1000 Gifts and a Free Box to Boot

(This is a long one, but hopefully worth the read)

This is what I read today in my devotions... it's from the Message Bible.

^{Matthew 6:22-23}"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!"

I read a book recently and it goes so well with this passage. This book has really changed my life. The title of the book is, "1000 Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are." I didn't know it existed until my friend Jenny posted on her Facebook page that she had ordered it and couldn't wait till it arrived. I have been friends with Jenny since we were in youth group together. I love her style and I really enjoy reading her blog and soaking in the beauty of all the pictures she posts.

On a whim I ordered the digital version of the book for my Kindle. I figured I already liked most of the stuff she talked about and I would probably like this book as well. I was right. As I read the book I cried happy tears and sad tears. I couldn't believe I had finally found in Ann Voskamp a woman whom I could really connect with.

For instance, it's fine for an author who drops her kids off at school for 6 to 8 hours a day to exhort others like her to be more involved in volunteering. I have my children with me 24/7 and can't volunteer unless they are allowed to come with me. Many Christian books heap loads of guilt on homeschool moms for not acting like stay-at-home moms of traditionally schooled kids.

So anyway (sorry about all the rabbit trails, but that's just how my mind works)... I read the book and it was AMAZING!!! Unfortunately as soon as I tried to implement what she suggested my flesh got in the way.

I am a perfectionist, and instead of just writing down the things I'm thankful for, I wanted everything to be in a centralized location, numbered, formatted, etc. I had to have a special book to write things in, and when I didn't feel like going and finding that journal I didn't write things down.

I loved the book so much that I gave away copies to a few of my best friends, my mom, and one of my sister-in-laws. As I discussed the book with each of these ladies, I brought up ways to implement the recording of our 1000 gifts.

My mom suggested that I keep a box handy to put papers in so they will at least all end up in one place, but not necessarily all in one journal. I thought this was a great idea, but as soon as I read her suggestion my impulse was to find the perfect home-decor-worthy box. I also wanted every paper that went in the box to be the same size, weight, and color. Seriously... it's awful... I know.

Well, here is my solution, and I'm so glad my friends gave their suggestions, because I love the result.

Of course, the flowers aren't part of the box... they're just one of the things I'm thankful for. My hubby bought them for me last week when I wasn't feeling well.

Here's a close up of the lid, and a little place on the side that I made for holding pencils. This way they're always handy when I need them.

The other great thing

about the box is that I'm getting my family involved. This was at my friend Jill's suggestion. Of course, she didn't intend it as a suggestion. Rather she was commenting on how she's making her list and mentioned a big silver trophy that they've used in the past to put notes on. They're planning to start writing down their "thanks" and put them in the trophy.

Then, my friend Jodie surprised me with a gift. This little box of papers. She knows me so well that she didn't even tell me what the papers were for. She just handed them to me and I knew.

The box is just a shoe box, covered in some Victorian wrapping paper I already had on hand. even the rectangle on the lid is made from an old file folder and some card stock I had on hand. I didn't pay one penny extra for anything I used.

I told my family about the box last night and they're already putting papers in. One more thing to be thankful for: Cheerful Participation. I had everyone write their name on whatever they put in, so we know who wrote each one.

I hope the box is filled up soon. when it is, we will read through some of the things we've written down to remind us of the goodness of God.

Homeschool Appreciation Day

(Disclaimer: images of blood are shown)

So my state governor (Mr. Rick Scott) has declared today (Wednesday, March 23rd) Homeschool Appreciation Day.

Unfortunately I only heard about this last night, thanks to an email from my wonderful pastor's wife.

So I was going to do something impromptu to celebrate. I wanted to take the kids to the park today and maybe go out to lunch with them. I wanted to give them the day off of school (even though we haven't done much school since we got back from our vacation last week). I even wanted to give them a break on some chores.

Well, it didn't work out very well. Last night Deborah had a bloody nose and decided that she should lean over the side of her bed and let it drip on the carpet. Did I mention the carpet is white? I told her last night that if her nose starts bleeding again, I would rather she let it drip on a pillow or blanket or something that I can throw in the wash. I thought she understood me at the time.

