Hello Friends!

Hope you are having a wonderful "Valentine's Week!" 

I have been so busy that I let the contest go on a bit longer than I planned!  I am sure glad though, it gave more of you time to get comments in!

I have enjoyed hearing from all of you and so has Heather.  Your comments have been such a blessing to both of us! 

Now, the envelope please........

And the winner of the Patchwork Heart "Soul Seeds" gift is Eyebright!   Congratulations!!!!  Please stop by her blog and tell her she is the winner, ok? 

 And Eyebright, just send me your mailing info at my email address; (nancybaetz at msn dot com) and I will get that info off to Heather.

Eyebright, I know you will enjoy the wonderful packet of encouragement from Heather at the Patchwork Heart.

Now, I wanted to pick a winner for my haircutting e-book.....and well, I decided that it was just too hard to pick one! 

 So, just for fun, and as my gift to you, I will be sending each of you a free copy.  :) 

Please email me with your email address also so I can get that download to you! 

If you get a chance and want to share your handiwork with me (after you do your fabulous haircuts on your handsome little men) just let me know, I would love to see your photos!  If you want to show us your results and are willing to post something on your blog, just let me know;  I will even give a freebie to the friend of your choosing as an additional "thank you!"

Thank you everyone,  for being such good sports and for making this contest so fun!

  Don't forget, Heather's creations make wonderful gifts for Mother's Day, birthdays, ANY days.  Her prices are so reasonable too.  I encourage you to shop with your fellow homeschoolers.  Let us support one another!

Blessings!

Nancy

Last weekend my two oldest children participated in the Civil War ball put on by Parker Christian Home Educators.  What a wonderful event!  A good time was had by all.  I want to write more about it but for now you will just have to enjoy a couple of photos and imagine how much fun it was!

Yes, she designed and made her dress.  The back has lacing, with grommets and satin ribbon and a big bow.  She also made the bow for her hair, and we had fun searching for some gloves.  (We found them at a wonderful store here in our town called "Repeat Performance."  I had the honor of fixing her hair. I thought she was the belle of the ball.  (Just like every other Mom there thought their daughter was the belle.  And they were!)

 My son's costume was provided by You Can Live History.   He was a sword bearer too, for the presentation of the young ladies.  We got his sword from Vision Forum.

The band was exceptional, the lady who taught the dances was fabulous it was amazing how everyone caught on so quickly.  I bet there were over 400 participants.  We were very impressed with the decorations and how nice the event center was.  If you get the opportunity to do this, take it!  Next year hubby and I better be on that dance floor too....the kids can't have ALL the fun!

Blessings!

Nancy

 In Daniel chapter 3 there are several mentions of the psaltery, along with many other instruments that were used at that time, and today they are still used, although the song that that was being played then was the one that King Nebuchadnezzar was using to compel worship to the large idol he had set up.  Three of the servants of the Lord wouldn't bow down when they heard the music playing, and you know the story: they were thrown into the furnace.  If you don't know the whole story, read it HERE.   But I will give you a little hint:  God is always with you when you go through the fire for Him! 

  A few years ago we were visting a dear friend in New Mexico when she produced a psaltery for my daughter to play, and she took right to it!  It was a lovely instrument of which we had never laid eyes on before.  It was very strange, beautiful, and played with a bow.  It had such a clear, lovely sound. 

 "Someone" got hooked on it and we have been searching for one for quite awhile now.   I recently found one that I got her for her birthday!  Can you say "surprised?"  This one was handmade by Chuck at Crooked Creek Psaltery, and you can see more of his handiwork right there on their brand new website. 

Now we have a few more ways in which to make a joyful noise!  With our voices, a few new strings and a piano, we hope to be lifting us some praises to the King of Kings. Maybe one of these days I will post some.....we will see!

Have a blessed week everyone!

Nancy

Ready??

Bubble gum on long car trips................  

Itty Bitty Lizards................  

Cats Cradle and Jacobs Ladder....and someone to teach you how.................

Kitties who like to crash wherever they can, however they fit..................

Spotting and Egret at the lake...................

                          Heavenly Blue Morning Glories..........................

Giant Kaliedoscopes.......................

Just a few of the things I am thankful for today :)

Nancy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you so much for all the comments!  It has been such a delight to hear from everyone this week, and thanks so much to those of you kind souls who purchased my "Haircuts For Little Men" E-book!

I want to give a very special thank you to my friends over at the Homeschool Minute.  I appreciate you all!  Thanks for helping me get the word out.  I also want to thank those of you who have given me a promo on your blogs.  And I can't wait to see your handiwork!  Take photos of your haircuts and post them!

