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This week's Featured Blogger host is Never A Dull Moment at the HomeschoolBlogger.com convention center! So mark your calendar and get ready for an exciting week of Featured Blogger convention fun!

Workshop #1 will be A Tale of Tools. How often do you burden yourself with too much curriculum? What damage does this cause to your family? Find out how to use your curriculum tools wisely!

Workshop #2 is Do We Really Understand the Battle? Trisch exlpains her homeschooling philosophy and what philosophy she is combatting.

Workshop #3, Let the Mother Go Out to Play, shows you how you can take time to renew yourself but not at the expense of your family. We aren't seeking to escape, we just need moments that help us keep our focus where it belongs.

The book fair can be found in Schoolhouse Store hall. Food and drink are welcome, just don't spill it on your keyboard.

Please be sure to sign up for the workshops by leaving a comment at Never A  Dull Moment.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Well. I forgot to do Featured Blogger last week. Which pretty much fit in with the course of that Friday! I also forgot we were hosting a taffy pull, and a myriad of other smaller details of the day. Let's get back on track and greet this week's Featured Blogger, Neet of The Journey Continues! Denita doesn't blog often, but she is such a neat and interesting person I just had to share her with all of you!

The theme for this week's Porch articles is supposed to be on Nature walks and notebooks, let me just submit to you that a blog is a pretty good notebook of what is happening in life, and that's as natural a walk as you can get!

This post totally cracked me up because I have been there a time or two myself. Where did that candy go? Then the gentle (or not so gentle) accusations start.  I appreciate too, Denita's ending thoughts.

The family is waiting for a new baby sister to arrive this summer. One big brother can't wait and he even has a name all picked out for her!  I'm kind of excited myself. Will the baby be born on my oldest's birthday?

Sometimes a nature walk just isn't possible. Take a trip to the zoo! Denita shares her son's thrill of seeing elephants on his first zoo trip. I wonder why they fascinated him so much?

Please go greet Denita and all of her family! Encourage her to continue the journey, in homeshcooling, blogging, and her walk with Jesus. I don't think she's in any danger of quitting on any of them, but it's just nice to know that you aren't the only one on this walk of life.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

It's finally Spring! The sun is shining, the air is warming, and children of all kinds are ready to run and kick up their heels! This week's Featured Blogger has a few things to say about Spring so let's meet Joyce of These are a few of my Favorite Things. Even her blog name makes me think Spring!

Quite a few of you have started your gardens already by planting your seeds indoors. Look what Joyce got five days after starting her seeds. I'll be visiting her in a few weeks to snip the cilantro, my favorite herb!

While it's probably not quite time to start this twice annual tradition, it sure feels like it should be! The swapping of the winter clothes for the summer clothes. How long does this process take you? Have you noticed that you don't go through his process as much when your children get older?

As the days are getting nicer and no one wants to spend forever indoors, we want some quick kitchen tips and recipes. Still, with money tight we need for it to be cheap! How about making your own Bisquick type mix? I'll be using this recipe. If you use it, share with us what you've made!

Go for a walk in the sun, breath the air deeply, and don't forget to go greet Joyce!

Tia Linchied
Senior Editor of HSB

Let's see if I can stick with our Saving Time theme here on the Porch while talking about this week's Featured Blogger, Canadagirl of Raising 4 Godly Men.

Now I don't know how many of you will think that making homemade tortilla's and Grape Nuts will save you time, but the Grape Nuts sure did look easy! I think we've come to believe that anything homemade takes a lot of time, meaning hours and hours or something. Really, it's not that time consuming at all, and it just might save you grocery shopping time, unloading all of your groceries, finding places to put it all, and then the time spent trying to figure our where you put it. So, I contend it does save you time (and money)! 

If you use a conventional spelling curriculum, where each of your children use their own, grade appropriate book, then you know how time consuming it can be to correct all of that work and give all of those spelling tests. Find out why Canadagirl loves Sequential Spelling, but I can tell you that from a time saving prospective, this spelling program is IT! You test all of your children at once, they correct their own work as they go, and it's so easy to do!

Now this is a bean cooking time saver I have never heard about before and is one my family will definitely try. You give it a try too and tell us, and Canadagirl, how it worked for you.

Go say hello to Canadagirl and thank her for all the time she has helped you to save!

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Time once again for Featured Blogger and this week I'll introduce you to Juliestew of Raising Three Knights and a Princess! Does this make her the Queen or the governess?

Julie's blog is fun because, for the most part, it's a photo blog and she has lots of pictures of her children in various states of action.

There are even a few pictures of a lizard not in action.

Need some photography tips? Julie shares some great ones in this category that will help improve your photos for blogging. Besides, it's fun!

Go learn something new from Juliestew and let her know you did!

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

I really like the title of this week's featured blog, Seizing the Moments, by Louscrew. A blog post really does that, or I should say, can help to capture those seized moments to share with family and friends.

Ever wonder how little boys can get so dirty? Simplicity in the Rinse Cycle ponders that question, and then compares it with how dirty our souls can be.  

Aunts, ants; white, black, red. What do anteaters eat? Louscrew finds out!

How often do we downplay what God has done for us? God answers prayer, sometimes even before we make that prayer request. I wish there was a picture of the little sugar glider to go with this post!

Don't just stop reading here, head over to Seizing the Moments and dig through the archives. Don't forget to leave a comment telling how the moments (posts) seized you!

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

I don't normally do this, but this week I am going to introduce you to two different blogs. The thing is, they both belong to the same blogger, and as she has the same avatar on them both, I thought, "Why not?" Nicole is a sweet, dear lady who I have enjoyed getting to know a little bit better through her blogs and the comments she has left hither and yon across the blogosphere. So, this week you'll get to visit Homeschooling in Georgia and Birchwood Academy.

When I saw this entry I was rather amazed! A whole salon dedicated to making little girls look like a princess. The Bippity Boppity Boutique will satisfy every little girl's dream. I kind of like those pretty head covering things worn by the professional princess makers.

Nicole love TOS! Forgive me my blatant attempt to combine marketing with Featured Blogger. I can't help it, I work in both depratments. Besides, it's fun to see what others have to share about TOS! At least, I think so and the look on Nicole's son's face as he proudly displays the magazine in the photo is perfect. If we ever start selling at street corner news stands, I'll be sure he gets hired to shout, "Extra, Extra! Read all about it!"

Are you fond of visual aids? Just where do you keep them all? Nicole is trying out putting them on cupboard doors. May as well put one on each side, I think. Why not?

Enjoy your visits to Nicole's blogs, and don't forget to leave her a very nice comment thanking her for having you over.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Blogging really brings out some creative people, with thousands of different ways to decorate, and beautify a template. Some are elegant, some are simple, and some are crazy and fun! Today's blog is child and family friendly; displaying fine art to celebrate the season. Foxvalleyfamily, of At Home With Jesus, is ready to welcome you!

Has your hometown changed so much that you can't recognize it and it no longer feels like "home?" The more things change was a post that touched my heart and made me think, again, of all the things I used to love and cherish about my hometown and my grandma's house.

Have you ever thought about how your choices on homeschool curriculum can be spiritual battle? We all doubt our choices from time to time. This post is an encouraging devotional for anyone who struggles after choosing their curriculum.

I always love it when I come across posts like this one, You know your a homeschooler when . . . 

Go say hello to Michelle, share your stories with her!

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB