So much to tell, but I'm so tired! I'll at least start.

Time has flown! I thoroughly enjoyed my temporary position and dh is still enjoying his. The hard part for me was leaving my kids. God has taught me a lot during this time. I'll have to go into that more later though.

We are enjoying our time of Advent this year. My dh found an old radio broadcast on this website called The Cinnamon Bear and each night we have turned off the lights (except the Christmas tree) and sat on the couch together listening to the radio. It has been such a sweet time and I'm surprised that my 4yr. old has been still and listened. Once The Cinnamon Bear finishes (it's only 12 mins. each night) we cut off some Hershey Kisses from a candy chain I make each year to count down the days to Christmas visually for the kids. Then the person who cut them off of the chain passes them out and tells each person a reason they love them and in return each person tells the giver a reason they love them. This is something new for us this year and has been really sweet to hear the kids share why they love each other. The Advent Log then gets lit by my husband or myself and we read our devotion and pray for people that we received Christmas cards from that day. The singing then begins! We rotate who picks a song each night and then our little guy stands in front of us and sings his version of Jingle Bells. We've also read some books about Christmas during Advent and we are doing What God Wants for Christmas .

I tried added some photos of some of this, but unfortunately I'm not very good at that and was unable to because the pictures were too large...so someday soon I'll get those posted, but for now I'm tired and need some sleep. I've rambled on in my sleepy state for too long as it is. Not sure any of this made sense.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Ok, so I couldn't wait I wanted to share at least one thing God has been teaching me recently before Christmas.

It's strange the way we meander through life, thinking we are moving forward, only to discover that we have left our hearts behind. We can so easily sleepwalk through our days-out of touch, disconnected. Life is not a journey you want to make on autopilot. God wants us to live from the heart. It's the key to so much-to trust and willingness to forgive; to laughter, wisdom, and sacrifice;to being able to love others in a real way.
- These words are taken from a book I'm reading by Paula Rinehart, just thought others might need to hear it too! I've written them a little differently, so that I didn't have to write a whole chapter for you to read.

OK, now Have a wonderful Christmas!! May God fill your day with His presence!

Is it really time to be thinking about the holidays?

Life has been interesting here. My dh is working a full-time job, but it is only temporary. It ends Dec. 31. I will be working a temporary position also, starting Nov. 16 and ending Dec. 15. So.....I'm thinking about the holidays a lot right now because I will not have the time to get ready later. My job will be 6 days a week, leaving Sunday for church. So my parents are coming to help with the kids. The problem is, we rent and are not permitted to have a pet, and my parents have one. So we are trying to work it all out. (There is a lot more that has been going on, but this was all I had time to share.) The great thing is I'm almost ready for the holidays!!

Needless to say school has been a challenge through all of this, so I think I'll be trying to use this as a way to keep myself accountable. My dd has been wonderful at doing a lot of things on her own, but I've been terrible at doing my part:( My ds needs a regular schedule and I haven't provided, so he says that he doesn't want to do school when I mention it, just because he's not use to it. (That makes me so sad to write.) When we get into doing his school, he loves it! I really hope this will help me by being brutally honest that I've blown it lately.
Hope everyone is doing well out there in blog world and especially in your homeschool journeys.

So Sorry!!

I haven't been on here in too long!!! Sorry!! Life has been crazy! It's late now, but I will post more tomorrow. I apologize and I've missed reading what's going on with everyone else.

Busy week! No school!

My sweet little boy had surgery on Tuesday to have tubes put in his ears and today he had to go to the orthodontist and he's only 4yrs. old!! My emotions have been like a roller coaster to say the least!!

They decided to put tubes in because he has hearing loss and are hoping this will help. He does NOT like the drops we have to put n his ears twice a day for five days, but he is getting better at it. He's at least laying down and doing it now. :)

He has hemifacial microsomia, so we went to the orthodontist to see if there is anything we should be doing for him at this time. The orthodontist said that we don't need to do anything yet, but I'm not sure how familiar he is with hemifacial microsomia. So there may be a second opinion happening in our future, but not for a while, because my little boy need a break from doctors for a couple of weeks. Plus, I'll wait for the geneticist to tell us if she'd like us to get another opinion.

