(Half-Baked) In The Florida Sun

Happy, er, second week of the New Year!

2012-01-11T00:47:00.001-05:00

Yay! Woohoo! Auld lang syne and all that stuff! :)

Yeah, I know I'm late. As usual. Forgive me, please?

So welcome to 2012. You gotta wonder what's going to happen this next year, don't ya? I know I do. My son turned 16 last September, so I expect this is going to be a year of him spreading his wings and stretching his boundaries. My mother's heart will be proud of him, while at the same time, aching at the thought of my little boy growing up. I suspect homeschooling to get a bit more intense as the younger two move up into high school and middle school. Can't really say much about my uber private hubby, so I'll just say that he's good and he's so good to me. And leave it at that.

As for myself, I'm hoping that the new year will bring me a bit more discipline and self-control. I'm guessing that's probably not all that likely. After all, it's been FORTY years already and it's not happened. :p Yes, you read THAT right, the big 40 attacked me three days before Christmas 2011. Dagnabit and doggoneit! How did that happen? No, really, HOW did that happen? I still remember being 12 and thinking that 18 was so far away. And then being 16 and thinking that 30 was just terribly old. And now? NOW? FORTY!!!! Holy crimoles! Okay, enough of that. Seriously, I do plan on being just a wee bit more disciplined in the eating department and the schooling department and maybe in the cleaning, nah, who am I kidding? Just the first two.

My hope for this year is debt related, as in "get out of it". My dreams are for hubby to have a job that he really loves. My expectations are that there is going to be a lot of fun stuff going on for us this year with softball and theater.

So got any hopes, dreams or expectations for 2012?

I know why I struggle to post on my blog.

2011-09-23T12:34:00.000-04:00

My husband is an intensely private person. And I'm not a big fan of sharing stuff that might embarrass my children, so there ya go. Not much to write about. LOL. So I'm going to have to work on that. I might have to become the strange aunt that no one wants to talk about so that I'll have something interesting to blog about.

One interesting thing that's happened recently - my older two auditioned for parts in The Musical Adventures of Oliver Twist. They both were cast in the play. My older daughter, Raina, was cast as Mrs. Corney/Mrs. Bumble and my son, Jacob as Mr. Sowerberry (the undertaker) and also as the villian, Bill Sikes. Fun stuff!

Emma, my youngest is very sad that she can't be in the musical, but she is a pitcher (fastpitch softball) and the rehearsal schedule and game times conflict. My hubby has taken on the daunting task of coaching (at my pleading and begging, seeing as I'm the head of our area's girls' softball league) and I think will make a terrific coach. He loves the girls and enjoys learning every tidbit of information he can about coaching. Besides, it gives him something else to think about other than his extremely stressful job.

Me, I'm just running around like a chicken with no head. Sigh...Stuff for church, stuff for softball and stuff like educating my kids. Eek. I'm still trying to cobble together my Core 100 for the older two. Thankfully, I'm pretty set for Emma. I love Sonlight but we just can not order the whole core this year. (remember I mentioned that stressful job of hubby's? Yeah, they cut all overtime AND reduced his pay by 3% even though he hasn't had a raise in over three years. The joys of being a public servant, eh?) Thankfully I have Amazon Prime and Paperback Swap. They've been wonderful resources :) Not to mention, my precious Kindle! Love that thing, best gift from hubby in a long time. So, I'll muddle through ordering school stuff and maybe we'll start before Thanksgiving. Good thing I'm a pretty laid back person! Rest assured, the kids are still learning.

Jacob is taking Latin, Algebra and Physical Science through FLVS. Raina is taking Math. She has one more assignment to complete in her 7th grade math class. Her teacher called last week and suggested we skip straight to Algebra 1. So that's the plan. I think it's a pretty good one :D

Well then, I guess that's a pretty good post, eh? And I didn't even have to put on a funny hat and talk to an imaginary friend. I'll call that success! ;)

I Don't Wanna Grow Up!

2011-08-03T17:07:00.001-04:00

Today, I went with my Step-dad to see his surgeon. He has an official diagnosis of Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma. The next step is staging. He will get a PET Scan and have some other tests run in order to determine what stage the disease is in. This is certainly not the most fun I've ever had.

I find myself running through different scenarios in my head, some better than others. I have to admit this is one of those times when a sibling or two would really come in handy. I live over 300 miles away from my mom & step-dad. This makes me uneasy. My mom does not drive. She's has her own physical limitations that she's in denial about and she really doesn't like to hear me talk about things that remind her she's getting more fragile herself. She's always prided herself in taking care of things without outside help, she's not wanting to even look at her options.

Honestly, I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. That's my true selfish nature, there. It's hard to imagine that my parents are actually getting old. In my head, I'm sure that I'm only 21, so how can my parents be so old? The truth is I'm pushing 40, I mean REALLY pushing 40, so that means they are... Well, yeah, old. I want to stomp my feet and yell about how it's not fair, but the naked truth is that I have an extremely charmed life compared to so many others. My "not fair" would look so dern good to them. So, for now, I'll put on those big girl panties and go act like a grown up. At least, for now.

Stagnant

2011-06-28T03:15:00.001-04:00

Tonight in a meeting, I made a passing comment that has come back to mind a number of times. Call it a conviction, if you'd like. I think I shall, because it feels that way to me.

The gist of what I said is that I felt my Christian walk was much stronger, deeper, more mature when I was in high school/college. As I struggle with the things of adulthood (aging, teenage children, bills, household chores, shall I continue?) I'm afraid that I lost some of the zeal and fire of my youth. I know that it doesn't have to be this way, others have modeled a lifetime of passion in service to the God of Creation. So, what's my problem?

I bet I resemble too many Christian moms in this. We try to do the best job we can taking care of our families that we often put ourselves last, not just physically, but also emotionally and, more importantly, spiritually.

In the part few years I've become convinced that I need to take better care of myself physically and I have made some changes to do so, but until tonight I truly didn't realize that my spiritual growth had stagnated and needed some special attention, too.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't walk away from faith, I served in church, I loved God, I worshiped, I prayed...all the things I was supposed to do, but I truly don't think I've progressed much past the place I was some, er, 15 years ago.

I think it's time. What about you? Has it been a while since you've experienced some growth in your Christian walk? What are some of the barriers that have kept you from growing? If you've "been here, done this" how have you worked to overcome the barriers to growth? I'm listening.

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Contentment vs. Complacency

2011-02-20T17:13:00.005-05:00

So I've had this post rolling around in my head for some time. I'm still struggling with how to word the ideas in my head, but I'll give it a go.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a friend and she struggled with some issues in her relationships with her family. This past year has been very difficult for everyone in her family. Some very serious decisions had to be made and so much good has come from making them. Now many people have said to her to be happy things are better now than they were last in the past even if there are struggles in areas that haven't changed that are still causing so much pain and strife. And while I agree, in theory, that things are better than they were and that should bring her much happiness, I cannot agree that she should not strive for more than what she has. She should not just be happy with the situation she lives in. The damage that could occur to her family is there if she "just accepts" that the changes that have been made are enough.

It brought to mind the idea of being content but not complacent. I've learned to be content in my life, accepting that each day is a blessing, another day to love my family and friends and to serve God and the community. But if I just accept that and grow complacent with the things I have or the person I am now, I will have failed. There are so many things in my physical, emotional and spiritual lives that can be improved. My body needs to be healthier, my home needs upkeep and some major repairs, my relationships with my husband and children need nurturing and love, my relationships with friends need time and communication and, most importantly, the time that I spend with God needs priority.

So, have you settled for what you have and where you are in life? Or do you live happily while striving to improve yourself and your environment?

Not A Supermom: Christmas Giveaway--Penzeys Spices!

2010-12-22T15:04:00.000-05:00

Not A Supermom: Christmas Giveaway--Penzeys Spices!: "I'm not a great cook, but I do like good-quality ingredients. I think this makes my humble offerings turn out better than they otherwise w..."

