Thanksgiving

My Mom and my MIL and my nephew are all here. They have been here since Saturday and we have been oh so busy....

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will be back on Friday or Saturday!!!!

Dreaming of a Debt Free Christmas

Late today. It has been a crazy crazy day today. I guess that means it was a normal day! As of right now, Jenna is at the Harry Potter Premier, hanging out outside the theater with some friends, waiting to get it. Hopefully she has fun waiting in the cold, in costume, for 4 hours (she got there at 8).... I have no doubt that she will! (I am sooooooo jealous that she is there and I am here with little kids and no babysitter!!!)

Anyway.

My thing this year is that I want to have a stress free and debt free Christmas. We do not use credit cards, but we usually end up borrowing money from one of our Mothers just to make sure we have everything covered. I really want this year to be more low key. I want to concentrate on time with each other, gifts from the heart and giving back a little bit. In addition, Braeden gets so overwhelmed with all of the chaos and confusion on Christmas morning that I want to make it a little easier for him. Less presents to open, more time to play with each present before tearing in to the next. Less pressure for him. My Mother and MIL will be here for Christmas as well.... for the first time ON CHRISTMAS MORNING since Braeden was born. That will be enough excitement in and of itself!

We are cutting back on the number of presents we purchase for the kids. And I will be making several items for each of them. I want lots of activities and experiences in the days leading up to the holidays, less importance placed on the actual gifts.

So, do any of you fabulous people have any suggestions on new traditions, new activities, frugal gift ideas, crafty fun or any other Christmas stuff? Leave me some links and I will love you forever! And I promise to link to the items I will be making and give a full run down of our plans sometime soon.

Right now I have to go see why it sounds like elephants on parade in the boys' bedroom.....

Obligatory Mommy Bragging

All of my regular readers have probably been introduced to my daughter through guest posts or links. But new friends.... I am going to introduce you today! AND I have some major Mommy bragging to do! So hold on to your hats.... and meet the Faerie Girl!

My daughter, Jenna, is 16 going on 30. Well, some days she is more like 16 going on 5, but that's just fun! LOL She is a Senior this year because she skipped most of the 7th grade. She is a goof and a dork. She is bright and beautiful. She is pretty damn awesome and really impressive if I do say so myself! She lives out loud and doesn't care what anyone says. She respects herself and expects others to respect her as well. She cares deeply about many different social issues and tries her damndest to change the world. She is a talented and ambitious writer who awes me daily. Even while she irritates the crap out of me with the teenage drama!

She has... ummm..... well, three blogs that are openly public, but one of those is linked to a forum. Her personal blog is The Delusional and her writing blog is As The Plot Thickens. She also owns and moderates a writing forum called Quill and Ink. She owns and runs a website for a project she is doing called The Juniper Project which is all about Guerrilla Art. She writes for the Yahoo! Contributors Network (used to be Associated Content) for free until she turns 18 and can earn money there! Her personal web site is HERE. You can click on any of the links to get to know her.OR, you can click on any of the following links to read some of my favorite posts from her blog:

Love is in the Air, I'm Wearing a Gas Mask
Babyface
I've Got a Sword, Fool
Politics, Religion and all that Other Good Stuff
Don't Eat the Red Snow
The Journey
Kicking Down The Door
The Snotpocalypse

Now for the REAL bragging! If you follow me on Facebook then you have probably heard all of this already, if you don't follow me on FB then why not?!? LOL (Click on the Stalk me here tab up top for a link to my FB page!)

Jenna was accepted to The University of Tampa and will be studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Writing. That was exciting enough! Then we found out that she was accepted as an Honors student and was awarded an $11,000 (renewable!) Presidential Scholarship from the school! That's my girl!

So, while that scholarship will not come close to paying for her education, it will be a major help. She should qualify for full financial aid (we are poor) and is applying for numerous other scholarships. We are fully confident in her ability to fund her college education through her academic achievements and her writing ability. Those scholarship essays should be a breeze! So, while she is stressing out to some degree, she is also pretty proud of herself. And so am I.

In addition to that, she also participated in NaNoWriMo again this year. For those who do nto know, that is National Novel Writing Month where you are challenged to write a novel of 50,000 words or more int he space of a month. This is her 3rd year. I think. She succeeded in writing her 50,000 words in the space of 4 days. Yes. FOUR DAYS. Granted, it is an extremely rough first draft. But, damn.Then she proceeded to get sick with walking pneumonia. Told her she was working too hard.....

I would love it if any of you should feel like leaving a comment for her! While she can be an irritating teenager, she is also pretty awesome.

Tomorrow I am writing about Christmas and my dreams of it being a debt free holiday this year so make sure you wander by and check in!

The Maiden Within

Hiding in plain sight
camouflaged beneath layers of responsibilities
and mundane daily life

Parent teacher conferences
steam cleaning carpets
potty training
searching for meaning
underneath couch cushions
and mountains of dirty laundry

The dancing Maiden of my youth
has given way to the Mother of today
hiding within and awaiting
bending but never breaking
hiding but never forgotten

Blog Revamp

I have been struggling to get the blog all prettiefied and organized over the past weeks. With all of the sickness in the house it has taken some time! And, obviously, my month of thanksgiving has suffered due to the illness in the house as well. It's all good.

I am about to take the blog to the next level. I am ready to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I plan to start doing reviews of the books I am reading, menu planning and recipes, some videos of the kids should migrate here soon and I really want to host some giveaways. I also plan to post some of my poetry again. Maybe some crafty posts to show y'all what I have been up to with my sewing? Who knows what will show up over the next few months!

I have redone my links to the blogs I follow. I have them separated into different categories and hope to keep them that way. Maybe that will help me visit each of you more regularly! There is no guarantee, however, that i did not accidentally delete someone in the process. If you visit and your blog is NOT listed in one of my blog rolls, please let me know! I will rectify that.

Please comment and  let me know what you think of the new design. If you have a blog button that I am not sporting here then let me know that as well!

I should be visiting everyone on my blog rolls over the next few days to play catch up and visit!

I am also looking for awesome blogs to read. Whether they are frugal blogs, mommy blogs, giveaway sites, blogs about autism or just funny..... please share links with me! Please? I am in need of new reading material! LOL

I will leave you with this picture of Braeden from Halloween. You can't see it to well, but he got a hair cut. No more long curly hair. Which makes me cry. But he's pretty damn cute anyway!!

Sick House

Malachai has been sick for 2 1/2 weeks. Braeden was sick for a week and is better now. Steven is sick. Jenna got to take her first trip to the ER on SUnday with a temp of 106.4 and I was terrified! She has walking pneumonia. Which Mal now has too.

I am thankful for antibiotics and digital thermometers.

And I can't wait until all of these people in my house are well.

I may be coming down with something too.... send healing thoughts.

(But at least my laptop survived the great coke debacle and is back home with me in one piece!)

Bloggy Thanks

I am, obviously, in the midst of some bloggy housekeeping. Feel free to let me know what you think as things move around and change up a bit!

My thanks today go out to my fab daughter, Jenna, for being willing to tweak my template and move things around based only on a vague description and arm waving comments..... you rock babe! Now, what in the world will I do when she goes away to college next year?!?

Giveaway of Awesomeness!

Thanks to a bloggy friend for sending me over to this really fab giveaway.... Rune Soup is giving away a ton of great magickal items from Florence! Go check it out. Enter.

(and if you win, remember I sent you over there... LOL) (Just kidding)

Seriously. Go. Check it out!

Why are you still here?

Thanks for Day 3

Today I am thankful for the internet. I think without the internet I would have gone stir crazy many many moons ago! Today is just one more long day in a long line of long days filled with whiney kids. The boys are feeling better but still not 100% so they have spent ALL DAY LONG whining at me. And being unhappy about everything. Poor guys.... but they still make my ears bleed!

So, thanks to the beauty of the interwebs... I have kept myself sane today! I was also able to purchase (for my Mom) a plane ticket for Jenna to go to Florida in December. And I won several giveaways on blogs. And told some jokes with some people on FB. And and and...... played games.

And I am no longer losing my mind!

Thanks you interwebs for saving my sanity (and therefore very possible the lives of my chilluns) (jk) (mostly)

A Month of Thanks - Day Two

Today I am thankful for Braeden's Behavior Therapist. Really. Not only does Mr. Sergio work with Braeden and us every week, he also goes out of his way to work with Braeden's school. Today is just one example.

Sergio and I went to Braeden's school today to observe several different classrooms. Since there are some concerns with the class that he is in, we wanted to know what the other options are. Once of the classes that we observed was a "behavior class". This class has 7 children in it and two full time teachers. This was what the principal was suggesting as an alternative for Braeden. The classes use the same curriculum as the regular ed classes and work specifically on overcoming behavior issues to get the children into regular classes. Since our issues with the class Braeden is in now is that it is using a different curriculum and is not working at grade level, it seemed like a good option.

After observing the classroom, we walked outside, Sergio looked at me and said "That is NOT the right place for Braeden." I wanted to hug him. My instincts were telling me the same thing and it was great to have them validated by a professional.

We then went to Braeden's regular classroom and observed. Braeden was not there today as he is sick, but we got to see his teacher in action, how she works with the children and what they are doing. The difference between the two classes was amazing. Sergio leaned over and said "We need to keep Braeden in here."

When all is said and done, our worries are that Braeden will slip through the cracks academically. He is already a little bit bored with the work he is doing in class. However, we can work on that. We can do extra work at home, he can have more challenging things at school that still fall within the curriculum, etc. That we will address in a meeting with the teacher next week. Along with adopting a specific behavior plan and writing very speicific and measurable behavior goals for his IEP.

The main thing we decided is that he NEEDS to be in the class with this teacher. She is wonderful. And we know she cares about Braeden and wants what is best for him.

So.

I am thankful for Sergio. For having him there to back up my instincts. To help me feel that the decisions I am making are valid. To ask the questions that I would never even think of. And I am thankful that he so obviously cares about what is best for Braeden.


Sorry this isn't very cohesive, I have been trying to write it all day in between sick kids and running errands, meetings and phone calls. So, I am not even going to attempt to proofread or rewrite.

How was your day today? Did you find anything new to be thankful for?

A Month of Thanks - Day One

This month I am determined to remember the things about my life that are wonderful. With that in mind, every day I will be posting about something I am thankful for!

Today (the day after my anniversary), I am thankful for my husband. He is the one person I have ever been with who is willing to put up with, and even revel in, my weirdness. He likes the fact that I am a bitch. He lets me do what I need to do. He makes me laugh. His music makes my soul sing.

Without Steven I would not be the woman that I am today. Even on the days that I am really irritated with him, I still am thankful that he entered my life and woke me up. He has helped me to grow. He has helped me to realize dreams that I never knew I had. And he supports the dreams that I am following now.

He makes my life complete.

What are you thankful for today?

A Fresh New Month

It's a brand new day and a brand new month! I am keeping my spirits up this month and staying positive. I have a feeling that this month will bring GOOD things to my family. The past month or two have been rough. Deaths, sickness, depression, mourning, stress and money problems have made it difficult for me to stay on top of everything. It's time to wake up and be one with the world again. Time to make my to do lists, take care of business and then find the time to play a little. Time to get my act together for the up coming holidays. Time to be happy.

What are your plans for this month?