Yesterday I was exhausted from the long weekend. I have had a bad cold for weeks and weeks and yesterday I just decided to take a day to rest. My energizer bunny 7 year old daughter thought we needed to get the Christmas decorations up though! So as I passed the day snoozing in the recliner she took matters into her own hands! LOL
She made snowflakes for the front windows.
And paper chains for the dining room
And this adorable little Santa Claus diorama in a shoebox!
See how festive it looks?
She also made pictures for the walls.
And she even made cookies! LOL They were from pre-made dough we had in the fridge, but I mean the girl is 7 years old! LOL It never ceases to amaze me how capable she is. Sometimes I wonder what she will be like as an adult when she can accomplish so much at only 7!
So the Christmas decorating is off to a good start! I almost want to not do a thing this year and just see what my little lady can come up with!
If I had eleven kids....I would need a BIGGER house! LOL Okay, the real house wasn't quite this crowded, but there were moments it felt like it was!
Here is the breakdown on our company this weekend:
This is my husbands youngest brother and his 3 oldest boys. He is 10 years younger that us. He also has a 3 month old (That we haven't met yet!!!!) who stayed home with mommy this weekend to avoid the mayhem. (We are supposed to meet him in about 3 weeks when they are coming to visit again. YAY!!!) This brother spent A LOT of time staying with us in California when he was a teenager. So in some ways he feels a little like our oldest child! It is SO FUN that we now have kids all the same age and are living close enough together to see each other a few times a year.
This is my husbands middle brother with his 2 daughters. This is my brother-in-law that was married to my cousin Jan who passes away almost 3 years ago. The girls think it is SO cool that am I related to both their dad and their mom! They laugh about me being their aunt and their second cousin. We are trying to figure out a silly name to sum up the whole connection! (Like Aunt-a-cousin or Cousin-Auntie. We haven't hit on the right one yet! LOL)
This is our niece with her 3 children. She is my husbands only sisters oldest child. Her husband had to work over the weekend, so he didn't get to come. Our niece lived with us for a year when she was 16 and we only had our oldest child, who was 4 at the time. So she seems like one of our grown kids in a way too! We sure never dreamed back then that in 10 years we have all these kids near the same age! You just never know how life is going to turn out!
This is another fun picture. I like it because you can almost hear how LOUD they were being! It was also taken early on in the weekend before my house was totally trashed.
This was taken Saturday night when we all went out to dinner. Yep, a party of 16 eating out! LOL The restaurant we went to gets all the kids up to do the hokie-pokie! Our gang LOVED that!
This was outside the restaurant after dinner. I am pretty sure this was the only still moment the kids has all weekend! I am not sure how I got them to stand so calmly for this shot! Believe me it was short lived.
This was pretty funny. My 14 year old convinced all the other kids that if they worked together they could blow the fire out in the fire pit! This was a stroke of brilliance since children who are blowing don't make a lot of other noise!
This weekend brought back SO MANY fond memories for me since when I was growing up we spent every Thanksgiving weekend with all my cousins on my mom's side of the family at my aunt and uncles farm. I thought of all those trips a lot over the weekend as I realized that I have no memory of who cooked, washed the dishes, made up the beds, etc, etc, etc! My aunt always hosted a HUGE house full of family and made it look easy! I definitely took her efforts for granted all those years! Now I feel honored to be the one with all the laughter and memory making taking place under my roof. Yes, my house is trashed and I am exhausted. But, that will all pass. I hope that this is just the first of many such gatherings that we host at our house.
Although my 14 year old and I have decided we need to have the following sign made for our front door:
LOL, just kidding! I am sure if more family shows up we will find a place to stack them somewhere! It was a wonderful weekend! YES, IT WAS LOUD! But, it was worth the hearing loss to have so much family together!
Thanksgiving and tradition go hand in hand. Here is what we are did for our Thanksgiving...
Our "tradition" is to be home for Thanksgiving. My husband LOVES to cook and this one of his BIG days of the year! Having lived 2000 miles from family up until this year it is normally just us for Thanksgiving. Although we always welcome company! Many years we have hosted friends and co-workers who had no other plans. My kids really never know who to expect to show up for dinner on Thanksgiving.
This year for Thanksgiving day it was just us. We ate our HUGE lunch at around 2:00 and then we went Ice Skating! LOL Ice Skating is a new tradition for us I suspect. There is an ice skating rink at the mall near us and on Thanksgiving day they had a $5.00 special. So we gave it a try and it was FUN!
