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I just became a Bright Press affiliate! Pleae shop my link http://www.brightideaspress.com/cmd.php?af=1099053 and enjoy the sales! AND...enjoy the deals below, too! I'll be adding more deals as I find them! Snowman Runner Or Placemat Set only $4.95 at Lakeside.com 60% off Revlon® 1875 Watt Travel Hair Dryer at Lakeside.com! Awesome Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales in the TOS Online Store!!!!  MiddleSister |
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I'm not sure who penned this, but I thought it was worth posting...I got it in an email. I hope you read this and pass the link along to others.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE ‘Twas the month before Christmas* *When all through our land,* *Not a Christian was praying* *Nor taking a stand.* *See the PC Police had taken away,* *The reason for Christmas - no one could say.* *The children were told by their schools not to sing,* *About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.* *It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say* * December 25th is just a 'Holiday'.* *Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit* *Pushing folks down to the floor just to get at it!* *CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod* *Something was changing, something quite odd! * *Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa* *In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.* *As Targets were hanging their trees upside down* *At Lowe's the word Christmas - was nowhere to be found.* *At K-Mart and Staples and Penney's and Sears* *You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.* *Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty* *Are words that were used to intimidate me.* *Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen* *On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!* *At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter* *To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.* *And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith* * Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace* *The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded* *The reason for the season, stopped before it started._ *So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'* *Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me..* *Choose your words carefully, choose what you say* *Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!* Please, all Christians join together and wish everyone you meet MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christ is The Reason for the Christ-mas Season! If you agree please PASS THIS ON, if not, simply delete. All Journeys Have Secret Destinations of Which the Traveler is Unaware.
How is current “Change” working for you now?
God never changes, but our Country and Leadership has!
Go with God For A Future!
MERRY CHRISTMAS |
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Greenhouse I have a few projects that I am now in the middle of since the seasons are changing and I am not working for pay. One of my long-time-to-do-it projects has been to make a greenhouse. I did a lot of research on kits, DIY and products in between. What I have settled on is building a half-hoop greenhouse. So far I have spent less than $25 and I have repurposed some materials as well. I am building a 8'X12' structure that is a lean-to my shed. (i am so bad not to post any pictures but I will try to do that.) Recipes I have also neglected my recipe wiki, SisterSisters Kitchen Favorites, but I am starting to work on that again. My sisters have not been able to contribute and with all that Emma has had going on, I have not paid proper attention to that site. I hope to be adding a guest contributor on a weekly basis. If I can't find one, then I will have to make do (heeheehee). So please check out SisterSisters for great recipes for the changing seasons and the holidays. Shopping My last topic for the day will be about shopping. It's that time of year when everyone is doing so much of it. My friend Robyn is having a baby at the end of the year and one of the places I'll be shopping is HappyMothers.com because they are offering some great deals! This week's HAPPYMOTHERS.com deals include: Free Gift with Any Purchase - http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?m=11573&u=292531&d=22659 Little Partners Learning Tower 10% Off Sale - http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?m=11573&u=292531&d=22471 Another place I'll turn to is The Old Schoolhouse Store, Online! They have so many deals to offer right now and they ALWAYS have free shipping. Click the digital banner below and find a great subscription deal for you and your friends by receiving the The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! And speaking of free, TOS is giving away an awesome holiday digital suppliment for FREE! ~ http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Digital-Supplement/Thanksgiving&Christmas.html ~ You'll find lots of great ideas for Thanksgiving (my favorite) and Christmas season. Also, my dear friend, Molly Green of Econobusters.com, is offering some wonderful deals:
Don't you love to look back on those memories?
It's the November Molly's Money-Saving Get your scissors and scrapbook supplies ready . . . What's up in December? I'll have more on shopping deals and links later, so be sure you come back. Oh, and let me know what you think! One last thing, look into Kerusso's "God's Girlz" and tell me what you think. We have been studying Native American and reading "Nellie the Brave". Another post - another day. |
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I'm sorry that I don't have a picture to post of Macie and the calf. Rosella, the crossbred heifer, has been good medicine for Macie. Every morning (and I do mean every morning) from late June until September, Macie and I headed out to J&M Farms (who sponsored Macie) to feed, walk, groom and clean up this heifer. Macie doesn't have passion for many things. Animals, however, bring a lot of inspiration to this girl. She has read, written and drawn all summer concerning this cow. Admittedly, she is not accepting of the fact that her calf is from beef stock and though she may never be eaten, her decendents will be. Macie is thinking about next year. She wants to do shows in the spring and is looking forward to the fair next year. Because of her dedication and hard work. Macie received Showmanship Award and Jr Herdsman. I am so excited to see her really like something.
