Woodwater Farmhouse

Happy Friday and welcome to The Joys of Home Educating. So glad you are here in this space with me.  We have been on vacation this week and had a nice time in Vermont!  These pictures were from our first rest stop at the Vermont Welcome Center. Lots of stuff to look at and hands on!  Great FREE STOP! The kids enjoyed four days of skiing the trails.  I got a chance to work out a few days Some down time for me in the lodge for February planning and meal planning. A view from our suite Trying out some new Sharpie Markers Uno in the lodge snowing - by the firepit Sharing a new obsession:  Stop Animation Videos - making them on the IPAD. After watching the great movie last week on the history of LEGOS (see this post) the kids are hooked on making their own movies:   What I am obsessed with this week:  PINTEREST Finding so many new healthy recipes for my family!  A few to get you started! Mexi...

No Spend January - Monday Check In Happy Monday. It's Monday which means check in time on the  No Spend January !  How are you doing on the #NoSpendChallenge?  We are in the home stretch now! We had some highs and lows this week... Highs: - Credit Cards:  nice to see a zero balance on the credit card this month!  - Planned out our meals and packed for vacation. Instead of eating at the lodge or out all the time, we have a full kitchen so made homemade muffins, banana bread and stuff for lunches (1 dinner - out the other two) for vacation.  - Already planned dinner for the night we get back so we don't order take out!   Lows:  - Broke down and bought wine for our vacation (leave today). 8(  It's a vacation afterall 8) - Over on my $ 100 food budget for the week due to buying a few things for the Superbowl that were on a great sale and some vacation extras.  It's been a good No Spend January.  The ...

Happy Friday! Thanks for stopping by for our weekly wrap up.  We are expecting some snow this weekend and I am praying they are not wrong. The kids and hubby have ski passes to a local mountain and it's killing me that the money is being wasted and I want to get out on the 4-wheelers and tear it up! What happened here this week Sunday:   Football and family - my older son and his wife and our "grandpuppy" came up for a visit. Fun snacks, dinner and oh that dessert!  Working on the February plans for school. Sammie and Molly: both have had some challenges this week with book work. I have tried to be patient with Sammie, but it's very hard sometimes. Pray for me please! LEGOS:  Oh yes, the LEGO happenings..LOVING all of it and they are getting so creative with their play. Where Are We Wednesday:  Hawaii Reading a lot!   HIGHLIGHT of the week:  We watched A LEGO Brickumentary (hour and 1/2) on Ama...

Happy Monday...or is it?  lol...my son says that all the time.... It's Monday which means check in time on the No Spend January !  How are you doing on the #NoSpendChallenge?  We are half way done now!  We had some highs and lows this week... Highs: - A friend asked us over Friday night to their Family Night in the Barn.  They have a big screen TV in their barn/garage. Also a ping pong table and a wood stove (toasty!) .  They asked us to join them and they ordered pizza!  Which was a treat since we are not ordering "pizza guy pizza" this money.  Fun and games and fellowship! - We had to pick up my husband's new car on Saturday and the dealership had a nice area for the kids and I to lounge while we waited for all the paperwork to be signed.  They offered us fresh bagels and cream cheese!  It was a nice treat...again since we are not spending money on these luxuries this month.  - We received a property tax credit refund...

Happy Friday everyone!   So glad you are here! Thanks for stopping by.  It's been a great homeschooling week and we finally got a small amount of snow. Makes it pretty, but not enough to really play in.  Here is our busy week in review in pictures.... Creative thinking:  Sammie has been following more of an "unschooling" routine lately. She has no desire to sit at the table and do any kind of "book work" unless its a group project. She has been doing a lot of hands on activities. I will admit, it's a little struggle for me, being the mom who has a plan and likes to stick with it, but I am trying to be flexible with her.  Home Economics - for Home Ec the children do daily chores and cooking. This week the girls created a yummy treat from Sammie's Highlights February issue of the Highlights magazine (a Christmas present). They were sooo yummy! Art It's been a great week for Art.   Chalk Pastel...

It's Monday and time for the weekly update on the No Spend January #nospendchallenge.  How are you doing so far?   I have been food shopping twice in January and sticking to my $ 100 budget was not hard.   Week 1 : I spent $ 107 at our local Shoprite  ($ 1 of that was a donation to the local food bank and the other $ 6 was a rotisserie chicken)  I had Molly add things up as I went along and somewhere she omitted something because we should have been right on.  You might ask HOW can I make it on $ 100 for a family of 5 for a week.  The answer - meal planning and not buying items that were not on my list.  Week 2:  I spent $ 89   This was between two items at the Dollar Tree, $ 7 at the local bread store outlet and $ 79 at Aldi's.  Again the key was meal planning and making sure I only bought what I needed.  Hubby had to go to BJ's (every 6 weeks) and get our water for our water cooler and a few other paper prod...

Happy 2016 Everyone! Welcome to The Joys of Home Educating - we are so glad you are here! Sharing our week back with you in a weekly wrap up..at the bottom of the post you can find out what other great blogs we are linking up to and sharing our week with.  Big week for reading Masterpiece Monday - Edward Hicks and studying the Peaceable Kingdom. Great study for kids. The Mitten - book and study - So many awesome FREE resources out there for The Mitten . New Planners - new notebooks - so much fun! Zachary is starting lessons on the election, how to become President and a weekly President report.  Drawing - Art - Molly is obsessed with drawing in all mediums - chalks, pencils, pastels... Where Are We Wednesday - Minnesota - GO Vikings!  They are in the playoffs this year and the family is excited (except for Zachary - he is a Saints fan) Molly received an entire collection of Judy Moody books for Christmas - started one a...

Happy Monday and Happy New Year!  If you are here for the first time, welcome from The Joys of Home Educating.  If you are an old friend, welcome back 8) Today I bring you our first post of 2016 and our Monday Update on the No Spend January challenge .   If you are clueless as to what I am talking about, I invite you to check out the post out on No Spend January - prepping and No Spend January - Repeat - where I share my personal goals in addition to the family goals. Today I want to talk about u nsubscribing and making plans for the week ahead .  Unsubscribing - I am simply talking about clicking UNSUBSCRIBE to all those deal websites and shopping sites that you get inundated with emails every day. The ones that tempt you with the free shipping and percentage off deals. Don't worry, if you choose, you can subscribe to them on February 1st, but my hope is that you stay away from them all together.   My suggestion is that you take 10 mins per d...