Rooster Hill

Christmas & New Years

2012-01-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas for us is about the birth of Jesus so we try to keep things pretty simple and focused on his birth. So there are not a lot of presents (but of course there are some presents) but instead we spend a lot of time together as a family making memories and continuing our tradtions. We read the Christmas story in Luke and normally we have a birthday cake for Jesus (though we did not do that t his year) Our Christmas with 5 kiddos was very sweet and peaceful.

Matching (all Monkey) PJ's a Christmas tradition

Bubba getting a huge sucker from his stocking

Right after Christmas is New Years which was alot of fun. First we decorated the house in the black and silver theme and made punch and snacks for the evening. We ate some nice little snacks during the evening while we waited for the clock to strike 12. At 12 am we went outside, along with the rest of our neighbors and proceeded to start popping off firecrackers. The girls love to do this!

Parker & Peyton watch Dad light a big firecracker!

Bubba celebrating with his noisemaker...isn't he getting to be such a big boy!

Well that's just a little Christmas and New Year update I certainly hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

California

2012-01-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

In December we went to California to visit our families for the first time in many years. First we went to my Dad's house. Three of the children had never been to my Dad's house, the house that I grew up in. They had a great time climbing trees, eating fruit and just hanging out. My Dad also arranged to have SAM (Super Awesome Mom the Step Mom who raised me from late Elementary-College) come over for dinner with her husband Ivan one day. My Dad also took us to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum & The Wild Animal Park. Grandma & Grandpa also bought an ostrich egg because Parker really wanted one and we ate it one day for breakfast. The ostrich egg was a true homeschool science event!We are so grateful and truly blessed to have my Grandpa & Grandma (Evangeline, who unfortunately is not in any of the pictures) they are very kind and generous.

The next stop was in Sacramento to visit with Wayne's parents & brother. We stayed at Wayne's Mom's house and the girls got to spend lots time with their little second cousins & big first cousins. We had lots of fun adventures in Sacramento we went to Sutter's Fort, McKinley Park and to look at Christmas lights. We also took the kids to San Francisco to show them the 'highlights' (Trolley Cars, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge & Lombard Street), of the city & to Berkeley to pick up some Cal gear for Mama and the crew!

We made many very wonderful memories on this trip and we are looking forward to going back to visit everyone again in a couple of years. And we hope in the meantime that maybe some of them can mosey on out to Texas!

Picking Books for Children

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I tend to be cautious about the books I let my children read. I remember curling up in the big chairs of our house and slowly reading the Ramona books and imagining reaching out my hand and pulling the curls of the girl in front of me. I felt her angst as she looked for that one person in her class that would be her friend. I joined in the story with I spent long hours pretending to be Ramona.

So as my children have begun reading I want to encourage the growth development of Godly character. I do not believe that this alone will produce righteousness but I know our Lord wants us to think on the beautiful things and it is my hope to facilitate this. Since it is our belief children are born sinful I do not believe they need any additional examples of children disrespecting their parents, being ugly to their siblings, calling names (which may be acceptable if the names are not curses and the child is rebuked!), disrespecting teachers, practicing magic etc...

So I have spent some time reviewing Children's literature books.First, thing I do is try to pick a book that is part of series written by on author. An example of this is the Box Car Children, the first 20 are written by Warner the last 100+ are written by a variety of authors. Thus, we would stick with the first twenty books. Second, I have found that for me one of the easiest ways to do so is to listen to the books on CD. I do this while I am cooking or cleaning and the kids are otherwise occupied, normally outside. so I can listen to 2 or three complete books by the author and I will be aware of any things I may not want my precious ones to pretend. If I am unable to find the book on CD then I will ask Wayne to read the book because he is a much faster reader then I am. Finally, I tend to choose older books written at a time when children respected their parents. Now, keep in mind just because a book is old does not mean it is a book that needs to be read.

We are currently reviewing B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood. Perhaps, soon it will be a part of our list of recommended reading for our children. I have listed a few books below that we have enjoyed and I think you will too.

Here are a few of the books we have enjoyed:

Brighty of the Grand Canyon
The Five Little Peppers and How they grew (this is a series)
The Boxcar Children (Books 1-20)
The Boppsey Twins (they use the world negro, instead of black due to the time frame. This should be discussed with your children because it is insulting/inappropiate to be called a negro nowadays.:) )
Understood Betsy (amazing book we cried, we laughed, we cried again!)
Sign of the Beaver (girls will like it BOYS will LOVE it. The kid basically becomes an Indian for a time!)
The Moody Family Series by Sarah Maxwell (Fall with the Moody's, Winter with the Moody's, Spring with the Moody's & Summer with the Moody's)

If you have run accross some wonderful series please leave us a note in the comments so we can also enjoy your finds!

May the Lord guide you as you too seek His will for your children.

Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-11-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

In my life this week…

I feel like this week was kind of a blur but I did get some of the trip planning for our up coming trip to California done. I am getting ready to go away for an Anniversary weekend with my dear husband.

In our homeschool this week… Well, we did not accomplish a lot this week. At the end of this next week we are breaking for Thanksgiving/Christmas. We are going on a two week vacation then we have Christmas so we really have to get to a good stopping place in our curriculum because we will not resume school until January. But due to our hectic schedule we did not get nearly as much accomplished as I hoped and it appears some kiddos may be completing school assignments up until the date of departure.

On a happy note we participated in Hymnfest which is the local music teachers competition where children play hymns for judges and are graded according to their performance. Unprepared, good, very good, excellent & superior. The final 3 levels all get ribbons. And much to my great joy we came out of Hymnfest with 3 ribbons! All the girls did very well.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…Don't act like me stay at home.

I am inspired by… Michelle Duggar and her love for children that has lead her another blessed pregnancy! That I could love my

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
On Monday ECI came here to complete therapy on the twins. On Tuesday we went to Speech therapy. On Wednesday we went to Art in the Morning. On Thursday we went to piano lessons which are normally at our house but due to Hymnfest we went to the piano teacher's house. On Friday we went with several other students & teachers and played at an Alzheimer's nursing home.This was the problem with homeschool this week the places we went :/

My favorite thing this week was… a date with my husband. We went to an awards banquet at Wings N More and ate loads of free wings. Did you know they serve ribs? They do and they are really good but I'm sure I can order ribs at a wings joint. After dinner we went to Starbucks drank coffee & laughed.

What’s working/not working for us… IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) is really working well for our homeschool. The children are able to turn in paper each week and due to IEW their writing is much improved.

Questions/thoughts I have…I am really thinking about how to further streamline our homeschool. As the year continues we are becoming more of a Robinson curriculum kind of school. I am wondering what subjects the children are currently taking that may be redundant.

We also adjusted our schedule to do Bible Read Aloud, Bible Memory & Bible Reading at the front end of our homeschool. This has been a challenge because on our busy days this is all we got done. I have had to remind myself (as silly as it sounds) that those days were truly a success!

Things I’m working on…Organizing the house one bite at a time. I am really trying to get some systems in place to keep our home orderly and running smoothly. Accordingly, we went and listened to Rick Grubb speak regarding Time Management.

I’m reading… A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family by Oystn. It's been a really good. It is one of 4 books that I have started but haven't yet finished.

I’m cooking… A family favorite King Ranch Chicken.

I’m grateful for… Jason & Meg because they babysat the bambinos so we could have a date night.

I’m praying for… my friend TA as she waits for a second mammogram & for my friend Julie's Dad with cancer. Please lift them up as you are reading this post.

I hope you all have a wonderful school week!

This post is part of Homeschool Mother's Journal & Weekly Wrap-up!

Celebrating Fall Traditional Tastes

2011-11-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

I love simple traditions that are frugally, joyfully and easily completed. Some recipes are sometimes traditions can be so expensive that we'd have to skip them because we are on tight budget. Each year I buy the pumpkin creamers as soon as they hit the shelves. This frugal creamer recipe is being added to our fall traditional tastes. As we turn off the thermostat and the leaves begin to turn from deep green to rust we begin to think of all things fall. Then McDaddy and I wistfully long for the familiar flavors of fall. So McDaddy and I will enjoy pumpkin flavored coffee in the morning while the kiddos will savor some pumpkin flavored hot chocolate.

combine

1 cup coffee creamer

1 cup powdered sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons nutmeg

2 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

makes two 1/2 pint jars

This recipe is from my real life friend Mrs. H at Heritage Schoolhouse

A bump in the road

2011-11-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been sitting and reading your Bible when suddenly you hit a bump in the road. I unfasten my seat belt and get out and walk all around the bump. Has this bump been there the entire time? How have I never noticed this bump before? So now sit down and spend time with the bump and truly examine it because it is on a road I have traveled many times before...

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms" 1 Peter 4:10

What are the gifts I've received from my heavenly Father? My blessings are children. Thus my question to myself is always am I living this, what would this look like in my life? 1 Peter 3:15-16 seems to answer the question as it requires gentleness and respect. Am I gentle and respectfully to everyone and especially to those the Lord has entrusted to me, my children. Am I disciplining and disciplining while gently washing them with the word?

Daily I grasp on to Galatians 6:9 recognizing that these sweet little ones are are my harvest for the Lord and that I should not give up! Some days are admittedly better then others but what a blessing it is to know I can faithfully administer God's grace in it's various forms daily within the walls of my home.

May God's Grace fill your homes!

Mayborn Mueseum

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Severa Saturdays ago we went to the Mayborn Museum in Waco. I would consider this a combination of a children's, natural science & science museum. We went to see the Lost Egypt Exhibit which included a real mummy!

They had lots of interactive activities for the children so I girls spent a lot of time in a small space experimenting with the activities. After we finished in the traveling exhibit we headed out to explore the rest of the library. First stop the trains...

Then to the discovery rooms where we played with starfish...

Dressed up like folks around the world

Played with bubbles

We went down stairs to what they termed giant dioramas of the Texas wildlife, Pioneer times and a cast from a Mammoth.

Throughout this area of the museum the children were rewarded with 'Chik-fil-a points' for every evolutionary idea they found. We reward them with Chik-fil-a dinners for finding examples of character in the Bible. McDaddy expanded it to include the museum exhibits so we can encourage our children to think critically.

Well, that's pretty much it for our field trip to the Mayborn Museum in Waco. I think the entire museum experience it is definitely worth the trip because the kids said repeatedly how much fun they were having at the museum. However, I do not think the Lost Egypt Exhibit was particularly exemplary, it was ,however, very interesting.

The Mayborn is basically a supped up children's museum with a lot of interesting exhibits. The bottom floor seems to be focused more at the Sugar Pie crowd while the upstairs is focused on the elementary aged children. I think the exhibits may be a little too young for you run of the mill middle school students.The traveling exhibits add depth to the museum trip. You should plan on spending several hours at this museum.

We are linked to

WHAT you're having another kid????

2011-11-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here is another quote from, A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family. This particular quote is a quote within the book...

"Many Christian families are surprised to discover that even their own mothers worry about their family expansion plans. Elizabeth Elliot missionary and inspirational writer confessed to struggling with the news of her daughter's pregnancy.

"When I learned that my daughter Valerie was expecting number five, my insides tied themselves in knots. Val and Walt were both very peaceful about it willing to receive this child as they had received the others-as a gift from the Lord.

But my imagination ran to the future and its seeming impossibilities-"Poor dear Val. She has her hands more then full. What will she do with five? Before she was married Valerie had told me that she hoped the Lord would give her six . I had smiled to myself, thinking she would probably revise that number after the first three or four.

Practical considerations rose like thunderclouds in my mind. Money. Another room to be built onto the house. Homeschooling)(Valerie was teaching two already! How would the new child receive the attention she needed? Why all this turmoil in my soul? Well, because I loved my child she was tired! Her hands were full!"

Elliot went on find peace with the thought of the new child by the time the baby arrived, she was greeted with joy by everyone including Grandma. But many women report similar reactions, Relatives often need time to get used to the idea! "

So ladies, I suppose if Elizabeth Elliot struggles we should simply expect our families to struggles. My prayer is that they too would come to understand that children are a blessing!

I need thee, oh I need thee

2011-10-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

This excerpt is shared from the Duggar Family Blog Michelle's Message to Mother's...

It was 1:00 AM in the morning as I stood folding laundry with tears streaming down my cheeks. Feelings of being overwhelmed flooded my mind. I cried aloud, "LORD I NEED YOUR HELP, I can't do it all! I feel so inadequate! Diapers, dishes, laundry, meals, cleanup, school lessons, baths, hugs, kisses, correction..." My list seemed to go on and on.

Then it was as if a still small voice said, "Michelle, it's easy to praise ME when things are going good, but are you willing to praise ME now?" Immediately the scripture that says, "Offer up a sacrifice of praise", came to mind.
I said, "OK Lord, I will praise you even now! It really is a sacrifice!" So through the tears I began to sing, "The joy of the Lord is my strength". ....

I heard Michelle deliver this message at our homeschool conference this year and as she recalled this scene it still brought her to tears. This event occured many years ago in fact at the time she only had 5 kiddos.

But I can tell you now that I can so poingetnly fell the cry of her heart, here in Texas, as this Mama has come to the same conclusion that Michelle did. Because once you hit 5 kiddos there truly is not enough of Mama to do everything that needs doing.

I have also become very aware of our short comings as parents. Frankly, we are now in a season of discipline which is also tiring. But again I hold onto my Lord Jesus, Abba Father and cry out to him beleiving:"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal 6:9 so I daily press on toward the prize (Phil 3:14).This is never done perfectly nor do I think I have fully grasped the message of Gal. 6:9 in my children or me for that matter. I simply understand it more now.

We are currently reading aloud a book about George Mueller a Prussian missionary in Bristol ,England; this book has been a great encouaragement to me. I am comforted in the knowledge that just as he has answered the most simply prayers of George Mueller that God answers prayers. Our prayers are not to little for him, he does not consider them to be a bother but on the contrary he is egarly awaiting us to come to His throne room and beesech Him in prayer and yet I am the one who tarries not Him .

So just like Michelle I find my self crying out to the Lord but not in my laundry room (where I probably should be) but in my bed at my computer. A broken and contrite spirit now recognizing the simple truth that I need thee every hour Lord!...I NEED HIM daily as a constant companion. His word is not in a book but on my lips and in my heart and it is being engrafted into my mind.

Okay Lord I Need thee, Oh I need thee!

May the presence of the Lord fill you heart and your day!

Homeschool week in Review

2011-10-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

In my life this week…

On Wednesday, Bubba had another episode of Reactive Airway Disease. I thought we were headed to the hospital but he made a sudden and miraculous turn around on Thursday, I believe due to the power of prayer! Then on Friday on our way to the doctor's office for another child he threw up (Yes, the dreaded car throw up) and I noted that morning his diaper was completely dry. He did not potty until about 3 pm. Which was just two hours shy of the 5pm deadline our doctor had given us before we were to head off to the ER for IV fluids. By the way when he did potty he peed out of his diaper and all over my leg! NICE...

In our homeschool this week…

We had school and softball game on Monday.

Mama & Shoo

Sit down before you read Tuesday...are you sitting? (do not do this at your home even though I did this on purpose it was a bad idea!)....We went on a field trip at 9am to the Fire Department which the kids really enjoyed. At 11am we had a doctors appointment for Sugar & Bullet. Then lunch with Daddy at his work. Then off to the park to let the kids run out some energy for an half an hour. Then to speech therapy at 2pm and off to the theory test at 3:50 pm. Finally we had Sugar Pie's last softball game at 6 pm and we went out to dinner. I am amazed I made it through all that mess.

We had art class on Wednesday and I'd love to display the absolutely beautiful renditions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers however we cannot find the cord that connects the camera to the laptop. (arghhh!!!)

Thursday we had school in the morning and we had both babies therapies in the afternoon. Pearson's Softball End of Season party was rescheduled to next week.

Friday we woke up and ran back to the doctors office for Sweetie, Me and Bubba (see in my life this week for details on Bubba).

My favorite thing this week was…

Sugar Pie

My favorite thing this week is not a thing but two people...Bethany who has been such an indescribable blessing. She babysit the kiddos while I ran to the store to buy Bubba Juice and enough food for us to eat for a couple of days. Jen B. who texted me consistently to check on Bubba's condition. She's a Mama whose been there and knows how worrisome his condition can be.

Homeschool Questions/thoughts I have…

I am really considering year around school mostly because of the frequent interruptions due to illness, life and having a passel of kids. I kind of feel like it would free me up to be Mama without so much worry about our schedule and getting stuff done by .....

