Dear Family & Friends,
It has been awhile since we sent out Christmas cards and letters, and I will tell you our life has truly been busy. I will try to give an overview of what has been going on the past few years. I’m sure I will miss things as I am only human, but I will give it my best shot.
I think most of you know that just over two years ago, my mother very suddenly passed away. It has been a learning process for me as I learned how to home school the kids totally on my own. I learned what she always said I could do was true. I am able to teach them to read (I seriously had my doubts). At that time we seemed to have about a year of whirlwind events come and hang around, car accidents, family in and out of hospitals, every day trials, home repairs, car repairs. But that is all part of life I suppose, and God has brought us through each one safely and stronger in Faith in Him alone.
I guess I’ll start with our kiddos, wow they are growing way to fast, and finally last year we got bunk beds. I have always been leery of this as Anthony sleep walks though he has gotten better. Most morning I only find 2 of them in the proper bed. All the kids voted yes on sharing 1 room, and hence leading to how do you put 4 beds in a small room.. YOU DON’T.. as hard as I tried it just didn’t work unless we went up. Thankfully Valarie had already moved to a toddler bed and so the big bed was an easy switch. The other room you ask, has become the school room… and it’s get much use. We have found school time is easier and mommy doesn’t get as distracted with dirty dishes and such needing done. I also learned to turn my phone off.
So speaking of school, what are we doing there. Anthony is in 4th grade, Alex is 2nd , Avery 1st and Valarie is in pre-K. We do a lot of reading, and we even combine some of our subjects into all 3 grades. We are taking what is called a Charlotte Mason approach to our schooling. I wish school had been like this for me. Probably a favorite of everyone is History and Science, and most days school is done shortly after noon. The boys stay very active and all of them love riding their bikes around the yard, making obstacle course out of the swing sets and climbing trees. All of our kiddo’s are showing a love for books, if not reading then listening to books on tape and this brings joy to both of us as Terry and I both love to read.
All of the boys think and feel very deeply and can carry on some very intelligent conversations. I love that they are listening when we talk about following what God would have them to do and to tell satan to leave. We believe learning to do what is right in the sight of God at this young age is so important, because it never gets easier to just walk away from temptations.
Anthony is 9 now and getting very tall. He is to my shoulders, and thinks it’s funny that his feet are the same size as mommy’s. I’m not really sure when this happened because honestly it seems he was just a little thing the other day. He isn’t shy in the least and he LOVES to sing. One of his favorite places to sing is in the store, his reason is because everyone needs to hear the messages in hymns and praise songs instead of what is usually being played. He has blessed many walking through the store just singing his heart out. He has gotten to do some acting the past few years too. A play at church, 2 with Kilgore College (he even had a solo part this past year) and few with our local children theatre group. His latest thrill was to be part of a children’s fall Choir called Bravo with ArtsView. He also has a huge heart and loves people, he loves to help. I can see how he is so much like his daddy, he never looks at a person as many the world does, but he sees everyone as a person that God loves, he doesn’t treat anyone differently no matter how the look. He’s great with his little sister and spoils her rotten, and she is becoming his little singing side kick. He likes listening to books on tape or in our case LibriVox. I’m so thankful he likes the books that are no longer in print and not just the newer ones (as many we won’t allow in our home). He is truly learning to appreciate a good story. If there was one thing I wish I could give him it would be voice lessons, and he keeps asking for a drum or guitar lessons too. However I’m not sure where we would ever put a drum set.
Alex is 7, he is our animal lover. He can spend all day looking for frogs and other creatures. He is our observer when it comes to nature. He is also our more reserved child. He isn’t nearly as daring as his brothers and prefers to keep his feet more close to the ground which is most fine with this mommy. He is very artistic and loves drawing (he can never have to many notebooks). His favorite person in the world is cousin Shianne, I think it’s cute how they both seem to take after the same side of the family and actually look alike. The two are often inseparable. He loves building train tracks and building cities. He is very attached to my frog that Terry gave me years ago. He can be so shy, but then when he knows you he loves with his whole heart. He enjoys being in the kitchen with me and wants to know how to make runny eggs. He is probably my best at cleaning, but can also make some of the biggest messes, much like any 7 year old boy. He too loves reading, and listening to just about any book on tape. Alex is my babysitter, he is awesome at taking care of little ones when outside playing and helping. He is the practical thinker of all the kids. Currently he wants to take Art lessons, but he doesn’t want to go alone, and that’s fine with me. Anyone know of some good drawing videos?
Avery our bouncy 6 year old. Rightly nicknamed George. He can sit for hours figuring something out if he wants to, and when I don’t know he’s watching he figures out how to run things like my camera, computer and cell phone. He watches me sew and tries hard to figure that one out, but momma doesn’t let him touch it much. He loves climbing and this past year just decided he was going to learn to ride a 2 wheel bike. Never asked for help, just did it on his own. He can be very determined when he wants to be. He can also be one of my biggest snugglers. Avery scares me when he climbs but he seems to be very sure footed and not at all afraid of heights. He has a grin that tells you when he’s up to mischief or gets that look in his eye when he has figure out how something works. The biggest thing with him is if he gets it in his mind to figure out something works, don’t be surprised if he takes it apart. But he was also my puzzle solver at an early age. His favorite thing at 3 was sitting in my lap doing jigsaw puzzles on the computer. We have learned to never under estimate what is going on his head. He’s the kid who says I can’t do this in math, then turns around and answers his brothers math problem I’ve been explaining.
