Baseball and fireworks.

Overdue Update

After paying what was left of the bills to pay (hooray!) and figuring up all the traveling expenses (mine and Jason's), my balance for the remaining 28 days of my challenge is:

$368.11

What do you think? Possible? AMAY, I am very interested in cleaning. Just let me know when.

(Also, I was able to put June's insurance money back! Progress!)

You want to know what I don't love?

Sitting in the DMV waiting room for over an hour. *snore*

Lesson learned: always bring a book to this place.

I love...

...finally being home after a two week traveling stint

...making gluten free cookies with Elaina so that we have a dessert to eat at church tomorrow

...Nora sleeping in her own bed, looking all cute and cuddly

...the sight of Claire and Eily folding a basket of clean clothes and towels

...the smell of chili cooking on the stovetop

...Jason's things unpacked and back on the shelf where they belong

...blogging from my desktop keyboard and not my phone

...watering my flowers

...picking vegetables from my garden

...the girls playing in the schoolroom

...cleaning my kitchen

...making our beds

...washing our dirty laundry

...going through our piled up mail

...Today

Pictures from Jason's phone

Update

Monday's update:

Starting balance: $665.53

J's trip home- $97.36

Ending balance: $568.17

Comfortable?

I found her like this during a nap. Cute and miserable looking all at the same time.

Traveling

Jason's dad offered us an all-expense-paid trip to their house if I would just drive the girls up there.  I said, "I surely will!"  So that's what is going on with us.

Financial update:

Starting balance $705.81

J's trip misc.- $14.11
Target/ paper towels, light bulbs, underwear, etc...- $26.17

Ending balance: $665.53

Uncle! Uncle!

No money spent today!
Uncle Josh stopped by to visit for a minute. He ended up fixing the shower rod, fixing the mower handle, sharpening the mower blade and then mowing the front and back yards. Then he took us all to the snowcone place for snowcones.

He's pretty great.

P.S.

Also, if anyone needs some clothes ironed, I charge a dollar per item. And I'm wanting to babysit throughout the summer so if you hear of anyone in the Lavaca area that needs a babysitter, please send them my way.
I set $300 back each month to go towards our insurance and I would like to make June and July's on the side doing various jobs. House cleaning anyone?

The $1000 Challenge or Rebekah's 6-week Insanity Program

Alright y'all, it's about to get very real. At least for me it is. Since we are self employed, I pay us once a month. Originally, I paid us on the first of every month but a while back I decided to change to the 15th of every month so that I could be very early on our mortgage payment. The mistake I made was paying us two week early the first time I changed it instead of trying to wait two weeks longer. What happened was we got two weeks behind in our monthly money. For example, I deposited June's money on the 15th of May and while the mortgage people were very happy to be getting their payments half a month early, the rest of the month was messed up and wacky. I've decided to go back to the beginning of the month which means I have to go six weeks without paying us again. I deposited July's money this week and now my goal is to stretch it out through the rest of June and all of July.  I have paid all of the major bills for June and July but there are still the phone, cell phone, water, electric bills, etc... for both months that need to be paid. I am going to be holding myself accountable to you all because it's so easy for me to cave and buy something I don't need. Mostly fast food.

Goal Time: June 18th- July 31st.
Starting Amount:  $1000.00 (See why I'm so terrified?!)

Everyday or two, I'll be posting how much I spend, if any, and how much money is left. I'm thinking if I don't go ANYWHERE, I might make it. Jason still has to travel home from Wisconsin, so we have to pay for that gas, too. But on the plus side, he took the month of July off from traveling so our gas expenditure has the potential to be very minimal. I also have $400 set aside for groceries through July 15th and then $400 more from then until August 15th. Also, the girls have coupons for free Chick-fil-a kid meals, so I will use those when I feel like I'm not going to make it unless I go somewhere.  I just bought toilet paper, so we're good in that department for a while. I also filled up the Explorer this morning and hopefully I can make that last for quite a while.  Are you ready to be supportive? To see way to much of our personal business? :)  Let's Go!!

Monday June 18th

Gas for Explorer: $58.38
Various traveling expenses for Jason- $180.45 (over several days time. I just now added them up.)
Bills that came in while we were in Texas- $55.36

Total left:

$705.81

Which do you like better?

