Busy Homeschool Days

Easy Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2012-02-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

I made an absolutely gorgeous loaf of bread the other night and had to share the picture & recipe. I've made this recipe numerous times and it has yet to fail on me. It actually makes a soft sandwich loaf, which is pretty amazing for whole wheat! And best of all, its easy! I use my bread machine's dough cycle to do the mixing & raising and then pull the dough out and put in a loaf pan for the best shape. I think the oven does a much better job baking than my bread machine does as well.

100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
This recipe is adapted from Tammy's 100% Whole Wheat Bread posted at Kitchen Stewardship

1 egg + warm water to equal 1 C
1 Tbs. plain, full fat yogurt
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. melted butter or coconut oil
3 Tbs. honey
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I don't usually measure, I just take a pinch. And don't worry if you don't like ginger ~ you absolutely can't taste it!)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 C vital wheat gluten
3 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp active yeast

Add ingredients into bread machine as listed (or as instructed by your bread machine instructions). Put on dough cycle. When the dough cycle is finished, shape the dough into a loaf and place in a loaf pan. Cover with a towel, place in some place warm and let rise for about 30 minutes until doubled in size. It rises pretty quickly! When the rise time is just about complete, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread at 350 for 30-35 minutes until internal temperature of the bread reaches 200 degrees. I take the temperature of the bread every time, and 200 degrees makes the perfect loaf! You know it's not under baked if it reaches that temperature!

I love how every loaf is unique. I thought this funny curl in the heel added much character!

The hubby and Bug taste-tested this loaf as night snack. I made them toast with peanut butter and Bug had a glass of raw milk to go with it. I don't think there is anything more perfect to eat before going to bed.

This post linked up to: Simple Lives Thursday
Pennywise Platter

Menu Plan Monday

2012-01-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

I've failed in the department of actually posting our menu plans, but rest assured, I have been planning. It doesn't mean I always stick to what's been planned. But I have been doing it!

We've moved into a two-week menu plan routine. This is due to the fact that since we moved in September, we no longer have half a dozen good grocery stores in our local town. I can't find half of what I want and what I can find is a lot more expensive. So I've taken to driving almost 45 minutes one-way to get to the stores I really want to shop at. I do this about once a month and supplement with the local stores the rest of the month (unless we happen to drive out of town for something else). So I make a two-week meal plan before I go on my big shopping trip and then another two-weeks based around the local stores' sales and what we have left in our pantry. I did my big shopping trip yesterday ~ 4 stores, 5 hours total (including driving and a short conversation I had with a friend!). It feels good to have food in the house again!!

Sunday (yesterday): Soup Night ~ Cabbage Soup, Buttered Toast
Monday: Chef Salad w/ Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza: Pepperoni, Mushroom & Black Olive
Wednesday: Baked Potatoes w/ Broccoli, Cheese, & Diced Beef Bacon
Thursday: Slow Cooker Enchiladas
Friday: Baked Salmon, Kale, & Challah Bread
Saturday: Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes on Toast, Steamed Veggie

Sunday: Soup Night ~ Split Pea w/ Turkey Ham, Fresh Bread
Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad, & Garlic Toast
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza: Ground Beef, Pineapple & Black Olive
Wednesday: Baked Potatoes w/ Broccoli, Cheese, & Diced Beef Bacon
Thursday: Salmon Patties, Rolls, & Veggie
Friday: Falafel, Pita Bread, Hummus & Veggie
Saturday: Slow Cooker Chicken & Rice Casserole, Steamed Veggie

You may have noticed some similarities between the two weeks. We are attempting to repeat some of our favorite meals to ease meal planning. Hubby and Bug love baked potatoes. And it's such a frugal, easy meal that I'm happy to comply. And we all love pizza. There is no reason we can't have homemade pizza once a week! Saturday's meals are slow cooker because we are gone most of the day for church. Every now and then we won't make it home in a timely manner, so I want to make sure that what's in the slow cooker can stay cooking for long periods without getting burned. I might look at setting a timer for the slow cooker as well.

Linked up to Menu Plan Monday @ OrgJunkie.com

Lego Man!

