Southern Homeschool Journey

We Have Moved!

2011-04-15T22:08:00.000-05:00

Hello! If you are stopping by, we have moved to Homeschoolers Journey. Please stop by and visit us over at homeschoolersjourney.com we would love to have you!

Time for School and Something New

2010-08-08T22:05:00.001-05:00

My oh my what a summer this has been!! So very busy but it sure was fun. We really didn't travel to some great and wonderful location but we visited grandparents and had a great time. We spent a lot of time with friends at the pool, going to camp and VBS and swim lessons. Lots of big steps and fun memories made this summer.

Now it is time for school. Wow. I am ready mentally but I'm sad summer is already gone. I have high hopes for this year. I hope for a little growth in a certain little person (not so little anymore...) so that school won't be quite as difficult as it was last year. I know it will be tougher but I think he will enjoy learning the things he will learn this year. I hope that the lazy streak I experienced in him last year is not quite as long....or wide. :-)

I had posted earlier what curriculum we were using and there are a few adjustments I needed to make. We are taking a short break from the Apologia science and Mystery of History this fall. We will start them back up in January. We will be studying Abeka science, and in doing so we will approach it from a different stand point. He will learn about our senses for the first 16 lesssons and then he will learn about different ecosystems and the plant and animal life that live in each one.

Then for History we will also be using Abeka American history. He will learn about Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington, Helen Keller and many more people who were important in American History.

I didn't really set out to make those changes in our curriculum but as I looked through them out of curiosity, I felt lead to change things up a little. So we will see how it goes. We will do Science two days and History two days, leaving Thursday afternoon (our Coop day) as a time to catch up on anything we need to. I hope tomorrow is a peaceful day and that all goes smoothly....

On to another subject, I am moving!! You might think oh good for you! But I am hoping you will go with me....

See, I have decided to move my blog to Wordpress. I have debated back and forth for a long time now and after much discussion with my hubby and prayer I think this is the best thing for me to do. I have found that it is easy to work with and I really like the format. I also needed a new header on my old blog so this helped with that problem! We bought the domain, http://www.homeschoolersjourney.com/.

You will find all the old posts there and you will find Google friend connect where you can join my blog. I feel like I have gotten to know each of you and consider you my blogging buddies! I still want to keep up with you and would love for you to follow us on our homeschooler's journey so please click on the link above and join me over at http://www.homeschoolersjourney.com/. Hope to see you there!

Snap Shots of Summer

2010-07-13T23:26:00.000-05:00

Such sweet little faces

My Easter Lillie's bloomed a little late this year but still beautiful

Our first harvest - thank you Lord

Happy 4th of July!

Our Curriculum

2010-06-29T22:47:00.000-05:00

Since I was on a search today for some of our curriculum for next year, I thought I would share what we are using.

Math: We use Abeka Arithmetic. We do math just about everyday. We might miss a day here and there due to field trips or incidentals like that but we try to get some math in everyday. During the summer, we have managed to do some math about once or twice a week since the beginning of June. I had intended to do a little more, maybe two to three times a week but once or twice has worked out ok so far.

Language: We use Abeka for this as well. As with math we try to do Language everyday. We have not done any language during the month of June. We will start back up in August. We also use Abeka for reading, spelling and handwriting.

History: We have really enjoyed The Mystery of History volume 1. the nice aspect to me of this curriculum is that it starts with Creation and moves chronologically through both Biblical and world history. Tying them together and showing the student (and teacher! :-)) what was going in Bible History and in the world at the same time! The activities that go with the lesson can be geared toward appropriate ages and making the time line is fun, that is one of Riley's favorite parts.

Science: We are using the Apologia Exploring Creation series. Right now we are in Exploring Creation with Zoology, Fifth Day the Flying Creatures. We have also done some of Botany and Astronomy. What can I say about this curriculum? Well, the things I have learned about God's creation is amazing! Jeannie Fulbright has covered several aspects of all of the elements of Creation and has done a great job at showing the student why God created somethings the way He did. There is a reason for everything. The text is very informative and easy to read. The experiments can be done on many levels of age groups and are easy to do with easy to acquire materials.

Music: Is done through piano lessons which I am teaching Riley right now. Later on he will take from someone else. I don't play well enough to continue on past a certain level.

Art: He is getting through our COOP classes right now.

We will also occasionally do a unit study depending on what is going on. We might do one on a holiday or a person (that is all we've done so far). We recently completed a unit study/lapbook on Dr. Martin Luther King. We also found a free Knights and Castles lapbook at homeschoolshare.com which I hope to complete this summer.

That is our curriculum for Third grade. We have not made a lot of changes over the past three years or so. We used the Weaver Interlock curriculum at age 4 and had a lot of fun with that. We started out in Math U See in Kindergarten and Riley really did not like it. We changed to Abeka and that worked for us, Riley still doesn't like math but it isn't as much of a battle as it was then. Other than those two changes we have stuck with what you see above. Time will tell if we need to make other changes later on down the road.

What are you using? Have you stuck with the same things each year or have you changed up your curriculum choices? Was it easy for you to decide? Let me know, I would love to hear from you!

What a Day!

2010-06-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

Today started early with loading Riley, Lady and myself up in the car. We went to the John Deer dealer to have the lawn mower blade sharpened, then we headed to church to drop Riley off at Camp Crazy. After that, Lady and I headed to the vet to get a shot. On our way, my sister called and wanted to meet me to give me something. Thankfully she came to me... :-) Lady got her shot and we headed home so I could drop her off and pick up some snack food for me, almonds and cranberries and a water! Mmmmm! I called my Mom and as I talked to her I repotted some cuttings from a plant my sister gave me. I did walk out to the shed to check on the baby birds, but could not find them anywhere so they must have flown into the woods behind our property.

About 30 minutes later I hit the road again to go to Creative Learning Connection in search of curriculum. I was able to get just about all of our readers for reading and our Bible lesson plans. Crossing things off that list is good!

I left there to go get dinner and to the grocery store. Picked up a few items and a pizza (knowing I would not have much time to cook today...). I ran them home, let Lady out, grabbed some lunch and hit the road again to run to my sisters house to look through her curriculum with her. Of course while I was there I had to get my baby fix with my sweet little chunk of a nephew who is 4 months old and weighs 18.5 lbs and is 27" long! What a sweet boy!

I left there about an hour later to go get Riley at Camp Crazy. He had fun again today! Woohoo! We left there and picked up the lawn mower blade and headed home. We met Chris coming in the door and picked up ball and glove and ran back out the the door leaving Chris and Lady to their own at home. We headed to our friends house where Riley went swimming, got stung by a hornet, played baseball while I talked with some new friends, was in awe over a garden, had fun meeting some chickens and learned about the busy life on a growing farm! Thankfully Chris put the pizza in the oven and had dinner ready when we came home.

I don't know how you would feel but I feel like I have done just about everything a person could possibly do in one day!! So on that note, I'm pooped and will call it a day (and a half!). Till next time, blessings!

Up to My Ears in Blackberries and Baby Birds!

2010-06-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

Today was a good Monday! Riley went to Day camp through the church we are currently visiting. (Camp Crazy - I have to admit, the name did worry me a little bit... :-)) I dropped him off this morning fighting off tears (me not him) and praying a whole lot! He went in with a look of determination on his face to make new friends and came out this afternoon with a grin on his face! He had a good day,he made several new friends and even saw a friend of his from COOP! He's ready to go back tomorrow! Woohoo!

While he was at camp I spent the day reclaiming my home from a week of business and a weekend of travel. Doing laundry, unpacking suitcases, cleaning the kitchen etc. Then I ventured out back to see what type of work awaited me there. Tomatoes to pick, a few banana peppers, one grape tomato :-) and tons of blackberries!

As I picked the blackberries my mind started thinking on what I could do with them. Last year I froze a bunch and made some cobblers. So this year I thought how about some blackberry jam! MMMmmmm.....
Today I tried a recipe from Southern Living that seemed simple enough, it is a microwavable recipe, that didn't call for pectin. Hmmm... I tried it without the pectin at first but soon realized that you have to have the pectin. Once I added it, the jam soon thickened up, I put it in jars and will refrigerate them. I found another microwave recipe from Cooks.com that I'll try with the next batch. Do any of you have a good recipe for blackberry jam that you would like to share?

The recipe made two jars and about two servings.

Just before dinner I went out to water some plants, everything was so thirsty after our absence this weekend. I love our backyard, it is so big, lots of flowers, our gardens and some trees and then our shed. Our lovely, useful, ugly tin shed that is such an eyesore... See, our shed door fell off...a while back. It was so heavy and so high off the ground that it just rotted off and we took our sweet time to get it fixed! Doesn't that sound so hillbilly-ish? We had finally got around to ordering a new door and found out that a mother Carolina Wren had made a nest inside a box on a shelf and laid 5 eggs. Well, we very well couldn't put the new door on now could we?? So we wait. Today I noticed a baby bird sitting on the ladder hanging in the shed, I went in to check it out and this is what I found. When I came inside the shed she flew to some pots.

Then upon further investigation I found this...

Aren't they cute???? And no, that isn't a real bug, it is on the bag.

So now we just have to make sure Lady doesn't find them....fun stuff though to find such cute little babies in our shed. The door will just have to wait a little longer.

Tomorrow while Riley is in Camp Crazy, I will take Lady to get a kennel cough shot so she can board soon. Then I will head to our local homeschool resource center in search of some used curriculum. Creative Learning Connection is a great place to get used curriculum, teaching aids, books, videos and games at decent prices. If you live in the Huntsville area, go check them out!

This is Who I Am

2010-06-17T09:07:00.001-05:00

Ok, so I know it has been a while since I posted something, how do I say, BUSY!!! VBS, Baseball, Gardening, swimming, whew! Things are starting to slow down some and I finally had a moment to sit down and blog something. Well, my blogging buddy Lynnette had a great idea to post pictures of yourself that represent YOU, so I thought that would be easy and fun, so here goes.

I love my family!

Our "Lady Bug"

We love to camp, hike and explore.

I love to teach Riley. Most days he loves being homeschooled! :-)

I love to Garden

I love my big beautiful family!

The only other part of me that you can't really put in a picture is that I am a daughter of the King! I love my Lord Jesus and He has set me free!

This is me in a blog post of pictures. Enjoy!

We have Bluebirds!

2010-06-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

If you read my post from April 15, 2010 you saw the bluebird house Chris and Riley built when I had to go out of town. Well, we have a family of bluebirds that have moved in! We were all so excited!

Isn't that a brilliant blue?! God is so amazing to create such a vivid, beautiful color on one of His creatures!

One morning I had noticed the male on the ground under our bird feeders so I watched the bird house for a little bit and eventually I noticed both the male and female were flying in and out! They were also resting near our garden on the posts.

I can see why folks talk about "The Bluebird of Happiness" because just watching this beautiful creature that is such a brilliant blue is enough to make me happy!

Doing the Right Thing

2010-06-02T22:19:00.000-05:00

We had to do some growing up today and make a hard decision. Our last little frog that I told you about in my previous post did not make it. I felt horrible. I caught bugs, we bought crickets hoping this little guy would eat something and grow but I don't know that he ate anything, he was so tiny...that's a terrible feeling!

If you remember, I mentioned that we had one tadpole left. This past weekend, we noticed that he had all four legs, still had some tail left but was hanging around the bottom a little bit. We waited till we first saw him sitting on a leaf, then he was clinging to the side of the aquarium. Time to get the little guy out!!

Chris and Riley handled the transition this time (Thankfully!! I was glad to hand over the responsibility!) and got him in the frog habitat with a little water. He seemed to settle in nicely and started hopping around. Chris and I were busy trying to decide, "is this one bigger than the other one?" "I hope so!" "Yeah, he is!(?)" Riley caught a small grasshopper and put him in the habitat. Over the next couple of days, I caught a few bugs and had to tell Riley to catch more. First he argued with me, then he reluctantly attempted to catch one and put it in with the frog. This was too much of a battle, and this was how it went with the other frog. I was doing all the work...what's wrong with this picture?

Tonight I told Riley as he was going outside to take his bug jar with him to catch some dinner for his frog. "No!" was the answer! (Arrgh! There is that strong will again!) I quickly responded, "Then we are letting the frog go!" "No Mom! I love my frog!" So then we proceeded to remind him that when you have a pet you need to take care of it, it is not Mom and Dad's responsibility! Also, this might be one of those times that we need to do the right thing and let the frog go so he could try to survive on his own, let God take care of it. (I couldn't bare the thought of another frog dying under our care!)

As we all headed outside, I could tell Riley was pondering this decision he had to make. We talked about it a little longer and when we were done, he went inside. Shortly he came back out with his frog habitat, ready to let the little guy go. As we talked about where we were going to let it go, he had tears in his eyes. I know it was hard but I was really proud of him.

We decided to let him go in the garden where the pumpkins and blackberry bushes are. Lady can't get in there and he would be protected. Chris lifted Riley over the fence and we gave him the habitat. Riley got to work placing the little jar lid in the ground for water, then he took the cover off the habitat. All the bugs that were still inside flew or hopped out, then the little frog hopped out onto a blade of grass. I must admit, I was a little hesitant, "He's so little!" "what if something gets him?" "Will he survive?" But yet I knew it was the right thing to do. I reminded Riley how frogs are good for gardens because they eat the bad bugs that eat our plants. That helped us both I think.

Riley said a few minutes later, "Mom, I'm sad but I'm glad too." That let me know he knew he did the right thing. It was a tough decision for him but he handled it well. Maybe he learned the importance of taking care of God's creation and how we are "given charge over the animals and creatures"? Time will tell. Overall, it was a good lesson, seeing the tadpoles go through their transition into a frog. I wouldn't trade that part for anything, but loosing the previous frogs was tough and not an easy part of the learning experience. Would I do it again? Maybe. We would definitely let them go sooner!

From Tadpoles to Frogs

2010-05-26T23:08:00.001-05:00

Sometime in April about the first or second week on a Thursday, we got up and went to Coop. Riley went to his science class first that morning and then came into Art Class for second hour. He was so excited! "Mom! Look what we got!" As he held up a Ziplock storage bag full of water, I looked closer and saw four little tadpoles swimming around in the water. I experienced a mixture of thoughts and feelings at that moment...Oh my, I hope these don't die...what will we do with these?...Oh how fun this will be to watch them turn into frogs! What a cool lesson this will be!

Well, I must say it has been a pretty cool lesson. We left Coop that day and headed to Dollar Tree to buy a container to put some pond water in. Then we headed to Chris' office because there is a pond where we could get some water. When we got home we pulled out the little aquarium Riley's former Beta had lived in and got it all set up so this would be the tadpole's home.

Over the next few weeks we noticed that there were only three tadpoles swimming around so one did not make the move to the aquarium. We fed them fish food and then eventually added lettuce to the menu, which they seemed to devour.

After about 5 - 6 weeks we noticed two of the smaller tadpoles had back legs. Then their front legs showed up and their tails were getting shorter.

Can you see his back legs?

One morning Riley was eating his breakfast and all the sudden he exclaimed, "Mom! He is a frog!!" I looked and sure enough one of the tadpoles had just a tiny tail left and was frantically coming to the surface for air. Riley had used some of his birthday money to buy a frog/bug habitat so we used a cup and scooped him out and poured him into his new home. He climbed up on some of the "rocks" and just sat there as if to say, "ahhh....air....". He is tiny (about 1/4") and seems to enjoy his new home. We have been catching bugs to feed him but have yet to see him eat a bug. We bought crickets for him today hoping he will eat those and grow some.

If you look closely, he is stretched out on the side of the habitat, there is a bug up above him in the corner. This must be some special move to catch those bugs...I hope he's not stuck.

The next tadpole we found sitting on a "leaf" the next day. He proved to be a little more difficult to move to the new habitat because as we attempted to remove him from the aquarium he swam away. After we finally caught him, we went to pour him into the frog habitat and he ended up going down the side of the habitat and disappearing underneath. We tried to rescue him but could not do so with out tearing the whole habitat apart. We were disappointed but there wasn't much else we could do.

We now have one tadpole left, he is the biggest one and only just now has his back legs. His tail looks different from the other two frogs. Maybe he is a different kind...? We will feed him lettuce and fish food till he develops his front legs, then he will stop eating till he becomes a frog. As their tail is absorbed they will not eat because they get all their nutrients from their tail.

Can you see him there below the rocks? He has little back legs and his tail is wider than the others.

