Sunday, October 25, 2009

Halloween Fun


One great advantage to homeschooling is being able to take the kids wherever--whenever! We decided to go to the pumpkin patch on Monday. The kids looked around for a while and with some convincing by grandma and me, finally decided on one each. Unfortunately, Liberty's got a little rotten (by rotten, I mean had a crack with juice oozing out). So we pitched the first one and bought her a new one at the local year-round produce stand. It was a large pumpkin. It weighed 35 pounds!


Since John is in Alaska and was touching down in Fairbanks at the time we began carving, I had to cut open, scrape out and carve the pumpkins without the extra set of hands. One thing I have to admit is that I loathe the feeling of pumpkin. It makes me itchy and it's cold, so my fingers get a wee bit frozen.


When all is said and done, and I step back and look at the cutely carved, amatuer looking gourds, I feel joyful. I have two hands that are capable, a creative eye, and still have both my hands after slicing and dicing away at the extra large vegetable.


This year, Liberty chose a headstone, and Canyon chose Thomas the Tank Engine. Funny thing, Thomas was really difficult (and Canyon's pumpkin is beginning to get a little soft) and the headstone took me about 5 minutes.


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Moms for Sarah Palin: Ten Questions for Obama from the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition

One freedom I'm so grateful for is freedom of speech. And along with it comes freedom to question our political leaders. Another Tea Party production...

Moms for Sarah Palin: Ten Questions for Obama from the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition

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Sunday, September 27, 2009




We started homechool today!!! Finally!!! Our original plan was to allow Liberty to wait until after her birthday to begin her homechool studies. Then John stopped for a visit on his way to Alaska, so we pushed her start date even further. To top it all off, the products we ordered took about one week longer than anticipated to get here. Lesson learned: I will be better prepared and ON TIME next year!


Deciding on cirriculum was the hardest part of our whole plan. There are so many different ways to educate a child. There are complete programs available, literature heavy programs, an a la carte method and of course you can switch up and create your own program. That's what great about homeschooling--you are FREE to educate your child as you please!


We are using the Switched On Schoolhouse program that the Duggars use (from TLC's 18 kids and counting). So far--no complaints. Libby loves the videos, slideshows and games. I love how easy for me (so far). It's nice to be able to allow Libby the freedom to learn at her own pace, which is probably much faster than in a public school setting. She breezed through three lessons in about one and one half hours! I think we'll have the entire week's lessons complete in a couple days--which is good because we're getting such a late start!


I chose the SOS program because this is my first year homeschooling and I wanted to be sure Liberty got a complete education. I looked into a state sponsored homeschool program, but decided agianst it since the main reason I chose to homeschool was to give Libby a Christian education. In addition, the state sponsored programs make you check in with educators and I just feel that's too much intrusion. If I wanted Liberty to get a public education, I'd send her to public school. I also chose SOS because Libby loves playing on the computer and it seems like all the schoolwork is "play".


I'm excited to see what the school year brings and how wonderful it will be to watch my daughter learn--and learn alongside her!


In case you're interested, you can go to: http://www.aophomeschooling.com/, or http://www.rainbowresource.com/ to find the program we're using and thousands of other homeschool products.

Have to complete my post because Libby is begging me to "do more homeschool". I LOVE THIS!

Thursday, September 24, 2009




We attended our first Tea Party event on July 4th in Clarkston, WA. From that, I (Stephanie) signed up to be on a newsletter list for the local 9/12 Project and the local Tea Party group.




I helped decorate a float used in the Lewiston Roundup parade on September 12th (Liberty's 8th birthday) and I will be volunteering at the Nez Perce County Fair in the Tea Party booth this Friday from 5-10 p.m.




I am glad that I can use my few talents to help promote something, and of course vocalize my views of America's current situation, and help to inspire patriotism. Patriotism, something I think many people lack....




Enjoy the photos!

Why We're Blogging


Well, I am just getting started at our blogs. Yes, blogs.


"The Pierce Update" will be used to keep updated on the Pierce Family in general. Our whereabouts, current events, photographs, etc.


"Freedom Is All We Ask" will be used to journal all our freedom activities. Tea Parties, homeschooling, everything that we celebrate as FREE Americans.


Truth of the matter is, months ago I set out to start a blog, named it, but never posted to it. Then just this afternoon, I named another blog. So no we have 2.


So, have fun watching from a distance--since we're miles from most friends and family!


Stephanie