The room is done!   There is even some furniture moved in already.  It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less...  The whole experience was great!  The contractor was super GREAT!   The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done.  Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals.  He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn~the leftovers of a business that had gone under.  We got them for $1 a linear foot...  They retailed for over $5 a linear foot.  They are perfect!!  He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost.  Lets put it this way.  Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam.  He did the job for $76~the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper.  The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be...  So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?

Yeah! Well, this is all you are getting right now.  The big reveal will be just after Christmas.  This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the childrens bedrooms.  I show you all the rooms once we have curtains and such.

In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room.  We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it.  My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project and they have not held up as well as we would have expected.  So for now we will paint this floor instead.  We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week. 

That is all for now!  

Blessings,

Dawn

Here are some Christian reviews of the Twilight series. One of the reviews is by a Cristian woman who was formerly deeply involved in the occult.

A Girl and Her Vampire: The Frenzy over Twilight

Twilight Obsession

Responses

Review of book New Moon

What an amazing day we had today! Goldilocks has been struggling to learn to read for 2 years now.  Most of the time, it seemed like we were spinning our wheels and making no progress.  We have switched reading programs five times and tried all kinds of different games with very little improvement.  Then today happened ... Goldilocks sat down for her lesson as usual and said she wanted her reading party today.  I said that she had to finish the entire Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane (1st grade) to have her reading party.  She said she was going to finish that book today and have her party.  Mind you, she had only previously read the first page of the 193 page book when she sat down with me this morning!!!  Over the next 2 1/2 hours she read the entire book!!!! All 193 pages!!!  I would have never believed it was possible!!!  This is the child who can take 40 minutes to write 3 sentences in her copywork book and has spent the better part of the year screaming, hiding and crying about reading 3 pages in a Bob Book.  I switched her to Dick and Jane about a week ago.  She seemed to like it more than other programs.  Then I decided to start giving her hard boiled eggs and Kiwi each day (brain food) which is supposed to help with ADHD symptoms and improve a person's IQ.  I can't say what happened differently today but AMEN!

This picture was taken when Goldilocks was on the last few pages.  Kids were piled up everywhere to see her make it to being a READER!

Reading the last page!

Goldilocks with her book and certificate ....

Goldilocks had a confetti cake with strawberry frosting and a black sugar bunny in the corner!

Blessings,

Dawn

When I sit down and think in the quiet hours of the evening about what I want for my children, one of the things that always comes up is charity.  I want my children to have charitable hearts for those less fortunate.  I want them to be an active force in their communities when they are grown and to think of others and what they can do to serve them. The best way to train our children in this is to have them serve in their community now and see us serve in our community as well.  Our children are so blessed.  They have so much while others go without.  In light of our children all getting separate rooms in a few weeks, it weighs on my mind all the more how important it is that they know how privileged they are and learn early to care for others. 

So, I want to reaffirm how we teach our children to be charitable.  In the past, we have done charity here and there and then heavily at Christmas time.  There seems to be so many opportunities at Christmas time that it is very easy.  However, how are we as parents showing our children that charity is one of our core values, if it is not at the forefront of our teachings?  To me, when I turn them out into the world in just a few short years, my children's character is more important than their academic abilities.  So we are going to put charity at the forefront of our teachings in the next year.  Whether it be at home (with sibs) or out and about, it will be one of our driving themes.

To get this new idea started, we are going to pick a charity to focus on each month.  For the month of November, we will be raising money for polar bears.  This was easy to decide upon because we are studying the Arctic this month.  The kids are very interested in polar bears and were sad to see how hard their lives have become due to the change in climate. (We watched the Disney movie, Earth, for our Sunday night movie night yesterday.) I was able to find a charity where we could make a tiny impact for $25.  To make this come to life for the kids (instead of Mom writing a check), we are going to earn the money by cutting back in different ways at home. 

