Last year for Father's Day my husband bought me a GPS.  Yep, Father's Day!  LOL  No, it was not because he was away and I was acting as Mother and Father.  It was because GPS's go on sale at Father's Day, NOT Mother's Day!  LOL

I LOVE my GPS!!!

This is one of those things I had no idea I wanted until I got it!  (My husband buys me a lot of those.  I remember the 1st computer we go back in the late 80's.  I had no idea what we would do with such a thing.  I asked my husband and he said "You'll love it.  You can organize recipes on it!"  LOL  You all know how much I LOVE to cook!  HA!)  Just like he was correct about the computer he was dead on with the GPS.  Since I first got it before we moved I was very familiar with my surroundings, and really didn't need it.  I called it my "Starbucks Locator", which did come in handy! :^)  The kids called it "Route Recalculation" because I would turn it on, but not follow it's commands therefore driving everyone nuts listening to it say "Route Recalculation" over and over and over.

Now that we have moved I have a whole new appreciation for my GPS!  This thing ROCKS!!!  I suspect some of you are thinking "What is a GPS?"  So I will explain it in the  most technical terms. :^)  A GPS is a cool little gizmo that gives you step by step directions how to get places.  All you need is the address.  You type in the address and it calculates the way.  If you don't know the address it is pre-programmed with businesses or points of interest you can search by categories.  (Restaurants, gas stations,  hotels, museums, libraries, etc.)

This has been a life saver in our new location.  Instead of having to print out a Yahoo Map and then try to read it while I drive in the most insane traffic I have ever seen, I can just type in where I want to go and VOILA it takes me there step by step.  We have now used this for several trips to California and for driving all over the Western half of the USA during our move.  We didn't have to stick with eating at just the places we could see from the freeway when we were moving.  We would come upone a town and I could look and see what was in that town and pick a GOOD place to eat.  (The Pita Pit in downtown Flagstaff is excellent and the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque is awesome! LOL)  We could find a hotel in an upcoming city and drive right to it.  If we needed a Mall or a Starbucks we didn't have to crane our necks at every exit or drive around looking for one.

Another cool thing about the GPS is it gives you a definitive answer to the "How much further?" question.  The info is right there in front of you.  How many miles you have left to go and what time you will arrive.  (Not including gas and bathroom breaks of course.)  It also can by put in walking mode, so for example the day my daughter and I went to The American Girl Place in Los Angeles, the boys used it to get walking directions to The LaBrea Tar Pits.

This is going to make Homeschool field trips SO MUCH EASIER!  No more getting directions, looking at maps or having to print from Yahoo Maps for me.  I can just jump in the car.  Find the place we are going and we are off.  Not to mention that I can just as easily type in my own address and it takes me right back home.  (I always wish I had those return directions when we go somewhere, but I rarely ever think to print them ahead of time.)

Of course like any technology it is not without a few bugs.  We do have a couple of funny stories about it taking us to the middle of nowhere and telling us "You have arrived at your destination."  If your area is full of new things it can only do as well as the maps that are loaded into it.  So make sure you get one with the most up-to-date maps you can.  You still have to use common sense, but all in all my husband and I are both convinced this is the best invention since the cellphone. 

Father's Day is right around the corner in case you want to ask for one!  LOL

Posted in My Kids

I keep mentioning how we are all LOVING seeing GREEN after 4 years in the beige desert.  So I figured I should post some pictures of this glorious GREEN we are all so taken with!  LOL

Here are the kids posing under a tree at the park that is about 2 blocks from our house.

Here is a broader shot of the park.

This is the creek that runs through the park:

Another shot of the creek:

My babies and my fur baby:

I just love all the overgrown foliage around the creek:


My little stick collector:

So there you have it, our lovely GREEN!  LOL  It is so nice that when we need a break we can run over to such a beautiful place in 2 minutes, stretch our legs, get fresh air and be home without having to be gone all day. :^)

Posted in My Kids

The kids did a GREAT job making my Mother's Day card!



The idea of this card is that the kids make a list of things that Mom does on the big card in the middle. Then on the MOM cards they each write attributes of Mom.  My kids also wrote a little message to me on the MOM cards.

Here is what they wrote on the You do so much! card:

You cook for us, clean for us, shop for us.  You teach us, you love us.  You let us have friends over.  You work.  You love us.  You put us to bed, you take us places.  You teach us about God.  You buy us things we need.  You make us laugh.  You help us.  You help us get better when we are hurt.  You listen, even when we talk about video games!  You give us everything you can.

