Mother's Day a little late

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 11:31

I had a wonderful Mother's day.  I didn't cook a single meal that day (my mom cooked lunch for us and my grandmother)  and got what I had asked my family for.  My garden!!!!   There was a down tree in my vegetable garden, so I couldn't do anything in there until it was removed.  My wonderful hubby and kids made it happen.  He cut up the tree and hauled it away and the kids started pulling the rocks and weeds.  My four year old told me I didn't have to work in the garden and that I could just relax.  How precious is he!?!  It's all turned over and ready for planting!  We ended the day by going to Friendly's.  My dad and his wife had sent me a gift card because they knew that Friendly's is my favorite place to go with the kids.  So we had dinner on my Dad and Liz.......  Thanks Dad and Liz!!   Well I must go and make serve lunch for the famished crew.......Till next time..........

Wild Hair Night

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 at 04:47

First let me say that I am so thankful that we are blessed to have been led to a church that makes learning and serving the Lord fun.  I remember going to church as a kid and it being such a bore.  Most days,  my kids love going to church and hearing about the Lord.  THe Sunday School teachers make it real and fun and the Thursday night youth group (Olympians) are always coming up with crazy fun things to do and ways to get more kids in to hear the gospel.  Last night was no different.  We had Wild hair night.  What does this have to do with the Bible you ask?....Well nothing really except that it tied in perfectly with the lesson about being beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.  The lesson was actually done by the 5th and 6th grade girls and they did a skit was was really well done and held the attention of the rest of the group.  We are currently doing a Christian Service called Koins for Kinzers.  The Olympains are raising money that will go toward a missionary family in Kenya that we support.  It is grades 1,3,5 against grades 2, 4,6.  The team who raises the most money gets to dunk one of our leaders in a dunking booth.  The teens are even getting involved by paying to dunk one of  THEIR  leaders.  The money we raise from the teens will go to pay for the dunk booth, which will make all the money raised from grades 1-6 all for the Kinzer family.   Parker can't wait till next year when he gets to be in Olympians too.  He sees his big sister who gets to do all this fun stuff and he wants IN!!  Here is a pic of Kaleigh's WILD hair.....................

10 years

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 08:42

Today is the day I started dating my wonderful husband 10 years ago.  I just doesn't seem like we have been together that long but the calendar doesn't lie.  I know that God brought us together and I am extremely lucky to have him by my side.  My aunt who was in the hospital dying of cancer gave me his number after he had asked about me.  It took me a while to call but I eventually did.  He made a wonderful first impression on me and I decided to take him up on his offer to come watch him play softball one evening....... here we are ten years and three kids later.  If you read this baby I love you more and more with every passing day!!!   10 reasons I love my hubby.

1.  He serves the Lord.

2. He is a great dad.

3.  He makes me laugh.

4. He provides for his family's financial needs.

5.  He supports my decision to homeschool.

6.  He is smashingly handsome.

7.  He is an extremely hard worker.

8.  He is honest with me when I need him to be.

9.  He is a jack of all trades and can fix just about anything.

10.  He looks great in his baseball uniform...lol!  

Nothing to do?

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 09:39

I can't believe it.  It is Saturday morning and I have nowhere to go and nothing to do.  It feels SOOOOOO good!  No baseball games to run to, no church events to lead or attend .....nothing.   The only thing on my list of to do's today is to pick up my daughter from her Girl Scout retreat.  I dropped her off last night and got asked to lead songs and games for about an hour.  With nothing prepared I did my best.  We sang some songs, played telephone, duck duck goose, hot potato, and another handslapping game that I can't spell.  I stayed and watched her play a couple of relay games with another troop and then I was off.  I came home said goodnight to my boys and spent some snuggle time with the hubby,  

