stuck in a Blizzard

Not us but my Hubby.  He is stuck in Iowa in the blizzard that is going through and will not be able to move until at least tomorrow becasue it is just too dangerous.  He is in a warm safe place (His truck) and he has plenty of food and stuff to keep him busy and is close to a truck stop so he will be fine. 

I don't have much to post today.  Restraunts.com is letting you give away gift cetrificates worth $10 to 30 people a day until Christmas.  The link is here.

Hope everyone stays warm, dry and safe. 

Sometimes Moms Mean well but...

I thought about this when I looked over this article from Family Fun.  I can say that I have been  guilty of several of these over the years.

Some of these penguins just may find their way onto our yard (if I don't procrastinate).  Hannah loves penguins.

This site has lots of ideas for filling your Christmas curriculmn.

Christmas in Sarajevo

Christmas Cookies

Every year I plan on making tons of Christmas Cookies but never seem to get around to it.

Here are some links for Christmas cookies maybe to get you and me both in the mood.

Recipe Lion is offering a free Christmas Cookie recipe e-book.   You will have to register on their site but they have several other e-books that you may find interesting.  I am always looking for new recipes (although I have more than I can ever make in the rest of my lifetime)

This site has a cute idea on how to present your cookies once they are made.

Here is an idea from Family Fun on another way to present your cookies.

Family Fun also has an idea for a gingerbread family kit.

Homeschool Helper has a unit study on Christmas Cookies here.

And Here is a recipe for a cookie in a jar gift. 

Hope this gets your inspired to make cookies.

Now I'm Hungry!!

Mary did you know/The King is coming

Our first Snow of the season

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's About the Cross

That's What Christmas is all about Charlie Brown

Stuff that was in my email today.

First of all I spent the last hour designing a button for this blog so if you would like to grab it you can find it on the left sidebar.  It was really easy once I got the hang of it.  Here is the blog that I got the instructions for the button.

Econobusters has freebies listed every Friday. Today you can sign up for a free calendar from Pillsbury, get a flash drive and a tote bag  just to name a fe of the frebies listed.   As you probably can tell by my blog I love free stuff.

Here is a free Christmas customs lap book and here is another Christmas Symbols lapbook.

This is a link to a Christmas Scripture quiz.  Test your knowledge about what Scripture really says.

Click Here for a free downloadable Advent Calendar with different activites for you and your family to do each day.

This  a Lapbook about Christmas around the world.

Learnoutloud.com offers a free audio book each month. This month is A Christmas Carol and they are also letting you download last months book on poetry for this week only.   

Little Drummer Boy

More Christmas fun!!

I get a newsletter from click schooling everyday.  She had a link in her newsletters about using different holiday activites for school.  The page is here.

Heart of the Matter online is offering a unit study of the symbols of Christmas.  You will find a pdf for the whole study on this page.

If you would like to try using podcasts in your schooling this page offers a list to get you started. We have used several in our school to make things a bit more exciting.

Here is a link to teach children to save while also paying for the things they need to live.

It's Called Christmas

Free Christmas Music

It seems that this time of year I can not get enough of Christmas music.  By Dec. 26th I am willing to give it up for another year but from Thanksgiving until Christmas I love to Listen. 

Amazon.com is offering a free   download of a Christmas song each day between Dec 1 and Dec 25th.  You can download any that you have missed on the previous days so you can still get the Casting Crowns "Joy to World" that they offered yesterday.

Hear it first.com has a calendar and they are offering a free song of O Come O Come Emmanuel for yesterday.  

Happy first day of December!!

Soon 2009 will be a memory.  I hope that each of your years were full of family, friends and fun.

I came across a calendar for December till Christmas that gives you a look at what Christmas is like in another country. Here is the link.

Christianaudio.com offer a free download every month of an audio book.  My husband and I have been listening to audio books for a few years now and I  have used audio books in our homeschool.  The free book this month is The Brothers Karamazov.  I found that as my mind wanders a bit when I am reading classics especially that if I listen it is a great experience.  The link is here.  Don't forget to add the special code that is on that page.

I love watching Christmas specials but am never sure when they are on well I found a site that takes care of that problem.  It's a Wonderful Movie has the specials listed everyday and she updates it everyday (except Sundays).  A charlie Brown Christmas is suppose to be on tonight!! Yeah!!. 

Hope you have a great Day. 

