Chore Chart

Goodness! Not only have I created a school day schedule.... but I have gone so far as to create a chore chart for us to follow each week. What will be next? (I have no idea).

I wish I could somehow show you this pretty chart, all color coordinated. It's split into 6 days of the week. Each day we work on an area. I kind of came up with this from a conversation I had with my friend Susan. She uses zones... and I like that idea.

Anyway, Monday is all the bedrooms, dusted, vacuumed and straightened. Tuesday is the playroom. Wednesday is the kitchen area... and that includes mopping the floor, and cleaning the fridge. Thursday are all the bathrooms. Friday are the common areas... hallways, wood floors and baseboards.

I will definitely be interested in seeing if this will work for our family. lol! If it does my hubby will be happy as he has turned into a clean freak in the last several years, and he never used to be like that.

Planning the school year

In our area of the country schools start much earlier than up north where we came from. Typically in Pennsylvania schools didn't start until almost after Labor Day. Here some are starting as early as the first week of August.

There is an upcoming curriculum fair this week, and I will be attending just to grab a few items that I did not order yet. Really, I only need a handful of things. I was reading on my friend Kris's blog how she is planning and getting geared up and psyched up to start the school year. I haven't really felt that yet.... I still feel like I am lingering in summer mode. The lazy days of summer, with no commitments or activities running us here and there. I like not being scheduled over the summer, and just hangin' out.

But, with schools starting in 3-4 weeks I felt like I needed to at least start planning our year. I had it generally mapped out in my mind and have already purchased curriculum accordingly. But I needed to take it a step further and see how it might all fit together in a day/week/month/year.

Unlike last year or even the year before, this year I have created a schedule. I tended to be less structured in the past, and the kids grade levels allowed me to do so. But as they advance each year, I am aware that I need make sure we are using all of our time to the best advantage and that all my course objectives are being met. The way I hope to accomplish this is with a finely tailored schedule. As I said, I have never done this, but I think it will work to help us stay on track each day. It's scheduled in time increments and of course subjects. I put it together in a Word Table.

I've also reviewed some curriculum and started my Lesson Plan for the first week. Somewhere I need to include creative writing as we will be using the Olympics as a unit study and one objective will be creative writing.

Here is what we are studying this year:

Bible- Devotions (yet to be determined and incorporated into a quiet time), AWANA verse memorization

Math- Math U See, plus Math Concepts worksheets, plus Math Detective from the Critical Thinking Company

Abeka Language, Spelling, Penmanship

Wordly Wise - vocabulary

Prima Latina- Introduction to Latin with DVD series and workbooks (I watched the DVD and while it can be a little dry, it is fairly short and taught in small increments. The kids should be able to pick this up.)

History- Sonlight World History 2, Story of the World Volume 2

Science- Sonlight

Literature- Sonlight Read Alouds, read over lunch each day..... but if I can find the book on audio CD I am SO using it! (Saving my voice). :-) I highly recommend the book Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes on audio CD. It was awesome and we would listen to it on our long drives and then sprawled out on couches in the afternoon. We ALL loved it!

World Cultures- Konos Russia (For Around the World Day, and Olympics Unit Study)

Critical Thinking- Reading Detective, Building Thinking Skills Level 1, Dr. Funster's Thinks a Minute, Logic Links

Art History- Meet the Masterpieces - This is an OOP book that I got a few years ago. Like the first year I began homeschooling. It takes a famous painting and you learn about the artist, take a walk through the painting, do some fun activities correlating to the painting, and then gives other ideas to dig deeper into the subject matter.

Art/Craft- To go along with our Story of the World History Activities- 2 x a week.

Reading- Abeka and supplementary Sonlight Reading.

Okay, that's where I am right now. I'm praying for some direction with Bible devotion, and the enthusiasm on my part for school to begin. Making a schedule and writing a partial lesson plan definitely helped me to feel more organized. :-)

Playing Around

My friend Becky is in Russia right now and I have been really impressed with her ability to create slideshows set to music, and video.... and well just slide shows in general. So, I am playing around with that so I will know how to do it all when we get to Russia.

I just made a slideshow of my cards, but I want to make one of our recent trip to an amusement park. I got some great photos there.... First I have to figure out how to set it to music. Any insight would be very appreciated. :-)

The Best Birthday Ever!

Yesterday I truly had the best birthday in my adult life. My husband is awesome! So, thank you, thank you, thank you honey! I am so grateful for you and feel so blessed that you care for me as you do. Have I mentioned that I am the luckiest gal in the world? You'll find out below just how thoughtful and carefully planned out my day was! (And to my many friends who called me, that was so wonderful and unexpected! And yes, I know, as you reminded me, that I am very lucky to be married to Chris). LOL!

The day started with me dreading my birthday. Yes, it was a big one, and NO I'm not going to say what one. You can figure that one out yourselves. :-) Anyway, I was really dreading the day, and wanted nothing more than to hide under my covers and come out on the other side of the day. My boys and hubby brought me breakfast in bed, along with my laptop for some leisurely surfing. I DID smile and said thank you, but when they left I was back to my grumpy self, pondering age in general, and time.... and how it goes by so quickly.

My only instruction for the day was to be ready to leave by about 9:30am. At that time I was ready and waiting and was blindfolded so I couldn't see where we were going. I just was told it was about 15 minutes away. It was while I was driving in the car that I realized, I really don't like surprises! At all! Well especially ones were I am not in control... and with surprises, you are never really in control...right? When we arrived at our destination, I was escorted in (still blindfolded) to what I discovered was a day spa. I was so surprised and a little mortified by the people staring at the blindfolded woman. Dh is so funny and I have to love his huge heart.... he gets so excited and speaks in such a loud voice! He practically announced to the entire salon, "That since you take such good care of us, it's your turn on your___ ___ birthday to be taken care of!" lol! I laugh about it now, and find him endearing, but at the time I would have liked a hole to swallow me up. (Did I mention I didn't like this birthday milestone?) grin Dh and the boys left, and I began my morning. A Swedish massage (never had one before), a manicure and a pedicure. (Never had a pedicure either). Most of my friends could not believe that....but it's true! I definitely want another one though! lol! It was the most relaxing way to wake up, and I found that by the end of my time at the spa, my mood had lifted completely! I mean who can stay grumpy after all of that? LOL!

The family picked me up around 1pm and we headed home, where I found the dining room decorated with balloons and streamers and 3 small presents. I usually plan and decorate for all our birthdays and I never get myself streamers or balloons, because... well I'm not decorating on my own birthday. I had mentioned that to dh one year, and he remembered.... how thoughtful! Also on the table were a plethora of birthday cards! Tons of them, spread out everywhere!

While the kids were playing in the playroom, and dh was preparing lunch, I got to leisurely open all of those cards. Some made me cry and some made me crack up! We had our lunch and a birthday cake......and then the phone calls started! I found out that dh had written a letter to all my family and friends to send cards for this birthday. (Remember it was a special one). He also told them to call me between 3 and 5pm on three separate phones. He wanted to bombard me with well wishes on my birthday! :-) It was awesome because several of these folks I hadn't spoken to in years! We had just lost touch.... some 3 years, and some 5 years! Just thinking about those conversations brings such a smile to my face.

My boys did awesome keeping the secret, and it must have been sooo hard for them. You'll know why next. At about 5:30ish our doorbell rings and our good friends from church are outside. I look at Chris like your kidding me, and before he answers the door I mutter something like, "my house is a wreck". But no... I found out that my children were leaving for the entire evening! They had packed their backpacks themselves and were off to a sleepover and we were off to dinner by ourselves. (I really don't think it could get any better...)

I was informed by Chris that reservations had been made at a nice restaurant close to home. Afterward we would be seeing the movie "Get Smart". My face just lit up! I wanted to say, "For Real?" This past Christmas a client had given Chris a gift card to the restaurant, so dinner was free. We sat in a lovely booth, definitely one that they must save for folks with reservations. It was like a semi-circle couples booth and dh and I sat side by side talking to each other about anything and everything. No interruptions, no rock, paper scissors to occupy the time, no tic tac toe or Word Find on a children's menu... just the two of us enjoying our adult selves. lol! The waiter was great and the food was awesome! Afterward we ran home and changed into some jeans and headed off to the movie. Very funny movie, but I dislike the movie theater. Next time we'll go a little further out of our way to the better one!