 I have thrown all of your names in a hat and am getting ready to pull one out...............

And the winner is:

 Anne Shaw!

Congratulations Anne!  I loved your blog entry.  :) As soon as I get your email addy I will send that E-book right over.

 (Hey everyone, be sure to go read her post, it will make you feel miserable!  LOL)

One last thing, don't forget that the benefit for the Cardwells ends tomorrow at midnight!  Get over there and bless them and you will be blessed in return in many, many ways.

Nancy

Hi Friends!

My youngest son is NINE today!  I can't hardly believe it!  He is so excited about it that he woke me up about 6 a.m. to make sure I wouldn't forget.    His brother and sister made him french toast for breakfast and they gave him a betta fish!

If you have a chance today, just zip by his blog and leave him a "Happy Birthday" message, ok?  Be sure you are signed in, only registered users can comment!

Thanks!

Nancy

A sweet blogging lady gave me a wonderful award this week.  Here it is!  

I especially liked getting it because she had chosen 4 other bloggers and I SO enjoyed going to their blogs!  I am never ceased to be amazed at the gifted writers out here in the blogosphere.  I guess that is why I love to write so much, because I also love to READ so much.  I would read 24/7 if I didn't have to do anything else ie. take care of my kids, eat, do laundry, pay bills.....all that FUN stuff. (The kids are the REAL fun stuff!)

Today we had fun, mostly the kids slept in after a long day and night yesterday so I got to have peace, glorious peace while picking up the house.  It's been a crazy week, when I start thinking about it!  I got stung by a yellowjacket, we had hail that damaged some of our garden, last week we had a tornado warning, um.....lets see, the dog threw up on the carpet, sorry, NOBODY wants to hear about that!

My eldest finished a dress for the county fair, and we went to the farm..........and got really dirty and tired.  (Hard work!  Great rewards!)  And then we watched a fireworks display and sang some wonderful songs.  Be sure to visit me on the HSB Front Porch!

Blessings!!

Nancy

Hope you are well!  I must be going through midlife-crisis or something, I just got these really cute new bifocals!!!!  I just can't wait to post a photo for you.   (NOT!)

LOL!

Anyway, I wanted to get on here and tell you to go check out my auctions on Homeschoolbuy.  I am helping my daughter raise some funds.  She has made over 60 purses that she is selling, and we put some of her hand spun/hand crocheted items up for auction.  You can see them on my sidebar!

Also, I have a few more days on my auction for a GREAT book called "The Survivor's Guide To Homeschooling."  Come on, somebody out there needs it!!!  Right?  I don't really need two of them, ok?  I can part with my extra one, but am keeping a copy! 

Go see, go see, go see......(not begging, just friendly encouragement!!)

Blessings,

Nancy

Related Tags: hand spinning, hand spun yarn, crocheting, homeschooling, homeschoolbuy, homeschool auctions, homestead auctions, survivors guide to homeschooling

Hey, isn't that a great way to be greeted?  In Italian, that would be "Ciao Bella!" 

I had the immense pleasure of being treated to a wonderful gift basket from Laura over at Ciao Bella Body.com and WoW, what a treat it is!  (Thanks also to Beth over at www.ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com for hosting the give-away!)

Here, take a look:

And here is a close up of this wonderful soy-wax candle!  It is citrus scented, and this is the first time I have ever had a soy candle.  It's different!  It's made lead free, petroleum free and also has an all cotton wick.  Very cool.

Right now, Laura is even offering to YOU, dear Homeschooling Is Life blog readers, free shipping on orders over $50!  Just in time for Mother's Day!  Or "just because" for a special friend, or even for yourself! They even have a children's collection, and you will just be so excited about all the wonderful things they have to offer! 

 Just enter promo code: freeship at the checkout!

Laura, I am so enjoying this wonderful prize gift I received!  Thank you so much!

After a brief reprieve the white stuff is flying again!  Snow, snow and more of the same.  It is cold and I miss the sun so much already.  The "old timers" say that this is the way winter always was prior to the 14 year drought, that is.

  (Anyway, it's not just the cold that is bad it's the fact that I dropped my digital camera right after the first of the year and wouldn't you know it; the last several storms have had the most beautiful perfect crystals which I would love to capture but alas!  No decent camera to shoot with.  I am crushed!  Hubby, however, blessed me with a replacement.  It doesn't have as good of a macro on it, but I am thankful for his thoughtfulness!)

