2009 Fall

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Check it Off & Do you Decorate Outside for Christmas?

This week has been productive. Yesterday, we got our kids Holiday Portraits done. I only spent 8.00 after my coupon at Sears. I loved how the main shot turned out. I have most of Hannah's Christmas done, and only one more thing for Kyle. Ethan I am still working on. I got all of Hannah's Birthday party invitations finished. My home and laundry has been on top off and schooling was accomplished (everything I planned was done). Today, I was reading my bible when I heard Hannah throwing up. That threw a curve ball. Poor thing. We had a grocery store field trip, a homeschool meeting/activity, and grocery shopping to do today. That will probably not happen. I am sad for the kids they were looking forward to their outings today. Me too!!!!

Pray for Hannah.

Just curious, how many decorate the outside of your home for Christmas? Do you do lights, just a wreath, nothing at all?

Chrissy

What's Going On (Art, Mud, Paint)

I have to be honest. This week has been really hard trying to post. I am strictly following our schedule to get us in a good groove. I am flexible but I also need some consistency. There are a lot of other things that are just higher priority than the computer. I love blogging though. I get withdrawls when I am not on here. ;) It is my journal, outlet, and time to read others great blogs.

We are in Ancient History so for our Art class we did Prehistoric Art. This book below was super. We read through some of it and looked at different Prehistoric Art, then we made Cave Paint out of dirt, coloring, and shortening.

Ethan was making a Tribal Dance.

Of course, Kyle jumped in. By this point we started to use charcoal to sketch with. Very common in those days.

Hannah was at Pre-K when we did our art. So, during Kyle's nap she painted. She loves this.

Do you any art?

Chrissy

Oh, Laundry!

What is your laundry method?

Most women just love LAUNDRY. right? Hehehehe! I am not a big fan. I would rather clean the whole house than do laundry. When we first moved into our house it was a unfinished basement. I had to go all the way down there to the creepiness of the basement to wash clothes, switch, fold and iron. Yuk. There was spiders. Yes, we sprayed but they were still there in my mind. Hahaha! Then it was up and down and up and down.

Then my husband finished the basement. But the laundry room. It is much smaller and little more nicer but still basement feeling. I was always envious of those beautiful laundry rooms. :)

But doing laundry really has nothing to do with all that. I have no idea why I wrote that above but I did. :) Sooooo, for the real point.

Some women like to do one or two marathon laundry days. Some like to do a load every day. Some don't do it very often at all. But as women in the home (working outside or inside) it very important to keep our clothes clean. It serves our families, it helps preserve our clothes, and it is just plan unsanitary not to wash on a regular often bases. :)

I choose to do my laundry daily on the most part. No particular load. It is just the one I see and it goes. I usually do one or two a day. I hardly ever really have loads. I don't let them accumulate long enough. But this can be tiring, and lots on the electric/water bill, and I end up washing and folding but not putting away. Sunday I usually don't do any but now I started sticking that one little load in to start my week off laundry free. But I try to keep Sunday actually REST like. So, I need to stop that.

One thing that has worked for me is to set a time to do a laundry start, switch, and stopping point. In other words, I start one first thing, switch at 10:00 (per Mrs. Darling's tip) and try not to do any past 4:00. Now, I can do this because I am at home most of the day. On day's I know is a busy afternoon. I usually have to finish the next day or so on .

What is your method? Do you like laundry?

Chrissy

Monday Mom Moment

Rise Above the Ordinary is something I really strive to do. What do you do Daily, Weekly, and so on to rise above the ordinary in everyday ordinary life?



This week I have chosen to Rise Above the Ordinary. My prayer time has become a little "ordinary" and it is time to break out of that box. I want to be more intentional in prayer. I want my prayers to go around the world, touch people, and intercede for someone who doesn't have the strength to pray for themselves.



Normally, I have a 15 minute time I pray in the morning. Then in the afternoon I take a little time when school is finished and littles are resting to pray for more needs. Here lately my prayers seem to be all about me. So, I have set up Focus Prayers for the days of the week to be more effective. I want to truly pray for my children, marriage, church, and missions. No ordinary prayers here. I am going to reach the throne, ladies. Want to join in??



I challenge you this week to Rise Above the normal in prayer. You can follow my Focus Prayers or make your own.

