Ok....we have now lived in our new home for a whole year and this is our second winter here.  Are we used to being snowed in?  Nope.  Are we enjoying living in the countryside now?  Nope.  Do I appreciate the home that the Lord has provided for us?  Yes, but boy it is hard to keep reminding myself to not complain and murmur.  I moved from a more milder region to this!!  lol.  We are used to snow lasting for maybe 2 weeks at the longest...and now it can last for 6 months at the shortest.  The kids are really finding it hard and have suggested that they would like to return to public school because they just can't handle this any longer.   I feel horrible...what have I done?  I wanted this.  I wanted to leave the busy life and just rest in peace and quiet.  But I don't really have much of that.  Not with 3 children constantly complaining and fighting.  We are starting to develope "Cabin fever"....and it isn't really understood by most of our neighbours.  They believe that I should do my children a favor and put them back into school and get a fulltime job.  I think I will choose to keep cabin fever!!  Who wants to get up before 7am and get kids dressed and out to the end of the drive way?  Not me!!  Who wants to deal with different teachers for each child?  Not me!!  Do I want to be scrambling with ideas for lunches that are healthy and tasty?  The last school actually investigated my children's lunches and sent things home that weren't deemed good enough.  lol.  Do I want to commit myself to swallowing my anger again at thinking that if I gave birth to my own children...then I can dress them myself, make their lunch choices myself....and train them to believe what is the truth and how to deal with bullies our way - once their way hasn't worked and my child comes home crying and weeping.....I need to get a t-shirt that has a very strong arguement for why I choose to homeschool....why I choose to stay home and not work a fulltime job.  I have a fulltime job and this is what the Lord has brought me to do.  It is hard my task.  I took a huge pay cut.....lol, oops I don't get paid in the same standards as the world.  I get paid by hugs and kisses all day long.  I get told I am loved and that is my almost 11 year old son.  Most boys have stopped hugging and kissing their moms...it isn't cool anymore to some.  My daughter is 13...she hugs me and kisses me and she smiles alot....that there must mean something is wrong with her lol.  I have seen so many girls her age that just mope and frown and watch everyone else with their arms crossed.  And my 7 year old son is still cuddly.  They all are cuddly.  I love that.  Do I really want to trade that all in?  No.  But we do need to find some fun activities. 

This past week we have colored and cut out paper dolls, we have been cross stitching, and sewing items for others for wee gifts to give away for the holidays.  We adopted a new kitten....because apparently we had adopted a mouse and didn't know it.  Yuck lol.  The kitten will hopefully keep other little stow-aways out.  So we are discussing pets again.  Reading about how to take care of pets that we have and the ones that others here would like to have.  We have gone outside on warmer days and played and gone for walks.  The hard part is that we are going through some really bad financial burdens right now and we just can't afford the extras.  I have found an outdoor skating rink in town that costs nothing to go and skate on...I just need to find afew more pairs of skates.  And Sunday evenings is free in the big indoor arena.  I need to find other ideas though...something that will keep us entertained.  Time to pull out afew of our board games I think.  I really wished that we had dress up clothes.  My daughter would love something from the era that we are studying.  But finding a pattern that she likes that would not be too difficult hasn't been really easy.  We are studying the Middle Ages and she loves the dresses that have the higher waistlines from the later dates....around Jane Austen's time...which is aways off yet of what I am still trying to work us through.  We are really enjoying the CD's that Diana Waring has made, they are entertaining on their own!!! 

Well....I have babbled long enough.  Time to go and watch my borrowed movie from the library and do some cross stitching....and then some Bible time to myself.  I am finding that burn out comes in the winter here....and I am now praying that I might rather live in town.  Until I think of all the concerns there as well.  Sigh.  God will lead and I will stand still and listen :)

Blessings from acraisydaisy