The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is having an amazing sale on subscriptions during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are drastically reducing their one-year subscription price to $7.95! That's the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore!

This is their lowest price ever on the magazine and they want all of you to take advantage of this offer and share the info with your friends.

Please don't miss out. Your one-year subscription will pay for itself time and time again as you receive practical tips and Biblical encouragement to keep going strong in your commitment to homeschooling and to the Lord. Since it's a quarterly magazine, they even have a monthly subscriber's only E-Newsletter called Teacher's Toolbox that will give you seasonal teaching ideas and a free E-Book download! It's like joining a unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year. It's really perfect for people who are homeschooling on a shoestring or just wanting to add in some little extras to your teaching.

Plus during the Black Friday Sale, they have all kind of bonus gifts when you spend $50, $75, $100, or $150. Some are electronic downloads that you can download immediately, while other are physical products mailed from various vendors directly to your home.

AND, their Win Big contest is going on so if you just happen to be customer 67,000, you will receive a prize package valued at almost $500 which includes a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store! Who couldn't use that? And you can qualify to win it no matter how much or how little you spend!

Mark your calendars for November 26 - 30th and do a little shopping from your seat, not your feet at the Schoolhouse Store's Black Friday Sale!

www.TheOldSchoolhouseStore.com

I would like to wish all of my dear blogging friends a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you all enjoy a wonderful day with your families, giving thanks to our Heavenly Father for all his wonderful mercies towards us each day!!

Psalm 9:1-2~I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart:  I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in thee:  I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

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I recently read It Was Worth It All by Elly Matz.  This little book was absolutely amazing.  It tells the story of Ukranian women, Elly as she lives in communist Russia.  Her family is of German descent which causes her greater difficulties.  I was very moved by this story and how God led her throughout her whole life.  She clearly tells of God's hand orchestrating so many events she did not even understand.  I would recommend it to everyone. 

In the back of the book there is an article by Chris Noonan Funnell and appeared in the MetroWest Daily News.  I wanted to share some of that article with you because it beautifully summarizes Elly Matz's story.

Now summer is in full bloom and due to abundant rains, gardening has become a game of catch-up, weeds need pulling and the mosquitos are ferocious.  Whenever I feel like giving up on a job like that and plop on the couch with a bag of chips, instead I have been inspired to perservere by the autobiography of an amazing women and true patriot.

Elly Matz immigrated to America over fifty years ago from the Ukraine, realizing her childhood dream to come to the land she first heard about on her father's knee.  Her ancestors had migrated in the 1760's with many German settlers to the fertile farmland south of Russia.  Born in 1920, three years after the revolution, she saw the demise of her people's way of life as the farms were being taken by the Communists and divided up.

Not long after age six, when she first stated her intent to move to America when she grew up, life began to get very hard and starvation became a daily threat.  The German farmers who were once welcomed in to farm the black soil were now enemies of the Communists who starved and imprisoned the German farmers and thereby created greater hardship.  Elly knew no real childhood because, being strong and healthy, she was needed to work when her father grew weak.  Her story is full of devastation, suffering and overcoming.  Her father was taken to prison never to be seen again.

She married at sixteen and on a visit to her family's village when she was a young mother about to give birth to her second child, she discovered her Babushka, mother and little sisters had all been take to Siberia as well as whole villages of Germans born in the Ukraine.  she was treated like a stranger in her own land during WWII, not accepted by Russia or Germany, but useful as a translator.  A real-life survivor, she was on her own after her husband was killed at the front and she determined to leave what she knew would be certain slavery at the hands of the Communists to run for her life with her five-year-old son.  Her second child had died soon after birth.

It Was Worth It All is a great remedy for the times we live in when the framers of our Constitution are seen as "dead white guys" on college campuses and the foundational writings the sweated over in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia are currently going under the judicial activist's knife.  If you want to find refreshing and anabashed patriotism, talk to an immigrant who has escaped the Red Army's, or other despots' assault on freedom.

The spunkiest octogenarian whis side of the Volga survived starvation, disease, beatings, bombings, labor camps and concentration camps.  She even survived her own attempt to take her life to escape the misery she had known so long during the war and its aftermath.  She figures she was destined to make it here to the land of her dreams to tell us how wonderful freedom is and to warn us about what can happen to a nation that forgets God.  Elly is still traveling and telling her story at schools, churches and conferences, and to whoever will listen.  America has what she and others have longed for -- freedom!  she won't give up her freedom march or stop thanking God for her miraculous deliverance into her land of promise because she "wants to know what hands this country is gonna be left in."

