Very Full... plate....life....hands....and heart

So much on my plate, sometimes I feel that I'm going to drop something and something else will fall off also and when it's all say and done I will have nothing left.  I will have miss appointments and let people down.  Forgot to do something or many...  I'm running around with my head cut off a lot of the time it fills like.

I'm getting ready to leave the house and trying to remember what hat I need to have on and where I was going.... It's Wednesday.... right?  Grab what I need for a long night of dance and a church meeting that is at 7.  Get things around and getting ready to walk out the door to remember that it's Tuesday and I need to run to the church to grab the office hour bag, and because Matthew work late I need to take Eammah with me.  Because we get out of office hours at 4 and she starts dance at 4!!  And it's 2:25 and I need to be to office hours at 2:40 and still run to the church.  I'm going to be late!!  But that's been a theme with me lately and I dislike it so much.  My whole week has been running like that.... I'm it's came to the point that I'm lost I'm going nuts... I'm not sure what to do... I turn to God, ask for help and know that last time he put something on my heart I did not listen...  This time I will listen to every letter.

It's all started maybe a month ago... and just kept piling on... one things after another.  And God was talking to me... but I was to busy with other things to listen.  I was ask to do something, give of my time for a year.  I have been ask before and have said yes... and when the voting came about I never made it.  This year when I was praying about and asking for prayer about it... I knew I should have said no.  I'm honored that you ask and where thinking of me... but at this time I need to say no.... that's what I should have said.  What I said was yes... I would love it... ( Because I never get pick as it is)  Well this pass Wednesday night I was voted in, as much as I'm looking forward to working with a great group of ladies and serving my church... I know this means I will have to give up something it may mean missing dance classes, or a track meet...I know that God will help me, and I will learn from this and from not listening to him.

Homeschooling is still a top priority for us.  And even years into doing it and we are still finding things that work better for them, or things need to be change with Jessalla being in 6th grade.  Some of the things we were using only went to 5th or 6th grade.  So we knew it was coming, and are very happy with what we are using this year.  And feel like this set up will last us awhile.  Things are going well this year and we are enjoying what we are using... most of all they are loving learning, and that is a big goal for us.  We want them to love to learn and not stop when they are done with school, keep on learning their whole life.

Taking a little time to look over the list of commitments I have and praying about them.  And I may need to step down from something.  I do not want to burn myself out or not be able to give what I need to do the job or task at hand.  Making a list of my priorities will help me, and remembering JOY. 
                                                                 Jesus First
                                Others Second
                                Yourself Last
It's so easy to remember the saying and the word JOY but sometimes its so hard to put it in to action.  And not saying that you need to be so last that you never have time for you or are running yourself sick.  I'm also not saying that the things on my plate are bad and I should not be doing them.  More of is this what God wants my time on?  Is there someone else who could be doing what I'm doing.  I have fallen back in to my old ways of just saying yes, whatever you need.  I need to stop back and say let me pray about it.

It hit me hard when I had someone say to me, I was thinking you would want to do this because you do not work.  I smiled and said I do work.  They went on to say no like a real job.  They almost got me to say yes, but at the same time I was mad.  I do work, I do have a real job.  And the more I was thinking about it, and trying not to get mad.  I could see how God was using this to help me stop and think about what I was doing. 

Life gets nuts some time, we feel overwhelm and want to cry or hind till it of done with.  Had a teen from our youth group say they would cry if they had to do all that I do, it's just all to much.  I'm not saying all this to have others feel sorry for me or anything like that.  But for me to have a remember of what is important at this season of life.  I have young kids at home, it's a priority for me to be at things that they are in.  Not some place else.  It's important for me to teach Awanas and help out with the youth group.  Those are the kids that my kids hang out with.  It's just as important for me to give back, but not over do it.  And to have my kids see that. 

If you are reading this thinking this is me, I have way to much going on.  It's not to late to stop and regroup what you are doing.  Make a list, step down from a few things if need be.  Not to always say yes to everyone.  And by saying no, you are giving someone else the chance of letting someone else be a blessing.

