The time has come

I'll be leaving for the airport in a few short hours. I'm hoping I can sleep. Anticipation does me in every time. :-) We are all so excited. He called me a few hours ago from Germany. Yee-gads! He's almost here! :-)

Funny three year old

Liberty is hilarious. She cracks me up all the time. I always say there is never a dull moment if you live with a Liberty or a Benjamin. :-) Yesterday, my Dad took a nap with Liberty upstairs. I forgot to warn him how she lets us know she's awake....he tried to slip out of bed while she was sleeping without waking her, which is nearly impossible. He got to the top of the stairs when she started...."Wahhhh, wahhhhh, wahhhh." He went back to the bedroom to ask her what that racket was. She replied, "That's my people caller." Too funny.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not over yet, right? :-) We had a great day! My parents plane was delayed a bit, but they still got to Columbus in time to eat our Thanksgiving feast! The food was all awesome. If you're looking for a great squash recipe, head over to the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog and check out her recipe. It.is.yummy. I should probably link you to it, eh? There ya go. Oh, and she's right, you MUST puree it. Yumm-o! :-) I cooked enough food for an army. Guess I won't be cooking much the rest of my parents visit, eh? In my defense, I was expecting 4 more guests, but three of them couldn't come because their Mom was visiting the Bradley Center. :-( I'm not really planning on doing much shopping tomorrow. I did pick up a nifty little gadget from bestbuy.com this morning. A TomTom One Navigation system! Yesterday, I explained to my dh why I needed one, he promptly told me to buy it. He's awesome, isn't he? :-) I told him I'll wait for him to get home before I open it though. So, he's off the hook...he doesn't have to shop for me for Christmas, even though I know he won't listen to me and will shop anyway. Men. :-) I have a few crafty projects planned to do with Mom this weekend. We may have to run to Michaels tomorrow to get the supplies, since I didn't think to pick them up before they got here. Until next time...........

Thanksgiving Frenzy

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a to-do list a mile long and no motivation to do it? Ugh. I put the pumpkin bread in the oven a few minutes ago, so that's done. I need to get to the grocery store this afternoon. I would rather go today than tomorrow. I have to do the usual "the parents are visiting" cleaning. Actually, it's not too bad, but I need to mop, finish the laundry, wash the bed sheets, clean off some clutter areas, etc. Plus, the kids have their regular Wednesday chores to do tomorrow. Oh, and we have church tonight. I have nursery....again. Nursery duty is a blessing to someone, right? ;-)
Knitting news....I FINISHED THE CLAPOTIS! Well, not really. I still have ends to weave in. Maybe tonight. We'll see. I've been sick, so I haven't felt like doing anything after the kids get to bed.
I'll have to share my latest drama incident with you later. It involved 8 MPs and 2 CID agents. Lots of fun. :-)

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My

I am a multi-crafter. I don't just knit. I scrap. Sometimes it's hard for me to decide which I'm more passionate about. It's hard for me to find the time to do both. I think they serve different purposes for me. I wouldn't want to be forced to choose just one. When we moved into this house, the kids were so excited that they would have their own bathroom. Actually, they have a couple of bathrooms. :-) Of course, with 4 kids using one bathroom, they couldn't decide on a theme. Katie wanted SpongeBob, Mikayla wanted Princess. We compromised with this:
Katie adores anything monkey. Liberty loves lions, and Mikayla loves Giraffes. Benjamin was just thrilled not to have anything pink! :-) We've got the elephant toothbrush holder, a few brown towels, and a purple bath rug. We're still working on the minor details of the decor. lol. They want the lion trash can but whew, that thing is spendy. I think they'll just keep the Madagascar trash can they have now. Hey, it's animals, right? Anyway, here's what I came up with for a couple of picture frames to hang on the wall. The frames are 12x12. I cut the animals/leaves/grass on my Cricut Expressions machine. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this machine. It seems as though I use it for every scrapping project I've done lately. The kids have made some Christmas ornaments with it, they've used it for school projects. If you're a scrapper, and you don't have one of these machines, get one. You won't be sorry. :-) Anyway, without further delay, here's what I made.....


Anyway, the kids love 'em. Mom is bringing me another frame when she comes next week. I think I'll call her and ask her to bring me two more. That way I can do a monkey and a lion to hang right above these! Until next time...........

