Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas from our little hooligans to yours!

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Choir Performance

This past Sunday, the kids had their first choir performance at my parent's church.  We started the Children's Choir program there in September and they have had fun, learned some old hymns and new songs and made some new friends.  
We've had a bit of trouble with Caleb as he gets so anxious over what is about to happen or where we are, but he does pretty well about 90% of the time.  He has had so many bad experiences in church that we have just avoided it all together for him (not church, but leaving him alone in a class).  I would like to enroll him and his sister in a local homeschool co-op this coming fall, so I thought we should try to break him of this fear and get him used to being away from me.


Here's a picture of Piper after the performance was done.  For whatever reason, Caleb refused to go on stage, sit with his class and sing, so he sat with us in the audience and sang his songs there.  


And here they are together.  These two surely keep me on my toes, but we always had an adventure in the process!

Monday, November 05, 2012

Halloween 2012


Of course, this Halloween recap is late.  Story of my life...
We had a pretty low key Halloween this year.  Last year was a lot of rushing around and packing as much in as possible.  Typically, the weekend before the 31st arrives, my parents' church holds their Fall Festival, full of games and candy.  However, this year the decided to hold their event 2 weeks beforehand which was the weekend that Caleb's Cub Scout camp out occurred.  We couldn't miss that, so I was hoping that I would be able to find another one but this seemed to be the year that just about every church and organization in town took the year off from holding their events.
Halloween was also on a Wednesday this year, which is our typical day to drive to my parents' church so the kids can attend their Children's Choir program.  We typically don't get back home until nearly 8pm from that, so trick or treating was out too.  I gave them the option to skip for the week and go trick or treating like we did last year, but they were both emphatic that they had to go to choir, so we went.
Piper had dance that morning, so both kids donned their costumes before we left and did not remove them until late that night, after returning home from church.  All in all, it was a good Halloween but, honestly, I did miss getting at least a little candy, but it's probably better that we didn't!  There's always next year!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Caleb's First Cub Scout Camp Out


This past weekend, Caleb's Cub Scout den went on their first big camp out of the year.  We all traveled to Cedar Hill State Park, about an hour away from McKinney for 2 days and 2 nights of fun!



Caleb was so excited about going camping, but more excited about spending time with all his Cub Scout friends!  He loves Cub Scouts and has really blossomed while in the organization and has had much success in this group.  All the boys get along so well and all the parents are so supportive and loving!  We are blessed to be in this group!



All of the boys in this group are homeschooled, so we all have a huge thing in common and are all working toward the bigger goal of raising up Christian men who will go on and become amazing fathers and husbands!  There is no ridicule or making fun in this group when one of the boys fail, but just lifting up and encouragement.


Since this was a family camp out, Piper came with us and so did her little friend who we have play dates with frequently.  It was nice for her to have someone to play with while the boys did their thing, as we were pretty scheduled with Scout stuff this whole weekend!



All the boys played games and were able to cross off some of the requirements for their wolf badge, what they are all striving to earn by the end of the year!


My boy is so blessed to be in this group and to have found all these other boys whom he shares so much in common!  We are blessed as parents to be able to participate in this amazing organization with these amazing parents!


Thursday, September 20, 2012

My Grandfather


Exactly 9 days ago, on September 11th, we lost my grandfather.  The emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis that he fought so hard finally caught up with him.
He had had a good few days and then the Thursday before, he started calling everyone in his cell phone telling them that he was going home.  He had had a few episodes like this, where his oxygen would get so low that he would do things that he wouldn't normally.
My grandfather was an amazing man.  He was a retired "letter carrier", as he used to say, and had served in the Korean war in the Navy.  He was the most loving, caring, man I ever knew, always stopping to take care of his people before himself.
He and my Caleb had quite a bond.  Piper was born right in the middle of him taking care of my grandmother after her stroke, so even though he tried, they just weren't as connected as he was with Caleb.  My grandfather would drive from Garland to McKinney (normally a 30-45 minute drive), randomly just to see him.  He asked for him and about him constantly, checking on him and his health all the time.
I have to say, that even though we knew that his end would come soon, his passing was a shock.  True to form, when he was ready to go, he did so quickly.  My mom called me around 5:00 on the day, I was there by 7:45 and he was gone at 9:35.  We had hospice in place and they were a great support, but it's still so, so hard.
My mom and I are only children, so we were all really close.  There was a period of time when my mom and I lived with my grandparents.  I was even brought home from the hospital to his house.  So, this is so difficult.  Honestly, I feel lost without him.

