Bon Appetit!

So I am now officially a Pampered Chef consultant! I have done two parties already and have another one scheduled for 13 days for now. It is really fun and I love seeing how much fun everyone else is having. Now if I can just keep balanced with homeschooling, housework, and the business side of things, we'll be ok...oh, plus house-hunting.

House-hunting? Yes. The crazy process is ours for now. It's a great time to buy. Unfortunately, everyone is buying the houses we find perfect! :( As soon as these amazing deals pop up, someone puts in an offer and they are gone. And by amazing, I mean AMAZING! Three to four bedrooms/two and a half bathrooms, big kitchen, two car garages, big yard (all built 1999 or after)...all for under $150,000!!! But we are not discouraged. We have time to look and there are plenty of houses for sale. :) So we'll see. It may take a while, but we don't mind the wait. We definitely want to make sure we make a wise decision. And our realtor is great. She loves Pampered Chef, too. ;)

We haven't heard from the two charter schools that we applied for, so we'll have to see about that. I need to call them. Some of the houses that we've been looking at are in a different school district, too, so that could make life more interesting.

So...in short, we are very busy here...school in the morning, new business stuff and housework in the afternoon, and house-hunting in the evening. Whew! Hopefully things will slow down a bit here soon, but in the meantime, God is giving us grace and wisdom and strength to make it through each day. I'm so thankful that, even though things around us are changing from day to day, HE is the same yesterday, today, and forever. HE will never change and neither will HIS promises. What a comfort and a joy to know!

More Ramblings...

So I really need to re-do this blog. I tried changing the template quite some time ago, but it didn't work very well. Oh well. Maybe that'll be on my to-do list in the very near future.

In other news...I have just become a Pampered Chef consultant. It has been fun so far! And it's great to know that I can help contribute to paying off some debt that we acquired after having no job for six months. Hard to believe that two years ago, we had ZERO debt. But I digress... :)

We have found a couple of charter schools that we like for our soon-to-be second grader. She is signed up and now we wait for them to choose...it's a lottery system. So we shall see.

We are also looking for a house. We have never bought a house before and so far the Lord has given us peace about this decision. Ever feel like renting is just "throwing away" money every month? I do. And we're pretty sure that we could lower our monthly costs with a mortgage. We're grateful for the townhome/apartment complex we live in, but if we could contribute our monthly payments toward something, that would be great. Anyway, I'll let you know if we even find anything. :)

Well, I need to get moving. The girls are performing in a "show" and apparently I am not participating in the audience as I ought to. Oops. ;)

Musings...

Wow, it's been a while. At the request of a friend, I must update you all. :) I have wanted to, but who has the time? Must make some! Anyway...

We have been homeschooling and everything is going great...well everything but math. My first-grader does great with all other subjects...language arts, phonics, science, history, art, and music. Well, she even does okay with math, but she doesn't want to try very hard. Every thing else just seems to be a lot easier to try and master, but math she does not care for. She can DO it, but would rather choose to not try very hard. This has proven to be quite frustrating for teacher as well as student. I have tried many, MANY things and it has gotten somewhat better. She's a smart cookie but doesn't like to work at things that do not come easy. Guess she gets that from me. :( I took piano lessons for many years and should be able to play better than I do now, but I hated to practice. Easy concepts were easy for me to practice, but I just didn't want to spend the time on the harder stuff and it frustrated me easily. Funny how children teach you so much about yourself...

After thinking and praying about it and talking to some friends who know much about the subject, we have been loooking into charter schools in our area. My dear first grader would definitely benefit from a brick-and-mortar school, I think, for many reasons. I won't list these for fear it would bore some to death. :) Maybe one of these posts will be dedicated to that, and those who wish to may completely skip over that one. ;) It has definitely been interesting, though, to research education and really think about options and such. There is so much out there. But for now, I am enjoying my role of teacher-mom and LOVE teaching my student. If we decide to send her off to school, I will miss her oh so much. I love to see the way her mind works and how her eager brain works. What an amazing creation the mind is. God is so gracious to us!

Well, I think this post is long enough for now. Next post will update you on the rest of life, I guess. There isn't too much else to talk about. :) Until next time...

Not Worth Much

Almost a week ago, I was relaxing at home in the evening all by myself when I heard something that sounded like water dripping. Thinking it might be in the kitchen, I investigated in there. But no water was dripping in there. So I checked the washer, just in case something had malfunctioned and it was leaking. Nope. Then I decided to open the utility closet. You know, the one where the hot water heater and everything is. And there was the problem. Water was running out of the hot water heater from the top, out over the sides, and out the bottom. It was a mess! Praise the Lord the closet was designed well and had a drain. And what a blessing it was to have our maintenance man here with a brand new heater bright and early the next morning! Well, once he installed the new hot water heater, I tested the water. And it was hot! We have lived here for almost four months now and it bothered me that our water never really got hot. It grossed me out to do the dishes in not quite hot enough water (for my liking). And our showers never really got hot enough either. Anyway, now everything is hot enough for everything and everyone to get really really clean. :)

