Become a CBD Member and Save $$$

Ok, so maybe everyone knows about this already and I'm like the last one to find out, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

I'm over at Christianbook.com making a list of books I'd like to buy for our homeschool and I read that if you join as a member for only $5 a year, you will automatically get the LOWEST price available on all items you order no matter how you order them---web, phone, or mail. Isn't that cool?

To be sure there was actually a "lower" price than what is advertised on their website, I called and spoke with a Customer Representative. I gave them a few different stock numbers of items I want to order, and sure enough, each item was between 50 cents to $1 cheaper--with a membership . So, for only $5, I figured I'd make it back in savings with my first order. So, I suppose the real savings would come with additional orders, right?

Well, I like I said, I just wanted to share this information here just in case I'm not the only one who didn't know about it LOL. Oh, I do not gain any financial benefit by sharing this either, so please don't think I'm mentioning it just to make money, because I'm not. :)

The Duggar's Welcome Baby #17!!!

Yes it is true--the Duggar family just welcomed baby #17 into their family. Isn't that wonderful? You can read more about it here.

I'm from a large family (9 children) and I've always wanted a large family (I have 6 so far), but I don't know that I could imagine having 17 children. I wonder if Michelle Duggar ever gets tired? I mean really, really tired. She must, don't ya think? How could she not?

It is amazing to think that she and I are the same age, but I only have 6 children. She must be the closest thing to a "supermom" that I can imagine. Oh, all of their children's names begin with a "J"...isn't that neat?

I also think it is so wonderful that they live debt-free. THAT is truly amazing, especially in today's day and age. That would be an AWESOME blessing to be able to live debt-free!

Homeschool Bloggy Giveaway

I saw this on another blog, and I thought it was a great idea! :)

Jen over at Ancora Imparo is hosting The Homeschool Bloggy Giveaway! There are a bunch of bloggers that will be GIVING AWAY great stuff this week! Make sure you check out the Mr. Linky links to see all the sites that are participating.

I'm giving away a set of 2 Usborne books. Titles are: Usborne Science & Nature ORNITHOLOGY and The Usborne History of The Twentieth Century. These books are in fabulous condition and sure to thrill anyone who is interested in birds and history!


I’ll be collecting comments until Thursday night (8/9) at midnight (EST) and the winner will be randomly chosen on Friday, August 10th, and notified. You MUST leave a working email address in order for me to contact you if you win. ***You do NOT need to have a blog to enter, but you DO need to live in the continental U.S. to receive my prize. Thanks so much and enjoy! :)

This Homeschool Bloggy Giveaway is open to both bloggers and non-bloggers. You can find more bloggy giveaways and/or sign up to host a giveaway here.

Homeschooling Family Needs Help–Homeschool Ministry Opportunity

As a homeschooling mom, I was touched by an email I read that told of a fellow homeschooling family who is in need and I wanted to post this information here for other people to read and possibly see this as an opportunity to help them. I do not know this family at all, but my heart immediately began to ache for them.

The Estes family, owner of Hands and Hearts, have seven children. Their youngest, Noah, who is almost a year old, has some major health issues. He is on a feeding tube right now, and their insurance does not cover the cost of his formula, which is about $25 a day. Also, as I read their blog, there is an entry saying as of 7/6, this poor little babe is back in the hospital undergoing a long list of tests as they attempt to diagnose the problems he is experiencing.

MANY other Homeschool publishers have gotten together to offer some beautiful FREE products to everyone who makes a donation of $27 to the Estes Family. The family gets 100% of the money and you get a huge list of great products! It is only offered until the 13th of July.

There are a number of free gifts for you if you choose to make a donation. The link is http://www.chirotoons.com/benefit. If you are unable to make a monetary donation (or in addition to making one), PLEASE uplift this little one and family in prayer. Also, feel free to post this on YOUR blog for added exposure for the Estes family.

Ribbet…Ribbet…Ribbet

Well, we had so much fun this afternoon! Out in our backyard, we have a small pond...not a pretty landscaped pond, but a very, very natural pond that is not pretty. Well, the baby and I went outside to swing on the swing and then met up with my husband and 2nd youngest son (they were already out in the back). We took a short walk around the pond when all of a sudden my husband showed my son a tiny little frog hidden in some mowed, long grass. Well there it was...a frog here, a frog there, MANY frogs EVERYWHERE!