Over halfway done and making changes

We are a little over halfway through our homeschool year. We made some changes to our curriculum that we have been using. We are about two weeks into using our new subject and we are loving them. Emphasis on loving!

Our first big change was science. We were you here God design for science. As much as we loved it and fouled all that we believe. It does not fit with how our girls learn best. And it was hard for them to want to do science and take out of it what I wanted them to get. So after struggling two get through our science for the last few years. A friend uses apologia for science and I was able to look at her book and new this is what we needed to be doing. After much debate about switching mid-year and the money that was wasted on the other science curriculum and the money that would go out and pull it one I decided that it was worth it.

That decision mean nothing to you all unless you know a little bit more about each curriculum.  

Let me step back and tell you why I like and why God designed in the first place. I knew we would have more than one kid to homeschool at a time. And this one allowed me to teach the all at the same time. It had project at the end of each book. Kind of like a final project which gave me hope that it would have more in the book. It did not, unless you wanted to take and find your own. I was also drawn to the fact that it was biblically based. The first year of using it was great the girls were young there time to be able to sit with shorter so the short lessons worked well. But as they grew and wanted more the short lesson were too short. And some very dry. Now that they are older I feel that we are just scraping the surface with those lessons.

Now to the apologia we have only been using it for 2 weeks now and the girls ask for science. So I think even if I hated it I would still do it knowing that they love it. I have to say I do love it more our style. If you have not looked into the apologia book they come with a teacher book that you read from the lesson. And based on the age of your kid you get them the journaling book that coordinate with the book that you're studying. There are two different level and the Young Explorer Series, there is a junior notebook, in a normal notebook. With our girl we did one of each. The junior notebook has coloring pages vocab game and worksheet for the first lesson. Oan copy work of a Bible verse. The normal notebook seems to have a ton more work pages, the vocab games 4 lesson 1 is a crossword puzzle. So not too bad. She also has copy work of a Bible verse.

  Both girls love that during the reading time there are times that we have to try it. It gets them up and moving, get some trying what we just read about. And at the end of each lesson there seems to be a project. At the end of lesson 1 in the study of the body we get to make a edible cell. How cool is that! They are already planning what we will study next! And for that I am grateful.

We also got word ladders that the girls have been working on. Eammah has the book for first and second grade and in doing really well with it. She enjoys figuring out the clue and filling in the puzzle. I'm sure we will be done with it by the time we start 3rd grade in the fall. Jessalla is doing 5th and 6th grade book, and having more of a harder time with it. The ladders are longer the clues are harder and the word are bigger. It's making her think a little different which is good. She is getting it just not moving through her book as fast. Which is great because she'll be going into 6th grade next fall. She will finish it next year.

We got a phonic program and a reading program also. Pathway to phonic, we are starting at the beginning and it seems really slow, and boring. I have looked ahead and feel like we will like it once we are past what we already know. This was mainly for our youngest who was

struggling when I bought it. I have seen major growth in her reading in the last few weeks. We are still going to use it. And I actually plan on doing it with both girls. My oldest is a very fluent and advance reader but I feel she will gain something from this. If nothing else it will be great review. The reading program is for reading fluency. So it has little reading job for them to do in each lesson. And again it is something that I will you with both girls. We also picked up English from the roots up. We may not start with one till fall maybe this summer. It has the Greek and Latin root in it. I may add the flat card to our morning board. That way we could practice them each morning with our other memory work.

Are other main change was how we were doing Bible. We bought overall a book for how to study your Bible. And it gave them different colors for Mark above different word and can make symbols, circle thing, draw pictures. So far they really seem to be liking it a whole lot more work than we have been doing. A five-day course​ with long lesson for each day

February reading basket!

Sorry this is a little late!!  But it's here it is...
Jessalla is keeping her books in the basket for March also because she did not read them like she wanted. We were redoing our books and she kept finding new ones. ;) And I did not do a good job keeping them out. So I have no idea what they were. But she did read.

