 @MamaKautz and I before Bloomsday 2011 NOTE: If you’re visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party, my PARTY post is right HERE!
I recently mentioned that my husband and I are wanting to take control of our eating and eat better so we’ll FEEL good. Along with this goal, I have another one. You see, I’m a wanna-be runner. I enjoy running, most of the time. Okay, actually I don’t enjoy it unless I do it fairly often. Then I LOVE it.
I ran this morning. I made it 3.03 miles. The last mile I was able to get into my “zone”. I wasn’t looking around, or thinking about a whole lot, or dodging rocks, I was just running. I love it when I get to that point. I can just GO. But I lost “the zone” after just a few minutes when a dog stepped out of its driveway, causing me to be on the alert. Then I was tired. Seriously tired.
You see, I have a bigger goal than just running: I’m running Bloomsday again this year! Bloomsday is 12k– 7.46 miles of fun with 55,000 other people! And if that sounds kind of crazy, that’s because it is. It was my first real race ever, last year, and I had so much fun! Mama Kautz and I both ran it last year. Not together, because she was in an earlier start group than I was, but we rode the shuttle there together and met up afterward. Do I want to win it? NO WAY. I’m happy with my 10.5 minute miles!
My plan this year was to get a personal record–a PR– on last year’s time. Last year I finished in 1:35. This year I want to do it in 1:25. Only trouble is, in order to get ready for something like shaving off ten minutes, I need to actually BE RUNNING. Regularly. This week, I ran Tuesday morning (2.68 miles, following my boys on their bikes) and this morning (Sat., 3.03 miles). First runs in 3 weeks. I’m back to needing to walk a lot more. I’m fatter. I’m tired-er. This is not going down the way I’d planned it.
Bloomsday is Sunday, May 6th. I have 21 days. Three weeks to try to get myself ready to run it. I can do this! Last year I didn’t do much training at all and I did pretty good. I have somewhere between 9-14 training runs I can take before the race. Potential. Motivation.
They say the hardest thing when it comes to running are the first few steps out the front door. I agree. And I’m going to do it anyway.
So tell me, what do you have to psych yourself up for in order to get it done?
Today’s Ultimate Blog Party free download is McGuffey’s Eclectic Speller! <– (downloads expired) And here are Friday’s and Saturday’s freebies!
NOTE: If you’re visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party, my PARTY post is right HERE!
I LOVE a good deal. Everyone loves a good deal, right? We hit the clearance racks when seasons change, we grab those Black Friday specials, or use those super coupons (okay I don’t coupon, but you know what I mean.) WE LOVE TO SAVE MONEY.
Homeschooling and living on a tight budget sometimes seem to be in conflict with one another. There just aren’t a lot of great “sales” on curriculum. There aren’t curriculum mega-stores offering 20% off all Language Arts on Fridays, or buy-one, get one free deals for math manipulatives. Have you ever BOUGHT math manipulatives?! They are what I consider to be a good investment. You invest in them, because while you need them, they aren’t cheap.
So how do homeschooling and frugality come to terms?
You can homeschool almost for free, if you really don’t mind doing a little bit of research. I am definitely no expert on this, but I have a few resources that are favorites and I’d love to share with you. I will begin with the obvious one:
Public Library: Most of you have access to a local library. Some libraries are better or bigger than others, but most of us have them. I have been to some really awful large libraries, where the librarians weren’t the most helpful or their inter-library loan service was troublesome, and I have been to some really small, out of the way libraries who catered to homeschoolers and would go out of their way to find whatever we were looking for. Don’t judge a library by it’s size or quantity of books!
Free Online Curriculum: There are two popular programs out there which definitely warrant a look. The first is Ambleside Online, a K-12 program which is very much based on Charlotte Mason’s educational techniques. The majority of AO is based on public domain books, freely available (and downloadable) on their website. They have a very large online support group at Yahoo Groups as well. The second, and my favorite, is An Old Fashioned Education. I can’t exactly explain why I like OFE better, except maybe just that it doesn’t come with a “program” or a set of rules for using it. Also based on public domain books, this K-12 program has a vast array of books, some in common with AO but many others are not. An Old Fashioned Education also includes downloadable math curriculum.
