Reviews & Giveaways

Guest Post: Make 2016 Your Healthiest Year Yet

Today’s guest writer is Leanne. I first met Leanne at a church in Florida where she was vacationing with her family. We then re-met in Wisconsin at her home church. To understand why she is posting here, you have to know that Leanne is fit and gorgeous. When she casually mentioned that she was 40, I said, “Give me your business card!” She did better than that. She shared her story for all of you.

Here is Leanne’s story:

Make 2016 Your Healthiest Year Yet!

Happy 2016 to all of you! At the start of a new year most people have New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve never been a person to have resolutions…I like to think of them more as intentions and goals. As a health and wellness coach, it warms my heart when I hear people say they want to eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, quit smoking, etc.

My resolution (intention/goal) for 2016 is to help all of you make 2016 your healthiest year yet! Let me share a little bit about what I did to change my health just over two years ago.

For the past 14 years our family has tried to eat more organic/natural foods. By all means we are not perfect, but we certainly try our best. I still enjoy a night out for pizza, birthday cake to celebrate another year, and a dish of ice cream just because. For the first 12 of these 14 years I would typically put on around 10 or so pounds each summer, indulging in the “not so healthy choices” while watching my boys play ball. When school would start in the fall, I went into weight loss mode to lose those unwanted pounds before our Spring Break vacation in March. It would take me about 6 months of literally starving myself (even with healthy food choices) to lose that weight.

Fast forward to September 1, 2013…the day my health changed forever! My dear friend Kim introduced me to some amazing nutrition products that have changed my health in so many ways, and this was the day I started! Because our family stays away from foods with artificial sweeteners, soy protein, stimulants, MSG, just to name a few, I do my research on what I allow into our home. I did my homework on these products, and knew I needed to jump in with both feet!

Besides wanting to lose about 10 pounds, I also had a lot of digestion issues going on. I was beginning to think I had a gluten or dairy allergy. I also felt tired all the time and really didn’t have a lot of energy. Several times a week I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep for a couple hours. I was not the happy, healthy, energetic wife and mom that I needed to be for my family. Exercise–I wasn’t doing much of that either because I didn’t have the energy to do it! I was looking for a convenient and cost effective way to feel better.

Nutritional Cleansing is what has allowed me to release 16 pounds of fat in those first months without exercising, gain more energy than I could have ever imagined, sleep like a rock EVERY night, get rid of the digestion issues I once had (no gluten or dairy allergies for me), and feel so much healthier at 38 than I did back in my 20’s. Over the past two years I started exercising and have put on about 8 pounds of lean muscle. I’ll be 41 in a couple weeks, and I am in better shape now than when I was 20!

You might be wondering what nutritional cleansing is….and NO it isn’t a colon cleanse! Nutritional cleansing is a cellular cleanse (whole body) by putting the perfect nutrition into our bodies. Unfortunately, most of the foods we eat (even organic) are nutrient deficient. Our bodies need 90 nutrients (building blocks) on a daily basis, with 60 of them being minerals. Most people are deficient in many of these nutrients…mostly minerals. One of the reasons we are deficient in minerals is because of the introduction of pesticides in our soils. The pesticides not only kill the bad bugs on the plants, but also the ecosystem in the soils that the plants are grown in. If the ecosystem is killed off in the soil, then the minerals are no longer in the soils for the plants to uptake. If the plants are not able to uptake the minerals, then we aren’t getting the minerals when we eat the plants.

Back in 1997 UCLA did a study on women who reported being anemic, yet ate a salad each day primarily from spinach. We all know that spinach is high in iron, and therefore these women should not have been anemic. UCLA compared a sample of spinach they had from 1953 to a sample from 1997. The findings were astounding! A whopping 43 bowls of spinach in 1997 = 1 bowl of spinach in 1953. That 43:1 ratio is the same for ALL the other 59 minerals we need on a daily basis. And…when you don’t have your minerals, even your vitamins can’t be used by the body! All this information made me realize that I wasn’t getting all the nutrients I needed on a daily basis.

The other part to this perfect nutrition is that it helps rid the body of the junk that builds up in our cells. Our bodies are exposed to so many toxins on a daily basis…from the air we breathe, personal care products we use, and so much more. These toxins build up in our cells and basically junk up our body. Our bodies actually put on fat to protect us from the toxins we are exposed to. When we get rid of the impurities in our cells, our body no longer has a need for the fat.

