Happy Holidays 2009!

Kayla 9 years
MaddyMay and Mama

The whole gang

Aw Daddy's and their baby girls totally melts me

My beautiful girls

My one true love

I still totally <3 him after all these years(almost 10 now!)

The Christmas card shot!

My boys are turning into such handsome lil men, just like their Daddy

My sister took all these, she is just starting out as a photographer and I love her work:) We did them all outdoors, 3 miles up the road in the mountains.

Were Singin' Deck the Halls

I love havin a baby around during the holidays hehe
Even the dishwasher got a lil decor

above the kitchen sink

The kids have been busy making artwork and lists

The dining room with our new country Christmas table cloth

I love this guy~!

The bookcase

The stockings

The TV area

The bathroom

Shower curtain

The tree!

MaddyMay's very own first ornament

Deckin the tree while listening to loud Christmas music and fresh baking cookies. Oh the smells that day each year. This is a day every year that we all look forward to and I think its mostly for the smells of pine and chocolate chip cookies! mmmm

Kenna putting the angel on top

All Done! Dinner time

We are truley blessed. A big, beautiful family, overpouring love, a warm home, wonderful animals to share our lives with and enough money to be comfortable! Praise God

Bein' Silly

Scarecrow cake made for our homeschool group Harvest party by the kids and I
My long hair

Kayla and I took one last shot of our long hair before going to the salon that evening chop it!

A Lil Late

Lexi(my neice lf) and MaddyMay(rt)
Kitty Kenna

The whole gang

Their jank-o-lanterns

Carvin pumpkins

Our Halloween was overscheduled which isnt something I normally do. We ended up having an apt in the morning, a birthday party in the afternoon(yes on Halloween, dont get it?) and a big Harvest Festival at church. All in all the kids had fun, but I dropped into bed exhausted hehe.

Current Reads

I just had to share my current reads(anyone who knows me knows that I read about 4 books at once and it doesnt take me more than 1-2 weeks) I am quite an avid reader. Anyhow my current reads right now are

The Happy Child

Created to Be His Helpmeet

The Charlotte Mason Companion

and

Nate and I are reading a chapter a day together of Biblical Parenting.

Created to Be His Helpmeet is an amazingly funny, but realistic picture of how a marriage can work. Its opinionated and witty, but I do find a lot of truths in it.

The Happy Child is a book that has so much good meaning, but is a bit too liberal in viewpoint and his extraordinary vocabulary could stand to tone it down a notch. It makes for a slow read because of the all the interestingly chosen words.

The Charlotte Mason Companion is really well written and down to earth and has so much in it. I am only 4 chapter into that one. I just started it 2 days ago, but I can tell I am going to love it. Its somewhat helping to convict me to tweak our homeschooling a bit. We have mostly completely unschooled and/or used Charlotte Mason style homeschooling with the one excpetion of that 7 weeks of Abeka that we hated(yes hate is a strong word...fully intended it that way). I am thinking we could add a little more structure without killing their drive and curiosity for learning. Sometimes the eery transparency of unschooling makes you wonder if anything is at all going on inside their brains, especially when they are watching TV for 4 hours a day like they have been lately. I have really had to step it up to get us out and about, riding the horses lots, walking, playing and just being outdoors in order to help the temptation of hours of TV to come to an end. I want to respect my children yes, but I feel I am respecting them by keeping them active and healthy moreso than encouraging more TV as some radical unschoolers would suggest.

Anyhow, last review....Biblical parenting. This is such a great book so far. I knew we would love it because we love her website and this book is all about grace being the motivator for discipleship of parents, not punishments or rewards or even discipline in a sense that many see it as. Its very eye opening and she is quiverfull which also makes the book more appealing because I know she has her heart in a similar place to our own. Speaking of Quiverfull: Did you all hear about Tuesday evening, the Jeub family and a few others will be profiled on Womens Entertainment chanel to speak about being Quiverfull? I am so super excited to watch. It will be on here on Tuesday evening at 7. Its on the "Secret Lives of Women" series they air. The only sick part, the show was first titled, "Born to Breed." They have since changed it thankfully as that sounded a wee bit degrading.

FlyLady Update

I want everyone to know I am still doing it all and still keeping up. I really love flylady. I have had 2 days where my sink lost its shine, but I got back at it the next day. I am tired yes, but I am making it work and Nate is happy for how clean the house has been. The only issue I see with her is that 1 load of laundry a day WILL NOT I repeat...WILL NOT keep chaos away for a large family. It takes more like 3 for me at least. Also, the home blessing she suggests 2X a week has to be done daily in my home. Maybe I am a cleanFreak or something, but I just dont think a house blessing 2X a week is even sanitary for a large family:)

Flylady Day 9

Nothing too exciting today. I added a 5 minute room rescue to my morning and cleaned up high(cobwebs) in living room areas. All in all, I am keeping up with EVERYthing she says to do and its all just becoming very habitual and I love it. I LOVE having a shining sink each day and being up and dressed bright and early and having my work out done and out of the way for the day. My home feels so in control and I can't imagine my sink being constantly full of dishes anymore. Its exciting.