It's too dern cold out!

2010-12-17T12:03:00.001-05:00

I'm done with it. Seriously, I really enjoy a cold snap here in South Florida but two serious cold fronts in a row may be too much for this Florida native. The inside of my house is 62 degrees. I sure hope the sun heats it up soon.

In better news, I'm having a blast with my new Captivate Android phone. In fact, I'm using it to post this blog entry. How cool is that? It's a huge transition from my Blackjack II, that's for sure.

Here's to a great day! (well, if it warms up, anyway. LOL)

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2010-12-13T06:36:00.002-05:00

It's dark outside this morning. For some of you, that probably doesn't come as a surprise. For me, sometimes I forget that there are people who get up before the sun. It's a strange feeling for me to sit in a dark, quiet house with all my children snoozing in their beds. Usually, by the time I'm rolling out of bed, at least one of my offspring is up making noises. *we won't mention that usually those noises are electronic in kind

But this morning, it is dark and quiet and I'm sitting here playing on my computer, contemplating the day. Schoolwork for the kids, at least a little, anyways. Physical Therapy for me. A long work day for my beloved. More coffee for sure.

Oh, and a shout out to my lovely friend, Sooze, who kindly let me know that I've been ignoring my blog way too long. Thanks, Sooze!

Not a Happy Anniversary

2010-09-11T15:57:00.002-04:00

So today was the 9th anniversary. I don't have to tell you of what, do I? I think we all know what happened the morning of September 11th, 2001. Some folks have been posting where they were that morning. I was home. The kids and I had just returned from my morning shift as a crossing guard and I had this idea to turn on the television in my room. I did not usually do this as we were new homeschoolers and I was trying my hardest to fit our homeschool into a mold that, come to find out in later years, was not the one that worked best for us.

As I went about my room, doing whatever I was doing, the news interrupted the normal broadcast and announced something had caused an explosion at the World Trade Center. All cameras available were trained on the towers. This got my attention and I sat down to watch and see what was going on just as the second plane struck. SURREAL. That describes the feeling at the time. I just couldn't even focus on anything else.

The changes in our society since that time have seemed so many and, yet, so few. Some of those changes have been in our interpersonal relationships. I see and hear of so many people who live there lives based on fear and use that day as one example of why they should. What a sad existence that must be. This morning, I remember 9/11/01 and all of the people who were lost that day, by loving my family and friends and celebrating the life we have. I can't imagine that those who no longer can do that would want anything less than that.

Happy Memorial Day!

2010-05-31T18:20:00.003-04:00

We are having a quiet day here at home, eating hamburgers and watermelon. But we are very aware that we have many men and women to whom we owe our gratitude for sacrificing daily to help make the United States of America into the greatest country in the world (at least in my opinion). So, many thanks to all of you, soldiers and your families, from the past to the present for the freedoms your sacrifices have made available to each and every one of us.

What I'm doing...cuz you've been on pins and needles, right?

2010-05-11T09:46:00.003-04:00

My life lately seems like a bunch of appointments, :)

I don't mind, but it's sure a good thing we home school. I honestly don't know how folks with children in school (public or private) manage all the dentist, doctor, orthodontist, etc... appointments. Yesterday, all three children had their cleanings. Good news not a cavity amongst them. Yay! This was Emma's last cleaning before she gets her first phase of braces on. (yes, I said first phase. Like Raina, she'll probably have to have braces again as a teen, but hopefully a first phase will reduce the amount of movement and pain the second phase brings) It was Raina's first time without her braces. She said it hurt more because they could really get in there and get to everything. LOL. I told her to floss more.

Today, we visit the orthodontist for a followup on Raina's teeth to see how they are doing out of braces and a regular check for Jacob. I sure hope he's been wearing his bands enough. I think I'm helping orthodontist buy his yacht.

On top of those, I have physical therapy three times a week. It's great, because I need to strengthen my core muscles. I spent two weeks flat on my back, it was horrible. I don't ever want to do that again.

I'm still waiting to hear about the presidency for the girls' softball league. I hope to hear ASAP so that we can start getting the word out. School is out at the end of May and we need to get the flyers in the schools before then. Off to the orthodontist then...catch ya later.

Today is the National Day of Prayer

2010-05-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Please, take the time to spend some time in prayer, whatever your beliefs and whatever your nationality and pray for the leaders of your country. Today, we pray in the US for our President, Vice-President, Senate and Congress and for our state officials.

The Fragility of Life

2010-04-29T08:23:00.003-04:00

This week has been so difficult for me. So many reminders of how fragile life is. Reminders that my life is rarely touched by tragedy or disaster. I forget how blessed and protected I am from how life works for so many people. Even with Miguel working the job that he does, dealing with what some call the dregs of society in our county's jail, I forget that the world is not as sunshiny and cheerful as it is on my little acre here in South Florida.

In the last few weeks, I have had friends whose five year old daughter with down syndrome has been diagnosed with leukemia. A well respected family in our homeschool world whose grandchild was born at 22 weeks and went home to be with the Lord after a 10 day fight for life. A lovely missionary who've I've come to know through online chats and forums whose surprise, but most welcome, pregnancy was lost while traveling on furlough to raise money for their life's work in Mexico. And a respected college professor who I'd love to teach at the college my children would attend(whenever that happens) whose family member has been diagnosed with what will most likely be end stage cancer. Life is not all sunshine and roses, no matter how much we'd like it to be. Sometimes, I forget that.

As a Christian, it's so easy to throw out a pat answer of "God is in control", "We can't know His purposes" or "He'll get you through this." I'm not sure how I'd feel if I were the one hearing these things. All I can say is, "I'm so sorry. I'll be right here if you need me."

Tiaras and Tommy Guns

2010-04-23T05:44:00.003-04:00

So, the other day, my youngest was terribly funny. The latest craze for my girls is to create a mess, er, a masterpiece with the art supplies. My youngest discovered that if she cut out shapes from the cereal boxes and wrapped them with aluminum foil, she could make tiaras. It was such a wonderful girly way to play and she was having such fun, I just left her to it. Admittedly, I was dreading the clean up fight.

About an hour later, she started bugging me about something as I was on my computer playing, er, doing massively important research and I tried to ignore her. Apparently, she was not fond of my ignoring her, but left. About 5 or 10 minutes later she was back. "MOM, look!" she demanded. So I turned my head to look and as I did so, she said, "you need to listen to me now or I'll shoot." Sigh...she had "built" a huge double barrel, um, GUN? out of two milk jugs taped together and decorated. Not so girly, huh?

I'm spending way too much time on that marvel called Facebook, lol...

2010-01-29T15:41:00.003-05:00

But here's a funny to share with you. From what I understand they mine some photos for the ads that show at the side of the pages, I'm okay with that somewhat, I guess. But sometimes they just crack me up. Do they really not pay attention? Here's my latest fave:

LOL, Seriously? is that what Americans with over $10K in credit card debt look like? I sure hope not, that's just scary...

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-19T22:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry to have fallen of the face of the Blog-world. Here's a picture to cheer you:

Merry Christmas!

I'm craving a Molten Lava cake, sigh...

2009-07-27T18:18:00.002-04:00

I'd never had one before last Friday night, but, oh man, it was yummy. I had it at my Pampered Chef Party and I'm planning on buyting the dish to mae it in so we can have it any time we want at homme. Of course, that might EVERY day, lol. I'll have to keep the supplies on hand.

So anyway, if you need something go here and order it. Please!?! :)

Have some chocolate cake for me.

And she's back...

