2009 October

The Frumpy Mommy Tale Continues

October 29, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: MamaMusings

An interesting thing happened today. I decided to go through my closet, and tackled my shoes first. To fully appreciate this story, you need to know a few things.

1. I used to be a shoe-freak. I had enough shoes at one point to wear a different pair every day for two months. Not just ordinary shoes, I had a knack for finding unique styles, and usually for a great bargain.

2. Not always a bargain, though. I think the most I ever spent was a hundred dollars. Not Jimmy Choos, but pretty expensive in my budget.

3. On the other hand, I once bought designer shoes for $2. I had a coupon.

4. When I went on my honeymoon, I had a separate suitcase just for…..you got it. Shoes.

So, you’re getting the picture. I guess I should tell you now that in the last few years, my shoe collection has dwindled. I am not able to replace ones that are falling apart and it’s been over a year since I bought anything but sneakers.

Even though I loved shoes before I started getting on the frumpy side, I loved them even more when I could no longer fit into a size two dress. Shoes always fit! Even so, one dreary, gray day, I called my mom.

“Went shoe shopping. Not happy.”

“Why?”

“Well, because, none of them made me look skinny!”

It’s the truth. My love affair with shoes didn’t exactly end that day, but we began to drift apart. My body seemed even larger when towering on skinny stiletto heels. And, staying home with my kiddos, I didn’t have much need for the latest style anyway. Right now, I couldn’t even tell you what the latest style is.

So, back to today. I threw out every ripped, fraying, impractical, and smelly shoe I owned and only kept the ones I actually wear. So what was so interesting?

I now have more slippers than shoes.

Is this normal?

Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy

{ 7 Comments }

Introducing…Coco and Soleil

October 22, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: MamaMusings

Today I spent over two hours changing every reference to my daughters on this blog and gave them new nicknames. I listened to an Online Ministry Conference session the other day and the speaker Darcy shared her reasons for giving her kids nicknames on her blog. (And if you haven’t read her blog, you must. She is hilarious.)

I never thought about not using my girls’ names. I figure anyone that wants to know can easily find out, and I don’t use pictures so I wasn’t too worried about privacy. Yet, Darcy brought up a great point. She said that she shared much personal medical info about one of her sons and she didn’t want a future employer googling him later in life and reading his history.

Well. I got to thinking about that. I googled my girls, and yep…there they were on Google! One could really learn quite a bit about them just from my little stories here. I talked it over with my hubby and we decided to leave our girls’ names out of my blogging for now.

Since I’m not using their names, I briefly contemplated sharing some photos here, but ultimately decided against it. I have had too many experiences with creepy people in this world to feel comfortable posting their beautiful faces for all to see. As my husband told them, “Maybe if you weren’t so pretty.” I wish I was joking, but he actually said this.

I love looking at the beautiful pictures other moms post of their kids, and I don’t judge anyone who does. I think each family has to make those decisions based on their own experiences and prayers. I’ll just say, once you’ve dealt with a stalker, you’d rather err on the side of paranoid.

So, after I decided, I set about the task of renaming my children.

Coco was easy. It’s been her real nickname at home forever, and she named her blog Coco Around the World.

Choosing a fitting name for my six year old proved not to be so easy. Her nickname at home is a shortened version of her name. Though we did use to call her wreckin’ ball when she was a toddler. That just didn’t seem nice anymore. So, I enlisted her help and we had great fun thinking of options. Her favorite was Sweet Honey Pie. Cute. But, um, no. I wanted to call her Ramona. Because she is so Ramona Quimby. “But Mom!” She cried. “You know Ramona’s a brat! Why don’t you just call me Bratty McBrat Brat?”

Well, I was tempted.

Then, we were watching old home movies that night. In every other scene, my voice (my face always behind the camera) is calling out to my little crawling baby…. ”There’s my Sunshine!” Yes! It fully describes her sunny little self. But Coco had a sort of Frenchy-chic ring to it so I decided to look up Sunshine in French. Soleil! I was sold. I mean, for those of you that don’t know, Soleil is the real life name of no other than Punky Brewster, the ten year old girl who influenced my childhood like perhaps no other person alive. You know, the one with the coolest bedroom ever? Punky Power!

(…a little while later, back from my Netflix queue. Punky on the way!)

