Blank Pages and Time

  I love blank pages.  Never been marred by pen or pencil.  Open to all the possibilities. 
  I especially enjoy looking at blank calendar pages.  For the time that it's blank it means I don't HAVE to do anything.  I like that thought. 
   It never stays that way.  I always have to write some one's lessons in, or remind myself of some appointment. 
     'Cause we all know that if it isn't on the calendar it isn't happening.
   Funny,  I'm always a little sad to turn the page, as much as I love that fresh new page. 
   I know that I have to write on it, or those $70 violin lessons will go to waste. We won't show up for swimming lessons because no one remembered, we'll miss those free skating days, and who wants to miss the free things!
   Turning the page means no more going back.  That month, that year is gone.  How many moments passed me by?  Did I tell my children I love them enough?  Did I show it?
   That time is gone and never to return.  It's a death of a thing, time.  We only get so much.  If we don't spend it wisely we waste it.  Regardless of how we use it we run out, always.
  Time waits for no one.  It has no favorites and cares not for our need of more.  Time can not be saved or borrowed.  It is here for the moment and gone.  Moving on, forward marching, whether we are dragging behind, in-step or trying stay ahead.
  Learning to be here, right now in this moment.  Why is that so hard?  It is the only time we really have, right now.  Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may not come.  How do I just be here, and understand it's the only place I can really be?
  

How It's Been

     It's been awhile since I was on here.  Better write something!
Our Jesse Tree hasn't been quite as consistent as I'd like it to be.  I would prefer to do it everyday, but it just isn't happening.  My fault. 
     I'm tired, and hibernating.  Actually I'm making myself go to the Church dinner tonight.  It wasn't to hard to convince me since my first thought was, "Then I won't have to cook dinner at home."  I do feel a little guilty that I'm not bringing anything.  I will check and see if my good friend MJ wants me to grab anything on my way up.
    My house is a somewhat scattered mess.  I have no motivation to care at the moment.  The kids are all playing with friends, except Madi.  I am keeping her entertained with a video.  I know not really a great thing to do with a three year old, but it is what it is for now.
    I went to bed at 11pm and slept until 8am, well I stayed in bed till 8, not sure how much of the night I actually spend sleeping.  The cat was outside so that was one less thing to wake me up.  It was mostly bathroom breaks and sore hips.
   I'm only at the 22 week (23 tomorrow) mark, I'm thinking it's a little early to have a sore hip!  Oh well.
   This little baby has gotten quite active which is fun.  It'll be fun to meet this little person.
   I have some Christmas shopping done.  Just about half I think. 
  

Challenge Stats

    Where I'm at today.  I sometimes wonder if I bit off more than I can chew.  I seem to start a number of things without finishing the first thing, and somehow don't complete anything.
  First with Maximize Your Mornings, I started out ok, but once we went on holidays that all went out the window.  I haven't gotten back into it since I got home.
   Then with memorizing Colossians....nil... Oops! 
   Is there something else?  I'm sure there is I just don't remember.
So now I have this e-book 31 days to Clean.  My newest and latest challenge.   Who am I kidding!?  Cleaning has been a FOREVER challenge.  I am never caught up.  If the kitchen, living room and bathroom are clean at the same time, I can guarantee the bedrooms and laundry room are a disaster site!!  And really the only time all three main areas are clean is when company is coming!
   Now you got all the goods on my challenge stats.  So I'm going to pray now and do laundry so I feel like I did something. 

A Few Interesting Things

  I have found a few interesting things. 
One is this site that you can buy brand name things at discount prices.  Actually a friend on FB posted it and I have checked everyday since, but not bought anything yet!
http://www.beyondtherack.com/member/signin/event-calendar

I was looking for Christmas gift ideas for my older nephews and I found this.
http://www.giftbee.com/for/gift_ideas_for_12_year_old.php   There are tons of ideas for all ages on Giftbee!

This looks like an awesome Advent idea for the family, http://www.familymanweb.com/store/advent-craft-kit
plus I really like the family man guy, Todd, he has great homeschooling articles on The Old Schoolhouse newsletter.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=v8kuxxbab&v=001oa6YnRfZhAX2h1HqcF0e00VlCNQ9u9EUbMNyq5XwCRsfv29zDgoyV7Iznuy4qW945QSn5Q8Rs7QeHWYVHbMSjVaQli9CaiLUCaSJqGhh8FD0NLQHM-KYPgY9s3ERC0J5f_6f53Fa4hMf7VTbwpLZvrAALWlk9PDTGgii4Nyw1hcNKEerygKoRnuKlmdoATtUE8WNipXwW5QLyUYZjTT1tMBEUEl4WPPhMVGtWtnsrl0%3D
Sorry that's a huge link.  It's the Old Schoolhouse Minute if you need to google it. 
Well the house is falling apart around me I better get it back in gear!
We're getting our cars ready for the races tomorrow! Should be fun!

