Somedays....

I just want to go back to bed and start over. This would be today! No one is feeling well. The two little ones are coughing so hard they almost vomit. I have a cold that has pretty much made me useless. I am premenstrual which is not helping my mood or behavior. Say a little prayer for me.

Bark, bark, bark

That is what my Gracie and Josiah sound like. It's just awful. Grace started with the bark last night and definitely has the cough part worse than Josiah. Josiah, on the other hand, still cannot breathe. Being the pseudo doctor that I am, I started Grace on Prelone today. I would have started Josiah on it as well, but it tastes AWFUL and I cannot get him to keep it down. Before bed tonight I am giving them both a MAJOR cough medicine with codeine in it. I hope it lets them get some sleep.

Olaf took today off. He wasn't feeling well and he wanted to help me with the children. I thought that was very kind of him. So tomorrow we will get back into our routine. Routine is good. I like it.

I am FULL. Olaf asked me what I wanted for supper and I said "tots". Off to Sonic to get a big huge order of chili cheese tots for me. Now I feel like a beached whale. Serves me right. I hate stupidity and that was just stupid!

We bought a used wooden Thomas the Tank Engine Railway with cars today. We just can't figure out how to put it together. It will be for Josiah for his birthday or Christmas. They are very expensive new and we got a good deal on it from a fellow homeschooler. Olaf needs to repaint the engines because they are very worn, but Josiah will love it. It's like the sets you see in the bookstores or in Toys R Us.

I need to start addressing Christmas cards. I also need to take the children's picture for it. Hopefully we can get that done this weekend. I really want a new camera to take their picture, but that is the tail wagging the dog.

OK, off to tend to littles who need their mama.

Everyone is sick, sick, sick

See! I told you we'd all get it! But poor Josiah and Gracie got the worst of it. They started running fevers Thursday night and Friday night Josiah had croup. He has no voice whatsoever and that dry barky cough. His breathing is fairly labored and very loud. I called the nurse last night who told me to take him to the ER immediately. I drive to the only po dunk hospital we have and it was slap full of the Crips, Bloods, and highly infectious children. I turned around and walked out. I didn't even sign in. I figured if he got worse in the middle of the night I would take him then and hope that the ER would be semi cleared. But once he fell asleep, he sounded better. His breathing is still labored but his color is good. Needless to say, we have spent the entire holiday weekend inside not doing much. We did decorate the house for Christmas minus the tree. (Go to FLickr if you are a contact to see) We get our tree the first weekend of December at a local tree farm. There will never be an artifical tree in our home. Never. We watched The Polar Express fifty two thousand times.

Olaf may get to go see the new Narnia movie a week early. They may be having a screening in Atlanta for VIP's and he is on the list to go! WooHoo! It's not set in stone (pun intended for those of you who know the story) but if it happens it will be this Saturday. The movie opens December 9th and I am so excited about it. I cannot wait.

Happy Thanksgiving

The pumpkin pie has been made. The sweet potatoes are boiling for the sweet potato casserole, the turkey has been smoked and is waiting in the fridge. We just need to make our stuffing, mashed potatos, corn, green beans, and rolls. And across the street there are people roofing a house. If they are still there when we eat I will take them a plate.

I will leave you with the words of Abraham Lincoln who offically instituted Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

It's almost Thanksgiving

I took that graphic from Liberty. Thanks girl!:) Well, today is pie baking day in most homes. When I was growing up my mom always made pies the day before Thanksgiving. And she made a lot of them. Pecan, Apple, Cherry, Pumpkin. I have never been a pie girl though. I mean, I will eat a piece but it isn't my favorite. Unless it is Strawberry Rhubarb. Then I'll eat more than one piece. And mom never made Strawberry Rhubarb. I, on the other hand, will be picking up two pies from a local bakery! Olaf will most likely make the Pumpkin Pie tonight. He makes it with fresh pumpkin (in the freezer from our pumpkin carving contest) because it tastes better that way. One year he even made his own crust!

