Journey to Excellence

Give us three rhyming words that say something about your Thanksgiving holiday (or your most recent holiday gathering if you didn't celebrate Thanksgiving). Squabble, gobble, wobble. What's a holiday without a little family disagreement? But it was all good and we enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend together. My older kids had the funny idea to put two lemon halves under the skin of the turkey breast to make a "female" turkey ... *ahem*! It was so disturbing, but very funny. But it made the turkey really sour. We won't do it again, but it garnered some laughs. And, of course, after eating until we could burst, we definitely wobbled for a couple of days. I think I am still wobbling. When did you last say, 'the more the merrier'? Did you mean it? I don't remember the exact time I last said it, but I do say it pretty often (or something with the same meaning). I don't always really mean it deep down, but I try to be all-inclusive so if someon

On November 8, my last Tuesday Coffee Chat post , I talked about some of my plans for doing something for myself. That was the challenge. I rambled a lot in my post because I had been feeling very blah/lost/apathetic/etc. I just hadn't felt myself for quite some time. My goal was to read a chapter a day out of A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George and allow God to be infused more into my daily activities. So, how did I do? I did not read a chapter a day. But, I did start reading it and have been reading it slowly and absorbing it into my life. It's a good book with lots of insight. Throughout my reading I realized some other things I need ... * I need to lighten up about relationships and just allow them to be what they are, to allow people to have the flaws that they have and worry more about my own flaws than theirs. * I need to start my day with God so have been enjoying a daily devotional sent right to my phone via Joyce Meyer's app. It s

Santa came early and I got a new laptop! Yay! Now I can actually start blogging again without saying lots of bad words and considering throwing my computer through the window! It's been a grueling several months babying along my old Mac, and my new MacBook Air is amazing! I don't have any photos on this new computer yet, and I am NOT going to rev up the old one to send myself some photos. So this will, hopefully, be the last photo-less blog post. I mentioned in a previous post that we are ahead of schedule this year with our hours. That feels great! So we didn't stress when we took a full week off for Thanksgiving break and previously had to take almost a full week off school for sickness. In most subjects we have been moving along steadily completely a lesson each week. We have been doing lots of reading, researching historical events alongside the show Timeless , enjoying astronomy and Greek Mythology, and learning more and more about Missouri's history. Pre-Al

For the month of November, Leslie at Tuesday Coffee Chat is asking us to choose something we want/need to do for ourselves and to concentrate on that for the whole month. Then we can check in each Tuesday for a progress report. This election has got me, like most people, feeling a little discombobulated. I feel all out of sorts. Where are we headed? What are we doing? What will become of us? I have a sinking feeling that if there was ever a time to get close to God and get right with Him it would be now. Now is the time. I think we are going to need Him. I know that I need Him, but I think I am going to need him more and more as time goes on. What is it going to take for Him to get our attention? He's got my attention. I want to be so close to God that I have an unshakable faith in Him and all He allows to happen in my life. I want to be the recipient of His blessings, but also His protection. I cannot change the world. I cannot change any other one person. But I can

Do you know who hasn't made an appearance on the blog in a while? ... my opinionated, possibly evil twin sister, Nellie. And she has some things to say. I have to warn you: Nellie does not have a filter, and she's been quiet for too long, so gird your loins. I saw someone post their early voter sticker on their IG account today with the caption that they "threw up in their mouth a little" when they voted. That made me mad. Grow up, people! We have four candidates in the presidential election. Do your research, pray, and then vote, unabashedly. If it drives you to the point of vomiting, then sit this one out. And then don't bitch and moan when things happen that you don't like. I am a Trump supporter. There. I said it. I am not choosing the least of two evils. I am not vomiting on my way to the polling place. I have researched these two candidates and what they can do for me and my family, and I have decided that Donald Trump is the one to do it best. If y

Our family spent an afternoon at the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, and on Halloween we had a nice night of trick-or-treating. We headed to the patch on a nice 88 degree day. Yuck. It wasn't quite the flannel-shirt-wearing day we had hoped for, but enjoyed our time anyway. Collin's parents and brother, Austin, joined us. The big hit at the patch is always the tall slides. This year even Bennett got to ride one with his mommy and daddy. This little guy enjoyed his first trip to the pumpkin patch. We had a nice night celebrating Halloween. Dawson had to work, and Eli was recovering from being sick and didn't really feel like doing the whole costume thing and trick-or-treating. He hunkered down in his room playing video games instead. I was a grandmummy even though Collin, Kyndal, and Bennett spent the evening with Collin's family and Bennett's cousins. Wasn't he the cutest hobo you've ever seen? Brynne, however, was up for

In my quest to get back into a regular blogging schedule, I realized that Tuesday Coffee Chat is back this fall! I've missed some weeks, but I would have anyway because of the whole "I haven't felt like blogging" thing. And, of course, today's topic is a doozy. How do you handle your failures? Are you a crawl back into bed and wait for it all to pass kinda person? Or are you a jump immediately back on the horse sort? Well. There was a time ... quite a long time ago ... when I did not know failure. I was full of confidence (possibly arrogance) and just plowed forward through any failures and mistakes I made. Things didn't shake me or deter me or knock me down. I just believed that I could do whatever I set my mind to do, and I did it. And when I failed I just kept moving in that direction until I succeeded. Somewhere along the way I realized my lack of invincibility. I even began to look back on past successes to realize I was the only one who th