THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for toilet paper. What's something that you're thankful for?

SONLIGHT GUEST BLOGGER: MAY 2018

No. Yes. Both words need to be said and the key is to know which word is appropriate in the moment. My posts on Sonlight's blog in May talk about the importance of each word.

Saying No Creates Boundaries of Freedom for Your Homeschool 
Saying Yes: How to Enjoy a Flexible Homeschool Schedule 

Which word is the one you need to work on saying more often right now? What are some ways you're actively working on either your no or yes?

Disclosure - I was invited to be a guest blogger with Sonlight for one year in exchange for some free curriculum. All post topics and opinions are my own. If you are a first time Sonlight customer, click this link and use referral code BW20197051 to get $5.00 off your purchase of $50.00 or more. That referral code is totally separate from my role as a guest blogger and will give me credit toward my own purchases. The referral code can also be found on the sidebar of my blog.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful we have enough, and usually far more than enough. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

HAPPY MAIL

When was the last time you sent happy mail - a note of encouragement, a message of gratitude, some random chit chat - that had nothing to do with holidays, milestones, or obligatory thanks? If it's been a while, I highly recommend you do it soon. Mark your calendar or set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself, if that's what it takes, but get it done. And do it regularly, whether that means once a week or once a month. You'll be glad you did, as will the recipients of your happy mail.

COMPROMISE

Naomi wanted to play in the sprinkler. I wanted the van to be washed. We were both thrilled with our joint decision to have her get wet while washing the van.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for baking soda and vinegar to clean our home with. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

THE READING STOOL

This stool was a somewhat impulsive purchase at WinCo about 12 years ago, something I just happened to pass in the seasonal aisle the same week I'd realized we needed a stool. It's been put to good use for the purpose it was intended, but this view is my favorite. Each little W has had a season of sitting on the bottom step and using the top step as a desk while they read to me. I love it!

MOTHER'S DAY - 2018

Motherhood has been more challenging than usual lately and I generally feel unqualified for the job, but that's life. None of us are qualified if it means responding maturely to every frustration, being consistent in what we say and do, or knowing how to address various challenges. Parenting is humbling, showing us our own weaknesses through our kids, and it's clear that I have no shortage of weaknesses. So what we do? Just keep moving forward, even when if it's one step forward, two (or ten) steps back. Apologize when we need to. Cry, laugh, pray. And then do it all again the next day.

In other parenting news, last year I was taller than all four little Ws and Devon was in his fourth year of being taller than Silas. This year Devon and I are looking each other in the eye (he's leaning over in this picture) and Silas is taller than both Devon and I. Passing me up in height isn't a huge accomplishment for the general population, but it's still a big milestone when my own kids start doing it!

Also, they made cheesecake for me. Yes, they did. Tim and the kids all rallied at the end of a long Saturday to make their first cheesecake ever, a tasty lemon lime concoction that we all shared on Sunday.

THANKFUL THURSDAYS

I'm thankful for JP Sears' "Ultra Spiritual" videos that always makes me laugh. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

CINCO DE MAYO - 2018

Silas and Devon were out of town for the weekend and I had a ton of stuff to get done, so Tim offered to head out with Naomi and Tyler for a while. They walked downtown to enjoy our community's Cinco de Mayo celebration. Face painting, music and dance performances, good food, free swag from vendors, and running into friends is what filled their entire afternoon.

Meanwhile, I stayed home and got a whole bunch of work done. I would have enjoyed going, but having solitude and uninterrupted work time was bliss at the end of the week. They came home briefly from this outing, then rode bikes to a park for a while. Came home briefly again, then left to pick up a free pizza for dinner. Such a good day for all of us!

ROMANS ROAD

The kids and I have been working on memorizing these verses, referred to as the Romans Road, the last few weeks as part of our school day. We started with the first one,  me writing it on the board and each of us saying it once each morning until we reached a day where everyone had it nailed down. Then I wrote down the second and we started working on memorizing it next. Our approach varies from day to day, but we've been doing it pretty consistently and now we all have the whole thing memorized. Put us on the spot and we may mess up, but that's fine.

Some days we all took turns saying the new verse, other days one person went down the whole list from the start to whatever verse we were currently working on, and sometimes we all said all of them. We usually went oldest to youngest so that the younger kids had more opportunities to hear it before saying it, but often the youngest was the one to correct the rest of us when we got things mixed up.

As valuable as memorization is, regardless of what it is one's memorizing, I confess that we don't really do it around here. Scandalous, I know, but that makes this little accomplishment even better.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for lotion. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

A FUN TEAM MEETING & A SHIFT IN MY BUSINESS GOALS

I attend a monthly Pampered Chef team meeting that I love going to. It's a great time of encouragement, training, eating, laughing, and visiting. Naomi always tells me that she's going to join my team when she turns 18, so I thought it would be fun to bring her along for one meeting. This month's just happened to have a pink theme because of a Help Whip Cancer promotion that's going on in May. That color is right up her alley, so I asked if she wanted to come along. Not only did she join me, but she dressed in pink from head to toe. I love that girl!

What I didn't know was that Tim had been scheming with some of my teammates for several weeks to make a guest appearance. He walked into the meeting, which I might add is almost an hour away from our home, to congratulate me publicly for my recent promotion, present me with some beautiful flowers, and let me know that our family will be paying for me to attend Pampered Chef's National Conference. They also had him share a little bit about what it's like to be the spouse of a consultant, so he spent a couple minutes talking about that.

Trips like the conference aren't in our budget, I'm not putting my Pampered Chef income toward it because I'm focused on #BracesOnFaces, and there's no way I could justify spending family money on a trip that was only for me, even if it's business investment and tax write-off. My plan was that I would pay for it out of our savings account, then reimburse the total from some money that's just mine, money that never gets touched, but Tim is making sure it all gets paid for out of our family budget.

