What makes it worth it?

What makes being a momma worth it for you? What are the little things that your kids do or say that make you glad they are yours?

I love when the little ones wake up from a nap and are still warm from sleep and climb into my arms for a snuggle. Totally worth it.
I love making peanut butter sandwiches every day, and the kids still get so excited the get them.
I love that my seven year old is learning to write cursive and is proud of herself. Proud.
I love that my seven year old could sit on the couch and read all day.. and sometimes does.
I love that my seven year olds love of learning is rubbing off on my four year old. She asks almost every day to do her schoolwork as well.
I love when my misterman tackles me in the hall then asks for a hug. Who would say no?
I love that my seven year old tells me that even when she is 16 she will give me a hug whenever I want one. I'm holding her to it.
I love that my four year old comes out of bed at night to tell me that I forgot to take out her clippies, and that I told her she can't sleep in them.
I love when my three kids stand in the playhouse in the back yard and yell MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY at my window cause they know I can hear them and the all smile and wave every time I open the curtains.
I love hearing them pray, even mister man asks to pray now.
I love to hear my girls play their guitars and sing to Jesus.

It's all worth it. Every stressful, is it ever going to end day of it. For those reasons.

A great day

Yesterday, we had a really nice day here. Phil was home all day.Went to HomeDepot, we got some yard work done. Played with the kids while Phil painted our shed in the back yard, had dinner together even. We don't get to do that a lot, Phil is gone a lot of nights.The kids watched Daddy work on the motorcycle then we all went to BigLots! Yay, that is always lots of fun. Then daddy took everyone to get ice cream. The kids just loved it! Thank God for great family days!

Frustrations

My last couple of days have been awful. Just so very stressful. William was sick last week for a few days and he seems to be trying to make up for it. He has been cranky and clingy and whiny and demanding and confrontational. He is driving me totally up the wall. I just don't know what to do with him. The girls are trying to be good, but half of the time they make him worse. I love my kids but sometimes I wish they would go home with someone else.
I have two tests coming up, and I want to do well on them. I'm stressing over that because I have a friend who has a job and four kids and sings and all and has a 4.0 and just got accepted to a nursing program. And here I am with three kids at home and I can barley maintain a 3.0. I feel really inadequate.
I'm frustrated with all my singing stuff. I really thought that I was doing better and that vocal team auditions would work out differently. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be in the ensemble, but I thought I could do better.
I'm frustrated that we had so many technical problems Wednesday at kids worship.
I'm jealous of opportunities that have been presented to my hubby, when I can't seem to get into the program that I want to be in for worship.

I just don't understand why everything is so hard right now. I know it seems silly, but this is my frustration right now. I don't mean to vent to all of you, but sometimes things need to come out.

Time to commit

Starting Monday, I am committing to working out regularly and eating healthy. I am having Phil make up a workout plan for me, to use with my P90X routine, when I don't have the same kind of time. And going to work on an eating plan. Anyone else on the same wagon? I'm looking for someone to take this journey on with, someone who isn't my hubby.

Ugh, I HATE potty training!

I HATE the process of potty training. I truley HATE it. We have started training William, beyond just letting him sit on the potty. I have been sitting him on the toilet, every ten minutes or so for five minutes. He does NOTHING. He has even been holding it in for hours, just so he won't have to use the potty. Or he will pee in his underpants while sitting on my lap. Fun stuff. I am hoping that he gets with the program and doesn't drag this out. Annabelle took over a year to train! A YEAR! I am not diggin on that for a second time. William just doesn't want to sit still on the potty. UGH, so frustrating.

I did it!

I went to vocal team audtions last night! I did my best, my vocal director told me I did great! Now we will wait and see if I made the team. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice!

Flower Beds and Dining Rooms

So today we got our flower beds in order. We used almost seven bags of red mulch, two crotons, two box woods, two Queen Elizabeth roses and a peach tree. This was all to replace what we lost this winter to freeze. Weird, I know. It was actually pretty easy going since the ground was nice and soft still, so the digging stuff out part was easy. Putting down all the mulch took the longest. But it looks really nice in my front yard!

We also finally got the chairs for our dining room table. We got this nice new table given to us, but there were no chairs to go with it. SO we went to Ikea to get some. Well they had one that we liked, but they were out of stock. So we went home, and called back today, they told us last time that it would be five days, today they said two more weeks. Uh, no thanks. I LOVE Ikea, but I need my chairs. So we went to Garden Ridge, and bought the same chairs. And some flowers for my table, to go in my cute little buckets from Ikea. Now all that is left is to get rid of the other table and chairs and we will be all set. It looks really nice, I love it.

Tomorrow is vocal team auditions. I am going, but not really expecting much out of it. I would like to make the team and will do my best, but I can't go in under pressure, cause I will choke.. massively.

Spring Break....ummm...What?

