Sickies...Layouts...and a Wonderful Week to Come!

So we are now entering our 3rd week with sick ones in the house! In the past 3 weeks we've had 5 cases of pink eye, 2 sinus infections, snotty noses, upset tummies, deep coughs, and now Miss Em probably has an ear infection! I think we are about to request a speedy check out lane at our doctor's office, or at least the option to earn frequent flyer points! Even little Elijah got hit with the nasty virus. Last week he woke up with pink eye. I don't think I've ever had one this young with pink eye before? He looked just pitiful! Poor little guy! I was thinking today that last February we had done the exact same thing with the never ending virus except that time it was a flu bug. I guess I can count my blessings then that at least this long virus is just the cold and not stomach flu virus.

This weekend I was so blessed by an amazing husband who said I could take some much needed time for myself and lock myself in my scraproom Saturday night. Oh how wonderful! It's been way too long since I've scrapped anything. It was different scrapbooking without someone to sit and chat with, but sometimes it's nice to just have that quiet time to yourself. So not only was I able to get 3 layouts done, but I also was able to break out the new Cricut Expression. I know, it's the one that I got for Christmas and that has sat neglected in my scrapbook room since then. But in my defense it could have sat there *much* longer like all the scrapbooking products I've been stashing away for the past few months since I haven't had time to scrap. We had a really busy Fall so scrapbooking was just not a priority. So it was like Christmas pulling out all these shopping bags full of new products. I had pretty much forgotten what all I had purchased, so it was almost as if I had just gotten back from a trip to Archivers and then sat down in my chair to scrap. Nice huh? So now that I am realizing how much I miss that creative part of my life I'm sure I will be scrap'n on much more of a regular basis. Here's a look at what I did last night....I know bad pics of the layouts, but I can't find my disk to load my scanner to my new lap top so here's to better than nothing!


This week should be a good but short one. We will be finishing up Maddelyn's Civil War/Abraham Lincoln unit and hopefully finishing up yet another Addy book from the American Girl Series. All the sore throats the past couple of weeks has slowed down the read-a-louds more than I'd like. Since we wil be having a short week this week we won't be starting any new lapbooks with Miss Em until next week. We will however be getting our Valentine's finished up to be mailed out. We are so excited to have been able to do a Valentine Exchange with other homeschool kids form across the country! I heard about the exchange on the Homeschool Lounge, which is an amazing support system for homeschool families. Our three girls will be mailing out about 18 Valentines each this week and over the next couple of weeks they will be each receiving the same number. We got our first ones in the mail a few days ago and the girls each placed them in the little heart shaped baskets I found at the store for them to use as their little Valentine's Day mail boxes. On Feb 14th I will let them open and read all the little cards they received as well as enjoy all the treats that came with them. Since we school at home we won't be having the normal Valentine's Day party like traditional schools will be, but we will be celebrating just the same. The girls also spent some of their craft time this week making and decorating hearts to hang up all over the school room. I think their pretty excited about Valentine's Day this year.

The reason for the short week is that Nathan and I have our annual marriage retreat with our church this weekend. Our pastor and his wife take 3 different groups of 8 couples down to Amish Country to a bed and breakfast for a time of marriage building, discussion, learning, and fellowship. It's nice to have such great marriage building time, but also to have it at a wonderful b&b in the scenic Amish Country. When you look out your big glass doors on your suite at the B&B all you can see are the rolling hills dotted with Amish Farms. It's hard to be stressed out with such a view! So we'll be off to the B&B and our beloved Ashley will be here to sit with the kids. Our children just adore her and definitely won't be missing us while we're gone.

So even with kids still fighting this bug and we will more than likely be back to the doctors office....it's going to be a good week!