Christmas Eve 2013

Well... it's finally that time again. Doesn't seem like Christmas time has made it again already...lol We have finally gotten a little tree that we found growing alongside the banks of the pond trimmed and decorated... ready for presents to be under the tree. :) Just put a ham in the oven and already have the sausage balls ready for breakfast in the morning.

I made a rather large batch this year because the boys just love them so much that sausage balls go really fast around here.... lol I wrapped presents last night while everyone was asleep. Now with the tree decorated, (only took a few minutes for us to decorate the tree), I can begin setting things under it. I added several of the light bulb ornaments that I have been working on lately. I had planned to list them on ebay, but due to some difficulties the past few months.... never got around to getting them listed on there. I always try to get all of my holiday items that I plan to list on there ready in plenty of time to list, but this was the first year that that didn't go as planned. Good thing it... I can have them ready for listing next holiday season... a jump start on my holiday listings for 2014. :)

I plan to read the boys a holiday story... then hot chocolate and off to bed. But first.... I think I will fix enchiladas for dinner. Lately, I've really been into fixing casseroles and such. For our family, they're not only quick and easy, but makesw cleaning the kitchen up the night a cinch. I have to say that I really like the Mexican Cornbread Casserole right now. It's so good... there are never any leftovers when I make it. I still plan to make some dressing using some of the homemade broth I made at Thanksgiving and froze in the freezer. I always save broth from what I am cooking for user later, by freezing. Even vegetable broth is great to cook with. Here's my recipe for my homemade dressing: 1 Pan Cornbread (can either be fresh or frozen, as I always freeze any left over) 1 Tablespoon Ground Sage 1 Small Minced Onion 2 Pinches Salt A Little Black Pepper 1 Can Chicken, Turkey, or Vegetable Broth (Or you can use frozen broth) 2 Tablespoons Butter 1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Celery 2 Hard Boiled Eggs, Sliced & Chopped Spray the bottom of your baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375' degrees; Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir well. Make sure to see if you need to add more sage before you pour the mixture into the baking dish, because depending on your taste, you may want to add more sage. Place the backing dish into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is a golden brown color on the top. Serve with cranberry sauce and any choice of entrees or casseroles... and don't forget the giblet gravy... lol This is always a huge hit with our family and like most of the casseroles and dressing I make... it goes quickly. I already have a pie ready, that I made 2 nights ago, from some cookies for the crust and cream cheese and cool whip with crushed cookies added to the filling mixture. I added some extra crumbs to the top.... It is awesome.... a quick little cheesecake made in just a few minutes. Since all of the ingredients were on sale, I was able to make 2 pies at once. I also coupon and I was able to get enough items to make a great holiday feat without spending a bundle. I will have to talk more about that in a future post. Well... off to get things prepped for cooking in the morning. I plan to do the same thing that I did for Thanksgiving.... cook everything in the morning. Only took 3 hours and casseroles, desserts, and main courses were all ready. We mad some really good time that day.. first time that I had ever tried this method, and since it worked out very well, I plan to do this every year. Everyone take care, stay safe and have fun!!! Merry Christmas o all of ya'll!! May God Bless!!! :)

Merry Christmas 2013!!!

First I would like to start this post off by saying Merry Christmas to everyone!! It's been a very busy time around here the last few months... and it was not easy to get time to drop by here and post. This was our first year homeschooling and so we decided to slow down a little bit until after the holidays are over with. We still didn't get around to decorating for the holidays, but we plan to do some of that next year. We have begun a lesson study unit about settlers. As a fun learning project we made a cabin out of cardboard, which my son will be decorating and making it look more like a log cabin once the project is done. I still have to buy some more glue sticks and few other items in order for him to finish the project, but he is so excited about it.

I added a couple of pictures below, of what the progress on the project look like so far. It is a work in progress and since both of my sons are loving this, I think I will have to do more projects likes this with them. By the way, yes there are scribbles on various locations of the cabin project, but baby brother who is 3, wanted to contribute, since he is too young to use a glue gun right now.

There are so many wonderful websites with awesome amounts of homeschool information, curriculums, lessons, unit studies, and worksheets, that it is very hard to keep it all organized. That is something that I do plan to work on over the next few months. We've also been working on phonics and reading heavily. Once the beginning of the year gets here, I plan to begin a new schedule for us for our school days. I want to teach the boys as much as I can and usually the morning hours are total chaos...lol. It's very hard to know what each day will bring our way. Is why it is extremely difficult to make plans for anything in advance. We just take things day by day and moment by moment.

My oldest son is 5 (soon to be 6) and he does very well with his copywork for his handwriting, since he has never been in any preschool or school-like environment. He loves to study how to write what he's gonna be doing on the worksheets by tracing over with his fingers, and then once he gets it down he writes it out... I love how he does that. I must admit I have never seen this done before, it's also great to see that he has developed his own methods to learning things like that. :)

Not too steer too far off topic....after much consideration lately, eventually I plan to scan everything after the boys school work has been graded and placed in a folder. The reason I want to take this step in an effort to reduce the amount of papers that I have to keep up with, plus we will be moving into a smaller space, so there will not be a lot of room to keep a lot of papers in plastic storage bins. I just recently got into the act of doing this with all receipts and important papers, as I really don't have the space to hold that much paperwork, not do I have the time to organize like I used in the years prior to 4-27-11. Word of advice, always have a backup plan for keeping records of personal papers.... never keep personal pictures on cd discs.

We had always kept personal pictures and paper work on cd discs.... but when we fell victim to a natural disaster a few years ago, we lost all of personal papers and family photos. All of our papers were kept inside of a metal filing cabinet and our photos were a discs..... I've learned to not do that again. I'm thinking that an external hard drive would do great for personal papers and upload out family photos onto an online photograph website, where I will at least have a copy of them in the event that I lose all of our pictures and would still be able to have a copy printed out. The good thing about the external hard drive, is that since I use my laptop most of the time, it will be a cinch to just unhook,and put everything in the laptop bag. All of the boys work will still be with us should a disaster strike.

We do have preparedness drills for different things to make sure that we know what our plan of action is and that we know what to do should something ever happen. I wish I had done more to be prepared years ago..... Yes, we do keep a "storm" bag ready with items that we will need should something severe happen ever again. I make sure to keep coupons in there because when you experience something such as a natural disaster, it will definitely come in very handy.

We have worked making some ornaments, but unfortunately didn't get to decorate with them this year. I may take a last minute go at decorating the mantel Christmas Eve. I used to begin decorating for the holidays on Thanksgiving Day, but there has been a lot of changes to our family over the course of the last few years. I hope that next year, things will be back to normal for us. This is the second Christmas since the EF-5 tornado changed the lives of our family, and everyone in our town forever. So praying that 2014 is a bigger and better year for everyone.

Above are some pictures of some of our holiday projects this year. I always try to figure out ways to repurpose things to avoid wasting things. I have made light bulb ornaments every year for the last 12 years. I love coming up with new techniques to decorate them and style them to make them look beautiful. I have sold some of them over the years and given them as gifts. The boys love to help make them as well, so now it has become a family affair when making ornaments.

I go to thinking the other day to myself... I have a lot of empty metal coffee cans and I don't want to just throw them out. After cleaning out some of the old paper work that we had, I noticed that we had some old holiday cards. I took 2 Christmas cards and affixed them to the sides of the coffee can with Mod Podge. I then to 2 pieces of holiday themed ribbon and glued in between the gapped edges between the 2 cards. It turned out really well, not to mention, this would be a great gift to fill with candy of some little goodies and give as gifts. I think that I will be making some more of these to give as gifts for different holidays throughout the year for sure.

I hope that some of these ideas, will inspire you to do some creative projects of your own. I am a full-time stay at home wife and mother always trying to think outside of the box. When possible, I try to repurpose what I can and upcycle. There is so much that can be done with things that you would just normally throw in the trash.

