A Day in My Life

So today I have been reflecting on my life and all of the changes that I have made over these past several months. I decided that perhaps it is now time to answer some of the questions I have been asked privately from some of my readers. I promised I would share answers when I was ready, and since today is my birthday, I decided the best gift I could give myself was to answer these questions once and for all. 🙂

So I am going to do a question and answer format type of interview with a version of each question I have been asked over the past few months. Let me know if you like this format. If you do like this, then perhaps we can do this periodically here on my blog. 🙂

Why did you quit your job with TOS?

Well, nothing like starting with the big one, huh? Honestly, I had felt for a long time that God had other plans for me. I just refused to listen. So when I actually left, it was long overdue. That being said, the company was moving in a direction I was not comfortable with and no longer wished to be a part of it. There are some other dirty little details that I just don’t want to go into publicly. Had I listened to God the first time, those details would be a non-issue as I would have left a year prior to them occurring.

If you could do anything differently in that process, what would you have done?

Listened to God the first time and quit before. It would have saved me a lot of unnecessary pain.

What have you learned through this process?

I have learned to always follow God the first time he prompts you to do something. Don’t question it or fight it. He knows what is best and you can save a lot of heartache and tears if you just do what He asks immediately.

It seems as if you lost some close friends through this process. How do you feel about that?

Yes, I did lose some close friends or at least who I thought were close friends. What I have learned is that they were not really my friends at all. They were most interested in what I could do for them or give to them. Those aren’t the kind of people I want for friends.

What I did learn was that I have many other wonderful friends who are true blue. I learned who I can truly trust. I am thankful for each and every one of them. I am truly blessed.

What are you doing now?

Oh, I am so glad you asked! As you might be aware, I have started a new website with my special and dear friend, Heidi Strawser. We wanted to create a place for all homeschoolers. Homeschool Mosaics is the result of our dreams and plans. This was truly a God-led project and we are honestly amazed each day at how He is blessing us. We have lots of other exciting things planned in the future that we hope will bless others.

I am also working on another new venture with my friend Christi. We should be launching our new product line soon, and I will be sure to share when that happens. You won’t want to miss it!

And finally, I am working on a line of books for the kindle that I should begin publishing within the next month. This particular series is non-fiction and I will also be publishing some books written by my husband in the gardening area. I am also working on my great American novel.

So as you can see, things are working out for the best. Always follow God’s leading, and you will be blessed immeasurably.

So we have not had a dog in our home for over 2 years. We had a beagle, named Jake, and we loved him fiercely. I have always been a lover of hounds. They are just adorable and I love their rich voices. But we sadly had to put him down over 2 years ago for some serious health issues he was having. It was the kind thing to do, though it broke our hearts.

You can imagine the surprise then, that my hubby had when I fell in love with a froo froo dog named Asia. She wandered into our yard on the 4th, and was very scared of all the noise that was going on in the neighborhood with firecrackers and whatnots.

She looked at me with those soulful eyes and I was hooked almost immediately.

Now, Asia’s rightful family was found and she was rejoined with her family. But Chandler and I felt an immediate hole. But we figured it was a lost cause because Gary is technically allergic to dogs. But Chandler pointed out that the Shih Tzu dog, formerly known in our household as a froo froo dog, was hypoallergenic. They don’t shed, so maybe Dad should consider getting us one. So my sweet hubby began to secretly search for something to replace that hole in our hearts. He is cool that way.

He secretly put out feelers and found a couple of different breeders who were local to us. He took me on a drive and surprised me with looking at a couple of different ones. But while they were cute, they just didn’t feel right for our family. Then he found a breeder who had this little cutie just waiting for someone to claim her.

He took us to meet the little fluffball last week and she and I bonded. She likes Chandler quite well, and Gary was fine. But I am her person. I get to bring her home later this week. She is an early birthday present for me. I am calling her Panda because she looks like a little panda bear ewok. We are excited to have a new member of our family this week. I will post more about her after we get her home and take some new pictures. She is already spoiled and doesn’t even know it. I’m a cool mom like that.

It’s been awhile since I just blogged about life. I have been up to my eyeballs in projects and work and just haven’t taken the time to share what is going on. So I thought it was past time for me to remedy that and share.

I’ve been waiting for the past week for Blog Carnival to come back online so I can post my bi-monthly blog carnival. Everytime I check it, it says it is temporarily down. Temporary means just a short time in my world. I have no idea what temporary means to them. It just seems like they have move beyond temporary, you know? Hopefully they will come back up soon, so I can post my blog carnival. We shall see.