It has been fun and very interesting to watch these little tadpoles grow into frogs. I've always seen pictures but never saw it in real life. I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical about our LITTLE frog making it because he is really LITTLE. But we'll see. Thankfully Riley seems to understand there is a chance this little guy might not make it but he keeps trying. He looses his zeal to catch bugs but seems willing to catch a cricket and drop it in the habitat. It's been a good summer lesson, full of ups and downs though.

Wednesday's Walk - Looking for a Cowboy

2010-05-26T08:40:00.000-05:00

I am going back to the Fall of 2006, Riley is 4 1/2, Chris has just gotten home from Iraq and we needed some family time! We decided to take a trip to Branson, Missouri were we spent a week resting, and having fun, but mainly having some good quality family time.

We were headed to Silver Dollar City and Riley's main request was that he wanted to see a cowboy! The first day we were there, we spent the whole morning just making our way around the park, checking out everything that we could. As we went along Chris and I noticed we hadn't see a cowboy yet! Maybe we were in the wrong place at the wrong time...maybe there weren't any there at Silver Dollar city?..I had seen other tradesmen or women practicing there trade dressed up as cowboys and wearing the prairie dresses, but no cowboy just walking around jingling his spurs or slinging a pistol...

Finally after lunch that day, we were coming up a walkway and headed to a different part of "town" when we saw what looked like a cowboy sitting in a chair watching an artist busy at work. I stopped and pointed him out to Riley, his face lit up and a big smile came over him. I suggested he go say hi and I would take their picture.

Riley walked up to the cowboy with this look of awe on his face. The cowboy said "howdy" and asked Riley a few questions which he gladly answered. After a few minutes the cowboy stood up and looked at me to see if we were ready for a picture. Are you kidding me? He had to have been about seven feet tall! I was so shocked at how tall he was and how tiny my son looked next to him that it took me a minute to have the where-with-all to get my camera ready! Riley turned around and put his hands on his hips and smiled this big smile as if to say, "I found my cowboy! Take my picture Mom!" It was priceless!

I remember how little he was that trip and how excited he was to have his family back together and have some good fun looking for a cowboy! Thanks for joining me on my Wednesday's Walk today!

Our Plant Markers

2010-04-26T21:53:00.003-05:00

Riley and I braved the chill today to make our own plant markers. I sure did miss the sun, it was supposed to make it to 68 today but it was more like 61! Very cold after all this warm weather we have had. If you notice the pictures below, Riley was dressed for that warmer weather, he got cold fast!

I had a clay pot that cracked the other day so it was perfect to use for this project. We got our hammer, pliers and wire cutters, wire hangers and our permanent markers. I showed Riley how big I needed the pieces of the clay pot and showed him how to gently tap the pot so it would crack. He grabbed that hammer and just started banging away!!

Ha! No, I'm kidding! He did a great job, he gently tapped the pot and each subsequent piece that needed to be broken. He turned the hammer over and used the claw to get the crack going if he needed to.

Using a coat hanger, we cut pieces of wire and used our pliers to bend the pieces in a pretty, curly manner. Riley wrote the names of the plants on the clay pieces. We then stuck the pieces of clay in between the curls of the wire, to hold them in place. Riley would carry them outside and stick them in front of the appropriate plants.

This is one of my favorite pots of herbs, it has Greek Oregano, Lemon Thyme and Fern Leaf Dill. The plant markers were very easy to make and I think they look cute! Riley was not too thrilled when he found out he had to help me make plant markers, but when I told him he could use a hammer and pliers, he got excited and was ready to go! Imagine that! :-) Here is the link with the instructions and materials needed at Teaching Good Things. Have Fun!!

Great Idea to Mark Your Plants

2010-04-24T23:50:00.001-05:00

Tonight I was looking at the different comments in the Gardening nook at the Homeschool Lounge, seeing what new ideas and suggestions were posted. I came across an idea to mark your plants that I thought was really cute and also something that Riley could possibly help me with, so I thought I would pass it on to you! Click on this link to Teaching Good Things to see if it might work for you! I'll will post pictures when we are done.

Am I a Passive Listener or an Effective Doer (or a Purposeful Listener)?

2010-04-23T09:03:00.001-05:00

James 1:21-25

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

I need to meditate on His word, prayerfully. God speaks to me when I am ready to hear Him. I need to Listen with a submissive spirit, Listen expectantly, Listen intently, Listen carefully, with purpose, Listen prayerfully.

Wednesday's Walk - T-ball Memories

2010-04-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

I am going back to the Spring of 2007, Riley was 5 years old and we signed him up for T-ball. What a BIG deal it was too! He got a new glove, cleats and the uniform was just too cute! It almost swallowed him up!

See, look how big his pants are! Precious!

Practices were fun meeting all the other parents and boys. We had a great coach. He really worked on sportsmanship, playing fair, teaching the boys to work together and show each other respect. When the games were over he would ask each boy to say something good about another team mate that they may have done during the game. He really taught the boys how to build each other up. What an awesome thing to teach 5 year old boys.

I'll tell you though, these were some of the best games to watch! At the first game, Coach introduced each boy and in the background was playing the song, "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play!..." they were so excited! In the beginning, it was so funny to watch them run in the wrong direction after they hit the ball, or throw it to the wrong person. There was a spot in Right Field that by the end of the season had a deep hole where the boys who played that position would stand in it and dig when they were bored. Riley was one of them! But to see them hit the ball and run to first base, then eventually home and feel that sense of excitement for them doing so well! And to those little boys, snack time at the end of the game was the best part of it all! What a great time!

It has been a good experience for us to be involved with T-ball and baseball. We have been so blessed to have some awesome coaches that were good Christian men who taught Riley some good values.

I am so thankful that Riley has stuck with it over the last 3 1/2 years. It has given him confidence and taught him sportsmanship and how to work with his teammates and help his team play well. It hasn't been easy, he isn't one of these boys that sports just comes easy, at least baseball anyways. Last spring he got one hit during the games, he was so discouraged. Thankfully after some coaxing he decided to play this year and he is so glad he did. He has been hitting better and working on fielding better. We'll see what next spring holds because soccer runs a close race with baseball...but for now looking back at T-ball is a wonderful memory of such a precious little boy who could run fast and had a lot of fun!! My how things change!

Taken by one of the other parents at last weeks game.

A Good Lesson in 'Shop'

2010-04-15T21:32:00.001-05:00

I am writing this with half a functioning brain right now...Mom and my sister and I arrived home at 2:30 this morning. So this will be short and I can't be held accountable if I don't make sense right now. You haven't even seen all the typos I'm ~~mamking~~ (see? :-)) making.

Chris and Riley had two good days of school. They worked hard Tuesday getting stuff done and even worked ahead so they could have more time to devote to their birdhouse they were making. So Wednesday they finished up their assignments and reviewed some and created this beautiful little birdhouse. This was part of our lesson on birds from the Apologia Zoology: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Riley was so excited! He learned when to use screws instead of nails, he used a drill, and hammer. He measured each piece and helped mark them so Chris could make the cuts. This afternoon after our coop classes Riley and I stained the birdhouse a nice cherry color. Tomorrow morning he and I will mount the latch to keep the door closed and mount the house on the fence. Riley was so proud of his little house. Hopefully soon we will have some new residents in our little house they made!

So they survived the two days without me. I knew they would. :-) Riley had a game Tuesday night which I missed. He did a great job! He had two good hits in the outfield and scored a run! Way to go my little slugger, way to keep trying! After having a season last year of no hits at all during a game, it is so refreshing to see him get to run the bases. I sure did miss my two guys and was ready to be home, I'm glad I don't have to leave them often!

It was good to be with family during the last couple of days but my prayers go out for my aunt who laid her husband to rest Wednesday. He was 87. It was a beautiful Military service and the Chaplain did a wonderful interpretation of the 23rd Psalm and what the Shepherds responsibility is and how we can apply this to our lives right now. Wonderful.

Have a blessed night all, I am beat and headed to bed! Till next time, God Bless!

Busy Little Bees

2010-04-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

My goodness have we been busy!! Between school, finishing up scouts for the year, baseball and trying to get my garden going, there hasn't been a lot of down time indoors! I suppose that is a good thing but it's been hard to find the time to post something.

We had two nights this week when the temps got in the 30's but otherwise the weather has been gorgeous! We've had the windows open most of the time listening to the birds, smelling the fresh smell of spring! It's been great!

One day last week during our school time Riley was really having a hard time focusing on school. Each time the phone rang, or the doorbell rang, he would sneak outside to ride his scooter or just go run with Lady! What a stinker! By the end of the week he was missing some electronic game time because trying to get school done was a battle but I don't think he really "missed" it. He spent any free time he had outside! Another day he FINALLY made it outside just in time to see Lady pounce on a grasshopper. That inspired him to try to catch one himself which he did!

Lady's grasshopper went through the fence!

Of course we had baseball practice and a couple of games so that makes for a busy week. Saturday we had our Annual Pack 8 Fishing rodeo, Riley didn't catch a fish but he sure had fun trying. Some good friends went with us and it was a good time of fishing and fellowshipping!

Did you get 'em? Nope.

It has definitely been busy but it has been good! Now we start a new week...Tuesday and Wednesday I will be at a funeral so Chris and Riley are handling school! I think they can handle it, but I have to admit, I'm anxious to see how things go and what Chris thinks when I get home! :-) I have everything all planned out so there shouldn't be any question as to what to do...

It was a blessed day in the Lords house today. It was good to worship and I had a couple of reminders where my eyes should be...on Christ! Not on myself and my circumstances but Christ. When I have my eyes on Him all the circumstances work themselves out! I so needed those reminders as I recover from one busy week and go into another one! I hope you all have a blessed week and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Spring Brings Easter - Which Means New Life

2010-03-31T23:02:00.001-05:00

I think I have suffered from writers block or spring fever, I haven't known what to post for days now. I know I am definitely recovering from the 'winter blues'! Praise the Lord Spring is in the air and evident all around His awesome creation! I took my camera outside and started taking pictures of anything that had color besides brown. Ha!

Our Bradford Pear Tree in our front yard.

A few of the blooms on our Yoshino Cherry tree!

The view from our driveway, I LOVE all the pinks, whites and greens!

Can you tell how excited I am about all the signs of Spring? Riley and I have spent so much time outside over the last several days. There has been some rain, but that has only brightened the colors and ushered them from their winter covers.

Praise the Lord for new life in Him that we are getting ready to celebrate this coming weekend! Because He gave His life for us on the cross and rose again on the third day He conquered death and we can have eternal life.

John 3:14-16
¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
¹⁵That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that God loved me enough to send His only Son to pay my punishment for my sins! Wow! How undeserving I am of His love and His forgiveness, yet I am so thankful for His sacrifice! I can't seem to get enough of Him. He is my Rock, my Comforter, my Shelter, my Peace, He is 'the defense of my life;' my Guide when I don't know where to go. He 'gently leads me beside quiet streams' and 'makes me lie down in green pastures' to give me rest (Psalm 23:2). "...The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places." (Habakkuk 3:19)

I could go on and on about what my Savior has done for me and how precious is His love for me. More precious than Gold or Silver I tell you! He has redeemed me and I am His daughter.

If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior I tell you He is Life. He has changed my life, it isn't perfect by any means but my life is good. And it is all because of Him, not by my own efforts, but His! As stated earlier in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world (everyone, yes that's you!) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish be have everlasting life." It is really quite simple, tell Him you have sinned and ask Him to forgive you of those sins. And guess what? He will. Next, tell Him you want Him to be Lord of your life and ask Him into your heart to live as Lord of your life. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,..." Acts 16:31. "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, (to their heart) I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20

I hope you enjoy watching new life unfold before you as the weather warms and the sun brightens our world from this past winters blows. And may you celebrate New Life in Him this Easter!

Simplified! One Room Down...

2010-03-16T19:22:00.001-05:00

Three or four more to go!!

I joined Lynnette at Dancing Barefoot in Simplifying our Master bedroom. It was quite the task, because both my husband and I are stackers at least till we know what to do with it. Then it might get put in it's proper place. As you can see, I had dark curtains and comforter that are ready for a change. Old picture frames were stacked along the wall because we couldn't find pictures to put in them, let alone a place to hang it. There is a box to the left of this wall that has smaller picture frames that I couldn't figure out where to put them either. Then of course my husbands shirt hanging on the bedpost...who put that there?????

Along this wall are items I had already purged that are ready for a garage sale. My storage drawers containing SOME of the scrapbooking items I have is in the corner (there are more in the closet). Down in the lower right corner of this pic you can see a corner of ONE of the boxes that contain items yet to go in the garage sale. Also, there is nothing on the walls! If you haven't noticed, I have difficulties figuring out what to hang where and what shall be in it!

I did not take a picture of the closet but the shelf has all our sweaters, sweats, shorts and misc stuff all over it. No neat stacks....they are thrown up there haphazardly, which one does at their own risk because you never know what will come tumbling down on top of you! I do need a step stool in there to help out, I'm too short to reach the shelf especially if things get piled up high!

The finished project! I am so excited and thankful to see my floors, the walls and not have any bunny sized dust bunnies under the furniture! I move each piece of furniture (except the bed), and swept and cleaned that part of the floor. My sister who is very organized and an Interior Designer suggested that I remove all the pictures from the frames, then I would know what I have and which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of. That really helped me process it all! It didn't seem like such a daunting task that way!

We had the bedspread and I found curtains to match I will eventually need to get a bed skirt but that will have to wait. I also bought some shelves and when I emptied all the old frames, I found some that would look great with the shelves and it made a great ensemble! The shadow box on the right of the wall has a tiny gown made by a dear friend of mine that passed away about two years ago from breast cancer. It also has a precious bib monogrammed by my sweet friend Karen. It say's "Mommy's Answered Prayer" with a beautiful cross on it. Then there are some other little sweet items that belonged to Riley when he was a baby. I'm glad to finally get it hung on the wall.

Thank you so much Lynnette for challenging us to get this done!! I sure did need it! My husband loves the room and is so glad all the boxes are gone and we are closer to being ready for our garage sale! I am ready mentally to tackle the next room, our school room. However time will not allow it to be done this week, it will have to wait till next week.

Webcam of a barn owl

2010-03-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

For anyone who is using Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day check out this link! It is a webcam of a Barn Owl on her nest, she has an owlet due to hatch today or any day now! Great video to watch!

It is a live feed so you catch minute by minute updates on how momma owl and baby are doing!

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

Check it out!

You Could Win Big!!!

2010-03-13T12:39:00.000-06:00

Let The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine help you encourage family fun and add a little excitement to the school year. Plus, we're giving you three opportunities to win a gift package full of goodies valued at over $345!

It's simple to win. If you are customer #139,000, #139,500, or #140,000 at the Schoolhouse Store, you WIN a gift pack! U.S. shipping addresses only. Click on the link above and check it out. Big opportunities to Win Big!

The Old Schoolhouse March Madness Sale

2010-03-11T08:21:00.003-06:00

Head over to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, they are having a March Madness Sale!

March 8 through midnight on March 21

Over 220 items in the store on sale 10%–80% off!
Items such as the Spring Encouragement Bundle on sale for $20.53, 2009 Planner, Spring WeE-book™ Bundle, Homeschool Convention WeE-book™, Dreams & Designs, WannaBe® – Farmer, and Spring 2008 print back issue.

If you are looking to pick up some items to replenish your supplies click the button above and it will take you to the TOS website and you can start shopping!

Wednesday's Walk - He carried Us

2010-03-10T10:24:00.002-06:00

It was April of 2006, I had dreaded this day and hoped that somehow it would go away, yet it did not. I knew Chris felt the same way but much less than I because he had to do this. You see he was being shipped out to Iraq for a 5 1/2 month deployment. I know many, countless wives have been in my shoes before me and faced this day many times. I sat there in the airport with Chris, Riley (who was 4), Chris' Mom, and my parents and my niece (who my parents kept at that time, she is one year younger than Riley), thinking "how do the wives of these soldiers do this time and time again?" "How can you let the man you love go into the unknown?". It was at that time I began the battle of being angry. scared and placing our little family in God's hands and letting Him carry us each step of the way.

