Apparently I thrive on chaos!

Well since it's been forever since I actually posted anything worthwhile, I thought I would try to catch you all up. Things around here are never quiet!

We celebrated another birthday, last week! Raven is now six years old and fully prepared to correct anyone that makes te mistake of calling him a baby! He picked breakfast for dinner for his special meal and got to go on a special shopping trip with Dad.





Kids are all doing great in their studies. A's and B's across the board! We sort of have a working schedule, right now it's more of a suggestion than a schedule as appointments and field trips keep shifting everything around, but that's ok.

Chad had minor surgery on his knee at the beginning of the month. I am happy to say this one went way more smoothly than the last surgery. He was back up and about by the end of the day. He ended up taking a position at work that was less wear and tear on his body. The pay is a little less but there is more room for promotion there so I think it was a good move for him. It's nice not having him come home physically exhausted and in pain every night too!

The cut in pay was some incentive for me to get even more serious about saving money. Slowly but surely I am becoming the coupon queen! It's become a new challenge for me to see how much I can save every month. I faithfully read the blogs of large family moms and get great tips on ways to save. Our newest thing is prepaid electric. It's kinda cool keeping the kids involved in checking to see how much we are spending and finding ways to lower the costs. Tristan now hand dries the stuff from the dishwasher and they all help hanign laundry to dry. Luckily the weather had changed so we enjoy the breeze going through the house with the doors and windows open.

We all went to the fair last Wednesday. Our homeschool group went and it was really the most economical way for us. We paid for just the adults them the kids got in free. We took our own food and the kids got free rides for book reports. Ithink next year I might encourage the older kids to make something to exhibit. They are learning granny squares and can make something to enter. I will be posting pics in a few days from the fair.

Well, it's getting late and the kids are waiting for school to begin so I will end this novel for now.

Love and Hugs,
Mary

PROOF TO MY KIDS THAT I AM A SPELLING FREAK!

Your result for Could You Win The National Spelling Bee Test...

National Spelling Bee Champion

(Spelling)% Spelling!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Wow! You got all answers correct, making you The National Spelling Bee Champion! Brilliant Job!!

Take Could You Win The National Spelling Bee Test at HelloQuizzy

happy birthday AJ!

I am still around, just trying to tweak my schedule here and there to accomodate the million and two things on my "to do" list. Just when it feels as if I have all my ducks in a row, something new pops up and I have to fix it again!

So far my little "one room schoolhouse" works pretty well. The kids all have their own work areas now. Tristan works at the bar (a.k.a. the kitchen counter) with my laptop. Heaven is in the corner on the credenza with one of the school-loaned computers, and the second graders share the other school computer at the table across from me. My three wiggly kindergarteners, share a bench at my desk. A place of for everyone and everyone in their place!

Chad began a new position at the same company. Kind of a Sales/Admin position in the office. It's a bit of a pay cut but there is more room to promote, guaranteed forty hours a week, and behind a desk so not very rough on him physically. Which is good news because he injured his knee and will be going in for minor surgery in October.

As for me, I am hanging in there. I work my butt off teaching the kids and then try to find a little peace working on my afghan in the evenings. Since I made them for everyone else I decided it was time I had one for my bed. I am a little over halfway finished with it. When I am done I will be making some ornaments to sell for Christmas.

Last but not least, AJ had a birthday! My baby is six!!!! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Here are some pics from our quiet littl celebration and our Diamondbacks adventure. We made it though six innings on an evening game before the kiddos got really cranky, but for the most part we all had fun.

Aidan's car cupcakes. Dad forgot to buy decorations so mom had to improvise. Chad did bake the cupcakes though!

Love and hugs,

Mary

Still here just insanely busy!

I have survived a few weeks of school with the kiddos. We decided that the room we were using as the office was far too small for all of them so we switched with the dining room. It was a pain but now we are much more organized!

There are a few pics of my monsters hard at work!

I actually have a schedule now that I do my best to follow. I have failed miserbaly the last couple of days but hope to get back on the ball tomorrow. I think that the holiday weekend followed by park day and the first speech therapy all in one week threw me off. Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

This is going to be a pretty full month for us, we seem to have something planned every weekend (don't ask me how it happened!) and one of those is Aidan's birthday! We have free tickets for all the kids for a Diamondbacks game that day so I think that is what we are doing. We got them by doing the reading contest for the library over the summer. fun fun fun!

The park day was a lot of fun. AJ was mesmerized when the fire truck showed up and sprayed the kids and then he got to check out the truck up close and ask the fireman questions. He told him that he wanted to be one we he grows up. Out of all my kids, AJ is definitely the one who could be running into burning buildings (down the road of course) he has no fear!

Today Ash met her speech teacher, a very nice lady who Ashleigh seems to really like. She even comes to the house so I don't have to tow all the kids with me for therapy, YAY!

Here's proof that some of my kids can at least act like they like each other.....I couldn't resist!

Love and hugs to all,

Mary

Catching up!

Well we spent a better part of the weekend dealing with the tree. I am happy to say It didn't harm the house or the block fence, just raised our blood pressure a bit and made us work a lot in the crazy heat. We have most of it down except for the trunk, which is still crooked. Chad is looking for a way to knock it down without taking out any walls but I think it would look great as a totem pole, if only I could find someone to carve our faces in it, yeah it's crooked and imperfect, but it totally fits my nutty family!

In all the lumberjack fun we thought it was a great time to buy a fire pit (we have all this wood now!) Well, we have fired it up twice and had the police called on us twice. Apparently our neighbors don't want us out making smores! Each time the police were very nice, even cracking jokes about all the wood we have on hand and how much better the neighbors satellite reception must be! They saw that our little fire was contained and attended and went on their merry way. I have to say though, karma is probably gonna bite our grouchy neighbor in the rear!

I survived the first day of school with all seven!!!! It was a little rocky at first (mass chaos is a better word!) but by lunchtime, Chad was home and having all kinds of kindergarten fun with the three little ones! I did get a little sad when I realized I have no babies anymore, all my monsters are school aged:( but we had fun and got quite a bit accomplished!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

A very awkward way to introduce yourself to your new neighbor.

On the day after a particularly rough monsoon thunderstorm; "Hi we are your neighbors and that's our tree on your roof!"

Mother nature has a cruel sense of humor sometimes!

Mary

Here is Heaven's Birthday cake. This year she wanted to make and decorate it herself. She did a great job and had almost as much fun making it as eating it! She turned ten and is growing up way too fast!

And here is five months of my life! Chad's friend found out I could crochet and asked if I could make an afghan for his bed with his college logo on it. It was quite an endeavor as I have never used more than one skein of yarn at a time and I can't count how many times I frogged, but it's finished, it's huge, and I am really proud of it! He was really happy with it when he got it!