Welcome to another start to your homeschool week with Memo Monday!

This week we have plenty to participate in, peruse, ponder and even to purchase! If that isn’t enough, we also have some things to pray for. Have a great week at home with your kiddoes, and I hope the weather is nice where you are and you get to get out and enjoy it!!

To Participate In:

Attention Moms and Daughters!! GGM Mother’s Day Appreciation Contest is for your daughters, eighteen and under. One winning article will be chosen to be featured in May’s issue, but all participant photos will be featured in honor of your moms.

SisterLisa is hosting the Share Your Faith Carnival: Homeschool Edition at The HomeSpun Life. Submissions are being taken for this carnival until April 2nd, and the carnival will begin on April 5th. So get yours in TODAY!

If you missed last week’s POLL (which is kind of ironic, considering the poll question), be sure to vote in it!! It is in last week’s issue of Memo Monday.

To Peruse:

The Carnival of Homeschooling this week is at Why Homeschool.

Growing in Grace April Issue comes out tomorrow, April 1st!
In it you will find great articles for moms and girls, recipes, celebrations and fun.

The Homesteading Carnival is up this week at Laura William’s Musings.

The current issue of The Charlotte Mason carnival (Mar 18, 2008) is up at Hearts and Trees
The next issue (Apr 01, 2008) will be held at One Child Policy Homeschool

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool has the current edition of Good News Thursday up.

Top 100 Educational Websites of 2008 as announced by Homeschool.com

 

To Ponder:

Martin Luther:
I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.

Mark Twain:
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Beatrix Potter:
“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

 

To Purchase(or even get for free):

The current FREE Ebook at CurrClick is Tea Time by Amy Puetz.
This is a very short e-book about cooking during the Victorian era. It contains three recipes and a brief description of how to serve an afternoon tea.

I know, I know, I mention the Old Schoolhouse Magazine on Memo Monday all the time. Only because I believe it to be the best all-around resource for homeschool families.
And now, you can get it on your computer digitally. Really. Check it out. The special pricing lasts through April 8th.
You can get a full subscription plus a free issue for $14.95.
If you like the good old hard copy (like I do), you sill can’t beat the price for a full year subscription!

 

To Pray For:

Amanda has a Page devoted to Prayer Requests.

Matthew 18:20
“For where two or more are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst.“

Please continue to pray for Ami. “We just received word from our closest and dearest friends in Israel David and Leah Ortiz, that their son, Ami, was seriously injured by a bomb at their home in Ariel today. Apparently some one left, what looked like, a Purim Basket outside their door. Ami, 15 years old, was holding it when it exploded.”

Blessings!

I sat down to write this post and being the anal retentive “eye-for-detail” gal that I am, I had to go back and review all the past posts to see what we have covered to make sure I didn’t repeat something you already know. Guess what?! I learned a lot reading all those posts and wanted to put all the links here again so you could see what you have been missing if you haven’t tuned in to the HSBA’s Better Blogging series. The ladies that have posted on this topic have done a smash-up job and have covered so much territory that it begs to be repeated. I’ll have to keep my new ideas for next week… or pass them on to the next author since Saturday really ISN’T my scheduled day to post!We hope that our site is a beacon of HELP for homeschoolers and homeschool bloggers and this series is dedicated to making blogging more fun, easy, and meaningful for each of you. We know that you all have something to say, and we hope to help you find ways to say it well!

Be sure to click back on the links above each section to review the post if you want further details about any of these abbreviated tips on how to improve your blogging, share your voice, show us your images, increase your traffic, etc. I have grossly shortened much of the wisdom to create a quick reference list for you all… so by all means, click and read the real thing if you find a particular tip helpful!