Other “side effects” of nutritional cleansing (getting rid of the junk) besides weight loss are:

Lose Nasty Cravings
Improved Sleep
Increased Lean Muscle
Healthy Aging
Improved Digestion
Better Athletic Performance
And so much more!

By incorporating nutritional cleansing into my lifestyle, my body is now getting all 90 nutrients it needs on a daily basis. This also goes for the rest of the family because these products are great for them also! Our family also has saved so much money on our overall grocery bill!

Was I skeptical in the beginning? Absolutely I was skeptical, but these products come with a 30-day money back guarantee. I had nothing to lose but those unwanted pounds and my intense carbohydrate cravings! Of course I didn’t need to use that money back offer, because I truly felt amazing after my first 30 days and will never be without these products in my home!

If you are ready to feel the best you have ever felt, now is the perfect time to get started. The company is offering free shipping up to $25 for new customers (on qualifying orders) through January 17, and it would be my honor to coach you to better health! I’m here to help you succeed and reach your health goals with recipes, a private Facebook support group, accountability, and much more! Take a peek at this 6 minute Video called “Are You Toxic?” Find me on Facebook at Leanne Selle; private message me, and I can add you to our private Facebook group for you to do some more homework for yourself! We have 2 different 30-day health challenges starting this month. The first one started January 4 and the second one starts January 18. Join me for both of them! Let’s make 2016 our healthiest year together!

God’s blessings on your 2016!

Leanne Selle
Health & Wellness Coach
(920)470-4814
leaneselle@gmail.com

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Yearly Membership Review — A Lightweight Heavy Hitter

Read this SchoolhouseTeachers.com review from a roadschooling family of 10 and get 50% off!

This post contains affiliate links and opinions. Both are harmless.

One of the biggest aspects of my life is homeschooling my eight kids. I am always on the lookout for ways to simplify that process, especially on the road. With that in mind, my children and I have been testing the Yearly Membership of SchoolhouseTeachers.com, an online curricula resource, for a few weeks now. I’m going to yammer on about it for a bit, but first, some background:

As you know, we live in a travel trailer towed by a Chevy Express van. We (we as in my hubby, Steve) tow “home” up mountains and down, around hairpin turns, over harrowing heights. Have you ever seen The Long, Long Trailer with the inimitable Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnaz? Remember the scene where they’re teetering on a mountain top on the brink of disaster because Lovable Lucy overloaded the trailer with rocks?

That’s me–Lovable Lucy. Except instead of a Cuban-American husband, it’s a Filipino-American husband. And instead of rocks, it’s books. And instead of ending up with a box office hit and a big fat check, we ended up with a dead transmission and a big fat bill.

Roadschoolers, ironically, have very little weight allowance for books, which makes schooling a little more challenging. I know–whaaaaa! That’s why we have to get a tad creative with everything from where to store the toilet paper to how to educate eight kids in 240 square feet of space with no weight allowance for los libros, which is Spanish for “the books,” which I had to teach los niños without using los libros. Now do I have your sympathy? I didn’t think so.

Enter SchoolhouseTeachers.com!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is an online curricula resource which offers its members nearly 200 courses plus other perks, and it’s growing like my stomach at a Christmas cookie buffet. The courses are available online through classes, videos, or printable downloads. I’m not going to list every subject you’ll find there because 1) I’m too lazy, and 2) okay, so there is no number 2. Go to the SchoolhouseTeachers.com course list and see for yourself, or see what’s available grade by grade.

Wow, right?! A family could use SchoolhouseTeachers.com as a supplement to their studies or as an entire curriculum. That saves a ton of space and trailer weight, people.

How have we been using SchoolhouseTeachers.com?

I’m so glad you asked, because I’ve been itching to tell you about the Tinkers Club, partly because I love saying “tinkers.” Tinkers tinkers tinkers! (If you say it real fast it sounds like stinkers.) My son (who just turned 10 last week) is loving the Tinkers Club. It’s all about inventing, so he’s gettin’ down and dirty with tools and junque we scrounge up at thrift stores (because, as you know, The Simple Homemaker tries not to keep junk on hand, so, ironically, now we have to hunt for other people’s junk). He is so into it that he was thrilled to receive safety goggles for Christmas–safety goggles, people! And I wasted money on Legos.

We are also just beginning the Charlotte Mason preschool study written by homeschool mom Brittney Jordan. As you know we are not into an intense preschool program, nor am I interested in spending money to teach my child to count. But being child number 7 in a roadschooling family means that someday the you-specific activities and the nature study get pushed to the background in favor of group activities and an 8-mile hike. This ideal program ensures that little Ellie and I (and our many tag-alongs) are doing something in nature together, in books together, and in handicrafts together each week…key word: together. Love it!

