Tis the Season...

What idiot signed up to bring 12 dozen cookies to the cookie festival this weekend?! Oh yeah, that was me... Sigh...

Christmas

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone. What a time of change! I began the year as a frazzled teacher of 18 no 19 nope back to 18 students and am ending the year as a "flexible" teacher with a grand total of 6-7 hours per week responsibility. My stress level is a little different, but generally lower - less scheduling stress, way more financial stress. Now we are staring down the barrel on Christmas. I love Christmastime! The joy and anticipation are so exciting! I love to experience Christmas through my children - they delight in so much at this time of year. This year Christmas will be different. It has to be. I refuse to go into debt to provide massive quantities of presents for everyone. Starting over Thanksgiving vacation, I am going to help the kids make presents for everyone on our list. I'm not sure yet WHAT we are going to do, but we are going to do SOMETHING... I'm trying to find recipies and small craft projects that will be cute but won't clutter up everyone's space. I want to make practical gifts this year, something that can be used in some way, but also something that my 5, 7, and 10 year old can make pretty much on their own. I'm glad I have a few weeks left, because I'm coming up short on ideas...

Dyslexia

Over the last week I have had a life changing epiphany. It all started last week Wednesday when I attended a lecture by Susan Barton. I, of course have always been aware of dyslexia as a reading difficulty and as a Reading Teacher I'm sure I have learned more than what I remembered. I was strongly suspicious that my oldest son was possibly dyslexic, but my knowledge of dyslexia began and ended with: it must be diagnosed by an official diagnostician and you don't know for sure until at least third grade. (Yeah... Wrong and wrong) Would it be overly dramatic to say that seeing Susan Barton's speech may have totally changed my sons life? Maybe. Maybe not.

Apparently there is a checklist of symptoms that begin showing themselves as early as 12 months. Since dyslexia is a LANGUAGE processing disorder and not a reading problem like I thought it was, reading is actually among the last problems to manifest. You can begin seeing signs of it in speech and writing before you see signs of it in reading. Who knew?! Since dyslexia is an inheirited condition, if you have a closely related family member that has it (like maybe his father...), you know you should look for it early and often. The earlier you catch it, the better it can be addressed. Since my son is at the beginning of first grade, it will be much easier to treat than if we had waited until third or fourth grade.

What does this mean? I have called around and gotten a few kids to tutor so that I can afford to purchase the Barton system to tutor my own child too. I am intently focused on not only helping my own child but the children in my community to become better able to process language. Now I wait for the materials to arrive, do a six hour training on them and pray that they will be the answer I have been looking for the last several months.

The Voice of the Martyrs

I am reading a devotion book out out by Voice of the Martyrs and was struck by a quote I found in one of the stories.
A pastor was speaking at the funeral of a fellow pastor who had been martyred in Peru by Communists.
"Why do you buy a shirt? To use it. Why did Jesus redeem you and buy you with His own blood? To use you for His kingdom."

I wonder how God will use me for His kingdom today?

Fall

I love this time of year! I feel like buying notebooks and pencils and starting back to school. I have always loved being a student. (okay, there was a stage in college where I was more interested in studying my intended than my books, but I bounced back from that!). Pretty much...
I am so excited for my children to start school next week. Not just because they are getting a little stir crazy... well... a little because they are getting stir crazy... I love all the opportunity before them! I read a blog post recently that compared this time of year to New Years Eve. To me, this time of year is more New Years Eveish than New Years Eve itself. What excitement! What possibility lies before us! All the things we will learn this year! All the experiences we will have!! All the ways we will grow!!! And so, it is with great anticipation that I look forward to next week. An end to a great summer, but a beginning of a new school year.

Cooking with Whole Wheat

Loving making my own bread! I haven't bought bread at the store for a couple weeks now and don't anticipate needing to do so anytime soon. I bought an attachment for my kitchen aid mixer to grind grain for the bread. I have also been supplementing with store bought whole wheat flour to ease the transition. I stumbled across an awesome whole wheat cookie recipe yesterday. I am on my second batch, so I think that means the kids like them too!!