I have also fallen down on the job of posting about Laura Ingalls Wilder this week.  However, if you go to my previous entries, I am SURE the links will keep you busy for days on end, so no worries here!

So much going on here and the kids are on a roll with so much baking and creating and learning that I am finding it very hard to catch up on my blogging! Since it is a Valentine Week, and that means it's time to get sentimental and gushy (or mushy, as my kids say,)  I do want to share something from my past with you!

  I grew up in a small town and went to school, K-12 with a group of kids that remained pretty much the same for most of those years.  I think there was a core of about 15 kids or so,  and we got to know each other pretty well as far as schoolmates go.

Every year in elementary school we had parties to celebrate each holiday that came our way.  I think we did the same thing every time too; read a story, do a craft, have a party of some sort.  One family in particular had a Mom who was an amazing cookie baker (among other things) and every holiday she would send a batch of her wonderful frosted sugar cookies with her daughter to class for us. 

These weren't your ordinary cookies.  These cookies were delicious, soft, melt-in-your-mouth tasty, and the frosting on the cake--I mean, cookie was the fact that she frosted them with equally wonderful frosting and each was decorated with each of our names!  She had a shape for each holiday and the Valentine's day cookies were huge lovely hearts!  She always packed them in a shirt box, with waxed paper between the layers of cookies so they wouldn't get smashed.  These cookies were bigger than your hand, and they were just perfect!

I was lamenting them several years ago and so you know what I did?  I called her up and asked her for her recipe!  She seemed surprised to hear from me and thought it was funny that I wanted her cookie recipe.  But she put her finger right one it (I am pretty sure she had it committed to memory) and we had a lovely visit. 

So she shared her recipe with me and I am posting it here for you.  I have no idea where the original recipe is from.  She called them "Crisp Sugar Cookies" but when you frost them, they become very soft and like I said, they melt in your mouth.  The secret to their wonderful flavor is the vanilla and lemon extract.  :)

Mrs. Roger’s Sugar Cookies

(Crisp Sugar Cookies)

½ C. Sugar

1 C. Shortening

(cream together, then add:)

2 eggs

3 TBSP Evaporated Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

½ tsp Lemon Extract

(mix well then add to:)

3 C. Flour

½ tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Salt

Make the cookie dough and chill for a little while, roll out and cut out shapes,

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so, 'till slightly brown on edges.  Cool and frost.

Frosting:

½  tsp Lemon Extract

1 tsp Vanilla

Add to regular frosting recipe,

(powdered sugar, butter and milk.)

Whip 'till fluffy, add coloring if you want to and VIOLA!

You know, just as this precious Mom wrote our names on cookies, the Lord himself has written your name on His heart!  Is your name written is His book too?

Nancy

Homeschooling Is Life!

© Nancy K. Baetz 2007 

 Revelation 21:23-27 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

It's been a great day.  Everything here just was so neat.  My daughter was able to join up with several other girls and a couple of Moms who spent the day volunteering up at the Operation Christmas Child warehouse.  What a great experience for them! 

Then tonight I found out that I won Kerry Beck's contest that I posted about.  See my previous entry!  I am sure everyone can use some new idea on how to celebrate this season we are in.  Check out the links.

You know, e-books are all the rage.  I love e-books!  And My daughter and I have had the honor of writing a couple of things for the wonderful new edition of Jill Novak's e-magazine," The Girlhood Home Companion!"  Do you remember the lovely black and white editions of the Girlhood?  It was a quarterly (hard copy) magazine for the love of anything to do with girlhood!  Well, Jill has had numerous requests to bring it back to life again, and indeed she has!  I have never seen anything so beautifully done!  It is very feminine, very old fashioned with a Victorian flair, and has wonderful family stories and Biblical admonitions for young girls, for Moms and Grandmas and everyone who is a girl at heart. 

I am completely blessed to have been a part of it.  The neat thing is that it is an electronic magazine.  It's like an e-book, but even better! You are able to download it to your computer and read it right on your screen.  This e-magazine (it's a higher quality e-book) has very nice layout.  It has amazing visual appeal, and you can imagine that already if you know Jill.  (Just go look at her blog!)  She has the artistic gift and writing gift all wrapped up into a lovely package. 

This edition of the Girlhood Home Companion is Free!  It is a delightful Holiday issue, dedicated to "Joy."   I couldn't wait to get it and read it.  I have only just begun, there is a lot there!  So, I printed the whole thing off and inserted the pages into a notebook, in page protectors.  You could even print a little out at a time, if you wanted to!   It really is a keepsake!  Now I can sit down with my coffee in the morning and read it a little at a time.  What a great gift, Jill! 

