Dinner tonight

This is what I made for dinner tonight. It was really good.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/tilapiarecipes/r/bl60908b.htm

Pan Fried Tilapia

Serve this flavorful tilapia with French fries or rice and your favorite vegetables.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs, or use fine dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• dash leaf thyme
• dash ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
• 6 to 8 tilapia fillets
• 1/3 cup Creole mustard or a spicy brown mustard
• 1/3 cup light mayonnaise

PREPARATION:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

In a food processor, combine panko bread crumbs and seasonings; pulse several times, or until bread crumbs are fine. Combine mustard and mayonnaise; coat tilapia fillets with the mixture then coat with bread crumbs.

Fry the coated tilapia fillet in a single layer, turning carefully after about 3 to 4 minutes. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes longer, or until cooked through and lightly browned.
Serves 4 to 6.

Thursday's Thankful Thirteen (10)

Another busy day. One of theses days I am going to get this done on Wednesday night and post it early for a change! I just read a post today about a woman who got to hear for the first time. I guess she has been deaf all her life and was able to get a hearing device that alolows her to hear now. In honor of her I thought I would give a list of sounds I am thankful for.

1) Baby noises

2) little kids giggling

3) the sound of the ocean

4) Dan saying I love you

5) praise and worship music

6) motorcycle engines

7) birds singing

8) a good rain storm

9) my children praying

10) waterfalls

11) a good sermon

12) fighter jets (the Air Show has the thunderbirds coming this year and they always do practice over our house)

13) race car engines

How do they do it?

I want to know how momma cats do it. If you've ever watched kittens nurse you know how they knead at their momma as they eat. Don't they have claws at that point? Cause all I have to say is ouch! Benjamin will be 6 months on Sunday and he has started to grab, knead and pinch as he feeds. I cut his nails but that didn't help. He has the grabbing method worked out pretty well. I fully sympathize with all mother cats out there.

Accomplishing much?

I don't know if it helped matters or made them worse, but I just went through most of the papers on my desk. I now have a pile of the things that need attention soon. I know I didn't really *do* anything- just push around all the papers and then throw a few out, but at least it looks better. Marcia at Organizing Queen is having a competition with organizing your desk. You are suppose to take a before and after picture and post them to your blog. If I thought I would have the time to get the desk done by the deadline then I would enter, but I have more pressing areas to clean right now.
Lynn at One Way or Another posted a show in tell about the library in her new house. She lamented about the books not being organized and how it would take such a large amount of work to get them done (I agree Lynn, that is a *lot* of books!). I can sympathize a little as I just pulled down five and a half shelves of kids books and have been culling and sorting through them. I took them all off the shelves Saturday and I still have work to do! I did manage to sort out the workbooks today. I am contemplating whether to even keep the workbooks as I am moving away from that style of teaching the kids and going towards a more living books method. If I do keep them I think they will be filed in the basement where I can have access to them without taking up 1 1/2 shelves of our limited bookshelf space.
I have been trying to go through our stuff and find things to sell on Ebay. I figure if I can get a few dollars to help pay the bills it wouldn't hurt things, right? I just happened to find out today that the listing fee Ebay charges is being discounted this next month (through Sept. 30). That means if I can get anything listed then I wont have to pay the initial fees. Talk about giving me some good motivation to get some stuff listed!
Anyway, enough ramblings from me. The baby has been asleep on the floor next to me and I should take him upstairs, shower and go to bed myself.
Goodnight!

Monday Meanderings

Last week I did this hoping it would help give me motivation to get things done. It seems I struggle so hard to get any of the things on my list done anymore outside of dishes, laundry and supper. Well, after *not* getting much more accomplished last week with the motivation of posting my list, I thought maybe I just wouldn't do it anymore as it only served to remind me of my failures instead of motivation me to keep going. Well, I figure we would try one more week of it and see how I do. I have marked off the few I have done and added a few more. Its worth a shot anyway, right?

Monday meanderings is something new that Tiany at Less of Me More of Him started. Its basically a 'to do list' for each week that you post in order to give yourself more motivation to get things done. Also, what you fail to plan you usually fail to finish. The goal is to list five areas that you are working on. Tiany uses the following- menus for the week, devotional reading, zone work, child training/education and must dos for the week. You don't have to use her five areas, but must have five basic areas that you use each week. To read her introduction post on Monday Meanderings and get all the info, click here.

