Do you ever have those days when all the things in life that have seemed so important, no longer mean a thing to you? That's the kind of day I'm having. The really important things like my family and God are about all I can even consider today. It's relaxing really.

Tara

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This is Rhonna's Quote for today in her 21 day challenge. I thought it would be good to share:

A strong postive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug."  Patricia Neal 

Visit her site at http://rhonnadesigns.com/inspiration/challenges.html

Tara

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We've been having a lot of "those days" this month. After some time thinking about why, I realized it's because I've overbooked us. That is so easy to do! I think every once in awhile I need a month like this to remember why I say "no" to so many things. There are always fieldtrips, playdates, church events, and park days enough to fill up any schedule and they need to be denied! It hurts people's feelings sometimes. It makes others feel like I don't want to be involved with them, but it must be done!!! I don't want to car school. I like a schedule! I like to have a consistant schedule. I like to grocery shop on Mondays and go to the library every other Friday. I like my small homeschooling group that meets twice a month. Other than that....I need to say no to most of it. Wow! I am overcommited right now! So, here's to simplicity!

Tara

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It's cool today. Weather.com says we'll have a high of 60 degrees today with some scattered thunderstorms. I am glad it's cool. I love fall and the mixture of cold and hot days. Tomorrow it will be sunnier and warmer, but not hot, which is also nice. So, it is officially fall and I love it. Happy Fall to everyone!

Tara

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Ok, so here is probably one of the better deals I've gotten on clothing. I went to Gymboree today and got my son some tank tops for next summer. Guess how much I paid? 79 cents a piece!!! Brand new and high quality material. There were only two different patterns, so I got two of each. My grand total was under $4. I figure it doesn't matter if he has duplicate shirts, as long as their clean. I also got some other great deals this weekend. I did a trade in at the local resale shop and got $32 in credit. With that credit I got a pair of cowboy boots (look new), a long sleeve shirt, and a sweater for my daughter and a couple long sleeve shirts for my son. This cost me only $1.90 out of pocket. At The Children's Place I got all sorts of deals, but the best ones were these great skirts for my daughters at under $5 a piece. That's all for now.

Tara

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I had a conflict with some extended family members last night and it is really bothering me. I wrote them an e-mail of apology and apologized last night, but I still feel horrible. I hate being at odds with people. It was about this Christmas Play I wanted to put on as a family, so now that's not going to happen either. The Lord knows what He is doing. Thank Him for that. Pray for me, though. It's not easy.

Tara

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This is a quote that I got from some book, don't remember which one, but I thought it was worth sharing.

I tried to teach my child with books. He gave me only puzzled looks.

I tried to teach my child with words- they often passed him by unheard.

Despairingly I turned aside, "How shall I teach this child?" I cried.

Into my hand he put the key, "Come," he said, "And play with me."

I think this is a great quote that all too often is forgotten. 

Tara 

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Check out Rhonna's 21 day Challenge at http://rhonnadesigns.com/inspiration/challenges.html It is on day 4 but you can view all the past days. This is a great way to get some goals set and accomplished.

Tara

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I mentioned the bean jar awhile back, but we had stopped for awhile and now we have been doing it again for the last 2 months. What is the Bean Jar? It's actually two jars, one that beans are taken from and one that beans are put into. The one that we put into, has a label like: "New Books" or "Ice Cream Party." My kids earn beans by doing praiseworthy things. This can be anything from school work to character achievements, to being extra helpful around the house. When all the beans from the one jar are taken out and put into the other jar, they earn the reward on the Jar. Our kids really enjoy this and It's our way of rewarding them without paying them with money. They also all work together to earn this as there is only one jar. There are a few hundred beans in the jar and it takes them about a month or so to get through them all. We got this idea from the "Core and Love of Learning" pamphlet the Demilles wrote associated with the Thomas Jefferson Education.

Anyhow, now that you know what it is, I can tell you what we did for our reward, as the beans were just completely transferred this weekend. The reward was new books and so we got to go to the book store and actually buy books. This is a dangerous place as I have about a car load of books on my wish list.  The kids loved it and feel good about earning it. Cameron got "King Arthur and his Knights." Chloe got a Disney Princess Search and Find book. And Xander got "That's Not My Robot," one of those Usborne touch and feel books that are too cute.

They decided that their next reward should be going Bowling, so I have to make the new sign for the jar today. It's nice to see a plan working (for now). As that is rare.

Tara

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 Today's Frugal moment: I bought a bed set, never been used, still in the package, from Bombay Kids, includes quilt, sham, sheet set and skirt...are you ready...for $50. This is a set for my son, who is getting a twin bed for his birthday from my mother. It has dinosaurs on it and is very cute. I bought this from a lady on craigslist. She even lives in my town, so I didn't have to drive far to get it. The packaging on the bed skirt is labeled $89.00. The sheet set is labeled $69. The quilt was without package and the sham was in another sheet set package, so I don't know the price, but I looked at their website and they are charging $200 for boy's quilts. Very high quality and too cute! I also helped the environment by buying something previously owned. Thanks Lord! You're faithful to provide such wonderful things for us!

