I'm ADD

I have trouble focusing. Shocker, I know. However, yesterday was really bad. I slept in a bit. I knew I had a to do list, but let me tell you how it went down. 

Wake up in the morning

Strip sheets from bed, gather towels, put away laundry. 

So far so good.

Get down stairs and enjoy some coffee...

and here's where we go down hill.

Breakfast and chores for boys

Start school

Check blogs while starting school 

Find these...

Leave school for a few minutes to go to the garage. I'm sure I had some frames I could use. 

I lose the attention of my kindergartner who is now "taking a play break"

So, I print, cut and frame these...

Then I remember I have laundry to do. 

Go up to get the hampers and smell something. 

Take a bag of dirty diapers to the garage.

Forget about laundry because I see this. 

Since I took his picture I had to take another

Time to load dishes and run the dishwasher

Then I realize the pile of dirt in the hall because of the rain

At this point it is now lunch time

So I check pintrest...

Then I make some lunch for the boys

Send them up for naps

Think about doing school

and watch Up All Night instead...

When I'm done I call Isaac down and we finally do his school. 

I feel like I live in an "If you give a moose a muffin book".

snack sneaker

With child number three things slip. You know the things you were very careful to work on with number one don't get quiet as much attention. For example, snacking. Hubby came home the other night and I heard him ask "what do you have there?". Followed by "My wife, could you come here for a moment." I came up to see what was going on. And sitting on our couch here is what I saw...

Yeah, that would be the rest of a loaf of banana bread. He helped himself. He pulled the pan off the counter, unwrapped it, put the pan back and sat on the couch watching PBS with his snack...He is a pretty adorable little thief, though.

This is starting to show in other ways though. He is now the one his brothers send in for the goods. I set out a bag of breakfast cookies today from the freezer cook we did the month. Little man was the life of the party sharing them with his brothers. Ah, the joys of mothering.

I'm FALLing for you...fall

It is no secret, but this is by far my FAVORITE time of year. I mean, really, I love FALL! The colors, the smells, the food, the sweatshirts, the adorable clothes...ahhhh fall how do I love thee let me count the ways:

1. Apples- Apple pie, apple cider, caramel apples, apple bread, apple anything. Deliciousness.
2. Candles- apple cinnamon scent fills my home and my heart is happy. I love the smell of a candle and the cute little flame just keeps my smile going.
3. Scarecrows- I don't know why, but I just love these guys.
4. Leaves- I love when they start to change. It is stinkin' gorgeous.
5. Fashion- Fall fashion is so fun! leggings, and sweaters, and boots OH MY!
6. Hot drinks- Hot chocolate, Apple Cider, yummy coffees, love, love, love.
7. Hoodies- seriously. Need I say more.
8. Open windows- Not too hot, not too cold.
9. Bonfires- The smell, the heat of the fire on a cold night, the S'mores if you don't like bonfires I don't like you. (Ok, probably not, but what could you possibly have against bonfires).
10. Pumpkin patches- Love the pictures I can get in a pumpkin patch. Not gonna lie. I have to take my kids fall pics outside each year.

I love fall for so many reasons. There are only a few. I could go on and on, but you are probably done reading me go on about a season. This is why we couldn't live in the dessert!

I love Kindergarten

As I said we decided to use the K12 curriculum this year for Kindergarten. I am love love loving it. I love that Isaac loves the computer. I love that I love the books they use to teach. I love that Bubba can sit right next to us and learn right along with his big brother. I love that I can get most of it done between Sesame Street and nap time. (All hail PBS kids).

Today in History (which at this point is more like geography). We talked about France. We studied Paris and many of the famous landmarks. The majority of our lesson was based off of one of my fave childhood books...MADELINE!

I love sharing books with my kids. Plus, I loved seeing the illustrations in a new light. As a kid I never realized that many of the sights of Paris were drawn through out the book. We spent time talking about each "sight". After each trip we stamp our passports. I love that Isaac asks me if we can visit each place. It makes me really want to go see the world with my kids...maybe someday. We are loving doing school each day. I know Isaac is learning lots and I am too.

