Gifts from Above

     Work is going great. Glad for the job and I also have several sewing jobs to do and am picking up extra babysitting (not sure how much I want but we need the money). Lesson learned: Watch how much you pray for something!! I have more work than I could ever get done :)
     The twins didn't come today b/c the poor lil' boy broke his collar bone! Ouch! Apparently there is nothing you do for that but let it heal, so I probably will have him tomorrow and will be a nervous wreck that one of my "perfect" children will hurt him. So since I have the day off from official work I am working on my sewing projects while the kids run around.  I am making a sailboat pillowcase and a cute tie tee for a wedding of a lady's in France. I also have two other pillowcases for gifts I am working on that I have put off for far too long. One is going to be an animal scene with turtles and the other blues and greens ocean scene. I will hopefully have time to post some pics of them soon.
     We finally got our new 18' pool up and it has about 8 inches of water in it which the kids think is just wonderful! They played in it all morning lol. How nice they're going to think it is when we get it full lol. We are on well water so we can only put in a little a day or our well will run dry and we'll have to wait for it to refill, but it's free! My older sister gave us the pool because her kids are older and don't use it much anymore. I don't know what we would do without all the people in our lives who have given us stuff and helped babysit while I went to school or work. We are so very blessed to have a great, huge, Christian family to lean on!!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:7-12

Goodbye Books, Hello Sunshine!

I am officially on my own today. Usually I have my parents in and out to help with the kids if I need them, but they had to go up north three hours to my sister's house to help her get her house ready to put on the market. I have all 5 of mine and the twins and it is 101 degrees outside so I can't take them out to get rid of energy today. So far we have done pretty good and it is nap time now so we will see if they go to sleep since they have been inside all day and aren't totally wore out.

Mr. Railroad just called and said he will be late so I have Wild Thing's ballgame and Darling's ball practice to get sorted out also. Just another typical day around here and I am thankful for it. I enjoy days at home with my family. Homeschooling will be done by Wednesday, so in two days we will be partying!! Hopefully we will get our pool put up by then and we can enjoy it.

I am still trying to decide how much of a break we will do. We typically have a short break and then continue on working through the summer and take more small breaks so the kids don't have to waste time in review work and we can take off anytime we are getting overwhelmed by it. I believe I am more ready for a break than they are! I put so much pressure on myself trying to do it all and make sure they are up to par and usually a little ahead. Everyone scrutinizes you when you are a homeschooler and it feels often times I am trying to prove we are doing well by keeping them ahead of their peers. Homeschooling is really stressful, but so worth the benefits of having a close knit, God fearing family and who cares more about your child than you, the parent.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

Companies Here!

Company made it in. We have four adults and two kids to add to the household. This should be fun! They are staying for a week and hopefully I will have time to enjoy it. Between all the ballgames and practices and the extra babysitting I have taken on lately I am not sure what my name is most days. We have practices at least four times a week, swim lessons once a week, games at least twice a week, and church three times a week, sewing time for my etsy shop, plus I just agreed to sit the twins three times a week! Why do I do this to myself? I love to be busy but this is getting a little ridiculous. This will be my life my the next 18 summers lol. I am trying to remember that it is really such a blessing that we are able to do all these things and that I have work so whenever it gets really hectic I chant in my head "I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed!" to remind myself to take a breather and remember getting to the game a little late isn't the end of the world! I am gearing up for summer fun!!

He has showed you... what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Bullet Points From a Mom on the Run

    Well today is one of those rainy dreary days. I decided that we would get a lot done today- we would get this house cleaned up, do homework, and I could get some sewing done with all my extra time. That was a JOKE!! I have done nothing but chase kids and hold a fussy lil Sweet Cheeks all day (who isn't really that little at 24 lbs.).
    I received a magazine a little while ago with an article about how to manage and organize a family... after holding onto it for weeks planning on getting some great info about what I must be doing wrong- I just now threw it away! You have to have time to read said magazine to glean any useful info, right? Maybe if it was written in bullet points I could get a few pointers in a day. So with that in mind I decided that bullet points should be the new fad and we wouldn't have to actually stop long enough to read complete sentences. Maybe you "moms on the run" will be able to read my "accomplishments" list:

• Got up extra early to accomplish a lot!
• started kids on homework by 7
• finished said homework at 3! ugh!
• cooked and cleaned and remessed kitchen
• babysit one extra kid making the grand total 6
• carried baby 90% of the day = one very achy back!
• wished for ear plugs at least one thousand times- genie delivered 0
• went outside with kids to enjoy the stall in the rain = four wet and muddy kids (they ran into the muddy garden and then tried to clean selves off with the hose)
• napped- none
• sewed - none
• cleaned - none
• brushed my teeth or took a shower - not a chance!!
• made it through the day - hopefully... see if there are any more posts, if not you can safely assume that I have jumped fallen over the edge!

"Lazy people are soon poor;hard workers get rich."   Proverbs 10:4
   I am sure that I will soon be rich (if I ever have the time to work ;)

Twin Day!

    Okay so I got up at 6 to finish up the cleaning of the house to give a better impression than we did when they came over the first time. We were at the tail end of putting up the remainder of the laundry when Tenderheart called out "they're here!" The twins had arrived for the first day of babysitting. So far so good... no crying or whining (by me or them). They are just the cutest kids around! The girl has curly blonde hair with adorable dimples and the boy has big, bright, blue eyes and blonde hair. We will see how the day goes and I will keep you updated as to how we progress. Mr. Railroad believes that I have lost my mind taking on extra children lol. I love kids and really want to help anyone out I can while at the same time getting extra income that helps me stay home with the kiddos. It is a win win in my mind (but maybe I am crazy!)

Welcome Spring!

    I am so excited for this great weather. The kids being cooped up inside is just a recipe for disaster... all that pent up energy must come out and you never know when or where it is going to happen. Wild Thing has been extra challenging on these rainy days looking for ANYTHING to keep him outta trouble. Yesterday he got into all of my office supplies making an "airplane" I am now out of staples and tape! He was occupied however for at least thirty minutes which in my world is a long time. Darling and Tenderheart managed to only get half their homework done since we were also spring cleaning and I was occupied trying to work my way to the floors of the boys' room.