Tapestry of Faith

The 'What If' Child

2011-12-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

We have a child that is a deep thinker. He is always asking a 'what if' question. In the photo above, he asking himself what is really going to happen when he fights Darth Vader, will my parents find me in this crowd when I am done, will I use a real light saber . . . . Really, all kids get the worries from time to time and want to know 'what if.' For a deep thinker, the world can be a never ending place of fear. They think too much for their own good. Their heighten awareness spawn one scenario after another. Our children should know that worries and fears are normal, that everyone has them, and we need to show them what we do with worries.

Our children's 'what ifs' are a great chance to make clear to them basic Biblical wisdom. It is easy to forget when our minds start spinning. I tell my child, simply and bluntly that,

"You can handle anything that happens to you WITH GOD."
"Life will keep you busy enough with real things that happen to you, don't waste your time with 'what ifs'."
"Don't keep 'what if'ing your self because they never end. They will just go on and on."
"What ever happens, you will just deal with it. God has a plan, there is no need to worry. He won't give you anymore then you can handle WITH Him."
"You need to deal with what is happening right now, at this moment."
"No matter what happens, stay calm and pray to God for wisdom. He will show you what to do."

Another exercise that is good to do is to ask them, "What are you afraid of happening?" Or, "What is the worse that could happen?" For example, if the child says they are afraid of the house catching on fire, you would help them see that they would leave the house and the fire department would come and put the fire out. This exercise may be too hard for a child who lacks the ability to reason, meaning a child on the spectrum or with delays. The point of the exercise is to show, what ever happens, you will just deal with the situation.

Death may come up in your 'what if' conversation, but you need to deal with it honestly, while only giving them simple information that they need to know. It is best to be calm, steady and sure of yourself in your delivery. If you don't believe it completely, your children will see that, and they won't believe either. As Christians, we have no fear of death. If your child is persistent, but not yet mature enough, I tell them they will learn more as they get older, but now is not the time. They need to grow more.

Having an environment where your child can come and talk to you about what is on their heart plays a major role in providing that teachable moment. If we have our child's heart, if they feel loved and safe with us, they will let us into their most personal thoughts. Our children need us to talk to. They need to be reassured by us. During these talks with my children, I always remind them that it is our (their mother and father's) job to take care of them and help them though any events that might happen. Even when they are by themselves, God is ALWAYS with them, watching over them. No worries. It is a good reminder to the us as well, because where do you think their deep thinking brain came from?

Christmas Newsletter 2011

2011-12-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

Wehope this letter finds you well. Our year has flown by. We hadquite a busy year. Last spring we got to go to Walt Disney Worldwith Karen's sister and fiance. It had been 3 years since a realvacation, so we really enjoyed every minute of it. The kids evenfought Darth Vader. JP had his mouse ears on the whole time, I amsure Vader was quaking in his boots. They were given the opportunityto join forces with Vader, but we are proud to say none of themturned to the Dark Side.

Alsoin Spring, Karen's sister announced her wedding would be in Novemberin Key West, Florida. So we got to go on another trip to Florida. We drove all the way down. How many keys could they possibly be? Itis gorgeous there though, and the wedding was beautiful. G hadthe honor of being a flower girl and the boys ring bearers. On theway back, we stopped for a couple of days at Disney World, this timewith Karen's brother and parents, who missed the trip in the springdue to a hospital stay.

Thiswas a milestone year for Ed, he turned 40. He had a quiet, littleparty with his best friends. All else is the same, same job, sameworship team. Just before Christmas, Ed got to go out to Arizona tosee his family. His mom is fighting cancer, and we could not thinkof a better present for her then Ed.

Karenis snowed under with work. She is homeschooling the kids full timewith a full load of students, John started Kindergarten this year. Homeschooling 3 kids is really not hard, it is all the rest of thestuff that is the problem, like sending out punctual cards andnewsletters. She is enjoying nesting until we are placed with ababy.

G turned 10 this year. She still takes Irish Dancing lessons, and lotsof homeschooling activities – homeschooling skating is herfavorite. This year she has joined the chess club at the library,and really enjoys it. G's hot interests this year are videogames, roller skating and crafts.

Z turns 8 next month. This year at our homeschool co-op he got to takea cooking class, he enjoys to help Karen cook. He recently joined atownship wrestling team, and loves it! Ed wrestled when he was inmiddle school, and he has turned into quite a stage mom. Z is soexcited on practice nights, he is too worked up to eat dinner, sothat tells you how important this really is to him. This year Z'sinterests are cars, wrestling, and playing outside.

JP turned 5 this year, and started Kindergarten. At co-op he moved upto a new class, where he gets to go to different stations. He lovesto do everything with Z, they even sleep together. Z keepstrying to get him to join the wrestling team, but JP says he willonly join if they get a blue mat – his favorite color. JP knowswhat he wants. One of his favorite places to go is the zoo, he sayshe is going to live there when he grows up. JP's interests areanimals, cars, and pretending to be a baby animal.

Asfor number 4, all our adoption paperwork is finished. We are awaiting family, which means we show our profile to birth parents andwait for them to pick us. So far we have not gotten picked, but itis exciting to receive opportunities. When we do get picked, itprobably will happen very quickly. Adoption is a lot of waiting, andthen instant baby! We look forward to sending out an adoptionannouncement. G and Z keep making JP act like a baby sothey have a baby to play with. Hopefully we will not have to waittoo long.

MayGod bless your New Year,

How to Tell if your Child is an Entitled Child

2011-12-07T09:53:00.001-08:00

Here is a great article on childhood entitlement. Click on the link to read it in full. Here is a quick checklist to see if as a parent you have fallen into a the common modern plague of creating an entitled child.

An entitle child will:

immediately lash out "with accusations or insults" when they are told no
is shocked when told no
not take turns well
be impatient
generally put themselves first
throw a temper tantrums when they don't get what they want
not say "please" and "thank you"

Now, every child, especially a toddler or preschooler, will behave these ways from time to time. This list is meant to reflect a consistent behavior over time.

Not every child fits in the "box", some children actually have a social delay, which causes huge problems with flexibility. This is not because of your parenting style, it is because of their delay. The child is not trying to be bad to ruin your day, they just don't have the tools yet to deal with it. If you are not sure wether of not your child has a delay, read the first few chapters in The Explosive Child by Ross W. Green, chapter 3 has the checklist. I am sure your library has a copy. Just would like to add, these children do things that all children do, but it is just on a whole other level. You could also take your child to a councilor or psychologist who specializes in children. Now, just because they have a delay, it does not mean the behavior is acceptable. Occupational Therapy, play therapy with a councilor and other resources can help you get your child's behavior to be with in the proper boundaries. It is not an excuse, but it is a very good reason to show them grace and not to think of them as a spoiled child and yourself as a bad parent!

Here are some things you can to to reverse an entitled child:

start saying no more often, but not always
make them do things for themselves
require a "no please" and a "yes, thank you"
make them wait
give them less
if it is extended family giving too much, try to control that as much as possible
put some of their items away - less clothes, less toys ( you don't have to throw them out, just put them out of site)
requirer them to do some basic chores for no money and give them the opportunity to earn money doing jobs around for money
have many heart to heart talks with them about thinking of others, the universe does not revolve around them, and they have to work for what they want
if they lose a toy or brake one, don't buy them a new one
they do not always have to be happy, so lessons in life are painful, that is they only way we learn our lesson

Plans

2011-10-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

Plans are interesting. They can revolutionize our lives or they can make us feel like a failure. Anytime I have a problem, I love to make a plan that will solve it. Actually, planning is my favorite part, the action or endurance, not so much. Good plans will let us achieve our goals with out wearing out.

When it is someone else's plan, I guess I would be willing to try it on for a fit. When I have a problem, I love to do a lot of research to find out how other people solve it. It may be my solution or it may not work for our family at all or it just may need to be modified to fit us. I think it is important to periodically reevaluate your plan too. Things change over time. Now I coupon and stock up on good deals, with in sane reason :) and without waste or committing coupon fraud. Perhaps when my kids are teenagers, they just might eat more if we have more. At their age now, no one wants to go down to the basement on their own, even for food! In years to come, when our basement becomes a teenage cave, I can see the food vanishing quickly. I have to be open to changing my plan.

Lately I have been using couch to 5k, and it is very motivating to have a plan and to check it off as done. Plans are better when they are reasonable and have small increments of change. Short term plans give us a sense of accomplishment. 9 weeks, I can do anything for 9 weeks. It seems so much more manageable.

Also, I think it is very important to bare in mind that people are very different and have very different circumstances. I am not sure if one plan is better than the other as far as laundry, running, meal planning, etc. My friend has an extremely clean house, and I keep thinking, I need to get her cleaning routine so I can have a super clean house too. But I have to remind myself, she has one child and an extremely neat husband, while I have 3 and a very nice, but untidy husband :-) Some people think she is too neat, but I respect her cleaning plan because I know she does it with a good heart. Her husband really needs a neat house for it to feel like a sanctuary, but others don't know that and judge her without knowing her heart.

Pinterest: Organizing Your Ideas

2011-10-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

A friend introduced me to Pinterest, which is a website which lets you 'pin' items you find on the web onto your virtual board on their website. No pile of papers clipped for ideas you plan to get to someday. Most magazines have this articles on-line now, so you can pin them instead. No printing recipes that you plan to cook someday, and then not being able to find it when you need it. It is great for those blog posts, decor ideas, or fun things to do with the kids that want to remember. It is a great organizational tool that puts your 'idea clutter' and stores it into cyber space, not in your dining room!

When you 'pin' something on Pinterest, it will show a large picture with just a brief description, which is also a link to the site that you pinned from. There is a small button on your bookmark task bar that lets you do this. It is also like Facebook, in that you can follow other people, so you can see what your friends pin. It is a great way to share ideas, and it is set up so you can either view just your friends' pins or everyones' pins.

On Pinterest, you can have serval boards under whatever subject headings you want. They will suggest some to you when you sign up. Here are mine:

Products I Love
Books Worth Reading
Homeschooling Ideas
Decor
Gift Ideas
Dinner Ideas
Kid's Decor
Places I'd Like to Go
Craft Ideas
Sweet Treats
Recipes (this is for food that doesn't fit into sweets or dinner ideas)
Holidays
Household Management
Toys and Fun
My Blog Posts (if it is a post I need to go back and reference)
Baby Ideas
Fitness
Travel with Kids
Photo Shots

If you are on Pinterest, share your board titles in the comments!

Ruling Over My Laundry Pile

2011-10-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like the change of seasons to bring on an eruption of Mount Washmore. This time it has made me rethink our laundry system because apparently it is just not working. First of all, the laundry is not getting done. Second, I am doing it all, the kids should be helping more. They are 10, 7, and 5, so no more excuses. Lastly, if I am fortunate enough to wash, dry and actually take the clothes out before they are completely wrinkled, they sit in all sorts of places, except in their proper place - in our drawers and closets.

Most people will organize their laundry system by letting clothes pile in bins, marked with each child's name. Then, once the bins are full, they put them away. This does not work for us right now because seeing all those clothes to put away makes me want to put it off, not to mention that it totally overwhelms my kids. Also, part of doing the laundry every day is so we need less clothes. This would not work if we only put the clothes away once a week. This is not just with laundry, I find just about anything multiplies if I do not put it away right away - mail, kids' artwork, toys, etc.

The solution is to make sure I put in a load first thing in the morning, if I wake up early enough, the load will be dried by the time I start homeschooling. Because lets face it, once we start school, that is pretty much it for the rest of the day as far as household management is concerned. To get more help, that is done correctly, we are going to put the laundry away, right away, and as a team. After breakfast, I can wipe down the dining room table, which I need to do for school anyway. Then the kids take their spots standing by their seats, and I dump the laundry in the middle. I hang or fold the clothes and they run and put them away, pretty much one item at a time (mostly tops and bottoms). This keeps them busy while I fold or hang the clothes. It helps to be faithful in the small things first! Once they master this, my hope is they can also hang and fold their own clothes.

This part takes some training. First time I found my pants in my 5 year old's drawer. Also, I like sweat pants with sweat pants and jean with jeans. If it is not done the way I want it to, I know I will end up doing it myself, and besides, showing them exactly how to put clothes away helps the task seem achievable for them. My kids always need the helpful reminder, "We get done faster, if we do our work right." Next time I think I need to add about being a careful listener too, my post put away inspection finds many "now how did they get that out of what I told them to do" examples. Hopefully this whole scheme leads to "many hands make light work," clean clothes and our laundry problem solved!

Careful What You Say

2011-09-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

My son was standing on top of his Bible today and so I said to him, "You do not stand on the Word of God!" Then I realized what I said, and add, " . . . well, not physically anyway." Hope that clears it up!

Rachel's Hope

2011-09-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Glad you no longer suffer friend, glad there is no more pain. Thankful for your faith in death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that through this you have everlasting life. Sorrow for your family, your husband, you boys, your circle of friends and of course, myself, because we will all miss you terribly, dear Rachel. You have left your mark on all of us, we will never feel far from you, and by God's grace, we will join you one day.

You have made me laugh so hard. Our moms nights out will not be the same with out you, but your presence will be in our memories we shared with you. When I praise God in church, I will feel the joy of you praising God face to face.

