Latest update on homeschool curriculum changes.

Final decisions have been made so I thought I should update anyone who is interested. I really like Teaching Textbooks for math but the level my son needed isn't being released until Feb. 2010. I really like CQLA but I know we needed more phonics instruction to help Joshua's reading along even more. I was in our local homeschool store last week and happen upon Saxon Phonics and Math. I was really impressed with their Phonics so I researched it a bit more at home. I also gave him the placement test for Saxon math. So last week I bought the Saxon Phonics and Math and we started them last week. Saxon has computer CD's that are very similar to Teaching Textbooks starting in 54 so that is covered if I feel like I need it. I have decided to wait on CQLA and see where we are at the end of this year for that. At a bare minimum I see myself using Meaningful Composision in the future. Then again I might just go back to CQLA. I just feel like we might need a bit more formal grammar than CQLA gives but that is easy enough to rememdy with CLE or ACE English. I am very pleased with the Saxon at this point. I was somewhat of an anti Saxon person so this was a pleasant surprise for me. I'll try to start doing a weekly update and give my opinion of the Saxon Phonics (and Math too).

We are using Heart of Dakota for our history and science. I love HOD so this is working out great for us. I am looking into using BJU science in addition to HOD's though. I think HOD's science is fine but Joshua is science minded so I think using a formal science might be a good idea for him in case he ends up in a science career down the road.

We are also starting Notgrass's Celebrate Thanksgiving unit study this week. This is super fun and we are looking forward to doing this over this month. We will also do their Celebrate the Savior study over December. I will post our Advent plans very soon since it starts here in a few weeks.

My computer's hard drive is dying so I am borrowing my neighbors laptop to update here. I hope to have a new hard drive put in my laptop soon so I can get back to business.

I'm Recanting

Ok only part of my confession but I am recanting. I am not sure what we are going to use for grammar,writing or math yet. I am looking into Teaching Textbooks for math and Character Quality Language Arts for our Language Arts subjects.

Everything else will be what I said in my previous post about our updates.

When I FINALLY make up my mind about LA and math I'll update again.

Shees I wish this wasn't so hard to decide!!

Updates, updates!

Well I've been behind but I have an excuse. I've been getting into a grove with school. I think we are finally finding our way. Some changes have come since we started so I'll start with that. We are also adding in I Can Do All Things with the DVDs for art twice a week.

Our new curriculum line up is Discover 4 Yourself Bible Studies for Kids for Bible, Heart of Dakota Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory for history and science, BJU English and Writing, Abeka Math, & All About Spelling.

We have been meeting one day a week with a good friend of ours to have our own co-op where we are doing Bible study using The Young Peacemaker curriculum, BJU's Elementary Spanish, doing some activities from HOD's Beyond history and science, and HOD's Drawn Into the Heart of Reading for our own book club :o).

Not much really going on besides school. I'll try to start doing a week in review soon.

Good night all!

Beware the "ism"

This is a 1948 cartoon that talks of the dangers of "ism."

Thanks to Cosmox for this.

But I Believe in Faith

But I Believe In Faith
by: Justin Harvey at The Anchor Fellowship

For 14 years I have believed in Yeshua, but my faith in him as not been so long lived.

It’s easy for me to believe something… prove it to me. Irrefutable evidence is a sure way to make me a believer. I want to touch it, taste it, feel it, smell it, see it, hear it. This is the type of belief I‘ve had in Yeshua since he proved his existence to me in ways that could take pages upon pages for me to tell. I wasn’t a church kid… quite the opposite actually. I was raised without religion and by my own reasoning deemed Christianity a worthless crutch for the mentally weak. I aggressively gave Christians a hard time… and even recruited others to join me in the assault. It was in the height of my resistance that Yeshua knocked me off my high horse. He personally revealed himself to me and that encounter had a dramatic and instantaneous effect upon the very core of my being. In a moment I went from being a professed enemy of Christ to being one of his followers. Ever since then I have believed in him… and he has continued to reinforce that belief with his constant presence and action in my life. This is why I believe in Yeshua: he proved himself to me.

This belief, however, is not a clear indicator of my faith. Belief is something we hold internally. We can believe many things and never speak of them or act upon them. Belief is nothing more than a state of mind. Faith, however, supersedes the confines of our thoughts. Faith is the manifestation of belief in the form of action. Faith is what happens when something we believe overrides the other things we believe, particularly those contradictory things, and we act on the belief despite how unlikely, impossible or unimaginable our expected outcome may be.

