The real question is: Who ISN"T in the house??  lol!  My mom and my sister are living with me, and also now my sister's roomate is staying here while they wait for electricity to be turned on in their new place. My sister will be moving this week coming up, but in the meantime, I have my 3 dc here, my sister sleeping on the sofa, her friend sleeping on the recliner, and my mom sharing the kingsized bed with me in my room.

Talk about a full house!  Also, with my dog, my sisters dog, and my moms dog and her 2 cats, all inside.. well.. lets just say that there's never a dull moment around here.

At least it is quiet now. Of course, it IS nearly 11pm. But quiet is wonderful especially late at night.

I finally am taking the time to blog. I haven't been on here in a while and really am afraid to look back to see how long it really has been. A lot seems to be going on at all times. I am trying to force myself to take some "ME" time. I've began a Quiet Time with a devotional for solo moms. I've also started an exercise routine, which right now is walking at the park, but I want to also start doing arobics twice a week.

I have met an old friend for lunch twice in the past month. That has been great for me. I tend to be a 'home-body' and not go out much, so to get out and have an adult conversation has been good for my moral.

Also, we have found a nice park nearby our house and I've taken the dc there a few times for us to walk around the lake and enjoy the fresh air, exercise and sunshine. (This is where I walk for my exercise, the path around the lake is a little over a mile long.)

I had another friend call me last night, just out of the blue. She knew that my late dh's birthday was a few days ago, so she decided to call me and cheer me up. It worked! We talked and giggled like school girls for almost an hour. Then she invited me and my dc to come over to her house in 2 weeks to cook out and also fish in her pond!  I'm really looking forward to that. She has 2 boys that are near my dc's ages. She doesn't homeschool, but that is her only fault.  (EG)  Seriously, I've known both of these ladies, (the lunch friend and this one) for nearly 20 years. (boy that makes me sound old!)

I love them both dearly and it is sad that we let time take us away from one another.. but when we all got married and moved to seperate places in our lives, we just lost touch. When my dh died, though, they were both there for me and continue to be "there".. so, it has been a bittersweet reunion of sorts.

I do know one thing, they both love me like a sister and care very much about me and my dc.

As for school, we DID begin to do school work again after Thanksgiving. My dc balked at it, though, because they had it pretty easy for a few months while mom (me) was in deep mourning.

Now, they "do school" and keep on schedule. We even "school" through holidays and on some Saturdays to catch up the lost time. I'm still praying about next year. Should I put them in school and go back to college myself?? Do I continue with the homeschooling, which is my hearts desire?

I don't know the answers yet. I am just getting through one day at a time, really, which is all I can do. That is all the Lord calls us to do anyways, right? We can't take on troubles of tomorrow for today has enough for us to deal with. (right now, my immediate trouble is getting my 10y/o dd to bed! lol)

My boys are learning about the 'systems' of the body in science, this is a subject that they both are enjoying. We went to library and checked out books on the digestive system, circulatory system and resporatory system. I love this type of learning. They get some of what they need from the text book, but then go off on their own with their own studying of the subject.

My dd is learning her times tables in math. I am thinking of making her a game out of index cards to help her memorize them. I did this with my ds's and they liked to play with them because then it wasn't really work, but a game and they were learning at the same time.

Of course, there is so much more going on, but I'm not going to bore you with all the details of it all. Life is continuing for us after all, even when it felt like it was falling apart all around us there for a while.

Until next time,

Nancy