What a crazy few weeks!  Every time I think I need to write on my blog, I get 10 other things in front of it.  I know I said I would write about discouragement.  Can't decide if I should write about the mom's discouragement or the kids'!  Wow...since I have a couple of thoughts rumbling around in me about the kids, I think I will start there.

Today, we are trying to wrap up the homework the middle schoolers have from our home-school co-op.  Who would have thought that they would let it overwhelm them the way they have?  Yikes!  So, I'm gonna talk about the kids being discouraged today.  Moms - you'll have to wait for another day for the pearls coming your way!  ;)

Kids have such a variety of moods and needs.  But I've come to realize that no amount of my dreaming that they could just BE responsible, PLAN their lives, and HANDLE their schoolwork will actually make it happen.  And I've noticed that when I take a few minutes and sit WITH them, they shine.  The work gets done.  We have time for fun.  Et cetera  - - - yeah, I spelled it out today.  Because there's a long list of things we get as BENEFITS when I take the time they need.

So, then I gotta look at me - what is wrong with me?  On those days that nothing gets accomplished, I have to wonder that.  Sometimes out loud!  LOL   But mostly, just the thought tumbling around inside my head.  In that moment, I am learning to turn my thoughts back around - ask the Lord if that thought is from Him or if I am just wallowing in self-pity - and then act on what He shows me.  (You know - take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ...)

Today's act:::  help my little people excel.  I can do this!  I can't expect them to just know it, or sometimes to even just do it.  But I can do MY part!

I'm reminded of the lesson that we learned in Bruce Wilkerson's 7 Lessons of the Learner.  If the students are failing, the teacher is failing.  One COULD look to the teacher who has them for a brief few minutes on co-op day, but the truth of the matter is - - - if my students are not "getting" it - it's my job to help them get it.  So, today's goal - to help my students get it, get it done, get it learned, get it done excellently...

Whew!  I can do this - and so can you.

Second area of discouragement for the kids - decision-making problems.  Man, it's tough being a pre-teen.  I have a teen and I have a Kindergartner.  They don't struggle nearly like the pre-teens do. 

Last night's agenda (after giving some ample room time to reconsider some bad choices they had made) was to give them the short talk about who they are.  My theme - you have to choose what kind of man (or woman) you want to become.  Every action you take now speaks to your character - generous/greedy, thoughtful/selfish, careful/careless, good example/bad example, server/taker, blessing/cursing, and so on.  I didn't carry on about it, just sent them to bed with the question in their minds, "Who do I want to be?" 

I'm still praying that they are chewing on that one.  :)

Can it be Wednesday of Week 3 already?  Time flies when you are having fun.  Unfortunately, time flies when you are having fun - I repeat that because sometimes our "fun" keeps us from getting our lessons completed.  My philosophy of teaching at home is that if it's fun it works.  I stand by that statement.  However, it's the fun in the process of educating that makes it work!  There are a few things that the students can learn along the way when they are playing, but a dedicated effort has to be made for the core subjects.

At our house, we require daily math and reading.  The other things we do fill in all around it.  For some, that is history and Bible - studied chronologically from the early years of schooling.  For others, it's applying Biology or Health with experiments or writing projects.  And for others, it's curling up on the couch to read for mom or have a read-aloud time where mom does the reading.  There are LOTS of "electives" going on around this house any given day.

We have a blend of scheduled curriculum - like those math assignments and reading the history cards or doing a handwriting projects - and unschooling - where the kids pursue the things that excite them.  Today, that has Timothy putting together a roller coaster made out of K-Nex pieces - it has a motor and everything - and really works.  Other days it might involve Susannah sewing something or Nicole doing an experiment or Jonathan and Timothy having a rousing game of chess.

One day last week, Steve was working from home. So, to keep the kids quiet while he took a conference call, we played a game of Nerts (a card game where everyone has their own deck and plays off each other like solitaire with lots of people).  That game has a negative score (for cards left in your hand when someone else runs out) and a positive score (for cards you played in the middle of the table on the "ace" piles).  For Nicole, it was reinforcing her lessons from pre-Algebra about absolute value.  Later, when Steve told Jonathan that he needed to get busy with his schoolwork, Jonathan (our 5 year-old) replied with "I've been doing math all day".  We laughed so hard.  That 30 minute game had really taxed his mental math!

If you've just started home-schooling this year - may I encourage you to relax your ideas of what school looks like?  You'll be so glad you did.  Give them some structure and some assignments, then make it fun.  If learning is fun, it works.

