• Faith Talk - Uncategorized - Writing Life

    Surrender: Thoughts on Psalm 37 #fiveminutefriday

    In my devotional time lately I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Psalms. I feel like praying through the very prayers inspired by God helps train my heart and mind to desire what is right. Psalm 37 has been near and dear to my heart for a long time, but it has come to the forefront of my mind again lately as I have been working through some trust issues. This prompt of “surrender” took me back to Psalm 37 again. (I also found it a bit…um…interesting that I just wrote a post last week on the same…

  • Homeschooling - Uncategorized

    Scheduling AmblesideOnline Year 2, Pt. 2

    As promised in my previous post, here are the rest of the details of my planning process for scheduling AmblesideOnline Year 2. If you missed that post, you will want to go back and check it out to see the first steps before moving on to these last few! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, and I will do my best to answer or help you find someone else who can! How I Created Our Schedule for AmblesideOnline Year 2: Steps 3 and 4: Decide how much time to spend (maximum) on each lesson…

  • Homeschooling

    Scheduling AmblesideOnline Year 2, Pt. 1

    Now that we are almost a month into our second “official” year of using AmblesideOnline, I feel like we are really getting into the groove. Not that I don’t still have a lot to learn about teaching and living in a more Charlotte Mason-esque way! We certainly have not arrived! I do feel, however, that I have a handle on the flow of the academic portion of our school day, and that is a welcome change from last year. Many days I felt scattered, and I often could not remember what I was supposed to be doing from one day…

  • Faith Talk

    Lessons from Fasting: Letting Go

    As I mentioned in my post on my personal goals for 2018, I am participating in a 40 Day Sugar Fast hosted by Wendy Speake. When I started this fast, I really did just want to get free of my sugar addiction. I know that sugar is not good for me, in more than just a physical sense. I can tell that it affects my mind and emotions as well. I have gone without sweeteners before when doing Whole30, but whenever the diet period is over, I always creep back into my old habits. This year I decided I had…

  • Books and Reading

    The Reading Report, Vol. 8: Reading in the New Year

    Welcome to the first 2018 edition of The Reading Report! I hope that you are off to a positive start to this new year. I can hardly believe that it is already the middle of January! Here in Middle Tennessee we are enjoying a beautiful snowy day, which is a bit of a rarity around here, I think. We have already chuckled just a bit (sorry Southerners!) at the speed at which everything gets cancelled when a little snow is falling. But, homebody that I am, I guess I don’t mind the added excuse to stay home and enjoy the…