Here is my week's five things-

1) Devotional- Dan and I need to start the devotional book for
married couples we have- missed a couple days but we are doing it
start reading a Psalm/Proverb every day- have done four so far
start praying on a regular schedules basis every day

2)Personal goals- I have started back to walking again. I want to
cover five miles a week on our treadmill.- I did 5.25 miles instead of the 5 I wanted YEAH!
I also want to make progress through my reading material- I have been reading while walking and slowly working through a book.
I need to do more reading and research on finding a home
business idea that fits.

3) Must do list- work on the clutter in the living room and dining room- I did manage to clean out two corners that were major clutter and I am in the process now of sorting through the five shelves of books the kids have.
work on the clutter in our room and the boys room
get organized on the girls schoolwork
fill out and send it various paperwork that has been piling up
finish school notification paperwork and send it in- done dropped it off yesterday
cut up and freeze peppers- done but then I bought more red peppers I still have to do

4) Child Training- teach the older two girls one meal each they can
cook on their own
engage in meaningful growth promoting conversation with each child
one on one
continue doing family devotions together- we are over halfway through our devotional book

5) Meals- I can't do one per day as it seems that leftovers take us a
few days and then some days life gets away from us and we do other
things. This will be a loose list of five meals as it works better for me.
steak, mashed potatoes and veggie- had this on Monday (last week)
chicken enchiladas with rice, beans and salad
stromboli- I made these today and must make them more often as everyone loved them
fish, pasta and veggie
corn, hot dogs and potatoes
Saturday will be a cookout with the neighbors

Who needs a pet?

I figure as long as I keep having babies at the same pace as I have been then we wont have to get a pet for a good long while. (Of course if God decides to slow down our family's growth rate that would be fine too). I have come to the conclusion that a baby is fun in a lot of the same ways a cat or dog can be. That means if there is a baby in the house then I can continue to push off any desire my children would have for a pet.
Example no. 1 Kittens like to play with the fringe on a rug. Ben was just playing with the fringe on a friend's rug today. He batted at it for quite awhile.
Example no. 2 You can dress your little sibling up just like you would dress up your pet.
Example no. 3 When you dangle something in front of a baby they will swat at it just like a cat.
Example no. 4 This is the most frustrating part of it- you know how some dogs can't decide if they want in or out? You let them out and they start barking to be let in. So you let them in ...and the turn around and paw at the door to get out again. That is the stage babies get at right around the 5-6 month mark when it comes to nursing. I'm hungry, feed me, feed me! Oh wait let me see what is going on around the room...ok, nothing special I can eat again. Oh, but wait! There might be something happening now! No, no I really do want to eat.
Example no. 5 They both need to have someone else dispose of their messes. This is the excuse I use for anyone who thinks my kids need a pet. I have been cleaning up diaper messes for the past 10 years, I don't need to add an animal's mess to the equation.

Of course babies are much better then animals for a lot of reasons. To name a few-
1. They are made in the image of God.
2. Unlike a cat you wont (usually, if mom keeps up on cutting baby nails) get clawed by a baby when you hug them and love them.
3. Babies are a mixture of your DNA and your spouse's DNA, an incredible act of love.
4. They are God's incredible gift. Anyone can go out and get a puppy, but only God can determine if a child should be created.
5. They are much less moody then cats- well maybe not when they have missed their nap!
6. They grow up to be such wonderful little creatures. Every stage of their lives are incredible.

Another Contest

Here is yet another contest, and this one is just full of prizes! Take a look and enter, Saturday is the last day.

And while you are there take a look around, her blog is pretty good stuff.

Thursday's Thankful Thirteen (9)

This week is a list of Dan's characteristics that I am thankful for:

1) Patience
2) love
3) faithfulness
4) goal oriented/driven
5) caring
6) a strong work ethic
7) attentive to me.
8) charismatic
9) sincere
10) thoughtful
11) giving
12) man of his word
13) supportive

Some thoughts on mothers

Lately I have been dealing with myself on a few issues. One of the problems I have often had is that I have gotten so wrapped up in my jobs (mothering, wifing [is that a word? the spell checker things so!] teaching, etc. that all of 'me' has gotten kinda lost. Most people IRL who know me know next to nothing about my likes, dislikes, hobbies (or dreams of hobbies for when I find time for hobbies). When they relate to me they talk about the kids, homeschooling, church, etc. I think quite a few of them would be amazed at the interests I have. For example there is my secret desire to one day have a motorcycle that Dan and I can ride around town. Or there is my budding interest in chain maille jewelry.

