We made it!

That's right! We made it to the end of the school year!

That's at total accomplishment since I started homeschooling in January. We didn't kill each other, so I say it's winning!

Here's a look at some first and last pictures.

I took the kids to see a play this week by a children's theater group.

It was really good. I wanted to impart knowledge that entertainment is not just found on some silly You Tube videos by random people doing nothing. But see what even kids can do with hard work.

They even had a cute little photo booth you could take pictures in.

Blessings, Jennifer

What The Even Heck?!?!?!

What the heck happened?

It's been almost a year since my last post. Sad. So, so sad.

Well, a few changes have happened in the last year.

#1. Emily turned 9.

#2. The kids started school in August. Ethan is in 7th grade and Emily in the 4th grade.

#3. Ethan started football. What???? I mean... so handsome.

#4. Our house went on the market. Mark got a job in Waco. So this had to happen.

#5. Our house sold (finally... after 3 different offers and then backing out and then back in and then yada yada) and we moved to the Waco area.

#6. I left my job, took the kids out of public school, moved to the Waco area and next thing I know, I'm homeschooling my kiddos!!!

What?? I know!! But the kids and I love it. Ethan wasn't too sure at first, but he found out how fun homeschooling is.

There has been homeschooling tennis...

He started martial arts and is already an orange belt... and best student!

Emily does gymnastics and is soon to start violin lessons.

There have been homeschool group zoo trips and wildlife park trips... which also means educational, of course.

Our new place is next door to a really nice park. So some afternoons after we finish school, I pack a picnic lunch and we head next door and spend some time outside in the sunshine. I have been so blessed! I have wanted to be a SAH mom for a long, long time. The Lord answered by prayers and I am so thankful!

So it's been a really crazy, big year. Hopefully I will keep up this blog in the midst of my mess!!

Blessings,

Jennifer

The First And The Last

We made it to the end! Summer is here.

To be honest, I was ready. I was done with the crazy amount of homework Ethan had each night, with making lunches, and mostly waiting at the corner for the bus for 20 minutes because I never knew when Emily's bus was going to come.

6:10? 6:30? Was she early? Running behind? Who knew?! Each day was different. Just when I thought we'd get into a routine, there would be a sub bus driver and that would throw everything off!

Emily would miss her bus, I was late for work, I would be seriously irritated. So needless to say, I was beyond ready for school to be out!

All and all, this school year went better than expected. Ethan started 6th grade at a new school. His end of the year IEP went well and the two teachers of his that were able to attend the meeting had great things to say about Ethan and said he has come very far. This year they called him in the meeting and asked him what he would like to do after high school. I knew the answer. He has been saying it for a while. I even had a teacher tell me he told her earlier this year what he wanted to do. He told them plainly he wants to join the Army. I was so proud. 

Emily was a rock star in 3rd grade. By the end of the school year, she is almost on a 6th grade level in math and reading.

I'm not exactly sure what fun things we're going to do this summer. We've already spent a lot of time at the pool. That's always a fun treat!

But here are some pics from the 1st and last day of school.

Much Love,

Jennifer

All She Wants To Do Is Dance

Back in September, Emily wanted to start dance class.

After finding out all the different classes, she chose a Jazz dance class.

Here she is on the first day of class.

I asked her to show me her Jazz hands and she had no idea what I was talking about. I told her I hope this is the first thing they teach her in Jazz dance. No one should not know what jazz hands are! (If you don't know, just youtube it. You won't be disappointed!)


She really enjoyed class and worked hard in learning her routine for the recital. Her class danced to the song "Fabulous" from the Bratz movie. I had never heard the song or saw the movie until they started to practice their routine. Now I've heard it no less than 576 times.

Here she is on recital day vs. the first day of dance.

Her group did great and we enjoyed watching all the different dances at the recital, from the cute 3 year old girls who just stood on staged and waved to their parents to the older kids who have been dancing for some time and could dance like nobody's business.

Here she is with her daddy. By the way, he has grown a beard!

Here she is with her BFF who came to watch her!

And finally...

I made Ethan put his arm around his sister! He looks thrilled!


Much Love,
Jennifer

Catching Up

Here are a few things to catch up on what we've been up to in my blogging absence, in no particular order!

Here are the little E's on Easter this year.

Their Easter baskets.

Emily collects Ever After High dolls and I found one she didn't have. Ethan's love language is pretty much sugar. His basket had a lot of goodies and he was super excited.

Here is the wreath I made for Easter, thank you Pinterest!

Emily had to get glasses.

Ethan played basketball this year. The practices nearly killed me. 8pm on Monday & Tuesday nights! Who does that? After 8pm I have no filter or patience. My bedtime is usually right after the kids. Theirs is 8:30, so this was a labor of love. But, they finished #1.

Ethan turned 12.

