WHEW................it is REALLY busy around here now!  Both older boys are playing basketball, Emily is in dance, Emily and Hunter just started 4-H and I am hoping that Brandon will want to join next year. Hunter is wanting to join wrestling club in January, but we are not real sure about that yet.  Wrestling is a huge time and financial commitment and he is only 6.  Hmmm..............how did we suddenly get so busy?  I think it will be much better after basketball ends because 4-H meetings are only 1x per month and the activities are completed here at home. Dance is only 30 minutes 1x per week, and that gives me just enough time to run errands. 

I am really looking forward January because it will be my last semester of college!  WooHoo!  I will FINALLY graduate in May.  I am sooooo looking forward to the amount of time that I will have when I no longer have papers to write and assignments to do.  I might even have free time to learn to sew, and read for FUN!  I almost forgot what it was like to sit down and peruse through a magazine.

Our BIG news is two fold:  First, I just have to share Jarrett's latest accomplishments.  He has used the potty several times in the last week!!  Now he loves to go and asks quite often.  I don't mind at all when we are at home, but I sure dread having to go visit every public restroom once he discovers them.  Ewwwww..................

Second BIG news................DJ and I are trying to decide if another child is in our near future.  The kids are all for it and have been asking for sometime (especially Hunter).  We would both feel the desire to have a large family, but we want to be sure that it is "fair" to the children.  There are so many benefits and especially since we have started homeschooling, I feel the desire even heavier on my heart.  The only "downside" to a large family that we see is financial.  Of course, we already have 5 children and have every need met.  So............we continue to discuss it, pray about it, and know that ultimately it is God's plan for our lives, not ours.

One last thing to share:

Actually it is a warning to parents who excitedly teach their children to read.  I'm wondering.............do they really need to learn to read before they are....say 18 years old?  Hunter is able to sound out just about any word now.  He loves being a reader and reads everywere we go.  So.....imagine this:  We were in Lowes and he had an "emergency" and had to go NOW!  I ask Brandon to please take him while I get Jarrett into a cart.  They were in there for quite a while and when they caught up to us Brandon's face was beat red and he was holding back a good belly laugh.  Hunter ran up and announced that a "Naughty Boy" had been in the bathroom because he wrote "very bad" things on the bathroom wall.  He then explained to me how he sounded them out and was quite proud of himself.  Ugh!  Why didn't it occur to me that now, not only can he read quality material, but he can also read material that was not meant for a child's eyes?  So that is why it took Hunter so long during this emergency..............he had to read every scribble on the wall.