Freedom!

 Sweet, sweet freedom!

Today was our last day of school, and now we get a whole week off! It's hard to believe we have already been back to school and co-op for six weeks.

We are very ready for a break. I have the longest list of things I want to accomplish in the next week. In all honestly it is probably two weeks worth of things that need done. I need to prioritize and simplify to what really NEEDS to be done next week. 

So much to do, so little time. It feels like the story of our lives that last handful of years. It's all good stuff though so I'm immensely thankful for that. 

In the next week some of the things I want to accomplish/do are....

Spring clean every room.

Paint girls room.

Paint kitchen cabinets.

Go to Hobby Lobby for spring decorations.

Decorate for Spring.

Hike/exercise/have fun outside with the kids. 

Grocery shop.

Get my nails done.

Sew/quilt.

Paperwork for work.

Spring clean the shop.

See I told you it was a lot. There's actually more, but that is just what I have at the forefront of my brain for the moment. 

Some of the items are things I do monthly and they happen to need done next week. 

I also want to rest, sleep in once or twice, and watch some television in there somewhere as well. 

We shall see how the next week goes.

Either way, I'm excited for us to have a break from school for a week.

Well, I'm off to bed because I'm tired and we have co-op tomorrow. 

Happy Thursday! 

First Day of Homeschool Co-op 2021 | Homeschool Life

Co-op started last Friday. It was nice to get back to seeing friends and learning together. This is not our normal co-op, but it has some of the same friends. 

I know we live in a totally different world now, and I sometimes wonder if things will ever be the same again. However, a first day of co-op picture felt necessary this year. Even more so than on other years. 

We all had a great first day, and Anna even cried when it was time to leave. That's a major change from our last co-op experience when she cried the entire time we were there. 

I really enjoyed teaching my literature class and can't wait to go back next week. I've never taught middle school grades before, and I'm pleasantly surprised. 

We are all looking forward to a fun semester! 

First Snow Storm of 2021 | Winter Storm Orlena | Mom Life Journal

Today is Monday, we are in the middle of a  storm that started Saturday night. 

We got 2 or so inches of snow, then a ton of rain. It turned it all into a few inches of slush Sunday. We managed to get out and about for church Sunday. It was nice to have a few hours if rain so we could make it to church. There weren't a lot of us there, but it was a good morning of worship non the less. Then home to settle in for some nasty weather. 

It turned back to snow Sunday night and has snowed non stop since then. They keep changing the forecast, and can't seem to make up their mind. 

The temperature dropped throughout the day today and all of that slush is now a solid sheet of ice. We have gotten 2-3 more inches today, when they said we would only get 1. 

They are saying we could get another three inches tonight and one more tomorrow. They original said this would end tonight, but now have pushed it back to Tuesday night. 

Dustin went to work today when the roads were mostly clear, tonight it was pretty slick when he got home. We are currently at a level 2 snow emergency, and I'm crossing my fingers for a level 3. At level 3 you are not allowed to go out on the roads and that means Dustin will have to stay home with us for the day. :) I like when he is home with us. 

  Today was one of those days that the temperature dropped throughout the day. It has been a slow drop and won't reach its lowest until tomorrow evening. It started close to 40 and will end around 16 degrees. I don't know why but I find days that the temps drop like this to be absolutely fascinating! Something about the temperature doing the opposite of what it normal should is just down right entertaining for me. I'm a nerd, I can't help it. 

(I didn't get a picture of Addison. Please note a rare sighting of Alex.)

We skipped school today, because the house needed cleaned and we haven't had a snow day yet this school year. :) The kids played outside in the morning before it got crazy cold, and then we cleaned house, did laundry and worked on projects. I also gave Alex a haircut which was way over due. It looked like someone murdered a chia pet when we were done. Haha. 

I started working out again today. Lifted weights, did squats and crunches. I will probably be sore tomorrow. 

It was a good Monday. I didn't take enough pictures. We will probably pop outside tomorrow after school, and I'll try to take more then. 

It will finally be cold enough tomorrow to do one of my favorite science experiments with the younger girls. Addison has done it before, but Anna is too young to remember. We are going to turn hot water into snow in an instant! It's fun! 

I'm very thankful we have no plans until the end of the week. With these low temps it could take a few days to clean up the roads enough for me to want to go anywhere. I'm not a fan of going out on snowy roads. 