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Milestone

We don't have many milestones around the Mathis house anymore.  I've officially reached the point in my life where my youngest child is the age of many of my friend's oldest kids.  What this means is that many of my friends have children who are still in diapers, using pacifiers, not sleeping through the night, some even are infants which is a completely different level of torture.
Around here, we are all taking care of our potty business on the potty (even though I still have 1 tiny hiney that I have to wipe since Miss Diva refuses to do it), have given up our paci's, sleeping (mostly) through the night, and have thankfully given up all the other trappings of being a baby.
However, there are still a few things that we have yet to see conquored.  One of which, Jes and Caleb worked on this weekend: riding his bike without training wheels.
Admittingly, Caleb is not the most athletic child, most of the time choosing to read a book over playing a sport, but we really want him to learn this skill so off went the training wheels.
I've attached a couple of videos and in the second one, you see Caleb ride for a little distance completely unassisted.  For a kid who was late to walk and late to do most things physical due to his rough start, this is a huge milestone!
We are so very proud of our boy!  I just had to share!  Oh, and ignore my excited yelling!






Not to be outdone, here's  little video of Piper riding her scooter.  You get a little glimpse of my normal conversations with our little one.  I ask her what she's doing and she starts talking about a tiny bug.  That's my girl!







Tuesday, August 28, 2012

First Day of School


Yesterday was our first day of school around here.  Caleb, as you can see, started 2nd grade and Piper is doing some honest to goodness pre-K work now.
For Caleb, we are using the same curriculum that we've used the past few years, My Father's World.  I really have appreciated the way that this curriculum ensures that we hit all the important academic information while still teaching them the Biblical principles that are just as important.
This year, our daily work includes the following:

  • Bible: This year in Bible, instead of just hearing a Bible story and learning a verse every week, we are talking more specifically about Jesus, who He was, who He is, what He did, etc.  I think that this more focused attack will be something that both the kids will love.  Piper is sitting in on this part of the curriculum this year now.
  • Spelling:  We have integrated the spelling curriculum from Rod and Staff, which is a very good, organized, do-able way to teach spelling for kids our age.  This includes weekly spelling tests, which we will complete every Thursday, to ensure that he has a good starting place and foundation for this important skill.
  • History:  Last year, we just did a very brief discussion, once a day, about Bible stories.  We enjoyed this, but Caleb and I were both really hoping for a more traditional history curriculum and we got it this  year.  We are still doing Biblical studies, but during the Bible part of our curriculum, and are doing a study of the United States.  We will read books about the discovery and founding of our country, as well as learn about all the states, something that Caleb loves to hear about and will love studying this year.  Piper is participating a bit in this now too.
  • English: I was surprised when I looked at the English part of our curriculum this year, as it asks a lot of the student.  We only do an English lesson 3 days  week, but the 4th day (we only school 4 days a week) is something called dictation.  Basically, I read a sentence or series of sentences and Caleb writes them.  The other 3 days, we are learning sentence structure, parts, differences between words (there, their, they're), etc.
  • Science:  Caleb and Piper love science, so they are super excited about this year's set of experiments. We've got some fun things planned during this part of our schooling and the kids are asking everyday if we can work on science!  That makes my little scientific heart happy!
  • Math:  This year, our math curriculum is Singapore math, which is a great system for a kid like Caleb. The way this is taught is to have the child look at the math problem and be able to quickly decipher an answer and move on.  Caleb has always loved and looked forward to the math part of our day, but last year consisted of the lesson and then page after page of practice problems.  This just served to bog him down and make him frustrated in the process.  Once Caleb learns a concept, he doesn't usually forget it, so once we are done he wants to move on.  This type of math curriculum will allow us to do just that.
  • Art:  We had an art curriculum last year, but honestly we didn't do much of it at all.  Art is something that I struggle teaching and doing, but the only part of our art curriculum that is needed is the first few weeks, which I am doing with the kids now.  I never have had much interest in doing art (crafts are a totally different thing, though!) but I'm not going to deprive my children of the opportunity to love it!
  • Reading:  This year we've got a couple of places embedded in our curriculum dedicated just to reading.  After our history lesson, we have a time called book basket time where Caleb sits and reads anything of his choosing for a set period of time.  During this reading part of our curriculum, however, I will be reading various things to Caleb and Piper as well as letting Caleb read to me from those same books, all of which are history based.
  • Foreign Language:  The only thing that I wasn't thrilled with with regards to the curriculum was the fact that they want us to purchase a computer driven foreign language curriculum which is kind of pricey.  I'm not completely convinced that Caleb needs this for 2nd grade, but we are going to start a more simple foreign language curriculum next week that will get him up to speed for this computer driven set for either Spring or Fall.
Piper is doing some handwriting work and is participating in the Bible, history, science, reading and some of the art part of our curriculum this year.  Other than that, she is just doing some sorting work, coloring, Play doh, etc.  Just typical 4 year old work, just to get her used to the process of school so that next year's start in Kindergarten isn't such a jarring experience.
I think that this year is going to be a good year and I'm looking forward to all the fun we're going to have!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Mojo