Well, Hubby and I had an emergency budget meeting, and decided to pay for carpet cleaning, since I haven't gotten them cleaned since the last time we got vomit on the carpet (only a tiny bit, and it was cleaned up pretty well, but it's still faintly there). Oh, and because my daughter's artistic talent got a little ahead of her common sense, and I found this a couple weeks ago:

Then her nosebleed started up again this morning. The kids were doing pretty well, getting their basic chores done (essentially just putting things away), and I thought we were on track to do all the fun stuff.

I called the carpet cleaner, Heaven's Best run by Chad Cohen. He did my dining room chairs a few months ago, and I really liked the fact that he was honest, and didn't have a bunch of hidden charges. The last company I used to clean the carpets had an advertised price, but when they showed up they told me I had to add a room to get the discount and it ended up being over $100.

Well, this morning's nosebleed threw everything off. It took over an hour for her to get it stopped, and when I went in the room I found this:

Blood spots in a much larger area. (oh, and the toothpaste... I forgot about that... my 2 year old did that right about the time I found the star.)

So anyway, I had to clear their room as much as possible so Chad could reach all the necessary spots. This meant all the bins under the beds had to be moved out. Where could we move these things? Well, the hallway is a great spot.

Oh wait, the hallway is still lined with all the stuff we moved out of the playroom to make it into a school room: closet doors, empty plastic bins, etc. So we had to move all that stuff too. The kids got everything moved to the garage (grrr... I just cleaned out the garage).

By this time, I realized there was no way we were going to a park because I didn't want Deborah being too active and causing her nose to bleed again. We certainly weren't going out to eat, because it was already lunch time, and I had to make sure I'm home for when Chad gets here.

So I ordered pizza instead and finally told the kids that today is Homeschool Appreciation Day. My 13 year old son rolled his eyes and said, "So what's that supposed to mean?" I explained that it's like Mothers Day or St Patricks Day... it's just a fun day to celebrate homeschooling. I told them that I ordered pizza since we can't really do anything else amazing.

I'm disappointed, but glad that we accomplished something.

Now on to laundry... post vacation laundry is bad enough... post camping laundry is ridiculous. But that's another entry.

Why yes... that is what it looks like

Chocolate peanut butter: Why? Because I can.

One of my homeschool buddies recently hosted a blender party. Ok, it was technically a vitamix party, but since I have a Blendtec, I was asked to come along and bring my particular brand of blender to add to the fun.

We had a lot of fun. It was just the three of us, and I'm sure we probably collectively wasted about a pound of food... eggs during failed Mayonnaise attempts and a successful scrambled egg attempt, tomato soup with a bit too much onion and mock devonshire cream in a container that got too hot. Overall, it was a lot of fun, though, and I'd do it again in a heart beat.

The best thing that happened was that I was pushed to experiment a bit more with my blender. Since then I've made Crepe batter, a Chai Frappuchino that's better than $bucks makes, and my latest experiment: Chocolate peanut butter.

My friend made peanut butter in her blender (I feel awkward not calling it a Vitamix), and it was so yummy that we all started speculating on whether or not it was financially viable to start making it instead of buying it ready made.

Well I was at Costco yesterday and I did some comparison shopping. A 52 oz can of roasted

peanuts is $5.59. Two 28 oz jars of Costco brand organic, all natural peanut butter costs 8.69. I wanted to compare the cost of the organic, all natural stuff because that's essentially what I'd be making. I'm sure the stuff with sugar and fillers added would cost less than the peanuts (probably should have checked that price just to be sure), but for now I'm not too worried about it.

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone. One of my favorite spreads is Nutella. Nutella is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. So I thought, if I can make peanut butter in my Blendtec, why not try making Nutella. The only problem is, I bought peanuts... not hazelnuts. So I decided to try

one of the recipes I found, substituting peanuts... and let me tell you.... it's soooooo good.

So here's the deal. If the Italians have been giving their kids chocolate hazelnut spread for breakfast for years, then why can't Americans. Of course, to make it truly American, it would have to have peanuts as the main ingredient.

Here's my recipe. Borrowed from a couple of other blogs, and tweaked a little.