It’s faith that caused a man named Simon to jump out of a boat far at sea and walk to Yeshua who was also standing on the water. It’s faith that caused Martin Luther King Jr. to proclaim his dream of a racially united America in a time when racial unity seemed an impossibility. And, it was faith that lead me to say to a girl with a broken leg, “Because of God’s great love for you, you are healed.” …and she instantly was. There was a season in my life in which I had faith in Yeshua to do the unlikely, impossible and unimaginable. But over time that faith dwindled. What was a constant soon became an occasion. For the last few years it has been a rarity.

I’ve come to realize that I now live with a great belief in Yeshua, but merely marginal faith in him. It seems rationally absurd to me, but even Yeshua’s water-walking-friend, Simon, had a similar dilemma. On another occasion Simon was again on a boat far at sea. Yeshua was with him asleep in the hull of the ship. A huge storm swelled up, tossing the boat wildly. Water was coming on board and Simon, a lifelong fisherman, knew this was the end. He knew they were going to drown. He went under deck to Yeshua, shouting their certain doom. Simon had the faith to walk on water with Yeshua, but he had never seen Yeshua save a sinking ship. It would seem Simon lacked faith that Christ would save them, perhaps even that he could save them. Yeshua sat up and calmly walked on deck. He raised his arms up and told the storm to stop. It obeyed! The sky cleared and the waves stopped. Yeshua then turned and asked Simon, “Why did you have no faith?”. Simon wasn’t the only person on board. Everyone saw what Yeshua did and they were amazed. They couldn’t explain it – they couldn’t understand it – but they believed what they had just seen.

There was a man among them named Judas who also saw many of the amazing things Yeshua did. He was a believer and professed his life to following Yeshua. But, he proved himself faithless when he decided a fat paycheck was valuable enough to betray Yeshua. He believed Yeshua was God’s son but was unfaithful to that belief for the belief that money was more important.

In a lot of ways I feel like both Simon and Judas. I’ve walked on the water with Yeshua. I’ve been terrified he couldn’t save my sinking ship. I’ve sold him out for a cheap thrill and a wad of cash.

Satan believes in Christ, but it’s clear that’s not going to him much good. Just believing something to be true is a far cry from living like it is true. It’s not enough for me to believe in Christ… I need faith in him.

I once heard a man quote this scripture to justify his choice to not commit to a disciplined lifestyle modeled after Christ’s: “If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord, we will be saved”. That’s great! I’m sure that quoting bible verses to God will work out great on our day of Judgment. Clearly the meaning of this verse was lost to him. What it’s saying is to put belief in Yeshua somewhere other than our heads – to integrate that belief into our core – at the very center of what we think and feel. When we believe things with our heart our lives reflect it… it consumes us, it bleeds out of us. Simply confessing a head-belief of Yeshua’ Lordship in my life is pretty pointless. I mean, its good show and sounds right, but what good is it really? That kind of belief isn’t faith. It’s just another categorical fact that may or may not have any weight in my life. I can believe a life jacket can keep me from drowning but that won’t do me any good if I don’t wear it.

I need my belief to turn into faith again. I long for the days when my faith in Yeshua overshadows all that I believe. I anticipate the times when I not only hear the Lord tell me to heal the sick, or prophecy to a stranger, or speak life into a dead child… but when I actually do it. The scriptures tell us that someone who hears the words of God but does not act on them is like a person who gazes in a mirror but walks off not remembering what they look like. Here I am staring at my reflection. Will I walk away and still remember who I am?

Lord, I believe. Increase my faith.

From Paige: Amen Lord! Increase my faith!!

Standing in Awe of God

"Paige, guard your steps when you come into My presence. Come to listen rather than talk. Don't be quick w/ your mouth or hasty in your heart. I GOD am in heaven and you are on earth so let your words be few." Ecclesiastes 5:1,2

"There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear because of the noise, HURRY, and distraction that life causes as it rushes on." Frederick William Faber (1814-1863)

Awesome God,

I confess my inclination to rush into Your presence overflowing with many words. My private devotions are filled with my agendas for You. My public worship can be so flooded with noise that You are not able to get a word in edgewise. I confess my failure to listen for Your voice. Too seldom do I wait in silence before You as a servant waits before a king. Help me, Living Word of God, to learn to listen to You. Teach me to still my soul as a child with its mother. Give me a renewed vision of Your holiness, so that when I speak to You it might be with reverence and respect. (Ps. 131:2; Hab. 2:20)

With fear and trembling,
Amen

What's motivating me? Why do we homeschool?

