Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Just a "Quick" Note...
We just got back into town from a wonderful vacation in Orlando. It was a large family event with my side of the family and although we had an absolute blast at Disney World, it's nice to be back home, laundry done, cookies baking, kids in bed and later tonight I'm going to be getting ready for our first school day of 2012. We'll be going back to the Workbox System and I'm really excited to get my kids more independent in their learning. I've even got a few boxes for Norah to work through. She's so excited to have her very own boxes. Too cute.

I'm breathing a sigh of fresh air as I'm not on Facebook any longer. While I really enjoyed catching up with friends and family, I spent WAY too much TIME on it. I became so interested in others' lives that it was taking away time from other things I should have been doing. Before I knew it, 20 minutes had gone by and there was dinner that hadn't gotten prepped, laundry that didn't get taken down/turned over and most importantly, I hadn't spent time with my Heavenly Father. We all have our temptations that keep us from Him, and that was one of mine. I also slack at getting up early. I'm not a morning person. I enjoy snuggling with my four little guys in bed before we start our day. Sometimes we read. Sometimes we wrestle. I also love lazy mornings of not rushing anywhere, staying in our pjs during a homemade, hot breakfast (tomorrow, Avonlea requested waffles...blueberry syrup...yum!), taking our time during chores (as I'm still training little guys and will be for awhile) and then getting to our schoolwork. There were some mornings when I would hop on the computer for a "quick" check of e-mail or Facebook, but then I'd have somebody who didn't dress properly or slacked on teeth-brushing because my "quick" sit at the computer turned into 10 minutes! Therefore, I'm taking a break from it and feel SO great about the decision. It'll also help me to be more personable to others. Instead of hearing it from the latest Facebook post, I can make a phone call to check up on someone, speak to them face to face about something, etc. Maybe I'll return to it someday, but for now, I'm disciplining myself to better my relationship with the Lord, finding more time with Him as well as be a better wife/mother in the duties I have to get done during the day.

(Please know that this is a personal conviction of mine and I do not judge others for participating in Facebooking.)


I've been watching the Iowa Caucasus tonight and it's been neat watching Santorum sneak in with some interesting poll numbers. Don't forget to mark on your calendars January 31 (Floridians ONLY) for voting. Visit the candidates' websites and know what you're voting for too!


Robbie and I (he did most of the work, so I can't take much credit) revamped our chicken coop last week. It's a lot more open and we've separated our roosters in their own little bachelor pad...tee-hee. We were told that Dominique roosters were more docile, but one of them came at Lincoln a few weeks ago when he was out feeding them and ever since, he's scarred to feed them. Avonlea is scarred as well. So, we thought that by secluding them, it would help. We shall see. This will be our first week going back into regular chores. I just hope they don't find a way to get out, forcing us to find another way of secluding them.


Isaac still hasn't started solid foods yet. Waiting for his first two teeth to come in showing me he's ready for his first fruit/veggie...most likely mashed avocado or sweet potato.


Hmm
...let's see, what else?


Looking for a new pediatrician. The only holistic one we've been able to find is 30 minutes away and it's an out-of-pocket pay. He's very flexible with his vaccination scheduling and if we choose not to have our infant vaccinated until he's older as well as spacing them out, he completely supports that.


We've been busy getting to know our wonderful neighbors, one of which took care of our animals while we were away. She loves our fresh eggs and I told her she could keep whatever she wanted as she cared for our "biddies" while we were gone. She has a bigger yard than we do which also surrounds a lake in her backyard. She said she's always wanted a goat for making cheeses and having fresh milk. I laughed at her and said that that's what my oldest daughter wanted for Christmas. Funny.


We've finally got some cold weather here. It's supposed to be in the 30s tonight. We had a bonfire in the backyard tonight and roasted some marshmallows. Our Christmas decorations have been down and Rob used our tree as firewood. He does this every year and we often joke about going around the neighborhood to take others' trees from their garbage cans. Maybe someday, we'll load up all the kids in the truck and roam the neighborhood, seeing how many trees we can find. They're just going to go to the dump anyway, right? :)


Really enjoying The Mystery of History curriculum. Wishing I could combine Veritas Press' songs and hand motions with MOH's timeline and reading. We'll have to make up our own hand motions and songs I guess or maybe I could call the writer and request them. Oh, that would be cool, huh?


No major New Year's resolutions here. Watching my computer time and trying to exercise more are the two things I'll definitely try to work on. I guess if you want to try and call those "resolutions", you could. Can I doc time for chasing a two-year-old around, babywearing a six-month-old while cleaning and playing tennis with my four and six-year-olds? ;)


Gonna get the kids' workboxes ready for tomorrow and some hot ginger/peppermint tea is calling my name. Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Year!

1 comment:

Rachel E. said...

I enjoyed your update. I totally understand what you mean about computer and facebook. It does catch up. Good thing about Facebook is you can unfriend. I unfriended almost everyone in my book so I could keep it under ten. Of course, I had completely deleted my account a while back, but my best friend had a baby and the only way I could see pictures was on Facebook. So, I signed back on and unfriended everyone. Except immediate family and closest friends.