The Schoolhouse Planner

I am pleased today to be reviewing The Schoolhouse Planner. As a confirmed planner "junkie", I have waited for the release of this planner with baited breathe. Honestly, I own almost every planner on the market for homeschool moms. In all of them, there are features that I like, but there does seem to be something missing. I am thrilled to say that this planner has everything that anyone could possibly need......and more.

Contained inside this e-book are informational sheets (such as states and capitals, weights and measure conversions), copies of great American documents (Declaration of Independence, American Constitution and others), household planning sheets as well as school planning sheets. The school planning sheets cover everything that you could ever need for school, all the way through high school. I especially like the 12 year curriculum tracker.

Monthly calendars are included along with holidays and listings of other important days for that month. Many educational opportunities are tied in with each month and resources for the study of those items are hyperlinked through the Old Schoolhouse Store. Shopping and planning couldn't be easier! It is my understanding that there are also monthly modules available (as e-books, the cost is around $8) that expand on the monthly educational topics. I am interested in seeing how these might fit into our homeschool.

The household forms look to be fairly standard. There are chore charts for mom and the kids (some with pictures rather than words for the non-readers) and things like packing lists and gardening layout forms (thank you!).

The best thing about this planner is that you have the ability to type your information onto the pages before you print them out. All of the forms can be personalized for YOUR family. I can't express how much this feature excites me! My planner will look professional from now on!

This planner is absolutely perfect. The creators took great pains to make sure that everything a homeschool mom could ever need is included. I feel that this planner is a great value for all the tools that it contains. I did have a problem with the downloading, as the file is rather large. However, The Old Schoolhouse Store's customer service department was fantastic in getting me an attatchment of the planner.

If you would like to see what the fuss is all about you can view the planner at The Old Schoolhouse Store . The cost of the planner is $39.00. This is an e-book so there is no shipping and you will be able to immediately have your planner to make this new school year the best ever.

Choosing Curriculum - Preschool

I was cuddling Little Bear this afternoon and thinking about how difficult it was for me to choose curriculum when we started homeschooling. I still have days when I just don't know what would work, but I am a lot more confident in my ability to choose what will work for my family.

I remember when we decided to homeschool. For our family, it wasn't an all or nothing decision. I wanted to homeschool; but my husband wasn't so sure. So we comprimised. We agreed that we would homeschool that year. It would be a preschool year since our oldest son was just 4. Then we would go from there.

I was ecstatic! I was terribly afraid that I wouldn't be able to homeschool and my husband had said yes! What a blessing from God! Now what?

After intense research I found several different "curriculums" that I wanted to use. All of them were several hundreds of dollars. My husband had a fit! I pieced together a hodge-podge of things and made it work. With two kids through "preschool" and looking ahead to another, here is my compilation of what is needed to preschool. Then I will share what looks interesting for those of you with larger budgets.

Necessary
Nothing. I know that sounds terribly simplistic, but if you are hard pressed to come up with any extra money for preschool then don't. Dig out some scrap paper, a pair of scissors, crayons, some yarn and glue and let them be. Let them sort and count with M&Ms and an egg carton. Use crayons for coloring and learning colors. Practice the alphabet song. Read the Bible together.

Useful
*A Bible story book - Yes, you can read straight from the Bible and I think that is a great idea but little kids like the pictures in a Bible story book while you read. Boys especially like the David and Goliath picture!
*Work books from Walmart - Or the dollar store, or where ever you are. They are cheap and will teach everything that the more expensive ones will. If your little guy hates pencils then skip them. We loved doing our workbooks, one page a day when they were 3 or 4 years old. They would show their completed pages to grandparents and be so proud when they recieved praise!
*Explode the Code primers (books A, B, and C) - These are available from Rainbow Resource. I loved the primers. My boys loved the way they where able to learn the letter sounds with almost no effort at all. They are cheap so that is a plus (there are 3 and I think they are around $6 a piece).

Interesting
If the budget allows, you might be interested in using the following:
MFW preschool options (there is one for 2-3 year olds and one for 4-5 year olds I think). These are mainly hands on activities. I look forward to giving these a try with my 3rd son.
Sonlight preschool core - We finally own most of these books, buying them a little here and a little there. These books are precious and I don't know any preschooler on the planet that wouldn't clamor for one more reading.

Applications
I thought that I would conclude this post with some ways to use these items with your preschooler. I always try to stick with the easiest ideas for mom, while adding the most fun for the child.
1. Try sidewalk chalk. The perks with this are obvious: the child is outside and you don't really have to clean anything up. If you live in an apartment, then take school to the park.
2. Have a letter of the week. We did this in various forms with both of my older boys, but I really see the wisdom in this now. They learn so much from this, not just in phonics/reading. Your child will learn relationship and how ideas can work together. I plan on starting this when Little Bear is 2 and going through the alphabet at least twice. You are not required to start with the letter A. I plan on starting with N for Norman and then moving on to L for Lee and G for Greg. Who wouldn't want to learn their letter? Or bubby's letters?
3. Count everything. I always hear people say that you should count the plates and silverware while setting the table. That's true but there is so much more out there to count! Count the cars that go by, the bugs in the yard, cats in the garage. How many people are in line? How many legs does that dog have? You could go on forever and it keeps your sanity. This is also a good activity when you are in the "never-ending-grocery-store-line".
4. Practice colors with candy. I know some people don't want their children eating a lot of candy and I am not advocating that your eat candy every day, but there is no better way to learn colors than by sorting skittles :)
5. Make a volcano with baking soda and vinegar. Google the instructions. Boys think that this is very, very cool and makes you the best teacher on the planet. Grow seeds into plants, or work in the garden. Get a pet, even if it is a goldfish. Living with and working on things teaches more than any book.
6. Dig in the sandbox. Write letters or numbers in the sand. Bury the toddler (we buried my 2nd son while he was sitting in the sandbox - that picture is precious - he was just 1).
7. Have fun. Don't forget to play. School shouldn't last any more than 30 minutes at this age. I didn't make my boys sit still for 30 minutes at a time anyway. We did a worksheet in the morning (5 minutes), then read a book in the afternoon (10 minutes), then counted something in the evening (5 minutes) and finished the day off with more reading at bedtime. No stress for you, no frustration for your child and the learning has begun!

Enjoy your children now. My little fellow (oldest son) turns 11 on Saturday. We don't know where the time has gone, but I am so very blessed to have been able to be with him every day. I can't imagine what I would have missed if he had been gone during the "school hours". All of the trials and frustrations of homeschooling have been worth every single minute that I am able to look at my oldest son and see his smiling face. I KNOW my son and who he is becoming. Relax and enjoy these years....they are truly over before you know it!

Back to School Blast

This is your last reminder to join us for Cindy Rushton's Back To School Blast this weekend. The speaker line-up looks fantastic. You definately won't want to miss this!

2008-2009 School Year - Day 1

What a title that is!!! LOL
Today was a good day. I made a lot of changes to this year's schedule. I wasn't sure if I would like it, or if the day would "flow" like it always did but it seemed to work out really well.

For the past......6 (has it been that long???) years, school mornings have contained english, foreign language, reading, math and drill work. Science, history, geography and literature have happened in the afternoon. I am sure that you can guess what happened to science, history, geography and literature as soon as something more delightful came along. Yeah. So I feel that we are behind in those subjects and feel that God wanted me to work our schedule to ensure that these subjects were covered with regularity.

Today, our subjects occured in the following order:
Bible
Read Aloud (literature)
History
Geography
Science

Then we moved into english grammar, spelling, handwriting, typing (new this year) and math. This took us right up to lunch time. I allowed the boys to take a break, run around some and do their chores while I prepared lunch. I will need to plan out lunches better though......we can't live on hamburger helper (can we???). After lunch, the boys did their reading and book baskets (see My Father's World for information on book baskets). They finished up around 2 p.m. but I was done at 11 a.m. and able to get some of my chores done. What a relief! I had visions of school lasting all day long! I think it helped that I set time limits for each subject and told the boys that they only had to work (diligently) for that period of time on that subject and then could put it away. What a relief to them.....they knew that the lesson wouldn't drag on forever and ever without end. Math was the longest time limit of 20 minutes. Most subjects were slotted for 15 minutes. Charlotte Mason advocates short lessons and I agree!

I will have to work on ways to entertain Mr. Bear during school time. He spent most of the morning trying to eat dog food, hitting his brother with a walking stick and wailing in disbelief that he would be contained by the playpen (baby jail) for any period of time. I was very thankful when he went down for his morning nap at 10 a.m. What a blessing that routine is! Any suggestions on what to do with a 9 month old would be greatly appreciated.

All in all our first day of school was a success. I enjoyed the day and even caught myself laughing with my silly boys. I thank God for the opportunity that He has given us to be together!

Curriculum Choices for 2008-2009

We will spend at least the first 3-4 months finishing up Sonlight's Core 3 for history and science.

