Thoughts entering the New Year...

What a crazy month or so!  Just as I was beginning to feel like myself again and Christmas Day came, our family got hit hard with a nasty stomach virus.  If it wasn't happening to me, I don't think I could believe it! First my daughter, then my hubby, then myself got it, with me taking it the worst.  I think my already weakened immune system couldn't fight it quite as well, even though my hubby had it pretty bad himself.  Thankfully he was feeling better by the time I was feeling terrible.  And it was terrible.  Today is the first day that I've seen a glimpse of my old self!  Praise the Lord!  The boys are starting to get it, too, but it doesn't seem to be as intense. I'm so thankful that they are able to fight it off a little better.

Today was also the day that I had my one year check up with my endocrinologist concerning my thyroid cancer.  Although we have to wait for some of the blood work to come back, he believes that everything is going really well and we will hopefully get my medicine better regulated.  I'm thankful for that!  It's been a roller coaster trying to figure out what dosage will work for me.  I've gone from insomnia and almost blacking out to feeling sluggish.  I'm so ready to feel "normal" again.

And as the New Year is right around the corner, I'm also thinking of all of those resolutions I want to make.  Every year I say I want to lose weight.  There have been years that I've succeeded in that goal.  I'd like for 2014 to be one of them.  It'll require a lot of discipline on my part...cause let's face it...my body is definitely not what it used to be!  I'm going to be fighting a lot more issues this time around.  I'm also still recovering some from my surgery and sicknesses, so it may take a while to be 100%.  And I also have to face the fact that I have to exercise.  It's one of those "duh" things, but I think somewhere in the back of my mind I think that I can lose weight if I just eat right.  Not going to happen, I don't think.  I've got to do more physical activity.  I also want to get my kids more physically active.  Lots to do on that front.  But it's what we need to do to be healthy.

I have so many other things I want to do on the homefront, too.  I want to declutter and organize our home better.  That job alone will probably take me all year!  lol  Pinterest has a lot of great ideas so I want to try and look at some of those, but basic decluttering will commence very soon!  Getting rid of old toys, appliances I don't use, etc.  I'm actually kind of excited about this.  I hope that excitement lasts....

Personally, I want to make it a priority to study God's Word more.  Strength from the Lord is what is going to get me through and give me the ability to accomplish all these other goals I have.  Because I know me...and I know I'm going to burn out at some point.  I'm going to be tired and won't want to wake up before the kids do and exercise.  I won't feel like going through another closet or toy box.  I've got to have God's Word hidden in my heart and mind to help me press on.

I also want to minister to others.  I want to pray for people in my neighborhood and community more.  I want to love others the way Christ loved...and not be afraid of what people will think when I do it.  Be bold. Be authentic. Nothing rehearsed, just Christ coming through.

And homeschooling.  Lots of goals there.  I just really want to have fun with my kids, though.  That's always been my philosophy when I taught in schools and it's how I feel while I've been teaching my own kids: you can learn and have fun doing it.  My children are such a joy to me and I want to invest all I can into them while I have the chance. And make lots of fun memories.  Because I can already tell..the time is going by fast.  I can't believe my little girl is 6 already and she's saying funny, growny-sounding things.  Just the other day she used air quotes while she told me something...totally cracked me up!  I'm thinking...where did she learn that?!  Today in the car she told me that she told her friend something and her friend "gasped".  She says funny things like that all of the time...and she's so fun to just hang out with.  Love my girl.  My boys are getting so big, too, and one of their favorite things is Daddy wrestling time.  I love seeing my guys roll around and play with each other.

So...2014...I have the feeling that it'll have challenges of its own.  2012 had some wonderful, miraculous things and some very hard things.  2013 has been good, but these past couple of months have produced some physical challenges.  God has had his hand on us and will continue.  With all of these goals I have I know first and foremost I've just got to give it up to Him...He's got this!

God bless~

Slowly getting back in the groove (some week 12 resources, a review video, and Kindle books!)

After my last post, I think the next day or so I ended up in the hospital again for a few days.  Not expected, but I went into the doctor with some unexplained pain and dehydration, so back to the third floor of the Med Center I went.  I was pretty overwhelmed with it all, but thankfully I'm back home and have been doing pretty well for a little over a week now.  I'm still sore, get tired easily and there are days when I just don't feel that great.  But after a check up last week the doctor felt that I was doing better and should be right on track by the 6 week post-surgery mark.  I never would've imagined all of this happening, but like I said before, God is in control.

In the time that I've been home, I've been able to get some Christmas gifts online and make a few things.  I'm really excited about the story stones that I was able to paint for the kiddos one night.  They actually discovered them that morning before I had a chance to put them away, but I'm hoping the "out of sight, out of mind" principle will take effect! : )

One thing I got for the kids that I found on Amazon with the whole "Liberty Kids" series.  I am really excited because the kids seem to like them and they have some good history lessons.  I also found them for about $5.99...so I'm very excited about the price! : )  I also saw a few The Magic School Bus dvds for $5...I thought that was a great deal. I just wish that whole series would go on sale for $5.99...my kiddos LOVE The Magic School Bus!

This week, after quite a hiatus, I am trying to finish up our school time before Christmas.  We never did get to do week 12, so I'm going back and trying to do it.  The kids have been so great.  I've been really impressed with their attitudes and attentiveness.  Here are a few things I've done so far this week...not nearly the amount of resources I usually put up but I thought they were helpful.