Thanksgiving is over

Thanksgiving is over so it is time to start concentrating on Christmas.The internet is a wealth of information and ideas on every thing to do with Christmas so I thought I would just list some things that my family and I have found really great.

First and formost is the Reason for the Season which is the Birth of Jesus.   Here you will find a wonderful Advent Study that we have used in the past.  I think we will probably be using it this year also.  I like that fact that it is inductive and that you read the same scripture several times so that it is really in your head when you are finished.

This is a page that has a whole list of units and worksheets and clip art for you to use in your studies at this time of year.

Clement Moore wrote The Night before Christmas and you can learn about him and read the poem at this link.

Here you will find both lined and unlined Christmas writting paper.  These are more for younger children but older children can use them also for little notes etc.

At this link you can find out all about Christmas traditions around the world.

Here you can find lapbooks on symbols customs and other ideas.

This is a wondeful unit on the symbols of the season.  I think we have used at least part of this study every year for as long as I can remember.

Here is another unit which is more about the songs.

Easy Fun School has a long list of activities and units for Christmas.  There are some activities for A Christmas Carol which I already listed some links under the tag A Christmas Carol. A Blessed Christmas can be found here along with a unit on Christams Around the World, and a unit on Christmas songs. 

And lastly for today About.com has a countdown calendar with activities online , crafts and recipes.

Well that should keep you busy for awhile. 

 

My Eventful Thanksgiving

We had a fairly eventful Thanksgiving.  Dave was not able to make it to the family Thanksgiving with his family but the kids and I went.  The three kids went in Faith's car and I was in my car by myself.  This let me get to listen to my current audio book and gave the kids some bonding time.  We left a bit early and arrived at the restraunt about 45 minutes early.  I called my mother in law and she said for us to go on over to her house so my son joined me and the girls followed in Faith's Car.  My mother in law currently lives out in the country so we had to travel some country roads.  We were driving along when I happened to look in the rearview mirror just in time to see Faith's car spinning around into the ditch.  She had driven to close to the edge and her tire went over and she over compensated and lost control of her car.  I immediately turned around and went to see what happened.  They were okay just alittle shook up but her car was smashed up a bit.  Luckily it was able to be driven away.  We then had to deal with the insurance and police.  Our meal was quick and short.  Then we went to my Mother in Laws and did what we call Dirty Santa but this year didn't get  to bad.  The whole family gathered pictures together and and my brother in law put them on a digital picture fram for my mother in law as she is moving to a retirement community so this will probably be the last Thanksgiving that we get together.  She gave us a few things that she didn't need anymore and I packed upmy car and went home. The kids stayed a bit longer.  I picked up my hubby on my way home.  I had to go to work last night and I took my son home.  Just as I was leaving my house I was hit by a horse and buggy.  No damage to us or the car or the horse or buggy.  So that was our day, not really a day i would like to repeat. 

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving

I will probably not be able to get on the computer tomorrow as we are going to celebrate with Dave's family so I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

We will be eating at a restraunt tomorrow as I think there over 20 of us.  This will probably be the last time we all get together as one as my mother in law is moving to a retirement community and will not have the room for all of us to get together afterwards.

Dave will not make it home in time to celebrate tomorrow so we will have another dinner on Sunday. 

Viruses

Not the biological kind but the computer kind.  We have been dealing with computer viruses for a couple of weeks now.  I would use one antivirus program and it would seem to work but then in a few days it was not cutting it so I used the one our internet comes with and it works a few days then nothing.  I just bought an anitvirus that my brothe recommended.  We will see how well that works.  This reminded me that we have to be careful in our thought lives too.  If we are not careful of what we look at or read or listen to things can make their way into our subconscience just like those pesky viruses made their way on my computer  and unlike a computer our brains are not easily erased.      

Thanksgiving is coming.  It will be here in 6 days.  There is a slight chance that my hubby may not be here because he may be in Florida or Texas but that is ok.  
I have been fighting a little stomach distress and have had a ehadache for three days now.  Not sure if it is stress or weather related, just wish it would go away. 

I made a dvd of my family over the last twenty five years.  I put music to it and everything.  It really was quite fun to do.  I am thinking of making another one for my parents (this one was made for my mother-in-law).  I have put the picture I used in a slide show on the side bar.

I have gotten lots of links in my e-mail for Thanksgiving so here goes.  Here is an entire study on Thanksgiving .  There are some pretty good links at this one.  

This has ideas to make a Thanksgiving lapbook.