it's been a long, LONG time....

Okay, I know it's been like FOREVER since you've heard from me, or should I say 'read' about me and my family. Well, we are happy to say we are officially moved into our new house in the country and unpacking and getting settled in bit by bit.

It's been a long 6 months -- from having our house on the market, selling our townhouse, moving in with the babysitter's family and now finally moved into our new house and making it a home.

A lot has happened since I've last been on the blog and I'm hoping to share a LOT of good pictures and stories with all of you in the weeks to come. We still do not have internet set up at our house, we don't even have cable yet -- we have a very large antenna attached to the house that we are able to view the network channels -- good enough for me at this point. We are getting new carpet in the next week or two and doing some other projects around the house (we have a LARGE 1 acre lot now with LOTS of beautiful fall leaves......we NEED to buy a rake!!) So, I'm hoping by next month we will have some sort of technology in our lives again -- like internet and TV.

I will share this picture now -- it's my family. My parents just retired at the end of this summer and my dad's company hosted a retirement party. Here we are......

My sister-in-law & brother, my neice, my dad, my mom & my nephew. My husband, myself and our toddler daughter...a pretty decent photo, huh?

Hello again...

Okay, I know it's been well over 2 weeks since I've last posted -- this is week 2 of living with the babysitter and family. It's a LOT more activity than we're used to in life. You know there's just the 3 of us: my husband, myself and the toddler. We are used to one child talking ALL the time when we were a little family of three. Now, that we are experiencing joining a family of 5 -- so there's 8 of us total living in one house -- it's rather interesting at times!

I am learning about all the various stages of childhood and preparing ourselves for the path that lays ahead....

There's the pre-teen son -- he's stuck in that ackward stage of being too old and too cool to hang out with his family, but then at times still wants to play with the little ones and be goofy. He is very smart and kind, if you give him the time to 'warm up' to you and the fact that maybe you're a little bit cool too! He also mumbles a lot and you can't understand him most of the time -- I think it's a pre-teen thing?

Then, there's there middle child, their daughter. She is so full of positive energy and spirit. She's goofy, funny and very full of life. She strives for attention, being that she's the middle child, yet is very content playing with our toddler daughter -- as if it was her younger sister.

Then, there's the preschool-aged son, the third child. He's rather loud, but understandably so -- he has to raise his voice to be heard over everyone else! He is by far the goofiest -- doing anything and everything to get any sort of attention. The funny thing is, is that I think he does get the most attention, he just doesn't realize it!

Finally, there's our 2 1/2 year old daughter who has taken up whining -- overtime! She whines when someone looks at her, she whines when the kids want to play with her, she whines when she has to sit and eat meals, she whines almost 24 hours a day (at least her waking hours). I don't know if this is her way to get attention or just her way of dealing with the mass chaos that we've thrown her into! She's used to getting all of our attention and now there's 3 other children to compete with -- it's all a bit overwhelming!

We are surviving and we are SO THANKFUL for the gracious offerings this family has given us. We have been blessed with wonderful friends who have welcomed us into their house for 3 weeks.

We are half way there -- half way to our new home. So, we'll all put up with each other for another week and a half and we'll all walk away with lessons learned....

WOW!!

We were packing this weekend (pictures to come...) and we had some GREAT friends come and help us -- Brad, Scott, Brian, my brother, father, father-in-law -- they packed a POD tighter than I could ever imagine!! My mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and Michelle helped pack boxes and keep me on track. Alana & Alexa took the little ones (my daughter and nephew) to the park and kept them occupied while the adults were packing and moving. Nothing like some bags of fruit snacks (okay, like 3 bags each) and some bubbles to keep the little ones out of our way!

So, it was officially exhausting to pack our whole house up and into a large box. We are now living on the floor, eating off of paper plates and using plastic silverware and eating out of the cereal box!! We have 4 more days like this, then it's off to the babysitter's house!!! We will just be happy to relax a little once this move is done.

I also now have no internet -- my husband, for some ungoddly reason -- disconnected my internet! My only solice in the days ahead of living on the floor and eating off the coffee table, and he took that away from me!! I am right now, 'stealing' some internet from our church office -- well, just really borrowing it for the time being.

I will be taking a break for a while, at least for a couple of weeks. I have lots of GREAT pictures that I would like to share, but you'll have to wait for those. When I return, I will catch up blog-reading and photo-posting. I have LOTS of exciting things to talk about when I return -- like winning a blogging award from my new internet friend, Corey and other random excitment.....but, you'll have to wait a little while for all of that!!

PLEASE STAY TUNED......

The "Invisible" Mother

I received this as an email about a week ago, and then again today -- It is so good, that I wanted to post it and share with all of you out there in the internet!

