In His Wonders - Homeschool Blogger

ahhhh, hello old friend

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 10:46:00 -0600

It's so nice to see my blog still sitting here waiting for me like a faithful dog. I've been away so long. And here you are. Just as I left you. I read my old entries and was overwhelmed with emotion. Funny, I remember writing and living those days.

Oh how life has changed since then.

We found a house in the country and moved. It's still one of the saddest things I've ever done. I just can't believe how attached I was to our old house. I loved it. I loved the land and the setting and just everything. I loved how our family grew there. It was just full of such good memories.

But, it's still just a house (as the movie UP reminds me). And, we've expanded our family at our new home as well. This one was a surprise. Last Christmas eve while celebrating with our family, I was pulled to the side and told that my just turned 16 year old cousin was pregnant and due in February. I had just spent hours with her and didn't even know. And I'm one who can feel the baby vibe pretty quickly! It was a shocker! She had just told her mom and step-dad and her dad and step-mom the previous week. She had a very extensive doctor's visit and everything had checked out well (Praise God!!) and she was due in February with a baby boy. We didn't discuss anything more than that with it being Christmas eve.

I told my husband about the baby when we had our girls snuggled in bed for the night and were getting ready to try to close our eyes for awhile too. I told him that I was going to pray about it and wanted him to do the same. The next day we agreed we would help out my cousin in any way including adopting the baby boy.

We talked to her a few days after Christmas and told her we were here to help in any way. I offered to homeschool her and help her with the baby. We offered to do a "shared parenting" style to help her get through school and we offered to adopt the baby and raise him as our son in an open adoption where he would know her as his birthmother.

She had always planned on adoption. And this is what she chose. She said she didn't want to have to wonder where the baby was. She didn't want to have to wonder if he was living in an unhappy home like her mom and stepdad or a happy home like her dad and stepmom.

And in February, our son was born!! We were there for his birth. I coached during labor, cut his cord, and he was handed to me. It was the most emotional birth experience I have had. Oh the girls' births were amazing. But this was different. Maybe because I *knew* all that she had just felt and to experience it without the pain was that much more intense...I don't know. But, it was amazing! I stayed in the hospital with my cousin and my new baby and we were all discharged the following day.

My little man is 9 months old now. He's crawling, had two teeth, and is starting to say words. Yep, just like his sisters he is going to be an EARLY talker. He's the love of our life. He has 4 big sisters wrapped around his finger. The two oldest sisters are in public school and can't wait to hold him the second they get home in the afternoon. The other 2 sisters are homeschooled and he loves having an audience all day with them.

God has blessed us! I may have experienced a loss of the house I loved but oh, what I have gained after that loss too!! It really takes that loss away. I don't dwell on it like I did for awhile.

HE GIVES AND TAKES AWAY!!!

5 years in the blink of an eye

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 10:04:00 -0500

I just had 5 years go by in the blink of an eye. Delaney just turned 5. Already! She is such a sweetheart and she is the biggest drama queen of the bunch. This girl has talent! I've not been good at keeping up in the blogging world. Its hard to do when your only internet is via a BlackBerry. I'm hoping to get to the library for a day and get caught up on some things while there. Hope all are having a blessed autumn!

hurricane Ike

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:44:00 -0500

Well I wouldn't have thought it possible but Ike made his way to Ohio on Sunday. We didn't have a real true hurricane but the winds were strong scary, and dangerous!we lost power on sunday afternoon and are still doing without. I'm trying to post using my BlackBerry but its not working so well. I'll have to go to the library which has power now and use their internet. We're hearing we could have power by today or tomorrow. Maybe as late as the weekend but they are working like crazy to get everyone back to on. Trying to entertain the @I and 4 year olds by the end of the day is hard. It's fine enough during the day but once it's dusk then it's difficult because they are scared of the dark housew . And I'm really anxious for warm food again!

House Hunting

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:12:00 -0500

We are beginning to hunt for a new home. This is incredibly sad and stressful for me. We LOVE our house. But, it's just become too costly for us and we must get out from under this huge payment.

We're looking at moving to a more rural setting. Once you get out of the city the property is so much cheaper and the house size is the same or larger. And, with our homeschooling adventure, I no longer have to live in school districts that are so expensive. So property tax would be a lot cheaper somewhere else. We pay $240/mo in property tax ontop of the riduculous house payment currently. YIKES!

What I'm truly hoping to find is a country house for rent. Then, after renting and living "out" somewhere we'd know if it was a good fit for our family. I'm so not a country girl. I sort of want to test the water before jumping in. I think it will be ok and just a new season for my life. When dh and I used to move around a lot due to his job, there was no such thing as free long distance. We left to another city and we were just sort of there. We had one car at the time and dh worked 13-17 hour days. I was home everyday with our two little girls and had no way of getting out to make friends and meet people. It was a really depressing situation for me. Now things have changed so much. With free long distance you can talk all day long no matter where you are. And OH, the internet. What a blessing that is for someone who is no longer right next door to everyone and everything. I just don't see moving as being an issue anymore. Not to mention with the kids being in sports and everything else, you really are involved whether you want to be or not None the less, I would prefer not to buy a house and be locked into that until just at least getting a taste of it first.

