Moms Rock!

The other day my mother was here and the boys were showing her one of their video games, while she and I talked. (The computer is in the living room, so we were able to sit in the comfy chairs and still see the computer screen.)

As we were talking, I mentioned that I am working on my blogs more and thinking about getting back into freelance writing, something I did before I started homeschooling.

She asked me if I wanted to use her laptop, since she has not used it in months. That way I could go online or write while the kids were using our family computer.

I told her that was my first goal - to earn enough money writing to buy my own laptop.

She's bringing it next Monday when she stops by. (She stops by every Monday.)

As the tech-geeks and gamers say, w00t!

Random Thoughts on Sledding

Yesterday, I took Little E out to sled behind our house while the older boys were over at a friend's house. It was 6 degrees out. That's Fahrenheit, people!

The one thing I can say, well, besides that I froze my behind off, is that if your New Year's resolutions included exercise and spending more time with your children, then trudging through knee-deep snow drifts to go sledding is a great way to kill two birds with one stone*.

Of course, I spend nearly 24 hours a day with my kids, so I really didn't need to resolve to spend more time with them. In fact, if I made resolutions, I might have resolved to spend slightly less time with them. Not that I don't like being around my children, mind you. It's just that, well, you know. There is only so much time one can spend with the same group of people, especially when that group has the conversational skills of elementary students.

It could be worse, I suppose. I could spend all of my time with adults that have the conversational skills of elementary students.

* The first time I used this expression around The D, he was horrified that anyone would want to kill any birds with any number of stones. He was completely disgusted that that is even a common saying. Who would want to kill birds?

Now, if I could only figure out how to get him to have that level of compassion toward his brothers.

My Uninspiring New Year's Post

Today is New Year's Day. A new year. A new chance to do things right.

Bah! Whatever. It's just another day on the calendar.

Sure, it does mark the passage of yet another year, but so does my birthday, my children's birthdays, my wedding anniversary, and so forth, and those are all much more significant to my life.

I really don't get the whole resolution thing either. The way I look at it, if you have changes that you need to make, make them when you come to that realization. Don't wait for January 1st. Start every day trying to better yourself.

I don't mean to be so down on New Year's Day, I just don't get it. Other than the historical value of chronicling the important events of the previous year, I really don't see what the big deal is. Sorry.

What is a big deal is that the holiday season is over (by that, I mean Thanksgiving and Christmas - I don't use that as a non-religious euphemism for Christmas), and it is time to get back to business around here.

That means more menu planning, budgeting, routine chores, and by all means homeschooling, which we have not been doing regularly since Thanksgiving!

It also means back to blogging! I am scheduling in blogging time daily. I really want to make this blog into what I wanted it to be when I started it, but I have not had - or perhaps not taken - the time to do it.

Even my husband is supportive of me making this more of a priority than it has been, so I am really looking forward to sharing more with all of you.

I hope 2008 is everything you want it to be, and more!

Thanks for reading!

Madness!

Yesterday was The D's 11th birthday. I decided that I would let him and Big E use the computer all that they wanted to for the day. Needless to say, they used it all day and I did not get a chance to blog.

With The D's birthday behind us, I had hoped for a brief reprieve from the madness of excited kids, but no such luck. After all, Christmas is almost here!!! :: Kids running around waving their hands above their heads ::

Anyway, with all of this madness, I am not sure how blog posting will look.

If I can manage to get my exhausted body out of bed one of these mornings, I will be able to post then.

If I can occupy the kids with a pre-recorded Christmas special from the night before for a few sweet moments, I will be able to post then.

If, when the kids go to bed, I can still think straight after a day of wild, crazy, Christmas-anticipating children enough to put together some words into semi-intelligent sentences, I will post then.

Feel free to leave notes of encouragement in the comments, provided that you were able to steal a couple of moments away from your own brood and decided to stop by. I appreciate that. I truly know how precious those moments are.

Counting Down to Christmas

I just realized that I haven't posted here since Friday! I have been busy trying to get some stuff done around here for Christmas.

There is so much cleaning and organizing and decorating and toy purging to get done. Normally that is difficult enough to do with three kids home all the time, but it is even harder to do when those same three kids are bouncing off the walls because Christmas is only a couple of weeks away (and the D's birthday is only a week away)!

Not that I am complaining, I just wish that the cleaning and organizing and toy purging was done last month, so that we could just do the fun stuff - decorate, bake, watch Christmas specials, play in the snow.

On the bright side, Christmas itself is going to be very relaxing and a time for us to enjoy each other and focus on Jesus. All of the preparations and hustle and bustle will be out of the way, hopefully, by the end of this weekend.

I have a couple of crafty things to post, but I still need to take pictures. I am hoping that I will get to post this evening after we put the boys to bed.

Thanks for stopping by!

No Posting Tomorrow

Yea! Tomorrow, I get to be a grown-up all day!

I brought the kids up to my mother's this afternoon so I could have the day off tomorrow to go to a symposium on the future of Vermont's economy.

I am very excited to be a grown-up for the day!

