My Journeys Through Life . . . Herding Cats In New Mexico!

August 7, 2013 · 8:01 am

Transitions Part 4: A 1700 Mile Adventure

Well, I should have mentioned this yesterday, but I didn’t even realize it until I was going to bed last night! Yesterday, August 6, 2013, my kids and I had officially been here in NM for a whole year! Honestly, it doesn’t seem like it’s been a whole year since we arrived! It’s been a year full of change, and has had its ups and downs. My husband and I have, between us, gone through three surgeries, we found a wonderful church family, my kids and I got booted out of the first home-school group we joined (which turned out to be a good thing, but I digress!). Our first winter here was the best winter I’ve ever been through, as you can guess, having come from Michigan. We really do like being here! So now, let’s get on with our journey from Michigan to New Mexico, with our day in St. Louis, MO!

We had a very nice sleep Thursday night, in our beautiful room that my cousin Anne had gotten for us, and woke ready to have a great day in St. Louis! After everyone was showered and dressed, we went to the very good breakfast that came with our room. I think the hotel lost money on the breakfast that my boys had that day, lol! Then, while waiting for Anne to arrive, we went ahead and got packed back up and put our belongings back into the minivan.

When Anne arrived, we piled into the minivan and headed to the St. Louis Arch . . .

Which is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and is a National Park.

We parked on what I *think* I was told is a levee, right at the river, where we saw this riverboat cruise boat.

Stretched across the area where we parked were many of these very heavy chains. You can see in the picture of the riverboat that they are used for mooring. The boys found them interesting, and were pretending to try to lift them (they were, of course, way too heavy!)

So, we walked along the river front to a point where we could get to the Arch, which is really quite beautiful, as you can see in the picture higher up in this post. There are a TON of steps to climb to get to the Arch!

Here is “The Artist” stopping on the way up . . .

and here am I, with “Mr. Loquacious”

I’m going to stop right here and tell you, I was really nervous about this excursion! My improved health from my weight loss was still relatively new, and I worried over whether I would really be able to handle all of the steps, etc. Well, as you can see, I did! I was also able to get through all of the little turnstiles inside, as well as fit into the tiny little carriers that we went to the top in. Here are pictures of each of us inside the one they have set up for photos . . .

First, “The Artist” . . .

“Mr. Loquacious” . . .

“The Batman” . . .

“The Puzzler” . . .

And me!

Now, you can see how small those things are, right? Now imagine all six of us, crammed into one for the ride to the top. A year previously, I would never have managed, not at 320 pounds. I also would have been quite miserable upon moving to Albuquerque, where we are almost a mile higher in elevation than we were in Pt. Huron. The weight loss journey is one I am so glad to have taken, for many reasons!

Anne went and got our tickets to go to the top of the Arch, and then we had a little over an hour before our scheduled ride, so we used that time to walk through as much of the museum as we could. We really enjoyed it!

All of the boys in front of one of the exhibits . . .

all the boys with Anne . . .

Anne and me . . .

one of the views through the windows at the top of the Arch . . .

After we had finished at the Arch, we drove back over to the hotel to pick up Anne’s car, and then went to eat an early supper at a restaurant nearby, for BBQ. It was very good, I’d never had BBQ done the way they do it! I don’t recall the name of the restaurant, but it was right across the parking lot from the hotel, and we loved it!

After our dinner, we said our good-byes. Anne headed off to her home, and we headed on to Republic, MO, where we spent the night at a motel and then the next morning, Saturday, we spent the morning visiting with another cousin, Anne’s brother Ed and his family. Unfortunately, I forgot to have my camera with me during that visit, so I have no pictures. 😦

From Republic, we headed toward Oklahoma, where we would be spending the night at the home of a long time dear friend of mine, which I will tell you about tomorrow, if you come back! 🙂

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Meanwhile, please, hop on over to the main crew post to see what the other Summer Blog Hop participants are up to!

Transitions Part 3: A 1700 Mile Adventure

Well, as I said in yesterday’s post, we left Michigan on Wednesday, August 1, and spent the night in a motel in Indiana. That is literally all the time we spent in Indiana, as the motel was just inside the border, and the next morning, within maybe 45 minutes, we were crossing into Illinois.