I’d appreciate it if those of you that know my little ones kindly call them by their nicknames here on my blog, my twitter, or public facebook page. And please, remind me when I slip and include their real names in a post. ‘Cause I will. I just know it.

But anyway. Back to my Soleil. My little sunshine. And Coco. My soon-to-be teenager.

That’s how they’ll be known around here from now on. What do you think?

{ 12 Comments }

Anecdotal Records in Homeschool

October 20, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Homeschool

Today, I am posting at Homeschool Classroom about a simple way to use anecdotal records in homeschool.

Back in my days as a pre-k teacher at a private Christian school, I was trained to keep anecdotal records on my students. My school didn’t actually require them, but I found that the parents really appreciated them and, come conference time, so did I. Not having to rely on my memory is always a good thing.

…read the rest at the Homeschool Classroom.

{ Leave a Comment }

Course of Study With Reviews: First Grade

October 13, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Homeschool

I wrote about our course of study for my eighth grader here. Here is what we’re doing for my first grader, Soleil.

Bible

Tapestry of Grace Bible Survey/Church history selections

I love Tapestry of Grace (TOG) at both ages we’re doing now. We are working our way through the Old testament right now, and I love how it is all connected to our history and literature reading. Also, both girls are in the same time period!

A Little Girl After God’s Own Heart, Elizabeth George

Such a sweet little book! I just got this, and Soleil and I will be doing one character trait each week with our tea.

Scripture memorization

We use the Charlotte Mason system for memorizing scripture.

Daily devotional time

Read a little about Soleil’s quiet time here.

Language Arts

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Jessie Wise. Level 1

People either seem to love or hate this book. I love it! Beyond basic grammar, it includes poetry memorization, picture study, story narration, and copy work. Soleil is always happy to find this book in her workbox. Often, we sit on the couch together for our “language lesson.” I love that it feels like we’re just sitting and chatting.

Abeka Phonics Sounds cards

Soleil reads at a fourth or fifth grade level. I am using these phonics cards mostly so she learns the rules which will come in handy later for spelling. We usually just go through two or three a couple times a week. She loves to be the teacher and go through them with me.

Memoria Press Copybook II

Instead of copying inane sentences about ants on logs, we’re now copying scripture and hymns. Love this book! We do use some of the verses for memorization, and Soleil loves the illustration pages that go with each copy page. Her penmanship has greatly improved with this book. Something about writing out Bible verses just calls for your best work!

Tapestry of Grace Literature selections

Again, perfect books! I have skipped a couple that were based on ancient gods. We briefly covered it and Soleil had a very violent reaction to the whole concept that anyone would worship anyone but the one true God. Another great thing about both girls being in the same time period in history is that Soleil reads her books to Coco and vice-versa.

Tapestry of Grace, Writing Aids

I am supplementing our language lessons with this. So far, we’re making a word bank with the parts of speech. FLL goes a little slowly for us, we’re still on nouns after 8 weeks of school. With this, we’re covering adjectives, verbs, and more.

Various readers

Because Soleil is so advanced in reading, I just let her pick chapter books from the library. She reads daily, and loves it. She loves the American Girl books, but even those can have some older themes. Fortunately, she loves reading the Bible, and that is always appropriate!

SpellQuizzer

I had not intended to do a spelling program this year, but the maker of SpellQuizzer gave me a free copy. It’s so fun, Soleil has been begging to do spelling, so I let her. I’ll write a full review on this soon!

Arithmetic

Math U See Foundations in Math (through Lesson 25).

This is an old version of Math U See I purchased used. It has the accompanying lessons that we’ve come to love, only on VHS . The book is supposed to cover grades 1-3, and I plan to cover first and second grades this year. We’ll hit everything up to multiplication, and cover that next year. We’re also still working on money and time. I do have Soleil watch the lessons with me, then we’ll work on that concept for a couple days or a week, depending on how long it takes her to “get it.” Love homeschool.

World History and Geography

Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Primary history and In-Depth history selections

Oh man, I love this course. The history selections are great! Interesting, fun to read, and I am learning from them, too. My favorite part of this course is our discussions we have before we even start our workboxes. We’ll cover the different threads and discuss the culture, Bible history, and other things I learn in my teacher’s notes. If you haven’t looked into TOG, I highly recommend you do.

