Birthday pictures...

Yes, I realize my birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I just went to look if I had any pictures to blog about. Surprisingly, I haven't been taking a ton of pictures like usual. I really only had about 2 choices of things to blog about. I am still working on a blog post in my head that I am just not ready to post yet. We are also heading out strawberry picking today, so I KNOW I will have pictures to post about that. My mom had a birthday party for me at her new house. I had a great time. I was sorta nervous about having a birthday party here because there are A LOT of people now. It sorta intimidates me that everyone would be coming over because it was my birthday. It reminded me of when I was in grade school and the music teacher would parade you around the big class sitting in a circle. She would wave your arms in the air while they sang happy birthday. Then she would give you birthday spankings. I was always thrilled when my birthday fell during spring break and I missed that kind of excitement. I know this isn't an exciting post. It is something. It shows all the wonderful people in my life.

Tim took this photo and cropped it.

My mom got Karen a thank you gift.

A portion of the "crew".

My family! =)

Lemonade Stand...

Savannah has been asking if she and Karis could have a lemonade stand all week long. I bought a big thing of Country Time a few weeks back. Then I brought home a baby bottle from church. We are supposed to fill it with spare change that will be donated to the crisis pregnancy center. Somewhere along the line, she decided it would be good to have a lemonade stand to donate the money. Ummm... then she sorta thought maybe half of the money. Silly girl! I am leaving it up to her. I ran out to Walmart to get them some cups today. While I was driving there, I got to remembering having lemonade stands when I was a kid. I have mentioned my best friend, Patty, before. We lived next door to each other from the time we were 2 until we were 18. We were always together. When I was blessed with a baby girl, I almost immediately began wondering if she, too, would find her "Patty". Tim used to joke with me that I was always looking for her "Patty". I did, too. When she was about 3, I started going to homeschool co-ops and park days. If you homeschool and don't have a lot of kids, you have to find other kids. We didn't have a lot of neighborhood kids. The kids that did live there, were gone all the time. I got Savannah in girl scouts to find friends and she did make amazing friends there. I stopped worrying so much. When we decided to move to SC, we originally were thinking about building a house. Then the house next door to Tim's brother came up for sale. It wasn't the house I was dreaming of, but it was NEXT DOOR to family. My mind went right to living next door to Patty. Savannah and Karis have been friends as well as cousins since the day they were born. Debi and I tried to get together a few times a year. We were always talking about "the cousins" year round to keep them connected. The girls would play together and have a great time. They really always got along. Tim II and his cousin Sean (3 months younger) never got along as well as Savannah and Karis did and still do. Moving next door was just icing on the cake. I loved looking out the window this afternoon and see them having a simple lemonade stand. It just gave my heart that warm and fuzzy feeling. I am so glad we moved in next door.

A serious note...

I have debated on posting this, but I think I need to. In case any of you happened to read some rather nasty comments on my blog lately, I thought I might address them. When I started my blog 2 years ago, I wasn't sure what I would be blogging about. I had read some other homeschool moms' blogs and really enjoyed them. I took something away from each one. It may have been a simple recipe or a really inspiring moment of faith. I just knew I liked the whole idea of blogging. I was also still trying to work through some feelings of loss and found that if I blogged, I felt more steady. When I created my blog, I decided that I wanted to highlight "blessings" in my life. I had ran across some blogs where the author spent a good deal of time complaining about something. I am not saying complaining is all bad. Some blogs are specifically meant for that purpose. I am sure I have complained a time or two (or three) on my blog. Honestly, though, I try not to. It is not that I have a "perfect" life. If you followed any of my posts from last year, I would think you would see my life was far from perfect. It was a struggle on some of those days and weeks to keep my hopes up and find a blessing to post about. That is why I call it Crazy Everyday Blessings. It is to try to find a blessing in every. single. day. I posted once about how my blog got its name - click here. That brings me to the comments that have appeared on my blog. I have deleted them because they were hurtful. Not only to me, but to my mom, my sister and my husband. I could have just deleted them and let it go. I actually did that last week. Then I didn't blog for a whole week. I didn't blog because the comments stung. It made me not want to come to my blog and write anything. Tonight, I found another nasty comment. It was mean and was directed at my mom's new home. The new home that my mom loves. The new home that Tim's family - my family has put so much work into. I decided that sometimes when somebody is mean, you have to call them on it. This person that keeps writing nasty things is my brother's mentally ill girlfriend. I say mentally ill because she is indeed mentally unstable. My family has dealt with her for the past decade and it only seems to get worse. She has caused my family so much pain and probably doesn't deserve an ounce of my time. But... for whatever reason... she is reading my blog. So, Linda, I have put my blog on moderation. Your comments will no longer appear. I will not allow you to take a place I have made peaceful for two years and turn it into a sick place. This is a place for blessings. The kind that include an egg hunt with Grandma or a garden with daddy. You are welcome to come here and read and maybe something will inspire you. You are not welcome to post negative and awful things. Linda, please respect that my family has moved far from you and we have asked nothing of you. You are free to live your life, but please leave us alone. Okay, now we can go back to my regularly scheduled Crazy Everyday Blessings.