MiddleSister |
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I love bargains! My dumpster diving experience really didn't start off as a dumpster quest, but it became one. Let me explain. Our WalMart expanded and moved to another property (as most in the WM kingdom do) and its remants were left to be be liquidated. For years, I have been pricing gridwall, you know that stuff that clothing is displayed upon, to redo my walk-in closet that's not well designed for its size. This stuff is normally $30+ a panel and that's not counting the shipping cost. A friend of mine in retail told me that the best place to find this sort of thing was from a liquidator at a location sell. Thankfully that happened this summer as WalMart left it's half-gutted building for a new palace off the by-pass. I found these panels for $3.00 (yes, that's right) each and bought 10. You had to take the stuff down yourself. As I and my friend, Sabrena, were walking through the building, we noticed a dumpster FULL of pegboard and pegs. I was astonished and then a worker leaned over and said that all this stuff was going in the dumpster and we were welcomed to it. Excitedly, we headed out to the five dumpsters filled with boxes of florescent lights, boards, pegboards, slatboards, baskets, paintchip cards, cat food, recipe cards, markers, and even a Barbie Nintendo DS game! We actually made three trips. The last day of the liquidation, I picked up eight more panels for $1.50 each and hook bars and arm bars for $1 each. I bought a swift tagger for $2.00, complete with a box of 5000 tags. My last dive was with my neighbor (Cindy), her boys and Sabrena's family. We filled up two vans and a truck. One thing we carted home just to find out that it didn't have a home was a slatboard four-way rack on casters complete with plastic shelfs and metal pegs. Each family thought the other one wanted it. I have it covered in my driveway because I'm the one with the truck. So if anyone needs a nice slatboard display rack....
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Camden, AR- Lady Dixie Southern Bell Wooldridge died at her home in Camden, Arkansas, Wednesday night, the first of July Two thousand and nine. She is survived by her human parents, Shawn & Natilie Wooldridge and her human sisters, Macie, Emma, Brooke and Lexi. We are thankful that God blessed our family with the creation of beasts of the land. He has made things, all things, for His pleasure, and sometimes in our lifetime we are allowed to enjoy them, too. Dixie did not have a soul like we do, but she too, was crafted by the Master. She was a gift. Dixie will ever be a reflection of the many wonderous marvels God has made. I hope we honored Him by how we treated her.
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"Forever Loyal...Forever Treasured"|
TOS Magazine has a fun summer subscription promotion that includes 19 free gifts, including a really nice gift from Sears® and an opportunity for fifty random subscribers to win a one-week free pass to participating Curves® locations. It’s very exciting!
To read all of the information, check out this link: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/TOSSummer19Gifts/ Please click through all of the pages - you won't believe all the super gifts being offered. This is a beautiful ad and an awesome promotion! Do not wait because this special offer is only for the first 5000 subscribers. |
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Macie is ready for a break. She will be off the month of June and start back in July for her next six week study. We finished our unit study on animals. ( I haven't forgotten about posting our lesson. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.) My mother helped with this effort. She really enjoyed it, but also got to experience the work involved with homeschooling. She did a good job. Macie will be going to church camp this year without us. I will take care of her part of the garden. She has radishes, a pole of green beans and a tomato plant. Emma is making progress, though it is slow at times. She will go to ACH this Thursday so that Dr. Reddy and DR. Pathak can look around with a scope and change out her suprapubic catheter. That is the last tube really. She still has a foley catheter in her Malone stoma. The Malone is the one used to flush her bowel. We are very pleased and thankful that she has been able to wear "real" underwear and keep them clean and dry for two weeks! Also, Emma is up and walking more and moving around better. I told her that she needed to practice her walking because she will graduate kindergarten in June. We are playing with the date for that but it will be in June. She has been a trooper and a good student this school year, having gone through two tough surgeries. Both of the procedures were life-changing events for her and for the family. Brooke doesn't want to take a break from preschool and who could blame her...it's fun! She thinks everything we tell Macie and Emma applies to her because she too, is a big girl. She enjoys online reading programs and cutting things out. Lexi is approaching a new stage in her life - potty training. And what better time to do this than summer time. Has told us a hand full of times over the weekend when it's time to go on her own. I think she's driven to do this because she's not a fan of droopy drawers. She is learning her colors and late spring is a great time to do this with things blooming in the yard and garden. We are working on attracking butterflies. She likes to chase them. She also likes to rake around in the dirt. Please look below at my shopping links! TOS is having another awesome sale! There's other great links, too, so check them out.