Bullet & Sugar Pie

I’m cooking…

If you read "In our Homeschool this week" then you probably suspect there hasn't been much cooking around here! On Tuesday we ate at a local Mexican food restaurant. Praise God on Wednesday Jeremy (a young man from our church group) feed us or we would of had a very-very late dinner. Thursday we at Left-over beans & rice. Friday we ate chili after I got back from the store.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

The pictures in this post are by our dear friend's daughter Hannah who offered to take pictures of our family. Hannah is starting a photography business....

A glimpse behind the scenes at picture taking big family style!

I hope you had a truly blessed week of homeschooling!

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap up and Homeschool Mother's Journal.

God's Grace Alone

2011-10-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is from, A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family, I hope you find some encouragement and enlightenment in it too...

"As a mother of almost twelve, I can say with all certainty that the most amazing part of having a large family is the fact that it drives you to your knees before the Father so often. There is no self-delusion that you can somehow "be enough for your children...that you can somehow meet their needs because it's apparent 24/7 that you can't. Becoming a parent exposes flaws I might never see otherwise. Each child reflects just how well I am doing and with so many, its pretty much like living in a carnival house of mirrors. It can be cripplingly humbling sometimes, but it keeps me dependent upon His grace and His grace alone."

I'm not enough, each day is a reminder that I am dependent on the Lord for all things.

May the Lord wrap you in His Everlasting Arms!

Versatile Blogger Award

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jennifer at Little Homeschool on the Prairie for honoring me with

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Needless to say, I am thrilled.If you haven't visited her blog drop by and say howdy.

Here are the rules for this specific award: Thank the one who nominated you and link back up them.

Share seven things about yourself with your readers.

Pass this award onto fifteen newly discovered bloggers and be sure to let them know about it.

So, here goes…Seven Things About Me

1. I am a big supporter of Christian Films.

2. I call my Bible 'Lovie'.

3. I married a boy I meet while in College.

4. We want more kids, I didn't think I would want a whole gaggle of children and we do!

5. I didn't think that I would like homeschooling and I love it.

6. My favorite place is at home.

7. We want to travel more to see the country and our families which are in California, Michigan & Illinois.

Here are the newly and not so newly discovered blogs that I think are truly deserving of the Versatile Blogger Award! My computer crashed recently so I am not going to be able to nominate 15 blogs but I'll do my best...

broken vessel

2011-10-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

With the addition of the beautiful twins to our little family we have grown from a family of 5 to a family of 7. What a blessed treasure they are after all the Lord tells us children are a blessing from the Lord and I prayed often during the year that the Lord would bless us with these children.

Please know it is my hearts desire and my hearts longing to become more like Christ walking in 1 Thes 5:23...

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thes. 5:23

As more children have come and as we pray for more children, for more blessings, I wonder is His grace sufficient for me?

Before I only thought I was tired when I had 3 little ones. Now, I know exhaustion and my prayer life even consists of prayers to wash dishes, bathe one more child, kiss and encourage a few more times as I feel a wave of exhaustion falling within rising within me like a red yellow sunset in the horizon, I too want to lay down.

How often I have read His word where it says we are to pour our lives out like a drink offering. It's repeated often througut the Old Testament and New Testament and I remember wondering what was that like? Well, I do not now think I know what it is like to watch your life flow gently from the glass like a stream of pure water into the lives others. I only think I know better what is to be empty broken vessel desperate for HIM to fill me up!

I am currently comforted and encouraged by the sweet old hymns as I go through my day and currently one favorite which says it so well that it is well with my soul! Which to me translates to this is no time for a pity party, your soul is doing well and that is what matters.

It is well with my soul

Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap Up (week 7) - Teaching Reading

2011-10-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

There is no getting around it, teaching reading for me is scary. It's one of two skills they REALLY must master to be successful adults. I remember with the first kiddo we went through about 4 reading programs before we returned to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Now as am I teaching our second kiddo to read it was still scary but I felt a little more confident. Don't get me wrong I was definitely not running around going I got this thing! Just more comfortable with the process and more resigned to the fact that the Lord gives knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6) so I was just waiting for Him to open the doors of understanding for her.

This week as we are nearing the end of our reading program. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how we teach reading as our 2nd child is reading on grade level (1.0-1.5) and by the end of our program I expect she will be reading at a 2nd grade level just like her sister was.

We use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons. We start TYCR100EL in Kindergarten. I combine it with Christian Liberty Press' Adventures in Phonics A-C which I start about lesson 25. We also start reading Bob Books as soon as I think the child is able to blend and knows enough sounds to be successful. By using Bob Books she gets used to reading books without the 'modified' alphabet TYCR100EL uses.

I use Adventures in Phonics because I found some of the images in Explode the Code were not glorifying God. I did not appreciate the pictures of vampires & witches that are in the books. This is simply a choice that our family has made about content in books. I also felt like the my children flew through ETC and did not necessarily retain the information within it's pages. This is a complaint that I have repeatedly heard about ETC. I really like Adventures in Phonics and I feel like it forces the child to think about and use the rules they are learning. That said on occasion Adventures in Phonics will choose words that I do not believe are a good representation for a certain sound. For example something like using "gym" as one example to teach "g" . Other then that occasional issue it's a great a phonics program and I recommend it.

With this particular child she did not really grasp blending while she was in the first semester of Kindergarten. So after we spent a few frustrating weeks trying to get her to blend I finally put it aside. And we spent most of the first semester working through Christian Liberty Press' Adventures in phonics workbook & cards and learning our sounds. Then in February we went back to TYCR100EL and something has clicked and she was able to blend so we continued forward. Reading has the potential to be a very teary and frustrating process if we are not sensitive to our children. The best thing we did was to just stop trying to blend and continue learning our sounds with which she was having great success! By the time we returned to blending she was a confident sound knowing child and blending was very easy for her.

Now she is able to joyfully able to read a variety of books. As we are nearing the end of the TYCR100EL she is really enjoying reading practice. Reading practice for us is when she sits for 30 minutes with me or a sister and reads a book aloud. As soon as we finish TYCR100EL we will start Christian Light's Reading 100 like her big sisters. I tend to teach reading through 2nd grade as long as there are no fluency problems. Our homeschool is reading intensive and I it's my goal to simplify and combine as many subjects as possible.

This weeks overview...
All the kiddos has tests this week. Sweetie had tests in English & Word Building. Bullet was tested in Math & Language Arts and little Sugar Pie had her 2nd Math test. I must say I've been pretty happy with their test scores. I attribute this to the introduction of self-checking. The children check their math & language Arts immediately after they complete it. This immediate feedback seems to be increasing their understanding. They are required to then correct their mistakes and then re-check their work. This was a concept mentioned by Elizabeth Botikin on her CD Curriculum Advice.

We of course had 2 Physical Therapy appointments, Speech Therapy, 3 Softball games & Piano this week. Piano lessons have been a bit more intense as 2 of the children are preparing for their Theory Test and 3 of the children are getting ready to participate in the Hymn Festival.

Big news in Softball is that Sugar Pie has learned how to hit a ball that is pitched to her and she does not always have to use a tee. Also, Bullet our soccer player wants to try softball next semester instead of soccer. Sweetie, however, is going to stick with bowling because she doesn't believe in sweat!

This post is connected to the Homeschool Mother's Journey

This is not linked to weekly wrap up as Weekly Wrap up family has lost a dear friend. Please pray for their family and Christina a Mama to 5 who passed suddenly this week.

Spilled Milk

2011-10-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

I've been reading, A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family, although I am still looking for this sane woman to raise my family, I have found encouragement in its pages and hope you will too.

"But plenty of the little irritations in life are related to broken dishes and lost shoes and forgotten multiplication tables-normal kid stuff. That's when its time to take a deep breath and summon up that calm voice from somewhere inside so I can smile at the unhappy little one, and hut down the shoes or teach him how to sweep up the mess or drill four times seven yet again." pa 89

The good news is it gets much easier you buy cheap & plastic dishes and you adopt sayings like "it's not dinner until some spills their drink" and everyone laughs!

Happy Blessed Mothering!

PS- if this was encouraging, feel free to check like it's an encouragement to me!:)

Worldliness

2011-10-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

I am always challenged to look at the way I live and to push back the ever flowing tide of worldliness around me. I often feel like I'm getting bashed against the pier and that I am desperate to lift my head out of the water.
This is another book I am really interested in reading regarding the constant attack of worldliness suggested by one of the Elder's wives at my church. This book is written by CJ Mahaney.

Weekly Wrap-up (week 6)

2011-10-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well, this week no more lamenting the hectic schedule that I have created for myself instead I am going to just going to enjoy all of the sweet moments we have! I'm going to try to forget that there was so much dust on one of my ceiling fans that as I crossed the room I thought it was snowing!

the eye

So this weeks Weekly wrap up I am focusing on our Unit Study and the Science Resource. This week we learned how God see's differently then we see. The Bible verse for this book is: "Upon seeing the multitudes he went up into the mountains..." it is found in Matthew 5:1. In our science resource we are studying the eye.

Since in our Unit Study we will be studying a variety of things in the body I decided to purchase The Body Book by Scholastic. The projects in The Body Book are all photocopies and I personally find projects like this are easier for me to complete versus projects where I have to gather a myriad of supplies.

Cornea, pupil

I really enjoy doing read alouds and a few hands on projects with the kids which breaks up the independent study the children do most of the day and week.

The kiddos also really enjoy projects and this was no exception. They got to assemble and label each portion of the eye. They first cut out the various parts of the eye. We carefully followed the directions provided by The Body Book for assembly. Once the eye is assembled they can flip through it exploring the different parts of the eye. Mistakes of course were made which were an opportunity to encourage the children in their work and gently remind them of the importance of paying attention to details.

Blood Vessel & lens

This was our first project while studying the eye and was meant to familiarize them with parts of the eye. I think that we accomplished this in a fun an thorough way.

Retina (I hope)

Week in Review: As I mentioned last week we are really busy and its mostly because of our many hours spent in various therapies. We have 3 therapy appointments each week for 3 of the kids. This week these appointments have been pretty spread out with the therapists coming on different days and staying for up to 2 hours. Although the twins therapists come later in the day this still has been disruptive to our

optic nerve

homeschool because I often spend time cleaning instead of schooling! So I think I will earnestly attempt to have the therapy appointmentss on the same day of the week. So we can have some sort of regular routine around here.

This week we also had art lessons and Sweetie gave me the most glorious pumpkin. She had focused on the different colors found in a pumpkin and in grass and it was obvious that she had worked so diligently on it! I promptly put it in the living room as homemade fall decor!

Thanks for coming by and even if you don't leave a comment leave me a like just to let me know you were here! I hope your school year is going well.

May the Lord Bless you and your schoolroom!

This post is linked to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap up.

Weekly Wrap-Up(week 5): ECI, Softball & busy bees

2011-10-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

I feel like each year I homeschool is another year of growth. I am grateful the Lord doesn't just give it all to you at one time. I think I would drown. This year has been no exception.

Bubba with Carol doing PT

This has been an extremely busy year by choice. It is so busy because 3 of our 5 kiddos are receiving some sort of therapy. So ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) comes out to our house 1-2 per week to do physical therapy/Occupational Therapy with the twins. Bubba is not walking, he crawls (fast!), pulls up, walks along the furniture, he can stand up in the middle of the floor, squat and stand on tip toes but no walking. Shoo Shoo does not crawl she only scoots on her bottom. If she does not crawl this can cause developmental delays in her academics specifically reading. It's critical she masters opposite leg & arm movements. So after therapy I dedicate about 15-30 minutes each day to do home exercises with each child. This week we had two appointments with ECI. The first appointment Bubba qualified for Therapy and this appointment was about 2 hours long the second appointment Bubba & Shoo for Physical Therapy which also lasts for nearly 2 hours.

We go to town on Tuesdays for Peyton's Speech Therapy which last 1 hour and we drive about an hour round trip to participate. I also need to dedicate another 10 minutes a day to review her therapy sheets with her. Up to this point I have been remiss in doing so!

Our little Slugger!

We have art every other Wednesday and we had been going into town early with Dad but now that the truck is fixed we will have a more leisurely departure time. But still no school work will be completed until Wednesday afternoon. I think art has been a wonderful experience for the children. Like all things we McVay's do we are not sure if we will continue with this next year but this year it's been wonderful.

On Thursdays we have Piano practice for our 3 students at our home from 10 am until about 12:15 pm. We love our teacher Ms. Bethany and she stays and has lunch with us! We get to catch up with her and her family and we cherish our sweet friendship with Ms. Bethany.

Now I think if this was it although it is quite a bit I'd be fine. However, we added one final thing to our schedule, Softball. Since for the past several of weeks Wayne's truck has been out of service he just fixed it today. So up until today we had to co-ordinate everything with 1 vehicle living 20 minutes outside of town. that was a little difficult at times to say the least. Softball has 3 practices/games each week. This last week we also had Opening Ceremonies so that made it 4 days!

The twins...

Then just when think the waters are calm I am reminded of the 2 trips to the hospital in the past 6 months with Bubba and his R.A.D. it seems just as we get into a groove we get tend to get de-railed! It helps me to remember that my plans should be his plans and that my plans are just are always dependent up the Lord being willing. But let me tell you there's nothing that takes the wind out of your sails quite like a couple of days in the hospital!

So as I am laying in bed completely exhausted reviewing our week I can see why I am so tired. I hope you are all happily homeschooling just not as busy!

POSTSCRIPT: Well my laptop died and I missed the link up because now I only have limited access to my hubby's computer. But since I participate in the weekly wrap up each week to keep a record of of our school days for the children I still wanted to record our goings ons!

George Mueller on Finances

2011-10-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

"All in all by the end of the year, George and Mary had learned several things about trusting God. First, He did provide for them. They never missed a meal or had a need that was not met in some way. Second to trust Him fully, they had to learn to give away any extra money they had . They never kept money they did not need and never allowed themselves to borrow a single penny even if they had a need they believed that God would provide exactly what they needed when they needed it and He had." George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphan's

Makes me think: How do we spend? How do we give? Why would we borrow? How well do I wait for the Lord? Am I chasing after needs or wants? Could I have been Mary Mueller??

May the Lord bless your Sunday!

Homeschooling Journey: Speech Therapy

2011-09-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

An ongoing issue...
It's not uncommon for someone to bring Sweetie to me and ask me what she is saying. And it's not uncommon for her to have to repeat herself to me a cuople of times before I have any idea what she is say. I was really hoping that after few years more people would be able to understand what Peyton was saying. But unfortunately it just seemed like it hasn't gotten a great deal better. Sugar Pie is also hard to understand and has an overbite due to her thumb sucking. So we recently took both Sugar Pie and Sweetie in to get evaluated.

The good news....
SugarPie passed the evaluation and it was found that she had speech irregularities within the norm for her age. But that her vocabulary and her comprehension were above average.

The rest was a welcome back to Speech Therapy ...
Sweetie, however, did not pass and she was found to have a very low range of speech ability and we are again doing speech therapy at the local Rehab place. Recently, I knew Peyton was in store for a frenectomy when we had braces put on her teeth in the future. But what I have recently learned is that this condition can cause speech delays. So now I've called the dentist office to dissucss Sweeties situation and it has been determined the speech therapist Brianne needs to make the determination of whether she thinks it's interfereing with her speech. Sp we may have a physical limiation to deal with in regards to her speech delay as well.

Why not do it at home?

As a homeschooler it's hard to go outside the house for help, we tend to want to solve our own problems. We are an indendent bunch. So I of course considered using osme of the programs that I've found to teach your child speech therapy at home. But just like Piano lessons I think speech therapy may better be left to other folks. I was very concerned I would not be able to do it well and that a problem that could be improved wouldn't be.

George Mueller on Preaching

2011-09-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

"The purpose of a sermon was not for the preacher to show how many long words he could string together or how many important books he could mention. No, the purpose of a sermon was to instruct people about how to know God and for that purpose, the simpler it was the better.

By the end of lunch, George had made a decision. He was not ever again going to preach as he had that morning. Rather, he was going to preach as using simple words and ideas, and he would quote only from the Bible." George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans pa 56-57

Amen!

Nicest days

2011-09-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

"I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything

very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens,

but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly,

like pearls slipping off a string."

— L.M. Montgomery

Weekly Wrap Up- Hospital Schooling & Softball

2011-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this was certainly an exciting week, a little too exciting for me in fact.

Monday -On Monday we took Bubba to the doctor's off ice for RAD. I had actually called them that morning to let them know we were headed to the the emergency room and they suggested we go by their office. Shortly after we arrived the doctor smiled and said which hospital would you like to go to? After that we checked into St J's one of our local hospitals with Bubba. He received multiple nebulizer treatments, oxygen, antibiotics, IV fluids and steroids. I had packed school work for the girls the girls, yes you heard that right they did school work in the hospital. If you think I'm sitting in a small room with 5 kids that have nothing to do you've got another thought coming!

