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I've been working on Jennifer's Art Lesson plans for our school year. 

I found this great site that is an excellent tutorial on teaching children art.

How To Teach Children to Draw

At the same time I want to put a plug in for my favorite artistic homeschool mom,

Barb at HarmonyArtMom.

I am earnestly hoping to do better with our art this year.  Prayerfully my early planning will pay off.

From Jimmie's blog I found these great links at one of my favorite blogs.

Desiring God

More Reading in Less Time~Explains how to use a RSS reader.


This next article is a great read and made me ponder what blogs the Lord would want me reading.  I have adjusted a few of my feeds into my reader.  It is easy in the summer to read blogs, I have more "free" time.  Read this article here: Better Blog Reading.


Lastly, I want to share a video, as a visual learning I found this very helpful.

“Robin has done it again! You and your Sisterchicks will love taking this new adventure together!”
- Karen Kingsbury, New York Times best-selling author of Between Sundays and Ever After

“My only complaint about Robin’s latest is that now I want to hop a plane to England! But combine a cup of Earl Grey tea and this charming story and you’re halfway there. Another delightful tale about women helping women to live their lives to the fullest.”
- Melody Carlson, author of These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking and A Mile in My Flip-Flops

My Thoughts:

This was a wonderful read for me.  I was quickly attached to the main character, Elizabeth.  As she worked through entering her empty nest years, she used her journey to England to seek her God-given dreams. 

Having visited England as a teenager, I loved revisiting the sights and sounds of the country.  Robin Gunn does a fabulous job painting the gorgeous countryside and attractions with her words.  The delightful taste scones, lemon curd and English tea lingered in my mouth after reading about tea time. 

But my favorite part of this book was the way Robin Gunn used the Word of God in Elizabeth's life.  Through an experience at a old English church and the play Les Miserables, Elizabeth begins to seek God's Will in her life.  The journey and processing that takes place in the story is authentic and faith building. 

Jeremiah 24: 7

"I will givem them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

In our house one way is:

P*L*A*Y*D*O*U*G*H

Last week on Thursday, it was so hot!  The heat index went over 100 degrees.

So I mixed up a batch of playdough for the girls.  I love the homemade variety.  When the girls are little, it doesn't hurt them if they eat it.  Now, we have the dog, who loves to eat anything off the ground.  Here is a link for homemade playdough recipes: AppleSauceKids.

Pictures of the playdough fun!

Another way we spell summer fun.

S*W*I*M*M*I*N*G

And lastly there is nothing like

B*A*S*E*B*A*L*L

for summer fun. 

 We attend a game with our local AA team, the Iowa Cubs.  For all of you Chicago Cubs fans, one of the current pitchers, Kerry Woods, pitched for the Iowa Cubs before being called up.

The girls enjoy the foods and entertainment, more than the baseball.  I'm always saying, "shh, watch the pitch".  They have done a great job at the I-Cubs to provide family friendly, fun entertainment.  The food prices are outrageous though.  Thankfully the great tickets are free from my work.  The girls got these bobble head dolls free. 

~In gratitude for everything He provides for our pleasure, may He be glorified,

Brenda at Family Revised is hosting a "Keeping It Real, Homeschool Organization" meme. 

I encourage you to visit her blog and read her post.  I'm going to share pictures of our school room in it's current state and then after pictures when I'm done with it's makeover.

I love having a separate room to school in. 

 Keeping the books and stuff in it's own spot, helps to keep our home a little better organized.  The difficult thing for me is willing myself to stay in the school room and do school.  Like Brenda mentions in her post, she started in a school room, then they moved to the kitchen table.  I love to be upstairs in the kitchen puttering around while the girls do their work.  The problem with that is I'm not totally focused on their learning.   One of my goals for this school year is to keep myself focused on their learning.  It is a matter of discipline and I'm praying for God's strength and direction.  Last year Elizabeth needed a desk, so I gave up my desk to Jennifer, her desk went to Elizabeth.  The bench I choose to sat on killed my back!   My husband and I were coming back from the grocery store one night and found a desk on the curb.  I knew the couple who had put it on the curb, I went to the door and asked if we could have it.  I had taken care of their daughter in the NICU and they were excited to give it to me. 