I have been spending a lot of time lately working on an exciting new project that you just might find valuable. I am in the process of launching a new website for homeschoolers, with my partner Heidi, and the help of 23 other women who will be writing for us. The name of the website is Homeschool Mosaics. The website is due to launch on April 2nd. Until then, you can follow along with us on our Facebook page. We will be having a Facebook Party to celebrate the launch of the new site, and you can win prizes! There will be some free things for everyone, and we currently have over 50 other prizes that you can win. That number seems to be growing daily. The Facebook Party will be on April 2nd, from 8pm to 10 pm, Eastern time. Be sure to sign up and follow us so you can have a chance at winning the wonderful items we have to give away!

Last week I was given some news that I have been digesting ever since. It seems that I am developing a cataract on my left eye. This might not seem like a big deal to you, but I have had so many eye problems over the past several years. I have had detached retinas and already had a cataract surgery on my right eye. The problem is that due to my retinal surgeries, my eyes work opposite from each other. So the problem with my developing a cataract on my left eye is that this is the eye I use to read and work. This means that though I can sit across the room and watch TV with my right eye, I can’t clearly see the book in my hand, or the computer. It is causing me some great difficulty already. I find this extremely frustrating, though I was relieved that I wasn’t just going blind. The blessing in disguise is that when they feel I am ready for surgery, they will be able to implant a new lens in my eye that will most likely be mufti-focal and will help my eyes work better together than they have in years. I just have to get bad enough. I wish I knew what their definition of bad enough was, as I think if you can’t see, they should be able to fix it if it is a fixable thing. I will most likely be going in to have my eye dilated on Monday. Hopefully we can get something scheduled as far as surgery after that. We are going to be praying that way. The daily headaches are beyond old. You know, for a girl who never wanted to have an eye surgery because they sound scary, I sure have had a lot of them. God has a definite sense of humor.

My hedgehog still doesn’t really like me. She does get less bristly than she used to with me. But she really likes the boys better. She seems to adore Chandler. You would think she would love me since I am the one who feeds her, waters her, and cleans her pen more often than not. Go figure.

I got a new calling in church. I am no longer working in the nursery. I am the Activity Days Leader. This means I am working with the girls ages 8-11 to prepare them for the Young Women’s program when they turn 12. I currently only have 3 girls, but will gain a 4th in May. We have met twice and it has been fun so far. I think I am really going to enjoy it, though I was a bit shell-shocked at first. I haven’t worked with girls one on one for 15 1/2 years. I don’t have a daughter. I was worried I was going to have trouble relating to them. We seem to be ok.

Our homeschool is going well. I can’t believe that we are 3/4 of the way done with our Freshman year of high school. That is just crazy. It is strange to think I will be all done homeschooling in just a little over 3 more years. Whatever will I do with myself?

Chandler and I started an exercise program this week. He is doing well. I am wondering if it might not be so bad to stay OUT of shape. We are doing P90X. Hopefully I will survive this experiment.

I have a few reviews I need to get posted here on the blog. Some will have giveaways. So keep your eyes open for those. Most of my reviews are about items you won’t want to miss. One is an item you need to know to miss. You don’t want it. It will most likely be the most negative review I have ever done. If you didn’t think I could do a negative review, you will want to see this one. LOL!

On that note, I will close this epistle. Let me know if you like this format. I may try to make it a regular thing around here on the blog. If you have any questions for me, go ahead and ask. I will be happy to answer them here. Have a great weekend!

Another week, and we have more link love. I am really enjoying sharing my favorites with you each week. I hope you are enjoying them too. Let me know what you think.

Homeschool Fences

Virtual Surgery–Pretty cool look at inside the body during surgery. Also some dissection videos.

Free Internet Educational Resources–This site has an entire page devoted to free resources. She has them listed by category.

Reading Fluency Resources–TONS of great resources for teaching reading fluency. Lots of links to sites with games and printables.

The Secular Homeschool Community–It is fairly easy to find homeschool groups that are religious based. But there is an entire community of homeschoolers who prefer to teach their children with secular materials. Here is a message board place where they can feel at home.

Our Highschool Homeschool Blog–an entire site devoted to homeschooling through high school. Lots of ideas and free resources.

