My new niece!

Today's post is dedcated to her!

My niece was born!!!! Wednesday, September 17, 2008! I won't say her name on here, but it is beautiful! (For those that know me IRL, contact me and I'll tell ya the name if you wanna know and haven't heard). She weighs 9lbs 7 oz. Lots of beautiful dark, wavy hair. Here she is with my mom.

Here's the proud mommy and daddy. This is their first. I am sooo proud of them, every time I think about them, I start to cry! Of course, those of you who really know me know that I cry at the drop of a pin anyways!

God's Blessings to you and your little family, little Bro! Love Ya!

DD loves--mornings??

I wanted to get school done on Wed (or mostly done) before my girlfriend came. And DD was wanting to be done by lunchtime, so she got up at 7:45. By the time she finished her cereal, she said, "ok, mom, I'm ready to take that math test I see you have printed for me. I know how to do it." She got out her pencil and was done with the 6 question test in 10 minutes. REMARKABLE!! Math is not my fav subject, and I have tried especially hard not to project that onto her. Math is the subject she fights with me the most about "not doing". And yet, here she has a beautiful attitude/disposition and without being asked starts in on her work!!!! Amazing! So I'm like, ok, if that's what it takes. If she wants to get up early and do school, we are so there! No matter if it kills me or not, that's what we will do. Tomorrow, we will be trying again. Yes, on the weekend. I think we need to make up a LOT of work we didn't do this week.
On another bright note, DD is making improvements in soccer! Last night, she took possession of the ball twice!!! She is quite a bit smaller than most of the other kids on her team, and has been afraid of the ball. She is learning that little can be good. Its been so cute to see her run. She has a hard time keeping up with the team running-wise. But she tries her best we are proud of her regardless if she gets a goal or not! **(by the way, to justify my having company on a school day, this was set up 3 weeks ago -- back when I thought my life was easy and I had it all together! And my friend is a SAHM, but runs her own photography business while her kids are in school, so her calandar is very packed.)**

Can she do it all?

No I can't! Alas, the demands of household are choking out all of my time. Homeschool? What's that? Do I do that? Uh, yeah. At least, I'm suppose to. With DS1's health problems, then further problems with the specialist being a quack and me having to start at square one with the pediatrician this week, we are finally back to seein a-nother specialist next tuesday. Thankfully, they got us in very quickly, however, it is an hour drive away. And I have no sitter for my [other] kids yet. Yesterday, we had to awake early and take the dog (who is officially adopted by us now) to the vet @ 7:45 in the morning to get spayed, shots, labwork, etc. and I found out Tues night she has tapeworms. YUCK!!! Then after the vet (who, by the way, is about 20 minutes away) we had 45 minutes before we had our MOPS registration which is 30 minutes (the other direction). Just about 2 hours after we got home from there, it was time to go pick up Foxy. (Dog.) Ugh. Then, an hour after we got back from that, DD had to be at her soccer game - with snack. For this was the date we signed up for! Thankfully, DH got home from work and willingly took DD so I could stay home to make dinner, watch the boys, look after the recovering Foxy and clean the house. :) Did I mention I had to locate a dog kennel for her? Yeah. When we picked her up, she decided she was on top of the world (probably some kind of doggie-anesthesia high) and she was wanting to run and jump. So, DH and I came up with a) keeping her "e-collar" on so she can't lick, scratch, bite, or disembowel herself, and b) to use the baby gate play yard (but only 3 sides of it). Works wonderfully. She can get up and walk around, but not get out. (*Remember, or if I haven't mentioned it; she is a 7 lb pomeranian/terrier mix. Just a tiny thing.) That was all yesterday. Needless to say, DH and I went to bed @10! Today, I woke up at 6 ready for the day. Did my quiet time, which is such a rarity these days. I strive to at least do it before the kids wake up during the week, and right now, I'm hitting like a consistant 3 days a week, which is major improvement!! :) Started doing laundry, and that, combined with incessant rain from Hurricaine Ike caused my basement to start flooding!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! So, DH doesn't carry his cell around with him when its raining, it stays in the truck. I called the foreman for our Habitat House, and thankfully, they (habitat) paid for a one-time route-out via a plumbing company. Where's Sarah's hubby when I need him? Oh, yeah. I forgot. WE moved away. :( :( All in all, they routed 75 feet and got a few roots. I'm glad that I realized it was flooding before anything was ruined, though. PTL! I tell ya, it was scary. I just recently found out we have clay-like dirt, and I'm wondering if we have the same probs as our MI house where the pipes are 1/2 -3/4 of the way corroded. See, we don't have any trees on our property, except smaller ones way out back about 100 feet. And, neither of our neighbors have trees, either, so for them to pull out roots seems strange... Anyways, I just had to blog, seeing as its been a whole week and I'm really trying to make a go of this. Please keep in prayers DS1 and his hernia, and also that we (I) will be able to say no more often so we can do school. Its sad, I know that life is suppose to come around school, not school around life, and yet everything seems so impossible to me. The priority list is a mile long, and I constantly have about 10 things from that list screaming at me at one time. I know that this is 'just life for a homeschool mom' but I am praying for a slower schedule in the weeks to come so that we can get into a routine.

