Advent Candles and Christmas Scriptures

I am really behind in my blogging but wanted to get in a post on Advent candles.  I have been so inspired by all of the different ways people celebrate Advent, some simple, some elaborate.  I made this one last year and think I will use it again this year.  The pedestal is from Pottery Barn, the candles and candle holder and moss are from Hobby Lobby, the pinecones are from my Kmart Martha Stewart stash that I have had for years.  I am thinking of changing it up a bit this year and maybe adding some twigs or twine or burlap or something to make it a little more rustic…not sure yet.  We light the candles each Sunday night in December.  I have a little printout that has a scripture and a description of each candle that I read before lighting.  The middle candle is the Christmas Eve candle.

I found these cute printable verses here and printed them on cream colored card stock.  I love that there is a verse for each day in December.  I found a handy little container to put them.  I keep them on the kitchen table in front of the advent and my oldest daughter reads one every night.

Teaching Tool Tuesday

A great tool I found online was this laminated folder clock to help teach "time."  I like how it looks and that it doesn't take up too much room.   Could I make this myself, yes, did I -- no, -- I ordered it but now I can't recall where I purchased it from.  I also use worksheets that I find online to help reinforce our time telling skills

Monday Mommy Quotes

I am late on my Monday post so here it is instead on Wednesday!!

I hope that I am giving credit to the right person for this quote.  I copied it several years ago so here's hoping I am right.  I believe it was by L. Elizabeth Krueger from Raising Godly Tomatoes:

"Life is often "hectic" around here, but my kids come first so I just have to practice saying 'no" to outside activities and anything optional that would prevent me from staying "connected" with my kids.

On a daily basis though, I work to maintain the habit of always being "available" to my children.  That means, that if they come to me for just about anything at just about anytime, I STOP WHAT I AM DOING AND GIVE THEM THE TIME AND ATTENTION THEY WANT AND NEED.  I make a conscious effort to never brush them off, whether it's a 5 year old who wants to show me his latest Lego creation, or a 20 year old who wants to chat about this day at work."

Monday Mommy Quotes…

Today's quote is one I discovered when reading a blog years ago and I don't remember the blog now but she got it from a little book called Gold Dust (and it is free for your kindle!) it was translated from French to English in 1880.  There is a word in the first sentence that I had never heard before and had to look up, it is the word importunities which means "making repeated or annoying requests or demands".  This pretty much describes what a mom hears all day from her little flock.  That is why I love this nugget (pun intended) of wisdom.  I have it typed and framed and hung above my computer desk as a daily, sometimes hourly, reminder.

Few positions in life are so full importunities as that of the mother of a family, or a mistress of a house.  She may have a dozen interruptions while writing one letter, or settling an account.  What holiness, what self-control, is needed to be always calm and unruffled amid these little vexations and never to manifest the slightest impatience!

Leaving the work without apparent annoyance, replying with a smile upon the lips, awaiting patiently the end of a long conversation, and finally returning calmly to the yet unfinished work - all this is a sign of a recollected soul, and one that waits upon God.

Oh! What blessings are shed around them by such patient souls…but alas! How rarely they are to be met with.

Monday Mommy Quotes...

To keep one's voice sweet, one's face bright, one's will steady, one's patience unperturbed, in the arena of the home, in the light of one's own family, is no light task --- Margaret Sangster.

Our upcoming week….

This week on the Homeschool docket...we are going to be learning about Paul Revere because that is who Tony will be dressing up as for Halloween.  Those of you who know me very well know that------I hate, despise, deplore, Halloween.  I don't believe as a Christian I should celebrate it and I feel very guilty when I do...BUT, my husband isn't there yet with me so I try to at least make the kids dress up in something non offensive. So historical characters seemed like a good compromise and give us an excuse to research and learn about the person they are dressing up as!  Mikayla is going as a Colonial Girl.


Editor's note:   The word "damn" is said by a soldier to Paul Revere but there are no pages numbers so I can't tell you what page it is on.

Mikayla is continuing her Apologia studies on the Solar System and in particular, the Sun.  As an addition to Apologia we are reading The Sun by Elaine Landau.  Of course we will be working on the usual copy work, math, reading, etc.

Editor's note:  This is NOT written from a Christian perspective so beware, most of the facts seem accurate and overall I really like this book except for the whole 500 billion years, blah blah blah….

We have a busy week starting tonight with my Acorn Garden Club meeting, Tuesday is Horse and Reader, Wednesday is AWANA which will be at the local Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, Thursday is well, you know…Friday I have the Grout Doctor coming over to give us an estimate for cleaning and sealing our floor tile and later that day we will be taking our daughter up to a local campground to stay with my in-laws overnight.

Countdown Calendar

From a blog that I subscribe to, I saw this adorable little countdown calendar that can be used for Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas and it is on sale!!  Countdown Calendar

Our Day..

Just another typical day as far as school goes.  We are working on our AWANA verses and books because we have AWANA tonight.  We work on them all during the week but we review on Wednesday to keep it fresh in their minds.

