5 Kids and a Dog

HOTM Conference MP3

Momma Knows — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:37:08 +0000

They’re here! Just a quick note to encourage you, if you attended the HOTM Online Homeschool Conference, to check your e-mail! I just did, and received the download links to all of the workshops, along with the chat logs! Yay! Now to download and listen to the great workshops that I missed!

B90Days: The Home Stretch in the OT

Momma Knows — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:30:10 +0000

Day 67. One more day in the Old Testament! I never realized how LONG the OT is until I took on this reading program. WOW is it long! Two-thirds of the Bible is made up of the Old Testament. I think most of us doing this Bible in 90 Days plan are SO ready to get into some New Testament Jesus-talkin’, that we’re aching for it. We’re begging for it. We’re just flat out THIRSTY FOR JESUS at this point!

And what better way to be made thirsty for the Living Water than to spend 67 days reading the Old Testament! We have covered so many rules and regulations, so many “declares the Lord” and “you shall not”s, and of course all of the specifics regarding tabernacle and temple worship, food practices and sacrifices, and what did it lead to? It leads to the fact that there is no possible way, by any stretch of human effort, that we can ever hope to be sanctified and saved by following the law. It leads directly to the One who can do what we humans, with our built in propensity for sin, could never hope to do on our own. It leads us to Jesus. And I’m SO EXCITED to finally be able to jump into the New Testament!

This past week I went out of town Thursday through Saturday night. I managed to stay current on my reading until Saturday. I was away at the Summit youth pastor’s & leaders conference in Yakima, WA. Saturday was a very busy, tiring day which began with a terrible night’s sleep. (Frightened 18yo girls with us in a scary motel in a creepy part of YakiVegas… periodic loud banging of the axe murderer in the room next door… girls thinking someone was coming in our window…uh yeah… fun night) So suffice it to say that I didn’t get any of my reading on Saturday. By the time we got home Saturday night I was so tired I didn’t even try. I got it knocked out Sunday, along with Sunday’s reading, and so I’m current again!

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of my Twitter friends on the #b90days trending thread who prayed for me regarding my reading this weekend. I know that it helped!! =) Oh, and if you don’t follow me on Twitter, please do hop on over and do! I even Tweeted highlights and one-liners from the youth leadership conference… which, BTW was an AMAZING conference. But we had Mark Batterson, so how could it NOT be?

Mid-Course Corrections

Momma Knows — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:09 +0000

This is my first Weekly Wrap-Up in three weeks! Things have just been getting away from me lately. I’m glad to “be back!”

Here I am, at the beginning of March, and my well laid out school plans have been pushed aside. I feel disappointed in myself, and yet I see that adjustments needed to be made. What I am missing right now though, is Charlotte Mason. I spent last summer reading all about her, and planned our curriculum with her methods in mind. Now I am finding myself reverting back to old habits… not necessarily good ones. Time to pull out my Charlotte Mason books once again! We break for the month of April, and I will definitely be doing some mid-course corrections.

Some mistakes thus far:

Expecting too much seatwork, and not enough hands-on work. I enjoy hands-on things with the boys, but I do not enjoy preparing for them. This is something I just need to get over and DO. Somebody kick me or something! If I can get a lapbook all printed out with all the little books cut out, then I have no problem getting the actual project done as we go through a study. If I have to piece it together day by day, it just doesn’t happen. There has been a lot of “just doesn’t happen” happening around here lately.

Unrealistically expected us to be able to get through double the reading material than was actually possible. I am a bibliophile: I confess. I love books! I love book LISTS! This is where my problems come in. If there are two dozen books on a curriculum list, my brain (being the legalistic brain that it is) thinks we must read them. All. We did end up ditching all of the mythology books on our list this year except The Children’s Iliad, and that has been a very good thing!

I slipped into old habits and quit using the timer for math and penmanship. We used to do 20 minutes of math and 10 minutes of handwriting per day, with the “no matter how much you get done” philosophy. Also Charlotte Mason’s “Slow, careful practice…” theory to which I added “…makes nice handwriting”. And it does. And I’m a dufus for forgetting that.

