One Month and Counting

Sydney left for college a little over a month ago. This month has seen lots of tears for me but surprisingly lots of laughter and smiles too!

The day I left her there in Missouri or misery as the boys and I call it was truly one of the hardest days of my life. I am crying now just thinking back on it. Feeling her cling to me as we hugged bye was so very hard, I truly did not want to leave! I have no idea how I managed to drive all the way home.

I cried a lot the first few days, everything reminded me of her and the fact that she was not here. The first church service without her was incredibly hard despite the fact that a week had passed. We sang it is well and as soon as we got to this part: When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. I thought of my sorrow but I also thought of all the grace, love and compassion the Lord have given me the past week, all I could do was stand there singing and crying. Luckily we sit in the front so I do not think many people noticed. Of course about the time I got myself together the special that week was by a large group of the churches young ladies. There I went again. I kept thinking of how much I wanted Sydney to be there, I love to hear her sing!

As the month has passed things have gotten easier, I still walk by her room and half expect to see her but I do not burst into tears! I can shop at Joann's and can actual handle when someone ask when I will get to see her again. We are very blessed to have great cell phone plans so we talk almost daily and use face book and e-mail also to keep in touch. I do wish she would post more pictures but I am pretty bad about getting our camera out too. I am having fun putting together boxes for her and try to send one weekly.

Someone asked what the hardest part of her being gone is and I would have to say aside from just not having her here it is not being able to take care of her. She got sick a few weeks ago and it was horrible not being able to help her. Each time she called and I would hear her cough I wanted to load up the truck and go take care of her! Then today when she and said her car battery was dead and she had a flat tire I hated knowing that I was here and she was there. I offered some advice over the phone mainly do not panic first you need to find out what is wrong. Like most of us when our car breaks down we start seeing $$$ and worry often before we know what is wrong. She called student services they helped her with the battery and tire. She was able to get to a tire shop and only needed a plug in the tire that had gone flat but the mechanic found that one of her other tires was badly damaged and he could not believe that it had not blown on her. He did not have a tire that would fit so he checked her spare and found that it was a full size tire and put it on for her and fixed the piece of metal that had caused the damage to the other tire. There you go without me she handled it and was able to get all taken care of. What a great God! It is such a blessing to watch her mature and rely on God in a way that cannot happen when mom keeps stepping in and fixing everything, not to say that it is easy because it is not.

Well this has gotten longer and longer so I am going to just close it with what has helped me the most: "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7, KJV

Getting Ready For School

It is that time again, I have two weeks to finish up lesson plans and make sure everything is ready for the new school year for my boys.

We are using a hodgepodge of things again this year but mainly Sonlight for literature and history, Bob Jones for Bible, English and science and then this year instead of using Bob Jones for math we are using some Dvd's I found. The teacher is a math professor, he is very direct in his teaching and Ray prefers that. He seems very bothered when he feels his time is being wasted. Mavis Beacon for typing and some sign language DVD's for their foreign language.

We will also be doing lots of SAT prep with Ray this year, an area I failed to help Sydney with enough. She did fine on the test but I think if we had practiced more earlier and even let her take it a few times she would have felt more relaxed about it. None the less she did fine and is in college.

I stocked up on school supplies the last few months every time CVS had things "free" after ECB's. I do not think they will need anything else for the year except for a scientific calculator, Sydney took the only one we had with her.

One thing Ray especially is excited about is playing sandlot softball this year. They start this coming Friday and I think it is going to be lots of fun and give him a place to use up some of that energy he seems to always have.

Vincent will start violin up for the 6th year again next Monday and he is ready. He has been working on something his teacher gave him all summer and he thinks he has it down.

As for me I am ready to get going and excited to see what this new school year holds!

Quick Update

I am here and trying to find time to blog and such but to be honest I am trying to spend as much time as I can with Sydney before she leaves. We are having fun and trying to get everything ready but despite starting early we both feel as though we will not get it all done.

We packed up almost all the rest of her stuff tonight and I have to say it was the hardest thing I have had to do in a long time. I am so very proud of her and excited to see what mighty plans God has for her but the thought of her not being here is very hard for me. I find my self constantly praying and asking God to give me strength and the ability to keep my emotions under control. I can not even begin to describe how it feels to help your daughter pack up her stuff to leave, tears come so much easier than words!

I keep telling myself that it is only eight hours away, that is less than a day. Not to mention we have cell phones, e-mail, facebook and good old fashion pen and paper but It is just not the same. You prepare your child to go out and fulfil Gods plan for them, to witness to lost souls, comfort others and to find joy in the Lord in their own life and knowing that God has allowed me to be a part of her life is so humbling but a part of me wants to keep her here with me forever! Selfish I know but it would hardly do any good to lie.

