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Family Game Time
Christmas is coming. That means gifts and for our family that means GAMES!!! We love family game time. During Christmas break, you can find us playing video games, board games, and card games. The kids will often set up a card table and get a game board ready for when Dad gets home. We love love love games. Here’s a few of our favorites: The teenage boy likes: Killer Bunnies, Catan, and Machi Koro. Each game involves strategy mixed with game time whimsy. Each also has an element of dumb luck within its structure. Killer Bunnies: you can collect nearly all the magic carrots and still lose because you didn’t…
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Holiday Game School
Does Christmas break have you worried about brain drain and video game stupor of your homeschool students? How can one homeschool and break at the same time? Let me introduce you to Game-Schooling. Christmas break offers solace for students. This midyear recharge comes at a much needed time. The first semester is wrapped up, for better or worse, and the second is yet to peek around the corner. However, for students in higher grades, the break often is accompanied by homework and projects. With groans and grunts and remembrances of past years and the freedom, December used to offer students and parent/teachers often plug away and ignore the needling necessity of rest.…
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Editing for Indie Writers
So, you wrote a book. It’s beautiful. It’s fabulous. It’s your paper and ink pride and joy. What do you do now? You want the world to see your precious creation. You want to let it out among the mainstream to do good things and inspire greatness. The only problem, it’s a little on the raggedy side. You know you’re content rocks. You’ve been trusting the Lord every step of the way and you’ve followed His guidance with near fearlessness. You want the public to see your literary little one at its best. But a good editor or proofreader can set you back $400-$1500. You’re not doing the work solely…
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Find Your Writer Mojo
Don't feel like writing? Love to write but don't want to make it a burden? Find and create your writer mojo.
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Write Along With Me
Come write-along with me, no bra required. Pijama clad welcomed. Coffee consumption is encouraged. The writers I know, in person and online, tend toward the introverted and private side of the street. I can be loud and boisterous if there’s a purpose to it and it’s necessary but I prefer to be still and quiet at home, among a handful of intimates and laughing at our inside jokes. As such, you can find me, quite often, typing silently at my laptop listening to the happy sounds of my children talking to each other. However, this does little to uplift and motivate me to write during heavy and inspiration dry seasons. At…
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Newbie Author Successes
This post might contain affiliate links. Just thought you’d like to know. The first year of author life is hard. In fact, it can be downright shocking. But don’t be discouraged. Royalties and reviews aren’t the only way to mark your success, as a writer. 1- New Contacts Writing and publishing cannot be accomplished on one’s own. There are cover designers, editors, reviewers, formatters, readers, lovers, haters… the list goes on and on. Behind each job lies a person. I know it’s strange. But a real, live human being is on the other end of your emails and job offers. Even the most introverted of writers must branch out and…
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Writer Hacks (Crazy Things I Do)
The blank page aka the white nightmare. On parchment, the lines mock my lax beginnings. On the screen, the cursor blinks explicit expostulations. Like most writers, my brain is near bursting with ideas, worlds, people, and situations. Mine struggle to exit my person and live their own lives. Keeping these imaginary friends at bay tends to feed, only, my insomnia. However, when faced with time and the energy to create, these pals grow fickle and flee into the recesses of my brain. How do I get them to come out? How do I encourage them the play nicely? How do I keep them from stomping all over my compositions? Every…
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My Official Nano 2018 Coffee
As the name of my blog suggests, I love coffee. Unfortunately, as a wife, mama, homeschooler, tutor, writer and more, the first cup of coffee I get to finish from sniffed to sipped comes during the late night hours. Thus the Late Night modifier of Coffee Moms. During an anniversary outing, I discovered my new favorite brew. Today I’m declaring it my official brew of Nanowrimo 2018. At least as far as this mom is concerned. Let me introduce you to Abide Coffee Roasters. Abide is a family run business. Their coffee yummy, satisfying, and smooth. It offers a mouthful of flavor with warm dark chocolate undertones. It inspires me…
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Teaching Textbooks: Our Math Time Buddy
Dyslexia is a giving disability. It gives us trouble in reading, trouble in writing, and trouble in math. This equals hands-on Mom and me schooltime, all day long. When my student was still little this was a blessing. It was a time to reassure and comfort my struggling learner. The older my student gets the more independence they crave and the more frustrated they become when they NEED mom’s help. Enter Teaching Textbooks After hours of repeated and laborious instruction in reading and writing, the last thing my mother/child relationship needs is another round in math. Teaching Textbooks works fabulously for my struggling learner. I oversee everything, from a distance,…
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Hit Reset
Long ago, when I first started homeschooling a friend recommended I label every good day with a happy face. I grabbed that advice and ran with it. The first year of school most of my family calendar boasted drawn smiles and stickers. Homeschool wasn’t a breeze but it was snuggly and fun. Fast forward a few years later and our calendar is peppered with doctor appointments, tutoring sessions, sports meets, and AWANA nights. The happy faces haven’t just vacated our calendar but sometimes our hearts as well. Busy is as busy does. Checklists, deadlines, and other appointments can eat up a homeschool day. It’s easy to forget homeschooling isn’t just…
