Our vaulted ceiling is gone!!!

Check it out! Our vaulted ceiling is gone and we now have our upstairs family room!!!

Here we go!!!

Wow!!!! This won't even be the same house!!!! 

Review: Ultrakey Online Family Subscription

This was a fantastic surprise for my family! Bytes of Learning presents an Ultrakey Online Family Subscription which provided an opportunity to teach typing skills to people of all ages -- from young children to adults.   
As some of you who read my Blog may know, I am a huge fan of typing skills. It was actually a hobby I developed as a young child. I loved typing like other kids might want to play an instrument, and I practiced it regularly. One of my first and most favorite "toys" was an old manual typewriter I had at my house. I have tested my typing speed a few times and I usually fall between the 110-130 words per minute category. And that has been a huge benefit for me. 
Being able to type well has helped me in many aspects of my life. I have used it for my jobs even doing some dictating when I worked as an Editorial Assistant. I am able to type my Blog posts incredibly fast which allows me to keep up when I might otherwise fall behind. As a teacher the skills allowed me to create tests and quizzes in record time and shoot off emails rapidly. With the introduction of texting, I think the true skill of typing has been forgotten. And it is something I really want my kids to have. We need more than our thumbs in this age of technology!
Enter the Ultrakey Online Family Subscription. This is an incredibly affordable option for a family.  You can choose a 3-user, 5-user, or an 8-user option ranging in price from $30 to $50 for an entire year. 
I decided to use this program for my three oldest kids -- my sons Isaac and Sidge who are 9 and my daughter Abigail is 6. I also worked through many pages as well. My 4-year-old Hannah was a bit too young to use this yet. All three were able to easily use the program, however, you could definitely see that it was a bit more challenging for Abigail then it was for the boys. I absolutely think that anyone from about kindergarten through adult would benefit from this program. Here is a picture of Sidge working his way through one of the sections. Look at his fingers on the right keys! I love it!!!

And here are some other screen shots (with descriptions of what you are seeing below each picture)

This is a screen where the the student can work through different passages.

Here is the layout of lessons. You can see that my son Isaac is on #5. 

Once he clicks into #5, he has various "lesson steps" to work through. 

Here is a screen shot of my daughter Abigail's progress as she works through the program. You can check your progress at any time. 

You can take an assessment at anytime and set goals for yourself on how good you will do on each lesson. Here is my practice passage for an assessment. 

They gave me my typing speed, and I was excited to see I was still up around 110wpm! Yeah!!!! It then sets a goal for me on the right. 

Here is where I can choose to take another assessment or just keep on with what I am doing. You can change your goals at any time. 

These are just a few examples of some of the screen shots throughout the program. 
Here's the bottom line: this is a GREAT and an incredibly AFFORDABLE program to learn how to type. Each of my kids enjoyed working through it. Whenever I find a homeschool "thing" that none of my kids complain about doing, I know I have found a good one! They did get a little frustrated some times because learning to type is challenging. However, when they did, they'd take a little break, and be ready to go the next day.
I honestly think typing skills are overlooked in this era, and I am not sure why. It is probably more important than ever to equip our kids with good typing skills. This is a program that we will be continuing to use even after the review period ends. 
A strong recommendation from our house to yours!
You can visit Bytes of Learning on Facebook by clicking here.   

We Bought a Farm: An Empty Farm House

I wasn't sure how we would do it but somehow we did it. Our upstairs is totally empty and now, so is the downstairs.

Well, you will notice the one big Turkish desk in this picture above. Actually we plan to put that upstairs in the new room that will eliminate the vaulted ceiling in our house. But it won't fit up the stairs. So the plan is to pull it up over the landing and "build it in" to the room upstairs. This means it can never leave, but we are prepared for that as we don't plan to leave either. And if we do? Well someone will inherit a wonderful desk. 

Our kitchen is still intact and our bedroom is stuffed to the brim. But otherwise, everything has found a home in the garage. Wow has it been an adventure to get to this point. We are blessed with a WWOOFing couple here that have helped carry the farm load while I carried the inside load. 

More pictures and updates to come. 

Stay tuned to see how this house finally becomes our HOME!

