Tootle's Time

Self Education - War Powers Resolution of 1973

2011-06-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

In an effort to clarify the rolls of the executive and legislative branches of government in the use of military force, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973 over the veto of President Nixon. The resolution was instituted in an effort to provide a check and balance between the two branches. It lays out rules by which the President, as commander-in-chief, may involve United States troops in military conflicts without a declaration of war and is supposed to hold the President in check from entering wars/conflicts that the people of the United State do not support. The War Powers Resolution was born out of the Vietnam Conflict. There have been many questions as to the constitutionality of the law and many presidents have pretty much ignored it. It has been reported that President Obama has said that it does not apply to the Libyan conflict. Why do we have such and Act that is not enforced? And if it does not apply, where is the check and balance for the executive branch of our government.

In Flanders Field and We Shall Keep the Faith

2011-05-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

In Flanders Fields by Lieut.-Col. John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

We Shall Keep the Faith by Moina Michael

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields were valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

Memorial Day & Freedom

2011-05-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Today, more than usual, I have been reflecting on the sacrifice that those in the military make on behalf of our freedom. I am truly thankful that so many have been willing to serve. Some have paid the ultimate price in giving their lives for our freedom. I hope that we will not let our freedom slip away and thus cause their sacrifices be in vain.

Those in the military swear to serve and defend our constitution but how many of us even know what that precious document says? Are we doing our part to protect it? These are questions I have been asking myself in recent months. The more I learn about this document, the more concerned I grow for our country. Please, please, make yourself aware of what is contained in the constitution before we lose the freedoms that our founding fathers and our precious brothers and sisters in the military sacrificed so much for.

In our family we have had many that have served our country and I wanted to take this time to honor a few of them.

My Great Uncle, Jerald Smith.
My husbands great uncle, Daniel Fuhrer, served and gave his life during WWII.

My Grandfather, Clarence Raymond Smith - Served just prior to WWII.
My Grandfather, Everett Bowen, served during WWII in the South Pacific.
My father in-law, Henry Jacob Liebelt, served during the Korean Conflict.

Our Son, Jake, currently serving in the US Navy.

Grandma

2009-10-21T23:52:00.001-07:00

My dad, myself and my grandma

October 16, 1913 was the date that my grandmother was born in Mulberry, AR. She just celebrated her 96th birthday. Grandma has always been a spunky active person always laughing at something. Over the past few years, her health has slowed her down greatly. She can no longer garden or do anything active. She still enjoys company but gets tired very easily. It has been difficult for her to deal with her declining health but she seemed to thoroughly enjoy her birthday and all of the attention that it brought her way.

Nashville

2009-10-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

At the end of July we went to Nashville to visit our daughter. While we were there we did a bit of sight seeing, a bit of relaxing and a bit of visiting with extended family. I have a great aunt that lives in the area and a great uncle that lives in Arkansas who was up visiting at the same time we were there and so we had a mini reunion. It was so wonderful to see them both and extended cousins too. I hadn't seen my uncle in 10 years and it had been longer since I had seen my aunt so the mini family reunion was a joy. We also drove up to Kentucky and went to Mammoth Caves and also to the National Corvette Museum. I hadn't planned well enough for the Caves and so I was disappointed with the tour we ended up with, the ones I wanted were at times we weren't going to be in the area. As car enthusiasts, we enjoyed the Corvette Museum immensely. We went to the Opryland Hotel twice, once at night and once during the day. I have always wanted to visit a Southern Plantation and thus we went to see the Hermitage. It was the home of President Andrew Jackson. Guitar boy had written a report on Andrew Jackson and so that was a great way to culminate that study. We also visited the Parthenon in Nashville, relaxed at the hotel and also with our daughter and her friends at their home. We chose to be in Nashville over our daughter's birthday and so we got to have a birthday BBQ with her and her friends. This vacation was a good combination of busyness and relaxation.

The top photo is of the Parthenon, located in downtown Nashville. It is a full scale replica of the greek parthenon and was built in the late 1800s for an exposition that they had. It is the only remaining building from the exposition. Inside is a small art gallery that also contains drawings of the other and then inside upstairs is the full scale replica of the Goddess Athena that was in the original Parthenon.

This above photo is of the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky.

Football boy with his favorite style Corvette.

Guitar Boy with his favorite item in the Corvette Museum.

Mustang man and myself in the Opryland Hotel. This hotel is awesome, it is like a world unto itself with gardens and shops and even a canal with a boat ride.
One of the Gazebos in the Opryland hotel. It is gorgeous in the hotel at night with lights everywhere.

Life in the Yellow House . . . 8 Months

2009-10-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

How do you go about summarizing 8 months in the life of a family. I don't think you can do it justice and you miss many of the details but I am going to try anyway.

Football boy completed drivers education classes. He is currently trying to get in his required hours so that he can take the drivers test in December as soon as he turns 16. He also went to bible camp for a week (his first time) and had an incredible time.

We participated in Walk4Water to help raise funds to build wells in underprivileged areas of the world. We had great fun and fellowship with our fellow walkers along with raising the funds.

Sailor graduated from our homeschool in May. We had a graduation/going away party for him and he entered Navy Boot camp June 30th and graduated August 28th. He stayed determined and positive and did well.

Guitar boy, football boy and I went on a field trip to the Woodland Park Zoo with my sister, nurse to be, two of her children and her nephew.

In early July, we stayed at Great Wolf Lodge for Guitar boy and cousin Bella's 13th Birthday. It was fun for all!

We travelled on a family vacation to Nashville, TN to visit our daughter and do some sight seeing. We had a wonderful trip, albeit too short. We also got to see some extended family while we there and that was a nice treat.

Mustang man and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. I really love that guy!

Football Boy, Guitar boy and I travelled to eastern Washington with friends to see some sights to prepare for our upcoming study of Washington State history. We had a wonderful time!

Our family went camping in North Cascades National Park with some dear friends and had great weather and fun.

Mustang man and I met our daughter in the Chicago area to see Sailor graduate from boot camp. The ceremony was awesome and we had a good weekend with our older children!

Unfortunately, I brought home a sore throat from Chicago and ended up being sick for almost two solid weeks and Mustang Man was sick for one week. Because of the illnesses, school got off to a slow start, but now things are going pretty good.

Once we got going with school we took a field trip to Tacoma and went to the Washington State History Museum with my sister and two of her children. That was a great day. We have also taken a spur of the moment field trip to Whidbey Island. We took the ferry over and drove up the island and then across the Deception Pass bridge and back home. It was a busy day, but great fun.

We have been going to football games just about every week since school began. Go Football Boy and MP!

As you can see, just the highlights of our summer were filled with fun and busy activities.

In Retrospect . . .

2009-10-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

My blog has been idle for many, many months and I debated about whether or not to even keep it up. After an active summer, I decided to give it a go once more. I am not sure if anyone is still out there in blog land that would be interested in the happenings of our family.

We had a rough year emotionally with one of our children and that caused me to take another look at my preconceived ideas of what parenting and homeschooling should look like and at the results I expected from it. The conclusion I have come to is that every person is an individual and has an individual will that they will exercise. Although we have made many mistakes as parents, we have done the best with the tools that we had. Do we see room for improvement, YES! But do we own all the guilt for the actions of our children, NO! After all, God was the PERFECT parent and Adam and Eve sinned. The results of our year in the fire is that we have good relationships with all of our children and for that we are truly grateful!

Our oldest child, our daughter moved away to the other side of the country almost a year ago. She has had many adventures living that far from home, done a lot of sightseeing and enjoyed her friends. Now she feels that it is time to come back home and start a new chapter in her life. We are glad that she had her adventure but are even happier that she is returning home. We have missed her greatly.

Our second child, after many bumps in the road, finished his homeschooling career and graduated from our homeschool. Last fall, he enlisted in the Delayed Entry Program with the Navy and worked toward full enlistment, which he accomplished the end of June. He graduated from boot camp the end of August and now is attending classes to prepare for his career in the Navy. His chosen career is Advanced Electronics and Computer Program (AECF) with the rate of Fire Controlman (FC). Sailors in that position work on the weapons systems and radar. We are very proud of him!

Our third child, Football boy, is almost 16 and is in his second year of high school classes. He plays football for the local high school and he loves it. He had been working hard on his school and keeps pretty busy with it and all the football practices. He is growing up and becoming quite a young man.

Our fourth child, guitar boy, has found a new love - the electric guitar. He has been teaching himself to play and seems to have an ear for music. Of course, he loves it loud. It is great to see him find something that is "his" thing that he has much fun doing.

Mustang Man is still working on restoring his 1965 mustang coupe in his spare time. It has turned out to be a very long project but he is getting close to paint time and the will be the turning point in the project. He still works at the local aircraft manufacturer and has avoided all of the lay offs there. We are truly thankful for that as well.

I keep very busy with homeschooling football and guitar boys and helping my mom, who lives near by. I don't know where my time goes sometimes, but I keep plugging away. Anyhow, that is where we are as a family currently.

Routines

2009-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

One thing I need to work on is having a consistent morning and evening routine. It helps the day to run much smoother. Here is a basic routine that, if followed, helps my days to go well.

Morning Routine

Feed Cats

Quiet Time

Exercise

Shower

Make Bed

Breakfast

Cat box

Start laundry

Evening Routine

Pick up downstairs

Kitchen check & clean if needed

Set up coffee pot

Read

Check calendar & menu

Catch up checkbook

Get to bed by 11 pm

Menu Plan Monday - Jan 19 Edition

2009-01-18T17:57:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for the new year is to use my time more wisely. I am hoping that planning menus will help me to accomplish this goal.

Monday: Martin Luther King Jr., Bday – No school/Plan School Day
Jake works 7 – 12
Tuna Noodle Casserole/peas

Tuesday: Inauguration – Take cats to vet
Italian Dressing Chicken, Boiled Potatoes, Carrots

Wednesday: Take mom Shopping
Jake Works 7 – 12?
Spanish Rice/green beans
Life Group

Thursday: Josh/Ben - Dentist
Go visit Grandma
Oven Fried Chicken, baked potatoes, carrots
(Turkey Tetrazzini for dinner @ grandmas)

Friday: Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic toast

Saturday: Cook Breakfast or have Jake cook
Pancakes, sausage, applesauce

Out with the Old in with the New - 2009

2009-01-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Reading several blogs and chatting with my daughter and friends has caused me to consider my goals for the new year. I have not firmed them up yet, but here is a partial list of what I hope to accomplish in the new year.

