Beautiful Mess Diamond Rio Book Review

Beautiful Mess

First off let me say that back in the “day” I was a huge Diamond Rio fan. As a matter of fact I told my DH when we started dating that if Diamond Rio ever came to Knoxville in concert that he had to take me. Not long after that we were able to see them at one of the Knoxville stations Listener Appreciation shows. They sounded just as great in person as on cd. Their song, “I Know How The River Feels” was the song I walked down the aisle to. Needless to say over the years my musical interests have leaned more toward Southern Gospel and Contemporary Gospel. Yet I was excited when I signed up with Thomas Nelson Publishers to do book reviews that Diamond Rio’s biography, Beautiful Mess, was one of the books available.

I started reading the book as soon as I got it from the mail. Honestly, I found it hard to put down. I was amazed at the lives of these great guys. Most of them come from Christian backgrounds and have returned to those roots so to speak. I loved reading about the closeness they share as a band and “family”. From their lowest depths to their highest moments, the guys share their life stories with honesty. You see the good, bad and the ugly. Yet through all the struggles they still found that God is God and He has a plan. I really enjoyed this book and I’m sure you will too. Check it out here:http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/

God Bless ~ Nikki

40 Loaves Blog Tour And Giveaway

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40 Loaves Breaking Bread With Our Father Each Day By C.D. Baker

“Why don’t I have more faith?”
“Why am I so bored with Jesus?”
“Why are Christians so hard for me to like?”

There are many questions we’re not supposed to ask when playing by the religious rules. It makes people uncomfortable. So why is it that Jesus invited questions and even asked some of them himself? What is it that you’re afraid to ask God? It’s a risky prospect to begin asking–but far riskier to continue simply trying to get by without knowing. Author C. D. Baker asked himself 40 soul-searching questions which started a conversation in his heart and ultimately showed him more about God than He ever expected.
Can we become more honest with who we really are and find who God says He really is at the same time? Come indulge yourself in daily readings with an honest exploration of your secret fears and thoughts, and know that you will always be welcomed in God’s unconditional love.

40 Loaves is a very nice daily devotional book. In each chapter, C. D. Baker asks some real eye opening questions. I enjoyed the way he included little stories and insights from his own life. I like when authors of devotional writings bring something of their “self” into the mix. Mr. Baker is openly honest about his own spiritual shortcomings and that is what makes this book so wonderful. These are questions he has asked himself before and was sometimes surprised by the answers. The one downside for me was that the Scripture in the book was not KJV. That is my personally preferred translation but it is hard to find many publications these days that use it. Be that as it may, I’m sure you will enjoy this great (hardback) book so I am going to give you a chance to win a copy. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, please be sure to leave your email address in your comment so that I may contact you if you win. To earn two extra chances to win; post about this giveaway on your blog and share the link in your comment. All total you could get your name in the “pot” three times. This giveaway will end on Saturday December 19^th. I will draw for the winner on the 20^th and will post their name on the blog plus send out an email to let them know they won. You can also buy this book at this link: RandomHouse.com

God Bless! ~ Nikki

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

A Giveaway

Hey everyone!

Check out this giveaway at The Mennobrarian!

http://www.themennobrarian.com/2009/12/giveaway.html

Blessings! ~ Nikki

Value Gifts Blog Tour Book Review

In tough times discover…99 Ways (times six) to thrive!

                                                                                                   

Colorado Springs, CO— The Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group introduces 99…times six…practical and up-to-date ways to help families flourish despite present economic challenges, priced at just $5.99 per book (WaterBrook Press, July 21, 2009). These books are not only timely, but also inexpensive enough to fit into everyone’s tightening budget.

 

• 99 Ways to Increase Your Income (ISBN-13:978-0-307-45839-1)

by Frank Martin, successful entrepreneur and author of over sixteen books.

 I got to review 99 Ways to Increase Your Income by Frank Martin.This book has some wonderfully easy tips on how to raise your income and stretch the cash you already have. Each chapter is filled with ideas that are simple yet effective. Some of these ideas utilize websites that we already enjoy like Ebay and Craigslist. I know in this economy many of us can use some new ideas on earning more money or stretching our dollar. I have gleaned lots of ideas from this great book that I plan on using to help our family. I highly recommend buying this book. It would also make a great gift for a friend or loved one.

