Notebooking Pages (& More!) - Homeschool Blogger

Habit Training: Sowing Seeds of Character Cards

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:30:00 -0500

I had to take down the original post on this topic as well as the corresponding page at our website so that I can focus time on providing an updated version of the cards and system. I had no idea so many would enjoy this way of training their children! Time is precious and since we receive LOTS of questions regarding the system, I'm going to put all of this info together in a more user-friendly format.

I'll let you know when it's ready!

TAG: Indulging Angi!

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:30:00 -0600

My first official TAG from Angi!

Scattergories... it's harder than it looks. Copy and paste into a new post. Erase my answers and fill in your own. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions...they have to be real places, names, and things...and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

SCATTERGORIES - THE LETTER D
(Hey do I get double points on some of these?!)

What is your name? Debra

4 letter word: Diet

Vehicle: Dodge Durango

City: Desoto, Missouri

Boys name: David

Girls name: Deidre

Movie: Dirty Dozen

Occupation: Deputy Sheriff

Something you wear: Dimples

Celebrity: Dominic Monaghan (from LOTR, although I've heard he's now on TV - I'm not a TV buff!)

Food: Ding Dongs

Something found in a kitchen: Dirty Dishes

Something found in a bathroom: Devotionals

Reason for being late: Daydreaming

Cartoon character: Daffy Duck

Something you shout: DINNER-TIME!

Animal: Diplodocus (dinosaur- Alex helped me with this one!)

Body Part: Dermis

Taylor's Art: Cow

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:06:00 -0600

God has gifted my almost 13 yo adopted niece Taylor with artistic abilities. She's not had any formal instruction yet, but has enjoyed browsing some of the lessons over at www.teachartathome.com and the links they provide. She found a photograph for this drawing here that she left open while completing her drawing. She used the Prismacolor colored pencils and graphite drawing sets she received for Christmas from her grandmother. She used Canson drawing paper. When I figure out how to use my new scanner, I'll upload more of her work. :)

Seventeen Dollars and Thirty Cents!!

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 15:15:00 -0600

For those of you who are on top of your library books and have gloriously avoided fines, you may already know about the Library Elf. For those of you like me, who are really neglectful about renewing your heaps of library books and get denied access (like I did) to future holds until their fines (which were $17.30 today!) are paid IN PERSON (ugh! an hour drive!), you may want to check this out.

http://www.libraryelf.com/
Your Personal Email Library Reminder Service

Why have I never heard of this before?? I'll tell you why - because I never got denied access to place holds for books before and wouldn't have thought I needed it! The rejection was horrid!

After giving the Library Elf permission to nag me about my overdue books, I received an email from The Homeschool Mom informing me of their "Site of the Week": http://www.gurulib.com . GuruLib is an online home library catalog system. So I took a peek over there given my lack of library organization skills. It looks pretty cool! I'll have to give you an update at a much later time when I've actually had enough free time to do this with our current library of books, CDs, DVDs, etc.

Our New Home is Almost Ready!...Update - We're Home!

Fri, 9 Nov 2007 01:30:00 -0600

I just wanted to put a brief blurb here for anyone passing through . . .

Our website, www.NotebookingPages.com is getting a fantastic makeover! We are right in the middle of transferring everything over (which is why I am up SOOO way past my bedtime). I had all of my blog photos at my site instead of at one of these handy place like Photobucket. Honestly, if I had known how easy it was to use Photobucket I would have put my photos there a long time ago!

So, everything is getting a facelift including our blog here. It may just take a week or so to fix all of the photos and links. Let me know if you need help finding anything!

UPDATE *-* UPDATE *-* UPDATE *-* UPDATE *-* UPDATE *-* UPDATE *-* UPDATE

We have been open now at the new site for a couple of weeks and I have to say I feel quite at home! Come for a visit! (New orders get $5 off their order through the end of December!)

I hope to be blogging more, returning emails (finally!), and seeing you all in the groups a lot more! :)

Kindness - What an Awesome Gift!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:26:00 -0500

I had 2 very special blessings this morning! First, one of our caterpillars emerged today - beautiful snowy moth (sorry no pics - caught me by surprise and I needed to release him). Second, my awesome online friend Angi of PeakmoreAcademy sent me this wonderful award:

"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award."