It was a long 5 1/2 months. But I learned some very wonderful things that spring/summer about my Lord and Savior, about myself and my husband, and the precious people God placed in our life. I learned that I could not just sit down and give up and expect life to go on. Riley and I had the whole summer before us and we had plenty to do. Riley needed life to be as normal as possible, yet he was angry too! Surprise, surprise! I remember realizing for the 2nd or 3rd time in his life that he had a strong will and he was not going to let this one go down without a fight! We spent two weekends in a row dealing with behavioral issues that reared their ugly heads the first week Chris left. I prayed the whole time "please Lord, don't let our whole time Chris is gone go like this! Give me strength and wisdom, please!" After some time in time-out, some tears (from both of us), some talking to and some discipline and more tears, Riley learned that bad behavior was not going to be allowed while daddy was gone.

We got busy with things like a garden, we grew Sunflowers that got taller than Riley and I both! Karate lessons, playing, spending time with family. I even was bold enough to pull our little camper to Florida with some friends to go camping at the beach! This was the first time that summer that I realized the power of prayer in our lives. I was scared to death to pull that camper all the way down there but yet I didn't want to miss it for the world! I knew Chris, my family and all of us that were camping were all praying as we caravan ed to Destin. We made it there safely and in one piece, all thanks to prayers being lifted up. We missed Daddy greatly but we had a wonderful time with precious friends whom we love dearly.

One day we were on the beach and a military helicopter flew overhead very close to the ground. You could see the soldiers very clearly riding on the helicopter. Riley looked up and asked, "Is that my daddy?" My dear sweet friend Karen and I looked at each other and tears welled up in our eyes as we knew the answer was not one Riley wanted to hear. My heart ached for my precious boy.

It was so comforting to be with friends whom you know you can count on and will step in and help you whenever you need it. But more importantly I knew they were praying for Chris, Riley and I as we were apart. Those prayers made that trip a time of rest, fun and growing for both of us.

The summer went on and we stayed busy. Periodically we would have a chat with Chris over the webcam. What a blessing that was to see his face and see him healthy! Riley would eat up those times with Chris, telling him everything he could and acting silly of course! We had a webpage we would go to to count down the days till Daddy got home, we watched it daily. We visited Grandparents and had a good time. All the while being carried by our precious Lord. Those times I began to worry, I would call Karen and ask her to pray for me, then I would have the strength to get on my knees and pray myself. Many nights I would wake up wondering how Chris was doing (because that was his day time.) so I would email him and he would respond letting me know he was ok and tell me he loved me. There were times that he didn't respond immediately and I would go back to bed praying for his safety and my peace. The next morning I would wake up to find a response to my email. Thank you Lord!! I know it was only by the grace of God I was able to sleep at all those nights.

Finally in late Aug of 2006 it was time for Daddy to come home! Riley and I traveled to Montgomery to pick him up. The waiting in the airport was awful, Riley had drawn a picture to give to Chris. Members of his guard unit were there as well to welcome him home. Finally Riley and I dressed in our best saw our Chris walk through the gate! Before I could say anything Riley took off running and jumped in this Daddy's arms! I thankfully had the sense to have my camera out so I snapped this great picture (through lots of tears of course!). I couldn't believe he was finally home!

Our precious friends were such a blessing to us once again. They collected enough money and put together a wonderful basket so that Chris, Riley and I could spend a night in a hotel together that first night Chris came home. I made the reservations and got it all squared away. We stayed at a Nice hotel there in Montgomery and had a wonderful breakfast together. We visited Chris' Mom and got some stuff squared away on base before we were ready to head home. Riley was so happy to have his Daddy home, he talked all day and told Chris just about everything he could think of! Once we got home, he pulled out every toy he could think of to share with his Daddy. He was making up for lost time.

Chris brought Riley this awesome hat home that had his name, Spiderman, and Operation Iraqi Freedom on it and a teddy bear. He still wears that hat today.

Since that fall of 2006 when Chris came home and even times after, it has been so comforting to me to look back and see every instance that God carried Chris, Riley and I. I remember asking myself when he left, "How do the wives of soldiers do this time and time again?" Because for us, it has only been once. Now I know the answer. God does it. Not by my own strength and will power but God carrying each of us in His hands. Giving us the grace and the strength to face each moment that comes up. Giving me the strength to get on my knees and place my family in His hands. Placing precious people in our lives that were willing to stand in the gap and lift us up in prayer daily. What an awesome time that was to see God work.

I hope you've enjoyed my Wednesday's Walk down memory lane. I'm sorry it was so long, I prayed that I would have a memory to share this morning and this is what God laid on my heart. Click on the button at the top and join us on our Wednesday's Walk, won't you?

Great Lunch Idea!

2010-03-09T13:15:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you but sometimes I have the worst time trying to figure out what to do for lunch. We have the famous standby's that get old very quickly, sandwiches and soup. But today I had something that was delicious and I actually felt like I could have been eating out it was so good!

At Target I had bought a package of Flat Out Artisan fold-able sandwich bread (Olive oil and Rosemary flavor), in their bakery area (only 24 carbs per serving!). I sauteed some green pepper and onion with steak pieces (they were actually the frozen fajita seasoned kind from a package). After spreading the meet onions, and peppers on the bread, I then sprinkled Mozzarella cheese all over the meat, green peppers and onions and folded it in half. Delicious sandwich!! It was so good I just had to share with y'all! And no I didn't take a picture because I didn't think about sharing it till I was almost done with it. I didn't think y'all would appreciate that... :-)

We need to finish school, I have a hair appointment then we have ball practice and dinner at Nana's tonight so I probably won't get anything done on Simply for Life with Lynnette. It will have to wait till tomorrow. Don't forget to stop over at Dancing Barefoot to grab her button if you want to Simplify with us this week! Have a blessed day!

Digging Out From Under the Clutter

2010-03-08T09:56:00.002-06:00

As you may have seen in my earlier posts I too am going to be busy....

Join in the fun this week as we dig out from under the clutter! Click on the button above and Lynnette at Dancing Barefoot will get you started! Blessings to your efforts!!

Household Notebook

2010-03-08T08:38:00.007-06:00

Today is a new day! The sun is shining and it is warmer than it has been all winter! I am so thankful for some warmth and sunshine. There is definitely something about spring that renews the spirit and gets you going! I am thankful too for that renewed spirit. I have been struggling over the last month or two with not having any energy, no motivation to get stuff done, being tired all time. It's time for a change! It's time to get off the couch and away from the computer...and get busy!!

I posted earlier in How Do You Do It? that I was thinking about starting a household notebook. Do you have one? I am ready to make some changes regarding getting the clutter under control, staying on top of things and keeping track of stuff. I do make lists of things to do, to buy etc but just not consistently. When I do make a list it helps me immensely. I find myself a lot of times getting bogged down with trying to remember when to do something or trying to find that one piece of paper...by the time we finish school, I am ready to tackle a task and not get stuck on a wild goose chase! I heard from a few people about what they do for a household notebook, chores, and managing their household. Once I heard a few of the suggestions I was a little more motivated! So I got started. It took me a while to get a feel for what I needed our notebook to be like and consist of, but I think I at least have a good start.

Jennifer Tankersly aka List Mama at List PlanIt had a good suggestion on household notebooks. She uses more than one, she has one for finances, one for her kitchen and then a third one for household stuff. If you visit her site you will see she has lots of great ideas for organizing, lists and making life easier. For a $20 annual fee you can print the forms she has on her site, she has other options available with an annual fee.

There are some other sites out there that make forms available to you. Molly's Econobusters Money Saving Digest which you can purchase and download from The Old Schoolhouse store. They have a couple of different E-books that you can download and get the forms to print. They range in price from $4.95 to $20.00, depending on which one you pick. I also found this site that has forms as well. The Organized Home site has download and print forms for free. The nice thing is that there are so many options out there you might be able to find the forms that fit your needs perfectly!

For our household notebook, I have started out with one notebook containing monthly calendars, daily to do lists, weekly planner, weekly chore list, spring cleaning room by room (I hope I actually get to this part...). I bought dividers with folders that I can put coupons, menus from restaurants, and our flex spending info in (with a few extras). I also included a big pocket for our box top collection for school. I can see how I might need to expand to another notebook but right now I will start with one and go from there.

My prayer as I start this is that I will keep it up. I see how it can help me keep track of things, not forget to do certain things, and have a lot of stuff at my fingertips. My problem is getting something started and making it a habit. I am motivated and ready for a change, to get some things under control, so lets go!

So if you have a household notebook or another method of keeping things under control, I'd love to hear about it. Now I am off to get our day going. I am doing the Simplifying for Sanity with Lynnette over at Dancing Barefoot this week, I've got a lot to do today so I better get going.
Y'all have a blessed day!

Join the Blog Parade!

2010-03-02T20:03:00.002-06:00

Abigail over at Rear Window is having a Blog Parade! Come join the fun!
It's a great way to meet fellow bloggers and make new friends. Here goes:

1. What's your favorite time of the day, and why?
I actually have two favorites. First thing in the morning. Yes for those of you who know me I do have a hard time getting going but that is when I can have my quiet time with my Lord. So that is one of my favorites. The other is when Chris comes home and we have dinner together as a family. Good stuff!

2. If health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of?
Pasta of course! Pasta and cheese!!!

3. If you could have one wish granted (besides wishing for more wishes), what would it be?
Another child in the house, which of course would mean a sibling for Riley.

4. What's one thing that you get teased about a lot?
My laugh. Sometimes nothing comes out, I just hang my head and laugh which means I shake when I do.

5. If you could choose one movie, book, or TV show to spend your life in, which would you pick? What type of character would you be?
I would choose The Red River of the North Series by Lauraine Snelling. The characters of the book came to America from Norway to make their home in Blessing, North Dakota. They worked hard, loved the Lord, and were strong people. The women in these books were a good example for me. They faced their hardships with God right by their side and they stood strong in Him. They were strong courageous women.

6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?
It would be either Photography or painting/drawing. I love taking pictures but don't really know how. I would love to learn how to draw or paint. My mother and all of my sisters can draw and/or paint and are very talented! I didn't have the patience when I was younger to learn.

7.If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?
Europe, Hawaii and Jerusalem

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing?
The Big Band or swing era. That had to be fun times!

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what would it be?
Lowes! I could redo our kitchen.

10. If you could live in any point in time, when would it be?
The 1800's. Yes, wearing all those skirts would be a big hassle but I still would like to experience living during that time. I would love to learn to live off the land and use what we had and appreciate it! To work for what we have and feel a sense of achievement.

11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be?
Royal blue or dark blue. It is so calming.

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be?
(Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, or Dopey)
I would like to be Happy because he is so happy all the time!

13. What's the last album you listened to?
The Best of Andrea Bocelli Vivere
Great Album! He has a wonderful voice!

14. What's something we'd be surprised to know about you?
My husband Chris and I lived around the corner from each other when he was 3 and I was 2.
We did not know this till we met in 1992 but isn't this a small world?!

There! Now it's your turn! Head on over to Abigail's blog and she'll get you going to join the Blog Parade.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Learning to Crochet: Do I Really Have to Follow Instructions?

2010-02-23T23:16:00.000-06:00

I tell you, this last week was slam packed with activity! The most important and most exciting is we have a new nephew in our family. Liam Bennett Brown was born to my sister and brother in law last Wednesday morning at 12:17. Praise the Lord he is a healthy baby boy weighing in at 8lb 8oz. I have to say he is pretty cute!

We had a Cub Scout activity Saturday night that required set up time Friday night, making a dessert Saturday and then the actual event that evening. In the meantime I have been getting clothes and items ready for a local consignment sale. I finally got all that delivered Sunday and Monday.

Riley woke up Monday morning with a low grade fever, slight sore throat and congestion. We put school on hold for the day so he could rest and recuperate. Then Grandpa called and said they were in town, could they come for a visit Tuesday (today). Of course they could, so I got busy cleaning. We met them for lunch then they came and visited with Riley and I this afternoon. It was a nice visit.

Last week while we were waiting on Little Liam to arrive, my sister's midwife came in and sat down with us. She picked up a bundle of yarn and just started crocheting a baby cap. I watched her and asked her how she started, with intentions of making one for little Liam. So I got started.

As I worked on it and got closer to finishing it I noticed something wasn't quite right. It had a little 'knot' or 'bean' on top and the bottom edge had a wave to it.

So I decided this wasn't right. I needed some instructions. I got online and found a video for crocheting a baby cap. This video has Great step by step instructions which were so easy to follow. She even slows the video down for you to see exactly what she is doing. I started last night and finished today.

Much better! Isn't it amazing what happens when you follow instructions?! It was easy and didn't take long, what a fun project! Hopefully it will fit Little Liam's head!

Tomorrow we will resume school and hopefully be more on the mend. It is good to be back on the blog, and hopefully back to some sense of normalcy. There might be some more little baby caps in the near future. I recently found out a cousin and his wife are expecting twins!

Till next time have a blessed week.

Cleaning Out

2010-02-13T23:23:00.002-06:00

I spent today going through baby clothes. Making two piles, one to sell at the local consignment sale and one to give to my sister who is due any day now (if she wants them...). It's interesting, I have put this off for a while now, waiting to see if we would need them. But I think the Lord has something else in mind for the clothing and for us! Not quite sure what it is for us but it is time to get rid of this stuff. Someone else can use them.

It is a lot of work, checking for spots, ironing, pricing, sorting, and washing. Then there is the fun part, showing Riley the tiny little shoes he wore or the tiny socks. The cute little outfits that were worn to church or out and about. I remember taking pictures of him in the cute little outfits just so I could remember what he looked like. Although, thankfully there are times I don't need the pictures to remember!

I could just give everything away...that certainly would be easier. However, I think this is a good way to bring in a little bit of income. When I've contributed to this sale in the past I've not made a lot of money but enough to make it worth the effort put into getting the clothes ready.

I have actually been cleaning a lot out lately with the goal of having a garage sale when the weather warms up a little. In fact when cleaning out from under Riley's bed, I crawled under there the other night to find I had company. Our 5 1/2 month old puppy, Lady crawled under with me thinking it was a game and covered my face with kisses! I couldn't get out fast enough!

Cleaning out is a good way to start the new year. It is refreshing, it helps renew your home, your heart and your mind. Riley just had a birthday which of course means that new items or toys have entered his room. This first thing I did was talk to him about what items he could get rid of. Thankfully he was willing and able to come up with several items that could be sold in the garage sale or the consignment sale.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has a very informative E-Book called Molly's Money-Saving Digest: MollyGets Organized All in One Place. They have taken all the organization articles from 2009 and compiled them in one digest! There are articles on a household inventory binder, emergency preparedness, couponing, menu planning, gift planning, and much more. Check it out, you may find something to help you out with your efforts to clean out or purge.

What do you do to purge or clean out? How often do you attempt this task? How does it usually work for you? I wish you the best if you are attempting to purge or clean out. As Molly Green says, "Evaluate. Prioritize. Organize."

"I Have a Dream" Speech Challenge

2010-02-11T23:45:00.000-06:00

If you saw my earlier post on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lapbook and are looking for another idea to help in teaching about Martin Luther King Jr., Jill O. Miles sent me this link to her blog with a great activity. It's called the Fill in the Blanks "I Have a Dream" Speech Challenge. Follow this link (or click on her name above) He Had a Dream and scroll down to just before the video of his "I Have a Dream" speech and click on the "fill in the blanks" link there. She has a nice looking worksheet to print out and use, what a great resource! Thanks Jill for sharing this with us!

Just Who is A Real Super Hero?

2010-02-11T16:59:00.003-06:00

If your child is anything like mine, when it is time to go to bed I think his little mind just starts wondering and thinking of any little question he could ask about anything and everything. Sometimes I can get the strangest questions at that time. Although strange they may be, I cherish these times with my son!

Well, last night as I was telling Riley goodnight, he asked about Superman and what was he like? Where did he get his powers? Did I know anything else about Superman that I could tell him? Oh my, was my memory being tested! I hadn't seen the movie Superman in years, so I had to work hard to remember what I was able to remember. Then he asked me about Batman and what happened that caused Batman to get his powers. I was a little concerned that Batman was a little too "dark" of a topic to cover right before bedtime so I put that one off till daytime.

As we were talking Riley asked me, "how do they know where to be all the time and help people?" I told him I didn't think they were able to be everywhere they needed to be because they weren't able nor were they real. He told me he understood that they were not real but I could tell that wasn't the type of answer he was looking for. So I said, "You know Riley, there is a true SuperHero that can be everywhere He needs to be for everyone of His children when He needs to be there." "Really?" I said, "Yes, do you know who He is?" Riley said, "God?" I said, "You bet! He is the only one who sees everything, knows everything, and can tackle anything, He even knows what will happen before it happens. Can Superman or Batman do that?" He said, "no." I told him that it was ok to like Super Heros like Superman and Batman but ultimately we need to remember who the real Super Hero is and that is God.

