Who I am...

Just more rambling from yet another homeschooling mom. I hope that I can honestly share my struggles and triumphs in this journey. I would love to inspire and encourage others, because if I can do it - so can you!!

WHAT TO EXPECT . . .

schooling, cooking, baking, studying, working, photographing, eating, writing, playing, learning, praying, loving, imagining, creating, crying, hugging, laughing, giggling, mess-making, sleeping

Molly Cat - or "God answers prayers . . ."

Over at Parent Bloggers a contest about pets is being sponsored by Burger King. I thought it was the perfect excuse to talk about how Molly came into our family!

When we moved to Colorado, one of the perks our kids were excited about was the fact that we would have a bigger home and yard, and therefore space for a new addition to the family - a pet, not a baby. We had been through more than our fair share of pets already, and my husband was not anxious to try another. We ended up with 2 parakeets and a fish for the girls. And while the parakeets are fun to listen to, and talk to, they aren't snuggly or cuddly, and don't really play with you very well. And the fish died. Note to self: tropical fish and cold climates do not mix.

So eventually, the girls started asking for a cat or a dog. The husband firmly said absolutely no dogs. I am a dog person myself, but they do take a lot of commitment and our last dog experience was not a positive one. So we started praying about the possibility of getting a cat. I started browsing the local humane society's website and looking at their pictures of cats. I was thinking of adopting an older cat, but the husband and kids were really hoping for a kitten. After lots of considering, I realized that in a loud household like ours, it might be better to get a kitten who could grow up used to the noise! And kittens are quite playful. Still, I knew that we needed a very special cat. One that would put up with being petted, maybe not as gently as we might like. One that would play with us, not run and hide from us. One that would not shed too much. And one that would be willing to stay indoors, and maybe even catch mice!

The girls and I prayed a lot for several weeks about finding just the right cat for our family, one that we would love and that would love (tolerate!) us back. One Friday afternoon while browsing on the H.S. website I came across an adorable blue-eyed siamese cat named Stevie. She looked so sweet, and I knew in my heart that she was the cat for us! We prayed about it again, and the girls talked to daddy, who said we could go look at her in the morning. That Saturday was the last of a special month of an adopt-a-thon, and it was SO busy! We wandered through the facility, but couldn't see Stevie anywhere. And I had forgotten the paper with her number on it at home, which is the only way the HS could look her up and find her for us. All the kittens that we liked were already spoken for, and we really knew that it was Stevie that we wanted. I remembered that I had e-mailed the hubby the day before, and he had his Palm cell phone with him, so we could look up the number! Hooray! I had to stand in a long line again to request a visit with Stevie's number, if she were still there. We got to the front, and lo and behold, she had been put into isolation because of the kitty respiratory virus. It was as if God had set her aside specifically for us. The isolation unit cannot be seen from the public viewing area, and if she'd been in the public area, she would most likely have been already adopted that day. We had no problem getting a kitten with the respiratory infection because we were taking her to the vet anyway, and we had no other animals that she could infect.

It was so perfect, and such a great way for my children to see the hand of God at work in their lives in such a small, but important way. We finally got to hold little Stevie in our arms, listen to her sweet mewing, and check her out. She took to all of us right away, and especially my husband. We were able to take her home with us that day, give her the name Molly, and just love on her like crazy.

Our new baby

To this day, Molly is the most unique cat I have ever known. She is almost dog-like in the way that she follows me around from room to room. She has to be a part of whatever I am doing, whether is working with power tools to put up bookshelves, or making the beds, or schooling the girls. She had to be right in the middle of the workers who were installing our new water heater last year. She comes when you call her name, just because she wants to be with you. She loves to play with hair bands and crumpled paper. And she loves to catch mice and wasps and spiders and moths, making the strangest chattering sound at the insects. She loves to curl up in her bed in the sun, or sleep on my lap while I type. She is in every way the exactly perfect cat for our family, and I couldn't ask for a better pet! We remind the girls all the time that Molly shows us how God cares about every detail of our lives, and we can go to him with our smallest concerns and our biggest ones.

