Christmas Eve is finally here.  I have thought alot this year about the birth of Christ from Mary's point of view.  The reason for this may be because my favorite Christmas song is "Mary Did You Know?".  I wonder if Mary knew everything her son would go through in his short life and how important he would be to the whole world?  Having a small son myself and wanting him to grow up to be a good Christian man I can imagine the dreams that Mary had for Jesus.   

Something else I have thought about the last few Christmas' is the fact that Jesus came to us knowing that He was going to suffer and die on the cross for me.  I love all the songs that talk about Jesus coming just so he could die on the cross for us.  One that I am thinking about right now is "Born to Die" by Ron Hamilton.  I just thank God for sending His Son to us to die on the cross that we can be saved.

So I wish everyone a Very Merry CHRISTmas and please remember what Christmas is really all about. 

We have started back to using ACE paces this week and it has been GREAT!  We have gotten school work done everyday and today we got it done before Daddy got up about 11:30am.  It has been such a relief to get back with a curriculum that everyone is comfortable with.

We have had colds going around some, but so far no one has been seriously sick. Thank God!

The kids are looking forward to Christmas.  Just about every day Chase wants to know if tomorrow is Christmas.  It is going to be a long month.  LOL  John put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving so that is what got him to thinking we were getting really close.  I have showed him on a calander how many days he has, but he still thinks it should be tomorrow.  I do have most of my shopping done so we could have Christmas whenever, but we will wait. 

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season. Remember...Jesus is the reason for the season.

Not much here.  We are going to try and make it to church tonight.  The last few weeks we have been down to just one vechicle so I have not made it to church on Wednesday nights.  The kids asked about trick or treating, I told them if we are going into town for anything it will be church.  I am not apposed to trick or treating, but if I have a good reason to skip it I will. LOL  We always end up with so much candy that we are still eating it the next halloween or I am throwing it in the trash.  I guess if I just let the kids sit and eat all they want we would get rid of it faster. NOT!  They would be climbing the walls and so would I. 

Next Thursday I will hopefully be heading to Wichita to order my curriculum.  We have decided to take a break from school til we get our curriculum.  I don't know how some moms do without curriculum all the time.  It just stresses me out to do this.  I know we would never make an unschooling family, as much as this idea appeals to me. 

We did have a little excitement last night with our kitten who lives outside.  We have a screen-guard on our front door and some how the kitten had gotten between the screen and the guard.  I was afraid he was going to rip the screen up or hurt himself before I got the guard loose so we could get him out.  He survived the whole escapade without injury.

That is our life in a nut shell for the last couple of days.

Our lives have been pretty busy here lately.  We have decided to stay put for a while and make sure moving is what we are suppose to be doing.  My husband has been feeling that he had not prayed about it like he should have so we have gone back to praying to make sure it is what God wants us to do.  One thing I do know is that we have enough problems without living out of the will of God.

School is going pretty good.  We are still taking it pretty easy.  I received the Diagnostic Tests from ACE today so the 2 older girls have started on them.  I am hoping to go to Wichita in a couple of weeks to a motel meeting to place my order and save a few bucks.  I will be so glad to switch back to ACE.  It works best for our family even though I try to make other things work for us.  I have to accept that it is what my children do best with. 

I am going to try and post more often than I have been.  Sorry I have been away so long.

Am I the only one who wishes there were less choices for curriculum?  I am definately not one of those who only want one, just not as many.  As I mentioned a few entries back we have been wanting to switch to Bob Jones DVD, now that we are going to be moving and will probably end up in a smaller place than what we have now for a short time I am not sure we will have enough room for all the books that would come with the switch to dvds.  I am thinking of going back to ACE for a while.  I am also considering maybe using Switched on Schoolhouse for my oldest.  My kids are wishing I would just make up my mind and go with it.   The one thing I like about both of these choices is that I can test the girls and put them in each subject at the level they need to be.  

 Ok enough about that, now on to other things that are happening in our life.

We have gotten quite alot of work done on the house to get it ready to sell.  There are somethings we have decided not to do and just give an allowance on the sell for it.  The carpets in the living room and one bedroom need to be replaced and there is some painting that needs to be done.   I would really like to have the house where we can start showing it by next week sometime, but I don't know if it will happen.  I feel bad sometimes, because there is so much that needs to be done that I can't do alone so I feel like I am always nagging at him about things that need to get done.  I am not a nagging type person, so that is really annoying to me.   He says it doesn't bother him, but it sure bothers me.

I have been trying to go ahead and pack up as much as I can.  I have given alot of stuff away and we have thrown alot away, but we still seem to have to much stuff.   Maybe some day.........

I am hoping to go to a friend's jewlery party tonight.  I have never been to one and I am really looking forward to it.  I have several things I need to get done before then so I guess I will go for now. 

Why are Saturdays so busy?  I can remember growning up that Saturdays were always spent at home cleaning or doing other things around the house.  I keep thinking that maybe some Saturday we will be able to do something to spend the day as a family, but it hasn't happened yet. 

Tonight is the Independence Fireworks show, from what I have heard they have added it in with the Back-to-School celebration at the park.  So as soon as John gets back from mowing at the church we will be headed back into town to the park.  I would probably look forward to it alittle more if it wasn't so hot outside.  

I guess I need to get ready to go sit in the sun. LOL

Well after alot of prayer we feel God wants us to move.  The way things are looking right now we will be going to Wichita.  John is hoping to be able to transfer to Cessna up there, but if that doesn't happen he is going to apply at Boeing or one of the other aircraft plants.  We lived up there for a little more than a year about 18 months ago.  At the time I never thought we would make the move back there and it be permenant.  I have grown up in a small town so it will be a big change for me.  On the up side my brother and his family live up there, so we won't be totally alone. 

The actual getting ready to move is going to be more stressful than the move itself.  We are going to put our house up for sale right after Labor Day.  There are a few repairs we need to get done and some deep cleaning I need to do before we can try to sale it.  My husband and I are both clutter bugs to some extent so we have alot of stuff we need to get rid of.  We are having a dumpster brought out in a couple of weeks so we can just throw things away as we come across them. 

The kids are ready to load up and move today.  They were all excited when we told them we are going to be going back to Wichita.  I am hoping to be moved by the end of the year, but it will all be in God's timing.   I have found out it is alot better to go with His flow than to go against it.

We have not started school yet.  I know I said I was going to start this past Monday, but with the decision to move we didn't get it done.  I actually don't have all the curriculum I need for this year, because I changed my mind during the summer about what I am going to use.  It may end up being after Labor Day before we start, but I hope not.

These are the words that came out of Hunter's mouth when she came racing in the house last night.  Now to put some of you at ease, Bear is our puppy, a very BIG puppy.  He is half Great Pyranees/half White German Shephard.  He is only about 7 months old and we have only had him about 2 months, so we are still working with him on not "herding" the chickens.  Anyway back to my story, Hunter came in saying Bear had gotten in the chicken pen and got a chicken and killed it.  So I get my shoes on and run outside, get ahold of him and get him chained up so I could check out the chicken.  Only to find out that the chicken he had was one that I had found dead in the hen house a couple of days ago and John had "disposed" of.  So now I am thinking what in the world I am going to do with a rotting chicken carcus (sp?).  Anyone who knows me knows I DO NOT like dead things.  I finally spotted the scoop shovel so I got it and scooped it up and put it in a 500 gallon barrel out behind the brooder house.  I reminded John he needed to take care of it when he got up a little while ago, I guess I better ask again before we leave to go grocery shopping.  I sure don't want it to stay out there and start stinking.  Anyway that was the excitment of the day yesterday.  I have to admit I was very glad to see it was not one of my live chickens he had, because he would have had to get in the pen with them to do it.  Bear always goes out with me of a morning when I go feed the chickens.  He loves to jump at them while they are in their pen just so he can see them fly and run around scared to death, but when I go back to the house all I have to do is say "Come Bear" and he will follow me and leave the chickens in peace.  I really think we will be able to train him to leave them alone, it will just take time. 

Well, I guess I better go double check my grocery list so we can go shopping in a little bit.

Well, I am not having to start on the tomatoes as early as I thought.  I am going to wait til after John has gone to work and then get busy on them.  Our garden has been the best it has ever been.  We have lived here for 3 1/2 years and this is the first year our garden has done anything.  We credit it to the chicken poo we put on the garden last fall.  We will be able to do it again this year so next year watch out. 

I was hoping to go to church tonight but John's truck has a flat and needs a new tire so he has been driving my truck this week.  Hopfully we will be able to get it fixed this weekend.

I guess I am going to go fix lunch.  Everyone here thinks they are starving. LOL

Well I am finally taking the plunge and starting a blog.  I have been thinking about doing this for several months, but it is kinda scary thinking about everyone being able to read what you write.  I am hoping to add something to this at least once a week. 

We will be starting our school  year on August 6th.  We are going to be focusing  on Math and Language Arts for the first several month.  Science and History will be done with me just reading books out loud to everyone.  When we get our tax return in Feb. I am looking forward to ordering Bob Jones DVD for Shayla and Hunter.  I think they are looking forward to it also.  John has suggested dvds a few times before, but I did not like the way Abeka has theirs set up and just recently I got to view samples of Bob Jones and I really like them.  My biggest concern is the cost, but I think it will be worth it for the kids to get a good education.  I am going to wait to start Zoe in them next year and we will be able to reuse the dvds Hunter used this year, which will help with the cost.   

I guess I better go for now I will need to get up early in the morning and start canning some more tomatoes