time for learning

Free trail! I'm super excited about this!! 

*I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online education program in exchange for an honest review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so come back and read about my experience! For more information, try their lesson demos or find out how to write your own curriculum review.

*Over the next 30 days, I will be reviewing Time4Learning's online education program. It can be used as a homeschool curriculum, an afterschool tutorial or for summer learning. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. You can write your own curriculum review, too!

*Time4Learning has invited me to try their online curriculum for 30 days in exchange for an honest review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so come back and read about my experiences. Visit them for information about lesson plans, homeschool portfolios or writing your own curriculum review.

updated:

***I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

As always, please feel free to contact us anytime at reviews@time4learning.com.****

please check back in 30days to see my review. i've heard very good things about this program! 

wonky weather

i have the spring itch.

i'm so ready to get soil under my nails. and get a beautiful lush garden planted.

but the weather is not ready for that..

it keeps playing tricks on me,

 bright sunny days, to snow, to rain, to sunny, and all over again.

cadence helped get some of the weeds and old stocks pulled from the garden area, but planting outside will have to wait.

(old sunflower)

so to hold us over we decided to start planting a bit inside.

this is part of our townhouse garden :)

(cadence's valentines day gift)

(hello, awesome. tater pot!)

it's so exciting when things start sprouting!

also in the picture are my green onions.

i heard about this trick through pintertest, and it is amazing!

you can regrow green onions all year round and let me tell you these little buggers grow fast! 

 to regrow green onions simply submerge the white ends in a glass of water and place them in a sunny window. you'll need to watch the water level and about once a week i dump out the old water and add new. 

too bad we can't do this with all our veggies!

we'll see how gardening in oregon turns out. (hopefully better then CA)

and between my sister and i we are taking on a huge garden!

excited! 

on the road again...

california\oregon

once a month i travel to california to take cadence to see her dad 

here's a few things i've learned over these trips

1. ziplock bags are always handy to keep in the car:

because paper bags do not hold throw up well. : x 

2. glow sticks are a kids best friend on night drives:

at least 80% of our trip home is in the dark and it can make cadence go batty, but having the glow sticks gives her just enough light to play but not enough to bother me.

3. i have discovered i have night blindness:

yep, it pretty much sucks! i have a hard time seeing anything when lights are coming towards me. i have to really focus and keep my eyes on the white line to my right.. it's so draining and nerve racking! if you throw rain or snow in the mix you can bet i'm gripping the wheel so tight my knuckles hurt.

4. movies:

yep, i'm one of those moms! especially on the trip home. it's emotional and i'm sure a bit stressful on cadence so i'm ok with letting her check out and just veg.

5. headphones make the movies even better :) :

while i'm ok with the vegging out on long car rides i don't like "hearing" movies over and over, so headphones are awesome and keep cadence's movies in the back seat with her.

6. remember to pack a wide variety of medicine:
upset tummies, leg cramps, car sick, headache...etc.

7. bathroom:
always have her at least try, even when she says "i dont have to" because 5 miles down the road she will have to, and have to right NOW!

8. books on tape:
enough said.

9. bring a wide variety of snacks:
that why we are not stuck buying a bunch of junk at truck stops (although a perk of being a trucker family we do tend to get some of those junk snacks for free)

10. i spy/animal & vegetable:
just play the games with her. it keeps her happy and you awake. even if she answers half the questions wrong.

the new year

well, i think it's time to bring back my little space on the net. 

it's been about 4 months since i've posted.

mountains came be moved in 4 months, ya know.

we have settled well into our new state, and have finally gotten a home of our very own.

it's hard to put in words just how the Lord has been blessing our lives, but He is doing great things. In our lives and inside of us as well. 

the 9 months that we have been in oregon i have seen more fruit from the Lord in my personal life then i ever have in all of my 28 years.

now i'm not saying moving to oregon has fixed all my problems, but i think once i got out of the cloud i allowed myself to be in for years i was able to actually develop a true relationship with Jesus. i was able to actually see the errors in which i was allowing myself to live. i was able to see that i had been negotiating the truth. 

i feel like a completely different person! 

and i've started the year off with a new years resolution like i never have before:

dig deep into what is not negotiable in God's eyes and hold to that standard. as i look back through out my 28 years i notice just how much trouble i got myself into because i let myself fall into negotiating with His truth. the Bible is not negotiable and what better way to prepare myself then studying it everyday.

i'm  very excited to to be reading through the Bible in a year. i've never done this before, i've never even had the desire to read the entire Bible before now!

