Colonial Day
This past weekend, we attended a Colonial Day at Moores Creek National Battlefield. We had an exceptional time, making colonial crafts, experiencing living history, and walking the trail.
This is a sample of the tableware that many colonists used.
We were privileged to learn how they preserved and seasoned their foods.
Lily and Stephen were able to make their own wax candles.


These three gentlemen taught us a lot about Colonial attire, and how the colonists defended themselves.


One of the re-enactors loves this time period so much, that he sets up his own camp, and stays on the battlefield with his three children (ages five and under). His children are very blessed to be able to experience history in such a tangible manner.
In this picture, Lily is making a favorite colonial toy, a Whirligig. Most colonial children owned only one or two toys. For a large number of them, this was their only toy! Now, it seems like there has never been such an abundance of toys, yet everyone seems to be so bored all of the time. There is something so beautiful about the simplicity of Early America. I certainly wouldn't want to trade my many modern conveniences, but there is a real beauty in simplicity.
Why is it that the good, Old fashioned toys happen to be the funnest? ;)

After spending our afternoon in Colonial times, we went to a local Dogwood Festival. With the loud concert music blasting, a myriad of people screaming, and chaos everywhere, I certainly wished to be back at Colonial Day. I am so thankful for such a tremendous learning opportunity.

Wee-books

Wee-books are concise, practical, mini e-books, carried by the Old Schoolhouse , on a variety of topics. Don't let the size of these e-books fool you; they are chocked full of great tips, for only $1.95 per book. In anticipation of the upcoming summer season, I downloaded Beating the Summertime Blues. This book was chocked full of delightful ways to keep cool and to make summer memories with your children. The author even shared a few ways to sneak in fun learning activities, throughout the summer season. The Wee-book series includes the following titles: 10 Big Reasons not to send Christian Kids to Public Schools, The Value of Homeschool Conventions, Homeschooling the Rebel, and many, many more! Check out the entire line of Wee-books here.

Learn how to balance it all, in Homework
Have you ever wondered how work-at-home mothers still find time to homeschool their children? Wouldn't you love to grab a cup of coffee with a seasoned, work-at-home, home educating mama? If so, consider yourself blessed because Homework will be a tremendous resource for you. Homework contains advice and stories from several, creative ladies who have a vast spectrum of home-based businesses. One mother shares how she manages running a home business and home educates, from her motor home! I love how different jobs are divided into diverse chapters, so you can glean from the most relevant stories, to your situation. This book includes several businesses, including: cottage businesses, computer based jobs, and writing jobs. One of my favorite aspects is that several mothers share the logistics of their daily lives, including when they home educate, and what curricula they use. This book also illustrates how your children can learn entrepreneurial skills, by assisting their parents in their businesses. If you are aspiring to start your own business, do yourself a huge favor and order Homework, today!

Summer Suppers
With the Summer season on the horizon, I decided to make a list of dinner meals which are easier to make and won't heat my whole house. It is extremely expensive to keep the oven on for long intervals, throughout summer, especially when the AC is running. To minimize oven cooking, I want to utilize my crockpot (especially for sauces and meats), rice cooker and/or steamer , and toaster oven. Summer is the perfect time to throw something in the crockpot, or to cook in the early hours of the morning, and let certain foods chill. This way, you can forget about supper and have fun filled days outside, with your children.

Meals which can be refrigerated and served chilled:

-Veggie Pizza
-Pasta Salad (tri-color cooked rotini, Italian salad dressing, tomatoes, cheddar cheese cubes, cut deli meat)
-Kim Bobs (I am generally terrified to try "exotic" foods- but these are a real treat- my sister-in-law lived in Korea and she taught me how to make authentic Kim Bobs.No octopi here, nor squid, I use tuna fish.)
- Chicken salad, Tuna salad, Egg Salad, Waldorf Salad
-Chicken Caesar Salad
-Mexican Layer Dip with tortilla chips

Crockpot Meals
-Crockpot meatballs (these are our favorites- so easy to make and so tasty!), serve over rice (cooked in rice cooker)

-Spaghetti Sauce- let it simmer and serve over pasta, cooked right before supper time.

-Beef Stroganoff

Toaster Oven Meals
- Mini- bagel pizzas (for added fun, let each family member design his own.

-Baked Potato Bar- bake potatoes in toaster oven, and set out a variety of toppings such as chives, cheddar cheese, crumpled bacon, butter, and sour cream) Everyone adds toppings of his choice.

