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Wow! I have accomplished so much this week! And that is with a raging headache Wed.!

I decluttered and organized the playroom.

I decluttered and organized the library (although I still need to get rid of some more books)

I delcluttered and organized the family room (I have to spend some time Sat getting all the baby stuff moved into our bedroom. Right now it sits in the corner of the family room) I want to set up the corner of our bedroom as baby station for the next few months.

I cleaned up our eating area and the stero area.

I can see the floor in the girl's room (it used to be littered with clothing)

I bagged up a lot of C's clothes to get him ready to return to his mom

I have done a ton of laundry.

I made my first batch of bread machine Whole Wheat bread. Definatly needs some work and I think my yeast is bad because the rising did not go well at all. Oh well at least I started the learning process! :)

Im so excited with how most of my house looks right now. Hubby has the camara in his car or I would show you all. Maybe later!

On a quick note here is a verse I read in Psalms this week during my daily Bible reading....

Psalm 89:1 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfullness to all generations. (I love this song btw)

I really latched on to this verse. My favorite thing to do as my littles are settling down in thier beds for the night and hubby is relaxing is to clean up the kitchen of dinner and sing from my hymn book. I am making known God's faithfullness to the generations in my home!

Also I read:

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The ultimate time management verse!

Love to you all!

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I will be decluttering a lot this week. There are things that just have to go! Freecyclers all over the world will rejoice when they see my posts. Ok maybe not, but I will have a revolving door as people head over to my house to pick stuff up. I am going to be ruthless. I need a nice inviting space for friends and family. We have big plans for our tax refund and it all revolves around home improvement, so....I need to make room for the changes around here. What good would new flooring be if you could not see it? Freshly painted walls if your eye was distracted by clutter? See...it has to be done. Now please view this commercial and see how silly it is to attach ourself to stuff!

(Hat tip to Mrs. Erin for this laugh out loud commercial!)

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Hi all I just wanted to share some pics of my home. I was planning on doing this on Thursday since it was homemaking day but I did not get a chance to. So here they are! This is my living room.

This is my new seating arrangement. I think its cozy and invites conversation.

My great aunt made this quilt by hand. My mom bought it for me. She picked it out because of all the colors. I am a bright colorful person if you could not tell by the yellow on the walls.:)

The sign above our mantle is our family vision. My husband came up with something one night that said this and I reworded it with some help from friends and put it on the canvas as a Valentines present for him last year. I was supposed to pretty it up some with ribbon and make two more long skinny ones with Bible verses on them to go on either side but I have not done that yet!

The sign says, "Father, grant my request that the number of my descendents in heaven be equal to the number I have on earth."

By the way in this room the couch is facing the fireplace. I did not get a good pic showing that.

OK so thats all for now.

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Im hoping to jump back in with my New Years goals tomorrow. I believe Wed is being a good mommy day! I am reading the Mother At Home one chapter ever Wed. Last week had some really great stuff in it about obedience. I took lots of notes. Tomorrow I am reading chapter 4.

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These past few days have been so hectic. Nothing out of the ordinary just super busy days! I will return Monday... Im also working on a new look for the blog. Hubby is helping me and we are having a great time! LOL

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I was thinking about the past year today. We welcomed three new children into our home. One went back home after a month, one will be returning home in January or February and one will become our forever child in January. My daddy passed away. We got news that we would be able to adopt a little boy in our home who has been here for almost 2 years. We also got news that his mother wants us to take in her new baby due January 11th. We paid off two debts. We started tithing regularly instead of once a month or so. Prince Charming got a bit of a promotion into a new job. We established a firm family vision for our home. I began doing preschool homeschool with our two four year olds. I kissed my eight year old and five year old good bye and sent them into the cold world of public school. All in all we were really blessed this year! We loved, we lost, we laughed, we cried. We prayed, we prayed, we prayed, we prayed!!!

Now I look forward. We are looking forward to adopting four children in the coming months. We are praying with everything that we have that we will get the new baby in January. In the foster parenting world you know its not a done deal until the baby is in your arms. Then of course we have to start praying about adopting him, but thats further down the road. We are looking forward to starting to homeschool our two older girls in March. My in laws are letting us use thier condo on the beach for a week in June..definatly looking forward to that! We are looking forward to having our car paid off by October. We are looking forward to being halfway to paying our last credit card off by the end of the year. We are looking forward to some other home improvement stuff around here. We are looking forward to healthier eating habits and a cleaner home. We are looking forward to really drawing close to God and seeking His will for our family in the coming year. In January our family will focus on prayer. We want to teach our children to pray without ceasing. To start each morning in prayer, to pray when the sun is high in the sky and also when it sets at night. We want to teach them the value of praying for others. We have individual goals for 2006 and family goals for 2006. Tomorrow afternoon over dinner we will discuss our family goals and individual goals, all the way down to our two year old. Maybe he wont understand everything but eventually he will understand this tradition. I have outlined some goals for the children that we will discuss tomorrow. I love a New Year. I love a new month. I love a new day. Everything fresh and waiting to start. Im excited and even more so because I am going to share it with my family.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