Tuesday: We were still in the hospital. Sugar Pie stayed the night in the hospital with us. The rest of the crew arrived around 10 am with ALL of my requests and Kolaches! :) After we ate I again had the kids start on their schoolwork. While we were in the hospital I didn't take school seriously I just wanted them to have something constructive to do. In the middle of the day our friend Meg from church took the bigs to go play at the park and get rid some of that nervous energy. By the end of this day Bubba was doing much better and we were released in the afternoon. We stopped by the doctors office, dropped off prescriptions and headed home. Then Sugar Pie went to her second softball practice.

Wednesday - NO SCHOOL!!! We cleaned and did laundry most of the day. Then Shoo had her PT visit from Early Childhood Intervention. It was so wonderful, okay not really, she screamed most of the time. But I have great hope for her to start crawling. Because crawling is so important in developing L-R reading skills. We also decided to stay home and regroup and reconnect as a family so we had an impromptu softball practice for Sugar Pie and of course it was a family affair.

Thursday & Friday - The last two days of the week were pretty normal days. We had Piano lessons on Thursday and we were back to school after a day off to recover. Although Mama was not totally focused on school as Bubba was still receive frequent nebulizer treatments.Friday we had a pretty full day of school although we will have our teacher meetings on Saturday and I will be planning for next week.

Really in retrospect this week really reminds me that His ways are higher then my ways and His plans are Higher then my plans. Even though I have all these plans the Lord is in control and we will complete the tasks he wants us to. My job is really to just stay focused on him and the tasks at hand. This weeks big topics is McSports
Both McDaddy and I played College Sports, football & soccer respectively. We have always enjoyed athletic activities and McDaddy has decided that our kids are allowed to play one team sport per year. We decided to limit sports participation for a couple of reasons:

We normally have family devotions at night and they are a priority and we do not want to have a lot of time away from the house thus missing devotions. However, right now we are having morning devotions because my DH is a football official in the fall and rarely home at night.

We have decided a home-cooked dinner together as a family is a priority.

We live 20-25 minutes from town

We have 5 kids limited time & money

Right now we only have one vehicle

This is our first year playing in a city sports. We have always played UPWARDS but UPWARDS does not have a softball team. So for the fall I am a city softball Mama and I'm looking forward to seeing Sugarpie play her little heart out! Sorry there aren't any softball pictures but due to Bubba's illness I haven't yet made it out to practice to take a truly ridiculous amount of pictures!!

This post is linked to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers & Virtuous Foundations Homeschool Link-Up.

Going to the well

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

For a while now I have been looking sideways at her, him and he and she but not up to the Great I am. I'm dry...

I have lived sideways with concerns about things that truly lack eternal value , instead of the things of eternity.

"Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." Ephesians 5:15-17

It has been a while since I've sat winsomely at the feet of the Father drinking in His word in big gulps instead of hasty sips.

And as I look back I can see the time has come to sit long and drink slowly. And to let Him fill my cup and be my truly be my all!

"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:1-3

POSTSCRIPT: I wrote this prior to our trip to the hospital with Bubba during which I truly enjoyed extended time in worship & reading the word. Fill me up Lord, Fill up my cup with love and praise for you! I praise you God for this trip although I wouldn't have chosen a hospital visit but I trust that He knows what is best!

Weekly Wrap-Up(week 3): Busy Bee's & IEW Update

2011-09-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Therapies, Ladies Night Out, Art lessons, Piano, Quizzes, Field Trips, OH MY!

This was a very busy week for this homebody we had appointments, therapy, evaluations, classes & quizzes no t to mention our regularly scheduled activities such as Wednesday night church group!

Monday: We had an appointment and we restarted our regular library visits. I picked up several books for the kids to read and they choose many more books. Bullet is currently reading through the Bobbsey Twins mystery series.

Tuesday: We have been able to get into a good routine in the morning completing our school work by the early afternoon. After a long hiatus Sweety started Speech Therapy this week. I have talked about our small struggles we 've had teach Sugar Pie to read so this week when we hit the point in , Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, where they remove all the symbols I was a little worried. I didn't need to be the transition was seamless. Of course we have been reading books that didn't have the long vowels or other marks since the start, but in my initial panic I totally forgot about that. Her reading is exactly on target which is at the end of K the start of 1st grade. We have 23 lessons left after which we will move either into Christian Light's Reading Program or the McGuffey Primer.

Wednesday: The girls had Art Class, then we ate lunch in the park. At the park we ran into a dear friend of ours and we truly enjoyed visiting and catching up. Her children have Spanish that day and the Lord provided that we would both have the same hour break time! It's nice to refill your tank with a sweet friend. After the park we ran off to our field trip to see a friend of mine a local optometrist. When we got home we completed the basics and then we headed out to our church group.

Thursday: We had piano lessons and a 3 hour ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) Evaluation for Shoo. She has delayed motor skills, stiff joints and I've been concerned about Cerebral Palsy for quite some time. Thankfully, she 'failed' her evaluation and was accepted into the program so we will have 2 therapy sessions each week. We still have to get Bubba's 3 hour evaluation completed! During her evaluation the other children were suppose to complete their school work but instead they got into everything they could get into that was quiet. I must, however mention, that Sweety was innocent of the crimes of her sisters but she also didn't get any work done. However, by the end of the day and I mean the end, after 5 pm, all of the school work was done and Sweety pulled off 2 perfect scores on quizzes.

Friday: The kids Finally we are at home just schooling, it was a little bit longer school session because I think we are all so tired. We finally got back into the swing of having our memory time at the start of school. We do specific addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, states & capitals, Greek Vocabulary & Veritas History Cards are coming soon to memory time! One of my goals this year is that the children have instant recall on their math facts. Today was Bullet's turn to take a Language Arts & Math quizzes and she also did well. Finally all of the children completed their Paces & Light Units right on schedule and they received new workbooks today, which they think is exciting. Now I have to get read for game night we are going to play that game Head Banz so fun! Whoo! What a week!

Institute for Excellence in Writing

We have been doing Institute for Excellence in Writing for the last three weeks, this is the largest investment we have ever made in our homeschool. We are currently working on perfecting our subject outlines. From the outlines the children write their mini essays. We've written more in these three weeks then we had previously written during our entire homeschool. The thing about IEW is that it is well laid out and very easy for both the teacher and the student to follow. Each party knows exactly what to do/grade. My kids are completing about 2 polished paragraphs each week. So far we have watched two lessons and we are going to be watching the third lesson sometime next week. Although I had some hands on teaching during the first 3 days they have been able to work independently and turn in some great assignments.

We are linked to Weekly Wrap-Ups@ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Homeschool Blog Link Ups @ Virtous Foundations Homeschool

Health Camp Waco Burger Joint

2011-09-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

We love a good hamburger and we will go out of our way to try one. After the Mayborn museum we ate at "The Health Camp" a Waco burger joint. It sells a large greasy burger, fries and shakes. It serves typical burger joint food. In the 50's Elvis as a regular customer at the Health Camp. The place has great ambiance, hole in the wall type of ambiance. Seriously, isn't that the cutest building! The hamburger's were good, big and greasy but not as good as Chicken Oil in College Station, TX. I do not think the buns are homemade and we did not get lettuce or tomatoes with the burgers. The French fries were plain perhaps it's because they do not salt them, none the less the kids refused to eat them without ketchup. Also, the size they showed me one size when I ordered large french fries and gave me a smaller size. I asked if it was a mistake and she said no that was the size I get. The shakes however are amazing and they have a huge variety we had peach and cherry. Cherry was exceptional! As far as price for a burger place I thought it was a bit expensive for 6 burgers, 4 fries & 2 Malt Shakes it was right at $45 (we ended up dipping into our personal money to pay). All in all I'd give this place an average rating and we will check out some other burger places when we visit Waco in the future.

I'll create a label so you can easily access our burger reviews and please let us know of awesome burger places where you are so we can visit them when we are in your neck of the woods!

Weekly Wrap Up(week 2) - Getting Artsy

2011-09-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Art is a subject I am ill equipped to teach. It is however, a subject that Grandpa really wanted the kids to learn and one of the subjects mentioned when he was told we were going to homeschool (along with a myriad of other things.)

Well, this year we decided to provide the girls with Art lessons. In school I remember I loved doing art and I would wait holding my breath as we were told our assignment. I remember spending hours in our back room trying to draw the perfect picture. Oh how I loved art. I never seem to have the time to do art or crafts in our homeschool. By the time I have finished our core curriculum I am ready to move on, not to create the worlds largest mess. So sad isn't it?

This is why I do not teach art. Additionally, I have no idea what I should expect from the different age groups.

The art teacher told me that Sweetie has a wonderful brush stroke and that all the girls did very well. She asked me to please dress them in play clothes so they wouldn't have to worry about their clothes while creating. Wow, now my girls are 'creating'...

She was animated fun and her home sang of her creativity loud and clear. She used to be a public school teacher so dear Sweeties Autism was of no concern to her. We will attend art class bi-weekly and the next time, she is going to go through the color wheel unless they were already familiar with it. Fat chance!

When we got home the children were all eager to paint after they finished their lessons. On Friday I caught Parker drawing and they all seem to have caught the art bug.

I think for our homeschool we will continue to find people who can teach our children things I do not feel qualified to teach and do not necessarily want to learn or relive (such as reliving Calculus & Physics). I'm sure as they get older Art will be replaced by more needful lessons because we have a definite budget. In fact each year my DH officiates football so we can have a little extra money much of it goes to savings so we can buy things like our Suburban but this year a little bit will go for paint brushes, canvases & little smiling faces saying "Look Mama!" Who knew cupcakes were so wonderful?

This weeks academic studies also went well. We began doing some memory work: addition, multiplication & states with capitols. The first grader is reading well and we are on lesson 71 of Teach your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons which we do in conjunction with Adventures in Phonics. Once we complete this she will start Christian Light's Reading program. Best of all is that Sweety is doing really well with ACE and she enjoys it, we've had a hard time finding something that worked well because of peculiarities with her Autism. My children are enjoying school and often ask to do extra lessons.

To see what other homeschoolers are up to you can go to Weired Unsocialized Homeschooler's weekly wrap up or head over to Virtuous Foundations Homeschool's Homeschool Blog link up!

Amish Proverb

2011-09-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

"A a plump wife and a big barn never did any man harm."

Okay, this was in the most recent book on the Amish that I was reading and it made me laugh out loud. I like this saying because it is the opposite of post-modern thinking and it made me giggle!

Weekly Wrap Up (week 1): A Slow Start

2011-09-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

It is time for a confession please don't turn me into the homeschool police...traditionally, I have the majority of the year organized when we start school. However, this year I have been soooo tired that I was not able to complete all the planning I like to have done before the year starts. My field trips are not planned, daily & weekly schedule un written, Units are half done, I have not completed lesson planning in Homeschool Tracker.

But wait it gets better after all of my books arrived I realized the trusty list I make each year had failed me! Because I did not order things such as my first graders Language Arts Book and my Teacher's guide. Also, I discovered that for our math program we need to use 2 sets of flash cards (Christian Light has the BEST flash cards for keeping the teacher organized and teaching children to memorize facts,!)

Then Sunday night before I could print out the student assignment sheet and my teacher check off sheet Dad & the kids broke the printer. Normally, I would have already printed our the assignment sheets but like I said I really tired! Regardless, of all these little bumps in the road we had our first day of school!
Introducing the students of Roosterhill Academy

Our nursery class Bubba & Shoo the screaming, scampering 1 year olds! I have already begun to wonder what homeschooling twins will be like.?!.?!

playing at art class

1st grade Sugar pie who likes to spend as much time upside down as possible!

3rd grade is Bullet who loves to read & write.

6th grade is Sweetie our ever steady worker.

I think for me the highlight of the week has been the Institute in Excellence in Writing program or IEW. This is an expensive program that we have been considering for years and finally decided to go ahead and purchase it now that Bullet is in 3rd grade. So this year Sweetie & Bullet will be participating in the writing intensive. This week the girls wrote their first paper. I was easily able to correct it using the IEW rubric. I love rubrics they makes grading objective instead of subjective! The children knew exactly what they were expected to do and how they would be graded. They have already written the rough draft for their 2nd paper and will finish it on Monday. Having writing as a regular part of our homeschool has been one of my goals for years and I hope we have found the way to do it!

Another little something fun we did was label stuff as common or proper nouns to help the 2nd grader get a better grasp on the concept. Warning: Do not label your piano teacher unless she is also a former homeschooler who excepts such craziness! We love you Ms. Bethany!!!!

Common Noun: Piano Teacher .....Proper Noun: Bethany

To see what other homeschoolers are up to around the country you can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's weekly wrap up.

Homeschool For Free

2011-08-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from August 2011

Instead of new posts I am simply going to add free curriculums & blogs with links here and I'll put the new stuff in bold...

Homeschooling does not have to be expensive, in fact it can be free. Check out some of the free homeschooling curriculum that I've found:

http://www.amblesideonline.org/ - Complete K-12 Charlotte Mason purist curriculum
http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/ - Complete K-12 Curriculum that relies mainly on Gutenberg press books that you can print off of your computer
Lesson Pathways - K-5
Letter of the week - Free homeschool for Pre-K & K
19th CenturySchool Books - Free "digitized"...scanned in ;)

Math - MEP Math my friend Heather G. uses it and last I spoke to her really liked it.
Typing -Dancemat typing - which I found on Freely Educate!

Blogs/websites dedicated to finding free curriculum:

Freely Educate - Very nice assortment of free
Links to all things free for homeschoolers - a truly amazing collection of free curriculum that any frugalistas should spend time checking out!

This year I am taking a close look at what we do and trying to figure out if we can school the children just as well for much less. With 5 to school the yearly costs just keep on rising and even if I can manage to only spend $100 per student that's still quite a bit over 12 years! Right now since I have been spending well over that per student but after reading Amish Money Secerets I'm looking for ways to trim all aspects of our budget.

If you want to find an amazing amount of free curriculum, courses just head on over to Freely Educate!

May the Lord bless you as you steward the monies he gave you.

Weekly Wrap Up - Planning, Prep & a party!

2011-08-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

I do not have a cute project to share with you this week unless you'd like to look at my Homeschool Tracker main page! HA!

CUMC Hymn Festival picture by Bullet!

Monday - The day was spent intermittently typing up lesson plans in homeschool tracker. I also reviewed unit study plans for the Wisdom Books and wrote out a few more details in my handwritten unit planner so I'd will be ready for Monday! I couldn't decide if I wanted to write out lessons or use Homeschool Tracker. I decided to do both! HS tracker is an excellent lesson planner for the 3R's plus a couple. But for the Unit Study I am going to stick with my old fashioned planner that I can easily tote places and work on lesson plans. Then I went through the box of curriculum that arrived on Saturday and put it away. We also had a lovely tea party where I we restarted our Read-Aloud Freedom Train (which by the way is excellent) which I would really like to finish before Monday!

Tuesday - Again I am still adding Lesson plans to homeschool tracker. I began adding curriculum to the girls baskets for Monday. They each have individual baskets that hold their school books, charts and the like.I am also gathering everything I will need to copy on Saturday. The gathering of materials to copy is always more involved then it sounds. I have to remember to copy the hymns on the back of the WB's, IEW packets, history notebook, reports etc... It's those little things I'm worried about forgetting. But hopefully by Saturday I'll have it all ready! Finally, I signed the girls up for a variety of Piano Recitals and Musical Ministry opportunities. As I am writing this I am wondering if they got into their art class and I'm shooting the art teacher a quick e-mail.

Wednesday- Each year our church has a Watermelon fellowship and baptisms. First we worship then we baptize and finally we eat watermelon. There are 3 churches that participate in this event each year and it's a wonderful time of friends & fellowship.

Thursday - Off to see one of Sweeties Specialists in Houston the opthomologist for her annual eye exam. While we were in Houston we went on our second field trip of the year to the Houston Weather Museum.

Friday - We rescheduled our piano lessons for today! We are going to complete our first day of school activities, Pictures, tea and review of curriculum!

Saturday - Today is Sugar Pie's swimming Birthday Party! After which I will go back into town with Bullet to make copies for Monday. Since I feel asleep after the birthday party I had to go to a more expensive copy place. After which, Bullet & I capped off our one on one time with a stop at Sonic. I also plan to watch several YouTube videos on phonics done by a specialist.

