All Things Hold Together

Little E came in just as I was waking up this morning and said he needed to give me a hug. He got under my covers, put his arms around me, and said, “You’re the best-est mom ever!”

I decided that I want to talk more about what is happening with my children individually, so that I can come back and read about it in the future - sort of like an online memory book.

So, I am going to add three more categories: Little E Things, Big E Things, and The D Things.

I love my kitchen shears! I mean love them. I use them all of the time. In fact, I don’t know if I could live - or at least cook - without them.

I thought everyone felt the same way, but then my sister-in-law heard me raving about the many uses of kitchen shears and asked, “What are kitchen shears?” (Gasp!!)

When I explained that they are the scissors that usually come in a knife set, she replied, “Oh, I thought those were just scissors.”

Just scissors!

As I was cutting up boneless chicken breast with my kitchen shears, I decided to abandon my previously scheduled WFMW post in order to extol the virtues of kitchen shears, just in case there are others who, like my sister-in-law, are missing out on this handy kitchen tool.

Kitchen shears make food preparation a snap. They can be used for cutting up meat, such as chicken or sausage. I hate cutting meat, but the shears make it so quick and easy.

Kitchen shears are also great for cutting up vegetables and herbs. I love to use them to snip chives or scallions.

They are also great for cutting up dough for rolls.

There is really no end to what you can use them for, once you get going.

The shears are also great for those impossible-to-open plastic plastic packages that toys and electronics come in. They cut through anything!

As you can tell, I really do love my kitchen shears. I hope that once you start using them, you will too!

Be sure to head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-me Wednesday tips!

I have been feeling like something wasn’t quite right with my homeschooling methods for this year. Basically, it is set up too much like school-at-home.

I have a rigid schedule set up with 180 school days, broken into 6-week sessions, with a 1-week break in between.

I have books for every subject, with tests and worksheets that I can later use for our portfolios next year, hoping to avoid the yearly stress that process causes me.

The problem is that the learning seems so forced, so hollow. I have no doubt that soon, the kids will grow tired of it and hate it.

I ordered a standardized test for The D to solve the problem I was having with the Language Arts section of his portfolio. (Short version: he doesn’t have any written work for that subject.)

I took one look at the test and could not believe how easy the material was. The kids know more than enough to score well on the test, just from our everyday interactions.

That revelation might have come as no surprise to some of you, but I am still trying to figure this whole homeschooling thing out.

The trick is, every time I think I have something figured out, the kids change, I change, or something changes.

Now I feel like I am back at square one.

My plan now is to keep on with the books we are using, since they are still interested in them, but in the meantime, figure out how to break my bond to traditional schooling methods, namely textbooks.

The other thing I have struggled with is integrating our faith with our homeschooling. Up to this point, that is not something I have done and I feel like it is really important. We have faced a lot of challenges as a family, and continue to, with The D’s depression, and I think that the only way we will find peace is to place the Lord at the center of our home (and homeschool).

Then I stumbled across the book, You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully, by Ruth Beechick. I ordered it last night. I hope that this book will help put me on the right track toward figuring out how to accomplish these two goals.

If any of you have any experience with Beechick, I would love to hear your thoughts.

(Note: Any links I use to products from CBD are associated with my affiliate account. I don’t want anyone to think that I am trying to pull a fast one.)

The Carnival of Homeschooling this week can be found at The Common Room. I like this week’s theme: “This is the Order They Came to My Inbox’ Edition.”

There are almost 50 entries this week!

I decided to add a category for the CoH. I moved the old CoH posts out of the Homeschooling Things category and put them under Carnival of Homeschooling instead.

Laura at Writing Thoughts tagged me with a meme. One of the rules is to link to the blog post that originated the meme. What a cool idea! It was neat to see how this meme came to be.

The point of this meme is to list ten or fewer posts that give the reader the gist of what the blog is about. Sort of like the re-cap at the beginning of a TV show.

What great timing! I was just thinking about where I am going with this blog, and the fact that I need to write some sort of “mission statement” to keep me focused. So, here goes.

All Things Hold Together is, first and foremost, my personal space. This is the place I come to talk about what is going on with me, like in this post, Friday Photo-blogging (which is not a wordless photo-post). I usually post these under “My Things.”

This is also my place to post about my family, like our trip to the Ben & Jerry’s factory or the squirrel that visits our porch (and a funny thing Little E said about it). These posts are filed under “Our Family Things.”

