365 Day Project - Day 3

Day 3

This was taken at one of our homeschool group field trips to a local apple orchard. I love her smile. Right now though, she seems very reluctant to share that big smile. I get only smirks or grins unless I can take the photo when she isn't looking. She just celebrated her 11th birthday. Time sure does fly.

365 Day Project

Day 1

Okay, I'm behind but that seems typical for me in most things. I will try to catch up my posts but it may take a few days. Here is my first photo taken in our church sanctuary near Thanksgiving. We have a very talented man in the congregation who handles the flowers/altar decorations. I thought this was such a nice display of God's Bounty that I had to take a photo.



If you'd like to join the group just click on the link in my side bar. It will take you to Tracy's blog with all the information to get started. Then I won't be the only one behind. (LOL)


Day 2



This was from my garden last year. Can you tell I can't wait for spring to arrive.

Back Home Again

We had a wonderful time in Fort Wayne visiting friends while DH attended the conference at the seminary. The kids and I hung out at the pool with our friends and the adults enjoyed the hot tub. I'm missing the hot tub already. We came back to Wisconsin which had below zero temps. I've gone back to hibernation mode. I honestly can't wait for the spring to get here.



While in Fort Wayne my daughter, Natania, turned 11 so we celebrated by going to build-a-bear and to Applebees for lunch plus dessert to be our "cake and ice cream".



It's hard coming back here to the middle of no where. Our kids miss their friends. We are hoping for a call to Eau Claire area. We should know something soon. Keep us in your prayers for that.

Shabby Chic Cabinet

We found this great, old kitchen cupboard in Eau Claire, WI about a month ago or so. At the store it was filled with all kinds of things about roosters. I'm still not quite sure what I am going to put in it just yet. My husband says he is pretty confident that I will find things and put it to good use. He knows the collector side of me pretty well, somedays anyway.

I'm looking forward to filling it with Christmasy things when that time of year rolls around again. The decorating is always so much fun for me.




This is a pic of the inside. As you can see it is pretty old with the crackling paint but also the way the shelving it put together.



If you like to participate in Show and Tell Fridays go to Kelli's

ABC the letter B

This is a post of my little "B"oy, Micah. DH took this candid photo of him the other day. And since I feel I little behind in the blogging world I'm going to use it for this meme.



Hop on over to HSBA if you want to join in.

Crazy Days

It's been crazy around here lately. We've been trying to get back in the routine of school after the holidays. A lot of my time in the evenings now goes to working through Algebra 1 to help my oldest daughter who is struggling with that subject right now. She is improving which is great though.

Dh also has a last minute funeral to do tomorrow. At least they won't be standing in the frigid cold by the grave side. The internment will be in the spring. But it makes it a little more hectic around here.

We are busy packing for a week trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana. DH is going to a symposia at the seminary there while the rest of us with enjoy the pool and visit friends. It will be a nice break from small town life. The only wrench in it now is my son Micah complaining of a stomach ache. It's hard to tell which kind with him. A few months ago, we had an appendicitis scare with him. We were told that you can have chronic appendicitis for several months before something really needs to be done about it. Let's hope it's not that. I'm wondering if he was just hungry.

Keeping the Right Focus on Homeschooling

This was sent to me from a fellow homeschool mom. I find it very appropriate for these days. I'd like to share it with all of you who home school and kindly follow my blog. I know this is often a hard road to follow with all the demands of home and trying to provide a good education. I know all too well of my short comings in this area. But with support from others we can all manage to home educate our children and send them off to college confident in what they learned.


The Love Passage for Home school Moms

Though I teach my children how to multiply, divide and diagram a sentence,

But fail to show them love, I have taught them nothing.

And though I take them on numerous field trips, to swim practice and flute lessons;

And though I involve them in every church activity, but fail to give them love, I profit nothing.

And though I scrub my house relentlessly, run countless errands, and serve three nutritious meals every day but fail to be an example of love, I have done nothing.



Love is patient with misspelled words and is kind to young interrupters.

Love does not envy high SAT scores of other homeschool families.

Love does not claim to have better teaching methods than anyone else,

It is not rude to the fourth telephone caller during a science lesson,

Does not seek perfectly behaved geniuses,

Does not turn into a drill sergeant,

Thinks no evil about friends' educational choices.



Love bears all my children's challenges,

Believes all my children are God's precious gifts,

Hopes all my children establish permanent relationships with Christ,

And endures all things to demonstrate God's love.

Love never fails.



Where there are college degrees, they will fail;

Where there is knowledge, it will vanish away..

For we know in part and we teach in part.

But when the trials of life come to our children,

The history, math and science will be done away

And faith, hope and love will remain;

But the greatest of these is love.



We need to keep it all in perspective of what is ultimately most important.

Dieting Days

My oldest daughter and I set out together to try to do the Weight Watchers program at home without attending meetings. Too expensive right now. For our first week it went really well. I lost 3 lbs and Gabrielle lost 2 lbs. We are doing pretty well on week 2 also which just started today. We are using the old "tool" books - the points finder sliding thing and points booster sliding thing. I really don't want to buy one of those new calculators but I will if we have to. My sliding booklets are wearing thin in spots. We even cheated a little but still lost pounds. I think one of the big secrets to successful weight loss it to write it all down. I read on another blog the phrase "you bite it you write it" which is so true. We are heading out to Fort Wayne, Indiana for a week (we leave Sunday) and we will bring our points finder with us. Then when we come back we will work on implementing an exercise and toning segment of our dieting journey.

I'm really proud of my daughter for taking the initiative. I had talked with her about it last year and she was definitely not interested but because she is short like me it shows up faster. She actually is shorter than me and may not even reach my height of 4'10" so it is good for her to work at this while she is young. That way she will have better over all health in the long run.

