Tag Archives: family

August 5, 2013 · 11:30 am

Transitions Part 2, A 1700 Mile Adventure!

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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 . . .

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And here are all of the boys and Penny together!

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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 . . .

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Mr. “Loquacious”, sound asleep . . .

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And the “Puzzler”, totally zonked out!

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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!

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They soon decided it was worth it, though!

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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 . . .

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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!

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Love the new Alden sign posts!

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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 . . .

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

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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 . . .

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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 . . .

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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!

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Here are the boys with my Aunt Carol . . .

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

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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?)

As always, I’d love it if you’d sign up to follow my blog via email! Just click on the “sign me up!” box at the top right of this page and enter your email address! 🙂

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

Summer Blog Hop

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July 23, 2013 · 11:15 am

Coming Soon . . .

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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!

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July 10, 2013 · 9:51 am

Transitions, part 1

A year ago, my husband had already been here in Albuquerque, New Mexico for about a week, busily finding us a house to rent before he needed to report to his job.

Here is my husband’s car, loaded up for his trip before he left Michigan . . .

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The blankets are to cover up things like his computer and TV (he was there a whole month before we were, so it was nice for him to have those!), and also for him to use for sleeping until we arrived.

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It doesn’t look like he took a lot, but we space bagged ALL of his clothing, and he was able to take it in the areas you see filled with stuff. 🙂

And here he is, about to leave for his part of our new life in Albuquerque!

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Meanwhile, back in Port Huron, Michigan, our boys and I were getting ready to move the household and ourselves to New Mexico, the biggest move I’ve ever managed on my own. We began packing up the rest of our things, beginning with my scrapbooking and papercrafting supplies, since I would not be able to either go out to scrapbooking night anymore now that my husband was gone, and wouldn’t have time anyway.

Here I am, boxing up my big Crop in Style xxl tote . . .

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This pile of boxes, with the exception of the flat box in the front (that’s the TV), are my crafting things, plus one box of piano lesson books.

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We took a break on the fourth of July. Although my husband didn’t want me to take the boys to the fireworks by myself, they did do sparklers out in front of the house . . .

“Mr. Loquacious” . . .

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“The Batman”

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“The Artist”

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“The Puzzler”

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And then when it got dark, we joined in with our next door neighbors and combined the (legal) fireworks we had purchased.

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Our church back in Michigan also had Vacation Bible School the week before our actual move, and a dear friend at church (thank you again, Phyllis!) offered to take the boys each day so I could get errands done without having to drag the boys around and take twice as long.

Here is “Mr. Loquacious” . . .

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“The Puzzler” . . .

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“The Batman” . . .

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and “The Artist” . . .

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There is a family who brings a couple of horses for the final day of Vacation Bible School, so the kids can have rides.

Here is “The Artist” . . .

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“The Puzzler”

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“Mr. Loquacious”

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and “The Batman”

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On the final day of VBS, “The Puzzler” received Jesus Christ as his Savior, and he was baptized at the end of morning service that Sunday.

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On our very last Sunday at Sparlingville Baptist Church, our church family gave an afterglow with ice cream and cake in our honor. Before that, at the close of service, Pastor Milton called the boys and me up onto the platform, and thanked us for our years at Sparlingville, after which he gave me this beautiful plaque from the church . . .

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. . .which now is displayed in our home here in Albuquerque.

The following day, Monday, August 1, 2012, was moving day. The moving truck arrived, and the men loaded it up!

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Soon after that, the boys and I loaded up the minivan with what we were taking on the road, and off we went, on the biggest adventure we’d ever had, a 1700 mile trip across the country, with stops along the way to see family and friends, ending with our arrival in Albuquerque! I will be continuing the story of our trip, and our transition into life in New Mexico, in future posts, so keep watching! 🙂

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June 30, 2013 · 10:14 am

Moving Beyond the Page . . . a TOS Review

During the past few weeks, my boys and I have had the pleasure of reviewing a “new to us” curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page.

