Posted By Helena

 

 

Posted By Amanda

Our church hosted a Harvest Party.  The kids had a lot of fun, playing games & winning candy. :)

After we left (I had to bring Steve home--he had to work that night), I brought the girls to my friend Val's house to go trick or treating.  This was the first time my girls had ever been trick or treating. And now I know why.  I was exhausted by the time we were done & so were all of the kids! LOL

Here are some pics of the party:

The cookie that Patience decorated for me

Patience getting her face painted by Miss Heidi.  I thought she would get a rainbow on her cheek or something...NOT.

The finished product!

Eli helped the little kids play games.  He is growing up so fast!

Next!

Patience doing spin art

Maddie, getting her face painted.  Quite frankly, seeing her made up like this was disturbing to me, so I didn't take a picture of the end result.

I didn't bring the camera Trick or Treating--it got dark pretty quickly.  The girls had a great time (and for those of you wondering, Eli said he didn't want to come.  Steve said he changed his mind 2 minutes after we left--oh well!).

Posted By Amanda

It feels like it's been a long week!   I taught Sunday School this past week--I enjoy it, but it's a lot of work.  Then I had a show Sunday afternoon in Swansea, MA.  A bit of a drive, especially if you're a native RI'er. :)

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Monday, Patience started to cough.  She's been coughing ever since.  No fever, though, thank God. Steve had school Monday evening.   We ended up cancelling Patience's piano lesson on Tuesday, and she stayed home from art lessons.  I ran to the bank while Eli & Maddie were in art. Steve had school Tuesday night.  Eli had writing class on Wednesday, and then I had a show in North Kingstown Wednesday evening (fun bunch of girls--we laughed a lot!).  Yesterday, Maddie and I had our first knitting lesson with my friend, Ruth.  Then we went to Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart. 

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Today I need to go to the bank.  And tonight my friend, Val, is having a Lia Sophia party.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with one of my new consultants, and Steve is working his overnight shift & Wal-Mart.

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I cannot wait for Sunday--just church, nothing else.  We can put football on and just relax!

Oh, I've been meaning to post some more pics of our cats, Moses & Selden.  It's been weeks since Selden has been allowed outside, and he seems to be adjusting to having Moses around.

Here's Moses, playing in an empty Frosted Flakes box that someone was helpful enough to leave on the floor.

Sleeping together on the window seat

What?  Was this seat already taken?

 On the table together

 

Posted By Amanda

It's been absolutely ages since I've shopped at CVS and used Extra Care Bucks with any kind of regularity.  All of the shopping I did there over last winter really helped.  I think we just recently ran out of toothpaste.

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Since Patience is sick, and I had to make a CVS run anyway, I got out the flyer and my coupons.  Now, keep in mind that in order to get ECB's to use in the future, you have to spend some $ to start off.  At least I've always found that to be the case.  There were things on sale this week that I don't know that I would normally buy (i.e., name brand), but they were items that we use, and I could get ECB's back, so I went for it.

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This is what I bought:

2-Dawn Ultra   I saved $1.02 each with the sale, and had 2-20 cent coupons

2-2 liter bottles of Coke saved 49 cents each, and earned $1 ECB

2- 42 count boxes of Prilosec saved $4.22 each with the sale, had a $7 coupon, and earned $10 ECB

2- 5.8 oz Colgate Total saved $1.40 each with the sale, has 2- $1 coupons, and earned $2 ECB

1 package of Neti Pot premixed solution packets saved $2.49 with sale

2-12 count boxes of Nyquil & Dayquil (one box of each) hmmm, I'm just realizing I didn't get the sale price on these....I was supposed to save $.99 each, and I had $2.50 in coupons.  Those plus the solution packets earned me $10 ECB. Although I had to go back into the store to get the $10 ECB's because for whatever reason, they didn't print out on their own--probably for the same reason that I wasn't given the sale price on the Dayquil and Nyquil.  Not sure if I'll go back to get that $1.98.

2-8.5 oz Soft Soap handpumps BOGO saved $3.29

4-boxes of Kleenex They were BOGO (saved $4.78), and I had a $1 off 4 coupon

A SoftSoap handpump with a base refill I had a coupon for a FREE refill ($3.99 value), and I'm just noticing that that coupon wasn't redeemed.  Did I drop it?  Did the cashier drop it?  Is it still in my coupon box? Grrrr. It's not here.  He must have dropped it.  Do I go back?  I have a $3 coupon I could apply to this purchase.  I earned $4 ECB by buying both.

I also bought a package of gummy vitamins for the kids and a bottle of CVS hand sanitizer.

Once I got home from CVS, I found an online coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase.  I went back to the store yesterday evening (hence my hesitation to go back AGAIN), and they allowed me to apply it to my transaction.

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SO.

Before sales & coupons, my total would have been $146.36.

I had $4 ECB's to apply to the order.  I used $17.90 in coupons.

I paid $92.78, and I now have $27 ECB's to use next week.

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I have to admit, it's a little frustrating to see where the cashier messed up and I didn't catch it.  I need to pay more attention!   If I had caught the mix up on the Nyquil/Dayquil price, and realized that he didn't use the Softsoap coupon, I could have saved an extra $6.  I did save $54, though, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

Posted By Amanda

I'll see YOU after my show tonight.

 

Posted By Amanda

LOL  Yeah, it's been a while.  But I went to not one, but TWO public schools today, and I'm okay.

I had to hand in the consent forms for the H1N1 flu vaccine.  Steve and I haven't decided completely if our kids are going to get it, but if we decide to, the consent forms need to be there.

The shots aren't being administered until the 2nd week of December, so who knows?  Maybe we'll have already gotten the flu, and built up our own immunity! (I'm just kidding--I really don't want to get the flu!)

