The Blog of Christie Jarvis

Relocation

2010-04-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

This blog has moved!

Please visit me at

http://www.christiejarvis.com/blog

Share the Savings

2009-09-13T19:31:00.001-07:00

Here is my "stockpile" of dental products. These items are always on sale and there are coupons for them frequently so you can get them for free or for less than $.50 each. Do I need this much toothpaste or this many toothbrushes at my house? Of course not! What can I do with them? Give them to a charity! Think about an organization that can use these items and donate them.
There is more to saving money with coupons than just getting stuff for yourself. Stock up on items to give away. You will be blessed tremendously by sharing your savings with those in need!

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Experimenting with Copper

2009-09-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today we began working in our Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science book. I mainly wanted to use this book with the older two but wanted to include our 4th grader somehow and was happy to find a unit study online that used the curriculum and made it for younger children.

Today they were introduced to atoms and molecules and had the opportunity to do an experiement. They took a glass of water and added baking soda to it. Then had to connect copper wires to a battery and put the other end in the water. It made bubbles and caused one of the wires to turn green...to know which one, you'll have to do it yourself!

We are using the lab reports and other resources from DonnaYoung.org. Here are some pictures from our science experiment today!

Medieval Paris and Eye Anatomy

2009-09-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

We are really enjoying our schooling through scrapbooking this year. Last week we finished The Apple and the Arrow using the lessons from Homeschool Share. I love being able to teach all three levels of my students using the same subjects and just adjusting the materials to their needs!

Today we began a new book & are still in the Medieval Times...I am really enjoying this time period! This time we are in Paris. We are able to take this trip back in time by reading Marguerite Makes a Book. Again, our lesson ideas mainly come from Homeschool Share but I am adding things that I find to tie in as well.

This morning, after we read Chapter 1, we pulled out the globe and our atlas and found France. They had to find it on a black and white outline map and color it in. They also looked up facts about France and made a sample flag.

My favorite part of this lesson was the study of the eye! They had to learn the parts of the eye and label them and we found a cool website that you can do a virtual dissection of the human eye. This helped them learn the parts quickly! The next website was one that was listed in the lesson plans for our book and it was so amazing! You can watch an actual dissection of a cow eye! My kids are a little more squeamish that I thought! They kept screaming and turning away from the screen. I thought it was pretty cool myself! Watch the Cow Eye Dissection and see for yourself.

For lunch, I made English Muffin Pizzas and my daughter said "I know why you made these. They look like eyeballs" Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that. Sure! I am THAT good! HA HA.

Learning To Fly

2009-09-03T17:03:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading this book by Roxanne Henke and just had to share it with you! If you are a mother or ever plan on being one, you MUST read this book! It takes you through the journey of parenting...particularly girls.

Mainly about two families who have daughters that are the same age. You get to share in the joys and sadness of mothering in infancy all the way through college. As a mother of a high school freshman this year, this book made me reminisce about the lives of my children. Read about how, as in real life, sometimes friendships grow apart because of the different lifestyles that people live. How many times, the friendships our children have affect our own friendships. It made me think about my parenting style...am I a good mother? I hope so. There are no perfect mothers, we all know that! With God's help, we CAN get through this!

Although fiction, this book was packed full of wonderful parenting tips and advice that I hope to use.

I borrowed the only copy in the Memphis Library system so if you live in the area, it will be back on the shelves tomorrow but if not, you can get a copy of Learning to Fly from Amazon.

I will definitely be looking for more to read from Roxanne Henke!

Mega Food at Mega Savings!

2009-08-20T10:58:00.001-07:00

Wow! I just got home from the grocery store and am SO impressed with the savings this week!
My total before I used my Kroger card and coupons was $243.86 and after all of the savings came off, I only paid $118.76! That is $125.10 in savings!
This week Kroger is having a Mega Savings Event so when you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 off your total. I bought a lot of those items!

You may be saying to yourself "Christie, I don't buy that stuff"...well, I never did before either. I am sorry but I don't have the time to make every single meal from scratch! Yes, I do make most of mine myself but there are some days that we are just so busy that I need something quick! Also, my house frequently has extra people (hungry teens) over and if they want to grab a quick bite, it is there for them! I would love to be able to make homemade pizza for them every single time they ask but well, I can't so pizza rolls come in VERY handy!

Here is what I got this week:
Kroger Dill Slices
Kroger Spanish Rice
Betty Crocker Brownie Mix (perfect for my daughter to make a quick snack when I am not home!)
Pack of 10 Ramen Noodles
2 boxes of Chex Mix Bars
2 boxes of Nature Valley Bars
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper (I have not bought these in over 10 years but can use these for charity or let my kids use them for lunch!)
1 can of Ranch Style Beans
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks
2 boxes of Fiber One Bars
3 boxes of Cocoa Puffs
2 boxes of Trix
1 box of Cap'n Crunch
1 box of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch
3 cans Rotel
6 cans of Grands Biscuits (great for quick biscuits when we sleep in and I don't want to make homemade biscuits)
2 boxes of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
4 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
6 bags of Totinos Pizza Rolls
2 loaves of Wonder Classic White Bread
2 bags of Tostitos Chips
2 bags of Fritos
2 packs of ground turkey
Gallon of milk
Gallon of OJ
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 box of Kroger Wheat Saltines
2 trays of bakery 9 ct cinnamon rolls (for my SS class!)
2 bags of Quaker Rice Quakes
1 bag of Ground Chuck Patties
1 bag of Simply Potatoes Hash Browns
2 packs of Kroger Burger buns
3 bags of Shredded Cheese
Oxy Clean Face Wash
Oxy Clean Pads
Oxy Clean Lotion
Always Pads
Tampax Tampons

I think that is it.... The kids have put it all up now. I love saving money!

Back to School

2009-08-18T10:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we started our new school year! The oldest is now in the 9th grade, middle child is in the 7th and youngest is in the 4th...where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like I have been homeschooling my children that long! I enjoy it SO much because we are learning and exploring together.
The kids decided that they really enjoyed doing the lapbooks last year but they wanted to put all of their work into more of a scrapbook type book this year so that is what they are doing. They are currently working on pages to show what they learned from reading The Apple and The Arrow. It was a book recommendation for what we had been studying in The Mystery of History Volume II at the end of last school year. I wanted to do a review of some of last year's topics to get us back into "school mode" so I chose this. Most of the printables activities were found at Homeschool Share

The picture shows the kids working on their projects.

Did I mention that I LOVE homeschooling??

Sylvan's Forward to School Algebra Challenge

2009-08-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

When the kids were on the Book Adventure site yesterday taking their reading comprehension quizzes, I noticed a new contest! Sylvan is having an Algebra Challenge for everyone over the age of 13. Take a math quiz and be entered in their sweepstakes. The GRAND Prize is a $10,000 scholarship!

Go to Sylvan's Forward to School site and play today!

Christmas Carol Train Tour

2009-08-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

We went to the train station and stood in line for almost 2 hours to get on the train. It was hot! Occasionally we would get a little breeze so that helped out and they also had water coolers for people to stay hydrated and misting fans to help people cool off a little. Here is a picture of my youngest standing by the train.

They made everyone leave their strollers before going over to the final lane of the line and I was a little nervous about letting little Miss D free but she actually did well! Amy and I were able to keep the 2 year old, the two 6 year olds and the 9 year old all together and through the train with very little problem. The kids LOVED it! They had costumes from the movie and snippets of the movie playing throughout the train. This picture is of a model of the room where the characters did their acting. They showed us how they use sensors to show what part of the body is moving so that it looks natural on the movie.

And this is the kids playing a trivia game about The Christmas Carol on the touch screen computer. Since we read The Christmas Carol last December, they knew a lot of the answers.

Their favorite part was the face morphing where they were able to get their picture made and the computer morphed their face into one of the characters. It was funny! They had it set up so that we entered my email address and the pictures will be emailed to us soon from Walmart.com! How cool is that?!?