One of the best gifts we get during our lifetime is a good friend. A person who thinks like you, has the same interests, one who splits your sides with laughter, someone you can talk hours to and who accepts you as you are, period. While I have not known her for a long time, Rachel was that kind of friend. It is hard to let someone go, but it is much harder to know your friend is suffering so much. Now my friend is home in heaven, and she suffers no more.

Rachel fought a hard battle with cancer, with much suffering and pain. She never gave up hope or her faith in God. The cancer won over her life, but Jesus won victory over her death. He defeated death on the cross when He died for our sins. I am not really sure what makes me cry more, the loss of my friend or the beauty of what God has done for us - through his own suffering, he redeemed us, forgave us, and on his Believers he has bestowed everlasting life with Him. There is a remarkable beauty in the gathering of believers, in different places, but at all at once, hearts turned toward God.

Her sister started this blog about the special diet they used for Rachel and to update us all about how Rachel was doing. It is a beautiful record of hope, hardship, and a family's love for one another.

Here is Rachel giving her testimony, it is a really good one, I hope you watch it. She truly is a beautiful person inside and out. Thanks be to God for the work done in Rachel's life, for God sharing her with us, and using her for His glory.

When Your Child Hates School UPDATE

2011-09-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

My one son hated school for Kindergarten and 1st Grade(we homeschool). The night before we started 2nd Grade he cried. However, once he started school, he loved it. Here I wrote a post about some things that helped us through the last two years. Looking back I realize what I think the problem was and how I could have avoided it. Also, I added some general lessons I learned from all my children that have helped us all to love school.

I should have used a curriculum that required mastery in 1st grade (not Kindergarten). Like Suzuki music lessons, the child can move at their own pace. They do not feel bored or lost. They do not move on until they master the lesson, and when they do move on, they continue to review what they mastered.
Kindergarten and 1st Grade uses a lot of repetitive busy work. Some kids need it, and it is good for kids. However, it bored my son to death and I was not in tuned to that fact. Bored kids will sometimes act like they do not know the answer, when they no all along. No longer do I make him do boring work.
While I require them to do hard work and have discipline, I no longer do it at the sake of their love of learning. There are always exceptions to any rule, but in general, I find this approach actually results in them learning more not less. Also, the learning that does occur is not forced, but out of genuine interest.

For example, my son hated writing the numbers 1 to 100. His curriculum had him do it 6 times, I had him do it twice - once to show me he knew it and once for a test. Truth be told, I should have only done it once. He knows it, I know he knows it. Why would I want to risk his love for math ( he begs to do math ), for the "character" he would get from doing something he hated 6 times. There are lots of other opportunities for him to learn that lesson, such as saying, "yes mommy," when he doesn't want to. He will learn discipline from those areas. People make the argument that when he gets a job he will have to do tasks he finds boring, but he will have to do them. However, I say, how is he even going to get to that professional job if he hates school. Instead I want to show him flexibility, reason and thinking outside the box, all of those things are applied in my examples above. Those are useful lessons as well, and there are plenty of opportunities to show him he needs to do undesirable tasks.

Just as I found not to give him tasks that were too easy for him, I also found not to give tasks that were beyond what he is capable at the moment. If writing is very hard for him, I will have him narrate his notebook page to me instead of writing out by hand. He will do some written work, but not to the point it over loads him. Also, sometimes it seems like they are not paying attention or being rebellious, but they may just have a delay. Remember, delays can be emotional or be in communication as well as scholastic delays. If this is the case, I may need to find a new way to teach them while being patient with my expectations. This was really hard to except because I had to see they were not being bad, but wanted to be good, and just did not have the tools to do it. Also, I had to learn to relax. They will learn to do it. I had the most frustrating time teaching him to use scissors to no avail, and I should have just waited because it cuts great now.
Lastly, setting boundaries helps make the school day more enjoyable in the long run. If he knows he will have to finish his work at night with his Dad instead of playing with his Dad, he learns to finish his work on time. If he interrupts our read aloud with his shenanigans, and I start over at the beginning of the page or paragraph, he realizes goofing off makes school longer. He learns school is more fun in the boundaries. This last part only works if I adhere to what I learned above.

One good question in all of this is how do you know if it is boredom, a delay or laziness? If it is a delay, it will show up when the child wants to do tasks, like remembering lines in a play they want to participate in, but cannot. Remember our struggle with scissors, my son could not use scissors when I asked him to for school, nor when he badly wanted to himself. This is clearly a delay. Always rule out the delay first. If it is not a delay, boredom is easily defined by their constant, consistent lack of interest/focus, silly answers, and whining. While with laziness, it will be the same reactions, but periodically, not every time the task is required. Boredom and laziness can happen for several reasons, neither will change unless you find the reason - too hard, too easy, not enough sleep, not a good breakfast, etc.

What have you done that has made school more lovable? One thing for sure, the answer will not be the same for all of us, and the answer will keep changing for each of us!

Ten Year Old's Take on 9/11

2011-09-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

At our church today, we remember those who lost their lives in the attack on our country on September 11, 2001. My daughter was only a few months old when the attacks happened, but she is ten now. During the church service, when a picture of the skyline with the twin towers flashed up on the screen, I leaned over to tell her that on this day enemies of our country flew planes into those buildings and they fell down. Then she made the connection that the event was like the game "Angry Birds." Not getting upset about her sweet, innocent connection, I told her yes, except that those buildings were full of people and the planes were full of people.

A few minutes later I told her that many firefighters and policemen lost their lives that day saving other people from those buildings. Also, I mentioned those brave men who stopped that 4th plane from its intended target. My daughter responded by saying, "It is like a freedom day." Children are so observant.

It is hard to explain the horrors of this world to our children. It is not good to watch news on TV in front of them. Not that we want to overprotect them, but somethings are better handled when you are more mature. Tragic events effect children differently than adults, that is my personal experience and opinion. I personally think it is more scaring to a child, and that it can greatly effect their adult life. I don't want my children to watch the planes flying into the towers, or other horrible images seen that day.

However, I want them to know what we are remembering, and it is our job to pass down the events to future generations, so they will not forget. We want to limit scaring, and not with hold information at the same time. Children see and hear and know a lot more than we give them credit for. They also can confuse events easily, like my 4 year old that thought my husband's home was at work! It is best to simply, appropriately to inform them on their level. If we seem confident and in control of our emotions, they will feel more secure. The information will not frighten them as much, as they feed off our emotions. How many times have you heard that the mom sets the tone in the house? It is a good rule of thumb to remember, like George W. Bush remembered when he got the news that day, eyes are watching you, you need to remain calm, so they may be reassured. Show your courage, your faith in an almighty God and they will reflect you.

Canning

2011-08-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

There is just something so satisfying about being close to your food - cooking, preparing and preserving the food your family intends to eat yourself. Recently a friend offered to teach me to can. It was so much fun, and not anywhere as complicated or hard as I expected it to be. Canning is actually quite simple. Here is a good website by Ball if canning is something you always wanted to do, but did not know where to start. It is no substitute for a friend to show you the ropes, but it does give what you need to know to start yourself if you do not have a canning buddy. It is also a good reference for beginners. However, I must say, canning with a friend is much more fun!

Simplifying Life at Home

2011-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

It is the stuff again, overflowing from every vantage point. There are mountains of work every where - dirty laundry, dishes to be washed, toys to put away, books to find a home for, it could go on and on. The kids, even my husband, have not been cleaning up after themselves, which means I end up dealing with their messes, and I can't get to the heavy load already on my plate. While I may feel like flipping out at my husband and pointing my finger at my children, it really all starts with me. Mom sets the mood and tone for the household. If I want self sufficient cleaner uppers I need to lead by example.

The problem is that trap I mentioned above. After all, how can you clean up or do your chores when the family is making dirty faster than clean. It is not possible, especially if you work outside the home or homeschool. No matter how hard one tidy person works, they cannot make up for four people who do not pick up after themselves. My friend once put her husbands dirty socks in his coffee maker to teach him a lesson, that was brilliant, but I wonder if it only worked for a while. Trust me, I have try all sort so ways - hard as nails, crying, bagging, threatening, and bribing. You can lower your standards, but eventually, if you lower them too much you have ran out of clean dishes, clean clothes and the floor is covered in "stuff."

We are about to start our homeschooling year tomorrow, and this issue of the "mess" and "stuff" was weighing heavily upon my spirit. For the past month I have been asking God for wisdom of how to solve this problem and to show me what we needed to change. Then the Lord used another family's similar struggle to answer my prayer.

It was a blog post on Building Cathedrals titled "Less is More." Basically, you take everything out you can and box it up, donate it or put in the trash. Everyone will find it much easy to pick up after themselves. Then, as you master that level, you can bring some things back up from the basement. Follow the link and read the whole post, it sounds extreme, but I think it will make your household much easier to run. It follows a very basic, biblical principle of stewardship (Parable of the Talents). Focus on one thing, master it and then and only then, move on while reviewing what you mastered. It is so simple, so basic, now we must need to do it.

The photo at the top is a big mess my son made while I was schooling my daughter, below is my repentant son after he cleaned it all up.

Answer Questions Carefully

2011-07-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

If you child asks you what he can do with his stickers, don't say, "Whatever you want." No matter how busy you are or how fed up you are with 101 th question he has asked that day. Well, he did put them very neatly on the door, I will say that. And he is right, I did say do whatever he wanted with them.

Milk Jug Igloo

2011-07-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of those crazy, fun projects. It is cheap and great way to reuse materials. But it is a big one, so you will need a big space, like a basement playroom, or do it outside. I question how well it will work outside - strong winds? spider webs?

Another of my concerns is that yuck-yuck, rot dairy smell from the old milk containers. I would practice getting the smell out of one first milk jug. Also, don't forget you can use water gallon jugs, as well as orange juice, distilled water, ice tea, etc.

It looks complex, but probably the hardest, time consuming part is collecting and washing the milk jugs. Actually making the igloo seems like it would be a fun rainy day or weekend project. Usually I read directions about neat ideas like this one, and they seem way too complex or expensive (not to mention, leaving out a lot of practical information), but this project does seem doable if you have the materials and space.

This would make for excellent memories. First I have to see how much work goes into de-funking a old milk jug. If I did it, I would make the big one, 428 jugs, but I am crazy like that. I would have a slide down to our playroom if I could put one in. By my calculations, we would need about 40 families to give us 10 milk jugs. I can see my husband shaking his head at me right now.

Here is the link:

How to make your own milk jug igloo

Side note, sometimes we moms can be guilty of doing things like this instead of the things we are suppose to be doing, like laundry and discipling our kids. Build your milk jug igloo responsibly ;-)

Coupon Fraud on Extreme Couponing

2011-04-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

Coupon Fraud is very real, not to mention, very illegal. Most of all, it is not pleasing to God! Here is a great post about fraud caught on tape on Extreme Couponing on TLC. If you coupon, take the time to educate yourself on the subject so you can spot criminal couponing advice when you see one.

As for the show, I do not have cable, so I did not see this one. However, I did see the pilot, and like some parts of it. Of course I would like to see more "realistic" shopping runs on a reality show.

Words of Wisdom from My Governor

2011-03-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some words of wisdom from my New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on fiscal responsibility. He is a man after my own heart:

Gov. Chris Christie appeared on NJ 101.5 FM this week for his "Ask the Governor" show and left armed with a new viral audio clip.

Gov. Chris Christie

On the call-in show, Penny from Blackwood asked Christie how she, a state worker, was going to pay for the additional costs of her health care plan under the governor's proposal to take more money from state workers' pay for their insurance.

The answer was pure Christie:

"... We can no longer afford to pay 90-plus percent of the cost of your health care. Public workers are getting their health insurance paid for out of your property taxes and state workers are getting their health insurance paid for out of your income taxes. If I'm $67 billion in debt and you don't want me to take any more money out of your paycheck, how am I supposed to pay for it? Am I just supposed to raise taxes? Because if I raise taxes, you're going to pay more taxes. And if your property taxes go up, you're going to pay more taxes. I mean, the money's got to come from somewhere. We can't print it."

Read the whole article here.

Getting a Child Who Hates School to Love School

2011-03-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

Or at least do their schoolwork with out a struggle. Recently I wrote a post about when a child hates school and some advice from my friends. This is my follow up post.

School is conducted in peacefulness now thanks to some changes. Here is what worked for us:

Writing a list of each assignment. This alleviates the anxiety of endless amounts of schoolwork and provides a sense of accomplishment when your child crosses it off. My friend gave me the idea of color coding assignments green for independent work and red for work with mom. This way, if you are caught up with another child, they can still move ahead.
Adding a fun hands on, educational activity to start our school day. It may be spelling word with our Lego letter blocks or a puzzle, but it is done quietly, seated at the table with the rest of us. I pick something my son will enjoy because I want to show him learning can be fun. It sets a good tone for our school time. Also, I give my younger son a parallel activity as a form of peer pressure.
Academic Probation. This was my husband's idea, every night he would work with my son on his school work. My husband's reasoning was that my son looked forward to that time to play with his Dad, and missing that special time would motivate him to get his act together. During our normal school time, my son would be given educational tasks and complete some non-battle producing school tasks. Eventually, we were able to do all of his schoolwork during normal school hours.

Three simple changes, but it fixed our school problems.

