The Power of the Other Book

Fridays will now be the home of Frugal Fridays!

I will quickly admit that there are some who make frugality in to a profession. I'm not one of those.

There are some who use every waking minute and effort in to pinching pennies. I'm not one of those.

There are some who will sign up for just about anything if you can get something for free. I'm not one of those. * Remember, I'm decluttering my house! *

But, what I can offer is how we save money with little time and relatively little effort.

Like this example from this week ....

Using our Entertainment book, I had a coupon for $15 off my new tennis shoes. The same tennis shoes that I would have walked in to the store and bought anyway. Add in that the employee in that department gave me a $10 coupon and I asked at the register if I could use both ... and I ended up saving $25 on my new shoes. Now, with almost no extra time or effort, I just made my family $25. NICE!

So my tip for this week is ... The Fabulous ... The Wonderful ... Entertainment Book!

If you don't have one, you should get one! It will pay for itself after using one or two coupons, and we use far more than that! We use their coupons on everything from restaurants, jumpin' places for the kids, museums, sporting goods stores (see above), hotels, etc. They are available for a number of different cities and areas around the country.

Right now, they are running a special: Get your book for just $17 with SH&P (Normally, they are $30 but because the  book runs from November 1, 2011, to Oct 31, 2012, they are discounted right now).

They even suggest buying the book if you vacation in a given area because of the great entertainment coupons. Think places like Myrtle Beach, Orlando, etc.

Click HERE to try it out!

Homeschooling: The Why's

When we started homeschooling, I kept reading everywhere that you should know "why" you homeschool. At that point in time, it wasn't as important. The longer we have homeschooled, the more important I have learned it is to know your why.

Why do we homeschool?
We want our children to learn and know the world through the eyes of faith. At this point in time, we feel that the best way for us to do that is through homeschooling. In our homeschool, we value faith and knowledge of God and His ways, appreciation for the created world, and knowledge and skills used in His service.

Will we always homeschool?
I don't know. We have talked about putting our kids in school if we lived in other places, but for now, we feel the best choice is to have our kids home. As they get older and our family changes, we will continue to evaluate if this is the best choice for our family.

What is wrong with public school?
I will readily admit that there are some great public schools and teachers in them. Both hubby and I went to public schools and loved them. In our area, at this time, we have some concerns about what our children would be learning. 

Why is it important to know your "why"?
There are a lot of great days, but there will also be days when you wonder "Why am I doing this?". That's when you have to know, from your heart, why you are doing it. That statement, also, provides some anchor when you sense a need in your child or you are evaluating your curriculum and your daily schedule. It proves to be invaluable.

Some great homeschooling websites for you this week:
Confessions of a Homeschooler Blog : Great Blog with all kinds of resources, including a preschool manipulatives curriculum

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine  Another great resource in the magazine and their email newsletters with tips on all kinds of homeschool topics

North Carolina Home Educators If you're here in NC, start with the NCHE website for guidelines on homeschooling in our state and for info on their annual conference in May


Next week ... 

"Let's talk Curriculum" or
"How do you know what to teach?"

What has worked for you?

A dear friend who just had their third baby asked me  recently. She was inquiring about how I was managing to study Scripture.

Having a newborn, no matter how many other children you have, disrupts your sleep, your schedule, your life. This also, though, provides you the opportunity to try new things and get out of that 'ole rut.

But there are other times of sick children, sick spouses, family needs, traveling, dry seasons spiritually, etc.

For those of you going through a demanding season (for whatever reason), here are some easy ideas that have worked for me: 

** Listening to Bible heavy sermons/conferences/podcasts on my Ipod while nursing or in the car or while unloading laundry/dishes ... Some of my favorites are John Piper, Francis Chan, Nancy Leigh Demoss, Focus on the Family, Family Life, etc.

** Memorizing Scripture with the kids over snacks/meals (for us this is also part of school).

** Reading through the Bible in a year - It's more to have a plan and chunks already determined - but just reading what I can when I can from the plan.

** Reading the Bible out loud when at the table with the kids. Whenever, however it happens.

** Letting hubby lead Bible reading time at night with the kids and I'll listen in.

** Listening to worship music that includes Scripture or at the least hymns which have sound theology in them (i.e. Indelible Grace)

Here are some helpful links:

Bible Gateway Bible Reading Plans

Pray magazine's website has tons of resources

One Place has lots of podcasts and audio shows to listen to

Project Simplify Challenge #1: Master Closet

Well folks, I have to say that both hubby and I are both very pleased with the result of some work during the week and quite a bit of time today.

We decided to introduce a new way of organizing our clothes. Previously, we had stored clothes based on season. Since we both have gained baby weight, we realized that we have multiple kinds of clothes and multiple sizes. We decided to go ahead and group our clothes by size and not by season. So, I have a box of "Medium - size 8-10ish" clothes, "Large 12-16ish clothes" and then what is hanging in the closet right now is "XL size 18+". I have a separate box for maternity. I'm only allowing myself one extra bed box of each size. This will make it so much easier as I drop the pounds to pull out what fits and only keep in my closet those items.

So, *drum roll* here are the BEFORE pics for you ....

AFTER ....

room enough for the kids to play

Room enough for the dresser, too!

If you're interested in joining in this week on the next challenge,
click HERE for the Simple Mom website. The new challenge will be
introduced on Monday for another area of your house!

One Thousand Gifts - Sat, Mar 12th, 2011

#51: Sun  and warm weather in the forecast for the next 7 days
#52: A healthy premature nephew born to a friend
#53: A healthy sister and new Mom (goes with #52)
#54: A little notebook where my little girl shares her heart with me
#55: Masking tape
#56: Coupons for free Krispy Kreme
#57: Hopes and dreams for the future
#58: A blog reader from Pakistan (REALLY? You're kidding me!)
#59: A cleaner closet
#60: A growing, healthy baby

Lent Resource from John Piper

If you are looking for an activity to do as a family, check out this resource by John Piper for the Sundays in Lent called Lenten Lights devotionals .

If you're interested, here also is a peek into the Piper's house to see how they prepare for Easter with a post entitled Preparing for Holy Week.

Homeschooling: Our Story

In starting to share with you about homeschooling, I have to start by telling you our story.

Emily and Logan with cousins Shanna and Lauren (2009)

Even before we had children, Bert and I felt pretty certain that we would homeschool. Bert was very close with his cousin's family, who had 5 children (at the time). They were the most wonderful, mannered, polite, intelligent little people we had ever met. We only hoped that our children might turn out like them. We thought that homeschooling was a big part of it.

(Note: These kids are still homeschooled and are still turning out to be pretty wonderful young adults, I have to say. Kudos to Mark and Rachael for their great parenting and the grace of God!)

Emily working on spelling(2010)

We started Emily a year early in preschool, honestly, because we didn't have anything else to do. She was eager to learn, I was eager to figure out what this homeschooling thing was. Then, we followed with a year of kindergarten, then first grade. This year, we are doing first grade again because we changed curriculum, and I wanted to move Emily back to where her peers are in grade. We also added a new preschool student, Logan, to our school. Oh yeah. And we had a baby!

Here  are some of the questions to answer in coming weeks:
Why do you homeschool?
What is wrong with public school?
What curriculum do you use/have you used?
How do you organize yourself?
What does your typical day look like?
What about personalities?
What do you wish you would have known?
Has it been hard?

If you have other questions, I would love to answer them!! Just comment or email me!