Make Your Own Holiday Day

OK.  I am sorry to do two special days in a row, but come on?  Which one would I skip?  They are both too cool.  This one is a homeschoolers dream, right?  I don’t even see how it can be relegated to just ONE SINGLE DAY in a year!

How fun to come up with your OWN holiday!  What will you celebrate?  How will you celebrate?  How will you decorate?  What’s for dinner?  Who will be honored?  Or will it be a what will you honor?  So many questions, so little time!  Gather the kids and help them brainstorm the best holiday ever!

International Waffle Day

Oh, man!  This one is right up my alley, baby!  I love waffle days!  What?  You don’t do waffle days?  Oh.  Well, see…  It is because it takes SO LONG to make waffles, I figure if I am going to do it, I am going to REALLY do it.  I double the recipe and make a ton with my little waffle iron.  A ton multiplied by six minutes per waffle is all day, you know.  So we all eat ‘real breakfast,’ trying to get it some protein.  Then I start on the waffles!  I don’t do this on school days, so I probably slept in, and we already ate breakfast so waffles become lunch.  Then after clean up, bagging and freezing the waffles, I am too tired to make dinner, so we pull out the frozen ones and put peanut butter on them and eat them for dinner, too. 

So…it isn’t such a healthy day.  Maybe I shared too much?  It’s a good thing waffle days are so rare ‘round here, huh?

The moon

Tonight the moon is going to appear to be bigger and brighter.  The last time it appeared to be this size and brightness was twenty years ago.  As the moon orbits at this, it’s closest to earth, it will be 14% bigger and 30% brighter.  I was out last night at midnight and I was drawn up short by the beauty of the scene.  There was fresh snow reflecting the tremendous amount of light.  It looked at though the sun were just on the other side of the mountains. 

Enjoy the view tonight!

Everything You Do Is Right Day

This is an interesting one.  Today is Everything You Do Is Right Day, according to my funny little calendar.  What an excellent opportunity to heap praise on the people around us! 

This may sound trivial, but I am a member of Netflix and I watch movies streamed through my Wii.  After I view a movie, I always get an email asking about the quality of the picture.  I delete them without a second thought.  But, occasionally, the picture isn’t so great, and I make a mental note to answer that survey!

Do you have a tendency to fix the wrong, and let go the right?  I do.  I expect good behavior from my kids, so I tend to let it go un-praised sometimes.  My reasoning includes the fact that there is no call for me to praise using the toilet properly past the age of, say, five!  Right?

But I love praise.  A pat on the back does wonders for my soul.  It motivates me to keep on keeping on.  Mothering is one of those famously thankless jobs, and a sincere word of thanks is a cherished jewel.

So, today, Everything You Do Is Right!  Well done!  Good job!!  Keep it up!!  You are great!  Go give the kids a hug and tell them the same. 

Attitude

Attitude is all important, would you agree?  I stress this with my kids, because I so adamantly believe it.     Something horrible can be made tolerable with a good attitude, and something unpleasant can be quite enjoyable.  Conversely, a fun activity can become unbearably miserable with a bad attitude. Attitude is a game-changers.

Lately mine hasn’t been so hot.  But it is sneaky.  I think all is well, but then I find myself getting frustrated with something that wouldn’t normally be a blip on my radar.

I always tell my kids that what is truly in us is most visible when we get ‘bumped’ because we ‘spill.’  So, I have some attitude problem that spills onto any nearby victim each time I am ever-so-slightly bumped.

Whew!  That is shaming!  Sometimes I guess I just need to slow down and take an inventory.  I forget to leave things at the cross because I move by it too quickly.  I guess the attitude is a good thing…if I view it as a symptom needing examination.

So, how’s your attitude?  Not the one you put on in front of people.  Not when everything is going smoothly.  Not when you are in control.  What spills when things go wrong?  If it isn’t so great, take the time to find out why and make the change.  Those lambs under you—those most often in the spill zone—will thank you!

Thank the Lord in all things, even when the mirror is held up to show that work is needed.  Let it save you.

It is Albert Einstein’s Birthday

How will you observe that?  I remember studying his life and being frankly a little disappointed in what I learned.  While he contributed to our society in the way of magnificent thought and theory, he was not a great example to emulate in his personal life. 

How often is that so?  Someone who gives lofty gifts of scientific discovery, political revolution, entertainment, protection or some other significant achievement leaves more than a little to be desired in the private sector. 

Families neglected, addictions allowed to run unchecked, social skills well hidden…  All are excused for the sake of the greater contribution.  I don’t know if this is the right thing to do or not.  I realize sacrifice is needed for any worthwhile endeavor.  But what is to be sacrificed?  Who is to decide?

I don’t have any answers, but I think we ought to continue to ask.

The KidsROCK Store has new Products

Head on over to check out the iPhone covers, Jewelry, pajamas, stickers, mugs, totes and shirts galore!  When you shop at cafepress.com/kidsrockacademy you help KidsROCK Academy while giving a gift that makes a statement—or keeping it for yourself!

There are so many options with the store products regarding product and design combinations as well as design placement, that I can’t show them all.  If you have any specific requests, let me know and I will work to accommodate you.

 

Happy shopping!  Here is a small sampling of the items you can find.

His and Her iPhone covers.

 

Stuff for baby and mommies waiting for baby!