This is also a homeschooling blog, since that is an inextricable part of our lives. Under the category “Homeschooling Things,” you will find my own thoughts and struggles around homeschooling (Being a Good Homeschooler), posts about things we do in our homeschool (Homeschool Biology Class), posts wherein I share homeschooling links I think others might enjoy (Free Ed Stuff), and my reviews of curriculum we have used (Curriculum Review: Saxon Math 2 and 3).

Since I love to cook, I also love to share my recipes and tips with my readers, such as this recipe for Homemade Granola Bars. You’ll find those under “Cooking Things.”

Another part of what I want to do with this blog is to share some of my other homemaking and frugal living tips. I have been trying to participate in Works-for-me Wednesday and Frugal Friday, and hope to make that a regular thing.

And being a crafty mama, I also want to share some of my “Crafty Things,” though up to now, I have only done this one about a Nice, But Easy Gift Craft.

As you can see, there are a lot of things in my life and this blog is where I like to share all of those things. But it is not this blog that holds them all together. No, it is my faith in the Lord that holds all of these things together. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” -Colossians 1:17

That is why the last, but not least, thing I want to share in this list of posts is one from my “Faith Things,” called, “Walking By Faith.”

So, that is what this blog is all about. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you will again.

Oh, I almost forgot. I have to tag five people and tell them the meme rules.

1. Please try to limit your post to 10 items or less
2. Tag 5 people
3. Take your time. Do some digging in the archives and find the perfect ones.
4. Please link to the post that you were tagged in (that would be this one you are reading) and to the post where the meme originated (this one).
5. The people you tag, please let them know, so the meme can keep going.

I am going to tag some blogs I recently started reading and don’t know much about yet: Rocks in My Dryer, Life From My Laptop, Consent of the Governed, and “Bizzy” House with Peaceful Hearts.

I am also tagging Dana at Principled Discovery because if it wasn’t for her having Laura Spencer guest post on her blog, I wouldn’t have found Laura’s blog to get tagged there.

And if you haven’t seen Laura’s guests posts on Principled Discovery about earning money though freelance writing (I and II), I highly recommend you do. (If you’re into that sort of thing.)

This is amazing!

A mom of 6 was auctioning a pack of Pokemon cards that her kids snuck into her grocery cart. On the auction, she told the story of her trip to the store. It is great! So great, that people were e-mailing it around and she ended up getting 179,257 (as of this posting) hits on her auction.

She was also asked if she has a blog. She does. She posted the URL on her eBay auction and she ended up with 77,000 hits in one day!

Her grocery store story was a joy to read. I am looking forward to reading more on the blog.

(HT: Why Homeschool)

I am having the crappiest day ever. Ever. EVER. But, there was one thing that happened that managed to put a smile on my face (besides getting tagged with a cool blog meme - more on that later).

Amazon Grocery. You can buy groceries on Amazon. Wow!

They even sell my Seventh Generation laundry soap. Yeah, I am a little bit of an eco-snob. Cut me some slack, I live in Burlington, VT.

That reminds me of the time I interviewed there. I was so not a good fit. That was in my pre-eco-snob days.

Then again, I would still not be a good fit. I think you have to be a liberal eco-snob.

Anyway, I think this Amazon Grocery thing is very cool. (Disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried it yet. I just think the concept is cool.)

This has been a busy week. I have not had much time for blogging with the start of school, and the fact that I am still trying to finish preparing my enrollment for the state, including the portfolios from last year and curriculum outline for this year.

I am also trying to get through a couple of books, so I have been reading at night, instead of blogging. (Which is not a bad thing.)

Anyway, I am still here. I hope to get some posts up soon.

Oh yeah, and here is the link to A Magical Carnival of Homeschooling.

So, we officially started school today. I am trying to keep to a schedule of what work needs to be done when this year. I actually started doing a post about homeschool planning, too, which included what we were doing this year, but I haven’t finished it.

Come to think of it, I have about a half-dozen or more posts that I want to get around to doing. I also want to reorganize my blogrolls and make a couple of changes to my sidebar.

At any rate, I wanted to start today because I broke the curriculum down into six 6-week sessions, with a one week break in between, and I wanted a break to fall on Thanksgiving week. Yes, I am obsessive. I know that already.

I decided at the last minute to bump The D into Saxon 6/5 because I know he can handle it (even without having had Saxon 5/4). I can fill in anything that he is weak in, but I looked over the book and I am confident that he will do just fine.

I had to order the book last week, so he wasn’t able to start it today, but it came in the mail this evening, so he will have it for tomorrow.

I love starting a new school year. Each new year represents the chance to apply the lessons learned the year before and make the homeschooling experience that much better.

Ask me how I am doing come January.

If only I could bottle some of this optimism up to take then.