It seems I've lost my blogging mojo.  I just can't seem to get back into the swing of blogging.
It's not for lack of things to say or things happening, I just can't seem to get it together enough to write about these things.
Things around the Mathis house have been hard, in really every sense of the word.  Some of which, I attribute to summer being a very difficult time for us, historically.  So, I'm hoping that with the end of summer and the beginning of school, MOPS, Cub Scouts (that's new.  See, something to write about.), etc, I'll get back into the swing of writing again.
A girl can hope...

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Piper Turns 4

On Saturday, Piper turned 4 and we had her party on the same day (blog post to follow on that).  It's just so hard to believe that she's 4, since it seems just like the other day that she was little bitty.
I know I'm a bit late posting this, but Piper had her 4 year well check yesterday, so I wanted to wait for her stats before posting.


Waiting for the bird show to start at the Dallas Zoo

Piper loves to go and do fun things, especially if her brother is involved, which is most of the time.  I didn't grow up with siblings in my house, so this relationship they have, while baffling to me at times, is really everything I ever wanted for them.  They do fight and they are totally normal kids, but they are happiest when they are together. When I was growing up, I always wanted to grow up and have 2 kids, the first being a boy to help take care of his younger sister.  I never knew that they would be such a team and makes me so happy that they are so close!
Most of the time, when we play with other kids, Piper is the youngest and sometimes the only girl.  But, Piper is super athletic, so most of the time she can hang with all the older boys and what they are doing.  We are starting to have friends that are just hers (meaning her age), though, so she's got her own little posse of kids that she runs with too!


Dinner at La Madeleine with Mama after seeing a local middle school rendition of her favorite book, Pinkalicious

Piper is all girl and one of her favorite things to do is hang out with Mama, which is always a good excuse to get chocolate somewhere.  She loves to shop and she loves to have her toes painted, but only by me.  This girl also loves to dig in the dirt and climb rock walls and run as fast as she can.  She's a well rounded girl, that one!

Modeling her new sunglasses 

One of Piper's weaknesses that I have no trouble indulging is her love for accessories.  This girl always has a bow or clip in her hair, a bracelet on, or one of her many pairs of sunglasses.  Like I said above, she's a girly girl!

Participating in a one room school house with a homeschool group at Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth

Piper has been growing in leaps and bounds in learning and has started recognizing and reading sight words.  However, Piper is full of attitude and sass, so sometimes when I ask her what a word is, she'll say she doesn't know, even when she does.  Then she'll tell us what something says, completely out of the blue, and surprise us all.  She's silly, that girl.  At this point, Piper can write her name and all the other basic stuff that she's been able to do for some time (letter, number, shape, etc recognition).  I have some homeschooling moms who have kids Piper's age and are pushing their kids to read and such, but I have decided not to do that at this time.  She has one more year before we start Kindergarten, so I'm just going to let her have her last year and do fun things with her while Caleb is working on his school work.


