Sad to say....

Well I quit piano today. I am very sad about it. Olivia is in such a needy stage that my practice time just wasn't happening. It was one of those just one more things to stress about, so I let it go. I plan to keep memorizing what I have been taught and hopefully be able to revisit the idea of lessons in 6 months.

In other news....

Sparky Sprite had her cast removed. She is healing very well and runs around as if it never happened. She is a whopping 2 lbs and so that makes me think she will end up somewhere around 4 lbs. WOW what a difference. I am pretty sure Xerxes poops were bigger then she is. She continues to do very well with being paper trained. We just take one of those potty pads wherever we go and show her where its at and that is where she pottys. SOOOOO NICE!

We just got back from Camping up by Disneyland for 5 nights. It was exhausting, and fun all at the same time. We took Sparky with us and that was neat. I have never taken a pet on vacation before her, and after 2 trips now I wouldn't leave her at home unless we were flying somewhere.... she travels so well.

Olivia and David are both super needy right now. Neither is sleeping through the night and neither will stay in their beds. It is exhausting, and I just keep praying and trying new things. David is also in a very fit throwing age.... trying to teach him patience is certainly testing mine.

School unscheduled continues to be the best for the older kids.

Thats about it for me.....

Puppy, kids, me... just a little update about us all.

Sparky Sprite is the best dog ever! I am in awe I really didn't know having a dog could be this easy. I, ts been 6+ weeks now and other then being the most expensive dog ever because of her broken foot and all that has cost us she really is amazing! She adores me and is definitely a momma's girl, but she is super friendly and will share her love with anyone. Her little poo's are so small that the rare occasion she forgets to go on her puppy pad (very rare) it is no big deal to clean. Her pee is well perfect because she only goes on her puppy pads. No one has to take her out, she gets winded just running around the footstool, she sleeps in her little crate and other then being an early riser she is perfect (yep I said it again). She is a whopping 1.7 lbs at 12 weeks old (a little of that might even be her cast and a lot of it is her hair) and I have been told to double that and we will get her approximate full grown weight. She travels well with us and doesn't yap or bark unless I haven't given her a small bite of my evening snack.

The older kids are doing well at school. They really do work hard and I am blessed by them daily. They have their moments when they argue and I temporarily forget just how good they are, but really I do know I am blessed. They all serve in the family ministry at church and the 2 older boys help lead worship for the youth... really I am so proud!

The littles.... SIGH..... They are in such a needy age. They need my constant attention and rarely will play on their own. I find most days I am putting Olivia down for a nap and then struggling to get a days worth of chores done in what I hope will be 2 hours and what lately has been 1 or 1.5 if I am lucky. I remember when Stephan was 3, Robert was 19months and Abigail was a newborn..... I somehow cleaned the house and had everything done... I don't get why 2 little ones is so hard right now. Sometimes I think it is technology that has made things so hard for me. As a pastors wife and partaking in several ministries at church I really do answer emails, calls, texts, all day long. Yet I love that, and yet I see how it has made this time with the littles extra hard.

Well despite having some really hard personal things going on at the same time as everything else in my life... I am blessed, I am joyful, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Not sure if any of this is even interesting... LOL but I have been meaning to

Our first break.....

So 5 kids and 15 years of marriage and Neither Rob or I, or any of our kids have ever had a break.

Today I woke up to another hot day. So we turned on the AC. Well with the kids now doing school in the garage I was reminding them over and over as they went out into the garage to shut the door. I must say that a dozen times a day if not more. Everyone was a little crabby today. I had gone to an early breakfast with Abby and had come home with Jambas for everyone, but still everyone was cranky. We are letting a friend borrow our car, so Rob who had stayed with the kids while Abby and I went shopping (that's a whole other blog) left, but not without first asking... "You sure you won't need the car today" "Yep I am sure" Well it probably wasn't even 30 minutes later I was calling him with a yelping dog and a plea to please come home and take us to the vets.

Yep thats right. Stephan was cranky, I asked him to please shut the door, and he did without looking and our little puppy who had recently learned how to go in and out of the garage got squashed. The sound of her yelp was horrible, I came running from the bedroom to Stephan balling about how sorry he was. I scooped her up and at first thought it was her shoulder. I sent a few request for prayer texts and by the time Rob had gotten home I realized she was seriously injured. You couldn't touch her paw without her yelping and she being so little didn't know how to limp so any attempt at walking she would just topple over an continue yelping.

So $550 dollars later she has been sedated, given antibiotics and casted. She can't be alone at all for at least the next 2 weeks. She will need to be sedated again when they remove the cast.

She had a puncture wound where he nail was almost ripped off and her little bone was broken. Once they shaved her little paw you could clearly see the purple and the swelling.

I feel like the worst pet owner ever.... and yet the Dr.s office assured us accidents happen. I had even read articles about how little sized dogs were so fragile you had to be super careful and I would never let the little kids be alone with her..... well now I realize we all need to be more careful. If you read this, please pray for her healing, and of course extra provision to cover the bills.

First Love

I am reading a new health book and in it she talks about how she loves her job. I couldn't stop thinking about that. I used to love my job. I loved being a mom. I loved the kind of mom I was. I grew up only ever wanting to be a secretary, a waitress and a mom. I was a secretary before I had kids and I loved it. I have never been a waitress but I am convinced I would enjoy it. I have been a mom for 13 years and until recently I did love it.