On top of his appointments, I had to go to the eye doctor and found out I have an inflamed eye and some type of bacteria in it, so now I have drops for my eye. I'm also working at a seasonal consignment store. So, we've had a busy week around here!

Hoping to get back on schedule next week with school!!! I'm missing it, because we've been having such a good time this year!!

Sorry I didn't post about my son's surgery and orthodontist appointment before it happened! I wasn't thinking straight!

So glad we started early!

The school year started earlier than normal this year. We started Math and LA at the beginning of July. It sounds crazy, but it has been a blessing already. I have been blessed to work a few weeks at a children's consignment store and having all of those days already on my calendar has freed me up to enjoy school more. I would normally stress about missing school, but now it has allowed me the freedom to enjoy doing school with my children and relaxing and enjoying them. Thank you God for giving me the crazy idea to start school in the middle of the summer so that I can enjoy my sweet children while they are here in my care. Anyone else start early this year, and how do you feel about it? I know it's not for everyone..hey,it might not even be for me every year!

Love this song!

Getting ready to put it all together!!

Today was a great day! My dd did her school in a very timely manner (probably because we have company)! Anyway, dd8 did Math U See Gamma 8b, LA 301 Lesson 13, Cheerful cursive Lesson 3, listened to skip counting CD, and practiced piano!!! She and I are both ready to get started with studying Children Around the World without the plight of the children. We will be adding in more about animals and the ecosystem. I need to work on that this weekend, so we can start on Monday.

Also, not school related, but God related, I had a great God sighting today! (That came from VBS, love a good VBS gimmick that sticks with you long after VBS is over.) We have been taking walks at night with our 80yr old neighbor. We live on a very steep road, and our neighbor and I set a goal to gradually work our way to the top by the end of the second week in August. ...................................(insert drumroll here)............................... We made it to the top today, a week ahead of our goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very exciting!! God has truly blessed us with this sweet neighbor, and I pray that we'll all be able to get out of the bed tomorrow!! :) Hope everyone has a great night and that God would allow you to have some wonderful God sightings tomorrow!!!

Buttoned Up Giveaway!

Found this great giveaway today! Click here if you want to see all about it.
I normally don't post links to other sites, but I 'd really like to get this one and posting it gets me another chance to win.

Great messy day!

Got started today on cleaning the homeschool room! So right now it's a mess! Tomorrow I will hopefully clean my mess and have a wonderfully organized homeschool room! Hopefully being the key word there :-)

While I was cleaning in there, my dh was cleaning out some stuff from his closet:) So now there are cds and dvds all over his side of the bed. We both have our work cut out for tomorrow.

School consisted of math, language arts, and my dd spent 3 hours on a "date" with our 80yr old neighbor. The two girls had so much fun! They went to three different stores and had lunch together and topped off their outing with a stop at our local ice cream shop!

Great day!

I think I've finished!

I think I have finally ordered everything for this school year. We already started math and language arts, but I can hardly wait for all of my boxes and such to get here so that we can get started with everything. It should be a really fun year!

My dh is still searching for work. I really wish someone would see what a wonderful man he is and that they are really missing out when then don't call him for interviews! Oh well, there I go again trying to control things myself, sorry God! It's Yours, and Your timing is perfect and Your will is perfect and that's right where I want to be! Help me to listen to You more each day!!!

Sorry, rambling here, I do hope that anyone passing by will take a moment and pray that God will continue to be our provider. Thanks! Have a blessed day!

Finally!

I finally selected my curriculum for next year! I hope it will be a wonderful year with lots of fun learning!! We will be using Children Around the World minus a few things that are too sensitive for my dd and we will add in some animals and extra science. Ds will be starting in with us and be doing some of his own fun stuff too!! Can't wait for my purchases to get here so we can start doing more than just math and language arts!

