**Slapping Forehead**

I blame Carisa!!!

A few weeks ago she put out a sweet call on Facebook for Blogger users to please turn off the word verification. When I saw a picture of what she was talking about, I agreed! Those dumb picture words are SO hard to read and get right. It makes it not even worth commenting!

I quick--in between doing several other things--checked my blog settings and oh no! My word verification was turned ON. I didn't really remember that. So, I turned it off. But, because of the tons of spammy comments I've been getting, I turned on comment moderation.

Now you need to know I have never used that feature before.

So when Carrie told me she had left a comment I texted back, "I didn't get one." I was thinking I would get an e-mail and somehow approve the comment that way.

Yep. Can we still blame sleep-deprivation at 4 months?

Tonight, S was looking at my blog and said, "I guess you've just about lost all your blog readers, huh?"

Betcha can't guess if the glass is half-empty or half-full for him, huh?

I said, "Yeah, I know. You really have to post more often to have readers."

Then....a thought slowly formed in my brain. Let...me...just...check something.....

Oh.

I kind of had a bunch of comments waiting to be approved. Oops.

I'm on it now folks. I'm firing on all cylinders now!!!

(Thanks for the comments.)

(Sorry I didn't approve them.)

(I kind of didn't know where they were.)

(It's not really Carisa's fault.)

Back to School 2012-2013

Since we don't have a homeschool room this year, I decided to have a Back to School breakfast instead. That let me set the table up special for the morning like we usually do.

There were treats for later in the morning.

And treats for each girl for the school year.

A desk lamp for Sweetheart and a backpack for Little Bit.

There were pancakes for breakfast.

I think Little Bit liked the backpack!

Then we took our back to school pictures--with our back to school banner and with our traditional numbers.

Sweetheart, age 12 years and 362 days. :)

Seventh grade! How is it even possible?

Little Bit, age 8 1/2

Third Grade!

Baby Bee, age 3 months

We had a light day of work on the first day, but it was a lot harder than I thought with a new baby! Wowzers. Mama will be re-thinking the schedule for sure this week.

All printables came from this site.

I'm linking this post up to the Not Back to School Blog Hop for Week 3--Student Pictures. 

 

Our School Space 2012-2013

This is it. Our first year of homeschooling to NOT have a dedicated homeschool room. *sniff sniff*

At the beginning of last year, we had a perfectly lovely room. In the past, we've had other lovely rooms. 

But now, we have a perfectly lovely new baby.

Photo by H-Mama.

Which necessitates using all of our bedrooms for sleeping instead of for school rooms. And that's OK. It's better than OK. We are blessed.

So this year...things will be a bit different. {UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR}

We have sort of a utility room on the way to the garage. If you look to the right, you would see our washer and dryer. If you look to the left, you have our new "homeschool room."

This used to be my sewing room. It's pretty small. 

The closet covered with a curtain now holds all my sewing stuff. The little desk in the nook is our bill paying desk.

And to the left of the cabinet is our All About Spelling board and shoe pockets full of supplies. That white door is the door to our cleaning closet--you know, the vacuum, broom, cleaners, etc.

Told you the room was kind of small. And hard to take pictures of. I was sort of leaning backwards over the dryer to get these shots!

Inside the cabinet...

Each girl has a shelf with their books and materials for the year. The bottom shelf holds teacher books and a basket of paper. Last year's work is archived in the black crate on top. Flash cards and stuff in the small baskets on top. 

I always lamented not having a shelf in this bottom section. Then I saw my exact same armoire on Pinterest loaded down with scrapbooking materials and they had used these drawers in the bottom. Genius!

So...I guess it's not so much a Homeschool Room as it is a Storage Space, huh?

I bet you're wondering, "But Brenda...where will you work?" Good question!

Just outside of the utility room is our dining room.

I know most folks who homeschool in their dining room use a hutch or china cabinet to store their homeschool stuff. However, our china cabinet belonged to my husband's great grandmother. It's small, it's a bit rickety, and it's crammed full of dishes and cloth napkins and place mats and tablecloths, etc.  I have no better place to put that stuff. And the utility room is just a few steps away.

We'll work in here some. But even better than the dining room...

...is our new coffee table! We were blessed to get some new living room furniture a few weeks ago. It's the first new furniture we've bought in about 13 years. I'm so excited to have that coffee table! I can sit on the couch taking care of baby, while Little Bit (age 8), works here at the coffee table. Perfect!

