Just ran across this one!

If you are a bookaholic like me you won’t want to miss this sale at Barnes & Noble. They are having an after Christmas warehouse clearance sale and they have TONS of great books for 50 to 90% off. Also, if you are a member you can get an extra 25% off using this code: F3T6K4L (this code expires on the January 21st)

Busy is now a four letter word according to Kim. I am so thrilled with this revelation that I am so passing it on!

Every time I go out with even just 3 of my boys somebody inevitably says to me, “wow, you are a busy woman”. Funny that they never say that about Kait, just the boys.
When making small talk a general question I am asked is, “so, are you keeping busy?”
And when somebody asks my husband how life is going he always ALWAYS says, “busy”.

Why is it that ‘busy’ has become such a commodity? It seems like it is something that we are all competing at. When making small talk we even tend to challenge the other person to be busier than ourselves.
And if your not busy, well, then you must have something seriously wrong with you!

And the truth is, nobody even likes to be all that busy. We stress out, get depressed, get lonely for our spouse, fail to eat right and stay healthy, and we miss out on our kids growing up all because we are too busy; and I missed the memo about getting extra points for having the most busy kids.
We are just plugging through life as fast as we can and it is all just wizzing by us. Why has ‘busy’ become such a desired thing?

When I was a kid, from about age 9 or 10 up until my mid teens I had this recurring day dream type thing. It is hard to explain. It was like I was in a room with tons and tons of paper moving around or something. I was in the middle of it and the paper just seemed to get faster and faster and I couldn’t slow it down. I was fully awake during these episodes and was close to panic each time. They only lasted a few minutes and then everything went back to normal but I can recall trying to describe it to my mom with no success. She just thought I was dizzy and had me put my head between my legs. Looking back, I think I was panicked because my life was very busy, everybody I knew was busy. At that point in time ‘busy’ was just coming into style and everybody wanted a piece of it – how could anybody have predicted where it would lead and what it would cost?

I, myself, am not busy now. Not. At. All.
I don’t have TV. I don’t leave the house every day of the week. I don’t have to get my kids all back and forth to every sport imaginable. My family is happy. My children laugh. My husband and I have lots of quality time together. Our family plays board games. My stress is just about non-existent.
Of course, we do have the occasional busy day; however, this is not the norm. I am relaxed and I revel in the blessings that coming with watching my children grow up.

So, yep, busy is now a four letter word and the next time somebody asks you if your staying busy you can just say, “shh, that is a bad word”.

Be sure to pass it on!

When did you start officially homeschooling a youngster.. I mean age wise…I have no particular curriculum or anything.. just making up things as I can and see she [my daughter] wants to do..any tips on a good age to start or barring age maybe what the signs of readiness are?
Thanks, Amy!

Good question, Amy!
Really, there is not a specific cut and dry age to go off of when starting homeschooling. Knowing your child, spending time with them, and picking up on their interests is key.
My first piece of advice is to not push your child to learn past their readiness. Signs a child isn’t ready for a specific subject are if they get frustrated easily, can’t focus on what you are saying, or if you are getting frustrated. Sometimes a child might know something one minute and then not know it the next. This is a sign to slow down. Children have this sponge-like brain but their minds can tire easy.
Setting aside time for ‘school’ is fine at a young age just as long as you keep careful about stopping before anybody begins to dislike it. You don’t want your little ones to grow a dislike for learning. They have plenty of time to dislike it later – just ask my 13 year old when she is given a math assignment!
Little ones age 5 and under really need their love and desire to learn carefully fostered. You can snuff out their natural fondness for school so easily or you can spur it on, making them love it more and more. For now, I don’t have any specific curriculum for preschool aged kids. Just hands on learning and such.
What I really like to do with my littles is get them involved in whatever I am doing. My 4 year old, Matthew, likes to bake bread. He measures out the ingredients and helps clean up. He will also get together with my 2 year old and empty the dishwasher. Both have helped my husband with the kitchen remodel. Just being in the same room, asking questions, and helping hold the measuring tape really teaches a lot and helps create the necessary bonds between a child and his parent/teacher.
I really like to let them get their hands dirty, make a mess, and learn how to clean up.
I also try to keep them around during the bigger kids schooling time. I might have them color or do a puzzle but they will learn a lot just being in the room! Go to this post to see first hand what I am talking about.

I want to clarify that if your child is disobedient, even during learning that must be dealt with as disobedience – even if you realized you pushed them too hard in a subject. Someday when they are older, like my 9 and 13 year old, they will have to sit and do work they don’t like. You can’t teach them to fuss or wine to get out of it.