Here's hoping we don't lose electric tonight, the lights have already been flickering today. 

-Lyndsay 

Back to normal life | Mom Life Journal

We got home from our little adventure on a Monday and still had one more week before returning to work and school.

Dustin worked on the utility room, while the kids and I worked on some organizing and cleaning. We also found time to fit in some movies, games and rest.

The utility room did not get finished. We knew it probably wouldn't be finished when we decided to take our little adventure. 

That's ok, that's how life is sometimes. As much as I wanted it to be finished, it is a lot better than it was. The stacked washer and dryer, new freezer, one of the walls, ceiling and flooring are installed. The tankless water heating is working great and Dustin reworked the intake for our furnace to have an easier way to replace the filter. The new furnace intake took a lot of metal bending and framing, it took the whole day. He also had to rework part of the floor, because the main plumbing drain clean out is in the floor of that room as well.

A lot of these tasks are time consuming and don't seem to change the appearance of the room all that much, but each little job gets us that much closer to it finishing. Once all of these small jobs are finished the room will go quickly. 

The very last day before he returned to work he build the cabinet parts of two of the cabinets that will be in the room. One it larger for bulk appliances and laundry sorting, one is smaller for a pantry unit. It holds canned goods and bottles etc. These new shelves made for the ability to put some things back into the room where they belonged, which opened up some space in the rest of the house. 

We were able to go back to work and start back to school with our house feeling mostly normal again. It is a good feeling. 

We will continue to work on the utility room every weekend until it is complete. 

I'm looking forward to it being finished in the near future. 

It would have been nice to finish the room before our time off ended, but I wouldn't trade the memories we made for a dozen utility room remodels. 

Today is Tuesday, we are on day two of normal life being in full swing again. It is going well, and I think we all were ready for school to begin again. 

I have bread in the bread maker, it's bedding wash day, Anna is watching a Veggie Tales movie for quiet time, and the older three are finishing their school work. Then it will be time to send people outside for a few minutes and chores. We are probably having cheeseburgers and fries for dinner and I need to try to do some sewing this evening.

Happy Tuesday!

~Lyndsay

9 Random Facts About Me (Confessions of a Homeschool Mom)

For those of you who keep commenting that you think I have it all put together. 

Here are a few random things that I feel you should know.

1. I'm a recovering Supermom. Don't believe me? You should read my blog. Google tinyhousehomeschoollife, find the blog and then search postpartum anxiety. You can read all about how and when my entire self worth as a person crumbled and I had to learn to rely on God, my family and my friends just to get through the day.

2. My house used to be spotless on the daily. One downsize into a 100yr old renovation with zero closets, a fourth kid and a whole lot of life later....and we try but it's far from spotless. I supposed I could spend all of my time cleaning and it would look nice, but we'd have no life. I like to think they won't remember the clutter in the corners. 

3. I have not worked out consistently in a long time. Yes, I used to be that annoyingly fit person, I lost 90+ lbs, trained for a half marathon, wore a size 2 and assumed I'd stay that way for the rest of my life. Yeah, life happens and I'm not in that place mentally, physically or emotionally. I'm not sure I'll ever be back in that place, or that I should ever want to be. I do plan to take more time focusing on my fitness this next year. It's not easy adding one more thing back in, especially when I'm not willing to drop any of my other priorities or compromise my health. I'm not going to say I'm unhealthy right now, but I will say I need to work on my strength and fitness level. 

4. Homeschooling and raising four kids is wickedly hard and majorly time consuming. It's exhausting guys! I'd be lying if I didn't confess to considering alternative options from time to time. I love being with and teaching my children daily...but it means I'm with my children daily. It can be a lot, especially when you want to do it right, and send some very prepared and capable adults out into the world. Sometimes it is all we get done. 

5. I love to cook and serve healthy foods for my family, but sometimes life takes over and the focus is on filling bellies. Whether it be by a compromise in what meals I'm cooking or a run through a fast food place. It is how it is right now and that's ok. I push vitamins, vegetables and fruit when I can. Fun fact, I've ruined more meals in the last two years than I think I have in my entire adult life. 

