I am still trying to "bring daddy home"!

I would love to be able to make an income off from this computer!

I have been writing books and putting them up on my website http://candyfoote.com/

I have sold one here and there, but not anything near what it would take to support this family!

I am excited about this book series, but I'm not sure where to go from here. 

The Old Schoolhouse online store offered to sell my ebooks, but I was unable to figure out how to make a proper ebook cover.

Anybody have any ideas or help???

I know that the Lord is leading and guiding us.  I am probably just being impatient, but I truly am anxious to get my husband home!

If you haven't checked out my website http://candyfoote.com/ yet, then go check it out!

Leave me a comment with your pointers and ideas!

Thanks!!!

TEACH used my article!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.teachmagazine.net/index.php?page=blog

It's entitled, "Quiet Times in Large Families "

How many of you moms actually get vacation when the kids go on summer vacation!?!

I know that I don't!

I have been busy doing major cleaning around the house, working on writing my newest book, "The Word of God on Prayer", and preparing for the upcoming school year.

Although I have really enjoyed doing all of these things, I would not consider it a vacation!

I really love Mondays.

We call them Major Mondays around here.

I smile whenever I hear that name!

Not everyone in the house smiles as much as I do at the mention of Major Monday.

You see, Major Monday is a major clean-up day.

Yes, we do a lot of cleaning everyday.  With this many people we couldn't go without cleaning!

But, we spend a lot of time cleaning on Mondays.

We try to do major work; hence the name Major Monday.

Today everyone worked upstairs after cleaning up the yard, porch, living room and washing the dishes!

We overhauled the bedrooms!

Dressers were moved.  Toys were sorted through.

We changed the furniture around.  Clothes were sorted through. 

It turned out awesome!

I love Major Mondays!!!

I have had a couple of people ask me for more information on how to buy my books.

Check out my website http://candyfoote.com/

or simply leave me a comment or send me an email.

Thanks!

With the price of gas today, I thought that I would share are "vacation" idea.

Every year we go camping at my sister-in-laws house.  Now, she only lives about ten minutes away from our house.  We see each other quite often, but we always have a great time. 

The kids jump on the trampoline, swim in the pool, and just run around.

We stay up late making s'mores and talking.

We sleep out in our tents.

We cook on the bbq grills.

Want to have a great vacation without spending a lot of money (especially on gas)?

Why not camp out at grandma's house or a favorite aunt's?

We have been doing this for years!

We use to stay at my mother-in-law's house too, but sadly she went home to be with Jesus a few years ago. (Sadly for us - not her!!)

Hey, let me know how your vacation turns out!

I am sooo excited about my newest book entitled,

"The Parables of Jesus Christ".

Just as the title implies, it is filled with only the Word of God!

I am excited about using it in my own homeschool this year.

I love having my kids do copywork using God's word.

I have been wanting them to memorize the parables.

What better way then having the parables all available in one book!

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that learning Jesus' parables would be a great logic lesson also!

I can't wait to get started on them!

Hmm, am I suppose to be so excited about using my own book?!?

This is our third week of summer vacation.  The kids can't take it any more!  Everyone of them have grabbed their books and worked in them!  Even my almost sixteen year old son was spotted with his vocabulary book.

We seem to have this "dilemma" every summer.  LOL

I'm very excited to say that I have finished writing,

"The Word of God on Healing" again.

Yes, again.

I lost this book when my old computer crashed.  Ughh!

Well, I finally got it redone.  Yeah!

Now I have

"The Word of God on Healing"

"The Word of God on Being a Woman, a Wife, and a Mother"

"The Word of God on Prosperity"

and

"The Parables of Jesus"

all available in either e-book or regular bound book form.

Each book comes in the King James Version.

They are $14.99 a piece.

Interested?

Visit my websight at http://candyfoote.com/

or

just simply leave me a message or email!

Don't you love to teach your kids when they don't realize they are being taught!?!

I do!

Using "A Place for Zero" and "Times Tales" are two great books that do just that!

Your kids will be too busy enjoying these books to realize how much they are learning.

Check them out for yourself and let me know what you think.

I was able to go with my daughter to one of her obgyn check-ups today.

You know what that means????

