Daybook Entry

Daybook Thursday, June 7,2012


 Outside my window: The sun is shining on my face and hear the baby birds chirping. Id love to open my windows but it gets sticking really fast and I'm not a fan of that.

What I am thinking: About my husband who comes home tonight and im so sick of having him away. I cant complain to him though because he is the one away from us missing all the kids. He has missed Laurabeths first tooth,first sit, first dada, mama etc...its hard.Its old.It sucks!

What I am thankful for:Coffee, My Fathers World, my mom, my coffee.

From the schoolroom: We are in Kenya this week for MFW. We have sooo many hours to do its causing stress on me. I know we have those hours already and we are actually over in hours BUT its not the hours I need. We need math hours! And not really hours its the lessons we are behind in. Cody finished his math book.Hannah is almost 100 lessons behind! All the days of her sleeping in,sleep overs, grandmas, just not doing it has caught up to her and now its math all the time for her!! I keep going over my hours and I we have over our 1000 hours we need. BUT not lessons. She has to get that book done. Its the only text book we do so COME ON!

From the kitchen:French vanilla coffee smells awesome in the morning. I'm going to make cinnamon rolls this morning. I also need to mop today.
What I am wearing: A nursing gown. All nursing Mommy's should have one or 2 of these. Yes your husband will make fun of you and say things like " haha my mom use to wear those.That means your old." Ya I get that alot from him. But when you can un button in the dark with one hand while holding the baby at 2 am it works and works well!

 What I am reading:Charlotte Mason companion again.

What I am hoping: That my kids love me. I know they do but I want them to view me as a joyful mother. Not the mean mom who let them do this and that. I hope the enjoy the time we spend together.

What I am praying:That my husband finds a job here in Missouri. I pray that I lose all the baby weight this year and keep it off. I pray my moms knee gets better so Cody stops showing me everyday how Grandma walks.( hahah sorry mom). I pray Hannah gets her math done!

I am hearing: The sound of PBS on the TV and theres NO kids awake.

What I am creating:Good Christian kids who love their family and the Lord. Im also trying to create that Brazilian Butt they keep showing me at 2 am on TV. I have been doing and I have to say my underwear fit different already! I have a fat mom butt so it will be nice to see anything but that mom butt in the mirror!

Around the house:Hahaha that's funny. Toys, toys, pillows and blankets from the war the kids had yesterday. Today ill focus on cleaning a little because Jeff doesn't like to come to a mess. But then again it take him like 24 hours to readjust to being around his LARGE family. the noise level is whats hard for him. Me I'm a loud person so must of the time it doesn't bother me. I do send him outside ALOT when he gets crabby about it. I'm mean like that!

Our plans for the rest of week:School today and tomorrow. Tomorrow evening we are heading to Wentzville to buy to more power wheel jeeps for the littles. Then we are heading to St.Peters with the trailer to pick up A BUNCH of outside toys. A new slide, play house etc... Saturday we heading to my sisters for swimming. Cody will stay there for a sleepover for a boys night with the mighty Ms.Hannah is goingto grandmas for a sleepover after we leave my sisters for her grandma fix;). Sunday I spend doing laundry for the husband and preparing the kids for his departure again.

More thoughts: I have been working out everyday.This is week 2 almost week 3. I feel way good and it helps me stay calm when things around here get crazy. I have learned that running all over the place is our number 1 cause of stress on Ethan and me. Yesterday we had a playdate at the park and it was much needed for us all. But as soon as we got home I had to run to the store because even though I had just went Sunday we were out of everything and thats not good. So I ran to the store with a few of the kids. Once back, unloading is stressful for Ethan because he sees all this food and his mind goes crazy. He is our Aspergers child and things like this are melt down times. I have been really good this past month or alittle while longer with staying home. We run on Tusdays for library and music lessons. Wednesday in the even we have Royal Rangers. Other than that unless we have a one playdate or a feildtrip we are home. If we plan a playdate during the week we wont have a fieldtrip and vis versa. We not only get everything done that needs to be done but the melt downs are way less and routine with eating, nap and school are in place and makes the days go much eaiser. Also we have cut out the sleep overs during the week. As much I love my kids to have that fun it just doesnt work for us. Yes there will be days on the weekends for that but not week days. we just get to to far behind. We have enjoys our weekends together that for sure!

Beautiful Morning

 This was last week for Art. They were doing an oil pastel of birds

 Cody riding Grandma JJs horse

 Queen Jolene. Below is Cody and Hannah doing there fresh water/salt water experiment.