This picture is at the end of the train tour. They had a Christmas dinner set up so you could have your picture made...my group was too large to see the food! LOL

The Knack(SM) - Where Kids Discover(SM) - Free Family Event - Back to School Personalized

2009-08-06T17:30:00.001-07:00

The Knack(SM) - Where Kids Discover(SM) - Free Family Event - Back to School Personalized

I was on Michael's Website and saw this event for this Saturday. Sounds cool! I hope some of you can make it out there!

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All Aboard

2009-08-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

I am SO excited! My youngest is really into trains...has been for a long time. When I found out about this awesome FREE train tour for Disney's A Christmas Carol, it was a no brainer that we would be going!

If you are in the Memphis area, it will be at the Memphis Central Station on S. Main tomorrow, August 4th, from 9 am - 7 pm. I will be there so look for me!!

I know the flier says to see back for cities and dates but I only scanned the front of it.

For other cities please visit http://www.christmascaroltraintour.com/

RAW Fun

2009-07-24T11:35:00.001-07:00

I just love modern technology. Even though my hubby and sons are over 3 hours away, I can still keep up with what they are doing. Some of the other leaders have made comments on Facebook, I have gotten texts, and my husband sent me this picture this morning.
This is just one of the many things that happen at RAW!

Comfortable Chairs

2009-07-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I recently found out that my freshman English teacher is retiring. Sister Dichtel was known for her "comfortable chairs" in her classroom. She had these bean bags and other soft chairs around the classroom that we would be allowed to sit in to read our assigned book IF we finished our vocabulary and journal writing quietly. Well, I had a problem with the "Quietly" part. For you see, I liked to talk. I would often be told "Mrs. Miller, NO comfortable chair!" How sad for me. Of the stories that I have told my children about my time in high school, they definitely remember hearing about Sister Dichtel's class. Just in case any of my fellow classmates are interested, I wanted to post this information that I received...

~Memphis Catholic High School will host a retirement reception for Sister Dichtel on Sunday, August 23rd from 2-5pm to celebrate her numerous years of teaching and service to the Catholic Diocese of Memphis. The school invites all her friends, family, former students, and others in the community to join us and honor a person who has impacted the lives of so many throughout her years of service. If you plan to attend the reception or wish to assist in its planning please contact Dani Ray Barton at 276- 1221, ext 22 or drbarton@memphiscatholic.org so we can get an appropriate head count of attendees and can best prepare for the afternoon’s festivities.~

I will try to make it the reception but if I don't, will someone please tell Sister Dichtel that I still love to read and I do it in my comfortable chair...quietly :) Thanks for your MANY years of service Sister D!

Royal Rangers RAW

2009-07-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

This morning my husband and our sons left for Ranger Adventure Week (RAW). They will get to swim, hike, have paintball wars, experience the "redneck water slide" PLUS hear the Word of God and get to praise and worship with the music from our friends' band Prayer Warriors.

The guys in my house really love Royal Rangers because they get to do "guy stuff" and grow their relationship with God at the same time. Let your boys be boys! That is how God designed them and the Royal Rangers program allows them to do so and helps them to learn great skills to go far in life. I encourage you to find a Royal Rangers program in your area. If you live in Tennessee, you can visit the TN Boys Ministry Website and find an outpost.

I hope that William, Alex, Andrew and ALL of the boys at RAW have a great weekend!

UPDATE:
About 15 minutes after I posted this, I received a phone call from Karla Collum of the Prayer Warriors band. She was calling to check on my husband because they had just seen him pulled over on the interstate and went to see if they were ok but they were already pulling back onto the road. I called William to see what happend. He told me that they had a flat on the trailer and were about to get a new one in Jackson. Thank God that William knows how to handle trailers and for friends that care enough to check to see if you are ok. They are even waiting around in Jackson to make sure they get back on the road ok. Isn't that awesome?! Keep praying people! This is gonna be an amazing weekend for everyone involved!

Homeschool Party

2009-07-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is my absolute favorite magazine for homeschoolers. I am not a collector of magazines at all but I have every single copy of this one that I have ever received. They're on my resource shelf because I truly believe that there are so many articles in there that have been or will be helpful in our homeschool journey. They also have it available in digital form but I really like to curl up on the couch and read the articles.

Right now is their annual Summer Bouquet subscription offer. With this offer, you receive 19 free gifts with your subscription. The gifts range in value from $10 -$49 each! What an amazing offer! To top it off, they are offering a discount where you can receive $5 off of a 2 year subscription. Simply go to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Web Site and you use this code: CJSGL5OFF

So, now you know how to join the party...now get to it!

FREE Tea Day!

2009-07-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodnesss! I LOVE McAlister's Sweet Tea and today I can go get a cup for FREE! I am meeting up with a good friend that runs the BEST web site for Moms in the Memphis area called Memphis Loves Kids. So, grab a friend and head to your nearest McAlister's for a free cup of tea....and while you are there, eat a Rueben....YUMMY!

Scrapbooking

2009-07-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you that know me well, you know that I am passionate about scrapbooking. It is important for me to preserve the memories that we make in our family. We never know when one of us will be gone. I often think about how my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren (and on and on) will sit with the albums in their laps and see what we did "back in the old days". It makes me proud.
I started scrapbooking 14 years ago but have not been as diligent as I should and so am behind in my albums. I am right now working on our 2006 album. I enjoy seeing how we have changed in just a few short years. Before I know it, my babies will be grown up and have their own families. I will still have the albums to reminisce.
I am excited to say that I am going to start having scrapbooking sessions at my house each month so that I can help other families preserve their memories also. My first crop will be July 31st from 6 PM - Midnight. If you would like to come, bring some pics, your scrapbooking supplies and a snack to share and come enjoy a night of cutting up with other memory keepers. Please RSVP so I will have enough tables set up.
I look forward to sharing my home and passion for scrapbooking with you!

My Sister's Keeper

2009-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

My mom and I wanted to see the movie My Sister's Keeper together but I had heard that I needed to read the book first so I bought the book and started reading it. It was 500 pages long and I had no kids here so I knew that I could finish it before we went to the movies. I finished it in 2 1/2 days and we saw the movie. I have to tell you that the book is 100% better than the movie. They left so many important things out of the movie that totally changed the whole story. If you have already seen the movie, I highly encourage you to read the book anyway. My mom read it after we saw the movie and she even agreed that the book was better!
I hate when movie producers take a good story and change it to what they think will be better. The book was fine before...they messed the story up!

National Donut Day

2009-06-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today is NATIONAL DONUT DAY! How cool is that?! You can stop by your local Dunkin' Donuts and get a free donut with any beverage purchase or head over to Krispy Kreme and get a free donut without a purchase...or if you really like donuts, go to both :)

Bass Pro Shops Summer Camp

2009-06-05T05:23:00.001-07:00

My husband's Bass Pro Shops ad came in the mail the other day and I saw that they were doing this really cool Summer Camp every weekend from May 30th - July 5th and thought it would be something great to share with my friends!
My family LOVES camping and doing anything outdoors so this is right up our alley! If you have never been to a Bass Pro Shop, you really should stop by one soon. It is not just a store...it is more like a museum! I am not a "window shopper" at all...in fact, I HATE doing it but Bass Pro is one of the places where I enjoy doing that! Weird, I know! We can seriously spend a lot of time and little money when we go in there. So many cool things to see and do. SO, look up your local store and stop by this weekend for some great family fun!

Home Depot Kids Workshop for June

2009-06-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

That is right! This Saturday is another Kids Workshop at Home Depot! This week they are making a Hardware Sorter Box! What a great FATHER'S DAY gift! Head on over to your local Home Depot and have your kids make one for their dad!

Free Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs

2009-05-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

I found this great freebie when I visited Freebies4Mom this morning and wanted to share it with my friends and family. It was a short, simple process. Just go here FREE OSCAR MEYER HOT DOGS, enter your email address and your mailing address and you will receive a coupon in the mail in about 6 weeks. This offer is only good TODAY so go get yours NOW!!

Rescued!

2009-05-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

On Saturday my son found a hummingbird trapped in the garage. It was tired from trying to get out and I was able to hold it in my hand to try to make it eat so that it would feel better. Shortly after this was taken, it flew away.

