Overwhelmed

Oh man, today has been hard, yesterday was hard too and I am worried that tomorrow does not look too promising!  Being a mommy has been busy business lately.  With sports and school and housework and childcare and more.  At least I think there has been "more", there has to be more that has been going on because when I type out those things they do not seem like much but it definitely seems like much has been going on.  I have been overwhelmed.
What do I want to show my kids about Jesus when we are dealing with the overwhelming times.  I want them to see that He is there in those times, we are not alone, we don't have to be discouraged, we have grace from the One who loves us the most to help us through the not so easy times.  Oh, Jesus, I have not been doing that!  Help me to be an example to my kids, Lord!
Oh and forgive me for the ridiculous amount of run on sentences in this hastily written post! =)

InstaFriday

Here is a little recap of our week in cell phone pictures.

Basketball started last week.  This is Emma after her first game, they won.  John helped coach because our coach was out of town.  He loved it, because of his weird work schedule, he can't commit to coaching so any time he gets to help he loves it.  I missed the game because Emma was the only kid in our house not sick!  Ellie missed her first game.  

Me and my big girl.  I tell you what, pre-teenhood has been hard on us lately, I cherish any moment with her that is peaceful.  I love her so much but she has been giving me a hard time lately.  Poor first child, we do all our learning on her.  She is our guinea pig.  

This is why I rarely attempt to fold laundry while this little one is awake.  She loves to take everything out of the baskets and decorate the room with it.  She also likes to unfold all the laundry that I have already folded.  

I copied this from here for our chalkboard wall in the kitchen, she does it much better!!!

Little Miss has RSV, she is on the mend now but she gave us a bit of a scare.  It is no fun to see your little one so sick!!!  All the little girls have RSV and Olivia has pneumonia, it has been a crazy two weeks.  

Kitty found the boppy.

Due to the girls being sick I have had my hands pretty full with babies, while I do not love that they are sick, I love how cuddly they are when they are sick.  Because our kids are so active, John and I fight over cuddling them when they are sick.

Little Miss started smiling this week.  so precious.

We have been doing quite a few breathing treatments the last week.  Luckily, Livvie can hold it herself, that really helps. 

More instafriday posts here.

Sarah-Jane

Again, it has been a while since I have been here.  Life has been busy and exciting.  We added our fifth baby girl to our family.  Miss Sarah-Jane Eileen was born December 7, 2012.  She was a big girl weighing 9 pounds 12 ounces.  We were so blessed to have my momma and three of my closest friends help us welcome her into the world.

Here is her proud daddy with her just minutes after she was born.

Sleeping on the couch at a few days old.

Sarah-Jane made Christmas extra-special this year.

Me and my baby girl.  I am in love!!

Soccer

Soccer has started.  Well, we started practices a few weeks ago but the games started last weekend.  We missed the first game because we were at my nephew Rob's wedding so this last Saturday was our first game.  I love soccer season, it is busy but I love watching the girls play and they have so much fun.  I also like the time we spend out at the soccer park with our friends.

Here are some pictures from our first game.

I love this beautiful girl.  She is really enjoying soccer this year so far.  She is getting out there and going after the ball this year.  Last year she did a lot of watching the ball but was a little too timid to go after it.  She made two goals this Saturday!

Ellie's favorite position is goalie.  Oh my, I find it very stressful, if I were out there I would cover my head and sink to the ground, too much pressure for my taste! Ellie loves it.  She played left forward the first part of the game and scored one goal.  So exciting.  I am the loud mommy on the side lines yelling for her kiddos.  I only yell good stuff though!  

Special Breakfast

I read a blog called the Homespun Heart and the author is just the most fun mommy.  She is constantly working hard to make special memories with her children and she does a great job of it.  I am not always the most fun mommy.  I can get very caught up in all the stuff that needs to get done in our day and I forget to have fun with my kids.  This morning after reading her blog, I decided to have a special breakfast on the front porch with my kids.  We had apple pancakes and enjoyed the cool morning.  It was fun and I am determined to work harder at creating special memories with my girlies.

Ellie helped me set everything up.

And...She's One!!!!

Sniff sniff, Sophie is one!  No fair!!!  This year has flown by.  We had so much fun celebrating Sophie's first birthday, we had a small party with family and a few close friends.  I do not know if it is the fact that I am pregnant or what but I have been very emotional about this birthday.  I feel like I want to soak up all her baby time while she is still actually the baby and it is going by in a flash.  She is such a sweet girl and so easy to take care of.  She is a great sleeper (now, she did not start out that way), she can entertain herself for a long time  and her smile is seriously like nothing on this earth.  Our whole family is so smitten with her and I think she knows it.
Sophie is not walking yet, I have never had a one year old not walk.  I secretly like it because when babies start walking they seem so less baby like.  She just started standing on her own a little though so I do not think it will be long before she tries to take a step!

Here are a few pictures from her birthday party.

Sophie did not like one of her gifts.  A few days later we tried again and she loved it!

Little sister and Daddy

Not too interested in the cake.

Now, she is interested, yummy!

She loved this gift!!!

We went with a rainbow theme for the little miss.

I so love birthdays and first birthdays are so exciting!!

Not Back to School

I have been having so much fun over on the Not Back to School Blog hop at iHomeschool network.  I decided to participate but as usual I am a little late so I am including my curriculum and school room all in the same post.

Well, it is that time of year again, school time.  I was sooooo done with school last year, I think I was ready for summer around Christmastime.  I am equally as ready for the new school year to start now.  I am ready for routines and excited for what we are going to be learning this year.  Last year I bought a boxed curriculum for the girls thinking it would be easier with the new baby and while I am sure it was easier, it was boring and the girls and I were pretty uninspired all year.  Each day seemed to be just about getting school done and not enjoying it at all.
This year we are starting history at the very beginning-creation.  I am using My Fathers World Creation to the Greeks for history, science and Bible for my second and fifth grader.  We have done it for two days so far and are really enjoying it.
For reading/literature the girls are just going to be reading real books and we will be practicing narration and book reports.  Ellie is starting with Treasure Island and Emma is reading the first Ivy and Bean book.  We will be reading books that pertain more to our history time period along with other good reads as well.  Emma will continue working on her phonics as well, I am actually ordering something for that today, not sure what yet.
For grammar Ellie is using the fifth grade grammar book from Abeka, Emma will be finishing her 2nd grade book (Bob Jones) from last year as we did not do much in it.
Ellie is going to be using Institute for Excellence in Writing this year, I am really excited about this as I have heard it is great for moms too.
For math we are using Teaching Textbooks this year.  It is our first year with this and the girls are a little apprehensive about doing their math on the computer but I am thinking it will be a great help to me as we will have another new baby and I have a three year old and one year old to chase as well!
Ok, so that is our curriculum this year, now for our school room.  I did not change much from last year, I added drawers for our daily work and I think that is going to be a big help organization wise.
We do school in our family room, luckily it is a big enough area to have a large bookcase (the ikea expedite) and table along with our family area.  We do not do school just at the table, we start our day on the floor on the carpet all together and we do a fair amount of reading cozied on the couch.

And for the sake of honesty, our family/ school room is rarely this clean!!!!

You can see read about other great school rooms and curriculum at iHomeschool Network.