- Grow to know Jesus in a deeper fuller way. - Unfortunately this one is hard to measure but I plan to do this by having more consistent bible study and prayer time. I started by reading one of the gospels and am now reading through the gospel accounts as presented in the Chronological Bible - NIV. I hope to gain a new perspective of Jesus through some of the books I read as well. I will also start a new prayer journal to keep track of how my prayers are answered.

-Use my time more productively by establishing a better morning routine and evening routine.

- Read at least 6 worthwhile books this year. The Headmistress of The Common Room is challenging herself to read 12 worthwhile books this year - you can read about her challenge here. I haven't figured out all of the books I would like to read but here are the first few on my list. My list may not measure up as worthwhile in other peoples minds, but I see something worthwhile in them for me:

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

The Last Sin Eater by Francine River

Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained by John Milton

~~Great Expections~~Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

- Gain some sense of Health - both Physical and Spiritual

On the physical side I plan to start by moving my body each day and drinking more water each day and I spoke to the Spiritual side on the first goal I listed above.

- I want to declutter my house this year. Coffeemama at Our Blue Castle has blogged about her goal in this area here and I want to come up with a similar plan to divide up my house into bite sized pieces to accomplish this goal.

I actually started this post the first week in January and am just now getting back to it. I have been following through on some of my goals and need to work more on others. I will post on my progress in a later post.

More Winter Photos

2008-12-23T18:08:00.001-08:00

Here is Josh with his new friend.

I took these photos today. We have had a couple of days break in the snow, it was actually pretty nice out today. There were a few snow flurries and we are supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow - anywhere from 1 - 6 inches depending on where in the Puget Sound area you live. My sister and her family are supposed to come up tomorrow, I hope the roads aren't too bad.

Homemade Snow

2008-12-22T19:14:00.001-08:00

Baking

2008-12-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

I don't usually bake very much because I eat too much when I do. At the holidays I do try to bake some Christmas cookies and some other treats to help make the season special. This year Galen and I baked spritz, lemon cream cheese spritz, chip & dip, and Russian tea cake cookies. I also baked Fruit Cocktail Pound Cake and Kuchen. Kuchen is a pastry that has a sweet dough crust with a custard filling and you can add fruit to it also. I make peach and apple and we usually eat it on Christmas morning. The Fruit Cocktail Pound Cake was my mother in laws answer to the traditional fruitcake that so many people don't really like. I will try to add photos of the pound cake and kuchen later.

Holiday Time

2008-12-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

Like many people, we have been busy during this holiday season. We started by celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom and then my sister and her children joined us for shopping and gingerbread house and cookie decorating. My children have also made paper snowflakes of many shapes and sizes, so that we could have snow inside the house as well as outside. One of our annual traditions at this time of the year is to go out and cut a christmas tree. Although it has become an expensive tradition, it is one that holds a special place in our hearts.

Winter is Upon Us

2008-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Once again I have let the blog go by the wayside while attending to other activities. Winter has hit very hard here in the Pacific Northwest and it is just now officially arrived. We have had snow, more snow than we have had in a very long time and colder temperatures than I EVER remember. It was 3 degrees at 8:30 yesterday morning and I have never seen that temperature. I was born and raised here and am well into my 40s - so you can see how long that has been. There is even a possibility of a white Christmas this year and I don't remember ever having one of those, at least not where the white came down on Christmas. I know that people in other parts of the country get this kind of weather every winter, but those of us in Western Washington don't see much snow and most of us don't get much experience driving in these conditions. Due to that, driving around here has been a bit tricky. We are supposed to see a break in the snow tomorrow before more snow on Tuesday. Even with the difficulties the snow and ice brings, I must say that I think it is beautiful especially since I haven't had to get out and drive in it.

Our Mitten Kitten

2008-11-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

Mitten Kitten likes baskets. Isn't he cute. He also likes Rusty Kitty.

More Kitty News

2008-11-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

Star - Oreo - Splash

Star is a very friendly kitten, playful but also loveable, our friends adopted him. Oreo and Splash are great kittens, both are very playful. Splash is rough and tumble and loves to play fight with his brothers and him mom. Oreo is a purr baby and will cuddle up with you. Yesterday they both went off to an adoption event and if they didn't get adopted there they will have been placed into one of three area pet stores. I had mixed emotions about them leaving, I was tired of having and taking care of so many cats but they had become part of our family after living with us for so long. I hope they find loving forever homes.

What have I learned from this whole experience? It is hard for me to foster, I get emotionally attached to the little kittens. I have learned how important it is to have your animals spayed and neutered. Ignoring stray animals around your neighborhood can endanger your own animals through disease and fighting. Would I do it again? Possibly, if we had an extra room that we didn't need regularly - such as a spare bedroom. I won't be volunteering anytime in the near future, especially since we now have three cats of our own, one of whom is not keen on other animals - including the two she lives with.

Kitties, Kitties, Kitties

2008-11-06T22:37:00.001-08:00

This is Rusty, our 16 year old furry boy.

This is Jasmine; aka: little momma; aka: Mean Kitty. She is actually a pretty good cat and would be a great pet for a family who has no other pets. She tolerates the kittens most of the time, but absolutely hates my Rusty kitty. This has been a big challenge.

We train them early to love books. This is Skitters, the petite and only girl of the bunch. She has gone to live with my sister and her family. I will post about the rest of the group later. Blogger photo uploading is just too slow tonight.

Our life . . . Random events - not so minor

2008-11-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

So much has happened in our lives since I posted months ago. I have already shared about the kittens - I will post more pictures in a later post. My husband is a Boeing employee who just went back to work today after a 57 day labor dispute. It was great having him home, but stressful watching our savings dwindle. Although we prepare for a strike every contract year, we always hope it won't come to that. We are very thankful that this contract is for four years and we gain an extra year of breathing room. Our daughter moved from Washington state to Nashville, TN and you can read about her adventure on her blog, The Joyful Student . We are excited for her but at the same time will miss her greatly. After an extremely growing year with our next child in line, things have come around and we are doing much better with our relationship. He is a senior in our homeschool and will graduate in May. He is in process of joining the Navy and will probably ship out to boot camp sometime in June. I think it will be a time of growth and self exploration for him. We have had a busy fall with our third child in football, his first year at the high school level. It has been tough competition, but a growing experience for him. He still loves to play, but is glad that it is drawing to an end this week. A blessing to my husband being on strike for so long is that he was able to see our son play in almost all of his games, due to his working swing shift he usually misses all of the games. As you can see we have had a very busy few months.

Crazy Cat Lady

2008-11-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is Splash before we brought the kittens inside. This is oscar right after we brought them inside and he was the first to be adopted.

Recently, I have been called the “Cat Lady”. You know, one of those people who has WAY too many cats. It all started one day many, many years ago when we acquired a young cat named Rusty who was about two years of age from some friends who were moving out of state. He has been our furry family member for the past 14 years. A year or two after his arrival in our family, we got an all black kitty for our daughter, which she named Velvet. Velvet lived with us for many years until she died of kidney failure a few years ago. And now the story continues:

One day in early August we discovered 3 kittens on our front porch, the next day there were three more. Where did they come from? and where was the mother?, we wondered. We were soon to wonder no more as the very skinny, all black mommy, who looks almost exactly like our daughter’s prior kitty Velvet, showed up. She was not much more than a kitten herself and she evidently found under our porch a safe place to have her brood of 6 kittens. At first I thought she was wild but she had on a very tight flea collar, thus we knew she had been a pet to someone at one time, although we could not find out whose. It didn’t take too long and she started to trust me and come to me when I called, but the kittens would run anytime we tried to get near to them. I contacted Purrfect Pals, a local no kill cat shelter and found some help there. I proceeded to trap all 7 cats and bring them into my house for safety. Once they were all trapped we took them up to the shelter for an examination, they all were healthy. When the kittens were big enough, I took them up to the shelter to be altered and have their vaccinations. We decided to keep one of the kittens and take care of the mommy as she was still a little wild and not likely to be adopted by anyone. I surrendered the other kittens to the shelter, but kept them at my home as foster kittens. Our family has worked on taming them so that they can be adopted. Purrfect Pals hosts adoption events at major pet stores in the area every Saturday and the foster parents bring their little wards to these events so people can see them. The first time we took our kitties to an adoption event they became stressed and hissed at everyone. Even so, one of the cute little guys got adopted. The remaining babies caught an upper respiratory infection and I had to give them an immune booster so that they could get over it before they went to another event. In the meantime they became more and more tame and used to us. Soon three of them were well enough to go to an event. They became so stressed while there, they had to be removed from the display and thus none were adopted and they came back home with us. The fourth little guy was adopted by a friend of ours and now happily has a family of his own. We were down to three kittens, 3 months old and thinking they belonged with us. We tried taking just two of them to an event (thinking they were feeding off of the third one’s stress). They still were stressed and hissed and thus came back to our home. So then I tried taking the mellowest one to an event by himself, he did better but still hissed. Who wants to adopt a hissing, snarly kitten when there are 13 sweet loving kittens nearby? It is very frustrating to have these sweet little kittens in our home and then see them get so stressed that everyone thinks they are snarling wild cats. My sister came and her children came to visit and fell in love with the kittens, now we only have two extras that need homes. A further complication that we have is that mommy kitty HATES my Old Man Kitty and causes a bit of chaos around here. Most of the time, foster parents don’t have their wards this long, we are just having a time with stressed out kitties. So while those at the shelter try to figure out what to do, here it is November and I still have 3 kittens and two adult cats and thus the name cat lady.

Online Surveys - My experience

2008-07-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Recently, I posted about some things that I had been spending my time on. One of those items is online surveys. I started exploring the possibility of doing online surveys to make a little cash to help our budget shortfalls. My experience has been mixed, but has for the most part been pretty positive. I have found that some survey sites seem to make better sense for me to spend my time on than others and that I won't make a fortune, but can make a little bit here and there. There are many types of survey sites, some reward you with an entry into their latest sweeps, others reward with points that can be cashed in for prizes or money after a certain number have been accumulated and others that just pay cash. There are also sites called GPT sites that have surveys and other offers that you sign up for to earn cash. My experience with the GPT sites have not been very positive and therefore I won't spend time talking about them.