Chocolate Chip Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl mix butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Add baking soda, salt, oats and flour. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon onto a cookie sheet or stone and bake for about 10 minutes. Take out of the oven just before they look done and let them sit on the cookie sheet for another 2 minutes.
These turned out pretty good. The next time I make them I think I will try substituting the brown sugar with natural sugar and see how they turn out. With 3 cups of oats and 2 cups of whole wheat flour these cookies are filling and full of fiber.

http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/chocolate-chip-whole-wheat-oatmeal-cookies/

I will post some pictures of our newly refinished floors soon (still working on getting the mess contained from having all three bedrooms dumped out into the living room).

Home

A quote from a blog I follow:

There is one final problem with this discussion: its demonization of housework and disregard for the young. Like all work, these tasks are the stuff of pride and mastery. How could anyone talk of the care of children as if it were a demeaning burden? When approached with a desire for excellence and adequate time, housework provides deep fulfillment. What is at stake? Home. The garden of life.

http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2011/07/lies-about-housework/

Bread

I am excited that we will be having fresh bread with our lunch today. Actually, I think that we will have pb&j sandwiches made out of fresh bread. I used this recipe because of all the good reviews on it and because it makes three loaves.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/detail.aspx

If the bread turns out like I hope it will, I am planning on using it as we travel to help lower the cost of our eating out expenses. I am getting very impatient for it to finish rising - it has to rise three times! I'm just going to peek at it one more time then I will leave it alone for a bit. Lol!

Grinding wheat

I keep reading about people who hand mill their flour and think that I want to try it. I am a little afraid of the investment of money and time involved, the grinder is very pricey! I think I would like to try it at first with a coffee grinder. I am afraid that I will get the stuff and not be able to keep up with the needs of my family. What if they don't want to eat regular bread anymore?! I really like the idea of it though... $65 is a huge part of my grocery budget, but it would last a long time. I think I want to try it, now to convince my husband that it is a good idea...

Dine

I really am very tired of the attitude! Yesterday I turned in my keys at school I am done. During the brief meeting that I sat through and the lunch afterward, my clueless principal (nice guy, totally doesn't get it) inferred no less than 5 or 6 times that I now have no purpose, no meaning, no higher calling in my life. When did being a stay at home mom lose it's validity? What is it about devoting my time to the service of my family that riobs my life of meaning? Why will I be bored? I was a stay at home mom for eight years before teaching two years and I can't recall ever being without something to do... Lonely? Yes! Tired? Yes! Bored? No way! I could try to excuse his remarks as being those of a man ignorant in the ways of family as he is divorced and has lived alone for years. I know that he probably had very little to do with the raising of his children, but there are many others that hold the same views that know better. At what point did feminism get such a hold on even the conservative Christian base in our country that stay at home mothers became the people with the lowest status? Is it not God-pleasing to spend your efforts training up your children, caring and providing for them and leading them in the path that they should go? Take it from this unemployed girl, I have plenty to do, my life still has significant meaning and way less stress, and no I won't be wishing I had all the stress of teaching back come next August. Maybe I will get a part time teaching job to aid with tuition and funding college funds, but knowing now the traps that are out there, you will not find me so eager to sell so much of my time away from my family ever again.
Now since I have a firm hold on this soapbox, I had better go switch the laundry...

The baby wanted his picture taken. How can you say no to that?!

Our newly redone entryway. They did an awesome job on the pattern! The entry was redone to match what they did in the dining room.

The (finally) clean living room. Yes it took me until today to find it back after the flooring people were here last week...

Tulips! Random pictures of tulips season is now upon us. I LOVE tulips! Considering taking the kids and getting pictures done with tulips this year as the moles seems to have gotten to my tulips. Out of about 200 bulbs, I currently only have a handful coming up. Really hoping the first ones are just over achievers and more are coming...

The boys playing ball after supper.

Our carpet-free dining room! During the first 24 hours it was tested with vomit AND an entire bowl of cereal. Yep! Easy cleanup!

Relief

This last week has been a very tense one. A couple weeks ago I felt a lump in my breast. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I decided to wait and see if it went away on it's own. After about 3 weeks it had not, so I went in to the dr and had it checked. She thought that it was about 2 cm in size and defiantly not a cyst. She asked if I wanted to wait and watch it for a couple months or if I wanted to jut go ahead and ultrasound. I decided to just get it over with and get the ultrasound which I had this morning. I was so impressed! The ultrasound tech was really nice, and they even had a radiologist on hand to read me my results right away. It's a lymph node. Thank God, it doesn't seem to be anything of concern right now. And so, I am heading back to school to resume my teaching responsibilities with one huge burden lifted. I am so thankful for the kind and caring medical staff that showed me such care and compassion today as well as my husband who has been the greatest blessing in my life. Now on to school!

