Christmas Angels

We just finished up making bags for sixteen local Angel Tree children, the most our mission has ever done.  We use donations from local people and look for toys and clothes when they are 75% off so we can buy for as many kids as possible.  I am always one of the first to the Angel Tree to make sure I can get kids with the sizes of clothing I have.  All my girls helped out. ...

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Easy Way to Learn Ten Commandments

  When I wanted to teach the children at our mission the ten commandments, I looked high and low for an easy way to do it.  Most of the kids we worked with were unchurched, and I needed to make it relevant and fun for them to learn.  I stumbled across a way to remember the commandments with the number, and then I tweaked it for my own use.  Definitely go over the traditional...

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Activated Charcoal: Cure for the Stomach Flu

You may be thinking,"There is no cure for the stomach flu!"  Ah, that's what I used to think, but now I use activated charcoal.  When anybody in the family's stomach starts to feel not quite right, they ask for black yogurt.  Sounds lovely, doesn't it?  I just mix a heaping tablespoon of activated charcoal into a serving of the probiotic yogurt and they eat it up. ...

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Free Homeschool Curriculum

Have you ever searched for free homeschool curriculum online after the kids have gone to bed, hoping for a miracle.  Well, I have and a couple of years ago I found Easy Peasy Homeschool.  This website is a godsend for families who need curriculum for several different grades and have little money to spend.  Of course it is great for everyone else too.  Elective subjects include...

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Enjoying the Holidays

Christmas will be upon us soon.  We always decorate our tree and get out the manger scenes after Halloween at our house.  Yes, I'm aware that the appropriate time to do this is after Thanksgiving, but we are homeschoolers, and we don't follow the rules. We put out our decorations early so we can soak up the light and joy of the holiday for as long as we can.  Sometimes the holidays...

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Modern Courting Guidelines

    I have two teenage daughters.  Many people have warned about how terrible these years would be, but my girls have brought me nothing but joy.  With most of the discipline out of the way, they are my best friends.  Since they were little I have told them about courting, and we all decided it would be a better choice than dating.  I was honest with them about...

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Best High School Homeschool Website

http://www.shmoop.com/   Have you ever Shmooped?  You may be asking if this is a new dance move or something, but no, Shmoop is a website that offers some wonderful things for high school homeschoolers.  Kids can prepare for the SAT for free or pay $30 for an awesome yearly membership to a SAT program that pre-tests , post-tests, and gives them exactly the review they need.  The best thing is it makes everything very amusing and fun. We also love to watch the short Schmoop...

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A Sacred Sabbath

  When you work in the ministry, your Sabbath is not really a time of rest.  It is more a time of exhaustion.  My Sunday starts early with cooking.  When you serve around 40 people lunch every day, you better start cooking early.  I normally cook chili, spaghetti, soup, or hot dogs; anything I can put into my giant crockpot.  My husband, Billy, leaves the...

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Life Lessons

  My stepmom, Liz, married my dad when I was pretty young so she was just like a second mom to me.  She fought against cancer for many years and finally lost her battle.  She taught me many important lessons while she was alive, but I’ll just share the one that means the most to me.  She enjoyed each moment she had and truly focused on the people around her.   She...

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Halloween Candy Deals

Happy Halloween!  At midnight tonight I will be involved in a very scary activity.  I will be at the Wal-Mart purchasing Halloween candy for half price with my Mom and Grandma.  All year long at our mission, we give kids a piece of candy for each Bible verse they can recite before the service starts.  It's amazing how much kids will learn for candy.  I figure the good...

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Best Laundry Detergent Recipe

I have experimented for years with making my own laundry soap.   I started making it because my youngest, Amy Grace, has eczema and regular detergents were causing her to itch and break out.   I started out making the liquid kind, but I got tired of the boiling and stirring jello-like detergent.   Now I make the dry kind.  It is much easier to make, store, and pour.  It...

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Teaching Good Character

Need some ideas for teaching character traits to your young ones?  If you're like me, you might be noticing that your little ones have trouble obeying or sharing at times.  I started thinking about why I home school and realized that the biggest reason is to raise Godly children who will grow into adults others want to be around.   Yet many times, those ideals get lost in the shuffle...

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Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

This is the recipe for one of my family's favorite soups.  I also quadruple the recipe and serve it to people at the mission in a giant crock pot.  I don't think I've ever had anyone say they didn't like it, and that is something when you're dealing with kids.  Enjoy this comfort food on a cool autumn night. 2-12.5 oz. cans of Chicken 5- 10.5 oz cans of Cream of Chicken Soup 1 or 2...

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Meet Marmee

Hello, I’m Marmee.   My whole family adores Little House on the Prairie and Little Women.  We love the books, the movie, the television series; we love it all.  Since we also have four daughters like the families in these books, I thought it would be fitting to name this blog “Little Women on the Prairie.”  In the past I have taught middle school language arts in a public...

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