AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS just arrived on my front doorstep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the day that the Lord has made! I am rejoicing!!! EEK! *SQUEAL*

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Just a Few Things

Concerning Lena:
Lena has kind of been along for the ride of homeschooling. Meaning, I had no idea what her schedule was until about a week ago when I decided to relax a little. Poor baby. She was not very happy a lot of the time and INTO EVERYTHING. She wasn't napping well AT ALL, and it seemed her naps were getting shorter and nighttime sleep was getting shorter too. Something just wasn't right. Then it dawned on me. She has no schedule. How did that happen? Doesn't matter. Needed fixing. ASAP.

Concerning our schedule:
Ok. Just because I've relaxed a little doesn't mean I completely threw our schedule out the window. We still have a tentative one that we may or may not stick to, but it really does help me to have some kind of time line to go by. Plus, it helps me keep Lena on track, which is really the most important thing for all of us at this point. When she's rested and happy, life is just better for everyone. So, just in case anyone's curious, here is our routine. I say routine, because everything pretty much happens in this order, but the times may change a little...on a normal day.

7:00-quiet time for Mommy (Yesss)
8:00-breakfast
8:30-morning devotion
9:00-playtime/exercise, shower
10:00-Daily chores (for the kids) Mwahahaha...
Just kidding:) I do help some
10:30-nap/school
12:30-lunch
1:00-finish up school/free time
2:30-nap/outside play
4:30-snack/ask a million questions about dinner until Daddy gets home
6:00-dinner
7:00-bath/showers
7:30-family prayer
8:00-bed

Concerning The Firm:
I rocked that Wave today!

All across the living room floor.

I think my balance is off a smidge. My butt and legs still hurt pretty bad, but I'm sure that's a good thing. Also, I definitely wore the wrong undergarments for lunging and squatting mixed with cardio. Yep, I think that pretty much covers it.

Concerning Eli Iron Man:
I'm pretty sure Eli is in there somewhere, but there's a small version of Iron Man living here at the moment. Eli has been wanting a transformer suit for the longest time and has been faithfully saving up his hard earned money for it. I decided this might be a good time to get it since there's a larger selection in the stores this month. Instead, we found Iron Man. He has muscles. And a mask. And he's totally awesome. He's so awesome that he joined us for breakfast. He only took a break for a birthday party we went to and as soon as we walked in the door, in goes Eli, out comes Iron Man. I think his bright redness might be pink by the end of the month.

Concerning fingernails:
I'm actually putting "fingernail and toenail clipping" on my calendar for next month. I don't know what it is about this task, but I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER to do it! I always end up catching it when we're on our way somewhere or after they're all asleep. I don't mean their fingernails and toenails are a little long. I mean they're CLAWS. With DIRT UNDER THEM. It's bad. I'm just waiting for someone to notice and call DHR on me.

That is all for today. I'm going to go cut some fingernails. And toenails.

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Ouch

So in my post yesterday I mentioned how I was back to exercising finally. Yesterday I went for a walk with my friend Tara. We meet every Monday morning for a LONG walk, a little over 3 miles. I look forward to it every week! We haven't been in a few weeks and I could tell it. But today, I started my Firm Wave workout again, and OH. MY. GAH. My butt hurts already. Those "Firm" ladies are serious. I don't even want to think about what getting up in the morning is going to feel like. Onward still!

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What do you believe?

How many times have you said or done something you regret? Something you needed forgiveness for? Something you needed compassion for? Something you needed mercy for? I've heard many people say that they have no regrets.

Well, I do.

There are so many times I've said the wrong thing, or done the wrong thing, and immediately or eventually regretted it. I've needed forgiveness, compassion, and mercy more times than I can count. Not just from God, but from people. I want and NEED these things almost everyday, so why would I even think about not giving them? The Word says clearly that God is not mocked, and whatever a man sows, that is what he'll reap.

I love the Word! I'm so thankful that God already has a plan for us to be free from the guilt of regret. If we can find it in the Word, we can certainly have it!

This was a scripture in my devotion this morning: And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

I want to be useful, helpful, kind, tenderhearted, compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted, forgiving READILY AND FREELY. Do people who have hurt me deserve that? No. Do I deserve that? NO. Thank God we don't get what we deserve. We get what we believe for. I believe the Word! I believe that if Ephesians 4:32 says for me to "become" all those things, then that's what I choose to become. THAT is God's plan for my life. Seeing something in His Word, and then believing it.

