People of Hope

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but today this picture needs some words with it.  Words of praise and adoration to my King who saw my path well before I did and brought me to this picture today.  

Christmas 2013 - I was decorating the house for Christmas and hanging my stockings.  My family had been in the adoption process for over a year.  At this time we were adopting from The Congo.  I don't know if you've ever had this happen, but there have been moments in my life where I have "heard from God" - now maybe I didn't hear an audible voice this day, but I felt such a clear impression on my heart, a whisper as I hung my families stockings.  I knew with everything in me that the Lord whispered enjoy this Christmas with 5 stockings because I would never have so few stockings on my mantel again.  These stockings hanging throughout the Christmas season were a sweet reminder of God's promise for our adoption.  I told my husband and 2 friends of God's promise from that day.  I told them in part because I felt crazy and in part because I was anxiously waiting to see this promise fulfilled and wanted to be able to rejoice with them when His words became reality.  

And then we heard the news - Congo had shut down their adoption process, no exit visas were being given and the adoption agency we were adopting with was shutting down.  The next few days were a blur of mourning and pouring our hearts out to the Lord, moments of deep grief and moments of anger.  I remember crying out to Him saying "Lord, you told me I would have more stockings by next Christmas and there is NO WAY we can start another adoption process and have them home by next Christmas" . . . little did I know.

Hope was hard, tiny, and quivering daily.   I clung to His word in these days!

Psalm 31: 24

Be of good courage, 

and he shall strengthen your heart, 

all you who hope in the Lord

Psalm 71: 14 - 16

But I will hope continually, 

and will praise You yet more and more.  

My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and your salvation all the day, 

for I do not know their limits.  

I will go in the strength of the Lord God; 

I will make mention of Your righteousness, 

of Yours only.

Psalm 119:  49 - 50

Remember the word to your servant, 

upon which You have caused me to hope.  

This is my comfort in my affliction, 

for Your word has given me life.  

I could list hundreds more verses, especially from the Psalm.  I poured my soul in them constantly and He quickly brought me comfort.  After a few weeks of seeking the Lord, my husband and I still felt like the Lord was calling us to trust Him and push forward with the adoption process.  I won't go into all the details of the adoption right now (I could write a book on that!) but I will say that the Lord gave us very clear direction that He had our children already hand picked for us in another country.  

We started the adoption process in Guyana and I clung to the fact that the Lord had told me my home would be filled with more children by Christmas.  In truth I felt crazy, overseas adoptions never happen in less than a year.  I knew by human standards this was impossible, but still I continued to hope.  It was small pathetic hope many days, questions of "God, did I hear you right?" were prayed more times than I would like to admit.  

Isn't this the essence of hope?  Hope by definition is the expectation of something to happen.  Ann Voskamp says it best "Sometimes believing in a miracle feels a little like living in a mirage.  You can feel like a fool, walking around with your pitcher" My hope felt crazy, unseen children in an unknown country and my home filled with these children by Christmas.  Still I clung to this hope, somedays it is all that pulled me through as I army crawled through the day - just one more paper to fill out, one more signature to be notarized, one more check to be mailed all with waiting expectation.

And true to my Savior, He kept His promise to me.  My home is filled with my babies, I do not have 5 stockings hanging on my mantel this year.  Instead this beautiful Christmas I had the humble honor and privilege to hang 7 stockings on my mantel.  Tears sting my eyes daily as I look on those stockings and remember His words of last year, remember His whisper to my heart.    In typical - God's going to show His power, no human standards are going to confine or hold Him back - we were able to bring home our children not by Christmas or even Thanksgiving,  but before Halloween!!!  Can I get an AMEN!?!  

We serve a God who is the author of Hope, it is the heartbeat of our faith.  The Old Testament is filled with the Hope of the coming Jesus.  The New Testament is filled with the Hope of His return.  We are and should be defined as Hope people.  Let this be our definition our character the sum up of who we are - People of Hope!

In His Love,

Jenny

My Who's

Hi Friends,
Well, blogging hasn't happened in a while!  We've been a little busy - became a mom again for the 4th and 5th time!  We are loving life with 5 kids.  Miles and Kallie have added so much joy, laughter, noise, and fun to our family!  I've had several blogs I want to write on our adoption story but there is one I just couldn't wait to write anymore.  So if you will all bear with me as I share a few adoption stories in the coming weeks - some things are just to good to not share!