Review: Heirloom Audio Productions

I can't believe we were LUCKY enough to get to review WULF THE SAXON from Heirloom Audio Productions. I have reviewed for this amazing production team before. In fact, this is our fifth time getting to listen and share about one of their audio productions. We love them so much that we jump up and down with our hand high in the air anytime an opportunity to listen to one of these comes up!

You can read my past reviews here for Heirloom Audio Productions here.

• Captain Bayley's Heir
• In the Reign of Terror
• Cat of Bubastes
• Beric the Briton

This time WULF THE SAXON my husband actually loves these audio productions best of all so he always asks to listen on the way to or from somewhere with the kiddos. And this time was no different. So the "details" about what this production were about will come straight from his mouth below. While I was home on a "Mom Break", my husband took a short day trip with the kids and listened to the production on the way there and back.

The story is about Wulf who is a young thane (landowner) in 1065 England. It follows his adventures and rise to trusted confident to the King of England. There were shipwrecks and battles and arrests and dungeons and escapes and sword fights and injuries -- everything our nine-year-old boys loved -- but there were also more than one romantic story to follow as well which intrigued our younger girls. The story culminates in the Battle of Hastings -- one of the most famous events in Western Civilization/History. 

G.A. Henty was masterfully able to take a seemingly inconsequential character in history, while fictional, and provide a backstory which culminated in this well-known historic event. However, in typical Henty style, he gives an amazingly personal and human story to this historical event. It is definitely a story of faith and devotion and honor and duty. While Wulf is technically a fictional character, he is an excellent example of a role model for our children.

While the audio shares the necessities of battles and war, it doesn't glamorize them. And it shows that events can lead to disfigurement and death even for main characters. (We don't want to ruin anything so we won't say more than that.) It clearly shows the realities of war. And even though they are necessary, they aren't good.

As is the case with history, there are a lot of bad things that happen and this story shares double-crossing, deception, assassination attempts, families turning on each other, and love that cannot be acted upon. And it gave our family a lot of opportunities to talk about these topics in a way that seemed natural because they were questions during the story. They weren't forced conversations. 

G.A. Henty does a great job in taking events that have a lot of negative aspects and bringing out happy endings and finding the good in these seemingly bleak events. Personally, it made me want to go back and read some of the history behind the story to find out more of th people that lead to these events -- contributed to these events.

P.S. Oh, did I mention there are secret passageways too?!


I can't give a review from Heirloom Audio Productions without mentioning the Live the Adventure Club. This club provides subscribers with:

• Three 2-CD sets shipped to you each year
• Stream over 500 old-time radio shows
• Hundreds of fun activities and games
• Listen and learn read-along program
• Daily inspiration and devotionals
• Education treasures and teaching resources
• Full access to "Live the Adventure Radio"
• Community forum to exchange ideas and tips

You can find out more about Heirloom Audio Productions by visiting them on the following social media sites:

• Facebook
• Twitter (Tag @HeirloomStories)
• Pinterest (Tag @heirloomaudio)
• Instagram (Tag @ HeirloomAudioOfficial
• Google+
• YouTube

 

Almost three weeks!

At some point, I would like to write much, much more on this topic. But for now I will just say that I have gone almost three weeks with no soda and no junk food!

My whole life, food never owned me. I had no trouble moderating my food and never struggled with my weight.

However, in the last few years, since having a fourth child and moving back to the States, I got fairly addicted to soda and junk food (primarily anything chocolate). I didn't gorge on them. But I would have a soda/junk snack a few times a week at minimum.

There are many reasons that I decided to give these up. My health, the example for my children, and my weight just for starters. However, I also was pretty convinced that the sugar was contributing to my chronic migraines.

I started on a new medicine and gave up the junk, and I have now gone nearly three weeks with a migraine! Amazing.

My goal is to go 66 days without cheating on these items. They say that's how long it takes to break a bad habit. At that point, I hope to be able to have these in moderation -- for special events or celebrations -- but not to reward myself anytime I get in my vehicle.

I tried many times to change my bad habits. I did it once a year ago but not having experience with dieting, I thought I could return to my previous behaviors. Now I understand, and I am trying to practice what I preach to my children. Soda is the one thing my kids have never been permitted to have, and yet I was drinking it nearly daily.

