Recap of this week

We saw the best 3 Piggy Opera ever...starring J7 as the big bad wolf. We worked outside in the yard and tryed to pick up some more limbs out of the pasture. J7 had K-ball practice Tuesday, then Mommy and Daddy had another Dave Ramsey class. Wednesday was the last night of AWANA before family night and J7 finished his second book (all except for a checklist which we are working on finishing up this week to be checked by his teachers at family night). J2 and Princess4 spent a couple days at the babysitters with their new friend-our friends the Hansons who just brought their adopted son home from Haiti is staying at the sitters also. Daddy took a day off to try to help us get some things done around here and to see the 3 piggy Opera. I got my hair chopped off yesterday (by the way...I still love it today T...Thanks!) I took a picture of it to share with you but the dark circles around my eyes made me look like someone had punched me in the face...so I used my better judgement and decided against it. Last night...at midnight...in the rain...we were helping deliver baby goats. This morning before Daddy left for work he fed one of the baby's that was weak and after I returned home from church I was to feed it again. But much to my dissappointment the baby was already a goner. Did I ever mention I don't believe I am meant to be a goat farmer? We are preparing for a big garage sale next weekend! Yeah! I have now taken everything to the thrift store to donate, the second hand shop or to Grams for a garage sale that I cleaned out during my quest for a new house. I am glad everything is finally gone! Well...that about wraps it up!

Signature

Guess what...I have a signture....just not sure how to use it yet. I will keep practicing. I hope this isn't the last time you see it! Isn't it pretty though? I wish my real signature looked that good.

They Grow Up So Fast! boo hoo hoo...

J7 had his first date to prom! well....actually he got to go to the Promenade (where the kids arrive and their names are announced and everyone from the community shows up to gawk and take pictures) with cousin Courtney. He looked so grown up and acted grown up too! He dressed up in his Sunday best and he took his best girl a flower...and she gave him one in return. It was soo sweet! And the best part of all was....he got to ride in a limo! When they arrived at the school J7 got out first and held the door for everyone else in the limo. It was a very special night for him. Unfortunately Gram didn't get any pictures of him holding the door, but it is on video. I might try to figure out how to post that here some time???

This seems to be the only way L4 is capable of smiling for pictures recently

By the way...Happy April 15th to everyone...Hope you all enjoy this tax day as much as we do...hahaha. Daddy and I are worn out from finishing ours until the wee hours of the morning...don't ask me why we wait until the last minute - we just do - that is the way we have always done it - that is the way we always will, I would almost bet on it. I heard on the radio this morning on the way to school that this is also the day the Titanic sunk...just a little tid bit of info. for ya. ~ toodles!

Mike & Ike's Lemonade Blends...yumm!!

Mike and Ike's have created a new Lemonade Blends candy that sounds yummy! And the best part of it is....this candy signifies the companies partnership with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer! It is available for a limited time only so look for it while you can. For more info click here -

http://sev.prnewswire.com/food-beverages/20080407/NEM07307042008-1.html

Ahh, the sweet sound of silence

I don't have to be at school until around 11 today, but when I took J7 to school I went ahead and dropped the other 2 off at the sitters for a little time to myself. It is wonderful sitting here just listening to the rain...but wait...what is this? what? yep....I miss my kids already! I am always longing for a few minutes to myself and then when I have it I feel guilty and I am missing my kids, wishing I had waited to drop them off. What am I supposed to do now? Maybe I should take a shower and get ready for school...but do you think I can do that without someone coming in the bathroom every two minutes needing something...I don't know?? I guess I will give it a shot and suffer through the silence.

New House Part II

I am making headway on making my home feel like a "new house". I have cleaned out everyones closet and all of our dressers and I feel sooo much better! I got rid...scratch that...I am going to get rid of a ton of stuff. Right now it is all sorted into piles-sell, donate, keep for next season (the kids only-I was able to fit all of my clothes, both seasons, into my closet! yeah!), and trash and they are all over my house. But I do feel I have made much progress in simplifying our clothing situation. It will feel even better when all the piles are gone. I am going to carry the trash out to the garage for hubby to sort through to decide what he wants to use for shop rags and then he can burn the rest. I have bagged up everything I am going to donate and plan to drop them off very soon (I think I will go ahead and put them in the back of the van), and everything else that I plan to sell....well, it is going to have to sit here for a while until we can get Gram's garage cleaned out to have a garage sale.



