When Apologia Press saw the Little Leaps of Love challenge this month, they offered two copies of Rachel Carman’s newest book How to Have a H.E.A.R.T For Your Kids ~ one for each of the challenge winners!! I will admit that my interest is definitely piqued after reading the book excerpt and I can’t wait til I have a moment to sit down and start reading it!

How well do you really know your children? Sure, you love them, but do you even like them? What has God shown you about who they are and who they will become? He has sent these children into your home at this specific time for His glorious purposes. Thus you have been invited on the adventure of a lifetime, a journey on which you will see walls fall, seas parted, and giants slain. You don’t need special skills or training for this journey—you need only to seek God and hold tightly to His mighty hand! As with so many things, the first step to having a heart for your children is knowing your heavenly Father.

As you seek daily to share His heart with your kids, keep this inspirational book close at hand. In it, Rachael Carman uses the word HEART to help you remember and focus on what really matters.

Rachel Carmen will also be speaking at Apologia Live in Atlanta, Baltimore, Austin, and Chicago. Thanks so much to Apologia for sharing a little something extra with us!

Today the panel at The Homeschool Village is finishing the following statement:

I believe the best way I can bless my children as their homeschool teacher is …

Having the last few weeks off from school and being in the throes of complete chaos at times has really given me some time to ponder and reflect on what we’ve been doing and what we will be doing/changing…and things I personally need to change to bless my children.

Visit Homeschool Village and see what other moms and I are sharing about this topic ~ you will really be blessed and encouraged by what the other moms are saying about this topic today!

I’ll admit it. I love surfing the web and visiting blogs, websites and such. There are stacks of great ideas out there just begging to be used!! Each of us has our favorite sites that we check out frequently. I have many of my favorites in my sidebar under “Blogs I Love” and also a stash of friends and fun memes on a page called Blogs I Love and Visit Often.

What are YOUR ‘go-to’ sites? Today over at The Homeschool Village the panel of moms is sharing some of their favorite sites. Don’t forget to visit Homeschool Village and see what other moms are sharing about this topic!

Have you wanted to attend a homeschool convention, but found it difficult to travel to one ~ or don’t even have one in your area? The online Schoolhouse Expo, held from May 16-20th, 2011,  may be the answer for you!

The theme for the Spring Expo is: “Homeschooling with Heart.” and speakers this year include Susan Wise Bauer, Dianne Craft, Carol Barnier, Jim Weiss, and one of my favorite people, Marie Rippel from All About Spelling! You can view the full lineup of speakers here and purchase tickets on the Schoolhouse Expo site.

Each Early Bird ticket includes:

• a virtual goodie bags (valued at over $200!), door prizes, and even a virtual vendor hall offering freebies and specials!
• MP3 downloads of all the sessions from the convention, so you can listen to ones that you miss or keep your favorites handy to listen to again.
• one year membership to Homschool Legal Advantage

A special Early Bird ticket price of $19.50 ends Wednesday, February 9th at 11:59 p.m. On February 10, the price goes up to $29.00 and the Bonus Freebies will no longer be available. On February 27, the full price of $39.99 will be in effect.

Just wanted to let you all know about the Early Bird ticket price before they expire!

Although the internet can be an amazing resource, there are times when it can be a struggle to balance online time with everyday tasks. My trip to Relevant in October provided a great resource for me to schedule my time ~ Amy Andrew’s ebook Tell Your Time What to Do. Since then, I have worked MUCH harder at budgeting my time…and sticking to that budget!

Have you struggled balancing blogging, blogs, the internet vs. family? What have been things that have helped you out? Other moms on the the Homeschool Village panel are sharing their tips and suggestions for balancing online time and have some. Be sure to stop over The Homeschool Village and read more here.

I mentioned that there was a possibility that we might be moving, and as of January 31st, that became MUCH more of a reality. Rick and I had planned a vacation ~ just the two of us ~ months ago, unaware that life was about to get a wee bit crazy.

We were beyond blessed that my parents watched our kids while we went away, even in the midst of house showings. Our vacation started with a bit of uneasiness as we didn’t have a solid offer on our house yet, but a few days into our vacation {and with internet connection being a bit sketchy}, we found out had an offer/contract on our house!

{Huge sigh of relief}

This entire last month has been such an amazing story to tell, especially since we had no intentions of either selling our house or moving! God has brought everything together so amazingly ~ and that is an entire story in itself!

Now we’re home from our getaway and the packing has begun! Our moving date is set for sometime this month {how’s that for a rock solid date??}. Needless to say, things are getting a wee bit disorganized around here, but we’re still working on school as much as we can and will be sharing still with you all when we can!

If I can find the computer in all the madness….