I got to listen to my little grandson's heartbeat!!!

What a wonderfully relaxing Sunday.

We went for a nature walk through our woods.  (We live on 100 acres!)

The kids picked wild strawberries and flowers.  Of course, mom made them name the flowers! 

The even examined and named the trees.

They collected flowers, milkweed, and even some moss.

We checked out how the raspberries, black caps, and blackberries were coming along.  (Mmmm, I can't wait for those!)

When we returned, we strolled through our huge vegetable garden.

Then the kids played Monopoly and Yahtzee.  

I got to enjoy listening to the kids practicing their muscial instruments and sing praise songs.

We layed around looking for catalogs and talking.

What a wonderfully relaxing Sunday! 

We are using Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study this summer.

It is filled with six years worth of nature study!

I love this book!

It can be used as an indepth study or as a quick learning experience.

I just pay attention to what the kids are observe, or what happens to pop up in our daily lives.  Out comes the book!  I look over what I would like them to learn.  It only takes a few minutes.  Best of all, the kids are already interested in the subject at hand, so the information is really processed into their minds!

This has been our second week on "summer vacation".

We have spent those two weeks in major house cleaning.

Our "spring cleaning" happens whenever we go on vacation.

I love seeing things that have been put off being put into order! 

If the kids prove themselves faithful by doing their school work and doing their daily chores without giving their momma any trouble, then they are in line to receive paying jobs.

I have had some great helpers so far!  The kids get money to buy items off from their lists, and momma gets to enjoy a little more order in the house!  Not to mention, a little "free" time to do something besides clean all day! 

Everyone is happy to be on summer vacation.  Well, if you can call it that!  We never really take summer vacation, we just change up what we are learning.  The learning becomes very relaxed.  It's wonderful!  There's no pressure of having to get anything done.  We are going to be using Mona Brookes' book, "Drawing with Children" this summer.  We are still reading missionary books for family read-alouds.  Of course, the nature notebooks are still being filled.  We put in a  huge family garden.  Everyone was here to help put it in.  Even our married children were home for are annual planting the garden fun.  Each of the kids went off to plant there own personal gardens when the family one was put in.   "Summer vacation" started on Friday and I started spring cleaning on Saturday.  What are you doing this summer?  Any relaxed learning involved?  My kids love to read, so there will be plenty of reading material on hand.  They will be working around the farm fixing fences and playing with the animals.  They are hoping that their father will be taking them on a roofing job!  There are plans for plenty of camping out, going swimming, fishing, boating, and making s'mores.  The younger kids have started their own little business of selling fish worms.  They are outside every night picking night crawlers.

Sarah Jane is still growing well.  She is seven months old now!  She weighs 14 pounds and 3 1/2 ounces!  Her doctor said that he couldn't tell that she was a preemie by just examining her.  God is soooo good.

Have a great summer!

I am excited to say that I just finished up my latest book!

"The Parables of Jesus" is just that - the parables of Jesus!

I wanted to take Charlotte Mason's advice and have my kids memorize some of Jesus' parables.  I thought this would be easier if they were all contained into one book. 

Want one for your homeschool?

Just e-mail me, visit me at http://candyfoote.com/

or just simply leave me a comment.

This is an e-book in the King James Version.

It is available for $14.99.  I accept paypal, checks, or money orders.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Comment and let me know that you were here!

We  have really enjoyed our reading this week.

Jordan stayed up until almost 11:30 the other night reading The Hittite Warrior.

What a great book!

Jacob is reading The King of the Wild.

Olivia is reading Drummer Boy at Bull Run.

Family read alouds are Paddle-to-the-Sea

and Justin Morgan had a Horse.

We are also working our way through The Fallacy Detective.

I have been reading A Charlotte Mason Companion and Created to be His Helpmeet.

We love to read at the Foote house!

Nice weather makes eager students!

Everyone is up early and eager to get their school work out of the way so they can head outside.

Ahh, I love spring!

Would you love to read some excellent books with your kids that you can't seem to find at the library.

Not only that, but the price of books, when you are able to find them still in print don't seem to fit into the budget.

Check out Amblesideonline.org

It is filled with wonderful links that lead to full books that can be either read online or printed out.