When you sign up for a survey site, they usually have you complete profiles on different subjects so that they can better match you to surveys that you will qualify for. When you are invited to complete a survey, many times there are a few qualifying questions to see if you meet the profile that they are looking for. Sometimes you qualify and sometimes you don't. My favorite site is www.mysurvey.com . They don't send me a ton of surveys, but I seem to qualify for most that they do send. They reward with points that can be redeemed for cash after you accumulate 1000. I started doing online surveys in June and have cashed out with them twice. Their surveys are usually fairly short and so I feel that the time spent is worth it. I also like www.surveyspot.com . A lot of their surveys are rewarded with a chance in their sweeps, but they also have some paying surveys and I have gotten most of my paying surveys from them, including a $20 online focus group participation. When you answer their qualifying questions you get a chance at an instant win, while most groups give you nothing for the qualifying questions. Most survey sites have a minimum cashout balance, meaning that you have to accumulate a certain amount of points or dollars in your account before you can get paid. When I first started looking into doing surveys, I signed up for as many panels as I could find. After doing so, I started looking at what the rewards were and found that a couple had nothing that I wanted and they didn't redeem for cash. I also found that many survey panels used the same survey companies and then you wouldn't qualify because you had already done that or a similar survey. My advice to others is first look over how they payout and if it is in prizes, make sure there are items you would like. There is nothing worse than spending lots of time doing surveys and finding out that the rewards are not worth it. As a rule, I prefer those sites that pay cash and don't really spend time on those that are only for sweeps entries or prizes. My exception to that rule is for surveyspot and NPDOR. I already mentioned survey spot. NPDOR is a site that awards points for surveys and then you can bid on their prize board. I have only done a few surveys with them, but they were interesting and it was kind of fun bidding, even though I haven't won anything yet.

Here is a list of panels that I am somewhat familiar with:

www.mysurvey.com - reward with points that can be cashed in for money or donated to charity.
www.greenfield.com - Athough they pay for some surveys they mostly reward with sweeps. I haven't qualified for many surveys and I have found that a lot of other sites use their surveys and then pay for them. I am probably going to drop this one.
www.globalopinionpanels.com - they reward with points for cash, 5000 minimum cash out. They also give some points for qualifier questions even if you don't qualify for the survey.
www.surveyspot.com - some for instant win chances, some for sweeps entries, some paid. I like this one a lot.
www.zoompanel.com - points for prizes. I dropped this one because they didn't have anything I really wanted.
www.opinionoutpost.com - points for cash. 50 point minimum cashout - 10 points = $1. I have cashed out once since April and I like this one, I don't always qualify, but they pay decent points for those surveys you do qualify for.
www.globaltestmarket.com - points for cash. Points = $.05 ea and you need 1000 to cash in. I haven't cashed in on this one yet.
www.uslightspeedpanel.com - points for cash or prizes. They pay via paypal and I just cashed in my first time. You need at least 575 points. I get quite a few invites from them.
www.pineconeresearch.com - paid surveys. They pay for each survey automatically. I have completed one survey and promptly received a $3 check in the mail. I don't get many invites.
www.npdor.com - points to bid on their prize board.
www.your2cents.com - paid surveys. Registered in June, no invites yet.
www.valuedopinions.com - paid surveys. $20 minimum to cash in. I have $8 total and haven't had any invites since June 22.
www.opinioncentral.com - points for prizes. The prizes, in my opinion, were not worth the effort to receive them. I dropped this one.
www.americanconsumeropinion.com - paid surveys. I haven't qualified for one yet.
www.harrispollonline.com - points for cash, 800 minimum for $5. I haven't had many invites yet.
www.testspin.com - Amazon gift cards. Minimum $10 to cash out. I haven't qualified for much - but will keep trying on this one.
www.clearvoicesurveys.com - cash, mimimum $10 to cash out. I haven't qualified for one yet. They did credit $.25 to my account for screener questions.
www.surveysavvy.com - cash - I have only done one survey so far.

Surveys are an interesting way to earn some extra cash without having to leave home.

Get Smart - Lighthearted end to Tough Week

2008-07-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, 1st Mustang and I had some alone time and so we went to see the new Get Smart movie. Steve Carell, of Office fame, stars as Maxwell Smart and was perfect for the part. Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99 and does a wonderful job as well. It was SO FUNNY! I don't think I have laughed so much at a movie. Get Smart will appeal to most people who like a good comedy. The movie is fairly clean, although there are some sexual innuendo and one bare bottom scene, so it does warrant its PG-13 rating. Seeing this movie was a welcomed, lighthearted end to a tough week.

Happy Fourth of July

2008-07-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty , and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . . . .

. . .The Declaration of Independence

I am thankful for the freedoms we have here in the United States of America, but I can't help but wonder how biblical the revolution was. I have not studied the Declaration in depth, but the copied portion, on first glance, appears to be contradictory to the scriptures. I think this calls for a little more study. What do you think?

My Favorite

2008-07-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

This little pot was given to me by 1st Mustang's aunt. It came from his grandmother's farm and I love it. This year I potted it up with an ornamental grass, English Daisies, Marigolds and some cute trailing flowers. I am pleased with the result.

Back Yard Birds

2008-07-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today 1st Mustang and I saw a Spotted Towhee in our backyard and we observed that the Goldfinches have discovered the birdfeeders. I have never seen the Spotted Towhee in our yard before and so it was an exciting discovery! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it.

The To Do List

2008-07-03T20:39:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to work on my productivity this week and so I made a To Do List and tried to keep to it. Here is what was on my list:

Finished:
Change out the hummingbird feeder food
Add America's Godly Heritage to our Government Lesson Plan
Go Grocery Shopping
Go to Costco
Clean the Downstairs (with the boys help)
Weed Front Flowerbed
Do the invitations for Boy #3s birthday party
Blog
Clean the Cobwebs
Mail a Package
View writing lessons and email observations to IEW elist.

Not yet Finished
Go through Boy #2 and Boy #3s grammar books and see where they are on their summer reading.
Make Jello Salad
Make Macaroni Salad
Make Strawberry Pie

I have accomplished alot this week and it feels good! These items were on top of the regular housework, cooking and laundry that gets done during the week.

Flowerbeds and Yard Work

2008-07-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

One of the things that has captured some of my time and attention lately is our yard. We are slowly trying to fill the flowerbeds and make the yard more appealing to us and the birds and butterflies.

The flowerbed in the above photo was my main project for this year. I have had trouble keeping things alive in this bed as there is an overhang and it doesn't get much water even when it is raining. I am trying to be more diligent with my watering this year. The bed has a Yellow Oriental Lilly of some sort, two daylilly plants, two Penstimon plants, Shasta Daisies and Delphiniums. The blue flower is a delphinium, and the pinkish one is a penstimon. Penstimon are supposed to attract hummingbirds, although I haven't seen any yet. I also have a few marigolds in the front of the bed. There is still room and so I would like to add a couple of taller plants to the back row. All in all, I am happy with how it looks for now.

The Deadliest Monster, Prologue & Ch. 1

2008-06-29T16:32:00.001-07:00

In preparation for the upcoming school year, I am currently reading the book The Deadliest Monster by J.F. Baldwin. This book is an introduction to worldviews and utilizes the novels Dr. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson to illustrate the two main positions that people hold on mans' condition. In the prologue he gives a brief synopsis of the two stories and then in Chapter 1 he asks the question, which monster do we see when we look in the mirror. Either Shelley or Stevenson are right, but both cannot be. Either man is good and can save himself or he is sinful and in need of a savior. Christianity recognizes that the good news starts with the bad and thus recognizes sin and the need of the savior. Also in chapter 1, Mr. Baldwin presents a survey of the 10 most influential non-christian worldviews in hopes that it will enable the reader to be more prepared to fulfill the Great Commision found in Mathew 28:19 - 20. So far I am finding this book very engaging and thought provoking.

Scattered Thoughts and Attentions

2008-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Once again I have left this blog to itself for a very long time. I have had my attentions elsewhere and unfortunately have not stayed focused on any one thing long enough to make real progress in any area. I have spent time trying to learn enough html to do a simple webpage for my family history, got a bit frustrated and didn't finish. Then the little bit I had finished caught the attention of a cousin in another state and that has provided me with the new motivation that I needed. I even fell off of the menu planning wagon and although we have had decent meals in spite of it, I really need to get back to being organized in this area. I have been working on school planning, which involves more teacher training and pre-reading of books. Currently, the teacher training involves rewatching the Teaching Writing Structure and Style DVDs from IEW and discussing them on the e-loop for said program and prereading The Deadliest Monster by Baldwin. I have one son who will graduate next year and so I am trying to figure out what items I feel he still needs before he leaves our nest. In addition to our soon to be senior, we also have one son starting highschool and one going into 7th grade. Another area that has captured my attention is our yard. There is pruning and weeding and planting of new flowers. Summer is finally bringing in some warmth and so my attention moves outside. And lastly, with rising gas prices pinching our budget, I looked for ways to earn a few pennys to help stretch the budget. I have been experimenting with doing online surveys and have had varying success, it is definately not going to make us wealthy, but it brings in a little to supplement the gas budget. I hope to expand on each of these areas in later posts over the next few weeks as things progress in each of the areas.

Intiman Theatre - Anne Frank

2008-05-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

On Mothers' Day we went to see the play Anne Frank done by the Intiman Theatre group in Seattle. They did a wonderful job portraying the emotion of the time and the struggle that those in hiding went through and the risks that those who hid them faced. Although I was familiar with the story, I didn't realize that Mr. Frank survived the concentration camp and learned that fact from the play. The younger two boys and I are studying WWII and our oldest boy is trying to finish his art appreciation credit, so although the story was heartwrenching, it fit the bill for where we are in our schooling right now.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

2008-05-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight boy #3 and I were home alone together and so I rented Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium for us to watch together. It is a magical sweet story about a magic toy shop and learning to believe in yourself and your potential. Dustin Hoffman did a wonderful job at playing Mr. Magorium and Natalie Portman did well as Mahoney, his apprentice. I give this one a big thumbs up for the whole family.

Fireproof - Movie preview

2008-05-07T20:27:00.001-07:00

Awhile ago I reviewed the movie Facing the Giants on my blog. It is a christian based movie about football. Well one of the members of the PR team for that movie commented on my blog tonight that they are coming out with a new movie called Fireproof in the fall. I just watched the trailer for it and it looks interesting. You can check it out at www.fireproofthemovie.com . I like to support movies that are clean and teach a good lesson as this one seems to do.

