Jun. 15, 2006
Almost Bedtime
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Well, the day is almost finished, and it
has been a busy one. I have cleaned all day. The kids went with their
friends and another homeschool mom to the mall and movies. We had
company this evening. Afterwards, we all went to my mother's
house and helped pick up the pieces of a tree that had fallen earlier
this month. We are now getting in and getting our showers. My son performed with his band last night for the first time at our Oneighty youth center. He is the drummer. They did a Hawk Nelson song for praise and worship time. I was so proud of him. He had been looking forward to this day for many months, and they did such a good job. I love the summer nights here in Tennessee. We live on the lake and it is beautiful at night. I can look out my back doors across the patio and see the moon shimmering on the lake..It is beautiful! Have a great evening! |
Jun. 13, 2006
Good Morning!
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It has been quite a while since I have
blogged. This year has been like a fog. I feel that we have not really
accomplished much. We will be doing school through the summer. I have
planned to do Grammar, Math, and Science. We are working about 3
days per week. My father passed away last week. He was at peace, and passed away gently at home. I will miss him, but I know he is in Heaven and I will see him again. He was very good to his grandchildren, and they all loved him so much. I have to register the children with our Umbrella school next week. We have chosen Berean Christian School in Knoxville. I think this will be best for High School. They seem to be very well informed and helpful, and I need all the help I can get. I am still trying to choose our curriculum for fall. I have chosen Sonlight for History, Literature, and Bible. Math U See for my daughter, Saxon Alg 1 for my son, Apologia Biology for my son. I have not chosen Science for my daughter, and am still undecided about Grammar and Composition. I will be back soon to update you on what I chose... Blessings, Beth |
Apr. 5, 2006
The Science Experiment
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Apr. 5, 2006
My son
 My ds, the drummer>>>> |
Apr. 5, 2006
New pics
 My dd |
Apr. 5, 2006
Good Morning!
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Hi everyone, It has been a while since I have blogged. We had to do standardized testing in March, and I am finally catching up. We have decided to school year round this year. We will take a few breaks in the summer to go on vacation, but we will continue to work through our math and language arts. We are not nearly finished with these texts and I feel the need to finish them this year. We now have an official school room upstairs. It was my computer/office room and I move the kids desks in and all of our homeschooling materials. We had our first day upstairs yesterday. It went so much better. I feel so much more organized with everything in one place. Before, we had school stuff all over the house. Since the kids are getting older, I feel they need more structure and need to learn to keep everything in one place. My dh has our camera with him at work, but as soon as I get it back, I will take a pic of the school room and post it on here. I am going to put new pics up today and try to keep up with my blogs. The kids have went through so many changes this year. Michael is still skateboarding, but at Christmas he wanted a drum set and we bought one for him. He caught on pretty quickly to it, and now is drumming for a band. It consists of him and 2 other homeschooled boys. They are writing a song to perform at our Coops year end event. Kari has taken up the guitar and still is working on writing her book. They both are on the drama team at church, which has been asked to perform at the National day of prayer in Knoxville TN. They are working on a couple of new routines right now. I am still studying transcription, and I am so close to the end. I cannot wait to have it completed. My husband runs the soundboard at our church and works full time as a realtor. That is what is going on here.. I will keep you updated.. Beth |
Feb. 14, 2006
I'm a bad blogger!
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It has been over a month since my last
blog! I have been so busy studying and keeping up with
homeschooling. The kids are doing great and I am finishing my
transcription course. I cannot wait to be done and be working. I
know I will enjoy working from home. It snowed over the weekend here in East TN. We still have snow on the ground. The temp is supposed to be up to 47 degrees, so it will most likely melt today. The forecast for Thursday is a high of 60 degrees. Wow, snow one minute, spring the next. Gotta love Southern weather! Schooling is going well. We are using Easy Grammar Plus, and it has made life so much easier for us. I love language arts, but some of the curricula out there is just downright tedious, with way too much busy work. Easy Grammar is straight to the point and fun to each. The kids like it, because Grammar doesn't take all day and they know they are learning. We are still moving along in Rainbow Science. We do 2 lessons and an experiment per week. It is also easy and fun. Math, as usual, is always a struggle for us, mainly because I am not a math person. We have used every kind of curricula available for Math, just to come back to Saxon, which I wished we would have stuck with in the first place. I feel Saxon is easiest to teach and keeps the math concepts fresh in their minds with the constant review of concepts. Michael is in Alg 1/2 and Kari is in 7/6. Michael does his through the Coop and has a wonderful teacher. I am teaching Kari. I plan for both of them to do Math through the Coop next year. They also do History and Spanish through Coop, and some other extra curricular studies. This has worked great for us this year. I have some pics of the snow to show you. I think you will enjoy them. Happy Valentines Day! Beth |
Dec. 30, 2005
Getting back to normal..