When I thought more about it, I was reminded that this is exactly how it is with God. Sometimes I get so tired and worn out from trying to do so much and feel like that little bird, just trying to escape. But I turn to God, curl up in his arms and drink the Living Water and am refreshed and ready to fly again!
Thank you Lord for rescuing me!

¡Feliz Cinco De Mayo!

2009-05-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Well, today is Cinco De Mayo!! What does that mean for me? YUMMY Mexican food! We had homemade quesidillas, mexican rice and refried beans for lunch and for dinner I am making Enchilada Casserole. It is from a Pampered Chef cookbook that my friend Samantha gave me for my birthday last year. I have never made it so I hope we like it!

I went to the grocery store today for the first time in 2 weeks. I have not really needed to go because we had so much stocked up here from my purchasing larger quantities than normal when stuff is on sale and I have coupons. Today's stock piling item was Kraft Original BBQ Sauce. Kroger had it on sale in the 10/$10 and Kraft was running a promo that if you bought 6, you would get a coupon to save $3 on your next order. So basically, I paid $.50 a piece for them. We will use them for many recipes!!

I am getting ready to mail my expired coupons to a military base. I really wanted to send them to someone in the military that I know but haven't heard back from them on whether they use coupons so I am just sending them to a family support address. I think it is pretty awesome that they can use the expired coupons on the base.
Alex has his first baseball game tonight IF the fields are dry. With all of the rain we have had in the past few days I don't know if they will dry in time.

Mother's Day is this Sunday and I know what I am getting from my family!! William is buying me a scrapbooking business! I have been a scrapbooking fan for years and have used the same products ever since I started & I have always wanted to buy the kit so I could sell to my friends and family and get a discount. I asked William about it yesterday and he said that I should do it. I will be hosting scrapbooking classes in my house soon!! Yay :)

Adios for now! Have a blessed day!

Time Slips By

2009-04-30T04:53:00.000-07:00

I seriously can not believe that it has almost been 2 weeks since I have posted anything! I am sorry. It is not like I have just been so terribly busy or anything...I really haven't! While the public schools were on Spring Break, my kids and I took a break too. We did "Spring Cleaning" that week and tossed out a bunch of stuff! I love getting rid of stuff that we don't need. We actually still have more to do but don't worry, it WILL get done! I am tossing left and right and stopping by Goodwill on the way to church to drop off my tax deductible gifts!!

Last weekend I worked the Memphis Discipleship Walk. It was such a blessing to be able to serve on that team! I got to know women from our church and other churches and have a bond with them now that is so sacred! I hope that I blessed them as much as they blessed me! While I was away for 3 days, my wonderful family cleaned the yard and made sure the house stayed clean. They are so sweet!

This week we have been finishing up on our reading of CHARLOTTE'S WEB and the kids will watch the original movie today and I am picking the updated version at the library tomomorrow so that we can watch it this weekend. Amy and Alex have been working on review in math and hae shown me that we are just going to have to work on math all summer long because they have lost some of what they learned and are struggling...oh well...I can help them get back on track. We should finish up our other subjects by the end of May! Yay! That will leave Summer for reading great books, keeping math skills up and lots of fun!

I guess that is all for now. Hopefully I will be back soon so that you will not have to wait another 2 weeks to hear from me. Enjoy your day and try to be a blessing to someone :)

Camping Trip Pictures

2009-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the rest of the pictures from our camping trip.

All of these pictures were taken with my Blackberry because for some reason, my regular camera will not hold it's charge. Maybe it is time to replace it.

We really had a fantastic time and I am SOOOO glad that we were able to do this. William has not been home very much lately and the kids really needed some "Daddy time". They got tons of it this weekend. William was so amazing too. He did everything and I didn't HAVE to do anything! He cooked all of the meals, cleaned the dishes, took care of the dogs and kids....WOW! I was able to just sit back and relax. Of course, I asked him if he wanted me to help and he said no. Isn't he awesome?! I am thankful that God gave me such an amazing man to share my life with.

I hope you all have a great week and get a chance to spend some time with the people that you love. Be blessed!

Saturday in Sardis

2009-04-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today was another great day! William and the kids fished most of the day. I sat in the van with the dogs for awhile and read a book while they were fishing. We can't leave them in the camper while we are away because Rusty has seperation issues and barks the whole time we are gone. Once the fishing area cleared out and there weren't so many people, we took the dogs to the water to play. They loved it and got so tired that they were quiet the rest of the day!
The kids are all tired now and already in their beds. They are looking forward to eating candy in the morning! They gave candy up for Lent and are excited that today was the last day. I am very proud of all of them for making the decision to give up something that they love in observance of the sacrifice that Jesus made for them.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. I will be posting a slide show of all of our camping pictures when I get back to my computer but until then, enjoy the ones that I have already posted.

Good Friday

2009-04-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Good Friday to you!!
I am coming to you live from our camp site where our family is spending this fantastic Easter weekend. Don't ya just love modern technology? I can blog from anywhere at anytime!! We have been relaxing today and just enjoying the time with each other. Right now William and the boys are fishing. William just sent me this picture text so I thought I would share it with you. Rather small fish huh? I sure hope they catch some bigger than that or we will not be stocking the freezer!! LOL
When they get back we are gonna hang out around the camp fire for awhile, play some games at the picnic table and then fall asleep while watching a movie.....yeah, we actually bring a little TV and DVDs on our camping trips. It is kind of a tradition that we started and the kids expect that each time we go camping we will get to watch a movie that we haven't seen yet. It is really funny when you think about it because our TV is only about 10 inches so all 5 of us trying to watch it is rather humorous!

I am so thankful for this chance for us to get away for a few days but even more thankful for the reason we celebrate this holiday. Just think about the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid for our sins......He died for us! Is that the end?? NO WAY! He borrowed a tomb for a few days and then ROSE AGAIN!! Thank you Jesus!

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to celebrate the Resurrection! It was all for YOU! Be blessed !

Easter Bunnies

2009-04-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

A lot of people buy bunny rabbits and baby chicks at Easter thinking that it will be all cuteness and fun. I happen to have a rabbit and baby chicks so I know first hand that work is also involved. I came across this blog post and wanted to share it with all of you. Please go read it before you embark on the journey to rabbit ownership. You'll be more prepared to make the decision for your family.

What's for Dinner?

2009-04-08T14:02:00.001-07:00

I really do not like cooking dinner on Wednesdays because we have church and I don't really have much time to prepare a meal, feed the family, clean the kitchen and then head to church....plus, we don't get home until after 9 because we hang out for awhile and chat with some of our friends. They used to serve dinner at church on Wednesday nights but they stopped that a few years ago. They do have some hot foods in the youth building like fried chicken tenders, nachos, hot dogs, hamburgers, you know....all that stuff that I really need to avoid! LOL Anyway, so I have been trying to do more crock pot meals so that I can still feed my family something healthy and hearty. Tonight's dinner was a great success among the food critics at my house AKA, my family! I made this Mexajita Chicken recipe from Food Network's Sandra Lee. I served it over brown rice and had corn bread muffins to go with it. Oh yummalicious!!!

Since baseball season is starting back up, I will be using the crockpot for more meals each week too. I have found this wonderful blog that is ALL about crockpot recipes! Check it out!!

Lunch

2009-04-08T10:13:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share a picture of our typical lunch time. There are always 5 or 6 kids at the table....3 are mine & the others are children that I care for in my home daycare. On this particular day, they were eating homemade macaroni & cheese, peas, pears and milk. Notice the child at the end of the table signing "more". He really likes mac & cheese!

Andrew's DSi

2009-04-05T17:10:00.001-07:00

Andrew has wanted a DS for awhile and on his birthday, he put a deposit down to get the new DSi when they came out. Last week in children's church, the children's pastor announced a contest to bring the most visitors. Andrew has been making his list all week of who he wanted to bring so they he could win the DSi. We had 3 kids spend the night and 2 others came to church with their parents. He had 5 visitors all together and he was the winner! When Pastor Troy announced the winner, William and I were both there to see the excitement in his face. It was priceless!! He was so happy.