To find out what other homeschoolers around the country are up to you can check them out at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

The Return of 52 weeks of organizing: buffet & wooden puzzles

2011-08-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

So I have found that I do not organize with as much zest without my weekly organizing post. So I hope to participate in the 52 weeks of organizing for the rest of the year so I can get this house into shape and ready to sell & this will make moving much easier to move!

This weeks project the buffet...Unlike many folks we really use our buffet to serve dinner. I store all of our paper products in the buffet along with the cloth napkins in the drawer. On top of the buffet is a basket purchased at Goodwill for about $2 with our silverware. I never really organized it when we started using it for storage so here is the result.

buffet before

So this is what something looks like if Mama never steps in to organize. They have creatively stuck stuff every-which-a-way!

buffet after

So here is the buffet after the re-organization. I removed some serving platters we never used and the coffee carafes we rarely use and put them in an upper kitchen cabinet. We took the cups from the pantry and put them in the buffet. I found out we have 2 big boxes of spoons, we rarely use plastic spoons so those should last a while. In the corner are table cloths for the table, most of the varnish is off of our table so we are using table cloths to have a sanitary surface to eat off of and to avoid purchasing a new table. The wooden box in the corner is a napkin holder which is full of neatly stacked paper napkins.

I also bought a wood puzzle organizer, unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the drawer the puzzles were kept in before. We have several small/oddly shaped puzzles that don't just slide into place. I am still please with the purchase and it is definitely a much better solution then when they were in the drawer. We used to pull out the puzzle then find the pieces that go with it, this is much better even with little puzzles piled on top.

Well, I hope everyone else is becoming more organized day by day...to see more folks organizing their homes over 52 weeks you can go to Orgjunkie.

Menu Plan Monday or Tuesday!

2011-08-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Please join us for feed your family for $5 on Fridays in September!

From reading the Amish Money Makeover I am enthusiastically making a few changes to our grocery shopping habits. One thing I have decided to stop doing is buying the Clearance Bread even though we never pay more then .90 per loaf . I can make bread so much healthier bread more cheaply at home. I should gain about $120/year for fresh veggies & fruits!

Monday- Rosemary White Bean Soup & Bread

Tuesday - Tuna Fish Casserole and sweet bread

Wednesday- Beans, Rice & Cornbread
Thursday - Mexican Lasagna
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Meatball Sandwich

All of the meals listed above were made from items in our pantry. I am trying to avoid an official grocery trip over the next couple of weeks and eating from our pantry. I would like us to start getting to the "bottom" of our freezer and pantry each month. Thus, living the proverb waste not want not!

Right now, I am getting ready for a monthly shopping trip at the end of this month where we play see how quickly & how much stuff you stuff into a Chevy Suburban along with 5 kids & a husband.

This post is linked to Orgjunkies Menu Plan Monday

Weekly Wrap Up-Birthdays,Blanket Training, planning

2011-08-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

This was the week that was suppose to be the week before school started! But as I noted last week I order curriculum late and I am still inputting lesson plans into Homeschool Tracker. But I've gotten a lot accomplished this week we did the following: bought school supplies, I determined which Konos Units we will do this year, planned field trips, cleared out the homeschool bookshelves & I started my must copy list/pile. We had Pearson's Birthday Feast on August 18th & the Ross family came from dinner on the 17th.

Also on the 18th we did get a little school done this week because we started piano lessons! Hooray!!!

We are still working on Blanket Training. Someone asked if we got blanket training from Godly Tomatoes. You know I am not sure where I got it at but we have read Godly Tomatoes & Maxwell's books. So far it is going well. The children stay on the blanket but this week they stayed on the blanket crying. Last week they just stayed on the blanket. We are, however, going to persevere in this training as I believe it will really help me while I am homeschooling the older children.

I must say that I am getting a little antsy to start school and get back to a more defined schedule. :) Plus, I really enjoy teaching our children each day!

To see what other Mama's are doing in their homeschool around the country you can link up to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap by clicking here!

Pearson is 6!

2011-08-18T12:18:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Sugarpie!

Perseverence

Energetic

Artist

Reader

Sugar Pie

Optomistic

Neophyte biker

I am looking forward to teaching you first grade and watching your eyes light up as you learn. Most importantly this is the year of your salvation. May the Lord continue to grow you and may you continue to grow closer to the Lord!

Menu Plan Monday - We need fish recipes!

2011-08-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Please join us Fridays starting in September for:

"Feed your Family with five" dinner recipe link up!

Monday- Salmon Croquettes (ala Paula Dean), Slow simmering Green Beans (Gooseberry Recipe) & Baked potatoes

Tuesday- Beans, Rice & Cornbread

Wednesday- Potato Soup in Bread bowls, salad

Thursday - **SugarPie's Birthday*** Pizza with salad and strawberry pie!

Friday - Bean & Cheese Burritos, Mexican corn & rice

Saturday- Meatball Sandwiches, home fries & carrots

Sunday - Super easy Duggar Mexican Frito Pies

Slow Simmered Green Beans

from Gooseberry Patch's Slow Cooker Meals

1 1/2 pounds of green beans
1 stalk of celery diced
1/4 cup onion chopped
1/4 cup margarine sliced
4 beef bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon garlic salt (I use 2 teaspoons of minced garlic)
1/4 t dill seed (I didn't use it because we didn't have it)

Place ingredients in a slow cooker ; stir to mix. Cover and cook on low setting for 3-4 hours it serves 6 to 8. But these green beans are so good I'm going to start cooking two times as much! To find out what other meal planning maniacs are up to check out Orgjukies Menu plan Monday.

May the Lord bless your meal table this week!

Weekly Wrap Up - Homeschool Prep, Pnemonia, Reward & Randomness

2011-08-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

This week I thoroughly cleaned out homeschool book shelves to remove things from last year and make ready for things for this year. I've been reading this book Amish Money Secrets and it has made me profoundly aware of amount of wasted money I spend on curriculum. By buying inexpensive items with the intent to use them, changing curriculum's mid-year and collecting free items which take up space & steal peace. So here is a bucket of homeschool flash cards we've had for years some bought, given & found that are all going to half price books.

I added a little reading nook into our homeschool room and Bullet enjoyed it all week!

I also found out my Mennonite company does not sell curriculum on Sundays, I found this out at 12:30 am when I was finally ready to order. It's really not looking like we are going to make that August 22nd start date, because I am unwilling to pay for expedited shipping so August 29th here we come!

This week I also started blanket training the twins. This is where you teach small children to stay on a blanket for extended periods of times so you can do something like homeschool bigger kids without wondering with fear and trepidation where in the house are my dynamic duo!

In Texas when you are doing foster care you cannot have a trampoline. Okay, well let me rephrase that you can have a trampoline as long as you have a certified trampoline spotter?!?!? Huh..... So we have not had a trampoline for the last year. Which is okay ours was several years old and on the way out! We decided instead of taking a family trip somewhere to celebrate the adoption we would invest in a long term family gift so we purchased a trampoline. The girls were so excited and so was I can you imagine a year of homeschooling with out the ability to tell fidgety kids "Why don't you little darlings go out side and jump!"

This week 4 out of 5 children got pneumonia so we were house bound and what better thing to do when house bound then drag the twins around in a laundry basket, while screaming something about run Pharaoh's coming!

Well, maybe in two weeks our weekly wrap up will wrap up something to do with school! To see what actuall homeschoolers having school are doing you can go to Weekly Wrap Up!

Wordless Wednesday - Adoption

2011-08-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

more wordless posts at Wordless Wednesday

Menu Plan Monday - We need fish recipes!

2011-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Salmon Burgers, home fries & fruit salad
Sunday - Church Fellowship dinner (we make Rosemary White bean soup & Mac n' Cheese
Monday - White bean & Rosemary soup with bread & Salad
Tuesday - Sweet & Sour Chicken with egg fried rice & egg rolls
Wednesday- Beans, Rice & Cornbread
Thursday - Out to Dinner for Mama's Birthday
Friday - Simple Bean & Cheese Tostada with Mexican rice and corn
Saturday - Sloppy Joe's, Fruit Salad & fries

So my husband has requested we eat more fish. So you will see more fish worked into out meal plan here at Rooster even though fish is not budget friendly. If you have any good inexpensive fish recipes please leave a comment with a link or the recipe. Thank you all so much!

May the Lord Bless you as you seek to feed your family to His glory!

Weekly Wrap Up - RAD, splash pad , ADOPTION

2011-08-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

A memorable week to say the least!

It has been a very exciting week here around the hill! The day before our trip to court Bubba decided it was a good time to go ahead and start have a RAD (reactive airway disease) attack. The night before the adoption I was up several times giving him treatments and praying we would not have to go to the Emergency Room.

But we made it, did make it to Court without a trip to the ER in between. Since the AC is out in our van we borrowed our friends the Bricker's van and off to Court we headed. We were and are so excited, two adoptions in one day! Here I am crying like a baby holding a baby holding Shoo, I just couldn't believe after a year of uncertainty we were finally done.

Even after the amazing and life changing day we had on Wednesday life just keeps going on as normal as if going cataclysmic has occurred. So on Thursday we went to the Splash Pad with Zody and her Mama after Sweety's Audiologist appointment! On Saturday we went to a friends birthday party and then the beautiful and talented Sarah E. did our adoption pictures!

Although we did not do any school work this week I think we had a VERY successful week. I can probably count the adoption as good citizenship (a requirement here in Texas).Ha!

If you'd like to see what other's are up to around the country then check it out on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Adoption Day

2011-08-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Right before we went on the mission trip we found our that an Aunt was interested in adopting the twins. When we were on the mission trip singing songs in English and Spanish the Lord so impressed upon my heart that HE is God. As we sang Blessed Be the Name of the Lord I was there weeping at the feet of the Lord saying Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I had to recognize that He is the Lord and the He gives and He takes away. That he could take them away and that if He did take them away....BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD! Learning to recognize that he is the one worthy of praise and that I am just a vessel to be poured out like a drink offering in service to HIM! To continue to pray "His will be done" when you want to pray "Give me those kids" was a heart wrenching sanctify necessity because at the end of the day I must be able to stand and say and mean in my heart. "Yes He took them but... Blessed, Blessed, Blessed be the name of the Lord!" I must be willing to praise Him if he gives a blessing or if He takes it away. For me sanctification hasn't been pretty. But let me tell you I am so happy that he choose to give, that he choose to let me more deeply understand my own stance as an adopted child of Christ. Thus more greatly appreciating His love for me, his love for my children, for you!

BLESSED,BLESSED,BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. the watchmen stand guard in vain Psalm 127:1-2

A Mad Science Birthday Party

2011-08-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

Mad Scientist scares small children :)

It's truly amazing how quickly children grow up. It seems like just yesterday she was trying to take her first steps and now our sweet girl is 8. How have you gotten so big? Each year is a little bit different for us as far as birthday parties we have traditionally had parties for Bullet & Sugar Pie together since they are less they are less then a month apart. However, this year they are having individual birthday parties. Parker loves sciece and has an english major Mom who could not get her volcano to erupt. We decided to get Dad, Ms. Sarah & Ms. Jessica involved so we could have a Mad Science Party.

We set the party up into three distinct scientific discovery areas: animal identification, archeology & chemistry.

At the animal identification (aka what have the McVays found or shot in our yard!) the kids were full of creative & wonderful guesses as far as what the critters were: hawks(for the pig jaw bone) & baby tigers (racoon heads) were two of my favorites. The skeletons we had were aturtle shells, Opossum, Racoon, Hog & Cow. We grouped the bones of each animal together and put numbers by them. Then the kids guessed what animal they thought it was and they were very serious about their guesses. This was fun but Jess had a good suggestion which was to make a multiple choice card for the kiddos to simplify the guessing. Another thing I'll do next time is have little prizes at the table for the "Mad Scientist" to hand out to the children as they complete their Identification Cards.

Mentos & Diet Coke

We also set up an archeological dig in which the kids dug up bones and then put the skeleton together. This was a kit I found on super clearance at target for something like $1.32 several years ago. You know one of those things you buy because it goes with your curriculum and never use. Well, I finally used one!

In the end we had the chemistry lab manned by a very handsome mad scientist. They all performed chemistry experiments and from the Mindblowing Science Kit. And finally we went out side for the last harah where DH dropped mentos into Diet Coke through PVC pipe to create quite an explosion!

Happy Birthday Bullet

Then we ate taco's from the taco bar. While we sang Happy Birthday to Bullet, Sweety played Happy Birthday on the piano as an accompanyment! Bullet then opend presents in record time and we visited and folks slowly and sweetly departed as I savored the last minutes of Parker's 8th birthday!

I wanted to make a vocano cake but I runined 4 boxes of cake mix during this birthday. The first cake was fine but then I decided I wanted to make a volcano cake. The second cake didn't cook through because I both failed to check the cooking difference between a bundt and a 2L bowl and I didn't check the cake with my baking broom. The third cake I simply cut it wrong then I thought it was still salvagable with a little frosting. However, I managed to turn all my frosting gray with out of date brown frosting. Then I called Ms. Sara on the phone nearly crying to ask if she could possibly make me a cake. We currently have one car and that car was taking kids to Charlottes Web (the play) and wouldnt be home until after 10 pm. Sarah graciously said yes and she made this FABULOUS magnifying glass cake looking at worms in dirt! Perfect for an Elementary science party!

So if you are interested in having a science party here is the inside information that I pinned all this mess to pinterest so I could find it later:

Here is the link if you too have an uncontrollable urge to make a The Volcano Cake, I just hope you don't ruin a couple of cake mixes and then call your sweet friend Sarah nearly crying to see if she can throw a cake together for you.

Here is a link to the ideas we pilfered from the creative people of the world: Family Fun Sciene Party & from the very creative Mama in Dallas at Living Locurto
50% off of the science kit at Micheals remember those 50% off coupons bring a science kit down to $10!

Menu Plan Monday: Frugal Spaghetti Sauce

2011-08-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

Monday: Dinner at the Coles!
Tuesday: Rosemary Bean Soup w/ bread & salad
Wednesday: Eating out in Houston
Thursday:Spaghetti & meatballs,green beans,garlic bread
Friday: bean & cheese burritos, corn
Saturday: Pulled Pork Sandwich, fruit salad & baby carrots
Sunday: Church Fellowship -Split Pea Soup, mac&cheese, Pineapple Pie

Quick, Cheaper & Easy Tomato Sauce

Adapted from the Hillbillyhousewife
.40 cents for 36 ounces (cans in the store are 26oz)
■2 tablespoons olive oil
■3 tablespoons dry onion 1/2 cup diced onion
■1 teaspoon garlic powder
■12 oz can tomato paste (.40/each =.80)
■up to 6 cans filled with water
■1 1/2 teaspoon basil
■1/2 teaspoon oregano
■1 1/2 tablespoon honey
■1 1/4 teaspoon salt

This sauce is so easy, so cheap and so good, you won’t believe it. Heat the oil in a 2 quart size saucepan. Add the dried onion and garlic. Stir the onion and garlic around in the oil for about 30 seconds, or until they start to smell good. Add the tomato paste. Now fill the empty can with fresh water and add it to the pot. Do it again, so two cans of water have been added. Stir it all up until the sauce is smooth and thick. Add the seasonings. Cover and simmer for about 5 or 10 minutes depending on your time and fuel situation. After the flavors have mingled long enough to know each other better, you are done.

All the other ingredients are really just a few pennies each, especially if you buy your spices from Sam's Club. My estimated cost for this is .70 which is .19 or 21% less then the cheapest sauce at Wal-Mart. Plus it tastes much better then the prepacked sauce.

Remember a prudent wife is a gift! Enjoy!!!
Find more meal plans at Org Jukies Menu Plan Monday!

Weekly Wrap Up - Sliding, Birthdays & Theatre

2011-07-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well, this week we did.....NOTHING! Well, at least nothing that would be considered "school" we managed to stay home almost week! Last week we finished swim lessons so this week I had my eye on rest and relaxation, yet I was keenly aware that Bullets birthday & birthday party were at the end of the week.

Wayne set up the slide for the twins and the bigs enjoyed sliding their brother & sister down the slide throughout the week.

Bullet turned 8 this week and we enjoyed Pop tarts for breakfast, fruit salad for lunch and Pizza for dinner. I always try to influence their food choices for their birthday food, but to no avail.

The girls went on a date to a Live Theatre performance of Charlotte's Web with the McDaddy! I think this counts as Homeschool. Additionally, Wayne related the story back to the gospel for the kiddos, which I thought was pretty neat. Finally on Saturday we had Parker's Mad Science Birthday Party, there's a big post for that coming up.

