Thanksliving

Recently our pastor has been preaching a series on living a life of thankfulness. The first Sunday in November he challenged us to make a list of 25 things we were thankful for. I have to admit this has been hard for me. I know I have a lot to be thankful for. But my family is going through a very difficult season and it's effecting my attitude about being thankful.

Our pastor's series is no coincidence. I need to adjust my attitude. No matter the situation I have a lot to be thankful for. I need to remember being thankful is something I should express everyday not just the 4th Thursday in November. Since i never did here's my list.

25 things I'm thankful for: 

1. My savior, He paid the price of sin so I wouldn't have to.

2. Freedom to practice my faith without fear of persecution.

3. My amazing husband. He works his fingers to the bone to provide for his family. More than anything he loves me unconditionally and he has a true heart for God.

3. My children. These 3 treasures have taught me so much about life in their short lives. 

4. My new church family.
5. Loving friends. I have been blessed to have a couple wonderful friends. They are always there when I need them.
6. My homeschool group. Homeschooling is not easy but a wonderful group to share the journey with helps.
7. A nice warm bed.
8. Food to feed my family.
9. Clothes.
10. Warm coats on cold winter days.
11. Our wood stove. My diligent husband cuts wood every winter so we can utilize wonderful free heat.
12. My van. While not brand new it takes our family where we need to go!
13. Technology!  It makes homeschooling, running a family, keeping in touch and more a breeze.
14. My mother . My mother passed away 11 years ago but the things she instilled in me are forever part of me.
15. My dad. He has always shown a great example of hard work and perseverance. He continues to be a great source of comfort and advice for me.
16. Washer and dryer (or in my case mostly a clothes line) . I am thankful for modern washing machines. I can't imagine scrubbing Michael's work clothes on a wash board. I mostly use a clothes line but I am thankful for a dryer in the cold winter months.
17. Refrigerators!
18. Freedom!
19. My siblings. While we don't alway see eye to eye is am thankful my parents gave me siblings.
20. My inlaws. I am thankful for lots of family who love and support us.
21. My stepmom. She is good for my dad! And our family!
22. My stepsister. It's been such fun getting to have a bonus sister!
23. My nieces and nephews. I am so thankful my kids have cousins!
24. Michael's new job.
25.I am thankful God continues to be faithful and work in our lives.

I really thought I was going to have a hard time coming up with 25 but once I started it was hard time stop....
26. My health.
27. Electricity
28. Running water...clean running water.

I have so much to be thankful for! What about you? 

Happy Birthday Jesse-Grace

I almost can't believe it. Our "baby girl" is turning 14! It's crazy just how fast 14 years can go by. I remember people telling us to savor the moments, not take time for granted, and to cherish even the "hard stuff'. They were right. We have officially had more time with our girl than we have left with her. I thought I'd share 14 things about Jesse and 14 of my favorite pics of her in celebrate. So with out further ado....

1. You are an amazing sister. You love your brothers not matter how crazy they make you. 

2. You have found a sport you love and are good at. You have shown great dedication to your sport and it has paid off. 

3. You are beautiful. Never doubt it!

4. You love Jesus. This is one of the best things about you. Your faith will get you through a lot cling to it. 

5. You are super creative. 

6. You have a servants heart. Your kind beyond your years. 

7. You love to learn about neat places. I hope you get to travel to all the places you love reading about. 

8. You rock at being a cousin!

9. You are not afraid of an adventure. 

10. You are compassionate with a heart to give. 

11. You are a good friend. 

12. You made us parents and with you we started a family. Thanks by the way ;)

13. You're crazy sassy. It is one of the things we love about you. 

14. You might have entered this world small but you have always been a fierce force to be reckoned with. I know as you grown into an adult this will be a wonderful trait! I know you'll learn to use it for lots of good.

Never forgotten 9-11-2001

My children aren't old enough to remember the events of 9-11, so we decided to spend some time learning about it on the anniversary. I will never forget the events of that day, the way our nation was gripped with fear, and I will  never forget how was all rose hand in hand to support each other in the days following. I know this is a tragedy that had a huge impact on our nation and  I wanted my children to understand that.

I thought it would be nice to share the tools we used. First I found these awesome notebook pages. We journal once a week at our house and the anniversary just so happened to fall on journal day. I printed a couple pages and pasted them inside the big kids journals.

We also read great articles from Scholastic News. These were great because all their content was kid friendly and didn't contain anything they couldn't handle emotionally. Scholastic is a fantastic resource. 

Lastly we watched some wonderful videos using one of my favorite internet resources...Youtube. (To make sure all our "searches" are safe on this site I do all the searching and try to preview what we are going to watch.) I found the first video by searching "what happened on 9-11 for kids. The second was shared by a friend on facebook.  

