Kids say the greatest things

even BIG kids...

My son Nathan was helping me with dinner Monday night. He was a big help...
not really but he did a little thing and brought all of us a good laugh!!

This is Nathan... he is always acting sillyl!! this was him this past Christmas


Well back to Monday night.

I asked Nathan to shred some cheese for me and suggested he use the food processor. So he cut a chunk of Mozzarella and fed it into the processor. In the lid of the processor is a nitch that the food sometimes gets stuck in.

He got done with shredding the cheese and said, "I will just grab this little bit of cheese out of the lid and eat it because you know what the Bible says, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth the corn."

He quoted Duet. 25:4 and used it to his advantage and it was soo funny. Rachel came in and he told her and she sat down in the chair and just roared!

Kids say the greatest things!!

Have a great day,
Debbie

My Life. In Pictures. Day 2

I choose to do the photos I did today because of the purpose of the Photo Challenge:

"The purpose of this photo challenge project is to encourage you to pick up your camera and start capturing details of your life."

My life includes homeschooling.

Many, many days of homeschooling.

So Far...

3,218 days

4 kids

2 graduated

2 still homeschooling

This is my life!!

The Mess!

Which, this day includes:
school books, school logs, pencil cases, cookies, scissors,
cereal still on the table from breakfast, assignment sheets,
bowls, a map book, a Bible, science pages, a plate...

and...

Lego Mindstorms,
a Lego Mindstorms book,
regular Lego,
and Knex
(on the table and other places)
for there are contraptions to be built!

How do we get school done around here???
Sometimes I wonder!!!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our home.
Join me and the other ladies in the My Life. In Pictures. Photo Challenge

Debbie

Give to the March of Dimes

I found this mom through a blog I read.

Help a mom reach a goal of $2000 for the March of Dimes.

This mom had a child born two months early and knows the heartache it causes. Seeing one of your own children so in need of medical attention. Thanks to the March of Dimes the had the information, help and emotional support they needed. Thanks also to the March of Dimes their second child was carried full term. They are now trying to give back. Help this mom reach her goal.

Go to March For Babies and donate to a good cause.... no gift to small.

My Life. In Pictures. Day 1

"The purpose of this photo challenge project is to encourage you to pick up your camera and start capturing details of your life. This project should also serve as a way to look at what others are finding to shoot and will hopefully keep you inspired to look for more moments in your life you wouldn't always think to capture with your camera."

The challenge runs from today through the end of the week and here is the schedule:

• Monday- Something new
• Tuesday- Something on your table
• Wednesday- The view from your front door
• Thursday- Something you do each day
• Friday- Something old

*************************************************

Today's Challenge:
Photograph Something New

Have you ever had someone at church bring a bunch of tomatoes to share because their plants were bearing to much fruit and they could not eat them all... that is a blessing... or may be it was zucchini?

Yesterday at church someone brought a bunch of Cabbage Plants! I have never had anyone give away Cabbage Plants at church... have you?

It is a blessing for our family as well. It will get us started on our garden. We need to get some soil first so these plants can survive. We live in Northern Delaware and we have CLAY soil... not good for growing veggies or anything else.. except WEEDS that is.

We are all very excited and will be getting some soil and putting these in our yard this week.

I will keep you updated as to their growth and pictures of the veggies in our garden as we go along.

What do you have new around your house... any plants coming up??? any new babies... we mom's love to look at babies??? new books??? new... ???

Join us today and/or any of the days this week in the My Life. In Pictures Challenge... and check out the other posts at the home site too and see what is new in the homes of the ladies participating in the challenge.

Have a great day,
Our week has started well,
Debbie

The Simple Woman's Daybook for the week of March 30, 2009

FOR TODAY ... Monday, March 30, 2009
Outside my window... It started off bright and sunny though windy and cooler, but now lots of white clouds are rolling in.

I am thinking... about school for today and what to make for dinner and about the photo challenge I need to take a picture for later today.

I am thankful for... A God who wakes me up early when my husband, whom I asked last night to wake me before he left for work, forgets.

From the learning rooms... Middle Ages, Health and Hygiene, and the other regular studies. Looking forward to reading more of The Hidden Treasure of Glaston and reading a couple of fun books for Health and Hygiene this week, they have worksheets with the books too.

From the kitchen... dd Rachel is making pancakes... yumm and yesterday she made Oatmeal cookies.