He started middle school this school year and he plays percussion in the band. That's him in the back looking away from the camera. He was playing the cowbell for this song. I told him he did great, but I could have used some more cowbell. #igotafever

If you have no clue what I just said about the cowbell, you have to google it. Trust me. Hilarity.

Mark's grandma turned 90 and we partied hardy.

For Halloween Emily was a crazy cat lady.

Speaking of cats, we still have Tazzycat.

She is really a good cat. In fact, we enjoy her so much that we were considering a second cat. I started looking around at different shelters and such.

But in December, our house was burglarized. Yeppers, that was fun. They smashed our back window with a cinder block, took the tv, laptops, ALL my jewelry, and used my pillowcases to hold it all. They also stole my camera, so all these pictures are from my tablet. And in true Grinch fashion, they took the presents under the tree.

So after that, and talking about added security measures, we thought maybe we needed a dog. One that when people come to the door would bark. I thought this would be another added thing to scare off potential or would be burglars.

But I didn't want a puppy with all the training they would need and I really didn't want one that would shed badly.

 Anyway, one day in January Mark came home with this little girl.

Haha! She was probably about 3 lbs! And she's full grown. We named her Poppie. And she has a fierce bite. Ask my husband! She was laying next to me and he was getting into bed. Jealousy ensued. Their friends now, so it's worked out.

Ok, I normally wouldn't blog about this, but it's my blog and I'm going to blog about it anyway.

This was me in June of last year.

I found out my thyroid wasn't working, started meds for that,  joined Weight Watchers and then just started eating better.

Here's a picture of my and my mom at Easter.

It's not a full body shot, but I'm 67 lbs lighter. I'm still not done. I have about 20 lbs left to go until I reach my first goal.

Lastly, I decided to get this dresser out of our closet and do something with it.

After doing some major research on what to do with it, I decided to use chalk paint and paint it, I spray painted the hardware a metallic silver and it has turned out beautifully.

Here's the after.

It's Friday, peeps! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Jennifer

An Actual Blog Post?

For the ones and ones of people who actually read this little blog, I apologize.

I didn't mean to take a year and half pause from blogging. It just happened.

I enjoyed doing this blog... at first.

Then it became kind of a dread.

Let me explain. I love reading other blogs. A lot. They inspired me to start this one. I find great recipes, craft ideas or just keep up with the families there.

I not only took a blogging break, I took a timeout from reading other blogs as well. And Facebook.

People on Facebook seemed to put up only their drama, gripes, complaints or the exact opposite, they would post on why their kids and their family are the greatest and just the bees knees. You know, honor roll, vacation in the Caribbean, etc.

And if I'm going to be honest, I must tell you I think I was in sort of the dumps, down, sadness when I stopped this blog.

I know people want to put their best out there. I would be proud too of my honor roll student and my fancy vay-cay. But I just wasn't in a happy mood for a while. I do not want to say I was depressed. I believe that is a serious diagnosis. I was just sad due to my circumstances.

While I'm being honest, I'll tell you that money was seriously tight and Ethan's behavior made me want to drink and cuss. I didn't. OK, I might have let a few choice words out a few times.

So as you can see, I think I had a legit reason to take a blogging break. I could get on here and tell you all the super fun things we did as a family and how everything was just peachy, but I'd be a liar. I don't want to lie to my ones and ones of readers!

So here goes nothing. A doctor finally listened to what I had to say about Ethan's behavior. Ethan is now on some meds that help him with his nasty mood. I don't want to get into a discussion about children and medications. It wasn't a decision I made lightly. But let me tell you, I have received more "I love you" and hugs from this child in the past year than in the first 10 years of his life.

Ethan actually sings, tells jokes and belly laughs at  funny things. He stepped on my foot the other day and he said "I'm sorry". On purpose. I didn't have to make him say it or anything. He seems genuine and not emotionally disconnected. There's not a perpetual grumpy cloud over him all the time.

But he's still a kid. He's not a saint, a saint he ain't! He still gets into trouble and can be defiant and disrespectful. He's a 12 year old boy.

But God has also shown to me over and over again during this break that He is sovereign over all. He created Ethan they way he is for a purpose and placed him in this family for a purpose. Period. I will rest that. Period.

So when I decided to blog again, I wondered. What is this blog about? A family with a child with ACC? A family who has lost to baby boys with MD? A craft blog? Cookie blog? Cooking blog? Well, it's my blog and my blog will be all of those things. I hope you enjoy.

If you read all of this, then bless your heart!

I have so many things I would like to share with you from the last year or so, but in due time.

I will leave you with a recent picture from Thanksgiving.

And if your a bragger on Facebook, good for you! But save the drama for your mamma!

1st Day Of School

Here are a few pics from the 1st day of school last week.

So far, both kids are liking school and are doing great. We had Ethan's ARD meeting today and Ethan is doing wonderful! We're off to a great start!!