Cute litle wall hugger!
Getting use to the ice.
A little help from daddy.
The agony of the feet! LOL
We had a great time skating and I am sure we will do it again next year if it's $5.00 again!
Today...the company will start to arrive. This is who should be at our house by the end of today:
1 - wife (Me LOL)
1- husband
3 - of my kids
2 - of my husband brothers
3 - nieces
3 - nephews
1 - great niece
2 - great nephews
Total = 16! 5 of the above are adults. One is a teenager, one is 10 and the rest are 8 and under! It is going to be LOUD! LOL
We are very excited about all our company that is coming for Thanksgiving weekend. This is one of the reasons we moved across country earlier this year. My kids LOVE spending time with all their cousins. It is SO fun to watch them all hanging out and enjoying each other. I will hopefully have some great pictures to share on Monday!
I have had quite a few emails lately with questions about the management side of running the Preschool ABC class and the American Girl Club. Below I have combined the questions and will do my best to answer them.
Are either of the classes drop off classes?
No way! Honestly, I have no desire to teach anyone's children but my own. However, I LOVE getting together with other homeschool families and learning together! Coordinating classes like this through the years has allowed my family to build some wonderful friendships, for both the kids and ME! This alone is worth the effort of putting the classes together. But, I have other reasons too. As much as I love homeschooling I also know that my kids can learn a lot by being in a classroom setting occasionally. By offering the classes myself I don't have to send them off to someone else for them to get the classroom experience.
Another benefit of offering "mom and me" type classes is it gives me a way to give back to the homeschool community. I have been blessed with the gift off "craftiness" and I have learned through the years that not everyone has the same gift. So for me it is easy to set up crafts and lead parents and kids on how do assemble them. There have been so many homeschool mom's through the years who have offered classes for my kids on things that I couldn't teach, so I feel blessed to be able to offer classes that I can teach.
How do you cover the cost?
I charge a class fee. However, I keep it very reasonable and it only covers my expenses. For example right now I am charging $1.00 a week for the Preschool class and $2.00 per week for the American Girl Club. Now bad, huh? Am I breaking even? It depends on how you look at it. The preschool class for example, I have been teaching it for years and collecting material for it for years. So I consider all the felt board stories and other things I have pulled together over the years as part of my kids education. We use them at home a lot too. Does the dollar a week cover the craft? Pretty much. I try to keep the crafts to $1.00 per week. Although there are weeks I go over and weeks I am under. I think it balances out.
For the American Girl Club I have struggled to do it for $2.00 a week. We are doing crafts that use higher quality materials and it hasn't always been easy to find what I need for the projects for $2.00 per week. I may boost it up a bit when we do the next set of books.
How do you handle the food for the group?
I have a sign up sheet and the mom's bring the food. I give a list of suggested snacks and the recipes for the snacks for the American Girl Club.
Do you pay for a place to meet?
Nope. We find a free place. Sometimes this means we meet in peoples homes. Sometimes we have met at churches. Right now we are meeting at the public library for the preschool class because they happen to offer a room for free if you have a library card.
Do you delegate activities to be guided by other mom's?
Not much. I tend to like to do the organinzing myself because then I know it's done. As far as during the class I may occasionally ask a mom to lead an activity, like when we built the gingerbread houses at American Girl Club. But, for the most part when I am teaching a class the mom's are working with their own children and I am working with mine. I am just also giving driections and answering questions as we go along. I usually take a sample of what we are making along too. That is very helpful.
How is it working doing a lapbook as a group?
Well, the American Girl Club is the first time I have tried to incorporate a lapbook. We tried to work on it together the first night and the girls were too wound up. It was decided that everyone would do the booklets at home. Then we thought we would assemble the lapbook together the last night. Honestly, I don't know if anyone is doing it. LOL
How do you handle the organization of the project?
I try to work a few weeks at a time. They ABC class is pretty easy for me because I have done it so many times. Plus as I am out and about I keep an eye open for things that fit the upcoming letters. The American Girl Class I have been trying to shop 3 weeks at a time. I made a list of all the crafts we will do for the whole 12 weeks before we started and I assigned dates we would do them. So I am just working through the list. There have been weeks that I have made a run to the craft store on American Girl Club day! LOL
How do you keep it all organized?