Don’t Let Relationships Suffer Because of the Economy

Colorado Springs, CO— Just because the economy is suffering doesn’t mean relationships have to suffer, too. The Value Non-Fiction Line (September 15, 2009) offers insightful books on love, marriage, relationships and personal growth. At just $6.99, WaterBrook Press is offering readers on the most limited budgets, valuable resources to help them grow and succeed in their personal lives. Titles include:

More Than A Match (ISBN: 978-1-4000-7489-1) by relationship experts, Michael & Amy Smalley, marriage and family counselors who demystify the science behind compatibility tests to help singles in search of love recognize when the right relationship comes along. They also reveal the specific skills that can transform an ideal match into a lasting love. 

I got to review More Than A Match by Michael and Amy Smalley

This is a great book for engaged Christian (and non Christian) couples. The Smalleys walk you step by step through the dating and engagement process. They cover issues from making sure you are compatible enough to date each other to handling conflicts and on through to the first night together as man and wife. They cover these issues with their own personal insight and lots of humor. Do be advised though that they do cover the subject of s*x. Even this subject is covered with Christian insight though so no worries. I think this book would make a good gift for engaged couples.

You can purchase these books online at:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com

These books were provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

Want to blog for books?

WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books site page at http://www.randomhouse.com/waterbrook/bloggingforbooks/.

Oaks And Acorns Outdoor Hour Autumn Challenge

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This is our first post for the Autumn Challenge hosted by the Outdoor Hour at the Handbook of Nature blog. We don’t have the Handbook of Nature book since we had to downgrade back to dialup until Toodles gets another job; we are using some great resource books we bought at our library book sale. The ABC’s of Nature and North American Wildlife, both by Readers Digest. All information in these posts comes from one or both of these books unless otherwise stated.

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Oaks And Acorns

Oaks are the most wide spread broadleaf tree in North America. They also have the largest number of species; 58 trees and 10 shrubs; and occupy the greatest variety of habitats. The leaves on a single oak tree can come in many shapes. Oak trees can also hybridize making identification more complex.

There are two groups of oaks; red and white. Red oaks have tiny bristles on the tips of the leaves and/or lobes. Red oak trees have bitter acorns that take two years to mature and do not fall off the tree during winter. The acorn caps are lined with woolly hairs. White oak trees have rounded lobes without bristles. White oak tree acorns are sweet and mature in six months. The acorns fall off the tree in winter.

Individual species of oak trees can identified by leaf shape and sometimes leaf color. Many birds and mammals eat the acorns of oak trees. These include squirrels, raccoons, deer, bear, turkey, woodpeckers, jays and many more. These animals help spread the oak by storing the acorns and not reclaiming them. Sprouting acorns will grow full sized leaves and unusually long roots.

We have a red oak tree in our yard. We identified it by the leaf shape and the bristles on the end of the lobes.

There are also many other types of oaks in our area. We have identified and English oak leaf but have yet to identify the other oak leaves in this picture.

We have seen some that come close but we hesitate to say they are “that” type of oak. Do any of you in blogland care to see if you can ID them? Blessings! ~ Nikki

Christmas Tree

Today we bought our Christmas Tree. It is a beautiful Fraser Fir. This is our first real tree in several years. I must say it is kinda nice. Our last real tree was a Douglas Fir and was much more fragrant but they are much more expensive this year :) We also enjoyed our first peppermint milk shake of the season tonight. I'm sure we will enjoy more though. Tomorrow we plan on decorating the tree. I also have to get our post up tomorrow on the Nature Study we are doing as part of the Outdoor Hour. I leave you tonight with a question.
Real tree or fake? If real; which kind is your favorite? Blessings! ~ Nikki

Uplifting news for a change

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
(Romans 1:16)

Check out this link:
http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?ps=987&rip_id=%3CD9C657L01%40news.ap.org%3E&_LT=UNGL_LARSDCCLM_UNEWS

Outdoor Hour Challenge & Free Notebook Pages

Yesterday I was looking at the Handbook of Nature blog and decided we would start up nature study again. Barb has so many great ideas and challenges. She also has some wonderful notebook pages to download and use. I can't help it though, I had to make some too. I love making stuff for our notebooks. I made some pages for the acorn and oak tree and the squirrel challenge. I uploaded them to HSLaunch if anyone wants to use them. Any more that I make I will upload too so keep checking my widget to see new stuff (right sidebar). Be sure to join the challenge though. Break time is over so gotta run. Blessings! ~ Nikki

Thanksgiving Lapbook ~ FREE!

