Prayers needed!

Update: My cousin has been moved to a rehab center, but is not doing well at all. The father of her girls has taken them to Georgia and she is there alone. Well, shes not alone, God is with her, but based on our conversations before she doesn't believe that. I have heard several things and trying as we speak to find out exactly what is going on, but I do know that things are really bad and there is talk of her being in a coma. She has made the statement that since her girls are gone then she has nothing left to fight for. She, to my knowledge, is not saved.

I know you all know how important this is, but its so severe. Not only is she alone with no family, but she has no hope and we all know that there is hope in Jesus. I have been praying that God put someone in her path to show her the love of Jesus so that she will accept him. But the more and more I pray I feel like God is telling me that person is YOU.

I, as of right now if everything goes okay (as in if I can locate her and she's not in a medically induced coma), am going to step out in faith and make the drive down to see her even though we can not financially afford this. Of course I want her healed and better and I have been praying Gods will for this situation, but above all I want her to know the love of Christ. I'm just asking that you pray Gods will and if this is how its supposed to happen then let it happen and if not that he would give me some kind of peace.

Thanks guys! I'll update once I know more.

Urgent Prayer Request!

Many of you know of my cousin that was up to visit that has brain cancer. I have just recently gotten off the phone with her and things are not good at all. A little background first. When she finished her radiation it worked a little bit. The tumor shrunk from 5 to 4, so they decided to start chemo. They also suggested that she have surgery to have it removed because of multiple seizure episodes that were very severe. The seizures caused her to loss control/feeling of her left side. She had the surgery 2 days ago and the tumor has already started to grow back. So it did not work. :(

I have just gotten off the phone with her and I'm having mixed emotions. No doubt that I am sobbing and very concerned. While we were talking it was as if sometimes she didn't hear me. At one point she asked me to hang on and I could her the nurse in the background so I just waited. I asked her if someone was there and she said she thought so. I could clearly hear the nurse. But then I couldn't hear anything and she still wasn't talking. So I asked how the girls were and she just said fine. It was as if any answer that was more than just a simple yes or no was too hard and she didn't understand. I am not sure what has all happened and the only information I can obtain is from a very unreliable source. My aunt had to get very firm to get the name of the hospital after several attempts and phone calls by ourselves.

Obviously...I would LOVE to see healing for her!! Most of all, I pray she gets saved!! I pray that God places someone close to her to show her the love of God, his grace, his mercy, his kindness, and his LOVE!!

I know that they are transfering her to a therapy facility to help her get back up and moving again. I am considering going down to visit and help her through the transition as she has no one down there. Please pray that if I am supposed to go down that we can make it happen and if not then pray that someone down there shows Gods love and reaches out to her.

...and thats just what we did!! So this week I have tried to take the "school" out of schoolwork. Have I confused you all yet. haha Ok, so I'll do my best to explain. I had originally thought that I would be the homeschooling mom that would LOVE book work and worksheets and operate like a "true" classroom. Thats what I get for thinking. haha I have been so stretched and so worried about all this homeschool stuff that I basically said forget it...for now anyway. We did do a some work don't get me wrong, but we basically just tried to have as much fun as we could and figure out how much learning was involved. Does that make sense? I hope so! :)

I have learned that Mason really does get Math, has really nice handwriting when he gives effort and LOVES to help around the house!! The twins LOVE singing, drawing, handwriting, cooking and helping around the house. All 3 of them love to help, with the exception of cleaning their own rooms. :) Mason and I have taken a break on Math for now because its getting into multiplication and he's not ready for that yet. We tried guys...really, he's not ready. It was quite interesting. So we are going to work a little more on some basic concepts, a LOT of reading and go from there. The twins are ready to be challenged though. I'm not sure whats in store for them next, but lets just say my kitchen may have some preschool things up on the walls. Creative huh? :)

I have to say that we have had a blast this week...and here's what we've been doing!

We started off with a little vacuuming.

Then we took the advice off my friend Amy's blog and made some homemade applesauce! YUM!!
I promise it looked better than this once we were done!

Follow up eating and cooking applesauce with doing some dishes.

How's that for some stacking?

Look Mom...my first dish-pan hands! :)

Oh...and we can't forget the naps! :)
Then I tried to get creative in the kitchen. hahaha For those of you that don't know...I can't cook! So this is really quite funny! I'll describe it before the picture so that you know what your looking at. hahaha I saw an octopus made out of a hot dog and thought how cool...yeah right! Side note: Don't buy bun length hot dogs, they are too heavy and fall over. The boys said it looked like a dead octopus. Hows that for honesty!So now that we all know I can't cook...on to something more fun! I think I'll just stick with paper crafts instead of food. :)

We went to the park today and looked for some leaves. Our leaf trip ended up being a pine cone excursion! We walked away with about 15 of them!

