It is snowing... and other random thoughts

I am ready for spring!

The kids were out of school again today because we have lots of snow and more coming. Tomorrow I am driving the almost three hours to Baltimore, MD to help my newest business builder with her first Arbonne party. I really hope it slows down by then! I hate driving in this kind of weather, I really really do.

As for today, my plan is to get all my stuff ready for tomorrow, then make some calls, then scrap! Of course all of this rests on whether or not my children cooperate with me. Ava needs to nap this afternoon. She kept Neil and I up most of the night, for a reason she decided to keep a secret. She doesn't seem to be sick now, just whiny!... 'Course, that could be related to being sick all week?

I wasn't able to go to Mark's funeral yesterday because Evan stayed home from school again . .. he woke up throwing up. It was quite upsetting to me, and once again reminded me of how homesick I am. I had no one to call to come over with Evan and Ava while I went to the funeral. I want my family, for Pete's sake! In any case, Neil was there for me and said it was very good, very meaningful. After having a pity party in the morning, I got over it and moved on. :-)

I feel like we are in the slowest moving time in our lives. We are in that never ending waiting period of I don't know what and I think I will look back on this time as one of the most painful "WHY" times in my life. Typically I try to talk myself out of looking at this as a truly painful time . . . I "poo poo" it, like hey there are people REALLY in pain, this is nothing. But the older I get, the more I see that if it is painful, then I need to focus on learning from it instead of belittling it. I do trust that God knows more than me, that He is getting us to where He wants us to be. But the waiting is killing me.

Evan, the fourth grade {wanna be} drop out.

Fourth grade is fast becoming miserable for our whole household. I do in fact like Evan's teacher, and I think Evan does too. It is just the work that is the issue. We all get to endure his rantings while doing homework. Today I was {this close} to telling him, fine, be a fourth grade dropout! But of course I didn't. I said all the things you are sopposed to say as a good parent, about how yes it is hard but it isn't going to get easier and he needs to learn the study skills he will need to get through school and how once he learns the basics then it won't be so bad because he is building a foundation of knowledge that will last his lifetime, yadda yadda. When he informed me that he wasn't going to high school I said of course you are, you need to in order to get a j-o-b! But really I kept thinking, hmm, how can I make that work because this school stuff is getting really hard for me and I am not even it in anymore! I am a terrible teacher, by the way. I cannot teach multiplication with hundreds to save my life. Oh yes, I can't tell him how I DO IT, and how I LEARNED IT... but to no avail, because it is like teaching a foreign language to that child who keeps repeating, "You aren't doing it right". Apparently the multiplication learning process has completely changed since I was a kid.

On another note, my microwave died this week. Umm, how does one live without a microwave?!

A great loss

Yesterday was a sad day. I was home with Ava in the morning and when Neil came home from church yesterday he told me that some friends of ours from church lost their oldest son the night before in a car accident. I think he was 19 or 20yo? My heart breaks for them, and what they are going through right now. If you think of it, please pray for Dave and Liz and their other three boys.

It really makes you think doesn't it, when someone passes away? I want to hold my kids forever. I want to love on them and stop time. The little details in life, the things that annoy me, the messy house, the fact that when I go into my boys room somedays and I can't even see the floor, the teasing and arguing between the kids. In the big scheme of things, I would take all of it, the nitpicking even . . . just to have them in my life longer.

Go hug someone you love today! <3

Lazy Weekend

I am loving this weekend because we have NO plans, this is such a rare treat! So today I slept in (Neil got up with Ava, whohoo)and then lounged around all morning. I ran out with Spencer this afternoon to run to Target and while we were out we stopped by our local scrapbooking store (drool) where I browsed paper. That is another thing I love about scrapping. You can do it cheap if you need to. I got some paper and a few other things and my total was still under $10. Sweet! Now I am home and back to lounging. Aaah, love a lazy weekend! Hope you all are having a good one, too!

Happy Friday!

It is President's Weekend. No school for the kids today or Monday. I wish we had something planned, whenever there is a few days off I naturally think, "Where can we go?!". Since we are not traveling, I am scrapbooking. I have my basement set up as my scrapbooking escape. Whenever I get a few minutes here and there I go down there and get busy. :-) Scrapbooking is my art therapy. I used to feel so frustrated about how I wasn't able to do it "right", until it clicked with me that there is no "right" way and just because mine doesn't look like someone else's, doesn't mean it is wrong. I still have farther to go with it, need to continue to dig deeper for the artist in me, but I am on my way. It is so much fun! I added the link to my favorite scrapbooking site in case you want to check it out. Warning: Much like Facebook, SIStv is addictive. But in a good way!
:-)