Home, School, and Work: Can you do all 3 and do them well?

Many of you are familiar with the homeschool magazine, The Old Schoolhouse. You may not realize they’ve added a number of electronic resources to their repertoire. I just finished a very interesting e-book, “Homework Juggling Home, School, and Work Without Losing Your Balance” written by Martha Green of Marmee’s Kitchen.

I’m growing in my “E-ness,” and I have to admit I was initially intimidated by the length of the book, 95 pages. Once I started reading it, I was hooked. It is a compilation of short stories of real homeschool families who successfully run a business at home while educating their children. I really like that they included all kinds of different businesses run by moms with a variety of education and skill levels. There are families who began their enterprises based on hobbies or interests and others who followed their profession from the office to their home.

It isn’t a one-size fits all approach to starting and running your own business, but rather what did and did not work for particular families. I appreciated the honesty (and humor) of Gail Kappenman of Kap & Pen Publications who admits her “home business history has more bumps in the road than a Chicago highway under construction.” She encourages us to keep trying until we find our niche. If you don’t excel in sales, perhaps you’ll find success in a service-based industry.

I was happy to find that the book doesn’t paint a picture of a life of daisy-filled meadows with lambs skipping along merrily once you start your new business. It’s hard work and requires faithful diligence to be successful. It also admits that managing a home and a business while educating your children isn't for everyone. What works for one family in a particular season of life, may not work for another family - and that's ok.

The final pages provide a reality check with tax information and day-to-day organization tips along with web sites for a variety of work at home resources. If you are a homeschool family considering starting a home-based business, I heartily recommend this e-book as a place to prayerfully begin your research, and you can buy it here.

What have we been up to?

I had another one of my 'brilliant' ideas and amazingly Bill is letting me do it.
I should add that it's not amazing that he's letting me do something kooky but rather he's letting me do this particular kooky thing. :)

What? I'm not telling yet. See if you can guess what we're building here.

I let the kids start painting it before it's finished just to keep them out from under my feet. :)


These are phone pix which didn't turn out too bad.

More Giveaways!

I love contests. Even if I don't win, I love checking out all the cool stuff they're offering.
So I stumbled across my latest find while looking for a nature study for next year.

Candace at His Mercy is New is giving away all sorts of goodies for homeschool moms. Go check it out (and her nature study is good, too!).

Eagle Fest!

Saturday we made the nearly 3 hour drive to Blackwater Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge for their Eagle Fest. Bill was skeptical at first, but in the end it was a really cool experience.

They had *tons* of crafts for the kids, and they each got to build their own bluebird house. And it was all FREE!

There were live bird demonstrations as well. Since it's a wildlife refuge, they rehab injured birds so we got to see UP CLOSE!! Red-tail hawks, all sort of owls, little kestrels, you name it! We were close enough to reach out and touch them. So cool!!! I guess I should add that we're bird geeks and find this sort of thing very interesting. :)

Blackwater also has two raptor cams. One on an eagle nest - two new babies hatched earlier this month!; and one on an osprey nest.

We persevered and were able to secure tickets for the Eagle Prowl bus ride tour around the refuge looking for eagles. The previous two tours had spotted 20+ and 11+ eagles. It had started to mist when our tour started and we saw only 4 or 5. BUT we did see an eagle eating a snow goose! He was parked on top of it and using his beak to tear off feathers. We could see white feathers flying off like popcorn in the wind. The guide said he has been with the park for over 20 years and has seen soemthing like that only one other time. Wow!

The best part of the whole day is that our friends A, C, and J were there. Hank and Ella were very glad to spend some time with their buddies. All I'll tell you the next time I go bird watching, I'm taking them. Talk about eagle-eyes! They were spotting birds the guide was missing. He'd whip out his binoculars and confirm their sitings. Smart kids! They're homeschooled, ya know. :)

Why no pictures?? Very sad news here...my camera broke, died, is kaput. I feel like I had an arm lopped off. Even sadder is that a new camera is SO not in the budget right now. I have to admit I really struggled with the disappointment at first. I was even tempted to just go out and buy a new one, but the added debt is the last thing we need. So while I'm sad, I trust Providence and know God will provide - perhaps wisdom for me to raise funds for a new one? perhaps He'll provide tires for dh's car and the books I need for Hank and Jake to finish the year which would free up funds for a camera? Who knows? Well, God does, that's who!

Wild Olive Tees

I came across the blog for Wild Olive tees - after checking out Stefanie's family blog ... trying not to be envious while reading about her 4 China babies.

They make some beautiful and super cool t-shirts for women. They're also running a little contest until April 15th so get over there and enter! And buy a t-shirt or two while you're at it!

The one, the only...Uncle Todd!

Uncle Todd is retiring from the Navy this month and stopped here on his way from Guam to Florida. I won't even talk about how old I feel to have a *younger* brother who is old enough to RETIRE from a job. sheesh!

Ok, back to Todd. The kids think he's the coolest thing since sliced bread. Shane glued himself to poor Todd; he would tip-toe to Todd's room, whisper loudly "Wake up Uncle Potty!" and then run like crazy back upstairs. We all get up before 7. Uncle Todd....we'll just say he preferred a later wake up call. Todd left last week (week before? I'm old so be patient with me) and Shane still considers the hall bathroom as Todd's; he'll yell at Jake to get out of 'Uncle Potty's baproom!' It's really funny.

Below is the only picture that survived my computer crash. Bill is going to try to rescue my pictures of our trip to Medieval Times with Todd, and his friends Dennis and Mandy and their insanely adorable baby Cameron.

We hope the folks in Port Saint Lucie think he's as great as we do!

My big 3 year old

It is so hard to believe Shane is 3. Actually if you know him, then you know it's hard to believe he's lived this long! 2 broken arms, 1 broken leg, food allergies and countless 'procedures' related to his allergies.

A friend of ours is a pilot and describes our little man as 'all thrust and no vector.' I'm not a pilot so I don't know what the heck 'vector' is but I'm thinking it means, this kid never slows down.

He climbs like a monkey, runs like a deer, laughs like a hyena, tackles like a bull, has a temper like I've never seen and gives the absolute best hugs and kisses.

It's not like we didn't have any warning he'd be a handful. I had morning sickness so bad, there were days I was so weak that I could hardly stand. Preterm labor, not once but twice. And when he decided he was truly ready to make his escape, he did so with gusto. He arrived 2 hours after my first contraction. It was a good thing we didn't tarry or some poor state trooper would have had the honor of delivering him (Bill would have been passed out on the road...unless he crawled to the grassy shoulder before keeling over).

Despite the manic-level of excitement he adds to my days, I can't imagine a minute without my little squishy-lipped muffin. We love you baby Shane!

Hammering nails on his new workbench

Hiding under the cake table

Waiting, waiting to blow out the candles

Cheeseburger deluxe

Waiting for Aunt Honey and Jenny. Get used to waiting on girls, Shane. We take time to do things, but we're worth the wait. :)

This is his "I love DeeDee so I'll wear my funny party hat" smile

Ready, set

Blow!

Ta Daaa!

Couldn't you just eat him with a spoon! He's so stinkin' cute!

Phunny phonics lesson

Ella is building words using "L" sounds

One of them was the word 'bill'
She likes to make up sentences for each word she reads

"Ok kids, pay your bill. We're going to the Tooth Fairy's house!"

I don't know how she linked the tooth fairy to a bill, but it made perfect sense to her.

Hello. Hello? Anyone there?

Peek a boo!


Yes, we're still here. Lots going on...computer crashed, Todd came and went, sickness and so on.
Things are starting to settle back into our normal level of chaos so I should be able to add a few pictures in the coming week.