A Great Big Giveaway

Just got sidetracked online and found this great blog--mckmama--and she's doing a phenomenal giveaway of a HP Touchsmart. Hop on over and leave a comment for your chance to win.

A Simple Woman's Daybook

~ Do stop by Peggy's for all the Daybook links this week. ~




Outside my window...snow is falling.

I am thinking...about how much I'm looking forward to Christmas break--9 school days to go.

I am thankful for...the fires burning in my home.

From the learning rooms...table is covered with evidence of learning about mammals.

From the kitchen...husband is making a giant batch of his Tomato Basil soup.

I am wearing...blue sweats, a blue t-shirt and my red Crocs.

I am creating...a Christmas atmosphere in our home.

I am going...to a special mom's-only dinner for our homeschool group this week.

I am reading...Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp and Grace Walk by Steve McVey.

I am hoping...we get lots of snow! I love being snowed in when I don't have anywhere to go.

On my mind...thyroid stuff! Just got lab results that I have hypothyroid, even though I wasn't feeling badly at all. Meds are a pain and not doing me any good yet.

I am hearing...not much. I had to close the door just to think. I'm sure there's chaos brewing somewhere around here.

Pondering these words...The battle is the Lord's.

Around the house...been making lots of cleaning products from scratch. I'll share soon in another post for those who might be interested!

One of my favorite things...CQLA--Character Quality Language Arts. We are trying out the free sample online and really liking it. I'm really trying not to be a junkie here!

A few plans for the rest of the week: On Saturday, all the girls (sans the baby) and I are going with dear friends to see Christmas Joy, a special Christian ballet.


Here is picture for thought I am sharing....husband let 12 1/2 year old drive on our friend's ranch! Yikes!

A Fresh Idea for Friday

So here's A Fresh Idea for this Friday:
Homemade Yogurt

We received a gift certificate a while back and decided to get a yogurt maker. The kids love yogurt and hubby was trying to eat more for the many health benefits of probiotics. But good yogurt isn't cheap. So making our own seemed a good thing to do.

The ingredients are simple--milk (I prefer 2% for a nice consistency), 6 TBS sugar, 1 TBS vanilla and a packet of culture. We purchased extra of the freeze-dried culture that our machine came with, but you can actually just use a couple tablespoons of plain yogurt. I'm going to give that a try when this runs out.

It's not hard to make. I bring the milk to 180 degrees in a double boiler then let it cool to around 115 degrees. Then I just add the sugar, vanilla and the culture and stir it up.

Next I pour it into the cute little jars which have date dials on the lids. (We bought an extra set of jars and I'm so glad we did so we don't have to eat all of the first batch before starting another. Not that they last long around here.)

Then I just set them into the yogurt maker and set for eleven hours. Yes, you read that right, eleven hours. It works best for me to do this at night and then it's done in the morning when I'll pop it in the fridge for three hours. Then it's ready to eat.

It's been such a money saver and I love the fact that I know exactly what's in our food. No strange ingredients I can't pronounce.

The flavor is wonderful--more like European and Greek-style yogurts--and a bit tart, but I like that. The kids eat it just plain or with some Oregon blueberries, which we bought in bulk and have in the freezer.

Sunshine loves this stuff. I can't let anyone eat it in her presence if she can't have some too.

Yummy! And it doesn't get much fresher than this!

I'd love to hear your Fresh Idea for Friday. Here's how to join in the fun on your blog:

1. Share just ONE Fresh Idea on Friday. It doesn't have to be an original idea. So many things I've learned, I've forgotten from whence they came. If it is an idea that's obviously from a specific book, blog or author, just be sure to give credit. Your idea should be something that has helped you in your mothering, homeschooling, homemaking, devotions or even your marriage. It can be practical or even a thought that has given you a fresh perspective. It doesn't have to be profound. If you've got A Fresh Idea to keep socks from losing their mates, do share.

2. Add the A Fresh Idea button at the beginning of your blog post. It's easy to do. Just 'right-click' on my image and 'Save Picture As' in the same place you save your photos. Then import it into your blog post just like you would a photograph.

3. Mention my blog and offer a link back to the main page of my blog. http://www.dayindayoutdayupdaydown.blogspot.com/

4. Copy the "permalink" ONLY from your A Fresh Idea post, NOT the link to the front page of your blog. This makes it so much easier to get to the right post and not have to scroll through a bunch of other posts to find your A Fresh Idea post.