Grammar. We haven’t. Done. Any. Not this term! First term we did grammar 2-3 days a week. It’s not like it took us very long, either. I use Shurley English, just the grammar portion, and we do the sentences together on a white board. The boys enjoyed it and were beginning to really “get it”. When we began 2nd term we just never got back in with grammar. We will when we start back up 3rd Term! It only takes us about 10-15 minutes.

I need to get back into learning more about Charlotte Mason and her teaching techniques. Her ideas on teaching children SO resonated with me, and the way I feel children should be taught, and I was so excited when I discovered her! Her teaching style fits my special needs child so perfectly, that it seemed she wrote it all just for him. Now it’s been so long, that I have forgotten most of what I read. Time to pull out my books once again and get reading!

My reading list includes:
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

A Charlotte Mason Education by Katherine Levinson

More Charlotte Mason Education by Katherine Levinson

and the Charlotte Mason Study Guide by Penny Gardner. I REALLY need to go back through this one!

For the rest of our term, which is the month of March, I am going to do the two unit studies that I agreed to review. It should be fun for a change of pace, but I feel sort of guilty for my well-laid plans taking a detour. I know, it’s my school. I shouldn’t feel guilty. I should just go with it. I should take my own advice. And when we start back up again in May after our break, I plan on being refreshed and have my purposes renewed once again!

Getting Healthy: Week 4

Momma Knows — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:03:57 +0000

I feel like this week was a total dud, but it wasn’t. I just did not get to exercise enough this week! What I am finding now, is that I am enjoying what I am doing. I am pushing myself in the area of running. At this point I still don’t know if you could call it RUNNING, because my 15yo daughter sure doesn’t think so, but for me it’s a good thing.

I went to the Y on Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday this past week. I missed the Ladies Workout at the church because early Saturday morning E decided we had to tear the house apart. He’d sold the entertainment center that he built back in 1987, so we had to clear everything out of it. We ended up shifting a lot of furniture between three rooms, moved TVs around to different rooms, and I only just this morning got the kitchen counter cleared of all of the old music (see yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday for a small taste of that). From morning till night, plus a few more days, we were reorganizing and rearranging. Suffice it to say, I’m not too happy with myself for not going to work out.

But what did I accomplish this week? Well, I changed my running goal just a little bit, and rather than striving for a certain distance, I decided to strive for a length of time. Now I can run for half an hour without stopping! This is huge, you guys! On Tuesday I did 2.17 miles in 30 minutes. It isn’t a marathon, and definitely not a sprint, but I did it. I ran 10 min. @ 4.2mph, 16 min. @ 4.4 mph, and 4 min. @ 4.8 mph. E came up to tell me he was taking D2 home and that I had D1, when I was in the last two minutes of my run… I answered him but just barely. I was working hard!! Then I glanced over to the treadmill next to me, and the 17 year old girl who was there was running at 6.8 mph… Yeah… well…. I just won’t look at other people’s treadmills any more!

I am proud of myself. I am gradually working up to where what I am doing could be called running, and I actually feel really good about it too. I mean, I work really hard when I increase the speed, but it’s still very do-able, and I feel good afterward. Maybe I will do Bloomsday. I’ll have to do some outdoor training for that though, and I probably won’t be able to run/jog the entire thing. Still, I have always wanted to do Bloomsday, and I have never even tried. Lots of people just walk it! It’s a thought anyway.

Oh, look for a new graphic in my sidebar. I am going to create one for my dropping jeans sizes! The ones I bought at Christmas time are too big for me now. Oh darn.

I went over my points nearly every day this past week, but not over my weekly bonus allowance, so it still worked out. If you think of me today through Saturday, please pray for me. I’m on my way out of town to our A.G. ministry network’s Leadership Summit (for youth pastors & youth leaders) and we will be eating out 6 meals. I’m bringing my WW Dining Out Guide, but it’s an old one and I am afraid I will need to guess and ballpark my points. Yikes!

Oh, and I lost 1.5# this week, for a total loss since starting with iWatchr, of 7.4#. Actually, this is confusing the crud out of me, because if I count from Jan. 1, 2010 I have lost 10.4#!!! I just didn’t start using the iWatchr app until 4 weeks ago, so that’s when I started counting this way. I’m not cheating, because I HAVE lost over TEN POUNDS. So I think from here on out I will just count it as it is, rather than from where I began with the app. What say you?

