I'm Thankful

I'm thankful for the small and simple things. This is a conversation that occured in the car on the way to thanksgiving dinner with Great Aunt Dorothy and Great Uncle Lyle.

Me: "Happy Thanksgiving boys! What are you thankful for Adam?"

Adam: "I'm thankful for the leaves that Heavenly Father gave us so the trees could be beautiful in the fall."

Me: "Me too! Lincoln, what are you thankful for?"

Lincoln: (without hesitation) "God."

A few minutes later...

Lincoln: (smiling big with his big dimple) "I Shining!"

These are the moments that make life worth living! I'm thankful that God gave me these incredible boys!

Mother for Sale

Does anyone know of a good therapist for children? I'm pretty sure that they're going to need it for every time I've cut their hair. I'm not kidding! I seriously dread when the time comes to cut my children's hair. Some probably wonder why I let my kids get so shaggy. It's because I know that I'm going to have to deal with major trauma. Adam is the worst. Oh my goodness! To hear him carry on, you would think that the worst thing possible was happening to him. I try to coax and be soft. Then he carries on so that I find myself losing patience and it becomes a serious battle. He is so prone to be afraid of everything. You should have seen us trick or treating on Halloween. Whenever someone with a mask got anywhere near, he would start freaking out desperately clinging to my legs. I wouldn't say he was much of a risk-taker. By the time it's all over, I always vow that I will NEVER cut my children's hair again. But then I can never bring myself to paying someone else money to do what I can do. So, I guess it all comes down to the money. My children need therapy because I wanted to save a few bucks! Poor Lincoln spent the rest of his evening following after me with his "blanky" saying, "Mommy, I want you!" Evidently he was in need of some nurturing after his haircut. Some reassurance that his mother did in fact still love him. My poor children...I just may have to put myself on Ebay..."One Mother for sale, one mother for sale. One haircutting, head holding mother for sale...."

Life-changing decision

Rob and I finalized our decision this morning to pull Adam from public schools. We've been talking about it for a long time but at this fall decided to go ahead and give public schools a try. It was what Adam wanted to do anyway. Since school has started it has become increasingly evident that it was time to revisit the idea and to give it some serious thought and prayer. I went to parent/teacher conferences and left feeling that a huge change was impending and I wasn't sure if I was ready. Any parent would probably have come out of the that meeting feeling positive about the situation. The teacher is very happy with Adam's performance and that he behaves well in class. That's actually part of the problem. She describes a child to me that I didn't think existed. She told me that he's extremely quiet and rarely raises his hand to participate. However, he always knows the right answer when called on. This probably sounds like a dream child for any public school teacher that spends a good portion of the day keeping the peace. He comes home every day completely exhausted and expressing concern that school is "So Long". I've come to the opinion that after 2 short months of of public schools Adam is already tired and bored. They are in school 7 hours a day with only one 20 min. recess and a 30 minute lunch. I could go on and on about all the reasons why we are making the change but, I'm tired right now. I'm tired because I'm scared to death. I feel so much responsibility on my shoulders now and I'm not sure where to start. The answers to our prayers will be the driving force for me right now, in that I know that we are making the right decision. So, to all you homeschooling mothers out there, HELP!

Autumn pictures

The boys and I had fun taking some Autumn pictures to capture the leaves in our backyard. As pretty as the leaves are this year, I can't help but think my family is more beautiful.

Halloween

After dealing once again with a tempermental printer that doesn't like to download pictures when I ask it to, I was successful in producing these fun Halloween pics. Adam was obviously Harry Potter. He wanted to look exactly like him so we colored his hair dark. Lincoln was a rough and tough cowboy that went around the church party tipping his hat to the ladies and saying, "howdy partner". I wish I had a pic of myself dressed up at the party. It was pretty entertaining getting the response that I got. Typically, everyone at church never sees my without make-up and dressed nice. I pretty much had everyone thinking that I was a typical high maintenance chick. I came dressed as myself the way I look when I roll out of bed in the morning. One of my friends was so traumatized that she actually asked me to never go there again! It was pretty sweet! Anyway, feast your eyes on these little sweeties instead.

If you look closely you can see a sucker stick sticking out of Lincoln's mouth and it looks like a cigarette. Once we got in the car this tough cowboy had had enough!