English
Lee: Simply Grammar and Intermediate Language Lessons
Greg: Primary Language Lessons
Both: English from the Roots Up, Italic Handwriting, A Reason for Spelling, Type It

Math
Lee: MUS Delta
Greg: MUS Gamma
Both: Calculadders

Geography
Trail Guide to US Geography

Critical Thinking
Lee: Building Thinking Skills Book 2

Character Training/Bible
Lee: Boyhood and Beyond
Both: Plants Grown Up, Kay Arthur Study for Kids (James)

LATER IN THE YEAR
We will be adding:
Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Stargazing with a Telescope
Scrambled States of America
State History Chronicles Notebook
Library Unit Study
Shakespeare for Kids
Notetaking and Outlining
MFW 1850-Modern Times
Sonlight Core 4 Readers/History Selections

Lee: French
Greg: Spanish

I think that is about it. This year Leland will be in 6th grade and Gregory will be in 3rd grade. I am sure that we will add/subtract throughout the year and I will attempt to keep that updated. I classify us a charlotte mason homeschoolers with a classical bent :)

Today I am finishing up lesson plans for the 1st 6 weeks and getting everything set for the first day (MONDAY!!!).

Mission Accomplished!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. My cleaning is complete. For today anyway LOL! Yesterday I cleaned all the surfaces in the kitchen. Today I cleaned the laundry room, swept/mopped the kitchen and laundry room and got most stuff put back the way I want it. And the kitchen table is almost completely cleaned off! That is a miracle around here! I am looking to buy a shelving unit for my kitchen and then everything will be perfect!

I love the feeling of a totally clean house. I know that our school year will begin a lot nicer with a clean house!

Tomorrow I look forward to posting about my curriculum choices for this year.

Wednesday Clean-Up

I noticed that I messed up yesterday's title! Oh well!!!!!

Last night Bear didn't go to sleep until almost midnight. That makes a very late night for this momma! So we didn't wake up until 8 a.m. We are becoming very late risers! We had ham and eggs for breakfast, started laundry and got to work cleaning off the desk. It has rained here for almost 24 hours now so the laundry went into the dryer. Momma finished cleaning the desk, straightened the boys bookshelf and made frozen pizza for lunch. I am tossing around storage solutions in my head for the kitchen. More about that tomorrow!
I finished cleaning off my bookshelf while baby napped and the older boys helped me move furniture and vaccum after he woke up. So now the living room is clean! One more room down.....the last 3 to go are the hard ones! I have folded and put away 3 loads of laundry (I mean that I folded and put away my, dh's and Bear's laundry. The older boys put their own away). The diapers are in the dryer. I still need to quick-pick-up the kitchen from the lunch mess and write a review for TEACH magazine. Then I am done for the day! YooHoo!!!!

Below I posted an article from my friend Cindy Rushton. She is getting ready to kick off her Back to School Blast. Be sure to check that out - you will love all the great resources that she has available.

Be sure to check back tomorrow and see how far I have gotten cleaning the last 3 rooms! These are the rooms that need the most work :)

Another Article

Psst! A Secret to Scheduling Success!
by Cindy Rushton
http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=carieann77&pid=3

Want to know one of my biggest secrets to homeschooling the easy way? Want to know one of my biggest secrets to scheduling success? This one secret can make your daily schedule finally fit. It can end your scheduling frustrations forever.
I am not a "schedule by the minute" type of person. (GRIN) I fail with schedules like that. They don't meet my needs. My life includes too many areas that have different needs daily. Timed schedules just do not work for me.
So, what has worked for me? Setting up a framework to my day. This is one incredibly powerful tip. It can make a HUGE difference in your day as well. It just might be the secret that has alluded you through the years.
Wondering what I mean by a "framework" for your day? By framework, I mean a general flow to each day that includes all of the areas of my life that I juggle. But, how do I do that? Here are some quick tips:

1. Decide what should be included in your daily schedule. Look at what you are all about. Look at your goals, activities, values, priorities. Look at your husband's schedule--wrap everything around him. Look at what you need to include in your day to get everything done--quiet times, lessons, homemaking, read alouds, work, etc. This is important. Otherwise, you will include things in your schedule that may not be the very best choices. And...one big risk...you may never get around to the things that matter the most. Decide what really needs to be a part of each and every day for your day to be successful.

2. Decide the best time for the tasks you need to complete each day. This will help you get a good flow to your day. For me, quiet times are just best at the beginning of the day. Chores are great right after them--I need them completed so my brain can focus on the table time. Our business work and errands need to be done in the early afternoon. Read alouds are best before bedtime. You get the picture. When I tried to read aloud over lunch, we had so many distractions that we could never fit it in. Trying to work the business in the morning would never work...and of course, we couldn't take care of business errands at night. See how important it is to really look at the best time to get tasks done. Look at the best time for all of the tasks that need to be done. Look at the best flow to get everything done easily each day. You may not get this right at the beginning, but you will get closer and closer each day. You will love it!

3. Balance your day. Don't let any one area of your life get out of balance. Everything that we do in our day has a tendency to grow into a big time thief--homeschooling, homemaking, home business. Those important aspects of our life can easily grow out of their boundaries. While I love each of them, they can get rather exhausting if we don't keep them in balance with the other things that we have to do. The best way for me to stay balanced is to be reasonable about what I expect for each day, keep things simplified and easy, and keep everything inside of its time of the day. I don't mind those days that we want to dig deeper in a topic that we are studying. I also don't mind those days that we tackle a messy room. I don't even mind those days that we have a special business project that needs more time. But, if those areas were demanding extra time every day, it would be easy to get burned-out, frustrated and battle with our time each day. Want to make it work? Find a balance for your day.

4. Set up routines. Talk about a HUGE help for me. Without routines, things can get so frustrating every day--there are constant decisions, there is more strife in the family, there is no consistency. Routines help us to make things go faster, without the strife and struggle of figuring things out DAILY. Routines reduce the stress of making decisions daily. Routines help our children to know what to expect so they can move through all of the things that they need to do each day. Routines are crucial. They assure a smooth ride. They keep us on track. They keep us out of the ruts. They take us in the direction that we want to go. One of the toughest things I ever did was develop routines in my home. However, one of the most rewarding things that I ever did was develop routines in my home. When I got very, very sick, everything kept going. During those times that I have been stretched, things kept on going. All because of routines. Set up routines. Then, your children will know what to expect. They will learn what is next and next and next. The decisions will be made for you. They will be able to "just do it" with or without you. Set up routines for your family. Develop one set of routines at a time--look for the time of day that things go haywire. If it is morning, for example, look at all that needs to be done. Brainstorm. Make a to-do list for that routine. Write it out. Work it as a checklist until it becomes a habit. If you see other things that need to be added into that set of routines, add them. Tweak it until it is smooth. Then, move to the next troublespot. Do this for all of the times of your day. Watch to see how much it helps!

5. Prune anything that is not necessary. Truth is, we cannot do everything. What we do in our day keeps us from doing other things. It zaps our time, energy, strength. We need to be picky about what we add to our day. Every single thing that we do costs us something. We need to constantly prune those things that are not necessary. Prune anything that hinders, distracts. Be honest. Be ruthless. Prune. Even the good things! Go for the best!

6. Take the squeeze out of your schedule. Watch out for the squeeze in your schedule. Don't fill every minute of your day with something to do. Why? Because there are always going to be crisis situations, interruptions, melt-downs, delays. If we have our schedule maxed out, we will constantly be overwhelmed, overworked, and squeezed. Find ways to take the squeeze out of your daily schedule--cut out extra running, watch out for time thieves, prioritize your daily to-do's (and eliminate any that make the day too tight), cut out extras that are unnecessary, keep the day simple and easy. Keep a relaxed atmosphere. Constantly, take the squeeze out of your daily schedule.

7. Stay flexible! Stay adaptable! Actually, one of the reasons that we really want to develop a framework to our day is so we have more flexibility, so we have more "space" in our day to be adaptable. We want to be able to seize opportunities that come our way. We want to be able to slow down and enjoy our children. We don't want to miss teachable moments. These days just go by too fast. We want to enjoy every second. We want to make sweet, sweet memories. This requires that we stay flexible and adaptable. So, take the time to develop your own framework to your day. Do the tough work. Get your plans together. Work on these suggestions. Then, stay flexible. Stay adaptable. Grasp on to all that God has in store for you!
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About Cindy Rushton…
Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Back to School Blast, her annual back to school fling for homeschool mothers around the world. She is recording Preview Chats for the Back to School Blast RIGHT NOW! Join her wonderful guests FREE for the next weeks as they count down to the Back to School Blast (August 8-9--BUT! NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE seminar!). Get your ticket NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here:
http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=carieann77&pid=3

Current Reading

If you are intested, here is a list of what I am currently reading:

A Mom After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George
Furry Tails: The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon by Tristan Perry, PhD. (just finished)
Sounding Forth the Trumpet: God's Plan for America in Peril 1837-1860 by Peter Marshall and David Manuel
Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
KJV Bible - I am somewhere in Joshua

Clean-up Tuesday

Baby Bear and I got a late start this morning. When the alarm went off at 6 a.m. I just turned it off, rolled over and went back to sleep. We got up at 7:30 :)

So we didn't walk. But that's ok. We had ham and eggs for breakfast then picked up around the house and started laundry. Bear cried in his playpen while I hung out the first load. I got the older boys up at 9. They watched Bear while I hung out the 2nd load and then we got started cleaning their rooms. The playroom was first and didn't take very long. The bedroom, on the other hand, was a disaster! I hadn't cleaned these rooms for several month, relying instead on the boys to pick them up. While they may have been presentable on the surface, they were in terrible condition underneath. When I instructed Lee to take everything out from under the bed, Greg to take everything out of the (small) closed and I took everything off the entertainment center I about had a heart attack. The mountain of stuff on the floor filled the whole room and was at least 12 inches deep throughout. Oh my! I assured the boys that it wouldn't take very long at all to clean, all the while thinking to myself that we might never reach the end of it. We cleaned for about an hour before I stopped to fix lunch, leaving them to finish sorting toys. It took about an hour after lunch to finish cleaning that room and to vaccum both rooms and hallway. But they are done! We celebrated with watermelon after lunch and the boys were allowed to go to Grandma's house for a visit after completing a few other small chores.

