Sunday, January 29, 2012

If I had a theme....

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your life has a theme? 
This past week my life has had a major theme - patience and frustration. 

Macguines did his science fair project on Determination and Frustration and I realized as I was reading his paper how much he learned about this topic. 
He tested his drama group.  Some kids were really gracious about helping out, they were kind and friendly - a couple of girls were very rude - they even intentionally filled out the survey incorrectly because they wanted to mess up his project - talk about frustration. 
Thursday evening we had Bible study - it is a great study - we are talking about changing thinking to change outcomes.  Hmm - right up my alley.  The main point of the study is that our words and thoughts should be pleasing to God- but to get right words you have to have right thoughts - and right thoughts are harder than they sound.  We let out 45 minutes late and I knew we still had to assemble a project board - frustration.

Winterjam started early, packed out, random stuff going wrong - major frustration

What is the point of all this?  I thought I was done working on patience!!! 

Mac's project was on Low Frustration Tolerance vs. High Frustration Tolerance.  As Christians we should have a very high frustration tolerance because we should know that our Heavenly Father has things under control, but so often we let the little things drive us crazy!!!  Things aren't always going to go my way - I don't have to be in control of the universe for the universe to be working alright =)  Why?  Because God is in control of the universe, and he has what is the very BEST in mind for me. 

We stood at WinterJam for about 2 hours - it was uncomfortable - especially for us old people - but here are the comments I got from the kids:

That was AWESOME!  Did you see that guy escape? it was soooo cool!,  I really liked that speaker.  There was a guy in a red shirt who got saved next to me - we gave him the book of John they were handing out - he was really happy. Best-Day-EVER!

What a difference a little perspective makes!  Here is the best part  -after standing for 2 hours we finally got really Really REALLY awesome FLOOR SEATS!  We were literally close enough to the stage that you could almost have reached out and touched them.  The kids were sooo happy - one of the older teens looked at me and said "Totally worth it!"  and I sunderstood exactly what he meant. 

Sometimes things don't go the way you wanted, or planned, or even would have liked - and then they go way better than you ever thought they would.
 It is when I just sit back and enjoy the ride that God can work all things out to HIS glory =) 

Awesome day yesterday
Amanda

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Poems

I would love to memorize, and have my children memorize, some poems - here are two of my favorites


Rudyard Kipling

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;


If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";


If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!



The Highwayman

Alfred Noyes

PART ONE

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—


'One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.'

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.

PART TWO

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
'Now, keep good watch!' and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat

And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Convention Time =)

I must preface this blog post:
Please read the entire post. This post is about my personal experience - I am certain that it is not reflective of ALL people's experience.  I am sure that you can still be a Bible believing, filled with the spirit, loving, wonderful, super home school mom extraordinaire - and go to the Cincy Convention.   If you had a different experience and feel strongly about it - start a blog - and invite me to read it =)

In 2011 we went, for the first (and last) time ever, to the Cincinnati Home School Convention. 

This convention is huge, it attracts all kinds of publishers - the vendor hall took 3 days to get through and we STILL didn't see it all.  The sessions are also very big - some being held in auditoriums - this place literally hosts a vendor hall and a fully booked conference under the same roof (well actually several, within about a 1 block radius)
And that is where my praise for this event has to stop....

The sessions would be great, if you could get to them - crammed hallways and mile walks through strollers and crying babies is NOT my idea of a good time.  The vendor hall would be wonderful - if you could get through it - too many vendors - and many of them are NOT selling curriculum with a Christian world view.  Many speakers don't have a Christian world view either.  The best sessions I went to last year were geared towards teens and focused on apologetics- and they were packed out (over 1000 people in one room) hot, crying babies everywhere.  The only speaker I actually met was so arrogant I would never buy anything from him - literally made me forget all the good things he had previously said by the way he spoke to others and acted in the hotel.