These books are in public domain.

There are many books on great literature and history.

Check it out, but be warned, it will take more than one day to view all of the wonderful things this site has to offer!

Hey, don't forget to come back and let me know what you think!

There have been some renovations over at http://candyfoote.com/

Check it out!

Don't forget to let me know what you think!

It's hard to believe that Sarah will be four months old on the fifth of March.  She just grew out of her premie clothes this week.  She looks like she grew by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait for her doctor appointment on Tuesday to see how much she weighs now!

As many of you know, I just love family read aloud time!

It is not only an educational time, but it is a family bonding time!

I am excited that soon I will be reading not only to my children, but to my grandchildren as well.

My adult children still enjoy coming home to find that they popped in right at family read aloud time.

It is not necessary for your children to answer every question at the end of each lesson in history and science. 

As a matter of fact, I find that it tends to make them hate even the thought of doing those subjects.

Why not simplify things for both the children and yourself?

I like to teach my children in the same manner that I learn myself.

Many times, we simply read history and science textbooks during family read aloud time.  We have wonderful discussions on what we have read.  Often the kids want to go to the library to get books to further their study of a topic we covered.  They also love to go off and do science experiments.  We create timelines in regular single subject notebooks.  Well, the list goes on and on, but you get the picture.  We not only learn a lot this way, but we enjoy the learning.

Math class in action.

My husband and children have been renovating our entire dining room!

Yeah, for math class!

My husband used to be a teacher's aid in the public school system for teenage kids.   They couldn't use a tape measure or do basic figuring!

So, what's on the agenda for science class today?

I hope everyone will be staying up to watch the lunar eclipse!!!!

Make some popcorn and hot chocolate, and enjoy the night!

We have been enjoying our read-alouds lately!

We just  finished reading Laura Ingalls Wilders',

"Long Winter" because it sure feels like a  long winter!

We had fun reading how they kept warm!

Then we read, "The Wind and the Willows," again.

I love that book.  I think we read it every year.

We are going to read, "The Prince and the Pauper" this week.

So, what have you been reading?

My two and four year olds kept jumping on their beds one night.

I told them to go to bed and to say their prayers.  My two year old kept jumping while saying, "Jesus, watch me jump."

Teaching small children math can be as easy as one plus one is two.  To begin with, teach them how to count through games.  My children learned how to count by playing hide-n-seek and having jump rope contests.

Teach them to write their numbers by connecting the dots.  Just "write" the numbers out using dots and have the children copy over top of your numbers.

They can easily learn to recognize their numbers as you point to the numbers and count.  Another fun way is by playing cards.

Finally, they can learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide by reciting the problems.  "One plus one is two.  One plus two is three," and so on.

Your children will be working with math problems throughout their lives.  you might as well teach them to enjoy it.  Pushing textbooks onto them too soon causes them to dislike even the mention of math.  Remember to have fun in learning!

Here's an update on Sarah Jane.

She's three months old now.

She weighs 7 pounds and 9 ounces.

She is doing great!

People often wonder about how we run our homeschool.

One popular question is concerning the days off we take.

Our schedule does not coincide with the public school system.

We do take summer vacation and Christmas vacation. We don't take off Columbus Day, Labor Day, President's Day, or snow days!

We do, however, take all of our birthdays off!

Plus, it seems every couple of years we tend to take maternity leave!

That pretty much covers our days off.

Our homeschool is very family oriented.  That's why I love the "everyone's birthday off" days.

We also try to work our schedules around Dad's days off.

The kids enjoy spending the day out back with Dad cutting wood.

They help him work on vehicles, chainsaws, generators, and other  engines.

It's always a busy time when Dad is home.

I call it our vocational school time.

Many times he takes them on side jobs with him.

They learn many trades, including sheetrocking, carpentry, roofing, mechanics, wiring, farming, haying, etc.

The list is too long for this post!

Are you not sure how to run your homeschool schedule?

Keep it family oriented.  Make sure your family life is the focus and center of everything.  Honor your husband by having Dad Focus Days when he has a day off.  Have fun!  Enjoy your family!

My computer crashed!  Ughh!!!!

My awesome, wonderful husband bought me a new Dell computer!

