JILL’S BLOG

Summer days are gone again

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:49:34 -0400

Wow! I can’t believe how the summer got away from me. My last blog was Mother’s Day! How sad!! We had a great summer. It was pretty low key so that was nice. When we finished the school year in May, my goal was to tackle each room of the house to deep clean and organize each one. Well, I spent June doing just that. I had the house emaculate by the end of the month when Jon and I went to Boston for our 15th anniversary. But somehow during the time period between then and now, things kind of reverted right back to where they were before. So now, here we are, starting the school year with the same mess that we ended with!! So frustrating. Oh well, I guess I have the satisfaction of knowing it was nice at one point!!

So here we go, another school year. For the first time we schooled some through the summer. That was nice to get ahead a little for this year. Since we did that, I feel like I can take off from Thanksgiving to New Year’s with the little ones. I’m planning to do some sort of Advent unit with them. I’ve always wanted to, but it has never happened. I’ll let you know if it transpires! We’ve been doing “full” school for almost 2 weeks now, and so far it’s been great. I think I’ve learned a couple of things over the last few years--don’t try to get everything perfect before you start, don’t expect the house to be neat and tidy, don’t feel badly about not getting to every little thing, know that the most important thing is to start every day with God’s Word and prayer and if that’s all you do, be happy with it!! :)

Mother’s Day

Sun, 10 May 2009 22:08:34 -0400

Just really wanted to post a Mother’s Day picture! The one below would be a lot better if Cama-Jane had her legs closed! :)

Chicagoland

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:38:06 -0400

This weekend Jon and I made a quick trip to Chicago for his cousins’ wedding. We took Breck and Cama-Jane with us as well. Breck, because it was his birthday on Friday, and we didn’t want to leave him on his birthday. And Cama-Jane because she was a free ticket on the plane....and if we were already taking one, we might as well take another that we wouldn’t have to find a place to stay!! :) The other three stayed in Naples with friends. They had a great time here, and we had a great time there! Navy Pier was the ultimate destination for Breck--to ride the huge ferris wheel. It seemed as though we’d never get there, though. The plan had been to get to Chicago at 10:30 am on Friday and have the entire day to do “Chicago stuff.” Well, we missed our plane out of Naples by seconds--literally, they were pulling the walkway away as we ran up to the gate! The lines were so long, Breck had to go potty, security, etc..... it wasn’t meant to be! So our plane then had a layover in Atlanta so we didn’t make it to Chicago until 4 pm!! Then we had to head to the Rehearsal Dinner. I wanted to skip it, but we found out that they were having a cake for Breck’s birthday so we figured we couldn’t really do that! :)

The wedding was nice (although I missed most of it because I had to leave with Cama-Jane.) Then we headed to the reception. After a couple of hours there we tried Chicago again. Well, it was supposed to be 80 degrees but by the time we got out of our car downtown around 4:30, it was rainy and 43 degrees!!! That’s dang cold for this southern girl!! We did have jackets, but it was cold! We couldn’t figure out why anyone lives in a place that’s 43 degrees the last weekend in April!! So no Navy Pier that day.....

Sunday, last chance. Our plane didn’t leave until 6 pm, but we were determined to be there by 4! So we left our hotel around 9:30 am to head in to the city. It rained the whole way in and was pouring when we parked at Navy Pier. The ferris wheel was closed, and I was beginning to think that this wasn’t going to happen. We went to the Children’s Museum there (which was GREAT by the way) and by the time we were done there, the skies had cleared!! Yay, God! :) We went out and rode the rides. He had a great time, and had no clue that anything could have been better! :)

Ft. Wilderness

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:04:43 -0400

We took a much needed four day getaway to Ft. Wilderness!! We took advantage of a good friend’s offer on the use of their camper and off we went. We had a great time! We didn’t do any Disney parks--just hung out together.... which is exactly what we needed to do! Four days uninterrupted with Daddy was really exciting! I wish we could do it again already! :) We had no TV (although the kids did busy themselves with my iphone when they were bored) so that was great! The boys played lots of football, we swam at the pool, went to the Chip n Dale campfire and watched a late night “drive in” size movie, rode around on the monorail around Disney :), cooked out hamburgers and then pancakes for breakfast, played board games at night and then visited Downtown Disney the last night. It was so fun! We can’t wait to go back!

