Homeschool Diva

I know I am in a good place when I have the space and time to think.  I also know I am in a good place when I have the space in time to create.  Overall, everything about this season in our life is good.  Space to breath, think, create, and be with those God has put in our lives.  I have so much rolling around in my head about so many things.  Here are just a few.

• Creating an environment where deep and authentic Christian community can grow is a slow process. Slow growth is good growth.
• Thinking about how brilliant Jesus is to use agriculture as a symbol in so many of his teachings. Really just thinking about how brilliant Jesus is in general.
• Thinking about how long things take to bear fruit, but once they do, there is fruit all over the place.
• Big picture concepts direct my day to day “doings”.  When I lose the big picture I fall flat in my day to day.
• I am so inspired by Luke 10 and Psalm 24. All day long I am just thinking and praying through both of them.
• This is the year I will learn Spanish fluently and not just piece meal.
• Being content with what you have and where you are is a good, good discipline.  It heals a weary soul.
• The more I let go, the more I see God move.
• It is true, worrying about anything will not add one hour to your day.
• My top all time 5 favorite theologians that influence the way I think and live out my faith are all old men. I am in search of a woman’s voice to add to my mix. Any thoughts other than Phylis Tickle?

It is so beautiful this am, we are taking school to the beach.  We will run and play and gather and read and do all sorts of life learning.  Show me what you are learning today! I need a heck of a lot of drift wood for an idea I have…so I am putting “los ninos” to work.

Grace and Peace to all thinkers today~

I was asked awhile ago to review a new product from the folks over at SpellQuizzer. It was prvodential to say the least, because what I had been doing before wasn’t very effecient.   As a busy homeschooling Mom with three sweet peas at three levels, ANYTHING that makes my life a bit simpler is deeply appreciated.  I have steadily been working our children through their phonics and doing spelling tests through dictation….focusing on the use of the phonics rules they have been learning, as well as those pesky sight words in the English language that do not conform to the standard phonics rules.   The Bottom line is, there are some words you just have to memorize and this little computer software, is making my life so much easier.

SpellQuizzer is a spelling program that helps children learn their spelling words. I can create the lists straight from our curriculum and record my voice to aid them. The best part is, I only have to do it once for each level, and walk the kids through it as they progress.  You can download pre-made spelling lists for SpellQuizzer from their web site and share them with co-op friends etc. They see computer time as a special privilege, so getting to do some school work on the computer is a great delight to them. Not to mention they are working on forming beginning typing skills.  If you want a paperless way of getting those dang spelling words undercontrol, while you work with another child on another topic,  you should check them out.  I for one, am working it like a tool!

Things on the list to do for today:

• Start a family book Huckleberry Finn
• Build a Lego city as a family
• take a bike ride at River Bend Park 
• do some cooking and then eating together
• Read, discuss and pray through this as a family. (HT: Sarah)
• and finally the crowning achievement….a family clean bathrooms, mop, vacuum time before bed.  (All my chore training is paying off, now that they all can really clean, and I don’t have to go back and redo it.) Life is grand.

Enjoy your day everyone, be blessed so that you may be a blessing to the world~

a

I LOVE what I do .  I really find it such an honor to capture peoples memories for them.  This weekend I had the chance to document new and growing life. We had a providental break in all the rain, and we were able to get some great images. 

Arn’t they the cutest young Mama and Papa you all have ever seen?  I knew her when she was 12.  Kind of trippy to photograph her married with child.  These two will make great parents and are full of all the joy and expectation that envelopes this season in life.

These are just a few of the MANY gourgous images I grabbed of these three. Thanks Kyle and Bethany for giving me the honor of capturing this very special season.  Enjoy every messy minute as life moves on.  Look back at these images fondly remembering all the love and joy that kicked this whole thing off. 

Many blessings to you three~

a

My baby girl is 6 today.  Life is moving along and I always have a bitter sweet day on their birthdays.  Happy for all the time we have had to grow together.  I am excited to watch her grow and mature and learn new things yet sad at the little pudgy hands that I don’t get to kiss anymore.  Enjoy every single minute. Even the sleepless, messy ones.

