I have a dream

I have a dream.

That one day I will have a clean bathroom

that the seat will be down 

the toilet will be flushed

the the floor will not have a puddle due to bad aim.

I have a dream.

I have a dream

that I will sweep a floor 

and there will not be crumbs, dirt, and milk puddles

before I am even finished. 

I have a dream.

I have a dream. 

That I will clean a room,

any room in the house, 

and it will stay clean for more than 24 hours

I have a dream. 

I have a dream

That one day breakfast, lunch, and dinner,

I will sit the whole meal. 

I will have drinks without backwash

I will have food that isn't cold

I will prepare a meal that has mushrooms, tomatoes, or anything green

and not one tear will be shed!

I have a dream.

I have a dream. 

That one day I will speak

and the children will run in obedience.
I will ask them to put shoes on 

and they will know where BOTH of them are. 

That I will say "let's get in the van to go"

and they will all buckle themselves in. 

I have a dream. 

I have a dream. 

That one day we will be able to watch a DVD

that was in the correct case 

and is not so scratched it can't be read.

That the floor of my van will 

not be littered with empty juice boxes and granola bar wrappers. 

That my shirt will not be used 

as a kleenex or napkin.

I have a dream.

Yes, I have a dream, but for now it is only a dream. So, I will go back to my messy little life for the moment and enjoy it. Some day this dream may be a reality and I might miss all this mess. :)

Homeschooling blogs

I'm not sure if everyone has already seen this and I am just late, but I found this list of 25 homeschooling blogs. 

It includes some of my personal faves and a few that look like they could have some kick butt resources. YAY, free printables. :)

My top faves are Confessions of a homeschooler, 1+1+1=1, and homeschool creations . If you have a preschooler they have some great ideas and I am in love with confessions K4 printables. Enjoy!

Aha moments

The past few days I have a had a few "aha moments" happen. I thought I would shard some of the deep things happening in my brain. 

AHA MOMENT #1

I have become THAT mom with THOSE kids.

We went to the mall play area this week with some friends. As I was sitting enjoying talking to my friends I looked around and my boys were leading a pack of dragons roaring and screaming and running. Best part, I just kept talking to my friends. Then as we were packing up my two oldest were on the ground wrestling each other. No joke, in head lock, wrestling. THEN as we were leaving I stopped for a minute to talk to one of my friends for just a few minutes and one of my children is literally running a large lap around us all. Yep, I confess, I am THAT mom. Yep, I have THOSE kids. And, honestly, I love it. 

AHA MOMENT #2

I am old...

Last night we had an all nighter with the youth. I love working with the students at our church. LOVE IT! I sometimes forget that I am not still a teen. Until you mention staying up all night long. Then I remember, Oh yeah, I have to be a mom at 8am (if I'm lucky and they sleep til then). They don't care if I didn't sleep. They want breakfast...now. I had to laugh because I used to love going to these, but this time Dan and I took shifts. I stayed until 1am, got to bed by 2am, and woke up at 8am. I am functional and happy. My husband, however, has not had this "aha moment" and is currently asleep because he didn't get home until after 8am. 

AHA MOMENT #3

I am getting better at being a homebody

I love to go. I used to hate days where I never left the house, but with homeschooling, house keeping, and overall getting done of life. I am finding I like being home. This really is a BIG FAT DEAL for me. Ask anyone who has known me longer than a day. I am learning how to be at home and we do really well with it. (Except Isaac who is more naturally inclined to want to leave the house as well and starts going nuts after a full day at home.) It is amazing to me how much more I accomplish when I don't overbook my week and plan to purposely stay home. I know this should be a DUH, but for me it is a refining process.

So, those are a few of my self discoveries this week. Any one else learning things this week?

Free subscription to Thriving Family

Did you see that Focus on the Family is offering a free subscription to Thriving Family? We have tried this magazine before and I really liked it. Plus, it is always fun to get freebies in the mail.  :)

Preschool Packs

Oh, how cute are these! I am loving these little packs and what I really love it that they are FREE! YAY!




Homeschool Creations has this super cute Knight preschool pack. I'm excited since I have a few little knights in my house.

I can't wait to use this one either. This Princess preschool pack looks like so much fun. However, I won't do that to my boys so I will have to wait a few years to use it.

I am loving a lot of different freebies these sites have so do some exploring if you are looking for some fun stuff as we head into summer. Or, you know, during the neverending.need.to.see.some.sun. rain.

Our Easter

 We had to dye some eggs. It is getting to be so much fun to do these things with my kiddos. Especially as they get older and enjoy it and are able to participate more.

