For those of you looking for some things to do for Thanksgiving (whether homeschooling or not)... check out some of the following ideas from a post from the past:

FREE Thanksgiving Unit Studies and More!

Please feel free to share any of the ideas or traditions you do in your home for Thanksgiving!

I have been doing all my CHRISTmas shopping online. My eyes hurt from the computer. I'm mainly purchasing gift from Vision Forum, Christianbook & Timberdoodle. I'm not getting too many toys but more puzzle type stuff and lots of survival things. My two little guys will have lots of battles with their sword and shields

Well Lance wants to play a game!

Bye,

Linda<><

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Participating In A Craft Fair

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The last 3 years I have participated in a craft fair in November.  I started off with beaded bookmarks and fudge.  the second year I did fudge, necklaces, earrings,candles, and rhubarb juice.  This year I did fudge, rhubarb juice ( two kinds plain and also a raspberry rhubarb which was a BIG hit),candles-beeswax, knitted baby booties.  I have worked up to this as my youngest got old enough for me to be away for two days with big brothers taking care of them. 

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Each year I set a goal to try to reach.  This year I wanted to earn enough to buy a grain grinder.  I also try to go into the fair with having everything paid for.  I came close to attaining that.  I did earn enough to pay for my supplies, table, my goal and very close to buying more supplies for more candles that I will be dropping off at a local artistan store. 

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I have been working each year to get something to help me make it easier to make healthier food inexpensively.  Last year I got a Kitchen Aide Mixer and boy did that make my life easier in making food from scratch quickly.  I am putting this out there to maybe help start someones wheels moving in brainstorming how you can make things that seem to be out of reach normally but can be attained with some elbow grease and a goal. 

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 I am very thankful God has helped me and my family in this way.  I also have to say that I am thankful that this is only once a year.  I sold twice as much as I did last year.  God put in my mind to also sell raspberry-rhubarb juice along with the rhubarb juice.  It was a BIG hit along with my fudge.  I was very pleased how everyone liked my baby booties.  I had stitched snow flakes on the toe and also I blanket stitched on the top cuff.  Next year I will be making bigger kid  sizes and some adult sizes too.  

. I have to say that I couldn't be this pulled away for very much more.  I love being a mom first and let this be a side thing to help my family in a short term.  I thank the Lord for blessing this last week ends sales.

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Now to join in the fun of Tightwad Tuesday....

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  Link your TWT post click on MckLinky and give exact the URL of your post.   (each Tuesday that  you join in on the fun)  

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example of a URL ...

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Canadagirl/693425/

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  Now go ahead link and read and comment on all these other's wonderful TWT's. 

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 Lets save our pennies, nickles, dimes, and dollars  together !

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"There are only a few big ways to save money but there are many small ways ....that all adds up."

It's really no surprise to anyone ever that the NEA was more interested in protecting its power than educating children. What is surprising is that they actually feel confident enough in their power to admit it. Here's the NEA's General Counsel admitting as much in his retirement speech this past summer.

"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power....

This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.

Decluttering, we hear it all the time, especially in homeschooling circles - it can be a problem, your children (unlike public schooled children) are often home all day, you need educational books etc as well as their normal "toys" and they need to keep busy.

Our main problem has been birthdays and Christmas's, people buy presents and I don't like to get rid of things others have bought but I decided enough was enough when I just couldn't even find the floor in their bedroom!! So out came the black bags and the "lets be strict about this" head and I started decluttering, I decided that they could keep 1 toy box upstairs (they had 3) and we could make a corner into a little doll's corner for the two youngest, I went through the toyboxes and basically threw everything into a bag that was not useful or took too much room up. A lot of babies toys are just plastic rubbish - colourful plastic that plays a tune so out went most of those.

It has made such a difference - of course their bedroom is still not tidy (still working on training them to tidy!) but it is less messy as there are not as many toys that can be left lying on the floor! Now I'm hoping that Christmas really doesn't send us straight back to square one, but I read a motto which I think may become ours - that for every new thing that comes into the house they have to get rid of an old one!

We attended the Missouri Right to Life banquet last week.  This was the first banquet I had attended in several years.  It was good to see the crowd.  It was good to know we're not alone in this issue.  Jack Cashill spoke.  He spoke about the media and many others that TABETTO.  For those of you that do not know what that is... (and unless you were there, you won't)  It stands for Turning a Blind Eye to the Obvious.  