-Toasted, open faced sandwiches on bread or bagels. (lay bread/bagel open faced, topped with sandwich meat and cheese of your choice. Toast. Top with a slice of lettuce and mayo. BLTs are a summer treat, especially if you are growing tomatoes and lettuce in your garden!

What are your favorite summer meals? For more Kitchen tips, please visit Tammy.

Please Pray for Nancy Campbell
Nancy Campbell, foundress of Above Rubies, recently broke her arm at a family camp in Louisiana. The break is extensive, and requires surgery to pin the bone back against the arm. So far, she has incurred $2500 in debt, and this is prior to the surgery. It has been six weeks, and she is still in a lot of pain at night. Tiany has written a post here about Nancy and how we can help. Nancy has been such a blessing in my life, and I hope that she will be healed in a mighty way!

Spring, Homeschooling Curricula Sales

A few homeschool curricula companies are offering Spring deals for those early birds, who shop for this fall's curricula, now.

Alpha and Omega Publications- 20% off throughout April. Their Horizons math is really outstanding! It is a colorful and challenging math program. Lifepacs are excellent learning tools, especially for subjects like mathematics. At this point in my homeschooling career, I really try to spend as much time as possible in learning alongside my children. I enjoy using a variety of resources, and often create my own studies. I understand that there are seasons of life, where such hands-on homeschooling, may not be possible. (such as months of morning sickness, layoffs, death in the family, single parents, etc.) For this reason, I am so thankful to know that Switched on Schoolhouse is a viable option. Switched on Schoolhouse is a complete, computer-based curricula for students grades 3-12. Their website used to let you sample this cd curricula, and let me tell you, it was so much fun! I was having a blast learning and playing the material review games, even on the third grade level!

Christian Liberty Press- 25% off through April.Christian Liberty Press is one of my absolute favorite resource for curricula materials. Though I have never purchased a whole grade level bundle, there are a few books which we have really enjoyed, from their company. Their phonics readers are God-glorifying and are so helpful! I think I paid about $11 for the set of four. (Each one is about 20-30 pages, too!) Lily loves reading them to me; she read me two pre-naptime stories from them yesterday. ;) One of our absolute favorite science resources has been the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. The Nature Reader is so delightful; it has a taste of yesteryear to it!

Saxon math at Rainbow resource
I personally am not a big fan of Saxon, for a variety of reasons, but if you like it, don't miss Rainbow Resource's sale!

Lamplighter Publishing
Do you ever get tired of milk and toasty type books for children? I am referring to the ones that make the Christian life seem all nice and fuzzy. The Christian life is a great blessing, but there simply is nothing "warm and fuzzy" about it, if it is genuine. Lamplighter books are a real treat for the Christian family. I received my first Lamplighter book, last year, from Vision Forum. The Basket of Flowers has been a life-changing book. I am enjoying reading it to my little ones. I was so elated to see that Lamplighter Pub. offers a few, free e-books available on their website.

Hold that Thought
This isn't just a spring deal, but I wanted to pass along this super offer, in this post. Hold that Thought contains timeline materials, geography and history materials. Their notebooking sheets on cd are terrific. In order to save money on advertising, if you blog about their materials, when you place an order, you can receive a free cd, of your choice, of equal or lesser value. These notebooking sheets would be an excellent addition to any history program!

Saving money on curricula works for me! If there are any spring sales that you know of, that I missed, please leave a comment! Thank you! Blessings!

Easter 2009
I hope you had a delightful Easter! We had a blessed time visiting and spending the day with family.

Anastasia at the egg hunt; she found 33 eggs!
A cousin (7 1/2 years old), my Easter Lily (6 years), Anastasia (whose name means "Resurrection")(21 months), and Stephen (4 years)
How was your Easter? Many blessings to you!

Josh and Anna Duggar are Expecting their First Baby!
I am so thrilled for them! Read more about it here.

He is Risen!
I pray that you and your families have a very blessed Easter!

We live and die; Christ died and lived! ~John Stott

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. ~Martin Luther

Luscious Lemon Bars
These are a delightful addition to any table!

2 cups flour
1 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs
2 cup sugar
pinch salt
5 T. lemon juice
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
powdered sugar

Combine 2 cup flour, butter, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Mix and press into ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Mix eggs, sugar, salt, and lemon juice in bowl. Fold in 1/3 cup flour and baking powder. Pour onto hot crust. Bake 25 more minutes. Cool and cut into squares and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Recipe used with permission from Joy in the Kitchen by Celeste Welch.

