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Our Homeschooling Journey
Nov. 26, 2009
Today I Am Thankful For...

This month I decided to write down one thing each day that I am thankful for.  It has been an interesting experience.  What I have learned is that the "things" I am most thankful for are not "things" at all.  They are mostly people, relationships and blessings.  Here is the bulk of my list.  Some are more private things that I didn't want to share with the whole world. :^)

Today I am thankful for my family. What a wonderful husband and children I have been blessed with.

Today I am thankful for my dog Elvis. He is so loving and devoted to me. A consistent reminder of how I want to love God and others.

Today I am thankful for freedom. God bless all the veterans past and present who have sacrificed to give us freedom. God bless America!

Today I am thankful for our church home. Wow, what an awesome church home God has blessed us with! A place where we can serve, as well as be served. A place for friendship, encouragement  and deep commitment to spreading God's Word.

Today I am thankful for homeschooling.  What a blessing homeschooling has been to our family! I know that the time and energy I have invested in my kids will pay back dividends their entire lives!

Today I am thankful for all my homeschool mom friends. Each of you have encouraged, supported and loved me on my homeschool journey. You are each a blessing to me!

Today I am thankful for my husbands job. He enjoys the work and the people he works with. The kids and I enjoy that he has nights and weekends off. (Something we missed A LOT the 6 years at his last job.) It's a winning combination for a happy home!

Today I am thankful for AWANA. Our family has been involved in AWANA for 13 years, in 3 States at 7 churches. Each and every one has been a place that has brought us closer to God. Over the years we have hid His Word in our hearts, made friends and found a place to serve others through AWANA. What a blessing!

Today I am thankful for my new house! It's been 6 weeks since we got the keys and 4 weeks since we spent our first night here and it totally feels like home. :^)

Today I am thankful for my job at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I get paid to write, which is a dream come true for me. I get to write about homeschooling, which I love. I get to work my own hours, from home, with my kids underfoot. It's a win-win!

Today I am thankful for our new homeschool parent support ministry at church. My friend and I started it this year. I have been so blessed to get to know and grow with so many great homeschool parents. I am especially thankful for my friend who is my ministry partner in both Awana and the new homeschool group. She is an amazing blessing to me!

Today I am thankful for our friends M, A, I and C. It has been so great having "old" friends in a new place! Getting to be close to our "nephews" has been wonderful! I am so glad to have adopted family close by. :^)

Today I am thankful that my mom taught me to sew when I was young. I love to sew. Sewing relaxes me. Being able to save money making or fixing things instead of buying new has been a great blessing to our family over the years. :^)

Today I am Thankful that my mom arrives this afternoon to spend Thanksgiving week with us. I have some excited kids on my hands!

Today I am thankful for my parents and my sister.  :^)

Today I am thankful for my "PAMily". You know who you are! ;^)

Today I am thankful for my blog. It is a blessing to me as a creative outlet as well as a place to connect with other homeschoolers all over the world.

Today I am thankful for my American Girls! (And their mom's.) American Girl Club has been such a blessing to me. I look forward to learning American history with my girls for a long time to come!

Today I am thankful for John 3:16!  "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him will no perish but have ever lasting life."  The ultimate free gift!


I pray that each and every one of you have an equally wonderful list of blessings! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Jamin

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Nov. 23, 2009
Pumpkin Dump Cake

One of my friends made this for our Pumpkin Party earlier in the month.  It was SO yummy I had to get her recipe.  I am hoping to make this today to share with my mom who arrived yesterday to spend Thanksgiving week with us.  :^)

Pumpkin Dump Cake

1 can pumpkin (29 oz.)
1 C sugar
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
3 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C melted butter
1 C chopped pecans

Combine pumpkin, sugar, evap. milk, eggs, spices, and salt in mixing bowl. Beat well. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 glass pan. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over mixture. Sprinkle the pecans over the cake mix. Pour melted butter over all. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Watch closely, burns easily. (Knife inserted in the middle of cake should come out clean when done.)

If you are looking for a new yummy Thanksgiving recipe you might want to give this one a try!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

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Nov. 16, 2009
First Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration!

Our First Thanksgiving Dinner was Friday and it was AWESOME!  We had 40 kids from 18 families attend for a total of 60 people in attendance.  (Just a few more than the 53 Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving!)

Here is the day in pictures...

Here I am with my 2 youngest.  (Oh, come on you knew you would see me dressed like a Pilgrim at some point!  LOL  My costume was just a black shirt and skirt I had in my closet.  Then I wore one of the hats I had made and added a collar and apron made from white felt. Super simple!)

Here are some of the Indians and Pilgrims arrving.

My handsome Indian teenager!
His shirt is a white t-shirt we tea stained and then fringed the edges with scissors.  It was super easy!  (I boiled about a gallon of water and then seeped 7 tea bags until it was pretty dark.  Then I removed the tea bags and soaked the shirt for about 30 minutes.  Then I put the t-shirt through the spin cycle of the washer and ran it through the dryer.  Once it was dry we fringed the edges with scissors.  You could add beads too.)


