It makes you feel violated again and again.

How is this for a wake up call, "Honey, did you have anything valuable in the van?" "Just the GPS and some Christmas presents, why?" "Somebody went through the van and the car again." "How can you tell?" "The glove conpartment and the center console were open in both and things had been thrown around. I found my missing sunglasses." "You're kidding me!"

Apparently in their haste, they did not look up and see the GPS, but still, this is like the fifth or sixth time since we have lived here the past few months. The problem is that the greedy owner of the subdivision refuses to finish what he needs to to have the subdivision turned over to the sherriff's department cause that would cause him to spend his precisious money, so there isn't much they can do to protect us. We have had things not only stolen in the night (including my wallet at one point) but some neighbors have had people go through their house during the day and one had someone try to steal their trailor when they were home. Luckily they came out to see what was going on and it scared the guys off. We have been having so much crime. One of the times they caught the guys. Turned out to be a gang and ended in a shoot-out a couple of blocks from here.

My question is, how do I protect my family? Ben is gone so much thanks to the Army and these guys hit both day and night. When we had a dog, that didn't help. I am worried about something happening like what happened at a neighbor of my moms a few days ago (in Idaho!). A guy tried to sell her books, she said no, he pulled out a gun and forced his way in, tied her up, gathered what he wanted to steal, a honking horn scared him, he ran off and she was left there tied up until her kids came home. What would have happened to us if he had done that and discovered I had kids here?

And to make matters worse, we can't call the police from here cause it is long distance! Our cell phones don't get coverage from here and if you call 911, they tell you to call the sherriff who is long distance! Who does that?! Seriously. Anyway, so I feel very violated and dead set on finding a way to protect my family. We have no money to do much, but I will figure something out. Don't you dare mess with my family!

Talk about last days...

For those of you who believe in the prophecies of the last days before the second coming including the constitution hanging by a thread, take a look at this:

http://parentalrights.list-manage.com/track/click?u=00f9e4541df7da80194807124&id=277bbf2671&e=7053fb7be6

Now that is scary!

Our accomplishing day

Our day began with homeschool as usual. We were able to get a good amount done. When I was helping Israel with his math, he was getting frustrated. He gets frustrated extremely easy. Today was no exception. He wasn't understanding so I decided to have him take a break and go play. He played for a while then came up to me and answered the problems in his head. He suddenly understood. That wouldn't have happened had he been in school and was forced to do it on their time instead of his own. He still loves math but I have no doubt he would not if he were in school.

Then I put dinner in the crockpot and set my homemade bread out to rise. I got a HUGE amount of cleaning done, then taught the kids how to make homemade butter, which we had with the homemade bread and some jam I had made and canned earlier this month. Oh it tasted so great! Followed up dinner and bread with homemade fudge. Mmmm. Finally, Ben came home after his finals today just in time for Luci to take her first three steps! She is finally starting to walk! She went right up to him and took his hands and had him walk her to me. Then she turned around and walked to him by herself! We were so excited.

To so many, this may seem like a dull day. Most don't understand the joy of being "just a housewife" but they are missing out. I have tried different things in my life and nothing has given me greater joy than being "just a housewife". We are truly a happy family in every sense of the word.

Post office field trip

Yesterday we went on a field trip with our homeschool support group to the Post Office in Opelika. It actually was very interesting. We got to see how they sort the mail. Did you know that they put the letters into a machine and the machine takes a picture, reads it, and sends to where it is supposed to go? Never even read by a human. It even sorts it by where the address is located so the carrier doesn't have to. And it does it so fast! 36,000 letters per hour! You should see this machine work.

After we saw the machine, we went upstairs and saw where the post office boxes are and even got to ride in the huge elevator they use for mail. The pictures above are when they allowed the kids to cancel some letters (post mark them). They each got to but Celestial was so short I had to hold her up so I didn't get a picture of her. Anyway, even I learned a lot about how a post office works. We really enjoyed it!

Then we got to finish the day by picking up a Christmas tree from base (they have free trees for the military), taking the kids to tennis, then going home to decorate the tree. We had quite the busy, fun day.

High aspirations for a 3 year old

I was spending my special one-on-one time with Celestial playing with play-doh. I was asking her all sorts of questions. She decided I am supposed to have two more kids, both boys. I asked her what she will be when she grows up. She said a mommy. I asked her how many kids she is going to have and she said 10, 5 girls and 5 boys. Wow, that's a large family I said. This is what she said, "Yeah, basically I am going to be rich." I laughed so hard. Then she preceded to tell me she is going to go on a mission and baptise someone who will then become a bishop, then become a mommy, and get this, then she is going to find a cure to cancer so nobody has to die. All this came from my three year old. Straight from her mouth! Talk about high aspirations for a three year old!