 Yep, I still like to dye eggs.

 What? I'm not supposed to mix these?

 And he's on the table, of course.

 Pretty little eggs.

 We attended the yearly Easter egg hunt at Cross View Christian Church. Levi had soo much fun. He loved putting the eggs in his basket.

 There were stickers and pictures to color.

 Levi loved this bucket. He is easily amused I guess.

 Isaac had to get his picture with this bunny.

Here are the baskets with all the Easter goodies. 

Dan's parents came in to celebrate with us. 

We went to church on Saturday evening. It was so nice to stay home on Sunday and enjoy some time as a family. We let the kids play with their baskets. We did a little hunt in our house. We had a big breakfast and then a big lunch. The guys played Wii for a long time. Isaac played wii so hard he fell asleep. It was a great day. I am so thankful for our family and of course for the gift Jesus gave to us all.

John 3:16  

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Easter. I went to the mall today and many women were standing in line buying dresses for themselves or beautiful outfits for their children. I was in Walmart and the seasonal section was near empty. Candy had been emptied off the shelves. We took the kids to an egg hunt today and children swarmed the halls to get the good filled plastic eggs. Tomorrow we will be eating a ham and all the yummy sides you eat on Easter. I am even making a bunny cake ( I will let you know how it goes). All good things, right? 

I think so. There is joy in tradition and excitement in holidays. I always loved the traditions of a new Easter dress each year. My Dad's mother always bought us our outfits and she had good taste. I loved the candy, the baskets, the big dinner, the egg hunt and of course the bunny. I am all in favor of all these things. As long as we don't miss the point. The REAL reason we celebrate Easter. 

We are going through John in our gatherings at our church. A few weeks back our pastor spoke about John 3:16. I think most kids memorize this passage. I know I remember sitting on the back porch of my grandma's house spinning in her office chair repeating it back to her and my mom until I could say it on my own. But, here's the thing. At the top of this post I put a picture of my three boys. They are awesome. They are adorable. They give me a ton of joy, and I am so thankful for them. However, they are not perfect. Not even a little bit. But even in all their imperfectness I can't even imagine life with out them. I really can't imagine allowing them to hurt, I mean really hurt. Knowing I could stop it. 

I guess being a mom now sheds some new light on this verse for me. I always realized it was a big deal. I mean, Jesus loved ME so much he came and died for me. And God let him. But now, I look at my sons and this verse hits home just a little more. The Father gave his ONLY son. I have three sons. I love them with all I have. I love them so so much. I mean I love them like crazy. And I'm HUMAN. How much more must God have loved HIS only SON. And he gave him as a sacrifice for ME. REALLY! God is so good. God loves us so much. SO much more than we can even begin to understand. 

So, Friday we remember the sacrifice, but here's the good part. Tomorrow, Easter, we will celebrate the GOOD NEWS. Jesus is ALIVE! He beat the grave. God wins and so do his adopted  kids. God has so much better foresight than I do (duh, I know). He knew that the pain, heart ache, anguish that Jesus death would be would only be victory forever. I am so glad I serve a God who would give up so much more than I understand to take me in as his kid. I'm so thankful that Jesus loved me enough knowing how much I SERIOUSLY DIDN'T deserve it. Because of his death I will live forever with him. 

I hope you have a happy Easter. I hope you enjoy some yummy treats, maybe wear a fun new outfit, and get some time with your family. I hope if your family is down with it that the bunny hops by. But most of all I hope you are able to celebrate the fact that Jesus is alive! 

Happy Easter.  

My day in numbers

16 loads of laundry to do

2 stores shopped at

3 hours of school done

4 times I cleaned the kitchen

2 full loads in the dishwasher

2 dozen eggs boiled ready to dye

2 dozen eggs dropped and cracked 

1 dozen eggs worth still dying

2 more dozen eggs boiled so we have enough for every one to dye and be happy about it

8 times my lawn mower died while mowing tonight. The grass was so long it kept jamming.

8 the time hubby arrived home

1 child napped this afternoon

4 number of outfits Asher has changed into today. And each got dirty. Thus the laundry.

3 poopy diapers changed

4 Easter baskets assembled

1 awesome man putting the oldest

2 boys in bed so we can spend about 

1 hour together before we both pass out. 

And there is a little bit of my day. So glad the sun was shining I felt much more awake to take on all the day had for me. :)

Menu Planning Not so much

This week's menu plan consists a lot of left overs. For some reason we have a fridge full of yummy left overs. Last night we made a Chipotle casserole that was yummy so we will have to rest of that on Wed. Tonight is House Church and I have a side so I am making candied carrots. Thursday we will finish up our leftovers and Friday we are going out with Dan's parents when they come in town.