I am wearing... blue sweats... I need to do my laundry.

I am creating... History Unit Studies, that I hope to be able to sell when I get done. If I get the nerve to ask for the permissions I need from authors/publishers that I need.

I am going... nowhere

I am reading... lots of stuff... see my Shelfari on my sidebar. Specifically though, I am trying to finish Luke's Story, though I have other books I have started reading and not finished yet.

I am hoping... to get to BB's, an Amish Discount Grocery Store about an hour from our house, next Saturday.

I am hearing... Gospel Music - Gaithers - and my kids interacting and my dd yelling that Breakfast is ready so I have to hurry and finish this post.

Around the house... lots to be done, priorities to be set, projects to be worked on.

One of my favorite things... time with my kids, a special afternoon each week with one of my children to do anything they want, this week is Rachel's turn.

A few plans for the rest of the week: school, projects I am working on (still planning to blog about them and tell you more details, maybe I will actually get that done this week), much homeschooling to do and catching up on the school logs I am Sooooo behind in, time with Rachel Wed. afternoon.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Sunrise this morning! Beautiful Pictures God Paints!!

Check out our hostess and the other Daybooks Here

Have a Great Week,
Gotta go eat my pancakes,
Debbie

My Life. In Pictures.-- New Photo Challenge

I wanted to let my readers know that tomorrow and every day this week I will be participating in a fun picture challenge I found through 5 minutes for mom. You can find the details at Everything Except the Grill. The challenge tomorrow should also be her first post on her main site.

Tomorrow's challenge is to take a picture of something new around your home and post a picture or a picture and a description. Check back tomorrow to see my picture and check back each day this week to see them all. Also Join In! It should be FUN!

Debbie

Homeschool Weekly - Week Ending 03/27/09

School Last Week

History:
Middle Ages Lapbook from Knowledge Box Central
mini books we did this week Mon- Thurs.:
Medieval Medicine
Medieval Religion
Mohammad
Major Events Timeline
Vocabulary
Jousting
How Does a Boy Become a Knight?
Illuminations
King Arthur

Friday they did a worksheet on the parts of a Knights Armor from:

Knight in Armor Worksheet

We also did a little History reading on Friday. I had suspended reading History to the boys because we have so much Historical Fiction to read for this time period and I did not want to get to far ahead in the History reading. This week I decided that although we still have lots and lots of Historical Fiction to read I would resume reading History to the boys as well as finish up the Middle Ages Lapbook. I want to finish our study of the Middle Ages this year so we can start next year with the Renaissance and Reformation. So I have decided to read ahead in the History Unit Study I have made and to keep reading the Historical Fiction as well. When we end this year's 180 days hopefully we will be done the Middle Ages History part and we can read the Historical Fiction as part of our Summer Reading.

So, all that to say, on Friday we read Story of the Middle Ages ch. lxxix - lxxxi the chapters were on King Henry II (Henry Plantagenet), his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Thomas a Becket.

On Monday of this week we also started reading The Hidden Treasure of Glaston we completed chapters 1-5.

Science:
We were doing a section of our Human Body Unit on Nutrition and Health but I got this free lapbook from CurrClick and wanted to use it so we are taking a break to go back and do more Heart stuff from this lapbook.
Human Heart Lapbook from Knowledge Box Central
How Many Times Per Minute Does a Child's Heart Beat?
How many quarts of blood does the averate heart pump in one day?
Basic Kinds of Blood Vessels
Blood's Path Through Your Heart
About How Large is Your Heart
How Many Times Per Minute Does an Adult's Heart Beat?
What is the strongest muscle in the human body?
Letter to my Heart
Healthy-Heart Menus
Choose a Heart-Healthy Snack?
Break the Heart Code
Activities for the Heart

and Food Groups minibook from Homeschool Share

I posted one new picture on the dining room wall from our Artist Study of Caspar David Friedrich - Woman at the Window. I got the print from Wikipedia I like the prints on Wikipedia. You can just do a google search or do a search at Wikipedia of the Artist you are studying then you scan down and they have a link under Work that takes you to a complete list with thumbnails of all the pictures of the Artist. Then you can choose which ones you want to print and/or download. That way I can choose photos that are not scantily clothed or unclothed. I use Ambleside Online's Artist Schedule and suggested prints, if they are clothed, though I download them from Wikipedia if I don't like the suggested paintings I find replacements on Wikipedia.

