The Hot Mess Blog Hop

This week I was reminded of something. I am a big, giant failure. I am a hot mess. Now I know. That’s negative self-talk, and we shouldn’t do that. Yeah. I get it. Thinking positively is how you recover from the things that do happen as a result of when we mess up big time, or when someone else messes up and we have to deal with it. In my case, it was me that messed up. I got a […]

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Thoughts on My Last Baby’s First Day of Preschool

Thought from my last baby's first day of preschool

Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a solid night’s sleep in a week. Maybe it’s because he’s my fourth son, my last baby. I don’t know, but today I dropped JD off at his first day at preschool, and I cried all the way home. He’s three and a half, and he’s ready. We knew he was ready. He knew he was ready. His brothers are even excited for him. And he handled it like a champ. He proudly put […]

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REAL life starts again tomorrow. Oh, yes, the kids are going back to school!

We just finished the longest Christmas vacation ever. 3 weeks!!! Full weeks!! It was a blast.  It was genuinely fun because we didn’t spend the whole 3 weeks in any one place. We went south, then we went north, then we went home, then we went back south, then back home. We had a good time with it! And we were terrible. Truly terrible. We let the kids stay up as late as 10 some nights. I know. The shame! […]

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Persistence: My Word for 2017

The Christmas presents have all been opened, the grandparents have all been visited, the cousins have been played with, and the tree…..well, the tree is still up. It’s pretty. I’m reluctant to take it down. And today is New Year’s Eve. Time to pick a goal, a resolution, a plan!!! Or as my adorable little boys say, “It’s time for our New Year’s revolution!” That makes me smile every time. So did you set goals? I have goals in mind, […]

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Our Top 10 Stories from 2016: The Drama Year

Christmas is over, and boy, was it a good one. In the photo above, all 4 boys were watching the clock intently. Christmas truly is magical for children. I’m so thankful for a Christmas when my kids were healthy, we didn’t have to fly, there were no funerals to attend, and all went smoothly. Now on to the new year! 2016 was all about drama. Yep. Drama. I’m hoping 2017 will be more about persistence and less about big things […]

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Moving Day, the Surprise Party, and the Power of Good Neighbors

On Friday night, I snuck into my home town. My parents were expecting me at 8:45pm, but truthfully I arrived at 7:30 or so, but I didn’t want them to know that. They were still staying at the rental house, but I did not go straight to the rental house. I went by my childhood friend, Kristy’s, house. We were on a mission, you see. I grew up playing with Kristy and the other neighborhood kids. Kristy’s grandparents lived next […]

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How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work”

how to pay for private school

Our family is living on a budget for the first time…..since 8 years ago when we read that Dave Ramsey book. This year was a huge change. We went from paying about $3,000/year in school tuitions to Classical Conversations and preschool to paying about $15,000/year total in private school tuitions. That’s two full school tuitions plus a partial one for my kindergartener, who has a partial scholarship. It was a big jump. We realized we were going to have to […]

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Fishin’ with DaddyO Photoblog

[amazon text=Amazon] Fishin’ With DaddyO These weekends were just as beautiful as the photos appear. Alan took our youngest two boys and went camping with DaddyO in Alabama. They fished, they cleaned the fish, they ate the fish, they learned about the importance of gun safety while shooting cans, and they got to sleep in a tent. It looks so good, it almost makes me wish I had gone too. But then I remind myself that I don’t touch worms, […]

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I am a sucker for a rescue.

Do you love a good rescue story? Man, I am a sucker for a rescue. Lately, I’ve been feeling down. I’ve been letting circumstances get to me. I’m still pouting over losing my people in this move. I still have my family, my most important people. But I lost my support groups. I lost my friends. Friends are a tricky thing to replace. The thing is you can’t replace them because no two people are the same. It’s not possible. […]

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3 Fall Funnies and a NEW Giveaway for Your Kitchen!

It was an exciting weekend here, so I have FUNNY stuff to share today. I thought this photo well captured the key difference between Daniel and me. Look at how neat his memory tiles are. Look at mine. He clearly got a few things from his father. Looks sweet, right? You’d never know that 30 minutes before he cried all the way through Target until I cried uncle and went home. *Groannnnnn.* Hehehe! No, I’m just kidding. I have no […]

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