6. I sometimes forget to take care of my husband. We've been married 18 years and together for almost 20. We own a business together, have four kids and life...and in the midst of it I sometimes forget about him. Seriously. Last Sunday I went to Chipotle after church for lunch and totally forgot to order his food. Thankfully one of the kids reminded me once we got back in the van or I would have went home without food for him. I truly love him and do not mean to forget about him. This goes both ways right now, he has forgotten I'm allergic to chicken(It's a new allergy) and brought me a chicken sandwich.(It used to be my favorite thing to eat.)

 It's just the season we are in, it will get better as the kids get older. 

7. Twice a week there is a pile of clean laundry so tall if it fell over it might hurt someone. My husband refers to it as the laundry monster. I have tried many things to keep it under control and folded daily, but it just hasn't worked out. So I have resorted to throwing a 'folding party' twice a week. I turn on a show, put it all in the living room and fold every single piece and match every sock. Then I lovingly call out (I yell) this phrase...'If you live in this house, come put your own clothes away!'. Interestingly enough, my husband started putting his own clothes away after I started doing this. I didn't bother to tell him I only meant the kids, and just went with it. 😂

8. I wrote all of these with my feet propped up after a day of school...while my children are cleaning, doing their daily chores. After school is done I need one full hour before I can address any of their questions/wants/needs. I am an introverted extrovert, I need my down time. 

9. Sometime I forget to take care of myself. I've been known to order a meal at a fast food drive thru and forget to order food for myself. I have also showered on a Monday night and not had a moment to take another one until Saturday morning. This wasn't with a baby in the house, it was three weeks ago. Sometimes I forget to drink water and have four cups of coffee throughout the day instead. At least two of them are decaf, I like to think that makes it a little better. 

Why did I type all of these random facts about myself? Because I NEVER want my life to be a stumbling block to anyone else. I fail every single day and it's by the grace of God that I'm still here raising these four crazy kiddos while trying not to forget about my husband. 

All of this being said, I'm not perfect, no one is! If you are struggling in life and need someone to remind you it's okay to struggle, call me. I promise I will have a reason for you to feel better about yourself. We need to band together to help each other, not just assume someone has it all together. Satan loves for us to compare and assume, and isolation is his biggest tool of destruction for women! Don't give him the satisfaction. 

Blessings! 

Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes! A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! The Secrets Homeschoolers Keep, Mom Fail and Random Thoughts!

 It's Friday! We made it! Thank goodness. Because I spent part of the week asking what day it was. It was one of those weird, confusing catch up weeks. I think, mainly because it was our first official week back to life, post holidays and sickness. I felt like a deer caught in the headlights most of the week. 

1. New Year, New Curriculum.

 I am terrible at sticking to some really boring less exciting curriculums. If we get half way in and realize it isn't working for us, we change it. Thankfully, we have most of our core subjects nailed down. It is just a couple that keep getting shifted around. 

 I tried something new with our reading/comprehension at the beginning of the year. The older two did it, but hated it. I got them to stick to it for the first half of the year. When we were prepping to start back they voiced their dislike of that particular area. I mulled it over for about a week and agreed that they shouldn't have to do it, if they hated it that much. They love to read and they do read a good bit. (A large part of their curriculum is independent reading.) I did not want to start making them hate reading. Especially after all the years of encouraging it. Honestly, I should have just left well enough alone this year and stuck with what worked last year.
  
 I also switched Addison back to Life of Fred for math. She finished the math I had for her before Christmas. I know which one she will be switching to, but I feel like we need to take a side road and do some Fred. Fred is awesome. 

We are still struggling in the History department. Why? Because I dropped the ball. (Real life, moment.)  This happens with History and Science, more often than I would like to admit. I have not found a history program that truly fits for us yet. So, I build our own. When I'm on top of it, it is great. I can build a curriculum. I actually enjoy it.

 Then, life happens, and they run out of what I have planned for them, before I am done planning the next section. My goal for this year is to plan the whole year of history in advance. That is how we do most of our subjects. 

We have continued to shift to a more heavy Charlotte Mason approach to our schooling. Below is a small snippet of what they are currently reading. (This is not their full work load.)

