Get to know you

This will be my first link up ever. I hope you all will join me. I would love to get to know all you other bloggers as well.

A little about me.. I'm married to my middle school sweetheart whom I love with all my heart.

I have three beautiful girls and one little gal on the way. Due in May.

I homeschool my children and love it. It's challenging at times, but I love the challenge.

I am saved by God's grace. I fully dedicated my life to him in 2010 as did my husband. We are a family that serves the Lord together. He is always blessing and providing.

The purpose of my blog is to share Christ's love with others and to share my passion for homeschooling and some silly family pictures. I will also write about my family. My header says it all. Faith, Family, Homeschooling.

Now.. YOUR TURN! Link up at the bottom.

My baby is 5 {A walk down memory lane}

Today's link up with www.ourgoodwinjourney.com is a perfect fit. It's about an old memory. Well, today my second born daughter turns five. Wow! It was love at first sight. ( Please excuse the date on the picture. She was born the 9th.)

She was just way too precious and chunky weighing a whopping 9lbs 15oz. She greeted the world at 4:41pm. Moms's forget nothing!

Her Daddy snapped the next two pictures and I just LOVED them! They have always been my favorites.

 

 

 

 

My sweet little chunky monkey turns ONE

 

 

and this is Allison today. Not chunky anymore, but still beautiful as ever!

 

Totally Random

Pulling some of those totally random phone pictures.. You know just for giggles.

When your mom makes you look at the camera so she can have a Facebook picture.. Yeah, I do that. Just ask my girls.

Or when you're sitting in a mess of opened Christmas gifts on Christmas day. Those are the best memories.

And another one of those Facebook pictures. I'm bad about that.

Last but not least when your seven year old takes a picture of your baby bump. Gotta love the random phone pictures.

Homeschooling on a budget {list of websites}

I wanted to share with you all how we homeschool on a budget. You know.. just in case your thoughts are how can we afford all of this curriculum? Just like I did last year which was my first year.


  We are now in 1st grade, 4k and tot school. I have found some of my BEST resources are FREE online printables! Yes, free! Now, we do have some curriculum that we also bought online, but it is so awesome to have all of these free resources. In a few minutes I will share a list of my favorite websites for homeschooling.

For my homeschool planner.. yep, you guessed it! It's all printables. I have a 3 ring binder and I print off all the things I will want to use for the school year. My planner, attendance sheet, extra worksheets and so on. Of course you can add as much as you want through the year.

A lot of our learning has came from free resources. Not only online, but the library as well. I print off memory bible verses, math sheets, writing sheets, science, social studies.

Now to share some of my favorite homeschooling websites. I also write all of them down in my binder so that I can go to them whenever needed. Not only are some of these great for resources, but also great for encouragement.

www.starfall.com

www.akidsheart.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

www.ourgoodwinjourney.com

www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com

www.upsidedownhomeschooling.com

www.thehesitanthousewife.com

www.notebookingpages.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.donnayoung.org

www.peaceontheprairie.com

www.climbingtreeacademy.com

www.momsmustardseeds.com

www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com


Please feel free to share this with all of your homeschooling friends.

Pregnancy and new family pictures

Wow! It has been months since I wrote anything new. Time to get back in gear and not lose sight of God's path.

I must say though.. I have been away from blogging because I've been in a writing slump. I also had morning sickness at the beginning. Well, all day sickness! I am back and refreshed!

Now a little about my pregnancy..  I am right at 20 weeks along (half way there!!) We are expecting our 4th beautiful baby girl! Yes, you heard right, 4 GIRLS!! We could not be more excited though! She is right on track and this has been a healthy pregnancy so far and a healthy baby! Praise God for that!

Now to show you all our family Christmas pictures.. Enjoy :)



Our family
             

Happy Fall Ya'll

Wanted to share some pictures from our trip to the apple orchard this past weekend.

Serving without serving Loudly

Serving without serving Loudly

God has laid it on my heart about serving others before myself. I can sometimes be a very selfish person. Why can’t I do this? God, don’t you see what I’m needing? Me, Me, ME! We can easily get tangled in this web. Guess what? This is exactly where the devil wants us. He doesn’t want us to do God’s work and serve others. He would rather us satisfy our own selfish needs.

However, I’m realizing more and more it doesn’t matter where God has called you in life, you have a place to serve him! Sometimes as a stay at home mom I have often wondered how can I possibly serve you God inside these walls? My first and most high calling is a wife and mother. I can serve Christ daily by serving my family without a bad attitude, without complaining, I need to give of myself to them with Love as Christ does for me.

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many“.- Mark 10:45

It doesn’t matter if you work around different people all day or around the same people all day. You can serve as Christ served. You don’t need the attention or praise from anyone to tell you how great your doing. Your reward comes from your Father in heaven. Sometimes, we can often do “good deeds” with the wrong intention in mind. If your primary goal of why you are doing something isn’t for the Lord and serving him then your work is done in vain.

　
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven“. - Matthew 6:1

I pray daily that I can be a open vessel for Christ to dwell in me. I don’t want to do anything out of selfish ambition. I want to be the hands and feet of our Lord and others to see him working in me. I lay myself aside. So, it doesn’t matter if I’m washing dishes, doing laundry, taking out the trash or even sweeping up lost cheerios. I WILL do it with a joyful heart knowing that even the most simple of things that I AM serving the most high.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others“. -Philippians 2:1-11

Will you join me in serving today?