On the MOM cards they wrote:

M - My 13 year old - Dear Mom, Thank you for doing so much for us.  I love you.  You are funny, you make me laugh every single day.

O - My 7 year old - I love you Mom! You are kind and nice to us even when we misbehave.

M - My 4 year old - (Scribbles) You are smart and know a lot of stuff.

Let's see...funny, nice, kind and smart!  I can't complain about my kids thinking those are my attributes.  Needless to say I love the card very much!  They spent a lot of time working on it.  My 13 year old took his brother and sister in his room and they worked on the card for at least an hour!  I will treasure it forever! :^)

You know you are a homeschooler when....

You move to a new State and you are up to your ears in boxes.  You have not yet completely unpacked one room in your house, you have not gotten a new Driver's License,  you have not gotten tags for your car, you procrastinate getting the water changed over to your name and it got turned off, (::blush::) you still have to use your GPS to find your new house...

BUT, You are already the proud owners of Library Cards for the local Library and have checked out your 1st pile of books! 


ROFL!!!!  Sometimes all I can do is laugh at myself!!!

Just a reminder...If you haven't had your kids make you Mother's Day cards yet, today is the day!  My kids will be making me the one from www.holdthatthought.com. You will find the free printable HERE.

Yeah, I know it would be wonderful if they would take the incentive and make a Mother's Day card on their own.  But let's face it, they are kids!  LOL  When I am old and grey and they are grown I doubt I will remember that I was the one who printed out this sweet card.  But, I bet I will still have it!  (Everyone who helped pack up my house is nodding in agreement here!  LOL)

Anyway,  I figure it is good for them to come up with a list of jobs I do and to think about what makes Mom special.

I will be spending some time celebrating Mother's Day this year with my own Mom! :^) This is the 1st time in over 20 years we have lived close enough to be together for Mother's Day!  It is a bit of a drive for both of us, but we are meeting half way.  We are ALL looking forward to it!

Happy Mother's Day to you!!!!!

Posted in Lapbooks

My oldest son completed his Election Lapbook yesterday. 

Here it is:

Cover
We had a lot of other ideas for the cover, but since the state of our house in currently mayhem, we kept it simple!  LOL

The How To Run A Campaign was my favorite booklet. 
My son had to think though how he would run a campaign answering questions like: How will I be know to the public?, Will I participate in debates?, How can I tell others my ideas?, etc.


In this one I really liked the Donkey and Elephant booklets.  I had never known why the parties were known by those characters.  According to what my son found out that they came from THIS political cartoon in the 1800's

In the What qualifications do I need to run for office?  It has 3 booklets inside.  One for U.S. Representative, Senator and President.  It is interesting to see the differences in the qualifications.
In Voter's Registration he learned how to fill out a voter's registration card.

This is the back.  We made a pocket to include the worksheets he completed from HERE.

One thing that we learned while my son was doing this lapbook is this is the last Presidential election he will be too young to vote in!  YIKES!  I don't know if I was ready to know that one! 



This is a FREE lapbook.  We found all th printables HERE.

When I was looking for the link to the free lapbook we did I came across another free Election Lapbook too!  HERE is the link to the other one.

Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

Can clothespins and a hanger help you memorize the books of the Bible? Absolutely!!!

Old Testament

New Testament
To help my daughter memorize the books of the Bible I wrote all of the books of the Bible on clothespins. On the back of them they are numbered and say OT or NT for Old Testament and New Testament. 

Close up of names on the clothespins.
Now she can sing the song she learned to memorize the books and find the right clothespins to clip them all in order.  Once she has them all clipped she can turn it over and see if all the numbers are in order.  So it's self checking!  She can also use the pins to test her knowledge of which books are in the Old and which are in the New Testament.  I will probably hang a string somewhere in the schoolroom when we get it all set up so she can work on them their too.

After I got the Books of the Bible ones done my 4 year old asked if I could make him some clothespins.  So I did his as the ABC's!
I put upper case at the top and lower case at the bottom.

On the back I numbered them 1-26 so he can use them to work on his numbers too!

The kids love them!  Huhmmmm, what else can I teach them with clothespins???

Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

I just happened to come across this website the other day and learned that today is Teacher Appreciation Day.  In honor of all the AWESOME homeshcool Mom's I know I thought I would re-post my Homeschool Teacher of the Year post...


