Christian Momma

I cannot believe in 15 days, Daniel and Andrew will be joining their class on the stage to graduate from Preschool.  They are so excited to be graduating too…they keep singing their songs all day.

They’ve learned their ABC’s, their numbers, and so much more!  This summer we are going to work on reading…hopefully when they get into Kindergarten they will at least have their sight words down.

In March, I signed Michael up for High School…I just can’t believe that!  (oh and the twins were signed up for Kindergarten 2 weeks later…who does that?).  My boy will be in high school!  After looking over all of his schedule, we decided to have him take a class online this summer to free up one of his periods for Spanish.

As for Noah, he’s been working so hard on his reading this year.  I have seen a lot of improvement!  He’s going to be going into the 5th grade next year.

When did my boys get so big?  When did they grow up?

Michael is in the Liberty Junior’s production of The Beauty and the Beast.  They have been practicing for a couple months.  This week is play week…he has dress rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday for sure and possibly on Tuesday too.  Opening night is Thursday night.  There is also a play on Friday and Saturday night as well.

Since I’ve volunteered to help out with the hair and make-up, my schedule is jammed packed with dress rehearsals and running a child here and there.  We got a letter yesterday stating that Michael would need a tux shirt from Hobby Lobby…we forgot to go on Saturday, they are closed on Sundays, so that leaves me tomorrow after I drop Daniel and Andrew off at school.

Monday night is our first meeting for our Women’s Retreat planning.  And since I’m the one who will be leading that meeting, I guess I’ll have to attend that as well!

Wednesday is Daniel and Andrew’s Preschool Parade at the school.  I don’t think they understand what will be taking place, but once they figure it out, they will be excited.  And of course, the mom that I am, I will be there helping!

It’s funny, you schedule things in advance and it never fails that everyone falls in the same week!  I think I’m ready for this week to be over…we haven’t even hit Monday yet!!

Daniel and Andrew turn 6 years old today!

It’s hard for me to see how much they are growing.  They are in preschool and are learning so much!

Happy Birthday Boys!!

I had 2 little (and when I say little, we are talking 2 pounds each!) boys!

Happy Birthday Daniel!!

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

2008 has come and gone already.  It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!

January

The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!).  I was also homeschooling Michael.  We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time.  I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church.  That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.

February

VBS started to consume my thoughts.  I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew.  AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.

February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.

Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating!  I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it.  Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one.  Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills.  But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.

March

March brought in a lot of saddness.  My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically.  And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would.  Things in me shined trhough as well.  I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness.  Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.

April

In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day!  Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.

May

I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! The final push to get VBS was upon us.  VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June.  My grandmother passed away that month as well.

June

VBS week came and went without too much problems.  Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT!  I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.

July

We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary.  In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party.  We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off!  Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival!  We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!

We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town.  My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move.  That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world.  To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing.  Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!

August

We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year.  We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again.  Our church also had a Worship Night.  Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!

September

School started right after Labor Day!  We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home.  We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!

We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September.  We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets!  And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it!  And he only wond $2!

October

In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study.  I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.

We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece.  We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!

November

We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday.  How?  Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!

We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure.  My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah).  We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys.  It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend!  But we are always so excited when they return.

December

We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas.  However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual.  We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!

For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.

I have 2 Monkeys for sale.  Their Names?  Daniel & Andrew!

Today when I sent them to take a nap, I go in to check on them and they had their toddler beds (which are were on wheels) moved over to their dresser and Andrew was standing up on top of it!  Daniel, I’m sure, was on his way there too!

Needless to say, they were in a bit of trouble for climbing up on the dresser and for moving their beds.  I have taken the wheels off their beds because I’m such a mean mom so they can’t move them as easily.

Talk about having a heart-attack seeing your 3 year old standing up on top of a dresser that’s as tall as you are!  I bet he could touch the celing!!

My days of being a mother of 2 are coming to an end. Michael and Noah will be back tomorrow. And I have missed them!

I have enjoyed my time with Daniel and Andrew. They haven’t messed my house up too much…not nearly as much as all 4 of them do when they are together! My laundry is caught up…for the moment, because you know when someone comes back from being away, they bring dirty laundry with them.

I didn’t realize how much Michael and Noah do around here when it comes to Daniel and Andrew. I’m not used to having to stop what I’m doing 20 times a day to fill up a cup, get Daniel and Andrew out of something they shouldn’t be in, etc. Michael and Noah do their fair share of helping out!

And what is it with boys and balls? Why is it every 20 minutes I have to tell them NOT to throw a ball in the house? Or stop running? Or stop jumping on the couch? I feel like I say that a billion times a day!

Ok, I just spilled my coffee down the front of me, I guess it’s time for me to get into the shower now!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

It’s raining hard outside (not now, just setting the stage)…Daniel & Andrew start telling me…

“Mom, there’s turtles outside!”

I get this confused look on my face and say, “No, there aren’t any turtles outside.”

Andrew goes back to playing, believing mommy that there aren’t any turtles outside.  Daniel keeps looking out the window.  The news jumps into the programming to talk about the Thunderstorm warnings and Tornado watches.  Daniel turns and watches the news, then looks back outside.

He then turns to me and with the most serious look on his face, says, “Mom, there’s turtles outside!”

It clicks…I know what he’s talking about.  I looked at Daniel and said, “No, honey, there aren’t any tornados outside…just rain.”

In his head  Turtles = Tornados

Glad I figured that out…I’d hate to see all those turtles running around when it’s raining outside!

(This entry is backdated)
I can’t believe I missed posting about this on my blog here! It’s not because I didn’t think about it, we’ve all been just sick.

Anyway, on February 16th, Daniel & Andrew turned 3! They are growing so big! From the 2 pounds (that’s how much each of them weighed) to the 25 pounds they are now in 3 short years! They amaze me, like all my children do, with everything they learn. I don’t know if I’m more aware of what they learn because they are twins, or because they are my last…not sure there, but I do feel like I notice it more!

We had Cake and ice cream on their birthday and they got a few presents (what’s a birthday without gifts, right??). We will celebrate next week when my parents come down, not only for their birthday, but also for mine!

Anyway, I just wanted to share!

Saturday night, Kevin started feeling sick (lots of congestion), so he went to bed early. About 9:30 Michael wakes me up and says his ears are hurting, so I take him to the Urgent Care (I don’t mess around with ear aches…I’ve had my share of ear infections…they HURT!). He had a double ear infection and a red throat!!

Sunday, I take Noah, Daniel, & Andrew to church (Michael was instructed to stay home on Sunday). Sunday evening, Kevin finally broke down and went to the doctor…he has an Upper Respiratory Infection.

Monday, Kevin stayed home from work since he had been carrying a fever. Monday evening, I start sneezing and my nose wouldn’t stop running…I’m coming down with a cold!!

Today (Tuesday), Noah didn’t have school because of the ice storm we had. Kevin was off today too…he is still running a fever, so he’s going to be off again tomorrow!

So, we’ve made the inevitable decision to cancel our plans with Kevin’s brother and wife since they have 2 girls (1 with diabetes and 1 that’s only 4 months old). I hate to have to cancel, but as bad as I feel about that, I would feel worse if they were to get something from us!!

Please pray that we all get over this sickness quickly!! Thanks!