I finally got to upload the Thanksgiving lapbook to HSLaunch. You can find the link to it on my right sidebar in the HSLaunch widget. I hope you all enjoy it. Also be sure to check out the Thanskgiving notebook pages I have on HSLaunch too. What is everyone's plans this year for Thanksgiving? We will be having family over for lunch. I look forward to it but not to the pre holiday cleaning :) I will be posting some book reviews begining in December. I have recieved some great books to review and I will also be having a book giveaway so be sure to check back in December. We are going to be adding some Thanksgiving units to our school work and of course we will be doing our lapbook. This week through Thursday all the Ripleys attractions are free to Sevier County residents so that means we get to go to the auqarium and museums tomorrow if everyone gets over this new crud that came to visit. Is everyone voting on the Homeschool Blog Awards? I have seen some great blogs on there.I'm happy to see some of the ones on there that I nominated too. Just goes to show that you all have at least three readers LOL. I would appreciate your vote in the Homeschool Moms category if you don't have another favorite. Also I bet my DD BabyGirl would love your vote for Best Teen Girl blog. Anyway, it is time for me to get busy again. I just wanted to take a few and let you know about the lapbook but you know how I am to ramble ...soooooooooooo... gotta run. Blessings! ~ Nikki

JR Convention

Hi all! It is a great day in the Lord ! Roosie,Hoopy and I are in Kentucky with our Christian School for Student Convention. Pray for all the competitors today. I miss my DH and BabyGirl and Tman but we head home to Tennessee tomorrow so that makes me happy. I cant seem to get used to time "falling back" this year. For nearly a week now I have been waking up about 4am. Today was no exception. Its only 6:41 am but I am already starting to get sleepy again. No job yet for Toodles but God is being ever faithful. Our needs are met so truly, what else could we ask for? When the right job comes along then Toodles will get it. School has been going great. We are having a really good year so far. We will be doing more special things around the holidays. Stuff like lapbooking or notebooking. We enjoy doing stuff like that. I have not really been able to work much on the free printables I'm making but maybe after convention I can. We have had a hectic pace trying to get ready for that. I'm looking forward to the Homeschool Blog Awards this year. I am eager to see if the blogs I nominated get listed. You are some great bloggers out there :) I may not comment much at times but trust me, I read :) Well I gotta go. We have to get ready for convention. I will update later.

Hey everyone! We are back! Our crew brought home 17 medals today. Hoopy and Roosie both got several first place medals. Hoopy has 5 medals total and Roosie has 7. They all did a tremendous job and I am so proud of them. Well it is late and I am tired so goodnight all! Blessings! ~ Nikki

Don't Forget...

Don't forget that the last day for nominations for the Homeschool Blog Awards is today!

Blessings! ~ Nikki

I won an award !

Sonia over at Homeschool Treasure Trove gave me this gorgeous Blogger award. Thanks Sonia!

Now I have to tell you six things you might not know about me.

1. I randomly speak in movies quotes with my family.

2. I grew up a certified countrified farm girl and I miss it too.

3. I know what it is like to carry your drinking water from the spring. My maternal Grandparents and Great Grandmother did not have running water (unless you count the current in the spring LOL)

4. I have met Mrs. Dolly Parton several times. (And yes she is a veeeery distant cousin lol). I even got to watch her film a Christmas movie at a local covered bridge that was 300 feet from my house.

5. White Christmas is one of my all time fave Christmas movies and has been since my teen years when my cousin Noo and I would get together and watch it each year.

6. I love walking in the rain. Always have and hopefully always will.

Now I must give this award to six of my blogger buddies.

BabyGirl at Sparrow's Pearl

Roosie at Nobody Move! I Dropped Me Brain!