My family (husband and 3 biological children) headed to Guyana (South America) to adopt Miles and Kallie (siblings)  We stayed in a furnished apartment.  Guyana is hot/humid and there is not much to do there (like really - there is nothing to do there!)  so our days were filled with homeschooling (yep, perks of homeschooling you can do it anywhere), swimming in the pool, and in the evening we would all cuddle up and watch a movie.

One night the kids wanted to watch Horton Hears a Who - I love this book, I've loved this book for a long time.  Last summer we spent a week in Tahoe with my husband's family and visited a traveling Dr. Seuss museum that included his rare hats.  Super fun trip and we learned some really neat stuff about Dr. Seuss.  There were rare paintings he had never planned on releasing to the general public and the stories they told about his work was wonderful.  But the explanation for Horton Hears a Who I will never forget - they told us that Dr. Seuss wrote Horton Hears a Who against abortion.  I researched this and there are conflicting reports as for whether he actually wrote it for this purpose or not, but it sure made the book stand out to me in a whole new way.

For those of you who have never read Horton Hears a Who the general story is that a large elephant hears a noise on a flower that has a speck on it.  The tiny speck has the entire town of Who-ville living on it.  Horton and his enormous ears are able to hear the town and he promises to take them to a place of safety.  Horton has a great quote "a person is a person no matter how small" and he goes through all sorts of teasing and weather and perils to finally put the speck in a safe place so the town of Who-ville can survive.

Now back to my story (sorry totally derailed) . . .  my kids decide to watch Horton Hears a Who one night while in Guyana.  I'm cuddling up with Kallie on the couch watching this super funny movie and the Lord so sweetly spoke to me.  He reminded me of all the times I was back in America feeling crazy because my heart and my arms were breaking for my babies in Guyana that I couldn't get to quick enough.

Adoption is hard, it isn't like when you are pregnant with a child and everyone knows you are expecting because - well. . . it's obvious by that cute little basketball under your shirt and the jar of pickles in your hand!!!  When you are "expecting" with adoption no one knows and you want to shout it from rooftop.  Every time you buy a piece of clothing or their beds or their toothbrushes you just feel like a crazy lady and end up telling the checker at Target all about the kids you are adopting only to have them look back at you like a deer in headlights wondering why on earth I had to get in their lane.  Oh yeah friends, lived this out more humiliating times than I should have.  Yes, I have some super amazing stories where when I couldn't contain myself and started sharing with strangers about the children I didn't have and they were equally as excited with me - one in fact has become a friend because she just had to know when we were bringing our kids home and has been praying for me ever since!  But there are plenty of times I shared and people just confirmed the craziness I was feeling by the look on their face.  It's hard - adoption is so hard!

I also can't say enough thanks to those who followed up constantly on where we were in the process - why?  Because though most days I had nothing new to report it made Miles and Kallie feel real, it made me not feel so crazy, and you so constantly reminded me of the faithfulness of our Savior.  You see like Horton - we had a speck in Guyana.   2 beautiful children - "my Who's" that no one knew existed, that no one knew needed help and home and mom and dad.  Yet somehow by the grace of God, He put us in the exact right place at the right time so we heard "our Who's" tiny cries, their longing for a family, their need for safety and protection and love.

I sat on the couch that night watching Horton Hears a Who and sobbed and sobbed.  I was living the real life Horton Hears a Who!   We serve a God who also says "A person is a person no matter how small" and He heard them and brought us together.  I had "my Who's" finally safe on my lap cuddling watching a movie and it was all too much for my heart.  Too much amazement at the goodness of God, too much gratefulness that He chose me to be their mom, too much love for "my Who's" and it was simply a night I needed to share with you.

Friends, I don't know where you are at in life right now, but I do know that we serve a God who hears our cries - ALL of them.  From the smallest child to the greatest it makes no difference.  I just want you to know as you read this your Father hears you.



In His Love,
Jenny

(cuddling watching the movie in Guyana!)

Blogging with Molly Green

Hi all,
So along with my personal blog here I also blog for a great magazine called Molly Green.  Check out this homeschool blog I wrote for Molly Green!

http://mollygreen.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-america/

"Vacation Mode"

Our long awaited news has finally arrived and we will traveling in less than 2 weeks to bring home our son and daughter.  I will post much in coming weeks, but for now I just simply need to let you know that The Vintage Burlap Barn Etsy Store will be in "vacation mode" until we return to the states.  

The store will be in "vacation mode" starting September 15th, so if you have been wanting to place an order please do so ASAP!  Thank you so much!

In His Love,

Jenny

Mom = Hard Work

Hi Friends and Mommies,
I sit writing with a "to-do" list that is longer than Niagara Falls todays, floors that need to be mopped, a side dish for a bbq tonight that I haven't made - let alone planned, a husband who is fighting a cold, and kids who need some squeezes, love, and direction today.  

I don't write any of this to bore you with my life, but simply to say it's a lot.  This job of wife, mom, homemaker, homeschool teacher, and daughter of Christ is a lot to carry.  It takes work - exhaustive work at times and in truth it is should take a lot of work and energy. This job we are called to is not for the faint of heart.  When we read about the Proverbs 31 woman this is not a passive, laid back, unorganized woman.  No, this woman wakes up with a plan ready to fight for her day, her home and her family.  I love this woman - though I fail miserably at what she does with ease (maybe someday it will come a little easier!?!)  

But my favorite part of Proverbs 31 is the very end - 
Proverbs 31:31 
Give her the fruits of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.  

Friends, right now we are in the thick of work, maybe it's diapers and baby food, maybe it's toddlers and temper tantrums, maybe it's teen attitudes, maybe it's a special needs child, maybe it's messy floors and sinks full of dishes.  Right now it is work, but make no mistake we need to focus on the end goal!  

Our works will praise us someday.  That day we see our children leave to go on a missions trip, the day our babies walk down the isle having chosen a Godly spouse, our children walking with Jesus, and GRAND BABIES - these will be our rewards someday.  We do not work tirelessly day in and day out for today or even next month.  No friends, we are building a legacy, a heritage, and an eternity.  Do not grow weary in doing good.  Push hard and rely not on your own strength, but on His - for it is only in His strength that we will ever be able to keep our head above water.  

Love you friends,
Jenny
vintageburlapbarn@yahoo.com

Delicious Sliders - Bulk Cooking

I'm a huge bulk cooker, if I'm going to make a mess in my kitchen better to make the mess once and have enough food to last a while!  One of my kids favorite recipes are my slider burgers.  These take little time and freeze great.  I also love them because they make a quick meal for when you've got a packed schedule.  Here is the recipe!

Ingredients: 

• 3 pounds of Ground Beef 

• 1 cup of cooked rice or cooked quinoa

• 1 white onion chopped fine

• 2 Tbs. garlic salt

• Sliced Cheddar Cheese (or whatever cheese your family likes best)

• 2 - 24 packs of hawaiian sweet rolls

DIRECTIONS: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees

• Mix all ingredients together

• Split mixed ingredients in 2 - 9 x 13 glass pans

• Cover pans with tin foil

• Bake for 30 minutes

• Remove foil and place sliced cheese over cooked meat

• Let the sliders cool a few minutes while the cheese melts

• Now comes the brilliant part!  Open your hawaiian sweet rolls (can I say YUM!).  Take them out of the package still connected together, and slice the rolls in half horizontally.  Take the sliders from the 9x13 pan, and set the entire patty on top of the bottom slice of sweet rolls.  Put the tops of the sweet rolls on top of the sliders.  Using a knife cut along the sweet rolls lines!

• Top with burger toppings of your choice.  My kids are pretty simple, they like pickles and ketchup!

• Freeze the leftovers for another meal!

Homemade Pancakes

Hi Friends,
Hope you are having a great week!  Today I'm talking pancakes!  We love making pancakes, and specifically pancakes for dinner on Sunday night!  

I make my pancakes from scratch, which sounds more fancy then it is!  Pancake mixes from the store are packed full of too many ingredients and yucky chemical and that you don't want to be feeding your family.  Just look at the list of ingredients listed on your box, if you don't recognize them you shouldn't be eating them!  Homemade pancakes are simple and full of basic yummy ingredients!  

However, I do love the convenience of store bought pancake mix.  To solve this problem, I premix my dry ingredients for pancakes and put them in a large glass container.  Then when I'm ready to make pancakes all I have to do is add eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk or water.  This pancake recipe is delicious and a favorite for my family!  

