Frye Fam Happenings

It's here!!! I told family for a long time that I would have pictures of our house for them once we got settled in. This seemed like the easiest way to share those :) Taking pictures of my house with my iphone camera sure makes me appreciate those professional realtor pictures! ha!! Anyway, I certainly didn't clean up everything for these pictures...I mean, I am definitely not trying to sell this thing anytime soon. We LOVE living here!!! First up, our school room -  We don't currently use our school drawers, so they are pushed into a corner for now.  The white boards were a Valentine's gift...no, seriously. I actually texted Derek and said, "You know what you can get me for V-Day? White boards." Bam #iamateacher Living room -  Seriously, how do they get their pictures so bright?!!!! I can see from my kitchen into the Living Room, and I LOVE that! The kids never, ever eat at the bar....I mean, it's...

1. The laundry is piled so high in our bedroom that the wall is holding up the clothes towering above the top rim of the basket. 2. I do laundry once a week now. One full day. The rest of the week, it sits (see #1.) 3. My husband never stops moving...until he crashes in bed and falls asleep in 2 minutes when the day is done. 4. Today, Derek worked on his broken lawn mower, ran to the store for a part (taking Josiah with him),  coached Titus and Eli's baseball game, helped coach Justus' baseball game, played with the boys at home while I grocery shopped, worked on his lawn mower some more, painted a bathroom, helped a friend move, played baseball out back with our boys and the next door neighbor, finished painting the bathroom, and let Justus stay up late so they could play the Wii together. Makes you tired just reading that, doesn't it? 5. I am a blessed woman. 6. I am on a new budget, using an Envelope-type app on my phone to track my spending. My amazing husban...

I just wrote an entire post, with bullet points of our current happenings and then lost it. One of those bullet points mentioned something about me being so frustrated with computers lately. The irony... I have been so bad lately about taking pictures with my camera. I'm going to try to remember to leave it out so I'll use it more. I really don't feel like trying to re-write everything I just lost... Suffice it to say everyone is good, I'm pregnant, and life is crazy :)  I'm working on uploading videos from our ten year anniversary trip to Costa Rica onto YouTube, but since we have a Sony handycam and a very fickle computer, it's taking awhile. Thanks for keeping up with our family! :) We are off to baseball!

It used to always get on my nerves when people with 3 or 4 kids would make some comment about their family being "big."When there are TV shows about people with 8 kids, 11 kids, 21 kids, etc., four looks nothin ! Once we had our third, I felt like there were kids everywhere. I couldn't keep up with them. I could only hold one on my hip and the other with my hand (and then had to keep kicking the other one back into line...no I'm not joking)...or I could always put one in a wrap and hold the other two by the hand (but that's when the feeling-like-a-circus-show began.) Then, all of a sudden, I knew what people felt like with more than 2 kids. Three kids was a lot. Our family was "big." Well, then came along #4. "Oh, what's another one?!!" That never made sense to me either. (still doesn't on certain days - Four can be a LOT more than three) BUT here's the thing: while we DO have one more mouth to feed, another car seat in the van, a...

1. Today, my mother-in-law kept Josiah for me at her house while Titus and Eli were at preschool. Justus and I completed every bit of his school work for the day in .2 seconds. 2. Things take an amazingly shorter amount of time without a toddler at your feet. 3. Justus reads so much better without the distraction of brothers. 4. I went to the laundry room this morning while I was minus 3...read: THREE children, and I decided to get caught up on laundry. 5. I decided today that trying to "get caught up" or to "get ahead" is pretty pointless. You will just be right back where you started in a day or two. It is a vicious cycle. Embrace it. 6. The laundry still sits. 7. I could do this once a week...hint, hint, Grammy :) 8. I love Texas weather. Today, the temp reached the mid-60s. Tomorrow, the forecast is in the 40s. We are supposed to be back up to the 60s by MLK day. JOY!! 9. Titus loves eagles. Loves them. By eagle, I mean the bird. The fascination started with THE...

A list of things that might make you feel better about yourself: In the past 2 weeks, my one-year-old has: sucked all of the pink out of the tip of a hot pink marker, eaten the tip OFF of that marker, eaten part of at least 2 crayons, and attempted to eat...yes, eat...a glass ornament ball, filled with paint Just today, I folded clothes that had been in the dryer for over 2 days (and I didn't even run the dryer to get the wrinkles out...I just hung and folded them as-is) You should see what my children eat all day... My 6-year-old frequently impresses me with things he knows, and when I ask him where he learned it from, it is very often from a TV show. I give my one-year-old food (and even candy) in a cup to keep him occupied while we do school in the mornings. (Did you see the first thing I wrote???) That one-year-old walks around the house with that cup and makes quite a mess. Often, I just wait for him to "clean it up" when he gets hungry again in the next 30 minutes o...

Today, Justus made a birthday card for his friend, and spelled birthday: "brfda" Love it... He also wrote Jer. 3:something (I can't remember the verse) on the front of the card. I haven't looked up what that verse says, and it's not one we've been learning (so he wasn't writing a verse he knew)...I just love that he thought to write a verse on there for her. I also love that the 3 oldest boys have been so excited about praying for the boys we are sending Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes to. They keep talking about "the boys" and loved shopping for them and packing up the goodies. They really, really want to hand deliver the boxes themselves. I wish we could!! Today in the car, Eli said, "MOM! Titus HIT me!!" I responded with, "Well, tell him not to!" Eli, in his most stern voice and serious face looked at Titus and said, "NOT TO!!!" Justus and Titus and Eli had the job of cleaning TOYS today in order for me to be...

