Saving Money with Roku {an update}

Better late than never I say since this post is two weeks late. Today, I’m updating about our Roku box. I love the fact we can choose what channels we want to watch that are GEARED TO WHAT WE LIKE. There are no forcing channels on us and we are NOT tied to a certain time to watch a show. Best of all, we are not under a contract to watch up to date TV shows and movies. We're saving money with Roku and I LOVE IT!

Saving Money with Roku {an update}

When we Ditched the Satellite Dish for a Roku box last year, honestly, I was a little skeptical because I didn’t realize there was so much to choose from with Roku (some of those channels have changed). While we lived without broadcast TV for years in the past, there was the large collection of DVDs being bought and rented and I knew the minor hassle we went through of hooking up the computer to the TV to watch shows we enjoyed. Over the years, many channels closed their viewing to only subscribers of cable and satellite. Without being a paying subscriber to a company, there is no watching a favorite show.

This past year, I noticed more and more cable channels coming to Roku. Many allow viewing of some of their shows and movies, but to get the whole ball of wax, they require a subscription to either a satellite or cable company. Others don’t give away any of their productions and require either a fee or a subscription.

In January, we decided to switch from Netflix over to Hulu Plus which is $7.99 a month. The reason behind this was because we liked the idea of having more TV shows to watch. With Hulu Plus, we get to watch the latest shows on demand as early as the next day. The only “local” channel that is not up to date with Hulu Plus is CBS. But, CBS does allow some open viewing on their website and they now have their  CBS AllAccess which is a pay subscription. Depending on where you live, this channel plays live. We live too far out from civilization to have the live feature, but we’re okay with that and we are happy with $5.99 a month.

Since I have caught up with all the latest season of our favorite CBS shows, I find myself watching many of their classic shows like Jag, Nash Bridges, I Love Lucy, and Perry Mason to name just a few.

As we all know, television and movie providers are all about making money, but you don't have to stay trapped in forking out the big bucks to watch recent televised shows. I love the freedom we have with this little box and we’re only spending $13.98 a month to watch television.

A Fresh New Day - A Fresh New School Year

Happy Monday Morning! I am looking forward to today because a fresh new day awaits each and every one of us. A day which has a clean page and we can choose what kind of day we are going to have before we even hit the floor. Our attitude helps create our day and hopefully at the end of the day, our attitude will be just as good if not better.

A FRESH NEW DAY – A FRESH NEW YEAR

Today begins a new school year for us and I’m thankful I have the opportunity to teach my son at home. I delayed our start date because of our trip last week and I’m glad I did. With a new year comes a clean page for us to determine this year is going to be better than the last. We had a good last school year, don’t misunderstand me, but I want this year to be better in many ways.

Four things I'm working on to make this year enjoyable.

• I’m bathing our school in prayer. Prayer is a big importance in our school. Before I can face our school hours, I have to pray for those hours, for me, and my son. Without prayer, two bullheaded people usually butt heads over something and our day ends up going down the tubes. Praying doesn’t always keep the bullheadedness from showing up in our school, just so you know.
• I’m going to learn when to not push. Some days are just not worth the resistance of completing everything on the schedule. While those days are few and far between for us, we still have moments when I expect a length of time to be sufficient in completing a project and it just doesn’t work as I had planned. So backing off the throttle a little will help keep the tension down.
• I’m going to work with my son’s dislike. There’s not a lot I can say about his dislike for reading because I understand him; I was once a non-reader. Until he decides he loves reading I’m going to work with him. This year, I’ll be implementing some audio books for his literature, only because I don’t want him to hate this course. He will read along with the audio for any of what he chooses. Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville. The copy of the Franklin book we’re using seems to not have an audio book, so he will have to read it until I find one.
• I’m going to enjoy our time together. From the moment I came home, I have enjoyed being with my precious son. This will be our eleventh year and time is quickly passing by. I want our time together to be enjoyable. I want my sweet Jamie to look back on these years and know I enjoyed teaching him. I don’t want him to ever remember me drudging along with an attitude of dread.

Whether you are starting back to school soon or still in the planning stages, remember this is a FRESH NEW SCHOOL YEAR, and you can determine to make the most of your FRESH NEW YEAR with each FRESH NEW DAY.

A Closed Door {Thankful Thursdays}

It’s hard to accept when God closes a door, but it happens in everyone’s life one time or another. While we may never understand why, God knows what was on the other side. We like to think we know what was beyond the door and how it was going to be a wonderful experience, but in reality, many times doors close because of  the ugliness on the other side. While it can be hard to say, I’m thankful for a closed door.

 

Yes, we hurt when we hear the closing sound. Yes, anger tends to build up in us when that door sounds as if it has been slammed in our face. God knows all about it and He feels the pain we go through the moment that door is closed. He feels our sense of hopelessness. But we don’t have to feel hopeless when we have our faith in the Lord.

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. Psalm 62:5

Just this week, a door closed for our family. It closed in a way I do not understand and I even questioned why several times during a ten-hour road trip back home. While I don’t have the answers to the questions I asked, I know Someone who does. While I want to think this particular door was the PERFECT opportunity for our family, evidently it wasn’t because God DID NOT allow us to walk through that door.

Not every door has beauty behind it.

After praying for two years, it’s hard to not have misguided feelings about the situation. It’s hard to not get upset and become angry. It’s hard to take my eyes off of me and put them back where they belong – on the Lord. But I have to let it all go, I have to focus on what is important, because if I don't,I’ll be in a world of a mess when the bitterness rears its ugly head like in the past.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Psalm 27:14

Today, I’m thankful God closes doors, even that one door I thought was going to be the one to provide every opportunity I’ve prayed for, for two years.

10th Grade Reading List

Another year another reading list – As I look back over the blog, I realize I only started sharing our reading list a few short years ago. I wish now I would have started it sooner, so I could have a list to share without digging through all of my files that are stored away. I think that is something I’ll be working on in the future.

{post contains affiliate links}

In the past, I over planned with books to read since I was the one “in charge” of all the planning. I wanted to make sure I was able to get books from the library if another was unavailable. Now that Jamie is older and has more say in what he does in school, I’ve allowed him to choose the books this year for History reading. – I’m okay with this because honestly, it is about QUALITY, NOT about QUANTITY.

Since we are studying Baptist History this year, I wanted us to read together books that pertain to this subject. A friend of mine recommended the following books:

The Bible Makes Us Baptists and The Faithful Baptist Witness.

        



For **Literature**, we're reading classics this year.




The Autobiography and Other Writings



Moby Dick



The Scarlet Letter, Dover Thrift Study Edition


For **US History**, I’m excited because Jamie is excited. We choose at least one book per time era until we got to WW2 and then he wanted to choose them all. This kid loves WW2 history. Sadly, I could not find a book about the war on terrorism without horrible language. If I do, I’ll add it.

As you can see we are not overloaded with reading this year. But I am excited Jamie chose the books he wanted to read for history.

A Quilting Endeavor - Working on a Goal

It’s Monday morning and another week is marching on; it seems just like last week we were sitting in the middle of January. My, my how the time flies! Seven months into this year and I’m plugging away on my goals. During the summer months, I don’t bake bread because it ruins quickly in my kitchen, so I’ve not made any bread in awhile. Because of this, my Pain de Mie bread is on hold. I’m still working on perfecting Continental knitting; the binding off is giving me fits. Today, I’m sharing about my quilting endeavor. Boy, oh boy, do I have a lot to tell you.

When I began this crazy idea of wanting to learn to quilt, I really should have gone with something SUPER EASY for an almost beginner. But, I let my stubbornness keep me from going the easy route. I knew I wanted a Civil War era reproduction quilt; one without all the free motion quilting. I wanted something that would look as if I found it stored away in a trunk somewhere. I wanted something that would go with my primitive decor. After searching the internet, I found Barbara Brackman’s blog with the most intriguing quilt pattern and an extra little history nugget included.

It took me several weeks to decide on fabric for my quilt because I could not afford the fabric that was mentioned in the quilt pattern. Since I like to be able to see and touch the actual fabric, trusting a website’s photos of fabric was hard for me. But, I finally decided on the Civil War Fabric Collection by Keepsake Quilting. What I ordered were two 2 ½ inch jelly rolls since I wanted to make a larger quilt. Oh yes, I also used a coupon code from Goodshop and saved over $20 on my order.

After spending 3 months (spare time) of cutting countless 2 ½ inch squares, and waiting two weeks for a ¼ piecing foot for my sewing machine, I finally started piecing the blocks together, last week. Talk about nerve-racking, knowing how much money I spent on fabric and my attention span on large projects. The first three blocks brought on the tears. I called my sister and asked her if I could send them to her so she could do it for me. I even contemplated selling them locally, but through it all I slowly pieced the squares together and I am HOOKED!!!

One thing I am doing differently than the pattern, I am not using the star block. I tried practicing the triangles on scrap fabric and nothing I do turns out. So instead of causing myself a nervous breakdown, I’m only doing the square blocks for this quilt.