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour (you can use any flour: white, whole wheat, or whatever you prefer.  I do a mix of half and half)

• 7 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp salt

• 2 tbs white sugar

• 3 cups of milk or water 

• 2 eggs

• 6 tbs melted butter

• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Mix all dry ingredients together

• Add wet ingredients

• Mix well

• Cook on griddle or frying pan, I use this recipe in my waffle maker too!
• If you want to pre-make pancake mix simply add 3 1/4 cups of pancake mix to the wet ingredients for perfect pancakes every time!  

• Extras: We love to add in extras to this recipe - chocolate chips and blueberries are my families favorites to add to this recipe.  I simply add the berries or chocolate chips directly to the pancake on the griddle.  

• Freeze:  These pancakes freeze great too!  They can be reheated in the toaster oven or on the griddle.  

We're on Facebook

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to make sure you all knew Vintage Burlap Barn is on Facebook!  If you are on Facebook come and like our page.  The Vintage Burlap Barn is where I post quick tips and tricks with Essential Oils, recipes, and other fun stuff.  A lot of what I post on the Facebook page eventually makes it to a blog post here, but you'll get a sneak peak if you follow our page!  Come check us out, Like us, and share us with your friends!
https://www.facebook.com/VintageBurlapBarn
In His Love,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 5

Hi Friends,
Today I'm showing you a few basic ways I keep my kids on task during the day without having to repeat myself 800 times! (that makes me crazy!)

Here is Cole's bulletin board, I have one for each of the kids.  On the board you will see our memory verse for the week, his sticker charts, spelling words, and a small whiteboard.

Details:

• Memory Verse: This month our memory verse is Colossians 3:12-17.  I put the verse on his board to use for handwriting practice throughout the week.
• Sticker charts: I'm a big fan of sticker charts, especially with BOYS!!!  My son needs to see big picture.  He needs to know the point of all this math is to get to the end of the year!  Sticker charts help him see the end goal.  A couple of the curriculums we use come with sticker charts and a couple don't.  I made a template for the subjects that don't have sticker charts, if you would like my sticker chart you can download it by (Click Here)
• Spelling Words: We practice these throughout the week in different ways and I've found having the words pre-printed for him to use really helps.  We write the words on the white board, with magnet tiles, and as handwriting practice!  
• White Board: This is without a doubt one of my favorite things in our homeschool room and something that keeps the entire family sane!  I write 2 groups of things on the board each day.  First, I write what individual homeschool work that is expected of Cole for the day and second, I write what chores are needing to be finished for the day.  My kids love knowing what they need to do and feel like they have accomplished things when they can wipe an item off the board.  We also have strict rule that if the whiteboard isn't cleaned off then free time isn't happening.  It's a simple little thing to have in the room and it makes a world of difference in the smooth runnings of our home!

I LOVE my maps!  I bought these at Costco for $24 and it was a United States and World map and the best part: it's laminated so we can white board marker all over them!  I only have up the United States map in our room because there isn't enough space for both - eventually I'll figure out how to stack them and roll one up when I need the other, but for now the World Map will have to wait.

I have 2 desks, these are Ikea desks and they are super simple - no drawers, just a great spot in the back that can hold a file holder.   The desks are left empty so that any of my kids can sit at any desk when they need a place to work.  

Since my children don't have a desk to keep there individual work at, we instead keep these individual file holders with their work.  They pick it up and take it with them to whatever location they want to work at - a desk, the kitchen table, even their bedroom if they are needing some quiet space!  Works really well for my family and I never hear "I can't find my notebook!"

So there you have day 5 in my homeschool room!  Questions or comments feel free to email me - vintageburlapbarn@yahoo.com

In His Service,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 4

Hi Friends,
Forgive me, this post should have happened last week and I can give you a million reasons why it didn't, but I won't bother - I'll just say sorry!  

Here are a few more  areas in our homeschool room!  First, meet our class pet, Spike:

Spike is actually my sons tortoise, but we've all adopted him as the class pet!  And yes, since our room is patriotic and in my grandma's wealth of bulletin board pictures she just happened to have a huge picture of the white house I decided to decorate Spike's tank too!  I know this is silly, but my kids think it is hysterical - so Spike gets his tank decorated pretty often (he's sat with the pilgrims at thanksgiving and he does get a Christmas tree at Christmas!)  What tortoise wouldn't want the White House lawn as the background of their tank?!?

