In the moment

Gramma moments

2012-01-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Isn't she so cute?! Grandma Shirley Anderson, what a hoot...silly, funny and sweet.

Gramma's nurse today, she gave him a nickname.."Hubba Hubba"!
Gramma would spend time just looking at Grampa, smiling, so sweet!
Gramma still spending her time looking at Grampa...Mom on Grammas other side visiting her today.

Well, what a couple of days this has been. Several months ago, or maybe even a year or more now, my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimers. She has been progressing over time more or less as expected (what can you expect with a disease like this?), but a couple of days ago things took a dramatic turn. Due to dehydration, and an infection gramma experienced a dramatic change in her health. She was taken to the hospital and is there currently. Today was a wonderful day, filled with laughter and joy. What a blessing! Although gramma doesn't really remember me, she sure remembers grampa! "My husband" is what she says, where is my husband? So sweet! Grampa and mom had to leave the room for a while so I stayed in to visit with her, we chatted a bit then I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of her and I together. I asked her if I could take our picture and she was delighted! After I took it, I showed it to her and it had her in stitches! She could not stop laughing when she would see the pictures of us together! Gramma had a new nurse, I would like to share with you his real name, but gramma just called him "hubba hubba", what a hoot. Everytime she would see him walk by her area she would start saying hubba hubba. We even took to calling him hubba for short! Today gramma also enjoyed some of her breakfast, she drank some chocolate milk and loved looking at pictures of the beach in a magazine. Mom, Sheryl, Grampa (of course) and myself had a wonderful morning/afternoon with gramma. What a blessing today was!

I am learning that with dementia type diseases, you really have to live in the moment. One moment things could look pretty bad, and the very next those memories could be fading away through the laughter.....and I suppose the next moment could include tears of sadness as well.....I do know this, the Lord has her safely in His hand and there is no greater place she could be.

Sunset to Snowy Days

2012-01-18T16:07:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable! We have had more snow this week than we have had in many, many years. We started out last week with that amazing sunset...before the snow. This week has been quite a change! Colder temperatures and snow, snow and more snow! The kids have been out in it everyday, sledding, building and we have all gone on several walks. Thankfully, yesterday was pretty clear on the main roads so Scott and I headed out and reloaded the house with groceries. By nightfall, the snow had been coming down so hard that the roads were again completely covered and continue to be so today. Our yard is covered in about 12" of snow at this point and it has been snowing off and on all day long. It is beautiful and quiet and we are blessed to have heat and power. It will be nice to get Scott back to work as it takes a pretty hard hit on our budget, but time as a family has a dollar value so high it cannot be measured. We have decided to just enjoy this time and make wonderful memories, soon we will return to life as usual.

Yellow to Blue

2012-01-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

Well....Jordan is certainly growing up. So much faster than I could have imagined! He has now moved up to the adults class and to help make it affordable for us he volunteers in the children's class twice a week for a discount. What an amazing young man he is! With this move up also comes a promotion in rank. His second adults class consisted of an hour and a half of sparring....switching partners every 10 minutes, so they were fresh while he was busy getting whipped! It was GREAT! He had a wonderful evening, met lots of good guys and earned his blue belt. The best part is, when he returned to the children's class a couple of days later, his teachers in there had missed his belt ceremony and decided he would need a pummeling from them too if he were to officially move up! So, he spent that class getting whooped too! FABULOUS! Love this place! Congratulations Jordan!

Family

2012-01-14T15:27:00.001-08:00

My grandma Shirley is my moms mom. We went to visit her and my Grandpa Larry a couple of weeks ago. My grandma has Alzheimer's, so these visits are quite special. While there I decided to pull out these pictures she has in her living room. One of them is of her, her mother Sylvie, her grandmother Thyra and her son, my uncle Larry. It's amazing how the brain works, although my grandma can no longer remember who I am, she could tell me about the people in these photos.

The wedding photo is of William and Sylvie Laine, my great great grandparents. And the two little girls are Sylvie and Her sister Aura, although I'm not sure who is who.

I have never met my fathers parents as they passed before I was born. The rest of his family does not live around here and although I've met many of them, we really don't communicate, which is sad to me. I treasure these pictures and bits of information about my family. I hope I get to learn more soon!

Hanukkah and stuff

2012-01-14T15:11:00.001-08:00

Neato bandito! My touch now has a blogger app! So I can blog a pic as soon as I want without uploading. This is fabulous!

The pictures i am posting are shots from during the week of Hanukkah that were taken on my touch. We enjoyed an evening of making paper snowflakes, you will see the picture of Scott and the kids bent down working. This was a fun night, we found a template for Star Wars themed snowflakes!

Enjoy the pics!

Poor, sad, neglected little blog. :(

2012-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

I am back! We are enjoying a lovely little snowy sabbath rest today. Enjoyed some time copying a portion of scripture, watched a good teaching from El Shaddai ministries as well. I then thought, perhaps I could take some time today and show my blog a little love. ♥

Between homeschool, home fellowship, bible study, jiujitsu, piano lessons and all the many things God has us involved in, I find it too easy to push this blog to the end of my to do list. The sad thing is, I really do love keeping this account of the adventures of our life. I love looking back and seeing the pictures and recalling the wonderful memories held here. Someday...I would love to have this blog made into a book, just to keep, to hand down to our children. A modern day journal printed out to be able to cuddle up with and enjoy a stroll down memory lane.

Let's get on to the catching up part....this pictures are probably not going to be in order, but I will do my best! Here goes!

We will begin our picture-a-thon with photos from our celebrations over Hanukkah. This year was especially sweet as we had some of our family here to celebrate with us! What a wonderful blessing and memorable time remembering God's incredible miracles He performs for His people!

Atira - our sweet girl, loving the purple and animal prints from her sweet Granny Sheila! ♥
Atira has her BFF playing dreidel with us....well her picture anyway is set up in front of a stash just for her!
Shaggy, the ultimate dreidel player!
Beautiful candles, a reminder to be lights in the darkness. It was so beautiful and bright when we had all of those hanukkah menorahs lit!

The family lights the Hanukkah menorahs.
Atira playing with her new dolly kitchen! She LOVES this toy!
Jordan is a boy through and through, enjoying his new airsoft gun from his Granny Sheila.
More purple! Atira loves her new coat from Gramma Joan & Grampa Curt! ♥
Um, this is a gift only boys want (most of the time anyway, and certainly in our home). It is a gadget to go on the end of a rifle to soften the recoil. The fact that I have that much terminology is almost frightening. And I think it is right too! :)
Gramma Joan and the kiddos, gift giving!!

HEY! That's me! Usually I am behind the camera, which i still am in this picture. I just like evidence that I exist to show up on this blog once in a while. hee hee.

OH! What a fun and special day this was! Atira, Scott and I headed out to the American Girl store! WOO HOO! Her daddy had never been there before and she was so excited to show him all about her passion.
Girl of the year just came out! Atira is posing with McKenna.....did I spell that right? I will double check....hang on folks....yes, I did. You can rest now.
Enjoying all the fun girly things in AG! This was 1/2/2012 We were blessed to have daddy home with us that day and took full advantage!

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Now to back up in time a bit....we finally had the opportunity ti praise God for Curt's life and the fact that he has brought this wonderful man into ours! His bday is in November...we made him a Grampa Curt Cake special just for him! Filled with all kinds of deliciousness that we think of when we think of him! Chocolate cake, reeses peanut butter cups in the filling, reeses pieces on top and a coating of potato chips on the outside! All I heard after the cake was cut was crunching and slurping and mmmmmmmm's all around! (Sadly, I am trying to figure out an allergy issue, so I was not able to enjoy a slice of this little bit of heaven! And yes, I am sure heaven is peanut buttery goodness with crunchy salty potato chips and roads paved with frosting!)
♥Family♥ Isn't this picture fabulous?! We are so blessed, each year for many years now, both sides of Scott and my family gather for Thanksgiving. What a tremendous blessing! Sadly, my grandmother is not doing well and was not able to make it this year. In the above photo we have something never captured before this night, all three of Geoff's children in one room at the same time! Another incredible blessing! So...let's see if we can label this picture: Upper row starting on the left: Grandma Joan, Grandma Sheila, Tina (me!), Atira (our daughter), Jazzy (Geoffs middle daughter), Monique (Geoff's youngest daughter), Kat (Geoff's wife). Lower row, starting from the left: Grandpa Curt (wearing Jordans hat), Jordan, Jeremy (Geoff's oldest child), my husband Scott is laying on him, and Geoff! Whew! I did it! What a wonderful memory this evening was!
Siblings....it's amazing, even if they don't grow up together, they still act, well, just like siblings!
our beautiful daughter
he kept moving, but still a nice picture of my dad.
Cousins! ooooh! I love this picture!

And here they are for the first time ever folks! Cousins all sitting together! What a wonderful sight!
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EEP! My son made it to his yellow belt! And guess what! He did not stop there...I will have another update soon showing you his BLUE BELT!! We are SO proud of him! What an incredible young man of God Jordan is!
This is what happens when you are a cat living in a house with a sister. Oh Shaggy, we love you.

Ok, my digits and my brain needs a blogging break. I will stop here for now. It is snowing out and is just beautiful, I think I will go and enjoy a cup of tea, some time with my family and return later to finish my updates......... Don't think that way, I will be back, sooner than later! :)

Chinatown!

2011-11-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

Jordan has been studying WWII and is now moving forward in history. In perfect timing a friend invited us to a tour of China town based off the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. What a wonderful adventure this turned out to be! The book, although historical fiction, is placed quite accurately in the Internation District in Seattle. We toured several blocks through Chinatown and Japantown, tasting treats and seeing sights that were mentioned throughout the pages of this wonderful novel. This was such a wonderful experience, walking the steps of a story he had just read. The photo above is the group we were with in front of the Panama Hotel, we are planning another visit, since to our surprise, this tour did not include a tour of the hotel, which is a rather important part of the book. I am currently reading the book so when we return, I will be able to enjoy the tour more, we also plan to make this one a family event, since it was only Jordan and I on this particular tour.

We enjoyed a lunch at a fabulous chinese restaurant, toured around Uwajimaya, had the most incredible roll from a chinese bakery and saw many of the sights from the pages of the book, including a tour of an apartment that the main character would have lived in. To close out our day we toured the Wing Luke Museum and then headed up a block to the fortune cookie factory where we purchase, of course, fortune cookies and fresh made noodles as well as some crunchy friend noodles. We have now learned we LOVE fresh made chinese noodles and need a local source, they make an awesome stir fry at lunch and dinner. Can't wait to buy them again!

Grandma Sheilas Birthday!

2011-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday! We had a wonderful evening celebrating Grandmas birthday with dinner and presents and a beautiful cake that Atira decorated. Grandma wanted a tortilla press this year, she let us know by adding it to our grocery shopping list while she was here with the kids one day! :) We made her dream come true! Now we are still waiting for an invite to come over and try out some of these wonderful homemade goodies!

Didn't Atira do an amazing job? She really wants to get in to a cake decorating class, I think she would excel, she is very talented and creative.

Sukkot

2011-11-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

It was a lovely week for celebrating an 8 day outdoor festival....we were blessed. Here are some pictures of our pretty sukkah.

It was a quiet week, most everyone in our fellowship was celebrating somewhere else. We still enjoyed the week together.

All in one!

2011-10-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

My kids playing at the playground. Why is the biggest one sticking his tongue out at this other kid who is a complete stranger?

Leviticus 23:4 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts
And that's what we did, we had a blast! For several years now we have been heading out to a local park that overlooks the water and praying for clear skies so we can see the new crescent moon as it appears, signifying the start of the 7th month and ushering in the Feast of Trumpets. This year was a wonderful and blessed time. The day began beautiful and clear, but by evening, the clouds started rolling in....many of us were praying for an opening in the clouds so we could witness the renewal of the month, and the Lord blessed us! The clouds were wisps and we were able to sight the new moon! It was wonderful and exciting! We shared the evening with friends dancing and praising God, and of course enjoying some delicious snacks.

Well, it has been too long since my last update...I seem to always be running a bit behind. Atira reminded me that poor blog has been neglected, and it is true. I think that part of the reason is Facebook...which the longer I have been on it the less I like it. I think I like this blog much better, it is such a wonderful collection of stories from our life, a place to come and reminisce about our path.

Atira is very proud of her giant zucchini she is holding. She harvested this one at the farm last week. It has been made into two chocolate zucchini breads already and will probably make 8 more! Our time at the farm this year was wonderful, the nicest people are there and we are blessed to be apart of it.
Atira is learning about ancient Egypt right now, this is her step pyramid she built from legos. Tonight we are having lentil soup that she is making as well, I can't wait to try it.
This is our guard frog. If you drop by, watch out. That's our front door right behind him, he is perched at the very top of our stairs.
Atira with another school project, the Nile river. She built this Nile diorama and planted grass seeds, she then flooded the Nile added a frog and a lady bug and now has incredibly long "papyrus" growing! This too sits by our front door....you can tell we homeschool I think, our education is spilling out of our house!

Jordan is now keeping his own blog for schoolwork, I hope you all are enjoying his regular updates. I am hoping to have him add on an email subscription link to it tomorrow...stay tuned!

2011-09-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

We LOVE spending time at the farm! This is our second year helping out with the Bridge church and their harvest for the hungry program. Because of our crazy schedule having daddy home this summer, we did not get as much time out there as we would have liked, but we are doing our best to be there to help bring in the harvest. We have been harvesting green beans, which we have learned make our arms and hands itchy, so we must wear gloves, we have also brought in quite a bit of squash and zuchinni. Sadly, the broccoli and cauliflower didn't do as well and we were late for the potatoes and other yummy things. The Farm donates use of this land to the church, they help plow and seed it and volunteers come and week and harvest (as well as plant). The food goes to the Everett Gospel Mission, the Snohomish Food Bank as well as a few other locations. We are also blessed to glean while we are harvesting, YUM! We have enjoyed some wonderful veggies and are so appreciative!

Yay for the deck addition!

2011-09-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Whew!! What a blessing, Scott and Jordan found the time to add on to our deck! We have doubled our deckspace and it looks AMAZING! :) We have just finished laying down the first coat of stain and the rails are done being painted. The weather has now turned to more rain in the forecast, so when we get to lay the second coat of stain is anybodies guess. At least for now it is protected and going to stay beautiful until we have some nicer weather to enjoy our new space. Love these guys of mine, so talented and hard working!

Atira's story

2011-09-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
It has been a fun and busy summer....sadly, one of the results of that is a neglected blog. We are back into the swing of things for homeschool now and I am hoping to get some regular updates going here again.

Let's begin with Atira's story. She is entering an American Girl story writing contest, and I thought you might enjoy reading her entry.

Enjoy!

You wouldn't think two girls who were so different could become good friends, but somehow, it happened. It all started when my Mother wanted me to run to the store for her. My Uncle Louie owns a general store right around the corner, so I decided to just run over to there. " Hey Uncle Louie!" I shouted as I entered the store. "Hey Pumpkin! How are you this morning? " " Great thanks! How about you? " I asked in return. " Oh, OK. Until you came along, and suddenly, it seemed like the sun came out! " I couldn't help but to giggle. " Mellissa, I would like you to meet someone." I turned around and saw that it was my Aunt Mary speaking to me. " Oh! Hi Aunty! OK. " I replied. " Mellissa, this is Cally Reynalds, Cally, this is my neice, Mellissa Marshal." "How do you do?" I asked Cally. " Very fine, thank you. And you?" She asked me back. " Nice, thank you." I studyed her some more, and realized she was black. Which was perfectly fine with me, I was brought up being taught everyone was equal. And I agreed with all of my heart. Which, is alot. "Mellissa?" My Aunt asked me. "Yes, Aunty?" "Would you like to be with Cally this afternoon? I am going to a friends party this afternoon, and I would love to take you two, but I just can't. I am sorry, but would you mind, Mellissa?" " Aunty, have you ever known me to turn you down? Of course I will! I would love to!" "Thank you my dear!" My Aunty replied. " Cally, would you mind?" "Of course not, in fact, I would be most pleasured!" She answered my Aunty. " OK then! I'll see you girls later, Cally, you will be in the BEST of hands!" " Oh, Aunty!" I said, blushing a little. "Come on, Cally. Let's go to my house, shall we? I'll introduce you to my family! I think you'll really like them. They are SO sweet." "Umm... OK! Sorry, that was just a lot to take in! No effense or anything." Cecile answered. " Oh, non taken! My family says I'm way to much of a jabber-walkie. But, I guess, I just, well, love to talk!" " I can relate, normally I am a jabbie-walker also, just, I guess around new people, I am quite shy. " Smilingly, I glanced over at her, she is truly very beautiful I thought to myself. "Well, here we are! Home sweet home. Well, at least for my family.She just smiled. "Dear me! Here we are!" Said Mellissa. "Oh wow! You have a beautiful house, Mel!" Mellissa thanked her. "Mother! I'm home! And I've brought a friend!" "Mellissa ,I'm upstairs." " OK, we will be right up, Mother." "Come along, Cally, and meet my Mother. My Father will be home from work in a little while. In the meantime you can meet some of my other siblings!" Mel took a breath and went on. "Only some of my siblings are home, others are at boarding school until the beginning of spring, come, let's take off our wraps and go see Mother!" " OK!" Replied Cally, her head spinning from what Mel had just said. " Hello Mother." Mel said as she pushed open her Mothers bedroom door. "Hello dear, and who is your friend?" "Oh, sorry! This is Cally, Cally, this is my Mother, Mrs. Marshall, Mother, this is Cally." "Hello Cally, I am very pleased to meet you." Said Mrs. Marshall. "I am very pleased to meet you as well, Mrs. Marshall. "Cally curtsied." Mother, "Mellissa said. "Aunty asked me if I would be pleased to be with Cally this afternoon while she is at- whatever she's at. I never can keep track, anyways, as always when Aunty asks me to do something, I do it. Especially today was I happy to do it, for I am always glad to meet new friends." She said to Cally in particular. "You have a very beautiful home, Mrs. Marshall." "Why, thank you, Cally! That is very kind of you." Cally smiled. "Come Cally, let me show you my room!" "OK." The girls ran up the stairs. "Bang!" Mel through open her door which in turn landed with a crash against the wall. "Whoops! Oh well it does that all the time." Mel said seeing Cally's face. "Well, here we are, Cally!" "Wow, Mel! You have a very beautiful room!" "Thank you, Cally!" Mel's room was pale yellow, with pale green curtains hanging across the two windows, hanging side-by-side. On one wall, she had flowers painted in red purple and pink. She had a day-bed in one corner, with a pale green bed-cover with tiny flowers embroiderd on it. "Mellissa, did your Mother emroider these?" Asked Cally still looking at the bed-cover. "No, my Great-Great-Grandmother did. On my Mom's side." "Oh, thank you." Replied Cally. On the wall opposite her bed, Mel had a desk, and in another corner, a washing table. Looking out the windows was a meadow, and just beyond the meadow was the ocean. You could see sails, dotting the skyline, the sun was just starting to sink behind the ocean, it looked as if it was going into the water. And next to the ocean were houses, with smoke rising from the chimney. "Cally." "Yes?" Questioned Cally. "Will you be my best friend forever? I know we haven't known each other long, but yet it feels like we have known each other for as long as I can remember." "Mel, it feels like that for me too. So yes, of course! Best of friends forever!" They lifted their hands, outstretching their pinkies, linked them together and shook their hands, smiling. Knowing they had met the best of friends anyone could ever ask for.
The End.

