Homeschool Has Begun!

My little student:

We started school last week. I have been anticipating and fearing this time for many years! I am committed to homeschooling all of our children, but I am a little nervous about actually pulling it off! We are trying Sonlight's Pre-K curriculum this year. Micah is 4 but turning 5 later on this fall. He is already showing signs of being a little ahead of me. I am alredy suplimenting the read-alouds with worksheets I have collected and we are also beginning practicing writing his letters and working with flashcards and other games.

We have been starting around 8:30 or 9:00 each morning and have been finishing before his 2 yr old sister gets out of her crib. She usually hangs out and plays in there till about 9:30. The baby has been getting up with us but then going back to bed a little later. The school times have been quiet and though Micah is usually a ball of loud noise and constant action, he likes the one-on-one time and likes completing the worksheets. The read-alouds are really short so he usually does fine sitting still for them too.

I also like to wrap-up school time with some drawing for fun. I enjoy it as much as he does. Here is an example of one of his drawings... we usually draw on paper and put it up for display but occasionally he and his sister draw on their magna-doodles and we take photos of it to save the art.

I think he is rather talented, but then I may be biased. (and have no other 4 year olds to compare it with!)

We finished our second week today and I am soooo happy I didn't have to send my baby away and entrust this precious opportunity to someone else.

The Simple Life

Our preacher is doing a series of sermons on 'Living the Simple Life'. I was sitting in church the day he announced the name of the series which he would be focusing on all summer. The moment I heard the title I was excited and anxious to hear everything he had to say on the subject.
It is my desire, always, to live simply. To focus on the important things and let the rest go.

The sad part of the story is this. In my busy-ness I have missed all but one part of the sermon series. I was happy to find that each of the sermons are available to listen to online... but still have yet to sit and listen to them.

I guess I really need to hear them since my life is so complicated I can't even find the time to hear about how it needs to be simple.

As I am fast approaching two milestones in my year 1. My Birthday and 2. The beginning of my first year of homeschooling.... I have had many resolutions floating around in my brain.

Two I am beginning today.

1. Drink Tea... Sounds silly but I needed a healthy substitute for all of the unhealthy drinks I have been consuming. For 7 months now I have been nursing a baby and have been thirsty 24/7. I have mostly consumed various caffeine free sodas each day and gallons of chocolate milk with cappuccino flavoring.
Today I am going go begin an attempt to substitute hot decaff tea with honey and lemon to keep my mind off sodas etc.

2. I started a new quiet time in the morning. I should always be doing a daily quiet time but I am terrible at keeping it going. I am starting again again.

There are many more... mostly to do with our scheduling and making this house run more efficiently. (generally it is a train wreck)
So, more resolutions to come!

Make the list!

Achievments Build Confidence
Confidence is required for Achievements

It's the Catch 22!

If you have a goal and you feel that you will never be able to accomplish it. Try achieving other related smaller goals first. As you achieve you will build your confidence for the big stuff.

One great excercise to do now, is to look back on your previous achievements. When I first started to do this list I could only think of maybe a couple of things. I truly don't feel like I have done a lot, and really, these acomplishments may not seem like anything to you or anyone else, but the important thing is that they made a big difference in my confidence levels or I felt very proud to have achieved them. (Note: I don't take credit for most of these, but give the glory to God for blessing me with the opportunities that I had and seeing me through the tough stuff)

My top ten achievements:

Teaching myself to draw (at an early age)
Getting Cody's CD (this is a dog obedience title, hard work involved, did this in high school)
Graduating college (with honors) )more about this another time)
Participating in Summer Missions ( a summer away from home, was scared to death to go!)
Marrying Joey (it was a long difficult journey ... more on that some other time)
Becoming a Mom (I never knew it would be so natural for me)
Passing the teacher's exam (a really really hard test for me!)
Teaching myself to quilt (have gotten infinite enjoyment out of this)
Learning to drive competantly (I know, sounds stupid but I didn't drive until a few years ago)
Illustrating a Book that was published (a small book but it is in book stores)

Hugs for Nurses (available on Amazon.com)

Now you! Make a list of your top ten achievements. Let me know what they are if you do it. Don't be embarrassed if they don't seem big. Some of mine aren't. The important thing is if they meant something to you.

Also, the real bonus of making this list is that it makes you want to add 2 or 3 more really cool things in the future! I know a couple of things I would love to add to this list and I just need to focus and work hard to make them happen!

Scaredy Cat!

Today's post is about something I have been thinking about very much lately. Confidence. You can call it courage or self-image or all sorts of things, but for my purposes today I will stick with 'Confidence'.

