Dishwasher

Yep going there!  For 13 years of marriages, 4 children and 3 moves we lived without a dishwasher.  I am SUPER THANKFUL for the dishwasher we have been blessed to have for the past year.  Oh it's not perfect, I still have to rinse and occasionally have to rewash dishes but all in all I LOVE IT!  Makes my life a lot less "busy" and I can spend more time goofing around with the kids.  So today...Day 2 of thankfulness I am thankful for my dishwasher!

My Pups

  Today I am thankful for my pups.  We have two right now and I would LOVE to add another one but it is just not possible right now. One day I will have a little long hair Dachshund.

Bentley is a 3 yr old Schnauzer. He is our little guard dog, always in charge, on guard and ready to attack anyone that comes to the door. He is loving in his little way but is not one to cuddle.  He hates the vacuum and as soon as I bring it out, it's an all force attack against it.  He isn't always the fierce attack do.  He LOVES playing fetch.  Lovers playing with balls of all size; from small bouncy balls, to tennis balls, beach balls and even foot balls.  If you have it in your hand and he thinks it's a ball he will being barking telling you immediately..."Throw me the Ball!"  Very loudly and won't stop till you do. Bentley has a unique story, he was sold to a man who loved him but lost his house in foreclosure.  Becoming homeless and unable to take him he left him in the house with another dog. For how long we have no idea.  The original breeder went to visit her sister and they stopped by this man's home to find the house locked up and could hear the dogs barking.  What they found was deplorable! They got in through a door that was unlocked, found them with no food, drinking toilet water and living in their own feces in a bathroom. She took the dogs home, gave them baths, fed them and got the two dogs the medical attention they needed.  This woman being a truck driver could not keep either one of them and put them up for adoption after they were nursed back to health.  We were blessed to be chosen to take him home with us.  We were prepared to pay her and adoption fee but she refused when she heard we had 4 children.  So Bentley came to live with us when he was just 10 months old.   Such a  rough start but he as adjusted and is very much a part of our hearts and family.

Then we have our Oddie. We believe he is part Poodle and maybe Maltese but we have no idea and really don't care. He is the complete opposite of Bentley.  He LOVES to cuddle, loves to play, is our comic relief, doesn't know anyone as a stranger and if you come to our door he believes you have come to only see him.  He is my shadow most days and will follow me every where I go.  Will lay near the tub when I am in the shower or the door of the bathroom until I come out.  He "needs" to be near me and sometimes it does drive me nuts specially when I am trying to cook dinner and he trips me.  You can go out the door for a second and when you come back in to the room it's as if we have been away for days.  Oddie is 18 mo old and I truly hope that he stays the fun loving puppy that he is.  He brings me such joy!  As I write this he  is laying on my lap licking my elbow.  He is such a little lover and always happy.
    These two are more than just our pets but our family members.  I am not a nut who dresses them, although Sara loves to.  Bentley doesn't mind it but Oddie hates it.  We crate them when we leave home but otherwise they are allowed to be where they want.  They generally sleep with me which is not a problem since Sean generally works the over night shift but when he is home the bed gets a little crowded.  Generally they will hop down or just sleep at my feet other wise they like to get as close as they can specially during the winter.
   So today I am thankful for my puppies.  Ok so they aren't little babies anymore but they are to me my pups and they bring us great joy!

30 days has November

So we begin with day ONE.  Well believe it or not I am very thankful for this past year.  Things are different and yet the same.  Last year at this time we were candidating and waiting to hear what the church had decided. The fun thing is we are going to be candidating again this month!  OK so some of you may not know what I mean.  Candidating is when a church invites a pastor to come and preach, meet the congregation and generally they will vote to decide if they want you to be their new pastor.  On Nov 13th we will be going to a church about 30 mins from here and Sean will be preaching the AM and PM services.  We are excited about it!  Although Sean has been teaching Jaron in depth Bible lesson since we started home schooling him and he has been able to preach/teach in children's church he has not been able to preach to a congregation.
   I am thankful for this past year of healing, regrouping and learning to trust the Lord in new and deeper ways.  This year has been tough emotionally, mentally, physically and even financially but through it all God has been there providing everything I have need personally as well as what our family has needed.  Sometimes we must be thankful for the tough times and during those times something God has been really impressing on my heart and reassuring me of is that He is there and will NEVER LET US GO!

