Following the Lord's Path

Everything I have known for the last six years, four months, one week and three days changed this past Tuesday. I feel like I have become a traitor. I've deserted the path of  life I've known for so long and always wanted to have.

I know that this new path is the Lord's will. He has opened door after door and I have willingly followed. I have no doubts, only curiosity about what else He has in store.

I'm very thankful to have been able to be a stay at home mom for so long to our children. I am very thankful to have a husband who shared my passion for me to be home. He has worked long, hard hours everyday as well as through many deployments to make sure that I can be home and that we have everything we need. Notice I didn't say want. Living on one income has been tough at times. I'm not sure why the Lord has blessed us with the things we have. I have an ideal that it has to do with being faithful stewards with our money and continually giving of ourselves, our time and our money.

My first, before having children, passion was teaching music in the school system. Now as I reenter the workforce I get to do that again. I taught music and chorus for seven years before staying home. As my youngest enters kindergarten, I knew that I wanted to go back to work. I am very thankful for having the opportunity that is set before me this school year. A different school system and a new school for my children. New opportunities for them that they wouldn't have in our previous system, add to the excitement.

Expectations are high for me to succeed, not only mine but those of my administration and the high school choral director. It's nice to have a position where the success of your students is really appreciated and everyone wants to help you succeed. Not to mention all the technology, student keyboards and computer workstations, smart boards, elmo's, overhead projectors. Let's just say I felt like I was in music teacher heaven when I first walked in to my classroom Tuesday.

For many moms, working is their only choice and I have a very high respect for them. I have done both, worked with two kids while pregnant with the third and stay at home. I'm not sure how we are going to make it work, leaving so early for school, pick ups, working late, meetings all the things that come with working. But the Lord will take care of it. It was tough being home, it's going to be tough working.

I won't even go into the guilt that I originally felt about uprooting Mollie and not helping in her class since I did the oldest three. But I know it's best for her. I'm glad the Lord has turned my yellow brick road a different direction. I can't wait till tomorrow when I get to meet my middle schoolers at both of my schools. 

The Lord works in awesome ways. What are some ways He is working in your life today?

GiveAways on Frugalissa Finds

If you haven't checked out local blogger Frugalissa Finds you need to do so today. She has several giveaways running through next week. Not only will you find these awesome giveaways, but also great deals at local stores among just a few of the cool things on her blog. Just click on the link above and find all the contest and great deals!!

My summer of book reviews #1

       This summer I have completed a graduate level course in which I learned about using books in the classroom. During this class I read 21 Caldecott and Newbery Award books. Over the next few weeks I’m going to share those books with you. 

Our family loves to read and I have found several new books that are our new favorites. Today I want to share Sector 7 by David Weisner. Sector 7 was written in 1999, is a picture book and therefore was a Caldecott Honor book for the year of 2000. 

Since I wrote book reports on each of the books I read I’m going to leave them in semi-book report form for the most part. 

Synopsis: This book has no words to tell the story. A little boy takes a field trip to the Empire State building. At the top in the observatory he realizes how cloudy it is. His scarf and hat are blown off. He turns to see them on a smiling cloud. The cloud takes him to the “Cloud Dispatch Center” Sector 7. The clouds give him a tour of how they are made, where they receive their assignments, the design area, the whole sector. The clouds are bored with the same old clouds. The little boy draws them as stars, fish and other fun designs. Then the other humans there discover him and he is sent back on a taxi cloud; while the cloud he arrived on is led away to be punished. As he and the other students return to school they notice all the shaped clouds; clouds the little boy had designed and how were now happy. 

Illustrations: The illustrations for this book where done in watercolor. They are very exquisite. The pictures indeed tell the story. The reader is drawn into the book through the emotions of the boy and the cloud. The details of every picture are so perfect. One would feel like they are in “Sector 7” also. Words can’t describe how excited I felt looking at this book, I couldn’t wait to share it with my husband and kids. This book makes me wonder if there really is a “Sector 7” in the sky turning out clouds every day.

     This book would be a great asset in the classroom or homeschool science class in teaching about the different kinds of clouds. It would help to pull students in and get them excited about learning about clouds.