Brainstorming

Just needed a place to put down some thoughts about next year that I couldn't lose. ie. my twenty different lists that are floating around my house.
8yr old
Math- I'm going to try Math U See Gamma, this is a switch from Saxon
Spelling- Natural Speller and Spelling City website
Vocabulary- Wordly Wise 3000 website
Handwriting- New American Cursive by Memoria Press
Grammar- Easy Grammar, Daily Grams(?), and Simply Grammar
Reading Comprehension- The Prairie Primer
Bible- The Awesome Book of Bible Facts
Geography- A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth & Geography Songs
Countries and Cultures

• Music- Wee Sing Around the World
• Art- The Kid's Multicultural Craft Book: 35 Crafts from Around the World
• Food-Around the World Cookbook
• People- Children Just Like Me, Window on The World
• Countries- Need to find a good Atlas
• Animals- The Complete book of Animals
• Literature- Around the World in 80 Tales & Around the World in 80 Poems
• Christmas- Christmas Around the World/the coloring book & The Adventure of Christmas
• WeeBee Tunes Travel Adventure Get Your Passport & The Journey Continues

More to come, my brain is tired!!!

Homeschool Curriculum

I finally added some stuff to my Homeschool Curriculum page, so hop on over and take a look. I'm very excited that I figured out how to create a widget. It was soo much fun!! Oh no! I might start really blogging if I keep playing around on here enough...lol!

Shingles! And not for my roof!

Yes, I have shingles! I'll be posting more about it, when I'm over it! The medicine is making me very tired. So for now, prayers would be welcomed!! :) Thanks!

When God?

God's timing is perfect! I know that, however I have days that I wish I could see His timeline! My dh's job was eliminated due to budget cuts last year. So one year ago we were packing our stuff to move in with family. God had other plans! By His grace we are still in our rental home which is absolutely a God thing! We are, however, still unemployed and can see the end of our current resources coming quickly! God has been so faithful to us! He's even given us the desire to serve Him fulltime in ministry. We are currently raising support to be self funded missionaries with Life Action Revival Ministries. Talk about a life change and what a time to be trying to raise your own support! God will provide for us! I just wish I could catch a glimpse at His timeline!!

Having a great day!

My dd is currently reading facts about the state of Mississippi. She has already done math, grammar, spelling, is finishing up with her state of the day. AND it's only 11:20am!!!! Then we are going to have lunch outside and have fun enjoying this beautiful day! I've been using Natural Speller and just recently found Spelling City. This has made my dd beg for spelling!! YEAH!!!
I'm still struggling over what God would have me teach my dc next year! I'll just keep praying and researching until I have a peace about it! Hope everyone is having a great day!

I Love a Good Book Fair!!

I praise God for allowing me the time to go to the book fair this past weekend. My precious friend was going to go with me Saturday, but on Friday morning she called and was unable to go. I was very sad and debated going alone. She encouraged me by reminding me that Friday was normally not as busy if I wanted to go ahead and go. Next thing you know I'm on my way, by myself! A few hours of me time sure was different (and nice)! (Oops! Are we allowed to say that?! LOL!)
While I was there I was unable to find anything that fit what I feel God would like me to teach my dd next year, so I left in tears feeling like I had failed my family.
The next morning I received a phone call from that same friend and she offered to watch my kids so that my husband could go with me!!! Thank you God for the gift of friends!! So off we went and strangely enough, he felt the same way I did! I guess I'll be praying a lot more about it and I may be creating my own curriculum for this next year. Pray hard for me if that's the way God chooses for me, even typing it makes me a little nervous! Math I will NOT be creating, but we would like something new for dd. Right now it seems to be the only thing she doesn't like about school! Hope everyone has a great tomorrow!!

Sorry!

For anyone who happened to read the parenting humor section of this blog today. I found it very offensive and have deleted the gadget! I apologize if it offended anyone else who happened upon my blog!

Looking back at 2009-2010 and on to 2010-2011!

