Two Great Outtings

My preface will be that Braewyn's eyes look great so I'm praying the pink eye is gone for good and Philip seems to be back to his old self so the amoxicillin must be doing its thing. Yeah for a healthy house!

Now, the real reason for this post...

Outing No. 1: Ingles grocery store

Last night Braewyn and I roamed the aisles of our local grocery store while Matthew coached Philip's basketball practice. The store was having triple coupon week so I had BIG plans. My entire married life, I've always thought it to be a good idea to have a family meal menu. And that's exactly what I've always had, just an idea until last night. With the enticement of tripling my coupon value, I scanned through 4 weeks of newspaper coupons, clipping anything we normally used or a coupon $0.50 or less which might make for a good meal. I listed out three weeks of meals based on the coupons I found and felt very accomplished. Braewyn had slept for 2 1/2 hours yesterday afternoon so she made for a very sweet, funny, attention-grabbing (from other shoppers, not me) little shopping partner. To save you any more details (because yes, it was just me shopping for groceries), I'll give you the exciting part.
Total purchase price before discount: $266.09
Price paid after discount: $204.07
Total savings (coupons and store discounts): $62.02!!!

So exciting to save that much and to come home with stuff for real meals instead of just snack food! Yeah!

Outing No. 2: Grandma's Elementary School

With Matthew and I still discussing the decision between home school and public school for Philip next year, I thought it might be helpful to visit a public school kindergarten class. We are blessed to have our own personal contact, Ruth Ann! She has been a kindergarten assistant for 13 years! I asked her when would be a good time to come and she said 8am is when the kids are having their main teaching time with Alison, her lead teacher. To be somewhere at 8am for a stay-at-home mom whose children have not reached school age is a stretch but today it was worth it.

Miraculously, we did arrive at 8am. We observed math lessons, centers time, calendar time, story time, lunch time, and walked with the class to music time. We left the school at 12:10pm but it had been such a full morning I felt like it should be at least 2:30pm! Philip really enjoyed the experience and even answered one of Ruth Ann's questions during calendar time. However, I think he warmed up a tad too much and was called down for running in the hall... by Mommy and Grandma! Braewyn was quite shy for the first hour or so but opened up at centers time. She was quite the homemaker in the housekeeping center. So much so that when Ruth Ann began calendar time, Braewyn continued cleaning much of the room floor (around the centers, not near the children gathered on the floor) with a small broom and dust pan. She didn't miss many scraps of paper no matter how small.

All in all, our field trip to school (yes, we learned "T" this week at home and so our field trip was to visit a Teacher!) was very beneficial. I know that every teacher is different and we probably did witness the best (I'd say that's factual as Alison was awarded "District 2 Teacher of the Year" last year!), today's visit did at least affirm that if we decide to home school, it will not be for the sole reason of keeping our children out of public school. Many friends' children go to that school and others in town and are doing just great. I want to home school (if we choose that route) in order to raise Philip (and Braewyn down the road) to be a godly young man to the best of my ability. Although public school would do a fine job of educating him academically and even socially, it would lack Christ-centered, Scripturally-based learning. Home schooling would also allow Philip and Braewyn more time together allowing for a tighter family dynamic. I feel absolutely blessed by the Lord to be able to stay home with them and to have been given by Him the desire and ability (only through Jesus' strength in me!) to home school Philip this year. I do hope for it to continue.

In the Sick House

Well, Matthew's had a deep cough for about a month. He started taking antibiotics this week and I haven't heard him cough much.

Braewyn came down with pink eye a week ago from last Saturday. She let us put the drops in like a trooper. However I failed to wash her sheets and favorite blanket, "Lankie", and so the crusty eyes were back this past Sunday. Thankfully, there are enough drops for round 2.

