What's going on here?

In case some of you are wondering why the absence on my blog, I thought I'd give you a little update on my life, and why I haven't written since the end of July.  Yikes, that's a long time!

My hubby and I went away for 4 days to celebrate our 20th Anniversary in August.  20 years!  I can't believe it!  Where does the time go?  We spent the first two nights in Ludington at the Candlelite Inn B&B in the Romantic Retreat Suite.  It was great!!!  I'd highly recommend it!  The hostess was wonderful, and the room was great.  It was like having our own little apartment, with a little room off the back of the house with our own entrance.  The food was great, coffee was always available and she made dessert at night.  We had ordered some chocolate covered strawberries and our room had a nice jacuzzi tub, oh and the most comfortable mattress ever!  Very nice! Very romantic! 
Knowing it was our anniversary, the hostess had a little table for two set for us each morning for breakfast. 
I could have stayed forever!   

Our last two nights were spent in Empire, Michigan near Sleeping Bear Dunes.  The little kitchenette we stayed in paled in comparison to the romantic Bed & Breakfast, but it was sufficient.  We had a great time sight seeing, the scenic route at Sleeping Bear Dunes, and the surrounding areas and towns.  Isn't the beauty of nature such a great reminder of God's majesty?

 

 

I love this picture of my hubby!

 

 

The week after our little retreat, I had an interview at the thrift shop where my daughter works.  They needed help and hadn't found anyone yet, and I really liked how nice their store is, as well as the fact that it's ministry oriented, and closed on Sundays. 

I got the job, and jumped right into two full weeks of training that started the next week. I'm not quite sure I was prepared for that, as it cut my summer short, and I still had a few things to figure out. 

One of those things was that I ended up letting go of my crossing guard job because I've been working at the store more than I had thought I would. 

Our transmission went out in the car that Rusty drives back and forth to work, so we were down to one vehicle, which made things a little tough with 3 of us now working. 

I also started out the year homeschooling "by the seat of my pants" instead of being quite as organized as I'd have liked. 

 

September came, school started, and we began waiting for my daughter's baby to arrive.  My hubby found a new to us car, and I thought things would slow down a little, and get back to "normal".  Haha, what's normal?  I usually look forward to fall, and the sense of routine that it brings.  It's a time that I reflect on changes that need to be made, and try to implement them.

 

I also had to plan and prepare for Brooke's baby shower, which became a huge event, as I heard from more and more people that they were coming.  It was great fun, and turned out beautifully, but what a lot of work, while at the same time trying to balance my new job, family, homeschool, etc... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year, I'm still trying to figure out what "normal" is for us.  Baby Sophia didn't arrive in September, my hubby did quite a bit of traveling back and forth and spent some weekends in Port Huron preparing for a big job that would start in October.  I was working more than I expected to be at the store, and life has been chaotic to say the least.

 

Rusty had to leave Sept. 30th for his big job that was suppose to last about 10 days to two weeks.  Brooke went into labor on Wednesday, Oct. 3. Just in time I thought to have the baby on my birthday Oct. 4.  I got really excited!  I was at work when Paul called to tell me they were on the way to the hospital. 

 

It turns out that Brooke wasn't dilated to a 3 yet, so she was went home.  She had contractions all night, but they let up in the morning.  No baby on my birthday after all. 

Contractions came on stronger that evening though, and we got excited again.  At 2 am, they woke me up, we all went to the hospital.  This was it!  Or so we thought... she still hadn't dilated any more.  They gave her a sleeping pill to help her "relax" and get some sleep.  It didn't work.  They let her stay for a little while and use the jacuzzi tub, and released her again around 6 am. 

 

By 10 am she was in such horrible pain, and everyone was frustrated and miserable.  Paul called the hospital and said we need to do something.  She was already a week over due, so they said come in and we will see what we can do.  Finally, when she got there, she had dilated to a 3, and they admitted her without having to induce labor.

 

By the time she was at a good 4, they went ahead and gave her an epidural (this usually happens at a 5, but the nurse said she had never seen anyone with such bad back labor).

I went home around 9 to get some rest, and at midnight, contractions stopped again.  4 am, still nothing... no contractions, and she was stuck at a 7 and baby was in distress.  I got a phone call that they were going to do an Emergency C-Section. 

I'm glad I live close, because I wanted to see my baby girl before they took her into surgery.  This was new to me, I'd never had a caserean.

 

Thankfully, baby Sophia was born at 5:08 a.m. Saturday Oct. 6th, and Mama and baby both did great! 

 

 

I am so proud of my daughter, and how well she did through all of this, and the positive attitude that she had!  And most of all, she's the best Mommy in the world!

 

 

SOPHIA JADE

 

 

It's all so worth it in the end! 

 

As for me, I'm still trying to find balance, and a new normal.  Rusty is still in Port Huron, and they keep running into snags on the job that are causing delays.  He says at this rate, he may have to retire there, and I'll just have to move over and join him. 

 

He is getting pretty discouraged and stressed out, so if you would say a prayer for him, we would greatly appreciate it.  He hasn't met his granddaughter yet, and felt bad that he missed my birthday.  He misses his family.  He's never been away for this long, and it's hard on all of us. 

 

I pray that you are all doing well, and I'd love to hear from you anytime.  Feel free to comment on my blog, or write on my facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Latte-Blessings/303803836335198

 

Blessings!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 





Do you homeschool? Let's Talk

We don't look like a "homeschool family" and I don't really blog about homeschooling, because well, it's a struggle for me.  We don't have one of those large families with 7 or 8 kids (or more), although some would consider having 4 children a large family.  I don't wear a denim jumper, although I did try it, and they are comfortable, but honestly, I felt kind of funny dressing like that.  I will also tell you I don't sew or can, or bake bread, and grind my own wheat.  I don't make soap (oh wait, I do make my own laundry soap now, does that count?), and well, let's face it, I just don't have it all together. 

Really, isn't that what people think when they look at homeschool families?  We're considered "weird" and heaven forbid, our children might not be "socialized" in a public school setting.  I mean going to church, and playing hockey and being involved in other things isn't enough, is it?  My children are more socialized than I was, and I went to public school all of my life. 

Well, there are many families who homeschool who are all of the above (large families, Mom has it all together, etc...) but that isn't me.  I have admired those Moms, and wish I could do those things, and boy do I wish I could get it together.  There are times that comparing myself to other homeschool Moms, and what I think are "perfect families" has caused me to give up.

I've homeschooled each of my children at one time or another.  Currently, I have one in public school, one doing online classes, and I am homeschooling my youngest.

I struggle with what curriculum to use, and even overbuying curriculum because, well, this may be better than that, or someone said this is a really great program, blah, blah, blah. 

So let's talk.  What do you use for curriculum?  Do you use strictly one program that you've used for years because it works?  Are you a Charlotte Mason Mom, or do you love unit studies?  Traditional textbooks/workbooks?  It can be so overwhelming, and although sometimes I want to try something fun like a unit study, or a literature based program, there are other times when I just want to hand them a workbook and say here, do pages ... to ...

Have you been there?

My goal, hopefully this coming week is to take a couple of days and stay at a campground with all of my homeschool "stuff" and do some major planning for the upcoming year. 

I plan to take all of the books we currently have and see what will work for this year and what I need to add to it.

I have 2 subjects that we can do on the computer that we did not use last year.  (switched on schoolhouse).  I need to install those, and figure out how they work and if we want to use them this year.

With what I have, I need to divide how many lessons there are into how many days/weeks of school we will have so that we can get it all done.

I need to plan our schedule, to include days off, field trips, etc...  At the same time, while working around my daughter's public school calendar so that they have the same days off, Christmas break, etc....  Hmm... I wonder if that's even available yet?

