The Joyful Journey - Homeschool Blogger

• Arby on Cursive Writing: To Write or Not to Write

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  We started our oldest [...]

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  Posted: March 08, 2009, 11:08am EDT
  

• Happy New Year

  
  
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  Dear Friends and Family:

  Here we are at the start of 2009, wondering what happened to 2008!  Here are a few highlights from the past year in the Difino household!

  Jim and Linda stayed busy with family, [...]

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  Posted: January 07, 2009, 11:55pm EST
  

• A Thousand, A Thousand Thanksgivings

  
  It is with much gratitude that I come to You, my Lord, on this Thanksgiving Day, 2008.  You have blessed me beyond anything I could ask or imagine!  Thank you for blessing me with my beloved husband…he truly is the “better part of me”.  His leadership in our [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2008, 1:00am EST
  

• Happy Birthday, Jimmy!

  
  Today is Jimmy's fifth birthday! 
  
  
  
  And while his birth into our family on November 19, 2003, was beyond wonderful, nothing can compare to the joy we all felt on November 13, 2008, when Jimmy asked Jesus to' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2008, 1:01am EST
  

• Emily's "Post Election Trauma"

  This election has been a particularly difficult one.  So much emotion.  So much angst.  So much frustration. So much anger.   I have found disagreement in places where I would NEVER have expected to find it.  Division where there has always been unity.  Issues that seemed so "black and white" before, [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2008, 11:33pm EST
  

• A Little Dose of Arby....

  We've all missed our friend and fellow blogger, Arby.  But we all KNEW his children wouldn't stop providing him with blogging fodder just because he quit blogging. And we also knew that he'd have to have an outlet for his nutty stories.  And furthermore, we were all fairly certain that, [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2008, 2:17pm EST
  

• Prayer for our Nation

  As November 3rd draws near, I have become increasingly aware of how helpless we are against the tide of unrighteousness that has swept our nation.  The "change we need" will not be found in any man.  The change we need is found only in Christ.  I believe that despite the [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 2:00am EDT
  

• 148th Carnival of Homeschooling: Tricks and Treats!

  
  
  
  The Carnival of Homeschooling is up and it's "scary" good! This week the Cate family over at Why Homeschool is hosting the 148th Carnival of Homeschooling: The Halloween Edition.
  
  There are many "tricks" and "treats" [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2008, 9:44am EDT
  

• Photo Hunt: Scary

  
  

  This week's theme is SCARY. 

  That's a REALLY scary ghost on my son's cheek!!

  
  
  
  

  Now this is REALLY scary....this is my husband and me almost 25 years ago.  What's really scary [...]

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  Posted: October 25, 2008, 10:54am EDT
  

• Bye Arby.....

  
  My good friend Arby, over at Arby's Archives (don't bother looking for it....IT'S GONE!), has hung up his blogging typewriter for good. 
  
  
  

  
  

  The antics of this stay-at-home, homeschooling dad, his hard-working (VERY patient) wife, [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2008, 12:04am EDT
  

• A View from Inside: A Homeschooled Teacher in a Public School Classroom

  
  I remember it well.  The years have not diminished the memory of the night I decided to homeschool.  I was a recently certified teacher with a brand new husband and a teaching job in a suburban elementary school.

  
  

  That night I finished reading Child Abuse in the Classroom [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2008, 5:18pm EDT
  

• Bail ME Out!!

  Well, now it appears that Senator McCain wants to spend $300 billion of our money to buy up bad mortgages so that greedy people who borrowed foolishly can continue to live in the big, beautiful houses that they never should have bought to begin with.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2008, 1:03am EDT
  

• A Flashback for Kellieann: Of Babies and Baseball

  I was moved with compassion yesterday while visiting Kellieann's Blog.  She's got 8 weeks left in her pregnancy, and is wondering if she's gonna make it to the end!  I am feeling her pain.  Her post took me back. It was five years ago that I was right where [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2008, 3:10pm EDT
  

• Homecoming: A First for this Homeschool Family

  My youngest daughter, a senior in highschool, went to Homecoming on Saturday night with a large group of kids from our youth group. (Nina is the one in dark red.) I guess the pictures below help answer a critically important question homeschoolers must answer regarding socialization and the homeschooled child.  [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2008, 2:06pm EDT
  

• Summer 2008: Photo Journal--Part 2

  Summer is all about fun--sunning, swimming, picnicking, and playing baseball. Right?  Okay, so that's only true when you're a kid, but a girl can dream, can't she? 

  
  

  When I wasn't lounging and playing (or fantasizing about lounging and playing) the activity that consumed the bulk of my time [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2008, 3:30pm EDT