We are taking it easy because soon we will be back in the full swing of school again so for now we are just enjoying summertime.

I hope you are all enjoying your summers too.

Want to see what else is going on go to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up

Frugal Spaghetti Sauce

2011-07-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite frugal spaghetti sauce I hope you enjoy it too!

Quick, Cheaper & Easy Tomato Sauce
Adapted from the Hillbillyhousewife

■2 tablespoons olive oil

■2 tablespoons dry onion

■1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

■12 oz can tomato paste (.33/each =.66)

■up to 6 cans filled with water

■1 teaspoon basil

■1/4 teaspoon oregano (optional)

■1 tablespoon honey

■1 teaspoon salt

This sauce is so easy, so cheap and so good, you won’t believe it. Heat the oil in a 2 quart size saucepan. Add the dried onion and garlic. Stir the onion and garlic around in the oil for about 30 seconds, or until they start to smell good. Add the tomato paste. Now fill the empty can with fresh water and add it to the pot. Do it again, so two cans of water have been added. Stir it all up until the sauce is smooth and thick. Add the seasonings. Cover and simmer for about 5 or 10 minutes depending on your time and fuel situation. After the flavors have mingled long enough to know each other better, you are done.

All the other ingredients are really just a few pennies each, especially if you buy your spices from Sam's Club. My estimated cost for this is .70 which is .19 or 21% less then the cheapest sauce at Wal-Mart. Plus it tastes much better then the prepacked sauce.

Remember a prudent wife is a gift! Enjoy!!!

Happy Birthday Parker is 8

2011-07-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

As I prepare for your birthday dinner & party I feel so grateful to be your mother!

Parker is 8

This is the year you learned how to swim

This is the year you really began to play the piano well and gave songs as birthday gifts

This is the year the twins joined our family, you said "they were your birthday gift ever!"

This year you ministered to the poor

This year you ministered to the widows

This year you loved 'orphans'

This year, little 7 year old YOU walked in the footsteps of Jesus!

Please always remember we love you, not because of what you do, but because of who you are! We can love you no more or no less for you are our sweet Parker!

B-I-N-G-O Night

2011-07-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Bingo Night!

Sugar Pie & Daddy call the numbers...

Sweetie P plays to win...

Lina, Mrs. Faye, Sugar Pie & Bullet

Sometimes everyone really is a winner.......

James 1:27

For More Wordless Wednesday click

Menu Plan Monday: Butternut Squash Soup

2011-07-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Monday: Slap your Mama Butternut Squash Soup

Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner
Wednesday : Beans, rice & cornbread
Thursday: Pizza & Salad
Friday: Chicken pot pie & salad
Saturday: Left Overs from Parker's Birthday Taco Buffet
Sunday: Frozen Homemade burritos, Mexican corn

(Make you want to ...) Slap your Mama Butternut Squash Soup

Please be aware this website advises you not to slap your Mama!

INGREDIENTS

large onion chopped
4 tablespoons margarine
6 cups steamed butternut squash (when you steam it you can add it peel and all!)
3 cups water
4 cubes chicken bouillon
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup of milk

DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.

Puree squash, milk and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

for more menus check out Org Junkies MPM!

Weekly Wrap Up - homeschool went swimmingly?

2011-07-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

We've been really busy the past two weeks with swim lessons. So that is the focus for our week in review with a lot of pictures....

Sugar pie had a great week at swim lessons. She was promoted to the class above hers on the second day. This is a miracle we never do well in swim lessons and here we have our first promotion. Additionally, after swim lessons she is now able to swim, float dog paddle to the side of the pool from the diving board unassisted! She also lost her first tooth this week,.Its been a very eventful week for Sugar.

A Superstar showed up at swim lessons on Thursday...The Daddy! As you know we only have one car right now so as Daddy was riding with us to Swim lessons the girls are peppering him with questions. Since we thought it we thought it would be great to surprise them he's trying to think of honest answers. So he answers he is going to a very important place this morning. Finally, they figure it out when Mama spills the beans by saying she is going to drink some of Daddy's drink at swim lessons.

Now this is truly amazing, what you are looking at is a swimmer. A little 7 year old swimmer. Why is it amazing ? Because in the 4 years that we have been taking swim lessons, at the end of the swim lessons the instructors come up to me and say something like....'if you enroll your children in swim lessons again this summer...MAKE SURE THEY ARE IN THIS SAME LEVEL, THEY DID NOT PASS , and may be in danger if they walk to close to a puddle kinda thing. Seriously, we've never done well and say we've done poorly would be an overstatement. But this year she is not only swimming across 12 feet deep water she is winning a race against her peers. I'm currently doing the Mama dance! Not because she is winning a race but because we can now safely walk past puddles!

Sweet Peyton started her week terrified of the 12 feet deep water at the beginning of the week and the teacher finally had to inform her of the consequences if she did not swim. Because she would not even try to swim once they got to the deep end. We spent several very timid days where she in true McVay swimming glory nearly drown her teacher. Then she dragged her teacher 1/3 of the length of the pool while stating she was too scared to swim.We even discussed dear Sugars favorite verse: God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love! On Thursday Daddy came to swim lessons and of course she wanted to show him all the stuff she was learning! But let me tell you on Thursday & Friday my timid big girl was swimming with the rest of them. She even dove off the diving board several times. What a blessing to behold. She did a great job conquering her fear and diligently completing her class.

So these last two weeks of Homeschool PE are being considered a success. We now have 2 McVay swimmers and 1 half a swimmer!

The Faithful Parent byMartha Peace

2011-07-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

I cannot think of a book that more profoundly affected the execution of my job as a wife as Martha Peace's book The Excellent Wife and now I see she has a couple more books out that I hope to read in the near future. I am especially interested in read The Faithful Parent over the school year. My list of books I want to read seems to grow by leaps and bounds as the time I have to read has greatly diminished. I believe it is said in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for everything!

May the Lord Bless you as you seek to be both an excellent wife and a faithful parent!

Parson's Gate

2011-07-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

When you have a kid named Parson you suddenly become interested in stuff with their name. This is cute folksy singing of a Caldecott book. Enjoy!

Gospel Link

2011-07-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

As dinner was rolling around, it was faux Chick-fil-a night at the casa, I was getting very excited. The kiddos were setting the table, placing babies in seats and DH was making plates. We finally all sat down to dinner and began to eat and about 1/2 way through I was able to let the kids know we were able to join in the work of Gospel Link. We passed around pictures of the family we would be committing to prayer as well as monthly assistance. Most of you are probably laughing but we have never been able to do anything like this before. Thus, I am so excited to actively participate in the gospel internationally.

"The vision of Gospelink is to provide as many people as possible the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ and to help them to grow spiritually.

There are great spiritual needs throughout the world. It has been estimated that between 15% to 25% of the world’s population is beyond the present proclamation of the gospel message. That means over one billion people still need to hear the gospel for the very first time!

Of the world's 6.8 billion people, there are over 1.2 billion Muslims; 1.02 billion who claim to be non-religious; over 800 million Hindus, and 775 million Buddhists and followers of other Eastern religions. The Bible proclaims that Jesus is The Way to eternal life and that there is no other name whereby mankind can be saved. By their own profession, the followers of these other religions do not recognize Jesus as The Way. They do not recognize Him as the Son of God. As such, they cannot possess the salvation promised in the Word of God."

photo from Gospelink's website

We choose Gospelink for a couple of reasons:

Gospelink preachers provide quarterly reports to their sponsors. Our hope that the quarterly reports will serve to strengthen our families faith as we read.
You can write to Gospelink preachers and they may write back. Though we do not plan to send many letters.
Because the cost to support a national pastor is a fraction of the cost of supporting a foreign born missionaries. This is not to say that we will not support an American Born missionary as some time as the Lord leads us.
They have an orphans ministry.
Because they have other opportunities that would allow our family to do ministry together.

I am still so excited and we are looking forward to other opportunities the Lord shall bring forth.

Homeschool Planning in a few extras ...

2011-07-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

This year we are continuing to use many of the Christian Light Education products that we love and have made homeschooling so much lovelier for us here at Rooster Hill. I really believe CLE is providing our kids with a great education, but I'd still like to add a little more fun and variety to their days. So we will be using http://www.spellingcity.com/ which teaches vocabulary, has fun learning games and can even test your kiddos. Many lists are already entered our Spelling for CLE 3 has already been entered by another Mom. All I have to do is have the tab ready for school. This is going to be a free time activity for the kiddos, they love any excuse to get onto the computer for a bit. Additionally, I will schedule it in on 2 non-busy days!

We are also adding Book Adventure as a another bit of free variety for the children. Book Adventure is a site that has fun games & prizes for kids as rewards for reading. You can also have children take quizzes on the books they are reading. This is especially helpful for me with my autistic child as I can check her record to see if she is comprehending what she has read.

Neither of these sites are Christian sites so please review them and make sure they are in line with your personally held convictions. We hope that these two sites will add a little variety in the school day of our children. May the Lord richly bless you as you seek to educate your littles.

Weekly Wrap Up - Really

2011-07-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

I should be ashamed to call this a weekly wrap up so just between us lets consider it a wonderful week Because after working so hard to catch up in Bible Bee a whole week has slipped by and we have completed only a couple o f lessons and we are again behind in our Sword Studies. At least next week we have swim lessons so I can claim P.E. However, I really have got to work on Pearson's reading and Peyton's Math. So first I'll claim responsibility for my wonderful husband's work:

Wayne fixed the swing set. Two of the legs had completed rotted so I guess we can have some PE next week. Although right now we normally just swim.

Now here is what happened with the rest of the McVays ....We attended a Small Local Homeschool Conference this Friday and I got to listen to Suzanne Gose of Flip Flop Spanish discuss teaching languages & I heard an Introduction to Classical Conversations. During the week the kids did a little bit of their Bible Bee Sword Study and some card memorization, the babies watched some Baby Einstein, we swam, ate watermelon, had tea time...but most of all this week we really enjoyed one another and we laughed a lot.

Hey Andrew! Teach me Some Greek!

2011-07-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

So next year we are returning to many tried and true curriculum that our family has used and enjoyed. However, like most homeschoolers we have a couple of new things that we are going to try this year. For us one of them is Hey Andrew! Teach me some Greek! from Greek & Stuff. I finally found most of the curriculum used on line and it arrived yesterday. This curriculum teaches New Testament Greek, includes flashcards, a reader & pronunciation CD. I hope to learn some Greek along with the kiddos.We will start studying Greek in our Bible Study and one of our curriculum next year will also involve Greek Study. So what's new in our homeschool is actually dead!

So what new curriculum is your family starting next year?

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

Benjamin Franklin

Weekly Wrap Up - Summer School Bible Bee 2011

2011-07-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

During the summer we really try to slow down and take lots of time off to play! The weather in Texas is shall we say, too hot for the devil , in the summer so we spend most of our time at pools & splash pads! Although we focus on fun in the summer we are pressing on with what is left of our school work from 2010-2011 school year.

Because of the incredible blessing of the twins we are behind in our normal school schedule by a few weeks. So here is a quick summary of what is going on at Roosterhill Academy:

Sugar Pie

Sweety is doing Math all summer long as she works to catch up. Sadly she is behind because we tried a couple of different math programs that were not good fits for our family last year. But she loves the math we settled on (Christian Light Math) and is happily doing a lesson a day before she goes to swim in our above ground pool.

Bullet is working on the last two books in her Language Arts (Christian Light) then she will be done for the summer. She should complete these 2 books toward the middle or end of July.

Sugar Pie is still plugging along on Teach your child to read 100 Easy Lessons. We are on lesson 63 and I hope to complete it before she begins first grade in the Fall. She is still doing an occasional math lesson in her Horizons K workbook.

The Twins have decided to take two different routes...Bubba is working on puling himself to a standing position. Shoo is still sitting completely straight legged and kicking hard.

Croupy coughs, swollen tonsils & nebulizers...oh my!

Reading during a nebulizer treatment!

Then 1/2 way through the week bullet reported a sore throat and then she took a flash light and examined her throat, like any true homeschooler, and found that she had white dots on her tongue and the "pink hangy things" aka tonsils. I decided to go into denial as I was still had Bubba on the nebulizer because of a head cold he had picked up. But by the next day she had a croup cough and a high fever and I had to come out of denial and go to the doctors office. I thought she had strep but the test came back negative but she had spots, swollen tonsils and puss. The next day Shoo woke up with a croup cough,

Bible Bee 2011 Update

Well we got behind on our Bible Bee Sword Study...very behind. :( So we stayed home all week and hit the books really hard! We are working to complete the Sword study week 4 day 5 by today Friday. Except the kids wills till be writing 1 Peter Chapter 1 on Saturday & Sunday. We are on schedule to have it completed. We are still going to be very far behind in the memory verses and I am going to try to instill a more consistent and rigorous memory program for the rest of the summer.

Although we are still plugging along on a few subjects other then this week I do not think we will have too many more long weeks where we spend hours at the table. Like I said in my earlier Bible bee post this is our first year doing this and there is a pretty steep learning curve for Mom as far as getting it organzied in the best way for our family to receive the maximum benefit from participating in the Bible Bee.

Thoughts about Bible Bee...

working on their Sword Study

The Bible Bee is not for sissies! This is a pretty intense study with loads of memorization. Next time we have a 5 year old unless the child reads & writes really well I think they'll wait until 6 to compete. In fact the rules state contestants should be 6 by the contest (Sugar Pie turns six just before the contest).

I love how the children have begun to interpret scripture to scripture. The other night Dad was reading from Deuteronomy and Bullet stated that is just like verse..... I really think this is a very fruitful way for us to spend our summer. We also enjoy fellowshiping with the folks at our Bible Bee meetings and we are looking forward to our next Bible Bee meeting during which they will take a sample test & recite verses.

So summer school is going pretty well over here as we are seeking the Lord.

These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7

Check out weird unsocialized homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-Ups

Time for a picnic

2011-07-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

In Texas summer time is not the optimal picnic time, since its 105 degrees in the shade. Although you could probably make S'Mores by leaving the ingredients in the sun for 2-5 minutes until they are done or burst into flames.So if we are picnicking in the summer it's at dinner time when the Texas heat has cooled down to a comfortable 85 -90 degrees.

But we do love to go on a picnic. We normally go to a park and eat dinner while the kiddos play. This summer I hope to go picnic (in the evening) and watch Shakespeare in the Park in Houston or Austin. But I'm not sure the twins are up for that yet :) .

When we picnic I like to keep it simple for Mom so we take bottled water or Capri Suns (if there's been a good sale on them) and here are some of the foods I like to pack:

Our beloved picnic basket from the Philipines

left overs that would be easy to eat and not too messy. These are usually already in a Tupperware container in the fridge so I put it in our cooler and we are ready.
Simple sandwiches such as PB&J
Wal-Mart's Fried/BBQ chicken and their seasoned french Fries
A $5 Pizza from Little Ceasers

I think you are getting the idea that for us its not about a gourmet meal so much as about spending time together as a family playing, laughing and eating! One of the sandwiches I really like to take with us is egg salad sandwich both because I like egg salad sandwiches and we have chickens so we have an abundance eggs! I double the recipe found in the Joy of Cooking for a simple and tasty egg salad:

Egg Salad

3-4 servings (I double this when I make it)

6 hard boiled eggs

1/3 cup mayo (I use miracle whip)

2 Tablespoons minced onion & celery

1/4 teaspoon of curry powder (it has a very very very mild curry flavor)

salt and black pepper to taste

chill and serve!

May the Lord bless you as you continue to make wonderful memories with your family! For more recipes and helpful hints & encouragement regarding picnicking check out more 4 mom posts!

Frugal Whole Wheat Corn Waffles

2011-06-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

Whole Wheat Corn Waffles
I have a new favorite waffle recipe! If you have a grain mill you can grind your wheat berries and corn for delicious waffles. If you don’t have a mill use a combination of white and whole wheat flour plus cornmeal. The waffles will still be great.
From the Happy Housewife

Recipe: Whole Wheat Corn Waffles
Ingredients
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
4 cups of milk
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/2 oil
Instructions
Mix together milk, eggs, butter and oil.
Add brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Mix in cornmeal.
Slowly mix in flour. If you are using white flour you will need to add a little extra or reduce the amount of milk in the recipe.
Cook on a hot waffle iron.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12

These waffles are great reheated the next day or stored in the freezer. Just reheat in the toaster.