A person shouldn't have to struggle against reformed theology in a Lutheran school. Just saying.

I miss 2006. And 2004. And 2001. Time keeps on marching forward and I feel like I am slowly losing my children's childhoods. I long for the days when I could hold them and rock them and nurse them. I wish I could go in reverse a bit and hold my babies again. I wish there could be more babies for us in the future.

“You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:9-10 ESV)

Ugh!

Horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day! And tomorrow? Not looking better...

God is Good

Sometimes it is difficult to see the good in all things, although we know and trust that it is there. My heart is hurting for one of my best friends whose mom passed away yesterday at a young age. They don't know if her death was accidental or of her own choice, but they think it was an accident. Please pray for my friend and her family including her two young boys who are always asking questions and will probably never understand why Grandma left them. Please pray for my friend as she is struggling to cope with the wash of emotions involved in this whole situation which began long before yesterday and may never fully resolve here on earth.

I can't believe that with no plans whatsoever for next year, I am feeling absolutely no stress about it! I can feel God's hand working in my life and I am totally at peace in the midst of the storm raging all around me. Thank you, Lord for this gift of peace!

Train

Killing time on a snow day, building the king of all train tracks...

Playing in the Snow

So much for a plan...

Ha! No one was interested in snow pancakes and we are apparently out of kool-aid? (gasp!) so we made snow jello (not too bad!) and strawberry snow ice cream instead. (The strawberry snow ice cream was pretty well awesome...). Check and check! I think I will enjoy the peacefulness around here and get in a quick shower and a little cleaning. No laundry again today as the dryer vent is closed off...

Well, we are staving off cabin fever around here. I plan to do some lessons with the kids later this morning, but in the meantime I think we plan to take advantage of the massive amounts of pure snow to make some fun recipes. I think we will start with snow pancakes with snow kool-aid to drink. (I wonder if you could substitute apple juice for kool-aid?) After we do our lessons I plan to mix up another batch of snow ice cream (with the recipe I used yesterday, not Paula Deen's recipe!) I think I will throw some frozen strawberries in the blender and mix them in with the ice cream this time.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/2011/02/eat_your_way_out_of_the_snow_s.php

A Snow Day in pictures

Otherwise known as the blizzard of 2011...

Woke up to my buddy with his buddies.

School closings!!! :-)

After a couple hours of light snow - just the beginning...

I made cinnamon rolls... Let them cool and came back to dole them out only to find them all gone...

After a while, I took a nice relaxing bath... My husband drew me a nice bath with chocolates, wine, and a good book. :-) He even kept the kiddos occupied so I could enjoy it! What a great guy!!!

The fort that the boys and I made a little over a week ago is now completely filled in with snow.

Andy and I cut up hot dogs and wrapped them in crescent rolls for a fun snack this afternoon!

We needed a dessert after our snack, so we made some snow ice cream. 1c milk, 1/2 t vanilla, 1/2 c sugar and snow. Yummy!

After several more hours of snowfall. Still not the end...

Done

Well, I didn't intend to do it today, but I did it. I went into my principal's office on an entirely different errand and left having quit my job. He asked me if I had decided and I opened my mouth intending to tell him no i have not decided yet and what came out of my mouth was "I've decided not to return in the fall." I feel so light knowing the burden of juggling this particular situation is coming to an end. My spirits are not even dampened by the knowing that I do not have a plan for next year...

Contentment

I have always struggled with contentment. I have felt that while I love to love what I am doing, I never want to be complacent. At the same time I want to have the peace that comes from knowing that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing...

How does one separate goals and ambitions from restlessness and discontent? How do you reconcile your needs with your wants when they go in opposite directions? How do you discern what is truly God's path for your life?

Icicles and Fort Building

Pantry Challenge

The goal: by the end of the weekend to have a fully updated list of everything in the freezer and everything in the pantry.
The secondary goal: for the next month, only spend grocery money on necessities (eg. Milk) and reduce the food budget to $150-$200 for the month.
The ultimate goal: use the 'extra' money saved in the grocery budget to pay extra on the car. We are currently on track with our payoff schedule, paying it off early smacks of a challenge to me...