Crashing the photo shoot

I am sure there is more I could add about our sweet Molly, but I have to run to bake a pie, and I have already interrupted myself about 10 times in the middle of writing this post! If I have any chance of getting this published tonight, I'd better do it now :)


“This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.”

Getting political

Ok, I realize my readership is practically miniscule, but I cannot stay silent. I was just sent this link from Focus on the Family Action and it makes me want to throw up. It is a fictional letter from the year 2012 based on facts and, while not a prediction, it is a glimpse into what the future could hold for us if Barack Obama is elected president of the United States.

I just cannot fathom how any Christian could be swayed into voting for a man who has proven himself time and again to vote as liberal as possible. Honestly, I am so disturbed by the possibility that this man could one day hold so much sway over my rights. Read the letter, and just put yourself in that time frame for one moment, and then tell me if it doesn't scare the cr@$ right out of you. I know that Christians will one day find themselves the object of extreme persecution, but I wouldn't want to be a part of ushering it in. I would like to continue to teach my children how I see fit, when I see fit. I consider myself extraordinarily blessed to be a part of something like COVA, where the "teacher" assigned to us also attends our church, where I can continue to teach my children about the Bible, and Jesus Christ who died for our sins. I cannot imagine Jesus voting for Obama.

Its just scary.

And there are nine billion blogs out there right now about politics, but I have never felt more strongly that we NEED to get out there and vote. And seriously consider what Jesus would do. Do I think John McCain is the perfect choice for our country? Not necessarily, but in light of the alternative I say a resounding YES! Please, if you are a citizen of this country, get out there and vote. Don't tell your children one day that you would have voted, or you would have done something differently. Make the effort. Go early, so many places are now allowing early voting. Make your voice be heard. Pray. And Vote.

And now I am hopping of my soapbox, and praying I don't have nightmares after reading that fictional, but highly probable letter.

Melody is 5


Melody is 5
Originally uploaded by Curly Top
I cannot cannot cannot believe my BABY, my youngest, my littlest, is a five year old! She is learning how to read, loves to write, loves to sing and dance, is every bit the princess, the baby, and the trouble-maker. I love her to pieces, and I seriously cannot imagine life without her. I just can't believe that tiny little thing is FIVE!

Birthday party preparations

My baby turns 5 today!! And for some crazy reason, we are having her birthday party tomorrow afternoon, so today is preparation day! I have no idea what I am doing for dinner tonight, and we are going to have cupcakes for dessert and the candles tonight. I finished sewing her Alice costume so she can wear it to her party tomorrow. I am trying to make cupcakes in the shape of teacups. We will see how that goes. And I am packing up little party bags with homemade peppermint hot cocoa. So I need to print tags for the party bags and the cocoa. Oh my. Oh my. Why am I typing instead of working? Oh yeah because the cupcakes are in the oven. And I have a million things I should be doing, but my feet are just killing me.

Kevin took Melody out this morning for her birthday breakfast, so very sweet. And they had a blast. Let's see, I kicked the middle child out of the house today and sent her off with a friend. Her jealousy was making it hard to get anything done, and it was giving me a headache. She is going to go to a friend's hockey game and then come home. Or I may go get her before the game, who knows?

This may just be my most rambling post ever, which shows how my brain is right now!

Anyway, back to printing, and checking out how my cupcakes are doing. Hopefully I can actually break out the camera and finally get some pictures of the goodies and my sweet baby who now is one whole hand old!

How I spent my Sunday Evening . . .

Thanks to a willing friend, Kevin and I have been able to have 2 date nights in 2 weekends in a row. Normally we'd try to space things out a bit, but that's just how it happened to work out!

Tonight we went to the World Arena for the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars! It was quite surreal and very fun. I took about ninety-nine million pictures and filled up a memory card. Silly me, I didn't bring an extra either!! Whoops.

And someday I will eventually get around to processing the pictures and sharing them with the world who will no longer care because I will be ninety-nine years old and no longer able to remember who anyone is. Oh well.

But here is a shot to tide you over in the meantime!

How I spent my Sunday evening

It was lots of fun, and if the show comes your way, and you have any interest in gymnastics (and don't mind listening to Disney-pop for a long long time) I highly recommend the show!