A Valentines Celebration

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dinner was steak on the grill and mashed potatoes with sparkling grape juice for everyone. Daddy toasted to God who gave us all of our wonderful blessings. After we ate, daddy read

from I Corinthians 13.

The children each got a valentine basket. Think I spent about $40.00 in all for our Valentines Day. Most items came from Dollar Tree, including the baskets (which we 2/$1.00) and most of the small toys. We also each bought each other valentine cards, like the would do in public school, and exchanged those. It was a blast.

Here is what our table looked like after clearing the dishes and getting ready for cake.

I decorated the table with a plain red table cloth from Christmas and this inexpensive place mat. Oh, and the candles. Each got a candle next to their plate to symbolize that they are each a light in this world.

I had never made a red velvet cake from scratch. I thought about using a box but wanted to try from scratch. I got the recipe from here , but admittedly, I will probably just buy a mix next time. The cake was rather dry. The icing, however, was a delicious white chocolate and cream cheese icing. It will be a keeper.

Here is youngest son with his most favorite toy in his basket.

Here is oldest son with his most favorite toy from his basket.

Here is daughter with her most favorite toy in her basket.

As we ponder our Valentines experience, I wish to leave the verses that dear husband read last evening.

'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity enviety not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh not evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth:...And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. I Corinthians 13:1-8;13 (KJV)

May your Valentine Day and each day be filled with Charity. Blessings, Suzie

Baroque recital-Judas Maccabeus, Handel

Dear daughter performed in a Baroque Period recital this morning. Take a peek.

Blessings for a wonderful day, Suzie

Managers of Their Homes/Chores

It has been awhile since posting here but let me assure you, we have been busy. We are implementing (with great success, I might add) the Maxwell's systems of scheduling and chore assignments in our home. You can read more about the Maxwell family, their ministry and books here. They have some very wonderful ideas. I have had their Managers of Their Home system for quite some time but have been working to tweak it for our family. Here is what we have done with our daily schedule.

As you can see, this is posted on the refrigerator. We have a limited amount of wall space in our home, and this is a very convenient place, where all can view it. It has taken me some time to tweak this schedule, however, recently, when ds needed 30 minutes of vision therapy with me every day, it was very easy to 'plug it in' without me feeling overwhelmed. I have also incorporated my own chores as well as blocks of time to 'inspect' and 'train' the children in their chores. I need to add that I tried this system many years ago, in our early years of homeschooling and it didn't work then because I tried to follow it too closely. I now have learned to use it as my guide rather than my master (even though it is called a 'master' schedule). I believe that this is a very important key to making this system work for your family. FLEXIBILITY!

Another system that the Maxwells created and is rather new to me is called
Managers of Their Chores.

Chores have always been a challenge for me to implement in our home.
I felt like I spent much of my day telling the children to pick up this, do this job, or do that job. I no longer have to do that. This system does that for me. I have found that I know that the jobs that need to be done, will be done sometime during the week, so I am not concerned about getting it done, right then. This entire system frees me up to focus on other thing, rather than chores. When I work the system, it works.

As with any new system, it takes some time to set up. One of the most time consuming but important things is to figure out what chores need to be done, how often, and which child will do them. Once you do that, the rest is a cup of tea, walk in the park...

The way the system works is that the children have a plastic clip-on pocket (note in photo) that they clip to themselves during the allotted time for chores. They do each chore consecutively, until they are all complete. At that time, the child 'turns in' his chore pocket to me. Having the child clip their chores on them has been especially helpful to my youngest son, as he gets distracted so easily and forgets what he was doing. He is learning that whenever he is 'wearing' his jobs, that is what he is to focus on. All of my children are of reading age, but the Maxwell's have software included with book purchase, that will help you make picture cards for children who are pre-readers.

For me, the most difficult part of maintaining this system was to follow up and check the work that the children had done. I created the following system to help me with that. It is located on a wall in a high traffic area of the house, for everyone to see. The pockets are made out of file folders (a different color for each child) and packing tape. After I have inspected the jobs in the plastic pockets then they go in the completed section and I load their plastic pocket for the next round of jobs, in a couple hours. The children have three, thirty minute sessions for jobs, during each day. I have conveniently labeled them AM, PM and evening jobs. Some jobs they do every day, or several times a day, other jobs, only one time per week. The system teaches you how to arrange all that. The Managers of Their Chores process is not difficult to understand and the way the Maxwell's root the material in the Godly importance of teaching our children the responsibility of hard work is very encouraging.