MenuPlan Monday

2011-06-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

Monday - Tomato Basil Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Tuesday- Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Corn & Re fried Bean

Wednesday- Beans Rice & Corn bead
Thursday-Chicken & Spinach Alfredo with Veggies & Garlic Bread
Friday- Homemade Pizza & Family swim night!
Saturday- Dinner out at Burger Joint by the Bible Bee
Sunday - Left Overs

Simple Frugal Mexican Style Corn
Frozen Corn
1/2 can mild Rotel (diced tomatoes, peppers)
1 teaspoon of minced garlic (optl)
salt & pepper to taste
Mix and cook!
We make about 10 servings of corn with the 1/2 can of rotel.

For more menu Plans go to the Orgjunkie!

6 Ways to save money

2011-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

6 ways to save money at the grocery store

Avoid mixes...instead of buying Bisquick type mix, pancake mix, muffin mix, bread machine mix (which is super expensive) make your own from scratch. In doing so you save both money and avoid the fillers added by companies to make their product taste or look better. http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ has a lot of affordable mixes.
Make a written menu or meal plan for the week. We also have a two week breakfast / lunch / snack Meal rotation.
Make less trips to the grocery store. The less time you are actually in a store the less money you can spend!
Set a grocery budget and stick to it! Of course you may need to make periodic adjustments with the birth of children or children who need diapers / no longer need diapers etc... Be willing to set and keep your budget at a reasonable level for your family. Only break it in emergency situations (this may mean leaving $5-10 in your envelope for the unexpected pot luck! or medicine purchase!)
Don't let left-overs go to waste! Either remake a dish such as potato pancakes from left over mashed potatoes or use left over rice to make, rice crust for quiche or rice hot cereal or bean & cheese burritos!
Learn to cook & eat well. If you cook well the temptation to go out to dinner is greatly reduced. Cooking well is often accomplished by learning to follow the directions on a recipe and keeping & finding great recipes ! Eating well is really just enjoying your time at dinner together with all the talking & babies screaming. Make your table a place you can't wait to get to at the end of a long day apart.

"A prudent wife is from the Lord" Proverbs 19:14 May the Lord guide our steps as we seek to joyfully & thankfully make the most of what He has provided your family.

2011 Bible Bee

2011-06-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

This summer we decided to participate in the Bible bee. The Bible bee is a nationwide event that seeks to encourage children and families to hide God's word in their hearts.

The first part of the Bible bee is scripture memorization. First you pick which translation of the Bible you want your kiddos to memorize: ESV,NIV,NASB NKJ, KJ and there maybe another one. There are three levels of Bible Participants Primary K-6, Junior 6-8 & Senior level contestants they memorize from 3 -30 verses a week. A Timothy Track contestant that is not competing on the national level would memorizing 3 scriptures a week.

The second part of the Bible bee is the Sword Study where you complete an in depth study of one book of the Bible. This years book is 1 Peter. The children are also suppose to write out the entire book of 1 Peter. Though this sounded a little daunting to me it's really only 9 verses a week or almost 2 each day. At the end of each week we have a "bonfire" which is discussion of all the things they learned over the previous week.

Now to aid us with our scripture memory and the sword study we purchased the scripture memory CD which has the scripture set to music. We also purchased the sword study drill CD which is a computer drill/game that helps the kids learn their verses and their Sword Study. They really enjoy both of these items but especially the Sword Study Drill CD.

The final and most important part is prayer. The children are encouraged to pray each day and to have a "secret" (which for my kids mean they are up in a tree) place to go and pray.

The closest Bible bee to to us is nearly an hour away. Which is a good distance however we only meet as a group once a month. So once a month we drive to our meeting and meet with like minded folks all seeking to lead their children and to hide the word in their children's heart. All of us are seeking to know Him better through His word.

Although, I knew this was going to be a large commitment I do not think I was prepared for the level of commitment this requires on a daily basis by our family. Part of the problem is that I had not done it before so I did not have a game plan. I had to purchase the Scripture Music and Sword Study Drill after we started studying for the contest. They have an option where you buy these items and they send the out the same day your study materials are released. Right now I am in the process of creating a game plan since we are behind in everything! Ha! But you know what we are all really learning a lot! We really like this program and we have already seen the fruit in the lives of our children. We really feel like we are sowing seeds for the future in the lives of our children. We are even prayerfully considering being hosts next year.

If you have questions about Bible Bee I'd be happy to answer them to best of my ability. If you participate in Bible Bee I'd love to hear what you think about it! May the Lord Bless you as you seek Him!

In & Out of the Hospital revised

2011-04-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

We just got released from the hospital. Bubba had some sort of bronchilitis and his oxygenation rates were really low in the 70's & 80's, his breathing was labored, his nostrils flared. So we headed into the Urgent care and sure enough we were admitted to the hospital Saturday Morning and we are just now being released on Monday.Right before we left an older couple came through an laid hands on Bubba and prayed for his health, it was so sweet.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor 4:16-18

All the yukky stuff we go through down here provides sanctification (refining) and so that at each turn remember to look to the Lord for what we should be learning. I don't remember to do this every time but when I do I can become more like Him in all things. I praise Him that I was not filled with anxiety regarding the unknown and that while we were in the hospital he sweetly meet our needs. Still he also tenderly and slowly answered other questions that were more painful over the days. But in all things I will focus on what is unseen, because I have more then I deserve. I am blessed to serve my family and our God daily and in that I will rejoice.
So hopefully I'll be back and blogging a little something this week but the days are really busy as we get ready for an upcoming trip & have 2 birthdays in less then 45 days!

May the Lord fill your home with the grace and peace that only he can give!

Frugal Family Fun: Letterboxing

2011-04-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

which way is east?

We have been looking for fun and frugal things to do with our family for family fun nights, not just the regular movie or games. Don't get me wrong we have a great time watching movies and playing games, but I was hoping to create more unique family traditions and memories.

Looking

So I recently learned about letterboxing because I was being nosey! I was at the ladies blog and low and behold they were at Washington on the Brazos letterboxing.

Box found

We had our first adventure last Friday and it is definitely going to be repeated with 17 boxes in BCS to be found we will be busy for a while. "LETTERBOXING is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels."If you want to know more about letterboxing click here

Contents examined

Weekly Wrap Up

2011-04-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well, considering at this time of the year we are normally plodding along and I am often wondering why I homeschool in April & May we are actually doing much better then last week. We are not currently burnt out in fact I am adding some extra fun into our days to try to ward off burn out! I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks as the children start to finish some of their curriculums and I am starting to look at our summer and begin to intentionally plan fun memories and activities into it! Additionally, I have not shifted into a full blown hunt for next years curriculum which is often a distraction for me during the school year. So here is how our week went....

Pitete sweety (5th) - She has started reading through the old Testament in 90 days along with Bullet, they are both on schedule so far reading 3 chapters a day. We are very happy with Christian Light Math 4 that she started last week. CLE Math has an advanced scope and sequence so its more like a 5th grade curriculum. She is still in the first light unit and she is taking a series of tests to detect any weaknesses which we have with decimals and she will be simulataneously working on Math Mammoth Decimals starting next week. Have I mentioned that I love Math Mammoth for remediation? She will continue to work on Math all summer long as we hope to complete Math 4 and move onto Math 5 in January of next year. She finished phonics last week and is about two weeks away from completeing Building Spelling Skills. She got a 100% on her spelling test this week, she's been up and down in spelling so this is a real victory for her! She will continue on in Climbing to Good Grammar until the end of our school year she is on lesson 81 so we may finish this book at the start of next year and simply keep on rolling forward.

Bullet (2nd grader) - Fun thing, I have really been worried about my history selection (because she is such an avid reader) but in retrospect I don't think it really mattered since the kid read about 15 Autobiographies of the Childhood of Famous Americans series and is constantly telling me (informal narration) all about Abigal Adams, Wayne Anthony, Merriweahter Lewis, John Piccard, Ceciel B. D'Mile and more... So I am counting history for this kid as a victory. She took a couple of tests this week and she did very well on all of them. As far as the end of her year she may finish reading, science and history early but my plan, Lord willing, is that she continue on in Language Arts & Horizon's Math until the planned end of our school year.

Sugar Pie (aka Cuddly) - Is moving along in her math but I still do not think she knows (fully or partially for that matter grasps) her numbers but she understands the concepts of mathematics very well as she is able to add & subtract. But when its time to tell me what a number is she says "nine & three" for ninety-three and so do not think she quite has the concept. I think much like reading it will eventually just click. As far as reading we are more then half way through teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons which we restarted in January. She is really reading well and it will be an exciting summer with three pretty independent readers doing all the summer reading programs around town. Right now she is scheduled to continue on with school until our planned end of school year and I really hope to finish Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons before we break!

I am trying to recapture fun Fridays we used to have so we are spending the rest of Friday filling in the space for the pool this summer(not so fun now but will be later) & playing board games! Even though we are plugging full speed ahead for the rest of this year I definitely have my eyes on a summer filled with love and lots of sweet memories when Mama's are just Mamas!

For more weekly-wrap ups head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

May the warm air bring a carefree feel into your homeschool too!

Blessings upon you and your household!

Save time & money in the kitchen

2011-04-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Recently Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers recently posted 'Being in a Lunch Rut is not so bad'. This is a topic that I love and though I responded in her comments I thought I might share more of my thoughts with you all too! It is my hope that it may bless someones family!

"She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants." Proverbs 31:14-15
We have 5 kids (3 kids & 2 eating babies) and I am trying to make meal time into a wonderful sweet & simple routine. In order to simplify meal time I created a schedule to follow. So we have a two week breakfast/lunch/snack rotation and frankly it has revolutionized our meal times and I have saved countless hours I would have spent planning & thinking. One of the ladies on Kris's site commented how she hates to stand and look into a fridge and think about what to make! Well, sister you don't have to!

Here is our meal plan we have a two week rotation for breakfast and lunch. So on Week one Tuesdays we make pancakes and on week 2 Tuesdays we have bagels with cream cheese. The days where there is different meal for week two will be shown as follows .... meal week 1 --- meal week 2.

Breakfast
Sunday - Breakfast bar (English muffins, bagels, boiled eggs, cereal and breakfast left overs)
Monday - muffins w/ fruit --- Bagels w/ cream
Tuesdays - pancake w/ fruit & eggs --- Cinnamon rolls with fruit
Wednesday - Oatmeal with fruit & raisins --- Quiche with rice crust
Thursday - Cornmeal mush w/ fruit --- Biscuits & Gravy with egg
Friday Quiche with rice crust --- Waffles w/ fruit & eggs
Saturday - Eggs w/ grits, toast & waffles or eggs rancheros w/refritos,Pancakes, eggs, fruit grits or Pioneer Woman Eggs Benedict, grits & fruit
Lunch
Sunday- Left overs/loaded baked potatoes
Monday- Hot dogs & chips
Tuesday- Daddy's Cheesy Ramen --- English Muffin pizzas, fruit
Wednesday- Mac & Cheese---Beanie Weenie
Thursday - Loaded Baked Potato w/ fruit or apple sauce ---Daddy's Cheesy Ramen
Friday- Sandwich with chips & Fruit
Saturday - Sandwich with chips & Fruit
Sunday- Left overs/loaded baked potatoes

Snacks @ 3:00:
Sunday - Popcorn
Monday-PB&J roll up
Tuesday- Fruit/boiled egg
Wednesday-cheese/bologna & crackers
Thursday - cheese sticks
Friday-Yogurt
Saturday -Veggie Plate/Ants on a log

Yes, I plan my snacks. I've found that my kids are constantly hungry and they will eat other lunch items if they do not have snacks. I also believe that if my kids are constantly hungry and go unfed I am not doing a good job meeting their needs. So on top of the planned 3 pm snack we also have what we call 'free snacks'. I buy a large something (pretzels, peanut butter pretzels, cheese balls etc...) at Sam's (Cost Co) Club and they can eat as much as they want any time, but I only buy it once a month. My kids are no longer reporting a state of constant hunger!
Now my meal rotation may work for you, you may need to plan a 1 week meal plan. You may want to just have 7-14 meals you know you can make. Whatever you do write and down and stick with it, adjust as you need to and let it be a blessing to you!

It took me a while to get used to the schedule and to consistently make what was on the schedule. Now I don't even think about if its Friday I make Friday Food. The kids love knowing what is coming, this is especially helpful for my oldest who has mild autism.

Do I personally always eat whats on the schedule? NO!! I often eat left overs instead because I really can't stand mac&cheese or beanie weenies but the kids love them! Periodically, we pull items from the rotation if I find something else that is inexpensive, tasty & healthy; for instance we recently added loaded baked potatoes and they are a big hit.

Saves Time, Money & helps hubby:

This schedule saves time because I do not have to think about what's for lunch or what's for breakfast.This schedule stays on my fridge for quick reference. When its time to make my grocery list I just grab our '2 week meal rotation' off the fridge and check off the items we need to purchase.

I save money because I avoid buying foods we won't eat and that will get lost in the fridge. I know how many packs of hot dogs, cinnamon rolls, bagels etc... we need to make it through the month. So we rarely waste any of this food, like I did with unscheduled items. I have carefully spent time picking foods and I am actively replacing more expensive foods (such as corn dogs & chicken nuggets) with less expensive items (such as Daddy's Cheesy Ramen, Loaded Baked Potatoes).

It helps Hubby on Mommy sick days... he doesn't have to think either he can go to the list and make whatever is there. Now I must admit I keep a box of jiffy muffin mix in my pantry for my dear husband. For he does not get as much satisfaction out of making muffins from flour as I do. So think about things to to help your sweet husband when he is pinch hitting (taking your place).

I hope this encourages you to make a plan that fits you & your family!

Grace & Peace

Linked to:

http://raisingolives.com/2011/07/lunch-menus-for-homeschooling-moms/

Frugal Tip & Menu Plan Monday: Crock Pot Hot Wings

2011-04-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I used to spend so much money at restaurants is that I was not a good cook. So if wanted something tasty we had to go out to get it! Thanks to my Mother-in-Law I learned how to cook. Though I still find myself going out to eat if a specific craving hits. In order to curtail this I try to add foods to our menu that we all crave as a result I have become a pretty good Mexican & Chinese food cook! Well, my budget is too tight for such indulgences to spend $40 to feed cravings! The most recent craving is for Hot Wings! So in order to avoid the wings places I ended up making these two recipes and they at the end. (They are both crock pot recipes because our oven is broken, we are saving up to fix it or buy a new one. )

Sunday: Last week of Rosemary and white bean soup
Monday: Toscana Soup with bread

Tuesday: Chicken Spaghetti

Wednesday: Beans Rice & Corn bread
Thursday - Chicken strips, waffle Fry & Broccoli (Faux Chick-fil-a)

Friday - Hamburger, French fries and tossed salad

Saturday - Left overs

1st wing recipe was not any good so I deleted!

Chicken Wings Recipe

2 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of Dijon mustard
4 Tbsps of soy sauce
5 lbs of chicken wings; tips removed & cut into 3 parts

1 cup of butter
Place a large nonstick skillet with butter. When the butter melts, fry the chicken wings ’til golden. Transfer to a crock pot.Combine the sugar, soy sauce and mustard in a small bowl. Stir ’til smooth. Heat it using same skillet used for frying chicken.Simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Pour this over the chicken. Mix well. Cover with lid. Set heat to low. Cook for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally.

This recipe was outstanding! Give it a try we give it a double yummy!

Weekly Wrap-up: changes in store

2011-04-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

This has been a rather unusual week for our little school . We have not accomplished all the work we had laid before us at the beginning of the week. We have continued to move forward in our schooling but we seem to be in a bit of a rut. Our lack of accomplishment is more Mom's fault then anything else. Being a little unmotivated & out of sorts (I think due to our recent travels) on top of that I restarted PT for my knee and its been really rough.

Bullet on the soccer pitch (field)

So I guess this week we'll feature our extra curricular activities. We have 3 activities our family is involved in this semester which is rather unusual for us, we normally just have piano. So Bullet & Sugar Pie take art & play soccer, and all three of the bigs take piano lessons. As far as the babies there was a time when I probably would have felt guilty for not having them in some sort of activities. That day has long since past I consider all the piano practicing and lessons at the house kinder music class for Bubba & Shoshoo.

Monday - We had soccer practice this evening, we play Upwards Soccer. We choose Upwards because they have one practice per week and all the games are done by noon! It is well organized, they memorize a verse each week, there is a devotional at each practice & after the game children are awarded stickers (for effort, offense, defense, Christ likeness & sportsmanship). We coach our daughters teams and they practice at 6:00 & 6:30 which leaves the twins in the care of our children for 30 minutes.