Our basement is finished and has two closets for storage. 

This is the school room closet, in it's current messy state.   Three of the four shelves will be decluttered and their contents moved to this closet.
I didn't think this closet looked to bad, then I looked at the pictures.  Yikes!  It needs a purging too.

Now I'm a little embarassed to show the next photos.  This isn't my usual style of house keeping, but I'm keeping it real. 

Here is a picture from the door.  Once the school room closet is cleaned out, the books can be organized into it's shelves. 

My plan is to totally take everything out of the room and paint the room.  I'm looking at a pale yellow paint to keep it cheery.  I will replace the window valance with a calico that has green and yellow in it.  Jennifer can easily stitch it up on her sewing machine.  I also want Jennifer to rewrite our homeschool rules that you see on the door. 

I have a file cabinet next to the desk pictured.  I have several stacks of file folders that need to be filed in there.   In the ads today Target has a two draw plastic cart on sale for $10, I will purchase it for Grace's school stuff.  I haven't incorporated her well into our school days, that will be changing this year. 

Another shot from the door.

These wonderful bookshelves are needing a purge also.  Everything will come off of them for the painting.  I hope in all of this purging I find a missing library book.  That is another story! 

This book shelf will come out of this room.  I want to have the wall space for maps, and more room for Grace's work area.  I am undecided whether I will use it in another area of our basement or sell it. 

Back on the wall you see the leaning tower of our homeschool room.  What I was thinking building that thing up, who knows?  It will be redistributed within the room after we paint.  


I love this white board.  My two older daughters are combination visual/audio learners.  I use this board a lot for their learning. 


Here is a few pictures of the living area next to our school room.
It is a mess in these pictures.   I had toys out to put in our garage sale, which will hopefully be sooner than later. 

This is the desk that will be moved into the school room.




We sit on this coach to read together.  Elizabeth watches her Math U See videos on the TV.  In the fall I'll put a table where the desk is currently setting.  This is a nice area to do crafts and let them dry.  I plan to hang gutter under that window for  free-reading time books.  Here is a link for the gutter bookshelf: Gutter Bookshelves



This area is will be open for us to do things on the floor.  Sometimes you just need some space to work with math manipulatives or do sit-ups.  It used to have our treadmill, but I moved it back to the storage room. It is a cut out area in the wall, so I may hang hooks with string on them, then we could hang our art work on it to dry.

As I've thought through our homeschool room make over it occurred to me.  Would I be motivated to purge our unused toys if I didn't need to make room for our school stuff?  I just see less and less emphasis in our home on a lot of fluff toys and more focus on learning toys.  Part of this is because my daughters are growing up and don't want as many toys.  But it also the influence that homeschooling has had on our lives. 

I look forward to sharing my after pictures, in a few weeks. I'm grateful that my home team will be helping with this project.  I couldn't do it without them. 

~Blessed by His faithful love and unending provision,

My friend Heidi is giving away tickets to The Heart of the Matter Online Homeschooling Conference.

Visit her blog to see all of the details for her contest. 

~Check out Heidi's blog for more details about this great conference!

In gratitude for the tremendous resources He gives to us,

Our garden is beginning to produce delicious veggies.  My husband and I have began a new adventure with this harvest, preserving food through canning. 

Two years ago I canned some pepper relish in a water bath canner from my mom.  I was so fearful that the jars didn't/wouldn't seal.  I became almost neurotic about it.  I told Jennifer that day, "I'm never canning again!"   But here we are canning again!

My husband bought a pressure canner at WalMart.  I used to own one, but he thought we'd never can anything.  The canners are now fairly reasonably priced.

Our delicious green beans;

Here is our delicious canned beans. 
15 pints

For these surbanites, not to bad. 

As we went through the process on a record hot day, I kept thinking of opening a jar in the middle of an Iowa snowstorm.  Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and our canned green beans. Delicious!

We have a lot of other things on the list to can next.  Our garden just isn't that big though. 

~In gratitude for His abundant provision,