Mother4Jesus

Today Sarah and I are leaving for a mission trip with our church family.  Click Here if you'd like to learn about our Church, Calvary Chapel in Clayton , NC.  I love my church family. Nothing but real people, real sinners, learning how to love the Lord and serve Him daily.   While some mission trips are nothing more than vacations, this one won't be. Sleeping on the floor, etc. I'm looking forward to this time with Sarah, but NOT sleeping on the floor. My back isn't going to like it. We're not perfect. Far from it, but I love being able to do this with her. Getting back to the reality of how blessed we are.  We take so much for granted here in America. We're blessed and live in a country where our standard of living is much higher than the others. This trip is also about growing in His love. As much as we serve others, we really learn so much more in this.  I love this time of the year. I enjoy making holiday printables. Many of ...

I think my title is a bit dramatic, but that's how I feel.  For years, Nay...Decades, I've used paper planners. I couldn't find the perfect planner, so I started to create my own planner pages. Times change and my children's needs change, thus changing my own needs. My needs for the type of planner changed. They continue to change, sometimes from day-to-day.  I didn't want lists all over the house, or apps all over my Ipad. I decided to try digital planning. I have Onenote and thought it would be a good idea. The only problem is setting up a planner, one that I liked, was worse than organizing underwear!! It took too much time and with children and all I had to  do, it wasn't something that I could stay focused on. I do have trouble focusing on things to begin with.  Simplicity is one thing that helps my ADD. If it's simple, I can continue to follow through. This includes how I decorate and organize my home and also my planner.  When y...

Fall has finally arrived here in NC. Fall weather means cool mornings, cool evenings and open windows!  This is my happy place.  Moving from NY to NC was such a blessing but getting used to the warmer weather has proven to be harder than I thought it would be. My third year here and I'm feeling more acclimated to NC weather.  That doesn't mean I don't look forward to the cooler weather!!  To celebrate I created 12 Notebook covers or planner dividers. You can use these any way you want. Click Here to Download   These are all free to download. I have them as a PNG file. You can resize them to any size planner you use.  Why can I share these for free??  I got all these awesome graphics for free from Chantahlia Design.   Janelle creates these and offers them for free on her site. What a generous person. Because of her generosity, I always share her site when I use her graphics.  Please don't send any files directl...

It's almost October and I didn't want to forget about the weekly planner for my homeschool moms!!  My children love the different planner pages monthly. It's just something I like to do to make the seasons more fun. I created 3 different ones this week. One is specifically for my ACE moms!! The other two are generic. One is blank and other has the days of the week, and you can fill in the subjects.  Click here to download I don't actually print out new ones each week. You can do that but these are colorful and take up quite a bit of printer ink. If you're like me, you like to save ink where you can.  I print these out and laminate them.  I use a sharpie to write in the daily work, and alcohol cleans this right off.  Sometimes I'll print out two different prints and laminate back to back. This also helps to make the most of your laminate supplies. If you'd like the matching notebook covers or planner dividers, Click on this ...

Happy Memorial Day! For some,  this day is a sad one. They're missing loved ones who gave up their lives for our freedom. Thank you to those who have sacrificed everything!! Thank you to the spouses who are at home, keeping the home front going!!  In celebration of this weekend, I was hoping to get this done earlier in the week and that wasn't happening.  I created a youtube Video/Vlog to show you how I use these. How I made them reusable and how I clean them off again and again. **Youtube Video** Please excuse the messy hair... the messy kitchen...and not-so-great video... life happens and I did this quickly. This is one of the largest free downloads I've ever done. I'm very excited. I love this beautiful print from Chantahlia Designs !! (If you click on her website name, it'll take you right to her site.)  If you're looking to create your own calendars, visit her website. Everything is FREE!! FREE!! Thank you Janelle!!!  I created this ...

Everyone once in a while, I get an idea that really excites me.  I've seen all these great laundry basket ideas and none of them really worked for me. I had hung up baskets on my laundry room wall, which worked but really were too big. They took up too much room and were really over-kill for what we needed. By the time the large baskets were filled, it was over 2 loads for me.  I saw this at Ikea and took a chance. This is the taller Ikea Algot Frame with 3 of the larger baskets.  I should mention that I use a Speed Queen laundry set. My washing machine is A-MAZ-ING!! I actually get to wash in hot water!! My machine is NOT an HE Machine and I love it! I get a large load washed and washed well in about 30 minutes. I don't have to use any scented laundry additives because my machine actually cleans my clothing thoroughly...with HOT WATER and it rinses in enough water to get all  the soap out.  I mention this because I don't know if my machine...