2012-01-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Bug has been participating in Sketch Tuesday over at Harmony Art Mom. Every Tuesday, she posts a new 'assignment' that kids (& moms) are to draw. Then scan the drawing & email it to her. The next week she posts a slideshow with all the drawings that were submitted, along with the new assignment.

This weeks assignment was 'Super Heroes'. Bug knew immediately what he wanted to draw. LEGO Man is Bug's super hero persona. He can turn anything into LEGO pieces. This can be especially troublesome when he turns one's legs into LEGO. Have you ever tried walking without bending your knees and your hips can only move your leg forward?

If you click on over to this week's assignment page and take a look at the slideshow, you can find Bug's drawing of Tasty Tea-Time Treats for last week's assignment. I believe it's picture #12.

Bug is really enjoying seeing is pictures online like this. He often reminds ME that it's Tuesday.

2011 Top Ten

2012-01-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

It was quite a year! At the beginning of 2011, I was working as a nanny watching seven, yes SEVEN, kids. We were living in Corvallis in a little apartment that we really didn't like. At the end of April, I lost my job (a huge blessing in disguise!) Nyal graduated with his associates degree in June. He started a new job in September which led us to Woodburn. We now live in a much nicer duplex in a neighborhood. I'm still not working (the longest I've gone without a job since I was pregnant) and Bug and I have been enjoying our time together. I do need to find some part time work, but I'm not complaining too much yet! I'm looking forward to what 2012 has in store for us!

Thank You, Veterans!

2011-11-11T11:46:00.001-08:00

Freedom isn't free ~ And you paid for the bill.

Weekly Wrap Up ~ Week 1 {Grade 3!}

2011-10-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

We are back at the beginning of a new year! After taking a couple months off for moving and the Feast of Tabernacles, we are back to school!

We found an alive but un-moving crab on the beach!

Our week started off with a couple field trips. Monday, my mom came down and we explored some of the local farms, markets, and pumpkin patches. It was a gorgeous fall day (although a bit chilly) and we had a lot of fun. Tuesday, we headed with my mom to the Oregon Coast! It was cold, but it was still the beach!

We also checked out the Lewis & Clark Salt Works. This site is where Lewis & Clark boiled sea water to extract the salt. The salt was used to cure and preserve meat for their journey home. There is a lot of Lewis & Clark history in the area (it is where they spent the winter!) and I look forward to exploring it more with Bug!

The rest of the week we focused on getting the kinks worked out of our schedule. I had originally planned on using this week for planning instead of school, but I really wanted to jump into a routine. So the school side was a little light, but we're learning what works and what doesn't.

With our more open schedule, Bug is now able to pull out bigger projects (and I'm less likely to veto them because of the mess). On Wednesday, he rediscovered his Egyptian Tomb dig. He spent many hours working on it. Hopefully he'll actually be able to extract some treasures from it next week!

This afternoon, I'm making Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake to take to Growth Club (Bible Study). I am also going to attempt some organization of the pantry. It's about time that all the food is out of boxes, don't you think?

~*~*~*~

Linked to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

{We've had a fun-filled first couple days of school. I'll share more on Friday, but for now I'll just leave you with this.}

Strength

2011-10-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

BzzAgent Review: TrueCare - Awareness Online

2011-09-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

I have recently become a BzzAgent. BzzAgent is an international network of consumers who voluntarily participate in word-of-mouth (WOM) programs for a variety of products and services. Basically, we're a community of communicators. As a BzzAgent, I can receive services and products to try and then I'm supposed to 'Bzz' (buzz) about them. This basically means I get to share my thoughts on the products - in a variety of ways.

The first thing I got to review was actually a service. TrueCare is an online service that monitors your child's social media accounts and lets you know when s/he posts something objectionable, or when a friend does. It will also alert you when your child friends an adult.

Since my son is only 8, he doesn't have any social media accounts to monitor. To test the program, I set it up on my own twitter & FB accounts. One thing you need to know is you must have access to your child's account - or your child must approve the applications on their social media accounts. If your child isn't okay with this, that's probably a clue that you've already got a problem.