Map Aids Geography, Grammar Level

We are doing a very light version of the maps that come with TOG. Sometimes, I do have Soleil label her own, but sometimes I’ll just have her point them out. The geography is pretty comprehensive for first grade. I had to look up many of the terms myself before I could teach them to her. I like to use a children’s dictionary because we can both understand it

Science

Apologia Exploring Creation With Zoology 3: Land Animals of the 6^th Day

This book is for grades 1-6. I only wish I had been homeschooling when Coco was younger so we could have done these! They are absolutely packed with information, and I am amazed at how much Soleil retains. I read this aloud to her, though she often takes over and reads it to me. We love the Charlotte Mason methodology. There’s notebooking, narration, and easy experiments at the end of each lesson. There’s also a cool map-it and track-it section that has me feeling like Kate on Lost. Anyway.

Kingfisher 1^st Animal Encyclopedia

This is just a fun photo-filled supplement. I was unhappy with some of the evolution references, but we just skip those for now. I like to stick this in one of Soleil’s workboxes in between some of the heftier science reading days.

Nature Study Handbook, by Anna Comstock

This is more of a reference for me. We are still getting the hang of nature study and this book is invaluable!

Latin

Memoria Press, Prima Latina DVD Course and student book

Another lesson I am doing alongside Soleil. This course is for up to third grade, so we are taking our time with it. I watch a small portion of the dvd with her and we do lots on the whiteboard. I plan to finish about half the book this year. We take a few weeks per lesson, absorbing the vocabulary, English derivatives, and prayers.

Arts

How Great Thou Art: I Can Do All Things

I wasn’t sure about this book when I saw the pages. It’s a little cluttered-looking, but we are loving it after all. I am having fun going through it with Soleil. There are hundreds of lessons, and we skip around from drawing to painting to markers. She has taken to drawing during much of her free time and has a sketch book nearly filled.

TOG fine arts and activities selections

Fun stuff! I combine our arts and activities for both grades, and the craft books recommended by TOG have come in super-handy. One of my favorites, Old testament days, I got free at our park day.

Classical Kids Music Cds

These are fictional CDs about different composers with their music throughout. They rock! My kids have started listening to classical music while cleaning their room and playing, and can identify several composers. We’ll be studying composers more in depth when we come to their time periods, but this is a great way to get their interest going. Not that we don’t still rock out to Hannah Montana once in a while. ‘Cause we do.

PE

Swimming, volleyball, workout videos, bike riding

I started Soleil out on a point system this year, like her big sister, but I’ve already let that go. She is naturally very active, and I just decided not to worry about grading PE for this year. If I find it becoming a problem to get her moving, I might rethink that. But I don’t see that happening. The girl is always moving.

These are just my main resources. By using workboxes, I can actually fit in many more books, games, and learning activities. It seems like a lot here, but we do very short lessons. One of the Charlotte Mason ideas I just love. We get to cover so much in a week, and short lessons are a good fit for my busy girl. Using narration and just every day conversation, I am very pleased with how much she remembers!

I’m not sure that would be the case if we were spending thirty minutes per subject. That being said, we do read for over thirty minutes aloud sometimes, but that depends on the subject. If it’s a pleasing story, she could listen for hours. If it is lots of new information, like science, I will read for no more than fifteen minutes.

{ 5 Comments }

100 Posts! Some of My Favorite Comments

October 12, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: MamaMusings

I had a couple things in mind for my next post. I still need to share our course of study for first grade. I have a review I’m working on for SpellQuizzer. I was on my blog’s dashboard today, though, and saw that I have 99 posts. Which means…this is my

100^th post!

Thought it should be something special.

Then, of course, nothing I thought of seemed special enough.

Except, then I thought of this: You guys! (Or ladies, for the most part) My readers! Some of you I’ve gotten to know through the comments here, and some of you even send me sweet emails.

For this, my…

100^th post!

I am going to share some of my favorite comments left by readers. I couldn’t fit them all here, so sorry if I missed you.

Sometimes, they make me laugh out loud, like this one that Jewel left after reading Summer!

Will you adopt me? I’m 37 but I promise to go to bed on time (except during slumber parties) and to pick up any popcorn I drop on the floor.

Sometimes, more than once, they’ve made me cry. Here, Joy (turtle momma) replies after reading Old Memories of a New Season.

