Motivation to get it done

Sometimes I just don't want to do anything.  Can you relate? Sometimes I would rather drink a cup of awesome coffee and browse through Pinterest than do whatever housekeeping items need to be done.  Sometimes, I am just tired. I'm married to a night owl:we both like to see the sun rising, but he likes to stay up for it, while I like to wake up for it. So, if I have stayed up with the Rev too late at night, I can feel that lack of motivation pretty strongly. He may be able to run on 3 hrs of sleep, but I'm pretty much worthless if I try it. ;)

I really feel pretty strongly that it is not just my job, but my calling to make a comfortable home for my family. I really do want to make a cozy place for us to do life, not just for us, but for anyone who might stop by.  So, what to do? Just pull myself up and get to it, right? Well, that might work some days, but other days I need a little more motivation.  Here are a few things that I do to help myself out.

1. Make a Wish List

I don't make To-Do lists. I never accomplish everything on them and then I feel like I failed. I make wish lists. I write down everything I am hoping to get done to make my home comfortable and my week easier. I put down the most pressing things first, and then I expand to things that would be nice to get done if I can. So my wish list might look something like this:
       
   
    *Put Beef Roast in the Crockpot
    *Wash load of jeans
    *wash load with underwear and socks
    *make weekly meal plan

     *make skinny chocolate with the kids
    *wash curtains
    *wash windows

See? Clearly, the underwear is way more important than the Chocolate, so I would put that higher up on my wish list. I know, some of us may have a hard time deciding that is true, but I don't think the Rev would be consoled with chocolate if he had no clean underwear to wear to work. Can I get an amen? So, there you go.

2. Get some help

My kids have their own little jobs at our house. Big girl is awesome at folding towels and putting them away in the linen closet, while Little Girl excels at putting away the clean silverware from dishwasher tray. Both kids can collect wash and help me load the washer, and they actually race to be the helper to switch the load from the washer to the dryer. I'm sure this will not last forever, but for now, they are great helpers. Whatever the age of your kids, let them help. It's not just good for you to have help, but it is good for them to help. They will love the praise for handling the responsibility well. I promise. Give it a try. :)

3. Set a timer

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Just do one of your tasks for 10 minutes. If you still don't want to tackle it after the ten minutes, fine. But most likely,  once you are up and doing it, you will just keep on going.

4.  Light a Candle

I'm not talking in a Catholic-like-light-it-and-say-a-prayer-for-help kind of way, although if that helps you, go right ahead. I am talking about lighting a candle for the sheer beauty of it. This is my favorite motivator. While I am notoriously cheap about nearly everything, I make an exception for my house candles.  I watch for sales and then stock up on a few really good Yankee Candle Jar candles. Like right now they are having a buy 2 get 2 free sale with free shipping.  That's a good deal!  But I digress. Anyway, I buy good quality candles because of how motivating they can be.  In my mind, I feel that it is a waste to light a great candle like that if my house is a wreck. Think about it: why bother making your house smell lovely if it is messy? Why light a pretty candle and set it on a stovetop you haven't wiped up after breakfast? (oh, don't judge. You know you've put it off at least once, too :) haha)  I have this drive to make my house worthy of my fancy candles. That may be some weird neurosis on my part, but I think you might find it the same if you give it a try.

5. Remind yourself why you do it

I do it for the Rev, yes, but that is not the main reason.  While I do love to have him come home to a clean and cozy home, and to bless him that way, I really need to do it because God has called me to do it, and I need to glorify Him in my calling.  The Bible says in Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  More important than the approval of my husband and children, or even people who might drop by, is the approval of the Lord.  I'm not saying God is going to smite me for not wiping the counters or vacuuming up after lunch. No, He is far more interested in the attitude of my heart. If the reason I didn't wipe up or vacuum is because I was being selfish or lazy, I wasn't glorifying God in my heart. But if the reason is because my child has the sniffles and needs some extra snuggles with Mama, then it wasn't a heart issue. Clear as mud?




After all this, I want to remind you gently to make sure you are showing yourself some grace. Have realistic standards and expectations of yourself and your household.  There are seasons in life where you have more to do than time in which to do it. The season with children in it is one of those seasons. Strive to be tidy, but don't expect perfection. You will not attain it, and you won't be any fun to live with if you try. Just do it as well as you can, just like you try to do everything else you do the best you can. It's all about balance. How do you motivate yourself to get things done? How do you keep things balanced in your home? I'd love to hear from you.

