Our Family Project

Eliza turned 12-years-old in April!  Can you believe it?  I don't even have any pictures of her cake (which was an angel food cake), or her presents (which were clothes).  But, I do have a picture of her special quilt that my mom made for her.  It is a queen sized quilt for her bed (she sleeps in our guest room and gets kicked out whenever we have guests ... it's the price she pays for her own room).  Anyone else see a pattern beside the "E's"? Anyone?  Anyone?  Yes!  The "E's" are in the Young Women Value Colors.  So pretty.  So applicable.  So very like my mom to be so thoughtful.  All I did was take her shopping for clothing that was true to her nature (she's dressing her truth now as a Type 4 ... in all aspects).  My mother is the best, is she not?

One of my goals is to challenge my children more; give them assignments that expect more from them.  The last three weeks we've been telling Eliza in her mentor sessions with us that we will give her a research project topic, yet I haven't done that yet.  How does everyone do it?  I mean, how do you find the time to get the information you need to make a good decision, as well as everything else you need to do? All of my children could be challenged more.  For example, these pictures show Andrew with his spelling lesson, All About Spelling .  I love this program.  It teaches the rules of spelling, not just memorizing, and it takes into account the three major learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic).  So, first I introduce the spelling rule.  Then, I demonstrate it with the letter tiles.  At which point, Andrew gets to use the tiles to spell his spelling list.  After he can spell all of the words with the tiles, he gets to writ...

For my birthday present this year, I got to order something I've been thinking about getting for months and months: fabric labels!  I know that may seem a little strange to some of you, but I love how "finished" a project looks with a label on it.  After doing lots and lots of research online, I discovered that woven fabric labels are actually quite expensive, and they come in huge quantities!  The first companies I found online would make the labels for over $300 in a minimal quanity of 1000 or up.  My first thought was, "Whoa!  That is insanely expensive!"  And my second thought was, "Yikes!  There's no way I'm ever going to use 1000 labels!" So, after looking at many, many websites, I finally found someone that would make woven labels (as opposed to printed, which can fade) in a minimal quantity of 300 for $30 (for just text, not graphic).  So, that's where I got them!  My kind sister designed my labels for me after I picked out t...

I wanted to take a gift for my cousin's son for his birthday party, but didn't want to go to the store.  We really decided the Friday before the party to go, and I hated the thought of taking my children to the toy section in a department store.  I never know how they will react ... and how long it will take to get them out the door after we've made our purchase.  To avoid this, I remembered a great idea I saw online: Bean Bag Games!  After some time spent trying to find the site I'd found before, I located the bean bag game cards and printed them out.  Such great ideas!  Then, I spent about an hour making the bean bags and the bag to store them in.  Really, it took almost the same time to make this as it would have to get everyone in the car and take them to the store.  I now know what all of our young nieces and nephews will be getting for their birthdays!  Well, actually, I have another idea in mind as well ... and cannot wait ...