I do hope to hear from any readers out there... I've only been into blogging since January 2013, and there has been lots of changes this years... ups and downs that have kept me away from blogging more than I would have loved to. I love to blog and plan to blog as often as my time allows me to. I pray that 2014 will be a much better year than 2013 was. So to everyone, everywhere... from our family to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Take care and please feel free to leave any comments about any of the issues or topics that I have mentioned in any of my blog posts. I would love to hear from you.... Have a wonderful Christmas!! Will try to post a post-holiday blog when I can... so please stay tuned. Until next post..... May God bless!!!!

Beautiful Fall Day....

I hope that this post finds everyone having a great weekend so far. Thus far, this is a very beautiful fall day. I love how the weather is right now... I would love for it to stay like this year round. The weather is just right for picking persimmons to put in the freezer for winter. I couldn't believe how many were on the tree in the front yard this year. In case you're wondering..... we are talking about the ripened persimmons, not the green ones. The green persimmons will definitely make you pucker.... whewwwwww

Believe it or not they taste really good when they are ripe. They are even great in persimmon pudding. It doesn't last... it's that good. Every time that I would make it for my family, it was always a favorite. My very first time to ever cook it and give it a try was last fall. That taught me to pick them and see what all kinds of things that I could come up with. This year has been so busy, that I have not got around to making the wonderful persimmon pudding yet, but I have been busy pressing the pulp and putting the pulp in the freezer. I save the seeds to sale and trade with my gardening friends. I dry and save the peelings to feed to our chickens, who enjoy this wonderful treat. Here's a recipe for the persimmon pudding that I made last year:


Persimmon Pudding:

Ingredients-

2 Cups Persimmon Pulp (Can be either fresh or frozen)
2 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Eggs, Beaten
2 Cups Self-Rising Flour (You can also All-Purpose flour)
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon (optional, but tastes great either way)
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Pinch Salt
2 1/2 Cups Milk
4 Tablespoons Melted Butter


Directions-

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter one 9 X 13 inch baking pan and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine your persimmon pulp, sugar, and eggs. Then add in your flour, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, milk, and melted butter. **Please note If you are using All-Purpose flour, you would add 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 2 tsps baking powder at this time to the other ingredients. Be sure to mix everything very well and pour the mixture into your buttered baking pan. Bake in oven for 55 minutes. This pudding will rise but will fall when you remove it from the oven. Can be served warm or cooled.... you can also top it with cool whip or ice cream for a really tasty special treat.

I had been doing a lot of reading about persimmons over the course of the last year and have read somewhere once that the Native American nations really understood how valuable persimmons were. Persimmons were preserved by drying, then added to breads, soup, or porridge. Persimmons were baked into pies, cakes, puddings, and even made into a variety of alcoholic drinks, by European settlers. Here's a quote about persimmons:

"Plumbs there are of 3 sorts. The red and white are like our hedge plumbs: but the other, which they call Putchamins, grow as high as a Palmeta. The fruit is like a medler; it is first greene, then yellow, and red when it is ripe: if it be not ripe it will drawe a mans mouth awrie with much torment; but when it is ripe, it is as delicious as an Apricock." - Captain John Smith, 1612


My children and I enjoy walking around the yard during various times of the day, while we search for any fresh persimmons that may have fell from the tree. We usually find over 1 bowl full of fresh fruit, which I will use a kitchen press to press the pulp. The screen that is on our press has a basket that I can remove, that help prevent the seeds and peeling from going into the pulp. There will always be some minor amounts of tiny seeds, that didn't quite form all of the way, but other than that... you will have pure pulp. I will try to very delicately wash away any dirt, grass, or leaves prior to pressing to prevent any of that getting into the pulp.

In between adding persimmons to the press, I will remove the plastic basket in the press, removing the seeds and peeling. I set the seeds aside in a bowl of water for a few hours, so that the any remaining pulp or peeling will more easily wash free from the seeds. I pour the fresh pulp into freezer bags and lay them out on a cookie sheet and set in the freezer. Once the pulp has frozen, I will lay the flat freezer bags in the freezer, in a stack so that I can maximize the space in the freezer. I feed the peelings to our chickens who have come to really enjoy persimmons. :)

After I have washed the seeds quite cleanly, I will spread them all out onto a cookie sheet to dry for a few days. Once they have dried, I will package them up to either sale or trade to my fellow gardening friends. To me, persimmons taste like candy... they're very different from anything that you have ever tasted. Once you try them you will really enjoy them a lot. I plan to add pictures of the whole process and add a new blog post about our experiences with persimmons.

I have old-fashioned views I know, but I think that it is important to learn about things from our history, because doing things the old-fashioned way may just help us survive when we are in a crisis or a time when surviving is critical. I also plan to write about persimmon leaf tea... already sounds good. Well... gonna go and do some laundry... lol Take care and have a great weekend!! Until next post...... May God bless!!

Hoping For A Great Day....

With everything that seems to go right, seems like something else seems to have a way of stinking up your plans and ruin your luck. I pray today that God will help see us through these difficult times. I also pray for America as a nation, because so many jobs are shutting down and laying off. It's a sad time for everyone and just as things were looking up for us.... thing took a left turn.

Homeschooling is going well, had a few unplanned events that tried to mess up our schedule, but despite being a few days behind we have made great progress and look forward to the future that God has for us. Many have said that home-schooling is wrong for us to do, but it was something that God placed on my heart and mind years ago... right after our first child was born. Despite what many think.. I've placed a lot of thought and pray about this... and God has shown us that homeschooling our children is the right choice for us.

With so much stress lately, it has often gotten the best of me and no matter how hard I try to ignore it or try to make the best of it... it's times like this that God really does help show me strength to deal with everything. I also pray for things to get better not just for us, but for everyone that has been down on their luck. I know that things are bad now and I pray that things will indeed get better. It's so hard for people to just find a job anywhere now a days. It's not like it was back in 1998, when you could find a good job that didn't require a college degree or high school diploma. Times are very difficult now.

I've seen so much loss the last 2-3 years and it's heartbreaking to know that so many people are losing their homes, their property, their vehicles, their jobs, and practically everything that they own. I'm not sure what is to come, but I don't think things are really getting better as the news and media would have everyone to believe. If everything is getting better... why are there so many without work and losing about everything that they have?? I will continue to pray for better times for us and everyone else who lives in this nation that we call home. Let us take a moment to pray:

Dear God, please lift our nation up in prayer right now. Please pray for our leaders as they continue to pass laws and make decisions that affects everyone. Please God guide them and direct them to make better choices and decisions that include you God. There are so many that don't have You in their hearts and lives right now.... I pray that You will reveal the truth to them God, so that they will come to love You too. Please help those who are without jobs and are suffering right now.... help them to overcome the obstacles that are in their lives right now. Thank you Lord for loving Your Son Jesus enough, for him to die on the cross, to save us from our sins. Thank You Lord for providing us food, clothes, and a place to live... I pray that You continue to hold us all as a nation in the palms of Your hand. Thank You for everything that You do for us and guide, guard, and direct in the end...... In Jesus name we pray................... Amen

Never cease praying... the power of prayer is awesome. I hope that everyone who reads this post receives a blessing..... Never give up and never let the devil win... no matter how hard times get. Put God first and family second and the rest of everything will fall into place. God has His own time for everything to work out and everything happens for a reason. It is with this that I would like to close.... take care, stay safe, and have a great weekend!! If you happen to read our blog posts.... thanks so much... it means a lot to us. Until next post....... May God bless!!

Topic For The Day....

I know that I normally write about a wide range of topics, but today, I felt inspired to share something with our fellow bloggers and readers out there. Have you ever wondered to yourself.... "Gee I wish that I could get started selling auctions online?" That was how we got started running auctions online. We thought that it would be more difficult than it was, but at the time, we knew nothing about listing auctions online. We began in 2006 listing auctions on eBay, but learned a lot about how to do it along the way. What better way to learn something, than as you go. The first few sales we had were unfortunate ones, but we learned how to deal with that and never forgot the lessons we learned, even after all of these years.

