Bellamia... a children's shop: Life, as we know it.....

the above picture, is what's waiting for me in the other room. I added some soap suds, because it had been sitting so long that the previous ones had diminished. I didn't want you to "lose your lunch", you can thank me for that. The picture below is what's waiting for me in another room.

There are plenty more "waiting for me(s)", but I decided to just sit down a minute and blog. I really should do it more. With just these few sentences, I already feel relief. Although, I did just send my 9 year old in there to load the dish washer, so it could be that ;)

I was just talking to a friend a little while ago about the FULL life style we are living right now. I told her that I really don't know how we could do everything we do if we didn't Home school. I still have mucho papers to grade and school days to log in the computer. I have so much respect for teachers; really, you have no idea how much. The ones reading this.....THANK YOU!!!!! Seriously, the pros out way the cons, but I still have my "what was I thinking" moments, and "epic failure" thoughts with our decision to home school....just keeping it real. And then it hit me, we did sign up for these things 'because' we home school. Our nights are homework free, and school projects are done during the day; I really shouldn't complain, although I feel like I have (at least a little).

The girls are at such a fun stage of life. They are babysitting now (a LOT) and working different jobs that people hire them for during the week; and they also help with after school reading programs. They are having a blast, and with all their "social" outings, them earning extra money is awesome, so no complaints here. I just sometimes forget that I am still their chauffeur, and if Tim's out of town, I have these "Jillian has to be on one side of town, Emily another side and Elizabeth the next town over all at the same time." times......how is this going to work??? Those are the nights I pour myself a second glass of wine ;) We enjoy a "Nothing after 7pm" kind of evening together, so I guess the busyness of the day, creates a more relaxed night. Dinner around the table with all the family is the best.

Random interruption: Do you date your husband? (I should also ask: Do you date your wife?, for the few husbands out there that read my blog) If you don't , you should. I'm preaching to myself here as well. The big girls go to youth group on Wednesday nights, and Elizabeth has a choice to go any day M-Th to Tae Kwon Do. Wednesday's are one of the days we set aside for her to go. That means we have 1 1/2 HOURS PEOPLE sans the kids. I don't care if it's just a cup of coffee in the car, or the cheese dip and chips from the joint across the street that we choose to ignore the health rating, we will NOT miss that time together unless he's away on business. It's important y'all. We are passed the spelling things out in front of the kids, putting them down at 7pm stage. Heck, we go to bed before the older ones most of the time! TALK TO YOUR HUSBAND, face to face! It actually gets harder to find the time the older your kids get. Okay, told you it was random; back to the post.......

We hadn't taken any breaks since starting school, and hadn't observed any holiday, so this past Monday, we did decide to take the day off since most of America was, which by the way...... THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH, to the men and women who fight daily, and sacrifice more then I even pretend to comprehend for my freedom. You are deeply appreciated.

Monday was GREAT! We had my little cutie patootie nephew staying with us for a few days, so we called a friend to set him up with a play date and headed to Landmark Park for some fun playtime. I brought my camera along, because Landmark Park is one of my favorite places to photograph my kiddos.

So here are some pictures of our outing. I am posting these to reminded myself how nice it was to take a break. The dishes will always be there to wash and the clothes to fold and put away. Sometimes, we just need the rest so that it energizes us to give our 100% in our efforts. I don't want my "want to's" to be "have to's", I want my "have to's" to be "want to's". And before you enjoy the pictures, my apologies if ads and links to selected words are jumping out on this blog post. I will try to find a way to get those off; give a sista a holla if you know how to in the mean time.