End date: end of February

Luther On Prayer

"First, when I feel that I have become cool and joyless in prayer because of other tasks or thoughts (for the flesh and the devil always impede and obstruct prayer), I take my little psalter, hurry to my room, or, if it be the day and hour for it, to the church where a congregation is assembled and, as time permits, I say quietly to myself and word-for-word the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and, if I have time, some words of Christ or of Paul, or some psalms, just as a child might do.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas which tell you. "Wait a little while, I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that." Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer for that day.

It may well be that you may have some tasks which are as good or better than prayer, especially in an emergency. There is a saying ascribed to St. Jerome that everything a believer does is prayer and a proverb. "He who works faithfully prays twice." This can be said because a believer fears and honors God in his work and remembers the commandment not to wrong anyone, or to try to steal, defraud, or cheat. Such thoughts and such faith undoubtedly transform his work into prayers and a sacrifice of praise.

On the other hand it is also true that the work of an unbeliever is outright cursing and so he who works faithlessly curses twice. While he does his work his thoughts are occupied with a neglect of God and violation of his law, how to take advantage of his neighbor, how to steal from him and defraud him. What else can such thoughts be but out and out curses against God and man, which makes one's work and effort a double curse by which a man curses himself. In the end they are beggars and bunglers. It is of such continual prayer that Christ says in Luke 11, "Pray without ceasing," because one must unceasingly guard against sin and wrongdoing, something one cannot do unless one fears God and keeps his commandment in mind, as Psalm 1:1-2 says, "Blessed is he who meditates upon his law day and night." "

A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther

Choices

Along with the new year comes choices. I have to choose my employment path for next year - at least with regard to my current position. What is the God-pleasing way to go? My husband wishes me to forestall doing anything permanent until I can obtain another position. I really don't think there is any need in waiting because I have decided that I do not wish to return either way and would prefer to homeschool as opposed to continue on where I am. There are, however, financial considerations. I intend to meditate on this subject as I begin reading Luther's book on prayer.

Snow Day!!

Happy New Year!!

I have so many goals for this new year. It is starting out crisp and clean and full of possibility. I am excited to take hold of this opportunity and make the most of it. To this end, I have a list of goals that I would like to achieve in 2011. I am not going to call these resolutions as resolutions go by the wayside within days usually. These are goals which, if achieved, will benefit me personally as well as my family.

1. Daily Personal Devotion
- To this end, I have acquired a book called "Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional" which is a devotional based on Martin Luther's writings. Thanks to the thriftiness and dedicated saving of my husband, I now have an iPad. I purchased the digital copy of this book which I can view on my computer at school or my iPad as well as my phone. That should be very beneficial in completing this goal!

2. Read the Bible cover to cover
- I have also purchased a digital copy of the Lutheran Study Bible which I have begun reading over Christmas break. I just finished Genesis and am ready to begin Exodus. I would like to do this by the end of the school year, but realistically I know that my time is limited so I am giving myself a year in which to finish it.

3. Pay off Dan's car
- We are so close to debt free (except the student loans, which I have a plan for, so they don't count!) The last thing in our debt snowball is my husband's car. We have a plan which - if we are able to stick to it - will have it paid off in 6 months. Awesome!!

4. Wellness...
- Over the last several months, I have made a healthy lifestyle a priority due to my part time job. (www.itworks.net/wingit) I managed to lose 45 pounds since last August. I managed to gain 5 of them back in the last two weeks of binge eating, chocolate, holiday parties, chocolate, late night snacking, chocolate, alcohol, chocolate, no exercise and chocolate. I am going to try and do the 6 week slim-down challenge to jump start this, but I really want a lifestyle change for myself and my family. We were doing very well before Thanksgiving and I plan to pull us right back on track!

5. Cleanliness
- I have a schedule and I intend it keep it... :-)
(How awesome that I have been cleaning like crazy for our open house and will start out Monday fresh with a newly clean house?!)

6. Frugality
- Using the words "I want" a little less often and using the words "I don't need it" a little more often. I have gotten much better with doing this with the kids, I need to apply it to grocery shopping and Walmart more consistently.

7. Intentional Living
- I want to plan my life a little bit better. My goal is to sit down every Sunday and go over my week. I will plan my menu as well as my goals to accomplish for the week. Organization leads to less stress - something we could all use around here.