Cars 2 Review

Today, the kids and I took my parents to see Cars 2. We had given Papaw handmade tickets for this movie for Father's Day so we were making good on our IOU. Let me say, we woke Papaw twice in the first 15 minutes of the movie. Of course, bless his heart, he had eaten a tub of popcorn during the 20 minutes that we sat in the theater waiting on the movie to start, so a nap was imminent.

We didn't see it in 3D, although I don't think it would make a difference. The beginning is slow, so slow that I was thinking the entire time of how much money I had wasted compared to if we had just waited and bought it on DVD. I must say, however, after the action started I was pleasantly surprised.

It's nothing like the first movie, so lower your expectations before you go. But if you like suspense, drama, and spies you should enjoy this one. I don't want to give away too much about the plot. Mater is the primary actor in this movie and there are several new cars. There is a lot of action, some of which could be scary for the younger crowd.

It does have two good morals. One, no matter what people say or think about you, what you do and think is more important. You can always do good for others, even if they don't think so. Moral two is that the dents of friendship are more important than being perfect.

The kids talked about how good it was and were glad we had went to see it. I had high expectations for it to be as awesome as the first so I was a little disappointed.

Would I watch it again? Not at the theater. Will I buy the DVD? Of course, cause the kids liked it. Would I recommend you run to the theater and see it? Only if you go during the $5.00 matinee time.

Disclaimer:
This is my personal opinion. I was not given any kind of payment for my review. Actually I paid quite a bit to be able give my personal review.  :)

Titanic comes to life

On June 11th our family had the privilege of visiting the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee as part of the Mommy Bloggers group. Never having been to the Titanic the kids were more than a little excited about our trip. Although I had to repeatedly tell Michael, who is six,  we weren't sailing anywhere and we didn't need water for our trip, he still wasn't convinced. Our tour began with the 9:00 AM boarding. We were each given a boarding pass of a passenger that was on the actual Titanic. The boarding pass gave the passengers name, their class status, age and city of residence. Also on the boarding pass is a short story of the person it represents, telling who they were and why they were on the Titanic. The pass also includes a question, such as "Would there be a lifeboat for me?"

After receiving our boarding pass another member of the crew gave us each a listening device that we would use for the new audio tour. Our group was then ushered into the front room where we found out how our listening devices worked. The kids were so excited when we started through the museum. There are two different audio tours you can listen to. There is one for adults and one for children. On the wall there are plaques with numbers on them, blue for adults and red for children. You type in the number and press play. All four of our children loved being able to listen as they wanted to their own "story." Mollie, who is four, let me know real quick she knew what she was doing and needed NO help in punching in her numbers. As you listen to the adult tour you hear the voices of actual survivors of the Titanic as well as First Class Maid Jaynee. I listened to both tours in some areas and only to the kids in others. The biggest reason being that I wanted to be able to talk to the kids about what they were hearing.

As we moved from the first room into the second, there is a large map on the wall. The map showed the route the Titanic took. As we stepped up to the interactive panel in front of the map, Mary Kellogg, who along with her husband John Joslyn, (who led the 1986 expedition to the real Titanic), told how the Titanic left port and its future demise. She shared with our family her husband's desire to never let the Titanic, her passengers and their stories disappear. Her passion for this attraction was very evident in her telling of the Titanic. Personally it was my favorite part of the tour, to hear her passion and know that she is part of this important documentary of history.

We moved throughout the Titanic first seeing how Third Class passengers lived on the boat, visiting the dog kennel, shoveling coal into the furnace and ultimately standing at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.
We ascended the Grand Staircase after a visit with a crew member who told us about the materials used in building the staircase. On the next level we got to see the difference in Third Class living and First Class as we visited and learned of the wealthier passengers on the trip. We learned about three more of the passengers on our boarding passes.

A First Class Maid led Michael to a display to see the grossest thing on the ship. I locket of hair and beard. I can't remember the passengers name but he had cut it and mailed it to his wife. Michael thought it odd, but was more impressed with the maid's British accent, trying to decide if she really talked like that even when she wasn't on the Titanic.