What do you think? If you don't want to follow along this week, share what you are doing to Step out of the box.


Monday:
Spouse, Marriage, Finances

Tuesday:
Kids, Our Parenting

Wednesday:
My outside family

Thursday:
Our Friends, Church Family
Be still and listen to God's prompting to who to interced for

Friday:
church, missions, ministries we are apart of

Hosting with the Mostess :)

Yesterday we prepared for company. We hosted a Couples Game Night. It has been a long time since we have hosted anything. A LONG time. The kids all had play dates arranged and we had a lot of preparing. So, after our store run, quick clean up and schooling we headed to the kitchen to make Oreo Balls for the sweet for the evening.

They are highly addicting. I am sure I gained 2 pounds by making them. ;) They were a hit. The kids loved them.

Then we set up everything.
Look at those cute plates. So festive. They were so cheap. :)

Who says you have to cake stands for cakes only?

I used it for our Hawaiian Bread and Dill dip. Yummo!

Then one of our guest made these AMAZING pumpkin rolls. From scratch. She even had it tied with pretty ribbon in parchment paper. So, good.

We played the game Catch Phrase. Blast! Blast! The girls one and then the guys got all temperamental :) so they kept cheating. :) No it was soooo fun. I haven't seen my husband that giddy in a long time. I laughed so hard my cheeks are still hurting. Maybe the laughing burned off those oreo balls. :) Hmmmm?

This was so much fun. It has been a long time since we did this We are going to make more a effort to do it more often.

Do you ever host things? Do you have things you and your husband participate in with other adults?

Chrissy

Homeschool (Part 2)

This is the second part to my homeschool post. I did the first post two posts back. I was going to share how I try to incorporate my little kids.

Let me share with you all this. I don't homeschool my little children formally. I believe that Basic Preschool skills is a important thing. So we devote two days a week to sitting down table time with my 4 year old. Through out the week I guess I do busy work with them. File Folder games, bean sorting, and a lot of reading. We do a lot of painting, play dough, and art.

Also, my son who is in the fourth is very bright and very independent. So, I really do not have to do a lot of teaching one on one ALL day. We do have periods we do work together but the rest is pretty much independent. Besides Read alouds, drills, and history he really does most on his own. So, I am kind of in a different season than some might be.

I have set a schooling area in his room which gives him a lot of quiet time to focus. Something he needs. But we do a lot of our online work, social studies, and bible together in the open.

My schedule in the last posts shows how our day runs. So, while he is doing reading, I do reading to the littles and then alouds with Ethan. Then he will move to journaling, handwriting, and independent bible work. On Tuesday and Thursday I do one on one with my soon to be 5 year old. We head to the table, and their is a table activity for Kyle to do while we work. We spend about 15 to 20 minutes going over abc's and sounds. Then we work on our letter of the week, make a page, and then do our newspaper scavenger hunt, after that we do our Starfall play. Kyle my two year old does bean and mac sorting on Tuesday and bead and sticker matching on Thursday. My daughter also wants to jump into his activity but her work has to be done first then she can.

Then after we do our work she can play with him and I get Ethan set up on what's next for our schooling. Then we do usually our social studies, projects, and elective classes all together. Hannah joins in, Kyle does what he wants. I mean like he plays, reads, and sometimes joins us.

In the afternoon, Kyle heads for his nap and then it is Language Arts and Math. So, while Ethan is doing independent work Hannah and I do numbers and Thinking Skills for a few minutes, read and she has her nap or rest time.

On Monday, I will share how I came up with my schedule and what the Lord is teaching me through this. It is so funny. Our schedule had been going so good. But then as soon as I did the post on it our days went crazy. It just happens like that. The thing is I do have a comfort knowing I have a plan. :) For the most part it works, but we had a field trip and Hannah was out of Pre-K on Wednesday. She does go to Pre-K for 2 hours Mon, Wed, Friday. But when she comes home she goes right into our homeschool schedule. Hannah has a little hard time learning so her going to Pre-K has been a huge help to her.

You all have a great weekend.
Chrissy

Busy & Homeschool to come

Ladies,

The last two days have been super busy. I plan to share with you soon the rest of my homeschool schedule with the littles at a later time. Blessings,

Chrissy