I want to tell about the bad experiences that we have had over the years since we began selling online, not to scare you, but to let you know that things can and do go wrong. It doesn't happen a lot and occasionally you will run into a difficult buyer. I have found that being totally honest and open with the buyer will make a huge difference in how they will work with you. We have had very few unpaid buyers and very few bad buyers, but they are out there and they do exist. Don't let that stop your dreams of becoming a great seller. We knew the risks and we chose to stick it out and take a chance. You do have to keep in mind that I am not much of a risk-taker... lol

Our first sell was scary... we had listed a vintage globe-shaped terrarium. It happened to be a deal gone wrong. When I listed the item, somehow my settings for only the countries that we would be selling too didn't stay put, which caused us to have to ship the item to the winning bidder who lived in China. It cost what the item sold for to ship it to the buyer, but in the end, we had gained experience. May have been a hard lesson learned, but learned nonetheless.

Another sale that we sold, was a chalk-ware Indian statue. Although I had packaged it up well and shipped it with insurance, via USPS Parcel Post mail, the package was thrown while in transit during the shipping process and broken. We were actually able to talk with the buyer over the phone and she was very helpful in giving us pointers. I'm glad that I had put insurance on the package, or it would not have been a nice ending I'm sure. That was the only 2 bad misfortunes that we have had in all of the years of doing business with online auctions.

I have learned along the way that as I am taking all of my photos for the items that we will be listing, I also make very detailed notes that include the measurements, sizes, and weights of everything. That way, when I am typing up the listing descriptions themselves, it will make it a whole lot easier, while at the same time saving me enough time to get more items listed.

Most of the time, we use Priority Flat Rate shipping through the USPS when it makes sense to do so. This helps to take away most of the guesswork when it comes to figuring the cost of shipping. Also, Flat Rate helps due to the fact if the item/items fits inside of the boxes or envelopes, it will ship for one flat rate. An added bonus for using Flat Rate shipping, is that the supplies are all free and can be ordered online, making the process easy. Another reason that you may prefer to choose Priority Flat Rate shipping, is that the items you are shipping will arrive to the buyer within 2-3 business days, which equals faster shipping times. The quick arrivals are great for when you need to make sure an item gets there quickly. We seldom use Standard Post (a.k.a. What used to be USPS Parcel Post Mail) for mailing larger items.

We have used USPS Priority Flat Rate mail for many years now, without any problems. I package everything that we list and sell online, with extreme care and effort to ensure that the package will arrive safely and in the same condition it was when listed online. We've had great results using this shipping service and all of our customers have loved how their packages were when they received them. When we have smaller items to ship, that won't fit in envelopes, we will use USPS First Class Parcel mail. It's not much more than the cost of postage stamps, as there seems to always be another increase on the way on the cost of postage stamps.

When working with the descriptions of any item that you are selling online, it really helps to list as many details as possible. You have to keep in mind that you are marketing an item to someone who has never seen the item that you have up for bidding. By using very detailed descriptions, potential buyers can see the items in your photos, while at the same time getting a better idea of what the actual item looks like from the details in the description. To help figure the exact weight of items prior to and once you have prepared the package for shipping, you will definitely need to invest in a really good postage scale. You can often buy them online between $15 and $25, depending on the weight limit that you are looking for. Our scale goes up to 50 lbs, and most of the items that we list are not over that so it works great for us and has paid for itself many times over already.

If you are like me, and have to multi-task everything each day... having time to make each listing look great with a specific template can be impossible... not to mention very time consuming. I have found that using Photobucket Deluxe helps make it all easier to do. Each section is marked so that you can type in what you want the listing to say and you can select the colors you want on the listing. You can code the photos into the template as well from Photobucket. I'm not sure if you can use any other photo website, but I have always used Photobucket with the free template maker. There is also a lot of great information and pointers on how to use the template, as well as learn some basic html codes.

To help save money on purchasing ink for printing out the shipping labels, we purchase remanufactured ink for our ink jet printer. Not had many issues there, but in fact, they would work better than the name brand ink. Giving around $12-$14 for 2 ink cartridges is a steal of a deal, when compared to giving $42, with tax, for both the color and black refills. If you happen to own a Zebra printer, the cost will be considerably lower. When and if things get better in the future, we plan to upgrade to a zebra label printer to print the shipping labels with. The cost for a Zebra printer will be well worth the cost and will quickly pay for itself.

When selecting items that you want to sell online, it's always a great idea to go to yard sales, estate sales, local auctions, and thrift stores. You will often times find valuable goodies that will cost very little. You can often make out really good if you happen to come across a good deal on someone who wants to sell a large lot of items. For example, we once purchased a large lot of collectibles. There were 100 items in the lot, but we only gave $50 for it all. That would work out to be $2.00 for each item, so anything over $2 you make it pure profit, not counting the selling and shipping fees of course.

I have found that it really helps to use the ebay, PayPal fee calculators, along with the USPS shipping calculator. This will give you a better idea of how you can adjust the pricing of your items, so that you will not go in the hole on anything. You can then get a better price range that you can afford to go up or down on all of your prices for your auctions. This has helped us sell a good bit by using this method.

Many will say that the time that you list an item affects when if the item sells or not. Yes, that could be sort of true if you list auctions that allow the buyers to bid it out to the finish. The experiences that I have had are not like that at all. I usually do an auction-style listing with a starting price and also add a buy-it-now price, in the event that the buyer wants to buy the item then, rather than waiting. I also include the cost of all fees and shipping cost into the pricing, so that I am able to offer free shipping. This helps to attract buyers to your listings, so that they can see that they are getting a great deal at a fair price. It also helps to search prior to listing an item to see what the similar items have sold for, so that you know how to better adjust your pricing. I like to keep our prices very fair, and by doing this, have good results.


So, I have found that by marketing the item through thorough descriptions and nice looking photos do make a huge difference in whether an item sells or not. Another great way to advertise your items for free is by using twitter and pintrest. These 2 sites help attract more buyers, than facebook alone. I have a facebook account just for our online auctions, but after seeing that it didn't help project sales, I quickly stopped using facebook and only use twitter and pintrest. Also using free online stores helps as well.

Once you find a method that better suits your work ethic and listing strategy, you will reap the efforts of your hard work. Yes, it does often take a while to get going, but the hard work and time that you put into your listings will pay off in the long run. You will be very proud that you gave online auctions a try. It's not as hard as most would think, but it can be done. Just be sure to stay updated on the changes of shipping costs, seller updates, and fees associated with everything. Keeping all of this in mind will help you achieve your goal of being a very successful seller online, no matter what venue you choose to go.

There are other online venues that you can list auctions online on besides eBay, but I have not found that any have the true volume that eBay does. We joined eBid in June 2012 and never made a single sale until May of 2013. I put a lot of work and effort into that site, but soon pulled all the listings that we had on there due to the fact that it wasn't worth trying hard to only sale 1 item the entire year.

Selling items at online auctions may not be for everyone, but for someone who may be down on their luck or out of a job, this could really benefit you. I know in our area that jobs are few and far between, so for us to have been blessed by having the opportunity to sell auctions online, it have been the ultimate blessing. What got us really motivated to selling year-round was a natural disaster that struck our town in 2011. Our online auctions was my saving grace, which helped me overcome some very difficult times since the storm hit. Anyone can do auctions, with very limited income. The only thing that I have to buy really, is the ink, brown package paper and clear packaging tape. As I mentioned before, I purchase only the remanufactured ink cartridges, which helps us save money. I also buy a 4-pack of the clear packaging tape at Wal-Mart for $3.98. I figured ways to stretch it and make it last a long time, so those 4 rolls of tape will last us a long time. The brown package paper I can buy for $1.00 a roll at Fred's or for $4.98 at Wal-mart for a giant roll.... just depends on what store I am in and what I have to spend at the time.

Since I use a lot of the mailing supplies that USPS has, they are free to order and get in the mail. I save a lot on boxes, envelopes, and postage in general by doing this. You can simply set up an account with USPS online and you're all set to order the shipping supplies. You can also print postage on the USPS website as well. You can pay with a debit card to help make the process even easier.

Well.... it's finally time for another busy week to wind down to an end. With the busiest time of the year fast approaching us, it's very difficult to get everything done that is going to need to be done. With so much to do in such a little time, it's often a very stressful time. I plan to gear up with holiday listings on ebay, due to the fact that I wasn't able to get a head start on it last year. This year I plan to begin in advance so that I will have all of the projects that I have thought of during the course of the year to make and offer in our listings. I think that by getting an early start, it can help you make a few more sales. It's always a great idea to make sure you have things lined up in the order of how you want to list, so that you will save time and get more items listed.

I have found that it does pay to think ahead of the holidays, as they are the busiest times of the year, and many shoppers will purchase items for gifts. Another great way to purchase items to list is to check out the discount and clearance aisles. This will give you a little something different when it come to listing auctions, while at the same time saving you money on buying things to resale. I have found that it's never too early to think about the holidays ahead. It can make a great way to see an increase in sales during the busiest times of the year.

As a busy stay-at-home, wife, mother, and homemaker, saving money where ever and when ever I can matters. So everything that I have mentioned earlier in my blog will be sure to help you save a bundle while at the same time working from the comforts of home. We've not become wealthy by listing actions online, but we earn enough to help pay the bills and put food on the table. To the right person who has a lot of time and the right things to make it happen, you can earn enough to sustain a steady income. Like anything else, there are highs and lows with sales at various times during the year. We have experienced that many times during the course that we have run auctions online. You just have to dig deep within and not let it get you down. Always remember to keep the attitude of I can make this work and keep your work ethic high.... you will do just fine.

I have found out first hand that you don't have to be a millionaire to have a successful eBay business or sell and list auctions online. You just simply have to have the motivation from within that you can do this and succeed. I hope that I have hopefully helped motivate or encouraged someone out there to give the world of online auctions a try. You will be happy later on that you gave it a try... I know that we are glad that we took the chance all of those years ago. Thanks so much for dropping by to read and view our blog!! I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Please feel free to share your advice or pointers about any of the topics that I have written about today. I would love to hear from some of our readers out there. Thanks again!! Have a great weekend and take care!! Until next post.... May God bless!!

Good Morning!!!!

Just wanted to say "Good Morning" to all of our fellow bloggers and any fellow readers, who drop by our blog to read my posts. It's been quite busy lately, and since we have been homeschooling.. things have been even busier around here. So far my son loves doing his schoolwork and really takes to doing is homework. I was not able to gain my 3 year-old son's interest in schoolwork.... I think with more time, he will come around and begin to want to do some learning as well.

We have spent a lot of time learning numbers, months, days of the week, alphabet, shapes, and phonics. We do lots of reading and I even found some things around the house that I could use to help make learning math and counting even funner. When I get time, I will post a picture of our math rocks, and a board game that I made. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a hit, but everyone loves to play it. It can be played using either 2 dice or a deck of playing cards, but is funner when played using the playing cards. The playing cards make it a bit funner for the children to recognize the numbers, and also to count the number of hearts, diamonds, clubs, or spades that are shown on the number cards.

We have done a lot of copy work and my son enjoys it very much, but... still trying to work on getting him used to writing his letters and words on the lined tablet paper. I had originally started each day's lessons with both the tracer letter pages and the traced letter on the tablet paper, but since I was seeing how frustrated it was making him I decided to only use the tracer pages for his letters and numbers for right now. In a few weeks, when he feels more comfortable, I will reintroduce the tablet pages again. I have also begun working on some homemade phonics pages that I have made. It's always a fun thing to be able to make custom worksheet and lessons.

We also use several different websites for practicing phonics and a few learning games. There are literally thousands of wonderful websites that offer lots of information that are sure to interest your child. I will also add some of those on here, when I get time to get caught back up. My plan to use the teacher book, is working although I'm still trying to better figure out a way to add in the grades. So far I have added my son's name on one line... then immediately under his name, I have written the word "homework". I write his classwork (daily) grades by his name, and then write the homework grades by the homework line. So far this has worked out fine, but my problem is having to sort each subject in the same way. The grade book is sort of confusing, but I feel in time I will find a solution that will work out well for us.

My system that I have decided to use for our binders works out well. I think towards the end of the school year, I may take the time to scan off all of my sons' work so that I won't have so much to have to worry about storing, as space is a main concern. Since we also have the possibility of moving to a smaller home in the next few months... space is really going to be tight, so I have to make really good use of all the space. I would not advise anyone to have a metal filing cabinet, unless they had it in a very safe area, because of the high risk of losing everything in it. We used to have one prior to an EF-5 tornado hitting our town in 2011..... let's just say that when were able to find it amongst the rubble of our home.... there wasn't very much in it. We had lost most of our valuable documents and personal papers. So this is why I have decided to just scan our work and just save it on a USB card or memory stick.

Since I keep my camera with my purse nearly all of the time, I don't really have to worry too much about anything happening with it. We keep a disaster preparedness bag, a.k.a "The Storm Bag" on stand-by should we ever have to seek shelter in a storm cellar. I just don't want to risk having to go through losing all documents like before. You will be very surprised at how it makes you feel, knowing that if something happened right at now, that the important things that you needed are all inside a tote bag or rolling suitcase... I always grab up our binders and stick inside the bag as well, so that way, we would atleast have most of our school stuff should something ever happen.

I was in Wal-mart a few days ago, and as I was walking down an aisle, I saw 2 boxes of sidewalk chalk on clearance for $0.50, so I got 2 of those. Then we ventured over to the double clearance aisle, and I came across some 4-pack pens for only $0.10 each.... since I use a lot of pens and there were red pens in the packs.. I couldn't resist. This was too good of a deal to pass by. We use the chalk for our double side chalk board and since I use red pens or red grading pencils for grading school work... the pens came in really handy. I do a lot of writing using pens, especially when I am doing genealogy work or writing up the rough drafts of our online auction listings.

I also plan to check back into the online gradebook.... That would also be another back up plan should something happen to anything files, papers, or gradebook. I'm always trying to think outside the box and be thrifty as possible when need be. If anyone happens to read my blog has any advice on anything concerned with homeschooling, organization of spaces.... well... pretty much anything, just always leave a comment. I will get back to you, just be patient.... our house is a 3-ring circus sometimes..... lol I always want to put up a bill-board in the yard that warns people on the way in... "EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED" Because around our home, nothing seems to go as planned and you never know what each day is going to bring.

I plan to share some of those as well once my time allows it. With so much to do each day, it's often hard for me to find enough quiet time to sit down for a few minutes and work on my blog.... it's a work-in-progress, but I have always loved to write. I know that I would never be able to write a book about my life, because it's not interesting.... I would however love to one day write a book about things that I have learned along the way..... so maybe one day... who knows...lol If there are any things in particular you would like to hear about or me to write about... just comment. I love to write... and it's always a great thing to write about a particular topic.... I know that I often write off-topic, but hey... when you have children and multi-task all the time.... that's just life's way of keeping you on your toes.... so I never know what I will be writing about.... lol

I appreciate very much any readers that we have and anyone who happens to venture by our blog. You're always welcome to comment or anything.... just make sure to keep it PG. :) If there are any other homeschool families out there that drop by, please feel free to leave a comment or any advice that you may have on your homeshcool experience. I look forward to hearing from our readers and viewers of our blog. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask....

Well... I'm going to cut this blog post for today off right here.... it's time to get busy with our school day. I've got a lot to get accomplished today.... so I'm praying that I get a lot of auction listings posted online today. Since our desktop is now back up and running, I've run behind on working on our auction listings. I work between 2 computers to get that task accomplished... lol With lots of coffee and motivation, I think that with God's help, I can get caught back up. I will work hard to make sure that it's not such a long time between blog posts on here. Don't worry is I don't post anything for a few days... I've not fallen off of the map... just been busy with life... lol I hope everyone has a great day and enjoys the rest of their morning. Take care and until next post...... May God bless!!

Happy 1st Day Back To School Everyone!!!

While I was searching for some great songs about counting this morning, I came across a wonderful way to help the boys learn all of states in the U.S. I just wanted to share the link to the Fifty Nifty United States song and lyrics. This is a very wonderful way for your child or anyone to learn the names of the states. We will be using this towards the middle of the year and coming across this now, makes planning our lessons much easier. Here's the link: http://bussongs.com/songs/fifty-nifty-united-states.php I've been busy planning and working on things to make getting our homeschooling done easier. The past few days have been filled with doing short spans of study and lessons to help the boys adjust to more time studying and focusing on learning. This is our first year as homeschoolers and this has been such a blessing to be able to do this. I pray that God will direct us through everything together as a family. We've been super excited to get started and now that it's finally time to kick off our school year, it's amazing. I look forward to hearing from any other readers and homeschool families out there. Take care and have a wonderful 1st day of school!!! Until next post..... may God bless!!

Using a crafting hobby to help recycle.....

With school time around the corner and summer winding down, I just wanted to take a few minutes and let my fellow blogger readers out there know a little more about paper beads. This is how I used my crafting hobby to help reduce waste and help recycle. I wanted to share an easy way to help reduce the amount of waste that is thrown out. This is a great rainy day project and the kids will love to help too. It's so much fun for everyone to do.. be creative and come up with a recycling project of your own and see how much fun you can have.

Who knew recycling things could be such a fun hobby?? I know have found new ways to help reduce the amount of old cereal boxes, and other like boxes from being thrown in the trash. I have been working on paper beads the past few months as a way to recycle, but soon realized that I loved to make the beads. They are really quite easy and very fun to make. It doesn't take long to make them either, and the kids love to help with making them and decorating as well.

This can also be a great rainy day project for the kids or anyone... young or old. So many interesting things can be made using paper beads. You can create unique crafts, jewelery such as bracelets, earrings.... even belts. They make a great and awesome way to create a curtain to hang over a doorway. If you're crafty, inventive, and creative... the the possibilities are absolutely endless.

They can be painted and covered with either clear coat, polyurethane, or mod podge to help make the beads more durable. I have used clear nail polish on some of the ones that I have made. Also, for a different twist on your paper beading decor.... fimo slices that are glued onto the surface of the beads and then covered with a coat or 2 of a clear coating of your choice, to help make the bead durable. I have enjoyed working with the fimo slices on my beads as it gives them a 3-D looks and feel to them.

You can also decorate them with pictures, designs.. basically anything that your heart desires. The coolest part about the beads is.. they are tiny pieces of art, that are one of a kind..... so don't be afraid to get beading and be creative. This is sure to be a great conversation piece in your home... I know it is in our home. People just can't believe that beads can be made using paper or old product boxes. :) I've gotten alot of questions and odd looks when I am making them or decorating. The end result is always an amazing product.....

This was a very interesting way to let my creativity run wild and I had fun just seeing what all kinds of designs I could add to each bead to make them all one of a kind pieces of art. I have sold a few of them and several friends are speechless by how the beads look once they are strung together for a necklace. This is a splendid way to use what you have on hand, as well as helping to reduce waste and recycle. The kids will love helping you make this awesome hand-made beads. Perfect idea for a rainy day craft... or just whenever you need a quick and easy craft project. The possibilities are absolutely endless with what you can do when making paper beads. I hope that you enjoy reading my blog posts as much as I enjoy writing them. I would love to hear from readers, so please feel free to leave me a comment. Until next post.... May God bless!!

Can't Wait For School To Start....

You may not think that you can actually learn things from watching t.v., but there are some great educational shows that you can learn a lot from. Some of the shows can even be informative or mildly entertaining. I'm not one that will usually watch a lot of television, but there are a few shows that I catch in between or while I am cooking or cleaning. It's rare for me to have the time to sit down and watch an entire show or movie from start to finish. When I hear a certain word or phrase that catches my eye, I will usually take a break long enough to see what is being told about what I wanted to hear about.... in this case, the words "Wild Mint" caught my ear as I was preparing dinner the other night. I was watching a snippet (what I call a bit of any t.v. show or movie while I'm doing other things) from an episode of Call Of The Wildman, and learned that the weeds that we have growing all over various places in the yard were actually wild mint and that it can be used to deter rodents. Now I know why there have not been any rats or mice seen in any of the areas where the wild mint is growing. It was finally nice to be able to put the reason as to why the what we thought were weeds, were smelling like mint when we mowed those areas. This was amazing to learn, because I've been into learning about outdoor foraging and what purpose various weeds have.

There was a really great show that just went off that was talking about where many of the words that we use came from. I was not able to catch the name of the show because I was.. as usual cooking and doing dishes. I was however, able to catch a few bits of information about words and sayings that I would have never guessed where they came from. This has inspired me to look more into where we got most of our words from and use that as part of a lesson in our home-school studies. I was not aware about some of the things that was shown about many of the sayings and words that we use in our everyday language. This was something that I wished that they had taught us about in school. That is the great thing about home-schooling, you can teach things that are normally not taught or considered important in public school curriculum.

What I didn't like most about attending a public school while I was growing up, was that if you had questions about something that you did not understand, the teachers would act as though they didn't have the time to help you come to a better understanding of it. There would also be fellow classmates that would poke fun at me when I would ask questions, so I decided to save myself the embarrassment and go to the library to research and learn more into what I didn't know. If I still had any questions after that, I would confide in friends who were in higher grades to see if they knew about the subject. If none of those ideas worked, I would try to find a tutor, but usually the library worked enough for me.

I just didn't like to be laughed at, and I think to this day, that was what made my outlook on things backwards. I was more of a book nerd, but I did have friends and I was extremely shy. I'm way more outgoing than I was 18 years ago, and sometimes I think that if I had been as outgoing as I am now, that things would have been better with school... and perhaps less teasing. I had my share of bullies, but tried very hard to make the best of things. I never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings (still don't like to do that to this day) and just tried my best to ignore much of the bullying. It made me stay to myself more and grow to dislike going to school everyday. After all of the bad experiences I had in public school, I just didn't want our children to have a similar experience, because it seems that peers of today are a lot more cruel than they used to be.

When I would tell the teacher or anyone else about it, they would just shake it off, so I just got to where I never told anyone or asked for help, since I knew it would do no good to tell anyone. When I was in 2nd grade, I once got stuck sitting beside a much older student who was in the 7th grade. The girl would demand most of the entire bus seat or else she would poke me with a pencil, which she did very often. I got to where I would sit as closely to the window side of the bus seat and just ball up, in fear that she would jab me with the pencil again at any second. After a year of such horror, she was finally riding a new bus route, which was fine by me... no more of that awful pencil poking. It was quite painful and I think that the bus driver should have really done more about the situation, because I had told the bus driver several times about it, but I don't think that they even cared. There's no way that I would even consider letting our son's have to deal with this kind of thing.

I know that not all school are alike and that not all teachers are alike either, but we know several people who send their kids to public school and they have had to go to the school due to bullying, problems on the school bus, and other kids trying to pick fights over needless stuff. I'm not sure why things are allowed to go as far as they do until bullying escalates. I think that if a child comes to any member of the faculty, that they should help better protect students from such incidents. It's not just older students that bully, but also students that are the same age or grade that are like this as well. I have had my share of bullying and jeering, enough to know that more should be done in the public school system. This was another motivation for us to choose to home-school our children. It's just a shame that teachers and other administration will turn blindly to the side once a student has told them that they are being bullied or ridiculed. I guess it was because I was nerdy..... or maybe my looks.... or how I dressed, that caused me to be the target of bullies, I really don't know. I know one thing, it did make my whole public school experience a total nightmare and I would never want to relive those days or have my children experience something like I did.

I have learned a great deal of things from watching educational shows on television and by also doing a lot of reading. I admit that there were some things that we were taught in school, that I was left wondering why this was even in the curriculum. There were a few teachers along the way that would just show movies (non-educational, by the way) and not really teach us anything. I was sadden by that because I thought that they were supposed to have been teaching us something. I guess that is why I turned to self-educating myself about things that I did not understand or know about. Most of the things that I know now are from reading, research, and educational programming. I'm still a little wonky on fractions, measurements, and percents, due to how these areas were taught or simply in most cases just never taught at all. I plan to continue my studying alongside my children and teach them about things that I had problems with. I plan to include counting money and telling time into our lessons this year. Along the way, I will slowly add in some fractions, percents, and measures. I want to home-school our children because I love to spend time with them and because there is so much more to offer them than just a basic curriculum.