Then the location - WOW - what a lovely place, minutes from the creation museum, the Cincy museums, the Cincy zoo (which is awesome) The speakers were spread out over 3 separate buildings making them impossible to find, and impossible to walk fast enough to go session to session.  In addition the only restaurants in the area are bars -geared towards the REDS fans - and the convention was held on opening weekend - so prices were ridiculous!  Our hotel stay for 3 nights was over 500 bucks! It's kinda hard to enjoy yourself, or buy curriculum, when you are paying that much money! We also paid $20 per day for parking, and drove to KY to get some reasonably priced dinner without being surrounded by drunks.  I'm not a prude, but I really don't want to spend my evenings in a sports bar with 50 drunken Reds fans yelling at a TV.

I got to thinking about all this and remembered something a friend had told me - that convention is for profit.  Makes sense, explains the crowded craziness, overbooked speakers, lack of the Word, they are there to make a buck - they are the Walmart of conventions. 

So what is a homeschooling mom to do?  Why not try the CHEO convention.  I have been to 2 CHEO conventions, one in Cbus, and one in Akron and they are AMAZING! 
The area is simply more affordable -for a 2 night hotel stay we paid about $150.00, there were restaurants in the area and close by that were also very reasonable. 
Crying infants is just a reality - and is going to happen every once in a while (that baby gets hungry!) CHEO has a fairly strict no crying babies in the session rule -which is kindly enforced by monitors, and also has several nursing mother rooms that are convenient to the sessions.  They also offer childcare for a small fee - something that you can not find elsewhere.
The vendor hall is comparable in size with one major exception - you won't find any wiccan herbalists selling their goods - they are decidedly Christian.  Another great thing is because it isn't all about the money - the vendors aren't so focused on making a buck that they won't talk to you.  Vendors are sincere AND friendly - and willing to explain their curriculum page by page if needed.  I have had vendors at this show recommend OTHER curriculum based on what I told them about my family - they profited nothing (not on earth anyhow) referring me a few aisles over to one of their competitors. 

Another great thing about CHEO's convention is the QUALITY of their speakers.  No, they don't have 42 sessions going on all at once, each with a clever title, conveniently located withing 2 miles of the convention (HA!)  They DO have a great variety of Christian speakers who will inspire you to bigger and better things in your home school! I can't remember the name of a single speaker I saw at the Cincy convention last year - but I can remember Voodie Baucham, Diana Warring, and Dianne Craft (which btw - google her if you have a kid with a learning issue or food issue - she is AWESOME!) which I saw over 2 years ago at a CHEO convention. Dianne Craft personally spoke to me about Mason and his learning issues - gave me FREE resources - and immensely helped my struggling learner - she was a real person -humble, caring, and a picture of Christian charity.  I was amazed and refreshed by her willingness to personally help me - and not at a vendor booth - just one on one.

We also met homeschooling father of 6 and legal advocate for Ohio HSLDA member families, Mike Donnelly, who presented a session - from a Christian perspective - on legal issues facing homeschooling families in Ohio.  He was also available for questions after his session and stayed for an additional 1/2 hour until every question (in about a 50 -75 person session) was answered. 


Not only were the speakers knowledgeable and inspiring, they spoke my language - that is to say as a believer I didn't just need a word from another sales person promoting their curriculum, or suggesting the path to peace might be giving up on the whole idea of homeschooling, I needed a WORD, from THE WORD, and THE AUTHOR of THE WORD.  I needed some refreshing from the fountain of life, and that is what we received.

CHEO holds a special place in my heart.  Jeri Neese sat with me as I, a distraught mother, was convinced I was going to jail for withdrawing my student from school, and  sh prayerfully guided me through a very difficult day and time in our lives.  About a month later, we picked out our first curriculum at a CHEO convention.  After 3 days of walking booth to booth, praying with vendors, and seeking God, we found the perfect fit for our family. 

For us, the CHEO convention is the way to go - and we will never pay more for the lesser again.  I feel foolish for being distracted by the shinny packaging of a for profit convention. Thank you CHEO for all you do and for hosting this BLESSING to our family, and to so many families like ours, THANK YOU! 

