Getting back on track

It is amazing how a series of tiny differences can add up to make your week a mess!
whatever that last holiday was (yes I should know but it isn't even 6 am yet and my brain hasn't turned on yet) we decided to take advantage of the amazingly warm weather and go to the zoo. Originally when I planned this and invited all our home school friends I had no idea it fell on the holiday and therefore had no idea that a lot of people wouldn't be working and kids wouldn't be in school. I just thought it was warm, sunny, and Monday in January and the zoo is free.... let's go.
I will start off by saying it was incredible!  I loved it, but man were my mommy skills challenged!  There were so many people at the zoo it was hard to move around! Especially when you had 13 kids to watch! Now I wasn't the only mama watching them all, we actually had 6 adults in our group. .. but wow!
And I won't even tell you about our adventures in the parking lot where the spaces were painted so long ago that not even a small car has enough room to open a door without hitting the next car over. A friend has had to leave her infant car seat (infant inside) on the ground back up her car to open the door and then put the seat inside! How scary is that? I would be FREAKING OUT!
Anyway zoo on monday, grocery shopping, babysitting a couple extra kids, and visiting a few friends on Tuesday,  and by Wednesday I was on adventure withdrawal.
Does anyone else get that? Am I alone on adventure withdrawal?  If I has a series of events that get me going or raise my adrenaline and then follow that with a day of absolutely mundane every day stuff... I get antsy and won't do a thing the way I am supposed to.  It happened immediately after Patrick and I were married, he thought I was going crazy or in a huge depression, which in a way I was... All that planning, preparing, celebrating and excitement that my biggest dream was coming true, then the honeymoon and touring the area, and then home and back to work. .. and doing laundry and dishes (for two now) I was down... I needed an adventure and quickly.
So the zoo and visits with friends is a much smaller deal than my wedding obviously,  and the feeling down stuff didn't last long, just all day Wednesday!  Which meant my dishes piled up, my floors got dirty, my laundry did not get washed, Caeden actually finished school when he was supposed to,  and though that was AWESOME,  it left me with nothing I HAD to do the rest if the day and I was bored out of my mind...lol
No more today though.
So far today I have put in a load of laundry, gotten dressed, loaded the dish washer, done my bible study, and let the dog out.... and of course written this... and the kids are still asleep.   my last two goals are to clean off the table and to fold the load of towels I took from the dryer.
And it is only 6am.. why can't I be this proverbs 31 woman every day..?
Good morning!  Have a cup of tea and wake up at your pace... before your kids. From my experience your day goes much more smoothly.  Or at least starts out better.

Letters to Jesus

It is time once again (and long overdue) to share a letter to Jesus.  Every morning I try to wake up before the children and spend some time reading God's Word and reflecting on the day to come and where I need him most in my life at that time, the result is a journal of letters I write to God.  Some of them I think are helpful to others and I share them here.  Enjoy the read.
"Dear Lord Jesus, ruler of all,
When that woman was about to be stoned and you forgave her and the men who dropped their stones walked away, you were full of mercy, something not all Christians have been able to grasp.  But I am seeing now why it could be hard to understand.
Ephesians 5:10-13 says "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful acts of darkness,  but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible. "
This sounds like we should expose other people's sins, but I believe we are meant not to tell of their sin, but rather expose to them that the action is sin. Not to shame them as your word says: but by being the light of Christ we can tell them there is darkness, but we do not have to live in it.
Ephesians 5:14 "For everything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says "sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. "  "
Expose the sin simply by being the light that shines bright enough to give the sinner a way out of the sin.
I never paid much attention to the particular words of Ephesians 5:33 either until now either, and I see how they are incredibly needed.
"Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband. "
Love comes easily to most women,  we give it freely to our husband, our children, our families and friends. What is not natural is respect.  We love our husband deeply, but when he does something we don't like, or forgets to do what we ask him to do we resort to nagging, the evil eye, tattle telling to other women,  withholding our bodies, and clinging to the offense. None of this is the respectful character you have called us to.
And husbands should love their wives. .. but they respect more easily than love.
When Patrick and I were first married he came home from work wanting intimate details of my day. And I didn't have anything to offer the conversation. So I would ask him to take out the trash or help with dinner, he would walk away and watch TV.  All of this was incredibly frustrating.  I thought he was wanting to spend time with me or show me he cares but really he was showing me I was his equal (asking about my day and sharing his with me) and not showing me love (helping me with my work).
We all need to be careful to meet the needs of those we love.  "Men love your wives" and " women respect your husbands". How else could we do this but with you Lord Jesus?

Love,
Samantha"

This letter is my personal thought on the word of God as it pertains to my walk with Christ. I do not claim to know your life or how you should live it, I do hope my thoughts are helpful to you, but if anything I have said offends you I pray you can see that it wasn't meant to do that, but instead to encourage and bring you closer to the love of God.

Clean and homey

I feel bad it has been so long since I have updated this page but everything has been incredibly busy and incredibly wonderful!
I am not what we call a crunchy person. .. but I am learning so many things in the art of home keeping lately that it makes me excited to tell you all the wonderful things I am learning.
I hate cleaning bathrooms,  and hate scrubbing things even more... I mean come on who wants to spend the day with chemicals and strong odors and a sponge that seems to do no good? Not me.  But then thanksgiving came.
I hosted thanksgiving twice this year. Once for our friends and once for my cousin and her family, the closest and only blood relatives able to travel and spend the holiday with us.
Thanksgiving was awesome by the way.  But Friday evening I learned what is possibly the best cleaning secret on the planet.  Baking soda!  Yup. This amazing cooking substance also scours pans, counter tops, teapots,  and glass electric stove tops!
Just a small pile of this lovely stuff a wash cloth, and a tiny bit of water and a but of elbow grease.  And all that built up cooked on, stuff that even the amazing  Dawn dish soap doesn't lift, is magically done forever! Well until you cook it on again anyway.
So after that amazing discovery I had to use it on EVERYTHING! And use it I did! But my fascination did not stop there... There had to be other tricks no one ever told me...
Pintrest helped out by giving me a list of cleaners I could make on my own. I have only tried one but it was so simple and wonderful I fell in love!
1 tablespoon dawn dish soap
2 quarts of water
1\4th cup of vinegar. .. Mix well and store in a spray bottle. .. works great for so many things.  Pintrest said it was a glass cleaner and yes it works great on glass, windows mirrors you name it, but what else? Apparently carpets!
My daughter spilled my delicious mint flavored hot chocolate on my carpet.  I SUCK at carpet stains and totally freaked out. Normally I would make my husband clean up the mess so it wouldn't stain, but he wasn't home. The only option left was to try to clean it myself.. I grabbed a wash cloth and the first cleaner I could find which happened to be this mix, spray spray spray and like one of those fake commercials the color of the chocolate on my off white carpet completely disappeared,  and I mean completely.  I sapped gently with the wash cloth and it collected the chocolate color and my carpet was left amazingly clean! Now I will say it was not an old stain I don't know if it would work on a old stain but I can say I am SOLD on making my own cleaners!
That of course could not stop my excitement,  I quickly budgeted a few extra things into my grocery list and made my own laundry detergent!  And yes I am totally sold on that too!  I followed a Recipe that includes Borax, washing soda, baking soda,  and gain crystals with Fels Naptha Soap that I grated with my cheese grater... and u will be using this mix Forever!  Only thing I would change is the amount if gain...next time just 1 bottle instead of two, the smell is good but too strong.
The rest is history!  I am turning crunchy by accident!

Happy birthday to my little girl!

4 years ago today I had the most amazing little girl.  Though life threw her a few lemons she has made some spectacular lemonade!  Her personality warms my heart, I know that one day she will be an amazing wife and mother, or really anything she sets her mind to.
Yesterday she took her baby doll to the chiropractor with her, after our appointment she needed to go potty, I took her to the bathroom and there was a changing table sitting off to the side. She laid her baby carefully on the shelf of the changing table (she couldn't really reach the top), proceeded to go potty, and then announced that baby needed a diaper change.  She careful set baby off to the side of the shelf,  laid out baby's blanket nice and smooth, then put baby on it, lifted baby's legs and said "eww, that's yucky". She pretended very gently to wipe baby and replace her imaginary diaper, then she lifted baby off the shelf the way only a mother does to be sure the baby's head doesn't fall back, cover the doll with her other blanket, and announce that we were all done.
I can't tell you how excited I am to not only give Fia a cabbage patch kid for her birthday, but also to give her a nicer stroller and car seat for Christmas! 
Her mother skills are not all I love about her though. Fia has an awesome sense of fun, and her humor is so sarcastic but sweet at the same time.  Her laugh makes everyone smile, and though she has the determination of a bull dog, she also has the compassion of a dolphin.
4 years old! Gosh she is growing so fast!  I had no idea how quickly she would grow out of that sweet toddler look she held on to so well,  but she is a child now, no longer rounded like a baby, or uncoordinated like a toddler.  I am so in love with her!
Happy birthday to my big girl Fia!

Here come the holidays!

