She Works Hard For Her Money

Lend an Ear?

Okay, the yard sale was worth it. I had money to take to Homeschool Convention this year! I usually just go and drool over the vendor tables, but not this time. I didn't spend much. I didn't need much. But it was nice to have it. I went with my friends Tara, Salina, Tanya (who couldn't speak after just having throat surgery,) Cindy, and a cardboard cut-out of my friend Kay (more on that in another post.)

I got a book called the Kings and Queens of England and Uncle Josh's Map CD-rom. I've wanted that CD-rom for 4 years. 4 years ago, I listened to Cindy Wiggers teach a Convention Session on Geography and she had some cool suggestions. She showed how to make several copies of the same country on transparency paper so that they could be layered, showing different features of the same location. If one page showed elevation and one page showed temperature zones and one page showed terrain... you could get the students thinking about how one affects the other, etc. The Kings and Queens book goes in order, has great pictures, is concise, and will be a great help for memorization in a few more weeks when we hit those chapters in SOTW II

The rest of my money went towards cool cap guns for the boys, Churchill's Coffee, and awesome paper products from this place. I'm a paper freak and this place was spectacularly cheap. I haven't checked their online prices to see how it compares, but I couldn't believe how cheap this paper was. EXCELLENT quality construction paper. Dover books. Colored Pencils. FUN stuff.

Oh, and I bought a gravy boat. This was hilarious to me, but I'm easily entertained. We had 5 gals getting away for the weekend. What do we do with our wild, crazy selves? We go to Target. I had fun, but I had to shake my head in shame. I was truly, way too happy to find "the perfect gravy boat."

Fake Kay did not join us in Target because we were afraid she'd disintegrate in the rain, but she did join us for Zio's dinner. I love this place. It is not expensive and it has the BEST FOOD EVER. I loooooooovvvvvve their chocolate torte. You cannot eat this torte without moaning. It isn't possible.

The speakers were great. Marky Hamby from Lamplighter Publishing spoke. He had an awesome testimony about humility. It included sucking snot out of a sheep's nostrils though, so you've really just got to hear it for yourself. Todd Wilson of FamilyMan Ministries was there too. I had run across some of his comic strips before, but didn't realize that's who was speaking. There was a great session on Lapbooking, but I don't remember her name. And then there was a session on homemade games given by Lori Beckstrom. She spoke last year and shared some great info on Learning Styles and on Spelling. It wasn't deep heart-issues kind of teaching, but she's one of my favorite speakers. There were a lot of other speakers there, but I spent a lot of time perusing the vendor halls and enjoying my coffee. I had my first taste of a scone with my coffee.

Most of all, I just had fun. I had no idea how badly I needed that weekend. Right up until the last minute, I was looking for an excuse not to go. I had experienced the most emotionally draining week I've had in years and I didn't want to go and "smile" all weekend. I wanted to mope. But you know what? I didn't have to fake a single smile all weekend. God is so good. He knew just what I needed.

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