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Back to Normal

First of all, I am finally getting to watch some tv again! I love watching tv and movies, but the past month has been so crazy for me. I've found myself MANY days just noticing at 1 or 2 o'clock that I haven't eaten or sat down since I got out of bed. Thankfully, this phase is over!

School is going really well, and we're all finally in a groove. It isn't nearly as stressful or time consuming as it was the first few weeks. It took me awhile to just relax a little and enjoy the benefits of being at home. Like NOT getting up at the crack of dawn. If I were carting them to school every morning, I know I would be wishing for more time to get up and moving, so why in the world would I get up at 6am everyday? Yep, I was doing that. Not anymore! We are going to start school when we start school. One of the best things about homeschooling is not being bound by time, so if we want to go outside and play first, or go to the park in the morning, that's what we'll do. This has been one of the hardest things for me to surrender to, but it has been so much better on all of us.

Exercising is back! All of the above was giving me no time for exercise. I love exercise. I crave it. I don't do it nearly enough, and I'm always wanting to. So now, I'll be able to exercise everyday. No more excuses, and I'm very excited about that!

Also, I'm very excited about October! We're taking a break from school all of next week, and I've already got lots of fun stuff on the calendar for us! It's going to be a very fun month!

I've started a bit of freezer cooking. I have to say, the first time I read about someone freezer cooking, I thought it was INSANE. I was just fine to plan about a week or two ahead, but that was as far as I was going. I'm not sure what happened, but the more I read about it, the more interested I was. Curiosity just got the best of me, so I tried it. I'm starting out slow. I'm sure at some point I will join the crazies that cook 60 meals in 2 days, but I'm not there yet. I do have about 15 meals in the freezer and about 4-6 more will be added to that this week, so I feel like a rockstar. It feels great knowing there's a month's worth of NOT COOKING in my freezer, and it was super easy!

That's almost everything bouncing around in my head at the moment.
Happy Fall!

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Things Everyone Should Know...

If there is an infant living in your home, don't eat the last banana.

If there is an infant living in your home, don't drink the last cup of milk.

If you get the infant out of the high chair, for heaven's sake PLEASE clean it up. It's nice to approach a clean highchair with a screaming hungry baby, instead of teasing her into thinking she's going in, only to be angered further when she has to be put down for the highchair to be scrubbed for 10 minutes because now the food is all stuck and junk. A quick wipedown before, or immediately after removing her from the highchair will do the trick. 10 seconds. No crying. Really.

Rant over :)

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Baby Love

I had to rock Lena to sleep tonight. I usually just lay her down awake, but tonight I just needed to feel her still, little sleeping body pressed up against mine. I needed to hear her heavy, sound asleep breathing in my ear. When I hear that sound, I think about all the things she did that day, and how exhausted she must be from it. She's learning so much so fast and going full speed. I needed to feel and smell her sweet baby breath on my cheek. I needed to give her that last big squeeze before I laid her into her bed, and kiss her chubby little cheeks and lips and forehead and cheeks again with all my might. I can't believe she's already 14 months old and walking. I remember these moments with Jessi and Eli, and wish them back all the time. I know I can never get them back, and it makes my heart ache, but I still have a few of them left.

I just needed to feel her sleep.

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Clean Up

"Hey kids, clean up Lena's room a little.  Doesn't have to be perfect, just clear the floor so I can vacuum."

Of all the times for my camera battery to be dead.  So glad I have a camera on my phone!

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School Room!

I mentioned earlier that I was going all out and making the sitting room half of our dining room our new school room, so here are a few pictures. The lighting is terrible in these because I have no window treatments, so these are the best I can do for now. This has become my favorite room in the house! I don't know what I love so much about it, but I think I'm enjoying this room more than the kids!

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Photography School

Homeschooling is going great! Since we finish up around lunch, the kiddos have plenty of time for fun hobbies and extra curricular activities, like taking pictures with my camera. It's always fun to see what interests them enough to take pictures of. Nothing warms my heart more than when they take pictures of each other. It really is amazing to see what goes on in their world when I'm not around. Like the ones I found on my camera today...

Um...

Yeah...

Now it's time for Mommy's Night Out! I'm off to meet some friends for dinner! I'm so thankful for my sweet hubby who takes care of things when I'm out, like making sure the kids get plenty to eat.

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