Thanks Angi! YOU deserve this award right back from me ten times over for all of the encouragement , creativity, & inspiration you've shared with me in so many ways great & small! It amazes me how God brings his children together even through the internet to provide just what we need at all the right times! I mostly appreciate your willingness to lovingly speak truth to me. You make eternal differences in my life.

I'm passing this award on to:

Jennifer over at Angels with a Purpose. She's been an awesome inspiration to me these last few months after leaving a "chance" comment here at my blog. The ways the Lord works! She's always behind the scenes praying for me & encouraging & exhorting me as the Lord leads her. "Nice" is just one way to describe her commitment to the Lord & to her family in Christ. Stop by and encourage her. This is her first year homeschooling ~ don't we all remember those days!

Molly over at HomeschoolwithIndexCards. Molly has been a source of great friendship since the early days of NotebookingPages.com. It's been an exciting year for us both as we've learned our way around the online business world. She's been there to listen to all my "junk" (you all thought everyday was perfect for me didn't you?!) LOL! & to rejoice in all of the victories. She always points me back to the Lord in the most honest, humble way and I SO appreciate it. Thanks Molly!

Kate & Jeff over at Our Quiverfull Many of you from homeschoolblogger probably know Kate & her family. They have been a shining light to so many this year as they have walked a difficult path with their dear son Noah. They are pure inspiration. I cannot say much more without just completely losing myself here. PLEASE continue to pray for this family & visit their blog often. What a calling God has placed on their lives! What a blessing they have been to the homeschool community! Thanks Kate & Jeff & all the Estes children!

Our Little Cowpokes

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:12:00 -0500

This photo is from VBS back in early June. We had an AWESOME time at Avalanche Ranch!

God is Real! ...wah-hoo!

God is with Us! ...wah-hoo!

God is Strong! ...wah-hoo!

God is Awesome! ...wah-hoo!

God is In Charge! ...wah-hoo!

Dad had a big part this year playing "Rowdy", a novice cowboy! Check out this city slicker!

Nature Study - Eastern Hog-nosed Snake (Dead or Alive?)

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:52:00 -0500

While doing some cleaning up along the edge of the woods, my husband came across this little guy, an eastern hog-nosed snake:

The first thing he did was send our son in to get me because we have to document everything we find (nature study you know!). So I came out with camera in hand just as they had finished observing him regurgitating his dinner (a large toad ~ sorry no photo of that!). The snake then proceeded to coil up his body, flip over, stick out his tongue and crack his mouth open really wide.

Well it seemed to us that maybe he had tried to eat too much and overexerted himself. So I picked him up, put him in jar, and brought him inside to try to identify him with our snake chart (courtesy of the MO dept of conservation). He didn't move a bit! He looked dead. Any other snake would have darted at the first step we would have taken toward him, but this guy looked really sick.

It didn't take Austin, our snake expert, long to recollect reading about this particular snake and he thought that perhaps the snake was "playing dead". Playing dead? That seemed so odd! Turns out, he was right! The eastern hognosed snake will in fact turn himself over and play dead as a way of defense. After a few minutes in the jar, he came out of his "playing dead" phase and began moving around. So we took him back to the woods to release him. As soon as we let him out of the jar, he went back to playing dead again. It was hilarious! Finally, I guess he realized we were not a threat and began to leave the area, but not without giving us a final big "hiss". Great nature find!

Dad & Daughter Date

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:47:00 -0500

For each of the kids' birthdays, they get a special treat...a day out with Dad! Jessie picked to go out to breakfast & horseback riding at a friends' house (thanks Judy!). What a special time they had!

Nature Study - Swallowtail Emerges!

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:40:00 -0500

Last fall, Austin found a great caterpillar & brought it in the house to observe. Within a week, he looked like this.

We had given up hope that this little guy was going to make it, but kept the jar on the shelf because it still looked really cool. Well, after at least 9 months, he (or she maybe) finally emerged! I put my finger into the jar and the butterfly crawled right up and stayed there until I nudged him into our little garden.

This was either a Black Swallowtail or an Ozark Swallowtail.
Either way, what a beautiful little miracle he was!
We did some research and found that these little guys will overwinter.
So neat!

