Thursday, September 20, 2012
Tutoring
So Hubby and I were discussing the possible need for me to get a job, since I didn't get the last job I interviewed for. I have no intention of using my talents of teaching at a burger joint flipping burgers or at a store bagging groceries. So, I got online to see what I could do in my city in regards to tutoring, I found this awesome tutoring website called WyzAnt.com. It connects students of all ages (even adults) to people in their area who are willing to tutor for a fee. You set your hourly rate, distance willing to travel, even the tutoring schedule you want to follow. You can apply for tutoring opportunities or someone can contact you specifically. I decided to create a profile in the hopes of earning a little of an income. I hope and pray someone uses me!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Halloween Craft
I recently saw a
pin on Pinterest and decided I loved the idea, but didn't have the time
or money to go out and buy the wood blocks the project called for, so I
decided to use what I had on hand: a few empty medication boxes! I
taped the ends shut and wrapped them in patterned paper. Then I cut out
the letters with my Slice (die-cut machine) and inked them with white
and black ink to give them a spookier aged look. I then turned the
black stamp pad upside-down and rubbed it on the boxes to give them the
same look. I simply stuck the letters on with adhesive, let the ink
dry, then hot-glued the ribbon onto the back. I LOVE how it turned out!
God's Canvas
Fall
is very quickly approaching. Kids have gone back to school and the
temperature is beginning to drop (finally). It's this time of the year
that I look forward to; my favorite time of the year. The leaves on the
trees aren't quite changing colors here in Texas yet, but I am waiting
for them to change with the anticipation of a child on Christmas Eve.
The first or second weekend in November my husband takes me hiking in a
canyon a couple hours away from us, known for it's fall colors. Here's a
few pictures of the AMAZING colors I captured last year.
These pictures just don't do the colors justice. It's just so amazing how God can create such beauty! The Earth is God's canvas. Whether it's Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter, there's always a beautiful sight to see if you just take the time to stop and look. I encourage everyone to take just 5 minutes and look at God's beauty that surrounds you. When I think of the day I took these pictures it makes me cry. God blessed me that day. I got to see a colors I'd only dreamed of seeing in real life. So as I sit here curled up in my chair, wearing my comfy socks and robe, listening to the wind blow outside, I'm filled with an overwhelming sense of contentment, even though I've got a HUGE pile of clean laundry on the couch and a sink full of dirty dishes.
These pictures just don't do the colors justice. It's just so amazing how God can create such beauty! The Earth is God's canvas. Whether it's Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter, there's always a beautiful sight to see if you just take the time to stop and look. I encourage everyone to take just 5 minutes and look at God's beauty that surrounds you. When I think of the day I took these pictures it makes me cry. God blessed me that day. I got to see a colors I'd only dreamed of seeing in real life. So as I sit here curled up in my chair, wearing my comfy socks and robe, listening to the wind blow outside, I'm filled with an overwhelming sense of contentment, even though I've got a HUGE pile of clean laundry on the couch and a sink full of dirty dishes.
Be a Worker for the Lord
On Sunday, our
preacher talked about how we need to be dedicated to our work as if we
were working for the Lord. That's what the Bible says we need to do!
Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever
you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord..." A
lot of people say TGIF on Fridays. This means Thank God It's Friday for
those of you who don't know. He challenged us to think TGIM. Thank
God It's Monday. If you put forth the effort into your work as if God
is your boss, you may find that your work goes much smoother on
occasion. I want to be a worker for the Lord. I challenge you to do
the same!
Our Homeschool Schedule
The schedule
that we go by with our homeschooling is a bit different from the average
schedule in that the students I have aren't my own kids. During my
first year as a homeschool teacher I found that teaching two different
students of different grade levels at the same time was VERY difficult.
