I Was Sad -- A BAD Paragraph: A Writing Lesson

     I am up to my neck in writing.  My head is swirling with thoughts about writing.  My brain is exploding with writing thoughts.  I have little scraps of paper everywhere.  They say things like, "Exposition -- what we do most" and "must PLAN" and "same persuasive letter -- 2 audiences" and "the best way to get better is to DO ie. piano, math, instrument, writing."  

     You see, this Friday, I begin teaching two writing classes to intermediate students at our homeschool co-op.

     Today, I typed up our first activity.  Sometimes the best way to teach a subject is to show the students what NOT to do.  I had so much fun with it that I had to share it with you!  Feel free to use it with your own students.

     Have the student read the paragraph out loud, and then do the activity at the bottom.

I Was Sad

By Mrs. Mullin

     I am supposed to write about a time I was sad recently.  Here goes,  Today, I took down my Christmas tree.  that made me sad.  I took off all the ownamants.  There weas a lot of them.  It was empty.  I looked at the tree.  It made me sad.  It was bare.  And plain.  Just green with lights.  Other people were watching football.  It reminded me that i have to wait a long time until christmas comes back.  Isn’t that sad?  No more family time.  My in-laws came for the holidays. No more free time.  School is starting back, too.  Oh, and the presents.  I have to wait to get more presents.  I can’t wait until my birthday in February.  So, that’s why I was sad recently.

January 7, 2013 

The End

This is a BAD paragraph.

*How many “sentences” are in this paragraph?  _______

*Circle any mistakes that you see.  (Grammar, usage, mechanics)

*Which sentences are completely random?  Write “random” boldly above them.

*Underline the fragments?  A fragment is not a complete sentence. 

*Create a better title.

*Rewrite the pitiful topic sentence: 

*In your group, rewrite this paragraph.  Combine sentences.  Eliminate random thoughts.  Expand sentences.  Add some interesting details.  Oh please – fix this paragraph!

Stopping to Listen

     A few days ago, I was reading a book on the couch.  It had been a long day, and I was tired.  I was at that point in the novel where everything is going nuts.  The hero and heroine were running for their lives.  Guns, smoke, falling rocks.  Then from somewhere far away, I heard this voice break in.
     "Hey Mom.  Did you know there was a type of music called "trance"?"
      A few feet away, my teen-aged son had spoken.  
     "Huh?"  I replied, looking up slowly from my book.
     "There's this type of music called "trance"?  And ....."
     He wasn't finished, and he wanted to talk.  I wanted to read.  
     It was at that moment that I had a choice to make.  I was tired.  The book was in its literary climax.  My son wanted to talk.  
     I put the bookmark in the book, closed it, and listened to my son discuss different types of music for the next 15 minutes, saying little, but showing that I was interested simply because the subject is important to him.  
     If I've learned anything about parenting a teenage boy, it's that when he wants to talk, you should listen because if you don't, he'll stop trying.  Little ones are persistent.  They don't give up.  They keep trying.  Teenage boys -- not so much.
     The book could wait.  My son could not.  

Lord, help me to remember this -- every single time.

   

Say What? Advent, the Incarnation, and a Zombie Apocalypse?

     
     This year, my husband has been leading us in advent devotionals.  It's a time where we sit together quietly on the couch and meditate on the coming of Christ and all that means for us.  We have serious discussions that are profound and instructional.  Take last night, for example.  The conversation went like this:

Oldest son-- "So if "incarnation" means "becoming flesh," does "carnation" mean "flesh"?"


Miles-- "A carnation is a flower."

Oldest son-- "Hmmm... Maybe a carnation is a flesh flower. So if we have a zombie apocalypse, we can feed them carnations."

Miles -- "Actually, a carnation is a nation where everyone has a car. AND if all the cars are pink, then it's a pink carnation."

Youngest son -- (giggle, giggle, giggle, giggle......)

     Somewhere in there, my husband threw out the Latin definition of incarnation.  My youngest giggled the entire time at the clever plays on words.  Me?  I was sitting there incredulous that we went from the incarnation to pink cars and zombie apocalypses.

     I'm still chuckling this morning.  My wonderful husband and creative sons left me with a very fun memory, and I'll bet they will never forget what "incarnation" means.  

Hallelujah!

I love this video! Cracks me up, and yet, the message is awesome!

Thanksgiving Journal

     Since 2004, our family has kept a Thanksgiving journal.  Each of us goes around and tells what we are thankful for after our Thanksgiving meal while one of us records our responses in a journal.  If we have company, we invite them to join us in being thankful.  Last year, we read through our Thanksgiving journal, going back several years.  When we read through mine, I had said that I was thankful "for a car that works" every year.  We thought that was hilarious.  I worded it the exact same way every time.  I was also thankful for chocolate and coffee, my husband and boys.  No surprises there.

     Our boys have been thankful for things like "dry diapers" (when my youngest was 2 we filled in what we thought he would be thankful for!), Sunday School teachers, friends, Legos, a fish named Redeye, Mommy's yeast rolls, candy, Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, penguins, cute little puppy dogs, clean water, and "losing my teeth."  
     
     What are you thankful for this year?