We also continued on with the Grammar, Math, Bible and Copywork we usually do.

Well that was our week.
I hope yours was great,
Debbie

New Website I Recently Found - You Can Make This

This Website has great projects to make for Children and Adults in all the Categories that it lists on the button above... and More. They have some freebies and many things for sale. I have not purchased anything yet but I have some things on my wish list now from their site. Some of the freebies I am excited to make soon and some will be for later when I have grandchildren to sew and do other crafts for. If you have younger children there is a lot there for that age. My daughter and I are excited about their new site going up You Can Quilt... so check them out. Click on the button above or click here.

Make time to make a special craft with and/or for someone in your family,
Debbie

The Simple Woman's Daybook for the week of March 23, 2009

FOR TODAY... Monday, March 23, 2009
Outside my window... it is dark. I wanted to do this first thing this morning but other things happened. First our Internet connection was out. Then I had to do school with the boys. Then I had dinner to make. Then my dh and I watched The Quiet Man, I got it out of the Library in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

I am thinking... that I need to get to bed after I do this post.

I am thankful for... the Psalms in the Bible. They have been very comforting to me lately. See my post from yesterday here.

From the learning rooms... still working on the Middle Ages Lapbook, now doing Nutrition, Exercise, Hygiene, Manners, Responsibility for your own body; still on Franz Liszt for Composer and Caspar David Frederich for Artist and probably will be for the rest of this school year.

From the kitchen... my daughter made Easter Donut Cookies from the King Arthur Cookie Companion Book. I had mine without jimmies! I hate the wax taste.

I am wearing... sweats and a turtleneck... but will soon be in my p.j.'s

I am creating... nothing much last week and this. I want to do some more scrapbooking but I have several projects going right now.

I am going... to bed... soon.

I am reading... lots of things... the same as last week... see my Shelfari.

I am hoping...
I am hearing... my husband talking to my son. Everyone else is in bed.

Around the house... much sleeping.

One of my favorite things... hot tea and a movie with my hubbie.

A few plans for the rest of the week: afternoon with my dd Jessica tomorrow, working on my projects which I will try to make time to tell you about later this week, cleaning and straitening my room, school with the boys, and hopefully some scrapbooking.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

My Dear Daughter Rachel and I, the day she was born.
This picture is posted today in honor of her 23rd Birthday this past Saturday.
I Love you Rachel

Check out the hostess of the Simple Woman's Daybook and the many other people who post on Mr. Linky.

Have a great Week,
Enjoy your kids they grow up so fast,
Good Night,
Debbie

Encouraging Scripture

Yesterday, my family and I were out in the car on our way to Winterthur to walk around on Rachel's Birthday and had stopped at Wawa for a minute. The kids all went in with my husband and I stayed in the car. They were taking longer than I thought they would and I was getting bored of watching the people so I grabbed the New Testament and Psalms my husband had in the car and opened to a Psalm and this is what I read was very encouraging to me and so I decided to share this little moment I had with God while waiting at Wawa.

scripture in green ... my thoughts to the Lord in blue

I read: Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." (convicting!!) Your praise is not continually in my mouth. Complaining seems the be the order of the day for me these days... I know that is not good Lord, I am sorry.

verse 2-3 "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exhalt his name together." I am sorry I have not been magnifying your name Lord and doing it with my children, especially, throughout the day.

verse 4" I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears." I then repeated this in prayer about 5 times.

verse 5 "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed."

verse 6 "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." This I repeated in prayer to the Lord 5 or 6 times. Then I thought of some of our troubles and prayed for the Lord to help us.

verse 7- 10 "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Then I said this over a time or two in prayer .

Then I meditated on all the verses again and just let them sink into my soul.

I hope these verses encourage you as you face the week ahead.
Time for bed,
School and many other things ahead this week,

God Bless my Online Friends,
Amen

Debbie

Happy Birthday to my Dear Daughter

Presenting Rachel

From this cutie
March 21, 1986
11:48 am


6 lbs. 9 oz.
19 inches long

To This Beautiful Young Woman
23 years old today!

