Love is a reminder

Love is not just words on paper... Love is real, feel it, live it, share it.......

God is Love, in this season of Thanksgiving teach others the meaning of Love by simply showing them love and kindness.

 

 

Speak Up, Speak Out! Stop This Problem! #worldwidechokinggameawareness

So today is my youngest child's birthday, she is a happy healthy 10 years old today! I am blessed to have happy healthy children, but not immune to the things out there that they could try or get involved in.

Instead of choosing to plaster my social media and blogs today with mushy birth stories, I choose to Speak up and Speak Out today! October 11th is also World Choking Game Awareness Day and for all the parents out there that have lost children to this terrible game, this is for you!

Sharing this again on this blog also, please feel free to share, copy or reblog it.

Today is a day, just like any other say yes? For some maybe for others no! If you have ever lost a child, no day is the same, you wake up with a piece of your heart ripped from you  that just can't be replaced.
No parent wants another parent to ever go thru the heartache of child loss, so today we urge you to wake up and educate yourself on something that 75% of kids already know about. Your kids!
The choking game has many names, it's all over YouTube, the internet, social media and your kids schools.
A high school trend...no, kids as young as 9 are dying everyday. So join us today on Worldwide Choking Game Awareness Day 2013 and Speak Up, Speak out, speak to Your kids today!

We don't want to add another statistic to our list......

Happy birthday Sarah, she asks you to tell your kids about the dangers of the choking game!

Quote Of The Day: Friday Nuts

How many nuts do you claim? Most days I feel like the only nut in a sea of sweet and sour swirling around me.

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom #atozchallenge

Confessions : Oh My 







Boy do I hate confessionals, but they are not so bad since I have accepted the fact that I am not a perfect mom, never will be. When I had my first child some 19 years ago, I thought I had to be perfect. I scoured the floors with a toothbrush practically, my house was always so clean. Until one day my smiling happy baby boy crawled over my pristine clean kitchen floor and ate a dead fly. I cried and thought I was going to poison him because he ate that poisonous carcass. He looked up at me smiling lovingly

.... laughing at me with a semi-toothless grin and said "momma play". That was when I knew that being perfect was not the answer, providing him lots of love and attention was all he needed. The time I spent scrubbing that darn floor could have been better spent playing with him. As mothers we get so caught up in worrying about what others think about us, how we parent, how our children look, how they act and so on......
In reality God gives us these blessings and he gives us the tools and wisdom to know their every need, want, and desire as infants, children and as they grow. Seeking His guidance should be all you need as a mom, not the guidance or approval of others. Praying daily for you children makes a huge difference in your relationship with them, try it!

Back to my Confessions of a Homeschool Mom (since I got off track a bit there) :

• I am not perfect (and never will be)
• I am not the supermom you think I am (nope, just a mom like you)
• I sleep til after lunch some days ( ha ha, since I can) 
• I stay up way to late at night since I can't get anything done when kids are up
• My kids sleep late almost everyday (and stay up way too late)
• My house is a disaster zone  (bet your house is a mess too)
• My dust bunnies have orgies at night and party all night long
• Some Days we play all day instead of doing school (so what)
• I am impatient at times ( most all the time anymore)
• I am an organized wanna be mom ( I want to be organized and try but fail)
• I watch episodes of "Hoarders" to motivate myself to clean 
• I hate laundry folding and would rather make the kids do it
• I make my daughter empty the dishwasher because I hate that chore too
• I spend way too much time online (and so do my kids)
• I have a huge book fetish and can't give them up --even the little baby books
• I have ADHD most likely too.........Squirrel!!
• I have depression and yes I take medication now ( its ok)
• If I did not take my medication, I might just smother my husband in his sleep (just kidding---maybe)
• I have been known to secretly hide Pepperidge Farm cookies and not share (oh my)
• Some times on Facebook, I would like to ask friends if they have a life besides sharing pictures all day long.....ohh did I say that.
• Yes, I slept with and married one of my ER patients ( the one I want to smother at night--lol) 
• Lesson plans, who uses those? I teach by the seat of my pants (but my kids learn just fine)
• I am the worst record keeper (in a box it goes...at least I keep them) 

Yes homeschool moms can be imperfect, but our house is a house of love, care and understanding. Kids are learning life skills every day and growing in knowledge. Thats all that really matters. 

Its Not About The Bunny....

It is all about a cross and a Savior that gave His life for mine!

Have a Blessed and wonderful Easter Day today

Inspiring Our Younger Generations~Musical Talent

Who inspired you when you were young, a parent, a mentor, a teacher, maybe nobody bothered to inspire you at all. Artists are creators of inspiration in many media, some use paint, pencil and paper or canvas to inspire, some photographic artists use a camera lens to capture precious moments in time for years to come to enjoy. Music tends to sooth a savage soul, calm a inwardly deep thought and inspire us to flow upward, not downward in a spiral. Music can change lives.

Even the musical artistry of a novice 12 year old can inspire you, make you wonder, where does this inspiration come from? Did someone or something inspire him to create? How we can keep this creativity flowing.........spiraling...... upwardly........... in a direction of positive life changing momentum.