As we were talking about it, this verse came to my mind (don't you just love it when He does that? :-)):
2Chronicles 16:9
"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars."

It seems I am being reminded often the importance of giving all of my heart to God and not withholding any portion of it. Our Bible lessons during school last week focused on Joshua and Caleb and because they gave God all of their hearts He blessed them in their inheritance of the land of Canaan. He also blessed them in conquering the heathen nations that inhabited the land before the children of Israel arrived there. Caleb was 85 years old when he acquired his portion of the land of Canaan. He chose one of the most rough pieces of land available that was already inhabited by a heathen nation. God gave him the ability and resources he needed to conquer this nation so he could inhabit the land. At 85 years old!

We later went on in our lessons to hear how the nation of Israel forsook their God and worshiped Idols and married people from the heathen nations. As a result of their disobedience the Israelite s fell into this vicious cycle, of Idolatry, bondage, then repentance and God would send a Judge to rescue them and bring them to rest.

How often do I hang on to one little piece of something that happened several days ago, or worse yet, several years ago. Or that something that I deem more important or of so little consequence that God won't know, but He does. Because I can't let go and lay it at His feet or seek forgiveness and repent I am withholding a part of my heart from my Almighty God, my Heavenly Father who wants to offer me joy, peace, healing and prosperity. Then I wonder why things fall apart or don't work out quite the way I think they should go. The whole time I am hanging on to whatever it is He is standing there beside me seeing exactly what it is that I'm hanging on to. Waiting patiently till I lay it at His feet. Picking me up when I've allowed it to cause me to stumble. And then when I've let go of it and placed it before Him, He welcomes me into His loving arms and comforts me like no one else can.

Jeremiah 29:11-13
11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
¹²'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
¹³'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

He is my Comforter, my fortress, my source of strength, my Super Hero. I know little boys will look up to and get all excited about Spiderman, Superman, Batman and the Hulk but my prayer is that one day Riley will see God as his True Super Hero. I'm positive God is not done showing me all He wants me to know about this and my prayer for myself is that I will remember who the One true source of strength, power, wisdom, peace and joy is. And that I will strive to give him my whole heart.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lapbook

2010-02-09T23:53:00.002-06:00

Well I had said earlier that I would post our progress on the lapbook of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I am finally getting around to it!

We used the project pack from In The Hands of a Child at CurrClick. We spent most of the week of his birthday working on it and I was pleased with the outcome. I wanted to introduce Riley to who Martin Luther King was and what he did and stood for. I think we were able to accomplish that and give Riley a little glimpse of what went on during those troublesome times.

In putting the lapbook together we learned all about MLK's background, schooling, and his family. We learned how black people wanted to be treated just like white people and they were not treated as equals. Of course when he learned how the black people were treated before the Civil War and for many years after, he had a hard time understanding why someone would treat another person this way. We have always taught him that we are all created equal and God loves everyone so therefore we should do the same.

We learned how hard MLK worked with the American government to give black people the right to vote and Civil Rights. It was amazing how much love this man showed by walking with his fellow Americans to work during the boycott, praying and singing with them. What an example he set for our young people to follow. We read through his speech "I have a Dream" and Riley wrote a brief biography about MLK. It broke his heart to learn that Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated, we both sat there and cried as we read about it. I think he felt at peace when we later talked about how Dr. Martin Luther King is in Heaven with our Heavenly Father and walking beside Jesus!

The nice thing about lapbooks is that different components of learning are incorporated. There were mapping skills, vocabulary words and he had to do a time line of MLK's life. It was a good learning opportunity that we could taper to our level of learning. He did a very good job at reading and learning about MLK and worked quite hard at putting it all together. I was pleased with the way it all turned out and the effort he put forth as well. I know his birthday has already passed but if you are looking for a good way to introduce or teach you child about Martin Luther King, I would highly recommend the lapbook from In The Hands of a Child. We finished our study on Martin Luther King Jr. by reading Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.

It was a good way to introduce Riley to this very important piece of American History. We both learned what a great man Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was and how he helped our fellow Americans gain their rights as citizens.

If you are looking for another resource to help teach your children about Martin Luther King Jr. try the "I Have a Dream" Speech Challenge by Jill O. Miles. Here is her blog: History for Children: He Had a Dream scroll down and the link to the Speech Challenge is just before the video of his speech.

Back to the Books Tomorrow!

2010-02-07T22:09:00.001-06:00

We have had a busy weekend! Riley turned 8 yesterday! What a little man he is getting to be! Oma (Chris' Mom) came up and my family came over and spent some time with Riley. They all seemed to have a great time! Nerf guns were brought out and Uncles and Aunts and cousins were running and hiding around corners and in closets to not get shot. It was loud but hilarious to watch. Yes, I was a watcher as were Nana and Oma and a couple of my sisters.

Thursday we had Coop classes and that went well again. Riley enjoyed his classes and had a good time. I helped out in the Art class again and also in the Lego Robotics with the 9-11 year old boys. Since I haven't really ever watched that many 9-11 year old's that close, it was interesting to watch the behaviorism of that age group. I also thought, "hmmm, Riley will be there in a year or so, is that how he will behave?"

Friday we went to the circus with some of our school mates! Riley had never been before so he thoroughly enjoyed it! We bought a program which came with a blinking red clown nose. He wore it through most of the program! It was so cute!

Then of course we had the weekend, birthday party, Oma visited and we had lots of rest and down time today. As I went through some of his tests and papers tonight I realized how Riley is possibly in a lazy streak lately. He had made several careless mistakes on both his math and phonics papers or tests. He has been in a hurry and not paying attention to what he is writing or the instructions, leaving numbers off, not reading the signs (whether to add or subtract), misspelled words or with capital letters, leaving punctuation off. Just a lot of little stuff like that that adds up quickly.

Tomorrow is Monday. We will start school and hopefully get Riley back on track this week. I knew he had been rushing to get his paperwork done but I didn't realize to what extent. So I approach tomorrow with determination that we will take our time, do our best and finish our work and I will be watching more. Wishing you a blessed week!

Is that all it took?

2010-02-04T23:27:00.001-06:00

Well, maybe I just needed to write about it in order to get it done, or started I should say. The load of clothes is folded and mostly put away. The bonus room is clean and ready for guests this weekend. The living room is straightened. Now all I need to do is finish the rest! I am thankful to have gotten this much done!

I will be able to finish the rest tomorrow with a little bit of help from Riley. We are off to the circus tomorrow morning! I'm excited for Riley, he has never been. It has been years since I have been so it should be fun!

I think I will start the household notebook tomorrow. I can give it a try and see how it goes from there.

Well, I don't have much else to say tonight. I'm tired and will hit the hay. I hope y'all have a blessed day! Thanks for listening.

How Do You Do It?

2010-02-03T22:59:00.000-06:00

Well, these last few days have been really busy! School has gone well I have managed to get some small things for scouts completed. There is however a pile of laundry sitting on our big chair in the living waiting to be folded for a day now. I have managed to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and wipe off the counter. I did vacuum the school room today because I was tired of seeing stuff on the floor that didn't belong there. Lady has managed to chew up just about all of Riley's pencils and leaves all the tiny pieces all over the floor. Aaaahh the joy of a teething puppy!

Riley was a big help Monday and put all his clean clothes away from that pile of laundry that I did fold then. Hopefully they made it completely in his drawers! :-) We are still learning how to shut our drawers completely in Riley's room! We have also been looking for a shoe for about a week now. Still no shoe.

We did get groceries today. Got them put away and dinner is put away.

You know, I am not a very good housekeeper. My mother is wonderful at it. I am not. Now I suppose I should clarify, I am not a bad housekeeper in the sense that I do not know how to but I just do not do it the way it needs to be done or in a timely manner. And then to get it to stay that way longer than a day or a few hours? That just does not happen.

I think I make it harder on myself. I am a stacker. There, I've said it! I stack things. If I don't know what to do with it, I stack it and save it for later (when I will know what to do with it!).

I ran across an idea that wont go away so I'm wondering if I need to give it a try to see if it would help me with organization and getting some things done. Has anyone tried a household notebook? Does it work for you? The notebook I saw is mainly a financial household notebook. I like that idea because it also had a calendar that you could record when bills are due and other items in the financial realm. However, I've been thinking that a place to make "to do lists" or grocery lists, winter and fall to do lists would be a nice addition. I think a chore list would help me some....Riley has a chore list, do I need a chore list? When I make lists I do well, I take the first thing, get it done and cross it off! What a great sense of accomplishment that gives me!

I've noticed that some mom's (who blog) keep lists of chores for themselves. Or they have designated days that they clean certain things, such as, Monday laundry, Tuesday dusting, Wednesday vacuum etc. What do you do? What works for you?

I am beginning to think I need to turn over a new leaf regarding cleaning because I feel like I am treading water sometimes. Either school takes precedence or we take a day off to clean, and we can't do that once a week. We'd be in trouble then! :-)

I would love to hear what works for you or how you handle keeping your house clean or is it a battle for you too?
Blessings to you!

To Coop or not to Coop?

2010-01-28T22:05:00.000-06:00

This has been the question for us since the beginning of the school year. To Coop or not to Coop? In our previous covering, we had Friday classes which could last anywhere from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. You did not have a go all day but could take as many classes as you were allowed into. They were enrichment classes that were good learning opportunities but generally fun in nature. The other potential "plus" is that you could drop you child off and return to pick him/her up at the designated time. Thus giving Mom some much needed time to run errands or do something fun, maybe by herself. That is unless you were volunteering your time to teach one or two of the classes offered or helping out in the office. This arrangement seemed to work fairly well for us, Riley enjoyed the classes and got to know several of the children and I did get some good time to run errands or do lunch with someone. I also taught a few of the classes which was fun too.

One draw back to the Friday classes was that usually around Thursday or so, we would get into a good swing of getting things done, attitudes were good, mom was motivated, Riley was motivated. And then on Friday we had to set all we were working on aside and go to classes. Generally by the time we got home after classes we were exhausted and certainly didn't want to finish up any remaining work that needed to be done.

When we changed coverings this past summer, (for several reasons-not having to do with classes) we switched to one that did a Coop instead of "Friday Classes". I had never done a coop so I didn't know what to expect. Although I was really recovering from a Long period of over committing myself and Riley and our time. I was really trying to make a change in that area, so after some prayer I began to feel that the Lord was leading us to just stay home. That was a little bit of a struggle for me because with Riley being an only child, I wanted to make sure he had interaction and playtime with other children. During the school year that doesn't always come easy with friends who go to public school. But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we needed to stay home. So we did, and it went well. We were able to get quality time in for school, have free time (as long as we finished school in a decent time frame...) and felt much more rested. All the while, I was still praying as to whether we should do the Coop or not. I still felt a nagging in my heart that Riley needed that break from me, time with children, time to hear another Mother teaching the class and see her interact with the kids. So when the time came I put our names on the list for the coop... I took a leap!

The coop in our covering (not knowing how other coops function at this point) is on either Thursdays or Fridays from 8:30 to 12:00. A family can sign up for either day or both if they so choose. There are approximately three classes for each age group and the children rotate from class to class.

Today was our first day and here is how the day went. They started off with a devotion time with the whole group of kids. This was centered around a character trait and verses from the Bible. Then each age group went off to their respective class. Here was the one thing I wondered about (after having time to myself in the past). Each Mother is expected to stay on campus and help out in two of the classes! (They don't see themselves as a "babysitting service".) The third hour is free and you can participate in a prayer group or sit and fellowship with the other Moms. I have to say I really enjoyed it and had a good time! I didn't think it would be a "bad time" but I wondered if I would miss having time to myself. I didn't even think about it! My first hour was free, so I visited the prayer group. I thoroughly enjoyed it but think that next week I will stay with some of the other Mom's so I can meet more of them. The next hour I helped out in Art, then the last hour I helped out in the 3 & 4's. That was fun too! It brought back a lot of memories of Riley at that age and how fun it was to teach him different things. So I would say overall that cooping was fun and I look forward to the next week!

After devotion time, Riley went to Fun with Science, then he was in Art with me and then a class where they do Unit Studies and games. He said that school was "cool" and he really had fun! He met two new little boys and they all three seemed to be quite the little combo... :-)

After today, for now I guess our answer to the question "To coop or not to coop?" is Yes! We both had fun, we were home by 1:30. We finished up some spelling words, did some reading and we were done. We probably could have gotten by without doing the spelling but Momma felt like we needed to squeeze that in. I imagine we will need to evaluate that decision each term to make sure we are doing what we need to do for that part of the school year, but for now it looks as if it may work for us!

Hello Y'all visiting from Getting to Know You!

2010-01-27T12:22:00.001-06:00

Wow! I was so excited and blessed to see that Southern Homeschool Journey was Lynnette's (at Dancing Barefoot) featured blog today! This was an awesome way to start my day! I'm really looking forward to getting to know each of you and look forward to visiting your blogs as well. Thanks so much Lynnette for featuring Southern Homeschool Journey!

I know Lynnette, your right, I do need a header! Being new to blogging and all, I try to make changes and adjustments and strange things happen....I have no idea what I did. But I am working on it, slowly but surely. There is something to say about having a 42 year old mind, I just don't seem to remember all the stuff I used to!?? You did a great job at putting together those pictures for my header,

Yes, it is hard to believe that 24 - yes 24 years ago Lynnette and I graduated from high school in the small town of Derby, Kansas! Which isn't quite as small as I remember anymore, it has grown leaps and bounds since I moved here to Alabama. And yes, saying 24 years does make me feel old -Sometimes- but I like to think I'm really quite young. :-) I guess I realized that when Riley was born, I would be 52 when he graduates from High School. So, I guess I finally reached a point that I just had to "deal with it!". You know, positive thinking does pay off...doesn't it?

I am so thankful Lynnette and I have been able to reconnect after all these years! Her joy, her bubbly personality and her spiritual insight as God has led her have all been an inspiration and a blessing to me as I have followed her blog over the last several months. God is using her in a magnificent way!

Homeschooling has been a major part of our lives for the last 2 1/2 to 3 years. So I am fairly new to it, and Yes, we are having a blast! But I'll tell you, I learn something new about my son, myself and homeschooling every time I turn around. There are days that I am charged and ready to go and there are days that I am worn out and exhausted and not quite sure where to start. Then there are days Riley is energized and excited about what we are doing and the other days he looks at me like "Not that again!!" Either way we keep plodding along and don't give up. It is a constant effort to remind my self why I am doing this! Because God told Chris and I to do this! That's why!

I realized shortly after we started homeschooling that I think my homeschooling style is fairly eclectic, at least for now. There is so much that I see out there and would like to try! Our curriculum choices right now are Abeka, Apologia Science (Jeannie Fulbrights books), and Mystery of History. Occasionally we'll throw in a Lap book or Unit Study from Amanda Bennett as well. During the spring and summer months I love to incorporate some of Charlotte Mason's ideas, especially in gardening and camping. That is one of the blessings of homeschooling, you can adapt your learning to what ever needs you, your child or your lifestyle have!

I am so thankful that y'all have stopped by my blog today! I hope you find some encouragement or maybe a new idea or two. Most importantly I hope you find the joy I have in homeschooling our son and doing my best to raise him in the admonition of the Lord.
Have a blessed week!

Productive School Day

2010-01-26T16:00:00.002-06:00

We got a late start to school today but that is ok, things have gone well. Riley started out by reading in his library book "Daniel Boone", in his favorite spot. Right in front of the space heater! I constantly have to remind him to scoot back so he is not so close.

Aaawww Mom! Your flash is too bright!

We were able to finish labeling the last 5 states on our Map of the USA today! We are making progress! We have a big floor puzzle of the USA so I put it together and traced the outline of the continent, then traced each of the 50 states. It wasn't perfect but it worked great for us! Then as we were labeling each state we used small post it notes so they can later be removed as he learns where each state is.

He has really enjoyed learning where each state is, making comments such as: "One day I want to go to California." Or, "Someday can we got to Colorado?" Dreaming up future vacations!

We are close to being done with American History for this year. As soon as we finish we will start back up with Mystery of History which is a Biblical and World view of History. We will pick up with King Saul, David and Solomon, then move on to the Phoenicians. With the Mystery of History we will also do a time line, mapping and projects.