Menu Planning and Shopping

2008-05-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

During the almost 28 years of my marriage, I have constantly struggled with making sure that we have good meal daily. Cooking is not my love, but I do love my family and want to give them a variety of healthy menus. The other thing that I struggled with on and off is keeping the grocery bill to a minimum. When you don't plan well, you end up with many trips to the grocery store - which wastes money, time and gas. I recently read America's Cheapest Family by Steve Economides and learned a couple of things that may be common knowledge to others,but I found very helpful. One was a reminder to limit your grocery shopping trips, his family goes shopping once a month. I used to shop once a week, but because of my poor planning ended up shopping several times a week. In his book he suggests you begin where you are and start reducing your trips, if you shop several times a week - change to once a week, if once a week change to once every two weeks. In order to accomplish this, they freeze their milk and they make sure they eat their produce in the order that it gets ripe. This may be a "duh" for those of you reading this, but it was great for me to hear. I worked to reduce my trips to once a week and started freezing milk. This has worked out great! I am now working to reduce my trips to once every two weeks and once a month to Costco. My husband asked why we still had grocery money left, so it must be working.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of May 4th, 2008

2008-05-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

This week I chose to use the BBQ Banner as we grilled burgers today. This week looks to be a good stay at home week - I hope it turns out that way. Here is our menu.

Monday: Grilled burgers (some turkey, some beef), baked beans, olives and orange/pineapple jell-o salad

Tuesday: Oven Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Stir Fry Veggies

Wednesday: Corn Chowder and muffins

Thursday: Sausage, Macaroni & Cheese, California Blend Veggies

Friday: Spaghetti & meatballs, Salad

Saturday: Spanish Rice, Green Beans

Sunday: Mothers Day!

Click on the banner to check out the other menus hosted at Organized Junkie's blog.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-04-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Although I have been pretty consistent over the past couple of months in planning menus, I haven't posted one for awhile, so I thought I would try to start up again. Here is our menu for this week:

April 27, 2008

Sunday: Sandwiches
Monday: Eggs & Bacon
Tuesday: Soup or ??? Refrigerator Repairman coming
Wednesday: Salmon, Broccoli, Rice
Thursday: Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Friday: Oven Fried Chicken, Macaroni Salad, Stir Fry Veggies
Saturday: Baked Oatmeal, Sausage, OJ (1stmustang working)

I am leaving Tuesday to be a flexible, grab whatever day - two family members have medical appointments and the refrigerator repairman is coming. Our refrigerator has been on the blink since Friday evening and the soonest the repairman could come was Tuesday morning. Luckily, we are a camping family and have many coolers and a large freezer in the garage. Also, when 1stmustang works on Saturday, he starts at a weird hour - he leaves the house at 11:15 am and returns about 9pm. This makes having a regular dinner pretty much out of the question and so I try to cook a big breakfast. Click on the image at the top to see what everyone else is cooking up this week.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

2008-04-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my husband, our two oldest boys and I went to see the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It was well put together and exposed the censorship that goes on in the scientific community, specifically against those who are coming to the conclusion that there must have been an intelligent design in the creation of life. For a field that is supposed to encourage questioning, it is certainly being discouraged, especially if that questioning seems to go against the conclusions of darwinists. The oppression seems to be so bad that some scientists will not go public with their findings for fear of losing their research grants and even their jobs. This is a must see, no matter what your beliefs are concerning the origins of life. I would say that those in their teen years and up could learn a great deal from this documentary.

A Glimpse of Spring

2008-04-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today the weather has been so beautiful! Yesterday it was around 60 degrees and partially sunny. I was able to work out in the yard most of the day and made a dent in the weeding of the flower beds in the front yard. My poor body is telling me that it has been a very long time since I did that. Today it was in the 70s and I want to soak up all of the sun. Our area is known as the rainy Pacific Northwest - and this year we have had an extra dose of that rain, along with colder than normal temperatures and so these past two days of warmth and sun are especially appreciated. The 10 day forcast for our area shows showers, rain, and snow - SNOW in April - come on, so much for global warming in part of the country. Hmmmm

What the Future Holds

2008-04-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

We are plugging away at our schooling, making changes here and there. I am constantly tweaking our schedule and our materials, trying to find the right fit for our family. It has been a delicate balancing act for boy #1 to work a part time job along with completing his school work and he is looking forward to being completely done with high school. One item that we found last school year that has worked extremely well for us is the Notgrass history curriculum. Boy #1 is finishing up the Exploring America through history, literature and Bible and then we will start Exploring World History. I love the readability and thoroughness of this curriculum and it is laid out in a fashion that is so easy to use. At this point in our schooling, I am all about easy to use. We have also had success with Institute for Excellence in Writing materials and we started using Teaching Textbooks for Math, which has also been a blessing. Boy #1 is working through the geometry text and Boy #2 has started the Algebra I. I have been using Homeschool Tracker to keep us organized and that has also been a big help. Currently, I have been looking ahead to what we want to finish up with Boy #1 so that he can be graduated and next year looks to be mostly Life Skills and Language arts for him. Boy #2 starts high school next year and so I have been looking over what I did with our daughter and Boy #1 to see what I want to repeat with Boy #2 and what didn't work. I get a bit more organized with each child - so by the time Boy #3 hits high school, we should have everything down pat. This year Boys #2 & #3 and I were reading through This Country of Ours for American History. It was going slow and they wanted to study World War II, so I decided to jump ahead (we did a timeline from where we left off to about 1940). We are reading a text together and they are each reading a book set in the time period. We will spend the rest of this school year learning about the 1940s, the countries involved in the War and various other aspects of the war. This unit will be a bit free flowing as that is what seems to be needed at the moment. I will post more about how next year will look for us, as I pull it together.

Remodel Projects

2008-04-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is the nook, this is where I keep a kitchen table that I use as a school desk and I have several small bookshelves with current school books and other resources.

Boy#2 is playing a video game on the xbox and boy#3 is on the computer. The green to the right of the photo are vertical blinds on our sliding glass door. The nook is just off of the family room and I was standing in the kitchen to take this photo.

Since the fall we have been busy doing some upgrades to our home. First, we replaced our carpet on the first floor and up the stairs and in the hallway upstairs. Then we put in laminate flooring in our diningroom, kitchen and nook. The next project was to better utilize our small family room - we had several large older pieces of furniture in there and it was not a comfortable room for our family. We gave away what could be given, and dumped what was beyond saving, of the large furniture and slowly replaced the items with smaller scale items. The goal was to have enough seating that all us could comfortably sit and enjoy a movie together. Although the walls are still empty, the project is nearing completion and I must say that I am pleased with how it is coming along.

Moving On

2008-04-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today we finished moving our daughter's last few things out of our home into her new home. She has been staying with some of her friends that live about 45 minutes south of us and now they have purchased a new townhome and she will be renting from them. I must say that it is with mixed emotions that I watch her move on. I am very proud of her and excited for her to start this next stage of her life but also miss having her around just to chat with whenever. Her new home is just minutes from her work, instead of the 45 - 60 minute commute that she did have. It is also closer to church and a lot of her other activities. This move will save her time and money and also bring a bigger sense of independence. Along with this move another move will be happening soon. Boy #3 will move into Big Sister's room (after a paint job, of course) and thus Boy #2 and Boy #3 will have their own rooms for the first time ever.

Are you of the Curious Sort?

2008-04-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

On our trip to Seattle this afternoon/evening we first went to the waterfront. I wanted to take the boys to a funky touristy spot, The Ye Olde Curiousity Shop . This shop has been open for over 100 years and sells all kinds of tourist items - but the real appeal is all of the stuff that they have on display. It is sort of like a museum of oddities. They have two mummies, one male and one female, real amazon shrunken heads, large puffer fish, many stuffed animals - not of the cute cuddly kind but the real dead kind. Two headed calves and even a supposed mermaid. Their collections are not all weird, they also have a great collection of foreign coins that you can view and then there are all of the dollar bills folded into bow ties, shirts and flowers. It is a great place to visit, especially if you have teenage boys. Their website has photos of some of the curious oddities. If you visit Seattle, be sure to take in the waterfront area. The area includes the aquarium, Maritime Museum, many shops and eateries.

The Romans Have Come!

2008-04-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Today we went to visit the Seattle Art Museum to appreciate the visiting Louvre exhibit of Roman art. The large exhibit contains a great variety of artifacts, including marble sculptures, mosaics, jewelry and more. It tells a story of the rulers and also the everyday life of the Roman people. As you start through the exhibit, you first come to the rulers, then the everyday citizen, women and children, the home and the foreigners, soldiers and religion. It was well thought out and very educational. What a great way to spend an evening!

The exhibit will be in Seattle through May 11th and then it will move on to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art starting in June. I don't know if it will be hosted by any other museums after that or if it will go back to the Louvre. If you look at the Seattle Art Museum website there is a moving picture on the main page that gives you a sneak peak at some of the art.

First Mustang's 7 Random facts

2008-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

My husband was tagged by flying solo to do the 7 Random facts meme too. Since he doesn't have a blog or want one - I am posting his 7 random facts, dictated to me this morning before church.

1. I like Mustangs (cars)

2. I like fruity flavored ice cream

3. I am restoring a 1965 mustang.

4. I think global warming is a farce.

5. I am looking forward to Christ's return.

6. I wish I had a bigger shop.

7. I want a big screen 1080p TV.

He also decided his nickname should be First Mustang.

So there you have it, my husband's first post on Tootlestime. We are tagging anyone who hasn't already been tagged. Let us know if you post your seven random things.

7 Random Facts About Me

2008-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by my friend Shiloh Mom with this Meme - First here are the rules:

7 Random Facts... now these are the rules:
-Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
- Post these rules on your blog.
- List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
- Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog

Here goes:

1. I am only 4'10" tall
2. I am researching my family tree
3. I enjoy reading Mrs. Pollifax mysteries by Dorothy Gilman
4. I have four children
5. I have one sister and two step sisters and one step brother.
6. I live in a bright yellow house
7. I drive a Black Cherry Chevy Suburban.

I am tagging Ladybug at Christian Life in the 21st Century, Artax at his new An Inconceivable Blog, Waldo Pepper at his new Flying Solo blog, Our friends the Reddings at
Redding Mountain . I know that isn't seven but it will have to do. Have fun!

School has Begun

2008-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

We started back to school yesterday and so far so good. We haven't added everything back into the schedule yet - slowly but surely. I hope to have everything back on for next week. Here is what we have to start:

Boy #1 (11th Grade):

Notgrass American History
Reading: Christy
Teaching Textbooks Geometry
Devo time: Bible reading and In His Steps
PE: Choice of activity (will get more of a schedule later)
Drawing: Barry Stebbing video
Art Appreciation: "The Arts" by VanLoon
Boy 1 also has a part time job at a local fast food restaurant.

