Learning with Lapbooks

Blessings have been all around me lately! I am thanking God for the doors He has been steadily opening. Let me catch you up to speed on the most recent thing I am doing. As I'm sure you know by now, I like to talk. Well now people will be paying to hear what I have to say! As of today I am the newest author for Media Angels, Inc. I have written a Thanksgiving Lapbook and have two more in the works as we speak!! I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl and thanks to my dear friend and mentor Felice Gerwitz that dream is finally coming true. God started me on this amazing journey a year ago when He led me down the path of homeschooling my son Braydon. Now that lifestyle and all that goes with it has erupted in my life! Our wonderful family has supported our decision whole-heartedly making the change in our lives that much easier. Now I am able to take two of the gifts God has given me and mold them into one terrific product!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me during this entire process and a BIG thank you to my sweet hubby! Randy has cooked dinner, tended to Braydon, done laundry and virtually been Mr. Mom in these last days before releasing the book. I could not have asked for a better helpmate! God has truly shown His faithfulness to fulfill His plans for me! I'm just trying to learn to stay out of His way.

Are YOU Turning a Blind Eye Too??

Recently I learned that even though my 9 yr. old son is obsessed with WWII  that he had NO IDEA what the Holocaust was! So as my curiosity caused me to stumble onto this video and I watched the first 7 minutes I was excited to watch it so I could then share it with him!
Little did I know what the true content of the video was! A fellow blogger that I follow has spent several months promoting "180movie.com" and even painted a HUGE sign of the logo for her front yard. I see her posts all of the time but haven't stopped to see what it was all about. Well, today I did and was I shocked! I urge you to watch the video below with your family, ESPECIALLY if you have teens! Then get involved! I drive by a specific building EVERY SINGLE DAY and never give a thought to what goes on "in my own backyard"! Thank you Jenn Hoskins for your efforts to get this information out and for continuing to do so!

What are the symptoms?

Sitting at dinner tonight with my hubby and son, the conversation turns to my mother who has been away on a cruise for the last week. As I explain to my husband that while she had a good time, I think she's a little homesick. To which Braydon questions "What happens when you get homesick? I mean like where do you feel bad?" And it occurred to me that my child has never had to be homesick in all of his 9 1/2 years! The thought of that brings a smile to my face. I love that we are so close and spend so much time together that he has never been away long enough to "miss" us.
Don't get me wrong, he's been on the occasional overnight-er and wanted to come home before the morning, but never has he gone away alone or had to be left behind for a number of days. Right now, where I am in my life, I can't imagine leaving him behind while we went away. I wouldn't want him to miss out on anything that we might see or do! Having him with us, even though at times I think I could drink a vat of Calgon, just makes every experience that much better!!
I am so blessed to have such an amazing little boy in my life! I thank God for entrusting him to me for such a time as this, until we return to our Father. What an awesome feeling to know you are caring for one of God's children. If you are a parent, be it biological or adoptive, stop and think for a minute just what that means...
God has put you in charge of one of his most prized possessions! He felt you capable and committed enough to care for His special gems! Be grateful! Not just for your child but for a God that knows you so completely that he sent you a precious gift that fit you so perfectly and that only YOU could give the love God intends!!
A dear friend reminded me tonight how special this time is... right now! Whether you are the mother of older children, a sweet newborn or somewhere in between; this time is priceless! Cherish it, thank God for it and always show your children what it means to you!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."                                                           ~Psalm 127:3-5

Alot Can Happen In A Month!

Wow, I knew I was busy, but a whole month since my last post? Sheesh! I gotta get on the ball here!! Well here's a recap of all the great things God has done in my life in the last 31 days... and boy has He been busy! 