One year older

 2011

2012

Friday at Harmony Hill

1. Friday night performance
2. Last class as a six year old
3. Mama and Jamie

Thursday on The Hill

1. Sol!
2. Listening
3. The Scale

Wednesday on The Hill

1. Aunt Melissa was a guest storyteller to the preschool class.
2. My buddy, Cowboy Jack
3. Elaina and a friend, climbing a tree 4. A sweaty but happy baby

Tuesday at Harmony Hill

1. Watching over baby Caroline
2. Elaina during craft time
3. Elaina's horse

Monday at Harmony Hill

1. Her bed for the week.
2. Claire and Jack needed a little downtime.

Texas

We are at Harmony Hill. Posting will be temporarily slowed.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Here are some recent photos from my phone:

Elaina was proud that she climbed this tree.

Organic Goodness 

 

Hanging with my buddy, Ryan 

Beautiful baby girl 

Curly locks 

Toothy smiles 

We got a package in the mail! 

Picnic lunch with Audrey 

"Gooooose"

Eating on the deck at Gringo's 

Daddy finally came home after being gone almost a whole month. 

The Stroller  Brigade at The Tortoise Run

The Goodyear blimp flying over our house 

Her favorite shoes. She wears them all day, every day. 

Early Father's Day cards 

Laughing with you

My friend/cousin-in-law/birthday buddy wrote a post today entitled Laugh With Me. I enjoyed the encouragement to laugh more, even at the things that go wrong. This blog has been rather wordy lately so I thought I would find an old picture that makes me laugh and use it for today's post. In fact, any time that I think of a picture that is guaranteed to make me laugh, this is always the first one that pops in my head. Some of you are probably already picturing the same photo in your own heads.  Enjoy! I hope your day is full of smiles.

Claire  2 years old 

She had just gotten a new bedspread and lamp and was proudly posing with her new things.

She thought she looked good. :)

Day 2 of silence

We are on day 2 of 5 where my mornings are peaceful and quiet. I am enjoying it so much but I'm also missing the girls a lot and will be glad when they are home with me all day again. (Remind me I said that next week, ok?)

Actually, next week the girls and I will be at Harmony Hill. Here's my HH posts from 2009, 2010 and apparently I never posted the pictures from 2011.  We are excited, as we always are, and counting down the days until we leave. Every year we make a paper chain and take off a loop until we are down to the last one. Then "we" squeal and jump and get all giddy as we realize the time is Here and Now.

Happy Tuesday!

What to do? What to do?

The older three girs are at a day camp and this is what I hear:

The washing machine.








Yep. That's it. And I have to be honest and say that it is amazing.  Free babysitting that I don't have to feel guilty about and I don't have to feel like I need to hurry and get back to relieve the babysitter. Nora is in bed asleep and I have paid the bills, finished some laundry, played around on the computer, cleaned the kitchen and read some literature. And I still have an hour and a half before I have to go get the girls.  I wouldn't want them to be gone like this all the time, but this little reprieve is so nice. I'm going to go clean all the rooms, read some more and cook lunch.

What a day! 

Home Education Chapters 1&2

Jamie and I are reading throughs Charlotte Mason's Home Education together and we are due to write our thoughts and musings on the first two chapters. In fact, I am long overdue.

Good luck figuring out what I meant when I originally wrote these things down.

Chapter 1:

It is the mother's responsibility to bring good traits out in a child. For example, instead of thinking how can I get Claire to have better control over her mouth, I need to think and pray how can I teach her? How can I be an example of this?

Remember, mothers owe their children a thinking love. "How shall this heart, this head, these hands, be employed? To whose service shall they be dedicated?"

A quote on mothering that caught my attention: " and they will take it up as their profession- that is with diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow on their professional labours." This really stuck a chord with me because my sister, Leah, and I had just been discussing how we need to view housekeeping as a job. Granted, a job that has longer hours than most, but still it is one of our professions. We wouldn't say at a job away from home, "Well, I don't feel like doing much today. I think I'll just lay my head down on my desk and nap.  Or, "I'll just come in late and sleep half the morning away." I do realize that certain situations in life call for more sleep than normal. When babies are small, you basically have to sneak sleep in where you can, but there have been times that I have been pure lazy. I should get out of bed at a reasonable hour, have my list of things ready, chug my coffee and get to it. If I am efficient with my duties, I will have more time, more calm time, for "playing" with my children.  I will have time to teach Elaina how to properly clean a toilet, to show Claire how to measure flour, to help Eily fold a load of towels and washcloths.

