I haven't used my blog in months! I think this will be a good place to start with keeping track of my recipe creations for my new diet. I don't have anything today to put on here, but check back because I will. :) 

Also, I've actually had a couple folks ask about my ability to sell doTERRA. If you are interested in essential oils, send me a message. I'd be happy to help if I can and if you decide you'd like to try some, then most definitely, I can sell them to you. It's no secret I love my oils. They are life changers and in my opinion, when used correctly, are way more safe than the chemicals in the drugs that can be bought OTC.

Here's hoping I have a real brownie recipe to share soon!!

It's been quite a bit of time

I haven't used my blog for months. I have decided to start it up again and hopefully keep it up. I am fairly certain most folks know I've had to deal with a health issue the past two years. I am also fairly certain most do not know what the issue was/still is. Let me first just get it out there and say that I (after months and months of being basically blown off by doctors, more on that later) finally was fortunate enough to find the cause of my issues. All of my issues. At first I didn't want to share it with anyone other than Kevin and a person or two more. I was embarrassed I think and I shouldn't have been. The more I've learned about what I have the more I know how common it is and that I'm not weird. I have "candida overgrowth with leaky gut", so there, it's out there for the world to see now. Turns out, we ALL have yeast in our bodies but some of us are lucky (not really) enough to have it get all out of whack. Used to be it was thought to only be those with cancer (going through chemo), or those with AIDS. Thankfully we now know that just isn't the case and that most folks with it (there are thousands of us) have gotten to this point by any number of ways. Women from using birth control pills. Men and women having used antibiotics. People eating a high sugar/high carb/high processed diet. I'm so lucky I fit into all those categories! So now that it's out there....

I first started actually knowing something was wrong with me in March of 2014. My allergies were 100 times worse than they'd ever been and no one else was really bothered by them. I went from that to my ears itching and then ear pain with some pressure. I started having insomnia and at one point in July was sleeping, at BEST, 4-5 hours a WEEK. You read that right. I had all over body itching, sweating like crazy, aches and pains constantly. A relentless brain fog. A LOT of digestive issues. A rash that NO one could figure out. I was so exhausted some mornings I couldn't get out of bed. I was not functioning. At least twice Kevin woke up to me sobbing because I was so emotionally and physically exhausted and in pain and scared. He was my rock!! He would call and demand appointments for me to be seen. He took time off work. When he did work he'd come home and have to cook and clean because I simply wasn't able. I never let on to many what I was going through. A high school friend, known on Facebook as Virginia Lee, we knew her as Ginny, got me onto essential oils and doTERRA. From that point I ended up speaking with one lady, Jackie, and was put in touch with another lady within doTERRA that is also an RN and well (very well, as she deals with this, too) versed in my condition. She put me on a strict supplement and oil regimen and diet. Prior to this I was made to feel as if I was crazy for thinking something was wrong. I would be blown off by this or that doctor telling me I was fine, I looked healthy. I learned to not like doctors much and still only trust my OB/GYN. The regimen worked right off but I quickly realized it wasn't going to work long term. After searching and searching and reading so many things on the subject (I'm still doing this) I had to come up with sort of my own plan taking into consideration the main points that all candida experts agree on. 

I won't go on and on today. There is so much more. I just thought maybe if I write this all down, someone might come across it while doing their own searches and trying to figure out what is wrong with them. The symptoms are many and seemingly unrelated. You feel as if you're dying and no one has a clue how to help or what to do. I plan to weekly update on here with my story and also with different supplements that have worked the best for me. You don't have to agree with what I have and you certainly don't have to even read the blog. I truly am doing it for myself, some peace, and to maybe help others dealing with it.

I realized that I haven't posted a new blog update since January! That is crazy. It is almost 2016 and in some ways this year has gone way too fast. It was a fun filled, happy, crazy, laughter filled year. Here then, is a look back at the CO Lidh family. . .

In February we decided to book a vacation to Oahu. Chris, Michelle, and Ryder were there and not coming back to Colorado until early July. We were very excited about going. Of course as most of you know, I ended up not being able to fly, and therefore Jason and myself had to stay in Colorado while Kevin/Grampy went for a week to visit and for Chris's graduation from Hawai'i Pacific University. I have several pictures of Michelle from that trip but not on the file that I can retrieve for this, so you are welcome to look at the albums on Facebook from the trip. :)

 

This picture I believe was prior to the ceremony but I'm not sure. I do not remember.

 

March and April were violently stormy for us.

 

 

It wasn't a fun couple of months!

 

May was cold but not as stormy.

We repainted our kitchen over Memorial Day weekend but I don't have pictures of this particular project.

 

June was a month that found me finishing up 7th grade with Jason. Mostly math, but a few other things as well that I wanted to get done with him before we started back in late August.

 

July found us celebrating the 4th cooking out, having a picnic, and watching the Sky Sox. We lost, but it was a fun afternoon and evening.

 

 

Michael moved back down right after and we got him situated in his old room. Kevin/Grampy picked up Sable and Bailey at DIA. They flew in a day before Chris, Michelle, and Ryder. They landed the next day and Kevin/Grampy went and picked the three of them up at DIA.

Having lunch at Cracker Barrel. :)

They were here for three weeks and although we had 5 adults, 1 baby, a 13 year old and 3 dogs, we loved every single minute of it. Again, I am having a difficult time with this wanting to upload pictures, but there are several in my pictures on Facebook.

 

They left the last day or two of July or actually it might have been the first couple of days of August, for their trek to Florida. They are stationed at Hurlburt Field.