Wordless Wednesday: Blast from My Past

Momma Knows — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:00:57 +0000

Works for Me Wednesday: Audio Books

B90Days: 60 Days, 2/3 done!

Momma Knows — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:56:23 +0000

60 Days! Oh my goodness, the Lord is so good! How did I make it to 60 days? By the skin of my teeth, that’s how! (Okay, honestly my teeth do NOT have skin on them… I do brush several times a day… but you know what I mean It has really been touch and go for the past week, let me tell you. I got behind weekend before last, and barely got caught up again, then fell behind– TWO DAYS BEHIND– over this past weekend! Sunday was another day I wasn’t able to get any of it done…we had church, then I had a youth staff meeting that lasted a couple of hours. I came home, folded 7 loads of laundry (because Bible reading isn’t the only thing I got behind on this past week), then headed back to church to hear missionary Steve Shoop talk about Engage in Missions. It was just one of those days!

Today, I decided the only way I could get it done is if I could hear it while I read it, so I hopped on my iTunes library, pulled up Ezekiel, and listened while I read. I got it done in 3 sessions today, 35 whole chapters! My ears, eyes, and head hurt by the time I was done. But I did it! I am CAUGHT UP!

Ezekiel was interesting. I didn’t realize he had encounters with the Lord, in the Spirit, at different times. I remember reading that he had an encounter, but wowzers! The Lord appeared to him twice and spoke to him so many things, so many times, and STILL the tribes refused to listen! Why the Lord didn’t just wipe us off the face of the earth at that time, I do not know. I am so thankful that God’s mercy endures!

30 Days to go. 1/3 more of God’s Word to read! And what sort of party should we have when we are done!? I’m dreaming something up gals, and while I can’t promise anything, I will let you know as soon as I know.

Failure in the Dead of Night

Momma Knows — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:14:28 +0000

I don’t know what happened last night, but it seems that I was gathering Friday Fail material even in the middle of the night. I had a (not-so) fun personal fail this morning, but the night was doomed much earlier than that.

You see, I am a night owl. It is my productive time, my blogging time, my chatting, Facebooking, play time. And my husband is not a fan of my late nights. I determined that for the betterment of our marriage, I need to really try to go to bed when he does, sometime between 10 & 11pm. Last night, I finished up a Photoshop project I was working on, and went to bed when E did, at 10:30. Since I was about two days behind on my Bible in 90 Days reading, I pulled out my iTouch and worked on getting caught up while E snoozed. I reached the end of that particular day’s reading, so I stopped and started playing Bejeweled. (FAIL #1, 11:30pm)

At midnight I caught myself dozing, so I put the iPod away and went to sleep. For 45 minutes. That was when our dog began bugging me. She had gone outside right at 11:00, so I knew she didn’t need to go out, and since I had just gone to sleep she only succeeding in irritating me. I need to explain here that first, she is a 6# Pomeranian, and second, she has a litter of three 2-week old puppies who she SHOULD be sleeping with. I told her to go lay with her babies, turned over, and went back to sleep. She walked up me, across my pillow-and face- and back down my shoulders and back. She stood at the edge of the bed and whined. She barked. I got VERY irritated. She barked again. I tried desperately to ignore her. (FAIL #2)

Cleo drove me nuts until 3am, barking a short, weird bark at intermittent times, pacing, and walking over me repeatedly. I pushed her off the bed, SENT her off the bed, etc. Finally I just took her outside in desperation for sleep… except she veered to the kitchen, where her water dish was. I had moved her food & water dishes out of the walk in closet, where she and the puppies are located, back to the kitchen since she seems to be downstairs so much anyway. I forgot about nights and the fact that she is a very small dog nursing three very hungry puppies, and she would need water. (FAIL #3) After she gorged herself on water, I let her outside.

She came back in, and happily jumped back up on our bed and straight over to my husband, who up until that point had managed to ignore her, that was, until she snuggled up to him and he caught a whiff of her… uh, odorous backside. Someone must have dropped taco meat on the floor during dinner last night. It did not set well with her tummy. (FAIL #4, but I think it was the kids!) I gave her rear a shampooing and towel dry, and plopped her in with her puppies. By this time it was 3:45am, and our comfortor stunk like…. well, you know what it stunk like. We tossed it in the laundry room.