We have completed the Ultimate Back To School Blast and are gearing up for the Ultimate Special Needs Blast. I got all of this years curriculum lined out and even got a couple of weeks planned (which is good since we start in 10 minus SIX DAYS!!!). We kicked off the new school year for the youth group and Randy and I serving as Lifeguards (youth coaches)! We are both so excited to be working with the amazing group of kids!!! Plus Kay is in the youth so that's going to be a pretty neat experience for us!! Randy has started work on the Permian Basin Fair and we'll probably only see him in passing for the next couple of weeks. And we're about to embark on an awesome experience through our church called The Tabernacle Experience. 

This is a life-size interactive Tabernacle of The Wilderness. I am so excited to be a part of this! If you are within driving distance, I urge you to make a trip to visit this exhibit. It will be open Friday, September 30th through Sunday, October 9th from 9 am to 8 pm everyday. And if you're a homeschooling mom I think this would be a great opportunity for your kids! We don't have many "field trip" destinations around here and this is a an excellent chance for them to witness something they can't see anywhere else!! 

“When the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel followed it. And where the cloud settled, the people of Israel camped. In this way, they traveled at the Lord’s command and stopped wherever he told them to. So they camped or traveled at the Lord’s command, and they did whatever the Lord told them.” Numbers 10

How many of us follow God's lead the way the people of Israel did? Do you seek the Lord's guidance in everything? I'm afraid for some of us this is all too rare a concept! I encourage you to grab your Bible and LISTEN to what the Father is asking of you! LISTEN to what he wants to reveal! And LISTEN to where he wants you to go!! 

And remember to teach your child how to hear Him too!

I am so excited to get to travel through this intimate experience with my own child!

  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates" Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Well, that about wraps up the month of August! 

I hope you are all having a great start to your school year!!

Is that a snake????

Ever stop to think about the things we encountered as children that were just a part of life? I don't very often, but his morning something happened that made me do just that!
Braydon comes running in from the backyard, concerned about a sound he heard near our trees. He described it as sounding like a rattlesnake that just kept getting louder and louder then stopped. His poor little heart had skipped a beat because her thought we actually might has a rattler in the yard. I knew immediately what he heard and I'm sure most of you do too.
Yep! It was a locust! LOL
It had never occurred to me that he had never seen or heard a locust.
When I was a kid they were as common as ladybugs or ants. I even remember nap time on Sunday afternoons when they were so loud I could hear then INSIDE the house!
Once again, God has afforded me an opportunity to teach my child about his AMAZING creations AND tell him a little bit about my past.

A New Room For A New Year!

Well, it sure has been a while! We have been busy! Lots if changes in our house this summer! One of the bioggest and most obvious if the reniovation on our home! We closed in our garage and converted it to a new classroom/office for Braydon and myself. We have so much room now we really aren’t sure what do to with it all!! Projects will no longer be housed on the dining room table and Braydon got a new deck JUST FOR HIM!!

This is what we started with… (sadly this isn’t one of those “before” pics that you intentionally try to make look as bad as possible so the “reveal” after completion looks so much better, this is REALLY what our garage looked like before we started!

My precious daddy even pitched in to help! (not only was this a blessing because of his expertise, but he has some really cool tools!!)

And the first wall is up!! He’s pretty proud of himself, can you tell?

And now the whole wall is up!! WOOT! WOOT!

And here’s the completed room, well almost… We still have some sheetrock to hang behind the shelves and some texture/painting to do, but it is functional and starting to have some character.

And I have SO much storage!!

And here’s Braydon’s area… no more sharing a desk! YEAH!!

I will forever be in debt to my dad and hubby! They worked so hard! My poor husband was in the 115° attic off and on for 4 days! I am so blessed to have such amazing men in my life!!

A garden for fairies... a gift for me.

Last night Braydon and I planted a Fairy Garden. I'm sure you're thinking that's kinda silly or childish but I have to say it was tons of fun! It was actually MY project but he jumped right in with both feet and before I knew it he had taken over the entire planning and I found that the only thing left for me was the LABOR!! SHEESH!