This week’s topic is snow, which offers and interesting approach to nature study. I think I still have snow stuck down the back of my neck–family snowball fight not pictured.

I’m also setting my older children on the task of translating the Spanish Bible stories for Spanish-speaking preschoolers. Why? Because I can, and because they don’t speak Swahili or Latvian, but if yours do, then by all means check out the Latvian and other foreign languages! They don’t have enough Spanish for my liking, but there is Latvian!

Here’s my favorite aspect of SchoolhouseTeachers.com:

My first baby girl was born, like, yesterday, and last week she turned 19. That’s years! Time flies…fast…like a fast flying thingie. We did some pretty fun stuff in school (apparently not enough vocab study if this writer is saying “thingie” and “stuff”), but if I could do it over again, I would have had more lessons that she really wanted to study and fewer that I felt we had to know to appease the social service workers that never showed up at our door.

With SchoolhouseTeachers.com, I ~~feel comfortable~~ am totally excited about letting my children pick a couple of courses at a time that they want to study (after Bible and math are finished). I’m confident that they will be learning something. It may not be the same things I learned in school ~~and promptly forgot as soon as the test was over because I never used it in real life and wasn’t interested in it in the first place~~, but that’s totally okay! That said, I might “make” my 19-year-old take this for her writing business:

**I don’t love everything about SchoolhouseTeachers.com.**

For example, I absolutely do not like their cute little drawing of the ark for the preschool flood study. The flood was not cute, and the ark was not cutesie. For the love of all things truth, draw the ark its actual size in proportion to an elephant, so kids could see that a lot of elephants could fit on that behemoth. Kids would have an easier time supporting their beliefs when (not if) they are attacked if they had the truth in their heads. Thousands of people drowning–so not cutesie.

~~I also don’t like the amount of clicking required to get to the course, but they’re in the process of fixing that, so forget I said anything. In fact, I’m crossing this off right now.~~

And there will be things you don’t like, which is why it’s totally great that there are nearly 200 courses–pick what you like and leave the rest…like how you pick the M&Ms out of the trail mix and leave the raisins. ‘Fess up. You know you do it.

Technical details for my fellow roadschoolers:

For us travelers, internet connection and data limits are issues. While some of these courses are videos that will consume data, others are made of printable or downloadable lesson plans that can be downloaded at the library or RV park and stored on your computer to be pulled up whenever you want and wherever you are–even boondocking.

The studies do not require that you buy books, but access to a library does help for some additional recommended resources. Obviously, that part is not ideal for the traveler, but, well, read the paragraph about The Long, Long Trailer and you’ll agree with me that not having access to all the books a person would like to have is better than plunging off a mountain peak with your entire rig, family, and collection of ~~rocks~~ books.

Interested? You can get the Yearly Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for 50% off if you use the code CREWFOLLOWER by January 31, 2016.

That’s what I think. Click this banner to find out what other homeschoolers think. Click click click. (If you say that real fast, it sounds like “lick.” I need a vacation.)

364 Days to Overwhelming Gratitude

My favorite holiday is so close I can almost smell it–creamy mashed potatoes with oodles of butter, my mom’s fresh potato rolls with oodles of butter, my daughter’s homemade stuffing with oodles of butter. Except this year, I can’t eat butter. Our baby has an allergy–we can’t figure out the culprit, but for now Mama is on an elimination diet which means Thanksgiving dinner is going to look more like turkey and green beans–no butter.

And that’s okay. I’m still super excited for Thanksgiving.

Why? Because it’s not about the food. It’s not even about the pie if you can believe I’m saying that. It’s about the thanks.

Which brings us to Thanksgiving pet peeve number one:

Random Citizen: “I’m thankful for this and that and that and this.”

Great, but who gets your thanks, Random Citizen? The air? The fates? The universe? They don’t want your thanks and they certainly don’t deserve it. God does.

You knew there’d be a Thanksgiving pet peeve number two:

Even though I am running 26 Days of Thanksgiving in Photos on my Facebook page, I don’t like those “gimmicks.”

Why not? They’re great! You’re such a humbug. That’s why you named your son Ebenezer.

Chill–good grief. I don’t like them because they end. We focus on Thanksgiving for a day, perhaps a month, and then it bluntly ends like this sentence. Done. Bam. No more.