I would work with the younger one, then the older one. But then, the
younger one would need help so I would have to either stop what I was
doing with the older one to help the younger one, or tell the younger
one to wait. If I did the later he wouldn't have a clue what he was
learning by the time I got back to him. So...in order to avoid all of
this chaos I decided it would be so much easier for me to teach, and
both students would learn more, if I taught them at separate times
during the day.
- I wake up at 7:30 every morning and eat breakfast with my husband. We have an hour and a half to ourselves until my first student arrives.
- I have the older student @ 9am every morning. It doesn't take too long to do everything we need to and he's usually done by 10:30.
- This gives me about 2 hours to clean the house, write in my blog, do some scrapbooking, take a shower, eat lunch and whatever else I need to do.
- The younger student gets here at about 12:30. The two of us work until about 2:30 or 3.
- After that, the rest of the day is devoted to my husband and I doing whatever we need to do.
Free Teacher Websites
Since I
homeschool, I've spent MANY hours online looking for free worksheets and
ideas to use with my students. There are quite a few places out there
that have FREE (my favorite word) worksheets for teachers to use.
Here's a list of the many places I have found. Some of them require you
to create a free account.
HaveFunTeaching.com - LOTS of free printables in any subject you can think of! You can also create your own worksheets if you can't find one that fits what your looking for.
freereading.net - "A high-quality, open-source, free reading intervention program for grades PK-6". An AMAZING website with decode-able reading passages, a word-list generator, and so much more!
education.com - This is one of my favorite sites! TONS of worksheets you can choose from. There are also articles & tips you can read for parents and teachers alike. This site does require you to create an account, but it's free and well worth it!
schoolexpress.com - 17,000+ Free worksheets. Another great site. You can also get a few "extras" if you sign up for their email newsletter.
tlsbooks.com - I use this one frequently. Lots of good, age appropriate worksheets!
teach-nology.com - Great worksheets, plus rubrics, lesson plans, and other teacher resources!
I'm sure there's more out there, these are just the main ones that I use. If anyone finds another, let me know and I'll add it to my list. Please make sure it is 100% free. There are some sites that require you to pay a fee for a membership, then allow you to print off their worksheets. This is a list just for free worksheets.
HaveFunTeaching.com - LOTS of free printables in any subject you can think of! You can also create your own worksheets if you can't find one that fits what your looking for.
freereading.net - "A high-quality, open-source, free reading intervention program for grades PK-6". An AMAZING website with decode-able reading passages, a word-list generator, and so much more!
education.com - This is one of my favorite sites! TONS of worksheets you can choose from. There are also articles & tips you can read for parents and teachers alike. This site does require you to create an account, but it's free and well worth it!
schoolexpress.com - 17,000+ Free worksheets. Another great site. You can also get a few "extras" if you sign up for their email newsletter.
tlsbooks.com - I use this one frequently. Lots of good, age appropriate worksheets!
teach-nology.com - Great worksheets, plus rubrics, lesson plans, and other teacher resources!
I'm sure there's more out there, these are just the main ones that I use. If anyone finds another, let me know and I'll add it to my list. Please make sure it is 100% free. There are some sites that require you to pay a fee for a membership, then allow you to print off their worksheets. This is a list just for free worksheets.
The Cost of Youth Ministry
After reading a
letter online of someone negatively discussing youth ministry, I
decided to write about the costs that youth ministry has.
First, youth ministry isn't possible without the support of those outside the group. This includes parents, other church members, and of course the rest of the church staff. As with a majority of churches these days, ours is trying to stay afloat. Included in that, is our youth group. We are having to look for low cost (no more than $10) and no cost things to do. This is extremely difficult with today's teens who seem to need something as stimulating as the technology they have in their hands 24/7. A "movie night" or "family game night" isn't going to cut it, especially since most are "too busy" for these options. How do you plan something the teens will enjoy, want to invite their friends to, make the parents happy because it doesn't cost anything, & still have time for your own private life (because you DO have one, unlike most people think)?
