Posted in General

I have been having a really hard time with my Menstral Periods lately and I have found out it could be from Perimenapause. I also found this while I was doing some reserch on the subject. I have been in bed for 2 days and could not figure out what is happening to me till now. I hope this info helps some of you like it did me.

About the NovaSure Procedure

The NovaSure procedure is a quick, safe, simple, one-time endometrial ablation treatment. This minimally invasive procedure controls heavy bleeding by using energy to remove the lining of the uterus. The average treatment time is about 90 seconds 1, and only needs to be performed once to lighten or stop your periods. No pretreatment drugs are required and NovaSure can be performed in the hospital or in your doctor's office.

Without the side effects of hormones or the risks of hysterectomy, NovaSure has a quick recovery time so you can get back to your life sooner. Most women experience no pain after the procedure, and can return to work and regular activities the next day.

NovaSure reduces bleeding and much more

With more than 500,000 patients treated to date2, NovaSure is proven safe and successful. A clinical trial has shown that more than 9 out of 10 women return to normal or lower than normal bleeding levels following treatments with NovaSure3. For some women, their periods even stopped completely.

Many women also experienced a reduction in PMS and painful periods, as well as other benefits such as less anxiety, greater self-confidence, and a boost in energy. NovaSure clinical trial post treatment survey results reveal,

• 45% reduction in women reporting PMS
• 64% reduction in women reporting pain
• 68% reduction in women reporting anxiety
• 71% reduction in women reporting
  a lack of self-confidence
• Nearly 4 fold reduction in women reporting
  a lack of energy

NovaSure makes a difference!

Many women find that treatment with NovaSure frees them up to enjoy more of what life has to offer. According to the NovaSure clinical trial post treatment survey, 4 out of 5 women report spending more time at work and daily activities and missing fewer social and athletic events because of heavy bleeding.

A half a million women to date have chosen NovaSure to reduce or eliminate their heavy periods and improve their quality of life. Women are very pleased with the results of the NovaSure procedure; 97% say they would recommend NovaSure to other women ³

Posted in HomeSchooling

Well I finally got my Homeschool set up!

I just wanted to show you all and see what you think.

My Homeschool Room is also my Laundry Room!

Well I at least have room to do laundry and teach my kids how to do Laundry!

I am so sorry I have not gotten back to all of you since I wrote this post! I have been so busy with the kids and my other site at the  HomeSchoolLounge  that I have not been able to come back here to chat with all my friends! I am so sorry and I will get back to you as soon as I can! Thank you so much!!

Posted in General

Red dye has long been suspected as being harmful to hummingbirds, but since hummingbirds are wild creatures and don't have regular checkups, it is a hard thing to prove. Most hummingbird experts say red dye is a bad thing to use, most food manufacturers say it's fine. Who do you believe? It is always hard to believe the one making the most money.

One shameless company even sells hummingbird food with the "taste and aroma of strawberry." Hummingbirds have little or no sense of smell, and your Aunt Dodie with her skin-tight leopard pants, has more "taste" than hummingbirds do. All that strawberry is for attracting customers and could be doing hummers more harm than good.

But even if the red dye was fine for birds, it isn't necessary. Plant nectar is colorless. The color that attracts hummers is in the flower or the feeder. And most feeders have plenty of red on them already. Also, the food in hummingbird feeders can become full of insects or become cloudy and gross. Red dye would hide all the grossness and you wouldn't realize that your food had gone bad.

So, keep your food clean and clear and save the red dye for the important things in life, like pistachios, M&M's and those cherries that you put in your Shirley Temple.

Posted in HomeSchooling

The Worlds Most Advanced Learn To Read Phonics Software Program.
Guaranteed to teach children to learn read or your money back!
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Use Promotion Code :  mysticangel@embarqmail.com

Posted in Prayer Requests!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy St.Patricks Day!!