Philip said his stomach hurt a little during his birthday dinner on Friday. Saturday morning he woke up feeling very hot. By noon, his temp was 102 F, and that afternoon it hit 103 F. I didn't give him any Tylenol as he said he didn't feel that bad so I hoped it would burn off a virus or whatever he had. Sunday he awoke with a temp of 98.6 F so I assumed he had had a 24-hour bug like I had earlier last week. We took the kids to Sunday School (Philip to Daddy's senior high boys' class and Braewyn to my senior high girls' class) and morning worship to keep them from infecting the other kids in the nursery hall. Monday and Tuesday, Philip seemed ok but a tad less energetic than normal. This morning, I was trying to decide whether he was feeling well enough to meet some friends at Chick-Fil-A for a playdate. I then received a call from a friend who was also going to Chick-Fil-A to say her son had strep throat. This made me wonder if I should call Philip's pediatrician to find out if he should stay away from other kids due to his symptoms. After telling a nurse about his fever over the weekend, she told me to bring him in since he had been sick for 5 days. What do you know, Philip has strep throat too! I hope he didn't give it to his friend, but maybe so. Now he's on antibiotics too. We'll see if all four of us will be healthy at the same time before winter is over.

Unfaithful

I've been unfaithful to my first love. I was swept up by the glitz and glamour provided by the fast pace of another. Immediate gratification took me in and sold me for all I was worth. I want you to know, my dear Blogger family and friends, I'm sorry for neglecting you while I was enticed by the immensity of the Facebook world!

Joking aside, I do like Facebook as it's a quick way to keep touch with people you rarely see or send a short message to someone I passed at church and forgot to mention something. However, I believe reviewing the daily happenings of 200+ friends (er, acquaintances!) and their who-knows-how-many comments from people I've never heard of has begun to slowly errode my brain and caused early onset Alzheimer's (sorry, if anyone has a family member really suffering from that). I'm trying to keep track of where I need to be on a daily basis, which supplies I need to gather for Philip's school lessons each day, if I've washed our underwear sometime this week and IT'S ALL BEING CROWDED OUT BY RANDOMNESS WHICH DOESN'T MATTER AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!

Therefore, I decided (after momentarily thinking I would delete my whole Facebook account but then reconsidering) to only check Facebook on Saturdays. I still receive emails from Facebook which include messages specifically to me from my actual friends and any comments people make about my daily (or weekly now that I'll only be checking in on Saturday) status. This will alleviate my wasting countless hours virtually snooping and allow more time and concentration toward adding posts to Blogger for those of you who really matter to me.

Whew, I feel better already! Here are a few of the cutest moments from recent weeks.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Munchkin!

Five years ago today, I was laying in a hospital bed having just received an epidural and feeling pretty good. About 4 hours later, a nurse placed in my hands something that would change my life forever. Matthew and I were thrilled (albeit he a little more relaxed and I a little more "what do I do with him?") to welcome Philip Walker Brooks to the world.

Wow, how time flies! Here's a look back on our sweet Philip through the years.



1-day-old Philip



1-year-old Philip



2-year-old Philip



3-year-old Philip



4-year-old Philip

5-year-old Philip! We love you so much and cannot wait to see what plans God has in store for you.

My Glimpse of Christmas

It's 2010, but I'm already looking back to 2009... for just a moment. I look forward to what all this year will hold, but am needing to close out the last year first. Here are my favorite moments.


















HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"You the Braewyn"

Braewyn is now into role playing, i.e. chef at her new kitchen, mommy with her baby dolls, and exchanging roles with me. She's now sitting at the kitchen table playing with play dough. She's cutting a piece of purple playdough with a plastic knife. She looks at me and says, "I'm making your lunch. I need to be careful, right Braewyn?"

Me: "Yes, Braewyn, be careful."

Braewyn: "No, I'm the mommy. You're the Braewyn."

Me: "Ok, mommy."

Lori's Christmas Recap

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I plan on blogging this afternoon, but in the meantime, here's a great recap of our Christmas week from my sister-in-law Lori's perspective! She did a great job putting this video together. Thanks, Lori! Miss you guys already. (Click on the green circle in the middle of the video to begin.)