Each reviewer from the Schoolhouse Review Crew was given two different unit studies, a language arts unit and either a social studies or science unit. One was a physical copy, and the other was an online unit study, with the necessary books being mailed to us.

My family received Unit 3, “American Heroes” (Language Arts), and “People Change the World” (Social Studies). These are both geared for ages 7 – 9, and are designed to work together, although any of the units sold by Moving Beyond the Page can also be stand alone products. In our case, the language arts unit was the one we received as an online unit, and the social studies unit was the physical copy mailed to us. This way, we would get a good look at how each works, and be able to tell you what we thought of each method.

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Here is a picture of what we received, for use with both units.

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As you can see, we received the printed copy of the social studies curriculum “People Change the World“, and the accompanying story books “The Starry Messenger” by Peter Sis and “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney. The Social Studies unit we received sells for $32.97 if you want the physical copy mailed to you, and $28.91 if you wish to purchase the online version. We also received a physical copy of the book “50 American Heroes” by Dennis Denenberg and Lorraine Roscoe. As I said before, we received the online version of the language arts unit, which sells for $ 27.88, while the physical copy sells for $$31.94.

The only big differences between the online version and the physical copy were that with the online version, the curriculum and worksheets are online, so I read the lessons on my tablet and then printed out whatever activity sheets were necessary for each lesson, whereas with the physical copy, all of that was in the printed curriculum book. Because of copyright issues, you cannot make copies of the activity sheets from the book, which is the one downside to the printed version. However, the one downside to the online version is that you have access for only three months. Now, each unit is designed to be finished within about three weeks, so of course, that does give you plenty of time to complete your unit, but personally, my whole goal in purchasing online, downloadable material, is so that it can be used again with younger siblings. With access being given only for a few months, it feels more as if it’s a rental than a purchase. At the same time, because the download version is licensed to a family, you may print out activity pages for each child doing the unit, while the printed version doesn’t permit that.

In our case, we do a LOT of things as a group, because I have special needs children. Between that, and the fact that I am STILL recovering from surgery, and mostly stuck on the couch with my feet on pillows, we did this as a group, and mostly orally, which is one way I tweak a lot of curriculum to fit the abilities of my children. When there was an activity page that could be printed out that they were able to handle, that’s what we did.

Each day, my boys would gather around in the family room and listen while I read to them from the lessons. I read the story books out loud to them as well. Although most of the actual activities were too much for them, we WERE able to go through them orally, as a group, which led to lots of good discussions, and questions. In fact, pretty much every day when their dad got home from work, all of the boys went on their own and told him all about what they had learned, and talked about that day while doing these units. 🙂

Here are all of my boys working on an assignment . . .

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In this assignment, they were matching contractions to the words they were made from, and then writing sentences that went with what they had learned that day, with each sentence containing one contraction from the list on their activity page. Off to the side, you can see a stack of drawings. They had each drawn three pictures of inventions or discoveries they felt had changed the world, an assignment from that day’s social studies lesson. Not surprisingly, each and every one of them chose television as one of the inventions! 🙂

From the website:

“All children can benefit from our unique approach to education. This is especially true for hands-on, creative, and gifted learners. A traditional or classical approach will often leave these children bored and uninspired.”

Now, my children are not considered “gifted” children, but even so, they did get quite a lot out of both of these units. I was actually very surprised, frankly, because I wasn’t sure at all that even with major tweaking (which I often need to do with purchased curriculum), that they would be able to handle it. But, I am very pleased to tell you that even with a curriculum that states right up front that it is at least in part geared to “gifted” students, if you take the time to do it in a different way, your special needs children can learn from this, too. My children learned more in-depth about several people (Harriet Tubman, Galileo, etc) than they might have otherwise, BECAUSE we did these units orally, and because I was stuck on the couch and couldn’t do much of anything else, we had the time to devote to their questions, and their discussions. My children were interested and eager each day to get to these units, which makes me happy, because as most of you already know, I am a firm believer that there is no reason at all that learning cannot, or should not, be enjoyable, if that is at all possible. My boys enjoyed this, so I enjoyed it, too.

