WFMW: dryer sheets

I admit, I thought I was the only one who did this until last month's Whole Hearted Mother's conference when we talked about laundry issues in one of our gab sessions. But I have a tip that will save you roughly half the money you spend on dryer sheets: tear them in half and use one sheet for two loads.

I know that may sound silly, but when you have a larger family, that means more laundry, and little things start to add up. I got the idea when I would take used dryer sheets out of a newly dried load, and it would still be a little stiff, like it still had some life in it. So since the loads didn't seem to need the whole sheet, I started tearing them in half. I tried it on all loads, and now I do it with everything except the load that has my husband's black dress socks. They are just too static-y without a full sheet.

Click here for other ideas for dryer sheets.

Tapestry of Grace

I have become a Tapestry of Grace affiliate! This means that if you click on my link on the right hand side bar or here, and order anything from Lampstand Press, the publishers of Tapestry of Grace, I will get a small commission from them with no additional cost to you. So if you are planning on purchasing anything from the Tapestry of Grace website, please use my link so I'll get credit for it! Don't forget they sell books as well!

What is Tapestry of Grace? It is a history, geography, Bible survey and church history, literature, writing, fine arts, governments, and philosophy curriculum, for all levels K-12. It utilizes "living books" at four different levels, maps, 12 levels of writing assignments, and optional assignments in electives such as art, philosophy, and government. It is the best of unit studies and classical methods made doable for all of us - while anyone can use it, it is designed especially with large families in mind. It travels through all of world history in four year plans, allowing all your students to study the same topic at the appropriate level.

The people who produce "Tapestry of Grace" have put three weeks of everything they produce online for free. They're offering a complete mini-unit on ancient Egypt, which consists of the first three weeks of "Tapestry of Grace," specially prepared evaluations materials, a comprehensive writing program, customized maps, hands-on lap books, and their unique new "Pop Quiz," which provides audio CDs so dads can come up to speed on what the family is studying each week. Here's a link to the new "Go to Egypt" site.

There's ALOT of stuff there, so feel free to browse and use either my link to buy, or my affiliate code when you order: TOGNB49

You know you're a homeschooler when...

I sent this around in an email a couple years ago, but lost it in a subsequent hard drive crash. I ran across it a few days ago, and thought it was worth another post. It still makes me laugh.


For those of you who don't homeschool, and so might not get the humor in this, let me just say that sometimes we feel pressure for our kids to be a certain way, even to other homeschoolers, whom we always assume have it more together than we do. Yes, that's ridiculous. Which is why this is so funny. :)

Sunday Sums

The sickness seems to be finally waning around here. I felt alot better yesterday, but had zero energy. I had to run to HEB for milk, eggs, and more medicine yesterday morning, and was crashed on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. Kelly said he finally feels a little better this morning - his throat isn't killing him, and he slept well (I think partly due to the NyQuil I ran out and got yesterday). So hopefully another day of rest will get him off to work tomorrow.

Brynna and Aubrey haven't had a breathing treatment in over 24 hours, so they seem to be getting better as well. They are still having to finish up the round of oral steroids. Lauryn isn't coughing nearly as much, and her nose isn't needing to be wiped very much at all, so maybe the light is beginning to show at the end of the tunnel.

We have the sweetest church family ever! We have had dinner brought to us the last two nights - both of which were very yummy. Plus another another church member brought us breakfast yesterday! This has been such a blessing for us. With Kelly and I both feeling like death warmed over the last few days, we were running out of leftovers and easy meals that Kora could throw together. So a HUGE thank you to all of you who have helped us out. It's rough when mom and dad are both sick, as well as over half the kids. I joked to our pastor that we needed to put a big "Quarantined" sign on our door, as this stuff was nasty!

Really, other than that, I have nothing else to catch up on. With Kelly home from work most of the week, and the rest of us just home, we are starting to get a little cabin fever-ish now that we are on the mend a little. We will all be so glad to get back to a normal routine. And a clean house. One look at our kitchen will tell you that it has been in the hands of children for far too long...

