Technology Tickets

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the blog world!! It is a tad bit time consuming but I have gotten some really great ideas that work so good for our family that I NEVER EVER would have come up with on my own!!!

I found this true gem a few days ago and it is already in play at our house! I had to do it quick and I didn't get to make it pretty but it is functional and will probably get prettified one of these days!!! I mentioned it to the boys and they were so gung ho to do it that I had to be quick!

I pulled out the hundreds of left over paint chips I have from my adventures this summer!


Each boy has a color(his favorite) that I have been using for him for everything I do! Stephen is green, Ben is orange and Thomas is blue. So I cut apart 12 'tickets' for each boy. And 6 for me(red) to give as rewards or I called them 'Way to Go' tickets when i saw the boys doing something good! I just wrote 1/2 hour on them and hung them up!

I had these little 3M hooks I got after christmas on clearance and they hung perfectly on them so I stuck them to the wall and hung up our Technology Tickets!

I decided to put them up next to our school schedule since we are looking at that so much and are in and out of this room quite often - so I won't forget about using the tickets!

So far - so Good! The only issue I have run into is if they don't use the whole half hour. I only have 2 timers so I couldn't pause the time for one of the boys and I am sure he got more time than he was supposed to but - oh well! I will be going to the dollar tree and getting a timer for each boy so that I can pause their time if they don't use the whole half hour!

I have high hopes for these tickets but as usual it will require me to stay on top of it and be strict about using them so......that is where lots of prayer comes in!!

Schedule

It took me a couple tries to make a schedule for our week that I liked but it requires me to fill it in each week! I don't mind that part - I just found that I was writing so many of the same things over and over again and we were just going to the next page or chapter that I didn't need to write it down. So - because I got lazy and it wasn't written down I would forget to do it and we ended up where we were last year and that was just doing the basics - which is not what I wanted for our school year. I was so excited when I saw a schedule that was done here and I LOVED IT!!! When I read her post it was like I had written it and I just had to copy her idea!
So - here is what I did.....

I had an old whiteboard sitting in the garage that was not magnetic so I spraypainted it black all over. I was very pleased with how well the spray paint went on over top of the whiteboard - flawless!

after it dried, i used this fabulous glue I have and glued 3 different ribbons to make my 4 days slots. then i hung up the board where the kids and i could reach it!

after i cut, laminated and cut again my subject labels I put a velcro dot on the back of them and hung them up where i wanted them to go each day! I just wrote the days of the week on index cards and velcroed them up too!

The daily subjects are - Bible, Circle Time(verse, calendar and family prayer), Literature(poetry, paddle to the sea, just so stories that we alternate each day or couple of days) phonics, copywork, math & individual reading
Mon & Weds - history, language arts, artist study, composer & timeline
Tues & Thurs - science, spanish, language arts


I put the board in this corner of our school room. It is right next to my desk where all our books and supplies are also kept. The files on my desk are labeled by subject and each file has the books we will need or items we will use for that subject.


I am excited about the boys being able to see what is done and what is left to finish our day!
Now they won't have to keep asking what next? when will we be done?? how much longer??
I am also hoping this will start to initiate soem independence form them. If they can do their copywork they can take down their label and maybe they will do it on their own???

The labels I made are here if you want them!

High School

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! I am so troubled right now and all I can do is scream - quietly and on paper(or screen) !!! My oldest - who is a freshman in high school has now mentioned that he wants to consider being homeschooled next year and possibly the rest of high school! I am thrilled - I am joyful - I am beside myself that this is coming out of his mouth BUT I am terrified! He is my stepson(he has always been with his dad and since he was 5 he has always also been with me ) and we attempted hs in 7th grade and it was a dismal failure!!! Academically it was a failure. It was my first year of homeschooling and I didnt know what I was doing and didnt have a feel for what we were doing and he wanted me to teach the way he was taught in school and that just wasn't gonna happen! So - it didnt set the bar real high! Now - i will say - it was a huge success in the changes it made in our family life!
Anyways - now I am scared that we will fail again because the pressure is ten times what it was then due to all the college prep, high school transcripts and whatever else goes along with high school and its requirements! I have put off looking into that for fear of getting all excited and caught up in it and then he will change his mind!!! This has to be his decision. I am relaying info to him as i read or find out stuff to keep it in the forefront of his mind but I am also trying to be real subtle and low key about it! For those of you that know me - I don't do low key very well!!!
I do see the huge plus side to this and I am trying to focus on that instead of being scared!
Prayer works!!!! Believe! Faith! These are the three things that keep coming to mind so that is what I am going to focus on!!!