Emma

Alex

 

Addison

2. It's not messy, it's 'school mode'!

I was texting my friend Sveta this week, when I should have been doing school with the little one. Yea, I was playing hooky. You caught me. Any-who, we were discussing what we had planned for the day, and what we had accomplished that day. 
I commented that my house was fairly clean (had laundry going, etc, etc, mom stuff). She commented that her house was not clean. Which made me giggle because her house is never dirty. She sends me a picture of her living room as proof. It looked almost exactly like my house, but with different children in it. 
We both agreed that our houses were not exactly dirty at that moment in time. We were just doing school. Once school is finished all of it gets tucked away for the day. Then normal house reappears. 
 We decided to call it 'School Mode'. 

It is almost impossible to homeschool and avoid the daily clutter explosion that happen while school is in session. I refuse to call it messy anymore. Because it is not an accurate representation of our life.

As proof, I'm showing you our house in 'School mode'. It is what it is for about 4-6 hours, then it gets put away for the day. 

 


The cardboard in the background is a project that was in the works. When you live in a little house, school happens everywhere.


3. Jarred Cactus?

 All of the kids were sick for a little over a week. It happened to fall on the first of the month, (When I typically shop for the month.) and during a snow storm with a cold snap of single digits.. I was more or less house bound. Not necessarily because of the snow. Although, I hate driving in the snow. It was because of the kids. 
 I was wondering how I was going to get to the store and manage to get the month worth of groceries with all these sick people.
 Then it occurred to me that between Amazon, Walmart and Sam's Club, I could order 80% of our pantry, household and grocery items without leaving the house. 

Our prime pantry box

I only had to go out once. Dustin brought home pizza on Friday after work. Emma and I loaded up in the van. We picked up our site-to-store order from Sam's, then popped into Aldi. Because of the storm we ended up having to stop at Kroger also. People in our area still function on 'Panic mentality' any time it snows. They buy all the milk, eggs and bread. 

 We were gone maybe 2.5 hours and it was a lot less stress for me.

 Emma and I like to cut up and have fun. We have this rather dry and almost mean sarcastic humor, that I do not allow her (or myself) to use on others. When we go out alone I turn her loose with it. It is very Lorelai and Rory. We even sometimes pick an accent and use it the entire time. 
 We can't help it, it is in our personality. If I don't let her get it out, she uses it at all the wrong times.    So, we came to an agreement that we can use it on each other at certain appointed times. Then we have to turn it off. Plus it teaches her how to control the sarcastic humor that she was born with. Something that I took a long time to learn. 

Something that caught our eye, While looking for a certain type of beans and attempting to use all of the words from different languages that we knew, in one sentence, while speaking in a British accent (I feel the need to mention that I had not had a lot of sleep.)...we found this. It is jarred, pickled? (I assume) cactus?!

I feel the need to try this in the near future! Maybe while we are studying deserts and cacti. Because who doesn't want to read about something rather different (At least to us. We live very far from a desert region. ;) ) and then you get to eat one?!

 


4. The part they don't tell you about homeschooling.

 I'm sure you have heard the jokes about homeschoolers never getting out of their pajamas. There is also the joke about how socially awkward we can be and the media always likes to toss around the 'socialization' scare tactic. 

 What most people don't realize is, we are typically just as busy as the rest of the world.  Between work, the chiropractor, the orthodontist, hair appointments, the dog, basketball, the library and co-op(That is not everywhere we went.) we left the house and were gone basically every day this week. 

We do a lot of 'car schooling'. This is what it looks like. Mom tip, always bring snacks and water! The toddler will act much less like a feral cat. 





5. Speaking of feral cats...

  I think I mentioned co-op started back up this week. We were all so read to go back. I was prepared and excited. Probably more than the kids. 
We get to co-op, unload the car and Anna decides to turn into a thrashing, screaming, psychopath. It was like giving a feral cat a bath most of the day. I have rarely been so embarrassed by one of my toddlers actions. It was terrible. I wasn't even able to help teach my class. We ended up wandering the halls, eating our lunch early, and I spent the better part of the day apologizing to everyone in our path. 
  After she went to bed last night, I was telling Dustin about our day. He pointed out the fact that she was still on steroids and meds. #facepalm Her crazy behavior makes a bit more sense now. Major mom fail. :( 

She isn't usually like that. It was so bad. So, on a positive note. This is how she normally looks and acts.




