Still kickin'...if only barely

Monday and Tuesday the movers came (we ignored Demetri's birthday and decided to celebrate it in Kamiah); Wednesday was spent cleaning and finishing vacating the house.  Today has been graduation, paperwork, online trainings, more paperwork, hotel and naps for kids, running back and forth from hotel to post, and finally, ice cream (the kids were so patient today!).  Tomorrow depends on what the people in the various offices say- there's one paper in particular that needs to be signed before we can do anything else.
Busy week.  I'm just glad to be out of the house and hoping we can get out of here soon.  California was fun, but I'm ready to be done. I thought everything was done and we could just leave after graduation.  I should know by now and be able to anticipate the extra red tape!  (I just get optimistic when he actually has leave papers in his hand.)
Enjoying my baby- though still not comfortable enough with four children to go anywhere with them alone.  Shawn's frustrated.  Oh well, at least I was willing to have the four children; I don't know about more.  I'm savoring the newborn stage that I've missed so much.  Xander has three excited big brothers.  They love him, hold him, sing to him, play with him, and talk to him in funny voices. 

About Me

This didn't fit in the "About me" section, so I'm putting it here:

I am usually a stay-at-home mom (with occasional short bouts of temporary jobs). My husband is a linguist in the military. He just joined. I imagine we’ll be moving a lot.

I homeschool my son, at his request, and will most likely homeschool his two younger brothers in ensuing years.

Religion is the basic premise of life for our family. We like going to church too. I’m LDS. I grew up LDS. I love it. My husband is already planning several missions for when the children are gone. General Conference is my favorite time of the year. And it comes twice! 

I like to cook healthy meals, and don’t use much in the way of meat, sugar, or packaged foods. However, I love to bake, especially desserts, and it takes a lot of restraint to keep myself from making large amounts of rich sugary desserts. I substitute with honey and whole wheat where I can, and succumb to my sugar cravings when think about it too much. My mother has a good cookbook that helps me out. My mother-in-law makes some of the best food I’ve ever tasted.

My mother and grandmother taught me to use herbs for nutrition and healing. I love herbs. Except the bitter ones- but I still use them…heavily camouflaged with honey.

I love to sing. I sing all the time. I don’t like pretty much anything on the radio, so we sing in the car instead, or listen to the “Standin’ Tall” tapes. I like to play the piano. I don’t have one at the moment however, and I don’t even know if I can read music anymore. I am also an old-movie addict- according to my husband. I rarely watch anything made after 1960, except Veggietales and some animated (mostly Disney and Pixar) movies. My children help make me more cultured I suppose. I never would have seen “Finding Nemo” without them.

I love to read. I probably have too many books, but I can’t help it. I buy bookshelves whenever I find a good deal, and the boys all sleep in one room (I never did see a reason for a child to have their own room) so we can have a library. I love libraries. I think I’m going to have to start putting bookshelves in the pantry. It’s a large pantry.

Getting Started

Okay, so I'm new to the blogging world and slightly technologically challenged. We'll see how this works out. At the moment, this blog is mostly for myself :). I need to organize my thoughts, and I like the way a blog looks. I've seen quite a few blogs lately- some about a specific subject and some about life in general. I like both. I was inspired to blog by two people, my sister Jeri, and a lady whose blog I happened upon today- Lani. Here goes.

I have officially decided to homeschool- again. We homeschooled a bit, then did public school, and my son has asked if we could please be homeschooled again. We just moved and the schools here took out music, art, and (rumored) P.E. because of budget problems. To me, that's like keeping a budget for cable tv and cutting out the budget for gas. Haha- okay, not quite, but pretty close. We like TJed the best.

We are also a military family. My husband just finished basic training, and he's at the DLI learning Chinese...we'll be here(Monterey, CA) a while. :) As I have spent the last couple of years living with parents I am once again learning how to run a household, cook, and be out on my own. So far:
1. The house is very clean (how could it help but be clean when there's nothing in it?)
2. I've made a brand new recipe every night (thanks to the thrift store crockpot I picked up on the way here and a crockpot blog- the oven is broken, and I'm not all that enterprising in my cooking adventures in the first place)
3. The kids are happy (they haven't grown tired of the playground in the backyard yet)
4. I have read to my children for at least an hour every day, as well as had some "singing time."

So far I'm proud of myself. We'll see if I can keep it up. My husband wishes I would learn how to drive here. I promise to be able to leave the subdivision by myself within the next 6 months. How's that.

A friend and I are researching starting a business. I'll let you know how it goes.