If you have ideas on schooling littles feel free to leave a comment! I can always use new and fun ideas and I know Amy will appreciate it, as well.

Got around to staining the kitchen cabinets today and they are so pretty! I thought we would put at least two coats of red mahogany stain on but now I am pretty sure one will be enough. I am not really good with the polyurethane so I have to wait for Ryan to give me some tips before I try that one. I did our dining room table a few years ago and although it turned out nice if you look close you can see the botch of urethane job I did.

I guess I can’t be good at everything.

Anyway, for Christmas my dear mother (I LOVE YOU, MOM and the kids do, too!) got us a Wii. It arrived today because it was very hard to find at Christmas time. Ryan added in some extra remotes so we could all have fun playing it.

I decided that we wouldn’t even open the box until we were done staining. The boys didn’t know about it but Kaitlyn knew and it really motivated us to get the job done. I was going to tell the boys but I knew the staining would be a rotten job because they would have just sped through it so they could play the game.

So, for 2.5 hours after schooling today, while Sam(8 mo) slept peacefully, Kait(13), Joe(9), Gabe(7), and I stained wood in the kitchen. I walked away to check on Sam close to the end and when I came back not only had they almost finished the cabinets but they had stained themselves and most of the floor as well (Kaitlyn would be amiss if I didn’t tell you that she had no part in the self-staining going on)! I really should have taken a picture of that. I don’t know what I was thinking not logging that fun memory. Kids are washable but not quite that washable! I ended up having to clean the floor and the kids up with mineral spirits and Dawn.

And now they are playing the Wii and I am having so much fun watching them. What an awesome, yet dangerous game system! Joe is already complaining of muscle aches and all the kids are moving around constantly, giggling, and really having a good time with each other. My glass of water is in constant danger and Kait’s poor Jack Russell has already been kicked and punched (on accident) because he was getting into the game as well! This is so great to get the kids’ bodies moving since it has been so cold and snowy outside! I never thought a gaming system could be a good thing but I would definitely recommend getting rid of any other gaming system and investing in a Wii! (see how easy it is to justify owning one?)

So that was our good, productive, funny and fun day! And my kitchen is one step closer to being FINISHED!

It is sad really, since we are planning to sell the house in a few months because of a military transfer. I won’t miss the house so much but I am going to SO miss my brand spankin’ new kitchen.

I am not much for jewelry. I told my husband after he put my wedding ring on my finger that no further jewelry purchases were necessary and that I didn’t see the point in spending hundreds of dollars on rocks and metal.
That hasn’t stopped me from paging through Goldsmith Jewelry’s new website. There have some beautiful pieces and, although I am not going to spend $1500 on a set of earrings, I am sure going to enter to win them for free!

Goldsmith Jewelry is having a sort of online grand opening I guess and they are generously giving away a pair of $1,500 diamond earrings.

Not much time left to run over to Marketing Mommy and get your Lands End diaper bag entry in but you still have a little time if you hurry!

Sorry, but I just ran across it or I would have let you all know sooner!

Fevers, body aches, soar throat, cough, sinus pressure, exhaustion, etc…

The Flu.

Vomiting, sometimes accompanied by fever, body aches and lethargy

The Stomach Flu

Both are running rapidly through our cities, causing all kinds of annoying havoc. In families like mine where 6 kids can get sick all at the same time, or one right after another, a sick plan is always a good idea. You want to make sure that you have certain things on hand all the time so 2am trips to the grocery store can be avoided. Especially in a small town like mine where the grocery store closes at 11pm. Staying ready can really ease the stress of having a sick family in the unfortunate event that the bug strikes.

My first piece of advice is to make sure your medical insurance is up to date. We are military and never have to worry about it but if you aren’t so fortunate to get free health coverage a place with traditional health care options can make finding a reliable, reasonable insurance plan not so mind numbing. Having a good insurance plan in place can ease your mind when you think you may have a child with emergency room needs. Sometimes a second thought, like, “how can I pay for this?”, may make you wait a little longer when your kid really needs to be seen NOW. Croup has settled on my little ones more than once and it was a blessing to not have to worry about how we were going to come up with the money to pay for the ER visit, breathing treatments, and follow up visits.

Here are some more good ideas to help you get through the flu season.

