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from a country girl to a city girl

Written by Joy
5 Comments

I never thought this would ever happen, yet it is happening this week.  I, who grew up in the country, will be moving to an apartment in a city.   I grew up in the middle of one of the smallest county’s in the state of Florida.  My parents and grandparents owned several acres of land which was also surrounded by family who owned land as well.  We basically had free reign of all that land to roam and play on.

My family had all sorts of animals.  We has chickens, geese, turkeys, dogs and cats.  We raised on occasion hogs for 4-H.  We grew a garden almost every year.  My grandma lived about 100 yards from my house.  I practically lived at her house during the summer months.  We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but we had each other.  My parents loved us a lot.  I grew up with 3 brothers and loved being the only girl.

I got married at 17 and moved to a small town of about 350.  When our oldest was 4, we moved out to my husband’s mothers’ land.  Which was surrounded by more land.  We got us a dog and had a garden.  I loved it.

The time came though that we needed a change for our family and that is when my husband received a job in Sylva, NC at the local community college.  While we were moving to a larger area, it was still in the mountains and we still had a sense of being out in the country/mountains.  When we bought our house, we had wild animals come in the yard all the time.  Huge flocks of turkeys crossed our path often.  We saw bears and even a deer on occasion.

Times change though and we felt God calling us to move again.  This time, it was cross country to a much larger city.  This has scared me, but also has challenged me in many ways.  I love the openness and the freedom of living in the country.  I love seeing the wildlife.  Most of all, I love the peace and quiet that comes with being in the country. I feel like I am closer and more connected to God.  Life just seems to be at a slower pace in the country.

However, I feel like God is trying to grow me.  He is definitely pulling me out of my comfort zone.  I have already had comments about my southern accent. Sometimes I feel like people are making fun of me, however, I know they really don’t mean it and I need to just let it go. I can’t grow if I am in a comfortable place.  While I will miss this little piece of heaven in this vacation rental that is out in the mountains, I am excited about what God has planned for me.  Am I scared?  Yes!  Am I a little apprehensive about moving to the city?  Yes!  However, I know God will be with me every single step of the way.

One day, I know I will be back in the country because I feel like that is where I really belong.  For the time being, God has something in store for me and I can’t wait to see what it is.  In the mean time, you can take the girl out of the country, but can’t take the country out of the girl. 😉

 

2012, Faith, God, , , , , , ,

Lego’s and Homeschooling

Written by Joy
4 Comments
Lego’s and Homeschooling

Some see Lego’s as toys for kids. While it is considered a toy, I also think you can use it for part of your schooling. There is just so much a child can do with legos.

Samuel and his police car.

They can separate the Lego”s by size, color and shapes.

Claire and her beach set.

When putting the Lego sets together, the child follows directions of the set.

Lego City set.

Playing with the sets can spark imagination and creativity.  You can even let the kids build projects for schooling of what they have read about.  There really is so much you can do with Lego’s for schooling.

Lego Friends set.

We love playing with Lego’s in our house.  My oldest two have been playing with Lego’s for years. Now my younger two children are getting into it.  Yes, they do hurt when you step on them, but I think the learning possibilities outweigh the pain. 😉

Does your children play with Lego’s?  Do they like to build the sets or do they like to just create anything from the Lego’s?

 

2012, homeschooling, , ,

so thankful and blessed, I made it to #1000!

Written by Joy
so thankful and blessed, I made it to #1000!

On July 19, 2010, I started reading this wonderful blog named A Holy Experience. On it, Ann Voskamp talked about being thankful and how you can always find a blessing. She suggested keeping track of those blessings. I am so glad she did. I have noticed a big change in how I look at things. I don’t worry as much as I used to either. By looking at what all God has blessed us with during the good and the bad time times, I know that God is always with us no matter what. I have been putting my faith and trust in God so much more since I began this back in 2010. I plan on continuing counting my blessings every day for as long as I can.  While she had suggested counting a 1000 gifts in one year, it has taken me a little over two years to reach 1000.  I am excited about reaching this number and looking forward to counting many more.  Some of these I have counted before, but feel like they should be counted more often.

