Reflections of 2007...warning ...long ...bring coffee lol

Well it is finally the end of one year and almost a New Year. This year for us has really been a hectic one. In fact it has not been my favorite year however their has been a few good things to come out of it. I say it has not been my favorite year because it has had a lot of lows in it, a lot of uncertainty. It started off on january 4h when I lost my favorite cousin to the war, shortly after that my husband was laid off quite unexpectedly, then Trix and his seizure and subsequent hospitlization, ( I know I have talked a lot about that this year...please forgive me it really rocked me to the core...I am still trying to get over the nightmares),I felt as if Honey Nut and Lucky Charms kind of got lost in the shuffle of all the panic over Trix and his medical and sensory issues this year as well.I think that is it for the lows. However there have been some really good things as well. Through all of the lows I realized that God was doing a lot of overhaul and work in my life. I noticed quite quickly that when hubs got laid off so unexpectedly that although initially I panicked, I very quickly relaxed and felt a sense of peace while he was searching for work. Normally I would have panicked the entire time, he was out of work for about two months and since he is the major breadwinner that is a long time. I somehow knew everything would work out ok. It did he got a new job at a great company that has been around for awhile. Almost everyone at the company he went to work for has been there for years and when I say that I am talking 10 and above people. That is hard to find these days. It was also a blessing that he was laid off when he was because he normally would have been gone for the day already when Trix needed medical help..I was in a complete panic and just dont' know what i would have done without him there. He is such a strong man. I shudder to think it was a possibility that if he was not home at the time Trix might not be here today and that is an inconceivable thought for any parent including my husband. The company he is with was so impressed with his interview that they came up an insane amount in pay just to hire him on. They love hubs at this company ( I may be a bit partial here but it shows they have great taste)I know he will be here for a long time. God took care of us both financially and emotionally this year. I felt all year long as if he was doing some serious overhauling in my life and my families life as well. For instance Hubs has even started coming to church with us once in awhile. We are talking about a guy who is just not a church guy and I have prayed and prayed and prayed about it. He is coming around...albeight slowly but in the way God is working him too. For me the biggest struggle this year is learning to turn my life completely over to God. It is not easy for me to give up control especially when it comes to my children. I am their Mommy and I have always been a "fixer" by nature and that instinct in me just got stronger when I became a Mom. So when I started realizing that I am supposed to turn over my control to God well that did not sit well with me. I have actually really struggled with that but am slowly releasing control. I released control to him when hubs was laid off and when I did that Hubs got a really good job, good things came out of a time when most people can only see the bad side of it. I released control when Trix was in the hospital...actually on his way to the hospital...I was driving behind the ambulance and praying feverishly to God and told him I am turning Trix over to him and to please take care of him...he did. In 95% of all seizures...they can tell you had one but cannot tell you what caused it. They were able to pinpoint a cause for Trix that is a rarity, another way he took care of him...that seizure lasted 40 minutes...that usually causes some sort of brain damage...Trix did not have any of that.
After everything settled down a bit and back into routine for which I was grateful...I was surprised as anyone when I realized God was not finished overhauling my life! And people say he has no sense of humor. :) He does. I started hearing a call to change my career. huh? what? I was settled in homeschooling and running a daycare out of my home. But although God wants me to continue to homeschool (a fact I am so grateful he is still calling me to do)and I know he wants me to have a lot more time with Honey Nut and Lucky Charms as well,he has been gently leading me into another area. Life Coaching. I am slowly but surely working on that.
No I will not be a counselor, I will however be someone that will help people set goals, be a listening tool for them when they figure out how they want to make their lives better then they already are, help them achieve what they want to. He is using this as a way for me to better my life too! Life coaches do a lot of learning along the way. The best part about it is that I can do it from home so I am still able to be with the kids. I am nervous financially. It will take some time to build my business. I told the parents in my daycare that I was closing in June, however I told them earlier then I probably should have to give them adequate time. Mainly the special needs family I have, well that was a little silly because they all found someone starting in January instead of June! I had planned all along to keep one family who really fit in with us and whose parents really had a hard time finding good childcare, so I still have that family and that is great. But my income in a couple weeks will be less then half what I was making! Acck! Oh well I will break out the coupons, re-budget, and trust that when God closes one door he always opens another. I am sure he had a reason for this season in my life to end a little earlier then I planned. Again there I go with trying to control it...I am still struggling to learn to turn over complete control to him. I will say at first when the families told me they had found other care sooner...I was a bit stressed and worried. Even though they all had asked me seperately if I could just keep their families only for childcare. But then I looked back at 2007 and all the ways God helped me and carried me through a less then stellar year. Then I relaxed more and again have that same sense of peace that he gave me earlier this year. So my realization here is that I have a feeling that 2008 is going to be GREAT!
I hope all of you have a safe and happy New Year. If you read this far...here is a cyber brownie for you.
The Cheerio Queen

My amazing husband....