Ryder showing off their new home in base housing. :)

 

August we rested and enjoyed our last few weeks of summer break before we started back to school.

 

September seemed to really sort of come and go and we're not certain where it went. October was a full and fast month.

 

November came and it was finally time to head out on our trek down to Florida to visit. We had a great time.

 

We got to spend a bit with Michelle on her birthday, and were there for Thanksgiving, the Iron Bowl, and Ryder's 1st birthday. Again...you'll have to look in my pictures to see more from the trip. We were sad to leave but happy we'd all had such a great time. We are already anxious for our trip in July to hurry up and get here.

 

This month has been hectic and we've all been sick except Kevin/Grampy. Looking forward to Christmas.

 

Here's looking forward to a happy and healthy 2016!!

November, December, and Thanksgiving/Ryder/Christmas

I realized after my blog post last week that I should also have done a blog about our holiday season. I didn't mention October in the title, but the month flew by! I enjoy Halloween in the fact that I love seeing what the little kids are dressed like. I love pumpkins. I love cool, crisp days and chilly nights. Halloween like October came and went and I don't know what happened! It seems in a way that it should just now be time for it.

November happened. It also kind of passed by us in quite a hurry. Michael was down for a few days and we always enjoy having our kids home. We watched the parade, of course, and lots of football. I mean, who doesn't? And then Saturday happened. Saturday the 29th. Watching the Iron Bowl and we get a text saying Michael is in the ER with severe abdominal pain. They were to do testing and see what was happening. At that time we beating Alabama quite handily. THEN.....then it all started. Michael might have to have surgery. Auburn decided it was really all that important to continue playing in the game. Then, I get a text from Chris. He tells me Michelle's water broke and she's being admitted! WHAT!!?? Are you kidding me? Talk about your range of emotions that evening! Oh my gosh! Winning, then losing in the 4th quarter. One son in Denver that might require surgery and your son and daughter in love about to embark on bringing little Ryder into the world. I didn't sleep at all that night. Michael ended up needing no surgery and baby Ryder was born on November 30th.

Flu hit our house and hit it hard in December. Knocked us out for two weeks! School became something that would wait until January. Christmas was great. Michael spent a week with us and we were able to talk to the kids and see Ryder twice. We've had some snow, some crazy cold and a good bit of ice. My heart decided why not? Let's feel as if there were a knife inside me stabbing me several times a day. That was fun. We watched movies and managed to stay awake until midnight.

Now we're back to our normal routines and that is just no fun. It's always a bit of a let down after the holidays are over. We are looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in May though so our spirits weren't dampened for long. :)

Hello 2015!

I am going to try and be better about posting something new on here this year, maybe once a month? That seems doable? I was no doubt horrible at doing it last year, you know, life happened and all.

2014 had it's good points. The birth of our first grandchild, a grandson, Ryder on November 30th was the highlight for sure! We also got the exterior of our house painted a year late, but hey, we DID finally do it. Health issues were more abundant for us than we've seen in a while and for that reason we're pretty happy to see the start of a new year.

I am not making any resolutions. I don't like them. In reading Candace Cameron Bure's first blog of the new year I noticed one thing in particular that stood out in my mind and I feel the same way. If you make a ton of resolutions for the new year, you could quite possibly be setting yourself up for failure if you don't follow through. I like that she talked about setting goals for yourself. Goals that are actually obtainable. I have set a few for myself and I hope that a year from now I can look back and realize I checked one or two off my list. I certainly want to read more. It sounds odd, I'm sure, to hear someone say they don't always have time to read, but I'm not sure how else to put it. I don't always have the time I'd like to devote to reading. I want to be better at it this year. While like most, I could stand to lose 5lbs, I'm not going to make myself crazy about it this year. I am going to focus on just eating better and trying to get in even a little exercise. Maybe my heart acting up is a sign to take better overall care of myself. I am, as of today, no longer going to post anything, at all, on social media that is controversial. I know how I feel about things and ranting on social media isn't going to help my cause. It will do little to change the minds of others. I will not be commenting on things by others that are of a controversial nature. Debating things over the internet is probably not the best choice. Please understand I am not in any way at all saying you are an evil person if you do post such. I'm just not going to anymore. I also think we all, at least most of us, tend to feel that regardless of what the topic is on someone's post, they need our opinion on the matter. No, no they don't, we don't. I think if someone asks what others think or feel about something that is one thing, but if not, that person probably truly doesn't give a rat's behind what you think about what they've said. I am going to take more time to just be. To enjoy little moments. To be silly more. To be more in the moment.

I am hoping for 2015 to be the best year yet and I am very positive about it being just that. I want to get back to trying recipes and posting them on here with the opinions of Kevin/Daddy/Grandpa on the dish.

For now, I need to get off here and make lunch for Jason and myself as spelling and reading time are now over. Two hours of school this, our first morning back is not bad, not bad at all!!

Our February

I don't seem to be able to do an "end of month" blog update as I hoped, but thankfully I remember not *too* far into the new month. ;)

February was a good month and a very quick month. We celebrated Michael's birthday which was nice. I made a very chocolate-y cake and we decided to try out the new "Bourbon Brothers" place across from the new Bass Pro Shop. The food was incredibly good and we look forward to going back. We really enjoy the time with him when he gets the chance to come down.