5. Come back to Day In Day Out and add your permalink to the MckLinky box for this week's A Fresh Idea for Friday. This is the second box. In the first box where it lists "TITLE"...please list your name or blog name or both if they fit. PLEASE NOTE: Inappropriate links, links to things you sell, or anything that goes against the beliefs of this blogger will be removed at my discretion.

I can't wait to hear A Fresh Idea of yours! And even if you don't have a blog, please leave your idea in the comments.

Worship the King

This is actually a re-post of something I wrote last year, but I thought it such a timely reminder as we begin this Advent season. I know I needed to reminded of the truths here, not just at Christmastime, but all year long. Hope you're encouraged and blessed.

It’s usually way BEFORE Christmastime that I have grand visions of how the next Christmas will be different. I envision my family by the fire listening to the story of Jesus’ birth. I see a slow pace to life that allows us to take in all the opportunities of Advent and Christmas. It’s at Christmas, the Lord invites us to join into the scene with the shepherds and the angels and worship the King.

But then December begins and there are so many things that keep me from worshiping Him.

Looking for that perfect gift, attending all the holiday parties, mailing out Christmas cards, decorating our home for Christmas, baking Christmas cookies, visiting with family and friends, making memories and traditions with my own family. Plus all the usual housekeeping and laundry and cleaning.

None of these things are wrong or bad, but it takes real effort in the midst of real life to focus on worshipping the King. Especially if I’m just trying to survive the season!

So take a minute with me and imagine that night. You can see the iconic images of Mary and baby Jesus and Joseph in the stable. The sheep in the field. The angels proclaiming his birth. The shepherds come to worship him. The star in the night sky.

But do you ever stop and think of the cross? Of Jesus hanging on a tree at Calvary? Does the crown of thorns come to mind at Christmastime? What about the nails in the hands and feet of the Messiah? The empty tomb?

Most of us don’t.

But do you know that when we do, it will help us to REALLY worship Him.

We need to think on the Cross in order to get a full picture of why Jesus would leave His Father in Heaven and enter a sinful, fallen world. He didn't just come to live for a while and show us how to live a sin-free life. We can’t live sin free. Jesus came to save us from our sins. Even his name foretold of his mission:

Matthew 1:21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.

Jesus came into the world as a baby with the mission of dying on the cross. It was the only way He could save us from eternal separation from God the Father. He did it for you and for me. He loved us THAT MUCH!

Eph. 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

An old hymn by Charles Wesley says it beautifully in these lines:

Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me?
He left his Father’s throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!)
Humbled himself (so great his love!)
And bled for all the chosen race.

Doesn’t just thinking on this cause you to worship Him?

The beauty and the mystery of the Gospel is what draws us to our initial faith in Christ.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

But after our salvation, the work of the Gospel is not finished. A quote by C.J. Mahaney says it best:

“We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.”

Christ was born and died and rose again and then sent His Holy Spirit. He wants to be the object of my worship and affection. He wants to be King of my heart. He wants my heart to worship HIM alone!

But just like the distractions of the Christmas season, our hearts can get distracted and not focus on the King. We make idols to sit upon the thrones of our hearts. That may sound blasphemous, but it’s true. Our hearts are always worshipping something. John Calvin said our hearts are perpetual idol factories.

So we have to ask ourselves this question: Is Jesus always, and in every case, the supreme Ruler who receives my undivided passion and devotion? Or do I worship additional ‘gods’.

That’s a strong dose of conviction for me! I know we don’t often talk about other ‘gods’ with a lower case “G” but that’s exactly what we are doing when Jesus isn’t getting our undivided passion and devotion.

It’s not like we set out to worship other things or ideas, but somewhere along the way, we elevate things, even good things, in our hearts. We worship what we believe will bring us happiness. We think our joy is bound up in having our expectations fulfilled. Our desires turn into demands lead us to sin.

As the Lord began to show me this, I began to see things that I had carved into idols in my heart.
When my house got clean and the floors sparkled and then a child came tromping through with muddy shoes, I yelled. They had sinned against my god of the Clean House.

When the preschooler interrupted our read-aloud for the umpteenth time, I got angry. She had sinned against my god of the Perfect Homeschool.