As a physician, John has become more and more convinced of the role that bad sugar is playing in our diets and lifestyle. In fact, there is new research indicating early dementia may be brought on by this terrible sugar addiction we have in our world.

I actually believe I was addicted to this sugar. I craved it and thought about it and hid it and had trouble saying no to it.

I'm excited to work toward my 66 day goal!

How a city girl, gone country grieves (and raises cows): Meat my Morbidity

 How a city girl, gone country grieves 

(and raises cows)

 I met Kimberly through farming. She, like me, has been dropped into this life and is learning to love it just like me. She is a Christian, however, our pasts are nothing alike. I've asked her to share her story on my Blog over the next weeks or months or however long it takes. It is filled with much grief and loss but will hopefully make you laugh and smile and grow and grieve along with her.

You will quickly learn I have a morbid sense of humor. Notwithstanding the beef business, which elicits puns from tip to tail (intended), I grew up learning that if I don’t laugh I’ll cry. Emotional barely describes me, though I have mellowed over the years. With the help of menopause, the antithesis AND embodiment of all emotion, I can say I run a full spectrum at any given moment of any given day; and with a sprinkle of twisted humor to top the cake. I’m just a barrel of fun, folks!

That being said, I am also a doer. The kaleidoscope projection of my life experiences proves this. The funny thing is that I didn’t realize it until recently. In fact, recently, while I was collecting my ideas for how to proceed in this saga of Me Etc. it dawned on me like a star explosion: this explains my diverse experiences!

Because I’m a doer doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a thinker. I know I’m not alone when I say I charge forth into (God only knows) a project, cause, issue and find myself hip deep in a drama-scape left unchecked; THEN I think about the consequences and realize that might not have been the best move. Some of my more profound experiences yet to be shared also contribute to my morbid sense of humor and over the years they have allowed me to accept that I’m a doer not a thinker. All of this is coming to fruition in the dawn of my mid-life experience. 

Fabulous!

So now I spend the next (God only knows) how many years untangling the messes I have made, or at least coming to terms with them. This involves exercising forgiveness (for myself included if not exclusively), mercy, and re-evaluating my "doer not thinker" to maybe at least a "doer with a thought" training. The old saying "you can’t teach an old dog new tricks" comes to mind here. Beyond that I’m guessing that I’m simply wired this way.  If that’s the case, maybe the world just needs a few crossed wires.

This week has been particularly challenging. I think February’s trick (while January was self-extension into what seemed like 10 weeks) is that there are no weekends. Friday was all of a sudden Monday with no real break in the schedule, and I’m scratching my head on Monday wondering if it was still Friday! This past Monday also brought a whole host of new challenges all by itself, most of which were completely unexpected. 

In my menopausal, slightly deranged state of chaotic emotions, I tried very hard to keep my head up and roll with it, but they just literally never stopped coming. I’ll spare you all the gory details; the day ended with having to complete a difficult chore (which I did expect) and I bedded down with a somewhat exhausted heave. At least I think it was Monday. Friday was three days long…

Having a morbid sense of humor, I can look back over that day and determine where I didn’t laugh when I should have (even though it wasn’t necessarily funny). Laughter is my key to survival in this wild, wicked, whirlwind world. It relieves stress and lets me know that I’m such a small part of greater things. Being able to chuckle about the "un-chuckle-able" allows me to refocus. 

I don’t know about you, but these consistent rainy murky days make life somewhat heavier and darker than it already is. Laughter, even it’s a little morbid, at least eases the tension and sheds a little light into my days. Trust me; I know on the whole there is really nothing funny about a lot of life’s challenges, trials and tragedies. For me, though, it’s a matter of survival in some of my darkest hours. God in His infinite wisdom saw fit to allow me to see things in this manner, to realize that this is JUST THE FLESH, and my spirit is renewed knowing that I am already in a better place, even if my flesh doesn’t think or feel it.