Boy #2(8th Grade)

History: This Country of Ours, Colonial Living and other resources
Saxon Algebra 1/2.
Bible Reading
PE: Choice of Activity
Biography: George Washington's World
Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science
Geography: The Complete Book of Marvels
Easy Grammar
Literature: The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

Boy #3 (6th Grade)

History: Same as Boy #2
Saxon 87
Bible Reading
PE: Choice of Activity
Biography: Carry on Mr. Bowditch
Nature: Pagoo
Geography: A Child's Geography of the World
Literature: Heroes
Easy Grammar

We will add our IEW curriculum back in later this week or at the beginning of next week. I haven't had picture study at all this school year and so I want to get that started again. I would also like to have a group geography time to play games and read through "You Can Change the World" and "Material World". Both of these books show the vast differences between our society and those around the world. We will also add our typing software and geography drill software back into our schedule. Auto shop is on hold for now, as my husband has another project he needs to finish before he can get back to it.

Busy Holiday Season

2008-01-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

I am finally able to grab a few moments to post about how the rest of our December and the first part of January went and is going. After celebrating Christmas with my side of the family, we helped with a teen Christmas party, celebrated a birthday, cut down and decorated a Christmas tree, finished up our Christmas shopping and purchased our new laminate flooring, went to our friends' Christmas Concert, moved my mom to her new apartment (on Christmas Eve Day), had my sister, her family and my mom stay over night Christmas Eve and open gifts together on Christmas morning. Due to illness, we were unable to have our friends up for our traditional pizza dinner. The day after Christmas we started ripping up carpet and linoleum to prepare for our new laminate flooring. A good friend from church came up on Thursday and Friday and helped my husband lay 300 sq. feet of laminate in our diningroom, kitchen and breakfast nook. Our boys helped tremendously in the demolition and the men did a beautiful job in laying the laminate. It was a huge job and my husband says that it is my Christmas present for the next five years. We celebrated New Years Eve at friends along with many other friends - it has been a busy few weeks and we are capping it off with two of our sons catching the stomach flu. My husband went back to work today to rest from his vacation.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-11T22:54:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family as we do every year, with dinner and gifts, watching the Seahawks game and fellowshipping together. This year we added a bit of a twist and it felt so good. Instead of buying each other gifts that we don't really need, we all brought gifts to donate to toys for tots. Instead of opening gifts we spent the time playing Apples to Apples and Nintendo Wii. It was great fun, probably the best gathering that we have ever had together.

One Beautiful Lady - A Tribute

2007-12-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, December 10th, 2007 would have been my mother in law's 78th birthday. Unfortunately, lung cancer cut her life short. In March of 1987 at the age of 57 she passed on two weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Bertha Mae Rische was born to Melvin and Elfrieda Rische, on December 10th, 1929 in Mound City, SD. She grew up, the third of nine children, she and her siblings were very close. Bertha graduated from Glenham High School in 1949. After graduating from high school she worked as a nurses aid at the Mobridge Hospital and then later as a sales clerk and clerical help at Montana Dakota Utilities in Mobridge, SD. She married Henry Liebelt in June of 1954 and they later moved their family, first to California back to South Dakota and then to Washington State, where they settled. All together they had four children, of which my husband was the third. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. A very talented homemaker, Bertha could sew and crochet beautifully. She was a wonderful mother-in-law, who was incredibly patient with her not so skilled daughter in law. She was one of those people who make you feel at home instantly. I miss her very much.

Life around Here

2007-11-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

It has been quite awhile since I have written anything here, it may be that the few readers I had have given up on me. It seems that time just flies by and I am not sure where it all went. Lets see, we have done pretty well with keeping up with school. I am very pleased with how the boys writing is coming along. We have been using video courses from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I am not confident in my writing abilities and was not sure how to help the boys develop their skills, this course has lifted a heavy burden from my shoulders. We are plugging away at all of our subjects and learning much. All of my boys are reluctant learners and reluctant writers and reluctant readers. This can be trying at times, especially because they are more than able - but just don't have the desire. It has helped that we use the Ambleside Online booklists for literature suggestions - the boys, though reluctant, enjoy the books.

Along, with plugging away at school our oldest son is working his first job at a local fast food restaurant. This has brought more changes into our family life. The job has been a good experience for him as he is learning time management skills and responsibility.

With the coming of fall, came Thanksgiving. We were supposed to go out to my sister's house, but our son ended up having to work and so we had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home and played games as a family. My mom joined us for Thanksgiving and spent the night with us. The day after Thanksgiving, our daughter, oldest son and I went shopping a little after 5 am. We went to two stores and purchased some clothing, a couple of games and a few items for Christmas and treated ourselves to our first Peppermint Mocha of the season at Starbucks. It was the first year in several that we weren't able to join my sister for our shopping expedition and she was missed. After our shopping trip, we took the boys and my mom to see The Bee Movie. Although it was cute, I would say wait until it comes out on DVD. Fall is speeding by and now we are almost at Christmas.

We are now in the midst of the Holiday whirlwind and I feel like I am being swept along with it. We are making some changes in how we celebrate the holidays this year and I am feeling good about them. We are trying to scale back on some of the activities and the gifts. My side of the family is having our Christmas Dinner on the 9th and this year we are bringing gifts to donate to Toys for Tots instead of giving gifts to each other and I am excited about that. Well thats some of what we have been up to over the past couple of months.

The Life and Times of a Grandfather

2007-09-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I took a two hour drive to pick my mother up from her sister's house. This sister, my aunt, had in her possession documents from my grandfather's military duty. I have very few memories of this grandfather as there were some relationship issues that kept him and my mother apart and thus us kids didn't really get to know him. It is so sad how Satan can step in and destroy families, but that is another subject for another time. I have a strong interest in family history and why people make the choices that they make and so my current project is to get to know as much about this man as I can. Unfortunately, he died several years ago and so I cannot talk with him in person and so I have to dig through old papers and talk with those who did know him. His name was Everett Bowen and he was born in Audrain County, Missouri in 1911. I know that he graduated from highschool and married my grandmother Zelli Romans Trower in August of 1941. He worked as a sheet metal worker for North American Aviation Company for 6 months in 1942 and served his country in the 3119th Signal Service Battalian of the army between 1943 and 1946, when he was honorably discharged. Soon after he was discharged from the Army, He moved his family to Washington State. The family consisted of my grandfather, grandmother and my mother, who was born in 1943, while he was away during the war. Another daughter came along some time during 1946 and then another daughter in 1948. The family remained in the Seattle area and all three daughters were married in the Seattle area. When I was about 4 or 5, my grandparents divorced and due to the difficulties between my mother and grandfather, we rarely saw him. He retired to the Puyallup area and also died there in 1988. As you can see, all I currently have is a bare skeleton of his life events. I hope to flesh it out in the weeks to come and be able to have a more complete idea of his life and times. I enjoy the pursuit of family history, it is like trying to solve real life mysteries.

Update on Autoshop - homeschool style

2007-09-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have posted here before about how my husband is doing autoshop with our teen boys by restoring a 1965 Mustang and I thought it was time for an update. It is a long term project that is taking many hours of labor but will prove worth it in the end. Occasionally, I am able to help some too. A year ago in October my husband purchased a 1965 mustang that was not running. The body was in pretty good condition and it came with two engines and a transmission. The project started with a gutting of the interior and removal of both engines, one from the engine compartment and one from the trunk. One of the engines has blown cylindar walls and is therefore not able to be used. They will use the engine from the engine compartment to which they need to add a new carborator and headers. After gutting the interior, they started to strip off multiple layers of paint. There are a couple of areas that need metal cut out, due to rust, and then new pieces welded in, nothing too major. Stripping the paint has been tedious, but is close to being finished. When they strip an area of paint, they apply rust convertor. They have spray painted the interior and sealed the seams. My husband has picked a paint color and we have a friend that paints cars for a living, who will help them paint it when they are ready for that. There is still a long way to go, but now things get exciting as they get to start putting things back together.

Our Summer's End Last Hurrah!

2007-09-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, our family was able to get away to Ocean Shores on the Washington coast. The weather was wonderful, sunny and in the 70s and we had the most relaxing time. There were walks on the beach, sand castle building, strange creature finding and go cart riding. It was especially wonderful because all of our family members were able to go. In this season of our lives, with older children working outside of the home, it can be very difficult to coordinate schedules.

This is a picture of the creature that our daughter found when digging the moat around her sand castle. We didn't know what it was, but have since discovered that it is a Pacific Mole Crab, and that it is considerably larger than the average Mole Crab.

Our trip gave us just the boost we needed to start on our busy fall season.

Planning for the School Year

2007-08-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

I am a little late in my planning for the school year, I usually start before the previous year has ended and here we are getting ready to start up again in a week and I haven't even finished my planning. Part of planning for the school year is evaluating where we've already been and what of that worked and what didn't. This year I will be schooling the three boys, who will be in 11th, 8th, and 6th grades. The oldest boy may be at the community college the following year doing the dual enrollment program or running start as it is known in our state and so I am looking at what I want to accomplish with him this year before he moves on and out of our homeschool. He is also thinking that he might want to go to college and work towards a degree in Graphic Design - so I want to keep that in mind as I plan out our year. I recently finished reading A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille and got some food for thought from it. I am considering scaling back our subjects for a time and focusing on Reading good literature and writing - we will, of course, still do math. I have felt a little scattered as of late with our schooling, struggling with boys who are not strongly motivated in their education and one thing I learned from reading TJED is that I "can't" educate my children, they must do that themselves, I can learn how to become a better teacher/mentor - but they need to take some ownership of their education. That said, here is our tentative program for the fall:

11th Grade:
Exploring America: History, Literature and Faith by Ray Notgrass
(we started this last year and found it to be interesting and challenging. It will take us through the Holidays and then we will figure out where to go from there.)

We started Institute for Excellence in Writing Student Intensive level C last year and will continue on with it this year. Writing is our weakest area, and this program has helped us tremendously. I won't say that it is a miracle and the boys love to write now, but it is helping them to develop the skills that make it a bit easier.

He is working out of a book called Practical Math. He also started this last year after he finished up his algebra and will be done with it early this fall. We are going to give Teaching Textbooks Geometry a try next. I prayed about this a considerable amount and looked at many curriculums and reviews of curriculums. I have taken algebra but not geometry and decided that we needed some help. It is a pricey step for us and so I am hoping this will be the answer we need, we shall see.

We will be adding in some other subjects too, such as Art Appreciation - which went by the wayside last year and he will finish up his Barry Stebbing Art Course videos and continue to work on the Mustang with his dad and brother. He also has a part time job now and we will have to work around that schedule too.

