this not to have happened, He has given my family and me many more blessings through this event that we would not have had otherwise.

Over the past few years, I have started to really understand why we are to rejoice in all things. It's not always what I want to do and sometimes it takes me a while and sometimes I just have to force myself. I probably shouldn't admit this, but sometimes I even tell God that I don't want to rejoice, but I do and I think he knows I'm faking. I do think He's glad I said it, though. And I think that sometimes saying something out loud is the first step to making it true on the inside. I'm going to try this more often now and see what becomes of it.

I'll try to post again before Christmas, but just in case I don't......

Merry Christmas!

Only 4 Hours of Sleep

I went to see New Moon last night at midnight with 4 of my girlfriends---it was so good. I can't even do it justice by talking about it, so I'll be brief. They did a much better job of portraying some of the underlying emotions between Edward, Bella, and Jacob this time around. The werewolves are MUCH larger than what I imagined when reading the books. The Volturi are mesmerizing and Edward was at his best in the scene with them where he was wearing this blood red robe--it was a delight to say the least. Okay, enough.

This was the start of my favorite part of the movie--and there is that red robe.

Okay, so on a lighter note. I almost feel like these two topics shouldn't even go together. Well, anyway.

I am starting a new tradition this Christmas. I went to the library and let the boys pick out 24 Christmas books. We got an assortment--reindeer, snowmen, Santa, and Baby Jesus. We are going to put them in a big basket by their rooms and starting on December 1, we will read one book per night, slowly emptying the basket, and letting this be our "countdown to Christmas". I have seen where some people wrap each book in Christmas paper so the kids get the thrill of unwrapping the gift and being surprised by which one it is. I am considering doing this, but am trying to weigh the effort versus the enjoyment--hard to say. Maybe it will get old opening them every night. I'll think about it for a while.

I also really want to make one of these.

Up and running

I went over to the Apple store today and picked up my computer. It now has a brand spankin' new hard drive that has double the RAM of the other one. I'll have to admit it is super cool. It's just different enough that I notice. I kind of feel like I have a brand new macbook, especially since there was NOTHING on it. Yep--no pics, documents, iTunes songs, mail, calendar items--zip.

While I was waiting to get my little white piece of heaven back, I sought out to discover just how many pictures I lost. What I discovered was that I had backed up quite a bit AND I had uploaded almost all of our significant events and vacations onto my blog or facebook page. So, now I am totally looking at it as I am not nearly as behind with my scrapbooking as I once thought. How's that for perspective?

So, just wanted to give you a little update. I'll post again later this week with some pictures--maybe some oldies but goodies just to celebrate that I have them.

Until then, I'm going to go downstairs, retrieve my external hard drive and BACK UP my new computer AND do it every month for the rest of my life.

How's that for a hard lesson..........

This post will have no pictures......

I just got home from the Apple store in St. Louis. They gave me the wonderful news that my hard drive is gone. Along with it, everything on my computer. Yes, your first thought is correct. The pictures are gone. I backed up all my digital photos about a year ago and have been meaning to get around to it again. So, that means, one year's worth are GONE.

The thing that makes this even harder to swallow is that my computer was only 2 years old, a beautiful little white MacBook that came loaded with Time Machine. You've heard of it, right? It's that cool thing that allows you to back up your entire computer on a schedule and restore it to its original state if your hard drive ever blows up. Well, that was the other thing I'd been meaning to get to--utilizing Time Machine. You see, I own an external hard drive, but it's full of digital scrapbooking pages and elements. Pretty full. So I was thinking those things were more important than my pictures and I was getting around to purchasing another one to use for my Time Machine backups.

Yep--just getting around to it--like NEVER.

So....I'm feeling a fire boiling up inside me a little stressed about life in general right now between Michael's broken toe/croup/breathing treatment/antibiotic snafu and now the impacted poop that had to be enema'd out at the hospital. I won't mention my diflucan/z-pack illness predicament Suffice it to say we've had some activity around here that I've handled just fine, even with the computer meltdown. I did tell Chris last night that it was a good thing that Dancing with the Stars taped on the DVR while we were at the hospital. Talk about coming unglued.

That's enough for now, I'd say.

Nyquil D and Mucinex

make a great combination for alleviating cold symptoms. My body has been attacked by a vicious cold virus. Even the hubby is amazed at how it has affected me. Yesterday he said, "You haven't ever been down like this." I'm kind of astounded too. I don't normally get sick to begin with and when I do, I get over it quickly. Not this time. Maybe I have a mutated strain of swine flu.

I am rallying today. I have done all my morning chores, my load of laundry is almost ready to go into the dryer. One quick tangent: is anyone else comforted by the sound of the washing machine & dryer going in the background of their home? For some reason, I love the sound. Okay, back to my rallying. I am going to homeschool these boys today (in a few minutes, actually), take them to swim lessons, and possibly make an apple pie when we get home. And I just updated my blog again for the third time this month. Okay--enough about me.

Although, I am wondering if I'll use the entire bottle before I'm well.

Giving In to Good Changes

Well, hello there people!