Grocery Shopping is FUN!

2009-03-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here are my groceries for this week. The only meat that I had to buy this week was turkey burger patties. Yes, I know that I could have just made my own patties and saved some more money but I didn't want to this week.
I got everything you see here for $67.28. The price before coupons was $108.....I am happy :) My family will be happy as well.

Some people have asked me about my lack of meat purchases. I have a freezer that has a nice supply of deer. Another way that I save $ is that I have chickens that we get eggs from.....well, at least most of the time! It made me sick to have to pay for eggs awhile back when they had a little slow down but they are laying again so we have fresh eggs :)
Have a great week everyone! Go save some money!!

My Grandchicks

2009-03-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last Friday our baby chicks started hatching. We have 5 right now. 3 are black and 2 are yellow. They peep all day! LOL. The kids have named all of them but I can't tell you who is who. Here are some pics of my new grandchicks!

Precious!

2009-03-25T06:51:00.001-07:00

The Grass Stain Guru

2009-03-21T17:32:00.001-07:00

I have a new blog friend! Her name is Beth and she is the Grass Stain Guru. Her website is http://grassstainguru.com/. She and I share the belief in the power of play and if you visit her site, you will get lots of great ideas to do with your kiddos. Please go check it out for yourself and then go outside to play with your kids!!!

FREE Thomas Train

2009-03-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

WOW! I just heard about this from Freebies 4 Mom! I know that a lot of my friends have Thomas fans in their house so here ya go! Go to Toys R Us tomorrow and get your free train! Get your coupon here:

St. Patrick's Theme

2009-03-18T08:00:00.001-07:00

This week we have been learning about St. Patrick and it has been a lot of fun!

We remembered that he was not born in Ireland but was kidnapped by pirates and taken there from when we studied him in Mystery of History Volume II . This week was a great review from that! I also found many worksheets online.

Here are some of the sites that I used:
Easy Fun School - EXCELLENT unit study for St. Patrick!
St. Patrick's Day Printables on About.com
KidZone - Math Worksheets

I wish that I was creative enough to think of these things on my own but since I am not, I am very thankful for the websites that give me the ideas of things to do to make learning fun!

Since I do care for 2 year olds also in my home daycare, I wanted to teach them about green this week so we did a LOT of things with that color. I have made a slideshow so you can see some of our activities from this week. Enjoy!

Our Scattergories Arrived

2009-03-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today during lunch my daughter announced that the Fed Ex truck was here. I hadn't ordered anything and wasn't sure why he would be backed into my driveway. The box said Hasbro....and then I remembered that I had won a game during the Time To Play site warming party on Twitter!! We now have Scattergories and my kids can't wait to play!!

Painting Shamrocks

2009-03-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today we are beginning our study of St. Patrick. We started off by learning about how he used the shamrock to teach about the Trinity and led a lot of people to Christ. We painted shamrocks and will use them to decorate the playroom this week.

My apologies

2009-03-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

I must apologize to my friends and family that have been looking for a new post. I had gotten into the habit of taking pics on my mobile and then uploading them with a post. Well, for some reason, the last 3 posts that I did that way never posted. I thought I was keeping the blog going but apparently not. Something must have been wrong in the system because I sent a test post this morning and it worked just fine. So, I will try to get going again.
Be watching for more from me later today :)

Go Tigers Go!

2009-03-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

I am going to attempt to post this again. For some reason my mobile posts have not been posting so everything that I have wanted to share with you is lost in neverland.
So....my mom and I went to see the Tigers play Saturday and I LOVED it! I don't ever want to miss another home game again. It is the whole experience of smelling the popcorn, hearing the crowd, seeing the activity all around....oh wow! I had the best time! My mom's friend has season tickets and were not able to make it to the game so she gave them to my mom.
This Thursday, the Tigers play in the C-USA tournament.....I wanna go! I am not gonna be able to though because I have a meeting that night. Oh well....they will still play well! Go Tigers Go!!

FREE Movies from Red Box

2009-03-04T20:38:00.001-08:00

I have seen the RedBox kiosks at Walgreens and McDonald's but never really paid attention to them until my friend Alyssa of www.kingdomfirstmom.com blogged about it this week. I read her blog post (http://www.kingdomfirstmom.com/2009/03/redbox-march-movie-madness.html) and decided to check on this whole FREE movie thing....I went to www.redbox.com and signed up so that I can reserve movies at a location convenient to me. It works out well because there is a RedBox at the Walgreen's near my church so after church, we picked up our movies....oh yeah! I got 1 free movie as a new member and 1 because they are doing free movies on Wednesdays in March.
I borrowed Sunday School Musical and will take it to Manna tomorrow so the school age kids can watch it while they wait for their parents.
Thanks Alyssa for sharing these great FREEBIES and teaching us all how to save money!

Pampered Chef

2009-03-04T10:59:00.001-08:00

Mommy Brain is having a contest and you can win a Pampered Chef stone from the new line!!! Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/PCstone

Discipleship Walk Memphis Spring 2009

2009-03-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

It is time for Discipleship Walk! I am blessed to be able to serve on the team as a worker for the Spring Women's Walk.
If you have never been to Discipleship Walk, please pray about attending this one. I went on my Walk a year ago after putting it off for a couple of years. I didn't understand why everyone that had gone before kept telling me that I "had to go!" I never got it....until I went!

What will Discipleship Walk do for you? You will grow closer to God and help you find your "place" in this world.

Please visit http://www.raleighassembly.com/Outreach/discipleshipwalk.asp and pray about it. If God wants you on THIS Walk, he will show you and make it possible for you to be there. It always amazes me how He works things out for people to be there when they need it most!
Even me! As a worker, I didn't think I would be able to fit it into my schedule but amazingly, I was! I can't wait to see what God does in the lives of His people during DW Spring 2009!

My Purchases for this week

2009-03-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't do as well this week as I have in the past but I am still very pleased with what I brought home and the amount I spent. Pictured is everything I bought this morning. My total before coupons was $170.68. I spent $104.37. I was a little disappointed that Kroger didn't honor 2 of my coupons. They said that since the items (my salads) were already marked down they couldn't redeem them....If they had accepted them, my salads would have been free. I will be contacting corporate about this. I also did receive a voucher for $1.50 off of my next shopping trip for purchasing 3 Pillsbury Refrigerated Biscuits and of course earned my $.10 off of gas. All in all, a good day!

Anyway, here is what I bought:

•3 loaves of Wonder White Classic Bread

•2 Gallons of 1% Kroger Brand Milk

•2 boxes of Trix Cereal

•2 boxes of Mini Wheats

•1 box of Honey Nut Cheerios

•2 bottles of Ocean Spray Diet Grape

• 2 bottles of Simply Orange Juice

• 1 can Rotel

• 1 block of Velveeta

• 1 lb of Ground Turkey

• 1 tub of Kroger sour cream

• 3 Pillsbury Biscuits 10 ct.

• 1 Goody's Orange (FREE!!)

• 1 Colgate toothbrush

• 1 Kroger shredded Mozarella

• 1 Kroger shredded Cheddar

• 1 Kroger Crescent Rolls

• 1 Kroger 5 lb Sugar

• 1 Kroger Peanut Butter

• 1 Lachoy Noodles

• 4 cans of Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup

• 2 cans of Dole Pineapple slices

• 2 bottles of Kraft Dressing

• 1 Pillsbury Cake Mix

• 1 Betty Crocker Frosting

• 1 Kroger American Cheese slices

• 1 Honey

• 2 Toaster Strudel

• 1 Bag of Kroger Baby Carrots

• 1 Kroger Bacon

• 1 Kroger Chocolate Graham

• 1 Yellow Onion

• 2 boxes of Kroger Dozen Donuts

• 2.32 lbs of Cameo Apples

• 2 Bags of Totinos Pizza Rolls

• 2.92 lbs of Bananas

• 1.21 lbs of Red Grapes

• 1 bag of 44 Gorton's Fish Sticks

• 1 can of Black Olives

• 1 box of instant milk

• 1 5 lb bag of Hodgson Mill Naturally White Flour

Some of these items will be used this week, some of them will be for later. I am happy knowing that my family has food to fill their tummies!