We drove home from the movie theater and as we pulled onto our street the clock struck 12:01am. My birthday was over.... and I asked if I could hit the "Replay" button. It truly was the best birthday ever!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me! lol! I'm not sure what dh has up his sleeve, but I know he has plans all day. :-)

I'll be taking a break from the blogosphere for the weekend (or at least today).

Whatever your doing today, I hope you have fun!

So pretty!

I created two more cards if you can stand it... I had to take the whimsical blue green off the sidebar as I ran out of material. It seems to be a popular card.

I promised my sister that I would design some brighter more colorful cards. She likes cards that are simple yet colorful. My son made a card that she loved, so maybe I should put him to work. lol!

Here are two cards that are more my style. The first is made with two different ribbons, one ribbed and one satin. The second is so pretty in an understated way. I want to keep a sample of both of these for my card collection. lol!

Newest Card

You may remember this cards from an earlier post.... It was I think my first creation, but after the subsequent cards....it looked kind of plain.

So, I tore it apart and redesigned it. I like it much better....

Yep, that thread is hand stitched by me. I think I need to take up sewing, or embroidery, as that was actually quite therapeutic!

Gotcha Day for Becky and Keith!

I have to link this, as I am thrilled for my friend Becky and her husband Keith! They just adopted their little son from Russia. On their blog is the sweetest slide show of their time in Russia with their newest addition. I love the music she set it too.... this is what it's all about folks!

Little Russian Peanut

Notecard Fundraising!!

Well, I think I am finally ready to sell at least the first three sets of cards I made. I would like to eventually sell my cards on Etsy, as Jeannie and Karen recommended, but for now I am going to start here on my blog.

The dimensions of each card is 4 1/4" by 5 1/2". The envelope size is A2 for those interested. You'll find each design available on the sidebar of my blog. If you are interested in purchasing a set of note cards to help fund our adoption, please email me at the address listed on my blog. You can let me know which set you would like and the initial you would like stamped on the cards.

The price will be listed with the set on the sidebar. For those that live nearby, we can arrange a time to pick them up, and for those further away, there will be a $2.99 shipping cost. All the note cards come with envelopes and each card/envelope will have a clear protective sleeve.

Please note that each of these cards is unique, and no two will match perfectly. The buttons may be different on one than another.... but that is the beauty of handmade! :-)

Thanks in advance for supporting our adoption!!

Jackie

People Pleaser/Peace Keeper

Hi, I'm Jackie, and I think I'm a people pleaser. I don't think all women are like I am, and men are even less. You see, I care too much about what people think, and how they feel. I like when everyone is "getting along" and "playing nicely". I dislike confrontation of any kind, and really have to pray when I need to confront someone. It's difficult, and I have to remember to do so in love. (And not fear) :-) Maybe I'm a peace keeper. I do like that word so much better than people pleaser. The bible talks about a blessing for the peace keepers... I like that too! lol!

So, today my dear husband called our new agency rep to introduce himself. I had already done this, but he wanted to do so as well. Plus, are you ready for this?,.....after this week we are on our 4th Russian program director. Yes, that is correct FOURTH. Too much turnover in my opinion, I don't care if it is non-profit social work.

So, Chris called our rep to introduce himself, give him some background information on our adoption process, and express his concerns. As I listened to him relate the conversation, I kept thinking... "Gee, I hope you didn't use that tone of voice in the conversation". At one point he said, things got a little heated. I just cringed. Ugh. Dh did say the conversation ended congenially, with each having a better understanding of each other.

Why does that stuff stress me out? I know it was a conversation that needed to happen. I know that dh needed to voice his concerns, as they are also my concerns. I respect that.... and support that. It's just my peace keeping nature that gets all stressed out about it. How come most men can have this conversation and just let it go, while I think/dwell on it for days? I wish I had the ability to just let things roll off my back. My sister is sooo good at doing this, much better than I ever remember her being. I've noticed it recently and I am impressed. I need lessons! LOL!

Anyone else feel this way at times?

Oh, and from that conversation we learned that we are indeed supposedly 1st on the list for a sibling group of 2 boys or 2 girls. I wonder when the call comes, if I'll be ready? You'd think I would be with as long as we have waited.... but I guess you're never really ready.

One more card

Well, if you can stand it here is another card I made. This one is soooo sweet. It looks like a pretty vintage style card. The ribbed texture ribbon adds great visual depth. I originally left off the buttons, but they lend themselves well to this one!

And another card....

This one is a little more whimsical. I like the colors and patterns! :-)

Polished Paisley

Here is the latest card that I made.... I think it is the prettiest so far! I'm going to try to create about two a night, so that when I get ready to sell them, I have a stockpile, and all I'll need to do is add the letter.

Celebrating his birthday- The Gifts

After the boys finally blew out any candles that remained, and ate there yummy cake, it was time to open gifts. One thing ds1 wanted was a new Dale Earnhardt Jr. hat.

For those of you not into racing, let me fill you in briefly. Dale Jr. left his late father's company, and went with Hendrick Motorsports this year. He is now teammates with Jimmy Johnson, and Jeff Gordon. His entire car number and sponsorship had to change. His lovely step mother would not release his old #8 to take with him to Hendrick. So he has a new number this year, the #88 that you saw on the cake. His sponsor is also Mountain Dew which makes the Amp energy drink. So, all ds1's hats etc are of the old number that Dale is no longer driving. He wanted to update that for the current car etc.

His first gift from his Aunt Lisa and Uncle Kevin and all their girls, was just that, a new Dale Jr. pit crew hat. He was so excited, and I caught it on my camera. So, Lisa this is just for you.... :-)

Opening and checking out his new hat!

Jumping up and down and yelling! I promise you I did NOT prompt him to do that!

Do I look good in my new hat or what???

Afterward he opened a gift from his brother. It was a remote controlled Dale Jr. replica car. (See a theme here?)

Brothers and Friends!

He also received a Best Buy gift card from Grandma and Grandpa, and he is excited to buy an MP3 player. Auntie Carole gave him a gift card to Barnes and Noble. (We love to pick out books there!) Our good friends and former neighbors sent him a birthday card and in it was a gift card to Toys R Us! Each year they still send the boys a birthday gift even though we have moved away now for 2 years. We miss them so much!! Finally, he received a new game for the Wii from us. Which of course they promptly went and started to play! LOL! What a special birthday it was! Ds1 was so grateful for each gift he received! He wanted to call each and every person to thank them personally!

I have moments were I just stand in awe as a mom and watch this young boy growing quickly into a young man. I watch him succeed and fail, hopefully leaning from each. I watch him learn about friendship, and brotherhood, and how to stick up for each other when the need arises. I have watched him as he develops a love for the lost and a desire to share Christ with people at a very young age. I have watched him tenderly care for little ones who visit our home, helping them with a craft, a puzzle or a train set. Yes, Lord you are molding and shaping this young man into your image. I'm awed at who he is and who he is becoming... I just wish you could slow time down a little bit. I feel as if I need to savor each moment, because this boy is quickly becoming a young man.

I think I'll go read the book, "I'll Love You Forever" and have a good cry. :-)

Celebrating his birthday- The Candles

Dh was so pleased when he saw that cake I made. He couldn't believe that I did it freehand. :-) We forgot to get candles in the midst of all the decorating etc. So, Chris ran down to the store and grabbed some. He came back with a set of candles and some tricky candles that of course don't blow out. I really didn't want to use those, but he is the "fun guy", and insisted. I'm glad he did, we got such a kick out of watching the following scenario.

After we sang Happy Birthday, ds1 made a wish and blew out the candles. They all went out, but then three quickly re-lit. He tried again to blow out the candles and succeeded...... but then again, three re-lit. He blew harder and tried several more times, laughing each time they came back again.

The funny thing was that my other son was getting excited, and saying to his brother "Come on! _____, blow them out!!". Then he said to ds1, "Let ME try!" So we said, good ahead _____, you blow them out." So he replied emphatically, "Okay, everybody watch me blow these candles out!!" He blew as hard as he could...... and still the candles re-lit. He was shocked! So then they both tried to blow the candles out together. LOL! Finally they won, and the candles stayed out.... lol!

The first try......

Trying again and again.... notice all the smoke?

Laughing as the candles re-light once again.

Brother getting ready to blow with all his MIGHT!

How about we both try to blow out these things????

Celebrating his birthday- The Cake

My firstborn son turned 10 this past week... Ten! Where does the time go? I really believe that the moment I had children time just began to move at a faster pace. Like warp speed!