Then there's the topic of fundraising. I don't know what your local laws are, but where we live, you have to buy a $100+ permit for EVERYTHING!! One summer, we decided for a service project, we would hand out FREE water to everyone at the park across the street from the church building. This went really well until a few of our kids were told by a police officer that they weren't allowed to do that without a permit. We aren't allowed to go door-to-door in order to sell things without a permit. We aren't allowed to do a bake-sale outside of a store without first purchasing a permit. We aren't even allowed to have a car wash because of the constant water shortage (city law). This leaves us with ALWAYS calling on the members of the church in order to fund not only our major activities (youth rally and summer camps) but also minor things (cost of gas for in-town trips). After being asked to shell out money for other activities the church does, it seems there's never anything left for our teens. Has anyone out there figured out how to get around obstacles like these? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
First, youth ministry isn't possible without the support of those outside the group. This includes parents, other church members, and of course the rest of the church staff. As with a majority of churches these days, ours is trying to stay afloat. Included in that, is our youth group. We are having to look for low cost (no more than $10) and no cost things to do. This is extremely difficult with today's teens who seem to need something as stimulating as the technology they have in their hands 24/7. A "movie night" or "family game night" isn't going to cut it, especially since most are "too busy" for these options. How do you plan something the teens will enjoy, want to invite their friends to, make the parents happy because it doesn't cost anything, & still have time for your own private life (because you DO have one, unlike most people think)?
Then there's the topic of fundraising. I don't know what your local laws are, but where we live, you have to buy a $100+ permit for EVERYTHING!! One summer, we decided for a service project, we would hand out FREE water to everyone at the park across the street from the church building. This went really well until a few of our kids were told by a police officer that they weren't allowed to do that without a permit. We aren't allowed to go door-to-door in order to sell things without a permit. We aren't allowed to do a bake-sale outside of a store without first purchasing a permit. We aren't even allowed to have a car wash because of the constant water shortage (city law). This leaves us with ALWAYS calling on the members of the church in order to fund not only our major activities (youth rally and summer camps) but also minor things (cost of gas for in-town trips). After being asked to shell out money for other activities the church does, it seems there's never anything left for our teens. Has anyone out there figured out how to get around obstacles like these? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
A Difficult Job
Youth Ministry
isn't for the faint at heart. It's an extremely taxing and often
lonely profession. If it's something you or a loved one is considering,
please consider the fact that you will NEVER please everyone you come
in contact with. Some parents will dislike the way you teach as will
some teens. Some teens will dislike the fact that they can't go on the
trip because they didn't get their permission form and money in by the
deadline and will hate you for all eternity (if not for this reason, than some other).
Some parents will believe with all their heart that, no matter how busy
you are and how many activities you are planning, you aren't doing
enough for their teen. There will be relationships formed and broken
off within your group which will cause all the teens in your group to
"take sides". You may even have some parents who don't want their teens
in your class or going to your events at all. Don't take any of this
personally. You aren't here to please everyone that comes through those
doors. Your job is to teach to word of God to these teens and hope and
pray that they turn their eyes and lives toward him. This is not
something you can force these teens to do. You will have some who
ignore what you teach completely. You will have some who will take what
you say out of context. You will have some coming from different
religious backgrounds and will questions everything you say and do. You
will have success stories (teens who heard the word, and are now living
their whole lives for Christ), but more often than not, you will have
stories of disappointment of teens you seem to have lost along the way.
It's so easy to get caught up in those disappointments. Just remember,
that when you are in a dark place in your ministry and Satan is telling
you that you aren't a good youth minister and you probably need to find
a different profession, that you may have planted a seed. This seed
may one day grow into a healthy and strong faith. It may take YEARS for
that seed to even begin to grow into a healthy plant, but it would
never have grown at all without someone putting it there. Also, if
you've reached even just one teen, they can go on to plant more seeds
elsewhere. I say all these things not just for your benefit but for my
own as well. Sometimes I need a reminder of what we're doing here. God
wants my husband and I to plant seeds. The hard part of it is, you
almost never get to see if those seeds will grow.
