We are in the middle of our 5th week of ECC.  It has been so much fun so far.   We started school before we started all our activities for the Fall.  

Finding a routine is so hard for me.   I get credit for being spontanous and flexible.  Hah!  If they only knew that being SO unorganized allows me to be 'flexible'.  We had finally gotten into a working routine for school.    We were at least getting school done each day.   All that changed this past week.

Tuesday night, Julia went to her first gymnastics class.   On Wednesday, Jessica has her 2nd ballet class.   Thursday morning, we had our 2nd week of co-op.   By Friday, we had lost our momentum and it was a Monday all over again.   On Mondays, we always struggle to get the feel of the routine again.  Now, we are doing that twice a week.  Ugh!  

Today, the kids had a lot of fun flying some airplanes that Dad had picked up for them.  They spent most of the day decorating them and flying them.   I threw Joshua's plane once and it hit him on top of the head.  He was not happy and I was not invited to play with them again.  But, they did let me watch and take pictures. 

I found this picture slide on another blog and I love it.  I will try to keep recent pictures in it.   It is fun to play with.  Since I can't seem to upload more than 1 picture to my blog because of space issues, I will have fun using this.

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My dryer has not been drying correctly lately.  I was commenting to my husband that I have to run the dryer at least twice to dry a load.    Today, I decided to pull the dryer out and clean the lint hose.  We have had the dryer a year and it is probably time.

I pulled the dryer out and climbed back behind it.  Pulled the hose off the dryer.  And stuck my hand in the vent.  I hit something that was rather hard (I was expecting a handful of soft lint).  Not being able to see into the hose and not knowing what creature maybe lucking inside, it scared me and I ran the hose outside as fast as I could.  Funny how it took a lot less time to get out from behind the dryer than it took to get back there.  ;-)

Outside, it was discovered that a bird had built a nest and layed her eggs inside my dryer vent hose.  The kids loved it.  I hated to destroy all the hard work that the bird did building the nest, but the eggs had been bounced out of the nest by the time that I got it outside.  Also, I realized that when the bird came back for the nest, she would be flying straight into the house instead of into the dryer vent hose.  Needless to say, we cleaned out the dryer vent hose and the dryer is back in working order.

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Acutally, we don't have any idea what nomal looks like?  I don't think it ever happens here.  If it did, would we recognize it?  Something for me to think about.  :-)

All of our Thanksgiving guests have left.  Last week, we had my aunt come and visit us for 3 days.  She left before Thanksgiving, so she could spend a couple of days with her family in NC before heading back to MI.  

My aunt has been a public school teacher for many years.  After spending time a lot of time with the kids, she was very impressed with their education so far.  That was very exciting to hear. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner with just the 5 of us.  It was quiet and fun.  We put the Christmas tree up the same day.  We couldn't wait until the day after Thanksgiving, which is usually our tradition.  The kids did most of the decorating.  I loved that part.  ;-)

On Sunday, my parents came to visit.  They traveled from MI to GA and spent a couple days with my Grandma.  Then they came over here (to SC).  They left after lunch today.   The only thing that made their leaving okay, was that we will be at their house for Christmas which is only a few weeks away.

We had such a wonderful time.   With Grandma and Papa, we made sugar cookies, painted paper to use as wrapping paper and played, played and played. 

We also went to Kings Mountain Battlefield park.   I don't remember the proper name of the park, but it is a big history spot.  A huge battle for the American Revolution took place there.  The battle was a turning point for the war.  We just finished studying it in History, so it was really interesting.

That is a quick recap of the past two weeks.  Now it is back to school for two weeks until Christmas vacation.   

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I am so thankful for many things, but especially family and friends that God  has placed in my life. 

We moved to South Carolina last Thanksgiving weekend.  We spent Thanksgiving loading the two trailers with the stuff we needed to make a home here.  My parents drove down with one trailer and we drove with the other trailer.  We ate our  Thanksgiving meal at a truck stop.  I was surprised to find that the place was very busy and the food was not bad.  It is a Thanksgiving meal that we will never forget.   We arrived at our new home on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Moving away has made us appreciate the wonderful friends and family that we have.  God has blessed us and taken good care of us.  Distance puts a strain on friendships, but it doesn't make them go away.  The stronger friendships that I have continued in spite of the distance.

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I am sitting here freezing.  I can't believe that it is this cold.  It is near freezing, literally, outside.   It is the end of October, but I am still not ready for cold weather. 

It is really to cold to even think. 

School is going good this week.  The kids are really surprising me at the amount of information that they grab and remember.  The girls and I have had some really great conversations lately that made me realize that they are really growing up.  They are able to remember things that we talked about last year.   I am so amazed at how great God created the human mind.

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Actually, I was home every night, but it felt like I was gone for a while.   This past weekend, (Thursday night, all day Friday and most of the day on Saturday), I was at a women's retreat at Hallelujah Acres. 

