I know it has been forever since I blogged. I am slammed with work. I am now The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Senior Graphic Designer, and between my blog designs and all the TOS work, I am swamped! But last night, I was blessed by our 14 year old, and I just have to share. He has had this friend at church who he now suspects is messing with some things he is completely against. I am so VERY thankful that he comes to us and talks to us about these things. He was so very disappointed when he told me.
Anyway, last night my hubby was at district fire training and truck checks (You know where they run around all the trucks and toot the horns, check the compartments & do radio checks. I complete believe they do this so that the fire fighters can PLAY with the trucks when there are no fires. LOL), and all the kids were in bed. I took this time to get a little more work done.
In walked our 14 year old.
He said, "You know mom my friend said something to me that I thought was real sad. He said he wished his parents were like you and dad."
I was thinking, "Oh cool! He thinks we are cool parents!!" But, I said, "Really, baby, why is that?"
He continued, "He said he wished his parents spent time with him and homeschooled him and stuff."
This child actually was envious of our being harder on our children. He viewed it as caring. IMAGINE THAT!!
Our son looked at me last night and thanked me for homeschooling them. Isn't that awesome! I know it is hard sometimes, my friends, but when your 14 year old says thank you, it is worth it all!
I will try to pop in here every couple of days to update you guys.
Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.And good luck!The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
I totally LOVE the beach! I spend a lot of days longing to be there. I feel like I am close to God there. I hope I don't sound like a loon, but this love of the beach is why I had the BEST time designing this blog! Take a look!
I so love this design! I can change the frogs to reflect you and your little froglets (yeah, I know that isn't a word). If you have 11 children or only 2, I can customize the frogs to reflect your family.
I call this design Froggy Pond. It is available in a 2 column or 3 column design. Contact me if you are interested! Oh and definitely tell me what you think!
I have decided to design some blog designs and sell them at a reduced rate! I will add your title, your verse/quote, and sidebar information for only $50! That is a $25 savings on a custom design! Once a design is purchased it is gone! If you purchase a design, it will be uniquely yours! I won't be selling it to anyone else. It will be marked sold on my site.
I am beginning this venture with a design I call A Quiet Place. The purchaser can pick 3 columns or the traditional 2 columns. Both are pictured below.
Do you like this design, but you would like it tweaked a little (color changes etc) to make it your design? For an additional $25, I can make this design fit your taste.
HSB is having a contest on the front porch. It seems that all you have to do is leave a comment and you will be entered to win. There will be 5 winners! The winners will receive the following as a gift.
Blog I Designed Has Been Nominated for a Homeschool Blog Award!!
I can't believe it! I am so excited! I feel like one of those little rubber balls your mom bought you out of the gum ball machine in the grocery store. I am bouncing all over! One of my latest blog designs has been nominated for Best Blog Design by Homeschool Blog Awards.
Our family has saved for 5 months for a trip to the beach. (I will explain more about that when we get back) My husband planned it to be on mine and Morgan's birthdays. Today was my birthday, and look at what I woke up to this morning.
The children were bouncing all over the place saying, "WOW, we get to wake up to this every morning?!" I'd like to think that it was God's birthday gift for me!
Anywho, back to what I was saying when he ate my entry. It has been a long time since I blogged, but I have been so busy. I work for The Old Schoolhouse designing e-Newsletters etc., and I have been designing blogs too.
I designed this blog on blogpot for Eleanor Joyce.
I also designed this blog for the HomeschoolBlogger's Senior Editor, Tia.
Oh yeah! My sweet hubby graduated from the Fire Academy! We are so proud of him! He worked so very hard and overcame some MAJOR hurdles!
This is a picture of him training during a burn. (My apologies for the graininess of the picture. It was taken at dusk)
These last two photos were taken the night of his graduation!
My hubby is a firefighter! ACK! That totally makes me worry! But, he is the perfect person for the job.
Here are my sweet children in their Harvest Festival costumes.
Morgan was a rocker, Emma was a Cheerleader, Codi made his robot costume, and Jacob was a firefighter. Jacob has used all kinds of household things trying to make himself firefighter gear like his dad. What he doesn't know is he is getting firefighter gear just like his daddy's for Christmas. CostumeCraze had them on sale so my mom and I purchased it this past weekend. Take a look isn't it cool?!
He is sooo going to love it! Anywho, I have rambled on enough. I have so enjoyed blogging! I am going to try to be here more often.
A Simple Click ~ Donates Mammograms ~ Breast Cancer Site
The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). In October they are running a special campaign, if they reach their goal....another 150 mammograms will be donated/paid for by their corp sponsors...
This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
Well, we officially went live with Morgan's blog today. Bless his heart, he is so excited. Then he didn't know what to say. LOL, he had no idea that I was going to critique every entry. Poor thing. Anywho, after mom underlined all his mistakes, he got his first entry entered. Now for some reason I am excited that he wants to blog. Think about it! I might very well be able to get a kid who for the most part hates to write to write. I know, I know, don't start the victory dance yet, but hey, you can't blame a girl for dreaming. Go by and check out his blog. I'm sure the comments would help.
I just had to show these pictures of our cat. He is so weird!
This is Tobi resting. Yes, I said resting. He really was sleeping like that. Oh and like this below.
And when my sweet hubby was reading his fire training manual (he is in fire training school right now), he decided to take a break. As soon as Lucky moved, Tobi was in his spot preparing for a nap. YES, he really sleeps like that. He is insane!!
This is Tobi resting. Yes, I said resting. He really was sleeping like that. Oh and like this below.
