This week was Teacher’s appreciation week at Noah’s school. David went to open gym this week with his bball players.
I attended Mommy and me muffins with Noah at his school.
The week was really busy with planting and cooking and grocery shopping and laundry, you know every day stuff in a large family household.
We have been overwhelming busy and I love to blog. I am going to do several blog posts to “catchup” the past month.
We have been busy!
Today a spent some time planting flowers in my front yard.
I bought 4 6packs of purple/ fuchsia petunias at 50 cent per 6 pack.
I have seedlings I am growing and plant to plant in various places around my yard.
I got to experience a lovely group of young people performing the play Beauty and the Beast. My daughters danced in the play.
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Wow it has been 16 days since I blogged. I have had a lot to post and tons of things done that I would love to remember. I’m not sure if I should break things up into a few post. That seems more logical. I have pictures. I can’t remember how I uploaded them last time.
My daughters are dancing in a play Beauty and the Beast being performed by students at CUCA ( the private Christian school that my older children play sports at) So every Saturday and several afternoons per week, I am on the road. The practices are an hour and a half. It usually doesn’t make since to go home just to turn right back around to pick them up. I have been super exhausted for a few weeks. No, I am not pregnant. So our schedule has been really hard on me. The girls had spring break March 7th through the 11th,2011. I thought I would get some rest that week since I was only driving Noah to school But that was not so. I am a super light sleeper and the girls like to keep late hours and I would hear them at 1am or 2am in their rooms talking or 3am in the shower. Or their blow dryers or the dishwasher running at 4am or a television left on all night that I was too tired to get up and turn off but nevertheless annoyed by it until a second before I heard my alarm clock go off. Surely sleep deprivation is the etiology of my exhaustion.
March 14th The basketball coach starts open gym. Our basketball boys need to keep playing so they won’t lose their hard earned skills, like they did last year(oops). So two days per week I drive David to play bball at CUCA. I realized Thursday 17th of that week that my natural food Coop order was still in my draft box. So i will have to wait 2 months for another order. I need some wheat for my flour. It is much cheaper through them than my local health food store. Friday the 18th we got our tax return check. So I went around catching up all of our bills that had gotten behind during my husbands layoff. Boy that felt great! Our van is paid in full we only had a couple of payments left. Our only debt is our house. I found out, because our home is worth less that we got a loan for it, we can possibly refinance it (for less payments monthly), our home owners insurance will be less because we have it insured for double of what it is worth because of the drop. We will be okay. I no longer feel pressure of having to find a place to put my children and getting an outside paying job to try and make ends meet. I have been doing little things here and there online for awhile that gives me a little income but nothing major. This is a huge relief for me and I feel my children will be better for it.
I love Danielle’s idea of remembering our small accomplishments.
I have long list and lofty ideas of what I should get done daily or even hourly. I can easily feel defeated by not thinking I am using my time wisely or accomplishing much. When sitting down to peruse what I actually get done, I have a more objective eye and sense of accomplishment and am less hard on myself. This is much needed for me. I don’t have a circle of homeschooling moms nearby for encouragement, so I tend to listen to the false ideas that the enemy gives me. It is commonplace in our culture to devalue homemaking and raising children.
Thank you Danielle for encouraging a time for self reflection, even in the small accomplishments.
Here are my small successes for this week:
1. I decided to do the old Lenten Challenge 40 bags in 40 days. I have already put 4 bags and a box of stuff(toys and clothes) to give away in the back of my van.
2. I have been encouraged by a counselor to take 15 minutes each day to do something that encourages me, just for me. So yesterday I gave myself a pedicure without guilt. So today, despite the rain and clouds ,despite my hair that has fallen due to the rain and weather, I still feel feminine and beautiful today just from that one little thing.I feel this is helping m be a better more encouraged mom today.
3. I make copies of Sunday’s Sermons on CD for our church. This is the first week in a month, where there were NO errors made by me. Sometimes the alignment is slightly askew. No one has complained to me about it, but I tend to be perfectionist about everything I do. I am very hard on myself. Last week I decided, okay I am human, I am doing my best, this week I was more relaxed about the entire procedure and I did a better job than I have done in awhile.
I really love this idea. So I am cleaning and decluttering with a minimum goal in mind of stuff to rid my house of. I think I can do one bags worth of stuff per day.
http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/blog/40_bags_in_40_days/
I was intrigued by the 40 Trash Bags in 40 Days Lenten challenge that made the rounds of Catholic mom blogs during Lent last year.
It’s a pretty simple concept: Just commit to ridding your home of 40 bags of “stuff” during the 40 days of Lent.
You can throw it away or give it away—garbage, clothing, toys, books, etc. You can pick the size of bag that makes the most sense for your circumstances—large garbage bags if you have a lot of clutter, smaller bags if you have less.
I don’t think the rules need to be hard and fast. Basically, the idea is to commit to 40 days of possibly uncomfortable “letting go.” A great way to observe Lent!
The children have recovered from there illnesses. I have been very busy, but I feel that I haven’t really accomplished anything or even kept up. No one caught Influenza A from Noah, so I guess the praying, cleaning and medicines worked.
I am on my second round of antibiotics now finally feeling a bit better, My allergies are so bad. I seem to get sinus infections easily when I am around sick people.
I have had a hard week with my stomach problems. I sometimes forget the insidious products that have wheat in them until after I have already consumed them and feel pretty poorly. My belly swells and I look like I am pregnant until my immune system recovers from the noxious assault. Which takes over a week of strictly watching my diet.
Tuesday we Ronnie and I attended David’s Sports Banquet for Basketball and Cheerleading. It was a mini ordeal getting there. I gave My husband the wrong directions going. I have a problem getting lost a lot. I can drive there but I am terrible at giving directions unless I have been there at least dozen times. So we passed the banquet hall. OOPs. Then when we turned around Ronnie wanted to know right then which side of the road to get on, but I needed to sort my thoughts but he would not be quiet , so I picked a side.. Yep wrong side so we had to turn again and wait at a super long light off a side road. OOPs.. It’s okay we made it before it started. We sat at the table with the AD and guest speaker and the Ladies Basketball Coach and her husband. I did not know we would sit there. They were nice company.
Guest speaker gave us a thought:
TRANSCENDENTAL WARRIOR
The sports games are temporal, make sure you are doing things that really matter for eternity. The other players are not your enemies but your brothers or sisters in Christ. We should behave accordingly. I love what he “preached” I wish I had a tape of it.
Wednesday. I got to see my doctor. I had missed 3 or 4 Wednesdays. I still need to reschedule the OBGYN appointment, that I canceled last month. I missed my small group. I was absolutely too tired to go. I also needed to make sure I tried to get my little boys back on schedule. I have been having really bad days with Noah. I ask God to help me constantly.
Today I had plans to make muffins and yogurt and catch up on laundry. But I had a few errands to run. I got really tired and actually did something I rarely do… I actually took a mid day nap on a weekday. I felt pass out tired so I laid on my sofa with the little boys on the floor in front of me playing with the little Legos.
Friday I Have plans to make homemade pizza. I haven’t made the dough yet. So I need to remember to make it first thing in the morning after I drop Noah and the girls off at school. So it will have sat for a while before dinner.
I can’t think or write anymore right now. Good Night or morning.
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