6. The mug that matches our house perfectly!

While our friend Laura was visiting recently. She told me about a mug that was in the works at our local pottery place.  She said it matched our house and life perfectly. I had to stop in to pick up a special order item that Laura made, later in the week. I happened to see the mug before it went in for its color dip and glaze. I put a hold on it and asked for it in blue and white. Rachel Shepard (I will be doing a feature on her soon.) made this one. She is one heck of a talented potter!  There are so many talented artists housed in this building. It is non profit and they do loads of ministry and work in our community. If you are interested in learning a new craft, supporting a local business and ministry or just purchasing a one of a kind piece of artwork to sip your morning coffee from...go visit The Potter's House!
The kids are taking classes there this month. I'm excited to watch and maybe get my hands dirty as well.

 

7.  Friday thoughts

 I feel like all of this post was about homeschooling and books. That's probably not what you might have been expecting today. This blog is about our lives and our lives encompass a large variety of topics. As life tends to go though, sometimes our lives get more focused on one topic than others. That is how life works. Part of being a part of our blogging life is coming along for the ride with us. We have been focusing on less media, less tv, less electronics etc. Which means more books and more quiet.
We have been doing lots of reading, writing, reflecting and making the right choices in our lives, business and homeschool. It's January, that's what it's all about. 
Dustin is working a lot. Works is going good. When he isn't working, he is spending time with us and or reading his Bible. 
I have been focusing on reading more, making the habit of exercise stick, spending more time with the kids, and making plans for the future of our lives, this blog and our business. We are starting to move into the next season of life with no babies, no debt and the ability to follow our dreams.

We are making the plans and taking the steps now, to make the next ten+ years pretty awesome.  

 Blessings!
~Lyndsay

I'm kicking around the idea of doing a day in the life vlog once  month. As well as some tutorials. There are also plans for a room by room house tour. It has been so long since I vlogged and or even put my face in front of our youtube channel. It is like starting all over again with the butterflies and everything. 
There you go. That's why I haven't vlogged, I get camera shy. Plus the editing takes a while. I don't always have the time to take from my family.  

7 Quick Takes! A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! Our First Debt Free Christmas, Santa's Elves Argue Sometimes, and Deep Fry ALL THE MEATS!

This is the last 7 quick takes of 2017! 

This year went fast. It has been one heck of a good year for us all here in our tiny corner of the world. 
As we round out the year I will be making a post to recap our year. 

For today, let's talk about Christmas and a few things going on around here.

 

1. Our first debt free Christmas!!

 No, that does not mean this is the first year we didn't pay for Christmas with credit cards.

It is our first Christmas being 100% debt free! Yes, the house too. 

Let me tell you, for those of you in the thick of your baby steps...keep going! It gets better!

I have had more joy and excitement this Christmas than I can remember in a decade of years past. I know it is in part because I am better, but the major factor was the debt. The Christmas ham tastes a little different on this side of the baby steps. Seriously.
2018 is about to begin. If you haven't made a budget and climbed on the Dave Ramsey wagon yet, this is the perfect time. Start your year right!



2. Santa Came! (I heard the elves arguing)



  I have been wanting to kill the Santa thing for a few years now. We have been cutting back on what Santa brings and we only currently have one 'believer', but it is so hard to do that to this kid. She is very passionate about her love of Santa. So, Santa can stay, a little longer. Especially since he seriously delivered this year. We had told the girls that there was no way we could fit a barbie doll house, in this house. Especially the last few years because, it was under construction. I didn't think it would ever fit either. However, I scoured the internet and found two that would fit! Success! 


  I had totally prepared the kids for it not to happen. Let the air out of their balloon multiple times about it. All while sitting in the hallway for ten minutes at a time measuring and remeasuring to make sure it would fit! I did some serious praying for this darn doll house. (When you live small, every item you own is a commitment!) I also had to convince the husband. I showed him pictures, discussed the dimensions and talked at length to him about it. He agreed.


  Fast forward to Christmas Eve, after he had already put the house together. We bring it into the living room and set everything up. This is when Dustin decides to start questioning the decision to have a doll house. We might have had a mini argument about the house. He swore up and down that it wasn't going to fit in the spot I had chosen. I explained to him that I had spent over an hour in the hallway making sure it would fit. He still told me there was no way. I was starting to doubt it as well at this point. 

