My local homeschool group got into a discussion last week about feeling burned out. Many of us are just fried - including me. I often expect to feel like this in March or April, but September? When we've only done about 8 weeks of school? How can I be burned out this early? How do others do this year after year after year?

The following morning, God showed me a couple of verses in Colossians that helped me change my attitude:

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Col. 2:6-7)

"Let the peace of christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Col. 3:15)

Thankfulness.

Gratitude.

Boy, if those aren't attitude-adjusters, I don't know what is!

If I can focus on gratitude instead of the difficulties, I think that can make a huge difference in my endurance and patience. It's hard to be impatient with people and situations you actually enjoy, isn't it?! So I've been working on cultivating a thankful heart lately. (Pray for me, friends!) I have become thankful for the opportunity to train my children's characters and teach them to live in a way that pleases God and builds good relationships with others. Is that a great, grand, wonderful calling or what?! Yes, it can be a struggle at times, but doing it with gratitude that I have been entrusted with this opportunity is what can keep me going day after week after month after year.

Mmmmm ... Snacks

We like snacks around here, and I find them a great way to get some good nutrition into my kids' bodies. Sure, they'd love to just down a couple of tablespoons of sugar, but we all enjoy a lot of good snacks.

Popcorn: I recently bought a bag of "real" popcorn (www.boulderpopcorn.com), and now I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with the boxes of microwave popcorn I just ordered from local Boy Scouts.  OK, we'll still eat that stuff when we just want something fast, but the Boulder Popcorn site even sells a microwave popper for fresh popcorn. Organic, tasty with just a little salt, how can you get better than that?

Cheese & Crackers: good protein with whole grains!

Yogurt Smoothies: I have a hand blender, which makes these quick, easy, and easy to clean up. I always keep large tubs of yogurt on hand and fruit or berries in the freezer, and I mix in a couple of acidophilus capsules, too.

Cookies: I love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so that's what I make when I'm making cookies. Every now and then I'll make snickerdoodles (hubby's favorite).

Other stuff I keep on hand: graham crackers (the kids love them with raw honey), low-sugar granola bars, and if we have an exceptionally good day together, Pop Tarts. Well, I'm not a complete health-food fanatic!

I was just reading this entry on Heather's blog about political mud-slinging television advertising. She lives in Canada, so I'm sure they don't have all the same laws governing political advertising that we have here in the States. Her blog got me thinking off on a tangent about the different types of ads we have here - those from miscellaneous organizations that may support or oppose a particular candidate (or their position on one issue), and those from the politicians themselves. Of course, we can distinguish the ones from the candidates by the tagline, "I'm [fill in name here], and I approve this message."

After the Olympics in August, my kids had seen enough of these commercials that my son started going around randomly saying, "I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message." Which was funny enough by itself, but then he started getting responses from the rest of us, such as:

Dad: "You're not Barack Obama. I'm Barack Obama."

Sister: "I'm John McCain, and I approve this message."

Son: "I'm John McCain, then!"

Dad: "No, she's John McCain. You're Hillary Clinton."

And then I started giving the children instructions such as, "Pick up all the toys in this room and put them away. I'm your mother, and I approve this message."

Hey, if we can't stop the nonsense on TV, at least we can have some fun with it!

First, I want to thank my blogging friends who haven't given up on me since I haven't been blogging much lately! I will start getting around to visiting your blogs and catching up soon, and I hope to post more about what's going on around here besides puppy, puppy, puppy.

This week's theme on the Homeschool Memoirs meme is "Something New" - sharing about something new we're using this year. I must tell you all about a fantastic new math curriculum I found this year. I hadn't planned to change math; I was happy with what we were using. But as I walked through the vendor hall at my state homeschool conference last summer, one of the vendors stopped me, saying, "Would you like some information about a new math curriculum? The Old Schoolhouse says it's their new favorite." Well, that piqued my interest, so I started looking into it.

Math on the Level takes a different approach to teaching math than anything I've seen or used before. It uses neither a "spiral" or a "mastery" approach but what I see as a flexible approach. It gives the teacher a complete math scope and sequence from preschool through pre-algebra, and I decide what to teach my children and when to teach it. In our old math curriculum, I had to kind of hold my son back and not teach him multiplication because he hadn't fully mastered multiple-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. Now I can have him continue to review and work on those concepts while we also move on and start learning multiplication facts. We'll probably get started on fractions soon, too, even before we work on division. Why not? MotL is a flexible curriculum that allows the teacher/parent to decide what the child is ready to learn, and I'm all about flexiblity.