We went back to a place we'd eaten at once a few years ago that we really enjoyed, " Rock Bottom Brewery" and it was fantastic! It so good that we went back the following Saturday to eat there again! They brew their own root beer on site and even though I'm not a particularly huge fan of root beer, this is pretty darn awesome! The shrimp and lobster tacos are out of this world good. We will be going back next week in fact as Jason wants it for his birthday lunch. :)

We celebrated that holiday, you know, on the 14th. :) We actually had a guy come out to talk with us about painting the outside of our house. We're having that done next week and can't wait!

I tried a new breakfast that I most certainly would have again, baked avocado with egg. YUM! If you don't like avocado, you won't like it. You take as many as you want, cut them in half, scoop out the pit and a spoonful of the meat, put a tiny bit of oil(I like olive)and salt, then break an egg into each half and sprinkle with pepper. LOVE!! You bake them for 15 minutes at 425. You can add crumbled bacon or sausage if you want, or chopped onion, and really you can put any seasoning you want. I tried splitting one egg into the two halves of one avocado which didn't work all that well, so next time I'll use two eggs. Still very tasty!

Chris and Michelle will be here next week for a few days and we're really excited about that. Michael is taking a day or two of vacation time and we'll have all 4 kids at home at the same time.

Now we're looking forward to spring and having the house painted and a few upcoming small trips out of town.

It's into February now....

I said at the end of each month I would write something on here, and it's already February 3rd, so I should probably put some words on here. :)

For the most part I think January was much like December. I truly don't recall much from the month as it seemed to go by as quickly as a few seconds! The most important part of our month was the first week and the National Title game. :o) If you paid even the slightest attention to college football during the 2013 season, you would no doubt have heard about Auburn's season and "the team of destiny" as they've been called. Coming off our dismal 2012 season, no one, and I mean NO one saw this season coming. Sure, we lost to LSU early on, but the remaining season was nothing short of magical. The ending of the GA game was crazy(lost my voice, had the sore throat, scared the dog..), but again with the "nothing", nothing could have prepared anyone for the ending of the Iron Bowl. Best. Game. EVER!! And no, we Auburn faithful still aren't tired of seeing either of the above mentioned games(mostly the two plays). If you guessed I again screamed to the point of losing my voice and the ever painful sore throat, you guessed right. :) Beating BAMA and going to the SEC Championship game was awesome(I know that was in December), but finding out we would be playing FSU for the big kahuna was incredible! Yes, we lost in the last few seconds and blah...blah...BLAH, but it doesn't matter to us. We made it there, and we played a good game.

I did try a few new recipes during the month but none worth sharing unfortunately. Here's hoping for something better this month. :)

We don't have any huge plans for February that I know of. Michael's birthday is the most important event this month. I cannot believe he will be 22. 22! How? He should be like, 2. :)

We are doing several unit studies right now in school that make up the bulk of our learning. Jason does math, and reading, but everything else is tied up with the studies. Winter(seasons and this is mostly a science unit), a month long study on the Olympics(we're tying various subjects into this study), and WWII which has various learning with various subjects as well. I love unit studies and lap booking in school and Jason learns much better this way. He is just NOT a sit there and listen and then do the worksheet kind of kid!

We had a warmer than normal beginning of January and a colder than normal end. We seem to be in a cycle of cold and snow right now. We'll the moisture!

Have a great February folks!

2013 in review

I cannot believe it is already January 2nd, 2014! What the heck happened to 2013? I did not blog much at all in 2013 and definitely would like to change that in 2014. Way back I had mentioned doing a recipe review and share on here and actually did a few times but then eventually it became a regular "let us talk about what has happened" sort of deal. I like the idea of both, and I also know myself so I have decided that one of my goals for 2014(I'm not setting new resolutions, I always do, and I always fail)is to blog once a month, at the end of the month. I want to both journal what we've done that month AND share and critique a recipe(maybe more)I've tried with the men during that month. Once monthly sounds completely doable, once weekly, well, it does not. :)

We didn't venture out of Colorado at all during 2013. We did make it up to Denver once, for the marathon back in October. I'd like to spend a weekend up there a time or two again this year. Maybe take in a game when the Braves come to town. Our plan is most definitely heading to KS to the Auburn game against K-ST. I believe it is the last Saturday in September, but I could get wrong. It's an easy day trip for us, so we'd be heading out on Friday, going to the game Saturday and heading home Sunday, possibly Monday and stopping to visit with some old friends we've known since living in Ipswich, England on Sunday. They live in Nebraska. We have several places we want to visit and we know we can't do them all this year. I suppose we'll just have to make up our minds. A trip to Disney is way, way past due, so that is something we want to do, but we also want to finally take that Christmas vacation up to northern MN. Kevin & I both really want to visit New England in October as well. All of this plus we both want to go to NYC for the Thanksgiving parade one year and wouldn't mind being in Times Square for New Year's Eve one year. While we love Disney, we have been 5 times, and have not done any of the other places so we will most likely choose one of the places we've NOT been. I must say that right now I'm heavily leaning toward the autumn New England trip, but that could change. :)

We never got the house painted during 2013. Yes, we were lazy, and yes, we've decided to spend the extra $1500($800 to do it yourself)to have it professionally done. We are moving a long quite nicely in our plan to move up north within the next two years and having the house painted professionally we feel might very well help in selling. We aren't against renting, but we'd rather sell. We do not have a specific area picked out, we only know in the Denver area. I personally absolutely love Golden, but the house prices are ridiculous!

Football was obviously a wonderful, wonderful thing this season. :) We are so proud of Auburn! After going 3-9 in 2012 I do not believe there is a person on this planet that would have dreamed we'd be sitting at 12-1 and playing in the national championship game on Monday evening. What a magical season. We're not really Broncos fans but we like Peyton Manning, and look at Cam taking the Panthers to the playoffs!

