Good news! Living on a Dime is once again offering their free 32-page ebook on how to celebrate Valentine’s day on a budget.  I went looking for this resource for you the other day and it wasn’t available, but now it is, so I had to share it with you.

I picked this ebook up in 2008 when it first came out and refer back to it each year for ideas.  If you don’t already have a copy, I recommend downloading it.

If you aren’t familiar with Living on a Dime, it’s a site run by a mom and daughter team: Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam, where they share how they each got out of debt and in Jill’s case raised her children on a very tight budget. 

These ladies are generous with their experience, and I’ve learned a lot from them, their site, and their ebooks over years.

In this free Valentine’s on a Dime ebook, they share

• Tips and ideas for making Valentine’s Day special for your spouse – on very little money
• Ideas to show your kids your love and affection without breaking the budget
• How to use after christmas season bargains for valentine’s day
• A variety special Valentine’s Day recipes and treats for lunches and dinner
• A gourmet Valentine’s Dinner menu for two for less than $10
• Ideas for Valentine’s gifts for your  kid’s friends and teachers (great for homeschool support group or co-op valentine’s parties)

So if you are interested in ideas to save money this Valentine’s Day, head over to the Living on a Dime site to download your free copy of Valentine’s On a Dime. 

Other Valentine’s Day on a Budget Related Posts:

• Valentine’s and Easter Gift Baskets for Kids (without the sugar rush!)

• Easy & Healthy Dinner Menu for Special Occasions

Feeding a large family?  I just ran across this and knew I had to share it with you.

Kelly Morris, a busy mom of 9 (and a fellow homeschooler), recently released her new e-cookbook: Just Get ‘Em Fed: Simple Whole Food Meals for Your Family.

And it’s free!

Not only does Kelly share her family’s favorite recipes across each type of meal, including

• casseroles
• pasta
• chicken
• beef
• slow cooker/crockpot

She also shares her strategies for menu planning, grocery shopping (w/kids in tow), and food storage, all with an eye on time and budget, and of course nutrition. 

If you are feeding a large family, grab your free copy of Just Get ’Em Fed and check out her suggestions. I know I found some new tips and a more than few new recipes to try out.

Also, while you are at it, be sure to check out Kelly’s site. She has a ton of information on staying balanced and managing life with a large family.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

We love audio books! I might even say that audio books are my best time saving tool as a work-at-home, homeschooling mom. I love to read to the kids, but I just don’t have enough time. So, we listen to audio books – in the car, during quiet time, while doing mundane tasks…  But buying audio books can get very expensive. Thankfully our library has a great selection, but they don’t have everything we want and my 11 year old has listened to nearly all that she’s interested in. Thankfully I found Librivox.org

Volunteers from Librivox.org are turning public domain works into audio book format. So many popular works that are in public domain (copyright before 1923) are now available for free in mp3 format from Librivox.org, including homeschool favorites like:

• Aesops Fables
• Anne of Green Gables (there are several recordings available)
• Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm
• Huckleberry Finn
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Little Women
• King Lear (and many others by Shakespeare)

The list goes on. Even classical history books like the ”Famous Men of…”  series are available.

The audio books can be downloaded onto your computer and then burned to CD or DVD or stored on a flash drive or your mp3 player.  I use iTunes to subscribe to the audio book I want and then download it to my …my daughter’s… iPod. I also use iTunes to burn copies to CD, so they can be listened to on a regular CD player.

We’ve even picked out stories from LibriVox.org to burn to CD as birthday gifts and Christmas gifts for friends and family. For the price of your time and the cd’s they make a great (frugal) gift! 

LibriVox’s “Our Catalog” search engine is better than many I’ve used. If you are looking for something specific, it’s worth using. The search results will show you both completed audio and works in progress. If a book you want is still in progress, they have a tool that will notify you via email when the audio book is completed and ready for download. 

The “Browse Entire Catalog” feature lists all the completed works in alphabetic order by author’s last name. If you are using classics in your curriculum or using curriculum that heavily uses public domain works (like A2, Robinson, or Old Fashioned Education), then this is a great resource to find the books on audio.

Also, if you or your older kids are looking for a service project, I recommend checking out LibriVox’s volunteers page.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

“I’m so tired of this! I just want to cry!”

I called my friend today to check in on her, make sure she was okay. And it turned out she just was completely overwhelmed. I’ve been there, said the exact same words. So, I told her to cry. It’s okay to let loose of the emotion. God gave us that mechanism for a physical release.  My friend’s been going through a LOT of challenges lately and a lot of change. It’s not easy. But she doesn’t have to be strong all the time.