A Mothers story “I'm invisible”

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of
response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room
while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.
Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see Im on the phone?"
Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or
cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my
head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm
invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you
fix this?
Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human
being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a
satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney
Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held
books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that
graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared
into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. Shes
going, she's going, and shes gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating
the return of a friend from England . Janice had just
gotten back from a fabulous trip and she was going on and
on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there,
looking around at the others all put together so well. It
was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I
looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only
thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was
pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually
smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic,
when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped
package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on
the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasnt exactly sure why
she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To
Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you
are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book.
And I would discover what would become for me, four
life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:
No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no
record of their names. These builders gave their whole
lives for a work they would never see finished. They made
great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of
their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of
God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came
to visit the cathedral while it was being built and he saw
a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He
was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so
much time carving that bird into a beam that will be
covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the
workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into
place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me,
"I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every
day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness
you've done, no sequin youve sewn on, no cupcake you've
baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You
are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right
now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it
is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure
for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the
antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great
builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that
they will never see finished, to work on something that
their name will never be on. The writer of the book went
so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in
our lifetime because there are so few people willing to
sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell
the friend he's bringing home from college for
Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and
bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for
three hours and presses all the linens for the table."
That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to
myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if
there is anything more to say to his friend, to add,
You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be
seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very
possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we
have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the
world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Our Little Princess

This is about as close to 'princess' as you will get at our house these days. We have never really been the 'girly' kind here -- no bows or clips in the hair, haven't painted the little nails yet, don't wear that many dresses or frilly clothes. Maybe that's because I was pretty much tomboy-ish growing up and I feel the most comfortable in a nice pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt (YEAH for Fall!!). But, at the babysitter's this week, they made a princess crown and painted a 'magic wand' -- just like Princess Presto with spelling power! (from SuperWhy -- our new favorite PBS kid's show!).

So, here you all go -- a little princess in our midst.

(P.S. more packing stories and photos to follow -- sorry, I've been SO EXHAUSTED with packing boxes, figuring out what to take with us for 3 weeks at the babysitters and then what to pack in storage -- it's VERY draining!)

Wordless Wednesday

I am NOT a morning person!!

"De-Bratting" our Children

I came across several parenting posts on discipling children. Check out this post at Multi-Tasking Moms and this post today on Slacker-moms-r-us....WOW! She spoke my words exactly!!! I have seen too many children signed up for park district classes, preschool programs, swim lessons, traveling soccer and cheer-leading classes -- all at the same time and they are only 5 years old!!! Children these days don't know what the word 'no' means and they are handed way too many things without working for them or earning them. They also don't know how to be bored or have quiet time where they need to entertain themselves.

Now, don't get me wrong, we do buy our daughter cute clothes, but I REFUSE to buy children's clothes at name-brand stores. I shop the clearance rack at Target, garage sales and we LOVE hand-me-downs. It's not that we can't afford to buy name-brand clothing, it's that we choose to spend our money on other things. (and I REFUSE to get wrapped up on "keeping up with the Jones' mentality)

My husband and I both agree that our daughter will probably not like us very much when she asks to have "such-and-such like so-and-so" and we tell her, "no" or "you can buy that with your own money if you'd like". We have also committed to allowing her in only 1 activity at a time -- right now it's parent/tot swimming classes on Saturday mornings.

It's tough being a parent, not because of anything that is out of our control -- it's actually all within our control -- what she watches on TV, what she hears come out of our mouths, what we bring into the house, what we choose to spend our money on and what we choose to partake in as a family.

So, let's all start "de-bratting" our off-spring and change the generation of children we are raising! It can start with me and you...

One of the comments by Beck to this post was VERY good....So, I wanted to update this post and include her comment -- GREAT point!

**I think what actually spoils a child is too much getting of their own way, too high of a self-regard and a certain kind of parental neglect. Add it all up and it spells BRAT.

Our Moving Story...(continues)

If you've following our life for the past couple of months, you know that we've had our townhouse on the market for ~5 months and we just sold to a couple from Florida, who are moving up here at the end of this month. We have a house on a contingency (that was to expire on Sept. 17th, BUT we sold our house in time to buy that house!!) and now under contract to purchase. Originally, the owner of that house agreed to sell and move by the end of the month -- so, easy transition, right?

WRONG! The owner of our 'new' house now can't move out until the middle of October. The new owers of our house HAVE to move in by the end of this month...so, that leaves us homeless for ~1 month!! But, in this housing market, you do whatever it takes to sell your house, right?

So, we've been contimplating what to do -- rent for a month, go on vacation for a month (my vote is here!) or ask friends to move in with them......

Well, our babysitting family (I will call them babysitting family -- but, they are/were friends of ours first before the mother started babysitting/providing daycare for our daughter) offered an extra couple of rooms at their house for us to stay with them. So, that's what we're doing -- WE'RE MOVING IN WITH THE BABYSITTER!

The kids are going to have SO much fun, I just know it. Our daughter won't know what happened -- going from mom, dad and a cat to having 2 brothers, a sister and a Miss Karen and Mister Scott all under one roof!

I am nervous, only because it kind of reminds me of college days -- having roommates and whatnot. We all do things differently, I'm sure. What about laundry? Cleaning? Cooking? Yeah, cooking -- I am NOT that great of a cook and I'm used to cooking for 2 adults and toddler that picks off of our plates. The babysitting mom is used to cooking for 2 adults and 3 growing school-aged children!

I think we'll just offer to pay them money -- sort of like a bed and breakfast? Except it's bed & breakfast & lunch & dinner!!


So, here they all are.....Jeffrey, our daughter, Holly & Bradley.

The Park...we will miss you!

As we prepare to move, we are starting to do our final visits to some of our favorite spots. Now, I know there will be plenty more parks in our lifetime and plenty more walks to pick up 'natures', as the toddler likes to call them, but it's still a bit sad to visit some of our favorite spots for possibly the 'last' time....


Yes, that's my daughter -- with the crazy hat on -- "it's windy, I have to wear my hat" -- sometimes you don't argue with a toddler!

Wordless Wednesday

"The perfect tower, it won't fall over"...