Healthy Eating for Kids

I posted my weekly calendar of meals yesterday, and if you read it, you probably wondered if I feed my kids THM food or if they get something different. The answer is, "Yes." :)

My kids mostly eat what we eat, but I occasionally give them something different. I have been known to give them a cookie or a scoop of frozen yogurt after dinner, or goldfish crackers for snack. But most of the time, they get healthy food and can actually make fairly good choices already.

On days that I make eggs for breakfast, they get eggs, too.  They might also get a piece of wheat toast with homemade sugar-free strawberry chia jam on it. They love it!  On days that I have a shake, they usually have a banana, kefir, and a bowl of cereal. It will be something like Cheerios or homemade oatmeal, not something dyed, sugary, and cartoon-like in any way. Little Girl also usually comes after my shake. She thinks its pretty great. :)

For snacks they get a variety of things. They enjoy yogurt, apples, pears, mandarin oranges, plums, berries, nuts, cheese cubes, wasa crackers and laughing cow cheese, CLIF kids bars (once in awhile), and goldfish crackers (once in awhile). As I write, they are enjoying carrots and broccoli. They love cut veggies,  but not with dip. They reject all kinds of dip for some reason. I'm okay with that.

Lunches are often different from what the Rev and I are eating. The kids get sick of salad, soup, and leftovers, so when I eat those I give them something else.  They do like sandwiches, so if we have a sandwich, they do too.  Some of their lunches will be breaded chicken breast "nuggets" and a vegetable, or Peanut Butter and homemade jam on wheat with fruit. They really love it when they get to make their own personal pizzas. They do this on a whole grain pita, with tomato paste, mozzarella, spices, and pepperoni. They'll also have cut veggies with it.

Dinners are always the same for everyone. The kids eat it happily most of the time, but if they are unhappy about it for any reason, we gently remind them that they will eat it for breakfast if they don't eat it at supper. But they usually like it enough to just scarf it up anyway. ;)

As far as beverages go, they mostly drink water. When the kids were little they would drink water with a splash of juice in it, but as I learned how bad the sugar was for them, I started weaning them off of it.  The only time they ever have juice is if someone gives it to them at the church potluck, which happens sometimes, but life is for living, so I am not going to get freaked out by it. They like water: ice water, bubbly (seltzer) water, whatever. It's wet, they like it.  They also like to sip off of my GGMS (which means Good Girl MoonShine, and is NOT an alcholic beverage, but rather a ACV and Ginger drink that I whip up in the morning). They also like Almond Milk and Kefir, which is a lacto-fermented dairy beverage. That sounds weird, so we'll just refer to it as yogurt drink. It's yummy, has good bacteria in it like yogurt, is lactose free so it is gentle on their tummy, and has great protein and calcium.  You can find it in the dairy section of your grocery store.

That's pretty much it.  I don't give them much sugar in general, but I also don't freak out if they have some. Someone usually slips them a donut at church on Sunday, and that's okay. Their little metabolisms can handle it.  Every parent has to decide what is best for their kids. Some people feed their kids entirely homemade food made from sprouted grain and fruit and veggies they grew in their terrace garden. Other people feed them spaghettios. There is a whole range in between there, and only you can choose where to fall on it. I'm just telling what is typical for our family right now.  Feel free to share what your kids eat!

Weekly THM Style Meal Plan

As I mentioned the other day, I am totally freaking out about awesome Trim Healthy Mama is.  It's truly life-changing. If you haven't gone and bought the book yet, hurry up and get to it! I think I heard something about Amazon being back ordered right now (because the book is so awesome!), but I am pretty sure you can get it from Barnes and Noble, too. I know they can order it for you. Just helping you out there. ;)

I function best with a meal plan and it helps keep me on budget, so I make a monthly overview of dinners, and a weekly plan with meals and snacks all spelled out. I am going to share the weekly plan with you. Keep in mind that, in order to avoid being in my kitchen any longer than necessary, I prep some of the ingredients for these meals ahead of time. The MIM (aka the muffin in a mug) is so yummy, and I often get a hankering for it. I prepped the dry ingredients for a dozen muffins in individual sized snack bags, and put those in my fridge. All I have to do for those is take the ingredient bag out whip it up with the 3 wet ingredients and zap that sucker in the microwave. Awesomeness. Same for the FSF (aka Fat Stripping Frappa): so delicious that I must indulge often. So I prepped the dry ingredients for that ahead too and keep it in my pantry.  I highly recommend prepping ahead as much as you can, but I keep my menu pretty easy anyway, so don't be afraid if you don't want to prep.

