Holidays Are Over!

The holidays were so anticipated here and I think in hind sight my children will tell you that they loved the two weeks they got with their father. I saw things another way. I saw children who were tired, miserable, sick and having emotional come aparts at every turn. It was not good for them and saying goodbye was harder this time than last because they knew what the weeks on end would feel like and the reality of how long he would be gone and that we never will know if he has to leave again.

The kids took an emotional beating over Christmas. Thank heavens for their school work, their teacher, their friends and our family. Because of all these people and structure they have been so much better than if they were lacking these. I failed to mention but should note church, scouts and I am sure there are more people and events that I have forgotten.

We are now having a new shipment of curriculum. Things fell apart a bit for us at the beginning of this school year and we got a little behind. We are now gradually getting up to speed. Rather than beat myself up for this I am just plugging along one day at a time and grateful for the little moments with my children.

Work From Home or Build Up Your Business! It's a Win Win!!!

We are all looking for extra cash at this particular time. Everyone seems to be in the same financial crunch and could use a little more money! There are a lot of scams out there that will promise you a lot of money in short order but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

For those of you that already have a home based business, stay at home with children or just want to earn a little more money from the comfort of your home you should know about companies that buy reviews. The one that we like is Sponsored Reviews. Below is a link that you can click to go there and see if it is something you like.

Please note that if you have a business you can purchase reviews here from many sources that will help your website attract more attention and gain search engine status! Anything to drive visitors to your site is sure to add to your income so that alone is a good reason to check this out!

How this works is that you submit a site or blog that you personally have and they accept it if it meets the general requirements. You then bid on reviews that advertisers want. The greatest things are that you: control the price that you are willing to write for, you choose which topics interest you, and you can make an unlimited amount of money.

For advertisers it works differently of course. You can go on the site and register. You list what types of reviews you need and then let bloggers and writers bid on what you need. Or you can browse the database of sites and see if there are particular sites that you would like to have write a review for your company and you can just ask to hire them for the job.

Scouting needs to get underway.

Since we moved our boys have not been involved in Scouting. That has been six weeks now and I really don't want them to get too used to not being involved. My younger son got his Bear early and is now in Webelos. He has yet to go so I am anxious for him to get started. My other son will turn 12 in just a few weeks and needs to be in with the 11 year old Scouts for just a while before he goes into Young Men's. I just want the transition to be smooth for him.

With homeschooling I find that Scouts is a great time for the boys to go be with their peers and learn things from other adults. I love to be involved as much as possible but I really love for the kids to make new friends and have as many opportunities to be with other groups as possible.

Devotionals are struggling, time for a new idea.

I know we are supposed to do family scripture study every day and there are times where we do really good with this but we do better when we do it right before bed along with our nightly family prayer. I was trying to do it before we did other school work in the morning. I was hoping that this would show my children that we put the gospel first in our lives by putting it first in our day. That sounds great but it hasn't been working and how we quit and aren't doing anything.

So, time to revamp! I am thinking of switching back to doing our evening routine so that we get that family scripture time in to the schedule. For the mornings my thought right now is to read an article out of the Friend or New Era and talk about it. I think that the kids will like this more and it will still send a good message.

Here's hoping!

Tithing and our economic crisis.

My husband e-mailed me today to tell me that everyone in his department at work besides him and his boss had been laid off. Evidently, the whole company had a 25% reduction in force. Effective immediately. The people were handed their checks and walked out of the building. Can you imagine? I'm sure some of you have felt it first hand. All I know is that what was once a slight fear in my mind is now a huge weight on my shoulders. I am terrified.

My DH is ever so strong. He keeps telling me that it will be okay. He is not in denial, he wants to think positive and reassure me that he will take care of all of us and seeing as he does quite a good job of caring for us, I should just trust him. Still, there are a lot of good people that happen upon hard times, especially with our economy like it is.

Anyway, the double whammy was that I realized that we had not been paying tithing for the last few months. This made me want to crawl under a rock and die for a few moments (until a child or DH called for me). In my Patriarchal Blessing I am promised that if I pay my tithing I will have enough for my needs and more. I do know Heavenly Father well enough to know that what He considers needs and what I consider needs may be completely different.

My husband and I have struggled endlessly since before we were married. Yes, it has all been our own doing. Some life circumstances have stunk but we could have been prepared had we don't things wisely during good times. Still, I do not know if I can take another dunk in the economic dunk tank of life. I have felt like I live there, maybe I'll pick out curtains for the tank.

What I do know is that I am not missing on anymore tithing payments and I am preparing myself and this household to be as prepared as possible in as short a time as possible. For once in my life, when the rug gets pulled out from under us, I want to know that I did what was right and can pull my family through the hard times.

Sorry that this varied from the homeschool topic. Perhaps we could all ask our children pointed questions about how to be prepared and why. This could be a great family learning experience.

I'm glad we homeschool, I am learning so much! LOL

Finding inspiration and resources

Aren't all parents, homeschoolers, moms in general and other people all looking for more inspiration to keep plugging away at their daily jobs? I know that I am. I can always use new ideas, resources, and tools to make me a better mother and a better homeschool parent. It's a rare day when you find all of those put together and have the luxury of it being applied with my religion in mind.

Homeschool Helps (Help for the New and Veteran LDS Homeschooler) is a great resource for homeschool parents. It truly has something for everyone and I love it that it is for new and seasoned homeschool families.

Teaching our children about gay people and gay marriage.

Yes, I know we are not supposed to be gay. Or should I say, act upon those urges. I fully believe this doctrine. I am perplexed lately about Proposition 8 in California. Why? Because I think it is a civil rights case and nothing more. I don't believe that by allowing gay people to enjoy the same privileges that I have for being married is condoning their behavior, it is simply treating them equally.

My husband is a little worried about my opinions here and that is fine. I am not out to convert anyone to my way of thinking but I think that the more ideas we listen to, the more informed we are and the more angles we see in things.

It just occurs to me that while acting on gay urges may be a sin, it is also purely evil to take away the agency of people on some levels. I feel that if the gay people want to be married let them. They will meet their maker as we will and we will all be held accountable for what we have done.

In the meantime, I want my children to know from me and my DH that there are gay people, even if they don't know any first hand, they probably will in time. I want them to know what we believe about this and that we know it to be right and true. I also want them to know that they have no business pushing their beliefs on others. Most of all, they should be taught to not be judgemental and to love everyone equally. Sins come in all shapes and sizes, we all have our fair share. None of us (unless given the authority) are in a place to judge someone else.

Thanks for hearing me out dear readers.