I need everyone who believes in our right to homeschool to go to the following link and sign this petition! It appears California has passed a ruling on a case making it illegal for parents to homeschool unless they have proper teaching credentials. This must be fought!!
If CA manages to do this it could affect other states as well. The HSLDA is planning to fight this and needs everyone to sign this petition!

Here is the link:

https://www2.hslda.org/Registrations/DepublishingCaliforniaCourtDecision/

Blessings!

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This looks like the only way I can let all those who check in on me know how we are doing. My email is currently down so I am posting here the happenings of late. My husband is going in for major surgery on Wednesday (March 5th). He is having to have some extensive work done to his left shoulder area. We are told to expect him to be off work for several months recouping and going thru therapy and strength training in order to be able to use it again.

And, the topper to this is that the people who own the house have totally and completely surprised us by telling us they are selling the house. And, when I say selling- I mean that the house inspector and buyers were already here this past Monday to go over the property! AHHH!!!! We were told about the selling of the house the same day she came with the buyers. So, as I said, this was so completely unexpected.

So far, they are telling us that they promise to give hubby a reasonable time to recover. Unfortunately, I don't think it is going to be enough. They are thinking 3-4 months tops, we have been told it could be 4-5 months of recovery. We have no family here.

Don't get me wrong, I am not freaking out or anything. I told the landlord that the Lord tells us not to place our trust in man but in Him and that is exactly what I am doing. In the past 20 years I have NEVER gone hungry or without an roof and necessities, NEVER. I have the Lord to thank for that. But, I can say that at this moment I have no idea what even tomorrow holds. So, please offer your prayers because I could very much use some voices sent our way. Please pray for hubby's surgery and for light to shine on the path the Lord would like us to take from here. Thank You!
Blessings. :)

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Well, I promised my bestest friend Jesnicole I would do this. She is such a sweetheart! You are supposed to list 5 things you want physically and 5 things you want spiritually. That is going to take some thought so bear with me. :)

5 physical things

1. I wish for my own home- no more renting :(
2. I wish for enough money to help all those I love and those in need
3. I wish I were taller, being 4' 11 and having my 11 year old daughter be as tall as I am doesn't thrill me :)
4. I wish we lived closer to my husband's mother and brother and his family (and jesnicole). I wonder if I could find a way to move us all in together. Huh?
5. I wish for my husband's health
6. I wish for more children
7. Well, I can't help it, but I wish I could afford to purchase latchhook kits form Rugmater 2. I LOVE to latchhook and that site has the most beautiful rug kits!

5 spiritual things

1. There is a deep spiritual wish I have that is too personal to mention, but I believe the Lord has begun an answer. YEAH!!
2. I will always, always wish to be the kind of servant, mother, wife and friend that the Lord would find favor in.
3. I wish that christians would understand that it is sometimes ok to disagree. In the end it is our hearts the Lord is concerned with, and only He can truly know that.
4. I wish (and pray daily) that my children will always have a deep love of our Lord and wish to serve Him.
5. I wish that when my life on this earth comes to and end and I stand before my Lord I wish to hear Him say "Enter, thou good and faithful servant." I know that if I hear those words that I will have lived this life, even with all my mistakes, just as He wished me to.

As I mentioned on my previous tag, I don't know enough people who like to do tags to name anyone. So, if you read this and would like to, please join in!!
Blessings!

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Well, normally I do not have time to do a tag but my daughter tagged me for this so I feel obligated. And who knows what words of wisdom you might pick up. I don't know enough people who like to do tags to list specific names, so if you read this and would like to join in your tagged! ;)

Ok, the idea is to open the book your currently reading, go to page 123, find the fifth sentence and post the next 3 sentences. Here it is:

I am reading Ten P's in a Pod (really awesome book by the way) and the 3 sentences are:

To be perfectly honest, we were an unmistakable mess. Our shoes were scuffed and muddy from digging cars out of the snow, the girls dresses were so wrinkled that from a mile away you could tell they were from pure bred "missionary barrel" stock. As for the boys, we were like loggers fresh out of the mountains with our tussled hair, and pants that looked like bent stove pipes.

