Week off!

Apparently, the lady who runs the HSBA meme each week is really busy right now and forgot to think of a new idea for this week. So we have the week off from writing about our daily lives or whatever the silly assigment is for the week. To which I say, Woo-Hoo because I'm suppose be working on my oldest daughter's algebra lessons. So when school gets back in session I can help her more. Too bad we can't have another week off from school.

Biggest Snow of the Season

Finally today we have some serious snow coming down. We've had a few small storms with like 3-5 inches but for the midwest, I don't really call that a big storm. I was born and raised in New England so big snow storms is something I am use to. I'm always surprised when the news channels forecast what they define as a big storm. And then they tell you 3-5 inches. Then my DH and I get a big laugh out of that. But today they are predicting 8-14 inches with our town being on the heavier side of the snow. My kids are thrilled!! One of my daughters, Arianna, was so disappointed to hear about the ice storm that we missed in New England this year. Family and friends were without power for days. She's never experienced that but I think in reality she would grow tired of no power and candle light. You kind of get use to those modern conviences.

I ventured out to Walmart today about a 30min drive. I wanted to get ready for New Year's Eve a little early. We have friends coming over tomorrow night and they will be spending the night. The roads were pretty good except for the on/off ramps and rotaries which they call round-abouts out here.

It's good to know I haven't lost my touch with winter driving. DH would tell you otherwise but my driving record is better than his. So I think I'm safe.

How Do You Stay Motivated??

I get tired just thinking about going back to school with the kids after our Christmas vacation. I think our break was a little longer than normal due to the kids Christmas concert and some sickness.

I thought I'd get your thoughts on "how do you stay motivated" during these winter months, where school just seems to drag on, and on, and on.

One thing that has helped me is to attend the local homeschool conventions that will start happening. I find it motivates me to carry on and gets me excited about school again.

Another thing that you might find helpful is to attend some "mom" support groups usually offered through local homeschool groups. It's a great time for fellowship and to share our burdens with one another.

So if you want to participate and tell us how you stay motived. Make your post on your blog, paste your link into Mr. Linky and then sign/comment here.

My First Award

How exciting for me! Thanks Sandy.

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Now I will find 8 more blogging friends to share this picture with and the above text to add to their own blog.

Here is my list -

1. Shawn

2. Amy

3. Amy at Homeschool Share

4. The Scotts

5. Trivium Academy

6. Twinkling Stars

7. Barb at Harmony Fine Arts

8. Following the Narrow Way

Send it on to your own list of fellow bloggers. I hope you'll check back often or even sign up to be a "follower" of my blog.

On the 7th day of Christmas . . .

My oldest daughter Gabrielle and I went out to hit some after Christmas sales. It is always a good time to grab those holiday decorations while they are 40%, 50% off, sometimes even more. If you are in the Eau Claire, WI area I highly recommend Cranberry Cottage and Pinecone Manor as great places to find those one of a kind items.

Here is one of the things I picked up today. You'll have to check back next Christmas to view any others. Or sign up for the Holiday Home Tours again through BooMama's blog.



Bible verse: I leave you tonight with the verses from Luke 2:30-32 "For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel."

Words spoken by the prophet Simeon who knew he was holding his Redeemer when Mary and Joseph had brought the baby, Jesus, to be consecrated to God in the temple.

Salvation has to come to us all in the baby Jesus.

On the 6th day of Christmas

On the 6th day of Christmas for us was attending Christmas morning service at church. We came home and made brunch. This is the first year we actually accomplished this. The other years we always seemed to tired or too rushed in the morning to get ready. So we made "brunch" instead of breakfast. The kids all wore their new Christmas sweaters. After service we ate oven baked french toast, biscuit/egg casserole with ham, mushrooms and cheese, hashbrowns and sausages.

Bible verse: Mathew 1:23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us."

I hope you have a few moments today to think about the birth of our Savior. God coming in human flesh to ultimately save us from our sins. A little babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths, asleep in the manger - he is God's annointed. This baby will be the one to rescue us from sin, who will over come death and defeat the devil. Praise be to God for this gift.

Have a blessed Merry Christmas - celebrate the Christ Child!!

Homeschool Memoirs 19 - Making a List

Well, I think it is always best to keep the list short and simple. Often times people try to make long lists of things they want to do or change in the upcoming new year, only to find that they can't keep up with their list.

Here is my short but sweet list . . .

Lose some weight - I really need to do this.
Exercise this will help too with the losing weight.
Read my Bible more.
One other goal I have is to help my oldest daughter with learning algebra 1.

Hopefully, this short list will help me to stay focused on those goals and not get discouraged.

On the 5th day of Christmas . . .

On the 5th day of Christmas . . . this family celebrated with lots of different appetizers and attending Christmas Eve service at church. The day was pretty relaxing. It was nice cooking in the kitchen with my older girls Gabrielle, Arianna and Natania. Annaliese helped a little bit too but her arm is still sore. She managed to help peel some cucumbers and to make onion dip, her favorite, mine too. Today was opening stockings day at our house. We've over the past several years let them open them during the day, especially when younger then I could get the cooking done. Here are a few pics. Enjoy!!