Hallie’s First Better Blogging Post
- Make your site Eye Candy (design is king)
- Be genuine (be yourself)
- Learn from successful bloggers
- Learn basic HTML
- Back up your template
- Keep a notebook for your blog thoughts
- Write in advance (drafts are your friends)
- Link, Link, Link
- Get a free counter

Hallie’s Second Better Blogging Post
- Blog daily
- Create GREAT content
- Comment, Comment, Comment
- Promote your blog
- Join blogrolls
- Use catchy post titles
- Submit to directories of like-minded folk
- Host a carnival
- Have a contest
- Do a meme
- Use Technorati
- Use trackbacks
- Ping
- Be patient (a readership won’t appear over night)

Hallie’s Third Better Blogging Post
- Protect your identity online (be safe)
- Respond to your commentors

Dawn’s First Better Blogging Post
- Keep an eye on the calendar (especially if you have a writing assignment on a group blog)
- Write about what you know and love
- Share cool discoveries
- Take notes at home (kids are great blog material!)
- Guard your mouth (think first before you speak - you might get it thrown back at you later)
- Mingle (read and comment on other blogs!)

Amanda’s First Better Blogging Post
- Comment on your own blog’s posts in the comment thread
- Keep your comments on topic in other’s posts
- Don’t be anonymous
- Stay ahead of contest deadlines
- Get the word out and promote your contests (and your friends’ contests)

Amanda’s Second Better Blogging Post
- RSS Tips about the following blog reader services: sitemeter, homeschool gold, blogstatter, clustrmaps, feedburner, feedblitz, bloglines, technorati

Dawn’s Second Better Blogging Post
- Strikethrough Text
- Picasa photo uploading and photo library tutorials

Amanda’s Third Better Blogging Post
- Keyboard shortcut Chart

Amanda’s Fourth Better Blogging Post
- Photos and Graphics sites to help give your blog pizazz

Amanda’s Fifth Better Blogging Post
- How to post images with html
- How to post images with links
- How to align images left, right, center
- How to change font colors

Now, I don’t know about you, but those are some tips I want to have in one place for future reference. Even old bloggers can learn new tricks.

You can also stop over at my blog and read one or two of my older posts about blogging. A few of the tips above may be on those older posts as well. As you will find, if you read other bloggers’ posts on blogging, one thread will stand out: BLOG ABOUT WHAT YOU LOVE or KNOW. That is the key to making sure your content is GREAT. It is, after all, the content that will keep your visitors coming back. Being truthful, being yourself and sharing your passion is what makes people flock to BLOGS for news rather than just relying on the media. Politicians KNOW THIS. I know because they contact bloggers regularly to join their campaigns! You can tell if someone is genuine when you read their blogs. I love REAL people.

I hope that you enjoy our thoughts here at the HSBA as we continue to serve you! Happy homeschooling and blogging!

Love in Him,

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This post could qualify for a Better Blogging and a Foto Friday post, I’m sure.

I just wanted to share my latest favorite photo tool with you. I’m sure if you have seen some of my latest posts round’ about, you will have come across some photo collages. The best thing about them is that they require NO skill. All you have to do is download the FREE program Picasa and you can automatically create your own really neat collages as well. Try it! You’ll be a Picasa junkie in no time!

The photos above were taken at the Botanical Gardens in Austin. What a lovely place for pictures! I’d love to see some of your collages! Leave a link if you have a cool one to share!

 

Love in Him,

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There’s something wonderful about new growth this time of year. First the crocus, then the grape hyacinth, tulips, and those hardy daffodils all sprout green from the fresh earth. Soon they reveal stunning blossoms, praising God in their colorful array. Perhaps they bring such joy because it’s a lovely picture of our new birth in Christ. Like those bulbs in the spring, fresh cut flowers in a vase are equally beautiful. But they don’t last, and they can’t grace us with their presence each spring. When they’re done with their beautiful display, one wouldn’t ever try to bring them back to life. Giving them fresh water, breathing into their stems, or replanting them seems rather absurd. Once they’re dead, they’re dead. The withered flowers must be thrown away, no matter how pretty they may have once been.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.”

As a new creation in Christ, we are no longer rootless flowers, wilting in a vase. God has replanted us in the garden of His love, where we are filled with the Holy Spirit, rooted in the soil of truth, and watered by the Scriptures.