Before we went to bed, though, I received an email from my wonderful cousin Anne, telling me that she had booked us a room in St. Louis, MO, which was our next destination. She said it was a gift from her, since we were meeting her there to spend the day together! What a nice thing for her to do, and one of the bright spots for the day to come! My husband had originally booked us into a room on the Illinois side of the border to St. Louis, because it was much less expensive, and we were trying to keep our costs down, so I called and had him cancel that room for me. 🙂

Thursday morning, I KNEW I had plenty of gas to get to St. Louis. And I still think I would have had enough, if we had not been routed off the freeway, along with all the hundreds of other travelers, due to a huge accident involving a mega bus in Litchfild, Illinois. For well over two hours, we were stuck in two-mile per hour traffic, when we were moving at all.

This was my view for the next two hours or so . . .

Finally, we were past the HUGE section of closed freeway, and allowed to get back onto the freeway, but then I realized that my "you are about to run out of gas" light had just come on, so it was time to find a gas station, one that would still permit me to get back to the freeway without becoming lost (because I am, as my husband says, geographically challenged!). So, we did find a gas station, pulled in, and I got out to pump the gas. Now, as you could probably tell from the photo above, it had been threatening rain for a while. Well, just after I paid at the pump and got ready to fill the tank, the clouds let loose, and the deluge began. I tried to quickly set the pump to auto-fill and get back in the minivan until it was done, but there was no time. In that minute before getting back in, I was literally soaked to the skin. That’s how hard it was raining. And then, the power at the gas station went off. Not for long, but just long enough that it cut off my transaction. Because of that, the pump did not print my receipt, and I was NOT going to go, in the rain, to the building to see if they could print one. I just hoped for the best and checked for the transaction on my bank website the next day so I could enter it. Because the power went off, I didn’t get a fill up, I got a little over half a tank. I just decided to go with that and hope it was enough, or if not, that we’d outrun the rain before needing more gas, lol!

This is what I looked like after getting soaked to the skin . . .

And even though it was August, we had to turn the heat on in the minivan, all the way up, with the fan going, because I was absolutely freezing! Eventually, we made it to St. Louis, and found the hotel Anne had booked us into. Oh, my, did that hotel make up for the day we’d had! It was the Hampton Inn by the airport, and it was the nicest room I’d ever stayed in!

Surprisingly, I quickly discovered when we checked in that they had no guest laundry facilities! I changed into dry clothes (because yes, I had gotten so soaked that everything I was wearing was still quite wet, good thing my minivan doesn’t have cloth seats!), and we went in search of a laundry-mat. We never found one, so we gave up and went back to the room. By then I was too tired to go out to get supper, so we ate the shelf stable microwave meals I had bought (just in case!) before we left Pt. Huron. They were surprisingly not too bad! We slept pretty well that night . . . we were all tired! 🙂

Tomorrow, our day in St. Louis with my fabulous cousin Anne!

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Come to the Annual Schoolhouse Expo With Me!

Wow! Want to be encouraged in your home-schooling? Want to attend a week-long event, but don’t have the time or money to go away for one? Here is your chance to attend the week-long Schoolhouse Expo Event!

From August 19 – 23, you will get to hear such wonderful speakers as Dean Butler (The Little House Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder), Barbara Beers (Selling and Grammar and Latin, Oh My!), Davis Carman (Give Me One Good Reason to Home-school), Todd Wilson (Taming the Techno Beast – Parenting in the Internet Age), and many more! You can view the schedule here . . .

I am VERY excited about attending this event, especially now that I know I don’t have to plan to be at my computer the whole time to get everything I want to hear! From the Schoolhouse Expo site:

“Can’t make the exact times and dates listed? You won’t miss out! The annual week-long Schoolhouse Expo recordings will be available with the price of your Expo ticket. You will receive a link to the recordings after the expo week is complete.”

I am excited to hear Todd Wilson speak. I attended a few of his sessions at our CAPE-NM Homeschool Convention here in Albuquerque this past April, but missed the one on the topic he is doing for the Expo. With four boys, two of them being teens, I especially want to attend this topic! I am also very much looking forward to Dean Butler’s session. Remember him? He starred as Almanzo Wilder on the Little House On The Prairie TV show. I am a long time “Little House” fan, having watched it in prime time every week when it was first run (yes, I am that old!), and my children have become fans as well, especially my youngest two. We have also recently been reviewing the documentary “Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura”, produced by Dean Butler, for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, which you can read about in a post later this week!