Yovel Moments

2011-08-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind weekend this was! Our last weekend before Scott heads back to work and we decided to make it a full adventure! We began on Saturday with having my mom over for waffle breakfast, which was wonderful to get to spend some time with her....and we are so thankful to her for taking care of the animals for us this summer, she has made all of our adventures possible and worry free, THANK YOU!! ♥ We then finished loading up the Volvo and hit the road! First stop was in Olympia, which I do not have pictures of to share with you but I would like to share a little about our experience.

We made our way to our friends house, The Rogers, they were having a party to celebrate their youngest son, Tyler's graduation day. However, this graduation party was a little different as the scholar was not able to join us....as he has passed on. Tyler became ill with a brain tumor about 5 years ago and after a year long battle his body had had enough. However, Tyler's wish was that people celebrate his young life and as such, his parents have always honored that wish. His wake was one I will never forget, filled with laughter, great food and a party atmosphere, including balloons. Tyler had also asked his family to continue to help St. Jude hospital in Memphis, TN, where he received incredible care, of course they agreed. This party was not only a celebration of what would have been Tyler's graduation but also a fund raiser to donate to St. Judes. If you would like to learn more about Tyler and his family, as well as support The Tyler J. Rogers Foundation, please click on the link in his name. You can also "like" them on Facebook and support them through getting the word out about this family working to make a great memory of their sons life. On to the party....filled with live music, food, drinks and of course, balloons. The day was beautiful and soon friends filled their home all in celebration of Tyler. Out in front was a smoker, puffing away with all kinds of meats inside to fill the buffet table. Inside the house were gift baskets filled with goodies that would be raffled off to raise more money. You could also buy Jones green soda with special labels made just for Taterfest. It was a lovely afternoon spent celebrating Ty's life, playing games and meeting new folks.

And then, we were on the road! Headed south to Portland (again!). We made it down to our friends, the Hobsons, fellowship just after it had all wrapped up. Bummer! We had a nice dinner out with them filled with good food and lots of laughter. We then made our way into some unkown and uncharted parts of Camas (I say this since our GPS on Scott's phone would not locate where we were, so it must be unknown, right?) where we slept in a camper out in the front of her moms house. (Does that mean we went camping this weekend too? Sure, when the kids are grown I will tell them that, they will think we were really adventurous!!) In the morning we awoke to the most hospitable people on the planet! We had the great pleasure of meeting Marilees mom and twin sister who were INCREDIBLE people!! They were so gracious in letting us into their home to shower and get ready for the day. Then we were treated to the most amazing breakfast ever! Hank was cooking up delicious waffles and pancakes, there was berry syrup, pear syrup, whip cream, chicken sausages, a frittata, scrambled eggs, greek yogurt, strawberries and coffee!WOW! That was like three breakfasts all served at once! I told them if they continue to feed us this way, we will for sure come back, so next time plop out some boxes of cold cereal and curdled milk, or we may never leave!! We also enjoyed incredible conversation, as they introduced us to three great men, their husbands, and one son all now with the Lord. It was a pleasure meeting them as well as their loved ones who are now gone, all I can say, is this family is just incredible and they have given our family such a blessing by letting us into their home and getting to know them just a bit. I look forward to the next time the Lord brings us together.

We then hit the road, Marilee driving the girls in her convertible, which was a super fun time and the boys following behind as we made our way to the Park for the Yovel (Jubilee) celebration. By the time we got there the sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds and the day was warming up. We were excited to meet up with some folks we have not seen for a while as well as spending time with our fellowship family.

This is our good buddy Hank, can you see why we like him? He is always an adventure. I didn't eat any of these particular cherries, but the ones I did try were so delicious! (Oh, he has cherries in his cheeks too.....he really is a goofball)

Atira liked this statue...notice he is holding a bouquet of flowers....

Shelly and Atira, our sweet sister Yah has blessed us with. We are SO thankful she was there celebrating with us! She always makes our adventures filled with laughter and joy.

Dancing!! Oh, it was wonderful to be out there praising our Abba under a beautiful blue and sunny sky! Ted Pearce was there in concert, the day was filled with His presence, it was such a memorable time.

My girly had her face painted and then boogied over and found these baby kittens. Awwww.

Some of our fellowship family. We are so thankful to spend the time with the Hobson's Shelly and Joel, it was a memorable weekend and a great blessing. Abba be praised for all He has done for us!

American Girl Moments

2011-07-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Near the entrance Atira sat down for a photo of her and Nikki to remember their special day at American Girl.

WOW!! What an incredible day! To begin to tell the tale of this most amazing, fun filled day, I must first back up a month ago, to Atira's 11th birthday.

Atira wanted nothing more than to have her birthday party at the new American Girl store opening up in a nearby city, however it was not planned to be opened until mid July...much too late for her party. Thankfully, her creative grandparents came up with the idea of giving her a lunch date and moola to spend at the store when it finally did open, which thrilled her to her toes! The plans were in process. We jumped on the internet and made our reservations, for 4, a birthday girl, two grandmas and one mommy and now we just had to count down the days!

Atira made the time go by faster by sending out a joke a day to her friends and some family, we enjoyed our conference and camp and then finally...oh finally, the day was here! After a night of waking up three times because she thought it was morning, she finally arrived at the day we were going to American Girl!

Per her request, both the grandmas and the mommy were dressed up for this festive occasion. We headed out an hour early, just in case.....we did not want to miss our reservations or be stressed if there was traffic. As it turned out, we flew down! We were also immediately blessed with an incredible parking spot! We made our way in, Atira and I were holding hands, I could just feel her excitement building, it was such a fun moment. Finally, there we stood...right in front of "AG"!

One of her first stops, the book department! Not THE first stop...just one of them!

We entered and I turned to watch her take it all in. It was precious. She stood there, staring around her at the array of books and dolls and pretty colors, she finally achieved a dream of hers, to go to an American Girl store. We briefly looked through the classic dolls section, then bee lined over to the books (that's my girl!). Then we decided to leave grandma at the books and make a dash to the back of the store and return to grandma so we could get a quick overview of everything there. Oh, what fun...and I should mention, that "dash" turned into a very sidetracked little jaunt.

Finally, her other grandma arrived, hugs all around, let the fun begin! We had about 15 minutes to spend before our reservations, so we enjoyed some browsing time together. Then it was time for lunch. Good thing too as Atira was only able to eat half an apple for breakfast, she was so excited, by this time however, she was really hungry and needed some fuel for the upcoming events!

Lunch, was....well, overall wonderful. We had an incredibly dingy waitress, who made far too many mistakes. Thankfully, true to American Girls high customer service standards, they came through and helped make our event memorable and fun. After several errors on the waitress' part, we were offered 50% off of our bill and a certificate offering us lunch on another visit, for ALL FOUR OF US! WOO HOO!!!! We were all overjoyed and thankful....especially for the opportunity to come back another time all together!

Since this event was in celebration of her birthday we opted for the birthday package, of course! Atira is here wearing her crown and sipping on her strawberry lemonade.

And here is Nikki wearing her birthday crown, also sipping on her strawberry lemonade! ;0) Oh, and notice the nifty chair that hooks to the table for the doll!!

The birthday girls! Oh, and Atira also had a sticker she wore through the story saying it's her birthday, which of course had the employees giving her lots of happy birthdays as we shopped around.

Her appetizer, yummy fruit kabobs with fruity yogurt dipping sauce, yummy!

Nikki's lunch, Atira couldn't let her girl go hungry you know! So she made this bitty burger out of her big one and even cut off pieces of fruit to share with her. I don't believe I saw her share any fries though...hmmm.....

And since it was her birthday, of course there was singing and clapping and these incredibly darling little ice cream cones!! I am going to have to figure out how recreate these little babies at home. What you do not see pictured is those little glass cups are half filled with sugar sprinkles that the cones are held up in, Atira would eat a bit of ice cream, then dip, eat, dip, eat dip. You get the idea, right? She was fully loaded with sugar by the time we left the table.

So, of course we had to capture the incredible features throughout the ENTIRE store....so if you happen to have to go potty while shopping, and you need to take your dolly with you....well, they offer doll hooks to place your doll on, in each stall! They have thought of everything here! Cracked me up.

Lunch is over, LETS SHOP!

We made our way to the back of the store, after all we wanted to tackle this place logically, right? At the very back is the....spa! Atira opted to have her dolls hair done as well as have her ears pierced, seriously, she had her ears pierced. This lovely young lady was incredible! She chatted with Atira about her dolls, books, and we even found out she was also home schooled! What a sweet young lady, it was a pleasure to get to meet her. She also gave us tips on taking care of the dolls hair ourselves. Now, check this out:

They place these mirrors above the stylists so you can see what is going on with the back of your dolls hair while you are on the front! ACK! :)

This photo is nothing more than evidence of my shoe fetish...ridiculous. Also, incredibly cute! This is the little shoe department! I just loved it, little shoe boxes all lined up, and shoes on display, come on, that is really cute, right?

Oh, the final moments....the decision had to be made, which dolly was coming home to be apart of our family? Atira and Nikki looking at the potential girls....and finally, she broke. My little princess, started crying. She couldn't decide, it was just too much. :*( I was holding her and talking to her and then...Grandma Sheila stepped in and offered to give her one doll early as a Hanukkah gift, that grandma! Atira was practically overwhelmed by this as well, two dollies, each from one of her grandmas?! TOO MUCH!! Little sweety, she was so thankful and excited all at once. What a tender and grateful heart she has.

So, in the end, Atira had a wonderful day, as well as this mommy and the grandmas. It was one filled with memories, laughs and tears. The best kind of day. Atira came home with two dolls a few new outfits and some accessories, but more than that she had a special day with some of her favorite people celebrating her precious life given to her by a God who loves her.

God designed moments

2011-07-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Our fabulous group of friend at the Love for Israel conference getting a shot with Brad Scott. Notice the beautiful hand painted mural of horses behind us. The theme of this years conference is "Discerning the Times".
Jordan is in the black shirt and hat on the center right and Atira is in the pink shirt just to his left. This is during the Aviad Cohen song We Delight. The dance leaders invited all of the youth up to dance together to this fun song!
Another shot from a bit further back of the kids dancing. There were over 400 people in attendance at the conference this year....way more than we expected with todays economy! What a blessing!

This is a picture of the children of the conference being covered by their fathers tallits (prayer shawls) as the men pray blessings and protection over them. I love this moment, so beautiful, and such a beautiful picture of what our Heavenly Father does for us.

On to the story....

WoW! I recently posted on facebook that life is incredibly exciting, especially when God is in charge. This statement is so incredibly true. Each year our family anticipates a Hebraic Roots conference called Love for Israel. We have attended the conference since the first one 6 years ago. Each year has been more of a blessing to us as we grow learn and meet more and more incredible people, many of which we have become quite close with. This year with Scott's layoff our big goal was to be able to afford the conference, without using credit cards, which, with God in charge is not a difficult desire! We sold our Wii gaming system on ebay making enough money for the conference, lodging and gas! So, we registered and were ready to go!

In the meantime there was another event being planned, a camp called Youth for Yeshua, which began on the heels of the conference. We had known about it, wanted our kids to go, but that was definitely not in the budget, so we dismissed the whole idea. A few days before we were leaving for conference Atira received an email from a good friend of ours, AJ AKA Mrs. Noah, encouraging us to register the kids for conference that there were two scholarships available and we should use them!! Scott and I agreed and the decision was made, we were off to Canby Grove Camp after our conference for several more days of teachings and fun! YAY!

What an incredible week this has been. Our time at conference was incredible. We enjoyed the company of some amazing friends bunking in with us, Tim & Jen and of course Jeff & Patti ran the childrens program and our friend Terri made the journey down with us as well. The weekend was filled with laughter and tears, moments of awe and precious, tender time in the presence of our Abba. The list of speakers was top notch, we heard from Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, he runs a congregation of 700 down in Tacoma, WA. We also enjoyed the teachings from Bill Cloud of Shoreshim ministries. Bill travels the globe teaching the Hebraic Roots of our faith. Finally, my favorite speaker as well as Jordans, we had the opportunity to hear Brad Scott of Wildbranch Ministries. To see Jordans face when he comes out of a session with Brad teaching is priceless. His face is practically glowing, grinning from ear to ear and thoroughly charged and excited ready to rehash all that he just learned! I wish I had a camera to share that beaming joy, thankfully it is imprinted in my memory banks, I will always treasure it!

We moved on to Canby Grove Christian camp on Monday morning, we love that place. Beautiful 80 acres with cabins on one side and a lodge overlooking the river on the other. There is a pool and fields to play, canoeing available as well. The kids had a wonderful schedule. They started their mornings off with worship dancing led by our friends the Calderons. Then came the main reason we were there, Brad Scott...again! He was the main speaker and that was our biggest motivation in attending. The afternoons were filled with a variety of options from art classes to a tallit (prayer shawl) making class, canoeing, capture the flag and swimming. The kids had a blast! In between times we enjoyed amazing meals by the kosher chef employed by the camp (which was such a blessing to us!) eating the most delectable meals...we were truly spoiled! Scott and I enjoyed quiet time taking walks together around the camp and visiting with new friends and old.

One of the amazing things about this, if Scott was not laid off we would not have qualified to take the kids on scholarship to the camp, nor would we have had the money to do it or the time because he would have been working. We really felt that God had this schedule all planned out for us and we are abundantly blessed!

During our time at the camp we enjoyed some time with Brad Scott and we have asked him to come on board and help us to mentor Jordan in his Hebrew and biblical studies. As Jordan has grown we have seen that he has a dynamic view of both the language and the Word and we want to encourage and nourish this gift. Brad was more than happy to help us, giving us book titles for Jordan to begin reading as well as a few authors as well. Jordan will also further his Hebrew studies using Brad's Breisheet study guide, which we will begin this fall. We will stay in contact with Brad, especially Jordan who can contact him with questions and when he wants to discuss concepts he has been covering. We are really excited about this and look forward to seeing where the Lord takes this in the future!

The kids at Canby with Brad Scott

So there sums up our incredible week, all planned by the hand of God. We could never have made this happen on our own, and it was truly incredible and memorable. Scott and I were given precious time with our children, away from television, computers and telephones. We played, laughed and studied together as a family. Truthfully, we didn't want to come home, but it was time. We are so thankful for this week and truthfully happy to be home again. We are more aware of how incredibly and unpredictable life can be, especially when you leave God in charge and listen to His leading.

More updated moments

2011-06-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe Scott has been home for over a month already! This time with him is going sooooo fast! It seems there is always something happening or something to do! For this last little while we have enjoyed another long walk while the kids rode bikes on Centennial Trail. The day was gorgeous and we ran out in the sunshine to catch some while it was still out there. Our goal now is to somehow find free or very inexpensive bikes for Scott and I so we can ride with the kids. I told him I want mine to have a seat like that of a barcolounger. No teeny weeny seat for this tender hiney! :)

It is times like these that I am thankful we take our time about using gift cards given to us. If I was smart, I would always save them for lay offs. Because of our procrastination, we were able to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2 today. Very cute and kept us giggling! We smuggled in some super cheap Twizzlers, thanks to my couponing habit!

Speaking of couponing, that is something Scott and I are doing together now as well! Not all the time, but we have been out on some adventures to snag up really great priced things together! We have also been selling on Ebay, that has been an adventure as well! We are doing quite well so far, thank you Lord! We even sold our Wii system, we decided to use that money to get us to our annual conference this year. And it was just enough. We are so thankful to still be able to go and pay cash as well!

In related news, the Lord has continued to show His amazing provision for us in an abundance of ways! This week I have two cleaning jobs coming up thanks to my sweet friend Michelle. She always has work for me just when we need it. I am so thankful. In addition, Scott received a call from his former employer (and our neighbor) asking him if he could come to work on a part time temporary basis. This works perfect for us since we are enjoying the time off together, however this will "bank hours" with the union so our benefits continue for us. AMAZING! Just what we needed! I also have to mention that during that phone call I received one from another, most generous friend who said her husbands company is going to be looking for someone temporarily to help out on a job coming up! So, if he is interested to give him a call! Opportunities are pouring in from everywhere!

Scott is now in physical therapy. We truly feel this is incredible timing, the layoff, so Scott can get his body back to feeling good. He will be heading off to PT two times a week for now. His MRI scans showed some tendinitis as well as some arthritis in his left shoulder. The physical therapist feels he can really help Scott through exercise. We are praying this is so. We have also had the added blessing of sweet friends offering us advice on diet changes he can make to help him feel better as well. We are very hopeful that by the time he goes back to full time work, he will be ready both emotionally and physically!

So, as to our adventures lately....our latest was going to The Farm in Snohomish for a bbq dinner and play time as well as having the opportunity to take a look at the acre of land we will be working on to help Harvest for the Hungry. We had the opportunity to work this land last summer in conjunction with a local church. It was a great experience for us, and we are looking forward to doing it again this summer, only we hope to have daddy with us as well! You might be wondering what we do there, basically we come in and help weed and take care of the vegetables growing and later in the season we begin harvesting and the fresh food is donated to our local food banks. Last year the farm donated over 15,000 pounds of food! AMAZING! The added blessing is we are able to glean from the harvest as well. This will come in quite handy for our family this summer. :) The additional blessing of this particular adventure is we are able to see where our food comes from. How difficult it really is to bring forth food and the biblical lessons are innumerable. I love the lessons God gives us as we are working on the farm. Truly, we gain more from this experience than I feel we give.

Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day! Our family has found hiking to be a much loved outdoor activity so we decided to head out to Wallace Falls for the day, sadly everyone else apparently had the same great idea. The place was PACKED! There was no parking anywhere near the falls, it would have been a hike just to get to the entrance of the trail. :( We decided instead to head to the nearby Skykomish river. Big Eddy is a beautiful area with river access, rocks to climb and if it is warmer, much, much warmer, you could wade in the water. As for us, our feet in the water for more than a minute caused our bones to ache, that day was just far too cold for wading. Our dogs on the other hand thought the temperature was lovely! We enjoyed our picnic lunch together sitting on rocks and being this was also the sabbath we spent some time in prayer and bible study. I don't believe there is a more appropriate place to read God's word than sitting in view of some of His most amazing creation. It was a most memorable day. Scott thought it would be fun to take the scenic route home, which after 45 minutes of meandering through side streets and county roads we ended up a back on the highway an entire block from where we turned off! Hilarious! So, here are some pictures of our adventures at Big Eddy.

I was trying to take pictures, and Gunner just insisted on standing right here, this is my view from where I was...he is such a funny dog!
Forgot to mention all the wildlife we saw while enjoying our outdoor day! Check out the snake we saw in this tree, the color is amazing! ;0)
And a day out in the northwest would not be complete without a bear sighting! This little guy was quite friendly, so friendly in fact, we decided to bring him home.
My sweet family....I am truly blessed beyond my wildest dreams. ♥

Updating our moments

2011-06-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

So I am sure you have been wondering what we have been up to since Scott has been home. Honestly, we have been super busy! Having daddy around full time does not leave us a lot of down time. We don't know when he will be heading back to work, so we try to squeeze a lot of fun into this precious time.

I believe my last post was about Atira's birthday. What a wonderful memory that is! Since then we have celebrated Shavuot, which for us this year was a family day. We headed out to Centennial Trail and took a walk for a couple of hours, enjoying God's amazing creation. We went to The NED Show with our homeschool group, which was wonderful fun! We know the presenter, who is a good friend of ours and it was such a delight to see him "in action"!

Scott and I have spent some time discussing and wondering why this layoff came about so soon after our answered prayer of work. Scott feels that this is all in God's timing. As he has been suffering with quite a bit of pain in his shoulder and hands and chiropractic, acupuncture and massage were not giving him relief, he now has the time to pursue the care he needs to get back to feeling good again. We now have the results of two MRI scans done to the shoulders and neck area, Praise God no problem in his spine! However, it does show some issues with his left shoulder and a bit of arthritis in there as well. The doctor has given him a shot of cortisone to figure out the origin of his pain and now that we know it's the shoulder area, he is off with a prescription to the physical therapist. And thankfully, he is feeling much better because of the shot as well. Although that is not an answer for us, it is only a step in the right direction. Scott now takes a regular regimen of herbals each day to help with inflammation and he will be contacting a physical therapist next week. Prayerfully when it's time to go back to work, he will be feeling MUCH better! :) In the meantime, it's great to have him around.

One of our amazing adventures, where we remembered to capture some pictures at was a day spent out at the Western Heritage Center . If you live in the Northwest, you should really check out this amazing, volunteer run museum.

Jordan is using a lathe for his first time.
Our new friend, Jerry (who runs this museum) is showing the kids equipment that was used for milking cows.
Jordan is learning how rope was made, this was really a very cool hands on project, amazing how quick and easy it is!
Atira learning how water used to get into the house!
This stove is just beautiful, it needed a spot on my blog just because appliances today have none of this kind of artwork and beauty in them.
Atira driving a tractor with her dad!
ACK! He is DRIVING by himself!!! He really did enjoy this hands on exhibit, let me tell you! They do not normally let everyone drive them, but since Jerry and our family clicked, he asked if the kids would like to take these for a drive, um YEAH!!
Scott & I with Jerry up on a steam tractor. Jerry is an incredible man, he really does deserve a blog post of his own. He has gone to Africa (Malawi, same place as Scott's family went) to teach them how to farm there. What a heart of love he has for God's people! He is precious!
Scott & Jerry working the steam tractor.
Jerry & the kids working on the steam tractor. What a fun day this was. We learned so much about the Northwest and it's history in farming, mining and lumber. We will be back for sure, even if it is just to get a visit in with our good buddy, Jerry.

Our next adventure was our anniversary. Scott and I celebrated 22 years this year! It's amazing, in so many ways it feels like the time has just flown by, but in others, I cannot imagine my life before him. This year we were not sure what we were going to do, money is tight but we wanted to have a memorable experience. We knew about a conference coming up in Canada the weekend of our anniversary, and since it is not too far, we figured we could make a long day of it. We wrote our good friends who live up there and told them we would like to come up and celebrate our anniversary up there with them and at the conference they were helping with. Their fellowship decided to bless us with a complimentary entrance to the conference as well as our friends having us stay at their home so we could stay the weekend up there! What an incredible blessing that was!! Although it might not be the most conventional of anniversary trips, it was certainly memorable and special in it's own way. We are so thankful to the Bondservants of Elohim for giving us the opportunity to join them.

Scott and I posing for a picture to help us remember our fun weekend in Canada.
A photo I took of the worship dancing, what an incredible time I had worshipping with this group of people! Our good friend Gordon is a fantastic leader and teacher of the dance!! We look forward to seeing all of these wonderful people again soon!

Scott and I have been also enjoying some late nights together, watching television shows on Netflix and just having some quiet time together. It is very special and something we don't get often when he is working. The kids are loving having a daddy home in the morning to lay on in bed when they first get up. Can you put a price on that? I really don't think so. I think that brings everyone up to date on our latest adventures. I will hopefully check back in within the next few weeks with more pictures and updates on our latest adventures!

Birthday Moments

2011-06-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Oh what a day! Atira has just turned 11....I cannot believe it. Our kids are growing so incredibly fast. I remember people telling me how fast it went....but you just cannot believe it until you live it.

What an adventure this year was picking what to do for her birthday. What a sweet, indecisive child she is! :) Finally we hit on bowling...and she wanted to think about it. Thankfully we found a a bowling alley that offered glow bowling and she loved the idea, so I booked it almost before she agreed to it! WHEW! Check that decision off the list!

It was a FABULOUS time! I want to go back! The birthday girl had a blast and I think her friends did too. The alley was so wonderful as well! They are very family friendly, the music was appropriate, the staff was incredible as well, so helpful and accommodating. The kids had pop and cheese pizza and Atiras choice of birthday cakes? Red velvet!! Can you believe it? Can I just say, Costco makes an amazing red velvet cake! It was incredibly delicious.....ummm...cake.....

**let's focus!**

So, let's back up a bit...the morning started with her grandma Sheila coming over for breakfast. Birthday girls choice was waffles made by daddy smothered in fresh strawberries and whip cream from a can. It must be from a can. That's the only way you can spray it directly into your mouth and get that cool sound. And the fun of having a mouth full of whip cream. :)

Then the birthday girl spent some time out in the beautiful sunshine with her dad playing ping pong and then throwing the baseball around for a while.

This was a very special birthday, it was a great day filled with family, friends and wonderful memories. We are blessed.

Unexpected Moments

2011-05-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes something surprises you so much it practically knocks the wind out of you. Sometimes you go along in life, thinking you have it under control and your current plan is working just as you imagined, or at least pretty close. And sometimes God has another plan for your life and thankfully He has it under control and His plan is working just as He imagined.....however we know that does not always make the shock of unexpected change any easier.

We knew going into the union years ago that a life in the trade industry would involve layoffs. We were warned and expected them. We have been blessed to have only had a few in Scott's long career. We have also been blessed that through this economic downturn Scott has had work when so many others did not. When he recently got laid off from one company, he was picked up by another very quickly. Things slowed down for the new one so they "loaned" him back to the first one...with the intention that they would want him back soon. Which they did, they hired him on with a guarantee of 1 year of work, it was truly an answer to prayer....but God had another plan. On Monday Scott shot me a quick text, "I just got laid off". It came as a complete shock. So much so I wanted to get off the road and park so I could talk to him. In the past the smell of layoff would meander through the air a few weeks before, not this time. It was completely out of the blue for us, and for all the other men laid off from this job site.

Last week was a bit of an adjustment, but thankfully, God has shown us that this time is precious and holds far more value than the amount we are losing in income. We are having time together as a family. Our children have their dad home all day, he can participate in our homeschool time. Praise God, we already own the materials to add on to our deck, so Jordan and he will be building a deck! He has time to just relax and enjoy his family and home.

As I have said God is good. He has already shown that He has plans to provide for our needs. I was already working a small cleaning job on Sunday mornings and that will continue. I have a friend who will be giving me the coupons from her newspapers (which she gets 2!) so I can do some serious coupon shopping! I have the possibility of working for Weight Watchers very part time, but it will bring in a little extra income without a huge time commitment! In addition, we have already had some amazing memories all together! This week alone we have gone to a museum, ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant (gift card!), gone swimming, heard a speaker at the holocaust survivor forum, enjoyed brunch with some amazing friends, gone to a concert and of course Atira's recital performance! I am so excited to see what is next!

As we heal from the shock of this layoff, we look forward to many fun memories as a family. Scott has never had a summer layoff before and we look forward to some fun days hiking and spending time outdoors, as well as checking off the many projects on our to do list. We pray the Lord gives Scott work in His time and not ours and that we walk in peace on this journey. I plan to post more about our fun family adventures during this precious time! I know there are lots in store, so stay tuned! :)

Moments in the spotlight

2011-05-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

This last school year Atira decided she really wanted to try an instrument. Scott and I thought this was a great idea since she is so very musical. It was a great decision. My friend Chloe is a Kindermusic teacher and she decided to put together a class for older students (she usually teaches preschool and lower elementary grades) that would focus on learning about classical music, composers and learning to read sheet music while playing the recorder. These were all things that interested Atira very much! What a blessing! Atira attended this class once a week for the entire school year and loved it. She has learned so much and astounds us regularly with her ability to recognize composers and their music when watching television, a movie or just our and about when she hears the music. She also mastered the recorder beautifully! The culmination of this class was a little recital today. What a precious time! Each of the four children chose a piece from their repertoire to play as a solo, Atira's choice was Amazing Grace.

The event started with a fun silly song and one of the students then introduced us to one of the composers studied, then we would have the joy of listening to a solo, Atira was up last. Finally we got to her piece and she played beautifully! It was such a sweet, proud moment for her family! We have learned just how much she loves music and has a passion for it, something we look forward to encouraging in her in the future. Our hope is to move her to piano lessons.

I hope in a few days to be able to perhaps put some of her performance up on my blog....but that is only if I can figure out how to get it from the camcorder and into this computer!

We are so proud of our little musician! She amazes us with her God given talents everyday!

Excellence in Writing Review

2011-05-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

Let's start this review for the Institute for Excellence in Writing by saying "WOW". What an incredible program, it is so unique from every other writing course we have ever tried...and there have been more than a few! I homeschool two children, our son is 15 and our daughter is 10. Our son is what I would call a reluctant writer, while my daughter enjoys writing stories just for fun, their differences continually amaze me...and force me to be a more creative homeschool mom!

I am blessed I had the opportunity to review IEW, we received the Student Writing Intensive Group B. It looks like this:

We received a binder and inside are tabbed sheets with each section pre-labeled for us.. We also received a manila envelope which contained the instructions for the curriculum as well as the lesson plans and student handouts. In addition we received four DVD's that would be our classroom as we journeyed through our lessons.

I used this curriculum with my son, as my daughter is too young for this particular series of lessons. We both absolutely LOVED Mr. Pudewa! He is an incredibly engaging instructor, funny, kept our attention and at the same time WE WERE LEARNING! He truly opened my eyes to some amazing insights into the teaching of writing. I was always under the impression that children had to always come up with their own ideas, that my help would not be beneficial, I was very wrong! He started the lessons with ideas and allowed the children to write based on that. He would even give hints and encouragement along the way, it is all apart of the learning process and that made my son so much more at ease when it came to working on these papers.

Classes are held on the DVD, it is a classroom or seminar feeling as you sit and watch in the comfort of your own home. There is a chart in the lesson plans that tells you when to pause, I found this a bit difficult as I would forget to be watching the time (and my DVD does not have the count running on the screen all the time), so I found we frequently went over a class....which did make my son feel like some of the classes were way too long. That was not the products fault but my own. I did find this a bit confusing at first I do admit.

So, does my son now love writing? Honestly, no. He would much rather sit and have a conversation with you about a topic, it is just his particular style. Did this program help our family, YES! I would also highly recommend Institute for Excellence in Writing to any family looking for an outstanding curriculum for their homeschool!

The exact program I used can be found here: Student Writing Intensive Group B
This particular program retails for $99.00 and you have the option of purchasing additional binders and packets for more than one student for just $18.00 each.

IEW is a full language arts curriculum resource, in addition to writing they also offer lessons in grammar, literature, poetry and spelling.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

I can study Esther Review

2011-04-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

Greek 'n' Stuff offers a variety of bible studies as well as Greek and Latin studies as well. I received "I can study Esther alone with God" written by Karen Mohs for review. The study is designed to encourage children in independent bible studies. This series of studies is geared toward children in upper elementary grade levels.

As for my opinion....well....I like the layout of this book, but that's because I really do enjoy a good workbook, and thankfully so does my daughter. However, I have a son who does not like workbook style learning, so in my home this works for one but would not work for the other. I like that it is training the child to pray before reading the Word, the study has a weekly memory verse from the passage being studied. And it offers little tidbits of extra information to help clarify parts or just give interesting insights into the portion being studies. I should also mention there are questions with bible verse references so the child can find the answers easily. All you need is this workbook and your bible!

Those were my likes....now for my not likes so much. Let me preface this by saying, my family is Messianic, so we have a little bit of a different view on some passages of scripture and Esther it appears is one of them. My dislikes are really about theology in this particular case. I disagree with the interpretation given of this book. Which leads me to my second dislike, I think when we study God's Word, we should be careful not to allow centuries of tradition to interpret God's Word for us, but allow His Holy Spirit to guide us. In my opinion, this study would have been better had it allowed the child to interpret what was going on and kept some of the prompts on the sidebar down to factual information only.

I will say, I kind of knew going into this particular study that there would be a difference of opinion, but with all of that said, I do think this is a very nicely laid out study as well as thoughtful.

This 13 week study guide can be purchased from Greek 'n' Stuff for just $8.95 and you have your choice of King James Version or New International Version.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Hiking Moments

2011-04-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy lately. Over the last few months we have gone through a job change, I started working part time on Sundays cleaning an doctors office with my son and friend, we helped to bring the second regional conference for the MIA to our area, Passover came (which means a full spring clean of the house) and then we ended all of this with helping to host a Passover seder at a local church. Jeepers....I'm exhausted thinking about it! Between all of that, we of course had our weekly fellowship gatherings, which are lovely, but a break is nice too. Last Saturday we chose to take advantage of the beautiful weather (finally!) and head out as a family to enjoy some time in God's amazing creation. We hiked for nearly 3 hours, spent some time on a lookout taking in the mountains and valleys. Absolutely gorgeous. We ended our evening with the 1940's party, it was such a wonderful family day and very much needed by all of us. I am so thankful for days to just enjoy our family, I feel truly blessed.

1940's Moments

2011-04-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

What a fun family photo! We were invited to our friends daughters 16th bday party and she chose a fabulous theme of 1940's. LOVE IT! So, we came decked out in some fun outfits and Atira and I sported some fun hairdo's. We had this great photo taken of our family, I added a bit of grainy sepia to it and voila! Old time photo! :)

Nancy Drew day 4

2011-04-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

This is Nancy vintage, or as close as we could come! Pretty good likeness to the cover though I think!

Nancy Drew day 3

2011-04-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

We are playing Nancy Drew catch up as we have had a very busy week! So here ya go! :) I think her shirt and jacket are especially Nancy!

Nancy Drew day 2

2011-04-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's Atira, I'm the one who is doing the Nancy Drew Fashion week! Here is my outfit for today. Today I decided to go with vintage Nancy. My outfit is based on the book: The hidden Staircase. I have on a blue polka-dot dress, dark pink leggings, and shoes that resemble penny loafers, and a pink and white cardigan.

It's NANCY DREW Fashion WEEK!

2011-04-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

SO CUTE! Atira will be doing this particular fashion weeks solo...so I will just be the mom behind the camera! Atira feels todays outfit is a good possibility of what Nancy would dress like in modern days. Super cute outfit, mostly thrift store acquired, however the long sleeve green shirt she bought herself at The Children's Place. She chose to read a Hardy Boys book just to mix it up!

STAR WARS!

2011-03-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

What a fun day! We had a free day, so we decided to take advantage and head downtown to the Science Center. We were really looking forward to not only the science parts, but they had a wonderful exhibit showcasing costumes and props from the Star Wars movies. So, this is more about the pictures and less about the talk...so enjoy!

Math Rider Review

2011-02-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

It seems that whenever we are in need of a particular subject getting a little more attention, TOS sends us a product to review that just fills that need! It is truly wonderful and such a blessing! When I was notified we would be reviewing Math Rider, I was very excited for a couple of reasons. First, my daughter (10) needs some work in reviewing her basic math facts, and second, she loves horses! This just made my day!
Here is an overview of the game from the website:

What did we love about Math Rider? Well, I loved the simplicity of it. I was basically hands off, which I enjoy having a few things I can just pass off to my kids and they can take over and handles it themselves. My daughter figured out everything with minimal help from me. She would go online daily and play 4 rounds of the game and she was moving up in the levels as well as mastering concepts she had not mastered at this point. That was wonderful!

What did we not love about Math Rider? Very little, however there is a magical concept to the game and magic is not something that blends with our faith. For instance, there was a magical healing flower that was to be used to heal a cursed or sick person. However, you do not need to play that part of the game to continue on. The term magical is used, however it is easy to avoid and my daughter continued playing without ever having to participate in the parts we found objectionable.

Overall, I found this online game to be fabulous! You can find out more by checking out there website here: Math Rider Be sure to check out the many links available to learn more about this great product.

The cost of this wonderful tool for your homeschool is only $37 and even comes with 30 day money back guarantee!!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-19T20:14:00.000-08:00

Last Day!

What a super fun week this has been! Atira and I had a wonderful time participating in our first Modest Fashion week!! So here you have it our last outfit for the week...a little of this and a little of that. We were getting ready to head out for our Sabbath services and study. It was a lovely day! And it was wonderful to get to see all of you modest fashionable ladies!

Keeping It Classy

2011-02-18T17:31:00.001-08:00

Only one more day after today!!
So, here ya go!

