I was supposed to be writing the second part in our House-Hunting series tonight, but instead, I thought I’d do something out-of-the-ordinary and post a little update on a few things that have been going on at our house.
Silas celebrated his first birthday a little over a week ago. It’s hard to believe he’s one! He’s working on learning how to walk and talk, eating up a storm and loves “singing” our ABC song during our morning homeschool time.
We’re loving the warmer weather and the chance to get out and take walks and get sunshine, fresh air and exercise after lots of cold winter days.
(Notice Kaitlynn’s necklace. She’s our little “fashionista” — every morning’s excitement revolves around picking out her outfit and matching accessories and hair bow!)
And meet James The Turtle — the newest member of our family, rescued by Kathrynne during one of our afternoon walks. This little guy has brought more entertainment and education and hours of fun into our home this week than can be counted. Who needs toys when you can have a pet turtle?!
Thanks to the wonderful ideas and input from Amy Andrews (my assistant/Jane-Of-All-Trades), I’ve been making some significant changes in how I budget my time throughout the day. She’s helped me become much more efficient and be able to scale back significantly on time spent on blogging and business details in order to focus my efforts and energies more on my family and homeschooling. (And she’s also managed to help me tweak my schedule enough so that I’ve started getting close to 8 hours of sleep per night again — it feels so good!)
I’m really enjoying being offline for most of the day and being able to spend a lot more quality time with my husband and children. My precious babies are growing up so fast and I don’t want to miss a minute of it!
We have had a red eared slider going on 9 nine years. My children adore him. I would like to say that he has been a “cheap pet” (and really compared to a dog he has) but I had to spend $600 on a 100 gallon tank (the size he now needs) and a stand for it last week.
I love the personal peek into your home and agree with everyone else that I’d love the time management tips! As for your turtle, I think it’s great to start introducing your kids to caring for a pet. Maybe you could work in turtle research and care into your homeschool curriculum? My hubs bought a turtle before we got together but it turned out the turtle needed much more than we could offer him in order to lead a comfortable life (basically a very large living quarters consisting of mostly water that should be cleaned frequently). What at first seemed like a small simple pet grew to become a potentially very expensive, time consuming project. We were lucky enough to find a more turtle-friendly home that adopted him before we moved across the country. I’m sure with your new home purchase you can work in a really cool place to keep James! Good luck!
I really hope you are planning to share the “wonderful ideas and input from Amy Andrews”!!!! I need them too. My time gets away from me and I don’t get nearly as much done as I feel I should…. Thanks for any nuggets of wisdom you have for us!
just an FYI turtles have the highest contamination rate of selmanela (don’t know how to spell that sorry)!!! so make sure the kids wash ther hands realy good!
Just thought I’d say I love your blog, and think it’s pretty cool your son is just about 2 weeks older than mine! His 1st birthday is on the 18th! You have a great family!
Wonderful!
Adorable photos – thanks for sharing! Not to be a “wet blanket” but . . . you may want to remind your children to wash their hands right away after handling the cute turtle since they do carry salmonella – nobody wants that! Another inexpensive pet that is fun to watch is a betta. My daughter picked one that comes right up to see you when you look in the bowl. Easy care – yep, there are certainly advantages to easy pets! Thanks again for ALL you do – you’re amazing!!!
Looks like it’s been said before, but you have to be very careful around that turtle so your little ones don’t get sick.
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048151.htm
I would love to hear more about your time management routine also. I have a soon to be 3 year old, a 20 month old and on May 3 our newest little member of our home, 11 day old Elise. I would love to start a more established routine with my two oldest and incorporate some homeschool learning time also while enjoying the beautiful weather now. Thanks for any advice you may have 🙂
What a great wife and mom you are! I like hearing updates on your family. Darling children! Glad to hear you are tweaking your schedule to get more sleep and more time with your family–you deserve it!
Adorable! I do hope you share your time-saving tips, that would make a great post!
Thank you for the glimpse into your life. I enjoy the personal posts even more than all the money saving goodies! I would find it beneficial to see a series of posts on time management and scheduling. It would be neat to see your sample schedules for the different days of the week. Keep up the good work, and Happy Birthday to your little boy!
Your personal posts are my FAVORITE!!!!! I love the way you encourage the really important aspects of life, and remind us how quickly time passes!
So glad you are enjoying the outdoors and a better schedule! I NEED YOU AND AMY TO HELP ME!!! Any tips or tricks??
Such cute kids! I love reading posts about them because my daughter is a little younger than Kaitlynn and my son is a little over a month older than Silas! & Kaitlynn reminds me so much of my daughter, including the necklace thing, my daughter loves necklaces!
Thanks for sharing your personal stories with us. Happy Birthday Silas! I would love to hear some of your time management tips. I am full time working Mom to a 15 month old and I have recently been struggling with time management and guilt for having to work full time to help support our family. I would love to hear any tips you would be willing to share. I love your blog!
