Friday, December 2, 2011

All I want for Christmas

Give the gift of chickens this Christmas.




Please help a child with a real need this Holiday season.  Lets spend sometime caring for the least of these.   And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done unto me.  Matthew 25:40

So true.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Another great giveaway again.

The Modest Mom is hosting a giveaway for Vision Forum.  You can always count on Vision Forum for all your christian book needs.  Head on over to check it out.

Photobucket
 
 
Vision Forum http://visionforum.com/

Friday, November 25, 2011

Another chance

Vision Forum is giving you another chance at a great giveaway.  I love all of their christian books and think you should check it out.  www.visionforum.com/

Another great giveaway

Vision Forum is having another great giveaway.  They have any "christian book" you could ever need.  So, what are you waiting for sign up now.  Visit
smockityfrocks.com

Monday, October 17, 2011

Doorpost giveaway.

Head over to Doorpost and check out their great giveaway.  This is an awesome giveaway with many chances to win.  I have purchased several Doorpost products and I love them.  So hurry on over and enter.

Contest Prizes:


Contest prizes include $500 in gift certificates to Exodus Books, Wise Decor, and Doorposts. Winners will be announced on December 6, 2011.



Today’s Giveaways:

To help kick off the contest and spread the word, we’re offering five prizes which will be given away one week from now:



■One $75 gift certificate from Doorposts.

■One $75 gift certificate from Wise Decor, a company that offers Bible verses in pre-cut vinyl lettering that looks painted on.

■Three sets of 12 calligraphied Scripture prints from Doorposts.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Menu Plans

T-ball starts today and with hubby managing the team our evenings are going to be very busy. So I need to come up with a plan for fast or crockpot meals that can be whipped up in a hurry.
Monday-crockpot Italian chicken
Tuesday-beans and cornbread
Wednesday-burgers and baked beans
Thursday-salmon patties and fried potatoes
Friday-meatloaf

That should do it. Of course leftovers will be used for next days lunch.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

That is called a what???

I love homeschooling my kids because I have so much fun with them. Today my five year old was coloring a picture from her age appropriate body book. She was coloring the digestive system while I was explaining it to her. A few minutes later, I over hear her explaining everything to her older brother. When she go to the intestines, she paused a minute and said, "This is called the poop pipe." How funny is that?

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

New way of eating

Let's keep this post real. I am very overweight. It started with my first child and hasn't stopped. I need to change a few things. My diet wasn't so much about piggin out on ice cream or pizza but more about PEPSI, to the tune of 6-7 cans a day. Oh, and the wonderful world of white bread. A perfect snack would be a can of Pepsi and a slice of white bread. YUM. Okay I have issues.

I am currently holding the soda down to one can a day and I have traded white wheat for whole. I of course in two weeks have lost zero pounds:( That ticks me off. But on to the rest of my family's new diet plan.

The NO NO list:
No soda
No white wheat(except special occasions)
No soy (I am allergic)
No HFCS
No MSG
No nitrates
No things with ingredients I can't pronounce

The CAN list:
Fruits
Veggies
Whole wheat
Almond milk for me
Lean meats
Our own eggs
Lots from scratch

I am wondering if I need to take a herbal supplement or something to jump start my metabolism. I though for sure I would lose at least some when I quit drinking soda, so maybe there is something else going on.

Hubby is on this new way of eating and is loosing lots of weight. I am still not sure if I am happy or envious about it.LOL

The only problem I am having with this new program of sorts is I have no idea what to do for snacks. Fruit is not cutting with the kiddos anymore and I am out of ideas. So if anyone happens by this blog and has any ideas please let me know.

On a different note, I know that I never post anymore, but I have some post coming, I promise. I hope to get up at least a post on our homeschool year and some pics of the kids in the mountains in the fall. We love to go riding around the ATV paths around here in the fall.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

More praising the Lord

In a previous post, I wrote about how my mother and sister in law were spared when they were involved in a wreck. Well, today hubby was in a wreck. On his way to work, his brother was driving when he slid off the road and over the mountain. Praise God he is okay and unharmed. They managed to get the car back in the road and everything is fine now, except maybe the car and their egos. LOL. PRAISE the LORD!!!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Robert Byrd

Today WV Senator Robert Byrd died. Although his political beliefs may have sometimes differed from mine, I have to give the man his dues. Senator Byrd did hold the most consecutive terms of anyone in office and he also had a very good attendance record with more roll call votes than anyone else in the history of the senate.

From a personal perspective, Senator Byrd was always very prompt on responding to my questions or complaints in regards to his representation. I fully believe that he cared deeply for the people of West Virginia and I also believe he tried very hard to represent them to the best of his ability.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Praising the Lord




Our family is so thankful for God's protection lately. A few weeks ago, my sister in law was going to the local feed store to get some feed for her horses. She went early in the morning because her and her husband was going on a weekend getaway. As she was pulling off another car hit her head on. She is okay. She ended up with some stitches, sprains, scrapes, and bruises. But she is okay and finally able to get around. Her truck is totaled. The guy that hit her had no insurance and a revoked license. He plans to sue her but that is another post. Don't get me started.

Last weekend, I got a call that my mom was in a wreck. She was on her way back from her dad's when she was hit head on. A car crossed into her lane and she went off the road and scraped her passenger side all the way down on a rock cliff. AND the car still hit her head on. The driver got out and accused her of hitting him. Uh, hello, her truck is pinned between a rock cliff and YOUR car. At the accident, she kept loosing consciouses and they took her to the ER. She is okay. She suffered a major concussion and a torn muscle in her arm. She is pretty banged up. She has been referred to a neurologist and may need some PT for her arm. Her truck is totaled.

I still have reason to rejoice though. They are both okay. God was there with them. Actually, my mom was praising the Lord over and over and the EMTs thought that she was delusional from the concussion. LOL God is Good.

Monday, June 7, 2010

A few of my favorite people

Go baby go. Hooray



My baby and her baby, picking flowers.




My beautiful blue eyed princess.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Raising Homemakers



Check out this great, new site for future homemakers. I strongly feel that a tide has turned in this country. Women are once again taking up the call to be keepers of the home. Of course, if any are like me, I had no idea how to be a homekeeper. I grew up with my mother working and going to college full time so I didn't really know how to keep a home, cook, or anything else. Now I have a long way to go but I have come pretty far in my abilities over the last few years. But hopefully with websites like this we will have help in training up our own daughters to answer the call of homemaking.

One last thing, Raising Homemakers is having a great giveaway too. So head on over and enter.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I copied this post from Grape Moments in Life. You should drop and look around at her wonderful blog.


I found THIS BLOG and thought I'd share. I did a copy and paste to my blog so I can't take the credit for this neat list. This is a list of just some of the famous people that were homeschooled.
There are a bunch of athletes that weren't added and Venus and Serena Williams (tennis) as well as Tim Tebow (football) are just three of them. Anyway, I thought it was interesting. =)

Constitutional Convention Delegates

* Richard Basseti – Governor of Delaware
* William Blount – U.S. Senator
* George Clymer – U.S. Representative
* William Few – U.S. Senator
* Benjamin Franklin – Inventor and Statesman
* Alexander Hamilton – Lawyer and Economist
* William Houston – Lawyer
* William S. Johnson – Columbia College President
* William Livingston – Governor of New Jersey
* James Madison – 4th President of the U.S.
* George Mason – Justice of Virginia County Court
* John Francis Mercer – U.S. Representative
* Charles Pickney III – Governor of S. Carolina
* John Rutledge – Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court
* Richard D. Spaight – Governor of North Carolina
* George Washington – 1st President of the U.S.
* John Witherspoon – President of Princeton
* George Wythe – Justice of Virginia High Court


Presidents

* John Adams
* John Quincy Adams
* Grover Cleveland
* Jefferson Davis (the only president of the short-lived Confederate States of America)
* James Garfield
* William Henry Harrison
* Andrew Jackson
* Thomas Jefferson
* Abraham Lincoln
* James Madison
* James Polk
* Franklin Delano Roosevelt
* Theodore Roosevelt
* John Tyler
* George Washington
* Woodrow Wilson


Statesmen

* Henry Fountain Ashurst
* William Jennings Bryan
* Winston Churchill
* Henry Clay
* John Dickinson
* Pierre du Pont
* Benjamin Franklin
* Patrick Henry
* William Penn
* Daniel Webster