8th Grade and 6th Grade:

Last year I had both boys together for history and we used This Country of Ours and some other books I had to start our journey into American History. I used Ambleside Online year 4 for ideas of what books to use for literature readings. It worked OK for us, but the boys don't want to read and they are not fast readers so it is a constant battle. It seems as if we get through very few books in a year. I am pretty sure we will continue on our course of history study and probably pick one or two books each outside of that for them to read.

Last year my middle son started into Exploring Creation Through General Science from Apologia and he struggled with it. He dreaded science each day. I am not sure I want to continue on with that. I worked through one of the Glad Scientist books with my youngest son and that went OK. We then did a unit on Reptiles because he wanted to study them. I am really undecided what to do this year with either of them.

My middle son is working through Saxon Algebra 1/2 and doing fine with it. We are going slowly and I think that helps. My youngest son did Saxon 65 last year and will move into Saxon 87 this year because that is the next text that I have, we will take it slowly and I am sure he will be fine.

Both boys will also use the Institute for Excellence in Writing materials, except level B instead of C like their older brother.

This looks so scanty to me, but I am feeling called to cut back and work on some basic things such as habit/attitude training and doing well with the little before we move much more into our schedule. It is amazing to me as I continue on this journey of homeschooling at how each child is SO different and their needs, likes and dislikes are so different. Trying to plan what they NEED is important to me and proves to be a challenge. I am confident, though, that with God's help we will persevere.

Guess Where We Went

2007-08-10T22:58:00.001-07:00

Does it look like New Mexico or Arizona? Well, it is desert, but it is the actually in Canada and is the only desert in Canada. We celebrated our 27th Anniversary this month and took a trip to eastern Washington and then drove up into Canada to a city called Osoyoos, BC. The buildings in the picture are actually part of a resort built by the Okanagon indians from the area. The city is built in the middle of the desert, but there is a huge lake, Lake Osoyoos that has several resorts with beach front property. It is the place for those who love water recreation of many kinds. The area is also known for grapes and wineries. While we were in Osoyoos, we visited the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Center. You start the tour with a visit into a small museum that has information about the original natives from the area and their history, from there you go outside where there are displays that give more information about the people and the animals from the area. There are trails through the desert, we took a short one that leads to replicas of the summer and winter homes that the original natives lived in. The whole center was very interesting and well worth the trip.

Where has the Time Gone?

2007-08-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I contemplated deleting this blog - due to lack of inspiration and interest on my part. I am not sure why I decided to continue on, but alas, for now I am. The summer seems to have flown by and yet, when I look back, I have a hard time figuring out where it went. Hmm. We did have a couple of short trips, one to the Sun Lakes area of Eastern Washington in June, it was wonderfully warm and sunny, which was greatly appreciated after our cool spring. The second trip was a camping trip with dear friends in the Olympic National Park Heart O' the Hills Campground. Lush, old growth forest envelopes this campground and God's handiwork is truly evident. Other events have filled our summer too. Our oldest son, almost 17, has started his first job at a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant and also received his drivers license. These events have brought many changes to our daily routine. We are entering yet another season of our family's life - another child growing and moving a bit closer to independence. It is exciting and yet bittersweet, my babies are growing up. Time marches on.

Blooming Around the Yard

2007-05-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Poppies, Asters, Lavender and Delphiniums & Columbine are blooming in our yard. We also have climbing roses that are starting to bloom, but my pictures didn't turn out. The pail with flowers in it is one of my favorite outside things, it was from my husband's grandmother's farm in South Dakota.

UPDATED: I tried several times, but could not get my post to look proper. The previews look fine, but when I publish - the words are not in the proper place. Hmmmm. . .

Enthusiastic Homeschool Carnival

2007-05-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

Melissa from The Lilting House has done a beautiful job of compiling this weeks homeschool carnival, her theme is Enthusiasm and yes there are many wonderful posts. Make time to check them out and be ready to learn and be encouraged.

Impromptu Nature study

2007-05-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

It has been much fun to watch the birds come to our yard since I put up our new bird feeders and bird bath. Prior to this we rarely observed anything other than crows, robins and starlings in our yard, with the occasional visit from some passing juncos. Since installing the feeders, we have regular visits from the cassian finches with their beautiful singing, redwinged blackbirds, sparrows, evening grossbeak and today we had a little goldfinch at our window feeder for a long visit. Even more exciting to me is the way the boys have taken an interest in the birds and will come tell me when they spot a new one. These are the same boys who have no real interest in observing nature, when it is planned. Installing these feeders for my own enjoyment has had an added benefit that I hadn't planned on and I am truly pleased.

Garage Sale

2007-05-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

More items have been posted at our garage sale blog - check it out and tell your friends too. I have been cleaning out my bookcases and will be posting more later.

Reptiles

2007-05-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ben wanted to study reptiles for the remainder of the school year and so I thought it would be good for us to visit the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, WA. We visited a couple of Saturdays ago and Dad took some pictures for us to remember our trip by. The baby tortises were everyone's favorites, they are the babies to the large tortises also pictured.

School

2007-05-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

As I said in my previous post, spring has sprung and along with that comes spring fever. It has shown in all of us - but probably in me the most. I am really ready for a summer break and we are planning to be done with most things by the end of May. The boys will have testing the first week in June (required by our state), and we will still be finishing up a few of our books over the summer. We keep the summer pretty light, usually just reading and math drills and this year the boys will continue to work with dad on the mustang. It has been a good school year this year and we have accomplished much. I tried to stay focused and on a good schedule, along with challenging the boys a bit more. We tried some new things such as Institute for Excellence in Writing and Notgrass American History - both of which I am really pleased with. I have been looking ahead to next year and thinking about things that I want to add and looking back on this year and checking to see what worked and what didn't. One subject that we did pretty well with and that challenged boy #1 was biology. We used Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology text and did the labs too. We did the labs with a friend and learned a lot. It is not an easy course, but very thorough. We also learned that boy#1 will not pursue more formal science. Working with another family, who is reporting hours to an umbrella program helped keep us on track and working through our text. Due to scheduling issues we won't be working with them next year and I will miss that accountability and fellowship.

Spring is Sprung!

2007-05-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today was a lovely day, sunny & warm! There are signs of the season all around. We don't have much blooming yet, but some on the verge. The bleeding heart looks full and beautiful, the purple iris' are about ready to bloom, I can't wait until their rootbeer fragrance fills the air. We have a few poppies about ready to burst out in bloom and roses too. I love the Hens and chicks in my strawberry pot. The boys each made little birdhouses several years ago and this year we finally have some birds making a home in two of them. We live in one of those developments that was cleared for building and so there were no trees except those that the new homeowners planted. The local highschool is behind our property and they do have several cedar trees. We have been here for 8 years and so now some of the trees are getting bigger and finally the birds have a place to retreat to. Our new tennants are house sparrows, and even though they are very common birds, it is still very exciting to us. We don't see many different birds in our yard, crows, starlings, robins, an occasional house wren at our feeder and sometimes we are blessed with a visit by the Oregon Junkos. I am hoping that as the trees and other plantings grow to maturity that we will see more varieties of birds. We do have a suet feeder out in the back flower bed, but the squirrels usually eat most of it. We have a seed feeder by our kitchen window and that is the one that the house wrens come to. All in all it was a wonderful day and I hope the first of many to come.

Where does the time go?

2007-05-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am making time to post. Where has the time gone? Well, lets see . . . I have been learning how to use my new Homeschool Tracker software. It started out being a big time vacuum and is now turning out to be a blessing. I am one of those people who can not keep on top of anything for very long and this tool is helping me to make sure things get done in our flow of school. It will also help me keep track of chore assignments as well as school assignments, although I haven't utilized it for the chores yet. Over the weekend I worked on decluttering and cleaning the master bedroom. This bedroom contains our two largest bookshelves and so I started going through the books and culling out those that I am certain won't get read and finding those that I had forgotten about and that we can use during the rest of this school year and some that I will plan into next school year. I entered the books I am keeping into access and pulled the ones that I am not keeping, which causes another project needing to be done. Now I must decide what will happen to them, get them ready to list for sale or give them away etc. I didn't even get through 1/4 of the bookshelves but I will press on. I guess that explains where some of my time went.

Garage Sale Items Added

2007-04-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

Check out our garage sale, new items added and some updated.

Menu Plan Monday

2007-04-09T11:23:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted a menu for awhile and thus have been flying by the seat of my pants. Menu plan Monday helps me to be more organized during the week and so I am back. Be sure to visit Organizing Junkie to see what is cooking in other households.

Monday – Salmon, Rice & peas

Tuesday – Chicken breasts in Cream of Mush. Soup, left over gooey potatoes,
Green beans

Wednesday – Salisbury Steak, steamed carrots, garlic toast

Thursday – Tuna Melts & stir fry Veggies

Friday – Stovetop Casserole, elbo noodles, ground beef & spaghetti sauce
Salad

Saturday – Creamy Crockpot Chicken served over rice, steamed California blend veggies

Sunday – Sandwiches after church and then out to dinner after evening service?

Tootles Garage

2007-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

New items have been added, curriculum and other miscellaneous things. Check it out, there just might be something you can't live without.

Auto Shop continued

2007-04-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more pictures of the progress being made. I am learning that things get or look worse before they start to get better.

Dissection

2007-04-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

This year boy #1 and a friend are study Biology using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology text. We get together just about every Friday and perform many of the labs in the text. Here they are performing their first dissection. The subject is a worm - they were a bit squeemish at first, but found it very interesting. We have since dissected a crayfish and have yet to dissect both a perch and a frog.

This Week at Our House

2007-04-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

This week we are taking a spring break of sorts. A break from regular school work, but not from work all together. On Monday we got to go visit some dear friends that we don't get to see all that often. We visited, the children played and played, we ate together and the boys and I arrived home very late that evening. It was a wonderful time!

Yesterday I started on some deep cleaning that doesn't get done on a regular basis around here. I took the easiest room to do first, our dining room. I say it is the easiest because it has the least amount of clutter/furniture in it. I vacuumed cobwebs, dusted, cleaned windows and vacumed the layers of dust and cobwebs off of the curtains. I am still not quiet done in there - I still need to do some touch up painting and wash the lace sheers - I am hoping that all of the bathrooms will get walls washed and completely scrubbed down this week and we are also hoping to go visit the Reptile Zoo and see all the snakes and other creepy crawlies that they have there. It should be a full week.

