Giving all a glimps into the life of a homeschooling family. Grab a cup of tea, coffee, water or which ever you prefer and sit and read. Leave a comment or two. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 14 May 2008 10:50:00 -0500 Wed, 14 May 2008 10:50:00 -0500 I am an aunt again, that makes 4.  This time I finally have a neice!  Emma Paige weighing in at 8.3 pounds she is 21.5 inches long.  She was born on Friday, May 10.  She is so cute!  Her big brother is thrilled to have her home.  He has done very well with her. Everything has been going GREAT here.  I am so excited to have spring finally here.  I go out on our deck and have my morning coffee, read my bible, listen to the birds.  It is so great to feel such a connection with God in the morning.  We live right near a nature center so we get all kinds of wildlife.  Especially in the mornings.  I took a wonderful picture of a Oriel in the tree.  We have had a lot of them around here.  We are starting to scrape the house getting ready to paint and put on a new roof.  I'm so excited about that!  We are doing a cream color with burgandy trim.  I'm having trouble with the posting pictures on here otherwise I would post pictures when we are done. We have ordered our curriculum for next year.  We are going to use My Father's World-Exploring Countries and Cultures.  Check them out www.mfwbooks.com a friend of ours used them last year.  We are starting on the 5 year curriculum.  We are so excited to start this.  It is all planned out for us.  There are all kinds of activites for us everyday.  Music from around the world, cooking, science, all we have have to add is Math and Language Arts.  The shipment should be here tomorrow!!  YEAH! As I posted before I've been diagnosed with Spinal Stenosis (narrowing of the soft tissue in the spine) and have been going to physical theraphy for a month now and they started me on lifting weights with my legs....well I woke up a week ago and my knee was swollen and very sore.  I gave it a week and then called my doctor this past Friday and had x-rays.  Well Monday I went to an orthopedic doctor.....good news is that my knee is just stressed!  Now I have to wait until August to meet with the neuosurgeon for my back.  The orthopedic doctor looked at my MRI for my back and they said my spinal stenosis is a pretty bad case for someone my age.  I'm still praying it will not require surgery!  I had to take a leave of absence from the ambulance and I had to withdraw from the EMT course.  That was very difficult for me.  I was so looking forward to the class.  I guess it wasn't in God's time!  Oh well. Well off I go outside to enjoy the day.  God Bless    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/532123/ Wed, 14 May 2008 10:50:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/532123/ Spring is such a wonderful time of the year.  I look at spring as a time of renewal.  It's a lot like when you are saved.  Everything is new and fresh. I decided this term at our homeschool co op I was going to take a class.  My first choice was quilting, but the cost was a little high.  So I went with photography.  I'm really glad I did.  I have found a new hobbie of mine.  This picture is one I had to take for a close up.  If you can see it there is a small spot of pollen that had fallen off the center of the flower.  Pretty cool I think. I've been taking pictures of a lot of things around our property.  This particular flower has a great deal of meaning to my husband and I.  This came up shortly after my husbands Father passed away.  He was not a flower man.  My husband's grandfather came over and planted a whole garden full of tulips for my husband's Mother.  My husband's Father mowed over the whole garden.  Well this year we have almost a whole garden full of tulips.      http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/528037/ Tue, 6 May 2008 13:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/528037/ Today Katie turns 14!  It is so hard for me to grasp.  I look back at her baby pictures and it just seems like yesterday.  She is growing into quite a young lady.  I am going to try and work on uploading some pictures to add to this post.  I just never seem to have enough time to sit here at the computer and work on this.  Katie has really started taking over some duties of the house.  Mostly the cooking.  She really enjoys cooking.  Maybe she is the next Rachel Ray.  You never know.  She is also starting to be interested in boys.  I know it is all a part of growing up....but I am trying to teach her that God has someone all planned for her.  It is up to her to follow his direction and the path will lead to him.  I just worry that she will go the wrong path like I did.  I know I have to leave it up to God.  For each of the children's birthdays we let them pick out the supper.  Katie has chosen to go to Applebees for supper.  Thank goodness my parents are going and will be helping us with the cost.  Fourteen year olds do not understand for the most part that money is very tight.  Especially with gas prices approaching $4.00 a gallon.  Unbelieveable!  Boy someone is making a lot of profits.  My husband and I talked about buying a horse and buggy....it would be cheaper to keep a horse than a car now a days.  May 8 we will have another birthday to celebrate our other daughter will be 11.  The end of April and May we have a  lot of birthdays.  Lets see.....we have 3 birthdays in 10 days, it will soon be 4.  My sister in law is due any day now with the 4th birthday.   It is a busy time of the year. Saturday is the combined birthday party for Katie and Hannah.  We also, on Friday, have our homeschool co op informational meeting.  We have 6 who are interested in joining our group.  We are excited about our group.  Now we are just waiting on God to provide a building for us to use. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/524155/ Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/524155/ It has been a long time since I've posted here!  I wanted to let everything settle down for a while.  