I think that since our jobs are so 24 hour around the clock in nature that it gets easy for us to get caught up in all the needs and jobs, etc. that are demanded from us every day. We ourselves forget to take the time to do something else. No matter how much encouragement others give us to do something for ourselves (and Dan is very good at always telling me to go do something away from the kids and house) we need to make the step and commit ourselves to it.

I think we all need to nurture the different parts of ourselves. God made us with varied interests, He made us creative in nature. Wouldn't it be wrong if we never paid attention to those parts of who we are?

Obviously there needs to be a balance. I am not advocating all of us wives and mothers to leave their families home all the time while pursue other interests. We shouldn't not fulfill our roles. God has put us in these positions for a reason.

Does anyone else find this happening to them? What do you do to fight it? I really have no problem with people relating me to my kids and stuff as I love my role as a mother, wife and Christian, but I want to be seen as a full person with my own interests and stuff. Anyway, any advice or stories on how you get people to see all of you?

The baby's latest accomplishments

Can you tell from these pictures what the baby is learning lately?

Fun idea for the boys

My oldest Daniel (4) has been building ramps out of his blocks lately. At first the ramps were for his cars but today his sister built one for him to roll marbles down. They have even had walls to keep the cars or marbles from flying off. Even I like to play with them!

Book Review

Over the last few days I have been reading the book titled Eldest. This book is the second book in the trilogy that started with Eragon. Eragon was also just released last year as a movie (which was really good).

The series is about dragons, elves humans and dwarfs. There is an evil king and they attempt to overthrow him. Its hard to write anything about the 2nd book without giving away the ending of the 1st. Needless to say, if it wasn't good I wouldn't have waded through over 600 pages of it (the first book was just as long). It is a really good series along the lines of Lord of the Rings or the Dragon Song book series by Anne McCaffery that came out at least 10 or 15 years ago.

Of course the other good thing about the book is that I took Hilda's advice (and my husband who agreed with her) and read a for fun book!

Doing things different this Sunday

As I posted in my thankful post on Thursday, I have been sick this past week. My voice has improved greatly but I still am recovering, dealing with congestion. All of the kids except Timothy (2) are coughing when they wake up in the morning and showing mild signs of a cold. That means that Daddy and Tim went to church alone today and the rest of us stayed home.
Whenever we stay home from church (which is always as rarely as possible) we always try to have our own church time here. Today we went over the story of Hannah and her trip to the tabernacle where she poured out her heart to God concerning her lack of a child. After reading the story and talking about it I made it a point to discuss with the children that this story is not to show us that God will give us all we want in life if we just want it bad enough. Even if what we want is good and right it doesn't mean that it is within God's will and that He will automatically give it to us. We do need to storm the gates of heaven and pray about it till we get an answer, but realize that it does not mean that what we want is *going* to happen. I used the example of Dan and his back. We have been praying for God to heal his back since he was injured in November of 05. It is a good thing we are praying for, it is something we know in faith that God can do, but does that mean he will do it?
While we are praying for what we want God to do we also need to make sure that our hearts are willing to accept God's will for us and not just our will. I don't mean that we should say "God I want you to heal me but in case your answer is no I need to prepare for it." Its more of a "God we would like healing, we know you are able to heal. Whatever you choose to do in this situation we pray that you will help us to accept your answer and know that it is what you desire for us. Show us the direction you want to be taken in this." Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane told God his desires but then also stated that it wasn't His will that mattered but the will of the Father. We need to have faith that God is able to heal and that He can heal, but not necessarily that God is *going* to heal.

Another Giveaway!

Has anyone ever checked out The Preacher's Wife? Well, she is having a giveaway (giveaway contests are never a bad thing). She has been given a copy of "Effective Parenting in a Defective World by Chip Ingram in order to give it away. You can check out the Bible study at Walk Thru the Bible. The giveaway includes one workbook, one leader's guide and a set of DVDs. Dan and I have been doing little studies together and I think this would be great as our next one!

Back to School Advice

I love this version of 10 helpful hints for back to school that Jamin has on her blog. Check it out for a chuckle. Then when you are done reading that post, take a look at some of her other stuff, she does a good job over there and has some awesome lapbooking ideas.

