Happy 4th of July

May we all remember how difficult it was for our Founding Fathers to set up the basis for our free nation. So much time, thought, and energy went into the writing of these documents and the structure of our nation.

Would we be willing to become traitors? To put our lives on the line for our beliefs? For freedom?

On the 4th of July, we celebrate the freedom of our country. As we celebrate, let us not forget that freedom comes with a price. Freedom can be lost if we become complacent and don't preserve our "unalienable rights".

• View the timeline for the Declaration of Independence here.
• Print a pdf transcript of the Declaration of Independence here.
  
• Sign your name to the Declaration of Independence here.
• Print a pdf file of trivia facts about the signers of the Declaration of Independence here.
• View a pdf image of the Declaration of Independence here.
  

Time Flies

I can't believe how quickly this week has flown by. With Daddy back to work, our days are starting to look a bit different. Munchkin is now back to working on her school work in the mornings. We then work on getting things done around the house.

This week seemed to be filled with lots of running around as we needed to get a variety of things done outside of the house. The good news is that we are now all set to homeschool in AZ, and our "puppy" is all registered (county and base) and up to date on his shots (much to his dismay).

I've spent way too much time on the computer/phone trying to get ready for the sale of our house. There have been so many bumps in the road that I will be ever so grateful when this is all over. We're looking forward to moving on with our lives. We continue to be thankful for the Lord's provisions in this sale. We're not sure how it will all work out, but we know that it will.

We did have fun walking over to the base theater to meet Daddy for a free mid-day movie on Wednesday. It's nice having everything so close by. We even stopped by Daddy's office before heading home after the movie. Yep, his office is so close that we can walk to and from it. After long commutes, this is quite a blessing.

Now, we look forward to a fun holiday weekend. Since we were unable to see fireworks the past 2 years, I look forward to seeing a nice display this year. We haven't decided exactly what we're going to do as we have 2 different options. Who knows, we may just end up staying home and watching the fireworks from the house. lol!

May you all have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

TOS Magazine Summer Promotion

These days, the one magazine that you're most likely to see me reading is The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I read an article here and there as time allows. I highly recommend this magazine as it has a little something for all homeschoolers. When I saw the gifts that are included with this latest sale, I had to share. All I can say is Wow! You will get much more than the cost of the subscription back with all of these incredible gifts.

The magazine is currently offering a treasure trove of gifts with a 2 year subscription (new or renewal). The first 5000 orders will receive these 19 great gifts. You can check out them out here. In addition to these free gifts, you will receive the opportunity to be 1 of the 50 people to win a free one-week pass to Curves.

Hurry, they do not expect these gift packages to last very long!

Lots of Projects

Today, we went to church for the first time since being here. We just picked a church that we knew had an Awana program during the school year as we felt that was a good place to start. It turns out that they had Patch the Pirate as their Sunday Children's Church program. Munchkin really enjoyed that. We enjoyed the sermon as well. The people were extremely friendly and welcomed us with open arms. We look forward to seeing if this is the church where the Lord wants us to call home.

Yesterday, D started building a much needed book shelf system. Why a system and not just a book shelf? Well, our "classroom" will also be Munchkin's playroom, so we have several different storage needs. The plan is to have bookshelves flanking the window. Beneath the window, we'll have a window seat that has cubbies below it. Above the built-in desk on the opposite wall, we'll have a bookshelf/cubbie system.

I love that I can come up with a plan and D can build it for me. Yep, I'm definitely spoiled. By building our own custom storage system, we save a ton of money. Plus, we have something that fits exactly the purpose that we need.

Since D is finished cutting out all of the pieces for the system, I need to get to painting, but it was around 109 degrees today. I just didn't want to paint in that heat. lol! I'll probably try to get something set up in the garage tomorrow. If I don't get the pieces painted, then he can't get it installed. I really need it installed so I can get our books out of the boxes and put away. I'm tired of the boxes...

I found a really, really good deal on some clearance outdoor fabric at JoAnn Fabrics. I'll be making some cushions and pillows for our outdoor furniture. I already made some sun shades for our patio area. The most expensive part of that project was the grommets, but I was even able to get those using coupons at JoAnns and Michaels.

Our little projects give us a break from unpacking. Our little adventures out and about give us a break from the boxes and craziness. Hopefully, in the near future, we'll be able to just relax in our newly organized, box-free home. For now, we'll be starting to get back to our "normal" routine in the midst of the chaos of packing materials. Tomorrow, D goes back to work, and Munchkin starts back up with her schooling.

TOS Schoolhouse Planner Review

Moving across country has completely thrown off our schedule. Organization? Hmm... we're trying to be organized, but somehow complete organization has gone out the window. A new state, a new climate, a new time zone, a new house... It's time to regroup and rethink a few things. This new beginning allows us to start fresh. We can add in new things and take away things that won't work.

I was thrilled when I learned that I would have the opportunity to review the TOS 2009 Schoolhouse Planner. Having seen some of the preview pages, I thought this might be exactly what we need to get organized.



I was shocked at how much was included in the 375 page planner. This really is more of a household planner rather than just a homeschool planner. I loved the fact that I could print out only the pages that I wanted to use at that time. Plus, I could either type in the information before printing or write in the information after printing.

For Munchkin, I set up a student planner. In it, I placed the calendar pages, assignment pages, chore pages, and journal pages. She also wants me to add some of the educational information pages as she loves that type of thing. I made sure to leave room for expansion as I know that we'll be adding more of the many different forms and pages during the school year.