I want to thank Daisy for bringing this Holy Experience post back to my memory. In light of my previous post about making sure I'm not chasing the wind with all my toiling this was a very fitting post by Ann Voskamp.

I'm linking you to Mrs. Voskamps post because I really couldn't say it any better myself. I hear I'm in good company with that sentiment.

So please. If you would like to know what's motivating me with homeschooling please read here.

Labor and Achievement: What's motivating me?

"And I saw that all labor and achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Ecclesiastes 4:4

In my Bible reading earlier the Lord reminded me through this verse to check myself on why I do the things I do. If I am not motivated to do the Lord's will in ALL things then it's MEANINGLESS and I might as well be chasing the wind.

Wow that knocked the wind out of me. I mean one of the things that stresses me out each day is feeling like there is not enough hours or minutes to get it all done. I sure do not want to be wasting my time chasing the wind. I'll be taking this to heart and really examining what's motivating me with every minor action. Making sure I'm not chasing anything but the Lord Jesus Christ.

What's motivating you? Is it really meaningless in the big picture of Jesus' will for you? Are you running around chasing the wind?

Precious Jesus,

How often I delight in what I have done: my achievements, my family...my victories, my possesions, my family...my, my, my. But what is it all worth apart from You, Holy One? "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." Lord, unless You work through me, my labors will be empty. Unless I abide in You, I can do NOTHING THAT MATTERS. Unless I do Your bidding, my life will never bear fruit that will last. But when I live by Your grace and for Your glory, then my toil will not be in vain. Help me, Lord, to devote my life to doing Your will, for then I will have treasures in heaven, treasures that will last for eternity. (Ps. 127:1; Isa. 65:19-23; Mt. 6:19-21; Jn. 15:5)

In Your name, the name ABOVE all names,
Amen

Prayer: why we struggle (and how not to)

Ann Voskamp's Walk with Him Wednesday post does it again. Don't miss her blog period but by all means do not miss this post.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/08/prayer-why-we-struggle-and-how-not-to.html

Google Chrome Browser

Since I had problems with Firefox a friend told me they had the same problems and had downloaded Google Chrome. So I checked it out and downloaded it. So far I really like it. If you are looking for a new browser check out Chrome.

Our Reading Room

Here's a few pictures of the newly painted reading room. I thought some of you might like to see the colors that we chose. The white strip in the corner will need to be painted before the room is done. We couldn't tape the wet green paint to fill in the orange gap LOL.



This is one of the green walls. I hope the colors are clear enough. The green is lime for sure.



The orange is called Fire Orange. I hope to have it mostly finished by next week.

We can't wait to sit in our new reading room and read.

My Wonderful Husband

I just want to tell everyone what an awesome husband I have! When I thought up changing our spare room into a reading room I fully intended to do all the work myself and with Joshua. Well yesterday my husband helped me paint and he did it with the happiest and greatest attitude. I could have done it by myself but it would have taken me at least 3 times as long to get everything done.

I am so blessed to have a husband that does things even when it's not his idea and probably the last thing in the world he wants to do at the time. He's the love of my life!

On top of that he mowed our somewhat large yard AFTER he did the bulk of the painting. How awesome is that!?!

He's the best!!

Working On Our New Reading/School Room

I have been busy converting our spare room into a reading/school room. I wish I could take credit for the idea but I stumbled onto a lady's blog who had done one of her unused rooms into a library reading room for her 4.5 year old daughter. She was inspired after reading The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease I was instantly inspired by her ideas and immediately asked my husband about converting our spare room into a reading/school room. He said go for it! So I've been cleaning our spare room out and tomorrow we will buy our paint and Saturday we will PAINT it! We are kicking around colors but we are thinking orange and neon green or neon green and some shade of blue. It should be wonderful when it's finally done. I hope to be mostly done by the end of next week. I'll post pictures when it's done but for now here is a picture of the first 2 new things for our reading room.

It's My Computer

I think my problems with my blog are Firefox related. I can pull up the blog on IE and it looks right. Firefox did an update and now everything is all messed up in general when I try web pages on Firefox. Soooo as much as I hate IE that's what I will be using until/unless I can fix Firefox.

