How 'Bout Them Kids

I'm so busy with the children and their lives, I don't have enough time to write about it all!

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and I was so blessed that they are doing so well.

Victoria is a self motivated academic. I am so blessed by the Lord in this. She is keeping straight A's and is going to be getting the student of the quarter award tomorrow. She got it her first quarter in 5th grade as well. So, I'm glad to see her diligence and character in the classroom is continuing. She is the teachers helper and is very efficient I hear at entering data into the computer. Now if we can just get her to keep her desk (and room for that matter) clean, she will be on a roll!:)

Socially however, this year has been tough. Many of her friends from last year have taken a bad turn down female-pecking-order lane. Some of them have grades that are dropping because they are not focused on their school work. They have been very awful to Victoria and ostracized her. I found out yesterday she has been trying to stay in at recess too. Her teacher and I talked about the situation and she is going to try to encourage her to get outside and also to start mingling with a few other girls in the class headed in the right direction. Rick and I see it as a blessing that these girls won't let her in their social circle because we think God is using that to protect her. That's a hard thing to explain to her though.

Emma Bear is once again shocking us with her performance. Last year her teacher was perfect for her and very laid back. This year we knew she was getting a kind teacher but one who was not so much laid back. The transition has been just what Emma has needed. She is becoming so responsible and is motivated to make sure we check her homework, sign her agenda, and drill her on her multiplication tables. He teacher said she is very bright and has interesting questions and observations as they go along. Emma also comes up with dual ways to solve problems. I am not surprised by that because she has always been the problem solving type. It was good to hear that she is doing so well. Especially since she is in a combo class where most of the students are in 4th grade.

Caedmon is doing excellent on his academics. He has been "zoning out" a great deal in class however and I got a great chance to chat with his teacher about this yesterday. Caedmon has a different kind of attention problem than most boys. With typical boys, they get the tiniest bit distracted or bored and they start to get noisy, fidgety, and disobedient even. Caedmon does the opposite, he secludes inside himself. His brain goes far, far away to who knows where. He is still quiet, so it's hard to tell that he's not with it at the moment. She did have him in the back of the class because he was ahead on an academic level but she has since moved him to the front for a while to make sure he is not spacing. He is still one of the youngest in the class so we also feel that his brain development will help with this phase he is going through. Somehow though, when he is with it, he catches everything he needs to know to do his work. Caedmon would be a great kid for homeschooling in some regards, and the worse for others. His tendency to seclude would be catered to especially because he has no other boys to play with at home. Being at school pushes Caedmon in ways he needs to be pushed. He is rather calm and inactive and would prefer a day of tinkering with his Lego's and toys rather than getting moving. It's great that he can come home and do that but part of the day he really needs more stimulation both academically and socially.

All three of the kids are enjoying Awana this year as well. They did not want to go but we insisted they needed the fellowship and teaching. Caedmon just earned his first jewel and was very excited. Emma is plowing through sections so fast her leader had to tell her she could not listen to them all one night or she would not get to hear the other kids ones. She did about 8 in one week. Victoria just moved on to another book as well in TNT.

So, that's the news from here.

A New Adventure Of Trusting God

Monday I had to call 911. I was having an experience I've had before. Back in May I had this scary episode of light-headededness and my heart racing and thumping. I had just woken up and nothing stressful was going on. Still, at the ER they did tests and everything came back good. I was told I had probably had a panic attack. I was so frustrated with this because I did not agree. Turns out I was right.
On Monday I had been having a little lunch with Rick and Caed. I stood up to gather my things and got very dizzy. I started to feel like I was going to pass out. I sat back down and asked Rick to bring me some ice water. He was on a lunch break so I really needed to get feeling better to at least get home. After about five minutes I felt I could drive. All the way home (a ten minute drive) I was trying to relax and kept splashing ice water all over my face. I was scared to pass out while trying to get home. At home it got worse. I tried to lay down but became so uncomfortable and it became difficult to breathe. I called my mom and then got worried about Caed alone in the house if something happened to me. That pushed me to call 911.
I'll cut through a lot of drama here to get to the end. All the tests were fine in the ER, and I could have predicted that. They told me to follow up with my Dr. and Rick was able to get me an appointment the next morning. We left a little early for that as it started up again in the morning about 45 minutes before my appointment.
I have a wonderful Doctor, let me just say that. He was the first person to not look at me like I was nuts. He said I had PAT which stands for "Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia". Basically my heart will spontaneously decide to take off unexpectedly and beat extremely fast. IT is related to hormone cycles as well and triggered by caffeine, even a little. So, I'm off caffeine and I have to learn how to manage it if it happens again. My doctor was helpful in that and said that if the episodes are more frequent, which I PRAY they are not because they are so scary, then I can take a medicine when they help to slow down my heart racing. Next week I will be wearing a heart monitor for a week because if you are hooked up when this happens, they can catch it. I doubt it will occur again but I'm going to wear it anyway. There was a six month gap between this episode and the last one.
So, anyway, enough drama for a while for me. I'm very thankful for some answers.