Happy Birthday Daughter

I love you!
I am privileged to be your Mom

Stop by Rachel's (and my other daughter Jessica's) Blog and wish her a happy birthday and check out her blog AND leave a comment here too if you want.
http://younghomemakers.blogspot.com/

Debbie

Lies Women Believe, Chapter 2

I am doing a Bible study with a group of ladies from my church. We are on chapter two this week and I wanted to share my favorite quote from the book for this week. I hope it will uplift you as it did me. It is from chapter 2, Lies Women Believe about God, it is from Lie #2 "God Doesn't Love Me." We would never say it out loud of course but we live as if we believe it. I know I do some times. I believe that God is love, that God loves the world, but not that God loves ME! Well here is the quote.

"Put together all the tenderest love you know of, the deepest you have ever felt, and the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you, and heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world, and then multiply it by infinity, and you will begin, perhaps, to have some faint glimpse of what the love of God is."

The quote is from Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss pg.52 which is actually a quote from Hannah Whitehall Smith, quoted in Daily Strength for Daily Needs, comp. Mary W. Tileston (Boston: Little, Brown, 1899), 333.

Add to that these verses from the Bible:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:14-21

And there are other verses of course.


God Bless,
Live in His Love,
Debbie

Another St. Patrick's Day Resource

A resource I just found in my tonight. I thought someone might want to add it to their study.
The Toymaker's March Newsletter has some St. Patrick's Day paper crafts in it.
http://www.thetoymaker.com/TOYLISTNEWSLETTERS/1TMNews0309.html

Enjoy,
Debbie

St Patrick's Day Resources

Today and tomorrow we are taking a small break from the regular subjects to study St. Patrick. Below you will find some free and some not free resources I have found. Some of the resources I am using this year, some I have used other years and some are for the future. I will post a picture of our combo lapbook tomorrow when we finish it.

Free Products
Currclick for St. Patrick's Day... I don't know how long these will be free so get your copies today!! St. Patrick: The World's Greatest Missionary
Shamrocks and Shillelagh

If you join Live and Learn's Yahoo Group at http://liveandlearnpress.com/join.php you will have access to 5 free lapbooks including one for St. Patrick's Day. See the link above for details.

In the School Express newsletter they have a link to two free St. Patrick's Day pages + a whole free unit on St. Patrick's Day http://www.schoolexpress.com/newsh84j.php

This site has a lot of freebies... at the bottom of the page the newest freebies are for St. Patrick's Day http://learninglinkprintables.com/freebiepage.html

A Free Unit Study at http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/article11.htm

Free Lapbook Elements at http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/st_patricks_day.htm

Free St. Patrick's Day Scrapbook Page

Free St. Patrick's Day Craft E-book

Free St, Patrick's Day lapbook at Homeschool Share

Notebooking pages from Notebook Learning

Notebooking Pages from NotebookingPages.com
http://www.notebookingpages.com/uploads/PDF_Files/Holidays/St._Patrick_s_Day.pdf
from http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=holiday-pages

Stuff you have to pay for (but worth every penny)
CurrClick's St. Patrick's Day Lapbook


A book on the Middle Ages... chapter one is St. Patrick What Really Happened During the Middle Ages

Well that is the free stuff I am using for our study. I hope this helps someone out. We are only doing St. Patrick's Day stuff today and tomorrow.

Have a Blessed Week,
Debbie

Just a Short Note

Hello Blog Readers
Just wanted to let you know that I have been busy and then I went to my Sister's/Mom's for the weekend so I have not had a chance to post. I have been working on many projects here at home and was so busy I did not have time to post anything new. Then Friday I went to my Sister's house (my Mom lives with her) for our haircut weekend. One weekend every 15 weeks (every third time my Sister and Mom go to the hairdresser) I go up to PA to drive my Mom to the hairdresser because she gets a perm. My sister has to work on Sat. and she does not have time to wait for my mom to get the perm.

So I go up on Friday night, stay over, go with them to breakfast at McDonald's, go get our hair done and then take mom to do any errands she might need to do. This time it was a trip to Walmart for a few odds and ends, then a stop on the way home at the drug store to pick up a prescription.

Sat night we decided to go out for dinner, since my sister and brother-in-law were going out with friends. We went to Applebees. We had a good time and came home with a doggie bag and we were stuffed. I wanted to have dessert but we were both to full to do so. I suggested we go out for dessert on Monday after here Dr. appointment. She thought that was a great idea. So home we went and watched some t.v.