I have 3 crates I use for the 2 classes I am currently teaching. One is filled with all the supplies that go with both classes. Scissors, glue, glue sticks, tape, color pencils, markers, newspaper, baby wipes, etc. Then I have one crate that is dedicated for each class. In those I have a notebook with all the details for the class including the sign up sheet for snack, and an envelope for everyone to make their weekly payment. Then in these crates I put all the supplies for the class for the week. So basically the crate with all the supplies can stay in my van all the time. (Except since it's gotten cold my glue keeps getting solid! LOL) Then I just pack everything I need each week for the other 2 classes in the correct crates and pop that one in the van on the way out the door to class each week.
How do you find time to "do it all?"
I don't! I do a lot, but I never get it all done. My housework takes the brunt of the toll. I could use a housekeeper! LOL I don't cook a lot of fancy meals and honestly I have zero ME time. But, I am okay with that. My kids will grow up all too fast and I can have a neat and tidy house then. When that day comes I will have more than enough time for ME. And I still won't cook a bunch of fancy meals! LOL But, I know for sure I will miss these busy crazy days and most of all I will be very glad I invested this season of my life in my kiddos. They are already growing up much too fast!
I hope that answers all the questions. All I can say is if you are considering teaching a class like this for your kids I say "go for it!" It is completely worth the time and effort.
Read about store windows in our In Samantha's World book. We learned that L Frank Baum was a store owner and was inspired to write the Wizard of Oz from a window he created.
Learned that crayola crayons were first sold in 1903.
Made tissue paper snow flakes
Made a gift for mom. (I can't tell you about it because the girls are saving it for Christmas!)
Wrote a proper letter to mom on stationary to go with the gift we made.
Here is the first post I did about our American Girl Club Here is the my post about weeks 1 & 2 Here is my post about week 3 Here is my post about week 4 Here is my post about week 5
If anyone is following along and wants to know what we made email me and I will fill you in!
This weekend was Awana Grand Prix for us! Although we have been in Awana eleven years this was our first Grand Prix! (Not all the churches we attended offered Grand Prix and some we missed out on by moving mid-year.) This was a LOT of fun and I hope it is NOT our last Awana Grand Prix!
Here is my youngest working on his car.
Here is dad helping out our daughter with hers.
Here is my oldest making his, he and I got to race the other leaders.
Here are the kids with their finished cars.
Here are the cars. (Spiderman, Smiley Face Pirate and a Princess car trimmed in pearls. LOL)
The preschoolers don't race the big cars. They bring Hotwheels to race! (Which was totally and completely adorable!) Since I am a leader I get to race too. So I had my preschooler make my car. I am sure everyone wondered why I am in to Spiderman! LOL
Oh, and my daughter's car won 4th place for the Sparkies! (Out of about 30 kids!) She is SO excited!
Rachel emailed me yesterday and said she was planning to teach preschool for her littles similar to how I do it, except with animals. I just happened to be making a felt board story for the letter G. So I thought I would share it!
Giraffe Felt Board Story
I printed the pieces from this websitehttp://goodnightstories.com/images/alphabet/ I reduced them to 70% to get the size I wanted. Once we had colored them I cut a small piece of white felt and glued to the back of each one so it will stick to the felt board.
To tell the story start on the far right side of the felt board and put up each letter in order moving to the right. When you get to the last letter it will spell Giraffe!
(E) Put up letter
I am the tallest animal you will ever see!
Who am I? Am I an Elephant?NO!
(F) Put up letter
My legs alone can be 6 feet tall!
Who am I?Am I a Frog?NO!
(F) Put up letter
My hooves can be as big as a dinner plate!
Who am I?Are you sure I am not a frog?NO!
(A) Put up letter
I have a powerful kick!
Who am I?Am I a Alligator?NO!
(R) Put up letter
I have little knobs on top of my head!
Who am I?Am I a Rhinoceros?NO!
(I) Put up letter
My neck is so long I eat from the top of the trees!
Who am I?Am I A Iguana?NO!
(G) Put up letter
I am a beautiful gold with brown spots!
Who am I?Am I a Giraffe???YES!!!!I am a Giraffe!
I got all these giraffe facts from Lions At Lunchtime. The Magic Treehouse book that is my daughter is reader for this week.
Okay, Rachel now you have to let me know what animal ideas you come up with!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
P.S. Sorry for how messy this post looks. It is perfect when i preview it! LOL I am too tired to fight with it tonight. So I hope you all can make some sense of this!
