Last December, our family started a new tradition where we have worship time each evening. I wanted my kids to understand the importance of worshipping the Lord, so they take turns picking a special song that's on their hearts to sing before bed. As well-intentioned as the time seems, there's plenty of fighting over whose turn is next, accompanied by dancing that leads to bumped heads- but I know God is working through the chaos. 
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Every night my sweet daughter, Genevieve, requests an Anne Wilson song. I think the lyrics of "Sunday Sermon" about being seven years old in church caught her attention and heart. This week was Genevieve's sixth birthday and coincidentally was Anne Wilson's debut album launch!
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Thanks to Momentum Influencers, I got to be the coolest mom and join in for Anne Wilson's debut CD  live stream event where we heard some of Anne's new music. My new favorite song, "Mama," is timed perfectly for mother's day, and features the lovely Hillary Scott of Lady A - such a fun surprise for us all! 

As my girls watched with stars in their eyes, I was able to type a special question into the chat for Anne with the hope she might answer- and she did!
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I asked her what advice she'd give to children who'd like to grow up and perform like her and she said:

"Those growing up wanting to be artists- work super hard at what you do. Never give up. Fix your eyes on Jesus."

What a great answer to accompany a lovely CD launch- I hope my kids hold that advice close to their hearts on each & every road they travel! 

If you haven't yet heard Anne Wilson's new album make sure you check it out!  You can buy or stream it here.

"My Jesus" features fifteen original songs- it's debut single "My Jesus" has been the #1 single on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart for 7 total weeks! The CD includes:

1. Prelude (Scatter)
2. Scatter
3. My Jesus
4. Devil
5. Sunday Sermons
6. Hey Girl
7. This House
8. Mansions
9. Mamas (with Hillary Scott)
10. No Place Like Home
11. God Thing
12. That’s What We Need
13. Something About That Name
14. Closer To God
15. My Jesus (feat. Crowder)
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AND I'm thrilled to be giving away an autographed copy to one lucky reader! 
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While you're waiting to see if you won the CD- you can get even MORE excited by watching her story!
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Disclosure: Many thanks to Universal Music Group for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced my monetary compensation. ​

Growing up in Connecticut yielded frigid, snowy winters. By the time February appeared, the white beauty of snow had outworn its welcome, and the grey frozen slush was entrapping. Before spring had time to peak, a few warm days would surface as a relief from the cold: my February thaw.

As a child, I'd take the opportunity to mash the melting snow under my boots. As a teen, I'd wear something skimpy and attempt a tan from the frail rays of the sun. This February has brought a different thaw, one unrelated to the weather, as we wade through another round of sickness in our busy lives.

Three weeks of this cough, and that sneeze, melted away our normal routine into the slush of television and computer games. But, there's been a surprise silver lining- or red! Beautiful cardinals have been flying about our back yard. This sparked a brand new desire in our homeschool- to learn about the our feathery friends!

We set up a bird feeder, and my kids have made sure the birds are the best fed birds in the neighborhood! Then, we discovered The Good and Beautiful Birds supplement! This has been filled with some simple lessons and great ideas to fly out new passion into a homeschool lesson!

Though we're slowly getting back to normal- our new normal is filled with wonderful discoveries from our February that! 

Back in December, Muan sent me her due date and asked me to pray for her upcoming delivery. Hearing the losses she'd suffered broke my heart, and I began praying for a peaceful, supernatural delivery of her third baby!

She writes,

"Hello Alexandra,

 I gave birth to a healthy baby boy on the 21st December 2021 after 6 years of marriage.  I had  a miscarriage in 2019 at 7 weeks of pregnancy and a still birth last year on the 16th of December 2020 in my  8th month of pregnancy.  When I was grieving over the loss of my baby , the Lord gave me peace that He would bless me again.  

I needed an assisted delivery (vacuum assisted delivery) because the baby's face was up and at one point the baby's heartbeat started dropping. Through all of that I was completely at peace , I kept repeating Bible verses in my mind, especially Psalm 23 and 2 Timothy 1:7 . I held on to the Truth that God hasn't given me the spirit of fear. 

Though my delivery wasn't pain free or injury free, I still believe it was supernatural in the way the peace of God swept over me during the labour and the birth and I didnt have an iota of fear nor did I panic in any way. 

Our God is a wonder working, supernatural God who delights in doing good for His children. Praise God and praise God. "

​Each New Year starts with frantically looking for calendars to keep track of our schooling and activities. Maybe, one year soon, I'll start this process before January, but that wasn't happening with our bout of covid. For 2022, I ordered a notebook calendar as a homeschool log and found a beautiful 16 x 26 acrylic wall calendar to help keep our family organized! 

Growing up, my family had a dry erase calendar where we'd record our activities in the specially selected color for each family member. It sat next to the corded phone (my, times were different!), and at a glance, it gave us a good sense of how the week would go. 
 