After linking up my TrueCare account with my Twitter and Facebook accounts, I was immediately bombarded with alerts. The alerts are VERY thorough. I was warned every time a friend mentioned drinking (anything, not just alcohol), guns, fire, needles or even stupid (to warn of possible online bullying). I was also alerted for every friend that I had that was an adult (Facebook) or was not in a circle with other friends (Twitter).

There were a lot of alerts (I do have quite a few adult friends!). Although the alerts are the important part about the service, I wanted a way to turn off or condense the alerts - but I couldn't find that option. It would be very helpful to have the option to just receive one email at the end of the day letting me know what things TrueCare were alerted by and a link to view the report on their website. It would also be helpful to be able choose on the specific words or actions you want them to email you about, and then you can view the rest of them online.

On the TrueCare website, you can filter the alerts to specific days or to look for specific words (to view online, but not what gets emailed to you). This could be especially useful if you are looking for a specific thing in your child's communications. One helpful thing is the words they are alerting you about are shown in context. This makes it much easier to determine if it something to be concerned about. It also gives you links directly to the post/profile/etc so, you don't have to go wallowing on your child's profile to find the information.

Over all, I would say TrueCare is a very good idea for those wanting a way to keep track of their child's social media accounts. It has some improvements it can make with it's alert system, but I will be looking into it more when my son gets to the point that he is doing a lot of social media.

I can't wait to receive the next product I'm reviewing (it's in the mail)!

Do your children have social media accounts? If they do, how do you monitor what they say and do on them?

Moving On Up!

2011-09-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Come this Sunday, this is what my dear hubby is going to look like, along with a few of our friends. I'll be able to get out of a lot of the heavy lifting because of my poor back.

We are moving! And we are so excited! Our place is going to be bigger (not a lot, but enough) and we'll have a double car garage and a large backyard. We'll be in a duplex instead of an apartment building.

We should be able to even have people over! {gasp!} I will post pictures and share more about it after the move. Until then, I will be quite silent on here as I need to focus on packing!

Credit: Free images from acobox.com

Weekly Report: Summer is Almost Over!

2011-09-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a weekly report recently. Mostly because I don't think about it. Fridays are busy for us. Cleaning and cooking in preparation for the Sabbath. Plus we usually have some errands to run.

This week though, I really want to share some pictures and thought I'd turn the post into a weekly report.

In our home life, Nyal got a job!! Woohoo! He graduated in June with an Associates in Drafting and has been looking for work all summer. He started on Tuesday. It's about an hour and half from where we are living, so we are splitting our time between him commuting the whole way and staying with my mom who lives closer to his work. We are looking for a place closer (but still close to our church family). We put an application in for a duplex and are hoping to hear back early next week.

On the homeschool side of things, we have been pretty laid back ~~this summer~~ all the time. We have a goal of getting through Story of the World - Volume 1 before we leave for Feast (only four and half weeks!). If we don't quite get through, I'm not worried. Bug has listened to the whole thing through on CD and we can check it out again to give him some review after the Feast. We'll also finish up what we can in earth science before the Feast. I was hoping to do astronomy this summer too, but I think we'd prefer to spend more time on it and we'll do it right after the Feast.

We dove into ancient Rome this week. Bug's loving it, as he has all of ancient history. If asked, he'll tell you history is his favorite subject. We'll spend more time next week exploring Roman life. We checked out many many books from the library today.

We took a brief look at volcanoes today and Bug drew a diagram of a cone volcano. He did a pretty good job, injecting his boy personality into it.

It's hard to see, but there dead people at the base of the volcano!

Earlier in the week we celebrated 'Not Back to School Day', the day public schools open for the year. We enjoyed our homeschool freedom by having a cup of frozen yogurt!

He's enjoying himself, I promise! The sun was in his eyes though!

Today we had more summer fun by building a solar oven out of a pizza box! We made it into an experiment to see how hot it was inside the solar oven versus the inside of a plain pizza box.

The solar oven definitely got hotter! The outside thermometer read almost 110* (after sitting in the sun - it was really only about 93*). The inside of the solar oven got to 130* (in about 15 minutes) and the regular pizza box was only at 100*! After watching our chocolate melt on our graham crackers, we enjoyed a couple s'mores. The ones from the solar oven were definitely more melted and tasted much better!

