Relaxing and Staying Warm for the Weekend

We have holed up this weekend, its cold and there is snow outside.

Well some days are below 30 degrees and others are around 70 degrees in the same week.

I am not a fan of the cold by any stretch of the imagination.

Kids went outside for a few minutes to explore the snow on Friday. They Loved it! Tabby stayed until her hands hurt from the cold and then screamed when we made her come in to warm up.

We have been watching movies and alternating comfort food and pizza delivery.

We had chips and sandwiches for lunch then we had homemade Pot Pie for supper.

I got really excited tonight when I found out about the new candle coming out next week for April Fools Day from Jewelry in Candles. Grand prize for this candle is .An all expenses paid vacation for 2 to Disney World in Orlando FL. Airfare, on resort room, meal plan and park tickets!

Tomorrow is Church for the big kids while Mommy spends quality time with Tabby. She is still scared of being in small rooms with strangers ex. nursery and can't sit still long enough for Big Church.

I will be getting my grocery list and making list of where all I need to go to go finish paying bills and running errands on Monday.

Monday we will be picking up on our ASL lessons from Friday. We are trying to get the kids and Mommy to where we can have a No talking day, ASL only.

We ordered in new workbooks as Acheron and Ilyana have almost finished the ones they just got. They Love to finish them as fast as they can so they can have more free learning days until the new ones arrive.

March Meal Plan

Busy day today, planning what all needs to be done on Friday Payday.

what bills to pay where and when
what all household supplies we need
write up a meal plan
gathered a grocery list from the meal plan

after doing all that I played with the kids some and relaxed with a book. (we took a bad weather day today)


we do cereal for breakfast and sandwiches or ramen noodles for lunch so...

Here is our Dinner meal plan for march

 1 salisbury steak
 2 pizza
 3 baked potato*
 4 grilled cheese*
 5 pot pie*
 6 salmon patties*
 7 hot dogs
 8 mac and cheese with wieners
 9 biscuits and gravy
10 meat loaf*
11 enchiladas*
12 salisbury steak
13 pizza
14 baked potato*
15 hot dogs
16 store lasagna
17 pot pie*
18 grilled cheese*
19 biscuits and gravy
20 meat loaf *
21 enchiladas*
22 salmon patties*
23 pizza
24 store lasagna
25 pot pie*
26 baked potato*
26 mac and cheese with wieners
27 hot dogs
28 pot pie*
29 pizza
30 salmon patties*
31 sausage stir fry*

* made at home not from a box
 If you want the recipe to any of these just let me know in the comments section!!

New Scent Release on Feb 24th

Soo excited for this new scent coming out on tuesday!!!


Love is in the air. the sweet soothing aroma, of pink roses, jasmine, and soft violets, will sweep you off your feet. A light and romantic fragrance with lingering base notes of sweet musk and unique woodsy notes. Natural soy moonlit serenade scented candles and tarts.

I am ordering mine payday!! order yours at www.LovingJic.com 

Bake Sale and a Lesson

Saturday the kids held a bake sale.

Ilyana sold two kinds of mini cupcakes, brownies, and blueberry muffins.

Little Henry sold homemade Lemonade.

They worked the sale from 9-2.

Their first customer bought all of the brownies and some lemonade. Then No customers for Hours.

They took one dollar out of the money they earned, and went to the dollar general around the corner from us, to get a poster board.

We had a new friend come by to help with the sale and she painted them a sign. The kids then took it to the busy corner near us about a block and a half away. They held the sign up trying to draw in more customers.

They succeeded in getting One customer. That's all they needed, the nice couple that stopped bought them out of everything they had left!!!

After the sale was over they paid back Mom for the baking mixes and lemonade supplies.

They ended up making 9 dollars each. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon adventure.

They learned that with work and advertising they can earn money but that you also have to spend money on supplies to make money.

Saturday had a temperature of  65 degree. Today on Sunday our high is 40 with rain and snow.... so it will be a while before they can attempt this or any of their other outdoor ways of earning money.

After the sale they didn't want to stop selling so they took mom's flyer's and goodie bags for my Jewelry in candles business and went off handing them out to everyone they know and their friends decided to help and took them to everyone they know too.

Results. Kids learned that money is earned and about paying expenses to find the profit. Mom got to watch them learn and got some free advertising done by the kids!! We made a new friend, kids ended up having a sleepover, and some pride in earning their own spending money.