The list goes on and on. There are so many things we can elevate to idols in our heart.

Yet even though I know my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and is capable of turning out idols faster than China makes plastic toys, I want to give Christ the throne he rightfully deserves.

So how can I do this? How can I make sure King Jesus doesn’t get bumped off the throne of my heart on an hourly basis?

What the Lord has shown me is really quite simple. But it’s deep and profound at the same time. The answer is THE GOSPEL.

Keeping the Gospel at the center of my heart. My thoughts. My prayers.

Focusing on Jesus from the manger to the cross and the resurrection. When I preach the Gospel to myself daily, it turns my affections to Him. The amazing grace I see there shifts my priorities and focus without a lot of work.

I used to think, I need to work on not yelling or I need to work on having a gentle answer or having self-control. Or I need to work on my selfishness or my pride. I need to get to work at ‘fixing’ all the sin issues in my life.

But something amazing happens when I fix my mind on the Gospel. My love for Jesus grows and the idols of my own making fade away.

In The Gospel Primer it says:

The key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel.

Indeed, as I perpetually feast on Christ and all of His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free. Eyes do not rove, nor do fleshly lusts rule, when the heart is fat with the love of Jesus.

I can’t say that I’ve got it all figured out now. Far from it. It’s still an effort to fill my mind with the Gospel and keep my thoughts from running down the ruts they’ve become accustomed to. But I believe I’ve turned a corner and I know that I feel more than ever before I can worship the King with all my heart. There’s a lot of freedom in knowing that the sin that so easily besets me can be extinguished with the Gospel.

So I invite you this Christmas and everyday after to focus on Jesus with a full perspective. Seeing not just the Babe in the Manger, but the Savior on the Cross. The Risen Savior. Realizing that its our sin that brought him to the manger that starry night and our sin that kept Him there on the Cross. His love for you and for me compelled him to do it. That’s a powerful love to focus on with all your heart.

Some Animal Learning Links

Here are some of the fun educational websites I've found recently. My kids love animals and all kinds of critters, so this week I made it an animal theme, which will be perfect for our study of mammals next week in Christian Kids Explore Biology.


When I find a great website, I save it in my bookmarks and then send it as a Learning Links to my kids. A Learning Link is simply a link to a great learning website that I send my kids each day in an email. They get one of these cute activity cards (which I created and are available for free download) in their workbox and go to the computer from there. They love it and it's a fun way to explore the many great resources online.


Animal Fact Guide
A neat well-done site with a good overall fact sheet for many animals. Would be great for reports and basic research.


Animaland Activities
Created by ASPCA, this site has lots of fun things for kids to do and learn. This link goes to the place on their site where you can print activity sheets, go on cyberhunts (online scavenger hunts) and some neat online games. If you click to back to their home page, you'll find lots of helpful facts about all kinds of pets and their care.


The Children's Butterfly Site
Everything you want to know about butterflies.


Monterrey Bay Aquarium Games and Activities
This is an amazing aquarium and their website is great! There are more places to explore, but this will be the most fun for elementary aged kids.


San Diego Zoo's Kid Territory
This section of their site has games, up-close looks at their animals, crafts and recipes. There's also some web cams for love looks at the Pandas, Polar Bear, Elephant and Ape.


Kids Answers from Answers in Genesis
Counter the evolutionary propaganda out there with this fun site from the folks who did the Creation Science Museum. You'll find articles, crafts, activities and animal info.



Enjoy!

Notice the Quiet?

Have you noticed the silence when you come over to Day In Day Out? As much as I enjoyed the musical choices which played on my cute little Mixpod, it was starting to get annoying. And it's my blog! I figured if it annoyed me then surely it might be annoying some of you. There's times you may be listening to something else or just want some peace and quiet. I hate to think I'm disturbing any of that. So I hope you'll appreciate the change and enjoy the silence.

I'm trying to be quiet on another front too. I was a busy blogger last week. And I had so much fun doing it. But as much as I thoroughly love writing and finding things to share, I let myself get distracted to the point of neglecting things at my home and with my family. It's so easy to do, with a blog or anything in life. I know you understand how that works. Maybe it's a hobby, or a job, or even a ministry. Maybe the phone or the Internet call you away from your duties too frequently.