Sleep, sweet sleep…. CHIRP! BARK! BARK!…. sleep…. CHIRP! BARK! BARK! WHAT THE #$%&@!!!!???? Smoke detector battery! There would be a chirp, then the dog would growl and bark. Quiet for about 3 minutes, then chirp, bark bark. UGH. This time E was also up, frustrated, both of us wide awake and really just flat out MAD at the dog. Not our finest moment but at 4am this was just becoming the most awful night ever! We changed the battery in the smoke detector in our room and went back to bed. For about 3 minutes. CHIRP! Bark! Bark! Grr!

Apparently the CO2 detector is actually what had the dead battery. We searched the house (yes, lights on, wide awake) for another 9v battery, changed the sucker and went to bed, finally to sleep.

I got up at 6:30 with E, bleary eyed. After he went to work at 7:00 I colored my hair, and squirted hair color IN MY EYE. The Ultimate FAIL after a perfect night of FAILS. And by the way, don’t do that.

Hair color STINGS REALLY BAD.

Getting Healthy: Week 3

Momma Knows — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:07:34 +0000

Well, I’m doing it! Little by little, I am losing weight! I am also beginning to think about some reasonable goals for exercise, but that is a topic for another post.

This past week I have run 1.5 miles, twice, at 4.2mph!! That is a 14:17 mile. I won’t be winning any races anytime soon, but for me this is BIG. I decided, after that first mile run, to try it again. I did that mile and kept going to 1.5, and bumped the speed up to 4.2 for the last 1/2 mile. And I didn’t die! (Notice a theme here? Exercise will NOT kill me!) When that 1/2 mile went okay, I decided to try for a whole mile next time, and succeeded. And in this way I will continue to push myself to go further and faster, just little by little.

This week I went to the Y 3 times, and also went to the Ladie’s Workout at church on Saturday. We did a Turbo Jam DVD, which I am convinced came directly from hell itself. I think you can tell I am not a fan. It’s not that I dislike Turbo Jam, I am just terribly uncoordinated, and couldn’t keep the moves straight for ANYTHING. That, and they change activities too much, too fast. I like the Biggest Loser videos because although they may do 3-5 moves, they give you more than four reps before changing it up. TJ changes constantly, and there were something like 11 moves to learn right off the bat. We are doing the TJ video again on Saturday, so if you think about it, please pray for me between 10-11 Pacific time. I may die. (It could happen!) Or I could just get confused an dizzy and end up taking out some of my friends in the process of trying to follow along.

I managed to stay within my points perfectly, 4 days this week, went over just a couple on 2 days, and went 19pts. over on Friday! We went out for dinner to what used to be a nice restaurant located in the bowling/card house… now it’s just pub food and NOT good pub food at that! I wasted 19 points on mushy, tasteless fish and chips. Still, I didn’t use all of my weekly Bonus Points!! I am finding it easier to pay attention to my foods now, and I carry my iTouch everywhere with me so that helps. And iWatchr? FANTASTIC app! I’m so glad that I found it!

Oh, and I lost .9lbs this week, for a total of 5.9lbs. With my high point, high fat dinner out, I am not surprised. Also, I did not drink even half as much water this week as I am supposed to, which probably didn’t help. But I am still losing!

The Busy Mom’s Bible Review

Momma Knows — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:00:46 +0000

I am the mother of 5 children, 4 of whom are still at home. I am busy. I am tired. I am stressed. And sometimes, I just simply DON’T have it all together. Days can get away from me so easily that when I go to bed, I can look back over the day and wonder if I even got anything done! One serious stress-reliever for me has been my morning devotional time. I love taking that time to spend with the Lord, all alone before my children get up. It doesn’t always happen that way, but ideally, that is how I like it.

So many moms don’t have that luxury, that quiet time first thing in the morning. We may have a nursing baby, a toddler who wakes up as soon as the sky begins to lighten, sick children, or just the general Not Enough Hours In the Day Syndrome. No matter what the reason, often times what happens is that our quiet time gets pushed aside in order to care for the more pressing things around us, be that a hungry infant, smelly toddler, or large passle of children with different needs all at once. This is where the Busy Mom’s Bible comes in handy. It is ideal for stealing a quick minute, or five, with God, because it is set up especially well for just such a situation.