I finished up the day by writing a letter, working up a spreadsheet for a project of dh's, folding and putting away laundry, and sorting and filing coupons. The work is done, baby is sleeping and I am enjoying a nighttime summer storm. I am thankful for the rain that will help the garden grow!!!! We think that the potatoes should be ready to dig next week :)

Tomorrow's agenda includes cleaning the rest of the living room, bookshelves and my desk. That will probably take all day, but if it doesn't then I am going to start MAJOR decluttering in the kitchen. Talk tomorrow!

Monday Clean-Up

Dh and I had a disagreement last night. As expected, that caused my day to begin in a less-than-ideal way. However, I spent considerable time seeking God today and have peace that the conflict will be quickly resolved.

Anyway, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I spent a couple of hours sorting and organizing the clothes in my closet and dresser. I have 4 garbage bags that we are taking to charity today. I hope that the clothes that I no longer want or need will be a blessing to someone else.

Today, Little Bear and I walked 2 miles. Upon returning home I fixed egg burittos for us for breakfast and started laundry. After breakfast I hung out that load, started another (while Bear played in his playpen). Then I put bear down for his morning nap.

For my morning project I cleaned the back part of our living room. Our living room is very large 18x24ft. We have a sectional sofa that "divides" the room into the front 2/3 and the back 1/3. In the back 1/3 we have my desk, the boys bookshelf, Bears plastic dresser and changing table, 2 little school desks that we use to hold/use art supplies and most of the school books in rubbermaid totes or on a plastic bookshelf. You can imagine how cluttered this area becomes! I organized the art supplies into containers so that they would be easier to use (and move about the house if necessary). Then I organized the changing table and Bear's plastic dresser. I also "vaccum bagged" Bear's outgrown clothing and sent them to the garage. I didn't get to my desk, but that is almost a day's project all by itself! I rounded out my morning chores by hanging out the 2nd load of laundry. I love sun-dried laundry!!!!!

For lunch we had cube steak, fried zucchini and french fries. I had salmon patties, sliced cucumbers and fried zucchini. After lunch, I went out back, alone and spent some time talking to God. I returned to the house with some of the dried laundry feeling refreshed and renewed! Dh had blessed me by putting Bear down for his afternoon nap and then left for work. I spent the rest of the afternoon decluttering/cleaning my bedroom and folding laundry. The boys and I just ate a snack and then we are off to town to run errands and attend taekwondo classes.

Tomorrow we are tackling the boys bedroom and playroom. I imagine that will take all day! I will definately report back how that goes.

Saturday Clean-Up

I have been convicted of my laziness. I am lazy. There is no reason to sugar coat it. It is the truth. God is truly working on me. So, today I am cleaning. It is very frustrating to me that it seems like every time I clean, the house gets messed up in a different part before I am finished in the part I am working in. The truth of the matter lies in the fact that I spend one day a week cleaning (usually just one room - not the whole house) and then I grouch about how quickly everything is going to pot the other 6 days. My whole outlook on life has been frustrated, grouchy and overwhelmed lately. This is not how God would have us to live.
I made a list a couple of days ago of all the rooms in the house and the best order in which to clean them for a (between-spring-and-fall) cleaning :) Today I started in the boys bathroom. I gave it a good wipe down and cleaned out their cabinet, swept and hand mopped their floor. Then I moved into our bathroom. I wiped it down, cleaned the tub and shower, all the cabinets (but not the drawers) and countertops, swept and hand mopped the floor.
Those are my "deep cleaning" chores for today. Done daily chores include laundry, leftovers for lunch, quick kitchen cleanup, and put away groceries from yesterday. I still need to finish folding laundry, make a dessert for a cook-out tonight, choose songs for services tomorrow and file Walgreens rebate paperwork for July. As long as I am diligent, I know that I can get all that done!

After church services tomorrow I think that I am going to try to sort through my clothes (closet and dresser). That way when we go to town on Monday the bags for the resale shop will be ready. I also need to pick up some rubbermaid type boxes before I clean the boys' rooms.

I purpose to maintain the rooms that I clean before I start any new projects and daily chores will still need to be done. So I figure that it will take a week (or more) to get the whole house done. School starts back up here on next Monday so if the cleaning isn't done by then I will finish up on Saturdays until done.

I am thankful that although painful, God has shown me this sin area in my life and is willing to give me a second chance. God is GOOD!

An Article for You

Easy Record-Keeping for the Reluctant Homeschool Mom!
By Cindy Rushton
http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=carieann77&pid=2

Record-keeping! Does your hair stand up when you think of record-keeping? Do you begin to grind your teeth? Did you feel like skipping this article just because it seems impossible for “EASY” and “Record-keeping” to ever go together??
Relax. I know that there is not a “one size fits all.” I know that in spite of how hard we may search, there is not a perfect system for every mom! That is OK! My prayer is that if you are in need of some ideas to make a couple areas a little easier or if you have no idea of where to begin, that you will find a few ideas as you come home with us to see how simple record-keeping CAN be. Ready for some quick tips??? Here we go…

--> Find what is mandatory. Every state and school district has differing requirements. Find other homeschool families in your area and see how each of them manages their homeschool records. Find the easiest way possible to meet the requirements. Make it as DOABLE as possible!

--> Choose what works for YOU. Every mom has her favorite method that works JUST for them whether a planner with reproducible pages… a ready to use planner… a simple spiral notebook… binders… a filing cabinet… computer… etc, etc, etc! Before you consider anything else, look at who you are. What makes you feel more comfortable? What helps you to feel more accomplishment? Whether formal or informal… detailed or not even written down… YOUR way is the best way! Decide what works best for you!

--> Document daily! Don’t let it build up. Jot it down throughout the day. When my children were little, I kept one journal for everything. I kept it out on my desk so I could just jot down what we were doing as we did it. It was amazing how much easier that was than even waiting till the end of the day. As they got older, I transferred this process to them. I had always made it easy. So, transferring it to them did not overwhelm them. I began this process by letting them keep up with their reading log. The rest was easy after that. They now keep their records just like I used to. At the end of the month and again at the end of the semester I go through making sure that everything is on target and also look to see how well they are keeping up with my overall schedule. Without good records, this would be impossible.

--> Keep all of their work in Notebooks. We keep ALL of our written work in a binder of some sort. Then, we take it further… we keep ANYTHING that can be pressed in binders. Anything left?? Yes! Then, we take pictures and keep THEM in the binders! (Hehe!) ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that can be studied can also be kept in Notebooks in some way. We keep anything that would expand a study and build a great collection of information on topics we study… great quotes, definitions about a subject being studied, diagrams, character sketches, pictures, coloring sheets, art prints, poems, Bible verses, narrations, Bible word studies, on and on! Our main reason for Notebooking in this way is that if our children are going to spend their time DOING something, it ought to be worthwhile enough for us to KEEP IT. This teaches them to value their work, do a great job on all they do, and that ALL areas of life are truly educational.

--> Scrapbook events, activities, fun studies, and projects! Scrapbooks/Yearbooks for what are REALLY doing throughout our school year is not only fun, but it helps to preserve the memories of ALL that we are doing in our family. There are just some things that our children are learning that are impossible to document without scrapbooking! Get out of the old “school” box and really document your family’s education. You won’t be sorry!

--> Use planning sheets designed JUST for homeschooling. Don’t let commercial record-keepers keep you from homeschooling with a lifestyle of learning! Look for printable pages that are designed just for the homeschool mom. You can find great options everywhere!

--> Buy resources that are designed just for you. We have an entire line of resources that we now have available through our bookstore. Check out our Make Your Own Brain-in-a-Binder Printables. It is designed specifically for the homeschool mom who wants pages designed for every area that must be balanced in the busy homeschool family. Also, check out other great resources by homeschool writers and even pages that are included in many homeschool books (we always try to include pages that we use in our books). Now, you may be like me. You may prefer to make your own planning pages. That is perfectly fine! You can tailor your pages to fit exactly with your family needs. Just be sure to use what works for you!

--> At the end of the school year, file all records together. This may seem to be a mute point, however this will save your brain! At the end of our school year, I gather everything together and add them into one big binder. I date the binder and store it away for my children’s permanent file. Be sure to pull all of your records together into a set and safe place. When you get discouraged along the way, just look back and see how far you have come—it will be a HUGE blessing!