Two fun things

We had a really rough day today. Not just school stuff, but attitudes, (which i'm sure overflowed from me and my stress with the system being down -from 10 till about 3 or 4), not wanting to do chores, migraines, ugh. Yucky stuff. Thank God His mercies are new every morning, because I need a new morning with a fresh chance. :) While printing lesson plan for tomorrow, system did not crash, which makes me happy. :)

One good highlight today was getting to play with a huge slug! Probably at least 5 inches long! Then, there was another one that DH accidentally squashed so DS2 carried it around in his hands. yuck! Then both boys were poking it with a stick, while I lit the grill for dinner. All of a sudden, DS2 says "Fire it, Momma!" I was not surprised, so then both boys were yelling "Fire it! Fire it!" "Burn it Burn it!" Remember this slug was already dead! It was cool watching their reactions. That's one huge thing I absolutely LOVE about being a SAHM (stay at home mommy) and homeschool teacher -- I get to see the kids' reactions and relive my childhood through them.

The second good highlight was my friend helped me ("the HTML-challenged-person-whom-insists-on-using-technology") arrange my stuff on Facebook so that there would be a link to this blog. (Thanks Sarah! I owe you one!) :)

school today

Today is a poopy homeschool day. :( We are so excited to do curriculum, but there was some distribution problems, so our textbooks won't be here for about another week!! We have lots of fun stuff for Science, Math, Art, and I can access the lessons online, but the online school website was very spotty yesterday and today has been down completely since 10:30!!! I'm frustrated trying to limp through lessons. Since they are guided, you have to use a little online stuff and textbooks, games, etc, but most of the stuff we download right from the site. Having to come up with filler activities on-the-spot is difficult. I am told that it is for the good and will be more beneficial in the long run, but we just wanna do school. :(

Barack Obama making fun of the Bible

I must say that I am not very knowledgeable in regards to politics, and although I consider myself a Republican, I do not just jump on the Republican bandwagon. There are a few issues that are of importance to me, so when I hear the candidates views on them, then I will vote. However, this video shows why any christian should vote for ANYONE other than Obama. Do we need any more proof people?! I have to say that I am still not quite convinced to vote for McCain, although his choice for VP, Sarah Palin, seems to be a great one. I just don't know if McCain will do a good enough job for our country. I'm still waiting to hear more from the Independants before I make my final decision. Did anyone watch the RNC last night? I liked what Sandy Treadwell, New York's National Committeeman who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 20th congressional district said in regards to Bristol Palin being a pregnant teen; "We're going agree with Sarah and Todd on this family problem by answering it with more love. Love is the only answer in this case. Our prayers are with her [Sarah] and she will make a great Grandma." That just struck a chord with me. It is not often that someone in a political position will speak so Christ-like. I personally think its stupid to try to lambaste Sarah for this. Her daughter is 17. No matter what, you can raise your children right, they are still going to make choices for their own. Things happen, and I have to say that this shouldn't have anything to do with her mother's running for VP! Hello!? How many other teen pregnancies are there every day in the world? So Bristol made a mistake. It should not impact the election like it has been. The fact that her daughter got pregnant doesn't mean that she [Sarah] can't make good decisions or help run the country! So get over it, people.

Ok. I'm done. I'll get down off my soapbox. For now.

The First Day

Today was our first official day of homeschool. It was fun. We did about 2 hours of Language Arts. Then we had to go to DS1 doctor appointment. He has a "Communicating Hernia Hydrocele". And this is what all that means: (**warning-not for the squeamish or embarrassed**)

Communicative: moving with muscle tension/relaxing. As in fit-throwing, acting like the hulk, laughing, etc. Anything that would be flexion/relaxion of the abdominal muscles. When the muscles are flexing, the herniated part of the intestine pops out. Which was gross, but not like bloody horror movie gross, just abnormal "eeeww!" Well, you probably already know that a Hernia is a small tear in the muscle wall. and Hydrocele means fluid around one or both testicles. Cause: before a baby is born, the fluid can move freely from abdominal area to the scrotum and back again. When they are born, the muscle seals itself off. Sometimes, it can pop back open. The only way to keep that from happening continually is for them to stitch that tear shut. Plan: get an ultrasound of the scrotum on thurs morning, then follow up with him in the ofc next Tues at which point we will schedule the surgery. Dr said that he can run and play like a normal boy with no restrictions unless he has pain or problems urinating. So, ds1 is excited he gets to play outside. :)

Tomorrow will be another new day!

My 3rd attempt

This will be my 3rd attempt at a blog. We shall see where it takes me. I need an out at the end of a busy day. Plus, I want to let you all know what happens in our busy lives. Wondering where the name for the blog came from? Well, I played with a few names, decided they were all too negative (such as: Confessions of a Frazzled Homeschooler) and decided that I would make it a positive one instead. Through this blog, not only do I hope to keep family and friends updated, but also to improve my outlook on life to being that of a more positive, Christ-centered one. :)
The definition of Exuberant is: "Full of joyful, unrestrained high spirits". And synonyms include: 'ebullient, effervescent, sparkling.' Wow! It would be totally awesome if someone could say any of those things about me by the end of the schoolyear! I have many things I would like to accomplish that include personal goals, as well as family ones. You'll hear more about them in the days and weeks to come, I'm sure.