411 The Walters Bunch

 Aren't my boys cute?  I know it has been almost a month since the last post, but to be fair I had some some oral surgery done that has had some complications in recovery and I am preparing for my first 5K race coming up next week. I know that a 5K really isn't super far (3.1 miles). However, since I have been dealing with the surgery recovery and had to take off several days, I am really working on getting back to a respectable time. I really do not understand why they like this cartoon? Love the Flintstones!  Is he ever going to slow down on growing?   We love the pumkin patch!   Before I was laid up for a week, we took off from school and had a fun week. We went to the Pumpkin Patch. It is always a great place to enjoy some of the festivites of Halloween. I know several of my friends do not celebrate Halloween, but we do. I do not think of it as a religious celebration, obviously (unless you want to get into the All Saints argument...

     L has  been counting the days down until wedding for the past 6 weeks. Everyday I have heard her mutter the phrase ___ days until the wedding.  I think the only thing she might be more excited about would be if her Aunt was having a baby, only because she is aware that mommy will NOT ever be having another baby. All of our family flew/drove in for this wonderful event. The invitations went out well in advance and we had ours prominently displayed on the refrigerator. When dining with my husband's Aunt the night before, I was alerted to the fact that he did not know exactly where the building was that the wedding was suppose to take place in the next day. I had assumed he knew its location. Why did I assume this? When we received the invitation a couple months ago, he went into a long lecture of how old the building was and that it was a landmark in downtown FT Worth. So silly  me, he knew so much about the building I figured he actually k...

Admittedly, I have not been good about giving updates. I will work on that, but you know how busy life can get. Since it has been two weeks since my last update, there is a TON of stuff to talk about. First of all, I had a fabulous birthday. The kids made me some spectacular cards and everyone pooled their resources and gave me a really beautiful turquoise ring that I have admired for awhile. I also received a new tent so next time we camp and it rains there should be no worries. We love camping and the next adventure should not be to far off. I also got a Kindle and I totally love it! For those of you who are unaware, I am an avid reader and this will make my life so much easier! I have read 2 books already on it. I loved my birthday.  The kids did great about not fighting amongst themselves. It. Was. Great.  The only thing I regret was not realizing I was turning a year older than I thought. I was. My ever loving husband was quick to point that one out. Oh well, I tel...

Well, our summer was interesting. We went on a nice long trip and had a blast. We had countless day trips and throughly enjoyed not having a schedule at all. Okay, I admit it. I was the one who throughly enjoyed not having a schedule. I wasn't spending nights planning out curriculm, scheduling appointments around our school schedule, shuttling the kids from one enrichment activity to the next, and planning every minute of our upcoming week so that I could make sure we were able to accomplish everything that needed to get done. The only bummer was that we kept getting sick every couple of weeks and the kids showed extreme sensitivity to the heat, which is weird because last summer was much hotter.   While we are in week 4 of our school schedule, the neighborhood public schools are starting on Monday, which means T heads to his Pre-K class, too. This is both a blessing and a pain. On one hand, I can actually teach the girls in peace and quiet two days a week. There will be no C...

You can already tell by the title that  we did not have a good week. Well, I take that back. We had a good expensive week. We have always made sure to follow the "you won't get termites if" advice. We did not keep firewood by the house, filled in cracks, and treated every year. Apparently, these termites did not get the proper etiquette guide for termites because they are in an abnormal spot away from moisture and wood. The only reason we noticed them was because a few months back I repainted the ceiling very white. I noticed a few very small brown spots on my pretty ceiling(yes ceiling NOT baseboards) last week and called someone out. Yep, worse case scenario confirmed. At least, we caught them very early and so the structural damage is not quite as severe as it could have been. I know God always has a plan, but does this mean I should go ahead and move? I have been thinking about it a lot lately. Most of our friends are doing missionary work over seas or throughout the ...

In what has become an early August tradition, we have already started back to school. I figured since we home school and live in Texas that we might as well be doing something educational and structured while the heat of the end of the summer makes us virtual prisoners of our house, only after 10am of course. Essentially this means that all outdoor activity, a.k.a. recess, is done first. Lately, we have been riding bikes/jogging, jumping on the trampoline, and doing yoga as our physical education time. The hard part about starting "early" is that the home school activities we are involved in do not start until September. This is truly the only time I feel the HOME in home school. After that, we are rarely at home to do school. I prefer a hands on approach and while we follow a fairly stringent curriculum, I add all sorts of fun trips to it so that the kids can have a more hands on approach. We have been know to go on a trip for a day, a few days, or even a couple of weeks ...

As we sit here and prepare to start the next school year, I am starting to wonder if the world is actually any worse than it has always been. We definitely hear about more, thanks to social media sites and complete access to anything at our finger tips, but is it actually worse?  In recent memory, we have had the infamous 9/11, Oklahoma bombing, Columbine, and of course now the Colorado shooting in Aurora, along with daily accounts of smaller instances. Since I was not around 50 to 100 years ago, my only ability to understand the past can come from history books and newspapers. I also have to take in to account the population increase and realize that while the overall numbers of violent crimes maybe higher that the percentages  when compared to the population increase are about the same. I would venture to say that the world is no worse in violent crimes than it has been, but that as an overall population that we have GREATLY diverged from the reasons this country was founded...