Snow in Seattle....

Monday was a normal day at co-op. 

Tuesday was  a normal day at work and the kids at Nana's. 

Wednesday was a normal home day doing school. 

Then a Thanksgiving dinner at church for all the kids.

Thursday was anything but normal!:-)

Busy had a DR appointment in the mid morning which I knew would

waste our entire morning and then it is always hard to get back in the 

groove once we get home. 

SOOOO..... 

I grabbed the kids' schoolwork on the way out the door 

and asked if they'd like to do school at McDonald's 

(we don't have a playland in the town we live in so it's always a treat for them to go)

and of course they agreed!

It went really well actually. 

I was kind of surprised. :-)

 Then Friday was another normal day.

Saturday I had a TON of errands to do and as we were out and about I noticed Reagan eye 

was turning pink! Oh no....then the tears came because it was burning so bad.

We very rarely stay home on a Sunday (about 1x per year)

but due the contagious nature of pink eye, I didn't want to expose others to it. 

It was a WONDERFUL day home with my baby girl.

 This is what she looked like Sunday morning. (After I had cleaned the gunk out.)

Poor girl hated to get her eye drops in but eventually we got them in. 

Her eye was better this morning but the other one is pink. :-(

She's had this yucky ol' cold now for almost 2 weeks and I think her little body

is just tired of not feeling well. 

Last night it began snowing and we had a great night cuddled up together. 

Today it snowed even more, which is unusual for the Seattle area in November. 

It started out as a great day. I got up and started doing a ton of things, 

but the afternoon didn't go so well. 

That's life I suppose. 

Now I'm waiting for my sheets to dry and about the make up my bed, 

eat dinner, tuck the kids in, get in bed and reflect on a my day a bit 

before my eyes close.

An imaginative week.....

Sunday wrapped up our Fall Renewal Services with Tim and Rochelle Enloe. 

He is a really great teacher and had lots of great truths from the Word to walk away with. 

On Sunday morning of all of Renewal Services, we always have the Impact Kids (grades 1st-6th) stay 

in service with their parents. Tim made sure to include them in the sermon and did a great job explaining the Holy Spirit to them. We got their book, Kid Power, and Busy has had a great time reading through it.

 It's really neat to see him take interest in the things of the Lord on his own. 

He's still not sure about prayer times at church, but is very comfortable with our

 family times at home and reading the Bible together as a family.

Monday was our first day at PATH co-op for the year. It went really good. The kids had a great time as usual. Busy's first period teacher for Pilgrims and Pioneers has been with him every year in first period. She said that she can tell a really big change in him maturity wise over the summer. Then I had the mom that's a helper and it's her first year at co-op come up yesterday and say that she just loves him and that he's really creative. That always makes a mom's heart happy. 

Sweetie is doing great in her classes as always. :-)

 Here's some imaginative play time that she has been doing at home this week. 

Personally, I have never been into imaginative play (or talking to myself for that matter :-) 

but she loves to play alone and talk with her animals.

Especially when she's in trouble. It's so funny. She goes and pours her heart out to them! 

 We've been working on reading. 

Right now, we are spending more time on reading together as a family.

Every afternoon, I've been reading a chapter book to them. 

It's really turned into one of the best parts of my day. 

I actually take that as an answer to prayer, because I was not particularly fond 

of reading out load when they were younger. 

Growing up in a Christian school we obviously didn't have group reading times so

it was simply not something that I was used to. 

My grandma used to always read books to me when I was young, but not chapter books.

I'm really enjoying it this year. We are reading some great stories together. Both long and short. 

 For my personal reading time, I have about 4 books going but this is the one that I'm primarily focused on and longing to finish in the next few days. It's a really well written book that is challenging and reminding me that success is primarily based on what I give and not focusing on the other person. When I'm the best person I can be then things usually work out really well in any relationship, especially marriage. 

I'm thankful that God continues to mold and develop my family and relationships. 

Wednesday I woke up with a terrible head cold that I'd been fighting off since Sunday. 

It felt as though someone had poured concrete in my sinuses. 

I decided to stay home from church that night which is VERY, VERY unusual for me but I was 

afraid that if I didn't take it easy that I'd end up with a sinus infection and this weekend was Youth Conference which I had to go to. So it was really nice actually taking a very relaxed approach to school.

 We completed all of our work but just took longer into the evening to complete it.  

I wished we had more of those type of days....

but I'm thankful for the time I do have with them.

Thursday was my birthday. :-) It was the first time in forever that it wasn't on a church day, event, work day, or some other random thing was happening. It was really nice to just be home with the kids. 

I was feeling better but not great so it made for a wonderful day to just relax and do school at a slower pace. 

We went over to my mom's that evening and had 

Onion Burgers, Potato Salad, and Cherry Pie. Yummmmm!

Praying you had a very blessed week as well.....

Great Week

Monday - Went to Snoqualmie Falls with the family. It was the first time that I've actually taken a ride in Josh's orange replacement car. :-) It was a nice drive and day. Once we got there we were a bit disappointed that the trail was closed....until March 2013! Wow...that's a long time. But we still got to see the falls. The kids really enjoyed seeing the big waterfall. It was such a nice day. Then we went into town and looked a bunch of old trains that are parked there. It was really neat. Busy soooo wanted to go inside them, but most were closed to the public. It was still neat getting to see them.

After the trains, hubby took us to a little family Mexican restaurant. My immediate reaction was to fuss about the cost of going out to eat. But I decided to keep my mouth shut. We haven't been out to eat together is such a long time. The kids were super pumped about it. And shockingly, I just decided to relax and enjoy it. :-) I have such a hard time spending money....especially on food. But it wasn't too bad. Josh paid and we headed out. I was grateful (not proud) that I had just kept my mouth shut and that we had all had a fun time together. That's more important than the $.

Tuesday - Off to work I went and the kids were supper excited that Nana and Aunties were back home from CA and go to take them to swimming lessons. After work, I took the kids to wrestling and although my class was canceled I forced myself to exercise. I was sore that next day. But it felt good to get back into the grove after a summer of non-exercise.

Wednesday - Today I had 3 little boys over for a repayment playday. Their mom had watched Busy while mom was out of town. I was honestly nervous as to how the day would go....but it turned out being a good day. There were a few little things, but I kept them all super busy. They played Legos, then Wii, then we went to the park, back home for a picnic lunch, then off to the museum, then to the water park, back home for quiet time for the younger kids and Wii for the older ones, then off to Target for classroom supplies, then it was time for the Ranger/Mpact girl BBQ to kick off the programs for the fall. It was really a pretty good day.

Thursday - Oh, what a blessed and peaceful day yesterday was. I am striving to get my life in order so I can bring order and life and blessings and joy to the kids'. We went to swimming lessons then came home and worked on random summer schoolwork and chores. I'm trying to ease them into a schedule so next week it's not a shock to their system when school starts back up. After a late lunch we took a pretty long walk; well, they rode their bikes and I walked. :-) Then they had some outside time. Alone, outside time is one of my new goals for this schoolyear. The kids are surrounded by "things" to keep their attention. I want them to be about to go outside and find something to do or play on their own.
Busy and Hubby went to wrestling while Sweetie and I backed brownies at home. Although eating them canceled out my morning exercise! I'm sore this morning though so I guess it doesn't 100% cancel it out. :-)

Then after books and rockie with Sweetie, I headed upstairs to finish up the school planning for next week. I feel like I'm the most on top of things this year than I've ever been which feels super nice. I just don't want to overload them just because I'm excited. :-) I love learning and teaching. I'm changing a few things up this year and trying to not just do PACE work only. Although I love the program, I want them both to have a love for learning and Busy can get bored with the same thing over and over. I'm going to try and incorporate several other things in this year to keep things changing a bit throughout the days. I just hope it's not too much. We'll give it a try and see. Mostly I want to see them love Jesus, their family, and be respectful and obiedient children.