Eammah on the other hand did well with her books and did more than what was in there. So on to her picks...

1- Pinkalicious School Rules! By: Victoria Kann
2 - The Berenstain Bears' Neighbor in need. By: Jan & Mike Berenstain
3 - The Bravest CAT! The True Story of Scarlett. By: Laura Driscoll
4 - The Berenstain Bears and the BAD DREAM. By: Jan & Mike Berenstain
5 - Disney Bunnies Thumper finds an egg. By: Laura Driscoll
6 - Disney Pixar Wall-E By: Laura Driscoll
7 - Stuart Little Stuart at the Library  By: Susan Hill

She did read more but some how the books did not make it back into the basket like they should have. If we come across any of those that did not make it on the list I will post them.
Her goal is to read a book a day for the month of March! She is well on her way to make that goal.

Letting her down, hurts me so!!

Went to bed like most night and was a sleep in no time!!  Come about 1:30 something woke me up and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  About 3 I was all most back to sleep when Jessalla woke up crying that her ear was hurting her.  :( I knew right then what she had.  And there was nothing I could do for her at that time.  She would have to wait till I could call in the morning.  About 4:30 she moved out to the living room to watch a movie.  And I went back to sleep.... knowing that in 2 hours I would have to get up.

6:30 am and Eammah and I were getting up so we could be at her appt by 7 to have her tooth looked at.  Jessalla was still awake and watching youtube!!  lol funny girl!  But still was in a lot of pain.  Eammah and I leave to go to her appt.  Make it there with her ducky in hand... we walk in to the office.  And we check in, and they ask if I would like to take the appt right after hers that way I would not have to come back at 11.  Well yes, yes I would.  They take us back right away, and Eammah gets in the chair, with a death grip on ducky.  Dr Z takes a look at the tooth and ask if she would like him to pull it out.....  Well, she loses it and hides behind her ducky and says no.  She gets out of the chair and it's my turn.  He does what he needs and we try one more time with Eammah I get her back in the chair, tell her I will get her a milkshake.  She is not happy at all crying and telling us she is afraid.  Dr. Z has out the jelly to let her see it.  Puts some on her lip and still nothing is working.  I'm talking to her about camp and how she was afraid about that and how it came out okay.  Telling her how big she is.  Still nothing is working.   And now she can not fill part of her lip.  He tells her that it will come out and he will let it be.  And tells me to have her eat an apple.  I can feel myself getting mad.  Eammah and I get our things around and walk out to the truck and by the time we got out there she could tell I was mad!!  We got to talking...  And I was getting all the same answers that I get every time.  I do not know, I am not sure, because....  All the ones that make me nuts.  And now she crying more because I told she was going to eat an apple when we got home.  I'm sitting in the truck telling her it will be okay, we just need her tooth out.  It's been like this for a month now!!  Then it hit me I was not mad, I felt like I let her down, nothing I was doing was making things any better!!

It's now almost 8 am and we have made it home.  Jessalla is back to sleep!  I'm glad about that.  Eammah and I head back to the bedroom and she reads to me.  I was able to call and get Jessalla in this afternoon.  And then the next thing I remember we both were waking back up from a nap!  :)  Jessalla was awake again and we needed to get up and around for her appt.  Jessalla came to have an ear infection x2 just like I was thinking at 3 am this morning!

There was nothing I could do or say to make anything better for either of them today.  Both for different reason.  But as much as I wanted I could not.  It was the first time in a long time that I could not make things all better!!  And I felt like I let her down this morning.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Psalm 32:8 The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.

It may not have been the best night of sleep, or what I hope would take place at Eammah's appt this morning.  But knowing that my girls know that having The Lord in their life is to have it all makes it a great day.  And this morning I got that remember with Eammah when that was nothing I could say or do to make things better.  She always needed a more loving and calm way about going about things.  And I believe whole wholeheartedly that God has use her to help me to more loving, and softer spoken.  It may not always be that way.... but I always try.  