Fall is my favorite time of year! So I thought I would share with you some of the Fall projects we have enjoyed doing.You will find the free patterns for all of these on my blog.
These easy to assemble sweet turkeys are a favorite with my kids!
This Turkey Hat is super simple and makes little ones smile!
You will find more fall project ideas in my recent post about Leaf Day!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
This article is from this weeks issue of The Homeschool Minute. If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute as well as the Freebie FridayNewsletter you can subscribe for free HERE. I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters. (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)
I have been doing a good job posting about the American Girl Club I am teaching. But, I have barely posted about the ABC Preschool Class I am teaching for my youngest. We are moving right along though! This week we will be doing the letter "G"!
So let me tell you a little bit about what we are doing. Each week I have 2 crafts as well as something that starts with the letter of the week to glue on that letter.
For E we did.
Elastic - glued on the letter
Craft #1 - Elephant Toilet paper tube
Craft #2 - Decorated a fun foam egg
E is elastic
Elephant
Egg
For F we did:
Feathers - glued on the letter
Craft #1 - Fish on a pole (Painted with bubble wrap to get that fishy look!)
Craft #2 - F is for Flag.
F is for Flag
F is for feather
Bubble wrap painted fish. (We painted on the bubble wrap and then laid the fish on the bubble wrap to stamp it onto the fish.)
For G we will:
After craft time we have show and tell. This is a FAVORITE time for the kids! Each child brings something to show the class that starts with the letter of the week. After everyone shows their letter we go though each item and sing the "C is for Cookie" song changing it to the letter and item each child brought. (My 4year old LOVES this part. He thinks all week about what he wants to take. For the letter F he made this Fish Face Mask. It was so cute!)
After show and tell I try to bring something science related. For E we had a model of the Ear, for F we had models of how a tadpole becomes a frog. We have also looked at a model of the brain, models of how caterpillars change to butterflies and for the letter E I brought real cotton that was still attached to the stem. I don't have an items for each letter, but I have collected quite a few over the years. Again, preschoolers love the hands of learning.
Then we have stories and felt board stories. They LOVE the felt board stories! For the letter E didn't have a felt board story so we read I Can Read with My Eyes Shut and Green Eggs and Ham. For F I have 2 great felt board stories, The Old Lady Who Swallowed The Fly and The Wide Mouth Frog. For F I also have these awesome face felt pieces. I put these out for free play time after they finished craft. They were a big hit! For G I have the Gingerbread Man Felt board story.
Face Felt Board
After story time we have snack. The parents sign up to bring a snack to share. Whatever they bring coordinates with the letter of the week. We have had apples, bananas, cookies, donuts, fish crackers. (For E we had some snack bars and we called it E is for EAT! LOL)
After snack I do some large muscle activites with them. I try to tie it into the letter if I can. For A we did ABC Stomp. For B we played games with bean bags and Phonics Ball. C was Jack Be Nimble and the kids jumped over a candle stick! (We replace Jack's name with each kids name and go around the circle letting each kid have a chance to jump over the candle. Very fun!) We also did a counting game for C where I wrote the numbers one through 10 on pieces of fun foam that are 4"X6". Then I put them in order on the floor and we went down the line and each child took turn stepping on the number I called out. For E we put plastic easter eggs in the parachute and had fun tossing them in the air. A parachute is a great investment when you homeschool! For F we played "Fly or Fling", a game I completely made up! I gave each child a bean bag and then put a basket in the middle of the room. They each took turns either flying of flinging their bean bag into the basket. It was FUN! For G we are going to play Red Light Green Light!
That's it! We meet for 2 hours and are usually done with the activities in an hour and a half. Then everyone helps clean up since we are using a room at the library and have to be out in exactly 2 hours.
It has been really good for my 4 year old. The first few weeks he had no idea that he needed to wait his turn and listen. He thought that since mom was teaching he should be upfront and in charge! LOL But, the last several weeks he has been doing great!
My four year old wants to read. He wants to read NOW! He will get a book and sit for 30 to 45 minutes engrossed in it. Then he'll look up at me and say "Well mom, I still can't read!" Every day when we do school he says "Today will you teach me to read?" I have tried and tried and tried to explain to him that I AM teaching him to read. I am teaching him when he learns his letters, when he works on his phonic sounds, when I read to him, when we sing phonics songs, when we play phonics games. But, he is SURE that is not all there is to it! So why don't I just teach him he wonders?