Thanks for listening! Any suggestions or high school info you want to throw my way - bring it on!!!

back to the basics

It has been so long since we have "done school" that I didn't realize it had been almost a month since I blogged on this blog! I have been doing lots of posts on my family blog - showing off the things I have made, pics of the boys in the snow and I have spent way too much time checking out how people decorated their houses for christmas and things they made as gifts!! I am in awe of the things that people can do and create and I just love that they are so willing to share so I can copy them!!! I have a button to our family blog on the side bar if you want to go see what I have been doing for the past month or so!
Stephen got to show off his geography skills (he has been learning in coop) to grandpa when they visited over the holidays. It was pretty neat to watch them all sit there with my dad and have a conversation about the globe and countries and whatnot! It was one of those "they are learning something" moments and it was pretty amazing!!



So - now that Christmas is over, I no longer have to work, I don't have stuff to make for the store and it feels like we are years behind in school - it is time to get back into gear for the new year!
I wanted to show you the discipline system I have used - just during school time - ever since we started homeschooling. It works REALLY well for us! I got this idea from a fellow HS mom on the internet when I was researching homeschooling and it has been a big motivator for my boys! I wish I knew where I got the idea so I could give her credit!

Each boy has 5 cards. Each card is a different color and represents 5 different things.
Blue - had a good day
Yellow - caution
Green - do an extra chore(usually something gross like toilets or baseboards)
Pink - Lose screen time for the rest of the day
Black - go to bed right after dinner

I just picked the colors at randoma nd made up the discipline that would work for my boys - you could make it anything that will have an effect on your child!
I cut strips of cardstock to fit in the envelope, laminated them and that was it! I wrote on the bottom of the card what that color means because I kept forgetting!

Hanging on the wall in the school room they each have a labeled little envelope for their cards. I am pretty sure I used library pockets as the envelope.

Only one of them has gotten to a green card. they usually get to yellow and they straighten right up! They have never gotten further than a green card!

The biggest decision I have made for this coming year - in regards to school - is that we will only go to friend's houses on fridays. We will not do any visiting during the school week. I have got to be more disciplined in reagrds to our school routine and since I am usually so quick to say 'yes, we will be right over' I am establishing a flat out rule to keep me in check! Now - I am fully aware that there will be exceptions to this rule but at least there is the rule and i am vowing to do my best to follow it! Pray for me - I love to visit with friends as much as the kids love to play! I have a couple of friends houses that i can go to and my kids will disappear with their kids and we can actually visit and enjoy each others company!! Oh it is such a beautiful thing for my kids to get along with my friends kids!! That is a God thing - for sure!!! It might be harder for me than for the kids to stick to this rule!!

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and will have a fantastic New Year!!

How many others are getting geared up to get back into the swing of things?? How many of you never got out of gear with the craziness of the holidays?? I get sidetracked so easy - I need to know how you stay on track!!!

Operation Christmas Child

We filled 3 shoeboxes this year with all kinds of goodies for Operation Christmas Child. This is a program through Samaritan's Purse that sends all these shoeboxes to kids all over the world. It is truly amazing!
The boys enjoyed filling the boxes and they even wrote a note to put in their box(without complaining) for the little boy their box would go to!


What Joy it brings to a mother's heart to see her boys loving others and wanting to share Jesus with them!!!

Advent

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas!! I love the spirit of christmas, I love making my house look as trashy as possible with as many lights as possible, I love christmas music and I love the celebration of Jesus' birth!!
2 years ago I started learning about advent and how people celebrated it and what it menat and was all about. Along this journey I was told about these books below and we absolutely love them!! In each book you follow along with each of these kids on their journey in the time of Jesus' birth. They are amazing stories rich with history and bible truths that will enhance your christmas in so many ways! Go here to read more about each of the books.
You read a chapter of the story each night of advent and at the end of each chapter are scriptures and more details of the truths in each chapter. Last year we read Jotham's Journey every night as family devotions for advent and the boys loved it. This year we will read Bartholomew's Passage and next year we will read Tabitha's Travels. If we haven't found something else we like better - we will start all over again and keep rereading them year after year!