How to Have a Natural Birth

I have a question for you. I'm not pregnant, but I've been thinking lately that I would like to shoot for a natural birth next time (if/when the Lord chooses to bless us again!). We took Bradley classes with our first pregnancy, and we learned a lot, but to be completely honest we were pretty turned off by the New Age/hippie element that was very present. I'm sure that the instructor had a lot to do with that...as far as I can tell it is not a part of the Bradley method. (I did not have a natural birth, but it wasn't because of that. It was because of a long,horrific labor and delivery.) Anyway, every time I go into labor I flip out and think that it's going to be just as bad as the first time. And it never is. So, do you have any links to good, reliable sites that have info on the dangers of epidurals and that sort of thing? I've wondered how many epidurals one can have. I've had five now, and while I've never had any bad experiences or side effects, I think I'd like to start moving away from them.......... my doctor is wonderful and is very supportive of natural birth and natural things in general. As is the hospital that I deliver in. They see a good many natural deliveries there, so the nurses are used to it and know how to help, etc. -L

Dear L,
A desire to have a natural birth is a very commendable thing. I feel that it is vitally important that a woman births where she feels most comfortable. I tend to tense up when I go through all of the processes at the hospital, so, for many reasons, I feel much better at home. I always seem to stall in dilating once I have gotten to the hospital. I know of many women who have had beautiful hospital births. It sounds like you are blessed with a wonderful hospital and birth team, so that should really make a big difference. My hospital always required me to lay down, throughout labor, and once they did that, I really felt like my hands were tied. Any hospitals that permit a woman to walk during labor,eat and drink, to have a hep-lock (rather than a constant iv) , to have intermittent auscultation (rather than constant electronic fetal monitoring), sounds like a great place to have a natural birth. I believe that being emotionally ready was the single greatest preparation for labor, before I had my natural birth. I waivered throughout that pregnancy about whether I could "handle the pain" or not. From the fifth month on, I just soaked up a lot of information about birth, which was so invaluable to me, while I was in labor. A few recommendations that really helped me are:
Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Husband Coached Childbirth
Birthing from Within
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
The Birth Book by Dr.Sears
I loved reading Ina May's book because it is chocked full of real birth stories. There were so many pearls of wisdom throughout her book.
Avoid Artificial Induction
I highly recommend not getting induced, as it is extremely difficult to birth without drugs, when using Pitocin. Cervidil and Cytotec carry many risks as well, including uterine rupture, which can result in baby's death. I prefer to wait till my body is ready, but if you need a little help, the following is a list of natural induction techniques.
Find Encouragement
Bradley classes were so helpful to me. Certainly there may have been a few things that I didn't agree with my teacher's personal philosophy, but there was so much beneficial information that she was dispensing, that I found it easy to overlook anything I didn't agree with. I believe that many Bradley teachers offer a quick review course (for a small fee), for those who have already taken the class, previously. Maybe if you could find another teacher, that would be a blessing! Another recommendation is to find a good doula. Doulas are worth every penny! You may even find an apprenticing doula, who will attend your birth for free. (ask your doctor or midwife for referrals)
Research
While I had always wanted to avoid an epidural during birth, prior to Anastasia's birth was the first time that I learned what was in one, and possible complications. During Bradley classes, I learned that each epidural is a bit of a different concoction, based on the anesthesiologist's preferences. I was startled to find that it often contains a derivative of the same "caine" family as c*caine. Your weight and height is taken into account, and you are given a dosage accordingly.
The main problem with this is that these drugs have been found to cross the placenta, and baby is affected. So the baby receives the drugs based on your weight, not his/her's. I noticed a huge difference, after birth, in how Annie was so alert. She latched on, heartily, 10 minutes after the birth. My medicated babies were so exhausted. I used to have to try every trick in the book to get them to latch on, the first few days after birth.

Some Resources to Help:

Utilize labor comforts for a better birth.

My thoughts on how to have a better hospital birth

A bit more on labor drugs.

Epidural Links

Medical Risks of Epidural Anesthesia

Epidural ups Fever, C-section risk

Epidural Express This is an excellent article- which states what is in an epidural.

Cascade of Intervention

Epidurals and Other Drugs

A routine Epidural turns Deadly

Looking back, birthing naturally has been one of the greatest joys of my life. It wasn't easy, but it was an amazing and life-changing experience. Many blessings to you, L, as you research on how to have a natural birth. I pray that God will give you this desire of your heart.