Boys at the Creek

I just loved going to the creek with my younger boys yesterday. Their spontaneity is so fun!

Meghan McCain: I like her

I discovered Meghan McCain's blog somewhere during the campaign months, and have enjoyed her fun and smart perspective on politics and life.

She wrote a great post about body image here, and more recently an article on it here.

I was surprised to learn that Meghan had been criticized for her body size. Weird! I've always thought of her as beautiful, and still can't wrap my mind around someone calling her heavy or fat. What on earth kind of society are we in that a perfectly beautiful young woman is called fat in public by another woman?

I always find it ironic and sad that people seem to feel that being convinced of their rightness also entitles them to behave badly.

My Baby Is Turning Six Today

My youngest child is a real sweetheart in many ways. As he has known his birthday was coming up, any time I would say "You are my favorite five year old!" he would say, "And when I'm six, I'll be your favorite six year old!" Sometimes when he said it he sounded like he might be just slightly concerned that our adoration might expire when he was done being five.

No chance. :)

I felt a pang of sadness at saying goodbye to five year olds yesterday. Aside from grandkids, I'll never get another five year old. This particular five has really been a delight. Last night I said to him that I have loved having him be 5, and that I am looking forward to spending 6 with him.

We are planning a fun day. Friends from out of town are coming to help us celebrate, and he'll get to have some extended family here for the party as well, which doesn't normally happen. He had simple wishes for gifts, and I think all of them have been fulfilled, which I know he is going to be very excited about.

It's going to be a good day.

Keeping Things Positive

Today was a beautiful day here. My husband was off today, so once school was done he and the boys played outside and then decided that it would be great to build a campfire and have a cookout tonite. This is one of their favorite things to do, and they were excited that we were back into "campfire season" around here. :)

They went to the store, bought hot dogs, mac and cheese, and smores stuff. They had a great time sawing branches to have enough sticks to roast their hot dogs and marshmallows on.

By bed time I started to usher the boys toward bed, but caught wind of their sweaty little selves and decided that 5 minute baths were needed. 5 Minute Baths happen on nights when it's all business bathtime. Quick in and out, with me making sure everybody gets cleaned and moved right along to bed.

My 7 year old got into the bath, and his sweet little legs were pretty dirty. My first reaction was to exclaim (in a friendly way) how dirty he was. but then I had an inspiration.

"Look at these legs! These are happy legs! These are legs that tell me that you have had a really fun day playing outside!"

He grinned and grinned as he recounted the fun he had had all day long. :)

This little scenario turned out so sweet, and reminded me how simple it can be to keep things positive, and to open up communication and make happy memories. Just wanted to share that with you all. :)

Wanting to Start Making Money Online?

I know that many people are looking for ways to earn extra money today. Using the internet is the best way I know how to do that.

Just recently an amazing new resource became available that teaches TONS about probably every aspect of making money legitimately on the internet. And guess what---it's FREE!

If you're at all interested, I encourage you to check it out. I have been learning from the site creator for several months now and have been extremely impressed with what he has to say. I hope it is a help to you.

Gathering Wool...

To Do List: check

Kids In Bed: check

Getting Things Done: check

Get Distracted and Wonder if it is ok to stop working and do something funner: check!

'Tidal wave' of homeless students

Heartbreaking.

Right

I just watched an interesting photo and audio presentation about a new book called Right. The author and photographer spent time at Patrick Henry College, and documents her observations there with photography, in addition to words.

The author does a wonderful job of respectfully discussing her experience at PHC. For me, these photos remind me of so many reasons why, even as a Christian homeschooling mother of six, that Patrick Henry College has absolutely no appeal to me. The author probably has little-to-no idea about the big movements behind the philosophy that PHC is built upon. The whole patriarchy thing, the whole flawed glorification of days gone by thing, and the us-against-them thing. Frankly, I found a lot of the photos kind of sad, and some of them just kind of embarrassing. More than a current event book, it's more like a side show at the circus kind of look into a subculture of the US. Curious. A little interesting. A little disturbing.

Keep It Real Campaign

This year my son and his friends entered the video commercial contest for the Keep It Real Campaign, which works to discourage underage drinking. Last night we had the fun experience of attending the Kentucky version of the Oscars, where the video my son and his friends made received the top honor of Best Picture! Here's the video:


My son created and played the music for the background, and helped with the ideas and production. His friend Parker Young is a really talented young filmmaker who has walked away with the Best Picture award at Keep It Real for three years in a row now. We have been so pleased to have our son get to learn about filmmaking, as well as be a part of a positive thing like the Keep It Real campaign.

From a Proud Mom,
~DollyMama

Things Homeschool Dads/Husbands Need To Know

I had some conversations with a couple of homeschool moms today, both of whom were feeling battle-worn and under-supported. The similarities of the struggles of homeschool moms was striking. I've been there, felt that, and heard it from others a zillion times. And what I mostly wished for was an opportunity to *somehow* be able to explain to the husbands of homeschool moms about what they need to know and do to support their wife and help make it possible for the homeschooling, homemaking, and nurturing to happen. So here is the vent:

Hint: When your wife says she needs something, just give it to her.

Does she need you to listen? Then listen to her.

Does she need money for curriculum or someone to help clean the house or for some underwear that isn't stained and has elastic that isn't worn out? Then figure out how to get her the money. With a smile, too.

Does she ask you to come to her rescue? Do it. Now! With love and compassion. And no side dishes of guilt or whining.

Hint: Although you work hard to provide for your family that is probably staying afloat with your earnings alone, I've got bad news for you: It's not enough. You also need to be a compassionate, caring force for good behind your wife and your kids.

Taking on the task of homeschooling is a mountain. The amount of information to digest and apply is daunting. The amount of decisions to make and options to wade through is exhausting. And then once you've done all of the reading, digesting, and decision-making, a homeschool mom gets to constantly assess and re-assess what's working, what's not, how to know when to stick to the plan and when to jump ship and try one of the other 3, 456, 341, 899 options for each and every possible academic subject. Plus clean up milk-and-cereal spills, and do extra laundry from when the stomach flu fairy came to visit last night. All while she has bad cramps and her period.

Because you're not actively doing all of this reading, digesting, and decision-making and cramp-having, I realize that it probably doesn't look like that big of a deal. Well, believe it or not, it IS a big deal. REALLY big. You may not know it in your bones like your wife does. If you can, though, try to know it even just a little bit in your head.

