This Rugged JoyFull Home

These quilted patches tell of many a different stories... A special Christmas gift from the maker of our "honeymoon quilt", my best buddy, Rina. Was told that she had to stay up late rushing this purple patchwork for Christmas as a present to me and my daughter to share. It came with two matching pillow cases galore! Just recently, October 2009, another gift from the maker of our "honeymoon quilt". One good thing about quilts is that they get "comfier" as they get older. A bible clad in hand-sewn patches created by "moi". One of my early attempts to sew patches way back 1995, was told by a mentor-friend that one rule for a good patchwork is to align the corners well...this project being my very first was a contrary to that.. Patches are forever. We call this quilt our "honeymoon quilt" as this was given to us by a very dear friend as her wedding gift to us on March 25, 2000. Our "honeymoon quilt" ju...

Apologia Science...Exploring Creation with Botany Lapbook Lessons 1-5

My husband and I have always remarked that raising up smart kids is easier than training them to be kids with Godly character. Our second quarter saw Part 2 of disciplining our student in the area of diligence on a daily basis; Part 1 was during the 1st quarter. I was agonized by the fact that the area of diligence has been our major problem for years now; student taking forever to finish book pages assigned to her per day. Thus, more work pile up on the next day.  Now that she's 9yrs old, and we're running on our 6th yr schooling at home, I'm expecting more from my daughter to be more diligent in finishing the daily tasks assigned to her. I was about to call it "burnout" until one day my student surprised me about how she shared the love of Jesus to a neighborhood friend, a girl her age who just lost her father months ago.  Euy and her friend became very close since that incident. I once heard Euy encouraged her friend that everything will be fine because God lo...

I received this shared email yesterday from one of my yahoogroups and thought it would be worth the calculating and sharing on my blog. As I read through the entire article, I can't help but mentally auto-convert the dollars into peso figures,that's around 1:50 to be safe. Each time the writer says something about worth or value of a particular task a homeschool mom can do, my heart beats faster as I realize how much we have already invested on our family's future over the last five years.  I thought of Proverbs 31:10-31 as I pondered on how much am I really worth as a stay-at-home with kids Mom. This calms me: "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.  Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.   She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.  She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.  She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.  She get...

I have decided earlier this morning that today would be not just another day for us. It's going to be a day filled with exciting activities on Botany with my Euy (pronounced yoo-wee). She waters her herbs in the light hut and stare at them and probably wonder why there are still no sign of life to her plants 3 days after she planted them. She updates her nature journal and collects dried flowers and leaves to add to her collection. She sets breakfast table for three and really does them well. Goes to her Times Tables Chart and does her Math drill orally while in her hoola-hoop. Answers a few pages of her Singapore Math and just like before, does all her worksheets with less supervision and a few negligible mistakes.  Just yesterday she was telling me that she thought she would be ready to do lessons on square roots. And while she really loved multiplication and division and solving word problems, she wanted to do harder adult stuffs already because she loves challenges. Sometimes...