The adventures of a formerly full-time working teacher homeschooling her children. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:22:00 -0500 Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:22:00 -0500 Our school year is about to end in the next month or so and I'm looking back at the year and what we've learned.  Our upcoming kindergartner has learned his ABC's and 123's. Our 2nd grader has learned to use those ABC's to read and write and how to add, subtract, and multiply the 123's.    As a family we've learned.that we need to be careful to use our ABC's in a manner that is respectful and pleasing to God.   We've also learned that those ABC's when not used correctly can really hurt not only people but God above.  Those 123's that are multiplied in our world are not as multiplied everywhere and we've learned that we're far richer than we thought.  Learning to be content with our 123's is a lesson that all of us continue to learn everyday.  Mommy and Daddy have learned to stretch those 123's and are learning the difference between needs and wants.  Mommy and Daddy are also learning how to use the ABC's to raise up and not bring down the blessings that God has given us. Our preschooler will continue to learn her ABC's and 123's but I know that every year there will be something different to learn from the ABC's and 123's. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/732416/ Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/732416/ Well, I see the families hurrying to get their last vacation in before school starts.  Some moms who are counting down the days until school starts so they can send their kids back to school.  The sales that everyone needs to get to before school starts and I feel content and happy.  This will be the first school year that I don't have to go back to work and it feels WONDERFUL!!!  I'm beginning to see the decision we made a few years back for me to leave work and that was finally achieved in January to be the BEST decision for our family.  I see a difference in our children because I am HERE to see what needs to be changed or challenged.  It has not all been easy, economically things have been challenging and we're learning to really rely on God.  Though looking at this year so far and what my home feels like and the less stress that I feel, I know that this was the BEST decision for our family.  I'm still trying to bring in some income to our family but I'm learning to surrender to God's will.  Somethings that I've felt "Oh this is totally going to be great and will be awesome for us" have not panned out BUT in all things I'm learning to be content in the knowledge that God has our best in mind and that He is watching over us. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/715010/ Thu, 6 Aug 2009 16:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/715010/ Okay so a few months ago, my husband and other friends introduced me to Facebook.  Up to that moment I had not heard of it.  Now I can't go a whole day w/o checking it out.   I think it's the idea that I can see what everyone is doing in a glance and I've remet some friends from elementary school and high school.  The funny thing is that even my best friend who I see and basically talk to every day, I will see what she's doing or thinking even before I get a chance to talk to her.  Scary but nice. I'm not much of a writer but I do enjoy seeing what others are doing.  So maybe that's why Facebook is good for me and blogging......not so much.   Anyways I do like to come here every so often to just write down my thoughts. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/697214/ Mon, 8 Jun 2009 20:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/697214/ Memory Verse - Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 Introduction - I thought that I would hit the “easy button” this week and not only make the assignment light, but also give us a chance to get to know each other better through prayer. Assignment - This week I would like you to post any prayer requests you have. What is going on in your life that you need prayer warriors for? Feel free to post an unspoken request if you feel it is too personal. Then if you would just take the time to visit as many other BFS buddies as possible, pray for them and then leave them a little note letting them know that you have prayed or will be praying. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the last couple of weeks I've been feeling kind of depressed.  It's not a "I miss work, I wish I could go back" and it's not a "Winter is depressing when will it finally be spring!"  I don't think I can get away with the second since I live in Sunny Florida LOL.  It's a I don't want to get out of bed and I rather stay in bed and sleep all day and let the kids run crazy and then scream at them all day because I left them all alone and the house is a mess and they won't let me be because they want food to eat or just their mom to be around them because they are bored. It really hit me when I checked my son's schoolwork and I noticed that there are major chunks of his schoolwork that were not done.  When I interrogated him about it  "Why didn't you finish your school work?"  He told me that he didn't understand it and that he'd ask me about it but I would tell him that I would get to him but I never did.  OUCH!!!!!! So I would like some prayers about just uplifting my spirit.  I really need to have some time alone with God and just pray for awhile so pray for that time and just that I will find comfort in him.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/668403/ Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:17:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/668403/ Assignment: Try to think of one thing you can say to the glory of God- one thing to thank Him for, a positive thing you can say about Him, or one of His Names-using each letter of the alphabet.  You are allowed to make up words- if you can justify them by making it clear what you mean- and you may also use any foreign language (but please explain what it means) - and you can also use a thesaurus or dictionary if you get stumped. I’m putting my list below so you’ll have to copy and paste this then remove my answers.  It’s a bit of a challenge but I think you’ll enjoy it.  Have fun with it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I did google and find out some of the names of God and Jesus cause I was having a difficult time with some of the letters.  This was an awesome assignment! A— Adonai B–Bread of Life C–Cornerstone D– Deliverer E–Eloi F–Father in Heaven G–Gracious. H—Holy One I– I AM J—Jesus K– King of Kings. L–Lord of Lords M—Messenger N–Never-ending O–Omnipotent P–The True Physician Q– Quietness of righteousness R— Raised from death S– Shepherd T– Teacher U– Undescribable peace given to us V—Vine. W—Word of Life X— X-ray vision into our lives Y—-Yeshua Z— Zur "God our Rock" http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/666089/ Fri, 6 Mar 2009 18:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/666089/ Introduction: You Deserve a Break Today (McDonalds) –After all this crazy weather, the economy ups and downs and now a new President for the United States you all do deserve a break today.  I want to give everyone a ‘break today’ and have the ANNUAL SHOPPING SPREE!!! Assignment: I’d like to stick with a theme for the spree though.  The marriage bedroom!  I’m also being a little selfish on this one because my husband and I are getting ready to demolish our room, my office, and our ‘guest’ room and make ourselves a master suite.  