I assume that when you were first in love with your wife you wanted good things for her, thought she was pretty interesting, smart, talented, and special. You probably felt like leaping tall buildings in a single bound. And now, enough years later to have had some kids and gotten lazy about your love, you think you can ignore that woman, leave her at home all day, come home to expect a nice dinner, the kids to behave, and some hot (or at least luke-warm) lovin' before you go to sleep and start all over again the next day, without taking care of her in the other ways that would help her get "filled up" with rest and refreshment so that she can "pour out" good stuff on the family every day. When she says she needs a break, you may think it's ok to roll your eyes, give her a hard time, or whine and complain about it. I'd like to give you a swift kick (or twenty) in the rear. Your homeschooling wife is doing A WHOLE LOT behind the scenes that you probably never get to see, and I guarantee that she's dealing with a large load of mental and emotional stuff as well. She may vent to you about some of it, but it's likely just a smidge of what's really going on. If she tells you she needs something, do your DARNDEST to make it happen. Today. And be mighty nice about it. Try to remember that once she was precious to you. (You may say she is still precious to you--but are you treating her that way? Does she feel that she is precious to you?) Try to remember that you'd like her to not be so burnt out that she can't enjoy you, your children, or the life that you work so hard to provide for her. She's not meant to be kept in a box. Encourage her to get out and take care of herself, to cultivate good friendships, to get some fresh air and sunshine, to be able to move without children to hold or carry or manage at every turn. Encourage her to do good things for herself: a fresh new haircut, a facial, a massage, or maybe a lunch out with a friend. Money may be tight, but find a way to give her some good breaks and nurturing. It doesn't have to be expensive--it just has to be a fit for her needs. Hint: If you give it with a pure heart of love, with no resentment, whining, or bad attitude, it will go miles and miles and MILES toward giving her new strength and peace to continue to do what she wants to do for you and your children.

In my conversations today, I was thinking about how little I can do to help a woman who is drowning in her homeschooling when she doesn't have the support that she needs from her husband. Men--you may not be choosing the curriculum, reading the books, or teaching the lessons, but the role you play can definitely make or break the success of your family's homeschooling. Without your loving support **in the ways that seem loving and supportive to your wife** she will be stuck struggling in areas that you could have alleviated, simply by treating her like you yourself would want to be treated.

The golden rule: It ain't just for strangers any more. Try it on your wife and kids.

Checking in to say hello

I've been thinking about you dear people that bother to come on over here every so often, mostly finding nothing new to read.

It's not that I don't love ya. I do. Life just doesn't seem to lend itself to blogging so much these days.

To pop in every couple of days to say "I'm busy and have nothing to report" isn't what I want to be doing here. (though, admittedly, I do that a fair bit nowadays)

In fact, I am busy. And I do have things to report. Some of the things I could report seem too loaded to mention. Some seem complex enough that it seems to lofty a goal right now to try to put words to it all. (though I'm reminded now that blogging used to be the way I'd unravel all the tangled up yarn of thoughts in my head and make some sort of sense of it all....)

I know some people fizzle out on blogging and feel compelled to have some big sign off post where inevitable their thousands of loyal readers will bemoan their change of heart and beg them not to go. I have no desire to make any declarations, no plans to stop having this blog even if I'm in a season that isn't all that blog-friendly, and have no delusions that anyone would have much to say about it even if I did decide to close up shop here.

Things I'm doing and learning these days:

Having a teenager is scary. I feel ill-equipped for the job at times. And knowing I have to go through it five more times gives me a new perspective on people who look horrified at the idea of having a lot of kids. I have a feeling though, that this is probably similar to my belief when I had a passel of roly poly puppies er, babies very close in age: If you can survive the hardest years, the long term benefits are great! My kids (even my teenager) are truly wonderful and bring me much joy, but knowing how high the stakes are when decisions (and mistakes) are being made is a sobering thing to live with.

Business is expanding, my knowledge base is expanding, but my time to implement new ideas, strategies, services, etc. is shrinking. I'm mostly ok with that, though the wheels in my brain are mostly churning away in the background, trying to figure out the answer to the puzzle so I can do more of the business things I would like to do even while managing to do the rest of the other things I do.

Homeschooling five kids is not that hard these days. Mostly it is quite enjoyable, though some days drag on into mind-numbing annoyance and I have to sweet talk myself through it to stay the course. It is mighty nice to be at a point where it doesn't feel oh-so-very-overwhelming.

I guess that's all for now. Signing off til whenever....
~Dolly Mama

Power-ful!

After a little more than 48 hours without power, it came back. Literally *just* as my husband was plugging in a space heater to our new generator. LOL

The house temp was down to 47 on the first day after we left, and down to 38 by the time we broke down and got a generator so that the pipes wouldn't freeze. It took hours for the house to warm up to a modest 66 degrees that we were aiming for.


Power was spotty for awhile but stayed on through the night, and today we got moved back into our home. There was plenty of cleanup to be done from the water in our downstairs, and a mighty pile up of laundry in process. I had boxes of products being delivered and needing to be put away as well. And then there was all of our backpacks and baskets and bags full of the clothes and items we took with us when we left the house. Plenty of work for all of us to do. By now I'm wiped out, so what's left waiting to get done will have to wait until tomorrow.

From the time we left the house on Tuesday until we got back here, I have been constantly reminded about emergency preparedness and all of the things I learned back in 1999 and haven't kept up on since:

-pick up a gallon of bottled water each time I go to the grocery store so that we have plenty in case the water goes out (thankfully, ours didn't go out even though the water dept. said they were going to have to close it down, but we're still on a boil water advisory)

-have plenty of foods on hand that can feed us even without electricity

-I've gotten out of the habit of canning a lot, and have recently preferred freezing both for ease of putting food away for later, and because freezing preserves more of the nutritional value of the foods. This year I plan to can more--maybe half of the stuff I'm putting up. I can tell you that I felt very sad at the thought of losing all of the homemade apple sauce I made this year from our back yard trees!

-I would like to get some emergency backpacks put together so that we could leave the house in 5-10 minutes if needed. I didn't have the house as well organized as would have been ideal, and it took us a pretty long time to get out of here. It was fine this time, but if some other sort of disaster was happening, it took a whole lot longer than it should have. Things I would like to keep in emergency evacuation backpacks include socks, underwear, and a change of clothes for each person, some toothbrushes, individual bottles of water for each person, and some emergency cash. I ran into a situation where bottled water was available at just one store and they could only take cash or check, no debit cards. I only had $5 on hand so wasn't able to get as much bottled water as I would have liked. It turned out ok this time, but I don't want to get caught with only $5 in cash again.

