Photos at the Greenway

The girls wanted to dress up and have some pictures taken at The Greenway so they got ready and off we went to enjoy some sunshine and snap some shots.  It was fun and we got a few good shots I think. :-)

Children of the World

We had the pleasure of hosting 2 kids and 1 chaperone from the Children of the World Choir. They travel around to churches 10 months out of the year and perform various songs and dances.  They are wonderful!  They come from Uganda, the Phillipines and Nepal.  They live in childrens homes in these countries and most of them have families but their families are unable to take care of them so they send them to the childrens homes.  Each year a group of kids is selected to come to the US and travel around for 10 months staying in host homes and performing at churches, universities, etc.  

A little 8 year old girl from Uganda, Joan, and a 9 year old girl from the Phillipines, Nicole, stayed with us for the weekend.   One of the chaperones, Ednah, also stayed with us. She is from Uganda but attends Liberty University in Virginia.   We had so much fun with them!!  The kids LOVED playing with them and they all had a great time together.  They spoke very good english so it was very easy to communicate.   We prayed for good weather that weekend and boy did we get it!  It was 75 and sunny!  The kids played outside all weekend!  We took them to the Dairy Barn on Saturday for a picnic and then got ice cream and finished off the day at the park.  We were exhausted!  The kids were very sad to see the girls leave on Sunday after church.  Elisabeth cried and cried.  :(   But they are coming to our neighbors church to perform in May so I think we are going to go there and hear them again and see them one last time.   I think their last performances are in June and then they head back to Uganda, Nepal and the Phillipines.  Kind of sad in a way but what a great experience they had and all the people they were able to meet!  Pray for these kids because they might not be going back to the best of situations.  They are just precious. We are going to miss them but will be praying for them continuously.  They really touched our hearts.

You can see pictures of all the kids at http://worldhelp.net/cotw/children/

Here are some pictures from our weekend with Joan, Nicole and Auntie Ednah.

 Playing at the Greenway

 

 Joan's favorite food is brownies!

 

 Picnic time :-)

 

 Auntie Ednah took lots of pictures!

 Nicole

 

 

 Auntie Ednah and Joan

 

 We even took Josie along too.  She was worn out by the time we got home!

 

 Silly Joan

 

 

 Playing in the creek at the Greenway

 

 We ran into another host family that was hosting two of the boys.  They had fun playing in the creek too!

 They loved the horses

 We hate to see them leave!

 

 

We finished off the night watching a movie and eating popcorn :-)

For the love of pretzels

Elisabeth's favorite thing to do when we go to Target is get a soft pretzel and a cherry icee.  She's addicted!

It's a new year....

I'm sure the few people that actually follow my blog and check it every now and then are wondering if I fell off the face of the earth.  Sometimes I feel like I have that's for sure.  Lots and lots going on personally, with the business, with school and let's don't forget the extracurricular activities the kids are involved in.  But I think 2013 is going to be better.  I am in an organizing campaign around our house and it might take me until 2014 to get my ideas actualized but at least I'm heading in the right direction.  Organization makes me feel less stressed and happy.  I always have good intentions of doing things and goodness knows I pin tons of organizational ideas on Pinterest but it seems like life comes at you fast and I always save those ideas for another day.  No more I say!  Already this week I've cleaned out and reorganized the kids bathroom cabinet  (that kind of thing is always good to do when they aren't here because I get to throw much more away when they aren't around! :-), sorted a huge stack of paperwork so it can be filed easily and bought over the door shoe organizers to put in the playroom closet to put all our little art supplies in.  Now everyone can see them and get to them easily.  I'm on a roll people!  Next I'm going to set up a table in the playroom so I can scrapbook and finally get Elisabeth's Lifebook started. The girl is going to be 18 before I ever get it finished!




I have also been reading the book "Cleaning house" by Kay Wills Wyma.  I like it!  I am modifying the plan slightly but basically I am trying to teach my children to not feel like they are entitled.  Entitled to leave their room a complete wreck (which makes mommy go postal), entitled to leave their clothes, dishes and toys whereever they want thinking mommy or daddy will pick them up, entitled to think they can wreck the bathroom and leave it a disgusting mess and think I'll just come and clean it up OR entitled to think the laundry fairy will magically get all the clothes and bring them downstairs, wash them and ever so neatly put them back in their drawers and closets.  Yeah.  Not happening!  I think I owe it to my kids to teach them responsibility and how to do things around the house and make good decisions.  I am not perfect at this by any stretch of the imagination but I realize that one day they will move out and my hope is that we will have taught them some basic life skills on how to survive on their own, make decisions based on priority and save and tithe a portion of their money.  This is no easy task but money does motivate them a bit (most of the time) so they have to work (and have a happy heart while doing it) to keep their monthly allowance of money.  So far it's going well.  I am going to add a new skill in February.  I think it's going to be  how to properly clean a bathroom that will pass mommy's inspection.  Cleaning toilets and all.  That should go over well.  Wish me luck!

Hopefully towards the end of February and into March our skill will be gardening and how to plant and take care of one.  We don't have much space for anything big but I have a space picked out where they can plant some flowers, tomatoes and a few herbs and vegetables.  They will have to help research the plants we want to plant and if they are suited for the soil and sun we have in the garden area, help prepare the area and get it ready for planting, plant everything and keep it alive.  I think it should be fun!  And I'm sure I can find some weeds to pull and flowers to deadhead somewhere in there too.

I've got to get back to organizing......I'll write more soon.......

Fall Horse Show

Ansley participated in her 2nd horse show at the Greenway today.  For being mid-November it was a beautiful day! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and boy was it chilly in the morning but HOT in the afternoon. I am just grateful it wasn't freezing all day because I really don't like to be cold!  We arrived at 8:30 am and didn't get home until 4:30 pm.  Count 'em.  That's 8 hours people. That's a long time to watch horses go around in a circle and keep Miss Elisabeth entertained.  But all in all it wasn't too bad and Elisabeth really didn't have any meltdowns.  I thought that 8 hours in the sun and dust from the horse ring earned all of us a big fat ice cream cone from the Peach Stand on the way home.  It was yummy!  Then we came home, took showers to get the layer of red dust off of us and then we collapsed on the coach and vegged out by watching TV and I even fell asleep!  

Ansley earned 2 ribbons today and rode very well.  I am proud of her and proud that Elisabeth didn't put up too much of a fuss today in order to watch her sister do what she loves to do. :-)  

 Waiting to go in the ring

 Bundled up with a blanket to keep the chill off in the morning.  By the afternoon we were sweating!

 Ansley and Gypsy.......1st place

 Elisabeth made a fort to keep the sun off of her because it was blinding us and very hot.  All you can see is the feet of a VERY bored 7 year old.

 Ansley and Gypsy

 Ansley and Whiskey

 Waiting for the judges to give their verdict....

 Elisabeth is so bored she has resorted to plucking kernels from ears of dried corn to keep herself entertained :)

 Ended the day with a 1st and 5th place ribbon.  Their were alot of people competing in each class this time so these ribbons were well earned and we were happy and grateful to get them. 

Cantering on Gypsy

Halloween

It's always a little tricky when Halloween falls on a weeknight but we managed to trick or treat, help hand out candy, eat some candy and still get in bed by 9 pm. The weather turned out better than we thought it was going to be so all in all it was a fun evening.  It got a little bit chilly as the night went on and the girls wanted to come and help hand out candy so we didn't even trick or treat the whole neighborhood.  But they still managed to get plenty of candy and even got enough to share with their chocolate loving parents!  Yay!

 Pumpkin guts are so slimy!

 My little butterfly

 The Mad Hatter

The candy sorting has begun.....