Sun Kissed Sky

Sun Kissed Sky
The sunrise kissed clouds by our house

Monday, February 28, 2011

Lots to Do

Some things that I am learning around here:

  1. You can get bacteria in your gums through a loose tooth.  Leading to an infection and the need for antibiotics.
  2. Not many people except our insurance
  3. Living in the middle of nowhere means lots of driving to appointments meaning long hours in cars.
  4. Living with family means stress beyond belief in times followed by appreciation and the both of them can come so after each other making me feel less sane.
  5. Sometimes you just need to talk to get over what ever is bothering you no matter how big or small
  6. We all need forgiveness and most importantly we all need to forgive even more.  Unforgiveness can lead you to a bitter heart, heartache, depression, anger, and so many other negative things.  It also does not help, protect, or advance you in any way.  So forgive some one today!!
There are many other things that I'm learning but for the moment that's enough.  I finally got Pumpkin an eye doctor appointment a lot sooner than April!! Yeay!!  In fact it's on Monday!  Phew as soon as I made the appointment I felt a huge weight just lift off of my shoulders.  Mr A is the one with the loose teeth that got some bacteria up in them and came down with an infection.  I took him to the ER and they gave him some antibiotics.  Once the antibiotics were gone though and his gums cleared up...it came back.  I don't know if he got more bacteria up there or if it just looked gone but it is definitely back.  I wonder if it's how he brushes his teeth...anyways it's a new thing for me to watch out for.  Both of his front teeth have been loose for awhile now and they don't seem willing to fall out (yes I wiggled them around and tried to help them out.  They loosened more but are still holding on).  So tomorrow he has a dentist appointment and they will hopefully help us out.

Monkey is doing well.  He is having a little bit of trouble with selfishness and stubbornness.  I am hoping to help him work it out.  He is the middle child enough said right?  I have been letting him join in more with school.  Last week we did letters with clay and paper.  He had so much fun he did two letters and then wanted to do some more.  I made him some colored rice for his birthday and he loves it.  I made him a purple, green, blue, and yellow bucket with little scoops in each one I plan on having him 'write' letters in them or just make lines either way is fun practice for him.  I told you I would tell you how his party went and let me tell you it was great.  Not many people were able to come because of the weather but the ones that did come had a fun time.  We were unable to make the foam swords due to money ehhm.  So we improvised and made cardboard swords reinforced with tape and cardboard shields that we colored and added foam decorations to.  We used twine to make little arm holds for them.  My parents got a swing set as a combined birthday present for all the boys and they have been loving it.  It's their first swing set ever so it's a big deal.   We had Trader Joe's food and I made their boxed cake into cupcakes with a homemade cream cheese frosting yum!  If you haven't tried Trader Joe's you are missing out.  I am now in love with their potato vegetable snacks, crackers, and their cheese puffs mmmm.  I will definitely be shopping their more often.  I love that they do not have any dyes in their food. My friend that I have been talking about has a special diet for her family and I am thinking about joining her.  With Hubby's illness and the ADHD here we could use a stricter diet.  It'll be hard while living here but I think we can incorporate it in a little.

Hubby has a doctor's appointment tomorrow to check on his sleep apnea and then either take the machine or adjust it's settings.  I definitely do not think they will be taking it but they probably will be adjusting it some.  So that's two appointments tomorrow in separate cities. I really think that we need to see if someone can take one of us or we will miss an appointment.  Hubby has been 'detoxing' off of his meds this week and needs to go back to see his doctor and get new ones but we are hoping to find a more natural doctor because he doesn't seem to be taking well to all the chemicals.  Well here's to hoping we finally find the right one!

Homeschooling is my favorite part of my life!  This week we made bird houses I can't wait to get my camera this weekend so I can take pictures and show you guys how well they turned out!  I found them at a blog I read.  When I post my pictures I will link back to her blog so you guys can see how cute hers are.  We had a whole day of playing board games, playing with Tinker Toys, puzzles, and coloring. We even had Pumpkin playing with us.  One day we just had recess all day.  Yes I believe that it is a class lol.  The boys were playing so well together outside and it's not a normal occurrences without the usual 'I'm bored', 'he's being mean', 'he won't share', and the myriad other things they try to come in for so I left them out there playing until lunch time and when they woke up from their naps they were back out there.  We are going to be doing some car schooling this week to make all our appointments so I think we will be doing a lot of reading.

