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It's time to enroll in Blogger Friend School! Last year was my first year participating in this meme, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It looks like this will be a full and exciting year, beginning with a "Back to School Giveaway."

This year, there will be a Head of the Class award for everyone who completes all of the assignments for the year. However, for those of us who get busy and miss assignments, there is also an incentive for completing all of the assignments in any given month: the Perfect Attendance Award. The greatest incentive for completing assignments, in my opinion, is the encouragement that you will receive from other "classmates."

If you have never participated in Blogger Friend School, I encourage you to give it a try. Here are a few links if you would like more information:

• Class Description
• Meet the Teachers
• Back to School Giveaway

The "Back to School Giveaway" is running from August 25th to October 6th - definitely check it out because the "prize package" looks wonderful!

This is the last Blogger Friend School assignment for the year! Thank you to Tamara for starting this, and to Nancy for continuing it.

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

We homeschool year-round, with our summer school schedule being sporadic and light. We will finish up a light version of Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Unit 4, do a little writing and math, and enjoy our Creator's outdoor world.

June and July are always very active and adventurous months at our house. We are planning our church's vacation Bible school and a large annual outreach, both of which take place at the end of June. My husband, two sons and I are going on a short-term missions trip in July, while the girls spend a fun time with my parents-in-law. August should find us finishing up our light school schedule and relaxing, while I finish planning the start of a new school year.

We grabbed a quick vacation over Memorial Day weekend, fishing and relaxing with my family in northern Michigan. It was a wonderful trip; just what we needed before plunging into our busy season!

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

Hello everyone! I thought it would be nice to get to know one another's Favorite Bible Story...not necessarily a story in the Bible but the story of what your favorite Bible verse or story is and why. This will probably be a very easy assignment for us all but with warmer weather well on it's way, I know how hard it is to stay indoors, even for school work. Have fun with it and remember we only have two more BFS assignments left!

Go here if you would like to participate.

It is difficult for me to choose just one Bible verse or story because I have many that have been favorites for different seasons or circumstances of my life.

The story of Esther has consistently been a favorite of mine; it is such a beautiful picture of faithful obedience, redemption, justice and God's ultimate sovereignty.

"For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies." Psalm 57:10

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

This week's assignment is The Three R's -- Reduce, Recycle, and Re-use. I thought since today is Earth Day and this month is Arbor Day that we all could share ideas or tips that we use for recycling, reducing or re-using items in our home. Do you recycle at all? Does it just seem nearly impossible to recycle? Trying to catch every piece of trash that goes into the garbage is a hard one for me too. I have a friend who is very diligent with it and so are her children! It amazed me to see how they respect nature and use the Three R's in their home. I challenge you all to write about your ventures with recycling, reducing, and re-using your trash and take a pledge to at least try to use some of the tips that you read about on this assignment. Don't forget to add your favorite scripture for this assignment.

Go here if you would like to participate.

Reducing

• I am careful to try to drive as little as possible by running errands on days that I will already be out.
• I think I must be anti-grass. I absolutely refuse to water our lawn in the summer unless it is dead (which has not happened). It embarrasses my kids, but I can't stand wasting water on a weed. I have been looking into ground covers for a couple of years, but we have dogs and I cannot find anything feasible that is not considered invasive here (yet). In the meantime, we keep adding new gardening areas to the backyard. I mulch all of my garden beds, even my vegetable garden, to help conserve water (and control weeds).
• The kids and I had a talk about reducing a couple of months ago, and we are trying, somewhat unsuccessfully so far, to reduce and eventually discontinue the use of paper towels. I have been saving old dish towels for this purpose. I also wash and re-use plastic freezer bags.
• We try to conserve electricity and gas by keeping our thermostat as low as we can stand it in the winter and as high as we can stand it in the summer. We are also careful to turn off lights, computers etc., when not in use. We use surge protectors for our TV and DVD player so we can turn everything off when we don't use it. Someone told me years ago that a TV draws power even when it is not on. I started using a surge protector for ours and turned it off when we were not using it, and there was a noticeable difference on our next electric bill. I don't know if this is accurate information, but we noticed a difference, so we keep doing it.
• We have also slowly switched over to compact fluorescent light bulbs over the last few years. I know that there has been some concern about them lately, but the savings has been tremendous for us!
• We only wash full loads of laundry. I use cold water except for towels and bedding. I use a clothesline in nice weather, but it broke last year and needs to be replaced. With the nice weather, I have been itching to rig something up so I can hang our clothes up!

Recycling

• We have a recycle bin that we use pretty diligently. However, the recycling company that our city hires only takes certain plastics, and we do not recycle plastics that the company does not pick up. We recycle paper, most plastics, cans and glass (unless we reuse them).

Reusing

• We try to reuse whatever we can, but I do not like clutter, so if I cannot think of a use for something right away, then I get rid of it. I do try to think of uses for items before throwing them away. It is fun and challenging to try to find uses for various items.

Pledge

There is a recycling center not to far from us, so I am going to find out exactly what they accept and begin taking recyclables there. We will be more diligent about getting rid of the paper towels. I am also going to try composting this year.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's ideas. I think that it is easier to slowly change the way we use our resources rather than trying to change everything at one time. I know that we have a lot of room for improvement, but I want any changes we make to last and not feel overwhelming, so we take things a little at a time.