WINNER of Scrabble Game

2009-03-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

Using random.org, a winner was chosen for the Scrabble Contest! And the winner is.................... The Howard Family!

Park Day!

2009-02-27T12:53:00.001-08:00

My kids wanted to get some of their friends together to play at the park today. We were supposed to go last Friday but I was sick and stayed in bed all day. We thought it would be too wet today because it rained in the middle of the night but the wind helped to dry it up. It was a little chilly but not too bad. I thought this pic of the kids (minus the 2 teenage girls) surrounding Samantha while eating their lunch was too cute. Enjoy!

Time To Play!

2009-02-26T09:30:00.001-08:00

You all know about my passion for playtime so when I saw this amazing site, I knew that I had to be a part of it! There is a site warming party happening tomorrow night on Twitter. You can read all about it here: http://resourcefulmommy.blogspot.com/2009/02/bringing-back-family-game-night.html
Join us!

Wow...it's ONLY Wednesday!

2009-02-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

This has been a LONG week and it is only half way over. Oh wow.

Monday was my youngest child's birthday. He is now 9....just 9 more years and I am done!! Yeah right! LOL Anyway, since he and middle child's birthdays are only 1 month apart, I usually make their well child check up appointments in February so I can get them both done at once. So bright and early Monday morning, we went to the Dr. They were both healthy and good. Everything was going well.

We left there and went to the bank, grocery store & gas station and then my sister called....she needed me to pick up her 13 year old daughter from school because she wasn't feeling well. We made a quick visit to Game Stop so birthday boy could spend his money and then headed to the school.

After we dropped my sick niece off at home, we came home and had lunch. I was still feeling blah from the sinus problem/cold that I have been dealing with so decided to take a nap. I slept about an hour and then got up and listened to youngest child (AKA birthday boy) whine about how horrible his life was while his siblings went outside. In walks oldest child announcing that her brother (middle child) had just cut his hand. I turn away from birthday boy to check the damage....WHOA! Call daddy and tell him that we are heading to the ER. The child had sliced his thumb in half! Ok, not really, but it was pretty bad. He ended up getting 13 stitches and 2 of those are actually through the thumb nail. It is pretty gross! I have to say though that the PA @ Baptist Tipton was amazing! Her name is Stephanie Miller and she did a great job with him.

On to Tuesday.....I am still feeling blah and do not really want to do anything but get the kids through school. While the little girls I watch are napping, I tried to rest on the couch. Didn't really happen. By the time they go home, I just want to hide in my room. While fixing dinner, I actually told my kids that I didn't want to talk or listen to anyone and to please let me cook in peace....they did! After dinner, I retreated to my room and watched TV.

Today is Wednesday.....I started the day by putting on the armour. I figured if the other 2 days had already been so bad, I better equip myself a little better! I kept a stinking sinus headache ALL day long! No matter what I took, how many times I did the saline wash or what I did, my head hurt! By 5, I knew that I would not be going to church because it was developing into a migraine.....oh boy!
Now I am in bed trying to rest and hoping that tomorrow will be better. Please pray for me!
I know this was long but I hope you enjoyed hearing about my troubled week. Don't worry though, I am climbing out of that valley and gonna be on top of the mountain before ya know it!! Greater things are yet to come!!
Have a blessed night!

Piggly Wiggly TRIPLE Coupon Friday

2009-02-25T18:53:00.001-08:00

This Friday (2/27) Piggly Wiggly is offering TRIPLE COUPONS! The closest PW to me is near my inlaws house....I haven't visited them in awhile so maybe I should take a little trip down there this week :). Go to http://www.pigglywiggly.com/ and see if there is a store near you, check out their ad online and plan your shopping trip! Enjoy saving some $!!

Free pancakes at IHOP

2009-02-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

Click on the picture for more information!

Speaking of spelling / Scrabble Contest

2009-02-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

While we are still on the topic of spelling, (see last post)I decided that this contest will have a spelling focus!

Amy and I watched Akeelah and the Bee yesterday and we saw how the spelling bee contestants used Scrabble to practice. We have used the game ourselves to work on spelling. Today as I was rearranging things in my office, I came across a box and guess what was inside??

An extra Deluxe Edition Scrabble game! So what better than to give it away in my Playing To Learn Contest!

Here is what you have to do to win:

* Post the link to this contest on your blog and then leave a comment here with your blog link.

I will hold a drawing from all of the entries on Saturday Feb 28th.

Good Luck!!

Spelling City

2009-02-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

My friend Tina gave me a link last week for an online spelling review program that she uses for her kids. I registered (It's FREE!) and started using with my kids.....they LOVE it! I have been entering their spelling words and they get to play games that teach them their words and then test on them! You can even print out a report of their test to add to their school file! If you have children, you need to register and use this free tool!

My princess and me

2009-02-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

Last night our church had the annual Princess Ball for the girls in youth. They dress up and get to be treated like princesses for the evening. The youth leaders talk to them about how they are daughters of the king, therefore, they are princesses and tell them about the responsibilities of being a princess by taking care of themselves and honoring their Father. Each of the girls is prayed over, given a rose and a tiara. It is truly a special night.
This is a picture of my daughter and me when we were leaving to go to the Princess Ball.

Levite Vocal School

2009-02-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

Click on the image below to read the outside of the flier.

Click on the image below to read the inside of the flier.

Multiplication Game

2009-02-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, my older children played a demo of Timez Attack at a curriculum fair in Memphis and they loved it! I came home and downloaded the FREE version from their website. Yes, I said FREE! The free version teaches the 2's - 12's multiplication facts. It really helped my older children and now we are using it for the youngest. I just wanted to share the info with you so that you too can take advantage of this great way to teach multiplication!

Mid South Home Educators Prom

2009-02-09T18:09:00.001-08:00

Winter Jam

2009-02-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

Amy, Alex and I went to the Winter Jam 2009 in Southaven, MS. It was a great night of worship through music. To see all of those people there lifting their hands and praising the Lord was phenomenal! We enjoyed the music of Hawk Nelson, Toby Mac, Newsong, Francesca Battistelli and Stephanie Smith. The speaker, Tony Nolan, really was inspirational and made ya think! It was truly amazing!

Enjoy the slideshow and be sure to see if Winter Jam is coming to an area near you! If they are .....GO!

Listen to this & win a Sound Bingo Game!

2009-02-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

This week, we took part in the Say What You Mean Convention and were completely blessed!
Wednesday was "Kids Day" and the sessions were all geared to the children. JoJo Tabares did a "Listening Seminar" where she taught the kids the importance of listening and not just hearing. She also played a game with them called the "Name that Sound Game" where her son played a sound and the kids had to say what it was. Amy was listening on the computer so she had to type her answers in. Alex was listening on the phone and could shout his response. They both did very well but Alex guess more than she did and he won the game! The prizes are great!

The convention is over now but you can still listen to the sessions because they were recorded. Simply go to the Say What You Mean Conference on Talk Shoe and click on the topic that interests you.

I know that I use a LOT of "play things" to teach my children. One of my online names is PlayToLearnHome because I truly believe that children learn best through play. I have seen the results! So, I want to have a little contest and give away a "Sound Bingo" game. This is a fun little game that is from Do-Re-Me & You/Discovery Toys. My kids love it!

Here is how you can win:

1) Post a comment to this blog post about "Learning Through Play".

2) Write a blog post about this contest on your blog and link it to this one.

3) Update your Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc status to tell your friends to visit here too! If I am your "friend" on these sites, I will see the update. If not, you can either add me or send me an email with the screen shot.

There ya go! I will draw a name on Friday the 13th.

Good luck!

We won the Little Debbie Prize!

2009-02-03T14:21:00.001-08:00

We won one of the 3 Little Debbie prize boxes that Little Debbie was giving away through StretchingABuck.com! Our box arrived today via UPS and the kiddos were super excited!
Thanks Little Debbie and Stretching A Buck!