Our plan had been to take her on the 12th, the day before orientation but today that changed to the 8th so we have even less time than we thought. I am hoping she will make early next week her last week to work so that the last week she is here we can spend relaxing and having fun.

Sydney put a post up on her blog in regards to how she is feeling about leaving if you are interested you can find it here.

Mother Daughter Quilt- Memories in the Making

When Sydney first announced last week that she wanted to make a quilt before she left, which is in about a month I thought she was crazy. However it sounded like fun and I knew it would be another great opportunity to spend time with her and make some precious memories for each of us. So my next few post will most likely be quilt updates and include some tips or things to avoid that you may find useful.

So far we have bought our fabric (minus the backing) and cut our squares. For fabric we bought 25 fat quarters in bright colors of Syd's choosing.

To cut them we lined up stacks of 4-5 and used our cutting mat, rotary cutter, ruler and a homemade cardboard template and simply started cutting. We divided it into two cutting sessions and split the cutting so neither of us wore our hand out. It went very fast with the rotary cutter!

Sydney is currently working on the pattern. I wanted her to lay it out since she will be the one cuddling up with it each night.


Tip: Always use a cutting mat when using a rotary cutter and line up your fabric. Being off even a small amount can change how every thing lines up.

If I Were You.....

If I were you I would...... If it were my child I would..... If it were up to me I would..... How many times have you heard that from someone? How many times have you said that?

I cannot count how many times in the last six months I have heard the above. Some of the time from well meaning people but other times it is just from people who think their way is the only way.

I have to admit it is easy to think our way is the best way but honestly it is not always the best way for everyone. Gods plan for each of us is so different that it is useless to try to put everyone in the same mold and say "this is the only way, this is the right way".

As I have gotten older I have found that there are too many things that we as Christians try to make right and wrong that the Bible does not specify. The most recent thing that has caused some hurt and confusion is my daughters desire to go to college. Sydney has always enjoyed school and been a great student so she had our full support. In fact from the time she was little we encouraged her to go. Then about a year or so ago Sydney had read some blogs, books and after speaking to some friends was not sure it was right to go to college aside from correspondence courses. I told her I did not see anything wrong with it nor did her dad and I hoped that she would really pray about it and seek Gods will not others. When things like this happen I try to remind our kids that God will lead them but he will also lead us as their parents and if he shows them something that in the past we have be opposed to he will change our heart too if it is His will for them. God is not a God of confusion and I do not believe he will leave a family in confusion and chaos.

Sydney continued to pray and wait on God and he eventually made everything very clear even which college to attend. Not being one to wait she immediately started making plans and almost as quickly people started coming to me with worry and opinions. Not because they had any great insight based on knowing Sydney, in fact many of them knew little bout her. They simple looked at their life or someone they knew and immediately decided it was wrong.

I have had mothers ask me why she doesn't want to marry or have kids? What does going to college now at 18 have to do with marriage and having kids? Sydney does desire to marry and have kids someday and when the time is right, Gods time, she will. Other mothers tell me horror stories about girls they knew who went to college and were ruined. Well, I know women who went to Bible college and are wonderful missionaries, wives, mothers and a few that are all the above. I have people tell me about all the dangerous things that might happen, guess what they can happen here too and the best/lamest one people ask me , do you know how expensive that is going to be? Hmmm, yes her dad and I do and we serve a mighty king who can supply for it!

When these "well meaning" people get going I try to bring them back to Jesus, He loves Sydney, and as long as she is in His will He will watch out for her and He will supply her needs. Her father and I will continue to love and pray for her just like she was living here in the house.

I could allow these peoples fears to overwhelm me, I could try to discourage Syd, I could even forbid it but what good would any of that do? The safest place for her is in Gods will and we know that for now that means going to college. Am I jumping up and down that she has chosen a college out of state? No! Am I going to miss her? Of course, she is my daughter and a friend but I truly want her to be happy and the whole point of being a parent in my opinion is to raise your child to seek Gods will and fulfil it. God is setting people up right now in MO for Sydney to witness to that only she will get to witness to, that only her journey in life will get through to them.

I guess the whole point of this post, beyond venting, is to say; stop and think before you give advice. God does not want or need cookie cutter Christians and His will for your child is not going to be the same as His will for my child.

I will Survive

This video is very cute. I laughed throughout it mainly because I could relate. We had been homeschooling for probably 5 years before some family members stopped asking when the kids were going to go to "real school".

Now look at us, this year Sydney will graduate. I feel truly blessed that I get to homeschool my kids! I am not saying it has always been easy but it has been worth it so far and I look forward to seeing what God has in store for each of them.