To read what my fellow crew mates thought of this and other units from Moving Beyond the Page, please click the graphic below!

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June 23, 2013 · 10:27 am

Baker Publishing Group, a Review of The Adventures of Lily Lapp, for the Schoolhouse Review Crew

At least in part because I’m currently recovering from surgery on both of my feet, and (mostly) stuck on the couch with my feet elevated, I was very glad to be chosen for this review. Also, to be honest, I have always enjoyed reading Amish fiction, and this is the first time for me to be reading Amish fiction centered around a child.

Baker Publishing Group has thus far published two of the expected four books in a series called The Adventures of Lily Lapp, and we received both of them to read and review! Book one is titled “Life with Lily“,

and book two is titled “A New Home for Lily“.

These books are geared toward children aged 8 – 12, and you might think they are written for girls, but don’t let either of those things stop you! As most of you know, I have no girls, I have four boys. Every one of my boys came drifting out to the living room, as I lay on the couch, feet propped on pillows, to hear me read these charming stories out loud,

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and every one of my boys sat on the floor while I was reading, and did the coloring pages and word searches that go with each book, and can be downloaded from here.

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Here are some of the finished pages . . .

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The books in this series are a combination of the real life childhood memories of Mary Ann Kinsinger, who was raised Old Order Amish but chose to leave as an adult with her husband, and the best selling writing of Suzanne Woods Fisher. Mary Ann Kinsinger now writes the popular blog A Joyful Chaos, while Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of several Amish novels which include the Lancaster County Secrets series and The Keeper, is the host of the internet radio show Amish Wisdom.

We have very much enjoyed reading both of these books! It was so funny, one of my boys, “Mr. Loquacious” was constantly saying “uh oh”, at different times in the book, because he KNEW that whatever Lily, or one of her younger brothers, was about to get up to was going to get them into trouble. 🙂

My boys were consistent throughout the book in pointing out things like “you say that all the time, mom”, when one of Lily’s parents would give them a bit of a talking to about something. While the Amish don’t necessarily believe EXACTLY the same in all ways as we do regarding matters of faith, there were many areas where my kids spotted right away that it was the same, such as their belief that it wasn’t God honoring to celebrate Halloween, for example.

In “Life with Lily” (you can read an excerpt here), we meet five-year old Lily, who lives in upstate New York and who is learning to deal with lots of new things. She gets a new baby brother (although she really would like to have a sister!), she begins going to school for the first time, she has to learn to deal with having a girl at school who is pretty mean to her, and to others. She also loses her much-loved teacher, after she (the teacher) is badly injured in an accident, and then she and the other students must deal with a new, mean teacher. Because of the way the new teacher treats the students, she is not asked back, and the students end up home-schooling the following year while waiting to find a new teacher for their school. Lily also turns six during this time.

My boys were surprised to find out in the story that Amish children generally go to school only through the eight grade. A lot of other things surprised them, like having no electricity, no cars, etc. They kept saying it was “the olden days”, and having to be reminded that it really wasn’t, that the Amish live this way now.

Toward the end of book one, “Life with Lily“, Lily has yet another difficult thing to deal with, her family decides to move to another Amish community in Pennsylvania. Now Lily has to watch many of their belongings be auctioned off before the big move, which struck a chord with me, and with my boys, remembering less than a year ago when my husband’s job caused us to have to move 1700 miles from everything and everyone we’d ever known. My boys pointed out that it was like when I was sorting through deciding what to put into our moving sale, how hard that was.