Are you living that truth? If you have ever felt that you don’t know how to live in His garden, know that God did not just plant you there and then expect you to thrive on your own. Your Master Gardener has already provided everything you need to be firmly rooted, well watered, and blossoming to His glory. Here are three ingredients to grow your garden and bloom right where you’re planted.

1. Grow in the knowledge of God. 1 Peter 1:3 says, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” By knowing Him, you have all you need. He wants your roots to be deep in Him so that you will be “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith,” Colossians 2:7.

2. Be immersed in the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Just as flowers need water to grow and bloom, you are cleansed and sanctified by the washing of the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).

3. Be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” The Holy Spirit will bring God’s Word to life to you. He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13) and He will direct your eyes always toward Jesus. Just as plant food helps flowers grow stronger, abundant, and more beautiful, the Holy Spirit aids in your spiritual growth.

Today we’re interviewing 2005 winner Mental Multivitamin. “Mental multivitamin was established in October 2003 for readers, thinkers, and autodidacts. It is an attempt to write across the “curriculum” of this reader-thinker-autodidact (and unabashed generalist); to synthesize what I am learning about astronomy and history and ornithology and current events and literature and technology and art and, yes, about myself, my family, and the world.”

1. Please tell us about your family and your home-life.

There are five people in my family, and there’s not one of ‘em I’d swap.

Seriously, check out my reply to Question 3. I think everything anyone needs to know about our group is captured in those linked entries.

2. How and where did you grow up? What did you aspire to be when you “grew up” as a child?

I was born and raised on the Jersey Shore in a newer suburb in which “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” To the question “How did you grow up?” I’d reply, “Slowly.” To the question “Where did you grow up?” I’d say, “Well, I began growing up in earnest the day I got married, so the answer is South Jersey.” (Since beginning my own family, I’ve lived in South Jersey, Southern California, and Chicago.)

As for what I wanted to be when I grew up… well, although I toyed with the idea of becoming a teacher or an interpreter for the United Nations, I always knew I would be a writer.

And for twenty-six years, that is precisely what I have been.

3. What is an average homeschool day for you and your family?

Check out these entries: A typical day and night here, Let’s go, and Morning meditation: What I lived for. Although they’re a couple of years old, they really speak to what our days look like and what we’re all about here.

I would only add my children are now 18, 12, and 10.

4. When did you decide that homeschooling was for your family and what method did you use?

Grab a cup of coffee (or a bottle of Mountain Dew) and sit back. This is the longest of my replies.

As an admissions counselor — first for a private junior college and then for a large university, both in Philadelphia — I traveled to public and private high schools throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in the late 1980s. For the most part, I did not like much of what I saw, particularly the lack of zeal that seemed to define most students’ interest in their studies. I was particularly unsettled by the afternoon I spent at the high school from which I had graduated six years earlier.

By that time, my husband and I had already talked about having children. Where will they learn? I wondered one evening after a particularly unsatisfying day at the local high schools. I spent some time at the public library, researching alternatives to traditional schools, and came across John Holt’s Learning All the Time. While we do not subscribe to the radical unschooling approach Holt espoused, his book is all but completely responsible for making me believe that homeschooling was not only a viable but also a practical alternative to the conventional classroom model of education.

Even so, we did not homeschool at first. By the time our oldest was three, we were living and working in So. Cal. and had an excellent relationship with the staff of the child-study center at the university where I had earned my master’s degree, so our son attended the school-day program there. Then we moved to Chicago and were fortunate to find an excellent private school for Pre-K/K. It was one el stop from my office, so I walked him to school every morning, spent many lunch hours folded into a too-small chair at a too-small table, and rode home with a companion bursting with stories about trips to the museums and parks, visits from musicians, and myriad projects. A parochial school admitted our son to first grade a year early, and all continued to go well: He had been an early reader; he had a precociously large vocabulary and was socially adroit; and he was, by all accounts, a born leader.

