Reaching Higher - Homeschool Blogger

4th of July

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 21:06:00 -0500

Happy 4th July everyone. It is such a blessing to live in this country. What a wonderful blessing to live in freedom. Happy 233rd birthday America!

We celebrated this Independance Day simply. We slept in due to the wonderful darkness created by the rain. We had a fantastic BBQ lunch with Jay's mom and half-sister. Later in the afternoon since the sun had come out my daughter convinced me to get in the pool with her. The experience could only be called CHILLING! The water was 68 degrees and while she was swimming and doing all kinds of flips in the water, I only stood there trying not to become a popsicle. When I could stand no more we came in for leftovers for dinner and got ready to go out to see fireworks.

Someone seemed to have lost their mind this year and all of our local firework displays happened last night! Whoever heard of shooting of 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd of July!!! Luckily we found this out before we drove out to see them. So we decided to end the 4th of July sitting on the couch with homemade brownies and watching the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.

Hope your 4th of July has been great. Don't forget to thank God for the blessing of living in this great country.

Shannon

Unbridled Joy

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:11:00 -0500

I am currently watching my daughter and her best friend play Horseopoly. They are giggling and laughing at the silliest things, and naming all their horses. It is fun to watch! They are showing full expressions of joy and it is contagious as I sit here smiling and watching them.

It has been another fun but busy week. This week started with surgery to remove a cyst on my shoulder. That went well and I am healing nicely.

The night of my surgery Sarah and I went to the Muny to see "Annie". It was fantastic. I felt great and thanks to my wonderful husbands 'taxi service' I did not have to drive. The show was great and the weather was perfect.

We have been taking it pretty easy this week since then. Yesterday we visited my parents and today we went to my daughter's friend's band concert. It was a lot of fun and we decided to kidnap the kids after the concert and bring them back to our house. Some of them were even brave enough to get into our new pool. (The old one got several holes in it and we had to start new. It is still filling up and the water is REALLY COLD! But you just can't keep kids out of water. They had fun.

Shannon

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:46:00 -0500

"You may have been told, 'I just do not think God would want me to be unhappy.' Really? Let me see if I get this straight. The spotless, sinless Lamb of God, He crushed and killed, for your sin, not his, but you He wouldn't want unhappy. Who do you think you are? Unhappy might be right where God wants you to be to bring maximum glory to Himself."

Voddie Baucham

Something to ponder

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:03:00 -0500

"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher."

Luke 6:40

What a week!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:45:00 -0500

What a week! This particular week is always a doozy but it seemed to be even more so this year.

This week is VBS. Our church does VBS at night which I like because I still have the full day to get things done. However VBS and the homeschool conference always fall in the same week. Always, without fail. Therefore we miss two nights of VBS. VBS has gone well this week and I have enjoyed working with the 1st graders again. Timmy really likes his class, they made pancakes last night! Sarah enjoyed her class as well although she only made 2 of the 5 nights with the homeschool conference and tonight she is going to a Cardinal game! Lot's of fun for her, she is also going to the Magic House today! One more night of VBS tonight and things will settle down a bit.

The homeschool conference was great as always. The only downside to this year was that I got a booth to sell my book at therfore I did not get to sit in on any of the workshops in person. I bought lots of CD's as a result! The speakers were all great although Voddie Baucham was my favorite by far.

This Sunday night starts our summer of Sunday evening House church which we are co-hosting again this year. This is always a great time (and a great incentive to keep the house clean!)

I will be somewhat glad when next week starts, although it begins with surgery to remove a small benign cyst off my shoulder Monday morning and Sarah and I going to the Muny to see Annie Monday night! Yeah, you could pray about that if you'd like! Nothing boring at our house!

Shannon

Free Home Ec Course!

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:35:00 -0500

I just saw this on Money Saving Mom and wanted to share it with you. Click on the following link to receive your very own free Home Ec Course. This is a great course from Future Christian Homemakers. You can view the course on-line or save it to your computer in a PDF format. I am so excited about this resource. Thanks Heather, for telling me about it.

Shannon

Swagbucks

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:17:00 -0500

I have talked to you about Swagbucks before but I wanted to let you know that I just got my first reward for being a part of it! I chose a $10 Starbucks gift card as my first prize, but you can choose anything from baseball cards to i-phones! (The amount of swagbucks you have to earn are obviously different based on the prize you choose!)

Seriously, if you haven't signed up yet you really should. All you have to do is search through the swagbucks search engine to earn swagbucks. It's that simple! They also have other ways to earn swagbucks like codes they post on places like Facebook and Twitter, but I earned most of mine just by searching.

You can visit Swagbucks by clicking on the "Search and Win" referral box in my sidebar! Enjoy your searching!

Shannon

Slowing down

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:16:00 -0500

Life is finally starting to slow down around here! We are doctor/dentist visit free till the end of the month (Lord willing) and we are fully enjoying it. After 3 weeks straight of at least 2 doctor/dentist visits a week it is a nice change.

One of the unexpected doctor visits we had was for my shoulder. I have a small cyst that has been there for quite some time but it got infected all of the sudden. The infection is now gone but I have to have the cyst removed. Most of these things can be done in the doctor or surgeon's office, but just because I am so special I have to have it done in the hospitial. It figures, last year after we took Timmy to the ER I had to go to the hospital for gall bladder surgery. This year Timmy went to the ER for a myster leg issue and here I am, scheduled for surgery again! At least this surgery is not so invasive and it is scheduled for June 29th.

On a more fun note we got our pool up and running. We moved it from it's previous location so it will get more sun and less tree debris. We are excited about the prospect of warmer water, if it would just stop raining!

Looking forward to the slower pace of summer....

Shannon

Stay At Home Mom? -- Hah!!!!!

Thu, 28 May 2009 17:04:00 -0500

Who is it that thought up the title "Stay At Home Mom" for the women who don't work outside the home? I have not been home for two days in a row for the past 3 weeks! Gratefully this is not normal for our lives, but it seems to be a recent trend. In the past week we have been to the oral surgeon twice and the orthodontist once. Then I had to throw in a doctor's visit for myself unexpectedly. We've been to graduation parties, funerals, church and other general errand running.

Tomorrow I will be home (at least as far as I know) but then off again on Saturday and Sunday. I was looking forward to maybe being home all next week but we have one more follow-up to the oral surgeon next Tuesday. Who knows the next time I will have two days at home in a row. So for now, if someone asked me, "Do you work outside the home or stay at home?" I would have to laugh and say neither!

Shannon

The 21 Rules of This House

Sun, 24 May 2009 17:26:00 -0500

We have this list posted on the refrigerator in our kitchen. Many people ask me if they can have a copy when they are at our house so I thought I would post it here.

The 21 Rules of This House

In This House…

1. We obey or Lord Jesus Christ.

2. We love, honor and pray for one another.

3. We tell the truth.

4. We consider one another’s interests ahead of our own.

5. We speak quietly and respectfully with one another.

6. We do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds.

7. When someone needs correction, we correct him in love.

8. When someone is sorry, we forgive him.

9. When someone is sad, we comfort him.

10. When someone is happy, we rejoice with him.

11. When we have something nice to share, we share it.

12. When we have work to do, we do it without complaining.

13. We take good care of everything God has given us.

14. We do not create unnecessary work for others.

15. When we open something, we close it.

16. When we turn something on, we turn it off.

17. When we take something out, we put it away.

18. When we make a mess, we clean it up.

19. When we do not know what to do, we ask.

20. When we go out, we act just as if we were in this house.

21. When we disobey or forget any of the 21 Rules of This House, we accept the discipline and instruction of the Lord.