Riley had a new writing assignment today. I read in the Heart of the Matter newsletter for today an idea on "Would You Rather...". He takes a scenario, "Would You Rather... live in a house made of candy or a house made of money?" He then wrote his answer in 5 sentences and really had fun with it! He asked me when he was done, "O.K. Mom, what is my next question?" Woohoo!! He actually enjoyed handwriting for today! It was also interesting as well as fun to read his answer.

We finished up Phonics and did a Math Test and we are done. Busy day but good and well productive! It was so nice to have a victory in handwriting today! Thanks to Angela at Heart of the Matter, what a wonderful idea!

Our Bird Feeders

2010-01-22T16:44:00.002-06:00

As I posted earlier in the Homemade Bird Feeder post, we have been studying birds through our science curriculum Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day from Apologia (Jeannie K. Fulbright). I'm sure this will be an ongoing study, (at least as far as I am concerned! :-)) hopefully Riley's interest in identifying birds will continue on into the spring and summer.
I had originally signed up to do a Project Feeder Watch through Cornell University School of Ornithology, thinking this would be a help in our study of birds. I will say that it has done a couple of things: It has definitely fueled Riley's interest in birds. He can identify more birds now than he could when we first started our study this fall. It has also increased the number of birds in our yard and provided many opportunities for taking photos (which I have thoroughly enjoyed!). It has been however difficult to consistently keep watch at the designated times and count the number of birds on our feeders. Hopefully we can do better now that the holidays are over and we have gotten into the full swing of school.
Winter is a great time to hang feeders (and no, it's not too late). The birds are looking for other sources of food since the berries and seeds are not as prevalent. It provides a great source of education and entertainment as well as an awesome opportunity to watch God's magnificent creation at work. We have identified types of birds, watched their mannerisms and listened to the different songs and calls they make. In our science curriculum we have been able to learn why certain birds make a call as opposed to a song. Did you know that how many different calls a bird makes depends on how many muscles he has attached to his voice box or syrinx? And to think God planned it all this way! Great stuff!

Here are some pictures of the different types of feeders we have put out in our yard this winter:

We have 4 suet feeders: 3 store bought and one Riley made in Scouts with a pinecone, peanut butter, lard and birdseed.

This wire mesh tube feeder above is filled with Black sunflower seeds.

This inexpensive Hopper feeder has a mix type seed and is easy to fill.

And of course there is the Homemade Bird Feeder from my previous post which is still a work in progress.

(see the Ooopps! post)

And of course you must have water for your birds. Yes, water in the winter. So we have a bird bath. Some of the best pictures and fun we have gotten is from the birds enjoying the bath. If you are looking for some bird feeders check out the Amazon links I have on my blog. You may find what you are looking for at a great price!

I leave you with this picture of a Mocking bird enjoying his bath in our bird bath.

Ooopps!!

2010-01-19T20:59:00.001-06:00

Well, we found out something interesting today with our homemade bird feeder. Apparently we did not wash the bottle out well enough because this is what we found today.

Yes, those are bees!

They were going to town on that birdseed!

Today there were tons of bees flying around the bottle and the table below. Lady (our dog) was biting at them and chasing them. That's trouble waiting to happen! I guess we will start over tomorrow. I'll have to take it down tonight so that the bees won't be back in the morning. Well, we live and learn don't we? We'll see how things go the second time around.

Martin Luther King, Jr Lapbook

2010-01-18T15:54:00.001-06:00

We are learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr this week. I went to CurrClick and found a lapbook to help us study him this week. In the Hands of a Child created a project pack that has all the tools you need to put a lapbook together. In the project pack there is a Research Guide for the child to read with you. Then your child can complete the hands on activities which correspond to the research guide. After the hands on activities are completed they can be added to the lapbook.

As we finish I will post pictures of the finished project.

Partners in "Crime"

2010-01-18T11:54:00.001-06:00

Riley and Lady decided to go outside and enjoy this beautiful day. The sun is shining and the temperature is not quite as cold. He had done what I had asked him to so he wanted to play outside in the back yard. Why not??

Except that with the rain we have gotten lately, we have a "River that Runs Through It". Yes, that means mud...

I guess it could have been much worse...Both Riley and Lady were speckled with mud all over... In the pictures below you can't see the fine specks on Riley's face but you can on his clothes. Lady had much bigger specks all over her white coat. Bath's were in store for both of them. Needless to say school has been delayed today. Riley helped bathe Lady and then cleaned his tub (with my help) and got a bath himself. I had to laugh, it was really quite funny!

Jedi mind trick-"you will get clean!"

Well, now they are clean. Can they stay that way long enough to do school? I think so.... :-) Now it is time to start leaning about Martin Luther King Jr. We are starting a lap book about him today and will work on it this week. I'll have to post our progress and results. Have a great day!

Homemade Bird Feeder

2010-01-17T15:53:00.002-06:00

We are using Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day from Apologia (written by Jeannie K. Fulbright). I love their science curriculum! Of course the number one reason is because it is taught from the creation perspective. The second reason is that so far it has held Riley's attention and he has really enjoyed it (asking to do more type of enjoying it!). The third reason is the activities and projects she has in the book are fun, you can learn from them and easy to do. Most of the items needed for the projects are things you would have in your home. That makes it great! The less money you have to spend, the better in my opinion!!

This past Thursday as we finished up our lesson on birds, we got to make a bird feeder! The nice part was that we had most of what we needed and what we didn't have, we could improvise a little. So here is how we made our bird feeder:

What you Need:
* An adult with a knife
* Two bamboo skewers (These serve as perches for the birds-we did not have bamboo skewers so we used sticks.)
* An empty plastic bottle with a wide mouth opening like a juice jug. You can use a plastic soda pop bottle instead but the narrow opening can make it hard to fill with bird seed. (We used a soda pop bottle and were able to fill it just fine. We just used a paper plate as a funnel and cleaned up our mess afterward!)
* Wire or string (we used a wire coat hanger)
* Bird Seed

1). Have an adult cut two holes on opposite sides of the jug, about two and half inches from the bottom. The holes should be about the size of a nickel or quarter, depending on the size of the seed you bought. The holes should be large enough for a bird to access the seed, but not so large that the seed just spills out. If you bought very small seeds like those from a thistle, for example, you will need to make the hole the size of a pea.
2). Have the adult use the knife to make a small slit at the bottom of the bottle on each side, about 2 inches below each side.
3). Slide the bamboo skewers (or sticks in our case) through these slits to make a perch under each hole.
4). Make a small hole on each side of the bottle, near the mouth.
5). Slide the wire or string through the holes and tie the ends together above the feeder's mouth.
6). Fill the feeder with seeds and replace the lid.
7). Secure your feeder to a tree that birds are likely to see when passing through your area. (We hung ours outside our kitchen window since we do not have a tree that would support it close to viewing range.)

It turned out great and already some Black Capped Chickadees have perched on our feeder to get their dinner! Anything to draw more birds to our yard! If you are doing a bird study or lesson this is a great, easy and fun project for your kids with some adult supervision. Have fun!

A Battle of the Wills is raging

2010-01-16T13:36:00.001-06:00

Well I must say that this week has been much better than last. Attitudes were much better although still present. The Lord used situations this week to help me learn something about myself and my son. I am finding more this year how much of a strong will my son has. We knew and suspected that he did because we saw evidence of it as he was an infant or toddler. We saw more evidence of it as he grew up but it didn't seem to be quite as previlant the last couple of years. Do any of you have a strong willed child? How do you deal with it?

A dear friend of mine gave me a great analogy yesterday as she was helping me through one of those battle of the wills. He is like a lion in temperament and I am like a lamb. The lion struts around trying to gain control of his territory and show he is king and the lamb stands there trying to figure out how to bring this to an end and keep from getting eaten. It isn't like I don't discipline him at all, I struggle with knowing how and when to do so and to what extent. My tendency is to threaten a certain discipline and then when it is too late I realize that I've really messed myself up by threatening and not following through.

I know the enemy seizes the opportunity to grab a hold of me in my weakness and cause me to doubt my ability to effectively discipline my son. Sometimes it takes me a little bit to realize that a situation is slipping out of control and like yesterday I loose sight of my job as a parent - only momentarily. Then I have to remember to ask myself, what has God called me to do as a Mother to Riley? These verses came to me this morning.

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

34"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35

My job as Riley's Mother is to train him up in the way he should go, so he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6), to raise him up in the admonition of the Lord, (Ephesians 6:4) and to show him Jesus, to set an example of Christ before him and be obedient and discipline him in love. In my thoughts and prayers this morning I have been reminded of Hebrews 12:4-12

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as children? It says,
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child." [a]

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate children at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had parents who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 Our parents disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Wow! What encouragement to persevere, to press on and to not loose hope regarding my son's strong will and my inability at times to keep the battle of the wills under control. Thank you Lord that your promises are true and you lovingly chasten us when we loose sight of our job as a parent to these precious gifts you have given us. As my husband and I discussed this situation we have with our son and how it is my job as his Mother and teacher to lovingly discipline Riley. God used my loving husband to show me that I need to have the temperament of the lamb but not back down, to keep persevering and hanging on to my territory as a parent. My prayer this week is that i don't loose sight of that territory and give in to the lion that is waiting to take it from me.

Great Toolbar for homeschooling moms!

2010-01-05T14:51:00.002-06:00

Check out this cool tool bar that I downloaded from the Homeschool Lounge! It is called the Homeschool Toolbar. It has so many great features that a homeschool mom could use! It gives you a link to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, links to some of the best homeschool websites, links to the top blogs in homeschooling, and HS feeds. There is also a cool little button that has a to do list, calculator and other very usable features. The current weather for your area and an email notifier are also included. For the kiddos (and adults too!) there is an awesome little game button that has tons to choose from! If you look to the far right of the toolbar and click on the two little arrows you'll find a bunch more little surprises, a radio player is one of them. I'm thinking this toolbar could cut down on the search time a little bit! It really puts some of those daily places I go to online right at my fingertips!
The Homeschoolbar is a free download found on the Homeschool Lounge website. If you haven't joined this wonderful group yet, check it out. It is full of resources, encouraging words, ideas for homeschooling, recipes and games. I have really enjoyed being a part of these Christian women who are striving to raise their children in the admonition of the Lord and possibly experiencing the same or similar things we are. So be sure and check out the Homeschool Lounge and see what they have to offer. While you are there check out the Homeschool Toolbar.

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-02T00:12:00.001-06:00

Well let me just say, Happy New Year to each of you! My prayer for you is that your New Year is rich with God's blessings.

We thoroughly enjoyed our New Years Eve, the three of us stayed home and had a nice candle lit dinner of crab legs, shrimp, salad and sour dough bread! It was delicious! Riley was so excited when he found out we were having a candle lit dinner and even more excited when he found out we were having crab legs! He jumped in there and cleared the table, and helped get it set and got the candles ready.

As we ate we discussed what the new year brings, an opportunity to make resolutions, to make a new start and to anticipate what the Lord has in store for us. We had to redirect Riley a little when he said his 'revolution' was to play more WII...it's hard for an almost 8 year old to think about anything else except for playing.

Chris surprised me and asked Riley if he wanted to be homeschooled this next year. I must admit, I was a little anxious to hear his answer. Thankfully he said he wanted to keep homeschooling! Whew!!!! Then we talked about doing the Abeka DVD's or continuing on our same curriculum choices we've been using. Riley said he liked what we were doing! That is a good thing! I just need to get some more energy somewhere!! This break we've had over Christmas has been a BIG blessing to me for I was really tired!!

I look forward to starting school next week. I have some things to do to get ready. Math, Phonics and Bible are easy because we'll just pick up where we left off. Science we are still studying birds and I need to see what is in store for us there. We need to finish up our American History/Geography so we can resume our Mystery of History. Of course we need to do some more reading and make a trip to Pizza Hut for his Book It awards. We are doing a Coop this winter/spring. I had decided to take the Fall off from doing any Coop classes and here's why. Last year we had Friday classes and it seemed that by Thursday school would be going well and we'd be on a roll then we would have to stop and go to classes on Friday and I felt like we were falling behind. After taking the fall off, I've decided my plan worked, we really enjoyed staying home and getting school done and being able to do our own thing once we were done. However, I really felt Riley was missing the interaction with other kids. So we are giving this a try. I'm looking forward to it, I've never done a Coop before. Riley seems a little excited too, it's always hard to meet new people. It meets on Friday mornings from 9-noon. So we'll have the afternoon to finish up projects or get other stuff done. We'll see how it goes!

I have spent this past week cleaning out particular areas of our house. They were in terrible need of purging and dusting and cleaning. I feel like I have made some progress!

So I guess I say all that to say that I feel like we are going into 2010 somewhat ready mentally for somethings. At least my home will be purged and clean for the most part and we will be ready for school next week!!

So blessing to you this weekend as you start your new year!

Who are you?

2009-12-31T17:24:00.000-06:00

Life lessons are those things that God allows us to encounter along life's path that teach us a profound lesson that we need to know. These lessons will help us later on in life if we learn from them. They can come in the form of a direct impact on our lives or in the form of an example set before us (you know, this is what we don't do...type example). We as a family had one of those life lessons recently. Thankfully it was in the form of an example, not a direct impact on us. The result had direct impacts on us but the lesson within was a good example of how we should behave.

As some of you may know we had to put our old dog Heidi down in November. She was a German Shepherd and 14, which is very old for a German Shepherd. She was a loving, loyal, kind dog who loved "her people". It seemed most of the time she would do just about anything to please her people. We hated to see her go.

We also had a cat who belonged to Chris before I came along and stole his heart! Flash was 18, very cantankerous and ornery. Chris was the one Flash trusted the most. Anyone else he would hiss, and run from them. He was having some health issues, had high blood pressure and had gone blind. We had to say good bye to him this morning.

With there being such a stark difference between Heidi and Flash (except for the obvious : dog vs cat) we chose to use this as an opportunity to examine ourselves. Who are we when we meet or encounter people? What type of person am I? Are the contents of my heart what people see or hear? Most importantly are they what Christ would like to hear? Do I show Christ to others or do they see Lyn's efforts?

This week in my quiet time I found myself in Ephesians chapter 4. These verses came back to my mind today as we were discussing this life lesson we had before us:

Ephesians 4:21-32 (New International Version)

²¹Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶"In your anger do not sin"^[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

John 13:34-35 (New International Version)

³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

One nice thing about this command is that regardless of what we do, God still loves us unconditionally. We may not always like a person or like what they have done. Regardless of the circumstances God commands us to love them. Even when they hurt us. Sometimes that is hard to do isn't it? So I challenge you, are you easy to love? Or do you make it hard for people to love you? Are you able to forgive and love when someone hurts you? Something to think about, I know I am.

2009-12-29T20:15:00.006-06:00

$7.95 Subscriptions Plus 4 Free Gifts

The Schoolhouse Store has another great offer you cannot pass up! Not only are they offering the $7.95, 1-year subscription and the $12.94, 1-year subscription plus current issue (U.S. only), we are also offering these 4 free gifts from the summer promotion:

· Greenleaf Press - Handwriting by George

· Sue Gregg - Cooking with Children CD

· Daystar - $10 Gift Certificate

· Wikki Stix – Sample of six different Wikki Stix and activity booklet.

What a great offer this is! I cannot say enough about The Schoolhouse Magazine and how much it has to offer the homeschooling family. It has been a blessing to me the 2 1/2 years I have subscribed to it. There is always something that I can use or apply to our homeschool. I can always find word of encouragement and wisdom from the editors of TOS. Take advantage of this great offer right now so you can receive The Schoolhouse Magazine and these 4 free gifts!

Check out this After Christmas Sale at The Schoolhouse Store!

2009-12-29T19:46:00.007-06:00

After Christmas Sale

Check out The Schoolhouse Store! They are running a new contest . . . 11 winners per day for 6 days starting December 26! Each day, the first 10 customers in the store to purchase $15 or more win a gift package worth $122.38. In addition, the biggest ticket of the day will win the same gift package.

The gift package includes:

· And Then Mama Said . . . It Takes Time to Learn to Read—value = $9.95

· Homeschooling Methods—value = $14.99

· Publisher's choice of a TOS audiobook—value = $17.95

· Daystar Gift Certificate—value = $10.00

· Greenleaf Handwriting by George—value = $10.00

· Sue Gregg Cooking with Children CD—value = $10.00

· 2-year TOS Magazine subscription—value = $39.00

· Sir Kendrick & the Castle of Bel Lione from Perfect Praise Publishing—value = $8.99

· The Mitten book—value = $1.50

Total value = $122.38

Besides the 11 winners per day, the store has over 38 vendors participating in a HUGE sale. Over 200 items will be marked 20%-50% off. If your looking for something to use this next semester you better hurry, the sale ends December 31!