The flexibility can be overwhelming to someone who's used to being told what to teach and in what order to teach it. Realizing that, the author, Carlita Boyles - and her husband John - offer as much help as needed. They have also started a Yahoo! group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mathonthelevel/) where new (and experienced) users can ask questions and get help using it.

Finally, the thing that my kids like best about math this year is that they only have to do 5 problems a day. Seriously. And, yes, that's enough. Each problem is to review a different concept. For example, my son's math "5-a-day" today included:

• multiplication by 2 (3x2=__)
• skip count by 10
• use a clock to show 5:15
• multiple-digit subtraction without regrouping using a $ sign
• place value (breaking the number 6,492 into thousands, hundreds, tens and units)

Concepts that are mastered (or mostly mastered) are reviewed less frequently (once a week or two weeks), while those that the child is still working on are reviewed daily or every other day. The hardest (if I can even call it hard) part of using this curriculum is that I need to prep their 5-a-day worksheets, but since most of my curriculum is no prep, then I don't mind spending a little time on this.

Can you tell I really love this curriculum?!

I tend to be fairly routine-oriented in our homeschooling, but I'm finding that having a puppy changed much of that!

My preferred routine is something like this: get up, get breakfast. let the kids play while I get my chores done, take a walk or bike ride together, then go through our school routine with pre-planned breaks. We don't usually finish school before lunch, but we generally wrap up between 1:00 and 2:00. After school, the kids have their chores to get done before they can play around or watch a little TV.

But now everything is different. Adeliza needs a lot of attention when she's awake - whether playing or watching for her signals that she needs to go outside. So we wait until she goes to sleep and try to focus on school work for the couple of hours that she naps. When she wakes up, we spend a lot of time with her outside until she's ready for another nap, and then it's back to the books, so to speak.

I find myself spending a lot of time just sitting and doing nothing but waiting for her to go potty, but it's good for me. August was busy and fairly stressful (with good things, but a lot of them!), and now I appreciate the forced relaxation. Eventually we'll be back to routines, though.

Or Addy, as we call her for short. This darling new addition to our family - as well as the fact that I couldn't get my laptop to cooperate and upload photos to photobucket for the last 2 days - is the reason I didn't get back on the blog right at the beginning of September as planned.

She is a handful! The breeder we bought her from (highly recommended, by the way, www.conniescuddlypups.com, the kind of dog breeder who gives breeders a good name) found that this little puppy was getting into things that no other puppy ever has. Her curiosity keeps us on our toes. She has three "modes," so to speak. There's hyper-playful, relaxed chewing time (plus something in the middle of those two when we call her "Addigator"), and asleep.

Homeschooling has changed a bit, too. The kids and I play with her for a couple of hours in the morning and then hurry off to do schoolwork when she tuckers out and goes to sleep for an hour or two, then repeat when she wakes up. It's a new rhythm to life, but this sweet, velvety soft, cuddly bundle of loving energy is just what we need right now.

I'd write more, but Adeliza has just come in from relieving herself one last time this evening and is ready for me to settle her in for bed - and I'm about done for the day, too. Goodnight!

I know, I know. I wasn't supposed to blog any more this month. But I can't let today go by without honoring those who have made it happen.

Today is my 20th wedding anniversary. And Michael & I continue to be happily married, looking forward to the next 20 or more!

For that, I have to first thank God who has helped us through all the hard times - and, believe me, we have had some really difficult spells.

And second, I have to thank my husband for his love. In the Bible, Paul commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church - self-sacrificing, never-give-up love - and that is how my husband has loved me for the last 20 years.

If there's one quality that I'd say has made our marriage work, it is hope. I have seen a number of marriages fall apart when one spouse gives up hope that things will ever change for the better. And I have seen falling-apart marriages restored when both spouses choose to persist in hope that their struggles will not last. I'll leave you all with this verse:

I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Ps. 27:13-14

Here it is already halfway through this month, and I haven't posted anything since the end of July. We had back-to-back houseguests for 10 days, and this week I'm fighting off a migraine. We had a great time with our guests, but now the kids & I need to get back into our regular routines. So I'm going to give myself permission to take off the rest of this month from the blog in order to get life back to normal and the house under control again.