Atira is wearing brown pants that we found at a thrift store, they have a pretty buckle at the waist you can't see in this photo. Her green sweater was mine...but a bit too fitted for my liking, so she wears it now. I have on one of my favorite dancing skirts (it twirls so beautifully!), this burnt orange peasant skirt, it has pretty little beads and sparkly pieces on the layers, so pretty. I have on a green cami made again by Mod Bod, and my cream long sleeve hoody was purchased at JC Penney.
Here is Atira's fun watch, yes, it was a Mcdonalds toy, it is just so darn cute!
And last, my earrings. My son took a jewelry making class and one day while I was sitting there, bored, I asked the teacher if I could play with the beads. I ended up making these and she said I could just keep them! What a blessing! Off to celebrate the sabbath with my family! The house is all clean, bread just came out of the oven and dinner is bubbling away...the house smells super delicious! Can't wait! Have a blessed weekend all! Hope I get time tomorrow to post our last picture! I will certainly try! We will try to get on here in the morning and do that. Blessings!!

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

We are having some fun here getting in to some "poses" for our pictures. This has been such a fun week of mother daughter fashion talk!
Atira picked this pose and I love it! So, what are we wearing? Atira has on a two piece outfit she received for her birthday, lovely little number with black stripes. It's still cold out so she also has on a long sleeve white tshirt underneath. And I will share more about her super cool boots in a few. As for me, I have on one of my few print tops (I don't know why I don't have more, I really like it when I wear prints) purchased at Kohls, longs sleeve blue T from Mod Bod (love it when Costco holds a sale on them, what a bargain!). Black skirt that was a thrift store find, white tights and of course my black Clarks boots.
Close up of my pretty necklace that was a lovely surprise from my husband. Inside is a scroll of paper with Hebrew on it reciting the Shema or "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one..."
My pretty fillagree earrings, I cannot even remember where I bought them I have had them for so long!
Atira's super cool boots up close! The zipper is colorful, hard to tell, but it's true! She got these at (can you guess?) Kohls. Yes, we have a Kohls near us....
LOVE THIS! Atira took a long piece of organza ribbon and wound it around her wrist and tied it off with a bow to make a really feminine and funky bracelet! She has such style!
And her beautiful gold ball earrings. This is a child who cannot wear silver, so her earring assortment is limited at this point since it must be real gold. These are still very pretty and go with tons of stuff!

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

*DAY 4*

So, for today we had a usual routine kind of day. We got a lot of schooling done and then Atira had her recorder class. I had a fabulous time running around Target collecting some serious bargains thanks to couponing! So, the theme today was cute, comfy and casual. Atira is wearing a cute jumper from A Children's Place along with the long sleeve purple shirt under. Of course she has on her skinny jeans (her new favorite fashion item)..she looks darling! As for my outfit, I have on another favorite sweater in such a pretty color! Purchased at Kohls...black tshirt underneath was given to me. My skirt, feels like jammies, it was purchased at Old Navy and my black leggings are also from Kohls.

This is my beautiful necklace my sweet friend gave me...it's of a praise dancer. She gave it to me because I teach Messianic praise and worship dancing. So sweet and one of my favorites...and she is an amazing friend and sister in the Lord. I am blessed.

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-15T20:28:00.001-08:00

Here we are day 3! This has really been a lot of fun so far. Each morning we get up and after breakfast, bible and exercise we start talking about what we will be wearing. How fun is that? I just love having a girly! ♥ So for today, Atira is wearing super cute Gap Denim Dress, denim jeggings and her cute and oh so trendy gray slouchy boots. I have on one of my favorite sweaters found at Costco! A Mod Bod long sleeve dark pumpkin t shirt, my denim skirt is one of my faves from Christopher and Banks and my brown go to Clarks boots. You can't see my earrings, but they are a very pretty filigree circle with little brown gems in them.

Here you can see her pretty details, under her dress is a lavender burn out tshirt and she is also wearing her black and lavender stars scarf. I love how this girl accessorizes!

I'm lookin' a little tired here, it is the end of the day...but it is a cute shot of my sweater, that I LOVE! (Did I mention I love it?) I am always cold too, so this is a very warm sweater, makes me happy! :) See you all tomorrow!

Cinderella Moments

2011-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh...what a day. Let's say it again. Ahhhhh....what a day. It was THAT good that you needed to say it twice. I mean, seriously, that good.

For those not "in the know", I planned an evening out for Atira, both of her grandmothers and myself to see Pacific Northwest Ballet perform "Cinderella". Let's back up....I have a sweet friend, Denise, and she has a very talented daughter, Abby. Abby was accepted last year to PNB as a student. What a prestigious honor and evidence of her incredible talent. Abby was then chosen to perform in this years performance of Cinderella. This led to the idea that it would be fun to go and see her and of course experience the ballet for our first time. Well, after checking into the price of tickets....*hack*cough* (was that blood?) we decided to just enjoy the photos of Abby in her costume instead.

About a week or so later, there was a contest on the radio to win tickets to Cinderella, we tried, but did not win. That's when the wheels started turning. Scott and I decided that this would be an incredible memory for Atira and that it was worth it. That contest gave me a little opening to ask some "conversational" questions, ya know, just chatting it up. I asked Atira, what if we had won, would you want it to be just you and I or would you want your Grandmas to go too? She said all of us....hmmm....would it be possible?

The Grandmas were delighted with the whole idea...the wheels of secrecy were now in full motion, churning silently along....mwah ah ah!! I LOVE a good secret! The plan was set, Atira and I would have a girls day together, nothing big, maybe some lunch and time shopping. She had NO idea.

The day finally arrives, I am giddy inside, just dyin' to jump up and down and scream "aren't you excited!!!". But I can't, she doesn't even know. We have a lazy morning, we shower. We are getting dressed to impress because we joined a "Modest Fashion Week" blog contest...she comes in my room in her super cute outfit and asks me what I think. I gush, tell her it's fab and super cute, but what do you think of THESE! I throw back two pillows that are on my bed covering up TWO BRAND NEW OUTFITS! She flips! She jumps up, arms around my neck, thanking me and even tearing up a bit. It was so sweet. She chose an absolutely fabulous little number, the black and white polka dot dress with hot pink shrug. Amazing.

She decides her Grandma needs to see it...calls over and miracle of miracles, Grandma is available to have her come over and show off her new dress! We head on over Grandma is also available to go to lunch with us! Can you believe how amazing this is working out? We head out....I suggest we go down to the south end of town to a mall we never go to there. Great idea! We get closer and Atira asks if she can show her new dress to her other Grandma! WELL OF COURSE!! (I could not have orchestrated this better, we were heading that way to pick her up and I did not have to blow my cover for one second! Can you believe this stuff?) I play it off...well, Grandma might not be home you know, but we will try. And again, Grandma is home! What a surprise! ;0) And to top it off, she was available to go to lunch too! hee hee....my plan is coming off very nicely, dontcha think?

We head out to the restaurant, enjoy a leisurely lunch, a little time in the toy store. (Where else does a girl go when she's all dolled up?) And back to the van for the finale portion of my secret plan! Oh, I could have cried here I was getting so excited!

We drive along...I ask Grandma J, do you know where we are going? She does...Atira looks, how do YOU know? Mom was just saying she has a plan rolling around in her head...but how do YOU know? Mwah ah ahaha!! I love it! Savoring the sweetness of this wonderful moment. We finally come around the corner to the building where we will be seeing the performance.....as we get closer Atira says, " I wish we could have seen Abby's ballet." I pull the van over in front of the hall, I point to the sign that says "Pacific Northwest Ballet", and ask "what does that sign say over there?"

(now you need a serious dramatic pause here, I will also wait while you get some kleenex OK?)

(ready?)

Atira: "Abby's ballet? Really?" And the tears started flowing....and along with them the most heartfelt and tender thank you's I think I have ever heard uttered.

She was truly surprised, she was touched deep inside by the love of her mom, dad and Grandparents who wanted to do this special event for her.

Of course, when her tears flowed, so did mine and of course both of her Grandma's as well. Kleenex was flying around that van as it sat on the side of the road in front of the hall. THAT was my favorite part of the whole night. My sweet girl, giving me sweet hugs and tears of joy and appreciation. It was....well, amazing.

On to the event:

As we were waiting for time tick away (we were only about an hour + early) we took a few pictures like these:

Around the time of these photos, I realized I should call my friend Denise or text her and let her know that we were on the grounds and hoping to see Abby during the intermission. (This was part of our ultimate plan of course!) As I pop open my so cute pink and silver phone, I realize to my UTTER horror, I no longer have her number because my old phone croaked and with it all my phone numbers! I could have screamed. Immediately I began by trying to wake up my brain to come up with a solution...ugh. I find one friend, call her, nope, she doesn't have her cell! ACK! Then, just like that little light bulb, a solution popped into my brain! TEENAGERS! That's it! Teenagers!! Oh yeah, they are always connected to some sort of social media, right? HALLELU YAH! I text my son, who is friends with Denise's daughter, it went something like this:

"Text Sierra and tell her mom to call or text me, I lost her phone number".

Pause 20 seconds while I wait ever so patiently for a response.

I flip my super cute pink and silver number open and start calling my son, WELL! WHERE IS SHE!? I don't know mom...was his response. Now is NOT the time to NOT KNOW!! (Well I didn't really say that last part, but I was thinking it!)

I decide to wait another 20 seconds ...and like a beam of sunshine streams through the clouds, here comes Denise and Abby running by the outside of the building. I, being all dressed lovely like and acting every part the lady, fling myself at the glass wall and start yelling "DENISE!!!. What a spectacle. Then there is Abby, pointing, running (or being dragged, I am not sure exactly, it was kind of a toss up). I fly out the doors and start chasing my friend down...who briefly slowed down, at least long enough to tell me they were late...so what do you do when you're all dressed up in Downtown? You chase after with your super cute pink shiny cell phone flipped open and start dialing in numbers as they are being flung at you so you can call later when things settle down. I hope Denise, you are still my friend after that fiasco. What a dork I am.

We (Atira and I...yes she was in tow, but I have no real recollection of that part, my focus was getting Denises number...good job mom.) went back in to get some photos with the Grandmas and here they are:

Shortly after this point who would walk by? Denises husband and kids. Ooops. I guess I could have stood there looking lovely (hee hee) instead of running around like a crazy mama screaming at people for phone numbers. Oh well....I got the job done! OH YEAH!

And of course we have to have our picture with Abby...she was amazing. I can't wait until the day we go and see her as SHE performs the part of Cinderella! Great job Abby!

Soon after this we headed for our seats...enjoyed the spectacular performance and even got a moment with Abby after the first act. It was truly an incredible and memorable evening. The ballet was beautiful, the company we shared it with was top notch and the whole day is one that will live long in all our hearts. Such a sweet day making memories together as family. God is so good.

Good night everyone!

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-02-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

Rachel at Saved By Grace awarded me this Stylish Blogger Award. WOW! Blush...I am totally unprepared, I don't even have a speech prepared! Thanks Rachel that was so very sweet of you to think of me! And what timing, while I am in the middle of Modest Fashion Week! (Not that I really think of myself as all that fashionable..but I do enjoy clothes and shoes and accessories, after all I am a girl!)

The rules to follow for those receiving the Stylish Blogger Award are:

Thank and link back to the person who awarded you.
Share 7 things about yourself.
Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

7 things about me:

My number one thing to know about me is that I love serving the Lord and walking in His ways. It is an incredible journey and I am so thankful He has invited me to join Him on it.
I never thought I would have kids as a young adult...let me clarify, I didn't WANT kids. Now here I am a full time, homeschooling mommy to two amazing children. I could NEVER imagine my life any other way!
My favorite donut is a glazed old fashioned. If you are my friend, remember that, it may come in handy some day! ;0)
I don't drink coffee...I only like to smell it.
I drink a cup of green tea every morning! (Refer back to #4 and second half of #2, this woman needs some kind of go juice in the morning!)
I love to dance. And I mean LOVE to dance. If things are bad or good and I start to dance before my King, they are always better. It's amazing.
If it weren't for hamburgers, I could probably be a vegetarian. But I love me a good hamburger. Blazing Onion is probably top of my list these days. Y.U.M.

Now it's my turn!
The nominees for Stylish Blogger 2011 are:

(Dramatic Pause)

Well..I would have done Got Chai, but Rachel beat me to it. Drats.

A day in the Life too (this is one of my new faves, she's a crackup!)
Pilgrims Welcomed Home (A fellow crewmate from The Old Schoolhouse)
Bramblewood Fashion Super fun modest fashion blog.
Barretts 6 My sweet friend.

Ok, you are supposed to bless 15 blogs...I just don't have that many I frequent! Sorry folks, that is it!!

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-14T17:39:00.001-08:00

Sorry, I know it is a bit harder to see our outfits...but we liked this shot of us together on the couch enjoying a book. Atira is wearing a FABULOUS tulle lavender skirt, with her NEW Pacific Northwest Ballet tshirt that says "Cinderella" across the front along with a gold slipper and beautiful artwork. She has over that a cropped purple sweater, white leggings and her cutsey argyle socks, also in lavender. I am casual mama today. Wearing my khaki skirt, brown leggings, pinkish quilted corduroy vest over a dark khaki long sleeve tshirt. What you can't see is my super cute bracelet of pink beads made by my amazingly talented daughter. Perhaps tomorrow we will get some close up shots of our outfits. OH! Who could forget our shoes!? Shoes are a girls best friend...or is that diamonds? Atira has her lovely black ballet slipper shoes and I have another pair of my favorites, my brown Clarks with a criss cross strap on them. So cute, uber comfy and I can trek everywhere in them!

Keeping it Classy

2011-02-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

Well, this one is going to be relatively short but sweet. I will do an expanded post tomorrow when I am not totally exhausted. It was an incredible day, I will tell you that much. So, be watching for all the lovely details to come. For now, I wanted to get this quick post in. Atira and I decided to join in a fun little adventure I found on a fellow bloggers site: Bramblewood Fashion. Ashley has decided to start a Keeping it Classy, Modest fashion week. The whole idea is to take a picture of your super cute, super fashionable outfit each day for 7 days and post it to your blog! I thought this was a great idea and after talking it over with my love and very fashionable daughter, we decided to play along. So, here is our Day 1 of Modest Fashion Week:

Here we are, I love my little black dress. I found this great little purple T at the thrift shop and my boots are my favorites, go to kind of boots. They make every outfit look great. The purple tights, well they are just plain fun! You can't tell very well, but I am also wearing a black beret that has sparkles on it...super cute. My sweet girl is in her new polka dot dress, which was a total surprise to her, along with some darling black ballet flats. Her hair was very fun to do, a bit of a fountain pony tail in the back, and a lovely black ribbon was criss-crossed over her head, I wish you could tell in the picture, it really came out so beautiful.

I am so glad to have this time with my daughter, working to be fashionable and at the same time modest. I love the idea of being fashionable, fun AND modest! It can be done! Modesty does not equal frumpy and I want to enjoy fashion as well as impart a sense of modesty to my daughter. I am very much looking forward to this fashion week and sharing this neat experience with one of the most fashionable and modest girls I know, my sweet Atira. ♥

Virtual Nerd

2011-01-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love the name? I do. Virtual Nerd. Perfect. Their service is summed up wonderfully in the next line; "Real help in math and science". I would like to add that the phrase is quite accurate. Before I elaborate, I am going to allow Virtual Nerd to "speak for themselves", here is a little snippet of information directly from Virtual Nerd:

"Who We Are...
Virtual Nerd offers online tutoring in math and science to students grades 7-12. Our service is both affordable and convenient, providing help whenever and as much as needed. Using our patent pending Dynamic Whiteboard, each student has a very interactive and personalized learning experience. While watching our pre-recorded videos, they can drill-down for more information and access FAQs, terms and definition to assist in their learning process. Service is available on a subscription plan basis, a 1-month subscription is $49 - multi-month plans are also available."

Well put, and exactly what you will receive! Virtual Nerd is an online tutoring program unlike anything I have ever seen. Simple to use, just type in or look through their content, click a subject and up pops a video. A real human being teacher stands before a white board and draws out your problem, teaching you all the parts and whys of how to solve it. In another corner everything the teacher says is being written down for you to follow along, so you are covering multiple learning styles here!

For my family, we found we did not have a great need for this, as we only needed it a few times with my sons math, so for the price at this point in our life, it would be a bit costly. However, in the future as we get into more difficult concepts, this could be a wonderful addition to our homeschool curriculum. The teachers were upbeat and kept it interesting and no lesson was too long, just to the point and very helpful every time we used it.

Virtual nerd is definitely being bookmarked in my favorites list. And I would not hesitate to share this one with my homeschool community. I could see it being a very valuable tool in our future. Check it out, they offer you a free trial so you can get a "feel" for what it is all about!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Atira's Poem

2011-01-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

Cute huh? This is Atira holding one of the newest members of our homeschool group. So sweet.

I wanted to share the poem Atira did today, I think it's fabulous.

Atira
Beautiful, funny, happy, stylish
Sibling of Obi
Love of family, animals, dolls, music
Who fears bees, spiders
Who needs to be politer
Who gives gifts to people
Who would like her room re-done
Resident of a pretty house
Roberts

Can I just add, amazing, sweet and incredible daughter....wow.

Dancing Moments

2011-01-07T17:33:00.001-08:00

WHAT AN EVENING! This was a most memorable and fun evening and I am ready to repeat it any night of the week! Atira is apart of a most amazing American Girl Club run by a very sweet friend of mine. They are studying Felicity right now and apart of Felicity's life is learning to dance, which of course led to the club having ballroom dancing lessons. I am so thankful this became a family event. We had a wonderful two hour class where we learned Waltz and Swing as well as a circle dance.

It was an absolutely precious time to watch the Fathers and Daughters learning and working together, but you know I had to get a few turns in there myself! Our teacher, Michael, was top notch, he made everyone feel quite comfortable and did a great job in sharing both his passion and talents.

I am so blessed, in our homeschool adventure we have the best adventures and this is definitely one of them. I am thankful as well for such wonderful people in my life that make these adventures possible.

Keep watch, this Sunday we have a tea etiquette presentation....so more pictures and family updates coming!

See-N-Read Review

2011-01-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

See-N-Read

I had never heard of this product before we were chosen to review it. Interesting concept, a simple tool to help you maintain focus and help you remember what you are reading. I was excited to give this one a try!

For the purpose of this review I received one paperback size reading tool as pictured above, one paperback tool that is cut out to allow you to highlight and underline and one tool for standard 8 1/2"x 11" paper.

As I used this tool I found myself able to stick to the topic in front of me, I have a bad habit of trying to read ahead of my brain....this really did help me not to do that. I found that I was better able to focus on the topic in the sentence AND retain more of what I have read. What a lovely benefit!