Dorito Casserole

Ingredients
1 bag of doritos your choice flavor (i favor ranch)
1 pound hamburger meat
taco seasoning
shred cheese
shred lettuce
diced tomatoes


In a skillet brown the hamburger meat,drain and season with taco seasoning
loosely crumble the whole bag of doritos into the bottom of the casserole dish
add the hamburger meat on top of that
layer on the lettuce then cheese then tomato's
bake at 350 till the cheese melts and lettuce starts to wilt

Fun activity with the kids

My kids Love when we run out of laundry soap.

They fight over who will do the most to make our next batch.

They even start doing laundry just so they can use it,this attitude lasts about a week.

Assign each child one of the tasks, grating the soap, measuring out the powders, stirring.

You get to have a great time and make something a lot more useful than the old macaroni art.

To make liquid Laundry Soap:

Ingredients
1 bar of soap grated per 5 gallons (I use Ivory soap) you can get a 3pk for $2.00
1 cup borax $3.00
1 cup arm and hammer washing soda $3.00
1 cup of oxyclean small tub 3.00
so about 11.00 makes 15 gallons

Grate one bar of soap with cheese grater or food processor.

Put grated soap in pan with 2 quarts water and gradually heat, stirring constantly until soap is completely dissolved.

Put 4.5 gallons of really hot tap water in a 5-gallon bucket

and stir in 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda until completely dissolved.

1 cup of oxyclean to this as well

Pour soap mixture from pan into 5-gallon bucket. Stir well.

Cover and leave overnight.

Stir until smooth and pour into gallon jug or whatever you decide to use as your laundry bottle.

Use 1/2 to 1 cup per load.

How much could this save your family???

Our Homeschool Plan for the Week

This week with our homeschool schedule is going to be

Monday - Home Ec, learning personal finance, business, cooking and cleaning

Tuesday - workbooks and reading and library time

wednesday - science Reading aloud and history videos

thursday - workbooks and reading

friday - our foreign language class - ASL

Monday I will be calling our Local EMS to schedule a field trip to go talk to them and see the ambulance for the kids.

Tuesday I will call or go by the local Fire dept and see about scheduling a field trip with them as well.

I will continue to work on my business while they are doing workbook time and after school with their help.

They are learning so much about not just Facts but Life as well with this model of learning.

They are learning the difference between assets, liabilities, budgeting, how to cook, clean, and shop on a budget.

How to work together as a team to accomplish goals, from simply running a home smoothly and to help run a business with a mutual goal.

We are so glad we chose to homeschool the children so they could learn what they need for life instead of just facts to pass tests.

Finding Balance in my Life that's Out of Balance

I have been so off balance with my life the last couple of weeks.

Trying to start a business, write my Blog and grow it, Home school the children, run the house, be a wife and mother.

It's exhausting just reading what I have been trying to do.

I apologize for falling behind in doing quality posts on here. I have been studying so much on my business and how to sell that my brain didn't have a lot left to offer.

My kids schedule with their home school keeps them pretty self sufficient with regards to that. However Mom is still on call to help with anything they don't understand fully.

I started with a direct sales company called Jewelry In Candles. Selling you guessed it Soy Candles with Jewelry inside them. I have been trying to network, learn selling strategies, get samples, catalogs, and all the other little things that go with it going.

Create a meal plan we can all live with. Shop for it, remember it, and Cook it. I need to reprint and put it on my fridge so that I can remember what to defrost and when.

We have doctors and dentist appointments coming up for all 4 kids. Of course they are dreading them, afraid that they will need shots.

I am also trying to find the time to fit in driving lessons. I somehow made it to 30 unable to drive.

Oh and we also got a new kitten this week. We named her Raven, she is black with a little grey and brown mixed in. Tabitha my toddler tells us that its name is not Raven its kitty cat.... she gets so adamant about this its cute.

I need to sit down and come up with a schedule so I can meet all of my goals without falling as short as I have. I will be posting 3 times a week maybe more but 3 times for sure.

Never Give Up!!

Wow I could never do that or I am thinking of homeschooling?

It breaks my heart when parents tell me how their child is being bullied and they are thinking of pulling their child but don't think they could Homeschool them.

If both parents work I can understand this might SEEM really hard but do you have a relative, family friend, or babysitter that could supervise them as they work?