Christmas Break is Over

Well Christmas break is over for the kids and we started school back yesterday. I am not sure who it was harder for, me or them. It took us most of the day to get into a grove and we still did not get everything done.

Today was much better but with library and choir it was pretty late before everything was caught up and cleaned up.

The boys did seem to enjoy going back to Sonlight for their history and literature and Ray asked if he could also do the spelling work. There was no way I was going to say no to that!

Sydney seems to be moving at a pretty steady pace in order to ensure she has everything done early to graduate in May. Our goal is to be done by mid to late April but I am not going to push it. I want her to enjoy and treasure this last year of high school. We plan to go and visit some area colleges this month so please be prayer for us in that area.

Well I have several post I plan to share later this week but for now, I am off to clean up some things.

Changing to Sonlight

At least partially. Sydney has been using Sonlight for several years in everything except math and English and I used it with all three when Syd was in third grade. I have to admit that was one of my favorite years to homeschool, that and when we used Five in a Row. We all still laugh about the book King Georges Head Was Made of Lead.

We stopped using Sonlight the year I had to work full time in nursing. I just could not seem to work full time, take care of the house, and homeschool with Sonlight. That year we changed to Switched on Schoolhouse. I did not particularly like it but having the lessons plans done and no grading allowed us to continue homeshooling while I worked and Scott was in college. After two years of that I noticed a big decline in the kids reading of books and their handwriting. We then started using Bob Jones Homesat. I have thoroughly enjoyed that and so have the kids but the history is boring to them and moves at a fast pace while cramming in so much info they find it hard to remember much a few weeks after taking the test.

So with all that in mind the boys will stop using BJU in history and litterateur and start using Sonlight. They will both use the same set for this year and then next year Ray will move to the American Govt./Civics. Sydney has taken two years with it and enjoyed the books immensely with only a few exceptions. I have chosen to leave out a few of the books they suggested because of content such as A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Most of the other stories and writing assignments have been thought provoking and enjoyable for her and hope that the boys will feel the same way.

If you have never looked into Sonlight you can do so here. It is not for everyone and some of the books are questionable but just like anything you are the parent and you can pick and choose what to use. Another book I will be using with the boys is called All through the Ages by Christine Miller, it is a compilation of book titles in each time period. I will choose extra books from it to supplement the reading and to give Ray some more challenging stories to read. We will also use our transparency projector and butcher block paper to make large maps and a timeline to hang on the wall, they will then fill in the map information that goes along with each story. To us it helps to have a visual of where all these places are in relation to each other and helps them with their geography.

We have always desired for the kids to enjoy learning and not simply the memorization of facts, all though that does have its time and place. I truly feel that sliding back into Sonlight with the boys will be a great move and make school more enjoyable for us all and I have found when the enjoy it they remember more. There is nothing that can compare to curling up on the couch with a good book, even if it is a school book.

Where Does A Homeschooler Do School?

Anywhere they want to

Kitty Duty

I am still alive, I promise. These kittens are just a lot of work and suck up more than just my free time; it is like having three newborn babies! Honestly, I have no idea how moms of twins or triplets do it.

Here are two pictures I snapped this morning while they were sleeping.

These two are so plump! Sydney calls the black one Gus-Gus after the mouse in Cinderella, the other one remains nameless.


This is Treky, Vince named him. Treky is by himself this morning because the other two would not let him sleep. Little Treky is the runt and having problems staying warm and eating regularly. The other two try nursing on him every chance they get so this morning we separated him so that he could get some rest.

This is definitely turning into a learning experience for us all!

Well I better try getting some stuff done before they start crying again.

Encouraging A Love Of Reading

As I have said before I feel very blessed to have all three of my children love reading. They all learned to read at different ages, one at 6, one at 7 and one at 10. Regardless of when the learned to read independently they loved being read too from a very early age.

I truly believe their love for reading came mostly from being read to. I can still remember all of us crawling into bed and me reading to them. Another thing that I know helped was that they saw me reading. Children love to imitate. We have all see children looking at books upside down babbling to themselves.

We all know that children who enjoy reading have an easier time in school, so how do we encourage them to want to read? Well first we need to teach them how to read. It is not near as scary or as hard as you may think. Basically there are two approaches to teaching people how to read, phonetic and whole language; I found that mixing them worked best for my children. The ideas below implement both approaches.

1. Relax about your child learning to read. Some learn later than others but by third grade it seems to even out. If you are having problems relaxing try reading Better Late Than Early by the Moore's.