This article amazed me when I read it .  It was printed on July 4, 2003 but I don't think there could be a more important time to think about it than this.  With the election now behind us it is time for all of us to take our place in doing what God wants us to do.  The results are not what we hoped for but this is not a time to give up but rather a time to stand and fight for this country, for the principles on which it was established.  We need to be warriors in prayer and in our daily lives not complacent.  The enemy wants us to give up but we need to put on our armor and go before our King to be strengthened for the battle ahead.

Blessings

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We are back from Disney and had a  most wonderful time.  It is truly a wonderful place to visit.  It is different from any place else.  It is almost hard to explain but it was the best and we would love to return there someday.  I have posted many wonderful pictures of our trip here if you would like to go over and take a look.  I find it much easier to post pictures on blogger and hope you have some time to visit and enjoy.

My dear friend Heidi is hosting a wonderful contest for Sheltered Not Shattered Shop.  Margot makes wonderful decorated clipboard and notebook sets.  They are absolutely adorable.  I love the different combinations she has.  Go on over to her shop and see all the goodies she has made and then head over to Heidi's blog for all the contests rules and fun.

I will try to post more this week as I have a few things the Lord has placed on my heart that I would like to share here.

Blessings,
Ruth

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We are all excited!! 

We will be leaving Friday for our first ever trip to Disney this Friday!! 

I won't be able to check in here in blog land!!!  We will return on Friday, October 31.  I have the suitcases all packed and just some final touches to our carry on bags.  I will check in and make sure to have many pictures when we return.

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This is one contest you don't want to miss out on!!!  This is a great curriculum for Pilgrim's Progress from one of my favorite ministries~Answers in Genesis.

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I absolutely love Homeschool Blogger and have made many wonderful friends here but I have many interests outside of homeschooling and decided that I would like to start another blog dedicated to these interests.

I have started my new blog at Blogger and would love for all of you to come visit me there.  Here's my lil' ole address: http://farmgirlinmyheart.blogspot.com/. 

I will continue to post our homeschool adventures here.  We have some wonderful field trips coming up and I will make sure to bring my camera.  Fall is my favorite season and one of my favorite things to do is visit many of the local farms.  We have to farm field trips coming up in October and next Friday is my dear husband's birthday.  We are hoping to go apple picking then.  I love all the colors and smells of Fall.

I hope you are all having a blessed day and hope to hear from all my wonderful blog friends. Don't be shy and leave a comment.

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We have started back to school.  We started on August 25th because we will be taking a trip to Disney in October.  We are looking forward to this trip.  This will be our first time going to Disney.

Dh is back to work and school now himself.  Yesterday was his first day back to both work and school.  It was a long day for him.  His foot was a bit swollen when he came home.  He is doing much better and walking without crutches. 

Our school schedule is very busy this year.  Dd has alot on her plate for this school year.  She is going to need to work hard to accomplish all our goals for this year.

This is what we are using with dd this year:

History~Streams of Civilization-Book 2

Math~Saxon Algebra 2 with DIVE cd

English~Learning Language Arts Through Literature,  Hot Words for Sat I

Science~Christian Liberty Press-Biology

Foreign Language~Berlitz New Basic French

There are also extras that we work on together for Bible and additional reading.

This is what we are using with ds this year:

History~Our Christian Heritage

Math~Saxon 7/6

English~Learning Language Arts Through Literature

Science~Bright Ideas Press Earth in Science with some additional books from Answers in Genesis

We will be working on art and music more this year.  We will use How Great Thou Art art curriculum.  I am not sure what we will be using for music yet.  We are hoping to take a Charlotte Mason approach to these subjects.  This year we have the opportunity to participate in coop classes with our homeschool group and we are very excited about that.  It will be on Thursdays from 9am-12pm.  They will both attend a history, timeline, science, writing/public speaking classes.  I will be there to help with the classes.  I am excited at this first time opportunity.

I am hoping to post updates of how we are doing with each of our curriculum choices throughout the school year.

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For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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It is hard for me to believe that this summer is almost over.  The time has gone by so fast.  It has been nice having Dh home with us.  It was just hard for him to keep still and allow his foot to heal.  We went to the doctor on Monday and they removed the wires (pins).  He is now going to be working with physical therapy so he can walk again.  His foot is still very swollen but it is getting better.  There is such a difference in the way it looked on Monday and the way it looks today.  I told him that while the pins were in the bone would heal but he would need extra time for his foot to heal after.  It would not heal well with those foreign objects in it.  I am glad to see him on the mend.