Wednesday - Bullet & Sugar Pie have art lessons with Mrs. Linder and sweet little baby Sunshine. Bullet has shown an interest and an aptitude for art so we have decided to spend a semester cultivating her interest. The kiddos learned how to draw noses and they have really developed much better art skills under her tutelage. The children are learning how to sketch and after this class I will have to encourage them to continue practices.We'll have to do some before and after pictures if I can get my camera to co-operate.

Thursday - The kids had piano lessons with sweet Ms. Bethany to prepare for the recital this weekend. Bethany comes to out home early and helps me with anything I need help with. This week it was sorting and folding baby clothes. What a blessing she has been to our family! This is also Physical Therapy day where my physical torturer tries to further cripple me, by the way, he's good at what he does. I still can't walk and its Saturday!

Saturday - Well, this was an unusually full day for us! We had a 1k walk in the morning at which we won a $40 gift certificate to a local restaurant and 5 gallons of interior paint. We then caught the 2nd half of the 10:00 soccer game and sweet Bullet was able to play a shift (We missed our 9 am game altogether due to the Rey/Rey race). After the soccer game we went home ate lunch and got ready for the 2:30 piano recital. the girls played well but sweet Bullet said she was so nervous she played lots of wrong notes. :) We also fit in a late night spelling test for our eldest child in which she did very well!

Children & Teachers who participated in the recital

This my heart has been moved to re-evaluate a few of our homeschool practices and curriculums. After reading Raising Olives 6 homeschool directives I really began to think about our homeschool. A school year that I have been very pleased with in which we have accomplished a lot. A year in which I had dug my heels in and said I will buck the trend, I will make my own way. I know the Lord has guided my steps this year and I am not living in condemnation but I am recognizing that He has something different for me this year. They have the same basic goal we have and as Wayne and I discussed their distinctive we of course did not agree with all of them. Otherwise we'd be 'Raising Olives' but we agreed with many of them and their reasoning behind them. Thus we are looking at what we are doing to meet our goals and if our school is reflective of our beliefs. As we begun to look at next year we have a lot to ponder. s

May the Lord bless you and your school this week!

90 Day Bible Reading Challenge

2011-03-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

Raising Olives is having a 90 day Bible Reading Challenge that starts April 1st which is in like 2 minutes. If I had not been such a chicken I would have announced it earlier but if you'd like to hop on board I'm sure they'll still take you, hopefully. Although I have read through the Bible several times I usually take about a year to a year and a half to complete it. I have really wanted to try these 90 day schedules but like I said I'm a chicken. A dyslexic (yes it's true) chicken with a garden, chickens, house & 5 kids to distract me I mean take care of! HA! So if you see me ask me how I'm doing and if you join please let me know so we can be brave together. If Sugar Pie was awake she'd Remind me "the Lowrd did not gift you a pirit of fear but of powwew and wuv"
May the Lord bless your time in His word!

Wordless Wednesday ... From the Mission Trip

2011-03-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

want to see more go to Wordless Wednessday

Meal Plan ...Tuesday :)

2011-03-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday - This month for fellowship meal I've been preparing Rosemary & white bean soup & Mac&Cheese
Monday(Soccer Practice)- French Country Dinner, mixed veggies and Hawaiian Bread
Tuesday - Pizza with Salad
Wednesday - Beans & Rice (or garden greens)
Thursday - Honey Curry Chicken, couscous, tossed salad & bread
Friday - Bean & Cheese Burritos (using Wednesday's left overs!)
Saturday - Leftovers

May you find a prudent use for all your groceries this week!

Weekly Wrap-up: Mission Schooling in Edinburg

2011-03-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last week we laid schoolbooks aside to "For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:6

"Though you have not seen him you love him; and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith the salvation of your souls." (NIV)1 Peter 1:8-9

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (KJV)1 Peter 1:3

On Mission Trip to Edinburg, Texas and our group built a house & corrected errors made in a bathroom at a Christian Camp & held a VBS for the children. We lived according to God's abundant mercy!

SHOULD CHILDREN BE IN CHURCH?

2011-03-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

Some Pastors have spoken out against children in church and prayed against their noise making. However, children are a blessing from the Lord and Jesus had them present when he spoke.Yet still today it is a struggle against the worlds belief that children are a distraction that should be set aside. We look at our kiddos and our parenting as an opportunity to die to self during the sermon & after simply another way to walk out our faith. So Mamas be encouraged as you are struggling to get your kiddos trained, as you feel the eyes looking at you, , as the sweet ladies remind you they have a nursery & perhaps as you hear the discouragement from the pulpit, continue in the fight Mama you are not alone.

Nancy Campbell, Titus 2:3-5 woman.....

I am reminded of William Bradford's' 1623 Thanksgiving Proclamation: "All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones (emphasis mine), do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill...there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings." The early Pilgrims lived their lives according to the Word of God. As you read the following Scriptures, you will notice how Biblically familiar this proclamation sounded.

Joshua 8:33-35, "Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones."

2 Chronicles 20:4, 13, "Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord...And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children."

Do you notice that when there was an important prayer meeting, when the Word of God was to be read, or when God wanted to speak to His people, it was not only the adults who gathered--the children came too, even the little ones! The “little ones” means the toddlers! Help! The Hebrew word for “little ones” is taph. The term comes from the tripping gait or short steps of little children and is generally used for younger children. We tend to exclude the toddlers from our midst because they are distracting, but God wants them there.

As I have come to understand God's heart for children and the guidelines He has set down in His Word, I have had to change my thinking about the way we program our children in church. Most churches today, with good motives and the best of intentions, divide the children into separate classes and take them away from their parents. My husband has pastored churches for nearly 50 years and we did the same thing for many of those years. But is this what God wants? Is this the example of Scripture? Let’s continue searching…

Deuteronomy 31:11-13 says, "When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and children (once again the Hebrew word here is 'taph' meaning the little toddlers)...that they may hear, and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children....may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God..."

Ezra 10:1 says, "Now when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children (taph): for the people wept very sore."

Joel 2:15-17, "Blow a trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck at the breasts."

Once again, everyone is included, even the babes who are nursing at the breast. It is usually the solemn assembly where children are excluded in case they make a sound, but even in the most solemn assembly God wants them included. We do not find any Scriptures in the Word of God that encourage us to separate the children from the main congregation..

This of course puts greater responsibility upon parents. We have to teach our children to listen and to behave in church. We cannot use the Children's Church as a baby-sitter! I had plenty of experience of this. As a child, I was taken out of church every Sunday and spanked for misbehaving. If you have a difficult child, do not despair and do not give up. As a little child I was called the "devil incorporated!" But my parents didn't give up on me and I have walked with the Lord all my life, including my teenage years.

Psalm 144 talks about our sons growing up as "plants in their youth." Is it possible to have children that are mature even when they are young? I believe that they can grow into greater maturity when they are part of the church family, sitting with and observing older godly young people, the mothers, fathers and grandparents.

Proverbs 13:20 (a scripture that I constantly impressed upon my children) says, "He that walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." When children are in the company of wise people, they will grow into wisdom. If they are constantly separated into the company of other children their own age, they will stay at the level of foolishness because "foolishness is bound in the heart of a child." When you have a lot of children the same age together, you have multiplied foolishness! (Proverbs 22:14).

Recently I was reading the account of Jesus cleansing the temple by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving out all who were buying and selling. You know this story, but do you know what happened immediately after this event? I hadn't noticed it before and was quite amazed. Immediately "the blind and lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children shouting in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased....And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? (Matthew 21:12-16).

The chief priests and the teachers didn't want the children in the temple. They didn't want them making a noising and crying out praises to the Lord. They were angry and indignant! But Jesus wanted them there and after the temple was cleansed the children were back in the midst, praising God. Do you think that maybe one of the cleansings of the church is to repent from our disassociation with the children and receive them back into our midst?

There were always children around when Jesus was teaching. On many occasions he used a child to illustrate a point and gathered a little one in his arms as he spoke. He didn't have to send a runner to a nursery or Sunday school class to retrieve a child. No, they were right beside him and that's how He wanted it. Mark 9:33-37 says, "He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me."

How many preachers in our churches today teach with a child in their arms? Of course, we do not expect this to be a normal procedure, but it would be nice to see it from time to time, wouldn't it? It would remind us a lot more of Jesus.

The Message Bible translation of Mark 10:13-15 is powerful. "The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: ‘Do not push these children away. Do not ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.’ Then gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them."

Jesus says that children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Shouldn't they be at the center of the gathering together of God's people too?
NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org
nancy@aboverubies.org

Homeschooling with Proverbs 2:6-10 in mind

2011-03-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season to start planning for next year. Right about now Homeschool Mamas across the nation are thinking about what worked last year and what is going to get kicked to the curb. We are considering a couple of changes but after being washed around by the waves of curriculum for years we are not making many changes. As I read Teri Maxwell's managers of their schools I realized I did not have to be on a curriculum roller coaster.

" For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. " Proverbs 2:6-10

As I read through the Maxwell book I began to realize that by constantly switching curriculum I was not demonstrating a heart sold out to God. I was acting as if I was going to find a perfect curriculum that would impart wisdom and knowledge on my children. I was fighting God for control instead of humbly recognizing that the Lord gives wisdom. My responsibility is train them up in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. Thus, I stepped off the roller coaster of revolving curriculum and recognizing that contentment was at the heart of my struggle. That the devil had found a place to breed discontentment into our lives and school!

Although, we used very different curriculum then we have used in the past this year has been truly a blessing. The children have completed more work and I feel they have really enjoyed their homeschool experience this year more then any other year. The Lord has been generous scooping out an abundance of knowledge into their little minds. He's been gracious bring to my attention things that didn't work and why. I hope to other Mama's out there to step off of the roller coaster back onto the straight path because as the believe the Bible and joyfully accept that God grants wisdom and understanding not us, not Mama. We are simply training our arrows to have an impact on the society around them, to be lights in the darkness. Much of their 'book learning' will be forgotten but they will remember how we taught them, loved them and how we guided them through their homeschool. Was their homeschool a joyful journey on their way to Christian adulthood or was it a time they are happy is done because Mama was much less then joyful. because she was so stressed out? I would encourage you to walk in the path of our Lord Jesus as he exhorts us to:

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

So as we consider our homeschool for next year I will keep in mind that "If Mama ain't happy ain't no one happy!" and our curriculum will reflect my desire to be a Mama who glorifies the Lord in word and truth.

So one to the change for us on the horizon is our Spelling program.We have an autistic child that has been struggling with Building Spelling Skills. Now let me be clear I think BSS is a great spelling program and my other child did very well with it. The problem for the older child is that autistic children do not learn language through usage. She doesn't know what most of the words mean so she is just learning to spell gibberish as far as she is concerned. Having her look up every word was too time consuming and she was only completing a Unit every 2 weeks. Right now it looks like we are switching her to Accelerated Christian Education's Word Building which will teach her the words meaning as well as how to spell the words. As we are considering adding a couple other ACE Curriculum to our homeschool next year so (hopefully) Wayne and I will attend a hotel meeting so we can preview the curriculum and discuss it.

We are going to be using a lot of Christian Light again this year because this is wonderful Christian program that is easily administered by Mama.

So if you find yourself in our position to here are some things I've found to be important:

Know your curriculum requirements (here are our guidelines, your guidelines will probably vary :) ) and I would suggest you write them down and perhaps keep them in your planner:

Christian World View
No Humanism. Humanism is a world view which excludes our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many very well written humanistic homeschool texts that fail to acknowledge God as the creator.
Easily Administered (graded & planned) by Mama.
Children are able to complete all or most of it independently with periodic assistance from Mama (such as projects & science experiments) This does not hold true for kindergarten curriculum which is done entirely with Mama. First graders till need a good bit of attention too!

Reasons not to switch curriculum:

Friends. I have found many folks switch from one curriculum to another because their friends are in love with it. Just because your friends are doing something doesn't mean it will work well for your family. If the curriculum you are using is working well I would strongly urge you to consider why you want to switch? Because it could be a matter of contentment.
Unpopular: You've picked a curriculum that is unpopular and very few people us it and when you mention it to your friends they have a negative reaction. But it works really well for your family and you have been happy with it. ACE is an unpopular curriculum in many homeschool circles but it is a solid Christian program that uses the Mastery approach and teaches incrementally. This is a good match for our Classical Eclectic Homeschool. Textbooks are also unpopular but if they work in your household keep going!

Lord willing we will be able to show you a little more of how we plan for our homeschool .

Weekly round up Post Pneumonia

2011-03-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone for their sweet notes of encouragement and let you know we are back on the road to recovery. We have slowly restarted school again!

Kindergarten- We are currently working through Teach your child to Read in 100 Easy lessons. Sugar Pie is really doing well and we are now doing 2 lessons every other day. She'll be on lesson 40 on Friday and we should get done with the book by the second week of May. This is going to be the first summer that all of the bigs will be able to complete their Summer Reading on their own. I know 5 years old is not really big but don't tell her!

2nd grader- Had 3 tests in the middle of this week she did great on 2 and not so well on one. But on the one, that she did not do so well on, it was on a portion I'm not concerned about. Christian Light has some funky phonics symbols that they teach to their students and Parks (and frankly I) don't get it. Parks is a proficient reader even if she doesn't know what an upside down e sounds like! :) I'm going to be crossing that mess out in the future.

5/6th grader- I think our greatest accomplishment this week is that our 5/6th grader finally understood long division after weeks of working with her. She did her lesson and she didn't even miss a problem. This is the second time we have used Math Mammoth to deal with a delay and this is the second time it has helped us out! So now my time to pick the next math program we use is short. She still has to work on MM Division II and on MM ratios/fractions. But I think I'm going to start her back into a regular curriculum soon. So I am trying to pick between Christian Light Math, ACE Ministries Math programs or continuing with Horizons Math.

Also, because of some recent changes in plans I have some re-planning to do for the end of our school year. But the planning process over here is pretty simple and for me its really meant to keep us on target.

This weeks marked the start of the soccer season. This is the second year that my husband and I will be coaches in the league. Last night we had meet the coach for both our Kinder & 2nd grader. We participate in Upwards Soccer. We choose Upwards for two big reasons:

It is centered on the Bible and it's mission is to help lead children to Christ. The children have memory verses and we have a devotional at practices.
There is only one practice each week!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen just one practice!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! May the Lord Jesus fill your house with peace & grace this week.

Wordless Wednesday ...

2011-03-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

Sisters ...

To see more of the Wordless Wednesday link up

52 weeks of organizing week 7 Living Room & 8 Porches

2011-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Living Room under the TV before....

I'm back after a very short hiatus filled with grandparents and pneumonia! If you are interested in what happens when a family with 5 kiddos gets pneumonia you can read my post "Pneumonia Schooling".

Now onto organizing....

Living Room under the TV after

Week 7 - I organized a very unorganized and unsightly Entertainment area in our living room. We used an antique Pie Safe which was given to us by some friends of ours who used to own an Antique Shop. My dear Husband found scrap wood and made shelves and he added support to the back of the once rickety cabinet.When the pie safe is closed the whole room is so peaceful and so simple you'd never guess what's hiding within it. It is housing the Entertainment Center: VCR, DVD/Stereo, converter, DVD's, CD's and books. Also, did you notice the basket that was on top of the curio cabinet (an organization project in progress) has found a new home on the Pie Safe. Right next to the safe is an antique locker drawer which now holds the baby toys. This was just sitting on the floor in front of the dresser. Next to that is something or another for my husbands surround sound system (given to us from some friends at church) & a cute basket (we won at a 4th of July Party) with remotes. Underneath all of that is a little drawer that holds VHS tapes sadly it didn't fit in or under the safe. As I look around this room the different items within it remind me of the love our family and friends have shown us over the years. Truly I think the only thing we purchased was the TV a couple of years ago for $200.

Total Cost of this organization project = $0

Week 8 - So during week 7 my parents were here & we had pneumonia but before it all hit I did manage to get the front and back porch cleaned up and organized.

Front Porch

Back Porch

Until the challenge I think I was just blocking out all the eye sores and pretending they didn't exist. Now, however, I stop and organize little things if I think I have time. When I look at a space I wonder how could I make it functional yet simplify it.

Son on the Back porch you'll notice the Pie Safe was kept on the back porch until Wayne had time to work on it! The back porch had a conglomeration of items that just never got put away! So the first thing I did was put things away, cleaned and swept. I adjusted the grill cover and situated the tanks out of site. The drying racks are stacked neatly next to the grill. The front porch needed to be picked up and swept and I needed to remove some items we didn't use. I thought these items would be cute junky decorations but they unfortunately they just looked like junk! I needed to find a better way to organize the mud boots. So I got an old apple basket put it next to the door and piled the boots in there, so the kids can grab a boot and go! I ended up switching the furniture from the back to the front. I topped an iron table found on the side road with a lace curtain that was given to me in a bag of kids clothes. I added a white cross I had purchased a couple of years ago at the Roundtop Antique Fair. I think the furniture looks great in their new locations.

