Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

What We’re Studying This Year (Unless You’re More Interested in Chocolate)

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I realize that some of you won’t be interested in reading about our curriculum choices for this year, but since I continually receive emails from gals asking about what books we like to use in our home school, I’m going to go ahead and share our list. If looking at our book list isn’t exciting to you, perhaps you would like to take a look at our Death By Chocolate recipe? Or maybe many of you will be interested in both? Because chocolate and books – aren’t those just two of the finest creations on the planet?

Once I finally got all of our books organized, I decided to take a picture of our shelf. Enjoy it now – that shelf won’t look so organized after we start digging in. But we can pretend that it stays pretty like this. ;)

The top shelf is Asa’s (grade 9), the middle shelf belongs to Justus and Elias (grades 6 and 4) and the bottom shelf is Malachi’s (grade 1).

We’ve been schooling with Sonlight curriculum for all nine of our home schooling years – yes this begins our tenth! We love that Sonlight is literature based and that we are able to explore and learn without using textbooks. Instead, we read both fiction and non-fiction books as we work our way through History, Science, Geography and Bible. In addition, we choose what Sonlight recommends for Readers (kids reading on their own) as well as Read-Alouds (parents reading to the kids).

Here is a breakdown of our curriculum for this year:

Asa (grade 9)

Justus (grade 6) and Elias (grade 4)

Malachi (grade 1)

Next, I’ll share about our home school schedule for this year – stay tuned!

I’d love to know what your kids will be studying this year (whether you home school or not!). Also, I need to know which you like better:  Books or Chocolate?

I know, that is hardly a fair question. (And yes, your answer can be “chocolate with a side of books”).

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The Two Week Tackle

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We like to begin our home school year at the beginning of August. This just works well for our family. That means I have about two weeks left before we hit the books. I’m really excited about this, and they aren’t admitting it, but deep down, my boys are excited too. ;)

August also brings quite a bit of other “excitement” as our garden will be kicking out lots of produce, which will need to be preserved. Our soccer season also starts in August. Our boys are on teams, but more importantly, the college team my husband helps coach gets underway the second week of August. Three-a-day practices keep him hopping plus, if you’ve been reading here long, you know that I usually feed the soccer team for an entire week before the college classes start. I LOVE doing this – the ladies on the soccer team are a joy to serve. I hear there will be 43 players on the team this year. That’s a lot of food! Stay tuned to hear how all of this goes.

Here’s a big pile of our books – in desperate need of some sorting and organization!

I tell you all of this to say that I have a whoppin’ two weeks to get myself organized before the month of August slaps me in my eager – but full scheduled – face. I’ve spent a good part of the summer working on two new books. Now that they are in the editing stage, to say that my house needs a little bit of love would be an understatement. And there are other areas of life I really need to get organized and prepared for, simply so that the beginning of our school year goes more smoothly.

And so…I have made myself a list. I’m calling it the Two Week Tackle because well – I have two weeks to tackle this list. Can I do it? Who knows?

Want to watch me try? Yes, I figured you might.

Here’s the Two Week Tackle List, which I reserve the right to add to or take away from at any given time as the crazy urges hit:

  • Organize school books and create a schedule for our school year
  • Clean out kitchen cabinets – replace shelf liner
  • Deep clean the entire house
  • Plan and begin to prep soccer meals
  • Make and freeze healthy convenience foods for the month of August
  • Make homemade hand soap and laundry detergent (just because I really want to try)
  • Experiment with homemade white chocolate and butterscotch chips for the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge
  • Finish creating the Whole Foods Pantry resource list that so many of you have been requesting

Regarding this last bullet point – I will, for at least one week, be taking a break from writing my bulk food posts. Creating the Whole Foods Pantry resource page is a big job to undertake, and the more I write about bulk food, the more it has been brought to my attention that you would really benefit from this list. I’ll pick up with the bulk food series once the Whole Foods Pantry resource page is finished.

And so, during the next two weeks, I’ll be cleaning, organizing, sorting, writing, finishing the books, cooking, and in general, preparing my household for the month of August.

I’ll try to blog my way through the list with some pictures and explanations if I can. There may be times I just hop onto Facebook and give a quick update. If you aren’t already following me on Facebook, you may want to click over to do that now. I’d hate for you to miss any pictures of my insanity. ;)

And now a question for you:

What are you most excited for me to tackle and share with you? Which item should I do first?

If you’d like to join the Two Week Tackle – get your list ready and share it in the comments!

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Our Favorite Books This Year (and what we’re reading this summer)

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I say this every year, so I just wouldn’t dream of let you down by failing to repeat myself. I must say it again:  This has been my favorite year of home schooling so far! (Just pretend you’ve never heard me say that before.)  Either the books keep getting better or I keep forgetting how good the other books were or I just like one-upping myself. Either way, our family had a great year of reading and learning.

