Time, Talent, and Treasure

go to my friends blog and join and save :) and maybe win! :)

Another great Melissa and Doug giveaway!

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2010/03/16/502/comment-page-2/#comment-14744

Spring 2010 update

well gee...i'm behind again :P surprise surprise LOL   let's see...Christmas was great, New Years', can't remember January, February we got our tax refund and went to Disney woohoo!!!!!  We had such a good time, we can't wait to go again...and we will later this year.  We volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and earned a free ticket for each of us to Disney, so we'll go in the fall.  And the kids had so much fun (painting walls lol) that we hope and plan to work more for HfH :)   I told them to put us on the list.  The kids finished up their church league basketball seasons and loved it.  We had a horrible bout of stomach flu, the whole family got it, eww.  lol Oh and we enjoyed "the Big Snow of 2010" :)  and making fun of global warming (or else fearing another Ice Age :)  .....it was so fun watching the kids play in it :)   We've had some fun times w/ homeschooling too and our homeschool groups.  Micah is doing science w/ Whiz Kids and Jillian is enjoying Math :)  And we finally organized our Wiregrass Catholic Homeschool group :)  We just did our own Stations of the Cross on Friday :)  And Micah is enjoying learning American History.  He really got the bug when he enjoyed the Hall of Presidents at Disney :)  But umm, he thinks Prez Obama is the bomb now too, thanks to the new Obama in it LOL :P  dang!  Speaking of whom, grrrrr on the health care bill sigh...  fears for our nation have spurred much activity on my Catholic Homesteading list, where they are prepping for the worst  :)  I so wish I could get a garden going and have some animals...but I can barely handle the daily house upkeep, etc lol...can't add those things....

Oh gee, forgot to say too, we bought a business :)  We now own Martin Specialty Advertising, Inc. "Your Promotional Products Headquarters" :)  www.martinpromos.com  :)  It's going well so far ...we just have a lot to catch up on after some slow weeks of either being out of town or sick or xyz but we'll get there :)

Speaking of sickness, I am just still recovering from my first case of Strep/Tonsillitis in about 15 yrs or more LOL  ugh.  And Jillian got a thankfully milder case of it.  Hopefully no one else will for Holy Week....which began today with a beautiful Palm Sunday :)  I went w/ Micah this morning (Doug had to go for Lifeteen tonight) and it was just beautiful!

I need to post a whole post to itself on my Cursillo weekend last week :)   De Colores!  It was amazing and I am changed.

Well, maybe you are caught up...lol....now on to a busy Holy Week....a glorious Easter...Jillian's prep for First Communion, more homeschool stuff, field trips, etc etc etc :)

new birth blog

did I mention? lol... i'm going to just post birth stuff at this new blog http://birthforecast.blogspot.com/?zx=2d91aa044eee1b0f   and just stick to family/life/homeschool/other stuff here :)  WHEN I blog that is :) lolol grrrrr

check this out!

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2009/12/09/giveaway-multi-level-wooden-dollhouse-with-family/comment-page-1/#comment-8035

I should say i love melissa and doug stuff.  It's like the "crunchy" infiltrated the "mainstream" LOL We have many of their puzzles and their magnetic calendar (which I wish I could find replacement pieces for!)....I especially want to get the Noah's Ark in honor of Noah.  We shall see....

Update: Fall '09

well, so far this blog is "oops, sorry, forgot to update" or well, just not keeping up...keep hoping that will change, but for now, to catch it up to date:

Surgery on July 27 went well and while things weren't as bad as they thought it'd be, they were bad enough. I won't go into detail at this point but anyhoo, my recovery went better than expected too. There were yucky days and yucky things about it all and pain ...but overall, it was good. And after the basic 6 weeks of recovery was up, and since...I've been pleasantly shocked at how good I feel. Like a new spring chicken LOL ugh...I hate feeling so good because of a hysterectomy, but...it is what it is. A lot of my brain fog from the past at least 4 yrs, has lifted. Of course, pessimist that I am, I keep waiting for it all to end LOL but not that I am not enjoying it while I can.

