Home(school) Where We belong

Friday, December 5, 2008

I NO LONGER HAVE A BABY BOY SO I GUESS WE WILL BE HAVING CHRISTMAS!

As we watch the neighborhood gradually light up, the kids started asking to put up our Christmas tree. It is just so much work that I wasn't entirely ready to do so I told them they had to have their rooms, living room and play room clean before we even thought about digging out all the Christmas stuff. Low and Behold-after some school projects yesterday-Kenyon took out the trash, cleaned his room the living room AND the play room - INCLUDING vacuuming them- all with out me saying a thing. Then he convinced daddy to get all the Christmas boxes down from the attic before he left for work today. Kenyon later asked me if he had been helpful. I let him know he was more helpful than he has ever been in one day since he did it all with an awesome attitude and without being told each thing to do. He was wondering why I thought he was able to be so helpful now. I let him know that it must be because he is maturing. When he asked what that meant, it hit me....I DON'T HAVE A BABY BOY ANYMORE!!!:( Guess that means we had to put the tree up today.

this is the finished product. I actually took this

picture with the lights off-wow my flash is good!

It is alot of work-especially when 10 hands are all trying to do different things-but I really do love having it up. I love the Christmas season. I love the trees and the lights and the warm feelings and the time spent with family and especially the celebration of the birth of one very special baby.

this is outside. I love my big front window! You can

not really tell from this picture but it looks SOOO pretty!

Our tree is made up of lots of homemade ornaments. I have some I made as a child and some the kids made in school and at home. I love making ornaments and we have made something just about every year. We made salt dough ornaments in school today but they are not yet on the tree. Here is a sample of some of the ones on the tree.

an angel-the kids and I made these about 3 yrs ago

This is Keslee's handprint around a ball. The fingers

are painted into snowmen. She made it in school

last year.

a dog I painted for Kenyon when he was little

(I made the girls similar things but have not

found them yet this year)

An angel I made when I was younger

a train we made a few years back

I love our tree! Now that the kids got the tree up and decorated they want to know.....Where are the presents?!?

Family Fun Night

Monty has not been getting a lot of hours at work which is a little concerning. He goes to work at 330pm and works until midnight. Actually-they normally do not get done until about 2am which gives him a few hours of overtime each week. Well this week has not been so good-hour wise. One night he got home at 930 and last night he showed up at 730. He had several days like that last month and it REALLY hurt come payday so my first thought was "YIKES!!! Don't they know Christmas is coming and the house payment has to be paid and the phone bill came today and and and GO BACK TO WORK!" But luckily for me, Monty has a different outlook and pulled out the....

Monty, Kenyon and I had a good game and it always improves my mood to BEAT THE PANTS OFF of someone else in ANYTHING. Final score-ME 191 Monty 155 Kenyon 96.

Keslee started out helping me and was doing really well at making words on our tile holder but then she ended up falling asleep in a kitchen chair. Kalysa had fun looking on and sounding out the words on the board. She was doing great until she came to...

She said-that letter is turned wrong. Flip it! so Kenyon flipped it. When it was still blank she said HEY! SOMEBODIES BEEN SWIPING OUR LETTERS! She is always good for a laugh!

Oh ME of little faith. I really need to stop murmuring and complaining when God is taking care of things and still sees fit to give us and unexpected night with daddy.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Cute Things Kids Say

My sister in law called with some exciting news. She was brushing my niece's(peyton-3 years old) hair and her stomache growled. Holding her tummy, she says

Peyton-I think there is a baby in there.
Kacy-Oh Yea?!
Peyton-Not a puppy! A real baby like Ashlynne(they own a kennel so she sees lots of puppys born. Ashlynne is my 1 year old niece)
Kacy-What do you think your baby's name will be?
Peyton-I'm thinking TINKERBELL!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A SONG IN MY HEART!!

Today I have had parts of two songs in my head and have been singing away. I just realized the power of words of each piece of each song. I think this really says it all.

He LOVES me
He LOVES me
He LOVES me this I know
He GAVE himself to DIE FOR ME BECAUSE HE LOVES ME SO!!

MERCY there was GREAT and GRACE was FREE
PARDON there was MULTIPLIED TO ME
There my burdened soul found LIBERTY
AT CALVARY!!!

ENOUGH SAID!!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Blessings

So much to be thankful for.....

