***Ad disclosure: This post contains links to Crystal Paine e-courses. I do earn a profit when you sign up for these courses.*** I can be a serious stress ball. If there’s a problem, it’s a “crisis.” When things go wrong, I feel like it’s all my fault. Self-chastisement is my specialty. Getting the kids off to school in the morning is my #1 flip-out trigger. If you don’t believe that I am capable of total lunacy, you have clearly not […]
» Read more
***This post does contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, April receives advertising fees.*** As we speak, Joshua and Caleb are playing basketball in the driveway while John David and Daniel are rolling around on the trampoline together. Alan is eating supper, and I am updating my blog for the first time in a week. Slacker. I’ve been working on photo albums through Snapfish lately. Y’all, photo books are 70% off this month (March), so I am making […]
» Read more
Sometimes I choose involuntary titles to read to my children. As in, I pick the book, and they have to listen. I have four boys, and with their personalities this is necessary if I ever want them to read a single classic novel. It worked well for the Little House series and Old Yeller, so why not Tom Sawyer? I do have the unabridged version of Tom Sawyer, which is on an 8th grade reading level and is chock full […]
» Read more
Failure stings when it’s something that means the world to you. It stings like getting stung by a HIVE OF BEES or 50 fire ants.
I set out to home school those two years with two objectives:
» Read moreI can see why Bible journaling is so popular right now. You can express yourself, learn scriptures, and create a visual in your mind that helps you learn your Bible better, all through Bible journaling. It’s definitely something worth trying out.
» Read moreWow! What an election year, eh? Alan got to be in Washington, D.C. for election night, but it was not just me and the boys here. Nana came over too! We had an “election party”, which is basically where we feed the boys Oreos and let them fill out the electoral map with red and blue markers as the results come in. Of course, most of it had to wait until the morning. I always stay up as late as […]
» Read more
John David is 3 years old, but he already knows that Christmas equals presents. He is also fully in love with Santa Clause, aka the King of Christmas. And in all fairness, who wouldn’t love a man who shows up once a year just to give you all the things you wanted???? Sign me up for that! So you might be wondering why I’m talking about Christmas in October, but the thing is that if you are planning a children’s […]
» Read more
I have been focusing my Bible reading on joy this past month. See, I have every reason to have joy, but I also have just enough daily life aggravations to sometimes forget to experience joy. And that left me wondering, “People are always saying to choose joy. How do you do that? Is it a choice?” Sometimes it is a choice, and you can focus your mind in such a way, and pray, and be doing right things so that […]
» Read moreI’ve been reading this book. It looks like this: Why Cope When You Can Conquer? It’s an encouraging book. It asks an annoyingly high volume of questions. I never did enjoy answering questions. See, it’s a Bible study guide, but it’s not one of these where you have to watch a video or attend a class to go with it. You can totally just read the guide on your own. (But I did warn you about the questions.) Don’t worry. […]
» Read moreDid you make goals for 2016? Or “New Year’s Resolutions?” We’re over 3 months in now. How are you coming on those? I remember vividly saying something like, “I’d like to get rid of my hip pain. That’s my goal.” That was it. Even when I said it, I had mixed feelings about having such a simple, dull, and yet seemingly unachievable little goal. So I went to doctor appointment after doctor appointment. I surely took every blood test ever […]
» Read more
