If I only had a month of Sundays....

I've spent the better part of this morning just ogling over some wonderful things on other people's blogs....

And because my camera has taken the final dirt nap, I can't show you any of my projects right now.

But here are a few that I simply LOVE to look at and can't wait to copy!

This gorgeous homemade dry erase calendar from Somewhat Simple!

Perfect for our spot in the kitchen.  And I'll be adding a corkboard above for all those school notes and papers.

Aren't these pillows just PERFECT?  I LOVE THEM!!  And for goodness sake, even I can sew a square!  You can find the whole tutorial over at The Blessed Nest.

How about this gorgeous mod-podge light cover?  So easy and yet it adds so much to a room decor.  This I can do!!  Thanks Leanne over at Organize and Decorage Everything! 

I truly love this idea!  I don't have 5 kids~~~but I do have a great family and I can picture doing this with a great Bible quote and family pics!  Great ideas over at How Does She?! 

And I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to find this tutorial!  I've been wanting to do a Lego table for the boys for a year now.....perfect idea for an old table I have in the garage!  Thanks Kate over at the Gaines Gang!

How about you?  Have you found anything wonderful on the Web lately? 

New Year--it is still January, right?

 It is still January so technically, ahem!  I can still say
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


I've thought many, MANY days about catching up on the blog but then doubt would interfere and I'd ask myself, "What do I really have to say right now?"


I am at a crossroads of sorts.  Not quite sure what to blog about.  My life has changed.  My focus is much different than it was six months ago.


Or is it?


I went back to recap on some of my blog entries from the past year.  They reflect a woman who was driven in many ways.  Driven to create the best home for her family.  Driven to feed her family well, AND frugally.  Driven to be a better wife, a better Mom, a much better follower of Christ.


Those things have not changed. 

My daily routine has changed.  But those goals are still there.  Still REALLY there!  With some new challenges mixed in.  As you all know, I work Monday through Friday again.  A new career focus.  New challenges professionally.

But the depth of who I am remains the same.  I struggle to make sure our marriage is growing.  I want to show my husband that he is the head of our family.  I want to get better at giving him the reins in which to lead our family and lead our marriage.  That means that I continue to learn to let go.  Let go of my selfish will.  Let go of my stubborn emotions.  Let go of my need to control!  Go out of my way to encourage him, to support him, to listen to him and to show him how much he means to me. 

I continue to work at this Mama-gig.  There are still numerous lessons to teach our sons.  Many kisses to send their way.  Hugs too.   I still want SH and I to lead their education and growth.  It helps that we absolutely love the Christian preschool that they are attending.  Every day they come home reciting a new Bible verse, talking about how they learned about Christ that day and singing songs over and over and OVER again!!  We are very comfortable that we made the right choice of schools for them to attend.  And they love it so that helps us to feel so very comfortable with the decision.   We are learning more and more every day about their personalities and how that is growing in to the young men they are.  They are set in many ways.  Big Boy continues to be emotional, very sensitive and very thoughtful.  You cannot get a single thing past that boy.  We must carefully choose our words and actions, every day.  Because he picks up on them every. single. time.  Little Guy continues to be the free spirit.  He is goofy and enjoys to be the life of the house!  We must be careful not to assume that means he is silly and reckless because he is not.  He simply does not take any part of life too seriously.  That will help our Type A driven home, A LOT! 

There are goals that I have for 2010.  Every year I try to identify things that I want to accomplish, both for myself and for our family.  This year is no different.  So in no sense of order at all:

1)  Strengthen our family bond with Christ.  SH and I have talked about this and have made some concrete measures to include God in our daily lives.  We pray every day on the way to school with the boys.  We pray at meals.  We pray at other times too.  We talk about our behaviors and how they either please God or displease Him.  We don't attend church as often as we feel like we should.  Let's face it, church is a habit.  And one I feel like we need to strengthen in our entire family.  We are somewhat torn as to what church to attend so that is a journey we must attend to.  We talk about God daily and His sacrifices for us.  We don't talk about our sacrifices for Him nearly as much.  Room for growth in this area, definitely.

