The Potty Trained One

Yay!! 4 kiddos out of diapers... 1 to go! Sammy is now fully potty trained! He had a small accident in the middle of the night last night, but for the most part is now making it to the potty all the time!! Sometimes he has a small accident and runs as fast as he can to the bathroom, but most of the time makes it in time. YAY!!! Now for potty training Alyssa..... ;)

An Accomplished Day

I love it when I get a TON done in a day.

Today it's only noon and here's what I've accomplished:

• Kitchen decluttered and cleaned
• floors swept and mopped
• bathroom cleaned
• 3 loads of laundry washed, dried and folded waiting for kids to put theirs away still
• dinner in the crockpot
• Dishes Done
• Living room cleaned and ready for vacuuming
• Refilled ink cartridges
• oven cleaned
• kids rooms cleaned and ready for vacuuming

Pretty good for just being up for about 5 hrs so far. :) I love days like this!!

The 100th Post!

I don't have any deep insights or amazing stories to tell for my 100th post... but I thought I'd mention it was #100 anyway :)

The children got to learn about spiders and how they catch, trap and eat flies first hand tonight. I was sitting on the living room floor feeding Alyssa when I heard a fly that wouldn't stop buzzing. Beth came over and looked and said "Oh... there's a fly sitting on a white thing on the spider web." Well, that started a frenzy of kids running to see what was going on. So I explained how the spider web works and how the spider was saving the fly for later so she could eat it. IT was interesting to see the spider pull the fly all the way to the top of the web, just out of sight when she was done spinning. I had never seen that before....

We've been at VBS Sun, Mon & Tues of this week. The children learned so much and my heart soars as I hear them praise the Lord with the songs they learned. I love to hear them talk about how "awesome God is" and the amazing things He does. I love to hear them say how He helps them on a day to day basis, even when they are sad or upset about something. <3 I love it when a church or people outside of our immediate little family reinforce the things we try to teach them here at home. <3

School is just around the corner!! Truly, for a homeschooler, school is never really done or starting... it just is. We've continued w/ reading throughout the summer and have gotten educational math books out of the library... we learned about science by watching the spider or taking nature walks... school is so much more than book learning and all the homeschoolers I know understand this and take full adventage of all learning possibilities. BUT... School/School is just around the corner. I have all but 2 of my books... I just had to log them now. I'm planning to even do some preschool stuff with Sammy (who just turned 3). He's a bright boy and I think he could at least learn to write his name... :) He knows shapes and colors already, so I guess we'll go a bit beyond that.

Alyssa is calling... is about that time of evening. She wants me to snuggle her down for the night. :)

Another One With Pictures

I always feel good on the days I get more accomplished. When the housework is no longer weighing on me and the plants are happily watered. When the laundry is done and beds are made. When toys are picked up and children are happily playing... it just feels good.

Here are some fun, random pictures of my children. <3

The One With An Update, Moodiness & Book Recommendation

I spoke with our realtor today. She said the people liked the house, but that they want something bigger. But we have ANOTHER showing on Tuesday at 11!! I'm excited that people are actually wanting to see the house and I'm confidant that when the timing is right it'll happen... it's all up to the Lord at this point and in the meantime we are doing everything we can to help. I think that's the way things are supposed to work.

Today is a semi-better day, tho I find myself really struggling w/ moments of frustration. I'm so moody lately... one minute I'll feel fine and the next I find myself frustrated by the smallest thing. grr... it's just so unlike me to be so moody!

I just finished a book w/in less than 24 hrs! Amazing feat w/ 5 kids and an 'on the market' home to keep up. The book is called "A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Suriving Aushwitz as a Young Boy". What a wonderful, amazing book. I highly recommend it (and for those who know about my thoughts about Clara's War... this is a much more tame book than that one. Detailed, but not overly detailed like Clara's War was. Tho I'm not saying that was a bad book. It was a great book as well, just so very detailed. )

New Happenings

• Rachael was here. :) It's always nice to visit and get out of the house almost alone! I joked w/ my sister and said I only had to bring 1/6th of my work with me. (Just the baby!)
• We had another house showing yesterday (Wednesday). No feedback yet... I have to call or email my realtor tomorrow anyway, so I'll ask if she heard anything yet.
• Hubby is really struggling w/ his job right now. :( I wish I could do something to help him. His boss is a pretty moody guy, so it's hard to know from one day to the next how he's really feeling. Today he straight out lied to Matt and Matt knows it, but doesn't want to confront him. I think he should... (But I wouldn't because I'm not assertive enough.)
• I'm really tired and grumpy lately. Not sure what's going on with me... probably just normal stuff, but I'm getting annoyed with myself.
• My herbs are doing well... yay! Tho there is still something nibbling my basil. grrr..
• Oops... Sammy is asking for a 'cuppa'. gotta run.

More About Dieting

I think that one of my biggest struggles with loosing weight is emotional/stress eating. I'm not even sure why I do it, which is what makes it more difficult to control. I KNOW that food will never 'cure' whatever it is I'm struggling with or stressing out about, but it's as tho logic flies out of my brain when it comes to this.

Weight was never even a thought on my mind in my teen years and even in my first year of marriage... until I had my first baby. Since then it's always on my mind and a constant battle that I have yet to overcome even once since I started having children.

And the stress eating is the hardest because I don't care in the moment... but then I feel guilty, which makes me want to eat more, which makes me feel guilty... It's all a vicious cycle that needs to end, but I'm not exactly sure how to make it end.

The One About Meditation & Peace

"Ouch!" went the checkbook this morning.. I paid the bill for the well. But I'm praising the Lord for his provisions!!

Im having a quiet moment right now. We're outside, so the children are occupied swinging and playing. The baby is sleeping peacefully... I can hear her deep sleepy breaths on the monitor next to me. It's so peaceful.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to meditate on the Lord and on His word. I think I may have mentioned it before... tho I'm not sure . Sometimes I can't quite remember what I blog here and what I write in my paper journal. LOL! What does meditating on the Lord mean exactly? To meditate means to reflect. To engage in thought or contemplation. So if we are to meditate on the Lord and his Word we are to reflect upon Him and contemplate his words. I know that I get so caught up on the day to day busy-ness of life and often only take those 15-30 mins of devotions after the children go to bed. I go through the motions of prayer before meals, but I'm not really reflecting on the Lord during those times. I've decided to change this... starting small. I'm going to put a verse that really touches me up on our dry erase board in the kitchen to start with. I'm always looking at that board so it'll remind me... I long to be in a real relationship w/ the Lord... not just an aquaintance relationship.