 This all resulted in both of us crouched outside the girls room, with a tape measure, at midnight, on Christmas Eve, hissing under our breath at each other, measuring the wall...for the fifty thousandth time!

Until he finally agreed that it would 'Just barely' fit.

It definitely fit, with 1.5 inches to spare. Our tiny house has a barbie house in it! 
**Addison said Mrs Claus must have built the house, because it was so pretty!**


3. Deep fry all the meats!!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned Dustin's new hobby, his outdoor cooker. This guy takes deep frying meats very seriously. 
On Christmas Eve he deep fried a rib-eye roast. I really wasn't so sure about that, but it turned out amazing!
On Christmas he deep fried a spiral honey ham. People, this is probably heaven sent. It tasted like ham wrapped in bacon and melted into one. Perfection. 

 

 
4. Christmas randoms
 Now you get a bunch of random pics of us on Christmas. Because you know you want to see it. :)






 

Christmas with our friend MA.

5. Spend all the money! Wait, maybe not...


 A certain Grandma went BIG this year and gave each of the kids $50 cash, instead of their usual $25. The kids were blown away. So, SO excited! We went to town to blow their cash this week. Apparently some of the 'Spend, Save, Gift' that we have been pouring into them has been sticking. Each of them ended up putting some away, spending some and then they pulled together and purchased some clothes for a little girl in need.

So proud of these kiddos!

6. Ok, Christmas is over. Time to purge all the stuff!

 I am a minimalist at heart. 

 Our small house may not always look minimal. There are a lot of people in here! However, we tend to own much less than the average american family. Especially a larger than 'normal' american family. Our house is very small. Every item has to have a home, a purpose and it needs to be chosen to get to stay.

As much as I love Christmas, I am more than ready for the clutter and decorations to be gone by the eve of the 25th! I was nice and left it up until the 26th this year. Then as usual, I started my entire house clean/purge. I do it every year after the holidays. 

The major items that needed sorted this year were the book shelves. I tend to struggle with this.  I am a book lover, and a homeschool Mom. We need books to function. It is very hard for me to minimize these items. However, I was good and went through every shelf, in the house. We got rid of a lot. 5 boxes of books, two large trash bags of toys and one large bag of trash.

That is all books to donate.

The school shelf can finally breathe, and so can I. Now I can prepare for the next half of the school year. My house has to be clean for me to think.

I went full geek this time and sorted the books by subject, and grade. Then I labeled each shelf. I am also going to be getting some color coded stickers to label all of the books to their corresponding shelf. Yes, I know how over board that sounds. I can't help it. Order makes me happy.  

 

 We also went through the Barbies, baby dolls and Anna's toys. Almost all of her toys fit in these drawers. I got rid of a few more items after taking this picture. We even got super organized and labeled the drawers.

 

7. He won't tell me what it is...

  Dustin was being all sneaky on Christmas Eve. He had his face in his phone for a little while and was very distracted. Which is weird for him. He is usually very present with us.

  A little while later he informs me that he ordered something for us. I will supposedly be super surprised and excited. It is a custom order item and is would be here by Friday(today). Well, turns out it shipped late, and won't be here until Wednesday!

He is giving me the weirdest hints and it is driving me crazy.

It does not have a screen, or need wifi. It does not have to be plugged in, but it would help. I can use it in any room but probably won't want to keep it in the kitchen. The shipping weight is exactly 10.8 lbs. It is small. He also claims it is going to make our lives easier, I'm going to love it and we both will get daily use out of it.

I'm really starting to wonder what this could possibly be.

Anyone care to take a guess? 

I'll reveal what it is next week. :)

Blessings!
~Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes, A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! Hippie Preacher, Big Thanks, and Don't Eat The Soap!

 September has been a whirlwind of activity.  Some of it was typical and planned, the rest..not so much.

1. The Hippie Preacher

 Once a year, we get a visit from Pastor Duke Hergatt. He calls himself the hippie preacher. He is a lot of fun to listen to. He is also a very smart and gifted preacher. He has read the Bible one hundred eleven times! He and his wife, JoEllen, travel all over the country each year.
 We did not get to go and listen this week because Addison had surgery this week. We are sticking close to home for about a week. Thankfully our church records all of the sermons so we have been able to listen in at home. Such a blessing! You can listen to them here if you would like. I know I never walk away from one of his sermons without having learned many new things.