All that being said, this is my "warning shot." Many of my future posts, while I am naturally an encourager, will reveal some of life’s most grievous experiences. Had I not developed this morose humor, I can honestly say I would not be who I have become. I learned a long time ago not to take myself too seriously; to laugh at myself regardless the pain, anguish and turmoil. It sounds completely twisted and surreal, but the truth is if I don’t laugh out loud even when it’s really not humorous, I’d cry. And I already know that God did not make enough tears for me to do that. 

My prayer is that you do find encouragement in whatever I share. I am a firm believer that I was meant to survive my pain to share it with others. I believe that’s true for all of us. When we shift the focus off ourselves into service of others, oftentimes the pain dissipates or becomes less. This is especially true when we realize there are those with far more devastating experiences than our own.

To recapitulate (I love that word!); I’m a doer, not a thinker, with a morbid sense of humor and a past filled with the experiences that reflect this. I am also not the sum of my experiences. I am a human being created specifically for this time and with a passion and purpose not meant for any other human being. 

This is my time, this is my story and this is my encouragement. Until we "meat" again…. (pun intended).

Review: Stranger No More

WOW! WOW! WOW! 

Stranger No More by Annahita Parsan with Crag Borlase was simply an incredible read. While it advertises being the story of a "Muslim refugee's story of escape, rescue, and coming to Christ," it was actually her story of intense physical and emotional abuse at the hand of her second husband, the loss of her first (and loving) husband unexpectedly, and what it means to be a refugee that really resonated with me. I've never experienced any of this grief or loss, and it was amazing to read and try to imagine the resiliency of the human spirit.

The battles she faced to live a country that was strangling her both physically and emotionally was incredibly powerful, and I actually devoured this book in just three nights before bed. I stayed up wayyyyy too late, and you will too. It was incredible. 

Annahita shows us up close what it looks like to grow up in an oppressive country under a regime that doesn't allow freedom for anyone, especially women. It details abuse and what that looks like for someone who truly has no way out but death. 

Booklookbloggers.com sent me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

We Bought a Farm: Getting Desperate

We are getting down to the nitty gritty. I am trying to empty out every single room of my house leaving only my room as home base. 

But it is the middle of winter. We have tons of jackets and hats and gloves. Where do you put those? 

Well, I'm plum out of ideas. So I decided that the kids will take a shower and I'll use my bathtub. 

Isn't that what everyone does?

Here we go!!!!

Our renovations have started, and I am excited to let you all follow along with us. 

First up, our balcony upstairs (complete with water damage)

As of today, here is what it looks like! We are extending this overhang all the way across to give ourselves a library/family room:

Next up. This area will stay a small toilet room. Where the cabinet is, we will have a shower for the girls. Here is the before (complete with more water damage):

And where we are at today:

There's a lot more to share. But I'll just start with that. It's very exciting to see this finally all coming together. I can't believe we are really doing this!!

We Bought a Farm: Support

When you reach out to a friend and tell her you are overwhelmed and she sends you this!!! It was perfect!!! Thanks Linda!

We Bought a Farm: Renovations to Begin Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will start renovations on our house.

Let the games begin!!

(Have we been watching the Olympics! You betcha!)

In other news, we have invited two new woofers: Ivan and Uliana to our farm. They were born and raised in Russia but have been in the USA since they were teenagers. Normally we don't host couples, but we decided to give it a try. And so far, they've been a delight. Here is a picture of them making a Russian dinner: PELMENI:

And here is a close-up of what the dish looks like:

We actually ate ours with ketchup! Yum!!! They are making more for our freezer as we prepare for our future living outside of our house!

Review: Welcome Little One

I never thought a book could make me think: hmmmm, wouldn't it be awesome to have another baby to use this book for?

Don't worry! I'm not going to have another. I am sending this to my sister-in-law, Danielle, to celebrate the birth of her second daughter, Camryn Rae. 

Here are a few snapshots I took of some of the darling pages inside of this book: Welcome Little One.

Each page is filled with color illustrations and National Geographic's renowned photographs of adorable baby animals and their parents from nature's nursery. It even includes the removable stickers that we all put on our kiddos for photos!

There's tons of rooms for personalization while still having a lot of inspiring, comforting, and practical sayings, poems and words of wisdoms from a married collections of personalities including Ann Lander, Jody Picoult, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

This is a PERFECT gift for any mom-to-be!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!