I also gave this tool to my teenage son. He used it while reading and he said he could see the benefits, for example, it helped him focus on the words better, he felt overall it slowed him down. He is an excellent reader, always has been and he does retain much of what he reads, so I am not sure if this is a tool for him, or maybe when he gets to some more intense information that requires a lot more concentration. We will definitely give this a try again in the future on some of our more difficult assignments and see if it helps.

Overall, I would recommend the See-N-Read reading tools. I could easily see how beneficial these simple, compact tools can be. I look forward to personally reading more, with more efficiency and comprehension.

You can find See-N-Read online at their website: http://www.see-n-read.com/ At their website you will find a plethora of information about this product, including research on the benefits of this product, the story behind it and SO much more. You can also find a full product listing. They even have a product for the computer! Prices begin at just $2.99 for a single tool and go up from there, you can buy multiple packs for multiple family members or classrooms.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-12-31T11:54:00.001-08:00

Ok, I lost my image...oh well.

So, how did I do? Overall not too bad, but I did not succeed. I ended up sick twice during December, making it very hard to stick to all my elements. The cool thing is I am really craving healthier foods, fruits and veggies while trying to get over the last bits of this sinus infection I had. So, the right amounts of those have not been a problem.

I have not worked out regularly, again because of sickness...but I will get back to it as soon as this is completely over.

I lost some weight, but not my goal of 8 pounds. It was more like 3. Wish it was better, but I am happy for at least going in the right direction!

I did post some of my verses...not every Monday....slacker, no other excuse.

I did drink my water as committed to. YAY!

Overall I would say I am in a better place than when I started and I am so thankful for that and ultimately that is my true goal. To continue on a better path of daily health.

So, for the new year I am kicking things off with a cleanse. I went to my naturopath and got all I needed to begin the cleanse and I will start on Monday. I know how cliche, I did not really plan it that way, I had been planning on a cleanse for a while, the timing just worked out good. So, I will be on a diet of select fruits and veggies, brown rice, lenitls and wild rice, select lean meats, chicken and fish and finally smoothies made with a detox powder of herbs and veggies along with detox herbal supplements. I think this will be a good thing for me, body and mind.

Congratulations to all of you who were in this challenge with me. You all worked hard at improving your health at some level.

May the Lord bless you and protect you in this new year.

Bricks vs. Stones

2010-12-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

Genesis 11:3-4 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Exodus 1:14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

As we read this week in our Torah portion about the bricks being made by the Israelites, I started thinking about the idea of bricks and the teachings I have heard on them. My favorite, by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, shows us how bricks are man made creations, they are made in such a way that they portray uniformity, mans way of being one, at peace with one another. Bricks are made to fit together and create a monument to the handiwork of man. They are not a reflection of the sovereignty of God. Bricks are what our society wants. Human beings that fit together nicely, building a strong society that looks, thinks and behaves the same, yet taking pride in our diversity, while never judging. A trophy to mankind showing that without a god we can become one, a strong functioning, diverse unit. If only we would all behave according to the standard, a worldly standard, not a godly standard.

I also thought about the process of brick making. Slapping together the mud, sand and straw. Spending hours each day mixing, forming, drying and baking to produce more bricks to become apart of a larger project. A project that was not God's desire in the first place. How often are we caught up in a brick making project, working endlessly toward a goal that in the end has no spiritual significance for us, does not cause us to grow in our walk with the Lord or reflect His light into creation?

1 Peter 2:⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua.

Then I thought about stones, as Rabbi Lapin says, stones are made by God. What a contrast. This beautiful picture above shows us the true diversity in stones. They are different sizes, shapes and colors. Stones start off jagged and broken and as they are tumbled about the earth, being washed with water, rolled through sand and tumbling against other stones, they become smooth, polished and beautiful.

As we walk through life, we are also being washed by His word, smoothed and polished. As we have encounters with other people we are being rubbed and our rough spots worn down. As we are caught on someones jagged edge, we must remember that we have them too, we still need smoothing and a forgiving heart as we are being used to smooth the rough spots on our brethren.

Exodus 20:25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.

The altar was always to be made of stones, never bricks or stones that have had a tool used on them. The tool would be mans way of smoothing the stones, or bricks. And as we know from experience our way is rarely God's way. Allowing Him to create the stones upon which we would offer our sacrifice is the way. He gave us the Living Stone, our Messiah upon Him we can make our sacrifice daily of our own desires, or own way of doing things. Lay down our tools and take up His Torah. His teaching and way of living, so that we can walk in abundant life found in His wisdom.

Stones are what build up the Kingdom of God, bricks are what build up the kingdom of man. Let us be found pleasing in His sight, loving one another and working for His Kingdom.

Fit Mommy Friday - Verse Update

2010-12-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-12-19T10:32:00.001-08:00

Hm, can't seem to find my fit mommy image. So, this is getting done without it!

Here is a much overdo update to the Fit Mommy Challenge. Around the 1st of the month I came down with a cold, by the end of the second week I was mostly over it but had a wonderful case of laryngitis. (wow, I just spell checked that and it was right!! WOO HOO!!) So, that is why I have not been doing my regular check ins. But here is how things went over those couple of weeks.

As I started feeling better I was exercising again, I even went to Zumba which was great fun and will now become apart of my regular routine. I am going to attend class once a week with some of my girlfriends, how fun is that!? I did pilates as well, but I did NOT exercise all through the sickness, which I don't think I should do anyway, so no loss there. I did drink my water, albeit some of that was in the form of copious amounts of tea. But I could not possibly do both regular water and all the medicinal teas or I would never have a chance to lay down and rest! I did eat my fruits and veggies, sometimes that was in the form of orange juice as that was one of the few things I actually wanted to consume during this whole thing, but in my book that counts. Interestingly I found myself craving fruits and veggies throughout this cold. Which is not my personal norm...so that was a wonderful change for me! I did do my no sugar days as well! Which was not easy, but I did it! YAY ME! I did not always maintain my after dinner eating. I would have juice or something like that several nights after, sometimes I had to because of the tinctures I am taking. Does that count? I don't know...but I was not so concerned about it while trying to get better. I was making reasonable choices though. I also have not been keeping up on my bible verse, which I will be posting next. However I have been reading the word more frequently and that makes me very happy.

Now, an update to my update. After my cold was almost all gone I came down with a nasty sinus infection. Ugh. Double whammy. It's been years since I have been sick like this. So, I am now on a new tincture and 5000 mg of vitamin c per day. I am feeling much better today, but will have the doc check me over tomorrow to be sure I am fully on the mend. I am done being sick, time to go bug! I rested all day yesterday, did eat right, did eat later after dinner...but still not doing bad. So, I am hoping later this week to get back to an exercise routine, will start slow but move my way back into the groove.

I am grateful for this challenge, as it has kept me more mindful of how I am doing and what I am doing. Even while being sick I have seen some true positive changes I have made and it feels great.

Off to write a verse for the week! Hope you all are doing great!

Happy Hanukkah!

2010-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

WHEW, what a week! This was a fabulous Hanukkah! We were SO busy! Started off the events with some lovely nights at home, having dinner, reading the Hanukkah story and of course, eating! We had latkes several nights, they are just so yummy! On Friday night our home fellowship gathered at our house for a Mexican themed Hanukkah party! That was a blast! We had plenty of food, doughnuts included and lots of fun. Max, Jeff's puppet friend made a special appearance to tell us all about what happened to the Maccabees and how they overcame with Gods help. We had a trivia game where chocolate was thrown to the person with the correct answer. We learned how to memorize the 10 commandments as well. We then moved on to some serious dreidel playing and closed out the night watching a Tim Hawkins comedy video. It was a fantastic evening.

We had Grandma Sheila over on Sunday to share an evening with her, light hanukkiahs and then of course she always brings them gifts. As usual, they were totally spoiled.

The week was wonderful, memorable and blessed. It went way too fast...but now my thoughts move forward to the spring when the cycle renews and with it comes more of His wonderful feasts.

Aleks Review

2010-12-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

(From the ALEKS website)

What is ALEKS?

Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking.

ALEKS also provides the advantages of one-on-one instruction, 24/7, from virtually any Web-based computer for a fraction of the cost of a human tutor.

Math is NOT my strong subject, I love history. I thrive when my children and I are learning about History and so do they. Math is a struggle for us. I was really excited to review ALEKS.

I love the idea of someone/thing else teaching my kids math, assessing them and making sure there are no "gaps" in their learning. Gaps, scary word for a homeschool mom. Reality is, there will be gaps, no matter what you do. But thankfully, learning doesn't stop at 18 and they can work their entire lives to fill those beautiful brains with knowledge, and even closing some of those gaps. However, having a program that is so complete that it continually assesses for learning issues, moves them on when ready and keeps records of everything is incredibly appealing.

I set my children to work on this program right away, with very high hopes. They both enjoyed the assessment portion, both were happy with this portion. They then saw their pie chart that showed them where they have mastered and what they have yet to learn. Very satisfying, at least for mommy, to see this breakdown. Now I know what needs to be tackled! Not to mention I love to check things off! Let's get that green pie piece filled in!! I feel so accomplished! They liked it too....at least the idea of it.

As they got working away, they enjoyed the program, but did have a few hiccups which turned into frustrations as we continued. They understood how to receive instruction by clicking on the explain button. However when they were sent back to the problem they had been working, the problem would be a new one after the explanation was given, they both found this frustrating as they wanted the opportunity to finish the work they had begun.

They both needed a fair amount of help from mom throughout the program. They would read the explanations, it was different than the current programs we use, and this caused confusion. And I have to admit, some of the processes they used in the math was different than I had seen. I could understand it, but it was a different and it just added to them not understanding the procedure.

I love the idea of the program, I even really liked the program itself. I think for my family it was just not a great fit.

ALEKS is available for a wide variety of uses. Homeschool, Public Schools and is available for K-12. They offer free trials, which I would highly recommend as this program could be an excellent fit for you and your children!

A subscription to ALEKS is

$19.95 per student, per month, or
only $99.95 every 6 months, or
only $179.95 every 12 months.

They also offer family discounts. Wonderful program, user friendly, just like everything it is not a perfect fit for every family or situation. I really enjoyed getting review ALEKS and overall, I think my kids liked it to.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Hanukkah thoughts

2010-12-02T18:57:00.001-08:00

The Hanukkah story is about a group of people, all zealous for the One True God, who would not bow down to an evil king who would have them forsake the commandments of their God for the religion of the king. King Antiochus Epiphanes was a very powerful ruler, he commanded the greatest army known to man at that time, the Syrians. They were feared by all who knew of them. They were powerful.

The king had set his eyes on the holy city of Judea, as it was known at this time. He wanted the people of God to worship him, he saw the incredible love and devotion these people had for their God. He coveted their adoration and determined to have it be his own. He set forth some laws beginning with a conversion from being Hebrews to becoming Greeks. And this is some of what the laws entailed:

worship statues of Antoichus
speak Greek
learn the way of the Greeks, customs and holidays etc.
circumcision forbidden
do not observe the Lord's Sabbath
do not keep a kosher diet
do not study the Torah
do not keep the Festivals of the Lord

As the story continues, the Maccabees, meaning hammer, rose up and gathered others who were zealous for God and His ways, they were a regular group of people from everyday walks of life. They turned anything they had into weapons, they prayed, they trained and they took on the most formidable army in the world. And by the grace of God, they won.

When they had won, they restored the temple, replaced all of the defiled instruments, and re dedicated it back to the Lord. That is where we get the name Hanukkah, it means dedication. This feast is also called the "Feast of Dedication" and you will find Yeshua celebrating it in John 10:22-23. As the traditional Hanukkah story goes, the Israelites found a single cruse of oil and it burned in the menorah for 8 straight days until more oil could be pressed. Sadly, there is not written documentation of this miracle. So for me, it is a fun story, but traditional.

However there really was a miracle at this time that should be celebrated and remembered! This band of regular everyday people, just like you and I, overcame the most powerful army in the world! They had full faith in their God and with His mighty hand, they WON! This is a promise for us to hold onto for today as well as for the future.

Just as in the past, this story is destined to be relived. There is coming a time, when a ruler will require people to live by rules that are against God's ways. Antiochus is a picture of the future anti-christ, what he did, the future anti-christ will do again (and I am sure a great deal more) ....refer to the laws mentioned above. Another one will sit on the throne of God and proclaim himself deity, just as Antiochus did. Can you see a relation between this story and the prophecy in the book of Daniel? Read Daniel chapter 11.

God says in Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end out of the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

If we look to the past, we will better know how to be prepared for the future. We will have better discernment of what is God's way and what is man's way. We can walk boldly into this future, with confidence as we remember His awesome acts in the past as they are a promise and a reminder of a God who does not forsake His people.

During this season, it is a good time to rededicate your life to God and His ways. To discern between what is man's idea of loving God and with God's idea of loving Him. (Deut. 5:32, John 14:15, John 1) It is a good time to let go of the traditions of man and embrace the life giving path of the One True God.(Deut 30:19) Choose this day who you will serve, choose life.

Happy Hanukkah!

Master Ruler Review

2010-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

Master innovations, LLC is a company offering homeschool families and classroom settings alike a wonderful new way to learn about units of measurement. I was looking forward to receiving this product for review, and my anticipation was nicely rewarded. The program I received "The Master Ruler" , was very easy to use, and my 10 year old daughter enjoyed the fun, quick projects to do in the workbook.

Items received for this review are: 1 workbook with 24 pages, 2 Master Rulers (which could be used for years to come), one for metric and one for standard measurement. We also received basic directions on how to use the product.

So, what makes these rulers special or different? Each ruler is layered, having clear plastic pages so to speak. Each layer giving a different measurement value such as inches on the inside layer, 1/2" on the next page, 1/4 inch on the next until you get down to 1/16 of an inch. This way he person using the ruler is able to see all the breakdowns in an inch at a glance, decreasing confusion in measurement.

The workbook is simple, black and white pages with different measuring projects to do on each page. Any given project never took our daughter more than 10 minutes to accomplish. It was a fun little addition to our homeschool day and she did enjoy her time learning.

Now, my only issue I have with this program is the price. The set I received retails for $41.25 (which does come with an additional teacher ruler, that I did not receive), but this is a bit steep for one minor subject in our homeschool life.

On the upside, on the back of the master ruler packaging, the creator has shared a wonderful testimony of how the Lord brought this idea about and what a blessing and encouragement to use a product inspired by the Lord.

Overall, I would say this is a fun product, a bit pricey, but also a blessing to help a local company and small business produce products that are meant to be a glorification to the Lord that inspired them.

You can find out more about Master Ruler and their variety of other products from Master Innovations though their website. It is filled with video testimonials and lots of wonderful information, check it out!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Fit Mommy Friday - Verse Update

2010-11-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

“I am the Aleph and the Tav,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

Love this...He is the aleph and the tav - teh beginning and the end, or in Greek He is the alpha and omega. However, He would never had said the Greek....His language is Hebrew. This word Aleph Tav in Hebrew is pronounced "et". It is the most commonly used word in the Hebrew scriptures, however it is never translated. The two letters themselves signify the Strong Covenant or Head of the Covenant. There is so much to these two little letters...and they are everywhere throughout scripture.

Here is a link to an interesting article by my favorite Hebrew researcher, Jeff Benner: http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/0_logo.html

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-11-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

CHECK IN TIME!

So, this last week was pretty good...I am using SparkPeople App for Itouch, and I am really loving it! I am using it to keep track of my food intake as well as my calories burned from my workouts. It is fun to have a gadget to "play" with while working on this goal.

So, I don't think I met my water intake each day, sadly it seems like when I focus on one element another one gets lost. So, my goal for this week is to keep ALL my elements going strong, not dropping one to focus on another. I am sure I got close to my water intake, but just didn't quite make it.

I did great on not eating after dinner 5 nights out of 7. YAY!

I did all my workouts for the week. Which consisted of my pilates day, loving it still! Weights, cardio workouts combined with toning and today I went out and went for a walk/run. I am really enjoying the higher intensity of running in bursts throughout a strong walk.

I ate all my fruits and veggies each day...and I find it really helps make me more aware for my whole family. As of yesterday I decided I am going to work on getting lots of colors in our f/v intake as well. I can easily get stuck in a rut and I am trying to break out to get more great things in us! So, we bought pomegranates, yellow squash to go in salads, of course the usual suspects, such as green beans, peas, salads, etc.

Speaking of, here is a FABULOUS recipe for green beans...watch the fat in it, it can get a bit high if you are not careful.

Steam green beans in basket steamer until tender crisp. Meanwhile, chop up garlic cloves (as much as you like!) In a frying pan pour in a little olive oil and about a tablespoon of butter, warm these together. When green beans are done, add them to the frying pan along with the garlic, stir until garlic is tender. Season with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. OH MY YUM!

I did my no sugar day, it took two tries, but I accomplished it. I am becoming so aware of just how easy it is to eat sugar. I cannot believe how many things it is in. How do people do it that have no sugar at all??? I have to start looking at my menus and foods I am buying. But jeepers, it's in catsup too!?

So, I am not telling you all how my goal of weighing is going, I am going to give a final tally on that at the end of the challenge. But I will give you a heads up...the scale is moving in the right direction. I just really didn't want this to be all about weight...more about my health.

Thanksgiving is coming up, my goal for this next week is to maintain all my current goals, up 3 of my days working out to 45 minutes instead of just 30 and to not overdo it on Tday. I will let you all know how it goes on Friday. Do you have any goals lined up to help get you through without blowing all your hard work?

Ok, that's my check in! I pray you all have a fabulous week, be strong, this week is Thanksgiving! I will be thinking about you!!

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-11-12T12:05:00.001-08:00

Update...well, this last week went OK. Here is the breakdown,
I ate all my required fruits and veggies each day. I also successfully checked off my no sugar day, YIPPEE!! That one is a HUGE challenge, so I was quite pleased when I got it out of the way early on.

I did all my workouts as planned and even bumped it up a notch. I have an app on my itouch that has workouts for the treadmill or walking outdoors on it. It is great, I set it for a harder routine, headed off to the gym and ended up running for about 15 minutes at different intervals, the other 15 minutes were spurts of walking intermixed with uphill climbs. It was GREAT!! I also have to say, I am LOVING doing the pilates thing once a week. What a difference in how I feel overall when I get that day in. I almost feeling like doing another after because I feel so good. Notice: I said almost.

I have been drinking my water! This one is not too hard, but I can forget when I am not focusing on it as part of a challenge. Really all I drink is water for every meal....but I do like an occasional treat such as my Zevia pop. If you don't know about it, google it, great stuff.

I did my bible verse as you all saw! I love having a new one up each week, they sit right at my kitchen window so I see it all throughout the day. What a blessing that has been.