If you’re new here, you may want to go back and read my Homeschool Hubbub posts to learn more about how school happens (or tries to happen) at our house, and to learn about our curriculum of choice.

I want to share with you my favorite pile of books for this year so that if you haven’t read them yet, you can look them up, and if you have read them already you can say, “I KNOW, that IS an awesome book! I’m not posting all the books we read, and that doesn’t mean I didn’t like all of them, these were just my very favorites. Here they are in no particular order (because by the end of our school year, our book shelf is not at all organized!):

The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr

We read this book as a family and got a big kick out of this adventure. I love books that crack you up and make you think all at the same time.

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

We also read this book as a family. Our kids were able to understand better the turmoil in the U.S. that was still going on years after the Civil War. Fantastic book.

 

The Journeyman, by Elizabeth Yates

 

Elizabeth Yates is an awesome writer, helping the reader fit right into the shoes of the main character all while teaching important facts of history. I never knew what a journeyman was before this. We learned about that and so much more.

Mountain Born, by Elizabeth  Yates

Another great one by Elizabeth Yates! This book was absolutely precious. Our boys could completely relate to the main character in this book, as the story was told through his point of view. This was one of those that I choked up at several times while reading it out loud. My boys love it when I do that {cough}.

Helen Keller, by Margaret Davidson

Justus and Elias declared this to be one of their favorite readers this year. They found it so interesting they could barely put it down. That rarely happens for my boys. (It’s usually pretty easy for them to put a book down and start kicking a ball instead.)  I love the understanding they gained and the inspiration they felt by reading Helen Keller’s story.

Indian Captive, by Lois Lenski

Wow, this book still haunts me and I can’t imagine that this “happened in real life”. And yet, what a story of love and courage. You’ve gotta read it. (Our eighth grader read this on his own – I read it too. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger grades. There’s a lot to chew on in this book.)

 

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse

This was another book our eighth grader read this year. I believe he read it in two days…I read it in one. It is incredibly written and heart jolting. And obviously, hard to put down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of US, by Joy Hakim

Asa (8th grade) and I read through this series during the year as a part of his history program. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again:  Never did I know that studying history could be so intriguing. Joy Hakim is a fantastic writer. These books were so simple to understand and taught us so much. I recommend this series as a great set of books to have on your shelves to read and re-read through the years.

 

Books we’ll be reading this summer (this of course is not an exhaustive list, just some I’d really like to read through with the kids):

  • Tell Me the Secrets, Treasures for Eternity, by Max Lucado and Ron DiCianni
  • Missionary Books by Dave and Neta Jackson (someone gave us a nice set of these and I can’t wait to read through them with the boys!)
  • The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (again, someone gave us several of these books, which are historical fiction and perfect for my boys’ interests)
  • By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman

What have been some of your favorite books you’ve read during the past few months? Are you reading anything exciting this summer that I should add to my list?! :)

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Gratituesday: No Regrets

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Brace yourself for a longer than normal post. I had to stop now and then in the middle of writing to jump up and down with excitement, so it took me a little while to get through this.  :)

We never really know what God is going to do in our life in any given season. If there’s anything I’ve learned during the past few years of changes and challenges, it’s that God’s ways are best no matter if they are painful to go through or joyful.

This newest change in our lives? Oh so completely joyful.

And born out of some pain and challenges.

Which is what makes this change so joyful.

Want me to tell you about it? Oh good, I would love to.

My husband Matt is very “visionary” as in…he is a guy full of great business and ministry ideas. Constantly. All the time.  One of his ideas a few years ago was to look into opening a restaurant. He had loads of business ideas for a restaurant and knew that it would be a great way to be with and serve people in the community. 

Then last year, someone offered him a position as assistant manager of a brand new restaurant opening up in town. It was a perfect opportunity to try out his restaurant dream without having a huge financial investment. He would be working for a fellow church member and we would have a steady income. We went for it!

Within the past fifteen months as Matt has worked out at Southside Grille, we’ve appreciated so many aspects about the job. We’ve been so thankful for the consistent pay check, for the chance for Matt to be out in the community visiting with people, for the opportunity to pursue a dream. God has been so good to give us that. And yet…

Our family time has really been suffering. Matt’s schedule has been a tough one, which has caused his life to feel unbalanced. He found that week after week as he helped figure out the work schedule that he’d have to choose between missing a church event or a family event. How’s a guy supposed to choose between going to a mid-week Bible study or going to his son’s soccer game?

Little by little we recognized that this lifestyle and job didn’t match up with the desires and spiritual goals we have for our family, and there didn’t seem to be any relief in sight. We aren’t quitters, and yet, we began to see that for Matt to stay with this job would mean that he would continue to miss out on and neglect so many of the things we feel are most important. 

