Novemberness

Oh my goodness! Life has been the roller coaster around here. Hubby finishes his masters of accounting next month and as of Monday morning (the 15th) he still had no job prospects on the horizon. We've been through half a dozen interviews and a couple of second interviews (I say "we," actually just my hubby has been through them. I just feel like I go through them with him). We had visions of being homeless and thumbing rides through the city looking for employment. Actually, we knew that God has been so faithful with us so far and He will continue to be so the rest of our lives. We did wish that His answers would come sooner rather than later, thank you very much. We had been sort of planning on having to move out of our lovely small town because of the lack in good accounting jobs. At the same time, we were praying, along with a lot of friends, that we wouldn't have to move. We are so invested in our church and our girlies' only friends are at church; so we really didn't want to leave that. I was going through mourning at the thought of leaving the beach. I always say that God sees our little (or big) lists of desires and smiles. Monday morning we got a call from a local firm offering hubby a job! If I knew I could get my soft body to do a cartwheel, I would have done it Monday. We started calling our friends and letting them know that he got the job and everyone rejoiced with us. Anyone out there who is going through job loss and job search, I have the utmost empathy for you. We have so been through that! God is so wonderful to reach down and give us the best thing for us in His wisdom. Yay!

Well, it's November and we are thinking about food all month. Aren't you? We decided we just didn't have the money to drive the 7 hours up to be with family. Have you noticed how much gas costs? Plus, hubby has all those end of the degree projects to finish and will have his hands fused to the computer until December 7th. oh joy. So we are happily going to celebrate the day of huge food with our really good friends here. My MIL (mother in law) is going to go with us. She is bringing lemon and pecan pies.....mmmmm. I am hung between pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin cream pie..........Perhaps I'll need to make a trial run of each? My friend and I have coordinated a complexity of dishes amounting to an enormous menu. I suppose if we play it right we shall have meals for a week afterward!

I have not been sewing lately. I'm in a sewer's funk. It could have something to do with not selling much in more than 2 months. My girls want me to make a bunch of clothes for their 18" dolls. I thought those would be easy. Wrong. They take as much time as regular clothes! Didn't see that coming. It could just be that I take so long embellishing them that it seems like a long time. Oh well, they would be good Christmas presents.

Blessings and a wonderful Thanksgiving to whoever reads this!

Sep-Timber!

So, here I am blogging again. Yes, I know, it's a miracle. It's a gloomy, extremely rainy day; so what else am I going to do?

What is going on with us? Thanks for asking! Goodness, I cannot believe how busy we are. My dear hubby is in the final stretch of his masters of accounting. He graduates in December. I am so very proud of my nerdy man! He does not clean throw up, but man can he do calculus! Anyway, he also took the first part of the CPA exam the end of August and we are still waiting on the results. tap, tap, tap. He is also looking persistently for a job with a CPA that will help him to get licensing. Quite the process for a bunch of number crunchers! We are praying for a whopper of a job that will enable us to eradicate debt and catch up on life.

I am still babysitting. "My" baby is now 3 months old and at the huge toothless smile stage. cutie. I watch her 5 days a week. I'm getting a taste of having 4 children and I have to say I'm quite thankful I stopped at 3. Love babies! Somebody else's babies! I have not done much sewing lately. Juggling the baby and my house has taken center stage. I am working on a quilt for my oldest daughter. It's a funky mix of Sunbonnet Sue and horses. I see your mind racing already. I wanted to put her loves in there! Another project I'm working on is, drum roll please, a compilation of stories from my years in Bolivia. Life was other worldly there and I want to share that. I also want my kids to have something of me from an adventurous time in my life. I also teach a Sunday School class at church. We are studying the Parables right now. I love to throw myself into it and find angles that are not normally explored in these overdone stories.

The girls are on their summer vacation right now. We are taking this month off from school. They quite happy about that. You would think they were teenagers already as much as they sleep! That shall come to a grinding halt in October. Rude awakening will take on new meaning!

Let me say I appreciate anyone who is kind enough to wade through my blog! So, feel appreciated today!

August in the making

As I have always said, I'm really a random blogger. I have an extremely busy, yet boring mommy life. As of this week, my life has gotten busier! I am now caring for a nearly 2 month old baby girl on week days. She is precious and fits into our already girl-filled home. I am readjusting to regular feedings, diapers, spit up, and being a warm body on an ouchy tummy. As jobs go, it is awesome!

We are on the home stretch of school for the year....which year, I'm not sure. My girls have been such troopers to try and catch up to North American school schedule. I think we will take September off and have an October launch for school again. Shhhh, don't tell my girls! They are ready to have a break!

Emotionally, I've been on such a roller coaster with my hubby this summer. He will be graduating from A&M Corpus Christi in December. We had thought he would be jobless for the fall, but at the last moment, our God came through and his current job was extended through December. After December begins our great unknown. He will need an excellent job to pay off student loans, catch us up on life, and prepare for the future. In case you haven't noticed we are in a recession.... We are praying for the exact, precise, God's best job to open up (and hopefully before we go crazy wondering). Anyway, I love being the supportive wife, training, caring mother and all that, but I'm wondering exactly when and where is my spa day????

