2 Ways To Be Romantic

I picked up a book at the thrift shop (this is a great place to find books for all ages) several months back . The book I picked up was called 1001 Ways To Be Romantic by Gregory J.P. GodekActually I first handed it to my mom and said, “Hey you should get this for dad!”. After we had a good laugh I set it back down… then picked it up again, this time putting it in my cart.
I thought, well surely I could read even a half a dozen of these to my husband and he would be bound to hear at least one of the ideas and it would be magical.
So I bought it, brought it home, and put it on the bookshelf in our bedroom. It must have looked pretty good there, because nobody touched it again after I first placed it there.
Today I opened it and these are the first things I read:
#51 Carry stamps in your wallet at all times! (Preferably several LOVE stamps!) I really don't think anyone does this, and if they do, it's probably by coincidence, not because they are really trying to be romantic.
#557 Be extra nice to her during her menstrual periods. (Mark the dates on your calendar as a reminder!)  umm, okay...
　
　
At that point I had another good laugh, just like the day in the store with my mom.
Then a quote on the bottom of page 238 jumped out at me:

“The root of our problems- all of our problems- is a lack of love.

-GJPG

After I read that, I felt like the book was worth the 25 cents I paid for it. & really, it’s so true, we all just need to show some love. I LOVE YOU WORLD!


Thank you God for creating me, and loving me.  Please God, guide my heart  to express love to everyone who I am blessed to cross paths with.  Amen.

Problem Solved!

Alright, have a sense of humor here...

I have now found a solution for all of my problems!

Check out this web-site Magic Eight Ball

So I just ask the 8 Ball any question that is on your mind and click submit.. Poof!  No thinking neccessary, it does all the problem solving for you.  Why oh why did it take so long to find this wonderful tool?

haha!

Happy Wednesday!

My Friday Thoughts

Here is what is on my mind:

• Visiting a Farmers Market tomorrow with my little family & my fun niece.

• I'm feeling content with the stage the basement is at.  I'm thrilled with being able to actually go down there and use the space!  LOVE that the kids have their own hang out to explore, be creative and bond with each other.

• Thankful to be back at church where our children can go and learn about Gods love while my husband and I get time for us.  Then getting to worship as a family, it's wonderful.  Praying for all of those volunteering and leading to have patience with the little ones and that they themselves would grow spiritually from the experience of helping others.  Wishing I could help, but also knowing that my marriage needs to be the priority and our weekly chats cannot be compromised.

• Happy that MOPS has started back up for the year, and I'm getting used to not being on the steering team (I stepped down at the end of last year when I thought we would be homeschooling and I wouldn't be able to attend meetings).  I miss it greatly, but feel like there is a wonderful group of women leading the group and I know they will all do an awesome job this year.  I do like getting to just go and enjoy a meeting without tons of prep work and clean up.  Praying for the women who are leading that they can easily balance their roles between MOPS and their families.

• Oh, SO grateful for "us" time! :)

• Wishing bedtime was easier for our prince, but so happy that he is starting to outgrow his shyness.  He is such a delight & we enjoy our days together.

• Best of all, I'm feeling blessed that my little princess is reading & proud of her for reading most of her book by herself last night.  ♥ I love that she is making so many friends in the neighborhood and think that they are helping her to mature and work on her social skills.

• Feeling discontent with our decision to send the girl back to public school, but trying to pray on it and make the very best of it & not show her my fears.  Wondering how the transition would go if we did decided to bring her back home & wondering if God could equip me to provide for her educationally and be sure she learns all that she needs to learn.  

• Considering adding a cupboard with counter where my hutch is (it would match the kitchen).  I'm wondering if it would make the kitchen seem bigger and tie the room all together, or if it would look ducky and I'd be stuck with it.  If we don't do that I would like to get cupboards put in down stairs.  I have a ton of kitchen stuff.  I ♥ kitchen stuff!

• Oh lastly, I'm so hooked on pinterest.com (Thanks A LOT Courtney!  Really, thanks!)

Back to Blogging

I would love to get back to blogging!  I can't blog from my phone (although it can do just about everything else!).  I can bring up the web-site but I can't type anything in. :(  So I am going to make an honest effort to turn on the laptop at least once a week & blog.  It makes me feel good to write out my thoughts & it makes me feel bad to realize I haven't been doing it.  But we have had an awesome summer and kept very busy.

