A bloggy friend is hosting a give away...go check it out!

 H-mama is giving away a $45.00 gift code to CSN store.    Go leave a comment on her blog to get entered!  Oh and actually read her blog too, she is funny and sweet and has two cute girls, a dog and a hubbie who travels a lot!

A Simple Woman's Daybook... Tuesday, Jan. 25

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window...it is still rainy and kind of dreary.  I love it.  I wish we had a lot more of these kind of days, I just wished we got to stay home all day. 

I am thinking...that I did so well being purposeful yesterday until like 1:17 and then after lunch it all went downhill.  I hope my purposefulness will last longer today.

I am thankful for...the fact that I have the privilege of staying home with my children and schooling them.  I have been watching a few episodes of Super nanny lately and the whole morning routine- get the kids off to school..... Yuck.  I am truly thankful for the way our morning is ordered! 


From the learning rooms... today we are working on all the regulars, a lot of reading on our favorite places today!  We will have tea party Tuesday- in honor of the Boston Tea Party!

From the kitchen... I am making chicken and rice for dinner.  I don't think it will be a favorite BUT I do think it will allow the smaller amount of expensive organic chicken that I have thawed.. to go much farther!  I also plan on making tea today. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal but I never make tea--- I am such a BAD tea maker.  SO today I plan on making brew after brew and  getting the system I like down to a science!  Amount of sugar, amount of water, length of brewing time...etc.   Again for you who make tea so easily....be happy.  I can NEVER get mine right!  So after today I plan to NEVER have to say that again!


I am wearing...nothing, no really.  I have a robe on... gotta get dressed and blow dry the hair!  I will be wearing... dum, dum, da, dum........................... jeans and a polo.

I am creating...a work of art today... really I am sanding the sides of wood today and then I will paint them black.  Then the spray adhesive is coming out.  Post to follow!


I am going..NO where. I wish.  I am taking Dave to work and coming home and later taking kids to after school activities.


I am reading...The Bible in 90 days.  I am also reading Making Brothers and Sisters Be Best Friends.. almost done!

I am hoping...that we have good news soon.  (NO, not relating to pregnancy in any way!)

I am hearing...dripping water. The splash of cars stopping at our stop sign and the shower going with Hubbie in it.

Around the house...I have picked a color for the kitchen!  I have decorated for Valentines Day!  I am working on organizing a few different areas- tomorrow we are putting a few more of Emily's things in boxes to be stored in the closet verses out in her room.  I am hunting on Craig's List for a table.  I really need to stop because I am not budgeted for that until after March 1 so I am really just torturing myself!  I don't know that it will happen after March 1 either BUT I have to plan right!  I REALLY want matching chairs that aren't crap the most!  I will totally settle for that!


One of my favorite things...is when we are at the school table and the kids are working and we can quietly talk and joke a little amongst ourselves.  I mean when it is not getting wild, just a quiet laugh here and there.  I like to see the kids working and break into a smile.  THIS does not happen every day- all to often I don't see smiles. I am working on this and it starts with me.  I dont mean I dont see smiles all day or during school... I am specifically talking about during those quiet moments....

A few plans for the rest of the week:  really school work is the focus.  we do have a play date for Thursday morning and possible Friday a field trip afternoon... we will see how it plays out.  On Saturday we are helping hand out the packages for Angel Food- it is our service project for the month--- which I need to post on soon!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

 I was sitting at my desk the other day and suddenly all around me were bubbles.  I turned around and Matt was standing there blowing bubbles with the SWEETEST, BIGGEST smile on his face.  He said, "I know you love bubbles, Mom.  They make me happy too."  It was a wonderful moment and I was so glad to have my camera close at hand!!! Go see what everyone else is doing at A Simple Woman's Day book

one thousand gifts...a practice in gratitde (1)

started at A HOLY EXPERIENCE

I have seen this a lot on blogs but have never participated before but since I am talking about my need for accountability..I need it in this area too! I need to remind myself of the blessings that I have. Too often lately I am focusing on the dont's, cant's, wont's and even the have to's


SO I am choosing to be purposeful in saying THANKS.