Continuing on we steered the Titanic, touched an iceberg, felt the 28 degree water just like the passengers did that fateful night, sent SOS messages, climbed the deck at differing degrees of sinking and sat in a life size lifeboat. The kids played in the children's area and then we had our pictures made together.

We began to make our way to the end of our tour as we found the names on our boarding passes. Each of our passengers had survived the sinking. We saw pictures that were truly amazing and unbelievable. A room dedicated to the expedition to the Titanic tells of Mr. Joslyn's journey to the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean.

We turned in our audio tour devices and descended the Grand Staircase to make a visit to the gift shop. We purchased a thimble to remember our trip. Our nine year old, Mattie has talked about visiting the Titanic since it was being built. She was very pleased with her "awesome" tour and wanted to go back through. Maggie, our seven year old loved the dog kennel and trying to find Mademoiselle Frou Frou.
Michael was impressed that we had docked in the same exact spot the ship was in outside when we entered. Mollie liked the TotTitanic the best. Mike and I were very impressed with such detail and passion that has went into this museum. We are very thankful to have been able to be a part of this tour and see first hand what the Titanic was all about.

Someone asked me at church what I really thought of the Titanic. It is awesome, everyone should try to visit it at least once. Would I recommend it for small children under four, it depends. Mollie will be five next month and two hours was a little long for her, although the Tot-Titanic couldn't have come at a better point in the tour. If your child is four or younger it would depend on their attention span, but I would probably wait until they were a little older. I wish that I had remembered to print the scavenger hunt from the website before we went, mine would have loved to work on that. The website also has educational things on it and I should have done a little "teaching" before we went. It would have helped with all their questions, but we were able to talk and research more when we returned home. Mike who is a history buff researched about the sister ships of the Titanic and Mattie enjoyed sharing in another bit of history with her Daddy.

With that being said, go visit the Titanic, check out Titanic Museum online, friend them on Facebook at Titanic Museum Pigeon Forge, TN and follow them on Twitter at Titanic USA.

Disclaimer: Opinions in this blog are entirely mine. We received free admission to the Titanic as part of the mommy bloggers invite. Pictures found in this blog are from the Titanic Museum website as pictures are prohibited inside the museum.

Mom's giant, rolling purse, the vehicle, gets organized

Mom, does your vehicle look like a giant purse? Take a few minutes this week and the following ideas and turn your giant, rolling purse into an organized vehicle of transportation for you and your family. This project requires a trash can, two baskets for returning items to their homes in the house or vehicle, a laundry basket works well, storage totes, a vacuum cleaner, wipes, window cleaner and car wash supplies or money for someone else to clean it inside and out and your children.

Start by taking everything out of the vehicle, younger children love to clean out the car, older kids may need a nudge. Place all items in either the trash or the baskets. Once everything is out of the vehicle you have two choices, if you have money in your budget for a trip to the car detail and wash shop go now. No money in the budget allows for more fun at home, wipe down all leather, vinyl and plastic parts inside, clean the windows inside and vacuum out the vehicle. Don't forget to clean the cup holders and compartments where the kids stash their candy, gum, crayons and lipgloss. Removing the seats will allow you to reach those nooks and crannies where the cheerios and change are collecting.

Now move onto the baskets, place the basket of items that go elsewhere in the house to be emptied later. The basket you have left needs to be sorted. The ages of your children and your families activities will help determine what items to keep in the vehicle. Sort the items that were found in the vehicle by activity or need, than make a list of items you need to retrieve from the house or need to purchase.

Once you have determined the items you need in your vehicle, what will contain them? Check the house for baskets or totes that you can use, if you must make a purchase decide what will be in the tote before purchasing in order to purchase the correct size. As with any organizing project your needs, wants and budget will make the final decision in what will stay in your vehicle.

Here is a list of supplies that you may need or want to keep in your vehicle. The list isn't comprehensive it only serves to get you started.