I would love to hear your ideas about other good things to have ready in case of emergency.

We're all enjoying being in our own home, though our wonderful friends and family made it very comfortable to be displaced for a couple of days.

My 16 year old son said that although it's not exactly fun to have this sort of thing happen, he feels like it helps people to slow down, care for one another, and remember what to be thankful for. I agree.

Our street was among the first to get power back in our county, apparently because an important water pump station is on our power line. Most others in our area continue to be without electricity, and apparently it could be many more days or even weeks before it is all fixed. The trees are still icy, we had a little more snow today, and more snow is expected Monday and Tuesday.

Here are some photos of trees in our yard at the time when we were first leaving the house, and then a video taken while I was driving around town the next day.


During this video you just get to see a little of the trees down and snow falling. Also you are treated to me repeating myself because I was having a hard time driving safely and thinking about what I was saying at the same time. :) (Also, I think I may have a tendency to repeat myself anyhow. Might have something to do with having many young children with selective hearing....)

Iced In

We are in the midst of an ice storm here in central KY. Our power went out yesterday afternoon and my husband (who was at work) called to tell me to pack up and get to his parents house. Power wasn't expected back for more than a day, and we have no way to keep the house warm without electricity.

We only got as far as a 3-4 minute drive from our home before we realized that with tons of trees down in the road, power lines down, and more icy rain falling, the 40 minute drive to the in-laws might be too risky. Some friends happened along our path and invited us to stay with them. They still had power plus gas fire places if we needed to use 'em.

We've had a slumber party. I got to go home briefly earlier today to grab some more food out of the fridge and freezer (I hate to see so much stuff going to waste!!) and extra clothes. I found that our downstairs had flooded a little. grrrr.... Just a little extra excitement.

We expect to stay here for another day or 2. Hopefully my friend will still like me after this. :)

The local water is expected to be turned off, thanks to frozen pump stations. Power still isn't working on my side of the town, and it looks like it could be a few more days.

So...I hope you're staying warm wherever you are!

Popping in to say hello

To the dozen of you that actually read this blog, hello! I haven't disappeared, though it may seem like it judging from the very few posts so far this month.

Business has been very, very busy. And that homeschooling thing is rather busy too. Both are good things, just don't leave much time for blogging.

I even have blogable happenings on a regular basis, but don't have the time to get it done.

I did have a great experience yesterday, which was making a longtime dream of mine happen. I hired someone to help me with housework!

I have been dreaming of this for many, many years, and in recent months I had the thought that I need to just make it happen.

The first hurdle was finding someone. I have asked around, but nothing came up until one day my new helper and I were both in the right place at the right time. She was in need of a job, and I was in need of some work. And yesterday she came over and got started. She did cleaning projects for four hours, and boy was it great!

It wasn't easy, though, because I'm kind of a wimp about this sort of thing. My 12 year old daughter even had to give me a pep talk yesterday morning so I could stop feeling guilty or awkward about hiring help. "You have six kids! You homeschool! You run a bunch of businesses! of COURSE you need help! And SHE needs this job! this is a GOOD thing!!"

Smart kid! :)

I'm not to the point where I can hire her full time, or even part time, but it's a start, and I'm excited about that. It was a good step for me and I'm very pleased. :)

Psalm 34: 17-20

Psalm 34: 17-20
The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help.
He rescues them from all their troubles.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous face many troubles,
but the LORD rescues them from each and every one.
For the LORD protects them from harm--
not one of their bones will be broken!

Let Freedom Ring

One of the most powerful speeches in history. It gives me chills every time I hear it.

"...So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up... live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tenneessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring,

And when this happens,and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

2008 End of Year Meme

This is my fifth year doing an end-of-the-year meme here!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? Decided to start an internet business development business! (coming soon!)

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I kept my business resolutions, and those are the only ones I can remember. I definitely have plans for 2009.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A friend of mine just had her 8th child the other day! Another friend had her 4th baby earlier this month.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit? None.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? I don't know if I'm feeling lack so much, but things I want to have more of in 2009 include:

-more peace

-less clutter

-more felt success in the areas of hearth and home and home education

-earn more money while spending less time in my work

-more positive breakthroughs in relationships

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Just before Thanksgiving our family started to experience something that is difficult, and it has been escalating since then. That will be likely to stick in my memory for a long time. Hopefully a positive resolution in the new year will give me something good to remember for 2009.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Choosing to homeschool five of my children, and having over 150% growth in my business ventures.

9. What was your biggest failure? I've had too many blessings to recall any failures.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not that I remember.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I "bought" myself some mental peace by hiring an accountant for my business finances. In 2009 I'm going to buy myself some more peace in the form of better legal advisement and protection for the business.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Mine! Saying yes to homeschooling, and being fiercely committed to what I feel is the right thing for my kids, even when difficult, is something I celebrate.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted? I won't name names here, but I do have two people in mind....

14. Where did most of your money go? A large chunk of money went toward rebuilding two of my web sites when my host pooped out and went AWOL. It all came back to me in short order. :)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Having five of the greatest kids in the world at home with me every day, and my next great business adventure, which is coming together in exciting ways!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? overall happier or maybe the same
b) thinner or fatter? probably about the same
c) richer or poorer? richer!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? gardening maybe. Overall I can't think of any regrets.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Again, no regrets I can think of.

20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? Probably listening to something inspirational.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

22. How many one-night stands? What a stupid question.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't do hate.

25. What was the best book you read? Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed by SARK

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Just got a CD of The Town Pants for Christmas and it is very fun music.

27. What did you want and get? Windchimes!

28. What did you want and not get? I want to hire a house helper/cook/assistant homeschool tutor. I have been saying this for many, many years, but in 2009 I am going to make it happen. I might not have someone full time by the end of the year, but I am at least going to find the right person to hire for some amount of hours and get started. The time has come. I'm ready.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Can't even remember a specific movie I've watched this year! I did just discover the Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch, and that is a pretty cool show! I now have all four seasons on my netflix queue.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 37 this year, and I don't remember what I did.

31.What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying? I'm pretty satisfied with the year I've had.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Making the most of what I have, unless it's a day when I just done care, in which case I keep it reasonably clean and don't worry about much else.