My husband is AWESOME! We are going to be celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year and he still sees me as the young bride he married, the one who wore a size 6, who used to care what she looked like. For Christmas he gave me an early anniversary present becuase well...he could not wait till our anniversary in two weeks (he is such a big kid)and he loves to spoil me. I would love to be noble enough to say that I don't like being spoiled just having a cool husband is great enough but hey...I do love to be spoiled although I don't require it. He started making noise about my wedding ring recently and wanted to know what size it was. I did not know but he asked me to take it off. I told him I have never ever taken it off and don't intend to now. However the truth was that I could not get it off. My fingers have swelled up since we got married and added three kids, and I love to cook so you do the math. I did not want to tell him that so I stuck to the excuse that I am superstitious. He was relentless though that it was not healthy to have a ring on my finger that I could not take off. He insisted we have a jeweler look at it. You guessed it the jeweler had to cut it off. That had to be a low point for me. He did not understand why I was teary eyed that they had to cut off my ring to resize it. He did not understand why I was mad at him for insisting that it come off it did not hurt and my plan was to get healthy so it would fit again. But then he came home a week later with a package for me, he said he had stopped and picked up the ring. I opened it and what he had really done was got me this new sparkly diamond wedding band! He also got my old ring back and did not have them resize it. He knew it meant a lot to me.Isn't he great?
So this year hubs was brave enough to get me the gym membership I asked for. Yes you read that right I asked for it. He looked positively terrified that I asked for that. I could see the wheels in his head spinning as he contemplated...is she really asking me for this seriously? Or is this something I go and get for her and she is going to suffocate me in my sleep with her tacky mom sweats on Christmas night? hmmmm. Over the next few weeks he would occasionally ask...are you sure that is what you want? When I replied yes each time he asked he raised an eyebrow at the baked goodies I somehow always seemed to be holding. Hey the kids helped me make them and did most of the work so I had to make sure their efforts were rewarded with them getting finished off didn't I? The truth is the reason I asked for the membership was because I have come to a point where I am so uncomfortable in my own skin I feel like I am wearing someone else's and I have no one to blame but myself. I could reason that we have had a lot of stress this year with hubs unexpected layoff, my taking on extra daycare kids to help out, Trix's seizure issues, losing a very close family member to war etc. ...BUT when it comes down to it...I just flat out did not take care of myself, I did not work out (I did for a month in August but then the weather turned cold), I did not watch what I ate and now when I look in the mirror I cringe. To me it does not look like me. I have had a few people tell me I am not as big as I think I am however they do not have to look at me when I get out of the shower. They are not the ones who feel yucky all the time like I do, I get colds now and they stick for a month, I feel sluggish and tired. So since I got myself into this position I have to get myself out of it. ;) My goal this time however is not necessarily to lose weight (although I want that to happen), my goal is to get healthy again. My kids deserve a Mom who is healthy, my husband deserves a wife who is healthy and active, and hey when your so out of shape that your arms get sore while you are holding them up in praise and worship in church something needs to be done about it. So I will use that for motivation over the next few months, I am going to start by detoxing from sugar. I hear it takes two to three weeks to completely detox so if I sound a bit crabby it is nothing personal...I am just detoxing. I guess instead of petitioning for chocolate to become it's own food group I should be petitioning for it to be labeled a narcotic. After all when something is labeled a comfort food how can we expect to not become addicted to it? I am not saying I will never eat another piece of it (I am not an extremist you know)but I suppose chocolate for breakfast is not the best way to get out of those tacky mommy sweats I have been pouring myself into...oops I mean wearing. For inspiration I will tape a picture of myself now to my fridge...do they still make those gadgets that make snorting pig noise when you open the fridge? If that does not work I have a couple blogs I will check out. Tales from the scales is a good one and even better I have a blogging friend named Jan over at Just a mom that's more then enough...and she is a real inspiration. Check out her blog for hot momma pics! she has worked so hard and looks fantastic. Considering she has a lot going on in her life she has not used it as an excuse and plugged on. Plus she is really funny. Another inspiration is my dear friend Jess. She also is in great shape and worked really hard at it. I will go look through her blog again and re read her story. Maybe instead of tivo'ing desperate housewives I will add the biggest loser to my lineup. :)

The Cheerio Queen

Christmas...and a new year....

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! As you can see by the pics above...our kids were terribly disappointed in their gifts. I must say it was a very nice Christmas this year. Hubs and I made a pact to only attend one or two parties and the rest skip and stay home. We want the kids to be able to enjoy their new stuff and not have stress with running to and fro with different get togethers. Christmas Eve I had one of my daycare families and then when they left Hubs and the kids and I all piled in the car to deliver cookies to the fire stations (especially the one who responded to our house earlier this year when Trix had his huge seizure)and we also delivered to a policeman we know from church. Then we came home and lounged around after dinner. We read stories with the kids, watched a christmas movie and then attempted to put the kids to bed. It was my fault...Trix fell asleep on the couch and when I put him in bed he sleepily asked me if it was Christmas yet. I told him no but santa would be here soon...boing..his little eyes popped wide open! He was awake till 10:30 and up at 4:30...oh well I told the kids (he woke up the other two) that we would not be investigating what Santa brought until at least 6am. So Dawn if you read this nope your not the only one who was up before it was light out! lol We opened gifts, and I made homemade cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast (ok so it was homemade from a pop open can, and instant hot cocoa...remember I was up till almost 11 the night before and awake since 4:30) but nevertheless it was a cozy fun day. I did make a prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad etc.and afterwards we played games with the kids. In the picture above Trix beat Daddy at the fishing game which is funny since my husband is such and awesome fisher usually but apparently not at fisher price lol. :)
Now onto my New Year...I normally don't make resolutions because I never stick to them but this time I am going to stick to one...my biggest resolution is to get healthy again!

