A Thrifted Mirror

I've been looking for a big mirror to go over the girls' dresser. I finally found it at a garage sale on Saturday. :) $10 for this huge mirror!


It's slightly bigger than the dresser and my Hunny mounted it on the wall. Hopefully I will have the time to re-do the dresser to match the mirror and the rest of the room.


We are looking for the right lamps--the one in there now is much too short. The room really commands two tall lights. Not because of it's size (it's a rather small room). No, I'm thinking one tall lamp on the dresser and one on Marissa's desk (in picture below). Do you have suggestions?


The room still needs some work, however for having both girls in this room...I think we're doing well. I have a curtain that goes over the closet opening and slides back and forth. The hooks need replaced and that can be rehung. Eventually we'd like to paint the room a more neutral color and Marissa wants red accents. :) But for now, I'm content with my garage sale find.

fun date with my little man

This morning Trenton sweetly asked me if I would leave the girls home with daddy and take just him out...just the two of us. He had big plans of eating supper and bringing home some for the rest of the family. I told him we would ask Daddy, and then I hugged him tightly for asking his momma out on a date! :)

The day lasted longer than we'd anticipated and we had homemade pizza for supper. Trenton, though, didn't forget about our date. He asked Daddy about it, saying that he and I could go out and bring ice cream back for everyone. So, he got ready--put on his cowboy boots with his shorts and we were out the door. He actually ran back in because he forgot to give his sister Bethany a "big hug and kiss". I silently thought about what a sweet charmer he is!

On the way to Walmart, he planned his purchases. Chocolate mint was a necessity because it's Bethany's favorite. He rode on the back of the cart, like any good cowboy and jumped off whenever I slowed the cart down to a medium roll.

We swung by the bikes, at his request and he found something that he really needed. I had to pull out the "When you are on a date with Mommy, you don't argue with her!" card. {see photo below} In the end, the helmet stayed along with the sword, big toy chain saw and half a dozen other items he saw as I sped out of there!

Finally, we made it over to the ice cream, picked out our treasures and high tailed it home. We had fun conversation in the van, especially when I saw him drumming with his licorice. :) On the way into the house, as he was holding the door, he asked me what it meant to be a gentleman. You are doing it son. Thanks for a fun date and you had me home by 8:30, delightful.

Handwriting Practice

My Marissa has thoroughly enjoyed completing "A Reason for Handwriting" series. She stretched out the last book and is now finished. She enjoys handwriting and has decided to make her own book with her own practice sheets. Technically, as an 8th grader, she is past the point of learning and she just wants to keep up practicing. I told her that her regular school work is 'practice' too, however, since doing a more formal handwriting practice appeals to her, who am I to stop her?? ;)

While researching online for resources, I thought I'd link to them here for future reference and for others who may be looking for something similar.

First I found Handwriting for Kids. This site has lots of resources.
Kidzone features several printables for cursive.
ABCTeach charts, desk tapes, practice sheets
Home Education Resources has a wonderful collection of practice sheets and charts. Their practice sheets have text from a certain topic--mushrooms, snakes, flowers, etc. The student copies the information--learning while practicing cursive. They also have blank template sheets.
Donna Young (a site I love for MANY reasons) has a great collection of manuscript and cursive sheets.
I found a nice pdf template for handwriting practice on superteacherworksheets.com Scroll down nearly to the bottom of the page.


If I find more, I'll edit this post. I have to share the computer now. :)

Reading...instead of cleaning

This week I've been catching up on blog reading and wanted to share some goodies with you. I've also been reading some books from our church library that have been very insightful and convicting. All this reading has made it hard for me to get my cleaning done (imagine that!?) Balance...I need balance!

Had to throw in this cute picture of T. He feel asleep after sitting in his room for getting in trouble.
This is what I'd do too if someone sent me to my room! :)

Anyway, here's some of what I've been reading...maybe you'll enjoy it too (just don't forget to keep up on the housework!)

• Just today a friend linked to this site I Am Second on Facebook. Amazing testimonies about God transforming hearts and lives.
• Lelia from Write from the Heart has some good stuff to say about how we dress (and how we allow our kids to dress). I just found her blog and can see God working in the everyday circumstances of her life.
• Are you looking for a beautiful unique gift for a newborn? Look no further, Naomi makes the perfect gift....baby silkies. Visit her site for pictures and products. (She's my real life friend which makes me grin!)
  
