Adventures in La La Land

I'm not emotionally ready to write this post. Haha. My baby is two years old, which unofficially makes him a toddler instead of a baby. Levi brings so much love and laughter into our lives. He still has the best dimples and the sweetest giggle. His doctor appointment is next week so I don't have the official stats, but he's definitely still a shrimp. He's finally started to outgrow his 12 month pants. He can wear 12 month t-shirts but not long-sleeved shirts. I just got him a whole bunch of 2T summer clothes, so hopefully he'll be big enough for them by then! I just went back and read the girls' 2 year updates and was astounded at how different they were than Levi. Lena was speaking in full sentences (paragraphs!) by this age, could identify colors, count to 11, and sing the alphabet. Lucy was slower to speak, but still had sentences, could count and identify colors, even knew some letters at this age! Ha! The only time Levi speaks a sentence is when he ad...

1. I have very little to write about this week because I spent the past 7 days agonizing over whether or not to homeschool. I've been researching like crazy, Pinteresting like crazy, planning like crazy. And . . . drum roll please . . . We're jumping in with both feet and becoming homeschoolers!! So many disclaimers: This is not an indictment on the girls' school. We love their school. I'm somewhat devastated to pull them out of it. I adore Lena's teacher and she'd have her again next year if not for this decision. That makes me really sad. But the cost has become so out of our reach. We need to take a couple years to save and re-assess. Which leads to the next disclaimer: I make no promises or declarations that this is a permanent decision. I might hate it. My kids might hate it. It might be a train wreck. I might have to be committed by November. So please don't laugh in my face when we enroll them back in school in December. Lol. Our ultimate goal...

1. So the unthinkable has happened. I'm warming up to the idea of homeschool. In fact, I'm kind of leaning toward it. I started looking at curricula and co-ops and even a membership to the Y. And it all started to sound less crazy and more do-able. I'd likely use My Father's World curriculum, because my friend Kelly uses that with her girls and loves it. Plus her girls are in the exact same grades as my girls so we could really feed off each other and work together. It's not cheap, but when I added it all up, it was almost exactly 10% of what we'd pay for Christian school. So maybe cheap is relative . . . And the idea of getting a Y membership relieves some of my anxiety about being stuck at home with my kids all day every day. They have free childcare (with a membership), so I can always drop the kids off and go sit on a stationary bike reading a book. Or I could even do a yoga class or something. I've also been toying with the idea of swim lessons for L...

1. Thanks for all your input on my last post about school choices. I change my mind every 5 minutes. Sometimes I think, "For real. 5 years with my parents. Our priority has to be getting out of here and letting them have their house back." Minutes later, Levi is clinging to my leg crying and the girls are screaming at each other and I think, "I can NOT homeschool them. They have to go to school. So be it if we have to stay with my parents longer." Circle back to the girls sitting at the table playing with beads and listening to Odyssey and I think, "Well maybe if we have a really good schedule and lots of outings I can do it. Look at them listening to Odyssey so intently. Think of all the good audio books we could listen to at home . . ." So, obviously, we're no closer to making a decision, but I didn't really expect anyone could make it for us. We'll continue to pray and see what happens . . . 2. I read a few books this week: Not by Sight ...

It's that time of year again: the girls' school just came out with next year's tuition costs . . . and they're astronomical as usual. To send both of the girls (Lena will only go 3 full days) will cost us literally 1/3 of our yearly income. Is it fiscally irresponsible to spend 1/3 of our income on our children's education? Is it time to be done with Christian school? Does that mean I have to homeschool?? Cue the panic. Cue the audience participation. Really, it comes down to this: Thanks to our tax refund, we technically can  afford to pay tuition, but that obliterates any hope of moving out of my parents' house this year. This March will be 5 years of mooching off my parents' generosity, and while they haven't said a word or intimated any desire for us to leave in any way, I'm getting weary of taking advantage of them. But even if we do use our tax refund as a down payment on a house, we absolutely cannot afford a house payment and  tuition pay...

1. Justin and I had a glorious weekend away. I drank so much Dr Pepper I'm pretty sure I gained my 5 pounds back. (I didn't weigh myself because I don't really want to know . . .) I watched a lot of HGTV, he did a lot of shopping at Bass Pro, we wandered the mall together, ate good food, and saw The Greatest Showman  (loved it!). It was a much needed break from the sickness dominating this house. 2. Unfortunately, while we were gone, Levi got sicker and sicker. He and I both had a cold, but he spiked a fever Saturday night and was miserable all day on Sunday. My mom could tell his ears were bothering him, so I figured his cold had just made its way to his ears and he needed some antibiotics. (He always gets a fever with his ear infections.) We came home earlier than planned on Sunday night so I could run him to Urgent Care before it closed, but he was sound asleep on my mom when we got home, so I decided to risk it and hope he'd sleep. He actually slept pretty well an...

Affiliate Link Amazon Synopsis: After her husband, Jack, dies in a climbing incident, Shauna has only her five-year-old son and her helicopter charter business to live for. Every day is a struggle to make ends meet and she lives in constant fear of losing even more than she already has. When her business partner is murdered, his final words convince Shauna that she’s in danger too. But where can she turn? Zach Bannister was her husband’s best friend and is the person she blames for his death. She’s barely spoken to him since. But right now he seems her only hope for protecting her son. Zach is only too happy to assuage his guilt over Jack’s death by helping Shauna any way he can. But there are secrets involved dating back to Shauna’s childhood that more than one person would prefer to stay hidden. Colleen Coble is my favorite Christian mystery author. While not all of her books have been successful, this one hits the spot. Multi-layered, suspenseful, and deep, I read it al...