Debbie at Living For Him

Shirley at My Four Miracles

Pat at Pat's Place

And finally...you! Yes You! You know who you are! That dear sweet person reading my blog...that makes you gorgeous to me! Blessings! Nikki

Finally An Entry And HSB Awards

It has been a while... a lot of things have been going on here. We have been going and going and going, kinda like the energizer bunny ...minus the energy LOL Anyway, we had our Fall festival at church yesterday and had a great time.We raised some money for our youth and ate some great food.Our county sheriff volunteered to be arrested to help us raise money. He was great so thanks Hoss. Last week I went to a Third Day concert with DD,DS and a friend. It was an amazing worship service.. Look forward to seeing them again. Our drama team has been busy practicing. We have two performances coming up and we are very excited. Our local paper came by the festival yesterday and talked to our youth group and took some pictures. They liked that :) We had an amazing service this morning at church. I would love to be there tonight to see all the baptisms (6) but both DDs are down with the sniffles. So at least I have found the chance to sit and blog. School has been going great. This past week we gathered some leaves. The color has been amazing here again this year. I have found that I prefer laminating the leaves instead of ironing them with the wax paper. When you laminate them you can hang them up on windows and get a stained glass effect. It is very pretty. It is also time for the Homeschool Blog Awards again. I have to do my nominations tonight. There are so many great ones out there that it is hard to decide. On the other hand if anyone would like to nominate me (shameless begging I know!) that would be nice. Not sure what I could be nominated for ..but I have to at least be good for a laugh every now and then . Right? Anyway, looking forward to getting settled back into the quiet side of life for a bit and hopefully doing some blogging and getting some free stuff uploaded to HSlaunch. Blessings! ~ Nikki

Congrats To Pat our Autumn Poetry Party Winner

Thanks so much Pat for your great poem. Hey readers, you can read Pat's poem here
 Autumn Leaves
Here is what Pat won:
Autumn leaf tea towel
Autumn leaf plastic container
Candy corn playing cards
Autumn leaf stationery
Pumpkin girl shelf sitter
Autumn scent candle
Blessings! ~ Nikki

My Poem For The 2009 Autumn Poetry Party

Here is my poem for the 2009 Autumn Poetry Party. You are invited too! Check out the rules at the top of my blog. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Autumn
Azure sky and golden leaves
Woodsmoke wafting on the breeze
The crunch of leaves on the forest floor
As squirrels add to their winter stores
Shades of orange in the pumpkin patch
The scarecrow smiles and waves
He loves dancing in the wind
On lovely Autumn days
Fall is here
Its all around
Sings nature as dances
In her gold and crimson gown
copyright 2009 LNS (simcoxhomeschool)

Prayer Please

After being laid off for 9 months and putting in tons of applications . . . DH Toodles got a call back yesterday! We have been trying so hard to not get discouraged as the weeks turned into months without a job and it has been hard. Only God's Grace has seen us through. We are praying that if this is the job God wants him to have then he will get it. Will you join us in praying? Thanks so much ! Blessings ! ~ Nikki

A Happy 12th Birthday Shoutout To DS Hoopy and Our Tree Frog

Today is Hoopy's 12th birthday so "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOOPY" ! I love you ~ always! Hoopy had two requests for his birthday. One was to visit his Grandparents in Chattanooga , which won't happen today due to vehicle problems. And to sleep late. Now that one I can do. As a matter of fact he is still sleeping peacefully. We will have some "hands on" stuff for school today. why? Because we must take our 5 gallon aquarium and build a habitat for this fella: He is a gray tree frog. Hoopy caught him last night on our porch.
Now Hoopy has the nickname " Lizard Whisperer" in our family because he like to "hypnotize" lizards by rubbing their bellies. i'll let you know if he tries to "hypnotize" the frog :)
What is especially neat is that this morning, the tree frog had changed his camoflauge.
He looks less like tree bark today and more green. I thought that was neat. He will be our guest for a little while anyway so we will make him more comfortable today. I will post a picture of his new home tomorrow. I plan on making some worksheets and stuff for us so that we can study our new guest. I will post them on HS Launch when they are done. Once again let me invite you to join the Autumn Poetry Party. Have a great day ! Blessings! ~ Nikki

