In 34 Years...

In 34 Years...

I have learned that my heart has grown so much throughout the years, to near bursting with love for my husband and children.
In 34 Years...

I have learned that what other people think of you is nowhere near as important as what your children and YOU think of you.

In 34 Years...
I have learned that time moves too quickly to spend it sitting on a couch and staring, get out there and LIVE and DO!

In 34 Years...

 I have learned that my parents were always right, even if they went about it in crazy ways and I am glad that I took the time to let them know how blessed I am to have them.

In 34 Years...

I have learned that we all make mistakes and it is in correcting them that we learn the most.

In 34 Years...

I have learned that true love can only be found once you love yourself and accept yourself as you are.

In 34 Years...

I have learned that the unsanswered prayers in my life are the best things that have ever happened to me.

Today, on my 35th birthday I have learned that I am loved more than I ever knew or even suspected.

THEY WON!!!! Their diorama depicting The Pigeon from the book Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo willems (using Peeps), won first place!! My kids were so thrilled to see their trophy and first place ribbon and mom and dad could not be prouder!

I love how much they learned by working together and also by encouraging their friends to vote! 

Enjoy every minute my friends! My menu plan will post tomorrow!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

This Moment...

In this moment I am...

~Sipping Jasmine Green tea
~Reading Panic by Lauren Oliver

~Nibbling green grapes
~Smelling a Country Apple candle
~Thinking of blog ideas for tomorrow

In This Moment, I am...

~Laying with my feet in my husbands lap
~Laughing to myself about something silly I heard earlier
~Printing out work for tomorrow
~Preparing for my book club by going over We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

~Wishing my kids were awake so we could all snuggle!

In This Moment, I am thinking of my favorite book store of all times...Town House books in St. Charles. Definitely stopping in for a visit this weekend.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Monday Morning Musings...

The weather in northern IL is chilly, it calls for a fire to be burning constantly, because I like to keep the thermostat at 65*. Yikes! I know, I know that's chilly but it saves us money and we all get to snuggle under warm blankets whenever we sit down! What do you keep your temp at if you are in a cold zone?

Remember earlier in the month I mentioned my goal of drinking 1 gallon of water a day. Whoa, this has been such a wake up call for me. I am LOVING the water, but not loving the bathroom trips. It's still too early for me to notice much, except that I am not snacking as much nor am I craving too much in between meals. 

Are your bookshelves exploding? Mine are! One thing that I am doing to solve this is to get a group of people together in my home to swap and sell our books! I am setting up tables throughout my home and we will be set up to swap books for other friends or sell them if we cannot find a trade. I am very excited about this and will keep you posted on how it turns out! 

Teach the alphabet & letter sounds in no time!

A great way to teach letter sounds and/or the alphabet is with coloring pages, get yours HERE!!
1. Day One: As each letter is colored, have them sound out and say each letter. 

2. Day Two: print out a second copy and do the same. 

3. Day Three: Laminate the colored pages and cut out each letter combo evenly from 1 of the pages. (Saying each letter and letter sound as you cut it out to make flashcards)

4. Day Four: Repeat Day Three!

5. Day Five: You now have a set of Memory Game cards. Play with a few letters at a time and build up to playing with the entire alphabet. As each card is turned over say the letter and the sound.

Enjoy!

Are you a thrifter? Flashcard collector? I am using a mug tree to hold flashcard collections. This makes them easy to find and also keeps them out and on display. I change them out monthly and I notice that they are always being thumbed through! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Goodbye 2014!

As we close out a year and I reflect back on what was 2014, I am just left a muddled mess. This was a year of love, loss, togetherness, family, distance, travel and so much more. We lost loved ones, welcomed new ones and did so much. We took a large paycut to have more family time and this year saw us lose family members, not to death, but by choice. Sometimes it is necessary to just cut the stress out of your life.

Homeschooling reached a stride where I no longer felt the need to compete with other schools but to challenge my children in new and creative ways, where they learned more than they ever could about topics that interest them and still kept up with their book studies as well.

2014 became the year of our family, we decided it was time to make a difference in our surrounding world by helping out and to strengthen our bonds as parents, lovers and people. It was also time to become a true family unit that shares, plays and talks. We had dinner together every single night in 2014. This sometimes meant eating a very early dinner or a very late one, but we always ate together. This is now our priority. If my husband and I had a date night, we still 'ate' with the kids before we headed out, by sitting and chatting with them at the table.

The year taught us a lot about people and places and things. It made us realize how so much in life is unnecessary and just a waste of time. As our kids grew older and wiser, we learned more about them and they about us. They seemed to really grow into their personalities this year.

Our travels took us out of state 10 times this year and to 7 different states. We made each opportunity a learning one and in doing that we all had fun learning new things. This was a year of blessings and triumphs as well as troubles and scares. We had a happy 2014 but only hope that 2015 brings us an even better year. 

Thank you all for sticking by me this year and for your comments and messages. I truly appreciate each and every one of you and wish nothing but the best for your 2015. As our children grow older, let me remind you once again to take the time to enjoy every minute.

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Thoughts & Musings...