He was talking specifically about abortion, about how 300,000+ people can show up in D.C. for the Life March in January, 2 days after the inauguration and not one liberal media outlet reported it.  Want proof... go to Jack's website and order "Thine Eyes."  Proof is in the video. 

But...

I have been chewing on this for the last week and have come up with many areas where people TABETTO...here are just a few...

It is obvious that a Christian has no business attending movies like Harry Potter and New Moon. 

It is obvious that child protective services does NOT protect children...

It is obvious that a Believer, adult or child, has no place in a government school...  

It is obvious that abortion is murder

It is obvious that the government cannot run private industry... Chevy found that out the hard way.

It is obvious that the government cannot run healthcare either...but I don't want to find that out the hard way!

It is obvious that homosexuality is a sin...just as drunkeness, fornication, anger, lying etc are sins...

It is obvious that the media worships Obama and disdains those that stand up for truth...

It is obvious that truth cannot be relative! 

It is obvious that by seperating ourselves into "African-Americans" "Native-Americans" etc. we are only causing more racism

It is obvious that God created... how else can one REALLY explain how and why everything in this universe works the way it does...Yea, I know "big bang" that's why when a coke can explodes, it piles itself up into one neat place waiting to be cleaned up instead of saturating everything within it's radius with sticky goop...random chaos cannot create order!

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving week.  We bought a 25lb bird this year, so I had to put it in our fridge Saturday , which is way early for me.  But it just made me realize how close Thanksgiving really is.  I'm going to make a list today of all the things I want to get done this week.  I usually bake my pies on Wednesday, still have to practice cookies with Sarah, that will probably be Tuesday.  It's things like that I need to make a list for, otherwise I'll forget the things I need to get done, and only do the things I want to do. 

I will be finishing up our Christmas cards today.  Well, the cards are done, pictures developed and yearly letter printed out.  I just need to sign the letter, put the kids ages on the back of the pictures, then put it all in the envelopes.  Maybe I'm a little optimistic on getting that all done today, but it's my goal.  We also have a bible study tonight, so we'll see how much I get done.  I just made a mental list of all the things I need to bake this week, I'm tired all ready. 

We finished school already.  We have this whole week off, makes things easier for me.  But the kids doubled up on their school work on Thursday, and had Friday off too.  Which was nice.  I helped out decorating our church last Thursday, it was lots of fun.  The kids were so good, and finished all their school work while I was gone.  (Proud mama here). 

Friday was a great day.  I went to a new woman's bible study I'm going to on Friday mornings, and it was such a blessing.  Then in the evening the kids both had homeschool outings to go to, so Paul and I had a date night.    We went to the Olive Garden, and had such a nice time.  We haven't had a date in a couple of weeks, it was very nice.

Saturday we decided to brave the stores and do our grocery shopping on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.    It was a bit of a mad house, but it was fun.  The hardest part was the cold, blowing wind.  We all just wanted to get home.  I thought I had gotten everything I needed and wouldn't have to go back out to the store before Thanksgiving, I was wrong.    I forgot to get a big thing of cool whip for a fruit salad I'm making.  Can't make it without it, so I guess I'll be running back to the store real quick on Monday.  Then I won't enter a store again until after the weekend sometime.  I stay clear of them all during this time of the year.    We don't do the black Friday shopping, and I just read today how they limit those 'specials' anyway.  Like those tvs or something big on sale.  Only 4 can be sold from the whole store!    Only four people will get that big deal.  Ugh, so not worth it to me.

What we do the day after Thanksgiving is put up all our Christmas decorations.  As most of my regular readers know, we put up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving, and take them down the day after Christmas.  But we really enjoy setting them up.  We eat Thanksgiving leftovers, drink eggnog, and watch It's A Wonderful Life.  My kids really enjoy that movie.  And it really is a fun, relaxing day.  We are pretty mellow with our decorations, so it only takes a few hours.  Hanging the Christmas lights in the kids bedroom takes the longest, but it's what they love the most.  Falling to sleep with their Christmas lights on.

Well I should get going and work on the Christmas cards.  It's snowing pretty heavy out right now.  We need to go out tonight, I hope it lets up soon.  But it is so pretty.

I was able to purchase MFW Exp1850. I'm so glad, now I can figure out what to do next year.

I am going to read Building a City on the Hill & Trial and Triumph with Josh.