2009-07-19T22:47:00.002-04:00

So last I left you, I was planning a road trip to take my children up to see my grandmother who wasn't doing well. Unfortunately, plans changed. My grandmother took a turn for the worse and things went downhill. On the day that I was to finish loading up to head out, I got a call that said to hightail it out there, Grandma was in the hospital and my step-mom, Margo, did not think she was going to make it much longer. My dad was in Colorado and was heading home as well, through a snowstorm. So the decision was made to leave my kids at home, pick up my aunt and cousin who live here in Palm Beach County and drive to Tennessee to pick up my cousin who lives there and head out to Arksansas. We drove straight through, about 22 hours, I think. We arrived at the hospital a couple of hours after my dad and about an hour before my grandmother breathed her last breath. We were so grateful to be able to be sitting with her as she left us. We spoke peace to her and prayed over her and loved her. We will miss her.

Last month, the week of her 81st birthday, we interred her with my Papa. So many family and friends came to celebrate her life with us. My grandmother loved everyone. She accepted you for who you are, even if she disagreed with your opinions (and believe me, she wasn't shy about speaking up for hers. Ask me how I know?) I will miss her. Today, she and Papa would've celebrated 61 years of marriage. I hope that they are celebrating with Jesus right now.

After my grandmother passed away, I fell deeper into a depression which I believe I had been slowly spiraling into. We've really struggled with finances, I've had some health issues, the girls have had some and Miguel is dealing with the possibility that he may have Celiac Disease. I tend to be an internalizer of emotions, this is not so good. I started taking Paxil about a month ago and life is beginning to look a bit brighter, thank goodness. I hope you all will forgive me for abandoning you for so long (I know that I don't have many followers, but I do have a faithful few and I appreciate you.) I hope to get back to my sunshiney self now.

Road Trip!!!!

2009-03-18T19:12:00.002-04:00

My grandma has been in and out of the hospital and a rehab facility since Thanksgiving. It's been frustrating for my Dad (they are in Arkansas, and obviously, I'm not, lol) as he tries to deal with all the medical staff and decisions and etc and work full-time all the while he and my step-mom try to get a Bed and Breakfast up and running. So, I'm packing up the kids and their school books and myself and heading out to help in whatever way I can.

I'll be headed up to Jacksonville and then on to Nashville and then Bentonville (in NW Arkansas) at the end of March. I'll be there for a while, as long as necessary, anyways. I kept trying to figure out a good time to head out financially and timewise (appts and etc.) but I got a call from my cousin offering to keep the girls in Nashville while I go out there. I guess I figured that I wasn't really NEEDED, and there was always something going on down here, you know. But when she called me today, she really seemed concerned for my dad and my grandma. She has a preemie newborn and two older children in public school, so she just can't pick up and go. So, Miguel and I talked about it and the planning begins. Other than seeing my family, I hope that I get to meet up with a few of my online friends along the way, so give me a shout to let me know if you are up to lunch or coffee or whatever if you're in those areas. And pray for my sanity, k? I'm normally a "fly-by-the-seat of my pants" kinda girl, but I plan on doing school thru this one, since we don't know how long we'll be out there, so I've got some serious planning to do. Oh, and if we have to stay past the 15th of April, I'll be putting my oldest on a plane back home for testing. I don't normally test my children, but since he'll have to take standardized testing to get into college, I figured I might as well get on with it. Of course, now I'm smacking myself for not waiting one more year, but oh well! :p

Exciting news around here...well, if you like flushing anyways...

2009-03-09T20:29:00.002-04:00

Almost nine years ago we bought our first home out here in the Acreage. We thought we'd love having the big yard, and we do, and we thought that having a well and a septic tank wouldn't be all that big of a deal, we were wrong. About a year after moving in, our drain field began to fail. Eventually, it just plain gave out and we resorted to pumping our septic tank every year, or more, babying it too keep it from being too bad. It's not been fun for us, but the price tag to repair/replace it ran about $5000. I don't know about you, but that kind of money is just plain hard to come by for us.

Finally, a plumber friend of my husband has taken pity on us and, in trade for some computer work, is helping us repair the drain field. We are basically bartering for most of the stuff, except the rock and sand for the bed of the drain field. But even that we are getting at a great price because of a friend who works for a company that provides that kind of stuff. We've bartered for everything else and done some work ourselves. I'll have to get some good pictures to post during the process. :) Maybe I'll end it with one of me flushing my toilet with sheer abandon, LOL. Okay, maybe not, but I will no longer fear nasty back up once it's done! The strange things that will bring a smile to a grown woman's face, sigh...

So, is it bad that your 10year old can recognize "White Wedding" in the first few notes?

2009-03-08T19:39:00.003-04:00

I'm thinking it may not go over so well in our homeschool group, sigh...

Yes, we have Rock Band 2 and we play it, well, way too often, apparently. LOL.

My 13year old son just mentioned he wasn't born to play 80's metal. Well, no, DUH! You weren't born until 1995. He figures he's was born to play Eric Clapton, "slow hand". HA! That kid!

Actually, he's doing quite well teaching himself guitar. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to post some of his recordings. He's been searching out guitar tabs online or in some of our books and teaching himself. It's fun and interesting. Or not, but I can pretend, right? And it will last until Football tryouts and practices start, and then he'll obsess over football. LOL. Then he'll be showing me a bazillion and one plays that he's drawn up and tell me all the reasons that it will work and I'll be all like, "yeah, great Jake." As it all goes WAY over my head.

Monday Morning

2009-02-23T03:47:00.006-05:00

February 23rd Questions:

1. Does blogging make you fat? Do you find yourself sitting around and eating more since you started your blog? Or do you get so caught up in the whole blogging routine that you forget to eat?
Blogging does not make me fat. I was fat before I started blogging. However, since I started blogging I've lost over 60 lbs. (actually, since May 16th of 2008) I don't get so caught up in blogging, I wish I would though. I start to feel guilty when I forget for, oh, a week that I need to post something. The worst thing is that during the day I'll have a great idea for a blog entry but by the time I get home, it's gone. Hopped a train to some far off corner of my mind, unreachable by a poor miserable wretch like me.
2. The one topic I will not touch on my blog is __________. Why? What sorts of topics do you receive the most comments on? What sorts of topics do you receive the least number of comments on?

I don't know, yet. I haven't done politics, mostly because there are a number of poly blogs out there that would do it sooo much better than me, it's not worth it. That may change, who knows.
3. Spring is coming. How is your wardrobe? What sorts of clothes do you usually wear in the spring? Where do you normally shop for your clothes? How successful are you in finding clothes for yourself?

Spring is here. I live in South Florida. We had the requisite 3 or 4 days of winter and now it's spring. Check out my mulberry tree for proof:
SEE!?! Berries are on the way. As for clothes, well I pretty much just wear the same ones I wear in the winter, without the sweaters and the jackets. It's all good. Shopping since losing the 60 lbs is sooooo much easier, but I'm not doing that for a little while. Another 30 or so pounds and I'll need a shopping trip to tide me over till I reach goal. Otherwise, I'm making do. Clothes are $$$, you know.
4. We should treat every day as a special gift - we’re alive, right? What made this past week special for you? (And if you’ve already talked about that special something on your blog, then think of something else - something little perhaps, but had a big impact on you or your loved ones).

This past week is special because I have my family. All of my immediate family and most of my extended family. I love them, all of them. Other than that, this past week has been boring, maybe we'll get something more exciting this week, hmm?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-11T02:32:00.005-05:00

For more Wordless Wednesday

I spent a boatload of money today, sigh...

2009-01-30T22:43:00.005-05:00

Well, more than I'm used to spending lately, anyways.

It all started with paying the bills, you gotta do that at least once a month, right? We like lights and telephones and all, you know.