Its a beautiful morning here Missouri. The birds are singing to me and the sun is shining though the window on my face. I have been awaking up and nursing the baby/changing diapers and then going straight to my workout. Im in week 2 and loven it. I knew once my depression past, id get right back into a workout routine and obsess about it. Im not a fat person on the inside. Unfortunately just the outside. I have always been a workaholic. I would run that treadmill like it was nothing. Id weightlift like nobodies business. Then God blessed me with 4 more babies BACK TO BACK and I never got a chance to work out. Until the depression went bye bye and the joy of working out came back. I love waking up and sweating. I love that when I work out my body shakes because I worked it hard. It makes me smile. Once you do that in the mornings, you feel amazing ALL day long. It changes the way you eat, think and act towards you children. My goal long term is get down down to the size I was when Jeff and I first got together. If I was smart I would have continued to workeven after I became preggers. I'm making short goals for myself. By my birthday I wont to be down 2 sizes. By Jolenes 3rd birthday I want to be down 50pounds. Im making realistic goals. Im very excited to soon have my double chin GONE! Hopefully soon because I HATE IT!
 This morning we have a playdate at the park with some friends and then we will come back and crank out the school work. we are in Kenya for MFW ECC. We are spending the summer finishing up ECC we stopped back in 2010. YES I know. Don't say it! That way when Sept comes we can start CtG and K and keep with the planner on that. Cody is doing amazing! This is like night and day for day him. Once we stopped text book work the fun of learning came running into our house. He is learning WAY more from living books and art than ever. Its so nice to hear him read and enjoy it. His math is coming along and we finished his math book. Now we are getting ready to start the next booklets and get caught up to were his dad wasn't him to be at. Hannah is doing wonderful. She reads while she cleans,shower, watches littles,mows the lawn, you get the idea, She is never with out a book. Math for her is always ok. We are using Saxon and now have a love hate with that. We are switching her over to booklets with Cody only because the explain the steps better than Saxon. I refuse to buy the cd rom for her math with Saxon because we have heard mix reviews on it. She can log on the computer and type in her question and get help for FREE on some sites. Free is always better for a homeschoolng family.She has put her text books away and turned to CM learning along with Cody. We wont do anymore text in this house EVER AGAIN! MFW is just amazing and I love when I say its time for school they grab books and sit and read. I ask questions and read aloud with to them. My littles LOVE to hear a big person book. They ask more questions about the books than anyone. Books that are WAY above them but they get it. Read to your kids books that are meant for older kids because they listen and in my opinion learn a ton.
 I must get up and get moving, The sun is just soooo nice and warm on my face right now. I hope you all have a blessed day and enjoy the weather with your kiddos :)

Finally.

Its been awhile huh? Thats all right we have been busy and happy. Doing family things finally again and enjoying the nice weather. The month of May has been amazing. The depression that sat on me for so many months as long been gone and that my friends make my world a whole lot easier. I enjoy all my kids again and husband. I no longer dread the outings or the get togethers. I love schooling again. I love we switched back to My Fathers World and threw the texts books out the window. Well not math. I love the way my kids call it " fun school". I love that Art is now a family favorite. We still have some things to tweak and work on but thats homeschool for ya.
 So the month of May brought us a family reunion on my husband side. It was a time of horse back riding,eating,talking,basketball you name it we did it. It was so nice. It also brought us a time to go fishing and relax and my sister in laws summer home get away. It was there we got the big kids a 2 seater go cart from my nephew. I must all my kids are now wanting to be race car driver. We already had a one seater go cart and Cody used that until the sun went down for a few years so he was really happy to get a bigger nicer one ;) 
 We had a month of gardening, grass cutting, tree planting and lots of swimming already. Now my garden has been half eaten by a wild turkey and some deer! Now I must put a fence up around that. My mom and old kids have been building a big chicken coop for all my flock. Friday the worked on it for 9 HOURS! Boy I tell you they hit their pillows and were OUT! It looks so good so far. Ill post pic once it done. As much as Id like to be handy with them I have been busy as a bee in side with the kids. I have been making dinners for friends, trying out new bread recipes, cleaning and so on. I have been busy! But its a good busy because I enjoy this part of my life. I dreaded this for so many months you have no idea.Depression is such a horrid thing. Unless you have fully been through that, you cant understand the amount of sadness it brings. Its like the whole world has been lifted off my back and I can breathe again. Its amazing. I started working out again and that alone is doing me wonders. I turned back on BOT radio while baking and schooling in the mornings. AMAZING!
 Now on to my sweet children. Our oldest daughter ( my bonus child) turned 16!!! Yes you read that right. That makes my husband old!! Not me though.hehehe. She is also homeschooled and starting 11th grade. Wont be long and she will be college bound! SCARY!! Her mom is I'm sure is flipping! Whats even more wahhhhh is that at her age I was already a mother to my sweet Hannah. Now my Hannah will be 14 in Sept. OK maybe I am old! ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
 My husband is STILL working in Indiana. We are about tired of them saying " OK this will be it. The job will be closing down". Whatever. I have heard Jeff say only a few more weeks since October. I cant really complain because its income we bank. We are just ready to be together again as a family. 24/7.

 I'm sure I'm missing a ton to write about but I'm tired and have a sore eye. Laurabeth scratched my eye after a visit with the doc I have a drop to heal it. Its very blurry but getting better. I look like I have had pink eye for a year.Good times!