Then it was off for some "gym" time. hahaThen off we went home to do some leaf rubbing. This was the funnest thing we have ever done! We taped the leaves to the table and then taped paper on top of them. Grabbed some crayons...and start rubbing! The boys just kept going and going. They were like little energizer bunnies! :)

Tomorrow we are going to paint them with watercolors and hang them in the windows. I'll post pictures after I get all 30 of them cut out. Anyone up for some cutting? hahaha

Our weeks not done yet either. We are off for a play date tomorrow at the park and finish up our leaf project!

Ladies, this week has been a much better week! Hopefully more will come!

Stuck!

So tonight I was hassled by a good friend about my blog. :) She said that she couldn't keep up on everything if I didn't blog about it. Well, my friends, I haven't blogged because I am stuck! Literally stuck in everything...relationships, parenting, marriage, homeschooling and even blogging. This has definitely been a trying season for me and it can seriously end anytime soon, like yesterday. I haven't blogged because I haven't felt anything was blog worthy, sorry.

So let's see, where to start. Homeschooling....well, isn't going that great. We are stuck in a rut. We have still only been doing 3 worksheets and we're a month into it. Those are about all I can get out of him and me. I LOVE the Math and all, but we are bored and I do mean WE. He is tired of doing the same old things everyday and frankly so am I. I just can't throw another worksheet into it. This was supposed to be fun and I'm not having any fun so I know that he's not. I still have to add in Language and Spelling. We are doing a little better on reading, and I really honestly mean a little. We are definitely not reading like we should (we have increased from not at all though), but I think it goes back to the whole boredom thing. I have got to find a way to make this fun for him. And honestly, me too. That was the whole point to this. The twins on the other hand LOVE worksheets!! I just wish I had a little bit more to go along with their curriculum though. Sure we play games and paint and all that fun stuff, but there has to be more. Surely there's more! So, you all may think I'm crazy and I'm starting to think it myself, but I'm considering throwing out everything and trying something new. Ouch! Here's the problem...thats a ton of money down the drain and no money to buy new things. Honestly guys, I'm really starting to question whether I can do this. I know everyone has said that the first year is the hardest, but seriously we have to accomplish something and I feel like we are not accomplishing anything at all. I have lost all my motivation and energy. See why I haven't blogged. It's depressing. :(

So I guess that leaves me with relationships, parenting and marriage. Can I just say one word...disconnected. That is how I feel. And I think I'll just leave it at that because I could probably go into a long list off of that.

I know, I know, my first post in a long time and a depressing one at that. Hopefully I'll have something more positive to post later. Oh wait, I do have something completely off the subject. :)

Fireproof!! If you haven't seen it...go see it! Its a great movie! Here's the backstory. Alot of you may not know that I am a huge fan of the broadway musical Rent, really broadway in general, but Rent is my all-time fav. When I say huge I mean it. I have seen it 8 times, 5 of those were in NYC. all but twice from the pit seats. :) So anyway, its run has come to an end (12 years on broadway...the 7th longest running show) and they filmed the last show to air in the theatres. Needless to say I was very excited!! I bought my tickets 2 weeks in advance thats how excited I was. I will NEVER do that again!! I would not suggest that to anyone. Why you ask. Well, I'll tell ya. haha My friend and I got to theatre so excited and with so much energy. We got our popcorn and walked in theatre number 3 to hear the music playing. Now mind you that the movie wasn't supposed to start until 2 and its about 1:40. We just thought they were playing the soundtrack or something. That was until we notice that its pitch black, Tracie and Eden were on the screen singing Take Me or Leave Me, which meant it was past the intermission and everyone was looking at us like why are you walking in now. We were so confused. So to cut this short, they changed the time!!! The movie was originally planned to start at 2, which is what my ticket said. They changed it to 12!! Now I am not usually one to start a fuss, but this was the last day it was to be played and they shouldn't have changed the time after they sold a ticket. So after begging and pleading to play it again so we could see it and then refusing, we compromised. They gave us our money back, let us into a movie for free and gave us coupons. Oh, plus we got the Rent poster that they were using to advertise it. I wasn't kidding when I said I'm a huge fan. haha So, thats how we saw Fireproof. I will say that I am still a little upset over the whole issue, but it was meant for us to see Fireproof. I am amazed at how well this movie is put together and right on the money. So, I don't usually go to the theatre or advertise a movie, but go see it!! I am going to try to see it again only with my husband this time. Anyone up for a movie date?? Oh, and don't forget the box of tissues, you'll need it! :)

How's that for my first blog in almost a month. :) And I thought I had nothing to blog about. Still not sure its all blog worthy, but there it is Renay. haha

No reading...please!

