Keeping It Simple

I just clicked over to a blog post about this topic and found, surprising to me, that this is "controversial topic". I admit to confusion. My husband lifts me up-  He tells me I'm pretty (I am decidedly not, but that is okay- he really truly believes I am and that is good enough for me!!). He asks me if he can pick up anything from the grocery store on his way home from work, he grocery shops (how can I not love a man who grocery shops!). He "dates" me! Like once a week he opens the car door for me , takes me to restaurant, sits across the table from and acts like I am his entire world. He brings me flowers and he buys me cards (sometimes just to say "I love you"). He gets up every.single.morning. at 5 a.m. and works his bloody a@$ off all day long to support our family. He listens to me, he spends time with me, he even recently offered to watch the entire Pride and Prejudice mini series with me (with all boys left at home, I'm feeli...

Look at me writing 2 posts so close together!! So... I have loved listening to the podcasts on morning time called "Your Morning Basket". I have listened to all of them. Very inspiring! They are all worthwhile to listen to, but I have to tell you that episode #2 with Andrew Pudewa is a game changer (in the homeschool sense). We have had our own variations on morning time in our house. When my girls were younger (they are now 31, 30, 28 and 22 years old), we had "seat work time" and "couch time". I'd say that couch time was our version of what is now being called morning time. For the most part, we read historical fiction, discussed history (I would either read from or discuss from a text), learned a little geography, read the bible, had prayer time, and had some pretty fun discussions. There was a transition when my now 28 year old became sort of a teachers helper for her younger sister. I remember working on art appreciation with her at the h...

Lots of baby care around here as the boys' big sister (our second daughter, Jessica) was having her fifth baby. It was a week full of sword fighting, cuddles, disney movies, books, and coloring. It's also been a week full of colds. The 2 year old twins had a cold, which I assume James caught from them (although every one in the world seems to have it, so not necessarily). The problem is that no matter how many times I caution the boys, who can resist cuddling with a sweet little toddler who does not feel well? I guess germs are meant to be shared. In the way of school, we have been in "keep up" mode. Paul's strongest focus is on his Dave Ramsey finance class (which I highly recommend), his Spanish class, and his economics course. http://www.daveramsey.com/store/search.ep?keyWords=homeschool http://www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab/spanish  (I cannot recommend this highly enough. The books and cds make it easy to open and go. Additionally, the...