One Has Flown the Nest

If you asked me last week how many lived in my household, I would have replied 7.  Now my answer would be 6.  I knew this day would come, actually it is what my role has been, to help prepare the children God has blessed me with to leave and make their mark on the world.

It isn't easy though.  I will miss the few minutes in the morning to chat before she heads out to work.  I will miss planning enough food so she might also have some leftovers for lunch.  I will miss her asking if I need help with dinner or something else.  I will miss the late night talks over something on her mind or heart.  Most of all, I will miss her texts saying "Imacominhome".  I'm thankful God has allowed me to build a relationship that causes a little sadness in her leaving the nest.  She hasn't gone too far so we can still enjoy times together and see each other at church.

There are 4 more to leave the nest so I will go through these emotions again but each time I will be thankful for the time I have had preparing them to spread their wings and fly.  I can't wait to see where her wings take her!

Seasons of Life

Empty bins sitting in my closet.  Overflowing bins use to sit in my closets, garage and anywhere else I could store them.  Twice a year, I would pull down the bins, empty out my girls' closets and we would spend an entire day trying on clothes and seeing what had been outgrown and therefore passed down or moved out of the closets and what needed to go back in the bins for another time.  I'm now down to maybe a bin in my youngest daughter's closet and what took a day now takes a few hours.

It symbolizes the rest of my life right now.  Instead of juggling multiple daughters and their various levels of learning, I only have 1 to teach and we can be done by 11 a.m. instead of someone still doing math when Daddy gets home in the evening.   I do a lunch out and can splurge on Chick-fil-A instead of figuring out how 5 of us can eat for $20 at McDonald's.  I can run errands alone because at least one of her sisters will be home instead of gathering up 4 little ones and making a run to the grocery store in between naps.

I miss those days!  The house can be so quiet when all of the older girls are off at jobs or school and it is just my youngest and myself.  I miss the girls running in and out of the house with laughter and sometimes tears.  Now I pray a quick prayer as a car leaves the driveway knowing that they are in God's hands, where they have always been but it is so more clear now.

Empty bins - a reminder of a full life that I am thankful for more and more every day!

Recap

Well, it has been quite awhile since I posted on here, almost 2 years.  Lots of life has happened in that time so this will be a brief recap.  When we last were together, it was the beginning of speech and debate season.  We had a really great season with all 3 girls making it to Regionals and then Hannah placing 2nd in the Region with her humorous speech earning a trip to Nationals.  She and I travelled with another club mom and daughter to Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA where Hannah competed and made it to quarterfinals!  This means she was in the top 32 speakers for Humorous Interpretation in the nation.  If you would like to see her speech, click here.

Later that summer, we had a graduation party for Victoria.

                                

It is hard to believe I have graduated 2 of them so far.  She is working 2 jobs at Publix and Maple Street Biscuits.  She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do and looking at possibly going to college in the future but then again, maybe not.

Kemie finished her AA degree this summer and is now working 3 jobs, one of them at our county election office.  This is due to turn into a full time job next fall so we are thankful for the Lord giving her this opportunity.

This leaves me with 3 to school.  Technically, I am only doing 1 because Hannah and Abigail are enrolled in dual enrollment at our local college.  I am still doing speeches with them and helping with their classes as needed.  They have both recently gotten their driver licenses and jobs, Hannah at Publix and Abigail at Chick-Fil-A.  Life has become real fun around here!

So that leaves Gretchen and I learning together and that is where I will pick up once again and try to blog regularly.  I may also throw in my thoughts on things occasionally.

Viva Mexico!!

It was crazy last week but I think I survived it.  We had our Apolojax meeting on Tuesday which is normally a long day but it was even longer last week.  Our good friends whose oldest daughter is getting married in December came in town from New Orleans.  I had to meet up with them Tuesday evening so we could tour the church for the wedding.  It ended up being a long night but enjoyable all the same.

Thursday was G's co-op meeting and it is my month to teach Geography.  Our family is doing Mexico!  G had made a salt dough map of the country.  Not bad for an 8 year old.

I decided to do a powerpoint to show some of the country's geographic features and history.  You should be able to see it below or you can download it as a .pptx file to watch with Powerpoint.  That way you can see all the little animations that were added.

Mexico

We also did a craft of making sombrero's.

Below are the items needed:

Paper plate (preferably all white)
Plastic cups (about 6 oz size)
Tissue paper
Tape
Crayons
Ribbon

I had the children color their plates with a crayon.  They then took a precut square of tissue paper, wrapped it around the cup and attached it with tape.  The bottom was tucked up into the cup.  3 pieces of tape were placed on the inside of the cup with the bottom part sticking out. 

You then tucked the tape under the cup with the sticky side facing down and set the cup on the plate. 

 We then added a piece of ribbon around the bottom of the cup.  You now have a completed sombrero!  Further decorating could be done at home.  The students loved putting them on their heads.

In science, they finished up the lesson on crustaceans.  For their craft, they made horseshoe crabs.

 

 The rest of the week was spent getting ready to help host a bridal shower.  I made some of the decorations along with the nametags.

 

This one is my favorite!  I love birds!!

 Sure am glad I have my Silhouette SD.  It makes projects more fun!