You can attend this week-long event for the low-cost of $24.00, by registering here. I think you will have a wonderful time!

I’ve also been given the opportunity to host a give away on my blog for the Expo. If you would like to enter to win one free ticket to the Schoolhouse Expo, please leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what session you are looking forward to the most. Be sure to leave me your name and email, in case you win! On August 14th, the winner will be drawn using http://www.random.org. Good luck! 🙂

Disclaimer: This is a promotional post. I have received a free ticket to the Schoolhouse Expo in exchange for publicizing it to you.

7 Comments

Filed under home education, homeschooling, Schoolhouse Expo, Schoolhouse Expo Give Away

Tagged as home education, homeschooling, Schoolhouse Expo, Schoolhouse Expo Give Away

August 5, 2013 · 11:30 am

Transitions Part 2, A 1700 Mile Adventure!

Hello, my blog reading friends! You may recall that back on July 10, 2013, I began a series of posts called “Transitions“, promising to continue the series a little later. Well, the continuation begins today, as part of the Review Crew’s Summer Blog Hop! I think you’ll find the Summer Blog Hop to be a fun ride, with 90 bloggers and 450 posts on a wide variety of topics. So, without further ado, let’s get on with the Hop! 🙂

If you went back and read the first Transitions post, you will recall that we had finally gotten our belongings loaded up, and were about to set off for our big move to Albuquerque, NM. And so we did, rather later in the day than we planned, after the delay of waiting for the moving truck to arrive until much later than expected. But, finally, we were ready to go, on the afternoon of July 30, 2012!

We headed west out of Port Huron, MI to Flint, MI, so we could make a brief (hahaha, as if brief visits and good-byes EVER happens in this family!) stop at my brother’s, to say good-bye to him, my sister-in-law, one of my nieces and her beautiful little girl.

Here is “The Batman” playing with my great-niece, Penny before we left to head on to another little side trip . . .

And here are all of the boys and Penny together!

From there, we headed to Northern Michigan, more specifically Rapid City and Bellaire, MI, to see my mother’s last surviving siblings, Aunt Marge and Uncle Jim, and their respective spouses, Uncle Leon and Aunt Ann. They are all elderly, and I wanted very much to see them before we moved so far away, so my husband made it workable for us. I’m so grateful to him for doing that for me . . .

With our late start, and then a longer stop than we planned in Flint, we didn’t get to our motel (The All Seasons Motel in Bellaire) until about 10:00 p.m., but they were ready for us, after my husband had called them to say we were delayed. It was a small, basic room, which was fine for us. We just needed a place to sleep, shower and change, as we spent most of our time there either with my aunts and uncles, or swimming, or roaming around the village of Alden, showing the kids some of the places we went to when I was younger.

“The Batman” and “The Artist, bedding down for the night . . .

Mr. “Loquacious”, sound asleep . . .

And the “Puzzler”, totally zonked out!

Spending the morning at Torch Lake, in Rapid City MI . . .

“Mom! Are you SURE this water is warm enough?!” (Torch Lake is a spring fed lake, and cold when first going in, lol!

They soon decided it was worth it, though!

In Alden, MI wandering around before heading back over to see the aunts and uncles one final time before heading west . . .

This sign is right at the edge of the lake in the village of Alden . . .

Torch Lake has been rated by National Geographic as the cleanest lake in America, and the third cleanest in the world!

One of the shops we like in Alden . . .

Carter’s Candles, I still have a Petoskey stone magnet from this store that my husband and I bought on our honeymoon 23 years ago!

Love the new Alden sign posts!

At this point, we’d checked out of the motel, and gone back to see my aunts and uncles one last time. Here are the boys with my Aunt Marge and Uncle Leon . . .

And here is the only picture that came out of me with them, I look half asleep, lol!

After saying good-bye one last time, we headed down the road to my Uncle Jim’s house to see him and his wife, my Aunt Ann, one final time . . .

