Catch up!

Well, I am officially down 10.2 pounds. WooHoo!

Olaf's birthday was yesterday. My husband turned 36 years old. He is taking the day off tomorrow for a doctor's appointment and we are eating lunch at Red Lobster. I just found out today that shrimp scampi is only 3 points, so I may have three platefuls. I love that stuff. I will NOT eat a biscuit though. Way too fattening.

Today I ran some errands with the children. I needed to get to the post office to send a package out and ended up at Kohl's. I love Kohl's! I bought some "gifty" stuff and then headed to the toy store. The children were really good and didn't ask for anything. I bought Josiah a huge Barney and Caleb a sword for Christmas. Josiah was not happy when I took the Barney away, but he got over it fairly quickly.

It's late and I need to get into bed. Just wanted to catch up for the day.

Hurricane Jeanne

It is raining outside due to Hurricane Jeanne. Those poor people in Florida. We just get the rain and wind...I cannot imagine taking the brunt force of these things. No power outages though. Its really not too bad.

I weigh in this evening at Weight Watchers. I am probably down about a pound or two. That will put me at a weight loss of 9 pounds in 5 weeks. Only 50 more to go. It hasn't been too hard to get used to eating this way. I need to do it for the rest of my life. I have two friends who joined as well. I hope they did good this week.

Homeschooling is going OK. As long as I don't expect perfection, we do fine. I just need to mellow out and let the Lord live through me. Today she got a little frustrated with division and I lost my temper a bit. Then I remembered what is truly important. "And ye shall teach them your children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up!" Deut 11:19 Her learning is a lifestyle, not a time limit. The most important thing to teach her is to "love the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, and strength." The rest will all fall into place. As long as I remember that....God will bless our journey.

Olaf's birthday is Wednesday, the 29th. He will be 36 years old. He is getting more handsome everyday. I'm so happy he's my husband.

Took Josiah to the dermatologist for a follow up aapointment about his molloscum. He said to keep putting Aldara on it and to come back in two months if there is no improvement. Josiah just cried and cried and he was in my arms the entire time! My poor children. Of course since Camille was with us at the appointment people ask her if she goes to school. She just says "no" and doesn't expound. I wonder what they think. Hmmm...

Time for Olaf to get home from work. Need to run.

Sunday Afternoon

Today was so beautiful. The weather was sunny and about 80 degrees. We went to our friend's church for a special service. They had a special music group performing and everyone ate the good ole' buffet afterwards. It was great. I know all the people there because I go to a women's Bible study there. I stayed out of the service though because Josiah was being too loud. He was enjoying himself too much.

Olaf is taking the day off Wednesday so we can all go with Caleb on his field trip to the county fair. The Kiwanis open up the fair just for the special needs kids in the school district. Of course, Camille gets to ride as well. There are definite advantages of having a special needs kid!:^)

I went grocery shopping today and saved $50 and spent $100. I love www.thegrocerygame.com I have saved so much money the past three weeks. Start buying Sunday papers for the coupons and then go to that website and sign up. It's only a $1 for the first four weeks. I have saved over $200 in my first month doing it.

Need to run. It's getting late and babies need to get ready for bed.

Friday, September 17, 2004

It's Friday morning and again, school has been cancelled for Caleb. There is no reason for school to be cancelled, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. Camille needs to do school today since we only did History yesterday. Camille loves history. For her birthday she wants to travel to some "history places." She has a particular interest in the Pioneer Days and, of course, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Someone forwarded a website with some free alphabet coloring pages to do with Gracie. They are a Bible theme and very cute. You gotta love FREE!

Everyone is still asleep except for Caleb. He's been up since 5:15 am. I don't know how the boy functions sometimes. Josiah is on my bed. He woke up last night very agitated. He slept on top of me most of the time. I worry about him falling off because my bed is high off the ground. I need to go check on him.

I need to drink my water today and stay on points!

Hurricane Ivan

Hurricane Ivan is coming through as I write this. We have some high winds right now and some rain. It doesn't seem to be as bad as Frances was last week though.