In second grade, however, he met his match in an older teacher who prized unquestioning obedience and standardized testing. Oh, the stories I could tell!

But I won’t. I’ll skip to the end: School ended in late May, and we spent the summer between second and third grades visiting the city’s parks, museums, zoos, libraries, theaters, and more. We took long walks and short naps. We discovered that our son needed eyeglasses. How had he seen the boards during second grade? we wondered. As it turns out, he hadn’t. So the ophthalmologist ordered glasses, and I ordered a math program, and on a particularly hot day in August, I said, “Hey, dude. Let’s get to work.”

We never looked back.

He is now a senior in high school. By the time he was sixteen, he had completed all of the conventional requirements for high school graduation (apart from driver’s education) and was using texts from my undergraduate and graduate studies in English, psychology, rhetoric, and linguistics and texts from his aunt’s undergraduate studies in physics and chemistry to further his studies. We moved out of Chicago in 2004, but in the two years before we moved, he took classes through the city college system. This year, he simply enrolled as a full-time student at the local college, taking advantage of the dual enrollment program to earn college credit while “finishing” high school. He is awaiting an admissions decision from [insert institution name here]. Frankly, after completing said institution’s arduous application process, we are all awaiting an answer.

Our daughters, unlike their brother, have never been to school — and they don’t need glasses.

Let’s see. In 2001, I read Jessie Wise’s The Well-Trained Mind. As I said, I had first been motivated to homeschool by the seeming lack of zeal that I had encountered when visiting high schools. Later, our philosophy was shaped by the idea that the conventional classroom does its best to encourage academic competence, but academic excellence? Not so much. TWTM offered one blueprint for achieving academic excellence, and I have culled many ideas from the first edition of that resource, including the idea of teaching history in three four-year cycles.

That said, I use only one “program” — a math system that I have used since we began this journey. The rest of our studies I cobble together based on need (theirs), interest (theirs and mine), and books I admire and/or appreciate (e.g., White’s books on philosophy for young people, Copi’s logic text, Horner’s Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition, and Gombrich’s The Story of Art). We study year-round, and our music, Latin, and math studies give each day its basic shape.

5. What does your homeschool/work space look like? Can you show us a picture?

Check out this entry for a glimpse into our home.

6. How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging for about 4.5 years. In fact, M-mv will celebrate its fifth anniversary in October.

7. Why did you come up with the title “Mental multivitamin”?

When I started “Mental multivitamin,” I had only one idea… to chronicle my studies; to write across the “curriculum” of this reader-thinker-autodidact (and unabashed generalist); to synthesize what I am learning about astronomy and history and ornithology and current events and literature and technology and art and, yes, about myself, my family, and the world. Okay, I had two ideas: Given the glut of “mommy blogs,” I wanted my blog to do and say something else, something not that, if you know what I mean. The title, then, was meant to convey that M-mv was a place for readers, thinkers, and autodidacts.

8. What was the first blog you read online?

I think it was One-Sixteenth.

9. What do you like to blog about the most?

Books and the reading life… and the synthesis, synchronicity, and serendipity that define my own reading-thinking-learning life.

10. What are some hobbies you enjoy?

I tend not to think of my pursuits as hobbies but rather as studies. For example, I have been studying piano with my daughters since October 2006 — we’re preparing for our second recital. And I am taking a correspondence course in bird biology through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Thanks for joining me for Winner Wednesday! I have some more great bloggers on the roster in the coming weeks!

Blessings!

Weekly Poll:

 

Announcements:

>>> Please pray for this 15yo boy who was injured by a bomb when he picked up a basket… Read More

 

>>> This week The 41st Homesteading Carnival was hosted at The Funny Farm. Be sure to stop by to get some great homesteading recipes, experience, and tips!

>>> The 117th COH will be held this week at PHAT Mommy. Please make sure to stop by and check it out for great homeschooling ideas and experiences from other homeschoolers.