One of Masons least favorite things to do is read. He struggles with comprehension and just reading in general so it makes it hard and boring for him. Needless to say, he has to read!! Its something he can't not do. So I went out and bought some cool Nate the Great detective books and threw a little incentive in with them. Mason LOVES comic books!! There is a store on 4th street that him and his dad go to all the time. I'm still not sold on the fact that he actually reads them, but he loves them...so...I told him that for every reading book he finished I would take him down to the store and I would buy him a comic book of his chioce. Great plan, right? Uh, no! I put no specifications on the deal. Good going Mom! :)

We started off the week good, as in good I mean getting our reading time in, but not good as in no fighting, which would be the reason for my title. So I offered him the chioce to read in his room while I was getting ready one morning. He did great and when I checked on him he really was reading because he told me what he just read. Sounds great right? When I proposed this plan I did not specify that he had to comprehend the story too. So when he came to me and told me he finished the book today I was very excited, that was until he couldn't tell me what the boys name was in the story.

So, on one hand its great that he finished the book and he felt so good about himself!! On the other hand, he couldn't tell me much about the book. After some prompting he did figure out the name (which by the way was Nate, see why I'm torn), but he couldn't remember much. So he then asked me if we could go down to get a comic book as I had promised. When I made the deal I did not tell him he had to report to me about the book, but the comprehension is very important. It doesn't do much good if he doesn't understand what he read. Thats not really reading, is it. I told him that I would like us to reread it together so that he can understand it before he gets the comic book. When I told him this he was crushed. It was like I just took his accomplishment and through it down the drain. I felt awful!

So here's my choices.

1) Buy him the comic book for finishing the book and talk about and set some new guidelines.
or
2) Make him reread the book with me in the next couple days, so that I know he comprehends it, and then go and buy him the comic book.

Thoughts or suggestions anyone??

We made it!

We made it through our first week of school! It went off well with some obvious things to work out. I have realized that no matter how much I want to I am not a morning person. I don't sleep well, sometimes not at all, at night and so it makes for a rough start if I try to get up early. Looks like we will be starting later than I had originally planned.

I am amazed how quickly the twins pick up on things. For instance, Weston couldn't spell his name or write it in order and within the first 2 days he had mastered it. Here's the proof! I think the twins will do very well!

This was day 1 with ALOT of coaching. :) Notice all the eraser marks. LOL
This is on Friday! You can barely tell which one is mine. :)

Mason has the occasional "I don't wanna do school." I'm hoping that changes for the sake of my sanity. haha For the most part his attitude is good though. We have also only started out with 2 papers. Boy is he in for it! haha

We also rocked out to Tobymac while painting! Did Math in our underwear. Wait, I better rephrase that...MASON did Math in his underwear! haha I asked him to get dressed and his words were, "Do I have to get dressed, its homeschool?" He got me there. So on Thursday we spent the day in our pajamas. :) We also learned how to do laundry.

It seems that school seems to continue throughout the day which I love! We had a very big wipe off board that the kids wrote on. Well, I cut it in 3 peices so that I could use it and they could have one when working with them. Weston and Isaac love to prop it up on the kitchen table bench and practice their "school work". It led to writing words and drawing in 3D and all sorts of things.

It will definitely take some time to adjust and get a routine together, but it has been an amazing week with many more to come.

Mason takes his handwriting to his room while I work with the twins. He loves this!

Weston and Isaac's 1st day of school! :)
Coloring their first worksheet. I know, you all probably think I'm crazy.
This is where I took the prompting and we spelled Cat. Yeah, who would of thought...not me.
Here we are painting to Tobymac! I LOVED IT!!!

So I expressed my anxiety in an earlier post, but I don't know if you truley understand how nervous I really was. It was bad. I have to tell you that I am now so excited!!! I am having so much fun. Its only the first week, I know, but it has went much better than I ever thought. It is alot more work than I thought it would be though, but so worth it. So when I have one of those moments later in the year...we know its going to happen...please refer me back to the post! :)

Its finally happening!

Its finally here...the 1st day of school is tomorrow!! I can't believe it is here and I can't believe that its actually going to happen. I am nervous as all get out! I have the twins entire curriculum planned out up until the end of November. It took me a while to figure out their reasoning for things, but once I just started in, it made complete sense. We are starting out slow for Mason. Our plan is for the first couple weeks brushing up on Math while starting the new lesson in our new book. :) He has always loved handwriting so we will start with that too and add everything else in slowly. He has expressed some anxiety, but I think once we get started he will love it. Well thats my hope anyway, with using the combination of things he likes and things he doesn't like to get started. The twins, on the other hand, are so excited!! They have been asking to start for weeks now as they have been watching me organize their papers. I am so excited to see the change in them as the year progresses. I am also hopeful to see Masons attitude for school change and realize how fun it really can be.

We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow and I will definitely be taking pictures of our new journey!