2)  Remove ourselves from $50,000 of debt, which will include remaining credit card debt, home equity, student loan and mortgage.  We won't be debt free but we can be closer to the prize!  Definitely something we can do if we really focus.  REALLY focus!

3)  Take charge of my health.  Let's face it.  I'm almost 42 years old.  42 folks.  That is, ahhhhhhh, close to middle age?!  No matter how young I feel.  No matter how late I started with the whole parenting gig (so I feel like I'm 30 with preschoolers, when in reality I'm almost 42 with preschoolers!).  The body is just not gonna hold up like it did 12 years ago.  Time to really start looking at ensuring those healthcare dollars are well spent on prevention!

4)  And as always, there is a smattering of decorating projects, garden plans, weekend trips to plan.  Little things to make family memories.  Those change every other week so I'll keep those on the back burner.

5)  Keep up with the blog.  Even the mundane, inconsequential things.  Because someone may find them mildly entertaining.  And I love going back to read where life has taken us in the past year. 

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!

13 days n' countin'....

Remember that day I told you I was running in a triathlon?

I still am.

In 13 days!

I'm getting a bit nervous. Still training for it. Today went quite well. 2.3 miles on the treadmill and it FELT FANTASTIC!

I've followed the directions in the book that I told you about in the last post, The Complete Guide to Running. It really doesn't stir you in the wrong direction. It has some fantastic information.

Like stretching. Really helps a lot! Especially those tender little calves.

And hydration. Helps MORE THAN A LOT! It is a quite long and painful workout when you have no reserve.

So I'm keeping it up and working toward my goal.

What is my goal for the race, you ask?

Breathing and still upright. THAT would be good!!

What's Keeping Me Busy

I've had a few followers ask me what was keeping me so busy these days.

And it really is swimming lessons, laundry, work, laundry, swimming, laundry....you get the picture.

The other thing that is keeping me occupied? Plans to return to grad school.

I reveal this fact a little hesitantly. Grad school. Work. Grad School. Laundry. Grad school. Homeschool. Grad school. Lessons. It will be a very hefty goal. And exhausting. One I'm very well aware of. I finished my last degree when I was six months pregnant with Big Boy. And not one moment too soon. I was ready to be done. VERY happy to be done. Adament that I did not want to return to school. Done.

I guess I wasn't done. Super Hubs and I have been discussing long-term goals again. The uncertainty of his career has weighed heavy on our hearts for quite some time. It is not improving and we are facing the reality that it may never resume the once rock-solid career it once was. Maybe...maybe not. But it is all he's ever done. All he is educated in. All he's ever wanted to do. So if he is to continue in this field, we need to think about how we will continue our goals towards retirement and our family. To continue on this road, we think it would be best if I went back to school to get my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) license. That would give me more flexibility in my career, more opportunities and as with most any healthcare career these days, more security. All good things, right? I am very blessed to have chosen a career that is so solid in this waning economy. I'm very blessed to be given this opportunity to help others in such a meaningful way. I'm aware that these two factors are such a blessing from God. I'm not complaining. But honestly, I'm a bit hesitant and sad, maybe? School is very hard work and very demanding on my time. I've been blessed to place our boys, and our family, at the very top of my priority list for the past several years. I'm not all that excited about making something else a priority.

So I'm revealing this to you, my bloggy friends, so that if I ever should whine, complain, oh! let's-face-it! Bitch---about my blessed opportunity to do this, please remind me of what a blessing it really is?! Help me to keep my eye on the prize! This degree would afford me the opportunity to practice my skills in very productive, direct avenues to help people (I'm seeing some terrific medical missions in my future! How awesome would that be for the boys to participate in?!). It would possibly afford us the opportunity to move closer to our families. And very likely, to keep some rock-solid job security in our family. So I'm sucking it up, friends, and getting back to work on those applications. I'll keep you up-to-date on how it's going. And hopefully, you won't hear me complaining too much about the workload. Let's keep it real though....if you are anywhere in the Southeastern U.S., at some point, you just may hear me throw a Pharmacology textbook at the wall....