She is reading and writing and working her math facts like a stellar little six year old. She is growing into quite the little artist.   I am so blessed to have her as our child.  She is a tough little scraper who has such a sweet tender heart.  I am off to take her on a special birthday outing…as we give experiences over just a flat gift.  So it is a mini-pedicure and a new dress at target.  Gotta nurture her feminine side. As you recall, she broke her arm wrestling with 4 boys all bigger, stronger and heavier than her.  She needs a little girl time.

Happy Birthday Chloe,
child of love,
[God bless you].
And blessed you are, beyond telling,
to be born to parents
who love you
and love each other
servants of the
great King Jesus.

Grow gently, Chloe in love of God.

We bless you,
and pray
Christ be near you,
now and each hour
of your life.

As you grow
may faith grow with you.
May you find the presence
of Christ your clothing
and protection.
And year by year may the
knowledge of His presence
be greater for you,
that daily you may put on Christ
and walk as His own in the world.

Chloe, May God make clear to you each road;
may He make safe to you each step;
should you stumble, hold you;
if you fall, lift you up;
when you are hard pressed with evil,
deliver you -
and bring you at last to His glory.
Amen.

I let her eat cake fore her breakfast too.  Isn’t that fun, she was tickled silly with that. Later today we are off to Gainesville. I have a few shoots booked, a family get together and some quiet time in the car with my honey.  We always have such good talks in the car.  4 hours of driving help to foster deep conversations.Here is praying you have a deep talk today with someone you love.

Grace and Peace to all those twirling like a six year old today,

Lord willing we will be heading down as a family in Feb of 2010.  Pray for us and our community as we begin to make our plans and allow God to direct our steps.

Blessings to all world travelers~

Now that we are all settled in, and I am all back on track, I thought I would throw a foto friday up with a twist.  Play along and show me your best shot from the last 2 months.  I will start with “Show me something green.”  The next person will show me something green and then pick the next thing…curvy, blue, pink…..whatever and post it in the comments.  It will be fun to see what people come up with. If you don’t take photos of your own and want to play, just find something fun  on flickr and link it in the comments.   So whoever comments next should show me show me something green and leave directions on what you want them to find for the next one coming along.

Have fun hunting…..

So Pulled Pork Tacos are as easy as a food network recipe.  I gave it a try and MOMMY they are good.   I pulled together this spread for about 15 bucks and fed about 10 peeps and had leftovers.

The secret to the cost saving factor in this recipe is using pork shoulder.   I am experimenting with different ways of cooking more for less and using unexpected things to keep it all fun and healthy and different. We feed a lot of people a lot of food a lot of times every week, so I have to put my thinking cap on.  I mean you can only do spaghetti or beans and rice so many times.  I did leave the cilantro out and added it for garnish on the side as I knew someone eating it doesn’t like the taste of it. I also used shredded cabbage instead of pickled onions.  Other than that, it was easy, tasty, cheap and quick to clean up.  I always have a empty dishwasher ready to go, and instruct everyone to rinse and load as they finish…..that way the mess is done even after having a house full of guests.  I know I am rude, I make my guests clean but hey……I am building community and not my cleaning resume;-) Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Here is the original link to the food network video that gives you all the details.

Grace and Peace to all those stretching a buck~

Yes, I just found a banana leashed to my cabinet door in our kitchen.  Earlier, it was a stuffed puppy that had been chained to the door so it wouldn’t run away.  I come back to find fruit chained to the door and I am wondering, did she do it, or did the boys do it as a joke?  You never know with this crew. I half expect to see a dish of water and some food setting there for it next.  Not only this, but I have rescued a toy off the roof-with a fractured hip I might add, picked up unending “things” left at odd places all over the place, swept up 4 different times,  closed a million cabinet doors, and yelled  said at least 10 times….”We shut off what we turn on, and we close what we OOPPEEENNNNNNNNNNN!”  I am not sure they are getting that….. yet.

After schooling, we watched The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe today as a family (with a few fast forwarded sequences for the littles…don’t worry honey:-)).  I love the scene where Lucy pulls the sheet off of the wardrobe.  The entire sequence is breathtaking.  It encapsulates childlike wonder like no other.   I can just watch it over and over and every time I get goosebumps.  I will tell you a secret.  Our homeschool is like my own little wardrobe.  I get transported to a secret world where I get to be a little kid every day with these guys.  I am learning all over again, and it is crazy fun.  What a special gift to do this with them.  I know this isn’t for everyone, but I am sure thankful it is for me.