33. What kept you sane? Keeping in mind the big picture.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm not a fancier, but I was mighty sorry to see Heath Ledger go.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? The FLDS situation. We got an excellent education about the dangerous way that CPS can get away with criminal activities.

36. Who did you miss? Old friends, who are always dear to me though we just don't get to connect much any more.

37. Who was the best new person you met? How about best new being? Our dog Marlee walked into our life in the fall, starving, sick, and suffering. Our decision to care for her, give her a home, and live out our belief that life is valuable has been a very cool journey. She is thriving in many ways and we are learning a lot about sacrificial love. You can read more about that here.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Not everything is as it appears to be.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

FYI: You Won't Want To Miss This

Hey peeps,

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up. On January 1st I'm going to have a BIG giveaway for my newsletter subscribers. If you like freebies, goodies, and truly valuable stuff, you should get hooked up with at least one of my newsletters:

The Baby Boutique

Supermom's Health and Wellness

Supermom's HomeSchool

Feel free to let other people know. I think that most people are going to be very excited about the freebie they'll receive to start out 2009. :)

Christmas: We're already done

My husband has to work on Christmas day, so we decided to celebrate early. Our original thought was to simply have the kids wake up to Christmas on the 24th. And then as I started thinking about how hard it is to get them to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, how tiring it is to try to outlast them that night, and the early morning we'd be in for, surprising them with Christmas in the middle of the afternoon started looking better and better.

They were busy in another part of the house, watching a movie, and my husband and I got everything set up. Once we were ready we invited them up, and they were so excited! :) They enjoyed opening their gifts, and had the rest of the evening to put together new Lego sets, play new games, and put stuff away. Several of the kids said this was the Best Christmas Ever! Pretty nice to hear that. :)

Once our plans were already underway to pull off the afternoon Christmas surprise, we found out that the Creation Museum is offering free admission tomorrow. We've been wanting to go, and it's only about 2 hours from us. So, now tomorrow is all clear, so as long as the roads are good and the weather decent, that's what we'll be doing for Christmas Eve Day. Even our 16 year old is looking forward to it. (and if you've ever known or had a 16 year old, you know how GOLDEN it is if the kid actually wants to do a family activity. I DON'T want to miss this chance!)

So, enjoy all of your last minute preparations and your family time. I'll be enjoying being all done. :)

My Husband Outed My Blog!

In a moment of Facebook euphoria/insanity, my dear husband decided to tell all of our friends and relatives and everybody else about my personal, super-secret, I-do-not-tell-real-life-people-about-it blog. (he's so used to knowing about it that he forgot it was on the down-low) It was all resolved within 3 hours of his posting it, since I called him at work and had him take it right down. Alas, now I can't help but wonder if I've gained any new readers.

So, um...if you are one of those people.....WELCOME! Welcome to my blog that I never told you about. :) Let me know if you're here, ok?

I hate to shop!

I hate to shop! I hate it the most in person, but also hate it online. Would much rather never need anything for any reason whatsoever.

Today my husband took the kids to their homeschool activities and left me home for a day off. I had so much work to do that I have been going non stop all day and now they will be home in a half hour. Honestly, I'm glad that I had a chance to work on some of the things that have been piling up. Though I was invited to go get a massage or something, things are so crazy here, I don't think it would have been relaxing for me to spend all day elsewhere instead of beating back the tide....

Biggest accomplishments for the day include wrapping most of the already-purchased gifts, and doing almost all of the rest of the shopping. I would love to be ALL DONE with the whole thing today. Don't know if I can pull it off though. My brain has turned to mush and now I am going to go soak in a hot bath. Goodbye!

Take 5 minutes to watch this

Have you seen this clever video to help guys stay out of the doghouse this holiday season? Go! Laugh! Share.

I've GOT GOT GOT GOT no time!

Today is one of those days that makes me think that there is no possible way for me to ever get on top of everything. Not exactly newsworthy in my life, but this is a fresh flare up, so amuse me or click away, ok?

We had the holiday last Thursday, travel last Friday, being out of the house most of the day Sat., a small amount of stuff getting done Sunday, schooling to do Monday and then surprise preparation for a large remodeling project that day, and then today that project was going on while I spent the day homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, and then being a hostess for several hours.

Having several days in a row like this throw off my plate-spinning equilibrium mighty fast. Next thing you know there is laundry all over the family room, construction project stuff and dust everywhere, a torn apart laundry room, and me with about 5 or 6 large plates crashing to the ground and no time to pick 'em up yet.

Tomorrow I have to be out of the house for probably at least 4-5 hours. It's for a fun event, but that just means that even more stuff will be piling up while I'm away.

Ironically (or not) I decided to join a class called How Do I Do It All? And of course, now that I've downloaded all of the classes, I have absolutely NO IDEA when I am going to have time to listen to any of it.

Cheers!

Music To My Ears

Either because of or in spite of the fact that I spent my teenage years dating and being boy crazy, I have always discouraged my kids from this. I'm not interested in jumping on the courtship-betrothal bandwagon with all it's various weirdness, nor am I going to pretend that I can control whether or not my children have extra special warm-and-fuzzy feelings for other people. My approach has been simply to explain my position again and again, let them make their own decisions, and let life teach them whether what I say has merit or not.

My oldest is 16 and he's had a few girlfriends so far. Several months ago there was a big break up with his longtime girlfriend, and it was a split that was many months in the making. The situation was especially tough on the girl and it has been a source of concern for our family to know that she is hurting so badly. Since the breakup I've had several little conversations with my son, reiterating that it seems a terrible waste of a good friendship to sacrifice it for a "girlfriend." In the end these kids just get hurt feelings, broken hearts, and a relationship that's usually too strained or broken down to be able to continue.

In a world where good friends are hard to find, it makes no sense to me to toss out good, healthy relationships for these ridiculous, contrived boyfriend-girlfriend situations.

My second child is 12 and at her age the thing we have run into is that the boys and girls that are friends don't feel like it is ok to talk on the phone if they aren't "going out." So, she's had a couple "boyfriends" who were nothing more than friends she could talk to on the phone. Since she doesn't go to school with these kids any more, phone calling is the only social link she's got. So, a pretty important thing in her life.

