I want to preface this by saying that it annoys me when people come by my site and comment only to serve their purposes, needs, spam, etc.  So, I made sure to read the recent entry of each participant and comment before I went on to what I wanted... I hate when I type up a big long post and someone says "come to my blog and read about my ____" without regard to what I took the time to post.  They wanted me to do something for them, on something they posted, but they couldn't be bothered with what I had to say.  I laughed when I found out that I had randomly selected 2 kids, though, so if you parents of these children think I'm some weirdo, be assured I am not. :)

Ladies, I had a great time reading all of your blogs and I could relate in some way to all of you. :)

So...I’ve been tagged.    Arby sent me a link to his blog with his answers to the list of “7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.”  

1) I pick up things with my toes.  I can also use them to pinch really hard.  My husband hates this, so I know how to really get him when he won't leave me alone.  Don't worry, I don't do it often.  Only when provoked.  I pick up things with my toes so I don't have to bend over.  It works, try it.

2) I have issues with restaurants who don't know how to fry an egg.  I have even bigger issues about sending my plate back to complain about what is on it.  I've had to learn to deal with runny egg whites or don't order fried eggs.  I haven't found this to be a feasible solution, as of yet. 

3) Like Arby, I can't stand stickers and I take them off of everything.  It's all I can do to not peel a sticker off my nailpolish bottles, bc if I do, then I can't remember what the color name/number is... but I always eventually do.  My husband wouldn't allow me to remove the one on our trashcan in the kitchen.  It remains, but I never look at it, so it doesn't bother me.  The trashbag overhang covers it up.

4)  I sleep until 10am almost everyday.  My kids, do, also.

5) While I have found that the majority of people I know don't like it, I love the movie "ELF" and I wear it out around Christmas.  Thankfully, my husband appreciates it.

6) I love to crochet. I can do it quickly and so my projects get done faster.  I take it with me everywhere... I even read while I'm crocheting.

7) I collect hymnals.

In keeping with the rules of this most dangerous gambit I must inform you that “The fine print rules are as follows:

Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.”

I used the "who's online" feature to find my victims.

sadie423 

bubbebobbie

angelnavywife

kyle123

Mom1669

Sweetie

mamalama

My husband wanted me to check on some curriculum for our almost 4yo daughter.  She does really well with writing letters and recognizing certain names and she seems interested.  I checked on some curriculum from the Kindergarten of ACE.  It was a little more than I am willing to pay to homeschool a 4 year old.  She really isn't of age yet, so I don't want to pour hundreds of dollars into this.

We already had the ABC's with ACE & Christi Instruction manuals.  All I'd have to purchase is the record keeping and PACEs.  No problemo.  Let's see how she does on the Reading Readiness test.

Now, I will say to you that it was VERRRRY hard not to coach her along on it, but I did not.  She did very well through most of it and when she would miss one, I would be kinda bummed and think "She's not ready at all".  Much to my amazement, she passed with flying colors.  You have to get an 80% or higher to be considered "ready to read".  She got a 90.4.  I was shocked.

So, I will be ordering the reading program which right now is all 12 Word Building PACEs and the first three of the Math PACEs.  When she completes the 12-week program, she will then be doing the rest of the PACEs including Social Studies, Science, Math, & English.

Abby is on her 2nd quarter of 2nd grade.  We do things a little unorthodox around here.  She has taken a 2 month break (about, almost, something like that) for summer and because I wasn't on the ball about ordering more books for her.  We decided to just order a quarter's worth of books and then get more when she finishes the 9 weeks.

She's up for her next 9 weeks and Phoebe is maybe signing on for 12 weeks.  That'll take us right on up to Thanksgiving and we'll be headed to Casper, hopefully, to visit family.

I can't wait to homeschool TWO kids.  I'm scared and excited all at the same time!!

And, all this with an almost walking little boy.  I'm so blessed to have my hands so full!! Thank you LORD!!

Abigail cracks me up, sometimes.

She has these verses that she learns throughout each of her workbooks.  Each workbook has a different verse to learn.