Okay- My goal of becoming a better homemaker has been going well. 
A wonderful woman from church has given me her bread maker.  Making fresh, nutritional bread for my family is amazing!
I've realized in the past year how seriously important the food we eat really is.  I can tell what types of food my kids have eaten based on their attitudes & attention span.  My body feels so different based on the food I've put in it.  I compare it to how your car would run if you filled your tank with water instead of gasoline.

Starting Sept. 26th I'm joining in on Menu Planning with Keeper of the Home.  I'm hoping that doing this will help me be more prepared for meal time so I can serve nutritional food & save money on our food.  Because saving money is always a good deal. :)

Time flies when...

Time flies when...You're having fun!  You knew that already didn't you?
Well it's been just over a month since I've blogged, and I can tell you it's because I have been having A BLAST!
We learned a few months back that my daughter is dyslexic. Praise God!  I sound crazy, right?  Well it feels like a giant blessing to now understand (sort of) what is going on and why her work wasn't progressing at grade level.

By the way, I'm the one who had to tell the school I thought she was struggling and have her evaluated.  They didn't pick up the dyslexia even with the evaluation (they suggested she was ADD, her pediatrician agreed that with the information from the school that was probably it and to have her further evaluated & medicated.  I stopped there.  I mean, their primary treatment for that is drugs, and if you can't tell by my previous posts, I'm far to "crunchy" to medicate my children for something that they can learn how to deal with (my opinion here, don't hold it against me).  I thank the school for trying, they really did do their best.  But in this case, their best, wasn't good enough for my little girl. 

Thankfully, my husband and I trusted our hearts and kept looking for more answers!  The neighbor/eye doctor suggested having her tested for dyslexia in his office. 

Can I be honest here and tell you I only had it done hoping to rule it out.  I was pretty sure we wouldn't figure out what was going on this easily.  And in my head, clearly it couldn't be dyslexia because she could read words like "cat" and "dog".  She COULD figure out small words, but man was it slow and emotionally hard on her and me both!

She was tested, and the letter from the optometrist came in the mail...Yes, we were dealing with dyslexia.
Initially after the diagnosis I was crushed.  I felt very defeated.  I first felt like she would never learn to read, and certainly not at her level.  I think I cried for almost 2 days before I came to terms with it and did what I knew I should do "Let go and let God".
 That's when I started to do research on Dyslexia and how her brain may be processing things.  Yes, this diagnosis makes perfect sense!  If you're having trouble following along with what everyone else is reading you might as well be looking outside at the birds or twirling your hair, right?  At least if you're 8 that's what you'd do.
 It was that nasty attitude of mine that kept us from success.  I should've known better, but I was caught up in the moment of feeling sorry for myself.
I felt like a terrible mother for not being able to teach my daughter.  I was disappointed in myself for leaving her education up to the school. 
Then I grew up and got over it.
Flash forward a few months.  We've been doing vision therapy with the eye doctor, which my daughter thinks is supper fun (at least most of it).  We set up a bedroom in our house as a "homeschool room" and bought lots and lots of curriculum when it was on sale. 
All of this is seriously fascinating to me.  The transformation has been remarkable.
Once I took on an attitude of gratitude we saw big changes. 
On her first try my princess read Barbie: Story Collection in 53  minutes, this week it was in 24 minutes!  She shaved 29 minutes off of her time!!  And best of all, she did it without crying or giving up!  Oh and she actually read it herself, no help! 
I love teaching my children!  My 3 year old is sort of liking learning, but it's been a big adjustment for him.  Right now he's doing lots of fun things and learning his letters.  We're working on ways to keep him busy while his sister is studying.  I am happy to say we have only a couple of times had to do this with using TV as a distraction, otherwise he is learning right along side of her! 
We're going to keep trying out homeschool through the summer and possibly into the school year.  It has been such a rewarding experience for all of us and brought our family so much closer together. 
My husband has been a great support and even enjoys teaching too! 
This has been a wonderful summer! 

Here is a peek into our school room.