Just a small town girl

This last fall we moved to a small town on the Ozark Plateau in SW Missouri. So far we love it here. Things have been rough to say the least over the last few years but no mater what I have tried to keep my faith. Being here in this beautiful God's country it is giving me such strength and a positive outlook. I know that I can do all things through Him who gives me that strength. This was truly a blessing in disguise.

Mandy

The Reality of Diabetes

I became aware of a wonderful short documentary from the Sundance Institute that shows the reality of what daily life with Type 1 Diabetes can be like. CAN BE not is every single day. I was so heartbroken that the comments on the NY Times page by diabetics themselves no less show just how uneducated people are about how deadly this disease is. It only takes one low to be too low. I see people talk about using CGMs (continuous glucose monitors) as a kind of cure all and that if you manage it like “you should” then all is rosy. I am here to tell you that you can do everything by the book and sometimes it just isn’t good enough! Sometimes your child still will die in their sleep because this disease is DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE! If you understand only that I will be happy. Not every person’s body  responds in the same way to every assistive device. 

This is a disease that has so many things affect it’s manifestations. You have a low blood sugar and your CGM alerts you but your lows cause you to be combative and complacent, loopy, out of it. You can’t get your sugar to rise fast enough and you pass out. You have done everything right but your body betrays you what then? This documentary MidnightThreeSix has shown that people with diabetes do not have to fear that scenario with people like Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers .

Even with my son having a volatile case of Type 1 no one ever told us about this or that he might qualify for disability. Doctors just write a script and off you go but with T1D it is not so easy. Sure your numbers average out and look great to the doc but all it takes is one number to end your life in an instant. With a Service Dog my son’s life can be so much more fulfilling and freeing and going to bed not so scary, eating not so agonizing. One day my dream is to say goodbye to Diabetes and not goodbye to my son because of it.

Mandy

A New Year, A New Term

What I am supposed to be doing

What I am actually doing

 

So here I sit trying to think of ways to make tomorrow better, or I am planning my planning I  suppose you might say. My children have been using a checklist this year and while I think it works I am not crazy about it. I want something that I can put in specific instructions if I want to, but keep it simple and list like so I can easily see what they have completed each day. I am looking at something like this method Life As Mom has. It reminds me of MFW planner sheets which I like but I want o keep it to one page. Not sure I am up to the task.

Using Ambleside Online means most of my planning is done for me I just have to work out the details of when to do each reading. For some reason I am wondering if what I have been doing is working or if it is other circumstances that has my children not succeeding. All these things are making me drag my feet in the planning of our next term. I want to make it better, have them succeed, I think I need to have more firm expectations for them. Just not too sure what those should be. How do y’all refresh your students workloads?

As a CM mom I guess I am not certain how to step it up from straight narrations to something more substantial for the older crowd without giving a very specific paper topic. I think I need a few extra months to just read all I can in this area. No that’s not possible, okay I will just have to buckle down then and do my best with what I already know and fill in the gaps as I go. Man I wish I would have known about Miss Mason back in my college days!

Mandy

On Happy Holidays

I trust you all are well fed and feeling warm fuzzies after the holidays. If not (and I know there are plenty that are not) I truly am sorry and my prayers are with you. I myself have had no real reason to be exceptionally happy this season, my husband is still out of work and my family is living with my parents for the 4th year in a row, which is cause to much heartache and trial. However this year I reached down, I mean way down into my prideful self and did something I don’t usually do. I let it be known that we needed help. I shared with our new church family on only our second visit how bad things have gotten and how despair has been creeping into my heart and pushing the Lord out. My pastor’s instant action was prayer, which had I not been with my children would have brought me to my knees, and an offer of gifts. I was floored!

The following week I had friends and family provide even more. I was astonished! As the weeks turned to days before Christmas I was beginning to worry about not having enough money to pay for our storage unit (which has nearly everything we own in it) and losing our things to auction. My amazing friends you have bought soap from me in that time of worry and given me enough that the weight is lifted. I am so grateful and filled with joy!

Needless to say the night before Christmas I was the one who could not sleep I was in awe and wonder of the goodness of my Lord and Savior. He worked it out for His glory. This Christmas was the best one ever and my children were so thrilled over all of their gifts, each one chosen with love, kindness, and care. Thank you dear angels, my cup runneth over.