This an out of print book that was shared with me by another family and it is another one that I just LOVE! We will be using this book along with some other crafty ideas for school during December. This book has 28 devotions for advent PLUS 12 more devotions for the 12 day christmas season starting on christmas day. Each devotion has a meditation, a prayer, bible references, some of them have book suggestions and song verses to sing or just read. I just love the way this book is written - it is short and powerful and easy to read and understand and full of info!!!

Last year I was unable to find this book but this year i found it on ebay! L. Schroeder is the author if you want to look for it!

I spent some time this summer and the past 2 months going thru a bunch of advent books I had picked up over the past 2 years looking for ideas on how to celebrate advent! From them - I took the ideas I really liked and want to implement this year into our school day and advent celebration. I will be typing this up in the next day or so - since we will be starting to study christmas and advent in a week or so - and i will be happy to share it with you all once I do!!

I would love to hear what you do to celebrate christmas and advent????

Art Games

I saw an art 'Go Fish' game in art class at coop and I wanted one. I came home and started searching for one on the internet. These are the only ones I could find and they were about $10 a set.

I didn't want to nor could I afford to buy them so......I made my own!

As I began to make them i realized I would be much happier this way because I could do it by artist not by time period or type of art. We are studying Winslow Homer this semester so I did

him first and then I did Monet and Van Gogh for the rest of the year.

Doing art Charlotte style means we will study the same artist for 12 weeks. It will have been longer for Homer since I was working for htis first part of the year but we will get 2 artists in after christmas till the end of the year!

I found pics of the works by Homer I liked and thought the boys would like. I right clicked ont he pic and saved each one to my pics file. I then printed 2 of each picture in a wallet size. I chose 12 pictures total. I put them on an index card, labeled each picture with the artists name and title of the art piece and then laminated them. I did cut down the index card just a little and I tried my best to make them all the exact size so you could hold them for a game of 'Go fish'.

We now have a set of Homer, set of Monet and a set of Van Gogh cards that we can play 'Go Fish' or 'Matching' with!!

After we finish this year they should be able to mix up the artists and play with them like that too!!

the New School Room

Last Spring I posted about our School Room and since then I have rearranged again and turned what was our living Room into our School Room. It is right off the kitchen(the old school room) and so all the bookshelves that are along the back wall in the kitchen are still there. I love the look of them and so it will be awhile before I have any thoughts of moving them!

This is what the room looks like when you look in thru the kitchen. The table is not there anymore - it took up too much space and we still do our work at the kitchen table so it is a nice open space the boys are using to build, color and leave their toys all over the place!!

The desktop got moved into this room too. It is nice that it is not in the same room as the tv now. The boys would play games and watch tv at the same time and it made me crazy!

This is our school discipline system. I have used this from the beginning(2 years ago)with the boys and it is only for school times. I got it off the internet or out of a magazine somewhere and I do not remember where so I am sorry i can't guide you to the original idea.

Each boy has an envelope on the wall with all 5 of their cards in it. They start out each day with a Blue card.

Blue - Good Day

Yellow - Caution

Green - Extra Chore

Pink - loose Screen

Black - go to bed early

This system has worked so well for us. It is clear what the consequences are and it is so easy for me to use! They have never gotten to pink and only to green a time or two. It is usually enough to just get yellow and they are good! The extra chore is something gross or time consuming - cleaning all the cabinet doors is my favorite right now!

The inside of the doorway has a bookshelf on either side of it. The alphabet cards are sticky tacked to the inside of the doorway(since it doesn't have an actual door). On the wall I have the calendar and the Family Prayer stuff tacked up. Their is usually a picture of the family members we are praying for where the black is and around it are verses about prayer.

Above that I have posted our Family Rules!

