busy, busy

i have been so bad at blogging lately. i miss you guys! lol. so because baby girl e has me up early. i decided to quick blog...among ten thousand other things this morning. lol. the kiddos had a busy day yesterday so they've afforded me the time to quick blog. 'quick' in amanda terms that is. :0)

so what we've been up to. busy. remember i already told you that? last week i was fortunate enough to be able to go to a homeschooling question/answer type deal sponsored by a local homeschooling group. it was SUCH a blessing to go. i didn't really need to know much about homeschooling, since we've already been doing that. but just to hear others ideas. and more so what i didn't expect...the encouragement. before the session started a lady came up to me and just wanted to tell me how it could be done. ((with a newborn and other older kids)) i truthfully haven't been to worried about that, yet. but it was such a blessing that she took the time to encourage me, and had never seen me before! the session went well. and totally random, but i sold our changing table awhile ago (i believe i was pregnant with dustin) and the people who bought it were there! so i randomly told them that after the meeting and we laughed and just reveled in what a 'small world' it truly is. and it's been fun because they're homeschooling too, so we've been messaging each other since thursday about stuff.

we also took the 'leap' and our family joined the homeschooling group. i've been praying about it for quite awhile and really felt the Lord guiding us to do so. i'm super excited!! they have some kindergarten playgroups lined up for summer...so we're planning on attending those, that way our feet will be 'in the door' when fall starts and more group things happen. it's just a lot of fun to be a part of a group of people with that 'like mindedness' about homeschooling.

speaking of school, it's been going great here. we're trying to get better at being structured a bit more, and i know it's a learning and discipline thing for me to buckle down. but God has been blessing me through it. amelya is reading short vowel words and stories. and will be in 1st grade math near the beginning of next year. crazy! she's whipping through that kindergarten math book really fast. and wants to do more. so i've been letting her. it's starting to get a bit more challenging for her, so it's slowed down a little bit, but that's okay. and that's the beauty of homeschooling for us. we can move at our pace. breigh has come a long way through school too. it's SO fun to see her excited about doing her 'math'...it is a number and counting book. but she calls it her math book, which i guess it is. and even better...it's just a workbook from the dollar store. it's truly been such a blessing working with them. and i'm so blessed to have been called to do homeschooling.

shaun had a busy weekend of work. he got called in late friday night for an hour or so, and then worked saturday morning. and then sunday morning before church he was in by five. and then got called in last night for about an hour...because the same thing that broke friday was broke again. and then he had to be in by five this morning to fix it to get it working 100% correct, last night he fixed it so it'd be good til today. he's so dedicated to working to support our family. and i'm so blessed by that! even though he doesn't like his job so much, he works each day unto the Lord, and i know that's what gets him through it.

saturday after shaun worked we went up to my parents camper and spent time with my family. it's my mom's birthday today. so we celebrated mother's day and birthday there. we bought a cake for her on our way up. my mom is so good at making us a cake on all of our birthdays, but it's wasy easier for me to just buy one. it was good...but not as good as homemade. :0) it was also super cold up 'north'. and a tiny bit rainy. so hopefully the next time we go up it'll be a bit warmer.

yesterday was mother's day. (obviously) it was a good day. and i was blessed by it. shaun made me a super sweet card. and it was nice to have one from him telling me sweet things. i honestly...made my own card from the kids...lol...with their handprints. but amelya and breigh made me cards the other day already for mother's day. so i had those too. the girls each picked out some hanging outside decoration things for me. and we hung them up right away. they were so excited about giving them to me. it was sweet. we went to church. and it was good. we sang better is one day. and it truly had me realizing...no matter what kind of 'best' day i have here on earth...BETTER is ONE day in heaven. i was also able to sit in the last part of church and catch part of the lesson after doing children's church with the kids, so that was nice too.

after church we went out to eat. and then went by shaun's grandma's house for a little bit. and then to shaun's sister's house for mother's day with his family. it was so sweet, shaun's sister gave me a mother's day gift...even though i'm clearly not her mom...but it was these cute 'clog' socks...

the socks were part of a mom bargain site a few weeks ago. and i was SO tempted to buy them, but didn't. but posted it on my facebook wall because i thought they were so cute. well she bought them for me! how sweet.

then shaun's other sister gave me some flowers! how sweet? it was just nice to feel 'special' because truly it isn't about the hanging outside decorations, the socks or the flowers...it's about feeling special. and i did. and do still. just blessed to be a mommy. and a wife. and a sister.

we also got pictures on mother's day!! i have never in my life of being a mom and an official mother's day picture taken with my kids...so this year i changed that...

of course we haven't had a family picture taken since christmas...so i changed that too...

of course in less than 10 weeks (yikes!!) this will be a completely different picture from what our family will look like...but that's okay...and miss baby girl 'e' had her own picture taken too...

30 weeks and 2 days...

seriously. i can.not.believe it!!

and her name...is 'set'. so that makes me happy too. of course i say 'set' because God could totally change it. but for now it's staying evaleigh jo faith. ahhhh. it's all seeming so real. i'm so excited to meet her, yet also so excited to have a few more weeks of her all to myself. ;0)

alright. so i've taken forever to post this. and now my kiddos are starting to stir. so AFTER schooltime...i'll be around to your blogs. :0) have a happy monday!!