Busy as Elves

You know how it is the week you get back home from a trip... Well, it's definitely been that way around here this week! I'm busy playing catch-up on, well, everything!

Plus we've been working on getting our house all festive for the Christmas season. This year has been a bit crazier for me in that regard, since I'm not only decorating our home, but also our church. Thankfully, I've got *elves* to help with it all:)

Christmas home tour coming soon!!

Menu Plan Monday: Nov 28th

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our was simply delicious--so much yummy food!

My new recipe for this Thanksgiving turned out amazingly well. It was probably the BEST pumpkin pie I've ever eaten! And you know it's good when all of your relatives line up to take a picture with their phone to share with their friends...heehee You should check out this recipe!

Now that we're back from our holiday trip, I've made my weekly meal plan and have already been to the store. Thankfully it wasn't too crowded, even though our area is expecting a little snow tonight and tomorrow. (I hope we get some!!)

Monday: Tomato-Tortellini Soup
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie
Wednesday: Tostadas
Thursday: {small group night--theme: comfort foods} Mashed Potatoes & Rolls
Friday: Potato Soup w/Rolls
Saturday: {leftovers}

Happy Cooking to you this week!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

One Thousand Gifts: Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving week was so wonderful and I have so many blessings in my life. Still counting them...

0481. sisters...'nuff said

0482. hang time with his Papi

0483. hang time with cousins

0484. silly boy cousins

0485. reading with Papi

0486. visiting grandparents

0487. those cheesy family photos...that we always love to look at later

0488. a Thanksgiving day walk with my sweet daughter

0489. the most amazing pumpkin pie ever

0490. sharing a meal with family and friends

0491. an wonderfully blessed meal

0492. teaching my daughter tricks in the kitchen

0493. a hubby who loves my cooking

0494. surrounded by simple beauty

0495. did I already mention my amazing husband? I love him so much!

0496. and I love my adorable (onery, silly, sweet....) kiddos, too

0497. preparing those memorable family meals with my mom and sister

0498. playdates with *old* friends

Giving Thanks

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I do each and every year, but especially this year. There are just so many blessings in my life and God must have the glory for them all.

After two years of renting and enduring three moves in this year alone, we are once again homeowners and have a lovely, cozy place to call home.

After three years of self-employment and seeking God's will for our life, we have been abundantly blessed with the amazing opportunity to pastor and do life with a wonderful church family.

I have two really incredible children, who are each little miracles and have amazing gifts and talents. They challenge me every day with my task of raising them in godly character and training them up in the way they should go and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to teach them at home and spend so much quality time with them. They are truly gifts from God!

I could go on and on with my *list* of things that I'm thankful for, but I want to share this little story with you. I hope that it will encourage you somehow.

Recently I had a miracle--I am continually giving thanks for this. My car, a 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada, has been my faithful ride since 2004 and I love it. I'm not one for wanting to constantly upgrade on cars, as long as it's working fine I'm good. A couple of weeks ago though, the rear air compressor pump-thingy (which is my shock system) when out. I knew this because the rear end of my car was seriously low-riding. It was one bumpy ride. This had happened once before about 5 years ago, so we knew exactly what the problem was. Well, those things are a tad expensive, especially at Christmastime...if you know what I mean. We explored several options: a rebuilt compressor, a new compressor, conversion to traditional shocks... Everything added up to a lot of money though.

One day we were out grabbing a quick burger for lunch, discussing what our options were and how much it was going to cost. And as we are walking back out to my car, I suddenly noticed something. My car was no longer low-riding, in fact it was normal height! Vince and I couldn't believe it, it seemed so weird that the compressor had suddenly started working again after being out for something like a week and a half. But it had! Our ride was smooth once again!

I have to be honest, I hadn't been praying for my car. I was guilty of just worrying. But Vince had been praying about it. He knew that all of those repairs were not in our budget and didn't know what we should do. So like the godly man he is, he took it to the Master Mechanic.