Next, I have to show you my newest addition to my homeschool room this year and without a doubt my favorite organization piece I've ever had in the room!

Thank you Ikea!  These buckets were all of $1.99 each and the rod they hang on was $2.99.  I added the Chalkboard labels, because I love labels (I have a problem, I know!)  These buckets just hook right over the curtain rod so you can take them down to put at the homeschool table when someone needs them, but I can stick them back on the wall when I want them out of the way!  Here is the big picture so you can see the wall.  

I bought 2 sets and the buckets hold the following items:

• scissors
• glue sticks
• pencils
• tape
• crayons
• markers (skinny and fat)
• white board markers

I had my darling husband mount them for me right under my whiteboards.  Side note on my whiteboards: originally I looked into buying one large whiteboard, but holy cow those are a couple hundred dollars so that plan was scratched really quick!  

I found these whiteboards last year at Costco for $15 and instead bought 4 of them and again my husband mounted them up on the wall for me all right next to each other.  I LOVE having the separate whiteboards because it divides up subjects while we are working throughout the day.  I'm so glad I didn't spend big money on one big white board!  

Here is my Art Bulletin board:

We did a unit study on Van Gogh and did this Sunflower Art Project through See the Light.  It's a 4 part DVD with step by step instructions.  This was such a fun project to do with the kids.  Click Here to check out their website, LOVE them!

Alright that is all for today, I still have at least one day, maybe 2 more days of fun stuff to show you in the homeschool room.  Hope you enjoyed today!  Questions/comments feel free to email vintageburlapbarn@yahoo.com 
In His Service,
Jenny

Best Pizza Crust

Hi Friends,
I am a pretty firm believer that anything you make at home will taste better than buying at a  restaurant.  However, I have tried making homemade pizza many times, but each time these pizzas left me sadly disappointed and wishing I'd paid the big bucks for yummy delicious pizza.

Then one day I found Pizza Pizzazz!  I love this machine!  It cooks from both the top and the bottom and makes your pizza turn out so perfect every time.  I've tried cooking pizza in the over even with a pizza stone but the crust is just never quit right.  The pizza pizzazz gives you the perfect crunchy crust every single time!  It has paid for itself a million times over considering how much eating pizza out costs.

The other important thing needed for homemade pizza is a good crust recipe and I just love my pizza crust recipe.  I love to put a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle my Homemade Italian Seasoning on the crust.  My kids also love it when I just make the crust and cover the entire thing with olive oil and the Italian seasoning and a little bit of parmesan cheese. We cut it up as an appetizer with marinara sauce for dipping or serve it with Spaghetti  in place of a garlic bread and it is so delicious! 

I also love this recipe because you don't have to wait for the crust to rise before you cook it.  A lot of times I'll make the dough then cut up the ingredients I want on my pizza and by the time I'm done with all the chopping (and snacking, cause who can cut up ingredients like olives, bell peppers, mushrooms and artichoke hearts and not nibble right?!?) it has risen enough that it will be light and fluffy!

Recipe:

• 2 cups of warm water (warm not hot!)
• 2 T dry active yeast
• 2 t salt
• 2 t sugar
• 4  T Braggs Organic Olive Oil
• 5 cups of flour (you can use any flour I usually do a mix of wheat and white)

Directions:

• Mix warm water and active yeast together and let sit for a couple of minutes.  
• Add the rest of your ingredients and mix (I use the dough hook on my kitchen aid and let it do all the work but you could do this by hand too!)
• The recipe should make 2 thick fluffy full crust pizzas or 3 thin crust pizzas.
• Bake in the oven at 500 for 10 minutes or on your pizza pizzazz for about 10 minutes!
• I've found that if you cook the pizza dough for 5 minutes without toppings then pull it back out and add toppings you will get a much crispier crust!