I got the kids closets all cleaned out this week and have a huge black garbage bag full of clothes to bring to church tomorrow.  Things they have out grown of and things they just don't need.  I mean really,  how many t-shirts does one really need???  I try to keep fourteen outfits and no more than that.  Less is definately more.  After four of us and a dog living in 700 square feet with NO storage space, I have become addicted to purging things and getting rid of things that aren't used often.   I lived with clutter for so long that I now can't stand it.  Unfortunately, I have more clutter than I would like to have, simply because I have not had the time to declutter certain areas.   Maybe seeing I have no where to go I'll clean my closet out and pack away all my sweaters and winter wear.   Then I'm going to spend some QT with my boys while thier sister is away.  Hmmm what fun thing can we do????  I have to think about it while I'm doing my closet.  Till next time.......

a bit of this and that

Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 08:33

My posts will be getting few and far between because we are getting into the "so busy I can't even think straight" time of year....you know the time.......when you have so much yard work to do that you can't keep up with the inside.  We have been plugging away on our 3 acres and have the added load of keeping up with the rental properties we own.  Baseball is in full swing for me, my hubby and my son, which means just about every evening  will be spent at the ball field.  The kids are getting spring fever big time and want to be outside playing rather than doing their lessons.  We did do school out on the picnic table a few days last week.  AHHHHHH the perks of homeschooling  

Hubby and I are going to wait till the fall to roll forward with the whole foster care thing.  We just don't have the time right now to attend the classes needed to get the license. 

I have accomplished a few items on my to do list.  I have deep cleaned my kitchen.  The other day when the kids went with grandma me and one of the teens I bought tackled it.  Ok let me explain that cause it sounds bizarre.  We have a $1000 Christian College Scholarship that our church gives out to high schoolers that attend a Christian college.  Every year they raise money for it by having a teen auction.  They auction off donated goods as well as services such as cleaning and babysitting.  I bought one for 5 hours of cleaning.  We took everything out of the cupboards and washed inside and out.  When I was done reorganizing everthing I had a whole box full of stuff that I hadn't used in years or even at all.  My cupbpoards look great and now I can find stuff without everthing falling out at me.  We also cleaned both ovens, polished all the stainless steel appliances and took everthing off the countertops and deep cleaned all that.  My coffee pot, mixer, toaster, microwave, canister...etc.  5 hours of work = a kitchen I can be proud of.

I have also tackled all of the flower beds around the house.  The grass had crept into them and they all needed to be re- edged.  That took me about three days.  But now they are crisp and have new cedar chips and look fantabulous and are ready for more plants.

Here are a few pics of what the kids have been up to.......

Kaleigh presenting the state she researched for Nation Celebration!

Parker at his very first T-ball game.

Me and my T-ball team the Riverdogs at the opening day parade!  Parker is the one all the way to the left...did I mention I am the coach for his team as well as playing on our women's church team????

Well that is all for now.....I have to go prepare the lesson for tomorrow's American Girl History Club meeting.  What can I do to keep 11 little girls ages 7-11 busy,  happy, and learning  for two hours.......Hmmmmm.

Fishing

Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 01:22

My hubby went out in the yard to get some worms for opening day.  When he came back in I asked him how he did.  His reply was "We have some fast worms!"  He then showed me that after almost a half hour outside, he had only gotten one worm.   LOL!!!!  He then went to try again an hour later.  His total for worm harvesting that night was a wopping TWO worms.   I got a huge kick out of that one.  He was much more successful last night and got plenty of worms to take the boys fishing at a local pond today.  They were so thrilled to go fishing with dad that they woke up and got dressed all before 7am...(they normally don't wake up till 7:30)  Well here are some pics of their special time with Daddy.

BLAKE CAUGHT A TREE!!!!

NOW THAT"S A FISH !!!!

PARKER AND HIS GOOD SIZE FISH !!!

LOOK AT THAT VIEW !!