So it's been over a week later and my car is still up and riding smoothly, the air compressor has been restored! And I have been sharing this with everyone and I just had to share it with you here.

I am so thankful to have a personal relationship with a God who cares about the seemingly small details of my life, who knows my needs and provides for them. He is truly amazing!

On this Thanksgiving Day I pray that you will take the time to stop and thank Him for the gifts you have been given in this life.

Our Thanksgiving Menu

My mom and I have just finalized our Thanksgiving Menu. Holy Mole!!
It's going to be a feast. And I am very grateful for that.

Fruit Salad with Fruit Salad Topping
Red, White & Blue Salad

***
Roasted Turkey Breast
Crock Pot Dressing

Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Giblet Gravy
Corn Casserole

Green Been Casserole
Macaroni & Cheese
Baked Beans

***

Rolls

***
Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie
Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Italian Creme Cake

...and a nap!

Thanksgiving: Are You Strictly Traditional or Not So Much?

I'm not sure how it is in other countries where they also celebrate a day of thanksgiving, but here in America Thanksgiving is by and large very traditional. Wouldn't you agree?

Most of us tend to eat with the same people (our families) and eat the same foods every year, right? At least that's how it is with me and my family.

Obviously, places and times change throughout the years, but my family has a long-standing tradition of having Thanksgiving dinner together--even if we have to travel hundreds of miles to do so.

This year is no exception either. I have just spent all of yesterday traveling with my husband and children across several states to be with our families this week. And we will celebrate by eating all of our favorite *Thanksgivingish* foods on Thursday.

I do like to try out a new recipe or two every year though. Last year I made several new ones. This year I am repeating a couple of those since they are now new favorites and I am trying out one brand new recipe: Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie!

And when we get together with Vince's side of the family on Friday we're skipping the traditional foods all together (since we'll have all eaten so much of them already). This year we're having bbq brisket with all the fixings! That will be yummy and it'll be nice to try different recipes for that.

So I guess I'm a little of both this year: traditional and non-traditional. It's fun to mix things up once in a while, dontcha think?

How about you? I'd love to hear about your plans--leave me a comment and tell me all about them!

The Reading Game: A Review

I was excited to receive this review product recently, thinking my 1st-grade-son could really benefit and enjoy it a lot. And I was right! He is having so much fun with this game.

The Reading Game is a fast-paced memory card game using words. The game comes with 6 sets of memory cards with 6 corresponding readers.

The idea is for you and your student to play memory with each set of cards (playing 6 rounds with each set), after every 2 rounds your student then reads 2 test sentences to see how he is retaining the new words he is learning. After the whole set has been played, he is then ready to read the corresponding reader...and has learned 30 new words!

By the time your student has played every set of cards and read every reader, he will have learned 180 words. Of the 25 most common English words, 23 are on that list; of the 50 most common words, 42 are on that list. So this little game of reading really does prepare your student well.

The readers are illustrated with cute black and white drawings and are each about a different kind of animal: skunk, snake, bear, penguin, unicorn and zebra. The books are written in rhyming form and there is no punctuation for the sentences. This gives you a wonderful opportunity for your student to learn to punctuate the sentences properly.

The author of The Reading Game is Kenneth Hodkinson. You may be familiar with him, he is also the author of the Wordly Wise series.

The Reading Game meets the Common Core State Standards. You can also download free individual student assessment forms for this game here.

This has probably been one of the most fun reviews we've done this year! Mr. B loves it which makes me love it, too. It's always such a blessing to find fun ways to reinforce good reading skills that children enjoy.

The Reading Game is available here for $24.95. It would make a great educational Christmas gift! I encourage you to read through their site and learn more about this product for your early reader.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of The Reading Game through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew and The Reading Game in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Read what other Homeschool Crew members had to say about this product.

Our New Learning Room

We've been using our new Learning Room since the beginning of September, but all this time we've been finishing things up in there. I finally have decided that it's probably never going to be *perfect* so I took some *real life* pics of it.