A Thankful Thursday (been a while)

Yes! I am still thankful for things! I promise! I have not done one of these for a good long while though.

1- I am most recently thankful as I just cleaned out the cupboard and found some culinary possibilities I had forgotten where there. Note to self: do that more often! It's something God uses to bless me though so I almost want to forget (or is that an excuse not to clean? hmmm)

2- I'm SO THANKFUL for the C.S Lewis book club my friend Donna is doing and that Rick and I get to do it together. Mere Christianity was not something I got as well when I read most of it years ago. Today, it is blowing my mind and putting awe in my heart for God.

3-That God delights in us finding Him and that we delight in finding Him too. That God is so very delightful!

4- I'm thankful that God prepares us for what is to come even when we don't know what it is but we can feel it on the horizon.

5- I'm thankful to get to demonstrate gratitude to my kids in hard times. To be here to give them perspective and remind them that we are, at our worst, an EXTREMELY blessed country.

6-I'm thankful for each of the kids teachers and the diligence they have in teaching well. I'm thankful I get to share my time with them and our lives as they teach our kids each day. We really could have some awful teachers but we don't. I'm so thankful for that.

7- I'm thankful that life does not HAVE to be perfect all the time, because frankly, I just can't keep up.

8- I'm so thankful that my husband is always trying to find ways to support and help me.

9- ON that note, I'm so thankful we enjoy thinking and talking about life together and that our views on life are so similar in order to bring about some great times together.

10- I'm thankful for rest. When it comes I always feel I need it. We live in a time when people can actually afford "down time". How long we will have that luxury?

Life In A Few Words and Pictures

As you can see, blogging is beyond the back burner right now. It always comes down to making the best use of my time. However, I thought it was time I come by and tell how we are.

It's raining today! Another reason I decided to write a bit. The kids woke up this morning so excited and were looking forward to playing "Head's Up 7-up" in class today. I had forgotten about that game until they reminded me and I could not believe they still played it! I have strong memories of having my head down with my nose so close to my desk and I remember well the way it smelled.
Life is busy but good right now. Somehow my kids have managed to stay completely healthy this whole school year so far (no use in crossing fingers, it WILL hit us sooner or later). I know they had some bad stuff, even H1N1 right before school hit so I'm thinking that their immunities are heightened.
Rick is working the first day in the rain today. He got a snazzy new Postal rain coat that he pulled out this morning. He says it's working wonderfully. I'm glad because he use to get soaked. He asked me take some pics of him recently so he could have a new Facebook picture and this was my choice. (Handsome and smart...what can I say?)

He is getting settled into his new rotation of mail routes and even got a tiny raise. Though, it seems you don't see them for long when the prices of gas go up!

Victoria just came off having a HUGE sleepover party here. I was babysitting my friends four children that night too so we had a total of 17 kids in the house for a few hours. The occasion was that her best friend has to move to Idaho. She seems to be doing well but it was hard since this was a new friend that she had really hit it off with. It was a crazy night with eight girls in her room. We won't be doing that any time soon.
(This was just some of them, the others would not let me take their morning hair pictures)


Victoria's teacher had a 8th grader bring in a lost stray kitten last week. I happened to still be at the school when Victoria came tearing down the hall saying that I HAD to come see this kitten. I told her "absolutely NO way!" but walked with her to appease the just looking part of her request. I walked in the door to see her teacher looking at me with a "have pity" plea look on her face. "Don't even look at me like that!" I told her. Well, it turned out her teacher was worse than she was. I got talked into taking it for now with the promise that her teacher, who has a ranch, would help us with getting it's health needs taken care of. So, this is stray rescue #6 people. It's killing me! Although I have to say, the new plan is that they get fixed and they go OUTSIDE! I cannot handle living in a feline zoo.
(We are not sure if the kitten is half blind in the left eye. It is not actually as dark as the photo shows but it is a darker and more cloudy eye.)