So when do I start walking again?

2009-12-28T22:30:00.000-06:00

Let me just say that I have eaten so much lately! One of my goals for 2010 is to loose some weight!

I wanted to bake so bad this Christmas and give some to our neighbors. At first I didn't thaink I was going to get to bake much at all, well, I did. I baked and baked and baked! Thankfully as were my original intentions I was able to give some to our neighbors and we got to meet our new neighbors as well. That was a blessing! But not only did I bake, but a dear friend of mine baked some goodies an brought them to us! They were soo good and sooo many to try. I had to try atleast one of each kind... Then my sweet Momma baked a carrot cake and magic cookie bars....Mmmmmmm! It was all sooo good and I couldn't keep my hands out of the platters! Well hopefully in the next week or two my walking buddy and I can hit the trail and walk some of this extra weight off.

Chris took some time off from work last week, it is always so nice to have him home! Today was our first day with him back at work, boy did we miss him! Here I am trying to get him to take another day off this week. We spent a lot of our time resting, playing games, and watching movies. There was probably plenty that needed to be done but we let it go and spent some good quality time together. I love it when the three of us spend time together, it blesses me so much. Especially when Riley would rather stay home than be out somewhere, that lets me know we are doing something right.

This week I have a list of things that I need to try to get done before we start school back up. I have accomplished one of them, I started a quilt! I have wanted to start quilting and kept putting it off for no good reason really. My mother had given my some "fat quarters" of red, white and blue plaid and striped material. We both thought it would make a nice quilt for Riley, it has that boyish look about it. So I found what looked to be an easy block to make. It is a 9" square block. So far so good. I cut it all out yesterday and sewed the first 5 blocks together today. I notice something didn't look right when the blocks were not the same size...I had misread the instructions and cut one set of blocks too big. That's O.K., it's an easy fix, all I have to do is cut them down to the correct size. I got that done and sewed them back together this evening. Woohoo! I got my first quilt block started! I'll have to post pictures later.

Next I have some serious cleaning and organizing to do in various places in our home. I guess tomorrow will be a good day to start. Our master bedroom is first on the list. This is a daunting task but has to be done. It has become our catch all room since we had our carpets cleaned a couple of months ago. It will be good to have it done though.

My goal for the new year is always to get organized to some degree and somewhere along the path I either forget or give up. I hope this year is different. So far so good. I guess maybe I need to be thankful for having accomplished one item on my list, shouldn't I? I am, but I look forward to accomplishing others!

Have a good night all, I'm off to do some research on quilting.... :-) Till next time.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T10:26:00.007-06:00

We are so thankful for this time of year. It is such a blessing to be with family and friends. To be with the loved ones in your life that mean a lot to you. The most wonderful part is to be able to focus on the One who came to save us all, the miracle of His birth and the wonder of God's miraculous plan. I am so thankful for my salvation and what Christ has done in my life. I am thankful for what He has done in my husbands life and the spiritual leader he is in our home. I am thankful for what Christ is doing in our son's life.

Isaiah 9:2-7

² The people who walked in darkness
      Have seen a great light;
      Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
      Upon them a light has shined.
       ³ You have multiplied the nation
      And increased its joy;^[a]
      They rejoice before You
      According to the joy of harvest,
      As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
       ⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden
      And the staff of his shoulder,
      The rod of his oppressor,
      As in the day of Midian.
       ⁵ For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,
      And garments rolled in blood,
      Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.
       ⁶ For unto us a Child is born,
      Unto us a Son is given;
      And the government will be upon His shoulder.
      And His name will be called
      Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
      Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
       ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
      There will be no end,
      Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
      To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
      From that time forward, even forever.
      The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

His love for each and everyone of us is so vast and powerful, so perfect and free. He came to us as a child and became man so that He could live among us and teach us His ways. There is life in this Savior that is free for every single person on this planet. As we celebrate the birth of our Great Savior, if you do not know Christ, I challenge you to choose Life today.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who soever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family and loved ones. I also hope that you find the true Joy that only Christ can offer us through salvation in Him.

Merry Christmas!

Thankful for Abeka Bible Curriculum

2009-12-08T22:08:00.001-06:00

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how thankful I am for our Bible curriculum! We are using Abeka Bible right now and we thoroughly love it! Over the last couple of years we have used our Awana program at church as our Bible and that worked really well for us. I think it really helped build a good foundation for memorization of the verses. As this past summer rolled around I began to think that Riley needed a little bit more than just what he was learning in the Awana program so I asked around and did some research. A friend of mine had been using Abeka Bible for few years and was very pleased at what her girls had gleaned from the curriculum. She was also very pleased with the memorization part of it as well.
I got out my catalog and started reading to find out what exactly we needed for second grade. Through Abeka the homeschool family has a choice to either buy the whole Bible curriculum as a kit or to buy each piece separate. I knew what I wanted in a curriculum and after reading some reviews I decided to put our bible curriculum together on my own.
Riley had watched the Bible lesson on a DVD at a friends house one day and loved singing with the kids in class. There was one thing I wanted. I already knew I wanted the memorization to play a big part in our lessons as well and my friend was right, Abeka covers that area very well. There was the second item we needed. The next and most important item I wanted was for Riley to know the Bible and the message behind all the parables and stories. I am familiar with most of them but feel so inadequate to aptly tell Riley what he needs to know. I also am the type of person who needs guidance and direction regarding our lessons. I was concerned that my short attention span would not allow us to follow a good path or finish a topic adequately. Abeka's bible lessons are written straight from God's word and written in such a way that it makes sense to a child. Riley has been able to understand some certain aspects that might have been difficult to explain. There are wonderful picture cards that help tell the story of the lesson. The pictures are so beautifully painted and detailed. Each lesson has several songs we can sing from a book or from CD. There is prayer time, doctrinal drills and Bible verse memorization (in the KJ version). Then we have our lesson.
Most importantly, Riley loves Bible! I am so thankful that he finds such enjoyment from our Bible time. There have been days that he has asked to do more Bible instead of moving on to Math or Phonics. How can I refuse that? Learning to know and love God's word is far more important than the other stuff. It will come and he is doing well so Bible can take over every now and then.
If you are looking for a good thorough Bible curriculum check out what Abeka has to offer. It might be just what you are looking for. So far it is for us and we will stick with it for next year as well!

2009-12-04T17:50:00.000-06:00

Whew!! I don't know about y'all but I'm tired! A bit overwhelmed also. The last month has been a whirlwind of happenings and activity. It seems like just when I think we have a full day ahead of us where we can really get some "good school" in, something happens that we can't. Or, we don't get everything done that we intended. So my question is, is that OK when it happens more often than not? Or do we need to make some changes? Where do we need to make changes?

First it was putting our first dog Heidi down. Then, the truck needs to be fixed, projects for Scouts are due. Thankfully some of the projects for Scouts coincided with Science and our study of birds. That did help some. Thanksgiving rolled around and I found it a little hard to be thankful except for the break from all the activities. We didn't even get to finish our Thankfulness chain let alone talk about the items we are thankful for. Then the following Monday it all starts back up again. That Monday came with us deciding to get a new puppy.... Don't get me wrong, I love her so much, she is such a sweet dog and very obedient for a puppy. But wow! I forgot how much work it is to have a puppy! Thankfully the woman who had her before had already started potty training her. Lady has made herself at home in the schoolroom, just like Heidi did. Lady's place is on the bean bag chair, she curls right up and takes herself a good nap, then when we are done with school, she is ready to play! Riley has had so much fun with her, he has taken over responsibility of feeding and caring for her. We hope to get him enrolled in some obedient classes with Lady so he can train her. It is a blessing to hear him run through the house giggling and laughing as he and Lady play. We are so glad she is here!

I wanted so much to enjoy this Christmas season and so far it has flown by me! Of course we are only in the first week so maybe I shouldn't be complaining. My prayer for our family is that things will slow down some and that we will be able to enjoy the Christmas season some before it is over. Most importantly that we will be able to focus on the Real Reason for Christmas. Christ our Savior is the reason for Christmas! Immanuel has come!

²³"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

Lessons Learned Today

2009-11-20T23:09:00.001-06:00

Since I haven't posted all week I've got a lot to catch up on so here goes post #2 tonight! I hope you don't mind! :-)
This week school got done and went well Monday through Wednesday, Thursday however, was a loss as far as school was concerned (See previous post). When today rolled around we still weren't quite ready to tackle the lessons. After my quiet time I was praying and the Lord gave me an idea. We needed to work on putting together our box for Operation Christmas Child and I have really been wanting to bake some cookies to take to the kennel that kept Heidi for us and Dr. Waite (the vet). Today would be the day to tackle these things.

Baking the cookies with Riley went really well! He did a great job in measuring all the ingredients and carefully pouring them into the mixing bowl. He carefully scraped the sides of the bowl as it turned with the mixer, he helped me scoop the batter into balls on the cookie sheet and did not lick his fingers till we were done! When I offered him one of the beaters to lick he gladly took it and sat down on his stool to enjoy the reward. What a great cooking lesson we had today. Riley did well! We will deliver the cookies tomorrow with a card thanking them for their love and care of Heidi.

We then went to pick out some items for our Operation Christmas Child box. Riley decided to purchase for a little boy his age. He had fun picking out cars, a sock monkey (because Riley loves his so much!) and a Nerf football. We then picked out some hard candy and some other toiletry items and drawing utensils. We got home and he began putting the items in the box and we realized we still had room for more. So we will go tomorrow to finish up our shopping. He decided to write a letter to the boy and request that the boy write him back. Our prayer is the boy will be blessed by the contents of the box and that we will be a light for Jesus to the boy. It would be an added blessing if the boy will write Riley back and tell us about himself. Riley did a good job writing the letter and this was his handwriting project for the day.

He later played some math games, spelling games and then played outside with his friend. It was an easy day but good lessons were learned. Carefulness in baking and doing a good job, a lesson in giving to someone who may not have much, and handwriting a letter. We had a good school day today.

A Glimpse of Unconditional Love

2009-11-20T22:14:00.001-06:00

What a week this has been! It has been a whole week since I posted last, but this week has been very hard. We found out Monday that our German Shepherd Heidi had reached the end of her days. Chris and I got Heidi about 7 months after we got married 15 years ago, she was our first "baby". She quickly became our sweet Heidi, a friend to each of us, a protector and one of our family. She wanted to be with "her pack", her people that she loved. Wherever we were in the house she would be there too. As I posted earlier in my blog, she would find her spot in the middle of our school room and sleep as Riley and I did school.

As Chris and I were getting ready for bed, she would follow us around and then walk into Riley's room as if to check on him. I remember one time several years ago before Riley was born. Chris had drill and was gone for the weekend. Heidi and I were there by ourselves at night. She must have heard something because she started barking and as I walked into the kitchen she walked in front of me and parked herself there as if to stop me in my tracks. If something or someone were outside she sensed it and was going to protect me. I was thankful at that time that Chris was determined to have a dog that would protect us.

Whenever we left her at the kennel it was hard at first but the more she went the easier it got. She got to know the kind people there that cared for her. When we returned she would greet us with a kiss and seemed so happy to see "her people". That's how she always greeted people she knew and loved, with a kiss. One time she cornered my niece Abby and covered her face with kisses. Abby didn't like that too much and hollered and cried. Eventually Abby realized that was how Heidi would greet her so she got used to Heidi's kisses, especially as she got taller! Often as Heidi would be eating her food, I might walk by or put her water bowl in the holder. As I did she would turn and kiss my arm or leg as if to say, "Thanks mom for the food."

Looking back this week over our life with Heidi we have realized her unconditional love she showed us allowed Chris, Riley and I a small glimpse of that unconditional love Christ has for us. Christ is always willing and ready to forgive us when we make a mistake, as long as we seek forgiveness and repent from our sin. Every time we come to him he greets us with open arms and a loving smile. Just knowing that alone should give us the joy beyond comparison! Maybe the reason why God allows us to have dogs is so we can have a glimpse of the unconditional love Christ has for us? I really don't know, only God knows the answer to that one. God used Heidi as a reminder to Chris and I this week that we can have joy and be a light for Christ, even in our darkest times because Christ has already won the victory and paid the ultimate price because He loves us so. Our joy can be full in Him! Amen! Thank you God for giving us Heidi and the joy she brought us. But thank You more that You gave Your only Son to die on Calvary's Cross for not only me but the whole world!

2009-11-13T13:15:00.004-06:00

Do you ever have those days when you wonder if your child is learning what you are trying to teach him or her? I know I do. So I am always thankful for those little moments of confirmation that Riley is learning and grasping a concept or something important.

This image above is one of those moments of confirmation for me. This fall, my heart has been impressed to teach Riley the importance of Thankfulness and the meaning behind Thanksgiving. Of course the holiday has not yet arrived and I'm not sure that he has quite learned the importance of being Thankful (time will tell...). I was rewarded yesterday a little glimmer that Riley has learned a little bit of what I was teaching him. We had checked out several books from the library on the pilgrims as well as studied some on the Separatists in our American History sections over the last couple of weeks. Yesterday he had a Math paper from his Abeka Math that had a poem to read on the Pilgrims and a picture of a ship to color. I really didn't supervise him too much while he colored this and he usually is not too big on coloring but he let his imagination go on this one! When he was done and held it up for me to see, I was so blessed to see his mind working on its own. If you double click on the image you can see he added people with voice bubbles on the ship as if they were the Pilgrims traveling on the Mayflower. He wrote "Nobody can tell us what to do!" (Referring to King James I who wanted them to worship according to the church of England), "Land HO!" "We found a home!" "Yaa!" I was so excited! Not only did he learn but he used his own initiative and imagination. I was one happy momma yesterday!

Our Top 15 Favorite Books

2009-11-04T22:32:00.000-06:00

Words cannot express how thankful I am that our son Riley has learned how to read! Thankfully he has shown some desire to read on his own accord. I don't have to push too hard to get him to read during the day, although, if I don't monitor his choices in books, he would choose a Star Wars book every time. A typical choice for a 7 year old boy!

I am quite the book worm! In fact, reading can be quite a stumbling block for me because there are times that I cannot put the book down to get done what I need to do! That nagging feeling that I know I need to be doing the dishes, cooking dinner, or getting school started gets pushed back in the corner of my mind till I get to "a good stopping point".

Between my husband Chris, Riley and myself we have quite a wide variety of subject matter that we like to read. With Christmas coming up soon, you may have someone on your list that loves to read like we do. So we thought we would each pick 5 of our Top 15 favorite books we like to read and share them with you. If you see one on our list that may be a possible gift for someone, click the book title and it will take you to Amazon.com where you can check the amount and availability. You can even purchase it if you are ready!

Lyn's List:

1) The Bible by God

2). Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow

3). The Left Behind Series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins

or the Left Behind Set

4). The Red River of the North Series by Lauraine Snelling

5). The Mega-Millennium Series by Paul Meier and Robert Wise

Riley's List:

6). The Magic School Bus: The Truth about Bats by Joanna Cole

7). Star Wars Epic Battles by Simon Beecroft

8). Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman

9). Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

10). How to be a Pirate in 7 Days or Less by Lesley Rees

Chris' List:

11). The Bible by God

12). The Way Things Ought to Be by Rush Limbaugh

13). See I Told You So by Rush Limbaugh

14). His Needs Her Needs by Willard F. Harley Jr.

15). The Fight of Every Believer by Terry Law

FREE Holiday Digital Supplement

2009-11-02T22:35:00.002-06:00

The Old Schoolhouse has sent out their TOS Holiday Digital Supplement ! It is Wonderful and it is FREE! And I'm all about anything that is free! If you are looking for something to jump start your holiday planning and ideas this will definitely do it.

The TOS supplement is not your typical E-book. It is created in the same format as the TOS Digital version of their magazine. You can turn the full color pages and then click on a page to enlarge a section. There is so much in this awesome supplement, there are articles on both Christmas and Thanksgiving, great craft ideas, and tons of recipes to try. I have already bookmarked several recipes that I am looking forward to trying out.

Click on the link above or the picture and download your FREE copy of the TOS Holiday Digital Supplement and enjoy!