Sunday Morning we got up, went to Sunday School and Church at her church and then home. Sunday afternoon my sister set up here new Wii Fit. She got the Wii a while ago but just got the Wii fit this past Christmas. She had not used it yet so we set it up and had fun trying out some of the exercises. It was a lot of fun. A Wii is something I definitely want and have on my wish list. Ohh... we played Bowling and Golf Friday night and Sunday afternoon too. Sunday at church I noticed a muscle pain in my right arm and could not figure out why? then it hit me... the Wii, it really can be a good work out. I was evidentaly using muscles that had not been used in a while. LOL Well it was fun. I liked the hoola hoop challenge the best, but some of the other workout features are fun too.

I usally go home Sunday afternoon but this time I was staying over 'til Monday evening... tonight... because my mom had Dr. appointments on Monday and I said I would take her instead of her driving herself to the early morning appointment, though she had a ride with my sister-in-law for her afternoon appt. So this morning I was up at 7 am and out the door at 7:30 to take my to an appointment about her back. She has been having pain since early Nov. The Dr. said she needs a cortizone shot in her back and scheduled her for that Wed the 2oth. We went home and relaxed and got some breakfast and then Mom took a nap. I watched some home clean up shows and a baby birth show. We had a small lunch and then back out to the Dr.'s this time the eye Dr. Mom has had some trouble with her eyes for over a year now and this was a regular appointment. Praise the Lord he saw a small improvement in her vision and that is encouraging. Dispite the improvement though she still had a shot in her eye to keep it healing hopefully. Then we went back to Applebee's for our dessert. We both had the Tripple Chocolate Meltdown. A small chocolate cake with a lava of chocolate fudge in the center that oozes out onto your plate when you cut into it with a side of vanilla ice cream and fudge drizzled over that. Oooohhh Yummm... Yes, I know that will be a killer this week when I get on the scale Wednesday but... I did work out with the Wii on Friday and Sunday. Then back to the house to get ready to go home and wait for my dh.

So that was my weekend. I am home now and tomorrow it is back to school and the other projects I am working on. I am tired. I am going to bed early. I hope you had a good weekend.

In Christ,
Debbie

Weightloss Wednesday March 11, 2009

Well I am blogging Weightloss Wednesday because I should and because I made a commitment to myself to do it....

but....

I did not even bother to weigh myself this week. I have been craving and eating all kinds of things.. and I don't mean fruit and vegetables and I have not been exercising except for a walk at Winterthur on Sat. (scan down to see yesterdays post for a slide show).

I do not want to totally give up but Friday I will be going to my sisters & moms house for the weekend... actually I will be gone Fri. night till Mon. night and will not be able to really control my meals so next week will be a wash also. I will try to get started back on my better eating and exercise on Tuesday when I get home. I will post next Wednesday and even weigh myself even though I will have only been back on the "diet" and exercise one day... no more excuses... if I want to be healthier and lighter by my 25th Anniversary in July I must get serious!!!

I need to make our menus and shop and prepare foods and snacks for the week.
I need to drink more water.
I need to get my Weight Watchers computer program loaded and keep track of everything I eat.
I need to prepare WW deserts and snacks and get fruit and veggies and have them ready for when I get snack attacks.
I need to stop keeping snack food in my bedroom by my computer, especially junk food.
I need to stop going to McD's for Sweet Tea... and... whatever to go with it... sometimes fries.. sometimes a pie... sometimes nothing... sometimes a meal.
I need to plan more interesting lunches instead of just eating pb & j, mac and cheese from a box or Ramen Noodles.

Well, I have a lot of work to do...
I put the weight on over a lot of years... and it will take time to come off but I need to be serious about it, I need to be prepared, and I need to be honest. I am sure I will fall again. It is hard with my family sabotaging me sometimes but they never put a gun to my head... no one makes me eat the junk... I want to eat it.