It’s time to reconcile both of those pet peeves.

Pastor Andrew Schroer who shepherds a friendly bilingual Christian church out in a li’l ol’ western town in Texas wrote a devotional journal called 364 Days of Thanksgiving. In it, Andy encourages us to:

Be thankful every day.
Address our thanks to God.

I love it when something single-handedly (or single-pagedly) decimates my pet peeves, don’t you? Of course you do. It gets better.

364 Days of Thanksgiving is also a journal, providing space for you to write down one thing to be thankful for each day–even I can handle that. The trick is it has to be something different, so you can’t do this:

Day 1–cookies
Day 2–cookies
Day 3–cookies
Day 4–cookies
Day 5–cookies
Day 6–cookies

I’m not sure if you can do this:

Day 1–chocolate chip cookies without nuts
Day 2–chocolate chip cookies with nuts
Day 3–cookies after church
Day 4–Great Grandma’s molasses cookies
Day 5–getting the last cookie in the jar before Steve does
Day 6–secretly enjoying the cookie I hid in my sock drawer after everyone else went to bed

Probably not.

What about day 365? Dickens said we Americans had it backward (he actually said backwards with an S, being British) when we gripe all year and thank one day. He says we should thank 364 days and gripe one day. Andy one-ups good ol’ Dickens: on day 365 you sit down with the last cookie from your sock drawer and read over the entire journal showing how God (not the universe) has blessed you.

Do you see what’s happening here? By focusing on gratitude for an entire year, you become more grateful and more aware of your blessings. Instead of griping over the lack of oodles of butter, you rejoice over the potatoes. Gratitude becomes a habit, and you become a grateful dry potato eater instead of a disgruntled butter lover. It’s a beautiful transformation!

Andrew Schroer and his Beautiful Bride — Andy with his stunning bride, Clariza

While I might possibly still have your attention, know this: 364 Days of Thanksgiving is not filled with blank pages awaiting your thanks. Andy fills it with encouragement and the great stories (parables, really) that his parishioners expect to hear when he steps up to the pulpit.

Now, if you’re following along on our Twelve Weeks of a Simple Christmas missions, you could finish a huge chunk of your Christmas list with just this book. No lie…because I don’t lie…except that one time which is none of your business but which really makes me grateful for Jesus and forgiveness.

Buy 364 Days of Thanksgiving for your Kindle or in hold-it-in-your-hand-and-smell-the-pages format at Amazon (affiliate link) or as an ebook or hardcover book here. You can also find a related Bible study for groups and a sermon series for pastor’s here in both CD and downloadable formats.

You won’t be sorry; in fact, 364 days from now you’ll be overwhelmingly grateful.

Fun Tool for Memorizing Multiplication Facts

The Trigger Memory Co. gave my family a free downloadable version of their Times Tales program in exchange for this unbiased review. As usual, no cookies or chocolate exchanged hands to sway my opinion.

In all honesty, we are not the best family to be reviewing this program. Our daughter doesn’t quite grasp multiplication well enough at this point to really benefit from the program, and my son has long ago mastered his facts. However, the program does jump into division near the end of the second set of videos, so my fourth grader can use it for the “division tales.”

First, what is it?

Times Tales is a DVD or downloadable series of files that teaches your children fun little stories about interesting characters that represent numbers. It covers the upper numbers of the multiplication tables.

Without the child really knowing that she is learning, she is memorizing her upper multiplication facts. If you’ve battled math, spelling, anything in the past, you know how much you love it when your children don’t even realize they are learning!

Is it effective?

My daughter hasn’t begun multiplication yet, but get this: during the video she took a quiz, and she got most of the answers correct. Of course, she doesn’t actually know what multiplication is, but I can see that when she starts studying it, she will have an advantage with these cutesie (and sometimes lame, admit my kids) stories in her head.

My 10-year-old son remembers all the stories as well…although he already knew all the facts that they were teaching.

What did the kids think?

My first grader (in the target range) claims it’s boring, but she jumped into it willingly and I saw a lot of giggles, so I’m a little confused by her dichotomous answer. She did, however, painlessly learn a lot of facts she can put to use when we begin our multiplication lessons. So her mama says it is a success.

My fourth grader (also in the target range) says it was pretty cool when you add in the games and worksheets. He didn’t learn anything, because the multiplication facts were already old friends, but any time you can skip your own math and hang out with your sisters in front of a screen is a good time. I can see how this would have been a huge boon to him if he was missing some facts, and the division facts are a great booster for his lessons.