Then there's the daily schedule, and how to fit it all in. 

Oh, I'm getting excited!  I love planning!

UNTIL

I have to implement it. 

There are so many things demanding our attention.  Keeping the laundry done, and the house clean, getting meals on the table, and grocery shopping and other errands.  What about Bible study, and what about ME?  It's easy to get caught up in trying to do it all, and be superwoman.  A friend of mine, one of those homeschool Moms with a large family who I admire.  One who seems to have it all together, said, "you have to look at it as a job". 

So, I hope that all of the decluttering I've been working on will help me this year to stay more focused.  I've decluttered my schedule down to the bare minimum, I've decluttered a lot of "stuff" including paper clutter from our home, although I'm still working on that.  It's all an ongoing process, and something that we have to keep on top of.  I've even decluttered some "toxic" people from my life.

We can do this!  I'm ready!  Well, almost. 

I'd love to hear from you, how do you plan?  Do you take time away from home to plan?  Do you plan for the whole year at a time, or weekly, monthly?

How do you stay on top of it through the year once your plan is in place?

I'd love to hear all of your ideas, and please share this post with your homeschool friends.  Let's support and encourage one another in what can be an overwhelming task. 

Blessings!   


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The Crazy Lady!

I'm on the rampage today.  Maybe this is not a good time for me to write, but I'm not here to pretend my life is perfect. I'm here to be real. I wouldn't want anyone to look at our family and think that we have it together (not that anyone would) or that I'm in any way a Stepford Wife. Haha

Maybe the little thing my daughter posted on my facebook this morning is true.  "I'm in a bad mood, so I think I'll go yell at the kids so they're in a bad mood too."  (unknown source)

However, here's my version of it.  If the kids didn't drive me crazy, I wouldn't be in a bad mood and yell at them.  haha

Just kidding.  Well, kind of.  I know that I choose how I react or respond to life's little ups and downs, but let me tell you, nothing brings out the crazy lady in me faster than my laundry room/basement area.

I mean I really dislike dishes and paper clutter, but the laundry monster makes me see red.  Oh no, it isn't the task of the laundry, such as washing, drying and folding that drives me insane.  Perhaps I should make my sweet innocent little children help you say? 

Believe me, I do!  Therein lies the problem.  How is it you can teach your children to do laundry and think that it will lighten your load when in reality, it can, at times, make things worse? 

How?  Maybe you don't have this problem, which is why I'm asking for your ideas.  ;)  My laundry room is out of control...  I will admit, on a bad day, it has brought me to tears (on more than one occasion). 

My hero is the Proverbs 31 woman who seems to be able to do it all, and her children arise and call her blessed while her husband praises her at the city gate. 

My reality is that when I go down to that dreary basement to do laundry, I find that the washer already has a load of clothes in it.  No problem, I'll just throw them in the dryer.  Until... I open that, and it's full of someones dry clothes.  Ugh.  Where are the teens who do their own laundry?  Not one of them is home. 

So, in the midst of dryer sheets strewn across the floor, because someone was too lazy to pick them up, I take the clothes out of the dryer and throw them in a basket.  Yep, you read that right.  I'm a little irritated, and I'm not folding them.  It seems to me that said teens think they have to start laundry at night without a thought of when they will finish it, and the fact that someone else may need to use the washer or dryer the next day.

I should give them grace, right?  I do, and I have folded the stuff forgotten in the dryer many times.  Just not today.  It's been one of those weeks. 

It didn't help when I walked through a certain someone's bedroom, and they (I won't mention any names) have 6 towels strewn across the floor.  Used, and probably damp.  Six of them!  Hmm.. no wonder we never have enough towels.  Perhaps they could hang them up to dry, use them more than once, put them in the hamper.

Mount Washmore... never ending.  I seem to be the only one who knows how to sort the pile that comes down through the laundry shoot.  I guess it's easier to just pull what you need out of the pile, or wait until Mom sorts it for you, and then wash it.