The thing I've realized about my blog is that I'm in control of it to a good extent. I control how it looks. I control what I write. I control the photos I share. I control the links. And it sure feels good to be in control. It can become an idol when I let it.

I realized that I like to come to the place where I can control stuff and make stuff happen. And when that 'place' is my blog, it's tempting to pour time and talent there instead of in my home. Home is a messy place, and that doesn't just describe what it looks like at week's end. Relationships are messy. Training children is hard and messy work. Sometimes, I'm just tired and want to escape the mess of real life for a world where I'm in control. Queen of my universe. Commands are given and widgets obey!

I wish it were so simple in my real world. Commands are given by the woman no one calls 'queen' and fidgety kids ignore me. But the more I escape this real world for a neat and tidy one, the more mess it makes.

So I'm not quiting my blog or anything extreme, but I wanted to share that I'm going to pull back a bit and regroup with the messy people I love. And the King who calls me His child.

A Fresh Idea for Friday

I've always believed that a fresh idea can make all the difference, especially for moms. And most especially for homeschool moms. A Fresh Idea can take my day from mundane to marvelous! A Fresh Idea solves a problem. Gives inspiration. Enlightens with a new perspective. A Fresh Idea shares a remarkable resource or a favorite gadget. A Fresh Idea saves time.

So here's A Fresh Idea for Friday:

Prayer Bulletin Board


We start our homeschool day with prayer. I begin and pass it on to one of the kids and they pass it on until everyone has had a turn to pray aloud. We pray for the needs of the day and for our family, but there are many needs of others that we regularly lift up. But truth be told, it's hard to remember all the known needs. So this year we created a prayer bulletin board.

It hangs in our homeschool room and has a little pocket with scraps of card stock for writing down prayer requests. Not only does it remind us who to pray for, but it keeps the kids asking for updates and wondering how folks are doing. We hang photos up whenever possible to really help us all see who we are praying for. We started praying for a specific people group and posted a prayer card for them. Recently the kids even made pictures of daddy's listings (he's a real estate broker) to pray for them to sell.

It's been neat to watch the kids remember, even at bedtime, to lift of the needs of people they've never met. We pray for salvation, for sickness, for court cases, for surgeries, and even for the magazine sales guy who came to our house. It's been awesome to share in the praise reports and heart-wrenching at times when the answers weren't what we'd hoped for. But it's led to some incredible discussions about the Lord and given us a more eternal perspective on this life.

I'd love to hear your Fresh Idea for Friday.

Here's how to join in the fun on your blog:

1. Share just ONE fresh idea on Friday. It doesn't have to be an original idea. So many things I've learned, I've forgotten from whence they came. If it is an idea that's obviously from a specific book, blog or author, just be sure to give credit. Your idea should be something that has helped you in your mothering, homeschooling, homemaking, devotions or even your marriage. It can be practical or even a thought that has given you a fresh perspective. It doesn't have to be profound. If you've got A Fresh Idea to keep socks from losing their mates, do share.

2. Add the A Fresh Idea button at the beginning of your blog post. It's easy to do. Just 'right-click' on my image and 'Save Picture As' in the same place you save your photos. Then import it into your blog post just like you would a photograph.

3. Mention my blog and offer a link back to the main page of my blog. http://www.dayindayoutdayupdaydown.blogspot.com/

4. Copy the "permalink" ONLY from your A Fresh Idea post, NOT the link to the front page of your blog. This makes it so much easier to get to the right post and not have to scroll through a bunch of other posts to find your A Fresh Idea post.

5. Come back to Day In Day Out and add your permalink to the MckLinky box for this week's A Fresh Idea for Friday. This is the second box. In the first box where it lists "TITLE"...please list your name or blog name or both if they fit. PLEASE NOTE: Inappropriate links, links to things you sell, or anything that goes against the beliefs of this blogger will be removed at my discretion.

I can't wait to hear A Fresh Idea of yours! And even if you don't have a blog, please leave your idea in the comments.

More Learning Links & a FREE download

Here are some of the fun educational websites I've found recently. I'll be sending them as Learning Links to my kids in the coming weeks (if I can wait that long). What's a Learning Link, you ask? It's simply a link to a great learning website that I send my kids daily in an email. They get one of these cute activity cards in their workbox and go to the computer from there. They love it and it's a fun way to explore the many great resources online.