The Old Schoolhouse is having a TOS 2 Day “Take 10” May 25 & 26. For just 48 hours, a one-year print subscription is only $15! This is a GREAT educational magazine filled with touch stories, educational helps and more. It is a wealth of information to the homeschooling family and also to afterschool centers and tutors. For the summer edition, I have written an article about Emma and her homeschooling adventure that's just getting started for her.
 Grreattt new themes from Birthday in a Box (Click the plate to check them out!) |
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Here's a site that I found for teaching test-taking tips. I also found a few other sites with online practice tests. I just googled test taking. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4006 If you have any test tips for Macie please let me know.
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 Get This Calendar...  We visited the Creation Museum on a two-day pass. I took the girls yesterday and did all the outside stuff and gift shopping. Shawn is taking them today to spend the day there. You can most definitely benefit from a two-day visit and is a value to buy the two-day pass. They have a great petting zoo, and a lovely botanical path.
For the kiddos they have a treasure hunt and when everything is found on the list, they turn it in for a prize. They have a photo-op for your group when you walk in the door that's a blast. On Sunday, they were having an awesome sale on nearly everything in the store, so I did some school shopping and got a lot of great things. I was able to purchase a 3-year subscription to Answers Magazine, and get three videos and three back-issues of my choice for free as a courtesy for my purchase. I also got some Enrichment4You.com craft packs. I found three dino-packs and they are very high quality sets. The girls also LOVE the Jonathan Park series, so I purchased the "Goes to the Zoo" set for less than $20 and Zoo Guide, which is Published by Answers in Genesis for under $10. I was finding bargains all over the place. We also purchased your standard souvenirs and a few other books and videos.
Finally we walked around the main floor and took in a few attractions. I can't wait to hear what Shawn and the girls discover today!
MiddleSister |
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Emma had school in the hospital for two days. The first day we worked on the color wheel and time. The second day she didi activities on Starfall.com. Macie has done an incredible amount of reading. Brooke and Lexi has been working on names of colors and how high they can count. We are staying at Six Acres B&B in Cincinnati. Ms. Kristen K is the owner and she is so lovely. They have done everything possible to make us feel at home. Macie wanted to return the favor. So today and tomorrow she wants to do trash pickup around the outside of her homes. I thought this was a great idea and it gets everyone out of the house. The weather has been nice in Cincy/Cinci. Shawn has taken the girls to the parks nearby. Yesterday I took them to museum center that's a transformed train station. We went to the Museum for "Natural" History. Macie and I knew that there would loads of evolution, but we still weren't prepared for all the twisted information presented. The Childrens Museum wasn't as bad, but we saw it there, too. |
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I must share three beautiful and FREE resources that are a gift from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. These resources can be downloaded here: May you have a wonderful Easter as you celebrate the gospel of Christ
He's in heaven and wants you to join Him there some day if you accept His gift of salvation. |
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We got back to Arkansas Saturday afternoon, BUT we have to go back 29 March. Emma will be having a long surgery and hospital stay. We are planning the next step of schooling on the road and away from home. Emma will have basics until surgery and then she'll get a break. My mother has been studying for weeks now to prepare an animal unit for the girls. I think my mother would have been a good homeschooling mom. She has the heart for it. Speaking of which, I met a homeschool mom, a veteran that took her child completely through the homeschool experience. Her name is Kathy and she started a website a few months ago called "The Homeschool Companion". There you will find teaching tips, reviews, encouragement, and links to great resources like The Old Schoolhouse for starters. She will soon be publishing a newsletter with great tips, too. Please stop by her site and check it out. We didn't get to go to the Creation Museum on the last trip but we will go before Emma has surgery. We had to hurry and get home so that we could go back (to Ohio.) We did go to the zoo, because it was completely free to us thanks to the hospital's guest services. We went to see the gorilla exhibit and there stood a plaque claiming that we were looking at our cousins. Macie saw it and began to preach to about 25 folks standing around us. There's nothing like watching an 8 year-old telling the truth to people that don't know it. She started off by telling this family standing next to ours, "if you think those are your cousins, then WE ARE NOT RELATED." Then she went on talking about the literal creation and told them what day God made apes and what day God made man. It blessed my heart. I think Macie has the heart of Paul. I find that many times I have the heart of Peter. I told Macie it's important to share God's truth with others but find the best way to say it. She stopped, turned to me and said, "Mama, I didn't have time to tell them anything but the truth. I don't know these people and I'll never see them again. Mama, I've got to tell them or no one else will." I learned from an 8 year-old that day. |
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We have landed in Ohio after a day and a half of driving. Yesterday we traveled just over 500 miles before we made it to a hotel and ate PBJ's for supper. We have the possibility of making three trips to OH this year, so we are seeing how far we can stretch our buck. You really can see a lot of America by driving. We drove across Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, vertically. We tried to stop at as many historical markers as we could. Sadly, our dear sweet man didn't want to take in state visitor centers because we were checking time as a factor, too, and I had previously visited all the states online before the trip. Some of the things we've educationally digested on the road include
While in the Cincinnati area we hope to
We'll keep you posted of what we find! |
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Have you seen the Moody video series? If you are into unit studies, these are a must have! The Old Schoolhouse eStore has these jewels at an awesome price. They range from $8.99-$24.99 for DVDs and sets. Learn about God's beautiful creation with Moody Video series. Click one of the TOS links to find out more.... MiddleSister |
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Wow! The last few weeks have been eventful. Macie's birthday, inclimate weather, loss of power, gaining relatives to house during bad weather, building a science fair project, many trips to Little Rock and Emma's cast removal. That's the skinny list. Now we're trying to get back to normal. (if there is such a thing for us) We gained a hamster and a new bike for Macie's birthday. Macie has been held the princess of comparision at our house, with this being said, she is doing her science fair project or hamsters vs. gerbils. She has pined for a hamster for three years! She has read every book our local library has on the subject, fiction and non-fiction. I have learned more than I ever thought I would about the critters. I have a fond way of startling the little guy and consequentally, I have been barked at as well as bitten. I am learning to live with a hamster and tolerate a squeaky wheel all night long. I am really enjoying my work with The Old Schoolhouse, LLC! I work in the marketing department. They have a great staff and so many wonderful things to offer. Please check out the bookstore and their website. Click on one of my links below to do so. Here's a free e-book from livingonadime.com, http://www.livingonadime.com/ebooks/valentinespr.html SisterSisters Kitchen Favorites, by me, MiddleSister |
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The American Family Association has a site dedicated for the Pepsi Boycott due to the open support of PFLAG, a homosexual group, among other gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender groups. We don't really drink that much sodas, but please take a look at the information and pass it onto other families. Direct link: http://www.boycottpepsico.com/
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We decided to enroll Macie in Isshinyru Karate. The word literally means "one heart method" in Japanese. It is a method that concentrates on form. We have been told by lots of people in various fields of expertese that martial arts is good for people with ADD, ADHD and related hyperactive disorders. There is a young man at our church that teaches this form and we feel very safe with his values and teachings. Macie seems to really enjoy it. After me sitting there a week of watching her, I started noticing what a great way to tone. And so, this big kid enrolled this week! Now Macie and I are doing karate together. After the first night I was a bit sore, but after that I've been OK. I'm hoping that maybe this will help me and Macie with ADHD. I have adult onset (but may have been affected at a younger age.) Macie and I do not take medicine for this. We try to deal with this in natural (but not too over the top) ways including physiologic activities. I'll let you know how we are fairing in a few more weeks. I don't think I'll be getting my black-belt anytime soon.   2009 Homeschool Freebie Directory |
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A new year and a new start on school! Brooke was delighted to start "real" preschool, although she was a bit disappointed that we didn't go to a different building to do it. She quickly got over that and started on actively learning what her letters look like. Emma is still a reluctant learner and wasn't as eager to start school. Macie was glad because she was bored! Here's a look at what we will be studying over the next few weeks:
Now, we'll also be starting up with co-op again and doing a new fitness program tied to the Little Rock Marathon. I'll keep you posted on that.
Let me say this, too. My e-friend, Kathy from Teaching Good Things always has neat things to do and awesome things that she gives away. Go to her site this month, http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/january-give-away/ and she what she is offering. |
