Aw, the signs of spring, or is it summer? Or maybe it's winter?

I love this time of year. I throw open the windows and let the cool breezes flow through the house (and blow my many piles of papers off my counters all over the floor). I listen to the birds outside and drink my cup of coffee early in the morning.
I went for my morning walk yesterday and today. Where else can you go for a walk on clear sidewalks in capris and short sleeves and enjoy both the birds singing and snow covering the grass! Love it! It's so pretty, but the snow is fading. Only to bring green grass, leaves on the trees, the smell of flowers and fresh air, children outside playing and SAND!
Yep, you know the weather is getting nicer when you come home from your morning walk, take off your shoes and socks and walk into the kitchen to make coffee and walk across the floor....covered in sand! Sam and his friend Joseph were outside on the trampoline last night and had to walk through the sandbox to get back in the house. 8 year old boys just don't think of shaking the sand off their clothes or dusting off their feet before walking through the house.
Can I tell you a secret if you promise not to tell Sam and Joe? I loved it! It's just a fun memory in the making of Sam with friends running through the house with sandy clothes and feet. Aw, summer! The important thing is that my kids are having a great time with friends...not "OH NO, there's sand on my kitchen floor!"
My greatest memories of my childhood is running on the hot pavement with barefeet and the feel of stepping into the grass and feeling the soft, coolness of the grass. Then running to the back yard and spending hours in the sand box digging and building castles and moats...flooding the sandbox trying to fill our moat. But wait, we were really thirsty so we needed a drink...Yep, up the stairs of the deck and in through the screen door to the kitchen. I was 8, did I think to dust off the sand? Nope! Did my mom get mad? NO! Her goal was always to make sure her kids were happy and having a fun time. She would happily get us a drink of Kool-Aid and off we went...leaving her to vaccuum up our sand throughout the house.

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10

Love life....God gave it to you as a gift!
You are my God, and I will give you thanks; You are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 118: 28-29

Happy Easter

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter (Resurrection Day)
I some times feel very frustrated when we celebrate Christian holidays and non-believers are celebrating right along with us, but with Santa Claus and bunnies being their main focus. I also am excited that these holidays bring opportunity as Christians to share the true meaning of the holiday with those that don't know Jesus as their Savior. I look back at our family and how we celebrated those same holidays...as Santa and the bunny being OUR main focus. I thank God for showing Himself to us!!! What a blessing our church family is to us. They truly are our family!
Thank you Jesus for going to the cross and dying...and RISING AGAIN! Hallelujah!

Decluttering the mind

We took a mini vacation to the mountain this past weekend. It was nice to get away with the kids and not have them distracted by their cell phones and computers. They were totally bored, unless we were constantly doing something, but it was still great to just be together. I took my scrap booking things and got several pages done. I am in the process of reading a Christian novel and got some of that read also. Our cabin was right along the river; we could hear it from our bedroom window. It had a big dining room table for me to do my scrap booking, a small bedroom with a queen size bed, a "cozy" kitchen, bathroom, living room with fireplace and a loft with two beds.
We did a little shopping in Estes and sightseeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. We also did some hiking by the falls, but it was still a little icy and snowy. Still a fun outing and we took lots of pictures with Jason's new toy...a new expensive camera.
Getting back into the groove of weekly demands has been a little tough, but we're getting there. I can't believe we are so close to being at the end of the school year. YEAH!
Tomorrow is Sam's birthday. Not sure what we will do to celebrate tomorrow, but he has invited a few friends to go bowling on Saturday...although it looks like we'll have to postpone until Sunday afternoon. SNOW!
It is supposed to snow today and Friday/Saturday so I guess I'll just work on getting the house back in order.
This past month, I have really been feeling blessed beyond measure and feeling very undeserving of it all. God is such a giving God, yet what have I given back? Not nearly enough!! Thank you, Jesus, for giving your life so that we may enjoy life to the fullest! I love you!

First week of school, finished

What a great week we had. We do have one slight little issue. We get finished with school around noon and then Peyton is terribly bored. I have been wanting to get "wife/mom" stuff done during the afternoon, but she wants me to entertain her, go somewhere, etc. We'll have to work on some ideas of what to do.
If nothing else comes out of the Home Schooling thing, I can say the greatest, most wonderful thing is that we have become closer. I love spending one on one time with her and giving her the attention she needs. She's such a beautiful girl, both inside and out.
I know that she still texts her "school" friends, but she doesn't mention missing them much. She has started being more interested in her YG friends and going to YG. (I think there is a boy, or two, or three that she likes to hang out with there that makes it more interesting.)

The last two days of the week, Peyton did a study and report on Buffalo Bill. We took a road trip on Saturday and stopped at Buffalo Bill's Grave on Lookout Mountain. The picture was taken on top of Lookout Mountain.

