I’m back…

I doubt I have any readers left, but just in case I thought I’d write where I’ve been for the last several months.

Currently, I’m awaiting the birth of our fifth child and it seems life has swept me away. I was sick in the beginning and then just plain tired! School has been on the backburner the whole time. We struggled just to get the basics done and are trying to catch up some over the summer. I’m anxious to get life organized and back to normal–but I know a new normal will have to be found!

Fall plans for school: We are planning to get started after Labor Day with Tapestry of Grace, Year Four. I’m also trying to get the boys to work some on their Singapore math and CQLA this summer since we were behind in those subjects, but either way we’ll be continuing that this fall. I’m trying to come up with a reading list for Tapestry and Literature. I’ve also been working on my bible curriculum. I have the outline of the book done and am very pleased with it. I was hoping to publish and ebook with it, but don’t know if that day will ever come.

Life is so much more than school, and somehow through it all the kids need to learn. But just this week at church I’m reminded that through God’s grace He bestows understanding. Our intellectual minds are just foolishness!

I Corinthians 3:19a  “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Using the Topic Module in e-Sword

David Cox has some wonderful information and downloads for e-Sword. I found this one on making an e-sword topic module.

I’ve been using my bible curriculum and turning it into a topic module. In the end I plan to have all four years of the curriculum outlined with all my notes as four separate modules. The only problem now is to slow down and work on the section of Scripture I should be working on instead of thinking I need it all done at once–which is where I am now.

Here’s what I’m doing: (note: this will only make sense if you’ve read the tutorial I linked to above)
I created a new topic module labeled Year One. Then for my chapters I started with 00 Table of Contents, 01 Yr 1 Wk 1, 02 Yr 1 Wk 2, etc. I am going to make my table of contents show the general Scripture Reference with the Year and Week numbers so that if I want to go to a certain portion of Scripture to see my notes I’ll be able to locate the notes.

I have my Bible curriculum written out in a word document that lists what Scripture passages we are reading for each week and the different key sheets we are to work on (Key People, Key Places, Key Events, etc.) From this structure I have copied and pasted the info into e-sword. I can now add my own notes, notes from commentaries, references to other books, cross-references, etc. Anything I want to add that will help as I help the kids work on their key sheets. I think I’ve finally found a workable system for my bible study!

I posted this link several months ago–check out Living Life Between the Trees for her e-sword tutorial

If you are looking for more help, try the e-sword website. I looked at the tutorial manual and one of the videos and they were both good.

Vote Your Conscience

Update, Math Site, funny video

Just a little update: I’ve been so busy working with my mom and sister on our new business that homeschooling is suffering. I’m trying to get back in the groove! (Jaynne & Company)

I’m printing out math worksheets now, as I’m learning that we didn’t quiz multiplication tables enough and the long summer break didn’t help things I’m sure! I’m sure there are lots of great sites, but I’ve had The Math Worksheet site bookmarked for so long. It’s great to just select the numbers you want and it will randomly produce a worksheet for you. It also has 5 minute drill pages for you to print out.

And this funny video came through our local homeschool email list–nice humor break!

managing our home library

To manage our ever growing home library, I use the program Book Collector. All you do is type in the ISBN number and it will look online to grab all the info about the book including a picture of the cover. And I even found this cheap cuecat scanner on ebay and then you don’t even have to type the isbn–just scan. Very easy!

I also bought this stamp from Expressionery to mark all our books:

Heart of Wisdom Workshop

Downloaded these audios from the Heart of Wisdom blog. I haven’t listened yet, just thought I would pass it along.

being grateful in front of our kids

These quotes are from chapter 11 of The Light and the Glory. In this chapter the authors are documenting the decline of the faith of those in America just one generation after the first inhabitants.

For faith was not something that could be passed on from generation to generation, or imparted by baptism or the partaking of Holy Communion. In order for faith to come to flower, it must be planted in the soil of gratitude.

That’s enough to chew on, but read on,

But being born into town situations instead of having to carve them out of the wilderness, the succeeding generations would not know desperate need. They would grow up never knowing what it meant to be persecuted for one’s faith; to be mocked and scorned or even imprisoned merely because they loved God enough to attempt to put Him and His will before all else. The sons of the fathers would never know what it was like to have no land and no work and no say in how they were governed.

…Therefore they would not be inclined to put all their trust in God.