You can buy a whole years curriculum online and it comes with lesson plans usually telling you how many pages of which books per day. There are answer sheets for grading, and youtube video's for nearly any subject to help if you don't know how to explain something. Khan Academy on youtube teaches math from single digit adding all the way to calculus. the money you save on back to school clothes and supplies pays for this.

There are online schools like K12. Where they do the school work online! No workbooks to keep up with.

Yes, you need to check with the state Laws. Some are very simple others are very detailed. I am lucky Texas actually encourages Home School and makes it easy for the parents to do so.

If your child is being Physically or Mentally hurt at their school go to the teacher.If nothing is done or not enough is done go to the principle. Same thing if nothing is done go to the superintendent followed by the school board. Change schools if you think it will help.But DO Something!!!

Do Not Leave your child to suffer. To many kids each year commit suicide because of this. Others are mentally scarred and carry the trauma through life.

Make sure that the people you entrust your childs education and safety to actually do the job you expect them to do.

I hear people say I must be really strong emotionally to homeschool 3 kids myself. Or they Say they could never do that. If you get a schedule down mine is loose.( see our schedule or a day in the life) Then it flows easily. Yes some days are harder than others,when life happens. However we have the flexibility to say, ok we have doctors appointments for 4 kids today, we are taking the day off.

 It is better that your child feels safe and free to learn. If they see school and learning as something to be feared it doesn't bode well for them in this ever competitive corporate world. Don't let your fear or theirs stifle their Education.

You are your Children's Best, and usually only, advocate so fight for what is best for them.No one loves them like you do.

Food Safety

Please Sign the Petition at http://foodbabe.com/cereal/   

Its time they made the cereal as safe to eat here in the US as they do in Europe!!

My kids are not guinea pigs Kellogg's.

(image from foodbabe.com)

Jewelry in Candles

the



You can buy these or one of our many scents of wax tarts or candles at Lovingjic.com

New schedule

Today we started a new homeschool schedule.

8-9 get dressed and eat breakfast

9-11 book work

11-12 lunch

12 -1 recess or tv depending on weather

1-3 independent study, reading, art, science

This freed up the mommy to work on her home based business selling scented soy candles with jewelry in them. I am always working on inventory, flyers, catalogs, meeting people and such.

Now the kids Love to help me handing out flyers or pretty much anything other than writing the contact information onto labels for the catalogs.

I think they are more excited than I am when our packages of supplies or inventory comes in. I bounce off the walls waiting for that mailman every time impatient to sniff all the wonderful wax tarts and candles.

The kids are learning about the hard work involved in self employment without the pressure. Mommy gets to meet other grown ups and bring in an income so its definitely a win-win for us.

Kids absolutely Loved the new schedule and watched the clock calling out how long till the next thing was.

Another Busy Day

Today was a BUSY day.

Kids voted to work on their reading and art today.

While they started this, I took Henry and Tabby to the library to get everyone some new books, and print out flyers for my Jewelry in Candles business.

Went to walmart to get an over the door shoe rack. Tabby's and Ilyana's shoes were everywhere. :D

Came home fixed Chef's salad with Olive Garden Italian dressing. They cleared their bowls.

I got my large flyers ready to put on bulletin boards in town, bought and set up a new domain name thats easier for customers than my original one for Jewelry in Candles. Then prepped the half page flyers to hand out and leave with local businesses.

We went to get our car's inspection sticker. Took Acheron with me. He loved the mechanic shop. They had a Shelby Cobra inside and a vintage pinball machine.Of course I immediately said don't touch anything. He was so in awe that the owner gave him a hot wheels car to play with. Acheron asked them if he could work there when he gets older. They said when he reaches High School age come back in and they might let him sweep up and start learning how to work on the cars.I am loving them for encouraging his interest.

Now I am resting up before I start supper. Its meatloaf night, a favorite in our house. Last time I made a 4 pound meatloaf we had No leftovers.

Valentines Gift Idea

GUYS its less than 2 weeks till valentines!! 

Get her a great smelling candle she will love! 

As a bonus it will have the jewelry inside you choose earrings, necklace or ring. (if in doubt go for necklace) 

We have lots of scents, Might I recommend Midsummers romance or Love Potion? 

a few clicks and your shopping is done and you are ready to surprise her!!
https://www.jewelryincandles.com/…/e…/c/106/romance-elixirs/