Kid Friendly Friday!

A definite must-have in our homeschooling 'curriculum' (if you can call it that....I'm creating things as I go and not buying anything right now...) is this item here:


It is a fantastic video! The boys love it and I really enjoy it as well!!

Now, I do not endorse teaching children via video for the most part. We do a lot of discussions regarding proper phonics, letters and sounds as well. We write, paint, color and draw our letters.

This video is an excellent SUPPLEMENT to your other teaching methods. The phonics and pronounciation hints have been really helpful. I find the boys quoting the video often, making the proper letter sounds and identifying their letters correctly. It's been very rewarding to see a video so effective.

I believe that items that really reinforce your homeschool lessons are worth the money. This is one of those items. In the future, I will continue to endorse items that I think are really worthy of your hard-earned dollars and time. If it is not helpful in our homeschooling efforts, I'll clue you in on that too. Not all items that are labeled "homeschooling" or advertised as a must-have for homeschooling are necessary. You can do so much at home, without a structured curriculum or costly one, to teach your children. You simply have to be creative and search around. The second best part of our Letter Factory video? It was a STEAL at less than $10!!

Stay tuned for more recommendations that we're using or going to be using in our homeschool adventure.

In the meantime, head on over to I Blame My Mother for more wonderful Kid Friendly articles! Lots of great stuff!!

Oh my....biting my lip already!

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend last night.

She was asking when I was sending the boys off to all day preschool and Pre-K so I could "get a break".

And I told her--again--I'm homeschooling them.

She asked what curriculum I'm following. And we talked about how I'm not sure, maybe not one at all during this preschool year, or maybe something? Who knows?

And then instantly, I found myself feeling under the gun. You know....The Pressure. What do you mean you aren't following a curriculum? How do you teach them to read? Where do you start? What do you do? I talked about research that has shown the importance of instilling the love of learning, establishing routine, teaching them through play, and on and on. She kept going back to...How do they learn? She didn't quite see homeschooling like I do.

I found myself feeling very uncomfortable. Like I needed to EXPLAIN myself. Needing to DEFEND our choices. I really don't like that feeling!

I have heard how often HSing parents feel exactly this same way. I truly pray that my time in this discomfort, this questioning period, is short-lived. I have become more comfortable with this decision to home school in the past six months. But I do still do wonder if maybe I'm doing this for all the wrong reasons. Maybe I just don't know what I'm doing at all.....

I'm not good at living the in state of maybe. I'm really much better at just knowing. Though, maybe, this is why God has planted this seed in us, in me, in the first place. So I can spend a little time in the maybe.

And all the rest of my time....knowing.

Friend Makin' Monday!

Over at All That Is Good....we're makin' friends! Kasey is asking what our Top 10 Favs for summer are. Here are mine:

1. Longer days! I love that the sun shines pretty brightly from about 6am to 8pm. It makes the day long and luxurious! I can get a bit of a mid-day nap and STILL have tons of time to get things done. If we hit the beach for the entire day, you feel like you've been gone ForEver!

2. Water, water, everywhere! If you've read anything on this blog in the past week or so, it's been about WATER! Kids love it, we love it....water is GOOD!

3. Fresh summer veggies! One of the things I'm most anticipating for our trip home to Iowa this year (besides my bestest friends wedding! WOOHOO!) is the fresh summer sweet corn and veggies straight from Mom's garden! Oh I can't wait for the green peppers, corn, tomatoes. We'll gorge on veggies for two weeks straight!

4. Open air! We open our windows and doors as much as possible and let the fresh air in. That's another part of going home....they don't have a/c so we spend the whole time either outside or the house with all the windows open. Love that breeze!

5. Swimming lessons. This year we are starting the boys in their swimming lessons. Oh I can't wait!

6. Watermelon! Yummy, juicy, juicy, JUICY watermelon! Oh. My!

7. Summer rains. Here in Florida, we tend to get a summer rain in the middle of the afternoon. It's short, sweet and usually to the point. Doesn't mess up your whole day. Very refreshing. Love the way new rain smells and we love listening to the thunder.

