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i’m mellltttiiinnggg
Yes, I’m whining about the weather again…..
subway and scholastic discriminate against home schoolers
I’m not really sure what Subway and Scholastic were thinking when they decided that home schoolers should not be allowed to participate in their latest essay contest. See here for details. Using their form, I kindly let them know I will no longer be supporting their companies. If you have an opinion about this, why not let them know?
please excuse the mess…..
There’s a lot of work involved in changing my blog template ~ I apologize for the confusion here right now. I’ll get it cleaned up as quickly as possible!
it’s been a while since I blogged because…
well, honestly, because I’ve had a serious bout of blogger’s block. And I have a family. And a pregnant daughter. Who now lives with us.
BUT, just when I’m starting to think my life is truly boring and I have nothing worthwhile to blog about, God gives me a doosey. He does have a sense of humor, that’s for sure.
I have a sense of humor too ~ warped as it may be. I now have something to blog about……..but it’s late and I’m too tired to blog about it right now.
SO, what you get is a bit of a tease: here’s a taste of the “doosey” I now have to blog about…….another day…..
free language program
Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they’re included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program — in the language of your choice — copy these (blue) paragraphs (highlight, then hit Ctrl C to copy) and post it in (or as) your next blog post (hit Ctrl V to paste) — then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
on the road ~ day 3
The day’s not through yet, but I just have to write a quick post about meeting Meredith, Holly and Joanne. We met this morning at the hotel where I’m staying, and decided to go to Java Guru for coffee. My goodness ~ to be honest, you’d think we’d all been friends for a million years. There was no awkwardness or hesitation at all. How lovely to meet in person and find that these 3 ladies are exactly who they say they are on their blogs!
We sat at Java Guru for about 2 hours and just talked about whatever came up. Then we decided to go to The Black-Eyed Pea for lunch ~ Holly’s favorite (thank you Holly for suggesting it ~ lunch was very good!). We talked and talked and talked ~ I think we touched on just about every subject under the sun. It was fantastic ~ a wonderful time with sister believers. I don’t think I’ve ever met other women with whom the conversation so easily flowed.
Joanne gave us really pretty Moleskine notebooks she had sewn some material onto ~ I’ll have pictures of the ladies and the notebook Joanne gave me when I get home. Joanne has the most amazing charm bracelet ~ she said there’s about 75 charms on it, and she has had it since she was 7 years old. What an amazing collection of memories she carries around with her every day. I imagine she has people ask her about it often. I have only read one of Joanne’s books (so far), but her “voice” in her books is the same as in real life.
Sweet Meredith has been fighting an illness alongside her daughters. I’m thankful she felt well enough to come today. She has lost most of her voice, and I’m praying that she will feel 100% soon. Mer, next time we get together we’ll let you talk more than the rest of us, I promise! 
Holly is just as dear and sweet as I expected her to be from reading her blog. What I didn’t expect was her sense of humor! She had us all laughing frequently. Sometimes she was even in danger of one of us laughing so abruptly that we might accidentally spit our coffee or food on her ~ I’m pleased to tell you though that we managed to keep the drinks and the food in our mouths.
You know, I have to marvel at the power of the internet, and the amazing way our awesome God uses it for His glory. There I sat with 3 ladies who I had never actually met before, and yet I felt comfortable, and the conversation was easy. If you know me, you know I’m not a big social person. I don’t “do” squadron wives’ get-togethers, and I don’t usually do any of the officer’s wives’ things, and participating in Bible studies can be difficult for me when there are too many people involved. I can be uncomfortable in groups. To me, more than 2 is a group!
Anyway, thank you Meredith, Holly and Joanne for making today a pure joy. I enjoyed each of you, and I truly enjoyed the time we were able to spend together. God is good all the time ~ He blessed me tremendously today with your sweet company. And I can’t wait to do it again!
on the road ~ days 1 & 2
We left Little Rock Tuesday morning and arrived in Denver safely. Our flight was direct from LR to DIA ~ I always forget how BIG Denver’s airport is. It seemed like we walked for miles just to find the baggage area! But, we found all of our luggage and we were off on our adventures.
We did a little shopping and nosing around Denver and Castle Rock, then headed to the hotel to call it a night. It was a long but pleasant day.
We spent yesterday at Winter Park. While Sawyer and Caitlin hit the slopes, Roger and I sat in the lodge and chilled. We ate lunch at a restaurant, then the kids went back to the slopes. The lifts closed at 4:00pm, so we headed back to the hotel. We had dinner, then called it an early night. This thin air up here really takes it out of you!
Today I’m meeting Holly, Meredith and Joanne for coffee while the kids are with Roger at Winter Park again. We’re having dinner with Roger’s mom and step-dad this evening. Tomorrow we’ll take in the outlet malls ~ watch out Gymboree, OshKosh and Baby Gap, here I come! I hope you have lots of cute little pink clothing in stock! LOL
charm country
I know it’s kind of early to be thinking about Mother’s Day, but nonetheless it has sort of been on my mind lately. I found the cutest little boy and girl birthstone “charms” (for lack of a better word) ~ I’m enamoured with the idea of a Mother’s bracelet. The birthstone kids are here. They also have birthstone babies that I especially love, but they’ve discontinued them ~ once they run out of what they have in stock it’s all over. So, birthstone kids it is…….
reminder
Don’t forget ~ if you want to be eligible to win the $25 Amazon.com gift card, you have until next Monday, February 11, to get your Winter Reading Challenge list posted. I will be coming around and checking out everyone’s list ~ I always find such great books on other people’s lists! You can sign up, and leave a direct link to your Winter Reading Challenge book list, here.
If you miss the deadline to be eligible for the gift card, that’s ok. Play along with us anyway. It’s always fun, and can be quite motivating, to post your goals and let others hold you accountable.
blogger’s block
Not much sleep and a whole lot of nothin’ out of the ordinary lately has given me a case of blogger’s block. My bloggy friend Meredith is having the same problem. I like her solution ~ ask me a question. I’m pretty sure my answer will be fairly ordinary, but ask anyway. I’m interested to know what you want to know about me. Who knows ~ maybe I’ll be able to make you question into a journal entry starter!