(for anyone interested check out youversion.com i'm doing the ESV study

 http://m.youversion.com/reading-plans/esv-study-bible)

excited to see all the great things to come in this new year. 

so very thankful

i have a kindergartner!

today was the big day

even after getting cadence in bed and asleep by 8:20pm it was still hard to get her rump out of bed this morning. that girl likes her sleep! at one point she even told me to go back to bed and come back in a few hours to wake her up. 

after pealing the blankets away from her and a few tickles i was able to get her up. 

she was not impressed that she had to go straight from bed to getting her hair brushed though, but thankfully we both survived. 

she really wanted her backpack and lunch box in the pictures, even though she wont start using them till next week when her onsite kindersmart class starts. 

we kept things light today, since it was the first day

i was however was surprised at how fast she picked up her math, and i know what you are thinking it's only the first day, but really she either knew more then i realized or she picked it up fast! we breezed through 3 lessons!

(we are using alpha omega horizons)

we are trying out the workbox system this year

it seemed to go over well this morning, but i'll have to give a better update further into the year.

i don't know about her, but i'm pretty darn excited to see what the school year holds for us! 

sweet earrings ya got there

i have a tendency to lose my earrings

...

after wearing them, just like my bobby pins, i'll set them where ever i am when they start bugging me. ie the computer desk, my night stand, the bathroom, in the front room, sometimes they wont even make it back into the house and will sit in the car till i rediscover them months later. 

...

after losing some super sweet pairs i decided i should make something to hang them on.

being that i have my ears gauged i can only wear one style of earrings with them and that would be the hook style. 

...

i'm not sure where i first saw the idea, but this is i ended up with

 while this picture frame wasn't truly what i had in mind i couldn't pass it up when i found it at a yard sale

technically my sister found it, she bought the other one for her kids to take school pictures with, showed me, told me her price($2), and sent me to go get it's pair.... mr. yard sale man tried to get over on me for a second trying to charge me $3, but he changed his tune when i kindly told him my sister bought the other one for only $2 after that he said he would throw it in with the dresser we bought cadence. 

i had been holding onto some old screen my parents replaced after their puppy decided to chew through the bottom :\ 

 so all we really had to buy was spray paint.

making it was rather easy, especially when tristan decided he should take over for me because apparently i was spray painting it wrong 

i think secretly he just likes being able to do everything! :)

now i just need to start restocking my ever shrinking collection.  

homemade laundry soap

my sister and i have been making the duggar family laundry soap for about 2 years

this stuff is pretty awesome and very cost effective. 

my sis has 5 kiddos and one batch can last her almost a year! 

we've found it to be awesome for sensitive skin, and it can also be jazzed up a bit with essential oil. 

i normally use tea tree oil, but want to try lavender one of these times.

it's rather easy, here's what you'll need

1- 5 gallon painters bucket with lid

1- fels-naptha soap bar

1cup- arm&hammer super washing soda (baking soda will not work)

1/2cup- borax

grate the fels-naptha bar and put in a saucepan with water (about 4 cups) 

stir continually over medium heat till it melts

fill the 5 gallon bucket half full with hot water, add melted fels-naptha, borax, and washing soda.

stir well, till everything is dissolved. Then fill the rest of the bucket with hot water and mix a bit more.

this will need to sit over night to thicken

to use: fill an empty and cleaned out old laundry soap container half full fill the rest with water.

shake well before each use.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

give it a try! 

i'm pretty sure you'll love it as much as we do.

*note* this soap will not bubble up like other detergents.... you do NOT need to keep adding more soap. 

(love you mother!) ;)