Ok, here is where I fell down, skinned my knees and sat there crying about it for a while. Well, not literally, but I broke my no eating after dinner rule 3 days this week. ACK! I did great last night, which I am very happy to report, since I had no reason to get back on track other than I wanted to, but it had not "payoff" for me like helping me win this challenge. I did it because I knew I needed to and I am very glad today I did.

So, today was weights day, it was great! I am finding this change up in my workout schedule to be very refreshing.

So, I am hoping everyone else had a good week too!

Apple picking

2010-11-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

Last year we went apple picking and it was such a fun family activity! I was so excited when we were invited to go again! This time we went to our local pumpkin farm where they have apple orchards and were able to pick a big bag of apples. It was a lovely afternoon for being outside and enjoying our friends as well as some delicious apples.

Birthday Moments

2010-11-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

So, I turned the big 4 0 this year, how weird is that?! It was a wonderful birthday for me too. My family and friends all came together to make it a special and memorable time. I will start off with my birthday at my moms, which was a wonderful and very special evening. You will see the table set beautifully by my mom and my daughter. My mom made tacos, spanish rice and beans. It was delicious and brought back memories. It was such fun to sit around the table and just enjoy the company. There was also an incredible cake for dessert!

Scott & my mom went in on an Itouch for me...what a wonderful gift! I really was surprised, even if I did figure out what it was before opening it! That for me, is just part of the fun!

On Sunday, my sweet friends coordinated a surprise birthday tea luncheon!! What a wonderful surprise that was! We enjoyed a full tea service, and lots of fun together. And I was truly utterly surprised when I walked in that room and saw if full of family and friends.

My children also went out of their way to make me feel special this year. Atira, my sweet and very thoughtful daughter, gave me a beautiful red wallet that can double as a purse so I can carry it while shopping, hands free! Jordan, my wonderfully conscientious son bought me slippers, he knows how much I count on and love my slippers each fall and winter season.

It was a wonderful birthday and turning 40 was no big deal. I am thankful for this age, there are so many blessings that go along with this time in life....I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Fit Mommy Friday - Verse Update

2010-11-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

I know it is really late...but at least it is here!!

The Write Foundation

2010-11-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Write Foundation is a Christian company offering curriculum designed to help reluctant writers. They offer three levels of study in their program:

Level 1, Sentence to Paragraph Writing; Suggested ages 11-13
Level 2, Paragraph Writing; Suggested ages 12-15
Level 3, Essay Writing; Suggested ages 14-17

I received Level 2, Paragraph Writing. I will start off by telling you about their amazing customer service. My package arrived badly damaged, however the materials inside were in tact. Even so, the company wanted to make sure I had the best quality in the materials and offered to replace them immediately if I desired. They also decided to make changes in their shipping envelope choice. Their heart truly appears to be in helping their customers have the best experience with their product. It is a joy to work with a company that cares.

Now to the nitty gritty. I have to be honest from the start here, this was not a curriculum for my family. As I read through the instructions on how to use this product, I found myself frequently confused, and I hate to say it, but a bit bored by the style in which the information is shared. And I am not sure if it is just me or not, but I had a difficult time understanding what I was supposed to do with this curriculum. I finally decided to just jump in and see if it would start to make some sense if I was in their "getting my hands dirty".

I am happy to report, it did help....some. We got in there and started the work, my son really enjoyed the "Mind Benders", a game that you play here and there throughout the curriculum. We then moved on to lessons, I noticed that the instructions frequently reference group activities, I feel this may have been written more for a co-op than focused on a home setting. I also want to mention, there are many abbreviations and key words used throughout the curriculum, which I needed to memorize, I found this made the curriculum a bit more difficult for me as my poor brain is just filled to the brim with things I am supposed to remember!

Now, for the upside, as we did get into this, I could see the light shining in the distance. I can see how this curriculum offered some wonderful ways of teaching writing, that really helped my son see the mechanics of a well written paragraph. I believe if I dedicated some serious time to wrapping my brain cells around this curriculum, it would be very beneficial. And the passion the author has in sharing the beauty of writing is evident.

For more information, check out their very well equipped website. You can see free samples there, find out more about the author as well as so much more.

The Write Foundation offers this curriculum and level 3 for $65 plus tax/shipping/handling. Level 1 is sold for $100 plus tax/shipping/handling.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-11-06T10:28:00.001-07:00

A day late...oh well.

So, it was a GREAT week!

Again, I met my goal of exercising 5x, but actually I went an extra day to the gym with my hubby! Amazing! I did my day of pilates, my day of weights and a I went one day in the middle of the week and did Zumba! That was a lot of fun, although one song the lady played was a bit disturbing....

I did not drink my 8 glasses of water everyday. Almost everyday, bummer.

I did my no sugar day! And that is a tuffy for me. I had one day where I started out doing it, then without thinking I popped a bit of banana bread in my mouth, one bite and it was over. Ugh. Don't worry though, I made up for it, I ate a few more sugary things before the day was through, heck, if I am gonna blow it, why not just keep going? I know stinky attitude, but it was all within my calorie goal for the day and it was not true junk food, just things like jelly (which has sugar added) and other such silly things.

I did not eat after dinner 5 out of 7 days...YAY! I think this is one of my biggest accomplishments. I struggled for a very long time with night time snacking. Thank God for challenges like these that help me avoid that! And I have to say, brushing my teeth right after dinner is a huge deterrent!

And of course, I posted my bible verse...will work on another for tomorrow!

Can't wait to see how all you ladies did!!

Fit Mommy Friday - Verse Update

2010-10-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 43:18-19
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
It will even make a roadway in the wilderness
Rivers in the desert.

Fit Mommy Friday

2010-10-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Checking in! Week 1 - I did GREAT!

Worked out 5 days, did 2 pilates days AND 2 days with weights in addition to a cardio day....and one pilates day I ALSO did weights/cardio workout! WOO HOO!

I ate my 5 fruits and veggies every day, it helped that I made a big ole batch of veggie soup at the beginning of the week, so I had a big ole bowl everyday for lunch...in addition to other things each day.

I chose Tuesday for my no sugar day, wanted to check it off early in the week. To often I have waited to the end, and then accidentally forgot I was not supposed to have sugar, eating it, then losing my challenge opportunity. So, I did good, no sugar day accomplished!

I did not eat after dinner 5 x per week! This is such a good challenge for me and I truly feel so much better when I do this.

And I reflected on my verse each day, it sits in my kitchen window. I will come up with a new one this weekend.

Not a bad start, feeling great! Thanks ladies for making this challenge possible!

PG Key Review

2010-10-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

I would love it if my kids could surf around the internet without worry, but that is just not the world we live in. My children do a lot of digital scrapbooking as apart of their homeschooling, as such we find images from the internet to add to their pages. The problem is, I cannot allow them to surf through pictures without supervision. The general rule around here is, I look for a page of images, I scan it and after I let them look through. You never can tell what will pop up under a seemingly innocent search title.

When PG Key arrived for review both myself and my children were excited at the possibility that they would be able to do some hunting around for themselves, and from the reviews I read about this product prior to trying it, it seemed like a very real opportunity! Here is a little snippet from their site:

"Simply plugging PG Key into a child’s or teen’s computer allows parents to follow the advice so often given by law enforcement and parenting experts: 1) Control when and how long the computer is used, 2) Properly setup your system with filters and web site blocking, 3) Create the “over their shoulder” environment that encourages kids to act the same way “on line” as they do in every other part of their life.

Simply put - PG Key does NOT replace parenting with technology - It ENABLES parenting with technology.

PG Key is so easy to install, that any Parent or Grandparent, – no matter how “technically challenged” can plug it in, and within a few seconds have everything they need to apply their parenting skills and strategies, to their kid’s “online” world."

It seemed like something we could really use around our home. And SO simple to use. Sadly, this product did not work for us. There seems to have been some glitch between our computer and their product. However, since I am not able to give an adequate review on the product due to this glitch, I do want to take a moment to highlight their customer service.

Now, this is a good area for me to review, as I highly value good customer service. I feel the customer is the life blood of a retail establishment and as such there should be mutual respect between customer and representative. Let me just say for PG Key, their customer service was impeccable. They did everything they could to help me with this product and have asked me to further help them in working out this glitch so other customers never have to experience it. They were friendly, patient and kind. I am truly sorry this product did not work for us, but I am so glad I can give their customer service team a glowing review. And for informational purposes, when I would first call in I would never tell the rep I was a reviewer of their product, I wanted an unbiased representation of their service. They get an A+ for doing a great job in this area!

So, PG Key can be purchased for just $49.99, total price, no subscription needed. If you would like to try it before you buy it, check out this free trial they offer! You can also head on over the The Old Schoolhouse Magazine if you would like to read more reviews on this much needed product.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

10 Week Challenge!

2010-10-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

It's not like I don't have enough things on my schedule...I do not suffer from boredom, yet here I sit taking on a challenge with some wonderful ladies. It is a good one and a goal I seem to be constantly working on; health. So, I have to write up my personal goals for a 10 week Fit Mommy Challenge. It begins today and ends December 31. What a great way to start the new year right? Have your "resolutions" checked off already? Love it. So here goes:

I am beginning this challenge in level Two: This level is for those who are already exercising at least 3 times per week on a regular basis. Goals here might include one additional 20-30 min workout each day/week, or incorporating a new exercise or tool (kettle bells, stability ball, bands, dumbbells) into your fitness routine, etc. It should also include some sort of nutritional goal.

Exercise 5 days per week, one day with weights and one day pilates, the other three days are cardio (which can be mixed with weights). I have a tendency to want to do all cardio forgetting that the other aspects are just as important. Each day I will exercise a minimum of 30 minutes.
Eating 5 fruits and veggies 5 days per week. I need a couple of days to not be perfect at it, but I will try. Doing it 5 out of 7 days is a good goal I think.
Drinking 8 oz of water a day. Water is my first choice of drink, I just don't always get enough if it is not laid out as a personal goal.
Lose 8 pounds by the end of this challenge. That would be wonderful!! :)
Each week I will have a no sugar day - sugar is in EVERYTHING, and I want to work on not consuming it so often.
No eating after dinner 5 days per week. I will brush my teeth after dinner and be done for the day! Nighttime snacking is a serious downfall for me.
I want to have a bible verse I can reflect on each week of this challenge. I will post my new verse each week on my blog.

Here is my verse for this week:

Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
1 Chronicles 22:13

I think that is it! So, let the fun begin!! I will be checking in this coming Friday and let you all know how it went!

Siritual Seasons

2010-10-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

Recently a fellow brother in Messiah was sharing how he was feeling "spiritually unfit" lately. I thought that was a great way to put it. I know I have those experiences as well, times when I feel very connected spiritually and times when I am feeling rather lost, and unsure of where my connection went. Interestingly, I have been really digging into the principal of the seed from a biblical perspective and thinking a lot about seeds, how they produce like kind, which can be either good or bad. How so much in the world both spiritually and physically is rooted in this very basic principal. When I thought about my friends' comment, that they were not feeling so spiritually fit, the thought popped in my head it is like the seed again, sometimes the seed has grown and is in full bloom, sharing it's God given beauty with the world, then the season changes and the bloom dies off and it returns to seed again, where it is hidden in the earth being nourished by the soil waiting for the seasons to continue so it may again sprout forth through the earth and push up toward the sun, once again coming into bloom. God's cycles are amazing....and there is just so much to learn from there. I would say during those tougher times, when we feel more disconnected, we could possibly be in the part of the cycle where we are in the earth, being nourished by the rich soil....waiting for the season to change. It's not a bad place, it's just a part of the cycle. However, I can't wait to be blooming again though, because when we bloom for Him, it is quite magnificent! Shabbat Shalom.

Sukkot Moments

2010-10-02T10:31:00.002-07:00

Last night was a wonderful celebration to end the festival of sukkot. We sat outside, the night could not have been more perfect, beautiful and warm. We enjoyed dinner out in our sukkah, a little singing, a little wine/grape juice (depending on your age in this scenario) and a wonderful time sitting out under the stars remembering God's amazing promises. After a delightful time outside, we moved this little family party inside where we put on some music, some good bumpin' music and had a dance party for about another hour or better! It was a total blast! Finally we were all pooped and ready for some couch time, we closed up the evening with an inspirational movie and some desert. Perfect evening, such fun memories, what a blessing.

2010-10-02T10:31:00.001-07:00

Foundlings Review

2010-09-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by saying how excited I was to be receiving this book for review. Both of my kids are voracious readers, they bring books on 10 minute errand runs. They always want books with them. The difficult part of that is finding literature that is both quality and appropriate. And today there seems to be a shortage of those qualities to be found in modern books. I loved flipping the book over and finding the words: "No Magic, No Evolution, and No Humanism" printed clearly on the back...."great start" ran through my mind.

Here is a brief synopsis from the website about Foundlings written by Matthew Christian Harding:

Foundlings, book one of The Peleg Chronicles
is Historical Fiction that takes place in the
time period of Peleg, soon after the tower of
Babel dispersion. In its pages we meet
dragons, giants, false priests, the death hunt,
an under-city of the Dwarven Brotherhood,
and many memorable characters.

The story begins with Lord McDougal and his
faithful shield-bearer, Fergus Leatherhead,
departing their lands with giants at their
backs, while before them lie in wait denizens of
the bog-land and forest.

Ever ready to protect and serve others, they
gather in tow an assortment of displaced
adventurers and find themselves embroiled in
a mysterious search for the foundlings:
orphaned Thiery with his companion Horatio
the white wolf, and Suzie who has been
deceitfully retained by the thieves Elvodug and
Flemup.

I decided to have my 15 year old son read this book and here are a few of his opinions:

"It's a good book, well written and kept me interested. The book was set in the time of Peleg, just after the flood of Noah, but there were elements that in actual history were centuries apart. For example they were wearing plate mail and that wasn't invented until the Roman empire. I believe it's better if the technology is time period accurate. But it is still a good book and I would be interested in reading the rest of the series."

My son is all about history, he loves it, reads about it for fun, not just homeschool. So for him, these kinds of details really matter. I would find him enjoying the book but then having moments of frustration at the inaccuracy of the time period and events happening that would never have gone together. He would also mention how the speech of the characters did not align with the time period as well...details, but like he said, it would not stop him from wanting to read more of the series.

From my personal perusal of the book, I found it to be fun and engaging. Personally I felt weaving together the Genesis account with another time period of chivalry and heroism was entertaining. I would recommend this book to my friends and family however I would definitely add in the thoughts my son has shared as well. The best written? Probably not, but overall a fun read. I am thankful for believing authors that are taking time to produce books for our kids to read. I look forward to future releases from this author and publishing company, I want to encourage a publisher working to bring better literature to the world.

In addition to the story in the end of the book there is a section entitled " The Gospel of Jesus Christ". This portion is filled with verses about coming into repentance and a relationship with the Lord. It includes verses on baptism as well. I like that there is no commentary offered in this portion, just a listing of verses. I might suggest, however, that there be guidance to the child reading this to talk to their parents if they have any questions about what is being shared here.

Foundlings is 239 pages long. It can be purchased from the Zoe & Sozo Publishing website for $11.95, the recommended age range for this book is ages 10 and up. Currently, books one and two are available for this series.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Salem Ridge Press

2010-09-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

I love to get books...buy books, check books out of the library, borrow them from friends, receive them as gifts and especially have them sent to me for review! We just LOVE books in our home. There is one problem, in a world that seems to love vampires, magic and overly mature relationships for young people, finding good quality books can be quite difficult. So, I was very excited about receiving and reading books from Salem Ridge Press.

I had done a little look see over there website to get an idea of what we would be receiving. I was so excited about the prospects! Here is a little snippit from there site:

"Here at Salem Ridge Press we know how challenging it can sometimes be to find wholesome books for your family. Well-written books that teach godly character and high moral values are hard to come by. Many books written during the late 1800's and early 1900's fit this criteria, but it still takes time to search them out and preview their contents. We purchase many old books, often using leads from old catalogs, and carefully evaluate each one, republishing only the best of the best."

These are just the kinds of books we are looking for. And this is one of the books we read, cover to cover when it arrived...

Dearer Than Life, a story of the times of Wycliffe, by Emma Leslie. Wonderful story! The kids and I really enjoyed learning about the life of Dr. Wycliffe and the reality of life under a church that ruled all aspects of life. It gave us such a wonderful understanding of what Dr. Wycliffe and his "poor priests" endured as they tried to spread the truth of God's word to a people who only understood the church to be the final authority on all matters. It was certainly a time of revival.

As much as we learned and enjoyed this book, I would have to add, we did find the language difficult at times. Because of the Old English we would find ourselves lost in the story. However, with that aside, we still understood the overall story and enjoyed the language. One thing that we found very helpful as well, at the bottom of each page is a list of words from Old English and their translation into modern English. This was fun to learn some "old" vocabulary.

In addition to this book we received two books in e-book format:

Sign Above the Door - Story Synopsis
"Young Prince Martiesen is ruler of the land of Goshen in Egypt, where the Hebrews live. Eight plagues have already come upon Egypt and now Martiesen has been forced by Pharaoh to further increase the burden of the Hebrews. Martiesen, however, is in love with the beautiful Hebrew maiden, Elisheba, whom he is forbidden by Egyptian law to marry. As the nation despairs, the other nobles turn to Martiesen for leadership, but before he can decide what to do, Elisheba is kidnapped by the evil Peshala and terrifying darkness falls over the land. An exciting tale woven around the events of the Exodus from the Egyptian perspective!"

The Captives - Story Synopsis
"The Druid priests are as cold and cruel as the forest spirits they claim to represent, and Guntra, the chief of her tribe of Britons, must make a desperate deal with them to protect those she loves. Unaware of Guntra’s struggles, Jugurtha, her son, longs to drive the hated Roman conquerors from the land. When he encounters the Christian Centurion, Marcinius, Jugurtha mocks the idea of a God of love and kindness, but there comes a day when he is in need of love and kindness for himself and his beloved little sister. Will he allow Marcinius to help him? And will the gospel of Jesus Christ ever penetrate the brutal religion of the proud Britons?"

Salem Ridge Press offers a nice line of books, and I would have to say, using this book as an indicator of quality, we will be sure to return for other adventures. What they offer is quite extensive:

Church History (historical fiction)
American History (historical fiction)
World History (historical fiction)
Adventure Books
Allegory
Books for Young Readers

And within these there are many options. You can get many books in hardcover or soft cover, and books range in price from $12.95-$22.95. Their website is also very user friendly, you can search by subject, age range, author or alphabetical. And while you are there, don't forget to check out there "About Us" page, sweet photos of this family and a lovely testimony. This is a family committed to offering excellent literature for our children.