I'm glad to report that for almost 2 weeks now we haven't heard anything from the "other" family.  I'm not sure if that is good or bad.  We left it to God and I know his will is being done. Homeschooling is going great.  With all the termoil going on this past month I am very surprised on how well the kids are handleing this now.  They love homeschooling.  Frankly so do I, I am learning so much right along with the kids.  So we feel like we hit a homerun in the ball park of life.  We are finishing up the year with Unit Studies.  My husband and son are going to start on next week on the history of sports.  It is a real good study.  I thought it was something that they could both relate to.  The girls and I are starting the American Girl books.  I am VERY excited about this.  I have a lot of activities planned for this.  We purchased a couple of the AG cookbooks and craft books.  We are also going to do a lapbook on each doll we cover.  Our lapbooks are different than most.  Buying the file folders for them was getting to be expensive.  So we bought a huge lot of heavy paper (almost card stock but not as thick) and are putting it all in a 3 ring binder.  Its almost notebooking but in more of a lapbook format.  If I ever have a free moment to figure out the uploading of pictures here I will post pictures. I went for my physical that is required by the ambulance corp I volunteer in.  Well to make a long story short I have been having some pain in my back that goes down my left leg causing my foot to go numb.  It has been bothering me for a while now.  I thought it was just due to my weight.  So I brought it up to my doctor.  She ordered xrays which showed a narrowing of the spine.  She then sent me to PT 2 days a week and I had to have a MRI.  Anyone who has been through one of these can relate to what I am talking about.  It was the worst experience of my life.  I am by no means afraid of small spaces.  But 40 minutes in a "doughnut" was a bit much.  I'm still waiting to hear about the results from my doctor.  We will see.  My PT says he is confident that PT will be enough along with loosing weight.  Anyone who has had to do that knows that it is not easy.  I've been in prayer a lot over this also. The temps are in the 70's today!!!  We did school outside today.  I couldn't sit inside at all.  The feel of the sun felt so great.  I love it when it is in the 70's!  I did my devotionals outside this morning and it was so peaceful listening to the birds and spending time with my Father.  Ok time to get back outside.  Enjoy the nice weather.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/517822/ Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/517822/ It has been a while since writing here!  We have been so busy lately.  First of all my former Mother in law hasn't let up at all with regards to her "concerns" with homeschooling.  Friday, while droping my daughter off at public school for speech theraphy who did I run into??  You guessed it, my former in law.  She just smirked and went into the building.  She and my ex had a meeting with the superintendent.  When I got back home I called the superintendent's office to find out what was up.  I spoke to the secretary, she told me he was out of the office and would be back around 1 PM.  I told her to have him call me ASAP on my cell phone.  Guess what....No return phone call.  As soon as I am done here I will call him myself again.  I notified HSLDA and am waiting to hear from them again also.  All weekend while the children were at their Dad's house all they heard was...."you are going back to public school on Monday".  They were all very upset with what they heard all weekend.  I know the Lord tells you to love your enemies....BUT it is very hard.  Our 10 yo daughter had trouble sleeping Sunday night.  She was very worried about having to go back to school.  I reassured her that she wasn't going back.  See recently she has been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder.  Which affects how information is interpreted, or processed by the brain.  What I thought was her just not hearing/listening to me.  She slept very well last night.  I have been praying very hard about this.  I'm surprised at myself in how I'm handling this.  But I know it is only through the grace of God I'm able to hold myself together. On a brighter note.....it felt like spring yesterday.  Temps reached into the 60's!!!!  I saw flowers starting to peek through, heard birds singing.  I was able to sit out on our deck and enjoy the day yesterday.  But I also saw how much stuff is in our lawn from all the storms we had this year.  Sticks, papers, leaves, ect.  This weekend we have decided to have a spring clean up.  Its only going to be in the mid 40's but that will keep us moving!  I'm getting excited to plant our gardens.  With the price of everything going up, I'm planning on planting a large garden and canning/freezing a lot.  We used up the last package of corn from last year.  I've been saving my egg cartons to start seeds, which I'm going to plant soon so they are ready to plant on Memorial Day. Last night I went to the store and got 1 loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, and eggs.....which came to $6.75!!!  I couldn't believe how much things cost.  We usually go to Save a lot, which helps some but it is in the next town over.  With gas up it didn't pay to go there.  My hubby usually stops on his way home from work for the groceries.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/509129/ Wed, 2 Apr 2008 07:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/509129/ I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  I know we did.  We went to my parents church because it was also my Dad's birthday.  I grew up in that church and it felt good to be back there with my family.  The church is struggling a great deal now.  They may even be closing the doors.  That  weighs heavily on my heart wondering if we would of gone there would they be a little better off?   That has been a big struggle for me lately.  I know the Lord led us to our current church, but I'm also feeling led to my parent's church.  