The new book from Gena Suarez at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was a timely addition to our families Library! And Then Mama Said...It Takes Time to Learn to Read is a fantastic little children's book that we just got this weekend. It was SO fun to read to my four year old! He could TOTALLY relate to Splish, the main character who so wants to read! He could hear Splish's Mama saying the same things I have been saying to him, "It takes time to learn to read."
The 2 most exciting parts of the book for my son where when:
A. He learned that Splish is homeschooled!
B. Splish learns to read!
How cool is it to own a book about a homeschooled frog!
I hope that Gena writes many, many more Splish books! I am just betting we will love reading all the adventures of our new little hopping hero. Splish the homeschooled frog - who can READ!
Make sure to click over to the Schoolhouse Store to see the adorable illustrations for the book and to view a little video about Splish.
Here is what we did for week 5 of American Girl Club!
Each girl came to club having read the first 3 chapters of book 3. We went over our discussion questions. Talked about how Victorian Christmas were alike and not alike our Christmas today.
Made 2 Gingerbread houses! ( In the story this week Samantha is getting ready for Christmas and one of the things she wanted to do was make a gingerbread house.)
Read about Turkish Corners in victorian time and made a Turkish throw pillow.
The Gingerbread houses were a BIG hit with the girls!
We worked on making 2 of them.
My daughter loved it!
Sadly one of them collapsed!
So all the girls finished this one together. I think you can tell they all enjoyed it quite a bit! LOL (We had a small group this week. 6 girls were not there this week.)
Here is the Turkish throw pillow they made. I pre-sewed 3 sides on my serger to make it easier for them. So they got to stuff them, sew them shut, make the tassels and sew them on. This is a 3" x 3" pillow.
Here is my daughter ready to have her yummy Ice Cream Snowball!
It was a fun night! I find it very enjoyable to get to take one night a week to slow down and spend time fellowshipping with like minded mom's and their daughters. The girls are all becoming great friends and the mom's all get along great too! This has been a real blessing for my daughter and myself. If you are thinking about starting an American Girl Club I highly recommend it!
Here is the first post I did about our American Girl Club Here is the my post about weeks 1 & 2 Here is my post about week 3 Here is my post about week 4
Make sure to stop by everyday for the next 12 days to get all the great freebies Season's At Home is offering! These 12 free downloads will give you a good idea of what you can expect if you subscribe to their magazine. I can't say enough good things about this magazine! If you are looking for a support of being a homemaker this magazine is for you! Each month their are recipes, crafts, sewing project, etc. I just LOVE it! There are just not that many places in this day and age the support the idea offering a homemaker! Season's at Home does it beautifully!
The site is super busy and the checkout is a pain. But, I finally got through it and only had to pay $7.57 in shipping to get my $29.99 custom photo album! (You will have to put in all your credit card info and go all the way through checkout before you see the $29.99 discount.)
What are you waiting for?
Thank you to the reader that shared this info with me. And NO I don't watch Oprah! LOL
Here is the final project from Leaf Day I told you I would post about. This turned into more of a Mom project, but that is okay. The kids would have enjoyed doing it. But, since it was basically scrapbooking on a placemat I had fun doing it "my way" late at night after they were sleeping.
Here are the littles at the table with the new placemats in place. Oh, and before anyone asks...YES, the centerpiece is leaves and hedgeapples! LOL The kids picked them up at the park on Leaf Day and we all think they are lovely!
This is my placemat. I have 3 main pictures with all 3 kids in each one. All of the pictures on these placemats are either from our trip to the pumpkin patch or from Leaf Day. I challenged myself to use only things I already had on hand to make these. So I used the pictures, 4 different punches (big square, small square, tag shape and tiny leaf shape) and some fall letters to spell out each of our names.
This is dad's placemat. He has one picture of each kid at the pumpkin patch and misc leaf pictures.
This is my daughters. (I covered the kids names with leaves for these pictures.) I used the extra pieces of photo that were left after I punched out the big squares to make little frames. Then on each kids placemat I used the little frames to draw attention to them in the picture.
This one belongs to my little man.
This is my oldest sons.
I had these laminated at the teacher supply store. ($1.25) You could also just cover them with clear contact paper. For the paper background I cut these from a roll of brown postal wrapping paper, then I crinkled it to give it texture. After crinkling it I ironed it to flatten it enough to glue the pics on. To get the shape I wanted I found a placemat the size I liked in my cupboard and traced around it to cut the shape for the placemats.
