Well, our new kitchen/dining room floor is 90% finished!  It just needs the strips that separate the laminate from the tile, or grouting, and moldings around the bottom, and then it’s done!  Yay, Larry!  Now we need to work on getting our temporary office set up in the old part of the house that used to be our dining room .  Still lots left to do, but progress is definitely being made!

Here is another post for my blog friends who enjoy scouring the internet in search of free samples.  As always, I seem to have a hard time finding any freebies that are available to Canadians (maybe because our internal postage is SO high), but if you ever come across a Canadian-friendly freebie site, let me know so I can check it out.

The FreeCatcher website is an online community where users can get a free jar opener for joining, and then post any free offers they find online.  Be careful though, it is easy to spend a LOT of time there digging around and looking at all of the free offers: music, barbeque sauce, peanut butter, skin lotion, diapers, breakfast cereal, pancakes – these are just a few of the offers listed on just the front page of the website.  It is a veritable freebie buffet.

Some offers aren’t as appealing, such as the free cell phones. Here in Canada you can get yourself a free cellphone very easily if you don’t mind signing a contract with a service provider.  I find the offers for smaller items much more interesting, those little household necessities that you know you’ll actually USE, even if they are sample-sized.

Have fun finding yourself some free stuff!

Well, we are 90% of the way towards having the new floor in our new kitchen/dining room finished!  We’ve had all our tiles down for awhile and now Larry is working on the laminate, it looks great!  It is just a couple of shades lighter than our cupboards, but in the same reddish-oak color family!  I’m so thankful it looks good, because we certainly didn’t plan it this way.  The laminate floor and cupboards are all donated building materials my in-laws didn’t have a use for, and it’s exciting to see it coming together.

God is my interior designer.  He is providentially color co-ordinating the new part of the house!

I’ll post pictures when we are finished .

I recently posted about our experiences with Sonlight’s Core K (just a few days ago) and of our resolution to buy Core 1 once we finished the program (we’ve are in week 4 already, started on the 8th of January or so, but my children ASK for more!)

Well, I had resolved to buy myself a brand-spanking new Core 1 from Sonlight in the fall, but God surprised me!  I’d been sort of looking around at used Sonlight, found some old cores, some partial cores etc. etc. but nothing had the right readers we would need (those are $115 or so themselves), so I just decided to wait unless God and DH showed me otherwise.

Well, they did!  A Your words and a Core 1+2 with Readers 2 Intermediate – 5-Day landed in my inbox from a used curriculum yahoo group at a great price.  With shipping included.  Less than half of what a new core would be.  Less than half!  We couldn’t resist, and it should be on it’s way to us tomorrow!!  Maybe we’ll get a chance to buy new with a Your words and a 3+4 Core for the NEXT year .

I am just absolutely thrilled by God’s goodness to us and for His providing me with such an easy to teach program for next year!  And thanks to Sonlight as well for creating this program through and by His inspiration.  I need someone to rejoice with me (hence this blog post!)  WOOHOO!  Early used-box-day here we come!

Remember, if you are interested in trying Sonlight for yourself, use this referral code when you register with them: JB20316498, and receive $5 off your first order of $50 or more!

One of my sisters owns a pair of thoroughbred horses and this winter they weren’t doing too well.  I can see why, the weather has been terribly cold here – even today it is -27 degrees Celcius.  On days like today I’m sure my sister’s horses are enjoying the new horse rugs she bought for them to help them get through the winter!

My husband is running to town today but we are staying home, it’s simply too cold!  We have a family policy that we don’t travel with children when it is below -25; it is often enforced here in Alberta.

Our little Anne is now almost 1 month old, and my – how she is changing!  When she was up in the middle of the night last night she was smiling up a storm.  It was so lovely, wish I had pictures!  Nothing like pooping and nursing the night through to make a baby happy!  Of course, I’m a bit tired today, but oh well….

Some of my long-time blog readers will know that I bought my last two pairs of glasses online at a deep discount.  I’m happy to say that I’ve just found a new website for buying designer glasses and glasses frames for less!  One of the biggest reasons I buy glasses online is the great savings that can be found by buying directly (and not through an optometrist).

To give you an idea of prices – a pair of prescription sunglasses starts at $54/pair and goes up from there.  Women’s full frame glasses start at $37 and go up.  With most prescription glasses costing $300+ it’s easy to see what a great savings this is.  There’s quite a selection, so if you aren’t sure where to start you can check their bestsellers list to see the most popular frame styles (one of them looks almost just like my current pair of glasses – the Clementina is very close.

Whether you want to buy glasses frames or buy fashion glasses it is SO worth shopping around, particularly when you are a larger family on a budget!  I even have a coupon code for you for greater savings when you buy glasses at GlassesUSA.com!  You can save 10% on your next order when you use the code Mommy10, so check it out and see what you need!

Last year our family moved twice and I was pregnant (and tired). And our house was – and still is – in the middle of major expansion/renovation. As a result we pared back homeschooling to the basics: phonics, reading practice, math, spelling, copywork, (I’ve revised this a bit for this new year) and random read-alouds of picture books during the day and chapter books at night. Paring back was necessary – I couldn’t keep track of more supplies than that – but it did little to ignite a passion for learning in my children.

