WRAD Memories

One of the main reasons that I haven't been writing over the past year (other than being really busy with cadets and my grandmother's ongoing history project....) is that things have been pretty crappy around here. I haven't really been feeling like I'm getting anywhere with anything- so how could I put a great spin on something that just seems to suck? In the past when I'd tried blogging (or journaling), it always seemed like I was just whining and complaining about the same things over and over again. And nobody really wants to hear about that, so then I just don't write. People have enough garbage going on in their own lives that they don't need to listen to someone else whine about theirs. But is that really where we're at? I know that there has been some backlash against this with the 'Bad Mommy' type memoirs and blogs, however, that's not really what I'm talking about. I think it's sometimes about being real and vulner...

Okay, I'm just going to say it- Christmas really isn't my favourite time of the year! It probably has a lot to do with the fact that my husband intensely dislikes this time of the year. He doesn't have very fond memories of Christmas from his childhood and so it's really poisoned his attitude. As a result, most years Christmas is merely a blip on the calendar, and then we keep plowing through- basically ignoring the whole thing insofar as we can. Having said that, I decided that this year I wanted to do things differently. To slow down and put some thought into WHY we even do this in the first place. I started by getting an Advent book and candles- so that we'd have a daily reading to do. The story is quite interesting (and very gruesome at times), but as we're working our way through it- I'm realizing it's the right book to help us learn and remember. Then, I decided that we'd scale back the school work (which wasn't too difficult beca...

I knew it had been a while since my last post- but I didn't think it had been THAT long. Two months is too long. It's not that there hasn't been anything to say or write about, because there has. I just haven't had the mental energy to do it. Instead I have: - bailed on my 90 days through the Bible (after 120+ days and only getting the Old Testament done) - done 2 x 80+ page digital scrapbooks - completed 3 x 24 page mini albums - started volunteering with my son's cadet squadron - got my first term portfolios together (such as they were) - re-arranged rooms - got rid of the dog - spent an insane amount of hours on the internet collecting digital freebies of whatever kind (scrap-booking/home schooling/eBooks/etc.)- if it's free I've been getting it - started decorating/baking for Christmas - been fighting off a cold for a few weeks now - and somewhere in there, I've tried to keep the house in some measure of cleanliness, kids fed and al...

So, I've NEVER taken my kids to Playland. I've always wanted to, but the reality of having more than 1 or 2 kids means that getting into places gets REALLY expensive- REALLY fast. I don't even want to think about how much I paid for us to get into Disneyland (for a day and a half)- and I think Rebekah was even free! Anyway, I managed to discover that on Tuesdays over the summer, a local radio station was doing a promo. Now, not only would we be able to get in and have an all-day ride pass, but we were going to do it for $10 per person! That little deal saved me $100. So, I mentioned it to my sister-in-law and we figured out how we were going to ditch our 3 year olds and went. Okay, first thing to remember for next time (should they do it again next year)- come early. We spent an hour waiting in line to get in. I was SO NOT expecting that. Thankfully the line kept moving and we had snacks to occupy ourselves, but it cut into the time we had available. Second, dou...

Back in the spring, my husband bought a canoe from his cousin. After finally getting the roof rack purchased so we could actually take it somewhere and picking up the life jackets from my parents, we managed to get out to the local lake. Swamp would be a better description of said body of water. It used to be a mill site and when they shut it down, they just dumped all their leftovers in the middle of the lake. This means that in addition to a million geese doing their business everywhere, the lake is full of logs. Anyway, the first group went out and was back in a couple of minutes. My friend felt the canoe was too 'tippy'- worse than any other canoe she'd ever been in and didn't want to go out on it anymore. Elijah, Jeremiah & our friend in the inaugural voyage. By this point, Graham was back with the rest of the life jackets that I'd forgotten at home- so he took out the next batch of kids. Jeremiah, Samuel & Graham. Now, I grew up go...

Just when I think things are getting back on track, they seem to fall apart all over again. Mainly it has to do with my 'to-do' list. Honestly, I wish I could clone 10 of me just so I could do all the things that I want to do as well as all the things I HAVE to do. But I'm realizing that really my problem is that I can't seem to say 'NO', and it's just making things worse. Also tied to that is trying to daily do God's agenda instead of mine. Can I let you in on a little secret? I've sucked at doing that lately. Thankfully, God's mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23), so I can hit the restart button and try again tomorrow. On the upside, I am trying to be more present with my kids and in everything that we're doing each day. Hormones have subsided (which I'm discovering make me really crazy), I'm hardly yelling at all and I'm slowly trying some new techniques with the kids in order to change some behaviours tha...

Tonight I NEED to write. It's been a LONG summer so far and for no reason really, I felt like the past few days have just about put me over the edge. So I need to write and find the good in this, because if I don't I keep dwelling on the bad. Today started with an interesting dream. In it, I was going to be driving my friend's car- but I realized the back passenger door was open and thought 'I need to close it before I go'. For some reason I didn't- and only discovered that when I got to my destination. I got out to check to see if there was any damage and both the doors on that side were massively scraped up. I felt sick to my stomach over it. There was no way to hide the damage and no way I could pretend it never happened. In some ways, it's a lot like life. You see something that you KNOW you really need to do. Unfortunately, life distracts you and it doesn't get done (or the other way- you don't stop doing things you know you shouldn...

