30 days of Gratitude...days 3, 4, and 5...

November 3rd:

Today I'm thankful for "Mom's Night Off" times and that I get to spend a little time connecting with my friends again. My husband has always been very good about letting me have days "off".

Being a mom is a lot of hard work and sometimes (especially after particularly difficult days) it is necessary for us moms to take a little time for ourselves. I know I can sometimes feel like my entire identity is all wrapped up in being my kids' Mama. At times, I've found myself feeling like I can't remember what life was like before kids. having a night occasionally to myself helps me remember some of those bigger-than-the-present-moment type goals I have for my life.

November 4th:

Today I'm thankful we finished all of our home school subjects by noon so we could have a half day. Trust me, it's the little things like this that make my day sometimes. We had a good day today. The kids earned their first Book-It coupon for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut so we met Dad for lunch, which was fun and yummy. Then little Z-man got to spend the rest of the day tagging along with Dad at work while the rest of us headed north to drop B at her volleyball practice (where big sis came to encourage her and walk her home afterward) and Big E and I drove up to the eye doc's to pick up his much needed new pair of glasses. I love it when busy days work out well. It makes the tiredness more worth it at the end of the day.

and November 5th:

I'm so thankful for the ending of Daylight Savings time. I am really happy to have that hour back!
And I actually got to sleep in until 10a this morning! Whoa. That was such a nice blessing. Especially since I'm not feeling completely up to par lately. Having that extra rest was lovely.

Dad is putting Big E to work alongside him today and now, the girls and little Z-man and I are getting ready for a little friend's 8th birthday party this afternoon. Little man doesn't even mind that he will be the only little guy amidst 10 little girls at Autumn's tea party birthday because he LOVES tea and the cupcake is a bonus :)  He's such a little stud.

So, what are YOU thankful for?.........

30 Days of Gratitude.....days 1 and 2

Hello everyone! Can you believe it? November already. Where has this year gone?
There are only two months left in the year. 

The last couple months have come with mixed emotions here in our house. Homeschooling is harder than we were hoping, yet at the same time it comes with even greater rewards than we thought it would. Some days are way better than others and some days make us just want to climb back in bed and cry our eyes out with frustration.

Speaking of frustration, recently we had to deal with replacing the transmission in our primary vehicle, the '04 Honda Odyssey. After paying for WAY more than we intended and dealing with ridiculous obstacle after obstacle (like getting our transmission accidentally sent to Washington......we live in Oregon), we finally have a working vehicle again. We've owned the van for about three and a half years and up until October had absolutely no trouble with it at all. It still holds the record as the most reliable vehicle we've ever owned despite it's tranny trouble. On a slight side note, there are lots of ways to test a person's attitude, but I think car trouble has got to be somewhere near the top. My husband and I had many opportunities to practice our virtue muscles!

Well, looking back on that whole trial and with this being the beginning of the Thanksgiving month, I have decided to post at least one thing every day that I'm grateful for. After all, God is good ALL the time, right? This month will be my 30 days of Gratitude. Feel free to join me! If you do, please add a link to your post in the comments to this one. I would love to read what you all are thankful for.

So.......here goes (one for yesterday and another for today):

November 1:
I am immensely thankful that today was a far better day than yesterday. His mercies are truly new every single morning.

November 2:
Today, I am grateful that the sun came out even though it's quite cold outside. Sunshine always brightens everyone's spirits. It's made today better than it was.

Ok, there you have it. Let's hear what you're thankful for................

Here I am...

Ok...ok....I have not fallen off the planet. Though, admittedly, I do feel lost in space.

There has been so many times as life was zinging by when I thought to myself, "Oh man. That would make a great blog post." Trust me, the reason for my lack of posts is not due to not having anything to write about. There was simply not enough day left to record the events I wanted to share with you. I know. It's a terrible excuse. But true. 

I don't think I could remember everything that has happened since my last post, but here are some highlights. I may or may not choose to elaborate in future posts about some of these events. For now, just know that they happened.

• we added 4 new chicks to the flock in the backyard
• we blessed our dogs with lovely trout head treats after a trip to the local pond with Big Papa Ron which they both devoured with great speed
• we discovered the invaluable (and extremely expensive) lesson that the local fish in the salmon family (which includes above mentioned trout) are often carriers of a fluke parasite that infects animals such as dogs.
• after nursing our dog, Peanut, back to health after nearly 3 weeks of serious sickness...she proceeded to chomp the family favorite (and personal favorite of Z) of the newest chicks, Gussy, to death right in front of all of our children...and the neighbor's kids too....ten minutes before the arrival of our Memorial Day Celebration company.
• we added 4 raised beds to the 3 my hubby and Grandpa built for me and planted our very first garden at the Hayseed Homestead......only took us 3 years to make it happen!
• we harvested LOTS of food! Can't wait to do it all over again next year.
• we pulled off the most amazing birthday surprise party for hubby's sister which involved keeping a giant Miller family reunion a complete secret for MONTHS before the birthday and housing 16 people in our house for about a week!
• we got to spend time with my AMAZING sister-in-law and her fabulous hubby before we sent them off to live and minister in Northern Ireland for a few years. Precious time, that was.
• we discovered a wonderful new campground with friends.
• we enrolled E-man as a FRESHMAN in high school.
• we enrolled Chickybabe in Harris Private School (an answer to years of prayer!)
• and soooo much more...............................

But now on to the thing that is taking up all of my day time as of late.......

After years of asking and pondering and praying, my husband and I agreed that I would home school the two younger kids. Now, you're probably thinking and wondering several things about this so let me quickly list the explanations I've been handing out to curious friends and others:

• Why not the older two?

 Because we were able to admit Chickybabe to Harris Private with plans for her to graduate from there and because E-man prefers to stick with more traditional school. He's not one who likes huge changes much at all. He also finally made some real friends at the end of the year last year and was not AT ALL into changing all that up.

• SO why home school?

The two younger kids have been asking me to home school them for a couple years now. Bean (my lovely 6th grade girlie) was tired of all the extra drama and was having difficulty finding true friends and complained nearly daily of some sort of boyfriend/girlfriend crud her "friends" were involved in...from kissing to dating and "going out"....and frankly, I wanted her to be able to learn in an environment that promoted her creativity and love of learning instead of being "managed" in a classroom of 34 kids.
As far as Little Mister goes, he just wanted to stay with me. He is only 7 after all. E-man was the same way at that age and I often wished I would have kept him home with me. We have a great time together, Little Mister and me. Even on hard days. I really love it.

So there you have it in a nutshell. I spent all of last year's school days doing whatever I wanted to do. Now this year, we get up at 7:30 and after bustling everyone else out the door, we sit down to the dining room table and work our way through 6th and 2nd grade lessons. Some days are better than others. Way better. Some days just start out wedged halfway down the tubes and quickly get greased up for the rest of the slide! Ugh...

Home schooling so far has been a little rougher than I wanted. Part of that is because I wasn't fully prepared before we launched into our year. I won't whine or moan. It's just a fact. But we're practicing perseverance and diligence and pushing through.