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Today my children wanted to actually play with the toys they got for Christmas. The Barbie dolls and the action figures and the dinosaurs and the baby doll clothes and the really cool King Arthur's castle that we found. They wanted to take them out of the box and play with them. Well, I thought of course they want to play with the toys. They are supposed to come out of the box so the children can PLAY with them. I thought. Apparently, I thought wrong.  You see the toys would not come out of the box. I guess they were for display purposes only. Silly me. I had to wonder as I cut around Barbie's hair oh, so carefully, "Whose bright idea was it to plaster it to her head with a plastic grip o' death band thingy?" I mean did that guy have a little girl? Did he get to bring home toys without the twisty ties, gazillion pounds of tape, and string tied in a million knots? I mean, come on I know the guy that made these great breakthroughs in the world of toydom either does not have children or does not allow his children to take anything out of the box.

So, tonight as I arranged all thier new toys, tucked safely in thier boxes...still, around their little bedrooms for decoration I reminisced about days gone by when all you had to was cut one big glob of tape to free that long awaited toy before you could play with it. I thought about how much fun I had playing with toys and wished the same for my children.  I guess we will just have to make all their toys ourselves. It has to be easier than getting them out of the box!

Hope everyone had a Merry CHRISTmas.

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Merry Christmas to you all!!

Jesus is the reason for the season!

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will it ever end! Ok, so this is my second year as a parent. I love Christmas. I love finding the perfect gift for my little people. I love the thrill of the hunt. I go overboard. I buy too much. I am being pretty good this year and staying on budget, but I always seem to see one more thing my child "needs". I really want to go with the three gift route next year. I dont know where I read it but I remember reading about someone who came up with an idea to give their children three gifts each. You know, to signify the three gifts the magi brought? Well how do I do that when my eight year old obviously must have the kid's craft kit, the bead kit, the book from Grandmother's Hopechest with the craft kit, the lap harp, the microphone, the baby doll...you see the problem, right?? *Sigh* I know, I know. I need to simplify and teach them less is more. I need to focus on the real reason of the season, Jesus! I need to remember that I cant buy them happiness. We are celebrating Jesus. He has a stocking at our house that we put daily good deeds in. We are reading His words from Matthew this month. But the rest...well I think it will have to wait until next year. When I am the seasoned parent of three years. Hmm.. maybe I will be wiser and really simplify the season. Three gifts for all...then again....maybe not.

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Well, here I am at homeschoolblogger. I love reading the blogs over here and I wanted to expand my horizons some so......here I am. Guess I better write an introduction in case none of my readers follow me over and I have to find all new readers. Actually, I hope to find some new friends to add to my collection. I have so enjoyed learning from others and making new friends in the blog world. I have enjoyed learning how to write, at least a little better, and watching myself grow as I read through past posts.

Anyways, my name is Julie. I have been married for five years, come December 15. I am "mom" to five children Karly - 8, Kelsie - 5, Tamara - 4, C-boy- 4, and Adrian -2.5. I have been a "mom" since May of 2004 and love every minute of it. We are foster parents well on our way to adopting the three sisters Karly, Kelsie, and Tamara at the end of January and Adrian probably in Febuary or March. We are also hoping to get Adrian's little brother who is due to be born on January 11, 2006. His mother has asked us to name him and take him, but as we have learned in the world of fosterparenting, "I'll believe it when I have the child in my arms!". The other 4 year old boy I mention above should be going home to his mommy in January or Febuary.

We hope to begin homeschooling Karly and Kelsie immediatly following the adoption of the girls. My husband and I have read through The Well Trained Mind and have decided this is the way we would like to go.

I have been "doing" preschool with Tamara and C since September and have loved it. I cant wait to bring my older girls home where they belong.

Well this has been long enough, I guess. Im still looking around the new homestead and trying to figure out how I want to arrange and organize it so be sure to check back often.

Oh dear, sure wish there was a spell checker..Im a terrible speller. *Sigh* I apologize ahead of time!