I have gotten awarded Blogging With Excellence Award from Life at Da Cabin    What a great supprise! Thank you so much! I have never recieved an award before. Now I know I am sapposed to award this wonderful award to ten more bloggers, so here we go:

 Pams Page

Homeschool Nation

With a Taste of Chocolate

Mama Bugs

Raising 4 Godly Men

Ward's Sward... Where the Grass is Always Greener

This is all that I can come up with but I will be adding more soon!

Thanks so much again for this award.

Well acording to HSLDA website, It is illegal to Homeschool in the State of California! I can not believe what I am hearing!! Here is some more off the site:

Oakland, Calif. - A court ruling that California parents "do not have a constitutional right" to home-school their children has touched off anger and bewilderment throughout America's home-schooling community and prompted a denunciation from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

For a movement that has gained greater accommodation in recent years, a state appellate court decision last month is a setback that, if not overturned on appeal, could force some 166,000 home-schooled students in California to enroll in conventional schools. It may also prod California and other states with vague or nonexistent laws on home schooling to be more specific about what is allowed and what is required of home-schoolers.

California's education statutes, for instance, do not mention "home schooling," but officials have allowed the practice for decades. The appellate court, however, found that the state's laws have not been changed to allow home schooling since a case back in 1953 erected a major roadblock to the practice.

Governor Schwarzenegger said Friday he would go to the legislature if the ruling is not overturned.

"I could see this [ruling] being a real strong impetus for home-schoolers in California to get the legislature to change their laws.... Or I could see it being perhaps the beginning of other states wanting to look more closely both at their laws and current enforcement," says Kimberly Yuracko, a professor at Northwestern University's Law School in Chicago.

The number of students nationwide who are home-schooled is not known because 10 states are so hands-off they require no reporting at all, nor do parents always comply with reporting requirements. Estimates range from 1.1 million to 2.5 million home-schooled students, and the numbers are rising.

About half the states require more than simple notification from parents or guardians, such as testing, curriculum approval, or home visits. But such rules are dwindling – either explicitly or by lax enforcement, say experts. Home-school advocates worry the California case could bring more regulation or enforcement, or both.

"The overwhelming trend [among states] has been, home schooling works, OK, we'll release the reins a little bit," says Darren Jones, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). "California is a bellwether. Other states might look at this [case] and say this is something we might want to consider."

The case grew out of a home-schooled child's complaint of physical and emotional mistreatment by a parent. A lower court refused to remove the child to a school outside the home, arguing that parents had a right to home-school. The three appellate judges rejected this reasoning unanimously.

California law stipulates two main exemptions to compulsory public school: enrollment in a full-time private school or instruction from a credentialed tutor. Some home-schoolers enroll their children in independent study programs at private or public charter schools that allow students to work mostly from home. Officials have also allowed parents to declare their home a private school, a process requiring once-a-year filing of a short form.

In this case, the parents had enrolled their children in a private school under an arrangement that kept the kids at home except to take year-end tests. School officials said they visited the home about four times a year.

Writing for the appellate court, Justice H. Walter Croskey derided this arrangement as a "ruse" and also rejected the notion of home private schools by citing a 1953 California case.

"That case is older than dirt," says J. Michael Smith, head of the HSLDA. Subsequent California laws have tacitly acknowledged home private schools, as do 11 other states – three of which have fended off legal challenges on the issue, he says.

The bottom line for him is that California has no laws specifically mentioning home schooling and has in practice treated it as a form of private schooling.

"If you are not prohibited from doing something and you can fit it within a statute, that makes you a legal operator. We've operated this way for 20 some odd years," says Mr. Smith.

Many lawmakers – and home-schooling advocates – would prefer to keep home schooling out of the education code.

"If this goes to the [state] supreme court and it upholds it, this opens up this big Pandora's box. The state is going to have to define family rights, and to define to what extent [lawmakers] have to regulate," says Luis Huerta, a professor at the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University in New York.

The prospect of Sacramento sorting out family rights won't warm many homeschoolers' hearts.

"Many of those people believe – usually based on a philosophical worldview, and often Christian – that the state has no authority over their children's education and upbringing," says Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, a nonprofit group in Oregon.

Already, California home-schoolers are suggesting resistance would be widespread to any sort of enforcement by local school districts.