I'll leave you with one last thought - from Bruce Wilkerson's 7 Laws of the Learner series - - - if my students are passing, that is great!  If my students are failing or just failing to understand, I have to tailor my way of teaching to help them get the information into their heads.  If I'm figuring out what method works with each student, they cannot fail.  Only "I" can fail - by not speaking the language that they understand.  I'm not talking about laziness, where the student WON'T do the work.  I'm talking about those blocks in learning or those times where they just look at you with their eyes glazed over - - - in those moments, try another tactic and another, until your student HEARS you and the light bulb comes on!

This is a terrific journey that you're on!  Hope you enjoy it! 

Next time, I'm going to write about discouragement - so take courage for now and find the fun in your day!

So, we started last week!  Yep, my LAST little one started Kindergarten and everyone else got crack-a-lackin' too!  What fun!

Our new house (the one we moved into last September) has a room that we have designated "the school room" so everyone has a place where their school belongings belong and where I can call them to meet me when lessons need to be doled out or everyone needs to hear something school-related.  Of course, quite a bit of that happens in the living room too, but that's another story!  ;)

My biggest thing this week is that baby of mine.  He's no baby, of course, but he's still MY baby!  I've been kind of carrying on for close to a year about how smart he is - things he does that nobody expects to come out of a little guy's mouth.  For example, last March at the National HomeSchool Basketball tournament in Springfield MO, we sat through a LOT of basketball games together every day.  This kid, aged 4 then, could rattle off the scores of the two teams - no big deal, right - knowing two-digit numbers isn't that crazy for a 4 year old.  But then to our surprise, he would tell us not only which team was winning but what the difference between their scores was.  And kept a running tally for us of the difference in their scores and what it would take for one team to catch up to the other - types of shots, etc. - i.e., they need a three-pointer to catch up or they need 10 free throws or 15 2-point shots.  Hilarious, I tell you.  Different friends that would join us at games later in the week would just sit there dumbfounded at the spectacle of it all - quite literally distracting fans from watching the game even.

After that week, my dear hubby started extolling the virtues of formalizing that child's education.  I thought about it for a split second, then came back with a twinkle in my eye at him - - - but you know, Honey, look how far he's come without me interfering!  LOL  He had to admit that was quite true, so he let us carry on through the rest of that school year without force-feeding education to him.  I was surely thankful for that because I had my hands full with the other three, thank-you-very-much, and hadn't even begun to explore the world of planning studious things for that boy to do.

So, the summer approached and I began to mull over different ideas for him this school year.  Would I go back to using "100 Easy Lessons" to teach him to read or try something new (like that fancy "Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading" that I had bought a couple of years ago to use with a struggling reader)?  Would we jump right into Math-U-See's primer or start on Alpha, or Beta, or maybe just skip to Pre-Algebra and he could sit with his sister?  (I'm joking, but these thoughts did fleet through my brain a time or two...)

In August, I went to what I consider to be the worst bookfair that I have ever attended (yep, in all my years of thinking about home-schooling and actually doing it once the kids were old enough - it was that stinky).  I was quite satisfied with my decision to buy absolutely nothing, when I passed one of my favorite booths - My Father's World.  Even though genius-boy was probably beyond Kindergarten level, I decided to buy him his very own, never-before-used-by-another-sibling curriculum and see where it led us.

So, week one came - last Monday - and I broke out the box.  We excitedly got busy with talking about Creation and starting to make the 7 days pictures.  I cracked open the pack of ABC flashcards.  He knew all those letters.  So instead of introducing 2 or 3 per day for 10 days, he ran through the set on day 1.  Hmmmm, I thought.  So, I let him do that every day last week.  We plowed through most of the first 10 day lesson in the first 5.  Still a bit unsure of where this road was leading, I marked down this week's lesson plan to finish out the 10 days of lessons (covering the 7 days of creation and then shoring up those topics...) and add in some reading (from a friend's Dick and Jane reader that was reprinted recently) and let his sisters write some "tougher" math problems for him - adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, which I already knew he could do...just as a safety net and something to keep him busy.

As life would have it, this Monday, I woke up on day 2 of a nasty stomach flu.  Some people were educated that day, but not that fella, at least not by me.  When Tuesday dawned, I felt slightly more human, so we snuggled up on the couch to begin the Dick and Jane reader.  He didn't really want to try but I insisted that he just give it a whirl and see how it went. I would show him each "new" word and then each time he encountered it he would read it confidently.  A couple of stumbles with words that started the same, like Jane and jump, but mostly a pretty nice little reading lesson . . . . . that he didn't want to end.  So, the kid read FORTY pages!  Seriously - I'm not exaggerating in the least.  When Steve got home that night, we told him about our reading lesson and went into the bedroom for him to give a private reading while the other kids played noisily in the living room.  He wasn't satisfied re-reading the pages we had already seen that morning.  Dude went on to read through to page 72!

