Those of us with a penchant for older novels, and perhaps films that portray 1800s England are very familiar with the popularity of private schools for educating children in years past.  The truth is, that such schools are still thriving in the UK, providing boarding schools and day schools for both boys and girls.

As homeschoolers, such a life seems incredibly far removed from our daily existence, and I don’t think this is an option that our family would ever feel led towards.  For some parents however the association of a private school with a quality education is hard to break from when it’s such a cultural tradition.  Boys schools have long been the beginning of “old boys clubs” where life-long business/political relationships are formed.  Winston Churchill comes to mind and his boyhood friendships that were formed in his early private school experiences.

As a child I found the ‘idea’ of boys schools somehow romantic and mysterious – and I’m sure many modern day readers of stories such as Harry Potter (English co-ed boarding school setting) find it likewise.  Personally, I don’t know anyone who’s attended a boys school themselves, but because God has called us to homeschool we’re happy here at home with our children, where He’s placed us.

With all of the rain we’ve had this year, we have a really nice crop of hay…we just need to go cut it! It is definitely getting a bit late in the hay-cutting season which is why we’re making haste to get a move on and get the hay cut.

But first…

• Dishes
• Laundry
• Packing
• Food preparation
• Blog posts ($$)
• Last minute business promos that need to be attended to

Will I get it all done?  Hmm, with a very, very busy 2-year-old I’m thinking it’s doubtful.  But I’m trying, and trying not to scream in the process. (How’s that for honesty for you!)

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

There are a lot of options available for mobile phones these days – and some of the unlimited calling and texting plans are really just as affordable as a land line (at least they are up here once you add call display, voice mail, and other options to the price of your basic land line.)

Boost Mobile offers unlimited plans for many popular phones including the Blackberry, and a really cute full QWERTY keyboard phone. The phones are all designed with social networking in mind to help you text message and update social networking sites (like twitter) easily.

Boost Mobile‘s Re-Boost program also allows a variety of convenient payment options – in-person, by phone, and by internet (my all-time favorite.) You can make payments by credit and debit, or sign up for automatic payments, AND friends and family can also make payments for you (aww, thanks for paying my cell phone bill Mom/Dad/Friend – great birthday present!)

I’m a bit behind on technology, and sometimes I feel like I’m one of the ONLY people on the planet without a cell phone. One day I think I’ll get one, but ONLY when I can get GOOD, reliable service rurally – our current home gets very bad service!

Have you been gearing back for the new homeschooling year?  We school relaxedly almost year-round with breaks for traveling and visiting, but we too are preparing to do some more intensive work.

Until the end of August CurrClick.com is having a HUGE Back to Homeschool Sale with savings of up to 75% on all of their homeschooling downloadables including lapbooks, unit studies, and yes – copywork!

All of our Bogart Family Resources titles are on sale for 20% of as well, so if there’s a title you missed when it was initially released, or one you need for the upcoming school year, now’s your chance to stock up and save!

Do check it out, and enjoy the great savings!

After our official speech therapy assessment with our four-year-old daughter last week, we had our very first speech therapy appointment this morning.  She had a great time, and is SO excited to have official homework to do before her next appointment.  We are working on ‘f’ to start with, and she’s already making very good progress.

This is a part of educating our little ones that I didn’t think we’d need to pursue, but despite our very relaxed ‘wait and see’ approach, and faith that time would help everything progress, it has become clear that not everything has been progressing as it should be.  So – it’s been off to tackle some articulation delays at the therapist, and I’m very thankful that our therapist is dedicated to teaching me what to do at home with our little one to help her on a daily basis.

In recent years housing prices in our nearest large city have really gone up.  Both purchasing and renting rates have increased dramatically over the past few years, but still, the prices for rentals there pale in comparison to that of some of the Los Angeles apartments that are currently up for rent.

Quite often the prices shown are for a single bedroom in a shared apartment.  One listing is for a bedroom in a shared apartment for $925/month.  And there are 4 other young women living in the other 2 bedrooms.

Wow.

I’m not familiar with the different LA neighborhoods to be able to judge the swankiness of certain locations, but it does seem to be a spendy city to live in.

Full speed ahead with the Ninky Nonk repairs! Larry is just putting everything together again right now, and he hopes that we’re able to take the Ninky Nonk out to the midwife’s appointment.

Either that, or determine if we need to pick up any other parts while we’re in the big city. Hopefully she’ll be squeak-free and running smooth the next time we take her out for a run! Seems like ‘new to us’ vehicles always need a bit of work done in the beginning .

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LinensNThings. All opinions are 100% mine.

Get your free shipping code for Linens ‘N Things here!  For the next five days (until the 15th) LNT.com has provided SocialSpark with an exclusive coupon code for their bloggers (like me) to share with everyone online!  This isn’t exclusive to my blog readers, so do feel free to share it with friends/family, on your blog/twitter/facebook etc.

Here it is:

LNTFREE

Linens ‘N Things also normally offers free shipping within the U.S. (not to P.O. Boxes because they use UPS) when you order over $45 with their own internal free shipping offer, but this code should work regardless of your order size.  Hurray!

NOT that it would be difficult to spend $45 there – along with their traditional bedding, small appliances, organizational supplies etc. they also have a selection of “Back to School” supplies.

AND if it works out better for you to save 20% off one big ticket item , check out the school supplies section there for a coupon code you can use instead (it can’t be combined with this free shipping coupon however.)

20% off their 72 tin of Prisma Color colored artists pencils would be nice – yes, we do have a little budding artist in our house!

Either way you choose to save with LTN, have fun shopping!

Well, if you are keeping in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve likely heard about our recent robbery (though this is my first post about it here.)  Thankfully we weren’t at our farm when the event took place, and thankfully little damage was done.  We’re also very thankful for good neighbours who are willing to call the police, and thankful that there wasn’t too much damage done.  We’re thankful that not much was taken and that the police have already recovered it.

We are thankful.

And we’re praying that God will intervene in the life of this young person and use this event to dissuade him from a life of further crime.  That he will learn that crime truly doesn’t pay, and that somehow his heart would be softened towards the creator of the universe.

If you feel led, I’d like to invite you to agree with me in prayer for this under-age offender.

Thank you.

I’ve had my eye on Adopted for Life for some time now, and having been offered to review the audio book version by Christianaudio.com I can say that author Russell Moore has more than met my expectations.

For the past two weeks I’ve listened to the author’s voice reading his own work warmly, with a depth and authenticity that his own journey through adoption has lent to his work.  I’ve wept tears into my dishwater as I’ve let myself be absorbed by his thoughts, both theological and practical on the nature of adoption and its important to Christians.

Our family has had a heart for adoption for sometime, but various circumstances in our life have temporarily (I hope) placed it outside of possibilities for our family.  It’s my prayer that God is only preparing our family for a time when we too can add children who are currently fatherless into our own household.

Whether you are like us, or are wondering how to support and understand adoptive families in your church or family, are struggling with infertility, want to spearhead an adoption ministry in your church, or just want a clearer image of how physical adoptions mirror the spiritual reality of our own spiritual adoption – then this is a book for you.

Though only seven-hours in length, there is an immense wealth, breadth, and depth of information contained in this work – you won’t find agency recommendations or country-specific regulations here, those change too quickly, but you will find nearly everything else.

Incredibly inspiring, incredibly moving, and incredibly convicting, Adopted for Life is a title I highly recommend for everyone, whether an adoption is imminent in their near future or not.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!