Fun with friends!

The other day after school the kids had some friends over to play. This is Anna and her buddy.

 I didn't make them do this pose, they came up with this all on their own. :)

 The big boys having some fun at the playground.

 There was a time when I was limber like this. Now it just looks painful.

 I'm very thankful we live right by a school and they have a great playground to play at!

 As you can see in the pictures the kids were wearing their winter clothes so that means it was cold! I think it only got up to 42 on this day and for us thin blooded Arizonians, that is COLD! So when we got home we warmed up with hot chocolate.

 And then things got silly.

 So silly in fact that.....

 Camden had to spit his chocolate milk out.

 Thank goodness for fun and funny friends!

You know your a homeschool mom when....

.... you spend your hard earned photography money on multiplication fact cards and you have been super excited about ordering them and then counting down the days until they arrive in the mail. 

...your living room becomes a homeschool room, and your just fine with it even if it doesn't match the decor in the rest of the house.

 ....you lay down in your bed (in the master bedroom mind you) and see this on your wall, and you think it's completely normal.

 ....you sit down to go to the bathroom and this is what you enjoy looking at.

 .....your son brings a reptile to school and you really don't think anything about it.

And, you know you are a homeschool mom when your youngest child pretends to be you and reviews multiplication facts with her older brother. Is she too young to hire as my teacher's aide?

Oh, and last but not least you know you are a homeschool mom when you post a picture like this one (above) that really should have been edited before I posted it but after a busy homeschooling day I'm just too tired to do one more thing that uses my brain. 

Oh, and just to mention, I wouldn't change any of the above. I know God has planted me in this season of homeschooling for a reason, and I know my walls won't always be decorated with spelling cards, multiplication facts, and phonics cards. In fact, I bet I'll miss it someday. So for now, I'll keep decorating with a homeschool theme cause I kind of like it that way. 

Sunday drive

Today we decided to take a Sunday morning drive. I've been a little under the weather the past couple of days so we didn't make it to church this morning and after having a much needed sleeping in morning, we loaded up the kids and drove to Canyon Lake. It was a beautiful Arizona morning, a little on the cool side but bright blue and sunny skies. Since we missed church, Michael and I brought our devotional book and read the devotional out loud to the kids on our way to the lake. Just to clarify, I did the reading while Michael did the driving. The road to Canyon Lake is CRAZY, curvey, and a tad on the scary side. We had a great time as a family and still made it home in time for football kickoff at 1 p.m. It has been a great Sunday!

Running away drama!

I have a little story to tell, a story about our 5 year old daughter who is adventerous, brave, independant, and spunky. This is a conversation I heard the other day and the events that took place afterwards.

Anna: Camden and Jadon! You are both bothering me so I'm just going to run away! ( a few minute pause).... Do you want to go with me?

Camden & Jadon: No, but we'll watch you pack. (notice how there was no talking her out of it.)

Anna: Ok then, I'll get my suitcase.

The boys sit on Anna's bed and watch her pack (I peak in her room now and then thinking they were just having some fun and it had turned into a game at this point never thinking she would actually run away.)

At this point I go on an errand taking Jadon with me and leaving Camden and Anna at home with Michael.

About 30 minutes after I left I get a call from Michael that goes like this:

M: you won't believe where your daughter is? (don't you love how he says YOUR daughter)

Me: Where?

M: She is on 22nd place pulling her suitcase behind her running away. (now just to give you a little idea of where she was at, we live on a culdesac and Anna has boundaries, she is only allowed two houses up on each side of the culdesac, she is not allowed near 22nd place which is the busy street at the end of our culdesac.) 

Me: WHAT???????

M: Yeah, I took some pictures on my phone, check your text messages. 

Me: This is what I see. (picture below)

So this picture is after Michael had summoned her home with his deep, stern and assertive voice. She had gone out of our culdesac and was heading down the street. I do wonder what the driver of the white truck was thinking.

 And here she is making the walk home to have a little talking to. The white mailbox you see in front of her is where she is not allowed past.

 She got a suitcase for Christmas, maybe she was just excited about using it? I will give her credit for how well prepared she was, she had her pillow, two flashlights, and some toys to sell so she could have money to buy food from a restraunt. Not bad for a 5 year old!

This happened in the late afternoon and we decided to talk with her at dinner about what she had done, after Michael and I were able to get all our giggles out because of course she couldn't see us laughing at what she had done or it would become a daily event. So after we pulled ourselves together and were being the mature and serious parents that we should be in an event like this, we were able to have a conversation about her running away. She listened, we talked, we put some fear into her about how dangerous it was to go past her boundaries, also reminding her about how much she would be missed if she ran away. And then we finally got to ask her what her plan was and where she was planning on going on her little adventure. Her answer, she hadn't really thought about it and probably would have turned around at the next stop sign. That's all we got.