Yeah!

Isn't he great?!?

I'm still trying to get back to normal - whatever that is!

Sarah is 2 1/2 months old.  She weighed in at 6 pounds 14 1/2 ounces today!

We started back to school a couple of weeks ago.  That helps to bring some order back to the house!

I had a great report at my check-up last week.  I am no longer diabetic!  The doctors were concerned because I had problems with gestational diabetes at the onset of this pregnancy.  They thought for sure that it didn't leave after my previous pregnancy.  Woohoo! The two hour gluclose tolerancy test came back normal.  Thank you, Jesus!!!

In other news, I'm going to be a grandma this year!!

Both of my married children are expecting babies this year!

I have always wanted to be a grandma, so this is pretty exciting.

All of the fun and none of the work!!!

HERE'S SARAH JANE!!!!

HERE'S SARAH JANE!!!!!!!

I'm still preparing for the holidays.

I'm not quite where I want to be - are we ever?

I have about $30.00 worth of non-perishable groceries left to pick up.  That includes both Thanksgiving and Christmas though.

I will be picking some things up after my doctor appointment on Monday.

The kids are doing great!  They are right on schedule.  Six children are totally finished with their shopping.  That includes gifts for the "shoe box" kids, wrapping paper, and tape.  They even have their gifts all wrapped up!

My four year old has her shopping partly done.  She plans on finishing up by next week. 

That only leaves my 2 1/2 year old.  She is excited about getting her turn to go shopping!

Well, there are the three older "kids", but they are all grown up now, so they will have to handle getting their shopping accomplished!  LOL

I have had fun working with them too!

I talked to my new daughter-in-love about making a Christmas notebook, and starting goals early.  She has had a great time working on her notebook and preparing for Christmas. 

My married daughter  brought over her Christmas notebook when she came to visit.  We talked about different gift ideas.

I have been busy collecting things to throw into the gift closet.  I love to shop all year long because I can take my time and find the best bargains! 

I've been sewing and crocheting a lot of gifts this year too.

We have been working on our stuffed animal collection.  (We hand them out at the nursing home on Christmas Eve.)

So, what have you accomplished????

Kids are soooo funny!

Don't you just love the way their little minds work?!?

Here is a conversation that I had earlier with my 6 (almost 7) year old daughter.

Mom - "What does Genesis 1:1 say?

Daughter - "Ummm...."

Mom - "In....."

Daughter - "Oh, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Mom - "Very good!  Who was the first man and woman?"

Daughter - "The first man was Adam and the first woman was Eve."

Mom - "Where did they live?"

Daughter - "In an apple tree."

I love jars!  Yes, jars!

We started a penny jar a few months ago. 

What fun!

We started out with a quart size canning jar and kept throwing in our pennies.  Every time someone comes home with pennies, into the jar they go.  Pennies can always be found under the couch cushions or thrown on the floor in some corner.  The kids have a great time searching for them.

We had to move up to a gallon jar a few weeks ago.  We are almost to the half way mark!

My two year old loves to get the pennies out to play with.  Earlier she made a big pile, then ran and jumped into them.  (I guess she had more fun jumping in those leaves the other day than I realized!)

The other kids like to get out the penny jar to help them to do their math problems.

Sometimes it's fun to take them out and simply count them or just look at them. 

Everyone is guessing how many pennies can fit in a gallon jar.  So, what do you think???

Another fun item to collect in jars is buttons.

The kids love to cut the buttons off from old clothes in order to throw them into the button jar.  They are fun to look at and count too.  They also work great as a math manipulative.

I use glass gallon jars in the kitchen too.

They make great containers for flour, sugar, oatmeal, or anything else you may use a lot of.  I put a pretty cloth top on them with a piece of matching paper that says what it is on the front.

The ideas go on and on.

Like I said, I love jars!

I have some faithful readers of this blog within my own community!

I want to take a moment and thank a few of them.

Thanks for reading Sherry, Dannielle, Katie, and Christi!!

Want a fun way to teach the three states of matter?

Take ice (a solid) and put it into a pan.

Heat it up and watch it turn into water (a liquid).

Keep heating it until it starts steaming (a gas).

Have fun!