At this point, I was cracking up!  Little sight reader!!!  This morning, I decided to crack out 100 Easy Lessons just to see if he could do the sounding it out thing.  We did 5 lessons before he even complained that he wanted to read more about Dick and Jane and Baby Sally.  (His favorite part of that book so far is that the teddy bear's name is Tim just like his brother!)  So, today he read to page 87. 

Honestly, this little dude is a lot like I was.  So, I'm not falling out of my chair shocked about the turn of events.  But I am a little besmirched that I made education so difficult with the other 3 - good Lord - if I had only known to "pretend" like I wasn't teaching them anything at all and to make them beg ME to let them read - - - imagine what we could have accomplished!  Hahahaha!

I guess you can tell that we are having an excellent start to this school year.  The other kids are engaged in their main studies.  I still have a couple of subjects to introduce to them, plus their co-op classes with our group at church that start in a couple of weeks, but I'm learning that the longer I've been around this racetrack the more I have realized that the view is the same, but I am enjoying it a lot more!!!!  So, we're off to the races!!!!  Come along for the ride!!!!  You'll be glad you did.  :)

Well, well, well.  If Springfield, Missouri didn't know much about home-schooling before this week, boy, will they be surprised when they see what hits them when the National Christian Home-School Basketball Championships come to town!!!  2009 finds the championships making a big move from Oklahoma City, where it has been held for about 7 years running.  The guy in charge says there are 350-360 teams participating - largest turnout ever - and that equates in my "pea brain" math to at least 3500 people and more numbering upwards of 500 (I was just counting 5 players per team and one parent per player - but home-schoolers travel in packs, so I know it's more than that lowball estimate)!

All-American team selections are announced in a ceremony starting on Monday afternoon and then games start for varsity players.  Other days, kids play in one game per day per team.  For us, that means 2 games per day (ours plays on her natural age group and plays up an age group too), plus watching friends in other games.  I think our home-school athletic organization is taking 4 teams.  And we have friends with several other programs from in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

I hope I will get a chance to blog while I'm there and show some photos of the crazy times we have together.  I'm going to post a little sampling from last year's national tournament here . . .

 Shanisha and Susannah cheer on the THESA Riders - love those crazy wigs!!!

14U Girls won first place in the 5A Division - they're obviously tired - but it's a happy tired!

This is just before the Varsity Girls played in the National Championship game - our 18U girls took home the gigantic trophy, winning it all over KC Metro.  One of the things I really LOVE about this THESA group is that the boys were as thrilled for the girls to win as the girls were.  The boys made capes and bought crazy fun gear and rode around the gym like the only reason they came to town was to cheer for their friends.  Great support and great spirit!

As you can see - we have a VERY good time together.  Who can complain about spending a week watching (or playing) a sport you love, surrounded by good friends who love Jesus and share your educational and spiritual ideals?  We think it's one of the best time investments and financial investments we could make for our daughter and for our family.

So again, I say - - - basketball city - here we come!!!

Today, I'm on Day 5 of the "Love Dare" book - from the movie "Fireproof".  Whew - what a fun week already.  I had some friends doing it in a class, but I thought that might lose some of the sweetness and romantic-ness of actually taking the dare if my husband knew I was doing it - or if I knew that he was doing it.  So - - - another friend and I are walking through it together and blessing our husbands - and I'm pretty sure that we are blessing ourselves too! 

If you haven't seen the movie Fireproof - let me highly recommend it to you.  It's out on DVD now, so there's no reason not to check it out.  Don't know if you can get it at redbox, but surely you know someone that has a copy or two!  ;)  The paperback book that I'm using costs between $9 and $12, depending on where you buy it.  You write in it, so it's one that you won't really be passing along or checking out from the library.  But it's a good spend!  ;)

Today's topic is "Love is Not Rude" and I have to ask my dh what 3 things cause him to be uncomfortable or irritated with me.  Yikes!  I don't know if I'm looking forward to that conversation or not - oh and I have to NOT be defensive when he responds or to justify anything I have done.  I can do this...  really I can!  ;)

The first four days were a breeze for me - they might not be for some folks, but I didn't struggle with doing any of those four things.  I'm not really struggling today either - just need the grace and the smile on my face to do it! 

I'm not going to blog about each of the days - it's a little private, you know - but rest assured, you'll see me brighter and happier on the other end of this 40 days!  And if you decide to give it a try - let me know!  I love to encourage people and I know there is GOOOOOOD fruit to be had from this study.

