Kreativ Blogger Award

I have my first ever blogger award!!!!  Can you tell I am happy.?????  My friend Amy at Tiny Blessings gave me this award.  So I am posting it now:

FYI:  Before you continue reading I had to list some things I agree with or don’t agree with, if you have disagreed with me in the past read at your own risk 😀

 

Rules:
Mention the blog that gave it to you and comment on their blog to let them know you have posted your award. Publish these rules.Share 6 values that are important to you and 6 things you do not support~ Grant the prize to 6 people.

Important to me:

1.  My Faith.  Without Christ I wouldn’t be a wife, mom, homeschool parent or anything else.  Through Him all things are possible and without Him I would be nothing.

2.  My family.  Without them I wouldn’t be a wife or mom or daughter or sister or sister in law or daughter in law and eventually a Grandma and Great Grandpa.  My family is who I am.

3.  The pro-life movement.  I believe that life begins at conception until natural death.  There is NO reason for an abortion regardless of circumstances.

4. Birth control or lack thereof.  I believe that God is in charge of our fertility and that birth control (especially BC that is chemical method) is wrong and induces an abortion of a implanted baby.  Birth control and other barrier methods should not be passed out in schools and only Christian based abstinence only education should be taught.  Children are a blessing and heritage from the Lord and not a burden as our society often times views them.

5.  Homeschooling.  Every parent should have the right to educate their child as they see fit.  If that means public schooling (**GASP**), private school or homeschooling then it should be allowed.  There should be no laws passed regarding homeschooling at the federal level or laws passed trying to make homeschooling parents hold teaching licenses (I know some REALLY bad licensed teachers) or making it illegal.

6.  Research for diabetes (all types), alzheimer’s disease and cancer and prematurity.  This DOES NOT mean embryonic stem cell research as this is not needed to find cures for these diseases.  I do not support the ADA because of their funding ESC research nor do we support March of Dimes because of their supporting it to.

I Do Not Support

1.  Abortion; abortion should be illegal for all with no exceptions.

2.  Embryonic stem cell research

3.  Same gender marriages

4.  laws restricting homeschool parents in any capacity except to notify of their intent.

5.  Big government (socialized medicine, spreading the wealth, increasing taxes for just a few examples)

6.  Pulling our troops out of Iraq. 

 

So now I am passing this on to:

Prairie Lady at Prairie Crafts at Home

Stampinbb at StampinBB’s Stampin’ BBlog.

Pam at Pam’s Pride

Tana at Artistic Times with Tana

Melanie at Melanie’s Madness

Lightbearer at On The Path

 

 

One 2 Believe

As some of you know I am now an alternate for the TOS review group. So from time to time I will be receiving real or virtual products to use and review.

 

Imagine my surprise when we received the Nativity Set  from One 2 Believe. Unfortunately my computer deleted all the pictures I had taken of the children enjoying their first few hours with the set. The set came with 17 pieces. Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus in a manger, King #1, King #2, King #3, Angel #1, Angel #2, Shepherd #1, Shepherd #2, male donkey, male camel, male sheep, female sheep, stable, tree and barrel of hay.  Also included is the mini storybook.  This is for ages 3 and up but my 2 year old had fun playing with it and there were no issues of putting anything in his mouth.  One 2 Believe is a business that wants to take over your toy box with Christian, faith building toys. Which is wonderful! They have a wide assortment of toys for boys and girls whose parents want them to eventually be men and women for Christ who raise a third generation of boys and girls for Christ. Sounds like a great generational heritage to pass on to our children? The quality of the Nativity set was great! We haven’t had anything break and this is from hours of play and my middle daughter carting the pieces around in a bucket on our car rides LOL. The pieces are solid and well made. While I am one to make sure that things are as historically accurate as possible, I prefer to have the wise men a distance from the whole scene as they weren’t mentioned seeing Jesus until he was a child who was walking, but for children this doesn’t bother them and I won’t nag with details until they get older. So my children have enjoyed making the angels play out the singing from the Heavens and eventually having them singing over the birth of the new King!  It is fun to watch them play with something that I would not be ashamed to have them playing with should our Savior walk through the door at any given time. Don’t take this to mean their toy boxes are filled with other mean spirited things, because they aren’t, but this just seems a much better use of their time in understanding Biblical truths as they are given to us in the Bible. The set comes with a short book and a version of the arrival of Jesus but for older children it would work to actually read the story from the Bible while allowing each child to have a ‘part’ and allow them to act out the scene while you read it. I think it would be neat to have an older, child Jesus add-on so that one can act out the wise men arriving to pay honor to their King.

Overall, this was a great product and I would encourage you to go over to One 2 Believe and take a look around to see the Nativity set and the other toys that are available, and just think it’s just in time for a great Christmas present and something to tie together the whole meaning of why we as Christians celebrate Christmas to begin with.  I think that given the quality of the Nativity playset that the other toys would be right up there with this and be of exceptional quality.  One 2 Believe also offers Bible points on their toys which can be redeemed for free toys in their store! 