Posted By Amanda

 

Posted By Carol

One of the many issues that crop up in Christian circles, and especially in Christian homeschooling circles is the issue of whether to get involved in controlling the size of one's family, or whether to "surrender control of our family size over to the Lord."  I'll admit it; when you put it like that, it sounds like those who choose this path are the righteous ones and those who do not just aren't willing to give it all to Him.

I have certainly wrestled with that question myself.  We have four children, and the youngest was born shortly after I turned 35.  As tends to happen when a baby gets to be about 2 or 3, I still had some desire for another little one to come along. What's sweeter than a baby?  And my 3rd and 4th children are the very best examples I know of why people should consider having more than two.  I often find myself thinking, "I wish s0-and-so would consider having another, because she seems like a such a loving mom and I know what a blessing another baby would be for her."  And thus I freely recognize that if we had more, they would bless us in ways we couldn't predict.

So during that time when I wasn't quite 40 yet so didn't feel the biological time crunch so acutely, I could have gone either way on whether to expand our family or not.  We had not struggled with infertility, my pregnancies were easy, and we are financially blessed, so adding another child to raise was not threatening in any of those ways. Nonetheless, I would have happily had 10 more babies, but the thought of actually raising another child was unsettling.  Obviously, I needed to pray about it, and I essentially prayed that the Lord would lead me through my husband's leadership.  I asked, "Lord, if you want us to have more, please have him bring it up."  And he never said a word.

Yet that concern that perhaps I'm not willing to give the Lord control still plagued me from time to time.  Is it unassailable truth, or is it a holier-than-thou phrase used by people who have chosen a difficult, counter-cultural path use to help defend themselves against the many slings and arrows that definitely come their way? 

I still don't know the answer to that question, but I know that the Lord did not lead me, through my husband, to continue having children.  Here is how I view it now.  The Lord created for seven days.  He created things that man never even saw for centuries.  Microscopic life that was invisible, ocean life that lives at depths that could not be plumbed, rain forest life that was hidden and rarely observed.  The diversity of creation is astounding and awe-inspiring in every way.

And then God stopped.  He said it was good.  Was it because he was out of ideas for new creatures?  Hardly.  Look at all the creatures finite man has dreamed up in our own imaginations.  Did those not occur to God?  Could He not have come up with a unicorn or phoenix or manticore or flying horse or whatever if He wanted?  Certainly He could have.  But He looked at what He had created, He decided it was enough, He said it was good, and He left off creating.

We, thanks to His kindness, procreated.  And we have looked at the fruits of our procreation, and it is good, and it is enough, and we have left off.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Posted By Amanda

Fourteen years ago, at this exact moment, I was sleeping.  And still pregnant with my daughter, Abigail. 

Almost exactly fourteen years and 5 hours from now, my water was breaking.

Fourteen years and 11 hours from now, I was giving birth to Abigail Louise.  Five pounds, one ounce, head full of black hair.  Perfect little fingers.

Fourteen years and 13 hours from now, she died.

I can't believe it's been fourteen years.  How do you survive fourteen years without holding your child in your arms?

I've missed her every day for fourteen years.  My eldest, my firstborn, the child who made me a mother.

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Most days I'm fine.  Some people don't even know that I have a child who died.  Mother's Day is hard.  Her birthday is hard.  Some years not so much, but tonight I find myself unable to sleep, just missing her so much.

Hating the fact that I don't know her.  What would she look like?  What would her interests be?  Would she be tall and skinny like Eli & Maddie, or rounder, shall we say, like Patience?  What color were her eyes?  Would she be into sports?  Crafts?  Cooking?  Science?  What would her voice sound like?  Her laugh?

She would be in high school this year.  How is that possible?  I am not nearly old enough to be the mother of a high-schooler!  At least, I don't feel mature enough to be one.

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I've been so blessed.  I have three gorgeous, funny, brilliant, sweet children upstairs sleeping right now.  My husband is asleep in our room.  Just the fact that our marriage survived losing Abby is incredible.  Although........it's hard when you're at different places in the grieving process.  Maybe it's because I'm a woman, a mom, a little dramatic, ME, but I still have moments like this, and he doesn't.  At all.  In fact, I tried to go to bed earlier, but I was crying, and it woke him up.  I asked him if he missed Abigail, and he said not really.  That he's at a point where he just looks forward to seeing her in Heaven.

I can respect that, but....how can he not miss her?  I can still feel her little body in my arms, her little cheek against mine.  She was so tiny, and I wanted to hold her so tight against me, to not let go.  How do I stop missing her?  I've accepted that it happened, and I don't question why, and I'm not mad at God, but I still grieve what what I'm missing here on earth.  The relationship that I didn't get to have with her.  Hearing her call me 'Mommy', teaching her to walk, homeschooling her.....in two years, she'd be old enough to get her license!

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I have been incredibly blessed with friends who remember Abby's birthday every year.  They let me know they're thinking of me, and remembering her.  It means so much to me.

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I'm trying to count my blessings tonight.  To remember and see God's faithfulness in our lives.  But right now, just for this moment, I wish my girl were upstairs sleeping. 

Abby, I miss you so much, and I hope you know how much I love you.  Happy Birthday, baby girl. xoxo

 

Posted By Amanda

It looks like (for the first time) my Facebook account has been hacked into.  I can't access it, as my password has been changed.  I'm working with The  Facebook Team to resolve it.

Grrrr......

Okay, I was able to get back on last night and change my password.  Good.  Got on this morning, and said hello to a few friends.  Went to check FB at noon time--couldn't get on.  Got home after a long afternoon, now I can sign on.  Yeesh.