This is an affordable way to help kids master those elusive facts.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Times Tales is available as a digital download or as a disc. Naturally, the digital download weighs absolutely nothing, so you don’t have to consider it in your tow weight. It does however, take eons to download. I had to wait until we found a really good connection (too few and far between in the world-on-wheels) and download in the middle of the night when the rest of the internet access munchers were asleep. It worked that way. And then, of course, my computer died (RIP Mac…back to the PC world), so I have to download it all over again on our old Behemoth. Since I’m not a techie, I’m not too thrilled about that whole thing.

I do like the digital download option, however, because you don’t have to figure out a shipping location–that’s always a pain in the kiester.

Once you’ve got the download complete (or if you buy the DVD), there is no further internet access required. Now that makes any full-timer smile!

There are no books to find space for, but you will want to do a little printing for the worksheets, games, and cubes. It’s no biggie, but it is printing. If you keep your printer stored under a mountain, that’s also a pain in the kiester. But again…no shelf space or weight limits to consider! And no masses of flash cards–gag!

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers whose kids are a better fit for this program–they have some great things to say!

The Tummy Team–The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Disclosure: I am a Tummy Team affiliate. I am also a Christian and tell the truth. It’s a good combo. In fact, even though I was participating in The Tummy Team, I didn’t become an affiliate until I knew I loved it!

**(If you’re just here for the good deal, the first ten people to use the code SIMPLE25 by November 20 save 25% on The Tummy Team. Just click here, and don’t forget your code.)**

You’ve heard me rattle on about The Tummy Team this year, and here’s my wrap-up review about the whole shebang.

The Good

I really, really like it. I’ve told you the many benefits I’ve seen and that it’s a good thing, and here’s why:

Anything that makes my abs feel like I’ve been laughing with my family for half an hour or like I powered through thirty crunches without actually crunching is a good thing, right? Of course, right.

Anything that helps me with the weaky leakies that come after bouncing seven babies on your bladder is a good thing, right? Of course, right! (Read this for a reminder of all the crazy awesome benefits!)

Anything that helps stabilize my weak areas where I tend to tweak out a rib or strain a back muscle and be out for days or weeks is a good thing, right? Of course, right!

It’s a good thing to have your core strengthened and to have the tools to repair and maintain a strong body. You can’t argue with that. Read my posts above, or visit Kelly’s site to learn all about the good things.

The Bad

Here’s the bad thing, because I’m honest:

It’s expensive.

I don’t have a spare $200 lying around, do you? You do?! Cool. But I don’t.

The good thing about the price is that it helps you take the whole thing very seriously. I should hope that if you spent 200 smackers on this, you’d actually do it, not like if you tossed, say, 19.95 at it.

Plus, you’re paying for professional assistance to improve your health. The last time I saw, say, a medical bill, it was pretty hefty. Hefty like that family-size bowl of popcorn I downed last night…alone. You’re buying the time and expertise that went into creating The Tummy Team and helping countless women and men; you’re not merely buying access to the videos. You see?

Also, when you consider how much moola many of you casually hand out for “just one more outfit for the kids” or that “gotta-have manicure” or “it’s only once a week” lunch with the girls, $200 isn’t that much. (For those of you who are truly frugal, jump on today’s 25% off deal at the bottom of the page, or follow The Tummy Team on Facebook. I don’t know how often Kelly posts deals there…but I do know mine is right now.)

Another plus: it’s cheaper than a monthly gym membership and more effective than the hours of crunches you’ve invested on your midsection so far. Can you say “waste of time”?

Here’s the other bad thing:

It’s an eight week program, and then it ends. I would prefer to have DVDs or a lifetime membership, because I’m a DVD kinda girl. That’s mainly because we travel the US full-time and don’t always have reliable (or any) internet access.

Plus again (this is turning into multiplication), the first time around, you gather information; the second time around, you say, “Oh, I missed that the first time around. I must have had cookie crumbs in my ears.” You all say that, don’t you, about the crumbs? I like repetition. (Of course, you can watch the same videos as many times as you want over the course of your membership, which I did. Thank you!)

The good thing about the membership ending is that you can’t and therefore won’t procrastinate. You know what procrastinating is. It’s what you’re doing right now by reading my blog instead of, you know, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, like your crunches, which are ineffective, which you’d learn if you signed up for The Tummy Team.