Posing for photos before her dance recital

This year was Piper's second year of dance and she moved up to the 3/4 year old class.  Last year's class was more about having fun and if the girls learned some skills then we were coming out ahead.  This year, it was all about teaching serious skills in preparation for them continuing on in their dance careers.  At the end of this year, all of the girls were evaluated to determine what class they should move up to and Piper was chosen to move to the 5 year old class due to her skill level.  She loves dance and looks forward to it each and every week, so we will be continuing it for as long as she chooses to participate.


Her first introduction to sponge rollers

Piper is just in love with all things that breathe and move.  She is super fascinated by animals and would do just about anything to help one, including bugs.  My mom watched the kids for me one Saturday while I was at a work thing and Jes was working, and when I picked them up Piper was full of stories that my mom told her about how she used to keep doodle bugs (roly polys, pill bugs, whatever you call them) as pets.  You can guess what I've been finding all throughout my house since then.
Piper also has a great propensity and interest and love for all things about the human body.  Granted, she comes by it honestly, but I have to say that she was given to the right Mama since that's my specialty.  She wastes no time reading about or talking about all the things she knows about the body, continually baffling normal people and impressing medical professionals.  One of my earliest memories is reading medical encyclopedias that my mom and dad bought for me, so I'm guessing I'm going to have to get this kid reading faster so that I can do the same for her!

Riding the carousel after a water ride (obvs) at Six Flags 

Yesterday, at her appointment, we found that Piper weighs 40 pounds and is 41 inches tall.  She's on the higher end of the chart, but is still smaller than where her brother was at this point.  Her blood pressure and heart rate were good, but just like one of our kids, there was something else that popped up.  She failed her vision test.  So, we have a visit to our favorite eye doctor in our near future for a more thorough exam and determination if she needs corrective lenses.
Piper is growing and maturing and is just the sweetest little girl that I've ever met!  I tell her everyday that she's my favorite girl and there are no truer words spoken!  She brings so much joy and light to our worlds and we are blessed to have her in our family!


Monday, May 28, 2012

End of School

Just a couple of days ago, we finished up our official school year.  It's hard to believe that Caleb's successfully completed both kindergarten AND 1st grade and is now a 2nd grader.
I've included the beginning and end of school year photos:


 1st day of school for both kiddos


This was taken just a couple of weeks ago, but you get the picture.  They've both grown and are just getting too big, too fast, if you ask me.
This summer, we will continue with some math, to keep up skills, and I've picked up a Handwriting Without Tears workbooks for Caleb to work on.  Handwriting has never been a skill that came easily for Caleb, nor was it something that he ever enjoyed.  However, I'm trying to convince him that it is important to learn how to properly write, even if he does make a good case against it.  I also was able to gather a few workbooks with fun activities in them for those Texas summer days that are sure to come that are just too, too hot to be out!  Also, one-third of our playgroup that we see weekly leaves in mid July and doesn't return until mid August to head to Michigan in order to avoid at least some of the summer.  Who can blame them, but we have to plan for that time too, so I've got lots and lots of fun stuff planned for us!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

What's Up, Buttercup?

Yes, I'm really still alive.  We have just been super, super busy and I just haven't had time to carve out to update here.  I'm hoping, with the ending of school here and summer starting, I'll be able to get back on the horse and update more frequently.
Here's what's been happening lately:

  • I had a very good endocrinologist appointment last week, where I was given a clean bill of health and don't have to return for a year.  That is unless I start feeling poorly or get pregnant.  Neither of which is likely to happen, but it was worth mentioning since we talked about it in my appointment.
  • We are juuuuuuuuust about done with school proper around these parts.  Caleb has a couple more lessons to complete and we will continue with some very short, basic things through the summer to ensure he doesn't lose skills.  Piper hasn't really been doing anything specific, so this summer will be spent trying to come up with a game plan for the next school year.  This will be her last year as a preschooler, so we've got to start working on school skills like sitting for extended periods of time, and not running off every 30 seconds.  She's started to write and spell and is reading some basic sight words, so the transition into school work will be fairly easy, I hope, for her.
  • My mom and I made our annual trek to the homeschool curriculum fair a couple of weeks ago in order to get Caleb's curriculum for 2nd grade.  Which, can I just say, I can't believe we're here already!  How did we get to this point so fast?!?  Anyway, I had done some research beforehand and couldn't find anything that I liked more than the curriculum we were already using, so I had pretty made up my mind we would go with that.  We quickly made our way through the vendors and made a bee line for the booth we knew we were looking for, purchased our boxes, and were heading out, all in under 2 hours.  
  • That same night, we had a surprise birthday dinner for my dad with my 2 brothers and sister and their families.  It was super fun and my dad was so surprised!  Let me just take this time to say, I love my family so, so much and love hanging out with them!  They are so fun and I'm so, so blessed to have these people in my life and my kids' lives!
  • School (my work) ended a week and a half ago and I've still got approximately 2 weeks left, maybe a smidge less, before I have to go back.  I'll be working my normal late, 4 night a week summer schedule, which will be brutal, but it's worth it in the end.  
  • We are finishing up the year in dance with Piper this next week and her recital is the following Saturday.  Be prepared for some insanely cute photos coming up!  We're carefully considering letting her take a 4 week dance course in the summer as well, since she loves it so much!  
So, that's the long and short of it.  We've been busy, but things are starting to slow down a bit!  We're looking forward to a summer of fun and I'm sure I'll have lots to post about here!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Caleb's Birthday

