Author: Angie

I love sipping hot coffee. I'm a married mom of 9 with one dog, a few grandsons and way TOO MANY flowers.

Busy Tuesdays

Tuesdays are our Classical Conversation meeting days. They are full and fun and exhausting!

We start the day with baths and breakfast. Today the boys ate beef sausage and blueberry DeWafflebaker’s pancakes. There was a buy one get one free sale at Bi-Lo and I printed a couple of coupons online making them less than a dollar per pack!

We drop sisters off at the local CC and off we go to our meeting day.

We meet together the entire group for announcements, Pledge of Allegiance, Pledge to the bible, prayer and dismissal to class.

Then we go to our separate classes. I sit in Foundations with my little boys. There or 8 children in each classroom for the tutors to work with.

The littles are thoroughly enjoying their renditions of Famous artist painting. Even Jesse is working really hard on painting.

Science experiments have been really fun too. Getting the children physically involved to understand concepts.

Learning is FUN!

We leave, pick up the girls and go home. Give dad the van to take D to basketball practice. I try to stay awake and get dinner started. Sometimes I fall asleep at the kitchen table waiting on the oven to pre-heat. So I frequently set the timer to wake me in 20 minutes.

Today was a good day. Good night!

New Years Resolutions

The Girl's Fun Henna Tats from RenFest 2011

I have not really been one to make resolutions. I usually have smaller monthly goals that seem more attainable.  This year as a BlogHer challenge I sat down and made some new years resolutions.

I have resolved to give myself a break. Not get lazy or anything but just not drive myself when I really need to sit and rest for a minute. I am saying no to more things and trying to focus on a few things and do them very well. I know that is hard to do being the mom of eight children. I must multitask but I will purpose not to get gratification from things.

I resolve to enjoy my family more in slowing down. Let some things go so I can sit and enjoy the board games and coloring or playing cars on the floor once in a while with the boys. I think I will regret more missing some quality time than the cleaning and scrubbing I can be obsessive about at times.

I have resolved to go to bed at a more decent hour most nights instead of missing precious sleep to catch up on cleaning and computer time.  Rest is so healing to a weary body and mind!

I resolved to insist on more frequent communication with DH and not letting tiredness, kids schedules, or whatever creeps in to come in between us.

I have resolved to not take personal anything people say about me good or bad. It is just their opinion and everyone is entitled to an opinion I guess? Right or wrong.

2012 Is my year for slowing down and listening for God’s direction and feeling HIS peace daily!

Back to Blogging:

In my absence a lot has transpired. I won’t go into details unless asked or requested. Long and short of it… I have been on strict bedrest, now I am on light duty off feet every two hours on left side. So I have spent most of my time trying to bring my home back to order. The laundry in the laundry room had taken over in mass proportions. I now can see the bottom of empty hampers. YEAH! I cleaned out my refrigerator and either fed dogs or compost with the few science experiments found. The Frugal Girl would be proud of me. There was only a couple of stray items in my refrigerator. (No Pictures, I failed to stop and capture the moment once I got started.)

I am currently in the process of rearranging my kitchen cabinets,with the assistance of Daniel of course! My goal is to focus on the small one step at a time and hopefully have this house back in order in a few weeks or so.

I am trying to organize the boys school work. I’d like to have a week ready at a time but I am not there yet. I have a few days ready. I am trying to regain strength after being sedentary for a little while. I moved their items to the kitchen where we tend to do our most productive work.  They can grab their stuff on their own. It is more accessible now.

I went grocery shopping and made my menu plan today.

MENU PLAN:

If the dinner plan contains gluten items, I usually make myself something different.

Saturday: leftovers galore to prevent food waste. Mostly hotdogs and whatever we had lurking that was less than 3 days old.

Sunday: Cabbage, Beef Kielbasa and rice

Monday: chili beans, homemade sweet corn muffins and asparagus

Tuesday: homemade vegetable and beef soup and corn muffins

Wednesday: baked chicken, baked potatoes, and peas

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Lasagna, garlic bread, dessert, and spinach

I need to make this week: pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, gluten-free chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, homemade yogurt, and french bread

I am going to try the crockpot method for making the yogurt. Also I only make 1/2 gallon at a time since I have been on bedrest and weight lifting restrictions.

December 13, 2011 Thankful List

Daniel cleaned the living room! I can see my floor again. It is December 13th and we have no decorations up yet. I usually am excited, bake cookies with the kids, plan fun stuff to do, we love crafts and such. This year I believe the gloomies have taken residence in me and have not the faintest clue of how to evict them.

I have been praying a lot. I decided that maybe I should list as many things that I can think of that I am thankful for.

December 13, 2011 Thankful List

1. God loves me unconditionally

2. He sent His Son to save me

3. He has much grace for me

4.  My husband loves me

5.  My husband has a job

6.  Most of my children are caring people and hard workers.

7.  A lawyer may be able to help us keep our home. We have lived here for 15 years.

8.  We have a decent sized wood stove, so we can keep our house warm.

9.  I have had some great nurses caring for me, who actually seem to care and are not just doing their job.

10. My teeth aren’t hurting.

11. I still have morning sickness but I am able to keep down food now.

12. I can feel baby moving around.

13. My children are fed well.

14. We have relatively fresh filtered water to drink.

15. I have a great group of friends with my local Classical Conversations. They are definitely a God inspired group. I literally would not know what to do without them.

16. I have some great internet friends, some whom I have met and some who I have not met , but would love to meet one day!

17. We own our minivan, no payments and it runs.

18. My husband makes more than minimum wage.

19. My husband works so close to home that he rides his bike and I get to keep the van. I don’t have to get up early to take him to work or wake up early to pick him up from work or all of the crazy schedule stuff I have done this year for his temp jobs.

20. I  love planning meals, cleaning house and taking care of my family in general.

21. Daniel cleaned my living room without me asking or offering bribes or rewards.

22. I have the best mother-in-law and father-in-law. They are hard working, down to earth, just really good people.

23. My regular internal medicine doctor really listens. He heard my stomach pains and is the only doctor who felt I should be tested for celiacs. My other doctors said I just had to live forever with my IBS symptoms. This year is the first year when I have actually felt “Alive” physically.

24. Glasses. Without them my vision is poor. I am very thankful for my glasses.

25. My old Canon camera. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It takes excellent pictures to be so old.

CUCA BBall Game Vs CCS

ACK!! Wake UP!! I shouted during the game. What happened to the defense? Why are you leaving gaps and watching them score? Box OUT!

Our guys were missing a starter tonight. ( He went on a family vacation.) It seemed to kill the morale for some of the team. They basically slept through the game. Awakening  in the fourth quarter and started playing but they still got beat. At least it was only by 20 points.

We should have won. How do you boost the moral of a team if they are already defeated in their own minds?

The game was truly frustrating to watch. I teach, You do your best no matter what. Whatever it is in life!

I enjoyed the fourth quarter. The guys played hard and were a worthy competition in the end. The crowd roared at Joshua’s AND ONE.

CCS Game
Another CCS Picture

Basketball Game Monday Night

Hoping and praying our eldest son feels well enough to play his basketball game tomorrow night. Hubby brought home a cold and shared it with our son :(. I am trying herbs an such to boost their immune systems.

We are excited. This will be the second game this season against one of our, DH and my, favorite basketball players of ALL time : Bobby Jones.

He currently coaches the varsity basketball team at CCS.

I plan to go and watch the game  and cheer on my son’s team!