Congratulations to the Homeschool Teacher of the Year.  This outstanding teacher is an amazing example of Homeschool education at it's best!  This educator is confident conducting class for several grades at one time.  It is not out of the question for her to have have preschoolers and high schoolers all in the same classroom!  Not only does she teach these multiple levels, but also she trains the older student to work with the younger ones.  Curriculum selection is the sole responsibility of this outstanding educator.  Not only does she chose the curriculum used by her students, but she has to budgets and pays for all curriculum used.  Along with her responsibilities for the schools finances she develops creative solutions for teaching her students.  This includes, but is not limited to; writing songs, designing craft projects, cooking from scratch  and organizing field trips to coordinate with her lesson plans.

In addition to all the amazing things this teacher does with her students she is also fully responsible for their care, feeding & clothing.  She cooks all their meals, does all their laundry, drives them to all activities, (Of course she is also training her students to do all these things as she does them,)  She is completely responsible for the character training and discipline training of her students.

This educator is the ultimate multi-tasker! It is quite common to find her nursing a baby while teaching a Math lesson or cooking dinner while quizzing a student on spelling words.  The car is yet another classroom for this creative teacher.  She keeps the CD player going with CD's that are educational, therefore teaching and reviewing with her students as they travel to activities.  Lectures are also frequently given while she drives.  These can range in topic from manners to the Biblical lesson of "Love one another". She has been know to teach health and self care lessons to the entire class while simultaneously potty training a preschooler.  This might also be a good time to mention that this incredible professional receives NO pay for the services she provides and works 24/7!

On top of all she deals with she is frequently questioned by well meaning people who make it clear they don't really understand why she does what she does.  She is continually asked questions about her teaching methods and her choice to home educate her students.  These questions are gracefully answered while she pays for groceries and removes unpaid for candy from the hands of her students.

In her spare time she is wholly devoted to sharing her homeschool experiences with other educators like herself.  She has been known to volunteer time with her local homeschool group, organize a homeschool co-op, blog at homeschoolblogger.com, speak at homeschool conventions and meetings and generally be available to other homeschoolers that need support and encouragement.

Congratulations to this amazing teacher!  Her contribution to the future should not be forgotten and neither should her name.  Her students lovingly call her, Mom.

Kudos to all the awesome homeschool teachers I know out there!  Each of you truly are the Teacher of the Year in my book!

Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

While I was getting my kids acclimated to staying at their Aunt and Uncles we did a couple of fun day trips in the Houston area.  The first one was a trip to the George  Bush Presidential Library.  I LOVE Presidential Libraries!  I have been to the Eisenhower, Truman, Nixon, Reagan and Bush.  There are 7 others I have not yet made it to.  Someday I hope to have visited them all!  Whether I agree with the politics of a particular President or not there is so much fascinating History along with each of the Presidents Libraries.  I really like the personal things like the First Ladies dresses and seeing things that were given to the Presidents and First Ladies as gifts while they were in office.  Each of the Libraries seem to give an insight into the personality of the President.  The kids and I had a great time at the Bush Library. 

Here is a little of what we did.

Here are the kids outside the Library.

One thing we really enjoyed about this Library is they have gone out of their way to make it kid friendly.  When we entered each of the kids were given a clipboard with questions to answer.  Each of the answers could be found by finding the Millie Bush dogs throughout the Museum.

The kids LOVED finding Millie!

They also had a lot of hands on exhibits.  Here my little guy tried his hand at Piloting a plane during WWII.

This is Barabara Bush's wedding dress.  So lovely!

This exhibit was really fun for the kids.  It was in the section that covered President Bush's time in the CIA.  They had a body heat camera that was controlled by satellite where you can see yourself via the satellite.  Very interesting and kinda nervwracking!  LOL

This was just a little moving lighted logo that moved around on the floor.  My little guy thought it was SO fun to chase and jump on it.  LOL

This is an exhibit where you get to look into the windows of the White House.  You can push the buttons to look around the room and see everything from different angles.

My fellow Americans...
She needs to get a little taller before she can be President!

This was the kids room that is dedicated to literacy. They have all kinds of kids books.  (Remember, Barabara Bush's pet project was promoting literacy.)