Its the mind game right now with my self.  I've been praying a lot about it.  My Husband said he felt really good after leaving church yesterday.   I've discussed this with my Husband and we agreed to pray on it.  I've also talked to a good friend of mine about this subject many many times.   Anyway we will see where God directs us. Today was a great learning day for all of us.  I thought it was going to be difficult to get the kids settled down after Easter.  Although we limited the amount of candy they had.  Our 13 yo Katie, who has had not wanted to do anything lately sat right down and did all her work in record time.  The most amazing thing is that she did it all right!!!  Our 10 yo daughter Hannah, is still struggling with school work.  I've been doing a lot of research on learning disabilities and I am taking her to the doctor Friday.  One of the learning disabilities that kept coming up with her "symptoms" was Auditory Processing Disorder.  All of the "red flag" items listed we checked off for her.  I'm praying the doctor will listen to us so that we will be able to start helping her now.  Today she read 2 books to me out loud and actually remembered what she had read.  Our 8 yo son has been flying with education.  He struggled with reading, but he just didn't want to sit and read.  He is doing great now, I stopped pushing him with reading.  He just picked it up one day.  Math is his strong area.  I feel bad sometimes because he is able to help our 10 yo.  My husband is going to start a Sports Unit Study with him next month.  He is very excited about it....oh yes and Andrew is also!  LOL Our group lessons start up again next Monday, Katie is taking cooking, crocheting, card making.  Hannah is taking learning the states, American Girl, Fun with Crafts.  Hannah really enjoys making things.  I'm going to start doing a lot more lapbooks.  That way she will have something there right in front of her of what we learned.  Andrew is taking archery, gym, drawing.  I'm a little nervous about the archery class but i'd rather him learn it there. Have a Blessed Day!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/503921/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/503921/ This weekend has been such a wonderful weekend.  My hubby was off Friday, we went and our 13 yo daughter opened her very own bank account!  She has been helping a friend of ours with her kids once a week and has started getting paid for it.  She was SO excited to have her own money.  We are trying to teach her the value of a dollar.  We also went to the uniform shop to pick up my ambulance stuff I needed.  A stethoscope, work boots, the core I volunteer for also suggested getting a pair of EMT pants.  Now I'm not sure how many are familiar with these type of pants .....but they are not flattering on a woman.  They have a ton of pockets which makes the hips and thighs look larger!  I do not need any help in that area! LOL So since they were not manitory I passed on them.  My training has been going well.  I'm trying to get used to jumping up again in the middle of the night when the pager goes off for a call.  The first night I was on call and the pager went off I thought I was going to have to peel my husband off the ceiling!! LOL!! I really enjoy being able to be out in the community helping those who are in need of help.  I'm excited to start my EMT classes in May.  I'll be done by the end of August!! Today, Saturday, we had a lazy day here at the house today.  This morning we watched "The Greatest Story Ever Told."  I enjoyed that.  Although I saw things that I'm not sure really happened.  All in all it was a very good movie.  Tonight we made Resurection Cookies.  This was the first time we have made them.  The kids had a blast reading the verses and adding the ingredients.  Although I was a little weary of adding vinegar to cookies!  I took some pictures so i'll try and post them later.  We are supposed to be getting DSL internet!!  But we have been given the run around about that.  Our neighbor has it and everyone on our road.  All of 5 people including us live on this road.  We are the only ones with out it.  We were supposed to be hooked up Tuesday or Wednesday of last week but a "glitch" in the system caused us not to be able to get it.  We called again and they came out Friday to "investigate" the situation.  We are supposed to call back on Monday to find out if we can get it.  So we will see.  It will be much easier to do things on the computer with it.  But it is not a life or death situation. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.  We will be spending the day with my Mom and Dad.  It is also my Dad's birthday so we will be going to Church with them. God Bless!!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/503210/ Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/503210/ Well this week has been full of ups and downs.  Last Sunday our computer crashed.  Praise God I had taken all of the photos off of the computer and put them onto CD's.  BUT I didn't have a chance to get the homeschool file off!  I was sick to my stomach with worry.  My Dad had called on Tuesday saying that he was able to recover the files!!!  I am so very thankful for a Dad that has the know how to do that.  We would have to go without a computer if it were not for him being able to do it at no cost. Then Friday I received a very disturbing call from the public school.  They had received a phone call from my former mother in law (the children's grandmother) voiceing concern about my daughters math skills.  She has never been happy with us deciding to homeschool.  She is the type of person who isn't happy unless she is controling the situation.  She isn't a follower of Christ either, which makes it hard also.  Anyway,  she has been making phone calls to the school (at least 4 times), the State Education Department (at least 3 times).  The Superintendent said that he felt he should call us to make us aware of her "concerns".  I spoke with him about how when the girls were in school their math scores were well below the average scores.  