It's The Hap Happiest Season of All!

Thanksgiving kicks off the season for us!! Very exciting times!!!

Lord, you are good and your mercy endureth forever!

Wholehearted Mother Conference 2009

I have my sights set on this conference coming in February '09

The Wholehearted Mother Conference.

I have heard many rave reviews about the conference. Take a look at it and see if you'd like to attend as well.

My Husband Rocks & Farewell to Uncie

Disclaimer: I do these "My Husband Rocks" posts because I saw the idea on Katy Lin's site and I thought it was a good idea to do, as it helps me to focus in on the good of my hubby especially when things are tough. Hopefully I'll be able to go back to these and read them during any tough times that come. And they do come....... Don't believe me? Read what I wrote about "Winding down in the fire," or "Do you and your husband argue?" or "Does your husband get on your nerves???!!!" Those articles show that sometimes I think he's a straight-up knuckle head but even then, I have to remind myself of the good and remember that beneath all that flesh, ... My Husband Does Rock!!

My Husband Rocks
This post is is being automatically published while I'm away from home. I again scheduled it in advance since I'd be out of town for the weekend.

Baby boy and I are traveling to Nevada this weekend for my uncle's funeral. My uncle, James "Peter" Wilson, better known as Uncie was one of my mom's 2 brothers and he lived in Las Vegas most of his adult life. He passed away from an apparent heart attack and we're going there for his funeral. My mom, other uncle, and one of my sisters are going there as well, but on different flights. My uncle has a daughter, son, grand daughter, and great grand daughter (just born last month) who live there as well. I look forward to seeing them after many many years!

While I'm here in Vegas, Jeoff is home with the other kiddos doing the daddy thing, which they love so much! He's even taking them to one (maybe two) birthday parties. Woo hoo!

Thank God for Daddies and Thank God for husbands!!!!

Uncie, I look forward to seeing you on the other side. We will cherish all the good memories that are left here in our hearts...........

New Planners and Planner / Memory Book Combo

Sample 1A (above)

Sample 2A (above)

I've created some planners that I'd like to share with you.

Day planners, school planners, family planners, homeschool planners, you name it (literally). Planning and finding new, creative and helpful ways to do planning is a hobby for me so I thought I'd share with others. The planner I made this weekend is very thick and includes almost everything (school, keepsakes, daily tasks & to-do lists, calendars, etc.).

Size: 8" x 8"

Custom cover pages & custom planning pages available

It's easier for me to keep it all in one place, in one book, so I don't have to tag along a lot of things with me when I'm on the go. And also so I won't find myself lost when I leave ONE of those planners or notebooks behind.

I'm adding a few samples at a time of the ones I'm working on but there is much more to come.

These planners are unique in that they will include pages that help you track ideas and layouts for scrapbooking later. If you don't have time to make a book near the date of the event, you can jot down special memories from the occasion (even include photos, ticket stubs, etc.) right in your planner; then put together the scrapbook later.

If you're not sure how to do the scrapbook or don't have the time, I can put that together for you as well.

You can order a planner WITH or WITHOUT memory pages.

Let me know if you're interested in purchasing one for yourself or as a gift.

Wanna suggest another color scheme, or style? Just let me know!

Below are pages that can be included inside your planner.

Event Invitation Log: Make note of events you're invited to, as you receive the evite or invitation in the mail. After it's logged, you don't have to keep up with the email or paper invitation.

Menu Planning: Plan your menus and keep track of the ingredients you'll need from the store.

Cards/Gifts: Keep track of gifts and cards you need to mail and also include the address here. I can't even count how many times I've wanted to mail a letter or card, then I'd write or purchase it, sign it, and carry it around with me for days because I didn't have the person's address on me.

Christmas/Gift Planning (also general gift planning): Keep these in your planner all through the year for far advanced planning. Use them to make note of items you've heard your loved ones say they like.

Daily planning sheets. I like this format because when I purchase a planner with a page for each individual day of the year, I end up leaving some of them blank on days where I wasn't up to planning. Feel free to suggest sections for this page or indicate that you'd like the traditional daily planning sheets.

Chore Planning: These can be provided blank or completed with your individual chore system.

Weekly Planning: Indicate your to-do list at the top, then use the layout below to plan the day you'll get each task done.

Call Log: Keep track of calls you need to make along with notes as needed.

School Planning: These pages can be included in the school planner or the family planner and can be tailored for your needs.

Student Evaluation Forms: Use these to make periodic evaluations of your child's work and progress.