Enjoy!  I dare YOU to love!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it is entirely possible that my homeschoolblogger "site" has been out of my sight, but then it's also possible that I've just been out of my mind!  ;)  Have you ever had one of those semesters where life just flew by and you turned around and it was almost MARCH!?!?!?!  Well, that is how it's been around here.  (I know you home-school moms can totally relate!!!)

Don't want to spend my whole 5 minutes carrying on, so I will move on to today's topic at hand . . . the mouth!  My husband and I were blessed with two daughters, followed by two sons.  NOT ONE THING about raising those girls has really applied to the boys.  Seriously!  I listen to the things the boys say and do and just have no idea where that stuff came from - how can 2 humans be so intently interested in all things that happen in the bathroom (and I don't mean scrubbing out the bathtub)? 

It is so extreme that we have implemented a "no potty talk" rule - with these caviats - - - if it happens in the bathroom or is a part of the body covered by a bathing suit, you may not say it unless you are IN the bathroom - with the only exception that they can say "I need to go to the bathroom" (not the toilet, not the potty, not 'use it', not 'pee' - - - well, you get the drift, right???)  I'd like to say that this has been an effective tool, but I still have to bring correction several times a day in this area.  They just think it is so hilarious to say things they ought not say.

After 15 years of parenting, it has come down to this - spending my days asking people not to say inappropriate things.  Joy!  :)  You can bet that I'm going to get to the "bottom" of this soon - but now I understand why cartoon makers and movie makers think potty humor is such a great way to go - it gets the boy laughs.  See, I never quite understood that before!!!  LOL 

If you have some genius insight into this matter, feel free to pass it along to me!  Apparently, I could use it!  ;)

Hope you are having a blessed day!  Ours is going to involve a trip to the Planetarium - we can't wait!!!  Hopefully we won't have to "go to the bathroom" while we are there . . .

Waiting for my kids to get up this morning (I know - you would think they would be standing tall at 6am on Christmas morning, huh?!) so I thought I would blog about why they are still sleeping!  ;)

This was maybe the 5th or 6th Christmas Eve in a row for us to participate with my parents' ministry, Restored to Serve, in passing out Christmas presents to families in need - not homeless (although we did distribute about 100 shoeboxes of toiletries and needed items to a homeless shelter earlier in the week) but underemployed or unemployed families trying to make ends meet.  What a tough but good thing for our kids to experience.

They run to the doors of each of the apartments or duplex/quadplex houses to find out if kids live there and if we can bless them with Christmas presents, then run back to the cars to select the presents for that home's kids with a little something for the mom and dad too.  We had amazing testimonies of families that didn't have presents and of one man who made our teenagers cry because what they gave him was the only present he was going to get this year.  Now I'm crying again just typing it!  The love that pours out of our own kids (mine and some other families) while they are sharing God's love on Christmas Eve is the best present a mom could receive.  I love it - maybe even more than what we will do today.  Because Christmas Eve's work is life-changing, today's is memory building, but maybe not life-changing, you know?

Each one had a favorite experience to share - Nicole's was the older man who couldn't believe these kids showed up with a present for him out of the blue - he cried, they cried (Nicole and her 2 friends) and came back wishing they could do even more to bless him just because it blessed them so much the first time they knocked on his door - we sent them back with a little something else for him.  :)

I'll post more later - I have kids waking up now!  Tired as can be, especially for a Christmas morning, but a good tired! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!!!!

Can November be over already???  How can this be?  It seems like only yesterday that we moved into this house and now we are coming up on three months!  LOL

More rooms are unpacked and starting to come together.  Honestly, when we bought this house, I thought it was so similar to our other house that we would just put everything in the same places and keep on keeping on like nothing had happened.  Well, that didn't really work for long.  So, we have had about the fourth rearranging of furniture, completed changed out a couple of rooms, and are starting to feel settled...just in time to decorate for Christmas!

Our co-op semester zoomed right by me.  We had so much sickness, in our own family and in several of the other families, that it was seriously difficult just to keep all the classes covered from week to week.  Thankfully, we always had just enough, but it was a little stressful for this girl who really likes to function WITH a plan!  Flying by the seat of my pants and reassigning teachers weekly was kind of zoo-ey (is that a real word?).

The kids loved their co-op classes.  Jonathan is READY to move out of "the purple room" and be a big boy next semester.  He is so cute about it.  Everyone learned cool stuff - Timothy is a budding historian and scientist (don't even ask him about his favorite president or his favorite planet unless you have time for his dissertation!); Susannah is becoming quite a seamstress and botanist and is really into sign language; and Nicole acts like Chemistry is so hard, but she is really good at it and gets it.