Well I handed the baby to my husband and my son & I started jumping after the frogs trying to catch them, and I'll tell you, they are FAST!!! When we finally caught one, we'd catch another and attempt to add it to the other hand with the other frog in it and so on. We ended up with 5 or 6 frogs in one hand and it tickled! They jump in your closed fist and when you have several in there, it feels funny LOL.

My son got a plastic bucket for us to put them all in, but without a lid, it was useless as they can climb the sides of the bucket and jump out! Well, my 3rd son also came out to catch some and below you can see all the pictures we have to show you. You'll be surprised to know that all together, we caught 29 of these frogs. After I was done taking pictures of them, we released them back outside where we found them. :)

We researched and researched on the internet and FINALLY discovered what type of treefrogs these are. It was so hard to tell because they closely resemble the Spring Peeper frog, but they do not have the "X" on their backs that is exclusive to the Spring Peeper. They are the Boreal Chorus Frogs. If you want to hear what they sound like, click the below link. I hope you will enjoy our pictures! :) (the last 2 images show all 29 frogs together!!!)

weaselhead.org/sounds/asprwf/cd_boreal_chorus_frog_02.wav

Our FABULOUS Day!!!

Yesterday we took a long, overdue field trip to the Strong National Museum of Play and had a WONDERFUL time!!! Oh my goodness it was so much fun! We have never been there before and really weren't sure what to expect but it was absolutely awesome!

My mom (who will be moving to North Carolina at the end of this year) had told us quite awhile ago that she wanted to take us there but things/life kept coming up and we never made it out there. Sooo, my niece from North Carolina (who is the same age as my 2nd youngest) was up here visiting for a week and my mom said we HAD to do this field trip when she was here and I'm so glad we did.

My niece is such a character and almost everything she says makes us all laugh LOL. So needless to say, yesterday was even more fun since she went with us. I was also grateful to spend some time with her since she does live so far away and we haven't seen her in almost 6 months. :(

Well it was about a 2 hour ride each way for us and it really wasn't too bad. My youngest (15 1/2 months old) got fussy/stir crazy the last 30 minutes on the way there but still, he didn't act up that much.

I was pleasantly surprised with this museum since it was all INTERACTIVE! They had tons of hands-on activities for kids of all ages to participate in. I could not even begin to describe all of them in this post because there are just too many. Even for my young toddler, they had little "pitstop" like areas within the "big kid" sections that you can play with your little one and they can get out of the stroller to stretch their legs, climb on soft mats, and play with toy balls, cars, and other toys. Let me tell you, that was wonderful since we all know how toddlers can get bored just sitting in the stroller watching everyone else run around and have fun. They also had little "guest rest" rooms scattered around that was like a small living room where you could go to nurse your baby, change a diaper, or just "regroup" for a few minutes with your children. There were several "craft stations" in each exhibit for visitors to stop and make different projects. I thought everything was really well thought out.

We were even permitted to bring in our own bagged lunches and water jugs/bottles and eat within their food court. That definitely helped to save on $$$! It was also nice that they had plenty of rest rooms throughout AND they were clean too!!! ;)

One of my favorite exhibits there was the One History Place where the kids could go back in time to colonial-like days and use real items to pretend to churn butter and then pour the butter into wooden molds, use the old wood stove oven to bake loaves of bread and cookies (they even had a LARGE selection of plastic food items in each exhibit area to make the playing/pretending even more realistic!), then pump water from the well (NOT real water though for obvious reasons) into the barrel to wash the dishes and scrub the clothes, then hang them to dry. It was fantastic!

Then they had a "radio station" so the kids could be d.j.'s and broadcast a news announcement, record their own talk shows, or take requests to play favorite songs. They loved listening to themselves on the speaker system as they used the microphones and pushed different buttons which made sounds like a drumroll or applause from a live audience. I was laughing so hard as I listened to all the funny things the kids came up with!