Math Battle or Teaching Textbooks

2011-03-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, my husband has gently mentioned before that I seem heavy handed in my posts about the struggles of homeschooling, he is right. After this I will try to think of a positive posts, but here is one more:

Next year I was thinking about getting an independent math or language arts program, so I will have time to teach the boys their reading and math. Though, I have felt concerned over the scholastic level of the independent programs. I do not want something that will make my kid a lemming or pencil resistant (hates learning). So, I felt concerned, torn and had a lot of questions.

However, math time has gotten so bad with my oldest, I think I need to switch now. She has a hard time learning math skills, and so hates math. I think doing math actually gives her a tension headache. Teaching Textbooks seems like it may be a great solution for us, though it is a grade or 2 behind in grade level. My daughter is behind anyway, so it might be a good fit for her. She enjoyed the on-line sample lesson, you can find them on their website.

Here is a really good review on Teaching Textbooks by a math tutor:

Time used: one year

Your situation:
started homeschooling middle of last year, went through all the popular math currics, none work for my 10 yr old who is diagnosed with dyscalculia, this year we also decided to homeschool our 8 yr old.

Why you liked/didn't like the book:
I will give the good first, this computer program has worked well for my 5th grader. We used the 4th grade cdroms. My son would cry at school during a math lesson and once we started homeschooling with Saxon and other like that he started banging his head on table, just pulling out the math book sent him into a major melt down. I am confident that this program is a perfect fit for my 10 yr old. 5 days a week he completes one lesson on his own without a fight. I did have to sit beside him for about three months everyday before he was confident on his own. I highly suggest this for kids that seem to have problems with math computations or have anxiety when you pull out a math book.

Now the bad, and this is really bad. I am a math tudor for several public school stundents. This program claims to be the best homeschool math for the 21st century, yet it is a good 2 yrs behind. When I called to ask about this, the lady just blew me off and laughed, "Our program follows state standards." I let her know that I am a math AND standardized tudor for 3 states. I explained that I loved their product; however they need to add so much. If you do use this product, contact your local school district and request a copy of their math standardized test prep. Each state gives each child a s.t.p workbook that has one or two questions that are required for that year. If you only use these product your child will not be considered grade level if you had to put them back in school or wanted them tested, for most homeschool families we are not concerned with "keeping up" with public school. I think those test prep workbooks are only helpful to children if you take time to go over each concept. All my students say that their teacher spent on day on several pages, one page can have up to 5 different concepts. If you can get one of these workbooks, talk your time, use the Teaching Textbooks for "happy time" math everyday and take one concept from the state standard workbook, go over it until your child really gets it. Homeschoolers are not slaves to government produced standards. We have learned that children and ready when they are ready, enforcing concepts too soon, too fast can change a child forever. My 5th grade students are doing stem and leaf proability graphs, which is not explored in this product. Also 5th grade students are required to know mode, median, average. This product has this in their 7th grade program.
To sum it up, my 5th grade LD student is doing the 4th grade lessons, my 2nd grade student is also using the 4th grade lessons. As with any homeschool product, it's not going to fit the perfect mold with state standards. If state standards worked for our kids, we would put them back in school.

Any other helpful hints:
Know what is important to you. Do you want your child to pull out their laptop and do their math lesson on their own, then you can go back and check the grade book
or
do you want to keep up, keep up, until your child is banging their head on the table?

stacey
Review left February 12, 2010

Good Stewards Class Notes: Couponing and Frugality

2011-03-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

A friend and I spoke at a women's breakfast at my church on good stewardship of our money. While that is a huge topic, we mostly touched on how to save money by staying out of debt and couponing. Couponing is much more than just clipping coupons, it is a state of mind where wait to get what you need until you can get it at a good price. Once I saved over $700 on our family vacation by keeping my eyes opened and making 1 phone call. Below is more of a list of jumping off points, than a how to. It is the resources to get you started. Here is the hand out with a few added links and notes:

First of all, you may want to read this post I wrote comparing frugality with good stewardship. This part can be easily overlooked, but it is very important to have the right perspective.

There is also this post on couponing myths like, "There is nothing I would use coupons for."

Coupon lingo can be confusion to new be couponers, here is a site that translates for you.

Basic Principle

It is very simple, you use a coupon on a product that is already on sale. But you just don't buy one, you buy enough to last you to the next sale, usually about 3 months. See, the old way of couponing was buying a box of zip locks because I ran out. As an after thought I use 1 coupon as well. The new way is waiting until zip locks go on sale, then using the coupons I have to get several boxes. The old way I would get 1 paper, the new way I would get at least 4!

Four papers may sound like a lot, but you must have several to make your effort pay big. You can ask family and friends for their unwanted coupon inserts. If you cannot find any free paper inserts, even if you buy a paper, it would more than pay for itself. If you are single or are just maintaining a stockpile, you may be able to get by with 2-3 papers. As you keep reading, it will make more sense. It also really depends how good the coupons are that week, I do not get 4 every week. We will talk more about that too.

Below there are more notes and links about coupon inserts and printable coupons. I also wrote 2 other posts on couponing here and here.

Here is a no coupon way to save money:

Homemade Laundry-detergent

This laundry detergent saves a huge amount of money. We buy its three ingredients for less than five dollars, and the resulting concentrate lasts our large family(the Duggars, not us) 3 months! It's a watery gel that produces low suds inside the washer. The ingredients are usually available in the laundry-products aisle of the supermarket — or order online. (Check recipes on the Internet; there's also a dry version of this laundry soap that's good for top-loading machines.) ~From 19 and Counting (Duggars) TLC on their recipe page. Added some comments myself. I have post here and here about this before. I have tried the dry recipe, it is not as good.

Ingredients:

1 Fels Naptha soap bar, grated  1 cup washing soda 1/2 cup borax

(All these ingredients can be found in the laundry isle at Shoprite.)

Equipment: pot, grader, 5 gallon bucket, an old laundry-detergent bottle

Instructions:

1)Grate the soap bar into a small saucepan. Cover soap with hot water. 2)Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continually, until the soap completely dissolves.

3)Put washing soda and borax in a 5-gallon bucket. Pour in the hot, melted soap mixture. Stir well, until all the powder is dissolved. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover securely, and let set overnight.
4)The next morning, stir the mixture. Mix equal amounts of soap concentrate and water in a smaller laundry-detergent dispenser or container. Shake before using.

For top-loading machines: Use 1 cup of the soap mixture per load.

For front-loading machines: Use 1/2 cup per load.

Coupon Inserts:

There are a few different publishers of coupons. They are:

Red Plum
Smart Source
P&G Brand Saver (Protector and Gamble products)
GM Everyday Saver (General Mills)

You will find the title up at the top of the coupon insert. Occasionally, there may be 2 Red Plums and/or 2 Smart SourceS. The date is printed on the spine.

Sources:

Philadelphia Inquirer: Best coupons most of the time, has more coupons per Smart Source insert, but no Red Plum. This paper is best bought on Saturday, if you don't have it delivered and costs about $1.75. However, the some Shoprites sell it for $1 (Medford, NJ).

Burlington Country Times: has less coupons per Smart Source insert, but does have a Red Plum. This paper is best bought on Sunday from the Dollar Tree for $1 of course.

All You: A magazine sold only by Wal-mart, full of a lot of coupons. You can get a subscription from Amazon or from their website www.allyou.com Also, you can print coupons from their website.

Individual Coupons Printed from the Internet: Here are some safe sights to print coupons from:

There are more available, many companies offer coupons (see “Is this printable coupon legitimate?” ). Remember, you can print 2 coupons per computer. So, the more computers you have access to, the more you can print. You will have to download a program, but it is perfectly safe. It just makes sure you cannot print out more than allowed.

Weekly Preview: Find out what some of the good coupons, how many inserts, what inserts are in the paper, and how many papers to buy of this weekend. She posts it on Saturday.

www.momsneedtoknow.com

To buy weekly inserts:

www.madcoupons.net www.couponsthingsbydede.com

Ebay – search for inserts by date - “coupon inserts 1/9." You can also buy single coupons. I saved $60 once by buying Almond Milk coupons on Ebay. FYI you are paying for the service to cut and ship, not the coupons - that is illegal. Yes, there is such a thing as coupon fraud, and it is serious.

Websites:

www.hip2save.com -watch videos on shopping at a specific stores

www.livingrichwithcoupons.com (local shopping deals, and videos on putting together coupon binder)

www.thekrazycouponlady.com (videos, couponing 101, store policies) – authors of Pick Another Check Out Lane Honey

www.totallytarget.com (Great for all your Target deals!)

What can I buy with coupon and for how much?

Free	Cheap
Toothpaste and Toothbrushes Mouthwash Deodorant Saline Solution Over the Counter Drugs Razors Shaving Cream Feminine Hygiene Products Cake Mix, Pancake Mix, Brownies, Cookie Mix Soap and Body Wash Cosmetics Shampoo and Conditioner Pasta and Sauce Cleaning Products and Dish Soap Laundry-detergent Oatmeal Snacks Toilet Paper Paper Towels Cereal Candy and Gum Vitamins	Flour Sugar Seasonings Diapers Paper Towels Toilet Paper Tea and Coffee Laundry-detergent Cereal Cosmetics Diapers and Wipes Canned Foods

Buy Prices:

What are the items you should put in your stockpile? The list is long, but here are some:

Condiments (BBQ Sauce, steak sauce, mustard, ketchup, mayo)

Rice and Pasta

Snacks (crackers, nachos, salsa, popcorn)

Canned Goods (tomatoes, sauce, soups, vegetables)

Cereals

Cleaning Supplies (cleaners, garbage bags, laundry)

Drinks (water, soda, iced tea, coffee, tea, juice)

Dairy (butter, creamers)

Meats and Fish (keep frozen)

Health and Beauty Products (band aids, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, soap, etc.)

Start your stockpile slowly, only looking for those items that are cheap or free. Within 4 weeks of starting your stockpile you can start to see approximately $50 knocked off your grocery bill. Within 8 weeks you can get to as much as $100 or even more off your weekly bill.

You will NEVER pay full price again!

Meats:

Ground Beef 80-85% Lean $1.69- $1.99/lb
Boneless Chicken Breasts $ 1.69- $1.99/lb
Bone in Chicken Breast $ 0.79/lb
Whole Chickens $ 0.97/lb
Chicken Thighs or Drumsticks $ 0.79/lb
Boneless Pork Chops $ 1.49/lb
Boneless Pork Loin $0.99/lb
London Broil $ 1.69/lb
Top Sirloin Steak $ 3.99/lb
Flank Steak $ 4.99/lb

Also be sure to check at Acme for “Manager Specials” they're will be a white coupon for an even lower price!!

Here is a sample buy price list, make your own according to the things you buy:

Cheese $1 or less for a bag of shredded cheese

Ground Beef $1.75/lb

Chicken $1.67/lb

Milk $2.50/gallon (whole)- I freeze my milk if it's lower than this and I want to really stock up

Cleaning Supplies (lysol wipes, bathroom & kitchen cleaners) $.50 or less

Toothpaste/brushes FREE

Cereal $.75 per box or less

Brownie and Cookie Mixes Less than $.50 or FREE

Dish Soap $.25 or FREE

Scott TP less then $.25 a roll

Kotex Pads FREE

Saline Solution FREE

Granola Bars $.50

Chinet Paper Plates $.50

Bisquick $.90 or FREE

Fruit Snacks $ .50 or less

Deodorant FREE

Body Wash FREE

Cooking:

Plan your meals, save money. Plan your meals around what you brought cheap or for free, save A LOT OF MONEY!

www.allrecipes.com (ingredient searches)

www.savingdinner.com (season dinner planning, easy, whole foods and healthy)

Monthly Meal Planner

Donations:

Only keep what you can use before it expires or 3 months to a year's worth at most. I might be able to get 20 tubes of free toothpaste, but I cannot possibly use them before they expire. While you are shopping for your household, pick up some items you can get FREE to donate!

Food shelters, missionary housing, charities that work with the needy ( i.e. homeless, women's shelter, aid to single mothers, pregnancy centers etc.) are just a few ideas. Keep your ears open, and you will hear how you can make a big difference just by spending your time. If your neighbor loses their job, you can just go to your stockpile to grab some things to help them. I have asked some people evolved with different ministries in our church, specifically what they need and how many people they plan to reach. This gives me an idea of what to look out for in "free" products, while making sure all my efforts and perfectly good supplies are not wasted.

Links to Helpful Handouts:

What is a catalina?
Coupon fraud alert
Is this printable coupon legitimate?
Coupon lingo
Frequently asked couponing questions answered by Living Rich with Coupons
Ten steps to becoming a crazy coupon lady by the crazy coupon ladies of course
Coupon Basics for couponing newbies by Hip2Save
Couponing 101 by Living Rich with Coupons
Coupon fraud caught on tape

Final word
All this free and cheap items can make a newbie couponer go a little crazy. Just please be sure not to clear the shelf, other shoppers are buying too. A practical rule I use is no more than 4 items per store, unless it is a deal where you have to spend a certain about. For example, buy $10 of Hunts products and get a $5 catalina off your next order). It doesn't matter if you are going to donate them all. There are families who seriously depend on these deals to make it, I am speaking of basic needs here, like heat, food and shelter. If it is the last day of the sale and the store still has tons, then it is FINE to go crazy. God wants us to be good stewards of our money, no matter what your income! Other than that, please remember the biblical practice of gleaning in the wheat fields!