I have been very happy with Firefox up until tonight LOL. I'm not such a happy camper with them right now.

What does my blog look like to you?

I am having problems with my blog all of the sudden. I see a white background. Could you reply and let me know what you see?

I'll try to get it back as soon as possible.

Parentalrights.org -- Action Email: Blitz Congress Today!

Parentalrights.org -- Action Email: Blitz Congress Today!

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Changes and Finalization of This Years Curriculum

I have made some major changes in our homeschool plans for next year. After years of trying to find curriculum that works for me AND my son I have come to the conclusion that textbooks are the way to go for us. I had started out thinking unit studies were the way I wanted to educate my kids. I loved unit studies but needed more structure in the day to day planning or I found that I didn't get school done consistently. So then began my search for a unit study type curriculum with daily lesson plans done for me. I finally ended up on Heart of Dakota. I even had planned to use HOD for this coming year. I still love HOD (I went there to look at some books a couple of weeks ago and decided right then and there to scrap the new plans and do HOD after all LOL) and really wish that it was best for my son. It just isn't no matter how much I love it.

So I'll spare you the details and tell you that we decided on Abeka for all subjects except spelling. For spelling we will continue to use All About Spelling. We have been using AAS over this summer and it's going well. I am really convinced this is one of the best spelling curricula out there.

I forgot to add that we will not be using Abeka for Bible. We will be using the Discover 4 Yourself Inductive Bible Studies for Kids. I plan to start with How to Study Your Bible for Kids (Discover 4 Yourself® Inductive Bible Studies for Kids) first. I will do this study with Joshua in my own Bible also. While we are doing this study I will pray about which one the Lord would have us do next in the series. I have wanted to do these books for a long time so I am really looking forward to delving into these with Joshua.

I do not have a official start date for our school year but I will be working on our school schedule over the next few weeks after I get the curriculum and I will post that when I get it done.

Hope everyone is getting ready for the new school year!

I Have Not Forgotten My Blog LOL

Well I've neglected it but I haven't forgotten it. Things have been crazy and I was out of town for most of Jan. to the first of May but I am home now and trying to catch up with everything that was neglected at the house. I will be making some new posts soon with lots of updates about us. Tomorrow and Saturday we are having a yard sale so we will be super busy but then I will also have a bunch of junk out of my house that has been cluttering it up.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer,
Paige

One Of My Favorite Blogs

A Holy Experience

Words can not do it justice. Get a cup of coffee or tea and read, read, read.

I never fail to be speechless as I am now having just come from reading there.

All About Spelling Beehive Reader 1 is Now Available

Well I am so happy to report that the first Beehive Reader that corresponds with Level 1 of All About Spelling is now available. It looks really great. If you have a young child that is learning to read All About Spelling can really help a child advance with their reading. Now Marie Ripple has added a reader to help them along. I will be ordering this in the very near future for Joshua and I know Jacob will use it in the future too. Just click on any All About Spelling link on my web page here and then click Products and you will find the new Beehive Reader there. There are several samples to look at and best of all it's on sale until March 31 for only $14.95. It's a hardbound book and was designed to be a keepsake book so the price is awesome on it.

While you are there be sure and check out All About Spelling's book All About Homophones. It's a great way to teach kids about words that sound the same but are spelled differently.

Also hop on over to The ChatterBee for straight talk about Language Arts. It's a great board to talk about any language arts issues and even other subjects. It's free to sign up too!

Hope everyone is having a great day!
Paige

This weeks Preschool plans

I have received all my books for Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven except for the Singing Bible. I should receive it tomorrow. I absolutely adore Playtime Devotions. I am so glad I decided to spend a few extra dollars and get this book before I couldn't get it in the future. It's the perfect devotion book for Jacob. That is what I love the most about Carrie Austin. She is so discriminating in her book choices for each of her manuals. I have come to trust her and that is why I really looked at the out of print books that were originally used in Little Hands to Heaven. I knew they would be top notch and I am not disappointed at all. I am really looking forward to snuggling up with Jacob to read our Bible stories and do our letter activities. Jacob loves to read together and he loves saying his ABC's and many of their sounds. I have no doubt Jacob will love the fun learning activities in Little Hands to Heaven. I will try to take some pics of him on his first day or preschool. I didn't do things like that with Joshua and I regret that I didn't now. We will be doing more memory type things with both boys in the future.

Fun stuff in store for us this week. How about you? What are your plans for this week?