Earth Day...

I missed posting this on Earth Day by about 15 minutes. I am not what I would call a fanatic about eco-friendly things. I am not into all things organic and healthy. I am learning, but I am not really there. I have respect for those who learn and know and do more about this... I am just not completely to that point. I try to do the simple things that most of us know about. I usually turn off the water when I brush my teeth. I try not to use a bazillion paper towels. I turn off lights when they are not being used. Those are pretty small things. A few girl scout meetings back, Savannah's leader was reading to us about plastic water bottles. She made this one comment that just was like one of those "wow" moments for me. She stated that EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF PLASTIC THAT HAS EVER BEEN MADE IS STILL ON THIS PLANET!!! Did you read that? EVERY SINGLE PIECE! Here is the thing... my mom has joked with my kids that she is "older than plastic" meaning she was born before plastic was mainstream. It can take 100 years to break down a piece of plastic. Plastic hasn't been around for 100 years, so all that plastic is still out there. To back up, even before Savannah's scout meeting, I had been thinking about buying reusable water bottles. My reason for this was that we moved to SC and had a filtered water dispenser in our refrigerator. The water tastes great. Nothing like anything you would get from filtered water in Florida. Florida water is icky. When I went to her girl scout meeting, it just motivated me more. Add to that, Savannah needed to commit to a task that help our environment. I looked a few options online. Sigg Bottles were one option, but pricey to get 5 of them. One day I was in Target and found Eddie Bauer bottles over by the camping gear. They were about $6.99 each. They came in an assortment of colors and sizes. I got Tim II the huge one because he fills it for his shift at work. I got Tim, me and Savannah the 22 oz ones. I didn't get Sebastian one because I really wanted to test them out first. Actually, he uses Tim's during the week when we run errands because Tim doesn't take his to work. It has been about a month or so of using them. They are not made of plastic. They don't have the funny taste bottles can get. Best of all they are dishwasher safe. I am absolutely amazed at how well my family adapted to using refillable water bottles. I thought they would still want the convenience of grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge. They all just took to placing their water bottle on the counter by the fridge and filling it as they need it. Even Tim! If he is out working on the garden on the weekend, he fills his bottle! Complete success! I am going to get Sebastian his own too. This is my tip for helping the environment and also saving a little money on bottled water. Next up for me I think will be using my own reusable bags at the grocery store. I already own about 5 totes. There really isn't a good reason that I don't take those with me to the store. I read today that it can take 1000 years for the plastic grocery bags to break down. Paper isn't better because of the amount of trees it cuts down. I think a small step forward is something. I am not ready to compost just yet. (Even though Tim would love it for his garden!)

My new couch...

This is my new couch. It is sorta a birthday present to myself. We only had one living/family room in Florida, but we have two in South Carolina. So, we needed more seating. We were using my mom's furniture while she was living here. For some reason, she thought she needed to take her furniture with her to her new home. The picture doesn't really show how POOFY the couch is. I posted on the Well Trained Mind message board asking if the POOFINESS would go away. It is really comfortable and matches well. It is just, well... POOFY! I ordered it on the computer without seeing it in person. I have 48 hours to decide if I want to keep it. Tim came home for lunch and said he thought it would break in fine. I guess I will believe him and just keep it.