So then the next thing was scheduling the Minuscule Pupster, aka Minnie for surgery. Shhhhh, we don't want her to hear. You know? THAT surgery, uh huh, the one that ensures no other minuscule dogs will be entering our lives. Cause, while she's cute (picture evidence provided)
See? She's adorable, we don't want anymore. We've got the "Big Dogs" also, and three is definitely enough. She hit the nine month mark and promptly "became a grown up" so to speak, :( So any way, I'm scheduling that surgery, ASAP. Technically I haven't spent that money yet, but it's "spent" :P

Then, I gather the troops and we head off to the pet store to purchase her new collar. I'm sure she'll be thrilled once we strap that baby on her. See, we have an invisible fence. It works great for the big dogs, but we have yet to train Minnie to it because she was too young. But now, bwaaahaaahaaa, zap zappity zap. Okay, not really. We'll humanely train her by putting the nifty white flags up and walking her and letting her know where her boundaries are. Then eventually removing the flags in an appropriate pattern until she has learned the boundaries of "her yard". It will be nice not to have to chase her across the street anymore. So there was nice pretty penny or 7000 or so. :( Still cheaper than a real fence.

So then it's off to shop for shoes for the older daughter. Let's just say, that was fun, NOT! And a hair cut for Jacob. He seriously needed that. Then off to Costco. Let's just say I very nearly quit breathing at the check out. Oh, my. Not that we didn't need it, but we've been living on bare bones for so long, sigh, that amount was a real shocker. Then I headed off to Albertson's to grab a few things that were amazing deals, like the ribs that were buy 1 get 2 free. I'm sure that they were marked up some, but still a great deal. Now my freezers and fridges are full for the first time in a very long time. So, I spent a boatload of money today and I'm good with that.

Another Day in Paradise

2009-01-30T00:49:00.006-05:00

Actually, it was a good day.

We did not do any "real" school, but we did learn some things. I think the very best part of the day was listening to my 13yo son giving his sisters a music lesson today. A few years ago, my husband began teaching my ds a little bit about guitar. My son, Jacob, then became obsessed with learning as much as he could on his own. He studied and practiced and now has a pretty good basic understanding. Perhaps he'll go further and choose more advanced learning. We'll let him make that decision. But, even if he doesn't, he'll be able to impress the girls ;)

We did get the living room cleaned up, well, everything except my new desk. It's amazing how fast things can pile up. Crazy even. Speaking of my "new" desk, here it is:

Cool, eh? Dual monitors! I'm so geeky, lol. Here are some more photos of all the moving around I posted about earlier this week.

This is my old computer desk with the computer the girls use. Looks pretty good there.

This is what my son got out of all the moving around of furniture and computers. It's a hutch from an old computer desk that fell apart during one of the many furniture moving adventures (my dh NEEDS to move furniture at least every 6 months or so). I think it looks pretty good up there and gives him some much needed shelf space.

And the reason for all this switching and moving:
Our new network server/media center connected to the big TV in the living room. It has multiple internal drives and an external hard drive. He has some other internal drives that he wants to convert to externals, something about IDE something or another. I'm really not that geeky, y'all. :D But I do love my dual monitors!!

Wordless Wednesday: I went back in time for this one!

2009-01-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

Another Bloggy Giveaway. How about 100 Calorie Little Debbie Snacks?

2009-01-28T00:59:00.003-05:00

So, I was bouncing around the web, as I am wont to do. My dh would say I do that to much, but what does he know, hm? So, I'm surfing away, through the waves of FABULOUS bloggy giveaways and I found this site. Now, I ask you, what is better than A Box of Chocolates? NOTHING, right? Well, there may be a few things, but A Box of Chocolates sure beats out just about anything else :)

Mel, over at A Box of Chocolates, is giving away, ready for it?

A Box of Chocolates!

Okay, not really a box of chocolates, only. But there's quite a bit of chocolate in there along with some peanut butter and other yummy sugary treats. But, get this, if you eat them like you are supposed to, each serving is only a hundred calories! YUM! That's like ten minutes on the stationary bike. Anybody can do that! So, head on over to see Mel at A Box of Chocolates and enter for a box of chocolate (and other yummy goodness!)

Bloggy Giveaways: My Fruit Rollups

2009-01-26T13:04:00.007-05:00

Over the next few days I'm going to be blogging about some great giveaways at other blogging sites. This week is the 1st of this year's quarterly giveaway carnivals over at Bloggy Giveaways.com

Today:

My Fruit Rollups!

OK, these are so cool, I think I might buy a box for each of the kids' birthdays this year! Check them out and then head over to A Nut in a Nutshell and sign up for the giveaway (or don't, cuz I wanna win it, lol)!

If I win, I'm going to use the blank canvas with the three spots to put pics of each my dc as a surprise reward! I imagine Jacob will be a bit freaked out at first and the girls will think it's the coolest thing since Pokemon. Here's hoping I win (or at least someone I know wins.)

Change You Can Believe In.

2009-01-25T15:47:00.004-05:00

LOL, sorry, I couldn't help myself.

This weekend my dh and I made some changes. We've been discussing a lot of "how-to save money" ideas. We want to pay off debt and make some very needed home improvements, like a new drain field for our septic system that is barely functional and replacing baseboards that have been missing for about 3 or 4 years. You know, nothing important or anything.

One of the things we've discussed is suspending our satellite during non-football months of the year. Seeing as the only reason that we have the satellite is for our Sunday Ticket, this seems like a great way to save some money. Come August, we'll have them reinstate and suspend it again after the Super Bowl. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, when you have one fan of the Oakland Raiders, one fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, one fan of the Arizona Cardinals and one fan of the Miami Dolphins (dd#2 hasn't picked yet, she goes through a progression of teams, whatever, lol) you need satellite to see them all.

So anyways, in preparation for the big "cut off" we've discussed our options. We have a tv in the living room that we can connect to a computer to watch Netflix movies and most of the tv shows are online now (the only ones we'll miss are the Law & Order shows, as they don't seem to upload those for online viewing sadly). But we didn't want to spend money, seeing as the purpose of all this is to SAVE MONEY, right? We have DSL and plenty of computers.

In fact, we actually had more computers in the house than people. *GASP* ;-) So, here's the solution. The girls' computer was built by my dh in 1999 and was pretty much a dinosaur. Upgrading it was not an option, so we pulled it out and put the computer that was in the living room in their room. They also got my old desk as their student desk was old and not designed for a computer. Jacob's computer got updated to 2 gigs of RAM, can you imagine how excited he is? Yes, imagine the dancing (Chooga?) baby here, lol! He also got an old hutch that we saved from a broken down desk that was trashed a long time back and I had been using on my desk hidden away in a corner of our bedroom. I got the living room desk for my laptop along with a secondary monitor, how cool is that? I look like an extreme geek now! Dh has the same on his desk with his laptop and secondary monitor, except he really is a bit of an extreme geek, lol. And the TV in the living room got dh old Extremely powerful, full of memory tower that will be our network server to save music, video, pictures and anything else we'd like to save and share with the rest of the family. Oh, and dh and I have more of our bedroom back to encourage peace and tranquility!

Now, THAT'S change you can believe in.

Thursday Thirteen

2009-01-22T05:18:00.004-05:00

so, I'm trying to be a better blogger, whatever that means, :) And I figure it won't hurt to jump on the meme bandwagon. So here's my first go at a Thursday Thirteen. What shall I write 13 things about? How about 13 things I(we) do to save money?

1. I use The Grocery Game to stock up on sale items that my family loves.
2. I use lots and lots of coupons, for everything.
3. This year, we are trying to make it through the months of Jan & Feb w/out using our heat (it is South Florida, after all.)
4. I am diligent about combining errands to limit gas usage in my van. When you live in the semi-boonies like we do, you don't think anything of driving 20 miles to shop or visit the doctor.
5. We don't eat out more than once or twice a month (considering we used to eat out 2 or 3 times a week, we are really saving right there.)
6. I buy kid-type gifts when they are on clearance and keep them in my closet for birthdays that come around during the year.
7. Live by the motto: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
8. Switched to lower watt light bulbs.
9. Keep the temperature on the thermostat at 78 degrees during the summer and keep the curtains drawn during the hottest part of the day.
10. Buy in bulk if that is the cheapest way to purchase a consumable good.
11. Eat healthier! Less process foods, more fruit (but only fruit in season, it's cheaper.)
12. Visit Starbucks A LOT LESS OFTEN and when I go, get a regular coffee instead of my yummy froufrou drinks (better for my waistline, too!)
13. And most importantly, keep my dh out of the electronics store! :) J/k, sort of! Hey, honey, did you hear Circuit City is liquidating? Can I have a new laptop? How about an I-Pod Touch?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Moving My Ramblings!