In book two, “A New Home for Lily” (an excerpt is available here), we see the family move into their new home, a place Lily really, really dislikes. She doesn’t like the color of the house, or the kitchen counter. She learns that different Amish communities have different rules about dress (Lily’s mother must make all new clothes for them, and new head coverings for both herself and Lily), about technology (here, they are not allowed to have the refrigerator (which is not electric) kept in the kitchen, so they must put theirs on the porch. And Lily discovers that no matter where you go, there will still be disagreeable people to deal with, when she meets yet another mean girl in school.

This book carries us all the way through when Lily is promoted to the fourth grade. In this school, she once again has a teacher she can love, and makes new friends. She and her brothers do continue to get into mischief, though, and she also gains yet another baby brother.

I very much enjoy the writing in these books, it is so descriptive! A favorite sentence is toward the end of the second book, “A New Home for Lily” . . .

“The sun went down and darkness crept over the land like a big velvety blanket that was coming to tuck everything in for the night”

These stories are just full of descriptive writing like that!

There are two additional books planned for this series, “A Big Year for Lily” (read an excerpt here), due to be released in July, 2013, and in September 2013, book four, “A Surprise for Lily“, for which there is no excerpt available as yet.

I have already had to promise my kids that we’ll order the next two books, so that they can find out what else happens to Lily, and her brothers Joseph, Dannie and Paul! 🙂

The books are available for purchase at the cost of $12.99, which is a very fair price. These are not little, thin picture books. “Life with Lily” has 280 pages, and 39 short, easy to read chapters. “A New Home for Lily” is 266 pages, with 36 chapters. In both books, each chapter can stand alone as a self-contained story from Mary Ann Kinsinger’s childhood.

To read more reviews of The Adventures of Lily Lapp, please click below!

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June 20, 2013 · 3:36 pm

Relaxed Homeschooling . . .

So today was a good example of one of those “relaxed homeschooling” days . . . as you know, I am currently recovering from surgery on both of my feet, five toes total, three on the right foot, 2 on the left, and am coming to truly realize just how much your toes are involved in supporting the weight of your body. Yes, they still hurt.

Lately, we’ve been working on a unit study from Moving Beyond the Page which I am reviewing. this is actually fitting into our “relaxed” homeschooling we’ve been doing, especially during my recovery, because as is usual with many professional curriculum, I am adapting to fit my special needs kids. So, we do a bit of this each day, and the kids are enjoying it, so far.

This morning, after breakfast, the boys watched a couple of educational shows on pbs (Super Why and Dinosaur Train), then we did a read aloud from another book I’m reviewing for the review crew (review will be posted within the next few days!). Then, they got to watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (which I didn’t at first realize was a spin off of Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood), and then Sid The Science Kid.

After Sid, we had a simple lunch, followed by watching four more episodes of “Watch Mr. Wizard”, a DVD I am reviewing. I asked for that one because of my childhood memories of a Mr. Wizard science book from the library, in which there was an experiment using charcoal, bluing, food coloring and I don’t recall what else, to make a crystal garden in a goldfish bowl. 🙂 And now, my kids are being introduced to Mr. Wizard, which is fun for me. They are really enjoying it, too, so tomorrow we’ll finish watching the second DVD I received.

We then did more of the read aloud from the morning, while the boys colored pictures and did a word search based upon the book.

They are now watching Word Girl, and after I post this, I intend to get a couple of things downloaded, and then go get these poor sore feet back up on their pillows for a little while!

So, that’s what a “relaxed Homeschooling” day looks like around here . . . how about at YOUR house? 🙂

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June 4, 2013 · 9:14 pm

Annual Church Homeschool group Picnic . . .

I rested with my feet up all day so I could go with the family for the annual home school group picnic. Was lots of fun, good food, and the kids got in a lot of play time, but my poor feet are definitely done in for the night. We are home now, and my feet are properly elevated, but they still hurt some, so I think they will be resting up a lot tomorrow, too. They were sort of elevated at the park, but now I am on the couch with two pillows under my feet.They do hurt quite a bit, but I’m still glad we got to go. 🙂

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May 28, 2013 · 4:26 pm

Simplified Pantry . . . a TOS Review for the Mamas! :-)

I was so excited to be chosen as one of the reviewers for Simplified Pantry written by Mystie Winkler!