It did give us an opportunity to research container plants together. So once again I learned that homeschool happens anytime and anywhere! I am still that mom that's trying to do schedule each and every lesson and make sure all things tie into each other nicely covering all subjects and all areas.

How lucky are we to have such a patient Father? You'd figure by now he'd have given up on me as a homeschool mom and lost all hope for Braydon (with me as his teacher) to become a functioning member of society. Instead, He takes my hand, one more time, and gently guides me back to the path He has laid out for me. The path that is PERFECT for ME! The path that is created for no other BUT ME! The path that I turn from from daily thinking I can do it on my own.

Be grateful for His patience! Be accepting of His guidance! And be aware of the times when He loves you enough to take your hand, one more time!

God Bless!

Industrial Style Flex Lamp

Our latest project! I got the idea for this awesome light out of the Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine I get every month. We aren't sure if this is where it will stay. We're thinking of making another one, hooking them together and hanging them over the large window in his room.
This one only cost us like $14! Not bad for a neat light that nobody else has! And it goes great with the industrial/grunge look he has in his room!

Instructions are as follows:

Cast a cool glow with this high-style, low-cost lamp. Grab a utility knife and follow these easy steps to create your own flex lamp.

Instructions

• Step 1: Cut the square ends off the Flex-A-Spout.
• Step 2: Fold the rope light in half and push it through the Flex-A-Spout. Be sure to leave the electrical plug hanging out of one end.
• Step 3: Twist the Flex-a-Spout into the desired shape.
• Step 4: Plug in the rope light, and you’re ready to glow

Note: The Flex-A-Spout is not part of the HVAC department. The spout can be found in the Rain Gutter / Downspout department.

You will be grateful for this tip as I spent two weeks searching for it and could not find it! LOL

Enjoy!!

Are you FEARLESS???

The caption reads: "Just before it happened, I overheard the three most dreaded words a mother could hear: 'Hey, watch this!'"

This is how I feel on MOST days! Knock on wood, we haven't had to make a trip to the ER yet but I am sure it is inevitable. My child, like most, is without fear! He gets up every morning with new ideas of how to give me a nervous breakdown and test his own physical limits. Do you remember those days? When you just KNEW you could jump off of your house with an umbrella and slowly float to the ground unharmed like Mary Poppins? Or that you could actually DIG your own in-ground swimming pool in your back yard? Ok, maybe these were just MY crazy childhood examples of limitless imagination, but we all had them! We never stood back and thought through the possible ramifications of our actions or the damage we could do to ourselves, our friends or our parent's property. We were FEARLESS!

Well, as we grow we not only gain height, weight, maturity, knowledge, responsibilities and all the other things that separate us from our youth but we gain something else... something that separates us from so much more! What is it your ask?? FEAR! Fear is one of Satan's strongest weapons! He uses it to plant seeds of self doubt which prevents us from realizing our full potential in Christ's kingdom! Fear holds us back from building relationships, fear causes us to think we don't have the abilities to do what others do and most importantly, fear makes us believe that God could never forgive the things we've done.

As a mother I want to encourage you today to remind your child to hold on to that fearlessness! To believe that they really can do ANYTHING through Christ! It is our responsibility as Christian parents to do everything in our power to build our children up as often as we can so that they won't become timid fearful adults! I promise you, for ever moment you spend building them up, the world around you is working double time tearing them down!

As a homeschool mother I encourage you to remember that YOU were the very person God chose to love, guide, educate, and train your child. Don't take this mission lightly! It is the most important thing you will ever do in your life!!

Fear creeps in and fills the cracks of our insecurities, building them up and giving them strength. Teach your children to rely on their Father for strength and to pray without ceasing!! A solid and consistent pray life will become the manna that gives them life and they will thank you for it!

~"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."~ Philippians 4:13

Something to look forward to...

