Merry Christmas!

As I sat here and finished our family newsletter, I thought about how truly blessed we are to have good health, good friends and the "net" to keep in touch.  In the last year, I have seen my kids grow so much physically and spiritually.  I have seen them really try hard this year as we home educate.  I have seen them make wise and stupid choices, but they have learned the consequences of each.

All in all, this has been a most blessed year and I look forward to 2009.  

What's In You?

Wordless Wednesday

My New Look

Well, I figure if I don't get a new look, at least my blog can!!  I've spent a couple of shameless days updating and "beautifying" my blog.  Hope you like it.

Now What?

Depending on how you voted, you are either exuberant or devastated about now.  The results are in and Barack Obama is the newly elected president.  When things go one's way, we love democracy but when it doesn't - well we aren't so excited about the democratic system.

This much I know to be true:

• The USA is strong because of its democracy
• Freedom is never free
• The Bible specifically calls us to pray for our leaders and
• God's Providence is always at work!!

I pray for our country, our leaders and our citizens and I hope, when I am put to rest, that the world was a tiny bit better because I was here.

Vote!!

As we study the Middle Ages and all the injustices the people endured, I am reminded anew of our wonderful, beautiful right to vote.  A right to express your opinion, a right won by blood.  So, I am on my way to vote, hoping the lines are not too long but also hoping lots of people voted.  

Freedom is never free!!  I see that more than ever now....

So Call Me Crazy!!!

The stock market has gone bonkers and the whole world is falling apart!!  I mean, in my home town, we have a major shortage of gas right now.  The price keeps going down though so, if I could buy any gas in my town, I would actually pay less.  Wow, that's a relief.

Well, all these people are going on about the stock market and when I asked them how much they lost they say, "Oh, I don't have enough money to be in the stock market."  Huh?  Why are they so upset then?

Call me crazy, but people just get too excited too fast these days.  Maybe it's the increase in caffeine since Starbucks came to town.  Oh, I forgot, we don't have one of those in my town either.  I just wish some people would stay home and quite getting all the gas from the two stations we have here in our town.  Why don't they just stay home and write senseless things on their blog?

Sheeessshhh..

Wordless Wednesday

109_0903, originally uploaded by Frontier Mom.

Privacy Anyone

Isn't it amazing how true the books we read become as we grow older?  With Sarah Palin's emails hitting the net, is anything sacred anymore?  I mean, as Americans, do we have any privacy left?

I can't help but think of reading "1984" in high school and thinking how ludicrous the whole idea of a Big Brother watching everyone was in our society.  Maybe in other countries, but this would never happen here in America.

Here we are in 2008 and private emails with pictures and cell numbers are printed for the whole world to see.  Nothing is sacred anymore.  My only saving grace is that my emails are so boring, nobody would really care.  However, I better be careful because I might want to run for a political office one day and every part of my life will be exposed.

Wordless Wednesday

Mark Hall & his son from Casting Crowns.

Wordless Wednesday

Hilton Head-1, originally uploaded by Frontier Mom.

Wordless Wednesday

My Goal has always Been to Have a Room Where You Cannot Enter It Without Learning Something!

Here are some pictures of my learning room, all clean and ready for school to begin.

We  spent several days working in the room and I was really pleased to have it tidy for at least one day.

Here is our Lab Dusty acting like he didn't just chew up, and eat I might add, the other half of the green crayon on the floor.  How can I be mad at that face?

Here are my bookshelves all organized by historical category.

Notice the Landmark Books I found at a used book store in town!!

Here are my Tapestry of Grace Books, along with some bibles, reference and classic books.  I even put the colored dot on the spine of my TOG books so I could spot Year 2.

This is a picture of the closet in our Learning Room.  I love these black shelves and I buy a new one every chance I get.  You will also see one beside my desk for printers and such.

I keep the shoe boxes up top for clippings and other things I want to put in a place for safe keeping.  For instance, I label them Human Body, Astronomy, American History, NC History, etc. and when I find a book or article that pertains, I put it in the box.

The things below are paper sorted by color and type, along with math manipulatives, supplies and other things.

Here is our computer work station, with headphones of course.

Milk crates serve as storage for small science books and readers.  I also keep some homeschooling how-to books here.

Here is the view of Trey's desk area and laptop work station.

Here is the view from the door coming into our Bonus Room.

Here is my white board, glorious white board.  I also like the white table here so I can keep my books on it as I go over the lesson on the board.

This is behind my desk.  I keep Teacher's Manuals and various other teaching materials back here.  I also keep my devotional materials here.

Beside my desk is another black shelving unit.  I like it because I can keep my Laser and All-In-One Printer here and get to them easily.  This gives me lots of storage.

This is the view from my desk.  The Eagle's View!!

And yet another view.

And, you will usually see my coffee pot on this table.  I also keep a fan underneath and all 36 weeks of my TOG printouts are in the rubbermaid container underneath!!

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Washington, DC - Here we come.

We are leaving in the morning on a 4-H trip to the capital.  I am really looking forward to climbing on the bus and taking a nap, followed by lots of reading.  I'm really feeling the stress of our school year beginning on August 18th.  Although I was doing really good early in the summer in terms of planning, now I seem to be interrupted every few minutes.

All this to say, I'm packing lots of stuff to read and review.  I think the bus trip is going to just be awesome and, multi-tasker that I am, I hope to get lots of reading done too!

We Won the District!!

Trey, #10, was excited after winning by one today in the 9 & 10 All Star Tournament.

After downloading a trial version of Lumapix, I couldn't wait to try it out with some good ole baseball pictures.

Rain and Baseball

We've been trying to play All-Stars this week.  Twice we have driven 45 minutes, only to have the games called due to rain.

Wyatt plays on the 11/12 year old team and Trey plays on the 9/10 year old team.  They have each played a game, Wyatt's team lost and Trey's team won.  Our cleats on the back porch drying out from two nights ago, if that tells you how wet the fields were.

Hopefully we get our games in tonight at 6:00 pm.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Meet Princess Belle

She is a Siberian kitty.  She is already getting really comfy in the house.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Here is Sheyanne, ready for her gymnastics recital.