Our Week So Far

Here are several pictures from over the last couple of days. The first two are from where we tested to see which food has starch. Pretty cool, by the way. All you need is some iodine and a dropper. Drop one drop of iodine on the food. If it turns either dark blue are almost black then the food has starch in it.  Since Tuesday was Sloppy Joe and Tater Tot night for dinner, we did not try this on any veggies.

I had a friend ask if we take snow days. Actually, I had several to ask and my answer was the same. For those who may be wondering... No we don't take snow days. I'd rather take a day off during the spring, when the weather is nice and the fish are biting. Being a home educating family and taking a day off for snow, is like calling in sick on a rainy day.

SNOW! Most of you know that we don't get much snow here.  When we do, everything shuts downs. The state patrol even shut down sections of the major expressways throughout Atlanta and north of Atlanta, so the the D.O.T could try and clear the roads. We got about 5 inches of snow. On Sunday night and Monday morning all the snow was the perfect kind ~ all powder! Then Monday afternoon and evening the freezing rain and sleet hit and left a not so nice layer of ice over everything.

I REALLY hate having my picture taken. Can  you tell?

It's Snowing!

Well, I was not looking forward to this. I was hoping (not praying) that this snow storm would not come this way.  But... Right now, the snow is a beautiful dry powder snow.





But the sleet and ice are coming. From all the news coverage the main interstates  in Atlanta, I-85 and I-75 are slammed with cars trying to get where ever they may be heading. Here are a few pictures that I took tonight. The first picture is within the first 20 minutes from the first flurries began and the second is 20 minutes later so within an hour we got about 2 inches.   I can't wait for in the morning, so I can go out and take pictures. 

Love on Assignment Review

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Love on Assignment


While Charlotte is focusing on uncovering sordid information on columnist Daniel Wilmot, her heart leads her into uncharted territory. During the summer of 1900 Charlotte Hale, a native Newporter and secretary for the Rhode Island Reporter, accepts an undercover assignment as temporary governess to Daniel Wilmont's children in order to secretly gather evidence against him. As he helps her rediscover God, Charlotte learns that Daniel is an honorable man. They unexpectedly fall in love despite their different backgrounds and social positions. Charlotte soon realizes she must defend Daniel against the forces set against him—a willful student with a romantic crush and the newspaper editor determined to destroy his reputation.


My Thoughts:

An amazing second book to the Ladies of Summerhill Series. Cara James and Love on Assignment Cara James did not disappoint me. There was a tiny bit of predictability in the story but don't all romance stories end up with the girl getting the guy?

Charlotte Hale is offered the chance of a lifetime for a position of a journalist for the newspaper that she works for. The only ripple in the water is, Charlotte has to dig up any dirt on Professor Wilmont who also writes a column for a competitor newspaper. When Charlotte sees that there really is no dirt, she learns that dirt will be created to discredit Daniel. While doing all she can to keep her cover and keep the Professor's good name from being ruined, Charlotte beings to fall in love for the Professor.Will Charlotte let her position in society keep her from marrying the man she protected?

I received this book for free from Book Sneeze in return for my honest opinion.

Love on Assignment, Ladies of Summerhill Series #2 By Cara James / Thomas Nelson During the summer of 1900 Charlotte Hale, a native Newporter and secretary for the Rhode Island Reporter, accepts an undercover assignment as temporary governess to Daniel Wilmont's children in order to secretly gather evidence against him. As he helps her rediscover God, Charlotte learns that Daniel is an honorable man. They unexpectedly fall in love despite their different backgrounds and social positions. Charlotte soon realizes she must defend Daniel against the forces set against him-a willful student with a romantic crush and the newspaper editor determined to destroy his reputation.

Little Star Brightly Shines

There is something about the Christmas story that brings Hope. A story we all know and love; a story perfect for anytime of year. If you are like me, you can't help but wonder about all those that had a part in the events that happened that glorious night.

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Little Star a Review

Anthony DeStefano focuses on a little star in this story. Little Star was a tiny star that was ignored by the other stars , but he quickly realized just who Jesus was.  Little Star wanted to do something special for the baby so he burned as brightly as he could.

“I think I understand!” Little Star cried out. “The baby Jesus is a king! He’s just little!”

A king is about to be born! The stars in the heavens are competing to shine the brightest to celebrate his birth. But when they see the poor family, the donkey, the shabby stable, the stars all think, That can’t possibly be a king. We’ve been fooled.

All except one. The smallest, loneliest star in the sky, Little Star, is the only one to understand what the king was about to bring to the world. But what can Little Star do for him?

This is a really cute Christmas book. It would definitely make a great replacement to the old traditional The Night Before Christmas story, for those that do not do the Santa thing. I read this myself and then to my eleven year old. He loved it! He did mention the only thing that did cause concern about the star burning out at the end of the night. As we know according to the Bible the star did not burn out.

All in all, this is a very cute book that could be used as a new family tradition for Christmas.

If you'd like to hear the story, you can listen to the video.



About the author and illustrator:

Anthony DeStefano is the bestselling author of the adult Christian books A Travel Guide to Heaven, Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To, Angels All Around Us, as well as the gift book I Just Can't Take It Anymore! and the children’s books This Little Prayer of Mine and The Donkey That No One Could Ride. He has received prestigious awards from religious organizations worldwide for his efforts to advance Christian beliefs in modern culture.

Mark Elliott’s brilliant illustrations have appeared in many picture books and novels for young readers, including the ever-popular Princess Tales series. His acclaimed artwork delivers inspiration, wonder, and timeless beauty.

Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 32
Vendor: Harvest House Publisher
Dimensions: 9 X 9 (inches)

You can purchase your own copy here.

Little Star By Anthony DeStefano / Harvest House Publishers

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for my honest opinion.

Day Book

Outside my window...  It's definitely a southern winter day. Not too cold, not too warm ~ cloudy.



I am thinking...  about an endeavor that I'm praying that the Lord will allow me to accomplish. If everything falls into place and according to plan, I'll be able to share more about it. It's something that I've wanted to do for sometime now. I just needed to wait for my husband to jump on the band wagon with me. I will say that he is about to take that leap.
I am thankful for...  for a wonderful husband who is not afraid to work and work hard for a our family. He is such a good provider. According to some, we don't have a lot. BUT God did not promise to give us all our wants. He promised to provide our needs and to give some of the things we desire. And I have all of that. ~ I HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!~
From the learning rooms... we've had a good three days this week, so far. I was a little worried after taking a week off. But we've been working to get ahead in our studies so we can have either a short day or no day on Friday. As of right now, it will probably be a short day. YAY!
From the kitchen... I have a full crock pot of Brunswick Stew. I put everything in the crock pot last night, so it could cook all night and be ready for me to have a small bowl for lunch. Monkey and I really enjoyed the first two bowls of that wonderful creation.
I am creating... I'm working on a new knitted dish cloth pattern. I started it last night and hopefully I can finish it today. It may be my new favorite pattern. We'll see.
I am reading... for a review Love on Assignment by Cara Lynn James. In my Bible reading I'm in Proverbs and Ephesians.
I am praying... we're praying for a couple of things in our lives. This morning I'm praying specifically for a missionary friend of mine that is undergoing cancer surgery today at 11:30 (mt) in New Mexico.
Around the house... I've been working on cleaning the closets out and some of the drawers in each of the rooms that have collected junk. I can't believe how many garbage bags of trash that I have to deposit into the can in a little while.
A few plans for the rest of the week... not too much. This is one of those weeks, that I'm doing my best to stay at home as much as possible. Trying to recover from a week of no school work and getting over the holidays. Trying to get my life back to normal.

December

I hope you all had a good Christmas. I did, we even got snow on Christmas afternoon, something that never happens. Believe it or not, I did not take any pictures of the snow.



I can't believe how fast December has gone by. We had a meeting in Mt. Vernon, Georgia on the 5th and we stayed overnight, so we could go to the beach. My sweet husband had other plans before facing the freezing cold wind off the beach. He surprised me with the sweetest lunch, we were able to go to The Lady and Sons restaurant. 

When we drove by, there was no one in line waiting. Really, it had to be the oh, so cold temperatures in Savannah that week. I jumped out of the car and put our names on the list. When I got out, I left my purse and camera in the car, not thinking to tell my husband to get them. (We do have pictures of us inside the restaurant on the cell phone. I have got to get a wire to download them to the computer.) 

The hostess told me that winter time is a good time to visit, since most people don't visit in the cold. *hint,hint* The food was awesome! We had the buffet and loved every bit of it. We even enjoyed our little bite size desserts that came with our meal.

Like I said earlier our man reason for staying overnight was so we could go to the beach. Monkey really could live at the beach year round, he'd rather be there then any other place. We went to Tybee Island, which is a long, narrow island.  While we were there we saw several dolphins and even a North Atlantic Right Whale. We only had my little camera, so I was not able to get any good pictures.

The whale was amazing. The funny thing about this, was Monkey kept talking about how he wished he could see a whale when it surfaces and dives, so he could see the tail. While we were out on the pier, we noticed a bunch of birds flying around this one spot in the water. While we watched, would you believe a rather large mammal surfaced and flapped her tail? We were all amazed. Monkey and my husband both said, "What was that?", I said, "Whatever it was, it was too big to be a dolphin."

After watching for several minutes, we realized that it was a North Atlantic Right Whale that comes to Georgia during the winter.

Here are a few pictures from our beach trip ~

Just as soon as I have a little more time, I have to continue my December update. Have a good day!

Laundry Update II

I made my second batch (5 gallon bucket) of homemade laundry detergent yesterday.

For our family, a 5 gallon bucket lasted almost six months. It would last a full six months, if I diluted the detergent each time I put it in my smaller jug. For the past couple of weeks, I have been using a store bought detergent that was given to me. I'm very sad that my once really soft clothes are no longer soft. I can't believe that using this other stuff has taken the softness out, but it has.

You can find the recipe and the cost break down HERE. You can also read my first update HERE.

Keeping It Together

I'm a little sad that I haven't posted much. I've not been busy, nor was I planning on taking a break. I just didn't have anything to say I guess. As you can see from my last two posts, I've been doing some reading. I've been sewing a fleece jacket for me. For some reason, I've had nothing but trouble, so I sew for a bit and put it down, so I won't pull out the seams and use the fabric for something else.



I came here the other day looking at some of the things that blogger has for blogs and somehow, I lost my (what I was happy with) design. And then I started trying to use the design template and found that I couldn't get it to work. After looking through the help center I found that I needed to update my Firefox and clean out my cookies. So I did all of that and had to find new images for a background. So now, I have a look that really suites me. SIMPLE! Just as soon as I find the website where I found the two backgrounds, I'll link them in the side bar for you.

I can't believe that Christmas is in five days. Honestly, I'll be extremely glad when it is over with. I have a lot on me right now and Christmas is a horrible holiday for depression to set in. I really feel that it might be setting in again, this year.

Monkey and I have worked very hard at staying on top of things with our school work. We are having school this week until Thursday and then we'll have all of next week off.

 I've even been looking at a new Language Arts curriculum called Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I really like what I see and would love to start this in January. But I'm really not wanting to start something new half way through the year. So, it will probably be our new curriculum for the fall.

I'm doing all that I can to not pull out Monkey's hair with the Abeka. ( Did you get that? ) For the past couple of weeks, we've been working a little differently. We've been working only on a page or two in the book. Not really trying go the Abeka route. I'll be leaving out the research paper unit. Really, what good is writing a research paper in fifth grade? I've never seen the need especially when they teach one thing in fifth grade change it a little for sixth grade and then seventh grade~ welcome to the real world!   There are more important things  fifth and sixth graders need to learn regarding grammar than trying to keep from stroking out over a research paper.

All of Monkey's Christmas is bought for, I have a few little things that need to be wrapped. My sweet husband picked out a pair of boots on Saturday for his Christmas. He does have a couple of little things under the tree. I still have to get two more things. Hopefully, I can go get them on Thursday.

Well, I've a wonderful chicken pot pie to create for supper, so I'll close for now.