(this is where I would insert photo if it wasn't such a mess)  I'm real, but not quite ready to share that yet.   

Whoever said that you will miss all of that laundry when your children move out must not have had this issue. 

Maybe the answer is to just do all of the laundry myself, but that doesn't sound so great to me.  Maybe if there weren't 6 of us, with extras like work clothes, etc... 

Perhaps, it is these little daily irritants that are making me into who God wants me to be.   "In nature a pearl forms when some type of irritant enters the mussel or oyster. The irritant may be a food particle, a piece of shell, bacteria or even a piece of sand. The protective process begins. Nacre is secreted in layers around the irritant. The result is a pearl" (Joan Reinbold, ehow.com)

I think that God has a lot of refining to do yet in me but I hope that someday, all the rough edges will be gone, and the result will be a beautiful, shiny pearl, a true wife of noble character (Proverbs 31).

Meanwhile, I'd love to know your household irritants, or your advice on how to resolve this issue.  I hope that I didn't scare you away, this was meant to be a little sarcastic, but fun... however true)

Blessings      

Multimedia Mess

Do you ever feel like you're drowning in clutter?  I sure do!  Sometimes, it feels like no matter how much "stuff" I get rid of, it's never enough.

Paperwork is my #1 enemy, but after that, it's probably movies and books.  We have a huge entertainment center, a small tv, and too many movies.  To me, it's visual cluttter. 

It would be nice if the tv actually fit in the spot it's in, but we don't plan to buy a new tv anytime soon (although my family would love that).  For now, it is what it is... ugly cords hanging down and all.   

The Wii is next to the tv, along with a few games, and the remotes/charger.  The blue box on the right is more Wii stuff. 
Below, on the floor (not in the picture) is the X-Box. 

The rest of the shelves are DVD's, VCR tapes, cd's, board games, and a few nic-nacs.  I've sorted movies and decluttered some, but most or all of these are keepers. I'm thinking that I could go and buy some of those cute baskets like Pottery Barn has...

Or I could buy one like this

However, I don't want to spend a ton of money when what we have is fully functional. 

I found these ideas on Pinterest. 

 

I kind of like the bottom one.  I could box up all the cases and do this, but I'm not so sure it would stay like that.  Meaning the kids probably wouldn't put the movies away in this... but maybe.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear your ideas!  What are your organizational challenges?  Leave your comment below, or on my facebook page. 

Blessings! 



 

Country Girl on Main Street

For all of my married life, I've lived on Main Street.  Early in our marriage, we lived in a house my Mother in law owned in a small town with a bar, a post office, and a general store.  We lived on Main Street.  My husband had to drive about 60 miles to work each day.  When I was pregnant with my daughter, we only had one car, and I drove him to work sometimes so that I could use the car to go to Doctor appointments.  In one year, we put 100,000 miles on a brand new car. 

I started selling Real Estate, and we decided that we should move closer to his work, and my office.  So, we bought our first house in a small town about 30 miles closer to hubby's place of work, in the town where I sold Real Estate.  We fell in love with a cute little house on Main Street.

However, growing up, I lived in the country.

They say "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl".  I'm starting to believe that's true.  Oh, I was happy with my cute little house on Main Street for a while, but for the last several years, when we go to the county fair, I get that longing to live in the country.  I adore the cute little bunnies, and the cows and horses and pigs. 

I love the smell of hay, and the fresh air in the country.

  To me, these were flowers... not weeds.

A little creek like this is where I began writing

It isn't just the Fair that causes such discontentment though.  Usually when we go to the lake, any lake, but especially Lake Michigan, I wish I lived there. Camping and reading books about the Amish make me long for a more simple life as well.  Visiting my cousin in OK, staying at her farm house, and then the ranch really stirred the dream. 

