Happy Birthday, Honey!!

Happy Birthday to my husband today!  He turns 43 years old (young?).  At our house when it is your birthday you get to choose your favorite meal for supper and it gets served to you on the "special plate".  Tonight my husband choose meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans for supper.   We also go around the table and say what makes that person special by using the letters of their name.  Since we haven't done it yet today, I'll just give you my list....

D   dear, delightful, daring (you have to be in our house!!)
A   attractive, apple of my eye
V   very good to us, very gifted and talented
E    exciting, endearing

Wow, I didn't realize it until now, but he has a difficult name for this.  It will be interesting to see what our kids come up with!

Have a great day!

Blessings,

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY~November 8, 2010
Outside my window... beautiful!  Highs near 60, sunny, what more could I ask for?
I am thinking...about some meals I want to make for several friends who have different things going on
I am thankful for... only 1 child getting head lice!  My house had never gotten so clean in one day!
From the kitchen...grilled hamburgers, seasoned potatoes, corn
I am wearing...kahki's and brown sweater
I am creating...idea's for baby quilts for our local hospital
I am going...to keep the windows open as long as I can to let the fresh air in! 
I am reading...So Long, Insecurity by Beth Moore, Bible
I am praying...for so many friends who are struggling with health concerns, my mom who just found out she is loosing her job at the end of the year
I am hearing...neighbors working on their roof, another neighbor working outside (I love having the windows open in November!)
Around the house...not much, the house was cleaned on Friday, laundry done!
One of my favorite things...enjoying the beautiful weather outside with the kids
A few plans for the rest of the week...my husbands birthday is tomorrow, youth group Wednesday, guitar and piano lessons on Thursday, family movie nite on Friday~a full but good week!
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Daddy's little man

For more daybooks, please visit Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

Blessings,

This and That...

This has not been a good week for my blog.  I feel that I have neglected it this week.  But as we all know, motherhood has that effect on a person (or blog!).  This has just been "one of those weeks".

It started off good, but somewhere along the way it turned crazy.  Oh, yeah....now I remember.....it was when my 2 middle school children came home and said that 27 middle schoolers were sent home with head lice!

UGGHHH!

My kids go to a small school.  Twenty seven middle schoolers is about 1/3 of the middle school!  So I started checking heads.....often!  My 8 year old keeps telling me that his teacher checks their heads every morning and he doesn't need me to check him.  Hey, it's not like I don't trust his teacher.  I'm just a control freak....who does NOT want lice in the house.  Our 20 month old can't figure out why mom is always trying to get him to sit still to play with his head.  Then you have my 13 year old daughter who is convinced that she has lice and is asking me to check her head 3-4 times a day. 

Well....guess what!  Yep, last night we found eggs and 1 louse in her hair.  She was mortified.  I wanted to cry!  I have never had to deal with lice before, but have had many conversations with other moms this week about it~so I was ready.  One problem.....you can't get the shampoo in our little town.  It is spreading pretty quickly around our town, both the public school and our private school have it.  It is also spreading around neighboring communities, so it has become a hot seller.  I finally found a Walgreens in the next town that had it, so I ran over there this morning to get it.  It was the last one on the shelf!  We kept all the kids home today, shampoo'd and combed our girl, spent the day washing everything in hot water, and vacuumed anything with fabric in the house.  We are praying that it stops with her and no one else gets it!

Hopefully now things will settle down and next week will be smoother.  It is always something around here....and it isn't always fun!

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Make Your Opinion Count!

Nielsen/National Consumer Panel is accepting applications for select groups again!  This has been such an EASY and fun opportunity for myself and my family.  Even our kids think it is interesting to scan products we buy with our scanner!

If you are not familiar with National Consumer Panel, it is a way to make your buying habits known to manufacturers and retailers.  If you are accepted into the panel, you will receive a scanner in the mail.  After setting up your scanner, you are all set.  All you have to do is scan each item you purchase.  You can then transmit your scans via phone each week.  It is that easy!

You will receive points for each transmission you send in.  You can also earn points taking surveys through their website.  You can then use those points to "purchase" gifts from their catalog.  Some examples of gifts are electronics, children's toys, home furnishings, kitchen gadgets, and so much more.  I have been saving my points through this year and will be "purchasing" some free Christmas gifts for our children.  I am sooo excited about FREE gifts!

To see if you qualify to be a participant, click on the following link:

http://www.ncpsignup.com/start.asp?id=1067&refid=00013939

Good luck and Have fun!

Blessings,

Time....

Happy November!

I can't believe that it is November already.  I know that I probably say that about every month, but it really is hard to believe that winter will soon be here.  Although, all I had to do was go outside this morning to believe that it's coming!  It is soo cold out!

This time of year makes me want to start a fire in the fireplace, cuddle up under a quilt with a good book, and a cup of hot chocolate!  One of the nice things about the weather getting colder is that we stay inside much more and (hopefully) things start a slower pace in our life.  That is the plan anyway!

One of the areas of our life that my family struggles is with time.  We have 5 children and there always seems to be something going on.  One of our children has special needs and has quite a few appointments each month.  Another of our children has a medical condition (which has finally been sorted out-Praise God!) and we were sorting through that.  One of our children likes sports.  We have piano lessons, and soon guitar lessons.  We are busy with church activities like small group and youth group.  Then there are the school obligations as well.  Our calendar fills up very quickly!

My husband and I have been trying to figure out what we could leave behind, and what is truely important to our family.   I heard someone say "Think if it will be important in 5 or 10 years from now.  If you think it will, keep it....if it isn't important, it can be let go."  So we've been trying to think things through.  One of the things we kept coming to was our daughters basketball schedule.  She just got done with volleyball.  She loves volleyball.  She is good at volleyball.  She plans to play all through high school.  It is a joy to go to her volleyball games and see the progress she has made, and the joy that the game brings her.   It is different with basketball.  She doesn't truely enjoy the game.  She doesn't completely understand the plays.  She is just not that good at it.  She rarely plays during the games.  Her heart isn't completely into the game.  But she likes the socialization of it, and she likes being a part of something almost every other girl in her class is a part of.

Basketball runs from November through February.  Between practices and games, it consumes 4-5 days of her week.  Of OUR week.  When we look at our calendar, it makes me cringe.  Especially during the holidays.  Last year we could hardly find time in the week to do our annual drive to look at Christmas lights.  We certainly didn't do much reflection on the meaning of Christmas as a family.  This was NOT OK with me.  I was very distressed about that last year, and told my husband that we needed to do something different for this year.  He agreed and after much discussion, thought and prayer, we decided that basketball must go.   We discussed it with our daughter and although she wasn't happy about it, we didn't have any fighting about it. 

This was a hard decision for us.  We didn't want to have to tell one child that she can't do something she wants to.  None of our other children play sports.  But adding to the difficulty of this decision is that sports is a big deal in our school.  Seriously, when we've told different parents that we decided not to have our daughter participate in this sport,  we've gotten a lot of hurtful responses.  It is sometimes hard not to go along with what the world says is important.

But we are looking forward to the next few months.  Basketball practice starts tonight, and our daughter just mentioned it to us in a conversation.  Just a casual mention.  She is past the decision, has accepted it and moved on.  It was great validation that we made the right choice.  We are looking forward to the cold winter nights where our entire family is at home together.  We are looking forward to celebrating the holidays uninterupted.  To have the flexibility to choose what we want to do with our children and when we want to do it.  It is going to be a great winter!

Have a great day!

Blessings,