So that was our week. I'm hoping next week is a little more calm. With Nyal taking our only car to work, it makes us stick around home a bit more! :)

Linked up @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

2011-08-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

8 Years Ago Today....

A sweet little boy was born.

He stole my heart....

1 year later....

He was making messes....

And now today...

He's grown so big. I can see the man he's going to become.

Happy Birthday, Bug!

2011-12 School Year Curriculum - 3rd Grade

2011-08-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Everyone is talking about the 'Back to School' time. Here in Oregon, school doesn't actually start until after Labor Day, but that doesn't stop people talking about it!

Online, the homeschooling community has been talking about it for months. The talk isn't about buying school supplies (well, sometimes it is!) and sending the kids off, though. The big question is "What are you using next year?"

That's the question over at Heart of the Matter this week. All month, they are hosting the "Not" Back to School Blog Hop. This week is Curriculum Week.

We will not be starting our 2011-2012 school year until October 31. We are still finishing up our 2010-11 year! But I wanted to join in the fun of "Not" Back to School time! Even though we don't start for a few months, I've still got our plan figured out. It's hard not to join in the fun and excitement of thinking about next year!

Bug will be 8 in just a couple weeks and will be entering 3rd grade! (Seriously, how has this happened?)

Bible: We will continue to work through the New Testament stories. We read through a small passage then discuss and/or narrate. I've found this to be a good way to impart our specific understandings and beliefs for each section.

Language Arts:

~ Bug will continue using copywork, working his way into transcription. The goal is to get him focusing on the spelling and sentence structure of what he's copying. Not just the handwriting. His copywork selections will come from a variety of sources, including Bible scriptures, literature, history, and poetry.

~ I haven't finalized a literature list for the year. We'll be doing a lot of read alouds and I might assign some books specifically to Bug as literature.

~ Grammar will be covered using GrammarLand and a variety of living books, including those by Ruth Heller and Brian Cleary.
~ Bug has started learning cursive (at his request) and he will continue with that as well. I am making practice pages for him using the StartWrite program.

History: The Story of the World:The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, including use of the activity guide. Much of our literature will match up with what we are studying in history as well.

Science: Chemistry will be done using Noeo Chemistry 1 as a basic schedule and book list and adding in experiments from Adventures With Atoms and Molecules and Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid.

Hebrew: We'll continue to truck along with our makeshift, homemade curriculum. I'm still making this up as I go along, but I'm hoping to make it up a little bit more ahead of time this year so we can work harder at it. I'd like to start reading the book of Ruth in Hebrew by the end of the year.

Math: Still using MEP (and still loving it!). We'll be finishing up year 2 and moving into year 3.

Critical Thinking / Logic: Building Thinking Skills: Level 1 (finish and possibly go into Level 2). Mind Benders or other logic problems.

Art & Music: I'd like to start doing composers and artists of the month. But I have not figured out what to do for this yet.

As you can see, I haven't completely figured everything out yet. But since we still have about three months before we start next school year, I'm not worried yet. As I have the time and resources I'll take care of the last of the details.

Now that you've seen what we're doing this school year, head over to the blog hop and see what everyone else is doing!

Summer Finally!

2011-07-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying the summer that has finally come to the Pacific Northwest!

Bug is so proud of himself. He's able to get himself going very high on the swing - BY HIMSELF!

Taking a walk in the evening sun.

Lego Creation Thursday: Empire Band

2011-07-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Michelle over at My Blessings from Above usually hosts Lego Creation Thursday. I haven't seen one for the past few weeks, but Bug had a cool creation he wanted to share with everyone.

Empire Band

The band is made up of all Empire members, except R2D2 who was captured and forced to be a drum!

As you can see, we've got violins, guitars, flutes, trumpets and a set of drums (complete with cymbals!)

And who else to be the conductor of the band, but Darth Vader! Don't play a note out of place, or you just might get it!

Wetlands!

