Morning with the Duggars!

God always amazes me. Just this past week when Jim and I were just chatting one day I told him I think it would be awesome if he ever got the opportunity to do a shoot for the Duggars and how much I would love to come along for that. Little did I know that within the week after saying that he would actually get contacted for a shoot there & what a blessing it would be that I got to go along. I normally don't go out with Jim on shoots but he had been out of town in Kansas and hadn't had much sleep the night before and had been up since 4am. After making it back home around 9pm from Kansas he loaded the truck up and we left around 11pm without any sleep to head to Arkansas to be there for a 4am call time. He needed someone to ride with him to help keep him up and thankfully my brother couldn't go & my mom said she would keep the girls overnight so I got to go with him. Thank you mom!!

First off it was so wonderful to get so much time with my husband. We had 8 hours in drive time and it was great to just have that time to talk with one another and spend time together. I always love long chat times with my hubby :) And we talked and talked the whole way there & back to keep each other up. Wonderful time I cherish and am so grateful for! I sure do love my husband and it is sure wonderful to get alone time with him!

Today has been such a wonderful experience and I am so grateful for the time I got to spend meeting and being with the Duggar family. They are such a sweet sweet loving family and it is just such an amazing thing to be in a home surrounded with the love of Christ and amazing people that follow the Lord. I have always had a list of questions I'd love to ask Michelle Duggar and learn from her and today I actually got the chance to talk to her. She is such an amazing woman. She visited with me for about an hour and gave me so many tips, advice, resources, books she recommends and homeschooling tools and programs they use. Their children are all so precious and so well behaved and they are such a welcoming beautiful family.

Today I really felt like I got one of the greatest opportunities of a lifetime in meeting a family I look up to as being such a wonderful role model and example of following Christ. I love Michelle's sweet calm gentle spirit and pray that I can become more and more like that as I follow after God & my relationship with Him grows. So many people a lot of times are so busy with their own lives and what's going on just trying to keep up with themselves but Michelle took time out of her day to pour into my life (a complete stranger) and share with me things she has learned over the years & pour blessings and words of encouragement into my family & it meant so much to me.

Anyway if you all are wondering what we were there for this morning on the Today show they had a live shot of their family and announcing that Josh and Anna will be having their 2nd child. What great joy and excitement for them to be blessed with another gift of life!

Check out the Duggars at http://www.duggarfamily.com/ and catch them on TLC.
We still have 2 years till homeschooling starts for our little ones but I am so excited to have this information and resources for when we do start homeschooling. I am also very excited to get the Monki See Monki Doo videos to start with the girls to begin to teach them to read and recognize words.

To my sister and my mommy friends that are homeschooling or about to start here's a list for Education and Homeschooling children:

• Monki See Monki Doo Videos for babies & preschoolers http://www.monkisee.com/
• Sing, Spell, Read and Write (phonics) - 1st- 3rd grade
• ACE- Accelerated Christian Education- Pace workbooks Math, English & Spelling - 1st-3rd grade
• SOS- Switched On Schoolhouse - 3rd grade and up
• Typing Tutor- Mavis Beacon- 3rd grade & up

2 books recommended that I can't wait to read on parenting and discipline:

• How to Be the Parents of Happy And Obedient Children- Roy Lessin
• Shepherding a Child's Heart- Tedd Tripp

Thank you to Michelle and the Duggar family for welcoming us into their home, pouring into us and teaching us tips on how to raise our children in a Godly home!

Also HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY to my precious husband and all other's who've served!  Baby I love you and am so proud of you for serving our country!!  Thank you to all Veteran's!