One yearly event has remained consistent in our eighteen years as a homeschooling family: March burnout. It would be bad enough if it were only the kids, but it’s me, too.  A combination of factors—primarily exhaustion and spring fever—contribute to this phenomena. Although it’s difficult to conquer, here are a few ideas for making the most of the March meh mindset.

Read the rest at The Homeschool Post.

Surviving March: Dealing with Homeschool Burnout is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

March’s desktop wallpaper is available now at (in)courage. Look on the right side of the navigation bar (underneath the blog header) where it says Calendar (Mar.). Download the image (two sizes are available, a larger and a smaller), right click it and set as your wallpaper. Enjoy!

If you would like to buy an 8×10 print of this image (without text) and support a good cause, visit Especially Heather’s Etsy shop. Some of the girls at (in)courage have donated items to be sold to help purchase expensive educational software for Heather’s daughter’s iPad (enough money for the iPad was already raised). Emma recently suffered seizures that have left her unable to communicate effectively; the software would be a huge help. Read all about it here.

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If you’re a homeschooler existing in a state of March burnout, I’ll have an article at The Homeschool Post this Sunday that will hopefully give you some ideas to invigorate your homeschool. I’ll link you to it then.

March’s Desktop Wallpaper is Available Now at (in)courage is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

My husband and I had a magical weekend in Nashville. Full details cannot be revealed at this time, but I participated in a focus group for product that will make kids love music. When the beans can be spilled, you’ll be the first to know and can share my enthusiasm.

If this sounds cryptic, then I’ve done my job. :-)

Here’s what I can talk about:

Blog Buddies

I got to hang out with some fine ladies: Meghan, Sue, Jenn, Sami, Abby…

and Heather! Hanging with Heather felt a little bit like playing hooky, considering the Homeschool Blog Awards started while we were there. (Go vote!)

Sweet Tea

An amazing and mind-boggling discovery was made about my new buddy, Sue: being from Arizona, she had never tasted sweet tea. You would think that a reputable hotel in a fine Southern city like Nashville would serve it, but you just might be wrong. Experiencing mild withdrawal, I called my husband, who was sightseeing, to please bring me some, and for heaven’s sake, get one for Sue, too!

McDonald’s sweet tea in the South—which Jenn compared to crack—is addictive. At the bargain price of $1 for a large, I have trouble driving past a MickeyD’s without stopping for one. Chick-fil-a also serves excellent sweet tea, which you can purchase by the gallon. When we were in Pigeon Forge last month, their McDonald’s sold it by the gallon, too.

I tried to explain to Sue how to make it, but it was so completely foreign to her that she asked me to please post. While this could be titled “sweet tea for dummies,” I prefer “sweet tea for the unfortunate.” Never having been exposed is surely deprivation of the worst kind.

The secret is to add the sugar when the tea is hot, otherwise it won’t dissolve and will sit in the bottom of the glass. Although they make long, thin-handled spoons for stirring the sugar at the bottom of the glass, this will always be second-rate sweet tea.

I brew mine in a coffee pot, reserved only for tea. We go through about a gallon a day in the summer, so that’s how much this recipe makes. Use four family size tea bags, preferably Luzianne or Tetley. After brewing, you will have about 6 cups (depending on how much water you used) of very concentrated hot tea.

Pour this into a gallon pitcher with 1+ cups of sugar.  One cup is pretty tame and I make it that way because my husband is diabetic, but this is really not a time when less is more. Stir to dissolve the sugar, and then fill the rest of the way with cold water. Chill and serve.

Songwriters

We were treated to an evening of fine Southern food and a performance by amazingly talented and gracious Nashville songwriters Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick at B.B. King’s Blues Club.

The Sites

I dearly loved taking my camera out for a couple of Nashville nights.

What did you do this weekend?

Sweet Tea, Sightseeing, Songwriters, and Sisters (of the Bloggy Kind) is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

The blog has been a little slow lately. I’m so busy watching Oprah and eating bon bons that there really isn’t time to blog (I haven’t actually seen Oprah in years; however, if you put a plate of bon bons in front of me they would engage my full attention).

I have a couple of big projects in the works, so you will eventually see the fruits of my labor. They’re occupying my time, not to mention the house full of kids and the class I teach.

Enough excuses! I’ve been clicking my shutter and tapping my keyboard at some other sites, so please visit me there:

• October desktop wallpaper at (in)courage: Is your computer properly dressed for October?
• (in)courage in Hilton Head: images from the (in)courage author beach house trip. (photo frames by onOne Software PhotoFrame and text effects from the Lightroom Mogrify 2 export plugin)
• Friday Night Football at The Homeschool Post: Friday night football is for homeschoolers, too!
• Editing Skin Blemishes in Photoshop: big results with minimal work

Click the links and go visit me in other places, pretty please! is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

There’s a new desktop wallpaper for July available now at The Homeschool Post!

July Desktop Wallpaper Available at The Homeschool Post is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Know how I showed you all those hot cars I saw at the High Museum on Mother’s Day? See the rest of the story, the family shots, today at The Homeschool Post.

I’ve got a bunch of books to price before a used book sale this afternoon; a pizza party at the park with our homeschool group; a baseball game tonight; and a full day of director training for Classical Conversations on Saturday (and I spent yesterday in South Carolina doing the training for the class I’ll teach next year). No rest for the weary, eh?

Here’s something else fun for your weekend from Blockbuster Express kiosks:

Triple Play Promotion
What: Rent TWO Get the THIRD Free
When: Begins on Friday, 5/14/10 at 12:01 AM Ends on Sunday, 5/17/10 at 11:59PM

Promo Code: GCB15D2

Do you have anything fun planned for the weekend?

Mother’s Day with the Family at The Homeschool Post is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

In April I published my first desktop wallpaper at The Homeschool Post. I had so much fun with it that I’ve made one for (in)courage for June (post will publish on my four year blogiversary, May 31). A real life friend asked me, “What will I do for May?” and I said that I would make one and post it here on my own site.

Guess what? I forgot.

Monday a reader from The Post emailed and asked about a May wallpaper, too. Y’all, it just tickles me to death that anyone besides me was using it in April, much less requesting another one.

Here’s May, available in two sizes. Click the pic above for the smaller, 1280 x 800px. Click here for the larger, 1680 x 1050px.

Enjoy! :-)

May 2010 Desktop Wallpaper is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Happy Easter to you and your family. We had a lovely day at church and later an Easter egg hunt. Our pastor had asked our 19-year-old son to introduce services at church today and he hadn’t told us; that was a big surprise. He did very well, although my husband and I were nervous!

My first desktop wallpaper is available for download at The Homeschool Post (see above). It’s labeled with an April 2010 calendar. Making a desktop wallpapers was kind of fun. Is that something you’d like to see here?

Last, but not least, be sure to check out my Orville Redenbacher Hot Air Popcorn giveaway from Collective Bias and Blockbuster Express. I sure wish I were eligible to win.

What did you do on Easter?

Happy Easter! is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Join me today at The Homeschool Post for an article entitled Education: It’s Not Just for the Kids. Pretty please?

Summer toes. Just around the corner, right?

Education: It’s Not Just for the Kids, Today at The Homeschool Post is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Please join me at The Homeschool Post today for Fun with Geography: Learning the Highest Peak on Each Continent!

Fun with Geography at The Homeschool Post is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved