Complaining

Are you a complainer?  Do you complain more than you praise?  Do you find it easier to praise those outside your family more than those inside your family?  

I have to admit that I look back on my day sometimes and feel like scrooge.  I serve a Great God who has blessed me and my family more than I could ever imagine and yet I find myself complaining.  I think know this is not the life God has chosen for me.  He wants praise to be on my lips not the opposite.  As I begin this day I want to be a women of praise.  I want to look back at this day and know that my children, my husband, and friends were glad to be in my presence.  I want to uplift those I'm around, not tear them down.  

This is my goal and I will achieve it :)  

Now to start homeschooling.  

I will definitely need prayers today :)

Tuesday-September 28th

I can hardly believe that it i almost October.  It seems like this month has just flown by.  Today was a good day.  I got to Skype two of the girls.  It was so good to see their faces it brought tears to my eyes.  They seemed so good.  they were smiling and laughing and just having a good time.  It was just great to talk to them.

I stopped by the dollar store on my way home and this is what the kiddos decided to get.....

 Cynthia decided she wanted fairy wings and shoes.  She looked so cute.  

 Darius wanted a spider so that he could scare his sister "NuNu" when she comes home at Halloween.  She hates spiders and he knows it :)

I picked up a few things to make Cynthia some hair accessories.   

  

Weird week!!

So I thought I had my schedule for the fall all worked out.  

Sunday-D would go to Awana's

Monday- Babysitter for the kiddo's

Tuesday- D would go to preschool; Cynthia to the babysitters

Wednesday- BSF 

Thursday and Friday- I would home-school the kiddos

So much for that.  Last Wednesday something happened at BSF and I am not returning to that particular study at that place "ever".  Homeschooling has been crazy and I have had to revamp everything I thought I was going to do and throw ever expectation I had out the window, and finally after 3 weeks I pulled Darius out of Awana's due to this particular Church's lack of structure and volunteers.  

Our fall schedule just started and I've changed everything and to add to the craziness my babysitter for the kids fell of her horse and broke her arm.  It looks like she might have to have surgery, we will find out soon. 

(Lots of prayer needed for Stephanie she is in a lot of pain.  

"D" was very sad to hear she was hurt both kiddo's love her tons)

 So, as of now I have no schedule to really speak of.

Next year I might try the unorganized approach to the fall and see if things work out a little better.

What would happen if ?????

So I wonder what would happen if after your mom tells you not to get into the chips on the counter you decided that you know better and get into them anyways.  Yep you guessed it...the corner.  

With the girls I did time out and the corner all the time.  We did not spank because I have always had mixed feelings about it.  Now that we have a "boy" there are times when my cute little boy has to get his bottom spanked.  The corner is now a place he does not like to go.  He hates not being able to watch what is going on in the house.  When a momma finds something that works....she uses it.  This momma does not like sneakiness and I sure don't like chips hiding behind the back while we deny we have any chips.  "D" found out the hard way.  

However, while his cute little nose was in the corner I took this picture :)  Could not resist he is even cute while in timeout.  

Saturday

The day started off very good.  I went for coffee with my good friend Julie.  I love just sitting around drinking coffee and talking with her.  After that I went to Meridian to help out my friend Nickole with a party for her son Conrad.  He is leaving for the military on Monday.  We have connected lately as we both are watching our kids grow up and leave home.  

I did not get home until around 5:30 pm tonight and I was exhausted.  A friend from church gave the kids some toys that they loved having "new" toys to play with when we got home.  One of the toys was a Thomas the Train play house.  I thought from the looks of it that it was just a small tent that could go up in our living room.  It turned out to be a little bigger...    

Flowers

When my hubby came home from work today this is what he brought.  

I sure am a lucky girl :)

Livingston's Update.....

That boy is so darn cute :)   

Today was D's first day of preschool.  He had a great time today.  He worked on the letter B.  He is all about playing with friends so this is right up his alley.  Mrs Heather, his teacher said that he did very good today.  Mom was glad to hear that because he can be a handful.  Darius is excited about learning and is excited to tell mom and dad everything.  

I have been asked several times recently about whether we are still homeschooling D and the answer is yes.  He only goes to preschool one day a week for a half of day.  It is while I'm working so it gives him something to do and I get help one day with schooling.  

David and I have been loving how social D is and how well he adapts to different situations.  He loves people and does very good with different situations.  He started Awana's this week and enjoyed it too.  He has memorized 2 verses already and this Sunday will only be week 2 for him.  He is going to get his Cubbie vest and book this week so pictures will follow soon.  

Cynthia has had a great week too.  She started BSF last Wednesday and did great.  She has not liked us dropping her off anywhere (to include the nursery at church, where I work).  She yells and screams and throws herself down until I feel bad for the volunteers and go get her.  The past 2 weeks have been great.  I have been able to drop her off with little fuss.  I'm hoping that she is growing out of the fit throwing stage but who knows.  She has definitely gotten better but we are not out of the woods yet.  

David has been a huge help in our new "Normal".  He is getting up in the morning and getting the kids up and  feed before we all have to leave.  I'm not a morning person, ask anyone who knows me, so this is a huge help to me.  He is picking Darius up from preschool and having lunch with him before bring him to me on Tuesday's.  This gives him a little one on one time with the boy, which D loves.  We have managed to stay relatively sane during this transition period, which is good for everyone :)

The girls are doing great at college.  

Jelissa is doing good at her job and they have even tried to promote her already to customer service.  She is not sure she wants to take it yet due to the lack of flexibility.  Jelissa likes her roommate and they seem to get along good.  Jelissa has began to come out of her shell some and meet new people.  This has been a big answer to David and I prayers.