The recent boyfriend has proven to not be a real positive thing for her. My daughter had come to me several times to talk about it and ask my opinion. My honest advice was to break it off, just be friends, and stop with all of this boyfriend nonsense. (I say it a whole lot more diplomatically to her)

In the car the other day she and I were talking about this again and my 16 year old piped in to tell her, "Honestly, I've been following Mom's advice for quite awhile now, and it's really a good thing."

High praise!! What a thrill!! Definitely blog-worthy!

That night about an hour after tucking my daughter into bed she came out to give me another hug and tell me she loves me. This is not a common event for her. I wondered if she had appreciated what I had told her. (This is a child who will typically fight me on issues that she doesn't want to deal with or hear about, but later on is able to tell me that she is glad I stuck to my guns and kept doing what I felt needed to be done. A wonderful thing for me to know, since I regularly hear her complaints about oh-so-many of the things I am doing "for her own good.")

The next day she broke up with the boyfriend in the kind way I recommended, and so far things seem to be going well.

Tonite she and I were folding laundry together and talking and she shared some of the breakup details with me. Then she said that once she had a chance to let my words sink into her head, she realized that it made perfect sense.

!! Gotta love moments like that!

I don't have any delusions that my two oldest kids are going to forego boyfriends/girlfriends until they are ready to look for a spouse (though I would recommend that!) but it was good to know that they are hearing me, that what I'm saying is helping them and making sense to them on some level, at this time.

Another Rock Star Momma moment for me. I'll take 'em wherever I can get 'em.

Addicted

Last night my sister turned me on to Mexican Train Dominoes. As Pioneer Woman would say, "Lawsie, mercy!" I'm a goner now. How I will ever get a shred of normal stuff done, I do not know. Any member of my family of origin can tell you that I have a mighty strong tendency to get hooked onto games that require ordering and arranging cards, tiles, numbers, and so forth. From approximately 1983-1987 I spent all summer breaks, school breaks, weekends, and spare time holed up in my bedroom playing solitaire (with real cards, people!) over and over again. And I loved it.

Today, I have solitaire and backgammon on my pocket pc, and I usually play one or both of them every single night once I get into bed. (I often play them again first thing in the morning as well) I love games like that, and find it relaxing, I guess.

Mexican Train Dominoes is one more game in this genre that I love. Plus it's speedy (which is an additional thrill for me). What am I gonna do?!?!

Countdown to Christmas Day 1

We just did day 1 of Countdown to Christmas. The story was wonderful (almost made me cry!) and the games were SO fun! Check it out!!

Busy and Busier

Things just keep on a-runnin' around here. Business, homeschooling, taking care of the family and home.....it seems like an ever-running stream of doings and needs. Not in a bad way, mind you. Just in a constant way.

Things on my mind and/or front burner these days include:

Starting an indoor garden using window boxes. I plan to grow lettuce, spinach, and some herbs. The main holdup is that it is mighty difficult to find seeds in the store in november! :) Will have to order some online.....which means this could take me days or weeks to accomplish simply because it's so easy for me to forget.

Christmas shopping.

Business planning for next year. Business continuing for this year.

Continuing with the learning center idea for my kids. (it's going well)

Looking forward to doing some fun Christmas reading, baking, and activities with the kids in December.

Getting ready to start yet another branch (or two) of my business.

Recent discovery of Barbara Sher's encouragement for people who want to do lots of different things and aren't willing to pick just one. I don't know if I'm that way to the extreme, but I sure do want to "do it all." Am in the middle of listening to a radio show where she talks about this and am enjoying it very much. Am also working my way through reading some strategies about this here.

Am enjoying the homeschooling more and have been getting back to my roots as far as my original educational philosophy goes. Have been reading John Holt's book Teach Your Own which is just as inspirational to me today as it was probably 10 years ago when I first read it.

And of course, many other things, widely varied and prone to the whims of the winds of inspiration. I feel like I'm getting the hang of handling schooling five, so it's always a happy thing for me to feel that I've improved in my plate-spinning abilities. :)

Not getting much personal blogging in these days. Sometimes it's for lack of time, sometimes for lack of inspiration, and sometimes because what I would want to say seems to complex to be able to express it. I'm sure that blogging will come back around to a front burner activity sooner or later. In the meantime, I hope you all have a Thanksgiving that lives up to it's name. :)

Countdown to Christmas Activity Book!

When Amy Puetz showed me her Countdown to Christmas book, I was almost in tears within minutes. This book features a wonderful collection of old-fashioned holiday stories, activities, recipes, games, songs, and more---a grouping for every day from December 1-25.

This collection is just the kind of thing I like to do with my children. It's fun. It's interesting. The stories are great, and will also expose my children (and me!) to some old-fashioned language and concepts. The crafts look fun and manageable. Now that I've got this resource I'm looking forward to December 1 so we can get started with it. I really think that this is going to be our most fun December ever!

I strongly encourage you to go check it out for yourself. Amy has her book on sale at a GREAT price right now, PLUS she has an extra freebie book for you as well. You can see sample pages of the book and a list of stories, etc. here. I feel like this is going to be a wonderful thing for my family, and think it will be for your family too! :)

Quick! This offer ends Friday!

So many people have been delighted to find out about Grandpa Read's Quiet Time Tales. This 12-volume DVD collection features classic children's stories read to your children by the friendly Grandpa Read. Each DVD is approximately 60 minutes long and features four stories plus an original song.

From now until Friday I have a special offer for you:
Purchase the 12 DVD collection for the discounted price of $129.99 (regularly $149.99) and you will receive the Quiet Time Tales Music CD FREE!

This is a special offer at my baby boutique.

Heard This Song Today

Driving with my kids today we ran across this song while flipping through the radio stations. The lyrics grabbed me. I had never heard it before, but the social commentary was striking. I don't think I could tell you one other Kid Rock song. Kid Rock has never been on my radar until now. Thought he had some good things to say here, though, so here you go.

2009 Family Dear Calendar

If you are a fan of the sweet, homespun look of Marmee Dear's lovely store, you will loooove her all-new 2009 Family Dear Calendar! Each month features adorable and heartwarming pictures from vintage storybooks. Too cute!

This big 17" x 22" calendar has nice, big spaces to write in and is printed on sturdy paper stock to keep it looking good and holding up all year long.

Right now Marmee is offer a special deal for my readers! Use coupon code EJ2009 and you will get FREE SHIPPING on your calendar (or go ahead and order several for Christmas gifts).

You can check it out and order here.

Enjoy!

My Son is as Tall as Me

I just discovered this.
Still in shock.

That is all.