We will be starting school here on Monday.  We have our first trip to Disney World planned for October so we will start school a week early to make up for the week we are away.  We are so excited to be going to Disney for the first time.  None of us have been so this is great.  We have used the Birnbaum Guide to Disney World to help us plan out what we want to do at the parks.  It made us look forward to our trip even more.

I have just about everything ready for school to begin.  I am excited for this new year.  Our homeschool  group will be doing a wonderful co-op this year and I am so excited about it.  They will be having history, science,  timeline and public speaking and writing.  This is something I have wanted to do for quite some time and am so excited about it.

I hope to have some pictures to post next time.  There are so many things I want to share with you. 

Blessings!

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It has been some time since I have been able to put up a new post.  The days just seem to be flying by.  It is hard to believe we are in August already.  I am beginning to get everything ready for school.  I have all the new curriculumn and am going through each book and will start writing assignments for each child soon.  We will begin on the 25th.  It will be here before we know it.

My dh went to the doctor on Monday.  They were not able to remove the wires from his foot due to the swelling.  They now have his foot rewrapped with a dry, soft cast to elliviate the swelling.  His next appointment is on the 18th.  We will see how things go from there.  It is getting hard for him to lay still all day.  He is antsy and wants to do things.  He attempted weed wacking the yard the other day while our nephew mowed the lawn.  He lost his balance and banged his injured foot.  It is just too difficult to lay still when you see so much that needs to be done.  We have been playing games and taking him for rides just so he doesn't have to stay in bed.

Please pray for him if you remember.  It is a difficult time.  We are yet to receive the most of his pay.  It comes through our state and they are not quick about it.  He was on hold for over 2 hours the other day just so he could speak to someone.  It has been over five weeks.  The Lord has taken care of us and I know He will continue to provide.

I appreciate all your prayers.  I miss visiting blogs and can't wait to get back into a routine.

Blessings,
Ruth

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I will be extending the dishwasher contest until August 5th.  Make sure you post those pictures and leave me a comment.

Please scroll down for new posts.

I have an update of our home.  The previous pictures I posted were a bit older.  They were taken about 4 years ago.  I was able to take some updated pictures of the kids room.  I also have pictures of the curtains and chair cover I made for my son's room.

This is our daughter's room:

She has a small room. Unfortunately, the other pictures were too dark.

This is our son's room:

He has a large bunk bed with a trundle bed.  It has alot of storage in it.  It does take up a large part of his room.

This is the other side of his room.

These are pictures of the new curtains and chair pad:

The following are pictures of our dishwasher.   There was a contest on someone's blog and because of how busy we were with my husband's surgery I missed it.  The contest was who could fill their dishwasher the most.  I will pick a winner from the comments.  Leave a comment and post  your pictures on your blog.  Link back to me.  The constest will run until Friday, July 25th.   I will post the winner  and the prize on Monday, July 28th. 

Can you fit more than this in your dishwasher?

I love to see tours of other's homes.  If you post pictures of your home on your blog let me know.  I would love to come and visit.  Sorry, our pictures are not the best.  We really need a new camera.

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My Dh is getting tired of being at home.  He has not been able to do much of anything since his surgery.  The weather is perfect today and we will try to take the kids to the park.  He will be able to keep his foot up while we are there and get some fresh air.  I can't wait.  It will be nice to just be out together. 

Dh went for a follow up appointment on Wednesday.  They are leaving the wires and stitches in until August 4th.  The wires are just pulled out without any anesthesia or numbing.  I can hardly stand to think of it. 

I have finally finished the crochet trim I started for my curtains.  We have four large windows in our living room and I had to crochet eight trims, each about 82 inches.  It is all done and sewn onto the curtains.  Yesterday, I spent the day cleaning the windows, ironing and hanging the curtains, washing the living rooms walls, cleaning the furniture, and finally washing and treating our hard wood floors.  It took me most of the day but now it's done and I love how it looks.  I will be taking pictures soon and posting them.

Blessings to all of you.  Enjoy your weekend with your families!!

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It has been quite busy here.  We have been trying to get things situated with dh being out of work.  We have finally received the paperwork for temporary disability and filled it all out.  A sweet lady at dh job will be faxing it all and he is quite happy that she is taking care of it.  We hope to receive some pay from them soon. 

