All posts by Melissa

RockSmith Guitar Games makes an Awesome Christmas Present!

Product Reviews
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Learn to Play Guitar with RocksmithDisclaimer: Ok, so I don’t want you think I’m just trying to sell you something here. I really think this is a great tool! I do have affiliate links to Amazon.com if you decide you want to purchase Rocksmith, and I do make a little commission if you buy through my links here(and I truly appreciate it if you do decide to do that), but this is something I think would be very beneficial to anyone wanting to learn guitar.

I have a great Christmas present idea for you today.

My husband found this guitar game for the xbox 360 online. He plays guitar pretty well, but wants to learn more and branch out with different sounding chords and all that. So anyway, he found this game called Rocksmith that plays on the xbox 360 with a usb cord that has a 1/4 inch jack(comes with the game) at one end to plug into a real guitar (guitar is not included). Well, of course we have several electric guitars around here. So we decided to buy it, since we thought it would also be great for the boys to learn to play guitar with.

Well, we got it in the mail today. My husband was impressed and Nboy who is almost 9 loves it! It’s really cool because you can start out at beginner level and work your way up to picking faster. It has little stickers with numbers to stick on your guitar so you can see the fret number and be able to quickly move to the number that it shows on the screen. Onscreen, each string has a different color, so you can easily see which one you’re supposed to be picking.

Once you get to a certain accomplishment, then guitar arcade games start to open up. You can also play events, and it comes with over 50 songs that you can play with.

So I have to say, this guitar learning game is really worth the money! If you have kids that love music, or if you yourself want to learn guitar, this is a great game to use for learning at home. I should say though that some of the songs that are on it are probably not the best for kids, depending on what you are comfortable with. I don’t like my kids listening to heavy rock music, and mainly stuff that gives a bad message or that has language. This is rated T, so I’m pretty sure there aren’t any with language really, but there are some songs on there I wouldn’t be letting the kids play to.

You will need a real electric guitar or acoustic with a pickup on it.

Next we need to buy the boys their own size guitars! Right now all we have are full size ones.

 Please keep in mind that I was taking pictures with my camera of the tv screen and this tv is fairly old, so the pictures are not the greatest by a long shot!!

Rocksmith gutar game menu

Main menu of Rocksmith

Rocksmith Menu Options

Just a few of the Menu options. Songs: Go here to pick what song you want to play to. Rocksmith comes with over 50 songs!

Gutarcade: Actual games you play with the guitar, while helping you practice!

And Techniques. I haven’t messed with this area yet, but it has different “techniques” you can switch to.

Rocksmith Guitar Tuning screen

Rocksmith tuner. Rocksmith has you stop and make sure your guitar is tuned before you play each game or level or event. This is pretty cool and it seems to tune well! You just pluck each string that it tells you by lighting up the string and if one is out of tune, it will automatically take you to actually tune it.

Rocksmith Game play

Actual game play. The frets are numbered, so when a block comes at you down, say, fret 3, with the top string (red string) lit up, then you press down the top string at fret 3 on the guitar, and then when the block gets to the string on the screen, you pluck the top string with your other hand. It has different levels, so you can have it go slowly at first till you get the hang of it and then you can have it to where the blocks come at you faster and on different frets so you have to play faster.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool and I think, if you are a homeschool family that is into music, this is a great way to learn.

To be honest, we bought ours on Ebay for $39.99 and $4.00 shipping (though, I also bought something else with it, so we got shipping for free). But Amazon.com also has it at a very reasonable price.

A New Week, A New Outlook….