Several years ago, when the children were younger, I did not see such a great necessity for systems like these, however, as my children are growing and their educational demands increase, I have found myself drowning in a maze of calenders and sticky notes and an inability to figure out where I am suppose to be next, let alone the children. Most days we get all of our school work completed, as well as the many sports and music appointments. We are even getting daily Bible reading done and the bathrooms cleaned, all because these things are scheduled. It is truly a wonderful feeling. Everyone feels better about their accomplishments.

I must thank Steve and Teri Maxwell for their forethought in sharing such insightful information in their books. I will highly recommend them to any home school family. I pray that this post may have interested you in investigating some of their writings. May God bless and encourage you in helping your family be more productive.

Blessings, Suzie

The Peanut Butter Family Homeschool - Book Review

I don't get much time to read for pleasure, but I picked this one up at a used book store a while back and the title cought my eye...peanut butter? I really liked this book. It was an easy read, I read through the entire thing in about three evenings. Bill Butterworth, the author writes it from his perspective and it begins when their oldest children were in school and how his wife approaches him about homeschooling thier children. This is an older book, written in the mid 80's so that was when homeschooling wasn't mainstream. I found it funny, delightful and heartwarming. It recounts some of the basics of homeschooling from the beginning and mentions the methods of the late Raymond and Dorothy Moore. It helped me to begin thinking about the basics of homeschooling rather than the techniques. Techniques is what we have a lot of in this time and I tend to get lost in the techniques and thus lose the spirit and joy of what I am really doing from day to day. May each of you find the joy in the journey, if only for today. Have a blessed day, Suzie E.

The Santa Barbara Crab

While visiting in California, dh and I retreated for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We went to Santa Barbara and left the children to spend some time with grandma and grandad.

We really enjoyed spending time at the Santa Barbara Pier. We went there both days we were in Santa Barbara. One evening we ate at a little crab shack at the farthest end of the pier. It was a rather small and informal place but the sunset was breathtaking and the atmosphere so relaxing. Did I mention that the food was exceptional? It was the hands down, the best seafood I have ever eaten! They served local caught crab. Dh and I split this 3# Rock Crab. It was plenty for both of us.

They had huge tanks of these guys, alive! I was amazed!


Here is our meal right before it was cooked, amazing!

We saved the shell and brought it back to the apartment where we were staying. I boiled this all night because I wanted to take it home smelling a bit better than it did previously. Isn't it beautiful. I really think it is a nice color.

Here is the underside. The children discovered that he has a built in happy face.

Do you see it?

I am sure you can see it now. I wonder if all crabs have this smiling face on their underside?

His cute little smile reminds me to always have a HAPPY FACE and never be a CRAB!

Blessings to you for a very happy face day. Don't let crabiness steel your happiness. Suzie

Roman Arches

Did you know that the Romans were the first to build arches in their architecture even though the Greeks and Egyptians were familiar with the architectural techniques. Today, this was part of our history discussion (TOG year 1, unit 28), how an arch is different from a post and lintel design.

Youngest son demonstrates with legos how the weight of an arch is supported mostly by the blocks at the top, where they come together. The Romans also were able to develop higher grades of concrete that made it all hold together better.

The Romans built triumphal arches, which were built to honor emperors or major military victories by generals. In a few weeks, our studies will take us to many prisoners of war that were forced to march through these arches and into the city of Rome. At one time, there was thirty-six triumphal arches scattered throughout Rome. Only three of those are still standing today.

A Tribute To My Mother

Happy New Year, Friends! We arrived home safely from our travels. Thank you for your prayers. We travelled to spend the holidays with my family in California. We had a wonderful vacation.

I would like to introduce you to my wonderful mother. For Christmas this year I made her this quilt. While I don't profess to be a great quilter, it is something that I love to do and do with love. Stitching a quilt is therepeutic for me.

My mother loves flowers. She has a flower garden just steps outside her kitchen door. Her favorite thing is to 'puts' around in her flower garden. I chose each fabric carefully. As mom ages, I want her to be surrounded by the beauty of the flowers she loves so much, as she rests in her recliner as well as in her garden.

When I was young, mom and I didn't seem to have a very good relationship. I think this was more about me being a perfectionist than there really being anything wrong with mom, except that she is an imperfect human, just like me.

As I worked on her quilt, it seems the tears cleansed my soul. I so wish I could take back those difficult years and just be friends again. The good new is that she is my friends. I am thankful that she gave me a Godly influence to look to. I am thankful that she loved my father so I could see how it is to love my husband. I am thankful that she took care of the home I grew up in. I understand so many of the things now, because I am living them myself. There are so many things she did right in my life. I am thankful for her wonderful influence on my life.

If you havn't hugged your mother recently, I would encourage you to do so. I shed many tears on the way home, wishing I could be close enough to hug mom at least once a week. If you are that close, you are blessed.

Blessings, Suzie