2009-01-22T02:14:00.006-05:00

For the last two-and-a-half years I have blogged over at homeschoolblogger.com. I learned many things over there about blogging and html, but now I've decided to pack up my ramblings and move them to a new home to corral all of my blogs in the same place (besides it's a whole lot easier to change your template here at blogger ;) ). And, so, here I am.

I hope that I make new friends, while cherishing the old. And I hope that my ramblings will become more frequent here in their new home. Here's to blogging!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-21T04:30:00.003-05:00

Floridians live for days like these!

2009-01-16T14:17:00.002-05:00

It's a lovely day in S. FL. Seriously! I feel for you guys up north with your 0 degree days, but when you guys are hunkering down trying to stay warm, well...it means we can go outside at noon without bringing along a gallon of water.

I'm actually sitting on my back porch enjoying the wind blowing and the lower temperatures. We don't do a lot of school this time of year because I literally toss my dc out the back door to play, lol.

Rest assured, come June, July and August we will be cramming a lot of school in. The only way I'll be able to get my dc outdoors then is if it's into the A/C of the car to the A/C of wherever we are going. And, honestly, can't say as I blame them. :-)

Blessing my husband, because I was blessed!

2009-01-12T18:11:00.001-05:00

Today I had to go to the doctor. UGH! Diagnosis: Double Ear Infection. Isn't that lovely? Wouldn't you like one, er, two??

So I decided to treat myself to a great big, humongous cup of Starbucks Pike with Sugar Free Cinnamon Dolce syrup. YUM. Please note that I said "Sugar Free" That's because I'm on a weight loss program and I've lost 60lbs, thankyouverymuch.

Sooooo, anyways, as I'm waiting for my order to be filled, the gentleman next to me (obviously a regular customer) asks "So, what are those cupcakes for?" Apparently he could see some cupcakes on the counter behind the baristas and they said that they were new cupcake flavors that they were tasting before they began selling them. Chocolate and red velvet cupcakes, mmmmm. Well, this very charming gentleman managed to finagle a taste for himself, quite charmingly. All the while, I was chuckling(I mentioned he was charming, right?) I went over to the condiment table to add a little sweetener and half-n-half and I hear over my shoulder "pst, come back over, I'm working a deal for you." LOL He convinced them to give me a sample taste, as well.

Now, remember that I mentioned the "Sugar Free Cinnamon Dolce" and the whole 60 lbs thing. I didn't want to appear ungrateful or rude, that whole "Southern in-breeding" and all. So what do I do??? I thought, Hey, I'll just take it home to the dc. But there are THREE of them and only 2 half pieces of cupcakes. Sigh...Oh, hey, wonder where Miguel is right now? So, I called him. Turns out he was less than 5 minutes away at the hospital w/a "client" (I'll have to explain more about dh's job in another post). So, I asked him if he'd like some cupcakes and, well, I'm the only strangoid who'd turn down cupcakes, you know. So I took him some yummy FREE cupcakes and got to steal a moment alone :-) He was so thrilled, he bragged on me to his partner, lol. I've apparently gotten quite the reputation as a "dream wife", too bad I'm not as quite as good as my reputation, sigh...

Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge.

2009-01-10T14:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I have lots of books. Lots and lots. My beloved dh is very tolerant of my book addiction, though I understand there are people out there who have it worse than I do. I do get rid of books, mostly because I use Paperbook Swap to get more books. But I have dozens on my shelves just waiting to be enjoyed. So now I have a challenge to help me out. Of course, that doesn't preclude me from adding to the shelves, you know. LOL

So if you'd like to join in, as well, go here -

So, I've got a good start going already:

Night Light by Terri Blackstock
True Light by Terri Blackstock

Anyone want to join me?

Dude, they totally tagged me!

2009-01-03T01:59:00.001-05:00

You Belong in 1988

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

Well, maybe not totally.

I got to meet an E-maginary friend today!

2008-12-29T01:45:00.000-05:00

As a Sonlight Curriculum user, I frequent the forums that the company hosts as a benefit to using their program. And when I say frequent, I mean I practically live there, but don't tell my dh, okay? One of the ladies who is also a Sonlighter was traveling through my area in the Sunshine State and we scheduled a meetup at a local outlet mall. What fun! Here are a few pictures!

Me and Beth from the camera phone:

The mall was very crowded and I didn't want to ask some stranger to take a picture with my ~~baby~~ Nikon D40x. Call me untrusting, but hey, it was a MALL, you know. So the camera phone had to work.

Here's Beth shopping for shoes:

That time I was too lazy to pull out the Nikon, so the camera phone works, shoot me. Anyways, note the Cheesecake Factory bag :) We were going to eat dinner there but the wait was too long. Beth does not live in the states any longer so must do her shopping here when they are state side and time was of the essence. Since you go to The Cheesecake Factory for CHEESECAKE, (duh, right?) she decided to get a couple of slices to go. She may, or may not, share with her dh. I say, ransom it. :D We ended up eating at Taco Bell, much cheaper and faster.

So while we were checking out the Liz Claiborne Outlet, my eye wandered across a display of clearance items and a little red change purse caught my attention. Well, since we had splurged a whole lot less than I had planned on dinner, I thought I'd spend a few $$ on me and this adorable, sassy(adjective courtesy of my Boonie friend, Susan) little change purse. But , Beth, being the extremely nice person she is decided to treat me. How very sweet of her and I love it. Check it out, I took the photo (with my ~~precious~~ Nikon) when I got home using the centerpiece I made up for Christmas.

Isn't it loverly! I love e-maginary friends!!!

Mince Pie, a mixed blessing.

2008-12-23T03:00:00.000-05:00

So last week the grocery store had Mrs. Smith's pies on sale. I'm not a baker of pies (cookies and cakes, certainly, but pies not so much) so I decided to grab a few. I picked out an apple, a dutch apple and, what I thought was a cherry pie. Yeah, it really pays to actually look at the label in your hand. Sigh...

So, it turns out I managed to purchase a mince pie. It couldn't be too terrible, could it? Well, let's just say the females of this house are the least picky eaters and ,yet, it was the males who loved the mince. Strangoids! LOL. I think I've passed my dislike for cooked raisins along to my daughters. And apparently, cooked dates are in the same category. That would be the EWW category. I'll be watching for Cherry Pie sales!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-12-17T19:17:00.000-05:00

Two Turtle Ducks and a Portrait of a Pear Tree???

2008-12-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

Ah...the sounds of the season. Christmas Carols. They've been ringing through our home on the voice of angels, er, impish little kids who keep changing their Christmas lists. So last night youngest dd, Emma, was singing the Twelve days of Christmas and cracking me up. Apparently, her true love will be giving her two turtle ducks and a portrait of a pear tree. I wonder how he'll get the pear tree to sit still long enough?

So, about those Christmas lists? Our ds is pretty good about being very specific and only putting things he's pretty sure about on the list. He may be a bit type A (like his father) but it sure makes getting him gifts pretty easy. The girls, however, are a whole different story. Especially the youngest, Emma. "I want that." is a common phrase from her. It really doesn't even matter what it is or who the product is intended to entertain. In fact, other than food, I've never heard her say that she didn't want something. I pray that it turns into a good thing for her as we try to guide her through these years teaching her about wants and needs and discipline and charity and so on. Parenting is stinkin' hard! But I bet you already knew that, huh? Well, why didn't someone warn me, uh, like 14 years ago?