Tim's not the wordy one in our marriage (understatement of the year, I know), so to come and say a little something to the team, and to be the one to initiate the whole thing is a big deal. To make the money end of things work out when we're not a family with that much wiggle room for non-essentials is a big deal. To support and encourage my endeavor in a variety of ways, especially after many years of me supporting his (which is fine and I'm not complaining about), is a big deal. The whole thing was super thoughtful and I really appreciate it! I didn't think to get a picture taken at the meeting, so I had Silas snap this one when I got home.

Team meetings are always fun, but this one was better than most!

On to the next thing.

We haven't had health insurance through an employer in about 5 1/2 years and have received it through the state instead. I simultaneously love and hate that, as I don't want to be supported by tax payers at all, and certainly not for this long, but it's also been nice to know that the rare times we need medical care would be paid for. Just like when I didn't use all the food stamps we were offered several years ago and asked to be taken off the program once we didn't absolutely need that assistance anymore, even though we still qualified, I never want to take help any longer than I truly need it.

On Saturday we received notice that we no longer qualify for free healthcare because our income is too high and our coverage will terminate at the end of May. Ordinarily I'd be thrilled to get that news, but I felt like I'd had the rug pulled out from under me. My attempts to meet one specific need in our family ended up sabotaging the provision of a different need. So discouraging! I spent most of Saturday in tears, just incredibly frustrated. There wasn't anything unfair about it, but it was still a bit of a shock.

Tim and I talked when he got home that evening. I chatted with the director team I'm part of a little later that night. I got a good night's sleep. I had a relevant Bible verse pop into my head completely out of the blue. I got some facts about our options moving forward. I asked Dad for his opinion. I talked to Tim again.

As of now, the plan is that I will continue my Pampered Chef business. However, braces will have to become secondary to health insurance premiums. We're eligible for a discounted premium, but we still can't afford it with our regular income. So, as I always explain in my live #BracesOnFaces updates on Facebook, my paychecks will still go first to tithing, second to charitable giving, and third to a little bit of business overhead. However, the balance will no long go all toward braces. Instead I will pay for our health insurance premiums, then put the remainder toward braces.

That's obviously going to slow down the pace of saving for braces, but that's fine. My pace has been faster than my goal anyway, but it's not like it actually matters how fast it happens. Silas has braces on now and I'd like to get Devon's done sooner than later because his mouth is so messed up, but I hadn't originally planned on having money for his until September 2019 anyway. We'll be ready long before that, despite the shift in how my paycheck gets spent.

Even if Naomi could get braces soon, and we don't know if she could because she hasn't had a consult yet, she doesn't need to. Tyler obviously has many years to go before he's ready, so we'll just stick with our plan to save and then set the money aside.

So, that's that. We'll just keep taking Pampered Chef one month at a time. I'll do my best and we'll see how it plays out for our family.

52 HIKE CHALLENGE - APRIL 2018

April marked the first month we missed a weekly hike so far this year. Frustrating, but life goes on. Maybe we'll pick up an extra another week.

Hike #14 - 4/15/18 - Memorial Park
1.60 miles this day
33.80 miles this year

It was a little drizzly for this post-church hike, but the downpour held off until we were back on the road and headed home. We've been to Memorial Park countless times, but had never hiked the trail along the river before.

See that sign near the top of one of the pilings? That's where the Willamette River crested in the 1996 flood.

For reference, here's Devon standing below the sign. I don't know how deep the river usually is in that place, but he's a little over five feet tall, so that gives you an idea of how much water was raging down the river that year.

Just another dirt path through trees. My happy place.

Hike #15 - 4/19/18 - Basket Slough
2.50 miles this day
36.30 miles this year

We planned on doing Morgan Lake Loop and the Basket Slough Trail, but missed the path for the Basket Slough portion. Such is life. We didn't bring binoculars, but this is prime bird watching territory.

I prefer forested hikes over open ones, but the wide open space was nice this time around.

Misuse of quotation marks aside, this sign near the end of our hike made me chuckle.

The beginning of the hike was muddier than expected, so we took a quick shot of our dirty shoes before hopping in the car to head home.

Five minutes later we were calling a tow truck because we'd been forced off the road. Good times.

Hike #16 - 4/29/18 - Cooks Butte Loop
1.80 miles this day
38.10 miles this year

The big boys were gone, but the rest of us busted out a quick hike before heading home after church. This hike wasn't long, but it had some elevation gain, which I always like.

It's hard to see in these pictures, but this rock has a bunch of things carved into it, such as "All things wise and wonderful"  and "We better learn to laugh". Super neat!

Oh, you know, just my usual trail and trees picture.

I asked for a picture and got a "let's be tough" pose.

There we go!

The parental units.

By request.

The view from the parking are, which we didn't realize until we pulled up would include our church as a speck in the distance.

Hike #17 - 4/30/18 - Minto Brown Island Park (Orange Turtle Loop)
3.50 miles this day
41.60 miles this year

The river, a slough, trees, flowers, open spaces, and kids who ran as much as they walked. It was a perfect way to spend a Monday morning! We'll definitely be going back here to hike some of the other loops.

Predictable? I prefer to say consistent. 

Can you see the osprey next at the top of that pole? We could just barely see a bird's head moving around in there.

Blurry, I know, but I don't care. Four little Ws all running down the path at the same time made me smile.

Naomi, looking at the creek bed, "Wow! It looks like a desert!"

"Check out the foot prints!"

"Big ones and little ones!"

This is the fallen tree that led us to the view of the slough in the previous picture.