Tag Archives: personal

Ten Things I’m Thankful For about Adoption Today

1. Those birthmothers who choose life in the face of pressure to do otherwise. In many cases this is a brave, brave action. If my daughter ever asks if her birthmother loved her, I can answer in the affirmative—because otherwise she wouldn’t be here. 2. The birth family members who provide honest medical and social history for their children. This helps us give them better medical and developmental care, reassures them that they have a history like everyone else, and frees the mind from wondering too much about their past and lets it go on to other things. 3. The … Continue reading →

Welcome to My Place at Scrapbook.com

Scrapbooking is a wonderful use of your time, as you preserve your memories for your children and future family. Creating pages, telling a story and showing it all off in an album is certainly one way to do it, but wouldn’t it be really cool to be able to share it with family out of state a lot faster? That’s when you need your very own website. Are you looking for a free website to show off your layouts and perhaps even get to know others? Then My Place, which is the name that scrapbook.com has given its personal site … Continue reading →

My Frugal Confession

It seems that I should have written this blog a long time ago, to dispel any myths or confusion about my frugal life. I love frugal living, and I love finding ways to save money and reuse things. Do I do it all the time? Let’s find out. My confession for all of you, is that I am not the most frugal person. In fact, my articles probably make me sound like a totally frugal person, but there are plenty of things I am not frugal on. Yes, I use coupons. Do I ever forget to bring them and purchase … Continue reading →

Media Review: Adoptive Families Magazine

Adoptive Families is a comprehensive bimonthly adoption magazine which covers all types of adoption—domestic and international, infant and older child, open, semi-open and confidential, and adopting from foster care. I have found the coverage to be very well-balanced among the different types. In the past two years I have canceled several magazine subscriptions because I don’t have time to read them. Adoptive Families, by contrast, is read cover to cover before I go to bed the day it is delivered. The magazine is written almost entirely by adoptive families. There are sections of advice from experts such as counselors, social … Continue reading →

Compiling Your Own Bag of Tricks From Your “Trade”

I have always liked that saying “tricks of the trade”—it implies that each industry or type of business has its own vernacular and its own secrets that can be accessed by those who specialize in that field. Some of those secrets or “tricks” can be compiled based on hard-won personal experience, while others can be passed on from mentors and others who are successful in your industry. So, how do you go about getting together your own “tricks of your trade?” The most important thing is to ask questions and listen to the answers. Not everything you hear or every … Continue reading →

Don’t Take It Personally

Rule number 853 of parenting: Don’t Take Things Personally! Okay, maybe it should be in the top ten of rules for parents, but learning how to not take the things your child says and does personally is one of the major challenges that I’ve wrestled with over the years. After all, it’s pretty darn hard not to take something like “I hate you!” to heart… The fact is, as soon as children are able to talk, they will start complaining and saying unpleasant things and it often feels like they are taking all of their frustrations out on the closest … Continue reading →

Teaching “Today in History” Lessons

I have said several times that I prefer teaching history in the order that it happened (as in the classical homeschooling model). In addition, I think that it would help children to remember important dates better if they took a Today in History approach. The two approaches however are not easy to integrate and teaching them concurrently could cause confusion, so I opt for the first choice while making children aware of very important historic events on the date that it happened. To keep yourself up to date with events that happened today in years past, you can visit any … Continue reading →

Public School’s Offer to Help with Your Learning Disabled Child

It is that time of year again. Homeschooling parents all over my county and very likely all over the country are receiving letters that offer in school services to learning-disabled home schooled children. Here is an excerpt from one such letter: Federal law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, or IDEIA) and the Georgia Department of Education Rules for Special Education require that each local public school agency work with private and home school providers to locate any student that may benefit from special education and related services. Our local school district is required to spend a proportionate … Continue reading →

Do You Have a Home Business Title? Do You Want One?

Sometimes it is difficult to tell people what we do for a living when we are home-based. I am often jealous of transcriptionists, daycare providers and other home-based careers where the title is pretty cut and dried. The other day I was talking with my preschooler about my husband’s job. He is a police officer. That’s a pretty easy job for a four-year old to grasp. Out of curiosity, I asked her, “do you know what mommy does for a living?” “You play on your ‘peuter’” (computer). “Oh great”, I thought. Her preschool teacher probably assumes I sit around and … Continue reading →

Literacy Series: Programs and Projects that Support Literacy

We all know how important literacy is, and we know that there are programs available to help us with our individual needs, but how do we find them? I ran an Internet search for “literacy programs” last night and was pleased and inspired by what I found – page after page of resources. I’d like to share some of them with you. First is the Literacy Directory. When you click on this link, you’ll see a form. Just click on your town and state, and the directory will connect you with literacy programs right in your area. It just doesn’t … Continue reading →