Why such discontent, why the longing in my soul?  I wish that I was a more content person.  But this is who I am.  I'm a dreamer, and to me, nature is beauty.  It refreshes me!  I treasure the memories that I have, and want to recreate them.  I often want things to be different, slower paced, have less clutter in my life, more meaningful family time, and for my kids to have the experiences that I had growing up in the country.   

I think that things would be different, my children would be different, and I would be different.  Better somehow.  Call me an Idealist!  I am.  :)

There are benefits to living in town.  Convenience for one!  That's why we've stayed where we are.  We live in a great community, with a great church, and it's been a great place to raise our children.  Will we stay here forever?  Who knows?  We have dreams of moving to Ludington, or just somewhere out in the country.  If we do, then will it feel like home when our children come and visit?  (there's that memories thing again)

For now, I'll be content in the season I am in, where God has put me.  When discontentment rears its ugly head, and it will, I'll try to remember that. 

1 Timothy 6:6  "But godliness with contentment is great gain." 

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures I've taken recently on my drive in the countryside of my little town. 

Blessings!

 

   

Contest

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my new web design.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. 

Anyone who leaves a comment will be entered in a drawing for a Starbucks or Bath and Body gift card. 

If you share this with your friends on facebook, they can enter too, and I will give you another entry.  Let me know if you share it.  That's two chances for you to win.  :)  Contest ends at midnight tonight.  I will announce the winner tomorrow.

If you're new here, become a follower here with Google followers, my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Latte-Blessings/303803836335198
or by email, and leave a comment to let me know.  I'll enter you in the contest for that too.  :)

Blessings!
Tammy 

Who is your Father?

We had a great celebration for Father's Day yesterday.  I took my hubby out to breakfast at a local restaurant before church.  Unfortunately, we did not make it to church.  The place was packed, and it took at least half an hour to get our food.  By the time we were served and finished eating, it was about half an hour past time for church, so we went to the store to get stuff for our cookout. 

We came home and the kids and I gave him our cards and gifts, and then he and I cuddled up and took a little nap on the couch.  Later, we did a little cleaning, and cooking/preparation for the dinner. 

We boiled chicken, marinated the ribs with a Paula Deen dry rub, and later started them in the crock pot before moving to the grill.

We made shortcakes

Baked beans (Very easy, and a big hit)

2 cans of Bush's baked beans

1 c. brown sugar

1 cup of water

1 cup ketchup

and LOTS of bacon! 

My Mom brought the potato salad

Hubby was in charge of the grill  :)

Love that man! 

Love this one too!  Dad's helper! 

Umm yeah, for those of you who noticed, the mustard fell out of the refrigerator and was duct taped. 

Yummy asparagus!

The watermelon was Perfect!  Sweet and juicy!

The only thing missing is the amazing ribs my hubby made, and the asparagus, keeping warm on the grill.  It was a great meal!



With great company! 

My parents

My sons, daughter in law, and nephew

and let's not forget the new grandbaby! 

Wyatt with his Great Grandma, my Mom

The boys had fun jumping bikes on their homemade ramps

Dessert was amazing!

Homemade shortcakes

Strawberries and ice cream!  Yum!

A little Cool whip to top it off! 

We had a great day, but I understand the sad truth that many of you may not have a Dad to celebrate with.  Some have gone ahead of us and are watching over us from heaven.  Yet others have absent fathers, broken relationships, etc...  You may be a Mom who has to fill in as Dad to your children.  Regardless of your situation, I want you to know that you have a Father in heaven who loves and adores you, and wants you to cuddle up in his lap, and rest in His arms. 

He is the Father to the fatherless. (Psalm 68:5)

I'd also encourage you to fill in the gap for those without fathers.  Do you know a hurting child, one whose Dad is absent emotionally or physically?  It's easy for parents to be "too busy"  Maybe your family could invite them to be a part of your life.  Pray for them, invite them to church.  Encourage them and build them up with kind words. 

Here is a great article on making a difference.  http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/faith/essentials/reaching-out/will-you-make-a-difference-in-the-life-of-a-child

Blessings!

Tammy