Friday, December 10, 2010

I Am Glad I Am ME !

I took the kids to the dentist office this week and had to journal the experience coming home. Two out of 3 of us came out with a "clean bill of teeth"! Miss Lauren well let's just say we had an appointment the next day with the "cavity dentist".
So we are on our trek home about 10 seconds into the drive, and Lauren says "I am glad I am me!" and Alex chimes in with equal steadfastness "I am glad I am me too". I just sat there and soaked that in. I was like huh, they like that they are who they are. Hmm. That is wonderful!
Do I like who I am? Am I glad I am ME? (saying this in my head) I asked them "Why are you glad you are you?" Immediately they each gave their reasons, both matched. Because if God didn't make me-me I would not have my family, or my friends, or my dog. And that right there was the order. Aren't kids pretty wonderful. I found it humorous Lauren would say that knowing her visit the next day would not be so pleasant. But isn't that just life. We have ups and downs. But let's be happy God put us right where we are.
Life can get muddled and we can start to compare our lives with others. Our abilities or talents to others. I am careful not to do that to my kids. I know each and every child has strengths and weaknesses. Comparing our children (or ourselves) to others can lead to wrong emotions such as jealousy,covetousness,envy, boasting,pride. None of which are becoming to the heart of a christian. Should we not give all the glory to God for giving them the ability and talent, and equally thankful for the challenges that God gives them to stretch them and help them to become stronger in the task and know that they worked hard to overcome and conquer a quest.
Are you glad you are YOU??

Saturday, November 27, 2010

A Time To Mourn- Parting of a Dear Friend

Thought I would share a bit of news from my day to my friends!!


A Time To Mourn-Parting of a Dear Friend



I lost a very "dear friend" today. I did not know how much this friend meant to me until it was too late. My friend has been there thru thick and thin, since I was about 19 if I remember right. We would go just about everywhere together. You could not find a more trustworthy, faithful friend. Always there when I was down, or happy, or just because! When out shopping with me, never did my friend say "you do not need that", nor "that would be a waste of money", no my friend just shared in the joys of my many "great finds" , "too good to pass up" , or "I can totally sell that on ebay and make a mint" finds. That was my faithful friend always here for me, until today. Not sure how I will manage to get thru this, but I have a couple friends who have also lost their "dear friends" and they say it just takes time. That they learned to "deal with it", and as time passed they "got used to it". Never thought it would happen to me so I just kind of took it all for granted. Now that I think of it maybe I used my friend to my advantage too much, kind of took advantage and abused my friend a bit. This loss just makes it worse during the holidays. This is one of the best times of year we would share together. No one last farewell party to say goodbye, just a bitter parting. I feel like my friend was just ripped out of my hands never to be seen again. My husband is trying to help me thru this dark and trying time. He thinks my friend can be replaced. He even suggested two new friends, rather he insisted. My new friends names are Budget and Cash. Goodbye my dear old friend, Credit. May you rest in peace.


PS excuse me while I go wipe my eyes and cut coupons...um I have no coupons!

UPDATE Pss Day/4: I have burned thru almost all my cash. Hubby doesn't replenish the funds for another 2 weeks! This is getting serious! LOL!



Tammi

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Write-Right-Wright OH MY!

One of our goals this year is to improve our writing skills. So to that end, I signed up the kids for a writing class. Well to be exact Lauren and Alex (son) is doing one writing class. And Lauren and I are doing another one online. The local writing class is using Institute for Excellence in Writing. The other is Mrs. Morecraft's writing class we signed up through Vision forum. Because one class would just not do!
There was a writing contest for the kids to enter and so the very helpful mother that I am had my daughter dictate to me her story. This would save time, and I was pretty good at writing oh some 20 years ago. Looking it over... Is it double spaced? Check! Spelling correct? Check! Word count within limits of the rules? Did some edits then ..Check! Well all is well right? NO! I failed to print it out and revise it. After I sent it off I printed it out and was then mortified when I found all the errors I, yes I made! I capitalized words that should not have been. I added commas and apostrophes where they were not needed. This is just a sampling of my many errors. So much for a good editor!! I checked my daughters paper and did she have the several errors I just mentioned?? NO! Sure there were other errors but it was pretty mortifying seeing all my glaring mistakes that I added to her paper. So I could definitely use a refresher after so many years out of school.
To this end here are some books our Writing Class Teacher Mrs.Kathy shared with us. I already bought them ALL! I intend to get this punctuating, apostrophy,grammar thing figured out! Don't even think about checking for errors in my post! LOL!

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide To Better English

Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, every punctuation mark counts! by -Lynn Truss

Eats,Shoots And Leaves-By Lynn Truss **There is 2 books with this title a fun kid level version and a more in depth adult version

The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why you can't manage without apostrophes! by- Lynn Truss


Though I have not received it yet I just purchased Fix-It! Grammar and Editing made easy - By IEW I will have to blog on how it goes with the book later this year!

Well this whole thing has been quite humbling. Reminds me yet again that we all could use help in one area or another. Some more than others. It is wonderful to have so many resources available to choose from. The hard part is finding a space on the bookshelf!!

Happy Homeschooling!! Tammi

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hold That Thought!


I have to share with you a great resource for homeschooling. They have resource Cd's for History, geography,Bible, Time lines etc!


Hold That Thought! site is offering a free CD with the purchase of ONE CD! Just for mentioning their site in your blog or to 2 homeschooling friends! Can't beat that!!


My daughter Lauren took the beautiful butterfly photo this past summer!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A New Homeschool Year

As I start a new year of learning with my children, I am trying to remember to keep my priorities in order. What are the goals for them this year? Spiritually,academically, manners etc. Of all the goals I never want to lose sight of the supreme goal, their salvation.
As they walk through the day with me am I an example of a Christian as a wife,mother, friend, daughter, sister, neighbor, stranger? I fail so often, but I pray they see Jesus through my struggles, as I learn to walk closer to my Savior each day.
I am so thankful to be home with my children to see them grow spiritually, physically, and academically. I hope I make every moment count.
I am learning to be flexible. Our first week of school they came to me and said "Mom this science is BORING!" They had all these reasons why the book was boring and why they did not need this science. And how it was much better last year. (same publisher) I had to laugh! My son actually said "I am not going to be a scientist mom" What did I hear?? I guess my kids are normal. I thought I would never hear this excuse out of them! Well like a smart mama I picked that book up flipped through it and was like whoa this does look BORING! Oh, by the way I said that to myself NOT out loud! The typical textbook lots of words little pictures and dry. We agreed that they could have a year of searching out Science on our massive science bookshelf! That was more appealing to them than this textbook, and to be honest for me as well! What an adventure we will have this year for science! Some of the books cover magnets, physics, nature, animals, human body, reptiles, birds, botany, space, earth, weather, geology, fossils...should make for an interesting science year. Maybe just maybe I will make a scientist out of him yet!