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

Just a little head's up here, in case you don't know....there is a really fun 12 Days of Christmas giveaway going on here. I think today is day 6 or something, so there's still plenty of time for you to check the site every day and see what fun stuff they have. So far I have really enjoyed all of the goodies they have given away!

Fun Outing Yesterday

Yesterday the at-home kids and I made the trek out to visit the lovely Amy Scott and her six children. Amy and her family moved from Florida to rural KY in September, and now they have a beautiful 54 acres of woods and farm land. My children got to help feed chickens, hike around in the woods, and in general run around and play together, while Amy and I talked while tending to little ones and put dinner together.

Amy has done an amazing job--you can't even tell that they just moved in less than three months ago! I don't know how she does it. Her two littlest children are just 8 months old, and a two year old. I don't think I would have been able to accomplish half as much as she has in such a short time!

I've met a few "internet" friends in person over the years. It is always interesting and fun to get to put a real-life person and life together with what we learn about someone from their blog, web site, or posts in an egroup. It's so easy for us to imagine the lives of others that we get to know through the narrow lens of the internet (or even the narrow lens of Sunday mornings at church, or homeschool support group meetings, etc.). It's easy to forget that other people (even prolific bloggers) are not telling us everything about their life or their relationships. I used to read a blog where a reader accused the parents of only homeschooling their kids for two weeks out of an entire year, simply because the homeschooling hadn't been documented on the blog! (too bad there isn't some sort of litmus test for weeding out readers of one's blog that have such a perspective on things...) I've had people make up huge portions of my life that they actually knew nothing about--all based on some small snap shots of getting to know me in one setting. I enjoy the reminders that we are all just folks. :) We've all got the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the things we are good at and the things we are still working on. None of us is so perfect that the rest of us should be struggling with our life and wondering why we don't have it all together like so-and-so from the internet.

Now, none of that is to say that Amy was anything less than gracious, lovely, organized, generous, and kind. She was all of those things and I enjoyed my visit very much! Those are just musings that came to me as I was reflecting on the things I've learned over the years about keeping perspective on reality as opposed to some of the things we like to make up in our minds.

My best friend Sooz has a little thing she says. It's "What I'm making up about this is......" This is a really helpful tool, both for putting into perspective that one's own thoughts may be cobbled together, made-up things that we came up with based on what we know about something, and the realization that it is important to check out the facts of whether or not our imaginings are accurate. I've often experienced people in my life preferring to believe their imaginary version of my life over reality. This sometimes results in people thinking I'm way, way, way better at everything than I could ever hope to be, and other times results in people thinking I'm so far away from being good at what I do that I might as well pack it up and change course altogether. Somewhere in the middle is the truth, but we have to check our imaginings at the door to get to it.

Learning Centers

Despite my lack of recent posts, you can rest assured that my life is plenty full and busy, with lots of stuff going on that might even be blog-worthy, if only I consistently had time to tell you about it! On the days when I'm really, really on top of the most important things, I'm lucky if I have even an hour or two to do the remaining business, blogging, emailing, and all of the other behind-the-scenes things that come up in the life of someone that manages children, Christmas shopping, educational issues, business issues, and keeping some relationships going.

After struggling for months to tutor 4 or 5 kids at the kitchen table simultaneously during school time, I decided to try using some learning centers to help the kids have plenty of educational and enriching things to do during school time, and allow me to only work directly with one or two kids at a time. For close to a week now I have been working on cleaning out some nooks and crannies of our family room so that I could somehow set up these centers/stations to keep the little hands and minds occupied.

For a few days I only had one station set up, and each night after the kids were in bed I placed something on that little table. It was fun to see kids gravitating toward that spot, sitting down and giving their attention to whatever was there. They loved it, and it reminded me of a past wish I had to make my home like one big all-you-can-learn-buffet, where everywhere a child turns is something that will feed their body, mind, or spirit. These little centers seem to do that in a way that nothing else has for us.

Yesterday was day one for going full force with the centers. Although our family room isn't huge, I was able to set up 9 different centers for the kids to use. Why so many? Because I knew they would need plenty of things to do while I worked with the kids that go s-l-o-w at their school work. That's why!

In the past I have tried this idea and set up stations that were a little heavy with stuff to do, and it seemed like the kids got a little bored with those after a short while. This time I decided to use some small tables and spaces, and just put out a very slim choice of what to do at that space. The other idea is to not have the same thing there every day.

Probably like a lot of other people, we have collected an awful lot of really neat learning resources that we rarely ever use. I've got tons of games, art books, craft stuff, cards, flash cards, cool learning resources, Leap Pads, Flashmaster, Highlights books with puzzles in them, and lots more. I'm so glad that I have a place to put these things, but the trick is that I am a person that tends to forget what resources we have if they aren't in front of me. So now I am just bringing out a few items from the collection each day, one per center area, and letting the kids enjoy them. After school time that stuff gets put away, and as I got through the day I keep my eyes open for what else is around, and pull some new stuff out to use the next day. Now the kids are grabbing stuff and saying, "Hey! We should use this for centers tomorrow!"

We have one round kid-size table. At a yard sale a couple months ago I bought two coffee tables for $10. One is rectangular, one is a small square. I bought these because I liked the shape of the design, and the price was right. But I didn't really have a need for them or know where they would go. Now they are working out really well for learning center stations. Plus I can mention the tables by their shape (circle, square, or rectangle) to tell where something is or where to suggest someone go next. I also use a small part of one coffee table, a corner of a couch, plus a regular size table down in this room. So far, so good.

When I showed the kids the stations, they were quite excited about it. In the morning I set everything up and then gave them a tour, explained how it would work, what the rules were, etc. One of the main things I stressed was that it was important to be very quiet so that the person working with me at the table could concentrate. As it turned out, we had near silence for several hours as we did school yesterday. Wow! It was really nice.

I also had each child pick out a silent reading book before we got going, so that if they got finished at their center before it was time to switch, they could sit and read on their own. I figured it made more sense to have them get their books before we got going, rather than have them all going back and forth to the book shelf at different times.

I set up the centers to be clutter-free. Here is some of what I had today:

On small round table I had a box with our connectagons in it. Later my daughter decided to add Dominoes to the table.

Another table had a phonics thing we have that's called Instalearn, which is mainly used by my early readers. For older kids at this station there were Mad Libs, and for my five year old there were some little learning cards that he likes to play with and can do on his own.