There was a "news room" where the kids could sit at the desk to report the news, point to the large world map as they forecasted the weather, or be "behind the scenes" as the cameraman turning and moving the tv cameras. It was so much fun to watch them act out as well. There was a "theater stage" area complete with a curtain that opened and closed, plenty of dress-up clothes and props to use for their production, and a "sound area" where they operate the spotlights and sounds/music for the performance! In most of these special areas, there were VCR's where you could insert your own video tape to "record" your child(ren) as they were pretending/playing. I didn't know that though or else I would have made sure I brought one.

There was a giant "reading adventureland" where the kids literally ran around as they visited different climb on/walk through scenes such as Cinderella (complete with dress-up ballgown and pumpkin coach), gingerbread house, Jack and the Beanstalk, and so much more...SO MUCH MORE!

There was a very realistic "post office" where the kids could make their own postcards and/or letters and then mail them as they sort other mail and packages, put them on the conveyor belt to be carried to the truck, or place them in appropriate "p.o. boxes"! There were even keys to use to unlock the p.o. boxes to retrieve your delivered mail...such wonderful detail here! There was a FABULOUS "Wegmans Grocery Store" just for kids!!! WOW! Kids were given a pouch of play paper money to use as they walked in and then they chose a shopping cart to begin shopping. All of the items/products were incredibly realistic looking. They could weigh their fruits and vegetables in the produce section, choose meats from the butcher's block area, pick out breads and pastries from the bakery, and shop up and down different aisles for their groceries. When they were ready to "checkout", they would switch roles as they became the cashier, unloaded the cart and put items on the rolling conveyor belt, and then "scanned" the UPC bar-codes!!! They had real cash registers to "cash out" customers and themselves on. Each order was made complete with a real, printed cash register receipt, which listed their items and shopping total on. It was so neat to watch these kids shop around and push these kid-sized shopping carts!

Ok, in summary, I'll tell you what my favorite exhibit was...it was called the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden and it was phenomenal!!! I've never experienced anything like this before! It was a separate exhibit/admission but priced very reasonably. After watching a brief video on butterfly etiquette (safety lesson), we were lead into this enormous area which was like walking into a tropical world/rain-forest, and immediately, we were surrounded by butterflies!!! We saw butterflies flying through the air all around us as they'd visit plant after plant, clinging to beautiful flowers as they sipped nectar, sitting in plates of fresh fruit as they ate, or perching in a tree to rest. It was INCREDIBLE!!! Guests were permitted to walk around this indoor garden for 20 minutes while accompanied by the "garden host". The host was very knowledgeable and answered the questions we had. It was a gorgeous garden full of plants and small water ponds...I didn't want to leave! The butterflies landed on us and we were in "awe" of their beauty. They have over 800 butterflies and moths from around the world there! There was even what they called a "chrysalis case where they display and identify the different chrysalises found throughout the garden. In that same case were the newly emerged butterflies resting as their wings dried and strengthened. It was such a memorable experience!!! I just cannot even express how exciting this butterfly exhibit was!

The ONLY thing that went wrong was the fact that we forgot to bring our camera to capture our special moments with. :(

So, even after the 2 hour ride home, I felt so blessed to have been able to enjoy this special day with my family. It was truly a day I hope I'll never forget! Thanks Mom--from all of us! :)

Christian Life

This is a poem my 11 year old son wrote for an assignment in our church's kids' club. I think he did an awesome job!

Christian Life

To live a Christian life
tell others about Christ

How He died for you
maybe they will follow too

Take some tracts and go around
and hand them out without a doubt

Ask your sister, ask your father
and your mother or your brother

If they can help you, hand some out too

If they can't say ok
maybe another day

Don't let Satan take you away
from your loving Lord in anyway

I wrote this poem for a badge
Now that I am done, boy I'm glad!

The kids did great!

Yesterday was our homeschool project fair, as I mentioned below, and the kids did great and had a fantastic time.

My daughter did a report on butterflies and made a felt butterfly hand puppet, one of my sons teamed up with his friend and presented their hockey collection and drew a ton of hockey logos, and the other two worked together on their Hot Wheels Collection.

I really enjoyed looking at all the different projects displayed from all the children in our church homeschool group. It was also nice to see all the children support each other and ask questions with genuine interest.