Books and Resources

America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams by Steve and Annette Economides www.americascheapestfamily.com

-Lots of U Tube videos (link from their website)

-Great chapters on budgeting, saving and getting out of debt – very practical and realistic

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey www.daveramsy.com/home

-Great debt free living book

The Duggars: 20 and counting! By Michelle and Jim Duggar www.duggarfamily.com & www.discovery.com/tv/duggars

-Great testimony of debt free living and good money saving tips

-This is where I got my recipe for Homemade Laundry-detergent

Green This! Volume I: Greening Your Cleaning by Deirdre Imus

-Easy to implement with good information, excluding her conspiracy theories:-)

-She has other volumes available on green living

Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely www.savingdinner.com

-She has a few other cookbooks as well.

-Weekly dinner menu plans based on season available foods, on a healthy, whole foods diet. She includes side suggestions.

-Simple, cheap and easy dinners that taste good too!
-Her books are great, but I think her eBooks and subscriptions are outrageously priced

Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey! By Joanie Demer and Heather Wheeler www.thekrazycouponlady.com

-Excellent book on how to coupon, and fun to read!

*Use your local library to read these books for FREE. Even if your library does not have the book, you can ask for it through inter-library loan.

Coupon Lingo

2011-03-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

Don't speak coupon? Here is a post that translates it for you.

Watoto Children's Choir

2011-03-11T18:36:00.001-08:00

Wow! As a family, we were fortunate to see Watoto Children's Choir in person, and it was a great show and experience. The choir is made up of orphan children from Uganda, and they put on an excellent show. Better yet, they have an awesome testimony how Jesus gave them hope when they had none. Here is a link to a video about the concert we saw and to their website http://www.watoto.com . The ministry transforms orphans and widows lives, meeting their physical needs, shows them love, and disciple them in Christ - where their true hope rests. If they ever come to your area, don't miss it, oh, and don't forget to bring the whole family. You can also book a stop on their tour. Check out more about their story at their website.

When Your Child Hates School

2011-03-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

Homeschooling has been really hard lately because my son hates doing his school work. This really is not a homeschooling problem, kids who are sent to school have the same issue. Maybe you have a similar problem or maybe it is homework time that is a battle. Even though you have consequences in place, they take forever to get their work done. However, the battle is not because it is too hard for them, they are smart kids. They would just rather play than do work. It is a combination of laziness and personality. While girls can have this problem, it is very common in boys, especially the 2nd born.

There is not time in our day to take 3 hours to do 1 hour worth of work. Crying out to my homeschool mom friends, I asked for some wisdom. One friend, Stephanie suggested to give my son a little more time, since his just turned seven. She suggested doing an educational activity he enjoyed, like a math game. Adding this to our school day did help. Yesterday, my son spelled words using our lego letter blocks, and love it. However, I am not an unschooler and I feel that this is just going to get worse if Iet this go. Therefore, I am still going to do Bible, math and language arts from his curriculum.

In between this, my husband stepped in with a brilliant idea. He would school him at night after dinner. Since my husband only gets at best 2 1/2 hours with them, this was a big sacrifice. My son's school should take him about an hour, probably even less, so it could work. Also, my husband thought this would motivate my son to get his work done on time because he would not want to miss his play time with his Dad. During the day, I try to lighten the load by doing the parts my son enjoys like math and Bible. He is also given an educational activity to build his ability to stay at the school table and to show him learning can be fun.

Another friend, Michelle wrote a great list of points. They were very helpful too, so I wanted to pass them along.

Okay... so here are some ideas from another mom who has a boy who doesn't want to do school- only mine is in 3rd grade, not to discourage you or anything, but he has never been a huge fan of school. He enjoys some aspects of it, but he has consciously decided to not enjoy certain aspects of school. These are things that have worked for me and might be worth trying if you haven't tried them yet.

1) Identify his learning style. Your child's learning style may not be your teaching style as was the case with me. Once kindergarden came with my son, I knew I had to adapt and enhance school to teach him. My perspective had to change.

2) Don't compare him to other siblings. His older sister is a teacher's dream. She was the easiest experiment, uh I mean... student...;) for a first time homeschooling mom. My son introduced me to the "real" world of homeschooling. He is a smart kid, but he does not respond the same way to the same things. Work on building his confidence with his school work by encouraging him when he's doing something well- even if it seems like a small, silly thing.

3) Give him incentives. Yes, sounds like bribing, but for my son LOVES to do projects that involve making a mess and creating things. IF he gets his work done, he gets to do something that he wants to do- that's still learning. Or my son's favorite activity on a nice day: he gets more outside time. That's a HUGE motivator for him. Find out how to motivate your son to show him that you are willing to work with him. Also, mix up the day. If my son is done a portion of work on a nice day that involves a lot of writing, I say quick get your helmet- you have 15 minutes to ride your bike. Getting his energy out helps both of us! Or on a rainy day I may give him 15 minutes on the Wii Fit half-way through the morning. He is a wiggler. Also, chewing sugar free gum is excellent. My son is a "tapper" and "wiggler." He doesn't know it, but the gum gives him a rhythm in his head while doing writing. I don't tell him why I offer him gum so he doesn't depend on it, but I offer it to him when he's doing a lot of writing.

4) Hands-on activities are also great to have around like Stephanie said. My son really embraces hands-on activities. For example, he does math wrap-ups or we play the "pet shop" game (learning center from Lakeshore.) There are a lot of hands-on stations/ folder centers that you can create on your own. Google it.

5) My son feels that school will go on and perhaps never end. His concept is tainted as I do not think there are enough hours in the day. Giving him a schedule so that he knows what's ahead for the whole day comforts him. When he doesn't know what's coming up, he gets frustrated thinking that the work coming his way may never end. So, write down his assignments on a dry erase board (so he can erase them when he's finished) or on an index card (so he can passionately scribble them out when he's done- this is my son's preferred method ;) )

6) Do remember that he is only in 1st grade. Though I am not an unschooler, Stephanie made an excellent point! I have found that my expectations are almost always higher than what my son can actually accomplish, because in part they are based on what my daughter was able to accomplish at his age. So, it is an encouragement for me to lower my expectations a little and adapt with hands-on activities/supplements- even at the 3rd grade level, and your son is two years behind him. ( Don't tell him if you are lowering expectations at all- I read in a great homeschooling book that mothers need to keep tough fronts while homeschooling their boys, still loving but tough. Mothers are a lot of times tougher on their girls -guilty here at times myself!- and soft on the boys when in fact girls usually need more sensitivity while boys need more discipline at these young ages because of how they are wired.... this is an in depth convo I will save for another time. ;) )

7) Relax! We are always harder on ourselves that we should be! You are an excellent mother and teacher, but we all have bad days. In regular schools, we just don't hear about the teachers' bad days, bad weeks, bad months, or bad years. They have them too though!! Seek the Lord. He will direct you on this matter, and take it one day at a time.

Myths of Couponing

2011-03-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

There were a lot of reasons why for most of my life I have not really used coupons. However, after trying to use coupons in a more efficient way, I see that they are not true. Also, you do not have to be a crazy coupon lady like me with a 3 inch binder full of coupons. Couponing can be done on many levels. Here are the myths:

#1 There is nothing I would buy that I would use a coupon on.

We all use deodorant, toilet paper and toothpaste, or we have an entirely different problem on our hands! Actually, some of the best savings are on things you cannot even eat. I have not paid for one bottle of saline solution, toothpaste or deodorant since I started couponing.

So if you think you will have to give up your whole foods, healthy lifestyle, you are wrong. Think of it this way, if you go into Shoprite or any other major food store chain, the many of the eatable items in that store will be over-processed and unhealthy. This would be the reason why Traders Joes is about 4 isles and Shoprite has at least 12. Logically, this would suggest that many of the coupons would be for processed foods like cereal, cracker or artificial frozen food. However, there are still lots of coupons for healthy items, just like there are plenty of healthy choices at Shoprite. Also, you must realize that produce coupons are rare. Cheap produce is found instead by buying in season. Do not forget pharmacies too, I have gotten 6 large containers of regular (not instant) oatmeal for free from Rid Aid.

#2 I would not save enough to make it worth cutting all those coupons.

I can easily save at least $10-20 in manufacture coupons in one shopping trip, combining those coupons on store discounts(sales), I can save 50% off my bill. If you try a little harder you can save 70% to 95% off your bill. The time commitment for a big discount would take me about 10 minutes to read a couponing blog, 30 minutes to pull or print coupons and about 1 hour to shop. However, this depends on how long your list is; how well your coupons are organized; and how well you know your store. Since I have been paid $100 for 1 to 2 hours of work, it makes it MORE than worth my time.

Also there are plenty of deals that involve no coupons at all. Recently I saved $730 on our vacation by making 1 phone call after seeing an advertisement. Even though we booked our trip already, they were happy to adjust our reservations to include the promotion. Couponing is a way of life. You do not have to have a coupon binder or order 4 papers a week. While you will save more if you do, do what you can in the season you are in. Just questions yourself if there is a coupon or discount code for what you want to buy. For example, before you go out on a date with your husband, look on line for discounts for restaurant you want to go to. A couple minutes on Google could save you $5 to $10 bucks.

#3 I have no place to store a stockpile, so I can't coupon.

As I have said above, couponing is more of a way to live. While a stockpile will help you save big, you do not necessarily have to have one to coupon. The good news is a lot of the expensive items can be gotten for free are small in size. You can get great deals on over the counter drugs, vitamins, make up and skin care products, which do not take up a lot of room. You can get them for free, and that would save you a lot of money. So, you still would be stockpiling, but it just would be much smaller. You have to make do with what you have available.

One of the best things about couponing is that you can donate a ton of items, and all it will cost you is your time. Obviously, this requirers absolutely no space. Pregnancy centers need diapers, shelters need deodorant and toothpaste, those who have lost their job need food and laundry detergent. Keep one for yourself, donate the other 3!

#4 I have tried using coupons before, and I have never saved that much. I just am not good at it.

While sometimes I match up deals myself, usually I find all my deals on a couponing blog. I list the blogs I use in posts under "couponing," and I keep up on the blogs by using Google Reader. On the blogs it lists match ups of manufacture coupons with store deals. It tells me the exact coupon, and where to get it or print it. They also calculate the lowest price, though this may be different at your store, so you still need to do your math.

The blogs also tell me if there is a Catalina deal, that is when the little printer next to the register prints out a coupon. However, usually catalinas are only noted on the blogs if it is a certain value off your next order or for a free item. Getting a 75 cents off 3 bottles of Coffee Mate is not an earthshaderinq catalina. The other day I spent $25 after coupons, and got a $20 and $3 catalina off my next shopping order. While the weekly ad from the store described what items qualified for these catalinas, the blogs told me exactly, down to the oz, what to buy, how many to buy, and what coupons I could stack to get this deal. The best part is it took me all of 10 seconds to read it, simple. So, if you want to quickly find the deals, you have to read the blogs.

#5 Coupons cost the store and manufacture a loss in money.

Actually, coupons are just like money. The store gets the full amount back from the manufacture and also get 8 cents a coupon for handling it. If it is a store coupon the store takes the cost, just as if they discounted an item. Both parties do this happily. Why? It gets you in their store because they make their money by moving volume. A Rite Aid manager once told me that they make their ads around the coupons printed in Sunday papers. So, it is no surprise when we match up a coupon to a store deal to make a great deal.

The manufacture just wants to get to you try their product, in hopes you will buy more and tell all your friends too. These are major corporations, they know exactly how many coupons have been used. Remember too, they printed them in the first place. :-)

Coupon fraud does cost stores and companies a lot of money, and can earn you jail time or heavy fine. That is why a couponer should always play by the rules and educate themselves about fake coupons. Coupon fraud costs all of us money!

#6 Couponing is greedy, you should leave the deals for the poor people.

Well, you could be greedy in just about anything. Even John Wesley suggested living on less, so you could save more and give more. Couponing is about making your money more efficient, so you can be more available to God. In addition, if you coupon, you can teach those who are financially struggling how to coupon too. You would be able to help so many people.

However, couponing could also mean that you are a hoarder or you are not a considerate shopper. Like the woman who cleared out the store and bought 40 rolls of free toilet. Maybe she was going donate them, I do not know her heart. But I do know she was inconsiderate of the other shoppers that really needed that deal, not to mention the store. Leave some for the other shoppers.

Well, those are all I could think of today (actually over several days, I get interrupted a lot).

Travel with Kids

2011-03-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

This year we are using My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures. As we travel through the world, we have enjoyed watching travel videos, well I have anyway. While the kids have found them interesting, there is only one series they found entertaining. Only one series they actually begged me to watch. It is call Travel with Kids.

This video series is great because it is filmed so the whole family will enjoy the video. Also, the kid friendly aspect avoids some of the racy sections of some other travel videos made for adults like Rick Steves or Globe Tracker. Besides learning how to travel with kids, you also learn historical facts and get to see interesting places like Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower. The DVD had some great activities to do at home, such as crafts, recipes, websites and books lists. This makes it a great resource if you are teaching about a country. The book list would be very helpful filling up our book basket (MFW).

