Bringing Good Home

I can’t believe it’s May already! Yes, Mother’s Day is just around the corner (hint, hint) and Tiany at Less of Me, More of Him has put together a list with a bundle of Mother’s Day contests - which by the way I think was very sweet of her! Stop by, check out the contests, give Tiany a “hello” and don’t forget to check the deadline on each contest since we’re getting kind of close to Mother’s Day already.

By the way, May is Kids’ Rooms over at OrgJunkie’s Organizing Round-Up. Check it out.

Gas prices got you down? Check out this list of average gas prices around the world. Holy Chihuahuas!

Here’s another educational gem for you - I recently downloaded Bridge to Reading (for FREE mind you) and the girls have really been enjoying it. It’s reinforcing spelling for Princess and introducing reading to Drama Queen. I give it two thumbs up!

Next week we’re introducing multiplication so I’m on the prowl for resources.

• Multiplication.com
• Dosity.com (Multiplication Section)
• Multiplication Idea Bank at mathcats.com

Well, that’s about it. Have a great weekend!

Aahhh!! What a crazy, crazy busy week this is. My to do list is about as long as the Nile - and growing. Everything is leading up to a joint birthday party for the girls on Saturday. It’s crazy - but it’s exciting, too!!

So here’s a speed round low down of all my weekly posts. Ready, Set, Go!!

Monday Meanderings and MPM - Um, yeah. Cleaning plan: Clean like crazy! Menu Plan: Eat food!! I confess, I bought ingredients for specific dinners, we’ll probably have sandwiches for lunch most days,…but which day we eat what is really not at the top of my list!

Tackle It Tuesday: LOTS of tackles, like you would not believe. I have a lot of clean laundry to fold, some regular housework to do, and several outside tasks to accomplish before Saturday. I have some things that need to go to the dump, some things that need to go to the burn pile, some things that need to go to the thrift store, and also my uncle is going to come over at some point to help me put up a 100 ft. fenceline to keep the kids out of the poison ivy. Because you know how I feel about poison ivy.

Works For Me Wednesday: Making lists. MAKING LISTS, BABY. It’s the only way I make it through crazy weeks like this in any kind of orderly fashion. Otherwise my scatterbrained self would, well, it wouldn’t be pretty…

Come Shoot The Breeze With Me Thursday: Woo-hoo! Thursday I’ll be taking the girls to my mom (meeting her half way) so they can stay the weekend with her. She’ll bring them back on Saturday just a couple hours before the party. They’re REALLY looking forward to it! On the other hand, I’ll be driving half the day. In the meantime, enjoy these links that I would have shared on Thursday:

• Make a Farm
• Home Made Cleaners
• Catechism for Young Children
• Live Science

I don’t have regular posts on Friday’s but if I had the time I’d probably tell y’all about my fabulous sister-in-law coming over to help me make the best birthday cake ever. Because y’all know what my cakes look like. Friday’s also the day we’re putting together “the gift” - yeah, a bit of secrecy… I’ll let you in on that one later.

And then Saturday is the big day! Drama Queen turned 5 a few weeks ago, Princess turns 8 in about a week, and we’re having one big bash for the both of them that afternoon. Guaranteed to be bucket loads of fun.

So that’s it, y’all have a great week. I’ll catch back up with you in a few days or five. God’ll get me through it all!! I’ll try to come back with all my hair and no additional gray!

Hey, all, how’s the weather? It’s quite nice here - except that it’s allergy season. Achoo!

We had a lovely visit with my parents over the weekend. I can’t believe my mom drove that far to come get us and then bring us back. Ella está loca en la cabeza. O el corazón. Cualquiera. ;) But I love her!

We went shopping, met my new baby niece, went to my mom’s new church and met them, and relaxed and hung out visited a lot. I’ll have to tell you all about the trip to the outlet mall, but that’s a whole post in and of itself!

Also, my mom gave me some soap-making stuff that she had (I guess she’s had her run with that adventure and went back to store-bought soap) and since there was a bottle of glycerin in there and some green apple scent, I’m really looking forward to trying some more new things! Woo-hoo!!