This book is amazingly funny but very inspiring. :)

And, because my bible is always near, here is the 3 sentences on p. 123 in my bible:

And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

Wow, the Lord talked with Moses. That would be nice. :)

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Hello everyone! I am still around. Life has been kind of thrown up in the air right now and I am waiting for the pieces to fall in place. Nothing that the Lord can't handle and I am learning to put my complete faith in Him as I walk this blindly. I shall check in as often as I can and post when I can but I make no promises as to how frequently that might be (or how interesting). :)
It is funny how in life you seem to be heading down a certain path and then before you have even realized it your going in a completely different direction. I think in some ways that can be a very good thing. The Lord keeps you out of a comfort zone and makes you continue to grow.
I'm growing!! ;)

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Yep, I was born 38 years ago today in Fort Worth, Texas. I was the middle child of five and my older brother and sister are 8 and 10 years older than I am. I met my hubby when I was 15 and he was 19 (by mail). We became pen pals thru a christian pen pal club held by the Church of Christ. He lived in California. We met for the first time a year and a half after we started writing. He came down to visit me and my family at Thanksgiving. We got engaged that week and he went back to California. We married 7 months later when I finished my junior year of high school. I went back to California with him and finished my last year of high school. We will be married this June 20th for 21 years and have been blessed with 4 beautiful angels.
Those are my birthday presents and I dearly love all 5 of them! :)

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Still here hanging around, reading everyone's blogs. I just haven't had much to post about. Hubby is due for a major shoulder surgery in the next week or two. We have been having to do a lot of pre prep for that and the fact that he will be homebound for 3 to 4 months.

And, we have been getting a LOT of snow here lately. I think it dropped about 4 inches the other night. It snowed for 5 and a half hours straight!

We finally all got over the flu bug. My 2 yr old NEVER came down with a single symptom and I can only guess the Airborne did the deed. (that and a whole lot of praying!) I will definitely keep some on hand.

Trying to get school back into rhythm now that we are all better. I am going to do my best to post more regularly now.

Keep stopping in! :)

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Time for some changes.

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Sorry guys! I thought I would be back up blogging after the holidays were said and done but it looks like it will be a bit longer. The flu has struck. I had heard it was going around like crazy but had hoped we would miss it. Then hubby came home Wednesday evening sick as a dog. He's been home from work for four days now. One of the children has come down with the sysptoms. I am doing everything I can to keep it from spreading but I may be fighting a losing battle. Has anyone out there tried that product Airborne? I have had it recommended to me by several people. Anyway, I am always checking in even if I'm not posting so leave a comment!
(I take that back, now there are two with the symptoms. :p)

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TO EVERYONE STOPPING IN- I WISH YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THE BEST NEW YEAR!

LOVE YA!

ANDREA  AND FAMILY 

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I am still here everyone! There is just so much going on right now with the holidays and my hubby's illness. Please leave me a comment when you visit and I promise to answer. But I probably won't do alot of posting until after the holidays! Merry Christmas! I love you all!!

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Here are some pics of our thanksgiving!
This is the turkey!And here is the cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, green beans and rolls. (Couldn't keep them out long enough to get a picture! LOL)
Here is the baked goodies.I try to do something that particularly appeals to each one. My hubby LOVES his pumpkin pie, there was a coconut-lime cake (9 yr. old loves anything with lemon or lime), and a peach pudding bread (for me!). Then we made up a variety of cookies for us and to pass out to friends and neighbors in sugar, chocolate chip, honey ginger, and chocolate drops. My daughter was sooo proud of the sugar cookies because she did them all by herself! This was her first cooking adventure without my guidance. Aren't they beautiful!

And then I made up this strawberry shortcake specially for my 7 yr old and my daughter because they both LOVE strawberries!


And here is the blessings I got to see enjoy all this cooking! That is one of my most very favorite things to be thankful for! I know this may seem like a lot of food, but believe me, it won't go to waste here! There is no better feeling to me than seeing your loved ones enjoy something you made!

Here are some pics of our Thanksgiving!

Blessings!

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I have been so eager to share my last shopping trip. Day before yesterday was my grocery day. Most times I do a month of shopping in one trip and supplement here and there things like milk, ect. I usually hit Walmart, Safeway, and a place called the Grocery Outlet.

But, it is my trip to Safeway that I wanted to talk about. I have been studying Crystal's (Money Saving Mom) SUPERMARKET SAVINGS COURSE and it has helped me understand how to be really frugal with our dollars.
So, I decided to put it into practice this shopping trip and guess what?! I saved us a total of $173.17!! I did this by combining the sales for that week with coupons I cut from the Sunday paper and printed from coupon sites. Then, I added those to Safeway's double coupons in their ad. And finally, by looking for the mark-downs Safeway had.

There is no way to list everything I got, but here is some ideas: (two) 5 lb sugar, (six) 5 lb flour, (two) boxes Bisquick, (five) boxes cereal, 10 yoplait yogurts, (three) half gallons of organic milk, a 24 lb. turkey, varying baking supplies, juice, (two) jars Bertolli sauce,ect., for a total of 113 items.

