IMPORTANT

What is important? God, family, using time wisely with those you love...among many other things. Everything competes for our time. In fact, I just spent time trying to upload photos here and it failed for some reason. Why? To save memories, that I never want to forget. That is why I have multiple flash drives, dvds and external drives for photos to store on. Because I want to be able to recall everything. Even though chances are I may never browse these storage devices. At least I have them. Kind of like my patterns. Important, yes, If i ever get around to sewing anything. I suspect they are like my pinterest boards....virtual clothes I may likely never own. So I guess, I will waste a bit more time and try to re-upload my photos so you can see our life, which i would love to tell you about. Unfortunately it has been a month, almost, since I last posted and I just don't have that kind of time or memory. Sorry. That is what pictures are for, right? After all, they are said to be worth a thousand words...I am assuming, each. And just so you know, I am writing this at a bit past midnight, and Emily is standing here laughing at my post. Yeah. Neither of us apparently are tired enough to sleep yet. Go figure. I guess we both have a dysfunctional "off" switch. Ok, so let me try this photo upload again and go waste some time on pinterest while it loads.

 Well, lookie there! It actually worked. Oh, wait, who took that??!!!! Please! The things my kids do at the park!

 Jordan really is not trying to kill his sister here. They are having fun. I think...

 Kim making faces at me...still cute.

 Oh, this was the best zoo trip ever! These kids are just so much fun! We had a great day.

 Learning about owls, taking pictures, hanging out and all that fun stuff. We laugh a lot. A LOT.

 Look how they have grown! Where has the time gone???

 Is she not just adorable???

 hey, he caught a birdie!

 Fire station trip with the two youngest.

 Home school group thing. it was pretty fun.

 Liz dressed to go with Allison to Magic Time Machine. She had a blast! So cute in costume!

So here we are at the end. These were woefully out of order. Oh well. I am NOT going to fix that. Hope you have a great day. It is already Tuesday, by the way.....in case you were wondering.

Rolling on...

 This is Jacob taking piano lessons. He is learning the score from The Dark Knight. Awesome!

 This is Jacob and Emily at ECD practice...they obviously haven't started dancing at this point...

 At the park for PE (hide and seek)...very fun!

 last trip to NETXCM..only took the youngest three...our membership expired and their interest is just not there anymore.

 but we enjoyed our final trip. they had new kid computers.

 and the vet office is fun too.

 the new pipeline project held attention for a while

 and this was just a photo op. And below are the crazy mirrors.

So lately we have been busy...shocking, I know. School and dance and friends always keeps us going. Church activity is almost always going on for us, too. We have been to the planetarium, the zoo (photos coming soon), and have rented movies, been on playdates and done shopping. Our newest fun thing to do is go to the park for PE when it is cooler...and in the evenings we have discovered the BBC series "Sherlock". Fabulous show. Well, except for parts of  the first episode of the second season...a scandal in belgravia....that one is a bit on the risque side in parts...wouldn't watch that one without skipping past certain things. But you have to know the background for each successive episode to make sense, so you need to watch most of it for content.
Other than that we have just been doing the normal stuff. The weather is changing and we are enjoying the cooler temps...and by cooler I mean 80's.
Schoolwork is really going well at this time. Kids are working on writing improvement, and piano skills, and really enjoying co-op classes. Filming has slowed and I am not complaining...but I do want Jacob to get Sandblade completed in late spring so we need to step up the schedule on that.
Otherwise we are doing fine here at the homestead. Hope your family is thriving. More photos to come .....

Election 2012

This is on my FB page as a note, but I am putting it here too. 


These are fully my thoughts and beliefs on my page, and as much as they are volatile for some, they are also not up for debate. Read if you desire, but be warned, you just might be offended if you do not share my thoughts/ideology. I do not claim to know or understand all things political. I have tried to be straightforward and kind.
I have heard many religious conservatives say that they will vote for the candidate that is most like their thinking and beliefs, even though that person does not have a chance of winning. They want to vote their conscience, which is understandable, but I hear things like, "you have to vote with God". I tried to explain to some that due to the way our process works, no matter how many candidates are on the ballot, only two have a chance of winning. It WILL BE Mitt or Barack, whether people like that or not. It is just the fact of the matter, the way our system works...and voting for people who cannot win will not change the process, but it will help insure Obama a win. I hear them say that Mitt has in the past not been totally pro life enough for them, or that he is not Christian enough for them, or that he had a government health insurance plan that they think mirrors obamacare. That logic is stuck in the religious issues and cannot see the forest for the individual trees. People need to see the big picture...socialist/marxist/muslim supporter/anti-American  vs. god- believing/honest/capitalist/constitutionalist/proAmerica/pro freedom.  No man will ever meet all the criteria each religious conservative wants, for they are all human and imperfect.
 Anyone who works the elections knows and understands that to get Obama out of office you MUST vote for Mitt because he is the only one who can defeat Obama. You either want him out and will do what is necessary, or you don't really care either way. God is not on the ballot, nor will He be in a nation based on Christian principles but not intended to be a Christian nation. I think most of the religious conservatives "think" they want a Christian nation...they just fail to consider "whose version of chrisitanity?" Then you get into a whole other mess. The religious conservative vote scares me the most for our country because it threatens to not vote for a man who could turn the country around, but instead to vote for those who will not win in any scenario of reality, therefore giving the election to Obama. Obama is the most frightening scenario i can imagine for the future of America.
Last part cut and modified from a friend's post.... "For those of you, who are born-again Christians, and who are hesitant to vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon *and you don't fully agree with his stances*, please realize that Scripture is FULL of cases where God used non-believers to further His purposes!! * Maybe* God in His mercy is offering to use a * man named Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to save us from Obama." Worth thinking about....