As a reviewer, I was given access to three different products, and asked to choose one to use during the review period so I could tell my readers about it. I chose Mystie Winkler’s e-book Simplified Dinners, because I am ALWAYS looking for some way to simplify this part of my life, while at the same time, making sure my family is well fed with meals they actually enjoy. Well, Simplified Dinners is a definite winner with us!

This is a 30 page e-book, which I chose to print out and put into a three-ring binder. This is not a “cook-book” like I was used to, rather it is more of a how-to book. In her e-book, Mystie has given us first an explanation as to how and why she came up with this system, an explanation which really struck a chord with me. She was really tired of thumbing through and bookmarking cookbooks, recipe cards, etc, and having to keep track of ingredients needed. This system helped Mystie to pare down her pantry, purge her recipes, and even made it easier to let her children help in the kitchen. That last one turned out to be important for me, as during the review period I had surgery, and am currently unable to stand at the stove and cook, so my husband has had to take over a lot of what I normally do, with at least one of our children (“The Artist”) helping some. More on that later!

Mystie then gives us a master pantry list, which I went over when deciding which meal ideas to use during this review. I wanted to see just how much I could do without actually needing to go out and buy a ton of special stuff. I was surprised to discover how many things I was already set to make, with only minimal purchases! The reason for this is (from the Simplified Dinners website) “Simplified Pantry is all about encouraging homestyle cooking with basic ingredients. It is possible to cook good, healthy food without a pantry full of specialized ingredients, and it is possible to make easy dinners without shortcut, pre-prepared products. Simplified Dinners (and the gluten- and dairy-free edition!), enables anyone to transition toward home-prepared, real, whole foods cooking—even those less confident in the kitchen. Simplified Dinners helps keep dinner streamlined while allowing flexibility.”

Mystie also points out on her website how essential menu planning is in helping to promote peace in our home and our mind. However, we rarely think much about all the steps that are involved in menu planning. Also from the website:

“But do you realize how many steps are actually involved in menu planning? Typical menu planning involves multiple dependent steps:

1.Find out what’s on sale or what coupons you have.
2.Find recipes you can cook and want to eat.
3.Figure out what ingredients you need to cook those recipes.
4.Try to mesh the ingredients you need with what’s on sale.
5.Make the grocery list.
6.Shop.
7.Remember what you’re going to make for dinner when, and pull it off.
8.Use the perishables before they go bad.

No wonder we often dread it, forget to do it, or procrastinate.”

That was me, before this review, to be honest.

The e-book Simplified Dinners is SO easy to implement . . . if *I* could do it, anyone can do it, believe me! I make no claims whatsoever to being a “domestic diva”, lol!

Mystie has broken it down into categories:

•Slow-Cooker Roasts
•Slow-Cooker, No-Defrost Chicken Pieces
•Chicken-in-a-Pot
•Skillet Cutlets with Pan Sauces
•Marinades for Grilling or Broiling
•Foil-Packet Fish
•Stovetop Pasta
•Bean Pots
•Fajitas
•Quesadillas
•Taco Bar
•Burritos or Enchiladas
•Taquitos
•Frittata
•Oven Omelette
•Pizza
•Simple Stir-fry
•Potato Hash
•Baked Potato Bar
•Bean Soups
•Stews
•Blended Vegetable Soups
•Quick Soups
•Main Dish Salads
•Vegetable Side Dishes
•Side-Dish Salads
•Starchy Side Dishes

What Mystie has done, rather than create yet another recipe book, is to give a basic method for each of the above mentioned categories, along with anywhere from three to six or more alternative ways to make the same basic dish into something different. For example, Chicken-in-a-Pot gives the basic method for cooking a whole chicken, but then gives us three other ways to do it, called “Sassy”, “A More Interesting Basic”, and “40 Cloves of Garlic”. Each alternative idea switches up some ingredients, while using the basic method.