Tara

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This is a picture of my middle daughter at camp. Isn't it too funny! She dressed herself up in the cabin when we weren't there and then came out like this! I had to laugh!

Tara

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Reason # 854 of why I love homeschooling: When my kids are tired and cranky, like today, I can declare a household nap time and do math later! Freedom! Now the house is quiet and (hopefully) my kids are getting the zzz's they missed out on last night, by going to bed too late.

Tara  

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Ok, so I found a great blog! It is called There is no place like home. Kelli, the author, publishes a magazine, along with her husband, that you can download. This is a beautiful magazine for "young women and their mothers," called Seasonal Delights. I just downloaded it and I love it. It has recipes, craft projects, sewing projects, puzzles, Autumn events, poems and quotes, and reccomended reading for Autumn. It is truely great. So check her out at  http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ .

Tara  

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Last night as we were doing upstairs tidy up, my girls came and announced they were starting a character club. They explained that this was a club where all the members worked on improving their character. They then said that the first character trait they were going to work on was obedience in cleaning, as this is what they feel they struggle with. My reaction was. "Where and how can I contribute!?Who do I write a check to!?"  After they had cleaned their room:), there was a sign promtly posted in our hallway that read, "Attention Character Club! Improve Character.  Kinds: order, Obedience, truthfulness, attentiveness, sincerity, patience, endurance. Mettings every Sunday night. Members: all familie's names followed."

I cannot tell you how this touched my heart. I don't know how long this will last but the fact that my girls desire to be people of good character makes me so thankful. If this does last, it could do our family a lot of good.

Tara 

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Well, we just got back from family camp last night! It was a lot of fun. We played together a lot and that is really nice. We did climbing walls, rope courses, archery, a zip line, horeshoes, swimming, volleyball, dodge ball, put on a skit, ate camp food, went tubing (more on this to follow), and just had a great time.  My oldest daughter fell and hurt her arm, which had to be in a sling for a day, but she is quickly recovering.

Ok, so now the tubing adventure. We signed up to go tubing down the South Platte River. We were excited and looking forward to it. When we got to the drop off site, it was about 80 degrees, but there were clouds in the distance. The float was to take about a half hour as we were going about a mile down the river. When we got in, the water was cold! Luckely, the girl's tubes were not open in the middle. My husband had to stay at the pick up site, as my youngest was asleep in the car, so he missed his ride back up to the drop off site. So My dad, my two daughters and I, were going it on our own. My dad was holding onto my youngest daughter's tube and I was holding onto my oldest daughter's tube. Well, about three minutes into the ride, it started to rain...then it started to pour and the wind to blow! We were freezing cold. It was scary too, as we were completely exposed to the elements, with nothing to do but float until we were at the pick up point. Then, it started to thunder and lightning. The lightning was right above us, and the thunder was cracking and loud! It would have shaken a house. Luckely the river was shallow enough to stand up in, so I stood up and waited for my father and daughter to catch up with us! My youngest was crying and we were all a bit scared. We linked together and tried to make the best of it. Then, it stared to hail!!! That was not nice! Ouch! I told my dad we had to get onto shore and find some shelter. In Colorado you can never tell what kind of hail might start falling. At this point it was only pea size, but that could change to quarter size at any minute! So, we got to the bank and got the girls out. At this point, another woman and her daughter came over to the bank and got out too. We put the girl's tubes over their heads, as they didn't have a hole in the middle, and went under a tree, the rain and hail pouring down. All three girls are screaming and crying and everyone is freezing! The temperature had dropped dramatically, it was windy and we were wet. My oldest daughter started screaming "We're gonna die!!" My younger daughter was crying "I want my daddy!!!" The other girl was just screaming. I looked at my dad and the other woman (who was bleading, having run into a rock) and laughed saying, "This is like a bad movie." After it stopped hailing, we decided the only way to get out of there was to get back into the river and pray we didn't get struck by lightning. (We had only gone about a quarter mile at this point.)This was not easy to convince the girls to do. We had to literally drag them in. We put my youngest onto my dad's lap and kept her tube over her head, just in case it started hailing again. I offered this to my oldest, but she said she'd be fine on her own tube. The other girl got onto her mom's lap and they flipped over! We caught them and got them situated on their own rafts. All three girls are still screaming. We set off, shivering like crazy, just floating down the river in a thunderstorm. At this point, I did what any mom with three screaming girls tubing down a river in a thunderstorm would do, I started singing "It's a beautiful day!" My dad joined in and so did the other mom. Then we sang, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". This lowered the screams to cries. Then, since we were all chattering like mad, we tried tongue twisters. This got laughs and we sang other songs. As we came around a bend, I looked up on the hill and saw my husband. He yelled "There they are!!" He ran down and when we had come around another bend, there were three men in the river waiting to catch us and pull us out. Talk about a relief. We began whooping and hollering like we were great adventurers and were actually enjoying this! They pulled us out and carried all the half frozen girls to the cars, as the adults tried to stumble our freezing selves along. The men had come up to about the half mile mark to get us out and had been waiting for us there. One of the other tubers said they had seen us huddled under a tree on the bank and my husband had started hiking up the bank to find us. That's why we saw him on the hill. Through it all, we came out ok, except the other mom, we think she broke her knee when she hit the rock. She was taken to the emergency room later that night. Now we have a great story and children who will probably be paranoid of tubing the rest of their lives.

