It's been a long time

Did you all miss me? Wow, didn't realize it has been so long since I last posted. Well, some updates I guess. Still feeling mighty crappy especially at night. My head hurts all day long and I am so very tired. I haven't been to the gym for about 3-4 weeks because I am afraid I will start puking while walking the track. My husband thinks it will make me feel better. I would rather be safe then sorry.
Markus is officially weaned. Not that he wants to be, but mom thinks it is time. 18 months is a long time to nurse a baby. I hadn't even noticed that my milk was gone. He is only allowed to nurse once a day and I guess my body said enough and didn't make anymore. I was mainly nursing at night/during the night when he would get up. And the last three nights he had been very fussy even when he nursed. Last night is when it dawned on me that he wasn't getting any milk. He sucked and sucked and finally looked at me and said mom and started crying. Then he tried the other side and did the same thing. He wasn't about to be comforted. I almost felt guilty. Mark said I should. I told Mark he could nurse a boy with a mouth full of teeth and see how he likes it.
Elijah is doing good in pre-school. His teacher says he is the best student and the leader for his class. I asked if she was talking about my son. LOL. He loves to go. Unfortunately next Wednesday is Dad day and once again this year dad is away from home and won't be able to go with him. So, Briley gets to go again. Good things for big brothers even if he is only 11. They get to go on a firetruck ride.
We are taking a small break from school this week. Hopefully I feel better next week to get going again. I have also been thinking on how I am doing school and want to try some different techniques and see if that will help with schooling.
I was going to let my membership with the home school legal defense organization expire this year, but Corrisa's dad, grandparents, and great grandma are already throwing a fit that she isn't going to high school next year full time. So, I would like to be prepared legally in case something happens with that. I know that now that their dad is dating somebody and living with them that it makes him feel a little more powerful then when he is single.
Mark is just now today arriving in Wisconsin for work. He won't be home until Thanksgiving and then not again until Christmas. That is if he lasts on the job. He hasn't worked a job from start to finish in over 2 years so it isn't so far fetched that he will quit. He only left on Tuesday night, but the kids are already getting their dad is gone so we can be naughty behavior already. Of course it doesn't help that we are on the extreme west of Iowa and he is on the extreme east of Wisconsin. I love traveling jobs.
Well, I think that is our update in a nutshell. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Boys

So, I take Elijah and Gabe to an ICN class at the library first thing this morning. I hate going to them anyway and wonder why I even sign up for the stupid things. Anyway, there are four other schools besides them. The girl in charge of the class goes around asking questions about the alphabet and sounds and such and when she comes to us the boys have a knock down drag our over who gets to speak into the microphone. Gabe answers and then Elijah is bawling so loudly that when Gabe is answering you could hear him. I am supposed to do one next week with the two of them again and I think I will cancel. I don't need the extra stress anyway. This is why I never leave my house with the kids unless it is completely necessary. I know it is lack of discipline, but after getting up at the crack of dawn to take care of a dog you don't want, making breakfast, putting up with a moody teenager, laundry and home schooling who feels like chasing kids around and disciplining. My head is spinning by noon. Then my lovely husband will call and say "if you have time..." If I had time I would be a peaceful, happy woman. I do believe my husband is heading to Chicago this weekend for work. We shall see how long he lasts there. He is quiting is job of a week and a half today. He thinks the grass is greener in Chicago. Anyway, that is my day so far in a loop and it is only 10:30. I have to go make lunches for the oldest 4 because they have brown bag and books with the supervising teacher at 11. Have a great week.