To check out the Weightloss Wednesday meme and my friend Chasity's blog click below or click the button at the top of the post: Chasity at Seasons of a Godly Woman

Well,
Here's to better days ahead,
Debbie

A Walk At Winterthur... A Bit of Springtime in the Winter

I decided to do a slide show since I had so many photos to share. I hope you enjoy our walk at Winterthur. Photos were taken by Jessica... except for the ones of Jessica... those were taken by Rachel. To check out more about Winterthur go here: Winterthur

The Simple Woman's Daybook for the week of March 9th, 2009

FOR TODAY... Monday, March 9, 2009

Outside my window... the sun is up which is good but not good. It means that we did not get up on time. Because of the time change! We used to get up with the sun at 7:00 am but now the sun does not get up til 8:00 am and we are still supposed to start our day at 7am. It will be dark at 7 am now!! making the switch is going to be tough!! O well, off to make the best of our sunny day even though we are already late.

I am thinking... it is now 9am and the boys still have not moved!!! They evidently are having a harder time adjusting to the time change.


I am thankful for... My Church Family

From the learning rooms... Middle Ages/Heraldry Lapbooking, Human Body finishing up Respiratory System, still on Franz Liszt for Composer and Caspar David Frederich for Artist, getting back into a groove we have been out of for two weeks!

From the kitchen... ??? not sure... need to check the menu for this week.

I am wearing... blue pants red long sleeve shirt nothing on my feet but soon will be socks and the new Croc's a friend from church gave me because they were to small for her. Thank you Lord, Thank you Barbara.

I am creating... Scrapbook Pages!!!

I am going... to my Sister's/Mom's on Friday for the Weekend!!! Love you Mom and Chris! My mom is living with my sister now and has been for a few years.

I am reading... ooooh so many things!! need to spend time doing that... so many books started that need to be finished!!! Luke's Story, Two from Galilee, When You Rise Up, Homeschooling at the Speed of Light, and The Stones Cry Out. And that does not include my Bible, Ladies Bible Study Book- Lies Women Believe, or the books I am reading to the boys for school!! (for details about the books see my Shelfari in the sidebar)

I am hoping... to be able to go to the Ladies Retreat our church has a Pinebrook. $$ will be the issue as usual. I think my dd's want to go too.

I am hearing... cars outside (we live right next to a main road), my daughter typing and I should hear the shower running but my son has still not gotten going... he is up though!

Around the house... much cleaning up to be done!! The house is a mess!

One of my favorite things... walks at Winterthur... see photo below and I will do a whole post about our walk on Saturday, later today

A few plans for the rest of the week: homeschooling, scrapbooking, reading, cleaning

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Signs of Spring at Winterthur

this flower was about 1 1/2 - 2 inches across, the stem about 3 inches tall

New Note: one of my commenters asked what the name of the flower was, in answer to her question this is the Adonis amurenis (in latin) or the Amur Adonis, and not a crocus, although I have crocus pictures that will be in the post about our walk when I get it done.

look for more signs of spring flowers in a post later today
if I have time between homeschool, cleaning, and cooking dinner.
If not I will definitely be posting it by tomorrow afternoon.

See our hostess and post your own Simple Woman's Daybook Here

Have a Great God filled Week...
Make use of the Living Water...
Debbie

Homeschool Memoirs #28: Life Skills

One of the benefits of homeschool is that you can teach your kids all those wonderful skills that are necessary to living a successful life, but aren’t often taught in a formal “school” setting. Things like laundry, housecleaning, meal planning, tending to livestock, building a fence, and caring for younger siblings. We also have the added benefit that our children become a more vested part of the “family team” when it comes to taking care of things at home.
Tell us about your experience with teaching life skills. Did you have a big family project that provided a wonderful teaching opportunity? What about a home-based business in which your children have helped out? Maybe you have a creative way to get your kids involved in doing laundry. Share what you’ve done or ideas you have. Chores and cooking are just part of life. Our kids will have an advantage being home enough to really get their hands dirty with these seemingly insignificant parts of life that actually are VERY important every day!
I started all my kids out early on chores. In the photo below Jessica is 8 years old and Nathan is 3 years old. They are doing the dishes... by hand... you know the "old fashioned" way. We did not have a dishwasher when we lived in our trailer, and NO it was not a mobile home is was a trailer. 10 x40, two bedrooms, 6 people. Anyway back to chores.



When the girls were little I started with a big piece of poster board and I laminated it and then made picture cards of chores so they could attach them to the poster board with sticky tac as they completed each chore. I had a little girl on the poster board and I had p.j.'s for them to take off and clothes to put on her after they got dressed and put their clothes away. Then I had a mess on the floor and they could take it off when they cleaned up the floor. I had a brush and a tooth brush they could add to the picture after they brushed their hair and teeth. I had a bed and they could add a pretty cover to it when they made their bed, things like that. I wish I had a photo of this to help my kids make something like it for their little ones and to post here on the blog... the girls thought it was fun.