After everyone arrived and got their hats on I spent a few minutes talking to the kids about the first Thanksgiving.  Here are some of the kids listening to me talk.
I asked them lots of questions too so they all got to tell what they know about the first thanksgiving.

Then we had a story.

The First Thanksgiving By: Linda Hayward

Here is my daughter reciting a poem she memorized as the blessing for the food.


The First Thanksgiving

When the Pilgrims

first gathered together to share
with their Indian friends
in the mild autumn air,
they lifted the voices
in jubilant praise
for the bread on the table,
the berries and maize,
for field and for forest,
for turkey and deer,
for the bountiful crops
they were blessed with that year.
They were thankful for these
as they feasted away,
and as they were thankful
we're thankful today.

Author Unknown


She did an AWESOME job.  I was so proud of her!

The FOOD!

We had turkey, fish, deer stew, fruit, nuts, cheese, corn chowder, potatoes, cranberry salad, apple sauce, and a lot more!  Yummy!!!!

Pilgrims and Indians eating together.


Lots of yummy food!

We also played games.  Here are a few of the pilgrim girls heading out to play games.

And my WILD Indian boy!

3 Legged Races!

Corn Toss

The Turkey Shoot!

There was also a corn hunt (Similar to a egg hunt except dry corn was thrown in the grass and everyone hunted for it.) and pumpkin races where the kids pushed a pumpkin with a stick, The games were great!

And lastly we made
our craft (Which the kids LOVED and I didn't get any pictures of.) and then played Thanksgiving Jingo!

It was an awesome day.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Happy Homeschooling,


Jamin


Click HERE to read my post on planning out this party.  :^)
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Nov. 13, 2009
Thanksgiving Dolls

Not to be outdone by her mother my daughter spent yesterday afternoon putting together Pilgrim and Indian outfits for her dolls.  :^)


I love the way that girl thinks! 

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin
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Nov. 10, 2009
Save 20% on Times Tales!

Times Tales is having a sale!  If you use the code BESTBUD you will receive 20% off any Times Tales!

Click on the graphic below to visit their website:




Don't forget to enter the code to get yor discount!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin
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Nov. 9, 2009
Apollo Eight Astronauts Read From Genesis 1968

The other night my daughter came to me with her Awana book and said "It says in here that in the 60's the Astronauts read from the book of Genesis on Christmas Eve from the Moon. Is that true or something Awana just made up?" I happened to be sitting at the computer so I played this for her...

http://www.archive.org/details/Genesis-ApolloEight-24Dec1968

Pretty cool!

I am assuming I don't remember this from the original airing since I was only 3 in 1968!  But I do remember hearing it before.  It is quite touching to listen to and somewhat sad to think about how much our world has changed in the last 40 years.  I can't imagine something like this happening today and obviously neither could my daughter since she thought they had made it up for Awana.

I am praying for a revival for America! How awesome it would be to NOT be surprised to hear prayer in this country!  How wonderful it would be for my children and grandchildren to live in an America that honored the one true God! Please join me in praying for our country. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, 

the people he chose for his inheritance.

Psalms 33:12



Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

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Nov. 6, 2009
Pumpkin Party

On Oct. 1st the kids and I were in the car headed to the pumpkin patch!  They were all dressed in fall t-shirts and I was ready to take some great pictures!  Then it started raining...I pulled over and made a few quick calls to the homeschool friends we were suppose to meet. We all decided to go another day.  Little did we know it was going to rain for 30 days straight!  (I am exaggerating a little here, but honestly this is the wettest Oct. I have seen in my life!)  Meanwhile we were in the middle of moving.  The rain meant we were moving in the mud and the last thing I wanted to do was trek out into a pumpkin patch and collect even more mud.  As the month headed to a close I started to realize a trip to the pumpkin patch was not going to happen.  So I did the next logical thing...I decided to have a Pumpkin Party!  LOL

What is a Pumpkin Party??? Honestly it's something I made up.  But, we had our first one on Nov. 2nd with 97 people in attendance!  Thankfully the rain finally stopped and we found a park with lots of concrete to keep us out of the mud.  The party was a huge success and a LOT of fun!  Here are the highlights....

We started out with the kids each decorating a pumpkin cookie.

Then they ate their cookies while waiting for the pumpkin story to start.

Next we listened to the Pumpkin Gospel
You can read all about the story at the link below
http://ginaconroy.com/ginablog/wordpress/2007/10/30/the-pumpkin-gospel/

Then we played pumpkin games!

 Pumpkin Parachute Game.
I got a package of Fun Foam Pumpkin and made a smiley face on one with a marker.  Then they would put all the pumpkins in the parachute, throw them up in the air and the person who found the smiley face got a piece of candy.  Repeat until everyone wins!

Pumpkin Bowling was a favorite!

We also had Pumpkin Golf!  My husband cut the bottom off the pumpkin and made  3 holes for us to golf into! 
The kids loved this! I got the idea here:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/pumpkingames/Pumpkin_Games.htm

We also had Pumpkin Hot Potato.