Funny. Im reading this as my 10yr old is in time out for her attitude. Its just a season in life, and when shes done, I’ll give her a big hug. Someday, I wont have any kids for time out Someday the hugs wont come every day or evening before bed. But then we will be proud of who they have become and can look forward to grandchildren.
Joy

My mom (known as mamala) is my most frequent commenter (go figure). I tell her that she practically has her own blog going in my comments section here, and needs to go ahead and start one already! One of my favorites, she wrote in response to Two Words I Can’t Stop Saying:

I just know that ‘be careful’ is the most universal, useless, parental directive around. I also know that until I became an adult (with my eye on the end of my life as it quickly advanced in my direction) did I really become careful.
I have become quite careful not to die and leave my loved ones behind, immobilized by their grief. I’ve become cognitive of the reality of the consequences of picking up hitch hikers, or going with a hippie to a second location.
Sadly, or maybe happily, although I had always promised the parents, “Yes, yes, I will be soooo careful”, I wasn’t, and yet, I’ve lived to tell. At that point of your life you feel invincible, super-hero-ish, and way smarter than those fools whose early demise had made it into the evening paper.
So I’ve said all of that to say this:
I will continue to urge, “Be careful,” to any and everyone leaving me even briefly. And I will continue to expect that the very weight of those words will wrap a thin protective shell around them until they come back to me.

There are days when I think of quitting blogging. I stink! Why bother…are frequent thoughts. Inevitably, something like this comment from Rhonda will pop up and make me smile. And keep going.

Hey Angela,
I don’t have any ideas for you, but I just wanted to say how much I love all of YOUR ideas. Every time I read your blog I am so proud of who you’ve become. I wish I knew your girls. I imagine they are amazing young women.

Awww! Rhonda was my youth pastor’s wife, when I was growing up, and a good friend and mentor to a young me, so this was extra-special to read. By the way, she has an awesome photoblog. Check it out.

I never asked readers what my blog should be about, but two comments here have really given me something to think about as I write. This first sweet comment was from my Aunt Nancy after reading Ministry of a Mom, and she unwittingly gave me a defined purpose in writing here:

Dear sweet talented Angela – you have always been an inspiration to me and our family. You are loving and giving beyond belief. I appreciate that you are writing this blog and letting us be a part of you and your thoughts. You make me believe I too can be a better mom, wife and family member.
God bless you.

To make any mom believe she can be a better mom, wife, and family member is a worthy goal! This coming from my super-aunt who could give Martha Stewart a run for her money…but stayed home and did it all for her family instead….ooops now I’m crying again! Good stuff. Sniff.

Another comment that worked its way into my philosophy of writing, is this one–also from Joy–on 10 Date-Gifts to Give Your Husband:

This is great and another reason why I like your blog. All your fun ideas for home and the wholesome ideas for our hearts.

I have been thinking much lately about what makes its way into this blog, and the two comments above have given me direction for filtering. Fun ideas for home, wholesome ideas for hearts, and to make every mom believe she can be a better wife and mom. Great goals indeed!

In fact, I have some exciting new things planned for my blog in the next couple of months and the comments I get here are shaping my new venture…so keep ‘em coming! If you’re a reader, regular or new…won’t you leave a comment and say Hi today? Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but you might help me out if you mention what you’d like to see more or less of. Or is there a need in your own life you’d like to see addressed? Maybe you just want to pop in and say Hi! That’s fun, too!

If you have something you’d like to say and you’re just to shy to say it here, shoot me an email! angelamills@verizon.net I promise not to print it here if it’s via email ( )

Looking forward to hearing from you!

{ 5 Comments }

A Family Giving Project

October 9, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Creating Family Times, Homegrown Kids, Homeschool

Today I am posting an idea to get your family involved in giving while celebrating a fun holiday at Heart of the Matter.

On November 11^th, countries around the world will celebrate Martinmas, the holiday honoring St. Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier-turned monk. According to legend, St. Martin came upon a scantily clad beggar one night in the snow, and having nothing to offer, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half to share with the man. That night, St. Martin had a dream in which Christ was wearing half a cloak and said, “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized; he has clad me.” The next day, Martin ran to be baptized and became a Christian.

In European countries today, festivities range from children parading with paper lanterns behind a man dressed as St. Martin to families eating a feast featuring goose, but the heart of the story is selfless generosity.

Why not hold your own spin-off on Martinmas and round out the celebration with a new tradition that will foster warm, giving hearts in your family?

Read the rest here: A Family Giving Project

Let me know if you try it!