Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Smart Ideas

Received some of these today in an email. Thought they might be worth passing along!

Need a quick ruler? A dollar bill is about 6 1/8" long.

Spritz thread ends with hairspray to stiffen them for easier needle-threading.

A magnet in the sewing basket is handy for picking up dropped needles or pins.

When emailing directions to get to your house, include a photo of the house.

Before taking something apart to fix it, take digital photos along the way so you know how to put it all back together again.

Wash the interior of windows horizontally and the exterior vertically. If they streak, you'll know which side to redo.

Clean narrow, stained bottles and vases by filling them with water and dropping in a tablet of denture cleaner.

If you plant flower beds in a diamond pattern rather than in straight rows, they'll look fuller faster.

Unstick a zipper by rubbing a penceil along it. The graphite lubricates the teehh. A candle or other piece of wax works great, too.

Rub glassware with a cloth dipped in toothpaste to remove small scratches.

Rub bathroom mirrors with shaving cream and wipe off with soft cloth to cut down on post-shower fogging.

Overbaked cookies? Store in an airtight container and they'll soften after a day.

Dripping faucet making you nuts? Tie a string from the end of the faucet to the drain. The water will silently drip down the string and into the drain.

I know puting peanut butter on hair helps get out gum. And that was the suggestion in this list. But I also discovered that vegetable oil works just as well and it's less smelly and expensive than peanut butter.

Use a blow dryer to heat gum-backed labels for easy removal.

Freezing a candlestick will allow the wax to chip off easily.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

INCREDIBLE Homeschool Source Sale!!! Check This OUT!!!

Check this out: http://www.funfoodadventures.com/estes.htm

You will never find this many resources for so low a price ever again! This is the deal of the century and you REALLY need to go to this website and check it out!!

For a donation of $39 you receive over $300 in ebook materials!!!

What do you get?
Convention Audio Package from Value’s Driven Family
Three titles from Kap & Pen: Eating Better Than Beans and Cabbage, Father’s Birthday & the Great Chicago Fire, and How to Have a Successful Treasure Hunt
World of Animals Storybuilder by Kim Kautzer
Ballistic Homeschooling by Melanie Young
Mother Encouragement Packet from Teach Magazine
Baby Steps to Better Health and Learning for the Littles by Sheri Graham
Short and Sweet A Collection of Short Stories from Christian Perspective
Lapbook e-book of your choice from A Journey Through Learning
Redeeming the Time Journal & Choose Ye This Day from Me & My House Ministries
Fifty Stories Retold from Yesterday’s Classics
Supermom’s Simple Guide to Healthier Eating for Beginners and Beyong by Erica Johns
We Three Kings of Orient Are Copywork e-book by Jennifer Bogart
$10.00 Gift Card from Hands & Hearts Homeschool, Inc.
The Bread by Hand e-book by Kimberly Eddy
Listening Lunch: The How and Why of Audio for Homeschoolers by Kathy Grubb
E-books: What do I do with them all? By Michelle Geffkin
This Book is Being Read By: Bookmarks by Elisabeth Geffkin
Artful Advent: Celebrate the Season with Art by Michelle Geffkin
How Flat is Your Homeschool World? by Phyllis Wheeler
Fox Kids Recipes, Overcoming Obstacles While Homeschooling, and Seeing God even through the Stitches by Tami Fox
History & Holidays: Tips, Tricks, and Projects e-book by Maggie Hogan

THAT’S $330 worth of ebooks!!!

Then, The Old Schoolhouse is offering a great subscription deal ~ you get ALL the above PLUS the TOS special for a $57 donation.

BUT IT GETS BETTER YET! These are donation suggestions ~ If you donate MORE than the $39 for the first deal, they have an additional thank you gift worth $150!!! AND You get entered into a drawing to win almost $900 worth of goodies that will be mailed to the winners!!!! INCREDIBLE!

Why are they doing all this? Here it is in a nutshell. Jim and Kate Estes and their children are a homeschooling, self-publishing Christian family. One of their children has had extraordinary physical needs, spending weeks at a time in the hospital. He’s only three but has already had over a dozen operations. Their family is a testimony of God’s grace through great trials. Jim believes firmly in living debt-free. His job was downsized many months back and he has been unable to find employment. They had a retirement fund, etc., but now all of that has been used. He has a business opportunity that would meet the needs of his familiy's financial needs and give them the flexibility they require due to Noah’s extended hospital stays. But, he needs start-up money to do it. Kate came to the self-pulishing community to ask how to have an inventory liquidation sale. They were simply going to sell all they had in their self-publishing business to try and raise the finances for this new opportunity. However, MANY of us in the CSP loop offered instead to donate our products to them for use in a huge fire sale. This allows them to stay in the self-publishing business while at the same time earning enough to start the new business, keep up with medical expenses, and be able to stay living in their family home. All those of us who donated are receiving a blessing by helping this family and we are getting our business names out there. It’s great for us and great for them!

I really, really want to encourage all of you to consider going to the web site I posted and check it out. You will never find a package like this offered for this price again. Such tremendous resources for homeschoolers!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Excellent Email About Social Security

Received today:

Your Social Security

Just in case some of you didn't know this. It's easy to check out, if you don't believe it.

Be sure and show it to your kids. They need a little history lesson on what's what and it doesn't matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are Facts!!!

Our Social Security

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary,

No longer Voluntary


2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program,

Now 7.65%

3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year,

No longer tax deductible

4.) That the money the participants put into the independent 'Trust Fund' rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and,

Under Johnson the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.

Under Clinton & Gore up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a social scurity check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
the money we paid to the Federal government to 'put away' -- you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent 'Trust Fund' and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The
Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!

If enough people see this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will evolve. Maybe not, some Democrats are awfully sure of what isn't so.

AND CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT FOR ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!


----A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.-----Thomas Jefferson

Friday, January 1, 2010

Thinking I'll keep this blog active...

I'm going to be posting a HUGE blog report regarding my unsuccessful attempts to correct a situation with the Golden Strip Career Center in Greenville County, SC. However, I'm waiting until January 15, when Alyssa will be officially done with the class. That time period also gives two weeks to the school for someone to either tell me who to appeal to or grant Alyssa and the other students the credits they earned.

Keep posted...it will be very illuminating to see what happens.

All I can say is, I am not a quiet, sit by and let things go parent...so if that's what the school is hoping will happen, they are sadly mistaken.

So far, I have contacted the teacher, the guidance counselor, a liason at Greenville Tech, the VP at Greenville Tech, the Hillcrest PTA, and the SBTEC. Next stops include the Board of Education, our state representative, and local radio and newspapers. Someone is going to listen and make sure this situation doesn't happen again. And hopefully I will draw attention for the parents and students who are being affected and apparently have no voice.

And people wonder why we homeschool.....