It was a difficult good-bye for me. As I said before, my Aunt Marge and my Uncle Jim are my mother’s last surviving siblings, and they and their spouses are all in their late seventies and eighties, so this was very likely my last time I will ever see them. It was very quiet in the car for a while after we left . . .

We then headed west, and as we were going through the area of Holland Michigan, I phoned my Aunt Carol, who lives there with her new husband. She is my Uncle Keith’s widow, and I so loved him, and her, so I was hoping we could meet up briefly. She didn’t answer her phone, but called me back shortly after we passed Holland. We turned back, and met her at a road-side farmer’s market.

Here are the boys, entertaining themselves while we wait for Carol to meet us . . .

We followed her over to the beach on Lake Michigan, someplace we’d never been, which meant we’d now driven from the east coast of Michigan (Port Huron) to the west coast of Michigan!

Here are the boys with my Aunt Carol . . .

and here’s one with just me and my aunt!

And now, we were truly leaving Michigan, on August 1, 2012, with our next stop being a quick night in a motel in Indiana. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next leg of the journey, because it starts out super FUN (see the sarcasm there, lol?)

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Hop on over to the main blog hop post, so you can check out all the other participating bloggers!

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Filed under 1700 Mile Adventure, Blog Hop Aug. 5 - 9, family, Kids, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post, Transitions, Travel

Tagged as children, family, kids, moving, new life, Schoolhouse Review Crew, Transitions, Travel

August 1, 2013 · 4:54 pm

Come and see our BEAUTIFUL New Close To My Heart Products!

I am SO excited about all the beautiful new products in the Close To My Heart new fall/winter catalog, which is live to customers as of today, August 1. 2013!

To celebrate the new catalog, I’ve joined with a large group of other Close To My Heart consultants in a new product blog hop. I have chosen to use the gorgeous new Laughing Lola paper, black cardstock, white Daisy cardstock, the Gypsy Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad, and from our new Minis collection, the My Acrylix A True Thank You stamp. To put it all together, I used Close To My Heart Bonding Memories Glue, and Close To My Heart 3-D Foam Tape.

So, without further ado, here is the set of coordinating Thank You notes, made using just one of the double sided patterns in beautiful new Laughing Lola paper pack!

I hope you like the idea of having a whole set of coordinating cards, whether for thank you cards, thinking of you cards, or a variety of occasions, and that this gives you an idea of what you can do with just one of the patterns from any of our exclusive paper packs!

Please let me know how I can best help you with your paper crafting needs! 🙂

Click on the linky tools link below to see all of the other entries . . .

This blog hop is open for members of the CTMH Blog Boosters. Please do not add an entry if you are not a member of the group

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10 Comments

Filed under card making, Close to My Heart, CTMH New Product Blog Hop

Tagged as card making, Close To My Heart, CTMH New Product Blog Hop

July 24, 2013 · 8:42 am

I Have Just the BEST Hairstylist in Albuquerque!

I know I posted a while back, when I first found a new hairstylist finally, after moving to New Mexico, and having to give up C.J., the fantastic lady who cut and colored my hair back in Pt. Huron, MI, but I’m writing about Jody Muniz again, because she has left the salon she was working for and gone out on her own!

Jody has moved from a salon where she was an employee to a salon where she is her own boss, and it appears that she could not be happier! I know that I couldn’t be happier, because I have someone again who understands my hair, and understands what I like.

I was finally able to get in to see Jody this past Saturday, July 20, 2013, after being unable to go for the whole time I’ve been recovering from surgery on five toes, and boy, was it beyond time to go!

Here I am before . . .

As you can see, it’s WAY past time for a color and trim! Jody and I got right to work deciding what to do about color this time, and we decided to go with a lighter base, and stick with that from now on (probably), just changing up the accent colors that she puts in each time. That way, if I need to, I can go a little longer between appointments, because the golden blonde base will blend with any ~~grey~~ new growth. For the other colors as high and low lights, she used a chocolate color and a lighter blonde.

My hair has been really coming back nicely (finally) since my bariatric surgery, and as you can see, it takes a ton of foils to do the high/low lights!

It’s more than worth it though, for the end results! Here is an “after” picture of me, with my wonderful stylist Jody!