Facebook creeps me out at times. I stay on it, choosing not to delete my account (yet), despite the many changes going on constantly. Why do I choose to stay on it? Well, because at least for right now, I have been able to stay connected with people for GREAT reasons, including learning of friends who are sick, need prayer, or have announcements like a baby on the way, etc. It seems like when I get that feeling of, "Alright, that's it. I'm deleting my account," something happens that makes me want to keep it. (like when I found out my midwife's husband was in the hospital for something very serious) Either way, I'm still not sure I'll stay on if they continue the ridiculousness on there , BUT I thought this was hilarious (and also adds to my feelings of being "creeped" out...I mean, how do they comb through everyone's updates and posts in order to place meaningful ads and links on their sidebar????) Below is the entirety of my sidebar on Face...

With all the "liking" on Facebook these days, I thought I would do a like/dislike blog post in honor of the craziness. ---------------------- I LIKE summer and the hot weather that comes with it (much, much better, in my opinion, than being cold) I DISLIKE the fact that there have been so many triple digit temperature days this summer that I have lost count. ----------------------- I LIKE making bacon for my husband because he loves it so much. I DISLIKE....making bacon ------------------------- I LIKE having breakfast for dinner (or Brinner, if you will!) My kids DISLIKE the fact that there is no dessert afterwards!! ------------------------ I LIKE helping my friends out with questions and concerns having to do with labor, birth, breastfeeding, etc. I DISLIKE how I get so emotionally involved and end up mad at OBGyns who only look out for THEIR best interest every.single.time. (especially to find out that the doc I used 4 and 6 years ago is still using the same o...

I often like to tell stories from our Walmart adventures. I get comments about having my hands full, etc. etc. everywhere we go, but the things people say and do when we are at Walmart usually top the list. Stories from Walmart today (although only one has to do with comments from by-standers): Story #1: I dropped off our car to get new tires when we got there, and the guy signing us in witnessed all of the boys piling out of the car. When the 3rd one jumped out, he saw that there was still one waiting to get out of his seat (Josiah), and he said, "WHOA!!! That's a lot of kids!" My comment was, "Yeah, it's like a clown car with everybody piling out, right?" HIS comment was, "Well, I wouldn't have put it quite so nicely!" Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean??! ------------------------------------------------- Story #2: Justus had to go to the bathroom, so the rest of us were waiting right outside the door. Titus pointed ...

I started a cooking blog. Why? You can go here for the answer to that question... In the end, the blog is mainly to help me keep all my recipes in one easily accessible place, organized and ready to use. I also want to be able to share easy recipes with my friends who, like me, struggle to get a decent dinner on the table, night after night after night after..... If you would like to contribute an easy recipe, by all means, please let me know :) I will give you full credit, link to your blog, etc. I hope it keeps me cooking and eating out less, and I hope it helps a few of you as well!! Not a Cook at Heart

1 - The number of times my four year old has stumped me with this question: "Is today tomorrow?" Also the number of times I overheard my five year old say, "Oh no!! Giant baby! 6 o'clock!" 2 - The number of times I ran the dishwasher today just to clear off the kitchen counter and sink. 3 - The number of times it took to lay Josiah down for an afternoon nap before he actually slept. 4 - The number of glass candle holders that were broken today by Justus and Titus. (all four at the same time, I might add!) 5 - The number of Transformers that are currently sitting on the couch next to me, ready to "roll out" at any minute. 6 - The ounces of milk Josiah drinks when I make him an 8 oz. bottle. 7 - The number of days in a week we apparently need to water our yard to keep the grass alive. 8 - The ounces of milk Josiah tries to suck down when I make him a 6 oz. bottle. 9 - The number of lives Titus must want to have, as often as he pretends to be a cat. 10 -T...

I don't have enough to share for a full blog post, but I feel like writing... so here are some completely random snippets of info about our current happenings :) Josiah was beginning to sleep through the night (6:30 pm to 6:30 am) before the boys and I went to Tennessee. He quickly dropped that habit and began waking up 1-3 times a night to nurse...until we got back. Now he is sleeping soundly ALL night! Aaaaah, sweet blessed sleep :) Since Josiah is out of our room ( or, ahem, closet ), we officially have an adult-only bedroom again. Well, that is, with the exception of all of the toys, clothes, diapers, swim gear, and more that somehow sneak back in there. Now, our room is probably even more of a wreck, because we also have piles of laundry waiting to be folded, random piles of paper, and various pieces of mail that hopefully aren't very important and in need of immediate attention! Derek and I have started doing P90X together, and it is whipping our butts (or well, mainly ...

I just want to brag on God... I have posted before about how the Lord has blessed my homeschooling efforts in very obvious ways. Just yesterday, the "Sid the Science Kid" show on PBS Kids was about freezing water...on the day we were going to do an experiment with frozen water. Things like that seem to happen often, and I am continuously amazed (and obviously encouraged!) In the past week, I have been reading about prayer, being convicted of the need to do it more often and with more purpose, and talking to the boys about my shortcomings in faithfully praying with them. Yesterday, we painted the word "PRAY" together and put it up in the kitchen as a reminder to do it more ("without ceasing" as our verse of the week says.) I also (completely randomly) listened to Be Thou My Vision and posted some of the lyrics on the blog as a reminder to myself to seek the Lord's pleasure and not man's approval. I can't even put into words everything God has be...