Ok...So, Are You Ready?
So, what about you? Still scared about Record-keeping? Why not think through YOUR OWN way? Try your spin. Use what is easy, simple, and will give you more time with your little ones while helping to keep things in place for you. Most of all, find a way that can capture all of these precious memories of these days for you so you will have them to look back upon tomorrow! Have fun! EVEN with Record-keeping!
*******************************
Need MORE Help? Check out Cindy's New Organized Mom Super Set! It is full of great ebooks and audios that will help take you by the hand and plan the best homeschool year ever! Plus! When you purchase your set you get MORE help with record-keeping, organization, and setting up your home to learn--you also get access to Cindy's Organization 911 Seminar Set and her newest Seminar Set, Let's Get Organized for the New School Year.
Yep! Both! Complimentary! Get your set here: http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=carieann77&pid=2

July update

I seem to be so very bad about updating lately. I do apologize. The baby is taking up some of my time, plus the garden, school preps, housework.....Oh My! I am hoping to get into the swing of things soon :)

I hope to shortly share our curriculum choices for the year and some review stuff that I have been working on. Also, this week is the last week to sign up for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo at the discounted rate! Those speakers are such a blessing to me as I walk in the morning.

Our garden is finally growing! So many of our neighbors have been harvesting and we have been jealous, but yesterday I picked 4 green beans and we have little tiny cucumbers, zucchini and spaghetti squash on the vines. We also have several green tomatoes! And a little tiny pepper I think. I ordered some seed for fall planting. I hope it gets here in time!

I have been decluttering school stuff. I sold some stuff on ebay, but ended up not making hardly anything after shipping. I think that shipping rates have went up recently. I know everything else has. I ordered flours, popcorn, honey, and oatmeal from our local food co-op and was surprised at how much the prices had increased. I am going to have to be more creative with our food budget I think. I am also trying to store some food for emergencies. I have been very blessed by a website HERE with a bunch of ladies (and some gentleman) that are helping me in my long term preparations. No matter what the future holds for each of us, it doesn't hurt to be ready for it!

Little Bear is almost 9 months old! I can't hardly believe it! He has started to take a few steps alone at a time.....6 is the most so far. We have some little kitties as well and they all entertain each other with chasing and stuff. The little kitties aren't smart enough to stay away from the baby though and he tries to squeeze the stuffing out of them.....or drops them when he is done......grabs them by the tail, etc. I spent an hour yesterday saying "be nice to the kitty, love the kitty, don't throw the kitty, don't drop the kitty, don't strangle the kitty, love the kitty". I was beginning to sound like a broken record! Luckily enough the older boys came home from grandmas and helped and Little Bear had to go to bed. Right now Bear and the grey kitty (with no name - we are hoping to find it a good home) are sleeping on the couch. Sleeping they seem to get along pretty well..........with very little stress for momma!

Well, I need to finish my chores and get lunch started before Bear wakes. I am going to be trying a sourdough english muffin recipe tomorrow. I will let you know how that goes!

Let's Get Organized for a New School Year!

Cindy Rushton is hosting a wonderful seminar this weekend; Let's Get Organized for a New School Year! I know that I need all the help that I can get! If you want to join us visit HERE for a ticket. Happy planning!

Later today or tomorrow I will post about our curriculum choices for the year. We have a lot of fantastic stuff planned!

Summertime and the Living is Easy

We are embracing summer here :) And having a wonderful time too!

The boys were at church camp last week and they are attending VBS this week. We love taekwondo, but I was so grateful to have a break from the constant running. Bear and I have stayed home most of the week. I have been cleaning, cooking, gardening and just enjoying my home and the people in it.

We have replanted our garden. Dh is probably finishing the planting right now :) Baby is napping so I am inside. I think that we may have a nice harvest in spite of the horrible spring weather. What a blessing that will be this fall!

I have laundry on the line right now and I am finishing the downloads from the Ultimate Homeschool Expo. The speakers are great!!!!! My little pink Ipod (thanks sweetie) that I received for my birthday has been a constant companion during housework and walks.

I am walking 2 miles a day most days. I am on week 3 of a low carb diet (South Beach). So far I have lost 13 pounds, 12 of which during the first 2 "hard" weeks. Boy, am I glad to be done with those! I know that with God's help and constant diligence on my part that I can lose this weight and be relieved of this burden. My knee is already feeling better!

Teach magazine (see sidebar for link) is running a special Homemakers set if you are interested in some encouragement in that area. The sale is until Friday night. I am hoping to get mine ordered sometime tomorrow. I could really use some encouragment in that area!

God has really worked on my heart about my attitude. I am so pleased to say that with HIS help I have been able to have a peaceful, joyful attitude all week this week. And there have been events that could have been stressful!

My little dog Sadie got out of the van at the park Tuesday without the boys noticing when they got in. We didn't realize until 15 mins. later that she wasn't with us. We went back to the park and called and called and called. A woman sitting on a park bench said that she had followed our van as we drove out of the park. That was bad news because we had left the park via the highway. Sadie is blind in one eye, almost deaf and isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch anyway....crossing a highway is not in her skillset. We called and called and called along the edge of the park and Greg was in tears because Sadie was all alone with no one to take care of her when we noticed a man across the highway with a black dog on a leash. Sadie! She had made it across the highway and to his place of business and he was looking for her owner! We were so blessed to have her with us again.

God takes care of the big things and the little things!
Have a wonderful day!

Time is Flying

I had no intention of letting this much time pass between blog updates. We have been so very busy.

Little Bear has become an accomplished crawler and he can pull up to furniture and "cruise" around the coffee table and couch. He has become very attached to Momma. He cries as soon as I leave a room! As part of my exercise routine we are walking 2 miles every morning and he really enjoys the stroller.

My birthday was Sunday. I turned 31. I just don't feel that old though :) Dh and the boys got me a cute little Ipod Nano, 8 GB....in pink. I am happily downloading audios from the Ultimate Homeschool Expo. It truly makes the morning walks more interesting.

Dh's cousin's daughter (this cousin is like a brother to Dh) got married 2 weekends ago. Dh and I made a lot of the food for the reception. We did dinner rolls for 200 people (240 Bavarian dinner rolls). What was I thinking when I volunteered???? But we got it done and the couple is happily married. The bride was our flower girl 12.5 years ago.

Lee is at camp this week. Greg and I rented Alvin and the Chipmunks from PPV this evening. It is such a cute movie.

I am working on my schedule and school stuff for next year. August will be here before you know it. We are bummed that the heavy rains cost us our sweet corn, green beans and other stuff. I really need to get out there and weed what is left. So much for stocking up! We will make do with what we get and be thankful for it. I feel blessed that our area only experienced temporary flooding. So many others are facing the loss of their crops and their homes. God will provide for us!

I hope to be back more frequently! If you are looking for some interesting reading, you can check out Candy's blog. She has been posting about have a joyful attitude no matter what your circumstances.

Have a good night!

Computer Woes

I love my new laptop.
Really, I do.
Except this past week.
My hard drive crashed.
I lost EVERYTHING.
I hadn't gotten around to backing stuff up.
So I lost all my mp3 downloads, my audio books, my homeschool ebook purchases.
I lost all my favorites list with all of my favorite resources and places to visit.
EVERYTHING

We have a new hard drive now.
I am attempting to pick up the pieces.

If you can think of any places that I would like to visit please leave me a comment. I am so sad to have lost many of my friends. I am so grateful that I have some of thing linked from here, but there were many, many more that weren't :(

I will try to post again when I have some happy stuff to report............like my little Bear's first 2 teeth.......or that he has started to crawl. We have been very busy even without an internet connection :)

Blessings to all!!!!

The Simple Woman Daybook

If you would like to participate in today's Daybook please go HERE for rules and guidelines.
FOR TODAY May 12, 2008...
Outside My Window...sunshine!!!!
I am thinking...of dh and problems with our business co-owner
I am thankful for...God's grace every day
From the kitchen...chicken and stuffing casserole
I am wearing...jeans and a sweatshirt (its cool here!)
I am creating...not really anything today
I am going...to town this evening, library, walgreens, mcDonalds and taekwondo
I am reading...just finished Ephesians
I am hoping...problems with our friend will settle down
I am hearing...kitties rustling about
Around the house...baby has his first tooth!
One of my favorite things...spring flowers
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: housecleaning, loving my family

2nd Degree Black Belt

This afternoon, at approximately 5:00 p.m., my oldest son Leland will be testing for his 2nd degree black belt. This is a huge accomplishment and I am terribly proud of him :)

Way to go Lee!!!!!

Choosing Every Day

I had a "blah" day yesterday. I frequently have those as the devil and I spar. He tries to bring me down and I try to fight my way to the surface.
I was reading my current issue of An Encouraging Word this morning and realized that I get the choice every day to make my day, my life, be the life I want to be living. Some days are going to go worse than others. Some days nothing will get done. Some days I will want to curl up and cry. BUT, God is still hanging in there with me. He is lifting me up. He wants me to stand on my own two feet and keep "doing the next thing".

Today I am going to keep my head up and continue to "do the next thing".

Have a wonderful day!

Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008

Although the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is over, the fun is just starting! All of the wonderful presentations are being edited and uploaded by Cindy and will be available on her website FOREVER! $40 is such a discounted price to pay for this fabulous resource. This price is only good until July 1st, 2008 and then it increases to $99. That is still a wonderful price for all the great resources you recieve, but why pay more when it is such a great deal now?

Click below and check out it out!

http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=carieann77&pid=1

Today's To Do List

I was so tired after working in the garden yesterday that I didn't get everything done on my list. I will be finishing it up today.