Now, I don't normally buy organic milk because it is out of my price range. But, I will show you an example of one of the transactions I did that made it a frugal buy.

Safeway has one coupon you use to double up to four more. So, I broke my groceries into three transactions so I could double 12 coupons. On one of those transactions I bought 2 jars of Bertolli Pasta sauce- regular price $6.38, they were on sale 2 for $4.00. I also purchased two of the half gallons of organic milk-regular price was $7.58 but these two half gallons had five 75 cent mark-down stickers on them which brought them to $3.83! Now, I had printed off the internet two $1.00 off each coupons on the sauce and the milk. I used a Safeway double coupon to double them to $1.50 each.

In summary, I got 2 Bertolli Pasta Sauce and 2 half gallons organic milk- original price $13.96 for $1.83!!!!!! Yep, I said $1.83!

I spent a total of $146.90 for 113 items. That means I paid $1.30 per item including the 24 lb turkey!!

I am writing this because I hope to encourage someone out there who needs to cut grocery cost to look into Crystal's course and try this out. It really wasn't hard and it was such a blessing to me.

Click here to check out this course!

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 I wanted to share that in this Albertson's ad on page 8 is a REALLY GOOD deal!

 If you buy 4 boxes  of Post cereal which  are on sale for 2 for $4 you get TWO Jet-Puffed Marshmallows  (10.5 oz) PLUS FREE  MILK (up to $4.00). It includes soy or organic half gallons or larger. You will have to use your Albertson's card.

 And, you can print a coupon from Smartsource.com  for a $1.00 off of 2 boxes of Post cereals. You could use two coupons and get the cereals for $1.50 a box.

Anyone with an Albertson's nearby should check out this week's ad (runs Nov. 7-13) for quite a few good deals.

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AT DAWN
This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use it as I will.
I can waste it, or I can use it.
I can make it a day long to be remembered for its job, its beauty, and its achievement; or it can be filled with pettiness and ugliness.
What I do today is important, for I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes this day will be gone forever, but I shall hold something which I have traded for it.
It may be no more than a memory; but if it is a worthy one, I shall not regret the price.
I should like it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, certainly not failure.
So here is a day and here am I.
God will not expect more of me than I am capable of giving, but He will expect my best.
There will be beauty and I must not miss it.
There will be cries of people in distress, and I must hear and answer.
There will be moments of temptation, but I must not yield nor be impulsive.
There will be opportunity for good, and I must be ready.
And then when night comes, may I look back without regret, and forward with a radiant spirit and a thankful heart.
By Samuel Pugh

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Here they are!! This is my crew, hubby, my 11 yr old daughter Jessica, my 9 yr old son Triton, my 7 yr old son Vinnie, and the one getting the ride on daddy's shoulder's is my 2 yr old son Zarek. This picture was taken a couple of months back so the baby has more hair and is taller. They are my blessings and my life.

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I have a favor to ask. For all who would like to participate, I am feeding a family of 6 and I need some ideas on getting my grocery bill below $100 a week. Hubby's job is entering a season when they tend to cut hours. I am looking for weekly menu plans and grocery lists that do not include canned (yourself) items since I have not been canning. And does not include having alot of things already on hand. Even though I do keep staples, a few weeks of cut paychecks can lead to staples being used up quickly.  Leave me a comment,  or you can direct me to a post you have done or send an email to

amaddiex0439@charter.net

I have big eaters (hubby, 11yr old, 9yr old, 7yr old, 2yr old) so servings on meals usually need to be 8 or so ( I also like to send the leftovers for hubby's lunches). Lots of from scratch type foods welcome since I love to cook, but not too time consuming.

Hoping you guys can give me some great, frugal ideas!

Blessings! 

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For anyone stopping by...... could you please leave me a comment and let me know if you are having trouble reading my blog. Someone sent me a message and said that both the background and wording is dark and unreadable. But, when I pull it up everything looks fine to me. Thank you for helping!!!!!  

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Hi everyone! Still around and checking in periodically on everyone. I appreciate all of you who come by and hope you will leave a comment to let me know you're visiting. I have had ALOT going on of late. Hubby has been recently diagnosed with Crohn's Disease after being severely ill and having to have surgery. Then my 6 yr old was ill. Nothing serious, praise the Lord! I hope to get back here in a couple of days and maybe get some of those birthday pictures up.  

Blessings!!

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