Plus Kelly is teaching you skills that you can use for the rest of your life, not just eight weeks, so even though the membership ends, you have a new lease on life and self-help skills that don’t end. Plus you know where to go with your questions! Groovy, eh?

Another good thing about the eight week program is that, hey, it’s only eight weeks! I can do eight weeks. I can!

The Ugly

I stopped following many of The Tummy Team techniques. Why? Three reasons:

I’m an idiot. That’s really the biggest factor here.
I lack consistency. In fact, I once thought about joining the military so they could teach me self-discipline. I wasn’t self-disciplined enough to follow through.
My dear like-a-dad-to-me grandfather died, and that sorrow added to the stresses of life caused me to slouch again, let my guts hang out, not care, and eat eat eat until I looked like I swallowed the Pillsbury Dough Boy…or at least his pudgy little sister.

But the good thing (there’s always a good thing) is that Kelly didn’t just hand me a fish; she taught me to fish. The principles are ingrained in my head, and I have the tools to jumpstart my progress all over again. In fact, over the past week I have been doing some of the simple beginner exercises and have already been feeling the difference–less side pain and abdominal discomfort. Yes! Let’s make cookies!

The Great Deal

Here’s the big news you’ve been waiting for:

Kelly is offering 25% off for The Simple Homemaker readers (if you’re only a TSHM skimmer, fine, fine, you may have the discount, too). The first ten buyers who use the code SIMPLE25 receive $50 off their purchase of either the eight-week core strengthening series or the six-week prenatal course. Hurry scurry–you must be one of the first ten, and you must purchase before November 20.

I’d love it if you shared this deal with family, friends, and on social media.

If you’re interested in parts one through three of this four-part review, here you go:

You know, you’ll get much more information if you check out Kelly’s site. It is super informative, and she has videos…so make popcorn. There isn’t as much cookie talk on her site, but there is far more science and tummy talk, which, in this case, is likely preferable.

60 Homeschooling Tips From 60 Years of Homeschooling

{This post contains affiliate links. They don’t bite. If you want to skip my yammer and check out the book 60 Homeschooling Tips From 60 Years: Inspiring Tips and Ideas from Two Veteran Homeschoolers, click here.}

We’ve been homeschoolers for 13 years if you count from kindergarten…or 18 years if you count from the moment every parent becomes a teacher. As our firstborn approaches her 18th birthday and highschool graduation, one thought pops into our adoring parental minds:

How on earth did we manage to not mess that poor creature up any more than we did?

The sheer unadulterated grace of God had a big part in the mere survival of our children, but beyond that, we figured it out ourselves and sought help from people who had gone before–mentors, trail blazers, people who…er…you know…already did the stuff we were trying to do. And since we knew no real-life homeschoolers, we learned some of it the hard way and gleaned more from homeschooling authors and onliners. (Onliners are people online. I think I just made that word up.)

You can do the same–glean, I mean, not learn the hard way.

Help From Experienced Homeschoolers

I was recently given a treasure of an ebook entitled 60 Homeschooling Tips from 60 Years: Inspiring Tips and Ideas From Two Veteran Homeschoolers. From hereon out I will refer to it as 60 Tips, because I’ve used all my energy homeschooling seven children and don’t have enough left to type out that impressive title. (Read: I’m lazy.)

More impressive than the title are the contents. Excuse me while I ramble for a moment.

The Homeschool Mama at 2 a.m.–It Isn’t Pretty.

Do you know how many times I’ve woken up at the homeschool mama’s bewitching hour (2 a.m.) and panicked, “I’m ruining my kids!”? I mean, I’m not even sure how to properly punctuate that last sentence, and I’m in charge of educating seven human beings?! If I had the foresight to keep track of the number of 2 a.m. meltdowns I’ve had, I’d tell you, and you would be very impressed…or depressed.

At 2 a.m. a homeschooling mama is a lonely, degenerate failure who is not only dooming her poor uneducated children to a life on the outskirts of society with their zippers open, food on their faces, fingers in their noses, and giant “geek” stickers on their foreheads (not the Bill Gates kind of geek, either), but she is also undoubtedly (at 2 a.m.) raising moral degenerates who will no better be able to keep a law of God or a mustard seed of faith than they will a job, if indeed they can ever get a job or even marry someone who has a job, because the only people who get jobs or get married or get to heaven are people who are not homeschooled by lonely degenerate failures, which is what this unfortunate mama is when she wakes up at 2 a.m.

Two in the morning in my head is pretty exciting…and a little dramatic. My husband loves that about me.