As for me, well . . . someone, who shall remain nameless, suckered me into joining facebook in October.  Oh my goodness - I might be an addict, if I had time to be one that is!  ;-)  My high school classmates decided that staying connected via facebook is better, faster, cheaper than classmates.com so here we are - and meanwhile I have found friends from every path my life has taken so far and cannot believe how many of them are on facebook!  So, facebook is robbing me of good blogging time - I'm going to have to rectify that!

If you aren't ready for Christmas yet, it is time to set your mind to the season at hand!  I'm mailing my dad's office Christmas cards in the morning and starting on our family cards.  If you haven't been on my mailing list before this year, our annual newsletter will be hitting the post office by Friday, so email me (if you know me) and I will add you to the list!

Have a tremendous week!

♦Right before we moved, Nicole was notified that she had won the Grand Prize package from the Thomas Nelson live event "Revolve Tour".  So, she signed up for the Dallas event - her prize package included 4 VIP passes to the Revolve Tour, a parking pass for the covered parking garage, 2 nights at the Renaissance Hotel (where all the Revolve Tour's speakers and singers were staying!), some "revolve bucks" (money to spend on the concourse), a meet & greet with Hawk Nelson, a couple of CDs of 2 of the artists, the Revolve Bible and Journal, and some other cool stuff.  What a tremendous blessing!!!

♦The weekend finally arrived and we had a blast.  First thing, checking into the hotel and then exploring - - - which went fine until we started down the glamorous marble spiral staircase.  At that point, I twisted my ankle, fell down a couple of stairs, scratched one of Nicole's friends, and caused a bit of a scene (sooo embarrassing).  Then, one of the speakers from the event came running to make sure I was OK.  Honestly, he was the ONLY person who came - others just looked up and kept on about their business.  So, the girls were impressed that ONE chivalrous guy still exists!  (Looking back, I think his act of kindness caused them to listen more closely to the things that he shared - which were valuable truths about guys and girls!)  Anyway, the hotel man insisted on calling 9-1-1 (ugh!) and they came - checked me out, decided I could walk, and let me be.  Thankfully, they did not insist on taking me to the ER (although I may still need an x-ray - my ankle still hurts a month later. . . )      

♦Next up, we went to the Friday night session - great speakers, great music, and LOTS of screaming girls!  Evidently, Hawk Nelson is the FAVORITE band of many teen girls.  The lead singer did clear up the confusion - HE is not Hawk Nelson, the BAND is called Hawk Nelson.  This cracked us up, because we are all HN fans and knew this already, but girls had signs like "Hawk Nelson - will U marry me?" so the guy just had to say it!  Dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse in the West End.  Fun night!  Then ran into Chad Eastham (the "guys and girls" speaker) who admonished me to ICE my foot, then to ICE THE ICE.  The girls were enamored with his kindness and were a touch sad to find out that he's very taken!!!! 

♦Saturday morning, back to Revolve again - then shopping (they all wanted Chad's book - which he gladly autographed that afternoon), then more Revolve, then MEETING HAWK NELSON - the highlight of the day. 

They were GREAT with Nicole.  There were a few other people there, but it was "Nicole's meet and greet" so they made a big deal about that.  Each band member spent a few minutes talking to her and her friends, then they all posed for several photos too.  Very nice guys!  They're Canadian, but we don't hold that against them!!!  :)  Also that day - we realized how much we enjoy Group 1 Crew - they were new to us, but had some great music and love the Lord!   

♦After the last session, we went back to the hotel where we got to see Natalie Grant (singer) and her family in the elevator - twin toddler girls, too cute!  Her husband was in the Revolve band too.  Several of the other speakers and bands were around the lobby, so we enjoyed imagining that we knew them and they knew us!  LOL   Actually, they were all very friendly and did not act at all like it was annoying for us to say hello.

♦Later, we went to the West End again to eat at Gator's (they have live music at night, but we missed that part).  We ate on the rooftop patio.  Krystal Meyers and her band and a couple of friends came and ate at the table just behind ours.  We left them alone, but did thank them for a good show as we left.  The girls had this theory that if we acted cool with people instead of like groupies that they would actually think we were cool.  I think that was a good plan, as it seemed to work well, especially with Hawk Nelson and KM and band.  I'm not so sure that Chad Eastham thought we were "cool" since his introduction to us was over me making a goon of myself on the marble staircase, but he was also the friendliest towards us, so maybe he felt our pain at drawing too much attention.

♦All in all, a blast was had by all.  Jesus was glorified, the girls had a wonderful time together, and we all got to meet famous people who love Jesus too.  How cool is that??