 

Mandy

You can’t be joyful until you rejoice

Listening to Pastor speak about Joy today really struck home for me. I keep asking God why nothing changes in my situation. Why after 4 years we are still homeless and jobless. We are faithful and doing what I thought we were supposed to be doing to live our lives for Christ.Yet as I heard Pastor Dusty say those words, “You can’t have joy without rejoicing.” I knew in my heart I had not been joyful. I had brought my family down to earthly things. Complaining about our situation to my husband who felt helpless to change it with out a good income instead of rejoicing that we have shelter and are all together. Getting angry when I am mistreated or annoyed by another instead of rejoicing that they trust me enough to let their guard down.

Rejoicing is the outward expression, the confession, of joy in your life and without that confession there can simply not be joy. Everything else is just simply temporal happiness that depends on your current mood. I know this is something I have to change. I pray the Lord does his good work in my heart to that end. Because unless I begin to rejoice always what have I gained, certainly not the joy of my Saviour. But what I have lost goes much further than myself, I have set up all who know me to fail at finding joy in Him as well. What better way to point someone to the cross than to reveal the joy it affords me in even the lowest of times. I should know these things, a long struggle with depression shows me that Jesus is the center of it all and yet I still turn inward and fix my eyes within instead of fixing my eyes on Him. How amazing is our LORD that even while I refuse to see he is my saving grace and never gives up on me. For that I rejoice today!

If you are interested in hearing some of Pastor Dusty’s or Pastor Dave’s sermons visit Ferguson Church of the Nazarene to hear recorded archived messages. They are always timely.

Mandy

Future engineer

If you have a child who adores hands on work maybe First Lego League / First Tech Challenge is a good fit for them. FLL uses Lego Mindstorms to build a robot and program it to do a series of tasks in a timed completion. FTC the teams build a larger metal robot that is both remote operated and programmed to complete a set of obstacle challenges. Our local team, sponsored by Everything Engineered, was a homeschool team and they competed against other local schools doing pretty well for themselves for first years. My son is 12 here and he has had most wonderful experience working with his coaches and teammates this season. You can be sure we will be at it again in a few short months planning for next years competitions. Check it out at www.usfirst.org

Mandy

Tis the season for…

Mishaps and mayhem! I love my children dearly. But what possesses them to do things they have never seen myself or my hubby do? You know things like write on a computer screen.  I would say if we used a stylus I could understand it but we don’t so…why? In the past 2 weeks I have had my 2 1/2 year old son make some beautiful art in both permanent marker and ball point ink. Google to the rescue!

After some searching and debate on which method would be safest for our plasma HP All-In-One machine I took the plunge, hoping I would not make the situation worse. First up the permanent marker. Apparently writing over the marks with dry erase marker erases them. Yep worked like a charm with minimal effort. I just wiped down the screen after each small section I worked on.

A little tougher customer was the ball point pen. There was some discrepancies in what I found on whether using various solvents would ruin the antiglare finish so I opted for a drier method first go-round. A plain ol’ rubber eraser, actually the eraser on the end of my papermate mechanical pencil. It took a little more effort but it did the trick. I am happy to say my screen is now baby art free and hopefully baby will decide he likes paper better very soon. Because he is lightening quick you know.

Our Favorite Christmas Tradition

A few years ago while introducing our children to Dickens my husband and myself came across a full audio recording of A Christmas Carol read by Sir Patrick Stewart. The children were immediately smitten and an annual tradition was begun. Every year since then we initiate our holiday season with this wonderful gem of sin and redemption. If you have never listened to it before with your family I linked it here for you to enjoy.

 

Mandy

Christmas is coming

Lately I have been spending a little more time on a fabulous hobby of mine, making soap. Actually it began over a year ago as making whipped body butter for my family.

During the dry winter months my little ones’ eczema gets so bad and my hands start aging before my very eyes. I had wanted to try to make my own lotion for a while and after looking around at some Kindle books on Amazon found a recipe I liked. I did not really think too much about it but we all loved how it felt and smelled, so this year as our homeschool craft fair came around my children wanted to make some more to sell. I supervised and helped them label the various tubs (we made 4 kinds) and they actually sold pretty well.

I kind of thought it would be really wonderful if one day I could bring in some money to help hubby not be so stressed since he is out of work. So naturally I asked God to take that silly thought out of my head because hubby had a perfect job opportunity. We were going through the formalities  because we all knew how perfect it was. Uh huh, you guessed it, poof that job fizzled out. Instead God put it in my heart to try making soap, so I thought well at least it will save us money and gave it a go. I ended up loving it and mentioned it to a few friends and had planned on making some nice Christmas gifts for family since we are not getting any money in. Well those few friends all wanted some and they loved them so much they wanted more so I have been pretty busy crafting soap for Christmas.