Thursday's Thankful Thirteen (8)

I almost let this Thursday slip away again, as engrossed as I was with the days events. How long does it take for someone to form a habit? This is the eighth week I have done this and yet I am still struggling to remember it! It is so important to take time out to reflect on what you are thankful for and I sure don't want to miss it. Anyway, here is this week's installment.

1) the laryngitis issues I have going on right now- no honestly, I am thankful for this. It is really setting a good reminder for me as to how I need to talk softer to the children and not yell as much. (Though it is harder to get their attention when they are in another room!)

2) Of course I am thankful for the ruling they made on Dan's worker's comp case. Although it may not be any huge headway in things, it does give a big moral boost after all the denials the last year or so.

3) Our new associate pastor and his wife came to dinner tonight. We had a really nice visit (although I didn't say much- see no. 1 above).

4) Dinner turned out really good and everything was ready on time.

5) The girls (especially Charlotte) were really hospitable, offering drinks and getting thinks that were needed.

6) The kids did not run around hyper like they tend to when company comes. They *were* running around hyper BEFORE the company came but surprisingly enough they calmed down when the company got here and acted rather mannerly.

7) Dan got to visit with a friend who has not been coming to church in almost two years. He walked away from the church for awhile but is slowly making his way back into contact with a few people.

8) The rain we have gotten lately. We have been under a mini drought and over the last 1 1/2 weeks it has rained a lot of much needed rain.

9) A couple from church got married on Sat. They are both widowed and it was wonderful to see them find a new love to help fill the emptiness after their spouses past on.

10) We have started a loose basic back to school thing this week and things are okay so far. I don't think we will ever get a good routine, but they are going well enough.

11) My local library has no limit on the no. of pages you can print at one time on the computers. I have been able to print off most everything I need for the girls for school.

12) My little Benjamin is starting to scoot himself backwards on the floor. Me thinks crawling is not too far behind.

13) The internet and being able to communicate across the computer. I can't talk right now so it feels nice to 'talk' to you all even without my voice!

I don't understand

Yesterday Dan was here with me as I tried to get the kids through some school stuff. We aren't doing a full schedule yet. I thought we would start out a few weeks early with just math and reading stuff before we dive into a full schedule.
Anyway, yesterday was really hectic and it seemed like all the kids were always wanting help with different stuff all at once. I am not as organized as I should be (am I ever?) and couldn't give Dan much to work with them on. All in all the day was rather busy.
Today Dan went out for the day. I actually had all five older kids (the baby was asleep) at the table working on stuff at the same time and I DID NOT GO CRAZY! Timothy (2) was stringing beads. I had Daniel (4) and Abigail (6) working with colored bears on adding and even/odd numbers. Devorah (8) and Charlotte (10) were doing a math review with me. No we didn't get a lot done, but I was actually able to juggle all of them at once (for the most part).
I just don't understand why yesterday when I had help I couldn't work it out and yet today I could. It does go to show me that if I can give Dan some stuff to do with a couple of them then I can work with the others and things will go much smoother.
On a side note, Charlotte started reading Treasure Island the other day. It happens to be on the list of books for her to read for school. She finished it today so that means she is already done with one full book off of her list. Devorah read Sarah Plain and Tall today. The way the two of them love to read maybe its good that I am using a living books style curriculum. Now I just have to get Abby to learn and retain her phonics so she can start reading.

A crack of Light in the Darkness

I don't talk about it much on here, but my husband has been in a nineteen month battle with worker's comp over a back injury he suffered in Nov of 05. Every time we have tried to get help in one form or another the door has been shut on us. He has gone without any therapy for over a year and without pay for nine months.
This past Tuesday he had a hearing before the Industrial Commission (the people that oversee Worker's Comp). They actually found in Dan's favor. Not all that we wanted, but it is a little bit of positive. They have agreed that he can't do his job and needs an evaluation to see what he needs to have done to get him work somewhere else. It is still going to be such an uphill battle, but this is the first positive we've had in ages.

How I get my 4yo boy to do chores

Once the kids hit a certain age they seem to take to chores a lot better- not perfectly, just more compliant and less force from me. Daniel is 4 1/2 and is just starting to find his way out of the "I do not want to do my chores and you can't make me" stage. He is in charge of putting the silverware away when the dishwasher gets emptied. What motivates him to do it? The microwave is above the silverware drawer and it has a kitchen timer feature. Daniel loves to set the timer and race to get the silverware put away. It doesn't matter how long he gives himself to get the job done, he will work quickly to beat the time regardless. Sometimes that means he is 'racing' a 35 minute time! He must be a competitive person as it has always helped him to pick up if someone races against him or if we have him race himself to see how fast he can do it.

