This weekend I attended a home school conference with various friends. I convinced Micah it would be best for me to go two days. I really didn't need to buy that much and had a very small budget of $30. But I knew I wanted to hear at least two workshops, browse leisurely, and be free to talk to whoever I wanted and for however long. Last year I had only one day. It was horrible to see someone and scoot on with only a nod. I left that weekend feeling like I didn't make the best of it. I saw so many of my wonderful friends and chatted my head off. It was great. We went to this great Argentinian restaurant in downtown A. We had chocolate creme broulle with peppers. Wow. That's all I can say. Gotta try it.

I heard so many great talks. So many. One wonderful man named Andrew Pudewa (if only you could hear the sound of his name it would make you feel so much better to say his name over and over) spoke about teaching writing. It was beyond fabulous!!! The best since Chris Davis. Oh, I miss his talks. I cannot contain all that I learned in my wee little brain. I love home schooling. I feel like I'm going to school again and learning so much more this time.

I heard this lady speak on neurological deficiencies. It about scared me to death. Not only do I have issues but a few of our children might as well. Oh well. What would life be without neurological deficiencies??? I mean, really.

Summer

You know what reminds me of my Granny? Drinking a Dr. Pepper in the summer at night. I don't know why. Maybe because she would have the window unit blowing in the summer, and at night is the only time in our house it feels like that. Funny how things so simple can take you back. I miss you, Granny.

Family and 5K

It was wonderful to see family this weekend. I have missed everyone so much, but we really need to see each other more often. At least we can keep up in blogs, but I don't think it's enough. Jenny has inspired me to do something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have always wanted to run a 5K, so I think I will. Micah is pretty excited about doing it, too. We'll run different races, but I think it will be fun.

Movie Fav's

My all time favorite movie is......(drumroll please)....

1. The Wedding Date-Oh my gosh, the best! You have to fastforward some.
And others on the list:
2. Runaway Bride
3. The Wedding Planner
4. Braveheart
5. Facing the Giants

Advisors

And the main thing I've learned is NEVER trust a financial advisor or an insurance agent. You need to read up and do the research for yourself. If they try to sell you something you don't believe in, get up and walk out. That sounds silly because obviously Dave Ramsey is a financial advisor, but we are not giving him money to invest for us. He also likes Clark Howard, but the two have different giftings. Good to listen to both.

VBS

The kids are in VBS, my art lesson was canceled this morning, and I actually have a few moments to myself. That hasn't happened in 11 years. Well, that's not true. But anyway, it's rare that I get the house to myself.

Rebecca's heel is injured and I have to take her to a podiatrist. Fun.

Elizabeth hit her elbow last week while swimming at my moms. I seriously thought her elbow was sticking out the side of her arm. It wasn't. Thank the Lord! Just a bump of fluid. gross.

Blaine cut his finger on a swiss army knife. What a week!

I officially have 8 students signed up to teach art. It's not a ton of money, but it's a little and it gives me something constructive to do with my time. You mean I can't read blogs all day?

Flywheel is on sale at Wal-mart for $9. It's $20 at the Christian bookstore. We haven't watched it yet.

We downgraded our tv package from a whopping $72 a month to $29. I was so proud of my husband!

And may I just say that I highly recommend to everyone that is ever born to take a Dave Ramsey course at least once in their life and the younger the better? And once you sign up, you can take the class as many times as you want forever for free. You may not believe or like everything he says, but it is so simple...so down to earth. And though it is hard to believe his numbers he and many of the people he has taught are walking testimonies. One man explained that he made 40k a year, and for his whole life he invested 10 or 15% (I don't remember) for retirement. He has now retired a millionaire. That's amazing. A little discipline really pays off.

Dave explains how every different type of investments works, which ones are good and which ones are bad. We've realized the two investments we've made haven't been the best. Wow! That is why we don't have much saved up for college or retirement even though we've been working on both for 12 years! We are so pumped to finally understand these things for ourselves instead of having to trust someone else. His motto, "If you don't understand it, you shouldn't invest in it." So we've come to the realization that probably no matter what we do we will not have all of the money for any of our children's college, except possibly for Blaine. That was a little sad feeling, but a little sweat never hurt anybody. They can work and get scholarships.

We have dear friends of ours who have been missionaries for 25 years. They are taking the course with us. While they have been adhering to all of his principles for their life and have never gone into debt they have only saved a little for retirement. They never factored that into their support costs. They are in their late 40's and now realizing they should have done a lot more. They are pretty sure they will have to continue working to make ends meet all through old age. They wish they had heard these principles when they were young. It was a great eye opener for me that we need to get busy, busy, busy; don't delay!!!

New link

I have added a new link. This lady is an art teacher at a local private school and works with one of my friends. Can you believe she jut picked up pastels recently? This is truly the most amazing art I have ever seen.

