Homeschooling with laryngitis

Today I have learned a lot about Proverbs 15:1,

"A soft answer turns away wrath,

But a harsh word stirs up anger."

Due to either a cold or allergies, my voice is abnormally soft.  In fact it is only a whisper!  My kids keep saying, "Just try and talk normal."  "I am," I whisper back.  I have had a scratchy voice before, due to a cold or chest congestion, but I don't think I have ever lost my voice so completely!  Ugh!

What I have learned is that if I speak in a whisper, they respond in a whisper.  This has probably been the quietest day we have ever had!  Without having any control over the volume of my voice, I have managed to control the volume of their voices.  Hmm...  I guess King Solomon knew what he was talking about.

For those moments when they still got loud and I needed to get their attention, I was sure glad they are trained to respond to a finger snap or a hand clap!  That sure comes in handy in public when I don't want to shout their names because they disappeared around the corner, I clap my hands.  Or if they are too far away for me to reach in church and I need to get their attention, I snap.  I know, they should be trained to NOT walk away from me at the store or misbehave in church in the first place, but for those times, it works. 

The one thing I wish I could change in this situation {other than NOT losing my voice!} is that I wish I would  have taught them sign language!  I still can, it just won't be too handy NOW! 

I think I'll go drink some more hot tea.  And sleep, I am soooooo tired!

Judy

Why I haven't been blogging

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I decided at the beginning of the summer that we needed to "unplug." Less T.V. and computer, more God. Once I got off the computer,  I realized how much of my time gets sucked away when I am on it! I also realized how I really, really, really needed to be more of a "present mom." Not presents like gifts, but present like really there!  When I'm not "really there," well, you know the saying... "When the cat's away, the mice will play!"  Messes. Fighting.  Sin.  Not the godly character I would like to cultivate in my children!  At the end of each day I would realize, another day had gone by without reading Scripture or praying with them.  My excuse was, "that's Dallas' responsibility," which is true, but his job is different from week to week and he is not always able to get it into his schedule, either.  So it's my responsibility, as well!

Something else I have been working on all summer is getting my thoughts organized, then getting them on paper, then following the plan.  Once upon a time, I had a notebook organizer.  I made it up myself, with printed planner sheets from MicrosoftWorks and plain notebook paper.  The dividers were recycled from something else, I just flipped them over and wrote on the backs.  I had everyone trained to just look in the book for chores, shopping list, homeschool contacts, etc.  And guess what... it worked!  It worked really well, too!  At that time I had three high schoolers, one little'un in school, and then came the babies... February 2003, October 2004,  July 2006, and June 2009.  Throw in six wrestling seasons, Hubby's bout with cancer, rebellious teenagers and very little sleep.  Oh, and my health crashed. (Barely any progesterone and phase II adrenal fatigue.)  All I could do was survive.  Barely.

Anyway, I forgot all about that handy-dandy notebook organizer!  The Holy Spirit poked and prodded at me all summer to get an organizer.  I really didn't want to make one again, so I looked and looked and looked online for the "perfect" notebook to buy.  Several had a lot of what I needed but not ALL of what I needed, and they are expensive.  So guess what?  I made one after all!  I need full-size pages (I am less likely to lose it that way!)  I need a weekly planner with lots of writing space per day, a calender, a menu plan, and a shopping list.  I found just what I needed at Organized Home.  I went to Staples and bought dividers with built-in folders to store pages that don't have holes.  My other sections include: schedules (MicrosoftWord2007), cleaning schedules from Money Saving Mom, chore charts from Homeschooling at the Speed of Life, Bible, (just different ideas I find or notes), goals (ideas from Sarah Mae), old menu plans to refer back to, and a school section, with attendance charts, notes from homeschool conventions of the past, copies of CPI forms,  copy of supervising teacher contract, etc. The theme of this organizer is

"The wise woman builds her house, 

But the foolish pulls it down with her hands."

Proverbs 14:1 

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(This verse and picture is on the front cover of my notebook.)

Now that I have my organizer all organized (he-he) all I have to work on is, "eh-hem", #1 NOT letting it get buried on my desk*blush*, and #2  following it!  I honestly don't know which one is harder!  Really!!!  I have come to realize a little bit of rebellion in my heart when it comes to following a plan rather than being lazy.  (I am praying about a submissive spirit in this area!)

Through all the toil I also suffered with some depression.  I have a lot of back and neck pain and normally visit my chiropractor weekly.  But our insurance decided I go too much, I guess, because they have cut me off.  So every visit comes out of pocket now.  I have suffered more aches and pains than any 40-year-old should have!  Sometimes the pain was debilitating.  That's depressing.  We made our first real estate investment and it made a huge impact on our finances up front. (We're pretty broke until we get the house ready for a renter.)  That's depressing.  I could hardly walk through my basement due to piled-up junk, misplaced toys, and construction supplies.  That was frustrating, and a tough task to attack while having a lot of hip pain, especially while going up & down stairs.

But God is good!  He is patient!  And He wants me to ask for His help- which is a good thing since I need so much of it!!

I also haven't blogged much because my computer was in the shop several times.  Mr. Fix-It did a clean up but couldn't find anything seriously wrong--- at first.  He ended up saving all our data, wiping out the computer and re-installing the programs.  When that didn't work, he told me that it is just time to get a new one.  (Not what you want to hear when you are flat broke.)  So I am still using it, and asking God to heal it.  So far its working!  But next time I drop off the face of the earth, that just might be WHY!

If anyone actually had the patience to read this entire article, thank you for your time and patience!  I know, Laurie, you are probably the only one, so, thank you!