After hearing from a friend that she visited her in-laws in Germany, I was surprised to find that she only paid $400 a ticket for the flight. That made me think European travel could be within our gasp. Not sure yet if that means we have to go when no ones else wants to travel. The European videos of this series shows me it is possible and fun to travel in far away places with kids.

We were able to get these videos through out library and from Netflix. Amazon sells them as well. They have a few videos about destinations with in the US.

Free Felt Food Tutorials

2011-02-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a site with a long list of FREE felt food tutorials. The categories are broken up into fruit and veggies, sweets, pasta, eggs, containers and others.

This site has some great U Tube videos on how to make felt food, and they also sell kits. I want to make the Green Eggs and Ham kit to go with our book. It would make a great display in our book nook.

Little Brown Bird has some free how to felting tutorials and tips, as well as free patterns.

Confessions of a Homeschooler blog also has some free felt food ideas, but the first one listed on this post is the best I have seen so far.

My daughter and I are looking forward to making some projects together!

No Sew Felt Food: Cinnamon Buns

2011-02-27T17:08:00.000-08:00

If you have been wanting to make felt food for your kids, but short on time or sewing skills or both, here is an easy no-sew project:

Felt Cinnamon Buns

Dealing with Boredom in Children

2011-02-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry to post about a post, but this is a great post about how to deal with boredom with children. Click here to read it.

Couponing

2011-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the Krazy Coupon Lady website with some quick tips on couponing and 2 clips from a TV show. Couponing has helped us save a lot of money and helped other people too! Never would I have thought coupons would be so useful to us. Hope you find it helpful.

2011-01-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

O.K., I will admit it, I LOVE to read about educational philosophies, so this video was right up my ally. This was very interesting video on eduction, for as much as what it said, as how it was done:

Well, the way our blog is set up, you can't view the entire screen of the animate. Just click on the gray RSA Animate to view the entire screen on U Tube.

January Burn

2011-01-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else feel it this time of year? This year, I feel particularly burned out. While I am not sure, the cause is probably my heavy load of schooling with a 4th, 1st grader (who doesn't want to do school), and a preschooler. A person can only work so hard, so long, before they become burned out. In the past, I have been very unwise by working too hard, so hard that it leaves me with a feeling of never being able to refresh myself again. In order to do the jobs God has set before me, I need address this problem because when we are burned out, everything suffers. We are in danger of abandoning our dreams and goals. Not to mention, it is not a fun place to be.

The reason January is so hard is the lack of sunlight and fresh air, but it is also because it follows December. A month with filled with heavy demands and a flurry of fun-filled activities. Once it is all over, it leaves us very drained. The chances are if I fill this way, my children do too. Just as we need that summer brake to restore ourselves, I am thinking we may need a winter break too.

My first thought at this is, I must be crazy. Wouldn't I want to take the opportunity of less activities to get a load of homeschooling work done? Wouldn't spring be a much better time to have off because of the beautiful weather? The answer would depend on your situation. It also depends on your children, mind usually happily play between breakfast and lunch with no structured activities, other then a simple daily schedule. Since our curriculum (MFW) has outside time built into our lesson plans, I know we will have time outside in spring. Also, while I do not have co-op, I do still have to take my daughter for violin lessons Friday morning. So, I am wondering if this crazy idea will work?

One popular break is to take the month of December off, so the household can focus on preparing and participating in the Christmas season. This works very well for some people. Now, this might sound like a scrooge, but sometimes I get concerned with the overwhelming attention we give Christ's birth compared with attention we give Christ's resurrection. While I LOVE Christmas traditions, it is my goal that our Christmas celebrations are more symmetrical to our Easter celebrations. This will not be completely realistic or for everyone, but I would like to try. Thus, I cannot take off December unless I plan to take off April.

While I cannot try out my idea this school year, I plan to try it next year. It seems for us that doing school this time of year is such a battle between winter moods and post Christmas fog. Winter is a great time too for getting inside house projects done. By getting the house tidy, it gives us so much more time, makes our chores easier, and is much less frustrating. Personally, I find I need those big blocks of time in summer and winter to get my household in order and bust some of those many little sources of frustration.

One of the things that I truly dislike is not getting to put an idea into action right away. Ok, so I have a good idea for NEXT year, but what do I do about now? Since we end up doing 39 weeks of school*, I am going to cut myself some slack and do a week or 2 of light school days. On these days my 4th grader will not do language arts or any of the extras like Rosetta Stone or New Jersey History(this is in addition to MFW social studies), and my 1st grader will stay the same. This should save us 1 and 1/2 hours a day, but they are still getting 36 weeks of "complete" school days. Any other ideas to combat winter burn out?

*Here is the brake down of the 39 weeks: 34 weeks MFW curriculum, 4 weeks Co-op, 1 week IWOAS testing. That doesn't even include field trips! That leaves me 3 weeks of light schools. Do you know the public school down the street from me calls it a full day if they feed them lunch? While I do think Co-op and IWOAS count as school days, there are just so many weeks in the year and I want to finish our curriculum.

Extreme Couponing and the Stockpile Controversy

2010-12-29T17:01:00.001-08:00

TLC aired a show tonight called Extreme Couponing. While I don't have cable and are not able to watch it, I thought I would post a reply to a blog post of one of the couponers, Joanie, one of the authors of Pick Another

Checkout Lane Honey. Click here

to read her post on stockpiling. What do you think of her stockpile? This is a photo of her stockpile. Oh, FYI the show had 4 couponers on, one of which had a forty year supply of toilet paper, which I reference below :-)

My Response: Your stockpile is beautiful. It is neat and tidy and very, very SMART! What all of us need to ask ourselves is : Am I being a good steward of what I have? That includes your time and the items in your stockpile :-) Sometime being frugal is the same thing as being a good steward and sometimes it is not. Donating is being a good steward, keeping a 40 year supply of toilet paper is not. Maybe there is a reason that I don't know, but I am thinking defiantly not.

Since you cover a great chapter on coupon ethics in your book, I would say you are certainly a good steward. Remember that people show anger for a variety of reason, usually nothing to do with you, but themselves. Women particularly have problems with the Martha Stewart Syndrome - hating other women that are good at something they never took the time to do themselves.

For myself, I have a stockpile, and I donate. It is fun to hear of how much it has helped people. A couple nights a week instead of watching TV, I like to cut coupons while I listen to an audio book or chat with my husband. I spend just a little more time shopping, than before couponing on a average week. My children actually argue and plea to help me put away items in our stockpile. They are much more aware of the cost of things. It also covers the loss of my part-time job and helps us save for our adoption! None of it would work without the stockpile!! So raise those garage doors honey, and show it off!!!

It is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-12-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite times of the year. There are no activities to drive the children to, homeschooling is on brake, and my husband is home - at least for a few days. With their new toys in hand, my children readily give up their old, un-played toys to bless others. I can clean clutter with speed. After my initial panic attack at the mounds of new toys, I enjoy fining a spot for each new toy, as well as a storage spot for some older ones in our toy library.

The coming new year feels like a new start, and the recent Christmas leaves me with a refreshed sense of hope. Not only is less more, the idea seems attainable.

Ponderings ~Karen

2010-12-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

What am I cooking?
Tacos

What am I reading?

De-cluttering books - Serious nesting mode coming on

Really, the clutter is out of control, and I want to lead a simpler life with LESS STUFF.

What am I praying today?
My friend who just found out her cancer is back. It is devastating news. She is a homeschooling mom of 2 children. I am clinging to the hope that God has given me. While I am not sure of the outcome, I have a sense of tremendous hope for her. Please pray for her, her family and a miracle healing. I know God can.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?
Clean up their toys. I am overwhelmed by the thought of more toys coming in at Christmas.

What is one product that has made my life a little easier?
Our "new" used Apple computer. It is soooo much faster than that dinosaur. My day is usually a string of frustrating events, I am very glad this is no longer one. The question is, will I finally get a hold of my e-mail?

What am I grateful for?
For a Christmas at home while my children are still young, and we are all together. Someday they will grow up, marry and move away. But now, we are all together. :-)

What have I done for my marriage lately?
Told my hairdresser my husband is handsome, and then told my husband about it.

What's challenging me lately?
Dealing with my friends illness mentioned above. My faith is fine, I am just so upset by it. I just could not imagine a mom's night out with out her. My heart aches for her husband and children. I remember when my little 5 year asked me if her Daddy was going to die. It was terrible to see the grief and worry in her eyes, I can only imagine what her children are going through and she has to see that.

Second, I am completely overwhelmed by stuff. I don't want to have a lot of stuff, I love to organize, but I have more than I can possibly do. It is very disheartening. It creates such chaos, and I just don't seem to have anywhere enough time to do what I need to do - not perfectionism, just needs. My extended family goes nuts on Christmas, and I really don't know where I going to put it. I have at least 30 file boxes, 6 large totes, and 8 plastic bins full of toys and that is just the STORAGE. We have a huge playroom and they have toys in their rooms as well. I should mention, I just donate a tons of boxes to purple heart. While I am thankful for the blessings, I want a simpler life. My disorganization has gotten really bad, I almost missed our co-op registration and paying a bill. There needs to be some extreme changes, so I can meet the priorities God has for me - raising children.

How were you a mission minded family this week?
G has gotten into the Narnia books, and Ed likes to discuss with her the symbolism, as well as why C.S. Lewis wrote the books.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism to be sinking in, I just heard Z(6) ask his brother(4) some yesterday, and then correct him on his answers. So, let that be an encouragement for a family devotion/Bible time. Ed tries to do it at dinner, sometimes we miss. Sometimes it seems the kids are tuned out, but really they are not. They ARE absorbing the lessons.

The Family Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Here is our Christmas family newsletter for 2010:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Here we are again, to catch up on all that has pasted this year. We hope our tidings find you well. This past year has been good to us, and we have great hopes that this New Year will add to our number, our family number that is. Before you walk up to Karen and pat her belly, let us add that we are planning that addition through a domestic adoption. Currently, we have handed in all our paperwork and are waiting for our homestudy to be conducted. The homestudy is 3 separate interviews done by a social worker from our adoption agency, Bethany. After this phase is completed and we are officially approved to adopt, and we can be picked by a birth mother as the parents she wants for her baby. Let me explain this a little in case you are not familiar with this. We create a portfolio of a letter and photos that describes our ourselves and our home. When a birth mother decides to choose adoption, she is given a few portfolios that are a good match for her. It is from these that she places the baby permanently with a family. This also means that we can be picked at any time – 2 weeks or 2 years. Hopefully somewhere in between.

Now, it is time to update the individuals. Ed is still a software engineer at Lockheed Martin, and he has had a very healthy year. Of course, he is still playing on the worship team at our church, he plays the keyboard. It is his passion to try to integrate songs with substantial and sound Biblical meaning into modern church music. This year Ed joined the Christmas choir, which is new for him. He enjoyed it very much. When he is not working overtime, Ed can be found playing with the kids, playing music in his man cave or scouring Craig's list for used Apple products. One of which is being used right now to write our newsletter!

Karen is still homeschooling the children, but she no longer works part-time at the Christian book store. Things are much more busy this year with 2 in elementary school. When she is not schooling, she can be found writing on her blog, reading, facebooking or her new hobby, couponing. Yes, she is one of those crazy coupon ladies with a huge binder full of coupons. In fact, she even taught a class about stewardship of money with her couponing friend. Last year, she never thought that there was anything she normally bought, for which she would use a coupon. Let alone get for free or be paid to buy, it has been quite surprising. The best parts are not having to work part time and donating to those in need at a time when we are saving every penny for the adoption.

G is now 9 and is in 4^th grade. This year we are learning about different countries around the world, as well as ecosystems. She still takes Irish Dancing, and got to go to her first dance camp this summer. At her last feis, G won her first medal in jig (3^rd). Like the year before, she competed in science fair and took art lessons. This year she started violin and really enjoys it. G is thrilled about a baby, but really, really wants a sister. When she is not doing school work, she can be found playing Wii, devouring the Narnia book series or talking to you about the movie Tangled and a variety of Apple products.

Z is soon to be 7 in January, and is in 1^st grade. He also competed in science fair and takes art lessons. Last year, I completely forgot to mention that he was on America's Funniest Home Videos. He was the slightly husky preschooler who had the heart for the hula-a-hoop, but not the hips for it. G made a little cameo too. We didn't win anything, but he got a lot of air time and made a lot of people laugh. Z would like a baby sister because he says baby girls are cuter. When he is not doing school work, he can be found, outside running around, playing Wii, wrestling with his Dad, or playing with his little brother.

Last, but not least, our sweet, adorable JP is now 4. He is in Pre K and constantly informs Karen that he needs to finish his schoolwork, so he is taking it very seriously. JP is a block building, lego creating, thinking kind-of-guy. Z and JP are like two peas in a pod. They play all day together and sometimes even sleep in the same bed at night. JP is looking forward to getting a baby in the house. However, he made it quite clear he wants a boy, and he wants to buy him squeaky shoes and diapers. When he is not doing schoolwork, he can be found playing quietly, helping Karen or not eating what we serve for dinner.

How can we honor Christ as we prepare for Christmas?