Keeping Our Focus

Less of Me ~More of Him is hosting a Homeschooling Open House and I thought I would take part in it. On Saturday I posted answering a few basic questions about our schooling. To read that post go here. I thought I would post on something else as well.

My name is Kate and I have six children. The girls are 10, 8 1/2, and 6 1/2. The boys are 4 1/2, 2 1/2 and 5 months. I will be officially schooling the three girls this year- although learning is done every day of your life.

I thought I would share my philosophy on the reasons why we educate our children.

Too often it seems that we Christian homeschooling parents are extremely focused on making sure that we turn out students that are academically superior or more well rounded then the students from traditional schools. If they don't score better on the SAT then it was not a successful endeavor. We need children who are academically advanced to prove the nay sayers wrong.

Then, to ensure that our children get a complete and thorough education, we agonize over curriculum choices. Oftentimes we spend hundreds of dollars on what we deem to be the perfect match of science, math and reading programs only to discover that it is lacking in one way or another. Then its back to the mail order catalogs to spend more money and more time trying to find better materials. I can't see how jumping from one method to another, one curriculum to the next is doing our children any good.

Has our focus gotten off of what really matters? Does it really matter in the end if we mastered every last bit of it? What does a successful homeschooler really look like in God's eyes? I don't think He is too worried about what score our children get on the SATs or how early they learned how to read.

I have several items that I consider to be of utmost importance as I teach my little ones.

First and foremost my goal is to raise up men and women who love and fear God with all of their soul. Every last decision they make in their lives should be with the eternal at the forefront of their thoughts. Our stay on this earth is just temporary and I want to raise my children with their eyes toward their forever future, not just the next 65 years.

Then there is the way they view life as they are living here on earth. I keep reading articles that talk about how Christians today have no idea what a Biblical worldview is. Modern day Christians are so inundated with the carnal mindset that they don't even realize that their view of the world is skewed. We need to teach our children to view life from God's eyes. They also need to be able to defend their beliefs to a world that clashes against their ideals with vicious strength.

Falling along the same lines, we need to make sure that our children have good Godly characters. We need to teach them the fruit of the Spirit and how it is manifest in their lives. They need to learn what it truly means to lead, the 'first shall be last' principle.

The last important quality we need to instill in our children in order to be considered successful in this school journey, is the love of learning. How much learning we cram into them over the course of the 12 years they are under our teaching matters not if the learning stops once they move out from under our wings. If we breed within them a thirst for knowledge, then we can insure that they will continue to grow and mature as they go on through their lives. Not only will this help them to fill in the gaps in their education where we missed teaching them something (and no matter how hard you try to fit it all in there will be gaps) but it is also an essential trait to have as a Christian. Could you imagine if for twelve years a believer read the Bible over and over and studied every book on being a Christian he could find and then never touched the Bible again for the rest of his life? A desire for knowledge and growth is important if a believer does not want to become stagnant.

As you start this new school year, I want to encourage you to reevaluate your priorities and make sure they are in line with what God says is important and not what man puts first. Only then can we as homeschooling parents be truly successful.

Thursday's Thankful Thirteen (7)

For this week's list of 13 things I am thankful for, I thought I might have the kids help me out. So, here is what my children are thankful for this week:

1) All the birthday presents Charlotte received.

2) Family and friends

3) Clothes

4) Food

5) Toys

6) Schoolwork

7) Doing chores for the family

8) Mom and Dad to take care of us

9) The birth of babies

10) God supplying for us

11) Jesus dying for our sins

12) People who help us

13) Doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers

Those are the first 13 items that my children thought of when asked! Although Benjamin (who is hungry right now) might say something else- I'm off to feed the baby!
Also, to contribute to the thankful list, see Becki's blog.

What fun!