Military Officers

* John Barry – Senior Navy Officer
* George Rogers Clark – Revolutionary War hero
* Nathanael Greene – Revolutionary War hero
* Nathan Hale – Revolutionary War hero
* Stonewall Jackson – Civil War General
* John Paul Jones – Father of the American Navy
* Robert E. Lee – Civil War General
* Douglas MacArthur – U.S. General
* George Patton – U.S. General
* Matthew Perry – U.S. Naval Officer
* John Pershing – U.S. General
* David Dixon Porter – Civil War Admiral
* Joseph Bradley Varnum – Revolutionary War hero


U.S. Supreme Court Judges

* Charles Evans Hughes
* John Jay
* John Marshall
* John Rutledge
* Sandra Day O’Connor


Religious Leaders

* Joan of Arc
* Dietrich Bonhoeffer
* William Carey
* Jonathan Edwards
* Philipp Melancthon
* Dwight L. Moody
* John Newton
* John Owen
* Hudson Taylor
* John & Charles Wesley
* Brigham Young


Explorers

* William Clark – Lewis & Clark Expedition
* Meriwether Lewis – Lewis & Clark Expedition
* John Wesley Powell – Colorado River Expedition
* Sir Ernest Shackleton – Antarctic Expedition


Scientists

* Wilson A. Bentley – “The Snowflake Man”
* George Washington Carver – agricultural research
* Pierre Curie – discovered radium
* Albert Einstein – theoretical physicist
* Paul Erdos – Hungarian mathematician
* Michael Faraday – electrochemist
* Pierre-Gilles de Gennes – French physicist
* Oliver Heaviside – electromagnetism researcher
* T.H. Huxley – biologist, zoologist, Darwinist
* Ruth Lawrence – mathematician
* Gilbert Newton Lewis – physical chemist
* Ada Lovelace – founder of scientific computing
* Benoit Mandelbrot – pioneer in fractal geometry
* Blaise Pascal – French mathematician
* Joseph Priestley – father of modern chemistry
* Samuel C. C. Ting – Chinese American physicist
* Konstantin Tsiolkovsky – Russian rocket scientist


Inventors

* Alexander Graham Bell – invented the telephone
* John Moses Browning – firearms inventor/designer
* Peter Cooper – built the first modern skyscraper, the first commercial locomotive, and patented the first gelatin dessert which was later named Jell-O
* Thomas Edison – invented the stock ticker, mimeograph, phonograph, and electric light bulb
* Benjamin Franklin – invented the lightning rod
* Elias Howe – invented sewing machine
* William Lear – airplane creator
* Cyrus McCormick – invented grain reaper
* Guglielmo Marconi – developed radio
* Eli Whitney – invented the cotton gin
* Sir Frank Whittle – invented turbo jet engine
* Orville and Wilbur Wright – brothers who built the first successful airplane


Artists

* William Blake – painter, engraver, poet
* John Singleton Copley – American Colonial painter
* Evelyn De Morgan – Pre-Raphaelite painter
* Christian Grew – American Painter
* Donal Hord – San Diego sculptor
* Akiane Kramarik- 10-year-old art and poetry prodigy
* Claude Monet – French Impressionist
* Grandma Moses – American folk artist
* Charles Willson Peale – American portrait artist
* Lu Pinchang – ceramic sculptor
* Leonardo da Vinci – Renaissance artist, sculptor
* Andrew Wyeth – American realist painter
* Jamie Wyeth – American realist painter


Composers

* Johann Sebastian Bach – Baroque
* Irving Berlin – Patriotic
* Anton Bruckner – Symphonies
* Noel Coward – Musicals
* Felix Mendelssohn – Romantic
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Classical
* John Porcaro – Experimental
* Francis Poulenc – Choral
* John Philip Sousa – “March King”