I have lots of other ideas of fun ones of these to make! I thought it would be fun to make one for each family member that has pictures from when we were all babies and then we could bring those out on birthdays. We could also make these for Christmas, Easter etc. Or how about making them with pictures of friends and relatives that live far away so the kids can see them every day! (These would have been great to make before we moved last time with pictures of our friends in Las Vegas!)
Yep, I suspect we will be making more of these in the future!
The Schoolhouse Store has just started a new blog. Why would you want to read the Schoolhouse Stores blog? FREEBIES!!!! Well, actually it's more that just freebies! Here is the deal. The Schoolhouse Store is going to be having all kinds of special offers most which will ONLY be announced on the blog. Subscribe to the blog and you will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate from the store! (The drawing will be held when the blog reaches 1000 subscribers. Right now it is radidly approaching 500!)
I am telling you this is going to be a sweet deal! Once you subscribe you will get an email a few times a week letting you know about sales, special offers, store news and FREEBIES! The freebies will be offered randomly and for one day only. Plus they will ONLY be announced on the blog!
So don't miss out! Sign up today because tomorrow there could be a great freebie you will not want to miss!
I frequently get asked for advice on how to start or maintain a blog. So I thought a post on what I have learned about blogging is in order. First off, I am not expert. I have not studied or read a lot about the how-to's of blogging. Like most things in my life I just found blogging appealing and jumping into it with both feet. Here I am almost 3 years later and I can barely imagine my life without my blog. Here are a few things I have learned along the way.
Privacy
1. Protecting my families privacy has been important to me from the start! Yes, there are plenty of people who read my blog who know who we are. But, those are real life people we have met and know. I don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry to be able to find my family. That is why I blog annonymously. I have no way to control who reads my blog and I don't want to ever do anything that could risk the safety of my family. Yes, I could have chosen to use our real names and then not post pictures. But, I LOVE pictures and since this blog is also a journal I am keeping for my kids for the future I wanted to include pictures.
2. There is another type of privacy I also protect. I try really hard not to post anything that would embarrass someone. Yep, there are plenty of stories I DON'T post because I know in the long run they might embarrass one of my kids and I would never want to do that. If I am posting about a friend or family member I always let that person know in advance. I usually write the post and then send it to the person to make sure they are okay with me posting it. I don't post a lot about my husband because he is a more private person than I am. If I do post something about him I have him read it first. There have been times he has corrected me in the details of a story. In other words he keep me accountable.
Having a Goal
The goal of my blog is to share our homeschool adventure, keep a record for my kids and to support other homeschoolers in their homeschooling adventure. My key verse for my blog is:
When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say things that people need - words that will help others to become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. Ephesians 4:29
This verse is always on my mind and in my heart when I write on my blog. Before I post each entry I ask myself. Is this post harmful to anyone? Will it help others to become stronger? Will this post do good for others? If the answer to any of these is no, them I delete the post. it is not always that the topic is bad, but many times that I just didn't get my point across properly. It may be that I was too whiny or feeling sorry for myself. Not everything I write gets posted! (As a matter of fact I frequently write posts I have no intention of posting. I just need to think through my fingers and this is my place for that!) Sometimes I am just venting and I write a post I KNOW I am NEVER going to post! LOL
With my goal of fulfilling Ephesians 4:29 in mind I am also mindful of the responsibility I have to the people who read my blog. Right now I average 1000 to 1200 readers per day! (This is a combination of subscribers, and blog visitors.) The church we attend seats approx. 1000 people. I frequently look around on Sunday and think "Wow, this is about the number of people I speak to every day from my blog!" That is mind boggling considering that the pastor I am listening to has spent years studying in order to reach this group every week. Here I am a "nobody" who gets to reach the same number of people every day! It's mind boggling and a responsibility I take very seriously! Everything is prayerfully considered before it is posted. This is not to say I have not offended people and mis-spoke on my blog. But, my intention is to always remember that words have power and I want to use that power for good and not evil! LOL
Another goal I have is to post on my blog 5 days a week. M-F. One way I keep up the pace of posting 5 days a week is to write ahead. When I have an idea for a post (Like this one for instance.) I go ahead and write it. Then I hang on to it until a day when nothing blogworthy happened at our house. Every night before I go to bed I post my entry for the next day. That way my readers have something fresh to read M-F when they wake up! :^)
Building an Audience
Post consistently is the best thing you can do to build your audience. Whether it be daily, weekly or even hourly people will get use to hearing from you on a regular basis and they will know when to return for your next post. No one wants to click over to visit a friend and realize you have read their last post 3 times already!