We were able to do our monthly food shopping last week.  We went to Walmart and dh came along.  He rode in the electric scooter with his foot elevated.  I was able to purchase everything on the list with a few additional products that were on sale.  I have a good stock started and will continue to add to it.  When I have some time I will take a picture of the pantry and  post it.  Our grand total after coupons was $428.  This is for a whole month plus stock.  It was a bit high and I am looking to making more things from scratch to save money.  One of the things that I really want to start making is my own bread.  I have quite a few recipes and am leary of trying this but I know I need to just do it.  If it doesn't come out right, I will learn from my mistakes.  I have purchased everything to make my own yogurt.  I am using a recipe I found on Candy's blog (www.myblessedhome.blogspot.com).  I hope to do that tomorrow.  I will start it in the evening and let it sit overnight.  I will post an update on how it turned out and will my family eat it.  They can be picky but I believe if I add fresh fruit to it they will like it.  I will probably blend it all up and see how they like that.

I have some projects started and hope to finish soon.  Two of them are curtains that I am embellishing for the living room and sewing new ones for the kitchen.  When I finish those I will post pictures.

Blessings!

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My dear husband had surgery last week for the bone he shattered in his foot.  He had thought this would be a quick recovery and he would be able to get around but it has proven to be more difficult.  The doctor had told my husband that he had to insert wires into the bones because of the bone being shattered.  His foot was well bandaged and he was sent home.  Today he had his follow up appointment and his dressing was undone.  We were surprised at what we saw.  The wires are actually coming out of his foot and will most likely be pulled out in two weeks.  He is unable to work becuase his foot needs to be elevated at all times.  This is not the best picture but it is all I could take while changing his dressing. 

Please keep him in your prayers.  He needs to recover quickly.  Being in bed all the time is making him stir crazy.  He is not someone who like to just sit around.  We will also be without pay until we get all the insurance papers in the mail, fill them out and have the doctors fill in their parts.  I know God will provide.  I miss visiting all my friends here.  I hope to have sometime soon to catch up with all of you.

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This shopping trip has been postponed due to my husband breaking his foot on Sunday.  He was letting the dog in and the brackets holding the glass in our screen door broke.  The whole thing fell on his foot and it is broken.  He is having surgery today.  Please keep him in your prayers.  Thank you!!

I have visited a few blogs that have been mentioning stocking up some groceries.  I have always been one to stock up and keep extra things on hand but lately with the price of groceries going up and eating at home more the supply I had has been diminishing.  I feel that at this time it is important to stock up once again.  Stocking up does not have to be buying large bulk items.  It is easy to start with just buying a few additional items each time you go shopping.  This is how I am starting to fill my pantry upstairs and downstairs back up.

I grocery shop once every three weeks for a majority of the things we need.  The rest of the weeks I just go in for milk, dairy products, fruits and vegetables and any good sale items.

Here is my list for the next large grocery shopping I will be doing. 

white vinegar

baking soda

graham crackers

red beans

white beans

cannellini beans

baked beans

tomato sauce-4 cans (2 for stock)

canned tomatoes

pasta-5 boxes (1 to store)

1 bag of rice (for stcok)

5 packages boneless chicken breast (I only buy this when it is on sale for $1.99/lb.~  I clean it up and      repackage it into different size servings for our family and freeze it.  Some of this will be to stock our freezer)

1 package stew meat

1 package of steak

1 whole chicken (to freeze for stock)

ground beef and ground turkey (2 lbs of each)

hot dogs

granola bars

oatmeal

1 10 lb. bag of potatoes

onions

celery

garlic

fruit and vegetables that are on sale

peanut butter

1 bag of frozen corn

1 bag of frozen spinach

1 bag of frozen broccoli

milk (2 gallons)

eggs

butter

slice cheese

block of cheddar

shredded mozzarella

ricotta cheese

frozen pizza ( we splurge on this instead of takeout pizza about once a month)

4 cans of tuna fish

vitamins

juice- 6 bottles all fruit juice and some orange juice

1 large package of toilet paper (for stock)

2 packages of tissues

2 packages of napkins

I think this is it.  If I remember anything else I will add to it.  I have a bathroom closet well stocked with soap, shampoo, conditioners, deodorant, etc.  I purchase one new item of these each time I go grocery shopping to add to the stock.  I usually pick up more of these items at CVS, Walgreens, or Rite Aid when they are on sale and I have coupons.

I am trying to also stock up on paper goods.  I have some already stocked up but will continue to build up our supply.  I am using mostly all natural products for cleaning so I don't need to buy as many of those.

I would love to see your grocery lists.  Let me know if you put your list up.