Also, moral and financial reasons are behind our decision to home-school. There are a lot of families that home-school in our area and there is even a group that meets several times each month so that the children can meet with other peers and participate in various activities. No, home-schooling does not mean that a child will not get to make friends or play sports, because that is very far from the truth. With area home-school groups, our children will get to have as many opportunities as many other children. Yes, many area groups have proms, field trips, and even graduations. I have been researching about home-school options for many, many years and I plan to incorporate various different styles into our learning. Since we will be doing this as a family, we will all learn something and enjoy the time that we spend together. God has led us to the final decision to home-school and I think that we will not have made any mistakes by doing so.

I'm excited to get started working on some of the learning games that we will be using in the lessons. I'm glad to have found that most of the things that you can use to home-school are pretty much free and cost very little. You don't always have to purchase the curriculum, which are most of the time pricey. I began looking last spring and getting catalogs from some of the home-school curriculum companies. I was shocked to see that many of the studies were just way out of our price range. I dug deeper and was able to find out that a lot of the things that you can use are free.... with some even being found at the Dollar stores. As we prepare for school, we as a family are excited and can't wait until what I like to call "tee-time" begins. I've always wanted to be a teacher deep down, but I never really knew it until we had children of our own. What a great experience this will be, with God by our side throughout everything. Take care and have a great day!! Until next post..... May God bless!!!

Time To Relax And Unwind....

After a long day hard at work canning and cleaning the house, it's finally time to relax a little and unwind. Yes, there's still loads of laundry that are still waiting to make it into the washer, but while I'm waiting it's nice to have a few minutes to play a game, write a blog post, or check by the inbox.

Late nights are usually my most relaxing time, because everyone else is asleep and I can get a lot of cleaning done without any delays or distractions. It's been raining here off and on the past 2-3 days, so I've been trying to get the kid's room cleaned and somewhat organized so that when they wake up... they will be like.. "Wow, let's play with the toys!!!" That usually keeps them occupied pretty well during the rainy days.

It's been said for many years by several older people that I know: "A woman's work is never done." I have found that to be true... that and the fact that there are just simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. Even spending most of the day multi-tasking doesn't help get everything done.... At some of the busiest parts of the day, it's quite easy to have so many things going on at once, that I have overlooked and even forgotten things.

I'm always kidding that it's just old age catching up with me.... lol. My desk will usually have a small stack of post-it notes sitting somewhere with things that I needed to remember or will need to look back at for reference. I've gotten around to making time each week to clean and organize my computer desk.... at some of the busiest times during the course of the week, it can be a total jungle over here.

During the next week or two, I plan to sit down and make sure that everything is in order so that we can be ready for school to start. I know that each day has it's own schedule and whenever you plan to do anything, something always has a way to knock you off chart. I've gotten most things ready, but there are still some things that need to be straightened out and organized better.

One of the things that I have been trying to do for years is to stop taking on more new projects. It seems like each time that I find a new hobby or project that I really enjoy, something always has a way to delay me or keep me so busy that I can barely have the time to finish or complete anything. I used to love doing latch-hook rugs, but I still had a latch-hook rug set that I had begun working on when I was 10 years old and I never got the time to finish it.

Although I had worked on it and got probably 40% of the rug complete, I never could find the time to finish it. Sad thing is, I can't remember what I did with it. A few years later someone had given me another latch-hook rug set, but this time I was smart.... I did not work on it at all. I re-gifted it to someone else who happened to have a lot of free time and was actually looking to take up a new hobby.

I try very hard to not take on more than I can handle, but these days.... people seem to put more off on me than I can bear. It's not easy to stomach most days, but I'm certain that God has His reasons for why so much is being put off on me right now. I have taken up paper bead making since last summer and have come to find that it helps reduce stress.

I've made a lot of them and have even sold a few of them online, which made all of the hard work worth it. I plan to stick with this hobby as it's something that the kids' enjoy helping with, because it's a great way for them to practice their cutting skills. I just love to make them and decorate them... who knew that rolling paper beads could actually be relaxing.

Machine sewing quilting tops were one of my favorite things to do, but ever since the sewing machine hasn't been acting right... it's been hard to get back to finishing some unfinished quilting projects that I had started years ago.... arrggghhh My thinking about those lately is that maybe one of these days things will work out to where I can sew on them and finally get them done one day.

I wish that there were more hours in the day to take more time to relax, have fun, and enjoy life..... I think that all the stress that comes from bills, work, and life just can at most times keep us so busy that we forget to stop and smell the roses. I love the days that are slower paced, because those are the days that I can get more done and seem to get rejuvenated with newly found energy.

Just being able to slow down in today's fast-paced society helps make life run more smoothly. At times it's hard to do that, but I'm trying diligently to make time for everything and take time to really enjoy life. I have found myself wishing some days that I could just go back and slow life down to where just one day seems like forever to go by. It seems like now, days just pass by faster, with just one blink of an eye.. a whole month has passed by and that's scary actually.

Well.... with all of this said, always remember to take time for everything, whether it's to play with your kids more or to take time to finish things. One of these days you will have wished that you had spent more time doing things that you enjoyed and relaxed with your family more. I know that I have wished that a few times lately. Things that overwhelm us and drive us crazy, always have a weird way of making us appreciate everything more. Take care and have a great night!! Until next post.... May God bless!!

Another Crazy Summer's Day....

It's finally time to get started canning today.... I think that canning and preparing things will soon become verry important. I plan to can some squash for winter, but along the way, I will still always manage to put some vegetables and fruit into freezer bags to place in the freezer for later use. If all goes well, I plan to make some various types of jellies and jams... because who doesn't just love some tasty home-made jelly?? It seems that sometimes I can never seem to can enough fruit or squash for the winter months. Another vegetable that seems to be a favorite around here is okra, so we plan to plant larger crop in the garden this year.

I always try to can as much tomatoes, greens, potatoes, cabbage, beans, and fruit. We love to eat a lot of fresh fruit cobblers and pies, so making sure that I have enough fruit to last us the winter is important. There's nothing more tasty than fresh home-made soup.... I have found that when I fix a large batch of soup, I will put smaller portions of soup in the freezer to help make a quick meal when you're in a pinch for time. I also try to make up some extra pancakes or waffles and place on a cookie sheet to stick in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Then I also add the pancakes or waffles to a plastic zip-lock bag. The same thing can also be done to any extra biscuits so that you will have some on hand for later on.

To help make making home-made dressing a little less time consuming, I often freeze any extra cornbread in zip loc bags. That way when I need some cornbread for my dressing recipe or for any casserole recipe, I can whip it all up in a hurry, wihtout having to make another batch. It has helped me stretch everything, as well as reduce wasting anything. I'm not a fan of wasting anything, so when I am able to find ways to help conserve and put things back for later use, I will. A lot of folks find this to be strange, but with the way things are economically and financially for our family, every thing that I can save, can, or prepare ahead of time helps out tremendously. It may not make sense to everyone, but this is a great way for anyone who wants to try something new or different in order to help stretch whatever your budget can afford.

For us, canning and putting food up from the garden for future use just makes sense and is not really hard to do, as some would have you to believe. It can be done in smaller batches or large.... just whatever you have on hand at the time works even better. If you don't have a pressure canner.. don't feel bad, you can still put up vegetables, fruit, and left overs in plastic zip-loc bags. We have never had anything go bad or become freezer burned, because we always use whatever we have put up in the freezer. We have had very few things go bad with our canned items, but the few times that something has spoiled was due to someone bumping the jars over, which broke the seal, without being spotted in time.

Since we have pets, nothing scrap wise ever goes to waste. What the dog doesn't eat, the cats will always eat the rest of. Any fruit, pasta, rice, bread, or vegetable scraps go to the chickens. Not only has this been a treat for our birds, but they enjoy their treats, which makes for some very happy birds. So even scraps are not wasted, because there is always some eagerily, happy pets waiting for meal-time to arrive. If I happen to have bones left-over from a meal, I will wash them clean and put in a crockpot so that they will cook slow enough to crush easily and they can be added to the pets' food. They find this to be very tasty and enjoy this special treat.