Trunk or Treat
As it is now
September, I am deep in thought about what to do for Halloween this
year. It's my favorite holiday and I'm always trying to come up with
fun things for the youth to do at their party. I am also trying to come
up with ideas for our annual "Trunk or Treat" that our church puts on.
For those of you who have never heard of this, it's a safer alternative
to trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. All you do is gather a group
of cars in a large parking lot, decorate your trunk, and hand out
candy. This is only the 3rd year our church has participated in this
activity, but I try to outdo myself in coming up with ideas for us to
decorate our car each year. The first year, since we weren't really
sure what to do, we did a monster car.
Hubby did a REALLY good job bringing the vision to life! Last year we went a little crazier and took a lot more time to prepare! We decided to make our car into a dragon. I would be a damsel in distress and he would be my knight coming to slay the dragon!
The legs, head, fire, and wing outline are all cardboard. Hubby had too much fun with this one! He drew and cut out all the pieces and we spray painted them green. Of course, we had to hand paint all the little details like the teeth, eye, toenails, and horns. The tail is made out of butcher paper with a small triangle of cardboard at the tip. The light green parts that are covering the car, the tail tip, and on the inside of the wing are plastic table cloths! If you ever need to decorate a large area of something, USE THESE!!! They are ubber cheap and you can find them in any color. Anyways, with this project we figured it would be better to decorate only one side and just have the other side facing away from everyone. We got some great comments on it, especially since our costumes went so well with it.
This year, I think we've decided to be pirates and our car a pirate ship! Check back in November for a picture!
Hubby did a REALLY good job bringing the vision to life! Last year we went a little crazier and took a lot more time to prepare! We decided to make our car into a dragon. I would be a damsel in distress and he would be my knight coming to slay the dragon!
The legs, head, fire, and wing outline are all cardboard. Hubby had too much fun with this one! He drew and cut out all the pieces and we spray painted them green. Of course, we had to hand paint all the little details like the teeth, eye, toenails, and horns. The tail is made out of butcher paper with a small triangle of cardboard at the tip. The light green parts that are covering the car, the tail tip, and on the inside of the wing are plastic table cloths! If you ever need to decorate a large area of something, USE THESE!!! They are ubber cheap and you can find them in any color. Anyways, with this project we figured it would be better to decorate only one side and just have the other side facing away from everyone. We got some great comments on it, especially since our costumes went so well with it.
This year, I think we've decided to be pirates and our car a pirate ship! Check back in November for a picture!
My Infertility Story
So, I want to
discuss with you a little bit about my situation with infertility. Some
info might be a little TMI, but I want to share it with you. My
husband and I decided we wanted to start trying to have a baby in May of
2011. We were poor with only one income, living in a rent house 20
miles from my husband's job (which in the city is quite a commute). We
knew we couldn't afford a baby at the time, but after lots of prayer and
consideration (and a call from my sister-in-law that they were
expecting their 2nd) we decided maybe it was our turn.
So I went off of my birth control pill and gave the reigns to God. I decided to go into my doctor's office to have a physical before we conceived. While there she gave the the whole work-up and said I was good to go. She set a time limit however because I hadn't had a normal cycle after getting off the birth control. If I hadn't gotten my cycle in 3 month to come back. Well, 3 months later I was in the office again and she pas putting me on Progesterone to cause my cycles to start. After a couple of months trying with the hormone, she decided she wanted to see what my body was actually doing. So I was sent to get a sonogram so they could look at my ovaries. Back at the doctor's office, she told me I wasn't ovulating at all and that she wanted to put me on Clomid. For those of you who don't know, Clomid is a hormone that causes your ovaries to produce eggs. This is sometimes a controversial drug because it's been known to cause multiple births , due to releasing more than one egg at a time, quite frequently. Hearing that I wasn't going to get pregnant without the help of medication was devastating to me. I had always suspected that I'd have problems getting pregnant because my cycles were so sporadic when I was younger. However, I never thought it'd be this hard.