Links to photos in Powerpoint

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/1846361.jpg
http://imagine-mexico.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/viva_mexico.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/hidalgo-standing.jpg
http://www.mustangevolution.com/forum/f168/t26103/
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-hernando-cortez-aka-hernando-cortes-everett.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Storming_of_the_Teocalli_by_Cortez_and_His_Troops.jpeg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/mexico-spanish-conquest-granger.jpg
http://richard-seaman.com/Travel/Mexico/Teotihuacan/PyramidOfTheMoonFromPyramidOfTheSun.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_pyramids
http://www.mexicanheart.com/pyramids-in-mexico/
http://malinche.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Aztecs.jpg
http://historymartinez.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/fall-of-the-aztecs.jpg
http://www.globalsherpa.org/mayan-civilization-ruins-sites-culture-calendar-2012
http://www.robinurton.com/history/ancient/americas/olmec.jpg
www.edf.org/sites/default/files/slides/rainforest-bromeliad-minden-141530-718-377.jpg
http://www.americas-photos.com/mexico/images/iguane1.jpg
http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8188/8151178057_5766113cb5.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRefaRbAkQ5UkFElfMJGw7gYuVbGYRh1h36KjTPs0fQTO_i-qqaSA
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/8051156802_55acc4cbae_z.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6c4tiw9fU79QvE1WAJceD8e8uTr1fDsA27WgRSIlczfvgXgYHGbWx7LmWHDDUAdZLwgzH-0uo62T0DikLm9RKahPlWuQ34uO6m774zjZ4twZDvpZHIozJGXVQdxTug8F64ocnyJ-ogYJ/s200/cactus_001.jpg
http://www.cabosanlucasbeaches.com/pics/cabopulmobeach_021635_r2.jpg
http://www.yucatan-holidays.com/yh/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/loscabosmexicanbeach.jpg
tp://traveltips.usatoday.com/DM-Resize/photos.demandstudios.com/getty/article/61/175/medwt35048_XS.jpg?w=560&h=560&keep_ratio=1
http://www.southdreamz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Chihuahuan-Desert.jpg
http://www.tomzap.com/man/FLIGHTtoManzanilloMTY-BJX03.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sierra.madre.occidental.volcanics.JPG
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUVyvKyf66frt9M4b0zsDmg2ziwz3ejv1QWZ9MqWre2YBGO78KvaoJgFwHtpMYq0eyOg34LKpQZgh-WLrwZiBOeZMo_M_yL8BWknGjNVO-rUyrv9yx4BcnSCp_rr8Hs-cxmlVrvPCsVU/s640/6582672_f520.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Sombreros.JPG/800px-Sombreros.JPG

We did it!!!

Our family has budgeted for years but as the family grew in size and busyness, it has been harder and harder for me to keep up with finances so we could know where we were in the budget.  I have used a variety of methods but the one that is hitting the ball out of the park is EEBA.  We just finished our 2nd month of using it and it has allowed both my husband and I to see where we are in the budget at any time.

So, what did we do?  Well, the 13th of this month, after 2 big grocery shopping trips, I realized that we had gone over our grocery budget some.  As a family, we made the decision that we were not going to spend any more grocery money in the month of September.  Today is the 30th and we did it!!!  We never went hungry or missed a meal.  There is even some meat and veggies left.  The hardest thing was fresh fruits and veggies so we used lots of frozen and jarred items.  I will confess that I made one trip to the grocery store for a container of half & half but my girls paid for it because they had left my last, mostly full, container on the counter all day so it soured!  Sorry, have to have my creamer for coffee!!

I am thankful it is a new month so we can try again and see if we can stay under the budget this time!

Things that go togther - Not!

Peanut butter and jelly, pen and paper, bacon and eggs - all things that go together.  Chickens and dogs - not so much!  Ever since our Lab puppy showed up on our porch, we have seen trouble on the horizon.  Tonight it came to a head in that one of our chickens, Oreo, died as the result of rough treatment by the Lab.  This is the second chicken we have lost in the past month. The first, Peanut, died most likely while we were out of town and at the mouth of a carnivore like a coyote or fox.  We found only enough evidence to confirm it had been our chicken and that she had been out at least a day as there was a broken egg nearby.  We are also missing a 3rd chicken but hope she is just hidden good for the evening.

Our chickens are in coops with fenced in run areas but the gate is a little iffy on how secure it is.  That will be fixed in the next few days.  We are also giving a training tip that we read about on line a try so if it works, I will share about it.  If this happens again, there will be no grace and the dog will have to go.  Not an easy decision but the chickens are an investment.

Been a looong time

It has been over 3 years but I am back.  I have desired blogging again many times but just haven't done it.  Today, I spent an hour or two saving 60 pages of posts from my previous blog (I can't believe it was still on-line!) and while reading through the things I had wrote, I really desired to get back started so here I am.  I cleaned up the place, did some redecorating and am ready to go. 

Now, what has taken place since April 2009?  In a nutshell, much!!  We finally sold our house in August of 2009, spent the next year finding land and building a house.  You can read about that adventure here.  We have been settled in for 2 years this weekend, in fact!  We have added 9 chickens to our "farm" along with a bunny and black lab puppy.  We are still working on the garden after it was flooded out this summer by TS Debby.  It will need to be moved up closer to the house where it is a little drier.  We are currently waiting to dry up so we can work on that.

As for schooling, we are continuing on.  My oldest, Kemie (formerly known as Eldest), is dual enrolled at the local college and will be graduating this spring.  She has been driving for over a year and works at a local grocery store.  Victoria (formerly known as Longlegged girl) is possibly going to dual enroll in the spring and is learning to drive.  Hannah (Twin 1) and Abigail (Twin 2) are in high school level now.  The older girls are all doing speech through our local club and the NCFCA while Victoria is debating for the second year and Kemie is going to give it a try her last year.  They are debating Lincoln/Douglas style.  The youngest, Puddin, is now in 2nd grade and enjoying a small co-op at our church for science.

As for me, I am busy keeping everyone on track, leading the co-op, being the speech coach and just basically keeping the Mahan machine running.

You are hopefully caught up and will desire to continue following our adventures.  Check out the sidebar for ways to do that.  Until later (but not too long)!