I am eating a Clementine right now. They are the best little things ever! They are usually sold in a crate (not by the pound) in the produce department. They look like a tangerine but SO MUCH BETTER. No seeds and sweet as candy.

If you like to laugh you really must read Sara's blog on a regular basis. I love her. She is a young (20 something) single woman who loves the Lord, but is hilariously funny. Her mama did a good job raising her!:)

Well, happy baking! Peace Out (done in the voice of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite).

Gingerbread Coffeemate

Did I mention that I finally found the holiday Coffeemate at WalMart of all places? Usually Publix or Kroger will have something like that before WalMart. Anyway, I bought them all. They have Pumpkin Spice this year. My favorite is still Gingerbread though. I am going to the grocery store this evening to buy a few things. Me and thousands of other procrastinators. I'd load up the children and go, but Caleb is pretty miserable with his stuffy nose. He doesn't know how to blow his nose, so that makes for an awful time as you can imagine. He has to breathe out of his mouth so he is constantly drooling. Then the snot is always running down his lip. We have went through hundreds of Kleenex in just 24 hours. Yucky! Wanna see?



Last night we gave him Nyquil! Are we good parents or what???

OK, time to go fix the children (mostly Caleb) lunch. You'd think he wouldn't be able to taste anything but he is still asking me to eat constantly.

No Oregon for us

Caleb woke up this morning with a cold. I guess that seals our fate regarding going to Oregon for Thanksgiving. We will stay here and eat smoked turkey with all the fixins. The rest of us will probably get his cold sometime about Thursday, so it may be a miserable weekend. I am loading up on echinacea and vitamin c right now. I forgot a few things at the grocery store so I may go this evening after TOPS. Speaking of TOPS, I really don't think I lost any weight this week. I'm easing into it;)

Hey, does anyone know anything about this camera? It seems like a good deal and the reviews on Amazon are all terrific. This may be our Christmas gift to each other. Right now we use our free Fuji 1.3 Mega Pixel, no zoom at all, have to look through the viewfinder, camera.

Need to run. Supper is done and I need to get it on the table. (Yes, it is 4:30. We eat early!)

The wedding was...

fabulous. Short, sweet, and the bride looked lovely. I have uploaded pictures to my Flickr account. They are marked for Friends and Family, so if you aren't on my contact list make sure to e-mail me. We tried desperately to put some curl in my hair. HA! I used a can of hairspray and still HA! I have hair like an Asian woman. Straight as a board and black as the night. I got home early...somewhere around 9:00. The children were still up waiting for me. I'm glad I got to see them before they went to bed.

Olaf has decided that he wants to hang up our outside Christmas lights today. We don't do a lot of decorating. We just put out a nativity scene with a lighted star and then do some lights in the tree. The children are thrilled. Christmas is so much fun for them.