But I wanted to pass on this little tidbit in case someone else might be able to use it. After a long-ish break from our school summer session, I decided to spend the last 2 days of this week doing a short unit study about the Olympics. Here's my little plan:

Day 1: Ancient Olympics

Bible: Hebrews 12:1-3 - read and discuss. Wrap kids up in a sheet toga/robe and try running, then pull up to run more easily. Discuss how sin tangles us up and slows us down. Other points discussed: we have a crowd of those who have gone before cheering us on and encouraging us; keep "eyes on the prize" - fixed on Jesus.

Social Studies/History: read books or use internet to learn about ancient Olympic games

Art: make laurel wreaths (use leaf garland from craft store to make a circle crown)

Olympic sports crossword puzzle (I took this out of TOS' Around the World with TOS free e-book, but you can make your own at www.puzzle-maker.com.)

P.E.: practice sports: timed running, throw a stick "javelin," frisbee "discus," swim at pool, etc.

Geography: watch Opening Ceremonies Parade of Nations and find countries on map/globe

Day 2: Modern Olympics

Bible: 2 Tim. 2:5, 1 Cor. 9:24-27 - read & discuss discipline/training. If we are "running a race," what prize are we working towards? Matt. 25:19-21

Social Studies: read books, use internet to learn about Modern Olympic Games & Special Olympics

Art: make gold medals (paint wood circle gold & attach to ribbon)

Math: Add up # of medals won by leading countires. Graph top countries' # of gold, silver, bronze medals.

Research a contemporary athlete. (Again, I'm using Around the World with TOS for a framework.)

Geography: finish finding countries from Parade of Nations

P.E.: practice sports again

See you in September!

I told my husand and my friend yesterday that I want to go back to the days when I believed I could send my children to school somewhere else and they'd be just fine. But I can't - even though it's really, really hard, I know that homeschooling my kids is the best option for them. And now that God has helped me get my anger under control, I can't even try to convince myself that I'm doing them more harm than good by having them at home. But it's super-frustrating right now that I spend hours trying to teach them things that they need to know, and they "can't remember." Whether that's an actual failure of memory or an unwillingness to do the work of digging up something we talked about 2 weeks ago, I don't know, but I'm starting to feel like it's not worth wasting my time on teaching if they won't remember and I have other things that are getting neglected because of the time spent homeschooling.

My kids have just gone to "yellow cards" because they were more interested in writing stuff in notebooks than listening to a little bit of background about the book of Matthew. They didn't care. But they will care when they find out they won't have time to go to the toy store or hang out with their cousins for a while this afternoon.

For now, I'll press on, though, and hope that one day they'll understand the importance of listening when they're expected to listen and playing when it's time to play. As Ecclesiastes says, there's a time for everything - and everything in its time.

When I was at Jennifer's blog to let her know she had won my contest, I found a cute tag that I thought I'd pass on. Just Google yourself (i.e., type your own name into Google to see what comes up), and then share the top 5 things that come up. So, I apparently am:

1. an American Folk Artist in North Carolina

2. a Physician's Assistant (PA-C)

3. a Director in the banking industry in the San Francisco Bay Area

4. the author of a blog called "Between the Worlds"

5. an artist in Texas

Very interesting, isn't it? I was rather surprised that my blog came up when I searched for my name.

If you're reading, as they say, consider yourself tagged. I'm interested to see who my friends' alter-egos are!

Congratulations to Jennifer of Poop on a Stick! for winning my 3 Favorite Things Contest! In a truly random drawing, comment #2 was chosen. Yes, it was a day late, but I promise not to be a dollar short.

Thanks again to all who participated. I enjoyed reading about the things that you love about homeschooling or that make your life as a homeschooler easier. It's interesting how many said that their co-op or support group is one of their favorite things. We all need each other, don't we?!

This entry will be a "sticky post" at the top until the contest ends on July 27. Scroll down for more recent posts.

Each Spring my local homeschool group has a meeting where everyone shares their "3 Favorite Things" from the previous year - three things that have made their homeschooling easier or more productive. Some of these have been curriculum or manipulatives or games or forms of discipline, and we always gain great ideas from one another.

To celebrate my 300th blog entry, I wanted to ask my blogging (and non-blogging) friends to share their 3 Favorite Things. And to make it more interesting, I'll choose one of you to receive a $10 Starbucks gift card. I'll randomly choose a winner after 8:00 pm MDT on Sunday, July 27. (For those of you who aren't sure, that's 10:00 pm EDT and 7:00 pm PDT.)