I’m so thankful to my husband . . . since I’m not yet driving after my surgery, he and the boys (all four of them!) took me to my appointment, which was at 9:30 a.m., meaning we needed to leave our house at about 8:45 a.m. (this is a BIG city, and you just never know about traffic!), and then he took the boys to McDonald’s, to get THEIR hair cut, and to a park while waiting for me to be done, about three hours later. Wasn’t that nice of him? 🙂

If you are in the Albuquerque, NM area, and want to have a wonderful, pampering, just for you time, and come out looking great, you can contact my stylist, Jody Muniz through Genesis Hair Studio, or you can contact her directly at (575)993-4972. I promise, you won’t regret it!

2 Comments

Filed under Albuquerque, Bariatric Surgery, hair stylist, just me, weight loss

Tagged as Albuquerque, all about me, Bariatric Surgery, hair stylist, weight loss

July 23, 2013 · 1:33 pm

Christi The Coupon Coach: Couponing Made Simple . . . A TOS Molly Crew Review

Full disclosure here, I just love it when I get a review from the Molly Crew at The Old Homeschool Magazine! These reviews are for products for us mamas, not just for the kiddos. 🙂

This time, I received a copy of the book “Couponing Made Simple“, by Christi the Coupon Coach (Christi Bassford).

This is an extremely easy and quick read at 123 pages, and the type is a bit larger than normal, which I personally appreciate, given that my eyes are getting older every day! I was actually able to read this in one day, a major feat in my house, lol!

Christi’s system is pretty simple, as described in the video below:

Right from the beginning, I liked her Dedication page, where Christi did the obligatory dedications to various loved ones, but she also made a point of putting the following in her dedication something that matters to me, and to a lot of my readers: { “Most of all, my work I dedicated to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is by His grace that I draw every breath and strive to fulfill the command “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” } This is an attitude that is very important to me.

From Christi’s website:

“What if you could save 50% or up to 80% on your grocery bill??? If I can, why can’t you? Join me as I teach my step by step plan that has helped me and others save thousands of dollars on groceries!
There is a lot of buzz about couponing. A lot of people are excited about couponing and want to do it well, but I have found that many become overwhelmed, confused and unorganized.

That is why I have taken the new world of couponing and put it into a book that gives a step by step plan to follow. I have also developed an organization system. This allows people to be successful on their very first trip.”

I was excited to try Christi’s system, because anything that helps me to be a good steward of what God provides to us is something I want to learn about. Unfortunately, I did not do well with the couponing for groceries or household items, primarily because the coupons we received really did not have any for things we actually need or use, plus, I was recovering from surgery, and my husband was doing all of my grocery shopping. Because we ended up with a lot of out-of-pocket costs for my surgery, and are still paying off the surgeries he had in December and January, we really are needing at this time to buy only what we absolutely need, and not stock up on much of anything. That was a bit of a disappointment, but in her book, Christi goes way beyond couponing for groceries and such. She talks about saving money in many other ways, such as thrift shops, yard sales, and the thing that worked for me, the fact that sometimes, it’s worth it to wait for something to go back to full price, if you have the right coupon.

I have long desired to buy a Cuttlebug embossing machine, made by Provocraft, to use along with my Cricut when I am scrapbooking and making my hand crafted cards. The machine is regularly $89.99, but one week, it was on sale for $69.99 at Hobby Lobby. I had been saving a $20.00 gift card I had received as a birthday gift back in January (thank you Charlene!), and thought I would strike while the iron was hot, but Christi says to wait until you can get the BEST deal. Well, Hobby Lobby has a weekly coupon for 40% off, but that works only on regular priced items. If I purchased it at the sale price using my gift card, it would have cost $69.99. I figured out that if I waited a week for it to go off sale, I could use the 40% off coupon, bringing the base price down to $53.99, then stack on top of that my $20.00 gift card, bringing my final price down to $37.77, after the state sales tax was added on.

Here is my Cuttlebug . . .

Here is my receipt!

Also, her advice to watch for the rock bottom sale price paid off as well. Hobby Lobby put all of their embossing folders on sale for 50% off, which brought them to $2.50 each, so I got six. Here they are . . .

They also had the storage tote for embossing folders on 50% off sale, so I got that as well . . .

And here is the receipt for those items!