November is here...

and my plan is to actually blog every day this month.  Yes I actually said that!  LOL!  Now to follow through may be the hard part.  But this month my plan is to share something each day that I am thankful for.  The posts may be short, long, funny, sad, but everything will be something I am thankful for. So tomorrow we shall start a new adventure,  #1 to get me back into blogging regularly and #2 (most importantly) to share all the things I am thankful for!

Proud Parents

We are so proud of our kids!  They have worked very hard the last 9 weeks and all 4 of them have straight A's and are on the honor roll.  Even Jaron who is being home schooled has really worked hard and his projects, reports and tests have all been A/Bs.  So tonight we are treating them to where ever they want to go for dinner.  Naturally they chose Mc D's.  Not my 1st choice but this is about them tonight.  I won't be eating it.  I am on a journey to lose weight so I will pick something at home to make for myself.  

  Great Job Kids!

Books

So this home schooling adventure we started on has been just that...an adventure.  Jaron has mastered everything I had planned to do in math up till Dec which means I am scrambling to get the next units organized and ready.  I had planned to take Christmas break to get the next semester planned out.  Such is life I guess.  Actually he has done so well that everything I planned up till Dec has been done and so I have felt a bit overwhelmed as of late. 
   So yesterday I prayed and asked God to help me come up with the next units for math, science and history and He answered!  YAY!  Jaron will be learning about minerals, gems and earth science, medieval times and castles, and for math we are finishing up fractions this week and will start on percentages.
    This morning I prayed that God would provide some other ideas and or books that I could use to continue on this adventure we are on and after Jaron completed his school work we were headed to the library. But on the way we stopped at the Goodwill.  I had this thought, that just maybe I would find a couple of books that would be helpful.  But what I found was so much more!  We were blessed to find history, health, reading, science all by Abeka, then we found another American History book that was a public school book that was probably used when I was in middle school.  Yes that was a long time ago but it is still very reliable. I plan to use it as a baseline and add to it.    Just very thankful!  God has truly been taking us on an adventure of trusting Him to supply all we need to teach Jaron this year.  I have 3 kids in public and I am praying about home schooling the other three next year.  SO many things are happening right now that I am just waiting on God to direct my steps and show me all I need to know and do.  I do not want to be out of step on this at all.  It's a HUGE under taking so waiting on His lead is of utmost importance!

Thank you God

Yep this kitty knows who to thank and so do I!  OK so here's the deal and it may not be a big deal to you but we have gone from 3 to 10 channels. How...well we were blessed with a newer model used TV.  This new TV does not need a converter or extra equipment to pick up channels with the digital antenna.  So tonight we tried a channel search and was very surprised that we no longer only get ABC, CBS, & ION but we now get those plus FOX, NBC, & KET.   Granted it's not good to watch too much TV and we don't.  Our kids spend time reading books, playing outside, playing board games as well as computer games so don't write me and tell me how bad TV is for my kids.  They are very well rounded children. 
   Just thankful for the little things and sometimes it is the little things that really do make a difference in our lives. 

Oh how I Miss You...

...my dear dear camera!  Ok so I had no idea how much I would miss not having a camera till it died.  Seriously, I take pictures almost daily.  Some make the cut and I add them to facebook or to my blogs but this shall not happen for a while. Our camera died.  Just died.  Not sure exactly what happened or why but it will cost more to fix than to purchase a new one.  Either way we do not have the money to get a new one so we are camera less.  I makes me sad that we are missing little things the kids are doing.  SO if anyone feels bad for us and wants to bless us with a new one, let me know!