We had a cozy station on the corner of one couch for listening to audio books. Station included pillows, blanket, CD player with headphones, and two CDs with read-along books, plus our Bible verses CD to choose from.

Computer station with headphones was set up for the younger kids to go to starfall.com to play phonics and reading games, etc.

Art station today had two learn-to-draw books (one geared toward youngers, one geared toward olders) and an assortment of crayons, colored pencils, markers, and paper.

One station had a puzzle.

One area (on the floor--I just put out a plastic tablecloth to create the space) for playing with wooden blocks (they have not played with those for a long time and they loved it):

I didn't really micromanage the timing of switching. Since there was plenty to choose from, and the atmosphere was very calm, the kids seemed to enjoy choosing a spot to go, and they played with it for plenty of time and then cleaned up before going on to the next. Some spots were a little more popular than others, so in those cases sometimes I asked the child if they would like to try another station in two minutes or whatever, to give them a gentle nudge to move on so that someone else could enjoy the station they were on.

Like so many things in my life, this will probably take a lot of mom-power to keep it going, so the chance of it falling to the wayside is pretty decent. I often feel that I'm taking a risk by telling about my latest and greatest idea since I feel like so many of them come and go at high speed. Still, I think this idea has merit as a tool to keep the wheels turning here at our school, and maybe it will give a few of you some ideas too.

Making the Holidays Family Friendly

The Holidays are supposed to be all about celebrating with the folks you love, yet all too often the focus is on the preparations instead of the people and the children especially seem to get lost in the shuffle. If holidays are stressful to you, or you come to the end of the day wondering where and what your children were doing all day, this book is for you. It is a reminder of why we celebrate, and how to celebrate in a more family-friendly way. Memories are made at every holiday, are they good ones or bad ones? Learn how to make them good ones for everyone.

Check out this new release ebook from my friend Penny Raine! It's at a super low price right now, too. :)

Check out this film!

If you enjoy the films from Franklin Springs Family Media, you are probably going to love this one from IVL Media. This documentary follows a pastor's family as God faithfully and miraculously provides for them through all sorts of situations. You can watch the trailer for it here.

Right now they are taking pre-orders, which includes free shipping. Looks like an uplifting night at the movies for the whole family!

What the....?!

So lately I've noticed an odd trend. And it has to do with the word "niche." As in, "find your niche" or "niche market."

Although I have always thought that the commonly considered correct pronunciation of the word is 'nich,' for some reason there are people using the word that like to pretend they are part French, I guess, because they are pronouncing it 'neesh.'

I double checked with dictionary.com and found that 'nich' is indeed the "right way" to say the word. But what do you think? nich or neesh? I simply must know.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A:
BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a
change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he
recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the
chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that
little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely
qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this
country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this
really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road.
We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or
not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle
ground here.

D ICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the
satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your
definition of crossing?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am
now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about
the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against
it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize
that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road
before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What
we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking
on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand t hat the chicken is having problems, which
is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the
chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of
life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive
across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken,
but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of
the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You
can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was
going. I had a standing order at the Farmers Market to sell my eggs
when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me an y
insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes, the chicken cr ossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been
told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the
plain truth? That's why they call it the other side. Yes, my friends,
that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay,
too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination
that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases
like the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road.
It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road.
Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good
enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be
listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming
story of how it e xperienced a serious case of molting, and went on to
accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE : It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads
together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only
cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and
balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of
eChicken2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never
reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the
road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Free Christmas ebook

Who wants a freebie? I've got one for you--a Christmas ebook with lots of great decorating and activity ideas, as well as recipes! Clickety-click!

And the winner is....

elizardbreath8! I'll be sending her book out shortly. :)

Why Stay Down? Crank it Up!

Here are some great tunes from Zeppelin to help me and you get up and moving toward the weekend. This first song is a family favorite for singing along in the car. Most kids can handle the first line, anyhow. :)

Popping in to say hi

It's been awhile since I've posted a real, live post with personal content in it here. Why? Heh....well, you should see what my life is like. Homeschooling five kids, as it turns out, is extremely time consuming. Running a business or two or three is also. Running a household, raising six children, and trying to not lose one's mind also tends to take up a significant portion (100%, that is) of my time. Basically, I've got the equivalent of two full time jobs, and only part-time resources with which to meet the challenges.

So..blogging my heart out just hasn't risen to the top of the to-do pile around here. I'm still full of ideas and inspiration, but too tired and overextended to get around to most of it. I'm still trying to gain some sense of equilibrium about what I've got on my plate right now. I'm doing you a favor, really, by not blathering on and on through my highs ("I can do it! I am doing it! Nothing can stop me!") and lows ("Why do I bother?! How am I going to make this work?") here.

Laugh for the day

If you need a little laugh today, go check out Cake Wrecks. This site is full of some of the most unfortunate cakes you've ever laid eyes on. You have to see it to appreciate it.

My personal favorite was the tragedies that take place when people lack common sense (Literal LOLs)

Did You See The Sarah Palin Rap?

I'm thinking this makes her more lovable than ever.....clickety-click!

I Love the Homemaker's Mentor!

This wonderful place teaches so many of the lost arts of homemaking in a beautiful, gracious way. Subscribe for a month, a year, or just get the classes that you need. Either way....you are gonna love this!

Today I downloaded 3 of their resources:

Laundry Tips and Tricks (FREE!!)

Growing and Using Fresh Herbs

Kitchen Sparkle

I don't know about you, but I'm almost always up for some fresh inspiration and ideas. These downloadable lessons are very nicely done. I am quite impressed and really looking forward to digging into these soon!

Money Matters

I know that money is on most minds these days. For us, we've been thrilled to see gas drop to $2.69 at some gas stations around here, but with property taxes coming due and Christmas around the corner, it seems like there is still plenty of belt-tightening needed.

I read a couple of good articles today that I wanted to share with you guys. The first one talks about what to do NOW to prepare for even tougher economic times ahead. The short version is to trim right now anything that you would trim if things got really desperate. That makes a lot of sense to me, and my wheels are already turning about how we might do that. We don't have a lot of extras in the monthly expenditures department, but there are a few things that I don't think we would even miss.

This one talks about a "buy nothing" month. While this might not be the best time of year to do that, maybe you could plan for it in January or February or something. I don't consider myself to be much of a spender. I've very conservative on purchases most of the time. But, I think that I could probably manage to trim *something* somehow.

