I have not dropped off the face of the earth!!! I'm still here!

Nothing major has happened since I last posted...except for Life!  I have been busy with our homeschool and keeping the house running smooth.

I did get caught up in some coupon websites that took up way to much time....but for the new year, I have given several of them up and have decided to follow just two.  That is two from ten/twelve I was following each day.  Very overwhelming.  I was trying to save our family some more money, etc.  Well it just was not worth the time I was spending each day to justify continuing.

Thanksgiving
The children are doing great with school.  We took a week off at Thanksgiving to spend with Dad while he was home.  Prior to Thanksgiving(about three weeks), I injured my back.  We are still not sure what I did but it put me behind on everything for almost a month.   It was not fun.  I am doing better with that, I just watch everything now to make sure I don't do it again.

We had friends over during the Thanksgiving week and really enjoyed our visit with them.  It was nice to just relax and enjoy the fellowship since we don't see them often.  Both couples live in other states and they were here visiting family.

Allen and I sometimes do the "Black Friday" shopping, so for the last few years my Mother comes and stays with us on Thanksgiving night so someone will be here with the children.  We did not have major shopping to do, we were going to both Christian Book Stores and that was about it.   I think we were getting up around 5:30 or something like that.  Well, we woke up to the fire alarm going off and smoke in our house around 3:30 ish.  I immediately turned the furnace off and we all started looking around.  We could not find the fire or where it was coming from, we checked plugs, Allen walked around the house outside, checked the attic, this went on for almost 30 mins.  So Allen finally called the non-emergency number and they told him he had to call 911.  He called 911 and told them everything so they said they would send someone out.   After awhile a police officer came and he looked everywhere we had and he could not find anything.  He said that the fire department could come out and use the infrared but that it would not work unless the source was hot or something to that effect.
As a family we prayed and was asking the Lord to help us find out where the source was and what was going on.  I turned the furnace back on just to see if it was involved and as soon as I did the smell and smoke was back very strong.  We turned it off, including the breaker.  We then decided that it was the furnace and since it was off that there would not be a fire.  Mom told us to go on with our shopping, she and the children would be fine.  That was a crazy and memorable morning we wont forget soon.
Later in the day Allen got up in the attic to look at the furnace and a possum had gotten in the furnace and was dead, that was the problem.  We are all thankful that he found that and was able to take care of the problem, because it would have caught fire and the story could have been a lot different.  Thank you Lord.

Christmas - December
We did a different approach to Homeschool in December.  We still kept a few basic subjects, but we did a Unit Study about Christmas.  It was one I had found on line years ago.  We had never done it, so we thought we would try it this year.  It turned out real good.  We all learned new things and Makaela had fun doing some of the projects.
Our family stayed in town this year for Christmas.  We decided to take it easy and enjoy our time together.  Now Allen and I did several projects around the house during his time off, we did not get them all done, but we accomplished more than we thought.  The children enjoyed spending time with us and Grandparents over Christmas.  We ALL had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed our gifts.
I'm really enjoying one of my gifts, actually Allen Sr. and Makaela are too.  Allen and the children bought me a clothes steamer.  It is wonderful, Makaela has already learned how to use it and does her own clothes.  I think that is wonderful.  She knows how to iron, but this is so much easier and I personally like it better than ironing.

NEW YEAR!!  2011 - 2012
We went to church like we usually do for New Year's Eve service.  We had quite a few visitors that night, but it was a good service.  That was the start to our new year!!