The holiday season came and went and we aren't quite sure what happened. It seems like we put out fall decorations and Halloween came and we went to sleep and woke up and it was Thanksgiving then blinked twice and Christmas was over. Not sure how that happened.

We are looking forward to this year. Happy New Year to all of you!

Lack of blogging

I definitely don't blog much and reading some early posts don't really talk about food and or recipes much, either. What can I say? I'm a busy stay-at-home-mom and housewife and homeschool teacher. The words "free time" aren't in my vocabulary, at least right now. I admit this summer I have had some free time but I managed to spend it painting our laundry room a different color. It took longer than I'd hoped, but it's finally finished. Kevin took a week off the week of my birthday and that was nice. He was sick early on but was feeling okay by mid-week. We ate really well that week. Pizza, quiche, TX Roadhouse, Village Inn, Cracker Barrel. We went to Garden of the Gods which was fun albeit very hot. We didn't stay long but decided to go back when it's cooler. Kevin redid our patio and it looks so much better now. We do plan to paint the exterior of the house in October. It's due and we want a different color, so it works out. We start back to school on September 3rd. I need to start looking at our first month in the next couple of weeks. We plan to see the balloon lift off on the 31st and then head up to Denver for the remaining weekend. We'll head back home on Labor Day. Our last summer adventure. Avery will camp at Camp Bow Wow. :)

For now we're just enjoying the rest of summer before autumn begins and all the hectic goings on begin, Halloween, Thanksgiving etc. We're also eagerly although cautiously awaiting college football season to begin.

Here's hoping you all are enjoying the remaining part of your summer.

It is June 18th and I cannot believe I have not blogged since April! Have I/we been that busy? I'm not sure I recall May in any great detail. There was Memorial Day weekend of course, that was nice. We smoked some beef and pork and grilled some dogs and burgers and I made homemade ice cream and key lime pie.

After finally deciding on A Beka for 7th-12th grade for Jason and after doing 3ish weeks of 6th grade(from them)it crossed my mind that he needed to get on the A Beka schedule. They begin right around Labor Day and end right before Memorial Day. We certainly are not used to this as we've been taking July off, December off, plus a week for Thanksgiving and a week in March. We are taking the entire summer off. We will start back up when they do the beginning of September. We will have most of Thanksgiving week off as they have it off and two weeks for Christmas and then a week in the spring.

Speaking of summer vacation, it's been nice, really nice in most ways. I am finished putting primer in the downstairs laundry room/bathroom and am ready to start painting. Once I'm done in there I hope to tackle our front room. Not changing it's color, really, just touching up and redoing the border. I've finished a book and started another which is nice. Jason just finished book 3 of the Harry Potter series and is starting book 4. We're sleeping til 8:00ish which is wonderful! I think Avery enjoys having more attention and having me not tell her no, we're in the middle of school right now.

Pretty sure everyone knows of the fire/fires going on in our state. Thankfully one is 100% contained and the one in our back yard so to speak is at 85% containment.

Hopefully we will be going to Larkspur one weekend soon to check out the festival there. July 4th is of course coming up as well and we have tickets to a ballgame. We do plan to make it up to the Denver Zoo one Saturday as well. No plans for any major events, such as travel. Just things inside our state this year.

Now it's time for some afternoon reading. I choose to pretend that there is no laundry to be done....:)

Sore throats and cold wind....

We woke up this morning still not feeling well. Kevin actually woke up around 5:00/5:30 after being up til midnight. Yucky coughs tend to not be condusive to sleep. We've added low grade fever to the mix today as well. We decided to stay home from church today and rest and try to recover from whatever it is we have. I decided to try mixing up a few various slush recipes to get a single serving recipe that would be pts friendly and possibly help soothe a burning throat. It wasn't the best idea I've ever had, although it wasn't bad, wasn't terribly high pts and did feel alright on my throat. If I copy it down here, I'll have it in two places so that hopefully I won't lose it. :)

Strawberry-banana slush:

1/2 cup(it was actually that  plus maybe 2TBS)chopped strawberries
1/3 of a banana(I put it in the freezer for half an hour to get really cold)
1TBS Country Time Pink Lemonade powder(I really could have used 1/2TBS)
enough ice to make it slushy material. Blend in blender til well, slushy.
2TBS water

If you had frozen berries and froze the banana, you would most likely need no ice but would want the water still. I am going to try a TBS of honey, I *think* next time and also play around with the fruit. Pineapple would be great with strawberries. I plan to use watermelon and strawberries, another combo taste I like. Yes, strawberries are my all time favorite fruit. :)

Just trying out various color schemes for the blog. Not a lot going on to speak of in the CO Lidh home this evening. It is Kevin's birthday and I made him yummy cupcakes from skinnytaste.com. Pineapple bliss cupcakes and they are actually pretty good. Well, if you like pineapple that is seeing how there is a 20oz crushed can in the cake part and 1/2 cup in the icing. :) He liked them and that really is all that matters, although I will mention that both Michael & Jason appeared to like them as well. :) He wanted steak so I had purchased some bacon wrapped filets to grill. Unfortunately the day became a bit too breezy to grill so we ordered online and picked up from Outback. He got an iPad mini for his birthday.

He and I both have some sort of sore throat/cough kinda thing going on which has made us both tired and not totally feeling the whole birthday thing, but he had a good day so I'm happy about that.