I am so excited about my closet being cleaned out!! (Isn't it amazing how little it takes to excite me.) I actually got it done yesterday. When hubby got home from work last night I couldn't wait to show him. Needless to say he wasn't nearly as excited as I was but he did smile and nod his head in approval. What more can I ask. So I thought I would share the details with you all! I have drastically downsized my clothes. I have kept 7 everyday/casual fall & winter shirts and a couple of fleece pullovers to keep me warm when I am cutting wood in the freezing temps (plus a handful of ratty ol' t-shirts that I live in when I am at home because our house is very warm thanks to cutting wood in freezing temps) and I kept 4 casual summer shirts (because I am mainly at home during the summer...again living in ratty ol' t-shirts and shorts). In the way of dressy/church/substitute teacher clothes, I kept about 12 winter outfits and 5 summer outfits with a couple of extra interchangeable tops. I also have a few holiday (Christmas, Halloween,etc.) tops. Our closet is by no means large but my dear hubby is a t-shirt and jeans kinda guy all of which are kept in a chest of drawers so he takes up very little of my precious closet space with just a few of his dress shirts and 1 pair of slacks.




All of my good outfits and holiday wear (sounds funny) are on the top row...along with hubby's few items.

Here are my good jeans and capri's (top row)

and work jeans and a place where my sweats will be(bottom row)...right now I am wearing 1 pair and the other is on the bed waiting to be put away.

All of my casual shirts are to the right of these shelves on a low rod.

I have a drawer for my ratty ol' t-shirts & shorts and one for p.j.'s.

I have have the neatest little lingerie chest-thing with two doors that open and three little drawers that slide out to keep all of my unmentionables in.



Pretty much all of my clothes are washed and put in the proper place and it feels wonderful!

Thanks for letting me share my excitement with you!! I would share some details of the kids clothes drastic downsizing put I am just too worn out right now and I need to move some piles because we will leave for church in a little bit and I am subbing the next 2 days so I had better get this done while I am still "in the zone"!

New House

I would love for this post to be all about our plans to build a new house..........but it's not. As you all know, I would love to build a house, and I dwell on it WAAAAY TOO MUCH! I have even created a "House" folder with ideas I want to keep in mind for my new house. But at this point in our lives we don't believe it is God's will (no matter how much I have prayed for Him to show us He has changed His mind) for us to build a house...yet. So for now, I am praying that God will give me a peace that I may find joy in the little house on the hill he has blessed us with (I will still be dreaming of my new home though, I am sure...just maybe not so often). As the saying goes "loves grows best in little houses" right??? I am trying to remind myself of that but it is just a little hard to swallow sometimes when we are all packed in here and getting on each others nerves, wishing we had more room to spread out to play, or hide for a Pepsi and chocolate break without sharing...whichever the case maybe. So I have decided I am going to try to make this house a little more bearable-I am going to try to downsize everything! clean out closets, clean out cabinets, clean out toy boxes...deciding what to keep, what to sell (per Dave Ramsey), what to donate and what to toss! I hope to start on my new mission this week! I will try to keep you posted on how my progess is coming.

J7 (formerly known as J6)

Today is my sweet baby boys birthday! I can't believe he is 7. Boo hoo :( It seems like only yesterday I was rocking him and checking to make sure he was still breathing while he slept (don't all 1st time mom's do that?) Now he is big stuff...but he will always be my baby. I LOVE YOU J7!

2 of a kind

2 special girls in my life

Bossy and Bossier

You decide which is which?

(gotta love 'em though!)

xoxoxo

I am amazed...yet again

I know of few of you who read this are also Dave Ramseying it right along with us...so I am posting this because it might be of interest to you.

I just finished working on our budget and allocated spending plan for the month (the allocated spending plan really works for us because Jason is paid weekly and it helps us to see each week what we are going to have to pay out of that week's check and what is left {or not left} to put towards debt) -yes, I am a few days late-but better late than never! I also reconciled my check register with our bank statement while I was at it-which hit on the first try by the way-yeah!! Dave would be so proud! Anyway...before my dear husband left this morning he asked me to mail a check for $100 to pay extra on a medical bill for this month. I said OK...but I am thinking in my head "how does he know we are going to have an extra $100 this week...I haven't even done our allocated spending plan yet?" So - not that I doubt my husband's superior intellect :)- but I just needed to reassure myself, (and it was supposed to be done already anyway) I finished the spending plan, paid all the bills that have to be paid this week, and balanced my check book and guess what?....there was almost exactly $100 left! How does he do that???