Here's how it all works:

If you have a blog, then write a blog entry linking back to this post and sharing your 3 Favorite Things, then leave a comment with a link to your blog post.

If you don't have a blog, then simply leave a comment here sharing your 3 Favorite Things. Please be sure to leave me your email address or some way I can get in contact if you win.

Share the word with others!

And here are my 3 Favorite Things:

• "School Dollars": This is more of my children's favorite than mine, but it works well as a motivator for good bahavior. Each day that I get full cooperation from a child, that child earns one "school dollar" that can be used for various rewards. Last year I let them choose things at the store that I would buy for the value of their school dollars if they chose - or they could save up for various priviledges like having dessert without finishing dinner ($3), going out for a movie ($6), or lunch out ($15). But when it got to the point that I was spending $1 or $2 for silly little toys every time we went to Wal-Mart, I knew something had to change. This year they're earning school dollars towards larger incentives that Dad & I set - for example, after our 1st 4 weeks of school, we'll take them to an amusement park if they've both earned 20 school dollars. And if their behavior is not fully cooperative on a given day, then they have to do extra chores to earn the school dollar.
• Beethoven's Wig CDs: My daughter discovered these at the library, and I love them! I had a whole "curriculum" where we were listening to music from classical composers and learning a little bit about their lives, but the Beethoven's Wig CDs accomplished more of what I had in mind. Each CD has several well-known pieces recorded twice - the second time is the music by itself, but the first recording has silly words sung to it - and the songs help kids (moms, too) learn something about the composer and the music. For example, Mendelssohn's Wedding March becomes a song about a great big wedding cake, and I'm sure it has the composer's name in there somewhere. We really enjoyed listening to these CDs, and I highly recommend them!
• My local support group: I couldn't keep homeschooling without these wonderful ladies. They help me keep my focus in the right place, help me to know I'm not the only mom who feels that my kids would listen more to another teacher than to me, and help me keep my sanity with an occasional evening out. We have shared successes and hard times with each other, and God has brought me a community of friends like I never had before. To any of you ladies reading this blog entry, I love you all!

Thanks in advance to all who will participate. I'm looking forward to reading about what you do and getting ideas from you.

This morning as my daughter and I pulled weeds in our yard, she started to comment (as most children I know who have a good understanding of the theology of sin do) that she wished Adam and Eve hadn't disobeyed God. After all, their disobedience caused all the painful consequences we face - illness, thorny weeds, addictions, relationship disruptions and much more. As always, I pointed her to the fact that all these difficulties we face remind us of our need for Jesus.

Then (as she wandered off to a place with less difficult weeds) I got to thinking about the time I spent praying this morning about many very difficult and painful situations I see in the lives of people around me. It felt like many of these situations were almost without hope this side of heaven. But the weeds reminded me of God's grace just as the difficulties I see in my friends ought to have done. Life's pain should send me running to Jesus, not just in prayer but in hope and faith, resting in His grace and trusting Him whether or not the painful situations change. Life's pain is a reminder to me of my need for Him and of His love in meeting my deepest needs. So in that, I'm thankful for the weeds of life!

I got back yesterday evening from a really nice visit with my sister and her family. While there, none of us got nearly enough sleep, but we really enjoyed the time together. My kids got to come too, but dad had to stay home alone.

I began to notice the acidophilus I've been giving my kids for the last month appears to be helping my son with his emotional self-control. It was especially obvious with our travel yesterday. Because of storms near DC, we had to sit on the tarmac for 30-40 minutes before takeoff, and later because of storms near Denver, we were almost diverted to Colorado Springs. The hardest part of that whole delay was that we were planning to spend about an hour in the airport with my husband before he had to leave for a business trip. Fortunately, we were able to get in to Denver after all (and then my hubby's plane was delayed too) so we had some nice time with him. Through all this, my daughter had a really hard time accepting the things she couldn't change, but my son was really good about it all. He is the child who is not generally flexible and does not deal well with changes in the plans!

Yes, we had about a pint of milk spilled on the kitchen floor (the child whose clumsiness was responsible has asked not to be identified publicly, and I'll respect that). And we had a great deal of anger and frustration that resulted. And we had the other child feeling upset because their attempts at comfort were not accepted. But it also led to conversations with both children about their true enemy.