This space has been working really well for us and my hubby is so very happy that the kitchen table is no longer covered in books and projects when we sit down to eat!!!

miss you

My life has gone from busy to crazy to overwhelming in a matter of days! I started back to working a couple days a week - which will get to be more once nov. gets here and christmas shopping starts full on!
I have really struggled with doing school on the days that i work but I have been able to do 'some' school more often than not and I am okay with that right now. When I work nights it is easier becasue our morning routine doesn't change much. Working mornings and then coming home and trying to do school is hard! The boys are excited for me to be home, they have been playing and want nothing to do with sitting down and doing school! So far I have been able to do little bits and pieces here and there but I am definately not able to get it all done!
Our Sundays have completely been sucked up by helping out at both servcies on Sunday in the Sunday School - which puts us home about 1:00. We then have to turn around and take Alex back to church at 500 for youth group. Because we live 30 minutes from church we stay in town and do groceries or just sit around and do some schoolwork int he car while I wait for him to be done at about 830!
Alex is also busy with stuff at school that doesn't necesarily require us but it is a part of our life!
We have coop every Friday morning which is exhausting for everyone!
Thursday night my husband and I are taking an Alpha class at church - phenomenal class and speaker if you ever have the chance to take it! It is kindof our 'date night'.
I have started selling some of my 'stuff' at a local coffee shop so I have to do some painting for that about once a week.
In between all that foolishness the boys want to play with friends occassionally, meals have to be made, the house has to be cleaned, clothes have to be washed, boys have to be played with, school has to be prepared and hubby has to be loved!
I have no idea how we got ourselves into this craziness but it seems like it always happens to us in the fall - every year! By January things have cooled off a little bit but then sports start....

So... the gist of all this is - don't expect to hear much from me - on a regular basis - for awhile! I do so miss you girls and I miss reading other blogs as well as writing on my own!!

Science

I thought we would just read and learn about different things from the ton of Science books I have around the house - Magic School Bus & the Lets Read & Find Out books.

I had to change my mind as we started doing this whole CM style of schooling. We do so much reading in all the other areas and the boys do so love to do experiments that I felt we needed to do Real Science instead. I read about the Apologia Elementary books, then borrowed the Flying Creatures from a friend to glance thru and see how the lessons are laid out and I was sold! Jeannie Fulbright writes with a Charlotte Mason style and the lessons seem to be so interesting, simple and fun that I broke down and ordered Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day *cheap*!!

The boys chose the Swimming animals over the Flying or Land animals!

It came tonight while I was at work and I can't wait to look through it - a little bedtime reading for mommy tonight!

I also found out that you can buy lab kits for the apologia sciences here so you don't have to scrounge around looking for that item you thought you had but you can't find and you need it for today's lesson! That will have to be me though because we can't buy the lab kit right now!!

I would love to know if any of you have done this science or have heard anything about it???

off to bed now........

We are Lovin' Charlotte

We have now had 2 Full weeks the Charlotte Mason way and it has been quite successful and fun. I actually felt good about school and didn't feel like a total failure because I didn't do this workbook page or read that page or finish everything the 'TM' told me to do! We got thru everything in short bits and pieces that really worked and kept the boys on task.

This is what our days have looked like so far:

Bible - read a chap from The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos

we have really enjoyed the story format of this book.

Calendar

Review our Memory Verse - John 15:7

Family Prayer - we are praying for Grandma & Grandpa for 2 weeks

Math - we go to the table in the school room and we are trying to do it together. I sit between them and give them each direction and they can ask questions as they need to or I will help them as needed. Seems to be working! Previously I was working with each one seperately so this is different for us. This is the only place we use worksheets for now!

Phonics - we sit down with the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and do the next lesson. Stephen also has to do read some on his own which he does while I am doing phonics with Ben. This cannot be done together becasue they are both on different lessons and we use the same book for both boys!

Reading - Paddle to the Sea and some geography stuff(I found online) that goes along with the book. We do 2-3 chapters a week so it is not everyday!

History - World History is 2 days and American is 2 days. For world we just got 'A Child's History of the World' by Hillyer and started it this week. We like it so far. The beginning was total evolution so we didn't read it but we talked about why we didn't read it! They know the drill by now - it is kindof cute!

For American we started out using 'This Country of Ours' but I thought it was just too much info and the boys really want to get past the stuff we did last year and move on to the American Revolution.