This calendar reminds me of the one we used, but it offers a sleek minimalistic style. I was impressed with the quality of the nickel accents and love how the calendar is offset from the wall! Each box is a generous size for recording activities (or decorating, as my kids love to do!).
​We've been having a lot of fun with this board and have found it can be used for much more than just a schedule.  It's perfect for things like:

I've used both dry erase and fine-tipped chalk pens on this board. The chalk pens are my favorite and offer a vibrant color and can be wiped off with a damp cloth, making events less prone to disappearing with all the little hands in my house.. The dry erase markers still showed up well and appear slightly more opaque, making it a close second!

Funny story: The other day, someone tagged me in a post of a graphic I created four years ago. I had pretty much forgotten that ever existed, so I decided to check out the original blog post, and I couldn't remotely remember writing it! Call it getting old, or mom brain, but I was laughing out loud at my own joke!

In the post, I discuss the origin of New Year's Resolutions, whether or not they're "Christian," and share some great Scripture to focus on as we dive into a brand new start!
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Plus, it's got mom jokes and footnotes!
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Check it out below:

​Cheers to a wonderful New Year, filled with fresh hope!

    Fall seems to be showing up here in Georgia, except it's still hot. Instead of relying on the outdoor temps, I've set my oven to 350 degrees and have been enjoying classic fall baking.
Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Chili, Apple Cookies, and flavorful Carrot Cake have been bringing my beloved Connecticut fall to my new Georgia kitchen! 

     Of course, sugar is no ones friend, so I've adapted this sweet, comforting recipes, to be slightly healthier by reducing the sugar and cutting out the butter- but don't worry, you'll never notice! Also missing from this recipe is a can of pineapple because...who remembers to buy that at the store??

I do apologize for not snapping better pictures... I was hungry!
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​One of my favorite Christmas poems is "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. My oldest recited it on Christmas Eve a few years back, and we always enjoy it as the Christmas season rolls into view.
 
This year, we have a new addition to our poem about Christmas bells with a set of our very own Merry Bells for Christmas fun. I shared about them a few months back, and how they were an easy way to introduce music into your homeschool routine.

Merry Bells have also added a wonderful jingle to our pre-Christmas season! We printed out some of the Christmas song bell charts to practice mixing the tones, while singing the Christmas melodies that we already know and love. The music sheets have been beneficial to focusing on blending notes to create the right tone. After mastering that, we can focus on the rhythm and singing along- pretending it isn’t still 80 degrees outside!
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I’m hopeful that by starting our Christmas music practice now, we’ll be able to play some great songs for our Christmas guests- and I can’t wait to pull out the dvd’s and enlist our guests in playing along with us!

If you’d like to add Merry Bells to your Christmas rhythm- you can save 10% by using code:

​I still remember the nervous pit I felt in my stomach before each new year of elementary school began. Of course, it faded away after the first day and was replaced with excitement, but as a mom, I experience those same nerves before starting my children’s homeschool year! Each year has its ups, its downs, messes, and moments of utter chaos, but a few tips help me to pull through and make the most of this messy journey!

​This works particularly well if you're running a 4 day per week homeschool schedule. Work with child A and C on Monday to Thursday and child B and D Thursday through Sunday. There's less of a break for mom, but the days themselves may just be more peaceful! 
 
Another option to divide and conquer if you're on a 5 day per week schedule is to work with one set of children in the morning, and another in the afternoon. In our house, this looks like morning lessons with my pre-school and 1st grader, then an after lunch history storytime with all my children, then more focused lessons with my 2nd and 4th grader.

​Certain subjects are easier than others for each child. Depending on age and strengths, find a streamlined online option for that student to work through. For example, my five-year-old loves math and enjoys Mathseeds, so that's one subject she can work on independently with a program that I trust to build a strong number foundation.

​I know in the homeschool circles we run in, rhythm is a common catchphrase. Think of it like breathing. There's the inhale, the fast-paced run around or higher stress lesson times, and the exhale of independent play or quiet reading time. Simply observing the natural rhythm that takes place without intervention can help you build off of a hidden pattern that's already taking place around you.
 
For example:  Our days tend to be tense from 9-10, while some of my students work [and fight for my attention], but we take a break around 11 to start lunch. That's an inhale, and an exhale.
After lunch and outside time, it's time for another inhale with some of our more challenging lessons, but an exhale comes around 2 when I attempt to get my toddler to nap.

​With the presence of video chatting platforms these days, why not incorporate a video call with a relative as some learning time? My son enjoys reading chapters of books to his grandparents and quizzing them after, and my daughter likes memorizing poems to share. You could even consider asking a relative to pitch hit a lesson via zoom. 