The Provision of God's Word

2009-10-31T09:22:00.008-05:00

This was such a blessing to me today, I thought I would share it with y'all! I pray your day is filled with joy, peace and productivity today!
Lord, I pray that You write Your Word upon the tablet of my heart today. Thank you for a beautiful, goodly heritage!-Amen

According to Christian Answers.net Mikhtam is a writing; i.e., a poem or song. This word is found in the titles of Psalm 16; 56-60
Some translate the word “golden”, i.e., precious. It is rendered in the LXX. by a word meaning “tablet inscription” or a “stelograph.” The root of the word means to stamp or grave, and hence it is regarded as denoting a composition so precious as to be worthy to be engraven on a durable tablet for preservation; or, as others render, “a psalm precious as stamped gold,” from the word kethem, “fine or stamped gold.”

Psalm 16

The LORD the Psalmist's Portion in Life and Deliverer in Death.

A Mikhtam of David.

    ¹Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
    ²I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
         I have no good besides You."
    ³As for the saints who are in the earth,
         They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
    ⁴The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
         I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
         Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
    ⁵The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
         You support my lot.
    ⁶The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
         Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
    ⁷I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;
         Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
    ⁸I have set the LORD continually before me;
         Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
    ⁹Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
         My flesh also will dwell securely.
    ¹⁰For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
         Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
    ¹¹You will make known to me the path of life;
         In Your presence is fullness of joy;
         In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

A Great offer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

2009-10-28T23:06:00.003-05:00

I ran across this great opportunity on The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and thought I would share it with y'all. The editors of TOS have brought back their special subscription sale of $7.95 for 1 year subscription starting with their Winter Issue. All you have to do is click the link and use the special coupon code SUB795 when you check out. It's that easy!

If you have read any of my previous posts you might noticed that I have a passion for homeschooling. About 3 years ago we were new to homeschooling, the idea of teaching our son was very intimidating. Many times I thought, how can I do this on my own? Who will help me when I have a question? Where will I go to get ideas? Once we got started, a friend told me about TOS. She told me how informative the articles were and how the magazine had blessed her in her homeschooling journey, so I signed up for a two year subscription. I am so thankful I did! There were articles written by parents who were experiencing the some of the same things I was with our son. Other articles have touched on so many different areas of teaching children at home and have been so helpful. The TOS magazine is full of information a homeschooling family can use or file away for later on in their homeschooling career. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has been such a blessing to me and my husband as we have taught our son over the last 3 years. I hope it will be for you as well.

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· Classical education: teaching Latin and more.

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· Library column filled with great book ideas.

· World War I.

· Preschool at home.

· Top tips on teaching writing; communication theme, including speech and debate.

· Support group how-to’s.

· Science and homeschool.

· And our fabulous FREEBIES Directory.

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Can I Homeschool My Child?

2009-10-26T21:28:00.004-05:00

Over the last several years, more and more parents have considered homeschooling their children. The reasons vary; different learning styles require a child to have more one on one instruction, school violence, religious convictions, (wanting to avoid indoctrination,) there are many more valid reasons out there. You may ask, “Would I be able to homeschool my child?” Some parents may be concerned that this idea is impossible because they do not have training in education or an education degree. With the number of various resources available this concern can be greatly diminished.

Look back a couple hundred years ago, the responsibility of schooling usually fell on the parents shoulders. It wasn’t till the last 50 - 60 years our federal or state government took over the education of our children. Who knows better how to raise our children, us as parents or the government and an unknown bureaucrat? I think we all know the answer to that one.

The Bible states: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Your job as a parent is to spend time with your children and to give them the tools they need to head down the path toward their future. To instill the morals and standards your child needs to grow into a responsible adult. In order for a child to succeed in whatever he feels led to do, as parents we need to instill a sense of respect and honor for their parents, elders and themselves. The supplies parents had available to them many years ago may have been meager, but most parents made sure their children had a slate to write on and some chalk. Some of the reading was done from classics written by the likes of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, if they were available to the family. Otherwise, the most common resource available to most families was the Bible. Consider Abraham Lincoln, according to some historians most of his reading was done from the Bible beside the fireplace at night.

The children also learned basic skills such as wood working, plowing a field, harvesting wheat, growing a garden or caring for animals on the farm. These were life skills that were taught on a daily basis in order for families to survive but it also taught a good work ethic and a sense of responsibility to children at an early age.

Times have changed since then haven’t they? With the advancement of technology with both electronic and paper resources a parent considering homeschool has many if not thousands of options, and the ability to research and make an informed decision. One good source which is a must have is Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. In her book Cathy Duffy not only gives you the top 100 picks for curriculum choices but she also helps you to identify your child’s leaning style so that you will be able to better teach him/her.

Numerous statistics and studies have shown that "homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that children who are homeschooled two or more years, score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less." As determined by a 2007 study entitled "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers' Across America." Another important finding of "Strengths of Their Own" was that the race of the student does not make any difference. There was no significant difference between minority and white homeschooled students. These findings show that when parents, regardless of race, commit themselves to make the necessary sacrifices and tutor their children at home, almost all obstacles present in other school systems disappear.

There are millions of families who have been homeschooling for many years and have had children graduate and move on to college. These families have seen the need to reach out to new homeschooling families and create resources to help parents get started and point them in the right direction.   Rainbow Resource Center is a family owned business with just this idea in mind. They offer thousands of different curriculums along with reviews of certain products and a detailed description of what the curriculum contains. They also offer teaching aids, learning aids and quality toys for children.

There are a few things to consider before you make your decision. The first is to ask yourself, do you have the time to commit to teaching your child? Your job as a parent is to spend time with your children and to make sure they are headed down the right path. To get to know your child’s learning styles and encourage them to learn, to help your child reach his or her greatest potential. Teaching your child will require time and effort from you.

Another item to consider - is your spouse on board and supportive? If both of you aren’t together on this, it will not be easy. Teaching your children at home requires a lot of time, sacrifice and effort. If your spouse is not on board it could cause a strain between the two of you or your family.   If you have multiple children there may be times that both of you might have to tackle the teaching responsibility. Your spouse might help you to see things you might over look or help you to teach something in a completely different way that helps your child to really “grasp it”!

Check out your states laws regarding homeschooling. There are many websites out there that break legal requirements down by state. This will let you know if you are able and willing to tackle homeschooling from the legal perspective. Homeschool Legal Defense Association is a great place to start; they have all the current news on homeschooling and the laws for each state. They also have links on how to get started homeschooling, articles regarding specific age groups, a curriculum market and so much more. Click this link if you would like to check out their website. Homeschool Legal Defense Association

Talk to other parents who have or are currently homeschooling in your area. They can give you guidance and point you in the right direction. They may even be able to answer questions you may have or make certain recommendations. They can give you ideas on what to expect, however know that each family approaches homeschooling differently each according to their needs.

Above all, the most important aspect of your decision is prayer. The decision to homeschool is not an easy decision. With a lot of prayer, thought, research and family discussions it can be the best decision you make regarding your child’s education.

Once the decision is made and you start your homeschooling journey, there will be days of smooth sailing. Then there will be tough days that you may ask yourself, “Why are we doing this?” When your child later looks at you and says, “I got it Mom! I understand it now!” That’s when you say, “And this is why I am teaching my child!” So you may ask, “Could I homeschool my children?” I say, “Yes, yes you can!”

Harvest of Friends Blog Party

2009-10-19T11:00:00.020-05:00

Well, my friend Lynnette at Dancing Barefoot came up with this great idea of a blog party. I thought it would be fun to answer these questions and hopefully get to know y'all as well! I've enjoyed visiting some of the blogs from her site and hope to visit more in the next few days! So have fun!

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging? Since most of the time I blog in the morning, my big cup of coffee and toast.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without? Assuming that family is a given. :-) My Bible and I guess my coffee.

3. Beach, Mountains or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice? I have never lived on a farm but would like to try sometime...however Chris and I have said we would love to live in the mountains then travel to the beach often. So I guess I couldn't choose!

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty? Cleaning bathrooms, not fun!

5. Who do people say you remind them of? Not sure

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying at home with the fam? I love to get together with family and friends but more often I'd rather stay home with my two guys!

7. What's your all time favorite movie? The Man from Snowy River

8. Do you sleep in your make up or remove it like a good girl every night? I have to admit that sometimes I am too lazy to remove my makeup at night. But I am definitely ready to get it off by the next morning!

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it? Yes, to paint or draw.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at? Hmmm, not sure about that one, I'll have to get back with you on that one.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse? His eyes and his smile!

12. What is something you love to smell? Roses...

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people. That I can't make up my mind sometimes!

14. When you have extra money (HA!) what's the first thing you think to do with it? Buy a farm! (As long as Chris agreed that is... :-))

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest? I am a loud laugher till someone tickles me then no sound comes out.... Funny stories and "America's Funniest Videos" make me crack up! Click here for one of my favorites, you may have seen this one. "Laughing Babies"

16. Where is your favorite place to shop? Anthropology (Although I have the worse time remembering the name, Apologia, Apothecary...One of those that starts with an A!) and I don't always buy stuff, a little pricey!

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time? I would sew or make a quilt. I love to sew and would love to learn how to make a quilt.

18. Are you a big spender or frugal? 90% of the time I am a frugal shopper or I try to be.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book)? (Can't be real) Fanny Broadmoore from Tracie Peterson/Judith Miller's Broadmoore Legacy Series. She has a very quiet, sensible, yet strong spirit. She is not afraid to stand up for what is right.

20. Would you want to be famous? Nope.

Well, that's it for me! Thanks for visiting and if you leave a comment, post a link to your blog and I'll be sure to visit you!

There will be days....

2009-10-12T20:12:00.006-05:00

We woke up to more rain today. We also had plans to go walk with some friends but had to make a rain check for another day. Which might have been a good thing because Riley also woke up with the sneezes and couldn't shake them! Zirtec to the rescue, but it was moving in slow motion too!

So we jumped into school and got things going so we could get done early and have the rest of the day free (still sneezing along the way...). After Bible, Riley tackled his Phonics test then a spelling test, and did well on both of them! Woohoo! We went over our new spelling list and then started math and that's when things started going down hill. He was trying to write a number on our white board while standing on a chair, but was having difficulty writing it the correct way. I had asked him to line it up under another number so they could be added together. Well, trying to get it lined up took a couple of tries, then he forgot what number he was supposed to be writing. As I was standing over his shoulder reminding of the guidelines I had set for him, the phone rang, he stepped left on the chair and it toppled over and he landed on top of it. It was a chain reaction of events and the results were not good in his eyes. I helped him up and checked him out, thankfully only a little scrape on his leg. After hugs and dried tears, we got back to writing that number and added it to the other one. Victory!!

Later just before lunch when of course we are starving and ready for a break. Our dog Heidi who is a 13 year old German Shepherd, has to be right beside us during school time. You know, she's got to stick with the pack... :-) Riley was trying to walk backwards away from his desk and tripped over a box and Heidi who was laying in the middle of the floor. Boy was that the straw that broke the camel's back, he was so frustrated. He stalked to the bathroom and got a tissue to blow his nose from yet another sneeze, and fighting to contain his frustration. Compassion kicked in and I said, "ok break time." As we went to the kitchen we both agreed some things needed to be put in their correct places, not the dog, but the box that didn't belong in the schoolroom.

When we finally finished after lunch, he said, "Mom, I think I need a rest..." I just smiled and gave him a nod of approval. Tomorrow will be a better day.

It's true that things that don't belong in the picture such as a box in a school room or a dog can really throw a wrench in the school day. There are days that we have to shut the door and not permit Heidi or Flash to come in the school room. Depending on what their motive is and how Riley is that day, the dog and cat can be a great distraction from school. Most of the time Heidi just wants to be close to us, which of course we don't mind.

A "froggy" day!

2009-10-08T11:59:00.007-05:00

I remember growing up in Kansas that we spent a lot of our summer evening hours out doors. We would play kickball, kick the can and we also caught frogs and had frog races! Great fun! Thankfully I didn't end up with wort's on my fingers as a result of catching all those frogs! Of course, that could be an old wives tale for all I know.

You never know when you may have an opportunity for a nature study, big or small, keep your eyes open so you don't miss it. Yesterday our day started out a little rough, we woke to a broken coffee maker and our garage had taken in some water from the storm the night before so Riley and I were cleaning up the mess. After we finished cleaning the garage, I decided to trim the grass in the area below our faucet, the grass was so tall. As I tackled the small area something scooted through the grass to get away from the trimmer, so I put it down to go investigate.

Riley came over to see what I was looking for. As we looked and moved things aside we found a fairly good sized frog! At first I thought it was a bullfrog but then decided we should look it up. After looking at some pictures Riley thought it was a Southern Leopard Frog and Chris thought it was a Wood Frog. Y'all look below and see what you think.

We read they like to eat spiders, Moth larva, snails and meal worms. Later, just before we were getting ready to let him go, Chris being much more brave than I, found a spider to pick up on the lid of the bucket. He brought it over and laid the lid down in front of the frog, as he did the spider bounced off the lid and landed about 6-7 inches away from the frog. When the spider landed it froze in place, as if it knew it was in front of a predator! After waiting with the video camera for a few minutes we gently scooted the spider closer to the frog. As we did the spider got within 2-3 inches of the frog, rolled over and folded it's legs up as if it were dead! After it laid there a little bit I guess it became confident that the frog would not eat it because it got up and walked back to the lid it arrived on. Aren't God's creatures amazing?

In our efforts to feed the frog an earthworm wound it's way around the frogs legs and we laid a moth larva in front of it as well. He was not hungry, I'm sure we stressed him out greatly so at that point we allowed him to hop off. With some giggles and jigs as the frog hopped through our legs and under the truck he finally hopped into the grass and burrowed himself as deep as he could go. We enjoyed our little nature study on our resident Southern Leopard Frog/Wood Frog. We still aren't sure which on it is but it was a nice little diversion from the stress of a broken coffee maker and water in the garage!

Blessings

2009-10-02T11:06:00.010-05:00

We were on our last day of our vacation driving back to Orlando from the Gulf Coast and we had had a day of observing God's wonderful creations on different beaches that day. We started out with our own plan but God had something else in store for us that day and it turned out far better that we had planned. Realizing how great the day turned out it caused us to recount the many blessings we had experienced over the last week.

The first blessing was on Sunday, we had spent the day resting at our resort. We all went to the pool and packed a lunch to eat poolside. Later that afternoon we decided to take a drive to St. Petersburg and St. Pete's Beach. As we drove into St. Pete's Beach trying to find access to the beach, I kept hearing birds squawk. It was a squawk I didn't recognize so I kept watching till I saw three parrots fly overhead and land on an electrical wire! How cool was that!? We finally found a place to park and ran to the beach. We got there just in time to feel the sand on our toes, stick our feet in the water and get a few pictures before a storm rolled in. We jumped back into the car and drove to the pier.

As we got there the shops were closing and we were hungry, but after asking around we found out the Columbia was still open! Once up stairs we found a two hour wait, we decided to stick it out and were so thankful we did. While we waited we met some very nice people, locals who lived there and shared bits of their life with us. The wait staff was very nice and helpful, answering our questions about the restaurant in spite of their long day. The food was very good and worth the wait. They had rolled their prices back to 1905 (like when they first opened). So we got an $80 meal for about $16, the entrees were $2.95, the salads were $1.95, a cup of soup was .50, coffee was .50 with free refills, and desserts were .50.

Riley in front of the Nemo fish tank there at the Columbia. I was so proud of him that night, he was so patient and well behaved. Considering our two hour wait and the fact that we all were hungry, he did great and seemed to enjoy himself. Chris, Riley and I were actually the last family to be seated that night!

This is the view of the sunset from the Columbia. That is the St. Petersburg skyline. As I was taking this picture one of the waiters came up and showed me the shot of the sunset he had taken the night before with his cell phone. What a great view! I wish my picture would have came out a little more clear but I'm still learning how to take pictures with our new camera and my 40+ year old eyes are struggling to see the LCD screen clearly! :-)

We were driving back to Orlando later that night thankful for the wonderful day we had and the good food that could have cost us a fortune but didn't! Chris had commented on the way down to Florida Saturday, "I wonder if Alligators are as prolific here in Florida as deer are in Alabama?". Well, Sunday as we were driving back to Orlando, we almost hit an Alligator crossing the highway! I was so thankful we didn't hit it, but it was so funny! The idea of an alligator crossing the road!?

I'll have to finish more later. Till then. Blessings to you.

Fantastic Family Vacation

2009-09-27T14:04:00.012-05:00

We packed our bags and loaded up the car last Friday to head to Orlando! We were on our way to vacation at the beach, at Disney, Sea World and the beach again on Friday. What a time we had! We were so ready to shake loose the worries, stresses and concerns of our daily lives and have some fun. We did not realize how we had gotten so wrapped up in circumstances of issues, work, school and other people and had let those things affect our family.