I’ve been convicted to “get it in gear” for the rest of the school year. We’re definitely planning on testing Princess at some place such as Sylvan at the end of May. It’s not necessary but it will help prove to us (and mostly Big Daddy who is not home during school hours) whether or not she would be able to pass second grade and start third grade if she were in public school.

We school year round, so technically she doesn’t have to finish second grade until the end of July. Since we’d test her at the end of May or beginning of June, that puts me on the spot a little.

You can know for certain that I do not want her to fail that test! For one thing, it would mean public school in August, I’m sure of it. Not for my thinking, but for Big Daddy’s who -though he was initially the instigator behind home-schooling, has now become unsure of it and is worried about getting behind. For another thing, I would feel like I have failed her. I know that, too.

We need to finish anyway, but I feel this need to make sure we’ve covered all the necessary things before that test. My own personal assessment is:

• Reading Level - just fine, no worries. In fact, I tested her online yesterday and confirmed that her reading level is above average.
• Spelling (and phonics) - not so much. She stil spels very funetickly. However, she’s been improving a lot, and that’s an easy fix, really. I let her take the test on spellingfun.com, and I’ll give her some extra spelling practice from Skillswise, Catch the Spelling, Houghton Mifflin, i4C, and Gamequarium
• Grammar - She’s pretty good at grammar, but her biggest problem is that she either doesn’t use periods at all or. she. over. uses. them. Normal? I don’t know. She does know that she needs to and when, I just think she’s not really paying attention to it. For extra practice, she can use these grammar activities from Harcourt and also i4C.
• Math - She can add and subtract double digits; also whole tens and hundreds. She just needs to get faster at it. Place value, telling and writing time is just fine. But by far her weakest is money math. We’ll use these activities to help: Online flashcarsds from Apples4theteacher.com (I’ve been having her do this each day and watching her speed increase as she gets better at it.); and the math, time and measuring activities from Woodlands Junior School. I can give her the Saxon placement test again to get an idea of where she stands now. (We’re not using Saxon now but we’ll be using it next year.)
• Health and Social Studies, etc.. she’s probably okay but I have no idea how much of that is on the test!
• And as far as science goes… *insert blood curdling scream here*… I really don’t feel like we have done science any justice. We don’t have a book (I wish we did) but I’ve found some great resources to help me make sure we cover the basics as we piece things together from the internet and library. This is a pretty good list of basic concepts for basic 2nd grade science from about.com. There is a science section on Skillwise. I LOVE this site from McMillon/McGraw-Hill. We’ll also go to the library to find books about the various topics.

I’m building a school notebook for Princess’s school stuff, something that will need a post of it’s own but is similar to my home management binder in form and function, but suffice to say that I’m adding a lot of this on there to help me keep track of it all. I feel much better after having a more specific plan. I always feel better with a plan! (Right, mom?)Other good sites for other ages that I found while searching for these:

• Online Activities and Interactive Learning for all subjects and all grade levels from Scholastic.
• BrainPopJr.com
• “Where’s that U.S. State game” from Funschool.

So school on the brain is what’s going on around here… what’s going on with y’all? Leave me a comment and let me know if you go through these things, too, with your children, or if you have any recommended sites or online tests, or just in general any other thoughts. Or shucks, even questions. I read every comment and try to respond if I can. I mean, who doesn’t love comments?

Hello, bloggy people! I’ve got some interesting tidbits for you today. The weather here is beautiful so grab a seat on the porch and a lemonade and stay a while.

First up, the Ultimate Blog Party is coming to an end. They’ll be drawing prizes soon, so if you haven’t checked that out yet, you’ve still got a little time but not much! In case you missed it, yes I did have a big “reveal” this week, and I’m now signing my posts with my name - woohoo! I’m confusing people a little, but I’m sure y’all will get used to seeing it soon. Also, I’ve already introduced you to a few new people, but here’s a few more:

• Cindy at Go Workout Mom has a neat little website chalk-full of information about exercising, ideas for exercising, you name it. I’m adding her to my Google Reader in hopes that she’ll inspire me to exercise more. Well, it’s worth a shot. She also has a giveaway on the list of prizes for the UBP.
• Rebecca at Fun and Free Giveaways has crafted a pretty little site for -yup- GIVEAWAYS! I like giveaways. ‘Nuff said.
• Alyssa at Life From My Laptop visited my blog party this week and after visiting her blog, she looks like a very interesting person to get to know. We have several things in common, but also enough differences to keep things interesting. Check her out, I think you’d like to meet her, too.

My mom sent me a neat video this week, called “The Watchmaker.” I love the narrated poem, which tells a story for young children about creation and design by God. Additionally, their main website, Kids 4 Truth is full of more vidoes, devotions and information about missionaries and overall looks like a very neat website. I’m adding it Princess’ bookmark folder of approved websites.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my other blog this week and doing a lot of information gathering as well. Increasing readership has never been a main focus for this blog, though I do enjoy meeting new bloggy friends. In fact, I’ve always tried to avoid spending too much time on here. However, my intent with Imperishable Beauty is different so I’ve been reading up on tips for writing well, crafting a good website, building readership, etc. Check out these informative and easy-to-read articles if you, too, are considering setting up a business-related blog. (Most of them were found via Blogging Basics 101.)

• Ten Tips to Increase Your Blog’s Income (each one is in a different post.)
• Step-By-Step Training Center - Provides info on a variety of topics.
• Ten Housekeeping Tips for Your Blog - very insightful!
• Blog Setup: 40 Practical Tips - dude! I’m gonna be digging through this one for a while.
• Five Ways to Promote Your Blog Niche - all very useful.
• How to Format Images for Feed Readers - good to know.

Also, several of you have asked about my 12 Days of Easter. You can find my original post here. I’ve written further about this here. Also, my friend Katie has been writing about Easter all week.

That’s it for this week. God Bless!

Hey all… It’s a cold and rainy day today so come on in. Check out a little bit of what I’ve found around the blogosphere and then we can all get back to work - cuz we all probably have some more important we could be doing, right?

Here’s a little bit about what’s been going on around here.. “Spring Cleaning” has been a little bit of a theme for me. I started with my kitchen, as a part of the Monthly Organizing Round-Up, and I’ll be working on my dining room next, but though I’ll follow along with some of her monthly organizing “challenges,” I have some things that just can’t wait. I want to get quite a bit of organizing and purging and deep cleaning done over this next month.

Read the Monthly Organizing Round-Up final post for kitchens here. Dining rooms are next up, and if you have any puzzling dining room dilemmas, Laura is taking questions here.

I’ve also been “Spring Cleaning” my blog a bit. I’ve been cleaning up my sidebar and extra pages a little. And I hope to get around to the links page I mentioned a while back. I’m also going to be starting up a new “series” soon, that I’m really excited about because it’s going to help me write some God-focused and hopefully thoughtful stuff. Hopefully. I’m not going to try to make it a regular weekly feature, because I’m not very good at that, but it’ll be regular.

Want a few spring cleaning related articles to read? Here you go:

• Spring Cleaning 101 from RealSimple.com
• Spring Cleaning Chore Checklist from OrganizedHome.com

Granted, Spring Cleaning isn’t quite as necessary if you have a great daily cleaning plan and already keep a fairly organized home, but it’s still a good opportunity to purge, review your organizational systems for needed improvements, and move the heavy furniture you don’t usually move for a good vacuuming or dusting underneath.

A friend sent me this amazing link this week. I just love hummingbirds, for the way they remind me that God is truly amazing and sovereign and creator of all things! But for as long as I have loved them, I have never seen pictures of baby hummingbirds, or even thought about how tiny their babies would be - check it out!

• Hummingbird Nest ‘03
• Hummingbird Nest ‘05

My friend, Katie, at Boasting In My Weakness, has just started a series of posts called Celebrating Christ’s Redemption. Easter is quickly approaching, you know! You can find her posts here and follow along as she leads us in ways to celebrate Easter.

Read my own post about Easter from last year. I haven’t really started planning Easter for this year - I should get on the ball!!

Congrats to my pastor and his wife on the birth of their new baby boy, Eli!

Well that’s about it for this week.. I’ve been slowly working on a fun post for the Ultimate Blog Party tomorrow.. see you there!

I have a lot of cool stuff to share this week. Some of it I found this week, but a lot of it I’ve been collecting. This week we’ve been dealing with sickness and I haven’t had a large amount of computer time. But I’ve got a few minutes now so grab a cup of coffee (stir in some sugar substitute and chocolate syrup - yum!) and take a time out for a few minutes while you browse.

First let’s start with some cute little animals shall we? Everybody loves cute little animals. Especially Little Prince - he’s into animal sounds right now and you can often find him wandering the house or playing with his toys making animal sounds of some kind. A couple of weeks ago he was walking through the living room while I was on the phone with my mom saying, “Wherrrrre’s the kiiiitty?” (Much like you might say “where’s the baby?” right before you say “peekaboo!”) And then to call the cat, instead of saying “Here kitty, kitty”.. my 2 year old son started meowing. Only instead of sounding like me-yow, it came out like m-ow (like rhymes with how.) I broke out in laughter mid-sentence. I guess you just had to be there. So about a week ago my mom sent me this video for Little Prince to watch (actually I had to replace the original video- the other one wasn’t working):

[http://youtube.com/watch?v=T1_nZvxh5kI&feature=related]

Little Prince was napping when my mom sent me the link, but while he finished his nap I also found these:

• Horse
• Sheep
• Goat
• Cat
• Dog
• Elephant
• Lion
• Tiger

I’m glad that I did, too, because when he woke up and I showed him, he giggled and giggled and wanted me to play them again. And of course he ran around the living room mimicking them.

And while you’re at it, watch this really neat video about a Hippo named Jessica who made herself at home in a house in South Africa. She doesn’t make any noises (couldn’t find any videos of hippo noises - what sound do hippos make?).

Okay, we haven’t done a whole lot in school this week (or anything), but I do have a few new sites to share. Maybe today or tomorrow the girls will feel better and we’ll get to do something.

• An Old-Fashioned Education - “Miss Maggie” has supplied us with a wealth, a plethora, of free resources and downloads on all manner of subjects for all ages. Many of these are public domain resources available that she has taken the time to organize and compile in an easy to find list. (Thanks to Tons of Sons)
• Phonics Posters - Free posters available for print. I plan on plastering them all over the school room! (Thanks to Tons of Sons)
• Free Unit Studies - From History to Science to Literature and more for a variety of grade levels. (Thanks to Tons of Sons)
• Super Teacher Worksheets - Printable worksheets for Math, Spelling, Handwriting, etc. I can’t pick out any one area, I’m going to be printing worksheets from every section.
• Golden Books Print Factory - I don’t think I’ve shared this before, but if I have oh well! This site has a selection of printables for pre-k and kindergarten.
• Family Education - A large list of printables for a variety of ages on a variety of topics - I’m interested in the Forms and Charts section - woo-hoo! (I don’t think I’ve shared this one either, I found it buried in my bookmarks and I had forgotten about it.)

I’ve been working to improve my morning devotionals and this will certainly help!

• Read Through The Bible In a Year - This is an awesome, awesome site with various plans for reading through the bible in a year, available in over 50 translations. I’m reading through the ESV translation chronologically. You can start on the 1st or 15th of any month and it will adjust the plan for you (or you can start now and try to catch up!) My favorite part is that after I click on a link for one of the daily readings, it gets crossed out. So whether you read online or in your personal bible, if you at least click on the link it will mark it off and you can easily keep track of what you have and haven’t read. Awesome.
• Free Christian E-Books - Prayer for All People has a large selection of links to Christian texts available for download or online viewing - From John Bunyan to DL Moody to A.W. Tozer (or A.W. Pink take your pick) and many more. (Thanks to Tons of Sons)
• Free John Piper e-Books - Did you know that Desiring God has an entire page of free, downloadable books? I do now. (Thanks to Tons of Sons)
• E-mail Devotionals from Crosswalk.com - Weekly e-mail devotionals by people like Swindoll, Graham, Ingram, Spurgeon, Piper and Others. Not a replacement for daily morning bible study, to be sure, but another way to enhance my bible study throughout the day, throughout the week.

Oh and “won” more thing! I won a couple of things in last week’s giveaway carnival - YAY!

First, I won a little pink poodle purse (ahem, obviously I’m going to give this to one of the girls - or I may choose to give it away to some child in need of encouragement.. I’m just having trouble thinking of someone…) from Critters Who Care. Critters who Care is an organization devoted to bringing joy to children who have suffered traumatic pain in their lives, through providing stuffed animals to children in grief. These children might be dying from cancer, or removed from an abusive situation. A stuffed animal can become a child’s best friend for life. It’s a simple and affordable gesture that can mean a lot to a small child. Click here to find out more.

Secondly, I won an Apron from Giabella Designs! I’m very excited about this one. Last time around I tried very hard to win an apron to no avail (I’ve really been wanting to have not one, but several, pretty aprons!) I still plan to try my hand at making one but I know that I can’t get to that right now. In the meantime, I’ve got an apron being made specially for me that will arrive soon in the mail. She asked my favorite colors and I told her pink/black, pink/brown, and blue/brown. I have no idea which one it will be - it’s a surprise. I’m absolutely giddy! (Thank you!) Check out her Etsy store, too!
Well that’s what’s going on around here this week.. what’s going on for you? By the way, I’ve decided to add a new page to my blog for links. I’ll compile the best resource links (homeschool, spiritual, etc.) all on one page so I (and you) can reference them easily. Look for that sometime next week.

God Bless!

Come shoot the breeze a while,..or in my case the cold and rainy windchill… whatever works. Actually, I don’t have a lot of time to chit-chat, since I’m still catching up on things around here that I got behind on while all the kids were sick. Thankfully, the girls are better, and I think Little Prince is also on the mend since he slept through the night last night for the first time in almost two weeks! Ahhh, that was nice.

So here’s a few things I thought I’d pass on, things you may or may not find as interesting as I do, but hey, take it or leave it.

First up, it’s time for another Bloggy Giveaways carnival. This time Shannon is hosting it on her Bloggy Giveaways site instead of her main site Rocks In My Dryer. All next week you’ll be able to peruse a list of sites giving away totally free things and throw your name in to the hat for some thing really cool. There will be all manner of free stuff available so check it out.

Speaking of HUGE events, the 2nd annual Ultimate Blog Party is on the horizon as well. But first their holding a contest to choose a banner/button design for this year’s party. Yup it’s true, I sent one in. Although I initially did it just for fun, I’m really hoping now that my design makes it as a finalist. Big Daddy and I created it together and I really think it turned out very nice. They’ll select the finalists and post them on their website, Monday, January 28th for their readers to vote and select a winner. Don’t worry, if my design is chosen as a finalist, I’ll be sure to let y’all know! And if you think you might like to try your hand at designing a button as well, there is still time.

The Org Junkie has done it again! She’s come up with another fun and fantastic idea to help us stay on top of our home organization and have fun while doing it. Starting in February she’ll be holding monthly challenges to organize something in a specific area of our homes. February kicks off with the kitchen - PERFECT! For more information check out her post about her Monthly Organizing Round-Up.

During the last blog party, I found this website for these ADORABLE halter aprons that I really like. The cost is just a little out of my price range, though, and ever since I’ve been keeping my eye out for a pattern so that I can make my own. I finally found one - I’m so excited! Meg at Montessori By Hand has put out a great pattern for a price I can actually afford, and I’m looking forward to getting one soon. I see aprons on the horizon… She also made this adorable caterpillar that changes into a butterfly. One of the cutest little educational tools I have ever seen.

Click here for a free coupon for Yoplait yogurt.

Here’s some links for websites for kids about eating healthy and make nutritious decisions:

• http://adisney.go.com/healthykids/
• http://www.dole5aday.com/Kids/K_Index.jsp
• http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/main.asp
• http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html
• http://www.nickjr.com/parenting/health_fitness/dora_food_pyramid.jhtml

Here’s a few websites about Egypt, we’re learning about ancient Egypt for school:

• http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/index.htm
• http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html
• http://www.coloring.ws/egypt.htm

Okay, so that’s all I’ve got for you this week. Have a great weekend!!

It’s the Christmas Edition! I have Christmas and Advent on the brain so I wanted to see what kind of Christmas freebies were floating around on the internet. I’ve even switched my blog theme to something kind of holiday-reminiscent. Like the red?

But first.. we’ve been getting into the spirit of Christmas (that would be a worshipful spirit, you know between the sibling rivalry and the messes) while doing our Advent activities this week. The kids are really enjoying it. So far we have put up our Christmas tree and about half of the ornaments, hung our garland and wreath, set up our traveling nativity, and done our first week’s advent reading. We have talked about Jesus being our Saviour, the Light, our Treasure, Precious, our King, and we’ve talked about how the prophets told of His coming. We’ve made brownies, oatmeal cookies, and we were hoping to make a cobbler today, but perhaps tomorrow. I’ve started reading A Christmas Carol to them, we’ve watched The Star of Christmas, and various other tv shows and movies that have come on tv already.

So it’s getting exciting. I’ve decided that I am going to make each of my kids their Christmas presents this year. I want to make new curtains for the girls’ room and some faux-fur throw pillows for their beds. I might also make a faux-fur throw rug for the floor. I also want to make new curtains for Little Prince’s room as well as a pillowcase and sheet set to go with the quilt I made him as a newborn. If I have room in the budget I want to add a few other accessories for the girls’ room like new lighting, and the material to make a stuffed animal like Boris the duck from Blue’s Clues for Little Prince. But we’ll just have to see. I’m gonna have to get busy if I’m going to get it sewn in time, but most of it is pretty straight-forward and easy. Everything except for the duck. Yeah. The duck will be interesting. We’ll see.

So on to the FREE stuff! Free stuff is fun.

Waste some time Pass the time by playing some of these Christmas themed online games.

Browse these free Christmas fonts.

How about some free Christmas coloring pages, or these Christmas coloring pages?

Kaboose.com has a variety of free ideas, crafts, activities, clip art and games for Christmas.

Free Christmas Piano Sheet Music for Kids.

Here’s a selection of free Christmas printables such as stationary, invitations, and gift tags.

Last but not least, here’s a free printable nativity craft project.

Thrifty Thursday is hosted by mi amiga querida Katie at Boasting In My Weakness. She has a list of free goodies as well (tangible ones!) so stop by and check it out.

Merry Christmas! (It’s almost here - YAY!)

I’ve been scouring the internet searching for freebies. Mostly school freebies, but I’ve found a few other things as well. I’ve been printing a lot of supplementary stuff for our 2nd grader to help her with her math. I did find several websites with a lot of great math printables. But I also found these cool links:

Have an afternoon and need something fun for your kids to do? Try these Simple Pop Ups You Can Make. Check out the Christmas Tree one, wouldn’t that make a neat Christmas card? Of course, these are only for older children who you trust with a pair of scissors.

If animal science is your thing, download this Endangered Species Coloring Book! This coloring book has pages to color and information about the different animals. Did you know the Mission Blue Butterfly is endangered? I didn’t either.

One for your blog: try this handy dandy Button Maker. (I think I’ve been watching a little too much Blues Clues?)

How Stuff Works : From computers to people to food to science, this website is full of articles explaining how stuff works. Informative for any age level. For example, you can read this article about how gravity works. And by the way, did you know that parts of Canada has less of it?

