Filling Boxes and Marker Art

I have sold handmade items online for over five years. I closed my business in January so I could be focused on my children. I still sell supplies online but only fill a few orders per week. The top photo shows the kids helping me do some packaging. They are earning money to purchase some plush toys they want. Then...Sarah...drew with marker all over her body. WOW, what an artist!

Homeschool Essentials-Fresh New Rubber Bands

I can't say enough about fresh, new rubber bands. I hate reusing dirty rubber bands off the newpaper or from grocery store produce.  We use them for EVERYTHING...I especially like having a fresh, clean rubber band for a half eaten bag of frozen peas or the many decks of cards. A household staple, for sure.

Rainy Day Burrito With Campbell-Thankful For Our Lifestyle Of Learning

My nephew is 16 months old. He lives about 45 minutes away and we don't see him all that often, so when my sister called this morning, I said YES. We had arranged a hot, sunny Friday a few weeks ago, but he had a fever so we didn't meet. Today I could tell she was feeling down because they cancelled a special trip because of Campbell's injury and it was a rainy, gray day-the kind my sister hates. When she called and asked if we wanted to meet for lunch, I jumped at the chance to invest in her.

I was looking forward to our day this Monday...to getting back into the flow of our routine especially since we had a death in the family. John's dad passed away unexpectedly last week. I am SO grateful for my learning lifestyle that I didn't feel pressured to complete "school" in lieu of our real life. This past week, we've been free to help Gramma as needed without the false guilt associated with contrived academic schedules. And being able to be generous with our time with my sister today, was awesome.

My Testimony for Lifestyle of Learning Website

This is an edited version of my phone call interview which I have posted here.
The written testimony below is on the Lifestyle of Learning™ website here.

"My husband and I discussed the possibility of homeschooling when my son was born, but we veered away from that idea when he was diagnosed with special needs and entered the public school system at 3 ½ years old. I loved having him at school because it gave me lots of time to pursue my own interests, but later I came to realize how selfish I was in this regard. As time went on, I started to have serious concerns about our education choices. We felt deeply convicted to begin homeschooling when our son (10) was in 4th grade and daughter (7) in 1st grade in public school.

I identified myself with a combination of homeschool methods that I learned about online. I viewed education as being a scope and sequence of different subjects to be studied over 12 years in a linear fashion according to age. I thought the only difference would be as homeschoolers we could work at our own pace and provide a Christian based curriculum. I was somewhat confident about beginning to homeschool because I had done so much planning and had friends who were successful homeschoolers.

Once we began school at home, I found myself spending hours searching online every night for the "secret to successful homeschooling". I also purchased more and more curriculum thinking that I just didn't have the right material to make my kids learn. This is how I stumbled upon Lifestyle of Learning™ and read Barbie's testimony and about her family's radical transformation. I was so surprised to learn that she lived about 30 minutes from me! I attended a seminar for parents at Barbie’s home that exposed me for the first time to truths about parenting that I had never known before. I spent those two hours with tears running down my cheeks and I went home with a handful of notes about how God wanted to parent ME.

During the first few months before I met Barbie and Marilyn, I experienced intense feelings of guilt and insecurity about our homeschool. We experienced a lot of complaining and strife as we tried to find our way. In fact, as we proceeded through our first few months of homeschooling, my son became more and more outwardly rebellious in his attitudes toward me and my daughter. Almost daily we experienced more and more yelling, tantrums and resistance. He would scream at me and run to his room, flinging his bed sheets, pillows and mattress on the floor. This is something he did previously during a stressful time in public school. I really didn't know what to do as it became apparent that I didn't have his heart in any form. He often said he wasn't sure if God existed and stubbornly resisted every simple request. We noticed his growing disdain for us so we bought a book on angry kids hoping to find an answer to our problems but it didn't help us. I talked to several friends but they didn’t know how to help me. Like Marilyn wrote in her book, "Empowering the Transfer of Moral Values and Faith", my bad fruit was telling on me.

Barbie and Marilyn took on my concerns and what I learned was that he wasn't increasing in rebellion, but the rebellion that was already there inside was coming to the surface as we tried to put on this new homeschool lifestyle. Then the Lord convicted me that I was completely engulfed in my own endeavors and that I viewed my children as an interruption to my own life. I even failed to meet their true heart-felt needs to be loved, understood and known. All the years my children were in school, I wasn’t even helping them as I should in numerous ways because my priority was to be on the computer all the time or filling orders or answering emails.

As I was convicted about my selfishness, I decided to close my home businesses. As my self-centered habits and thoughts were further exposed, I was deeply and profoundly convicted and grieved over the hurt I caused my whole family and the lack of love my family experienced coming from me. I immediately began to repent to the Lord and then to my kids and husband. I began to obey the Lord as I came to understand the Holy Spirit communicated with me primarily through my conscience. This revolutionized my life! I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back, I see how I was beginning my own radical transformational process.

The days and months of repenting and winning the heart of my son were nothing short of agonizing. A death was in order…the death of my own flesh/self-ways. Looking back on this time, I see how some good fruit in my children ripened right before my eyes! God is so merciful and kind. All the destruction I brought to my family through my years and years of selfishness was actually being restored so quickly. My son soon became a different person, not to mention I also became a new person as I learned to love. He no longer squinted his eyes in hatred at me, folded his arms and turned his back on me, he no longer threw tantrums like he used to and he didn’t resist me to the extent he did before. Now he is often willing to obey simple requests without resistance and will sometimes initiate helping me. He smiles and laughs so much more and wants to tell me everything about what he is interested in. He is willing to do household tasks when asked and he is relating with others in a loving way by not demanding his own way but considering their desires. Because I never lost my daughter's heart like I did his, she remains soft and lovingly responsive to me.

As of this writing it has been nearly a year since discovering Lifestyle of Learning™. As I look back, I can see how my whole family has changed in significant ways. The impact of Lifestyle of Learning™ on my personal growth with the Lord is immeasurable. One way we have been impacted is through my self-education in the area of planning and preparing meals for my family. I always considered myself to be a failure in the kitchen and used this as an excuse to stay stuck for over 20 years. I had no idea I had ignored this area of my life and the fatigue it produced in me every day. It took about six months of continuous effort to form new habits and create methods for meal planning and preparation. I no longer have any stress or anxiety about what to feed my family...the peace of mind I experience every single day is profound. I feed my children breakfast and lunch every day at home and we eat together. For months, we've eaten dinner together as a family every night which we never did in the past. I blogged my experience and now have a record of the real change that occurred around this area and the tremendous blessing we are experiencing as a family because of it. Even though I tried many times over the years to accomplish this goal I was never able to make the needed changes until now.

Another area of impact of course is my relationship with my son. I feel free to shower him with affection and approval where before I only related to him with disappointment, shame and judgment. He allows me to hug and kiss him and doesn't push me away. He wants to tell me about his interests (a lot!) and enjoys being around me and the feeling is mutual. Our whole family relates differently as we are thinking of each other’s needs and preferences instead of just our own selfish attitudes, intentions and motivations. I can see each member of my family learning to love each other sacrificially as we put down our own selfish ways. I can see how blind I was in the past as my focus was on religious activity and not love.

Another area in which I've been transformed is my relationship with the Lord. Before meeting Marilyn and Barbie, I was truly lost in my religion. I was just like the Pharisees whom Jesus accused of looking pious on the outside while being wicked on the inside. Inside myself, I was tormented by all sorts of guilt, self-condemnation, insecurity and fear. On the outside I was judgmental, condescending and superior to everyone and everything. I never experienced the overcoming life Jesus talked about until recently as I've been able to change in ways I never could before. I have unexplainable peace and joy that is such a contrast to my inner being even from several months ago. The Lord has set me free in many areas including self focus, shame, insecurity, fear, worry, guilt and irritation with others. I give Him all the glory for the very good works He has done and the river of grace and mercy He has poured over me. I’m eternally grateful that the Lord led me to meet Marilyn and Barbie and the Lifestyle of Learning™ message. My life has been forever changed because of their sacrificial investment in me".

Miss Marilyn and Sand Dollar Doves

My friend Marilyn brought over some old sand dollars for my kids. She allowed them to smash one and then showed them the doves which live inside! She and her family used to go to a live sand dollar bed and she had kept these all that time. What a sweetie, thank you SO much Marilyn!

Literature For Lunch-New Lunch Read Aloud-The Toy Campaign by John Bibee

Our new lunch read aloud is a continuation of "The Magic Bicycle" by John Bibee which I blogged about here.

Homeschool Essentials-Electric Pencil Sharpener

I admit it. I am a geek. This is the very first thing I purchased for our homeschool. Can I just say how much I love it!? I love the grinding and sharpening without effort! I purged out all our old pencils and pens and got new ones. I am done with all the freebie pencils that have erasers as hard as bricks! I like the soft erasers! Get one!

How To Reply To Comments On Your Own Blog

I've never really had many comments on any of my blogs. My friend Angela has been commenting (thank you!) and I wanted to reply/respond to her comment. Uh, hello? Blogger doesn't allow me to reply to a comment left on my own blog!

Here's what you do (so I can remember!):
1-Design, Edit HTML, click the box Expand Widget Template
2-Push CNTRL+F for search box and search for "<data:commentPostedByMsg/>"
3-Use the following code (see link) but replace with blog id (click NEW POST and blog id is in browser address bar)

http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/03/reply-button-option-blogger-comments.html

Thank you so much to Spice Up Your Blog!

Sarah's New Book

Even though that photo looks posed, it isn't, Sarah is reading to John. Did you know that Sarah is writing a book? (Guess who she's writing about...that's right, the Adventures of Black Kitty!) Not only is she authoring this book but illustrating it as well. Above she's reading her book to her dad and Dan is reading the Batman Lego Wii Guidebook that he reserved for his dad at the library.