At the end of the e-book, Mystie even gives us a sample winter menu plan and a blank menu planner.

If you’d like to get a better look at what you’ll be getting, you can download a sample here, but really, I’m telling you that at the price of $12.99, Simplified Dinners is well worth the purchase!

Here are some of the dinners we had during the review period:

Peanut Butter Chicken (in the slow cooker) . . .

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and on the plate!

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Here, we have the Oven Omelette, which was a huge hit at my house!

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Orange Honey Chicken . . .

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Chicken-in-a-Pot (sassy version) . . .

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Now then, as I said above, I am now recovering from surgery on both of my feet, and unable to do a lot of what I usually do. My husband was able to take this method, with ingredients I had made sure to have on hand, and with “The Artist” as his assistant, he made the Flexible Frittata for our supper one night!

Here are the ingredients . . .

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The process . . .

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And the finished product!

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I think they did a great job, don’t you? Just so you know, that was my plate, and I only eat small servings since my bariatric surgery. There was enough for a family of six, with the other five being pretty big eaters, and nobody went hungry! 🙂

Mystie also offers a Simple Gluten Free & Dairy Free Meals edition of her e-book, also at the reasonable price of $12.99. I know a lot of people who need to find ways to feed their family without using gluten or dairy . . . this one is for you!

The third product reviewed by members of the crew was Paperless Home Organization, which is available for only $3.99!

I do intend to give this one a try when I’m feeling more recovered from my surgery, but I am more of a hard-copy schedule and list maker type, to be truthful. I know a lot of people who are really more likely to go paperless if given an easy way to do so, though, so here is the product if that description fits you!

The prices for Mystie’s e-books are very good as they are, but right now, she is offering a discount to my readers of 30% off any or all of the e-books! Just use the code TOS2013, and you will receive this discount. You do need to hurry though, because this code will only work until June 3, 2013!

Click below to find out what my fellow crewmembers thought of Simplified Dinners, Simple Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Meals, and Paperless Home Organization!

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May 28, 2013 · 9:13 am

Catching Up . . .

It’ll be two weeks tomorrow since I had surgery on my feet, but it seems like it’s been forever that I’ve had to be sitting or lying down with them elevated above my heart. You’d think it would be enjoyable to be forced to just lie around not doing much, but for me, as a wife and mother, it’s getting somewhat old, and I am feeling guilty that my husband is having to fit in as much of my work as he can around his own work schedule. Our kids are doing their best to pick up some of it, but there are still things they aren’t able to do correctly (wash clothes, cook) because of their different disabilities. They ARE able to do everything laundry after it’s been sorted and begun washing, for example, one of them moves the wet clothes to the dryer, another brings they dry clothes to the living room, and a third one folds, but none of them can get a load begun washing yet. My stepson is getting fairly good at helping to cook, and did, one day last week, manage to heat up the dinner someone from church had brought over, but he’s not ready to go start to finish just yet. 🙂

My next post-op appointment with the surgeon is on June 3, but I know I have to go at least 4 weeks from surgery before I can get the pins out of my toes. I’m hoping the second two weeks go faster than the first two have gone!

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May 7, 2013 · 2:01 pm

Papa’s Pearls . . . a TOS Review

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I recently had the opportunity to review a book called Papa’s Pearls: A Father’s Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren written by Diane Flynn Keith, for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

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I thought, when I first expressed interest in this review, that the author’s name sounded very familiar. Well, it WAS familiar, and if you are a home-school parent, her name may well be familiar to you as well . . .