While we know that God won’t give us more than we can handle, sometimes we just need to let loose of the emotion, figuratively get down on our knees, and be real in our emotion.  Then we can pick ourselves back up and, with God’s help, and that of our friends, keep on going. But sometimes we just need to let go first.

I’m pretty private in my emotions. But sometimes I just need to let it out. I use a journal book and prayer, but sometimes even I just need to lock myself in a quiet space and cry. Yeah, I’ll end up with a headache, but the next day I’m usually better focused, have a better perspective, and can move forward again.  I think that as women we sometimes expect too much from ourselves.  I know that my husband needs his down time, but for whatever reason it’s difficult for me to allow myself, or give myself that downtime.

If you are in a difficult spot right now, give yourself permission to take some time, to let out that repressed emotion, so that you can be refilled.

And in case it helps, here’s a free audio from Cindy Rushton that may encourage you.

Oops! My Cup is Empty and My Coffee Pot is Broke!
Audio Workshop Download With Cindy Rushton

Tired? Weary?  Find yourself overwhelmed by the tremendous load of motherhood? Do you consider this one of the most demanding, yet rewarding roles you will ever fill yet that send shivers down your spine?

Join Cindy as she exhorts you in your high calling.  This workshop shares Cindy’s heart as she shares about those good days and bad days, sweet memories and rather bitter moments that have made life so precious all along the way. 

Taking you on a journey back in Scripture to meet Hannah, Cindy shares God’s answers to her heart cry during times she has found her OWN cup empty while everything continued to hit all at once!

The biblical insights are sure to draw YOUR heart to your Heavenly Father AND to those you are pouring into. Join us as Cindy ministers encouragement and direction straight from the Word of God to your heart, soul, and mind!

Download by Mp3
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/OopsNashvilleMP3.mp3

(Listen to through your browser or download to your computer and listen via your MP3 player)

If this recording uplifted you, I recommend checking out Cindy’s Ultimate Women’s Expo (UWE). Over 20 speakers are sharing their hearts and experience in a way designed to uplift and encourage you. Cindy’s built a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UWE in one place – all the audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts from her speakers), ebooks,  articles, printable planning pages, cookbooks, on and on. Everything is online indefinitely. 

Anyway, if you need your cup refilled, it’s worth checking out. Access to the event and the membership site is only $19.95. Click here for more info.

Whether you listen to the chat from Cindy or not, know that you are not alone and things always work out. Maybe not the way that we expect them to and sometimes in very strange ways, but they always do work out.

…Shannon

I’m not totally sure how my older two children learned to count to 20. It just happened. I’m sure we played games, counted together, and did the usual stuff. Wanting to play hide-n-seek with the big kids as a driving motivation for learning to count to 20 for both of them. And counting to 20 just came together pretty quickly for the olders when they were ready. But this isn’t so for my 6 year old. 

Not only is he a visual-kinesthetic learner, he also has trouble remembering the names of things – like numbers and letters. He can remember amazing things, but the names of things (and people) are difficult for him. It takes a lot of repetition and many different methods to move names/labels into his long-term memory.

Knowing how long it took for him to memorize 1-10, I’ve been taking a more diverse approach to teaching him numbers 11-20. These are the only numbers that don’t follow a clean rhythm that directly correlates to numbers 1-10 and thus require a little more effort to learn. (For example, my 6 yo already can do 21-100, he just doesn’t have 11-20 memorized.)

Some of the methods we’ve used include:

• counting out loud
• counting manipulatives (dried beans, m&ms, Legos, etc)
• jumping on the trampoline (one jump per number)
• reading counting books
• pointing to numbers written on the white board
• writing the numbers out

But I was really missing having number tiles for ordering and matching. Letter tiles and alphabet Go Fish cards have been very good for helping him concrete letter and word-building concepts. So, I created some very simple 11-20 number tiles to use for matching games and tactile ordering games. I’m also going to use these for notebooking and lapbooking graphics. 

Click to download a PDF version

If you’d like to use these as well, feel free to download them here (opens in a new window). Simply cut them out on the lines and store in an envelope.

If you have one available, a Xyron or similar sticker machine is a good way to laminate them or turn them into magnets or stickers. (I love my Xyron!) Otherwise, an office supply or teacher supply store may be able to laminate them for you. But it is also pretty inexpensive to just print a new sheet when you need them.

If you have other ideas or games for teaching numbers 11-20, I’d love to hear them. Please post a comment and share how any methods you’ve used.  Thanks!

…Shannon