So we switched to 'A Childs Story of America' and will read thru certain chapters till we get to where we left off last year and then we will slow down and read some Living Books and a mix of CSA to finish out the year. I have a lot of books on the shelf for us to read so we will be quite busy with History till the end of the year!

the Arts - each day is different - composer, artist, hymn & poetry. We have the artists pic and the current picture we are studying up in the kitchen to be seen and looked at all the time as well as the composer's pic that we are studying this term. My hubby is really enjoying the whole classical music aspect of this new way to homeschool. It just means that we have classical on all the time in the background until the teenager gets home and changes it to Toby Mac or Skillet or something completely uneducational like that!

We are studying Aaron Copland for our composer. We just listened to him last week and had him on all the time in the background. This week we actually focused on one song and laid down and listened to it and then talked about it. I also have a book called 'Getting to Know the Composers'which we will read over this term as well.

We will start studying Winslow Homer next week as our artist. We have 1 print in the kitchen that will change every 2 weeks and his pic as well so they are always visible and we are always looking at them and hopefully talking about them! Over the term we will study 6 of his pictures - 1 every 2 weeks.

We had already been listening to Holy, Holy, Holy and learning a bit about that Hymn so we will continue with that one for the rest of the Term and the boys should know it backwards and forwards by the time we are done!

We are also reading a book called 'The Story of the Orchestra' that tells about each instrument in the orchestra!

We will eventually start with Spanish 1 or 2 times a week and we will be doing Science once a week once we get the book. We are going to be doing Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 from Apologia. It is all about swimming animals and we can't wait to start!!!

Thomas is last in my schedule to end the day spendingt ime with him reading and playing a game or two but so far he doesn't want anything to do with me!!So - we will see how far Thomas gets this year!!! No rush!

I love it and I am so excited that God sent me to the places and people I needed to go to to be able to help us find a rythmn for our homeschool. This feels really good so far!!

Charlotte Mason

I have heard this name quite a bit since we started homeschooling. I have even tried to read a couple of her books at one time or another. I have always been struck by her method of education in which children are taught as whole persons through a wide range of interesting living books, firsthand experiences, and good habits. I couldn't really understand what that meant and visualize how it would work so I just kept doing what we were doing!

This journey of ours into homeschooling has always been such a 'God thing' for us and it has been truly amazing to see the ways that God has led me throughout this journey. He put people into my path to help us to make this decision -people that really spoke to my heart and my desires at that point of time. He has put families in all different stages of homeschooling and all different ways of homeschooling in our path for me to be able to 'see' how they do school and for me to be able to recognize what I DON"T want to do with my boys!! Throughout the past 2 years he has put CM materials into my hands - even though I didn't quite understand all of the philosophy.

Last year I was led to this book called 'Educating the Whole-Hearted Child' by Clay & Sally Clarkson

I loved this book! Some of the scriptures and what she said about them combined with the philosophy of teaching(which I now know is CM - I didn't realize it at the time of reading this book) led us to make the decision to claim Religious Exemption from the state in regards to our household. This has been the best decision we ever made for our family second to homeschooling.

At the end of last year a friend I had known thru different meetings became a really great friend and her and I have spent many hours discussing philosophy, books, schooling and other things too! Through her I started learning about Good Books and we started reading them and the boys just love them(now I know they are Living books). This started me on another journey of questions and answers and after a couple months of reading different emails and info about Charlotte Mason I knew I loved her ideas but I wasn't quite ready to commit to her style whole hog. I still felt as if I needed a curriculum to tell me what to do and say.

So - we started the school year with lots of Good Books and another curriculum. I lasted about 2 weeks and I hated it! Now - you might remember that I had posted about using CM here and I got frustrated and said no way this is not for me! Now - this is where you can really see what a freak I am because I was gonna use this CM curric but then decided I didn't like it and switched to the one I had been looking at that told me exactly what to do and say and now I am going back to the CM curriculum! I had been seeing and reading about Charlotte Mason but I still couldn't quite wrap my head around the WAY it should be done so I bailed on it. Then I read these articles and all of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head and I realized I could do this and that this is what I have wanted for our school from the beginning! I am truly in awe of the path God takes me on to get me back to where he was leading me in the first place - DUH!!!

So - now I have been doing more reading from this AWESOME website which makes it all so simple and even has lesson plans to use!! The more I read the more I understood and the more I really felt the Lord leading us to head this way!!