Lesson from the vacuum

2009-01-31T15:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, my vacuum cleaner taught me a lesson. It is amazing the things that God can use to speak to you! I needed to vacuum the living room Friday afternoon so I plugged one of my vacuum cleaners in to start the job. I have the bagless type that you can see the dirt through the clear dirt cup and I noticed that there was nothing entering the cup even though I could hear stuff being sucked up into the vacuum. I unplugged it and checked to see if maybe there was something clogged in the hose...nope. So I took the thing apart and checked other areas. There were no clogs. Finally, I decided that maybe the filter needed to be changed so I took the filter out and had my son bring me a new one. It worked! The filter was so full of dust that it wasn't able to clean my carpet.
While I was beaming and vacuuming my floor, I felt like God showed me that my heart is just like that filter. If I don't take time to change my filter by reading my Bible, I will not be able to handle the dirt and junk either. It was so clear to me. Be FILLED so that we can FILTER out the impurities.
I just wanted to share this with you and I hope you are blessed. Have a Jesus FILLED day!

Define "Good Day"

2009-01-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

What makes a day good? Is it that everything goes perfectly as planned? If that were the case, I would never have a good day because there are always little hiccups in my schedule and I try to just go with the flow....which is something I have learned how to do over the years.

As I got into bed tonight, I was thinking about my day. It was good. What made it good? Did my children act lovingly to one another all day? Heavens no! They bickered a lot today. Is my house perfectly clean? Uh...no! Did I get everything done that I wanted to today? Nope. So why do I think it was a good day? Because I am just reflecting on the events of today and just feel so completely blessed. We had snow today and the children played in it for awhile. They cleaned the playroom without being told to. Normally on Wednesday nights we are rushing out the door @ 5 to get to Taekwondo before church but tonight there was no service due to the snow so we just stayed home and relaxed. Andrew asked Daddy to play Chutes & Ladders with him and he did. Watching them play was just so sweet. The TV was off. There was a fire burning in the fireplace and it was just them. Now I am lying in bed about to curl up with a good book and just wanted to share my thoughts with you. Things may not have been perfect today but all in all, it was a pretty good day. I look forward to many more of these kind of days!

Little Debbie Giveway

2009-01-27T12:21:00.001-08:00

Here is an exciting giveaway on one of my favorite blogs:

Win a box of Little Debbie Products like this:

Just visit her blog and enter!!!

Scheduling to get it all done

2009-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

I have moms ask me all the time how do I get everything done that I need to do and still sleep every night....well, first off, I don't get everything that I want done each and every day but I do get a lot done! My "secret" is scheduling. I schedule everything...seriously! From the time I get up in the morning until the time I lie down at night, it all all scheduled. Now I do, of course, have to be flexible for life's little surprises but having a schedule is what helps my family.

My particular schedule will not work for you. That is something that you have to figure out on your own. A great resource to use in planning out a schedule is a book by Steve and Teri Maxwell called Managers of Their Homes. I have always lived by a schedule but this book really helped me to put my schedule together for the entire family. I also have so many things going on in my mind all the time that sometimes, believe it or not, I forget to do something so for the past few years, I have reminders in my Blackberry that pop up to let me know that is time to do certain things (for example- take the daycare kids that are potty training to the potty! Yes, seriously!)

Here is my schedule for each day:

5:00-5:30 Wake up & go for a Praise Walk (M-W-F)
5:30 Praise Walk (M-W-F)
6:00-6:30 Shower and Dress,
sweep daycare entry, put load of laundry into washer (Reminder on Blackberry!)
6:30 Coffee with God
7:00 - 7:30 Wake kids, fix breakfast, greet daycare kids
7:30 - 8:00 Get kitchen cleaned up and kids to school desks
8:00 - 10:00 Help kids with school (they have their assignments and can do a lot without me!)
10:00- Fix Snack
10:30 - 12:00 Help kids with school
12:00- Lunch
1:00 -3:00 Nap for little ones
Quiet reading for school agers
Office work for mom (church stuff, listen to podcasts, make phone calls, blog,etc)
3:00-4:00 Snack and then Play with the kids
4:00 - 4:30 Clean up and start dinner prep
5:00 - 5:30 Greet parents picking up daycare kids (W- leave for church)
5:30 - 6:00 Dinner
6:00 - 10:00 Various evening activities...meetings, cleaning, lesson plans, read book, watch TV, etc
10:00 -11:00 Go to bed!!

I just typed out our typical schedule. We don't start each item right on the dot so that is why I put a range of time before each activity.

If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to ask! I feel so blessed to be able to share what I have learned with other women so that they can accomplish more in their day!

Week in Review

2009-01-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

This week has been kind of busy and that is why I haven't been blogging much. I don't think any of the kids updated their blogs this week either now that I think about it.

We didn't have any of the 2 year old come on Monday because their parents were all off of work for the MLK holiday. We just worked on things around the house.

Tuesday of course was exciting! It was actually snowing here! We don't get that very often so I let the kids go outside and play in it while it lasted so we started school late. Our topic of the day was Presidents & inauguration ceremonies. We watched the 44th Presidential Inauguration and had some worksheets that went along with it.

Wednesday, my husband called to let me know that his father was going to have a triple bypass surgery...that was a little shocking. I wanted to go to the hospital to sit with my mother in law but I had a new little girl start that day so I just waited by the phone. They didn't start the surgery until later that evening so I took the kids to church and William went to the hospital. He called me around 11:30PM to let me know that his dad was out of surgery & that he was going to come home after he visited with him awhile. I think he got home around 1:30 AM....I am not sure, I was snoozing!

Thursday we had our stay at home and do nothing night. I love doing that sometimes! We had no set agenda, no place to be....I went to bed! LOL

Today is Alex's 12th birthday so we are going out tonight. He wants to go bowling and go to Bass Pro. We are going to visit Paw Paw first. He is doing well and hopefully will get moved into a regular room so we don't have a set time to visit.

That is all for now. Have a great week!

Saving Money!!

2009-01-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, it is official.....I am turning into one of "those people" LOL You know, the ones who are in front of you at the grocery store and have every ad for all of the stores in the area and a bucket load of coupons. You ALWAYS get behind on of them don't you?! And they take FOREVER! Well, I AM starting to see WHY they do it! Have you seen the economy? Hello! It is time to take some coupons in hand and work on saving some money for your family. This week I have picked up a lot of great ideas from my mom, my friends at the over night crop I went to and from surfing the net. There are so many ways to save money and I am gonna try it! The first site that I would like to recommend is one that allows you to load money saving coupons onto your shopping card (for my area, it is Kroger). Simply go to ShortCuts with your shopper's card in hand. Register your card and start adding savings! It is SIMPLE!! If you don't have a shopper's card, GET ONE! You really do save money using them. Yes, they are tracking your purchases but who cares. They use it for market research and the best part is, that they will mail you coupons occasionally on items that you actually use. I get a packet every few months that has coupons for things like $9 off entire order over $90....well, I am feeding a family of 5 plus have a home daycare, of course I can spend $90 in one shopping trip! The next site you need to visit is P&G eSaver. It is the same type of thing. You add e-coupons to your Kroger card on various P&G brand items.... every little bit helps! The next places that I recommend are sites where you can print coupons right from your computer. I went to Coupon Mom and Cool Savings and printed a few but also downloaded the Coupon toolbar and printed some there. My favorite find of the day was this site.... Stretching a Buck. I came across this post where she was teaching people about organizing your coupons and it was exactly what I needed! For you see, I am notorious for cutting out coupons and leaving them at home or putting them into my little coupon caddy and forget about them....only seeing them again when I clean it out and they have expired. When I had a vision in my mind yesterday about how I wanted to do my coupons, this was it! I am so happy that I found her! There are other great sites out there I am sure so if you happen to know of one, please share! I am going to keep track of all of my savings this year to see what a difference this makes. Have a great day! Go save some money!!