Here are the kids in front of the mini White House.
One of the fun things they had in the kids room was a TV running with videos the Bushes had put together.  Some of them where clips from shows they had been on like David Letterman.  Our favorite was The President and Barbara racing on Segways.  It was hysterical.  When we left I asked my oldest if he had learned anything that day.  He said "Yeah, I learned that President and Mrs. Bush are really funny!"  LOL

Here is my son in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Here he is in front of the same wall, but on the "free" side.

This was a picture of a Bible verse that was on the wall.

My daughter posing with one of the soliders in the section about Operation Desert Storm.

Just for fun! A baseball game with the President and First Lady.

It was a great "school" day!  I would rather have fun learning together seeing real pieces of History than sit in a classroom any day!

Posted in Freebies

Welcome to Freebie Fridays

Mother's Day is a week from Sunday. Since most of us are Teacher and Mom, here are some freebie's for your students to make YOU for Mother's Day!

Here is a great card your kids can make.  This card will be a lovely keepsake.  There are pull out cards where the kids can write a list of the things Mom does for them.  Then, there are three other pull outs (That spell out M-O-M) for your kids to write things they appreciate about you. (If you happen to have 3 kids like I do, then each child can write you a special message.)

Here are some free Mother's Day Coupons for you to print and your kids to fill in. These not only make a great gift for Mom, but they get some handwriting practice in, too!

This website has a lot of great Mother's Day crafts.  There are a bunch of fun ideas like Oatmeal Soap on a Rope, Candy Roses or Handprint Magnets. Spend some time looking at this site, and you are sure to find something great to make with your kids!  (These would make great gifts for Grandma, too!)

Lastly, check out the side bar to get a free book from Gospel for Asia.  This book will bring you a radical life changing message! Don't miss out on this exciting free offer!

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!

I'll see you next week right here at - Freebie Fridays!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Freebie Finder
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

While every effort is made to ensure that the recommended sites are family friendly, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and its writers do not own the sites recommended.  Content and advertising can change without notice.  Please exercise caution when viewing websites.  Please check out the websites before allowing your children to view them.

This article is from this weeks issue of Freebie Friday.  If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute and the Freebie Friday Newsletter you can subscribe for free HERE.  I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters.  (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)

Posted in My Kids

Last Summer when we were in California visiting friends I noticed a couple of our friends with little kids had placed dishes down low where the kids could reach them.  They both had new houses that had these cool pull out shelves in the lower cabinets.  Ever since I have wanted to get some dishes down low where my 2 Littles can reach them.  I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop what I am doing just to go had someone a plate!  LOL 

Here is the conversation:

LITTLE- "Mom, can you get me a plate?"

ME - Did you check the dishwasher?" (Hoping there was something clean they could reach. LOL)

LITTLE - "There's not plate in here.  I need you to get me one."

ME - "grumble, grumble, grumble..." As I stop what I am doing and go to get a plate!

My last house was heavy in upper cabinets and short on lower cabinets.  So I never found a place to put plates down low.  But this house is just the opposite!  YAY!!!

Look how my life has improved!  LOL

The Littles are thrilled.  They are both quite independent and would rather just get a snack or drink themselves.  Plus they are impatient and want things NOW!  (I wonder where these traits come from? LOL)  So here is one improvement over the last house.

Now, I figure a lot of you are wondering what we are doing for school right now.  Much can be clarified by showing you a picture of our schoolroom...
Any more questions?  LOL  The Master Bedroom looks about like this too.  It is nerve-wracking to sleep in there!

Thankfully my 13 year old is happy and learning as long as he has a computer...
It may be messy, but trust me it is CLEANER than the room he left behind.  I am still having nightmares about what we found under this child's bed!  GROSS!!

The Littles have spent a fair amount of time on Mom's laptop in the kitchen. 
I am LOVING having a little office in the kitchen.  I can see the family room and I am right next to the (future) schoolroom.  The washer and dryer are right behind me.  It is great!  This area still needs to be organized.  All the cupboards are empty and the counter is full!  LOL  But at least I can more around I don't have to step over boxes!  The Littles have been spending a lot of time on starfall.com and Webkinz. For right now I am calling that school!  My daughter is really in to teaching her little brother things.  So hopefully she is reviewing and he is learning. (Oh, and my daughter follows me around the house reading to me.)

This is the best looking room of the house!  Obviously I have spent the most time in this room!
The Kitchen and the Littles bedroom were my first priorities.  Their room is coming together pretty well.  I still need to hang things on the wall.  We may need some more shelves for toys too.  We had 2 small playrooms in the old house and even though I got rid of a LOT of toys we STILL have too many!