I hope that your all doing well this week and I will let you know how our appointments go :)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Laundry

Monkeys birthday party is on Saturday so I have been busy working in the yard trying to get things under control.  Since my parents moving in to this house last year there have been a series of rose bushes that have remained untouched so I am trying to get them under control.  I am working on a post about what I have been thinking about while pruning them but so far the words don't seem to be coming out right.  I'll get it up here if I can get it to sound right.  So other wise I still have a ton of work to do.  The spring seemed to be coming when all of the sudden the weather has taken on a turn for the worse meaning that we have a garden growing like mad and now bad weather to not work on it.  The horses do not like the weather they usually are out grazing but now they are hiding out in their little barn like little babies lol.  I hope that the weather gets better soon. 

I have not been going on my walk the last time I went was on Saturday and before that I can't remember.  I hope I get back into it soon my schedule is just so messed up since I had the cold and I have not been able to get myself back on track. 

I finally folded the mountains of laundry that were accumulating.  Did I mention that I hate folding laundry?  I don't mind washing it at all.  In fact I rather enjoy washing it but asking me to fold it is incredibly irritating.  I wish we could just shove the laundry in the drawers or rather buckets which we are using right now, and forget about them.  There is the part of me though that almost OCD organizes our clothing.  I separate the laundry out by short sleeves, long sleeves, sweaters, pants, shorts, and outfits are also organized. There are shorts and short sleeves, pants with short sleeves, pants with long sleeves, and so on.  So it's really just a battle with myself.  I have really enjoyed the part of my accidental minimalism were I have been getting rid of the clothing that I don't really like.  I keep some things because someone gave it to me, the kids, or my hubby and I am now just getting rid of it.  Yeay less laundry!  I can't wait to get into my storage and began to throw things away and donate them.  There are so many things that I realize I do not need.  Well there really isn't much more going on I will let you all know how the birthday party went I hope your having a great week.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Birthday Party Prep and Rock Stars

Monkeys birthday party is on Saturday the 19th so today while grocery shopping I got all the party supplies.  My friends children are on very strict diets so I spent a lot of time reading labels and trying to figure out what would be safe for them.  The only things I have left to get are drinks, presents, goodie bags, and stuff to make the cardboar armor and foam swords.  Phew.  I could not find the drinks that would fit the bill for the strict diet so I'm going to have to do some more looking...or maybe just let her know that I couldn't find any and maybe she will want to bring her own.  At any rate I am so excited for the party!!  My little boy is going to be four!  They grow up so fast.  I am glad that I homeschool the boys and can get to know them so well.  It would be so much harder with them gone all the time and with time flying by I feel so blessed to have them around me.  What if God hadn't seen me as fit for them?  Well I am so glad that he did and I am trying so hard to fit the bill.

There hasn't been to much else going on here.  We are loving the calendar time board that I made.  I also made them each a binder with some sheets that match the board so that they can fill theirs in along with me and even Monkey gets into it and does a great job.  I am as into it as they are!  Their first memory verse is Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye. They both have it pretty much down.  Mr. A's goes a little farther with 'keep me as the apple of your eye.  Hide me in the shadow of your wings.' Look at my last post for the link up to the websites where I got all the information for these and look at 1+1+1=1 for the reason I am now calling my sons litte rock stars I think you'll love it as much as I do.  Don't forget to check out her faith beliefs to make sure you agree with them and follow her it's a great resource!

I hope you guys have all had a great week!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Loving my Board

I have been so busy the past few days making a morning time board for our homeschool.  Yes, I did say days because it took me two days to complete it.  I am so happy with the finished product!  We used it this morning I can't wait to get a camera so that I can take pictures of it for you guys.  If any of you would like to see where I got my ideas check out http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ and http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/04/calendar-time.html and this one http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/search/label/Calendar%20Time they have such great ideas that I hodge podged together to get my board.  I love it and I'm so glad I spent the time on it.  The children really seemed to love it too.

I'm sorry for not being here and for having such a short post tonight I will have a better post tomorrow.

I hope you've had a great night! (yes I'm still not good at blogging during the day)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Separation of Heads, Hands, and Feet

The reasons that I loved my mini van are becoming even more solidified in my mind now that I don't have one and I am stuck in a small car.  We have only been all squished in the car twice now and both times it has been for a long drive (long being an hour and about 15-25 minutes) and I hate it.  I find myself praying for my tax money so that I can buy a new van!!!  The boys usually sit separated.  My hubby and I sit up front, Pumpkin sits in the middle by himself, Monkey sits by the door in the back and Mr. A sits by the window in the back so that there is a whole middle seat between them.  There is no touching aloud!! 

