Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Children's Museum - Alamance County

Last Thursday, I picked up Grandma and we took the kiddos to a children's museum while Ethan was on Spring Break. It took a little while to get there, but it was only $5 each and the kids enjoyed themselves for over 4 hours. They were able to run, climb, "fish," paint, build, and so much more! Get ready for the most pictures I've ever posted! Enjoy! (It posted all of these in reverse order...and I don't feel like taking the time to correct them so this is our day in reverse.)

Melia and Ezra were able to play in the 2 and under section. They enjoyed being the only kids in the area.



Elijah and new friend were a little jealous.






This wall and these items could velcro to each other. The object was to build a track for the ball to travel through and get it to land in the bucket at the end.


Fun mirrors were quite funny! 

There was an awesome glass room where the kids could go in, paint to their hearts' content, then when it got covered the workers could spray it and squeegee it for new creations! The boys loved it!


Dr. Elijah DDS checked out my teeth.


There was a beanstalk that was at least two stories high for the kids to climb. All but one of my kids chickened out. Ezra, the baby, made it to the top and I ran out to take his picture in the window. 








 A fishing river and sand pit were the highlights of our day!










There was a farm with chickens, veggies and a farm stand.









Poor Melia started running a fever, but she was sweet all day. It was nice to have Grandma along to sit with her while I chased the boys.



This sand is AH-mazing! Seriously! Not gritty at all, packed very well. I have to get some!






















Melia volunteered to be a patient in the nursery. She got a clean bill of health!





This cool drum would beat to your heart beat. It was loads of fun!


My mad scientists at work!






If you're anywhere near Graham, and have small kids, I would definitely recommend this place!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Feeling Stuck

I've debated on writing about this or not, but decided to go ahead because I have to get all these thoughts out of my head! Do you ever feel like that? Or I am just crazy?

I must preface this by saying that I love my children immensely and love spending time with them. I feel super guilty when I'm not with them and try my best to parent them to the best of my abilities.


It's been 15 months since I walked out of NMHS for the last time. I had three boys and had recently found out I was pregnant with Melia. I was burned out on teaching. I was stressed, tired, and needed to be home for my kids rather then give all I had to everyone else's children. My husband had a decent job, but was out of town four days each week and we felt that they needed more time with me since they didn't get to see him much. I was tired of my children being raised by other people.


I had felt God's pull to be a stay at home mom for a long while, and I finally had enough faith to listen. It wasn't easy; it was really scary. I worried, but I knew that if God asked me to do something, He would provide. I've tried my best to remember this, but I' struggling.

When Ronnie quit his job last year, we made it through by God's grace. There's no other way to put it. If God had not orchestrated the events that occurred in our lives, I don't know where we'd be living, what we'd be driving or what we'd be eating and wearing. God has blessed us and taken care of all of our needs and I'm so very grateful!


Since Ronnie began his new job he's been home every night, which is awesome, but he took a 25-30% pay cut. With a threadbare budget beforehand, this hasn't been easy. We've made all the cuts that we can.


As a result of the past year, I started looking for a job. I've applied to so many positions that I've lost count. I haven't gotten one single phone call. I get the follow up letter or email that tells me they hired someone else. After so many rejections, I decided to go back to school. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do for awhile, but eventually settled on Global Logistics.  The local community college offers the program so I asked for more information about it, more than once. I'm still waiting to hear from those people. I found out a community college 3.5 hours from here offers the program completely online. I applied, got accepted and started talking with my adviser. It was then that I found out the admissions person wasn't helping me as well as I thought she was. I have a BA and she was only giving me credit for two classes. Two. I know all of my education and Spanish classes won't count for diddly at the community college level and that's fine, but she was being rude and trying to make me feel like an idiot. I've dealt with 2 universities and I'm not about to take crap from someone at a community college when I know that more than two of my gen ed classes are sufficient for required classes for a two year diploma. I don't need that kind of stress in my life so I deleted all of our correspondence and decided to stop pursuing that option.


So here I am. Stuck. I was raised to work and do my best. But I feel like I'm stuck. I feel like I'm not doing very well at the whole stay at home thing. I feel like I'm not contributing to our family. I feel like all of our financial problems are my fault. I feel so guilty about quitting my job. But then I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be. I believe that God will take care of us. But I'm struggling. I don't know what to do. I know that even while things are okay right now, in a couple of months they may not be. I don't want to lose our house or have to move. I don't want to have to pinch every little penny or make sure I'm not wasting anything. I kind of feel guilty for admitting that, but I'm just being real.

I know that God has a plan and that all things will work for good, but sometimes it would be nice to know what's coming my way so I don't have to stress about it. Am I going to get a great job offer? Is Ronnie going to get a big fat raise? Is there going to be something changing in our ministry? I'd really like to know! *Rereading this, I know I don't "have" to stress about it, but sometimes it's hard not too.

So, if you read this, please say a prayer for me, for us. Pray that God will continue to show His love to us, that we'll do His will, that God will reveal to me what I need to be doing with my life. Thank you so much. 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Thirty by 30 - 4.9.14

It's been a few weeks and I'm still going! I have four more runs to go before I am finished with Couch to 5k!

This is week 8 and I am supposed to do a 28 minute run each day. I got a wild hair today and decided that if I was going to be running over two miles anyway, why shouldn't I go ahead and finish out a 5k. So that's what I did. I "ran" 3.1 miles in 38:45. I was pretty proud of myself! I say "ran" because I'm actually moving pretty slow. I've worked up to 4.8 mph.

So far I have lost 11.6 pounds, which means that I'm down 21.6 pounds from July, when Melia was born. That makes me very happy! I still have 18 pounds to go before I get to my thirty pounds, but I'm getting there!

Hope you're all doing well!