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We have been on Christmas break for 2
weeks. We are finally winding things down, and I am getting ready to
start school back on Monday. We had a good Christmas and we are
looking forward to the New Year. My brother that was in the accident is now in a local Nursing home here in town. He is getting physical therapy and is doing better physically. Mentally, he is still having problems. He cannot remember things, and cannot read anything. He is still not absolutely sure why he is in the nursing home. I have not blogged in a while. I joined the local gym and have been working out everyday for an hour. I am feeling a lot better. I just wish I had a friend to work out with. I am taking today off and try to get everything ready for next week. I cannot wait to get back to a schedule, and get the kids back on track. I love having time off, but it seems like things are chaotic when we are not in our daily routine. The kids want to stay on the computer and the phone all day long, and it drives me nuts with all of the other kids calling. I will be glad when school starts. I will be glad to have some structure back in our days. My husband starts a new job today. He is a Real Estate agent and will be working for a local office. He is very excited about this, and I am very happy for him. I am still studying transcription, and hope to have my course done by February. I will enjoy working from home. I plan on working in the late evenings, so it will not interfere with our school time. Happy New Year! Beth |
Dec. 15, 2005
Christmas Decorating Kit
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"Christmas Decorating Kit" Zoe Elmore Proverbs 31 Speaker Team Member Key Verse: Luke 1:11-12, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (NIV) Devotion: Each year as the Christmas season approaches I look for ways to balance the duties and distractions of Christmas while keeping Christ at the center of our celebrations. This year I'm committed to finding a spiritual application for items I might use in preparation for this holy and wonderful holiday. Let me illustrate this idea for you in what I call my "Christmas Decorating Kit." As I prepare to bake our favorite holiday treats, I will need my cookbook. What a wonderful reminder that the Bible is my cookbook for life. It gives me the ingredients and instructions for fruitful living. When I cover my clothes with an apron I'm reminded that the blood of Christ covers me and keeps me from being stained by sin. My kitchen timer ensures that nothing is under or over baked, in the same way the Lord times out every situation in my life perfectly. As I bake holiday treats to share with family and friends, I always use sugar. This is my reminder to share the sweetness of Christ's love with others. The measuring cups and spoons I use provide exact amounts of the necessary ingredients for my recipe. Think about how God always provides an abundance of His love, His mercy and His grace in our lives. Aren't you thankful that God's provision is not limited to measuring cups and spoons? When I add spices and flavorings to my foods I'm reminded of Christ's words in Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth" (NIV). I should be adding flavor to the lives of others. I have many different cookie cutters in my collection, and as I bake our favorite Greek cookies I'm reminded that, just as my cookie cutters are all different, each one of God's children is unique and wonderfully different. In setting the table with my Christmas china I am reminded I must feast on God's Word each day for spiritual food and I should be reminded that Christ is the "Bread of Life." When I pull out my artificial Christmas tree I like to place a nativity scene between the branches. When I see the tree I am reminded of why we celebrate this holy season. Christ was born in a manger, but He came to die on a tree for our salvation. Christmas music holds a very special place in my heart since I am a former singer. Songs that tell the glad tidings of Christ's birth are a wonderful reminder to proclaim this joyous message to all those we encounter during this holy season and throughout the year. I like to decorate our home with lighted garland and lots of candles. This is a perfect picture of Christ coming to be "The Light of the World." This year I hope everyone who visits my home and yours will know that it is decorated in honor of Christ's birthday My Prayer for Today: Father, Help us to remember that Christmas is not about the gifts, or the twinkling eyes of children; it's not about a Christmas tree and special cookies or families gathering together. Christmas is the time to celebrate the fact that Your Son became man to enable man to become Your sons (and daughters). I pray our focus will be Christ alone as we celebrate this season. In Jesus' Name, Amen. |
Dec. 15, 2005
My brother was involved in a serious car accident
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On Dec 5 my brother was involved in a
serious accident and suffered serious head trauma. He is still very
weak on one side of his body and was in intensive care until Dec 15.