Next Year's School Plans

Well I think I am pretty set on most of next year's curriculum choices for my oldest son. We will continue with Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory until we finish it. We will also continue with All About Spelling. We are currently in Level 1 but I expect to finish that by the end of summer and move into Level 2. We will also continue using BJU English & Writing. I am really liking this because of the alternating focus that BJU takes with this course. It's one chapter of grammar and then one chapter of writing starting in 2nd grade.

Right now we are using Singapore math and using the lesson plans that Heart of Dakota has written in their manuals to coincide with the Singapore workbooks. I really like Singapore for it's mental math component and Joshua is doing fine with it. I keep thinking don't change something that's working but I really am considering putting him back in BJU math. We did BJU before Singapore and he did fine with that too. I am waiting to see what BJU does with their online classes because I want to use the distance learning classes for English, Math and Handwriting from BJU but right now you can only buy full grade kits at $1000 a pop to get those classes. So no classes for us right now. I am teaching the English class myself and it only take about 15 to 20 minutes for us to do. If they offer an acceptable plan for the online classes then I will use those classes for English and also move him back into BJU for math. At least with the distance learning classes I know that the basics will get done if for some reason I am unable to teach one day.

With Bible I am thinking of going with the Summit's Building on the Rock World View/Bible Survey curriculum. We currently use Grapevine Bible in addition to HOD's Bible and we really like Grapevine but I am drawn to the age appropriate study that Building on the Rock offers. I just might have to try it out to see how it goes. BotR is somewhat expensive to get started so I haven't made up my mind for sure yet but I am strongly leaning that way.

I am also looking into adding Evan Moor's A Word a Day books for vocabulary. Thanks to Dana for that idea.

Soooo I am fairly set except for concrete decisions on Math and Bible yet. We will be working through summer since we didn't get very far at all into Bigger Hearts. I know it will be a great summer with HOD though so I am really looking forward to watching Joshua grow in his reading ability while doing Bigger Hearts. We will be going through HOD's emerging reader set over summer and into next year to help give Joshua some practice and confidence in his reading.

How about you? What are your plans for your homeschool next year? Any new things? Keepers? Tossing? My top keepers are for sure Heart of Dakota and All About Spelling.

Our Preschool Curriculum

Well I ordered my books for our preschool curriculum for Jacob. We will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven.


When Mrs. Austin wrote the Little Hands to Heaven manual she used a devotional book called Playtime Devotions . It's now out of print but Mrs. Austin has substituted it with another great book called Big Thoughts for Little People. I decided to buy Playtime Devotions because of Jacob's age. He will just turn 3 on April 12. I wanted a very easy intro to school things and Playtime Devotions looked like it was just what I was looking for. I want to instill a love for learning in him and make some wonderful memories with him. I looked at Big Thoughts extensively and I think that when he's just a bit older I will get that book and use it at night before bed. Big Thoughts is a very good book and I was torn because I didn't want to miss out on it either. Little Hands to Heaven also uses A Child's First Bible. In Little Hands to Heaven each unit has a theme centered around Bible characters. These stories provide the focus for the day's plans. The daily activities are linked to the Bible stories. There are musical selections from The Singing Bible that correspond with each unit. I have no doubt this will be a favorite of Jacob's.

My plans at this time are to do Little Hands to Heaven a couple of times a week because of his age. I plan on taking 2 years to complete it. Jacob has shown signs of being gifted so I might end up doing LHTH every day and have to change my long term plans for him but in the beginning this is the schedule until I see how he does. On the other days I plan to use some Kumon First Step workbooks called Let's Cut Paper!, Let's Fold!, Let's Color!, and Let's Sticker & Paste!.

I am also strongly considering using Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning Prek with Jacob. It's for 3 & 4 year olds and I think this book and maybe even the ones that follow it would dovetail very nicely into Singapore math which we will use when Jacob is older. Singapore is known for it's mental math component so I think these books will be an age appropriate precursor.

When I start will depend on when my books arrive. I will be posting about some of our days and weeks in review also.

I'm also working on a new daily schedule now since I will need to make sure I allow enough time for working with Jacob. I will post my new schedule when I'm done with it.

A Serious Abuse of Power

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91397

Judge orders homeschoolers into public district classrooms despite the children testing above grade levels.


I'm beyond words Ladies and Gentlemen. Beyond words. Anyone remember the California fiasco not that long ago?