Measuring up

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:51:13 -0400

Do you ever feel like you just don’t measure up to everyone’s expectations of you? Sometimes I just want to stay locked up in my house and never come out because I don’t measure up to all those other amazing home schoolers or super moms or profound bloggers or perfect Christians. I know that none of those are really real--that no one is perfect, but sometimes it sure feels that way! It’s really hard not to feel inferior to my friends who are reading (and discussing) all the right, theologically minded books that are supposed to give us an idea or prepare us for the end times--when I really want to stick my head in the sand and say “don’t tell me anymore!!” Hmmm, that makes me a really mature Christian, right? Or when I read wonderfully written, philosophical sounding blogs that conjure up just the right amount of hostility toward this unjust world and make you want to do something about it--and then I wonder why mine can never sound that good. And then I’ll see how some other amazing home school super mom seems to always have a perfect plan for the day and her kids seem to float happily through without ever a complaint. Or even the mom who is totally spontaneous and spur of the moment has her kids outside enjoying the fresh air, doing art projects and all happy about it. I can’t even get my oldest child to use a pencil!!! Literally--the child HATES to put a pencil to paper. He types everything! And all my creativity has flown out the door with the dirty diapers! These days it’s just “finish this worksheet and do your handwriting and then out the door to play!” Then there comes the healthy part of it all!! In a perfect world, I would LOVE to eat healthy, cook healthy, make yummy healthy food for my family all the time--but that’s just not how it usually ends up! Lately it’s been more about money than anything. I don’t have the money to buy lots of organic like I used to. And then I don’t have the time to cook wonderful, well-rounded meals full of different colored veggies and low fat proteins. I certainly don’t have the money to spend on great supplements that I know my kids (and Jon and I) really need. I’d love to sit and play with or read to my children during the day, but I’m always trying to keep something cleaned up. I don’t even know why I really try because at the end of the day, you can’t really tell anyway! Except for the fact that if I didn’t do it--it would be 100 times worse! There’s always a diaper to change, a mouth to feed, an animal to clean up after, a meal to make, a bottom to wipe, a spill to dry up, a fight to referee, an attitude to “change”, etc. etc. Talk about inadequacies.....my life is fraught with them! And people look at me and think I have it all together. They think because I have five kids and get places on time that I must be doing something right. Little do they know that I am yelling at my kids in the car not 5 minutes before we get there! My kids stand up in church and recite scripture or know the answers in Sunday School so people think I must be teaching them the right things.

Oh, and then there’s just a whole other dimension--being a wife! How hard is it to keep your husband’s undershirts and socks clean? And yet my husband seems to have to ask me for them once a week! He’s not a needy guy (thank the Lord or I’d probably be looking for another one!!) You’d think that I could do okay just to fulfill one person’s needs! But I can’t even measure up to that!

I don’t feel any better now after writing all of this. I don’t feel better since I got it all “off my chest.” I don’t feel anymore loved or forgiven--even though I know that I am. I know that my Jesus loves me in spite of all of this. I know that He called me to be His and chose me to be His child even when He knew that this is the way I would turn out! I’m a totally screwed up mess of a mom! I love my children and husband beyond words, but I can’t be what they need me to be. It’s a good thing they have Jesus too!

Awards

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:29:51 -0400

We had the awards banquet today for 4-H. Trand wasn’t feeling too hot so he didn’t go, but Liza-Hill wanted to go and claim her prize! She won Best of Breed for her Holland Lop. She was very proud and excited to get that trophy. I know that are going to want to enter lots more animals next year to get lots more trophies! :) But they love 4-H and have such a great time, and it’s so good for them!