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Showing posts from 2009

The Word: Jesus

I'm rather talkative tonight, but this is on my heart right now. Honeybear and I have been doing a bit of researching and studying. We're been asking ourselves "what do we believe? and why do we believe it?". I know that my husband has been reading through different creeds and confession such as the Augsburg Confession and the 1689 London Baptist Confession. Honeybear's even been reading through Early Church History and some online articles by some early church fathers. This morning the girls and I were doing chores and we were listening to "Victory Chant" from our WOW cd. I cried. I heard "Jesus is my Lord, I will obey Your Word. I want to see Your Kingdom come. Not my will but yours be done". It was as though I heard in my heart (or soul)... I will obey *you* because though we refer to the Bible as the Word of God.. Jesus *is* the Word of God. He is the *logos* made flesh. To obey God's Word is to Obey Jesus. I do long f

Summer Meal Planning and moving toward Fall

We didn't follow a true rotating menu plan over the summer but we did tend to have some of the same types of summer meals, just not a set rotation. We based the "when" of the meal on a few factors such as "too hot too cook", "too hot to even grill", "daddy not home early enough to grill". One of the things we did seem to have fairly regularly as a side dish was "baked potato" salad. Honeybear does not care for more traditional potato salads but this one was a big hit with the whole family. here is an idea of how I put it together. I don't really measure, I tend to eyeball and then taste and adjust. Please adjust according to your taste and needs. 5-6 medium potatoes cooked, peeled and chunked. I did try baking but found that boiled were easier to work with. Bacon bits or cooked crumbled bacon about 1 1/2 cups (give or take) shredded cheddar cheese Dried Chives to taste (buy in bulk spice section if available to save money

Things Children Say

Today was a "wacky" day. I'd been feeling "run down" and needed a nap. I slept longer than I anticipated but I think I needed it. But after I got up, the children went out to play. Mantha doesn't have the strength or coordination to ride a bike (even with training wheels) or a trike (though we do work on those skills) so she usually "rides" her "car" (little Tykes Fred Flintstone style car where you use your feet to make it go). Apparently she had a "collusion" and needed a "mechanist" to fix her car. She did mean to say collision and she was looking for the word "mechanic".

Thankful Tuesday

We just got home a little bit ago from having dinner with friends. We always have a great time when we get together with the P family. It was a joy to see Daddy P playing with his children and for both families to just enjoy spending time together. I'm so grateful for my friends and not just the P family but all the wonderful special relationships that bless and enrich my life. I hope that I am as much a blessing to you as you are to me. I'm thankful today also for Honeybear. He sent me a sweet email today and a text message. Sometimes I just need to "hear" "just checking up on you. how's your day? I love you." What's on your thankful list this week?

Mind Games

Today's Musings could really be posted under Frugal Friday as it has to do with grocery store savings but I decided it would work for today's pondering. On Saturday Honeybear and I went to several different grocery stores to take advantage of store sales and coupons I'd printed. Two of the three stores print your "savings" on the receipt. Something like "You saved 60% because you used your club membership" and it breaks down how much you had in "membership" savings, "store coupons" and "manufacture coupons". On the way home from the last store, Honeybear said "man, those mind games are starting to get to me". You see the last store, the store we spent the most money at, didn't print a nice "you saved gazillions of dollars by shopping here" tag on the receipt. Yes it did total our in store coupons and our manufacture coupons but it lacked that big number that tells you just how much you save by

Today's Thankful List

I don't remember if I was going to do Thankful Thursday or Together Thursday so this will be Thankful Thursday. First I am thankful for my husband. I am most thankful today for his love. He loves me. I can be so irritating but he still loves me. He can make me feel so treasured and special. Sometimes he calls me during the day just to check and see how my day is going. I am thankful that he thinks of me and that he loves me. Second, I am thankful for my teenage daughter. I am especially thankful today because she cooks. More and more lately she has been cooking. She knows my pantry better than I do! Today she said, "mom, I'll put dinner together" and tonight, instead of me asking for children to get this or that, I got this or that for her while she put dinner together. Third and perhaps a little silly, I am thankful for my Cue Cat bar code scanner . I got it free with my Readerware software and Honeybear modified it so that I can use it with any prog

Themes

I've decided that I really like the idea of themes for days of the week. Still working on deciding what themes and of course I reserve the right, since it *is* my blog, to post whatever topic I want on whatever day :). So far I'm thinking something like this: Monday Musings--- I hope this is vague enough that it can include deeper thoughts and more light hearted topics Wacky Wednesday--- my children are always saying or doing funny cute things and I always mean to record them and I just might try to pick a few every week. Or it might wacky things in the news or me just in a wacky mood and no this is NOT original at all.. I don't remember *whose* blog I saw this idea on but I saw it on somebody else's blog. The particular Wednesday I looked at that blog, the blogger had posted a picture of her child making a funny face. I fell in love with the idea. Frugal Friday---- I'm just tossing this idea around and again it's not original at all. I learned about it

I haven't really fallen off the face of the earth...