Kitchen Fences

Chicken Enchilada Soup–Looks like a great recipe. But she also links to her top 10 soup recipes. Some really great soup recipes there.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies–Coconut and Chocolate? I am so there…she has lots of great looking recipes. Definitely worth spending some browsing time on this blog.

Top Secret Recipes–I have several of these books. But there are lots of different recipes here that you can try at home.

Cooking Bread–If you are looking for bread recipes, this site has about anything you are looking for in one handy place. Pretty cool site. Makes me hungry looking at it though.

Smoothies-a site that has a gajillion different smoothie recipes. If you can think it up, it is probably already here.

That’s it for this week. Check back next week for more From the Other Side of the Fence entries. You never know what I will link to each week!

Can you believe it is time for some more link love? I had so much fun linking to other sites last week, that I can’t believe it is already time for another round. I hope you enjoy the things I have found for you and want to share with you this week.

Homeschool Fences

File Folder Fun–This site is filled with free file folder games from Preschool to 5th grade. There are games for most any subject. A really great resource if you enjoy or are interested in file folder games for your homeschool.

Grammar for Homeschool–This site has lots of ideas and suggestions for teaching grammar. There are some real gems here if you take the time to find them.

TLSBooks.com–This site provides free worksheets. You will find them for Preschool through about 6th grade.

Simply Charlotte Mason–If you are interested in the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, then you will love this site. It is filled with lots of information and ideas.

Digital History–This is a cool history site. A great resource for those who are looking for history themed sites.

Times Tables Memory Game Pockets–This is a tutorial for a neat way to teach the times tables.

Kitchen Fences

Easy Homemade Granola–I love granola, and this recipe looked to be quite simple to make.

The next several recipes are copycat recipes for Girl Scout Cookies. Let me know if you make them and what you think!

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Samoas–These are one of our favorite cookies. These will be great to be able to have once the Girl Scout Cookies are long gone.

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Tagalongs–Peanut Butter and Chocolate..what isn’t to love?

Girl Scout Do-Si-Dos–Oatmeal Peanut Butter cookie goodness.

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Cinna-Spins–This cookie isn’t available in all areas. But with this recipe, you can make them and enjoy their low-fat goodness.

Homemade Thin Mints-Low Carb and Gluten Free–Love the thin mints around here. And I thought it was pretty neat to find a recipe that was a Gluten Free one for those of you who need to worry about that in your homes.

Girl Scout Cookies-Lemonades–Lemon flavored cookies? Oh yeah, baby….

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies-Thin Mints–Honestly, she won me over with her battle cry proclamation of “YOU DON’T OWN ME, GIRL SCOUTS!!!”

That’s it for this week. Check back next week for more From the Other Side of the Fence entries. You never know what I will link to each week!

I thought it would be fun for me to give out some link love every week. So I will be sharing some of my favorite things that I have found throughout the week on Fridays.

Homeschooling Fences

How to Make Muffin Tin Crayons and a Valentine’s Day Printable–I realize this isn’t a super new idea. However, I loved how she wrote this and separated all the crayons. It spoke to my OCD little heart. I also loved the different ways she designed her crayons. The printable is just an added bonus. It kind of makes me want to go retrieve the crayons from the church nursery and repurpose them this way for the kids. I may do this tomorrow.

The Teacher’s Corner–Lesson Plans, Worksheets and Activities–This one shares a free resource for making your own worksheets. Love this! And she shares ideas for how to use them in your homeschool. Can’t go wrong here!

Notebooking Success ebook Giveaway!–This is a giveaway that caught my eye this week. If you are into notebooking, you will want to check this out. It looks like a neat book to have.

Friday Freebies-Geography–This blog post lists some really great, FREE resources for those doing geography with elementary grades. Gotta love it when you are pointed to those free resources! And if you aren’t particularly interested in the geography ones, she links to other posts she has done for free resources for other subjects, including art and science.

Kitchen Fences

Quick and Easy Caramel Flan–I love caramel, and I love flan. Easy just means I will be making it sooner, rather than later.

A Few Valentine’s Day Desserts–Quite a few chocolate themed items here. Those who know me, know I am also a chocolate fiend. This is a no-brainer.

Valentine’s Day Family Dinner–I thought this was a fun kid-friendly menu for Valentine’s Day. Who can resist heart shaped pizza and jello-poke cupcakes?

General Tso’s Chicken–I’m a sucker for good recipes, and you can always find them at this blog. This might just hit the spot when you want something just a little spicy.

That’s it for this week. I’ll add in some more categories over the weeks. You never know what I will find and link to each week.