Nice people....

While reading the news online this morning I about dropped my hot chocolate cup (ok that is a mouthful but I dont like coffee...there I said it...I am a Washingtonian and I hate coffee forgive me.) Anyway as I was reading I was shocked to see a ..dare I say it? N-I-C-E story in the news! It was part of that "pay it forward" trend that is starting to catch on. Especially with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season upon us, and after watching shoppers beat each other up...errr I mean search for the must have toy of the season or whatever else they need it was nice to see this story. A woman at a starbucks bought her morning coffee and then decided she was in the Christmas spirit so she paid for the lady behind her, and started a chain of events that went through 490 customes as of 8 am today...I am not kidding. This woman did this yesterday morning at 8am and it has been going strong even into today. Here is a link to the article http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004084452_webstarbucks20m.html

As for us...our hoiday season so far is going beautifully. I am done shopping for the kids, just gotta finish up for my mom and hubs. The cookies, peanut brittle, and fudge are almost all baked. I am so excited I have been working on a tradition with my kids since they were little and they actually came up and asked me about it this year in a very excited manner. The tradition is that each season we bake and bake and bake. Then on Christmas Eve the kids and hubs and I all pile into the car with tins of cookies, and candy and homemade cards that the kids made...and we deliver them to our local fire stations and police stations as a thankyou for giving up time with their family to protect us. My little ones LOVE this tradition. I am glad because I want them to look back on their holidays as stress free and remembering the true spirit and not just the rush of shoppers, and fussy parties. Although we have been to a couple parties this year...we have tried to keep everything low key.

anyway if I don't post till after Christmas...well I am just enjoying my family.
Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends and hope your holiday is fun, memorable, and stress free. :)

The Cheerio Queen

Hello again....

I am sorry it has been so long since I posted. I always have big dreams of posting every day or even every other day but I just have not been able too. When I do have time I often am tired or just have not had anything to blog about. Most o fmy blogs update you on my family although my goal was to use my blog to talk about topics...especially homeschooling. I do spend time reading quite a few blogs for inspiration on homeschooling ideas, along with inspiration on family life, christian living etc. I want to highlight a few blogs that i normally read becuase I think they are ust really good blogs. No I am not part of any blogging awards committe or anything like that but these are blogs I really like to read for a chuckle, inspiration, ideas etc.

the first one I want to talk about I actually just found and it is really neat. Her blog is "Large Family Mothering" This woman homeschools 14 children! I am not kidding she really does. She also recently wrote a really neat post on coming back to family life. I found it so inspiring. I am the type of person she was describing in this article she wrote and posted recently. Check out this article and then explore her blog...http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/2007/12/return-of-family.html
the second one I want to highlight is : It coulda been worse! All I can say is if you want to laugh then this is definitely a blog for you to read! Deedee is hilarious and humble about raising and homeschooling her "three quirky children" as stated in her bio on her blog. I don't think I have ever read her blog where I have not laughed at what she writes and i mean that in a good way. :) check her out at: http://fiddledeedee.net/
the third blog I read every day mostly for inspiration is one I have talked about before. "By Sun and Candelight" is a very inspirational blog and one that as a homeschooler myself I check every day because she always has such cool crafts and ideas for celebrating seasons. Oh and I always check to see what her kids are reading for books because so often I get stuck in a rut of one kind of books for the kids...she has awesome ideas. She makes you feel as if your a guest in her home just through her writing and it is obvious her kids are very blessed. She is also a nature lover so you should check into some of her awesome posts on nature. Dawn is one of those people that writes so well you feel like she is a friend of yours even if you have not met her in person lol. Check out her blog at: http://www.dawnathome.typepad.com/
The last one I want to highlight is "Getting Ahead" if you are looking at ways to be frugal then you should visit Jennifer over there. :) She has some GREAT ideas! She is a homeschooling mom of 4 who recently went through a period where she wanted to pay a dental bill and so she actually made it on $25 dollars a week for a family of SIX for groceries..also using what she had stockpile in the house. I am impressed she also payed off her dental bill. She has some of the neatest ideas and seeing as how my goal for this year is to "be healthy, and more frugal" I will be visiting her blog a lot. :) Go visit Jennifer and her adorable kids at :http://getting-ahead.blogspot.com/

Well those are some of the blogs I like to read...how about you? If there is a blog you love to read that you want to share then leave me a comment. :)

I hope everyone has an awesome holiday season. :)

Take Care,
The Cheerio Queen