It was gorgeous today, gorgeous I tell you.

I was to lazy to actually do any yard work or haul dirt but I felt it would have been a sin to actually be inside so I went and said Hi to the goats and gave them extra hay.

They said Hi back.

And thanks for the crunchy hay. Because we all know hay is delicious and has special magical powers.

Ohhh we’ll pose for you if you give us carrots!   Okay sounds good to me.

K~

I spend my life correcting people on the proper spelling of my name and sometimes, sometimes I just pretend they are spelling it right and let it go, even when it might be something important, like a credit card payment, happily my kids aren’t yet aware that there is another way to spell Kristal, some day I will let them in on the big secret, the world spells it C-r-y-s-t-a-l. But for now it is nice to have someone spelling it right ALL of the time.

Oh and my kids call me mom just so you know, they think my name is pretty and like to write on all there cards to me, along with mom. As in;

To: mommy Kristal

And when they label bright shiny rocks they label them “Kristal”

It is these small things in life that make me happy.

:)K~

I love this shot of Alice, there is something so Alice-y about it, besides I think Alice is absolutely beautiful:)

Oh and the snow that is falling in the shot is now completely gone, we had at least a foot but the weather was so beautiful today, I have been cleaning up around the property, clearing brush and raking it up and forming a very interesting burn pile, stacking junk in another pile to be taken to the dump, all this work really helps me stay away from the computer and also makes me feel much better, I have a bad computer addiction, there is always something to edit or play with or research or watch or someone to chat with and it can get soooo carried away, so I am working on stepping away from the computer, spending more, non-school time with the kids, oh and the housework:)

Life has a way of wearing you down and I don’t think I would be wrong in assuming we all go through low moments in life and of course life doesn’t help either and something I am learning and not learning at a very quick pace is to just accept life, to appreciate all of life’s moments no matter how rotten I might think life is being.  I overused the word life and am now annoyed:) Not.

It is a slump day, or maybe that was yesterday or the day before or maybe even the day before?

Everyone is taking turns being ill and it is taking a toll on the house and school and my sanity. Today I am not feeling so hot and it is library day, considering we missed last week I feel an overwhelming obligation to go and return the truck load of books that we borrowed.

I have found that lesson planning works for me, not that I follow it exactly because I don’t but it gives me a line to follow and keeps me on track, even so I am not feeling very on trackish lately, I think I am hitting that what in the heck am I doing stage, that overwhelming oh my gosh my children will grow up to know nothing stage, that I am not providing all the wonderful opportunities I was planning on stage. I understand that we will get back on track, eventually and that the first year is hard but still, don’t we all want to be that one exception to the rule?

On the bright side the girls are loving school, they request it even and I have all my own memories of homeschooling to keep me moving forward.

My mantra right now is; They don’t need to know everything today, they don’t need to know everything today……..

Other stuff, Caleb makes sound effects when he hits someone, whack, whack is his favorite. Elli literally cries like this, wah, wah, wah and she does it very sincerely.

I am off the computer now, it is noon and I am still in my jammies. Time to get moving, blah!

K~

I could write a novel today there is so much going on.

November, it is now November and I am wondering what in the heck happened because there are moments when I could swear I just got done packing away the Christmas stuff! But really all that matters is that this is the month of Thanksgiving and I have so very much to be thankful for, here are a few little things:

My kids, without whom I never would have known what true insanity is and how love can take so many forms.

My husband, everyone needs an anchor in life, that one person to keep you grounded, a person to whom there is nothing hidden and life is a private joke just between the the two of you, Joff is that and so much more.

Maine; say what you will, but this place truly is magic.

I am grateful to the Lord most of all, for my blessings and for my trials, for the opportunity to live this life and for the gospel and for tolerating all my prayers which usually are mumblings and grumblings.

I could itemize everything that I am thankful for and there is of course so much more, but then I would be sitting her for quite a while and there is a chance that dehydration would come into play so I won’t, but that doesn’t mean that I left anything out:)

Now onto the other thing I need to get out today, I hate with a passion certain holidays, New Years Eve being one of them, what a ridiculous holiday! New Years resolutions are lame too. But on my birthday I made up some of my own “resolutions” (hate that word) and probably the first and most important was and is To Be Myself, bizarre and weird as that may be I understand it and am trying to do better in not letting the situations around me control what I do, I have a choice, we all have a choice and it is important for some of us to not be afraid to stand up for ourselves.

Totally random but just for the fun of it. I had determined from an early age to never have children, I never played with dolls and dreamed of having diapers to change, I did enough babysitting to know that a doll and a real kid where two very different things and although I loved my little charges there was no way I was going to have any children of my own, I also wasn’t going to get married till I was at least thirty!

LOL, right?

Lesson learned, never plan on anything going exactly the way you planned, leave some room for adjustment.

Happy belated Halloween!

Yesterday was a absolute wreck and I might have been just a little grinchy, which I am sure had alot to do with my own personal lack of chocolate and the hordes of children that where invading my space, oh and Caleb has been sick this week and I haven’t had alot of sleep.

But I am so not complaining:)

The kids had fun, I finally got a little chocolate in my system (Thanks Sharyn and Gary!) and Caleb is feeling loads better, I am hoping tonight will be nice and quiet, I have a couple of movies I have been waiting to watch.

I didn’t get a pic of all the kids together this Halloween 😦 But here is one me and Katie put together from last year and some individual shots of the kids from this year.

You either totally get this wacky stuff or you don’t:D

My Kitties, Felicity and Alice from this year of course.

 Ohhh scary Katie, very scary!

 The unsure pirate,  otherwise known as Captain Evs.

It was sooooo dark when I took this shot, I pushed my iso because my flash is broken (huge bummer!) so it looks all weird, anyway this is Dora the Explorer, I seriously worry she might actually request an official name change when she grows up,please pray that she grows out of this sometime before that happens, okay? Thanks:)