They are not each other's enemies. Yet they do have an enemy of their souls who would love nothing more than to destroy their relationship with each other. An enemy who would love them to learn to treat each other and their parents with utter disrespect. An enemy who is working to undermine everything their father and I are building into their lives. And he is my enemy as well - and I am determined to fight against everything he is trying to do in my family.

I don't often look for the spiritual battle that I know is raging in the world around me because I don't want to get distracted from following what God wants to accomplish in and through me. But maybe sometimes I'm a little late in recognizing spiritual sources for disruptions in my family, attributing them to sleep deprivation or the wrong food consumption. But with all that I've seen going on lately in our church, and my husband having sudden weird breathing problems last night., it seems there's more going on right now.

So I'm praying desperately for God to give me wisdom to help my children battle their true enemy, for me to keep walking in faith and the truth, and for Jesus to soften their hearts.

Please join me in praying for my husband's lungs and for our friend who broke his back on Monday. I learned yesterday that he has 4 broken vertebrae in addition to the one that is crushed. He has surgery this afternoon - pray that it goes well!

Yesterday was a perfect example of my son's interaction with carbyhydrates. He had a large bowl of cereal for breakfast, and then at lunch pretty much ignored his chicken nuggets in favor of a large plate of nachos he had made (with a lot more tortilla chips than cheese). Even before he finished eating, he was acting really crazy. He was so nutty that his buddy who was with us even wanted him to settle down. There was no calming him down.

Fortunately, some boys from the neighborhood came over and invited him and his buddy to join them in a water fight. A couple of hours outside running around at least kept me from losing patience with him, but even later in the day he was having a hard time controlling his emotions.

It seems that we have a love/hate relationship with carbs - he loves them, but I hate what they do to him!

So I fell off the NaBloPoMo wagon, missing my blog entry yesterday. But some things are more important, and what I was going to write yesterday seems utterly trivial in light of what came up last night.

One of our friends fell off a roof he was working on yesterday and ended up with a broken back. Fortunately, he is not paralyzed, but he will have surgery today on the broken vertebra so that it does not cause damage to the spinal column and more serious complications. As you join me in praying for his healing, pray also for his heart. He is a new believer in Jesus, and I'm praying that he experiences the Lord in a powerful new way through this difficult time.

The whole family is very dear to our family. His wife is my good friend, and his son is one of my kids' best friends. Please pray for their peace and growing trust in God as they wait to see what happens. I'll keep you all posted.

Update: He didn't actually have surgery today. When I saw the family at the hospital today, they were waiting for the doctor to arrive. Surgery is still in the plan for the next few days but we don't know when. His legs are very weak because the broken bone is putting pressure on the spinal cord, but he's doing much better today than last night.

This is one of my son's favorite breakfasts - it's probably really an omelette, but we like calling it a "burrito." I find they roll up better using only one egg, but he usually has a larger appetite than that!

Start with 1-2 eggs and 1/2 - 1 Tbsp milk. Beat together, adding salt & pepper to taste. Heat a non-stick skillet and coat with butter-flavor cooking spray. Pour eggs into the skillet and let cook, not stirring but using a spatula to lift the edges and let the uncooked eggs flow under the sides.

When eggs are mostly set, add shredded cheese (and other filings - ham, mushrooms, whatever - just not too much). Notice that I put the cheese a little off-center.

Use the spatula to carefully roll up the eggs around the cheese, and allow to set in the pan for a few seconds longer so eggs in the middle can finish cooking.

Serve with a little more cheese sprinkled on top.

Figuring out meals is one of those things I do all the time, but I don't like it so much. One of my friends has decided that since we as Americans have way more food choices than the rest of the world, she would simplify things by limiting her food options. Not a bad idea, actually. Unfortunately, I'm too much of a variety-seeker, so I end up doing this meal planning thing every week.

From time to time I'll ask the rest of my family for ideas, but they nearly always suggest the same thing. My son always asks for "green noodles" (pasta with pesto), my hubby suggests tacos, and my daughter might request steaks or macaroni & cheese. Maybe I'm the only one who craves variety - I ought to take a hint from them and simplify.

The funny thing is that I have a binder with "meal cycles" - lists of dishes I can make with the same meat base. But do I look at it when it's time to plan meals? No. Instead I end up trying to figure out something original to do with that half a pork loin in the freezer or going to allrecipes.com for some new idea. I really should start using that binder again.

In the meantime, I've just finished figuring out the next month's meals, so off to the grocery store for now!