Oh how I love this time of year! And finally I am 'home for the holidays'. That makes it even better!
Four plus families that when I left had only just one child are now 2-3 children bigger. All of them though separated for a time are now back together. .. we are family. .The real kind. Not just by blood, which is generally how family is formed, but bonded by the blood of Jesus, transformed by the word of God, and united by years of friendship. 
I know my blood family is a little offended that I choose to live closer to this make shift family,  but I just know this is what my own family needs for growth and contentment. People that support their mama and daddy, people that speak the truth in love,  people that care, not because they are obligated to but because they want to.
Though we all have our differences and quirks we really do love each other, and that is important.  Some are more distant than we would like, some are more busy than we hope, some have different plans for their family than we do, but we love one another, truely deeply do.
I'm so glad to be home! I'm so happy to celebrate this holiday season with our family.   I pray you are all where you need to be for this holiday season as well.

School is in session

I have been too busy to blog much lately.  My intention was to build garden boxes, clean the yard, and begin to turn this house once again into a home, then also to turn around and do all the same for my friend who was arriving shortly after us.  Man was it a lot of hard work, and the work isn't nearly over, not for me and not for my friend.
I accomplished all of my goals but the building of my garden boxes. The wood I intended to use was so rotted out that it would never have made a good box, it never would have even held nails without splintering and falling apart. I can't afford the cost of new wood at this time either so the boxes will have to wait.
Today we start school again. We have had a nice long break, though I intended to continue having Caeden read during break I did not so he will be frustrated with that I think. He already has recognized that his best friend is reading without much difficulty and is sad that he doesn't think he can read at all. He said to me the other day "do you know what my secret to reading is?" He was trying to convince me that he can not read at all. "I just remember the words.
I should be honest with myself and admit that half if this statement is bad and the other very good.  The bad half is that when we read stories he does memorize the whole story and recite it as we work our way through it. The good is that because I force him to point at each word as he reads he sees the words as he says them and when we start a new book he quite often remember the words he used most in his last book. So he is, in spite of himself, learning to read.
We also do spelling words which he is required to read so we are reinforcing a lot of words as well, without a story context.
Today we start in slowly.  We have reading, math and spelling only. 20 mins. Of reading and math each. And writing out spelling words 5 times each.
I have a lot to prepare this morning so we can be done early enough to get to our chiropractor appointment.  So please have a beautiful day!
Samantha Mehaffey

Oh yeah... we made it here.

Well our drive with the kids and a 36 foot 5th wheel was amazingly smooth.  We arrived on time and in good shape if not a little dirty from no baths or showers on the road.
A few things happened that I hadn't thought out well,  and had little control over. First I got a head cold. ..yuck. no one else got it though so we managed quite well.  But then dear old aunt Flo decided it was a good idea to join us on the trip.  I won't explain any deeper but suffice it to say that she wasn't welcome. I also forgot to call the gas company before leaving and since it was the weekend while we traveled I never was able to set up an appointment to get it turned on. Fortunately our friends in Oklahoma allowed us to shower at their home.
We initially illegally parked the 5th wheel at our house blocking the driveway mailbox and the entire yard, after unloading most of its contents we found a storage facility to park it at. 
A major mishap happened in delivering the 5th wheel to its new home. A gorgeous Victorian mansion was sitting to the left side of the road and very out of place considering the buildings surrounding it, I was busy ogling it when I realized that our destination was actually coming up quickly to the right. I slowed, but Patrick saw the same gorgeous house and didn't see me slowing. I realized moments too late that he was not able to stop and slammed on the gas,  the effect only barely helped.  The heavy 5th wheel drove the truck forward despite Patrick's effort to stop it and the end result is that I spent a week looking for a new car. The children are all safe as are Patrick and I, even Boomer was ok.
I love my new car! It is an 03 honda pilot. I might have preferred to purchase one a little newer but Hondas don't run too cheap.  The kids fit wonderfully in the 2nd row but there is a 3rd row should I need it!
Aside from wrecked cars we have had a number of other adventures, the latest is a stomach bug,  doesn't seem to last long but it's a doozy.  This comes at the same time that we realized that our fridge wasn't working properly and we had to defrost it for 48 hours. Before you draw conclusions about the fridge and our tummies it seems to be coming like a virus, we didn't all get sick at the same time. It started with Fia,  then the boys both got it. Fia is fine now and Micah is also on the mend, however Caeden is taking a while to get through it and I now have it, but so far Patrick seems unfazed (at least now).
We also have a lack of storage for things like home school supplies. .. but it's coming along. 
We still need to find a washer and dryer, and I still have some garden boxes to build.  I had planned to make them out of the old fencing but it is too far gone to be useful.  So I'm searching for used wood in other places.
So many goals!  I also have started some diy projects.  The first us the hall bathroom. ..had I not been bombarded with sickness this week the first project of the room would be finished. .. but it will take some time. I can't wait to show you what I'm doing!