Unseasonably cool weather in S Florida lately. Not that I'm complaining...

2008-12-14T19:29:00.000-05:00

The cold fronts have been coming this way with wonderful regularity. I'm loving these days with the highs in the mid 70's or lower. There will be no complaints from this quarter. I just hope that the weather can stay cool through next weekend. The All-Star Battle at the Beach is this coming weekend and ds plays for the Acreage All-Star Hawks. It's a whole weekend of games. Our team plays on Saturday and then again on Sunday. GO HAWKS!

On to other topics...We had a great Thanksgiving. We chose to head over to Busch Gardens. What a great idea. I'll post pics in another post. Last year we had Thanksgiving at Sea World. I'm lobbying for Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios for next year.

It's been a bit stressful though the last few weeks. Both of my grandmothers were in the hospital two weeks ago. My mom's mom was having stroke symptoms but they tests show that it was not a stroke and they aren't sure what it was, but she's fine now.

My Dad's mom, OTOH, is not doing so well. In June, at her birthday, she scratched her arm and didn't care for it properly. This led to a rash on her arms that was incorrectly treated by the doctor over the last few months, it's proved to be very difficult and nothing has cleared it up. She has put on weight and has not been able to be mobile because she needs to use her arms to get out of a chair. Two weeks ago, walking across her living room, she fell and broke her upper arm. This created even more mobility issues and some other issues have come up.

She is unable to care for herself. In fact, with the meds and some blood loss that the dr. thinks is from the broken bone. I don't know, 4 pints in a month seems like a bit more than normal for a broken bone, but okay... Anyways, she's been out of it mentally and physically she's just not able to do anything. I'm worried but I'm over a thousand miles away. I want to go out to Arkansas to help, but with the All-Star game, the holidays and money issues, it's not looking good.

Oh, and then there's the whole driving in winter thing. You know, I'm a South Florida girl, no snow tires or chains or any of that stuff. I don't do ice patches, lol. If things get worse, I'll head out and just do my best to be very careful. Flying would be great but it's not likely, especially since I'll probably be bringing my girls and my aunt and her two teen boys. For now, it's wait and see. :(

I was TAGGED! and of course I only take forever to play :)

2008-10-30T00:45:00.001-04:00

I was tagged by my friend Wendy over at Wendy's Homeschool Antics

The rules:

Put a link to the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell 6 quirky things about yourself.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
Leave each of them a comment letting them know they've been tagged.

1) I'm a serious night owl. Sometimes I have to stay up all night and day, just to get myself to sleep at a normal time. I think the problem is that I have a 28 hour inner clock, instead of a 24 hour clock. So my body just doesn't get that it's supposed to go to sleep about 16 hours after waking up. It wants to stay up for 20 hours and sleep for 8. See the problem?

2) I talk a lot! If you call me, I'll stay on the phone for as long as you want. But it's extremely unlikely that *I* will call you. I'm paranoid of interrupting your day and I dread rejection. Seriously, I hate filling out credit applications, too. I just can't handle the rejection. If I won an Oscar, I'd be just like Sally Field, "You like me, you really like me." Of course, I probably wouldn't have shown up to accept because I'd be terrified that I'd lost.

3) I love chocolate, but don't care for chocolate cake all that much, unless there is ice cream to eat with it. One bite of cake with a bite of ice cream. No ice cream, then no thanks on the cake.

4) I can go all day without eating, but let the darkness fall, and I'm a ravenous maniac. I've really had to curb this to lose weight (60+ lbs gone since May 16th, woohoo) My favorite late night snack is tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese dipped in salsa mixed with sour cream. Yeah, that's good stuff, lol.

5) I would like to get a tatoo and a nose ring, but dh has vetoed it every time. Eh, maybe one day.

6) I'm a die hard Jacksonville Jaguars fan. I rarely miss a game. Though I am going to miss this weeks game for my SIL's baby shower. I hope she appreciates this. She probably won't though. She's dismayed that my nephew seems to be enamored of football. I say send him to our house on Sundays, we'll take care of him and teach him all things football!

Okay, so those are six quirky things about me. That was hard! You have NO IDEA how hard, lol.

I have to tag 6 people...

Leslie, Amanda, Wendy, Kelly, Jes, and Kelly.

Nothing exciting really happens here.

2008-10-29T18:51:00.000-04:00

That is why my poor blog is so lonely. I'm a terrible communicator. I don't write letters, maybe I'll remember to email you. If you're lucky, I'll give you a call. I just stink at communicating. Even just in every day life. Dh and I will often get into a little tiff because one or the other of us will insist we told the other something and, either we were too busy preoccupied with something else to hear or we had the conversation in our head. We're strange, I guess.

So now we have Google Calendars. I put something on my calender, it shows up on dh's and vice versa. Forget having the family calendar on the side of the fridge. Tried that, didn't work, lol. Dh can access his calendar from his phone, too. That way he can check what's going on each day while he's at work. That's important when you have three dc playing three different sports!

Check out some more Works For Me Wednesday posts at Rocks in My Dryer

Fay was pretty much a drencher with an occasional wind blowing through.

2008-08-19T17:52:00.000-04:00

We're pretty wet down here in the FL swamplands. Our houses are looking like they were built on little islands. And for all intents and purposes, I guess, they are. When a house is built here, they build up the foundation either by digging a pond on the property or bringing in dirt. We have some standing water, but not too much, it'll be gone tomorrow I think if the rain is done soon. We don't mind the storm since it keeps the temperatures down in the low to mid 80s. That's a dreamy day for August in S FL A few place around town lost a number of branches, I think we're down a total of one small pine branch. Here's a picture of the local elementary school. I was kind of surprised at how many branches were down.

Our yard has a lot of water in the lower areas. Here's one side

Across the street, our neighbors' two ponds have joined into one. Usually there's a driveway in there.

So a lot of water and a few downed limbs, not too bad. Fay's a wimp Though she's gonna try a little more wind here, yet. We'll see.

Pounding Rain in the Swamp!

2008-08-19T02:23:00.000-04:00

I can't imagine what the morning will look like outside our door. Tropical Storm Fay is dousing us. We probably won't get too much wind, but the rain, oh my! Thankfully, our little pond was low on water. This means somewhere on the water system (and south Florida has a very intricate water system to keep our homes out of the water) they opened gates. Hopefully there won't be too much standing water in the morning.

My girls are still awake, too and my temper is not pleasant because of this. Not sleeping at night is a huge problem here and truly is begin to frustrate me beyond belief. I'm afraid they get it from me, though. The weather made it very difficult to even walk the dogs today so everyone has an abundance of energy still. I'm ready to drug everyone, including myself!

Dinner Hugs...

2008-08-13T21:55:00.000-04:00

My nearly 13yo ds just hugged me. I didn't even ask him to. It was a spontaneous pre-teen hug! I think I'll mark it on my calendar!

And, what, pray tell did I do to earn such a rare treat from Sir Moodiness??? Why I made a dinner consisting of Beef, Broccoli and Potatoes. This is my young football star's favorite meal, according to him. What? you say. NOT pizza? Spaghetti? Nope, not those.

All of my precious offspring do love those things, but they do not rank as #1 for any of them, lol. My dc are a bit more sophisticated, and I had very little to do with that. Right after Beef for ds ranks Salmon, go figure! Even the youngest who doesn't care for veggies at all, will scarf down broccoli and cauliflower. I think I need to consider growing those in a garden. Who needs tomatoes? Give me a garden with broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and carrots.

So what earns you spontaneous pre-teen hugs???

So I mentioned football season is here!