Today is my birthday and Saturday was moving day...

I am 36 today. I sorta feel 36 and I sorta don't. My body feels more like 36 and sometimes I realize that I have learned a whole lot since I was 18, but sometimes I don't really feel all that older than somewhere around 28-30. I just don't really feel like I am old enough to have a 19 year old, 9 year old, 3 year old, a dog, 2 houses, a million responsibilities, etc. I guess I am. I have BIG PLANS for my day. I have been thinking about these plans for a couple days. I want to unpack books. Yep... that is my plan. Back to moving day being on Saturday... my mom and sister moved into their own place. Now I LOVE my mom and my sister. I really, really, really do. They love me and my family too. I am sure they really, really, really do. I also know that we are ALL very happy to have our own homes. I do think it is interesting how God's timing worked it that my mom and sister were here for the duration of Savannah's injury. She was released from using crutches on Friday. (Actually walking is a whole 'nuther post.) She will be off of these crutches as soon as she learns to balance and walk again. It was very helpful to have my mom and sister here to help me with everything because Savannah's injury added a lot of extra stuff. Now I have lots of work to do. I have to do some cleaning because things can get messing when you are pulling tons of boxes and stuff out of every nook and cranny. I have to put two book shelves together. Then I get to unpack and organize my books. To some, that may not sound like a fun thing. I am really excited about it! I packed up these books a whole YEAR ago to get our house ready for sale. I can't wait to look through and find some of my favorites to share with Sebastian (and Savannah because she will still listen to "little kid" stories). I might just bake some chocolate chip cookies too. Just because they sound good and I have been avoiding baking them because I knew I would eat them. We will have a family party on Wednesday night, so today and tonight is free to just unpack stuff. I guess I need to get a shower and get moving if I am going to accomplish all these things I think I am going to accomplish.

FPEA Homeschool Convention

I don't have much to blog about, so this is came to mind. I have written each year about attending the HUGE homeschool convention in Florida. I really wasn't sure if we would continue to go since we moved. The truth is that I don't really NEED to see any curriculum close-up. Sure, I would like to see Math-U-See again, but they do have demos on their website. I am pretty decided on most things for next year. The thing is that we miss our friends and a lot of them will be attending the convention. It makes it easy to visit everyone in one place. So, because of this, Savannah and I will be heading to Florida. Tim II is actually going too, but on his own. He is going to spend a week between the convention and "home". I am using this convention thing to convince Savannah she needs to get up her feet as soon as the doctor says it is okay. I keep reminding her how far it is to walk at the hotel and how she will want to be running around with her friends. My mom and Tim are going to keep Sebastian for me. That will make the whole thing much easier. I am getting excited thinking about a few days with just Savannah, me and our friends. I *may* try to leave a day earlier and go back "home" so Savannah can see her friend Serafina and I can see my friend, Linda Linda Bo Binda (yes, that really is her name). I haven't talked to my mom just yet. Hey, mom, if you are reading this... what do you think? I know - I will owe you much chocolate for watching Sebastian for an extra day. Okay, more than MUCH CHOCOLATE - EXTREME AMOUNTS OF GHIARDELLI CHOCOLATE! If you want to know more about the convention - click here FPEA Homeschool Convention. If you would like to know about Ghiardelli's Ice Cream - the place Savannah and I will consume much ice cream and about the Keds Outlet - the place I replace my beloved tennis shoes - click here Ice Cream and Shoes (what a mix!). Now, I must shower and head out to the mall with my children! AHHHH!!! I need to get some shampoo and conditioner from the the Bath and Body shop. Then I have to go to Sam's - it seems everytime I buy food - they eat it.