January Reading basket

How can we be down one month in 2017 already.... hard to believe.  We we have done a reading basket for a few years now... I'm just now getting around to posting about it.  And I hope to do so
each month so you know what we are reading.  So here what was in our basket it past month.

Let's Go, Froggy!  By Jonathan London
Teasing Trouble By Valerie Tripp
Pooh Just Be Nice... and get ready for bed!  By Shelagh Canning
Pooh A Perfect Little Piglet  By Rita Balducci
Skippy Jon Jones in the Dog House  By Judy Schachner
I was a Third Grade Spy  By Mary Jane Auch
Barbie Girl's Best Friend  By Rita Balducci
Prayers For Children  By Jane Werner Watson
101 Dalmatians Proud To Be A Pup  By Ronald Kidd
The Adventures of Andy Ant The Swimming Hole Disaster  By Gerald D. O'Nan
Seven Blind Mice  By Ed Young
The Ant Bully  By John Nickle
The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Forest By Stan & Jan Berenstain
The Little Goat  By Judy Dunn
A Big Fat Enormous Lie  By Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Lamb Chop's Fables You Can Do It, Lamb Chop!  By Shari Lewis
Winnie The Pooh's Thanksgiving  By Bruce Talkington
A Winnie the Pooh First Reader Pooh's Halloween Parade  By Isabel Gaines
The Mitten  Adapted By Jan Brett
Thabo & Kanoni  Apart of the Tales From the Serengeti
Disney Winnie the Pooh How Do You Hop So High?  By K. Emily Hutta
Daisy Dare  By Anita Jeram
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever  By Steven Knoll
The Dog Who Had Kittens  By Polly M. Robertus
Barbie Shooting for the Stars  By Karen Stillman & Victoria Saxon
Sheep Trick or Treat  By Nancy Shaw
Pooh Just Be Nice.... To your little friends!  By Caroline Kenneth
Gregory, the Terrible Eater  By Mitchell Sharmat
Take me out to the Ballgame  By Maryann Kovalski
Commotion in the Ocean  By Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz
Sesame Street The Count's Number Parade  By Norman Stiles

This month the girls will be filling the basket!!  I think it will be fun to see what they put in and want to read.

Christmas books!!

It was the last day in November and I sat for an hour wrapping up books just so the girls would have something to unwrap each day till Christmas.  All but two of the books they have seen and read many many times before...  They love it and love not knowing what book they will get to read that night.  :) I do not pick out a read aloud for the month of December, but we just enjoy reading all our Christmas books that we gotten over the years.  Here is a look at the books we have enjoyed over the month.

Tallulah's Nutcracker By: Marilyn Singer
God Gave Us Christmas By: Lisa Tawn Bergren
Where is Baby's Christmas Present? By: Karen Katz
'Twas the Night Before Christmas By: Clement C. Moore
The little Engine that Could and the Snowy, Blowy Christmas By: Watty Pipper
Guess Who's Coming to Santa's for Dinner? By: Tomie DePaola
Coca Cola The Night Before Christmas: A Family Treasury of Songs, Poems, and Stories
Who is Coming to Our House?  By: Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff
The Christmas Unicorn: A little girl, a magical friend, a perfect Christmas  By: Anna Currey
Rudolph's Second Christmas  By: Robert L. May
Mary's Baby   By: Jane Chapman
The Christmas Snowman   By: Rand McNally
Sesame Street Merry Christmas Elmo!
Fun to Read fairy tales The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree  By: Amye Rosenbery
A Christmas Sonata  By: Gary Paulsen
Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia   By: Peggy Parish
Jingle Cats  By: Michael MeDermott
Treasury of Illustrated Classics The Night Before Christmas and other Holiday Tales
How Santa Got His Job  By: Stephen Krensky
Mickey's Christmas Carol  Based on Charles Dickens' Classic Story
A Night in Santa's Great Big Bag  By Kristin Kladstrup and Tim Jessell