Writers

* Louisa May Alcott – author of Little Women
* Hans Christian Anderson – fairy tale writer
* Margaret Atwood – Canadian novelist, poet
* Fawn M. Brodie – biographer
* Pearl S. Buck – Nobel prize-winning author
* William F. Buckley, Jr. – conservative writer
* Willa Cather – American novelist
* Agatha Christie – mystery author
* Samuel Clemens – a.k.a. Mark Twain
* Charles Dickens – British novelist
* Robert Frost – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
* Charlotte Perkins Gilman – early feminist writer
* Alex Haley – African-American novelist
* Sharlot Hall – poet, writer, Arizona historian
* Joshua Harris- pastor and author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye
* Bret Harte – frontier California journalist
* L. Ron Hubbard – science fiction writer
* Helen Keller – blind and deaf author and lecturer
* Rose Wilder Lane – journalist, ghostwriter, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder
* C.S. Lewis – Christian writer and apologist
* Amy Lowell – Modernist poet
* Gabriela Mistral – Nobel-prize winning Latin American poet
* Sean O’Casey – Irish author
* Thomas Paine – political writer during the American Revolution, author of Common Sense
* Christopher Paolini – teen author of Eragon
* Isabel Paterson – conservative political author
* Beatrix Potter – author of Peter Rabbit Tales
* Jedediah Purdy – author of For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today
* Kenneth Rexroth – poet, translator, critical essayist
* Carl Sandburg – American poet
* George Bernard Shaw – Irish-born playwright
* Mattie J. T. Stepanek – 11-year-old author of Heartsongs
* Rosemary Sutcliff – historical novels for children
* Rabindranath Tagore – Bengali poet, essayist, dramatist, songwriter
* Leo Tolstoy – Russian writer
* Mercy Warren – American Revolution eyewitness
* Phillis Wheatley – African-American poet
* Walt Whitman – American poet
* Laura Ingalls Wilder – children’s book author
* Virginia Woolf – English novelist


Educators

* Amos Bronson Alcott – innovative teacher, father of Louisa May Alcott
* Catharine Beecher – co-founder of the Hartford Female Seminary
* Jill Ker Conway – first woman president of Smith College
* Erik Demaine – associate professor of Computer Science at MIT
* Timothy Dwight – President of Yale University
* William Samuel Johnson – President of Columbia College
* Horace Mann – “Father of the American Common School”
* Charlotte Mason – Founder of Charlotte Mason College of Education
* Joyce Reed – Associate Dean of the College, Brown University
* Fred Terman – President of Stanford University
* Frank Vandiver – President of Texas A&M University
* Booker T. Washington – teacher and founder of Tuskegee Institute
* Noah Webster – “Father of American Christian Education”
* John Witherspoon – President of Princeton University


Medical Practitioners

* Clara Barton – started the Red Cross
* Elizabeth Blackwell – first woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree
* Florence Nightingale – Nurse
* Susan La Flesche Picotte – first American Indian woman physician
* Albert Schweitzer – Physician
* Mary Walker – Civil War physician; recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor


Business Entrepreneurs

* Andrew Carnegie – wealthy steel industrialist
* Amadeo Giannini – Bank of America’s founder
* Horace Greeley – New York Tribune founder
* Soichiro Honda – creator of the Honda automobile company
* Peter Kindersley – book illustrator and publisher
* Ray Kroc – founder of McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain
* Jimmy Lai – newspaper publisher; founder of Giordano International
* Dr. Orison Swett Marden – founder, Success magazine
* Adolph Ochs – New York Times founder
* Joseph Pulitzer – newspaper publisher; established Pulitzer Prize
* Colonel Harland Sanders – started Kentucky Fried Chicken
* Dave Thomas – founder of the Wendy’s restaurant chain