On another note:
We took another load to the Goodwill. It took TWO of the Goodwill carts to take it all in to the building. Yeah. I feel so much better.
This week is spring break and my knee has been killing me...no idea what's wrong. So, this week I'm going to focus on getting some scrap booking done and staying off my knee as much as possible.
We are planning to take a little getaway family trip toward the end of the week. Jason said to work on planning where to go and the details so off I go to find somewhere to go. I think I'll find a little cabin where the boys can fish and I can take pictures and do some reading...I really can't decide if Peyton would rather fish or read....she likes both!

First Day of Homeschool

It's official. Star Middle School has officially opened for school. (this is what we have been calling our homeschooling adventure.)
Day One:
Wow, God is GOOD!
I think Peyton and I are going to enjoy this home school stuff.
We started the day by seeing Cody off to school @ 6:40am. (well, just me, Peyton was still in bed)
I woke Sam and Peyton up @ 7:45am.
8:10am Peyton and I walked Sam across the street to school and then took a thirty minute walk through the neighborhood. Peyton listened to her iPod and I listened to a sermon from Chip Ingram, Balancing Life's Demands - Part 1. What a great lesson and very timely I might add! (funny how God has a way of doing that!)
We got home and Peyton made herself some French toast and I got prepared for our first bible study lesson. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do for this, and after listening to Chip, it was clear. He suggested reading Mark and using PROAPT
P=Pray
R=Read
O=Observe
A=Apply
P=Pray
T=Tell
We read and then went through the Who, Where, When and What's of what we read.
It was good! (Where have I read/heard that before!) :-)
Peyton then went on to science. We soon realized we were learning about cavemen ~ so as she finished her lesson I got online and researched lessons on creation. Tomorrow we will combine science, literature, and bible study and read in Genesis and watch a video I found online called, "God's Story".
Right now I have no question God has lead us to this point, and our prayer this morning together was that He goes before us to lead our path. (reminds me of Chris Tomlin's song, "All the way my Savior leads me") GREAT SONG! http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f974580a5ade18f3ded2 I was really feeling lost and anxious about starting home school yesterday and wasn't sure what today would bring. What a difference it makes when the day is started off with praying and asking God to lead and be in control.
10:25am ~ I'm off to take a shower and Peyton is doing her literature. She is reading Twilight and will be doing a book report on it when she is finished.
We realized while doing our "where" of the bible study that we didn't have a good map of bible times. Our first field trip: LifeWay to get a map.
3:58 ~ School is done. What a great day. After Peyton was done reading and I had finished getting ready, we went and had lunch at Applebee's and then headed up to LifeWay. While I was in the shower, I thought that it would be fun, and a learning experience (in many ways), to bake some muffins for a family in our church who lost their wife/mother this past week. Tonight we will be baking the muffins for me to take to bible study in the morning so they can be taken out to the family. I'm thinking we will recruit Sam also as a lesson for us all.
Thanks to all who have been praying for our family and all the change that we have experienced in the past week! God is GOOD!

Basement storage...check!

Yep, you read that correctly. The basement storage area is officially clutter free! We got the whole family involved with this one. Jason was in the crawl space making room and organizing. I was going through boxes, shelves, bags, etc. The kids were our "gophers". We hauled out four bags of trash and loaded the back of the truck with LOTS of holiday decor, home decor, kitchen "stuff", etc to go to Goodwill. YEAH! We finally have a work out room where we can actually work out. The treadmill has been unburied and is no longer being used as a storage place to hang things or throw things on. Cody has already started using the bowflex and is really excited and Peyton walked a little on the treadmill this morning between "classes".

More on the first day of home school...coming very soon.

Until then....may God bless you today.

It's Body Time

Yep, you read that right. It's body time! I have been focusing my blog on my house, but it's time to really focus on my body. There have been sooo many changes in the Staroscik household in the past few months/weeks/days! Jason, my wonderful hubby, got a new job working from home. His first day is tomorrow. I went on an extended leave from CCRFS (my job at the outlets), got a new job working from home part-time for a friend, and have decided to home school my daughter. WOW! Talk about a little stress. Peyton starts home schooling Monday.
So in all that chaos, I have decided to put a little more structure in our house since things are changing so much. Since Peyton is going to be home schooled and Jason will be working from home, I thought it would be fun to add some physical activity to our days. First step: clean out the storage room downstairs so I can get to my treadmill and BowFlex. So, I guess you can say this is decluttering the house too, but for the sake of working out.
I went and bought a new bathroom scale, one that tracks your weight loss. (not your's, mine):-D
(does that mean I have to get rid of something in order to bring that in the house???) I think I'll take care of that when we start going through the junk downstairs.
I had a long talk with Jason the other day about going out to eat. He loves to go out to eat and would do it every meal if I "let him". So I told him that it wasn't being very supportive of my trying to lose weight or the fact that we were spending way too much money on food. So, after we ate dinner (at home) he got up and said, "let's go hike the rock". So, we did! I made it to the top (a little out of breath)! BUT, then I RAN down! Boy did I feel good the rest of the night. I am attaching a few pics...from the top of Castle Rock. If you have never climbed it, I suggest you do so, it's so beautiful up there. (this wasn't my first time up there, but each time is so breath taking)
Hopefully next time I post I will have lost a few pounds along with a few pounds of "junk" from our house! :-)