Please head to You Tube and "view" this young artist's video, he will celebrate his 13th birthday very soon and to inspire him as a birthday present his mother requests as many "views" to get to 100,000 if possible. He is creating music with a free web program and wants more professional equipment to work with, as he needs and deserves. This is a surprise for him, as he does not know his mother's "mommy friends" are sharing his work all over our social media.
As an artist in many different media myself, I rely on the inspirations of other artist's, positive role models, musical artistry to keep me motivated, creating, writing,blogging, painting, designing more and more. We must keep our younger generation inspired so art, no matter the media, will live on for many centuries to come to enjoy and be inspired.

St Patrick's Day Facts and Some Lucky Stuff

I was looking for some St Patty's Day facts to teach the kids about and I found a great fact list assembled via the "Kaboose" website.
Below you will find a list of fun facts we've assembled about the Irish holiday St. Patrick's Day. Test your knowledge with our St. Patrick's Day IQ quiz or create your own "True or False" quiz using the information below.

Want even more info on St. Pat's Day? Go to our main St. Patrick’s Day holiday page for more Paddy's Day fun. You’ll find festive recipes, crafts, books, games, clip art, printables and more!

Facts about St. Patrick's Day Holiday

• St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
  
• In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair.
• Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19, that features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North American, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

Facts about Saint Patrick

• St. Patrick was born in 385 AD somewhere along the west coast of Britain, possibly in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. In his 30s he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He died at Saul in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

Facts about the Irish

• 34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.
• Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.
• The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”
• The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.
• The name “lephrechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”
  
  

Facts about Clovers

• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!
• One estimate suggests that there are about 10 000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.
• Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

This infographic I found in Pinterest was also very interesting and educating: 

Blogging Success Tips!

How Awesome, found this infographic on Pinterest of course (I love that place) and it has so many great tips and ways to help you promote your blog posts it was worth the share! Whether you are a mommy blogger or a hot shot corporate blogger all of these tips apply to you. Find that niche, your audience and go for it. Be yourself, honest and your own voice. Consistency is key, you don't have to blog daily if you can't! Just stick with it! Be social and make friends, comment on other blogs, join a blog hop or twitter party, get your name out there, just like real life be dependable. Just be you, we love to read about real life and see your real life pictures (I know I do), giveaways and coupons are wonderful, even lots of charts and statistics, but an interjection of your own personal style, humor and humanism goes a long way to get people back, commenting and following you via all your social media platforms.
Man there are some tips that I did not know about, gotta try them all!!

 Do the 30 things on this infographic and I guarantee that you will notice a huge difference in your traffic and blog followers! Ready ....Set.... Go!!

                                                                             Source: launchgrowjoy.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

The First thing you should learn with your homeschoolers

Learning your children and their style of learning should be one of the first things you learn before you start homeschooling. Our very first year of homeschooling I found this out the hard way, it took me all year long and part of the next year to learn that all 3 of my children learned Totally different! Even if you are a parent of a child in a traditional school , you will find that homework and completing classroom assignments will be much easier if you know that your son or daughter learns by "hands on" and not visually, or that they learn better when running around in circles and not sitting very still in a seat. Imagine if you could tell a classroom teacher at the start of the school year what kind of learner you have, so she/he can tailor some of the lesson plans around their needs maybe (if they are actually willing)
As a homeschooling parent of course we are blessed to teach our kiddos at home. We can set up a classroom like a traditional school if that is how your child will learn better, or have class on the couch surrounded by a zoo of stuffed animals, dolls or race cars if that is what works for your child!
The info-graphic below is an example of the types of learners we may encounter in our family. Do you recognize any of these learning styles in your children?

                                                                     Source: thehappyhousewife.com via Leslie on Pinterest

The Phone Police! that's what I call them~ kids

                                                                            Source: someecards.com via Leslie on Pinterest

An Attitude of Gratitude

 

A Dose of Positive Attitude

Shared from Godvine website ~

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood... or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim... or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining... or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live... or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Michael continued... "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read "He's a dead man. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

"Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Matthew 6:34 states: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Enjoy each day, each breath and mostly... each and every friend.

And remember to start each day with an "attitude of gratitude!"

 

 

Daisy's are for picking or clicking?

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Check out a new endeavor that my family has started, join for free if you wish, not spam you will make money, Promise! I don't do things like this unless they actually work, as a mother,nurse and friend, someone else was nice enough to tell me about this site and I was skeptical at first. But now I totally love it!

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Nature, A Beautiful Force~

This is a touching video that shows you how wonderful our world really is and how much God is really in control. Nature is such a beautiful force and the ebbs and flows that work all in his timing is amazing. Take time today to notice the world around you and say thank you for what you have!

Just Because~~

I saw this little image on Facebook today and it to me says it all, just how I feel most days, or how people seem to treat me. I am a real person, I do have feelings, deep ones that are hurt very easily. I have faced some very large monsters in my 47 years here on earth and slain some nasty dragons literally speaking, so I have a bit of knowledge under my belt. I am not like you and never will be, don't try to change me. My family is happy, we live life a bit different somedays than others, but if we are all happy what does that matter to you, its really none of your business. I don't care how you live your life, if I ask somebody about you, it is only out of shear concern, not nosiness, that is not my style. 
I enjoy helping others, I would not have been a nurse for 25+ years if I did not, so I enjoy making others feel special, needed, loved and appreciated. I just sometimes wish that others thought the same way I did....
Just because....................