New Years Resolutions, wishes, goals whatever

So I guess I will be like tons of other bloggers I see and blog about all of my expectations and goals for the upcoming year. Then like most of them, I will get to look back on 2010 and see everything I planned to do and didn't. lol

1. Pray without ceasing
2. Continue to study the Word of GOD diligently.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. You know the whole 5 a day thing.
4. Exercise more frequently instead of every now and then.
   
5. slow down. Yeah right like that's going to happen with two jobs, college, homeschooling, birthing project, La Leche League, birth........okay we are really going to work on that one.
6. spend more time with my family in true quality time fashion.
   
7. STAY AWAY FROM FACEBOOK - This one is going to be hard. I'm sure all you fellow facebookers feel the same way I do. Or is it just me.
   
8. Stay on my budget. -this one is not too hard. I have no choice. you can only stretch a dollar so far, right. We do tend to splurge when it comes to things for the kids just can't help it they are so cute.
9. Don't half do anything
10. Read more books...... I am going to try to keep my reading list this year. I will make my goal 50 books. Let's see how I do.

Happy New Year, you few, you proud, you people who read my boring blog. Maybe I should add that I will blog more frequently to my list. No need to lie. I will continue to do what I can.
Shalom. Toni

Christmas Gifts

Note to self. Don't wait until the last minute to make Christmas gifts next year.

freebie

http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

Bears

A couple of weeks ago we learned about bears. I normally don't do a lot of unit studies. Our schooling is usually individualized but, I thought I would try something different that week as Tre' who is in 3rd grade won't stay out of Precious' school work. She is always saying that she didn't know this or that when we do things with Tre' for science. So of course I didn't want to buy new stuff since its only November so I am utilizing stuff we have and the internet for this one. Apologia's Land animals of the sixth day, which is what Tre' and PJ use for science is what helped me decide on a topic. I figured if they didn't like it we would just have extra stuff for them for the week. I got a Bear book from a friend in a boohoo of homeschool hand-me-downs so I included that. I also had some flannel board bears so of course we utilized some bear stories for the little ones. We did Goldilocks and the three bears Friday as a play. We read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see". We have tons of Bernstein Bear books, we read two of them Monday. We picked up some Paddington Bear from the library. We went on a large-scale bear hunt. I went out and hid stuffed bears around the neighborhood. Since we are the only kids at home this time of day I figured it would be fine. We watched a couple of videos online too. The kids loved it so much we are working on another unit study this week.

day 48

Ok so far for the 365 day clutter challenge, I have declutter clothes. I have in keeping with the challenge gotten rid of an item per day.. Some days I don't and I catch up when I think about it. So I will try to keep a journal on what I declutter so I can see the progress I have made in the end.
Today-I am decluttering the game station. We have a game station right next to the front door where all the board games and card games goes. I have done a good job of organizing all of the pieces in little zip lock bags for each individual game since the boxes take up so much space some time ago. The problem is it looks junky so today I will move all of these things into the coat closet to get rid of some of the visual suff in the living room. I have bought a few plastic shoe boxes so they will all fit neatly on the shelf. Hopefully I can find my declutter thing of the day while I am doing it.

why do I keep getting asked how I feed my family?

I get asked all the time-how do you feed all of those children? I don't understand why people ask me because I only have 4 kids. I always wonder the same thing about bigger families so I guess they feel like me but, ask. Anyway the answer to the question is big meats, crock pots, beans and prayers. My mother taught me a long time ago that its cheaper with the bone in it. Yeah of course when we first got married we ate steak all the time, center cut pork chops, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Now a days we eat a whole bunch of chicken, no pork (because of Jimmy's blood pressure), roasts, and fish. Oh and of course beans.
Beans- they are not all that bad. I am very "naughty" when it comes to my bean cooking. I really like having a little meat in them. The main bean of choice in our house is pinto beans and red beans. The kids love pinto beans because I let them add sugar too them. Not to much but, it makes them soupy and sweet. I don't like my beans sweet though.
Now so far as meat in them goes-I used to use ham hocks like all the other women in my family, but when Jimmy developed high blood pressure and then chose to not take his medicine, I decided that he would not eat any pork or salty foods whenever I was around. I do miss the ham hocks though but, now its turkey necks or chicken broth, homemade of course. He doesn't really know the difference now but, he did complain some when I first started doing it.
Back to beans- I never had red beans until I lived on the Mississippi gulf coast. There is something about those red beans and rice. They are so good! To cook my red beans I don't soak them I just throw them in the crock pot with water, tony chachere's (my most fav seasoning), chicken broth, an onion, whole garlic cloves, and let um ride. When they are done I throw a little ground sausage and a lot of link sausage and put, it all over rice. Oh my goodness, I want some now!
cornbread- You can't eat beans without cornbread. Well, I guess you can but, for the Hill family they are just not the same. I never ate a lot of cornbread growing up but, when I got married Jimmy was a conasuer of cornbread so I had to learn how to make it. My basic recipe is:
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup of cornmeal
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 tblsp of oil
1 tblsp of sugar - started adding that after Precious was born.
Now to this basic recipe I add lots of stuff. I have been known to add sausage, corn, broccoli, cheese, sour cream, barbecue sauce, carrots, cream cheese, and even food coloring. Anything to make a kid eat. Oh yeah and more sugar. A lot of days though we just eat jiffy. I don't see how Jimmy's grandmother does it, making a pan of cornbread everyday from scratch. I guess its her "me" time. This post got longer then I planned to make it so I am going to have to discuss this one later. shalom, Toni