Well, I was just looking at my possible curriculum for this past year and found that I did a lot of different things. I had listed Apologia Botany, Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, Saxon Math 2, and Story of the World. What I actually used was Saxon Math 2, Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, Apologia Astronomy, Mind Benders, Natural Speller, and Adventures in My Father's World. I was unable to buy anything other than Math and Grammar due to my dh being laid off. Well, God and friends are amazing! My sweet friend gave me Adventures in My Father's World. We have had a great year!!
I've learned a lot about myself through the homeschooling process. I started out with Bob Jones, then did a year of eclectic stuff, and am currently using MFW ADV. Some things I've learned about myself:
1- I'm not a prep ahead kind of girl! (Which really stinks when there is a cool hands on activity to do and you don't have the stuff!) Anyone know of a curriculum that includes the items for hands on activities????
2- I get bored when things are presented the same way each time! (Fill out the state sheet and read the back.) My dd, however, never said a word about it!
3- I like to complete a whole book, when I find a good one! (Once again dd never a peep!)
4- Some days I just don't want to teach! (I'd rather clean the house and relax with the kiddos reading a book.).....As I wrote that I realized I need to rethink some of my curriculum, so that this time will happen. Life is too short for it not to happen! Isn't that why we homeschool anyway?!
5- I really don't like to use props when I teach!! (Puppet on a stick and pretending to have a conversation with it! YUCK!!) Even dd didn't like this one!!
6- I love to watch my daughter "get it"! She lights up!!!
So I guess I need to find out what makes her "get it" so that we can both enjoy school!

I've also been told that she is more of a visual learner, so I'm going to try and incorporate more visual learning this year. Not sure exactly how yet, so any ideas would be welcomed.
So far my thoughts for next year are overwhelming.....too many ideas that need to be narrowed down. Thankfully I'll be going to a homeschool conference soon to get my hands on some of these items!
Here are some of my thoughts:

• Saxon Math or I may switch to Singapore
• Apologia Science or Answers In Genesis
• ECC MFW, GTG, CAW, or A Child's Geography
• Easy Grammar and Daily Grams
• Writing Strands or Writing With Ease
  
• Artistic Pursuits, Geography Through Art, Drawing With Children, Global Art, or Draw Write Now
  

As you can see I'm still brainstorming!!! I'll have to write more later, I'm exhausted!!

Prayer Request

Today I need to share an urgent prayer request! My friend Christy's adopted little 6 year old boy is having a very rare type of brain tumor removed tomorrow morning at 7am Central time. The surgery is suppose to last 6-8 hours. Please pray for the whole family. Trevor has 1 older brother, 1 younger brother, and 1 younger sister. The surgery will take place in Tennessee, but their home is in Georgia (ie. friends, family, and church family). Please pray if you happen to stop by here tonight or tomorrow for this sweet family. Thanks so much!

Testing is over!

My dd had her first testing done yesterday. She did great and we are very proud of her!

Tomorrow I'm having a curriculum chat day at my house with some friends. We'll be sharing the things we love and don't really care for that we have used in the past. I know it will be lots of fun!!

Wonderful Post

I just read a beautiful post and am going to share the link and then I have to go spend some time talking to God. Here it is, enjoy!!

Finally a new post!

School has been going great! My dd has her first end of the year testing on Tuesday, so we are excited to see how she is doing! Or should I say how our curriculums are doing? ;) I'll post again when it's not so late. Probably after her testing!

What a day!

OK, so I'm not normally the fasting type. However a week ago my dear friend found out that her adopted 5yr. old little boy had a brain tumor. Well they did the biopsy today. So I decided to fast and pray for the doctor and for her boy. The biopsy was scheduled for 7:30am and didn't occur until 12:30 and ended around 2:30 or 3:00. It's all kind of a blur right now. They were able to get the biopsy, which they were concerned they may not be able to get, praise God!!! The little guy is really sick right now. He's having a lot of trouble with nausea!! I on the other hand had no nausea here and was very glad to eat again and Praise God that he made it through the surgery! The funny thing about the fasting though, was that I stopped eating yesterday afternoon and thought I'd be starved that night. Get this...I wasn't hungry until 12:30 (when the surgery actually started). But boy was I hungry! I did a lot of praying! I guess that's why I wasn't able to be there with her either, I would not have prayed as much as I did if I had been there, too many distractions! God sure is amazing!!