Oh my goodness - I just logged onto my blog and realized that I have not posted one single thing since we moved into our new house.  So, you haven't had a chance to see photos or read stories of Nicole and her friends and I going to the Revolve Tour in September.  Or Hillary Hoyt's wedding in September.  Or my mom and I celebrating our 100th birthday (60 plus 40) in October.  Or my actual birthday in October.  Or well, practically anything that relates to the Lerch family at all for the past month and a half!  SO O O O O - watch for a few posts in the next couple of days - I will try to include photos with them where I can.  Enjoy!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!  We now own a brand new house!  Everything was made official today.  So we are packing maniacs!  Steve and Nicole just left with the WHOLE KITCHEN in the back of our minivan (without seats, of course!).  They are going to unload all those boxes into the kitchen so the kids and I can unpack the kitchen in the morning while we wait for the fridge to arrive.

Friday is moving day!  Well, "movers" day anyway!  I'm going to take a couple of small loads over tomorrow, then pile up a trailer with as many of the rest of the boxes as we can fit tomorrow night.  That way, we can get the movers to carry the super heavy stuff on Friday and we can start living in our new house! 

God is good!  I will have to put together a "miracle list" of all the unbelievable things that the Lord has done for us in this whole selling/buying/moving process.  I stand amazed - literally.  Steve and I are just overwhelmed at how much the Lord cares about the giant things in our lives and the very smallest of details that really matter in our hearts even if we don't talk about them a lot - He knows our hearts and He meets us right where we are. 

Can't wait!  Steve can't wait for his new and improved shorter commute to work every morning.  I can't wait to get my awesome new dedicated school room all set up (more on that in a later blog post)!  The girls can't wait to get their own rooms.  And the boys can't wait to be all together in one room as "room mates" - they have been practicing by sleeping on the floor of each other's rooms at night.  Too cute!

I wish I had a funny story to tell or some clever way of announcing our big news, but I'm just wiped out!  Waking up at odd hours (usually between 3am and 4am) every day this month is taking a toll on me.  So, I really can't wait to just get settled again and into a groove at the new place.  Learning new grocery stores, new shopping, new restaurants, etc - that will take some adjustments!  And finding a gas station that has consistently good prices - that's my number one goal!

If we are personal friends or business acquaintances, watch your email box for our address and phone number change announcement.  Thanks for reading my blog!  Have an awesome week!

Today is our son Timothy's 9th birthday.  It's also his Grammy's birthday (she's 70!).  Here's the fun e-card that we made for her at Hallmark.com using their smilebox program.  FUN!!!!  Enjoy!

Blessings, Sunny

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4e4455334d7a63304d773d3d0d0a

Whew - what a week it's been - and it's only Wednesday! 

We suddenly got an offer on our house on Monday of this week, with a closing date less than 3 weeks away.  So, we kicked it into high gear and found a house - made an offer on it today and finalized the contract.  What a crazy week it has been!!!!  The new place is wonderful.  It's in Frisco near Independence and 121 - so quick access for my DH to get to and from work (he has been commuting over an hour each way most days - and further when he visits an office out of town 1-2x/week).  He said it took him 22 minutes to get there the night he looked at it - in rush hour traffic.  How cool is that?!?  Also - it is a TOTAL answer to prayer - more than we really thought we could squeeze into a house, but everything we could have imagined - except it's 2 stories (but I am not really sure we could have this and in a one-story - that was kind of a pipe dream!) - but we are amazed, blessed, in awe - God is good!  All the time!

We close in 2 weeks and have a couple of days to move out of one house and into the other.  Oh - and did I mention that God brought some really great buyers to our house?  I think our neighbors will be blessed to have this family in the neighborhood.

For those who only came to see the photos (you know who you are!) here ya go!

Front of house	Kitchen and breakfast room (see my little computer nook in the back?)
Family Room	Humong-a-bath
Neighborhood park, pool, & playground (with a pond)	Back of the house

As a reader of The Old Schoolhouse magazine - and NOT a digital magazine reader - I really wasn't sure what to expect from a digital edition. 

You know how you look at things online and it's just grainy pictures of things that you'd like to see a little clearer or you wish you could dig a little deeper to find out more about what you are reading?  (If you're an information junkie like me, you know you do that - just admit it!!!)  You'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse takes the paper version into the digital age and does a surprisingly thorough job of anticipating your wishes.

One of my favorite things about the digital edition is that all of the pages in the Table of Contents and index of advertisers were hotlinked - so you click on the page number and "voila!" you are there!  Also, every time an advertiser's or reporter's website or email are given, it is also hotlinked.  So, the stuff you used to have to write down has been handled for you.  Remember when you had to carry the magazine over to the computer to log onto someone's website - well, no more of that!  Just click on their link and you are shopping, surfing or emailing immediately.  That feature alone makes the digital version more useful than just an image of the paper version.

