We have Titan!!!

We were able to get him a bit early...isn't he so cute?! He is calm and doesn't bark or whine which is making life easy. He is pretty good about not relieving himself in the house, but we have had about one accident. And the thing I was worried about the most, nighttime, hasn't been a problem. He sleeps in his kennel all night without ever getting up! He are some pictures of him yesterday...his first full day with us!

Me, Myself, and Lies Update

I just received my new Bible study in the mail yesterday, Me, Myself, and Lies. I was so excited that I immediately started working on the first week of lessons. I am doing the Bible study with an online group. You can check out their site here. I was a little behind because I ordered my book late, but now I am all caught up. This book was written for me! There is no way around it! After going through the first several days of lessons, I can see God's hand at work leading me to do this study. Here are some of the ideas I have gleaned so far...
This whole study surrounds "our thought closets" as Jennifer Rothschild puts it. These are the ideas that we have in our head that we continually play over and over again. Many times our thought closets need a makeover because they simply don't line up with what God says about us. There is a statement that Jennifer makes in Day One of the study that just hit me. She wrote, "Who I am and what I struggle with are not the same thing." Even though on some level I knew this, I needed to hear it again. Just because I struggle with anxiety, depression, impatience, and negative attitudes doesn't mean that I am those things. That is not how God sees me.
Jennifer later in the week went on to focus on worry and anxiety. Well, if there was ever anything that I have struggled with it would be those two monsters!!!! She shared Psalms 94:19 which says, "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul." This verse shocked me. I had never thought about what God is doing when I am incredibly anxious....it never occurred to me that He was doing something about it! But He tries to bring me consolation in those anxious times. The definition of "consolation" is to lessen the grief or disappointment of someone else. It originally comes from a Latin word that means "to soothe". So God tries to soothe us (give us peace) in times of anxiety. When the anxiety strikes again I will remember that God is hard at work soothing His child!

Breakfast Pizza

This is yummy!!!

Breakfast Pizza

1 can crescent rolls

1 lb. sausage, browned and drained

6 T. diced bell pepper

1 cup thawed frozen hash browns

1 green onion, sliced

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

3 eggs, beaten

3 T. milk

1/2 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Unroll the crescent rolls. Line the bottom of the pan you are going to bake them in (I used a Pampered Chef deep dish). Flatten out the rolls and seal them together. Sprinkle with sausage, peppers, hash browns, onion, and cheese. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the top. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes until eggs are set.

What's for Dinner?

If you are a burrowing owl, a mouse is a great entree.

But it might be hard to get him down. So throw back your head, close your eyes, and swallow hard! Photos by Harlan Humphrey (my dad!).

My Bible Study Group

I am waiting to receive my Bible study in the mail that I posted about a few days ago. This is the study that Beth Moore decided to do with those that follow her blog. I was invited by Christine over at the Bible Study Cafe for Women to join their small online group as we go through this study. I am so excited! Now if only the book would arrive in the mail!

More on Workboxes

Yesterday I posted about how we are going to start workboxes soon. Here is more about the set-up on our workboxes. I created instruction cards that I can slip into the dividing folders to let the boys know what they are to do in each subject. I am going to laminate these so that they are reusable.For two of our curriculums this year the boys will need to listen to a track from a CD. This card will let them know which track. Since the cards will be laminated, I can write in the track # with a wet erase pen. When they are done with that subject I can just wipe off the number.With several of the subjects we do (like math), my boys are required just to do the next page in their workbook. That's where this card will come in handy.For subjects that the boys need my help with or that we do together. Here are the boxes halfway filled so that you can see what they look like. We are currently doing light school this summer so I won't officially start the workboxes until this fall.Since each divider has a pocket, I can slip in an instruction card so the boys know what is required of them.
My goal is to fill the boxes each night so that we can start right away in the morning with school. I am hoping that this will make the boys and I more efficient. I will let you know how it goes!

Workbox Beginnings

I have been contemplating doing workboxes for several months. It has been such a craze in the homeschooling community. Basically, workboxes organize your day. Kids know exactly what is expected of them for each subject. My biggest issue has been the space that they take up (See pictures here of the original idea). Normally you use 12 plastic shoe boxes for each child. In each box you put one subject or activity. There is just no way we could do this in our house!!! We don't have the space for 24 boxes! I really liked Candace's idea for workboxes because they take up lesson space. However, when I went to Walmart I couldn't find the boxes she was using. So I came up with something different and yet similar. Here are my supplies: Plastic folders with pockets. I am going to cut these in half along the fold. These will be dividers for the different subjects. Since each divider will have a pocket, I can slip instruction cards in the pockets. I will use these when it is just a book for that "workbox". I will use gallon Ziplocs if there are a lot of pieces that need to go together for one subject/workbox.

These are 15 qt. Sterilite boxes. I bought one for each child. All their work for the day will go in these boxes. Each subject will be divided with one of those plastic dividers and/or a Ziploc bag. I will post tomorrow more about the set-up of our workboxes. Until then you can check out these sites for more info.

