Studying the Presidents

Last January when Nicholas and I finished his Abeka 2nd grade history, I started browsing the shelves to see what else I had on hand to use for History. We came across a coloring book from Scholastic that someone had given me called Meet the Presidents. The book had never been colored in even though it is 20 years old. Nick was very interested in learning about this topic so we jumped in. In addition to being a coloring page, the book shows the births and deaths of the Presidents, term in office, and an interesting fact about each one. To further our study, we look up each one in the World Book Encyclopedia (we were given a set from the 70's last year and actually have used it quite a bit.) I also found this website here that gives information about each of our Presidents and more coloring pages here that you can print out. All of the pages Nick has been doing are going into a Presidents of the United States Notebook for future reference. He has really enjoyed doing this study and we both have learned quite a bit.

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Book Review: Friendships for Grown-ups by Lisa Whelchel

I just finished reading the book, Friendship for Grown-ups by Lisa Whelchel. Lisa was a famous actress, author, pastor's wife, mother to 3 children, and a follower of Christ. Some people would think that is the perfect life. But she discovers what is missing in her life are true friendships. In this book, Lisa shares her journey traveling the ups and downs of friendships, learning about herself, others, and the kinds of friendship God designed. She shares her struggle with trying to be perfect, the wall she had around her to protect herself from being hurt by others, and what happened when the wall came down. She describes what to look for in a close "safe " friendship and how to make, maintain, and keep theses relationships healthy.

Wow. This is a really great book ( and I don't say that too often.) Lisa's story is heartfelt and compelling. I read this book and saw so much of myself in it. Jesus is my best friend, but we need to also have relationships with people so we can grow closer in our relationships to the Lord. My husband is my best friend. This is absolutley true, but he is a man, and women just need women sometimes. Lisa shares in her story that she thought that the more perfect that she was, the more people would like her and want to connect with her, so she showed people only what she wanted them to see. I think as women we have this idea that we need to show perfection to the people around us. We need to be able to do it all can't show when we are weak, vulnerable, or a miserable failure at something. We may find it hard to trust people with our inner most feelings or past experiences because we have been hurt by people we trusted in the past. This book offers powerful reminders of how to keep our strong friendships healthy and for those who may long to build this kind of friendship, it is a compassionate guide to becoming the friend we all need.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson for the sole purpose of reviewing it and received no other financial compensation.

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Yard Sale!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working to de-clutter our house and get rid of things we don't need or use anymore (especially in the playroom which has gotten way out of control.) I had a pretty good amount of stuff but not enough to do a yard sale on my own. Plus my location is not exactly high traffic. My sister-in-law and mom and dad only live a few miles from each other and had some things to sell, so I drove up with the kids on Wednesday planning on having the sale Thurs, Fri, and Saturday. We didn't do any advertising in the newspaper, but we did put an add on Craig's List. We also put signs on the corner pointing in the direction of the house. At 6:30 am I went out to put stuff out (we were starting at 7) and there was a truck at the end of the driveway waiting for the sale to start. By 9am we had sold 80 percent of our stuff. We only had some clothes, a few toys, a bike rack, tire, and a box of geo-tracks left. At 11:00 I closed it down and pulled the ad off Craig's List. I am going to donate what's left of the clothes and toys and put a the few other things on Craig's List. For a few hours worth of work we made over $400 combined, and I have a lot less toys to trip over.

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4-H Achievement Banquet

Friday was the 4-H Achievement Banquet. Anthony and Christian stayed at home with Nana and Papa while the rest of us went to the Banquet. This year's theme was "Roll Out the Green Carpet and dress was either formal or church attire. We found Chelsea's dress on clearance at David's Bridal for only $20. Nick borrowed a suit and tie from a friend and I found Alex's suit coat for $3 at Once Upon a Child. The food and the decorations at the Banquet were very nice. It did run a bit long (over 3 hours) which is a little hard on the younger kids, but they held up all right. Nick and Alex both got their Cloverbud Journal Awards. Chelsea's club won two awards, and Chelsea won County Champion for her 4-H Participation and was a District Journal winner. I am very proud of my children for all of their hard work and participation in 4-H.

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Digging for Diamonds

Not very far away from my house is the world's only public diamond mine. The Crater of Diamond State Park has 37 acres of a ploughed area that is available for public mining and even though we have lived in Arkansas for 8 years have never been there. Today we went on a field trip to do some diamond mining. Approximately 600 diamonds are found every year in varying sizes and colors. 6 diamonds were found this morning during the time period we were there, but none of them were ours. We did find several quartz and Nick found a crystal quartz that looked like a diamond. It has not rained all week and the dirt was very hard to dig in. The children did bring home some dirt in their buckets to look through later.

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Visiting Sunshine Acres

Yesterday, our Cloverbud 4-H group had an opportunity to take a field trip to Sunshine Acres in Nashville, AR. They did a wonderful job talking to our children about plants and what they need to grow, and showing the children different kinds of plants and seeds. We also got to make a flower basket to be auctioned off in the silent auction to benefit the 4-H Foundation. Each child had an opportunity to plant something in the basket and it turned out beautifully. All of the children also got to pick a plant, plant it, and take it home with them. It was a great field trip!

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P. E. at Home

I heard the craziest thing the other day. There is an activist group that is trying to ban Ronald McDonald from McDonald's advertising because he is the cause of obesity in children. Really? There are 2 main causes to childhood obesity; lack of exercise and poor nutrition. Ronald McDonald cannot be held responsible for these. We need to focus on better nutrition and exercise for our children. In schools today P. E. classes are typically 30 minutes long (not even every day) with children being sedentary for the rest of the day with the exception of a brief recess. Children's bodies need exercise. Do you remember when we were kids and stayed outside playing until it got dark every day?

Getting plenty of exercise is easy and very inexpensive. The first thing to make sure children get enough exercise is to limit TV, computer, and video games. The more of these you have the easier it is to get sucked in by them and before you know it the entire evening has been wasted. Turn off your TV and computer and send your kids outside. Exercise does not have to be structured or organized. Organized sports can be a lot of fun . Soccer, Football, Baseball, swimming, Dance Lessons, Karate etc... are all great ways to get exercise. But, there are many fun activities you can do right in your own backyard. I read somewhere that the outdoors and a great imagination are all kids need. A few things that may be helpful in getting kids motivated are: balls of different sizes and shapes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, hoola- hoops, Frisbees, jump ropes (we do not have these at our house instead of being used for exercise they tie things and people up with them), chalk, etc... all can fill your child's mind with fun activities. The other day at Walmart I bought some chalk ($1) and the children have had great fun drawing and playing hopscotch. My children love to play tag, football, basketball, soccer in our backyard. Go for a nature walk at your local park or around your neighborhood. Get outdoors and have some fun! It will start to become a habit and before you know it the entire evening will be gone and the TV was never even turned on once.

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