Ds1 wanted a quiet family birthday in lieu of a party with friends. There is a reason behind that, which I'll tell you in the next post. So, the day of his birthday, the kids went to VBS at a local church in our area. Then in the afternoon ds1 wanted to bake and decorate his own cake. No convincing whatsoever on my part could sway him from a homemade cake. We even went to Publix and looked at the cool Nascar cakes.... no dice. Now, it's not that I don't want ds1 to bake, quite the contrary.... I love that he likes to cook and bake. His wife will thank me in the future, and who knows he may be the next Ace of Cakes. No, I knew that although he wanted to make and decorate that cake, the main work of it would fall to me.

Well, we got home and began prepping and making the icing for his cake. Soon, mom was abandoned in the kitchen in favor of Wii with his brother. (Just as I predicted). Oh well.... it wasn't too hard of a cake to make. It was actually a little fun once I got it down again.

He wanted a Nascar themed party, and a Dale Earnhardt Jr. cake. It's our favorite driver, but there really isn't anything out there on making a cake like his car. So the following is just done free form using the Wilton race car pan. I had to stop several times, as my house was warm and the icing was getting too soft. I just stuck it in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes and re-started. By the end I figured out again that my little stars needed to be small..... oh well I still think it turned out well, and my son absolutely loved it. He said he didn't want to eat it, it looked so good... but when the time came, he didn't have a problem digging in! LOL!

God's Beauty

On Saturday evening I went out to run a few errands. While I was shopping, it poured rain, however it had stopped by the time I was ready to leave the store. As I walked to my car, I saw the biggest rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It was huge, and you could see both ends of it. Actually it was a double rainbow. There was a faded rainbow just outside of the bright one.


I called Chris and told him to step outside and see if he and the boys could see it from our home. He could and here is a photo that he snapped. Hopefully you'll be able to see it... I just drove home in awe of how great our God is, and the beauty of His creation.

Happy Day!

Nope, it's not a referral....but we received our economic stimulus check in the mail yesterday! We were concerned as we heard several people did not recieve theirs and a bunch were misdirected by the IRS. But ours arrived ahead of schedule! Woohoo! It's already headed to the bank for our adoption fund.

And speaking of that fund, I think we need to raise about $10,000 more for our adoption. I believe that will be enough, but you never know. I have no idea how we will accomplish this...but I will keep working on it! I'm not sure if we qualify for grants, but I will check that out as well.

We've already had 3 yard sales, and are in the process of making cards to fundraise. Maybe I can sell those cards outside of Walmart? I bet if we fundraised outside of Walmart we could raise a lot of money. Hmmm... it's a definite thought!

Sparkling Clean...

That's how my van looks now. This morning at 8:00am I took the boys and we headed to a self service vacuum car place to vacuum the entire interior of the car. Since really only one person can do the vacuuming, they entertained themselves by putting the quarters in the machine and watching cars go through the automatic car wash. They were far enough away so as not to be in any danger, but close enough to get sprayed as the wind carried the water toward them.

Then we ran to Ace Hardware and got some Armorall Car Cleaner. We headed home and began Operation Interior Detailing. Oh you should have seen how disgusting it was. UGH! Dh worked on the floor of the car while we detailed all the interior surfaces. It is so hot here in the south today that we had the air on the entire time we worked in that car! I did not even care about any gas we may have used running it. It was just TOO HOT!

Afterward DS1 and I went to the automatic car wash and rode through it while our van got shiny and sparklilng clean. I used to love to go through those as a kid with my mom. All that's left to do is condition the leather seats and clean the outside windows. Then we'll create a space in the garage, and park it inside! Woohoo! A huge job tackled today!

Hobby Lobby

Hey, did you know that Hobby Lobby is just as awesome as Michael's for gathering material needed for my card making? Well it is! I've always loved Hobby Lobby for many great reasons. It's Christian owned, they have wonderful home accesories there, they have fabulous picture frames, and a large floral department. Now I have another department to love... scrapbook! I found some more awesome papers...and some craft punches that should help me out quite a bit! It was all either 40 or 50% off... (either on sale or I used a 40% coupon). I keep going back each day this week with my 40% off coupon to purchase what I will need.

All that's left is pretty much a few stamps and some inks. I do need those to actually stamp the cards and personalize them. Once I have those I can start making and selling some cards! Yippee!