Please pray for physical and spiritual recovery for him. |
Dec. 6, 2005
The Glory of His Name
Dec. 5, 2005
6:45 am our electricity goes off
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I have bacon on the stove, coffee brewing,
and eggs mixed and ready for a pan. My husband is in the shower. We
scurry around for a while getting flashlights. We light the oil lamp on
the wall in the kitchen. We try calling the utility company, busy
signal, over and over. 7:15 am My husband leaves for working and I am lying on the couch under a blanket wondering when the electric will be back on. 7:30 Hubby calls me from his cell and tells me that the electric is off in all 3 towns he has to drive through to get to work. The town he works in has electric, so it must me just our county that has the problem. 7:45 I call another homeschooling friend. She is on the couch under the covers as well, waiting for the electric to come back on.We discuss emergency preparedness. We make a list of things we need to have stored just in case: Batteries, flashlights, candles, emergency readios, water supply and MRE's. We agree if the electric isn't on by 11:30 am, we will get together and go to the nearest town with electricity and eat lunch. 8:45 I call hubby back to see if he has a clue about what is going on. He says it is a major thing and that they will have to reroute our electricity from another place. I guess it will be a while before I see lights and heat again. 9:00 My bacon is still in a pan on the stove and I don't want to waste anything. I am dying for a cup of coffee. I fill a stainless steel bowl with water, get my pan of bacon, go on the back porch and fire up the gas grill (mind you it is 34 degrees, windy, and overcast outside) I boil my water, cook my bacon, make my coffee, and I am good to go. I find a radio with batteries(yeah!). 9:45 Kids get up and rejoice that the power is out (they think they won't have to do schoolwork today). They call their homeschooled friends, who are without power as well. 11:00 We get ready and go out to meet our homeschooling friends and eat lunch for a couple of hours. 2:00 We return home and the electricity is back on (yipee!) and it is actually warm in the house again..The kids are informed that schoolwork will be done (sad faces), but we have half a day tomorrow due to homeschool meeting (happy faces again).. We finish the day with schoolwork, supper, and that is our day in a nutshell... |
Nov. 30, 2005
Picking up school pictures today!
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I have to pick up the kids school pictures
today. One advantage of being enrolled with an umbrella is that we got
to take school pictures this year for the first time in 5 years. The
kids take soccer pictures every year and these are what I have used in
place of the school photos. I think the kids liked being able to get
their picture made. I hope they turned out good. I am joining the gym. I have finally made my decision. I am selling my treadmill (which I never use) and using the money to go to the gym. I went and visited yesterday and it was really nice. There is a ladies only gym that I can work out in and it has everything I need. Just pray for me that I can be consistent. I am not doing a year contract right now. They have a special offer that you can join for just 2 months and don't have to do a contract. I am going to try that first and see how it goes and if I like it, I will join. I need to lose about 20 pound, and of course the exercise will make me healthier and I hope it makes me feel better. I just feel tired all the time and they say exercise can give you more energy, hmmm...we will see. I am trying to get some of my friends to join with me so I will have some accountability. I really need someone to meet me and be in this with me. I think it would help me stay motivated. Hopefully, someone will accept my offer.. Gotta go and start school..by the way..we are really enjoying Mystery of History 2. It is so interesting. The kids like it much better than BJU and they are understanding it and retaining it better. We really like Rainbow Science too. It has 2 lessons and then an experiment per week. It is great. We are having to test this year per the umbrella school. I need to get some test prep books and go over them with the kids pretty soon. I think I will do that today and start them after Christmas. Hope you have a great day!! Beth |
Nov. 30, 2005
Thank God For Homeschooling!!!!!!!!!!
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I just have Thanksgiving in my heart today
for the Homeschooling community. We have homeschooled for 6 years. I am
so glad that God opened my eyes and lead me in this direction. We have
had our ups and downs, but I know I made the right decision. We have so
many fond memories. I am thankful for all of my diehard homeschooling
friends who have supported me over the years. I love every one of them.
I want to thank everyone on this site. You are what homeschooling is
about. You are the backbone, sharing your lives and supporting one
another. Bless you all! Beth |
Nov. 23, 2005
Getting Ready for the Holdiays..