8. Pedicures! Can I always have toes that look like this?

9. Shorts and T-shirts. Our summer staples. Comfy, casual, perfect.

10. Vacations. Summer feels like it's the time to take vacations. Even if you take them other times of the year. Summer vacation is a requirement in life, right?

I hope you all have a terrific summer! And head on over to Kasey's place to make some new friends this summer!

Join in on the FUN!

I'm hookin' up with a couple of wonderful friends to get some projects done. I'm joining in with procrastinators everywhere and admitting that, a'hem....I always have more projects going on than I care to report. So...here it goes. My name is Sharon....and I'm a flagrant, relapsing PROCRASTINATOR! There you have it! But alas! There is hope for recovery for us all.....join me and all my friends over at The Inspired Room as we all try to finish up a few loose ends. My projects are many but here a couple that I promise will be done by May 14th:



I've had this chair FOREVER! Can't even recall where I got it but I've always really liked it. But it obviously needs a little work....think I'll spruce it up and put it on my front porch.


These wonderful little goodies were from Dollar Tree....I see a great addition to our front doors coming....


And this platter was given to us for our wedding 5 years ago. While I love the colors, I don't really use it and don't like the front of it much at all. So I have an idea that involves some chalkboard paint.....

Which leads me to another wonderful little carnival that my friend Chrissie over at in His Grace involving some chalkboard paint.

I hope y'all join with me for one of these great carnivals. Check back in a week or so to see what I've come up with. I'm not promising anything amazing....but it will be DONE!

Oh distractions & desires!

I've decided that my outside job is really impeding on my life right now. I don't work that much---part-time on the weekends and I pick up teaching jobs here and there. But I'm not wanting to do any of it right now. And it is because of this new blogging hobby I have going....and all the wonderful things I'm seeing and learning about!! I REALLY want to be at home trying to paint furniture, helping my kids to create fun art projects, getting the garden tilled and planted....the list goes on and on and on! I would SO rather be doing these things! I'm thinking maybe if I make myself a list, gather my goals all in one place, that *maybe* I might, just might, get something accomplished and feel so much better! Here is my list...

1) paint two side tables for the living area. Something like this.
2) create a wall collage for the spare bedroom--I'm thinking canvas squares with various colored scrap paper collages
3) learn to crochet wash cloths
4) paint the master bath's accessories....because I truly cannot stand pastel lavender/green/mauve any more!
5) re-do the bathroom. I was thinking of getting rid of the wallpaper border....Little Man A.K.A. 'The Psychic' figured that out and was so kind to RIP THE PAPER off in two very obvious places! Guess we'll move this one up the list now...
6) paint the family area
7) paint a few of the kitchen accessories--getting rid of the light green and going more dark green/gold-brown/deep brown colors. Very Tuscany-like.
8) going to do some window mistreatments...yes, you heard it....mistreatments much like my creative friend at Thrifty Decor Chick. In fact, she really is to blame for all this angst....I SO want to grow up and be just like her!
9) container garden at least 4 new veggies in the next month.
10) work on the boy's homeschool 'curriculum' that starts in August.

OK, OK...please stop me! It'll take me a month of Sundays to get even one of these done! But there---the first step to recovery is to create a plan, right?!

Raising Polite Kids

We received, what I believe, is one of the nicest compliments ever, just the other day. Friends of ours, rather 'new' friends, invited us over for dinner and a play date with Big Boy's BFF. These two boys get along famously and we, as parents, do as well. We've really grown fond of the whole family. And they paid us the nicest compliment the other day. We had not seen them for about 2 weeks, because of back-to-back vacations for them and us. When we saw them, both of our boys ran up to hug the mom and dad, before running to play with the boy. They were very excited to see everyone, parents as well as the boys. And that was the compliment. The mom, my friend, noticed how friendly our boys are to them, as parents. They were genuinely excited to see both the mom and dad. And she noticed that particular quality. "They are always so excited to see us as well as our son. That is wonderful!" she stated. And, though I had not really noticed, it didn't surprise me. Our children are expected to greet both adult and children, everyone who is in the room or in the family, when we visit other families. We see it as a sign of respect. And from the time they were capable of waving hi or blowing a kiss, we've encouraged them to greet our guests and say goodbye when they were leaving. It never occurred to us that it was a "novelty" but now we have noticed that not all kids are taught this. But we have always made it an expectation and it comes very naturally at this point. And it was so nice to have someone notice. Raising polite and respectful children is high on our list of priorities. We spend a great deal of time talking to them and demonstrating to them, how to be respectful to others. They watch us so closely and it is necessary to show them how to be respectful, as well as openly discussing respect. We identify how others are not kind or respectful, when we see it. Big Boy has gotten quite astute at picking these things up and talks about it often. That is What Works For Us---raising polite, respectful kids. And how wonderful that it is starting to show!

Hop on over this week to We Are That Family for more WFMW tips!

Do I or don't I?

I've been thinking a lot lately about our homeschooling aspirations. And am more convinced now than ever that it is definitely something we're going to do. Starting in August. Which is when Big Boy would be starting a VPK (voluntary Pre-K program) if we sent him somewhere. Little Man is still 3 but chomping at the bit to be everything that his big brother is. Here is where I need help from my wonderful bloggy family.....I'm unsure if we should start a curriculum or if we should just go with what we've been doing. I've done tons of research on the 'net and some reading. I truly believe in the power of play, free time for children of preschool ages. I believe this is where they learn the most important lessons at this point; how to share, cooperation, patience, relationship-building with children of all ages. We do a lot of that. We have friends that are both the boys' ages, friends with older kids, younger kids and many friends with no children. We take our boys just about everywhere we go and they are learning to play alone, with each other and with kids of all ages. We review basics. We've been teaching, mostly Big Boy, colors, numbers, shapes, letters. We do need to incorporate Little Man a little more on these lessons, but it is difficult since his attention span is so much shorter than Big Boy's. So here is our dilemma....Do we start a true curriculum at this point or keep proceeding as we are? If we do start one, which one do we go with? We are very interested in a Christian component as we do incorporate Bible stories at this time but they are just that, stories and "entertainment". I found a few books over the weekend that I will be ordering. They mainly discuss the power of play and how integral play is in the formation of healthy children. They would, I guess, be more geared toward the "go with what is working" thought in this discussion. So, what about you? Have you homeschooled preschoolers? What did you do?

Our windfall

We received our income tax return last Friday. Now before all my frugal friends and Personal Finance gurus scream, I'll just come out of the closet and say that yes, it was a return and yes, it is a bit of a return. Before y'all scream at us about how we are loaning our government free money and how that is the number one sin in the eyes of PF'ers around the country....just relax. We understand all that. And we've discussed it. And we are keeping things just as they are, thank you very much! We've decided that what is best for us is that we will continue to keep our return the way it is. The interest that could be earned on the money, should we save it, would be relatively minor. We like having a "windfall". We like a little surge in the budget once a year. It is purely psychological and it works for us. So we're keeping it that way. Thank you for your concern.

Now....what we find as the most enjoyable part is the diversion of funds when we get our windfall. This is how we're dividing up our return this year:

-Some to our emergency fund to beef it up a bit.
-Property taxes that are not put into escrow.
-Homeowner's Association dues for 2009.
-Upgrade computer equipment to better accommodate the software for my husband's photography business.
-Pay off a couple of debts.

That is how we are doing it this year. And it feels really good to have some resolution to outstanding debts (the taxes, HOA dues) and a little extra for the computer equipment. We are followers, albeit not religiously, of Dave Ramsey's principles. Have you heard of Dave? He is a fantastic Personal Finance advisor and we use his principles outlined in the Total Money Makeover. Now Dave would really chastise us for loaning the government money and for that, we'll take our licks. We do follow his Baby Steps and think that his overall program is sound. We're on Baby Step 2--eliminating all debt. We've got a bit of all the steps tackled and did before joining him. Now we are trying to refine our budget and work on things in his method. If you haven't checked him out, we'd really encourage you to take a look! Check us out again in the future to be able to hear us scream "We're Debt Free!!"