Miracle Muffins

2009-01-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

When I made my menu & grocery list last week, I had planned to make sausage & biscuits for Sunday morning breakfast but didn't buy the sausage because I thought I would be able to go get it Saturday. Well, I went to an overnight scrapbooking event Friday night & was there from around 6 PM Friday evening until 4:15 PM Saturday. I took about a 2 hour nap during that time. Needless to say, when I left there, I was not interested in making a stop @ the store to pick up sausage. William got home around 9 & I was already in bed. I told him that I wasn't sure what I would fix for breakfast because I hadn't gone to the store. I told him that I could have made muffins but I was out of sugar and eggs. He said "oh, no you're not. Your dad started a new diet and sent a bunch of food home with me". I jokingly said that the girls in my Sunday school class like chocolate chip muffins so I wish I had some. William said "You do. Your dad sent those too!" I was amazed and thankful. See, God ALWAYS provides! So Sunday morning, I got up and made "Miracle Muffins" for my family & the 5th and 6th grade girls Sunday school class.

Thanks God for having my dad send the food.

Share your miracle stories! I love to read about how God works!!

Too cold for the chickens

2009-01-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

It is so cold here that we actually had to bring the chickens in tonight! The current temp is 13! William discovered that 2 of his new chickens didn't survive the cold so he brought the rest of them in for the night. These 2 are in a cage now but when they first came in, he just let them roam freely in the playroom in front of a space heater so they could thaw out. Normally when you thaw out chicken, you just set it in the fridge or in water for awhile! LOL
I sure hope it warms up again soon so we can put these birds back outside! They haven't even given me any eggs this week and now they are getting to sleep in the house. I better get lots of eggs next week!!! LOL

Mighty fine day

2009-01-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! It has been a great day! The kids zoomed through their school work today and did well on their assignments....Amy made a 100 on her spelling test! Yay!
Andrew updated his blog today but Amy and Alex didn't want to. Alex needs to do something soon...his blog has nothing on it. I think he needs a topic so I may give him one tomorrow if he doesn't come up with something.
During quiet time, I listened to one of the workshops from The Ultimate Homeschool Expo. It was of Cindy Rushton talking about copywork. We have recently started doing copywork. I never thought about it before but it has been a great addition to our lessons. While I was listening to it, I made some copy work sheets for the kids to use tomorrow. I also sent some pictures of our pastor's youngest son in for their "Farewell Sunday" slideshow. They are moving to Oklahoma to pastor a church there. I am excited for them and can't wait to see how God uses them. We are going to miss them terribly but know that God has a wonderful plan.
Believe it or not, I am working on our VBS for June. That may seem like a long way off but it will be here quickly! We will be doing "Studio Go!" from Standard Publishing and I have to get volunteers and supplies ready. Oh, in other exciting news, I am now the local sales rep for a cookie dough fundraising company. Little Lambs has wonderful pre-formed cookie dough that organizations can sell and earn cash for! I will be setting up fundraisers with groups in the area and helping my family earn money too. This is a God send because we really needed that extra income! If you are involved in an organization that would like more information, let me know and I will email you some info.
Thanks for stopping by today. Be blessed and happy in all you do!!

Tired yet full of passion

2009-01-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

Bet that title caught your attention but it has nothing to do with what you might be thinking!! Read on.
This morning started out ok. I didn't get up early and go for my walk because I had trouble sleeping last night and didn't drift off until almost 2 so when the alarm went off at 5, I hit snooze....many times! LOL
We started school about 20 min later than normal and everything was going ok until around 10:30 when I was trying to give spelling tests and was so sleepy that I kept forgetting to give them their words! We go through it but it was tough.
William came home from work early because he said that he wasn't feeling well. We both feel blah now. I think it is going to be a very early night.

Do you ever think about what your kids will be when they grow up by looking at what they are interested in now? Andrew LOVES to watch the weather and will give me a report later on. He likes to look at radar maps online, he loves the WeatherBug, he likes the interactive weather feature on the satellite. But, he also is a train fanatic and will watch documentaries about the history of trains. William and I always say that he is going to be a Train Engineer/Meterologist! LOL
Alex has started to be very interested in painting with acrylics. He got an acrylic paint set for Christmas and has painted 3 pictures. He is actually pretty good. I will have to take pictures of his work and post them. I don't think he wants to be a full time artist but he enjoys it. He has actually always said that he wanted to be like his daddy and build houses when he grows up....well, that was before the housing slump. William hasn't built a house in a year. I wonder if Alex will still want to do that.
Amy...what can I say about her? She likes to cook and is really into fashion design. Maybe she will be a fashionable chef! She loves cookbooks and watching cooking shows...oh and is a QVC freak but that is a whole other story. LOL
I want my kids to pursue their dreams and I do whatever I can to help them learn more about the things that they are interested in. We read library books, look up info on the web, watch TV shows, and visit museums that have the topic that we want to explore. I think this is one of the reasons I love homeschooling so much. I get to see the spark and excitement when they learn something new about something that is so close their little hearts.

I hope you enjoyed reading about thoughts for today. I look forward to sharing more another day. Have a good evening and be blessed!

Healthy & Frugal Meals

2009-01-08T11:53:00.001-08:00

I really try to feed my family healthy meals. Yes, sometimes we eat things that we probably shouldn't but for the most part, we do fairly well. I have discovered that my kids prefer homemade chicken nuggets and burritos over the frozen kinds. It makes me very proud for a few reasons.

First of all, it is more economical to make them ourselves. I can buy a pack of boneless chicken breasts and put my own breading and seasoning on them for a whole lot less than buying them already prepared. The same goes for the burritos and the ones I make are bigger than the frozen kind.

Secondly, they are healthier. I don't add all of those preservatives and fillers that are in the prepared foods. For our burritos, we use the whole wheat tortilla shells and the kids LOVE them! For our chicken tenders, I use whole wheat cracker crumbs for the breading.

Lastly, it just makes me feel good when my kids say that their meal tasted good. I receive more praise for my cooking when I do it myself. That may not mean much to some moms but to me, it is special. I love to cook. It is like an artist who hears how great his piece of art is. Cooking is my "art".

Some of my favorite places to get recipes are:

Christy's Once A Month Cooking Recipes
Dottie's Weight Loss Zone
Rachael Ray
Saving Dinner

Please feel free to share links to your favorite recipes. I am always looking for new things to try!

Kid Bloggers

2009-01-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

My kids are blogging! This is something that I have thought about doing for awhile and since some of my friends have started doing it, I decided to do it too. I had always thought it would be a great way for family to keep up with what they are doing as well as help them in their computer, typing, spelling and grammar skills. I have seen many homeschool kids put their educational journey on blogs and thought it was pretty neat. Well, now my children will be sharing their lives with everyone on their own blogs.

Today Amy's blog was very simple and she just introduced some of our animals. It looks like I am going to have to work on her creative writing skills a little more.

Alex's blog doesn't have a post yet...maybe tomorrow.

Andrew blogged about a few different things and it was exciting watching him be excited about his blog. You can read what he wrote here Andrew's blog Here are pics of him blogging:

I love having the Internet!

2009-01-06T11:01:00.001-08:00

As a homeschool mom, I must say that I LOVE having the Internet to find material to use in teaching my children. Since money is so tight, I can't go out and buy tons of curriculum and supplies so I rely on what is available right here on the web. For example, today we are learning about Robin Hood and I found a website that offers free audio books that are read by volunteers so the kids and I are actually listening to chapter 1 of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood right now! They are coloring a picture of "Robin Hood" while they are listening to it. I also found another site that has tons of links about Robin Hood so I can go through there and find things that we want to use as well. It just amazes me that we have all of these resources at our fingertips. I think we are so blessed when I think about how the people that have homeschooled in the past didn't have this luxury.

I dream of helping people that homeschool or want to homeschool find ways to teach their children without having to spend a lot of money so I will continue to post links here of some of the things that we are using in our homeschool and would love for you to share any that you know of in the comments section.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a blessed day!

I got a hippopotamus for Christmas!