Freezing:

• I make 4 batches of this recipe at a time, giving me 12 pizza crusts - which lasts a month eating pizza once a week
• I cook the pizza crusts without any toppings
• Layer the cooked pizza crusts with wax paper in between each layer of pizza crust
• Put pizza crusts in X-Large ziplock bags (the regular freezer size bags are NOT big enough)
• Freeze pizza crusts
• Pull out and thaw crusts for about an hour then bake like normal

Hope you love this recipe as much as my family does.  Our family tradition is pizza on Friday nights I love having food traditions for a few reasons:

1. I don't ever have to figure out what I'm eating on Tuesday night (Taco Tuesdays) Friday nights (pizza) or Sundays (pancake night)
2. My kids LOVE the repetition and expectation of what we are eating on specific nights
3. And Lord willing, someday when my kids are no longer living at home they will make it a point to stop in on nights when they know what we will be eating!

Homeschool Room Open House Day 3

Hi Friends,
Hope you are enjoying the open house.  Today I'm showing you my reading wall, nothing complicated or fancy.  The basic idea is that every book we read is written on a star and attached to the wall.  I've done this for several years and my kids LOVE it!  They love to see the wall fill up as we read.  You can print shapes from the computer or the dollar store usually has cute cut out shapes you could use too!

Another thing I do is plan our fun reading books.  These would be the books I don't have to read for curriculum, just the fun, cuddle with the kids reading books.  I've found that if I have a bookshelf filled with books a few things happens: 

1. The books get ignored
2. When I ask the kids to pick a book for us to read they pick the same favorite ones - over and over and over!  Leaving many books unread on the bookshelf and my mind mush as I read the same book for the 800th time!
3. When my kids were little the books would always end up in a huge mess on the floor (why do little kids love throwing books off the bookshelf?)

 I decided it was time for a book intervention!  Introducing - Planned Reading Books:

At the beginning of each month I head to the kids bookshelf  and pull out books to read for the month.  I split the books between 5 rubber maids and try to keep each box with 10 - 15 books in them.  Some books are too big to fit in the rubber maids, those ones I just stack on the side (The Wind in the Willows and All of a Kind Family in the above picture)  I try to mix up the books - some fun easy reads like Amelia Bedelia or Henry and Mudge.  I'll also have a couple of bigger chapter books that might take us a couple of days to get through.  If I know we are studying a subject in school or a character trait that might effect what I put in the buckets too! 

I keep a basket under our coffee table with our books for the week.  I've found that with the books right next to the couch and changing on a weekly basis we read together often.  It's also a lot easier to squeeze reading a book in while cooking dinner if the books are accessible and ready to grab.  Larger books that we can't get through in one week I'll leave in the basket until we are done, but the rest of the books get changed out every week, even if we didn't read them!  

The only book that stays in my basket all the time and never changes is my Egermeier's Bible Story Book - if you don't have this book I highly recommend it.  Stories are written through the Bible with the passages included.  The stories are detailed and information packed.  We all learn and enjoy reading these stories together daily!  (Click Here) if you want to check the Egermeier's Bible Story Book out on Amazon (this is an old book and a little pricey, but worth every penny!)

I've been really happy with my book organization and know that we read many more books with the system in place. I'd love to hear if you have a book system or how you plan the books you read with your kids.  

One other thing I do with my kids is have them keep a book log for yearly records.  In the Grow Homeschool Planner we had a Book Log - (Click Here) if you missed that post and the FREE Book Log PRINTABLE. 

If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me jenny@growaustin.org

In His Grace,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 2

Hi Friends,
Today is Day 2 in my homeschool room open house.  My heart is that as we walk through pieces of my room it will spark ideas, thoughts, and creativity for your homeschool space and day.  Feel free to ask questions and of course please share ideas on how you do things in your homeschool room too!  I would love to see your homeschool space, hear your ideas, and be sparked with new creativity because of you!

I don't know about you, but I do a lot of reading during my homeschool day.  Whether its reading a book, history textbook, science textbook, or reading fun books it seems like a lot of my day is spent reading.  I have found that busy hands make good listeners.  Simple things like legos, crocheting, and making rubber band bracelets are all great ways to keep kids minds engaged while reading.  

I rotate different activities for my children to do on different days of the week.  Here is one bulletin board station you will see in my homeschool room:

I'll call this the "Mail Station".  My kids love sending and receiving cards and pictures in the mail.  The white mailbox in the picture above is from Target.  As my children are working on coloring or drawing pictures and writing cards they leave them in this box.  It helps me not accidentally throw away a coloring page left out that was a treasure my children were working on for an aunt or friend! (I don't like mess, if it's left out I throw it away!  We needed a system for the papers everywhere and this was my solution!)  

