I'll swap you!

As my husband was leaving for work today, I said I would love to trade places w/ him for the next 12 hours! From now until 7:30pm, he will be doing all things teenagers...teaching, grading papers, controlling a classroom, and coaching at basketball practice. I'm sure I probably couldn't handle what he does. Seriously. But just the thought of doing something other than ____, ____, and ____ for the next 12 hours sounds good right now. All you mothers fill in those blanks! :-)
Sure it gets tiring, and I get selfish, but I CAN handle being the cook, maid, and nanny. But today I CANNOT handle being the referee and sole disciplinarian.
Lord, give me wisdom. (James 1:5)
Lord, give me strength. (Galatians 6:9)
Lord, help me to be consistent. (Proverbs 13:24)
Lord, give me endurance (Hebrews 10:36)

The boys are constantly fighting and arguing. It grates on my nerves. It makes me feel like I don't know what to do to make them stop. Lord, I need you.

These pictures are from 2 summers ago. They were just getting started at what they have perfected now...being mean, pushing each others buttons, hitting, and the resulting screaming or crying.

Fall, Football, and Fires

I looked out the kitchen window while I was making supper tonight, and saw my boys throwing a football with Adam with lots of colorful (albeit muted colors from that in PA) fall leaves under their feet. They were just a few feet away from the freshly-built fire pit that was giving off a great wood-burning smell! In the reflection of the window I was looking out of, I saw a college football game on our tv in the living room....it's FALL!!
North Carolina is a good "medium"--we have somewhat colorful leaves, and cool mornings, but it still gets up to the mid to upper 70s, and the sun is gloriously strong and warm. I could do w/o the cool mornings...I'm talking 30s and some days cooler than PA to start off. And these 30+ degree swings in temps from AM to PM is hard to dress the kids appropriately w/o add'l clothing changes. But at least we have a "fall" season. After 8 years in FL, I forgot how nice it is to see the leaves change colors or at least fall off the trees! Alot of times, they just fall off here in NC and don't change colors as drastically and beautifully as in PA, but it's something which I know my FL friends would love to see!
Today we also went to a local farm for a hayride, nature trail, country store, tree house, animals, etc. They boys had a blast! They weren't as cooperative w/ my picture taking as they were last year, but we got a few good ones! But I'm pretty sure their favorite part of the day was building the fire w/ Daddy, and throwing the football. Adam has taught them both how to catch the football very well. They both have been throwing it quite well for awhile now, but catching had been harder.
Enjoy the pictures! We miss you all!


Sliding on a Burlap Sack into the Hay

The Turkey getting nervous b/c Thanksgiving is almost here! ha!

Levi checking out what's going on while Wyatt was "milking the cow"




Using their dumptrucks to "help" w/ the leaves

Florida and Fleas

The topics in this post are TOTALLY unrelated, but that is what I have been up to since my last post...
We'll start w/ the bad topic and end off w/ the good! Like my husband tells our children, eat what you don't like first and very quickly get it over with!
Fleas...we have been battling fleas on Dixie for the past 2 weeks. UGH!! As if I had all this extra time just waiting to be used on washing add'l loads and loads of laundry, vacuuming couch cushions and every inch of carpet, and giving the dog a bath day after day. While I was using my "spare" time to do all those tasks my boys were enjoying alot of unsupervised time which of course led to more work for me to clean up what they got into (involving things like Vicks Vapor Rub and q-tips...you get the idea). NOT FUN. VERY FRUSTRATING and EXHAUSTING. And all along I had the one little tube of medicine that could have prevent this flea outbreak from the beginning. But b/c of my "time" issue, I kept putting off bathing and grooming the dog and putting on her flea prevention medicine. Boils down to this...I do not have time for the responsibilities that having an indoor dog require coupled w/ 2 preschool age children, household duties, and a PT job. So, we are looking for a dog-loving home for Dixie. We will be sad to see her go, but my pyschological state will be changed for the better and my children and husband will be very grateful!
FLORIDA...
Awhile back my good friend Laura and I decided to go to FL together w/ our kiddos and w/o our hubbies since they couldn't get off from work. It was going to be 2 adults, and 3 kids ages 3 and under in one car for a 9 1/2 hr drive down to FL. We knew it would be LONG, and prob. turn into a 12 hr trip b/c of stopping and the kids, but we were excited! Laura's baby girl (7 months old) got a horrible cold and ear infection and it was just not in her best interest to make that long trip in her condition. It really would have been "no fun" for her or her Mommy. It's no fun when babies are sick!
I was really disappointed b/c I had been looking forward to the trip and had our bags all packed. I didn't think it would be an option for me to drive by myself w/ our kids. But we talked about all kinds of scenarios and Adam felt like I could make the trip by myself. (if we didn't have AAA he wouldn't have even considered it)
With lots of prayers, new toys, and special snacks, I was off at 6:30am. Over halfway there, I got a flat tire somewhere in GA on 95. PRAISE THE LORD that my spare tire was full sized and in good condition, and of course, PTL for AAA. From the time I called them to the time I pulled back on the road, it was just 1 hour. The boys enjoyed the time out of their car seats jumping around in the 3rd row of the van. And I pulled into my friend's driveway at 6:30pm!! We did it!
We had a blast down in Clearwater, FL. This was by far the best trip we've had since we moved from there 3 years ago. The "older" age of the boys was really the difference...so much more fun w/ only 1 child in diapers!
The trip back to NC was uneventful, thankfully. The boys were good travellers for the most part and even took naps (albeit, much shorter than their usual) in the car. Oh, and the potty chair that I brought in the van was very helpful...that is another story about how I dealt w/ all of that! ha!
Here are some pictures:

Tot School

~Wyatt is 43 months. Levi is 30 months~

We had a fun week with all things Letter D...
Dinosaur books, Dinosaur puppets, Duck books, Duck coloring pages, a Duck puppet.
Bible Story: Noah building the Ark
Bible Verse: If you love me, you will obey what I command.
Both of the boys learned the Bible verse very well this week and we talked about it how Noah loved God, and obeyed him even when the people though he was strange to build a boat. They seemed to comprehend that since we love God, we need to obey what the Bible says about being kind to each other and obeying our parents. At least they answered all the questions I asked correctly! But I'm sure it will take some time for them to actually be able to consistenly act on this lesson learned :-)
Here are some pictures to show more of what we did:
Using the tools they thought Noah might have used to build to ark.
We also picked out matching (2 of every kind) animal crackers from a huge pile and glued them onto a picture of the ark.

Counting all the "loot" from our Letter D scavenger hunt

They both filled up these boxes with things around the house that started w/ the letter D.

Wyatt's Number Match/Counting Game

Wyatt coloring, and Levi taking a break to suck his thumb while the Dinosaur puppets watch them!

Levi's twist on color sorting (having the dinosaur eat the shapes that were in the cups). He sorted a few of them b4 his dinosaur got hungry!

Dinosaur color match

Name Activity--letter match

Making dinosaur footprints

Look Mom, even the tail makes a footprint!

Our "life school" lesson of the day...
Wonderful day for a picnic lunch on the back deck. The leaves and acorn near Wyatt's knee fell while were were eating and started a great natural opportunity for teaching/learning! See, who said kids need to go to "preschool"?

Saving Time and Money

Something all of us are interested, right??
Well, I don't have anything profound or original, but just little things that I'm thrilled about that save me time and money, though not necessarily at the same time!
Let's start w/ Saving Time:
For those of you know me well, this is going to be shocking!! ha!
I stopped wearing eye makeup on a day to day basis. I still will put it on when going out for a Girls Night Out or Moms Night Out, or on a date of course :-)...which btw reminds me a funny Wyatt story...
We had a babysitter coming one night to watch the boys b/c Adam had an Open House at school and I really wanted to go to a Pampered Chef party my SIL was having. Let me preface this with, "We Rarely Get Babysitters". Wyatt said, "Are you guys going on a date?" (thanks to my parents this past summer, he does know what date is b/c we got to go out alot!!!). Adam said, "No, I have to go to a meeting at work". Wyatt said, "Well, then is Mommy going on a date?". We both chuckled and Adam teased me and said, "I don't know, Mommy are you going on a date?" ha ha!
Anyway, I finally realized one day that all I do is put on my eye makeup to end up taking time to take it off at the end of the day. And I'm always exhausted, and don't think that eye makeup really helps to take that look away! So I'll embrace the exhausted look, and save myself some time in the AM and PM.
And I stopped washing my hair too! well, not completely of course! But I only wash it every 3 days or so. Seriously! Don't worry, I do shower, just not the whole hair process. And believe me, w/ long hair, it is a "process". Got a tip from a college friend to use baby powder around where my hair meets my forehead and my temples (where it would be more greasy looking). And it works wonders folks!!
Maybe when my kids are older I'll have more time to wash my hair daily and wear eye makeup, but for now I would rather read them books, give them hugs and laugh w/ them. (and do all the dishes and laundry that they create :-)
Saving Money:
A few months ago, I was on a Saving-Money-Blog-reading-frenzy. But here lately, I'm on a Homeschool-Blog-Reading-Frenzy. I go back and forth where I get to spend my "free time". I love to watch for sales and pair them w/ coupons, and love to use websites that make it super easy like: Southern Savers, Money Saving Mom, and Hip to Save. But I'll save more of those details for another post. But one thing I must share was a tip from my friend Jill...
It's called: Whole Boneless Beef Sirloin Tip
It's on sale for $1.98 lb at Food Lion this week (and seems to only have this great sale every 3 months)
You probably won't even be able to find it right away (at least I couldn't) b/c you don't realize what it looks like. The best way to describe it, is that it looks like a HUGE whole turkey for Thanksgiving. It's in a vacuum sealed pack. it will be about $18 to $20 for the whole big ole thing! (that is the sale price I mean).
You put one (or 2 or 3) in your cart, and ring the doorbell for the butcher. Our store has butcher hrs of 8am to 8pm. Then you ask him to make it into....
I asked for some ground meat (it's just like ground beef, but technically called ground sirloin), and some steaks. You can also ask for a roast to be cut out of it as well.
Then it takes him about 5 to 10 min, and he will package it all individually, but then wrap all the individual packages in one big wrap w/ the overall price on it.
I had him cut up 3 of those big 'ole hunks of meat and got 10 trays(approx 1.3 lbs each) of ground meat, 11 steaks (1 inch thick and about the size of a dinner plate), and 2 roasts (approx 2.5 lbs each) for $52!! Our freezer is packed!! And I just use the ground sirloin in any recipe that I would use ground beef or turkey.
I don't have any pictures for this post. Guess I could put a clip art picture of a a cow since I feel like I just purchased half a cow w/ all the meat I have in my freezer! keep your eyes open for this great sale at Food Lion!! Sale Ends tomorrow night though.

Tot School

~Wyatt is 43 months. Levi is 30 months~

Last week, we were on the Letter C. We had lots of fun with 2 themes: Cow and Caterpillars. It was so cute to hear Levi say the new words he learned this week--I pick a "vocab" word every week to go along with the weekly theme(s). Levi now knows what a calf is as well as an anntennae! Wyatt was very proud of himself that he remembered those words from last year.
Wyatt also worked on recognizing and writing the number 3. Levi just counted outloud with us, and had alot of fun during our "Three" game...jumping 3 times, clapping 3 times, spinning around 3 times, counting out 3 M & Ms, etc.
We had alot of fun getting down on our hands and knees and pretending to be cows. Wyatt designated himself as the daddy cow and Levi as the calf. They both loved the Barnyard Dance!
Our Bible Story for the week was Cain and Abel which they had a hard time comprehending, but they learned their names and what type of offering each of them brought to the Lord.
The both already knew the verse of the week pretty well since we have been teaching them this for a long time!! (Children Obey Your Parents...Ephesians 6:1)
Here are some pictures from a couple of our "school" times. One night, we did "school" after supper since Daddy was driving the bus to earn some extra money. They actually did really well at the time of night! I love that we do homeschool preschool!!
Painting their caterpillar's



This week's "artwork"

Levi playing with Wyatt's counting game from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com


Levi doing his own version of counting pom pom balls.

Wyatt putting the correct # of balls in the cup according to the caterpillar # I put by the cup (another idea from confessions of a homsechooler's blog). And Levi is now putting the pom poms in an egg carton (we have to do alot of switching or variation of activities for him and to allow each boy a chance at the "games" they fight over)

Decorating his caterpillar the he painted the day before.

Weekend with No Responsibilities!

Last weekend my friend Jill and I got the chance to get away from our responsibilities as wives and mothers. It was a nice break! Our husbands were so WONDERFUL to stay home w/ the kids for 2 nights!
We drove about 2 1/2 hrs North of Charlotte to Boone, NC. I had never been there, but Jill spent some time up there when she went to Appalachian State.
We stayed at a nice, quaint mom-n-pop run motel. Jill was my tour guide and took us all around the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. It reminded me of a great mix of the mountains just north of where I grew up in PA (Bake Oven Knob for those of your from PA), and the country shops of Lancaster, PA.
It was such a change to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day, and to sleep in until 9am!!
Below is a picture of the Mast General Store. On the porch, there were 4 or 5 men playing instruments and singing Blue Grass Music. I loved it!



The corn was sooo tall, I had to take a picture for my Pop-pop!


We also drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at the first trail that we came across. We parked, and got out to walk 2.3 miles around this lake thru the woods. It was very fun!


And here's a pictures of the gardens in front of our motel.