Chocolate Peanut Butter

1 cup Roasted, Salted Peanuts

1 T peanut oil

4 ounces chocolate chips, melted

2 tablespoon cocoa

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream (maybe more)

Follow Blendtec directions for making peanut butter. Add remaining ingredients and repeat the cycle for making peanut butter (press speed up to level 5, allow to run for a cycle, scrape sides of container with spatula, etc).

If you aren't getting a smooth consistency, drizzle additional whipping cream into the mixture until it turns glossy and smooth.

Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container. I would say, use by ______ time, but honestly... I don't think it's going to last long enough to go bad. Enjoy.

The Change in America's Work Ethic

We have become such a lazy society. I'm including myself here. I don't like what we've become as a nation, but I don't really want to change myself either.

I had a bunch of things to donate to Salvation Army today. They took one thing out of about six items. Their reason... they only sell things as is, and the things I had wouldn't sell. 50 years ago, these things would have been taken gladly. Some guy would have set up shop in his garage and turned these items into workable usable things.

Take my refrigerator, for instance. It works. It's an older model... maybe 10 years old tops. The only thing wrong with it is the coating of mold. This is what happens when it's left sitting in my garage unplugged for a year. That's how long I've been trying to find a home for it. No one wants it, so it's going to the dump. I'm sure there are families out there that could use a nice refrigerator, but no one has claimed it.

Next item... My buffet and hutch. Solid wood, no particle board, dovetailed drawers. Beautiful piece of furniture. I'm not a carpenter and it would take a lot of elbow grease to make it look beautiful again. The top part is primed, and ready to be painted. The bottom part is a bit more difficult. It needs to be sanded down to remove the wax and paint that were layered on it. I don't have the skills to do the job but it would cost more than the piece is worth to have a professional finish it for me. Some father and son team could easily use this as a shop project. Years ago, this is what it's fate would have been, but instead it's going into a landfill. It makes me sad, but I've run out of options.

I also have a queen size mattress. It has served a long life at my house. I've had it for almost 15 years. It's still comfy, a testament to investing in quality. It has some staining and all it needs is a good cleaning. Someone somewhere could have a nice soft bed to sleep on if they would only come get it. Alas it's fate is the same as the other items... off to the landfill.

Then there's this old fireplace. It's actually a space heater that is mounted on a wall. I got it when an older friend of mine passed away. I went through the trouble of bringing it home only to realize that one of the prongs on the power cord is missing. It must have broken off during the move. I don't know enough about electrical wiring to replace the cord. It would probably take an electrician about 5 minutes and $5 to fix it, but this little piece of history is headed to the dump.

There are other things too. A filing cabinet who's only flaw is that it was covered in contact paper long ago. I would continue to use it, but I ran out of room. It was replaced by a five drawer, industrial size lateral file. There's also some plastic shelf units that would help organize someone's garage. These are now on their way to who knows where.

I guess the thing that bothers me is that both the places I called to donate these items, are supposed to be helping people find jobs. One of them is a drug and alcohol addiction recovery program. They specialize in helping people learn how to function in society. They could easily use these items to help some guy learn to become a furniture restoration specialist, or as an electrician project, or upholstery cleaner.

We hear on the news all the time about people out of work and losing their homes, and learning to live with less income. We are told over and over again to recycle, reuse, renew. However, when someone really wants to help out or do their part, there isn't an infrastructure to make this possible.

Oh well... at least I tried. Time to move on.

Pictures of My New Room

So here are pictures of my new school room. I took one from each corner of the room, so you get kind of a panoramic view. I also added several photos of details.

This was originally Richard's room. When we were planning his room he had this idea to paint the walls to look like we were under the sea. He said it would look more like you were underwater if the lower portion of the wall was painted the darker blue. I still love his idea. We also found this great mural from American Blinds and Wallpaper.

Here are three of the desks I bought. These were from various places. They line up nicely and they have been holding up very well. I am amazed at some of the craftsmanship that comes from long ago. These desks were made to last. The people who built them had the mindset that things shouldn't wear out.