McGruff’s Child Safety! I really like the look of this one. It’s loaded with tons of safety advice for your kids: strangers, safety at home, saying no to drugs and so much more. Using games, stories, and other fun stuff you can teach your kids to think about tough situations and how to be safe in them. Not that it’s a replacement for parental responsibility, but it does look like a fun way to reinforce it.

Fire Safety - A website by the U.S. Fire Administration, uses games to teach children about fire safety.

Free Spelling Curriculum, 30 Lessons for 6-8 grade - An entire curriculum for free. It comes with instructions and everything. If you’re trying to save money on books this could really help! I’m sure you could do a lot of it on your own notebook paper, too, by reading off the list of words for your child to write down, instead of printing it and using so much ink.

Cyber Guides: “Supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature.” Okay, that doesn’t sound nearly as cool as it is. These are complete them units for popular children’s literature. Just click on the age group and then the book and -poof- instant language arts lessons. For example, while reading Charlotte’s Web, your child will pick an animal from a pet adoption website and write a persuasive essay to their parents about why they should be allowed to adopt it; pick an animal, create a spider chart, and write an essay about how to take care of that animal as a pet; write a 3 paragraph report about spiders; write a descriptive paragraph a barns; and create a state fair brochure. Cool!

Browse this list of free homeschool resources such as virtual science experiments and factory tours.

I’m also linking this to Thrifty Thursday at Boasting In My Weakness!! Check it out for more great deals.

Well, this week is already half over. The weekend is right around the corner - God Bless!

It’s a gorgeous day outside here at our house… pull up a chair. Sit and chat a while.

October is a month of getting back to the basics for us. You can’t get more basic than a good home-cooked meal, right? My mom gave me a bottle of Raspberry Chipotle Sauce by Fischer and Wieser about a month ago and in the last couple of weeks I’ve had the opportunity to try it. MM-mmm!!! I give this two thumbs up! I baked some chicken in it once and I basted some turkey breast in it a second time and cooked it in a skillet. Both times it was just delicious. I believe she bought this jar at Costco, but it’s also available here. If sweet and spicy is your thing, this is it.

In school, math is a very basic and essential skill. This past week I gave Princess a Saxon placement test in preparation for switching curriculum. Big Daddy wants me to use Saxon math. Initially I started her on Math-U-See because she was having trouble grasping the concept. Now that she’s got the hang of it, I think moving to Saxon will be just fine. And since it will make Big Daddy feel better, I think it would be wise. She did well on the placement test except for two things: telling time (she only missed one but they have to get them all right to get the point for that section) and money math (she missed most of those.) All curriculum are structured differently, so it’s just a switching-curriculum issue. Her first grade MUS book hasn’t addressed time or money. I’ve been teaching her a little outside of class and I’ve printed several free worksheets to help her work on this while she finishes up her first grade book so she can start with the Saxon two book. For free counting worksheets look here and here and here and here. For free telling time worksheets, see here and here and here.

When you think of chores, you probably think of laundry and dishes, don’t you? And then you probably cringe. I know that those are my two least favorite chores. What I hate most are season changes. I love that the weather is cooler, but that means we need more clothes out in circulation and that means more laundry to keep up with. I never seem to pull out the “old” clothes fast enough either. I’m committing to doing that this time though. I know we could still have some hot days, but I’m going to go ahead and pull out 80% of the summer clothes and pull out the fall clothes. I’ll probably have to do that again in about six or 8 weeks and pull out all the summer clothes and add in the thicker winter clothes. Here, we don’t really have separate fall and winter wardrobes. Our winter wardrobe is our fall stuff with some sweatshirts, sweaters, and jackets added to it. Today and tomorrow I need to go through ALL of the kids’ clothes and purge as much as I can. Some of them will be stored for later, but many of them can go in the yard sale I’m participating in on Saturday. I’m praying it goes well and I’m able to make some money for more school books. That’s two birds with one stone. More books, less clothes to keep up with.

Well, today I’m fighting off a sinus infection. So today is all about basics, too. Food, water, sleep and the bare minimum of school and chores. Sometimes you gotta just stick to the basics.