Caleb has the entire week off from school this week. In the past he has only had Thursday and Friday off, but they are trying something new this year. He has less Christmas vacation though. We are toying with the idea of flying to Oregon for Thanksgiving, but the car rental is over $400. We really can't afford that.

~~~~~~~~~~8 hours later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We just got back from a first ever family event. We went to the movie theater and saw Chicken Little. The last time we went to the theater was to see Toy Story 2. Caleb was about 5 years old and he FLIPPED out. We haven't attempted a movie since. But today we tried it. And you know what? Caleb loved that movie. He laughed all the way through it. Especially at the pig. How did we get from putting up Christmas lights to the movies you ask? We didn't have anything in the house to eat so we decided to get lunch and then go to Target to buy some more Christmas lights. After lunch we passed the movie theater and I (on a whim) said, "Hey! Let's go see Chicken Little!" Thus, the diversion to the movie theater. We did go to Target and buy the lights. Then to the grocery store to buy some grub. Now we are back home and it's too dark to put up the Christmas lights...and it's raining.

So, here's to a long day but memorable day!:)

Tonight at Bible Study we will be celebrating MY birthday. WooHoo! Too bad I started dieting on Tuesday. I totally plan on skipping dinner so I can indulge in a little of the tasty treats that will be there.

Thank you to everyone who put a pin in my map. I think I got seven responses to my plea. Muah!

Yesterday Olaf was gone from 5:45 am to after 6:00 pm. Yuck! I would really hate it if he had to work that long every night. Who knows? If Delta goes under he may have to. But right now I don't like it. I guess I am just spoiled. I am selfish beyond belief. This "die to self" part of being a Christian is not pleasant and I am certain that it will never be. I know there are people who have attained the ideal of "it's a ministry to my family and therefore a blessing to me" but I'm still at the "this sucks" stage. I mean, I have my good days too. And I really do try to keep a Godly perspective at all times (isn't that what this is all about anyway?), but I do have my pity party days and yesterday was one of them. It's when I start comparing my life to "others" that I get into trouble. We choose to homeschool our children. That means my children are with me 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. There is no "break time" for Mama. People who choose to send their children to government schools have at least 6 hours of time away from their children where they can grocery shop, clean the house, whatever... Even children as young as three are going to pre-school. On the other hand, I get up in the morning, make breakfast, and then start teaching my fourth grader how to find the greatest common factor and the least common denominator. We read history together and learn all about commas and direct quotations in Language Arts. I try to clean the house with my children...to train them for the day that they will run their own households. Yes, that makes for slow going at times. By the time lunch is finished, well it's time to start supper. My man likes to have supper ready when he comes home. We eat supper between 4:30-5:00 pm every night. In order to do that I need to start thinking about it by 2:00. Thankfully baseball is over for both children and the only extra thing going on is horseback riding. If I had to run around on top of everything else, I think I'd drop. I love my family desperately. I am SO blessed by the wonderful man I married and the children that God has so graciously given me. I need to focus on THAT and put my big girl panties on deal with it. So forgive the rant. I'll shut up now.

It's early

Caleb is on the bus and everyone else is asleep. Olaf is driving 3.5 hours this morning to a Marine base for some type of training/tour. He was happy to get away from the office for a day. Yes, he has to pay for his own gas down there, but he's still happy.

The Amazing Race wasn't on last night. I did watch The Biggest Loser. Those people look FANTASTIC! They have been at that ranch for three months. Can you imagine being away from your family for three months? Not me. Anyway, because The Amazing Race wasn't on we watched what came on after The Biggest Loser. Something like "My Name is Earl" and "The Office." We laughed hysterically at The Office. Oh my. We will watch it if it is still on after The Amazing Race. If I had Tivo, I'd record it.

Oh my! It is now 1:00 pm and I really should just post this!:) We just got back from Kohls and WalMart. Spent too much money but I was able to buy Olaf a Christmas present at WalMart with the grocery money. I bought presents for my mom, Gracie, and Josiah at Kohls too. Now I need to go eat some lunch.

OK you lurkers!