So there is a look into the MESS that is Jamin's life!  Hopefully over the weekend my husband and I can get things a little more livable around here!

I got a sweet email from a homeschooling Mom in the UK yesterday and I thought I would share an excerpt of her email here and my response.  Maybe there are others going through similar situations and have wondered the same thing.

We are American but have been living in England for the last nine years.  In November my husband lost his job here and got a new job in Missourri.  Since January he has been there for three weeks and here for one.  I know it's nosy of me but sounded to me by your blog that you have been living apart for awhile while you relocated and I was wondering how you coped.

Hi,

Thank you for your email and kind words about my blog.  I will be praying for the sale of your home in England.  I can completely understand what you are going through!  Our house has been for sale for over 15 months and still nothing!  It is NOT fun. 

Regarding your question about coping with being apart as a family I thought I would share some of what we did to help us through our looooong one year plus ordeal... Before reading any of my response below please know that I did NOT cope well all the time.  There were many moments when I just wanted to give up!  There were times I was whinny and pathetic!  There were many times I felt very sorry for myself. I  am FAR  from perfect, but here are a few things that I found helpful to get us through the long haul.

Surround yourself with good supportive people - I was so blessed to have a wonderful supportive homeschool group to lean on.  I had people watch my kids, drive me to get car repairs done, help trim the trees in my yard. Etc, etc, etc.  I could not have made it through that very long year without all the love I received from the Christians around us.  Our neighbors were also a huge source of support to me.  They did all kinds of things for me.  They made sure our trash toter was taken to the street on the right days, made us delicious meals when they knew I was exhausted.  Had the kids over to play. The list goes on and on!  I am a very independent person, so accepting help is not easy for me.  But, this was a blessing beyond compare.  The saying "No man in an island." certainly was proved true for me during the months I lived without my husband.  I am so grateful for all the folks who loved on us and got us through in one piece.

Join a good Bible study - This was HUGE for me!  When my husband first left for his new job I debated about whether or not to do a Bible study.  I mean surely in a few weeks I would just have to quit.  HA!  I ended up doing THREE full Bible studies.  Two of them were Beth Moore Studies and quite lengthy!  Not only did I learn SO much from those studies I got a lot of great prayer support from the other ladies in the group.  Which brings me to the next point...

Don't idealize other peoples situations - One of the unexpected blessing I received from going to Bible study was getting a glimpse into the lives of other women.  I did NOT find it at all coincidental that in the last Bible Study I was in there was one women who's husband was currently in Iraq and another who's husband was about to leave for Iraq!  There was also one lady who was divorced and another going through extremely difficult time with her current family situation.  It is a little hard to feel sorry for yourself when you see what others are going through and know that your situation could be worse. 

Find a way to get a weekly break for yourself - This was also a real life saver for me.  For the 1st eight months that my husband was away I had a teenage babysitter once a week.  This was my time to run errands, do my Bible study, go out to eat with a friend.  This time got me through when I felt I was losing my mind.  I knew I had a set time to revive and I NEEDED it!  Once my oldest turned 13 I stopped having a sitter and would leave him with the kids for a few hours once a week after they had gone to sleep.  This allowed me to still do my Bible Study and get out for a few hours a week but I also was able to......

Hire cleaning help! - This was a wonderful treat for me.  In the last few months I was getting really run down.  Having someone else clean my house one day a week was awesome!  Since the house was on the market it had to be clean and I was worn out!  So this was great while it lasted!  LOL

Stay strong for your kids! - Honestly this is probably what kept me going.  Have you ever heard that saying "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."?  Well, I completely agree!  I had to stay positive and upbeat so my kids would do the same thing!  If I would feel myself getting negative I would see it in my kids.  No, I wasn't all I should have been all the time.  But, they did inspire me to do my best with my attitude.

Communicate as best you can. - This one was hard for us because my husband is NOT a phone person.  BUT, he did great at calling me every day when he got off work.  Then he also called every night at bedtime to say prayers with each of the kids.  This was a huge blessing for all of us.  The kids knew that they would be getting a little Dad time each day.  Dad was able to keep up on what was going on in their lives too.  I think my blog was a big blessing for my husband.  He was able to see what was going on at home on a day to day basis and didn't feel as left out as he would have without having my blog for information.

