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Each morning we gather as a family, we talk about family stuff and we ask if anyone had a dream, We believe more often than not dreams mean something. We also each bring a scripture to share with everyone. Often the children will bring something extremely unusual that they found interesting. But then other times they will bring something just plain good. This was Beau’s today.  

“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.” Proverbs 3:27

Tell me, is this fact or fiction? I hear you can run your AC in the car and it doesn’t increase your gas consumption. Is that true? We live in a valley, called a hollow here in the south, pronounced “holler”. Our 150 year old house was buil next to a creek long before anyone thought of air conditioning. Even though it is 95+ and really humid, it is reasonably comfortable in my house with no AC. But being in the car is another story. Especially if we are in our big van. I am so glad for working auto air conditioning all of the auto ac parts keep me nice and cool, and help me get where I am going without melting. Good thing, nobody wants a melt down Momma.

what is your favorite “lift your spirit” take a break treat? Mine is a homemade double chocolate frappacino! And the recipe just happens to be in my ”Perfect Cure for Everything- Chocolate!” e-cookbook.

And I am going to give one away! Share your favorite treat that is guarenteed to put you in a good mood in a comment and I will pick one Saturday morning. Actually I will give 1 away for every 10 comments, so tell your friends! 

Well I told you yesterday that I was starting a “let’s get organized” theme for this week. Well, what inspired me, you ask? THIS planner! I have been buying homeschool materials for nearly 20 years and have never found anything this useful.

I don’t even know where to start. There is so much in here I don’t think the title of planner does it justice. It could easily be called a family organizer, a homeschool planner, a brain, a scrapbook, a financial center, a day planner, a kitchen organizer, an inventory center, a unit study springboard, a homeschool handbook, a record keeper, and so on and so on. The only bad thing is that I didn’t have this when I first started homeschooling years ago, because now I regret that I won’t have my two oldest included because they have already graduated.

No matter what you include in your household or homeschool, this planner will help. If you love lapbooking you will love the ideas. If you write your own unit studies, you will love the resources. If you are tired of having everything you need scattered in 20 different places you will love the organization. And if you unschool but want to keep track of all of the great learning opportunities tht arise naturally they even have you covered for that.

I remember when my oldest son was little, boy did he keep me hoppin! There were some days when he was napping that I would look at cute pictures of him we had around the house. It would remind me that he wasn’t always in trouble and after his nap I could start fresh again. Well this planner will also remind us that homeschooling is joyful even when it is challenging. Having records of good events reminds us of God’s faithfullness and gives us strength during hard times, tht is why God’s word tells us to write it down for the next generation. So many of us are first generation homeschoolers, but what if we had a “You Can Do It!” journal from our parents to encourage us? I for one have been to busy learning how to do it, but I fully intend to start writing that journal, especially since our first grandchild will be arriving early next year.  And I intend to use this planner as a way of writing it.

I would suggest first taking time to thoroughly go through each section and customizing the pages, then print the ones you will use (nearly all) and put them in a new 3 ring binder. Then you can fill in, doodle on, color, and write on however it pleases you, and if you mess up a page, reprint and start over! That is the beauty of having a digital copy. I love the cover too, I think I am going to print that out and put it in the plastic at the front of the binder. I would suggest getting a binder a little bigger than you think you will need, so you have room to grow. Don’t be afraid to write those “God thoughts” in the side margins.

So, what is in it? Everything from recipes, to daily planner pages, to history and geography facts….. oh you just have to take a look for yourselves!

  Not only does this Work for me on Wednesday but with this planner I can Tackle a 100 Tuesdays.

I have taught my girls to cook! probably too well. Georgia is my current supper cook. I believe a girl ought to know how to cook before she’s 10, by 12 ought to be able to bake bread from scratch, by 13 make jam and can it, by 14 cook a full thanksgiving meal, by 15 prepare a weeks menu, and by 16 figure out how to make the cheapest meal a gourmet feast.

Georgia’s favorite food is Mexican and since we originally come from Southern California, mexican food is a specialty around here. Here is one of our budget feasts with $$ amounts, now mind you we are feeding 8 people, all with good appetites and one of them is Beau who eats enough for 3 grown men (I am not joking) but he works hard so we accomadate him. All that to say adjust your own amounts. I would have taken a picture but it was too good to go get a camera.

 89 cents rice

$3.19 gal can pinto beans

$2 bag of shredded mexican style cheese

$1.50 sour cream

tomatoes from garden, diced

79 cents small can green sauce, (salsa verde)

$5    3 bags tortilla chips (ours were 3/$5)

79 cents large onion, chopped

2 hot peppers from the garden, chopped

cook rice, set aside, 

then take pinto beans, 1/2 onion chopped and a tablespoon of chili powder and mix, mash or process well, and heat in skillet until hot and thickened (this is refried beans!)

place serving of rice on plate, flatten out, then place serving of beans on top, then cheese, then in the middle,  green sauce, then sour cream, then chopped onions, hot peppers and diced tomatoes, make it pretty! you could also add some chopped cilantro if you have it in the garden,  the idea is that it is layered, then instead of serving with utensils serve with chips and eat like a dip!

this would easily feed 10 normal folks and works out to be about $1.40 each! the trick is to work with what is reasonably priced in your area. if avocados were on sale we might add guacamole, or some days we might add shredded chicken, if you make it really colorful and pretty it adds a lot of flair! If we make this again in the next few days I will try to control myself long enough to get a picture before diving in!

Well this week I am focused on getting organized around here. I started a lot of things that need finishing. So I figure if I focus ithere I might get it done. what I am going to do is seperate the tasks and assign them to different children. i have found that works really well. And as inspiration each day this week I will be featuring a different resource or site to help us get organized. Since Crystal Paine over at Biblical Womanhood so inspires me today I encourage you to visit her site. Not only does she encourage us to have an organized home but she reminds us to make our Home a Haven. Thank you Crystal for all you do! So, first things first, worship Jesus! Did you tell Him good morning? Well stop and do that right now, even if it is noon. Come along we will have a busy week. I am still busy writing some listening guides (history lesson/ bible study) for my dear friends the Erskines at Homeschool Radio Shows, so much of my organizing this week will be delegated.

some of my to do list:

organize to do lists

re-evaluate my online organizer

sort clothes bins

get several bags of stuff on the freecycle list

list horses for sale

reorganize web sites

launch several new sites-  big news coming soon!

I will adding to this all week!

As part of my “let’s get organized” week, here is the menu plan we are aiming for this week

Monday- Mexican casserole

Tuesday- Chicken Pasta Salad

Wednesday- Pork chops, rice, and salad

Thursday- mexican chicken and rice

Friday- spaghetti feast with salad and garlic bread sticks

Saturday- veggie and rice teryaki stir fry

I will try to add recipes throughout the week , especially for the main dish bean dip we had last night!

On Tuesday I will be posting my review of the new The Old Schoolhouse Planner, you don’t want to miss it!

what are YOUR plans?

I have got to stop going to the grocery store. It makes my cry. I went to town today and stopped at our little local market. I can usually get 20 lbs of potatoes for $3.99 at the most. Today it was $6.49 for 10 pounds.  I nearly cried right there at the check-out. What are we going to do? My children are all of a sudden very interested in economics.