I can't believe that I will be starting 6th grade officially with Jason on Monday morning. I'm pretty excited about it, not gonna lie. I'm hoping he is at least *some*what excited. :) I've been looking through all the books and seeing what we'll be covering the first month or so. I suppose he is a tad excited though because he's starting in April and his peers in public school won't start until the 2nd week of August. We'll be 3 months into it at that point(we take the month of July off).

Avery amuses me greatly with her boyfriend, Blackjack next door. Actually, he amuses me, too. If he goes out and she isn't out he'll run to the fence between our homes and bark toward our house. :) She will find us and wimper and whine and run around until we let her out back. Then they run up and down the fence growling and barking at each other. Silly puppies.

We were hoping to spend Memorial Day weekend in Boulder but it is looking like we probably aren't. The hotels with availability are either crazy, stupid expensive, or look like places you would rather not stay. It is a popular and very busy weekend there. I really should have planned earlier on going and made reservations then. Live and learn, right?

And while it is only 8:30, I didn't sleep all that great last night, neither did Kevin, so coupled with not feeling well today, it's about time to hit dreamland.

Life lately according to our life. :)

It is so hard to believe that it is March already. I truly don't know what happened to January or February and in fact I am not totally convinced they even happened! February was a fairly relaxed and easy going month for us. We celebrated Michael's 21st(WHAT!?) birthday on the 6th. Chocolate cake and Red Lobster. Kevin and I had an overnight date night on the 14th, our first since our anniversary last year. We really enjoyed dinner and walking in the cold and snow with no constant interuptions from a very talkative young man named Jason.

Now March is here and that means loads of birthdays. Uncle Pat, Papa Tom, Grandpa, Chris, and Jason. Whew. The 14th of course is a shared birthday between Chris and Jason. Still amazes people when we tell them that we had two boys born on March 14th, 14 years apart. :) Jason will be 11 this week and if Michael turning 21 wasn't enough, Chris is turning 25. 25! I will have a 25 year old son. Did I mention he's turning 25? ;)

I am spending this month reviewing mostly what we've learned in 5th grade as next month we're heading into middle school. Hard to believe Jason was in 2nd grade when we started and April 1st he begins 6th grade. Wow. Crazy wow.

Speaking of birthdays, he is getting a cake of course and wants Italian for his birthday dinner. I of course cannot complain with this. :) We are also going bowling which should be a hoot.

We'll end our month with Easter wondering how an entire year went by. Last Easter we celebrated with Miss Sable here waiting to join Chris and Michelle in HI. This year we have Miss Avery to celebrate with. Probably going to do the 7:00 Sunday morning church service. Our church will have 4 identical services Easter Sunday. Not sure yet, as we tend to never make it to early ones, but rather end up at the 11:15 one. :)

Next month will bring Kevin's birthday and looking ahead to May a possible trip to Chicago, and Mother's Day not to mention the beginning of summer and Memorial Day weekend. Kevin has mentioned wanting to do the run in Boulder that day so we might end up spending a long weekend up there. Who knows?

For now, lunch is over and it is in fact time to get back to school for the afternoon.

Daily schedule

I read an article on a homeschool site that said to actually jot down a typical day in our home. First I thought, and rightfully so, that we don't have a "typical" day. Most days are different. But, I figured it couldn't hurt and I can go back at a later date and look at this and most likely chuckle. :)

 8:00:maybe I should put the "ish" beside it, wake up
 8:05:COFFEE
 8:10:start to look at my/our day and ponder how much will actually get done
 8:30:breakfast for Jason
 8:35-9:00:listen to Jason babble about different things and smile because he gets so
               excited about everything
 9:01:decide I too, should probably eat said breakfast
 9:02:start my breakfast, check email, chat with Kevin, play with Avery, think how I 
       really should be starting laundry
 9:30:Meander upstairs and gather dirty clothes
 9:40:shower, dress
10:00: start laundry and decide if I REALLY want to do dishes
10:01:NO, so look at the days school lessons
10:30:art project of some sort, different things, not always what you might consider
          art
11:00:get laundry out and dry it
11:10:see what time it is and wonder if we can get any school in prior to lunch
11:15:decide no, and think about lunch
11:20:listen to Jason babble more and watch him play with Avery
11:30:start preparing whatever it is I've decided is lunch this day
12:00-1:00:lunch
1:00:math, whatever we're currently doing, right now, Teaching Textbooks.
1:30:spelling which includes him spelling out loud this week's words and some sort
        of activity/worksheet, sometimes fitting some good dictionary skill building into
        it
2:00:language arts/phonics, whatever we're currently doing
2:20:reading and some sort of reading comp
2:45:some days it is history, some days science, some days geography.
3:15:music most days, sometimes other things
3:45:finish up anything, any paper etc that didn't get finished earlier in the day or 
        perhaps week
4:00-4:15:done for the day with actual proper school
4:15-4:30:listen to Jason babble and play with Avery
4:30:remember the laundry that got washed and dried but not taken out and folded :)
4:45-5:00:think "OH MY GOSH" I need to look at dinner, Kevin will be home in an hour 
               or less!!
5:-6:00:make dinner, unload dishwasher that hopefully got loaded and washed earlier
6:00-6:30:dinner time, always at the table
6:30-6:45:clean kitchen and unload and load dishwasher
6:45-7:00:make sure everything has been done and I've made Kevin's lunch for the
               next day
7:00:watch and listen to Jason babbling to Kevin
7-9:30:depends, sometimes, okay,usually, that is tv time and he gets to play video
           games, age appropriate
9:30:time to get ready for bed
10:00:bed

No, not every single day is exactly like this day, but it's close. No, we don't have a "proper" "public school" day. Yes, my son is learning more than you could imagine and   yes, he is socialized. :) I'm pretty tired after all this typing and only one cup of coffee so far this morning, so it's time for this Mama to get off here and do some of the things on this daily schedule!

