Good Bye Vacation-Hello Life

The vacation is over (stay at home vacation)- back to life.

It is a rainy and cold Monday to start off our week. Sometimes that is better, the sun and nice weather doesn't distract us from all we need to get done in a day.

We had to get up at the crack o' dawn and take our pet bunny to get "fixed". We adopted her from the Humane Society and that is their rule. We got her when she was only a few months old so we had to wait until she was full grown and 6 months old.

Back to homeschooling today. It is VERY HARD to get focused after a long break. 5 weeks left until SUMMER BREAK. We are trying hard to finish strong and we are on a good pace to finish out all of our 5th grade curriculum.

My brain is on over-load with planning. I'm in charge of organizing a big going away party for our Sunday School teacher and the details are keeping me up at night. I wish my brain had an off/on switch, so I could turn it on during "business hours" and then turn it off at night and on weekends. I'm a hyper-organizer...to the point of OCD...I have to think through every detail and idea, and plan things down to every small detail. It usually serves me well to be that organized- it is also my curse.

Finally, my husband and I went to an AWESOME parenting conference at church Friday night and Saturday morning. We learned hands on skills and tools to train up our children's HEARTS..not just raise robots but work on hearts, so they will respond to their conscience not just wait for mom and dad to prompt them. It was really inspiring. Now the trick is to try and remember it all and not respond to my default attitude of frustration, but to breathe, step back and do the skills they taught us.

Sometimes I just want to say, "Just do it, because I'm the mom" I get tired of explaining and going the extra mile to teach a good value or characteristic. It pays off in the end-but takes perseverance and hard work. We learned great ways to teach your kids to honor others (honor is doing more than is expected). How to have honesty under pressure, how to teach kids to deal with the wrong choices they make, and how to teach kids to make choices based on CONVICTIONS not emotions.

Honor is doing what I asked you to do (obedience) and then.....look for something to do extra (honor). For example- You tell your child to please set the table (obedience) and then tell her when she is done, find one thing she can to to honor the family.....and let her come up with a way. An example would be to make little cards for each family member or set flowers on the table. They gave us the idea to tell your kids to "Do an honor check" when leaving a room they have been asked to clean up. They are to clean it all up the correct way and then give it one last look and do something extra to honor the family. It gives kids the idea to do MORE than what is expected. Can you imagine having an employee for example, who did MORE than what was expected of them? What a great trait! We can't wait to teach this to our kids.

To get great info. on parenting you can go to http://www.biblicalparenting.org/ They have a weekly email they send out with GREAT tips. I usually shy away from email stuff, who needs more STUFF IN YOUR EMAIL BOX...but this is worth it. They also have great resources on the website. We bought several books at the conference. I've already read one and it was very helpful with hands on, actual skills and tools you can put into practice NOW.

Happy Monday!

Stay-Cation

We are on a Stay-Cation! Usually we go away during this time each year, it is our last fun filled week before my husband's crazy work schedule picks up for his busy season May-Oct.

This year, to be prudent with our finances, we decided to stay at home and enjoy a Stay-Cation instead. It has good points and bad points. I still have to cook, clean, and do laundry during the stay-cation...that stinks. But I love sleeping in our own beds and having a slower pace than vacations usually bring. Last year we went to Florida and did the whole Disney crazy for 10 days. That was A BLAST, but not at all relaxing. We were on the go constantly and stayed up really really late to watch fireworks and electric light parades and then got up early to hit all of the parks. You know, the whole "hurry up and wait" thing that comes with vacations.

This stay-cation has been actually nice. We went mountain biking on Saturday for two hours and then enjoyed dinner together. Today my husband took our son to his work to work on a boat they have at work that everyone can use this summer. My daughter and I went to PetSmart to look at all of the animals they have there. Simple, cheap fun! It is rainy and icky out today but it is supposed to be 60 Wed.-Fri. so we will hit the trails again and put more miles on out mountain bikes. We've been playing games, watching movies, and just enjoying some quality family time.

Not a bad deal at all. Saving money can be fun!
P.S. I've been logging my workout miles since Jan. 1 and yesterday I hit 150 miles walked/ran since Jan. Hooray!

Encouraging Words

Today after church as we were driving home, my 10 year old son told us that a man at church, who goes to our Sunday School and we've been to his home before to have a Sunday School Christmas party and to go Christmas Caroling around his neighborhood said some really nice words to him. They must have really stuck with our son, because this was quite awhile after it happened.

He told us with a big smile on his face that Mr. Wagoner always says hi to him and shakes his hand and today he told our son that he enjoys seeing him each week, that he is a nice boy who is very clean cut, and he is going to be a great man someday. Such simple words but they left a huge impact on our son. Our son said, "Mom, he told me I'm going to be a great man someday" I'll just never forget the smile on his face as he retold the conversation.