1.  for my family.
2.  for the closeness of my husband's job.
3.  for lots of windows in my house.
4. that my children are growing and each day becomes a day where they learn something new.
5. for turkey and apple sausage, that it is nitrate free and that my son loves it.
6. for little cute plastic puppy plates, that my 7 year old said was too old for yesterday, but today asked for happily.
7. freshly laundered sheets.
8. not being allergic to gluten
9. a science curriculum that sings God's praises on every page.
10. a husband who KIND OF understands my need to craft.
11. left over chili for husbands lunch- which truly makes him happy.
12.  Enough Frito's to go with the leftover chili-- which truly makes husband happier.
13.  apples and turkey for lunch, with a side of gold fish.
14. indoor plumbing- when I think about outhouses... wow am I thankful.
15. no car payments.  Just need to keep reminding myself of this.
16. pencil sharpeners that work well.
17. a friend who invited me to Beth Moore's bible study.
18. friends who will pray with you
19.  art classes, that are close and affordable for Kaitlin
20. vanilla scent on just about anything
21. woman who inspire me on blogs and in real life
22.  a husband who usually gets off at 5:30 sharp- it didn't use to be this way.
23.  a mom who will help me empty my cabinets to go Gluten free for a trial.
24. stitch- witchery, a product for all the non sewers out there
25.  email, really. 
26.  a large capacity washer machine
27.  a quiet street to live on
28. births of babies that happen safely
29.  framed pictures of my kids
30. Discovery Green park on a Sunday afternoon
31. marsh mellows in hot chocolate
32.  donut holes on Monday mornings while doing errands
33.  a gymnastics academy extremely close by... we wont say anything about affordable
34. no headache today
35. a daughter old enough to load the dishwasher and a son old enough to unload it.  :)
36.  that my husband truly does love me in just polo's and jeans. 
37. for vacations
38.  for pictures from vacations
39. for experiences from vacations
40. for vacationing and paying for everything in cash, upfront.
41. for Lego's- what would my son have done without them all these years!
42. for very creative children
43. for trash pickup, I mean really what if we had to take it somewhere all the time!
44. for high speed Internet.  never look back at dial up
45. for roads that are not icy
46. for scales that don't lie-- I have to hear the truth!
47. for "enough" room in our home
48. for a noisy washer that says, "STUFF IS GETTING DONE"
49. for goldfish- Whole grain ones!
50. for people willing to say the truth, no matter what the cost.
51. my husband... sometimes I struggle but I know that he loves me, anyway.
52. blue birds in the backyard, and my son coming in to share them with me.
53. scrambled eggs and tortillas, with a little bit of cheese.
54. have a camera- I am not always happy with it's preformance but perfect picture or NOT it is my reminder, my memory... forever captured.
55.  A Whole Foods being built 5 minutes from my house... sigh!
56.  my children.
57.  that HIS mercies are New every morning.
58.  prayer.
59.  a quiet still reminder to pray.
60.  a quiet morning at home, school work, breakfast, peace
61. Snapfish, Shutterfly and printed photo books
62. mug of hot coffee.. with creamer. warming my hands while I am on the front porch swinging.

Fired Up gym meet

Emily had her third gym meet on Saturday.  She was sooo excited!  She did not do her best in the world, but she had so much fun!  She sat nicely and waiting very patiently, which is really, really hard for her and there were quite a few girls!  I was very proud of her fom listening, paying attention to her other team mates, obeying her coach and waiting. 

I wants....

So I want to call this the year of the house decor.  I am determined to work on my house decor this year!  I don't mean go crazy and spend tons of money... I just mean be creative!  I have been lurking on blogs about decor lately and have got some great ideas- well I am going to incorporate a lot of THEIR great ideas!

We rent our house so everything I want to do will be for the most part-- things I can take with me and incorporate else where if needed.  I will paint MOSTLY tan with a few pops of color here and there, which will be easy to paint over when needed.  A small wall, verses a whole room.  With the exception of the girls room- we will be painting that whole room.

But here are a few things I want to buy... EVENTUALLY.

I want to use this in the dining room- and PAINT.  I also want to put some old silverware in frames of some sort on the wall around this picture.  I think it will be whimsy, which I am in the mood for!

Okay, this isn't for the house.. it is for my neck,

but I LURVE it!  I just want one!

I want these for MY room.. aren't they pretty and I a lover of candles!  I have them burning ALL THE TIME!

I really like this, I think I need it in the school room----somewhere I can REALLY see it! 

It it is two separate pieces , the tiles and the rod. 

I am currently looking through the DIY Parade on the DIY SHOWOFF

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these... SURELY I could sew a square and I like the envelope style so I could use the same pillow insert (which are not cheap)... means less storing too!!!

I have picked out a sampling of colors for a wall in the kitchen.  I think I will do three of walls a brown/ tannish color and do the side wall with the window a splash of color!  Then I will accent around the kitchen with that color.  So the kitchens colors will be black, white, dark tan and jade. (I don't think of this color as jade, but all the color samples say jade for the most part--- so jade it is?)

Here are two real life examples of the color I want....

I like these curtains and think I can easily do these with my stitch witchery! 
They are on one of my favorite new blogs, Felt So Cute (same as the Valentines pillows)

Anyway.. these are just a FEW of the thoughts and idea's swirling around in my head.. there is more to come!

Weekly Wrap up... Week 24

So last week I struggled.

I DIDNT wanna do it!

I hemmed and hawed and did the LEAST amount possible known to man!

So no pictures, because I didn't wanna do it, much less post on it!

Remember I wanted to CRAFT!!!!

So this week was better... but not in the usual way for me!  I mean A LOT of school work got done, just not with me!  I had independent schoolers this week!  I still did a lot, but not as much of the SIT DOWN IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS AND TEACH kind!  This was new for the kids, I don't think they really knew what was going on... but since it not going to BE the new way, I didn't really explain it to them.

SO here is my WEEKLY WRAP up, after you read mine... be sure to go check out everyone else's on Weird, Unsocialized Home Schoolers.  Of course they posted on time and mine isn't going up until way late, but hey it's getting done!

I decided to get caught up in science... over the last semester we did our note booking very half heartily. This was not my original plan, it just sorta happened that way.  One reason is because there was so much reading and by the time we were done listening and explaining- the kids were over it.  We didn't get as much of the note booking done AT our science class because we spent time on other things like games, the experiments... etc.  I am good with that but I do want the note booking done.  So we are going to change up how we are doing science.

I am going to have Kate and Matt read the chapter on their own.  I am going to go over the HIGH points with Emily- it is TOO much information for her.  She is not getting much out of the reading with it being so much.  I am having trouble with her sitting STILL for 5 minutes, much less listening!  SO I will get books that go along with the subject for her to look through and some additional worksheets to learn the vocabulary and important parts of the lesson. 

On Monday after Kate and Matt read the lesson, they will all 3 do the crossword puzzle- EMILY LOVES THEM!  If it is a long lesson they will read over two days and work on the puzzle on the second day.

On Tuesday I will do the work with Emily (she will have been introduced with the crossword puzzle)

On Wednesday the kids will work on their questions in the notebook and I will go over the JEST of the book, explaining anything that needs explaining and doing the DO THIS, sections with them.

On Thursday the kids will all three do their note booking.  Any mini books, copy work, additional worksheets if any.  We will watch a video or do any additional reading on this day. 

Friday is the day we have science (every other week)  and I will have Kate and Matt re read the chapter again, the morning OF science.  Then at science we will do the experiments and other activities.

On the off week, we will have NO science to do and I will not feel guilty!

So this was the kids assignment board for all the work they needed to catch up on this week in their notebooks!  WHEW it was a lot, not all of that is science, just the left side of the board.  But I will tell you that they never batted an EYE.  They just cheerfully sat down and did their stuff.  They cut and glued and shared the book to look up answers to questions.   It just got done!


The kids all did math, Kate is on an easy lesson and breezed through.  Glad to be through the trapezoid lessons!  That took her a while!   Matt, he makes a few simple errors every lesson but has the concepts down so I am having him do A and B, if he has it, I move him to F, for a systematic review.  I feel like we are wasting tooo much time with him and he can press on.  SO that is the plan!  Emily is still having some trouble with the money concept.  For instance, at the store the other day she was purchasing something for 4.75 and she handed the cashier a 10, she said I didn't have four ones and seemed worried about it.  I reminded her that the cashier will give her change.  She just hasn't CAUGHT something so we are going to do more games!!!  I cant afford to shop more!  :)

I had Matt pick like 20 Lego pieces and build something- his choice.  Then I told him to write a story about it with 5-8 sentences.  He did so great.   Here is his build...

His story is on the other computer and I am too lazy to go get it.. so I will tell you the plot of the story.  This is  a rebel droid.  He has been in battle twice, he fought well and then he died.  He obviously wrote more but I don't remember all those Star War terms!

Okay, I know little boys and their handwriting is yuck... but this is his paper from the beginning of the year..

and this is his practice this week.. Do you think he is getting worse??

I told him his handwriting needed to be better for handwriting or I would assume he needed more practice!  I think he is just rushing through.  But I am seeing very little improvement!



Kate finished lesson three in EIW... yes we are going very slow, but I plan to work a little faster the rest of the school year on it!  This lesson was to make a key word outline.  She did this part pretty well, then she had to make a paragraph out of her key word outline.  WELL her paragraph was like twice as long as the original one.  I kind of freaked out... so I called my friend Tara- who has been through all the training for EIW and asked her what she thought.  We went over that she definitely had all the points down, she had re worded and written new sentences, while adding all her 'ly' words and being descriptive.  Tara said it was not the POINT to make it longer but that if that came easy and naturally to her then it is fine!  SO whewww.

I felt better after talking to her in general and will remember to call next time when I am worried about something!  I came back into the room after talking to Tara and told Kaitlin that I had called Mrs. Tara to ask about some things on her writing assignment and that Mrs. Tara said she did a great job!  She was very proud!  I didn't get a copy of the final draft and she has actually gone on to lesson 4~

We did spelling, this has been a nightmare with Emily the last two weeks. I am so frustrated and I know she is frustrated too.  But we will just keep plugging on.  Last week we had a really bad spelling lesson day and I just stopped mid lesson.  Later that day I had her sit down again and put shaving cream on the table for her to write her words in.. I thought OH what A GOOD MOM!  She put her finger in and did one word- not excitedly and looked up at me and said, can I just do this on paper.

AKKKKKKK...really!  So we cleaned it up and got out some paper.  oh well.

Last but not the least by any means.. we started the story of Ruth in Bible. 

And that.. plus church class, gymnastics, tap, chores, fun and history class.  No art this week- off for MLK day.  So I am getting back on track and will hopefully have a better mind set next week!  But Saturday and Sunday I am not going to think about it!   :0)   Have a nice weekend!

31 Days of Organizing Challenge

So brilliant people come up with brilliant things... I am not one of those people! But, I get to use other brilliant people's ideas! SOOO I am going to participate in A BOWL FULL OF LEMONS, 31 Days of Organizing Challenge.








I know I have signed up to participate in a lot of stuff lately, but I NEED the inspiration! I need the accountability! I need the drive and motivation! SO LINK UP BABY!

Now I will not be doing every day of course, I have too much on my plate for that, but on the days she posts a challenge that I CAN do... it's on!

Today's challenge is: Mail centers...


I have a basic organization for this BUT it has gotten messy and I haven't kept up with it... so I ended up with mail going three different places instead of THE PLACE. 

My desk is the HUB.. my clear container on the side contains bills, coupons, lists, items I need to keep up with like a confirmation letter...after I have paid a bill and no longer need it I throw it away-- it is all online now!  If it is something I need to keep like a banking statement or something I put it in a box.  I would like a small filing thing like   A BOWL of LEMONS has because I would like it organized a little better, but I love the look of my small clear container, so I will have to think on that.  It might include a trip to the Container Store to see what my options are!  Poor me!  :)

But alas for now I will simply straighten and keep my current system.  I will however move the mail from THESE two other places, so that it is all back in ONE place. 

So here is everything straightened.. .back to it's natural state!

Say Hello to Mr. Demi!

I used the small brown insert to specifically keep our Netflix movies in.. they are always ALL over the place!

I put the battery bag (I want a battery organizer.. I need to put it on my Want list!) in the brown odd shaped holder.  The pastel container held candles, I am out right now--- gotta go to IKEA.  Poor ME!  But I would like a container more in tune with my brown stuff!  Of course I am going to start working in the kitchen soon so all of this might change!

I cleaned out the other clear container on the school shelf.  I really, really like this to be clean.  I feel like I have soo much school stuff that the cleaner looking I keep it the happier I feel!

So that is that.. nice, neat and organized!

Now go take the challenge or organize something!

Through the Years Thursday...trip to Austin for Texas History MAY 2009

In May of 2009 we took a trip with my mom to enhance our Texas history study.. We packed so much in to literally 3 days, with HOURS of driving.   But it was worth it and the the kids enjoyed it and were pretty good troopers!  I did not blog about it for some reason-- I was blogging sparadically then I guess!




Fannin monument on site of a Texas Fight for Independanc battle field.

This is Goliad State Park.

This is the kids outside of the Bob Bullock Museum in Austin, which is a FABULOUS museum BTW.. they also have a Texas history 4D IMAX, that is amazing! Really, go if you have a chance!

The Texas State Capitol in Austin.  So beautiful!

This is the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center it is between Austin and San Antoni (closer to Austin) It is sooo beautiful, but hot in May!  We enjoyed visiting, all the plants are native to Texas!

La Bahia Mission.  This was a very neat place to visit, they also had a little movie that was extremely interesting to watch and not too long!

Texas Cultural Museum San Antonio Texas--- we choose this interactive museum over the Alamo (we have visited the Alamo before and all the kids are well aware of it's significance so we choose to DO. 

All in all it was  GREAT trip!  I cant wait to do it again in about 2 years!  We will hopefully do another Texas History unit between finishing up modern history and re starting the Ancients.  Thanks Ma MA for driving!  and making the trip possible in the first place... It was a lot!