Train Trip

2007-04-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I arrived home from our train trip on Sunday evening. We had a wonderful and relaxing time. Our trip took us to Portland, Oregon. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, checked into our hotel, walked to a local restaurant for a nice seafood dinner, went to Lloyds Center Mall and walked around and then saw a movie. We ended the day having desert in our room. The next day we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then just putzed around in the park across the street and at the mall before our train was set to leave. We arrived home in the evening. It was a short but nice trip. It was great traveling by train because we could both visit without having to worry about traffic and paying attention to the road - definately worth doing again sometime when we have more time to see the sights.

What's Up or as my boys say wassup?

2007-03-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

This blog has been neglected once again. I have been trying to focus on organizing and staying on top of our school work and along with that decided to give some organizing software a try. I looked at several and reviews of those several. I really liked the looks of the Organizer for CM homeschoolers at Simply Charlotte Mason but couldn't justify the monthly fee. I decided to give Homeschool Tracker a try because the reviews I had read were fairly positive. It is a lot of work initially to input resources and divide up assignments, but I think it will help me in the long run. There is always a learning curve on new things and I am sure that I can modify this to work for how we homeschool. Sometimes certain items go by the wayside and I think this will help me to stay on top of things better. The jury is still out on how much help it will actually be.

Hubby and I will be away for the weekend. As a Christmas gift to me, he purchased an Amtrak voucher. I have never been on a train trip and have wanted to for a long time, so this was a perfect gift. We won't be travelling very far, just about 4 hours from home and will stay in a hotel, go out for a nice dinner and maybe a movie, then come home the next day. I am very excited to have a weekend alone with my man!

We are taking next week off of school for "spring break". I am hoping to get some deep cleaning done in our home and also have a few days of fun. We will be visiting with some friends that we rarely see and maybe take in a trip to the Reptile Zoo too. I think it will be a week that will help refresh us and our home.

New Blog

2007-03-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hello - I would like to introduce our family's new Garage Sale Blog. We are going to be adding books and other items that we are finished with and that others may be interested in. Check it out!

Homeschool Carnival #61 Fresh off the Press!

2007-02-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

Extra, Extra, read all about it! The Homeschool Cafe has overcome printing problems and now has been able to release this great edition of the Homeschool Carnival. Be sure to read all about it!!!!

This is the Pacific Northwest???

2007-02-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here it is the last day of February and we are getting snow again! I can't believe it. This is our third snow since Thanksgiving and we are usually lucky to get one. It is beautiful outside, quiet and peaceful. I guess we will be home for the night, the one bummer when snow happens - no bible class for us tonight.

Artwork from Boy #3

2007-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

After watching Bridge to Terabithia, Boy #3 checked out some drawing books from the library and produced these pieces of artwork. His big brothers are always drawing, but he didn't feel like he could do well and so he didn't draw much. The movie inspired him. Also, the neighbor boy and Boy #3 have been making up their own imaginary places, sort of like the kids in the movie did. It was well worth our time to see this movie.

Menu Plan Monday

2007-02-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

If you need menu ideas, Organizing Junkie is the place to go for Menu Plan Monday. There are over 75 participants this week!

Here is our family's dinner menu for this week:

Monday: Salmon, Rice and Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday: Salisbury Steak, Potatoes, Stir fry Veggies

Wednesday: Parmesan Chicken, spaghetti Salad

Thursday: Beef Stroganoff with Egg Noodles, Green Beans

Friday: Soft Tacos with the works

Saturday: Sandwiches or wraps with carrots and apples

Sunday: Creamy Chicken in the Crockpot served over rice

Zoom! and Bridge to Terabithia

2007-02-25T18:49:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it must seem like all we do is watch movies - truly we don't, but over the weekend we did get to watch two that we really enjoyed.

The first is Zoom! starring Tim Allen. It was a great movie for those families who get into super heros. It is funny and also has its serious moments. Tim Allen plays a super hero who has lost his powers and whose team was killed by his own brother who turned evil after being zapped with radiation by a crazed general in the army. The story picks up with Tim Allen being brought back to the base, against his will, to train new recruits to form a new super hero team. It is a story of forming relationships and learning to care about others. The review on IMDB wasn't very positive but we really enjoyed this one. This movie is rated PG.

Our big boys were away for the weekend and so we treated boy#3 out to a movie and we chose Bridge to Terabithia. This was a moving story of special friendship and imagination. We enjoyed the movie very much. One warning: there is a very sad spot toward the end of the movie and parents of sensitive children may not want to take them to this one. We all got teary eyed, husband included. This movie is rated PG.

Updated to Add: Reviews of Terabithia by some young people can be found at Pink Flamingo (Hope of Shadybrook Acres) and at Christian Life in the 21st Century. Check them out and get their own unique view.

The Changing Face of Homeschooling

2007-02-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

Last week, our friends at Beth Spera in Domino posted about A New Breed of Homeschooler
and it got me thinking about our family's experiences.

We have been homeschooling since our oldest was born in 1985. She has since graduated from our homeschool and is now attending College, working toward her Landscape Design Certificate. Over our years of homeschooling we have participated in many different activities and homeschooled in different ways. We started out doing mainly unit studies and have since moved toward a more literature based learning in most subjects. During our homeschool adventure we have seen the face of homeschooling in our area change tremendously. When our oldest was young, we had a group of friends that we got together with every week and we did many learning things together, everything from sewing to a unit on trees. We participated in 4H together with these other families and the children formed friendships and had fun learning together. For the most part these times were very valuable to our family, sometimes they were frustrating, which is a common result of working with other people. Currently our family has very few outside activities for school, we do work with another family once a week. I work with my boy#1 and her Boy #1 and we are working through Apologia's Biology Book. She takes my boy#3 along with her three youngest children and is doing a geography study with them. During the fall my boy#2 was at football practice during this time and now works on his own school work. Although this arrangement is working for now, it is not exactly the way I would envision a group time.

The truth of the matter is, if I wanted to have a group learning time again, it would be almost impossible or I would have to travel about an hour to get together with some friends who still homeschool on their own. There is a local group of homeschoolers that co-op together, but they offer very few activities for older children. Most of the people that we know that still homeschool are using school based programs, online or otherwise. Very few people that we know homeschool all the way through high school on their own. It is not that these programs are inherently bad - but they have definitely changed the face of homeschooling.

Movies

2007-02-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Our family doesn't tend to go to the movies very often. It sometimes proves to be cost prohibitive, but over the past couple of months we have been able to go to a couple of movies and rent another that I consider very good.

We went to see Night in the Museum which was a delightful movie for the whole family. It was funny and also pretty clean. There was a reference to us evolving from monkeys and a couple of parts that might scare sensitive children, but on the whole I feel like I could recommend it to most families. This movie is rated PG.

We also went to see We Are Marshall. This was a football movie based on a true incident that happened to a college in West Virginia. In this story the whole football team, with the exception of a couple of players, and most of the coaching staff were killed in an airplane crash. It is the story of how this college and community overcame the loss of so many lives and rebuilt their football tradition. It is an inspiring story and I highly recommend it. This movie is rated PG.

During this time we also rented Invincible. Yet another football story. This movie is based on the true story of Vince Papale, who overcame great odds to become a professional football player for the Philadelphia Eagles. The only thing that I can think of that might offend some people is that Vince was a bartender and some scenes take place in the bar. This movie is rated PG and we enjoyed it. It is one of the many football movies out there and another that shows a triumph over tremendous challanges.

Homeschool Carnival #60 is UP

2007-02-20T09:03:00.000-08:00

This weeks carnival looks to be full of interesting articles. Homeschool Hacks has done a wonderful job. Be sure to surf on over and check it out.

Auto shop - Homeschool Style

2007-02-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

Previously, I posted about our biggest homeschool project ever. It is a 1965 Ford Mustang - and when I say "project", I mean it. Here are the latest photos of this wonderful journey.

Top Photo: Boy #1 and Dad looking the engine over; Middle Photo: Boy #2 with the transmission; Bottom Photo: Project car

So far they have gutted the interior, removed the cracked windshield, cleaned up under the car, removed, cleaned, painted and reinstalled the rear end, replaced the brakes, pulled the engine and transmission. The boys work out in the garage with their dad twice a week for an hour or two each session. They are learning a tremendous amount and are getting to know their dad better. This time spent in the garage is the highlight of their school week.

Crazy Boys

2007-02-16T22:43:00.000-08:00

These guys are always thinking up something to keep busy!

Creative Builder

2007-02-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

Boy #2 is a very creative builder these days. These are some of his recent lego creations.

20 Things for This Year

2007-02-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

My friend over at Redding Mountain told me about something she had read on a blog about writing down 20 things you want to do or improve each day. I don't know about writing 20 things each day, but I did think of 20 things that I would like to work on this year. Some are things that I have worked on in the past and are not really resolutions per se but nevertheless, things I would like to see some improvement in during this year. I am listing them here with the thought that it might provide me with more motiviation. They are not necessarily in the order of importance.

1. Celebrate the JOY of my salvation daily.
2. Consistent quiet times with God
3. Drinking 8 glasses of water each day.
4. Correct the boys schoolwork daily
5. School planning time each week.
6. Pray (This should be #1)
7. Make a menu
8. Keep to my menu
9. Journal my eating
10. Eat healthier
11. Exercise of some sort daily
12. Enter expenses daily
13. Make a price book
14. Limit my computer time.
15. Make time to read each day
16. Make time to scrapbook each week.
17. Write up some goals for this year.
18. Send a card to someone.
19. Blog at least once a week.
20. Call my extended family

A lot of these a habits that need to be formed, and I like what Equuschick had to say about that here. Some of these are daily, some are one time things and some are weekly. All will help me be a healthier person, wife or mother. Yes, even scrapbooking, which is a restful and creative outlet for me.

Thankful Thursday

2007-02-15T16:28:00.000-08:00

Some things I am thankful for today:

1. An understanding & patient Husband.
2. That son #1 was able to and did his schoolwork while I was sick.
3. The health of my 93 year old grandmother.
4. That my children are friends with each other.
5. My husband has a good job.
6. We have a warm and comfortable home.

Movie Review: Facing the Giants

2007-02-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

Our family finally got to see the movie Facing the Giants. We had heard good things about it, but it did not play in our local theater so we waited for it to come out on DVD. Because of middle boy's love of football, most football movies are on our wish to view list. This movie follows one football season of a Christian highschool football team. It had some good lessons in trusting God and the peace that it can bring, also in focusing on what our purpose here on earth is. The movie was of good quality and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The one negative that I saw in Facing the Giants was that it could give the appearance that if we trust God, everything will go the way we want. All of the problems in the story ended up working out the way the people hoped and that isn't a true reflection of being a Christian. I wouldn't say that it was the BEST movie we have ever seen but it was good and I would recommend it to other families.