"Take heed that ye offend not, despise not, hinder not, one of these little ones." 

Oh, how these words sting every time I read them. I want to have this hanging up in my room so that I see it first thing every morning.  I am terribly guilty of this. Terribly. 

"See what we may not do in order to know what we may do." Again, "See what we may not do in order to know what we may do."

"Teach the child that the parent must not allow ...fill in the blank... because it isn't right." I have been working on explaining this throughout our days. I CANNOT let you behave like that. I would be ignoring my responsibility, my duty as your parent if I let that slide.  (Is responsibility the right word? I feel that there's a better choice.)

Chapter 2
Some ideas for Outdoor Time:

Looking at a scene and painting a picture in your mind. 

"Look at the scene, close your eyes and describe it." 

I could read from the Little House book where Mary has lost her sight and Laura describes the view to her as they are taking a walk.

"The effect of recalling and reproducing is fatiguing, while the altogether pleasurable act of seeing, fully and in detail, is likely to be repeated unconsciously until it becomes a habit by the child who is now and then to reproduce what he sees."

Thinking of the world from the child's viewpoint. What if flowers were new? How amazed would we be as we looked at them, touched them, smelled them? Well, children are new. Each flower is to be watched with awe and delight.

Keep a diary of first sightings to go back and update. What the same area through the seasons. Pick a tree or bush to watch and record. 

Well, that's it. I hope some of that made sense to you. I was re-inspired just by going back over my notes and typing them on here. Make sure to go check Jamie's blog and watch for her post on both chapters.

Tidbits

Jason is on another trip. This is a short one, but I still wish it was even shorter. I'm thankful he's able to support us doing what he loves, though.

www.jasonsacran.com

There was "an issue" with the buyer. While I don't know exactly what that means, I do know that she didn't buy our house. Bummer.

Went to an old church tonight that I have visited from time to time since I was born. Showed Claire where I had to use the bathroom when I went there when I was her age. We followed the path to the old outhouse and I think Claire has a new appreciation for indoor plumbing.

I'm currently obsessed with The Andy Griffith Show.

I've been really picky about what the girls watch. They can choose from The Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, Mr. Ed, or Dennis the Menace. Claire was begging me this afternoon for "something that has color in it." I let them watch Babar and Curious George.

I want some field trip ideas for this next school year.

www.eatathomecooks.com has great weekly menu plans and grocery lists.

If you could move to any state, where would it be, and why?

Tuesday

I had the wrong Tuesday before. It is today, not last Tuesday, that the woman is going to the bank to see about a loan. I have pretty much thought of nothing else all day. Hopefully, we will find out this evening how the meeting went. I doubt she does anything (if she gets the loan) today, but our realtor is going to tell us if she got approved or if it's a no-go. It's hard, this waiting. She might even get approved but decide she doesn't want our house. Oh, to know........

We have our next-to-last t-ball game tonight. Hooray! Eily is more excited than I am at the thought of being finished. I think Elaina is really enjoying it, though. Claire is on the fence about the whole thing. But they all agree that the daily free snow cones from their coach's snow cone stand is a pretty "sweet" deal. Mind you, we don't go everyday to get a snow cone. But we could.

Gotta go fill those little tummies up with food before the big game.  Go team Tsunami!!

Memorial Day

I wanted to have a few people over, break in the new grill and hang Papaw's flag out front but Nora is sick. I think I will still hang up the flag to remind everyone what today is all about.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday even if it's not exactly what you had planned. Call your grandpa and say, "Thank you."

Photo courtesy of design mom, who is currently living in Normandy, France. Can you imagine being there on Memorial Day? That has to be extremely moving.

No matter how far...

I talked to Jason this afternoon. He's in Kansas City, Missouri attending a paint-out.

I've been kind of low key and lazy today. I still seem to have misplaced that zing and pep I was talking about in an earlier post.