2. Let them see you read

3. Go to the library starting at an early age

4. Teach them to respect books

5. Let them out pick some of their books

6. Read Honey For a Child's Heart for a list of great books

7. Read to your child, pick books above their reading level to keep them intrested. They can usually comprehened about 3 levels above what they can read

8. Let your child read to you even if they can't read

9. Encourage environmental reading, Point out words on signs and labels

10. Label your house with index cards

11. Help them sound out words but stay calm, after a few tries just gently read the word for them and move on

12. Limit TV time and encourage a daily reading time, books with tapes or cd's that accompany them are fun too.

13. Set up a shelf on your bookcase just for them

14. Play rhyming games

15. When you teach them their alphabet also teach them the sound each letter makes. For vowels start with only teaching the short sound.

I also used Sing Spell Read and Write with my boys. They enjoyed the readers that came with it and had fun using the racetrack. Each new sound equaled another spot further along on the track.

A great set of readers to invest in is the Pathway readers, they all have a great moral basis, and the children are always helping their parents and each other. The entire family is featured in the story; mom and sister are always shown in a dress and the men and boys are well groomed with neat and clean hairstyles.

Feel free to leave any ideas you have in the comments section.

Homeschool Tips Part 1

Homeschooling can be a bit overwhelming when you first start out. I remember going to my first book fair, I was so overwhelmed and spent triple what I had planned to only to find out I didn't need most of it. Well as they same live and learn. Here I am 12 years later with a few tips that I think may save you some money and will definitely save you some frustration!

1. Make sure you and you husband are on the say page! I can not stress how important this is. You both must be in agreeance for this to work well.

2. Know why you are homeschooling. Trust me down the road when you get frustrated and burned out it helps. If I had simply started out saying "because we hate public schools" it probably would not have helped me stick with it. After all when you are frustrated and you remember you are doing it because God has led you to it and because you want a close knit family it is easier to say "I can do this"!

3. Have a plan as to what you want to accomplish with homeschooling. Do you simply want to educate your children, do you want to make them great public speakers, do you want them to be math geniuses, do you want them to develop Godly character? I have found for myself this is best accomplished with lots of prayer for each child, because what I want is not always what God wants. HE cares more about their character than their math test grade.

4. Evaluate your plan often. It took me several years to realize that each year I need to reevaluate myself, the kids and the curriculum we were using along with the activities we participate in. Trust me there is so much out there theses days that you can easily over schedule just as much as the public and privates schools do.

5. Make a schedule-kids need some predictability. Without a schedule it is easy to get sidetracked all day and never get school done.

6. Do school- do not go into this without the intentions of actually teaching your children.

7. Keep records even if your state does not require it. It will make getting into college later easier if you have transcripts and records. I have lots of pictures, writing assignments, field trip "stuff" and much more in my children's records. Another fun thing to do is to make a scrapbook of what you do. You are not just educating them you are building memories with them.

8. If you plan to keep grades and I suggest you do at least in middle school and high school, keep up with your grading. This is probably one of my greatest weaknesses;I get behind and then have to spend hours trying to catch up, NO FUN!

9. Let your children pick some of their readers. I feel very blessed that all three of children love to read. I think that much of their love for reading came from me allowing them to choose some of what they read.

10. Have fun, take breaks and enjoy each day; as my children get older I find myself trying to do this more and more.


Stay tuned this week, I have several more post almost finished including one on how to help your child love to read and one on saving money while homeschooling.

Back To Homeschool

It's that time again..... back to homeschooling. I have 3 posts still in draft form that I had really wanted to get up last week but instead I decided to get my ducks in row.

We start back to school the week of the 18th so I spent last week and most of this week tying up loose ends. I ordered the last of my materials, set up binders, and bought all our supplies minus what ever items we find out they need for private lessons.

I have my teacher’s guides set up, the kids have all their books minus the few that should arrive any day and we have slowly begun the process of getting up earlier.

Even though we homeschool and have for 12 years I still love to stock up on supplies when they go on sale. I usually get enough to last the entire year and pick up crayons and such for my Wednesday night class at church. You may be amazed at how fast 1-3 graders can go through crayons, honestly I had forgotten.

We will be using Bob Jones Homesat again this year for everything except literature, we use Sonlight for that.

As I got things ready I suddenly became overwhelmed by the fact that this will be the last year I homeschool my daughter, she is a senior this year! As if that was not enough by baby will be 13 in a few weeks. The older they get the faster time goes.

Stayed tuned I plan to get those three post finished up over the next day or so and posted, including some homeschooling tips.

Homeschool items for sale

Just a quick note in case any of you are looking for some homeschool curriculum at a Great price. I have listed some items on e-bay, you can view it all here. Most of it is Bob Jones high/middle school curriculum but I have a few other things including How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesssons. I will also be listing many early readers and starter chapter book later in the week.