I had a whole other entry written

but then as I finished typing it, I realized I didn't really want to publish it. Typing it out helped me think through some things, and I guess that's all I needed to do it for. But not for sharing with you all, sorry.

We have been busy, but it's a good busy. Lessons have been going well this week. Some attitudes, but mainly it's smooth sailing. In three weeks we have our first school break. We are taking a week off for Thanksgiving, I seriously can't wait. We've been schooling for three months straight, except for maybe one day off, and maybe one half day. I just want some days I don't have to wake up and think lessons, grading, schooling. It all gets a bit much sometimes. And I think this year, since I'm starting to keep track of Sarah's grades for her highschool transcripts, it's more time consuming. I'm in a bit of a flow with it all, but still, I'm looking forward to the break. So are the kids. Truly they are doing great, and attitudes are doing well. But I know they could use a break too.

We got to go outside for one more park day with our homeschool group. This week we are in the 50's and today we hit 60! That is almost unheard of around here this time of year. It's been so nice though. I've sat outside a couple of times today, just to enjoy the weather. It will only last a couple of more days, and once the sun goes down, the temps drop pretty fast. But I will take all I can get.

I'm almost done with the Christmas gifts I'm making. I can't actually believe I'll be done this early. I should finish the last of it tonight while watching the World Series with hubby. Then I can start working on our yearly letter, family pictures (already taken) and Christmas cards. Goodness, it's shocking for me even to write how much I have done. I'm really hoping to just enjoy this holiday. Bake cookies and snacks for the kids and for Paul to take to work, play with the kids outside in the snow, and just relax. Not run around trying to finish everything up at the last minute. I'm not done with it all yet, so we'll see how it goes and if I can really accomplish it or not.

Well, I guess that is enough of an update for now. Hubby will be home soon and of course the World Series tonight. Really hoping the Philies will beat the Yankees tonight and continue the series. As the little kid in the movie Angels in the Outfield use to always say, "It could happen."

Such a great day yesterday.

Yesterday was such a great day for all of us. The kids had half a day of school, then we went to the local theater and saw a play of The Jungle Boy. It was so cute and very well done. Coming from Chicago, where there is lots of culture, to an area where there isn't, was a concern of ours. But it seems like our area has smaller versions of all of Chicago culture (except for the food ). We have museum's, art gallery, zoo, theater, and symphony. Not the big ones like Chicago, but at least enough that the kids will know what a little culture is. We are going to see the Nutcracker again this year, but this time it will be with a symphony. First time for the kids, we can't wait.

So after the play, we went to the thrift store and found some shirts for Sarah and me. Can you believe it, one of the shirts, even after I washed it, I could still smell perfume or something on it. I'm washing it again today, hopefully that will take the smell out. Then we went to the library, at completely the wrong time, it was pre-school story telling time. Little kids everywhere. We got what we wanted and got out of there.

We came home and relaxed for a bit, then after dinner all four of us, hubby, me, Sarah & Paulie, went winter clothes shopping. Of course both of the kids just had to grow out of snow pants, jackets, boots and such at the same time. I won't tell you the price tag , but thankfully we didn't focus on that. What we did focus on was having a great time. We laughed, we joked with each other, we made a ruckus in multiple stores and truthfully if they didn't let us in the mall again, it wouldn't surprise me. But you know what, we all let our hair down and had fun with each other. And the whole time, we were all so aware of the memories we were making. We might not always remember what we bought, but we will always remember the time we spent shopping together. I still get a smile on my face when I think about it.

And through all of that, we didn't get everything we needed. Totally forgot some more shirts for Sarah & me, and a lighter jacket for Sarah. We are thinking of going shopping today, just can't decide. It's overcast and cloudy, but we already have plans tomorrow and Sunday, so today might just be the only time. Maybe I should see if Paul wants to go again, and go tonight. We'll see what other trouble we can get into as a family.

Tomorrow is our big day we are looking forward too. We don't do halloween or harvest festivals on the 31st. No I'm not going to get into why we don't do either, and no I don't want to hear your opinions on whether you think we should or shouldn't do them. Just trust that Paul and I have prayed thoroughly on this issue, and we know where we stand on it. So because we choose not to celebrate them, and it's always a bit difficult to stay away from all the kids, we started a tradition of going out to dinner on that night. But this year we are doing dinner and a movie. That's our plan anyway, hopefully we can find something good at the movies. If not, maybe dinner and then rent something special, something like that. We just enjoy being together as a family, doing something fun and trying to stay away from the crowds. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow, if we can find a movie or not, and what restaurant to pick. But we'll probably stay away from the shopping. Three days in a row, the way we get when we shop together, and we'll definitely get kicked out of stores. lol

And I'm going to leave you with a picture of Sarah's new hat. We think she looks just great in it.