Life

In the past several days(couple weeks)I've read numerous homeschooling blog posts about the day/week/month-etc in the life of their home. Also about difference in opinions in what the best curriculum is and do you blank or blank with your child/children.  

First of all in relation to curriculum, I realized probably mid way through our first year doing it, which was 2nd grade for Jason that it truly was no different than the "one size fits all" public school we'd taken him out of. Kids aren't a one size fits all. I'd guess most kids aren't. We did try a different area for 3rd grade in Calvert, but it was no different, or better than A Beka we'd tried for 2nd grade. I slowly began to NOT do a year long grade(1st, 7th etc) boxed set curriculum because Jason varies. I no longer do that. I think every single subject this year is from a different company. Different curriculum. We also don't do one particular grade. We have various grades per subject, depending on his level. We only use christian based curriculum for the most part. Always for science. 

And second, when I take a glimpse into our daily and or weekly lives, there are times where I wonder how on earth the boy ever learns anything!! There are days where we never change out of our jammies. Does that mean he isn't learning? Um, NO. We do have some structure to our school, but for the most part, it isn't "you have to be dressed and sitting straight at your desk quietly" for us. There are absolutely days where after half an hour, it just isn't working that day and I announce that we are done.  But at the end of any given week, even though one day might only have been an hour, he's done the weekly work and learned the week's lessons. For us, learning isn't just about reading it or doing a worksheet, it's life period. Our everyday lives, things we do that teach him just as much as reading or writing. Not that those aren't important! :)

In reading blogs lately I realize more and more that a typical homeschool day for most families is pretty much like ours and yet a world different! I have never regretted choosing to pull my child out of public school. My hope is he will not step foot in one until college! I have no intention of bad mouthing public school and there are absolutely some wonderful teachers out there. I am friends on facebook with my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Lewis who absolutely is one of those teachers. :)

And now it's time to do a bit of schooling for our Monday. Nope, we didn't get started before lunch which is more than not the norm for us. :)

Still here!

Haven't written in a quite a while. No particular reason other than the fact that the holiday season is always so hectic. It does help quite a bit since we decided to take the month of December off from school. This taking all of July and all of December off schedule has proven to be quite nice. We do take other time off during the year, but these are our two big amounts of time off.

I probably should have looked prior to sitting down to type this, but I didn't, and therefore do not even know when I last blogged. I suppose it doesn't matter and I'll just make this a "CO Lidh 2012 update" sort of deal.

The arrival of 2012, and actually the ending of 2011 found me sick with a horrid sore throat and fever. I was not amused and it certainly was not the way I'd intended to bring in the new year. As it turned out though, it was sort of nice just being lazy and sitting around in jammies watching old movies and bowl games and the parade. It did take us til the 2nd week of January to get all the Christmas decorations taken down, but so what?

The arrival of February meant hearts and chocolates. We were supposed to spend 3 days in Denver but ended up not doing so. We had a nice and somewhat romantic weekend at home. Sometimes you just need quiet time with your spouse to be romantic.

March brought warmer weather than we'd seen in years in our part of CO. Everything started blooming and growing and we ended up having to turn our sprinkler system on! It also brought with it Chris and Michelle and Sable arriving on their stop from Biloxi and Tech School to their assignment in Hawai'i. Sable was/is a big sweetheart! We enjoyed them being here for a couple of weeks. Sable stayed with us longer until she was able to fly to be with her parents. :)

April and May really went by fast. We did spend a weekend in Denver in early May. We went to the Denver Zoo on Saturday and it was 90 degrees! There is no shade at the Denver Zoo. We ate dinner at an Italian place and fell in love with it. Sunday found us waking up to a high of only 50 and thick clouds. Of course we had tickets to the Braves/Rockies game and had no intention of missing that. Braves won! The weekend was a lot of fun only to come to a huge halt with myself and Kevin being hit with a bad, bad case of food poisoning. I don't miss that.

June found us celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary. Since I'd had major surgery a week prior to our 25th and therefore there was no celebrating, we decided to do it for the 26th. Michael watched Jason for us and we saw a movie and ate at another Italian place we love and spent the night at a hotel downtown. Kevin had ordered a cake from a bakery we love and the entire time was nothing less than perfect! It also found the Waldo Canyon fire which forever changed Colorado Springs. It was horrific and so many folks still have not recovered.

July found us adopting Miss Avery and our lives have changed for sure. We love that girl so much and we think the feeling is mutual. She is funny and sweet and playful. She is supposed to be a Lab/Shepherd mix but we are unsure of this.

August found us back to school and starting 5th grade. It also found Michael starting college and moving back into the house. It also found Kevin marking one year working at 1st Bank.

September surely happened but I surely do not remember much about it! October came around and Halloween of course. Avery wasn't sure about this deal of people ringing our doorbell constantly. :)

November came to be and found much warmer weather than one in CO should ever have. Crazy warm. Kevin was promoted into management and now has 5 or might be 6 people working for him now. I am very proud of him. He is such a hard and dedicated worker. Thanksgiving was great albeit too warm. Avey quite enjoyed having turkey. :)

December found us still warm and dry. We did end up getting snow a few times and even snow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. We had a fabulous Christmas and loved the cold and snow. Somehow the 31st found me sick again this year and much the same as last, sore throat and fever. I'm going to start boycotting the 31st if this continues to happen. :)

Now it is indeed 2013 and a new year is upon us. Jason and I will be starting back to school on Monday and we're starting 6th grade. He is very excited about this.