Sunday

Breakfast:

Coffee with 1/2 & 1/2 and bullet proof coffee made with MCT oil (S)

(we wake  up running on Sunday's since the Rev and I have to be at church so early for our various responsibilities. We're pretty lucky we get the coffee, actually. :)  The kids get Kefir, a banana, and a kids CLIF bar. They always get a nice snack from the fellowship hall and in their class, so this doesn't bother me too much. If this bugs you, just think happy thoughts and pretend you didn't see it.)

Lunch:

Sandwich on plan approved bread, pickle spear, and an apple (E)

Snack:

Chocolate MIM with homemade whipped cream and coffee (S)

Dinner:

Leftover baked chicken, sliced carrots with ginger and nutmeg, and brown rice (E)

(I'm pretty tired on Sunday, so I make double the food the night before. We sit down to a good meal of leftovers, and I don't have to knock myself out too much.)

Monday:

Breakfast:

2 eggs and 3 Tbsp liquid egg whites scrambled up with frozen peppers and onions and turkey sausage in either coconut oil or butter. Fresh Raspberries on the side (S)

Lunch:

Small salad and a Peanut butter chocolate FSF (FP)  (This remains a FP because I use defatted peanut butter)

Snack:

Two light rye wasa crackers with 1 light french onion laughing cow cheese wedge on them, and a cup of Earl Grey Tea

Dinner:

Turkey Burgers seasoned with Mrs Dash and baked, a pickle spear, and homemade (sugar-free) broccoli slaw. (S)

(If you absolutely must have a bun, there is a recipe for one in the book, or you could use a josephs pita. I am not that inclined toward buns, so I either eat it with a fork or with two lettuce leaves.

Tuesday

Breakfast:

Coffee and a FP Smoothie. Either a FSF or a BBS (you'll understand that if you buy the book. See? you need it :) ) (FP)

Lunch: Crispy Salmon (pg 283) over salad with Balsamic vinegar (this is so delicious, I am sad when it's gone. For real) (S)

Snack: Pumpkin Pie Cake (FP) This recipe is on Pinterest

Dinner: Slow Cooker Beef Roast and steamed broccoli florets (S)

Wednesday

Breakfast:

2 eggs and 3 Tbsp liquid egg whites scrambled up with frozen peppers and onions and turkey sausage in either coconut oil or butter. Fresh Raspberries on the side (S)

Lunch: Buffalo Chicken on Salad with Kens ranch. (S) (I use canned chicken breast in this recipe. Heat up Franks red hot sauce and a little butter and parmesan cheese) and then add in the canned chicken breast. Heat and put on your salad. Easy)

Snack: FSF  (FP)

Dinner: Parmesan crusted chicken, spinach quinoa, and green beans (S)

Thursday:

Breakfast: Coffee and a FP Smoothie

Lunch: Just like Campbell's Tomato Soup (in the book!!) and grilled cheese on pita or lavash (there is an approved brand that fits in with THM) (S)

Snack: Coffee and Skinny Chocolate (S)

Dinner: Freezer "E" burritos (pinterest)

Friday

2 eggs and 3 Tbsp liquid egg whites scrambled up with frozen peppers and onions and turkey bacon in either coconut oil or  (S)butter

Lunch: Crispy Salmon on Salad (SO SO YUMMY!) (S)

Dinner: Speedy Crust Pepperoni Pizza and Salad (S)

Saturday:

Breakfast: Chili Rellenos and raspberries (S)

Lunch: Lettuce Wraps (E)

Snack: Wasa Crackers and Light Laughing Cow Cheese (E)

Dinner: Baked Chicken, Brown Rice: and Steamed Carrots (E)

Dessert: Baked Apple

Thanksgiving

Dawn arrived this morning and brought with it a new month. November: I'll admit, it is my favorite month. It isn't just because fall is in full swing in most of the country, or because there is a holiday with turkey, pie, and a pretty cool parade. It isn't even because my birthday falls in November.  The reason I love November so much is that it is designed to be a season of thankfulness.