Must see Video

My brother, Jared made this for the school he teaches at for Veterans Day. It is really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPF9ZImm5z8&feature=channel

He also made this one for Ben while he was in Iraq:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGtA5RnHh8o

And this one of his family that I love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlxOvGZLcys

Israel Dude

My kids pick out their own clothes in the morning and this morning was no different. Israel got himself dressed with a hat on backwards and his dogtag from his dad and came up to me and said, "Do I look like a dude?" I said yes and then he said, "I have flip-flops on and dudes always wear flip-flops."

Those of you who know Israel well I am sure can hear him say it. He just cracks me up sometimes.

I don't think he meant it that way...

We were trying to get the kids to go to sleep tonight and the older two girls decided to sleep in the living room. I said ok. After a while, we could see they weren't going to sleep anytime soon so Ben had me turn off the music he had on and he decided to turn something on the tv for him to listen to while he worked and to put the girls to sleep. I don't think he realized at the time exactly how true it was. He put in the DVD from one of the general conference sessions we had while he was in Iraq and what do you know, the girls were asleep in just a couple of minutes LOL.

Field Trip and Halloween

So, Halloween was a big day for us. We started with a field trip to Tallassee, AL. They taught the kids about the civil war and "enlisted" them in the army.

Can you figure out where my kids are? They had these kids yelling "Yes sir" and really into it. They taught them how to handle a gun and sword. It was great!

They then taught the kids about the tons of different flags the confederate army had, taught them all about canons and even shot one, then about camp life, and the medical part. The last station they played the banjo and sang some old songs. It went pretty well other than my kids being hungry and thirsty (it was lunch time) and towards the end, Eden had a huge fit cause she wanted her friend to come over and I said not today cause it was Halloween but another day and she went nuts. I had to have another mom take my other kids so I could go deal with her.

We finally got back to the van to get our lunch and my van key was missing. It had fallen off the key chain at some point. All we could figure was that it had to be in the big field somewhere. So I went looking with a couple of the workers while my kids stayed with the other kids and shared their lunches. We looked for hours and couldn't find it. A friend of mine has AAA and she called them but they couldn't help cause it is a dealer only key. So she called the dealers closest to us but they didn't have any in stock. We had no idea what to do and we were about two hours away from home in the country.

Finally, one of the guys pulled up in a truck and asked it I wanted a ride to where my key was. I was so relieved! He had gone over by the van and kicked it up out of the grass. I was never more excited to go home.

As soon as we got home, it was time for trick or treating. Eden went as a ballarina (she lost the angel costume I bought her), Israel was a dragon, Celestial as a dinosaur, and Luci was a ladybug. We went with the neighbors around our neighborhood. Ours is a big hit every year. People come in with the back of their trucks full of kids dragging a trailer full of kids and just let them go. Some people give out these cute little goodie bags instead of just candy. They have stuff like bubbles, straws, stickers, toys, etc in them. I haven't seen Halloween this fun ever in my life. We really enjoyed it!

After we got home, we settled down and watched "A Corpse Bride", which Ben picked out and relaxed. It turned out to be a pretty good day.

Our strange, warped children

So we already knew that my children are a little different. After all, that is what happens when two people like us get together. Anyway, the reason for our latest "ok my kids are really strange" incident was today. It started with Eden. We tried to give her her alowance and she decided she didn't want any money. Instead, she wanted to do more chores. Her favorite is the kitchen and she spent all day working on it and got upset when we made her stop. She also cleaned the office, living room, and dining room yet still refused her allowance.

The second came from Celestial. She didn't want to go to bed as is typical but Luci was already asleep so she asked us, "where can I cry cause I don't want to wake up Luci". She just wanted us to tell her where she could go to throw a fit so Luci wouldn't wake up. What three year old cares about waking someone when they want to throw a fit. Then, she looked at Ben and talking about me said, "she is awfully serious". What three year old says that?! Anyway, I could go on but I think you all get the point, my kids are strange!

A Homeschool Friday

One of the great things about homeschooling is that it can be so laid back. That works out great for our family cause we can get overwhelmed pretty easily. Today was one of those days. There is so much to do around here and people kept calling and it was turning into one of those days for all of us. The kids were on edge and it wouldn't be a very productive day if we stuck to our "typical" schedule. So, instead we worked on some chores and then took some letters out of a banana game we have (similar to scrabble) and let the kids see how many words they could make with the letters. I read to the kids and we just took it from there.

I love being able to take ques from my kids and teach according to what they need and not what some stranger thinks my kids should be learning and how. My kids have always enjoyed more of the hands on stuff rather than book learning the way most public schools teach. I also have been able to learn so much through schooling my kids and we are so much closer than we would be if I sent them off every day to come home just in time for dinner and bed. I can't imagine letting society raise my children instead of me. The world is so much worse than it was when I was a child and it was bad enough then. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying homeschooling is for everyone. For some families, public or private school works fine. Some people think I am crazy, but I am just doin' what I think is best for my family as I am sure they are doing for theirs. I wouldn't have it any other way.