On the hook below the mailbox you see a ring with Christmas cards attached.  I wrote a blog in great detail about my address ring for my kids (Click Here) to read more, but the cliff notes of that blog is that I stick the address on the back of the Christmas photo and then my kids can address their own envelopes, saving me so much time looking up addresses for my kids!  

The cute picture of the mailman comes from my Grandma.  She was a teacher and saved every bulletin board decoration she ever used.  I was blessed to be able to inherit this box of decorations and I love them.  These bulletin board pictures are old, some are so funny (I seriously need to do a blog post just on the funny pictures) and all of the president posters end at Nixon, but it's sweet and I love having a little bit of my Grandma's heritage in my homeschool room.  You will see more of these posters in days ahead! 

The board on the right in the photo is my "Dates 2 Remember" board.  I add friends and families birthdays, anniversaries, or other special days we want to remember and I make sure that if there are dates in the month that need pictures and cards made we work ahead and get them in the mail early! Don't know if you have a "Dates 2 Remember" print out, but if you want one I made a FREE Printable that matches our 2014 -2015 Homeschool Planner.  To get this Free Printable (Click Here)

Here is another favorite for my kids during reading time.  These are simple step by step drawing pictures.  I found those cute little paper holders at Michael's in the dollar bins and they are just perfect for the kids to practice drawing these simple pictures on. (white index cards on a ring would work great too)  I love step by step drawing because it needs no explanation they can sit and do these while I'm reading and learn how to draw something new at the same time!  Often I'll see these pictures they have learned to draw, re-drawn in birthday cards or in mail that is being sent out.  It's a fun way to pass the time while I read!  I keep these in a bucket on one of desks in the homeschool room

The last spot I'll show you is my file hanger.  I won't get into all the details now, I'll just talk about the coloring page file for now.  Both my Bible Curriculum, Answsers Bible Curriculum and our Science curriculum, Apologia have coloring pages that go with each week of lessons.  I keep these coloring pages in the coloring pages file and one day in the week the kids will color these pages.

Stay tuned this week for more peeks into my homeschool room.  Questions or comments feel free to email me jenny@growaustin.org

In His Grace,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 1

Hi Friends,
Today is the first day I start sharing pictures of my homeschool room and showing you around.  I was going to do this all in one post, but seriously it would have been overwhelming long and no one would bother reading it - so small chunks over the next few days to show you around my room I'm hoping will be much better!  

As always let me say feel free to ask questions, comment, and ignore any and all of what I say.  I'm just showing you around, hopefully sparking some fun creativity or organization for your homeschool room, and maybe and idea or 2 that will make this school year a little easier for you!

Today I'm simply talking themes with you.  Here are my very unfinished boards (don't worry, they will be more finished in future pictures!)

We are doing a year of American History.  My oldest is doing American the Beautiful with Notgrass and I'm doing a modified version with my youngers.  Since we are learning American History I was planning on doing some kind of patriotic blue and red themed room and then I found this:

Really, can you get any cuter and more American than cute kid cowboys?!?  How could I resist these faces?!?  

And so I bought this cute fabric and my cowboy American homeschool decorations began.  

Themes are such a fun way to add creativity and color to your homeschool classroom and space.  

Here are a few thoughts on themes:

• Pick themes your kids will love: If your kids love legos do a lego homeschool room, if they like Frozen start cutting out those snowflakes!  Decorations made at home are great!
• Pick themes around what you will be learning.  Doing a study on bugs - get bugs all over your room, world history - globes and airplanes and suitcases would be fun!
• Don't forget seasons!  During the holidays make sure you add some holiday cheer to your homeschool space too!  This can be as simple as having your kids make turkeys out of paper plates that you hang on the wall.  You don't have to buy decorations - kids crafts make great decorations!
• Put up photos of your children in the theme.  If you decorate the room in dinosaurs, take a trip to dinosaur park and have your children pose with a T-Rex!   Print out the pictures and stick them on the wall = instant decoration!  If your kids are like mine - they love having pictures of themselves in the room, too!
• Don't let the decorations distract from what needs to be accomplished in the room.  Meaning don't hang beach balls for a ocean room and expect your kids not to hit the beach balls!  Simple decorations are always best.  
• Need some ideas one classroom themes?  Mardel in Cedar Park is packed full of great classroom decorations or head to Hobby Lobby and check out their fabric for ideas.  Another great place to find themes for your homeschool room is at your local party supply store.  Ask your kids what they would like the theme to be - you might be surprised on the ideas they give.  And Pinterest is packed with fun ideas for decorating homeschool rooms too!  Grow has a Pinterest page so check us out: (Click Here)