Gardening Part 1

It seems as if we have obtained a YARD here in South Carolina. For some that may not seem like such a big thing. If you have lived in Florida for the last 17 years with about 10 feet of distance between the pool and fence, then an acre of land seems huge. One of the things Tim loves is gardening. He is pretty good at it too. I, on the other hand, seem to lack a green thumb. I did try gardening once or twice. I hope to find some pictures of that adventure and maybe I will post about them later this week. I said maybe. Even before we moved, Tim was talking about gardening. Then when we got here, he really started talking and planning a garden. He got quite a few gardening things for his birthday. Somehow a small garden got huge. Then, somehow, I got really excited about it. We planted seeds and watched them grow. I think I went back to childhood because I was like a kid checking to see if anything had sprouted a few times each day. Tim removed a bunch of trees to clear an area for the garden. Last night we started preparing it for the seeds. We actually planted a few of the seedlings too. I can't believe how excited I am about this! It really was a ton of work for Tim with taking out the trees, but he keeps saying that it was a one time thing. I don't think the vegetable garden will save us much money this year because of the start up, but again Tim keeps telling me that is pretty much a one time thing. So... we are officially gardeners. When Savannah was planting the seedlings last night, she said she felt like a pioneer! Silly girl! I am hoping, if all goes well, that I can post pictures as our garden grows. We are planting watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes (2 kinds), cucumbers, cauliflower, radishes, onions, beans (2 kinds), carrots, parsnips, peppers, sunflowers, and a whole bunch of different kinds of corn. I have no idea what will grow well, except that I remember seeing corn in somebody's yard this past summer. Oh, he also got me concord grape plants! If you click here concord grapes, you can read about why and how much I love concord grapes. I am so excited to have some in my own yard.

The planting process begins.

Okay, so our bathroom was our green house. Seriously, we have a large sunny window in our bathroom and it is enough out of the way of everyone. I wanted to take a picture of the plants sprouted in there, but I forgot. Now they are either planted or on the back porch.

Tim's birthday stash (and my curling iron).

Honk! Honk!

I really never much paid any attention to the driving carts in stores until I had a child on crutches for 10 weeks. Amazing how important these little gems become! Most stores have the battery kind. A few just have wheel chairs. We have become quite the experienced motorcart/wheelchair shoppers. Of course we had to take pictures to share on the blog.

One more...

Your Personality is the Most Common (ISTJ)

Your personality type is disciplined, realistic, predictable, and honest. About 14% of all people have your personality, including 9% of all women and 17% of all men You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Happy Blogger Anniversary to me and Happy Birthday to my sister, Leann...

I really didn't intend to start my blog on my sister's birthday 2 year ago. It just was a fluke that I started blogging on her very birthday. So, forever, I will connect her birthday with my blog's anniversary. I guess there are worse things. I wanted to be creative today. I have a blog on my heart about my oldest child. I just want to post a picture with it and I need to find that picture. It was in the dark ages when we took pictures with film cameras and then had the film developed. That isn't as convenient as uploading the photo from my camera. So, that blog topic will need to wait until I pull that big basket of photos down and find that picture. I am going to add a happy little thing to my blog to celebrate its anniversary. It is not earth shattering, but it is pretty. Take your flower quiz and see what it says about you.

What These Sunflowers Say About You

You are a truly warm person with amazing bursts of energy. You bring happiness to everyone around you, and you are adored by many. You're bright, bold, and cheery. You nourish friends you with your optimism.

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

An Easter Hunt...

Savannah fell on her ankle after church on Easter. I can't remember if I posted that or not. I don't want to go look back to see if I did. Anyway, she fell ON HER ALREADY INJURED ANKLE. I had her keep it up and on ice the rest of the day. Due to this, we had to postpone Grandma's traditional Easter Egg/Toy Hunt. Last week, my mom closed on her new home. She isn't moving in just yet because of paint and flooring being done. We spent Friday afternoon hanging out in the backyard waiting on the cable guy and carpet guy. We had to stay outside because Keith (Tim's brother), Karen (Tim's sister) and Dave (good family friend) were in the house priming it with oil based primer. I got my handy dandy fold up blanket out and we set out to have an Easter Hunt. I really wanted to do it at my mom's because the ground is more level. Savannah would have had a tough time on crutches in my yard. They had a blast finding the TOO NUMEROUS gifts. When they were done hunting, they played and ate candy. Then they moved on to the real reason my mom bought this particular house. The sandbox. I am telling you that swayed her decision. I really only thought we would hang out for maybe 2 hours tops. As it turned out, we were there the whole rest of the afternoon. They were just having so much fun. I did sneak away to clean out my car. I have such a "mom car"... one big pit of junk. I am excited that my mom has such a nice fenced backyard. I think the kids will have so much fun playing when they are visiting with Grandma.