Children, DIY Home Improvement, Getting Organized, Spiritual Fitness
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So I have to say, last week was one of the worst weeks I’ve had in quite awhile. Seriously, it just was one of those weeks that you wish had never happened. Now nothing “tragic” happened, and I know there are plenty of people who have had and are currently having a much worse time than I had, but for me, it was just no good. Part of the reason is that I was in a horrible mood all week which had a lot to do with a recurring headache that woke up with me every morning. Then it seemed like the boys were just constantly at each others throats more than usual, which very well could have actually been due to my own attitude affecting them.
Many times we don’t really stop to think about how we are affecting others. We might blame the kids for our bad mood, but maybe they are acting up more Because of our mood.
So I had some things to think about toward the end of last week. But on Friday, I finally remembered I still had some childrens Benadryl and I remembered the last time I had a headache that Ibuprofen couldn’t tame, I took Benadryl and the next day it was gone. So I took some Friday night, went to bed early in Cman’s bed while putting him to sleep. Sometimes that’s the only way I can go to sleep earlier since my hubby has been practicing songs late at night to get ready for doing shows for his new music album (which I haven’t put up on his website yet so you might want to go to his facebook page to hear some of his new songs).

Anyway, I woke up the next morning feeling so much better!

And we got a lot of stuff done on Saturday. We got a door put up between the kitchen and the back laundry room and I got a lot of cleaning done so that our home actually feels comfortable now. We also got a new toilet which was long over due since the old one had to be manually forced to stop running after flushing it. We were actually forced to get a new toilet because Cman decided when he was taking a bath on Friday that it would be fun to flush some matchbox cars down the toilet! I was able to fish one out, but the other one escaped my grasp. All seemed ok until later that day when the toilet started backing up and flushing really slowly and then I ended up having to clean up the floor not once, but twice!

That was on Friday when I was still in a horrid mood! So since the plunger wasn’t working and a snake didn’t work, the hubby was going to take the toilet off anyway to get the car out, so I said “why don’t you just go get a new toilet?” . We got a home project loan from Home Depot a month ago so we could add a wall for a new bedroom and do some other fixing up in our house to get it ready to sell while not having to pay any monthly payments or interest for 6 months, which is awesome! We got approved for much more than we expected too. So, hey, we need a new toilet anyway, so why not just go down and get one? lol

But it is soooo nice to have a new toilet. The water bill should be much nicer too since this toilet doesn’t have to fill up near as much and then the issue with the old one running too long if someone didn’t stop it. I can’t wait to see the bill!

So this week so far has been much better. I’ve been trying to focus more on letting God help me with things instead of drawing away from him when my temper flares (and trying to take care of it on my own). I’ve also had the boys on more of a schedule with schooling in the morning, lunch, then bible time, then exercise time and then game time on the xbox which is then work on the computer time for me :) Then after that is some more housework.

Anyway, it just really helps, for one, not to have a constant headache, and two(and most importantly), to focus more on the Lord and allow him to lead. I need to take my own advice much more often, but I’m working on it!

Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons-Does it Really Work?

Book Reviews, Homeschooling, Reading
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Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons

So I bought the book “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” last year for my 5 year old, Ekid. I had read the rave reviews on Amazon.com and decided to buy it. I never used a book like this for Nboy, but he was always more interested in practicing reading and writing than Ekid is and so I didn’t feel I needed a “curriculum” to teach him. Ekid on the other hand needs more to keep him interested.

So this book has 100 lessons and claims that your child will be able to read and write by the end of it. Each lesson goes over sounds and writing those sounds at the end of the lesson. One of the first sounds is the short “A” sound as in “cat”. You put your finger on the first ball and slide it on the arrow to the ball under the letter and you have your child say the sound slowly, drawing it out as in “aaaaaa” as you slide your finger to the end of the arrow. They learn to say the sound slowly at first and then you have them “say it fast”.

Each lesson progresses and a new sound is added every couple lessons. There is a lot of repetition in order for your child to remember each sound from lesson to lesson.

Eventually they start putting letters together to form words, and then this progresses to putting the words together in short sentences with a picture for reading comprehension.

Now for my review:

I LOVE this book! Ekid is doing so well with it, and he really enjoys it. He has very little trouble remembering the sounds he learned in the previous lesson when we get to the next lesson because there is so much repetition in learning each sound. We would have been completely through the book by now, but we only did a few lessons last year and then stopped because at the time he just wasn’t quite as interested. But now we are on lesson 16 and he is able to read the short sentence that has been in the last couple lessons by sounding it out. I really think Siegfried Engelmann did an excellent job with this book.