And would you like to see why I so very much desired these things? It was so I could make things like this, for my personal card ministry, and because I also want to begin selling my hand crafted cards. Here are two different cards I made using my Cuttlebug along with my Cricut, which I already own . . .

So you see, even though I have not yet mastered grocery shopping with coupons, I was able to save a bunch on things I really ~~wanted~~ needed! I do intend to try again with the grocery system when I am able to drive again, and when/if we begin seeing coupons for things we would use.

I think the best part of the book is in chapter ten, “Beyond Couponing”, in which Christi tells us about “the best deal”, for which you don’t even need a coupon, and it is absolutely free. By ending the book with this particular deal, Christi is absolutely living out her Christian testimony, and following a command given by Jesus Christ. I hope you will read it, and believe, because I’d love to meet you in Heaven one day! 🙂

I do recommend this book if you want to read about different ways to save money for your family. If you do want to coupon, Christi also gives a list of her favorite online coupon match sites here.

You can purchase “Couponing Made Simple” by Christi the Coupon Coach” here. The Physical copy of the book is $18.00, and the Kindle edition is $4.99.

To find out what other crew members thought about this book, please click below

2 Comments

Filed under card making, Christian faith, Couponing Made Simple, Molly Crew Review, paper crafting, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post

Tagged as card making, Christian Faith, Couponing Made Simple, Molly Crew Review, paper crafting, Schoolhouse Review Crew, TOS Review

July 23, 2013 · 11:15 am

Coming Soon . . .

I will be writing a series of posts about our trip from Pt. Huron, MI to Albuquerque, NM. This is part of my “Transitions” series, which I began on July 10, 2013. As you can see above, this five part series will be from August 5 – 9, 2013, as part of a five day blog hop. I will give you lots of details about how my boys and I made our way across the country on our big move, a month after my husband had already moved here for his job transfer. We had a lot of fun, and I drove a LOT of miles, more than I EVER have on my own before! You’ll see how I managed to do this with four special needs boys, without falling apart, lol!

Now, this blog hop will cover a lot of varying topics, ranging from homeschooling, to crafts, to travel, just all sorts of things, written by more than 80 different bloggers! I’m so certain that you will find a number of things of interest to you, and maybe even a new blogger or two to follow! I do hope you are following me, but if you aren’t yet following by email, you can do so by entering your email in the box at the top right of the page and clicking enter.

Please come back and check out the blog hop, beginning August 5, 2013. See you then, and remember, if you just sign up to follow via email, you won’t even HAVE to remember, your email will remind you when it’s time to come to the blog!

2 Comments

Filed under 1700 Mile Adventure, family, Transitions, Travel

Tagged as 1700 Mile Adventure, family, moving, new life, Transitions, Travel

July 19, 2013 · 8:23 am

Life Principles of the Happiest and Most Successful Among Us: 25 Truths . . .a TOS Review

We were given the book Life Principles of the Happiest and Most Successful Among Us: 25 Truths from Ed Douglas Publications, written by Ed Douglas, a retired businessman, to review.

At 150 pages, it is a fairly quick and easy read. Mr. Douglas is also the author of two other books, “Making a Million With Only $2000: Every Young Person Can Do It”, and “The Money Marathon: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom”. He gives seminars to adults and students about financial topics, as well as seminars on topics of character, values and virtue. Mr. Douglas has also served under three different Missouri Governors in positions such as Commissioner of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, and President of the Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents. He is currently serving on the William Jewell College Board, a number of local civic boards, and is an active member of his local church. He has been the high school tennis coach for the past fifteen years and is a member of the Fifty States Marathon Club, having run sixteen marathons in fifteen states.

From the website:

“This book began as a three page list that Ed had compiled and titled “Life’s Truths” or “25 Tips for an Enjoyable Life.” He shared the list with friends, acquaintances, and students that he coached as the head high school tennis coach.

Today, in a time of declining morals and values, the book is a motivational and inspirational guide built around Christian principles about what is really important in life. The book covers character and values, caring and compassionately dealing with others, making a difference in the world, and much more. In today’s fast-paced word, there doesn’t seem to be time to discuss these important concepts with children and others, so each truth is concise and easy to read, followed by discussion questions.”