Savannah checking out her stash.

Sebastian loved his light up lolly pop!

The "real reason" my mom bought this house.

Karis caught a ride with her dad and came to play too.

What a silly boy. I think he has sand in his mouth. I know he had sand everywhere else - including his diaper.

When we got home, I gave him a bath and put jammies on him. Even if it was only about 6pm. I went to work vacuuming the whole house and just generally super cleaning because we had company coming the next day. I kept thinking I was really getting a lot done quick. Then I finally realized he had gone sound to sleep on the couch. Amazing how much cleaning you can get done when you are not being interrupted by a very busy 3 year old. He was completely out cold. I tried to wake him up, but no luck. That is what a beautiful day at Grandma's can do to you!

My smart boy...

Yes, absent again. Sorry, no real reason. Just not in a blogging mood. I do have pictures and stories that I want to share. Maybe during this rainy and dreary week. Something that quickly comes to mind and does not require me downloading any photos is a cute story from last week. Sebastian opened my laptop. He then opened Firefox and used the pull-down history to find the Petfinder site Savannah had been on earlier that day. She was looking for a puppy for grandma. He wanted to look too. Mind you, he did this all on his own. No help from me. He was finding puppies in no time. He kept telling Grandma to come look and to please call about this one and that. Then he asked if we could get a puppy. I told him that we could only get a puppy if he didn't wear diapers anymore. To this he replied, "Mom, it doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!" I told him that it did, INDEED, matter. I told him if he ever wanted me to even think about getting a puppy then he would need to not use diapers anymore. His reply... "You are just trying to fool me!". Yes, my smart boy, I am just trying to fool you! Silly me! Oh, Sebastian, you can find a website all on your own, but you can't use a potty? On the same note with potty training - (hey what else do you want me to talk about?) that very same day I had told him I would give him a hundred kisses if he went poop in the potty. He seemed very interested in this. He went pee in the potty and I gave him 3 kisses. Then later he tried to poop, so I gave him 5 kisses. All of a sudden he is pooping just the tiniest bit in the potty. It seems to be all because he wants those kisses! Who knew that was all he really wanted? Not a toy from the big toy store, not special candy, not underwear - just more and more kisses from his momma. My sweet boy!

People are gonna wonder...

So, my kids are genuine accidents waiting to happen. One is breaking her ankle, the other is skidding on the pavement with his face. Honest, I am NOT ABUSING THEM! I was getting worried to take them out in public. This is how a typical meeting with a stranger goes... Stranger says, "Oh, honey, what happened to your leg?" Savannah proceeds to tell her story for the hundreth time - "Trampoline, landed wrong, crunch, hospital, surgery, full leg cast, stitches out, half cast, no cast, on crutches for 4 more weeks, doesn't really hurt anymore...." Then stranger looks at Sebastian. Stranger, "Hey buddy! What happened to your face?" Sebastian says, "Errrrch, crash! Boom! I cried, I cried, I cried! Running, stroller, zoom! Crash! AHHHHHH!!! I crying! I crying! I hurt my ANKLE! My ANKLE! OH IT HURTS! MY ANKLE IS HURT!" Sebastian also demonstrates the whole incident with great enthusiasm. What you will see him do is run as fast as he can and then he pretends the stroller gets away from him and he crashes. That is pretty much what happened. He was running up the hill pushing his umbrella stroller. He lost his balance and went sliding UP THE HILL with his face. He also got a few dings on his wrists. NOTHING on his ankle. The boy insists he hurt his ankle though. Hmmm... me thinks he is a wee bit jealous of sissy. I am looking forward to a time with no marks, abrasions, bruises on any of my kids.

Half Cast

No cast - still not off of crutches for 3 more weeks though. She was bummed about that. She really thought the cast would come off and she was done. She is having a tough time moving it. She is supposed to move it up and down and side to side 20 times each - 3 times a day. That isn't happening as much as it needs. I am hoping this next week will be better. Oh and I did ask how many screws were in her ankle and if she would sound the alarms at the airport. He said she had 2 screws that would stay in place and she could possibly sound them, but not really something to worry about.

This picture doesn't really give his injury justice. It actually kept looking worse as he would scratch at it and make it bleed each day. Gotta love this child, right?

