Life At The Circus

This year I decided to follow the example of other friends on face book and post something each day on my status that I was thankful for.  It was a really fun way to stop and focus on giving thanks each day.  I decided to cut and paste my status updates into a blog post for today so I could record these to look back on later.  Here they are starting with today and going backwards to the beginning of November…. Today I am thankful for each of my children and their unique personalities.  I am so thankful for the privilege of being their Mommy. Today I am thankful for toothless grins and visits from the tooth fairy. My 5 yr old lost her first tooth tonight :) I am thankful for my Mom and Dad... for their love for each other and my brother and I as well as our spouses and children. I know I am one of the lucky ones and I truly am grateful for the relationship I have with both of them as well as the relationships they have with my children I am thankful for friend...

My four year old asked for a drink the other day.   I always pour the kids small amounts since we have a propensity to spill things round the circus.  When I handed her the glass she said to me, “Now Mom, that is what I call HALF FULL!”  I couldn’t help but chuckle, guess we know how she sees the world. 

If we gotta rake and bag all these leaves, we may as well take advantage of the seasonal photo op they provide first!

Education is about so much more than book smarts.  I’ve known this for awhile and believed it to my core.  In fact, this fact alone has dictated so many decisions we make in raising our children, especially since we home school and  want to make sure that they are learning more than just “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” Yesterday and today our school time was “interrupted” so that I could spend time one on one disciplining a child for behavior.  Each time it was a different child.  Each time the issue was about much more than their behavior but the character issue underlining it.  And as you can imagine, each time it took way more time and energy than I truthfully wanted it to.  But, I plowed through.  As I did I recalled a nugget I took from the parenting DVD I watched last spring in SS .   The speaker said we need to view these situations as “moments of ministry” and GIVE THANKS for the opportunity God has given us  to work ...

I feel busy… these past few months have probably been the busiest I’ve been in quite awhile.  Scott worked a ton of overtime, the oldest three played soccer, the girls both did gymnastics, my oldest son started piano lessons, cub scouts is back in action, the home school year began—it takes up way more of my day than it used to…. I am not complaining… I willingly signed up for all of these things (ok… except for the overtime part) and I enjoy them… it’s a stage of life for us that is fleeting, I know. And I am enjoying it. But it is a different stage for us … and it is busy. All that to say, I have sorta fallen off of the blogging band wagon.  I keep saying to myself, “Oh I’ll blog that..” And then when the day is over, the kids are in bed and I sit on the couch with the computer in front of me… I draw a blank… or I don’t feel like writing anything.  Those “good ideas” I had earlier have flown the coup and all I have is a blank screen and all I feel like doing is scroll...

I never considered myself to be high maintenance till I started shopping at Aldi’s.   All my friends had been going there for years and always seemed to gush about the great prices and the fact that their generic off brands were just as good if not better than name brands.   I went once but hated the fact that it didn’t have everything on my list, plus it wasn’t really on my way to or from any place (except church but Sunday after church is not a good time to go grocery shopping—believe me I know, I tried this past week)… so I got along with Shoppers and Safeway, but the grocery bill kept getting higher… I then added Walmart to my list… not close or convenient to where I live, but was saving a lot of money… and then I decided to try Aldi’s again.  It was July.. we had just gotten back from our whirlwind trip to Florida.. I dropped the older two kids off at VBS and went to pick up our dog from my friend’s house.  She offered for me to leave the dog there a...

Our oldest daughter had a little fun getting into her character for Halloween.  When posing for pictures in their costumes, she decided to  fully act out the part of Snow White. I think my favorite part of the reenactment was when she asked us to take her picture sleeping with the apple. "Skip the ol posing by the door with the trick or treat basket, we’ll go for playing dead on the floor with an apple.” Then she was awakened with a kiss from her prince. “Thanks Dad for being my prince,” she exclaimed. Oh sweet girl, there’s nothing he’d like more than to be your prince forever. Excuse me while I go blubber in the corner as I think about this picture one day popping up on the screen during a video montage at her rehearsal dinner… can’t you just stay our little girl forever?