I am not updating enough

Well, just wanted to update. School is going well. Today was the last day of football for Tre'. I guess there is no 7/8 football playoffs in our future. Okay with me. We just finished doing the Charlie and chocolate factory play with pied piper. Tre' and PJ were Oompa Loompas and Precious was Mrs. Bucket. It was fun. Now the boys are in Babes in Toyland. The parents meeting is tomorrow. I will try to be a better blogger. Shalom

day 1

ok, I am going to start this declutter challenge for 365 days and see how that goes. I am going to aim for two things a day though, just because I think I have a serious enough clutter problem over here. We will see what happens. Shalom, Toni

spelling site

Well, today was an ok day at the Hill Learning academy. All of our subjects were completed in a timely manner. No one even had to have homework. I used one site to make some word finds with this weeks spelling words and found a true find.
www.spellingcity.com
Here I am able to load my kids lists and they can come to the computer and it will say spell say the words with them. How cool is that, I know!! It also provides a testing center and a print out of a certificate. I really like it for Tre' who is always wanting to jump on the pc. Now he has typing and spelling practice on the computer. He is going to be a happy camper.

First day of School

Well, the 09/10 Hill learning academy has officially begun. Our first official day was 9/8/09. PJ was the most excited of the whole gang and was a little irritated that his lesson lasted as short of a time as it did. Precious completed all of her 7th grade work and says that she is glad she read the Twilight series this summer because it helped with the speed that she reads. I am glad too. Tre' was the only one stuck with individual work on the first day of school as he did not finish his Rod and Staff math in the time he was given. Only Precious and I did Meals on Wheels today. The youngsters stayed home with dad and finished coloring their school boxes. Yes, Patience has one too.
This year I have some boxes that stack on top of each other for each child. Precious has basic supplies including:
pens and pencils
ruler and compass
erasers
fine tip markers, colored pencils
index cards
Tre' has:
glue and scissors
pencils, sharpener, erasers
markers, crayons, ruler
PJ has:
flashcards
glue, scissors, pencils, eraser
crayons and markers
Patience has:
glue, scissors
flashcards
crayons and a pencil
I hope this is going to help with the "she has mine"s. I can't stand that and it takes up too much valuable time.

It's been a long day

We got a piano today!!! Precious loves it. Tre' tapped a little but, no where near as much as she did. I have been having problems with my online classes. The stuff in one of them does not load right so I can't access my work. Yeah, I want to do my homework!! Also today Preston got some more of his school books in. He was excited! I decided to do the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons " with him. So far he loves it. We are on day three...Because of his minor pronunciation issues, I have decided to also use Abeka along side that for him.

So curriculum this year for Preston "PJ" is:
Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons
Abeka phonics complete
Abeka numbers complete
Apologia Science - Zoology 3 land animals of the sixth day
Mystery of history
I kind of came up with my own health curriculum for him
as always we will utilize our local library for reading.

This week's selection is actually one that we have on inter library loan. It is "A Child's Introduction to Poetry" author is Michael Driscoll illustrated by Meredith Hamilton. It comes with a cd so they are not just listening to mom read, so that's a change. Its longer than I thought it would be though. I think I see a amazon purchase in the immediate future so we can delve into it a little bit more. Tre' has been enjoying it as much as Patience and PJ have. Well the house is quiet and I have to study.
Shalom,

Not long left

school will be starting soon. The kids are ready to do something I believe. I never have taken this long of a break (2 1/2 months) but, I believe the refresher is good for all parties involved. Summer was full of stuff to do. The highlight was the zoo I think. We went to the Memphis zoo with Aunt Raven and Granny. We ended up buying the membership because it was only a few dollars more than our cost of admission. Hopefully that means we will utilize it in the upcoming year. Pj liked the polar bears the best. For Patience it was the monkeys. She sat there for hours watching them play. Tre' loved the elephants. Precious and her sweet tooth loved the snow cones of course. We are planning to go back right before we start school.

I can't believe its been a year since I wrote. I have to get with it I know.