2010-12-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

This morning I told Rachel a story about a little girl and her birthday party. There were beautiful decorations, the very best food was prepared, everyone was dressed up, and there were presents everywhere! Rachel's eyes lit up as she imagined the scene.

But I told her that something very sad happened next. Even though it was the little girl's birthday, no one paid any attention to her. No one spoke to her or seemed to care that she was even there. The grown ups excitedly chattered about how great the party was and they complimented themselves for the delicious food and all of their efforts. When it was time to open presents, she sadly discovered that not a single one was for her.

Rachel's eyes widened with the injustice of it all. She couldn't imagine that anyone would treat this poor birthday girl so cruelly. And while I had her full attention, I explained that that's what happens to Jesus so often on Christmas Day. Even though Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of Jesus' birthday, he is often sadly forgotten. I told her that if we're not intentional, it could happen in our home too.

It saddens me that even though I love Jesus, it is so easy for me to get swept away in the preparation, the buying, the wrapping, the baking...

So as Matt and I begin to form traditions with our young family, we are asking hard questions about the way we celebrate and why. How can we honor God and make Christmas about the One who it is truly about?

Like we so often do when considering something, we took out pen and paper and made a list of ideas. I humbly share these ideas with you not because we have it all together, but because I am so burdened by what Christmas has become, and I am so alarmed by how I can almost robotically fall into it year after year.

How can we be intentional about honoring Christ this Christmas through meaningful traditions that involve the children?
1. Celebrate Advent with a Jesse tree each day of December! The children really look forward to this nightly tradition. It's short and sweet and perfect for little attention spans.
2. Focus more on giving rather than receiving and let the children help! This year we baked for a bake sale whose proceeds will help build a school for our missionaries in India. Baking with a 4 year old and 2 year old is definitely a lot more messy, but they had a blast and it gave me an opportunity to talk to them about children in need.
3. Prepare a Voice of the Martyrs Action Pack! Choose a country (Iraq, Pakistan, or Sudan) and receive a vacuum bag from VOM and a list of suggested items to fill it with - blankets, clothes, sheets, etc. After you mail your action pack back to VOM, it will be sent to a person in that country who has far less than we could ever imagine. This is our gift to my in-laws. It's not a gift for them, but they are so blessed to know that someone in great need will receive blankets, clothes, a Gospel storybook, and other necessary items.
4. Send an extra Christmas gift and letter to the missionaries or Compassion child you support.
5. Shop with your children for Toys for Tots or participate in a Giving Tree at your local church. Our Giving Tree supports local families in need. It's always fun to shop for children the same age as my children. They get really excited about the gifts we pick out and the amount of compassion a small child can display is humbling and inspiring!
6. Reach out. Every year we bake cookies with another family and give them to our neighbors as we Christmas carol! (And no, we don't sing well, but we do it anyway - haha!)

We're still working out ideas for what we can do on Christmas Day, so that post is coming soon. What do you do in preparation or on the day of Christmas to make Jesus first? We need ideas!

Adopted For Life ~ Book Review

2010-12-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore was a book I read last year and loved it so much, I bought one, so I could highlight my favorite passages. It is about the priority of adoption for Christian families and churches. Besides being about adopting children, it is also about us being adopted by God. So, it is not just a book for couples who are thinking of, are or have adopted, but any Christian. One thing it is not is an informative, how to book about adoption. Here is a quote that sums up the book:

The gospel of Jesus Christ means our families and churches ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans close to home and around the world.

One of my favorite parts in the book is when Moore tells a story of an adopting white family that was told by a relative that he wouldn't have a black child in his family tree. In addition to relating that this was sinful behavior, the couple explained that Heaven wasn't going to be just white people. Perhaps if our churches reflected the true diversity of Heaven, perhaps people would understand the beauty of various races in the church body or in a family. Actually, during a conversation about adoption with a family member, they whispered in my ear, "You are going to get a white baby, right?" I am serious. Coolly, I replied that we are very open in the matter of race. Adding, "they are all the same inside." She sweetly agreed and was very pleasant with me. We are all so good at being politically correct, or maybe not so correct, but this adoption has really opened up a hole new view of people's feelings about race.

While I have no idea what our baby will look like, we will have to deal with the unpleasant reality of people's opinions. However, after reading this book and with the support of my friends, I no longer feel that I am selfish. I had felt that in my deep desire for another baby, that it might not be fair to adopt child of "color," if they were placed with white parents because of society's strong feelings on race. This book help me realize that I have God on my side, and all children are a blessing. It is not selfish at all, but completely biblical.

Finally, I would just like to add that the book does a good job of painting a realistic picture of adoption. It is not all roses. It is not charity. It is a reflection of God's adoption of us as his children.

Here is one final quote:

When we protect and welcome children, we're announcing something about Jesus and his kingdom.

Oh, and by the way, we have handed in our paperwork, and are officially onto the homestudy phase!

Ponderings ~ Karen

2010-11-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

My week was last week, but just did not get to it. Better late than never :-)

What am I cooking?
I have NO idea. After being sick for 2 weeks, and on meds that make me sick for a week, I have no energy for menu planning. We are surviving.

What am I reading? - When I am not brain dead from everything else I have to do ;-)
The Open Adoption by Melina and Roszia,
The Backyard Homestead edited by Carleen Madigan - Produce all the food you need on a quarter of an acre. Pretty cool, but I am not milking goats,
The Reluctant Entertainer by Sandy Coughlin ( who has a blog by the same name) - I highly recommend this book to anyone who identifies with the title.

What am I praying today?
For a past friend who is not honoring her marriage vows, that God will charge her heart and bring back reason to her mind. Also, for God to help her husband and children. Our hearts can slip so little at a time, we can fall so easily and not even realize it. Please Lord, keep us all from such a fate.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?
There are about a million things at Christmas time. We hope to make peppermint smelling snow play dough when our white paint and iridescent glitter arrives in the mail. Got to love Amazon Prime.

Oh, and I wanted to explain the question. It is not the TV is a bad thing or that I am picking on TV. It is just that too much of it is bad, and sometimes it is hard to think of other things to do with your children.

What is one product that has made my life a little easier?
baseball card holders - to hold my coupons neatly in my coupon binder

What am I grateful for?
a helping husband, yes, again - He has been a great help while I have been sick.

What have I done for my marriage lately?
Not much. I am spent. But I did get my husband some nice things on Black Friday and a nice new coat that he looks very handsome in.

What's challenging me lately?
Everything. I am behind in every which way. It is so hard to catch up when I am so worn out. Hopefully it is from my antibiotics, and once that is done, I will feel better.

How were you a mission minded family this week?
My husband plans to do Action Christmas with my daughter at our church. They go out with the youth group and buy presents for kids who other wise would not get any.

Post Holiday Chaos: Transition Days

2010-11-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

Teaching your kids after a holiday brake is enough to drive you insane. Everything is messy from the holiday rush. We are all off our schedules. The kids are hook on the expectation of fun and exciting days, where not much of anything is required of them. Those days pale in comparison to the highly focused work of homeschooling, which while shorter then public school, is much more intense. Not to mention the change of Daddy not being home, that alone can make us all a little grumpy.

During my 5 years of homeschooling, I have never believe in teaching the children on days when they were not going to learn anything. I might be able to check it off my lesson plan that I taught such-and-such, but I know that very little, if any, information stuck to them. Today is such a day.

Today was my husband's first day back after Thanksgiving weekend, and I should have know better than try to do school today. So instead of going crazy, I stopped, and went over the basics of our daily schedule. The reason being is that without the children meeting certain basic responsibilities, like getting breakfast or brushing their teeth on time, we cannot get our school work done on time. Also, I did have them do some light school work, but very little. Of course, our general rule of no screen time before lunch.

For our homeschooling day to be successful we need to have our rhythm, when holidays, sickness or vacation throw us off our rhythm, all of our spinning plates drop. It takes a day to set aside to focus only on getting all those plates up and spinning again, to get our rhythm on the right beat. It is well worth the time, and is nothing to feel guilty about.

Good Stewards: Stewardship vs Frugality

2010-11-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I will be speaking to the women at my church about being good stewards of their money, so I thought a blog post would help me get all my thoughts in order. The subject is quite vast. I am choosing to focus on the stewardship verses frugality, and how to go about that in a practical manner. FYI - when I am speaking of stewardship, it is in the monetary sense.

Good stewardship of our money looks different for different people. Cable TV would be frivolous for us, but not for my sports loving friend. There are seasons when time is short and we need to spend money on time savers or hired help, or risk insanity and poor health. How you spend your time can be as important as how you spend your money. It is important to keep in mind that spending time saving money can be well worth it, as it is adds income, which is untaxed and free to save or spend. It is a way in which a mom can stay at home with her children and still add to the household income. Our motives that steam from our hearts defines our penny pinching ways as either stewardship or frugality.

Stewardship and frugality are sometimes the same things and others times not. Frugality becomes bad stewardship when we give cheap gifts people really can't use. Hoarding goods we can't possible use, when someone else really needs them. Donating essentially junk like canned beets or stained clothes. Putting other members of the family under constant scrutiny of money spent. The motive is not to please the Lord, but of self reliance and selflessness.

A good steward lives generously, while using the money in the most efficient way possible in their circumstances. They view everything they have as belonging to God, and their love of God causes their thoughtfulness regarding how they make use of their resources in their charge. They also take time to enjoy life and the blessings God has given them in a balanced manner. A good steward lives their live in such a way as to be financially open to the plans God has for them, whether it be going on the mission field or adopting a child.

My Turn! | Catherine

2010-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends,

This is Catherine posting. I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little better through the following questions. :)

What am I reading?

In the Bible, I'm going through Deuteronomy right now. It sounds like a dry book to read, but I loooove Deuteronomy! It's actually filled with quite a lot of drama and woven throughout is the amazing faithfulness of our God.

For fun, I'm also reading my camera manual (yes, I think that's fun!) and anything and everything related to photography! Check out I Heart Faces and ILP for some great photography forums. You can also visit my blog to see my latest photo shoot.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?

We're not a no-TV kind of family. I do permit them to watch one show in the morning and one show in the afternoon. But when they're not doing that, they can do chores! Seriously! The more I involve them in doing chores along with me, the happier they have been. It sounds strange, right? But there has been less bickering, more joyful attitudes about helping Mommy (not so at first!), and I just enjoy their company.

What am I grateful for?

I am grateful for all the little things I take for granted each day. Healthy children, a roof over my head, food and water, heat when it's cold, and clothes that we're literally swimming in (and have bought literally none of it).

What have I done for my marriage lately?

We're going through Love Dare. :)

Room for One More

2010-11-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season brings to mind the Scripture that details Mary and Joseph's search for a room in Bethlehem to shelter them from the night. Though they knocked on many doors, they only received the reply that there was no room for them. Finally, they found a place that made room for the expectant couple. It recalls to me the birth of my own children and makes me ask myself, do we have room for one more?

There was a time when my husband and I thought we would have a specific number of children, a kin to objects you plan to acquire in life. "How many children do you think you will have," is a question often asked of couples. God has changed our hearts not to see our family as a specific number, but of questioning ourselves if there is room for one more. It leads us to be open to what God may have for us. Now, we take it year by year, child by child, just having our hearts open to another child.

One reason for this was seeing children as a gift, a blessing from God. You can search all of Scripture and not find any evidence that children are a curse, though the demand of day-to-day reality easily leads people to think differently. In fact, children, in the generic term, are always referred to as a blessing in the Bible. The idea that children are an inconvenient drain is completely a worldly notion. While being a lot of work, children are also very valuable. The work they require is really an opportunity to serve and grow in God. Now, that does not mean you have to have 16 children to be deemed truly righteous. It simply means, that whether you have 2 or 20, you are blessed to have children. It also means as a church family, we are blessed to have children in our congregation.

Parents are not the only ones who need to view children as a blessing. While the parents are called to disciple their children*, the church plays many important roles in bringing up the next generation too. One way is by seeing children as a gift to our congregation, celebrating each addition of a new child to our fold with joy. The attitude of the Church on this matter will determine the direction of its members. It is amazing what a little encouragement can do. The cards and presents we received after the birth of our 3rd child gave me tangible evidence that he was a blessing to be celebrated, not a misfortune as the world may think. So, when we meet a family of 6, instead of being shock and feeling pity for them, we can comment on their great blessing.

If the Church does not see the addition of children as a "good thing," then believers will see a family of more than 1.8 children as a misfortune. Making room for one more will not even be on the radar of options. Encouraging adoption will be difficult, or it will be seen as charity at best. Picking up on our negative response, the next generation's perfect family size will shrink and they will not know to delight in children.

Personally, getting a Biblical attitude adjustment towards seeing my children as a gift has made one of the biggest differences in me being able to delight in my own children. By delight, I mean that I truly enjoy spending time with my children, not because I ought to or because they are "good," but because God has changed my heart. So, yes, we have room for one more. There is a lot more to be said on the subject, but the point is that children are a gift from the Lord.

Scripture:
*You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 136:13-16

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. John 16:21

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 18:10

Sara's Questions

2010-10-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

What am I cooking?
By request of my husband, I've been experimenting with chicken on the bone. I usually just do chicken breasts, but he likes dark meat. To my surprise, it was good!

What am I reading?
Just have time for the Bible right now.