One of the people I bought a desk from, also sold me two inkwells. One of them was actually used in the desks, and fits in the hole nicely. The other is just a pretty glass bottle.

We took the closet doors off. They were already flimsy and one of them kept coming off the track whenever it was opened. I'm not a closet door installer, and as much as I tried, I couldn't fix it. I'm considering taking off the door to the room. The last thing I need is Amelia locking herself in the room and making a giant mess of things.

Most of the toys are kept in this awesome storage unit. I bought it from a store that sells products to preschools. It has a lock on it, so if I don't want the kids getting out a bunch of toys I can lock it up.

I found this old cash register at a quilting store of all places. They found it somewhere and were using it as decor for a while. They sold it to me for about $20 when they were updating their decor. The kids love it.

The desk is an antique I found on Craigslist. I don't really like the looks of the computer, but as a homeschool mom, I know that living with history is one thing... running a modern school is a completely different thing.

I use the small filing cabinets to store all the necessary papers to show that we are actually doing school. I have one drawer for each child. Of course, right now I'm sharing a drawer with Amelia. She doesn't technically do school. Although she thinks she does.

From this corner you can see the giant antique desk I bought. I was using it for my china, but I was able to buy a different hutch. This really was intended to be used as an office piece and didn't have the little groove in the back of the shelves for plate display. The new china hutch has the plate grooves. There is enough room here to hold all of our school books, art supplies, math manipulatives, flashcards, and everything else that I have to keep on hand for school.

The center drawer pulls out and folds down to be used as an actual desk. Eventually I would like to use it as a desk, but for now it is not practical.

I only have one thing left to buy for my room. I'm waiting to find a chair that is comfortable, fits in my price range and looks old fashioned like the rest of the decor.

I think that's it on this thread. I hope that all my homeschool friends out there are blessed as I have been. May God provide you with everything you need to make homeschooling a wonderful experience.

Living History

When I was in high school I was blessed to be able to volunteer at the Georgia Agrirama.

Here's a picture of the schoolhouse. I got to play the role of one of the school children at many different special events.

During this time in my life I was too stubborn to realize how much I love history. To me, history just meant boring dates you have to memorize and stupid facts about countries that don't even exist anymore. I had no idea that the study of history could include learning about the way people lived, and the type of clothes they wore. Now that was interesting.

Once my school years weren't staring me in the face and I could calm down enough to really think through things... or perhaps a better way to say it is this: Once I stopped thinking I knew everything and began to realize how much I had to learn, I began to study certain periods of history in earnest.

Lest I be taken to task... let me just leave this one disclaimer. My study of history has been more of a hobby than a profession, and I am definitely prone to error.

Anyway, I think I'm getting sidetracked.

So I got to pretend that I lived in the 1890's. I wore a bustle and if I'd had the money I would have owned a pair of black high topped, buttoned boots. My experience in this little room, has had a great impression on me, and now that I have the opportunity, I'm passing it on to my children.

This was my inspiration for my school room.

I searched craigslist and antique stores and asked around locally until I was able to find what I wanted. Now I have a whole bunch of furniture that was made many many years ago, and is still around today.

Next up: Pictures

My new room

So I'm finally getting an entire room designated for school.

Ok, that sounds kinda spoiled. Not every homeschool mom gets an entire room to designate for school. I remember many years doing school at the dining room table. In fact, that's where I've been doing school for the past several years.

I've been homeschooling for 6 years now (counting our current year). I can't believe I've been doing it this long. For the first four years it was only Richard. Homeschooling at the table wasn't very difficult then. Now I'm homeschooling both my older girls, and keeping a toddler occupied.

If you homeschool around the dining table, I completely understand how it feels. For me it was a bit frustrating to have to constantly pack away the school to set out the food. I imagine many mom's throughout the centuries have experienced this.

Ok, so what started out as a post about my new school room has turned into a bit of introspection about what I should be thankful for.

I'm thankful that I have been blessed to be able to homeschool my children with relatively little government interference.

I'm thankful that God has given me a house where I can designate a room to homeschooling.

I'm thankful that God has blessed me financially to outfit said room the way I want to.

Next up: how I've decorated my wonderful blessing of a school room.