Morning
family Bible reading
school
laundry
chores
lunch

Afternoon
declutter table and desk
sort coupons
fold and put away laundry
pick up Shannon (my niece) from school

Evening
supper
family read aloud time
private Bible study
BED

Our Garden

I guess that dh and I were feeling energetic yesterday. I didn't know that we were, but I guess we were. I thought that we were going to plant our veggie plants yesterday. Dh planned on putting the seeds in the ground. In the end, we planted the whole thing.....in 2.5 hours. Did I mention that our garden is HUGE? We extended it out this year by about 4 ft. on the south side. I would guess that it is 60 ft long by 25 ft. wide. That makes it bigger than our house. Anyway, this is what we planted: (our rows are 25 ft. long)

4 hills of watermelon
8 3/4 rows of sweet corn (Kandy Corn variety - yummy)
2 hills spaghetti squash
2 hills zucchini
2 hills cucumber
1 row radishes
1 row red onions and yellow onions
3 rows potato hills
4 sweet potato plants
1/2 row of brussel sprouts
1 row okra
3 1/2 rows of green beans
6 cherry tomatoes
24 regular tomatoes (several varieties)
3 jalepeno peppers
3 caribbean red hot peppers
11 sweet banana peppers
9 bell peppers
6 cabbage plants
3 broccoli

That makes me tired just thinking about it. Everything wasn't in that order necessarily. We have corn and green beans in 2 different places. Our new things this year are brussel sprouts and okra. We will see how they do.

It is supposed to rain the next couple of days so we got everything done just in time.

Today's To-Do List

I quit doing this a while back, but am going to try to take it up again. It works great to keep me accountable and I love to see what others are doing with their days!

Morning
school work
laundry
work in garden
lunch

Afternoon
sweep kitchen
declutter living room tables
declutter desk
fold and put away laundry

Evening
read aloud with boys
bath baby
supper
order my mom's Mother's Day gift (I am late!)
private Bible reading and prayer
maybe some knitting????

I hope that everyone has a wonderful day!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

To participate you can go HERE



FOR TODAY May 6th...
Outside My Window... Sunshine and birds singing

I am thinking...about planting the garden this morning and the finishing up of schoolwork

I am thankful for...a hardworking husband

From the kitchen...might bake something yummy

I am wearing...grubby garden clothes - black sweats and a t-shirt

I am creating...socks and a wrap

I am going...nowhere today!

I am reading...Ephesians, Psalms and Acts

I am hoping...the beautiful weather will continue and the rain will be gentle

I am hearing...my little dog sniff around the house

Around the house...things are still quiet as everyone sleeps

One of my favorite things...homemade quilts

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: babysitting my niece, shopping with dh, working on my herb bed and flower beds

Wrapping Up Our School Year

We should be wrapping up our school year soon. Once the boys found out that we could very well be schooling until the end of JUNE....they decided to double-up on assignments and get some books finished. They have been very persistant and it looks like we should have no problem finishing up by the end of the month. I am very relieved about that. Last year we schooled on and off all summer and it was mentally tedious for me. Not really hard, but I never got the time to plan and work at the next years stuff and get excited about it. I hope to get excited about this next year's studies.

I am really, really enjoying the audio recordings from Cindy Rushton's Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008. I enjoy them so much that I am going to get a button soon. I can't say enough good things about this Expo. It is worth the money in so many ways. I am feeling so refreshed and rejuvinated and I have probably on listened to 3-4 speakers. What a wonderful blessing!!!!!

In wrapping up this year's stuff, I am already mentally planning next years. How do you like to plan your school year? Do you plan a month/quarter/semester/year at a time? Do you work at it all in one day or over the course of a week or more? How do you organize the resources that you will be using for the new year (and those that you have but won't be using?)? I guess that I am full of questions tonight. Please share how you plan your homeschool. I love to glean great ideas from everyone!

Have a good night!

What is New with Us

Hello!
We are enjoying spring so much here! I planted a flower bed of beautiful annuals last week. I hope that they are hanging on in the cooler weather this week. Spring is here and I am so glad!!!!

Today we did our schooling, houseworking and I have been downloading the preview chats from Cindy Rushton's Ultimate Homeschool Expo. If you haven't heard of this you can go here . I am going to have some fantastic CD's from this!

Well, little Bear is grumpy and needs Momma.....better go!

Revolution Money Exchange

Here is the competition for Paypal.

Join Revolution Money Exchange by clicking on the button below and you will receive $25 for signing up. No strings attached!
To be fair, I will also receive $10 for refering you. If you refer your friends and family you will receive $10 also.

You Knit What??

Socks

Yes, I knit socks. My goal is to have all of my personal socks handknit by the end of 2008. Cool huh? I thought so too.

Now, I am not writing this blog post just so that you can think that I am cool. In fact I am writing this to encourage you, my reader, to embrace some kind of hand-craft. Choose something that is both practical and pretty, something that you can poor your creativity into, something that will be YOU. I love cutsie socks. I knit myself cutsie socks. Some people (dh) think that cutsie socks are......weird. Most people think that cutise socks are at least cool for me, even if they wouldn't wear them themselves. Cutsie socks in interesting styles and color are ME. And I love to knit them.

There is something very calming about creating something for yourself with your own two hands. It is almost like a link to the past. I can almost imagine my great-great-grandmothers sitting next to the fire knitting socks for their families. How much closer to your heritage can you get?

So, my challenge for you today is to play around with different things that interest you. Find your creative outlet. Let that creativity flow!
(And when you do, please comment and let me know what is inspiring you!)

How Does My Garden Grow? Pt. 1

I am hoping to make this a biweekly part of my blog where I share how my garden is growing.....interesting things that I have planted or beautiful scenes that I would like to share. Gardening wasn't something that I was fond of at first, but it is quickly becoming a passion!

This afternoon I planted 18 petunias, 12 marigold, 2 mums and 12 salvias in my flower bed adjacent to the house. Dh was able to buy these plants discounted at work and it was such a blessing to me to have them and be able to fill this flower bed up! I don't think that there is an inch to spare except for the spot I reserved to plant a clemantis next to the wall. If everything lives and fills in nicely like I hope it will, this flower bed will be a sight to behold this summer.

Dh also brought home tomatoes and peppers for the veggie garden and chives and cilantro for the herb bed. I hope to get the herbs planted later this week. I have a problem with my hands swelling when I do a lot of gardening and could barely bend my fingers by the time I came in this evening. Greg blessed me by doing about half of the digging but the work still took its toll. Little Bear played in his walker in the yard and enjoyed squealing at the big dogs, Jasmine and Mixie, while he played. He hasn't really interacted with them much yet and Jasmine, especially, seems to like him a lot!

As that bed fills in I will share some pictures with you!

Please tell me, how does your garden grow?

Busy Days

This week has been busy so far and looks to continue that way. I hate a week of constant "busyness". I love to just be able to take a deep breath when I wake up in the morning and stay at home. I am frequently criticised by members of my family for my frequent "busyness". As most of you know we attend taekwondo classes 2-3 nights a week. In a town that is 25 minutes from home. I have worked hard over the past few years to consolidate my other errands on the days that we already have to be in town. That has been working fantastically, and has freed me up for other things at home. What I have found though, especially in the last few months, is that other people (more often than not, family members) expect things from me that cause me to be "busy" several other days over the course of the month. I am given responsibilities that belong to others and asked to do things that a "working woman" wouldn't ever be asked to do. I sometimes wonder why. Why would you ask me to do something when you know that I have 3 kids at home that I need to school, feed and clean up after? Why would you give me ONE MORE THING to do when I am already near the point of exhaustion? I find that I don't really know what causes some people to feel compelled to give me these jobs but I have recently decided to look at these things as ministries to others. I am able to do these other things. I have figured out, for the most part, how to juggle my schedule to fit these things in with the least amount of disruption for my family. So maybe, for this season, some of these things are important responsiblities in my life. Maybe instead of asking God to take these things away, I should ask Him to help me fit them in. I should thank God that I have the ability to relieve the burden of others. I thank Him daily for the strength that he gives to me.
If you feel the "added" responsibilities of life weighing you down, ask yourself if maybe this is where God wants you right now. Maybe this is the time of your life when you will be busy, doing the work of God, and hopefully shining an example of his love for all the world to see. Remember to serve with a smile!

Meet and Greet Monday (a day early)

I have been playing with my new digital camera and the software on my laptop. Even with highspeed internet it is a pain to upload pictures. But that's ok. I am learning! So I thought that I would share some of the new ones with you.




That is me, feeding Baby Bear (obviously!) at Christmas. He has grown a lot since then!



This is Leland and Norman. They love to snuggle together!



And here is Leland pretending to be asleep on the back of the couch with our cat, Tiger. Tiger and Sadie (our cocker spaniel) always sleep on the back of the couch.



Gregory with Norman. Now that Norman can play more, him and Greg get along a lot better. They are becoming great friends!



This has got to be my favorite photo of the bunch. Dh Norman gives Bear his baths when he is home off work....they take one together in the big bathtub. Thursday Norman put bubble bath in and ran the jets to make lots of bubbles and him and Bear played for a long time. They had so much fun splashing and eating bubbles!

Enjoy!

Children a Luxury Item?