Beef, It' What's For Dinner...

Last week, I went to Sam's for my usual grocery trip. The difference was this time I bought a case of ground beef. A case contains 80lbs! There are 8 rolls weighing 10lbs each. I think my extended family thought I was a little crazy. The thing is that Tim and I bought a freezer for this house. Our intention was to stock our freezer with great deals. I had been watching the case price per lb on my last few shopping trips. This particular week it was down to a $1.52 a lb. That was a pretty decent savings. When we first moved here, my mom and I also got hams for about half price. We got 5 of them. After thinking about it, we both wished we had gotten 10. We are still a little new to having a deep freezer. My hope is that when we buy things at lower prices we not only save now because of the lower price, but possibly will save more later. With the cost of things increasing each day, this potentially could be even more savings. I could be wrong, but for now at least I know my freezer is packed with ground beef and a couple hams. We have talked about buying a half or quarter cow next year too! Next up - a case of chicken!

This is what it looks like in the rolls. There are 6 of the 8 there.

This is 60lbs rebagged in smaller portions.

This is 13lbs of meatballs cooked and ready to pop in sauce for subs!

Did somebody say naptime?

This is how I found Sebastian when I went in his room to wake him up from his nap. I don't know if he was fighting sleeping or what. I coaxed him into waking up, but the best I got was him turning his head over only to fall back to sleep. Silly boy!

American Idol - Jason Castro er... ummm... John Travolta look alike?

I will admit that one of my favorite things to do is watch American Idol. Especially since the "writer's strike". There isn't a whole lot else to watch. I have been watching AI since the second season. I think this is the best talent season. There are a few that I really enjoy, but for some reason Jason Castro is the one I like the best. He actually wasn't the best performance this past week, but I loved the week before - the video below. I also like Brooke and David Cook. So, a few weeks back I was commenting on Jason Castro's blue eyes. I kept thinking he looked like somebody. My mom comes up with that he looks like John Travolta. YES! That was it! Since then, others have written the same thing. Somebody compared these to videos. Jason definitely has the same quirky face that John Travolta. Maybe I love his performance because I literally watched Grease a hundred time when I was a kid. I memorized every word to every song. I have to say Jason Castro sings WAY BETTER than John Travolta!

Can we fix it? Yes, we can!

This past weekend, Tim was working on the baseboards in the kitchen. Before I knew it, I looked down at my kitchen floor and found a certain little helper. He was just working so hard. When his daddy gave him some scraps of trim and wood, he just beamed with excitement. He took great strides to measure and mark his pieces just so. I love watching him try to be like his daddy. It just gives my heart such joy!

He was concentrating so hard on this piece.

He is using his saw to "cut" the hole for the vent that is there.

What a handsome smile!

Tim II, Grandma's, and Derek's birthday...

Last week we had 3 birthdays! Yes, I said 3 birthdays! This week we have two more! Then we have one more at the end of March. It is a busy month for birthdays. No lack of birthday treats. On Wednesday night, we celebrated Timmy's and my mom's birthday. They actually share the same birthday. I made pizza bread for everyone. Karen made cheese cake for Timmy and I made a German Chocolate cake for my mom. I think it went pretty well considering it was my first attempt at a family birthday party for about 20 people. I guess it was a dry run for cooking this weekend for Tim and Karen's birthdays. It was really nice to have a houseful to celebrate. Derek and Savannah went all out with decorating too. I don't think anyone will ever feel lonely on their birthday in South Carolina. Not a chance!

This is Kameron. They are friends that live around the corner that are really more family! Laurie and I have decided that Kameron and Sebastian will be best friends even if they don't want to!

Timmy, Karen, Jennifer and Derek

Happy Birthday Timmy and Grandma!

My sweetie!

Our surprise gift for Timmy. He has some wierd obsession with The Nightmare Before Christmas!

My mom opening her gifts.

Vilma being silly with her dad.

Me and my firstborn... where did all the time go?

Haley and Jay

Derek's 11th birthday.

A funny post from another blog...

Caution - there are a couple "bad" words in this blog post. Proceed with my warning. If you are woman, you will probably find the humor in this - click here -Wendi Aarons .