An idea would be to have Josh read; The Last 500 Years, Exploring American History, In God We Trust & George Washington's World on his own. We have the audio cd for Story of the World so we can listen to that. He can also read the read aloud selection from MFW on his own too. I can read all the 2nd/3rd grade supplements along with the two books I mentioned above. About twice a week we can do all the timeline, notebooking, mapping etc. All of us would do Bible together.

We can start our morning with Bible and I  can read anything else that the teacher manual, like notes and such. Then we can all split up. Josh & Annette finish their studies on their own. I can do Phonics with the youngers.

I'm still studying MFW TM but I think I can make it work. Now I need to figure out when to do The Phonics Road, The Bridge & Spell to Write & Read :)

I have some ideas for those also.

• Josh & Annette: Spell to Write & Read do 20 minutes a day. Once the timer goes off, just stop :)
• Caleb & Brent: Phonics Road Level 2 is broken down into three sections; Spelling/Phonics, Grammar & Reading. Each section takes about 20 minutes. Again, I'll set a timer and stop. Whether done with a lesson or not. We can always pick-up where we left off the next day.
• Ethan & Lance: Phonics instruction 20 minutes a day.

If I can stick to the 'times' and not worry about completing a whole lesson I think I'll be okay.

Just recording my thoughts :)

I've tried out several "new to me" recipes this week. Most bombed, but today I tried out one that turned out pretty good. It's called "Bubble Pizza."  I am trying to break our habit of commercial pizza every Friday night. However, when Friday rolls around it's all want! So I found this recipe (on the All Recipes.com site) that I thought might satisfy my desire for pizza on Friday. I liked it pretty well. We had 5 people come unexpectedly for lunch, and most had seconds. I guess that's a pretty good sign! I served this with a basic green salad.  I haven't posted a recipe lately so I thought I would post this one. Below the recipe you will find what I did differently.  Enjoy!

Bubble Pizza

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/ 4 pound pepperoni sausage
1 (14 oz) can pizza sauce
2 (12 oz) packages refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough
1/2 onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 (10 ounce) can sliced black olives
1  (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place ground beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over meium high heat until evenly brown. Stir in pepperoni, and cook until browned. Drain excess fat. Stir in pizza sauce. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters, and place in the bottom of baking dish. Spread meat mixture evenly over the biscuits. Sprinkle top with onion, olives and mushrooms.
3. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes. Sprinkle top with mozzarella and Cheddar cheese. Bake an additional 5 - 10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

What I did different:
1. Biscuits- I made these from scratch since we don't have canned or frozen biscuits here.
2. Pizza Sauce- I bought a can of pizza sauce imported from Italy since they don't carry one from the USA anymore. The can is a bit smaller than what was called for so I opened another can and used part of it. I didn't measure, just dumped part of it in. The sauce is very different from what they sell in the states so I added some Italian seasoning for a little extra flavoring. 
3. Olives- I used green instead of black.
4. Cheese- I used only Mozzarella.
5. Mushrooms- I did not have any to put on.
6. Extra ingredientes- I added thin green pepper strips with the onion and olives. I also added some cooked bacon leftover from breakfast.
7. Ants- I'm having an ant invasion in my kitchen these days so I'm pretty sure some were included in this recipe! (but not too many, and they are very very small. I don't think anyone noticed!)

So glad it's Friday (doing the happy dance) LOL. Before I write about our day I wanted you all to check out my sisters blog. She has lots of notebooking pages that she creates. She is way more organized then I  am and creative. Her blog is so nice, clean and organized. She is very talented.

As for our homeschooling day. Today I had Caleb & Brent do copy lesson two from Wheeler's Elementary Speller. Tomorrow I'll have the spell the words orally and write them from dictation.

They also did a lesson from The Phonics Road. We are on week 11. They are doing very well with this program.

Once Josh completes Phonics Tutor. I am looking into Spell to Write and Read for him and Annette.  I actually wanted to get SWR for this year but have always been intimidated by it, but now that I have used The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading I think I handle SWR  I would like to add Annette. She can read very well but I still feel like she needs to go over the spelling rules. Annette started reading in 1st grade and has always been above grade level. Because of this I didn't do a 2nd year of phonics with her. She spells okay and usually misses about one word or less from Spelling Wisdom. I still feel like she should be a bit more grounded in spelling patterns and such. I'm not sure if she came across a difficult word if she would be able to decode it. Also how do I make sure she continues to progress in her reading? I think SWR would help in both areas.

 Nap time is over. Gotta go.