Pics from Colby's birthday yesterday!

Enjoy the pics from yesterday! It was a very tiring day, especially for Colby, he slept until almost 9am this morning. We didn't make it to church! We were all exhausted! So anyway....enjoy the pics!

Happy Birthday!

I can hardly believe that my little boy is 6 years old today! Happy birthday little buddy! I love you!

1 month

4 months

1 year


6 years old

Thursday

****update see below******

OH what a day it has been for me. I am off today because dear Mikayla decided it would be fun to get sick and go to the doctor to find out that there is NOTHING wrong with her. She said that she would rather be going to the doctor then going to school because she doesn't like school. :0( So I have her and Keara taking a nap and I am running around this house like a chicken with it's head cut off, okay I am pretty much running circles around myself. Too many things to do and I am blogging! HMMMM....priorities people, mine suck! I have brownies to make for Colby to take to school tomorrow for his "birthday" treats, since yes my little boy will be 6 on Saturday. I have to start getting my tax stuff in order so that I can sit down and get started on them. This is the one time of year that I LOVE!!!! I can scream show me the money at the top of my lungs, okay not literally, but still, love to do our taxes every year! Trying to get my stuff lined up for piano lessons that I start giving next month. I have two goats who love that they can get out of their pen and run around our property and LOVE to deposit their "stuff" right at my FRONT DOOR, where again I will begin taking students in a month, what do I say "oh watch out for the precious goat droppings", nope so I have to get that swept off the deck, oh I am just annoyed. I get home from taking Mikayla to the doctor and they are sitting on our deck basking in the sun thinking they are all that and then some. Wish I had my camera at the moment because it was funny but again ANNOYING!!!!! So I must get off my computer which takes up too much of my time on a daily basis get done what I need to get done and then get started on my newest bible study. "So you want to be like Christ" by Chuck Swindoll. I love listening to him on the radio. This man has a heart for God and for truth! His books are great and I anticipate that this one will be great also. I really need this in my daily life as I want to be more like Christ, but will never fully achieve that this side of Heaven! Have a wonderful Thursday!

Cathi

***update***
okay so after I posted this and made my way upstairs they were again on the deck so I was able to get this shot of them....ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!

Stepping up and stepping out.....

I have been telling you all about our quest to homeschool starting in the fall, along with that comes the financial end of this whole thing. As you all may know or not know for that matter, we live on a VERY tight budget, that's not to say that we don't "splurge" sometimes because we do. We are refinacing our house @ a lower interest rate which in turn when it is all said and done will bring our payment down take that into consideration and that covers the van payment and the extra insurance that we need on that van with a little bit left over for other things in the budget but even then we will still be short a little bit every month once my checks stop coming in August. So when God said "yes" to homeschooling, He was also working on my heart in another area that I wasn't sure I wanted to go down. I have prayed and talked and prayed some more about it and He "gave" me the answer that I needed to know that it was indeed what He wanted me to do. So last Friday, I hung my flyers around the area and sent a couple to school with Mikayla to give to her friends whose mothers had inquired about this from me. Today I officially became "a business owner". I am stepping up and out, taking faith in my Lord that He will NEVER lead me astray. I am now a piano teacher in our area. I will begin February 16th and as of this writing, I have 3 students already. I am hoping to have more as time gets closer and my goal is to have 5-10 students by next fall when the money will be needed even more. I have been rather hush, hush about this adventure because I really wanted to wait and see if this is truly what God wanted me to pursue, even though He was nudging me FOR MONTHS literally!!! So that is my day in a nutshell. I am excited, scared and everything in between. Tomorrow is back to work and school for all of us after having the last 2 days off. I am looking forward to what God has in store for this family over the next several months. I am also going to start teaching my own kids piano lessons, that should be interesting, as my oldest has no interest in lessons at all, but I feel that this is something she will be extremely good at, she has taken them before and really enjoyed it, don't know why the change of heart now. So please pray for me over the next several weeks, I know that I can do this, but sometimes Satan has a way of making me doubt myself! So here's to stepping up, stepping out and letting God have control of this area in my life! I will keep you posted!

Cathi

My week in a nutshell.....