Sandwiched snugly between two months where people are focused intently on what they will be getting, November has the potential to be a haven of rest from the wild lunacy of commercialism.  It falls after the mad scramble for costumes and candy, and before the mad-dash for the best deals on gifts for Christmas. Like footsteps on a carpet of fallen leaves: soft, quiet, beautiful. It is a perfect time for reflection and thought.

We often rush in life: we run from place to place, trying to get everything done. We are so busy looking ahead, at we need to do, or want to do  that we can easily overlook where we are right now.  We neglect to  slow down and reflect on the blessings in our life. The most common thing we neglect is the wonderful people in our lives. We assume they know we care about them, and we assume that there will be time to show them tomorrow.  But what happens when those tomorrows are ripped away?

I lost a loved one this summer.  My cousin was exactly one month older than me, and she was my very first friend, but we allowed time and distance to grow us apart.  It is never easy to lose a family member, and it is an especially awful pain to lose one so young, but there is an extra sting in it when you know you could have loved them better.  Grief is a great magnifier of regret. It shows you so clearly what you could have and should have done better. It is too late for me to tell her that I loved her. I can't go back and take those missed chances. 

What I can do, though, is take the time now to love and appreciate those around me; to be thankful for these great blessings.  I can be thankful, even in my grief, that I knew my cousin and that she was so very loved by others. I can be thankful for her daughter, who is her exact miniature . I can be thankful for the lesson learned in her passing, though I wish it had not come.  I can slow down and look at my sweet children, growing bigger every day, and my husband and family and friends, and appreciate who they are and the richness they have brought to my life.  I can view my life through a lens of thankfulness and thanksgiving, thanking God for all He has done and all He has provided.

So, for the month of November, I won't just be celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving, I will be living a life of thanksgiving. I would like to challenge you, too.  Take the opportunity to put aside the rush and fuss of life, and the temptation to barrel into the holiday season, and just love where you are and those around you. Try to close out the distractions of life, and really focus on being thankful for what you already have and those you share it with. At the end of the month, I predict we won't want to stop. Oh, how different the holidays would look then.

Love to you all.

Halloween

 Happy Halloween..Harvest fun dress up and eat candy day?

Oh....Halloween. To celebrate, or not to celebrate. That is the question.  Or is it? I think the real question, about Halloween and really everything, is to glorify God, or not glorify God?

Candy is not, apart from the terrible amount of sugar, evil. Costumes, in general, are not evil. Pumpkins with little toothy grins are not evil.  Dressing up and being festive with our neighbors is not, necessarily, evil. But, oh how quickly those things can be corrupted.  Zombies, ghosts, witches, vampires, murderers, psycho possessed dolls that give you nightmares for years...not so good. Halloween is one of those events that can very quickly escalate into tolerating (if not celebrating) things that do not glorify God.  

The line is so easily blurred on this. On one hand, we tell ourselves that we aren't really celebrating the bad part of Halloween. It's just fun to dress up and get candy on a night where everyone else is doing it, too. It's so cute to see little kids dressed up as pumpkins, and monkeys, and princesses.  But on the other hand, we have to ask ourselves how going out among people who ARE glorifying demons, and satan, and characters that directly oppose everything God is and stands for and just letting it all slide for our own fun is good?  Is there really such a thing as a neutral activity? Doesn't everything we do say something about who we are and what we believe in? 

But what if we used this night as an opportunity? What if you dressed up in character to be able to open the door to make a difference? It could be a tract, but it could also just be having a great conversation with someone about what the Lord has done in your life. I guess what I am saying is, take an honest look at your priorities.  Do you (and your desire for fun and free candy) come first, or does glorifying God come first?  You need to talk to Him about how that looks. I'm not going to do that for you.

As for us,  two little princesses will be handing out candy at our church booth at the town Safewalk.  We have decided that our family is going to make the most of every opportunity. There are going to be a lot of things we have to explain to our children, but they are going to grow up knowing that we don't stand with our toes on the line. We are going to make every effort to glorify God, even if we are only a very tiny light in the darkness.