I started a summer project. Oh yes, not like bringing home a puppy wasn't enough craziness for the summer- I've gone and added something else. I set a goal for myself- read through my bible in 90 days. At first I hummed and hawed about doing it. Would I really retain anything to make it worthwhile? Shouldn't I do a slow methodical study to get as much as possible out of it? Blah, blah, blah... Then I figured, anything that gets me at least reading my bible on a regular basis (whatever the outcome) would be a GOOD thing. So I started out with great enthusiasm and even got a day ahead of myself. Now, I'm behind (surprise, surprise). REALLY behind. Out of town visitors and a week of camping will do that, but I'm working on getting caught up again. Until then, I want to share a little nugget that I got from Ex. 36:2. "Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and ...

A couple of weeks ago I read this really funny blog post (found here  Worst End of School Year Mom ). It was really quite hilarious and so where I'm at these days. I have grand intentions every time I start something new. Things like school years, diets, exercise regimes, organizational to-do lists, schedules, habits, blog posts, etc. You name it and I'm pretty good at starting it- but finishing it, well, let's just say I'm not too good at that part. Elijah doing his first potato sack race at their school's sports day- he ended up wiping out and not finishing well. Trying not to come in last. For the past week and a bit (it's taken me a while to get this post written and up), I've had God gently nudging me with the scripture from Heb. 12:1-3: the whole thing about persevering right to the very end- putting my whole heart and soul into things until they're finished. Unfortunately, I usually peter out after completing only 5 - 10% of som...

It's June! Already!?! This year has really flown by. June marks the end of my 4th year of homeschooling. In some ways I still feel like a 'newbie'- like I'm just starting out, wondering how it all is going to work out and if I'm going to mess up my kids' education! When we first started out, our home school area was a corner of our playroom. Needless to say they were more interested in playing than school work. Just to make life more interesting (besides being pregnant with baby #5 when we started), we decided to close in the covered sundeck and create a bedroom & home school room. I did okay until we hit the drywall stage- I gave up doing any 'formal' schooling till it was finished. In other ways, I'm almost feeling like a seasoned veteran. I even have the occasional mom who is newer at this home schooling gig asking me, 'How do you do it?'. Oh my! If they only knew! Anyway, it's a question that even I have ask...

I got to have a nice long visit with a friend today. We've only known each other for just over a year, but in some ways it seems like a lifetime. We are so similar in so many ways it's almost scary- our husbands even have similar occupations (professional drivers)! Once of the many things that I appreciate most about her is that we can be real with each other. On recent visits we have joked that we're such good friends that we no longer feel the need to clean our houses before the other arrives (you know the cleaning I'm talking about- the 'I've got to impress' kind of clean as opposed to this is life kind of clean). But deeper than how clean we try to get our houses, we can be real about life. How our days are going, frustrations with home schooling or children or whatever. Thankfully though, we don't leave it there. We know that the other person will pray for us in those situations and challenge us to make it better by remembering to keep bringin...

In the chaos of home schooling and life, it's easy for days (if not weeks) to go by without really connecting with them on an individual level. This is also complicated by the fact that the four boys all share one room- which means that one-on-one conversations can't really happen. So, in an effort to put more structure into my days- I've re-instituted 'mummy time'. I originally got the idea from a book called Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman (a book I highly recommend!). Kim is a home schooling mom of 9, so she knows what she's talking about! From Monday through Friday, each child gets their day- like a special helper. One aspect of it is that I try to give them at least 1/2 hour during the day for only me and them to do something of their choosing. Then, at night (if they want), they can sleep by themselves in the tv/guest room where we can have a private chat about whatever they want. Today was 'mummy time' for my oldest, Elijah. He's...

This week got away from me. I had intended on doing a Mother's Day blog. Really, I even have two different drafts going at the moment (that probably have enough ideas for six different posts). However, the more I thought about them, the less they seemed to work in my mind. So I did nothing. Oh my, how often is that the case with life. We'd rather err on the side of doing nothing than risk failing at something. Or is it that we already feel like we're failing at so many things, that we just don't want to risk bombing out at yet another thing in our lives? So we wait. And do nothing. But where does that get us?  Nowhere.  Literally. I think if we're honest with ourselves, that's not where we want to be. Prov. 29:18a says that "Where there is no vision, the people perish." And when we do nothing, when we risk nothing, it's because we either can't see the vision or we've lost sight of the vision.  Either way, is suck...

I don't know about you, but I really don't like doing art projects with my kids. There are several reasons for this: 1.) I have a hard enough time trying to keep my house clean as it is and adding whatever mess might be generated from said art project will only compound that problem. 2.) Once said project is completed, where on earth am I going to put it? (refer back to point 1) 3.) Having multiple ages means either many art projects or absolute chaos trying to get different levels to complete the same project. 4.) Not only am I a bit of a perfectionist, but I've managed to pass this gene along to at least one of my kids- which means that there will be weeping and wailing from at least one person- and it might even be from a child or two. However, in my valiant attempts lately to reduce the amount of time that my children spend glued to a screen of some sort (thanks peers for introducing yet ANOTHER 'really cool game' to my children that they are now absolu...

Hey there, welcome! My name is Tammy and this is my blog. I'm married to my husband, Graham and together we have five kids: Elijah (12), Jeremiah (10), Samuel (8), Noah (5 1/2) and finally Rebekah (3 1/2). Yes, my kids all have bible names and yes that was intentional. I home school my boys and try to figure out ways to keep my daughter entertained without resorting to a screen (which happens more often than I would care to admit to anyone). I also now sell Creative Memories because I love taking pictures and I love telling the stories that those pictures represent. This blog will be about me, my life, my WRAD memories and hopefully all the things I learn along the way. Not because I think  I'm perfect and have it all together. Let me be totally honest with you- my house is a mess most of the time, the laundry piles never seem to disappear and I can't recall the last time I saw the top of my dresser (or desk, or some of my counters for that matter). So, why should you...