Sure my dreams of my children riding in the car with each other in the beginning were beautiful.  A sweet Mr. A would loving play with his little brother and they would be best friends in the car but as baby Monkey was sleeping Mr. A would poke him and plug his nose (he was only two and a half at the time) so I began separating them in our little KIA as best I could.  When baby Pumpkin arrived we had bought a van for him.  There was no way the three car seats would fit in our car.  So I thought the kids could now sit together....do we ever learn?  The two older boys began fighting.  'He's touching my car seat!', 'he's poking me', 'he's putting his head on me', 'mom he's kicking me', 'mom he won't stop breathing on me', and so many other variations of personal space violation over load that I had to once again separate them.   Bye -bye dreams of brotherly entertainment.  I should have know seeing as how I myself have three brothers and three sisters but I thought it would be different crickets should go off right now at my ignorance with child behavior. 

I was on this awful trip (children behavior wise) today to take hubby to a meeting and then find something to do while we wait when I began to feel the overwhelming frustration with the kids.  It suddenly brought me to the Israelites and how they did nothing but complain.  No matter what God did for them they just found something else to complain about.  Just like today's "Boys hands off of each other", "but mom he's breathing on me", Monkey look towards the window and stop panting on your brother", "mom now his butt is squishing me", there is no fixing this it just becomes something else.  God must have felt that way when he decided to let the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years.  He must have seen the endless years of complaining and whining and said 'hey, no, I am not doing this, when you guys have been wandering and learned your lesson then we will see.  Catch ya in forty years.  Yes they did more than whine they also worshiped Idols, and disobeyed at every turn but I really think the whining was more than enough to drive God to discipline his people I'm just saying :). 

I hope that I do find a van shortly and can once again regain peace ahhh peace.  I will never complain about have a van again!!  I will thank God for it everyday!  Catch me if you see me complaining because I'm going to work on thankfulness.  Starting with I am thankful to have the car we have right now because without we wouldn't be able to go to the doctor's or our friends birthday party that we went to today.  I am thankful because I am willing to learn and grow from the things that happen in my life.  I am thankful because I am.  I am thankful that I have my children and that they are healthy and even have the ability to argue.  I am thankful for my hubby.  I am thankful.  I will continue to think on these things and find something to be thankful everyday and to stop complaining so much :)

Thanks for reading!  What are you thankful for today?

Saturday, February 5, 2011

High's and Low's

Before moving into my parent's house we had a nightly tradition with our boys.  At dinner time we would always ask what their high of the day was and what their low was.  Since moving in here we have only done it a few times.  It's really hard to keep up on it with so many people coming and going at all times.  A lot of the time we don't sit down to family dinners any more.
 
Tonight after filling the boys plates and then my own I began to walk toward the couch when I thought about the highs and lows tradition.  I turned around and sat with my boys at the table it was just the four of us at the time and I asked 'so what where your highs and lows today'.  Monkey was first and he said his high was when he was allowed to get up from his nap.  His low was when he got in a fight with Mr. A over his bike. 

Mr. A was next his high was getting to play with his friends at the Mom's group today.  His low was also the fight he got into with his brother over the bike.  He was ashamed of himself for his jealousy and then for his actions.  He was kicking the handlebars of his brothers bike while he was trying to ride it.  I had asked him if he had asked Monkey if he could ride it.  Mr. A's sad little voice said 'no'.  He had went over to his brother and apologized and the two had sat cuddled on the couch playing Leapster. 

Back to dinner time, I told the boys that my high today was going to the Mom's group and my low was also their fighting and it had made me sad.  I then asked what they could do better tomorrow.  Monkey said he would try to go to go to sleep faster at nap time.  Mr. A said that he would try to be nicer.  I said that I would try to not yell so much tomorrow.  I have missed this ritual.  It's a time for us to reflect on what we have done and see what is important to each other and what really has been a let down for them.  I am so amazed by their answers and have so many 'ahha they are listening' moments during this time.  I love getting to be a part of their hearts and minds.  I think that this is how our heavenly father feels.  He is waiting for us to sit down uninterrupted with him so that he can listen to our highs and lows for the day.  One of our rules is that you have to have a high but a low is optional if they can't think of any.  Their high can be something so little like 'my high is this dinner' but there has to be one. We are usually really good about giving God our lows but we need to tell him our highs too.  Life is so full of both sides it's a roller coaster for sure.  We need to be able to say 'thank you so much for my high today God' so that our lows don't become our main focus.   I hope to teach my boys to be thankful even on a day when they really can't think of anything good.  Our minds should lead our hearts.  If your not feeling thankful for your highs maybe it's because you haven't been diligently looking for them.  It helps when you know that at dinner someone is going to ask you and you have to have an answer.  (I find this makes me think much more about my highs because when those little faces look at me I want to have a ready answer so I can be a good example).  Dinner tomorrow?  Yep we will be at the table together and once again I will ask 'what's your high and low?'