I just finished reading this article HERE. I am just flabbergasted that someone would consider children a showy, luxury item.

My children are PEOPLE. I love them. I didn't have them to "show off". My dh and I, our family, is far from upper class. We don't even aspire to attain upper class status. We are happy where we are. We have 3 children, and (drumroll please) we might have MORE.

I will let your shock wear off.

Children do not cost a fortune to raise. That is why there are resale shops and yard sales. You don't buy new equipment with every child. In times of financial trouble (gas is $3.55 a gallon here today!!!!!) you switch to cloth diapers, clip coupons and grow a larger garden. If you think that children are exhorbitantly expensive then I suggest that you have a look at your checkbook and consider your priorities. Yes, the hospital bill will need to be paid if you don't have insurance. Yes, some equipment will need to be purchased (but only select things will need to be new, ie car seats and bottles if you use them). I bought my cloth diapers used. We were given a bouncy seat and walker. With this child we bought a new crib, playpen and swing. With boys #1 and #2 we had all that stuff used (through 2 children of our own too, mind you). If there wasn't a 7 year gap in children, we would have used that stuff again (or at least most of it). I don't nurse so we are buying formula. We buy ours in huge cans at Sams Club. That is our biggest expenditure at about $50 a month. That will last no more than one year from birth and then the little tyke can eat what the rest of us do.

I have encountered resistance to "more than 2". I couldn't believe at a family reunion less than 4 weeks after son #3 was born when a "well-meaning" aunt (several of them actually, over the course of 2 days) told us that we wouldn't be able to raise all those kids. When my dh told them that we might have some more, God willing, they about fell to the floor. We started getting lectured like we were obstinant 3 year olds. I don't think that most of them knew that I am a STAY-AT-HOME MOM. We only see these people once a year. I don't think that they would be happy if we caused them to have a heart attack. People honestly believe that you can't afford to have more than 2 children. That is so very, very sad.

I also want everyone to know that our children aren't deprived. We live in a new (4 year old) home. Our main vehicle 6 years old. Our children have a playstation 2 (bought used). They also have gameboys (Christmas gifts), cellphones (Christmas gifts - different Christmas), shotguns (Christmas gifts), nice bicycles.......all the trappings of a middle class life. They also understand that we SAVE for things that we want. They had a 4-wheeler fund. We made up the difference and bought them dirt bikes instead. The look on their faces as they did extra work every week to put into that fund was priceless (and I wasn't the one paying them to do the work - regular chores don't get paid for around here). Now, they are saving their money for our trip to Florida in October........that's right....we travel too!

I hope that Christians, especially, will stop listening to the nonesense that is coming from these people. Children are only as expensive as you make them be!

Garden Plans

It is that time again. Are we all ready to garden?????

I started some seedlings on Friday. I know that I am late, but I figure that any head start that I can give the little things the better. My cabbage has already sprouted. I haven't seen anything out of my broccoli or the flower seed that I planted. I tend to be impatient.

Most of what we are planting will be the usual stuff. I am going to plant some okra this year. That will be new. I am also hoping to can a lot more stuff. Hopefully, we will be investing in a pressure canner. I have always been afraid to pressure can so I was limited to things that I could hot-water-bath. With the price of groceries goign through the roof I really need to stock up on as much home-grown stuff as possible.

Dh will be getting some veggie and flower plants from work next week I think. I am eager to see what he will get me. Last year he brought home lots of veggie stuff and some mums for our new flower bed. I am sad to say, I don't think that the mums made it through the winter. The didn't get the attention that they deserved last summer with me pregnant and I think suffered for it.

So what are you planning in your gardens this year?

Still Here

I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Little Bear is a handful some days. I have been setting up new routines, exercise habit, Bible reading habit, daily goals, etc. and have barely had time to read email, let alone blog. I hope that you will forgive me.

I have also been dealing with some heart issues of my own lately. They came to a head with an argument with my dh yesterday. We hashed everything out today (over the phone, we do better that way for some reason) but I have a lot of work to do within myself. I have been convicted of my unsubmissive spirit. I have also been placing undue pressure on my dh in areas that he CAN'T change (ie, work, etc). That is not what God would have me doing. I realize that now, and am thankful that I came to this realization now while it will be easier to undo the damage to our marriage relationship.

I realized today how much I idealize the "normal" marriage arrangement. By normal I mean the dh working 9-5 with weekends off; able to spend time coaching teams and camping with the kids; sitting next to his family at church and during the monthly potluck. This is the ideal that I was hoping we would eventually reach. This is NOT going to happen here. My dh works 3-11. He works 1 hour away from home, so he leaves at 1:30 p.m. and doesn't return until midnight. He winds down after work (when the rest of us are asleep), going to bed around 2 a.m. He wakes up after 7-8 hours of sleep; usually around 10 or 11 a.m. Of course, that is if he doesn't work overtime. He works a lot of overtime. His days off are on Thursday and Friday. We spend the better part of those days at taekwondo (dh is part owner of the school). My dh is a wonderful provider, and he tries his very best to spend quality time with us. I am thankful that we can homeschool; otherwise my boys would almost never see their father. We miss out on the weekend camping trips, sitting together at church (dh doesn't attend), going to local football games together; evening dinners with friends are out. If we wanted to invite friends for dinner, they would all be at work. This is the part that I struggle with. I wanted the perfect "family life". I realize that I need to accept that our "family life" is perfect for US. This is the way that our family operates. Me wishing that it is going to be different isn't going to help matters any. I know that God can give me contentment in this area if I am willing to seek His will.

All of this rambling is to say, that if your family doesn't look like the "perfect family" that is ok. All families are different and yours is unique to your unique personalities and circumstances. My relationships with friends may not be as strong as they could be if we were available to fellowship together, but my relationship with my dh and children is more important and I can nurture that in the common atmosphere of our home.....where we all belong!!!!!

I hope to post some more this week. I hope that everyone is enjoying spring!

Crystal Wetherholt

Crystal is a very dear friend of mine. After much anticipation on my part, she has finally gotten her new website up and running. Crystal is a wonderful mother and example of godly womanhood. She speaks with the gift of God on the topics of mothering and godly womanhood. I am excited to see that she is speaking nearby in May and can't wait to be there. I encourage you to check out her website and blogs (linked on her website!) and see where God is taking her fantastic ministry.

Maybe a Lamb

Yesterday was a lamb day. We enjoyed it profusely. After lunch we went for Little Bear's first walk. It was 60 degrees and sunny with almost no wind at all. We walked for a while before he went to sleep. I am glad that he was able to enjoy his first "outside" experience. Before that he had only been outside long enough to go from house to car, car to store and back again.

Greg walked Sadie on her leash. They ran for almost a mile. She was more excited to be outside than the rest of us I think. Lee rode his bicycle. We really enjoyed ourselves. Next time I will try to remember to take pictures.

Today is a rainy day. I know that we need rain as well as sunshine, but it is such a bummer after such a beautiful day. I hope that it is short lived and spring sunshine returns again soon.

Out Like a Lamb

The old saying is that if March comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb. I think that we can classify the ice storm during the first week of March as "in like a lion". I am having trouble classifying this last week though. What is up with SNOW all day on Easter???? And does that mean we will have snow for the next 7 Sundays????? Please someone help me figure this out!

While my mind ponders the mysteries of the world, my body works. The house was in such a state of dissaray that I couldn't even think. I have pretty much finished the Emergency House Clean-up posted by Candy and linked to by Crystal. The kitchen looks better. The main bathroom looks better. The rest of the house......not so good. But the laundry is folded so that has to be worth something. When I get done here, I am going to pick up some and then call it a day.

The main focus of the past few days is the revival being held at our church this week. We started with services last night. I think that it was a smashing success. I was honored to be asked to lead the music part of the service. This is the first time that I have done this for a revival. The topic is Restoring God's Church with John Blackmore speaking. Last night he urged us to consider what I will be willing to give up to bring others to know Christ. That is a big question! I have trouble coming out of my comfort zone. I want others to know about Christ, but what do my actions show? This is something that will require prayer over the next few days (maybe weeks!) to sort out in my mind. I am excited to hear tonight's message!!!!

Greg celebrated his 8th birthday on Friday. He got fishing gear, a metal detector and lots and lots of $$$$$ in the form of cash and gift cards. I don't remember ever having as much money as he does when I was 8!!!! Happy Birthday sweetie! We love you!

Well, I guess that I will go for now. Please let me know if you can help me out on any of life's questions......I will be waiting for someone to figure it out!

A Day in our Homeschool

Candy has been posting about how her homeschool works and encouraged us to share what a day in our homeschool is like. It isn't exciting, but here it is!

We get up around 7-8 a.m. It kinda depends on what the plans are for that day and how late we were out the night before. Days after taekwondo classes usually start later than other days.
We begin with Bible. Right now we are reading through the book of Luke. Sometimes we split the reading, sometimes I read to them. Then we share prayer requests and praises and have a time of prayer. I think that this really helps start our day off on the right foot. Then the boys take turns taking baths while the other starts school. Then they switch. I limit bath time to 15 minutes, otherwise they would stay in there all day.