We also have a rescued turtle! He will ne a heat lamp and a swimming area. Our ate mosly lil shrimp or jrill the first few months. He now eats turtle pellts. If you have nay questions about turtle I can answer them ! We have now had ours about 3 years!
Thanks for sharing about your family! I love to see how your babies are growing! Happy Friday!
Happy Birthday Silas! Love your personal stories Crystal 🙂
Fun to see an update of your family. Life sounds busy and good. We like to rescue turtles around here, too…but it’s just to help them get across the road. Hubby can’t stand to see turtle road kill. Anyway, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but did you know that turtles carry bacteria that is very harmful to small children? In fact, turtles smaller than 4″ are banned from being sold in the U.S. It’s something I didn’t know about until we rescued our first turtle and actually brought him home. You can read more about it here: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/spotlight_an_turtles.htm
Enjoyed reading the update! I hope you’ll share more about your scheduling success sometime in the near future ~
Very cute kids – and cute turtle!
My kids wanted to get a turtle but I nixed that idea after doing some online research. I didn’t realize how complicated it is to properly care for a turtle – UV lights, heater, filtered water, etc. Plus, the salmonella risk worried me.
Your children are beautiful! Doing a great job, keep up the good work, I appreciate it.
Precious. Sometimes we just have to slow down and enjoy the little ones! Time goes by way too fast.
Ok, the turtle is way cuter than I would have though. . .and quite possibly less messy than our guinea pig “Princess”.
The kids are, of course, adorable.
Wow! I can’t believe he’s 1 already! I started reading your blog when you were at the end of your pregnancy.
Love your site!
Thanks for sharing, Crystal! Those of us who have read your blog(s) for awhile let ourselves feel as if we know you a bit, so these updates are especially fun! =)
Happy Birthday to your little guy! Your kids are adorable.
I would also love to hear more about your new time management routine. I am always looking for ways to run our home more efficiently, spend quality time with the family, and sneak in some time for mom.
@Kristia@FamilyBalanceSheet,
I agree. Using time intentionally is something I struggle with and would love to get tips from you as well as a sample schedule.
you inspire me! Thank you and my the Lord continue to bless you and your family.
I want to second what Lisa said about salmonella. It’s especially important to be careful since you have a baby in your home.
I’m sure you’ve done the research. But, I need to tell you that turtle were a very popular pet some years ago until children started coming down with salmonella they got from turtles. Be sure they wash there hands after each visit even if they do not touch the turtle just its living area.
How on earth that little guy one already?? I don’t even know you in “real” life and I feel like the time really did fly! It also makes me realize that my 6 month old will be there before I know it as well!! Thanks for sharing some family updates. I read here pretty regularly and it’s nice to hear about your family. And if you don’t mind, can you share some tips for getting more sleep? I have 3 littles as well and lately my sleep has been suffering greatly!! Thanks so much 🙂
My trick to getting more sleep is really simple: I’m making getting 8 hours one of the “big rocks” in my schedule — one of the things I’m making sure happens first, before a lot of other things. I found I used to see sleep as something I’d just fit in with whatever leftover time I had after doing everything else I needed to get done in the day — which ended up meaning I never got even close to enough sleep and my body was suffering for it!
I’m not getting 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep yet (someone always wakes up at least once or twice a night — sometimes more!), but it does mean that from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. I’m in bed!
Thanks so much for the update! So glad to hear you have been able to get more sleep and spend more time with your adorable kiddos. Can’t believe Silas is one already! Thanks so much for all you do to help us save 🙂
We have ben enjoying it warming up and taking walks here too after school. During the school time, i have to be online more, and i am looking forward to summer where we can be more free.
Looks like you have found yourself a Red Eared Slider! My family “rescued” one under the exact same curcumstances, whilst on a family walk. He was adorable, we named him Squirt, and he survived about 2-3 years under our care. While we were on vacation one week, we left Squirt’s Rubbermade tub at some friend’s house so that they could feed him his daily turtle pellets. They did everything just as we always had, which included leaving the tub unattended on their deck. Sadly, being that this particular family lived in a more “woodsy” area, a racoon took advantage of this and ate Squirt. That was a sad day =[
Congratulations on finding a balance! I’m ready for summer to be here and welcome the change in routine that it will bring.
Enjoy your turtle! We recently adopted a cat……but my son would love to score a turtle 🙂
My then 19yo daughter got a turtle almost a year ago. We enjoy that fellow so much! I did some research and found out that our red eared slider begs for food! He cracks us up! Great pet to start out with.
Always enjoy reading your “real life” posts – happy birthday Silas! I’d love to hear about your new time management routine sometime.
What kind of turtle is that? It looks like a water turtle.
A year old already for Silas.Wow.Have fun with the turtle.
How sweet!! I love seeing pictures of your “real life” – glad you’re able to spend more time with the family!
CUTE FAMILY ,AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SILAS.
I love your posts that include your family- your deals blog is so personal! Thanks for sharing.
This was nice thanks!
Aww, they’re getting so big!