Blessings

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I am finally putting up pictures of some of the projects we have completed this year.  I have talked of putting up these pictures for quite some time and am only now getting to them.  One of the pictures is of a quilt that I made for my mom.  It is a cross-stitch quilt that took me more time than I expected.  I started to think that this would never be completed but the day finally came.  My mom was happy to finally receive the quilt she had heard about.  I gave her a picture of the quilt for Christmas because my original goal was to give her the quilt for Christmas.  She finally received it on Mother's Day.

Here it is:

Here is the fabric that I backed the quilt with:

This is a picture of a model of the hanging gardens that my dd made this year:

Below is a yurt that dd also made for history.  I especially love how this came out.

This last picture is of a salt relief map ds made.  It is of the Turkish invasion of the Byzantine Empire.

I hope you enjoyed some of the projects that have kept us busy throughout this year.

Blessings~

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The garden box my husband built.  We used the chicken wire to keep the crazy squirrels out.  He did such a great job.  I didn't do more because I'm not sure it will grow well here.  If it does well we will do more next year.

If you would like to learn about the Simple Woman'd Daybook visit the Simple Woman.

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Summer is just around the corner.  Here it is already beginning to feel like summer.  It is a carefree, fun time each year.  The Simple Woman is hosting a Summer Swap.  What could be more fun?!  It is a  fun way to usher in this new season.

So let's send to our swap partner, a new something, a gently used something from home that you would like to share, and something from a thrift, goodwill or yard sale that is lovely and says, "SUMMER". (IF you have time to create, sew, knit or any of the hand-crafted ways of making something, PLEASE do, but do not feel you have too.)
Remember the theme is "SUMMER" so keep that in mind when choosing your items (like no stuffed snowman for the summer swap...lol)...not spending more than $12.00 before shipping. (Do keep in mind how you package and how rough the postal system can be when wrapping and packaging.)

If this sounds like fun to you and you would like to participate please visit Peggy at the Simple Woman for the complete guidelines and details.

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Thank you to all of you who left such nice comments about our home.  I am so excited to be sharing the rest of the pictures of our home.  I am also excited about the new pictures I will share with you soon.  I think you will all be amazed at how much our home has changed in just the few years we have been here.  I have learned to let go of alot of things and simplify.  It makes it a much nicer place to live in.  The one thing I still need to work on is the little piles of books and things that accumulate on our floors.  I love books and I just don't have enough space to store them all.  This summer I am going to organize the room that we have in the basement with all our bookshelves and cabinets.  I will try to make everything fit and clear out some old things I don't need.

Now on to the tour of our home.  Today I will be sharing with you the upstairs level of our home.  I hope you enjoy it.

This is the top of our stairs to the left.

This is the right hand side:

The next couple of pictures are of our daughter's room.

The next set is of our son's room.

That's the end of our tour.  I do not have any pictures of our bathroom.  I will take some for the next home tour.  We only have one. 

As I work through each of the rooms this summer, I will take pictures and than I will do an updated house tour post.  For now you have an idea of our home.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Blessings!

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As I have gone around visiting blogs I have noticed that many people have put up tours of their homes.  Our home is nothing spectacular but it is ours.  These pictures are about 4 years old.  When we moved in we did some painting and updating.  These pictures were taken when this work was completed.  I hope to soon take some updated pictures because things have changed since then.  This will give you an idea of our what our home looks like. 

This is a picture of the back of our house and our yard.  I couldn't find the one of the front of the house.

We have a nice big yard that we enjoy. 

Our living room is the length of one side of the house.  We have a very small kitchen so we have our dining room set up here.

This is the other side of the living room.  This room is where we spend most of our time.

Here is our kitchen:

Looking from the kitchen into the living/dining room.

This is the back side of the kitchen.

This is the other side of the kitchen.  The doorway leads to our bedroom.  We have added a curtain in the doorway for privacy.

I don't have a very good picture of our bedroom to share with you.  As I posted these pictures, I am amazed at how much our home has changed since this time.  I can't wait to take more pictures and update our house for you.  I also noticed how much clutter there was.  I was working full time then and things sure did get passed by.  I didn't realize how bad it was until I started to look through these pictures.  This year has been a big year for getting rid of clutter.  I have had a yard sale and made multiple trips to our local thrift store with donations.  Next week I will post pictures of the second floor.  When I'm done with that I will begin taking pictures of the updated rooms.

I can't wait to share the rest with you.  I hope you have enjoyed the tour of our home.  I love our home and the large yard we have.  In our area there aren't too many homes with large yards.  Our home is perfect for us, especially since the decluttering.  It feels much bigger and cleaner.  There also isn't as much unnecessary stuff to clean.

Have a great weekend.

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