**What does this have to do with 60 Tips?**

Here’s what:

The two ladies who wrote 60 Tips have a combined 60 years of homeschooling experience. That makes my 13 years (or 18, depending on when you start counting) a flash in the pan. Sixty years! That’s a lifetime of experience!

I appreciate experience. I smile politely when the mom of a preschooler tells me how I should raise my teenagers or what reading curriculum I must have to teach my seventh child how to read, but…seriously?

These two ladies–they’ve raised or are raising 15 children between them. They know how to homeschool! They know how to raise Godly children! They have wisdom.

And they share that with the 2 a.m. mamas.

They don’t just tell the 2 a.m. mama to get off her butt and raise better kids (although there is sufficient butt-kicking in there), but they encourage the 2 a.m. mama and give her practical, doable ways to accomplish her goals–homeschooling or otherwise.

They tell the 2 a.m. mama, “Hey, what you’re doing is amazing and important and beautiful and wonderful and your kids are so stinkin’ blessed to have you putting so much of yourself into their lives! Now relax and have some fun…or stop having quite so much fun if your kids haven’t done a math problem in a month because you’re mired in 2 a.m-all-day-long depression and are drowning your imagined failures and made-up sorrows by hanging out on Pinterest and Facebook all day. In fact, why don’t you try tip 17? Or 34? Or 57? Or go smooch on your hubby. There you go. Now you’re smiling again, 2 a.m. mama.”

Another good thing about 60 Tips is that it is written far more clearly than that last paragraph. Yup. Much better writing in that book. And I don’t recall reading the words “stinkin'” or “smooch on your hubby” in any of the tips.

The tips and chapters are short, doable, practical, doable, interesting, and doable. Doable. Do-able. Able to be done…even by a mama who was up sweating and imagining since 2 a.m.

I can do this!

You Have to Meet Donna and Kathie!

Let me tell you about one of the authors, because I love her dearly, and, even though I’ve never met her face-to-face, I’ve been learning from her for the past five years…or is it four? Who’s counting! (She even inspired some posts on The Simple Homemaker, most particularly the smile post.) Her name is Donna Reish.

Donna seems to me to have the energy of five moms and accomplish the workload of ten moms. She is a published author, a talented ballroom dancer, an avid cook, and a beloved teacher. I want to be like her, not because of all the books she’s written, not because of all she has accomplished, but because of her family.

Her family radiates joy, and it comes from her (and originally from Christ).

I want her joy in parenting and her joy in wife-ing and her joy in homeschooling. And I want my children to have the same joy and family love and Christ-love that her children have.

Plus (listen up, because this is what the 2 a.m. mama wants to know), her kids are successful–in marriage, in the home, in the working world, on the mission field, in their faith.

I’ve been sitting at Donna’s virtual feet for five (or is it four?) years now learning from her, wishing to absorb all her knowledge and wisdom and, yes, her joy. With 60 Tips I can. Okay, it doesn’t contain all her knowledge and wisdom and joy, but it does contain plenty to encourage and educate and kick-me-in-the-butt a little bit…at 8 a.m., not 2 a.m. I especially love it when I read a tip and I can say, “We do that! Gold stickers for everyone!” or “That is exactly what I need to keep in mind. Thank you, Gals!” or “Holy schmoly, that is brilliant!”

Visit Donna at her site Character Ink or on Facebook. Go there. That is an order.

The other author is Kathie Morrissey, and she is also wonderful. I am just learning about her for the first time, so, for once, I’m not going to run off at the mouth. You’re welcome. You can find her on Facebook or at her blog The Character Corner, where I immediately subscribed to her posts–she’s that good. Go!

A Note For you Overwhelmed Mamas:

I always thought that, because Donna has the energy of five mamas and I have the energy of half a mama (which is technically a “ma”), I couldn’t accomplish with my kids what she has with hers, and my kids wouldn’t be “successful.”

I was wrong.

The approaches to homeschooling and parenting that Donna and Kathie lay out in 60 Tips show that even us mere mortals can do this! You can. I can! We may not be doing it the way other mamas are doing it, but isn’t that the joy of homeschooling–doing what works best for your family?

Please check it out here if you need encouraging or help getting on track.

The rest of this post is about the giveaways, which have already ended. Congratulations to the winners! Please subscribe to be alerted to future giveaways.