Judy

Psalm 103:10-12

There a lot of things I regret in my life.


 Things I did that I shouldn't have done.


 Things I said that I shouldn't have said.


 Things I didn't do that I should have done.


 Things I should have said and didn't.


 Even a frown when I should have smiled, or laughed when I should have condemned.


 I am so thankful that "He (God) has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities." (verse 10) I deserve hell. That's all there is to it. I don't deserve forgiveness, or a second chance. "For as the heavens are high above the earth,So great is His mercy toward those Who fear Him. "As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed out transgressions from us." God's forgiveness is great. So great that He never even thinks of them again. Jeremiah 31:34 "...For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Now if only I could forget... and even more importantly, that others would.

 Judy 

 All Scripture taken from the New King James Version.

4th of July

We don't normally associate the 4th of July with something sad like a funeral.  But we spent July 3rd at the most patriotic funeral I have ever seen.  A man who was a veteran of WWII, though he never left state side, he trained hundreds of young Navy pilots to serve our country.  The whole Legion group was there.  Twenty-one gun salute.  Flags.  Taps.  The Navy officers saluted the casket before they folded the flag to give to Grandma.  All the flowers were red, white, and blue.


He married Dallas' Grandma... two months after Dallas' brother and sister-in-law married... two months before we were married.  {How many people can say they got married the same year as their grandparents?!}  Grandma had been a widow for 20 years.  Now after nearly 17 years, she is widowed again.  They were very in love.  They were full-time companions.  They were so good to each other.  Now Grandma Alice is alone again.  

"Grandpa" John Ole Evans

September 9, 1920 - June29, 2012

Today we rest before our church 4th of July celebration.

Delicious Iced Coffee

There is just nothing like a nice cold glass of iced coffee on a hot summer day!  It is so cool and refreshing.  With the help of a friend, I have developed a delicious recipe so I can enjoy it any time, and at minimal cost, too.

In the blender add:

Some ice {maybe 4-5 cubes}
1 cup water
1 cup milk {I use skim, then its a fat-free drink!}
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping tsp instant coffee
Blend until the ice is chopped and enjoy your iced coffee!

Linked up with MenuPlanMonday

Homemade {and healthy} Coffee Creamer

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I love coffee.

I love to smell it as soon as I can after crawling out of bed in the morning.

I love to hold that hot mug in my cold hands and warm up in the wintertime.

I love it iced in the summertime.

I love coffee creamer.  


I love lots of different kinds of coffee creamer, but vanilla is my all-time favorite.  Hubby doesn't like me to buy the pre-made coffee creamers because one of the ingredients is "hydrogenated" somethingorwhatever.  {Hydrogenated anything is "not healthy".}  So for a while I was using coffee syrup with half & half.  "Yummy!" but I decided it was an unnecessary expense, so I thought I would try and invent my own vanilla coffee creamer:

1 quart carton of Half & Half
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsps. vanilla flavoring
Shake well,
Enjoy!

We've adopted!

It has been almost a year since we lost our dear old Molly.  I think about her often.  I don't think we ever really realized what a big part of the family was until she was gone.  Sometimes I think I hear her, breathing heavily as she did in her senior years; or stepping onto the front porch. {She sounded like a person because she weighed as much as a small adult human!}  I was never afraid of intruders - she never would have allowed one!  Her bark was definitely worse than her bite.  She was very cautious about men.  Grown men would refuse to leave their trucks when she stuck her nose up toward the driver's window.  She hated the garbage man.  Think about it, 1) a man 2) stopping by our house during the day when her kids were playing right there in the yard 3) taking away something that "belonged" to us!  I have to laugh when I remember his face!

One sunny morning when I was having my morning prayer time... something triggered a memory.  I don't remember what it was, but I shed a little tear, thinking about Molly.  So I prayed... "Lord, You know we want another dog.  You know we have tried to get a puppy and it just never worked out.  I ask You to bring us the right dog at the right time... and with a shock collar... all for free."  Looking back, part of me believed it was just too much to ask.  But not too much for our God!

A week or so later, Tyler came home from work and asked what we would think of taking in a 1-year old American bulldog.  {Ummm, a bulldog?  I was thinking more like German Shepherd.}  His friend at work had her as a house dog and couldn't keep her any longer.  She had outgrown the house and was bored there.  She was chewing up everything in sight!  He couldn't keep her in the backyard because she could jump the fence!  We agreed to adopt her.

Meet Lucy!

{Shock caller and everything!}

She came to us on Memorial Day!  She is sooo sweet, and loves the country.  She hasn't destroyed anything since she's been here, she is having too much fun following all these kids around!  She has had to adjust to not being allowed in the house, that was tough at first, but she is learning.  She especially didn't like the day it rained off and on all day!

The cats aren't thrilled with her, but they have "put her in her place" a few times.  Today she killed a raccoon! That was funny to me since Molly {the brave dog that she was} was scared to death of raccoons! LOL

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Leah's birthday was Saturday.  She turned THREE!!  {Wow! Where does the time go?}  Two months before her birthday we started asking what she wanted for her birthday.  And do you know what she said?  Get this... A Christmas tree!!  That's right, she never got over us taking the Christmas tree down in January!

So I told Jordyn.  I knew the garage saling queen would come through for us on this one!  Sure enough, someone a friend found a PURPLE CHRISTMAS TREE at a garage sale for $.25!  So Leah got just what she wanted for her birthday.  Jordyn decorated it with water balloon "Christmas balls" and a "Happy Birthday Leah" garland!  She loves it!!