My oldest daughter had a birthday yesterday. She has entered the double digit years, she is now 10 years old. This year we let her have a few friends over for a sleepover. She had four girls come, but only two stayed the night.
They had a lot of fun. I think their favorite thing to do was play twister. We had a fire in the evening with marshmallows to roast for smores. They were up way later then is good for any soul!
For supper last night they had hot dogs, mac and cheese (the recipe I posted here), watermelon and corn on the cob. For breakfast I made up little ordering tickets and Charlotte acted as the waitress taking everyone's orders. There was eggs, sausage, mini donuts, zucchini muffins, and blueberry muffins, along with fruit and drinks. Everything was premade except the eggs. which made it easy for me to just plate the food and serve it. Today for lunch before they left we had a light tea party type thing.
Dan set up the tent in the backyard and they slept out there. They woke up this morning and came inside just before it rained and then had to pull their stuff out of the tent before the rain got it wet. It poured! There has been flash flooding all over and several sections of the freeway were shut done due to flooding and accidents from flooding.
I am thankful for my daughter and all she has meant to us these last 10 years. I am glad we were able to give her a special time to remember (although it will take Dan a few days to recover from doing too much).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE!!!

Tell Me About Your Homeschool Tag - Meme

This meme was started by Jacque at Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths. I thought it was a neat idea to get to know other people's homeschooing ideas. Anyone that wants to participate just post a comment here and at Jacque's site here.

I started homeschooling (years ago or year)

My oldest is 10 in a few days and has never been to school, so if you go by legal requirements I have been home schooling for 5 years, but really 10 if you think about it.

I homeschool __ of my children

I have three officially in school this fall (1st, 3rd, and 5th). However, they all learn at any age, so technically I could say all six.

I teach my children to read at age(specific age or not?)

I let them go when they are ready to read. Charlotte read at five, practically taught herself. Devorah waited till going on eight as she hated the thought of working her way through phonics and just wanted to go from not reading to reading (she now reads all the time). Abby is now 6 1/2 and is just starting to show signs of interest- guess what we will be starting on soon?

A few of my most favorite homeschool teaching resources are:

Anything by the Moores, An Old fashioned Education

Do you write out goals for school each year?

I have, but only what the state required of me. They want to have a scope and sequence for each child as to what you are teaching. Its for informational purposes only and it doesn't mean I have to follow them to a T. This year I will actually be doing more of a set curriculum so there is more set up ahead of time.

What time do you start school each day? Do you have a specific schedule?

We don't get up at any certain time, but when we are up the schedule follows as such- breakfast, chores, schoolwork, then playtime (with lunch thrown in when its time for it).

I have used ___ math programs. My favorite is:

No set math program so far. I have gotten books from the library and printed worksheets off the internet as well as used workbooks. This year we are going to try CIMT a free program offered out of the UK.

I have used ___ science programs. My favorite is:

Again, I haven't used any set program for science. We have watched videos, done experiments, read books, whatever comes our way.

I have used ___ grammar/english programs. My favorite is:

I have used Starfall.com, spellingtime.com (when it was free), worksheets

I have used ___ history programs. My favorite is:

No set program, just read books, watched videos, whatever worked.

What months do you homeschool during?

Mostly during the school year, but also whenever a teaching moment presents itself and I like them to keep reading and stuff throughout the summer.

Favorite homeschool method?

Eclectic, Charlotte Mason, following their interests

Do you/plan to homeschool all the way through high school?

God willing I will homeschool them all through high school.

Have you noticed specific learning styles in each child?

Not yet although I think the oldest is a book learner and the 8yo is more hands on.

Do you keep specific or general records? Or none, really?

I have to keep a portfolio of work for a teacher to look over. I always type up what we cover each day so I can make a list of all the learned over the course of the year.

Do you teach Bible, art, journaling, phys. ed.?

Yes to all, although I count playing in the backyard as phys. ed. I am going to be trying a new phys ed program that I got online.

Where do you like to shop for homeschool books and resources?

I try to get everything mostly for free- the internet, the library, etc.

What resources have you been itching to try?

If I had the money I would probably buy all kinds of stuff, so it is a good thing I don't have the funds!

*Do you use and/or like to use E-books?*

I use a lot of public domain books that are online as well as e-books. I think thhey can work just fine.

Do you have anything to add?

I just want to tell women to learn to relax. You are not going to teach them everything they need to learn as there is no way you can cover it *all*. The goal is to raise them to be lifetime learners so that they will be able to go back later on in life and learn what they need that wasn't covered at home. Follow God's direction and do your best, the rest will come.

