Rose Colored Glasses

 It's funny, a move spurred this blog. And a move seems to be the way in which I *may* pick it back up. For the past few years we were in a wonderful neighborhood with some amazing neighbors and not a lot of yard. We are expecting another boy on January 1st - which will make 5 boys and 1 girl. We have continued to thrive in homeschooling and I love the challenge and messiness it brings to our lives. Over the summer Greg and I made a difficult decision. With another child and homeschooling, it was time to move. It was no longer feasible to have all of our kids playing in a tiny yard in a very busy cul de sac. Additionally, pregnancy is not easy and it limits how much I can move and take them out to different activities. We decided it was time to move. October 10th was Greg's cut off date as far as my pregnancy and the move went. We ended up closing and moving on October 12th. We saw our home on a feed, but thought it was too far out. Ironically enough our

Schools are cancelling.  Kids are home. Kids are homeschooling (at least for a couple of weeks). For those parents "stuck" at home with your kids (assuming they are healthy), I have one request, one social experiment I would LOVE to see play out.  Let your kids be bored! Shut down electronics. Turn off phones. Keep the television off.  Let your kids be bored out of their minds.  After a day or two of whining and complaining that will push you to your limits, they WILL find something to do. They will wander outside and play some ball, or bike, or dig in the dirt.  They will find art supplies and create something.  They will play board games. They will play and fight with their siblings.  They will read and go on literary adventures.  They will talk with you, your family and their friends.  They need to be bored out of their freaking minds before they hit a wall and decide to DO SOMETHING with their time.  Let them be bored and watch them come alive. 

It's Lent. Lent is about making more time for God and practicing detachment from things that we may enjoy... not to torture ourselves, but to refocus on God and to show our love for him.  I had no idea what to do this lent.  The first Sunday of Lent, father talked about limiting internet use to when it is truly necessary.  As soon as I pick up my phone, I jump down the rabbit hole of distraction. I deleted social media, but I'd still hop on the Pinterest boards or scroll through the news feeds.  Try seeing how long you can go without picking up your phone/tablet/whatever.  It's pretty humbling. Slowly I'm realizing how much I use it, and how little I need it.  My kids see my face more now, not my profile from me looking at my phone instead of them. I've got a little better routine going around the house. I'm not quite as angry when my kids interrupt me.  I've also had times where I just turn it off because I don't want it. I don't want to read the ne

It's 4:30am. I can't sleep.  I'm laying here thinking of the day and what is going to happen tomorrow.  All week long the forecast called for rain. All winter long one little boy has prayed for snow. It never came.  Today there were a few frozen rain drops I'd like to call snow falling on my car as we loaded up for Mass.  The blessed sacrament was exposed when we got to church. One little boy asked to go up front to pray. I brought all four kids up to the third row and one little boy knelt down and prayed. He knelt for a long time. He turned to me and whispered, "Can you ask my brothers to pray for snow?" I did. And he knelt back down and kept praying. We left Mass and Greg texted pictures of Dahlonega, where snow was dusting the picnic table outside his office. We drove to DD in Dahlonega and saw little flurries there.  We drove home and flurries continued. I sent that little boy to play outside in the snow as long as it was falling. "It may be the last

Hello 2020, You have already brought plenty of excitement. We brought Cocoa into our lives shortly after Christmas. The vet predicted she'd be 60 or 70 lbs, Wisdom DNA says you're Chow and Chihuahua... she looks like a Chow, German Shepherd, Pomeranian, Australian Shepherd and Chihuahua all mixed up. She's so fluffy!!! We had the flu for a couple of weeks. We didn't go anywhere while we were sick. It gave me time to actually get our school routine up and running. Last year I always felt behind. Not now. Reusable sticky post-its have been a game changer for the syllabi and school books. Chalkboard checklist has been awesome for keeping track of each boys' subjects. I'm finally feeling a little more on top of their academics.  The latest news is that Bernadette has decided to use the toilet. I asked her last week if she wanted to poop in the potty and she said yes. And she did. Since then Toby has been

Jimmy turned four last Friday. Here are a few Jimmyisms to brighten your day. "Don't I know?"      translation: I don't know "Sticky-Ban-Jans"      translation: They are sticky bandaids that stick.  "Skooska"      translation: scooter "Diarrhea"      translation: diarrhea Major interests are legos, laser tag guns, and snow monsters. We had his birthday at LegoLand.   The other day I heard him ask Ray (who has syndactyly ) "RayRay, why are your toes so sticky? Can I take the sticky part off?" Jimmy is intent on kissing us goodnight, and if it's a small peck it doesn't count. He'll cry and say, "You didn't kiss me!" He potty trained a month before his birthday. I was getting pretty nervous. I mean his legs are so long and I was thinking every time I wiped him that his legs were going to be hairy man legs before he potty trained. One night he slammed himself against my tummy. T