First Day Of Autumn 2009

Happy Fall Y'all! Its official ~ Autumn is here! We had a great first day of Fall. The weather has gone from foggy and rainy to sunny and then back to rainy again. We started our studies on poetry today. We read Fog ~ Carl Sandburg, Autumn ~ Emily Dickinson and several by Robert Frost. I love his poems. Imagine my surprise when I mentioned Robert Frost's name and Hoopy says "I know that name!" He then begins to recite "The Road Not Taken" and Roosie chimes in. I give them the "I can't believe you know that" look of course. Hoopy says," I learned it on Disney". Roosie says," Yeah Mom. See we do learn stuff from tv so you should let us watch it for school." AH, the things kids say. We also had a nice art project today. We colored some leaves from one of the sites I posted yesterday. Then we cut them out and taped them onto some jute string and tied on some old strips of gingham I had and made a garland. We hung it up over the window in the living room. I will try and post a picture of it tomorrow. Well its time to go read some blogs before bed. Be sure to join the Autumn Poetry Party this year. You can read the details at the top of the blog. Blessings! ~ Nikki

Autumn Websites

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn so I thought I would share some websites that I have found . They have some great activities. If you enjoy these sites then tell your friends to come by and chek out the list. Tomorrow I will put up the Mr. Linky for the 2009 Autumn Poetry Party. I encourage everyone to write a poem and join the party. You can even use it as a writing assignment for your kids.This year we will be giving away some neat little Autumn themed prizes at the end of this years Poetry party. I will be working on the prize list throughout the week and will have it posted by next Monday. Enjoy the sites and God Bless!

Autumn Leaf collection Album ~ Be sure to checkout all the fun Fall activities on this site.

Autumn Themed Games, Coloring Sheets

Tons of Autumn Activities

This Page Has Tons of Links For You To Check

Worksheets And Coloring Sheets

Another Page With Tons of Links

Lots of Nice Printables For School

First Week Of School

Our first week of school went great. Tman has found his niche in the Christian school again and is enjoying himself. He has learned quite a bit this week. I think he has been most intrigued by his Bible PACE which makes me smile extra big. I love it when my Blessings enjoy the Bible. We are moving along at a wonderful pace in our PACES in our homeschool also. We seemed to have settled into a routine without much struggle. Last Sunday after Homecoming we headed up into the mountains for some quiet time and found some amazing things to do some nature study on next week. We are reading the Hobbit in our homeschool for this grading period. I am having the kids do some drawings for each chapter. This way we can get art and literature done at the same time. We are eagerly looking forward to Fall coming to our area. We love the cooler weather and color. On my HS Launch page you can download an Autumn Lapbook I made last year. I want to try and make some more this year. I enjoy making things for others to use. If you are interested in some free printables you can go to my page through the link on my right sidebar.

Today my girls and I got to meet my favorite author, Beverly Lewis. The girls and I love her books. She is so sweet and nice. She is an amazing writer and so friendly. She was having a book signing for her new book in the Seasons of Grace series at one of our library branches today. She was so easy to talk with and seemed very humble when I complemented her on her writing ability. I told her that God had really blessed her and she said “yes He has”. The look on her face when she said that spoke volumes about how much she loves her Lord. We have some pictures to put in our memory books. Here is a picture of my signed copy of the Missing.

I will be adding the link again for the Nature Nook on my blog. I created the Nature Nook last year on Ning to be able to share videos, pictures and printables about animals and nature with other homeschool moms. It didn’t take off like I had planned but maybe this year we can get it going. I miss the Blogger Friend School which seemed to help keep me on track blogging. I tried blogging about websites I had found and my favorite homeschool blogs but they didn’t seem to draw much traffic so I think I will no longer post about them. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a meme something like BFS. Maybe we could post our favorite Scripture and have an assignment to blog about like we did with BFS. If anyone else is interested leave me a comment. Maybe someone has started another BFS and I haven’t found out about it yet J If so let me know. Blessings! ~ Nikki

