Constant

Planning.   Organizing.   Thinking how to make it all go more smoothly.   Tomorrow is my infamous Monday.   I tend to loath Mondays.   A friend of mine and I joke that we should take every Monday off as Sunday can take tons of energy and leave us road kill.   Several years ago I had a system which helped me keep the family sanity of cleaning for 45 minutes or so every morning.   The idea came from a cd published by the Fundagelicals, "24 hours is All You Get."   Yep.   It the best thing I bought from the Fundagelicals as far as remembering routines and keeping it simple to accomplish more.   That particular year we cleaned a few rooms every morning.    I think it is time to pick up this habit again.

My neighbor Jim has trained my husband, of almost 25 years, to clean up the kitchen down to the counters every night.   Incredibly awesome.   My ego will not be shattered by the husband sweeping and wiping down counters.   Major sigh of relief.   In the house he grew up in, the mom did everything.   What his mom did though was quietly go about what needed to be done because it needed to be done.   This gene has finally come to the surface in her son.    Phew.

Figuring out how to hammer school and keep on top of the clutter is my goal.....again.....for this new week.   Catechesis and read aloud time will have to happen first or IT will not get done.   Nap time for a few hours this evening and then attack.   The nine kiddos and 45 year old me will give it a try.   Yay, older than 45 year old me husband has joined the club. 

Blessings on your week y'all.   

Backwards planning

This is not a new idea but have started looking more closely at those things we have on hand in the pantry which were most likely purchased in the name of thrift and then not used up or were purchased for a recipe which was not used.   Yesterdays made up recipe was nachos to use up all the chips which were purchased over Christmas for the chips and salsa fan who isn't here now.    I took the stale chips, put them on the bottom of my large baking pan and cooked them for ten minutes while I browned ground beef, an onion, chili powder and cumin, a jar of salsa, and a few cans of black beans.    I put all of that on top of the chips in the onion and topped which some shredded Colby cheese.   The kids gobbled that right up.   Almost everything we eat I make up out of my head.   I will try to post recipe ideas as they come to mind.  

Progress

The week in review adds up to less fat on me and more school work accomplished for them.   Fighting the flab and getting in better shape becomes obsessive for me at times but it is nice to rid the closet of the clothes which don't fit anymore and revisiting the skinny wardrobe.   I found time for several bike rides this week and now we have snow the end of the week to shovel - yay!   The icing on the cake which I ate or rather lost, was a load of firewood to load for delivery.  250 pieces of firewood thrown in the back of the truck.   I wasn't able to do the whole load as I had to run a kid somewhere but it is still fun.   A few weeks ago I loaded 750 pieces of firewood.   I saw my dress I got in Milan today and might dream of getting back into it this summer.   Yes.    This all added up to bunches of calories burned and less of me.   Warms my heart.....probably literally.

In the homeschooling realm, I am doing my best to impress the love of learning on my little cherubs.   Time management needs some work, but otherwise kids were reading, writing and rithmeticing and not causing too much trouble.   Mondays always seem to stink as far as the wiggles and whining but by Wednesday we hit a groove and by Friday I am so exhausted I cannot wait to take Cecilia to piano lessons and go sit for an hour in peace and quiet and just listen.   Ahhhhh!  

My latest experiment with the kids to increase interest in history, is for the kids to take turns reading the books we are working through to each other paragraph by paragraph.    Every morning we have been able to pull off Catechesis and then read aloud time.   The reading aloud time hopefully sets a tone of HOW they should read aloud.   Remembering all these tricks is really the trick.   The little ones vying for my attention can generally make me nuts to be frank, but somehow we work it out and attempt to make some progress.
 I cap my evenings off with a good book and my nest before calling it a night and take a snooze till it all begins again.   It is almost time to find my nest.    Ta ta for now and happy family time to you all.   

Second chance

I see January and the new semester as a second chance of sorts to get the kids immersed in their studies.   One way is to stay away from the internet!   Fostering independent learning will only happen through fostering so I have been trying to stay very close to the students and not distracted by laundry etc.   When I don't stick close to the students (aka my children), then they take a very quick trip to La La land.    "If mom never looks at my work, then why do it?"   It is a mental challenge to ME to stay with it.   Patiently going through factorization or grammar rules and how they apply etc. is mental exercise.   I suppose I am glad I remember how to do these things and not all was lost in the interim of my running gleefully away from my own education.    

One little trick I am trying for my reluctant non-fiction readers, is to have them sit together and read their history aloud to each other.   I was greatly relieved to find that the elder reader was not daunted by his younger sibling who reads a blue streak.   I was afraid he would get discouraged but that hasn't been the case.   He has enough wear for all to realize that if his sister reads, they will get through the chapter faster and tried to pull this little trick to get through.   It didn't bother him a bit he was a slower reader.   I quickly got them back on track to taking turns reading.   


It has been interesting to me to observe the different way each child learns.   For some it has been slow and painstaking and for others it has been a breeze.   Remembering that slow and steady wins the race, is the best method of all, is something I remind myself of frequently.    Perhaps I will begin collecting turtles as a reminder.   I don't want any live turtles, just the fake ones.   The kids who take longer to understand their lessons are a challenge but then I remember that the kids who learn quickly can QUICKLY be left all alone and neglected as it is too easy to assume they are doing okay.  

The school week is intense.  We keep very busy in our family culture here and come up for air for Scouts and evening services.  By Friday, I am ready to be alone.   I fantasize  Saturday mornings, the day will be productive and then Sunday I am usually in a restful heap.   Slow and steady would definitely describe my Sunday mood.   I love the rest though so it is all good.   I am looking forward to seeing my walking friend this evening and catching up on her life.   That is restful and rejuvenating too.  Onward.