I know this is a MUCH overdue update and I decided that today 09/09/09 would be the day to write *something*! I spent the summer doing organizing projects, the biggest of which included setting up lesson plans in my favorite software program: Homeschool Tracker. I'll have to post some pictures of my book labeling project. We use Sonlight curriculum for history and literature and this year I am using 4 levels. In order to keep my sanity, I felt the need to be *extremely* organized. I have each level of Sonlight (Cores K, 3, ALT 7 and 100) labeled, arranged and shelved. I have a "working school binder" set up so that I can grab ONE binder that moves around the house with me as I coach, instruct and mentor the girls. I've also started "couponing" this summer. More so in the last couple of weeks. Even BooBear has enjoyed printing out coupons and looking through the ads to get the best deal. Not the healthiest of food but now that school has started w

Binder Update

Since my motto for 2009 is "Getting Organized One Binder at a Time", I thought maybe I should post a quick update about my binder organizing. I've been collecting my supplies. I've decided to combine my three 1" binders that hold recipes that I've printed from the Internet or email groups into one 3" inch binder. My 6 week rotating menu-plan along with the recipes for those meals will still be in a 1" binder. My oldest is going to make a cover for the Recipe binder. She's very creative and crafty. I think she's inherited it from my mother-in-law. BooBear likes to do "crafty things". I'm very blessed to have a daughter who enjoys those things. I've also decided that the "budget" book will move from a 1" binder to a 2" binder. I'm thinking I'll had some type of zipper pouch to hold the checkbook, return address labels and stamps. I'm tired of hunting all over the desk (They have a

Whatever Happened to Honesty and Integrity?

Today a certain store lost my business. Was it because my order wasn’t ready when I went to pick it up? No. Was it because there seemed to be a computer glitch when hubby called it in? No. It is because they lied to me and they called me a liar. It is because they called to tell me the order was ready but I wasn’t ready for it. I asked what I needed to do to make sure that I would not *lose* that order. They told me not a problem, just call when we need it. Today, they gave nothing but excuses. They told me that they didn’t really call to tell me that it was ready; they called to tell me they had to order it. Yet in the same breath, I was told but we have a record of it being filled and returned (um , hello but that was THEE phone call I was talking about). They told honeybear that it would not be ready until Monday. Supergirl needs it tonight. I put on my “mean momma hat” and demanded that they *would* get what she needed. Suddenly other branches

"Stuck" at home.

Yesterday we began preparations for going to church. Things like making sure we had a breakfast casserole to pop in the oven, planning a fellowship meal etc. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon it began to snow: big, white, fluffy flakes. Weather.com said that current conditions were "rain". I hate to be disagreeable but that "rain" sure resembled snow to me. By 11 O'clock last night we had a good 3-4 inches of "rain" (read white, fluffy, frozen flakes of SNOW) on the ground. By midnight we had a tree that just couldn't take it anymore. It just fell over. Fortunately, it's a small tree and fortunately it missed the van. Unfortunately, it blocked the end of the driveway. By morning the snow was beginning to melt but the end of our driveway and our cul-de-sac could have been used as a skating rink. With ice at the bottom of the driveway and a bigger problem of a tree blocking our driveway, honeybear decided we'd just stay home.

"Profound" thought for today.

So we're looking at Daddy's photo albums with pictures from his childhood. BooBear: "Wow, Grandma's hair looks like the 70's" Daddy: "It was the 70's" Good to know that the 70's are recognizable as the 70's. It'd be a shame if the 70's looked like today.

Quick Bible Reading update

Last week I mentioned that I was hoping to finish Exodus and start Leviticus. I haven't posted my Bible Reading yet but I wanted to share that I finished Exodus, started Leviticus and I finished Joshua. I've also continued with my reading of Luke. Edited to Add: Oh yes and I started reading Deuteronomy this week.

So just who was doing school today?

