Wow! I am way behind in my assignments. I just cant seem to find the time to catch up. Well here I go on # 2. A merican  B ooks  C amping  D evoted  E ncourager  F amily  G irls Club Leader  H onest  I ?  J esus  K ids  L oving  M imi  N ature  O wls(love)  P atient  Q uiet  R eading  S crapbooker  T eacher  U nique  V an  W ife  X ample  Y ard sales  Z est for life!  It actually took me longer than what I thought it would to come up with the descriptions. I cant beleive that Thanksgiving is around the corner and then comes Christmas quickly on its heels. Christmas is my favorite time of year and I hope to even make it more special this year. Maybe tomorrow I can to assignment # 3.

Hi, I'm already late for school since they are on their third and this is my first. This is my chance to catch up! My name is Belinda and Im the wife of Bill for 29 years and we were teenage sweethearts. We have three daughters twenty-six, twenty-two, and thirteen. We have a beautiful granddaughter that is two and one on the way. I love the Lord, homeschooling, reading, scrapbooking, camping and spending lots of time with our family. I learned about homeschool blogger through The Old Schoolhouse magazine and decided to just observe for awhile. I loved reading others blogs and finally decided to jump in and try it myself. I dont get to write as much as I would like and sometimes not sure what to write, but I figure the Lord will lead me in where I need to go with it. I'm looking forward to making new friends and up for the adventure!

My oldest daughter is seventeen weeks pregnant and having alittle problems here and there. We spent ten hours in the emergency room last Sunday night and everything ended up being fine. Well last night she was having some achiness and pressure in her stomach and pelvic area so I went to her house to see what she wanted to do. Her husband is a very nice guy and great husband but his compassion is in his little toe. He always tells her that everything will be fine and just to go to bed and dont worry about it. I understand leaving everything in Gods hands but when your carrying a child you have so many fears about what is going on. He has the attitude that we dont need to sit in an emergency room all night long which is especially something he does not want to do, but we didnt want to endure that either.She wanted me to spend the night in case she had any problems and he thought that was not nescessary since I do live close. I understand that to but when your daughter is upset some you will do as a mother what you need to do.He proceeded as she was trying to decide what to do and asking me to stay, informed her that she was married now, like you dont need your mom. I did tell him nicely that if she had his compassion and support that she would not need her mom as much! I think he felt bad after the fact, but we are praying for compassion in his life as well as in many other peoples lives. I would appreciate any opinions on this matter and how you feel about compassion in our lives.

I cant beleive that October is upon us and every once in awhile we get a hint of fall air. Being from Florida we dont get alot of cool air for awhile. I love the coolness but its just not enough. We had a better school week I think since we changed over to using Christian Cottage Unit Studies. Even though she is in seventh grade I still enjoy doing some things with her and probably always will. We went to chapel yesterday with our homeschooling umbrella group which we do every month. Its always nice to get together with everyone else and let the kids play and visit. Some of the parents were talking about how some of their older teenagers dont want to attend chapel and socalize with the others. We just need to pray for our teenagers as they are growing up in a difficult generation. I went to the scrapbook store and spent more than I wanted to which always seems to be the case. I have been wanting to scrapbook but cant seem to find the time. We end up having to plan a special crop on a weekend to get anything done. Any time suggestions out there?.Well I guess I need to close as we are off to my moms to have a early birthday dinner for my dad. He will be 66 and I thank God for a Christian dad. 

We had our first Girls Club meeting for ages 12-18 and I thought it went great. We had seven girls attend and we already know that we have atleast three or four more for next month. We studied on being friends and the girls really joined in and made the devotion successful. We then had snacks and made friendship braclets. Our one next month is going to be on beauty and then we will be doing makeovers along with snacks. I had been praying about this for alittle while and was not sure how it would turn out. I am glad the Lord led us to start this and I will continue to pray that we will continue in his will. My daughter just turned thirteen and this will help to bond her to other girls. Does anyone out there have a English that your children at middle school age like very much? What we are using my daughter said is boring and she hates doing English. We are only at about our fifth week so Im trying to make any changes that would be better for the year. We havent had a easy start to our year because she has had a hard time getting in the swing of things. I decided to use a Christian Cottage Unit Study that I had bought after we had started the year. Even though she is in seventh I still like to do a unit study in a way. I feel like when she gets to high school that we will just have to use text books but I know that is not true for everyone. I guess we will settle in to what we need to do hopefully this week. I plan to start walking this week and trying to do better with my eating. I am always putting it off for another day and its very important for me immediately. I hate excerise and I love icecream! I know its not like I cannot ever have it again but it just feels like it. Well better stop why I have alittle bit of time left to prepare a few things for tomorrow. Have a great week!