Keeping track

Yesterday, for kicks and giggles, I looked up some calorie counting apps on the frivolous phone and found one that is both fun, guilt inducing and hilarious at least to me.   MyFitnessPal has a data base of over a million different foods, their calories and nutritional content.   You can plug in your weight loss goals, it keeps track of those and the balance of your exercise goals.   You can set reasonable goals for weight loss and exercise.   I was not having a stellar nutritional day so far so the dark chocolate and banana did not make for a great nutritional score board.  

So today I am going to hunt for a financial diet application.   I have the capability to indulge my hobbies too much at times so would like to have a place to report.   Then of course we can do weird things like make a budget and record our expenditures.   Meal planning has made a big difference in the grocery bill.   We have recorded expenses on a calendar before but have been horrible about keeping track of the general status of the check book and such.  

This all sounds very New Yearsy I realize but I have been stuck at the same weight forever and I have never been thrilled with our money spending accountability so here we go.   Onward.   I think I will go boil an egg.  I will leave the dark chocolate to the piranhas who are still sleeping and waiting for the next feeding frenzy.   

2011

2011 has been quite the year.   I cannot say I would like to repeat it as there was much heartache but much learned as well.   If only we could learn without the heartache.   It has been a pleasure to spend the last week of the year with family and friends here at home and with our church family.   At the moment we are watching "The Bells of St. Mary" with our neighbor who is basically a part of the family.   It is his favorite Christmas movie and I thought it would be nice to get a copy of it for us all to share together.   He is loving every minute.   My sleepy self is not going to make it through the whole thing, but every day is full of people in life to be thankful for.   I am looking forward to another such day to be thankful for tomorrow no matter what comes my way.   One day at a time. 

Normal

Well, the day I thought would never happen has happened.   My dear ADD husband has had little piles of this and that all over the place in the yard and we would casually mention every so often that most people didn't have these piles in their yard.   He uttered the phrase, "I picked up the brick which were by the side walk.   That just isn't normal to have that sort of thing lying around."    I am now playing the 1812 Overture with cannons booming in triumph over this little strangeness in our marriage.    The yard is shaping up and projects such as putting the can lights back in the ceiling after they had been hanging out of the ceiling for a good year or so, are getting completed.    Here is the kicker....ready?   I didn't ask him to do these things.   He is running around fixing the 'not normal' aspects of our house and yard.  Stunned.  His stars on the star board doth runneth over.   What will tomorrow bring?   It is Christmas tomorrow so it should be interesting.  He has been in his workshop feverishly making something.   I might be able to guess but whatever it is must be pretty good.   Stay tuned.

Letter writing

I used to write lots of letters to my friends and older relations.    Now the older relations get gypped.   So I finally was able to escape to drink some decaf all by myself in a restaurant and pound out some long overdue letters.   One was pretty difficult to write as his wife died this past year and the other two were to two older cousins who I greatly admire.   The women on my dad's side of the family are basically awesome.  The ones left to write to are all in Sweden so that alone is a reason I should write more as it is pretty difficult to just drop by!    So anyway, I miss the lost art of snail mail and  the anticipation.   My peers don't do snail mail anymore.    I am glad I finally got the letters written, now to make sure I get them in the mail!!!

Air freshener

I am raising a passel of comedians.   If I take my crazy brood with me into stores, they are sure to entertain me with their observations of stupid product names etc.   We have had a long time fascination with air fresheners.   As the mother of six boys (and three girls), we were in a store reading the titles of air fresheners and we all burst out laughing at the one titled, "After the Rain".   Yes.....aptly  named for the bathroom.   We have been devoted customers of this variety ever since.   Tonight we were looking at carpet freshener, as we are obsessed with masking the smells of reality around here and the one we chose was "Mountain Rain".    So....the conversation then went to what exactly does mountain rain smell like as opposed to back yard rain or prairie rain.    I must say my children keep me amused.   The icing on the cake was when we were listening to Pandora and Dean Martin was singing some song about how he let this wonderful girl get away and my dear eldest blurts out, "Dumbo".   My kids kill me.   Dying of laughter would be a good way to go.   Added bonus to the whole evening was singing two of my favorite hymns at the Divine Service this evening, both of which I think I would like to be sung at my funeral.   My eldest broke out in this awesome descant on the final verse and in that case brought a teeny tear to my eye as well as a smile.   Who couldn't love "Sing with all the Saints" and "Lo! He comes".   Sweet

Van clarification

I have been instructed to clarify where van righteousness comes from and why it makes us laugh.   We live about 45 minutes from the heart of Amish country.  Whenever we venture that way in our 15 passenger van, Amish people everywhere we go stop what they are doing and wave at us.   I know they are waving because they think we are one of their drivers or they just love large vehicles in general.    It is funny.   I feel like I am in a parade.   

It is also true that I inwardly giggle when a family makes the leap to the 15 passenger van with the growing family size  glint in their eyes.   It is cute and it does make me laugh.  

Other 15 passenger white van humor has involved my observation that they are used as inmate chain gang transportation, mental hospital transportation, and also custodial vehicles.   We have a LOT of fifteen passenger vans at our church and many of them are white.  We are not really in church but having a meeting of mental patients (the parents).   

We are actually  using ours less as I don't use it as much since I am not hauling everyone with me very often.   So......I am not insulting van owners but finding humor in their use and the admiration of others, like the Amish.   Forgive my mockery.