In the morning, both boys must complete the following:
spelling
language lesson
math
latin
handwriting
writing (Lee - once a week)
reading practice

They are allowed to do these things in whatever order they choose. Some of them they can always do on their own (handwriting) and others always need my supervision (reading practice). Most of them vary from day to day depending on the assignment. During this time I also work on laundry and try to either play with the baby or put him down for a nap. He has decided that he doesn't always want to take the morning nap.

After their subjects are done then they are required to read for 30 mins. We alternate between a book of their choosing and a book of my choosing. When that is done they are free until after lunch. They will usually get most of their chores out of the way for the day and then play with Baby Bear for me while I get lunch fixed.

Norman leaves for work and then we commence history and science studies. We also read some poetry at this time. They do any notebooking, mapwork, timeline work and also complete lyrical life science at this time. Hopefully Baby Bear is asleep at this time as well, but if he isn't we just roll him in with what we are doing. He plays really well in his walker so that helps.

The boys have the afternoon free. Depending on the day of the week we may be going to taekwondo. On those days we also usually go to the library. The boys love the new library! If it is a "stay at home day" then they play outside, in their rooms or work on crafts. Right now, Greg has a study on turtles that he and I are working on during his free time.

We try to have read-aloud time during the evenings when we are home. This doesn't always happen. I need to be more diligent about it.

There is our current school day. I look forward to seeing how everyone else works their days!

Are you a Hearer or a Doer?

Are you a hearer or a doer? Am I?

That is the question that I asked myself this evening as I sat down to the computer. I sat down with the express purpose of looking (once again) for the perfect homekeeping system. I am absolutes sure that it is out there. I look for it about twice a month. As I sat down, it occurred to me that I have read about every practical homekeeping article out there (although if you have a new one, I would love to read it!) and tried every organizational system. You would think with all of this knowledge under my belt that my house/household/schooling would be in ship-shape condition.

Sadly, that is not the case.

I am here to admit that I am a hearer/reader/seeker. I am, in fact, NOT a doer. I don't tend to put the things that I learn into practice. I will sit and read about homekeeping/organizational systems. I will make up detailed cleaning rotations and charts. I will delegate jobs to the children. However, I don't follow any of those things. I do what I NEED to do to get by and no more. I am barely keeping my head above water. As I look around my house right now, I stress the BARELY part. How embarrassing!

This tendency of mine tends to follow into my spiritual life. Jesus warns us not to be hearers of the Word only, but doers also. I can't begin to count the times I have noted in my journal or Bible something that I think God is saying to me. I can count on ONE hand how many times I have actually followed through with what God wants me to do. That is truly sad.

Right now, I am challenging myself to be a DOER. I am going to keep a list of the things I need to DO and keep myself accountable to doing them. Homekeeping, homeschooling, ministry are all included here. Most importantly though is my spiritual life. From today on, that will be my main priority.

I urge any of you who read this to challenge yourself to be DOERS, in all areas of your life. Make this a priority in your spiritual life. Post about what your neglected area is and how you are working to improve it. Please leave me a comment! We can encourage each other!

200th Post

I just wanted to note (for anyone that cares) that this is my 200th post :) I don't have anything fascinating to say though!

Family Emergencies

I am praising the Lord today as we are recovering from a family emergency. My youngest brother Daniel was in a severe motorcycle accident on Friday evening. He was transfered from our local hospital to a level 1 trauma center north of here. It seems that God has choosen to bless him with a full recovery! He is still a patient there, but has become fully conscious, and has only a broken clavical and road rash to show for the experience. I am so thankful for our friends and church family as they "prayed" us through this time. I know that I couldn't have made it without them!

I am still trying to catch up on sleep. This week is full, with dog grooming and children's doctor's appointments. Next week will be a 3-day revival at our church. I was honored to be asked to lead the music. I haven't ever led music for a revival before so I am anxious to be pleasing to God. I hope and pray that he will lead me in the selection of music and appropriate speech.

I will try to update with some scripture that I have been reading lately. There are many great gems I have discovered and applied to my life over the past couple of weeks!

PJs and Coffee

I was just wondering if there was anyone else out there in internet land who was chronically drinking COLD coffee?

I swear that it isn't my fault, maybe I have a touch of ADHD, but it seems like every time I get a new cup of hot coffee something happens, I set it down, and when I come back to it, it is cold...and then we go around again. Lukewarm coffee isn't very good either, btw. I know that mornings are so busy around here and that is part of the problem, but that is precisely why I NEED the coffee :) And to top things off, the last 2 days I haven't managed a shower before 10 a.m. Today is was after 11 a.m. It seems that the boys don't mind that I am doing school in my pj's......in fact, sometimes they are in their underwear.....so I guess that it all works out.

It is a blessing that we very rarely have visitors :)

So Very Busy

I don't know what is going on around here. I feel like I am barely treading water! I seem to be sooo busy but I can't really think of anything that has been added to my schedule to make me feel that way.

On Monday the boys and I went to the library. We live in between 2 towns. We hold an in-residence library card to one of them. Unfortunately it is the town that we almost never go to....(((sigh))). Recently, I discovered that we could have our library card stickered with the bar code of the library in the town that we ARE in 3-4 times a week. Praise God!!! And this library is a lot nicer than the other one (although in its defense, library #1 is in a slightly smaller town). So we are excited and spent 1.5 hours at the library before taekwondo Monday evening. Just hanging out. Cause we could :)

Yesterday I worked like an ant with school, laundry and housework. My parents returned home from their FL trip on Monday (yeah, guess what they were doing during the ice storm?????). So we went to their house to visit Tuesday afternoon.
I was finally able to check email and blogs at 8 p.m. on Tuesday evening. The first time since Saturday.

Today I was busy again with school and housework and laundry. The busyness was compounded by the fact that Little Bear has spent most of the day screaming his little head off and refusing to take a nap. That is not conducive to cleaning. But I have managed and even have a minute online. Then I need to fold the last load of laundry.

Cloth diapers are going great. I don't really know what all the fuss is about. It really isn't any different and I can just hear the money hitting the bank every time I DON'T use a disposable. With the price of gas and groceries going up EVERY DAY, I am relieved to be able to save some money somewhere.

I am planning for school next year. It doesn't look like Sonlight is going to be in the budget....as sad as that makes me. But I am having fun putting things together from Hands of a Child. They have a lot of very interesting Project Packs for a wide spread of age groups. I joined their Super Membership Club and have already downloaded 3 project packs that just happen to be for things that we were wanting to study!!!!! God is great.

I am hoping to find some time to knit. It just isn't working right now. That's ok. I know that this season of life will pass so quickly!

Back In the Swing of Things

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things.

So far today I have:
washed/dried/folded several loads of laundry (I still have at least 2 loads left to do)
decluttered the kitchen table, coffee table and breakfast bar
put away some of our extra grocery purchases
swept the kitchen and dining room
loaded and ran the dishwasher and handwashed the rest
had the boys do their chores
check email
made lunch (fried shrimp and cajun rice)
decluttered baby stuff
picked up living room

We are having chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, biscuits and fruit for supper.

I also made some phone calls and scheduled Little Bear's 4 month doctor's appt. At this point though it will really be an almost 5 month appointment :)

I am going to go do some reading, bible study and maybe watch some TV before time to start supper. We are having a stay-at-home day. It will be a relief after our hectic week!

Ice Storm

What a few days these have been!!!!

Monday evening an ice storm started. It continued all night and into the morning on Tuesday. At 11 a.m. Tuesday we lost our power. Norman had to go to work so the boys and I hunkered down in the warmest room of the house (an interior bedroom). At 5 p.m. I called our electric company only to be told it could be 48 hours before power returned. We were still warm in that bedroom, but the rest of the house was getting cold, quick. So I opted to go into town to my mil's house before it got any colder.

We just got our power on today (Thursday) at around 11 a.m. (exactly 48 hours). We stayed at mil's until around 5 to let the house warm up. We are very blessed that although it was very cold in the house our water pipes didn't freeze. We were blessed to have somewhere warm to go. I feel very blessed that we were able to come home this evening and sleep in our beds!!!! You have never seen 5 people (and 1 dog) so happy to come home to our messy home :) We appreciate it (and electricity) so very very much now!!!!!

I have a lot of catching up to do (dishes and laundry are going as we speak) but I am very thankful for our many blessings!!!

Cloth Diapers Day 2

I purchased a lot of all-in-one cloth diapers from a Craig's list posting for $50. This was an answer to prayer regarding my contemplation of cloth diapering. The diapers are very nice and as easy to use as disposables. The package included 18 diapers, extra inserts, diaper cover wraps and some flushable liners. Dh gave his consent to the purchase and helped me set up a dry diaper pail.
So far, everything has went well. We had a leak after a 4 hour nap yesterday morning, but it could have been much worse and that was only the 2nd cloth diaper we had used :) So we are still learning. He slept in a disposable last night, but tonight we will use cloth and see what happens. I think that it will go ok cause he isn't a heavy wetter at night.