The one big meal I am going to make is Easter dinner. I haven't shopped for it yet, but I think it will consist of:

Ham
Mashed Potatoes and gravy
carrots
green bean casserole
rolls
salad
dessert TBA

So that is all the planning I am planning on this week. :)

Glasses

So, my little man apparently had terrible vision. This is apparently why he was going cross eyed. So, we took him in and confirmed it and now he is sporting these little bits of adorableness. He is leaving them on pretty well (knock on wood). I had to show off a few pictures of my four eyed cutie. 

Enjoying the view that he can now see.

 Silly boy

 Not holding still for a picture

Two good looking guys.

National Geographic for Little Kids only $5!

I am so excited about this! I have been looking for a good deal on a magazine subscription for my little guys. Isaac is VERY into animals so this is perfect. Today Mamapedia has a deal to get National Geographic for little kids for only $10. This is the best price I have seen for this magazine. But then if it is your first time using Mamapedia you can use the code Moms5 and get an extra $5 off making it only $5 for the subscription. That is so great. My kids love getting mail and this will be great in our workboxes.

Bikers

This past week one of our friends handed down her son's little bike to Asher. He was so excited. We have been going out the past few afternoons to let him ride. Levi has discovered a family favorite, the toy lawnmower, and Isaac usually plays soccer. Tonight while Dan and I went to Walmart to get the Toy Story Operation we also decided to peek at big boy bikes. We hadn't found any one getting rid of one and I hadn't seen any last year at garage sales. So we decided to peek. We found this beauty in our price range and decided to surprise our oldest with his own bike. 

So, when he got home from Awana the drive way was lined with a bike for everyone. Isaac went straight to his new bike, and asked "Dad, whose bike is this?" Dan and I got to tell him it was his and he was so excited. "I LOVE IT!!!" All the boys rode their bikes (or in Levi's case sat on a tricycle). It is always fun to see our kids enjoying a surprise.

Operation Game only $2

I have seen reports of the Toy Story Operation Game for only $5 and now there is a coupon out for $3 off. That means you can get it for only $2. I went to our Walmart tonight to see if it worked and it did! I'm excited because Isaac has a hard time with some small motor skills, and I know this will be good practice ( similar motion to holding a pencil). Plus, there is money counting and matching. Not to mention it makes loud noises...all good things for a little boy.

A few good moms

My friend over at DealsforDayton.com is hosting a great Mother's Day giveaway. There are some fabulous prizes available. The fun part is that you get to nominate a mom that you think is deserving. I think we all know at least one mom who could use a little pampering. If you are in the Dayton area check out more details here.

$30 grocery challenge

Last month we had some crazy expenses. We went to the homeschool convention and had a handful of other misc. big expenses. So this month I am going to challenge myself to try and cut some expenses. I figured one way I can do that is to try to cut our grocery bill just for this month. So, my goal has been to only spend $30 each week on groceries. This also will give me a chance to eat down some of our stockpile and my freezer meals. I do love a challenge. This has been week two and so far we have come under budget and not gone hungry.

Legos

I feel like sometimes time is marked with toys. When Isaac first started sitting up we bought wooden square blocks. Then we moved into trucks and little people. We have duplos. Then came action figures and nerf guns. But I think when you get your first set of real Legos it means you are leaving little boy and going into big boy.... One of our good friends gave Isaac a set of Legos. So of course, Asher not wanting to be left behind had to get a set as well. So we went to Target and Dan helped Asher pick out a small set to build too. This was the remainder of our evening.

They are so proud of their creations. :) I think this will be the start to some very serious father son time.

Chick Fil A

If you know me you KNOW I love some Chick Fil A! LOVE IT. So, I am sad to say I haven't post the free breakfast the past few months. However, they are doing it again. So I wanted to make sure I let you know. Each day they have a free breakfast item. Some you have to make a purchase to receive the free item. This is only available at the Washington Twshp and Benchwood locations in Dayton. Here is the menu line up for freebies:

• Monday-Free Sausage Biscuit
• Tuesday-Free Burrito WYB Hashbrown and a Drink
• Wednesday-Free Cinnamon Cluster
• Thursday-B1G1 Spicy Chicken Biscuit
• Friday-B1G1 4 ct Chick-n-Mini
• Saturday-Free Chicken Biscuit

If you hurry today you can still get your cinnamon clusters. :) But breakfast ends at 10:30.