Tara  

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Some things that our family does to encourage writing are:

Family newsletter: This is fun because even if one or two of the kids isn't at writing level yet, they can draw pictures for the newsletter. I just scan them and insert them in. In fact, my husband is starting a comic strip that will be scanned in. My oldest daughter put in facts about the United States for our July issue and she wrote a song for another issue. We've had entrees from my mother as well. I open it up to the entire family to send things in and I send it out to my entire family and our pen pals. Our kids love when we read it aloud as a family. This is a fun way to get those kiddos writing while having something fun to look back on as a family.

Pen Pals: We have pen pals in Washington, California and Colorado. They are all either friends or family members that we have a previous relationship with. My kids are a bit too young to communicate with just anybody that could write anything. We also write to our world vision child and will probably start writing to the SOW women. Side note: visit the Saving Orphans and Widows web site at www.sowadoptadoll.org . The kids love getting letters in the mail and they come up with really creative ideas of what to send others.

Writing club: Ok, this is only our second month doing this, but so far it has been great! We created a "writing club" within our immediate family. Each month we give an object or person each to encorporate into the stories. For example: this month our stories had to have: a vitamin bottle, a baseball glove, mit and ball, a secret door, a dog and a man. It's fun to hear what everyone comes up with. All the stories are completely different. My middle daughter (5) even started dictating a story to me this month because she wanted to be involved. (I don't make her encorporate the objects.)  This weekend all the stories will be read aloud and then we'll start again. Maybe we'll even do different themes. Who knows. This is not only a great writing exercise, but it is fun and draws our family just a little bit closer.

What are some of your creative writing ideas?

Tara

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My oldest daughter (eight in December) and I will be starting to go to a Beautiful Girlhood group soon. I am so excited to share in this time with her and I hope it will bring us closer. We are close now, but I want to be dear in her heart, to be her dear mother. I want to know the longings and desires of her heart. So anything that will allow us to spend special time together will be great.

Tara 

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I am so pleased that, for the time being, my son (age two and a half) has decided not to be such a picky eater. It seemed he would go days with only a meal or two that he actually ate, but now he is eating at almost every meal. When this happened with my first child it worried me greatly, and my mother (being the wise woman she is) told me, "She'll eat when she's hungry. Just make sure she gets fluids."  This was advice that soothed my mind and believe it or not, my oldest is almost eight and alive and well, despite starving herself when younger. Despite all that, when children aren't eating well, a mother's heart will worry and so mine has. More as a thought in the back of my mind, but now that he's eating, I can tell how much it bothered me as I am much relieved. He is also doing well with his potty training, which really surprised me. Well, I guess he's growing up. Hmmm. Life moves so fast.

Tara   

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Ok, so I just finished the book "Little Women." I listened to the audio book, which I find to be a much more practical way for me to "read" a book, as it allows me to do other things while I listen. Believe it or not, this was my first time through this book and I adored it! It's a healing book, forcing one to look inside themselves for the goodness that hopefully resides there. I am glad that my daughter has read this book many times, because I believe it has many valuable lessons in it. There are two things that the March family did that I would like to encorporate into my family. One, was the mail box or post office where they exchanged all sorts of things with each other and the neighbors. I thought it would be fun to do it as a family at some point. I'm going to have to think about it though as I would like it to be really unique and interesting. Second, was the way their family sung together at night. I think that would be so nice and peaceful. I am trying to learn the piano right now, pray for me on that as I am self teaching, and it will be nicer to have piano music to accompany our songs, but I guess it's not neccesary. I like the things that I feel can become traditions and little comforts to my family. I know I loved anything that was tradition when I was young. Something about it was magical. What are some things that your family does for tradition?

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Ok, so I have discovered the powers of oxi clean. I had someone tell me over the weekend that they soak soiled or badly stained clothes in oxi clean and everything comes out. So, I bought some and used it on some stains I was having trouble with. They are completely gone! They were blueberry stains, chocolate ice cream and an unidentified source. Wow! Aparently it doesn't work as well if just added to laundry, you have to actually soak your clothes in it. So, there you go. It really works.

Tara

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