Science News for Kids
Lots of games, puzzles, science fair info and teacher resources.

Color with Leo
A young Leonardo de Vinci guides children through interactive games and activities as they learn basic principals of art and more.

Getty Games
Fun games to play with masterpieces of art. The games are challenging and beautiful.

Wildlife Filmmaker
This is a really neat site from National Geographic. Kids create their own custom nature film. They drag and drop wildlife clips, then add animal sounds and music, and even their own captions. You can save your creation to retrieve later and share it with friends. I had fun trying it. Super neat!

Tonight's Sky on Amazing Space
I was so excited to find this again. I came across it a while back and loved it, but didn't bookmark it. It's a movie of what constellations, planets, and other things of interest you'll see in this month's night sky. There's also a great section on the site for Educators with LOTS of topics and visuals. Couldn't imagine a study of stars and space with a visit to this site!

DSO Kids
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has put together an amazing site for kids to listen and learn about music and composers. There are games, biographies, many musical samplings and information about the orchestra right down to the seating charts! You'll also find a large lesson plan database and listing of other teacher resources. Excellent site! I think I feel a music appreciation lesson coming on...


I've made some Learning Link Activity cards for you to use with your children. There are 3 styles to choose from, but they all print on the same page. Enjoy! And check back soon for more of my favorite Learning Link websites.

Printable Learning Link PDF

These are FREE and for personal use only. Not to be sold or stored on any other website or blog. If you want to share, please link directly to my blog. Copyright 2009 Day In Day Out

Erudition-a game review

I've been wanting to incorporate more games into our learning. And just last week I received a great game for sight words to review. It's called Erudition, which means extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books, and it's goal is to help children jump-start their road to reading in a fun way by playing with sight words. This was the perfect game to play during our school day.

The thing I really appreciate about this game is that it can be played simultaneously with preschoolers and early elementary learners. There are 4 different decks of cards for the children to select from, so the preschooler draws cards from the blue deck which are letters of the alphabet. The other decks range from beginner level sight words (i.e., the, him, you, from) , intermediate level sight words (i.e., above, enough, father, might) up to the advanced level sight words (i.e., sometimes, through, toward).


So as part of their workboxes yesterday, my 4 year old, 1st grader and 2nd grader sat down with me to play Erudition. It's very straightforward to play and has some fun little challenges on the game board when you land on the stop sign, yield sign or all aboard space. They all really enjoyed the game. They were all challenged by some words, but also had good success with the decks we selected. I did scan through one deck to put words we were working on to the top. This would be very easy to do and something I think I'll do when we play again. There are over 300 sight words in all the decks combined.

As with most board games, there is counting and waiting your turn, which only add to the value of game play. We always have to talk about being a good sport at my house when we play games. The game took just about 25 minutes to play.

This award-winning game sells on their website for 24.99 plus $3 shipping and handling. Although that's not cheap, it's a small price to pay for a fun way to practice letter sounds, names and sight words for several years. They also offer a money-back guarantee, as well as teaching tips for using the game on their website.

With Christmas right around the corner, this would make a great family gift or something Grandma might feel good about getting the kids. I highly recommend this fun game. Get it while the kids are young and use for years ahead. I know we will get many years of play from ours.

Help is Here

For some reason, science keeps getting the short end of the stick around here. This last week, I was wishing for some great tutor to arrive and teach my children something scientific. Well, I was thrilled when helped arrived. It wasn't 'flesh and blood' help, but the next best thing: VIDEO.

I was on a great little blog called Sunflower Schoolhouse when I read about a wonderful educational site called NeoK12.

Not only is it loaded with FREE educational videos, but it's also "100% Kid Safe Website, certified by iWatchDog," according to the website. Of course, it's always wise to assume that responsibility ourselves, as parents, as standards can vary from family to family.

There are hundreds of science topics ranging from photosynthesis to atoms and insects to wildlife. There are also lots of subjects to choose from in the categories of social studies, math and English. There is a category on human evolution that will definitely go against Creationist beliefs, but just don't watch those. Or let your older and mature children watch them and tear the arguments apart.

I can't wait to add this into our regular homeschool routine. These will make great additions to our science and history curriculum, as well as some great sources of Learning Links for many other subjects. Maybe I'll be able to get back in the groove on my exercise routine. Or even have time to grab a shower!!!