I'm a TEACHER?!?

So today I got to teach....a teacher....someone in charge of another person's formal education. Really? I mean, teaching is such a noble calling. And it was what I played as a little girl. I played teacher. I would sit in the old desk, you know the kind that had the seat and desk attached, with the wooden top that my big brother had carved his name in. I would organize my pencils, sharpened of course. I would stack my papers and search for the one red pen in the house so I could grade my work. I would make my brother call me Mrs. I loved playing teacher! And today I got to be a real teacher! Wow!

I've picked up some teaching at the hospital where I work, teaching nursing students about
mental health. Since I've been in the mental health field in some capacity for about 20 years now, it comes rather naturally. But I've never been an actual teacher. It is fun! And exciting and a bit daunting as well. I hope to be one of those teachers that someone talks about someday. I mean in a good way. Honestly, the whole reason I became a nurse was because my community college science teachers were women. And brilliant. And so inspiring! It was the first time in my life that I realized women could be smart and scientific and good teachers. Sadly, not a lot of smart inspiring female teachers in my tiny little high school that I remember. But these two women in my first college experience were fantastic. I hope I can be inspiring, at least mildly interesting and motivate students to want more. I think that it is the key in education. You may not learn it all but be inspired to learn as much as you can.

Oh the pressure.

Gotta get off my......

I won't finish that sentence but I'm betting you did.

No excuses for not blogging except to say I'm a new blogger and it just hasn't been my priority. The other reason is that I've been working much more.....more than my typical Sat & Sun at the local hospital, where I am part of the "Baylor" plan. I work 24 hours, get paid for 32 and still qualify for some benefits. It's an awesome program and when I pick up another shift or two, it really helps put a boost into our debt reduction plan!!

Speaking of The Plan....we're getting more focused on exactly what needs to be done to eliminate the closed business debt. The history in a nutshell is.....new business, didn't work, closed and now, leftover debt. I wish it was so much more exciting than that but sadly, it is not. We wanted to pursue the American Dream.....and discovered that was the WRONG road and now, realize we are living the American Dream. With a bit of debt to go with it!!

Soon I think I'll be willing to post more details about the plan and how much debt is out there. For now, I came across this great article about the top priorities of getting out of debt. Here are ours:

1) So that our sons will never see, firsthand, how stressful and overwhelming debt can be. How it eats at your soul and heart at times. They are young (2 & 3 years old) and blissfully unaware of the debt and it's toll on us now.

2) We long to get out of our debt so we can give more freely to others, in a financial way. We truly want to help finance churches and charities in ways that it makes it difficult now. We give in other ways but we would like to give financially as well.

3) We want to "put our money where our mouth is" so to speak. We HATE, HATE, HATE debt!!! Enough to truly make some changes. Hard to talk about not believing in this much debt when you have this much debt....

4) FREEDOM! To live without the thought of "what are we going to do....". I really cannot stand the thoughts that awaken me from sleep about how we're going to reduce the debt.

5) SURVIVAL! The business did not survive but we will. When we are finally able to put it away for good, we'll truly be able to tell the story of how we survived this incredible challenge from God. I can't wait....

6) Value statement! The one VERY good thing about the process is that it is helping us to truly put our values out there. Separating those needs vs. wants. Showing one another the lengths that we are willing to go to to get to the finish line! It is bringing my husband and I closer together.

7) Challenge & Unity. One thing that has ALWAYS identified our relationship is challenge and unity. We grew up in different cultures and different geographical areas. Our union has always been somewhat of a challenge. We are of different cultures, different skin color, different family values. Yet we were able to go beyond all those things and find the very things that unified us.....a belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior, a belief that family is your second highest priority in life, after Christ, a belief that you share your love openly with those around you, whether they be related by blood or friendship or humanity itself. This journey is challenging and unifying us again....and again....and again.

What are your reasons to rid yourself of debt?