Trampolines and other ideas

Posted on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 08:40

Spring is such a busy time. A time for all of the things that I would like to get done.  But don't really have the extra time to get it done.  The first being getting my kids their trampoline.  You see their great grandmother, rather than spending money on individual toys they DON"T need, used her $ wisely and put it together to buy them a trampoline for the back yard.  Great excersize and great fun. However upon putting it together the frame bent so it was either a defective one or a poorly made one.  So I took it back and have been trying to research which one I should get.  I want one well made but one that does not go over the cost of the one she purchased...not too much more anyway.  I am looking for past experience from anyone that has owned or currently owns ones.  What brands are durable and what brands should I stay away from. 

Second on my list of things to do is to is put an add out to stud our lab out.  He is five and could potentially make us some money.  I just need to find the right avenue to put his info out there.  So if any of you are in the tri-state New England area and have a female lab you want to breed, let me know.

Other items on my to do list include:  replacing the zipper on my son's spring jacket, hemming some of my hubby's work pants that have needed hemming for about 9 months now, cleaning out the kids closets, shampooing rugs, deep cleaning kitchen ( which means taking everything out and washing inside and out and washing tables and chairs), washing the walls, cleaning out the garden and getting it ready for planting, raking the lawn.

Well I'm not going to worry or kill myself over my wish list of things to get done.  After all is Jesus really going to care how clean my cupboards are????  No I think he will care more about who I made time to help and minister to this week.  Till next time......

April Fool's Fun

Posted on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 08:29

Today was quite the day.  It started off with me making my husband a pot of coffee as usual.  However, I proceeded to take the sugar out of the sugar bowl and replace it with salt.  To watch him take a sip of his coffee and run to the sink and spit it out was priceless!  The war had begun!  He got me back by putting an elastic on the sprayer of the kitchen sink so that when I turned it on I got sprayed.  The funny thing about this was that I thought about doing that, but I was afraid that I would forget that I did it and end up getting myself so I opted not to.  Go figure! The next prank I pulled on my lovely husband was to sew his underwear shut.  He pulled a pair out after his shower and said "What the heck is wrong with my underwear?"  I burst out laughing again and he said.  "You think your funnny, huh?  We'll see about that."  Well, he did get the last laugh.  I usually put a little Emergen-C in my water after my workouts.  It turns the water a pink hue.  Well  silly me left my water bottle unattended and he took that opportunity to put hot pepper in it.  Talk about burning a whole in your insides!!!  I told him that was just wrong.  But he said all is fair in love and war.  Man and here I thought I was one up one him.  Well I ended up getting the kids too.  I made what they thought was my homemade chicken pot pie for dinner.  It turned out to be vanilla pudding with orange, green, and yellow candies in it instead of veggies and white chocolate for the chicken.( Thanks Family Fun! )  After a couple bites, I served them their real dinner and they had their pot pie for dessert.  Here is a pic of the yummy pot pie.

The kids even got in on the pranks.  My daughter rang the doorbell to the house and then came in and shut the door and disappeared.  By the time I got to the door and opened no one was there.  She came from the living room laughing..."Got ya!"

My youngest son started yelling that he was unbuckled and even showed me a buckle.  I panicked and told him he had 10 seconds to get buckled or I was pulling the car over.  He laughed and said " I am buckled. "  My other son laughed and said " He's using the middle buckle to trick you."  HAHAHAHA!   Where do these kids get their sense of humor??? 

A Perfect Day

Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 06:12

We had such a great day with such great weather I feel blessed beyond belief!  After church we went to Walmart to get our kids a new T-ball bat.  Our last one has disappeared and cannot be found anywhere.  Parker has been begging to go out and practice his at bats.  He is soo excited about finally being able to play ball like his Daddy.  So after our shopping trip, DH took us out to Subway for lunch.  ( Yeah I didn't have to cook!!!!)  We then came home and of course played baseball, followed by basketball.  Then DH made a birdhouse for the kids to paint.  They were all excited and did a great job with it.  I helped too!!  After it was dry we hung it up in our butterfly garden.   We can't wait to see if any birdie will make their home in it.  I know I would if I was a bird.  