Nearly July

Oh my goodness, this has been a humdinger (not sure how to spell that properly) of a month. We are still working away at homeschool. Actually, my girls are working away at school and I am cracking the whip (not really). We have been enjoying the beach while there is still clean water out there. We are holding our breaths hoping the oil does not come here. From the 14th through the 18th we had VBS at our church. I was naive enough to be talked into being outside games coordinator. We had almost 700 kids this year! I got them in 4 shifts and had to run 6 different games; at the same time making sure each small group is at the proper game. Yes, its was insane. I was so exhausted by the end and thought I would be permanently stuck saying, "The drinking water is for your mouth!" It was so hot out there I let the kids have a water balloon war the last day. The next week (which we have just finished) my 2 oldest girls were attending another VBS across town. So, I became Mom's Taxi Service. Next week will be an art camp and then we are done! Yeah!

I have not done much sewing. Hmm, wonder why? I am still so full of ideas. Right now I'm making some stuff for my sweet girlies. They watch so much of what I make go into the closet and then the mail. I came upon a fantastic sale at JoAnn's and purchased the patterns my girls picked out for 1.99 each. So I am making them outfits by their design. Lot's of fun! I'm hoping after next week to move into full gear and get some more things in my shop.

Downhill

Well, we made it through our crazy week. My 9 year old got the dream birthday party of roller skating. She told me it was "the best party in the whole world." I'm so happy she feels that way since there were only 2 families there other than us. I made profiteroles instead of cake. My girlie is a strange one and doesn't like cake or chocolate. Actually, there are a lot of things she doesn't like, but that's another subject. She wanted a cowboy party so that her friends that are boys would feel comfortable. Sweet, huh? My birthday, the following day, I thought would be uneventful. However, my sweet hubby took us out to Padre Island to a small Italian restaurant. It was amazing! I'm a sucker for Italian anyway; especially something that tastes like it came on a cloud from Rome. They gave me a real cannoli with a candle in it. (speaking of clouds)

Now we begin a new phase! My dear hubby has short, but strong, waves of classes, studying, exams, etc. ahead of him this summer and fall. We thank the Lord he has a job for the summer. He is going to begin taking the CPA exam----major! So, my role more than ever is the supporting wife. I will probably quit my retail job (yay!) so I can be home and keep everything going smoothly. Did I say smoothly? Um, how about more or less stable. I have already begun to sew again and a dear friend gave me a whole bunch of fabric. I hope to get my 2 shops filled up again.

I need some motivation to exercise more! The bouncy mommy belly must go! (as I go burn some more calories mopping the tile floors in my house)

I just MAY get through this month

May has begun with a bang! I am always amazed at how busy my life has actually become. It is with reason that this month recognizes mothers! I know a lot of moms out there have end-of-the-school-year dashes. Finish this project, go to that recital, those games, that dr., etc. We are just over half-way in our school year. Which is quite amazing since we just started in February. My girlies have been so faithful to get up and do lots of work everyday. Coming up is our blitz week: 10th, my oldest's 9nth birthday, 11th, my birthday, 13th, anniversary. (I forgot mother's day, but that isn't a huge thing in our house yet) (insert droopy lower lip here).

I have been sewing again! I have once again been flooded in the brain with ideas and not enough time. I wake up at night and think, "Oh my goodness! that would be so cute!" But alas, there are not enough hours in the day to complete my brain projects. I still work Friday through Sunday; so that leaves me only 3 days to sew. Today I made a cute pink purse that I have had in the brain for a while. Of course, the point of the great idea is to make some money to pay for those shoes for feet that seem to grow overnight!

We are trying to be on a diet. We eat pretty healthy for the most part, but we are in a battle against the middle age rise of the nasty foe cholesterol. Both hubby and I have watched our numbers go up and we are in shock; being that we still think we are very young. So we are drinking nasty green stuff, eating lots of salad, and veggies in every imaginable way. I have a mean bean patty recipe. I will not give up taste! I loathe the thought of cardboard food. So I sit and watch the food channel and try to taste vicariously through the stars who close their eyes and utter accolades. Hm, just talking of this makes me hungry.

Ok, going to fix a glass of green tea. Want some?

I must be the once every 3 months blogger

Goodness, life has not slowed one bit since we moved. I did make one purse for my shop last month and am working on one right now. I continue my retail job; which I go to from Thursday through Sunday evenings. I am so tired of that. I am a definite stay at home type. I love cooking and cleaning for my family, and most importantly being with my family. My three year old still hates it when I leave for work. That upsets me. But, here we are. Hubby will finish his masters of accounting in December (woohoo! so proud of him), but until then we do what we can to make ends meet. This economy is just so fun, right?

So, what's been going on with us? We are in hyper-drive with homeschooling. We are on a South American schedule of February to November, but would like to switch to North American schedule. So, We are doing our whole year in less than 6 months. The girls are tired, but troopers! I know they want summers off like everybody else. We were thinking of putting them in public school for the sports programs and social aspects, but found out that the school in our area was pretty bad. So, we nixed that idea. We will just be looking for sports and dance and such that they can be involved in while still homeschooling.

I am so happy that beach weather is returning! We actually live closer to the beach since we moved. I can hear it calling me! Ok, maybe that was just the seagulls in the dumpster, but I will be happy to start our weekly trips to the beach again.

Hubby and I are both teaching Sunday school classes at church; which makes us a little scattered on Sundays. I facilitate a class for adults that is an open forum type study. Hubby teaches a class on the book of Galatians (6 week class). We eventually find each other and go to worship together. Then most Sundays I have to work after lunch, bummer. I miss nice lazy Sunday afternoons and naps, I really miss naps.

So that's basically our lives. I promise to blog sooner about something more interesting!