This past week has been spent getting back into routine and getting caught up on housecleaning. I completely cleaned my bedroom, my bathroom and reorganized my closet. I did lots of laundry, about 10 loads; towels, sheets, bedspreads etc.  I guess I kind of had the spring cleaning bug. I do feel like someone in my house has been sick pretty much every day since the  beginning of November and I felt like I needed to reclean and sanitize things like bedspreads and pillows and bedrooms to maybe knock all of the sickness out. I know it felt good to have it clean. I cleaned so much until my whole body was sore.

Then we had company over from out of town. One of my hubby's old high school friends. He is a Pastor in New England and they came to visit with his wife and 6 kids. Such a beautiful family and we had a great time. It really made my DH and I realize how much we have become home-bodies. It was so nice to hang out with Godly people and the kids had a great time too.

Then there was the homeschooling. The rest of my week was spent working with the girls. I am a little behind in the grading and the end of the grading period is this week. I have to get caught up and still keep up with the lesson plans at the same time. I decided after Christmas break that I was adding the memorization of Bible verses to the girls lesson plans. They will have one verse a week to memorize and then be graded on. I think they will appreciate it later in life because the verses really do stick with you.

So that's where I was this week.  Maybe later I will tell you what I have planned for this week.

Saturday rant!

I got this in an email this morning and thought it pretty much hit the nail on the head. I think the main issue with society today is that no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. Everyone wants to blame someone else for their choices. Here's the email.

HIGH SCHOOL
1957 vs. 2010

Scenario 1:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2010 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again.
Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.


Scenario 2:
Buster and Dale get into a fist fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Buster wins. Buster and Dale shake hands and end up buddies.
2010 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Buster and Dale. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Buster started it.



Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2010 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.


Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2010 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.



Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957- Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock
2010- The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.


Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957-Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2010- Pedro's cause is taken up by state.
Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist..
ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.



Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2010 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.


Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary . Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2010 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy..

I suck at this!

Seriously, I think I suck at blogging. I can't seem to wrap it into my daily routine no matter how hard I try. Things just never seem to go as planned. Life as a mother of 3, a housewife, and homeschool teacher to two is just very unpredictable and chaotic. I have resigned myself to this. So I expect the interuptions and that things will never go smoothly. I just can't seem to deal with the fact that I can't get everything done I need to be doing in the timeframe I want.

So about the time I got into my homeschool routine and felt like I had things under control it was Christmas season. I had so many projects to finish (home-made gifts).  We took a long break during December during which time I also got sick. Flash forward to the first week of January, trying to get back into routine. I was still sick. Finally decided to visit the doctor and take care of it. Then the second week guess what happens...a major snow storm and my 10 year old has been home all week. So Monday will be the 3rd week of the new year and 3rd week back to school. Technically we should be wrapping up the semester, but we are definitely not there.  Guess it will all work out, we will just have to extend the end of the semester.

So once again I will attempt to do better at this blogging thing. There is so much I want to write about.

Finally some sort of normalcy

So after two months I am finally feeling like I'm getting back to some sort of normalcy. I am now homeschooling both the girls. It's definitely been a rewarding experience albeit a challenging one. I am glad that I made the decision. It's taken me this long to get into a routine with it, but I finally feel like I have control of things around here.

Since I've got things running smoothly finally, I am purging my sewing room for the start of a new prosperous year and trying to make some Christmas money to boot.  Check out my listings on ebay. If you are on Facebook with me then you should check out the Custom Boutique Resell Group for some of my samples as well as some of the wonderful creations of my friends. I am slowly but surely listing off anything I no longer need or samples that have been just laying around. Check them out!

Homeschooling......ahhhh, where to start?

So since I've posted last, we finally decided it was time to actually homeschool our 13 year old. Our 10 old will likely follow next fall.

Today I am working on lesson plans and getting everything organized and ready to go with the start of next week. I am a little nervous but very excited to do this for my daughter. I think she will thrive in this enviroment and do very well. I am a little overwhelmed but my mind is over-flowing with ideas and things to teach her. I will likely be back with tips and resources for home-schooling Moms.

Wish me luck!

Our newest addition!

We lost our beloved Peanut in February. She had been our dog for 12 years and she is sorely misssed. We didn't want to replace her but we have had a longing to give our love to another puppy. A few weeks ago I finally gave in and allowed the search to begin for a new pet. Here is the newest addition to our family. His name is Max. He's almost a year old and we think he's the cutest the thing you ever did see. What do you think?

Help Angel Win Studio Time

Friday, September 10, 2010


Info for the Bench Studios Contest

The videos are up and the contest has begun. There is some great talent represented there. Check it out.



Here's the link to the fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-NC/the-Bench-Studios/102283916477977



Angel's video is on either page 4 or page 7 depending on the format style you are using to browse the videos. Here's the link directing to it: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-NC/the-Bench-Studios/102283916477977#!/video/video.php?v=447310481848



Please vote for her and help her win studio time so she can record one of her original songs!



She posted a brand new video today talking about the contest and also sang a couple sneak peeks to some songs she working on including a brand new original she's working on. Make sure to check it out.

So sad

One of our good friends, Tom, lost his house in a house fire yesterday. Thankfully everyone is safe and no one was in the house at the time. We are sad for the loss of his home, security and of course belongings though. Here's some scary after pictures of the house.

 

Some great sites I found with sewing tutorials

I've been researching sewing sites for sewing tips and easy to follow tutorials for my sewing curriculum I am currently creating. I plan to start giving sewing lessons to local children in the near future.

Anyhow, along the way I am coming across some great sites. Even though they may not be what I am looking for I thought they might be interesting for some of you to check out.

http://sewing.about.com/od/adultclothingprojects/ss/jeanskirt.htm

http://www.allcrafts.net/f.asp?url=thimbleanna.com/tutorials/GoofyBagsHowTo.html

http://www.snazzorama.com/yetta/bag-tutorial.pdf

I'll post some more tomorrow as I am researching things.

Win a $10 iTunes giftccard

We just keep on trucking along and continue to promote Angel and get her name out there. The latest is a Facebook fan page. With over 500 subscribers on youtube and 106,000 total views it was time to branch out a bit.

Click here to check out her page: Facebook Fan Page for Angel

There are a few ways you can help us out with this.

1. You can like her Fan page
2. Share her facebook fan page
3. Suggest friends for her facebook fan page
4. You can put up a link to her blog.
5. Follow her blog (http://angelmariecur.blogspot.com/2010/07/win-10-itunes-gift-card.html)
6. You can embed one of her videos from youtube on your facebook page and encourage others to like it and subscribe to her AngelMarieCur's YouTube
7. And of course don't forget to subscribe to her videos on youtube yourself.

So I am going to do a contest to get this going. I want her facebook page to reach 100 fans and to increase her youtube subscribers to 1000 (Diane, thanks for the great idea).

Directions: Comment on this blog post, with a comment for each of the suggestions listed above. I will enter your name in a drawing one time for each comment that you post after I verify that you have completed the suggestion. Make sure to give me your youtube user name and links to your facebook page. You can email me privately as well if you don't feel comfortable posting that information publicly. Sewrtess@aol.com That is 7 possible entries into the contest. The prize will be a $10 itunes gift card.

**Note: your wall on facebook must be public for me to confirm that you shared and embedded the video.

Contest starts today on 7/15 and ends on midnight on July 30th