Baking Cookies with Marmee Dear

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:47:00 -0500

My daughter, Jessie, has found two new best friends! They are www.MarmeeDear.com & www.HopeChestLegacy.com . These two delightfully quaint websites have so many goodies! Right now, Jessie has her hand in several sewing projects thanks to the birthday gifts we purchased from these sites. Here are some pictures of Jessie & her two little sisters baking cookies (in their Home Depot aprons!) from a recipe she found in Marmee Dear's catalog:

These were awesome!

Nature Study - The Black Widow

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:41:00 -0500

We have a great little garden pond and stream that brings us lots of entertainment and special guests from time to time. Well, a few weeks ago, while repairing the bridge, my husband came face to face with this little creature:

A Black Widow Spider

Now my husband isn't all too fond of anything that creeps or crawls, but this little guy sure got his attention and he actually caught him for us! Yeah Dad! We'll convert him to an official "Nature Nut" one of these days!

Nature Study - A Day in & at the Creek

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:05:00 -0500

There's a great state park about 15 minutes from our home. We recently spent the afternoon there playing in the creek, riding bikes, walking the trails, & just hanging out. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun!

Searching for Crawdads...

Still Searching...

Caught One!

Jessie & Allison would rather ride bikes
than get into the "icky creek"!

Of course, throwing rocks into the "icky creek" is fun!

Incorporating Narrations into Our Studies

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:15:00 -0500

This is a post I made in our notebooking group regarding the topic of "Narrations".

We do narrations for just about every read aloud and the kids do occasional narrations for me from their independent reading. I am able to group my 4 middle children quite a bit for the read alouds. As a matter of fact, right now, they do the following subjects together: Bible, History, & Science. For each of these, there is at least one read aloud (usu more) and one or more independent books they are reading at their own level.

BIBLE

For Bible, we use the VOS story Bible as a family. First, I assign the actual Bible passages for them to read during their quiet times from their own Bibles (& I do this as well). They have a quiet time journal they keep where they keep track of prayer requests and notes about what they feel the Lord is teaching them at the time. I assign their readings for 2-3 days and they choose what to read for the remaining days. See this blog for more info on the kids’ quiet times. Then we come together for the reading from the story Bible. They tag-team narrate, orally, after each small section of reading. (Narration is simply the telling-back of what was just read.) If the reading was particularly full of lots of details, we may jot some key words on the white board for a very informal outline of what was read. I esp like to write any names & dates we come across so that they’ll be more inclined to use them. Then after we’ve covered the reading for the day, they do a written narration for their notebooking pages. My 3 older ones in this group (ages 9-12) write their own narrations without much aid from me. The youngest, 8yos, has throughout this year been becoming more independent with writing his own as well. On occasion, I will still write for him after he has begun on his own with a few sentences. This whole process takes up to an hour including our quiet times, memorization practice, read aloud, and written narration. I keep our read aloud short, perhaps 2 pages or so. We follow this process for about 3 days for a particular story continuing the written narration from where we last left off. Then we spend the next 2-3 days filling in our notebooking pages with drawings, maps, timeline figures, etc. During those days, the kids choose their own Bible readings for quiet times and for read aloud, I’ll read from a book like Missionary Stories with the Millers or devotional book while they finish their notebooking pages.

HISTORY

For History, we usu have one or two main read alouds we do as a family & at least one literature book for each child. We do the same process as above – orally narrating after small sections of reading, but we do not always write the same day that we read. If possible we do, but it’s not always the case. With the Bible, you are usually following one main story line, whereas with History you are possibly covering several story lines, several (to many) people, and events. It may take several days before we finish a whole concept. Also, with the Bible, I’m more concerned about getting as much of each story into the children’s hearts and mind. In History, I’m more concerned that they are getting the bigger picture. If the kids do not do a written narration on a day of reading, I make sure to write down a key word outline from their oral narrations to keep on the white board until their day of writing. Then after 2-3 days of reading, I usu let the kids pick a person, event, place, or major theme (or combination of these) for them to focus on in their notebooking pages and we set down to writing the narrations and filling up our notebooking pages with all of the other elements. So we do 2-3 days of mostly reading and then about 3 days of notebooking. Each of these days, the kids will be reading their own literature books independently and doing occasional oral narrations for me from them (just to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading). Typically, we do not notebook from their independent literature books unless they are inclined to do so.