When the book of the Bible is a long word, sometimes she'll just guess and say something like "Thessalonians" or "Deuteronomy".  One day, "Phillipians" was automatically "Thessalonians" to her.

Don't ask me how she got there.

Anyway, her verse at the start of a new workbook today had Thessalonians as the book of the Bible.  She was having a very hard time sounding it out and getting it right.  ~rolling my eyes~

Just goes to show you... guessing never gets you anywhere.

She finally did get it sounded out right, but I made sure to tell her that it was funny how some words were automatically "Thessalonians" just because they were long, yet when she actually had to read "Thessalonians", it wasn't so easy.

So, she seemed pretty pleased when another new workbook she started on had "John" as the book of the Bible. LOL

I bought Abby some school supplies last night.  She didn't really need any, but I did it anyway.

I got her a hot pink expandable file folder for her to put all her books in.  (All her books are workbooks, so this works.)

I got her a mini-portfolio folder thingy to put her card in on which we keep track of how much work she does each day.

I got her a new pencil pouch, with a clear window in it, so she can see what she's grabbing, instead of pulling out pencil after pencil looking for the right one. 

Which, brings me to the colored pencils...  She did have some Crayola twistables pencils.  she ran out of yellow, so I bought her some regular old colored pencils.  They do the job and it was 'something new'.

What does all of this have to do with anything??
I'm more motivated to keep better records, if I'm wanting her to keep her own records (so to speak).

We also have paperclips on her workbooks so she can turn right to the page she's on and not have to flip through everytime.

How nice is all of this??
Pretty nice... for now.

We'll see how well I keep up with it. LOL

The other day was really fun.  Abby has learned about the letters A, M, S, and F so far.  Today was "f".
When you add a new letter, they make words with it and the previous letter.  So, it was anything from same (e is silent) to mass.  She was getting stuck on Sam.  For some reason, she kept saying "Smam".  I can't believe how incredibly patient I was with her about this.

It was actually very frustrating to her and me, but surprisingly enough, I kept my cool.  I was the Ice Queen.  I was Super Kewl.  That's me.

Anyway, she kept trying to giggle/cry.  I was telling her, "You're being silly" and I laughed to make it funny.  I wasn't making fun of her, I was trying to get her to not take herself so seriously.

It was hilarious, but I was doing good.

Finally, she said it right.  "Sam"  I was very encouraging and enthusiastic.  "That was great!! See?  You were making it harder than it was, huh?"  She nodded and then went back to her work.

I am one of those that took myself way to seriously in school.  I was doing bad if I was making B's in a class.  It's mainly bc I was having trouble understanding the material.  Really.  But, a B to me in school was bad.

I'm not really sure I want her to be that serious about her grades.  I just want her to learn and be satisfied that she is doing her best.  Not perfect, but her best.

That's all I really want.

Abby finished her first book today and took her first test.  She aced it.  I'm glad for her.

She's learning so much, and she asks to do more, so I let her, bc I figure what is it going to hurt?? If she wants to do above the requirement, then I'm all for it.  As long as she does it right and doesn't rush through.

I'm so excited to begin this new chapter of our lives.  I do know that it isn't going to be easy, but it will be rewarding in the end.

This morning, I've been having her re-take her diagnostic tests... she's doing a lot better than when she took them in August.  So, even though we haven't been officially schooling, I know that she's still been learning.
I'm excited!!

Ahh... to be young and fearless again.
This is how my 2yo lives life.  Fearless.

I often find that when I'm not giving my kids the attention they need, the demand it in other ways.
However, I find that the opposite is true.  When I'm more attentive to them, they are more attentive to what I have to say.
Taking time out to play with my children isn't a difficult task.  But often times, I find myself busy with 'other things' that are 'more important' to me at the moment.  These are the times that they are being neglected.
I was playing with my 2yo yesterday.  We were playing Barbies.  That basically consisted of me making sure their clothes were on and hair was combed.  She was busy trying to take the clothes off and putting on the ones she wanted them to wear.
She quickly grew tired of it, and decided to do something else.  Forgetting to put up the current selection of toys.

So, of course, I had to remind her.  She was happy to do it that way.  Sure, Mom! she says.  And we put the Barbies up and were on to the next thing.  Each 'next thing' lasting about 5 minutes.  Because, we all know the attention span of a 2 year old is about as long as a minute.  So, five isn't very long to us Mommies. LOL

Anyway, normally, in this instance, she would have ignored me or threw a fit bc she didn't want to put it up.  She wanted to play with it now!  But yesterday, as I was sitting there, giving my full attention, she was happy to do as I asked, without question.

And so, it just goes to show you that a little extra attention can go a long way for creating a more obedient child.

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I changed my template.  I didn't really like the old one.  This one is more suited to my tastes.  I like bright colors and flowers.
It took me forever to get a picture small enough to put in my profile last night.  I was beginning to get angry.
That is a picture of my oldest daughter, who will begin homeschooling soon.  She was standing on some playground equipment looking down at the picture taker.  I actually had to crop the photo, bc the bottom half wasn't fully 'exposed' when the picture was taken.  I think it sits nicely in that little square.
This is a pic of both my girls, taken the same day at Mount Rushmore.  This was back in July or August.... I forget which.  I think it was August.  Anyway, I love this picture of my kiddos and I really need to go have it printed up in a nice big frame to hang on the wall, instead of sitting around in cyber world for the rest of its life.

Well, I wrote a lot of nice pretty things yesterday, but today, I actually need to get my rear in gear.  I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday, bc I was tweaking my blogs.  Not a good thing for dh to come home to, so off I go.

Something I've been doing from the start of this new year is to try and lose 5 lbs a month.  That isn't working out too well for me, bc I step on the scale everyday.  The worst thing I can do, I know.
I also have a booklet for the 50 Days of Prayer & Giving for the BMA of America.  I've been keeping it somewhere that I will always see it.  In the bathroom.  That is the only place I can put it that guarantees me seeing it and it being a reminder for me to pray.  I also have my prayer lists from Wednesday night taped up on my bathroom mirror.  Not so close to the commode. LOL
So, my prayer life is getting a little better, as I am being reminded each day to pray for others.  I don't need to be reminded to pray for myself and the things I want.  But, I do need reminder for friends & family.  These are the ones that really need my prayers.
My inspiration from Magpie is this... she wrote on her website a few months back about asking God to make her beautiful again... inside and out.
I've been asking myself lately, "Is this beautiful?"  "What can I do to make it more beautiful?", etc.  I want to be beautiful on the inside and out.  But not only that, I want my house to be beautiful.  I want my kids to be beautiful.  I want everything in my life, that I can control, to be beautiful.  Bc if it isn't beautiful, then what is my purpose on this earth? 
I'm not talking about just physical beauty. 
I want my kids to be beautiful on the inside.  I want the fighting and screaming to stop.  I want them to have manners.  I want them to learn respect.  I want my youngest to make her underwear beautiful by going on the potty. LOL
There are so many good intentioned plans that I have for my life, for my family, and I waste each day away without contributing to any of these plans.  I intend for that to stop.
One thing about myself, my first name is Sarah.  As you all know, in the Bible, Sarah was known for her beauty.
Genesis 12:11-And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou are a fair woman to look upon:"
She was beautiful.  I want to be beautiful all over.  I want my appearance to be pleasing to look at, I want my body to be at a healthy weight, I want my inner thoughts to be pure, I want my prayer life to be powerful, I want my Bible study to be diligent.  I want all areas of my life to be beautiful.
"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.  All things wise and wonderful, The LORD GOD made them all!"

This is a little weird for me.  Quite a change from Xanga.  I like xanga, I'm familiar with xanga.  So, this is definitely weird.
Trying this again.  I hit "always allow pop-ups from Homeschoolblogger.com and it completely refreshed my page.

Can you say 'livid'?
I definitely am not fond of the selection of emoticons.  Too many different sizes and shapes.  Weird.
I do plan to use this site more when I start homeschooling officially.  We're not yet homeschooling.  We're waiting for the $$ for it.
I don't really have much else to say.
I'm done.

Thanks.