Even if you are not homeschooling, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” is still a wonderful book to get to give your child a head start in reading and writing before entering school, and it gives parent and child a nice chance to spend some time together learning.

White Chocolate Mocha Recipe-Heavenly Hot Drink!

Drinks, Mocha Recipes, Recipes
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For more coffee drink recipes please visit my new website Home Coffee Recipes.com

It’s officially fall and the days and nights are getting cooler. This is probably the time, if you’re an iced mocha drinker, that you might switch to hot mochas. There are so many flavors of mocha recipes, but one of my favorites and a popular one among espresso stand frequenters, is a White chocolate mocha. I, for one, am in love with white chocolate! I’m not a huge fan of hot coffee drinks, but a hot white mocha is one that I can enjoy :)

Here’s a great homemade white chocolate mocha recipe for you to enjoy! Try it, and I would love to hear what you think of it, and you can also rate it with the stars up above if you want :)

Print
White Chocolate Mocha Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: Drinks
Cuisine: American
Serves: 1
 
An excellent hot white mocha recipe for you to enjoy on those chilly days (or all year round!).
Ingredients
  • 16oz cup
  • 2oz of fresh brewed coffee or 2 shots of espresso
  • Approx 13oz of Whole Milk or low fat/skim (I love whole milk in mine! You could even try half and half) steamed or microwaved so it is as hot as you like it.
  • 2 tablespoons powdered white chocolate (try Ghirardelli Sweet Ground White Chocolate)
Instructions
  1. Brew your coffee or espresso shots.
  2. Place white chocolate in your cup.
  3. Pour coffee or espresso into the cup and stir well until the white chocolate is dissolved.
  4. Steam or microwave approx. 13 oz of milk.
  5. Pour in heated milk to top of cup and stir.
  6. Add whipped cream if desired and enjoy!

 

Let’s Rewind 100 Years….

Getting Organized, Random Thoughts
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I was thinking today, because of the books I’ve been reading lately, that I wish in some ways that I lived back in the homesteading, old west days. I realize that they had their own challenges back then and we have so many conveniences now, but sometimes I think that these conveniences make it harder in other areas.

As wife and mom, and lover of the country life and animals and farming, I long for a day when we can buy some property and have our own garden with enough to put away for the winter. To go out and gather eggs from the chickens, to spend the spring through summer taking care of the house, the kids, the garden, the cooking and cleaning.

I wish we lived when there was not so much clutter. You only had as many clothes as you needed, and there were not zillions of toys to be strewn about the house. You didn’t get junk mail every day, or paper mail from the many many bills we have today. In fact, you most likely didn’t have many bills at that time and your main focus was providing food and stocking up food for the winter and keeping your family clothed and sheltered. You didn’t have so many activities to attend to away from home, and running here and there in the car.

The thing is, I was thinking today that there are a few things I can help to get back to that time and frame of mind.

Clothes. What if I were to go through all my clothes and only keep enough outfits for a week’s worth. And then, only get new ones when the old ones started wearing out a bit. Or if I got new ones before that, make sure it is an outfit that I love more than one I already have and give away one of my old ones instead.  The same goes for my husband, and kids. Ekid has so many 5 year old clothes it’s amazing. Mostly shirts, and some of them he doesn’t even like. So let’s just get rid of them, or at least put some of them away until the others start to wear out.

Toys. Same idea. I just need to go through all their toys and get rid of all the ones they don’t play with much, or that are broken, and then we don’t need to buy them more than one or two items for their birthdays or Christmas.

Paper clutter. This one is tough. Now the junk mail can be thrown in the trash as soon as I see it, but then you’ve got all the pictures the boys like to draw, and their school work papers and my papers, and my husbands papers….. the list goes on. So that one is just going to have to take some work to control because there just isn’t much to be done about eliminating it.

Activities. Not much to be done about that either. In this day and age, with cars and being able to get to farther away places at a fraction of the time it took 100 years ago, you just have more to do with family, friends, sports and whatever else. Not that I don’t want to see my family! Being an hour away by car, I definitely wouldn’t get to just go on up and see my parents much if we had to use horse and buggy.