For now, happy new year to everyone!

Monday's, autumn, and politics......

Here we are half way through(well, almost half way)another Monday. This Monday thing just keeps happening every single week. I've come to realize however, that even though most of us live for Friday and the weekend, we'd never get to that point without Mondays. It still isn't my weekday friend, and some weeks I dislike it much, much more than others, but knowing it must be Monday in order to get to my beloved weekend, makes it easier. Sometimes....;)

This brings me to autumn. It really is my favorite time of year. I love the days becoming shorter and cooler. It is hard to beat a crisp, sunny morning, looking out at the peak and drinking a hot cup of coffee. This morning I noticed how quiet and still everything seemed. Most of the trees have lost their leaves and everyone's grass is covered in a thick pile of them. This too, is something I love, stepping on them and hearing that familiar crunch. Even raking them is fun and we are always so thankful that we have a home to live in with a yard that needs to be raked. I love dragging out our sweaters and scarves and such. Even sweats to wear on a snowy, cold fall day. All having been stored away for months just waiting to be looked at and worn again. Of course the totally awesome Pumpkin Spice Latte is reason enough to love this time of year. In fact, pumpkin anything is reason enough! I love watching Avery frolic out back. She absolutely loves the cooler weather and would probably live outside if not for the fact that she is a big people dog and loves her people. :) In just a week will come the first of the fall events with Halloween. I love seeing all the little kiddies all dressed up. Some barely old enough to say trick or treat. :) Then of course comes what is probably the biggest food deal event of the year. Thanksgiving. The turkey will be our centerpiece once again this year. Looking back we have had quiet Thanksgivings and noisy, crowded ones. Both have their place and both have their pros. We've even spent 3 in England. Good times. One of our most loved ones was 2010 when we had all 4 kids here and Scott and Sue. We look forward to the day all 4 kids are here, again! Then of course the hustle and bustle of the holiday season will be upon us and we'll dig out our Christmas music and start the baking and decorating. Autumn truly is such a magical time of year. Jason knows about Santa this year making it the first time in a very long time that we've tip toed around quietly on Christmas Eve! Sad? Yes, in a way, but we're excited to watch him growing up.

This then brings me to politics. I do not believe November 6th can get here soon enough. OH.MY.GOSH! First to the Obama supporters, you are not going to sway my opinion and get me to vote for him. It isn't going to happen. I am conservative. He is not. I think he is probably the worst president we have ever had. And that is saying something considering we had to endure Carter! Obamacare has GOT to go for starters. Second, to the Romney supporters, I'm already voting for him.  I am voting for him because he is the Republican running and the party at least for now, best fits into my conservative views. It doesn't mean I think he'll be a good president, it means I feel he will do a better job than Obama. It means being conservative I will never vote Democrat. Mostly, I do hope everyone of voting age goes out and votes. You have the right and freedom to do so. Do it.

And with that, I suppose since Avery is scatting up and down the stairs with one of my shoes in her mouth, I should probably intervene and rescue my poor shoe!

Life in our neck of the woods.....

I haven't blogged since July, possibly longer ago than that. I had good intentions of posting something new, truly I did. It's been crazy super busy as always for us and somehow blogging hasn't fit into my schedule. Such is life. 

August found us back to school and starting 5th grade. We spent the first couple weeks reviewing, mostly. Well, that and the fact that I meandered around longer than anticipated and we were waiting for our actual curriculum in various subjects to arrive. In the end however, review is never a bad thing. The month went by super, super fast and before we knew it we had entered September. 

September brought the eagerly awaited college football season. Of course if you pay attention, you know we are all Auburn. This year folks, is not our year. Most games have been shall we say, frustrating to say the least? The only game where we looked like a real team was against LSU. Our only hope this year at this point is to be a spoiler for other teams. We truly have really only seen one team that looks darn good and tough and that is South Carolina. They just look dominant. If I were a Bama, or LSU fan, I'd be awfully nervous at the prospect of playing them in the SEC Championship game. 

Skip ahead a bit and here it is October already. Time is flying by so fast. Trick or treat will be a distant memory before long and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season will be upon us. Our first with Avery and we can't wait. She's already dressing up for Halloween and she will be wearing reindeer antlers for Christmas. :) 

Speaking of time flying by, lunch is over and it's time to get back to school for the afternoon. I'm sure Jason would be just as happy if I made a longer lunch, but sadly for him, that is not to be the case today. :)

Ramblings of a tired mom of a very energetic puppy....

I can't believe that we are less than 5 weeks away from college football! LESS than 5 weeks folks. How did THAT happen? Wasn't it just Easter. Wasn't it just Valentine's Day? And really, wasn't it JUST Christmas? I'm not complaining mind you, I think we can all agree that I love me some college football. Specifically some SEC football and most specifically, Auburn football. It always seems like it takes forEVER to be September and then with a blink of an eye, it's all over and you're left waiting til the next September. I love all that college football brings. The excitement, and good ole smack talkin'. It's great. I don't take it as seriously as some, and don't really get into the hard core, hateful talk that some get into, but the "we know it's all in good fun and at the end of the day truly is just a game" smack talk. We even enjoy going to Falcon games every year. It's not as big as other college football events, but it's in our town and Air Force is our 2nd favorite team. And this year....this year will be more than a little entertaining with Manning heading up the Broncos. We'll be keeping an eye on that for sure. Not a Broncos fan really, but Peyton is an SEC boy and we always wish SEC players well in the NFL. Even those pesky Bama players. =o)


Avery has certainly changed our daily life. Things we didn't put a lot of thought into, we now have to put said thought into. She is a chewer. We do have a couple of bones for her and even a plastic bone that you can put treats on. But even with that, if she finds something she deems chewable, especially plastic, she claims it as hers and prances off with it. :) She definitely loves her family. She has to be where we are. She will follow me from room to room as I'm cleaning for instance, just to lay down and go back to sleep. I think it is safe to say she has changed our lives for the better. It's amazing how much love you can have for a four legged animal that you never thought you would have.