I would highly recommend taking a look at Salem Ridge Press . I know my family will be heading back for more wonderful books on subjects we will be studying in the future.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Our Crazy Cat

2010-09-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to get another cat...it has been about a year since our beloved Critter had passed and I was thinking it would be nice to have a little fur ball around again. I asked Scott about it and he was quick to answer no way. He did not want the clean up of a litter box, clawing of furniture and all the other work that comes with cat ownership. So, with definitive no, I felt it was safe to go ahead and bug him now and then about getting one. To be honest, as much fun as I had in my head to get one, a large part of me also thought about the work of it all. So began my campaign, with the knowledge that the answer was a flat no, it was fun to dream and bug him about having a new pet. (It was a safe way to go...I could have the fun of dreaming but all the while knowing I was not really committing to anything!)

It was December on a Saturday night, we were driving home from services, Scott leans over and asks me a question, which I did not hear clearly, thinking he asked if I wanted to go and grab some food on the way home I said "Sure!". YAY! I don't have to cook!! HA! Well, to my utter surprise we pull up to the pet store! WHAT??!! I didn't say a word. We got out and went in looking at the cats, my brain is flying over the conversation we just had in the car....didn't he say go out to eat? Or did he say let's go get a CAT??!! SERIOUSLY? But he said no!? He can't just change his mind..I was having fun! (I should learn a lesson from things like this....let's all pray that I will, K?)

So, with that, we acquired Shaggy the cat. Easily the funniest cat we have ever owned. This one has some character, and is not shy about showing it. I have often tried to capture video of him playing with the dog, but it seems he always stops when he sees the camera rolling. So, I caught a break...and here it is. For whatever reason, he loves to torture Kayli, one of his favorite things to do. But on the other side of that, he loves her dearly. Whenever he comes in from outside, he gives her bumps and rubs and let's her do a full sniff down on him before he commences cleaning or pestering for food.

Thankfully this cat is fully entertaining, Lord knows we have spent enough on his furry little butt (literally). It's his way of paying his way around here! Oh, and we just plain love him. Enjoy the video!

New Monic Books - Vocabulary Cartoons

2010-09-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I received notice that one of my upcoming review products was going to be a book called New Monics - I'm not sure I completely understood how you would learn vocabulary through cartoons, but I was anxious to give it a try!

When this book showed up in the mail, it was just a little before dinner time. I had been out running errands, so when we got in the house, I really had things to do, the book was opened and left sitting there until we sat down to dinner. I pulled the book over and started looking through it, I was completely delighted! Shortly after I showed off a couple of pages it was being passed around the table from kids to parents, everyone having a giggle and enjoying the short stories and hilarious cartoons!

That next day I was heading out to visit with some of my homeschool mommy friends and decided to bring this little gem along to see what they thought. Same thing! The book was passed about, giggles here and there and overall rave reviews!

So, I will tell you, I have not often seen a vocabulary book being passed around with laughter, usually it looks something more like reading an obituary. This was a great and most welcome surprise! Vocabulary Cartoons by New Monic Books is very well done! Engaging stories, cartoons that truly give you a giggle and best of all, it works! I gave the book to my 15 year old son to read through the first set of words, about 15 minutes later I sat down with him to go over the review section for those words and HE KNEW THEM ALL! And enjoyed the time he spent learning them. WOW! That is effective in my opinion! So, this little SAT vocabulary prep book delivers what it advertises, "Learn Hundreds of SAT words with easy memory techniques". And the technique is so simple! If you can read a comic strip, you can learn what this book has to teach you!

This 345 page book is designed for jr high and high school students grades 7-12. It is broken up into 29 sections each one learning 10 words. I would highly recommend this book to any student who enjoys a good laugh and I am really looking forward to continued use of this book in our homeschool day. You can find this book and a wide variety more for all age ranges from New Monic Books at http://www.vocabularycartoons.com/home/. This is a great investment at just $12.95, it is a book everyone in the house will enjoy!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

In His Word Wednesday

2010-09-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

At the beginning of each school year the kids and I make up a cover sheet for our binders. For them it is either something that they are "in to" at the time, or it could reflect our course of study. For me, I try to put something inspiration, a bit of help on there as a reminder that I can do this whole homeschooling thing and as a reminder that my kids are doing great and flourishing at home. (Secret for all of you who don't know: we homeschool moms have freak out moments where we wonder if we are really just screwing our kids up or if what we are doing is good....our imperfections are all too frequently highlighted when trying to teach our children at home.) So, for this year I chose to put the Shema on the cover of my binder. Having a high school aged son can be a bit overwhelming and I wanted to be reminded daily of what my goal is in our education, God first, worldly education second. The Shema sums that up so beautifully, our reminder of the order of our priorities, loving God and loving others.

I also decided to put the verse from Proverbs on my binder, about raising your child in the way they should go. Great verse, so simple and to the point. As I looked around on the internet, I found some commentary on this verse by Rashi, ancient Jewish commentator, which I also believed summed up beautifully the other side of this verse that is often overlooked. He said: "Train a child: according to what you teach a child and train him in matters, either for good or bad, even when he grows old, he will not turn away from it." What a great reminder, not only am I to be teaching my children the word of God and living by it, but I need to also be watchful about the negative things I may be inadvertently training them in. Ouch. Well said, and such a great reminder for me each day as I set an example to them as not only their teacher but also as their mother who needs this reminder that they are learning even when I am not meaning to teach them.

In His Word Wednesday

2010-09-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is a re-post from Rabbi Daniel Lapins Blog. You can find his blog here: Rabbi Daniel Lapin

I have always found the connection in Hebrew between words and bees to be quite interesting. There are many implications that can be made from this connection and I really enjoyed how Rabbi Daniel Lapin shared this particular experience. May all of our words be sweet as honey and pleasing to our King!

To Bee or Not to Bee

Have you ever had the experience of blithely saying something and then, as the words left your lips, instantly regretting them and wishing you could take them back? Unless you’ve been obeying a vow of silence for years, I know the answer. We’ve all had intense remorse over something that would have been better unsaid. It just happened again to me.

I appeared on the Glenn Beck television show this past Friday. Among many other questions, he asked how I relate to atheists. On the spot, I referred to atheists as parasites. Needless to say, I instantly knew that what I meant wasn’t going to be what people heard. But with the rapid tempo of television, we were already on the next topic with no opportunity to elaborate or retract.

With one word, I casually insulted who knows how many potential friends who were now gone forever. Men and women who pay their taxes, serve in the military, and support their communities were instantly dismissed as parasites. In retrospect, there are so many true, good and kind words I could have said. Instead, I stung.

In almost every interaction, we each have the opportunity to use words that soothe and sweeten. We can say things that build connections and nurture relationships. By being careless, literally by not caring enough, we can so easily use words that stab and sting.

Hebrew emphasizes this dual nature of words, their ability to sweeten or sting by using one word for both ‘bees’ and ‘word’: DeVaRiM - words and DeVoRiM - bees. In Hebrew Scripture vowels do not appear, so though the words are pronounced slightly differently, they are exactly the same.

In fact, the Hebrew name for the fifth of the Five Books of Moses, Deuteronomy, is actually Words, from its opening verse --“These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel…..”

At the end of Deuternonomy’s first chapter, we find the word DeVaRiM or bees used:

And the Emorites who live in the mountains came out

to confront you and they chased you as bees do…

(Deuteronomy 1:44)

By employing exactly the same word for bees and words, the Lord’s language teaches us that just as bees can both sweeten with their honey and sting with their barbs, so words can do exactly the same thing.

Though I am not excusing my mistake, what was I thinking? I was remembering the following words from the sermon given by Reverend George Docherty in February, 1954.

"This age has thrown up a new kind of man-we call him a ‘secular’. He does not believe in God, not because he is a wicked man but because he is dialectically honest… These men, and many I have known, are fine in character and in their obligations as citizens and good neighbors, quite excellent. But they really are ‘spiritual parasites’ and I mean no term of abuse in this. I’m simply classifying them…These excellent ethical seculars are living upon the accumulated spiritual capital of Judeo-Christian civilization and at the same time, deny the God who revealed the divine principles upon which the ethics of this country grow…"

These words, which persuaded President Eisenhower to add the words “Under God” to America’s Pledge of Allegiance, echoed in my mind, but trying to convey them in a 10 second television sound bite was not a good idea. All I did was hurt people and jeopardize relationships.

Success in both life and business comes from relationships and being careful about words is a vital part of nurturing relationships. It takes deliberate and purposeful practice to monitor the words we use; in this case I failed.

a very late in His Word Wednesday!

2010-08-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

So, I know it's not Wednesday, not even close...but I wanted to write this down, more for myself than anything else. This weeks Torah portion is Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8, this portion covers many things that would be wonderful to dig into deeper however as I was reading and going over the Hoshana Rabbah (parsha KiTavo) commentary, something really jumped out at me.

The discussion is on verse 26:11 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

This whole section is about tithing. Traditionally when we think about tithing it is taught, if you give and sow you will reap blessings. And sadly, I feel that far too often the emphasis is on what WE will receive, rather than on what we can give. Now, when I read this passage about giving joyfully today and looked at the commentary, this is what jumped out to me. "Bringing one's tithes and offering to YHVH is to be a joyful event since it is a reflection of our gratitude to him for abundantly blessing us." This is the reverse of what is traditionally taught about tithing. We are not giving so we can receive but rather we are giving to show our GRATITUDE to Him who blessed us first! WOW! That is RIGHT ON! He did bless us first, anything we give back was not of our own hands, but of His gracious love alone. Deut 10:14 "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it."Anything we give, already belongs to Him to begin with.

So, when you are ready to give an offering to the Lord, do it with rejoicing in your heart, thanking Him for what He has already blessed you with and not thinking about how He will bless you in return, He already has! Amein!

In His Word Wednesday

2010-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!
Things have been so busy around here I have neglected my posts on Hebraic studies.

So here is the word for today:

Amen (אמן amen, Strong's #543): World wide this is the most famous of all Hebrew words. But, do we know what it means? This word comes from the root aman ^[str:539], pronounced ah-mahn, and means to be firmly planted in place such as can be seen Isaiah 22:23 which speaks of a "nail fastened to a secure place." The noun form, amen, pronounced ah-mehn, is used in the Biblical text by persons who are affirming a statement. In other words, they are saying I am firmly agreeing with what has been said. The next time we say amen, let's think about what we are agreeing to.

I believe his last statement is incredibly important. Today we hear this word thrown around like a high five. However when we pronounce it we are confirming whatever is being said as our own faith, and we need to make sure we are in agreement with the statement before we shout out an amen to it. Can I get an amen?? ;0)

A blessed life

2010-08-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

What a summer! So, here are a few updates.....

A sweet day, helping our friend Char move. We are truly blessed with an amazing spiritual family...God is good! And now, Char is settled in her new place, I need to get over there soon and see it!

Jordans buddy Peter had his 13th bday at the Museum of Flight, here are a few of us in the group in the elevator with a nifty mirror ceiling, I HAD to take a picture of us! How cool is that??!!

Atira floating in space, what a showoff! ;0)

Jordan checking out the controls....
And the staff at Red Robin sings Happy Birthday to the teen!
Moving along....Atira and her friends had a wonderful time jumping on the trampoline in the liquid sunshine of Seattle! Silly wabbits!
And we cannot forget the River Lot! I don't have many pictures of it because I am usually just enjoying the company and beauty of the day, but I did capture this moment of the girls playing in the sand. Love the river lot, I know my children will grow up having very fond memories of these years and spending time with their friends here. What a blessing the Wilcox family has been to share this with us! ♥

Nothing quite like family memories....beautiful, heartwarming, touching. And isn't it bonding when a niece and her uncle are so close...in looks? (Or incredibly weird....and a bit disturbing?)

Happy 15th Birthday Jordan! What a fun and HOT day! The boys gathered up at our house, loaded up all their ammo and weaponry and headed off to the woods and shot up some amazing targets that Grampa Curt made! A few hours later, they all arrived home, safe and happy having had a wonderful day. I think this was an ideal bday celebration for Jordan. He and his buddy talked long into the night about the adventure, and both of these boys are not big talkers. So, for them to spend, hours chatting...it must have been some kind of day! So, tomorrow is Jordans actual bday, we will be celebrating by taking him out shopping (with his bday money) to pick up some much desired items he has had on his list. He is a thoroughly happy and very spoiled 15 year old young man. Praise God for such an amazing son....we are truly blessed!

TOS Homeschool Planner

2010-08-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

ONE STOP SHOP! Calling all Homeschool Mommies! I would love to share with you about the shiny new 2010 TOS Homeschool Planner!

The planners beautiful sleek design will have all of your homeschool mommy friends just oohing and ahhing over it's incredible design, innovative features and ease of use! :)

As homeschool families, we have a LOT on our plate! We are truly super parents in many ways! We plan for many things throughout the day, a homeschool schedule, cleaning routines, chores, meals, shopping etc etc etc. You KNOW the list goes on and on! Wouldn't be wonderful to have a little help for many of these areas, helping you to have a more organized home?

HELP IS ON THE WAY! The 2010 TOS Homeschool Planner has a bit of everything you could imagine and a whole lot more than you probably would have hoped for!

Need a recipe, it's in there, need a form for planning your day, it's in there, need some biblical inspiration, ITS IN THERE! Thank the Lord! Whether you are looking for forms, recipes or just some inspiration for your homeschool day, it is all in there! The incredible number of topics covered by this 614 page planner just boggle the mind! Incredibly creative ideas and completely tuned into a the homeschool family lifestyle. Just what the mommy ordered!

***********************All of this for the low, low price of just $39.00!********************

BUT WAIT! There's more! You will receive your addition of the 2010 planner via PDF Download, so you will be able to hop in and play after your payment is processed! WOW!

Time is running out, school will be starting very soon! Click on our link to head on over to our ordering page where we have a website standing by to take your order and learn about more of the features offered in this amazing product!

Personally, I used the 2009 TOS Planner all last year, and it was a wonderful addition to my homeschool organization. One of my favorite features was being able to get into a form and type the information I wanted into it and print it out all done! My records look so wonderfully neat and organized, makes this homeschool mommy quite happy! :)

I hope you take a moment to check out the 2010 planner, I think you will be quite surprised and happy with the amazing content of this sleek new planner for the upcoming school year! Help keep your brain nice, shiny and bright by getting organized through This Old Schoolhouse and the 2010 Planner.

And the fine print....This posting is done with the intent to sell a product. Now, wasn't that fun and cheezy? ;0)

Math Tutor DVD Series

2010-08-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Math is certainly not my strongest subject. So I am always on the hunt for someone or something to help my children understand and be able to use math concepts better than I can. So, it was quite appropriate that one of my review items was for math and better yet, it is on DVD, which means I can sit back and be a student right along side my children!

I received two DVD's in the mail for review, one is "The Pre-Algebra Tutor Volume 1" (2 DVD's, 5 hours of video) and the second is "The Texas Instruments TI-83/TI-84 Calculator Tutor" (3 DVD's, 8 hours of video). *yawn*. Well, that is what went through my mind, especially when I saw that second one. However, I am trying to keep a joyful appearance as I want my children to love math....not tolerate it like I do. Funny thing is, my pre homeschool mommy days, I was a banker and mortgage loan officer! Both careers were completely math oriented! Crazy, huh? Oh, and I would say I do have some mad skills when it comes to percents, such as how much is this super cute top when it is on sale at 30% off? ZING BAM! I have the answer! I don't need a calculator or a lesson on how to do that kind of math....but the stuff my son is getting into? Lord help me.

So, we began our journey into the Math Tutor DVD using the first series, Pre-Algebra Tutor Volume 1. First let me say, couldn't be easier to use, pop it in and choose your lesson, hit play, sit back and relax...literally. He does not want you distracted by taking notes etc, just watch the lesson. The backdrops are simple and not distracting, this all about the math. Simple white board in the background for writing equations and the teacher showing you what is going on.

The lessons progress covering basic topics of pre-algebra, preparing your child for this new language they will be encountering (and for you math challenged parents like myself), giving you some tools when you begin tackling this new phase of math.

For my family this was perfect timing as I am using this as an end of summer review before we get back into a regular schedule. As much as I long to continue some of the basics through summer, I rarely achieve that goal, and not wanting to break my summer routine ;0) we kind of dropped math sometime in June...so, this has been wonderful for refreshing all those lessons we have not visited in some time.

Now, I would like to move this review on to the Texas Instruments TI-83/TI/84 Calculator Tutor DVD set. UGH, that was a mouthful.

Let's get the basics first, this set covers the TI83/84 and plus versions of this calculator. You will receive 3 DVD's in this series including 8 hours of instruction (for one calculator!!??!!) Seriously, your gonna need it.

So, my son and I sat down over french toast and hot cocoa to watch this particular series. Notice, comfort food when approaching what could be a scary topic...also creating "sweet" connections between math and food....don't know if it will work, but it helped me! :) So, we sat back and began this series. I have to say with all of my math insecurities, this series is done very well. I felt like I could follow along with the instructions, even though I had no idea what he was talking about most of the time (in regards to the equations I mean, these, were way over our heads). On the screen you see on the left a computer image of the calculator that he is interacting with and on the right is a computer image of the screen of said calculator. He walks you through step by step, showing you what the buttons do, how to do some equations and even teaching you that it is not the calculator that gets good grades, but the brain working the calculator. The teacher, is warm, friendly and makes the series easy to watch.

So, overall I would say this is an excellent series. My son is ready for the upcoming school year in math having done this review. And I look forward to being able to truly utilize the calculator series when the time comes that my son is in that level of math. These will definitely be staying on our shelves to use as reference, I am thankful I had the opportunity to review these...and that is saying a lot from this math fearing mama!

Great products at a good price - you can find either The Pre-Algebra series or the TI Calculator series at Mathtutordvd.com for just $26.99 plus shipping. Check out their variety of other math DVD series as well, we were very happy with the two made available to us for review.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Family Fun

2010-07-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

What a week. It has been filled with all kinds of adventure. This picture is a nice highlight of our day. Having Scott's family in town we decided it would be nice to take a day and spend it on beautiful Whidbey Island. Starting with a ride across the ferry, driving up to Coupeville and eating a magnificent lunch at the Knead and Feed which we topped off with an amazing marioberry pie, we landed ourselves at Deception Pass. Those few who are daring decided to walk across the bridge....those of us far less daring decided to wait and pray for them and enjoy the view on solid ground. :)

When we gathered back together we made our way to a beautiful park on the water and hiked up to the top of a huge rock...where you see us gathered for a family photo at the top. The views from up here are quite incredible. A bit of all the beauty of Washington is summed up when looking around from here, mountains, water, inlets and trees. Breathtaking. The day finished off with a crockpot dinner (thank the Lord I had the inspiration for that before we left!), and a fun night spent all together. Whew, it has been quite a week, and the memories we made are so sweet!