Others

* Abigail Adams – wife of John Adams; mother of John Quincy Adams
* Ansel Adams – photographer
* Susan B. Anthony – women’s rights leader
* John James Audubon – ornithologist and artist
* Alyssa Buecker – director, Milbo Productions
* John Burroughs – naturalist
* Jennie Chancey – historical costumer
* Davy Crockett – frontiersman
* Edward Curtis – photographer
* Robin Lee Graham – youngest person to sail around the world at age 16
* Alex and Brett Harris – twin teen writers and conference speakers for “The Rebelution,” a Christian ministry/youth organization
* Eric Hoffer – social philosopher
* Sam Houston – lawyer; first leader of Texas
* Abraham Kuyper – Dutch politician, journalist
* Mary Leakey – fossil hunter
* Charles Fletcher Lummis – journalist, historian, photographer, founder of the Southwest Society
* Harriet Martineau – first woman sociologist
* Margaret Mead – cultural anthropologist
* John Stuart Mill – free-market Economist
* Charles Louis Montesquieu – philosopher
* John Muir – naturalist
* Raymond Parks – Civil Rights activist, husband of Rosa Parks
* Sofia, Susan, and Judit Polgar – chess masters
* Bill Ridell – Newspaperman
* Will Rogers – Humorist
* Eleanor Roosevelt – wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Bertrand Russell – Logician
* Drew Ryun – co-founder of Generation Joshua, director of Jim Ryun Running Camp
* Ned Ryun – co-founder of Generation Joshua, president of American Majority
* Deborah Sampson – female soldier in the American Revolution
* Emerson Spartz – 12-year-old internet entrepreneur (MuggleNet)
* Herbert Spencer – philosopher, sociologist
* Gloria Steinem – founder of Ms. magazine
* Timmy Teepell – chief of staff for Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana
* Lester Frank Ward – Father of American Sociology
* Martha Washington – wife of George Washington
* Frances E. C. Willard – educator, temperance leader, and suffragist
* Frank Lloyd Wright – architect
* John Lloyd Wright – architect, toy designer, inventor of Lincoln Logs
* Sho Yano – gifted child prodigy
* Elijah ben Solomon Zalman – Jewish scholar
POSTED BY KELLI AT 12/16/2009 10:00:00 AM 0 COMMENTS

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Summer school

As this school year is winding down, I am thinking about the summer months. I would like to do "light" school work during summer. Not a lot, just touch up on some subjects.

CC: Work on multiplication tables and cursive.
KC: Reading well and handwriting worksheets. Maybe some "very light" math.
Both: Independent reading, botany study, and geography study.

We will be using Galloping the Globe, Fun with Times Tables, and some on line resources.

Of course, I will need to look at curriculum for the fall as well. I really need to get CC away from Saxon math because he is so bored with it. I was thinking about using Horizon Math or Math U See, but not sure. Any ideas? I want to do more hands on as well this fall, as both kids seem to enjoy that. Daddy will have to help with the science experiments though, so not my department LOL. Anyway, just thinking out loud here, but could use some help.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Frugal way of life

Are you green or are you frugal? Some people would have you to believe you must buy this and try that to be "green" because the would is going to come to an end if we don't. Our children will "suffer" because we all didn't buy 100 percent recyclable materials, solar panels, or hybrid cars. Lets be real. This world will end when God says it will and the enormous debt that we as a people have is what is really going to cause our kids to suffer.

Over the last couple of years, I have learned a lot about being so called green (mostly due to my financial struggles brought on by huge debt). God calls us to be good stewards of the earth, and our finances, and our families. It is so funny how all of this works together.

If we work hard to manage our finances always looking for a cheaper, better way to save, we will not be buying into the overly consuming lifestyle that so many do. For example if we want to better manage our heating bill, do we go out and spend upwards of twenty grand on solar panels or do we just turn the thermostat down in our homes?
Here are some green/frugal ideas from our home.

-BUY USED SAVE THE DIFFERENCE. This is our families anthem.
-Turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer. Let your body get use to the adjustment. It will, I promise.
-Use ceiling fans, they can lower your homes temp by several degree and use way less energy than a air conditioner.
-Turn lights out when no in use and learn that you don't need to have a light on just because you are in the room. While watching tv, turn the lights out.
-Turn the computer off when not using it. I was surprised to learn how much electricity my computer uses when left on.
-I wash all of our laundry in cold water except diapers and bed linens. The laundry will be clean.
-Air dry your laundry. My favorite chore!!!! Dryers is one of the biggest users of energy in your home.
-We use only natural cleaners in our home. Do we go out and spend a fortune on them? NO! We make our own. There are a ton of recipes for this on the web. We use vinegar and water for an all purpose cleaner. Baking soda and borax work great for tough bathroom stains. A small amount of olive oil will shine up any old piece of wood and we even use it to shine our hardwood floors. We also make our own laundry detergent. The laundry detergent doesn't irritate our eczema and it is way cheaper than those dye free brands in stores.
-We grow our own garden every summer as well as fruit trees and various berries. All organic, heirloom varieties.
-We also have our own chickens for organic eggs. Better for us, better for the environment, and better for our wallets.
-Cook from scratch and save a ton on packaging.

That is just a small sample of some of the green/frugal things we do to try to lower our expenses and our carbon foot print.