Here are some pics of the birdhouse.........

 The kids working hard

Kaleigh took this pic...isn't she a great photographer?

 The finished product

Excited for summer

Posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 03:34

Strep tests

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 02:03

Happy Easter!

Posted on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 08:02

A very Happy Easter to all of you today!   It was a nice day here at the Sharp house.  We started the day off with going to  church to worship our risen Savior.  Seeing it was a special day and my youngest is just getting over his cold, we let they boys sit up in church with us.  We were very proud of how well behaved they were.  I wonder if it had something to do with the tie I had to fight them to wear?!?  Here they are all dressed up.

After church we came home to prepare the meal for everyone to enjoy.   My mom and her hubby, my grandmother, and my in-laws were all in attendence.  My husband cooked a delicoius meal, as usual, and the moms brought dessert.  I ate entirely too much. 

My kids were busy playing with all their stuff.  It was like Christmas all over again.  They got Easter gifts from six different people.  I kid you not!  They are well set in the candy and toy department that's for sure.  After lunch, we went outside for the Easter egg hunt my in-laws always do for them.  They had a blast hunting.  We stayed outside for a while enjoying the sun while the kids rode bikes and went on the Quad with Pepere. 

READY FOR THE HUNT TO BEGIN

I THINK I FOUND ONE!!

Now I must go rest and enjoy my full tummy cause tomorrow it's back to work on my beach body...LOL!

Home sweet home

Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 10:35

Our family had a marvelous vacation visitng numerous places south of us!  Our first stop was our Nation's capital.  The kids thought it was cool to see the White House and visit the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial they had studied in February.  We then went down to stay with my Dad in VA.  That was lots of fun!  We went to the river, went bowling, did Chucky Cheese, and rode go-carts.  My dad's wedding was fun too.  Kaleigh was a boogy queen with the new friend she made.  The two of them didn't get off the dance floor once they started!!!  LOL!  I finally got to meet one of my new step sister's Shannon.  Her daughter is 7 and she has a little guy who is not yet a year old.  Unfortunately Kim ( my other step sister) was sick and not able to attend the wedding.  I'll meet her next time hopefully.

The kids in front of the White House

My dad and my new step mom!

By the time we got to NC we were quite tired and happy to just hang out with friends at the house.  The kids had a blast playing with one another and it was so nice to spend time with Stacey and her family.  We did go to a park for a picnic lunch one day.  My kids got a kick out of feeding the geese. They actually were able to pet them!!  Then we went out for icecream.  We were certainly spoiled as the temps were in the 60's while we were there.

The NC crew!!

Our next stop was PA.  The drive there was a little stressful, as I got caught in the DC traffic.   The good Lord was certainly watching over us.  I was behing a truck going 65 when he slammed on his brakes and came to a complete stop.  There was no where for me to go but into the rear of him.  On instinct I swerved into the right lane and by a miracle no one was there and i avoided an accident by the grace of God! 

While in Pa I got to see one of my best friends that I miss so much.  Our kids just adore each other and were so very excited to see one another again.  It was a nice visit and we were sad to say goodbye to all our firends and loved ones but there is definatly no place like home.  We are now back to our routine of school and housework and looking forward to Easter.  I do miss the warm weather however and wish it would have followed me up north.  My youngest couldn't handle the temperature change and he now has a cold. 

Perfect

Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 09:47

This was taken from Kitty's page....thanks for posting it Kitty!

I've wished so much recently that I could find a way to have a spotlessly clean, organized, and well-decorated home, serve delicious and elaborate meals on time three times a day, spend the necessary time to maintain a business, while at same time not in any way neglecting my relationship with the Lord, my husband, or my daughter.

I wish I could get out of bed every morning at 5 a.m. to an immaculately clean home. I wish I could shower, dress, and fix my hair before anyone wakes up. I wish I could spend a solid hour of uninterrupted time reading the Bible and praying before I begin my day each and every morning. I wish I could have the house all perfectly cleaned and in order by 8 a.m. every morning (though, I guess if I woke up to it immaculate, I wouldn't even need to clean!). I wish that the laundry and dishes magically washed themselves and put themselves away or that I had a live-in maid.