I had another birthday this month. Funny how it happens every single year without fail. But I don't mind, it means I'm still alive and loving my life. I don't view 47 as old, which is funny since I remember being 27 and thinking it was super old. I don't miss being 27 or 37, I'm loving where I am now at 47. Not that there aren't things I miss from that time of my life, but I wouldn't want to go back. We had lunch at Olive Garden with Michael. Always good food and wine. Birthday cake was excellent. Kevin had the bakery do it in different shades of pink roses for me. Did facetime with Chris, Michelle, Sable and Bailey on Sunday followed by fried catfish and hush puppies. YUM.


Summer for us has been hot and dry. Too hot and too dry. Tired of the daily 90's and ready for some daily 60's. We are coming to an end of our break as we took July off from school. Starting back in August. We'll take the week of Thanksgiving off, the entire month of December, a bit of time around Jason's birthday, then some time off around Easter. Can't believe we're starting 5th grade. Unreal. AND our 4th year homeschooling. The majority of our curriculum is still christian based which we like. We love not having to be careful or cautious about using the word Christmas, or bible, or God. I know some excellent teachers, our kids have had some wonderful ones, but I love the quote, "I've seen the village and I don't want it raising my child." It's a personal choice for us and one we know isn't right for everyone. We respect that.


And finally, just a wee bit on the Chick Fil A issue. 1)I find it absurd that it even IS an issue. 2)Freedom of speech is just that, freedom.of.speech3)Regardless of what political party you affiliate yourself with, you cannot tell someone that believes something other than what you believe, that they can't have that opinion or that they cannot voice it .4)Not everyone believes what YOU believe, get over it. And finally 5) I do know that I have never and do not intend to start now, eating at or not, shopping at or not, or visiting places or not based on their opinion on gay marriage. It is after all, America and they after all, have the right to voice their opinion? Right? Not to mention I happen to LOVE Chick Fil A. Probably the best fast food out there.

Life lately at our house

It's been a while since I blogged. Partly due to my computer deciding it didn't support something or other or something and partly due to finishing up 4th grade and partly due to the puppy in the picture. :) No doubt we CO Lidh's stay quite busy. At least a good bit of the time.

Our anniversary was incredible. 26 years and counting. We weren't really able to celebrate our 25th with my just having had surgery. Being in pain and still on Vicidin doesn't really scream, "yay, it's our anniversary." Kevin, who just happens to be the world's most romantic husband, ordered a cake from a Lakewood bakery. It got it to look like the top tier of a wedding cake and it.was.delish! Oh my gosh it was so incredibly good.

Michael came and stayed overnight and watched Jason for us. It was nice knowing Jason would be taken care of and that we didn't have to worry about the two of them. We saw "Snow White And The Huntsman" and what a good movie. Not the best movie ever, but it was good. We had a fantastic and very romantic Italian dinner and spent the night in a downtown hotel with views of Pikes Peak. This incredible husband of mine also gave me beautiful roses. I feel so lucky and so blessed to have him. He is my rock and I love him.

We had breakfast at Village Inn before coming home and rescuing Michael. :) We relaxed during the day and went to a Sky Sox game that evening.

We've also celebrated Father's Day since my last blog post. We grilled some mighty tasty bacon wrapped steak and had some roasted, buttered potatoes with it. YUM. Kevin/daddy, also wanted egg custard, so I made one for him.

We also found online through a rescue agency northwest of Denver, a puppy we liked. After going through the adoption process, we now own said puppy. Honestly, we aren't quite sure exactly how old she is or what she is. The vet at the rescue place put her between 7-8 months in late May and tagged her as a Lab. The paperwork we were given at adoption says she is a Lab/Shepherd mix and gives an exact birth date, in September putting her at 10 months. In taking her in this past week for a limp and bringing her home after  $89 of puppy Motrin basically for growing pains, this vet also said he puts her around 8 months-ish and both he and his tech said right off, "this dog has Beagle in her", and the vet said and I quote, "I see absolutely no Shepherd in this dog"....hmmmmm, so, what the heck is she and how old is she? Who knows? She points constantly, but we did read where Labs can and do in fact point, not only Pointers, so this could point back to the rescue place thinking she is part Lab. Her name is Avery and she has become a part of our family in the one week we've had her. She has her own little personality for sure.

July 4th we grilled and had a really good day with Michael over and we all went to the Sky Sox game but left because we needed to come let the baby out of her crate. :)

We're pretty sure everyone knows about the devastating and heartbreaking fire in the Springs. We won't go on and on about that. We are so happy to be from a community that is so willing to help each other in times of crisis and are so, so very thankful for the firefighters! God bless them! As of this weekend the fire was 98% contained! 

We had a lazy weekend. It has been in the 60's and raining of and off. We don't have a lot of lazy times so it's been nice. Chicken & dumplins last night and beef stew tonight. MMMMmmmmmm.

And now folks I will leave you with this.....55 days til Auburn football! WDE. :)