Monday: We had a great start for the week. I like everyone up on time and the morning chores done before school. Well, I think Ty is going through a growth spurt because he has been getting up later and later. I think it is important to "stick to the schedule" but I just read an article about letting the children sleep until they wake up naturally. I have found that when Ty gets up on his own he is a much better mood and is able to focus better on his schooling. I am all for that, however, I cannot wait until 11 am to get started. We do bible study and morning work together. One day Bre didn't want to wait and had all her school work done before Ty even got out of bed. Now, I know the mainstream educational "experts" would gasp at the idea of letting your child sleep in. :) I have seen the benefits of natural sleep myself, but I do have a limit. Anyhow, Monday morning without any prompting from me, TY woke up around 7:00am. I was one happy mama! I pray that he will make a habit of this. If not I will be howling at 9:30 every morning for him to get up and break his natural sleep. At least he doesn't have to get up at 6am to catch a bus. :)

I was supposed to go to Mom's Night Out with a bunch of fabulous homeschool moms at Panera Bread. But Matt had a job in Ithaca. Next Month, I am NOT missing it, even if I have to walk.



Tuesday: We had another great EARLY start on our day. WooHoo! I started the spaghetti sauce and meatballs in the crockpot before school and prepared the salad and such, so I wouldn't have much to do before the Pastors David and Nicole came over with their family for dinner. (I wrote about that in a previous blog) I am noticing more and more how much Bre enjoys homemaking and hosting. She helped prepare the tables and she truly enjoyed herself.



Wednesday: I gave the kids their morning work on a clip board while I did some laundry. Breanna was still working on it for about an hour after I thought she should have been done. She comes up to me and said she needed a mop. I said, "Why?, what spilled?" She said "my brain, it exploded about a half an hour ago!" Then she turned in her papers. Poor dear did a whole week and a half works of cursive, grammar and spelling! I didn't realize that I had attached that much to her clipboard. Oh, my. :)



Thursday: My friend Mandy had invited us to help make necklaces for Make-A-Wish along with a couple of other homeschool families. Her Daughter Becca, Bre's very good friend has had 5 heart surgeries and has surpassed what the Doctors expected her life expectancy to be. Isn't God AWESOME! Well, Mandy and Becca are still very involved with the Make A Wish Foundation and invited us along to help. We had a great time chatting and making necklaces. We did over 400 in only 2 1/2 hours! We took a tour of the building and did a small walk out to the pond afterwards. My heart goes out to those families that need MAW services. The strength and Faith they have is very inspiring and makes me appreciate all of our blessings and trials that much more.



Friday: Fridays are always crazy busy, however this Friday was the craziest ever. Cassie asked me if she could throw Josh a surprise birthday party here at the house. She said I wouldn't have to do anything. Well, I was already running around like a mad woman, when I got home, she didn't have anything prepared and it was already 4:00. She was taking Josh out to dinner and everyone would be here waiting for them when they got here. (with him blind folded of course) I only had an hour and a half to take a shower and get ready for LOF and pick up a bag of chips for LOF when I realized how much still needed to be done. I told Cassie I would take care of it-Just go! I figured I could skip the shower and still have enough time to go. Well, just after I finished putting the last dish on the food table and positioning the balloons, people already were showing up. I was a bit flustered and wasn't sure what I should do. I didn't want to leave the kids in charge and Matt had a retirement party to attend also. It was one of those days . I had Matt run the chips to Mandy at LOF and decided to stay here and "try" to host the party until Cassie got back. Josh has a LOT of family members. :) The house filled up pretty quickly and I soon forgot that I looked like a disaster. No really, I was up since 6am running around and going to Gym day and everything. It wasn't until I saw a picture on the digital camera, and I was mortified. Oh well. enough about that. I am so happy that I was able to spend some time getting to know Josh's family. They all are very funny and down to earth. Actually, I feel like I have known them my whole life. You ever meet someone like that? His whole family is like that. Cassie called me on their way back here from Red Lobster to let me know they were on their way back (out of ear shot of josh) so everyone scrambled into the Kitchen to yell "Surprise!" I will post pictures soon. After all the hugs and birthday wishes, Josh said he had an announcement to make. I noticed his hands shaking, and I knew! They are officially engaged! So, I guess the surprise was on us!! I though he was going to wait until summer. :) Now, I have to tell you I was a bit woozy and emotional. I know they are great together and will have an awesome Godly marriage. BUT that's my BABY! :) I am happy for them and sad for me. I am being very emotional. Matt is so calm and everyone else seemed to think this is the most perfect thing to happen. I am still a little annoyed with Matt for being so calm about it. :) However, Josh's mom had that same look as I and we both cried:out of happiness and sadness. I immediately felt better. Not at her expense, but because I wasn't just being an emotional basketcase for no reason. Matt said with all his logic, at least she will not be going out into the world or marrying a non christian. Josh is a very nice guy with motivation and I know he will treat her very well. with that said, I am excited for my daughters soon to be (a year)adventure in life. I have posted much to long about my emotional state. Please forgive me. :) This is a new phase in life that I did not think would happen so soon.

Saturday: We had the Garlocks over for dinner. Now, they are gluten,dairy and meat free like so many other of our friends. We have been talking about becoming gluten free for some time because of allergies, IBS and just to be healthier. So I figured this would be a good learning experience for us. I make a mean homemade macaroni and cheese dish. So, I figured I would just substitute the dairy for non-dairy and the noodles with non-gluten noodles. I also made a salad, gluten free banana bread ,organic applesauce and steamed veggies. Well, the Mac and Cheese was HORRIBLE. It tasted like cardboard to say the least. I am so grateful that the Garlocks were very gracious and we just loaded it with salt. We had good laugh over it. Joya gave me some good tips also, for next time. Overall, we had a great time. Jeremy gave Ty drum lessons while the girls played together and Joya and I chatted. They are such a lovely family. It is such a blessing to have so many great christian friends come into our lives. We are going to get together over spring break for some fun!

Sunday: My moms's birhtday!! We went to Church and then straight to my moms. We had a great time over pizza. We left there after a few hours to come home and get ready for the church's 5th year anniversary celebration with the Chris Hopper Band. Whew, it was awesome!! That word doesn't even come close to just how good they are! I had to purchase one of their cd's. I wish I could have gotten them all, but I only had enough cash on me to get one. It was really cool, when he came up to us and said to me "I had my eye on you, you are a true Worshiper of God!!" I was very blessed by that. We had cake and punch and called it a night. I am going to use their Cd for our morning worship. Well, we sure did have a busy week huh? Spring-Fall usually are like this. It feels good after such a long quite winter.