2011-05-30T20:36:00.001-07:00

We didn’t have much planned for today, Memorial Day. It was mostly just going to be an extra day that Nyal didn’t have school. We decided to go to Kung Fu Panda 2 in the afternoon. It was forecasted to be rainy and not very warm.

Well late morning we realized it was anything but rainy. The sun was out and we wanted to get outside a bit before our scheduled movie date. So we just started driving near the movie theater and found a little hidden treasure. We’d seen the signs many times, but had never taken the time to explore it.

Jackson-Frazier Wetland is a swampy wetland with a 2/3 mile long boardwalk built through it. It felt a world away from town. Especially with the plethora of birds giving us music!

The boardwalk went through the high grasses as well as under the trees and around to a large pond. Along the way were observation points with interpretive signs giving information about the history of the area and identifying both animals and plants in the wetland.

The most common bird we saw was a red-winged black bird. They were hanging out on the tops of the cattails.

We also heard a number of birds that we don’t know what they were. Such an interesting variety of sounds greeted us throughout the entire walk.

There were plenty of water beetles and tadpoles. And a couple Wooly Bear caterpillars! We were told by another visitor that come later in summer there are so many of these furry friends that its hard to walk without stepping on them!

We definitely have plans to come back. We’d love to come in the evening and hear the frogs and maybe in the morning to hear more birds. I’m thinking it would be a fun place for some nature study too!

147 Days Later

2011-05-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

I originally signed up to read the Bible in 90 days. Do you know how hard that is? It's a lot of reading. I did pretty OK for a while, but I started falling behind and it just didn't happen. But I never stopped reading. I figured even if it took me a full year, or two. Reading the Bible cover to cover is an amazing thing to do.

And I can happily say I've done it. I've read from the very first "In the beginning God created" to the last "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.Amen."

Now to figure out where to go from here. I have a list of things I want to study, the problem is picking one! What ever it is I do, nothing will be like the feeling I have today of knowing that I've read all of the word of God. And in only 147 days!

Read Aloud Thursday: Island of the Minotaur

2011-05-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

It’s time for another Read Aloud Thursday! Although we are reading many other things, I’m sharing with you our history read aloud from last week. Island of the Minotaur by Sheldon Oberman is full of Greek myths that give a history of the island of Crete.

If you ask Bug, he’ll say he loved this book. It’s full of adventure and monsters and heroes. What 7 year old boy wouldn’t love it? I can’t say that I loved it, but it was definitely a fun read. Mr. Oberman did a fantastic job of bringing the myths down to a level that could be enjoyed by older elementary age children.
The book is mostly text with an illustration thrown in every couple pages. The illustrations are a bit odd and exaggerated, but fun and interesting as well.
This was an enjoyable way to learn some of the history of Crete. Little is known about the ancient history. The last chapter of the book gives a true-life account of the man who discovered most of what we do know about ancient Crete.
I must put in this disclaimer though. There are some violent and gruesome parts to some of the stories. It is not intended for young children. At 7, Bug is probably at the young end and only because he is not especially sensitive to the type of violence that it contains. It is not overly descriptive, and could probably be censored out, but it is there.

One Word Wednesday - “Huh?”

2011-05-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

{When did my baby turn into a big kid??}

Owl Puke!

2011-05-08T21:50:00.001-07:00

Now that I’ve got your attention, let me point you over to Baby Steps and her giveaway for Owl Pellets. For those not in the know, that’s owl puke! That’s right, she’s giving away owl puke.

What’s the fun in that, you may ask? Well, because you can dissect them and find out what the owl had for lunch! Seriously! I remember doing this many times when I was a kid (I ~~was~~ am a science nerd) and I’d love to share this experience with Bug. We studied some animals last year, but really didn’t get to touch on birds. I know Bug would have a blast with this.

So head on over and check out her post and enter to win if you are so inclined!

Lego Creation Thursday – The Restaurant Edition

2011-05-05T10:55:00.001-07:00

Ahh, we get to participate in LCT again! I’m so excited!

Up this week, Bug has created for us The Soup Restaurant.

I had to add in this last picture, as Bug was very excited I let him dump out his big tub of LEGO this morning!