Then I progressed to lists sometimes one they could check off as they did things and sometimes just a list to remind them (and me) of their chore responsibilities. Below you will find some samples of charts I have used over the years. I believe they are in the order I made them though there may have been other things used in between, these are the ones I could find still in my computer.






Now we use the Maxwell's system from their book Managers of their Chores. We love the card system that allows the kids to physically wear the ChorePacks with clasps and move the cards from the front to the back of the ChorePacks. The book also has a great tips on at what age kids can do what chores and spiritual advice about parenting that is great. One of the things I like best is the chore library. A list of more than 180 chores. You can photocopying and print the lists for your own use and in case they forgot a chore that your family needs for your home there are blank lines where you can add things. There are also sample chore assignments from eight families, which are helpful. You can see how other families set up there chores. So please check out their book Managers of their Chores and we also love all their resources and have most of them.

We rotate the chores every 4 months so we have the same chore for a while and this helps the kids to work on persistance with a chore and helps them to imporve in the doing of that chore. My girls cook 2 dinners a week each, I cook two dinners a week and my son cooks one. He needs the training in cooking more than just spaghetti! He is getting to be a pretty good cook. He is 14. My son Christopher is a cook in training and needs some more work on this with me and with his sisters but will hopefully be ready to take on some dinners of his own in another year.

The thing about chores is that work when the kids are young pays off for both Mom and the kids in the long run. Kids need responsibility to learn to contribute to the home, chores can do that. Also children need to learn life skills, both girls and boys. Girls need to be able to keep their own home once they get married and boys need to be able to help if able, when they get married. Also if their wife is sick or has a new baby in the house to be able to pitch in and make meals, do laundry and other needed things, and to know how much work goes into keeping house (and homeschooling too). And, since my kids are older and can help with the chores and the girls are still living at home we can share the burden of cooking and cleaning. It gives them further training in cooking different types of meals so their family does not have to eat the same things every week and it gives them time to further their homemaking skills and if gives them a sense of purpose and a feeling of servanthood to their families to pitch in instead of spending all thier time on themselves.

I hope this helps someone out there. I hope you check out the Maxwell's and their resources and I hope you make your kids do chores.
Debbie

Blast from the Past - 1972 fashions

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words.... this one sure does... I hope you enjoy this glance back at the fashionable 70's. Make sure you click on the photo to get a closer up view. It will definitely enhance your viewing laughter.



The young woman in the white sweater is my sister Chris, she is holding our niece Elizabeth. I am sitting next to them.

Don't you love my knit dress with the large circles of various colors of red??? ROFLOL!!! and my red knee socks to "match"??? LOL

My glasses are a lovely touch too, brown plastic and rather large for my small face. Not quite as "cat like" as some of the other pairs of glasses I had and you shall see them in later installments.

The Polaroid instant film dates the picture also. You remember the kind that came out of the camera and then you let it sit for a certain amount of time and then you

I hope you enjoyed this look at the past. I hope it brightened your day with a good belly laugh!!! even if it is at my expense... go ahead laugh... it's good for you... I laughed...

Laughter is good like a medicine... so laugh it up... post some of your own old photos and leave a comment so I can come see your photos from the 60's or 70's or 80's.

Debbie

P.S.
I was going to do this for a meme but it has changed hostesses and I do not agree with some of the content of the new hostess's blog. It is just to worldly for me. If I linked to it I would have to give warnings. So I am going to work on a new meme to start at my blog. I would like to have it up by next week so I can post old photos without having to go to sites where I find some objectionable things. If I can not recommend to my daughters that they go visit I will not recommend it to others.

Do you have a good title for the meme... I was thinking of "Blast from the Past!" What do you think??? Leave me a comment...

A Scrapbooking Day

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Rachel. It was her week for time with Mom. She said she wanted to work on paper projects together. She wanted to cover a journal and I could scrapbook. I have been wanting to spend some time scrapbooking and have not had time lately. So that was great. We put an old movie on my computer and she got to work sitting at my computer desk and I spread out on my scrapbooking table.