Public Domain ebooks: There are many, many sources to find books online that can be downloaded to your computer or eReader. Besides the two above full curriculums which offer ebooks, you may find them at their original sources such as Google Books and Project Gutenberg.
Public Domain Audio Books: My new favorite website is called Books Should Be Free. This site contains MANY of the titles from AO and OFE, in audio book form! I am currently listening to Jane Eyre when I go to bed at night. I love, love, love this site. Most of the books there are from Librivox.org, which is a massive library of freely available, public domain audio books, but is easier to search than Librivox. Much larger than BSBF, Librivox is massive in its volume of titles!
eReader Compilations: Although not free, compilations of many titles of books can save you a lot of money. The Robinson Curriculum has been around for around 15-20 years, so this isn’t a new thing, but others are coming forward and bringing ebooks into the current milennium. My favorite company for ebooks is called Heritage History. Each Heritage History Library contains dozens and dozens (40-90) of ebooks each in PDF, ePub and MOBI formats! That’s three formats for every single book. You can read the PDF on your computer, or load them into your Nook, Kindle or other eReader. Each library costs $20-25.
Other Free Curriculum Sites: There are so many more than these! Donna Young.org, Homeschool Share, Core Knowledge, Lesson Pathways
Finally, in honor of the Ultimate Blog Party this week over at 5 Minutes for Mom, I am offering a free download a day, through the end of the UBP! If you missed yesterday’s, you can get it HERE.
Today’s download is (downloads expired–>)Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason!
Are you here from 5 Minutes for Mom? Welcome!!
Welcome! If you’re visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party, I’m happy that you are here! This is my third year partying with the UBP!
 My name is Dawn, and I’m the Momma. Our family lives in beautiful Eastern Washington, which is currently attempting to have Spring.  You never know what you’ll get in April around here– anything from sunshine and 65 to 33 and snowing is possible this time of year!
We have an assortment of kids in probably the most BLENDED family you’ve ever seen. We have HIS, HERS, MINE, OURS, OURS (adopted!) and lots of EXTRAS. We were licensed foster parents from 2000-2010, and fostered 22 kids, guardianed 1 and adopted 2 in that time. We closed our license when it came up for renewal because we knew, as much as we love kids, that we would have kids until we die if we didn’t just stop. Now I love just focusing on our kids and not running around with the foster babies. The extras we still have around are the teenage friends of our teens. We love them and we should probably claim them on our taxes one of these years. We also have an assortment of critters: 2 yapping Pomeranians, a rabbit, a guinea pig, a gerbil, and 3 chickens in the backyard.
I’m also a homeschool Momma, with 13 years under my belt and I still don’t know everything. I have had kids who homeschooled, went to public school, special ed in public school, and parent-public school partnership programs. My feelings are that whatever works for your family is what is best for your family. I write for homeschoolers and any parents who want to be better parents or help their kids with struggles. We have two boys with some special needs, and I am ninja when it comes to finding resources to help them succeed.
I’ve been writing online since 1997, attempting to blog since 2002, set up my very comfy home at WordPress in 2005, and moved to my own domain, 5kidsandadog.com in 2009.
The Momma Knows is what 5 Kids and a Dog morphed into as kids grew up and moved out. (!!) We have three kids left under 18: Daughter J is almost 18, son D1 is 11 and son D2 is turning 10 in about 5 weeks.
I’m a 2x Relevant Conference Alum, and will be attending Allume Social this October in Harrisburg, PA. (That’s the new name for Relevant!) I would LOVE to meet you there, so if you’re planning on going, be sure to give me a shout out in the comments. 
I am a Christ follower, but it doesn’t matter to me whether or not you are. It doesn’t matter to me if you have kids in public school, or if you eat McDonalds every day, or you unschool, or you work full time. I write to support parents because let’s face it, parenting can be really hard. There is no judgement here. Christians aren’t perfect, and I am far from it. I only ask that you extend grace to me as I extend it to others.