Funnies for Pirates fans

2007-02-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

These riddles were on the Rice Krispis box and I thought they were cute. Some of my family thought they were corny - but then, most riddles are.

How much did it cost Jack Sparrow to get his ears pierced?
A buck an ear ----

What is a pirate who skips school called?
Captain Hooky

Contentment, Joy & Abundance

2007-01-26T23:08:00.000-08:00

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Abundance is defined as
1)A great supply; more than sufficient quantity
2) Great plenty; wealth

Sallie at Gracious Home has posted about choosing to live in abundance this year. She has determined to:

Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Do without

This year I have chosen to focus on being joyful in my life and I think this fits along nicely with Sallie's thoughts on abundant living. The first step to being joyful is recognizing the blessings in your life and then being thankful for them. Along with this idea is learning to be content. I sometimes struggle with my lack of contentment and I see contentment as key to being joyful. Here are some scriptures I found that speak to contentment and joy.

2 Corinth 12:9-10
And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Philippians 4:11-12
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them ever sing for joy;

Psalm 16:11
. . . In Your presence is fullness of joy;. . .

And then finally . . . one of my favorite scriptures and prayers

Psalm 51:10-13
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will be converted to You.

There are many areas in my life that I can better celebrate the abundance that God has blessed me with. The first thing I need to do is spend more time in the Word and in Prayer to keep me focused and then work on being a better steward of the abundance in my life. I hope to share more thoughts on this topic in later posts.

Homeschool Carnival #55

2007-01-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

The Parents Meeting Edition Carnival is up at Dewey's Treehouse. Grab a cup of coffee and join in for a real education.

New Years Thoughts

2007-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

Amanda at Wittingshire posted this quote on her blog and I thought that it was food for thought.

“Giving yourself your word ought to be no less sacred than giving your word to others.” --Andre Gide

Homeschooling and the Real World

2007-01-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to me that people think that children who are homeschooled are being sheltered from the real world, as if spending 6 or more hours daily, five days a week for 180 days or so a year is representative of the the real world. It also surprises me that parents so willingly give up their parental authority to the system. This week, we had our second snow during the school year and tomorrow we have a memorial service for a friend's wife to attend. If my children attended public school, they would have missed being able to play out in the snow, which we usually get very little of in our part of the world, as the schools were still in session. They would not be able to attend the memorial service tomorrow without missing class. Now playing in the snow may not be a necessity, although I feel that it is a treat that they deserved for working so hard the two days beforehand and I like for them to enjoy it because we see so little of it around here. The memorial service, on the other hand, is a very real part of life and it also will teach them to care for and comfort others. In both cases it was, us, the parents of these precious children who were able to make the decision as to when it is appropriate to miss "class" or not, instead of some school district bureaucracy and they will be much more exposed to the real world with their family and church family during the memorial service than if they were to be spending that time sitting in a classroom with 25 other children of the same age. Two more reasons that homeschooling fits our family.

Winter Wonderland

2007-01-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Thankful Thursday

2007-01-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

Things I am thankful for this Thursday . . .

1. The beautiful way the snow looks on the trees.

2. That my chest cold seems to be drawing to an end.

3. I didn't have to commute on the icy roads last night with the rest of the commuters of Puget Sound.

4. That I was able to sell some textbooks we are done with in order to save up for other curriculum I would like to purchase.

5. My dad is cancer free.

Wild Winter Weather

2007-01-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

It seems that our history of mild weather is somewhere in the distant past. Before Winter even started we had the wettest ever November with major flooding; a good snow right after Thanksgiving; and one of the worst windstorms in history just before Christmas, with a million people losing power. We were one of the fortunate households not to lose power during that storm but my 93 year old grandmother and our dear friends at Beth Spera in Domino were not so fortunate. Last night we had yet another windstorm, the second since the big pre Christmas day storm and this time we were not so fortunate. Our power went out about 12:30 a.m. and we wouldn't have known it except that the battery backup on our smoke detector system was dead, thus we awoke to alarms blaring, we ran around trying to find flashlights and a step ladder so that husband could change the battery, luckily we had extra batteries in the garage. Our power was out until about 11 am, not near as long as others suffered in our area before Christmas and for this I am truly thankful. Now we are preparing for the next storm, more rain and wind headed our way and then snow is predicted for Tuesday. I do not remember any previous winter like this.

Reflecting on a Year Gone By

2007-01-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

With the old year gone, I have been reflecting on the past and thinking about the future. This is something that I tend to do every year around this time. When I look back on last year, I remember a year full of ups and downs. We started off the year looking for a new church family - a very hard thing after spending 13 almost 14 years at the same congregation. Our two oldest sons put on our Lord in baptism - a very joyous time for our whole family, we participated in an outreach campaign with church family in Texas and that was a very uplifting and energizing time, not to mention the fact that we got to spend a week with some very dear friends that live on the other side of the country. We found a church family to worship with and this brings mixed emotions as we are now commuting 40 minutes each way to worship and now are trying to figure out how we should serve with this new family. Boy 3 turned 10, Plant Lover turned 21 and we (minus plant lover) enjoyed a trip to Yellowstone Bible Camp for a week long family camp via a side trip to Glacier National park. The summer ended with boy 2 playing football for a local middle school and boy 1 taking drivers ed. We have had an up and down beginning to our school year, trying some new curriculum with success and trying to overcome other weaknesses. Boy 1 turned 16, boy 2 turned 13 and we had a whirlwind of a December with family gatherings and a quiet Christmas day and unfortunately with all the holiday busyness - somehow our family devotions went by the wayside, ironic huh? Some of us were sick the week between Christmas and New Years and so we had a very quiet New Years eve at home. It has been a year of trying to figure out how best to parent 3 rambuncious boys and encourage them to continue on the road to spiritual growth and there have been many distractions along the way such as youth group, family members facing cancer treatment and my 93 year old grandmother falling off her porch. With the busyness of the past year it was easy for me to lose focus on Jesus and worry or be discontented with my current situation - the times that made the best memories this past year, were those that were totally focused on Christ. This year I really want the joy of my salvation to shine through my life, to learn to bloom where HE has planted me and to see the opportunities for service that He has put before me. May you all have a Happy New Year serving our Dear Lord!

Traditions With a New Twist

2006-12-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

We have the holiday tradition of decorating gingerbread houses and have always had fun doing them, usually spending that time with other friends or family. The past several years we decorated them the weekend after thanksgiving, thus having some of them for decorations during the Christmas season. This year we weren't able to do them that weekend and it looked as if we may not do them at all. They didn't seem all that excited about any of the usual craft making holiday traditions that we have had. Our boys aren't as into holiday tradition, memory making as I am, or so I thought. The week before Christmas they started asking about our gingerbread houses and when were we going to make them. Then my 8 year old nephew started asking and so my sister and I decided to get together the Friday before Christmas and decorate away. My two older sons, 16 and 13 decided to make a WWII scene with bunkers and boats and soldiers. They made templates, mixed, rolled, cut and baked gingerbread, enough for everyone. We ended up with a very large WWII scene, three houses and a Christmas tree of gingerbread between all of the cousins. They all had great fun and it was a lot less work for me, now that the boys are old enough to do the baking themselves.

Thoughts of Thankfulness

2006-11-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

A few things/people I am thankful for:

My Salvation.

My hardworking and loving husband.

Our strong marriage.

Children who are learning to be what God wants them to be.

That my mom is cancer free!

Hunkering Down

2006-11-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

Husband just went to the store to restock our pantry in preparation for the next storm. We are supposed to get snow again this afternoon/evening thru tomorrow morning. Sometime tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and turn to rain - but in the meantime we need to be prepared. I know it seems funny to people who get snow all the time, but the Puget Sound area is pretty much paralized when we get snow. We get so little snow that people don't know how to drive in it and it always seems to surprise the DOT, so that the roads are not ready and it always seems to hit during rush hour. My mother, who is in her 60s and a diabetic spent 4 hours on a bus in 20 degree weather on Monday evening. Her normal commute would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes. To further complicate things around here, there was also a Seahawks football game in Seattle on Monday and it let out at about 9pm. The freeways were gridlocked and it took some people 7 + hours to get home, there are stranded cars littering roads and now, as the roads are finally getting cleared off, we are supposed to get another snow. Our dear daughter had to commute to work today, about 40 minutes away from home - thankfully she has a place to stay down there should the snow hit before she comes home tonight. I am thankful that I don't have to go anywhere and can just stay home and enjoy the beautiful snow. I guess snow can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

Tis the Season

2006-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after worship service, we went to get our Christmas tree. Our family has the tradition of going to a you cut tree farm to cut a tree and we usually wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas to do this, but our schedules this year dictated us doing it this weekend or not everyone would get to go. It had been snowing a little in the morning on our way to church, but then it turned to rain and by the time we were heading out to get our tree, it was fairly pouring. While we were walking around the tree farm the rain started turning white and by the time we were leaving with our tree, it was snowing very hard. We were all very excited, you see we don't get much snow around these parts and so it is almost like a holiday when we do! After we got home, the boys played out all evening even though we only had about an inch. This morning when we woke up, there was about 8 inches and the boys have been out all morning. It is beautiful! Our backyard is still untouched, except for a few footprints along the side fence where boy #2 went to knock the heavy snow off of our little tree for me, we already had a branch break off of our rhododendron in the font yard from the weight of the snow and we didn't want the new little trees to get damaged. We are in a winter wonderland!

Black Friday -

2006-11-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

It has become an annual event for my daughter, my sister and myself to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving evening we plot out our route for the next day and then we get up early in the morning and work our route. Fred Meyer is usually our first stop - they always have socks half price, plus many other items that we might want to purchase on sale. This year we were at Freds before 6 am - and there were quite a few people - but it wasn't too bad. They were prepared with all checkstands open and the lines moved very quickly, plus they serve free donought holes and apple juice and there is also a Starbucks in it, so we were set. We moved on to the new Target store and it was fairly empty, I guess everyone went on to the mall store. After that we went to the outlet mall not far from us and got a couple of good deals before bringing daughter home so she could scoot off to work. Sis and I headed to the new Kohls store and that was chaos, it was my first time in it and I couldn't believe how long the lines were - we just toured the store and then left and headed back to the outlet mall. The mall was now VERY crowded, but sis was able to make a couple of purchases and then we headed back home for lunch. We don't take the shopping too serious and have fun with it. When all was said and done, I had made some needed clothing purchases for my boys and sis had done a bit of her Christmas shopping - it was a pretty good day.