First Day Of School 2009/2010

Today was our first day of school. Everything went great. Tman had a great first day at the Christian school but we missed him so much at home. We had an easy first day. We worked in English, Word Building and Bible. We had to go to the fair and pick up our fair projects. I'll post more about that later. Here is what our curriculum looks like this year.
Tman:Math, English I, Biology I, Etymology,World Geography, Bible
BabyGirl: Her last requirement is English IV and she will be doing 3 Bible courses.
Hoopy:Math, English, Social Studies, Science, Bible and unit studies
Roosie:Math, English, Social Studies, Science, Bible and unit studies.
All the kids are using ACE PACES this year.
Our full schedule will probably look like this.
Monday: Bible 
             English
             Math
             Word Building
             Social Studies 
Tuesday: Bible 
             English
             Math
             Word Building
             Science
Wednesday: Bible 
             English
             Math
             Word Building
             Social Studies
Thursday:Bible 
             English
             Math
             Word Building
             Science
Friday: Homemaking Skills
           Field Trips

8:00 am Take Tman to school
9:00 am begin school at home
9:00 - 9:30 am Bible
9:30 - 10:30 am Math
10:30 - 11:30 am English
11:30 - 12:00 pm fix lunch
12:00 - 12:30 lunch
12:30 - 1:30 pm Word Building
1:30 - 2:30 pm Social Studies/ Science
2:30 - 3:00 pm cleanup and pick up Tman
Blessings! ~ Nikki

September Already !?!?

Time does seems to be flying by here at our humble abode. August saw many busy weeks for us. We had VBS in August this year. It was awesome! DD BabyGirl turned 16! I don't know where the years are going. I turned 35. I have earned every wrinkle and silver hair. I'm proud of them. I had to go to the Dr. to discuss possible surgery for my bladder and to have several tests done. Instead of surgery I will be having meds and PT. This is day two of the medication and it has done some great things for me. Had I known years ago that it would help this much I would have taken it sooner. We are preparing for school to begin week after next. DS Tman will be returning to the Christian school at our church this year.He wants to have some interaction with his friends this year so we are going to give it a shot. I help out several times throughout the year and they allow our kids to attend the conventions with them . We have decided to go with all PACES because frankly, I feel like having a "lazy" year. BabyGirl will graduate in Spring of 2010 and we have a lot to plan for that so we want to take it easy on the lesson planning. I'm sure we will do some mini units and lapbooks together but our mainstay will be PACES.
Today is my Big Brothers birthday so "Happy Birthday Brotherman!" I love Ya! We have spent the day finishing up our Fair projects. I still have some things to do but I will finish them up later tonight. The county Fair starts on Monday. The kids enjoy the rides and Toodles and I enjoy looking at the exhibits.
We have also been doing the Fall cleaning around the "homestead ". I will post more about that on my Homestead  blog. You can come on over and check it out if you like. There are some amazing recipes and stuff on all the blogs over there. Just click on the "Dreamin' of the Farm" pic on the right sidebar and visit my blog. Then you can check out the other blogs by either clicking on the Front Porch link or using the Random Blog link. Well Tman is making some homemade chili for supper tonight, Momma taught him:) so I'm going to post on my other blog and then check out what is going on in the kitchen.Have a great weekend! Blessings ! ~ Nikki

Free Lesson Plan and Grade Keeper Book and Calenders

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that I have uploaded some new stuff at HS Launch. You can check it out through the widget on the right sidebar. I created a F.R.O.G. Folder lesson planner with some other neat pages in it. There is a page to keep up with appointments , a menu planner , a chore planner and a grade keeping page. On the grade keeping page I created it so that  I can keep grades for each week using a four block system. There is a block for the pretest grade, one for the test grade, one for a project grade if we have one and one for any extra credit assignments. You may not be able to use it but if you can then enjoy! I also created some frog calenders for August 2009 til July 2010. you can download them from HS Launch too. Come by and let me know what you think about the new stuff and if it was helpful to you. Also I wanted to share this new site I found . I wasn't able to fix the pdf so that you could type in it and then print it out because I am using the free version of Primo pdf to create my stuff. But I did find a place, PDFFiller.com, where you can upload my pdf and it creates an image of it that you can type on and then you can print it out. Hope that helps! :) Have a blessed day ! ~ Nikki

Pictures

Ok here are the pics I promised!

First ~ casting Crowns with John Waller


July 4th

Lake Erie PA

Bridge in Pittsburg.