Happy day, it's Friday of course! I finally bought a 2015 planner and have been keeping busy filling it in. How is it that a year can fill up without even having arrived yet? My goodness we spend too much time being busy don't we? My husband leaves for work around 5 in the morning and I try to get up with him and then enjoy my quiet time for 2 hours. I grab my favorite mug, put on the kettle and then have a seat. I catch up on my favorite blogs, organize my day and send any emails or return any.

My favorite mug is the Minnie one from this set in Disney World. While it is a completely ordinary mug, it was a time that I broke down in tears while on vacation and my husband even shed a few tears as we sat on the floor in Epcot. Why? Well we were on vacation for our 10 year anniversary, as we were married in Disney World 10 years ago. We were having an absolute blast and had just finished shopping for our youngest's birthday, he turned 7 in Disney World. Our older kids asked if they could wander the store alone for 15 minutes. They were armed with a cellphone and told to stick together and away they went. As we stepped out of the shop, the kids shoved a bag in our hands and said "happy anniversary." Yup, that did me in, they had spend their own money that they have taken a full year to collect and bought US something. They saw them in someones basket as we were all together, which is why they asked to leave apart from us. They ran up to that person and asked where they got them from, but when they got in line it was huge, so they told everyone that they were trying to buy a present for their parents for their anniversary but it was time to meet us at the front of the shop and they didn't want to get in trouble. Everyone let them ahead of them and complimented them on how sweet they were. Well that story made me sob even more and that is when my husband lost it. We wiped our tears and had a group hug right there in the middle of Epcot, on the ground, in the boiling sun. As I think about that story again, I am once again tearing up. My kids, so sweet, so kind and so amazing. We must be doing something right, right?

There are a few places I can get lost in during the quiet of the morning and if you get a chance, pop over and pay them a visit!
TwoBirdsBoutique are gals that you wish you could hang out with daily!

The Goodwillista always makes me wish I could find such cute clothes!

The Zen Spot is a great place to check out learning freebies online!

The Ewenique Boutique has me oohing and aahing over the babies and cute stuff!

Butterfly Blue Rosaries & Gifts is a place where I like to check out her creativity!

Phyllis at All Things Beautiful has an awesome homeschool going on over there!

That's if for my Follow Friday this week! Who do you enjoy following? Let me know in the comments, I love checking out new people!

Remember to enjoy every minute my friends!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Thoughts on Thursday...

This Thursday as we are out on a new adventure, I want to share some thoughts with you:
::I love being behind the camera
::I really think I am the luckiest wife on earth

::True joy hits me at the most random times and I grin like a crazy person
::I sometimes think I am an insomniac because my life is so Blessed, I don't want to sleep it away

::The best souvenirs are often free

::A simple smile from a stranger has the power to make the day amazing
::I love to dish out 3 compliments a day to strangers
::I find holding hands to be a way to pass strength to someone

I find peace in so many places, that I work them into my routine when I can:
::Book Shoppes are my Shangri la
::Farmers Markets can keep me occupied for hours
::Being in the garden relaxes me
::Charity Shops are my adventure
::Beaches are my playground

Share some wonderful thoughts with me in the comments!! Enjoy every minute my friends.

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Sailing Out of the Box!

When I was approached with an awesome idea from Tinker Lab about getting creative with a cardboard box, I knew straight away that this was something we were IN for! She is celebrating her blogging anniversary and what a great way to celebrate! It's one big blog party!! We have been wanting to make a spaceship for quite some time, but when the time to truly decide came around, the ideas were flying around like crazy!!


Gabriel: More Railroad and Car track like we made before:
http://michellescharmworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/craft-in-minute.html

Autumn: Wagon to pull kids and animals in

Roman: Circus Train

Gabriel: Roller Coaster

Roman: Race Car

Autumn: Space Ship

Roman: BOAT!!!

The Boat was obviously the winner and this is them working on it!
It is meant to be a child led activity and I am only there to help with the sharp stuff and to finish out an idea they have. Gabriel can be seen in the above photo gluing on the waves, they brought out our blue blanket that we usually keep in the car for outdoor activities and such. Roman is inside holding the glue on the dials and Autumn is fixing up the flag. They had a rough time with the flag and went through many different materials, before settling on a dowel that I happened to have! (first they tried paper towel tubes, then a wire hanger)

First things first, the little guy insisted it be named after him! hahaha!!! The Roman it became, and then it turned into a lesson as after my oldest wrote the name Roman insisted that there was NO Q in his name! The lower case A looked like a Q to him!

They put in a site scope because this started out as a pirate ship, if you look to the extreme right of the boat, you can see where it started to tear when they tried to get 2 of them to fit in the boat! haha

We used toilet paper tubes and old Disney World maps to make 3 sets of binoculars, when it became a whale watching boat (and penguins!!). They were able to do these themselves after I made the holes for the laces to go through and tied the knots.

Finally, they settled and it has remained a fishing boat! We were in the Dells and they saw some people fishing from their boats as we took a boat tour and I'm pretty sure that's where they got the idea from! I cut the fish, as it was cardboard and drilled the holes to make the fishing poles. They hooked on the paper clips and glued down the magnets!

All in all we have had a blast and the best part? This boat and 'river' have stayed in our living room for over a week and the kids keep playing with it almost daily! Please check out the linky and join us on everyone's cardboard box adventures!!!

~Michelle!~

: