Springtime Plans

Well Spring is in the air around here for me, even though it is still freezing outside.

I have been dreaming of springtime for a couple of weeks now. I love sprng, it is a time of renewal. I love watching everything that appears to be dead start to come alive again. I love hearing the robins and watching the squirrels. I love planning and planting my gardens.

I also love sprucing up the outside of our house. We are thinking of the things we would like to do to the outside of our house this year. Rich would love to take our awnings down, but I love them. They give me the ability to keep my windows open when the spring rains come which is one of my favorite things to do.

Besides I think my house would look so bare without them. Maybe we would have to get shuttersjust to dress it upa bit. Are you making springtime plans yet? Do you have any home improvement projects you want to accomplish this year?

Lessons I've Learned Parenting

I think I am finally learning a couple of things about parenting after doing it for fifteen years.

I have spent a lot of energy trying to control my kids. My daughter in particular. And I have just come to the realization that what I was doing was parenting out of fear instead of grace.

She is a great kid. But, all I was seeing were all of her mistakes and shortcomings. This lead to some real struggles between us. It is not like she needed to go to military school or anything, although I am quite certain we threatened it a couple of times.

What I have seen lately is that I parent her out of the fear that she may get in trouble.

As a christian parent, I need to learn to parent with grace.

Yes, she does need boundaries, but she also needs the room to learn where those boundaries are for herself instead of me constantly pointing them out for her to see. Otherwise she will one day leave my control and venture into this big world and have never learned for herself where her boundaries are.

So, after fifteen years of parenting and a whole lot of struggles we are changing our parenting techniques. And we are learning that sometimes we the parents are wrong too. And we make mistakes too. It is no good to teach our kids that they need to be perfect or they'll never learn their need for the perfect one.

Glasses or Contacts?

My daughter and I both wear glasses. Well, my daughter actually wears contacts most of the time. But when she is not wearing her contacts, she has to wear her glasses to be able to see anything. She hates her glasses. But I keep on telling her that we can't just go and get her new glasses simply because she doe not like the way that they look on her any longer.

But Zenni Optical has eyeglasses for a very very low price. They have recently been featured in The New York Times newspaper. These are great quality glasses without the high cost of other glasses. There are a lot of different styles to chose from. So basically everyone will be able to find a pair that they like.

So are you like me? I do not wear contacts at all. I is only glasses for me. So I am always glad when I can find a great looking pair of high quality glasses without breaking the budget. I am not sure why have never tried out contacts, it has always just been glasses for me.

Maybe it is because I really do not need to wear them all of the time, so it is easier to put on and off a pair of glasses. Although, lately I have been considering contacts. Until then I will just be thankful for the glasses I can get at Zenni Optical.

Free Jonas Brother's Homeschool Teleconference

Sign up for the free Homeschool.com's teleconferences.

Registration s free, so don't hesitate to get in on this conference featuring the Jonas Brothers.

The conference is on February 19th at 11 am PST.

Once you register, they'll email you with the schedule, phone number, and passcode. Just call the number and enter your code on February 19th at 11 am PST. You'll be given the opportunity to ask the Jonas Brothers your questions at the end of the conference!

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A Question of Credit

I have been spending this week getting my tax information together. It has also been a good time to get our business organized. I am completely revamping how I keep our files and cleaning out the business desk. This is going to be a great New Year.

I am also reconsidering what kinds of things will work for our business in these hard economic times. If we do not make some changes, we will not be as prosperous as we could be.

One thing that we have not been able to do up to this point is offer any kind of credit. This seems to be a very popular way to get business, So with that in mind I have decided that it is necessary to learn all I can about ACH Processing. This is supposed to be an easy way for businesses to offer credit options to their customers

How to Earn

I have a post up at my other site right now that you may find interesting.

Although it is not directly homeschool related it is still good information.

I have been able to make a little extra cash by spending a few minutes each day clicking on email or completing surveys. With all the financial troubles right now I thought maybe I should share this info with you as well.

You can find the post here.

Home Improvements

Okay so I am choosing to listen to the groundhog who said yesterday that we will see an early spring.

So with that in mind I am excitedly thinking of all the things to do before then. I have begun Spring Cleaning and I am already receiving seed catalogs in the mail. These just add to the excitement by the way.

We are planning which home improvement projects to spend our tax return on this year as well.

So far we have on the list, a new driveway or vinyl siding and vinyl shutters.

We are just thinking of ways to spruce things up a bit since it appears that our ouse in unsellable in this market.

Groundhog Day

I have had a feeling of excitement all morning. There was no real explanation for it. Just a random feeling. Or so I thought.

Do you know that today the furry little rodent who comes out every year to predict how much longer it will be until Spring was hesitant to come out. I don't blame him one bit. It has been freezing lately!

But once he was coaxed enough he did indeed come out.

And he did NOT see his shadow!

Now, I always got confused by this. To me it would seem logical that if he saw his shadow that would indicate that the sun was out and a sign that it was going to start warming up. But that is not the case at all. That actually would mean 6 more weeks of winter!

Contrary to what I would have thought, the groundhog did NOT see his shadow, and according to tradition this means that we are going to have an early spring.

Yahoo! This is why I was having a feeling of excitement all morning. The hope of an early spring is exciting!

Okay, so this was not the famous Punxsutawney Phil groundhog. He saw his shadow and says 6 more weeks. But I am choosing to listen to the other guy since I saw his prediction and could really use the hope of an early spring right about now.

Time for Valentine's Day

So I am quite sure that everyone knows that Valentine's Day is just right around the corner.

I have very mixed feelings about this holiday.

I think that it is great to acknowledge the ones that you love. But I do not think that by going out and buying chocolates and roses is really a significant way to show how you feel. I mean the candy gets eaten and the roses eventually die.

I heard about a neat idea that I think beat the traditional Valentine's Day gifts.

Giving the gift of time. Literally. When you give casio watchesinstead of flowers you are giving something that will be a constant reminder of your feelings for that person.

Every time they look to check the time they will be reminded of you.