​It's ok when lessons don't go as planned… It's ok to switch curriculum in the middle of the year… it's ok to blaze your own path… it's ok to say "no" to too many activities. Give yourself the grace to grow just as you give your children grace to learn and explore.  Remember, there isn't a right or wrong way to homeschool- just what works for you and your students!

​James is two weeks old today, and I've wanted to write up his birth story while it’s fresh in my mind… 
 
I went for a walk with my kids and my parents throughout the neighborhood and after, I was feeling a lot of pressure in my pelvis as I ran around the kitchen and made lunch. My parents ran to the store, and my husband was on his way home from work early, and I decided to take a bath and try to assess what was going on with my body. I was having some random contractions, but mostly pressure, and I figured that a bath might make contractions taper off if it wasn’t true labor. 
 
While I was in the bath, I started having a panic moment that I've had in every labor right around the transition phase where I have to deal with any and all fear related to actually pushing a baby out of me. I wasn’t feeling filled with faith…  at all, and knew I was at that moment where the rubber met the road, and had to embrace what might come next.
 
I had an appointment at the birth center at 3, and I had intended to go myself, but with all the pressure I was feeling, I decided to have my husband take me and to bring all of my birth supplies just in case. When we got to the appointment, I explained what had been going on and the midwife checked my cervix and was completely shocked that I was at 7 cm. 
 
They gave us the option of going out for dinner, or staying at the center, and I decided to stay and "settle in” emotionally because I knew a birth center was a bit different than my previous home births. 
 
I met the on call midwife, and she was divinely appointed to be there for our birth. We chatted a bit, and I told her about my previous births and some of my concerns and fears with this birth. She really wasn’t sure what to make of the situation and explained that she’s not used to women coming in and smiling and talking at 7cm and wasn’t sure if she’d just have to catch a baby at any random moment. 
 
I labored on a ball for a while and worked on figure eights to help get the baby in a better position. I continued to have mild contractions that got down to about 3 minutes, so I decided to get in the tub. But, as I stayed in the tub for about 20 minutes, my contractions grew further apart so I decided to get out. Then the midwife checked on baby’s position, which was still posterior, so we did some spinning babies techniques. She mentioned it was normal for contractions to slow with these, and my labor pretty much stopped. 
 
By now, it was 10 at night and I was disappointed. I had never had a labor stall out, but our wonderful midwife suggested some options. We could sleep there and see if anything else happened naturally, we could try a breast pump, or membrane strip, or go home and come back if things progressed in the night. 
 
I talked it over with my husband, and at this point, I made up my mind that I wanted to be home in the morning when my kids woke up with their new baby brother. I had to make a conscious decision to let my body go into labor, and tune off all the distractions that were keeping me from mentally entering "labor land." 
 
I opted for a membrane strip and then decided to stop all the enjoyable chit chatting and pace around the hallways by myself to get it the right mental spot. During this time, I'd have contractions, most of which I kept walking through, and they still weren't regular which made me worry labor wasn’t progressing. 
 
I went back to the birth room and decided to try to sleep, but before I could climb in the bed I heard a pop and my water broke. In all my births, this was the first "pop" experience I had and it was kind of cool. I woke up my husband and told him to get the midwife and she came with the nurse quickly. 
 
By this point, my mind was fully in "laborland" and I walked to the bathroom and they asked what I wanted to do and I just said I didn't know, which was a clear sign my mind was fully withdrawn to my body. I eventually said I wanted to get in the tub, and they started the water, and then reminded me that things could slow again, and they wouldn't be able to help with positioning as well, so I opted to go on the bed. I knew I'd be pushing momentarily, but I was surprised by how much these contractions were actually doing the pushing and moving for me. In between each, I felt like I could sleep, and told the midwife that because I was worried she might step out if she saw me sleeping, but she reaffirmed that it was simply the hormones doing their job and I was almost there. 
 
After a few of these really strong contractions, I felt the urge to push, so I did. In one push, his head and an arm emerged, and with the quickest hands on earth, our amazing midwife was able to untangle James from being double wrapped in his cord. Then, with a second quasi push, he was born! 
 
James came at 37 weeks and 6 days, but was a whopping 7lbs 14 ounces for that gestation. A further surprise was that the placenta WAS circumvallate (the first ultrasound showed it and second didn’t). Due to this, and his crazy one arm up, posterior, and tangled in cord, I was so thankful he came that day and not weeks later when he could have been well over 10 lbs. 
 
Of course, we’re all over the moon in love and so thankful he’s joined our family!!
And, just like I envisioned, we got home just in time to greet my older three when they woke up with their baby brother and was greeted by my early rising 5 year old.
 
I'm so thankful that God planned the perfect time, the perfect people to help, and provided the peace and strength I needed at each step of the way!

It's been busy around my house these last few weeks and consequently very quiet on my website and social media. We welcomed James on 7/29 and have been loving all the snuggles and family bonding time! 

I'll be back in the fall with some new content, new fun products, and plenty of adventures to share!