It's so perfect that I set up a little area right by the couch just for school.

See how handy?

The black crate holds Little Bit's every day school stuff. No need to traipse back and forth to our storage area all the time. On top are our Bible books for school/family Bible time, hymnals and our globe. 

The last area of our homeschool is my oldest daughter's desk in her room. This picture is from last year but you can see the crazy-painted chair, the metal, sprayed with grey primer desk, and the mis-matched everything on top.

I am giving her desk a make-over as a 13th birthday surprise and that isn't done yet so I can't share pictures of it just now.

But it's going to be awesome!

And that is those are our homeschool spaces for this year. Hope you enjoyed the tour! Now hop on over and see some more awesome spaces!

I Love Myself

I've been reading my old posts from last March for about 30 minutes now. It's fun reading what was going on a year ago.

And realizing I had NO idea that in a year's time I would be sitting on the couch big and pregnant and getting ready for a new baby in this house. You just never know.

I had a baby shower Saturday morning hosted by Carrie. It was wonderful! I'll download the pictures today. It's stormy outside right now and I should probably get off the computer before a fire ball knocks me across the room. I used to watch Rescue: 911 a lot. What can I say?

Also, need to get to the doctor today, locate the kitchen sink under all the dishes, and teach the children something.

But first? A shower. Priorities, people.

Be back later today, hopefully!

Top of 2011

Here are some of the top posts for The Family Revised:

Keepin' It Real: Homeschool Organization

This was a fun event with a linky that we did back in 2008!!! Wow! That was a long time ago. I think it's awesome that me, a blogger with "disorganization" as one of her most-used tags, has a top post about organization. Not sure how helpful it is, but the title falsely lures people in. Mwah ha ha!

I Can't Even Concentrate on the Furniture

This was a fun little rant I had about Craig's List. Not at all sure what brings people to this post, but there you go.

Our School Room 2011-2012

Well, technically our school room didn't make it to 2012. Alas, it is no more. It's Little Bit's room now. Well, it was lovely while it lasted and served it's purpose well while we had it. I hope people get some inspiration for their own homeschool spaces when they visit this post.

Our NEW Homeschool Room

This one was part of the Not Back to School Blog Hop so that explains why it is a top post. It was the first year we had our homeschool room in what is now Little Bit's bedroom. I understand. I LOVE looking at pictures of people's homeschool spaces!!

Curriculum Choices for 2011-2012 School Year

So....I'm starting to get the idea you people like me to talk about homeschooling more than anything. Hmm. Maybe I should be more of a "homeschool blogger" instead of so random and eclectic? Not even sure my brain is capable of that!

The First Day

See? Another homeschooling post. Hmm. Look at my little babies!!

On Our Shelves for the School Year

Another year's curriculum post. It's obvious that people do a lot of searching for ideas before each school year starts.

And finally, one that is NOT about homeschooling!!

Neglect

(no picture because I was preaching!)

I'm very glad to see this post in the top 10. I hope it an encouragement. I had no idea it was often visited.

And now, I'm going to throw in one of MY favorites-just because.

Seventeen Years of Sleep

Thank you, blog readers, from the bottom of my heart, for coming here to visit. I just love writing here and sharing here and reading comments and the whole thing! It's been fun for the last 4+ years. Looking forward to more blogging and sharing with you in 2012 (obviously with more emphasis on homeschooling?).

Have a happy New Year everyone!!

Thanksgiving--a Week Early--and Some of My Friends

It's our homeschool group's Thanksgiving feast today. I love getting to eat yummy Thanksgiving food (most of which I didn't cook) a week early! I'm making mashed potatoes and so in a minute I have to go start peeling potatoes. Ug. I also signed up to bring 2 liters. Bread was already taken.

I'm all about the challenging cooking.

So we won't finish all our subjects today but that's OK. We're going to be more thankful today than productive.

The really good news is, since we had friends coming over last night, we actually cleaned the kitchen up after supper. (As opposed to the next morning--ahem.) It was a joy to walk into a clean kitchen this morning, let me tell you. Haven't done that in a while.

So this morning we're scrambling around trying to find good looking clothes to wear. It was in the 50s this morning, but will get up to 69 today and we will be helping set up and clean up from the feast so....how do you dress for that? I'm sure we'll all pull something together.

Two more things:

My friend's 1 year old baby had major (and very long) surgery yesterday to remove a tumor from behind her right ear. This is the second tumor. The first one was removed in May. She will be in the hospital for 8 days and will have another surgery in 4 days. I have felt very distracted thinking about them. When they get in a regular room, we can go see them. She has 5 other children who she had to place in public school for the time being and I just cannot imagine what all she is going through. If you think about it would you say a prayer for baby Marissa and her family?

On a happier note, another friend was nominated for best homeschool vlogger. She really is. Even if I am slightly upset when I see her gorgeous self (EVEN with no makeup) on the videos. Do you even want to know what I would look like if I were to video myself while driving? Dear me. Check her out here and go vote if you like!

Last Call for GiveAway Winner!

Deborah...you won the drawing for Mrs. June's book. Please contact me by Wednesday evening! Ladies, if I don't hear from Deborah by Wednesday night, I'll draw another winner on Thursday morning. Stay tuned!

Date Night and Giveaway Winner

Well, I said I was going to pick the winner of the True Christian Motherhood book last night, but what I really did was go out with my husband. Sorry! (But we had fun!)

Remember I'm going out of town today so spending some time with my husband was very nice. The girls spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so a good time was had by all. Now the girls said they "already missed me last night" and now I'm "leaving today." Poor babies. They are used to having me 24/7. But Daddy has some fun planned for them while I'm gone so I'm sure they'll have a good time.

I'm spending the morning packing and figuring out what I'm going to take for snacks. You know I've been tired and shaky hungry lately. Last night I got a smoothie--strawberry/kiwi infused with protein--and it really helped! But alas there are probably not many smoothie shops in the heart of Texas where we are headed, so I'm going to need to figure out some good snacks to take in case I get shaky while I'm gone.  That, and how to fit my Mom's 3 giant pillows she sleeps with into the van are my only concerns right now. Also, if I'm going to have room in the bed to sleep.

Now, on to the winner!

#8--That would be....Deborah! Congratulations Deborah! (Your profile says "not available" right now. Could be my computer....will you shoot me an e-mail? Thanks!)

Thank you to everyone who participated. I encourage you to look out for other giveaways around the web right now if you still want to win a copy. There are several going on.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Encouragement for Mothers and a Giveaway

I have such an eclectic mix in my Google Reader. Some blogs make me laugh. Some give me great homeschooling ideas. Some are about household organization. Some are just friends telling about their day. I love reading my blogs. And one of the most encouraging ones in my Google Reader is Mrs. June's blog.

If you already read A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, then you know what I am talking about. Her blog is a consistent place to receive encouragement and uplifting words. Always positive, always encouraging women in their walk with the Lord...well.

Imagine a whole book full of Mrs. June's encouraging words! Imagine no further--she has written a book!  I am sure you already knew that.

I started reading True Christian Motherhood the other night and I'll tell you what happened the next morning. As I woke up and lay there thinking about the upcoming day and what I needed to get done, etc., I started thinking about my girls. Suddenly I was remembering what life was like when I had to drop them off at baby sitter's houses and daycare when I was a working mom. I remember the horrible feeling driving away from them each day and how I would pray all the way to work for their safety and well-being. I hated being apart from them. Hated getting the call that they had fever and trying to find a way to get to them. Hated asking my parents to take my daughter to eat lunch for her birthday as I was at work.

Now why is this all significant? I'm getting to it. After I thought about all that, I was SO profoundly thankful for the last 4 years that I have been at home with my girls, homeschooling them and raising them each and every day. Praise the Lord for His providence that allows me to be home with them!

And here is the significant part: I rarely wake up thinking about being a mother. 

I wake up thinking about what I need to do.
I wake up thinking about what I'm going to fix for breakfast.
I wake up thinking about the errands I need to run.
I wake up thinking about something my husband asked me to do that day.

I almost never wake up thinking about how I can mother my children that day. 

Does that sound odd? I have gotten so busy and full of things to DO, that I have forgotten the main thing*: raising and training my children!

Mrs. June's book caused me to remember that. I am a MOTHER--not just a homeschooler. I am a MOTHER--not just a homemaker. I am a MOTHER--not just a stay at home mom.

Oh it is such a high calling!

The book is full of quotes, scripture, Challenge Questions at the end of each chapter, warnings, and encouragement. It will truly give you a vision for your very important role of motherhood.

And the best news is that Mrs. June has offered a free copy of True Christian Motherhood to one of my blog readers! If you would like to win a copy of this e-book, simply leave me a comment on this post and I'll draw a random winner on Thursday evening. If you already own a copy, let your friends know about this giveaway so they can enter!

Go here to learn more about the book or to buy your copy!


*I know being a helper for my husband actually comes first--but motherhood is part of being his helper!

Boring

We have this couple who walks their dog down our street every morning. I call them "The Boring Couple." They are an older couple who are both tall and thin. The woman wears khaki pants and a pastel colored shirt every day. With sensible shoes. The man wears jeans and a short-sleeved button up shirt every day. Tucked in with a belt. There is never ANYTHING surprising about their dress. It is, to say the least, consistent. They keep the same pace all the time. The man holds the leash. They pause to let the dog do it's business and then the man picks it up with a Wal-Mart bag.

They are like clockwork. Responsible, neat, steady.

BORING!!!!

Just once I want to see the woman with red on! Or the man with a polo shirt! Or see them laughing and talking to each other! (Their dog, surprisingly, is small and brown and energetic.) They kill me.

And I sort of feel like them lately because I have NOTHING OF INTEREST to blog about!

I just shuffle in here everyday talking about the same old things.

Maybe I should add a perky brown dog to this post?

Oh, that's right. We have allergies. Sorry.

So.....what would you like to hear about? You guys gave me suggestions a while back but I can't find them anywhere. Humph.

And this post is making me feel the need for a Wal-Mart bag so I'll end here.

Hope you have good ideas!!!

Our Routine (And the Good 'Ol Summertime)

Today I'm linking up with the Tri-Moms and they are discussing routines. You know....how does your routine change from the school year to the summer?

This year was the first time we used a schedule that differed greatly from the public school calendar. We were steeped in the public school calendar before. I mean, husband and I both attended 13 years of public school. Then I taught 11 years in public school. Then our older daughter went to public/private school for 3 years. It was our life.

But last year I got brave and tried something different and we really liked it! It was called "a Sabbath schedule" and I talked about it here. And all the reasons why it rocks here. (That link is full of good reasons!)

It was very difficult for me in May, however. That was the time when all around me people were counting down the days until they were out of school and we still had WEEKS. Oh I was irritated. But it all worked out really well and I lived. And we still have SEVEN weeks of a summer break!

Now that I've seen the schedule through one whole cycle...I'm going to stick with it. It really worked well for us.

So how does life change in our seven week summer? Well..for one thing, we can run our errands in the mornings when it is not 100+ degrees yet and also all the late sleepers are not at the store. We love getting the errands out of the way while everyone is fresh and not cranky and stores are not crowded.

Also, I get big projects done in the summers. This is my time to sew and organize things around the house and switch rooms around at will. (Don't think I'm switching any rooms this summer! OR painting anything!  I know!!!)

The big break gives my kids time to get bored, wander around, and find things to do. They get to use their imagination. Now that we don't have TV (1 1/2 years baby!), they have to work a bit harder to find things to do. TV was ALWAYS Sweetheart's default. Summer gives more time for art, playing, chores, and swimming.

And on weekends we go to the beach a lot with Daddy.

We also go to the library every week. Our library has a lot of activities in the summer and we try to take advantage of  that. We also have a goal every summer of reading 100 books each. I think we've met that goal every year since Little Bit was 3. If you read 100 books, you get a certificate, an ice cream, and a free book at the end of the summer. I feel like I have so much more time to read to them in the summer.

We also used to do summer themes every week. I loved those. Trying to get organized to do some of those this year too. After all, Little Bit is only 7--she will still love them.

And here was our daily routine during the school year.

Go check out the other mom's routines: Suzanne, Kristen, and Kathi. (The link up is at Kristen's place--go join us and tell us your summer routine!)

Math Blaster Online

Alternate Title: My Children are Better at the Computer Than Me

 Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.


I have long loved Math Blaster. It's been around since the 1980s and I have always heard good things about it. Although I never had the chance to play the really vintage version...we do have some experience with Math Blaster in other formats. For example, we've borrowed a computer CD game of it from a friend and Sweetheart has the DS version. This review is for the online version. Simple and easy. You can access it from any computer and don't have to keep up with a game.

Math Blaster has evolved a lot over the years! The main character is now "Max" and he gives directions and serves as a guide.

I would have been lost without you Max!

Your child gets to first create their own "Blaster Cadet" (character) and name themselves something cool like my name of Emma LunaFlare. They can customize the hair, clothing, and other features. This activity alone can take awhile and is quite fun. Once they are created, you are ready to play!

Customize your cadet before you play. You can edit later as well.

Here is where I must admit that Mom was lost and so I had to just let my child take the wheel, or the mouse as it were, and watch over her shoulder as she expertly figured out where to go and what to do. So obviously, just because it didn't make sense to a 40 year old....does not mean there is a flaw! Once she showed me around I was good to go.

There are a lot of games on Math Blaster and....this may surprise you...not all of them are math games. I think that's important to point out because I would have assumed if my child was spending 20 minutes playing Math Blaster that they were playing all math games. But Math Blaster offers both. Your little cadet can find math games by visiting the Academy and the Job Board. They can play other games in the Space Port. They are all fun, but I thought I'd point it out in case you need to make a rule of how many math games you want them to play before they play the other games.

I was happy to see more than just the four basic operations. This game has fractions, decimals, and percents.

This is a fun way to practice place value.

One thing I was very happy to find out was that there is no chance for my child to communicate with other people who are online. At first we thought you could, but it turns out they can only communicate with their friends. Maybe they'd like to play with their cousin, or friend, or classmate. These people can be added to their Buddy List. The good news is this feature can be controlled and monitored under the Parent Section on the website. We have not used the Buddy or chat feature because I have trained them not to communicate with others online.....but with these safety features in place it would be fine. I was so very glad to find a children's website with some good common sense about that feature!

Yee Haw!! This is my favorite game!

My favorite game is the Alien Wrangler. Basically, you get to ride the mechanical bull at Gilley's except the bull is an alien and you have to answer math problems instead of....well OK maybe it's not much like Gilley's. But it's really fun and is a great drill. You can choose from Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division and then you can choose from other categories inside of that. (Such as "facts up to 16", etc.) This game gets 2 thumbs up from me as a Mom because it gives quick math drill and is fun.

Choices to make it appropriate for your child.

There is also a Math Blaster Blog for the parents to check out. This is a helpful thing as it lets you know what features are new and sort of helps you feel like you actually know what your child is doing while they are on the game. Sweetheart does not need the blog, she just logs on and figures it out as she goes. My bet is your children will too.

Math Blaster does require a membership, but you can add up to 6 children on one account. There are also a lot of things in their Shop on the website such as a downloadable game, the Nintendo DS version, one of the math games from Math Blaster in ipad/iphone format, and much more. Check out the store here. 

I hope this review was helpful! If you take the summers off, or you children go to school and have the summer off, a membership to Math Blaster might be a good thing to give them something fun to do AND keep up with those math skills. If you have any questions I haven't covered--just holla!

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Thanks for the e-mails checking on me! Several folks were concerned that maybe I had taken down my post on my church for a reason. Fear not! Blogger took it down for me. I think my Super Blogging was too much for them to handle. **coughcough**

Actually, I heard rumors they will put the posts back up. If not, Carrie tipped me off last night and I copied and saved the whole post. So if they don't....I will.

Now, I'll have to get back to you on an actual post for today because it is now lunchtime and I'm in the middle of a "must tire my children out so they go to sleep earlier" day. Ever had one of those? Swimming is on the agenda for sure! And housework. We'll see how it goes. My prediction?

a. it works and at the end of the day I have a clean house, sleeping children, and a load of towels going in the washer.

or

b. some of the house gets clean, wet swimsuits and towels will litter the bathroom floor, and mom will fall asleep when she should be cooking supper while the children run through the house screaming and full of energy.

It's a toss up really.

The Frugal Bug

Has bit me again! I know, frugal is not something you DO, it's something you ARE. But, there are times when more frugality is called for and times when you can let up a little. Actually, I guess anyone who is homeschooling could be considered frugal since no matter what, you are sacrificing to have one parent at home. (AND pay taxes for your local schools AND purchase all your own school stuff as well. Ahem.)

Financially we've been in upheaval for about 6 months. It's been good--we payed off a lot of debt. And things have changed--we've added a car payment. The end result is I never really know how much we're going to end up with or how much I should set aside. For six months each month has been entirely different from the previous month. I'm not complaining....just saying that things have been different.

Frugal Tip #1: Have whole family help with side business for extra money! :)
(Little Bit helping Daddy with his mowing job.)

This morning I read Connie's news over at Smockity Frocks about her husband being laid off. I know they are not the first family, or the first homeschooling family to undergo such a trial. Far from it. But their plan of action was wonderful and very inspiring. Reading it made me start thinking about frugal again.

It also started me thinking about getting a clothes line and putting ads in my sidebar. I know some people are very opposed to ads on blogs, but when you read her post you'll understand why I'm willing to try it for a time! (would anyone stop reading if I did?)

Frugal Tip #2: Don't waste paper! Do spelling on the closet doors.

Summer is definitely the time for frugality. We just invested in a backyard pool. The kind they sell at Walmart and Target. We had the money to do it. We are very blessed. (So we don't have groceries this week? Big deal. We have a pool. Just kidding.) (Kind of.) Anyway, one reason we decided to do it is because to not have a pool (like last year when we were trying to save money) means driving to public pools. And swimming is really the only outdoor thing you can do where I live in the summer. Without dying of heat stroke. And driving when gas is this high is not smart. Especially when getting in the car to go swimming is invariably going to end up in "well, let's just stop in here or there" to shop or run through the drive through to get a drink, etc. Staying home is the best frugal move to make in the summer for us.

And since we'll need to save money this summer to buy the curriculum I want next year, we don't need to run around to this fun spot and that fun spot all summer. And with our pool, maybe we won't need to.

Spending money to save money. Not sure it makes sense.

Frugal Tip #3: Homemade play dough! Cheap, better, and lasts forever.
(Little Bit acting out the Bible story with play dough.)

But I can be more frugal than that! Oh yes I can! And since summer is the perfect time for us to all buckle down (hello electric bill and gas prices!), maybe we can encourage each other? Share our frugal tips? Should we linky? What do you think?

Sweetheart not doing a blessed thing to help our family save money, but I had to include her cute self in the post anyway. Wait! She's wearing a shirt Carrie got her from the thrift store! Way to go Sweetheart!

Now I Can Annoy You With These All The Time!

Singing PollyDoodle All the Day....

My bloggy friend JulieMom is very crafty and sew-y and talented. She has posted many tutorials on her blog that have been useful to me. I made pajamas last year from one of her tutorials for crying out loud!

She launched PollyDoodle Designs last month and she has a Facebook page and everything. It's very official.

AND....she's having a giveaway of some of her beautiful hand-sewn hair pretties.

But before I tell you about that, did you  hear this story? I read it yesterday. Too lazy to look up the link. So this high school student did some volunteer hours in one of her local 3rd grade classrooms. At the end, she wanted to give the students a treat. She filled up some plastic Easter eggs with candy. She asked the teacher would it be OK to give them out. Teacher said let me check with administration.

Administration said, yes. BUT, she could not call them "Easter Eggs" but instead had to call them "Spring Spheres."

I cannot tell you how much that annoys me.

So she said, "I have some spring spheres for you" and the kids all yelled "EASTER EGGS!!!"

Anyway, if you don't like the name "Easter Giveaway Extravaganza", feel free to call it "Spring Giveaway Special" or whatever floats your boat. We're all about being politically correct here at The Family Revised.

So, go like her Facebook page and enter the giveaway (there are easy directions on the Facebook page) She'll draw a random number winner who will get TEN hair pretties!!! BUT, she has to get 300 Facebook fans by Easter.

So get to likin' and sharin' the springtime love!

So I Missed Something Important

Last month to be exact. No, I didn't miss the whole month, but I missed my blogiversary! Last month marked FOUR YEARS that I've been typing my thoughts and feelings to total strangers on the world wide web.

See, husband used to have a blog when he was the youth minister and I kept having ideas for posts so I would "guest author." I was also the church secretary and when someone wouldn't turn in their article for the worship program, I supplied one easily.

Finally, S told me to quit hacking other people's things and get my own blog. I thought that was a silly idea. What would I talk about?

Ha!

I started out just telling about all the changes God was making to our family. He still is, by the way. But somewhere along the way, I found I had become a homeschooling blog. And I get more hits for homemaking posts than anything else, which clearly indicates that a reader is new here.

You know that my blog is still sort of secret in my real life. A few folks I know in real life know about my blog. A few have stumbled on it. I suppose that part about the world wide web had something to do with that, huh? What can I say? I live on the street I grew up on and have gone to the same church for 40 years. It's NICE having a different audience to talk to, you know?