Oh my gosh what a week it has been, I am so looking forward to coffee tonight with my friends from church it will be a GREAT way to end such a weird long week!! So as most of you know it has been the week of living in the tundra around here. We started the week with a snowstorm that blew in late morning on Monday, because of that we had an early dismissal from school @ 12:45 on Monday. I didn't get home from school until almost 2:30 because I was part of the "A team" which means that 24 of us (way too many) had to stay at school until the bus' returned from taking kids home just in case there were any kids left on the bus, okay so is was Keara and I traveling in this nasty weather in the afternoon and at times I couldn't see the front of my van. BUT....I made it home safe and sound. Colby lost his first tooth that morning at school. He was SO EXCITED of the prospect of the tooth fairy coming to visit him that I couldn't burst his bubble with the fact that there is indeed no tooth fairy so I played along with him. Put his tooth (which was in a tooth container and in a plastic bag to boot) under his pillow. I went in before I went to bed took the tooth and gave him some money, put it back under his pillow thinking no way is he going to remember the tooth in the morning. WELL WAS I WRONG.....he can out that morning while I was in the kitchen getting breakfast together beaming....holding his baggie. Look mom she came and gave me some money. Bless his heart he was so excited that she didn't take his tooth container and glad that he got some money. So I of course had to take some pics, he did lose his first tooth after all. His other tooth (next to the one he lost) as you can tell from the picture is just hanging by a thread...but he won't let anyone pull it. We will see what the dentist says on Monday.


So anyway Tuesday was a full day of school for us then comes Wednesday, I was feeling very horrible that morning, stuffed up and achy all over and I just wanted to go back to bed but of course couldn't....@ 6:40 they finally called a late start for the day. I went back to bed for about an hour but then the kids were up and at em and ready for breakfast. The temp was well below zero with wind chill. Then we get home from school and there is a message from one of our pastors at our church letting us know that they had cancelled church activities for the evening so we got to stay home and stay warm. The temp was to dip down even lower over night. Of course I didn't check before going to sleep (I was still not feeling all that great and just needed to sleep) if there was a late start in the morning. So I got up Thursday morning and get in the shower @ 20 to six and Jason comes into the bathroom and says "no am preschool and 2 hour late start", well needless to say I was beyond irritated! But I finished up my shower and decided that instead of going back to bed I was going to get some stuff done. So I did. Today is a bit warmer but not much. Thankfully this weekend and next week are suppose to be warm and sunny. We have Monday and Tuesday off from school so that will help and the children can get outside and play, after they get their teeth checked and all that. Keara and I had to go and get our teeth checked today. Not really what I wanted to do on my day off but I did. So it has been a very crazy week around the Bottelberghe household. I can't wait until fall when we are homeschooling and we won't have to leave our house in sub zero temps to go to school. We can stay toasty warm and safe inside our house! So anyway...that is our week in a nutshell! And what a week it has been. Really is the school year over with yet???????

Well I am now actively pursuing my business desire. I hung all my flyers when Keara and I were out and about today. We will see where it leads. I know that this is the direction that God is sending me, He made it very clear to me on Tuesday that this is what He is excepting from me. So I am stepping out in faith and allowing Him control (to an extent although I should let Him have full control but I am a control freak you know!!!!!). Anyway....have a fabulous weekend!!

Cathi

Saturday afternoon project!

As if I don't have enough to do on Saturday's I decided to tackle this this afternoon. Now that it is done and I can step back and enjoy it, I have many more of these I will be doing throughout my house over the months ahead! A friend of mine in Brookings had what I thought was Upper Case Living on her wall and I was pointing it out to Jason when we were there last Friday and she said to me "no I did that myself", so I thought if she can do it so can I! And I did!!! Thanks Chris for your inspiration!!! "Love like there's no tomorrow" is a verse in one of my favorite Christian songs so I thought it would be great to have on my wall, just haven't gotten around to doing it until today so there you have it. Along with beds, bathrooms and laundry I have had a pretty productive day! Now it is time to go to bed :0)!!!!

Because I am a DORK.....

I am taking a trip down memory lane.....if this works I will tell you why I did this at the end of this post...













Okay so here is why I did this.....a good friend of mine also blogs and I noticed on her recent entry that she has more than the standard 5 pics that I can usually get on a post in her blog entry so I commented on the entry and told her to email me and tell me how she did it. So she did and I just had to try it out for myself! As my BFF would say.....UR a DORK!!! So I am holding true to the I am a total dork! Enjoy the pics. Can you guess the year or who they may be?????? Go ahead I dare you....take a guess (some I know are easier than others)! AND CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, JASON HAD HAIR AT ONE TIME.......

Back to reality!