Please, please, please go put a pin in my map. All you have to do is put in your zip code and a little message like, "Hi from Washington." and that is ALL. I see on my stat counter that I have vistors from Belgium, (coughellocough), Singapore, The UK (coughZoecough), Everett, WA, Marietta, GA, Sheridan, OR, Cherry Hill, NJ, Mableton, GA, Denver, CO, Hampton, VA (coughLisacough), New York, NY, Chicago, Milwakee, Brownsville (coughChericough)...C'mon man! Put a pin in my map and make me HAPPY!

DIEt

Well, today I went back on the diet. The first three letters just about say it all. I MUST get off the sugar. It's a vicious cycle. Eat more, want more...eat more, want more. I went to TOPS last night. TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. It is way cheaper than Weight Watchers although I will still be following the WW plan. I just need that scale accountability. TOPS is kind of corny, but I think it will be good for me. It is only $6 per month. They have fun things like paying a quarter for every pound (or portion thereof) that you gain and at the end of the month, the biggest loser takes the kitty home. If you are the biggest loser for the night you take home a small wrapped present etc. Just fun little things to try to keep you motivated. They read a portion of Dr. Phil's Weight Loss book last night and let me borrow the Dr. Phil food guide. At the beginning of each meeting you have to say the TOPS pledge. (I told you it was corny)

I am an intelligent person.
I will control my emotions, not let my emotions control me.
Every time I am tempted to use food to satisfy my frustrated desires,
build up my injured ego, or dull my senses,
I will remember, even though I overeat in private-
My excess poundage is there for all the word to see.
I WILL TAKE OFF POUNDS SENSIBLY.

The last line used to be: HOW FOOLISH I HAVE BEEN, but they changed it:) I guess too many people complained about it. I guess I need to start that Weight Loss Blog again.

Camille did Math, Spelling, Language Arts, and History today. We are learning about the New England Colonies right now. I love reading it to her because I learn so much. I didn't know that Rhode Island was the first colony settled for the sole purpose of having complete religious freedom. Massachusetts was settled by the Puritans and kicked anyone out that didn't believe in their religion. So, a guy named Roger Williams (a Baptist) started Rhode Island and called that first place he settled Providence. Y'all probably knew that, but I didn't. Their charter ensured that anyone would have complete religious freedom and not be penalized in any way if they believed (or didn't believe) differently. Mr. Williams knew that no one can force a person to believe in Christ. I think I would have liked him.

The Delta pilots are threatening a murder/suicide if they don't get their way. They don't want to take the pay cut that Delta wants them to take and say they will strike and put the airline under for good. Gotta love greed. I know that taking a 23% pay cut is HUGE, but Olaf has taken 19% this year and he doesn't make 1/3 of what the pilots make. The average Delta pilot makes over $160,ooo per year. And 23% of $160K is a lot of jack! It's $36,800 to be exact...ouch! But, they would still make $123,200 which is better than.... let's say.... nothing! So, pray for Delta my friends. It doesn't look good. Our pay cut started November 1st, so today is our first pay check with the 9% loss. (We took 10% January 1, 2005) Pretty soon we will be able to qualify for WIC. I'd laugh if it weren't true. One more baby or one more pay cut and we'll be there. BUT, the LORD is good and we still have more than we need. I have nothing to complain about. Nothing at all.

I am off to clean toilets. And tubs. Where are those maidens in Proverbs 31?

Monday

Monday. Back to the old grindstone. Camille is finishing up school, the littles are watching "The Little Bear Movie" and I am washing sheets. My Monday chore. I love doing laundry though. It is my favorite chore to do. We have flannel sheets on our bed all year round because I love the way they feel. Since we only have one pair of flannel sheets, I wash them every Monday!:) They are holding up nicely though. I think they are from LL Bean or Lands End Overstocks. I also like those knit/T-Shirt type sheets but I don't have any for our Queen bed. The girls have them for their bunk beds though. I need to do a lot of cleaning today (always have to on Mondays because we trash the house over the weekend) but I'd like to exercise too. I want to do the FIRM but the TV is currently in use with Little Bear, so I may go out and walk/jog a bit. More walking than jogging mind you.

The cat never came back. I didn't think he would. Actually, I didn't think he could.

My right tonsil is better. I may cancel my appointment with the ENT doctor. I took echinacea and vitamin c for a few days and it seems to have helped. I really, really, really, do not want a tonsilectomy. I am a huge wimp.

