My boys have gotten so big. When did all that happen? I mean, I could swear I just held their tiny little bodies just hours after they were born thinking "Oh my goodness, what now?" and now I'm planning my sweet little Adisson's kindergarten graduation party. Really? He's really six? He's really going to start the first grade in a few months? He is so amazing and independent. He thinks a thousand miles a minute and can talk just as fast. He's very passionate and constantly has a million ideas. He's a voracious reader and does so very well. He craves to learn more, to know more. He's such a blessing.

And my baby? 2 1/2 already? I thought I just found out he was coming, that I was going to have another son. Now he's a fireball of energy, everyday. He laughs, he's silly, he jumps from one place to another more than he walks. He's got a personality as big as he can imagine. He's tough, he's my little bull in a china shop. He's fearless and fearful. He's expressive and hilarious. He's a constant mockingbird. He's truly a delight and joy to be around.

I know they are still little, but sometimes they are too big. I know I want them to grow, to be strong, to be healthy, to be happy. But the time slips away so quickly, you don't even know it's gone.

It won't be like this for long.

"It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he's tryin’ to hold on

It won't be like this for long...."

Lyrics of "It Won't Be Like This for Long" by Darius Rucker

Just praying tonight.

Ok so a few interesting things to pass along! :) First of all, Adam and I celebrated 6 years of marriage yesterday! Woo hoo for us! We went computer shopping and out to dinner. With the kids, of course. But it was a great day.

Saturday we went grocery shopping. We've been doing a bulk of our shopping at Aldi and then picking up the remaining items at Wal-Mart...using coupons! :) I love saving money on groceries. :) We usually order Angel Food as well, but we've held off since I'm not sure when we'll be moving and I don't want to have to suddenly start eating everything in our freezers.

Friday night. About that. :) Adam came home from work and I ran down to Once Upon a Child. I've been trying to buy clothes for the winter for the boys throughout the past few weeks so when it gets cold later this year, I'm already ahead of the game! :) I come home from shopping and Zander says, "Mommy, I have a booger." He usually doesn't tell me about them, so I laid him down and looked up his nose. It wasn't a booger. It was a bean. Yep, my two year old shoved a bean up his nose. I know. This has either happened at your household or you know someone who has dealt with it. Me, too. So it's decided that I'll take him to the ER as my attempts to get it out are futile. We go. I take a bag full of things to do in case we are there for hours (it's a big military hospital and it was a Friday night...it could have taken forever!). Less than an hour after we get there, we're walking out....bean free from nose. Heres how:

The nurse takes us back and asks Zander about his bean. He says, "I put a bean in my nose!!" and she said, "You did?! Why did you do that! :)" and he said, "I do it!!" ......sigh. :) She says "Ok, Mom, we're going to try a trick. Lay him down on the table (he starts crying), it's ok if he crys, the snot will help loosen the bean. Speaking of, you might get snot on you (That's ok, I reply, that's not even the worst thing I've had on me today). Close the nostril that isn't blocked, cover his mouth with your mouth, and blow into his mouth.

I follow the directions.

Cover his unblocked nostril. Check.

Cover my mouth with his. Check.

Blow. Check.

The bean fly outs of his nose, hits me on the cheek, and rolls onto the table.

That, my dears, is what they call the Parental Kiss.

And it is, hands down, the coolest parenting trick I have learned.

Next year, school year that is, I think I'll have a homeschooling specific blog. Or not. I can't decide. Sometimes the randomness of my blog is crazy, but then again, who reads it? No one really, so I can post whatever I want, knowing it's just like my day and life...crazy and full of everything. :)

The boys went to the dentist today. Adi has one teeny tiny cavity. Zander has some spots on his teeth that concern me. The dentist said we'll just watch them, but I know he'll want to put crowns on them soon. I hate that. I hate that regardless of what we do to prevent cavities, it's like we're fighting a losing battle. Adisson's cavity doesn't bother me much. It is very small and it's on the side of his back tooth, where it's hard to reach with a brush (and he doesn't floss everyday...though he will now!). I hate that Adisson had to have crowns on his front teeth. I hate that Zander faces the same fate. Why can't I prevent them? I do the best I can (brushing twice daily with dentist recommended toothpaste, no juice/milk at bedtime, no bottle, of course, not many sweets, nearly NO candy, etc.) and the dentist really reassures me that some kids just have really soft teeth and it's really not a big deal. It doesn't make me feel much better. I feel like I let them down.

I've been planning planning planning for school next year. I'm so excited! We'll be moving sometime, though the where and when is largely unknown, but I'd love it if we moved before school started. I want to be flexible with our schedule, hello!--benefit of homeschooling!!, but we've been very relaxed for the last two years and I want to be more scheduled. I'm working on that.

I've tossed my name into a preschool activity bag swap. I'm really excited about it! Zander will end up with 18 activity bags!!!! :) He's going to LOVE IT!!! I'm hoping to start working on mine this week. I'd like to get them done sooner rather than later so I don't wait until the last minute. I want my bags to be very nice so they withstand the preschooler that will receive it. :)

I've got to get to bed. I didn't clean up tonight before now, so I guess I'm waiting until tomorrow. I hate that.