In Honor of Veterans Day

In honor of Veteran's Day, here is a picture of my favorite Veteran! Short...his time is getting short. :-)

Watch very soon for a picture of my completed Clapotis. I WILL finish it this week. I'm working on the decrease section, which I'm hoping will go very fast. I have a list of Christmas knitting I need to finish. I guess in order to finish it, I would need to start it, eh? Nothing major, just a few little things. I don't know if I'll get them all done. I never do. However, since my dh will soon be here, I'll be able to knit while he drives! :-)

I had totally planned to do school with the kids tomorrow. Until Katie was invited to a friends house to spend the night. How could I say no? :-) So, I guess tomorrow will be an off day. I'll have the kids do a couple of short lessons, but that's it. We all need a free day every now and then, right?

My house is coming together. I emptied a couple of more boxes today, hung a few more pictures, etc. I still have quite a bit to do before my parents come, but I'm not going to stress over it if it doesn't all get done. They won't mind, I'm sure. :-) I just realized what my kids are watching on TV. Santa Clause. We just decorated some sugar cookies with fall colored sprinkles. You mean, we could have made Christmas cookies today? Yee-gads! Until next time....................

House

Here are some pictures of my house! We are finally getting settled. Katie told me the other day it's starting to feel like home! I still have some boxes in the garage to sort through, but not too many. Maybe 8 or so? I really need to work on the garage this next week. It needs to be done so I can actually park a car in there! :-) Plus, I don't think my neat freak of a husband would like to see it in it's current state. HA! So, there you have it....pictures of my new house. :-) Until next time.............

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

I read this on a message board today, and had to blog it. If you're a homeschooler, you'll understand. :-) If you're not, please know I posted this in jest...mostly. :-)

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

****Here's my disclaimer....I have never read nor intend to read Secular Homeschooling Magazine.****

I hope you chuckled a bit while reading this, I know I sure did. :-) Someone was asking me when I'm going to post pictures of my new house! I will do that soon. I've tried about 5 times, but each time I try, I'm either having internet issues or blogger issues. I'll try again this weekend. :-) Until next time............

Heat

It was chilly last night. I don't know the exact temperature, but it was supposed to get into the low 30s. So, I turned the heat on before I went to bed, lest my kids freeze to death. Imagine my surprise when I was awakened by a raging smoke alarm at 6am. I was not happy. Liberty told me this morning that she heard a really loud noise and she covered her ears and went under the covers so she couldn't hear it, but it didn't work. :-) The heater is pretty smelly too. I've called in a work order. Let's see how long it takes them to come fix it! Never a dull moment I tell ya. Until next time...........

November Fun

November is going to fly right by, and I am so glad. I'm hosting an FRG function here at my house, so I'll be super busy with that very soon, we're going to the Millers for Thanksgiving dinner on the 17th (which we are excited about....we always get exposed to some new southern food, so I can't wait to see what she cooks up for T-day heehee), my parents are coming for Thanksgiving, and my dear sweet husband leaves his FOB before the end of the month! Did I say my parents are coming? Most times news of them coming is fine, but this time, for some reason, I'm super stoked. Maybe it's because it'll be the first holiday I host in my new house? Who knows, but I can't wait. They're actually flying in on Thanksgiving, and leaving the Tuesday after. It was about $600 cheaper to fly on Thursday vs. Wednesday, so they went for it. They fly into Atlanta at 10:30, so barring any delays, will get here just in time for dinner. Although, we may wait until Friday to have our turkey dinner, we haven't decided yet. Then, once I send my parents home, it'll be not very many days at all until I'll see my husband!!!!!!!! It's been a longgggggg nearly 8 months since we've seen each other. We have lots of fun things planned for him, but you'll have to hear about those later.
Knitting news....Clapotis.....oh how I'm sick of working on the Clapotis. It really is a fun knit, and I do love it, but it feels like I've been knitting on it forever and a day! Soon....soon....I'll start the decrease rows. I ordered a fun little knit the other day. As soon as the kit comes in the mail, I'll show it to you. Oh, I need to bring my camera to church tomorrow. My friend Amy crocheted the cutest sock! She showed it to me on Wednesday night, but I didn't have my camera to photograph it. I can't wait to post a picture of it here! She did an awesome job! I bet she'll have the match finished by time I see here tomorrow! :-) Until next time.........