Jul
31

Circle C Beginnings Review & Giveaway

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Welcome to Day 6 of my 10,000 Subscriber Celebration!  Today I’m excited to giveaway a set of 4 Circle C Books! The Circle C Beginnings Series by Susan K. Marlow, is geared towards children ages 6-8. The stories follow six-year old Andi, her horse Taffy, and her family and friends on the Circle C ranch in 1874. The Circle C Beginnings are very cute and easy to read stories that are great for those ready for their first chapter books. The pages are filled with hand drawn illustrations and the stories are entertaining! There are also free Activity Packs that include mazes, dot-to-dots, vocabulary, maps, writing, math, history, crafts and coloring pages! They offer free online or printable 20 piece Puzzles. And A Journey for Learning has also made Lapbooks you can purchase to go along with the stories if you choose. This series currently has 4 books available, and 2 more coming soon: No more ponies! It’s just a made-up story…or is it? It’s not fair! School … [Read more...]

Jul
31

Monthly Meal Planner: August 2011

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Welcome to my August Monthly Meal Planning free printables! Holy cow, I seriously can’t believe it’s August! I’m so not ready for school yet! Ikea just opened this week, and I’ve been saving for 2 years in anticipation! 2 YEARS! I’ll share more on my schoolroom organization, later, but for now here’s the August 2011 Monthly Meal Plan for you. This should free up some time for you all to get your homes organized and ready before school starts back up!     Download August 2011 Meal Plan: August 2011: PDF August 2011: Word Doc (editable) … [Read more...]

Jul
30

Ministry of Motherhood: Week 11

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“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” Philippians 2:5-7   Good Morning Girls Downloads for Week 11 Ch. 17-18 BlogFrog Discussion for Week 11 As a homeschool mom, and I think this even applies without the “homeschool” label, I’m all about convenience. I look for fast and easy recipes, I have a high-efficiency washing machine, a wonderful dishwasher, and I can multi-task with the best of them. But rarely are the tasks of this calling of motherhood ever “convenient”. I’m awaken during the middle of the night by little feet, I’m interrupted countless times in any given hour by the needs of my family, and then there’s those pesky toilets that constantly need to be cleaned. The service to my family is rarely what I would deem … [Read more...]

Jul
28

Outdoor Science Day Review & Giveaway

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Welcome to DAY 5 of my 10,000 Subscribers Celebration! Today we’re going to beat summer boredom with some fun science kits! I’m excited to be participating in Outdoor Science Day with Scientific Explorer! They contacted me with some great outdoor science projects that were perfect for my kids who got bored with the summer break after about 30 seconds. And, yep, I have a FREE kit to giveaway today to one of you! We received the following projects in the mail: My First Backyard Explorer Kit – perfect for young scientists (ages 4+) who want to explore nature Ice Cream Science – take a break from summer’s heat and make your own ice cream – use multiple flavors to create your own recipes (ages 8+) Meteor Rocket Kit – make your own rocket, and shoot it into the air (ages 9+) The Meteor Rocket Kit: The Meteor Rocket Kit was really exciting for the kids. The only thing I’d caution you on is that even though the box says 9+, it took my dad about an hour … [Read more...]

Jul
27

MadeOn Bee Silk Hard Lotion Review & Giveaway

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Welcome to Day 4 of my 10,000 Subscriber Celebration! I have a confession. I hate socks. Never wear them. Not even in winter. Results: Dry, cracked heels. Too much info for a blog? Sorry! But, surely I’m not the only one, and since I found a solution…I had to share…even if it meant grossing people out.   I want to preface this review by saying that I try to be VERY careful with what I agree to review on my blog. I feel very strongly about not misleading my readers, and I absolutely do my darndest to protect your best interests! That said, I was offered the chance to review MadeOn Bee Silk Hard Lotion a few weeks back. Being that I live in a dry area…and hate to wear socks…and was desperate for something to relieve my VERY dry hands and feet…I agreed. And now, my soft hands and feet are so very thankful that I did!   What is Hard Lotion? Hard lotion is a lotion that is a solid at room temperature, but softens when rubbed into your skin. It … [Read more...]