I know that won't be a very popular opinion, but there it is anyway. I hope you will at least think about it.   Blessings!

THM for Life

I alluded in my last post to how busy I had been this summer. It's true: there was so much going on, but a lot of it I can't share with you right now.  What I can share with you though, is the discovery of the greatest book ever written. Well, that may be taking it a little far since the Bible already holds that title, but I will say it is a book that has changed my life forever. 

As I had mentioned a long while ago, I have been struggling for a long time with my weight. I would cut calories, exercise like a maniac (like I was doing 8 miles on the elliptical daily. Seriously, ain't nobody got time for that) and I was struggling to lose even a pound. It took me half a year to lose about 30-ish pounds. It was torturous, and I was tired, and I was ready to give up. Then I found the book.

Trim, Healthy Mama is a book by Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison.  They are two fellow homeschooling Moms who did a crazy amount of research, tested their findings on themselves, and came away with the  most balanced and Biblical approach to food I have ever seen. When I tell you I have found freedom from my relationship to food because of this book, I am seriously understating it.

I am not going to give away too much of the book's secrets ;) but I will tell you that it is a healthy way of eating that does not cut out any macronutrients and works to stabilze blood sugar/glucose.  It. Is. Awesome.  It's awesome because you never go hungry, and  you never feel deprived. You eat satisfying, yummy foods and heal your body at the same time.  Curious? Check them out on Amazon. They are relaunching their website very soon, but until then, just look at the reviews on Amazon.

I have lost 55 pounds since December. I have lost two clothing sizes since I started THM in late July. I have gained great confidence and a better body image, and best of all, very good health.  No more pain in my feet,  much more energy, and the petichae I had on my legs for 8 years is disappearing.

I heartily recommend this book. Anyone can do it; men, women, and kids, and I promise you won't be disappointed.  I will be sharing my meal plans from time to time on here.  The meals and snacks will be labeled according to the catgegories in the plan, and quite a few of the recipes can only be found in the book, so you won't be able to cheat and skip buying the book. You can always get the e-book or PDF version if that floats your boat, but you will have to anty up and pay these lovely ladies for all their incredible work.  Keep your eyes peeled: I'll be posting my first menu very soon!

Making a Choice on Curriculum.

      It's been about 6 months since I last blogged. So much has gone on this year, but this last six months has been absolutely jammed.  I did end up doing a very light, abbreviated version of school for the kids. We also spent quite a lot of time running in the sprinkler, swinging on the swing set, visiting the library, and doing a lot of art projects.  There were also a lot more movies than I allow during the school year. Summer is our wet season in the waaaay south, and it rains like clockwork every afternoon, if not all day.  We would get outside while the weather would allow, but we had to entertain ourselves indoors a lot. Raise your hand if you know how hard it is to keep a three and four year old inside 24/7. Bless your heart, I feel your pain. ;) But in all seriousness, while it was a challenge, it was also a lot of fun.

Fall arrived (on the calendar anyhow) and with it, the official start of school. While I have been using Sonlight K loosely for my four year-old, I have been doing all sorts of things with my baby (well, she's three but she is my baby). Like I mentioned in the previous post, I ordered a Letter of the Week curriculum for her. She flew through that so fast she was finished with it by the end of the first quarter. Honestly, I was thrilled and horrified. I love that she is so bright, but I was really frustrated that I'd picked the "wrong" curriculum again, and that she was finished with it already.

But wait; isn't this homeschool thing about making the choice that is best for your individual child? My kids have loved their school time, and they don't seem to think I made the wrong choice. Little Girl loved every minute of her LOTW curriculum, she just mastered it much more quickly than I had anticipated. So, where did this "wrong" label come from? Oh,  yeah. Me.   There is this huge pressure out there to make sure we do it all just right and, if we are honest with ourselves, we will own up to our own role in it.  I have never once had someone question my curriculum choice, or if Big Girl and Little Girl are learning enough. I have never had anyone tell me I am a failure as a mother or a parent because I homeschool. No one has ever said that my kids have to learn faster or more than the homeschool families on the Internet forums. There is a little competition on some of those forums, but I really think it is our own faults. We lay that guilt trip and that pressure on ourselves. Once we realize that, there is this beautiful freedom to be had. 