I'm off to go read my dictionary to brush up on using big words. :)

Our Own Radio Station

I have to get back to my novel, but I had to share this.

The D is in his room playing his favorite songs really loud on the CD player. In between songs, his voice bellows out something like, "And that was Thousand Foot Krutch. Next we have DC Talk with 'In the Light'." Sometimes in between songs, he reads today's Bible verse, which he selects. It's so cute.

Ugh, I am way behind on my novel. You can read about that here, if you're interested. (Yes, I have another blog. I have been holding out on you.) Okay, back to it... Actually, I have to go feed the kiddos first.

Oh, and I have still not heard back from the doctor about The D. I will share when I do. Thanks for your prayers.

"And now for the Mystery Song. Call 802-123 if you can name this song..."

Wire Tree Sculpture - Winner!

The winner of the wire tree sculpture was selected this evening and is Living for God.

I had the boys choose a random number between 1 and 111, and they were very excited to find out that the winning commenter was called "Living for God." I think they took that as a good sign. Kids are so fun.

Thank you all who participated. If you are interested in purchasing a wire tree sculpture from Designs by Charity Tensel, be sure to visit the site. I should have some up on Etsy by the end of this week, along with some soaps, or you can contact me about a special order.

NaNoWriMo

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. That's National Novel Writing Month, where one tries to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

I wanted to let you know because it is likely to interfere with my blogging, but maybe not. I think I will still post as often as I do, since I don't post as much as I'd like to anyway!

If you're interested in NaNoWriMo, there's still time to get in on the action.

Or you could always sign up for NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month.

Gee, I should have done that!

Giveaway: Wire Tree Sculpture

I finally decided to take the plunge and start a website to promote and sell some of the things that I make.

Right now, I am focusing on wire tree sculptures and soaps. These are things that I have made for other people and given as gifts, with very warm reception, so I thought it would be a good place to start.

Later this week, I will list some items on Etsy, but right now, I do have my website up for Designs by Charity Tensel.

This week, as part of the great bloggy giveaway extravaganza, Fall Y'all, I am offering a wire tree sculpture to one lucky winner.

This tree sculpture will be similar to the first one pictured on the Wire Tree Sculptures page of Designs by Charity Tensel. I am crafting this exclusively for the winner of this giveaway, but I should have a picture up later this week.

In order to be entered, leave a comment on this post. That's it! Please leave only one entry, though. Unless....

For a second entry, post about this giveaway on your blog, with a link to this post and a link to Designs by Charity Tensel. Then come back and leave another comment with the link to your post.

A winner will be randomly selected on Sunday at 5:00 PM EST.

Prize includes shipping to any of the 48 contiguous United States. (Please contact me if you live elsewhere. I might be able to arrange something.)

And be sure to check out the other great giveaways at the Fall Y'all bloggy giveaway.

Scrubs Premiere, Tonight!

Break out the Appletinis, the season premiere of Scrubs is on tonight at 9:30!

I just read that this is the FINAL season. I know that it is time, but man, this is one of the best shows on television.

If you need a refresher of the end of last season, NBC has a three-minute recap. If that doesn't play the re-cap, (it starts with Keith in a hideous tux), then click on the clip, "My Point of No Return (9/13)"

Technorati tags: Scrubs

WFMW and Other Stuff.

I am feeling much better, so I hope to be able to get up tomorrow early enough to do a post, or do one in the afternoon. I have a hard time posting at night because my brain shuts down after the kids go to bed. I am more of a morning person as far as creativity goes.

I didn't do a Works-for-Me Wednesday post today because I couldn't think of anything good to write about, but I was just over there looking at some of them and there are some great ones.

I love that Shannon has contributors tell what their post is about, so I can scan through for the ones that look good. For example, potty training or anything having to do with daughters really is not useful to me, so I can just skip those.

I am really getting my life organized and I am excited to share some of the things I have been doing that are really making my life much easier. It is almost counter-intuitive, but taking the time to plan things out really does save a lot of time. And if it doesn't (I didn't exactly do a time study) it more than makes up for the time it takes with the stress it reduces.

At any rate, I hope that I get a chance to post more about this tomorrow. I am going to put it pretty high up on my to-do list.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Checking In

This has been a busy week. I have not had much time for blogging with the start of school, and the fact that I am still trying to finish preparing my enrollment for the state, including the portfolios from last year and curriculum outline for this year.

I am also trying to get through a couple of books, so I have been reading at night, instead of blogging. (Which is not a bad thing.)

Anyway, I am still here. I hope to get some posts up soon.

Oh yeah, and here is the link to A Magical Carnival of Homeschooling.

Just so you know...

I was not bored for one single second while I had the house to myself for the weekend. In fact, I could have gone a couple of more days here myself before I even came close to running out of things on my to-do list.

A neighbor ended up lending me the book, "The Irresistible Revolution," by Shane Claiborne and I couldn't put it down. When I finish it, I will definitely be posting about it.

It was a great relaxing weekend.

It's a good thing, too, because we started school today. More on that later, but Blogger is about to have a scheduled outage.