Jul
26

Educational Insights: Inching Along Review & Giveaway

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Welcome to Day 3 of my 10,000 Subscribers Celebration! Today I have a super fun game by Educational Insights called Inching Along Measurement Game. This is a cute measuring game that is great for grades K-2. Its great for practicing measuring and basic math skills all while having fun! What’s the Cost? $19.99 What did we think? I have to say my kids really liked this. The game comes with playing pieces, game cards, and a brightly colored ruler. The rules are fairly simple, each person takes a turn picking a card that tells them which lines to measure. The lines are titled A-F, so a card may read “A” in which case they would measure line “A” and then move that many spaces. There are harder cards such as “A-B” so they have to measure both lines then figure out the answer and move that many spots. One thing I really liked was that the game cards are color coded. I was easily able to pick the ones without addition and subtraction so that my preschooler could play with … [Read more...]

Jul
25

Educational Insights Tough Scope Review & Giveaway

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Welcome to DAY 2 of my 10,000 subscribers celebration! Today I’m reviewing the GeoSafari® Tuff Scope. This was really cooler than I expected! The kids absolutely loved this! I actually had some pre-made slides from Lakeshore Learning that we used. I was actually kind of surprised at how well this worked! The GeoSafari® Tuff Scope can magnify images up to 400x their original size. It’s a great microscope for kids, lightweight, and fairly durable as well. One of my favorite features is that the microscope can be removed from the base so it can be taken outside to explore! You can also purchase the Tuff Cam Digital video camera so you can take pictures or video then project magnified images onto a computer screen, white board, or projector! Very cool! What’s the Cost? $39.99 (I found some for less on Amazon as well) My kids absolutely loved this thing! They spent quite awhile looking at different prepared slides we had. It’s really easy to use, so they … [Read more...]

Jul
24

Reshaping It All Review & Giveaway

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Hi everyone! Welcome to DAY 1 of my 10,000 subscribers celebration!   It’s such an honor to have you all reading my blog and I am so completely humbled that God can use something like my blog to bless other families!   So in order to celebrate and thank you all, I’m doing a 10,000 Subscribers Celebration with 10 giveaways in 10 days! I know, CRAZY RIGHT? But I think it’ll be fun, and you all will end up with some super cool prizes that will hopefully bless your families! Make sure to visit each day to enter to win the awesome prizes we have coming up! I’m kicking off my celebration with one of my new favorite books Reshaping It All! I absolutely adore Candace Cameron Bure and Co-Author Darlene Schacht! So when I found out about this new book, I just had to get it! And that’s a lot coming from me, I’m not a huge reader, so I pick my books carefully! Although it’s been promoted as a weight-loss book, the title reveals that it’s really about … [Read more...]

Jul
23

Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

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I’ve never made homemade ice cream before, but after the Ice Cream Science Kit we were on a mission to create our own yummy creamy goodness! Enter the Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker! Oh yeah, this thing seriously ROCKS! I made 2 recipes, one came with the ice cream maker and one I found online. It was very easy: Ingredients: 4 Cups half and half 1 –14oz can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk 2 tablespoons vanilla extract Directions: Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well. Refrigerate 1-2 hours or overnight. Turn on ice cream maker and pour mixture into maker. Let mixer run 20 minutes. (Of course if you have a different ice cream maker, you’ll need to follow their instructions) This yields a soft serve ice cream similar to the one seen below. If you desire a more frozen consistency, freeze for a few hours. Keep left overs frozen. TIP: We were a little eager and didn’t wait for our Cuisinart canister to freeze all the … [Read more...]

Jul
23

Ministry of Motherhood Week 10

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“Then, this, is how you should pray: Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matt 6:9-10 Good Morning Girls Downloads for Week 10 BlogFrog Discussion for Week 10 My Thoughts for the Week: This week chapter’s 15 & 16 focus on training our children to pray effectively, and training for tribulation. Now, none of this is new to me, but really praying for God’s will to be done is a hard one. Mainly because I’m never sure what that entails! And its just so much easier to treat prayer like a list of needs, hoping God will fulfill our desires. But just as we must say no to our children sometimes, God does so to us as well! And isn’t it so much better for Him to be in control than us? I love when Sally mentions that sometimes she says no to her children’s requests because they don’t fit into the plans that they have for the rest of the family! How true that is! And so when we … [Read more...]