I had a wonderful time being encouraged to be healthier both physically and spiritually.   The speakers were fantastic.  Nancy Campbell, auther of Above Rubies magazine, was one of the speakers.  She really challenged me to dig deeper in the Scriptures and she opened my eyes to pratical ways to apply God's Word to my life. 

Many other speakers added to the weekend with humor and challenges, personal testamonies and medical facts.  It was a fantastic weekend.  I hope to return next year.

I had considered whether to share my long journey that I have traveled while looking for relief to my physical problems.    I suppose that at some point, I will write it here, but the journey was long.   In the end, I feel led to follow the Hallelujah diet.  I have struggle for the last 10 months trying to get on the diet, but being mostly off.  The diet is a vegan mostly raw diet based on Genesis 1:29.   Being from a dairy farm, this has been a huge struggle to change my diet so much.

Everytime I think that I will just give up the idea of trying to get on the diet, the Lord brings something into my life that makes me want to give it another try.  I don't want to get into a discussion about why certain diets are good or bad.  I just know that after much prayer and searching and reading, I feel this is God's answer to my prayers.  My husband and children are not on the diet and have no plans to be, but health-wise, I know it works better for me. 

I have re-started the diet many times, but today is day 5 without any cheating.  Hurray!  I had a horrible headache for 2 days (detox, I think), but now I feel great.

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I don't know why I am up right now.  It is 4 am and I can't sleep.   My mind is racing because of all the things that I have to do today.  We are leaving tomorrow morning around 6 am and I have many things to do today.   After laying in bed for about half an hour, I decided to get up.  Now the problem is that I can't do anything without turning on the lights or making any noise. 

The oldest would sleep though any noise but if I turned on any lights and started making any noise at all (I am even concerned about the keyboard noise ;-) )  the 2 youngest would be awake.   Having a 3 year old standing next to me at 4 am is bad.  He would be cranky and clingy the rest of the day.  And since I have so much to do, that would not be good.

So, instead of sleeping (which would be the best thing to do right now) or getting some things done right now (which would also be good);  I am typing here and reading other blogs. 

I will be gone for a week.  We are heading to Michigan (from South Carolina) to see family.

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This has been really a crazy week.  My husband was out of town for 3 nights on business and I spent the first day of it in bed with a horrible headache.  The kids really stepped up to the plate and helped.  

We all really miss Dad when he is gone, which is not very often anymore.  He used to travel a lot.  He would come home on the weekends but be gone 3, 4 or 5 weeks at a time.  Once it was 6 weeks and this included a 2 week trip to Germany.  That was really hard. 

Now, he doesn't travel much at all and that is another blessing that comes with his job tranfer.  If I focus on the blessings of the job transfer, it makes me miss my family in Michigan less.  Another blessing is that with this transfer, he has to travel to Michigan four times a year, the kids and I get to stay with my parents while he works, so the trip doesn't cost us vacation time.  The kids and I make out better on this deal, but he doesn't seem to mind.  God is so good. 

We finished our 4th week of school yesterday.  We have had a great first month.  Praise God.

Today is my husband's birthday.  I feel so blessed to have found him.  Happy Birthday to a great husband and father.  God has filled my cup to overflowing. 

Thank you God.

Kerry

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I have been struggling to get the kids to do a quiet time for a long time.   I would try and fail and then not try again for months.  Last weekend, my husband said that the kids need to lay down each day with some time to themselves.  Exactly what I have been thinking for a year or more. 

Well,  once dad said it, the kids are doing it without any complains.  Around 2 pm, I say it is time for quiet time.  I read to them for about 20-30 minutes.  The reading is for school and to relax them.  They love it. 

Then we each go to a seperate room.  One girl is in the living room because they share a room and will not be quiet when in there together.  I set the timer for 1 hour and when it dings they can get up.   Joshua has fallen asleep twice, but it okay because I didn't tell him he had to take a nap.  The only rule is you have to stay in bed (or on the couch) and be quiet.

We started this on Monday and it is day number 4 today.  Yippie.  I love it.  Somehow, the hour seem like 5 minutes to me.  Oh, well.  I get to rest also.   The house is so wonderful when it is so quiet.  Did I mention I LOVE IT?

Thanks for stopping by,

Kerry

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I am once again thinking about the need for a schedule in our house.  The kids and I do schoolwork and housework very randomly.  I don't know where to begin to make a schedule.  I need someone to walk in the house and put a chart on the wall that says what we should be doing and when.

I have tried to keep track of my daily activities and the time that it took so I could  start building a schedule.  I can't seem to remember to write stuff down.  I have never  been good at keeping a food diary either, I just get sidetracked very easily and forget that I was even trying to keep track. 

I purchased Manages of Their Homes several years ago.  I guess it is time to pull it out again (if I can find it!) and give it another try.   I have so many books and I can never find the one that I want to look at when I want it.    Must get rid of some books.  Must get rid of some books.  Good project for tomorrow (if I have time).

Thanks for stopping my blog.  If you have any great ideas for how to create a schedule, please leave a comment or email me.  I would love to get some ideas.

Kerry

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