Three or four months ago we began to talk about and pray about the possibility of Matt doing something else. He was continuing to miss time with us that he didn’t want to miss any more. At the end of each day (and at the end of his life), he wanted to have “no regrets about how he spent his time”. 

And so.

Four weeks ago, Matt resigned from his job at Southside Grille, effective December 18.

Can I just say, we are so full of joy and peace over this decision and the possibilities it presents that we are bouncing off walls and doing back flips?!! God has given us this opportunity and we can not wait to see what He has in mind for our family.

So, the question many people around here have, and one I would assume you are wondering as well is:  What is Matt going to do now? 

We aren’t able to put our finger on any one thing, because there truly isn’t just one thing. We plan to go back to being exclusively self-employed and have multiple streams of income as there are many things we are interested in doing. Most of them involve working togther as a couple and often will include the kids. In addition, we own and rent out storage units, which are now paid off and creating income. Matt has had a snow removal business for the past three years that he’ll continue to grow – although this particular business tends to be quite slow in the summertime. :)   He plans to join forces even more than he already does here at Heavenly Homemakers, working some of the business and marketing end of things so that I can focus more on writing.

And…we plan to dream together.

My visionary husband is going to keep dreaming and pursuing some new dreams. I am so, so excited for him.

We’ll be “doing teamwork” while we homeschool and train our boys. We’ll be pursuing some of the ministries that are on our hearts but that have been on the back burner for a while.

Yes indeed. We get to be a team.  I mean, we’ve always been a team. But now, we get to work together almost constantly, getting the boys more involved with some of Matt’s business ideas and work. 

In case you’re concerned or wondering, we’ve been financially planning for this life change and would not be making this move if we were not prepared. That alone has been a wonderful lesson for our boys to learn.

I’ll continue to share during the next few weeks more about some of the goals we’re setting and give you an idea of how all of this is going to work for us. I will tell you right now though that one book that’s been a huge help as we’ve worked to take this leap of faith is 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller. It is an EXCELLENT book that encourages us all to find where God has gifted us and find work that will utilize those gifts and provide for your family at the same time. We recommend this book wholeheartedly as it has been quite instrumental in changing the focus of our lives.

While we don’t have an ultimate picture of what our lives are about to look like, without a doubt, we see clearly that this is what God wants us to do. And we know with full peace and confidence that He is going to provide everything we need while we work hard for Him…as a team.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

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please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

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Homeschool Hubbub: How Can I Do This (Along with Everything Else I’m Doing)?

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After reading this post entitled, Homeschool Hubbub:  Am I Qualified to Teach? Dani left this comment…

This post was so encouraging. However, I have an almost 5 year old, a three year old, and an almost one year old. Is it really possible for me to home school? I really want to, but I’ve gotta tell you I AM SCARED. There are just so many little kids around here. I feel like I can barely go to the bathroom. Scratch that. I can’t go to the bathroom. How can I do this?

I’m gonna venture to say that as the mom of little ones, you may actually find it easier to home school than finding time to go to the bathroom! Really…it’s true. 

When you already have umpteen things to do during the day and feel ragged and worn out, it’s hard to see how you could possibly add something like home schooling your children to your day. When in the world would you do it? What will you have to give up in order to home school? Will you have to sacrifice even more sleep to add something else in?

My kids were 5, 2 and 6-months when I first began to home school our oldest son. In two years, we added another baby to the mix. Our lives were busy, crazy and yes…it was hard to find time to go to the bathroom.

And yet, I don’t remember that adding home school to the schedule really threw me off very much. I was hanging out with the kids all day as it was. Now…I just turned some of that time into our school time. We were already reading books together…now we read our “school books”. We were already exploring new things together (because little ones can’t help but do that all day long!). Now I recognized it for what it was…education in it’s finest form.

“Formal” sit-down school time with a child in his/her first few years of school can really take up about thirty minutes to an hour each day…and that’s it. And…it doesn’t have to be consecutive time! School work time can take place in five minute snatches of time all day long.

In fact…the longer I do this home school thing, the more I realize that “formal education” is not always where all the education takes place anyway.

Life is learning…learning is life.

Our kids are learning during all of their waking hours. It is just up to us to help focus their time on learning things that they need to know in life (and about the One who gave us Life).

So, if you choose to home school…will every day be easy? No way. Will you accomplish everything you want to accomplish every day? Nope. Will you have days where you don’t even crack open a book all day long? Yep. Will you occasionally forget what day it is, lose the science book, break your favorite pencil, spill milk on the couch and want to run to your closet to hide and get away from it all? Sure.

But will you get to watch the light bulbs go on in your child’s head when he/she first learns to read? Will you get to watch them as they discover a brand new concept? Will you get to be the one who enjoys their silly little antics all day long? Oh yes.

And some days…sometimes…you will even make it to the bathroom.

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