It means the world to me that people invest in our kids. Just simple things. Simple words that are spoken, that encourage and inspire. It inspires me to speak LIFE into the kids I'm around. To take the time to SEE them and then speak words of encouragement into their lives. You never know how it can inspire them. I'm going to call Mr. Wagoner right now and tell him what his words did for our son and thank him for taking the time to notice a 10 year old boy each week. He probably doesn't even realize how much my son recognizes that every week Mr. Wagoner notices him and goes out of his way to say hello.

I hope we can all be a Mr. Wagoner this week!

Spring Break News

Well so far there isn't much "break" in the Spring Break..... but we are only just beginning, so there is plenty of time to "break". Yesterday we met a great friend and her daughter for coffee and then I took the kids to the Family Film Festival showing of The Tale of Despereaux (Thanks Traci for the heads up.) (Traci is one of my 4 readers :) ) It was cute. Not as cute as the book but still worthy of our time. Today I had Bible study (every Saturday at 6:45 a.m. today was the last one until after Spring Break) and then I went to the Y for a long workout. I love when I get to go on Saturdays because my husband is home with the kids and I can take my time and not feel so rushed. When I got home from the Y, my family was already hard at work doing yard work. I jumped in when I got home and we got so much done. We trimmed all of our bushes and shrubs and cleaned up leaves in the flower beds. FEELS GREAT to get that done.

There also isn't much "spring" in Spring Break....it is decent out, 50 ish and sunny. Not nearly as bad as all of my family and friends in Wyoming who are having their 5th blizzard in the last 4 weeks. I can't believe how much snow they are getting. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow night. NICE!!!!

Later we are hanging out in front of the big screen as we watch MSU in the Final Four! Go STATE! ( I don't normally watch a bunch of basketball, but when it gets down to the finals, it gets exciting, so I'll tune in.)

Happy Saturday.

3 Cheers for Spring Break!

Today officially begins Spring Break.......why........

BECAUSE I SAID SO.

I'm the mom/teacher and I woke up this morning and decided, "We are on Spring Break"

I can't take it another minute....I need a break, the kids need a break. We've been working non stop since Jan. plugging away at the homeschool curriculum, making great progress. But the days go so fast, the weeks go so fast. I just need the time warp to stop.

So, we are reading The Tale of Despereaux together and enjoying life for the next week and a half. (That is a REALLY cute and exciting book by the way, I highly recommend it.) We have a week or so off alone, and then my husband has a week off. We plan to go mountain biking a lot while he is off, play, and REST. We want to enjoy the family time and slower schedule.

I don't want to answer the phone for fear it is someone who needs me to do something. I have a few offers to meet friends for coffee or at the park, but I just need to be careful to not suddenly have a full schedule again-even though it is all fun stuff. I want the break to go SLOW..........and to rest and refresh my mind, spirit, body. Our Bible study is off for a week and we have no piano lessons for two weeks. I have a stack of books to read and a new exercise video to try out. We have bikes to ride, parks to visit. Staying up late, sleeping in.

Ahhhhhh I feel myself relaxing already.

Food for Thought

Yesterday at Sunday School, our teacher made a comment that has stuck with me.

Straying away from God is natural, staying grounded and close to Him takes work.

That is such a great statement. We sort of think it is the straying that would take work, that it would be obvious and we could easily avoid it.

It is true, staying grounded and close to God does take a lot of work, it is GREAT work, but it is hard. It is a daily thing, needing to pay close attention to giving God quality time and effort. Keeping holiness at the front of our minds so we make good choices moment by moment.

You have to be focused and intentional. Satan will use distraction as a means of straying away from God.......have you ever been on a floaty in the lake or ocean...you just relax a little bit and before you know it you are way out there, far from shore. I think that is just like Satan, when you aren't paying attention, you slowly drift, little by little. You don't realize it, because you are busy enjoying the view and drifting off in your mind, heart, and in your life-being distracted by life and all there is to do.

Proverbs 10:25 The righteous stand firm forever.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

What is with the messes lately?

I can't get away from them.

Last week I spilled Cranberry Juice down the front of the inside of my fridge. It took FOREVER to clean up. It was a sticky mess.

I think I cleaned up 5 episodes of cat puke last week alone.

Yesterday my son broke a plate as he was getting it down from the cupboard and it shattered in a million pieces all over, at the same time he flipped the spoon I had been using to stir the chili in the crock pot and it flung chili all over the walls and cupboards.

Then, not 2 hours later.......I was trying to hurry and make muffins for my family and I was digging in the spice cupboard and the container of corn meal fell out and spilled all over the counter and the floor. That stuff makes a MESS.

Earlier this week was the biggest mess of all; my son begged to make muffins all by himself, I agreed...he did a great job UNTIL he went to place the filled muffin pan into the hot oven and he dropped the muffin pan UPSIDE DOWN in the oven......the spilled muffins were all over the inside of the oven and the oven door BAKING!!!!! I'm still trying to fully clean up that mess.

These messes don't include the time last week when the neighbor's dog got into our trash and drug it all over our garage and yard. The time my diet Pepsi spilled on the carpet, and cleaning up the toothpaste on the bathroom rug.

Wonder what today will bring?