SCIENCE

For now, my younger ones do most of their science work on their own during their free afternoons – truly! They are so naturally drawn to God’s creation and will sit down with books, experiments, bugs, reptiles (& other creatures) and just study to satisfy their hunger for knowledge. A couple of weeks ago, one of our jars was filled with a worm “farm”, another with an ant farm, and one with a millipede (mistakenly taken for a caterpillar by dd who was quite disappointed that it was going to become a butterfly!). This week has been great for nature study, too. We found a 3-toed box turtle, baby robins, mating toads, & tadpoles. We haven’t had time to get it all into our notebooks yet! You can see pictures here.

I do have several science books and curriculum guides that we use as well as many field guides and “living” nature books. Usually after about a week’s study in history, we’ll take 3-4 days to study something specific in science. I love the combination of books/curriculums I have (106 Days of Creation/Considering God’s Creation/Elementary Apologia Series). We notebook whatever we are studying in a variety of ways. We’ll do biography pages (short written narrations based on snippets we read from a book or encyclopedia), experiment pages, narration pages on specific topics covered. We also try to go out once a week to find something in nature to do a page about. This week has brought us LOTS to notebook. We’ll do more nature study throughout the summer as well and back off on some of our history study. This works well because in the winter months it can be a bit difficult to study nature. So we focus more heavily on the history during those months.

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Well, I hope that was beneficial to someone! ;) Let me know if you have any questions. . Narrations are a top priority for me. If we do not have time for anything else, we make sure to do at least oral narrations from our main studies. I cannot tell you how amazing this skill is. I’m convinced that it truly prepares the kids to become greater writers. After much practice, the words just flow for my kids. With a little formal training to help “dress up” their writing and to structure it properly, they’ll be great writers! I get pumped up thinking about how God will use my children in their future with these skills they are developing. I know it is from practiced narrations that my children are able to sit through a sermon on Sundays and come away knowing more & remembering more than most adults. Even though they sit and color for most of the sermon, their ears have truly been listening. It’s awesome!

One last note, I’m very fortunate to be able to group my middle four children for the above three subjects. If at all possible, find a way to combine your children for these main subjects. Not only is it easier on you, but it makes the learning that much more meaningful for them because of the discussions you will be able to have as a group, as a family. I have two younger daughters who will be joining their older sibling more and more in the next couple of years. It will be interesting to see how I incorporate them into our studies. My two older daughters will become more independent I think, so I’ll probably group my younger 4 at that time. We’ll see…always something new to learn!

To see my favorite homeschooling resources, go to this link.

Nature Study - Toads & Tadpoles

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:55:00 -0500

We have a small garden pond and stream - breeding ground for countless toads & frogs!

Thank you Taylor for Our Awesome Nature Photos! She's a budding nature photographer!

Nature Study - Update on the Robins

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:46:00 -0500

Dad watching & chirping at us!

Babies at attention! They love having their picture taken!

Show off!

How we study with TOG (Tapestry of Grace)

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:22:00 -0500

I'm posting a response to this question

"So, you use TOG mixed with Charlotte Mason? :o) What parts of Tapestry do you use?"

here because it's a frequently asked question and I can more easily reference it through the blog.

FYI: TOG stands for Tapestry of Grace, a wonderful history curriculum! (http://www.tapestryofgrace.com)

________________________________________________

Simple Answer: most, but very lightly.

My Longer answer:

We are still fairly new to Charlotte Mason. I just began implementing some of her ideas last spring. I’ve also been researching Thomas Jefferson Education principles this year. You can read more about “where I’m at” in my homeschooling methods here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/NotebookingPages/302205/ .