Anyways, after a couple days of crying my eyes out I finally decided that this is something God wanted me to go through. Otherwise it wouldn't have been put in front of me. My husband and I talked about the pros and cons of the medication and decided to go ahead with it. I went 2 cycles on it and had no success. By this time in our lives, we were going through a lot and I was missing my appointments to start another cycle. I decided I would take a break from the hormone treatments and would try something new, loosing weight. My cholesterol was high and I was about 30 pounds over weight. I started on Weight Watchers and ended up loosing a little over 15 pounds. I was so proud of myself! Loosing the weight caused me to have, for once in my whole life, a normal cycle. I was ecstatic the first time I had a period on my own without the help of any medication! My doctor was excited at the news as well and encouraged us to keep trying on our own.
During all of this, we bought a house and moved 2 blocks away from my husband's office (which we know was a HUGE blessing from God)! Then summer began and so did the busy season for youth ministers. One Sunday morning, before leaving for camp, I decided to take a pregnancy test. I hadn't been feeling great and I was also about a week late on my cycle. The test showed up positive. I was shocked! I showed it to my husband and we cried and held each other thinking it had finally happened. We went to camp on cloud nine and told almost everyone at camp. Sadly, our joy was very short-lived. Wednesday night I began to cramp and by Thursday morning I was bleeding. We informed everyone who knew about the pregnancy that we were going to the hospital and to pray it wasn't a miscarriage. I had never felt so blessed to have the people I did surrounding me. Unfortunately, the doctor said I'd miscarried. In fact, he said I had probably miscarried even before I took the test, but my body still had enough of the hormone to turn it positive. I felt as if I was in a dream world. I wasn't sure what to think. My husband and I stayed the night in town so that we could deal with it on our own. It was hard for me to even grasp what had happened. We hadn't known for more than a few days and it was over. It just seemed like a bad dream. When we got back to camp I was embraced by so many people and they all cried with me.
Getting back home to normal life was difficult at first. The next week of camp we shared a cabin with a couple who were expecting. I ended up avoiding her as much as I could because the pain was still so real. There are still times when I just have to sit down and cry. I thought I'd finally gotten over it when my husband's best friend mentioned they were expecting. This news hit me like a ton of bricks. I was so envious of them; I found myself welling up with anger and hate. When this happens, I always turn to the internet. I find articles of women who have gone through the same things in order to find some form of comfort. I found an article where a woman stated that when her friends and family were getting pregnant all around her, she had the same feelings of anger and hate. Then she would calm herself down by saying a prayer for the mother and her expecting child, a prayer for a safe and healthy pregnancy and that they wouldn't have to go through what she went through. This humbled me and I found myself saying a pray for our friends and their unborn child. I even found myself getting onto their facebook pages and telling them how excited I was that that I was praying they would have a very health y pregnancy. This made me feel so much better. Yesterday I got on to find that they had gotten to hear the heartbeat. Once again, another blow and reality check. I may just have to stay off of facebook for a while.
I heard something once that puts it all into perspective for those of us that are having issues conceiving. Why is it so hard for me to get pregnant when the 16 year old teenager in the back of a car has no problem? I know one day it will happen for me (although I'm sick and tired of hearing this). I know God has a purpose for everything. I just wish I knew what his purpose was.