Find your voice! Know what your blog is about. Who is your audience? My audience is primarily homeschool mom's. But, I get a fair number of other students and teachers that find my blog through google searches. When I first started out my blog was just a journal of my kids schooling. Over time I realized that God was using it to share ideas and projects that we have done with others. He has also allowed me to have a hand in mentoring other homeschool mom's through my blog. I never dreamed of such a thing when I started this blog! But, over time I have realized that is part of my voice! (A part I enjoy very much and feel blessed to have in my life!)
Be transparent. People I know frequently tell me that when they read my blog posts it's just like talking to me! LOL (Hum..Maybe they are really saying they can't get a word in edgewise?) I am pretty much the same on my blog as I am in person. This is not an act. This is a forum for me to spill out all my thoughts and passions. It's real. Some days it's funny, some days it's meloncholy. Everyday it's ME!
Be ready to serve others. When you put yourself out there for people to "know" you are going to find opportunities to serve others. I feel so privileged when someone asks me to help them with questions they have about a curriculum. I feel so honored when a reader asks me to pray for them! I never dreamed I would be able to serve others through my blog. But, that is another gift God has given me through blogging. Isn't God AWESOME! Sometimes it take awhile for me to get to the emails people send me. But, I always do my best to answer them all.
Be ready for controversyif you post on controversial issues. I personally steer clear of controversy as much as I can. I am not hear to argue. This is my place to "think through my fingers." But, if you do chose to post about controversial topics, be ready! People will be there to challenge you! Even if you don't purposfully post about things that are controversial you will still post things that push people hot buttons! I have learned a lot over the last 3 years about what makes people tick! I have had some of the most nothing posts to me, inspire great passion in others! Be ready! You never know what someone else is thinking. Take charge of your blog.Ultimately this is my space. I love getting comments and sharing dialogue that is meaningful to me. But, if someone gets nasty or links to something offensive to me. Bye-bye! I am all for free speech, and if someone wants to speak freely I encourage them to go start their own blog to do so. But, don't get mad if you say something offensive in a comment and I delete it. This is my "home on the web." Just as I wouldn't allow someone to come into my home and bad mouth me or my kids, I don't allow it on my blog either. No, it has not happened a lot. But, it has happened. I have certain posts that get nasty comments more than others. (These are not things that come from other homeschoolers, but from people
They were from pre-made dough we had in the fridge, but I mean the girl is 7 years old! LOL It never ceases to amaze me how capable she is. Sometimes I wonder what she will be like as an adult when she can accomplish so much at only 7!
Okay, the real house wasn't quite this crowded, but there were moments it felt like it was!
He also has a 3 month old (That we haven't met yet!!!!) who stayed home with mommy this weekend to avoid the mayhem. (We are supposed to meet him in about 3 weeks when they are coming to visit again. YAY!!!) This brother spent A LOT of time staying with us in California when he was a teenager. So in some ways he feels a little like our oldest child! It is SO FUN that we now have kids all the same age and are living close enough together to see each other a few times a year.
This is my brother-in-law that was married to 
Our niece lived with us for a year when she was 16 and we only had our oldest child, who was 4 at the time. So she seems like one of our grown kids in a way too! We sure never dreamed back then that in 10 years we have all these kids near the same age! You just never know how life is going to turn out! 
The restaurant we went to gets all the kids up to do the hokie-pokie! Our gang LOVED that!
Oh, and my daughter's car won 4th place for the Sparkies! (Out of about 30 kids!) She is SO excited!
I think you can tell they all enjoyed it quite a bit! LOL (We had a small group this week. 6 girls were not there this week.)
I pre-sewed 3 sides on my serger to make it easier for them. So they got to stuff them, sew them shut, make the tassels and sew them on. This is a 3" x 3" pillow.
Oh, and before anyone asks...YES, the centerpiece is leaves and hedgeapples! LOL The kids picked them up at the park on 
He has one picture of each kid at the pumpkin patch and misc leaf pictures.
I used the extra pieces of photo that were left after I punched out the big squares to make little frames. Then on each kids placemat I used the little frames to draw attention to them in the picture.