I need some great ideas on linen, wall colors, curtains, pictures…anything that would help me to decorate our new room.  I do want a soft and sanctuary type theme.   Are you willing to help me?  Your budget is $1500! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay, I've been trying to do this assignment for days.  Every time I start my DSL goes off and I have to start all over again.  I'm saving everything as we go, so if it's not finished when you look at it come back later.  LOL  I also want to say that I'm horrible at designing.  Sometimes, I don't know what matches or not. Here goes. The bedroom furniture would be rooms to go.  I've always wanted a 4poster bed.  So here's the dresser/mirror and bed for $1099 From target here's the bedding for only $150 (90duvet and 50 sheets) I would love to have a seating area where I can rest and read at the same time.  I have always wanted a chaise lounge  so here's one from overstock for around $225. The bathroom coordinates would also come from Target for around $75. The bathroom rug for a little splash of color for $25.  I would paint the bedroom the beige of the sheets and the bathroom the green from the rug.  I'm around $1500 and haven't paid for the paint yet but I think designers always go overboard as well. So there's my sort of room. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/657427/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:38:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/657427/ Memory Verse: 1 John 4:16 (NIV) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. Intro: Sometime “being all you can be” is a challenge.  We are trying to balance being a godly wife, mother, teacher, keeper of the home,  and much more.  None of us are perfect and we all struggle in our own ways with being able to achieve what we feel needs to get done. Assignment:  This week I thought we could share what great ways we have found to help with all we have to do.  Besides the obvious getting face down in front of God, what have you found that works?  Have you done a great bible study that deals with this area?  Do you have a certain “thing” that  really helps you like a planner or gadget?  Do you have a certain bible verse that just speaks to you and you have it posted so you see it all the time?  Is there a website that is really valuable to you in this area?   What do you do that if someone else found out about it, they could benefit from it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I love this assignment because this is actually one of my new year's resolutions.  My desire for this year is to be happy and content being at home and that my children and husband would be as well.  To me being happy and content is not running around like a chicken with their head cut off (which I can do QUITE well) so organization is important. One of the things that I have found that works really well with us is meal planning.  I have used two different websites, b/c I love websites and my husband's techiness has rubbed off on me, Menus4Moms and E-mealz both give you a weekly dinner plan and a shopping list to go with it.   They also both usually have at least one crockpot meal a week which is great for my evenings when I'm teaching piano.  This usually saves me money and I know what's for dinner.  I also have basically 3 rotating lunches and breakfast so I don't have to think much. Home cleaning, is one thing I'm working on.  I'm trying to schedule things one day at a time.  For right now Monday is laundry day, Tuesdays bathrooms, Thurs. floors.  As you can see I still have to figure out when to clean my kitchen and the other odds and ends.  This is definitely my work in progress.  I've been reading, Managers of Their Homes and I'm trying to figure out how to do some stuff. I'm currently only homeschooling my oldest (7yo) but we buy him a monthly planner and a binder.  In the planner, I write down his assignments and that becomes my lesson plans as well.  We take the planner with us for our homeschooling meetings and we write down field trips and stuff like that on it so we know what's coming up.  His binder we use for any loose leaf stuff we have and also our reading log and scrapbook of fieldtrips.  We try to be concise and I just keep a filing box for his records for that year.  Anything that doesn't fit in the box we don't keep. The one things that I'm truly enjoying out of our week is our CBS.  All of us go to a weekly bible study.  My oldest and I are both studying the book of Mathew for this school year.  It's a great time to just meet with other women and look into God's word and study it out.  My children love it and are really learning more about God's word.  This is 2 hours out of my day, that I'm truly glad I scheduled. Check out BFS for more women who are "BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE" http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/654263/ Tue, 3 Feb 2009 20:31:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/654263/ So last night we're having dinner and I put the dreaded peas on my children's plates.  My daughter of course just started gobbling up her dinner with delight (love it!!).  The boys on the other hand just stared at them and refused to touch them.  I told them that if they would eat 3 peas they could get dessert.  My middle son wanted to know why they were round and what was inside them.  I told him that they have peas inside.  He still wasn't convinced.  I asked him, "Well grapes are round, what do they have inside?"  He responded with water.  I said that's right grapes have grape water and peas have .............pea water!!!! At this comment my husband just rolled off the table laughing so hard.  I couldn't believe what I said.  I started laughing myself really hard.  I guess I didn't convince the children to eat their peas! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/649305/ Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:44:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/649305/ Memory Verse: Genesis 1:14 (King James Version) And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.  Assignment: This week you are to use your Blog Name (or your own pen/real name) and create signs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first one shows my Cuban heritage. The second one is the family. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/647723/ Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/647723/      I LOOOVE being a stay-at-home mom.  This was my first full week at home and I have totally loved it.  It's been wonderful just to be home and be with the kids.  I feel so much more relaxed and at peace with myself.  My wonderful husband feels the difference in the home and I know that the kids feel better having mommy home.       I'm still able to see the emails at school and I can totally see all the craziness that is going on.  All the pressure to have the children do well on this one test and the whole schooling experience revolving around this one test.  It's pretty sad and pretty obvious why most children do not like school.  They are definitely being placed in a pressure cooker.     We start school next week at our house.  Our school year runs from January-October.  I'm hoping that I have learned the lessons I was taught at school and not place my children in a pressure cooker.  I'm trying to deschool myself and remind myself of one of the reasons why we decided to homeschool: to be refreshed and at peace. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/646918/ Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:58:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/casadeweaver/646918/