If you, friends, could join me in prayer asking God to lead us where He would want us. If it's His will that we move, may He show us in a mighty and powerful way.

Spicebush caterpillar

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:37:00 -0500

My daughter found this incredible caterpillar this week. It was so neat.

It has these great painted eyes on it. They're beautiful to look at. We brought him in to take pictures then put it back outside.

I've googled and found out it's a Spicebush Swallowtail.

How do you rate as a husband or wife of the 1930s?

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:51:00 -0500

How do you rate as a husband or wife of the 1930s?

Go to this website to take the Marital Test!

It has a cute button that I should put *HERE* but I can't figure out how to put buttons within a post. Only on my sidebar.

I need lessons!

Anyway, here's my score. (I think I earned lots of extra points for having 4 kids!!)

79

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Superior

She's full of surprises

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:07:00 -0500

Everyday that I babysit, my youngest, Makenna, draws a picture for the baby to take home with him. She draws her adorable little balloon head, stick legged people. There are usually three people in her drawings. The baby, his mommy and his daddy. Sometimes she'll draw herself in the picture too.

Today she drew the picture then asked how to spell Leslie, the mom's name. I told her the letters one by one and Makenna was able to write them! The E's looked a little spidery with about 10 lines off it instead of 3. But other than that LESLIE was completely legible. She was able to write the dad's name too. Who knew?

I was impressed that she knew her letters at 3 but now I'm even more impressed that she can write them without looking at anything. She'll be 3 1/2 in October. It's not something we've been working on yet. Apparently, it's something we're going to be starting since she's interested.

Isn't it funny how you work so hard for them to *get* some things and others they just surprise you with?

Do you need a laugh?

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 20:43:00 -0500

Be sure to jump over to my friend from THE SWAP Toni's blog! She's written the most hysterical mom experience. It had me laughing hard out loud and did I ever need it today.

Thank you, Toni!

Back to School Giveaway

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 20:44:00 -0500

Nancy at Homemade Blessings is having this fantastic fall give-away!

Isn't it great!?!!?? I just love everything and her pictures showing off the goodies are great too. It makes me long for the cooler weather to hurry up and get here.

Here's the part I just hate I have to tell YOU how to enter too - therefore lowering my chances of winning this great back to school prize - but, it's so great I know you'd want to win it too, so here goes!

If you'd like a chance to win this giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment on her post telling her one of your favorite things about Fall. If you would like to be entered twice, write a post about this giveaway on your blog, linking back to Nancy's post. If you do this, please leave Nancy a second comment so that she will know to enter you a second time. Due to the price of shipping, she has made this one open only to the continental U.S.

She is going to run this giveaway for one week - it will end at 11:59 pm on Friday, September 5th. Nancy will pick the winner on Saturday and put up a post to announce who won!

What do you turn around for?

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 07:21:00 -0500

I'm going to try to re-write the blog that was giving me such fits last week.

What do you never leave home without? For me there are two things I absolutely must have with me. First of course

my keys. Yeah, we wouldn't be going anywhere without these. Although they did play a really good game of hide and seek for over a week. During that time I had to use the "valet" key. Ha! Seriously, that's what's written on the spare key. Valet. Hmm, valet key for a minivan. Seems to be some type of oxymoron if you ask me.

The other thing I do not leave home without is my blackberry.

This baby is with me 24/7. We don't have a landline phone so this is my connection to anyone who needs me, plus I can get my email and I can surf the internet (read: visit my favorite blogs and my favorite message board The Swap). And, most importantly, this is how my kids can get ahold of me. I allow my two older girls to wander through stores or wherever else we may be alone together (another oxymoron?!) as long as they carry a cell phone and I have mine. It's been a good way for mom to allow them to do a little bit of growing up without being completely out of touch with them.

These are the things I cannot leave without. If I leave my purse at home. No big deal. But leave my cell and this minivan is turning straight around.

But would I turn around if I left my bible at home? Lately I have been really convicted about not getting into the word. It was getting to be where I'd go to church on Sunday, come home, and park my bible until the following Sunday. Sure, I'd pick up some devotional stuff or some commentary, but I wasn't actually IN God's word daily. God knows my downtime. So when I mean to grab my bible to read during my downtime while I'm at a soccer practice or something like that, but then I accidently forget it, is it important enough to me to turn around for?

This has really been on my heart. I need to make sure that God is my top priority. Give God the top placement in my life and the rest will fall into place.