So once we have that freedom, what do we do with it? You make the choice that is best for your family. You do it thoughtfully, and reasonably, and you walk in the freedom that you are their parent and you know how they will learn better than anyone else in the world.  Other than Jesus, of course. ;)

I want to share some tips for planning your school year and choosing curriculum. Hopefully it will help you as much as it is helping me.

1: First step in planning and choosing: Don't!  

I don't mean don't pick anything at all, of course, but I do mean don't think you have to plan and pick everything for the whole year at once.  Who said you have to buy all your work in August? Yes, it's exciting and those curriculum companies are so good at calling you right up and helping you pick everything you "need", but just don't.  When you buy everything at once you feel like you have everything you need AND that you you have to fit it all in.  I don't have to tell you that your child is unique and special and marches to the beat of their own drum.  Just plan the first quarter, and see how it goes. You will  have to adjust the plan, and that's okay!!

2: Be Honest with Yourself!

 

Take a really good look at how your family functions.  How does your day unfold?  Are you the kind of family that likes to rise and shine early in the morning, or would you sooner blow someone up for talking to you before you've had your coffee? Do your little ones like to get out and run off their energy a bit before you start your lessons, or do you find that if you don't start right away you'll never get their attention back?  What kind of climate do you live in? Is it so hot in the afternoon that you can't play outside after 10 am?  Is it too cold to play outside until 3 pm and you have to keep everyone indoors until then? How long can your kids sit still without getting the fidgets? Do they like workbooks, or would they rather you read to them all day long?  Do crafts make the lesson sink in or does music?  Maybe it's videos or computer games that make the concept stick. Chances are, you've already been organizing your day in the way that is best for your family. If you struggle to function before ten, and your little ones really really love to watch Peg+Cat on PBS, why on earth would you pick to organize your school day to start at 8 and require you to teach math concepts before the caffeine has wakened your brain? Start when it's best for everyone. You're homeschooling: you can do that. :)  If your little one loves writing in workbooks, like mine do, then feel good about using a workbook based curriculum.  If they thrive on unit studies, awesome!  Pick that.  Do what your family loves, and own it.

3: Be realistic!

When considering what you are going to do that year, consider what you can realistically accomplish.  If you are on a very tight budget, understand that you might not be able to do field trips to the zoo and the aquarium, buy a cupboard full of art supplies, and still afford a bookcase full of reading material.  But you could visit a local farm, the fire station, and the local historian instead, buy a few really good art staples, and become best friends with the public Librarian. You'd be surprised at the books you can get your hands on for free.  Also, be realistic in how much you can accomplish in one year. Be flexible with your kids and yourself.  See step one: If you plan a little bit at a time, you will have a much better grasp on this.  I also have to stress that you don't make lofty goals just because you are certain that you can rise to the occasion.  You probably could do it for awhile, but you will wear yourself out. Just be realistic, stretching yourselves just a little at a time. You can accomplish so much if you just keep taking small steps.

I hope that saves you a little bit of trauma and drama. What kind of tips or questions do you have?

Homeschooling: Wrapping Up Our First Year

Science Experiments in the Backyard: Discussing Air

We've wrapped up our first official year of homeschooling. It was an interesting year, to be sure.  I found that the curriculum for my daughters target age group was much too easy for her, and I spent the whole year supplementing so that she wouldn't become bored.  While we did read the books for her age group (they were more fitting for her little sister), we also added extra read-alouds, Kindergarten Math pages I printed from the internet, and a Kindergarten Language Arts workbook that I purchased at the store.   I also invented crafts, projects, and activities that supported the books we were reading. It was very busy, but rewarding because she enjoyed it so much. 

 In fact, she enjoyed it so much that I was not planning on stopping for the summer. I ordered the Kindergarten Level program back in April with our Tax return money and waited impatiently for it to come in the mail.  Don't judge; box day is awesome.   Anyway, I also ordered up a Letter of the Week Preschool program that you print off at home for the little one.   Once the boxes finally came  (yay!!!!!) I got right to work unpacking all the beautiful books, pouring over the contents, and formulating a plan for the summer session.  I started working on the little one's Letter of the Week preschool stuff, too.  Wow, is that a lot of stuff!