Both videos were wonderful resources in helping Jesse and Duece understand what happened on that day 13 years ago. I know they were moved by what happened to the people who lost their lives. I also know they were in awe of how people bonded together to help their neighbor. 

We ended by writing about what we learned about this day in history and about how it makes us feel. 

I hope the lessons we had today help the kids better understand the tragedy and the impact it had on our nation. I also wanted them to understand that their freedom is and was never free. I hope they have found a new respect for the country they call home. 

Grocery Budget

I don't even know where to begin. I can't tell you the last time I actually had control of my grocery budget. For months now it has been spiraling out of control. My lack of planning, willingness to prep and rising cost have driven us to spend more on groceries than we have in a long time. I use to be very disciplined in this area. I guess I let it go. After a long look at our budget and our money going out I realized I needed to gain control. Groceries (and incidentals which I include) just so happen to be one bleeding area I can fix. So that is where I found myself this week. Ready to take back control. I had a tried and true working method so I just went right back to it. I thought I would share since I have had so many people ask how I do it. 

Step one: Gather weekly sales adds for area stores. In my case that would be Foodland, Piggly Wiggly and Aldi. You have to decide if you are going to go to all the different stores or price match at Wal-Mart. This time I price matched. 

Step two: Once I know what is on sale I make a menu. I base my menu on 2 things what is on sale and what we already have on hand. In this case ground chuck was on sale and we had chicken on hand. I also work in one meatless meal every week (sometimes two).

Excuse my winter themed printable. It was all I had handy. You'll notice based off of the dates that my menu runs Friday to Thursday. This is because I try to shop on Thursdays.

Step three: I make my shopping list. I only add the things we will need for the meals planned plus snack options, any  lunch items hubby needs for packing his, non-food items we need, pet needs and any staple we are running low on. If I am going to price match after I list the items I write the lowest price next to the item. This makes check out run a little faster. As I shop I underline the things instead of crossing them off. I do this so I can still read it when I get to check out ;) 

You'll notice a couple places where I scribbled out the "lowest price" that is because Wal-Mart ended up having the lowest price on this item. Price matching saves me having to run to the 3 other stores. 

Step four: Shopping. At check out as the cashier rings up my items if I have a price match I tell her and she takes care of it. It really is that easy. I take the store ad or can always pull it up on my phone if she has a question.

My shopping buddy.

When I was trying to come up with a realistic budget for groceries. I had to think about what we can afford and how much things cost. I finally settled on $125-$150 a week. I am realistic. I know there will be weeks when I go over but I would really like to stay around the $125-$130 mark. However this week I was trying to stay around $104 (We already spent a little of said grocery money on dinner Thursday night and Michael's lunch items.)

This week my haul included:

bananas

1 20 oz soda (treat for the hubby)

Cheeze-It

Hair and beauty products

taco seasoning

tomato sauce

jalapeno (fresh)

brown rice

green chilies

flour

lunchables

a variety of canned beans and tomatoes

sugar

cornmeal

1 bag of candy corn (treat for kids)

bag of onions

apples

red grapes

blue berries

pizza yeast

loaf bread

potatoes 

frozen broccoli

chips

refried beans

corn and flour tortillas

salsa

5 lbs of hamburger meat ( I do not normally buy meat at this store but since it was fresh and being cooked right away I did this time)

canned corn

soups

shredded cheese

olives

bbq sauce

paper plates (for our upcoming camping trip)

freezer bags

frozen pizza

My total was $101.52. This includes 6 dinners, lunches, and snacks. 

I was pretty proud of myself. Several of the things I bought will last a while like the flour, sugar, cornmeal and tortillas. Of course there were things I didn't have to buy like cereal and we actually eat about 1 box a month. I also didn't have to purchase milk or eggs. We already had milk in the freezer since we don't use a lot. We never buy eggs since we have chickens who give us anywhere from 2-4 a day. 

5 Ways We Homeschool On A Budget

If you have known me any amount of time you know I am straight shooter. I don't sugar coat anything. So I can't lie when people ask me if homeschooling is expensive. My first answer would be yes then I would say but...there are lots of ways to keep it in check. I wouldn't want anyone to shy away from homeschooling out of fear it was going to break the bank. Today I am going to share 5 ways our family saves money on supplies/curriculum then I am going to link you up! That leads me to number 1....

1. Internet! If you have internet (and a printer see number 2) you have unlimited access to many free or low cost educational tools. 

2. Printer! Plain and simple. If you have a printer the possibilities are endless. If there was one thing I would say every homeschooler needs I would say make sure you have a printer!

