Stitch Fix Take 3

 My third Stitch Fix was great. The only kept two items but these items I LOVE. The t-shirt fits great, I love the design, and it is awesome for running errands. The cropped jeans are sooooooooo comfortable. They are the best pair of jeans I've ever owned. My stylist suggested wearing them with short boots and so I used my birthday money to buy some cute boots.

$68

$88

How Stitch Fix works:

1. Fill out a style profile. Tell them what you like or don't like, body type, what you are looking for, and if you have Pinterest you can link up a board of what you like for your stylist to view.
2. Schedule a Fix. (It arrives about a month out)
3. $20 stylist fee is charged, BUT you get that as a credit when you pay for your clothes. 
4. In about a month you will receive a package of 5 items picked especially for you. You have three days to try them on and think about what you are going to keep.
5. Then you log on and check out. You will have a chance to tell your stylist what you liked/didn't like about each item.
6. Send back anything you don't want to keep in a return envelop postage paid.  

I am slowly building a wardrobe that fits me and is durable. Quality is more important the quantity for me. I'd rather get a few items that are going to last a long time, wash well, and be my go to items when I don't know what to wear. I'm finally starting to feel like it's ok to spend money on me. After almost 6 years of wearing mostly sweats, I should be able to spoil myself some. Of course this is only because we pay cash for our items. 

If you are interested in signing up please consider signing up through my referral link HERE.

Starting Homeschooling

When families are first starting out their homeschool adventure, they often try to do too much. When your plate is too full you burn out very fast. Consider easing into homeschooling with these easy tips:

1. Do a four day week instead of a five day week. You don't have to follow the school schedule. We do a 3-4 day week, but also go year round. We take breaks when we are busy and during a big family vacation in the winter. Since my husband works in the summer and has the winter months off, I like being very flexible with our schedule. 
2. Consider curriculum carefully. I recommend trying one that has levels rather than grades especially if you are starting in the elementary grades. These are usually built around mastery and work well for those students who are fast learners and also those who need extra time and and more practice. Move to the next level when they are ready instead of to the next grade because of their age. This eliminates the stress of feeling like you need to get so much done by a certain date and feeling like your failing when that deadline isn't met. 
3. Focus on what your child needs. A kindergartener needs reading, writing, spelling, and math. Make sure those are covered before adding anything else. If your K-3 grader is struggling in those areas, anything else is going to add more stress for you and your child. 
4. Don't be afraid to change the schedule. Take time off when you need it. Try taking them to the library on Monday and start a week long research project. Even your elementary students can learn how to do it. On Friday they can present what they found . We all need time to refill and refresh. Take that time even if it's not scheduled. 
5. Lesson plan IN PENCIL. Planning is really important but so it being flexible. Plan at least 3-4 weeks in advance and do it in pencil so when your child needs an extra day of review or something comes up, you won't be redoing all your lesson plans. 
6. Have fun. Make learning fun. Encourage questions and teach your children how to discover answers on their own. Let them be creative. Don't expect them to be all the same and learn the same. Enjoy their individuality and let the decide how and what you teach. 

I have enjoyed Homeschooling my kids and I'm so thankful for my college classes in elementary education and special education and my experiences with so many young kids. That has made my experience much easier and given me a chance to do what I love.

Why We Don't Do Rated R

Before we got married, my husband and I went to rated R movies and also owned a few. We really didn't have a strong opinion of them since we watched very few to begin with. 

Three years after we were married we found out we were expecting our first child. At that time I felt God was convicting me to get rid of movies that were full of images and language I never wanted my children to see. So I threw a the few R rated movies we had and stopped getting them from Netflix.

My husband didn't have the same conviction I had but he did respect the no rated R movie policy. Less then a year ago he asked me to get Shawshank Redemption from Netflix. I was hesitant but put it on the list. This was one of his favorite movies ad it broke when we were dating. So after about 10 years of not seeing it, he was finally getting a chance to watch it again.

I have heard the studies done on how we have become desensitized to violence and bad language. We had our own test that night. For 6 years we had watched very few movies with language and graphic violence and we were about the watch a movie full of both. It didn't take long for my husband to comment on how violent it was and how he didn't remember so many swear words. 

After the movie, my husband was so much more on board with the no rated R movies. We may have exceptions here and there, but very few. We know and understand that what is seen cannot be unseen and what has been heard cannot be unheard. 

Choices about movies need to be made with wisdom and discernment. For our family we want to expose ourselves images and sounds that are not going to harm us. We don't want to become so desensitized that we become immune to the evils around us. Violence becomes more accepted and less horrific.Villains become heroes. Occasional nudity becomes pornographic in our hyper sexualized world.To protect our hearts we first need to protect our eyes and ears and those of our children.