Recently I gathered together our Core K books (five-day, 5-7 yr. olds) and Sonlight instruction guide (IG) that I had been sent to review with the TOS crew but never finished working all the way through. The reason I pulled my books out again was that since I was reading aloud in any case, and since our content subjects had been a bit neglected, I might as well use a plan to give our readings some purpose.

So, now that we are using Sonlight FOR REAL this time, and not just trying it out to review it and then moving on, what do I think?

• I love that I don’t need to scour booklists to find great read alouds.
• Sonlight is better at picking developmentally appropriate titles than I am (I tend to shoot too high.)
• I feel like I’m getting something meaningful done when I have a plan and schedule to work from rather than randomly jumping through books on our shelf.
• When I have written goals in the IG to work towards we get more done, and I’m more focused.
• I’ve never been confident asking for narrations, and even though I don’t lean too heavily on the IG, I’m glad to have SL’s suggestions teach me what to ask for.
• My 4-year-old is wakening to the joy of listening to chapter books read aloud; it is beautiful to see her responding to Sonlight’s excellent choices. She ASKS to do narrations.
• My seven-year-old told me that she actually likes school. Her interest in reading for herself is re-kindling, and her table work seems less tedious when broken up with readings from our core. She has been telling her grandma all about SL on the phone!
• Even my 2-year-old likes listening to the readings, especially the colorful history choices.
• Core K is easy to do with my nursing newborn. Because it is mostly reading, it’s easy to do from my rocking chair without too much guilt over ‘falling behind’ with hands-on projects.
• My children love the readings so much that we are ahead of schedule; I expect to be finished by summer. If so, this will be the ONLY full-year-plan, content-based program we’ve ever finished in its’ entirety.
• I really like Sonlight’s forum. Even though I’m just an ‘eavesdropping’ member there until I buy a core for myself, it’s easy to see the value of such a full, active, knowledgeable, and experienced community of SL moms!

So, what’s the upshot here? I can become paralyzed by lesson planning, too many choices, and trying to be perfect. Sonlight’s instructor’s guide and pre-selected books form a fence around history/geography/literature that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed, helps me stay focused, and actually lets me get content subjects done with my children! Even better is that my little ones are excited about learning again and it shows in their enthusiasm. Sonlight might look simple – a box of books and a teaching plan – but there is a very special…something….that comes together in a Sonlight core; a synchronous blending of elements that brings the program to life and makes it more than the sum of its’ elements.

If we do manage to stick with our Core K and finish it before fall (I don’t really doubt it, my children keep asking for more) then I’m definitely buying Core 1 (five-day, 7-10 yr. olds) as soon as we’re done!

Thanks Sonlight!

Finally, if you are interested in trying Sonlight for yourself, use this referral code when you register with them: JB20316498, and receive $5 off your first order of $50 or more!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

WaterBrook Press (January 11, 2011)

***Special thanks to Staci Carmichael, Marketing and Publicity Coordinator, Doubleday Religion / Waterbrook Multnomah / Divisions of Random House, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

Lisa Tawn Bergren is the award-winning author of nearly thirty titles, totaling more than 1.5 million books in print. She writes in a broad range of genres, from adult fiction to devotional. God Gave Us Love follows in Lisa’s classic tradition of the best-selling God Gave Us You. She makes her home in Colorado, with her husband, Tim, and their children, Olivia, Emma, and Jack.

Visit the author’s website.

Laura J. Bryant studied painting, printmaking, and sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She has illustrated numerous award-winning children’s books, including God Gave Us You, Smudge Bunny, and If You Were My Baby. Laura lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Visit the illustrator’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $10.99
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press (January 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400074487
ISBN-13: 978-1400074488

Also Available:

God Gave Us You
God Gave Us Two
God Gave Us Christmas
God Gave Us Heaven
God Gave Us Love
God Gave Us So Much – a limited three book treasury

AND NOW…THE FIRST FOUR PAGES…press the pictures to better view them:

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

I have always considered myself a punctual person, and even after having children, my husband and I strive to be on time whenever we have an appointment.  Because we live in a somewhat isolated rural area we always build extra buffer time into our traveling schedules and often end up arriving at our destination early, particularly if it is our first time driving somewhere and we need to estimate the travel time.

Surprisingly, it was only this past year that we got my husband a good pocket watch.  I still don’t wear a watch!  If I were to buyanother watch, I’d  look at affordable brands that are associated with quality, like casio watches. We’ve found that it just doesn’t pay to cheap out on a timepiece.  I also love that so many pink watches are available in their line of ladies watches!

Of course, we all know people who have a hard time keeping their time commitments – my list will remain a secret in case those people come to read this post.  Ahem.  Of course, my family may be reading this and laughing, they might even point out that I rarely say I’ll be coming to visit at a specific time, but rather that I keep them hanging.  Well dear family, if that is the case, we appreciate your patience!