{I was given a free e-copy of 60 Tips, but it didn’t affect my opinion. In fact, when I realized that the price was only $5…well, I spent far more than that in my homeschool days getting a lot less help. Also, if you buy 60 Tips through one of my links, I will receive a percentage of the purchase price at no cost to you. It helps support our homeschool and site. In fact, it’s being saved to buy Donna and Ray Reish’s other book, The Well-Trained Heart.}

About Those Homeschool Giveaways…

Now then (Now then? When is that actually? Now or then…or somewhere in between?), I have a giveaway, and Donna and Kathie have a giveaway. Their giveaway is much better, but don’t let that stop you from entering mine, which, by the way, is really from them.

At their giveaway you can win over $300 of homeschooling and parenting helps. including 60 Tips. Oh my, people, they are amazing products! Check it out right here. You know what? Don’t bother entering, because I’ve already decided I’m going to win. Grin.

Before you go there and enter, though, sign up below for my giveaway. Two of you receive a free e-copy of 60 Homeschooling Tips from 60 Years: Inspiring Tips and Ideas From Two Veteran Homeschoolers. If you don’t win, this valuable resource is only $5. Put it on your Christmas list…or just buy it right here. {affiliate link}

Okay, let’s summarize.

Enter to win 60 Homeschooling Tips from 60 Years: Inspiring Tips and Ideas From Two Veteran Homeschoolers below.

Buy a copy of the ebook right here. That’s 60 years of wisdom for only $5! Totally worth it! Totally.

Enter the $300 author giveaway right here.

Click here to pin this post and share this amazing resource, because, my suspicions tell me, there are other 2 a.m. mamas out there who could use the love and wisdom Donna and Kathie share.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO WIN THIS AMAZING PACKAGE!

Preserve a Memory for Mom (and Maybe Win $2500 in the Process)

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a commission if you order through these links. My policy is that I’ve gotta like a company a whole lot to tell you about them. Any profit I make at TSHM buys homeschool materials for my seven “road scholars.” If you don’t want me to profit, delete your cookies before purchasing. Mmmm…cookies.

I’m always telling you to make everyday memories with your loved ones, to simplify your life so you have time to live your life, to prioritize people over possessions, over passions, even over popcorn and pie.

Today I’m sharing a company that can help you preserve some of those memories you create. Why now? Mother’s Day is just around the corner, Father’s Day and Grandparent’s Day are nipping at its heels, I’m sure your anniversary and a few birthdays are in there somewhere, and then, BAM, it’s Christmas!

The company I want to tell you about is called Blurb. I’ve been a Blurb affiliate for a while now, and I have always kinda sorta deleted all their emails as they came in. But then I saw a book that my cousin made through Blurb and wow-holy-cow was that ever gorgeous!

So I started paying attention to the Blurb emails, and wow-holy-cow-and-its-calf, those people are always having sales! They’re like Kohls!

Finally, I checked them out for myself, and wow-holy-herd-of-cattle, they are organized, user-friendly, and offer quality products.

What does this have to do with your Mama?

Mother’s Day and, BAM, Christmas are just around the corner. If your mama is anything like this mama, she doesn’t want stuff, except for maybe a new slotted spoon to replace the one small hands left behind in the sand dunes of Idaho where it masqueraded as a shovel for a day. Oh, and your mama wants chocolate, the 85% dark that doesn’t give her…ahem…aroma.

Why not give her a personalized book instead, like one of these:

Compile her favorite recipes and create a cookbook.
Gather memories from all her children and grandchildren with pictures and drawings.
Write a letter-book to her. It could be called, simply, “Dear Mom.”
Is she a poet or an artist or a great story teller? Gather her work into a book.
Make a photo album of something special to her–a wedding, a trip, time with you.
Select pictures of her favorite pet and write about him, or include blank lines for her to fill in.
Write a children’s book in which she is the star. Let your children illustrate it.
Put together a memory book of a missed loved one.

The sky is the limit. Well, actually, your imagination (with the creative help of Pinterest and Blurb) is the limit, which might be higher than the sky.

Remember, I said they’re always having a sale? Always may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight.

Here are the current Blurb deals:

Save a whopping 15% on printed books through April 30. That’s soon, I know, and you’re busy making memories, so I’ll update this with new deals as soon as I hear about them.
Save 30% on “My Favorite Person” books through May 31. If you write your own My Favorite Person book (why not Mom!) and enter it by the deadline (4/28 or 05/31, depending), you could win $2500.

Here’s a little video explaining the contest. Videos are fun, aren’t they? Make some popcorn.

Why are you still here? Go make your book…or popcorn..or both!

Category: Reviews & Giveaways