History (week 12)
 I liked this Napolean coloring sheet.  Interesting facts!

We watched this video about Napoleon...I thought it was pretty good.


I thought this was also a good video:


History review: 
I'm not sure if I've posted this video before, but I let the kids watch it today for a history sentence review.  I thought it was great!
I couldn't embed it, but you can find it here.

Geography:
I still printed out our Geography Cards from the blog "And Here We Go!"  She has also put together cards for the next half of the year!  Yay!
She has also done some songs to go with them.  We love those, too.

Science:
*Here's an interesting page about the Mercury space mission and astronauts...with pictures.
*Space shuttle launch:



*A graphic showing every manned American space mission
*Another graphic about John Glenn's space missions

I'd love to post more, but I think I'm about at my limit : ).  I hope this is helpful and that all of you have a wonderful Christmas!

OH...by the way...there are some GREAT deals on some wonderful Christian fiction right now for Kindle/Nook.  All for a limited time, so grab them while you can!

Some freebies:
To Love Anew and The Heart of Thornton Creek...Bonnie Leon
Daughter of Twin Oaks....Lauraine Snelling
A Daughter's Inheritance and Shadows of the Canyon...Tracie Peterson
The Lawman Claims His Bride....Renee Ryan
Somewhere to Belong....Judith Miller
An Unexpected Widow...Carre White
Angels Watching Over Me...Michael Phillips
Candle in the Darkness...Lynn Austin
Paradise Valley...Dale Cramer
The Meeting Place...Jeanette Oke
Understanding the Times...Ken Hamm (nonfiction...great resource for Biblical view of creation)

Books for a steal!  $1.99
Author Sarah Ladd is great about posting deals for Kindle and Nook on her facebook page.  I've gotten several of these wonderful books at a GREAT price!  Most of these only go on sale for short time.
*Right now ALL of Melanie Dickerson's books are on sale...including her most recent release, A Captive Maiden (a Cinderella retelling)....her books are SO GOOD!!
*The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen
*The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah Ladd
*The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden
*Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauck (SO excited to see this one on sale!!  Yippee!)
*Monday's Child and Tuesday's Child by Linda Chaikin (I really enjoyed this whole series)

Those are just a few I've seen lately!  Hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

Until further notice....

Hey friends...
Just wanted to give a brief update and say...until further notice I probably won't be blogging too much due to an illness. I'm hoping that means only another week or two of recuperating and I'll start feeling somewhat back to normal.  Just to give you a little background...

I had surgery on November 18th.  This was planned, not due to an emergency or anything, so I went into it knowing I would have to recuperate for a few weeks and hoped by Christmas...really before that...I would feel back to normal.  The week after surgery was kind of a blur.  I was taking pain meds, and benedryl to counteract my reactions to those pain meds, and eventually kind of started feeling better.  A week and a day post surgery I went for a follow up at my doctor's office and while I was there I suddenly started feeling terrible.  I was lethargic, flushed, and even my doctor was a little stumped as to what was going on.  I hung out at his office for a while, they brought me drinks and something to snack on, and eventually I felt well enough to leave.  But he wanted me to stay in town (my doctor is an hour away from us) and come back the next day.  I did (thankfully my parents live in town) and that night I started running a low grade fever.  The next day I went back, felt worse, but my fever stayed low grade.  My doctor, and us, thought because everything else seemed ok and my fever wasn't going too high that I had probably gotten the fever/virus that my son had the weekend before.  Made sense.  But I felt terrible.  We ended up just staying another night at my parents because the next day was Thanksgiving and we were planning to come to town anyway.  I continued to run a low grade fever off an on, but had times where I felt a little better.  Thanksgiving Day I felt well enough to eat a good lunch and actually thought I was starting to get over it.  By that afternoon, I was assaulted with a round of terrible chills that lasted a couple of hours and my fever, for the first time, rose to 102.

The doctor recommended that we go to the ER.  After some blood work, a chest x-ray, and a CT scan, it was determined that I had a post-surgical infection.  My white blood cell count was very high and I didn't feel well at all.  I was admitted and ended up staying in the hospital for 3 nights, pumped with antibiotics and fluids.  They've gotten me well enough to go home, but I'm still not close to 100 %. I'm on a couple of antibiotics here at home and thankfully friends and family are helping us take care of the kids while my husband goes back to work and I am recuperating.  I never would've expected this to happen, but I can see several ways that God's hand was in the situation.  I also had some great conversations with some of my nurses and saw just how much I like the group of doctors that I go to.  I'm very thankful for them and how much they checked on me.

So....I need to recuperate.  I can't express how hard it's been not to try and do several things I wanted to do this time of year.  Our Christmas tree isn't even up yet : (.  I hope that'll happen soon!  I wanted to do something for advent, but I don't know if it's going to happen.  No black Friday shopping or even Cyber Monday shopping.  I'm learning that I have to let go of some things in order to help myself get better.  That's hard.  I don't know if it's a mom thing, a woman thing, or just a me thing to give up the control.  Even in the struggles, God teaches us!

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and please keep me and my family in your prayers. During this time my grandfather has also been struggling with some serious health issues and this may be our last Christmas with him.  We don't know that for sure, but it's a definite possibility.  My Dad is also having knee replacement surgery on Wednesday of this week, so we need your prayers in that.  It can all seem very overwhelming.  I've found, however, that when life seems overwhelming, I cling to Christ all the more.  I am desperate for Him.  He has never failed.  Thank you for your prayers and God bless!