• Stay healthy! A diet rich in a variety of FRESH veggies and fruits can really go a long way to keeping immune systems at optimal function. You may not be able to stay-off the flu but you can help number those flu days to only 1 or 2 instead of 4 or 5.
• Keep fever reducing medicines on hand. We have infant and children’s Tylenol and Motrin in our medicine cupboard always. I am not quick to use them however, they have served their purpose on more than one occasion.
• Benadryl, commonly used for allergies, is an excellent med to help calm your child’s cough and runny or stuffy nose and help them sleep. We only use Benadryl at night and only when necessary but like I said above, it has served its purpose more times than one.
• For upset tummies, we always keep peppermint gum or candy in our medicine cupboard. For some reason peppermint has the ability to calm tummies long enough to hold down some water in many stomach flu cases.
• Garlic and hot peppers are natural flu remedies/preventers. I don’t know why. My husband eats a lot of garlic and peppers and is rarely sick, which is good because he turns into a BIG BABY when he gets a runny nose. (I don’t suggest hot peppers for a kid though!)
• Have somebody you trust’s number handy in case you need an emergency babysitter so you can take one of your kids to the doc.
• A good humidifier is likely to come in handy at night to break up the yuck in your kid’s nose and chest.
• Anti-bacterial soap! Make sure ever body washes their hands often to prevent re-infection.
• Vapor Rub!
• Tissue boxes with aloe for runny noses. The aloe in the tissues really keep noses from getting all read and raw!

Anything I missed? Please leave a comment with any good suggestions on getting through the sick season with littles!

I like to think ‘it will never happen to us’. I like to assume that my husband and I will grow old together and that my children will live happily well into adulthood and have their own little families. I pray for this daily.
Even still, I know that sometimes God’s plans for us are not what we imagine or assume. Life has twists and turns that nobody can guess.

I am thinking a lot about this lately – that the realities of life and death are just that, real. Ryan just got accepted into the Naval Pilot Program. When he was accepted into the Naval Flight Program (like a co-pilot) I was nervous enough but both Ryan and I knew this was a positive move for our family. He wanted to be a pilot but because his eyes weren’t good they couldn’t give him a pilot seat so NFO it was.
However, he got that PRK surgery in August, which is similar to Lasik but not, and then he was accidentally shoed into the pilot program. It was an answer to prayer and when Ryan went in and talked to the guy yesterday he said that there was no explanation for it and after a thorough checking into by the admin guy we are assured that Ryan is, in fact, going to be a pilot! YEAH!!!

This brings up issues for me though. I have always been nervous about Ryan flying. Not so much because he isn’t careful, but just because he will be in the sky with nothing under him but air. EEEEK!
This would be the time to look into more life insurance. The military provides us with a small amount but really, with 6 kids, to continue living my stay at home mom lifestyle in the unlikely event that tragendy strikes we really have to up our life insurance.
I figure that because of the type of job he has taking substantial life insurance out on him might be costly but it needs to be done.
Advantage Term Life is one place I have looked at. They have too many decisions and it is all VERY confusing to me. Why can’t there just be a plain jane policy where you pay for so much insurance and if something tragic happens and said person passes onto glory you would get xxxx amount of dollars.
Browsing through Advantage Term Life’s pages is showing me a plethora of options. I don’t really know what to do! I am sure our best bet would be to talk to a representative with USAA. They hold all our insurances because they are just that cheap. I am sure Advantage Term Life has good plans but GEEZ it is all just WAY too confusing.

Yes, I am being paid to link to Advantage Term Life Insurance. It is good for me and good for them. Interested? Visit Blogsvertise and learn how inexpensive good written advertisments can be and how positive they can be for your business, website, or blog! Having a good number of ‘natural style’ links to your website helps up your rankings in the search engines! This is one of the hardest SEO bits to cover. Joining a company like Blogsvertise can be immensely helpful in your optimization campaign.

Because I am always trying to find ways to earn a quick dime easily, while staying at home, I have decided to look into Blogsvertising. Hat tip to Ashley at Feminine Pursuits for pointing me to it.
Blogsvertising looks easy enough. We will see. I guess what they do is give you an assignment to link to an advertiser 3 times in a blog entry (doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, eh?). You don’t have to lie or anything, just give info and such about how you feel about the product, website, or service.
It sounds easy but we will see. I am not big on adding ‘fluff’ posts that have nothing to do with anything so prayfully Blogsvertise will give some really relevant assignments.

Registration was really easy and super fast. I was not asked for any major secret info. I had to give out the typical address and phone number, email and blog addy and I had to give a little info on what my blog was about. It took less than 2 minutes to fill out the registration form. Now I am just waiting to be approved.

I will let y’all know how it goes!