Alright that's all for today, more to come in the days ahead - wait till you see what I did to Spike our tortious's tank! hehehe!
Questions/Comments feel free to email me, LOVE being a support to you!  
jenny@growaustin.org

My Kitchen Command Center

Hi Friends,
Today I'm sharing a quick simple project I did about a month ago that I am completely in LOVE with!  It's a kitchen command center.  What is a kitchen command center?  Glad you asked!  It's the place to keep your calendar, shopping lists, chores for the kids, really anything you use all the time in one convenient place!

Now if you go to Pinterest there are a million amazing and cute kitchen command centers that are super cute and super pricy!

I had a couple of issues on my kitchen command center: I have no wall space in my kitchen which only left me with the side of my fridge to use.  The fridge presents all kinds of challenges because you can't screw or nail anything to the fridge so everything must be magnetic or able to be held up by a magnet!

The end result turned out so good and I'll go through each piece with you!  But first let me share a couple overview things with you:

• The labels you see: Menu, Chores, Calendar, and so on I printed on line I could have used chalkboard labels which would have been cute too!  (might still do that!)  
• I used a Wiki black and white polk a dot tape to divide all the sections.  Originally I just put it all up without the Wiki tape, but my OCD head couldn't handle it, I needed sections clearly marked out!  
• Yes, I know we live in the digital age, but I still need a paper calendar.  The one on my fridge does not match my command center, but I've used it all year and can't switch now and unfortunate thing that will drive this OCD girl nuts until January!  
• The bottom pocket I also bought from Target and hung with magnet hooks, it's just a place to keep paperwork I need.  

Alright now I'll go through each of these sections with you!

Menu: This is a white board magnet menu I bought at Target, it's perfect as I can plan out the meals for the week.  I plan out our meals and add ingredients I need right to the shopping lists, that I'll show you in a minute.

 Shopping List: You can see in the top picture I have 3 separate shopping lists : Costco, Whole Foods, and Other, these are chalkboard labels that I stuck right on my fridge!  These lists I found in the dollar bins at target. I tore them up, there are only a few sheets under each section so that the magnet could hold it up (again I'm working with a fridge here!)  As I run out of items throughout the week I put them on these lists and then when I'm ready to head to costco I  just tear off the list and take it with me!  I also add items to the list as I'm planning our weekly food.  Pretty simple!  And the best part - my husband and kids add things to the list as they run out of things!  So nice!

 Chores: I have done chore systems 800 ways and the moment I'm needing simple chore life and kids helping for no reward, just simply because they are members of this house and we all pitch in together.  I printed these chores from my computer, laminated them (if you don't have a laminator packing tape is a great solution!) and then threw a magnet on the back!  Our family chores include: Taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom, bringing dirty laundry to the laundry room, bringing dirty sheets to the laundry room, taking clean clothes back to bedrooms, folding laundry, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping the floors, cleaning bedroom, and cleaning the playroom.  Once the chore has been completed my children move the chore off the board and onto the bucket I'll show you next!

Bucket of Pens & Chores: This certainly didn't need it's own label, I'm not that OCD (no comment! LOL) I needed a place to keep a pen, white board markers and the chore cards as my children completed them.  Again I found this bucket in the dollar section at target and stuck it on a magnet hook.  Now everything I could need is in one easy to find place!

 Verse: I make it a goal to learn at least 1 verse a week, currently I'm going through Colossians Chapter 3 one verse at a time.  I print the verse multiple times and stick it up everywhere - the mirror in the bathroom, my washing machine, the coffee maker, and now on my kitchen command center too!  I stink at memorizing and if it isn't posted everywhere for me to read, I'll completely forget to memorize! I have all of Chapter 3 printed on cards like this and they are in that bottom pocket on the command center so I'm ready to add on the next one!

Well, there you have it, my happy little command center, don't know how I lived without it for so long!  This was a very inexpensive project that has brought so much order to my home!  I'm still swooning over it!

More OCD projects to come!
Jenny