So here it is in all of its everyday glory:)

First a *BEFORE* shot for you:

This room is actually the formal dining room of the house, but the former owners had an office in here and it is working out well as a learning room for us. It's not a large room (would have been a small dining room anyway), but with built-in's it's working nicely.

Vince (with the help of Mr. B) created a great built-in bookcase for us with inspiration from some HGTV shows.

It turned out GREAT! I have crammed that sucker as full as possible, too! :) I thought I would never stop finding boxes of books to unpack, but I think we've finally found homes for them all.

Vince also created this desktop area for me. It houses our computer (the one w/all of my homeschool files!), printer, our new workbox station and all of the random miscellany...you know that stuff.

I've also added in another bookcase on the other side of the room. This one is completely full, too! (I've got to learn to purge a bit better).

This is one of my very favorite features in the room: a window seat for reading! I wanted one of these SO VERY BADLY when I was a little girl. Something about a window seat and a good book just sounded like a piece of heaven to me (still does!).

I made that cushion from a piece of eggshell foam and extra stuffing, then covered it with fun fabric from Hobby Lobby. Even though I don't want anyone to look at the bottom stitches on it, I love the way it looks all tucked into the seat. It's comfy, too!

Around the room I have various things on the walls:

Our * Composer of the Month* and *Artist of the Month*, maps, artwork,

our morning board activities, Character Trait of the Month chart and more.

We use our Learning Room ALL of the time! With the central location in the house and having a great table for all types of use, it's truly a functional room for us.

Math Mammoth: A Review

The kiddos and I recently had the opportunity to review Math Mammoth. I'd heard about this curriculum from several friends before and have been curious about it, but have never tried it. I was glad for the chance to check it out.

We had the option to choose which of their series would fit best for us and, at the suggestion of Maria Miller (the author and also a homeschool parent), we chose the Light Blue Series for Grades 2 and 3. I thought these would be great to try for my 1st and 3rd grader. Maria was very helpful in guiding me through the process of choosing since I was so unfamiliar with her books.

Math Mammoth uses a lot of mental math and I liked that as it corresponds well with the math we have already been doing. The style of the worksheets and teaching methods were somewhat different though. However, with a little instruction both of my children were able to easily adjust.

I liked very much the practical math that is included in Math Mammoth's worktexts. Maria has added things like mileage charts, calendars, money math and more. She even offers entire topical worktext and worksheet series on her site.

The complete curriculum is available as a download and comes with TONS of great files! Besides the worktext/sheets for the A & B portion of each grade there is a whole file of supportive material such as reviews, cutouts, printable play currency (foreign currency, too!), tests, answer keys and more. The curriculum is also available in book form as well. The downloads and hard copies are available through different companies and there are links within Math Mammoth's site.

The complete curriculum starts at grade 1 and is priced at $34 for the downloadable version. You can also purchase only parts of that if you wish for a lesser price. It is also available on CD.

They also offer a FREE downloadable package of 300 worksheets and sample pages! You can also take a 7-day virtual email tour of their site.

Even if you are not looking for a whole curriculum for your child, this would be a wonderful resource for supplemental math materials to help in areas that may need extra focus or areas that you would like extra emphasis. I would encourage you to browse Math Mammoth's site and see what is available. They have so much more than I realized at first and I am excited to have found them.

Disclaimer: I received a free downloadable version of the grade 2 and grade 3 complete curriculum through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew and Math Mammoth in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

See what more homeschool parents have to say about Math Mammoth here.

Accepting the Help {a much-needed re-post!}

Today has been one of those days when I'd just really like a do-over. {sigh} And I was reminded of this post from a couple of years ago. God's Word is always right on and even though the events in this post happened a while back, the principles in The Word are timeless and true. Since I needed to pull this post up for a re-read myself, I thought there might be other weary moms out there who could use the encouragement, too. So I'm re-posting it:)

**********

(October 2009)

If I ever had any delusions about earning the mother-of-the-year award or if I ever thought my children were going to earn the perfect-children-of-the-year award, I now have my feet firmly planted back in that fun little thing we like to call: reality.

