Blog Party! WOOHOO!

I am joining the 5th Annual MommyFest Blog Party!! It sounds like a lot of fun, there are lots of prizes and fun new people to meet. (of course they are fun, they are at a party, right?) Click on the link above if you would like to come along to the party! The more the merrier.

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Okay, for my introduction:
I am Kahri, rhymes with starry, and I am wife to Michael and mother of four wonderful children here on earth, one awaiting us in heaven. As you can see, I am a believer. In fact, I am a blood bought, born again, spirit filled, bible believing, overcoming child of God. (aka a Jesus Freak) So, if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, be sure to stay and read awhile...maybe you will get saved. heehee. (You have to admit, I warned you...)

We have a miracle story with our daughter Kaedra. You can read about it here.

We reside in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, at least for the moment. We are expecting to move at a (soon) unknown date to an (as for now) unknown location. My hubby is training to be a club manager for Sam's and we will move wherever he gets his store. We are looking forward to this next chapter of our lives. We know God has great things in mind for us!

We homeschool our children. We have been homeschooling them since the beginning and plan on homeschooling them until the end. We use an eclectic set of books and ideas. You can read more about our homeschooling resources and journey at my homeschool blog.

I have lots of hobbies but hardly ever get to them, especially since having my son who is 15 months old. I am hoping to start them up again soon! I love to read, cross stitch, pencil puzzles, crochet, do calligraphy, paint, sew, and most other types of crafts. I don't watch TV, I only read Christian books, I don't really keep up with the news, so I could be considered pretty odd.

I like to call it peculiar, as you see from the title of my blog. Peculiar, in the bible, means "set apart." I feel that we were set apart to show forth the praises of Him. The verse above is the verse I live by. And glory do I feel "called out of darkness", Hallelujah! But that is for another post, another day.

Anyway, feel free to look around. Our "cast of characters" are pictured in the top left corner. I blog about all sorts of things. I am not a consistent blogger; I blog a few posts one day and then none for a week, but I do love to blog. It's a great way to keep in touch with friends.

Hope you enjoyed your visit! Thanks for stopping by... Leave me a comment and I will come and visit you!

This is SOOO me!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Quick Book Review

I recently read Homeschooling Take a Deep Breath - You Can Do This! by Terrie Lynn Bittner. I have meant to review the book, but have been really busy and have not taken the time. Of course, now the book is overdue at the library, so I am going to write a really quick review before I jump in my car and take it back.

I really enjoyed this book even though it was geared more towards the new homeschooler. However, although I have homeschooled for 8 years, I still learned many things and found myself nodding in agreement at many of her points.

I like this quote:
"Remember that your hardest job isn't teaching your chldren, it's parenting them. If you have done a good job of parenting, teaching is already a part of your day. Any good parent is naturally a good teacher."

I think that is true in more ways than one. If you have diligently parented your children and taught them the ways of your household, it will also be easier to teach them. If your children already know that you don't like to be interrupted, and won't interrupt you under threat of (I can't think of anything funny here that won't sound like child abuse, so you fill it in) it makes it so much easier when you are explaining their lesson. If you have already worked with your children about staying on task in their everyday life, staying on their schoolwork will be easier too! (I say this as pure hypothesis because my children, ahem, some of my children, are not good at either of those things. YET. We are working on it)

I have never kept a homeschool journal. I never really saw the need for one and frankly, thought it would be one more thing to try to remember every day. However, I love her idea of using the journal as sort of an accountability partner. (my word, not hers) By writing in your journal what went right and what went wrong (she has a rule that you always need to have more rights, though) you have a quick overview of the day and you can seek to make changes. She has you circle the one thing that went the worst and try to troubleshoot that area. I love that idea! I have downloaded a journal onto my palm pilot for just such a purpose. I think it will be great to see the successes and get ideas for how to make things better on a daily basis.

Anyway, for those of you that feel the need to read EVERY homeschooling book out there (like me) I would highly recommend this one. I skimmed parts of it where I felt I did not need any ideas (although I still learned some great things from those parts as well) and other parts I hung on every word and even took notes. :-)

Now I'm jumping in my car....

13 Things I have learned as a mother

1. Patience:
It's funny. I seem so patient now. I can't even remember not being patient! But when I see my prayer journals from the Brittany's first year, my repeating prayer was for patience. I also talk to people from that time and they remember me needing patience. Somewhere along the way, I got it! I am not perfect, by any means, but I usually am very patient with my kids. (I admit it, my patience does not always spread to random children. But if I love the kids and/or the parents, I usually have patience)

2. How to laugh:
I'm sure I laughed once or twice before I had children, but I know it was nowhere near the amount I laugh now that I have four! My kids are so funny to me and we laugh all the time.