Then, Jillian's birthday seemed to zoom by us....she turned 7 and we really never got to have her party (yet another party canceled for illness...happens every year to one or both of them) other than a cake and song w/ family (ha, isn't that all it HAS to be? LOL nooooo, my kids plan their parties ALL YEAR LONG lol)

Also, Micah trained to become an acolyte/altar server at church and Jillian began Sacramental prep. for First Reconciliation and First Communion.  The kids learned tons about art in the art-themed co-op classes this semester.  The kids joined Children's Choir this year and are loving it (micah had a few small solo's in their first performance in October), Doug has had record attendance at Life Teen Nights and he is really enjoying it,  Mariam is really growing and changing (well growing taller, she's still a skinny-minny :) every day, talking more, playing hard, singing and dancing, making animal sounds (her fav. are the moo-cows :) and running w/ her cute little hop, and she still is such a good sleeper and still is very healthy, never sick , ............ oh yes, and forgot to say, our beloved lady dog, Trina, got ran over and it was a terrible terrible loss to our family....and though we weren't sure for a while if we wanted another dog, we did end up getting a new one, a 6mo. old male  basset hound/chihuahua mix named Dexter and he's been a fun addition.  He is so cute and funny and at first he and our cat Snowball seemed arch enemies, but now I think they are only "enemies"  for show LOL  I think they love play-fighting and antagonizing (much like brother and sisters, ahem, do)...but at the end of the day, literally, you will find them both curled up very near each other at the foot of our feet in bed at night LOL  Ahhhhh, loving my pets that I dreamed of as a child LOL

So, once I adjusted to the busiest FAll ever in our little family's life LOL (tons of church activities, including helping doug w/ youth ministry, and dance and soccer and new homeschool group/co=op, and girl scouts and cub scouts and so on and so forth)...I started getting the house organized (our bedroom and bathroom, check....still working on the rest lol) and started writing and getting more involved with various birth activism projects. I will post more on that later hopefully, but I plan to start another blog just for birth issues, and make this one just for my personal stuff/homeschool/kids/blah blah blah.... so that the birth one can be "out" there more and more public and so forth and so on LOL

So, here we are in to November......just had Halloween, which was a blast watching the kids have fun!  But couldn't get organized nor organize the Catholic homeschool moms to do an All Saints' party LOL  One day ( but bless Pam's heart, who had her preemie baby boy due to a previa...i took her a meal, and hope to again) And Doug turned 38 :) and got what he wanted for his b'day, a Bama win! lol

And we are hoping to get a new business (for us, but a long time established one by uncle) going soon ....soon, which would be on the side for doug and I'd do the paperwork for. Money is still really tight, and we 're not sure yet if we are going to make it to Shreveport for our annual Thanksgiving trip.  But if we don't, the kids might ring our necks :)  They've been talking about it for months. LOL   So we'll see....

Other things to come:  starting an ICAN chapter for our area, participating more in the local birth community (BirthNetwork meetings, etc), writing articles and helping w/ BA/BAC, tons of homeschooling catch-up work, fun stuff w/ the homeschool group like Field Day, Farm Day, and Christmas Party, youth activities at church, and several other Advent/Saints'feast days/Christmas parties and activities, and of course Noah's day ..his 4th ( i bought some noah's ark plates and napkins and plan our usual blue balloons and cake), and who knows what else LOLOL.....(btw, i say LOL a lot in my online typing/writing :P...it's my nervous giggle :P think, betty rubble ..heehee)  So here is my journal, ..er..diary...er...blog post. LOL isn't that all this is for me, a place to put a synposis of what i've done...what I already told everyone on email and facebook LOL ? :P  Well, maybe one day I'll have something REALLY important to say ...just wait and stay tuned...ha! lol (and what's really funny is that the only ones who'll read this are the ones who know all of this already, via "email and facebook" and so on LOL...I guess I am typing all of this out for my love of talking about myself LOL and for "in case" in the future anyone who doesn't know can read back thru and get to know us or what we do, our family, etc.....I guess I need to learn to just blog an article I like, or about our homeschooling day or whatever, oh and add pics! lol)  okay, going to bed now..... :P

Way behind..

obviously LOL Mainly because I'm constantly overwhelmed these days. Summer is supposed to be slower right? But I'm supposed to be decluttering and preparing for my surgery, ugh. Plus we have had a lot of activities, some illness, etc.

Tomorrow I go for my pre-op appt's w/ the doctors and I need to make a long list of questions to ask them, but just don't know what all to ask. ugh. So much to think about.

Surgery is July 27th. fun fun. More soon hopefully....