1.Keslee and Bryn singing a special at church.
2.Dad staying with us. Since his split from his wife in April, he stays with us when he is not on the road(he is too nice to kick the renters out of his house since truckdriving keeps him out so much anyway.) The kids really enjoy having papa around so often.
3.A good time spent with Monty's family on Thanksgiving.
4.God's protection-No one was hurt when we hit a deer yesterday on the way to church(except maybe the deer but he wasn't laying anywhere to be seen when we passed back by so maybe he is ok) My van did not even get more than a tiny dent.
5.Keslee and Kalysa packing a box with some shoes that don't fit and a few toys and marking it "Cuba Kids" then bringing it to me to mail to Cuba. Ever since we studied Cuba and how poor most of the families are there, the kids have prayed for the Cuba Kids everyday. I am so glad they are so caring!! I gotta find a way to mail this box somewhere!
6.That God is there and he will take over for us if we will just let him.
7.Being able to get a few good deals for the kids Christmas on Black Friday.
8.Snow flurries! I saw a few on the paper route this morning! They never really made it to the ground but I LOVE SNOW so it was exciting anyway.
9.Getting to see the space station fly by with the kids last week. They were so excited! Also seeing the 2 planets next to the moon. God's creation is soooo amazing and I love sharing it and experiencing it with the kids.
10.Big warm feather comforters!!! I Love snow but I also love to snuggle up in a warm blanket. I got a feather comforter at a garage sale for $3 this summer and it is about the best $3 I have spent ever! I lOVE IT!

Yall have a great week and don't let the stress of the world overcome the reason for this season. LOVE YA!! char

Alls Well that Ends Well

I hope you all had a joy filled, family filled, turkey filled, thankful thanksgiving. My holiday did not start off so great. I started to let life's problems(and there were lots of them) get in my way of what thanksgiving is really about....

It all started on Wednesday night. Monty had taken the day off but he did not go to church with us. He said since he would normally be at work anyway....so that did not help my holiday spirit. Everyone must have been in a festive mood-after church we all stood around talking, which is not unusual. I had to give a friend a ride home and it was then that we discovered that it was 5 minutes till 10. I did not realize we had stood around that long!! We got home about 10:30 and the kids were hungry and I still had to bake a cake to take to Nana's the next day. After the kids were settled and the cake was baking, Monty said he would watch it so I could get some sleep-I had to be up by 1:30 to deliver holiday papers-can't keep the people waiting on those sale adds. I went to bed exhausted but for some reason, unable to fall asleep. Around midnight I heard the oven timer beep...and beep....and beep...and beep...and beep. I got up to find Monty asleep on the couch and my cake done in the oven. I took it out and went back to bed to LAY THERE. About 1am I heard dad get up looking for Cash(his weenie dog). I let him know that I had put him outside then continued to lay there. I think I may have dozed a little then because when the alarm went off at 1:30, it startled me. I headed to the office to roll papers but did not let my car warm up so it ended up dying on me and would not start(I need a new battery and it was too cold for it). I had to push the van about 1/2 block to get it out of the road and walk 4 blocks the rest of the way. So after we rolled the papers and jump started the van, mom and I got the papers out despite my then very bad attitude and got back home around 6am. I fell into bed to LAY THERE AGAIN. I don't know why I could not go to sleep. I saw the clock at 8:45 before I started dozing off. Well shortly after that, the kids were up and wanting breakfast and ready to head to Nana's. Since Monty had a good nights sleep, he took over for a while. After just dozing for about an hour, I finally got up a little after 10 to shower and leave. Monty drove so I did at least get to rest my eyes on the hour long drive. I took that time to talk to the Lord and reflect on some things I was thankful for-believe me, it took me some work to think of anything after the night I had. I also asked for forgiveness and put the rest of day in the Lord's hands. That is what I should have done in the beginning!! We got to the family reunion and really had a great time. The weather was beautiful! The kids got to play with cousins they had never met on the little play ground behind the rented building. There was TONS of food. Monty got to catch up with some family he had not seen in a while. We really had a nice time visiting with everyone. After the dinner, we went back to Nana's house for the Cowboy game. Finally-on Nana's couch-I closed my eyes and fell into a deep, peaceful, rest filled sleep! HALLELUJAH!! I slept for about 2 hours while Monty watched the Cowboys WHOOP UP on the Sea hawks and the kids played with Nana. I woke up feeling rested and refreshed! All in all-It ended up being a Great day! Here are a few pictures of the day....