 

Homeschool Memoirs #11: field trips

I think the most memorable field trip we took was last year, it was to Jungle Jim’s.  It’s a huge grocery store filled with foods from around the world. Jungle Jim’s International Market is a fun place with their huge displays and large amount of food.  There are what seem like tons of live fish.  There are automated displays like Robin Hood and others.  There is an Olive Bar which has olives of all sorts, hard to find olives, easy to find olives all in one place.  My husband didn’t get the chance to go with us but he is a olive extroidanairre (why I don’t know, I can’t stand the things) and he can’t wait to go back with us to visit the Olive Bar.  The only drawback to JJ’s is you cannot take pictures, so all we have is our memory of the time there, which isn’t a bad thing but it would have been neat to be able to go back and take a picture of Hannah standing inside the fake Swedish house (which houses the Swedish foods) for our unitl study of Kirsten!  If you have a local JJ’s near you, it’s a great time and makes for a great field trip for a homeschool group 🙂

Homeschool Memoirs #10: 10 Timely Facts

 

Okay so I am late, again, but this assignment is  to write 10 things about me, I could write more if I wanted, but 10 is all that is required.  From the HSB site "Write 10 interesting, crazy, weird, fun facts about you! Include facts about you as a woman, a wife, a mommy, a homeschooler, a homekeeper, a taxi-driver, a cook, etc ."  So begins my list:

1.  I worked as a 7-UP Dot (yes, dressed up as the dot) passing out coupons at a local Kroger.

2.  I would love to throw out all curriculum and just wing it, like some, but I am terried to try it.

3.  I don’t mind doing laundry, but I hate doing dishes and cleaing the bathroom.

4.  I love to watch my children sleep.  there is something about a child with a thumb falling out of their mouths while warm and cuddly in their beds.

5.  I am a alternate reviewer for TOS and liking every minute of it.

6.  I like  love that my DH helps me with housework.

7.  I love that my DH can get off work so that Hannah and I can enjoy co-op together while he watches the younger two and also when I am suffering from migraines.

8.  Making lunch always seems to stress me out.

9.  I am never without a book. 

10.  I read Gone With the Wind in middle school and started Les Miserables in m.s. and finished it in high school.

11.  I enjoy Irish, German, Classical, Country, Gospel, Contemporary Christian and American Indian music.

12.  I have a very distant relative with the last name Pancake.

13.  My family came from Ireland and Germany and we also have American Indian somewhere in there.

14.  I have blood and relatives who have fought in the War of 1812, Revolutinary War, Civil War, World War 1, World War 2, Vietnam and a BIL who was in the Persian Gulf.

15.  I served in the U.S. Navy aboard the now decommissioned USS Kittyhawk CV-63

16.  I didn’t like being in the Navy.

17.  DH and I married after only about 6 months of dating  and we met on the internet. We eloped and were married on 1-1-01 at 12:01 a.m on the banks of the Ohio River in Kentucky.

18.  I always wanted to be an attorney without children but God had other plans.  Praise Him!!!

19.  I love CHRISTmas, and His birth is even more special to me since I came back to the Fold. 

20.  I like snow, even driving in it is fun!!!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and FREE ebook

Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? See Nancy’s first horse here!    You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter’s first horse! Oh, and she’s not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You’ll see photos from the 50’s through the 80’s.

But, you’ll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane.

Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It’s all about the fall and winter holidays – mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it’s not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first  – for FREE ($12.45 value)!

Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their  Fall Special.

If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you’ll get

Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready

6 Bonus gifts

12 months of Teacher’s Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!

This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!!

Click Here to Subscribe Now!

 

Give me 5 Monday Meme

Okay I am late but I just found out about it and it was so tempting because it’s about food 🙂  Hope over to Becca’s Buzz and check out her blog and meme

So the meme’s theme is favorite fall foods and well I have a lot 🙂

1.  Pumpkin Pie (okay pumpkin everything) with whip cream but not enough to detract from the pumpkin taste 🙂

2.  Pumpkin ice cream this can be from Youngs or from Dairy Queen as long as it tastes like pumpkin I’m game 🙂

3.  Chili with little to no beans LOL much to my DH dismay, he could go with little to no meat and give him beans.

4.  More pumpkin:  pumpkin bread, pumpkin coffee (this can come from the gas station or from Tim Horton’s I’m not picky as long as it’s pumpkin LOL), pumpkin spice sprinkled on top of vanilla or chocolate ice cream.  Just GIVE ME Pumpkin

5.  Hot tea that are flavored like the celestial seasonings I treat myself to in the fall/winter 🙂  One is actually called Sugar Cookie and it tastes great without sugar, go figure LOL.