Back in the fall, Caleb and I attended a birthday party at a local bowling alley slash arcade and had a blast! Ever since then, Caleb has been begging to have a bowling party for his birthday, so that's exactly what we did!
The boy wonder turned 7 this year, which seems so very impossible. His love for all things Legos has never died and this year the Lego company came out with a new line called Ninjago. Basically, it's little Lego ninjas and all their paraphernalia. As soon as Caleb saw his first Ninjago figure, he was smitten and that was the definite choice for the theme for this shin dig!


Here's the cake! My mom and dad have set a tradition of getting the kids' cakes for their parties, mainly because the local cake shop we like to use is near them. These bakers are the same ones who made my cakes, when I was in school, and let's just say that these cakes are just to die for! Yuuuuuuummmmmmyyyyyy!

Caleb had so much fun bowling and, despite it only being his 3rd time to bowl, he did quite well!

Caleb wanted to have a photo with Piper, but she couldn't be bothered to stop and smile for the camera.

She was most happy when she was in my mom's arms, so that's where she spent most of the party!

Caleb is just a sweet, sweet boy and is growing like a weed! I'm afraid, at this pace, he'll be 8 feet tall by the time he gets to his teen years! At his 7 year well child visit, he measured in at a whopping 53 inches (that's over 4 feet tall, folks...) and 60 pounds. I still don't know how he's so big, but there you have it folks, my sweet boy is growing up!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

We Haven't Fallen Off the Face of the Earth...

Oh hi, it seems I have a blog. A blog that is woefully ignored. At some point, I'll do better...

I'm working on simplifying my life and eliminating things that are taking up more than their fair share of space and taking up way too much of my effort. However, eliminating things from ones life takes extraordinarily more time than I thought, originally. It will be done in short order, though.

Things around here have been good and bad, boring and exciting, easy and difficult.
It's just been life.
I'll be back soon to post some things here and try to get back into the swing of things.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

School and Such

We are just half way through the school year now and it seems that I usually give an accounting of where Caleb is, school wise.
This school year has been an exercise in giving him the belief in himself, that he can do the skill that I'm asking him to do. Often, I ask him to complete a task and, most of the time, the question is not why (that was last year) but "do you think I can". It's almost as if he is asking for a bit of confirmation that he can do it before he tries. I always tell him to try and if he doesn't do it quite right, we'll try again later. The beauty of homeschool is we can always stop, go back, slow down or speed up if needed.

Reading: He has always been ahead of the curve on this one, as he started reading before many kids his age. This year, he's been reading stories from the Bible from a Bible reader that came with the curriculum we purchased. This has led him to be a more intentional reader and I often catch him reading longer chapter books or reading to his sister.

Handwriting: This has still been a challenge for Caleb. He's always had trouble writing, so we have to practice this on a regular basis, but he really does not like it. But we do it. One thing that I really like about this year's curriculum is that there is a point in the week where he is expected to write a lengthy amount, roughly a sentence or two, more than he was required to do in last year's curriculum. He's improving, but it's still a challenge.

Science: Caleb has always been interested in all things science, which is right up my alley. There's a bit of science with this curriculum, but we've taken to doing other science stuff away from the curriculum. While the curriculum is fine, Caleb is more interested in doing other things and I can certainly comply with that.