I have two adult children that I homeschooled through high school.  Can we talk curriculum reviews??  In the 20+ years that i've been homeschooling, i've tried many, many curriculums. Different types, different styles, different prices, etc.  When I started homeschooling, I had many STRONG opinions. Which is really funny, considering I had very little experience.  That is the reason for this post.  With 20+ years of experience what i've learned is what i'm going to share.  Ready?  I don't know that much. Yup.. The older I get, the less I know.  Also,  There is NO bad curriculum.  I'm going to say that again.  THERE IS NO BAD CURRICULUM!!!  I've used, A lpha Omega lifepacs, switched on schoolhouse, Sonlight, My Father's World, Bob Jones, Abeka, Logic of English, Teaching Text Books, Math-u-see, Kahn Academy, Easy Peasy Online, Singapore Math, Apologia Science, Hooked on Phonics, Teach your chil...

I love planners... All kinds of planners. For me carrying around a planner didn't work. I don't know why? I find that I put my appointments in my ICalendar. I have an iphone, Ipad and a Mac desktop, so they all sync up. Do you know what doesn't sync up?? The rest of my family. For some reason, my husband, who is an Applications Specialist, doesn't look at the Calendar. So our daily conversations start out with, "What are your plans for today?"  😏 I was trying to find a way to have our weekly and monthly plans out in the open for EVERYONE!!!. A one-Stop place for ALL Plans, appointments and agendas to be written down. A visual masterpiece for all to see!! An organizational dream !!!! Ok, so that's a bit dramatic. 😂 I wanted a calendar that I could leave out. I didn't want it on the fridge. I don't like a cluttered fridge.  I wanted something I could put in a frame or laminate.  I came up with these.  A two -page Calendar that ca...

The title of this blog post sounds VERY Serious!! It's not. 😁 One thing that's true, is that we want to teach our children to take control of their school work and chores. As a mom and teacher, this means that not only do I teach them HOW, I also give them the tools they need.  For moms using ACE or Accelerated Christian Education at home, the goal cards are great. I enjoy being able to reuse them by laminating them. I also LOVE to add a little color to life. I love seasonal goal cards.  One benefit of the goal cards is that the students can set their own daily work goals. While this doesn't seem important, it REALLY is. I can't tell you how my daughter's ability to organize her day and get her school work done has helped her. She's a gymnast and spends about 12 hours a week at the gym.  She goes 4 days a week for 3 hours. This doesn't include the exercising and drills she does at home. This keeps her very busy. The goal cards help her to hold ...

There are so many "Chore Cleaning" Systems out there...how does one choose?? While I love everything that has to do with organizing, chore charts and systems have really eluded me. My children clean with me. We homeschool, they're with me all the time. We usually are working side-by-side. So chore charts aren't really needed. I only have 2 of my 4 at home with me, so those elaborate systems aren't necessary. Chore charts where you check off the work doesn't fit for us. Simply telling my 5 y/o , "Go clean your bedroom" doesn't work. Many times they don't know where to start or they're not really capable of listing in their own minds what to do first, next, etc. The Zone cleaning looked good but a bit too complicated. While I love the idea of itemizing what they had to do in each room/zone, the flip chart was annoying and the the days of the week on each card wasn't necessary. Again, we work side-by-side. What was I looking f...

There are so many "Chore Cleaning" Systems out there...how does one choose?? While I love everything that has to do with organizing, chore charts and systems have really eluded me. My children clean with me. We homeschool, they're with me all the time. We usually are working side-by-side. So chore charts aren't really needed. I only have 2 of my 4 at home with me, so those elaborate systems aren't necessary. Chore charts where you check off the work doesn't fit for us. Simply telling my 5 y/o , "Go clean your bedroom" doesn't work. Many times they don't know where to start or they're not really capable of listing in their own minds what to do first, next, etc. The Zone cleaning looked good but a bit too complicated. While I love the idea of itemizing what they had to do in each room/zone, the flip chart was annoying and the the days of the week on each card wasn't necessary. Again, we work side-by-side. What was I looking f...

I know my title may upset many but there are times where homeschooling isn't a good choice. There...I said it. When I had my younger two children, there was no doubt that i'd be homeschooling. I had already homeschooled my older two through high school and I simply love doing it. My reasons for homeschooling my younger two is that I simply love being with them and teaching them. This however, is VERY different than the reasons I homeschooled my older two. With my older two, I was going to give the a better education, more God-centered. I was going instill in them the biblical and moral values I felt were important and more importantly , I was keeping the government from instilling their political and social morals to my children. This is what I would tell people....Now, here are some of the reasons in my heart. *I was going to be a perfect parent. *I was going to keep them from making the same mistakes I made *I was going to have perfect teens who never rebelled. I...