3. Buy used and/or borrow! You never know what your friends are holding onto for a younger child that they might be willing to loan you during the time their family isn't going to be able to use it. I lucked up our first year and someone loaned me our science, then the next year someone loaned me a math, and this year someone loaned us pre-algebra. Also, buy used. There are tons of sites and facebook groups out there that cater just to this. I can not begin to tell you all the wonderful deals I have gotten buying used. The best place to start when buying used would be to ask your friends. 

4. Library! Several of the curriculum choices I made included lots of "readers" and living books. These can be expensive. But most of the time your local library will have the titles. If they don't ask about inter-library exchange. At my library all you had to do was pay the return shipping and they would help you find books and borrow from their "sister" libraries. 

5. Pinterest! I love pintrest for school. It has endless possibilities. If you are homeschooling "little's" I would go out on a limb and say you could mostly school for free using resources you find on pinterest. (Just remember to have that printer ;) )

Homeschooling doesn't have to cost a lot to be done right. Today we have resources at our finger tips thanks to the world wide web. Take advantage of it.  For me this is the number 1 way we save money on homeschooling so I have put together a huge link list for those of you who are just getting your feet wet. (Click on the blue words to follow the links.)

The biggest list of freebies for homeschoolers. This has to be my favorite list of freebies. Plus I love her blog and pinterest boards.

Be sure to check out the Affording The Homeschool Lifestyle fb page.

Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool all inclusive curriculum wrote for homeschoolers by a homeschooling mom.

Homeschool for free resource lists here and here

Free typing lessons 

There are also tons of resources on pinterest. You can take a look at my homeschool related boards.
Teaching Tools, Season Teaching and Cooper School

Five Points Academy

This year we decided to name our home school. I know in a lot of states each family is asked to do this for reporting purposes. But, here in Alabama that is not a requirement. Actually we home school under a cover school so technically you operate under that school name. It was after picking our theme verse and sharing it on facebook that a friend shared the idea for our school name. I thought that it would be super fun to name our school. You know so when people ask where we go to school we can have a quick answer.

This is the verse we picked to be our theme or the year....
1 Timothy 4:12
Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
The verse covers 5 points that we should exhibit to be a good example: speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. So that is how we became "Five Points Academy". Our goal is to cover each of the points this year and with any luck "master" those so we can be a good example to the world.

I think we are going to make a couple different posters for our school room with our school name and each of the points on it. The kids love the idea of having a school name and even suggested we get some t-shirts made (or have mom who sews whip us up some ;) ). Since I love when family can keep up with what we have going on in the classroom and around our home I even created a instagram hashtag #fivepointsacademyhomeschool.

I really can't wait to see what all we discover this year at "Five Points Academy". One thing is for sure. It will never be short on excitement, learning and fun. Praying blessings on not only our school year but on all students both home school and other wise as they embark on this year.

First Day Of School 2014-2015

Yesterday was our official first day of school for the 2014-2015 school year. We are so excited about our 4th year homeschooling. It has been such an amazing journey and we are so blessed God called us to this. Of course we were extra laid back but who can have a first day of school without snapping a couple pics.
I am hoping to finish pulling together our school room and get some pictures up. Also I can't wait to share our school name and verse for the year.

First Day Of School At "Five Points Academy"

Everyone around the school table working on a new "about me" poster. We do this every first day of school it is neat to see how much they change from year to year. 

Cooper is so excited to be joining us! I am kind of nervous about homeschooling a kindergartner since the other two went to public school in K but I know God gives me all the grace I need to make it work.

It is hard to believe Jesse will be in the 8th grade. It honestly seems like just yesterday I was snapping her first day of K picture. 

Duece was kind of the "reason" we started homeschooling. He was in the 2nd grade the year we started. WOW. A lot has changed since those first days but it has all been for the good. 

This is our attempt at a "nice" group photo....

This however is reality...

This neat bell is in our yard. The kids said it could be our school bell like on Little House On The Prairie so I can call them back in after breaks!

Let's Try This Again

Well, I find myself here again. After messing with my old blog and trying to gain access to it for longer than you can imagine. I gave up and just started all over again. If you use to follow us over at the original McClendon Madness you'll know I've been on a blog vacation for the last 2 years. No real reason just life got busy and I let it go. Fast forward. We are now getting ready to embark on our 4th year of homeschooling and I thought I'd like to share my ideas, finds, and things we do in our classroom with others. The best way to share those things is through a blog. I'd like to say "school" is all we'll cover here but I know better. Stay tuned, visit often, you never know what you'll find.

Blessing
Hollie