I've been busy and that's why

I haven't blogged in two weeks. Sometimes there are other priorities in life other than my blog. So let me just catch you up on what has been keeping me so busy. After enjoying two weeks off of homeschooling for Christmas break, we were back in session on the 3rd, this is the big reason I haven't blogged the past two weeks. The start of a new semester meant extra planning, trying out some new curriculum, and just getting back into our normal routine of life. Normally when we are coming off a break, the adjustment of starting up homeschooling is rough but this time it was easy breezy lemon squeezy as Annagrace has been saying way too much and we are all quite sick of that statement. :) So back to homeschool, here is something fun we did. We learned about the Washington monument and the kids made their own replica, there were no rules, just build the monument as you wish. And this is what they came up with. Camden's, then Jadon's, followed by Anna's.

Something else that has been keeping me busy is KandidsbyKorri. Although my busy season is over I had a few big projects, one of which is I did a photo shoot for Aqua Tots (our friends own the business) and they needed some updated photos to use for their publicity. It was so fun and the best part is I got to use my kids as models. I am in love with these three pictures of them. They melt my heart. Just the first three are of my kiddos while the other ones are just a few of my favorites. I think I took close to 500 photos, but luckily I didn't have to edit them. I can't wait to see the finished product(s)!

We got a Botanical Gardens yearly pass for Christmas this year from my mother in law. We have been itching to use it so one day after homeschool we invited Grandma to go with us and we had a great time. I LOVE that place.

That brings me today when our church hosted a free baseball clinic for the community. There were several MLB players who were there and probably about 800 kids. It was so much fun. I got to take some pictures, and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are just a few. I wish I could name all the players but baseball is not a "smart" area for me. I know they are all pretty popular though!

In addition to all the above, I should mention a few other things that have kept me busy: laundry, managing a household, starting up a Bible study,  going on a date with my husband, having sushi with a great girlfriend, a homeschool planning meeting for the field trip group we belong to, family dinner at the park, orthodontist appointments for the boys, gathering papers for taxes, and filing all of our bills from 2010. All this to say there simply aren't enough hours in the day! But, somehow it all manages to get done. So here I am on a Saturday night at 6 p.m., what shall I do next??????

It's the simple things

It truly is the simple things in life that bring me so much joy. Take this welcome mat for instance. We have had the same welcome mat at our home for about 7 years, it was worn and tattered and we were way overdue for another one. As I was at the store the other day this one caught my attention and to make it even better, it was on clearance. I was so excited. So if you come over, this is what you get to wipe your feet on before coming inside. :)

For Christmas, we got this (pictured below) from my sister who had recently traveled to Israel. It is called a Mezuzah and inside it holds these Bible passages from Dueteronomy 6:4-9 and Deuteronomy 11:13-21.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

¹³ So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

 ¹⁶ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷ Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. ¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.


Although we are not Jewish by religion, we hold to the teachings of Jesus Christ and these verses from the Old Testament are very meaningful for those who believe in Him. So our family is getting into the habit of touching the mezuzah as we enter our home to remind us that our home is sealed with the blood of Jesus and our faith is in Him. It's been really fun to get used to doing that and such a great reminder when we enter our home. 

 I'm not sure how you switch gears from something religious to something like a shower curtain hanger so I won't even try. But like I said at the beginning of this post, it's the simple things that bring me joy and this happens to be one of those things. I have always had the old fashion kind of shower curtain holders, the kind you have to open up, insert the shower curtain and then snap it back together. For anyone who has ever tried this, it's so not fun and I usually have a shoulder ache the next day since my arms are above my head for several minutes. So while I was at the store buying our new welcome mat, I saw these for only $1.49 for a package of 12, so I bought them and I had the shower curtain hung in less than a minute. It was easy cheesy!

 The main reason for going to the store the other day was to purchase a new shower curtain for the kids bathroom. Anyone who has boys should know that their aim is not always accurate and as you can see here the toilet and shower curtain are not that far apart. Regardless of how much I launder and clean the shower curtain, I find myself replacing it every so often. And instead of buying a fabric one, I went with the vinyl one, it should be much easier to wipe down if needed. I still need to replace the toilet seat cover so it matches the rest of the blues, but for now I'm happy we have a fresh smelling shower curtain, now if we can just work on the aim and keeping a tidy bathroom.

 This picture makes me really happy. For the longest time we have had two lights out in the bathroom, but the other two offered enough light so we didn't think much of it but it started becoming annoying to me when I would use the bathroom because my eyes kept being drawn to the two lights that were not working. I'm not sure why it took me so long to purchase replacement bulbs, but it finally happened and we now have four working bulbs in the bathroom. Pretty darn exciting if you as me, but like I said earlier, it's really the simple things in life that bring me much joy. :)

 I am sure this wasn't simple to make, in fact I know my Aunt spent many hours making this beautiful blanket for our family to give us at Christmas. I am so in love with it. It makes me want to snuggle up with my Taste of Home magazine, curl up on the couch, wrap this warm cozy blankie around me and just chill out. In fact, it sounds so delightful I think I will wrap up this post and go wrap up in our new blanket.