In addition to being extremely easy to read (the page flipping feature is so simple!), this digital version is also cheaper than the paper version.  You're saving them printing costs and they are providing you with simplified usage, less paper clutter to manage at home, and some awesome links to some of the best home-school resources available today.  You can't beat that!  :)

And did I mention that the content is identical - everything from the printed version is included in the digital version - PLUS you get the links to extra content from the writers, the advertisers, and associated websites.

If I were Siskel and Ebert (or Ebert and Roeper or any of the successors to that line of reviewers), I would give this two thumbs up!  ;-D  But since I'm NOT any of those guys, I'm going to give this product a rating of 5 "books" on a scale of 1-5 books.  (What self-respecting home-school mommy wouldn't use books as her scale of judgment for excellence!!!???)

Hope you have enjoyed reading my review of The Old Schoolhouse's digital magazine.  I'll have more reviews in the coming days.  I would love to have your feedback on the products or the reviews.  If you choose to use one of the products that I review, please let me know - and especially let me know if the product blessed you.  I'm always looking for something to make home-schooling easier and more enjoyable for all parties - moms, kids, dads, co-ops, groups, etc. - so this seems like a great way to check out what's out there and see what serves that purpose!  Hope you agree!

The countdown to the new school year has begun!  Are you ready???  Praying for a successful and effective learning situation for everyone in your family this year!

Much love from north Texas!
Sunny

Wow - I just finished reading through the 2008-09 e-book edition of The Schoolhouse Planner.  I have to say at first I was a little overwhelmed by all that was in it.  I was thinking - I just need some nice calendar pages and a few places to make some specific notes about what each of my kids is supposed to be doing from week to week.  But as I read through this long (247 pgs) e-book, I realized that I had a wealth of information at my fingertips!  Because it is an e-book, it is customizable as far as printing off just what you need - but I can't imagine not printing the entire thing because it has everything you could possibly need and then some.  Each month even includes lists of available downloads for that month's highlighted activities - all available at The Old Schoolhouse website.

If you have been a "flybaby" on Flylady.net, then you know what her control journal looks like.  This e-book takes that journal and puts some serious wings to it, because it includes planning for home-schooling, creative menu ideas, educational nuggets (like the 7 wonders of the world, the Constitution of the USA, timelines and history of inventions, Presidents, and much, much more), and plenty of calendar space for those daily activities that keep us busy moms running.  I stand corrected at my initial thoughts that all I needed were some calendar pages to get this year off to a rocking start!

If you're interested in downloading this e-book, go to The Schoolhouse Store, part of The Old Schoolhouse magazine and online service.  Their website is www.theoldschoolhousemagazine.com and you can find this and many other timely and useful products.  Here's a picture of the e-book that I'm reviewing: 

Hope all of your planning for this new school year is coming together and that you are rested, relaxed and ready to teach!   If you're still trying to figure out this coming year - grab this e-book and get moving!

We FINALLY got our house listed this week.  It is so cute!!!  I mean, it has always been a cute house, but now it is SOOO CUTE!!!  Here are photos of some of the rooms.  If you've been to my house, prepare to be amazed!  (LOL)

First - the front of our house:

Then, the kitchen and the living room

And now the master BR
 

And can I just say I AM TIRED!  But it's a good tired!  Exhausted might be a better word for it, but all that work was worth it - it looks super and I can't wait for someone to fall in love with this house, so we can find our next place.  I'll SOOOO miss living here - I have loved this house.  We knew it was "home" from the very first time we came in - and felt immediately at home the first night after we moved into it.  But we really felt the leading of the Lord to prepare this place to move - but we don't know where we are going yet.  So, if you're reading this far still, we appreciate your prayers for us to end up just where the Lord would have us. 

If you read my earlier posts this month, FYI, the kids did survive the packing/storing/cleaning process and are now enjoying a clutter-free home and adorable bedrooms.  We still own a bunch of the stuff - not sure if I'm going to let that stuff back into the house, though!  We also unloaded a LOT of nice things that just weren't working for us anymore.  CCA (Christian Community Action in Lewisville) got a ton of things and several friends got the "overflow" blessing of items that needed a new home.  Praise the Lord - I love to bless people out of the abundance of what we have.  I just didn't even realize the level of that abundance until I started trying to deliver things to people that I promised them - my goodness - I still have a long way to go on that one - and a trunkful of "treasure" to prove it! 

Hope you're living an overcoming, joy-filled, powerful life where you get to do things that you are passionate about - with people that you enjoy!  Who could ask for much more than that?!?!