Would I? Could I? Could You?

  Have you ever heard of  "Trash the dress"?  I thought it was amazing that these ladies who spent probably a couple grand on a gorgeous dress would "trash" it.

If you go to google images you'll see lots of pictures like this.  Of couples or just brides, sometimes even the whole bridal party, trashing their clothes.  There are many ways to do this, water, mud, sand, even paint!

Although the pictures are really cool, I wonder whatever happened to the old fashioned idea of the treasure.  My Mother wore her mother's wedding gown.  Which I too could have worn, but chose not to because it was very yellowed by age.  The dress had been my Grandmother's from her wedding in the early 30's. 

My seamstress cousin said that there was no way to protect the Chantilly lace from falling apart if we tried to whiten it.   So sadly I passed. 

I am sure that my Grandmother and Mother are not the only women who have saved their wedding dresses for decades. 

Maybe the idea to trash it came from women not wanting  their daughters to feel they had to wear Mom's gown.  So rather then save it let's have a little fun and do the unthinkable! Trash the dress! 

I must say that it does look like lots of fun.  Kinda rebellious, railing against tradition sorta thing.  I like that.

If I could fit in my wedding dress again (unlikely), would I, could I....trash it??

Would you?

  

One of those Days

Ever have one of those days where you have to get "everything" done, but you feel like doing nothing??  That's me today!  I have to get this house in order and looking half decent, my parents arrive tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to my visit with them.  We haven't seen them since summer!  Well actually my Mom was here in Sept.  I'm excited for them to see how much Madalyn has grown.  They can listen to Natalie play the fiddle, she's doing really great!  Bevan can show them all his new tricks on the drum and Bradon can play "Scot's La Hay" on the chanter!  Ashley has been playing the recorder with Daddy so she can show them what she knows too;)
But before they get here we have bathrooms to clean, drywall dust to mop up, floors to sweep, clutter to put away, laundry to fold, sheets to wash!  Better get my butt in gear!  I am thankful that my kids are old enough to help, they do pretty good.

K Just gotta say

I really like playing with stuff on the blog. As long as it works and doesn't freeze or make me crazy.
Sorry if I'm driving you nuts changing it all the time. Until I figure out how to make it personal and more ME, then it's gonna change:)
So how are you doing today? We are stuck at home with the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. I say WE because it's not just the children, for some crazy reason I got it too! Actually I got it the worst! Not that I want them to get it worse, I'm glad they didn't get very many blisters. I'm just being a big baby, it's really only the ones in my mouth that really bother me.

On a happier note Madalyn only got up once last night! Yippee! But I go to bed sad every night because I'm sleeping in a different room:( I miss my little roommate.
But this is better for both of us, I'm getting more sleep. I don't actually know if she is, I can't hear if she gets up in between times. I can only hear if she cries not all the other sounds she makes.

I have also succeeded in breastfeeding for just over a year now. I'm not sure how long we will go. Before Madalyn came along I had been known to say something like "You only need to breastfeed until the baby is eating all their solids". I was so silly :) I've been reading more about the benefits of breastfeeding through the second year. I think we'll just keep going till she no longer wants to, or I run out of milk. One way or the other I'm sure we'll be done by the time she's 2.

I'm thinking that I should make categories for my posts. I notice a lot of people do that. I guess if you wanted to find out my thoughts on something it'd be easier to find if I had them labeled. Hmmm, I'll look into that.

We're counting down the days till Daddy gets home. 2 more Sleeps. Guess I better get done being sick and start cleaning up in here, it's a mess!

Contradiction

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the post but it's cute:) She's in that "I can get up but I can't get down" stage. Ok I just read over my last 2 posts and realized I totally contradicted myself. In one post I say it's hard to keep this place clean like Grandma. Then in the next post I'm bored because it's too easy to keep it clean! Hahahaha, "Make up your mind would ya!" So I can't really say it's too hard, because at the moment I can't remember why I thought it was hard.

Right now I'm sipping my morning coffee, a little drowsy from having to get up at 7:30. Madalyn decided to having a morning party instead of a night one. Which was nice for last night, I took the opportunity to watch a movie, with no distractions. Had I known we'd be parting this morning I probably would have passed on the late night movie time. Oh well.

Today Grandma comes home. She's coming with my 2 nephews. Caleb and Bevan will go to camp together when Natalie gets back(day 4 and I'm surviving). Colty will stay here and play with Ash. The 2 of them have a pretty good time. They are only a year apart and now that Colton doesn't mind playing with girls they get along great! (He went through a 2 year phase where he didn't want anything to do with girls)

Today we're going to vacuum, sweep and do some dishes.

Why is it that all these things seem so much harder at my house, and there is endless things to catch up on (at my house).