"The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place?" Psalm 24:1-3

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

Sombra wrote, "I think it would be interesting to find out if some of the other ladies have sunk their teeth into something new in the last year or so, what are they enthralled with, what has claimed the fires of their passion." You can post pictures or as many things as you'd love to start doing for YOURself. I stand corrected but I took it from Sombra's email that she meant OUR OWN passion and not something your children or husband would like you to learn. Make sure you include a favorite scripture.

Go here if you would like to participate.

For a long time I have wanted to learn how to make my own web graphics. I have dabbled in that for the last few months, although I still have a lot to learn. I made my header, but I didn't use my own graphics for it.

I have also always wanted to cook and make household items from scratch. Since I quit doing medical transcription at the end of last year, I have had time to work on this. I've been making all of our bread, granola, yogurt and buttermilk; as well as our household cleaners and laundry soap. I would like to conquer tortilla-making - they take forever for me to make. I've never used a lot of convenience foods, but just these few changes have saved us a ton of money in groceries!

My husband and I have also been trying to learn Spanish with another couple for several months, and I would really like to learn New Testament Greek. I have some resources, but I haven't fit that into my schedule yet.

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." Psalm 37:3-7

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

For this week's assignment I thought it would be fun to share our dinner plans for the night or if you're organized enough for the week. You can include pictures if you desire. Also tell what your family likes to drink, if you have desserts or not. If you want to then take this assignment and let all the children in your life make dinner for the night. Please add your favorite verse for this assignment as it might be an encouragement for someone else. This week's assignment is short and sweet so have fun with it.

Go here if you would like to participate.

This should be an easy assignment for me since I have been participating in orgjunkie.com's Menu Plan Monday meme. However, the menu has changed a bit, as usual, so I can post the latest plan here! :-) I'm looking forward to seeing what others are doing for lighter meals. I love cooking in the winter, but I tend to fizzle out in the summer. We usually drink water and have dessert about once a week.

Wednesday

Fried Tilapia, broccoli (Jordan is cooking tonight)

Thursday

Homemade Mac & Cheese, salad

Friday

Chili, cornbread, salad (Nathan is cooking tonight - we've been perfecting a chili recipe together, and he's ready to do it alone)

Saturday

Beef Vegetable Soup (crockpot)

"Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years." Deuteronomy 8:2-4

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

I was wondering tonight (Wed. March 26th) when the last time was that I laughed so hard my cheeks ached and my stomach hurt. This week I thought it would be fun to share one or two short experiences with everyone about one of those times in your lives. Tell a story or two about the last BIG laugh you had with your hubby or whole family. The don't mean a little ha ha laugh...I'm talking about cheek hurtin', gut wrenchin',snortin' out loud, almost wet my pants laughing moments!!! This can be a recent story or one from your childhood. We all want to laugh with you and enjoy these funny moments! Have fun and you can add pictures if you have any. Don't forget: Add your favorite verse for this assignment.

Go here if you would like to participate.

This must be what people feel like who "freeze up" when they have to take a test! I know that we've had plenty of laughable moments, but the only ones I can think of are the "you needed to be there" type of times. Here is one of those that we still laugh about:

All six of us were trying to agree on a movie to watch together. Someone made a movie suggestion, and Jordan piped up, "The pizza man says 'No.'" We all looked at each other and laughed hysterically! We still use that line with each other.

I participated in Principle Discovery's Home Education Week this week, and I let my children have my blog for the "In Their Own Words" topic! I am still laughing about one of my oldest son's comments about his homeschool life:

"Life has been like a roller coaster (the dragster) for me: You get strapped up in that roller coaster going 130 mph, and your cheeks are flying to the back of your neck, your stomach is miles behind you, and you're not sure if a pigeon is going to hit your face or not - it's just great."

Makes our homeschool sound pretty exciting, doesn't it? By the way, he's never been on a roller coaster. Maybe we should change our name to "Pigeon Academy."

"Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad." Psalm 126:2-3

~Andrea

Here is this week's assignment from Nancy's blog:

There are lots of windows in our lives, i.e., window of our soul, closed windows and open windows that God has for our lives, there's what some people call their, "window of opportunity", and there's "eyes are the window to our soul". The assignment is to take a picture, if you're able, find a graphic if you can, and write about your favorite window in your home or the one you look out of when you have those 'daydreaming' moments.

Go to here if you would like to participate.

Well, there isn't much to view right now; it's a cold, rainy day today, and everything looks a bit dreary. I don't really have a favorite window, but I love having everything open and bright.

I love my kitchen window because it has the new famous landmark curtains that my mother-in-law made for me! :-) It's also fun to look out when I'm washing dishes. I often see birds perching on my neighbor's bushes, especially in spring. I've also seen squirrels climbing straight up the wall of my neighbor's house! It is a really funny sight!

In the summer, I gaze outside to a neighbor's absolutely beautiful landscaping! I wish everything was blooming now. Their yard is gorgeous! We have a bird feeder hanging on our porch, so in the winter we get quite a few birds too.

This is the view to our backyard. It looks pretty yucky and muddy now, but in the summer my garden beds are full of plants.

"For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Isaiah 61:11

~Andrea