I have also started reading this book - which also puts her ideals into modern day english!! I will have you know I did read this book about 2 years ago and it didn't speak to me but boy did it this time!!!

We have been doing CM whole hog this week and it has been an amazing week of school!!!

AMANDA who left me a comment about buying some of the books please email me with your email address si I can hook you up if you want them!! I can't comment on oyur blog for some reason and your comment is as a no-reply so I couldn't email you!!!
Thanks chica!!!

Project Addiction

I have decided I have a serious problem - I am a Project Addict. I can't seem to just chill and enjoy - I am forever changing things and making them 'new'. Well - this lovely addiction of mine was fine when the boys were younger but now it has crossed over into our homeschool and it is causing problems! Wait until you see the New Classroom( i will post pics in the next day or so) I created for us in what was the living room - it is lovely and my hubby is so happy that school is not ALL OVER the kitchen table, counters and shelves - but did I 'do' school while I was rearranging all the furniture? NO!
Now - i must preface this by saying that I tend to criticize myself heavily due to a low self esteem so I am probably not as bad as i am surely about to lead you to believe!! But maybe I am and that is what the Lord is trying to get through to my hard headed self??
I have had the best time and spent many hours and some dollars we just didn't have creating all sorts of things for the workboxes and then decided not to use them. I spent HOURS poring over curriculum and trying to decide what we wanted to do this year. I even had a friend promise me she would make me stick it out for the whole year and not let me start looking around - I already am by the way! Shhhh! Don't tell! I have made schedules, routines, fun charts to check off, organized all the books on the book shelves but do we DO or use any of it? No! I have created this wonderful place for us to do school - we do prefer the couch but it is hard to do writing and such on the couch! Will it get used the way it should - probably not. Why do I do these PROJECTS but have so much trouble 'doing' school with my boys? I am really feeling like a failure right now that I can put so much time into this foolishness(knowing it is foolishness the whole time I am doing it) but not keep the tv off and stick to our school routine or schedule? I am really good about doing Bible - we have read the creation story so many times the boys have it memorized but we have barely gotten past the Tower of Babel. I don't think we have ever gotten thru a whole day of homeschool - the way I plan it or the curriculum we are using plans it! I love the stuff that our current curric has for us to do for science and some of the history stuff but I NEVER DO IT with them because we never get there!We have read creation so many times I am almost sick of it. We get started and never finish what we are supposed to do or get much done other than me reading to them. We get off the schedule in a matter of seconds and I don't know how to get back on (because nothing is written down anywhere that tells me what to do in this situation) so I ususally end up looking thru my schedules and curric and by then I have totally lost the boys. If they are playing happily I will think to myself that they are playing so well I should just let them! Where do you think i go - a project maybe? Then I get mad at them because they are interrupting what I am doing - what is that?? Hello - I only have this short time with them and God has blessed me with this incredible oppurtunity to teach and love them and I am blowing it!
Now - if I know what I am doing and I know this is not what I want to do why can't I just stop and do things differently? DUH! Praise the lord for a new chance every morning to redeem myself but the fact that I am failing over and over again and not redeeming myself is kicking my butt right now! Why can I feel so strongly about something in my heart and have such a passion and desire for it but not get to it when it is right in front of me? It is all there for me but I don't get it! What is wrong with me??
Sorry about all that but I feel better having put it out there and I truly feel the Lord puts these words into my head to share because I am NOT the only one out there who feels this way!
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME!!

Books For Sale

Cleaning off the bookshelves has been fun. Boy is it a reminder of the fact that I am always looking for the grass to be greener on the other side!!!
All items are postage paid and will be sent via Media Mail

Saxon Math 1 TM $10


Saxon Math 2 TM $10 - this one i 3 hole punched and put in a binder so I will send it to you in the binder!


Horizons Math K TM $10



$6


Considering God's Creation TM and Student Handbook - never used. Both have been 3 hole punched and will be sent in the binder. $20



Learning language Arts thru Literature the Red Book(about 1st-2nd grade). I have the TM which has obviously been used but still works! The student manual is brand new and the first 2 lessons have been done but in pencil so they are erasable. The readers that are used are also included. They have all been spiral bound together into one big book. $20

$5

$8

$9

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or offers!!