Random thoughts!

OK, so I'm trying to get this blogging thing going again. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it, but it is a place for me to write down my random thoughts and a place for me to journal some of our school activities.
If anyone happens by here before Monday, please pray for one of my best friends, her adopted son will be having a biopsy done on a brain tumor that is in the middle of his brain. He's 5 years old. The doctor is not even sure he'll be able to get to it, to get the biopsy. She has three other children all 7 and under.
Also we are planning a trip to raise support for our ministry. We have been called into a revival ministry and are currently raising our support which has been a challenge with the weather and the economy. This just goes to show you how our God loves for us to trust Him. We have been unemployed now for eight months and God has provided for us in so many ways, that it's hard for me to even wrap my brain around it at times. Anyway, I need some sleep. maybe I'll share more about that later.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Alice.com

Has anyone ever heard of this or used it? I'm thinking of making my first purchase and was hoping someone has some type of experience with them. Thanks!

It's been a long time!!

I haven't been blogging lately, as you can tell! However, life has changed a lot around here! My dh is unemployed and has been for 7 months. We are excited to spend the time together, however it does have it's challenges in the homeschool world and the home organization world!! I've recently realized that I need to keep on doing what I need to do to keep the house and school up and running. So...now things are great!! We have a clean home!!!! Which I've never been good at keeping up with. But now I have a routine that works for me!! More on that later!

God has been doing amazing things in our lives!! We are now a missionary family! (That still seems unreal to me, and I'm not sure I've ever written it down!) We are currently raising our support and are excited to see what God will be doing in our lives! We need to be fully funded before we can move and join in on the work that God has called us to. And might I say we are sooo ready to be there! We will miss our current home and friends, but know that God has that all figured out for us!!

Back to the clean home thing!! I have visited sooo many sites trying to figure out how to keep up with my house and finally I turned to God and asked Him what I could do....and the result is amazing!! Here's the way I'm doing things.

There are the potential of having five weeks in a month, so I based it on that and then decided on things I'd like to have done around the house, but NEVER do! (OK, sometimes I'd do some of them.) For example, clean baseboards, clean blinds, dust, clean fans, clean tub/shower, clean windows, and sad to say, change the sheets! ( I thought you only needed to do this if you spilled something on them, or a child threw up on them, or your little one accidentally peepeed on them in the night.) LOL! Anyway, I then decided to break that down by week for the month.
So week 1 is baseboards & dust,
week 2 is shower/tub & sheets,
week 3 blinds, fans, & dust,
week 4 is windows & sheets,
and week 5 is a break...nothing extra! That'll make since in a minute I hope!
Now for the days of the week. These are things that I want to have done weekly. So I commit 15 minutes each to a room or two a day.
Monday Master bedroom,
Tuesday Kids rooms,
Wednesday Kitchen,
Thursday Living room & Laundry room,
Friday Bathrooms.
So, if it is Tuesday of the 4th week, I'm cleaning in the kids rooms. I'm changing their sheets and washing their windows. Not sure this makes sense to anyone but me, but this has changed my life!! Taking this in bite size pieces, I can and am doing it!! I use to get so overwhelmed and try to do too much at a time. That is the basic idea, but here is what tomorrow has in store:

• Quiet Time
• Laundry
• Exercise
• School
• Kitchen 15min cleaning (microwave, stovetop, etc.)
  
• Kitchen Baseboards
  
• Shine sink daily (Yes that is from Flylady, if you've never heard of her, please check her out. She is amazing!)
• Straighten up before bed 15mins. (the kids do this too!)

I also add in mopping and vacuuming. I alternate weeks. one week is mopping, the next is vacuuming. These are goals!! If I don't get them all done each day, it is ok because these rooms will see me the next week!! I do not list times with these, so that I don't feel like I've failed or missed my opportunity to do the task if that time has passed! This whole thing is much easier to understand if you make a blank calendar and insert the tasks. I hope that someone else reads this and can enjoy what God has helped me learn! He soooo good!!!!

I have so much more I'd like to say, but sleep is overdue at this point. So goodnight!!