Have FUN when Dad is home - One thing I found very important was to not just look at every minute Dad was back as work time.  I did usually have a list of things I needed him to do when he was back for a few days,  But, we also did as many fun family things as we could.  We went to movies, out to eat, We made 2 trips to California together as a family. One time when he came back we all went and stayed at a hotel for a couple nights so we could enjoy the pool and time together. 

Enjoy the time you have left in your current location - We tried to do everything we had said we would do "later" and get it done NOW!  We went to all the local sites we had not yet seen.  We made 3 or 4r trips to California.  We basically just looked at it as a loooong weird vacation!

Find online support - Online support was HUGE for me also.  Not only blogs but yahoo groups I am in.  I found places where I could be "real'  I could cry.  I could ask questions.  I could bounce ideas off of others who cared about me and were not going to judge. 

Start packing!  - Okay, I didn't do this one, but our move would have been MUCH easier if I had!  LOL

Start purging - This one I did to a point.  I started getting rid of things I knew we didn't need.  It is so easy to hang on to all the baby gear you no longer need when you are staying put, but why move it?  I should have done more and we had to get rid of a LOT at the last minute, but I did get a start on this one.

Trust God - I really tried to keep in mind that even though this all does not seem like it could possibly be Gods plan that "We know that God causes all things to work for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Know that this too shall pass - Keep in mind that this all will end.  I KNOW it doesn't seem like it.  I thought our time apart from Dad was going to do on forever!  But, we made it through.  I know that as hard as it was we have some great memories that we made even during the difficult times.

I hope this helps!  Keep me posted on how things are going and if you ever need a ear to listen or a place to vent feel free to email me!

Today is Baskin Robbins 31 Cent Scoop Night!  You will find the info and a Store Finder HERE.

YUMMY!!!  Enjoy!

Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

The kids and I went out and explored 2 local parks today.  Having been in the desert for 4 years we are thrilled to be surrounded by trees, prairies, creeks and lakes.  Everything is SO green!!!!

The first park we went to is actually a nature preserve owned by the public school district here.  (We didn't know that until they ran us off because we had our dog with us and they don't allow dogs there when the field trips are going on. LOL)  We had fun hiking on the trails and trying to figure out which of the plants were poison ivy. 

The second park was more of a regular park.  It had a play structure and picnic tables.  But, it is also along a creek with lots of trees (And pollen, my allergies are all flared up!) and a path where you can hike and enjoy all the beauty.

This has gotten me thinking that we need to start keeping nature journals.  I have been intrigued with this idea for awhile.  Jimmie over at One Child Policy Homeschool has been writing a lot about the nature journals she and her daughter have been keeping in China.  It is so fun to look at the pictures they have drawn and compare them to the pictures Jimmie has taken. 

So I guess I need to buy each of us a notebook and keep them in the car.  I ran the idea past the kids and they all thought it sounded like a lot of fun.  Hopefully someday soon I will be posting wonderful nature drawings done by my kids.  (Mine will not be recognizable.  Can you draw a stick figure beetle or leaf???  LOL)

Okay, I am off to search for my homeopathy remedies and find some Histaminum!

WHEW!  We made it! YAY!!!

Here we are picking up our kids after leaving them with their Aunt and Uncle for 2 weeks so we could get everything moved.  It was SO great to be back together and all in the same State!  YAY!!!

We decorated the car to suprise the kids when we picked them up! They loved it!!!

This was the only Anniversary celebration we had time for!  LOL

I will post more later.  I just thought I would let everyone know we made it and we are all together again!  God is GOOD!!!!

Posted in My Kids

Today it begins!  I feel like I am standing at the bottom of the last mountain between having my family all under one roof again!  The kids and I have been at their Aunt and Uncles for a week now.  Today I am leaving to head back to our new home and pick up my husband.  Then we will drive the 1200 plus miles to our old home to pack up the house and a truck.  Then we drive back 1200 plus miles to meet the truck and unpack.  As soon as I drop off my husband to unpack the truck, I will head back to get the kids.  (Another 500 miles round trip!)  All together we will be driving nearly 4000 miles in the next 10 days!  Not to mention all the packing and loading.  It is going to be GREAT fun!  LOL

Please pray for us.  Pray for my kids to have good attitudes and do well while we are apart.  Pray for my husband and I to have a safe journey.  Pray for us to be able to get this HUGE mountain of packing and loading done. (And to purge, purge, purge!  LOL)  Pray for my sister-in-law who is pregnant and will be taking care of all the kids!  (6 in total, 3 hers and 3 mine.  5 of who are 7 and under!)  Pray for me since this is the first time I have been away from my babies!

