It's Been a While

I had another post in my head but decided to wait on it until I have more detail.  It occurred to me as I was writing that it's been a while since I have posted.  I thought I would give a few updates.

1.  I reactivated my Facebook account.  It happened back in October when my brother broken his knee.  I didn't know what was going on and Underdog had said he was posting on facebook about it.  So I reactivated it.  I wish I hadn't.  I am back into the same old problem as before. . .it's taking up too much time.  I am only on it for a few minutes a couple of times a day.  It's not even really the time.  Sometimes the updates that I give and that I read are rather pointless.  Some seem to be seeking attention (mostly mine.)  It seems to be that I have much greater priorities than posting on Facebook about how I am living out those priorities.  It is allowing me to stay in contact with one particular person so I will stay on it until I don't need it anymore.  I guess it's time to start working on my self-discipline.

2.  Facebook did come in handy at the beginning of November.  My brother had a double pulmonary embolism.  It didn't seem so bad at first.  Once my parents arrived to access the situation we learned it was really bad.  All this took place on a Sunday so we went to church.  In the midst of it all I was staying in contact with my parents.  I realized around noon that I just couldn't sit here anymore.  What if something happened?  Let me just say that I go to the most wonderful church in the world.  Two families stepped up to take my kids until we got back.  Another family took my girls to lunch while the family they were going to stay with got back in town from a trip.  Such wonderful people.

My brother was near death.  It's a very long story how that all played out but it still makes me cry when I think about it.  He was alone for quite a while as he waited to either die or for his girlfriend to be able to take care of the baby so she could come to the hospital.  The blood clot came from the knee surgery he had.  I guess he had what was called a saddle pulmonary embolism.  The clot sat between the two tubes that go to each lung.  By all accounts, he should be dead.  God took him to the brink and death and speared his life.  For that I am very thankful.  He will be here for Christmas and it will be a treasure to have him here with us.

3.  Jennibear is coming home!!!!!  Yea!!!!  She's no longer going to attend the university school we put her in in August.  This has been such a great experience for her.  It gave me time to get my ducks in a row.  I have been able to talk to God about why we're homeschooling, what learning looks like, and what I need to be doing with each child.  I will post on this more later, but I am thrilled with all that He's taught me.  The biggest problem with the school is that it was very disruptive for the rest of the family.  If Underdog couldn't take her or pick her up, I had to pack all the children into the van to do it.  That would put us out for an hour.  We lost so much time for their school.  That has actually worked out well because God is taking us in a vastly different direction than where we started with all of them.  It's exciting but still a work in progress.  I have much to prepare for the coming semester.

4.  Thanksgiving was so much fun.  I LOVE cooking that meal.  I cooked everything from scratch this year.  My brother was supposed to come for Thanksgiving but obviously he's still in recovery mode so he didn't get to come.  It didn't occur to me until Tuesday before that my parents now had nothing to do.  Underdog and I like to reserve this holiday for our family so my parents were going to spend that day with my brother.  Somehow I had given the message to my mom that they weren't welcome.  I could kick myself for that.  So I called her up and told her that they needed to come spend the day with us.  It was so much fun.  It got really cold that day so we had our first fire in the fireplace. (We've lived in this house for seven years and have never had a fire.)  They ate with us, played game with the kids, and even went on our traditional After-Thanksgiving-Day-Walk.  I just loved having them here and serving them.  I hope to get to do it again in the future.  Perhaps this day will be reserved for our family but it would be so much fun to have the rest of our family join us for this time.  It's my favorite holiday afterall.

5.  Christmas, so far, has been uneventful.  Granted, it's only December 3.  We have Underdog's work Christmas party tomorrow.  The whole family is going.  The following week, Jennibear has an event at church with her youth group.  The event is actually throwing a party for all the 4 yods through 5th graders at our church.  I am not letting my kids go.  I know.  I am horrible.  I have many god reasons for this that I will elaborate on at another time.  The weekend before Christmas, the children have their Christmas programs, and then it's Christmas.  The weekends are busy as usual.  We're making most of our Christmas gifts this year so that will also keep us busy.

So that is our update for now.  I will write more on the new diet changes coming our way as well as our new school model.