Diane Flynn Keith is pretty well-known in home-school circles. She is the author of the popular book “Carschooling: Over 350 Entertaining Games & Activities To Turn Travel Time Into Learning Time” (the main reason she was familiar to me, as I have long wanted to buy this particular book!), is the co-author of “Learning With Little Lulu Lemon” and “Home Preschool Curriculum”. She has also contributed to four books on the topic of homeschooling: “The Homeschooling Almanac”, “The California Homeschool Guide”, “The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas”, and “Homeschooling Styles”. Mrs. Keith publishes three different e-newsletters: ” Clickschooling”, “Carschooling”, and “Universal Preschool”, and coaches thousands of home-school parents via her writing, private consultations, speaking engagements, and websites, including:
PapasPearls.com
Homefires.com
Carschooling.com
ClickSchooling.com
UniversalPreschool.com

Papa’s Pearls is a fairly short read, at just 109 pages, but it is just jam-packed with “pearls of wisdom” from Mrs. Keith’s father, Carol Joseph Flynn, whose mother named him after King Carol 1 of Romania. Carol Joseph Flynn was simply called “Papa” by his children and grandchildren, and he left them a legacy of guiding principles, which they continue to use in their own lives even today.

Papa came up from a tough life during the depression era, and having a “girl’s name” made him the target of bullies from early on. He learned to “give as good as he got”, and gained respect as a result. Papa sold papers as a young boy, and by doing so was able to help his family. Often, the papers he sold for half a penny each, were what enabled his own father to have lunch money for the next day.

Papa misbehaved in school quite often, and as a result, spent much time visiting the principal’s office. He also, during his teen years, got involved with criminal elements of the day, and not just hanging around with the delinquents of the day, but according to his daughter (Diane Flynn Keith), was likely involved in real crime, as well. Finally, after a particularly bad incident in high school, the principle asked him which would be the worst possible punishment for him, to be suspended for two weeks, or to be sent to “Continuation School”, which was an alternative school for delinquents and “really bad boys”. Because he felt it would bring shame and humiliation onto himself and his family to go to Continuation School, he told the principal that this would be the worst thing possible. The principal did, indeed, choose to transfer papa to the alternative school as his punishment. Rather than be the worst thing that ever happened to him, however, this actually ended up being the thing that turned Papa’s life around for good. Mrs. Flynn says in her book Papa’s Pearls that it is perhaps because of this punishment that one of Papa’s pearls came to be . . . “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

This book reads like a story, with many of Papa’s pearls woven into it. Pearls such as:

Everyone deserves a second chance.

You gotta use your street smarts.

When you fall down–Get back up, brush yourself off, and try again!

Tell yourself you like it.

Take a hike–Just walk away from it!

Where’s the money?

Get it in writing!

Life is too short. Relax. Take a little time off.

. . . and many more!

Mrs. Keith writes in an engaging way, and her book caught me immediately. I wanted to find out what would happen next, even as I would need to put the book down to go do some task that needed to be done.

This story takes us from the time Papa was born, on January 19th, 1922, right up to the time he died, at age 89, on his 66th wedding anniversary. In between those dates, he was a wealth of wisdom and love to his children and grandchildren. He made certain that they always knew he was there for them no matter what, and he taught them many life lessons along the way. Papa went from a poor depression era kid with a penchant for trouble, to becoming a successful business owner. He gave support to his children and grandchildren all along the way. When Mrs. Flynn decided she was going to homeschool her children, and was threatened with legal repercussions (this was at a time when homeschooling was not as accepted as it is now) , Papa was right behind her, and used his contacts to help her with the authorities.

I read this book myself, because I prefer to preview some things before letting my kids have them, or using them as read alouds. Although I might eventually have my kids read it themselves, there are some expletives in it, along with some topics that I don’t really want to my kids to be exposed to as of yet.

I found this to be an excellent book for parents to read, it has a great deal in it to help us all along this parenting journey.

You can purchase an autographed copy of Papa’s Pearls: A Father’s Gift of Love and Wisdom to His Children and Grandchildren here for $21.97, which includes shipping and handling. I definitely recommend purchasing this book and reading it yourself!

To read what other crew members thought of Papa’s Pearls, please click below . . .

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