The Sweet Sound of Silence

If you listen really hard right now, here in my apartment, do you know what you will hear?

Nothing. That's right. Nothing.

The kids are at grandma's for the weekend. The whole weekend.

And what's more, this just happens to be the very same weekend that my dearest husband is going camping with his buddies from college.

Oh, yeah.

The funny thing is that the response from every person who has heard about this has been the same. You're not going to know what to do. You'll be bored.

To which I have but one reply: Are you nuts?

The only problem I am going to have is figuring out what to do first!

About Our Trip (and a faith lesson for me)

Our anniversary trip was great. I have some pictures, but I don't feel like uploading them right now.

The Green River Bridge House was beautiful. I forgot how much I love being that far out in the country. It is way out on a dirt road out in the middle of Nowhere, VT. (Guilford, actually.)

We got there Friday afternoon. After we put our stuff in our room and had tea, we set out to explore the region because we have been really wanting to move to Southern Vermont, or perhaps New Hampshire.

First, we went to Brattleboro and ran into the only person I know in Brattleboro, Christian "Brattlerouser" Avard. How funny!

It started pouring rain, so we got in the car and drove through a bunch of really small towns, ended up crossing the bridge from Bellows Falls, VT to Walpole, NH. Once we saw all there was to see there, we realized that we were starving. Since we had no idea where to eat, we headed for the known - Keene, NH.

We ended up eating downtown at Margarita's, which is, as you might have guessed, a Mexican place.

The salsa was too hot; my quesadilla was too bland. And it had way too much cheese, which, coming from me, means really, way too much cheese.

I'd love to redeem the place by saying my margarita rocked, but since I was fighting off a cold, I didn't have one.

It only took about a half hour to get back to the B&B from Keene. On the way, we saw a really awesome lightning storm.

I'm not going to bore you with any more blow-by-blow. Basically, we hung out all day Saturday, except for a quick drive up to Springfield, VT for lunch.

We brought sandwiches back to have for dinner and ended up going to bed early that night to get a good night's sleep.

Until someone's car alarm went off! Ugh!

Anyway, we had the right mix of getting out and staying in to relax. It was very refreshing.

For the last several months, I have been looking forward to checking out the area during this trip.

We have been wanting to move, but have been having a hard time figuring out where. I thought this trip would bring some decisiveness to the situation.

No such luck.

After all of that driving around, Bob now wants to stay here in the Burlington area.

At first, I was pretty annoyed. I feel like my life has been on hold until we got around to checking out the southern part of the state (and NH). Now, we aren't even moving there.

I spent a lot of time praying about this, though, and I am feeling good about Bob's decision.

One of the things that I struggle with is having to make major decisions with another adult. One who, in many ways, has more of a say than I do because where we live is dependent on him finding a job there.

I mean, I can't just up and decide to move to Keene, though I would love to. We kind of have to have a way to live once we get there.

I was on my way home from Bible study tonight and I had been praying about the situation. As has been the case for what seems like forever, I really didn't get an answer to this problem.

Then all of the sudden, I had peace about it. Not just about staying here, but also about letting Bob lead us, when it is my impulse to control everything.

Maybe the reason God has been silent to me on this issue is because I needed to let Him lead Bob instead, and I, in turn, needed to let my husband lead.

That is something that is a difficult, yet humbling, thing to do for a modern woman, who is used to being in control.

Okay, so this started out as a what-we-did-on-our-vacation post and ended up being a faith post, but I guess that's okay.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Aaahhhh....

Finally, I am back online. As I mentioned earlier, my internet service was out. It turned out to be a problem with the lines to the house. No charge! That was a huge relief because we thought it was our modem.

After service was restored and I posted my quick note earlier, I let the kids watch Cartoon Network online because they were about to explode. They post the new episodes on Monday and I usually let the kids watch a couple shows. (We do not have cable channels.)

There was no way they were going to let me go online in peace, so I figured I would let them have their turn first.

It has been torture not being able to go online all week. I forget how dependent I am on having internet access at my finger tips.

I had to call the bank and speak to an actual human being when I couldn't figure out one charge that showed up on my account when I was using the automated phone service. I usually just look online.

It was bad enough that I had to use the phone service, but to then have to actually talk to a customer service representative - blech!

And don't get me started on not being able to read blogs, or update my own!

On the bright side, this internet hiatus allowed me the time to write out my curriculum for next year, get together our portfolio of last year's work for the state, and sketch out the calendar we will follow for the year.

I'm trying a new organized approach. More on that later.

I have lots to say, but I have some business to take care of online first. I should be posting more later, but I do have Bible study tonight, so it might be late.

Woo-hoo!

The Comcast tech just left.
I'm back online.
All is well with the world.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

On this day in 2002, I married the man who would turn out to be the husband of my dreams.

Have a Great Weekend!

I have so many things that I wanted to post about before we leave tomorrow, but it looks like it won't happen. We still have so much to do before we go, and the kids will be off-the-wall with excitement when they wake up.

Have a great weekend! I know I will!