991.  Having the freedom to homeschool my children.

992.  Being able to stay home with my children.

993.  My husband of 20 years. (We celebrate 20 years on October 3rd of this year)

994.  My four children (Michael-19, Sarah-14, Samuel-8 and Claire-6.)

995.  My parents for raising me in a living Christian home.

996.  The Word of God to live by.

997.  Hubby’s job with great insurance.

998.  God providing us with a place to live.

999.  His mercy and grace that He gives me daily.

1000.  Jesus, dying on the cross to save a poor wretched person, like me.

I would love for you to join in counting the many blessings that God gives. Stop by A Holy Experience and visit others who are also sharing their many blessings.

2012, blessings, multitude Mondays, , , , , , ,

My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

Written by Joy
52 Comments
My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

When I first started homeschooling, I tried using several different planners to help me plan our day.  With in a couple of weeks, I always stopped using them, either because they didn’t fit our needs or I got behind trying to write everything down that I wanted to keep track up.

At one time, my husband even created a weekly excel spreadsheet that I could right lesson plans in and I could print lessons for the day or even for the whole week on it.  I used it the longest for a couple of years.  However, it still did not have everything I wanted to keep track of on it.

As the years have gone by, I have turned more and more to the computer and online world to make up different plans, spreadsheets and calendars to help me keep track of our busy life with four children.  I have yet to find anything online to keep track of everything, until now.

When I went to the 2:1 Conference back in April, I had the pleasure of meeting Jenny from Home Educating Family.  We got to talking about the Well Planned Day Planners that Home Educating Family offered.  I had seen them before, but never bought one because it was paper and would have required me to write everything in.  Knowing my history with this, I knew it wasn’t the planner for me.  I asked her if Home Education Family had plans for making there planner online.  She said yes!  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to try it out when it became available.  Jenny contacted me about a month ago and asked if I would love to give it a try and I just couldn’t pass up this offer!

The My Well Planned Day software is amazing to me!  One of the things I love most about it, is that it combines School plus Household activities and events.  I can use the software to make lesson plans and assignments plus make a menu and grocery list!  The best of both worlds that I wanted together!  You can add the textbooks on here that you are using and keep track of the Literature that you are reading.  What has really gotten me excited is that I will soon be able to sync my Google calendar that my husband and I use, to the calendar on this software!

I really feel like the My Well Planned Day software is going to help me out so much.  I can already see areas that it has helped me in.  I would like for you to have the same chance to see if this awesome software will help you as much as it has me.

Home Educating Family is offering the readers of My Home In The Smokies  $15 off the MWPD software retail price of $65. The code is case sensitive, no spaces, and expires on October 1. Your personal code is: 31wpdblog12.

Also, thanks to Home Educating Family, you have a chance to win a 1 year Subscription of the My Well Planned Day Software!!  Just use the rafflecopter below to enter the drawing.  This giveaway will end on September 5th, 2012.

Due to international sweepstakes laws, this offer is only for U.S. entries.

This giveaway is not connected to any social media sites and none of the social media entries are mandatory.

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

2012, family, homeschooling, review, , , , ,

dreams coming true

Written by Joy
6 Comments
dreams coming true

Vegas and Ben

For my oldest daughter, moving here has made a little girl’s dream come true.  Since she begin to talk, she had this love for horses.  Horse was one of her very first words.  She has quite a few stuff animal horses and has drawn many pictures of horses throughout the years.  So when we moved to Colorado, the lady we are renting the vacation rental from, has two horses.  She asked Sarah if she would be willing to help take care of the horses for her.  Of course she said yes!  Not only does she have a job helping to take care of horses and being paid for it, she is also getting riding lessons in return.  Yes, dreams do come true to hose who wait.

Sarah riding Ben.

Sarah wakes up every morning and will go straight to the horses.  She will let them out into the field and clean the stable.

Sarah taking Ben around the stable at a walk.

Every afternoon she will go out to give the horses fresh water and food.

Sarah and Ben are trotting now.

While I haven’t been able to provide this dream for my daughter, God has.  It is amazing what happens when you do your best to follow God and be in His will.  Even something as simple as making a girl’s dream come true of having horses around, He does care for you and will provide.

I am glad my daughter is able to have this experience.  It is teaching her responsibility.  It is teaching her how to properly care for animals.  It is teaching her hard work.  It is teaching her that dreams come true if you work hard and most of all, trust in God.  Even after we move, Sarah will still have a job taking care of Ben and Vegas several times a week.  She will also continue taking riding lessons.  Yes, good things come to those who wait.  Thank you God for giving my daughter this dream.

 

2012, family, , ,