I think God expects us to do what we need to do to maintain a healthy balance within our families. It is up to us to keep things in check as we go through life. If we don't, all those outside things can start taking a tole on individual members or the family as a whole.

We left home with the intention of not doing school at all but it turned out that we had two days that were perfect opportunities to do some fun learning and nature studies. Our trip to Sea World was by far the best day, it was so much fun to see and touch creatures from the sea that Riley had never seen before. He was able to touch a Cownosed Stingray in the touch tank. Of course it took a bit for him to work up the nerve but after some gentle guidance from Mom, he put his hand in the water and was able to touch a couple. It was amazing how smooth and soft they were. They were so gentle as they swam by and would turn their nose up to see if you had food or not.

We were also able to feed and pet some Dolphins! How exciting it was to be so close to such a graceful creature! Riley was really excited and jumped in there to pet their chin and drop the dead fish in the Dolphin's mouth. He loved it! As they would swim up they would open their mouths, making their clicks and noises, it was as if they were smiling at us and saying hello! Such happy creatures!

From the multiple aquariums they have in the park to the touch tanks and to the wonderful shows at Sea World there were multiple learning opportunities for Riley that day.

Our last day in Florida we were really hoping to find a good beach where we could snorkel and find lots of shells and sea life, you know really study nature. We tried catching a ferry from Fort DeSoto state park to Egmont Island but missed it. Before we left that island we toured the fort and went out to the beach. There we saw a Southern Stingray and what looked like a Gulf Pipe Fish. We met a couple who also missed the ferry, they recommended that we try catching the ferry from Honeymoon Island to Caladesi Island State park. This is an island off the gulf coast of Florida which is uninhabited. It is a state park and ran by the rangers. The ferry goes every hour and is only $10.00 per adult and $6.00 per child. We made it there just in time for the 2:00 ferry! We grabbed our gear and got on board.

The ride over was a short but we saw lots of birds on the way. After we docked and made our way to the beach we encountered a Gopher tortoise. They dig a burrow several feet deep and willingly share it with other creatures such as the Southeastern Rattle Snake! Hmmm, I wonder if they make good neighbors!

As we got in the water which was so clear and calm, we quickly started finding shells and creatures. Chris found a shell with a large crab inside. Riley and I both found a couple of shells with mussels inside them. One of them didn't like us messing with him so he squirted us!

We had a wonderful time and were able to bring home a few shells from our snorkeling adventure. Chris found a huge clam shell that was about as big as his hand and was still connected. He also found a large Pin Shell that was still connected. He was willing to go a bit further out than Riley and I were. We were so thankful for the kind couple who gave us a great suggestion in going to Caladesi Island! We know God sent them our way that day!

I would say we had two good days of learning that we will count as school days. We will be printing pictures and making a scrapbook with info on each of the creatures we experienced on our trip to Florida. In asking Riley what his favorite part was, he started with the trip to Magic Kingdom but then the list grew and he had several favorites and our day of snorkeling was one of them! Amidst our days of learning we were able to relax, have fun, laugh, and get to know each other again. What a wonderful time we had!

Thankful

2009-09-03T20:16:00.008-05:00

I was reminded the other day how thankful I need to be for those little things that I so often take for granted. If I am not paying attention they will slip right by me!

I don't know how it is for you but last year about this time as we started school I realized that I was really stressing about how school was going for us. Was Riley stressed? How was he doing? Was he doing well in these first few weeks of school? Should he be in public school? So many questions raging through my mind!! Then I realized here we are a year later and I'm asking myself the same questions!!

We had a day recently that we started out with our Bible lesson, as we typically do. I noticed that We were studying the Garden of Eden and how sin came about. Riley was thoroughly enjoying this lesson, he was asking questions and even anticipating where the next part was going. Before I knew it we were done and he said, "Are we done?" I told him we were and that we were going to move on to Math. He said, "Mom, can we do more Bible?" I was so elated that he genuinely wanted to continue on with more Bible. I told him, "You bet!" We ended up doing about 2 1/2 hours of Bible that morning and we both were blessed in the process! What a joy! By the end of the day I felt we had accomplished a whole lot and the day was a success! Being in the Word and seeing my son's enthusiasm to learn more of our Heavenly Father renewed us both and fed us for the day.

That morning reminded me of what my purpose is in teaching him. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 The other stuff is important, reading, writing, and math. If we are striving to be where God wants us to be spiritually then the other stuff will fall into place. Thank you Lord for the reminder.

New beginning

2009-07-28T18:41:00.017-05:00

Well, after my last post about homeschooling during the summer, I have to confess, that idea flew out the window for the Watson family! This summer has been so busy with trips, swim lessons, projects around the house, gardening and regular summer fun that school almost got forgotten this summer. Although I will say that as learning opportunities came up we seized them and took full advantage of the situation!

My prayer for our homeschooling journey is that I can implement some new plans throughout the school year and stick to them. I was able to look back at last year and recognize some things that needed to be changed. The plan is to start with some well laid out goals for us both to strive for that will help things go much easier this year.

I found a nice lesson planner that our local Homeschool supply store produced. In the front it had a page for Goals and Objectives for this school year. I was so glad to see that! I am the type of person that needs it laid out for me. This way these goals are written down right where I can see them on a regular basis and when I start to question something, I can flip to the front and remind myself what the plan is.

Click this link if you are looking for a new 2009/2010 school year planner . I later found this from The Old Schoolhouse magazine store that looks excellent as well and might just fit your needs.

At the top of this list of goals is the word Pray! Such an important part of each day and all too often it gets forgotten or lessened to a few words to get us by. I am so guilty of letting the daily grind take priority over this precious resource. I'll tell myself that I'll find time later and that time never comes because the enemy will work in overtime to make sure I don't find that time. Last year, the days we made it a priority to start our school day with prayer went so good! The days we forgot or neglected to start with prayer were the days we would like to forget or struggled our way through. I went through and wrote it at the beginning of each day in my lesson planner, then I have no excuse!

My next goal is to make school a little more fun for him this year. Mainly in math. I had a tendency last year to stick strictly to the curriculum and not add any games to our day (or week). Riley is the type of learner that he loves the hands on stuff, he is a typical competitive little boy! To put him in a game that will make him add or subtract with the possibility of winning makes it a win win situation for both of us! My mother in law, who is a former teacher, tried to worn me that we needed to take time for games. In my very black and white mind, I couldn't figure out when would be the best time to do that without getting too far away from the curriculum! A few weeks ago I shared my dilemma with her and she gave me some ideas. Why not do them on a Friday? After a full week of lessons on Friday do some review time then throw in a game or two. That seems easy enough!

After looking through our math curriculum I questioned if some of the games were too easy or a little boring. So I thought about replacing one or two of the curriculum games that are listed with math games we already have.

Our next goal would be to start on time, or at least close to the designated time. I found last year that the later we started the harder it was to keep going. Riley lost interest, he was tired and got distracted easily. Of course the longer the school day went Riley missed out on play time or relaxing and I didn't get anything done around the house either! We would finish school just in time to feed the dog her dinner and start ours! What a day that was! Riley would be frustrated and mom would be too. What type of castle was that for Daddy to come home to???

Cartoons tend to take priority in the mornings especially during the summer. However this year the TV will be turned off by 7:30 in order to get bed made, teeth brushed and be ready for school by 8:00. Otherwise the bed does not get made, teeth don't get brushed till after lunch and it gets harder and harder to turn the TV off.

The other goals I have listed are more academic for Riley to work a little harder on. Things in handwriting, math and reading. Another part of my prayer for school this year is that Riley will be motivated a bit more to strive for better in his school work. He is a 7 1/2 year old boy whose idea of a fun time consists of Legos, video games and computer games. School ranks somewhere on the bottom of the totem pole! Oh if only life could be that easy!

My prayer for you is that you are looking at the beginning of the school year with excitement and you're ready to tackle any obstacle that comes your way with the grace and strength of God on your side. God bless your new school year!

Homeschool During the Summer?

2009-05-24T16:11:00.048-05:00

You may ask, “should we do homeschool during the summer?" I know this year both Riley and I were ready for a break! We were in much need of rest, there was the "honey-do" list on the refrigerator that needed to be tackled, and we were ready for a change in pace. However, we ended the year with the mindset that we were going to keep up certain subjects over the summer months and attempt to do some fun learning stuff as well.

That is one of the joys of homeschooling, flexibility! It is that time of year that questions like this one pop up, “Where are we going for summer vacation?” Families that homeschool may ask, “How long of a break from school will we take?” “Will we even take a break?” “Can we incorporate school into our vacation?” If you are homeschooling, those questions can be answered by the type of homeschool method(s) you choose.

Once a family chooses to homeschool, they quickly realize that learning becomes a family thing. No matter what method you choose to follow, If it is the “unschooling” method, the “eclectic” method or school at home where you may follow the school board calendar, you choose the method that works best for your family. What you choose could also be a little bit of one or two of the methods or a little bit of all three methods.

Families who unschool take advantage of learning opportunities as they arise all year long and summer is just a part of that year. Reading, writing and Artithmetic are a part of the school schedule as well as other learning opportunities that are a part of everyday life. Families who follow the eclectic method may choose to do a summer project or activity that may involve some book work, a fun activity or vacation time, or all of the above. The families that choose to follow the school at home method may choose to take all three (or two and a half) months off and do no school at all. Or if they have not met all the days required, they may work through the summer. The decision is really up to you and your family.

If you have had the revelation that you need to be homeschooling your precious children and are just getting started, you may wonder, "how do I know which method(s) is right for us?" There are good sources out there to help point you in the right direction. One in particular is "100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum" by Cathy Duffy. In her book there is a section in Chapter 2 that is called "Which Approach to Education Should I Choose?" There is a chart that will help you identify which method(s) would fit best in your family. Notice that I said method or methods, you may find that you like certain aspects of more than one method. That is OK. Again another one of the joys of homeschooling, that flexibility. She will also help you identify which type of learning method best describes your child and in another section of her book she reviews a lot of different curriculum's. This book is a must have for moms that are new to homeschooling.

Now back to the issue of summer time. If you are thinking you need to continue some type of school activities to keep boredom to a minimum and to keep the brain working, here are some ideas to incorporate learning during the summer months (no matter which method you choose).

*Create a garden: science

*Camping: nature or bug study: Science

*Vacationing near historical sites: History

*Have your child help chart the course for your trip: Geography

*Have your child help plan the budget or a portion of the budget (i.e. food): Math and/or Finance

*Here is a great idea for the kids while traveling in the car! Rand McNally Kids Road Atlas

*Summer concerts: Music and/or culture or Social Studies

*Summer camps: Music, art, PE, science etc

If you have any other ideas for homeschooling in the summer and making it fun, let me know. I would love to hear them and see if we can incorporate some of them in our summer homeschool journey!
GNSFBFV9351018

God's Classroom: Baby Birds

2009-05-14T16:14:00.022-05:00

About a week ago I hung my Spider plant on my front porch as I do every year. This past weekend I pulled it down to water it and lo and behold there was a perfectly round little nest inside. I was a little disappointed because of the possibility of mites killing my plant, but excitement overwhelmed that disappointment because I saw the potential for a lesson in 'God's Classroom'.

I had noticed some House Wrens flitting around the front porch and wondered if they had chosen someplace close for their nest. Sure enough, in my Spider plant. Oh well, hopefully it will survive the mites... We had begun studying birds this spring in Science so this would be a great lesson for Riley.

Little did I know the House Wren had neighbors in our little acorn bird house hanging next door to the Spider Plant. That little acorn house has been hanging there for about two years and finally some little bird has chosen it for her home! I was elated! It turns out it is a Black Capped Chickadee that moved into the acorn house.

It was funny, to me it seemed like a little country house for the House Wren and a fancy little suburban home for the Chickadee! What a cute idea for a story! Well.....I digress.

On Monday of this week the little acorn house became alive with the chatter of Momma Chickadee and her chicks. In and out and chattering all day and lasted until Tuesday! It was really quite cute. The whole time Momma Wren just sits quietly as if she is knitting booties for her baby, ignoring her chatty neighbor.

Today, the little acorn house was very quiet. I thought the babies had probably flown the coop but said a prayer that nothing bad had happened. Later this afternoon I went out through the garage to get something. Noticing a very large weed I stepped on it with intentions of pulling it up. As I did, this round, baby Chickadee hopped out and just set to chattering. "Hey! Watch what your doing you silly human!" she seemed to say. I just spoke softly to her and then went to get Riley. He came out and immediately started calling her "Little Girl" and trying to calm her down. "Come on 'Little Girl' it's OK." he said softly. He desperately wanted to touch her but I cautioned him that if we touched her I was afraid Momma Chickadee would neglect her. Riley did great and kept a safe distance still calling her 'Little Girl' and talking softly to her. Riley said, "Is this bird watching momma?" I said, "You bet! We are bird watching." He seemed to really enjoy it and will later make an entry in his bird journal we created earlier this spring.

What a great lesson! God's classroom offers so many wonderful lessons for our children if we take the time to find them. Of course this one seemed to find us but hopefully we can follow it for a day or two. If Riley has learned anything it is to identify a Black Capped Chickadee which is common here in Northern Alabama. He also learned what their habitat is and how they rear their young. While we were discussing the importance of leaving her alone and not touching her, we reviewed what instinct was. Her instinct was to hide someplace safe till Momma came back. She also flew a few times stretching her wings as she was learning.

God's creation is awesome and full great lessons like this one. If you are finishing up school for the year or continuing on through the summer look for lessons like this one in your own backyard. You never know what you will find. If you are looking for ideas on Nature studies or maybe not sure where or how to start, check out this E-book from The Old Schoolhouse Store. Just click the link below, it will take you there. It is full of wonderful ideas that will get the creative juices flowing!

E-Book: Creative Nature Study for Homeschoolers

The Lessons We Learn.....

2009-05-05T21:07:00.011-05:00

Well for my first post to my blog I feel like the Lord laid this one in my lap today. Much of the time as I teach our son Riley, mine and my husband's prayer is that Riley is learning and developing his character in a Godly manner. As I'm sure many of you are praying the same thing for your children. There are times that I wonder if we are making progress or just headed no where fast. Today I had a glimpse of that progress and I was so thankful! His example of joy and giving today was such a blessing to me I just had to write about it.

I was mowing the front yard with our fairly new push mower this morning. In the meantime, Riley had been playing in the front yard or riding his bike. He had gone in the house and came back out with a package of Tiny Size Chiclets gum. He came running up to me and offered some to me, which at that time I had no interest in chewing gum. So I politely said, "No, thank you honey."

I was huffing and puffing and complaining because the engine kept cutting off and on as I was pushing it (probably because the grass was so tall since we've had so much rain lately!). As I worked my way over to the other side of the driveway, the mower finally died and shut off. As it did I let out a growl out of frustration. I stalked over to the mower to check the gas, which was a little low so I went into the garage to get the gas tank. As I did, Riley said, "Hey mom, I know what you need." I said, "What do I need son?" (trying not to voice my frustration over the mower towards him) He said, "You need a Tiny Size! It will make you feel good and it tastes good and you'll be happy!"

At first I thought, "A Tiny Size? What in the world is that?" As he came running towards me holding up a package of the Tiny Size Chiclets, I said to myself, "Now how could I refuse that?!" My only child, showing such a wonderful example of sharing, sharing joy and happiness and trying to ease my frustration in such a simple way! Of course I accepted the Tiny Size! I was so blessed by my son's generosity but also by his joy and desire to see his mom smile. Later as I was thinking about this little episode this verse came to mind "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." (Proverbs 17:22) I didn't necessarily have a broken spirit but I sure did lack in the joy area!

Sometimes the weight of the example we need to set for our children is so heavy! Sometimes I succeed in setting a Christ like example and sometimes I feel like I fail miserably. Or those times that I lose sight of 'who' my focus should be on and start to stress about what Riley is learning or what he isn't learning. But thank the Lord that He is there each time to remind me of where I need to be or what I need to be doing and set me on the right path. Even if it takes my 7 yr old son to show me!

It's times like these that I feel confident that we are on the right road of teaching our son. Even when we have those difficult days, days like this come along to show me we are doing the right thing. I hope that your homeschooling journey is rewarding and full of teachable moments like this. Even when you are the one learning at that given moment. Till next time.