Tomorrow will be a better day

It is 11:00PM and I have been sitting here praying and crying, asking God to PLEASE help me with my 5 1/2 year old daughter. Today, we have been butting heads. She has become so disrespectful towards me. She actually told me "NO" several times today and has tried to tell me what to do all day long. Today, in anger I told her "I guess you don't need a Mommy anymore because you have all the answers!" Which then she proceeded to cry and I felt like doo doo. I need to learn to send myself for a time-out and just get control of myself before I talk to my child who is making me angry.
I would say this is a stage, except she’s been battling me since the day she could talk. But I think I asked for it…when I found out I was having a girl, I asked God to give me a strong, independent daughter, who never doubted herself, and could stand on her own two feet. Some say God has a sense of humor! *wink* Although we battle from time to time, I love her so much and thank God daily for the gifts he has given me.
When I first made the decision to home school I knew we were going to have bad days occasionally, but today was an all day event. From the moment we woke up to the time my daughter went to bed we have been going at it. After my daughter went to bed I sat on the couch and prayed and cried and felt lead to go to my daughter's room and comfort her and let her know that I love her and that tomorrow will be a better day. She hugged me and told me that she loved me and I cried a little more while we snuggled for a few minutes. I can definitely say that while I am schooling my daughter, God is also schooling me. He is trying to teach me patience, unselfishness and understanding, but at the same time to stand firm on what I know that he has called me to do, and that is love her and bring her up in His ways. And yes, tomorrow WILL BE a better day.

Pure Imagination

This song just makes me want to be a kid again and the images are just beautiful. The new commercial that has this song in it prompted me to look it up on youtube. Just sit back, turn up your speakers, relax and enjoy it. :)

Fingerprint Art

About 2 weeks ago I saw that the by Little Hands blog was using Ed Emberly's Complete funprint Drawing Book.
I am always looking for fun art or craft ideas to try out with my daughter. So I clicked on over to Amazon.com and found a used one for around $4.00.  I received the book last week and I decided to use it on Friday as my daughter's Art/Craft time.  We had SOOO much fun!

This is my five year old's fingerprint artwork.

 

Even Mama got in on the action. I think I had more fun with it then she did.

This is the cover of the book. He also has other Fingerprint books that are a little more advanced.

Mommytography

Woohoo!!  I am the winner of a free "Mommytography 101" online class from the Work of HeART and Soul blog.  I am so excited! I love taking pictures of my family and our homeschooling life but I would love to have more of a professional look to them. If you are interested in taking a Mommytography class, just click on the button below.

Winner!!

The winner of the fabulous book "Because I Said So" by Dawn Meehan is...
Jennifer @ Parenting in Blue Jeans.
Congratulations and Enjoy!!
Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog to leave comments and be entered for a chance for the book giveaway.
(Winner was chosen by www.random.org)

Just for the Joy of it

Every Thursday, Good True & Beautiful blog does a post called "Just for the Joy of it", and I will be joining in.  For those of you who remember growing up in the 80's or were born in the 80's will remember this wonderful song.  I couldn't sleep last night, so I was on the computer, and I came across this video and song.  As one commenter put it  "this track always brings back magical echoes of the now distant 80's for me", and that's pretty much how I feel. I love listening to this song, "Just for the Joy of it"!

Two Cent Tuesday

I am starting a series of posts called "Two Cent Tuesday".  This is where I will just give my opinion on random things that I happen to be thinking about.  So, here goes!

Planning a party is hard work.  Any mom who has planned a 5 year olds birthday party or  wants all of her friends to stop by for whatever party company (Premier Jewelry, Southern Living, etc...) happens to be the latest fad, knows that a lot of work and money go into party planning.  Excitedly, you put the invitations in the mail, and ask that everyone RSVP, so you will have some idea who will actually be at your party.  Then a week before your party only 2 people have called to RSVP, so you get your phone list out and start calling. Does anyone, anymore, realize that RSVP means that you are to contact me WHETHER OR NOT you can attend?   Please tell me, is it just me or does anyone else experience this?   It only takes a minute out of someone's day to RSVP.  I always RSVP, because I think it's just rude not too.  I've also tried putting "RSVP regrets only" and it still didn't work.  Does anyone have any special tricks to find out how many people will be attending your party before the actual day of the party?

Sorry, I think this turned out to be more of a Rant, then a Two Cent.

