When the cats away....

....mom cleans. :)

So the time when I am the most productive are the times when Nathan is gone. I guess Id rather be hanging out w him when he's home than doing anything else so not much else gets done. It's prob a good thing he doesn't work from home...we'd prob be in trouble!

Well, last time he left, I decided to change around the rooms downstairs. Tiernans room consisted of his queen sized bed and dresser and then a bunch of boxes (filled with stuff I'm selling on eBay). It was an eyesore of a room. Plus him and Jaeg never really slept in their bc they'd sneak over to the others boys room after we put them to bed. So I decided to put all the boys together.... I connected the 2 sepate beds back ino a bunk and moved the queen bed and dresser into that room. Then what was tiernans room was changed into a playroom for the little kids. The other playroom has things like the trampoline, fooseball table, etc & not so much room for the little kids stuff. 

So I stopped at a couple thrift stores and picked up a couple things, painted a couple helps we already had, and voila! A little kids playroom :)

After I took the bed out...

A clean slate!

The big kids playroom..

At 10 months, Selah

Today I had Annette over for coffee, was nice time visiting. Then the rest of the day consisted of regular day to day things and planning some fun for us next spring :) we aren't going anywhere but are prepping to make ourselves a little "home away from home"...more thoughts on that later :)

Enjoying Daddy Day

Today was a nice relaxing day at home, enjoying the time we get with Dad. He has 64 hours of hot time left in the apprenticeship and he will be done!! 4 years in the making. Not sure where the next step will take us, we will have to wait and see where The Lord leads. 

There's a fine balance between letting the kids enjoy dad as much as possible and trying to get "us" time in. Today we decided to rent a couple movies for the kids so they were occupied and then we were able to sit and chat and actually we took a nap! It was so nice!

The weather was extremely warm today for it being the end of sept, 83 degrees. It was perfect to sit on the deck and drink a cup of coffee together this morning. After Selahs morning nap, we drove out to the land and walked around, dreamt about where our future house will go, where the animals will be fenced in, etc. the kids had fun playing in the trees and on the rock pile. 

Then we went and got milk (the kids just *had to get out of the van which lead to Tiernan picking up a stick and swinging it around and not paying attention to where Jaeg was standing...which lead to him smacking Jaeg right in the face with the stick...poor kid). After milk we picked up some Arby's and Culvers for a late lunch treat and back home we went.

Once it started to cool off outside, we played some quick kickball in the backyard and went for a walk. I wanted to walk a good ways, a few miles around a loop near us. B & C decided they didn't want to come with so we let them stay home. (When we got back, C exclaimed "we didn't even sneak any food! Only water!" Lol) But after we started out, we got about 1/4 of the way and A started fussing and whining and just stopped on her bike and refused to go any further. We kept walking awhile but then figured we should turn around and try to go on a walk in the morning when the kids are still sleeping!! Is there such thing as the 'terrible 5s'??

Now Nathan is downstairs reading "the little house in the big woods"...the first in the series, while I clean up, write this post and watch this sweet girl....

I swear they all have their own beds...and I tell them each night to *stay in their own beds....they love sleeping on the floor next to each other and in front of the fan. 

Airplane tour

It was 7:30am and I got a text from Ana's husband Caleb saying that he wa at the airport right next door and that he's be there for another hour or so if I wanted to take the kids over to get a tour! Couldn't pass that up! So I whipped all the kids in the car, drove the couple mins over to the airport and walked right out to see the plane! The kids loved it, esp Tiernan!

Ana's parents and sisters also made it out. 

The kids liked walking around the outside of the plane too but we decided that them walking underneath it prob wasn't the best idea. Caleb says "yeah if this antenna were to break off, it's about $50,000 to replace...conservatively." Ok then!...kids get away!!

Every Day: Intentional

Hahaha...Day 2...and that was almost a month and a half ago...ahhhh...I make myself laugh...  Ok, no more expectations of when I'm going to write.  And as always, this will be random bc I have limited time...of course.

So Nathan's almost done with his apprenticeship...let me say that again...HE IS ALMOST DONE WITH HIS APPRENTICESHIP!!!!  You know...that thing that we moved back from VA to start??...over FOUR (4) YEARS ago!!!

78 hours of hot time to go....and counting!!!!  He hates being away and we will ALL be happy when he is home forever!!

Selah is crusing along furniture at almost 11 months and will stand by herself only when she doesn't know she's standing by herself.  She's got 4 teeth and loves to grind them.  She loves to eat and is mostly on Melissa's frozen breastmilk that she has so generously given us!!  Selah still nurses but mostly at night, when she's up once or twice...or 3 or 4 times if she really doesn't want me to get any sleep. 

The kids started back at school...they are going to Petra again this year.  The are seemingly loving it and having a great time.  Caedmon still has he "hates" school but as soon as we get there, he shuffles out and happily goes and the teacher sees no attitude during the day so we just say 'whatever caedmon'.

Jaegers vocabulary is growing...talking better than Brayan did but not as good as Ariella.  He's getting there though.  He's really such a good boy.  Will nap without trouble and usually listens very well.  LOVES gma and gpa...but I mean, who doesn't??  Speaking of which...they still go to my parents one day a week for school and Jaeg is the first to want to do the school song.

I have the salon for sale. I know, it's only been a handful of months...the slow months at that...but I need to focus on other things in my life.  I have been prompted by more than one person (including the Lord) to focus elsewhere and start a blog/speaking about finances and simple living and I finally launched my blog yesterday.

www.EveryDayIntentional.weebly.com

I'm excited to see where that goes.  I'm also excited to start teaching more FPU classes this fall, along with some basic budgeting class for the public.