Lord, thank you for this time of illness and rest you have brought to our family. Thank you that we were able to avoid the ER. Thank you that Kelly had the time off to take. Thank you for our wonderful church family who has been such a blessing to us. Help us to be a blessing to them when they need help. Help us to rest in your wisdom and plan for our lives.

Most of all, thank you most of all for coming and dying for our sick and dying souls.

Amen.

Isn't it romantic. . .

Actual Conversation in the housefullofgirls:

Aubrey: When I grow up, I want to move to Montana.

Kora: Well, it depends. You may not if you get married to someone in the Air Force. If you do, you'll have to go wherever the Air Force tells you to go.

Aubrey: Yeah, but since we don't know who we're marrying yet, we don't know where we'll live.

Kora: Yeah, because it's not like we can go ask someone to marry us.

Aubrey: No, we just have to wait around waiting for someone else to ask us. It's like sitting around waiting for someone to offer us food.

(Me in the next room, trying to not let them see me eavesdropping or hear me holding back barks of laughter.)

Illness update - yep, it's actually worse around here...

Remember when I mentioned a few posts ago about some of our kids ending up in the ER with breathing issues? Well, we almost had a repeat today. Brynna woke up with severe breathing problems, a temp of over 102, and vomiting. We stuck her in the bathroom and ran the hot water for a steam treatment. That got her stable enough that we decided to wait and take her to our regular doctor. By the time I was ready to go, Aubrey had started having problems breathing so I took her with me so the doctor could listen to her as well.

Turns out she has bronchiolitis, which he said was a type of bronchitis. Aubrey has the same thing. It's viral, so we were sent home with steroids, a nebulizer and medicine for it for both girls. Actually I got scripts for them, and had to spend the afternoon chasing down a nebulizer that I could get today and that took our insurance, but that's another story. :)

But the doctor did give us the reassuring news that it is highly contagious and should probably make its way through the whole family, especially for those who have "twitchy airways." Did I ever mention I have asthma? And all our kids seem to have "twitchy airways?" They already are coughing their heads off. And Kelly has missed 3 days of work already this week, and will probably miss tomorrow. So if you could pray that we are all able to recover quickly from this, and that no one will have any further breathing problems, especially during the night, we would all greatly appreciate it.

WFMW: Library Elf

I know many families, and homeschooling families in particular love the library. Our family goes once a week, and not just to pick up books about Greece or Rome, but also because the girls and I love to read. I do buy a great many books for school, but we also supplement with library books.

Between the history books for 2-3 children, science books, literature books, plus what the girls call "fun books" - this is anything that is not assigned for school, although they do sometimes read "school books" for fun, plus my books (family, homemaking, biographies, history, as well as novels), we have MANY books checked out of the library at one time. We have an entire shelf in our front room that is the home of our library books when not being read. Kelly calls it "The Smith Branch of the San Antonio Library." Kora and I both have library cards, and between the two we usually have 40-60 books checked out at one time. Keeping up with them all used to be a nightmare until I discovered Library Elf.

This is a website that has partnered up with many libraries across the nation, thankfully including the San Antonio library system. It is a free service in which they send you emails reminding you of upcoming due books, any over due books, alerts you to any books that are ready to be picked up after you have placed them on hold. You enter all the library cards your family has, and it sends you one email for all of them. You also get to control the settings of how often you receive the emails, how many days prior to the due date, etc.

Before I signed up with Elf over a year ago, we had library fines on a regular (as in monthly) basis. These have virtually been eliminated (leaving me more money to BUY books!) since then. I now get an email the day before I go to the library with a complete list of everything due the next day. This allows me to make sure everything gets turned in on time, or rechecked. This is has been a lifesaver for me! My husband likes the drastic reduction in fines as well.

So if you utilize the library, DON'T leave home without Library Elf!