I’m supposed to be the teaching parent. Today I felt like I was the learning parent. Science was not a requirement for high school graduation when I was in school, so I didn’t take science. Now as an adult I have discovered that I really enjoy science. Yesterday, BooBear had a question about her physical science. She’s currently studying Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion. She needed help setting up the equation so that she could figure out the answer to how much force was applied to move the rock or something like that. This required a crash course on Physics for me. I told her to bring me her science book and we’d talk about it tomorrow. I ended up reading and re-reading the section in order to understand the relationship between force and friction. Using the Charlotte Mason technique of “narration”, honeybear got to be my sounding board as I tried to understand the science well enough to teach it to my daughter. So this morning we sit down together to go over th

She's Growing up!!

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My baby turned ten this past weekend. It's seems like a blink of an eye since she was a little newborn snuggling in my arms. We make a big deal out of birthdays in our house. The birthday person gets to pick breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tailor chose French Toast Casserole for breakfast, canned soup for lunch (yes, canned soup. I laughed so hard. I make homemade soup on a regular basis so Campbell's Chunky or Progresso is a special treat I guess.) and since it was Friday she wanted Calzone's so that we would still have our pizza theme but it would be different enough to be special for a birthday. Oh and the calzone's... she wanted "white ones". At first I thought she meant no tomato based sauce but ranch or something instead. Nope. She wanted white flour since we usually have whole wheat. BooBear had offered to bake her cake but BooBear got sick so we bought a cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling with chocolate frosting. Yes it was

Bible Reading 3/9 through 3/16

I am still making my way through Exodus and Joshua. I did finish Mark this week and started Luke. I did not read as consistently as I had planned but still making progress towards my goal. Here's what I read this week: Exodus Chapters 28-34 Joshua Chapters 8-12 Mark 15-16 Luke 1 I am hoping to finish Exodus and start Leviticus this week.

Needed a Facelift and Challenge update.

For the second time in two weeks, I'm feeling pretty miserable. Two weeks ago I came down with some sort of cold/flu/virus. It worked its way through the whole family, *except* for Honeybear. Just as Supergirl was starting to recover, Honeybear came down with a nasty head cold. So now this virus is working its way through the whole family. Yuck. So since I feel pretty clogged up and miserable and unable to focus and concentrate on things like Algebra and Physical Science, I decided to play with my blog background. BooBear helped picked out a couple of designs to try out. Now a challenge update. Since I was feeling good last weekend and he hadn't got sick yet, Honeybear and I went with $20 cash only to the grocery store and spent only $18.00! I'm sure we made quite a spectacle standing in front of the frozen lemonade debating between the Ritz crackers and Pink Lemonade. The Lemonade won! We did get a box of saltines though and the girls were happy to have crackers.

Bible Reading 3/3 through 3/8

This is what I read this past week. Exodus Chapters 21-27 Joshua Chapters 4-7 Matthew Chapters 26-28 Mark Chapters 9-14 As I was reading through Exodus, reading all the commandants, I realized how thoroughly God provided for every circumstance. And a distinction was made between intent to harm and negligent homicide. I could see how our own laws have their basis in the Mosaic law of the Old Testament. If a thief died while stealing, no one had to pay for his death. We have provision in our civil law for protecting our property and provisions. I just had never really thought about that before.

The Challenge

Now that I've posted about my rotating meal plan, I'm posting about a challenge that I've given myself. I've named it "the Debra game" in honor of my friend Debra who inspired me. She had not done what she called "real grocery" shopping for something like 6 to 8 weeks (I'm sorry Debra, I couldn't remember how long it had been). I like challenges. I like being told something is hard, difficult or just not done and then setting out to prove that I could do it anyway. So I've challenged myself to see how long I can go without doing any "real grocery" shopping. And to add to the challenge I want to see if I can stick to my rotating menu plan. Can I be creative and stick to the menu plan? I do intend to buy things like milk and eggs but at the moment I am blessed with a full chest freezer and a fairly well stocked pantry. Would anyone (besides Debra *grin*) care to join me in this challenge? Let the Game begin.

Meal Planning: Creating a Rotating Meal Plan part 2

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It took approximately 8 hours (give or take) to make the rotating meal plan. Sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? But it has been *so very worth it*. We finished round 1 and this past weekend marked the end of week 1 of round 2. We haven’t followed it *exactly* and I know that this coming week we won’t follow it exactly either. I haven’t had to spend time *thinking* about what to make for dinner. I just have to go over to the binder, open it up and look to see what’s on the menu for this week. By making it 6 weeks long, I hope to be able to take advantage of buying in bulk and buying only on sale and in the long run saving money. I can also do bulk cooking and make life even easier but I think that is a topic for another day. So here’s what I did step by step to create a six week rotating menu dinner menu plan of meals my family would actually eat. Step 1: I asked honeybear to help. We gathered the children together and he stood at the white board. Honeybea