The picture posted is of one of the better-squared blocks with the little squares actually lining correctly but, they are STILL NOT PERFECT. (Those little squares not lining up is what had me in tears.) Sadly, I am not a patient person, so I only planned out a few of the blocks. Some of the others I willy nillied them and the rest I copied the planned blocks but only reversed them as you can see in the next picture.

Another thing, I’m thinking about changing in this pattern, is the use of sashes between the blocks. I’m not too sure about this yet, I will have to wait and see since I’m trusting my math ability with the number of blocks. :) Who knows how that is going to turn out!!!

I would love to promise a weekly post on my quilting, but with school starting, I don't see it happening. But I will promise to update about this project when I can.

So, are you still working towards your goals?

Independence Day 2015

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.(Psalm 33:12)  The Lord is the reason we have the opportunity to celebrate our country's independence today, I pray He continues to bless our nation.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

7 Reasons Why I'm Thankful to be an American {Thankful Thursdays}

With it being only two days away from our nation’s birthday, today I’m thankful to be living in America. Many Americans take for granted the beautiful freedoms we have been so blessed to have because it is easy to live life without fear and worry. While America is far from perfect, it is the one nation, many people work so hard to come to all for the sake of freedom. Today, I am thankful to be an American!

Seven reasons why I’m thankful to be an American

• FREEDOM – I have the freedom to live, to speak, to travel, and to vote. We have freedoms that many can only imagine having.


• LIBERTY TO WORSHIP – not only can I practice my faith when I want, where I want, and how I want, I can tell others about the love of Jesus.


• MILITARY – we have a strong military full of men and women who are willing to serve and protect our country and our freedoms. They are willing to work, so I may live and sleep in peace. I am thankful for them!


• GOVERNMENT – while our government has pushed the envelope many times over the years, our founding fathers knew the importance of having three branches of government. They work together to keep the government in check to serve and protect the people. As Americans, we don’t know what it is like to live under a harsh government and I am thankful for that!


• HERITAGE – we have a rich heritage of Christian values, courage, sacrifice, and honor. No matter how hard some want to erase parts of our heritage, it is something that I was raised with and am teaching my son about. My heritage is something I am proud to have.


• PROSPERITY – even when times are lean, Americans have more than many people across the world.


• GOD’S BLESSINGS ON AMERICA – God has blessed our country greatly, over the years. It’s because of Him we have the six things above. I am thankful for God’s blessings and I pray the people of America turn their hearts back to God.

Planning and a Few Interesting Finds

This is THE WEEK! School planning and organization for the new school year has been going on. I am looking forward to starting back on Monday, although Jamie is not too thrilled, he did mention he was excited about reading Moby Dick and some of the other books that are planned for his study of American History. Hearing that makes this Momma’s heart glad! I have eight weeks of lesson plans completed except for our history because I had to exchange the curriculum we chose and I’m waiting on it to get here. I have my fingers crossed hoping it will be here before Monday. Funny thing, I learned just yesterday we may be traveling to Missoula with my husband for a job trip. Yeah, a ten-hour drive across Montana calls for road schooling - gotta get those hours in!

Since I’ve been busy with school preparations, I thought I would share with you a Roundup of Home Education links I found interesting while doing some research recently.

As a Momma of a boy, I remember what it was like trying to get Jamie interested in learning something. Sometimes games were a hit while some were a bust. Sheila from Brain Power Boy shared seven games that boys should like.

Samantha from Le Chaim on the Right is my kind of teenager – a history nerd! She is a homeschool blogger and has quite a stand when it comes to politics – she doesn’t back down for what she believes in. Samantha shares 100+ Historical Books with a review. Part two of the list can be found HERE.

I’ll never forget a time when I “dog- eared” a page in a book, when Jamie was in preschool. He just about had a fit, because his teacher had taught her class that books were special and needed to be cared for. Anna from Path Through the Narrow Gate shares how she created some of the cutest corner bookmarks.

Manners – every child needs to learn them if not, you'll be one of those parents who will want to crawl in a hole when you're embarrassed at a child's behavior. Alecia from Learning 2 Walk shares three very important words/phrases our children need to learn the moment they can talk.

While a quality academic education is a must, my top priority in teaching my son at home was for him to be the right kind of Christian God wants for him. No one else is going to train our children to love and live for the Lord, like us parents. Lindsey from the Road to 31 shares her heart about the importance of discipling our children.

Are you in the planning stages of your school year, or are you waiting as long as you can before starting? :)