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The kids do not want to do schoolwork
today. They tell me that public school is only in until 9:30 today. I
am thinking to myself "What's the point in going at all"? I want to
finish one more days work before we go on break. My kids act like it
will kill them. They are only doing Bible, History, Language Arts, and
Math at this time. It takes them about 2 hrs to get all of their work
finished. I don't feel like that is too much to ask. We started out using all BJU this year and it just wasn't working at all. It is a very good program, but I didn't feel like my children were learning very much. We were using HomeSat. When the kids would watch the history tapes, I would see their eyes glazing over and they would start getting distracted and not pay attention. It was the same way with science. I switched to Mystery of History for History, and Rainbow Science for science. My son decided to take a history course at coop and is studying 20th century history and my daughter and I do the MOH together. We are still waiting for Rainbow Science to come in the mail. I hope it will come before Monday, so we can start then. Math and Language arts are going well. The HomeSat teachers do a very good job at explaining the concepts and the lessons are easy to keep up with. Do you ever feel like your kids would not do anything unless they were told? My children are not very self-motivated and I know we need to work on it. It may be the age that they are at. We are in the Middle school years. This year has been a struggle for them and me. They want to be more independent, but yet they are not mature enough or self-motivated enough to do their work on their own. If I just gave them a schedule and told them I wanted to see the work at the end of the week, I am sure they would wait until the last day to do all of it. We have been used to having a lot of activities going on. The kids played soccer for 3 months and were on Drama team, pretty heavy. Now, everything has kind of slowed down..it was nice at first, but I feel like they are bored now. I want to get them back into some activities soon. We are in a very small rural town. There are no volunteer programs at all (that I know of). There is a larger town that we attend coop in that is about 40 miles from here. There are lots of things going on there. At this time, I cannot afford the gas money to attend anything other than coop. That is the ups and downs of living in a small town. We have a nice home on the lake and it is very peaceful out here, but I would like more community events, performing arts, volunteer programs, etc.. and that isn't available here. I have typed long enough this morning... Blessings, Beth |
Nov. 21, 2005
I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgivinge
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This year has flown by. Each year seems to
come and go quicker than the one before. All of the holidays seem to
sneak upon me, and before I know it, they are over with. We just
started our Christmas shopping yesterday. I will do most of it
online. We are very limited in the selection of stores in our area and
by going online and shopping, I get a better selection and don't have
to fight crowds, yeah! I don't have much time and wanted to check in and let you guys know I am still here.. Blessings, Beth |
Nov. 14, 2005
Me with THIRD DAY ALL ACCESS TICKET!
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Nov. 14, 2005
Mac and Mark of THIRD DAY!!
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Nov. 14, 2005
Good Morning everyone!
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This weekend went well. On Saturday my
daughter and I went to the mall and spent a little time by
ourselves. I try to take one child out for special time once a
month. Yesterday we went to church and ate Chinese and then came
home for the rest of the day. The children had their friends over and
went fishing and 4-wheeling. It was very nice outside. I am
studying this morning. The public schools are open again and the news
reports have been on showing everyone returning to school for the first
day after the school shooting. My children are still asleep. My
son's friend that came over yesterday attends the High School where the
shooting happened. I ask him if he was afraid to return and he said
that he wasn't really afraid at all. He said he never imagined that the
boy was capable of doing anything like this. He had known him for
a while. At church yesterday we prayed over all of the kids and
teachers that were going back today. It is just hard for me to identify with the people that are sending their children back to school. It is hard for me to understand. I feel that I have a different Worldview than they and all I can say is that I'm sorry that it happened, but I don't agree with the system to begin with..It's a hard place to be. I am the only Homeschooler in our rather large congregation. We have at least 500 in service each Sunday. I am the lone ranger, so the speak. |
Nov. 10, 2005
Good Morning Friends
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Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
In the aftermath of Tuesday school shooting here in Campbell County,
our public school system is closed for the remainder of this week. This
morning they allowed the teachers back into the school and the parents
and students can go back in tomorrow to retrieve their belongings. The
community is still reeling from the depth of it all. The authorities
still have no motive for the shooting. The young man is being held at
an undisclosed facility. The two survivors are the Principal and an
assistant principal. They are still listed in critical condition.
Please continue to pray for our community. There have been families at
the school praying around the clock. It's chilly out this morning. Yesterday's high was around 80 degrees. It looks like today's high will be the mid 50's. Our weather is crazy. I prefer it to be cooler in the fall. I am looking forward to the Holiday's this year and seeing family members. Have a Wonderful Day! |