2. Addison


 Addison's surgery was this week. Everything went smoothly. The incision is a bit bigger than the Dr had described. They were also in the operating room twice as long as they said it normally takes. The Dr said everything went fine though. Now we wait for things to heal, and for test results. Those should be in next week.
She has been a trooper through all of this. She was also rather funny to talk to post surgery. Boys are grouchy and mean after being put under, but girls are sweet and loving. She kept telling everyone how much she loved them and was so thankful for everything. On the way home she even thanked me for being such a safe driver. She's a cutie pie.
 We told her she could have any meal she wanted post surgery. She chose Arby's.
Clearly her procedure did not slow her down too much. Plus, look at the size of this curly fry!



 3. It's a good thing we homeschool!

 The last few weeks has served as a reminder as to why I am thankful we homeschool.  We

had a whole lot of craziness going on the last few weeks. Between birthdays, camping, Dr. appointments, a stomach bug that went through the house and many other things...we didn't always get a lot of school done.(Or Laundry, or cleaning. We ate out a lot more than we normally would. Hey, we do real life here on this blog.)  

You know what? That is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. You can take a break if you need it. You always catch up in the future. We actually had a scheduled week off in there somewhere, that helped. This week we are headed back in the right direction. I despise being behind, but also know that it is part of life.
So, those of you who are stressing about being behind or concern about starting to homeschool, because you are afraid things will get crazy, or you will get off track. Just do it.
 Life gets crazy, we get off track, from where we think we should be. What if you are right where you should be? It is all in God's timing. We are right where we are supposed to be.


4. All the love


 We moved into the tiny house in September 2014. Between renovating the house and having a baby, we didn't get out into the community to meet many people until 2015 or 2016. It took us a while to find our village.
I have to say that I have never been as thankful for our village, as I have been the last couple of weeks. Everyone has been so kind and helpful. Our pastor showed up at the surgery center. Friends and family sent gifts for Addison, lots of messages, calls and texts. A few people even brought food. One friend brought cookies and even helped with some school. Another friend picked up the oldest two and took them to their scheduled activities this week. Including co-op. That friend deserves a medal. Speaking of co-op. That is one heck of a group of ladies!
Between our church family, real family, friends and homeschool family/friends we have really felt the love lately.

Thank you all for all that you do! We love you!




5. Because he loves me, and wants me to be not crazy.


  Since we were sticking close to homes this week. I avoided store trips as much as possible. Since we shopped for a whole month at the beginning of September, it wasn't too big of a deal. We mainly just had to pop into the store for milk, eggs and of course we would get some produce from the farmers market.
  I asked Dustin to stop into the pharmacy for some milk and bandages for Addison. He brought the milk and bandages. He also surprised me with this. He said it made him think of me. Awe. He's a keeper.
He also added that I had had a hard week and figured I needed it. He knows me well!






6. There's a fine line between soap and dessert

 A wonderful mother at co-op, makes soap. It smells amazing, leaves your skin so soft and it is organic. She gave one to each of the mothers who had her children in a class. I grabbed a honey oatmeal. It is amazing. I was planning to message her and order some more. Then I had the thought of  'I wonder how hard it would be to make our own.' off to Pinterest I went!

 I did a lot of researching and reading. The basics don't sound too hard. I fully intend to give it a try in the near future. For now I will be placing an order with the other Mom. Clearly she has it figured out. She has at least 7 different types that she makes.

 By the time I was done researching basic soap making, I ended up back on Pinterest. It was getting pretty late into the evening. Then all of the really fancy soaps started popping up. I was having to check the actually descriptions to be sure it was soap and not a dessert.
Seriously, there is a fine line between soap and dessert. Look at these things!

 

After I started craving a cup of coffee and a slice of pumpkin pie...I figured it was time to walk away from Pinterest for the night.

Then I fell into the homemade make up rabbit hole. That's a story for another day. 

7. Things we made this week.

  Since we had to stick close to home this week. It gave me the chance to get some actual cooking done. We had Chili, Sausage Stuffed Peppers, and homemade pizza.

We also had some flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and there is also a big pot of apple butter in the works.

What was in your kitchen this week?

Hope you had a great week!

Blessings,

~Lyndsay