For myself, I set up a household planner. I took a binder and made sections for the calendar, home (home maintenance, favorite recipes...), school (assignments, plans for the year...), and other (book lists, to do lists, passwords...). I'll continue to add more to mine as needed. For now, I'm focused on getting the house organized and a routine established. With so much going on, these ready to use forms will be a great help.



The Schoolhouse Planner starts out with a full calendar for 2009-2012. Then, it breaks down the calendar in a month-at-a-glance type calendar for the 2009-2010 calendar year. Each month has a themed article, many resource links, and recipes. The next section includes various educational information including Presidents, State & Capitals, Composers, Inventions, Artists, and much more.

The monthly themes include:

• The Thirteen Colonies
• Decimal System
• Weather
• Emergency Preparedness
• American Government
• The Planets
• Letter Writing
• Miracles and Parables of Jesus
• Latin and Greek
• Lapbooks
• College Preparation
• Homeschooling around the World (geography)
  

The homeschool section is filled with forms and pages for preschool up to high school (and beyond). These forms include:

• Annual Plans
• Yearly Goals
• Curriculum Planning
• Report Cards
• Evaluation Forms
• Tracking Forms
• Weekly Planning
• Daily Schedule
• Record & Log Forms
• Field Trip Planning
• Nature Journal
• Science Lab
• Book Report
• Preschool Practice Sheets
• Teaching Supplies (Inventory & Wish List)
• and many, many more...
  

The final section includes forms for the household. You will find forms such as:

• Chore/housekeeping forms
• Emergency forms
• Grocery lists
• Home maintenance lists
• Bible reading schedule
• Prayer Journal
• Inventory lists
  
• Menu planning
• Garden planning
• Website login/password list
  
• Address book
• and numerous other useful forms.

You can purchase the 2009 Schoolhouse Planner from The Old Schoolhouse Store for $39.00. If you purchase before July 12, 2009, you will receive as a bonus the 2008 Schoolhouse Planner Useful Excerpts ebook.

Exploring Our New Area

On Father's Day, we were able to start exploring our new area. One of the things that we really enjoy about moving is getting to see new parts of our country and marveling at God's wonderful creation.

We started off by heading over to some local parks. We were impressed by this HUGE playground only a few miles from where we live. Some of the other parks included a beach on the Colorado River. The water looked refreshing, but we decided to keep exploring...



We headed over to the Imperial Dunes. The beauty and expanse of these dunes is truly majestic. There was also an old plank road which was really cool.


You can drive around these dunes or just have fun walking them. They even allow camping here!

This is only one of the smaller dunes. It was way too hot to climb up to some of the higher dunes.






After the dunes, we headed back home to grill and then we headed out to the Kofa Wildlife Reserve. On our way there, we ran into these wild burros crossing the road. We got a big kick out of it as it was completely unexpected.





We only stayed for a little while at Kofa as the sun was starting to set by the time we arrived from our side trip there. We ended up heading back out there later in the week for more exploration.




They don't look that big until you get up next to them. lol!







The height of this road is really deceptive as you can see in the following pictures.

Munchkin and I decided to get out and watch Daddy drive up the hill.

D's truck is at the top of the hill. It looks pretty tiny from down at the bottom.

Munchkin walking back up to Daddy's truck.

There are many mines and tunnels in this area. They ask you not to enter any of them, so we just checked out this tunnel that went through the hill.

Inside, we could see bats flying around. There was also something at the entrance on the other side...

If you look closely into the light, you can see a jack rabbit.

Beyond the Basics Online Cooking Class

I can't believe that I almost missed out on sharing this news! Shelly from One Roast Vegetable has added a new cooking class to her line-up. Her newest class moves beyond just the basic cooking lessons. We'll be learning how to prepare complete meals.

In the Beyond the Basics class, we'll be learning how to make:

• Mango pork tenderloin, served with homemade Spinach salad(homemade dressing too, of course), and Strawberry bread pudding
• Grant's cajun chicken, Caesar salad, and Homemade Tiramisu
• Kids' favorites like Pasta salad, homemade Chicken fingers, and Sweet meatballs
• And much more. Yum!!

She only has 29 spots left, so you'll want to hurry and sign up!

Not sure if this is the class for you? Shelley is generously offering a 30 day free trial of her class! That's right! You get a full month to try out the class. You will get full access to EVERYTHING that paying students get -- all the videos, the blog, the recipes, and access to me. If you like the class, after 30 days you'll be charged for the full tuition amount $46 Cdn / $39.77 USD. If you cancel during the first 30days, there's no charge at all.

Don't delay as this offer will end soon.

Munchkin and I are looking forward to this new class as we get settled in to our new home. We hope that you'll join us in our cooking adventure!

Settling In

We finally have internet!!! I hate being without the internet as we use it for so many different things. lol!

I'm pleased to announce that we're settling in to our new home on base. We were able to get a house as soon as we arrived here in AZ. This meant no internet, but we were happy to start to get settled. Our household goods arrived a few days after we did, so we're now in the process of unpacking and trying to figure out where everything will go. We've made good progress, but it will take a little time to get it done.

Munchkin started making friends the first day that we arrived. We have wonderful neighbors who also homeschool. Their one daughter is Munchkin's age, so they play almost every day. Munchkin is also taking part in the summer reading program activities here at the station library. Each Monday, they have different activities for the kiddos.

We had fun exploring some of the area on Father's Day. I will try to get some pictures posted in the near future.

We appreciate all of the prayers as we travelled. We could definitely feel them. The Lord has provided for us each step of the way. We felt His hand on us.