There are lots of ways to reduce waste and stretch things, and I will talk about more ways to do this in future posts.... so please stay tuned. As a busy wife, mother, and homeschool family, it's often hard to write as frequently as I would like to, but when I get a few minutes to sit and write I do. As school times gets closer, I'm very certain that schedules will be crazy and things will be even busier, but I do plan to write as often as I possibly can. Happy Belated 4th of July weekend!! Take care and have an awesome remainder of your weekend!! Until next post..... May God bless!!!

It's Almost School Time Again... ARRGGHHH!!!!!!

Hello everyone!! We are home schooling for the first time this year and have lots of questions ourselves, but what I plan to use for keeping track of everything is a teacher's record book. I bought ours on ebay, but if there is a teaching supply store near you, it could be bought at a store. Since I have no clue where the nearest store is, (even after not finding anything useful online) I have found it a little easier to get things online sometimes due to the pricing and convenience due to the high cost of gas. I'm all about trying to save us money as much as I possibly can, so when possibly I will use coupons anytime I shop whether it be online or at the local stores.

I have looked at local stores near us, but was not able to find anything, so I looked online and found one that would work also for lessons as well, as keeping up with grading and attendance. I checked out a few sites a few months ago, but after I got the teacher's book, I just decided that this may be a better choice. I have also purchased a few things that were on sale along the way and this will help out tremendously come closer the school time. There are going to be a large amount of shoppers the next few weeks, so I know that to stay on top of everything that keeping track of the sales ads and what coupons will be in the paper's each week will be critical.

To help make everything much easier on our end, I want to keep as good of a record of everything that I possibly can. I just want to have some physical proof should something ever happen and I have to have some documents or paperwork showing what we are doing, just-in-case something should ever come up (just never hurts to be prepared in this day and age). Since I already do some paperwork, this would be nothing much harder or time consuming than what I do now. It's never a bad thing to be ready in the event of something going awry.... Yes, there are people who are against home-schooling all together and well... you just never know. Home-schooling is not for everyone, but it is the right thing for our family. We have done lots of praying and I know that it is what is right for us to do. God has played a huge roll in helping us along with making this decision final.

If anyone else has any advice or pointers to offer us as we begin to start our school year in August, please let me know. I will also be using our blog to help anyone else who may need any pointers or advice with making the decision to home-school. For us, there were more pros than there were cons, which helped make the decision to home-school our children easier. It did take lots of prayer and I have no doubt in my mind that we will be going in the wrong direction. I have no regrets in making the decision to home-school, as I think that this is what is the best for our children's future education.

The possibility of college could become a reality now, as opposed to going to public school. I know from my own personal experience with being a student in a public school, that had I been home-schooled, I would have definitely went to college. There were lots of things that they had not taught in the curriculum that would have been important to have learned in preparation for college. I'm excited and nervous at the same time, but the critical thing is that I want to make sure that I do everything right and that our children are learning what they should. As with everything else that has came along in our lives, we will be home-schooling as a family. Just can't wait to see what new experiences we will have as a home-schooling family moving forward. This is going to be a very fun and moving experience for us all. Thanks so much!! Take care and have a great afternoon and Happy Early 4th of July!! May God bless!!

Fried Green Tomatoes... It's What's For Supper... :)

There is one thing for sure.. there is nothing like some great southern home cooking. With our garden in full bloom and the tomatoes getting ripe, it was just too hard to not pick some green tomatoes and fry them up for supper. They are absolutely delicious and go well with about any other vegetable, casserole, or meat. I love to slice them thinly, and then place them in a cool bowl of water and add some seasonings. Let them sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or even over night. When you are ready to fry them up, just batter them and drop in them in a deep fryer or fry in a iron skillet. I love to pair them with fried squash, peas, and cornbread. Absolutely delicious and everyone loves them, which means of course, I have to fix much larger batches of them for supper.. lol They're so great that even our indoor pets love them too... yes we spoil our pets too, they are truly southern as well.

I don't think that I have ever found anything that comes close to freshly fried green tomatoes... well.. I'm a true vegetable lover and everything that we raise from the garden is always my favorite... so shhhhh, please don't ask me to pick just one as a favorite. Since green tomatoes are not always in season and we love them year-round, I will often prepare some for the freezer. I prepare them by doing them the same way as I normally would for frying them, with the only exception that after I have battered them up, I lay them out plat on cookie sheets and then place the sheets in the freezer. After a couple of hours, I will take them from the sheets and add them to zip-lock bags that have a light amount of the seasoned flour inside to prevent any sticking together. Then add them back to the freezer for later use, during the colder months for when you want a fresh piece of summer, long after the warm weather has went into hibernation... lol I also do the same with freshly picked squash.... so since these are a favorite around here, I have to put a lot of these little babies up. I also have taken green tomatoes and cubed them and added them with other fresh vegetables from the garden for a quick stir-fry.

I will also put up some of the stir-fry in the freezer as well and it goes great with rice, mashed potatoes, or anything almost. Home-made stir-fry is also something else that I fix that goes fast.. lol It's always a crowd pleaser plus it's a great way to fix dinner when you're pinched on options, time, or both. Making stir-fry is also a great way to get your kids in the kitchen and encourage them to be creative with recipes. There are so many wonderful things that you can make and cook using fresh vegetables. I have been an avid gardener for many, many years and so gardening, cooking, and canning is right up my alley. I love to find new ways to live off the land and make use of things that we have available. With times hard like they are now, I think that learning to make use of whatever you have on hand is key to surviving and staying afloat these days. I'm just glad that we don't have any picky eaters, which also makes for making meals and cooking so much easier.

Since I love writing and have so many interests that can be tied knit together somehow, I'm pretty sure that I will write about lots of other interesting topics. I will write another article with some helpful hints and even include some of our favorite recipes that I have created. I really enjoy preparing for winter time and anytime. I'm in the kitchen 90% of the time and when I'm canning, I'm in there for most of the day or night. I love how gardening can open the door for so many other things... it's also an educational experience. Take care and have an awesome day!! Until next post.... May God bless!!

Navigtating Through Difficult Times.......

Well... I have found that since things are slow around here with jobs and work, that the key to survival is to try to use things that can be recycled or fashioned into other types of crafts in order to try to sustain some income. I have found that making paper beads from packages has helped us out somewhat. I got bored one day last summer and decided to see what I could with some common things that I was going to throw away. I've never been much of a waster, so this is a great way for us to reduce the amount of paper packaging that we throw out in the trash each week. Not only that, the projects that I have made using the items, have helped us earn some money along the way.

This is especially important, as the jobs in this area have went down to nothing..... no one is hiring. The few places that are hiring, you have to have degrees, so that makes it just that much harder for anyone who doesn't have high diplomas, GED's, or some type of college degree to find stable work. With that in mind, it just gives me that much more of an incentive to work hard to try to help earn income for our family. I also can some vegetables, fruit, and soups, in order to make sure that we will always have food on hand.

You just never know how things are going to go with how things with the economy are going right now. I have also resorted to using coupons and watching all of the sales ads each week in order to maximize what I spend in order to get as much as I possibly can. It breaks my heart to see anyone waste things. It's often hard to just run out to the store and buy things, so I have found it easier for me to just can things such as vegetables from our garden and any produce that I can get at a great price.

People often think that I have lost my gourd, but until they experience hard times and have to pinch pennies tight to make ends meet, they just don't have a clue. I have been into survival techniques and living off of the land for many years, but I am even more interested in it, ever since we fell victim to a natural disaster in spring 2011. Not only us, but our entire community lay in ruins, after that beast of a storm tore through out town. I have had feelings that I should learn as much as I can about surviving things and navigating through hard times. I'm not sure if it is something from the storm or not, but my survival instinct is telling me to can and prepare things for a later time, because we are definitely going to need everything that we can prepare and put up to survive.