"We'd have to open Alcatraz [state prision] to hold all of us," says Loren Mavromati, a homeschooler and spokesperson for the California Homeschool Network. "Even if we all rolled over and complied and enrolled in public schools – how? They are laying off teachers during this budget crisis left and right."

As the movement has grown, its autonomy has become worrisome to some. Concerns center mostly on the need for state accountability in ensuring that children are educated to a certain standard. But, as in the California case, the potential for child abuse is also becoming an issue.

In a January report on a mother's murder of her four children in the District of Columbia, The New York Times framed the case around the isolation of homeschooled kids and the limited opportunity for checking on their well-being. Cases in New Jersey and North Carolina have produced similar coverage.

"If I were a state legislator, I would be worried about having legislation overseeing home schooling that is not being enforced at all, and the potential for bad child-abuse cases happening and the state being sued for, in part, not taking care of its obligations," says Ms. Yuracko.

Lawmakers in California and elsewhere are already tightening oversight of charter school arrangements with home-schoolers. In some states, charters have sprung up to service only home-schoolers, offering parents a free computer, DSL hookup, or textbooks. The schools can then collect public per-pupil funding while paying little for instruction or oversight.

California has enacted reforms to limit the per-pupil funding to up to 60 percent for some nonclassroom-based setups. The reforms have stopped the profiteering, says a spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association.

Not everyone agrees. "Even at 60 percent, it's still a cash cow for districts. You literally get a warehouse, put five or 10 teachers in there, and enroll 1,000 students. Do the math," says Dr. Huerta.

If you would like to find out more,go to the website: HSLDA

There is so much more to know, I have signed the petition twice also.

Please everyone go sign!

Janice and Susan – twin sisters, work at home moms, and founders of 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting The Ultimate Blog Party!!! It’s a neat way to get to know some new mama bloggers and a fun chance to win some pretty neato prizes!!

I want to invite all my freinds to the Ultimate Blog Party 2008!!

I hope to see you all there!

Well this is what I woke up to yesterday!

It appears to be an egg in my neighbors yard!

I just could not believe what I was seeing,so I walked over to see if I was really seeing what I thought I was:

Well it really was what I thought it was! Is this not the craziest thing you have ever seen?

My son finnally could not stand it anymore and went over and got the egg and no one has ever even came to look at it must less to claim it so we have a new addition to the family! A Green Egg!

I have been so busy, I have not had time to get here and see how you all have been. My family and I have been doing very well and we are doing some spring cleaning and also redoing our floors! We are getting rid of the carpet,because we realized that we have hard wood floors underneith the nasty carpet. We have been refurbishing them. It is not an easy job either. I am hopping to get it finished over the weekend or I was thinking of doing to hall tommorrow myself. I get so tired of waiting for hubby to help, he is always at work and when there is a pretty day I need to get things done. By the time he is off work there is not a pretty day. We end up not being able to do anything. Today I put alot of things in our shed that needed to go there. I feel really drained after doing all the lifting and I put six new blinds up also that needed to be put up. I think for the last three days I have done nothing but work on cleaning and rearanging this house.I will try to get back soon.

Also I wanted to tell you about this new site:

The Homeschool Lounge

I will see you all soon and God Bless you all and your families.

Posted in HomeSchooling

I just wanted to send you a quick reminder about the Total Lunar Eclipse tonight (Wednesday, February 20th). We will not have another one like this until December 2010, so you will not want to miss it. Totality will last for 52 minutes and begins at the following times:

Pacific Standard Time - 7:00 pm
Mountain Standard Time - 8:00 pm
Central Standard Time - 9:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time - 10:00 pm

The 5 Stages of a Lunar Eclipse

Although the moon is totally engulfed in the Earth’s shadow between  7:00 pm and 7:52, there are other stages that the Moon goes through before and after these times.

Stage 1 - Technically, the eclipse begins when the edge of the Moon enters the penumbra, or outer fringe of the Earth’s shadow.  This stage of the eclipse can be difficult to see because the shading of the penumbra is very slight.  Most will not be able to discern the shading of the Moon during this stage until the edge of the Moon is about half way across the penumbra.

