This is the ramblings of a mommy who likes to make the most out of each day. You never know when it will be your last! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:12:00 -0500 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:12:00 -0500 Come see me at: www.myfamilyliferocks.blogspot.com     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/411761/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/411761/ We had an awesome day at Sommersby's Farm in Oviedo celebrating Kylie's 4th birthday party. It is hard to imagine that she is 4! Kylie's friends had a blast riding the pony and playing with the miniture horses and the resident goat. Enjoy the pictures! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/404442/ Sun, 7 Oct 2007 15:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/404442/ I think my DH has taken this Homeschool thing a bit far. He is playing Scrabble with my DD. Did I mention that she was only a few days away from 4?   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/400312/ Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/400312/ Ok, so I have been playing around at blogspot now for a week or so. I am not great with computers but let me know which platform is better! This one, or my other blog... www.myfamilyliferocks.blogspot.com   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/395337/ Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:55:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/395337/ I have to admit, I have been wound tighter than a rubber band lately. With the move, the weddings, getting rid of things etc. I have just been plain ol' stressed. Finally today after a long days work at the old house, boxing and bagging things for the Salvation Army I see the light at the end of the tunnel. ~ Tomorrow between 9-12 the Salvation Army will take away 30+bags and 25 boxes of stuff!!! ~ The realitor will come at 2 to take pictures of our house and finally get the house listed!!! Whoooo hooo! ~ I have buyers for the last of my furniture! Do you hear me exhale?? Now on to plan my DD's birthday party on the 6th...   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/394525/ Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:33:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/394525/ I am so thankful for things in my life so I probably shouldn't even whine about my issues but here goes. Maybe if I get it off my chest I will move on! ~ my son has just recently started getting out of bed and climbing into mine at 5:30-6am. Bless his heart, he just goes right back to sleep but then since I am awake, I want to get up! I can't move as he has crashed on my arm. So I usually drift back to sleep but my desire is to wake up around 6am to do my quiet time and excessing. ~ work. I dunno where to start with that one. I am thankful that I can stay at home with my kids. I pray that I can minister to the children who come through the doors but I am more and more convinced that it is a difficult place for a family to live. The desires of the Children's Home for me and my family are clashing with my goals as a mom. It is hard to raise your children up with such a lack of structure! I am praying for my DH to get a more stable job in the company so we can stay here just get me out of the cottage. ~ The boys attitudes. Sure, we all have our days but this is getting constant. We have a new boy here who is wonderful but he is an ex gang member. I mean, a real gang member - not one who just thinks he is in a gang, he was really shot at, shot at others etc. His gang culture is starting to seep into our cottage like colors and gang signs. I pray that we can show him the love of Christ and that he does have an identity outside of the gangs he is so close with. ~ I am just tired. I never feel fully rested even after 8 hours sleep. ~ Last but not least... Home school! How fun this has been. Pray that I stay on task and don't loose momentum as I am gone for 2 weeks. I am going to a dear friend's wedding and then my SIL's wedding back to back but I am so excited for both of them as they start off on their journey's. And if you have read this far, bless you! Now go hug your kids and tell them how much you love them. Turn up the music and dance around the living room - act crazy and maybe we will all feel better!     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/384406/ Mon, 3 Sep 2007 13:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/384406/ Finally, the day I have been waiting for. The day of our garage sale. I stand in the midst of chaos - literally standing as I am selling the bar stool that is normally in front of my laptop. There is a flood of emotions that run through me as I am here in the late hours by myself.  One part of me is excited on the new adventure of living in a new home but another struggles with letting go of the stuff. Every toy is a memory, every outfit might be worn again by a baby that isn't even conceived, and every item that I touch holds it's own story of our family together. What keeps me going is the anticipation of the new memories to come, in our new house. My sweet husband and children are in their new home peacefully sleeping as I type. They have had a rough day of more packing, mommy shooing them off to busy themselves and just chaos. I can't wait for the day to day routine to start so we can all settle down, so I can love on my kids and my husband. I can't wait for the projects to be over so I can live life again. I miss my kids and my husband. Well, before I become a blithering idiot, I must go to bed. It is an early morning to move everything on the driveway. I hope there aren't any early birds as I am starting at 8! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/379324/ Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/379324/ I will do a quick update as I only have a second. We are moved! On August 11th, a wonderful gang of people helped us move into our new home. While it is a lot smaller, I really enjoy the simplicity of it all. It is all new, all fresh and most of our furniture matches again! Everything goes! We are getting rid of the mismatched things on Aug 25-26 during our massive garage sale so pray for us as we get it all ready! Work is well... going. I am just not happy of who we have become here. We want to advocate for the boys but we get so critical! Not of the boys mind you but of all the adults making decisions for the boys and the campus. We feel as we don't have a positive word to say about the decisions that are being made here. Blech. I don't think we will be making any career changes soon though as we now live on campus and depend on our job for our housing! Our kids are as flexible as ever. Being a mom has been the most rewarding experience for me and if it wasn't for them I would go crazy. They love our new home and beg to go there every day. So refreshing to see life out of a child's eye. Speaking of the children, we are officially starting school on Aug. 27th! Gulp! I have planned until I can plan no more so I feel as if *I* am ready.  Hope the kids are! We will be doing FIAR, B4FIAR, Handwriting without Tears, Reading Made Easy and the Math-U-See Primer. Now I just hope I can implement my plan. Well, that is it in a nutshell. You know, I haven't had a computer in my new house so maybe that is why I have gotten so much done. ;-)       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/374411/ Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:48:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/374411/ Pray for us. In one day we will be moving into a much smaller home. We love our home that we live in now but know it is the right thing to move into our "retreat." The Children's Home provides low cost housing for the houseparents as we don't really get a good salary to provide permanent housing every other week while we are not working. I have packed most of our things, Jon's father and some other friends from the children's home are going to help us. We have the truck rented so we just need to do the grunt work. I thought I was doing well with the emotions of it all but when the realtor asked if it was ok to put a lock box on the house, I lost it. My voice quivered a meek "yes" and my eyes quickly filled with tears as this is the home we have lived in for the past 5 years. I don't think in all of my life, I have lived in a home for such a long duration. That is including growing up. We have sweet memories here of our children growing and friends visiting. I know we will make new ones in our new home. Well, the kids are out with dad so I better go get packing...   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/371182/ Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/371182/ I had to take a moment and brag on my man for a bit. So bear with me as you read through this post! Last Wednesday we had a meeting with our Realtors. They came to look at the home and assess its market value. I was a bit daunted by this task but knew that our home had to be spotless! So I cleaned like a mad woman while Jon took the kids out. About 10 minutes before the Realtors came, my DH and kiddo's came home with bunches of flowers. I thought, "aahhh, how nice to add flowers for the Realtors! Nice touch." Anyone who knows my DH knows that he isn't mr. romantic so I just thought it was for the realtors. Nope! They were for me since he just wanted me to feel loved. It took me a minute to really "believe" him but as I distressed from cleaning I ended up really appreciative. Now as I see the flowers almost a week later, I am just happy that my DH thought of me. Then if flowers weren't enough... I had some secret shopping to do so I left the troops on Sat. morning. I was gone for some time and when I came home, the house was empty. No note or anything! So I got a cup of coffee, my new FIAR planner and began to enjoy some quiet time. Ahhhhhh.... About an hour later my DH came home with quietly sleeping children who were quickly moved to their beds. (3 more hours of quiet!) He also had an Old Navy bag. I thought, "good, he got some new clothes for himself." Again, nope! It was a big bag of clothes for me! You know the drill... Mom always goes out to buy clothes for the kids but never gets things for herself. Well that is me. So I tried on all of my clothes and you know what? My man did a really good job! No plumbers pants at all! I don't know what meant more to me. The fact that he bought me clothes or that he endured it all with the kids! Oh, I almost forgot. He also rented 2 chick flicks for me to watch this week AND he watched them with me! Truly amazing. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/364960/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Kristina/364960/