What has changed most since implementing CM is my overall home & schooling schedule. When reading CM, I knew that I craved the shorter school day and the shorter lessons. By the end of most days, I was so completely burned out. My kids, who tried so hard to please me and be diligent students, were burned out too. I felt guilty at the end of the day for putting them through such a long day. They would be too wiped out to play, plus who had time? (Primarily here, I’m talking about my younger kids ages 12 & under. The oldest is more independent and his days would not go so long unless he dawdled.) All of the great planning and preparations I made to “do it all”, took everything out of us. I got caught up in all of the wonderful aspects and fullness of TOG, but paid no attention to the recommendations to pick and choose. It can be tough to choose with so many wonderful books and laid-out ideas right there in front of us! I didn’t want to waste any part of it LOL! So anyway, after learning my lesson about doing too much & after much praying about what God would have me to do for THIS season in our family, I sat down to rethink my schooling schedule. We were spending long hours each day (to 4:00 or better each day) trying to fit everything in. Instead of having a great learning experience, we began to just do things for the sake of “getting them done”. So I sat down with each subject, incl. TOG, to see what was most essential and determined a max time limit we would spend on each subject.

Here's a schedule I put together at the beginning of the year. We still pretty much follow this layout with a few minor differences. It gives you an idea of how I've tried to incorporate shorter lesson times and still get most subjects in: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/NotebookingPages/210938/ This year has had some interesting twists as I've had to learn how to handle an online business. So there have been some adjustments here and there LOL!

Here’s kind of a hodge-podge outline/guideline of what I try to follow with TOG (I don’t know that I would call this TOG-CM style, but more what God has led me to do with our family for this season):

*limit our time to about 1 hour on history studies each day: incl readings, narrations (oral &/or written), discussions & TOG mapwork (usu pick books from the overview & worldview, occasionally in-depth books). We tend to do mostly reading for the first few days (some mapwork as we come across places in our reading) and discussions/oral & written narrations as they fit. Then for the latter part of the week, we finish up with more discussion, maps and notebooking. To keep this to an hour, you have to teach your children to be diligent and you have to be willing to really pick & choose from all of the available options. You’ll revisit this time period/subject again most likely, so keep that in mind. Also, I’m in no hurry to finish all four year plans in four years. That’s taken A LOT of pressure off me. My younger kids have at least another time to go through these time periods. So the next time through, we’ll probably pick up the pace. For now, we’re really enjoying our leisurely stroll! ;) When we find a topic that really draws us in, we camp there until we’re ready to move on.

*30 minutes a day set aside for any additional notebooking time that’s needed. We rotate this time through our subjects. It’s not just for history studies, but also for Bible & science. I do not usually cover science and history on the same days. We’ll take a few days to work on science every other week or so (and not do history on these days) and also do some nature study about once a week usu in the afternoons. With my girls getting older, they’ll probably do more formal science in the next couple of years, but they’ll be able to do this independently I think like their oldest brother does now. My younger boys spend plenty of extra time exploring science studies on their own... it's amazing ...I had my doubts when freeing up those afternoons, but they really do dig into what interests them!

*30-60 minutes a day for literature & discussion (we do most of this reading in the evenings or split the reading between AM/PM). I skim over the SAPs for ideas for literature discussion, but the younger kids rarely do any specific SAP work. I'm trying to learn how to better utilize socratic methods in our literature studies using Teaching the Classics by Adam Andrews.

*formal writing – up to 30 minutes a day. It depends on how much other writing they’ve done for the day. We’re still using IEW right now. If the rest of our writing is light for the day, then we may spend up to 30 minutes working on formal writing skills. At this age, with my younger kids, I feel like our time is better spent in our oral and written narrations. We love IEW though and implement its ideas & principles in our writing whether it’s a formal assignment or a written narration. I think I may plan for more structure with this next year though and block out some solid weeks throughout the year for specific writing instruction. Our kids enjoy writing and I think that’s because they are so accustomed to giving narrations that it’s become natural for them to put what they’ve learned into words. Formal instruction just helps them to “dress it up” and make it more, well, formal!

*hands-on TOG activities – I leave this totally up to the kids. Most days we are through with school around the lunch hour, sometimes a little later. The kids have the afternoons to explore their interests and boy do they! I was so skeptical of having free afternoons at first. After completely shutting down the TV, the video & computer games though and limiting our “busyness” with outside activities, the kids have flourished. It’s been simply amazing. I’ve tried to put everything they need at their fingertips … art supplies, musical instruments, electronic “toys” like Snap Circuits, wood-working tools, sewing, knitting & crocheting supplies…they have taught themselves some amazing things. I’ve bought how-to books, art videos, scouts manuals, etc. and have learned to say “yes” to a lot of their requests to try new and different activities. I cannot tell you what a joy this has brought to our home! The confidence that has been given to the kids by being able to read and learn new skills (ones they’ve chosen) is wonderful. ;) When it seems like they need some motivation, I’ll sit down with them for a focused lesson on some topic and that usu keeps them going for a week or more. We also use at least one afternoon (or morning sometimes) a week for nature study.