I gotta say I am in awe of how God works and while this is something so small and not ever on my radar I know he has a plan for all of us and it is always perfect! So how is God moving you this Christmas?
Mandy

Cuddly backpack buddies

 

Patch Buddies are an adorable combination of a Plush Toy and a custom Backpack that has a built-in carrying case. There are ten playful animals and four unique characters in the Bubele's Patch Buddy collection and each has a unique personality that will provide endless hours of entertainment and comfort, at home or on the go. Safety is important to us and to your children. So we manufacture and produce our products with the highest quality materials, dedication to safety and especially designed to protect your little ones. To see our loveable and playful collection visit our website at http://patchbuddies.com/ or our facebook page.

Here you can save 40% on any buddies purchase. Just click the link for the coupon,40% off use code: BUDDY224.

My 2 youngest have birthdays and these are perfect, and so stinkin cute!

Mandy

Kelly Kits for Christmas

Being a homeschool mom planning is a major marker of a successful day. My children love being creative but sometimes what I plan is not enough or I don’t want to get out the messy art stuff (even though it is my favorite) because we are in tight quarters right now. The best solution I have found is to use Kelly Kits. You have 2 options to choose from: The Monthly Delivered Art Subscription is a prepackaged kit in one of the five art disciplines with enough materials to complete one art lesson. Gift Packs are prepackaged kits that contain enough supplies for 2 children to complete 5 activities.

I think we will be so happy using this as our art curriculum for the rest of this year because it is all planned and I do not have to go searching for supplies which means we will be doing more fun stuff!

From the site
    “Kelly Kits encourage art play using a wide variety of creative tools & materials beyond what coloring books can offer and are the perfect holiday gift for your creative kiddo!  For 72 hours only Kelly Kits is having a site wide sale where all products are 10% off!  Get your favorite little artist a years worth of art kits or a special gift pack with 5 activities that explore the five discipline of art:  Drawing, Painting, Print Making, Collage & Sculpting!”

Right now Kelly Kits is having a couple of great promotions. Check them out HERE

 

 

You can follow Kelly Kits on FB HERE

Have creative Holiday everybody!

Mandy

My First Guest Post

Over at So you Call Yourself a Homeschooler Carlie is hosting a summer series on homeschool methods and approaches and I am so excited to be a guest poster. I am writing about how Charlotte Mason has influenced our schooling and how we are using her methods in our home. I hope you take the time to visit and read all the posts by clicking the button below.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook 06/15/2012

The Simple Woman's Daybook
FOR TODAY
Outside my window...Warm, still and clear...
I am thinking...I should have woken up earlier…
I am thankful for...my children and being able to teach them…
From the kitchen...lunch being prepared…
I am wearing...jeans and a gray tank…
I am creating...digital scrapbook layouts…

I am going…to the library later today… 
I am reading…Engaging The Prodigal… 
I am hoping...my oldest son enjoyed his stay at camp this past week…
I am hearing…my middle son reading By the Great Horn Spoon…

Around the house...my daughter’s toys are strewn about…

One of my favorite things...waking up early and feeling awake instead of wanting to crawl right back under the blankets…

A few plans for the rest of the week:  Packing up books from this year and beginning to plan for our new curriculum… 
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Mandy

A New Endeavor

Ever since I was introduced to scrapbooking I have been in love. I even became a Stampin Up consultant and enjoyed it immensely. Storage was a problem and so I began looking at digital scrapbooking but never really felt drawn to it. Now that I have a good digital camera I began looking more seriously.

After seeing a few freebie sets put out by others and asking about what is the easiest and most cost effective product, I decided on Photoshop Elements 10, which I received this past Mother’s Day from my awesome family. I am still learning but have realized designing Digiscrap sets really isn’t all that difficult for me. So, here is my first attempt:

So, what do you think? Four papers with a slight shimmer and great texture. I am thinking after much practice that I may even make sets to sell. I would love comments on improvements, tutorials, pricing suggestions, and how to get started. If enough of you like these papers I’ll post them on here for free.

Mandy

Heritage History~TOS Review

As a homeschool family we own a lot of books both in physical and e-book format. I try to purchase physical books whenever possible but with hubby out of work for a year and a move to a much smaller space that has been cut back this year. Not to mention I am beginning to run out of book shelves. I was so grateful to be chosen to review Heritage History’s Classical Curriculum-Young Reader’s Library.

From the Website:

“The Heritage Classical Curriculum is the easiest, least expensive, and most enjoyable way to learn traditional history. Our "living books" reading program uses narrative histories that were popular with young people of earlier generations and features books of interest to students of all ages.