Books for Breakfast-McCall-Crabbs

McCall-Crabbs. I've been attracted to this book for almost a year now. I purchased it used and half price at HomeschoolClassifieds.com (a site I love because I've sold so much of my unused curriculum!) This book has short passages that are used to teach reading comprehension and thinking skills.

It is quite diagnostic oriented and organized by grade level but I'm ignoring that and starting at the beginning. Here's how we're using it...during our breakfast/morning history reading time we have a SANDWICH. The first piece of bread is a short fairy tale or story, the sandwich filling is the history and the top piece is another short story. This has been SO MUCH FUN and become part of our daily routine.

We continue to read H.A. Guerber's Story of Ancient World which is one page of Bible history per day, just the right amount for us right now.

For short stories I've read from:
3 Minute Stories/Fairy Tales by Publications International and The Lion Storyteller Book of Animal Tales by Bob Hartman as well as selected picture books at times and I'm waiting for Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children by William F. Russell but in the meantime I'm using the McCall Crabbs since the stories are so short and wonderfully varied, I've learned quite a lot already! The kids seem to enjoy answering the questions after I read the paragraph.

Daniel gets the even numbered questions since he was born on an even year and Sarah gets the odd ones for the same reason. Another way I "stay organized" is Daniel has an "L" in his name, so he's always on my LEFT. Sarah has an "R" in her name and she goes on the RIGHT. This is such a weird thing, but when I pour their milk glasses or make their dinner plates or walk across the street, they "know their place"! It is one less decision I have to make and I love that their names lend to this! I suppose this one fact makes me a geek!

Sair-Hair

Sarah was whooping it up in the bathroom this afternoon! She was having a FUN HAIR DAY! She insisted I take a photo and I decided to include the gorgeous color combination she chose today. These sequined shoes are now too small. So sad because they look so cute on her. My baby is growing up, Up, UP!

Hard Drive Crash!

Ugh. My computer crashed. Thankfully I have Carbonite, an online remote backup so my files can easily be restored. I did have to purchase a new computer, though, taking me from Vista to Windows 7. All my programs look different! And it has taken a week to get my order processing back up and running but today I sent out all my orders!

A friend from high school owns the pc repair shop and gave us our dead hard drive. Went to Lowe's for some star screwdrivers and Sarah went to work disassembling the drive. Daniel gets to do the next one but let's hope that isn't for awhile! Life truly is FULL of learning opportunities!

DLD-Dirty Laundry Duty

Dirty Laundry Duty. Usually on Mondays the kids bring down all the dirty clothes. This stack is more than a week's worth since we went camping. WHY do my children like to play in the dirty laundry!?!??! This drives John CRAZY! But he doesn't read this blog, so we're good. :) Can you find the little darlings under the clothes? It's like Where's Waldo!

Homeschool Essentials-Bookmarks

Do you own a pack of these little Post-It Flags? We use them DAILY for bookmarks. Get some, you'll love them!

Sarah-Prolific Painter

Sarah is very creative and has been asking for an easel. The new easel arrived! The new paint arrived! It was a beautiful day so we took the newly assembled easel out on the back patio. Sarah dove right in! Dan was inside but then came to join in! Sarah has been asking to paint standing up at an easel, so we did a little research and I'm really pleased with the easel we selected. Daniel liked Sarah's rainbow so much he did one of his own.

Easel is very sturdy. Took me awhile to put it together. I've purchased paints in the past and decided I wanted a good set that we could share and take care of and have for a long time. I decided on the Lakeshore Learning paints which have 10 colors and matching cups and brushes and paint cup carrier. Since we put aside a little each month for "curriculum" in our budget, we were able to make this investment for our family.

Literature For Lunch-New Lunch Read Aloud-The Magic Bicycle by John Bibee

We have been reading "Report Card" by Andrew Clements at Daniel's request for the past two days. He's already read it and I think it was a freebie from the library or public school.  I don't care for this book because the attitudes are so mean and the main character lies to her "stupid" parents who are not loving toward her...just the opposite of what we are focusing on as a family right now. I asked the kids about it and what they thought and if they thought if we should continue reading it. They said, "no, I don't think we should read it anymore". So we won't!

Our new lunch read aloud is this wonderful selection from Honey For A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt. Enter "The Magic Bicycle" by John Bibee. The kids complained about starting a new book of my choice so I told them I'd read the first three chapters and if none of us liked it, we'd choose another. Uh, HELLO!?! We are all hooked! Can't wait for chapter 4 tomorrow, now that's what I'm talking about!

UPDATE 9/9/11-We are all SO enjoying this book! It really is a suspense mystery and the kids beg for more chapters each day. I love books like this...we experience them together just as if we went on a trip together somewhere exotic!