This Bible, quite literally, has it ALL:

Easily readable NIV translation
Words of Christ in RED (I love that!)
Clear, readable font size, including footnotes
A nice concordance
A handy topical glossary
Quick studies for the Women of the Bible
8 Full-color maps of the Bible lands

Best of all, it has 1-minute Thought Starters, 5-minute Reflect and Pray passages, and 10-minute Studies, enabling busy moms to get the most out of what short snatches of time we have throughout the day. Topics include ‘God Is…’, ‘A Woman of Character’, ‘Blended Families’, and ‘Your Emotions’. There is a 10-Minute Study Index in the back, so that you can follow up the quick reading passage with more substance from God’s Word.

I must admit, I am really impressed with this Bible. It has everything I look for in a Bible. Since it comes only in Italian Duo-tone Pink/Hot Pink, it is thereby guaranteed against theft by teenage sons or husbands.

Disclosure Statement: This review is my own personal opinion, and I do not make a commission on the sale of this product, nor am I am affiliate of the publisher. I received a complimentary copy, for reviewing purposes.

Days 1 & 2 of the HOTM Online Conference

Momma Knows — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:29:43 +0000

I was sarcastic lucky enough to win a ticket to the Heart of the Matter Online homeschool conference, which started yesterday. I missed the first two sessions (*BUMMED!*) but managed to catch the 3rd & 4th sessions yesterday, and all 4 sessions today. I am SO GLAD that I was able to get a ticket!! I really needed this! It’s a nice boost, just at the right time. I would encourage you, if you aren’t already attending this awesome online event, to click the graphic above and get your ticket to the rest of the week! Also, on March 6th they will be sending out links to ALL of the MP3 audios, slides, and handouts (I believe) to all of the workshops… so if you missed any, like I did, you will be able to listen to them and have the transcripts for them, too, and you can go over them any time! I am looking forward to THAT too! Tickets are $12.95 and totally worth it!

Monday’s Workshops were:

Planning for Learning—Homeschool Planning the Charlotte Mason Way- Sheila Carroll (Missed it!) Her handouts and other things are fantastic! I got those!
Reading Aloud: The Key to Language Development – Diane Lockman(Missed it!)
Classical Astronomy: The Biblical Purpose for the Sun, Moon and Stars- Jay Ryan: Encouraged us to be sure to tie in God’s Word and purposes when studying astronomy. It was very hard to hear him though. We already studied the solar system less than a year ago, and so I confess, I sort of tuned out halfway through…
What Are You Thinking? Learning Styles and Beyond- Carol Barnier: She gave LOTS of great ideas for working with children who have vastly different learning styles than their siblings, or their mothers (LOL). Encouraged us to allow them to work within their learning style, even if it may not be logical TO US. Good stuff!

Today’s Workshops were:

Learning in Spite of Labels- Joyce Herzog: Reinforced some truths I already knew, and gave me encouragement to keep working at my son’s pace and not push! I have 2 of her books, and this was a good recap for me.
Beginning Lapbooking- Katie Kubesh: Enouraged me that I CAN lapbook with my kids, and ideas on how to be flexible with special needs. Also reminded me of HOW MUCH they can learn when it’s hung on the framework of a lapbook project.
I’m Homeschooling, but I’m NOT HAPPY- Dari Mullins: Reminded us that the only perfect person was Jesus, and that WE can’t be perfect, can’t do it all, and shouldn’t even try. Great quotes from her! “Homeschooling is NOT a sprint- Homeschooling is a marathon.” “Accept where you are, and trust God for the rest!”, “Put away paralyzing perfectionism”
Essential Science- Jim Mueller: His premise is that all of science is based on physics, and that science should be hands-on. I couldn’t agree more! He also recommended hands-on physics for ages 9+, and we’re not quite there yet so it was not the most useful one for me.

All in all I’m really glad that I have the chance to be a part of this! I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s too, especially the first 3 sessions. Bright and early for me, at 6:30am tuned in to the computer, rather than in bed until 7am, and I haven’t done my Bible in 90 Days reading for today yet, because of the conference all morning, and homeschooling the boys… Off to do that now! Hope to see more of you in the Conference chat tomorrow!