Well today officially ushered in our "reality check". We all went back to work and school today! It was a transition to try and get up to an alarm clock and to get the kids up and moving before the sun was awake this morning. I am discouraged at the changes that are taking place again at my job and it makes me glad that I will not have this hassle next fall. The children adjusted well to being back in school and weren't so "bad" tonight. I know that they wish that they were homeschooling already but soon. Colby said to me today when I asked if he was happy to be back at school "no, school is boring". I said "oh, do you think that school at home won't be boring?" he said "no". Ask him that next fall and I bet his response is different. I want the children to enjoy learning and to make it more about living knowledge than "head" knowledge. They will get life experiences from homeschooling without the added peer pressure and Lord knows that there is lots of that these days. So it is my goal to learn this piece of scripture and hold deep within my heart and pull it out in times of need and even in times of no need. This scripture was preached in the pulpit at church on Sunday and it so rings turn in this present time and all that is going on in this great country! I hope that you are all continuing to pray for our soon to be new president daily. We sure are. We have hope for a brighter future even if it is this particular man that is taking office. We hope that God will bring great strength and comfort to this ailing nation and that He can take back what is rightfully HIS!!!! Anyway....here is that scripture. I encourage you to memorize it!

Psalm 50:15
Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

Good night dear loved ones!

He will NEVER leave the house looking like this.....

******UPDATE*******Loved the comments that you all left me on this particular post! You all had me laughing! I did forget to add, that after these photos were taken Jason finished shaving our little boy's head!! Praise the Lord!!!


And to think that their are many parents who do this thinking their sons look "cute". NO WAY in you know where!!!

What fresh air will do to a 4 year old! Doesn't she look peaceful?

Decisions!

Now that we have told our parents, I can finally post some changes in the Bottelberghe household this year! We are only 3 days into the new year and there are already changes that are coming our way! With that being said.......

Our children will spend the next 4 1/2 months in the public school system and then it will be no more. We will be homeschooling them starting next school year (August 2009). This is a decision that we have been talking/praying/crying (me of course not Jason) over for months now. I have been on the homeschooling kick for 3 years now but it seems that other things have factored into my decision to not pursue it any further. Before we went back to school this past summer, I had this nudging to really and truly check into this time. So that is what I did. I have been reading, reseaching and talking with other who homeschool, along with that we have been praying about it profusly! We feel that this is the direction that the Lord is taking us and we need to be obedient! It will be a very interesting fall coming up but one that we know is the right decision! The kids are excited and very receptive to this new task we will take on! Our children we feel will learn more effectivly in a home environment, there have been so many things that have gone on at the school with our kids that we know that this is the right decision!

We hope that you will all be receptive and open to our decisions. Our parents are reserved of course and maybe a little on the pessimistic side and that is okay we vaule them even if they don't agree with some of the decisions that we make with our kids. We want our children to value their faith, morals and all that a relationship with Christ entails and in the public school system that is not happening. We feel that public schools are good for some but for us we feel differently! We love all of our family and friends and we value your thoughts! So feel free to leave us a comment if you choose! We welcome them all!

Have a great Saturday night!

Cathi

Our "new" ride!

We went out and bought a "new" van yesterday! Although it is not new it is 2 years newer than our old van and A LOT less miles, to us it is new and we LOVE IT!!!!! We will have to tighten up the budget even more to include the payment, but the price was right and the payment was within our budget so we new we could swing it! The kids were very excited when they looked out the window of Grandma and Grandpa's and saw the van in the driveway!a It is the little things that excite us these days! Here are some pics for you to enjoy!

Cathi

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy 2009 to our family and friends! We hope that everyone had an enjoyable and safe New Year's Eve! We had a great night as well having our first annual Bottelberghe Wii Olympics! Mikayla was grand champion of the bowling tournament and Jason took home the championship in baseball and fishing (hmmm....that one is no surprise)! The kids then got to watch part of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and then have their Midnight Cupcake and off to bed! Jason and I turned in at 11:15pm after the kids were all tucked into bed and watched tv until midnight, said happy new year and went to sleep! I didn't sleep well again last night as I have a horrible cough now! The antibiotics have kicked in and I am feeling the best today better than I have felt in a week, now if I could just get a full night's sleep it would be even better!!! Anyway.....here are some pics from last night! Enjoy and may everyone be blessed in 2009! We are looking forward to what God has in store for us this new year! And let me tell you it is going to be good!! :0)!!

Cathi

Mikayla and dad bowling! Mikayla beat us all in double elimination!!


Colby and Keara playing baseball! Keara won and then she beat me!!!!


Dad and Briana in a game of baseball! Dad won!!!


Taking a breather and watching tv before the ball drops!


The kids enjoying their Midnight Cupcakes (yes that is really what they are called)

Colby catching a nap before dinner!


Keara catching a nap before dinner! (never thought one could sleep with covers over them!)


The gang eating some grub before the festivities start!!!




Colby and Mikayla licking the frosting off the beaters for the Midnight cupcakes!