>>> On March 27th Shaiya will be turning 15! Be sure to wish her a happy birthday!

>>> States Exploration Assignment #23 State & Country Wildlife

>>>Growing in Grace Magazine is looking for poetry to be featured in upcoming issues! If you love to write poetry and would like to see your poem featured, please send your submissions to us.

Wisdom From The Word:

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” (James 1:12)

Featured Blogger:

This week we have a very special featured blogger, darthyxpu of PaulsBlogging. Today is Paulie’s 18th birthday which qualifies him in the age bracket for being the featured blogger here on the Porch…Read More

Be Profound:

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

William Shakespeare

Have A Laugh:

Tim Hawkins - A Homeschool Family

This is hilarious! Amanda, Jocelyn and I spent some time watching the rest of Tim Hawkin’s videos, and man is he funny! This is posted on YouTube, so the video itself is completely kosher, but I can’t vouch for the YouTube site.

Picture Perfect:

This is SuperAngel is her super robe… being picture perfect. Hehehee

Thanks for joining me this week for Memo Monday!

Have a great week!!!

Blessings!

Today is my Dude, Paulie’s 18 birthday. Please go to his blog and tell him Happy Birthday!
But I am very excited about what I have for you because I was so excited when I found them and knew right then that these would be perfect for Saturday Scripture today!

The other day I was in my room going through an old Bible I used to use when I was a child and it was so neat to see some of the Scriptures I had marked as my favorites. There were A LOT of treasures I had forgotten and was so excited to find them.

Old Testament

Job 19:25
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 68:6
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Psalm 84:10
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Proverbs 1:7
The to dwell in the tents of wickedness.fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 6:16-19
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Proverbs 13:3
He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

Proverbs 22:1
A GOOD name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Isaiah 9:6-7
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

Amos 3:3
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Malachi 3:6
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

New Testament

Luke 6:45
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

John 5:30
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mineown will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

John 8:31-32
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:34-36
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Romans 1:16
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 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

2 Corinthians 4:8
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 12:8-10
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Galatians 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled againwith the yoke of bondage.

Ephesians 5:15-17
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Philippians 2:14
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Philippians 4:19
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

I hope you have enjoyed reading these Scriptures. I love finding treasures that you once loved and then find out you still do!
Be encouraged!

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Give a kid a camera and what do they see?

 

These photos were taken by my nine year old. She has taken a liking to my camera lately. Often times we think of kids as unable to express their creativity or incapable of adult thinking or tasks. I believe that if we just turn them loose with some good tools, they will surprise us every time! Maybe it is us - the parents - who need to see things differently.

 

In Him,

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Food for thought:

Children sweeten our days with unhesitating trust and affection and refresh our spirits with their enthusiastic approach to life and their vast curiousity for all things new and different. ~ Annette LaPlaca

Blog Carnivals

Carnival of Homeschooling

The 115th COH will be held this week at At Home With Kris. Please make sure to stop by and check it out for great homeschooling ideas and experiences from other homeschoolers.

Share Your Faith Carnival:

SisterLisa will now be hosting the Share Your Faith Carnival each month at The HomeSpun Life.

“Each month the carnival will be a different aspect of sharing your faith. The first one is sharing your faith about homeschooling. Titus 2:3 says to be ‘teachers of good things’. As women we are instructed by God’s Word to teach the younger women and that’s what we aim to do here.”

She will receive submissions for this carnival until April 2nd, and the carnival will begin on April 5th. Please go to her blog for further details!

The Homesteading Carnival

This week The 41st Homesteading Carnival was hosted Rachel at Rachel’s Reasoning. Be sure to stop by to get some great homesteading recipes, experience, and tips!

Blog Memes, Fun and Contests

A meme is a blog post that is in conjunction with a theme set forth by its author. Participating in memes is a fun way to meet other bloggers and also a great way to have interesting ideas for blog posts. Many times you sign a Mr. Linky and can even put one on your own post for your friends to sign and join you on. There are certain requirements for each meme, and you usually are asked to link to the original post and put the meme icon on your blog.

Jamin over at Home Where They Belong has a great BIG list of freebies: Freebie Finder - Easter.

There are a LOT of great Easter freebies on the internet! Here are a few of my favorites. Some of these have already been shared in the Freebie Friday Newsletter and on my blog. But, I thought it would be good to put together a complete list of the freebies I have found for everyone to enjoy.

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The NEW CurrClick site is having a Grand Opening Celebration!

Get 10% account credit on every single purchase you make!
Affiliates earn 15% when they post our Grand Opening Banner on their blogs, e-groups and co-op websites! CurrClick.com, the same great site, only better. Now, you can add future purchases to your wish list, browse and search more easily, send your wish list to friends and family, find out what people think by reading our staff and customer reviews, and keep track of how many customers have read your reviews! And don’t miss our new and improved flash previews: Just turn the page with your mouse!

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Subscribe to the NEW TOS digital magazine for only $10.95! This week only! You get four issues, Spring ‘07 and Summer ‘07 archive issues, five free downloads, AND 19 free gifts. See details HERE! Don’t miss this!

See our TOS interview with Steve Sensenig of Worship Keys HERE!

See our TOS interview with Trigger Memory Systems HERE!

More here:

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HOST: simple

CONTEST LINK: Baby Patapum Review & Giveaway

PRIZE: Patapum Baby Carrier - a $69.00 value

HOW TO ENTER: leave a comment

DEADLINE TO ENTER: .March 20th

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HOST: Her Accessories

CONTEST LINK: win a rhinestone charm from Twisted Silver

Open to: residents of the continental USA

PRIZE: A Rhinestone Charm from Twisted Silver

HOW TO ENTER: go to Twisted Silver, choose your favorite piece of jewelery and then come back to this post on Her Accessories. Leave a comment here with a valid email (it’s hidden and you won’t be spammed!) with an explanation of why it’s your favorite piece of Twisted Silver jewelery.

DEADLINE TO ENTER: .March 20th

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HOST: The Nest Baby

CONTEST LINK: Miracle Blanket Giveaway Contest

PRIZE: Miracle Blankets to 10 lucky winners

HOW TO ENTER: Leave your comments To be eligible, your pregnancy/parenting stage info must be up to date. Also, make sure to visit the Miracle Baby website and tell us what color or pattern you’d like if you win.

DEADLINE TO ENTER: .March 20, 2008

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HOST: FabSugar

CONTEST LINK: Jump For Joy! We’re Giving Away a Balenciaga Bag!

OEPN TO: U.S. residents eligible only

PRIZE: Fuchsia Balenciaga First Handbag

HOW TO ENTER: take the quiz and leave a comment

DEADLINE TO ENTER: .Friday, March 21, at 5 p.m. PST

Prayer Requests

Please remember to pray for the Sams family this week. Baby Joshua, who had a encephalocele - a neural tube defect, was promoted to Heaven on the 15th of March around 3am, to be with Jesus. He went peacefully.

It was good to know he never struggled, never needed morphine, and was with us to the end. He slept between us last night and we are still saying out goodbyes.

He lived for 67 beautiful days and a bonus 7 hours. Please stop by the Sams blog, Be Strong and Courageous, and offer your prayers and comfort to this dear family. Mom and I spent a good two hours reading through the archives from when Joshua was born. His story is truly heartbreaking, but such an awesome tale of faith and love.

Homeschool Freedom

CA Resolution Supporting Homeschooling:On Monday, California Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced a resolution calling upon the State Supreme Court to overturn the anti-homeschool ruling of the lower court. This follows Friday’s statement by Governor Schwarzenegger supporting homeschooling.

This measure would acknowledge the long and rich history of
private home schooling in California and call upon the California
Supreme Court to reverse the opinion of the California Court of
Appeal for the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles in the case
of In re Rachel L. that home schooling without a teaching credential
is not legal. Read more…

Thanks for joining me this week for Memo Monday!