Course, this morning the dryer died. We knew that it was ill, but this morning when I went to turn it on, it flashed blue and the nob dropped off in my hand. That can't be good. Dh has already repaired this dryer multiple times (it is almost 10 years old). I am going to try to just get by without telling dh for as long as possible. Things like this tend to cause him anxiety. Hopefully spring will show up quickly and I will be able to hang clothes outside again. Then there will be no problem! Today, it is still very cold and the ground is muddy from all the rain that we have had. I think that slopping through mud to get to the clothes line might be counter-productive......so I hung up the first load of clothes on hangers in the boy's bathroom and above the washing machine. After dh goes to work at noon I will do the same with the 2nd load. This evening, I will wash a load of diapers and hang them up in the morning when some of the other clothes are dry. I will make this work! They say that "where there is a will, there is a way".....we are just going to find the way!
And honestly it could be a lot worse. We have a working, almost new washing machine (it would be much worse to live without a washing machine!), running water (hot and cold), working heat (my mil's furnace was broke for over a week in bitterly cold weather while waiting for a replacement this week), plenty of food (scored great deals at Kroger yesterday) and disposable diapers if I have trouble keeping up with the laundry for a while. We are truly blessed indeed!

My back hurts :(

That just about sums up my day.

How pathetic is that????

Anyway, my mind has been whirring with ideas about organizing the bathroom cabinets (be still my heart!) and about some new knitting projects (hats for Baby Bear and a friend). I am deeply troubled by the thought of grocery prices increasing dramatically over the next few months. Norman and I have been seriously stocking up on things that are on sale, and getting the great deals at Walgreens and CVS, but we haven't really had any way to organize the massive amount of stuff (food, tolietries, etc.) So we are thinking of putting floor to ceiling cabinets somewhere.......maybe in the kitchen, maybe in the living room. So I am pondering that.

Today we had school, I did 4 loads of laundry (compared to yesterday's SEVEN!), fixed spaghetti for lunch (with homemade sauce, yummy!), finished school and the laundry, cleaned the back part of the living room (you know, the place where all the ODD stuff lives LOL), ran the dishwasher twice and comforted a very grumpy baby on and off ALL DAY LONG.

Baby Bear has been out of sorts the past few days. I don't know if he is teething, feeling bad, or getting ready to feel bad. I guess he could be having a growth spurt. He just cries and is difficult to comfort. I look forward to Norman's days off.

I am tired and my back still hurts (amazing that blogging didn't help that :)) so I am going to bed. Tomorrow will be another day :)

P.S. Lest you think that I am ungrateful, I am so very thankful for everything that God has given me today including an aching back, cause that means that I was able to work and snuggle a chubby baby. Good night!

Some more pictures

This is a picture of my older boys.
Greg is on the left and Lee is on the right. They really are best friends.



This is my Sadie. She is a black cocker spaniel....and my only daughter :) She sleeps most of the time so this is a typical picture of how she spends her days.




This is a Bear and a Tiger (Tiger is the cat). I wasn't sure which one is bigger so I laid them side-by-side for a size comparison. I am not sure who the winner is.



Ironically, Tiger doesn't really like people. He is anti-social. He especially doesn't like ME. He is dh's cat. He bites if you rub his tummy. So I don't....EVER. Suprisingly, Tiger loves Bear. Tiger wants to sleep with Bear, wants to rub up against Bear and goes out of his way to check on Bear. So the anti-social cat likes the baby. Who, ironically, will probably spend the next 2 years pulling Tiger's tail. I guess that every good deed doesn't go unpunished. Especially not in this house :)

Contemplation

I have been mulling around ideas for our homeschool in my mind for a week or so now. I tend to embrace change.....even when change isn't need (or in some cases WANTED). I love Sonlight. The kids are enjoying it and even have embraced reading (even my reluctant reader). Sonlight is working for us.

And yet, I am seeking something else.

Although we are solidly in the middle of our 2nd term (we took off a lot of time when Bear was born) we are only starting the 12th week of Sonlight. I am looking at us still working through Core 3 till the end of 2008....at least. That's ok. But part of me says you need to get something else. Why part of me says that, I don't know. I told that part to shut up, but it isn't listening.....got figure.

Sonlight is pretty expensive. However that isn't relative if we are still using it for half of next year also. And that will also let Greg expand his reading skills enough so that he can stay on the same Core as Lee at least for a few more years. I thought that I would have to split them up after Core 4 due to Greg's lower reading ability (he is in 2nd grade now - using Core 3 - and doing fine, I might add). So if we can't start Core 4 until Jan. 2009 then Greg will be halfway through 3rd grade and that wouldn't be working to far ahead. Lee is my reluctant reader so it works great that we are working a little behind his grade level. That keeps the reading right where he needs it to be.

Speaking of reading. Lee is reading the advanced readers for Core 3. He is doing very well. He is reading them faster than they are scheduled. Part of that is because I assign reading based on 30 minutes a day rather than so many chapters a day. So he is ahead. I have started letting him alternate assigned reading books with books of his choosing (after mom's approval of a book). He is pleased with this arrangement and so am I. I started doing this for Greg also so that he can read some for pleasure as well as assigned.

I am trying to integrate notebooking into our curriculum more. We are doing some narrations after reading history assignments. The boys like the science worksheets but I don't think that I will purchase Sonlight science again. The boys love science topics and I would love to be able to follow their interests in this area. So next year we will probably follow a unit study approach when it comes to science. Apologia elementary science looks very interesting to me.

So I am searching for ways to spice up our studies and get us through these mid-winter blues. Any suggestions?

Maybe when Sonlight's 2008 catalog comes out I will be inspired.

Little Bear

This is a picture of Little Bear. He was up on his dad's shoulder and looked so sweet that we snapped a picture. We do that alot.

A Picture of my Boys

I am trying my hand at uploading pictures to my blog. If this works, this will be a picture of my boys. Greg is on the left, Norman in the middle and Lee is holding Sadie on the right.

Quick Post - Homeschool Links

I have ran across several cool homeschool related links in the past few days that I thought that I would share. I am typing quick cause Little Bear is waking up.

The Master Planner



The Chore Busters

Enjoy!

Saturday Savings

I thought that I would post some fantastic deals that Norman and I managed to find this week. For starters, Norman has really become a money saving fanatic. He does great! He goes to IGA after work and walks up and down the aisle looking for the "unadvertised" sales. His great deal this week was frozen bread dough, IGA brand. There were 5 loaves in a bag and they were $1.38. Normally they were $4.85!!!!! And the bread was delicious :)

At Walgreens I finished getting the "free with rebate" items. I also got the general mills cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms) that were 3/$7 with a $2 RR. Incidentally, the register also gave us a $1.50 off 3 boxes coupon for next time.

I am new to CVS shopping but I didn't do bad there this week. I had around $14 in ECB's to spend. I got Cascade dishwashing detergent, 2 jumbo packs of Pampers, a Soy Joy bar, a Gilette Fusion razor and a Gatorade G2. I spent my ECB's and $13 out of pocket and got $6.29 in ECB's for next time. I had a lot of coupons to spend on stuff there (2 $1.50 off coupons for Pampers and a $4 off 1 razor) so that helped with my total a lot.

I am interested to see the great deals when I am able to get a hold of more coupons. We have a new printer so now I will be able to access all those wonderful online coupons.

I can't wait to see the sales flyers for next week! And just one week after that till the new Easy Saver Books are out! Woo Hoo!!!!!! Norman says that I am an addict :)

Happy Saving!

Current Reading List

I thought that it would be interesting to post my current reading list. These are all books that are either in my "quiet time" basket or living on the coffee table. I have started them but not finished them at this time :)

Issue #57 An Encouraging Word
Winter 2007-08 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
March 2008 Fitness Magazine

Beautiful In God's Eyes by Elizabeth George (2nd time through)
The Genesis Record by Henry M. Morris
Loving God with All Your Mind by Elizabeth George
Language Arts the Easy Way by Cindy Rushton
Notebooking! Yes, You Can be a Binder Queen by Cindy Rushton
The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling
The Bible - Deuteronomy

So, leave a comment and let me know what you are currently reading~

Icy Day

We had sleet and freezing rain last night.

Everything is under a layer of ice this morning. That means that I get to stay home today. The roads aren't in a good enough condition to justify me getting out with the kids so I juggled my schedule and arranged for us to be home today.

I LOVE staying at home!

We finished school work a few minutes ago. I wrote a letter, made some phone calls (juggling our activities) and am checking email. I will be making pork chops for lunch. We will do afternoon school and maybe I will get some knitting in. Little Bear was so fussy yesterday that I didn't get any knitting done yesterday. And now he is awake again. Guess I had better go!

Have a great day!

Moving Into the Technology Age

Well, with much anticipation we have moved into the technological age :) For Valentine's Day my wonderful husband bought me a new Gateway laptop, a wireless 3-in-1 printer and high speed internet. WOOOHOOOO!
I have done more this afternoon in 1 hour on the internet than I have done in the last 3 weeks combined. I am flabbergasted by how FAST this thing is (I am sure it is a combination between fantastic computer and fabulous internet service).
I imagine that I will be doing a LOT more blogging. I will also try to get some pictures posted of my boys and some of the projects that I have been working on.
This will open up so many creative doors for me :)

Website Links for Submission Post

I am sorry that I forgot to add these at the end of my post on Biblical submission. These are some of the sites that helped to encourage me to seek the Bible and God's will with regard to submission in my marriage. I hope that they will also encourage you!

www.titus2.com
www.yoursacredcalling.blospot.com
www.keepingthehome.com
www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com

Also, here are some book titles that I have also found useful:

The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
Created to be His HelpMeet by Deb Pearl