Life at Oak Grove

Today it is Thanksgiving in Canada.   And to celebrate, I want to list how God has blessed me as a mom who homeschool her kids during 2010.

The economy has been hard on every one.   Us included.   The business is okay even though the times were hard.

But we had to cut the expenses – as many of you probably did.   The homeschooling budget was at the minimum which means we would buy Math-U-See, Easy Grammar and a couple of French products but that’s it.

So how did God blessed us?   By pouring his provision on us. 

It all started last Spring when a friend contacted me to come back to the TOS Homeschool Crew for the remaining of the year.  It was a time, where I was wondering what to do with Geography as I knew that I needed to incorporate it in our school.   But buying wasn’t an option.   After praying and debating about the opportunity of embarking the rest of the voyage with the crew, I decided to jump on board.   Well, the first product I had to review was related to Geography!   I was speechless…

Then I went to a meeting held by the homeschool association in town and there were tons of curriculum for free as a school was changing their books and a homeschool family just gave away their old things.    I was able to get a bunch of things from science,    books, languages arts, spelling,  geography and more!   You can read my post about it here.

My older son has expressed is interest for becoming a doctor.   Knowing that it is important to use this interest in our homeschool, I wanted him to get more material on human anatomy.    I had posted some reviews on an homeschool vendor site and as a thank you they gave me a 40$ credit to order anythign on their site.   Wow!   From it, I got two 4D puzzles on human anatomy as well as an interesting book to create the human body.    Another time, we went to a Freecycle event where people would bring their things to give away and you can pick and choose whatever you want.   In the midst of everything, we found an older book which permits to color the human anatomy and learn at the same time.    It is slightly used but my son was excited about it.   Recently, I was bold enough to email a publisher to request the possibility of reviewing their new Human Anatomy and physiology book.    They agreed and even send the two Notebooking books that goes with it.    I was speechless again.

I know the year is not finished.   We still have a few months to go before jumping in 2011.   But just yesterday, we had another free “deal”.    In the basement, I have a little area where I could go and scrapbook or do crafts.   I needed some bookcases – badly as everything is in boxes on the ground.   We had some Canadian Tire money and even waited for a sale to get a bookshelf.   A sale came about two weeks ago but we had not had the time to put the bookcase together yet.    Well, coming back from church yesterday, we were turning on our street when we saw these two bookcases at the curb with a FREE sign on it.   No kidding…  We grabbed them and I need to clean them up a bit but they are perfect.   I don’t mind the scratches and the nicks in them.     Now we will bring back the one we bought and hopefully get our Canadian Tire Money back.  If not, well we will keep the bookcase. 

God is faithful.  His provides for our needs in His timing.   We shouldn’t worry about it - yes I know easier said than done.   But I am learning to trust Him with every aspects of my life.    It is a day-to-day learning as we face new challenges in life.   But He is there.  He knows us and our needs.   He will provide.   I know.   I experienced it.

On this Thanksgiving day my questions are: What are you thankful for?   How did God has blessed you in 2010?