Valarie, our baby girl, or as she will tell you she’s mommy’s Baby doll. She is a little mother, and yet tries so hard to do everything her brothers do. She is 3 and growing way to fast. She loves being in the middle, and being my shadow. She thinks playing with her girl cousins is great and loves playing at Aunt Ruthies. I’m still holding out that some day she will enjoy wearing bows and letting me fix her hair, but for now she’s to busy playing to waste time on curls. Though she has times when she needs her back out of her face, but it better only take a few minutes. She has lots of baby dolls and has somehow convinced her bubbas to play house almost anytime she wants. She takes her 1 - 3 babies to town anytime we leave and her favorite (and don’t ever get found without it) is her 25 cent horse from a yard sale. She sleeps, plays and totes the thing everywhere almost. She also takes care of all our cats and absolutely loved slinging the kittens we had this year in her baby doll carrier. She loves to sing just like Anthony, and is always asking him to teach her a new song, which he is glad to do most times. Right now her favorite is Jesus Loves the little Children. She also seems to like “draw” like Alex, and loves watching her leapfrog ABC video’s for school. She’s learning how to spell her name with magnets and tries to trace it. She is learning to count, and has shapes and colors down very well. However when she started learning colors last year she called red- Anthony, blue- Alex, green-Avery, yellow- Audreyanna (one of my sweeties,I used to babysit her and her brother) and pink and purple - were Me. I guess that’s what happens when everything is color coded in the house, and she knew which colors belonged to who and so colors were someones name to her not a color. It was rather cute.
I don’t know that mine or Terry’s lives are all that exciting. We take care of the home and kids. I teach while Terry is at work. I must say God has been doing a lot in both of our lives, molding and changing and teaching us. Being parents really opens your eyes to many things, and it’s defiantly not always easy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. Terry did give up being able to get a newer truck when our suburban was in an accident and we replaced it with a 9 passenger one. The kids love that it has a dvd player in it, and it’s nice on longer trips. We love having a CD and tape player also. It has 3 bench seats in it and room for the groceries in the back. (That’s not easy to find these days). Terry and I have celebrated 10 years now together, and it seems so much longer, but that’s probably since we’ve known each other for so long. I think it’s funny that we have known each other over ½ our lives now. Terry often helps with most of the driving as my nerves just don’t do so wonderful in traffic, so grocery shopping and errands are more of a family outing than they used to be, and I actually get reading time in while riding in the car. The kids have learned when mommy is reading I often don’t hear anything going on around me.
We have been learning more about using essential oils in our everyday lives. We’ve been using them for years, but this past year I went to a meeting with DoTERRA oils, and have learned so much more than I ever knew. Terry and Anthony even came to a few of the oil meetings with me. We have all feel in love with the DoTERRA oils. Yes, there really is a difference in how an oil is processed and everything ( I honestly didn’t know that) We have several favorites and we are looking forward to learning more. Even the kids love using them, and ask for them. Over the past few years I have had some medical issues that we have tried hard to deal with. Nothing majorly life threatening, however my stress levels have been haywire to say the least. I’ve been a few medications and never really happy about it. Right now I’m off medications and only using my oils to treat my nerves and I’m feeling like my old self again. We have noticed Mommy sings and laughs again more. I think our favorites are 2 blends called Breathe and OnGuard. One is awesome for knocking congestion out of you and opening the lungs, the other kills every germ imaginable and we have been making a hand sanitizer with it. Of course that it smells like cloves is just an added bonus to us.
We also have made some new friends with joining a few home school groups in the area. A highlight of the week is going to park, though we don’t go every week. The other mothers I have met have truly been a blessing to me, wonderful encouragers and some very strong Christian ladies whom I can share with. I have tried to recently start blogging again (I have 2), and both of us of course have face book accounts.
I got a special gift of a sewing machine last year for Christmas and have really been enjoying sewing a lot. Right now I am sewing purses and bags to sell. This I find very fun and relaxing, and right now have a FB account set up for anyone who wants to buy any. Terry is working with McDonald’s and travels doing shake machine mataince to 13 stores every 2 weeks. I have given up on knowing exactly where he is each day, but pretty much have his schedule memorized. He gets to spend the 2nd part of his day on the roof and all the kids think that is just really cool. They also love when they get to go surprise daddy on his lunch break.
I think that pretty much sums up what we have been up to. If you want to really keep up with us, just find us on FB (Rhoda’s has more pictures on it), or follow our blog. We hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed year in 2012 (WOW!). And as each of our boys our grubs as we call them reminded us don’t forget the real reason for Christmas, to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. They all said they have to sing Happy Birthday and make a cake. A memory I hope each of them will hold in their hearts always.
Merry Christmas,
Terry, Rhoda, Anthony, Alex, Avery, Valarie
and our many cats.
Here is our blogs and FB pages:
http://healingforlifewithoils.blogspot.com/
http://3grubsandablossom.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bags-4-Everything/215814908490843
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Healing-For-Life-doTERRA-Essential-Oils/248254488556516
FB pages: Terry Cerliano
Rhoda Burk Cerliano
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