I recently stumbled upon a blog by a man who writes and advises people on being more confident. He calls himself 'The Confidence Guy'. This began to stir up a world of thoughts in my brain all about how we see ourselves and how that effects what we do.
You see, I have a few goals.
I have always played around with different goal ideas and earlier in life I could never settle on particular ones for long lengths of time before I would decide that something else would be more worthy of my energy. For a long while I thought I had a problem with finishing things. That isn't so much it after all, however. I don't have problems finishing what I start, only prioritizing things that are left up to me.
God, Family, Friends... these are priorities I am certain about. With these I have no problems. It is the list of goals I am free to come up with on my own that I had trouble settling on.
After having my son, and turning 30 I began to have a much clearer mindset on my goals and which ones I would like to accomplish. I think the reason for this is that I felt more confident and also that being a mom is very fulfilling to me and that took the pressure off of me to find some way to make my life feel more important.

Ok, so now I had chosen some goals that I was certain about. Now what?
Now I have some issues with achieving those goals that I didn't have before. I think much of the problem lies with confidence.

Maybe you, like myself, feel not so confident in some of your abilities. This doesn't mean you are a weak or meek person. I am very confident in my opinions, my value as Christian who was fearfully and wonderfully made by God and accepted by Him. I even have tons of confidence in certain talents that I have such as my art and quilting.

So what is the problem? Why is it that when begin to do anything that is part of a dream of mine, I start having difficulties?

Because my own brain begins whispering to me that what I am trying to do will fail.

Does your brain do that to you? Until I read a few articles by the Confidence Guy I never stopped and really paid attention to that little voice that was sabatoging my mission. I mean, I was aware of it, but not aware in a way that helps me be defensive against it.

Until now.

Watch out little voice, I'm on to you!



Next time: A simple excercise to boost your confidence and help you set some goals.

The Etsy Shop

The Etsy shop is up and running now. I still have various projects waiting in the wings for final touches to go in the shop. I am happy to say that being up to my ears in baby quilt-making has been as fun as I had hoped it would be. Many things lose their fun when you start doing them for money, but in this case - being totally in control is the way to go. I will probably offer some customization but will limit it to certain choices so that I can keep a handle on things. Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks.

This just in.. while I was writing this blog I got my first sale on Etsy! Yay! What a great start to my morning! I can't wait to sell more quilts. Now off to buy more fabric!!

Misty

Baby Quilt Bonanza!

Hello everyone! I have been very busy this week doing two things. Reading tons of wonderful blog entries about subjects that are important to me like Homeschooling and Family and Babies and also Sewing lots of baby and toddler quilts! Above is one of the ones I have made to sell. I am getting a little better at taking more insteresting photos of them for the shop.

I also finally finished Noah's baby quilt! And here it is-

Along with the cutest baby on the block. I love this photo, it just brings me tons of joy. I think if I frame it and put it on my desk it will make me smile a million times. I'm so glad he decided to bestow that lovely grin while I was taking a pic of him with his quilt.

Oh, and that reminds me. We usually take photos of our babies every month on their One month day, Two month day and so on. We have done this with all three until this month! I was thinking his day was the eleventh and I was just waiting for his Five Month day to take the obligatory photo... then the eleventh came and hubby called from work to break the news when he realized... Noah's 5 month day was on the 4th! Ahhh... I was thinking of Allie's. Bummer. Turns out 3 kids is too much for my pitiful brain to keep up with.

Sorry Noah! lol. If it helps, I probably did take a photo of you that day, it just didn't have a homemade sign in it that said '5 month day'.

More news and quilt photos later!!!! Have a nice Sunday.

Finding out my true passions in life more each day.

But first... A little pic of Noah. Isn't he adorable! I could just kiss him all day long, and I do!!!
More pics of him later. I know I said I would post more soon, but my camera usb cord is suddenly in the non-working category so... later.

I am so excited these days. Really I have been growing in excitement and awe in leaps and bounds since the day I first became a mom. I think it really started when I first met Joey then when we finally married and then my joy was dampened for quite a while during a time when I was on birth control and then later when I was off of it but still waiting to have children.

By the way: The pill is the devil and my body simply can't handle it. I believe without a doubt that many women today suffer from horrible moods altered by their hormones via their birth control pills.

But back to my excitement. Every now and then it seems that God pushes through my poor attention to Him and manages to draw me into a better understanding of what I am supposed to be doing. Today was one of those days that I see just a little clearer. Over the past couple of years I often take these steps of enlightenment when I am guided by like-minded Christian mothers who blog.

I specifically have been inspired and encouraged by three women in particular and I would like to shine a spotlight in their direction.

Joy (The Stay-at-Home Missionary)

Sarah Mae (Like a Warm Cup of Coffee)

Missy (It's Almost Naptime)

When I am too busy to check anything else or too self absorbed to stop and think about what needs to be focused on, I will still stop and listen to whatever these women have to share with me and I am usually left very glad I did. Joy and Sarah Mae teach me and lead me along a path of being a Godly Homemaker and Missy does a little of that and a lot of making me laugh too.

Thanks to these girls and the articles they point me too and the books they discuss and the people they have learned from and met - I have discovered more and more the things that I am passionate about.