The total cost of this organization: $0

New back porch

New Front Porch

I have decided to keep an eye on what I am spending to get the casa organized. So in the last 7 weeks we have spent $18 on laundry room sorting baskets. You'll see that project later.

So here is my progress on organizing my home one week and one project at a time. I'm really enjoying the calm relaxed feel that it generates in our home and in this Mama. Well at least as calm as it can be with 5 kids running around! Now, if you want to see what other super-focused organizing Mamas are doing you can head over to OrgJunkie's 52 weeks of organizing Challenge.

Jonathan Edwards on time well spent

2011-02-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

"Some diversion is doubtless lawful; but for Christians to spend so much of their time, so many long evenings, in no other conversation than that which tends to divert and amuse, if nothing worse, is a sinful way of spending time, and tends to poverty of soul at least, if not to outward poverty: Prov. xiv. 23. " In all labour there is profit; but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." Besides, when persons for so much of their time have nothing else to do, but to sit, and talk, and chat, there is great danger of falling into foolish and sinful conversation, venting their corrupt dispositions, in talking against others, expressing their jealousies and evil surmises concerning their neighbours; not considering what Christ hath said, Matt. xii. 36, " Of every idle word that men shall speak, shall they give account in the day of judgment.""

This is from one of Edward's Sermons, Christian Knowledge, that I am reading through and thoroughly enjoying. May this encourage you to make sure that your Monday through Sunday are fruitful!

from http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/Edwards.Christian.Knowled.html

Weekly Wrap-up - Pneumonia Schooling

2011-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this edition of weekly wrap-up entitled "Pneumonia Schooling" at Roosterhill Academy! Yes, although we normally have a pretty productive homeschool, we barely had school at all last week we only completed about a 1/4 day on Monday.

Monday:We started Monday out by participating in the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. We saw Vultures, Yellow belly Sapsuckers and more during our hour of birdwatching. We were also the only ones in our city to participate!

Then we were off to the doctors office for Mama & Tubba Bubba (boy twin). While we were there my oldest child kicked off a shoe revealing to the doctor an infected foot! So, Tubba, Big girl and Mama all went off to the pharmacy to get our prescriptions for 2 infected feet (Oldest girl stepped all the way down on a nail & I scratched the tar out of the side of my foot while hiking in Tevas) & an ear infection.

Grandma playing games with the bigs.

But after the doctors visit our day was looking up because on Monday afternoon the grandparents arrived at our home in Texas from California. We love to spend time with my folks they normally play games with the kids, have tea parties and read them loads of books! So this is a much anticipated time by the whole family.

Tuesday: This day was pretty uneventful. We went into town and my parents took us to Red Lobster for lunch. Wayne meet us at the restaurant and we had a wonderful time. After Red Lobster we went to HEB (grocery store) to get lots of fresh fruits and veggies that my Dad loves. When we got home Grandma mentioned the fact that Sho-sho (girl twin) was pulling at her ears while we were driving. I remembered she was crying a lot during diaper changes so we suspected another ear infection. After this discussion we ate dinner and and watched a movie as a big ole family and went to bed.

Wednesday: I was planning on taking Sho-sho to the doctor and my husband had some suspicions about little coughing Sugar Pie. Sure enough Sugar Pie had pneumonia and Sho-sho had an ear infection! Since the diagnosis Sugar Pie was FORCED (seriously I was considering chains to keep the kid on the couch.) to stay on the couch the next two days. She has been getting nebulizer treatments about every 4 hours. In between nebulizer treatments Grandma & Grandpa taught the kids how to play Mancala on the bedroom floor. They also announced they would be leaving a day early in the morning.

Thursday: Well, on Thursday we took pictures with the grandkids and the grandparents. Then my parents (my Dad is 79 who can blame him for leaving the pneumonia house?) packed up and left a day early.

Nublizer

Friday: Today is Friday I am going to have a full cup of coffee before I start my day no matter what's going on in the morning. But alas more news Tubba Bubba is wheezing & Parks is sniffling and coughing so we'll be calling the doctor today. Hopefully the antibiotics he is on for the ear infection would prevent him from getting pneumonia?!?!? Nope! I LOVE my doctor we didn't even have to go in he called in the prescriptions since we'd already been in twice that week! They changed Tubba's prescription and we got 4 more prescriptions, we are up to 10 prescriptions and this is an all-time McVay record! We wanted to make sure we got our prescriptions home by noon so they could be on their prescriptions for at least 24 hours, so they could attend a birthday party on Saturday!

This is also the day I went insane, because I thought I was going to be able to complete a full day of school and to finish some of the work left undone on Monday. This did not happen! Still, however, I am rejoicing in the fact that at least they are all sick at the same time instead of one after the other, because that could drag on for weeks.

We are now up to 10 medications!!

So on Friday we'll watch School House Rock History, Duggars and I'll read some of our read-aloud. We will just do little stuff they will enjoy while they all have ~~running~~ walking pneumonia!

One good thing on the homeschool front is that due to all of this illness I have had a chance to think more about History for next year. I have even called some of the different options we are looking at to clarify their programs. Though I am leaning toward Winter Promise I am also considering Sonlight, Story of the World & Tapestry of Grace. Although I am not sure I am thinking straight, so its really good that we don't start buying stuff until we get our tax return anways.

So I hope that your week was more productive then mine!Happy Schooling!

Homeschool Curriculum Review: Building a Winning Curriculum

2011-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

I recently reviewed Building a Winning Curriculum: How to Use Vision Forum Products to Build a Winning Homeschool Curriculum by Dorys Lee Horn at Vision Forum Ministry. This book is specifically about using Vision Forum Products to build a winning curriculum. Most of VF products are supplemental however they have developed a World History and a Christianity & Western Civilization. They also offer older books such as the Blue Back Speller .

At first I was disappointed with this book because I thought it was going to discuss curriculum both within and outside of VF. I also found the number of blank pages that have been included in this book to be odd (though I think I understand why they are present).

Upon further review I think this book is going to be helpful for those of us who enjoy VF's Products. Basically, this book tells you what topics VF products cover. The following is a listing of the parts of the book:

Part 1: Setting the Vision for Home Education

Part 2: Building a Winning Curriculum

Part 3: Defending the Faith

Part 4: Christianity and Culture

Appendix A: Chronological & Topical Unit Studies (This is not fleshed out it just gives ideas)

Appendix B: Academic Plans for the Use of Vision Forum Resources

So for one of our family favorites, Johnathan Park, you could correlate your scientific study to the different scientific topics covered in the Johnathon Park series. So now I can easily add VF audio, novels, movies to my various curriculum. We have a lot of VF products and this book will enable us to inject them into our curriculum as we truly appreciate VF's Culture Changing mindset & Unapologetic Christian worldview. We plan on using their guide to add the Moody films, VF CD productions to our science & history curriculum. Additionally, we will most likely use their High School History Curriculum. Another great thing about many of the VF recommended products is that they can also be found on Netflix which really expands the availability of the VF product line to our family.

Appendix A the Chronological & Topical Unit Studies really does a great job grouping the historical resources so I could see what I had in each era & decide if my children were old enough to beneifit from it. But like I said the Unit Studies are not fleshed out there are just groupings of books according to topics. Appendix B is very short and simply list questions to ask & answer during your studies. These questions are well thought out but there are not very many in each section.

Still even after taking some time to review it and believing it is going to be helpful to me in augmenting our current curriculum. I would not however pay the list price for this book. If you are patient VF puts everything on sale so wait for it to drop to $4-6! This book is going to live up to what it says on the back of the book :"At last, a guide to help you maximize the benefits of Vision Forum products in your home education ..."

A little about vegetable gardening... Part II seeds

2011-02-24T00:48:00.000-08:00

What is in season?
Now that you've picked a nice sunny spot you need to go to your local AgExtension office, garden store or farm & ranch supply to get a local vegetable planting guide. This will tell you what to plant when. Many folks (I am not one of them) enjoy using the Farmer's Almanac to determine their planting times.

What kind of seeds to use?
You can use any ole seeds and if you water them and fertilize them they will grow. However, as I understand it there are basically two kinds of seeds GMO and non-GMO. GMO seeds are genetically modified seeds and are often more hardy and may be easier to grow. Large commercial farmers use GMO seed to grow their crops and most of the veggies in the grocery store come from GMO seeds. A big negative for me is that you cannot however collect their seed and grow plants from them. Non-GMO seeds are not genetically modified. It is said by the proponents of non-GMO seeds that they produce healthier food. I like NON-GMO seeds because I can collect the seeds from them and use my own seeds the following year. Thus lowering my gardening costs! Non-GMO seeds are normally labeled as such; heritage seeds are normally Non GMO.

What and how much to plant?
Once you have your planting guide you need to make a list of what your family eats that you can grow during the current season. Then you can determine from that list what you want to grow. You will need to consider how much space you have to grow things. You will need to measure your garden and determine how much space you have. If you have a small amount of space then you are not going to want to grow things that take a lot of space and have a low yield. You need to look at how many inches apart you need to plant each plant and how much space you need between rows. If you have questions about how to do this please post a comment and I will try to answer it quickly and clearly.

Finally, a few things that it makes sense to me to plant in a smalls space are:

Swiss Chard ...you use it like spinach and you just cut the leaves and the leaves grow back. It self pollinates so it comes back on its own and it freezes well. Additionally, it pretty much grows year around in Texas!
Spinach ....does the same thing as Swiss Chard except you cannot grow it year around
Lettuce.......does the same thing as Swiss Chard except you cannot grow it year around
Turnips you can eat the root and the greens.
Garlic takes up very little space and you can store the extras easily.
Okra...it takes up a lot of space but two or three well tended okra plants can yield an incredible bounty of okra.

So this weeks assignment is to get a planting guide for your area and to determine what you want plant. Also don't forget to think about the kind of seeds you want to use. Ready, set, go!

Homeschool Weekly Wrap-up: Classical Conversations, Garden & Field Trip

2011-02-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

Right now we are modifying our homeschool into a little more of a classical model. I had a secret desire to do Classical Conversations but after finding out the costs involved I know that program is out of our reach. I am however ordering some of their CD's to do with the kiddos as well as incorporating some of the memory CD's we have by Kathy Troxel into our regular school day. So this week I set up an audio station for the kiddos to begin to work on the weekly memory work.Hopefully, I will be able to set up an audio schedule next week. So here is what happened at Roosterhill Academy this week....

Monday- We started school late after the kiddos ate their pink pancakes with strawberry topping! The kiddos completed their Everyday Homeschool Schedule and we had a wonderful Fajita Dinner complete with Daddy presenting everyone with a red carnation!

Tuesday- Today we went to Producer's Co-op (Local Farm/Ranch Supply) to get our seeds, plants & a fig tree. We spent the afternoon with sweet Bethany weeding boxes and getting ready for a Spring garden. We completed our busy day homeschool schedule and our second grader took a science and reading test. We read a chapter of Freedom Train. Then we were off to soccer evaluations...yes soccer has begun at Roosterhill.

Wednesday- We started school late because we had a wonderful visit from the twins social worker. She brought the kiddos some fun books including Chicken Little and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The kids spent the morning playing in their new play house. Then we had roughly 2 hours before our sweet Art teacher arrived. The kids spent the next 1 1/2 hours in art drawing and tracing utilizing their new skills! Then back to the grindstone as we attempted to finish our everyday school work before we went to a friends birthday party.
Thursday- We spent the morning in the garden weeding and getting it ready for the compost. Our piano teacher arrived a little bit early and she helped us weed before lessons. The girls are getting ready to perform in the 'Grand Concert'. Which is a concert in which several children all play the piano at the same time! After piano lessons were done we completed our busy day homeschool schedule. Then dinner time was upon us. At dinner time we read 2 more chapters from our read aloud Freedom Train. Right now Harriet is about to get on the Underground Railroad. I am still having a hard time explaining to the kids that it was not a real railroad! But we are really enjoying this book together.

Friday- We went on a field trip to the local African American Museum on a field trip. It was actually very interesting this museum has collected the stories of local African Americans 90 years old or more and created a film documentary. They also have their pictures and their stories on a wall to view. It had a little bit of everything a Klan Outfit, Slave Pictures, African Garb, Toys from young African Americans, Military Uniforms and more. We really enjoyed our visit. The children were able to talk to an elderly black woman about some of her experiences in the segregated south. I think it was enlightening for them. The curator reminded them we went through a lot so you could enjoy the freedoms you have today. Right now I am finishing this blog post off so we can sit down and read another chapter of Freedom Train with my dear ones.

So as you can see this week was very full of interruptions, impromptu learning experiences & gardening. Most weeks we are pretty productive this week we went forward but I am sure as I grade and review the weeks progress this weekend I'll have to rewrite some of the upcoming lesson plans. This week my Dad is suppose to be in town so I do not think we will be very productive next week either, so I'll probably have time to write out new lesson schedules. :)
Finally, I'm looking for a preplanned history program for my 2nd grander who loves to read! Do any of you do Sonlight? Could a good reader complete most of the work on their own with out a great deal of parental help? What about Winter Promise? Story of the World is also on the list. I'd love to hear about your favorite history programs while I look and pray.

Have a blessed day and if you want to see more of what homeschoolers are doing around the country you can check out the Weekly wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Rooster Hill

Christmas & New Years

California

Picking Books for Children

Homeschool Mother's Journal

Celebrating Fall Traditional Tastes

A bump in the road

Mayborn Mueseum

WHAT you're having another kid????

I need thee, oh I need thee

Homeschool week in Review

God's Grace Alone

Versatile Blogger Award

broken vessel

Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap Up (week 7) - Teaching Reading

Spilled Milk

Worldliness

Weekly Wrap-up (week 6)

Weekly Wrap-Up(week 5): ECI, Softball & busy bees

George Mueller on Finances

Homeschooling Journey: Speech Therapy

George Mueller on Preaching

Nicest days

Weekly Wrap Up- Hospital Schooling & Softball

Going to the well

Weekly Wrap-Up(week 3): Busy Bee's & IEW Update

Health Camp Waco Burger Joint

Weekly Wrap Up(week 2) - Getting Artsy

Amish Proverb

Weekly Wrap Up (week 1): A Slow Start

Homeschool For Free

Weekly Wrap Up - Planning, Prep & a party!

The Return of 52 weeks of organizing: buffet & wooden puzzles

Menu Plan Monday or Tuesday!

Weekly Wrap Up-Birthdays,Blanket Training, planning

Pearson is 6!

Menu Plan Monday - We need fish recipes!

Weekly Wrap Up - Homeschool Prep, Pnemonia, Reward & Randomness

Wordless Wednesday - Adoption

Menu Plan Monday - We need fish recipes!

Weekly Wrap Up - RAD, splash pad , ADOPTION

Adoption Day

A Mad Science Birthday Party

Menu Plan Monday: Frugal Spaghetti Sauce

Weekly Wrap Up - Sliding, Birthdays & Theatre

Frugal Spaghetti Sauce

Happy Birthday Parker is 8

B-I-N-G-O Night

Menu Plan Monday: Butternut Squash Soup

Weekly Wrap Up - homeschool went swimmingly?

The Faithful Parent byMartha Peace

Parson's Gate

Gospel Link

Homeschool Planning in a few extras ...

Weekly Wrap Up - Really

Hey Andrew! Teach me Some Greek!

Happy 4th of July!

Weekly Wrap Up - Summer School Bible Bee 2011

Time for a picnic

Frugal Whole Wheat Corn Waffles

MenuPlan Monday

6 Ways to save money

2011 Bible Bee

In & Out of the Hospital **revised**

Frugal Family Fun: Letterboxing

Weekly Wrap Up

Save time & money in the kitchen

Frugal Tip & Menu Plan Monday: Crock Pot Hot Wings

Weekly Wrap-up: changes in store

90 Day Bible Reading Challenge

Wordless Wednesday ... From the Mission Trip

Meal Plan ...Tuesday :)

Weekly Wrap-up: Mission Schooling in Edinburg

SHOULD CHILDREN BE IN CHURCH?

Homeschooling with Proverbs 2:6-10 in mind

Weekly round up Post Pneumonia

Wordless Wednesday ...

52 weeks of organizing week 7 Living Room & 8 Porches

Jonathan Edwards on time well spent

Weekly Wrap-up - Pneumonia Schooling

In & Out of the Hospital revised