Update about my pain

Well I had my dr appt yesterday.  We discussed wether or not I should be on insulin yet and he said no that we will take that route if and when I need after I become pregnant.  Then I asked him again about the pain and the adhesions and he said likely they were coming back ARGH!  He said in some they can affect fertility, not something else I wanted to hear.  So the route we are taking right now is wait and see.  He said if I am not pregnant (he agreed the BC I am on is good for getting pregnant LOL) in 5 to 6 months he wants to see me back and we will look at the adhesions again which will more than likely mean more surgery.  I’d really like to avoid more surgery.  So I ask that you give prayers to us that the Lord would seek to give us another blessing and that the pain would stay in control until such a time as that.  Other than that all is well, I am losing weight but the scale didn’t show I had actually lost all that much but I can tell how my clothes and wedding ring is fitting (or not fitting) that I am losing weight, maybe I weighed more than I thought when I began to loose?  So there you have it, my update 🙂

Help Me To Teach

Have you ever sat down at your computer to do a search for a school subject or project and dreaded the process of sorting through all the vulgar and unneeded information that came from the result of your search? Do you dread seeing millions of returns and think maybe you missed the one that would have been THE ONE? I know I do and as a homeschooling mom my time is valuable as I try to balance being a mom, wife, teacher, housekeeper, etc so I need something that will help speed the process and so to my delight I was given the chance to review the website Help Me To Teach . The site says it is an internet directory for teachers, students and parents and so it is. Here is what the homepage says about Help Me To Teach:

• over 2300 safe, educational links for children, parents and teachers
• Updated daily
• Pre-K through High School
• Use as a complete curriculum or to find supplemental material

The author of this site spent over 40 years as a teacher and she personally goes over the links to make sure they will be of the utmost help to those using the site.  It is a subscription site for these time periods

• 1 year at $29.95 
• 3 months for $15.95
• 1 month for $9.95
• 3 days for $4.95

After having tried this for our studies I find it is worth the money.  I have found a free grammar site which my daughter needs work on and will of course save us money in the long run.  All you do is type what you want to find into their search engine and all relevant sites will pop up allowing you click on the link and being taken directly to the site in a new window so the Help Me To Teach window remains open and you can search again easily!  The amount of work that has gone into this site amazes me and it is so nice to not have to do all the work on my own!  It really makes planning our unit studies easier as well as giving me ideas for other unit studies.  The finds are labeled for each grade:

• P for primary (Pre-K through Grade 2)
• E for elementary (Grades 2 through 5)
• S for secondary (Grades 6 through 12)
• T for teacher or supervising student

There are many different areas of study and then of course sub areas of those studies.  It is extensively broken down.  So if you click on animals then you can study up on arachnids if you choose.  Or like I said above just type in a search to the search area to find what you need for your particular area.  There are guides on holidays, arts and crafts, health and safety, animals, Bible study and Christian links, character, computer, cooking for kids, for teachers/parents only, foreign languages, Jewish curriculum, kites, language arts, lapbooking, math and much, much more.  I am really grateful to have been able to have the time to use and review this site, it does help and I must say it will be something that I will continue to use.

Yet another contest: A QUILT

Okay you know me I am a sucker for quilts!  I make em and would love to buy them but alas you have to have money for that so the next best thing to buying one or making one is to win one!  Crazy huh?  Who would give away a quilt, for free?  Well if you visit Pigtails and Snails you can see the quilt is being really given away.  How cool is that?  It’s beautiful and since I haven’t even come close to making my own quilt pattern or appliquing maybe this will give me the burst I need to do so, but only if it’s  hanging in my house LOL..  So what are you waiting for?  Go now to Pigtails and Snails and enter.

More Pain.

I had a section with my first daughter in February 2002, there were some things that happened that were horrible including terrible pain.  Some of the pain were occassional twinges of pain and some made me double over in pain, and went away once I became pregnant with my second daughter.  I found a great doctor, thanks to God and my friend Pam, who instead of cutting me open (I couldn’t handle that emotionally again) again agreed to let me do a VBAC in which I ended up being induced for gestational diabetes.  Well a few months postpartum the pain returned, even worse, one time sending me to the ER thinking I may have had a etopic pregnancy.  The ER ruled out etopic pregnancy and couldn’t find any other explanation, so home I went.  I called my OB/GYN and told him my suspicions that maybe I was having endometriosis or some other ailment.  I went in for an exploratory lap in early 2005 and it was determined I was fine except for severe adhesions that occurred from my previous section, the doctor severed them and I have been fine, up until a couple weeks ago when the pain returned.  I am once again suffering from this pain, it comes and goes, but it is there and I don’t know when it will occur.  I also see my doctor again next week so I will be telling him about it again.  I wonder if this will be something I will have to deal with because I had a section I didn’t need and the doctor who did it was negligent.  Will I have to undergo surgeries every couple years to undo the damage this doctor did to me?  Anyone else with previous section who has had this problem?  Unfortunately the doctor fled the continental USA so I have no way of contacting him.  It would be nice if I knew when the pain would happen and how to be rid of it forever.  It is bad enough having chronic pain from migraines but adding to that this pain makes it more to endure.  I know Christ said our lives wouldn’t be free of trials and tribulations but it is hard living with chronic pain, especially when it was caused by the hands of someone that we are told to trust and put our lives in their hands.