Jason said that he feels a little low key and lazy today.

We're simpatico even when we are far away from each other.

True love, folks. True love.

Fun Facts: I leaned the word, Simpatico, from an issue of the American Girl magazine when I was but a wee lassie.
                     Jason won First Place at the pm quick draw contest earlier this week.  Naturally. :) I told him he would.

Siblings

LtoR: Leah (and Elsie), Joshua, Sarah, Adam, Me, Rachel
In order of age: Adam(36), Joshua(34), Rachel(32), Me(30), Leah(26), Sarah(22)

Would you believe it?

Yesterday started out as a lazy day for me. I had all the laundry finished so when Nora napped, I did too. The house was basically picked up and I decided the dirty could wait until tomorrow to be clean.

And then our realtor called. "Hey there, can someone come see your house in thirty minutes?"

"Ummmm.....please give me one hour. Tell them to wait until 5pm."

So I frantically called my sil and she and her four kids jumped in their van and boogied up here to my house. Michael started mowing and Jacob watched/fed Nora. Audrey and Elaina had back yard duty (swinging) and Ashlie, Alli and I hit the house. Alli swept the schoolroom, Ashlie started in on the bathrooms, and I dusted, straightened, cleaned the kitchen, etc... Around 4:45, they showed up. When I say 5pm, I literally mean 5pm. Michael was still mowing, I was sweeping and Ashlie was glassing the windows. So we stopped cleaning, and all ten of us just gathered outside by the schoolroom door and visited while they looked through the house. It didn't take them very long to look at everything. Normally, that would be a bad sign but this woman just had something about her that kept me from getting discouraged. She just had that look that she could be the type of woman that scans through, likes it, or doesn't, and then moves on. As soon as they left, Ashlie and the kids left and then we hopped in the car and ran to Target to get a bag of baby food that I had left there last Saturday. Then we rushed back home and got ready for the girls' t-ball game. Then we left for the ball fields. Then we rushed back home to get the bag that holds all the t-ball equipment. Then we rushed back to the ball fields and greeted Nanny who had come to watch the game. This was the best game for my girls, so far. They were all in good moods the whole time and really put forth a good effort into their catching, batting, running, and dirt playing. Then we went back home and all the girls went to sleep. Quickly.
Then I did something very bad. I cooked and ate an entire Buffalo Basil and Mozzarella pizza.
900 calories. 
At 10:16pm, I received a text from my realtor saying the woman liked the house and would be going to the bank today to see about getting a loan. And then I fell into a delighted, satisfying sleep.
Then End.

Up and running

Our AC went out last Friday and it just now is back up and running. It got a little sweaty in here. Rachel came over Saturday and we both decided to get the kids' pictures made. I just did Nora and Eily since they have spring birthdays. These pictures aren't as cool as the ones that Gabe took, but they'll do for documenting their new ages.
I am feeling really tired today. I seem to have misplaced my zing and pep.
We are thinking about buying my sister's home.
I am tired of this school year. I'm ready to start the next.
I ate a lot of pizza last week.
I ate a lot of chocolate last week.
I drank a lot of Dr Pepper last week.
If our house never sells, we won't be able to buy my sister's house.
Our house has officially been for sale for one year.
That makes me so sad.
Please spread the word that our house is for sale.
Thanks.

Ah. That was a good nap.

I'm back. I had to take a little break from the blog and take care of a few things going on in my life. Last Thursday, all six of us loaded up and headed out towards Ripley, Mississippi. Jason's brother lives there and he was graduating so we decided to try to make it there for the occasion.  On Saturday morning, while Nora, Eily and I were resting at their house and the rest of the crew had gone to the graduation, Dad called to let me know that Nana had passed away. (Nana is my mother's mother.) So on Monday we had visitation and Tuesday was the funeral. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, I got caught up on school work and laundry and now we are already to Friday.
Today, I plan to finish the laundry, clean the bathrooms, enjoy Jason before he leaves again, do school with Elaina and cook meals. Sounds like a good plan, no?

A quick Hello

Jason is home and we are just spending the days soaking up his presense. 

First t-ball game tonight. Go Team Tsunami!!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Eily!!

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