Today I woke up with a LARGE Migraine!! I have no doubt I owe a big thanks to all the crazy stress in my life lately mainly the illness of family and friends. I believe that God is shaping me though and now more than ever I am learning to reach out to him for needs of those around me other than just my own. Don't get me wrong, I have always prayed for others, but never like I have in the last few weeks. I have felt such a tug lately to get on my knees for each and every person I know who is struggling. My heart is breaking for the people around and I am yearning to help in a way I have never felt before. That being said, it's difficult to know of someone's struggles, go to the Lord on their behalf and not take on some of the very worry, grief or pain that you are praying for relief of. So as I rolled out of bed this morning I thought "Not today... I just don't need this today." And then, as the day went on so did my headache; but just now, as I sat down to check my email I remembered something amazing. Tonight is the UHSE Mommy Jammy Night! Why is that such a big deal you ask? Well, it's a big deal to ME because it means headache or not, I get to spend a couple of hours chatting with other christian moms all around the country who are dealing with all the same things I am. They encourage me, pray for me and help me remember why it's important to pray "outside the box"! I take comfort in knowing that these women take time in their own quiet time to pray for me and my struggles, and that not only makes me want to pray for others, it makes me excited to get to share in those trials and carry some of the burden.
When you get bogged down by the sadness of your pray list remember Paul and his excitement as he wrote to each of his churches time and time again. He prayed for them with such fervor and confidence! Even in times of sadness or letters or reprimand Paul still expressed JOY!! He KNEW that God was in control! He never let the struggles of the people get in the way of his excitement for what God was doing in the world.

I am so grateful for all my new mommy friends that help me to remember just that...

~"Don't let ANYTHING get in the way of your excitement for what God is doing in the world!"~

Stepping Out Into the Great Unknown

Recently I was blessed with a new job as a virtual assistant for a publisher in Florida. She is a homeschool mom and owns the Ultimate Homeschool Expo. This was one of those times that I felt God's hand directly guiding me in the direction I was to go. But that story is for another blog, I only tell you about it to explain how the new adventure Braydon and I will be taking this summer came about.
With this new job I have had to dive right into some web design and upkeep and this is an area that I know nothing about! Most of my computer knowledge is self taught and building a website just is not something I have been able to wrap my mind around.
Well this summer Braydon and I will be learning how to program TOGETHER!! Microsoft has this awesome area in their education resources called Kid's Corner http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx where they actually GIVE you the software you will need for FREE and then offer classes that teach you step by step how to build a website!
This is just a tiny piece of everything they offer. It is truly an untapped resource in my book. I can't believe more people don't know that this FREE information and training is out there!!
I hope you will take a moment to go over and take a look for yourself. They also have a site for older students as well but to be honest, with my limited knowledge of web-based material it looked a little intimidating to me!! LOL http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/US/default.aspx However, it could be something your teen would thrive at!!! Good Luck and hope you enjoy it!!
And wish me luck!!! We'll be learning this together so it should be interesting, I'll keep you posted! :)

*disclaimer this is not a paid review for Microsoft; just me, a homeschool mom, sharing what I'm learning with other moms along the way.

Sweet Surprise

Just learned of this awesome new company called Vintage Remedies!
"Vintage Remedies provides educational resources for healthy and natural lifestyles for all ages! We offer a curriculum series for ages 2-12 that enables parents to teach little ones about healthier habits.
We also operate the Vintage Remedies School of Natural Health, which trains herbal and wellness professionals around the globe. Our comprehensive programs are biblically based and backed by evidence based scientific research." (copied from the info section of their FB page)

How neat is that?? Helping parents like you and me teach our kiddos about healthy lifestyles! I am so excited to really dig into their products and see what all they offer!!

Another super cool thing they offer is a you Tube channel with instructional videos on how to make different creams, rubs, lotions etc. Check it out!!
Here's the link to one of their videos on a Peppermint Foot Soak that I can't wait to try!!! ENJOY!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVNRri1ZVN8