Anyway, see ya tomorrow!

Yay! Happy Mother's Day! Adam brought home lunch for us today and yesterday we picked up some flowers that the boys "helped" me plant in the flower bed. :) I'm hoping they bloom nice and big to help sell the house when we list it. The picture you see is the flowers that Adisson made at Master's Club. The rose is a yellow chocolate sucker, the blue and purple flower is a cookie with icing, and the pink and purple flower is tissue paper and pipe cleaner that he made himself. :) My first handmade Mother's Day gift that I had no help in making!

Speaking of, I wish I knew what was going on with that. I don't know where we're moving to or when or what Adam's decision is going to be regarding his career. I have since had a little change of heart in the situation and know I'm pretty sure what I would like to do. Since I don't work, however, it's something that needs to be decided logically and not emotionally. I also don't want to talk Adam into feeling how I feel because then I'll forever wonder if he's only doing something because of me and not because it was the best thing to do. I'm definitely going to be praying about it. I got a nudge (or one of those smack on the foreheads like you see in the V8 commercials) from God today. My Grandma emailed me a Mother's Day e-card that was so sweet. She actually sent me two. So nice! I started on her e-card last night and didn't send it until today, but it was a poem and a pic of the boys. :) Anyway, I was emailing her a thank you note for the e-card and telling her how I wished that we were at her house today with the rest of my family getting together to celebrate Mother's Day. And how it's days like today that I'm even sadder that we aren't closer to family. And that I wondered if God was closing so many doors with the Army as a way of letting us know that we should go home already. I sent the email after that and went over to the homeschooling forums I read daily and found someone had posted this verse:

Jeremiah 29:11."For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

And all I'm asking now is for the Lord to show my husband His plans. Adam's not very religious and I know sometimes he has a hard time accepting my answer of "it's a God thing" or "I guess God just didn't have that in the plans for us...." but He's proven to us time and again that He does indeed know what he's doing....we just need to have faith.

I have faith. I just pray Adam finds it, too.

My little guy made me a Mother's Day gift! And I had nothing to do with it!! :) It was so sweet and nice! I picked him up from Master's Club this evening and he was holding a flower pot with three flowers in it. One was a handmade tissue paper flower, one was a cookie decorated as a flower, and one was a yellow chocolate rose. He made the tissue paper flower himself and made the arrangement in the flower pot. It was so precious! I love it! I'll take a picture and post before it gets eaten and disassembled by the kids!

Adam's only got one more night after tonight on second shift! Thank goodness! It's been a long two weeks. I am ready to have a somewhat normal schedule back. The boys are ready, too! Daddy sleeps all day after a 12 hour night shift, so right now we're only getting to visit with him 3 or so hours a day. Which I guess is probably a pretty typical amount of time for a family to get to spend together in the evening after Dad gets home from work, it's just weird for us.

And today I spent some time planning for next year. I think I have picked out EVERY book we are going to row and when we're going to row it. It's a WONDERFUL feeling! I only have a few books to buy. I can't wait to start planning and get to work gathering resources.

That's about all. Love until next time.

I haven't blogged in awhile as it appears that our good computer bit the dust. Adam's working on repairing it because he's pretty good with those kind of things and in the mean time, I've got to use the older, slower computer. And sometimes when you type something on it, you have to wait an entire minute for the words to show up. And some of the keys don't work well and some not at all. :) One day, he'll get to work on fixing this one up better, too, so we can use it for the kids computer.

In the past few weeks not much has been going on. We went to the MidWest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. It was WONDERFUL! It was Adam's first convention. He seemed to like it. We got some really great school stuff for next year. Nearly everything was already picked out before we got to the convention, I had very few impulse buys. :) And I definitely stayed with my budget. That was hard to do because there was so many WONDERFUL items there. I loved it!

Adam's been on a crazy work schedule this past week. He works 12 hour night shifts and then sleeps all morning. He only has a little bit of time in the afternoon to hang out with us. Fortunately, it's a very temporary thing and next week he'll be back to the same day shift he's been working.

Some friends of ours moved away this week. Adisson was particularly close to the little boys so he's sad to see them go. I am too, of course, because I don't have many IRL friends. :( The Army life leads to friends moving away and that's what has happened with nearly all of my friends....which is too bad. I hope we're going to be moving soon, but I don't know. I've been praying something will work out and we'll get another assignment to somewhere else, but there's not a lot of jobs for Adam in the Army with his current job and rank. It's definitely been trying, but I just keep praying.

Not too much else is going on. I'm hoping to start working on school plans for next year. I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to do things and I'm working on a few different ideas. I sometimes wonder how I'll be able to come up with two years of lesson plans when Zander is ready to start school, but I'm reminded that there are countless numbers of homeschooling mama's who plan out lessons for way more than two kids each year. :) I'm sure I'll manage.

More later I'm sure....