I write about faith, homeschooling, parenting, special needs, teenagers, life, running, chickens, food, boys, my road to better health, strawberries, and more. I have an About Me page that tells a lot more… about me… if you’re interested…
So please, take a look around, Subscribe to The Momma Knows by Email or by RSS Feed in your reader so you don’t miss anything! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!
Also, for those of you who stuck it out and read this whole post, I have a little homeschool freebie for you. It’s my first attempt. Be nice.
Be sure to COME BACK each day of the party for a new freebie!
The Spider and the Fly Copybook Manuscript or Cursive (downloads expired)
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to join The Ultimate Blog Party over at 5 Minutes for Mom!
 A little of last year's harvest Imagine feeling so tired and sluggish you’re falling asleep when ever you sit down to do something quiet, like read or check your email.
Imagine having a gut ache after you eat. Almost every time. No matter what it is.
Imagine gaining back the same 5# you recently lost, and knowing you need to watch what you eat and get back to running, but you’re just too tired and your stomach hurts too much to run anyway.
This is how I’ve been feeling lately. I am exhausted, achey and just generally feeling terrible. And I’m not the only one. My husband has also remarked to me how he isn’t sleeping well, doesn’t have much energy, and feels yucky a lot of time. I don’t think both of us feeling this way is a coincidence. We realized that we need to do something about it, starting with what we eat. It just makes sense, doesn’t it, that if you eat a bunch of garbage, you’re going to feel… like garbage.
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. Well, not really SICK, but feeling awful.
Over the course of the past year or so, E and I have been really starting to pay attention to what we eat, and more specifically, where our food comes from. This journey began with a documentary on Netflix.
Quick explanation/disclaimer: Some of the documentary links in this post open to the Netflix site which, if you aren’t a member, you won’t be able to view. If you are a member, go ahead and sign into your Netflix account right now in another tab, and then you can view the videos. I should also mention here that I am NOT an affiliate of Netflix, although I did apply and was rejected because they didn’t feel that I could send them viewers. They obviously don’t understand homeschoolers… But I digress… We watched all of these on Netflix, but I linked the ones I could to Hulu just in case you don’t have a membership. And I’m not affiliated with Hulu either.
This eye-opening movie was called Food, Inc (Netflix). From it, we learned the down and dirty details of where our meat, poultry, eggs, and produce originate. And it’s not pretty folks. Forget about bright shiny farm scenes and cattle scattered across green fields. Forget chickens fluttering in the farmyard. Forget about healthy, back to nature-grown corn and wheat. Throw all the animals in close confines, mix in massive amounts of manure, minimal if any sunlight, and a lot of hormones, genetic modification, and chemicals. That’s what you get when you buy today’s commercially raised food from the supermarket. Buying sides of beef and pork from a rancher, and getting our own chickens for fresh eggs were a direct result of watching Food, Inc.
The next one we watched is called Food Matters (Netflix). This movie blew both of us away, and made us begin to think differently about how we eat. There are a number of others, and I will just list them for you.
So we’re going to do something about it. Last weekend, we bought a juicer. E and I are going to go on a juice fast. E is planning on just a weekend, and I am planning on a week. Or two. We’ll see how I am feeling at the end of a week. I know I’ll feel better eliminating some things, like dairy and/or wheat, as well as all the processed sugar I consume normally. Both of us are looking forward to a total detox.
I’m not sure yet when we are beginning this. I’ll keep an ongoing journal about it and posts will be forthcoming. Our juicer arrived today. We bought this baby…
Join me!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which, if you click over and make a purchase, help to pay for site maintenance fees.
 Credit: Flickr Creative Commons by e3000 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-30
He knows all about you. He knows you inside and out. He knows how many hairs you will lose today, and how many remain. You are his special child, whether you acknowledge Him or not. You are worth so much to God! He will love you without expecting from you. He forgives without guilt or reminders of the past. When Jesus was crucified and said “It is finished”, it really was.
You are exactly where he put you. Not to punish your or give you glory, but because your life, your story, your time is unfolding within His plan for you. The things you are walking through right now, today, are the things you will be able to help someone else walk through tomorrow. He knows the plans he has for you. You are worth so much to Him!
Post inspired by Today is Your Best Day by Roy Lessin.
This post is linked up to Word-Filled Wednesday.
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