Anniversary

Today was Mark and my 9th anniversary. Of course he is gone so nothing special was done. He did call me at 12:15 this morning so that he could say it first. After suffer from insomnia for the past week and finally getting sleep it would have been nice to sleep. We did chat for about a 1/2 an hour. I guess you could call it bed time talk from different beds. Nothing naughty just talk. When you have a house full of kids about the only time we can talk without interruptions is when we go to bed at night.
He called me again after work just to tell me again that he remembered first. What he doesn't know is that I was the one who set the reminder on his phone to begin with. It was a good day anyway.
I laid in bed with an upset stomach most the day, but I will live. Had a nice 5 minute bubble bath for a few minutes before the boys started coming in. And now Elijah is enjoying my hot bath. I hope he is enjoying it. He's out so now somebody else might enjoy it while the water is still hot. It sounds like it may be Gabe. No sense letting hot water go to waste I say.
Well, not much to say. Our church had its 95th annual Bible conference this weekend. One of the speakers spoke on creation and science and the other about making Godly decisions. Both topics were good, but the one speaker isn't my favorite. Every year my chapel chooses speakers from a Bible college here in Iowa and they aren't my favorite speakers. The other chapel in town chooses the other speaker and they are always good. I didn't know until this year that that was how the speakers were chosen. I always knew there was one associated with this college and one excellent speaker. Anyway, we enjoyed the conference all day yesterday, but my stomach only allowed me an hour today. Markus wasn't all that good today either. I think he got tired of sitting still yesterday.
Well, have a good week. I will try and keep my blog updated with any exciting news from the Sharp house.

Elijah

Today at Elijah's preschool story time at the library, the librarian asked the kids to say there name and then asked them to say their last name. My husband has the habit of giving the kids pet names. So when she got to Elijah she said and what is your name. Elijah responded "Elijah" and then she said what is your last name. Elijah responded "King". My husband calls him Elijah Keen and he hears it as Elijah King. So he has it stuck in his head that King is his middle name. The librarian looked at Corrisa and asked what his middle name was. She said "Lee-Louis". The librarian just started laughing. Mark thought it was funny when I talked to him on his lunch break. Well, have a great day.

Butterfly

Our Monarch butterfly hatched from it's Chrysalis during the night last night. So now Elijah has a beautiful butterfly. We are going to a program at the park tonight to tag and set it free. Our neighbor man is dating the county conservationist and she is putting on the program. The butterfly is in a plastic container on the front porch drying it's wings right now so he will be prepared for take off later tonight. Elijah is already planning on catching another caterpillar to watch. We shall see. It may just be a little to late in the year. This cold weather we had last week and again next week won't keep them around for long.
Have a great week.

Naked Baby

Markus was supposed to be taking a nap today. At first he started out talking then he started yelling or crying. After about 45 minutes I sent Corrisa in to make sure he didn't need a diaper change. I heard her say "Markus". She then appeared in my room with a almost naked Markus.
He had taken off his pants and his diaper. I noticed when looking at the diaper that he had pooped, but it was no longer in the diaper. So while I put on a fresh diaper, Corrisa looked for the poo. I had to change his bedding. And he still refused to take a nap. So come 7 tonight I am sure I will have a sleeping baby.
I must say out of all the kids I have this is the first time of dealing with this. They all do some different things. I guess I should be grateful he didn't eat the poo.
Have a great week.

The Bible

I forgot to tell you about my experience last Monday morning. I wanted to start the day refreshed and ready for school, so I got up at six. I put Rufus's food and water outside and let him lose to do his thing and then sat down with my Bible. I had been feeling sorry for myself for the past few days as all of you faithful readers have seen and so I did the read where ever the Bible opens thing. I opened it to Lamentations. Not a book of the Bible I would normally read, but figured God wanted me to see something in that Book. So I started reading the whole book of Lamentations and started to wonder if I should change my reading to something different. Then it happened. Chapter three was what he wanted me to see. I think it was written just for me. It opened my eyes and brought me to my knees in tears begging for God's forgiveness for my weakness and not relying on the one who is in control of everything. When has God ever let me down.
I so often worry about the things in life that only God can control. I need to rely on him to get me through everything. He loves me and my family so much and yet I always fear that we won't be taken care of. I just wanted to share with you my experience and if you have time open your Bible to Lamentations 3 and read it.
After I read it myself the kids and I started our school day with the same chapter. I almost couldn't finish reading because of the emotions it brought to life within me. Thank you all for reading. Have a great Labor Day.