• Living with Lindsay has a great post about learning to embroider. Lots of links and ideas. I'm gearing up for starting Christmas gifts. :)

A picture of T picking red raspberries at a friend's berry farm.
Along with his sisters, he was a diligent worker. I made freezer jam with our bounty!

From our church library, I am reading Made for His Pleasure: Ten Benchmarks of a Vital Faith by Alistair Begg. Here are some of the chapter titles: Spiritual Fitness in a Flabby Generation, Prayer That is Larger Than Ourselves, Sacrifice: Wholehearted Commitment to God's Kingdom and Relationships: A Marriage that Pleases God. In the Introduction the question is asked, "Who am I trying to please?" May I say with Paul and the writer of this book: "I make it my goal to please Him" (2 Cor. 5:9)

Hebrews 13:21 "May He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

What have you been reading lately?

Galloping the Globe week 2

I didn't have time to blog last week because Bethany and I started Galloping the Globe! We had a good week of introduction--mostly of maps, globes, longitude and latitude, etc. I borrowed much of what I did last week from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations blog (this will take you to the page I used for our first week). While you are there (at Homeschool Creations) take a look at all the other Galloping the Globe or geography helps--and lots of other cool stuff, she has. Really, if I ever met her in real life, I'd give her a big squeeze for creating and posting her homeschool journey. I've benefited so much from her resources.

Now, on to week 2 and Explorers! Check out these resources I found:
Cyber-sleuth kids has a section on Explorers Facts, Worksheets, and Printables
Edhelper has a link for explorers. The coolest thing I found was the pdf timeline of explorers. :)
At Proverbs 22:6 Academy, I found Explorer trading cards (pdf downloads).
Funschool has a fun word search pdf.
DLTK has a neat Dora the Explorer handwriting paper. {What's a study of explorers without Dora?} I think I'll have Bethany write a story about herself as an explorer towards the end of the study. (writing prompt from GtG book)

WOW! We are going to have a fun week. :) Next week it's off to China...I'd better get her passport finished. I'll post a picture of it when I finish it.

Mixed, Mixed Up, or Just Right

Several weeks ago at one of the first soccer practices for Bethany's U8 team, the girls were in two lines running a drill. Two girls would go up, dribbling and passing the soccer ball until one girl would shoot the ball into the goal. While the two girls were running, the rest of the girls were...well...talking and goofing off. Try as I might, I had difficulty keeping order. "Cheer for your teammates. Watch what they are doing." Other pleas went unheard as they continued to talk and even nit-pick at each other. I continued to monitor their conversation and my ears perked up when I heard one of the girls ask my Bethany, "Are you mixed?" Here is how the conversation proceeded from there:
Bethany: "What?"
other girl: "Are you mixed?"
Bethany puzzled: "What?"
other girl, getting slightly perturbed: "Are you MIXED?"
Bethany: "No, I'm Bethany."
other girl: "Isn't your dad black?"
Bethany: "What?"
other girl: "Your dad is black, isn't he?"
Bethany: "No...he's not black. He's brown."

Our children have never classified people according to their color. In fact, if you ask my kids to describe someone, the color of their skin doesn't usually enter into their description although they may say that someone is "darker skinned" or "lighter skinned" than they are. They will describe what the person is wearing, what his/her hair looked like, tall/short, thin/thicker, etc. Our kids obviously aren't "color blind" in the sense that they know their colors (red, brown, yellow, black, white) and they can see that all of us have some sort of color on our skin. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it well here, but I have the thoughts in my head. :)

Our identity and our children's identities are not wrapped up in the color of our skin, but in who God says we are. In our home, people are not a race or a class, but people who need love and care and mostly need the Savior. Those values transcend outside our home. We treat people like people. Philippians 2: 2-4

...complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Bethany didn't seem bothered at all by the encounter with her teammate. Her teammate, on the other hand, as made several other comments about the color of her own skin, her father's, her mother's and so on. My heart goes out to her, as I want her to know that when we look at her we don't see her color so much as her personality and her character. And more importantly, what does God see when He looks at her?

I pray that I will be able to communicate the love of Christ to these little girls and that seeds will be planted for His glory.