Weekly Musings

Hi Blog world!  I am definitely a sporadic blogger of late.  I have decided to challenge myself to blog every day in May!  We will see how that goes! 

I am going to try to change the font on there also-it's driving me crazy, so chances are it's hard for others to read as well. 

I also just uploaded a bunch of pics to the computer-so maybe I can post more pics and change the pic too! 

What have we been up to though???

Well, school keeps us so busy!  I know it's only 3 days a week, but wow!  I can't even imagine how next year will be.  It's weird to say next year, when in actuality it is truly only a few short months away! 

In other school news- Mr. Henry may be going 3 days a week next year.  I have met with the twins' teacher and we have discussed at length Henry being in the class.  I just don't know if this Momma is ready for that or not!  Henry desperately needs more interaction with kids his age though.  I feel like it isn't fair to Henry to deny him this opportunity just because I am super-attached to my baby.  And to quote my Granny- I don't care if he's 40 years old, he will always be MY baby!!!  :-)  I think it would a great introduction to school with such a wonderful teacher!  We just LOVE the kids' teacher this year, and I have tried to show it by spoiling her and giving her lots of treats to show our appreciation.  I should post some of my ideas on here in case anyone else wants to spoil their childrens' teachers as well! 
Henry is actually warming up to the school idea a little bit, asking for a John Deere back pack!  I don't care what it costs, I will have to find that boy a John Deere back pack!  Our main hurtle will be fine-tuning his potty training.  He does okay with peeing.  #2's are just not happening in the potty right now. 
Have I mentioned potty training is my least favorite thing?  Just saying.....

Our baby calf is doing great, and we have settled into a schedule of feeding her twice per day.  She is so sweet and will be hard to part with.  She may be staying on full time at our house!!!  As we went to feed her this morning, the kids were busy playing with their cousins and we spent about 2 hours just playing.  It is easy for that to annoy me at times, but after I thought about it, it IS my job to stay at home with my kids.  I had nothing else pressing except laundry and housework.  Why couldn't I sit and listen to the kids laughter and take a break myself for a while?  I think sometimes we forget what our true priorities should be.  So what if I don't finish my to-do list today?  The most pressing thing on it was catching up the laundry, which let's just be honest, may never happen!!!! 

I am rambling, but does anyone else's kids eat non-stop?  I mean, truly I don't know what we'll do when the kids are teenagers.  Last week we had a playdate with some cousins over, and the kids ate a block of cheddar and several pounds of grapes in one sitting!  I am constantly amazed at how much food kids can eat.  We can never have enough milk, cheese, grapes, and apples in this house! 

Well, I am off to do more laundry and cleaning.  I will post more soon, and apologize for the complete randomness of this post.  Just whatever thoughts cross my mind......
More later!

It's April already???!!!???

It's April already?  Where has the year gone so far???  I cannot believe the kids finish their first school year next month!  Oh my goodness, it makes me kind of sad.  I will miss their teacher next year, she has been so good with them!  We may send Henry to her next year, one year early though, so who knows?  First I have to finish potty training him.  He does okay, but we need to work hard on it and be more focused. 
We have been so busy around here with so many different things.  I am trying to get in a better routine every day, so hopefully blogging will become more regular around here!  And I still have not uploaded any pictures from the camera.  I am such a slacker sometimes! 
Here is what's been going on in our neck of the woods.......

• Last week was very busy with a BBQ benefit dinner we did for my sister's brother-in-law.  He fell through a roof in January and is unable to work.  I am so glad we are able to help people when we can.  We kind of have our BBQ dinners down to a science.  Everyone has a job and they just get it done.  I honestly didn't work near as hard as my parents and sister, and I was exhausted so I know they were!  As always though, we do something to bless someone else and I think it really ends up blessing us instead. 
• Dustin and I had a date night last night.  I have to say, I love date nights!  I honestly hadn't really given date nights much thought until one day when the twins were much smaller and Henry was about a year old.  My mom watched the kids for us to go out, and she said she was going to do that for us once a month.  I have to say-it was the best gift anyone has ever given me!  Until that point, I think I felt bad asking anyone to watch the kids for us to just do something frivolous like having some free time!  I now know how important it is to get that free time.  I always return fully refreshed and recharged.  I think the kids enjoy the break from us too!  It helps that they love all their babysitters-my mom, my sisters, and my cousin Brandy.  I don't even mind spending money on a sitter or dinner because I feel like it's an investment in my sanity and marriage!  There is also something to be said for eating a meal without having fourteen arms/hands pulling on me, throwing their castoff food into my plate, having 37 trips to the potty...you get the idea.  Anyway, I highly recommend date nights!  :-)  Just saying....
• My Kindle Fire battery won't charge!  Fooey!  I have a message in to tech support about this.  The kids have been burning it up playing Apps.  I hope it isn't a goner, cause I honestly don't think I can live without it for long!  I may have to kick it old school and pull out my old Kindle, the very first one ever made!  I wonder if I could live with that one until my birthday in September??? 
• Oh my goodness.  I forgot to post some extremely exciting news.  Y'all.  Amanda, Alyssa, and I are going to see Luke Bryan!   I have wanted to go see him for YEARS.  I have never been able to get a ticket.  I am SO excited!!!!  Alyssa wanted a Luke Bryan ticket for her birthday.  That was the only thing she wanted and he was nowhere close by.....she didn't get one.  It was so much fun to surprise her with a ticket (I didn't pay for it-just to be clear!  But I did help petition on her behalf to let her go with us!  )  Of course we had to be a little mean at first and just tell her we were going and see what she said.  Hehe.  We also have one more ticket that I think my brother-in-law or one of my sisters may use.  I cannot wait!  I love concerts! 
• We have a new addition to our family.  It's a furry addition!  We are the proud owners of our very first baby calf!  She is so sweet, and is really warming up to us I think.  When we cut our timber, one goal was to build a small calf pen to raise baby calves.  Well, the pen isn't ready, but a neighbor had a cow die right after having this baby.  We are bottle feeding her twice a day and keeping her at my father-in-law's farm.    Fun times!  The kids are in love with her and have named her.  It's a doozy.  Bonnie Elsa is her name!  Bonnie is my mom's name and we got her from a man nicknamed Bunny, so Bonnie just made sense, right?  Then Emilynn had to add the Frozen factor in there.  I just call her sweet girl. 
• Is anyone else working on their gardens yet?  We have the spot disked up, and have half of our fence up!  I am excited!  I hope I am still excited this summer when I am hopefully over run with tomatoes, squash, etc. and canning/freezing like crazy! 
• I keep meaning to write a whole post about church, but I just have to say-we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new church!  Yes, we have a new church.  How we found it is a story and testimony in and of itself, but it is amazing.  And it feels like home.  I feel like I am finally where I am supposed to be.  My sister and her family love it too.   God continually amazes me.  He knows just what we need! 

On that note, I am off to do some vacuuming and cleaning to hopefully bless my family!   Although the kids are out of school after today for all of the rest of this week and next week....so I'm not sure how long it will stay clean.  I think I have job security for sure!  :-)