Bible: The current curriculum we have has a Bible component, which I really do like. I feel as if there is great merit in teaching our children the stories and lessons from the Bible. Part of Jes's family is Jewish, so we feel as if we are teaching a bit of family history to the kids when we are studying the events in the Bible.

Math: Caleb has always loved math and it just seems to "click" with him on some level. I suppose it's that engineering father that he has that gave him that! So far this year, we've covered basic geometry, fractions, multiple number addition and subtraction, among other things. He looks forward to to math everyday and really does well here.

Visual Perception: This was something that I added this year to help Caleb with being able to perceive and analyze certain situations. I thought, initially, when I purchased this book that it would be a battle and drive him batty, but felt like it was a necessary thing to teach him. Basically, what has happened is that a book that was supposed to last a whole year was finished over a month ago and he's begging me to get a new book because he loves it so much.

Piper still loves to work on school, but her attention span is decidedly shorter than her brother's. She loves to work on worksheets, often completing 20-30 at a time. She's mastered completely shapes, numbers, letters and colors, so we've moved on to writing and reading. She's also started reading some words now, so I feel as if we're firmly on this road of having another early reader.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's the basics of where we are with school, thus far!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Why I've Been So Quiet

Many of you are friends of mine on facebook. About 2-3 weeks ago, I posted an update that read:

Got some news this morning that has rocked my world. I'm very thankful for supportive friends and family. Prayers for wisdom and peace would be appreciated...

What resulted from there was an outpouring of love and support from most of my friends and family. While this was a fairly cryptic and non-specific message, I felt as if I could say nothing at that moment because I didn't know what was going on.
Basically, what I knew then and what I know now is this, my cousin informed me that my biological father reappeared.
This seems to be a fairly non-event to most, but this was the man who decided that he wanted nothing to do with my mom and I and, literally, walked away from us one afternoon when I was just a toddler.
I, like most kids, who do not know a family member, was curious and my mom was always very honest with me. She was always very careful to give me age appropriate information and never had anything negative to say about him, but I connected the dots and always had some negative feelings associated with him.
Eventually, I just chose to believe that he fell off the face of the earth, rather than believe that he wanted nothing to do with my mom and me.
My mom eventually was remarried to a man who I consider my read dad, the one who went to every dance recital, band concert, football game, graduation, walked me down the aisle and was present during both of our children's births.
So, this is why I've been quiet. I've not really had anything to say about all this. I, however, can see how many people in my family could be hurt by all of this. My dad, being the amazing man he is, was concerned about me. That's why he's my dad, my real dad.
The most difficult part of this is not if he wants to know me, but how do I explain this to Caleb and Piper? They don't know any different than my dad. They are too young and deserve to be innocent to this type of dysfunction.
I still don't know what is going to happen with this, but I choose to not hide anymore.
So, that's where I've been.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Life Change

I feel like the past couple of years have really been life changing for me.
Many people mention that certain things are "life changing" when they really mean that they are moment changing for them. Something that they may remember, but it certainly won't affect the way that they live their lives.
For me, my husband, my children, cancer, the loss of family members have been life changing events in my life.
These past few years have caused me to reevaluate the people in my life and determine that there are just some that don't belong for a variety of reasons.
It seems that I've been in the presence of some folks who just thrive on drama and making everything about themselves.
No more.
These people will no longer be in my life. I am slowly but surely disengaging with these folks and making my family and true, real, loving friends, the ones who care about me and my family, a larger part of my life.
Someone who I thought was my friend unfriended me on facebook today.
This seems fairly insignificant, but this was someone I trusted with my daughter. Someone whom I thought was my friend. Someone who falls into the category that I described above.
No more.
Does it hurt and make me angry that this was how she chose to do this, yes. Passive aggressive and I do not mix. I come from a family where you speak what you feel, get it out and move on.
I don't make New Year's resolutions, because I feel as if anything you commit to doing needs to be done whole heartedly, which most NY resolutions are not.
No longer will those self involved, drama loving, "world revolves around them" people be a part of my life.
I will now surround myself with those people who love me and my family, support our decisions for our lives, speak truth in our lives and allow us to do the same.
This is my life change for 2012.