(He is not named yet, and I'm delaying since we don't know what we will do with him yet)


(Emma found him this way on her bed. No one wrapped him up, he just crawled in and took a nap. See, how do you turn that sort of cuteness away? Help!)




Emma and I got the great opportunity to go to the special ceremony of the re-opening of the mission. I don't have pictures but we were in the paper I hear. I still have not been able to get a copy of it though. Senator Abel was there, and that was cool since I have not seen him in person since Rick and I took Victoria to meet perspective president George W. when he rode the train and stopped in our area years ago. Abel was on the train with him.
The mission looks great and will be wonderful to be able to visit again.


I've been helping in Caedmon's class this year, giving out the Friday assessments. I actually just started but it will be a regular Friday thing. It's very fun for me to do and reminds me of that part of my brain I used when homeschooling.



Victoria and I donated our hair to Locks of Love recently. That was fun. I need to get a picture of her though (the above one at the post sleepover breakfast table is not a fair one:). She had wanted to cut it for a while because her hair is very hard to comb through when it gets long. I had wanted to grown mine even further but my patience ran out when I started to get it caught all the time.
Glad to report that I've lost 10.8 lbs. as of last night through going to TOPS. It has not been easy. I made no progress in the summer and in fact I put on weight through it, but the last two months our structure has helped me a great deal. I began by doing way too much working out and could not function very well through the afternoon. I was trying to push myself on a Biggest Looser level of my own. It backfired on me since I still have to be here in every day life and survive the rest of my day! I learned a great deal though this. It was actually the Lord convicting me to slow it down that allowed me to find out I was doing too much. I was literally on the treadmill one day and had 20 minutes left when I was impressed that I should GET OFF. It did not make sense to me why I should not push through the rest but I did get off and found myself convicted to take my exercise (which had been an hour of cardio and 45 minutes toning almost every day of the school week) down to just 45 minutes of either a day. Amazingly, once I did that, I not only had more energy for the day as a whole, I began to loose the weight. I do have to say I have taken the advise of Dr.Oz and limit my food options. This made sense to me because it meant it would take my brain off of food. That was what I really needed to do. The last two weeks I have had the exact same thing for breakfast (and yes I'm about ready for a new option) and either sardines and WW crackers or tuna w/ mustard and crackers for lunch. I try to have a fruit or veggie with each or in between. Dinner is always having to be tweaked a bit but for instance, one night I made a spaghetti squash with our spaghetti and salad dinner and I had my turkey meat sauce on the squash instead of noodles. Just little changes like that. I'm watching the portions and numbers on things and I'm avoiding night eating. I'm also learning that just because I make something for those I love, does not mean I need to have it too. At least not till this journey is over, but even then I need to be more self-disciplined.
My job at the daycare has been a good fit for our family. There are a few high strung boys there though and my kids are usually appreciate of the quiet when we get home. It's been a blessing to be able to do a little something and have the kids there with me. I don't know if I could do more right now and still keep up on the house and things that need to be done here at home.

As far as activities go, the girls dropped their special after school classes out of exhaustion and I was fine with that. I had been worried that although they sounded fun, it was important to not cram so much in after a full day of school. I wanted them to have time to rest and play.

We are however taking eight children (including ours) to Awana now! That has been exciting. The 1st and 2nd grade boys of the lady I work for at the day care started coming with us. They are really enjoying it. The girls want to invite more kids and I just don't know how many we can take! Awana is exploding this year and it's a great thing to see all these kids coming to learn about salvation.
Rick and I have joined a C.S. Lewis reading group as well. This month we are reading "Mere Christianity". My dear friend Donna has put it together and I'm very excited about it. I have been burdened for a year now to really dive into Lewis and Rick and I get to do this together. Her lovely daughter has graciously offered to watch our kids during this once a month meeting so it made it easily possible for us. Our kids LOVED playing at their house and did not want to go home.
We just hosted our church community group this last weekend and will be hosting it this week. We rotate homes. It is such a blessing to have these small groups and go over the sermon of that morning, worship in song with the children, and eat a collaborated dinner together.
Well, gotta run and do one more thing before heading out the door to work.
It was quick, but hopefully it was a good update!?