What am I praying today?
I was praying for people I met in Bosnia today.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?
Play outside-- My girls can entertain themselves for a while playing house outside. They don't have any brothers, but they each have their own house and visit each other from time to time and go on errands. It's funny. We also painted with watercolors today. That was fun.

What is one product that has made my life a little easier?
I'm not sure about easier, but the discovery of mint chocolate chips that I use in my old chocolate chip cookie recipe has made my life yummier=).

What am I grateful for?
A merciful Savior-- Jesus Christ-- who shows such mercy to me every day—Oh, how I need that!

What have I done for my marriage lately?
Making sure that we have time together just as husband and wife, not just mommy and daddy and two kids=). This has not been easy for us, but our marriage is so much better when we are looking to serve each other and just spend time together. This is something the Lord has been teaching me lately.

What's challenging me lately?
Trying to find time for everything and everyone, knowing how much I should be doing as a homeschooling mom and what can wait. Also, the Lord has been challenging me on some sin issues that are painful, yet so good for me!

How were you a mission-minded family this week?
Well, I guess every week it's the same for us-- Remembering our time in Bosnia for a month and talking about and praying about going there full time at some point. Trusting the Lord that we will or will not go all in His perfect timing.

Ponderings ~Karen

2010-10-21T20:14:00.001-07:00

What am I cooking?
A lot of Mexican food. We are learning about Mexico. Next week Canada. Any good Canadian recipes???

What am I reading?
Lots of adoption books. It is our homework from the adoption agency.

What am I praying today?
A better prayer life and time to pray as a family (more than just blessing the food). I know it sounds ironic to pray for prayer, but I am asking God to help fulfill that desire. Finding the time and building the habit is my major roadblock. I know God will give me the wisdom to fix this problem.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?
Play with wooden blocks and plastic animals.

What is one product that has made my life a little easier?
Hot Dots. They kept my preschooler busy doing a "school" activity, while I schooled the other ones.

What am I grateful for?
a helping husband

What have I done for my marriage lately?
Telling my husband when I appreciate something he has done.

What's challenging me lately?
Celebrating the seasons. I wish I could whip up some tasty treats for fall or have a plan to make Christmas cookies. Life gets so busy, I forget to make some memories for my children. It doesn't help that I am seriously challenge in the Martha Stewart area. My flesh wants to be perfect in every area of motherhood, but I am not. No one is. But, I would like to improve to a reasonable level - to know what to make when having company, a good meal to take to a sick person, actually make Christmas cookies. I need to read the Hidden Art Of Homemaking.

How were you a mission minded family this week?
Reading the biography of Cameron Townsend aloud.

The Heart of Frugality

2010-10-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting blog post on frugality by Tim Challies. It's not what you might expect...

Excerpt: Over the weekend I came across some video of America’s self-proclaimed cheapest family. They got me thinking about frugality, a topic that is all the rage in Christian circles today (or at least in some Christian circles). I have discussed this issue once or twice in the past but want to return to it today. Why? Because a lot of people put a lot of effort into frugality and I think many of them do so without thinking deeply whether what they are doing is right or wrong. They are saving money and this must be good, right? I’m not entirely convinced. So hear me out.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

~Catherine

Our Children Are a Gift from God

2010-10-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

While we set out to build character in our children, it is our character that is also built in the process. In fact, I wonder if we learn more about God from raising our children, than our children learn about God from us. Though, the discipleship of the children by the parents may range from non-existent to very active, even when the discipleship is on the heavy end, I bet the parents still end up gleaning more.

This leads to the fact that there is no accidental child in the sense God gave us each child to build certain character traits in us. Whatever that child's sinful bent is that we need to deal with day after day after day, it was meant for us. It was meant to teach us a lesson, so we need to look for what God is trying to teach us through our trials with our children. With so much to do, it is easy to get caught up in discipleship and disciplining, that we forget to notice what we are suppose to be learning as well.

Personally, this helps me see my daily struggles with my children in a positive light. I am growing closer to God. Along with my children's fruit, I will be harvesting my own.

Improvement Reading

2010-09-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Being a stay at home mom, books offer "a peace offering to a hungry mind." I need more than just laundry and wiping noses. Maybe that is why I like homeschooling, because I am using my brain and diving into great books with the kids. Not that there is anything wrong with wiping noises or washing clothes, I am happy to do it. What I am saying is that I personally need more then just those things.

The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer is a treasure trove for me. I actually found myself salivating over her book lists in the second part of her book. Looking forward to reading them, as well as, remembering those I have read. Sometimes we tell ourselves, that this is not our season for such things, but that is not really true. It is just like all the other things in our lives, we have to carve out the time to do it.

I have always struggled with the "nose wiper" job description, leaving my honors behind me. Would my professors be disappointed in me for choosing full time motherhood? It is not that I think it unimportant, but that I miss the intellectualism of a university and motherhood is not usually cast in that sort of light. I suppose that is why I found The Well-Educated Mind's theme of self-education so encouraging. Of course, always remembering that I serve God, not man, helps me to sustain my mom post too. In God's eye's, it is probably one of the best uses of my education and a good reason to continue it in self-study. My faith gives me liberty from the world's good opinion, and lets me focus on the parts of life that have eternal significance, like disciplining my children.

While my faith gives me great purpose in motherhood and homeschooling, I still have to fill that need for intellectualism. For one, finding like-minded moms has helped. In homeschooling circles, I do not have to look far to find another mom who is listening to A Tale of Two Cities while working around the house too. I can find the intellectualism I long for where I am now, if I look for it.

Besides all the "great" books that Bauer suggests, there is the greatest book of all times - the Bible. While wanting to read the works of Charles Dickens is great, studying my Bible must be a higher priority. If I have the yearning for well written works, then I need to seek out books that will increase my knowledge of God. There is such a desire to roll up my sleeves and deeply study His Word. I should remember to make time for it. It will not happen other wise.

Finding the Source of Burn Out

2010-09-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been feeling so burnt out. Perhaps it is being too busy, not having enough help, or unmet expectations. By removing certain possible stress sources, I could see if it made me feel better or worse. We took a week off of school, and that was not it. I took a brake from couponing, and had a week with fewer activities, but neither of those seemed to be the source.

I noticed that I felt better when I was out, but when I was home, I felt overwhelmed and stressed. From here I realized it was the messy build up in the house. There are piles and piles of items to go through, organize, and get rid of. While I am not a neat freak, bad messes bother me. Finding the cause of my burn out helps me figure out my priorities and helps me to focus on the issue.

Also, it helps to learn where I went wrong to get to this point. First, you need refreshment to keep from getting burnt out. Our summer was too busy and our vacation was not relaxing. Second, a homeschooling mother needs help, and I was too cheap to hire any during out summer brake. While I cannot do anything about the last vacation, we are planning our next vacation to be about relaxing and making memories. As far as help, I have decided to hire a sitter and part with my money. You can be too thrifty. What is the use of stockpiling money for our adoption if I have a nervous brake-down in the process. I feel hiring a sitter for 2 or 3 hours a week will give me time to tackle the out of control clutter. Having too much stuff is not apart of the simplistic lifestyle I want to live.

On the bright side, school is going well. Perhaps I will get around to posting about the changes I made this year that have really helped to make a productive and happy school day.

2010-09-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here is some information about an adoption conference in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. It is for everyone - those thinking of adopting, those who want to support adoption, those who want to or in the process of adopting foreign or domestic children, and those who have adopted. There is a link at the bottom from more information.

Adoption and Orphan Care Conference: Precious in His Sight
If you are interested in adoption, or in the process of adopting, come join us for a ONE DAY Conference to learn more about God's heart for orphans and how to actively be involved in the cause of orphans locally and internationally. Keynote speakers include: Chris and Sarah Padbury of Colorado's PROJECT 1:27 and over 15 different workshops provided by Bethany Christian Services and other adoption awareness agencies.

Date: October 2, 2010
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30p.m.
Location: Fellowship Baptist Church, Mount Laurel, New Jersey

For more information or to register, please visit PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT website
www.preciousinhissightnj.org

Potty Training While Homeschooling

2010-09-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

JP, in his potty training enthusiasm, flushed his cloth diaper inserts down the potty. Fortunately and unfortunately, I was able to pull them out. I knew I was in trouble when I heard the toilet flush and I was with all my potty trained children in the other room, schooling of course. Potty training while homeschooling is challenging. Today, we had to finish the other half of circle time in the bathroom.

I look on the bright side, that my son has finally agreed to sit on the potty without his pants on. We couldn't get very far because he insisted on keeping his pants ON when he sat on the potty. Also, this potty training season will pass and well worth my time since my son just turned 4. Our pre-school children, are a good interruption because they are a blessing to have in the family. It also teaches the older children to be patience and flexible. As mom, I will have to carve out some extra time to help JP train and expect lots of interruptions in our school day. We will get school done when we get it done.

Unexpected Adventures

2010-09-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Taking the path less traveled can lead you to many discoveries. Following our homeschooling path, I have gone on adventures we probably would have not gone on otherwise. Like the time we took my daughter's violin to be check for a homeschool co-op class. It turned out that the man who checks the violins also makes and repairs violins. We got to go to his workshop. See him fix up my daughter's violin, which we had bought used. The kids were aloud to touch horse hair and a whale bone. The man taught them different things about violins. And by homeschooling, we had the time to stop and listen, instead of dropping it off and coming back later.

The man that so happens builds violins, also planted a butterfly garden in his front yard. Seeing the butterfly garden, turns into a request for a butterfly identification book by one child and a desire to touch a butterfly by another. This will turn into a trip to the natural science museum, where my son can hold a dead butterfly without worrying about brushing off their scales. He will be able to get the close up look he wanted so much. Of course, we have already been to that science museum because I read about it in a homeschool e-mail. It is a great feeling to stop and smell the roses, to love to learn and to have adventures in God's world.

Congrats Catherine

2010-08-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Catherine and Matt on new little baby boy! We hope you have a very happy babymoon.

Between all of us that makes 6 girls (including Hope's sweet Peanut ) and 5 boys, thanks to Catherine's latest contribution. Who will be next? Will we even the score or will the girls take the lead?

I think Catherine's new addition has spike a nesting frenzy in me, while we wait on our adoption. :-) Blessings to the new little baby boy!

Stay Home Tuesday

2010-08-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

With our crazy schedules, I need to pick a day where we do not go out at all. For us that is Tuesday. If I am not home I cannot clean or declutter, and it makes doing laundry very difficult.

It's a Fine Line

2010-08-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

There are certain decisions we make as Christians about the way we live our lives that fall into a murky gray area. The Bible does not specifically speak on that micro modern detail, and we are left with to use the wisdom of God found in the Bible, wise council and the Holy Spirit to determine what would honor God. If that is not hard enough, in the Bible Paul talks about how God may convict one person not to commit one act, but it is perfectly o.k. for another, such as kosher eating.

Personally, I am filled with so many questions~ I went to a Paul McCartney concert, did that dishonor with God? We let our children trick-or-treat a little, is that righteous? Can I walk through the Art Museum, there are some immodest works? I would never ride a motorcycle, but is it o.k. for a Christian to be a biker? The line between living righteously and living like a Pharisee can get blurry. How can I tell when I am living by man made rules? How do I know when Satan and the world have tricked me with their slick ways? I know the Scripture says to live in the world and not of it, but how does that translate to all those thousands of little choices?

Reading our Bible and praying often is our best defense against the world. It is what keeps us close to God. True fellowship with other Christians who are serious about their faith is another essential. With those items I like to add a set of questions. A sort mental flow chart to prevent me from being either a Pharisee or an offense to God:

Am I throwing the baby out with the bath water? There is some pretty bad music out there, but I am not going to ban all music from my life. Nor am I going to say I am only going to listen to Christian music. What about Bach? Instead I am going to take it song by song. Once you say a certain area is safe, you let your guard down against the Enemy. You also do not want to throw the good out with the bad. So I might listen to some of the Beatles songs, but not all of them. I might go to the movies, but not just any movie. We might have a TV in our home, but we do not have cable, not even basic.
What it's rating? G or PG, or is it PG13 or R. Personally, I usually only watch G or PG movies, so I extend that to the rest of my lifestyle. If a TV show or a conversation would get a PG13 or R rating, I would not participate in it either. If I go to a rock concert, it needs to get a G or PG rating. I give Paul McCartney a PG :-) Serious, a very clean show.
Am I making it a hard and fast rule for all Christians? I don't drink alcohol. I feel uncomfortable around it. However it is not wrong for a Christian to have a glass of wine, it is only sinful to get drunk. So while it might not be for me, I am not going bring judgment on others for my man made rule. As long as it does not go against the orthodoxy of Christianity (Gospels, Ten Commandments, etc.), there is room under the tent for all of us and we should leave the judgment to God.
Can I do this with Jesus present? Can I wear this with Jesus present? This is sort of a trick question because Jesus is always with us. God sees and knows all. Of course if Jesus was physically, visually present with us, we would behave in a different way. An outfit that seems perfectly acceptable would become an embarrassment. If I can't wear it in front of the Lord, they I do not wear it. If I can't watch it with Jesus . . . you get the idea.
Is it poison? Poison is poison no matter how small. I would define poison as sin deceptively packaged. It is behavior not in line with a Christian walk. It is a large dose of temptation, not necessarily in a large size or amount of time. It can be as short as a commercial or as long as an evening of taking in the clubbing scene. It can be as innocent as a bikini on a little girl or it can be as harsh as husband bashing fest with your girlfriends.
If I magnified this, would it then appear sinful to me? An example of this would be, if I took a pen from work, I would not "feel" like I was stealing. However, if I stole a computer, then I would. When, really, they are both examples of the sin of stealing. This would not work on everything. I mean I could eat one slice of pizza sin free, but if I ate the whole pie, that would be gluttony. It works on the "small" sins that people do not feel guilty for, when really there is no small sin.
Is this hindering my Christian growth? If we are too concerned with the things of this world we will miss the overall point of our life - to glorify God. Weeds can come and choke our faith. We have to ask ourselves where this path is leading to? If it is not toward God, it is not the right path. This can be hard to discern honestly because our flesh is weak and we can quickly convince ourselves it is not a problem.