2008-08-07T00:17:00.000-04:00

I'm really impressed with ds' coaching staff this year. Let me say, they are awesome! I know it's only little league, but just ask some of the big names in the pros where it started for them and they'll say in little league. Now, I'm not under any crazy ideas that my ds will play football in the pros, it could happen, but the numbers aren't all that great in his favor. But a college scholarship, certainly, Maybe a full ride, but at least a partial one based on sports. He's pretty dern smart, too. FTR, anyways ;)

Last year was his first year and he had a pretty good coach and his team went on to win the super bowl in the division. Pretty good stuff. Exciting, and all. We'd love a repeat this year, but we'll be okay if it doesn't happen. What we're really thrilled about is the chance to play under this coaching staff. One of the coaches is actually a coach on the high school team. He loves to coach these guys and he's dedicated. The boys really respond to him. And Jacob is blossoming. The down side is the time commitment. Egads!

This week, 4 days will be have a portion of them spent on football. And that's just a start. Oh, did I mention Emma is cheering? Yeah, for a team NOT ours, ewww. LOL and then Raina has softball starting up in a couple of weeks. I think we've lost our minds. I never thought I'd be this sports mom. But I'm really loving it, strangely enough.

So tell me, who else is a bit nutty with kids in multiple sports? Please, I can't be alone????

I'm alive, really I am...

2008-08-04T22:05:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry! I just disappeared after my trip to California! I had a great time meeting my forum friends! Just a total blast. I got home and life seemed to become a free for all.

First, good news, since returning home from CA, I have dropped nearly 40 lbs. Yup, 40 lbs in less than 3 months! If you want to know how I did it and if you can do it, drop me an email/comment and I'll let you know how I did it.

Second, football season is about to began. This is ds' second year playing in our community's little league. We're very excited. But along with him being in football, we're trying something new. Our youngest, Emma, will be cheering and the older dd, Raina, will be playing softball. We are obviously gluttons for punishment. I'll try and post some pictures soon.

Third, we started school today! It actually went very well. But Emma was at cheer camp this morning from 9 to 12 (and tomorrow, too.) The olders are much easier to do school with. Emma really, really has a hard time with the idea of doing school work. Not sure why, but she really makes it hard for me. So I'll get the first two days started with the older two and then Wednesday, perhaps we'll get somewhere with Emma.

Meeting 40-something of my closest friends...that I've never met before!

2008-04-29T10:46:00.000-04:00

In less than 48 hours, I will be in the sky flying west to my second Big Fat Meetup(BFM). I will say that we are meeting in Southern California, but that's all I'll say about the location till I'm home. Needless to say, I am sooo excited. I've actually met some of these ladies before, seven of us are Two-timers to the BFM and one of them is from right here in FL. We've had a couple of FL meetups together.

So, why are we doing this? What do we have in common? What's the point?

Well, the only thing that we all have in common I think is Sonlight but I'm pretty sure that we all use it in different ways. Some of us are nearly done with our hsing journey and some are just beginning. We are doing this because we spend so much time together on the forums that we feel like a family. We are each other's support and encouragement in times that are tough and we celebrate together in times of victory and success. The BFM is a fun weekend where we'll be able to connect IRL(in real life) in a way that forums and email don't allow. I think we are all excited.

And CALIFORNIA, I can't believe I get to go there. The farthest west I've ever made it was the beautiful state of Colorado, but I'll finally be able to say I've crossed the continent. Now I just have to make it to Alaska

A new friend in our backyard...

2008-04-29T10:35:00.000-04:00

He's gorgeous! He was partaking of the fine meal of whatever vermin was in the far reaches of our property, lol. I say feast away

I hope he (or she) comes back.

Sunday Night Chocolate...A Sad Story!

2008-04-20T22:18:00.001-04:00

So tonight I decided there was a need for chocolate, A huge NEED for Chocolate...

It's just regular ol' Betty Crocker Brownies with a bag of Ghiardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed in, but yummy! Here's what it looked like after the family got a hold of it...

But, alas...TRAGEDY strikes...

It fell on the floor, see the doggie hairs...I was very sad, it was my piece, good thing we made a nice big plate of them, huh?

We have another visitor in our yard...

2008-04-14T16:57:00.000-04:00

Most people in the US won't see these running wild, but we have two. Here's one in our Mulberry Tree out front...

And here...

These guys aren't natives. I'm not sure where they've come from, but they've chosen our front yard to live in. At least they're not noisy neighbors and they don't stay up all night, lol.

Look who stopped by for a visit!

2008-04-08T18:40:00.000-04:00

We have a pond out front of our home that attracts all kinds of wonderful wildlife. One day I'll have a gazebo and a fountain out there, but that's still in the future. Today I glanced out the front window and saw this guy floating.

He's a Wood Duck. I don't see a female around but she could be up in the ficus. They actually roost in the trees. Isn't he a beauty? I'm hoping for baby ducks this year, we used to get them every spring, but not so much the last few years.

My first TAG!

2008-04-07T23:33:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged for the first time! By my lovely friend Trish in Honduras over at Sowers4Pastors

The rules are as follows...

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

First of all...Yay! thanks Trish for tagging me. I'm not sure I'd want to do a million of these, but a few here or there sound fun, fun, fun...

Now on to seven random facts...hmmmm

1) I played the Viola as a child/teen...I still have the viola but it is in need of repair. If I could get it fixed, or get a new one, I'd start playing again. It's a beautiful sounding instrument and I miss it.

2) I was extremely healthy til I got married. I tell dh that marriage to him was my downfall. One month after marriage I ended up in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Two years ago my gall bladder had to be removed. I wonder what's next, argh!

3) I'm a Jacksonville Jaguars football fan! I love them, have since the day the NFL announced that Jacksonville would get one of the 1995 expansion teams. Jacksonville is my hometown and I miss it. I've been to two games in the past two years and I plan to make one game a year from now on at a minimum!

4) I wanted five children, dh wanted one, we thought three was a good compromise I always thought I'd be better with boys, I was right, though I have two girls. They puzzle me some days but fortunately they are not extremely girly girls, for my sake. LOL

5) I have never lived anywhere but Florida's east coast. I don't know that I ever will, either. Dh teases me by saying we'll move to TX when he retires, I won't hold my breath. We'll still be in our mid to late 40's and our youngest will be almost grown or grown depended on which year he retires. So we'll still be living life.

6) I had PRK laser surgery on my eyes two years ago and now have near perfect vision after 23 years of extreme nearsightedness. The last two years have been so freeing. If I had to do it again, I certainly would. I'm trying to talk dh into getting it done.

7) I've recently taking up photography. Soon I'd like to take classes. I've been told that I'm pretty good by some people who know, so I'd like to learn enough that I can make a few dollars to help supplement my staying home with my dc.

Well, those are mostly boring, but they are certainly random. I've been away from my blog for sooo long, I apologize for my absence. I'll be blogging again regularly from now on. Thanks to Trish reminding me to log on and post a blog! Let's see who I'll tag...

1. Wendy at Wending Through Life with Wendy
2. Emily at Teaching TWO Little Miss Smartypants
3. Amy at Working Title (she wanted to know how one gets tagged )
4. Tara at My Balancing Act
5. Kelly at Life with Boys
6. Sarah at Ponderings...
7. You, whoever you are...you're it!

That was hard!!!! I hope those I tagged are okay with it. I've never tagged anyone before (well since childhood when we played Tag, but that's not quite the same, now is it? ) I don't know if I want to do that anymore, lol...tag me again and we'll see.

Spring in Florida, looks a lot like Summer in most places...

2008-04-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

But there is a spring... We have some trees that are still working on waking up this year...

This a Bald Cypress and the first sprigs of Spring coming out.

Flowers you won't see outside of the swamp.

New friends to make

Spring is really a beautiful time in South Florida, too bad it lasts such a short time.

Wordless Wednesday! I almost forgot!

2008-01-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

New Braces

Join us for more Wordless Wednesday

A lost treasure found.