Stage 2- The next stage is called the partial eclipse.  This takes place when the Moon’s edge crosses the umbra, which is the inner part of the Earth’s shadow.  In the umbra, no direct sunlight is reaching the Moon.  Relatively speaking, this stage happens fairly quickly.  You can actually stand and watch the Earth’s shadow creep slowly across the Moon’s surface as each minutes passes by!  Furthermore, you should be able to discern the curved edge of the Earth’s shadow indicating the reality that our Earth is round.

Stage 3 – This is totality.  This is when the entire Moon is in the umbra.  For 52 minutes, the Moon will be completely engulfed in the Earth’s shadow.

Stage 4 – This is the partial eclipse all over again.  From here, the first two stages happen again in reverse.

Stage 5 – Final pass through the penumbra.  This slow fading takes about another 40 minutes.  When it is all over, the Moon will be back to normal.

The Rusty Moon

You will notice that during a Total Lunar Eclipse, the Moon is never blacked out.  It simply turns a pale, reddish-orange, rusty color.  The reason for this may surprise you.  It actually comes from the various sunrises and sunsets that are taking place across the Earth at the same time.

Picture yourself standing on the Moon for a moment while the eclipse is taking place.  You would see the Earth blocking the light from the Sun.  This would make a brilliant ring around the Earth colored by sunset and sunrise colored light.

The Earth’s atmosphere bends and scatters this sunset and sunrise light and casts some of it into the Earth’s shadow causing some of it to end up on the Moon’s surface during a Lunar Eclipse.  Pretty neat, huh?

Dear friend,

Some years ago THSC was contacted by a home school mom in West Texas who was desperate for help in fighting a lawsuit against her family, which had been filed by her father. The following is her story:

The grandparents responded by filing suit under the Grandparent Access Statute. The grandparents' lawyer claimed that it was in the best interest of the children to have visitation with their grandfather. The children's emotional well-being, he argued, would be significantly impaired because they were being homeschooled and did not have enough interaction with other children. In spite of the history of assault upon the father, the judged ordered visitation for both grandparents. The grandparents continued the legal action against the parents for years, seeking more and more control of the children. At one point, they told the parents they would drop the lawsuit if they could have custody of the oldest child while the parents maintained custody of the younger two. After many years of litigation, the parents finally yielded and allowed their oldest child to live with the grandparents.

In a similar case, a family in Houston had homeschooled for many years, against the strong dissent of the paternal grandparents. The grandparents strongly disagreed with many of the views of the parents, including religious beliefs and educational decisions of the family, and the father told his parents at one point that if they continued to interfere and cause discord, they would not be allowed to visit the children. Then the father suddenly became ill with cancer and died within six months.

The grandparents began their attack almost immediately after their son's death. A CPS (Child Protective Services) caseworker later testified in court she was certain the grandparents had been responsible for a phony tip that the mother had made a death pact to kill herself and all her children so they could join the soul of the deceased husband and father. The grandparents filed suit for visitation, and the mother unwisely took her children and moved out of the country, without notifying the authorities. The grandparents then amended their suit from visitation to custody. In the absence of the family, a judge gave a default judgment of custody to the grandparents who then spent $200,000 to find the family. Armed soldiers forcibly removed the children, allowing the mother to accompany them, only to be arrested when she reentered the country. The mother was indicted for interfering with child custody and jailed with bonds set totaling three million dollars. She spent several months in jail, until the bond was lowered to $30,000. A court-appointed attorney for the minor children said she had interviewed each child and was moved by how close they were to their mother and by their desire to be with her. The grandparents sought joint custody and wanted to make the educational decisions for the children. After three and a half years of litigation, the mother finally regained sole custody of her children. Unfortunately, not all such cases have this positive an ending.