Everyday use items:

1. first aid kit
2. vomit bag
3. trash can with extra bags
4. jumper cables
5. reusable grocery bags
6. change of clothes for each child and mom
7. sunglasses and hats
8. extra diapers/pull ups if you have small children
9. diaper wipes for spills and dirty faces or hands
10. activity kit or goody bag for each child
11. straws or sippy cups
12. sunscreen
13. hand sanitizer

Summer items for unplanned fun stops:

1. picnic supplies: tablecloth, paper towels, forks, cups
2. flip flops or water shoes
3. laundry bag with outdoor toys: baseball items, frisbees, 

Winter items for breakdowns or weird weather:

1. coats
2. blankets
3. scarves and mittens

Remember proof of insurance, car registration papers and the vehicle owner's manual should always be kept up front in the glove box or other compartment where you can quickly access it.

After the inside is finished the outside needs to be washed if it wasn't earlier. Take it to the car wash or pull out the water hose and have fun with the kids in the driveway. Then enjoy a picnic at the park.

To keep your giant, rolling purse organized remove any trash and unwanted items at the end of each day's trip and clean your vehicle inside and out once a month.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Mom’s giant, rolling purse, the vehicle, gets organized - Knoxville Stay-at-Home Moms | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/stay-at-home-moms-in-knoxville/mom-s-giant-rolling-purse-the-vehicle-gets-organized#ixzz1NmObDkiT

Who Inspires You?

We all have those people, besides our parents, in our lives who have really helped us become who we are. When I was in high school my piano teacher encouraged me to teach piano to younger children in my home. I did and loved it! From that experience I knew I wanted to be a music teacher. Because of the love and support of Ms. Omega I majored in Music Education in college and taught public school music for seven years before becoming a stay at home mom. I continue to teach piano to several students and enjoy hearing and seeing their excitement as they succeed one song after another.

As my youngest looks forward to starting kindergarten in the fall, I see another chapter of my life opening up, thanks to my children's kindergarten teachers.  My oldest two girls had the same kindergarten teacher, Mrs. McAvoy and my son has had her teaching buddy, Mrs. Duckett this year.

Over the three years that we have been in kindergarten I've come to realize that I will eat my words. I remember my very first day of teaching music. I had three kindergarten classes back to back and I told myself there is NO way I will ever teach kindergarten. Fast forward thirteen years, I'm chewing on those words right now. After teaching kindergarten through eighth grade music, staying home with my children and volunteering in the classrooms of those beloved kindergarten teachers mentioned above, I am proud to announce that I will be adding my K-6 elementary education endorsement starting this summer and praying for a kindergarten position. Although I know it won't be at the same school with these ladies cause that means one of them would have to quit.

I can honestly say both of these ladies have greatly influenced the last four years of my life. Watching as they involve themselves in the lives of each child in their classroom, working with parents, teaching the basics of kindergarten as well as life skills, these ladies can do it all. They have allowed me to step into their lives and considered me a friend, we've shared laughter and tears. We've comforted each other in time of pain and sorrow. We've chopped apples, dressed like pilgrims, dyed Easter eggs, panicked over emergency phone calls from parents, sang silly songs and they've taught me to bite my lip.

As summer break approaches I will miss my Wednesday fun of working in Mrs. Duckett's class with her and her extra special children and spending time with Mrs. McAvoy and her class when they team up for activities. As much as I don't want my youngest to start kindergarten in the fall, I also can't wait to get back into those kindergarten classrooms to learn more from those amazing teachers. I know that all of the kindergarten teachers at our school are as amazing as these two ladies it's just that I've spent more time with these, so please don't think any different.

So as I start the next journey in my life's book, I am thankful for teachers who not only take my children under their wings but also me. Who are willing to be "real" and themselves in the classroom just like they are in their own homes. Who inspire, encourage and believe in all from the youngest to the oldest (me) students in their classes. Thanks ladies for changing the lives of not only the students that you teach but this mother also. As the book by Robert Fulghum says All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.




Has someone inspired you to make a life change? Leave me a comment below and you will be entered to win a copy of the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Contest ends Friday, May 27, 2011.

Disclaimer:
I have not been paid for citing this book. The book being given away was purchased with my own money.

I have barely touched the ways these ladies have inspired me, writing it all down could be a book.

My girls have had wonderful teachers every year, I've just spent more time in the classroom with these.

One lucky winner will be drawn. Good luck!!!