Read Aloud Thursday: The Wizard of Oz

2011-05-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

This week I'm participating in Read Aloud Thursday from Hope Is the Word. I thought this would be a good way to share some of the books we read throughout the week.

In our house there is always at least two read aloud books going on. One is our nightly family read. These include Daddy. Either he reads and Bug sits on my lap, or the other way around. We also have at least one read aloud that Bug and I read for school. This is often tied into history but sometimes we'll read a children's classic.

Today I'm going to review our most recent nightly read. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. This is a classic that was first published in 1899. We recently watched the full length movie produced in the '30s, so when we came across this book on our shelves we knew it had to be next on our list.

We haven't been disappointed. It's enough different from the movie to keep us on our toes. It's full of adventure and excitement (important when reading it to a 7 year old boy). I love the little lessons that are taught throughout. I love the little instances of Dorothy's friends showing the character traits they are wanting to get. Scarecrow's brains, Tin Woodman's heart, and most of all the Lion's courage.

One of my favorite quotes has to be when Oz is telling the Lion that he already has courage:

All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. True courage is facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have plenty.

Of course, the Lion still requests he be given courage from Oz. Who uses his humbug ways to give all Dorothy's friends what they so desire.

Don't be fooled thinking that you've seen the classic movie so you don't need to read the book. It is as much fun as the movie (especially if you've seen the movie many times and can sing the songs throughout the book!) Mr. Baum actually wrote a number of Oz books, and they are available for free from Gutenberg. We'll have to give another one a try and see if we enjoy it as well!

Treasure Hunting

2011-04-10T09:48:00.001-07:00

We’ve been going to the library every Thursday for preschool story time. Bug either participates or just plays/reads in the children’s section of the library while I take all the littles into story time.

Because of the time crunch, I don’t get much time to spend browsing the shelves for books. Sometimes Bug will pick out a new book or two. Or we’ll quickly grab what we have on hold. But *I* never get to just browse.

Last week we had about half an hour that we were able to spend ‘playing’ at the library. I only had Mr. C and Mr. J. (As well as Bug) This made browsing the children’s shelves (which are plentiful at our library) more manageable while the boys played.

Between my grabs and the boys’ grabs (mainly Mr. C) I ended up checking out 8 picture books. This may not seem like a lot to many of you, but Bug and I have gotten out of the picture book routine. He’s reading on his own now and our night time reads have been chapter books.

Bug has read almost all the picture books we got (to himself!). It made me remember that he is still a little boy and I should still be reading this kind of stuff to him too! We do read to the littles at work, but they enjoy the very simple preschool books for the most part. They don’t sit well for books so they have to be short and sweet.

Although Bug enjoys some of those, he also loves a good picture book. Charlotte Mason called them living books. I call them treasures. They make the subject come alive with the words and pictures contained in them. I know there are many treasures in our library. Some of them have been found. There are huge lists of living books available to choose from.

I don’t want to just read from a list though. I want to see what treasures I can find in the shelves of my library. I might be re-discovering books that are already on these lists. But they become treasures when I find them hidden among the rows.

I don’t expect to find only living book treasures. There will also be some treasures that are just a great entertaining book, they don’t all have to teach us something. There will also be the occasional dud, which may be entertaining the first time through but loses its shine after that. I expect I’ll occasionally bring home a book that isn’t even entertaining the first time through.

I’m looking forward to showing Bug how to hunt for treasures and then bringing them home to share with each other.

Do you like to go hunting for treasure at your library? Or do you just reserve the books you already know are good?

This is the stuff…

2011-03-17T18:14:00.001-07:00

That gets under my skin.

I absolutely adore this song. It is speaking right to my heart these days. Everything seems to be getting under my skin. But instead of letting it all affect me, I need to be learning the lessons God needs me to learn.

But I've gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
Might not be what I might choose but this is the stuff You use

Every time I hear this song, I turn it up, sing along, and then take a deep breath and run through the last little of my day and see how I could have had a more Christian attitude.

And then I thank God for all the blessings that I do have. Kids at work driving me nuts? I’m thankful I have a job! Can’t find my car keys? So glad I have one and can (for the time being) pay for gas.

In the middle of little my mess
I forget how big I'm blessed