Bible Reading 2/24 through 3/2

I didn't spend as much time working on my reading goal this week but here's what I read this past week: Exodus Chapter 20 Joshua Chapters 1-3 Matthew Chapters 13-25 Mark 5-8 A very dear sweet friend of mine, shared with me that she too is working on reading through the Bible this year. Adapting her idea to fit my preference, I have taken to putting my One Year Bible and placing it on top of my closed computer and reading *before* I even turn on the computer. It takes a long time (supposedly 21 days but I think some of us, or me anyway, need longer!) to develop a habit. So I am working on creating a habit of working on my Bible reading goal *before* turning on the computer.

Meal Planning: The Rotating Menu Plan

About 9 years ago, I decided to create a rotating meal plan. I was using the crock pot nearly daily at the time. I had 4 children ages 4 years to 10 months, one whom was medically fragile and had lots of special needs and required so much of my time and effort: even more than the baby!! I set up a six-week rotating menu plan using mostly crock pot recipes. I was inspired by two books: Managers of Their Homes by Steve and Teri Maxwell, and The Organization Map by Pam McClellan. In MOTH, Mrs. Maxwell has a chapter about getting organized in the kitchen. In chapter 7, “Scheduling in the Kitchen”, Mrs. Maxwell suggested having two or three family-favorite meals that are the same every week. This would limit how many meals you would have to plan each week, making meal planning easier. She said “this idea works for lunches, too, but with lunch you can take it even further.” She suggested that you plan the same thing for lunch every Monday, and something different for

Bible Reading 1/1 through 2/23

I said that I would like to keep myself accountable for my reading goal. I meant to post this yesterday morning but didn't have time. So from January 1st through February 23, I have read the following as part of my "read the Bible in a year" The book of Genesis Exodus chapters 1-19 Matthew chapters 1-12 Mark chapters 1-4 The following verses really spoke to me yesterday. Our Pastor is preaching on 1 Peter right now and on Sunday, Pastor preached about election from the first two verses of 1 Peter. That sermon caused me to see these two verses from Mark in a whole new light: "And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them." Mark 4: 11-12 I am still "struck" by the "

"Profound" thought for toay.

All of us who have children have experienced that moment when our child says something that is just so precious that you need to remember it. Hopefully, you are not like me and end up NOT writing it down and then try to remember it and realize uh oh .. I’ ve lost it. I decided that now that I have a blog, I’m going to write these precious moments down so that when my children are grown, I’ll have these moments to share to with them. Kind of like a diary or journal entry. A place for me to record something that I’d like to remember that I’m sure that I would forget. So today’s profound statement comes from 9 year old Tailor. I was making Creamy Tuna Noodle casserole to take to church for the fellowship meal. I asked my 13 year old to taste it. She said that she really liked it and that it tasted like Tuna Helper (somehow I think I should be insulted but I know she loves Tuna Helper and so this was a great compliment). That’s when we heard: “I love it when fo

The Perfect Program

As homeschoolers we are always on the lookout for that perfect math program or that miracle spelling program or that ONE phonics program that will be SURE to teach our child to read fluently nearly instantaneously. We also gravitate towards a tendency, if we’ve found that perfect program, to push that program to everyone we know. We overhear a homeschooling mom say that junior is struggling with math and we’re quick to recommend the math program we’ve recently found that has really helped our tator tots to learn their facts. What we fail to see is that each program has its strengths and yet it also has its weaknesses. Just like our children. It doesn’t matter how many (or how few) children we have. Each one is a unique and special individual created by God, in His image and for His glory. They are not clones of each other, nor are they clones of us. So if each of our blessings are different why do we assume that curriculum is a one size fits all affair? Lately, I

Teacher or Mom?

Today, we had unexpected visitors. Miss K stopped by. Miss K usually comes on Mondays to do PT with Supergirl. Today, she didn’t come to do PT. Today, she had her two children and her dog with her. They were in the neighborhood and decided to stop to see if we could play. Tailor loves animals. She was thrilled at the opportunity to play with a dog and to show B her model horse collection. Supergirl was excited to see Miss K and gave her a big hug. They all trooped to the park to play and walk the dog. Supergirl, so used to having Miss K do PT, asked if she could do some of her “exercises”. Miss K said she didn’t mind so Supergirl got some PT today. This got me to thinking. Miss K didn’t stop being a PT even when she was just being a friend. I don’t stop being a mom just because I home school. Miss K didn’t come over to work, but even in playing she didn’t stop working. I don’t have times in my day where I am “just a mom” or I am “just a teac