2009-01-05T19:08:00.001-08:00

I am just testing out the mobile picture upload for my blog. But since I had to send something, I decided to send a pic of the hippopotamus I got for Christmas! Ok, I didn't really but my daughter said I should say that! LOL

Back to School after Christmas Break

2009-01-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

Today went really well! I actually was expecting some resistance from the kids about having to get back into our school routine but there was none. Everyone was up, fed and at their desks by 8 and ready to go! Amazing for a Monday!!

We did our devotion first and the topic was about honoring our "old people". My kids know that I just love the elderly. I think they are so cute and I love spending time with them. I want to instill that love for senior citizens in them.

In history, we did a review quiz first....I wanted to make sure they didn't lose anything over the past 2 weeks. They all did very well. The Mystery of History makes history fun and interesting so they tend to remember the information better. After the review, we read a lesson about Richard the Lionhearted, Saladin and the Third Crusade.

They all had spelling tests and did so-so. They will be reviewing the words they missed and will have to retest on them. I am not too bothered by it. They haven't had to spell anything for the past 2 weeks so I was expecting it to not be 100%.

Amy and Alex had a review in math. I had planned on reviewing and then starting a new topic but when they were struggling with some of the review problems, I decided that we needed to master that before we moved on....so we did. Andrew did his review sheet and is ready for his next lesson.

They all read books that they had checked out from the library during their reading time. Andrew is reading a book about Pluto so his reading is counting as science as well. Two birds with one stone! The book is called When is a Planet not a Planet?The Story of Pluto and is sparking an interesting discussion between him and Alex.

Enough about school work....let's talk about other things we did today. Oh yeah, during our break, we watched Rachael Ray make this recipe and they decided that we need to try it. She has some great healthy, low cost recipes on her site so check them out!

It has been raining almost all day and since the temperature is low, it is forming ice on the trees. We would love some snow but it looks like that isn't gonna happen. I am just glad that it wasn't raining when I went for my walk this morning at 5:15. That would have ruined it for me. I walked further today than I did last time...I don't know the distance but I know it was more than a mile. I had my music in my ears and just walked to the beat.

It looks like I am going to have to bring in more kids to our daycare. We really need the income right now. Since I don't want to get re-licensed, I can only take on 2 more. I have looked through all of my old daycare stuff and it made me kind of excited about doing preschool again. I just have to get into a routine of doing school with my kids and do preschool with the little ones. William is going to be looking for side jobs to do too to help make some extra money. He can do pretty much anything around the house....your typical handy man. He also works on cars. If you have something for him to do, give him a call 481-6145. We just have to come up with some ways to make sure our bills are paid. I know I was making decent money with my home based business but it was keeping me away from home more than I liked and I was missing some important events in my kids' lives. I am a distributor for another company that I can do from home and not have to go out and do parties so I am looking into actively building that business too.

Wow, this is a long post. I guess I will stop now. I am gonna go cuddle with my man and watch a little TV with him and the kids before bed.

Adios!

First Sunday of 2009

2009-01-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

We had our first Sunday service of 2009 and although the attendance was a little lower than normal, it was wonderful.

In Sunday school, we talked about how we can help use our talents to solve problems in the world. Remember now, I teach 5th & 6th grade girls. They had to come up with a "slogan" to help start change. It was interesting to see the things that they came up with. We talked about how even at their age, they have talents from God to use to make changes in the world. We also talked about what the Bible says about being a leader and how you have to serve to be a leader. They didn't quite understand what that meant until I explained to them that Pastor Troy is a leader but he wouldn't be unless he was serving them by doing all he does. Their faces just lit up when they talked about how much time he puts into children's ministry. It is always amazing to see these girls growing in the Lord.

In City Lights (our Children's service), they started a new series called "Ready, Set, Grow" and it is about the Fruits of The Spirit. I didn't get to see much of it because I was at the sign in/welcome area but I heard some of it. The City Lights team does a great job of presenting the message so that kids "get it". I look at these little people and think that in a few years, they will be the ones that are teaching, preaching and sharing the Gospel! The time will go by SO fast and I am so blessed and honored to be a part of what God has planned for them!

Thanks for stopping by to visit today and reading about my day. Tomorrow we start school again after having a 2 week break so be sure to check back in to see how it goes!

My favorite things

2009-01-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know that the song is now in your head and I am sorry for doing that to you but I was just sitting her thinking about some of the blessings that I enjoy....my favorite things.

*The sound of my children laughing and playing together.

*Happy conversation at the dinner table.

*My bed when it has freshly washed sheets and comforter on it and it is made. It looks so peaceful and inviting.

*Scrapbooking. I enjoy making this memory albums so that my family has a visible record of the events of our lives.

*Music. I love listening to, singing and playing music. It can lift my spirits in any circumstance.

*Family. I love being with my family. Not just the people in my home, my WHOLE family. I love big family gatherings but feel like we don't do them often enough.

*Vanilla....candles, scent, ice cream....whatever.

*Chocolate...yummy

*Reading.....I love to read books, magazines, blogs, whatever.

*Movies...romantic comedies are my favorite.

*The smell of wood burning in the fall.

*Puppies and kittens....that is why I have too many animals.

*Watching my husband sleep in his recliner....unless he is supposed to be doing something else of course! LOL

*A clean and cozy home. It is just so relaxing to walk in to my living room when it is clean and just feel at home. I don't like stuff laying around.

I am sure I can think of some more but I would love to hear what your favorite things are.

Economic stress

2009-01-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

I am wondering what you are doing to help your family save money during this economic crisis. My husband was in construction building new homes and when the housing market fell, he lost his job. For awhile he went into doing remodeling and repairs but that slowed down too for him so we started really struggling to pay bills. I cut back on our grocery spending, we quit eating out, the kids had to quit piano lessons, we gave up our Y membership, we don't get out much now at all because it costs money to drive (obviously!) so we end up running all of our errands on one day. I watch children in my home and currently have 2. The money I make off of that buys our groceries and gas each week. I have tried to find other families to provide care for but with so many people being unemployed, the demand for quality childcare isn't what it used to be. I used to get call ALL the time and stayed full most of the time.
I don't know why I am sharing all of this with you except to say that I am trying not to be afraid. I know that God will provide for us but it is hard sometimes to wait to see what will happen. I have seen Him do wonders in and with my life and I KNOW that he will.
Today I am thinking about the bills I can't pay and the things I need to buy and am trying to stay positive. I am praising God for all we do have and praying that He will show me what to do to help my family during this troubled economy.
I know I am not alone. I will pray for all of us that are struggling. Please join me.

2009 Goals

2009-01-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Yeah, I know it has been awhile since I posted. I was trying to decide which blog tool I wanted to use and after trying out a few different things, I have chosen this one :) Maybe it is because so many of my friends are here....maybe it is the ease of use....I don't know. I just decided that this is the one :) My mother in law will be happy because this is one of the ways that she keeps up with what my little ones are up to. She likes to look at their pictures and see what they are learning about in school.....Hi Memaw!

I wanted to share my 2009 Goals with ya'll so here goes:

Finish my 2006 scrapbook
Blog regularly (at least once a week)
Help other women be the best that they can be......wife, mom, daughter, etc.
Spend more time with my mom.
Become more physically fit.

Thanks for sharing in my goals. I am sure that I will be adding more as the year goes by but this is what I am working on right now.

I pray that you will do all that you want to do in 2009.

Be blessed!

Starting Over

2008-10-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well....where do I begin?
I am trying to decide if I want to move my blog over to this server and get rid of my personal website completely. This is such a difficult decision because I have poured so much time into my personal site and am trying to determine if I really want to give it up.

I don't think I do. I actually told William that I wanted him to scrape the website off of my back window and then got upset that he didn't do it....and then 2 days later told him to just leave it alone. I really want to use my website to help other homeschool moms. So, I am in the process of re-doing my website now and am looking for a new web server since the one I was using has increased their price....again! I am trying to save money during this economic crisis for goodness sake!

So, as soon as it is all revamped and ready for release, I will let ya know.... as far as my blog goes, we will just have to see which one is a better fit for me.