Where Did A Month Go?

Ok, no way did I anticipate that I would be so busy this summer. It seems like we have been on a constant go go go. Well at least this is turning out to be a cool summer. I can't believe the weather we have been having. I guess I will update and let everyone know what we have been up to . That is if anyone is still reading my blog ...are you? Are you there? Hellooooooooooooooo?  Well anyway , here is the story... (imagine a movie narrator's voice..)
When last our blog writer left us she had intended to keep up with her blog posting but time seemed to slip away much faster than she anticipated. One week was spent in Bible study with her youth group in order to prepare their hearts for worship at the Casting Crowns concert. Truly it was an amazing week...watching God speak to the hearts of the youth (and adults too) was awesome. The concert was awesome too. The crowd was pleasantly surprised when special guest John Waller took the stage (ok our blog writer was extremely happy ...she loves his music). Mark Hall and the Crowns are some of the most humble people on the planet and they have such amazing talent. It was more than a concert it was a worship service. (pictures to come later).
Next for our blog writer came the July 4th holiday. A wondeful time spent with family and eating all that awesome July 4th food fare. A pleasnat evening was had by all as fireworks exploded in the night sky creating vibrant splashes of color against the inky blackness. (pictures to come later)
Then came the birth of our blog writers BFF's  lovely (much anticipated and teeny tiny) preemie baby girl. Both Momma and Baby are home and doing fine. Visit Shirley at MyThr33Sons and check out the story (with cute baby pics).
Later , our blog writer and family got to travel to Chattanooga and celebrate the 70th birthday of her lovely MIL.
Next for our blog writer and her handsome hubby came an unexpected oppurtunity to travel. They enjoyed a lovely trip through Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Virginia. Their favorite part was having some playtime at Lake Erie. Lovely cannot describe it. Pictures will definetly be posted later!
And last but not least our blog writer has been preparing for her and her DH 10th wedding anniversary tomorrow. They will be renewing their vows amongst a gathering of family and friends.Stay tuned for the next installment...
OK, was that funny? Did it make it more interesting? Did you smile? At least a little bit? Let me know if you are still here ... leave me a comment... go ahead ...I'm begging...I'm making puppy dog eyes at you right now...Blessings~ Nikki

Its Back...Website of the Week ~ 6-22-2009

Ok here it is ...Summer! Can you believe it? To celebrate this season and all its bounty , like our summer gardens, I have decided to highlight :

Homestead Blogger

Check out all the great blogs over there(including mine although I wouldn't say mine is great). There are tons of great recipes, gardening tips and home canning ideas on the blogs over there. Go check it out... now...really...GO NOW!

Check out the last 100 entries page or use the random blog feature.
Blessings! ~ Nikki

Hey All!

It has been a while since I posted. I would like to say thanks to all who were praying for my requests.There has been a lot of improvement for all. We enjoyed our camping trip. We had almost 40 ... count 'em ... 40 black bear sightings. One Momma bear had four cubs with her which is unusual for our area. Of course this year we are having an increased black bear population. I have lived here all my life and have only seen about 10 to 12 black bear in Cades Cove , so seeing this many this year was very exciting. So if you want to  see black bear and you are near the GSMNP then you should check out Cades Cove.
Tonight we had a tornado warning issued for our area. We were watching some rotating clouds over our house . It was such a weird sight. The storms passed us over though and for that I am thankful. The garden is growing and I have been harvesting some cucumbers and grape tomatoes. Pickle time!! I will be posting about my garden and canning exploits on my Homestead blog. There is a link on my right side bar. Its called "Dreamin' of the Farm"
I have a family of bluebirds hanging around my yard but can't find where they have nested. Not that I am complaining. I love bluebirds. We have a lot of young wildlife in our yard this year. We have several baby rabbits and squirrels.
I am trying to get some school plans going but for some reason I just can't seem to concentrate on them. We found some great deals at the annual library book sale this year. I purchased the Hooked on Phonics program for $ 1 . Yep ! $1. The only thing wrong with it is that tape number 6 is missing but I hope that I can find a copy somewhere. I'm going to have my youngest use it for review this summer as she still has some reading struggles. My youngest son struggled with reading too and he hated to even try to read. PTL  though now he loves to read. It just took some time for him to find his rhythm. So if you have a child who struggles with reading, don't give up hope. It will come. Sometimes it just takes time. Well I am going to post on my Homestead blog. I hope to be back on schedule with my regular posts. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Here is a photo I took on landscape setting of a storm coming in over the Cove.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for my cousin Stephi's Daddy, Tommy. He is in the hospital and not looking too good right now. Also pray for our Deacon Randy. He is in the hospital with heart trouble also. Thanks ~ Blessings~ Nikki

Catch Up Time !