The rest of the chapter is too long to type out here but the wise words go on. You’ll have to get the book and continue reading on your own! Makes me wonder about America and it’s future. The kids and I discussed how on fire those that first came to America were and then as we read this chapter and the next the decline and then the Great Awakening. We saw the roller coaster of faith–which reminded me of Judges. Were are we now on that roller coaster? Is God going to put us through a time of persecution so we will return to Him?

I just know that we have realized in our home that we are so independent that we are not showing our gratitude to God in front of our kids. Yes, we are grateful (my husband and me, that is) for so much. We are just not doing a good job of having our kids pray with us for those things we are trusting God for. They might see or hear us thank Him in the end, but they weren’t in the whole process and we are doing them an injustice. This has been shown evident from my nine year old and his lack of gratitude in his prayers.

Praying God will show me how to be more transparent to my kids and not try to hide life’s struggles from them and let God walk us through it all!

moleskine junkie

I’m Stephanie and I’m a moleskine junkie…

I just love them!

On Flickr there are some wonderfully awesome pics of the drawings that people do in theirs–you’ll find no awesome drawings in mine unfortunately. So what IS in mine-sermon notes, prayer journal, notes from the latest book I’ve read, misc. things I need to remember like the order info from a recent Amazon order, maybe a cute story about one of my kids. And my latest addition…I added tabs so that I could implement Getting Things Done from the book by David Allen.

My favorite pen to use is a Micron pen. I like the 03 or 05 size for use in my moleskines, but the 01 or 02 are really thin and great for taking notes in your BIble. They will NOT bleed through in your bible–which is AWESOME! They are especially great if you are doing inductive Bible studies where you are using different colors, etc. (Note: Use a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby and get a set there)

And here are some great pics on how to keep your pen handy and it really works great! No more fumbling for your pen–it’s always attached!

Tip: Number the pages when you first get a moleskine and keep the first page empty. Then when you fill up a book you can jot down a little Table of Contents on that first page in case you want to reference something later.

Here’s a Monster Collection of Moleskine Tips & Tricks for more moleskine reading! Enjoy!

facebook

Well, I joined facebook. It is kind of fun, and besides this way I can follow my kids and stay on top of what all is going on! I would occasionally log on under their login to check up on them, but I think now I will do a better job. And besides some of my friends are now on and posting pics of their families and it is great to see them and see what they are doing too!

One thing I didn’t like was the ads, especially for my teen son. So I followed the directions from Online Tech Tips to block the ads and it works wonderfully!

Natural Hair Care

This is part of Works for Me Wednesday hosted at Shannon’s blog–go there to read all the great ideas!

I am trying to make a conscience effort to replace things in our home with ones that are not made of chemicals. I have begun to try some of the homemade cleaners, etc. My family is not always cooperative, as you can well imagine. But here’s one that I’ve found that IS working for us!

I read about “No Poo” several months ago. You can read more here, or here, or here and it has nothing to do with your bowels!

I have somewhat done “no poo” and somewhat just replaced my shampoo with a natural alternative. But I’m finding that in one month I “wash” my hair about 6 times compared to at least 20 times a month before!

What you need: I use 2 clear bottles that are made for homemade dressings or sauces…like ketchup and mustard squirt bottles. You will also need some baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and some essential oil(alternative listed below).

Mixing: Bottle #1 is filled with warm water (about 1 1/3 cup) and 2-3 teaspoons of baking powder. Bottle #2 is filled with warm water (about 1 1/3 cup), one tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar, and a teaspoon of a natural conditioner or a few drops of essential oil. The conditioner that I had purchased was from Burt’s Bees and I used this at the beginning because I didn’t have any essential oil. It helps give it a nicer smell. Use whichever one you want!

Using: Use bottle #1 and squirt as much as half the bottle for those with really long hair and massage into scalp. Let sit a minute or so and then rinse thoroughly. Now squirt about the same amount from bottle #2 all over your hair making sure to get it all to the ends. Let this sit a couple of minutes then rinse well. That’s it!

A few notes: I try to keep my hair brushed with a natural brush more often now to spread the oil down the hair away from my scalp. This will help but won’t be great when you first start this! Your oil glands will begin to realize that you are not going to be washing and stripping all the oil off every day and they will begin to produce less oil. But the first week or so is a little rough–just keep your hair tied up! And lest you think I only bathe 6 times a month now–I am still taking the same number of showers I just don’t always wash my hair. When I’m not washing my hair I just massage my scalp and let the warm water run over it!

Not only is this a much healthier alternative–it is easy on the budget!