Another Book Done

Yes, that's right, after complaining about never having time to read I just read a book in a few days. It wasn't a small book either, it had 279 pages in it.
The books title is simply Cooked. It is an autobiography of Jeff Henderson. He started his life on the streets of L.A. and quickly fell into the drug selling scene. Eventually at the age of 24 he was arrested and sent to federal prison for 19 1/2 years. While in prison he fell in love with cooking. He was released after something like ten years and as soon as he got out he started working his way up the chain with cooking, honing his skills as he went. He is now the executive chef at the Cafe Bellagio in Las Vegas, his life completely turned around from what it once was.
The book is a good look at what life is like on the streets for most inner city kids. It shows the mentality of the streets as well as how easy it is to feel entrapped in it all. It had some really good insight into what prison life is like as well as how hard it can be to come out of the prison system and try to start over.
Dan and I deal with a lot of people in those types of situations and it was good to get the perspective of someone who had been there, done that and had overcome it all. I can more understand the mentality of those we know who are messed up in all the criminal/drug/street life and the issues they deal with.
The only big drawback of the book is that Henderson uses the language of the streets when he recounts what happened when he ran the streets- meaning there is some bad language throughout the book. If you are looking for a book to read for pure enjoyment I don't think this is the one to pick. However, we are in the inner city looking to reach those in situations similar to Henderson's and it was good to see his perspective on things.

Thursdays (LATE) Thankful Thirteen (6)

Oh I am so woefully behind! I have to admit that Thursday completely slipped by me. I didn't even remember my thankful list till Friday. Then I spent most of Friday running errands and getting caught up on life so I didn't post anything at all. Here is my list, a few days late but here none the less.

1) The kids and I went and visited some friends this week. The family has nine children and the younger four are very close in age to my older five. (Mine are 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 on Monday, hers are 2, 4, 7 and almost 11.) Us mommas got to visit and talk while the kids played.

2) God provided for another month's mortgage payment. Dan has been without any regular income at all for 10 months now and God has continued to provide.

3) I am thankful for all the effort Dan puts out to get things done around the house despite the amount of pain he is in all the time.

4) My little chubby boy Ben who turned 5 months this Thursday. He is growing strong. His weight on Wednesday was 20# 12oz with diaper and clothes on. That means he has gained almost 10 full pounds since birth.

5) My oldest two daughter and their love for their baby brother. I am always asking them to pick him up or hold him and they (almost) never complain. In fact they have made comments as to how much they enjoy their baby brother.

6) Some people have been putting air conditioning on their thankful list as the summer has been hot. I don't have that luxury, but I am thankful for others who have air conditioning and who invite us over so we can enjoy their air!

7) I am healthy with no major health issues. Too many women I know are suffering from fibro. or other such stuff. I have my aches but overall am healthy.

8) God giving me the strength to get through every day.

9) My daughter having the blessing of a girl's day out with Grandma.

10) My sister who, although she is older, likes to get my advice on things.

11) My younger sister who recently moved away but still sent up a birthday card to my oldest.

12) Taking the day off of housework and sitting around reading and such, realizing that things will not fall apart just because I let them go for a day.

13) Being able to connect online with other women who have a lot in common with me.

Folgers samples

Folgers is offering samples of their new 'gourmet' coffee.

I finally finished another book!

It seems like it is taking me forever anymore to finish reading books. I finally finished one yesterday that I had been working on for quite awhile- The Hand of God, a Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor who Changed His Mind. Not only was it a long title :) but it was also a heavier read. The author uses a large vocabulary, he is quite a scholar, and the subject matter is rather serious. The book gives a real good behind the scenes look at abortion and how it became legal. The author, Bernard Nathanson was a cofounder of NARAL, had a big part in making abortion legal and performed tens of thousands of them himself. He knows the business and shows how wrong he was. He gives incredible insight into the gruesome business that many exalt as a woman's right.

Turn off the TV month

Quite a few Christian family groups have been advertising in the last couple months that August was deemed to be "turn off the TV month." They are challenging people to go one full month without a TV on. A few weeks agoI had mentioned the idea to Dan and he didn't seem too interested in it. Well, the day before yesterday he told me that he thought we should take part in the whole thing.
So, today was our first day without any TV (we are also not allowing any computer games or video games). The kids got out a charades game and we played that for a little while. Dan has listened to the baseball game a bit on the radio. I am interested to see how this month turns out as the TV has turned into more of a centerpiece in our lives then I think it should be. I will report back periodicially as to how things are going.