These kinds of stories are not unusual. In fact, recently a widow, whose husband was killed in the military overseas, was sued by the paternal grandparents within two weeks of her husband's death. Hundreds of families have lived through such nightmares. Others continue. The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in two such cases-in 2006 and 2007-in the parents' favor. In both cases, after the Supreme Court's ruling, the local judge allowed the grandparents to simply file suit again. These and many other parents face the stark choice of bankruptcy or yielding to the unreasonable demands of grandparents regarding the upbringing and education of their children.

In 1995 the Texas legislature amended the Family Code to allow grandparents to sue parents, or others who had custody, for access to their grandchildren. This type of legislation has been adopted in virtually every state in the nation, driven by powerful senior citizen groups. The purpose was to allow a means to have access for grandparents who were being kept from their grandchildren. This change has had unintended consequences that are destroying Texas families and undermining the fundamental right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. The law was amended again in 2005 to allow grandparents to sue for actual possession, in addition to mere access. The statute sets a lower standard of evidence required for access or possession than is required under other parts of the Family Code for custody. That must change. However, in the last legislative session, THSC Association supported HB 3971 by Bryan Hughes, which would have addressed many of these issues in the current law. The bill did not pass.

How do we restore parental rights in this area and stop this abuse? We must change the law!

The first step in changing this law is to make Texas home schoolers and all parents aware of the problem and how and why the law needs to be changed. THSC will support the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act (TPRRA) in the legislative session next year. Please forward this information to others. The TPRRA will be modeled on HB 3971 from last session. For more information on this legislation and reasons that this law needs to be amended, read the talking points and the commentary.

The second step in changing the law is to speak now to your legislators (state representatives and state senators), while most of them are running campaigns for election or reelection. If they have contested races in the primary or general election, they will very likely be much more responsive to any questions or concerns that you have. In fact, when I asked a legislator earlier this week to co-sponsor the TPRRA, he told me that a home schooler had spoken to him a week before on the issue and that he would be glad to make that commitment. I also received a call from another legislator whose home school constituents brought her a copy of the February issue of the THSC Review magazine with an article on the issue. They convinced her to support the legislation. Those candidates whom THSC PAC has endorsed and who have committed to co-sponsoring the TPRRA will be noted on the PAC Web site. If your legislators or candidates for state House or Senate have not made that commitment, call them and ask them to do so. The more calls they get on this, the more seriously they will view the issue and the more likely they will be to sign on as supporters.

The third step in fixing this problem is to elect legislators sympathetic to our cause. We need to have a heavy voter turnout of home schoolers in the primary election on March 4. THSC PAC plans to mail this message to every household on the THSC list (almost 60,000), encouraging people to vote for candidates who support parental rights and to get their friends and family to do so as well. When candidates see and hear from many voters on this issue and have these same families support their campaigns and help them get elected, they will more likely be in favor of this issue before they even get to Austin.

In order to do the mailing, we must raise $25,000. I often tell candidates that THSC PAC is like Peter in Acts, "Silver and gold have I none." What we do have, however, is lots of home schoolers who are willing to spend their time and effort to help elect good candidates who support parental rights. When we have been able to raise the funds to do such a mailing in the past, we have always received feedback from some who tell us the only reason they voted was because they had received our mailing and knew for whom to vote. Early voting starts on February 19th, and we need to send this mailing as soon as possible. If you can make a contribution to help us accomplish this goal, it would move us much closer to amending the law and protecting parental rights to direct the education and upbringing of their children. You may contribute online. When you get to the payment screen, type "PAC Contribution" in the special instruction box. (Please note: PAC contributions are not tax deductible.) You can also send a contribution to THSC PAC, PO Box 6221, Lubbock, Texas 79493.

The fourth step is to repeat this process during the general election in November, to finish electing to the Texas legislature candidates who believe that a parent's right to direct the education and upbringing of their children is fundamental and must be protected.

Another step in this process will be participation in the interim committee study of this issue, which has been established for review in both the Texas House and Senate. We will make parents aware of the hearings that are held and encourage people who have suffered such problems to give testimony. These committees will make a recommendation to the legislature next year about changes to the law that should take place. If you are not on the THSC PAC E-Newsletter list, please register for free regular updates on this and other issues of importance to the home school community of Texas.