And we had Pumpkin Relay Races!


We finished off the party with lots and lots of pumpkin food!  Everyone brought a pumpkin dish to share.  We had pies, breads, cakes, cookies, pumpkin dip.  The food was amazing!

It was a great day and I am sure we will have many more pumpkin parties in the future. 

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin
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Nov. 6, 2009
Freebie Friday Birthday Freebies Nov. 6 2009

JaminWelcome to Freebie Friday!

It just so happens that all five of the people in our family have birthdays in a six-month period. So from mid-August to mid-February it feels we are constantly in birthday mode. Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, so that got me thinking about what birthday freebies are out there. I found some great ones, including a list of restaurants that give free food on your birthday! There are also free printable cards, cake ideas, and much more! 

I hope you enjoy this week's birthday freebies!


Family Fun has a wonderful selection of birthday cake ideas you can easily make at home. I have made many of these for my family, and they are always a big hit!

Greetings Island has free, printable birthday cards.

Dayspring has a lovely collection of free E-Cards.

Need to be reminded of upcoming birthdays? Here is a free
birthday reminder service.

You can print your own free happy birthday banner HERE.


How about some free food?
This website has a huge list of restaurants that give freebies on your birthday.

Want to know what happened in history on your birthday? 
Click HERE to see a short video of what has happened on your special day.

Find out how many days old you are
HERE.

This is a
neat websiteYou can see a time capsule of the day you were born. Find out what bread cost, or how much you would have paid for a car. Learn what the minimum wage was and lots of other fun information!

I hope you enjoy this week’s birthday freebies!


Happy homeschooling!

Jamin

 
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Nov. 4, 2009
Space

I was unpacking some boxes today and I came upon something that really blessed me, so I had to share.

Last spring I did a Women's Bible Study at church. One of the things we did was write down things we needed to give to God and put them in a box.  One of the girls brought us all boxes that looked like a flip flop.  Very cute!  So I stuck mine on a shelf and forgot about it, like I was suppose to.  Today I found it.  I smiled when I saw it because I knew most of the things I had put in the box God indeed had taken care of.  But, just for fun I took off the lid off and started opening the little slips of paper to see the words I had written.  One by one I saw that they were all handled by God!  Then I opened one I honestly do not remeber putting in there.  It was just one word...space.  WOW!  Did I really put that in there?  Yes, our last house was too small, but I had NO intention of moving.  I really, really wanted to stay until our oldest was through high school. (3 more years.)  We had even thought we might even try to buy it so we could add on to it at some point.  We had even looked at those sunrooms you can have built on as a possiblilty for more space in the future.  Now as I am sitting in my new house (which is more than 50% bigger than where we were when I wrote the word "space") I cannot help but just be amazed.  It was just a fleeting moment.  Write something down they said...Okay, give me space.  And He did!

God is good!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

P.S.  Unpacking is going well!  I would say we are 75% unpacked.  Here is my very happy daughter in her totally unpacked room!  YAY!!!!  She is one happy girl to have her own "space" now! :^)


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Oct. 26, 2009
Time Marches On

Hi Everyone! I thought I would say hello and let everyone know that we have made it into the new house.  We are still in boxes, but we have everything under our new roof!  YAY!!!!

Here is what we have been doing (between packing, carrying, and unpacking) over the last 4 weeks...

Chillaxin between helping dad carry in loads to the new house.

Relaxing in her very own room! (Who cares if it's just  mattress on the floor?  LOL)

Helping clean the kitchen before we unpacked our dishes.

Getting in to EVERY box and exploring!
Doesn't everyone wear a hoodie with a bow tie and suit jacket???

Hanging out with our firends at American Girl Club...

We have made several trips to IKEA for all the things you need when you move.

We went on field trip to a pizza parlour!
FUN!!!

Mom taught a How To Begin Lapbooking class for our homeschool friends. :^)

Big and small, everyone made a lapbook to take home!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the lapbooking class!

We went to a construction themed birthday party!

We went to a Mad Science demonstration at Chick-fil-A.
I LOVE Mad Science!


We learned how to weave at American Girl Club.

Here is the cardboard weaving my daughter did.

We got our costumes for Fall Festival.


We have watched the leaves change colors.

We had our Awana Grand Prix races!

Awana Grand Prix is FUN!

Both my boys actually won 3rd place in their division! (My daughter got 7th in hers.)
The middle car with all the googly eyes is my 5 year olds!  LOL 

So as you can see, we have been busy, busy, busy!  The one thing about life is that even when you try to take time to focus on one thing (like moving) time marches on!  As the Amy Grant song says...

Time carries on;
I guess it always will,
But deep inside my heart
Time stands still.

The one thing I have learned as a mom is that no matter how busy life is the memories keep piling up.  I always pray that God will help me not to get too caught up in what "has to be done" because I don't want to miss the little blessings of life. 

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

P.S.  I know I promised to continue to post about American Girl Club, and I will.  I just honestly have not had any time.  But, stay tuned and I will hopefully get those written in the next week or two.

:^)
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