Homeschooling was tough this week. I actually quit on Monday! However, I started again yesterday. I need to keep my thoughts on the Lord and all will go well. I feel so sorry for Camille at times. I can be such a wretched mother.

I am now down 5.5 pounds in three weeks. As long as I keep on losing, I will be happy. I'd like to lose at least a pound a week. Yesterday we had Chinese food for supper and I overate. I have been on points today though. I can't let one day get me down!

I had to take Deacon to the vet on Monday. When it rains it pours... He had an anal gland rupture. Talk about gross!! So, now both my dogs are on antibiotics and Ella is on thyroid meds.

I looked into getting a digital box for our TV. It's an extra $16 per month though. That's a lot of money... Especially when Olaf is going to have to take a pay cut soon. I just want the music channels though. I'd love to listen to the 70's and 80's music all day. How fun! I am getting really old.

I need to sign off before our cable goes out...

Day After Labor Day

Yesterday was Labor Day and my husband was home from work. We spent part of the day without electricity due to hurricane Frances. The worst of Frances should be here this evening, so we are praying that our electricity stays on. They closed the schools down today because the rain was so heavy this morning they didn't want to transport the children. Caleb was bummed. He loves to ride the bus.

I did do school this morning with Camille. Just the basics...reading, writing and arithmetic. We learned about commas today and she did 2 digit division. She copied her spelling list and that was about it for "school." I still need to read out loud to her. We have several books that we are reading out loud right now. We are almost finished with "Misty." We are half way through "Little Women." We just started "Little House on the Prairie." She read the first book "Little House in the Big Woods" by herself. She loves it when I read out loud to her.

Josiah still has a stuffy nose. Gracie woke up this morning and said her nose was "tuffy" too! I am praying this doesn't turn into an ear infection.

Ella is at the vet. She wasn't acting right this morning. They drew blood and did an urinalysis. The results will be in tomorrow, but preliminary tests says she has a urinary tract infection. Poor FAT dog. She is so sweet though. I'll miss her when she's gone.

I think I am down another 1.5 pounds from last week. There was no weigh in yesterday due to Labor Day. We'll see next Monday when I go. I'm doing well today. I need to drink more water though. I'm still not used to feeling "hungry." I am such a glutton that this feeling is new to me. I think of the scripture that says not to let anything master you. It gives me great pleasure telling my body NO! A fruit of the Holy Spirit is self control and I am FINALLY using some. I want to feast on God's Word whenever I feel hungry. Wouldn't it be awesome to hunger after the Lord like I have hungered after food??? To go digging into His Word like I dig in the cupboards?

Signing off...I have digging to do!

Hello!

I am starting this blog to document our homeschool journey. It is mostly for my benefit, so I can look back and see what the Lord has done. Homeschooling is not easy for me, but I know it is the best thing for our family. Right now I only homeschool my lovely daughter Camille who is in the third grade. Her personality is the opposite of mine. Her learning style is the opposite of mine. Her temperament is the opposite of mine. You get the idea. She is the sweetest child, very obedient, never gives me problems...and yet, we still have our days! I will also be posting about our everyday life and the ins and outs of having four children, one of which is mentally challenged. Our oldest child, Caleb, is 9 years old and mentally retarded. He has very little speech due to apraxia, but he can understand a lot. He operates at the level of a four year old. He cannot write his name or even copy it, but he tries to count and say his alphabet. He is hyperactive which makes life crazy sometimes. Caleb was adopted at birth and is exactly six months older than Camille. We send Caleb to public school where he can receive all the therapies that he needs. So far we have been blessed with good teachers. If there ever comes a time when I question what is happening in school, I will homeschool him as well. We also have a three year old daughter, Grace. She is SO cute. Then we have Josiah who will be two the day after Christmas. So, we are a busy family. I am looking forward to posting and seeing how the Lord is leading me. To share my prayer and praise reports! Oh, and I also started Weight Watchers two weeks ago, so I'm sure I will be sharing all of that as well. I need to lose 50 pounds! YIKES! I wish I could blame it on the babies, but I can't!