Where Do You Put Your Trust

Have you ever been through some things that shook you? Of course...we all have. We all come up against things in our lives that knock our legs out from under us and take our breath away.

I remember as a young mom hitting a time when things were more than I could handle. We had recently moved more than 6 hours away from any family. My husband was working and going to college. My daughter wasn't one year old yet and I am leaving her with strangers so I can work and earn just enough to pay for the childcare....Then to add insult to injury things started going wrong. I know some of you know exactly what I mean!

We started having car problems, health problems, financial problems, communication problems; which lead to marrital problems....life became complicated. My daughter started started getting sick and running fevers of 105 every time she went off of antibiotics...and I found myself overwhelmed and feeling all alone. It was in that moment that I had to ask myself where I truly put my trust.

Sometimes when things get "out of control" we need to relinquish our control and remember this verse.

No matter what we face we can put our trust in the Lord and say, "You are MY God!"

I am so thankful that we are never alone! Our God never leaves us to handle things on our own. We have a great God that cares about our every need!

So no matter what you face, put your hope and trust in the Lord....He is our God!

Thanks for reading!

Barbette

150 Day Challenge (Part 2)

I have mentioned before that we have taken a 150 Day Challenge at my house. On August 1 we each began reading a Psalm a day and creating a verse image to share with each other. This verse is supposed to either have special meaning to us, or be something that stood out from the chapter.

I have to say that I have been loving this! It is always neat to see and hear about what God is speaking to each of our hearts as we meditate on the same chapter as each other day after day!

Take a look at some of the verses that stood out to us from the Word of God and I pray that God speaks to you through them.

Thank you for reading!
Barbette

By His Stripes...

Recently I watched The Passion of the Christ again. I hadn't seen it since it had first come out and to tell you the truth, I didn't really want to watch it again. Not because I didn't like it, I just really found that movie so incredibly hard to watch because they did an amazing job of helping us "see" what the Bible describes about the crucifixion.

Sometimes I think we find the extreme sacrifice He made for us so distasteful to our flesh that we try not to think about it. We hide it away inside our minds and label it simply a Bible story and go on with our day to day life, content to busy ourselves with things that don't matter for the sake of eternity.

So as I sat watching this movie with my family, I realized that we should all do what we can to always remind ourselves of the sacrifice that was made for us! Jesus chose to be battered and bruised. He chose to do His Father's will even when it was painful and humiliating! He became the Savior of the world because He wanted to make a way for you and me to spend eternity with Him in heaven!

So...even though I didn't really "want" to watch the movie again, I am very glad I did. A renewed perspective of the magnitude of His sacrifice is always good for us.

So today I ask that you remind yourself just what Jesus did for you. ..and live your life to make a difference for the kingdom of God!

Thanks for reading!

Barbette

Enlivenze LLC: Tyrannosaurus Rex Level 1 FlipStir Puzzle Review ~ TOS Crew

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my blog and homeschool! See my full Disclosure statement for more information.

Puzzles are fun for almost any age and stage! Because of our love for puzzles and games, we jumped at the chance to try the Tyrannosaurus Rex (Level 1) FlipStir Puzzle from Enlivenze LLC.
I have to say that this uniquely crafted puzzle is fun for any age. I kept it in our family room and everyone from my 3-year old niece to my ?? year old husband spent time working on this puzzle. It is fun, unique, and challenging!
My sister is a puzzle fanatic and found this puzzle refreshing and lots of fun! With ages here in our house from 1 year old to 49 years old...we have all taken our turn "trying" to solve the puzzle. 
I love the fact that it is challenging enough to keep your attention and not too difficult to solve...and it is nothing short of super cute!
Although the 3-yr. old couldn't solve it, she did spend quite a bit of time doing her very best to use the stir wand to put the pieces into place. She was a little young to try, but wanted to join in the fun when she saw us working on it.
  I believe that my daughter's BF had the most fun with it. The puzzle comes sealed in a container and is all jumbled up...much like the story of poor Humpty Dumpty. Although all the king's horses and all the king's men were not able to help poor Humpty....he was able to solve this 3-D puzzle several times. (At which point it was guarded for awhile so the little ones wouldn't mess it up after he had worked so hard to put the dinosaur "back together again!") Ha ha ha!
I call this product simply ingenious! Not only will no pieces get lost, but it is a great conversation piece. I just left ours sitting out and it seemed that everyone that came through our family room spent a little time working with it trying to solve the puzzle.
Personally, I would love to see more of them! Maybe a whole line of different types of dinosaurs....or a whole line of landmarks....Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Lincoln Memorial...the list could go on and on.
We found this puzzle to be tons of fun and a family bonding experience. We were cheering each other on...or sometimes "accidentally" bumping an elbow just as the final pieces were coming into place!! It definitely became a conversation piece in our home. 
Way to go Enlivenze LLC! We loved this puzzle and hope to see more in the future!!
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What Pleases the Lord

How easy is it for us to get caught up in our daily lives? We live moment to moment day after day, and if we're not careful we can forget to consult God about his plan for our day!