He said that he was aware of that.  He tried to tell her that but like I said she is very difficult to talk with.  I appoligized to the superintent for her draging him into this.  Obviously he said he feels that every child should be in school.  I said well of course you do, if you didn't you would be out of a job.  He laughed and said your right there.   I told my ex to have his Mom call me directly.  She called Friday night, and I told her I wished she had come to me with her concerns and I would of happily shared the test scores from last year and the previous school year (in public school)  The test scores were in the same percentile.  No worse though.  She made threats that she was going to FORCE us to have the kids tested by the public school.  I know what she is capable of....BUT I know the Lord is capable of more.  Maybe the Lord is using our faith to lead her to him.  Wouldn't that be something.  Please keep us in your prayers as we get out of this valley.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/499476/ Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/499476/ I am amazed at how fast life goes by.  It has been a month since my last post!  I had decided about a month ago that I was spending too much time on the computer and not enough time on family and my other interests.  The computer had been like the TV.  I limited myself a lot on it recently and feel I have a grasp on it now. Kids are doing very well in school.  We have gone back to the Prairie Primer.  The kids learn so much more using this type of study.  We are looking into the Further up and In next year using the Narnia series.  Our son is thrilled.  While he loves what we are doing this year it does tend to be a bit "girly" as he puts it.  My husband has been teaching him woodworking, and general around the house stuff.  It has been a great time for the both of them. God works in amazing ways....I was saying at the beginning of this blog about not having enough time to do things I enjoy because of the computer.  I had been considering it since we had the drunk driver crash here in December.  I went last month and voted in the primary election.  I ran in a woman who when I was a young adult was my mentor while I was in the Fire Department and Ambulance Service.  I had seen her around town a few times in the past few years but never talked to her.  I kept saying to my husband that I would like to look into perhaps joining the ambulance again.  But that was as far as it went.  Well low and behold I saw her at the voting place.  She said HEY I was going to call you today and tell you we are doing a orientation in a few weeks for ambulance and was going to ask if you were interested.  I smiled and said I've been talking to my husband about it for a few weeks now.  I sat my children down and explained to them what I was about to do.  They were very excited about it.  Then last Thursday she called and I went to orientation.  I am again a member of our ambulance service.  This Thursday will be my first shift in about 17 years.  I am very nervous, excited and anxious all at the same time.  For now I'll be a driver, back in the day I was a medic.  In May I'll be working toward my Emergency Medical Technician certification.  Everyone tells me its like riding a bike, you never really forget what to do.  The only thing different about entering this time is I am now a Christian.  I pray I will be an example to others.  I will try and keep updating on my progress as I continue. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/492064/ Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/492064/ It has been a while since I wrote here.  Life gets so busy.  Yesterday at work my husband fell down a set of stairs (about 6 ft up) PRAISE GOD he only suffered minor scrapes and scratches.  He is a bit bruised also.  But God was with him.  I try not to dwell on the what could of happened. School has been going great so far.  We are all starting to feel a bit of the winter blahs!  But are being creative in trying to get over that.  The temps here have been so crazy.  Last week we had a day of 55 degrees.  Today it is 20 degrees.  We had on Tuesday and Wed. ice and sleet with freezing rain...then to snow.  Yesterday and Today has been steady snow.  I'm going to post some pictures tomorrow.  The trees are covered with snow, my family and I love to drive down this little country road that runs along side a creek with trees on both sides.  It is like a tunnel of snow. I am working really hard lately at organization.  I want our home to be a place of santuary and refuge for my husband who works so hard to support our family.  It is so easy to let things go when I'm tired at the end of the day.  I've been working on teaching the kids to help me.  Not an easy task.  Yesterday for school we cleaned their rooms.  I showed them how to clean and put things away.  I call it "Clean the way I want it cleaned not you".  Their way is "making a path through the room by pushing everything to the sides of the room".   My Mom smiles because thats how I cleaned my room as a child....or at least she says so. Every week I am going to TRY and post a recipe for something that our family has enjoyed making in the past.  We let each child pick a recipe...either they have found it online....or in one of our many cookbooks.  Last week we made Milk Crackers, a lot like Round butter crackers.  I don't remember where I got this recipe from.  I've had it for years.  ENJOY! Milk Crackers 2 Cups All purpose flour (or what ever you like) 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup milk 1 Large Egg Sift dry ingredients together.  Cut in the butter until it is very fine (I use my stand mixer with the wisk attachement).  Add milk and egg.  Mix together to form dough.  Knead well roll thin.  Cut into squares, rounds, or use special cookie cutters. Prick crackers with a fork.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/477083/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:40:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Godschild05/477083/