This years books:
Minions Snow Day  By: Brandon T. Snider
Shopkins A Merry Shopkins Christmas  By: Meredith Rusu

And for added fun because our girls have ask question and like to learn new things.
My First Kwanzaa  By Karen Katz
I Have a Little Dreidel  By: Maxie Baum

We love books and to read.  I have made list of the books that we would read for the month and posted on here.  And then we end up doing something different.  So this year I'm going to try something a little different this year.  I'm going to keep a list of the books that the girls read and the ones that we read aloud.  At the end of the month I will make a blog post with the list and a few words on a few of them.  I hope that works better for me.  :)

We would love to hear what your favorite Christmas books are.

New Years word is Health....

With New Years Eve less than a week away, I have been thinking of all that I would like to get done next year.  I hope that we have a better year than we did this past year.  For the past few years I have seen friends pick a word for the year, and I have never did it..... till this year.  :) 2017 word of the year is going to be HEALTH!!  I can not wait to see what this will do for me and my family.  What will it mean to spend a year on the health of myself, my family, my relationships, my house keeping, and even the health with my Lord and my Bible.

I have taken steps to start now, and setting people to check in with... because I know I need someone to keep me going.  When we think of Health we all most all think of fitness and food.  So I will start there.  And this year I do have goals of a healthier eating and getting out more.  My sister-in-law and I will be working on the food thing together states a part.  She will make one week of healthy meals and I will make one.  We will get the 2 weeks of meals for only a little of our time.  I hope to post some of them on here for you all to see what we will be eating.  I'm not sure what she is thinking, but I know for us we will have 1 meatless night each week.  And will try to get lots of fruits and veggies in each day.  Should be a fun way to help each other out.  And two minds are better than one.  I will be tracking my water intake.  I will not say NO ________, I want it to be something that I can keep doing.  I do not want to it to be a diet, but a way of life.

As for fitness and health I myself will have a been working on a plan and have a great friend who is really full of info and has given me some great workouts that I have done for a while now.  And I have plans to sit down with the girls and have them help me with a plan for them and things that we can do together as a family.  I'm sure as the year goes on if not right away Lottie and I will talk and bounce ideas off each other.  I know one of the goals that the girls have is to ride 500 miles on their bikes this year.  Jessalla has been wanting me to take her running, but that means that I need to run with her.  I'm praying about that, I would love to do that with her.  I'm just not sure if I have it in me to take up running, at my age.

I want and need to take time with my friends and family.  I will do my best to work hard and keep my relationship healthy.  Take may mean I have to say no to people sometimes.  And that is okay and will be the best for us all in the outcome.  Having play dates, and sending birthday cards are part of the plan.  Sending notes and text letting them know that I'm thinking and praying for them is more of the plan.  I will work hard to keep my relationships health and to remove the unhealthy ones.  My relationships go down to my kids and impact them also.

My house and healthy..... Just stay with me.  :)  I will take the whole year, yes all 52 weeks to clean out and decluttering  my house.  I have a friend doing this with me.  I hope to be able to keep up with it and have a happier and healthier house at the end.  I also will be coming up with a cleaning list for myself and the girls.  This is something that I have been working on for years and need to find a plan that works for me.  A few months ago I got a book from a friend and I have been working on a few ideas that I got from the book and guess what.... it is working!!!  :)

My health with my Lord and my Bible time!  This one puts a smile on my face ever time I think about it.  But yes I need to work on it.  my health with my Lord is less than what I would like.  This area has a few area within it.  My prayer time, Bible reading and understanding, study and worship.  I have a prayer book and use it well.  But I could be better at prayer.  Reading my Bible is a down fall for me I love reading it but at the same time I reread the same thing over again all the time.  Not that it's unhealthy but it could be healthier and my understanding would be better if I would read more.  So I'm looking hard and praying about what and how to study it.

What is your word for the 2017?  I would love to hear and how you will use it.  And I pray that you all have a healthy 2017 in many ways!!!