Here is everyone in their Christmas best. Micah said something funny to me tonight. I was getting ready and brushing my teeth. He came into the bathroom and said "mom you got good style." He told me how much he liked what I was wearing and my necklace. He says the funniest things.





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Bible verse - Isaiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

On the 4th day of Christmas . . .

Well the 4th day of Christmas at our house we celebrated "little Christmas eve" adopted from our pastor's family back home. They are Norweigan and my husband's family is Sweedish so we figured we could adopt the tradition too.

On "little Christmas eve" we spend the day baking and preparing foods for Christmas Eve. Being from european background my husband's family always celebrated the birth of our Savior on Christmas eve verses the American tradition of Christmas morning. So on "little Christmas eve" this year we baked cookies. One of my girls has referred to it as the eve of Christmas eve.

I really hope that these little things we do together is building lasting memories for them full of fun, love, and faith.















Luke 2:7 -"And she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

On the 3rd day of Christmas. . .

Well, on the 3rd day or roughly there about, my 3rd child managed to get hurt. We thought she might have broken her nose. We called the ER and spoke to a nurse who told us we would have to wait 5-7 days to see if it is broken. Well I didn't have the patience for that and my 4th daughter was having her cast removed yesterday. So DH took both girls to the family doctor. While the cast was being removed, my 3rd daughter Natania had her nose checked. All is good, no break. What a relief! Just some swelling that is coming down now and less pain. Needless to say I have fallen behind in the blogging of "12 days of Christmas" and many other things. I also have no photo to post this time around. I hope to get caught up shortly.

Bible verse: Micah 5:2 and 4-5 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.

Wishing you God's peace during the season of His birth, the Christ child-Savior of the world.

20 Little Things I love About Christmas

Well Christmas came faster than ususal this year. I'm always amazed at how time flies when your having fun or even not having fun. The days just get away from us. I found this fun meme at Theinspiredroom.net. So I'm joining in on the fun and listing 20 things I enjoy about Christmas. These are not necessarily in any order just as they pop into my head.

1. We enjoy listening to christmas carols and even singing along to them. This year I bought a new CD by the group GO FISH titled SNOW. It is a wonderful, up-beat kind of harmonized versions of old carols. They did a fantastic job. It has become our families favorite CD. Check it out if you get the chance.

2. Baking cookies, yum!

3. Decorating!!!!!!!!I love to decorate for xmas. I love decorating in general.
Trying to make a nice "home" in that way. But is is especially fun at Christmas, bringing out all the decorations from previous years and reminiscing about them.

4. Shopping for new primitive ornaments for our tree.

5. Attending advent soup suppers and service at church. We are a pastor's family so life can get very busy during the holidays.

6. I love the hustle and bustle of shopping. I know it's crowded but I love
looking around at all the displays during this time of year.

7. Making Christmas gifts.

8. Candles

9. Taking the kids Christmas photo in front of our tree each year.

10. Attending Christmas eve and Christmas morning serivces.

11. Cooking for those days listed in #10. The past few years we have switched to
making lots of appetizers. We try to find new ones each year. Our family is all back home in New England so this makes the day a little different for us.

12. The smell of fresh Christmas greens.

13. Watching Christmas cartoons or movies with my kids.

14. Watching the excitement in my 6 year old son's face as he counts down the days to Christmas.

15. Seeing the joy on their faces as they open their new gifts.

16. Spending time in church being reminded of the birth of our Savior, that He
came to rescue us from our sins so we can share in eternity with Him.

17. After Christmas sales!!

18. Listening to the Caroler's when they come to our door each year.

19. Spending time with my family relaxing during our school vacation break.

20. I love my Christmas mugs and dishes.

Wishing all who read this post a blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Who's going to post about their 20 New Year's resolutions??

Show and Tell Friday-These are a few of my favorite things

This is my first post with this meme over at Kellishouse.blogspot.com but I think it will be alot of fun. I'm posting some pics of my favorite christmas ornaments. What else is there this time of year, right?













These have been collected over the years from New England to Wisconsin from various christmas stores or primitive shops.

I also have a few things that sit on shelves during the holiday season. I love the primitive decor both during Christmas but also year round. I think I need a bigger house.





Maybe next time I'll post of few of the ornaments from our victorian tree. Hope you enjoy browsing around as much as I do on your blogs.

On the 2nd day of Christmas

I'm still playing along with sprittibee and her 12 days of Christmas post. I found this picture of two of my girls ( I have 5 kids total) that was taken last Christmas.



So this is two silly girls with hats. It was really cold that day but we had so much fun trying to find a tree. Since then we've noticed that my hubby is allergic to trees. For the past couple of years when we've cut the tree down and brought it home he ends up with lots of sinus problems. So this year we bought a new artificial tree. We have one tree with victorian type ornaments and the other tree with primitive type.

