WRAD Memories

Expectations. I have come to realize that I have a love-hate relationship with 'Expectations'. Before something happens you have this dream of what it's going to look like. And, the longer you have to wait the bigger the expectations become (at least for me it's seemed that way). Expectations: being given a picture and told to replicate it in cake form. I have grand ideas of what all my cake attempts should look like (think professional perfection)- but the reality of my experience doesn't always translate the same way. Thankfully this one turned out really well! Then you hit reality. You finally get what you've been waiting/wanting/dreaming for all that time. But, it's different than what you were expecting it to be/look like. Not that it's bad or anything (although sometimes it can be). It's just different than what you dreamt it would be. My life seems to be just that- hoping and praying for things to happen only to have reality ...

Where to begin? This year has been crazy. Not just for me, but for a lot of my home schooling friends as well. I thought that going into year five of this home schooling journey was a bit of an 'arrival' of sorts. That just maybe I had 'made it' and was on to smoother sailings. Uhm.... no... Getting rid of the dog lifted a huge weight of the constant responsibility- but at the same time the heaviness was still there. Like a daughter who would break out into weeping fits when she thought about the dog and still asks me when he's coming back or when I will get another dog to replace him. I expended copious amount of time trying to deal with and train him- and getting rid of him signaled yet another failure that was emotionally hard to deal with. We also signed Elijah up with our local Air Cadet program and I have been volunteering with that as well. It's been interesting getting 'out' into the world again. For the past number of years our family ...

I didn't cave. I also should have just stayed off of Facebook, but I didn't cave. Last summer I chose NOT send my kids to summer camp- even though, seemingly, ALL their friends were going. The same week. All of them. Well, not really, of course. But honestly, with Facebook status updates coming in fast and furiously- it really did seem like it. And I wondered, 'Am I a bad mom because I didn't send my kids to summer camp with their friends?' At one point, I seriously thought about calling up the camp (after the week had started) and seeing if I couldn't somehow manage to get them in anyway. I let the thought pass- and didn't cave. But I still feel a tinge of guilt about it and I'm dreading the decision about this summer already. Fast forward a few more months- to February 7, 2014 to be exact. Pretty much anyone with even the slightest interest in Lego will know what that date means. The release of their first full-length feature movie....

September was a bit of a blur- which you probably noticed since I really didn't post much of anything during the month. Things and life had me distracted and I couldn't figure out which way was up. My 90 Days Through the Bible is taking longer than I'd hoped- mainly because instead of doing my reading every night I've been doing other things (like creating a Lego scrapbook for the boys. Pointless? Of course! Will they love it and fight over the 1 copy that I ordered? You betcha!). But doing things that I'm not supposed to be doing means that I have to say NO to things that I should be doing. Things that if they don't get done mean that days are really, really rough. Like figuring out a schedule for our school days, or even what we're supposed to be doing for school each day! Thankfully, after meeting with my home support teacher, I have a new plan for the work and I just need to figure out a schedule. And very timely, this post here ( Punching th...

I realized that even though I said I was going away camping with the kids, I never actually got around to posting anything about it- or some of the other adventures that we've had this summer. And then I was waiting on some pictures of the dog- so I STILL didn't post this. Well, hopefully it's better late than never, lol! This summer didn't turn out like I'd originally hoped because of the dog, but I think on the whole it wasn't too bad (I can't believe it's over already, though. It went by so fast!). We started our summer holidays a bit early because mentally I was just done. That, and we got our dog- which we eventually named 'Choco'. It's a shortened form of chocolate, which the kids thought was ironic since too much chocolate can kill a dog- but he's varying shades of brown, so I thought it suited him. And after three weeks of having him, he needed a name already. Anyone who knows anything about dogs knows that Airedales are N...

I really should follow through on things that I'm supposed to do (or rather NOT supposed to do). Like not going on Facebook or mindlessly spending hours on the internet ('oh, but I just need to look something up' always takes more time than you think!). It would have saved me a lot of grief this week. See, one of my friends posted this article by someone who (it felt like to me) was bragging about how great they were as a mother because they didn't yell at their kids (anymore, at least). To make matters worse, the friend who posted it has always been held up by another person close to me as being so 'perfect' because THEY don't EVER yell at their kids either. (Anyone sense the sarcasm/frustration level rising here?) Well, confession time. I yell at my kids. Not all the time, mind you (at least I don't think so- although my husband/kids might beg to differ, esp. when I'm hormonal). I REALLY try hard not to yell- most days. And I don't rememb...

I went to my parents for lunch after church today. Several hours later it was time to pack up the kids and go home. Lo and behold, not one of them wanted to leave. It's really hard to compete with no screen restrictions and the pool- I mean really, why on earth would they ever want to leave? Since tomorrow is my wedding anniversary, my mom graciously agreed to keep all the kids so I can sleep in! What are the chances that I'll be able to do that now that I can? It really was a nice quiet evening. Graham and I could actually have a full conversation that wasn't getting interrupted every five seconds by either a scream child or nagging questions. We both reminisced about how this was our life before kids (and how long it had been since we'd actually been at home together, without a specific purpose to occupy us (like our never-ending reno's), with not even one kid around). But you know what? It didn't take long for both of us to agree that even in the mi...