Some how I got caught up in how everyone else is doing it. How everyone else keeps their home, how everyone else teaches their kids, how everyone else organizes their day, how everyone else lets their kids do this or that. It has turned it all into a giant chore of the same drudgery every day for me. I no longer just sat on the floor and played for hours, I no longer slept in and started my day when we felt like it. I was a machine, everything organized, everything in its place, dressed and ready for my day with my shoes on. I no longer told the kids, yeah go play in the rain. I was too concerned about the mess. I no longer said yeah we are eating breakfast in moms bed today. I no longer woke the kids up with singing..... I no longer put everything off on my list until I had read my bible.

Don't get me wrong, I love organization, I love lists and schedules, I just don't want them to rule my life. I don't want to be so bogged down with how things have to be in order that I miss the fun, the spontinaity, the precious moments with my kids.

So we are officially off the clock. WOO HOO! We have our lists of what needs to get done, and if I have to stay up past the kids bedtime to do it because we decided to jump in the pool with our clothes on and I have extra laundry then thats how it is.

Revelation 2:2a, 3-4, 5a "I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.

Today I am returning to my first love.... Jesus, of course and my love of being a Mom!

Week 5 here we come!!!

So many changes I can't count later.......

I cannot believe tomorrow we will be starting week 5 of school, only 31 more to go.

We have had schedule changes, major clean outs and reorganizing, and many many tears on my part.

As I was crying this weekend in frustration as this weekend was spent preparing for yet another change in our school years plan I kept praying and asking God, what is it I am doing wrong? I was ready to quit it all and just hide myself in a hole. Now mind you I am not a newbie at this. This is my 9th year of homeschooling. I have plans to go all 13 years with all 5 kids, but I leave every year up to the Lord and how he directs. I knew this wanting to quit wasn't a direction from him but just my emotions running away with me.

This evenings message at church said it all. Quit fighting my flesh, and feed my spirit. Take my focus off of those around me and put it back on Jesus. Read, read, read my bible!

Yep I had been caught up in the opposite of all those things. I am such an all or nothing personality that when our pastor challenges us to read our bibles for an hour every day if I can't do the hour, I usually don't do it at all. I also easily get caught up in wondering what others are doing or thinking, and fighting the flesh can be such a huge focus I forget to feed my spirit until I realize I have nothing left to fight with.

So with that said, we are back to no assigned times for school, just a check off list of what needs to get done. We are having school in a freshly cleaned out garage. Tomorrow high on my list is to get some Olivia appropriate toys out there to keep her occupied while the rest of us work. I also have taken everything off the schedule for Monday - Wednesday so we have 3 strong school days with Thursdays their class day, and Fridays our Park and Field trip days and finish up school work days. In October Piano and Base will move to Thursday afternoons, so it really will be 3 Strong all school days!

I am going to bed reading a devotional, and waking up reading my bible and having time with him first.... even if that means waking to an alarm clock. :-)

Dogs, Dogs and more Dogs.

I had a puppy named Esther, we got her 2 years ago. She was beautiful and sweet and helped me through a really rough time. Dogs are good about that. They let you sit and cry and pet them and they never get tired of it and they don't answer back. Well about 1 year of age we could tell she was bored. So we got her a puppy. She loved the puppy. He was a boxer like her, but he just kept growing. Pretty soon our backyard was overwhelmed with one small boxer and one giant and still growing boxer. So we started looking for a new home for him. Well we found one, but they only wanted both. I was heartbroken. I begged my husband to let me keep her. He thought it would be wrong to seperate them. They now live on 5 acres and are reported to be very loved and very happy. Well in the mean time of finding them a new home, we took in a dog that my parents got but didn't mesh with their dog. She was super sweet, but drove mine and my sons allergies crazy. She was here a little over a week and we were blessed to find her a new home....

Well I was still sad and Rob wanted to bless me. Soooooo..... we got this little baby black bear we call "Sparky Sprite" She is 1.2 lbs and will grow to be a whopping 3-5 lbs. We have had her 2 weeks now. She went with us on our family vacation. She is exactly what I have always been wanting...... She can travel with us, she is really a part of the family. She is hypo allergenic and hasn't bothered any of us in the slightest. I am blessed that all the dogs found good homes and hope to have a long long time with little Sparky.

I am not sure how to edit the pictures.... but they are in the order as follows. Sparky, Lolli or Annie as we called her. Xerxes is the brindle and Esther is the fawn boxer.

schedule change

7:15 wake, get dressed, take medicines
7:30 bible and prayer time
8:15 wake kids / start workout
9:00 start school
11:00 circle time
11:30 bible time
12:00 lunch
12:30 history/science
1:30 piano
2:00 oliva's nap / free time
4:00 whole house tidy

That is the new schedule.... Not as time specific as the last one. This is my schedule not the kids. Theirs is.....

8:30 wake and get ready for school

9:00 School

12:00 Lunch

12:30 more school

2:30 School Over, Chore time, then free time.

I took away the 30 minute time slots for them as it was frustrating them to change subjects before they were ready. So they basically have a start and a stop time and that's it. They do have a general list as to what needs to get done in a day so we will see if that helps.

Janet