Getting Ready for School

Summer is almost over for us, we didn't do much on our break so we are looking forward to getting back to school next week. Most of my lesson planning has been done for a while, and it feels good to be organized. Today I'm cleaning up our 'school room' in preparation for Monday -if I could just get my filing done!!
This year will be different for us, I am using a mix of homeschool materials for the kids whereas in the past we have always used curriculum packages. It was a lot of work -but fun- to research and find the best choices for our family this year; I am happy with the materials we will use and am excited about teaching with them. I will share some details and opinions as I begin using each, for now I'd like to tell you about a helpful planning and record-keeping tool I'm using this year.

My planning began in June (I think!), I started by setting our school calendar dates, then designating subjects and lessons for each day to fit in all that we need to cover for the year. My daughter likes to be able to look at the day's assignments and see what she has to accomplish, so I used a desktop planner  which I had on hand and started filling in her daily work. I decided to just use a separate planner for my son to avoid confusion.
Since my son is in high school, record-keeping and transcripts are important to me now, so I set off on my web mission to find a good resource for those purposes. I came across Homeschool Tracker which I had used briefly several years ago, they still offer a free 'Basic' version so I downloaded it and began to play around with it. I liked it but the Plus version and Online version offer much more, including the ability to make transcripts. I downloaded the 'trial' of Homeschool Tracker Plus and started inputting information for our past school year. Very nice!  I now have our upcoming school year planned with my kids daily schedules laid out. Since I have already done most of our lesson planning in my books I am not doing very detailed plans in the program as I don't need to create more work for myself. It is very easy to make a series of lesson plans however, based upon lesson/chapter number etc., I appreciate this feature. Each day I will input any grading and the program will keep track of it; it is easy to create a variety of reports at any time. I chose the Homeschool Tracker Plus over the Homeschool Tracker Online because it fits my budget better and I prefer not to have to rely on internet to access my program.


I would highly recommend the program if you are looking for something similar; the company offers a referral program so if you purchase through my links I receive a small referral fee!

Linda

Merging my blogs...

Thanks for visiting In All Your Ways!

I have another blog which I began back in 2009 also, sadly both blogs have been somewhat neglected, however I would like to remedy that and get back to writing a bit more frequently.
Focusing on one blog rather than two seems to be more practical and manageable for me at this time, therefore I am merging! I have exported the posts from Smart Mom Savings into "In All Your Ways", and so you will find a mix of devotional thoughts, recipes, household ideas, homeschooling, money-saving tips and more here in the future.
So, if you are visiting "In All Your Ways" for the first time, I welcome you and hope you'll stop by again and leave a comment.

Linda

The Heart of the Matter

"Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
         Let them not rule over me;
         Then I will be blameless,
         And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
    Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
         Be acceptable in Your sight,
         O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer."

                                                    Psalm 19:13-14

It is so awesome to know that God forgives us of our sin; what a blessing it is to receive His mercy when we feel overwhelmed by the burden of our guilt and sin. Yet, this does not give us license to sin, knowing that we can come to God and seek His forgiveness - that would be the presumptuous sin the author of Psalm 19 is talking about. We can't use God on a credit card basis 'sin now - pray later', this kind of 'presumptuous sin' does not honor God, in fact it shows disregard for His sacrifice and implies the idea that whatever we are tempted to do is of more importance than our faithfulness and obedience to God.

It is a matter of the heart. We might fool those around us, we can make excuses and try to convince ourselves that we are justified or that our motives were good, but we cannot fool God. He created us and knows us. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and whether we willfully chose to sin with the intent of seeking his forgiveness later. 

I love that the Psalmist prays 'Let the words of my mouth AND the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord" (emphasis mine). Not only should we desire to please God with what we say and do, but also in the hidden person we are; in the heart, where no one else sees. Our words, actions, thoughts and prayers should all honor God. Though sometimes it seems like such a struggle to walk in His ways, it is ALWAYS worth the effort and sacrifice.

Sharing: Bible Verses By Topic

Just want to share a useful article from another blog - What Christians Want to Know

 I think you will find this to be a great resource for finding a scripture for a particular situation. Click on the following link:

Bible Verses By Topic: Inspirational Scriptures By Subject

Check it out and bookmark it for future reference. Be sure to read some of their other articles too!

Blessings :)

Linda

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

Here is a yummy recipe for cinnamon rolls which you can make a day (or more) in advance to save you time. Thursday was my son's 13th birthday and he requested these for breakfast, so I prepared them on Wednesday afternoon, let them rise in the refrigerator and baked them fresh on Thursday morning. I have made these several times and they are so good!

A friend gave me this recipe and I'm not sure where she got it, so I can't give credit to the original creator of the recipe - it wasn't me however.

The recipe will actually make 2 pans, you could bake a pan on consecutive days if you like (I've done that), or halve the recipe if you only want one pan, which is what I did this time. Remember, they will rise in the refrigerator, you can keep them there for 12-48 hours before baking.

Here's the recipe, followed by a few pictures I took along the way!

Make Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup butter (or shortening - I use butter)
2 tsp salt
1 egg
5-6 cups all-purpose flour

4 Tbsp soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water, let sit for a few minutes. Stir in milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup butter, baking powder, salt, egg, and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto floured board; knead in more flour as necessary. Place in greased bowl and let rise until double.

Mix the other 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon and 2 Tbsp flour in small bowl and set aside.
Roll out 1/2 of the dough on floured board into a rectangle shape. Spread with 2 Tbsp of the butter and sprinkle with 1/2 the cinnamon mixture. Roll up, pinch to seal. Cut into 12 slices ( I use dental floss for easy cutting), place slices in greased 13" x 9"pan. Repeat with other half of dough. Cover pans tightly and refrigerate for 12 - 48 hours.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Top with your choice of glaze or frosting.

An easy powdered sugar glaze recipe:
1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, a few Tbsp milk.
Mix together in medium bowl to desired consistency.

Dough rolled out on the board

Spread with butter and topped with cinnamon mixture

Rolled up

Cut in half using dental floss. I then cut each section in half again, then each of those into 3 slices. That way I get them fairly even in thickness

In the pan.

Baked the next day.

Topped with powdered sugar icing. YUMMY!!!

Hope you enjoy these as much as my family does. They are a wonderful treat and extra nice because you don't need to get up at 5 am to have them ready for breakfast!!