Field Trips: Keep up with potential field trips throughout the year and even include those you aren't able to attend this year but would like to attend in the future.

Future School Year Planning: Jot down notes of things you'd like to implement next school year!

Homeschool Notes: Use this for whatever!!

A Day in the Life: Don't have time to blog, don't have a blog? Use this section to jot down things you'd like to cherish for later. Use the blank section to attach a picture, keepsake, receipt, ticket stub, or even draw a picture.

A Moment to Remember: Use this section to commerate an event you'd like to cherish for later. Use the blank section to attach a picture, keepsake, receipt, ticket stub, or even draw a picture.

Log for doctors visits, Purchase log, Weight Loss Diary Pages, Children's Growth Charts

Would you like to suggest a new page to be added? Send me a comment!

Would you like to place an order? Send me an email (jeoffsrib at gmail dot com) or leave a comment and I'll send you the current price list. The journals and planners currently range from $10 - $19.

President Elect, Barack Obama

Although I don't agree with most of the views of the party, watching the speech and news coverage gave me chills. Especially, when my classmate Roland Martin (CNN Advisor) shared his point of view and shed tears. Jesse Jackson as well. And talking to my children, as they watched the victory speech, about the fact that mommy and daddy did not vote for this President but we will respect him and support him. We also talked to them about the historical impact this is on our country, having elected its first black president.

Having said all that, above being black, and above being a citizen of this nation, I am a Christian. As we've followed these campaigns we've considered all t he issues and I kept coming back to the enduring values that I find in the Word of God.

I pray for all the issues and battles we as Christians will face in the years to come, namely - abortion, same-sex marriage, healthcare, welfare, economy, taxes, national security, etc.

If nothing else, I look forward to seeing how this administration will encourage people to work together in communities and share their opinions on how things should be done.

I also look forward to following a 3rd party on local and national levels, that I've come to know and respect through my husband's research and influence. The Constitution Party

Seven Principles of the Constitution Party are:

1. Life: For all human beings, from conception to natural death;
2. Liberty: Freedom of conscience and actions for the self-governed individual;
3. Family: One husband and one wife with their children as divinely instituted;
4. Property: Each individual's right to own and steward personal property without government burden;
5. Constitution: and Bill of Rights interpreted according to the actual intent of the Founding Fathers;
6. States' Rights: Everything not specifically delegated by the Constitution to the federal government is reserved for the state and local jurisdictions;
7. American Sovereignty: American government committed to the protection of the borders, trade, and common defense of Americans, and not entangled in foreign alliances.

The Church: Every Member Functioning

Every member functioning..... what is that really like? Is that something you see often? What does that mean?

I have a desire to see that in action and to it's fullest.

I realize that may be asking for perfection and I may not ever see it but "why not look for it?", I ask myself.

Homeschool Month 3 -- What are we doing?

This is a quick post that I hope to come back to and share more detail later.

The Five in a Row books we've done in the last month are Madeline and The Rag Coat.

With reading, we ventured off a bit and began using some new books we purchased from the bookstore for the kids' independent reading. Some of them are Well Done, worm from the Brand New Readers series (for The Pupster) and we started some of the books from Top Readers and Magic Tree House series. From Top Readers we got a book on Castles to go along with The Knight at Dawn from book #2 in the Magic Tree House series. We heard the audio of book #1 (Dinosaurs before Dark) but we went ahead and got the printed copy as well, so we can make a collection.

Kitty is also continuing the Kids Phonics Bible and Ready Set Read for her independent reading.

Field Trips: We visited two pumpkin patches and made our first field trip to the Texas State Fair!

Bible: We picked up curriculum set I previously purchased to help us in this area and we're now reading through it. It's the Training Wheels Curriculum. We hope to go through the activies on Creation through the activities on Heaven. I'm sure we'll skip (or go briskly through) some in between since they've learned some of them in more depth than others.

Our character focus for this past month was Responsibility and this coming month the focus is Patience. -- I may need to do that was like, ALL YEAR!!

At some point we want to study some more about blue whales (I made a mental note) because Kitty asked lots and lots of questions about them after we watched Nim's Island a couple of weeks ago.

In co-op, Kitty has just about gotten through all of the state capitols and has progressed in Spanish class from numbers, colors, name, days of the week, letters, through simple expressions.

Art (update coming soon)

One thing we focused on the most this month was memorization. Kitty and Pupster were in an oratorical contest where they recited poems and both received gold ribbon ratings! The Pupster's poem was "The Quality of Mercy" by William Shakespeare and Kitty's was an original poem, "Who is He?" written by yours truly.