Somedays it is just plain fun to be a mom. The kids did most of their responsiblilties without complaint. We started working on Christmas gifts, soccer went smoothly. Knight and I had a store reset to do tonight and so we left the kids with the timer going and told them to go to bed when it goes off. We get home and all the lights are off and everyone is sleeping and it's even before 11pm. The Lord lets me have these good days so I will forget the ones that have me pulling my hair out.

So Elmo (from my previous post) was asking if I'm going to make him famous someday. Talking to his mom I asked for some naked baby pictures but on the way from soccer she called for his famous actions of the day. He left the soccer field with his friends moms keys so his mom had to turn around so he could give them back and they could leave. Which leaves me wondering...if he can't drive, what was he doing with the keys in the first place???? He'll be famous yet but probably not for what he wants to be.

The evening started with the entertainment of all star wrestling. It started when J-Bird challenged Rara to a match. Then Rara used her cunning skills to defeat the bandit, first she taunted him and got him going by telling him he whines like a little girl then she uses the rope a dope technique by letting him swing away until he is worn out and then dropped him for the pin.

While this was going on DJ was on the computor and J-Bell was playing the clarinet, while me and the wife relaxes as we fought our colds.

Sometimes kids just make you laugh. Rara learned about farms yesterday in Heritage Studies. We talked about old farms and new farms, different animals they have and then she was supposed to draw a picture of one. She chose to draw a new farm so she put a silo, tractor, barn, and then a cow, calf, pig, and horse in the field. She put little dots around the cow and one dot by the calf. She explains, "those are the flies." Funny.

I didn't realize how much we were a blogging family until DJ came up to me with my camera and a picture she took of a squirrel that was eating crackers the kids had left on the porch. She showed me the picture and then said, I took two so you could decide which one would be best to put on the blog. I guess technology comes naturally to kids.
Here's her picture.

School restarted again this week. Things are going SO much better. No tears, no screaming, just the phrase "stop talking and do your work" is said over and over. I think I should just record myself saying it and have a cd just set on repeat and play it all during school. The pictures were from today. It took 4 pictures and a threat to get a picture of what looks like J-Bird doing his school work. I told him that I wouldn't put his picture on "the blob" if he didn't look at his paper when I was taking his picture. I did find a great link today to help teach the parts of speech and other english things. I'm always looking for different ways to teach so they will remember.

Saturday was spent at an apple orchard picking raspberries and apples and one pumpkin. We all had a great time. The kids each picked a container of berries, a basket of apples and they had to decide together on a pumpkin. Rara loves granny smith apples but they don't grow well up here. This orchard only had red varieties of apples but Rara looked well enough to get a whole basket full of green apples! I think she may be surprised when she bites into one and finds out that it is not ripe! Life lessons from the front line, I guess!

It is time for the annual garage "sale" at church. We picked out some treasures and brought some treasures. This is one of my favorite ministries to be a part of. We invite the community to come and take whatever they need or want. The church family can come anytime during setup or the actual "sale" time. People had been shopping all day during setup and this is what was left for the community. The neatest thing about it is everything is free. No donations accepted.

Sometimes I am amazed at the lengths we all go to just to not admit to others that we are not perfect. We all know that nobody is perfect and some are just more skilled at hiding their imperfections than others but reading Cartoon Living talk about how imperfect she is just makes me think about all the misconceptions we all have of others. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to admit how untogether I really am, but we all need to get real with eachother and tell eachother just one imperfection we have. Here's mine, I REALLY hate being interupted in my plans. I think that I need to work on that the most. Whether it be a 30 second break from my plans or Knight taking a different route when we are going somewhere than I expected I need to be more flexible. I know, I know, you are all shocked aren't you? Well, there is my soap box for the day. Have a great day.

Please Pray
At the time I am typing this my mom is having major surgery. She called earlier today to let me know she was going in but she made it sound like outpatient stuff, no big deal. In fact she will be in for a week and have some long term if not life long effects of this. I know she is in the Lords hands and he knows best but she is my mom, so I don't want to see her go through tough times. This is going to bother her alot, so please pray for Mom and her husband.

Soccer went well Monday night. Both teams tied. J-Bells team tied 4-4 while DJ's team tied 0-0! I think they are both still learning the game and loving it. It was cold though. Burrr! As one of the kids said "It felt like October!" I did get one great shot of some friends' teens-Elmo and Punkadoo-sitting and talking so I thought I would share that one too just to let them know that they are not too cool to enjoy a good soccer game. Love ya Elmo!!!

We spent Saturday at the E.C. Childrens museum. The kids had a great time playing and learning. I figured out how to get picture collages thanks to Poppy from http://www.plansandprovidence.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much Poppy! This week we are cleaning the house getting ready for the free garage sale at church. Hopefully we can empty this house. Soccer games tonight. Go J-Bell and DJ!

We're old...
I always think we are still young but as I'm sitting at the computer at 9pm trying to stay awake Knight walks into the bedroom and says.."Good, it's not 10 yet. I thought we were out really late." Goodbye youth.

School...
Along with the chaos of soccer 4 nights a week, working 5 days a week and dentist appointments, church and trying to fit in some friend time we discovered that the new curriculum we were trying was not going to work for our family and so I ordered new stuff yesterday. The girls are excited to have a small break from school and J-Bird is still grabbing his schooling and working on it everyday. He loves the math work but it is kindergarten. He still hasn't ran into anything that he doesn't know how to do. Maybe he's secretly a genius???

Weekend in Wisconsin
What a nice weekend. Saturday we went to the Labor Day Fair where the kids enjoyed some rides and games and then we took them to their first domolition derby. The girls loved it and want to go back next weekend. J-Bird did not enjoy it but he likes cars so much I think it bothered him to see them get smashed up. Knight brought home corn (around 25 DOZEN!) so we spent Sunday shucking, cutting, bagging and freezing. It was a fun family activity at first but after the first 10 dozen the fun wears off. Back to reality today.