Below you will see the pages I completed yesterday. All the pages I created yesterday were with photos taken in 2000. That is the year I am up to in my scrapbooking. I have done all the pictures from 1986 when Rachel was born up to April 2000. So I have 9 years more to scrapbook and we keep taking pictures.

The first is a page of the kids playing at a playground in our neighborhood.


The second and third pages are of the girls in a musical/play called Oh Great, It's Easter Again. Jessica was Mary, Jesus Mother. Rachel was a women in the scene where Jesus heals the lepers and she was an angel in the end scene and had a solo. Boy was she nervous!






On the fourth page the top two photos are of the girls homeschool spring choir concerts. They were in seperate choirs one called the Jr. Choir the other the Sr. Choir.

The bottom three pictures were taken Easter morning. The first two of Court and the boys they were 5 1/2 and 3 years old. The third picture is of Jessica and a friend of hers, Anna.




Then here is a picture of Rachel's finished Journal. She did a great job. It took her longer to figure out what picture and other decorations she wanted. So if you are interested in how she did it watch her blog at Young Homemakers for a post on that topic in the days to come.


I hope you enjoyed our Creative Wednesday and I hope to do some more scrapbooking soon... now that I have the table cleared off it will be easier to get done. I will post more pictures and details when I do.

These are not my favorite pages I have don in my scrapbooking. Maybe I will do a couple posts about my favorite pages some day soon.

Debbie

Weightloss Wednesday Mar 5th, 2009

Yes, I know this is Thursday and this is a day late. I almost didn't post at all. Well, as you can see from my ticker for my weight loss it has not been a good week. I have not been doing well at all lately. I just do not have the heart or the desire to stick to my exercise or to eat right. It is sooooo hard. I have been unable to food shop and so planning meals has been out the window lately, even dinner meals have been a mess. We have meal plans but because of being unable to food shop we make do with what we have and are not sticking to the menus we made up.

Lunches have been whatever we can find. Today we had Ramen Noodles... really nutritious... but yesterday we had store brand mac and cheese... looooads of fat!! Also my daughter made chocolate cake. It was delicious and fattening. Also on the weekend we took a long drive and ended up getting MacDonald's and then a snack later. Oh well. Should I give up? Should I try again next week? We'll see!!

I did work out one day and we did take a walk one day last week and that felt good, but no exercise since then.

Well that's it for this week. Need to shop, especially for low fat alternatives and for fruit and veggies.

To see the other Weightloss Wednesday links go to our host home my clicking the weightloss button at the top of the page, on my sidebar or just click here.

Debbie

Favorite Non-School Games

This is our Game Closet.

Each of the pictures below may be clicked on to see a closer up version for more detail.

We are a family that likes games, the kids and I more than my husband though.
I got my love of playing games from my mom. When she is visiting we always play games though she prefers the ones I am going to talk about today and not the ones I talked about that we use for and count as school. See the post

Homeschool Memoirs #12 - Let's Play a Game

She prefers games of chance and not games of skill, thinking or answering questions like we use primarily for school.

The games in our game closet are sorted by topic. With the Math, Language, Bible, Science, History, and just for fun games kept together.

On the very top shelf, barely showing in the picture above you see we have been keeping games to use when babysitting or having young visitors. Our closet is getting very full though and these may have to be moved to an easily accessible box in the basement in the near future. We do already have some other young peoples game in the basement.

This is the box in the basement. We keep it on our small freezer.


This is a view of the box from the top so you can see the titles of the games.

These are smaller games that we keep in plastic bags because the boxes got destroyed.

Now back to the game closet in the living room. Here is a list of some of our favorites from the many we have:Blokus, Blokus Trigon, Whoonu, Mouse Trap, Six Cubes, Doodle Tales, Imaginiff, Cadoo, Cranium Turbo Edition, Backgammon, Sequence, Parcheesi, Catch Phrase, Chicken Coop, Flinch, Dutch Blitz, Clue, Slamwich, Clue the Card Game, Uno, For Get It, Stacks

Even homemade games like Book-Opoly by my dd Jessica and my ds Christopher.

Go see the post at Young Homemakers for details about this game:

Homemade Game

So.. as you can see from the full closet,
the fact that we have made our own games
(and this was not the first nor the last homemade game)
and we have whole school days where we only play games

WE LOVE GAMES!!!

I hope you enjoyed this look into our home,
Debbie