 (But then again, it doesn't surprise me at all, since she is into gifts already~)

God Bless you, friends!

Have a great weekend!

Nancy

©Nancy K. Baetz Homeschooling Is Life! 2006

Related Tags: E-books, Kerry Beck, Christmas and Advent Activities, Magazines for girls, The Girlhood Home Companion, Remembrance Press, Holiday, Joy, The Gift of Family Writing, Homeschool Resources,

Bloggers Love Contests!!! 

Since it is the Christmas season, my friend  Kerry Beck, wants to offer some extra Christmas cheer. Here's what she is doing:

GIVING AWAY a Copy of her Christmas & Advent Celebrations in 24 hours.

Don't fret if you already bought your copy. She will refund your
money if you win the package.

To win the copy of Christmas & Advent Celebrations for the
Holidays Package, post a comment on her blog that shares your favorite
family tradition at Christmas time.

It's pretty simple...
On Friday at noon (pacific time) she will draw a winner from
everyone who entered the contest.

You can find out who the winner is on her blog.

Don't wait any further...go post a comment on her blog about one
of your favorite family traditions.

Here's the link: http://www.CurriculumConnection.net/blog


Nancy

P.S..  Go see what is in the Christmas & Advent Celebrations for the Holidays Package!  Click here to see it.. 

 

Romans:  8:17-18, 26, 28

For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

(26, 28) Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but he Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

 

©Nancy K. Baetz Homeschooling Is Life! 2006

It's been a good week and the weekends are always great with hubby home :)  He has been trying to get me to cut his hair for a few days, and last night he shaved half his mustache off, as blackmail I guess--and said he would leave it that way until I cut his hair for him!  Needless to say, he has a brand new haircut today. 

Hey, you know, I talk a lot about my sitemeter--it's so fascinating to see where folks are from who stop by.  I know that 99% of them hit my blog by accident, but I get hits from all over the world. This week I had one from Greece!  That just reminded me of a joke......my son asked me if he could study Ancient Greece, and I told him "You want Ancient Grease?  Go look in the kitchen!"  (If you have read this blog long enough, you know that cooking isn't my forte')

Anyway, another fun thing about the sitemeter is that I can see what people used as search terms in order to land here at my crazy blog.  Today, someone searched for CRAZY BAETZ.  All caps!  Well, I guess maybe they found the right blog after all! 

I had a blessing happen earlier this week, (one of many!) and I was going to mention it, but just kinda forgot to......now, it's pretty old news, but it was fun while it lasted.  I had an article in the Summer issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, on the history of the Railroad in America and this week Crosswalk.com picked it up.  How fun!  Of course, it really had a ton of neat graphics and photos that really made it visually appealing.  Not to be tooting my own whistle here, but it was my first time on Crosswalk and I was very blessed by it!  Three dear friends alerted me to it first thing in the morning! 

So......you know, I love to blog and really enjoy the "instant gratification" of getting comments.  I haven't had any comments on my Train article, or much on a few others I have had here or there....and I am always left wondering.....did it make sense?  Did anyone read it?  What did they think of it?  Did it really matter??? (To anyone other than me and the boss lady, LOL) Was it something you used in your homeschooling?  Did you find any mistakes?  What were they?  I really DO appreciate feedback. 

And lets see, what else happened this week.....oh, I volunteered to head up the St. Patrick's Day float committee for our 4-H club.  My husband thinks I have bit off more than I can chew.....but then again, that just goes along with having a very full plate.

So if anyone has any neato ideas about floats, please send them my way!  I did find some excellent websites already.

Oh, and did you see the contest over on Gena's blog?  Go check that out.  She is the www.homeschoolblogger.com/TOSPUBLISHER in case you didn't know. 

May the Lord continue to bless you!

Homeschooling Is Life!

Nancy

©Nancy K. Baetz Homeschooling Is Life! 2006

Thought you might enjoy seeing just a bit of what is blooming in my garden right now.  Aren't these lillies pretty?

Have a blessed day,

Nancy

   Ok, so they really aren't bad at all, but I love alliteration! (And I don't want to know if I spelled that wrong, ok?  I am having a bad day and can't handle any more discouragement!) 

Now, I hope you like the photo.  Cute little bunnies are supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy......so here goes:

Whew.  I certainly feel better, how about you??

Bunnies and blessings,

Nancy

You would be remiss not to read this blog, and oh, grab some tissue.