Good morning all! Sorry there was no post for Monday's Website of the Week. We have been super busy around here. We spent last week enjoying all the free stuff in our area. It was very nice! We played mini golf, went to the aquarium and some other neat stuff too. School is finished for us for the year. I just have to get grades turned in and stuff filed away. Tman officially becomes a high schooler this year so congrats Tman! We will be having a little celebration for him when we return from vacation. My BIL and his family hired Toodles to pet sit for them while they are on vacation this week. They have invited our whole family to come and enjoy a little mini vacation at their house and go swimming. We look forward to this relaxing time together (thanks BIL and SIL). When we return from Georgia we will be home for a few days. Just long enough really to prepare for our annual family camping trip with my parents. I enjoy this so much! We never went camping as a family when I was young. I started camping in my teen years . So this is nice to get away with my parents, hopefully my Brotherman can come this year too. My parents share their campsite with us so no out of pocket expense for us. So God has really blessed us during Toodle's layoff. We were worried we wouldn't be able to "get away" this year. The lightning bugs will be synchronizing next week in the Cove . It is something to see! We watched it for the first time last year and it took my breath away. If you live near the Smokies you should head to Cades Cove Friday and Saturday of next week to catch the show.
Toodles is still among the ranks of the unemployed. We never thought it would be this long . But God has a plan and knows what He is doing so we will wait. Even though things are kinda tight and we will have to do some rearranging in some areas, I know we will be ok. Of course now I feel really bad about complaining last year that Toodles was working too much and that we never got to see him. This time together as a family has been awesome though. We needed it. So thank you Lord!
Pray for us as we will be doing some traveling.Take care and have a great time over the next couple of weeks. I will try to post while I am at my BIL house so that I can do Blog of the Week. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I never did get those Spring pictures posted on my picture blog and here it is almost summer. But I will get to it!
Goofing off in the flash room at Ripley's BION.
Mini golfing... one of our fave pastimes.
Family portrait in the mirror maze. That was cool.
Hanging out in the Lethal Weapons exhibit at the Ripley's aquarium.

Leopard shark

Crown of thorns starfish
The jellies!

The octopus. Sorry about the flash. I had to turn it on. You couldn't see him without it.


I had to rescue this little fella. He was learning to fly at the same time a baby cardinal was learning. He ended up in the wrong side of the yard and a fight ensued between the parents of both birds and both babies were being attacked. So I moved him to the back yard where his sibling was waiting. Everything calmed down then and both babies were fine.
The sibling.

The baby cardinal.

My parent's blubirds. They have been tenants for several years.

The babies!!

Sevier County Days...Free Admission

I almost forgot to post about this.
All Ripleys attractions in Sevier County are free til Thursday for those who live in or work in Sevier County. Just have id or check stub and a can of food for each person. All proceeds benefit Sevier County Food Ministry.

This includes:
Ripleys Aquarium of the Smokies
Ripleys House of Mirrors
Old MacDonalds Mini Golf
Davey Crokett Mini Golf
Ripleys Believe It Or Not

Blessings! ~ Nikki

Website of the Week 5-18-2009

This weeks website is full of great things to print. It is especially wonderful for someone with kids who are learning to read. Check it out and let me know what you think (that is a pitiful beg for a comment)
Carl's Corner

Also in more news. I went back to the doctor today because I had no relief for my ear and I still can't hear well from it. She gave me another round of antibiotics (stronger) and some steroids which are supposed to help the fluid drain off (yeah). If there are no changes by Thursday then its off to see a specialist. So keep praying about that if you don't mind and keep my Momma, Daddy and my Brother in your prayers PLEASE!
Blessings ~ Nikki