Hello, again!

Hello again, Friends!  It has been a long time since I have been on here.  Partly due to just being plain 'old busy with life and partly because the last post I made was about Mom.  But, life moves on and so much has happened since then.  I wish I could go back and document it all, but to be honest- that takes a huge amount of time that I just don't have right now.  So we do a re-cap and start from now!

We are nearing the end of our school year.  I have truly loved homeschooling the kids this year!  I have learned a lot about my kids and about myself.  It is has certainly been hard at times and the school day has not always gone as smoothly as I had hoped.  But the kids have done well and even though I doubt myself many times, I know they have learned.   We will still be doing a few things over the summer, but not a full day.  The kids have asked to go back to school next year.  We are changing schools, so I am ok with their decision.  We caught them up as much as we could- we will just have to see if it was enough.  I am hoping to go to back to work next year as well.  I think this experience will make me a better teacher.  I am hoping that I can get on at the kids new school, but if not I would love to get back at the middle school (crazy I know, but I love those Middle Schoolers!). 

About a year ago, Matt and I made the family decision to leave our church home for the past 4 years and start attending a new place.  We are now at the Mt Juliet Campus of The Fellowship.  We are loving it and feeling like we are making a difference.  Matt has been selected to lead Outreach at our church.  We are super excited to get somethings going and get involved in our community.  We really feel that our time at Friendship was God's way of preparing us for this time at The Fellowship.  Our kids are thriving and loving the kids program, which is a huge blessing to us. 

God has been working on me over the last 6 months.  Our marriage is stronger, my faith and strength has been bolstered and I feel that I am gaining ground.  I have made some changes in my personal life- both Spiritually and physically.  I feel the changes are good and I am just trying to get in a routine now.  I have decided to start running.  I have never been a runner, so this is a challenge for me.  We have been changing our eating habits.  We are slowly cutting out gluten from our diet and going more organic.  I have had to make these changes more slowly than I would have liked, but we are making them.  I have always been one to cook from scratch, but now 99% of everything is home made.  It has been great fun getting cookbooks from the library and trying out new recipes.  My family is quick to tell me whether to make it again or toss it!   I recently went to a family cancer geneticist, since my Dr requested that I go.  It was very interesting to say the least.  Although we have a family history of certain cancers, they are not all on one side which is good for me.  Sara (the geneticist) set me up with Mom's cancer dr in order to determine if I am at risk.  Mom's cancer is such a rare one, that my risk is elevated, but also for several other types (Breast and ovarian).  We also hope to do the actual genetic testing this summer, but we are waiting for our insurance to cover it. 

I can't wait to get back to updating this blog.  It is so much fun to go back and see what I have written about and remember so much.  I hope to always keep it that way.  I am going to be adding some pictures next time so that I can catch up a bit on it.  My kids are awesome to take pictures of, and I love to share them.