Jenny's Pumpkin Bread

     I'm allergic to nutmeg so I have to modify lots of pumpkin recipes.  Here is a recipe that I came up with a few years ago.  I like to combine the features of several recipes to come up with my own.  This pumpkin bread is yummy -- and you can substitute sweet potatoes (mashed).  Very tasty -- and no nutmeg.

Jenny’s Pumpkin Bread

2 ¼ cups flour

1 tblsp. all-spice

¼ tsp. Cinnamon

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

1¾ cups mashed pumpkin (15 oz can) or cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cranberries (optional) 

½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)

cinnamon/sugar mixture to sprinkle on top

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, all-spice, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar, pumpkin or sweet potato, and oil.  Mix well.  Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.  Add cranberries if desired and mix thoroughly.  Spoon into 2 greased and floured 8x4x2 (or 9x5x2) inch loaf pans.  Sprinkle top with chopped walnuts or pecans and then cinnamon/sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool 10- 20 mins.  Remove and let cool completely on rack.  Wrap with plastic wrap.  

How to Save Money at the Grocery Store

     I've had people ask me how I save money by using coupons.  There are a million sites on how to use coupons, but I am going to attempt to explain my personal system.  It's not that hard, but it takes practice.
     First, you need to know a few things.

1.  Know how much stuff costs.  You can't know if something is a good deal if you don't know what it normally costs.  Years ago, I made a notebook of what our most common purchases cost at different stores.  Now, it's all in my head.

2.  Shop loss leaders.  Now that you know what things cost, you know what a good deal is.  Almost every grocery store flier has items that are loss leaders.  Loss leaders are items sold at cost or below cost to get you in the store, hoping to suck you into buying lots of other things.

3.  Stock up when things go on sale.  Don't buy things you don't need, and pay attention to expiration dates. When things you use a lot go on sale for really cheap, stock up.  Don't go all "extreme couponing," but buy enough to last you a while.  For example, I always keep 2 laundry detergents.  When one gets low, I start looking for sales on another.  This past week, All detergent was $2.99, and I had a coupon for "buy 2 get $1.00 off," so I got two.  I never ever pay full price for something like detergent, deodorant, soap, or toothpaste.

4.  Know when things go on sale.  Baking supplies, cream soups, canned soups,  broth, etc. go on sale from November until  Christmas.  Hot dogs, condiments, etc. go on sale around Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day.  Here in Texas, we have items such as Spam that go on sale at the start of hurricane season.

5.  Meal plan around sales.  

6.  Buy the Sunday paper with the coupons.  I have it delivered at my home for $1 a week.

7.  Sign up your Kroger card online.  They will send you their coupons in the mail, or coupons to your e-mail box.  Yesterday, I got a "digital" coupon offer in my box for buy $5 off produce, get $2 off.  



     This is what I did Monday, November 5th.  I find that Kroger has the best overall prices and deals, so I mainly shop there.

1.  I looked at Kroger's sales flier and circled all items that were a great deal.  They were having a "buy 10 participating items, save $5 at the checkout" sale.

2.  I went to couponmom.com, logged in, clicked on "Grocery Deals by State," clicked on the Kroger icon, and clicked "Texas Deals" on the right.  Current Kroger Deals popped up.  I clicked on the left hand side anything that looks like a good deal and that we use.  Then at the bottom, click "Display Selected Deals."  Print.  I also took the time to print out any online coupons that were listed. 

3.  I went to Kroger's website and loaded some of their digital coupons onto my card.  Didn't use them.

4.  Coupon clipping.  I used my deals from couponmom.com to find the coupons in my coupon fliers/booklets.  I write the date on the front of each coupon flier.  Then I use the "code" on the side of the couponmom.com print-out to find the coupon I need -- rather than cut out all the coupons.  So, the couponmom.com print-out looks like this:

10-28 RP

DiGiorno Pizza 12.6-34.2 oz Qualifies for Buy 10 Get $5 Off at checkout, final price after promo savings

$1.00

2

$4.77

$4.27

29%

The coupon I need for the DiGiorno Pizza is in the 10-28 packet of Red Plum coupons.  I get that packet of coupons out of my folder, find the Digiorno coupon, and clip it.  You'll also get SmartSource and other coupons.  (I do not have time to cut out and organize every coupon.  This way works for me.)

5.  I went through coupons I got from Kroger in the mail and pulled out ones I could use.  They usually send ones that correspond with the sales.

     All this took me about 40 minutes.  I took my list and my youngest son and headed to the store.  As I purchased items from the "Buy 10 get $5 off" sale, I put a tally mark on my list.  I bought 60 of those items.  I spent $94.61.  I saved $86.57 or 47%.  I only used $8.30 in manufacturers coupons -- mostly I took advantage of the loss leaders in the Kroger flier.  Campbells cream of Mushroom and chicken are on sale for 50 cents.  I use this a lot so I bought 10.  Land O' Lakes butter was $1.99 -- I bought 4.  I got a free tube of toothpaste and a free toothbrush.  I put those in our Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts.
     This will take you longer than 40 minutes to start out, but it gets easier.  I think 40 minutes of work to save $86 is not so bad!