Sue Patrick's Workboxes

The Curriculum Choice Workbox Review

Candace's Workboxes

The Snail Trail's Workboxes

Just so you know, I don't have the Sue Patrick's original book to read about workboxes. I am holding off on getting it since I may be reviewing it this year for the TOS Crew. I have based my set-up on what I have learned from other homeschooler's blogs.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!! Words can't express what a wonderful dad you are! You have been my mentor, confidant, helper, cheerleader, and the list could go on and on! I love you!Dad, the great nature photographer doing the chicken dance! (Actually he is trying to duck out of the way so I can get a picture of the Badlands in South Dakota).Dad with his grandsons.Dad, the Garden Guru, who gave me my green thumb! Any fashion sense I have I learned from my father! Scary!My favorite picture of Dad and me

A Great Father...

The boys have such a great dad! Happy Father's Day, Tim! Zach and Tim playing tug-of-war

Tim with the boys and his brother, Gary

Decorating Noah's Star War cake

The car mat that Tim made for the boys (it depicts the town we live in)

Water guns in the pool

Tim and Zach having fun in Grandpa's pool

Jillian's 30 Day Shred

I have been hearing about this exercise DVD on the Five in a Row Boards for some time now. I recently received it from Netflix and was able to to it today. I love this DVD! Let me tell you how it is set up. There is about a five minute warm up and a five minute cool down. The main bulk of the training is 20 minutes. I like how this is set up. There are three levels...one being the easiest and three the most difficult. For each level the 20 minutes follow the same pattern: 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. The pattern is done three times which equals up to about 20 minutes. Even though the pattern is repeated, the moves aren't. You will do different moves each time. Here are some of the moves in level one: squats, lunges, jumping jacks, "jump rope", regular crunches, bicycle. I have only done level one and it is quite the workout for me (I have been exercising for several years). I used 3 lb. weights, but will move up to 5 lbs. next time to intensify it all. I can't wait to try level 2 and 3!

Grandma and Grandpa are here!

Grandma and Grandpa are up visiting from Missouri! We are enjoying having them around. They have already put us to work (as all good grandparents should!). Yesterday we cleaned their motorhome for them. We actually thought it was fun!

Check Out this Blog!

Steve Lambert, the husband of the Five in a Row curriculum creator (Jane Claire Lambert), has a new blog with interesting ideas on fun stuff to do with kids. Check it out!

Me, Myself, and Lies

For those of you familiar with Beth Moore she is coordinating a summer Bible study for those who follow her blog. I am planning on following along. I just ordered Me, Myself, and Lies by Jennifer Rothschild which is the Bible study that Beth has picked for this summer. I feel that in a lot of ways I need to go through this one. Here is a description of the Bible study....
"This six-week Bible study for women encourages them to clean out the junk in their thoughts and replace these hidden negative thoughts and failures with positive truths from God’s word. Rather than struggling with self-esteem, body image, stress and other unhealthy thoughts and emotions learn to replace the lies you may have been telling yourself with the truth from God’s word."

Are Women Born This Way???!

Family Math Update

Even though I have been on jury duty this past week and life has been crazy, I did have some time to pick out a few activities for the boys to do from the Family Math books. I have to say that I am loving these books! The activities are engaging and really get you to think. Here is a picture of the Family Math book for the elementary level.Here Zach and Noah are trying to figure out a number sequence according to instructions in the book. Here is a picture of the Family Math book for the middle school years. There are two main sections in this book...activities for numbers and activities for algebra. Frankly, algebra scares me!!!!! But these activities look gentle enough that I could do them and survive the experience. LOL! I have to admit that I am even interested in these activities and want to try them. Not that I will be able to figure them out. Math is my weakness!!! But when I can't figure it out then Zach can. These activities have really caught his attention. He won't put one down until he has solved it. I can't tell you how excited I am about that! Finally, I have found some math that he is really attracted to.

Here Zach is working on "nonconsecutive number boxes". This was a challenging activity in which we needed to put numbers 1-8 in boxes so that the consecutive numbers didn't touch each other. Once we figured out the pattern though it seemed so easy, but in the midst of working through it we were easily confused. It was cool to do this activity with him and for both of us to have the "lightbulb" come on.

Healthy Eating

Candace over at His Mercy is New posted about changing their eating habits. Check out her blog for some ideas. If I remember right she has several posts on "healthy living" that address the topic. We are on that journey too. We have been using coconut oil, stevia, agave nectar, more honey, and I have on order coconut sugar to try out. My goal is to have better sweeteners in the house. Like Candace, sugar has some bad effects on me in particular. By reducing sugar, I have reduced my mood swings and cravings for more sugar. I also have lost a few pounds in the process. I recently heard about a series of books from The Sneaky Chef.

She uses a lot of veggie and fruit purees in her recipes to boost the nutritional content. Now we don't have a problem getting enough veggies. My kids actually like to eat salad and a big variety of veggies! But I thought I would check it out and see. I have tried one recipe so far and it was pretty decent (the Strawberry Vanilla Breakfast Cookies). I will slowly be testing some others to see what they are like.