*fine arts – we do composer & artist studies following what I’ve learned from AmblesideOnline.org mostly. We read short bio’s on the composer/artist for the specific term and then listen to the music or study the art print and do a notebooking page for our notebooks. Real simple.

I guess that about sums it up! I think the key for me has been to figure out what the Lord wants our schooling to look like. We each have such unique families full of unique children and unique circumstances. There's no way for there to be one right way to do anything LOL! So whether it's TOG or any other curriculum, take time to pray! Ask God to help you wisely plan your days and to make decisions about what methods and tools will work for you and your children. Be prepared to think outside of the box!

Just recently, we've started adding AmblesideOnline's reading list to our history studies and we're loving it! Now I know we definitely cannot handle doing both TOG & AO reading. I went to AO to find some optional spines for a few of our TOG weeks and wanted to see what AO suggested. Well after some reading and research, I found that I really liked AO's overall year plans. So what am I going to do now LOL?! Well, I LOVE my TOG and all that it offers, so I'll continue to use it as we have been - mostly as a great resource for me! TOG prepares me to teach and gives me SO MANY options. It helps me to fill in all of the gaps and helps me to know how to lead our discussions. So I guess I'll find some way to use them both! ;) It's quite a journey isn't it?!

Nature Study - Three Toed Box Turtle

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:41:00 -0500

Since beginning our reading of Minn of the Mississippi, my 8yo son Alex has been turtle hunting. He & his little sister have spent several afternoons together searching for turtles in the woods. Well yesterday, while doing the morning dishes, his older brother spotted a turtle just off the back patio behind the bird bath. You should have seen the boy run! His little sister was no more than two steps behind him. A turtle!

We snatched him up for observation and some great nature sketching. He was a great sport, so friendly and outgoing! We let him venture around the family/school room a bit to watch him move and then we released him back to the yard.

Here are a couple of photos of our 3-toed box turtle:

They are called 3-toed because their hind feet have 3 toes. His front feet have 5 toes!

Nature Study - New Robins!

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:22:00 -0500

My daughter breathlessly ran inside today to tell me, "h-h-h- Mom! -h-h-h- There's -h-h-h- a nest -h-h-h- and babies! -h-h-h- The momma h-h-h is feeding h-h-h them!" Then she dashed back out the door with six siblings chasing after her while I grabbed the camera! The momma was gone gathering food so we got a close look at her baby robins. Then when we saw the momma land in a nearby tree, we backed away and waited to get a good shot of her feeding them. Here are the photos of our baby robins and their Momma (or Papa?), not sure! I'll have to get out all of our nature books to see if we can figure this out!

Aren't they sweet! And so photogenic today!

Computer Chaos!

Thu, 5 Apr 2007 20:39:00 -0500

Well it's been quite a crazy week for computers at my house! We thought things would be easier for me if I had a laptop that I could take with me throughout the house, outside the house, on trips, etc. So dh went and found a great deal on the last Windows-based laptop Best Buy had available...marked down even! Let's just say things didn't go so smoothly with the changeover LOL!

I am currently sitting at my make-shift desk on my old computer trying to do what little work I can get by with until my new one is fixed. Actually, that's not the plan anymore. I just got word that they're (Best Buy's Geek Squad) officially retiring the junky new laptop. No one can figure out what's wrong with it. So they've wiped it out and are setting me up with a new one. Great, right? Well, I'm a bit apprehensive as this new, new one will have Vista instead of the familiar Windows. Now I'm all for change. Those who've been with my site since the beginning last year have watched it change multiple times, as well as this blog. I LOVE change. However, from what I'm being told, some of my software packages will not "play" well with Vista. So it looks like we'll need to hold on to this old machine for a while longer.

Please bare with me in the coming weeks as some of my projects have been put on hold for just a bit until we can get this all straightened out! If you're so inclined, please say a prayer for this transition as well. Moving files from one computer to another makes me SO nervous! ;)