Other things I am working on to save money:

Trying to get the hang of coupon and rebate shopping. Money Saving Mom is my favorite resource for this. Check out her right sidebar for the Start Here articles. They will give you tips on coupon savings, CVS and Walgreens programs that can help you get tons of free stuff, and more. Lots of really helpful stuff there!

I have been using up all of our apples and pears and grapes from the back yard. In years past I either didn't have the energy or the time to do a lot with those, but this year I have been determined to use what we have. I haven't needed to purchase juice from the grocery store for probably two months or more, I've made homemade apple sauce and apple butter, etc.

In the same vein, I am planning on having a garden next year. This year we just had a dink-o-rama garden space that gave us tomatoes and peppers. Next year we're going to go big. Tending to the garden is going to be part of the kids chores and school. I'm planning now for where stuff will go, adding compost to the garden spaces, and have some more things to work on so that when March gets here we can be ready to make it happen.

I plan to buy heirloom seeds so that we can save the seeds for future years. Educational and thrifty.

There are more things, but those are just a few ideas. Hopefully those will work as a jumping off point for you. :)

Food For Thought

Tonite I attended a talk that a friend of mine was giving. She opened the meeting with a question for us to think about:

If you could do anything, go anywhere, have your life be anything ---with no limitations...what would that look like?

I'm still trying to figure that out. I realized that I do not do well with thinking outside of limitations. I thought that some of you might find that interesting to contemplate.

Reality Check

Let's see here....

six kids

homeschooling five kids

husband who works most of the time

running multiple businesses from home

drowning in house mess, kids needs, personal needs, places to go and people to see

an elderly dog that needs special care

and then the question arose: "Can we play basketball?"

Four boys. Three teams. Three months.

One mother in need of a long-term vacation at Shady Acres Home For the Mentally Unstable.

I'm saying no. And somehow, I feel a little guilty for it.

Coo coo.

Coming in 2009: The People Speak

Saw this today and am now looking forward to seeing the finished work. Looks amazing.

A Bitty Bit on Politics

I watched some of the presidential debate the other night and found it thoroughly disappointing. Neither candidate said anything that caused me to feel great confidence about them. Much of what they said had me wondering what on earth it all means in plain language. I found myself wishing that I could have a normal conversation with these guys to find out what the bottom line is to what they believe and what they plan to do in DC.

This article by Peggy Noonan summed up a lot of my impressions.

John McCain's mention of a spending freeze concerned me. What will be frozen? And for how long? When I think of the people I help every week at the Emergency Food Pantry, I wonder how their lives will be impacted if the government suddenly stopped sending them housing assistance, food stamps, of the gov't food commodities that we distribute. I would love to get some more info on what this proposed freeze is all about. Anybody know?

Laser Mania and Sexy People

Did you ever wish for those ultra-cool laser backgrounds for your school photo? You will get a kick out of this collection here. What a hoot.

Not to be outdone, this site features a hilarious and unfortunate collection of portrait photos that are not to be missed.

A new social networking tool coming soon!

This looks like it will be a cool thing coming up soon. Get on over there and check it out!

We Can't Do It Alone

After yesterday's $81 vet visit for Marlee, I decided that it is time to reach out and ask for help with this mission. We want to be able to take care of Marlee and help her have a good life. But, at well over $500 since August, this is an expense way outside of our practical means.

So now you can go visit my One Dollar Doggie Adoption blog and see what I've got going on over there. Would you help us spread the word to those that might be willing to help?

A Fun Video

Several weeks ago when we were experiencing high winds from the hurricane in Texas my oldest son decided to try out what he called Land Surfing. Not sure if that's the best name for it, but I enjoyed recording this evidence that he's very much the same kid that he was when he was 8. :)

Times Tales Special

Just recently I told you about the fabulous learning tool that helped my kids learn multiplication facts--Times Tales. Well, right now they are offering a special deal where you can get a bonus item with your purchase. I just wanted to mention it, because we have found this stuff to be a real winner. My kids still remember their facts!

Movie Review: Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind

Tonite I was able to finish watching Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind. I've never known much about Joni Mitchell, and I'm not sure what caused me to add this to my netflix queue, but I'm glad I did.

Some things I learned about Joni that were interesting:

The wide range of artistic expression she is known for (various types of music--folk, jazz, rock, world, etc., plus a painter and a poet)

The way she blazed her own unique trail with her sound and style

The thing that was most inspirational to me about this story was the way she was willing to put raw honesty out in public. I feel like that is an area I would like to grow in.

You can watch this on Instant Play on Netflix.

For your listening pleasure, here is my favorite Joni Mitchell song, Both Sides Now. It's a painfully beautiful song. (I just realized that this is the song that plays in my favorite scene in the movie Life as a House. Love it!)

**You can read the lyrics to this song here.

Make the holiday season easier this year

I have heard about this 12-week holiday planner for a couple of years now, and I guess that every time it came to my attention I was far enough into the holiday season that I didn't think it would be a help to me.

Yeah, well, this year is gonna be different.

Today I got a copy of this great book and I am so excited about it! Honestly, I wasn't really looking for help with the Jesus-is-the-reason-for-the-season aspect of this so much as I wanted to have the organizational help. I was not disappointed!

The book has a great 12-week plan to help get everything done without lumping it all into the 11th hour.

There are a whole bunch of really helpful planning sheets, blank calendars, places to make organized lists, and other great things like that.

There are a lot of really yummy-looking recipes that did not strike me as the kind only Martha Stewart would make.

The Jesse Tree devotionals do look neat. Somehow I have never done any sort of advent devotions with my kids (ever!) but this look doable, and like something we would enjoy adding in to our regular school days in December.

The other thing I really like about this planner is that I can use it year after year. The lists and organizer pages can be printed out as many times as I need them. Which makes a ton of sense to me. (just the one grocery shopping organizer page will be a huge help to me all year long. I already have one printed out and ready for the front of the fridge....)

So, there is my encouragement to you to go take a look and see if this planner would be a handy thing for you for the rest of this year.

Click here for more details

Homeschooling ABCs

Yesterday I found out about a wonderful resource that I think will make a huge difference for those of you that are homeschool moms who aren't feeling quite as confident and at peace with the way things are going in your home school this year.

The Homeschooling ABCs course offers you 26 weeks of ideas, direction, and encouragement in your inbox to help you, PLUS over $200 worth of free curriculum and resources!

Check it out here.