JUNE: Recipe challenge!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Things I Love - Emily

Person I love: The nice person. For instance, I love the lady who saw me struggling with a screaming, non-cooperative two year old in a Wal-mart parking and instead of judging my mothering, quietly asked permission to give my son an orea. Or the manager at the grocery store who helped an 8-month pregnant woman with two small children find the Easter hams hidden in the corner of the store. Or the mother who spent five hours on a Saturday on the telephone asking numerous bridal stores across the country if they had bridal gown # 3214 for her engaged daughter (and yes, she found the dress), or the husband who sees his exhausted wife and sends her off to the bedroom for a break and fixes dinner instead (even though he's exhausted himself). I think nice people who see beyond themselves make the world a brighter, better, happier place - and I love them!

Place I love: Historical sites. Pictured above is Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA. It is in that building that our nation's founding fathers gathered to debate, and eventually adopt, the Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution. I have visited this site repeatedly and always feel inspired by the courage, strength, and faith in God that those brave men exhibited. They lived through difficult, uncertain times, but they rose above their times and they paved the way for our bright future. I love visiting historical sites because there is something powerful about standing were previous men and women have stood (and sometimes fought) and learning their stories. They is much to be learned from the past and visiting these important places opens the windows of the past.

Thing that I love: Owning my own washer and dryer. It took seven years of marriage and two children (the younger of which was 16 months) before we bought our first washer and dryer. I still get giddy every time I throw a load of laundry in at 8:00 pm on a Tuesday night without inserting quarters.

Sound that I love: Laughing children. It makes me smile every time I hear it!

Quote that I love: "Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other” - Marvin J. Ashton

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Educational Websites and Apps for Children

I though I'd start a post of our favorite educational websites or places where you can order educational material.  I would love everyone to please add to this post so we can learn from each other!  Please post a description of your site above the link.

Below the websites, please post your favorite Mac APPS!!!  I don't have any because I am just getting my Mac up and running, but I'd love to hear what you use! 


ABCs, READING

My preschoolers like this website to learn / reinforce letters:

http://www.starfall.com/


MATH

This one one is free:
http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

IXL is the best math website I have found!  It costs $70 per year.  I recommend buying a subscription when your oldest is in 1st grade or when they start learning math facts.  I make each of my children in 1st grade and older do 10 minutes a day until they can get 100% quickly, then we move on to the next number.

http://www.ixl.com/


GAMES / GENERAL ED

Lots of fun games for all ages:

http://pbskids.org/

Playground is really fun for preschoolers.  My older kids love Poptropica the best:


http://www.funbrain.com/


HANDWRITING

I am using and have used the kindergarten version with two kids and am using the cursive book with my oldest child.  I love these books.

http://www.hwtears.com/hwt



KEYBOARDING


This is what my 3rd grader uses at school.  He can now type 13-20 words a minute and puts his hands in the correct place (no finger typing).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/


HOME SCHOOL SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

For math, the top three courses are Saxon, Singapore, and Horizon Math.  Saxon is best for grades 3 and upper grades because it is very practice-intense, but no pictures.  Horizon uses lots of pictures and presents things clearly for grades 1 - 4.  I used Horizon last summer with my 1 and 2 grader to give them a little extra math practice.  I don't know much about Singapore.  I ordered Horizon from Amazon and don't know about the others.

For reading, the best course I have found is Sonlight (http://www.sonlight.com/)  It is very pricey, but you can look at their book lists for free.  They have wonderful lists of children's literature broken down by age.  I'm going to do another post of my favorite children's books, but this website is a good start.

FAVORITE APPS

Loves by Sarah

Place you Love:  England!  I would love to take my entire family back there some day. 

Person you Love:  My husband!  A great husband, father, and friend.

Thing you Love:   Cheese.


Quote you Love: 


"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. 
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. 
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. 
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. 
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. 
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." 
 Marjorie Pay Hinckley


Poem you Love:

William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

Excerpt:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,  60
        Hath had elsewhere its setting,
          And cometh from afar:
        Not in entire forgetfulness,
        And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come  65
        From God, who is our home:
Photo you Love: 
I love babies!  I love this photo of me and my first baby.  Now that I am done having babies, I look back on those years of nurturing the very little ones with fondness and a little nostalgia.  This photo represents for me all the pictures of me with my babies, whom I love.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

L.O.V.E-- Angela style

PERSON I Love: Brian. I don't need to convince you that this guy is great. 

PLACE I love: The Island in the Sky. . . there were times it was tough, but this little insignificant spot in the universe where we had no internet or cell phone-- where we frequently ran out of groceries and ate cabbage and fried eggs, where we saw a mountain lion under the stars and biked the White Rim; where we lived in a space that was WAY too small-- but it was okay. And where we had company packed in and watched the sunsets every night. . . The Island (as it is affectionately known) will forever hold a very special place in my heart. 

THING I love: PB Hershey kiss cookies. You know I love PB-- but did you know I was obessed with these in college? I used to carry 47cents in my backpack for a mid-study cookie break. I would wander through the bookstore to the candy counter where I could count on one of these babies as an immediate pick me up. Sarah Hays just gave me 30 for my birthday (on Saturday). They're gone. It's Tuesday. 

Thing I love TO DO: be outside. I am SO much happier when I'm outside. If I'm in a funk, feeling strange, something's amiss or I feel unproductive-- if I do it outside, I'm suddenly cured. I especially love doing hard things that take all day long outside.  I took this photo on the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska. Alaska completely blew me away-- if it was in the lower 48 it would be the most popular place for sure. It is incredible. This field was covered in wildflowers (although they didn't show up in the photo) and the colors were that vivid. I have loved all of the outdoor adventures B and I have gone on together-- we've created some great memories. 

PHOTO I love: Jo and I in Chesler Park taken on timer with a point and shoot on my backpack.  As a kid I always loved the outdoors-- I remember swinging on the swings in the backyard and making up songs about spring because I was so excited for the beautiful trees and flowers. I loved our trips out west. In college I fell in love even more and Spring Summit solidified my passion into an actual reality. When we hiked into Chesler Park that spring day-- I'm pretty sure I was writing another song (or at least a prayer) about how lucky I was to be in such a beautiful place. 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

thinks I love

So I'll be the first to post on the February challenge:
Place I love: Appalachian Trail at Greyson Highlands State Park
Person I love: Gary
Thing I love: my Bernina sewing machine
Thing I love to do: Work in the garden
Picture I love: The one of me on the front of "Gayle's cookbook"

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

February Challenge?

What happened to the February challenge?  I thought it was something about the things we love?  Happy Valentine's Day anyway!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

2012: Sarah

My goal for 2012 is to SURVIVE the insanity!!!!

No, really (sort of):

My biggest personal goals are to keep my voice soft at all times, to lose 9 pounds, and to be more cheerful.

My biggest spiritual goal is to study, not read, the scriptures.

I would also like to fix up Emmy's room and the bare wall in our front living room and hallway (probably just with some neat family pictures in frames).  This will entail learning how to paint furniture that has already been stained and how to choose and arrange pictures in an artful way on a blank wall.

Our family goals (in addition to continuing the good things we are already doing) are to do a service project once a quarter (can be as simple as picking up trash on our street or bringing cookies to a neighbor), going to the temple together at least once, and giving a compliment a day to someone.