New Year!!

I always say I am not going to make New Years Resoultions...mainly because I know I won't stick to them...but as usual I am making them anyway. With that said, my New Years Resolutions are as follows:

1) Be more diligent in reading/memrorizing the Word and praying WITH Ronnie and Madison.

2) Be a more organized person....this may be the biggest challenge on the list!!! I am NOT an organized person. At all. My husband can verify this. Never open a drawer in my bedroom as it is full of receipts, paid bills to be filed, etc. I started on this today by deep cleaning. Pantry, microwave and kitchen island have all been cleaned and organized on top of the typical mound of daily laundry. Christmas put away all but the tree. This week I need to clean out the closet in my bedroom and nightstands and shampoo the carpets. Next week the shed!!

3) Be more active and healthy!! One thing I am doing is buying all whole grains. I actually don't mind whole grain except for one thing...BROWN RICE. I despise it! We love fruits, veggies and fish in our house anyway. The problem is my sweet tooth. Be in prayer please.

4) Be more thrifty...I actually love making my own laundry soap so that's a start. I am going to try to start taking Madison's pictures myself all except for one session. Most likely Christmas or her Birthday. My cousin bought me a sewing machine for Christmas so I intend on learning how to make Madison some dresses and pj pants for her and I. Hopefully, if I am not too terrible at it, I want to make her a new bedding set and curtains. Be in prayer for that too. Lol

5) Same resolution as last year that I did NOT do...BLOG MORE! I am computer illiterate is one of the setbacks for me in that area. I can post a blog post. That about covers it. Ha. I want to figure out how to post certain posts in the correct categories. This year I hope to cover: DIY projects, Wordless Wednesdays, Homeschool, Foster Care/Infertility, and Recipes.

That's it. And by far more than enough. 8)


Here is a recap of 2012 for the Brauer's:
We had 5 foster kids. Only one stayed permanently.
We had the Princess for 20 months and she went home permanently with bio mom in July.
We are still struggling majorly with losing her.
Madison's adoption was finalized on May 16th.
Ronnie began boat training at his job.
Madison turned 4.
The Princess turned 5.
We vacationed in TX and Branson!
My brother got married and our girls were the flower girls. 8)
My Grandpa went to be with the Lord.
We renewed our foster care license.
Madison learned to write her letters and name and spell her family's names.
Madison can now count to 30, to 5 in Spanish, recognizes all numbers and colors and the basic shapes. She can identify rhyming words. Her vocabulary is quite extensive.
She learned to ride a big girl bike.
The Princess lost her 1st tooth.
Madison has a wiggly tooth that is almost ready to come out.
We decided to go back to the fertility doctor. (Separate blog post coming.)
Ronnie and I celebrated 5 years of marriage.
We had a baby come to us at 5 months old and stayed with us until 8 months old. We MISS her!

All in all it was a hard year full of heartbreak. Losing the Princess was the hardest thing we have ever had to go through. We are still at a loss and not sure how to move on. Maybe one day I can go through a day without crying over her. Maybe. Maybe one day Madison will not beg Jesus to bring her back and ask why we can't go get her. Until then, we are missing her. Hoping 2013 is less heartache and more joy. Our hope and prayer is that it brings more debt payed off and a sibling for Madison. She prays for one everyday. I hope your 2013 brings you and yours much blessing as well! Regardless of what happens, God is still on the throne.
Because of Him,
Stephanie

We started Homeschooling

our munchkin Monday. I was excited, yet anxious. She is very intelligent but quite the emotional child. She can get upset if she doesn't know the answer sometimes. I prayed it would go smoothly and jumped in holding my breath. She did WONDERFUL! I can't tell you how excited I am. And the best part is she loves it. Today was our 3rd day and so far she counts to 30, spells her name, recognizes numbers 1-4, recognizes all of her letters and can tell me their sounds except C, E, J, L, P, U, V, and Y, knows all of her colors, knows all of her shapes but sometimes forgets rectangle, can write her name, recognizes when words rhyme, and knows the first three days of Creation. 8))) She is working on her memory verse for this week which is, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. " Genesis 1:1. She is having so much fun and I LOVE watching her learn more everyday. When we are done she wants to keep going. Next week we are going to start adding in science experiments and more educational art. Tonight (yeah, we did school after supper and her bath tonight) when she counted to 30 I praised her for doing such a good job. She pointed to the number chart and wanted to do it. I asked her what she wanted to do. Her reply? "I want to count the total." She then proceeded to count all of the numbers from top to bottom in order. I am a proud Mama to say the least.
Moving on, I decided that we would add in Science next week and do lots of science experiments/observations as our "curriculum".  We have an outdoor toy box that does not have a lid...soooo it filled up with water from this monsoon season we have been having. With the rain came little tadpoles...tons of them...in our toy box. First science experiment? The life cycle of a frog. I researched on the computer and asked on Facebook and learned from both sources that in captivity a tadpole can survive on boiled lettuce (becomes it has the same texture as algae to them) and/or fish feed. We are going to catch a tadpole and bring him in the house...feed him goldfish feed and watch him grow into a frog. Madison is so excited. Uncle Wes drew us a picture of the frog in each stage of it's life to make a poster so we can identify each stage as it occurs. Anyone want to take a guess as to what we named our tadpole??!! Kermit!
We do puzzles, read TONS of books, count everything we see, watch educational movies like Leap Frog movies, etc. for extra learning. I will post the videos she loves tomorrow. Madison's aunt is a teacher so her gifts for Christmas and her birthday are usually fun but educational as well. These videos are one of those gifts. Thanks Aunt Jennifer!
I would also like to add that one of the many reasons we love homeschool so far is that there is no need to freak out when we are doing school at 6:30 and one of us is in our pajamas. As long as it gets done, when doesn't matter. I love that. We prefer to do our art and science experiments in the day and our "bookwork" at night. So far. 8)
Thanks for listening to me ramble on about how proud I am of my daughter's progress! I am hoping to start blogging about our homeschool days (experiments, cooking projects, crafts, etc.). Have a good night and be blessed!
Stephanie