I ramble on about all kinds of things and you kind people read and comment and lurk and I love it. I can't imagine not blogging. But I do wonder....why DO you come here?

What do you like to hear me talk about? Homeschooling? Homemaking? My family? What kind of posts do you like the most? Do you have a favorite? Do you feel like you know me? DO you know me??? :)

Come on...I've shared four years of my life with you! Tell me why you keep coming back. Or maybe there is something you've been wanting to tell me for a long time such as "get a professional profile picture done woman!" You can tell me that now.


After all, what are completely made up holidays like "blogiversaries" for, if not that?

Let the SUPER BLOGGING Begin!

OK, so if you've been following me here (and at my other blog), you know we are doing some home remodeling right now. By doing, I mean paying for.

THEN, both our computers died within weeks of each other.

Ouch.

Thankfully, (Praising the Lord for blessings!) we had the money to do something about it. Turns out computers don't cost nearly what they used to back when we last bought one. We've been a bit out of the technology loop. So we now have ONE family computer. It has to be taken care of and used well. It will be for personal use, family finances, record keeping for our business, school work, church stuff, etc.

And, of course, blogging. S said on the way home from the computer store, "Now you're all set up. I expect to see SUPER BLOGGING going on."

No pressure. I'm not really sure what super blogging looks like but I'm pretty sure it involves you guys leaving LOTS and LOTS of positive feedback so some one's husband will see the results of his recent purchase. Ahem.

And now I'll tell you that S and I felt a bit like country folks come to town while we were shopping. The young kid (actually, he was the manager) was talking rapid fire about apps on the printer, and how you can send documents from your phone straight to the printer at your house and they print automatically, and how you can scan your fingers on the laptop to access sites instead of using passwords......

...and I think we might have stood there with our mouths dropped open just a bit. And shook our heads a few dozen times.

"I tell you Herbert, I just cain't get over it. You just push that little handle down and the toilet flushes ALL by itself RIGHT THERE IN THE HOUSE!"

We aer so up with it. Kinda reminded me of a few years back when we needed a new phone. We were looking at all the choices that had answering machines built in and one of us said, "Where do you put the tape? I don't see anywhere to put the tape?"

But that is no longer us. No sir. WE are UP with the technology and whipping out SUPER POSTS such as this one.

Ahem. (your turn---make me look good ladies!)

Need Some Good News Today?

I've got some for you! I've been following two blogs and both have had happy news lately.

First of all, Joanne is waking up! Joanne blogs at The Simple Wife and if you had not heard, she had a major stroke a little over a week ago. She is 38 years old. She's been in a medically induced coma to try to control the swelling in her brain but in the last few days she has opened her eyes, given her husband a thumbs up, moved her toes, and started breathing on her own. She and her family still need lots of prayer, but I was so thrilled when I logged on yesterday to see her improvement!

Also, nearly a year ago when Adeye and Anthony adopted Hailee and Harper, she blogged about the children left in Hailee's room. Two of those little boys were adopted last week (and one little girl's family is in process). This is the room of children who were essentially locked away. I've been following Autumn and Josh since they launched their blog and began the adoption process. It has been so thrilling to watch as those boys were rescued. If you need a pick-me-up, go look at those handsome boys' smiling faces. They have a family now!

We need good news every now and then, don't we? And now let's all share some of our own good news.

My Good News:

1. I got groceries yesterday even though it was pouring down rain.
2. We are going to be doing a fun book this week in school. Book units make school worthwhile. Otherwise it's just work.
3. Little Bit is starting to read!!

Your turn! What good news do you have for us today?

I Need a Hard Copy of This

My mom does not get computers. She doesn't read e-mail. She doesn't Facebook. She doesn't touch a computer. The remote is about all the technology she can handle. If my parents get an e-mail that my mom would like to read, my dad prints it out for her. She wants it IN her hands.

Cracks me up. The first time she ever got an e-card she just about came unglued. It was beyond her why she could not have it in her hands.

Well....I might just be printing me some stuff off the computer today because I want to keep it forever. My e-friends and real life friends got together under Terry's guidance and Giovanna's linky and sent me some birthday wishes.

I promise I'm not sharing this to milk more birthday wishes! I'm sharing it because they were so stinkin' awesome!!! Click on Giovanna's link up there to see what my funny and sweet friends had to say. Some of them are on my list!!! :)