It's been a dreary two days here. It's dinnertime on Friday night. I've made an old recipe that I remembered us really enjoying, but now I'm not so sure. I guess we'll see. It's still dreary, getting cold enough in the house that I could almost be convinced to turn on the heat, but I won't. There's something about turning on the heat that I don't like. I can't explain it--it's not that I love summer so much--quite the opposite. But I can't bring myself to turn it on just yet.

I also cannot stop eating these Pringles Bold Bites (zesty parmesan flavor) chips that Chris brought home just now. I stop typing after every couple of sentences just to eat another one. Maybe I won't be hungry for my so so dinner.

So......I just have to share this. I would consider myself to be gifted in the home organization area. I thrive on charts and schedules for home management. I also have a computerized grocery list organized by aisle for the store I shop in. I have most things that I purchase on the list and highlight what I need. I feel pretty satisfied with how I keep our home organized and running, but there is always room for improvement. I HATE to clean. I came up with a cleaning schedule for the entire week, so I only have to do a few things each day, but I hate even doing that. I'm sure many of you have heard of the FLY Lady. I have always wanted to follow her ways, but her "ways" are on the internet and I don't like reading page after page of stuff on the computer. Imagine my delight when I ran across this. An actual book I can hold in my hand, and read, and follow.

This book is written for people who have disastrous houses. Houses so full of clutter that they can't even clean around it. If you are one of these people and you have just given up--this book is for you. It will change your life (and I don't ever say that). You are probably wondering why I was so excited by this book if I feel like I'm holding down the fort okay over here, right? It's because if I follow her ways, I only have to clean for 1 hour on one day and 15 minutes all the other days AND I get Saturday and Sunday off. Including laundry. There are some things she says you have to do. When I first started reading about her ideas on the internet, I thought I could skip those things--like shining my sink, making a control journal, putting on shoes. Once I bought the book, I decided I was going all out. It's gone well. I like it. She says I'll never have to "spring clean" again and I believe her! Except I did it all in my cute heart slippers.

Just so you have some pics to enjoy--here are two of the boys doing this week's science experiment: geodesic design using marshmallows and toothpicks.

I also got my hair highlighted twice this week--but that's another story. Have a good weekend--we've got a long one!

One more thing.....

Just trying out my new signature!

Motivation

Whoa--I am embarrassed. Has it really been 8 months since I last updated my blog? That is ridiculous. A couple of my friends have almost been as bad as me. I say "almost" though. They haven't gone 8 months. Anyway--these two people have motivated me to update my blog once a week. I think I can do it.

I'm also going to try something new. Instead of just talking about us and what we're doing, I'll be adding in some useful information too. It might be a Bible verse or lesson that has really affected me lately, a recipe, a home organization tip, or even a random fact. Michael is memorizing various information as part of his schoolwork and most of it is put to a tune. We play these "songs" all throughout the day, especially in the car, which means I am memorizing them as well. I am learning just as much history as Michael is because I hated it when I was in school and now I am fascinated by it.

So, anyway--here goes. Wish me luck. I'm even thinking of turning it back public, especially since we just started fresh here in a new, undisclosed location!!

So, what did we do this week?

Michael fell while hopping down the stairs. He broke his left pinky toe at the growth plate, so we had to go to the pediatrician, then outpatient x-ray, then the orthopedic doctor. I discovered through all of this that Michael vomits when he has a broken toe and is extremely nervous. So, we used this about 8 times on Tuesday.

Now we have this:

and I no longer have to carry him, watch him crawl/hop on one leg, or maximize the weight capacity on Cal's umbrella stroller just to get him from one place to the next. He thinks he has a robot leg and is compliant to wear it. I am extremely happy.

I am also on a mission to organize my recipes into this book. I'm going to put my most loved ones in here. I've already made a spreadsheet with all of them, so when I'm meal planning I just pick from the list. Right now all the recipes are in about 10 different places, so this will be a huge time saver to have them in one spot. I'm basically going to copy this idea, except I'm going to try to have around 45 meals instead. No, I'm not trying to be overly ambitious, I already have that many on my spreadsheet.

Now to finish for today. Just a cute pic of Cal with his playmobil pirates.

Have a great weekend. I promise I'll be back soon!!

Birthday Party

We had a joint birthday party for Michael and Cal this year at a fun play place.  Michael is now 5 and Cal is 3.

Snow, snow and more snow.

We've gotten about 4 or 5 snows up here so far.  The boys aren't as enchanted anymore when it is coming down.  They still love to play in it, though.  Here are some pics from a couple different snowfalls.  We've made some interesting snowmen, that's for sure.  My favorite is the one with the olives for eyeballs--he looks totally possessed.

Painting

We use a really neat book to do some of our homeschooling activities.  It has a list of wonderful books to read aloud and then activities to do with each book.  These activities are related to things in the story and help me teach the boys while having fun at the same time.  These are some pictures I snapped while the boys were painting.  We were trying to recreate the pattern on the kitchen floor in the storybook, Jesse Bear What Will You Wear.  It is a random pattern of triangles, circles, and squares.  I also had some little kitchen helpers making stromboli the other day.  They love to help me cook.  Michael asks me almost every day if he can help me cook.