well after a nice relaxing 4 day weekend we are back to our regularly scheduled show. it is nice to have a break like that to recharge. our extra curricular activites started again this week too. and its that time of year that we are preparing for many recitals. always praying they do not overlap! so these next couple of weeks are so important for the children. everything they have been working on up to this point will come to fruition. those moments make me cry everytime!!! i think i get more nervous than they do. afterall i work hard taking them to all of the practices and rehearsals right?? and i love it when they get to perform for daddy. hes at work usually when we are at lessons so its all a surprise to him. having the grandparents and godparents and aunts and uncles come is so nice as well. my children have been performing since they were very little. im not even sure they get nervous anymore.

reason #3 why i love homeschooling....life skills!!!

food

i know they say the way to a mans heart is through his stomach. i do think there is a bit of truth to this statement. but i think the part that gets to his heart is the time and thought that is put into a good meal. i love blessing people through food. i love the excitement on my childrens faces when i come up with some new creation in the kitchen. a love it even more when my husband is wow'ed by a new creation i come up with in the kitchen. we show our husbands that we think of them all day when we spend the day making something they will love. it shows our husbands we care about their health when we ty to come up with healthy alternatives to some of their favorite foods. and it shows we respect his hard work when we try to make things on a budget or discover more things we can make from scratch. i see this extending to my girls as well. they get excited to make things for the family and other people. they put alot of work and thought into food they are preparing. and when they aim to please their daddy, they will aim to please their future husbands. lets not save the blessings for their birthdays. lets wow them everyday! and sometimes this can be as simple as having a soda in the fridge for them when they get home from work :)

phillipians 4:8

"finally bretheran whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things." phil 4:8. i know i have blogged many things about this verse before but today something new comes to my mind. when we stay home all day with our little ones what are we filling our minds with? do we have soap operas on in the background or worldly music? and if we homeschool we are filling our childrens minds with the same things we are watching and listening to. i encourage you to make your home an atmosphere of peace and learning and dwelling on Gods word. put an audio bible on in the background or an audio book or commentary. one of the things i love to do is listening to sermons and teachings while im cleaning and going about my daily routine. i have been really blessed by voddie baucham, paul washer and kent hovind sermons and seminars. audio theater is fun too. my daughter has quite the collection of adventures in odyssey. they love having those on while they sew or read in their room. sometimes it is just not easy for us to sit and read a good book. but we can listen to one! and i find as i learn i desire to learn even more and through that we can draw closer to God.

family news

this week has been an eventful week for our family. we celebrated a birthday this week. daddy had a birthday on wednesday, the day before thanksgiving. we were able to sneak a small date in. we also celebrated thanksgiving. the best part about holidays is having hubby home. this week we have him home for 4 wonderful relaxing days. thanksgiving day was spent with the extended family. a nice big dinner and visiting. the day after thanksgiving we spent at home having our own thanksgiving. we had my best friends family over and we feasted!!! hubby spent the day cooking a yummy turkey. i am not a big turkey fan but his is always the best. moist and flavorful. we revamped some leftovers from the day before, pasta salad, potatoe salad. we added some homemade bread, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and stuffing to the menu. it was a great evening. now the fun part is coming up with lots of ideas for turkey leftovers. maybe that will make a good blog!! we only have 2 days left of having daddy home. we are always a little sad when he has to go back to work...ok alot sad. but we are thankful for the time. im very proud of my children over the weekend. my 2 oldest had a neighbor pay them to help her put up decorations around her house. and this of course sparked a little entrepreneur in them. jr. (10) would like to start a lawn mowing business in our neighborhood. savanah (12) and jonah (7) would like to partner and offer a leaf raking service. they made flyers and passed them out today. its never too early to teach them the value of hard work. the best part is their heart attitudes. they all have said they want to be able to donate some of their earnings to help with the adoption. oh, and lets not forget josie (3). she has filled her piggy bank and is ready for a small lesson in money. we counted her money yesterday and i showed her the 3 envelopes we use to split it up. she was very interested. and now shes very excited to get to spend her spending envelope! and i must admit im excited to take her :)

stuffed squash

my mom gave me 3 squash a couple of weeks ago. i was at a loss of what to do with them. so i asked my cousin and she told me to stuff them!! i love getting brave in the kitchen and trying new things. so the first thing i did was cut the squash in half. i needed hubbys muscles for that one. then i baked the squash for about 40 minutes until tender. this made it easier to scoop some meat out. while the girls and i were doing this my 7 year old was sauteeing onions and browning the ground turkey meat. and the rice was cooking. after all of the fillings were cooked i mixed together the turkey and onion mixture with the rice. then stuffed each of the squash with this mixture, topped with shredded cheese and put them back in the oven to bake for about 10 minutes. the flavor of the taco seasoned meat with the sweet meat of the squash was so good!!!! i sliced up the squash and the family enjoyed scooping out the yumminess!!! i had a few sceptics at first but they changed their minds very quick :)

homeschool

this has been a fun week of homeschooling. it was so nice not to have any activities to drive to. we have been home all day getting alot of schoolwork and baking done. definately a home economics kind of week. there has been a very peaceful atmosphere here this week. we have been doing alot of studying this week about pilgrims. the children have really enjoyed the pilgrim stories we have been reading out loud. today is a day off...technically. but we are going to do some school. its nice when we are home to get ahead a little so when we have those busy days full of doctors and dentst appointments we can relax a little. another fun book i have added to our group reading is a character first book. right now we are reading about responsibility. i think these lessons are more important than some of the required lessons we have. we are looking foward to having the next 4 days off though!!
reason #2 why i love homeschooling....flexability!

hubbys birthday

tomorrow is hubbys birthday. we should encourage our hubbys everyday of the week but its nice to have a whole day to focus on making him feel special. why?? because he is!!! my husband is a selfless man. he is always thinking about me and the children. he delights in making me happy. so the least i can do is make tomorrow all about him. im looking foward to showering him with love, even if he will be at work most of the day.it is always fun seeing what the children come up with to bless their daddy. they enjoy making things and planning little surprises for him. and this should be ecouraged. it teaches them to honor their father and to focus on someone besides themselves. im looking foward to tomorrow and all the excitement that comes with birthdays in our house! happy birthday babe, you are finally old like me :)