My impressions:

This book is meant to be for students in grades 6 through 12, and is written in relatively short chapters of about four pages each, which includes discussion questions at the close of each chapter. Unfortunately, in our case at least, it was written above what my kids could really read and understand, given that they have varying special needs. I did read it myself, however, and discuss various truths with them after reading and thinking on how to relate the truths to them in ways they would be able to comprehend.

Some of the 25 truths in this book that I was able to relate to my children based upon things in their own lives are:

Truth # 3 – Watch What You Say, Do And Write

Truth # 5 – Tell the Truth

Truth # 8 – Be Quick To Apologize

Truth # 11 – Take it One Step at a Time

I was able to take these truths, and kind of change how we discussed them away from the business oriented theme of the book, to more of a biblical theme. As this book is marketed as a Christian book, I think I would have preferred to see the 25 truths written in terms of living a good Christian testimony, as opposed to what seems to me to be a book about becoming successful financially. God never promised financial success, but He does want us to live a good testimony. Also, there were some areas that touched on topics I don’t believe my children need to read about at this point in their lives, such as in truth # 3, “Watch What You Say, Do and Write”, in which he talks about the infidelities of Tiger Woods and former Governor Mark Sanford, and how it all came out in the tabloid press. I did use this truth, but preferred to use other examples, such as their everyday behavior, both at home and in front of others.

I think this book would work well with secular home-schoolers, and with adults, and it really is a good book if what you are looking for is a “how to be a success financially and in business” book, but it wasn’t a great fit for our family.

“Life Principles of the Happiest and Most Successful Among Us: 25 Truths” by Ed Douglas is available here for $12.50

Other crewmembers reviewed this book as well, so please sail on over to find out their thoughts!

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Filed under education, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post

Tagged as Christian Faith, home education, homeschool product review, homeschool products, homeschooling, Schoolhouse Review Crew, TOS Review

July 16, 2013 · 12:20 pm

Close To My Heart Winner!

I have just begun the final online gathering for the spring/summer 2013 idea book. This is your last chance to score your spring/summer favorites before they retire to make room for luscious new fall/winter product, PLUS, during the month of July, you qualify for the Workshops on the Go “Canvas Art Kit”, item # G1062, priced at $39.95, for only $19.95, with no minimum qualifying order, while supplies last.

In addition, for this gathering there will be another drawing. For every $25.00 on your order, you will again receive an entry into the drawing. This time the winner will receive their choice between a handmade set of note cards with holder (value $20.00) color choices to be determined by winner, or the retired paper pack “Dotty For You”, from our National Scrapbooking promotion of 2012 (value $19.95).

Please, go to my website http://lorimoffit.ctmh.com and scroll down to where it says “join one of Lori’s Gatherings”, then click on “final spring/summer gathering” You may order anytime between today and next Friday, July 26, 2013, which will allow time for the order to be in during July. Note that when you order from an online gathering, you don’t wait for the gathering to close before receiving your product, it will be shipped right away, so that you can play! 🙂

All of that said, let’s get on with the news about the last winner, and pictures!

You may remember my post back in May when I told you about the online Close To My Heart gathering which was a benefit for Sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Key. Well, because of my surgery, it took a little bit longer than I anticipated to do the prize drawing and make the winner’s cards. The winner was PJ Pearson of Rio Rancho, NM, and her name was drawn b Sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Key’s daughter. I tried to get good photos of everything, but some are a little blurry, sorry about that, I will do better next time!

And here they all are, encased within the matching holder . . .

I hope you will consider me for your paper-crafting needs, and remember, beginning with the fall/winter idea book, there will be some other fun crafting options as well, like jewelry!

Have fun crafting!

My Journeys Through Life . . . Herding Cats In New Mexico!

Transitions Part 4: A 1700 Mile Adventure

Transitions Part 3: A 1700 Mile Adventure

Come to the Annual Schoolhouse Expo With Me!

Transitions Part 2, A 1700 Mile Adventure!

Come and see our BEAUTIFUL New Close To My Heart Products!

I Have Just the BEST Hairstylist in Albuquerque!

Christi The Coupon Coach: Couponing Made Simple . . . A TOS Molly Crew Review

Coming Soon . . .

Life Principles of the Happiest and Most Successful Among Us: 25 Truths . . .a TOS Review

Close To My Heart Winner!

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