2008-01-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

A while back The Gremlin Wrangler posted about going thru some of her childhood things stored away in her shed. It brought memories of two of my favorite doll from childhood. Adoption dolls. Remember those? I had two. One was all the way from Xavier Roberts in Atlanta, birth certificate and all and the other was made by my mom's boss' mom, did you follow that? LOL! Well, thru the years, and there have been many, I had misplaced those dolls and Carrie's posts brought back thoughts of where they might be. Well, not to be all spiritual or anything, but God loves to delight in His children and not even 2 weeks later I get a call from my cousin, Cari, who now lives in my grandparents house. I had lived there from the age of 15 until I was married, with a few semesters here and there away at college. She was trying to clean out the garage and came across a box of stuffed animals. She saw a doll on top and knew it must be mine. I am now reunited with my beloved Amber Lynn and Shannon Marie.

Here are Amber Lynn(dark blonde/green eyes, adopted from Babyland) and Shannon Marie (Light blonde/blue eyes, Handmade with love by Mrs. Zaire)

Aren't they beautiful? Did anyone else have one of these, back before Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage and mass produced? I think we'll have to get them some new clothes. And, another blessing, one for each girl!

You can't mop a dirty floor!

2008-01-22T23:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday after taking down all the Christmas decorations, dh and I vacuumed and mopped. We put the swiffer in the dining room, to await vacuuming of dog hair before mopping and went into the boys' room to begin the big cleanup in there (moving furniture and getting rid of stuff ) So I come out of the boys room and see the floor wet and the swiffer moved. Emma loves to play with the Swiffer, so she had started mopping the dining room. I yell out, "You can't MOP a dirty floor." and take the swiffer, then I crack up. Um, I guess waiting to mop a clean floor saves me on housework,

Interested in a bed and breakfast in NW Arkansas? I've got a place

2008-01-19T01:24:00.000-05:00

This is my Dad and Stepmom's Bed and Breakfast in Bentonville, Arkansas. It's a gorgeous home that has been remodeled and updated. I'm hoping to get up there next month to see it for myself. But for all of ya'll in the Midwest interested in a getaway, check it out.

The A Street Guesthouse

Let me know if you are interested!

What I did today...

2008-01-18T00:30:00.000-05:00

FTR, I will not post "before" pics. I'm so embarrassed at the state of our back room, sigh...It really is horrible. So today I began...the art cabinet was the first to be attacked. We had moved it recently and taken all of the STUFF normally stored in there and put it a rubbermaid bin. So it needed to be sorted and organized and replaced in the cabinet. Here are the results after culling out a number of old, yucky things that we no longer needed/could use. I love throwing stuff away

See the blue bin and all the crayons... here's a closer look:

Aren't all those crayons lovely? The bin now only carries whole, good quality crayons. No more minuscule pieces. No more "Denny's" crayons brought home from Kids Eat Free night. No more "Quick, buy the kids something to keep them busy at the dollar store" crayons. I love crayons, the smell of new crayons brings joy to my heart. This bin, before, not so much. The thoughts of dismay that went thru my mind each time one of my dd's would drag the crayon bin out would overtake any other thoughts occupying my mind. How would they ever find the color they were looking forward? Where exactly would I find all the rejected broken pieces of crayon afterwards? So, I took on the Crayon Bin and what you see above is the beautiful results.

And the leftovers? Here they are:

What should I do with these? I'm sure there is some crafty mom at there who can tell me what to do with them. Please do share!!!

The Never-ending Homeschool Day...

2008-01-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

My dc are perfect, really they are, they must be. We homeschool, you know. Okay, they're not. And today was proof. We started out late because I slept in. Ha, who am I kidding, I sleep in most days, today was actually earlier than many, 9am. We are all night owls here. So, I got everyone up and moving around and getting dressed and eating and doing their chores, etc... And around noon we started. And by "we started" I mean the attitudes came out and the fidgeting began and the "I'm not the parent but I'm gonna tell you what to do anyway" started and the interrupting the person reading to tell mom about something that had nothing to do with lesson and the kicking brother/sister/cousin/dog under the table and the poking and the making faces. ARGH!!!!! This is what happens when you take a month off... We've only done school one other day this week so far, so Saturday and Sunday might be school days (In between the football games!

After a while, a looooong while, everyone finally took me seriously and we finally finished up (well, as much as I had the energy to do) around 6pm. That's really only 6ish hours but it was all the drama. I hate Drama!!!! So now I wonder if there is some netflix movie dh has been holding out

Wordless Wednesday: Flyover

2008-01-09T16:58:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2008-01-02T15:11:00.000-05:00

As a lifetime lover of books and a homeschool mom...

2007-12-13T13:16:00.000-05:00

I've always taken great care in the treatment of the books I read. So imagine my feelings the other day as my dh began reading to the dc their read a louds from the Sonlight Cores that we are currently studying...

Take a look...

And here:

I wisely snapped the pictures and kept my thoughts to myself

Wordless Wednesday!

2007-11-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

I know y'all are all on pins and needles waiting for this post!

2007-11-10T19:56:00.000-05:00

The Acreage Gamecocks made it to the SUPERBOWL!

After a dismal beginning losing 5 games straight, it seems surreal that we are headed to our leagues Collegiate division Superbowl. But we are. Tonight was 7 wins in a row. I'm so proud of our boys. They remain humble and good sports. Horrid rumors were spread about our team and cheating once we started winning, but our boys remained calm and went out their and played every game to their best. Now we are have the possibility of going home with the championship game. Tonight we won 14 to 6. The team we'll be playing won 6 to 0 just before we played. So it'll be the Fighting Irish vs. the Gamecocks this Saturday. Wish us luck! woohoo!!!!

The playoffs have started for our league and Jacob's team passed the first hurdle!

2007-11-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

We beat the Hurricanes, 6-0 last night to make it to the second Playoff game on Saturday. We will be playing either the Seminoles or the Mountaineers, not sure who won last night after we left, but I'm guessing it's the Seminoles. Who ever wins that goes on to the Superbowl for our age division. Considering that the Gamecocks began the season with an 0-5 record, WOW! We are ecstatic. I am so proud of how hard all the boys have worked this season. Probably half the team are boys that have never played before.

This was Jacob's first year and he was really struggling at the beginning. Everything he has ever done has come easy to him, EXCEPT this. He had to work hard, struggle through the hard times, keep going when he wanted to quit and he did and I'm so proud of him. Here's a less than stellar picture of him in uniform, but alas, my digital card is too small and I filled up my card, I'm really in need of a new one, lol.

I've become the "mom" of a teenager. And I didn't even have to birth this one!

2007-11-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

My cousin, Ian, has moved in with my dh and I. He is 16, 17 in March. He's a good kid, but he is really struggling with some behavioral issues that his mom in unable to address appropriately. He has been diagnosed with ADHD and they have never actually found a medicine combination that works for him well. He is so far behind in school and while I'd love to homeschool him, I cannot make any of those decisions for him. His mom is refusing to sign temporary guardianship papers over to us. This is very frustrating. But he has seen his counselor and hopefully the counselor will be able to help them get this taken care of. From what he said to Ian at the session last night, he definitely thinks we are doing the right thing. I am praying that we can help him become a young man who is self-sufficient and capable of making wise decisions for himself.

So, that's the drama in my life. I sooo dislike drama, unless it is on stage or screen, lol.

I'll post some other awesome news in a separate blog entry because it deserves it's very own entry :)

Staying up too late again!

2006-04-19T05:43:00.002-04:00

Well, here's to my first entry. It's 2:37am and I've convinced myself that I absolutely have to do this before I go to sleep. Of course, it's really just another thing to keep me up at night, lol. I spend a lot of time wondering why I just don't go to bed at a decent time. I think I'd spend less of the day being grumpy if I'd go to sleep and get up when dh goes off to work. He's very gracious, though I'm sure it bothers him. We'd probably keep on schedule with our homeschooling if I slept better as well. Okay, so I'm gonna get off the monster machine. I'll do a little more of an intro after I get a good night's rest. Yeah, right