In other news, I am doing a little research and really stretching my cooking expertise at finding new and creative ways to cook healthy meals for many people for little money.   Trust me, it can be done if you are willing to do a little research on the food network.  Yo Peeps… I made a crazy good meal last night for a crew for only 15 bucks.   I am a “delivered” organic snob.  I was delivered from buying organic food when I realized that is was not a good fit for our budget.  I figured that we are a “Missional family” living in a suburban context, why not do what I do when we are in any other country.  PRAY! You can’t eat like a foodie in other places in the world, so we don’t do it here.  Kind of a solidarity thing with God’s people who are thankful for a plate of beans in other places on the globe.  I just pray over it, and realize that God will cover the rest.  Please, the kids drink milk and water, we watch the sugar in take, I don’t do homogenized oils or corn syrup if I can help it…..I think we will survive if we don’t by organic apples at 6 bucks a bag.  My kids eat 3 bags of apples a week, you do the math.  Even with all of this my grocery bill is WHACK!  These boys are eating machines and they are not even close to being teenagers.  Oh Mommy!So tomorrow I will give you the recipe for my pulled pork tacos that will feed 8-10 for only 15 bucks.

Grace and peace to all those praying over it, whatever it is,  and trusting God~

Well, Hi there neighbor.  Maybe you havn’t noticed  but our whole lives have been in an upheaval the last 2 months.   I know you all have been losing sleep at  night due to our families displacement. You will be happy to know we are settled nicely into the new space that God has so graciously provided for us. I’ve kind of missed you but my computer has  a deadly virus and I am about to throw it away and say they heck with it so my online time is nill to say the list

My stress fracture is healing away, and is barely painful except when I do too much and our homeschool is back on track and flourishing in our new conditions. I will say that, I could not of even thought of how perfectly this house fits our families needs.  It is always mind blowing how God does what he does when you throw you hands up in the air.   There is too much to this deliverance story for me to type here in this one small space, but rest assured that I wake up daily, and go to sleep nightly with a song of thanksgiving on my heart.  I actually cried when I heard we would get this house.

I have NEVER been unloaded and unpacked as quickly in all our 11 moves as I have in this house.  Maybe something about being on one level and having storage space has something to do with it.  I do have curtians and a few more pictures to hang but other then that, I can put my finger on everything I need.  Isn’t that amazing? In one week.  God is so good and I have had so many dear friends pitch in to help me out.  Maybe it is because they couldn’t stand my whining any longer, or maybe they just love me.  This whole move has solidified to me my love language as “acts of service”.  Tell me you love me by helping me out.  I have some people who REALLY love me. 

Here is our family room and the piano is finally tuned and ready for some lessons with a much better curriculum solution.  The one  I started with we all hated, so we stopped.  Now that it is tuned and I like the new curriculum, we are starting again.  I leave The Art of God book open to different pages every day.  My kids just sit and stare at the beautiful images contained within that book.  They typically play a little tune as they do.  Isn’t that sweet?  Our family room is cozy and bright and looks out onto a lake.  A LAKE…What the HECK!  I would of been fine…FINE I TELL YOU with a yard but a yard and a view it just overwhelming. I would of been more then fine but this house has a living room too. I don’t even know what to do with a living room.  We have lived in tiny town-homes with one space for eating and living for the past 8 years.  I am kind of lost with this place.

We don’t even have enough furniture to fill it.  It is like a big bowling alley that the kids run their cars on.   I am sure there will be more pics to come, as our life grows into this new space.  We just have the space to invite more and more people into our lives. That is what a house is for you know…..letting people in.  So, now I will sign off a little embarrassed at the house we have been given.  I almost hide my eyes when friends walk in and gasp.  I tell them it was God.  I swear I didn’t’ have ANYTHING to do with this one and I must say I kind of like it that way. Thanks to all our dear family and friends who helped us arrive here.  We did not do this alone.  This is your house too.  Our doors are always open, stop on by, I will have a nice refreshing drink waiting for you!

 Grace and Peace to all of you waiting…rest assured He will deliver you in His good and complete ways!