Sometimes you sleep during nap time....

And sometimes you don't.

What's in your queue?

We don't have normal TV. No cable or satellite, but we have Netflix and Amazon Prime so aren't hurting for things to watch. The good thing is we don't have to see commercials - watching those during the Super Bowl was enough "garbage in" for the year. We don't have to see news previews or any of that either, which I like.

I also like that we don't have to wait. We find something we want to watch and pretty much watch a season in a week. I'm not proud of this, but it's a fact. Big Daddy and I can watch a couple episodes a night and there ya go. Season done. It's mindless and relaxing at the end of the day.

Some of our favorites have been Psych, White Collar, Burn Notice, Suits...you get the idea.We finished all those and I haven't watched anything for the last few months (other than me watching Downton Abbey on PBS.com - lol)

So, what do you like to watch? Any good shows out there that we are missing out on? What are some good ones that we could get addicted to? ;o)

waiting

We found out little dude will be leaving us soon. We don't know when though, so are playing the waiting game until they give us our 5 days notice. Since we found out, there have been tears and anger and sadness and quietness and a mixture of the above from each of us. It's interesting to see how each of us are reacting to the news. People keep asking me how I'm doing with it and honestly, I'm not really wanting to talk about it. If I did, I would be crying all the time. We are talking about it as a family all the time and I'm keeping the communication flowing between me and the kids, but really I guess it is just that I don't know what to say when people ask. It sucks and isn't the way we would have wanted this to go. We never intended to adopt him or keep him forever at all...we want him to go back to his mom when she is able to care for him. We don't want him just being moved to a new foster home because "it's the law." That makes no sense to me when he is so settled here.

Oh well, God is still God, even when we don't understand. He sees the big picture. So, while we are waiting, we are just continuing to love on him with all we have and soaking up every day we get with him. We are trying to pour Jesus love into him and his mommy for as long as we are able. Please pray for him and his mom. And pray for us and the kids. People have told me (over and over) how hard it will be to give him back and here we are...and it's going to be hard. I've asked each kiddo separately if they want to get another foster child when little dude leaves and T and P said yes! C said he wanted to wait a while. We don't want to do anything they don't want to do. I asked him how long he wanted to wait and he said a week or two. LOL. I had already planned to wait that long. We need to decompress and sort of mourn the loss of this precious little guy. And to sleep. We may sleep til noon all week when he leaves!  But then, we will look forward to the next little one God allows us to love on and keep safe. It's an honor to be able to be used by Him to care for His children.



I heard this song again today and it made me tear up. We will just keep serving and worship and running the race marked out before us while we are waiting and taking every step in obedience. It's not easy, but it's what we feel like God has called our family to do for this stage of our lives.

We definitely appreciate the prayers for little dude and for each of us during this journey. Obedience isn't always glamorous or fun, but praise God, He never leaves us.

We are all waiting for something. What are you waiting for?  Remember this week to serve and worship Him while you are waiting.

Future Financial Advisor?

4th-6th graders from our CC community joined a local private school for a day running businesses at JA BizTown. This is such a fantastic program where kids go through classes for several months (19 hours) to learn how run businesses and be consumers in those businesses. They had to apply for and interview for jobs. This is our second year to go and I highly recommend it for anyone. Such a great experience for the kids.

This year, Terrific T was a Financial Advisor. He helped about 75 "citizens" to invest their stock money during the day. Everyone gets 2 paychecks during the day and have to open a bank account and deposit their checks. They get a debit card and checkbook to spend their money. There is a lunch break and then a shopping break during the day. It was a great learning opportunity for him and we all came home worn out from "working."

No time to waste. He got right to work!

Busy researching the stocks.

He gave a speech at the opening ceremony to encourage everyone to invest.

Took time out to vote. It's every citizen's duty to vote!

He has not wanted to sleep for 3 days because he was so excited that it was almost BizTown time. He just told me he is bummed because now he has to wait a full year to go again. LoL.

Monthly Oils update

 I posted a few weeks ago how the oils helped us beat what we thought was the flu. It was great and the oils were fantastic. Then a few days later, it hit again...P, B, T, and Me and I threw in the towel. I couldn't oil up consistently for all of us and we went in and got Tamiflu. I do think if I wasn't so worn down and could have stayed on top of it, we could have beat it with oils, but momma was tired...and done...and wanted drugs! We still used oils for symptoms (headache, aches, tummy aches, etc) but I wasn't up for filling capsules to treat the virus or rubbing everyone's feet. I was done. Bummer. I should mention that Big Daddy was gone the whole time too, so thankfully friends and family stepped in to help pick up well kids, meds, Sprite, bring meals, etc. We were very blessed.

So, how else have we used the oils this month? Well, Princess P woke up throwing up this weekend and with a horrible headache. We used peppermint on her head (diluted) and it felt much better, but she was still throwing up. I used DiGize on her tummy and she still threw up a few more times. So I mixed Digize and Peppermint and put it on her belly and she never threw up again. We diffused Thieves in every room and so far so good...no one else is sick. YAY! We will never be without Peppermint and DiGize in our house. They are awesome!

Cedarwood still is our go to for focus for T during school. I'm ordering Vetiver this month for some variety but Cedarwood is working really well. He went from "I can't think" to done with math in 20 minutes after I applied a little to his forehead and neck. Wahoo! Love that stuff!

Pine has helped me with several nights of sinus pressure. I put it on and woke up the next morning just fine. I should have put it on last night and am feeling it this morning. I'll do it now.

When I was sick, I quit on the lemon and peppermint pills. But I've still kept over 10 pounds off and people tell me almost every time I go out that I look thinner...even my face (thanks, mb!). I'm back doing it daily now and I picked up a glass water bottle at Target a few weeks ago so I've been drinking more water with grapefruit (and I usually add a drop of lime too, just because I really love the lime flavor). I haven't weighed in a week or so but will try to remember to tomorrow.

A big oil "win" was this spot under my eye. It was sort of like a skin tag but looked like a white head (ugh) and annoying. I have had it for probably 6 months. I use frankincense and coconut oil on my face as a moisturizer daily now, but one day I decided to put a drop of frank on the spot straight up. I also had a skin tag on my neck (man, I sound like I'm 90!) so put some on that too. After about 30 second, they started burning BAD. I went in and put coconut oil on top of them to sooth them and they were fine. The next day the skin tag on my next was gone and I didn't pay attention to my eye. I just noticed a few days later that it was gone too. Sweet! Side note...I put a drop of lavender in my mascara and look at the difference in a week. It makes your lashes thicker and your mascara last longer - Lavender really is good for everything!

 

Captain C went to an overnight youth conference this past weekend. Something about these events tends to bring on a migraine for him (noise, lights, lack of sleep, eating junk...not sure which). He woke up the next morning with an awful headache and put some peppermint on the roof of his mouth and it was gone. Praise the Lord. Those can put him down for a full day, easy. So thankful!

We also started using Thieves household cleaner this month and I love the results and the smell.

So far, we are loving everything about our Young Living essential oils. As always, if you want to order anything, I order on the 8th of each month (need to have your order by the 7th to get it in) and am happy to add it in if you are local, and will gladly pass along my distributor discount (24% off!). You can also sign up as a customer or as a distributor yourself and get all the perks for yourself. I have had several friends sign up in the past few months and everyone is loving it. The only complaint is it's so addicting. When you can stop a headache with a drop of peppermint on the roof of your mouth, it makes you want to see what else it can do! So much fun!