I will take left overs and either freeze, can, or even re-purpose the left overs into a whole other meal for the next night. I have learned and discovered many ways to hep stretch things and make the best of things. I have figured most things out by trying out things and by doing research. I've even went as far to keep, what we like to call a "survival/storm bag" for any time that we may have to have things that could help us get through a few days until we got to some help, depending on the situation. It helps to prepare for any type of situation and be prepared for the worst no matter what. Then you will know that you can survive and make it through.

I always try to buy things in bulk when it makes sense for us to do so. It can sometime take me a few hours when I go out shopping, because I always like to see what products that I am getting the best deal with. I make sure to look at the weight and price of the products and strive to buy only products that have the most product for the cheapest price. I have found that often times when using coupons, I can sometimes come out ahead by buying the name brand products when they are on sale, rather than the store brands. I know a few pennies or even $2 or $3 may not make much difference to most people, but for us, it can make a huge difference.

It just depends on the store and what the sales price is that day or week, because sometimes, you come out ahead by buying the store brand products. You just have to do your research and figures to see where you would come out ahead. I also try to figure out how many of each item that I can afford to buy and most of the time, I will spend way less than I had anticipated on spending. I used to never even think to use coupons, but ever since 2011, I would not even consider not using using them. I just wish that I had schooled myself better on how to use them and started using them years ago.

I will sometimes buy coupons for items that we use the most online, since it's cheaper than buying 10 newspapers. The bonus to buying them online, is that they are already clipped out neatly for you, which is a huge blessing for any busy mom/wife. I will only buy a paper if the coupon preview shows coupons that are for things that we use the most. That way, I can buy more than 1-2 at a time when I go shopping. I'm not a fan of the coupons for things that generally are a bit pricier and state that you have to buy 2 or more of them to get from anywhere from $0.75 to $1.00 off because in most cases, I can only afford to buy one, not more than one.

To help make clothing a bit easier, several family members and friends will often do a clothing swap several times during the course of the year. This prevents waste and also helps others out as well. Yard sales are a great way to find the types of clothing that you want without having to spend a bundle on a new wardrobe. Most of the sizes and styles of clothing that I prefer to wear, they don't have at stores, so yard sales are a great thing for me. I like to wear more modest types of clothing and the clothing that they have in stores now, is just too revealing for me. I like to dress more age appropriate... I'm not getting any younger... lol

Another way to help you earn some extra money on clothes or anything that you are not using is to have a yard sale or sell them online. That way you can take that money and use it to pay bills or even take it and buy something else that you were needing. If you don't have time for a yard sale, you can perhaps find someone who will be happy to help sell the items for you on a consignment. That way you can help someone else out at the same time of helping earn money for yourself as well.

I hope that my advice can help someone else out, and if you have any other advice about any other wonderful pointers to surviving difficult times, please feel free to share them with me. I am always working and learning new things everyday in order to try to stay afloat in difficult times when nothing seems to work out right and things seem to take a left turn. Never give up and always, always, always, let God take control of everything in your life. He will see your through no matter what and He will always provide for you. Some times to move forward, we have to let go of the past first. That has helped me overcome some much of the pain from the storm. I hope that I am able to help someone else who is seeing difficult times or has ever fell victim to a natural disaster.

It's amazing how a span of 10 seconds can change your lives forever.... you will move forward, but you will never get over it. For me, that day taught me it's always more blessed to give than it is to receive..... that material possessions don't matter..... never take anything for granted..... family is always the most important thing..... and above all, God will see us through things that we never thought that we could go through. If you let God take control, you will always come out of the difficult situation. Things happen for a reason, though we don't always understand why. I pray that things will get better for everyone..... I honestly have never seen things as badly as they are right now. May God richly bless everyone!!!

Writing, Blogging, Books, Home-School, & Other Tidbits

I have always loved to doing reports and writing. Although I have not been doing a lot of work on it over the course of the last few years, I have decided to get back into the swing of things and write. I have always wanted to write a book, but want to give it a try one of these days. I took a course in Creative Writing back in High School and really enjoyed it. Though I'm not much of a poet, I have done some poetry.


With us being new to home-schooling, I think that for me to get back to my writing roots would be a great way to help teach our children the basics of writing. Along the way they will be learning about spelling, phonics, sentence structure, and how to write various types of writings. I hope to gain their interest in writing as much I have always had.


I was always looking forward to the classes where we had to take thorough notes and write reports. I believe that I was the only person who was excited about writing reports. I even had some people, (they were kidding of course) offer to pay me to write their reports for them. I like to idea of writing about a random topic or a particular area of interest you happen to have a personal tie to.


I think learning about a wide variety of experiences from someone else's point of view, is often very exciting. Blogging is way to express your inner writer and totally be creative. I love the idea of that.... I have only recently gotten serious about my writing again, after not writing for many, many years.


Since summer is fast approaching, and that usually means that it won't be long until the next school year begins. With that in mind, I have already written out and planned a nice curriculum that we will be using. Since this is an especially difficult time for most people who are on budgets, home-school just makes more sense for us as a family.


I've prayed about making the decision on whether or not to home-school, and have debated for several years before. God finally heard my prayers and answered them, by leading me in the direction towards homeschooling our children. I have come to find that you do not have to spend a bundle on curriculums that you would only use short-term. Most of the catalogs that I looked at, were very pricey, so I began to research to see what I can use that is free and more budget-friendly for us to use.


There are so many great websites that are free for home-schoolers to use and it's hard to pick just one to go with, so I have decided that we will use a wide variety of all of them along the way. To make things even sweeter with saving you money on school supplies for your home-school budget, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, now both carry a nice variety of school supplies as well as teacher aides.


I think that the thing that I was most excited about was the fact that they had teaching time and teaching money counting aides, which was something that I was looking into for many years. I already had a book with crafting ideas for kids, which will also be something that we will be using.


It's a blessing to be able to be home with the boys all the time and be able to teach them how to read. I know some are saying.... "Well they won't get to interact with other kids their age", that is clearly not the case at all. There are local home-school groups that meet several times a month so that the children can do activities together and interact.


Some groups will even hold graduations, dances, field-trips, and proms. So, no, home-school children do not miss out on anything as most people believe. An added bonus of homeschooling is that you don't have to worry about bullying, drugs, peer-pressure, or any of the negatives that often occur at public schools.


For me, public school was not fun or enjoyable to say the very least. I experienced bullying, hecklers, and was jeered at more than I cared to be. For us, the choice to home-school was an easy one. There was no way in the world that I wanted out sons to have a similar experience that I did. What I endured made me get to the point that I actually dreaded going and in most cases hated to attend school at all.


The pros just outweighed the cons when making the final decision to home-school. When you home-school, you don't have to worry about doctor's excuses, book fees, or lunch money. You also don't have to worry about having to go and buy an entire new wardrobe for school or a large amount of school supplies that in most cases, the children never use anyway. I wasn't able to find any cons, because there are so many positives about home-schooling.


You can actually save money by home-schooling, plus, many colleges look forward to having home-schooled students attend, because they know that most home-schooled students have really good study habits. Also, home-schoolers get the chance to have more one-on-one time than that of their public school peers. So for us, home-schooling just makes sense, budget wise and convenience-wise.


Unlike many parents that I know, who have their children in public schools, I won't have to rush back home to be home by 1:30 or 2:00pm from grocery shopping, in order to be home before school lets out. The grocery shopping trip will also double as a math lesson and a reading lesson as well.


Also, I won't have to worry about the dangers of our sons ever having to ride a school bus to school. There have been so many accidents the past several years involving school buses, as well as some cases of children being hit by buses, while trying to board and get off of the bus. The very thought of them ever having to ride the school bus had me scared to pieces.... so much as I was prepared to drop them off and pick them up, had we chosen to go the public school route.


This is going to be an exciting experience for us as a family. I love to spend time with our son's and so this will be amazing. I look forward to spending time with our son's and having the chance to be their teacher as well. They are super excited about what we will be learning and have even enjoyed helping me with the lesson planning process.


Right now we are enjoying a slower-pace, because we know that when school starts, we will be very, very busy. Home-schooling, may not be for everyone, but it's something that we have prayed about for many years. Thank you God for allowing me to be able to be home with our children!! I know that by home-schooling, we will not be sorry about ever making that choice. Until next post..... May God bless!!