I was pondering this while doing the dishes the other day. You know the passage in Revelation 3 where God tells the church that because they aren't hot or cold (they're lukewarm), He will spit them out of his mouth? It made me think...my not so hot water wasn't very effective in washing dishes. (I like the water to be as hot as I can stand it when washing my dishes.) And it's true...hot water is MUCH more effective at getting the grime and grease off of dishes than say, lukewarm water. So what is lukewarm water good for? I don't care for lukewarm baths or showers. Not many people do. Am I effective for my Savior as a lukewarm christian? There is another passage that came to mind as well. I studied John chapter 15 quite a bit a few years back before speaking on it at a mother/daughter banquet. Jesus is talking about abiding in Him, the Vine. Apart from the Vine, we cannot do anything. In fact, verse 6 says that without abiding in the Vine, we wither as branches and are gathered for firewood. If you read more about that word picture, it goes a little deeper even. The idea is that we are some thing, straggly pieces of dried up wood that, frankly, aren't even good for firewood! Without abiding in Christ (which is an entire study in and of itself), we aren't useful for what God has intended us for. There is no middle ground. We should be giving our all to, doing our best for, and seeking and abiding in the One Who has redeemed us. God's Word is just so amazing! Anyway, just thought I'd share a bit of what was on my heart.

On a lighter note, we did go to the circus and it was great! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more...the kids or us. :) We got great seats and had an amazing time. It was definitely worth it. The girls loved it and it kept their attention, even though it was getting late. And, of course, they didn't sleep in the next morning. ;) Kids. My precious little gifts from God.

Disappointment :(

So today I decided to take the kids and go watch the "circus parade" here in Denver. It was advertised on the news and on some webpages and it sounded really fun. All the hoopla is to celebrate the 50 year (I think) anniversary of Barnum and Bailey circus. Apparently they are touring in their big long train and everything. Well anyway, we got parked and picked out a good spot on the parade route and were there pretty early. It was supposed to start about 1 or 1:30 this afternoon. Oh yeah, and it is still stinking hot here...92 degrees today! So the kiddos and I waited and waited...and waited and waited...then someone told us that it was going to be a little later. So we waited some more and waited some more. Three whole hours after we arrived, we heard it was coming. We were getting excited! What animals would we see? How big of a parade would it be? How about this? About ten lousy elephants walking briskly by...no major entourage, no other hoopla, no nothin'. People all around us couldn't believe that we waited that long just to see a few elephants race by. SO disappointing! The three-year-old began to cry and the six-year-old just looked at me and asked, "That's it?!" Oh well. At least it gave us something to do all afternoon. :) But it was definitely a bummer after we waited and waited and sweat and sweltered in the hot sun for three hours. Well, it's a story they can tell their kids one day, I guess. :) Too bad they weren't passing out free circus tickets to those of us who stuck it out! Again, oh well. But we are going to the circus in just a few days...our consolation prizes. :) We're going to surprise the kids and not tell them until the day of. It will be so much fun and they will be so excited! I can't wait!!!

New Beginnings

Wow, it has been such a terribly long time since I have posted anything! Things have been so busy here lately. We began homeschooling the end of August and it is going well. I really do enjoy finding out how my first grader's mind works (sometimes it's kind of scary ;). We are using the Colorado Virtual Academy, or K12 Online, program and we really like it. You should check it out. So that has been one of our big "new" things. Another has been finding a new church. We just joined one that we absolutely fell in love with. The members of this body were welcoming the moment we entered the doors and they haven't stopped. In fact, they keep reaching out to us and getting to know us. It's great! I know, I know. That's how a church should be, but that's not how all churches behave. So we are so grateful that God has allowed us to find and become a part of this local body of believers. They have already been a great blessing to us in ways they will never even know. God is so good...all the time. Well, that's it for now. I'm finding the time to write this as I'm a bit under the weather, so off to sleep so I'll be all better when I wake up in the morning. :)

Back to school already?!

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over and school is ready to start again. This year, we are homeschooling our soon-to-be first grader. The just-turned-three-year-old will be doing letters, numbers, shapes, and colors at home as well. I love that stage! I am also excited about homeschooling and doing first grade. My degree is actually in secondary education, but it's so exciting to be able to teach and see the lights come on and try to make it interesting. Plus, knowing exactly what my daughter is learning is very comforting to me. It won't be exactly easy, but it will be so worth it, in my opinion. I just love my girls so very much and can't wait to see them grow in every way right before my eyes.
It's so hard to believe that my first "baby" will be six this weekend! She was born two weeks before her due date, the day (well, technically the next morning) we moved out of our second floor apartment and into my in-laws basement. Our house wasn't finished yet (of course), and wouldn't be for another six weeks. So we never had fewer than three people in our little basement room at my in-laws. But it was cozy. :)
Now she will be six years old. Six years! Wow, a lot has happened in the last six years. I can't wait for the next six years, and the next, and the next... Watching my daughter turn into a young lady...kinda brings tears to your eyes. :) I remember being in a friend's wedding when my daughter was about ten months old. As I stood there at the front of the church, I remember crying and thinking, "I could never do this" and my daughter wasn't even a year old! Seems silly, but if you're a mom of a daughter, you know exactly what I mean. Now, if her dad and I can just make it through the next however many years and, by God's grace, train her to be a godly young woman who will love Him with all of her heart, we'll have it made. :) God will give us the strength and the wisdom. And we pray every day that our girls will grow to love their Savior more and more each day and desire to be like Him in every way. What an awesome responsibility we have! And what an awesome God we serve. :)