I just returned from picking up my son at my parents' house. He was supposed to spend the afternoon, along with my daughter. I had agreed to this in spite of my better judgement. There's just something about Sunday having a different schedule than the rest of the week (earlier morning, lots of morning activity, etc.) that just desperately begs for a nap all afternoon. That's why at our house even if you aren't taking a nap (ahem....The Princess), then you are still required to have quiet time in your room. Frankly, Mama & Daddy just need it that way.

However, since the kiddos have just gotten over being sick all week and were so ready for a change of scenery outside of our house walls, I thought it would be okay for the kiddos to spend the afternoon with Nana & Papi. Boy, was I wrong.

Mr. B just had one of the biggest meltdowns of his life. S o much so, that when my mom called to ask my thoughts, I just said I'd come pick him up and bring him home for a nap. Of course, I had time to really get steamed up all the way there and then he proceeded to carry his meltdown on into the car~crying so much that he made himself start coughing which made him eventually gag. I think we finally got home after 2 or 3 stops...I can't remember. And all this followed what was a totally stressful lunch scene at the restaurant after church. Just the icing on the cake.

I hate it when I completely lose my temper and yell (gasp!) at my kids. I feel like a total loser afterwards. And I've been very short of patience this week. I know that's partly due to being sick and also having *cabin fever* from being home so much more than usual. And it hasn't helped that I've been single-parenting it since Wednesday. I really miss my hubby when he's on a trip~I can't imagine doing this alone full-time.

But after I've finished beating myself up with condemnation...Grace comes in. Thank God for His grace. I couldn't live without it. I need it so much each and every day. I don't know how anyone can live without it.

There are no perfect lives. I know sometimes I feel like some people have perfect lives when I'm reading their blogs. But we all know that blogland only gives a tiny glimpse into some one's life~and that's only the glimpse that we want you to see:)

In real life we can't spell check, edit or redo everything. We just roll with the punches, and sometimes we don't roll the right way. So often I feel like I roll the wrong way. But God's grace is always there...loving us, waiting for us, never judging us.

God's Word says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (NIV)

The Message Bible puts it this way: "So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help."

So right now I'm declaring, *I accept the help!* I sure can't do this on my own. I need what God is so ready to give me, His mercy and grace...His help.

Thank you, God, for loving me in spite of the fact that I'll never win the mom-of-the-year award. Thank you for blessing me with the two most amazing gifts imaginable: my precious children. Forgive me for trying to do things in my own strength, when you are waiting and so willing to be that strength for me.

Menu Plan Monday: Nov 14th

Yes, I know I'm a little late getting this posted. I have to say, I'm all cooked-out from the weekend.

It was a great weekend, but I stayed super busy in the kitchen. Saturday night we had friends over and I made homemade pizza and apple dumplings (we also had a Phase 10 throw-down, which was awesome!). On Sunday our church had its Thanksgiving meal together and I whipped up a couple of pans of turkey and dressing (this recipe x4!).

And now I've got Thanksgiving family meals on the brain and am having a hard time switching gears to this week. I'm trying to keep it very simple this week here at home and mostly eat out of the pantry.

Monday: {leftovers} Not exciting, I know, but gotta get the fridge cleaned out!
Tuesday: {Thanksgiving potluck with homeschool group} Corn Casserole & rolls
Wednesday: Tostadas
Thursday: {small group at our house} Dinner on the fire pit--I'm making Hot Dogs and Baked Beans
Friday: Pan-Seared Tilapia with Mashed Potatoes and Mixed Veggies
Saturday: tba

What have you got cooking this week? Are you busy thinking of holiday cooking, too?