The verse I want to share today is from Luke. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

May the baby born in a manger show himself to you this Christmas season. God's riches blessings to all of you who stumble upon my blog.

Holiday Homes Tour 2008

I never knew you could do a Holiday Homes Tour in the blogging world. Thanks to BooMama at www.Boomama.net it is possible. I think this is a fantastic idea and it seems that well over 800 participants thought the same thing. I'm getting in on it kind of late so hopefully I will find out how to keep on top of it for 2009. My decorations are little bit lacking this year because we had some sickness running through. But I did manage get some things done. We generally have little trees in the kids rooms, a primitive tree in our dining room area, and a Victorian tree in what we are using as a "computer area" because our dining room furniture is too big. So I'll share a few of those photos with you this year and hope to expand on it next year.

This is our primitive tree. I just love primitive decor. I'm planning on getting back into the crafting biz starting with some primitive ornaments.


This is the Victorian tree. Our first home was a Victorian with 9ft ceilings. We really liked that house until the family got so big we didn't fit anymore.



Now for some general pictures from the house.









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I could post more but that is enough for now. Hope you all enjoy looking around and have a Merry Christmas.

12 days of Christmas Meme

I found this Meme over at Sprittibee's blog. To play along you need to post 12 Christmas photos either one a day or 12 in one day or however you like. I like these kinds of meme's where they don't have too many rules to follow. It can very confusing for those of us who are new to the blogging world. I decided to try to post 12 photos one each day. I think I might be a little behind in this meme or I could wait until Christmas Day and then post 12 photos which would bring us to Epiphany. But this year I'm going to start today. I also thought, if I remember to do this each day, that I would include Bible verses that relate to the coming of a Savior. So here it goes...

This is one of my favorite nativity sets by Jim Shore. It was a gift many years ago plus we had a special coupon that made it really affordable.




Genesis 3:15 - I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heal.

The first promise of a Messiah.

Holiday Decor at Homeschool Post

I decided to following along in this meme over at the homeschool post. There are several I am trying to enter in the next few days but this one is keeping it simple. I just have to post a few christmas photos. I got started in holiday decorating when I had a small, simple craft business. I spent most of the year making holiday ornaments to sell at craft shows and stores. Over the years, I ran out of time to do that as a business and it became more of a hobby. I've been collecting for about 20 years now with the result being two christmas trees in our house and some little ones in the kids rooms.







We don't really do "santa" at hour house but we do celebrate Saint Nikolous. The following is one of the types of ornaments I use to make in my business.

Let's Play Tag

Well, not the kind of tag your thinking. But I showed the kids the other day how to make Christmas tags. We used white paper and stamps/ink/markers from close to my heart. They started to really get the hang of it, not that it is really complicated. Annaliese did pretty well considering she couldn't use her right arm and she isn't a lefty. Just some Christmas fun at our house to share with all of you.

Solo Deo Gloria

On December 4th the kids participated in their first concert with the Solo Deo Gloria homeschool choir. We had a fantastic time. The concert was really fabulous. I can't wait for the dvd to arrive. They performed a mix of Christmas carols, spirituals, and hymns. One song was even done in Latin. The choir is broken down into three groups. Sanctus for high school, Jubileo Deo for 4th-8th grades, and Te Deum for 1st - 3rd grades. I am very proud of the kids for getting up so early in the morning and making the long drive to Eau Claire each Thursday. It has been a really great experience for all of them. I am thankful to have even made it to the performance. We had some sickness running through our house plus many people around us in choir rehearsal and in church have been suffering from the stomach bug. Thanks to those who prayed us through it. We are looking forward to choir starting back up on 2/12. Here a few pictures for you all to enjoy.





Annaliese wanted her hair curled so we were busy in the church bathroom among all the other girls trying to get ready. You can't tell in this picture but Annaliese has a festive red cast on her arm. She was so worried that she wouldn't be able to be in the concert if her shirt didn't fit over it. Even if it hadn't we would've taken an older shirt and cut the arm off. She was so looking forward to this evening.




Gabrielle has been enjoying her time at choir. Making many new friends which we are both very happy about. I think it is important for her to have some kids to hang out with that are her age or a bit older. She has been enjoying learning about music and improving her singing.



Arianna is not one for getting dressed up. She honors me by wearing something nice on Christmas and Easter. Now she has to suffer through 2 more times each year - the winter and spring concerts. She looked so nice that evening. She has gained a lot of confidence in her voice since starting choir. Prior to this she was very shy about her singing and would hardly open her mouth. Now she is not as intimidated.




Natania is the one who loves to sing in the family. She seems to have some God given abilities musically. She is teaching herself some songs on the piano until we can afford "real" lessons and eventually she wants to play the flute. She has song before doing small solo parts during church.



Micah was a real trooper. It was a very long day for him without much rest. We left our house at about 7:30am so by concert time (7pm) he was starting to get a bit grumpy. As you can see from this photo he was in no mood for mommy to be having one of those photo-op moments. He did very well during the performance, then joined daddy in the audience and fell asleep on his shoulders.