To find out more about the upcoming 2012 CHEO Convention click here
To read about last years CHEO convention click here

Amanda

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Couponing 101

Well,
Someone said I should start a blog - hehehe  -  I already have a blog =) 

Here are the coupon pointers I have - in order of importance

#1 Do not buy what you do not need unless it is free.  There are tons of great deals out there - but if you go chasing every snappy coupon you will lose time and money.  I used to coupon things that I wouldn't typically buy - and my family did not eat healthier, we did not really save any money, and it took a lot of time which was wasted in the end.  When I first started couponing this was my mistake and I was discouraged by my lack of success. 

#2 Determine how your family will eat regardless of coupons.  We all have some standards of healthy foods.  Decide BEFORE you find all the great deals that will tempt you away from your resolve what level of health you will need.  Can I show you how to get name brand, kids will LOVE it, cereal for 50 cents a box, steadily - YES, will your family be better off? Maybe, maybe not.

REMEMBER, I said these are in order of importance - now for the tips =)

#3 - CLIP EVERYTHING on the day it comes out.  Yes this will take about 30 minutes on a Sunday afternoon, but it will pay off.  The reason for this is because there are some coupons (because of step 1 and 2) that you KNOW you will use - perhaps you know you could use 15 of these coupons - and if you clip on Sunday, then you can make a quck trip to the local gas station and get 15 more papers.
GET the advertiser - look through the ads and circle the good deals on the items that you would normally buy - then match your coupons to the good deals.  You may find freebies =)  Colgate toothpaste is ussually free at Krogers (get the smallest one) Cereal is ussually 50 cents at Giant Eagle.  Price match P&G items from Walgreens and CVS at Walmart and use your coupons for the cheapest cleaning, deoderant, tp, and detergent.

#4 - Make a binder - use a 3 ring binder and the 9 card baseball holders or whatever you have handy that will work so that you can see the coupons you have available to use.  Organize your coupons by date and type. 

#5 Use the knowlegde of others - I use google reader to follow several blogs and coupon sites that update daily.  Using google reader allows me to quickly scan through my subscriptions and see if there is anything I need. I typically scan through this once per day as I check email or get on facebook. 

#6 Be a loyal customer - Pick a store you LOVE that has GREAT deals and shop there like CRAZY. 
Kmart is my favorite 'wal-mart' type store.  Their prices are very competative with Walmart and they offer a great rewards program.  You get 10% of all purchases back on your card - sometimes more - watch the store ads (online or in the local paper)  to pick up even more points on things like dog food, clothing, and office items. 

Giant Eagle is my favorite gift card store - they give points based on how much you spend.  When I buy books from Amazon - I get an Amazon GC  - and rack up points.  We get 30 gallons of  FREE gas each month (fill up the car and fill up 3 gas cans as well.)  I have saved over $1,000.00 this year in gas costs.
Giant Eagle is also my favorite couponing store - but this is because of my personal preferences for their produce, organic foods, and other great items.  They also have the best 'check yourself out' and this allows me to take my time and get everything just right.  Giant Eagle doubles coupons up to 99cents
Kroger and Meijer also double coupons up to 99cents have become very picky with coupons in the last year - and their self check out leaves a lot to be desired.  I have had some negative experiences at these stores and I would not recommend them for regular shopping trips - but that being said they often have the BEST deals - if you can get them to do them. 
Walmart will price match any competitor ad - this can be VERY useful - save gas - but we don't shop Walmart for reasons of conscience.
Carnival foods will accept coupons and regularly have the BEST prices on meats in Heath. 
Aldi has good prices - but they typically do not beat out Walmart.  I have seen several times when Kroger, Mejier, and other retailers consistently beat Aldi prices.  Aldi has good prices consistently - but other retailers consitently beat them on certain items - including butter, cheese, cereal, milk, juice, bread, meats, rice, spagetti noodles, and canned goods. 

These are the best tips I have right now - feel free to comment if you have a tip that has worked for you  =)