Our "God Fridge"

So, after so many years, our fridge DIED (I wish I actually got a picture of the old...no you really would not want to see)...actually it started burning and we had to get it out! So, we shoved all of our food into a friend of mine's fridge and since the temperature has only been like 8 degrees the frozen stuff is working well outside in our cooler! Anyway, this is not the time of year that people are getting rid of refrigerators so Freecycle, craigslist, and ebay had none except a few 7 year old ones that were $500.00 or ones for a couple of hundred that just had an ice box...too small for our family. Anyway, so I went on Foogle. I was not on the up and up on the costs of new fridges, but knew with enough research I could find a good one at a great price...and I did. I did the search from lowest to highest and there was this refrigerator:

I found it, originally for $1800.00 and it was on sale, because of a small dent, for $480.00. Can you see the dent? Yeah, me neither! Here is what it looks like on the inside (mom this is for you)! God has provided for us so many times over and over again. And He always goes over and beyond anything we could ever ask. We have a "God Home", a "God Car" and now a "God Fridge". God is a great provider. This refrigerator has been sitting in the warhouse...brand new, all except the little dent, for 7 months...waiting for us. Thank you God!!!

Quote of the day

We were driving home from O.D.E. (a one day school for homeschoolers), and as we were approaching home Kiley began this conversation after I reminded them that there would be a babysitter tonight while Dad takes me out:

"Mom, you know that [the babysitter] gives us as many helpings of ice cream as we want?"

"Really?" I questioned.

"Yeah, she gives us one helping and then if we say we want more she gives us another until we tell her we had enough."

"Really?" I replied.

"Yeah, why does she do that, we don't need more than one scoop of ice cream?" she said with a look of disgust on her face.

I couldn't help but think it was funny that a child, my child was commenting on the fact that they were getting too much ice cream. For the babysitter, I know that it was probably not heaping fulls and very rarely do we have ice cream in the house to give them, BUT I did get a kick out of her passion in it all!

Something old, something new

When I was in college, my mom had a very handy gift made for me by my youth pastor, Mike Baumgardner. It was great. I used it in college for my letter writing "station". I was cleaning out some shelves today and came across it:

It has paper and envelopes to write letters, but I now have a desk for that. Wondering what I could use this for I decided to use it as a "Sick Desk". It is great for storing things and a hard surface on top for writing or coloring. So today I put together our SICK DESK. I filled it with crayons, paper, coloring and activity books, pencils, books and playdough. So, whenever the kids are sick and stuck on the couch they now have a nice box with fun things to do. I love finding old things that I can find new uses for! Here is a look at the final product:

With this fun box, my kids will almost want to get sick...ok, maybe it isn't THAT great!

What do Mama Mia, Coloring and Leave It to Beaver have in common?

So, last night was our date night with Kiley. She began the date by wanting to color pictures of snowmen. Then we proceeded to have a dance party with Mama Mia songs. They love the Abba Gold CD. After flying high from dancing she decided to come down to earth and teach Jason and I piano. Then we popped popcorn and watched "one of daddy's favorite shows" from growing up (I think she forgot it was one of mine too!), Leave It To Beaver. I love YouTube. It was a fun evening. She was a trooper, as Karli kept getting sick in between our fun times, but she dealt with it. She had a hard time at first thinking we weren't excited, but after a great talk she realized that all was ok. She even got to stay up a little bit later, due to all the interruptions. (*smile*)

The quote I loved from the whole evening, "Mom, I haven't been able to stop smiling ever since we watched the movie The Fourth Wise Man." "Why?" I asked. "Because he kept helping people, and I love it when people help people." "And maybe because you love to help people too" I said. "Mom, how did you know?" she said with the cutest expression on her face.

A night of dancing, jumpin and hiding!

As the new year rolls in, Jason and I, decided that our monthly dates with the kids kept getting pushed to the side. SO, instead of going out, we decided to make our Friday nights date nights with the kids. We BOTH get to hang out with them, and don't have to spend money in the process. They get to stay up for an hour to an hour and a half past the other kids with just Dad and Mom.

Last Friday was Emily's night. She just LOVES to have fun. Her laugh is so contagious and her smile lights up the room. She chose to have a dance/jumping party and then in between times play hide-in-go-seek. So for an hour and a half we were dancing, jumping and hiding. It was a fun time and afterwards we settled in and read about four books to settle down before bed. I also have had a hard time finding time to scrapbook, so I have decided that after date night with the kids I will spend time working on one page of that child's scrapbook. It was fun to show Emily a new scrapbook page the next morning as we reminisced about our fun evening. I can't wait to find out what Kiley has in store...

Workbox- My Style (Updated and more detail)

To begin with, I previously wrote about my WORKBOX SYSTEM here. I was not able to go into more detail so I kept promising that I would, and now I have. See below.

First, this is part of my lesson plan (thanks to my friend Rachel, she came up with this, I can not get the credit). On the far left are the days numbered for school (i.e. day 71, day 72, etc.). I could only fit a few subjects into the picture. I have it by date and then you read across left to right. The previous blog was not able to explain this part.

Here is my workbox! It is just a bankers box and file folders...but it has made my life so much better! Read on to see how it works. I know it doesn't look like the normal workboxes you are use to seeing, but trust me it is sooooo helpful.

Here are the file folder, just simply labeled per day. What I do is take the lesson plan and then find all the supplies I need for that day (the day listed to the far left) and then put them in that file folder. I get all the items cut out, ready to go. So when that day comes, all I have to do is pull out that folder and it is all there. Then...

(Here is what one of the folders has in it.)...if there is a page or supplies that needs to be used a different day I take a sticky note and write what day(s) it needs to be moved to when we are done using it. Here is an example of that:
Should there be any supplies that might not fit into the box, or that I have to get the week of I put a sticky note sticking out of the top so I can see it flagged.

Here is what it looks like when I am looking at my Workbox:

I grab the sticky notes and add it to my shopping list. I am planning on trying to do a library list next year. I am working on that. More to come on that later.

So this is my workbox system. The thing I like about it compared to the other workbox systems out there is that everything is already to go, it doesn't take up much space, I don't have to prepare something each night (it is already done) and once day one is done I can start planning on next year when I have time. Just keep rotating. I also like it because if we get behind in one subject I can always see what day the supplies are in. See below. We are a little behind in Spelling on this lesson sheet, so even though we are ahead of that day the items are still in that day. So, when I come to Spelling list 13 worksheet and need it I can go to day 64 and pull it out even though we are on day 70.

I hope that this has been more informative than the previous post. I know that a lot of people have wanted more, and it has taken me some time to get to it. So, here it is. I hope it can help someone out. I have taken things I have read elsewhere and squeaked it to what works for me. With four kids it is hard to keep track of all the different things I need...this works for me. It might not work for you, but maybe you can take something from it and make your own system. I hope you have a great school year, I know we are!

Reason #246 of why I love homeschooling

Yesterday during lunch our conversation somehow got on each one of our responsibility in the decisions we make. Just because we have the same parents does not mean that we will all make the same choices, etc.. It was great discussing the fact that each child is responsible for the choices he/she makes. We as parents try and direct and teach and guide them the best we can, but ultimately we are responsible for OURSELVES. I would say that was a great lunch.