Chantell's wedding is this Saturday. I have NO idea what to do with my hair. I am the one doing the toast. So, here it is: May the strength of three be in your journey. What do you think? I found it online somewhere. Short and simple. I do not know the groom at all. I have only met him on one or two occasions, so I cannot wax eloquent about him. So I will raise my glass, look at the married couple, say "Kerry and Chantell. May the strength of three be in your journey." The non-Christians will be confused.

We borrowed Napoleon Dynamite from a friend. We have to watch it again. I like your sleeves.

It's a beautiful autumn day

Olaf is outside cleaning up the yard. I think he will clean the gutters too. The children were outside playing for a long time and now they are watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie. It's a nice sunny and brisk day.

On a not so nice note, our 17 year old cat is missing and presumed dead. My husband somehow forgot to deadbolt the basement door where the cat lives and he escaped. He has never been outside a day in his life and here he is deaf, blind, and senile. I am hoping he died the first night out. We have coyotes in the woods behind us so I am hoping it was quick. The thought of him wandering out there is too much to bare. It has been 2 full days now and I am quite certain he won't make it home. What a demise!! Poor cat. Well, now that he's gone we can clean up that basement. There was hair all over it. I would love to finish the basement, but we just don't have the money to do it. I'd love a playroom down there for the children.

Napoleon Dynamite is a funny movie. But, you have to watch it more than once! Olaf and I are quoting it all the time now. GOSH!

Have a great weekend. Enjoy your family.

Got this today from Dayspring!

Giving Thanks for God’s Overwhelming Generosity

By Roy Lessin, co-founder DaySpring Cards

Everything in your life that flows out of love has come to you from God. Everything in your life that is good has been initiated by God. God has done everything for you, He is everything to you, and He is enriching other lives through you. His generosity is overwhelming, His blessings are limitless, His love is endless.

No one has favored you more than God. He has removed every stain of your sin, He has cleansed all the defilement of your iniquity, and He has silenced every voice of condemnation that hung over your head. He has saved you, redeemed you, and justified you.

All of God’s grace abounds toward you, all of Christ’s riches are made available to you, and all spiritual blessings are provided for you. In Christ, you have received the treasures that can never be taken away, the hope that can never fade away, and the life that will never pass away.

As you walk with Jesus day by day, you will find that your thankfulness to Him is an ever-increasing symphony of praise, building into a lifelong crescendo of gratitude that flows from your heart to His. You, who have so little, have received so much, because He has been so generous.

There are so many riches that He has given to you; so many answers to prayer that He has granted to you; so many kindnesses that He has manifested to you; so many joys that He has provided for you; so many mercies that He has extended to you; so many benefits that He has showered upon you. Everything you have has come from Him, and that is the reason why your heart can be so grateful.

Thank Him today because—
He formed you and made you.
He has given you the breath of life.
He has given you this day.
He is working in you to become all that He has intended you to be.
He is working everything in your life together for the good.
He is using your difficulties and trials to conform you to His image.

Thank Him today for—
The forgiveness of your sins.
The peace that passes all understanding.
The smiles that have come to your face because His joy is in your heart.
The comfort of His presence that has quieted your heart and calmed your fears.
The hope that is in you because He has promised to always be with you.
The place in heaven that He has reserved and has prepared for you.

Thank Him today with—
Words of exaltation.
Songs of celebration.
A heart of strong devotion.
Thoughts of deep reflection.
Acts of admiration.
Claps of loud ovation.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:15 (KJV)

Time for cake

Yes, I really am tired. I look tired. That massage really messed me up...in a good way!

Oh, it's not over yet!

TRAPP Candles, Willow Tree, and Yankee Candles too! They lurve me!:)

Back from my massage

and now I need a nap! I guess that means it was a great massage, eh? Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I have the most awesome friends (and brother) in the world!
Now...tah da da....the cake!

Birthday Update...

I leave for my spa massage in half an hour. My family got me this! And this. Stephanie from wah sent me the cutest little notepad with my name on every page and some yummy chocolate velvet flavored coffee. (Check out her website. She does that for a living!) I received two e-cards today. One from Becky and one from Monika. And the best part, the day is not even half over! Check back for more birthday updates. ::giggles::