So I went off of my birth control pill and gave the reigns to God. I decided to go into my doctor's office to have a physical before we conceived. While there she gave the the whole work-up and said I was good to go. She set a time limit however because I hadn't had a normal cycle after getting off the birth control. If I hadn't gotten my cycle in 3 month to come back. Well, 3 months later I was in the office again and she pas putting me on Progesterone to cause my cycles to start. After a couple of months trying with the hormone, she decided she wanted to see what my body was actually doing. So I was sent to get a sonogram so they could look at my ovaries. Back at the doctor's office, she told me I wasn't ovulating at all and that she wanted to put me on Clomid. For those of you who don't know, Clomid is a hormone that causes your ovaries to produce eggs. This is sometimes a controversial drug because it's been known to cause multiple births , due to releasing more than one egg at a time, quite frequently. Hearing that I wasn't going to get pregnant without the help of medication was devastating to me. I had always suspected that I'd have problems getting pregnant because my cycles were so sporadic when I was younger. However, I never thought it'd be this hard.
Anyways, after a couple days of crying my eyes out I finally decided that this is something God wanted me to go through. Otherwise it wouldn't have been put in front of me. My husband and I talked about the pros and cons of the medication and decided to go ahead with it. I went 2 cycles on it and had no success. By this time in our lives, we were going through a lot and I was missing my appointments to start another cycle. I decided I would take a break from the hormone treatments and would try something new, loosing weight. My cholesterol was high and I was about 30 pounds over weight. I started on Weight Watchers and ended up loosing a little over 15 pounds. I was so proud of myself! Loosing the weight caused me to have, for once in my whole life, a normal cycle. I was ecstatic the first time I had a period on my own without the help of any medication! My doctor was excited at the news as well and encouraged us to keep trying on our own.
During all of this, we bought a house and moved 2 blocks away from my husband's office (which we know was a HUGE blessing from God)! Then summer began and so did the busy season for youth ministers. One Sunday morning, before leaving for camp, I decided to take a pregnancy test. I hadn't been feeling great and I was also about a week late on my cycle. The test showed up positive. I was shocked! I showed it to my husband and we cried and held each other thinking it had finally happened. We went to camp on cloud nine and told almost everyone at camp. Sadly, our joy was very short-lived. Wednesday night I began to cramp and by Thursday morning I was bleeding. We informed everyone who knew about the pregnancy that we were going to the hospital and to pray it wasn't a miscarriage. I had never felt so blessed to have the people I did surrounding me. Unfortunately, the doctor said I'd miscarried. In fact, he said I had probably miscarried even before I took the test, but my body still had enough of the hormone to turn it positive. I felt as if I was in a dream world. I wasn't sure what to think. My husband and I stayed the night in town so that we could deal with it on our own. It was hard for me to even grasp what had happened. We hadn't known for more than a few days and it was over. It just seemed like a bad dream. When we got back to camp I was embraced by so many people and they all cried with me.
Getting back home to normal life was difficult at first. The next week of camp we shared a cabin with a couple who were expecting. I ended up avoiding her as much as I could because the pain was still so real. There are still times when I just have to sit down and cry. I thought I'd finally gotten over it when my husband's best friend mentioned they were expecting. This news hit me like a ton of bricks. I was so envious of them; I found myself welling up with anger and hate. When this happens, I always turn to the internet. I find articles of women who have gone through the same things in order to find some form of comfort. I found an article where a woman stated that when her friends and family were getting pregnant all around her, she had the same feelings of anger and hate. Then she would calm herself down by saying a prayer for the mother and her expecting child, a prayer for a safe and healthy pregnancy and that they wouldn't have to go through what she went through. This humbled me and I found myself saying a pray for our friends and their unborn child. I even found myself getting onto their facebook pages and telling them how excited I was that that I was praying they would have a very health y pregnancy. This made me feel so much better. Yesterday I got on to find that they had gotten to hear the heartbeat. Once again, another blow and reality check. I may just have to stay off of facebook for a while.
I heard something once that puts it all into perspective for those of us that are having issues conceiving. Why is it so hard for me to get pregnant when the 16 year old teenager in the back of a car has no problem? I know one day it will happen for me (although I'm sick and tired of hearing this). I know God has a purpose for everything. I just wish I knew what his purpose was.
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