   Lakeisha is now working a chic-fila.  She was not getting enough hours at the ice cream place so she went looking for a new job.  She loves where she is now.  She has a set schedule and has tons of flexibility.  Keisha is enjoying her new freedom and is hardly ever found not doing something.  She is a social butterfly and finds delight in being with people.  She has chosen a church home in Joplin and has talked non stop about it every time we talk to her.  We love this,seeing to how Kristie was gone a full year before finally this semester settling at a church.  

Speaking of Kristie....she is still a very happy girl, who won't admit it, but has a temper. She has lost her temper a few times with her sister since they have been there.  She is a good sister but sometimes worries to much.  She is still figuring out how it all fits together with them being there.  She loves her job and had her 1st Tuesday tour last week.   Kristie is loving college and is always looking to see where God is leading her.  

So there it is the Livingston's Update.  Life might not go the way we hope all the time, but it's ours and we'll keep it.    

September 18, 2010

Today has been a very productive day.  I stayed home all day and have enjoyed myself a lot.  I got to do whatever fit my fancy.  I love days like today.  The kids stayed in their PJ's all day...and we are not even sick :) 

Here are a few pictures.  Remember it was a do as I want day, so therefore, I did not want to do my daughters hair :)

This is a cherry/walnut sour dough baguette.  It was so yummy.

My hubby talked me into making a Cheddar/Jalapeño sour dough bread.  My in-laws gave us a bunch of vegetables out of their garden.  One of the things they gave us was lots of jalapeños.  I was told that they were extremely hot so I only put a little over a 1/4 cup in the bread.  The bread turn out really good but I think next time I will put in closer to 1/2 cup or more of the jalapeños and maybe even more cheese :) 

I had a bunch of strawberries so I made tried to make more jelly.  It did not set very good so it will be more for toast, ice cream topping, or syrup for pancakes.  

I have been looking around at different homeschool blogs.  I can across a blog where a lady was talking about how much her kids loved playing with peg boards.  I took one look at them and knew I had to have them.  Darius and Cynthia both like playing with thing they can manipulate.  I sent David a picture and told him what I wanted, and he went to work this afternoon.  I have to say that they turned out incredible.  Both the kids liked them a lot.  

  

                                

                                                                         I did warn you about the hair :)

Selah~All My Praise

I woke up this morning and heard this song. 

Wow!!! It is incredible how God uses songs in my life to bring such comfort.  Sometime when I'm at my lowest I have had a tendency to forget that I'm not alone.  God is with me and he is the ultimate comforter.  I praise my God today for His intimate relationship with me.  I praise my creator that when I have days like today that He knows my innermost being because He created me.  Thank you Lord, for being there even when I feel alone, in my thoughts and in my situation.  You are worthy to be praised. 

Joplin Pictures

Darius and Cynthia are sleeping so I started working on getting pictures up on my blog from our trip to Joplin.  We really do like the town and feel good about our girls being there.  I took these pictures with my video camera so they did not turn out very good.  I'm still posting them since they are all I got.  Having good days and bad days with the girls being gone.  I was told today that it does get easier.  For that I am extremely grateful. 

We left really early, 4:30am, thinking that Darius would fall back to sleep and we would get several hours out of the way.  Boy were we wrong.  That boy talked and talked and did not fall back to sleep until around 1pm.

Keisha did not have a hard time sleeping

A park we stopped at for gas and run around time for Darius

Keisha in her dorm room.  She had so much stuff and she was on the 3rd floor.  I was so glad when her last bag was upstairs.

The house where we stayed in Joplin.  It was beautiful

I have great video of Kriste trying to get in this raft thing.  It's so funny.

He love Grampa Stan who was there in Joplin dropping Jessica and Luke off.

Darius and His Gramma Ruthie.  He loves her

.  

This is a picture of Kristie's roomate with her brother Luke, who is a freshman this year too, and their mom Ann.

This is Kristie's roommate Jessica.  They have been friends since 8th grade.  I absolutely love that girl.  She is a great friend to Kristie.  

These are the pictures we took right before we left to come home.  I was beginning to realize that I was going to be leaving a huge part of my heart in Joplin.  

I think it was starting to set in for the girls too.  Everyone wanted to hold the brother.  He had no idea what was coming.  

College Girls

Well, it's just one of those days when I sit down and look around and just miss my girls.  I got to talk to each one of them today, which is rare seeing to how my youngest college girl forgets to do so regularly :(

Anyways, they are all doing good, some missing home more than others.  They are such good girls and God is doing amazing things in their lives right now.  I miss them dearly but love that they are starting this new adventure.

Thank you God for such amazing girls. 

Happy Apple Farm

Cynthia was not out of the car 5 minutes before she found her 1st apple.

Daddy and the kiddo.  They still have their apples

Darius was not sure about picking up apples off the ground.  It was a perfectly good apple

Enough of the pictures..Let go pick apples and berries

Ready for the tracker ride :)

The boy with his Mommy~~I love this kid

We thought it weird that he quickly feel asleep.  We decided it was because he had talked non-stop from Colorado Springs all the way to the Apple Farm.

Cynthia decided that she loved raspberries.  She quickly figures out which ones she could eat and which ones she better leave alone

She got hot quickly and found her own shade!!

Darius woke up and we knew right away something was not right.

We offered ice cream from the shop and he turned it down.  That's not good.  Time to head home :(

Going down with a Blaze of Glory :(

I could not get his fever down and thought I would have to take him to the ER. 

I finally got a hold of our favorite Doctor "Mrs Golda", at her house how amazing is that,  as we were beginning to head out the door for ER.  She decided she could treat over the phone and will keep in touch over the rest of the weekend.  After following Golda instructions we finally got his fever to start coming down.







The Good News is I made this....

Raspberry Jelly Pan....Finger Licken good 

Homemade raspberry jam.  It tasted great.  We are all set for winter...bring it on