Is it just me or is Survivor a disappointment so far? In the previous weeks and all the way leading up to tonights tribal council, I just wasn’t enjoying the show like in years past. I will say though, if it continues to give such wonderful blindsides (buh-bye Cirie) and play out like I hope it will… it just might redeem itself.
I’m a new user of Google Reader. Boy oh boy have I been missing out. I wanted to share this post with you just in case you too haven’t found out one of the best parts of the internet.
Google Reader is a way for you to keep up on most all of your favorite sites. And it keeps them all in one place, loading fast and moving through post after post oh so quickly. No longer will you have to go to each site to see whats new. And going on vacation is so easy, because you can pick up from where you left off.
Let me show you some screen caps and share how this tool works!
First, you have to have a gmail account. Registering is easy and painless.
GMAIL
Okay, now that you’re registered, you just need to go to your Reader account (which is open for you if you have a gmail account). You can find the reader by going to this url http://google.com/reader or by going to Google and clicking on the MORE link and then finding READER in the drop down box.
Now you just visit your favorite site and copy the URL. Open your Google Reader page and click on Add a subscription.
A box comes open and you enter the URL and click add. One of the neat things about this little box is you can type in any url or subject matter and Google will search it for you!
Now earlier, I said if you go on vacation it’s easy to pick up on your favorite site where you left off. This is true, because it shows in bold lettering which sites have new posts and how many are new. You can see below on this screencap how many new posts in total there are and which blogs they’re talking about.
I went a little overboard and actually categorized some of mine. You can if you want, but it’s not necesary.
The only other thing about this great tool is a few buttons once you’re in. One of them is the most important button of all.
The blue >> at the top next to the website is the “go to” button. Click that and be transported to the main page of the site. Click any title and be taken to that post. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find previous and next. This is the easiest way to scroll through posts that don’t interest you. But that mark all as read button… that’s the best! Once you’ve clicked and marked that site as read, the next time you come back to reader, it shows any posts that have been added since the last time you visited!
Now you’ll never have to wander through the internet alone again… not with Google Reader by your side. 
So a couple of years ago when Kelly was getting ready to go into 9th grade a friend of mine said “you know you can probably skip Pre-Algebra and go right into Algebra.” She was a seasoned homeschooler and suggested I go to Saxon (the math texts we used) and take a placement test. We did. Kelly did well enough to go into Algebra 1. It’s been almost two school years now and it’s just not clicking. She’s struggling every day, she hates math and it’s really bothering me. No one who homeschools should dread a subject THAT much (in my opinion anyhow).
Saxon is a great piece of educational material, I’ll say that. It’s worked wonders with my oldest daughter and for what it’s been, my youngest too. But as you get into the upper levels, if algebra isn’t your strong point, you may have to rethink things. Algebra isn’t my strong point… I rethought this. Sarah though, for what it’s worth, sailed through it and loved it with no problem, so it’s gotta be what’s best for each child.
Well, I went online and looked around and came across Teaching Textbooks. It was a unique looking curriculum. The book looked marked up (similar to her notebooks by the end of the year) and was brightly colored and fun looking. The lesson is worded in down to earth English (no mathese spoken here) and written with a sense of humor. The idea behind the set is to watch the lesson (hello private tutor!), do the work and then any missed problems, you can watch another video and see what was done wrong. I liked it. BUT. It was expensive.
The price was completely out of my range. What to do… check ebay. Okay, no.. resale value is almost as high. Wait. Did I just say that? I will be able to resale my items at almost the same price I paid…. hmmmm. Things like this is always a motivator for me, because that means the material is good. Homeschoolers talk. And they talk enough to know not to buy crappy materials repeatedly. I mean when you start naming names in the homeschool curriculum community, there are very few that come highly recommended in each category. So the best ones stand out with a higher price (not always, but most of the time).
After thinking it over a few days, I went ahead and had Kelly take a placement test on this site and sure enough, she fell into the Pre-Algebra range. I don’t know if it was a fluke the first time she took the quiz with Saxon or what, but I have felt guilty for skipping PA for so long. Especially the more she struggled, I just felt like she didn’t have the basics for the problems she needed. And as the story ends, we’re now the owners of our very own set of Teaching Textbooks, but more importantly, I hope we become a family where a lesson of math won’t make for a horrible day.
So the other day I bought the combo cookbook package from Econobusters. In the combo was “$7 Slow Cooker Suppers Quick & Easy” and “$5 Dinners & $3 Desserts Cheap and Delicious.” I gotta say, I’m pretty impressed. For $12.95 it was filled with over 288 pages combined! Both are filled with recipes that my family will eat (okay…not so much the soups, but that’s just in general and has nothing to do with the books) and are budget friendly. Both cookbooks has price breakdowns as examples of what each meal will cost and several of the crockpot recipes have photos to show the end result. I can honestly say these cookbooks will be ones that I refer to often. And I seldom use cookbooks.
This week, I’m trying three new meals from the crockpot edition (Italian chicken, bacon burgers & french dip sandwiches). I thought they sounded really good. And I went ahead and planned out the entire month with a mix of meals.
Monday - Sloppy Joes, baked beans, corn (kid cooks)
Tuesday - Italian chicken, stuffing, green beans (crockpot)
Wednesday - Biscuits and gravy, sausage (husband cooks)
Thursday - Chili & Peanut butter sandwiches (crockpot)
Fix Your Own Dinner Night
Saturday - Bacon Burgers, corn & french fries (crockpot)
Sunday - French dip sandwiches, green beans, devilled eggs (crockpot)