We have been so busy but having alot of fun. We went camping on Labor Day for three nights and got to relax and do things we havent done in along time. All of our kids go and our sweet grandbaby. We played shuffleboard which I havent done in awhile and I told my kids at the age Im getting to be that was my kind of sport. Then this past weekend we went to Disney World and stayed in one of their value resorts and all the younger ones went to the Night of Joy while some of us others went to eat and look around. There is always more than enough to do in the Orlanda area. While we were gone I looked over an unit study that I had purchased alittle while back put out by Christian Cottage. I have been using some other things for the past few weeks of school and just felt like I needed to give this another look. I talked to my daughter this morning and she wants to do the unit study. I think we will give it a shot. The joys of being a homeschooler, being able to switch ! My youngest baby will be thirteen Wed. but her party will not be until Saturday. She decided she wanted a pirate party so a pirate party it is. If anybody has any great suggestions I would appreciate it. Teenagers can be hard to keep entertained. Well got to go as there is many things still need  to be done today. Have a great week!

My husband and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary Saturday. Wow, to think we have made it that long, only by the grace of God. We have gone steady as we used to call it from when I was thirteen and he was sixteen. We met at church and I could not even date unitl I was sixteen so he sat on the couch all those years. We have had a few ups and downs but through Gods grace and our committment to for better or for worse we have made 29 years. Our two oldest daughters and our son-in-law gave us a night at a Embassy Suites which was very nice and money for dinner out of our choice. Grown kids can really be great! I pray that we see more marriages in it for the better or the worst. I plan on starting school Monday and Im excited but also know how hard it is to get into the routine after our summer off. Well off to clean and get ready for the big day.

How the summer flys!Here it is already time to start the new school year. We are not going to start though until August 21. That gives me alittle more time to get together my lesson plans and get some things organized around here. I always have good intentions to get all the house in order before school starts but time seems to get away from me. I am going to our homeschool support group/coop planning meeting tonight. We were part of the coop last year but from what I have heard there is not to many classes that we would be interested in this year. I would like her to be a part but their is also alot we could do here with those extra hours each week. This is the curriculum we have decided on this year, Saxon Math 76, Natural Speller for 9 weeks, then we are going to use the SAT vob. words for 9 weeks,Total Language Plus, How Does God Do That? for science. For History we are doing some geography along with U.S. state study and history to go along with each state. I am using the Trail Guide to the U.S. for that. We are going to make a notebook section for each state and do alittle scrapbooking with some of the states. I bought some stickers from the scrapbook store the other day., but it could get to be expensive to buy them for every state. I got online and sent for travel information from alot of states and have more to go.I figure she can cut pictures from some of them and that way it can fill her notebook. If you have any suggestions let me know.

I cant beleive it has been awhile since I have been able to blog. I wanted to try and blog every week but that has not happened. We went camping for five nights at a Yogi Bear campground just to relax and get away from everything. We had a great time and planning our next camping trip. Everyone was able to go except my son-in-law, which we missed him. Our grandbaby kept us busy and brought lots of laughs. Tomorrow is my hubbys birthday and its the big one! 50! I cant beleive we are getting up there. We have been together since I was thirteen and he was sixteen, so I have been around him most of his life. We will be married 29 years next month. Happy Birthday Bill and many, many more. I have been trying to lesson plan some and going at a slow pace. I was going to do World History but my daughter and I decided that we would do U.S. History along with a state and president study. She will be in seventh grade and there is alot we still need to cover. I want to make it fun before we start counting things as credits. Not that you cant have fun then, I just think its  alittle harder to know how to count it. Im excited about school starting shortly but also thinking its always hard to get back in that routine. Im still unsure about the girls club I have been praying about. I have talked to a few friends and they think it is a great idea. I guess I will continue to pray about it and see where the Lord leads. I will be praying for youall as you pray for me. Thanks

Today is my oldest daughters 26th birthday. She has been a blessing in our life and such a wonderful fun person. She also blessed us with wonderful news today, we are going to be grandparents for the second time. She is not due until March and we will need alot of prayer for this nervous grandmother. When it is your daughter it always makes you alittle nervous to see her go through all the changes of pregancy. We have so many girls in our family that we kinda would like a boy, but God will send us what we all need and we are so used to little girls. Thanks for the prayers and may God bless your day.