Sadness and Spunk

I have just spent two hours crying over that dumb movie Steel Magnolias. Why do I watch that sad movie? Now I can't go to sleep. I'm up thinking about how much I love my family and don't ever want anything bad to happen to them. It's Friday night, I'm supposed to be asleep.

I just have to tell you all how very much God has blessed me again this week. A new mom has been added to our co-op who will take over one of the art classes. And let me tell you she is a complete God-send. At our first meeting she whipped out a list of fun art projects that related to Texas History, which the kids will be learning simultaneously in co-op. I was astounded. I am horrible at those fun idea art projects. I'm better with the skill stuff. I feel ALMOST guilty because I've hardly lifted a finger to do anything for next year. But you know, I have carried this art program for two years, and I am so glad to see God put some spunk in it.

More Good News

We got the call from Honda Monday that our van is done. It only took them one day. Why is it that when you NEED them to fix your car it takes them two weeks, but when you NEED them to take a week it only takes one day? Funny. We were glad to hear that the total bill will only be $630 instead of the projected $700-$800. We were so relieved. God is so good. This is a lot easier to squeeze out of our budget than what we thought. The total bill went from $4000 to $630!!!

BTW, another God thing. Micah had to get a crown a few weeks ago for almost $600. We were able to get the bill and turn it in just one day before the cut-off to get our medical savings reimbursement by this Friday. We will be able to use the money for the van and pay the dentist back in payments or wait for our extra paycheck. We had no idea that it would work out this way, and we are so thankful to God for His wisdom in working these things out.

And the best part of it all is that none of this had to go on a credit card! In past years we would have prayed but without batting an eye would have put the entire $4000 on the card. Look how God provided when we trusted and waited on Him instead. The trusting part was a little rocky, but you know what I mean.

I love art lessons

I can say that because I have had a full 24 hours of preparing for them, and they are now over. Whew. I made it. I'll have more on Monday and Tuesday, but at least I get a little breather in between. I am feeling so stretched. Do you know how difficult it can be to try to explain to someone how to do something? This is keeping me sharp. And I have to be so organized. Houston, we could have a problem.

Anyway, I had a blast and earned a little cash. Okay, so Micah earns that in 30 minutes or something, but I tried. I did the best I could. That's what counts.

Good week

As mom asked, yes, I am having a good week. It's going to be a challenging week. I have 6 new art students to plan for. Yowee. I wonder if I have it in me, or will everyone ask for a refund? I love Jenny's blog because it encourages me to go for it and not worry about the outcome. But still, I wonder....

Rebecca's party is tonight. Oh boy. Well, at least it's just 3 families. And two of them I know really well. So even if I don't mop the kitchen, they will still love me. Yeah. :) Look at your calendars. It's the Queen's birthday.

We spent the ENTIRE weekend cleaning and rearranging the upstairs bedrooms. We threw away 5 trash bags of paper and boxes. I still can't believe that. I knew it was messy, but my goodness. We also have about 10 bags of things to sell at a garage sell or give away. That's overwhelming. Our garage is stuffed. It did make me feel better though to get it all cleaned up. I am always telling everyone in our house that I can't possibly clean the whole thing by myself or keep up with everything. I think them spending the entire weekend on it (we even skipped church) helped them realize that I really can't do it all. So now the girls have their own room. I have resisted the change for about 2 years, but I finally buckled under all the pressure. We gave the large, four poster bed to rebecca (so that guests still have a place to sleep) along with the dressing table that mom and jenny used. She is very excited about it. She took Blaine's room, which will need to be primed and painted light blue. Blaine took the old study, we took down Rebecca's twin bed, and we moved all the home school and office stuff to the game room and all the toys out. Whew. EVERYTHING was upturned. everything. Not one square inch of the upstairs went untouched. The most frustrating thing was that we couldn't finish this or that room until this or that from this or that closet was moved. I still can't believe we did it, and now I know why I resisted it for 2 years. I think Micah does, too. Maybe everyone finally understands what I have to do everyday. I doubt it.

And just so everyone knows, having a large house is not all its cracked up to be. It is very difficult to keep uncluttered. You definitely have more space, but you definitely have more SPACE. More space to mess up. I say this because I have realized over the past 5 years of living here that many people wished they had a bigger house, or they think they haven't measured up to the rest of Americana if they don't have a large house. With a large house comes a large payment and a large utility bill. So, if you're ever tempted to get a larger house than the one you have, just remember that. I can say that even to myself because no matter what house you have you always wish you had a different one or that even this one little thing were different. You know why? Because this isn't our real home. Our home in heaven will be just perfect. It has taken God 2000 years to make it. It only took him 6 days to make earth. Can you imagine how lovely it will be??? And it will have NO PAPERS to throw away. Now, that's the best part.