Happy Birthday!

I can hardly believe that Briana is 14 today! Oh my, where has the time gone! Seems like just yesterday, her and I were coming home from the hospital to our humble little apartment in Watertown! From where we started to today has been amazing, wonderful sometimes hard ride!!! I wouldn't change it for nothing! Briana is starting to grow into a bright, mature, young lady! I am proud to call her my daughter!! I love you with all my heart girl! Keep it up and you will go far in life!

Mom

Here are a few highlights from her birthday gathering last night. Only 2 out of the 4 she invited could make it but that is okay they had fun anyway and they didn't even keep us up last night!! Enjoy!

Our summer.....

This month hasn't felt much like summer around here. It has been cold and rainy lately and it is getting very old. This week we are starting to see a turn around. Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny and gorgeous! Monday was cloudy and rainy! Yesterday morning turned out to be much of the same. By the afternoon, that great South Dakota humidity crept in and it is like that today! It is semi over cast today but still humid as all get up! The kids will be taking a dip in our pool this afternoon so they are pretty excited to finlly get into that and start catching some rays. We will probably have some crazy stormy weather tonight, which is typical here in SD over the summer. Not a big fan of storms, never have been and probably never will be. Still trying to work out everyday but can't seem to get up early in the morning to do it! I just love my sleep for some reason! I am going to be in for a rude awakening when we start homeschooling in August! I will have to start getting up early just to have a little time for me before the crazy day begins. I have been contacting schools in our area about rules regarding homeschoolers participating in sports. I got some very positive responses back in our favor so I thought I would just email our school district and find out. Really what did I have to lose? Nothing, but am glad that I did. Just got an email back from our superintendent and basically Briana is eligible to participate in sports at Garretson. We are very excited! He will be sending me information in the mail and forms and such! This is a huge leap for homeschoolers in our area! Many schools still don't allow them to participate! I am glad that our school and a couple of other schools in the area allow them to participate! We will have to see if she would have to take a few courses. We are okay with that, it would keep her involved in choir (she loves to sing you know) and hopefully other courses that I don't want to have to teach her, the electives stuff! She was pretty happy that she could still do volleyball and cheerleading. We will see how it goes! Hopefully she won't receive a back lashing from teammates or the coach because she doesn't attend there full time anymore. It should be an interesting start to our school year! Pretty happy with how things are going for us. I left it in the Lord's hands! I told Him that if it was meant to be he would put it all into place for us. So far He has done all that and then some. Have a wonderful week! I will keep you posted as our summer goes on! Until next time......enjoy the Sun!!!

Cathi

My week technology free....

WOW! What can I say, that was one of the best weeks ever. I learned so much about myself and how to better channel who I am as a person. Without my computer, I was able to do more things and better manage my time. I have found since I have had my computer back a full 24 hours now, that it can really suck up a lot of my time. Jason went out to mow last night and the kids were in bed so I thought I would get on the internet do some things and then get off and work on my piano business stuff. Well guess what I didn't get to my piano business because I got caught up in the internet. SAD!!! I heard the mower close to the house and then I heard it shut off so I got off my computer and went upstairs so that I could spend a little bit of time with my hubby before bed. As it turned out, he got called into work @ 10:15 and didn't get home time after midnight. I started jounaling again, something I haven't done faithfully since I was in high school. I read more on homeschooling and figured out the last of the curriculum that I want to use for my kids. I worked on my Proverbs 31 bible study that I started myself. I weeded my garden, spent time reading on my new deck and just enjoyed my kids a little more, not to mention a little time to myself without being in front of this thing all the time. I certainly know there is more to life than the computer! I got my letters to the area superintendents sent off today, so we will see if Briana will be able to do volleyball and cheerleading for the a public school this fall. I will keep you posted. It has been one of the best experiences of my life! My goal is to spend a little less time on this thing and a little more time with my kids and of course with my Lord. I have started exercising this week also. I figured if I have time to spend sitting in front of this thing, I should have time to exercise. So it has been 3 days in a row for me, hopefully it will last! My body sure does hurt but I know that the benefits will certainly outway the pain right now. Have plenty of weight to get rid of that's for sure! Anyway...have a great day! Make the most of the time you have! You never know when it may be your last!

Cathi

Challenge!

The teenager and I were talking on the drive home this evening from dropping Colby off at his baseball game (Keara is home sick). And she challenged me to give up my internet for 1 week. I am going to accept the challenge and see if I can survive. So for the next week starting tomorrow morning (Tuesday) at 6am until Tuesday June 9 at 6am. In this day in age when everything is on the world wide web, I don't know if I can go without it. But.......I am going to try. If it works, and I learn of new things to occupy my time other than this old thing, I will have to continue with minimal time spent on it. So for now......my blog will go quiet for the next week, emails will not be answered for the next week, and I will not be facebooking for the next week either, nor will I be checking out my favorite blogs. So if you need to get a hold of me, either call me or text me!!! As I am going to be homeschooling my kids, now will be a good time to start checking out reading material, developing a schedule and start creating charts/lists/menus, also I will have more time to exercise and work on my garden! Wish me luck, hopefully I will have some great pics to post on my first official post after sabbatical!!! LOL!! Have a great week!

Cathi