Mikayla listened to "Heidi' on audio, worked on times tables using an ipad app.  For her copy work, I had downloaded (who knows when because I download stuff and then forget that I downloaded it so I am trying to make it a point to check my homeschool folder and my download folder for things that I want to use) some poetry entitled "The Months" by Sara Coleridge.  She also worked on math problems and her times tables using an ipad app.

Tony worked on reading out of his online McGuffey Primer reader and also worked on a lot of copy work.  He had to redo a page because he didn't follow my instructions and then he had to do it over again, because he didn't hear/follow my instructions again.

I am working with both of my kids on their attentiveness.  I noticed sometimes, or actually a lot of times, they hear me but they don't always HEAR me.  I don't like repeating something when I know they heard me but they weren't being attentive.  I think it is a habit, especially being homeschooled because you know your teacher will have the time to explain things to you if you don't get it the first time, which is true, but, they have the responsibility to be attentive and focus on me and what I am saying.  I love this definition for being attentive:

Showing the worth of a person by giving undivided concentration to his words.

If someone is important to you, you will listen to every word they say.  When we are dating, we hang on to every word that our soon to be marriage partner says.  We look at them, acknowledge what they are saying, etc.  We need to do that with every person that God places in our path.  Show others worth by listening to them.

Homeschool Earthquake Drill

Today we participated in the National Shake Out Earthquake Drill, it is held on October 17 at 10:17 a.m.  I gave the kids a lesson on what to do and the best places in the house to go to when there is an earthquake!  Then we did the drill at 10:17.

Mexican food in Exeter

I try to make a big breakfast on Sunday morning before we head out to church to set a nice tone for the day.  After church we like to go out to eat, it is nice to give mom a break from having to fix lunch. One of our favorite restaurants is in a small town about 15 minutes from where we live.  It is a mexican food restaurant and the food is delicious and the service is wonderful.  If you are ever in Exeter, CA you will have to check it out!

Ivory Soap Experiment

I found an easy, no frills experiment on pinterest (of course).  We tested the bar of Ivory Soap againts a bar of Dial soap to see which one floats (didn't get a pic of that) and then we popped the Ivory Soap bar in the microwave for 2 minutes to see what would happen.  I actually stopped the experiment about 30 seconds early because the soap was growing all over the inside of my microwave!

Before...

During...

After... I gave the kids their very own bag of "soapy goodness"

Here are some pics of our homeschool room, of course I cleaned it up just for the pics…

Our work table

Top of our bookcase

Mom's work desk

The wall by my computer area

Our library, the homeschool side is on the left and pretty messy

One of our favorite signs

Work and art display wall

Shepherd's Pie

I have been meaning to make Shepherd's Pie for years, literally, even though I am vegetarian and am not going to eat it, I know my family would like it.  I cut out the recipe from the Everyday Foods magazine that I think is no longer in print but I stuck it in my recipe binder and it sat there for years.  Here it is finally, the family loved it, and was quick and easy.  Meat...potatoes...veggies..

Homeschool themes from a brilliant homeschool mom

I was so excited to find this blog By Sun and Candelight via a pinterest link.  She organizes her homeschool year (and summer too) by themes.  She puts all of the holidays, activities, foods, field trips, books, etc. that she wants to use or celebrate for the month into a document that she prints out and uses to plan her week.  I have been so scatter brained about various field trips, foods to bake, days to introduce and celebrate in our homeschool that I miss out on a lot of teaching opportunities. She puts it all in one place - BRILLIANT!

I copied her themes from her blog and pasted them into a word doc and then I altered it to fit my needs.  But here is a pic of mine so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

I fixed this pic in iphoto but it is still posting wrong...

October is only 2 pages in total.  I just took pics of the different sections so you can see it better.  I am still tweaking it but I think it is really going to help me capture all that is in my head.

Fall decorations...

It is finally feeling like fall around here so thought I would post some pics from around the house.

Entryway table - most of the pumpkins I bought at the dollar store a few years ago and the larger ones I purchased at Good Good's Visalia - an antique and not so antique store and the hedgehog I bought at Joann's this year..

          Fireplace mantel...pumpkins and acorns purchased from Joann's for half price this year....

More pumpkins on my dining room table, I think all of these were purchased at the dollar store.  The pedestal they are on was purchased a few years ago from Pottery Barn.

We decided to get out of the heat on Saturday (it was 101 degrees) and go up to the mountains, we are close to Sequoia National Park so we headed up there for a picnic and to just relax.  It was about 75 degrees up there and it was beautiful, not too crowded yet with tourists.  The Sequoia Shuttle was running too!

setting up the picnic table...

Selena eating lunch

Dad and kiddos

chairs

the redwood trees near our campsite

playing in the river

Tony dunking his head in the ice cold river...

Sequoia shuttle

Not totally roughin' it when you have a market like this but we like knowing it is there...

We usually forget something and we love the gift shop too!

Play dough...

Just a few play dough creations, one of them spells mom...if you look at it sideways...

Tony made a cookie

Mikayla made this cake

and this one...

This morning we did some cleaning up and finished the horse project that we received at Horse and Reader, those are done so I can get the homeschool table ready for well,....homeschool.

Today we made birthday cards for my dad and then worked on our core subjects.