G.A. Henty audio books for FREE!

We have several friends who love the stories by G.A. Henty for their kiddos. These are great for in the car or before bed time. You can go here to get 15 free audio book downloads and check them out.

Birthday boy.

This week we celebrated my Bubba's Birthday. He is officially four years old. That is totally CRAZY! He is so proud to be four. This to him makes him a big kid and he is always looking to be bigger.

Oh my Bubba you are so many thing wrapped into such an adorable package. 

You are generous. You are sweet. You are sensitive to others feelings and give such precious hugs. 

You are FUNNY. You get jokes that go over your momma's head. You ooze sarcasm. 

You have an amazing imagination. My lover of pirates, knights, and good guys. Seeker of justice. My little hero. Saver of princesses everywhere and helper to mommy. 

You keep me guessing. You keep me humble. You make me laugh, and you make me so mad sometimes. You, my sweet boy, are stubborn beyond words. You see black or white and gray does not exist. You have no middle ground. When you are good you are good with 100%. When you are naughty you are going to bring it on home. 

You are so smart it scares me. You pick up on so much. Not just academically, but also you read people so well. 

You are sneaky and crazy. You are loud and yet you can be the most quiet. You think about things like no other little boy your age I know. 

You love Jesus and you love to talk to him. I love to hear you pray. You are bat your eyes when you know you are caught. 

You don't go a day with out telling your family you love them.

We love you little boy. You are so special and we are so thankful that God blessed us with you.

A is for apple and apple is for fall

If you are doing some fun things with apples on these foggy fall days here is a link to some cute printables. My kids love the lap books!



Photo credit 1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com

UGH

Warning I am a little whiny today. This post shows it. 

Do you ever have one of those days where you would like to call redo? Today is that day. My mom and grandma left this morning at 6 am without saying goodbye. They were in town before my mom took my grandma south for the winter. So I was bummed at 6:15 when I realized I was up early and they were already gone.

Then all the boys woke up cranky. REALLY cranky. So I let them chill with some PBS to get rid of the grumpies. It didn't work. So I attempted to get started on our day. I stripped the beds, I put away laundry, I cleaned up breakfast, and asked the boys to do their morning chores. It is now 12:00 and they are still working on those same chores. There have been tears and fits and more yelling than I care to admit. We haven't even started school. The house is still not clean for house church tonight. I have already eaten 2 cupcakes today (every one deals with stress some how). The boys have already given up all their allowance/loot coins for the week...it is only Wednesday.

Then there is little man...I should call him little naked man. He has pulled off all of his clothes several times today. Then he wants to sit on the potty. Trouble is he doesn't understand what the potty is for so he runs his naked little butt into my living room and pees on the floor! So then I run him up to the potty and he screams like it bit him.  After he gets off he pees in the toy room. Again put him on the potty. Potty strikes fear in his heart. So now I try a pull up. My other boys loved pull ups. They have cars on them. Not little man. The pull up is the devil according to him. So he pulls that off. I told him to go get mommy a diaper. He proceeds to go to his room pee in there and lay on his bed with a diaper until I discover both the pee and the naked boy. UGH.

Then I go to the mailbox. i love getting the mail. I'm a nerd, I know. I start to flip through and a HUGEHAIRYGROSSNASTYHORRIDEVILBROWNBIGUGLY spider crawls out and falls on my floor. I smacked him dead with an envelope, but GROSS!

It can only get better....I hope.

We have a winner!

The winner of the Totino's box tops for education package is comment #6

Lindsay said "Posted on facebook!"

Congrats!!

Funny boys

This morning as the boys were rolling around in the living room one of them came across a treasure under the couch. First out came a hairbrush. Then a retainer holder. My oldest then goes into a speech that went something like this...

Look, I found Grandma's hairbrush...Everyone leaves stuff here. I mean, I think people think that this is somewhere to just drop your junk and leave. Well, it isn't! I am tired of people leaving their stuff here!

Well, if that is how you feel about it.

Then a little later we were dancing while picking up and listening to some Alvin and the Chipmunks. Isaac pulled out his Bible. He opens to Psalms and tells me that this is where there are songs in the Bible.