Ephesians 5:10-11 tells us to carefully determine what pleases the Lord. God desires for us to build our relationship with Him, all the while becoming more and more like Him.

We cannot live like the world and Christ at the same time. We are to take NO part in worthless deeds of evil and darkness. As we stay true to our relationship with Christ, our light shines bright in the darkness!

Shine bright my friends, and we can make a difference for the kingdom of God!

Thanks for reading!!

Barbette

150 Day Challenge

This post may contain affiliate links.

Thank you for supporting my blog and homeschool!

See my full Disclosure statement for more information.

Do you have family devotion time in your home? Ours has looked different through the years. It seems that the older my girls get and the more they change....so does our family devotions.  

Recently I was reading a blog from His Mercy is New.  In this blog entitled 150 Days in the Psalms she shared the powerful ways that God spoke to her as she read through Psalms, and it gave me a great idea! I thought it would be great to make the 150 Day in the Psalms into a challenge for my girls and I.

So, I spoke with my girls and we decided that starting August 1st, we would begin reading one Psalm a day. Since we all stay connected via social media these days, I challenged them to create a verse image each day and post it in a message to us all.

I loved watching the verse choices of my girls, and loved talking with them about the reasons why they made their selections. From the moment that the images started coming in, my heart was enriched. 

I know that we are just a little over a week into this challenge, but I have enjoyed this challenge so much, and am looking forward to seeing how this impacts us over the next several months. 

 

I am so thankful that Candace took the time to write the blog, but she also has a few other items on her website, so you should head over and check it out. You can download the calendar, an ebook, and more.

Thank you for reading!

CTCMath: CTCMath Homeschool Membership Review ~ TOS Crew

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my blog and homeschool! See my full Disclosure statement for more information.

MATH....It sure isn't everyone's favorite subject!  In fact I might even go so far as to say that it could be everyone's favorite subject to hate!! ha ha! You know what I mean homeschool parents.....when it comes to math, extra help or online lessons are a HUGE blessing to your child! CTCMath and their CTCMath Homeschool Membership may be just the thing that takes your child's math studies from feared to fabulous!
I know that when it comes to curriculum we are always looking for a good deal, right?! Well, you can look no further. CTCMath  has made a special deal for this product and you are able to utilize it whether you have one child or multiple! Although I am only homeschooling two daughters, I have friends that are on this adventure with 5+ children and a product that can work with all of them for one low price is just what they're looking for.
This is not the first time I have had the opportunity to utilize CTCMath . It is by far one of the most easy-to-use and comprehensive math sites out there, and I feel blessed that I could utilize it for my kiddos. Even if you don't use it as your main source of math lessons, your child can do extra work through the site and gain important knowledge that they may have missed from their other curriculum.
My daughter went through the Basic Math and Pre-Algebra course and learned so much. I think what I loved the most was the fact that the site sent me emails keeping me updated on how she was doing. Along with the email CTCMath  sends any certificates that she has earned along the way so you can print them out! I love certificates!!!! You can never have too many certificates!!

What CTCMath has to offer:

• 1367 animated and narrated math lessons
• A bank of over 57,000 interactive questions
• Diagnostic tests
• Instant feedback to students and regular reporting to parents
• Algebra, Statistics, Geometry, Trigonometry, Probability and more...
• Your math online tutor
• Kindergarten through High School
• Multiple students for one price
• Build lesson plans within the program

Not to mention they have reduced the price for the CTCMath Homeschool Membership to make it affordable for you. You will save 60% off the normal price and can implement it for the upcoming school year! That is an amazing deal for an amazing product.

We loved the product and know that it has really helped our homeschool math time flow. CTCMath  is a top-notch product and they are dedicated to ensuring that your student learns math in an interactive and consistent manner. 

Check out their website and take advantage of the special pricing, I know that you will be glad that you did!

For more about CTCMath , follow them on social media.

You can also click the banner below to read more Crew reviews on this product.

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Thank you for reading!