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

Look what fell into our window well last night

Okay so it was 10:30 at night last night and I was downstairs on Facebook, the little kids were in bed and the two older ones were spending the night at friends house. I hear this crash against the basement window facing the backyard. Well just a couple of minutes before that the basement window that faces the front yard had some commotion in front of it but the time the other window had some commotion I was freaked out, got off my computer and came upstairs and said something to Jason about it. He said that it was probably one of the little ones. I am like no it came from the back yard the second time so I go out the back patio door to the deck and this is what I found in my window well!

End of the first week!

WOW, hard to believe that it is Friday already! This is our 3rd day home and so far it hasn't been too bad! There was a little drama in the afternoon yesterday but nothing to earth shattering!! I think it has helped a little bit that Briana has been at driver's ed every day since school got out! She is gone from 8-2pm. Next Wednesday is her last classroom session and then she will have to go the middle of June to do the driving portion! She will not be getting her "official" license yet. She will get her little slip of paper that says that she can only drive with a licensed adult! I don't see her getting a "real" license until next summer when she is 15 or maybe when she is 15 1/2. I don't know. That will depend on if she gets a job this summer or not. She is going to be doing some babysitting for a friend of Colby's who lives not far from here. That should help with the shoe fetish!!! UGG!!! I am heading to the Cities tomorrow night for a couple of days with a couple of dear friends of mine! I am so looking forward to getting out of dodge, spending some time with girlfriends and leaving my family behind so that I can recharge!!! We have started a small portion of our homeschooling already but nothing real big. About 10 minutes a day on phonics with the 3 younger ones! They have been enjoying it! Our math curriculum arrived in the mail yesterday and I am totally overwhelmed! I am not sure that this is the right math for them. But I am going to give it a fair shot and go from there and see if it will work after all! We have begun our baseball/softball season already! Briana has had 2 games this week and has won both games, her team is looking very promising this year, so that is a plus! Colby has had 2 games also, and he is lovin' it!!! Mikayla's first game was suppose to be last night but it had to be postponed, so her first official game will be Tuesday night. Then let the rat race begin! Anyway....I have my days where I don't think reality has set in yet that I am no longer employed! It is so weird! I think it won't sink in until after school resumes for the Garretson kids in August, then I might need a reality check!!! Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend! God bless you all!

Cathi

1st Baseball game of the season....

Tonight was Colby's first baseball game. He did so great! He is so much smaller than the other boys on his team but that is okay! He moved up from T-Ball this year into coach pitch! He did AWESOME!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Cathi

Mother's Day Photos

Here are a few photos from Mother's Day! I had to pick and choose didn't feel like putting 52 pics on my blog. The rest are on Facebook! Enjoy! I sure had a wonderful Mother's Day, hope you all did, too!!

Cathi

Getting started on the deck








It is going to be so nice when it is all done! I am pretty excited! Just in time for summer :)










Colby made me something at school and it made me cry!


This is what made me cry!

Facebook

I have uploaded a buch of photos from today to Facebook! Go there and check out my photos, if you don't have Facebook, what a great time to get a profile! Request me as a friend: Cathi Enright Bottelberghe! I will try to get some photots uploaded onto Blogger! Until then.....check out Facebook!!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

Cathi

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my family and friends! I have had a great mother's day so far and it isn't over yet! I think the best news of all came from my friend, T. The one that I had asked for prayers for. We got the news awhile back that she didn't have cancer even though she was initally given that diagnosis so they have been trying to figure out what is going on with her and why the mass on her liver was there and what it was not to mention she hadn't been feeling well at all. She just had a liver scan recently and the mass in her liver is no longer there and she's almost off all the meds she was on for her BP! I sat and cried at my computer when I read that. What an answer to prayer! My little babes have been praying for her to be healed and healed she was! So for all of you that were praying for her, those prayers have been answered! What an AWESOME GOD we serve!
Today was a productive day in the Bottelberghe household. Heard a great message at church this morning. We got started building our back deck and I helped Briana get the kids' playhouse cleaned up and ready for summer. The kids are chomping at the bit right now to open presents, but many things to get done before that happens. I have pics to post but that may come at a later date. I got a phone call today from Briana's "boyfriend" wishing me a happy mother's day. I thought that was so sweet, for him to call and wish me a happy mother's day. You don't find many boys like that anymore. He really made my day! Noticed how I put quotes around the word boyfriend. They are not officially dating, but he has asked her out (whatever that means anymore), she just hasn't answered him yet. Nice kid, they talk on the phone some and he really seems interested in her but.......well I am just not ready for this stage in life. They hung out together yesterday at the coffeehouse in Garretson, he took her to meet his grandparents. She seemed to enjoy herself. That girl is so hard to read sometimes. She rolls her eyes when he calls but you can tell, she likes him. Man, what am I in store for........
Anyway....I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! Blessings and love to each and every one of you!

Cathi