Be Still and Know

How is your quiet time? I am ashamed to say that most days mine is non-existent. Oh I don’t mean that I don’t pray and I do have a bible reading plan ( see my blog post on goals) but I can’t say that I have been consistent lately with a daily QUIET time to be still and listen to Him. I’ve not taken the time to sit at His feet and drink from the Living Well. Quiet time, for me, can include reading scripture. It can include praying. It could even include memorizing scripture. But there is something else. Something more. I do the above things. But they are not necessarily “quiet” and they are not necessarily “alone”. There is something wonderful about praying with someone else and memorizing scripture with others is helpful. I enjoy reading scripture with my family, but those things, while very good, are no substitute for going to the Father and spending some quiet- one on one- time with Him alone. Being still and knowing that He is and that is all that I ne

Goals for 2009

I didn’t start this blog until February but I did set some goals in January for 2009. I have two goals that I plan on blogging about in order to hold myself accountable. The first goal is to read the Bible in a year. Yes, I have an unwritten, unspoken goal of reading SOMETHING (even if just one verse) from scripture each day but when praying through this goal and trying to set up a reasonable expectation, I realized that when I think of reading “the bible in a year” I have this idea or image that I must read some bible plan each day that requires so many chapters from the OT and the NT so that I read the entire Bible in one year. I put stress on myself because I get “behind” and then I get discouraged and eventually I give up. So this year I have the goal of reading through my One Year Bible in a year but *ignoring* the day designations. That means that some days I may not read that particular Bible book at all and some days I may read two or three or more “days” wort

Family Traditions, The Building of Treasure

Today is Valentine's Day.. well what's left of today. We don't really have any specific Valentine's Day traditions in our family but we try to have a nice meal. Tonight we served shrimp (not for me.. I had steak LOL), Gourmet Pototoes, and fresh steamed asparagus. This is NOT everyday fare for us. This is special. Last night was pizza night. That's a family tradition for us. If it's Friday night, it's Pizza Night. SpecialGirl is learning the days of week. She's knows her days like this: Monday is "Therapy Day", Saturday is "Daddy stay home day", Sunday is "Church Day" and Friday? yup you guessed it.. Pizza. Conversations like this happen nearly every week: SuperGirl "Is it Friday?" Me: "Yes" SuperGirl "Daddy make homemade?" Me: "Yes". Then SuperGirl does her little happy dance and says "I'm so excited". (I am going to have to videotape it!) Friday Nig

"What do you like best about homeschooling?"

This afternoon BooBear, my oldest daughter, asked me "Mommy, what do you like best about homeschooling your children?" Hmmm, good question. I told her I wasn't sure. I had to ponder that one. I really enjoy homeschooling, there are lots of things I like about it. I like that I get to choose what kind of math program or history program to use. I like that I get to sit on the couch and read. I love reading. I like that I get to do Algebra problems. Ok, so I'm kind of geeky that I get thrilled when BooBear needs me to help her solve for x. But what do I like best about it? Then it hit me. I like best that I get to be with my daughters and I get to guide, direct and teach their hearts. I get the opportunity to share my faith and my values with them. I like that I can stop in the middle of a math lesson and talk about scripture and take the time to pray with my daughter. I like that they ask me questions like "what do you like best about homeschooli

Taking Every Thought Captive

Today, I've been feeling... I don't know.. not quite depressed, not quite angry... maybe more like something restless in my spirit. I've struggled today with thoughts like "he never does what's he supposed to" or "if only he would do this or that". (He of course being honeybear and my best friend). I wrestled with myself trying to reign in those thoughts. I'm reminded of the analogy I gave Rosenburger yesterday. She's my "stuck in the middle" daughter. She's been struggling with feeling left out and unloved. So I told her that she needed to change her perspective. Our emotions, thoughts and feelings are driven by what we perceive. If we perceive that we are unloved, we will feel unloved. Our feelings though are NOT an accurate measure of truth or reality. The Truth is that my daughter is loved. She is loved by One who loves her more than I could ever love her. He is faithful and true and will never leave her nor fo

Starting Down the Blogging Path

I've gone and done it now. I've entered a whole new world. I thought this first post should be a musing about the title. I once wrote a poem that had the line: we go round and round, circling through this life, some people life their life in a dream. The poem was about people who spent so much time "dreaming" that they missed out on the wonders of life happening in the here and now. I don't remember all of the poem and I don't remember if I even have a copy of it anymore but as I pondered what to name this blog I kept coming back to "and we go round and round circling through this life". I make no promises as to the frequency of posts.