 

Pj’s: “I AM in School”    You know, since we homeschoolers only school in our pajamas!

Jewelry.  These all have designs for mom, but if there is another design you prefer from our store, just let me know!

 

More products than one family can shake a stick at!

Prayer for Japan

I awoke this morning and saw the devastating news—that was being ever updated with more devastation—that Japan had been hit by one the highest recorded earthquakes and then by a resulting tsunami.  Even as I read an article, new numbers regarding the magnitude of the earthquake, people dead or missing and the monetary damage were all growing.

Our little family just finished studying this island nation and fell in love with the history and people about whom we learned.  We will be praying for them in the days and weeks to come.

Oh, Lord, I lift the people in Japan and the surrounding areas and those who love them to you now.  Please show your mercy and compassion to them.   Raise up those who know you, strengthen them and equip them to serve, heal and comfort those who do not.  You are sovereign.  Please reign in the hearts and over the land as you bring restoration and unity.

Amen.

Club PALS begins

We had our training for Club PALS and I am more excited than ever to carry out this new session on Awareness!  We have some great things planned with great families. 

We took the winter off in order to have the time to write the Awareness lessons.  It was a good and necessary thing to do, but I sure missed the regular meetings through the winter months. 

I am very excited about beginning again.  I have new people in my home and new activities planned.  It is going to be a great season!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 14th wedding anniversary for my husband and me.  I am so blessed to be married to this wonderful man and I am thankful all year long.  We rarely get to do anything special for the day itself, but since each day is a celebration that is ok.

I pray the Lord grants us many, many more years together!

Winter Slump

Have you experienced this phenomena?  While I can’t say that it is exclusive to homeschooling or homeschoolers, I am using the term here to refer to that time of the year when school just doesn’t get done.  For some reason all the momentum is lost, and just beginning a lesson seems impossible—don’t even talk about actually finishing a lesson!

I like to think that one day I will be so accomplished that I will be immune to the winter slump.  Sadly, I realize that if I ever were to be immune, this would be the year.  I love our school time, our school materials, our school routine… it is all awesome!  I can only assume I make everyone sick for all the raving I have done about our current school year.

And yet, here I am, sitting in the mud.  I can’t get started with the day.  Accomplishing everything on the ‘list’ feels to be an insurmountable task.  It doesn’t matter that we did everything on the list, plus a game over lunch and complementary documentary each and every day before the slump hit.

That is another thing.  I can’t decide if I have fallen into a mire, or if a whole pool of mud was dumped on me.  I mean, did I hit it, or did it hit me?  It is so dizzying in here that I can’t even tell that!  Maybe the mud hit me, knocking me down, and so I am now sitting in it?  ~~Do you see how productively I spend my time?

But, the good news about having encountered the slump in the past is that I have a reasonable certainty that it will pass.  At least it has in the past…

Lego Shopping

The Lego Club is really the group within KidsROCK that has all the money.  All of their dues stay within the club, and whenever they reach $100, we go shopping!  It is an exciting time to stock the Lego bin with new pieces to allow for more inventive Missions.

So I am gathering wishes from the members and making a list.  In a couple of week, I will hit the websites.  It is always neat to see the creativity the new pieces inspire.

So, do you have any suggestions for cool Lego building?

Here We Go!

I have been talking about spring and all the cool things that are on the calendar.  I have been waiting with great anticipation this new season.  And now it is here!

The Ladies Bible Study begins this evening.  Club PALS begins on Monday—about which I am so excited!  Lego Club continues steadfastly on Wednesdays.  Before I know it, Critical Thinking Class, Horse Riding and Drama Club will be here.

I am looking forward to seeing friends and participating in new activities.  See you there!

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

I do, I do, want to celebrate this fanciful wordsmith’s day of birth! Generations have grown up on green eggs and ham, wild imaginations, playfulness with words and cunning stories. 

Some of the first books I read, and some of the first books my children read, were from Dr. Seuss.  What a wonderful treat to hand on memories and to make new ones with our little ones.  My nephew’s first book was Go, Dog, Go.  Fittingly, his mother threw him a Go, Dog, Go themed high school graduation party.  How cool is that?  The kids ate on the balcony food that was raised and lowered in a bucket on a string from the balcony.  They wore silly hats and had really innovative decorations.

What a blessed thing it is to reach people in a way that is so joyful.  I pray that as I pour life into my kids, they will be able to spill blessings on everyone they meet!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Share a Smile Day

This sounds so trite, but I know that there have been serious studies done on the benefits of smiling and laughter.  It really makes a difference, for both the giver and receiver of the smile.

It is easy, when moving through the day, to get focused on accomplishing tasks.  Get the laundry in the washer, start the dish washer, run to the post office, drop off overdue library books, switch the clothes to the dryer, read to the kids, gas up the car, empty the dishwasher, run the kids to whatever extra-curricular activity is today, empty the dishwasher, make a meal, fold the clothes….

You get the idea—what am I saying?  You LIVE the life!  Sometimes it gets mind-numbingly dull.  Other times it is truly overwhelming.  Whatever end of the spectrum, it is easy to forget the people involved in the day.  It is easy to lose eye-contact and that ever-important smile.

It is such a simple thing to do.  It relieves stress, reminds you why you do what you do and can give some much needed encouragement to someone else.  You never know who is also trudging through the day, burdened by worries.  Your smile can make a difference!