• One night this week we will only eat rice for dinner.  This will save us about $4.75 from the amount of an average dinner. 
• The kids are going to put any change in the jar they find on the ground.  I have one child who finds a penny or two almost every time we leave the house! 
• We will skip the Blockbuster Sunday night movie and make do with the library to find our Sunday night movie.  (We often do this anyway.)

Well, that will be a good start.  The kids are excited (except Tom Sawyer about eating only rice for dinner -- ne never forgets to thank God for food during his evening prayers LOL).  If you all have any great ideas of charities, leave them for me in comments.  Just as we did last year, we will be doing a charity each week from Thanksgiving through the New year.  I still am plotting those charities out.

Blessings,

Dawn

Prices do not include shipping. All books in used condition.
There are a few more, but I can't finish uploading right now.

$1 per book or 3/$2



Troll Illustrated Classics -
*The Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett
*Peter Pan by James M. Barrie
*The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
*The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett



*The Twits by Roald Dahl
*Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary 



*Dear Mr.Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

***************I actually have four more Beverly Cleary,  I just don't have pictures.*********************



*Second Grade Ape by Daniel Pinkwater
*Alone in His Teacher's House by Marvin Redpost
*Horrible Harry and the Dungeon by Suzy Kline



*Don't Do That, Dexter! by Jodee Mcconnaughhay
*Rockin Reptiles, The Gator Girls bk.2 by Stephanie Calmenson
*Arthur's Underwear by Marc Brown



*3 copies of Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold



*Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London
*Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London



*Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus
*Blabber Mouse by True Kelley
*Sherman Crunchley by Laura Numeroff
*Imogene's Antlers by David Small



*Amazing & Incredible Counting Stories by Max Grover
*Trashy Town by Andres Zimmerman



*Daniel's Dinosaur by Mary Carmine
*The Monster Bed by Jeanne Willis
*Dinorella by Pamela Duncan Edwards

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4097787315_90e4695e4a.jpg[/img]

*Let's Go Home, Little Bear by Martin Waddell
*The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/4099063178_8abd0ba0f2.jpg[/img]

*A Pocketful of Stars: Poems about the Night by Nikki Siegen-Smith
*The Spring Rabbit by Joyce Dunbar

Wow!  This week has flown by.  With all of the distractions the house is presenting right now, plus a flood in the basement and dear Goldilocks having a major meltdown and needing to leave home for a two day respite with her one-on-one therapeutic worker, the week had its downs.  Still, we got loads of living and learning done.  So, here is some glimpses of our week, in no particular order.

Apple pie making and tasting...

A dreamed for and saved for first violin.  Little Red Ridinghood saved up her allowance and bought it herself.  This is the Strike a Chord violin, and it is much nicer than I expected.  It plays 18 classical songs that the child can listen to and then play by rubbing the bow across the violin.  It plays the song at the speed of the childs bowing.  It also can be turned off for the child to just play the scales.  Very cool! (Notice the paint in little ones hair)...

Writing on the wall, literally.  This counts for handwriting and spelling, right?

A nature walk to see the latest flood.  This park is less than a mile from our home.  Our city is in the process of doing a wonderful job of turning much of the flood zone into wetland parks.  There is a little bit of everything for everybody ~ playgrounds, picnic areas, hockey and volleyball courts, walking trails, dog park, nature trails, decks over the river to fish from and much more in the works.  When the river leaves her banks, the park fills with water and there is minimal loss and damages.

Goldilocks returned home much happier and calmer ~ ready to be a family member once again.  The kids are working on creating an arctic book, using their Draw Write Now book #4.

Lunch out and play date with some friends ...

and tea time, painting walls, chores, reading lessons, painting walls, furniture moving, movie watching and painting walls.  Just a few more hours of painting and I should be in the clear.  At least with painting the walls that is ~ lots of furniture to still refinish and paint for Little Red Ridinghood's Christmas gift .

Blessings,

Dawn