Armor of God

2010-07-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:17 and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The idea of God's word being compared to a sword is not a new revelation: Isaiah 49:2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver. I think Revelation 1:16 sheds some interesting light on this passage as well: In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.

Interestingly the mouth and the sword are connected in all these passages. The word "word" here is not logos as it is usually translated in the Greek, but rather rhema (RAYma). What is the difference? It seems from the bit I have studied this that the two words can be used interchangeably. However there also appears to be a subtle distinction....this word, rhema, has within it the idea of the spoken words of God,differing from the written. I have found it interesting that in some bibles the words of Yeshua are highlighted in red....how come in the Tanakh (old testament) God's words are not also highlighted the same way? Can you imagine HOW MUCH of our bibles would be covered in red lettering? From the very beginning all things were being created and are being created by the living words that are uttered from His mouth! Including His word and that includes His Torah! The interconnectedness between God, His Word and His Son are beyond our comprehension. However I love the passage of poetry from John where we are given a glimpse of His majesty: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. God, His Word and His Son, all shedding light on the darkeness...Genesis 1:3 Then God said, "Let there be light; and there was light." Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. When Yeshua returns, He is coming as righteous judge, King and Ruler of this creation, what will He rule and judge by? The living words of God. It is by these same words that we can learn how to wield a righteous sword to discern between those things that are apart of the tree of life and those things that are apart of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course I have to close this study with Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edges word, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints nad marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Be bathed in the living waters that are found in His word - the entire book - drink in the Words that were uttered from His mouth in the beginning and be filled with His precious gift of life!
Shalom aleichem! שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם
Peace Be Upon You!

Travelkits Review

2010-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Old Schoolhouse Ebook: Travel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others

Road trips, what an amazing way to make family memories! They can be a complete blessing, but also require patience and some careful planning to have the troops peaceful and happy when they arrive at their destination. Travel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others Ebook is completely packed with great ideas, suggestions and wonderful photographs to help you make a gift that will help the trip be a much more enjoyable experience for everyone!

Inside this 93 page Ebook you will find ideas for everyone you know! These wonderful boxes, bags, name your container of choice, are filled with gifts to keep everyone entertained as you are on your way. There are suggestions for everyone from infants to adults. If you are one who would love to create things like this but feel you do not have enough imagination to come up with the ideas on your own, this book is for you! Author, Donna Rees, has thought of everything for filling up these containers to delight your family and friends when you bless them with this gift before they leave for their next adventure! The color photographs will help you visualize what your gift basket should look like, how you can coordinate the ribbons or paper so as to identify the recipients of the gift. She even suggests ideas on WHEN to open these gifts! Such as, "hear a certain song or advertisement on the radio" or "stop for gasoline".

And additional idea I really enjoyed was "blessing boxes". These are boxes filled with biblical encouragement and inspiration for someone who may be going away for an extended period or embarking on a difficult task. What a gift of love this would be!

As much as I enjoyed this book and it's creative ideas, which I am sure to use in the future, I did have a few things that I found well...a bit different. For instance, one thing the author repeated as a suggestion when creating these baskets for your family or others was utilizing the library. From what I was understanding she was suggesting that we check out books and wrap them up as a "gift" for the recipient. Seriously? I am not going to give someone a gift that they have to make sure they keep nice and neat, in addition they can't lose it or they are going to have my library fines to pay! ;0) So, I would have to say, this suggestion might be fine for getting inspiration for additional ideas, but as for me, I will not be checking out library books to temporarily give to others as apart of their basket. I think I will stick with giving gifts I have purchase and not borrowed...it just sounds like trouble for me! :)

My only other issue with this was the use of pill boxes. It is suggested to give out pill boxes filled with candies and other treats, personally I find that a dangerous idea, children should never associate pill boxes with something they can eat, especially candy, since it is so easy for them to overindulge in it. She did use one for putting beads into, and I thought was a much better, creative idea for them...but never for food.

With that said, overall, I found this book to be very informative (perhaps for the creative soul, maybe a bit too informative) and I really did enjoy it and feel very inspired. I will also add, my children who were peeking over my shoulder and reading along with me from time to time, were so excited that we are going on a road trip this summer and they are thinking this would be a GREAT idea to have these for the trip! Don't tell...but I will probably do a little something up for them as a surprise, after all I am completely prepared with ideas now!

I do hope you will take a look at this book for your next trip or to bless others around you!
Blessings and Shalom,
Tina

For more reviews of this product please check out the TOS Blog.

Ebook download $12.45
Travel Kits

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Seriously? WOW!

2010-07-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Blogger Award

WOW! So my sweet friend ♥Denise♥ has given me the Beautiful Blogger award! I was so completely surprised that I did not realize that is what she meant by her email! How silly of me! I was happy for her and her achievement and completely agree with her receiving it, however it never entered my mind for a moment that I would be the recipient of one! (So apparently I owe Denise a big ole' cup o chai tea now...ya know, the big payoff!) ;0)

Now according to the rules, the recipients of this award must complete the following tasks:

1) Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award
2) Pass the award on to the bloggers whose blogs you love (15 tops)
3) Share 7 things about yourself

So, seven things about me? Who cares?? But here goes!

1. I love, love, love to DANCE! I have been blessed to coordinate and teach Messianic dance and look forward to my time worshiping before Him in the dance. (However I don't think this was a big secret...but it is still something about me!)

2. I love foreign languages, but always quit them when it comes to grammar. I stink at the grammar. Currently I am learning Hebrew....and struggling with the GRAMMAR! ACK! (so for the count, I have studied Sign Language, Spanish and Hebrew...and I am currently still working on English, but that's only because I have to since I homeschool my kids)

3. My favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. By it for me and you will be my BFF. (At least until the pint is gone, oh, and don't expect me to share.)

4. I love to bake. A lot. But then I eat it.

5. I workout every weekday. Please refer to numbers 3 & 4 above. I also have workout ADD. I need to change up my workouts all the time or I get bored very easily.

6. I'm allergic to turkey. I know it's weird but true.

7. The Bible is truly my favorite book to read, every time I open it's pages new gems come flying out at me and put me in total awe of the God I serve. It is just an incredible gem full of facets and layers that I never knew existed before about 7 years ago...so glad He healed my blindness and has shown me the beauty in His amazing Word!

Ok, so I am now supposed to pass the fun along..the thing is...Denise stole all my favorites and awarded them the Beautiful Blogging Award already! But that is a good thing...I am still getting to know a lot of these awesome mommy bloggers and it has been a joy. So, perhaps when I have had a chance to get to know some of these blogs a bit better I will pass this along later!

I'm a nerd part II

2010-07-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

WOO HOO!! Ok, so after being diligent in cutting my coupons and matching them up with sales, I am really seeing that this CAN be beneficial to our budget! So, what have I learned so far? Well, I have found out that there is a learning curve to this whole thing. I have also learned that this is not free money or a get rich quick scam. It takes work. I spoke with a very sweet lady this weekend about her experience and she said that she considers it her part time job. I can see why. You have to be careful to balance this with life and not chase after every possible deal that comes your way. Buy smart, by what you use, not what you think you might use. Don't waste your money on something unless of course it is FREE! Stockpile. That is the essential vocab word to learn, you must stockpile. My kids have already picked up this lingo and say it now! The idea is, catch a great deal and buy as much as you can and set it aside, you never want to pay retail for anything! So, here are some of my finds for this week that I am particularly happy about....
So here is the breakdown...
Barilla pasta, bought two boxes for a total of $1.40 for BOTH
Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce - total 25 cents
Butter in tub - 49 cents
Tortillas - 59 cents
3 pack of socks - I made 12 cents before tax - CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??
Almond breeze - 99 cents bought 4 at this amazing price
Pretzels - 50 cents
packs of gum - 50 cents each
Popcorn $1 for both boxes

Not bad huh? So everything you see here cost about $5.60 before tax...wow.
And not only that, but this was fun to do...feels like a game! I also left some of my coupons around the store for other shoppers on things that were getting close to expiring and I was not going to use. That was kind of fun too. Ok, gotta go...must find more coupons! ;) Kidding! Gonna go get my jammies on and enjoy a quiet evening with my family!

Armor of God

2010-07-12T07:25:00.001-07:00

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The helmet of salvation, the scriptures literally say "the helmet of Yeshua", this particular quote is taken from Isaiah 59:17 where it says "He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle." Yeshua is acting here as high priest and judge when read in the context of the chapter. As such He was set apart and holy to the Lord. Exodus 28:36-38 "You shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal, 'Holy to the LORD.' "You shall fasten it on a blue cord, and it shall be on the turban; it shall be at the front of the turban. "It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD. We are to have a literal "renewing of our minds" in our walk with God. Daily, as we read His word, come before Him in prayer we should be sacrificing our ways of thinking and renewing our thoughts to His ways. And as we grow closer to Him and more familiar with His ways, we should be developing a discerning mind, one which can decipher between truth and deception. We should be daily becoming more holy to the Lord...holy, consecrated, set apart for His purpose and work. Yeshua also wore a helmet of salvation, for us, He wore a crown of thorns as He performed the ultimate act of obedience and submission to His Father on our behalf. So, when we spiritually put on the helmet of salvation, see upon your forehead that you are Holy to the Lord, you are set apart for a purpose and you have a divine calling to walk out as you are shod with the Gospel of Shalom.

Hebrews 7:23-25 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

The sword of the Spirit will be continued next week. I pray His teachings and ways are in your mind today as you seek to grow closer to Him!

Bathing Suit Moments

2010-07-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

So, after hunting around last year for a more modest bathing suit, I found a pattern for a very cute, however a bit frumpish style. I made it last year and we liked it, Atira alternated between that suit and a pair of board shorts and rash guard shirt, which is also very cute and modest as well. However this year, Atira and I decided to reinvent our pattern and create something new and fun with it...losing the frump factor.

This is what we came up with! Thanks to my sweet friend Chloe and her fabulous surging machine (as well as her incredible skills), we made what I think is quite a cute little suit! What I love about this style is that Atira can wear it out and about, as well as for swimming or playing in the yard, at the beach or river. We split the original pattern which was a dress and leggings into a pair of leggings with the skirt attached (which she can shorten or lengthen but scrunching the waist and then a more tunic style top. What you cannot see is the fabulous fabric! It is full of pink sparkles, she says she looks like a salmon...very cute.

So, Chloe and I plan on making a few more of these for the other girls in our lives and continue to work on bumping up the fun hip look while still maintaining this wonderful level of modesty!

This was such a super fun project, I am really looking forward to working on them again. And who knows...perhaps we make a few extra to see if we can make a few dollars on the side!

In His Word Wednesday

2010-07-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

YHWH (יהוה YHWH, Strong's #3068): Virtually all translations from Judaism and Christianity use "the LORD" for the Hebrew name of God - YHWH. The original pronunciation of the name can never be determined with complete accuracy but in Hebraic thought it is the meaning of a name that is more important than its pronunciation. The Hebrew YHWH is the verb hawah meaning "to exist" with the prefix y meaning "he." Therefore, the word YHWH means "he exists." YHWH is the one who exists every where every time.

What I love about looking at the Bible from the ancient Hebrew language is how the scriptures open up in a very dynamic way. Our English language is just not sufficient to convey the deeper meanings of the text. The Bible is truly a diamond, with many facets and when you get out your jewelers loop to examine it more closely you are abundantly blessed with the beautiful rich gems found within it's pages. I hope you enjoy taking a deeper look at God's name, He Exists and I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to know Him more intimately!

In the Moment

2010-07-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up thinking....thinking about the root canal on the schedule for today. It was a quiet morning, my house was warm, my kids were sleeping away and my husband was by my side. It should have been a wonderfully blissful morning. I should have been enjoying the memories of the night before, a night spent with good, sweet and loving friends. A night filled with great food, fun conversations and the beauty of fireworks. A night of watching happy children running around having a blast...literally! But instead, I lay there thinking about what was coming up for me this afternoon. It frustrated me. My thoughts led me to my blog...the blog I named "In the Moment". I named it that for a reason, I named it that as a goal and a reminder. I want to live in the moment, I want my life to focus on the positive good things and not have those sweet times tainted with thoughts of negative things, like I was doing this morning. I have come a long way in my life, learning to live in the moment, but I have times when I get stuck living in a moment that has not yet come or that has already past. The Lord reminds us to not worry about tomorrow and it is a reminder I needed today. I am thankful for His word and His promises to care for me and be with me during the difficult times. And I want to learn to be obedient during those times in between and enjoy the good moments He has also given me! So, for now, I am off to enjoy some good moments with my family, for tomorrow will worry about itself!

My Beautiful Girl

2010-07-02T09:07:00.001-07:00

I decided with the many events we have planned during July I better get some things out of the way, one of those was haircuts for Atira and myself. Yesterday we were at my salon and the wonderful gal who does my hair had time to take Atira...what a blessing! This is the cut she received and I just LOVE it! She looks absolutely beautiful....dontcha think? :) Atira thinks it makes her look a bit like Patty Duke..which by the way, she is loving that show. Cracks me up, my kids adore I Love Lucy too (and honestly so do I!). So, now the boy is next on the "chopping block". But he will just get a trim on those incredible curls he is developing!

WAFFLE WAFFLE WAFFLE!

2010-07-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Delish, huh?! For probably years now Scott has wanted a waffle maker. This past Sunday, Fathers Day, we were watching QVC and they had on this fabo waffle maker, you know the kind, they are in all the hotels with breakfast bars. Since I had not purchased him anything for dad's day, I popped up, went online ordered this baby up and printed off the receipt handing it to him with "Happy Fathers Day" written across the front. He was very happy and very excited. So, the wait began. We were all given strict instructions to keep our paws off his new waffle maker when it shows up while he is at work. Of course for the kids and I that is the ultimate challenge. He might as well have begged us to touch it all up and get it greasy and used up before he gets his first chance to use it! Well, as it turns out, it showed up minutes before he walked in the door (and minutes after I walked out it). So, while I was out and about, I receive a picture text showing his shiny, gleaming new waffle maker sitting on the counter. Since dinner was done for this particular day it was quickly voted that waffles would be for dinner the very next night. And so it was! These are shots of Scott using his beautiful waffle maker, he really did enjoy himself. We had quite a variety of toppings from strawberries to bananas and of course syrup. On the side (in case you are wondering) are the fabulous and way too fatty beef sausages from walmart..of all places! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for this weekend...more WAFFLES! :)

Armor of God, continued

2010-06-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

~Isaiah 52:7 How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces Yeshua (salvation), and says to Zion, Your God Reigns!

~Exodus 3:5 Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

When the priests would serve in the temple they were barefoot. No shoes allowed. This was holy ground, the work they were performing was holy work, sanctified, set apart for the Lord.

The gospel of peace, the one who brings good news, these phrases are prophetic of the One to come. Yeshua brings the good news, actually He is the Good News. Interestingly enough the word "gospel" when translated back into the Hebrew is "basar" it means good news, or gospel. At it's root however it means flesh or meat. The gospel has been preached since the beginning (Genesis), the entire Bible proclaims the coming of Messiah and His atoning work. The lambs, goats and sheep, the meat, that was sacrificed were all pictures of His work. A beautiful poetic picture of His existence since the beginning is found in John 1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.....14 And the Word became FLESH, and dwelt among us..." He is the flesh, He is the Good News, He is the Gospel of Peace and it is in Him and His ways that we are to walk and where we are given the gift of our freedom!

Ephesians 6:16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

What a beautiful revelation of not what our shield of faith is, but rather Who...Genesis 15:1 "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great." Psalm 3:3 "But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head." Psalm 18:2 "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 28;7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him." Isaiah 54:17 "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD."
AMEIN!!! Is this not incredible?! Our shield is not made from metal and human hands, our shield is the Creator of ALL THINGS! The Lord God Almighty, He is our Shield!!

Next week: verse 17

In His Word Wednesday

2010-06-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

The third installment from Jeff Benners video series in The History of Hebrew. Translation is so very important to gain a complete and fuller understanding of the Word. The study of the ancient language and even the modern Hebrew opens up God's incredible gem to allow us a glimpse of the many facets of His essence. It is truly a life changing study, one I love to share!

I'm a nerd

2010-06-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

So, here's the deal. A couple of months back my good friend and TOS Crew mentor, Denise, started blathering on and on about this ridiculous fad of couponing. ;) (You know I love you!) Pretty soon however, she started posting fancy little pictures of her major scores and before you know it I was starting to wonder if there really could be something to this. I asked her to send me some info, which she very generously did, however I was still not quite "getting it". Then, last night on my monthly girls night out with my longest time friend Julie (I would put a fancy link on her name too, however she does not have a blog or other such thing to link to, bummer) started up with how she took a class on this couponing craze and I of course shared about my little bit of experience with Denise. Now, what's different this time? This time I had a hands on experience As a good couponer that Julie is already becoming she of course had her binder right in her car "just in case". So, off we went, out to the car to sit and ooh and aah over all of the lovely money making slips of paper. Directly after receiving a second full lesson (since Denise already gave me one....apparently I need two, and a mentor) we headed gleefully off to the nearest grocery store securing ourselves an additional cache of coupons for collecting. With instructions from my friend I went home, built a coupon binder with sections and fancy baseball card holder sheets filled with my new found hobby, I then went to my source for all information and stayed up until 1AM watching videos and reading about all the bargains that can be found out there couponing.

Now, one thing I have to share, one of my personal hangups was "I don't use most of the products that are found in coupons". I have heard others say it as well. To my utter surprise, there were coupons our there for a TON of things I DO USE!! Now, we try to eat a healthier diet, but we also do enjoy fun stuff here and there...and if I can get that fun stuff for a bargain, WHY NOT? Another thing I learned, use these bargains for non food items to stockpile gifts and such...GREAT IDEA!

So, here we go, my very first "shop". And boy, what a RUSH!!!!

Albertsons, thanks to Denise telling me it was double coupon day......
Best Foods Mayo $4.39 on sale for $1.99
Had coupon worth $.75 but doubled it! Got the mayo for just $0.49!!

Pop Secret Popcorn $3.29 on sale 10/$10
Had coupon for $0.50 but doubled it! Got both for $1.00!

Bathroom cleaner on clearance for $2.59
Had coupon for $1 but doubled it! Got it for $0.59!

Add on my tax of .22 and the grand total was $2.30!!
It says on my receipt I saved 84% off the regular prices! Ok, I admit, that was so much fun and I am SUCH a nerd.