ABC Meme at Homeschool Blog Awards

Here’s how you play:

1. Post a photo for each letter of the alphabet of anything that starts with that letter.
2. Write a few short explanatory, quirky, or witty sentences about each photo you post.
3. Only post one photo at a time (the meme can take as long as you want - a month, three months, whatever… you aren’t being graded). You can link them later in a blog post so they are listed in order if you are the list-making type.
4. If you want to join the meme, sign the Mr. Linky and use the “A B See Photo-Meme” graphic in your sidebar. Link your graphic to this post and announce that you will be joining us.
5. When you post a photo, come by and add it to the weekly A B See linky that we’ll be posting on Foto Fridays for those who have some alphabetical photo to share. You can sign it each week as many times as you have posted photos - one time for each photo linked post. Make sure you link back to the HSBA on your posts, too - so others can come and join the linky.

So if your interested in joining in the fun hop on over to the Homeschool Blog Awards site.

I've posted this photo for the letter "A" for Annie. I made this doll about 10 years ago when I had small at home craft business. I'm hoping now that the kids are a little older I can get back into it just a bit. Keep checking back some items will be for sale. They make great Christmas gifts during the holiday season.

Twilight Drawings

I wanted to share some great drawings my daughter has done recently. My girls are really into the Twilight movie/book series right now. My 2nd oldest daughter Arianna has a real talent for drawing. So here they are . . . the first is of Edward Cullen one of the main characters.




The 2nd drawing here is of Edward and Bella.



So what do you think??

Thank you to HSBA

Somehow I was randomly selected to receive a special gift from the Homeschool Post known as HSBA. Here is a pic of what they sent me:



I've never used this before but I think it will be fun to use with my 6 year old son. Thank you again.

Homeschool Memoirs - Happy New Year Post

The challenge this time is to share what you did on New Year's Eve and list any traditions your family might have. So far we don't have too many traditions other than staying up late and watching movies. When we lived in New England we also would order Chinese food. But now that we live in the Midwest, Chinese food is well, how shall we say it - not as good as East coast and West Chinese.

This year though, we invited homeschooling friends over to spend the night. We made lots and lots of food. The kids played a really fun called Quelf. The adults hung out and had adult conversation for a change. So that's what we did!

Tomorrow is D and E day

Bet your wondering what the D and E stands for. You guessed it, diet and exercise. I'm planning to attempt one of my New Year's resolutions starting on 1/5. I think my oldest daughter is going to follow along with me. I'm planning to follow an old weight watchers plan that I still remember how to do. And implement some cardio and weights. I'm going to try it on my own for a bit and if I can't do it alone then I will try to find the money to go back to weight watchers. I'm the heaviest I've ever been and I honestly can't believe it has gotten this bad. I bought a new, small notebook to record my food habits, water and exercise routine.



So wish me luck, I'm gonna need it. Saying a prayer wouldn't hurt too.
Blessings,
Lisa

I received another award

I received this award today from Tammy
Thank you, Tammy!! Boy it sure did take me a long time to figure out to make a link back. I hope all of you are better bloggers than I am at this point. On with the rules . . .

The Lemonade Award:
So here is the award and the rules.

#1 You must link back to the person you received the award from.

#2 You have to nominate 10 bloggers who are deserving of this award!

So here it goes:

Susan primitive preachers wife

Kindra 3 guys a girl and a prim place

Leslie My Country Home

Tracy Many Home Blessings

Gwynne Far Beyond Rubies

Sandy For the Love of Prims

Pam It's Time for More Coffee

Julie Joyful Days

Sandy Ron's Rib

Robin Bird in Hand Primitives

Now you all need to pick 10 more bloggers who you enjoy following.

Monday's a Comin'

Well Monday's a comin' here and I don't feel nearly ready to start back up with school after our Christmas break. But I do have some ideas rolling around in my head about things I'd like to incorporate more of in 2009. First I'd like to give my kids a love of poetry. I think I'll start out by reading some really simple childhood poems (trying for daily - maybe at lunchtime) and then work our way up to others. I also have a book in the style of "the One Year Bible" but with poems. They also provide a brief author bio which is nice. All those poems focus on christian themes. I also think it would be nice for them to memorize some poems too. I'm not sure my oldest two, 15 and 13, will really appreciate that. But I'm hoping they will join in on that part also.

Another goal I have is to read out loud to my youngest, Micah, more often. I also think it would be good to pick a family read aloud book. My DH has tried this and it went well but he is a pastor and life can be very hectic for him. Often this has fallen to the wayside. Maybe we can pick it up again.

I site I like for a list of books is www.amblesideonline.org. They also provide a nice list of hymns for hymn study plus artists and composers.

God's richest blessings on your 2009 homeschool year.

Primrose Parlor

Just a little note. . . I've started another blog that will be geared just towards primitives, decorating and crafts. I'm slowly moving over some of my prim links to that site. So for a little bit you might find some double entries places. There isn't much on that site yet but I will be adding to it as time allows. I will be posting especially about primitives, antiques and decorating. Or sharing photos of the new things I will be working on either by myself or if I can recruit some of my kids too.

Here's the new link:
http://primroseparlor.blogspot.com/

Third Anniversary of the Carnival of Homeschooling

This carnival is celebrating it's third year of blogging. I want to encourage all you homeschoolers out there to participate in posting about your experiences. It's great to hear from other homeschoolers, what they are learning, how they establish routines in their homes, or just some general mom encouragement as we try to teach our children.

You can send your submission to here:


http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-to-send-your-submission-for-next.html

Submissions are due by Monday night at 6pm.

Go check out the link.