Next year THSC Association will lead the fight to gain support for the TPRRA at the legislature and in meetings and rallies across the state. We will also sponsor a rally at the Capitol on this issue to show grassroots support to restore parental rights.

Please pray for THSC Association and as we seek to use all the means at our disposal to restore parental rights. Time is short before the primary, but we have already seen significant movement on the part of many legislators; you can help us turn the tide in favor of parental rights with your participation and support.

With your help and God's grace, we can restore parental rights in Texas in the next two years!

In your service,

Tim Lambert

PS In addition to working on the TPRRA, we are also endorsing the effort by ParentalRights.org to amend the U.S. Constitution with language that would state unequivocally that a parent's right to direct the education and upbringing of his/her child is a fundamental right under the Constitution. This group has a five-year plan to amend the Constitution as a further protection of parental rights. For more information on that effort, visit the ParentalRights.org.

THSC PAC Primary Election Endorsements

Posted in Girls

Posted in HomeSchooling

Posted in Venting

Oh my it has been so long since I have had a chance to get on here! We have been so busy with Homeschooling and I told the kids when we got the incometax money this year I would buy them some new beds. I never new how hard that would be. Beds are not cheap! I finally had to get the beds without a frame, well ecept for the metal kind with no head board. You know the kind I am talking about?

Well anyway I also have been trying to get my little girl (9) to sleep in her own bed. She has been sleeping with Mommy to long now. She wants despratley to sleep in her own bed and cries because she sais she can't because she is scarred! I keep trying to find out why she is scarred,and tell her everything is ok,because mommy and daddy are not going to let anything happen to her. I wish I knew what to do to help her. If anyone out there can give me any suggestions, Please do!! Mommy and Daddy are really missing each other and need to sleep in our room together.

I am sitting here right now waiting on Dish Network to come put cable in there room so maybe that will help her feel more secure. Which is also costing me so much! Her and her brother share a room so it is not like she is in there by herself. I just don't know what to do.

This is really turning into a problem with out family and she feels bad enough so I don't want to make her feel worst. I have prayed about this and still just don't have any answeres! God please show me the way. I just feel like I should be doing something different but I just don't know what! Please any advice with be helpful.

We have also been busy getting a storage building to store some of our stuff so we can turn one of our rooms into the school room. I guess really it is going to be School Room / Laundry Room. This house has the biggest laundry room I have ever seen. I think it was a bedroom but the people who lived here before us made it a loundry room.

I am going to have to go today to buy a new vacume cleaner as mine Blew Up! Yesterday right in the middle of cleaning of course.

Posted in Tagged

Well I got tagged so here we go!!:

I can not believe how sick my kids and I are! I have an appointment for both of them in the morning @ 10:50, but the weather is not going to let me get them there and I am so worried.

I did try somthing my MOM has always told me, Vicks!! If all else fails just use Vicks!

Well I used all the Nebulizer meds, and it did not help so I finally listened to that voice of my MOM, Thank God for MOM's!

Well we are at peace with our breathing at this moment tonight @ 11:14 Central time.

Always listen to your MOM!!

VICKS!!

Posted in General

Well we seem to be fighting some kind of Bug! My kids act like they have strep throat,but I feel like I have a lung infection. I will be taking them to the doctor tommorrow and I just went to the doctor to weigh in so I really don't want to have to go back this soon. I guess if I am not better soon,within the next day or two I will have to go back. Right now none of us feel like doing anything. I have new mattresses to buy and so many things I need to do,but I just don't feel like doing it.  I just hope we can get better soon so I can get the things we need. We are also having such a mouse problem that I am going to have to get someone to come in and get rid of the little pest! They keep eating my socks and just anything they can there mouth on. Not to mention that they have the worst odor and I am so tired of trying to kill them myself. We have put traps down and killed around seven,then we put some poison out and they seemed to thin out a little but there are still so many. I don't even know the first person to call but I have seen on TV that Orken is good. I guess we will see. Well my head is getting so much worst right now. I think I need some pain medicine. I hope you all have a great day today!