At this point I am super proud mama. Not only does my kid know what the Psalms are, but he can find the book! Yep, he's pretty awesome...

Then he points to Psalm 113 and tells me this is the one Alvin sings about the witch doctor...and I'm back to being humbled.

Then there is my Bubba. Apparently he was told to save the kisses for his mommy. He was caught kissing a little girl in his class (on the cheek). When I asked him about it he shrugged and said, "yeah, I did that". I asked the name of the little girl and he didn't know... Great this is starting too young.

Then after lunch he told me he was all done. He went up to his bed and got a book. When I went to check on him he was laying in nothing put his under wear looking at a book like that was completely normal. Ah, boys...

School has started

My baby has officially started Kindergarten. We have been going for two weeks now. We decided to use  K12 this year. I had several reasons. The first being that it is free! I thought I would sign up and check it out to see if I even liked the curriculum. Honestly thought I'd only do it for a short time and probably not like it. Now that it is here I LOVE it. I like that I know we are on track and that my kiddo is getting as much (and more) than what he'd be getting if he went to public school. Plus, it is all planned out for me. There are lots of fun books, crafts, and activities. Also, did I mention it was FREE!

We have had one day where he didn't want to be home schooled, but it is more and more evident every day that this is the right decision for our family right now. While my little dude is thriving (in my personal opinion) academically it is more than evident he is not able to sit and focus for long periods of time. A classroom at this point would be very hard for him (and his teacher).

So, if I am not on here quite as much lately you know we are just getting our routine figured out. The one thing I will say about K12 is that it is time consuming. We like it lots though and I think we will at least use it the rest of the year.

Freezer cooking fun

It's that time again! Freezer cooking fun is back for the month of September. But for lack of time I will just share Tami's post with you all. She did a great job letting you know all our recipes and even sharing a few pictures. Enjoy.

Back to school giveaway!

With our homeschool getting into full swing (thus my absence as of late) I wanted to take a minute to talk about a really cool program. Totino's pizza rolls is giving away one million box tops for education. That is $100,000 toward schools! They realize there is a connection between fun and learning. So this school year they will be offering double box tops to go toward "Learn a ton when school is fun". 


We try to save all our box tops to give to local schools. Even though we teach our kids at home. Lots of little ones we love our being taught by some amazing teachers in the local schools. Just by clipping these little box tops and sending them in to our friends schools we are helping out. The cool part is box tops are on many products you probably already buy. Including Totino's (who doesn't like some pizza rolls). This is just one way to help our local schools to provided some fun supplies for it's community's kiddos.

This school year, four participating schools in the Box Tops for Education (BTFE) program will each win 250,000 Bonus Box Tops, equivalent to $25,000, from Totino’s to help fund a fun project at their school. Visit www.BTFE.com/Totinos to view official sweepstakes rules.

Totino's is so excited about their involvement they are giving away some fun prizes. Through myblogspark.com I was asked to host a giveaway here on my blog! So, what does this fabulous prize pack include you ask? Well let me tell ya.
  
A Brain Quest Smart! Game, Micro Rubik’s^® Cube Key Holder,  draw string backpack, and coupons for a free package of Totino’s Pizza Rolls Snacks, Totino’s Party Pizza and new Totino’s Pizza Stuffers.

I was given the same goodies to check out and this is a fun pack. My hubby was very excited about all the Totino's treats. He is a big fan of some pizza rolls. The boys are very excited about the brain quest game and backpack, and I have the rubik's cube on my keys.

So, would you love your own prize pack? Here is all you have to do:

Leave a comment telling me your fave Totino's product or one you'd like to try.

For additional entries: (leave a comment for each)
Follow me. If you already do great! Just let me know.
Share this giveaway on facebook and let me know you did so.

The winner of this giveaway will be chosen on Friday Sept 16 at 5pm EST. I will choose a winner by using random.org

*I was asked to host a giveaway by myblogspark.com. They provided me with information from and a fun prize pack sponsored by Totinos. All opinions are my own.