I hope everyone had a fun fourth as we did. We got together with family and friends and had a pool party and cookout at my daughters house. I made sure I reminded my twelve year old what the day was all about as we tend to forget sometime when we get wrapped up in the plans and festivities. My daughter had people on her street that did a bunch of fireworks which can get alittle scary some time. We actually heard some of the things fall back down and hit near where people were sitting. They get very careless when they use them. They had one blow up before it went up and it sounded like a bomb going off. We were thankful none of the people doing it were hurt. I was talking to one of my friends Debra about maybe starting a teenage girls club when the school year starts. I want to spend some time in prayer about it and make sure it is what God would have me do. I wanted to talk on alot of current things in our world today and how God would want them to be. I also wanted it to be a fun thing with makeovers, field trips, parties, along with serious things. I saw where some girls club has Princess of the month and everyone that month tries to do something special for that girl and then it changes the next meeting. Please pray with me as I make this decision and if you have any ideas please write me. Have a great week!

Finally I have a few minutes to sit down and check mail and write in my blog. I was able to go to a used book sale on Saturday that my friends and I look forward to every year. I have been looking for a unit study written by Christian Cottage for a reasonable price and found volume 1 for $8.00, I was very excited about that. I really just wanted to look it over and then decide if we will use it or not. Today was grocery store day and that always takes up alot of time. While I was at the grocery store my middle daughter said a neighbor came up and wanted to talk to me about homeschooling. His seventh grade daughter has had trouble with kids in the middle school wanting to beat her up and even trying to cut her hair. Then he proceeded to ask my daughter some questions, and then came the big one. What about socialization? I cant imagine being concerned about that after the socialization she has already put up with in the public school system. He said he would come back and talk with me about it later. I hope I can give him the information he is looking for as I do think they are a unsaved family and maybe that will open some doors in their life. Well off to church we go shortly and I get to scrapbook tomorrow with some friends, I look forward to that every other week. Thanks for reading!

Kimberly is my daughter that 22 years ago, I was giving birth to.I thank God for her each day and ask his blessings on her life and guidance for the direction she is heading. She is going to college to be a nurse and we are very proud of her for that decision. She has been a blessing to our life and I know she will continue to be in the future. Well we are off to celebrate at Ruby Tuesdays with family and to eat some icecream cake that we dont need, but oh it is so good. I hope you have or had a great day. Kimberly.

When your new at this blogging its hard for me to know what to blog. I guess with time I will feel more comfortable with it. Do you ever have those days where you set out to accomplish alot on your to do list and it doesnt happen? Well that has been happening quite frequently here lately in my life. I seem to spin my wheels and never seem to get very far. I am trying during the summer months  while we are not homeschooling to get some things in order and habits formed. One habit I struggle with as a Christian is reading my bible daily and praying, so I have been working on that this week. I also need to put my health as a priorty since the doctor told me I need to start walking and eating more healthy. Please pray for me as I persue these goals in my life.

I thought that this would be an inspirational first post. My friend Donna sent it to me and I wanted to share it with others. This poem is an example of why I, and a lot of other families, choose to homeschool....

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb, his fleece was white as snow

And everywhere that Mary went,

the lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school each day,

Twasn't even in the rule.

He made the children laugh and play

To have a lamb at school.

And then the rules all changed one day,

Illegal it became;

To bring the lamb of God to school,

Or even speak His name.

Every day got worse and worse,

And days turned into years,

Instead of hearing children laugh,

We heard gunshots and tears.

What must we do to stop the crime

That's in our school's today?

Let's let the lamb come back to school,

And teach our kids to pray!