Ultimate Blog Party 2010

Hi, my name is Rhonda and I live in the Jacksonville, FL area. This is my first year participating in the ultimate Blog Party. I have been happily married (ummmmm... yes, this is true) to my husband, Tommy, for almost 13 years now. We have one beautiful 5 year old daughter and we will hopefully be adopting within the next 6 months or so.

I blog mostly about what I am currently interested in, which happens to be Cooking, Cleaning, Homeschooling, Child Rearing, Crafts, my Faith or whatever happens to be going on at the moment. It really is an eclectic blog.

Just to let you know a little more about me:

1. I am 38 years old.
2. I have one brother and one sister, I am the oldest.
3. I love to read. Sometimes I like to read for entertainment, but I LOVE to read for knowledge. I have a bookshelf full of many different categories, i.e... Nutrition, History, Politics, Child Rearing, Education, etc...
4. I love fruit type desserts instead of Chocolate.
5. I drive a Limo occasionally on the weekends to make extra money.
6. I own a Hot Dog Cart.
7. I get very anxious during a Lightning or Thunder storm.
8. I don't like being out at night by myself.
9. I seem to be obsessed with the number 11. I see it everywhere! I can't get away from it.
10. I have always lived in the same city my whole life. Although, I would love to live in another city just to say I have lived somewhere else.
11. I let my 5 year old daughter watch WAY TOO MUCH TV. (I need to work on this one)
12. When I am not homeschooling or watching TV, ahem...I mean cleaning, I am on the computer with FB or most recently working on my blog.

Being that I am new to the blogging community I am looking forward to meeting many new bloggers today and hopefully finding a lot of interesting blogs that I can glean some interesting ideas from or just for pure entertainment. I am so amazed at the witty and talented bloggers out there!

I do have a giveaway by the way!! A book titled, "Beacause I Said So..." by Dawn Meehan. If you are in the mood for a good laugh then you will like this book. Dawn Meehan is also a member of the blogging community http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ . Leaving a comment below will enter you for a chance to win a copy of this book.

If I were to win any prizes from the UBP10 it would be the following:


US39 -Be My Guest certificate ($250 value) for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn. donated by Hilton Garden Inn

US11 – A $100 gift eCertificate to Restaurant.com, immediately redeemable online at over 13,000 restaurants nationwide. donated by EarnestOne

US7 -   Tupperware Prize Pack – the winner will receive a box filled with fun Tupperware goodies.
donated by Marine Corps Nomads


If these prizes are already taken, I wouldn't mind any other prize. (Except for Netflix, already have it.)



Have a great day Partying!

God Bless & Enjoy,
Rhonda

OAMC (Once a month Cooking)

I thought this was a wonderful idea and enlisted my cousin, Shontelle, to do it with me. She was just as excited as I was to possibly save money on our grocery bill and help save us time in the kitchen, and also shore up a food supply of more nutritious lunches and snacks for our kids. I found the idea from www.moneysavingmom.com. She challenged her blog followers to a "Cook from the Freezer Challenge" and many of her followers are posting the outcome and successes of this challenge, so here goes mine.

My cousin arrived at 9:30a and we promptly got started on the task at hand. We started doing the prep items, such as cutting onions and browning ground beef, etc... Then we got our 3 crockpots started with Chili, Beef Stew and BBQ Chicken. Then we made 6 casseroles; 2 lasagna, 2 potato& ham casseroles and 2 chicken, rice & broccoli casseroles. We had some left over lasagna ingredients so we made an extra lasagna for lunch and it was a hit.

My cousins youngest, Morgana, loved the lasagna.

After we were finished with our lunch break we started on the pumpkin muffins and burritos. the last thing we did was make homemade chicken nuggets and pancakes. Wow, we couldn't believe it was 7:30p when we were finally finished. We put everything on the table to see what we had accomplished for the day.

We are anxious to see what works out and how long it will last us. Overall, it was a very exhausting day, but I think we will definitely do it again. However, we might break it up into 2 days instead of one marathon day. We were literally good for nothing at the end of the day. Luckily I had plenty of food on hand, so I popped a few burritos into the microwave and then topped them off with some cheddar cheese, sour cream and salsa. Voila', dinner is served!

Homeschool Easter Party!

We had such a fun time at our first Homeschool Easter Party.

We had Bunny Rabbit Cupcakes.

We did a fun Craft of Paper Plate Bunnies

I found a neat Blog that had a recipe for Chocolate Bird Nests.

Then the kids went outside and played in the sandbox for awhile.

We had a really great day. Can't wait until next Easter!