So friends...what is your high and low for today?

Friday, February 4, 2011

Homework and the Yard

Mr. A did so well with his school work today he actually had time to go play outside twice woot.  Somedays are more of a drag and he takes forever to do any of his work but today I think he finally realized that he would get to play outside if he got it done fast.  We did some work and then I sent him and Monkey outside to play.  They were down in the horse arena playing in the sand until lunch time when  I called them up for toasted PB&J's.  Pumpkin ate two of them and then wanted more I couldn't believe it!  Is he growing or what?  After lunch I sent the little ones down for a nap and they went so easy.  Mr. A got back to work and then was done for the day so when his brothers got up we all went outside in the backyard.  I got out our new gardening gloves and we pulled the grass and weeds out of the yard...you might be wondering at that I know it might sound weird but part of our yard is covered in rocks I'm not sure why but I think it's because of the rattlers and other pest we have out here.  It makes it easier to see them anyways.  We didn't get to far though because the children kept getting distracted and then I began cutting the rose bushes we have out there.  I got one stuck in my arm where the thorns were each spread out so I had to stretch my skin to get it out and that hurt Pumpkin came to my rescue and yelled at the thorns saying "bad choice, no, don't hurt my momma!!"  It was very cute and then he asked me if I was ok I love that kid.  Soon after that we went inside and Hubby made us a turkey meatloaf.  It was very different and good. 

Thats most of our day in a nutshell.

P.S. Yesterday after Mr. A's choir class we stopped by a natural store and got some pineapple-strawberry dried fruit (it looks like red pineapple I don't know how they do it unless they soak the pineapple in strawberry juice) they are so good I am getting addicted!  I can't wait to get some more.

P.S.S. I found some really good ideas at another homeschool blog and I can't wait to get to a store and buy a poster board I'll show you what I mean as soon as I make it it's going to be a great addition to our school days :) and I'll provide the link to her blog!

Chicken 'tude

I was sitting at the kitchen table working on my blog today when the dogs started barking in the backyard.  I looked out the sliding door and what did I see?  A chicken strutting it's stuff just outside of the fence.  It was standing as tall as it could as it carried it's self with a grandeur I haven't see it possess before.  It would glance over at the dogs while still staying just outside of the dogs reach and then look away as though unaffected by all the commotion.  I know however that if one of those dogs got him he'd be a goner and there would be no second chance..chickens don't get to learn from their mistakes.

This chicken made me think about pride and how we all act like this when we think that we are better than someone else, have done/made something awesome, or any of the other myriad reasons we think we have to be proud.  Pride comes before a fall is my main thought.  I've definitely been proud before in fact I'm proud every time I get a post up on my blog and then I reread what I've written and I realize that I really did not do that good of a job.  There are mistakes in my spelling or a wrong word here and there and lets not forget the transitions.  I'm really bad at transitions and sentence structure.  So there goes my pride and it's all out there for the Internet world to read.  Well this is where Jesus comes in.  He takes me just as I am grammatical errors, pride, ugliness, and even more sins.  He wraps me in his arms and says 'let's not leave you here.  Let's take you higher'.  I love being there in his arms.  I don't always stay there sometimes I fall back down but I like to think that each time I fall, I don't fall quite as far down as to where I was before.  I am so thankful that Jesus is so patient and that even though I am far from his perfection and I act like the chicken with my pride when Jesus knows the danger just within reach yet he comes to my rescue just as I hit my knees and he lifts me up yet again.  I hope you know that he can do that for you too and not just when you act like an arrogant chicken but when your ugly, when you've had enough, when your heart is breaking, when you just need a friend.  Your life won't be perfect your still human and so are the people around you, but you won't be alone any more.  He's my comforter, my provider, my strong time, my very present help in my time of need.  (I love that song). 

Thanks for visiting me today :)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Change is on the Horizon

I was thinking that I really ought to stop posting on my blog so late!  After an entire day with the children, animals, homeschool, and the myriad of everything else and everyone else I deal with/do I really seem unable to type./spell!  I have been reading over some of my posts (after someone comments I try to read my posts to see what they saw and what they are referring to specifically) and I need to type earlier my brain shuts down a lot sooner then I post.  Spell check can only do so much.  Another thing that I have been thinking about is changing up my blog.  I have just been updating everyone on our life over here but I'd like to do more (maybe it's my writers heart or maybe my short attention span...anyways..).  I'd like to really let you guys in on my struggles as a parent, homeschooler, mother, and some of the many other hats I wear.  This might be where I lose some of you readers as whats in my heart is God and I'm going to try to relate and create my life more around him.  I really need to work on that.  I need to see my life more from God's perspective!  I've been a christian for well all of my life except I have not lived as one all the time.  There was high school when my baby sister died and I went of the deep end with depression and some aggression (we'll not mention the Harley shirts and baggy jeans!).  I blamed God and tried to run away from him while he with his patience just kept gently tugging me back.  It's so true no matter what he never lets go.  There have been other times...times I am to embarrassed to even mention.  No matter what we are human and we can get ugly no one is immune to the power and temptation of ugly!  Ugly is what we call the actions our children make that we cringe at like the typical child's "harrumph" at the thought of not getting their way and we say "that was a really ugly sound you need to change that and use your words"  Ugly is what I think sometimes when I am not getting my way and ugly is what I sometimes say in the heat of a moment.  I have been ugly.  I hope to grow and to become stronger so that I can resist the temptation of ugly.  I am so glad that he never lets me go!  

 So welcome to my crazy life and my soon to be revamped blog!  I am going to try to change the top and some buttons to make it more visually appealing also.  I can't wait!  As a side note for those who do just want to read what has been going on in my life as I have been doing, I will still be adding in an extra post to do just that.  How I will do it is the question.  Whether it will be weekly or daily still I am unsure so stay tuned.

Have a great night and I will be seeing you shortly!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Our horse still seems to be having some issues we got him some meds today and we are hoping that he pulls out of this slump!!  Bailee and the goats are doing fine though.  I have been looking into different animals trying to figure out which ones I want.  I really want an alpaca they are so cute and their fibers are so soft I can't wait to learn how to make some yarn out of it.  I also want some ducks and some pretty chickens!  Yes some chickens do look pretty and some look pretty silly.

I'm going to be giving my children nick names from here on out.  I have been getting readers from around the world and would like to keep them a little private so my 6yr old is now Mr. A my 3yr old is now Monkey and my 2 yr old is Pumpkin.  Hubby will be hubby.  So lets all try to keep them straight k lol.

I went on my walk today it's been awhile because I have been battling a cold that has hampered my ability to breathe blah I hate that.  My walk felt really good I still struggled to breathe but it was worth it.  I'm looking forward to my walk tomorrow!  I can't wait to have a camera again.  I was in town today so I looked at some cameras at Wal-mart but the only one I saw that had the flip back I was talking about did not seem to take moving shots very well and you can all guess at the speed my boys move in.  It's one of the main tests I do with my camera because moving shots are so important to me.  I can't tell you how many times I've missed a moment because my camera blurred a shot (or maybe it was me!  Can't say anything bad about a camera that fixes user errors though :P ) 

Mr. A and I finished reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle yesterday and he loved it!  I have a bunch of books picked out to read with him so tomorrow I will show them to him and see which one he would like to have read to him.  I kind of hope for How to Eat Fried Worms but any one of them will be fine.  He's finished some workbooks and started new ones.  Tomorrow we are going to make some bird houses he is so excited and today I got some bird seeds to go in it come on birdies!!  I saw some really beautiful birds out and about on my walk today so I'm hoping to attract them.  I bought wild bird seed hopefully they like it.  His EC comes tomorrow to check on his work and we will sign the next 8 weeks of work agreement.  I have never written out my own before (except on my planner last year) so I hope  I gave her what she needed we shall see.

I have slacked completely with Monkeys preschool it was to hard the first few days so we stopped and here and there we will do a few things but it's more like once or twice a month.  With Mr. A being so far behind in reading we have focused most of our attention there and so it was to hard to help a needy Monkey with his work.  I have been thinking on this a lot and would like to do more with him since he is almost four (his birthday is this month!).  I will let you know if I accomplish this goal or not (there has to be a way ahhh)  If you have any ideas let me know as I am struggling with it.

Hubby got his car tags today so we have a vehicle again yeay!!  On the way home though we noticed that the rear blinkers don't work, a brake light is out, and the dash lights don't work.  Maybe we need a fuse?  Or maybe some lights need to be replaced?  Well will have to wait and see but still yeay a car of our own again.  I know it hasn't been long but when you live out in the middle of nowhere it feels like a lifetime!!

Have a great day (ps I wrote this yesterday lol)