I wish that I never said an unkind word or had an unkind thought. I wish that I would never disappoint my husband. I wish that I could spend all day everyday playing with my daughter. I wish I were never tired and had a boatload of energy all the time. I wish that I could live on 3 hours of sleep or less every night.

Instead, I'm just me. My house is often messy and always in need of some type of cleaning. I'm always behind in some area. I never get to spend as much time playing or reading with my daughter as I'd like. I'm forever behind on the ironing. My husband comes home some nights and I'm exhausted, the house is messy, dinner is only a figment of my imagination, and I'm still in my pajamas. I often say and do things that I regret. I fail in some area on an hourly basis and can easily become discouraged and overwhelmed.

Yes, sometimes I wish I were perfect. But, then I realize that if I were perfect, I'd never have anything to trust God about. I'd never need anyone to pray for me. I'd never need anyone's help. I'd never have to cry out to God for mercy when I'd failed yet again. I'd never need comfort from the Scriptures. And, I'd never know the depths of God's grace and mercy to one so undeserving as me.

Time to learn

Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 01:42

We have had a fairly productive month of school.   Kaleigh has been plugging along with her studies via Switched on Schoolhouse as well as her Early America studies using the American Girl Series.  We are having lots of hands on fun with that.  A couple of weeks ago the girls made their own ink and quill pens.  This Monday they are going to stitch a sampler and learn about Sally Lunn bread, amoung other things.

On President's Day we made lapbooks about George Washington.  The boys did a color by number of the Washington Monument.  We are all excited to see it next week up close and personal as we stop there on our way to VA.   We are also hoping to go to COlonial Williamsburg, after all that is where the story of Felicity takes place!  That will be cool for Kaleigh to see what she has been reading and studying about. 

We have tied money into our learning about President's and the boys have done well with learning the coins and their value and also how to change 5 pennies for a nickle and so on.  Kaleigh has been working on counting large sums and making change,  we even played store one day for school.  That was fun!

We are now onto time and the boys have picked up hour and half hour intervals extremely fast.  They made a book about time today and got to cut pictures out of magazines that represented things they do at diffterent times of the day. ie.  wake up , eat breakfast, start school, eat dinner, go to bed.  I think they enjoyed it.  Here are some pics of the book, Parker playing a time game online, Blake matching anolog to digital time, and Kaleigh working on her SOS.

Barf bug revisited and more

Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 07:53

Well one thing is for sure, my family is definately taking their time catching this puke bug that has been circulating the nation!  I was the first to come down with it like a month ago.  My  youngest son got it about 2 weeks ago and my middle man got it this evening.  You know he's not feeling good when he asks to go to bed.  Poor thing!  I gave him some Motrin and sent him to bed with a barf bucket.  We will see if he does better than his brother at actually getting the puke in his bucket instead of all over his bed and the floor.    On a positive note, Parker almost made it to the bathroom...he puked on the floor right in between the hall and the bathroom.  It is much easier to clean hardwood and tile than it is a rug.  Although the splash factor isn't there on a rug so I didn't have to wash walls too when Blake puked on the rug......Ok sorry....TMI  

On another note, Parker had a good day of school.  He did his reading lesson and then played tons of games that reinforced his math facts.  He is such and easy kid to teach because he is so competative.  We have this thing called the math mat.  It asks you a math fact and you have to step on the answer.  Well he kept playing it and playing it because he wanted to beat his high score.  So with all the repetition, he know his math facts just as good if not better than his 8 year old sister.   She is more difficult to teach because she has no drive.  She doesn't have that inner want to do better or beat her high score.  Just getting by is good enough for her.  I'm still searching for that ultimate motivation factor.  Any ideas???