It is important not to use any one question by itself, but to ask them all together. We do have to live in the world and interact with people living a sinful lifestyle. No one would ever come to Christ otherwise. If I held others by the Lord's standards, I would not be able to work for a secular company or even have my extended family around me. We cannot stay in a Christian bubble, ignorant of the world outside. It is a dangerous place for a Christian, but we must venture out . . . . just remember your armor.

Felt Food @ IKEA

2010-08-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

IKEA's 2011 catalog just came out. They have a whole new felt food toy line named DUNTIG.

The line includes sets of ~ vegetables, fruits, breakfast and dessert. The prices range from $4.99 to $7.99, which is a good price considering how many items are in each set. Making felt food does look fun, but if you do not think you will have time to make it before your kids grow up, this is a very affordable alternative.

On our trip to IKEA tonight I also saw many pet felt toys, like canned pet food, vet kit, food dishes, travel kit and clothes for stuffed "pets."

FYI~ If you do plan to go to IKEA, they have many buy one, get one food items through out the year. The new catalog has a calendar toward the back. This month is a buy one Caesar chicken salad and get one free, though they were all out when we went tonight. However, they still have one free kids meal (drink entree and side) until August 15th I believe. They have also added crepes to their menu ($2.99).

Crazy Couponing = Crazy $$ Part II

2010-07-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

You will find it helpful to start small. The first step can be really easy. Just start collecting coupons. You do not even have to start cutting them. Ask family and friends who get the paper, if they could give you the coupons they are not going to use. For example, my mom and my sister give me their coupons. Then, as I got more of a handle of it, we subscribed to the weekend paper. If I like the coupons, my husband will run out to buy some extras for me. For example, when the P & G insert comes out, my husband goes up the street and buys 4 papers. I know that sounds like a lot, but believe me, it will more than pay for itself.

Here are some examples of how & how much we saved:

Just from planning my meals, looking at the circular and bringing my coupon binder to the store I have saved $69.44 in one shopping trip to Shoprite in which I only spent $57.57. This means I purchase $127.03 worth of groceries for $57.57. Another time I saved 47.29 and spent 37.98. Most of my Shoprite trips look like this now. We save more that half our bill. It is my coupons that made the difference. I use my coupons on sale items and save big. It helps to plan you meals around what is on sale.
You can buy cereal for a quarter. Acme has Cheerios on sale for $1.75. You have a coupon for $.75 off one box. Acme doubles coupon under $.99 up to $1.50. Your $.75 coupon becomes a $1.50 coupon. Bingo, cereal for a quarter. Needless to say, we have a quite a stockpile of cereals. If you think that is crazy, buying diapers for $3 will make you hit the roof.
By looking at the blog posts from Krazy Coupon Lady and Living Rich with Coupons, I have been able to get things for free and make money. Like the time I spent $12 at CVS and received $14 in extra care bucks.
Rebates are wonderful. Rite Aid has a very easy rebate program, you can see this month's rebates by looking on-line or picking up a paper copy in the store. By checking my couponing blogs, I stay on top of manufacturer's rebates. The blogs list exactly what you need to buy and where to get the rebate form. One time at Right Aid, I bought $65 worth and was paid $18 to do it.
By combining rebates with coupons, store rewards (like CVS's extra care bucks -basically money to use on your next trip printed at the end of your receipt), and store sales, you can get some good deals. One time I bought 2 Aveeno 8 oz Daily Moisturizing lotions; 1 Aveeno Shampoo and 1 Conditioner for $1.45 plus tax (totaling $2.81). This is how: CVS had a promotion, if you brought $25 worth of select Aveeno products, you would receive $10 in extra care bucks. However the products were also on sale, which meant I actually had to spend $30 to make the $25 because 3 products where just under the $25. On the $30 purchase, I used a $4 extra care bucks, and 4 manufacturer's coupons totaling $ 6. So, out of pocket I spent $21.45, but then I got $10 in extra care bucks. On top of that, Aveeno was running a rebate in which you would receive a $10 rebate for purchasing $25 worth of Aveeno.

Next post I will explain how I made my coupon binder, and what I do with all those coupons. Later I will post on websites and individual stores.

Here is part one if you miss it:
Crazy Couponing = Crazy $$ Part I

Crazy Couponing = Crazy $$ Part I

2010-07-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Cutting coupons seemed silly to me. I would have never thought I would get stuff for free by cutting coupons, and I did not even know I could be PAID to buy things I got for FREE. It is crazy! It is not easy. It is work, but is pays very well and it is fun - or at least it is for crazy type A/homeschooling moms like me. However, I do think just about anyone, of any age and gender, would love couponing.

What I am not going to do in this post is tell you how to coupon because people have already done a better job of that. For starters, you can go to Krazy Coupon Lady website and click on and read beginners . Personally, I just read the whole article and gradually started couponing, but you could do it in 10 days. Then, I would suggest you read their book, Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey by Joanie Demer and Heather Wheeler, the women behind the website. It is a laugh out laugh way to learn couponing. It is written to our generation, by 2 moms like us. This book was very helpful to me.

Another big help is finding other crazy couponers like yourself. It helps to have someone more experienced than you to ask questions or get tips from. It was through friends that I first learned about couponing, and I have learn a lot from them. However, if you do not know any other crazy couponing people, I think you will find the book mention above as more than acquit to equip you to coupon, and the rest you will learn on your own.

Living Rich with Coupons website is another place you can learn about couponing. She has a whole section for beginners. Later, I will do another post listing all the couponing websites, as well as all about my coupon binder, an essential accessory.

Tomorrow I will post about an easy way to start, as well as some facts and figures of how couponing has saved us a lot of money. Seeing what an average person can do, helps me see how it will fit into my own reality. It was my friends' stories of couponing that caught my ear and made me set aside time to figure it out. It is worth your time. It is money you can add to your income, and it is ALL tax free!

Felt Food

2010-07-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

No, I don't know where I will get the time, but I feel a urge to get in touch with my crafting side and make something with my hands that can double as a form of therapy to calm my frazzled nerves. Confessions of a Homeschooler has posted in the past about felt food. She has a link to a site with free patterns and instructions at Lit'l Brown Bird's Passion. Follow the links to view exactly what felt food is and how you go about making it.

Like most of you, I have a very limited amount of "me" time. While that being a good thing, it might take me months to make anything. The point is to refresh myself in a sufficient proportion to the work God has for me, so I am going to go for it anyway and at least I can say I tried it :-) If I do actually finish a felt food project, I will post a picture, though it may take me a few months to get the picture uploaded to the blog ;-)

Click the link here for instructions and tips on felting

Click the link here for free felt patterns and tutorials

Confessions of a Homeschooler has a whole section on her tool bar for felt food. You can find other free patterns from her posts.

Play Room Problems: Wooden Train Storage

2010-07-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

My husband and I were putting our heads together to try to organize our mound of wooden trains. Sometimes I wish I never opened the door to the Thomas the Tank Engine flood gates. The original books are wonderful, but the marketing based TV shows will end you and your dear ones in a hemp of trains. Putting the "collection" factor aside, all of my children have really enjoyed watching, reading and playing Thomas. It all started when my daughter was 2 and received a train table for Christmas. Well, 7 years and two boys later, we have quite the Thomas the Tank Engine exhibition.

The play room problem here is the boys dump the container of wooden trains or take all the trains and leave them covering the train table. Being store in a container in the train table, the trains are nicked and scratched from being all jumbled together. These problems can be prevented if each train has it's own visible spot. Here are some solutions:

Train Rack from Train Rack Store ~ They sell a few different size racks ranging from $19.97 to $49.97. The rack pictured here is $39.97 and fits about 30 trains. The racks are perfect, but at 60 trains and counting - Yikes! That would be about $80 bucks. Even with the free shipping, it is just too much for us to spend on train storage. Since I found this merchant by googling, you may like to know that besides his website, you can buy his racks on Ebay too.
Rain Gutters ~ This idea was originally for books, but I am thinking it might work for trains. It does not look as nice as the Train Rack, but whole lot cheaper. Check out how to make it here at Family Fun. We are definably going to use this idea in the book nook, but for books :-) However, it would be more permanent than the Train Rack.
Ledge ~ Another idea is to attach wooden track to a wooden ledge or chair rail with a flat top, then attach it to the wall. To keep cost down, we could buy the track from IKEA or any other non Thomas brand of wooden tracks. This would be more work and cost than the gutters, but it might look nicer. Also, it too would be more permanent than the Train Rack.
Draw Dividers ~ I am wondering if I can make draw dividers work with our existing bins in the train table (our train table came with 4 bins) or with pull out plastic drawers, which have the added benefit of keeping the trains dust free.

I will have to keep my eyes peeled for other solutions. Maybe I will wander over to the Container Store, it is a haven for type A personalities like myself. Please post your own train storage ideas.

Perhaps I can persuade the boys to ask for Train Racks for their birthday presents instead of more trains.

Play Room Problems: Too many toys

2010-07-05T10:26:00.001-07:00

Too many toys is both our blessing and our problem. It may keep them entertained, but the playroom looks like a tornado hit it. The clean up/keep up is overwhelming. Time to make things simple. Here is one idea for toy organization:

Start with several large numbered bins filled with different toys. For example, you could have 5 bins (one for every weekday), and then switch them every day or week.

Plus ~ Only allows for a small mess, which can easily be picked up and put away. Allows for variety to cure boredom.

Minus~ My kids ask to play with a specific toy, so I probably will end up taking one toy out of bin #3 and another out of #6. Children need to have choices available if they are going to learn to make choices and have self-directed play. For example, they might not want to play dolls on Tuesday, but end up playing zoo the whole week.

This is probably not our solution, but it may work beautifully for your family. A toy library would probably work better for us. We have one sort of in place, but we need an improvement. I will post solution as we solve our own playroom problems.

American History, Snoopy Style

2010-07-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

"This Is America, Charlie Brown" DVD went well with our year in American history. It was a fun way to review some of the facts we learned. Here is a list of topics covered:

Mayflower Voyagers
Birth of the Constitution
Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk
NASA Space Station
Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
Great Inventors
Smithsonian and the Presidency
Music and Heroes of America

This DVD is out of print so to speak, so we checked it out of our local library.

Homeschooling Positive: Multi-Age Playmates

2010-06-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here is another advantage to homeschooling my friend reminded me of, homeschooling children in general play well with children of different age ranges. An 8 year-old and a 6 year-old will play happily together, without thinking it is not cool for the older to play with the younger. Where as in public school a 3rd grader would not be playing with a Kindergartner.

This is just a generalization, but from my experience, it is true. So the next time someone questions you about socialization, you can answer, "Yes, socialization is one of the reasons why we chose to homeschool our children." The look on their face is priceless. I also know this from experience. Of course, I always make sure to add, homeschooling is not for everyone ;-)

Gift Ideas for Tots and Preschoolers...

2010-06-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Our sweet Abby just celebrated her 2nd birthday and she LOVES the toys she received so much that I just had to recommend them. We've been really into classic wooden toys lately (love Melissa and Doug!) as well as old fashioned educational toys. Fortunately, we have a wonderful parent-teacher resource center in the area where we can borrow toys and educational products. Whenever I borrow something she loves, I just add it to her Amazon wishlist and send it out to family members for birthdays and around Christmas time.

She loves these toys and she is able to play with them independently (yes!) while I work with Rachel on something more academic or while I'm simply reading her a story.

~Catherine

A Laminator for a GREAT Deal!

2010-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

I just had to tell you about this super deal that I saw over on Amber's blog. I've had this laminator in my Amazon shopping cart for a long time. I finally bought it today because it's on SAAALE for a great price! When you buy the laminator and a pack of 50 laminating sheets, you can send in a $20 rebate! After the rebate, you get both items for only $21.49!!! That's an amazing deal! The offer is good until July 31.

I personally think that everyone should own a laminator... especially teachers and homeschoolers. It's kind of addicting making all your papers shiny, don't you think? Ooo, the possibilities!

It's a Dad's Life

2010-06-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute tribute to Dad's. I got quite a few chuckles out of it! My favorite part was during the Disney movie... I won't say more. :) Enjoy!

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Bed Wetting Article

2010-06-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about bed wetting from Web MD: Bed-Wetting: What Causes It

Thought it may be helpful if your child has that problem. You can also e-mail to a meddling relative. :-)