3. Social Skills:
I used to be afraid to be in large groups or anywhere where I had to speak or attempt to be social. I was pretty much a home-body. I liked my family, my hubby's family and that was it. Having children changed it in two ways. 1. I could "hide behind" my kids. I mean that both literally and figuratively. When carrying Brittany, people didn't usually notice me, they noticed her. That took all the pressure off of me! AND I could talk about her, so that took the pressure off the conversation. 2. I had to get out more because I couldn't rightfully be a hermit with kids. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone so I could meet their needs. Then I eventually learned to be more social myself. :-)

4. Unconditional Love:
That one just came along for free with the first child.

5. Unselfishness:
So much more fun to go buy things for the kids than for me! So much easier to think about others when they are all around you. No time to worry about myself!

6. The art of saying no:
Before kids I had a tendency to become overextended. After kids, I learned to prioritize and say no to preserve my sanity. :-)

7. The wonderful-ness of family:
I was an only child. I didn't see my dad much (he worked out of town) and my mom and I had a very rocky relationship. I really didn't get the whole "family" thing until I had my own. We are VERY family oriented and one of our nurses said we were the closest family she had ever seen. I'll take that. ;-) We are pretty tight as a family unit and usually do things together.

8. Joy:
It is sort of ironic that I didn't really live a joyful life until I lost my son, Jacob. I bought myself a plaque after his death that says "Joy comes in the morning." I read that to myself everyday. Sometimes several times a day. I chose joy as my goal. Now I see joy as a major part of my personality and life. I can't stand the feeling when I lose my joy. That is probably singlehandedly the most changed feature in my life since having children.

9. Bribery:
Never really had a need for it before kids.

10. way too many medical terms:
Could have lived without them, but they were a package deal with Kaedra.

11. Friendship:
It changes the whole dynamic of friendship to have friends who love your kids. And friends whose kids you love. And kids that love your friends. And friends' kids that love you. (you get the idea)

12. Gibberish:
Isn't it amazing how we can decode what our 15 month old just said through a mouth full of chips and no discernable consonants? And yet they get this HUGE GRIN when we know just what it is they want. That's success in my eyes.

13. The sustaining power of God:
God has so many facets and aspects but His power to sustain us through anything really comes through when you have children....children gone to be with him too soon, medically challenged children, day long tantrums, sibling rivalry and endless calgon moments....He keeps us through it all.

Check out other Thursday Thirteens

Emily's Birthday Pics

Emily decided to have her family party as a pajama party. And she wanted grilled hamburgers. So we had a pajama/cookout. LOL!

Beautiful Weather Pics

Homeschooling Quote

"I homeschool because I've seen the village...and I don't want it raising my kids."

Michael's 40th B'day

He wanted a fajita dinner so we grilled everything for the dinner (except the cake). It was AWESOME! Best fajitas ever!!

Busy busy busy

I apologize, I am way, way, way behind on answering emails. If you have emailed me, rest assured it is in my pile of 33 emails I need to answer. And someday, I may even get to it. No, really, I will try to get to my email soon. It just seems like a HUGE insurmountable pile at the moment.

Okay, I finally found my cord for Brittany's camera and I can download the pictures from Michael's b'day, Emily's b'day and random other events. Expect those posts to be coming sometime soon too.

We have a garage sale coming up at church on Saturday and I am trying to sort through virtually everything I own so I can get rid of a lot of it. I have a living room that is a fire hazard right now and needs to be taken care of before Saturday!

Next Tuesday we are FINALLY heading to Kansas City for Kaedra's evaluation. We do not know when her expansion surgery will be scheduled but it is usually soon after the eval. We are going to suggest not putting in the rib they took out last year until they have to replace the rib that she still has in there. They should probably be replacing that in the next year or so, which would be a "big" surgery so we are just going to suggest that they do both "big" surgeries at the same time. Anyway, we will see what they say to that. ;-P

Michael is finally home for a few weeks. He leaves again at the end of May for a week.

We need to start packing because when we move it will be quickly. We were reading the info yesterday and we will most likely have less than a month from the moment we find out there is a store opening that we are interested in, until we will need to be moved out there. So, I need to get a lot of stuff done asap, so I don't need to do it last minute.

Gotta go give Ethan a bath and put him to bed. I will be back at some point. :-)

Jacob's Birthday

In honor of my son Jacob's birthday (who was born at rest on 5/5/03)



Hard to imagine him as a 5 year old. More thoughts on that at a later date....

Jacob's Birthday last year