Smile for the Joy of Others

Smile for the Joy of Others

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Airing my Laundry

I just love days I can air my clean laundry!


Thursday, April 7, 2016

The Hardest Lesson to Teach

The hardest lessons to teach in our homeschool experience aren't the new concepts in different subjects. No, the hardest lessons to teach is that you don't avoid certain daily assignments because they are too hard or take more time than we desire. If I allow our boys to "skip" all the longer assignments now, I'm not doing them any favors. I would be teaching them that life is always easy and you're entitled to avoid the hard stuff or that the hard stuff doesn't matter. There's also a lesson to be taught that even God has his children go through the hard stuff. It's those times we learn and grow the most. Some days are lessons are easy and some days they are hard, frustrating and take more time...so as it goes in life.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Recent Reads

This is a book I read as a daily quiet time along with my Bible.  I give it 3 stars.  The content is good but the writing style is elementary.


This a book I used as a daily devotion along with my Bible reading.  I highly recommend this book if you have a sincere desire to lose weight and grow spiritually.  This isn't a book about diets but it is a great encouragement to help you with your journey of weight loss. 5 stars



This is a book I read aloud to our boys as part of our history.  It gives a bible fiction account of the Noah's Ark story.  It does a wonderful job creating a story around the Bible account of Noah.  Lucille uses Noah and his family as the actual characters.  While the storyline isn't all based on Biblical fact, Lucille is careful not to comprise the Biblical account.  Our boys and I really enjoyed this as it helped give a better understanding of the culture and times of Noah.  5 stars



This book was one I read as part of the book club I started for our neighborhood.  In short, the characters in this book lacked personality and were all depressed, which is indicative of the book itself.  I only enjoyed the last 2/3 of this book.  3 stars



I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was the first adult Biblical fiction book I have read.  This book gives a fictional account of the time of Moses when the Hebrews were slaves.  My attempt to explain this book wouldn't do it justice.  But I can highly recommend you read it if you enjoy Christian fiction.  5 stars



This is another book I read for my book club.  I really enjoyed the storyline but the language was horrific.  The storyline is 4 stars, I just hate the vulgar language it contained. 

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Language Farts

Yes, that is what I hear my boys from another room calling their Language Arts lessons..

"Ugh, I hate Language Farts!"

My boys could go the rest of their life without another LA lesson. This is the one subject I worry about the most because it will follow them their whole life in the way they write, speak and read.

I honestly think they learn more when I gently correct them when speaking and writing than when they do tons of worksheets. Not that some worksheet reinforcement isn't needed.

I breathed a slight sigh of relief when my son leaned over to me and quietly corrected the speaker's grammar.... "Momma, he should have said 'my wife and I', not me and my wife."

I took a few moments and thanked God for that small affirmation that they are "getting it."

Friday, April 1, 2016

Slow-bo or Slow-Po

Brother B: "Ugh. I hate going on the Trace. There are too many slowbo-s."

Brother C: "It's not slowbo-s...it's called slowpo-s"

"Momma, why are they called slowpo-s?"