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - Almost 200 Products Up To 80% Off

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine store has gone mad. They have almost 200 products up to 80% off! Check it out HERE

While checking it out for myself I also found that they have the book Boys of Grit Who Became Men of Honor in MP3 format for FREE download. It is read by Jim Hodges. Download it from HERE.

Remember that TOS always has FREE shipping on anything you buy from them too!

Enjoy!

Building on the Rock World View / Bible Curriculum

I stumbled onto a Biblical World View and Bible Survey curriculum that I like the looks of. It's from Summit Ministries. They have elementary through adult curriculum. They have extensive samples of the curricula to look at so you can get a very good idea of the curriculum. Level 1 was over 90 pages of sample. I've only looked over level 1 so I'm still in the checking it out phase but this looks very good so far. Thanks to Deb for giving an overview of it. Be sure to check out what she has to say about her first week of using it too.

In looking at the sample pages I am very encouraged at the hands on application of the lessons. My very hands on son would enjoy it I am sure. My initial response to this is that I very much want this one for our homeschool. If I do get it I'll let you know how it goes when I start using it.

For now though I just wanted to make people aware that it is out there. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I have so far.

What to look forward to...............

Well I'm home and we won't talk about my trip but praise God I did make it without any injury!

I wanted to let the few people that check out my blog know what is coming over the next few days. While gone from home I stumbled onto a few things for homeschooling that I will be reviewing in the next few days.

I also had 2 epiphanies while gone that are going to make a difference in my life from here on out.

AND I read a whole book while gone. That's the first book that I read word for word and didn't skim and jump around in for a very long time - maybe years (I'm serious about that). It's a book that is gaining in popularity and I will review it. I borrowed my copy so I need to pick up my own copy to butcher while I read it again and review it. When I'm able to do that I'll get around to reviewing it. The other 2 things come first though LOL.

Alrighty then! Like anyone cares but I thought I would post now that I am home and dangle some chocolate in front of a few of you! I know you are on pins and needles waiting for me to post - NOT lol.

Blessed to be home with my wonderful husband,
Paige

Coming Home Tomorrow!

Well I am finally coming home tomorrow. I can't wait to get home to my sweet husband! If you think of me please pray for a safe trip. I am traveling with a very packed car, 2.5 year old, and the family boxer. This should be interesting!

Thanks,
Paige

Check out the Scanalog giveway!

Angela over at Homeschooling and Loving It is having a Scanalog giveaway! I had never heard of Scanalog but since learning about it I think it looks like a wonderful thing.

Scanalog is a CD-ROM software system to store, catalog and retrieve your favorite articles from magazines (and catalogs). It's also great for saving children's school and art work, recipes and just about anything you can think of.

Be sure to enter for the giveaway at Angela's blog.

Living in the wastefulness of Jesus' grace,
Paige

Still away from home

well I'm still at my parents house. I was supposed to be back a few weeks ago but as usual major changes happen and I'm still here. I have very limited access to the internet so I havn't been able to post. I'm in withdrawal to talk to all my friends online. I hopefully will be able to check and post more in the next week or so.

Paige

I'm packing for a trip to my parents

I am packing to leave in the morning to go see my parents in MO. It takes me around 12 hours with stops for the boys. I will be gone probably 3 weeks. My parents don't have internet at their house so I will not be online too much while I'm gone. Did I mention tomorrow is my birthday? What a way to spend your birthday isn't it. I should be doing this trip on a plane in the very near future. My cousin is becoming a pilot and is almost done. WHOOO HOOO. No more 12 hour driving days lost.

We will be doing school while at my parents and I will update when possible. I am looking forward to getting back to school and our routine. I'll try to get our Christmas photos up soon. I should have already done it but I've been lazy about that. I also got on Facebook. I see why people like it so much.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and happy New Year.

FREE 100 Day Menu Kit

Menu in a Box is offering their 100 Day Menu Planning Kit for FREE today 1/1/09. This kit has everything you need for 100 days of menu's. It includes the menu's, shoppping lists and some great extra's like a kid's birthday menu and father's day breakfast menu. All they ask is that you give feedback once you have used the kit. The meals look very healthy and delicious.

Enjoy!

Almost lost the blog

Ok I added something to my blog and ended up almost losing my blog because I had not saved it. I was able to get it back after losing some code and having to update it. I'm still working on it though so be patient. I've got to change fonts and colors yet so if it's hard to read something that will be updated soon.

Having a crash course in HTML,
Paige