My Saturday

It's Saturday night and usually we are at church (we like to go to our church's Saturday night services). But only Paul went to help with the ushing, then he'll come home. We are all a bit under the weather. Sarah is dealing with a cold, Paulie pulled a muscle in his neck, and Paul and I are just tired and blah. I sometimes feel like a cold is coming on, then it goes away, hope it keeps going away. We were really looking forward to the baseball game tonight, but that was canceled. Yes, we're having a bit of a bummer of a night.

I'm also getting frustrated with my website. I want to update it. I want to change the look and feel of it, but I just can't figure out how I want it to look. I really like the technical aspect of putting together a website, but I'm just not artistic enough for the graphical part of it. And truly at this point, I wonder if that means I shouldn't be trying to develop websites. Because if I can't figure out what looks good together, how can I design websites? Obviously something I need to take to the Lord in prayer and see what He wants me to do.

Hmm, i just re-read this entry and so far it is a bit of a downer, sorry. It's hard to type happy, fun blogs when you are not feeling the best, but lets see if I can lighten things up a bit.

Paul's back is healed, I'm so blessed by that. It's not easy watching your husband hurting so much. And of course husbands don't like to not be able to work. But it was great that he had two days of doing school with the kids. They are doing well, and it was such an encouragement for the kids and for Paul to be working together. And it was so sweet to see. Here's a picture of their time working together.

Other than that, not much else has been going on. We've been busy with park time, getting as much outdoor park time in as we can before the cold weather hits. We've cleaned out the kids winter clothes, and took a big load of old clothes, boots & toys and donated them to the local thrift store. We were going to go shopping this weekend for the new winter items they need, but obviously with how we feel, that will be postponed until next week sometime. We had a great time at the library this week. Sarah, who wants to be a librarian, is having fun learning more and more about libraries and how they work and the Dewey Decimal System, things like that. Of course talking to her about the old card catalogs is funny, since she's only used the online catalogs. Showing my age again.

Well, we decided to watch National Treasure, so I should probably get off the computer. I also want to work on my Christmas gifts. I'm almost done with them. So since tonight (or today) hasn't gone like we thought it would, it would be a nice way to end the day. Watching a movie with the family and working on crafts. Always fun.

This, that and other things

I never thought having my 14 year old daughter go to a weekly teen girls bible study would keep me so busy. Driving her every week is starting to tire me out. Well, the fact that its on one of the busiest days of the week for me, Mondays, and the very next day is park day, just makes for a busy beginning of the week. But I am so blessed that she is going, and enjoying herself so much. There's only three girls that go, but we pray that in the future more will start joining. She's having a great time.

Paul pulled is back last week and had to take two days off of work. He's doing much better now, but it took a lot longer for his back to get better this time. He really didn't like having to take two days off, but being his job is so physical, there really wasn't any choice. With no insurance, we couldn't afford to allow it to get worse. Thankfully, we didn't have to go to the doctor, the Lord, rest and not moving around too much did it.

I've been busy with Christmas crafts I'm trying to finish up. I'm over half way done, and I think I'll finish them all by the end of October, beginning of November. I've never been this far ahead with Christmas crafts, and I'm pretty excited about it.

My neck and shoulder has been hurting me the past few weeks. It's the same issue I've had for years, that I went to physical therapy for a couple of years ago. The doctor warned me then that I had to be careful of my computer use, and I've gone way overboard on the computer the past few weeks. Truthfully, what started it was being on Facebook playing some of the games like Farmville & Cafe World. The mini, continuous movements it took to play the games are the exact movements that aggravate my shoulder. Plus, truthfully, I think the Lord was wanting me to get off them anyway. They were taking up way too much of my time. So today I stopped playing them, shut down the games. I've been on the computer today, but since I haven't been playing those games, even though I've been using the computer, my shoulder isn't feeling nearly as bad. Just confirmation that I'm not suppose to be playing those games.

School is going well. We seem to be flowing nicely with it, and I'm truly blessed by that. Paulie's math has been making him really have to work, and I am happy to see how he's growing in his knowledge of his math and reading. Sarah is doing so well with her work, and learning good time management. Plus she's got a weekly group babysitting job until December that she's really enjoying. Her and her friend are babysitting a group of kids while their parents go to a weekly DVD study. She's doing well with the kids, plus making some extra money, she likes that.

Well, I guess that's about it. It's about time that I have to head out and pick Sarah up from her bible study. Wanted to get an entry out though, I know it's been a while. Thanks for not giving up on reading my blog, even with such long times between entries. Maybe now that I've broken away from those games I'll have more time to blog.