The last day of November.

Aack! I cannot *believe* we're flipping the calendar to the LAST month of 2009 tomorrow! Is that crazy or what?! Where on earth did this year go?
I've got plenty that I could share... but for this evening- just a post to ease my conscience and get a few peeps off my back (wink,wink -you know who you are & I love you).

Our Thanksgiving was lovely and as usual- it flew by much too fast. The food was delicious but I think I savored little family moments captured forever much more... I wish I would've had my camera out more but it was nice to just "be". TONS of leftovers between three Thanksgiving dinners with family... Have I mentioned how much I *LOVE* turkey sandwiches??? I do. very much. And it's a good thing. We will be living off turkey for a good while. Turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey pot pie...


photo: Annie Schlechter

I'll try and post again with more news tomorrow.
I have a new laptop coming in a few days and I cannot BEGIN to tell you how excited I am! The timing couldn't be better because the other one is on the fritz. I feel as though I've lost an appendage and don't know what to do with myself. *giggle* Sad, right?

XOXO
~S

Catch Up...

Attempting to get things caught up, as I sit here watching BattleStar Galactica with my brood. Aren't laptops one of the best inventions ever?! I certainly think so!

So what's been happening around here lately?

• AWANA's Harvest Party at church. SUCH a nice evening for us all.
• All of us have been on the verge of getting sick but nothing full fledged yet.. just achey, sporadic fever here and there, dizziness. Then the symptoms go away after a few hours and we're left feeling tired but otherwise fine. We've been like this for a week now. I'm trying to keep us home as much as possible and pumped with fluids, vitamins and rest but...this flu season causes some anxiety.
• This business of it being dark at 4:30pm is a bit crazy. I'd be perfectly content to roll into bed an hour or two later!
• The hubsters father has moved into the neighborhood and the littles have loved walking over in the later afternon to visit for a little while and we've had him over for dinner and movies a couple times now. It's been nice to have him close by.
• Perplexed about upcoming birthdays of my littles. They're only a few days apart so we typically combine them but it's always crazy. And what to do this year?? WHere? Without costing an absolute fortune, I might add. That's a key issue, really.
• A smidge of rearranging furniture in the living/dining room area. Nothing drastic but it's nice to improve on functionality. Especially since we use the dining room for our schooling.
• I'm over the concept of boxing up our school work, projects, etc at the end of everyday so it wouldn't get in the way of our home decor... I realized that I enjoy leaving out the kids jars of pencils and crayons. I stopped posting our timeline in a notebook and put it up on the wall so we can all view it on a regular basis- school "time" or not. Leaving our posters up... it's a part of our lives- an integral part right now. To foster a love of learning- and pique the interest- I've already discovered that it's beneficial! Leaving out books on our current topics in History, the littles thumb through them at their leisure, and get sucked in! I've caught them doodling stories about people living in Egypt. It's these little things that affirm!
• Starting to get some requests for photo shoots. Cannot tell you how exciting this is. Working on business cards and other things. I'm building my portfolio right now, so if you know anyone wanting photos but not able to afford a lot- this is the perfect opportunity! Email me for details!
• Thankful for God's hand in my life. So many things have been going on recently- yet I see His faithfulness and guideance through it all. Even very unpleasant, emotional situations. Situations where I have to make the decision to step up when it's much more comfortable to sit back & remain acceptable in others eyes. But I know its best to be more concerned with being acceptable in Gods eyes versus those of others. Seeing and experiencing the consequences though... that's a tough one. I will say it's taught me about strength and truth of character- both in myself and in others.
• Holidays are rapidly approaching. We started listening to Christmas music today... going to remember to focus on what's truly important instad of getting wrapped up in the marketing, the scheduling and the emptiness of it all. When you focus on the surface, the holiday passes and you're left with this melancholy, hollow feeling like "All that work. All that time thinking about it. Working toward it----and just like that. It's over". I don't know how many years I've had this feeling but I *hate* feeling like that and it's up to me to change that- for my family and myself.
• I could ramble about bits and pieces and thoughts on this and that for a long. long. time.
• See all that cereal and hair product down there? Essentially free. Used Target Gift Cards earned from previous deals to buy this and earned two more Gift Cards...so I spent nothing and they paid me to take the cereal. Gotta love that! I used coupons to maximize the hair products- it only came to $1.49 for the three (but again, I used a gift card!). I've said it before and I'll say it again, these things make me giddy!!
  
  

Enough rambling for now.....

XOXO

~S