Amazing Night of Joy at Disney!

                         NIGHT OF JOY!


I had the great privilege of attending the 2013 Night of Joy at Walt Disney World.  It was my first time to experience it, and I'm so glad I did.

We went with friends early to the park hoping to get some rides in before the shows. What we didn't count on was that the skies opened up and by the time we went from the car to the monorail, we were soaked! I take it back, my friend and I were soaked...the kids all ran when it started to sprinkle, and managed to get there almost completely dry! The things we do for our kids!

So, in the midst of pouring rain we had a great time hanging out, getting limited rides in due to the storms closing most of them. But no matter the weather, we were having a great time!

The night proved to be a wonderful experience of fun with friends, and a night full of worship!
It was impossible to see everyone due to the shows being on 3 stages, but we had great picks.

We saw Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Audio Adrenaline, MercyMe, Skillet and For King and Country.

What was nice, was seeing everyone singing from all the groups. We caught ourselves showing our age when we heard Steven C. Chapman and Michael W. Smith and realized we were still in high school and college when some of the songs they played came out, and now the kids knew the songs. It's hard to pick favorite groups, they were all wonderful! I know from my son his favorites were Skillet and MercyMe.

Because of all the rain, and the MANY umbrellas in the way, I wasn't able to take many pictures. Here is a picture of Skillet. This was the youths favorite group by far. By staying farther back, we actually had a better view.

Here are a couple youtube videos of favorite songs of the night! Enjoy!

Night of Joy is a great night to just let go and worship Christ. It's a safe place for the youth to enjoy some wonderful music, bond with friends and ride some favorite rides. Although we came home soaked, tired and sore, it's a night of memories not to be forgotten! If you ever have the chance to make it to one of the nights, I highly recommend it. It is worth every penny of the admission fee!


Disclosure: Videos directly from www.youtube.com. You can find music from all the groups there.
I did not receive any compensation for this review. My review is just an honest review to share from my experience.

Song Share time : It Is Well - Todd Fields & Horatio Spafford

Something different today! We sang this song a couple weeks ago at church and it is the song that comes to mind whenever I am going through a struggles. I just thought I'd share it with you all.
The words to this song were written by Horatio Spafford. He was a man who had suffered numerous losses in his life. He knew what it was to suffer. After already losing a son to scarlet fever, he wrote this song immediately after learning his daughters were all lost in a boat accident in 1873. Knowing they were saved for a reason, Horatio and his wife, Anna, went on to do ministering all over the world.
This video is courtesy of youtube. There is another one which shows more detail about his life, but I wanted to share this one with lyrics. The basis is that no matter what we are going through, God is with us always. It's easy to think that during the "good" times, but the true test comes when we are in the midst of a storm.

Hope you enjoy!

Magic School Bus Series

As a homeschool mom, I have always worked at finding curriculum which makes learning fun. When my son, who is now in high school, was in elementary school, he loved to watch the Magic School Bus videos. Every time we would go to the library our bag would undoubtedly end up with mostly the Magic School Bus videos and books.

When he was in first grade we were searching for a science program which would lend itself to his learning style. He enjoyed being able to be hands on and doing activities. What we found is that there was actually a science program through scholastic.com which allowed us to use Magic School Bus stories along with activity books, and extras which came in the package. One of his favorites was the book called Baked in a Cake where the kids were put into a cake at the bakery to see how Chemistry works in baking. The kit actually came not only with the book, but also activity book and muffin tins and recipes for baking at home. This actually spun into a love of cooking which lasted many years. At age 15 he still loves to bake pies(and is really good at it!).

Magic School Bus series is a collection of so many different scientific areas. It offers books on everything from chemistry to space, environment, human body and much more.

In our current homeschool co-op, I am teaching the elementary science class and I get to teach the Magic School Bus stories every week. You never really outgrow these and i've had so much fun re-reading the stories and re-watching the videos. The series has so much detail and great information. Kids learn in a way that gets them interested without it coming across as "school learning". I love it when they get excited about what we are going to study and beg for experiments and more for each subject! One week we read the book on volcanos, and then went outside and I helped the kids make their own volcano erupt. They had so much fun and wanted to do it over and over...which we did:).
This week is friction and force..and relating it to baseball....how could this not be fun?!

As Miss Frizzle says "Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy!"  What a great quote for kids. What kid wouldn't love to hear mom say that?! By doing this exact thing, you put all the ideas of  perfection out of your mind, and focus on the real learning, and enjoying it

check out the theme song preview of the videos!





Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation for this review. My opinions are honest and personal. They may differ from others.
you can find the books and videos at scholastic.com or www.amazon.com