This will be the first time my husband and I have been without kids in 13 years!  We will have over 36 hours alone together in the car!  Our 19th Wedding Anniversary will be while we are doing this crazy move!  What a way to celebrate 19 years together!  LOL  (Next year let's go to Hawaii instead honey!)

I can't wait for it all to be over!  I can't wait until the day we look back on all this and laugh.  But, for now it is time to start climbing the last mountain!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids with their cousins.

Cousins and Catepillars!

They don't have these in the desert!

Yes, they colored themselves with markers! (They were suppose to be okay for skin, but they do not wash of easily!)

Sleep tight!  My 4 year old looks just like his cousins.  (He is the one in the middle.) It is so cute to see all the boys all together.

This is the baby (2 years) and he is adorable!  (Don't tell his Mom but I am planning on taking him home with me when I come back! LOL)
(There is one of those Toile pillows that got me started with my Toile addiction!  LOL)

Cousin dogs?  My daughter never met a dog she didn't like!  LOL Here she is loving on her cousins dogs.

I'll see you all at the end of the month!

Posted in Freebies

My daughter and I were browsing at the bookstore the other day and I came across CliffsNotes.  That reminded me that awhile back I had come across a site that offered Literature Guides similar to CliffsNotes free online.  When I got home and started searching for the site I found that there are a TON of these sites online. 

Here is what I found:

CliffsNotes
The complete text of CliffsNotes guides.

BookRags
Research site for students, with over 5.8 million pages of literature summaries, biographies, literary criticism, essays, encyclopedias and E-Books.

NovelGuide
Educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary Literature Profiles

BookWolf
FREE literature book notes and a wealth of helpful information to guide you to a year full of good grades.

JiffyNotes
Free source for study guides that focus on literary analysis.

Awerty Notes
Literature Summaries and essays to assist in studying.

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

This article is from the Home Where They Belong Blog.  If you are interested in more freebie'syou can subscribe to The Homeschool Minute as well as the Freebie Friday Newsletter HERE.  I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters.  (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)

Posted in My Kids

The kids and I are on the move again!  We are almost to the point of heading back "home" to pack up all our worldly belongings to move to our new humble abode.  Part of this process involves taking the kids to stay with their Aunt and Uncle for a couple weeks while Dad and I go work ourselves to death moving everything!  LOL

So what on earth does this have to do with burying cows? (My Mom and sister are totally smiling right now because they know!) When I was a kid growing up in Kansas we use to play this travel game.  You see in the middle section of the United States you see a lot of 2 things while you are driving.  Cows and graveyards!  So our family travel game was called "Bury Your Cows".  What we did is anytime you passed cows that are on your side of the street you count them and add them all together.  Both sides count and add frantically!  LOL  BUT, when you pass a graveyard on your side of the street you have to bury your cows and start over!  The  "object" of the game is to be the one who has the most cows when you arrive at your destination. 

Since I have lived on the West Coast for the last 20 years (Where you don't see many cows or graveyards for some reason.) I had practically forgotten about this game.  But, since we have been spending a lot of time in the car lately the game has re-emerged!  The kids LOVE it!  We have been playing in teams.  Whoever in on the drivers side is one team and the passengers side is another.  One person is the cow spotter. (Like the driver who has a hard time counting and driving!) The other person is the cow counter.  There is lots of counting and adding in your head for this game!  hehehe 

It has been fun to re-live a little of my childhood with my kids!  (My sister and I spent many a happy hour counting and burying cows.) They are totally amazed that this is what we did to entertain ourselves back in the dark ages!  So, when they get tired of watching DVD's, listening to books-on-tape, listening to MP3's, playing Leapsters and Gameboys we carry on with our game of "Bury Your Cows!"  LOL


P.S. Please pray for my children who will be away from Mom for the 1st time ever!  Also please pray for my sweet sister-in-law who will be taking care of 6 kids (my 3 and her 3.) 5 of which are 7 and under!  (And did I mention she is pregnant?!?!)  Lastly, feel free to pray for a successful move and for ME to do okay being away from my "babies" for the first time ever!