But you know, we could live more like they did back then even in this day and age. It just takes a bit more will power, since we have all this stuff and clutter and distractions to contend with.

I for one, would like to try.

I just so much want to be like that virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. Everything she did was for the glory of God and to provide and take care of her family. We just have so many distractions now days, that it’s hard to keep focus on what’s really important, but it can be done. It must be done. God gave women and men certain roles and neither will be satisfied or fulfilled if we aren’t acting in those roles.  The husband is to be the main provider for the family, and I shouldn’t be sitting here worrying about how I’m going to help make some extra money for us. Now there’s nothing wrong with me making extra money, but If I’m worrying so much about that and not doing my job of taking care of the kids, the home and my husband to the best of my ability, then I’m not trusting God to help my husband provide for us like God intended.

So do you feel like we have too many conveniences today?  What ways do you think life was better back in the “old” days?

3rd Day of Homeschooling down and Nboy Needs Glasses???

Getting Organized, Homeschooling,
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Well, today went ok. We had a hard time getting going this morning, but finally got sat down for a little devotional on the livingroom floor. Today’s devotional was from Daniel 2:20-22. We mostly focused on vs. 22 “He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.”

I told them that God knows everything and he reveals the things we think we’ve kept to ourselves, secret things, but God knows. If it’s sin, he will reveal it, whether openly, or to us so that we come face to face with it and have to make a choice whether to repent or not. The light dwelleth with God, and as it says in 1 John 1:5 “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” . So when we walk with God, we walk in the light and our deeds are made known. If we sin and continue in it, we walk in darkness away from God because we don’t want our sins to be known, though as Daniel said, God knows what is in the darkness also, so we cannot hide from him and he already knows, so we might as well repent of our sins and come to him whether we need to come to him for salvation, or if we are already a child of God, but we need to come to Him for forgiveness so our fellowship with him can be restored.

Math went well. I ended up doing 2 lessons with Nboy since they were pretty easy review lessons in the Abeka Curriculum 3.  Ekid just practised tracing and writing numbers again and I got pretty flustered when he didn’t want to listen to how I was showing him to do it. He likes to do things his own way, so he can be stubborn! But he finally wrote a couple of the numbers we worked on correctly and we stopped there.

Reading with Nboy was great, though he had a hard time with his vocab words and complaining quite a lot about writing all of them. I only have him write them one time each for now. But I think I know what his issue is now…..

Ekid did awesome with his reading, in Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and wanted to move on to the next lesson, but I told him we would do the next tomorrow. He is very excited to learn how to read!

So that’s all we did today. We didn’t do history since I had some other things I needed to take care of and we got started late, but it was a satisfying educational time.

I’d also like to add that I got a good deal of cleaning done today and my dining area looks tons better. The boys helped me pick up toys and trash and then I rearranged and put the little round dining table in the center of the floor after I swept and mopped, and opened up some space along the wall where it used to be. So I was able to put the kids easel along the wall now and Cman’s little desk too. I still have some decluttering to do, but it looks much better. My livingroom is liveable now too and the boys desk is slowly getting cleared off. They have had room to do their work on it the last two days though, so that’s been nice.

I’m continually getting back up and trying again with the whole organizing thing!

So about Nboy. Well, he has been complaining lately that he keeps having to squint and that his eyes always feel dry. He also gets headaches quite a lot toward the evening or after watching tv, playing on the computer or reading. So I think  he has inherited my curse of bad eyesight. I’ll be making an eye doctor appointment tomorrow for him, but I think that this must be the reason he gets cranky so often this past few months, and he doesn’t like to sit and read for very long, though he loves it when I read books to him and he reads extremely well. I’m hoping if it is his eyesight, that once he gets glasses, his attitude will improve quite a lot. It definitely makes you cranky when you get headaches a lot, even if it’s just a constant slight discomfort.

Well, that’s day 3 of our Homeschooling journey for this year! Hopefully tomorrow will go even better.