OK - so pretend that I'm taking a break from all the work to gut my house before the carpet layers come later this week.  Whew - I'm just wiped out from all the packing and THINKING about how to organize things better.  I wish I could just cram stuff in boxes - but I know the trouble I'll have on the other end if I do that - I think that is how I "lost" a few things on this move.  We have now "found" those things while emptying a really deep closet and a forgotten portion of the garage.  Ugh!  At least some of those treasures are not gone forever (2 boxes were photos from early in our marriage and when the first 3 kids were really small!).

We're also pretending like we're having fun doing this!  I suppose if you let something go for too long (oh, let's say 7 years, just to have a nice round number!) it takes the same amount of work later to go back and get it right.  Can I get a witness on that?!?!?  LOL   I swear, we have probably put 4 years worth of cleaning (and clearing, packing, etc.) into some parts of our house.

I think my parents finally made their last big load to their new house yesterday.  Can't wait to see how that turns out.  Don't know what possessed the Lord to direct us both to pack up and plan moves at abotu the same time but "ugh" is about all I can say.  ;D

Did I mention on here how many books we packed earlier this week.  Well, we are now adding 2 more boxes to that list - things that just appeared out of nowhere after all the bookshelves were cleared and loaded into their boxes - and hauled off to the storage unit. 

Today, Jonathan wouldn't enter the house through the garage when we got home from Target.  He insisted on going through the front door.  Now normally, I would insist on obedience from a 4-year-old, especially if I thought it was a temper fit.  But I popped my head around the garage door long enough to look at how distraught he was and asked him what the problem was.  He said, "The garage is dirty and I don't want to go in there."  Had the sweetest little pout but looked like it was the end of the world if he got a little smudgy - and the garage looks GREAT right now compared to years past.  So, I don't know what the issue was, but I closed up the garage and went with him through the front door.  Decided that wasn't a battle I was willing to fight today - there are plenty of other things that I really want him to do and walking through the dusty garage isn't one of them. 

OK - that's all the "break" that I have time for today.  Steve is upstairs installing a new door and has been painting quite a bit.  I have only done 4 loads of laundry today and packed 3 boxes, so I think I'm falling behind here!!!!!  ;-)

Have an amazing day - whatever it is that you're doing!!!! 

Guess I could use that title every day, but seems appropriate these days as my youngest son, age 4, really is getting into noticing the details of his world these days.  He's always been incredibly observant with things that he sees and hears.  (i.e., he knows the names of all the bands on Power FM and most of the songs-  this totally cracks me up because it's rock/scream-o/metal Christian music - and the older kids were all listening to Baby Praise and The Wheels on the Bus at this age, but here he is listening with his teenage sister and can tell you more about the bands than I can - and I'm actually into it!!!)  Anyway, the other day we are driving past a mall and he starts reading out "D - I - eleven - and something" and Nicole says "He's spelling Dillards" - we cracked up laughing.  Funny kid.  Then yesterday, we were playing Wii Sports and he is explaining to me what "picking up spares" means on the bowling one.  I'm afraid I have a very early reader here!  :D

Timothy has been devouring the game Axis and Allies (about WWII) for a while now, but especially the last couple of weeks.  Honestly, I don't like them to have so much computer time, but it keeps him quiet while we work on the house and he can't unpack any more boxes of Legos or K'Nex or Playmobil while he is doing that - which my feet appreciate!

Susannah is growing an avocado from a pit.  It almost died a couple of weeks ago - someone tried to lift the plant up out of the dirt (who could that have been!?!?) but she and Steve replanted it and it is sprouting some leaves this week.  So, she made an outfit for it.  Yes, that is what I said - an outfit.  It's in a very tall cup (with a Dickey's BBQ logo on it) and I guess she got tired of looking at the boring cup so she drew an outfit on some paper and cut it out and wrapped it around the cup.  Then she taped some yarn with hands and feet (with shoes, of course) onto it.  I guess the stem of the plant is the neck and the leaves are the head???   Can't really tell, but that is what it looks like to me.

Nicole has basketball practice today, so she is preparing for a double-tournament week.  One tournament is this coming weekend ending on Sunday and the next tournament starts on Tuesday.  Perhaps a slight bit of basketball coming out our ears, but she's passionate about it and that blesses me.  It keeps her from texting for at least part of the day, which is worth something these days!  ;D 

I'm not actually feeling too funny myself these days.  Hoping that when the house looks more like a hotel and less like we actually live here that I can run away with the kids (and maybe even Daddy!) to Galveston or somewhere beachy.  Maybe even Destin - wouldn't that be awesome?  (say yes, because you know it would be!)  My sister lives near there so we could make it a two-fer trip.

Thanks for catching up with us!  Hope you enjoyed a giggle or two while you were here.  :)