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Keyboard Town PALS: A Review

Isn't it amazing how young children learn to type now? I didn't learn to type until high school and I can clearly remember those tedious typing drills. Of course, I now use those skills at my computer keyboard and on my phone every single day. Knowing how my children enjoy being on the computer as well, I had been thinking of giving them some typing lessons, old school-style.

Lucky for them, this awesome review came along! They don't know it, but Keyboard Town PALS saved their little fingers from long and boring typing drills.

Keyboard Town PALS is a wonderful typing program for children that literally teaches them basic typing skills in just one hour! I must admit that I was skeptical when my 8-yr-old daughter declared she could now type after watching the first video; however, I have been very impressed with her use of basic typing skills. She is really doing very well! My 6-yr-old son has also begun this program and is also doing great.

Their program, Learn to Type in an Hour is for children ages 6-12 and uses videos with puppets and music to help teach your child how to type. There are no timed tests, no boring drills and the *delete* and *backspace* keys are deactivated so as to eliminate the worry of mistakes. Any mistakes made are rolled off the screen and not counted. I like this option especially for my son, who tends to obsess about mistakes.

Keyboard Town PALS uses new and proven techniques in teaching typing. You can read more about that here.

My kiddos have enjoyed the videos (even the funny puppets) and I am so happy that they are learning a skill that will serve them the rest of their lives. This really has been a great program for us to review.

Learn to Type in an Hour is available on CD Rom in several bundles, starting at $30. You can see all of their products here.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this program through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew and Keyboard Town PALS in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

See what other homeschool parents had to say about this product here.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: *Initiative*, Light Boxes & Jupiter

Ahh...the weekly wrap-up. I love these because it makes me take the time to reflect on our week and remember all of those good moments. You know, the ones that sometimes get crowded out of our thoughts because we often focus on all of the fails and frustrations.

And I had plenty of fails and frustrations this week, as usual. I am only human. And so are my children. Often they act just like me, unfortunately. This motivates me to seek to follow Christ even more earnestly.

It was a good week though, another full one!

We began learning about *initiative* in our Character Sketch studies. We really do enjoy learning how even the animals that God created show such remarkable character traits.

We are also learning Psalm 136:1-9 this month; a psalm of thanksgiving.

In math we are still waiting on our last backordered Singapore book to come in (I was notified that it shipped today--yea!), so we have been exploring some Math Mammoth in the meantime.

In language arts, The Princess is almost finished with her unit with Charlotte's Web and Mr. B is nearly finished with his first reader.

I mentioned last week that we have begun our study on Botany with Apologia's Exploring Creation series. That's going well! We got our light box finished and our seeds planted this week! We are dutifully watering them daily as instructed.

I am looking forward to having some fresh herbs here at home through the winter--I can almost taste the pico de gallo!

We also enjoyed the beautiful view of Jupiter in the nighttime sky mid-week--did you get to see it? I am so glad that we did that astronomy study last year, it's amazing what the kids have retained from that.

(Jupiter is that small white dot to our right of the moon)

We continued our study of ancient history with India this week. I had planned to prepare an Indian-style dinner one night (with recipes from my sweet friend in South Africa), but it just didn't work out that way. We'll plan to have Indian food one night next week though.

I introduced our newest composer and artist for our appreciation studies: Haydn and Mary Cassett. Thus far we have simply listened to some of Haydn's music and looked at a few of Mary's paintings. We're looking forward to a library trip next week to get more resources.

We did begin two new subjects this week. Well, one is actually an extension of our art appreciation studies. We have begun using Artistic Pursuits to learn more about how to create art.

We have also begun learning some French using Great Commission Languages. The Princess is very excited about this since she has been asking to learn French recently.

Today we concluded our week with our homeschool group. We had a short Veteran's Day ceremony and then the kiddos enjoyed some game and craft time while the parents met and made plans for upcoming events.

We're looking forward to a great weekend with friends from out-of-town and an early Thanksgiving meal with our church family this Sunday!

Enjoy your weekend!

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.