So, there really is NO spring break in our house. I have TONS of schoolwork to do, including some catch up reading tonight. Gwen will still end up doing her work, because she likes to, and Annabelle will do hers because Gwen is doing hers. Then add all the other stuff that goes on around here, add in some yard work, and there is a busy spring break!

My great scholarship search has been postponed until tomorrow night. Yay! I have the paperwork, I just need to fill it out. By tomorrow I should have all my work caught up and have a little time to work on it. I have to be able to focus, ya know!

I got to help lead worship for the kids today! Lots of fun! We had a fair number of kids there, considering time change and spring break. Sunday is a little different than Wednesday night, just enough to make me feel a little out of sorts. But it's fun and I enjoy doing it.

We were TOTALLY blessed today. A woman from our church gave us four bags of little boys clothes. Now there were things that I need for MisterMan, like shirts and underpants, that I was going to have to find a way to buy. This woman sent EVERYTHING I needed, shirts, pants, winter clothes he will grow into, a pair of shoes, and underwear! Even a duplicate, in a bigger size, of a favorite outfit of his. Exact same shirt and pants combo, just one size up! How amazing is that??? I'm totally thrilled about it!

So, that's pretty much it for now. I am going to go fold some laundry, read my psych book and try to get a moderate workout in. Enjoy your spring break folks!

Hello? Is this thing on?

Is anyone out there? Anyone reading this? Sometimes I just wonder...

Grants, auditions, and curriculum.. oh my!

I am soo glad this semester is almost over! Looking forward to a little break before summer classes start. I will be spending my evening filling out scholarship paperwork.. sounds fun huh? You know you're jealous! But hopefully I can get more than just a Pell grant this semester, and maybe be able to pay a babysitter so I can go to my on campus classes. We will see.

Next week I am going to vocal team auditions. I am looking forward to it, but really have no expectations. I have heard that it's going to be pretty tough, so I am NOT holding my breath. I AM going to go in there and do my best! Maybe I'll make it in one of the ensembles.. ya never know! The biggest issue I am going to have is nerves, I get REALLY nervous when something is on the line. So I am going to treat it as though nothing is, it's just a fun night of someone telling me how to sing, and that I am going to do great. That should help!

The homeschool year is almost over, can you believe it? Gwen will be moving on to third grade soon. Annabelle will be working more into her Kindergarten stuff now and into summer. She is finally ready to accept that she can do school work and now that she is going to have to do it! I'm looking forward to seeing how she does. She is writing fairly well, colors quite nicely, working on reading. I think that she is pretty ready for Kinder, so we are going to start working on it more and more.
BTW, she just learned to tie her own shoes! Such a milestone!
I am looking into what we will be using next year for the kids. I think for Gwen we will be using Switched On Schoolhouse. It's the same curriculum we have been using, just electronic. I think she will enjoy it. I am looking to see if I can get a hold of Saxon math, because everyone raves about it, and scope it out. I don't want to spend a lot on a book, so hopefully someone has one I can borrow or buy cheap!

Just to fill ya in!

So last week was CRAZY busy! But I'll give you a brief overview!

First I had this paper due in Psych class. SO I go online to the college website to start working on it. My library card and student id don't work. So I call. They tell me that the card I have will work, but the site must be down. So Thursday I go down there, nothing is working. I talk to whomever was there, they tell me that my library card I have won't work there. So I get two more library cards in the end, a Lonestar College card and a HCPL card. Finally! I can find and print an article. I rush home and get the thing done, even longer than the recommended length. But it's done, now I just have to wait for my grade.

Wednesday night I led the children's worship service. It was really awesome, here is why. I was planning on singing that night, with this backing track. And I could do it, but it was a little high. So when I got to church there was a guy there who was helping with Haiti night. He had a guitar, and he knew the song I was going to sing! A miracle! So, I led two kids songs, then I got to sing for the kids! Amazing! The kids did great!
Then I go upstairs to choir practice, where I was singing the same song again. I did and it was great! NOT because of me, but as I was singing, I suddenly heard everyone else join in, and it was beautiful and amazing. I knew that I wanted to do it again! So, now I am waiting for another turn!

This weekend Phil and I went to a pyrotechnics class. It was fun, we passed our test, got another shoot out of the way. AND witnessed catastrophic failure. We had a low break that caught the other mortars on fire and ignited them, burning up the whole trailer they were sitting on. No one was hurt, but I'm sure the people in charge were embarrassed. But sometimes things just go wrong. All proper procedures were followed, there is nothing you can do about a bad mortar.

This is the brief version of my week. Today we are back at home, the kids are doing homework, I am cleaning and doing laundry and catching up on my schoolwork. I am almost half done with these classes, and I can't wait to be completeley finished! I have decided to go into the surgical tech program at Lonestar, so I have to take Pharm. for Surgical Techs and ANP next semester. Unless I decide to take a break... I don't know yet.