Speaking of motivation....my children were blessed to see their very first Teen Service at church this weekend.  This is a Sunday evening service put on my the teens in our church.  They create the entire production, supervised by the pastor, he reads their sermons ahead of time.  Anyway, it is a mixture of music, skits, and preaching.  One of our teens got up there and sang a beatiful song with two of her sisters, one which happened to be playing the guitar, which my daughter is trying to learn right now.  I poked my daughter and told her that could be her in a few years if she practiced hard enough.  Well she was so excited to start on chords this week but we are unable to because the DVD she was learning from has a crack in it and will not play anymore.  SHe is sooo disapointed.  So now I have to try to see what's out there that she might be able to learn from.  This DVD actually came with the guitar, so I don't know if it can be purchased seperately or not.  For now she is just going to have fo continue with the scale thing she has been doing.  If anyone has any suggestion on guitar DVD's she they have used and like please let me know.

Well I'm off to shower now.  I feel kinda gross after cleaning up barf!  

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 10:10

Never fails

Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 08:34

Why is it that the minute you wash the floor, everybody gets clumsy?   I just think it is hilarious how no major disasters can occurr for weeks and within 24 hours of me spending an hour on my hands and kness, washing the floor, someone drops something like a bowl of milk from their cereal and it goes flying EVERYWHERE!!!!  Ahhhh....Gotta love it! 

Last night the puke bug fairy came to visit my youngest.  He was up for several hours puking and complaining his tummy hurt real bad.  Poor thing I know how he feels.  I had the thing about 2 or 3 weeks ago.  It comes out of nowhere.  The funny thing is that this am you would never know he was up all night throwing up.  He's running playing and eating...it's buisness as usual.  So far anyway.  It's only 8:39 am so there is time.  Well I have a TON to do today.  I have my regular  laundry plus tons more pukey stuff to go in now.  I need to go around and disinfect, so my other babies don't get it.   The kids needs baths and we need to run down and register them for baseball in the spring! 

If I loose my mind come June you will know why.  Four out of the five of us will be playing ball.  That means we will be at a ball field every day except Sunday.  Yikes!  Its going to get interesting to say the least.   Well I'm off and running...lots to do!

So much, so little time

Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 08:29

So I sent my hubby an email today and the signature of my email has the http for my blog.  He went and checked it out and saw that I have not written in over a month.   He emailed me back and commented on that fact and said "what's up?"  What's up is that I have soooooo much to do in a day and not enough time to do it in.  I rarely sit down before 9:30 pm and then it is just to drink a cup of tea, read a bit and go to bed.  I don't usually go on the pc at  that hour bc my DH is the kind of person who wants you right there with him when he is home watching tv...ya know keep him company.  Which is fine, that's when I get my reading in because I'm not a huge fan of the TV.  I think it is a waste of my time and brain cells.   I miss the days just four years ago when we didn't have cable.  Oh how I wish those days were here again.  Any way... I don't have much time before DH gets home to get all caught up......

We have been thinking about doing foster care....huge.....will get more into details at a later date.

We had a nice super bowl party...pics to follow soon...I hope  :)

We just celebrated 9 years of marraige last month.

We are going on a mini vacation in a couple weeks for my father's wedding.  I will be away for about 11 days and will be traveling from CT to VA to SC to PA and back to CT.  Eight hours is about the longest I will have to drive in one clip and that is way  TOOOOOOO much for my liking.  I CANT STANT DRIVING!!!!  I don't know how my hubby does it,  traveling two hours for work daily.

Well that is all I can think of for now.  It is now 8:45 pm and I must go finish tidying up the first floor, put the laundry away and pop the next batch in, make out my lessons for tomorrow for homeschooling, take the meat out for dinner tomorrow, iron hubby's work shirt, and get some paper work done for youth group ( I teach 2nd grade at church on Thursday nights)  Think I can get all that done inthe next 45 min?????  Wish me luck!!!!

Our Home

Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 12:13