This is the Sonlight Kindergarten IG for this year. That is one BIG book :)

We started both programs at the beginning of this month.  OH. MY. WORD.  You know what? Schooling two children is a completely different animal.  It really is. I realized, suddenly, that I need to rethink my whole plan of attack here.  For one thing, I am starting to see that, although my kiddos might run the risk of boredom during the summer, I am tired! I worked hard on schooling this year, and I need a little bit of a break. Secondly, while my eldest is way ahead in Math and Language Arts for her age, she is still very much 4 in her emotions and behavior. She is having a hard time sitting for all the reading in the curriculum.  She wants to dance and twirl and sing and is not getting all she could from all those beautiful books. So now I am going to have to come up with a very light summer school program that will lead the kids up to being ready for fall, will make sure the math and Language Arts skills already learned aren't forgotten, but that will still give me plenty of rest and time to prep for fall.

Working on her Kindergarten "A Reason For Handwriting" page

That's where we are in a nutshell. There's a lot of learning involved in the teaching, and it's important for me to make sure I do it right. I tell my girls all the time, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."  Let's apply the same to their childhood, their schooling, and everything else.

Still alive...you can call off the search party

So...I kind of went AWOL for a while. Sorry about that.  Honestly, I could blame it on how busy the last few weeks have been, but it really wasn't just busyness that kept me away.   I have been really tired lately. I mean bone-deep, Lord-help-me, I've-fallen-and-I-can't get up tired.   I deal with chronic pain, and sometimes it flares up and causes me to sleep poorly. Then I am pretty much good for nothing.  I literally put one foot in front of the other in little shuffle steps to get through my day, and a lot goes undone. I make sure my kids are well cared for, but things like this go by the wayside. Sorry. :(

Anyway, the last time I wrote I let everyone know that DH was laid off his second job, and that our whole budget was going to change.  That was kind of an understatement.  Our budget was pretty much blown to smithereens.  Since our landlord, utility companies, and all the other companies who have their little eyes on our income would be kind of miffed if we didn't pay our bills, the change had to be made somewhere else. That pretty much meant our food budget.  It has been very difficult for me to reconcile this food-budget revision with my recently acquired knowledge of what is in our nations food supply.   I have actually faced personal guilt while serving my family cheaper, non-organic food.  I have even had to plate up some processed foods lately, and I honestly felt like a hypocrite.  Now, please don't feel offended if you do these things, too.  I know there is only so much money to go around and you can't starve your family. I get that; I'm there. But because I have been doing all this research on what is best to put in our bodies and what is the worst, and because I agree with the whole-food philosophy, I have been facing these bad feelings. 
I have also been facing bad feelings in my body. I am finding that my chronic pain and fatigue levels have a direct correlation with what I am eating. When I am eating well, I have energy and my pain levels go way down. For awhile there, I wasn't having any pain at all, and I felt so rested. It was amazing.

So what do I do with that?  I feel like I really need to find a way to make eating well happen. We live in a tourist area where everything is expensive.  Prices go down a tiny bit when the snowbirds go home, but not much.  I already scout out the lowest prices, and the cheapest stores. I meal plan and find coupons if I can.  I just need more money in my pocket. There are only a couple of places I can take that from. One is our internet service, and the other is our cell phones.  We're on the super mega economy plans for both of those items, but together (because of taxes and fees) we spend almost 150 dollars a month. That's nuts. Nobody calls me on the cell, and I never go anywhere without my Dh because we only have one car. I don't need a cell. That's got to go. The internet; in some ways I would be glad to see it go.  The internet has the ability to be a giant black hole for my time. It's a big temptation to check social media and forums and pinterest...oh pinterest, why must you be so interesting!?!  I like being connected at home, but I could go into the church with my laptop once a week and check email, post blog entries, and catch up on social media.  So, as hard as that decision is, I think the internet at home has to go, too.  With that extra money in our pocket, I can add an extra 35 dollars or so to our weekly food budget. That may not seem like much, but think of it this way; 35 bucks means an extra gallon of organic milk (5.99), an extra bunch of bananas (3.50), an extra flat of organic strawberries (4.50),  another dozen eggs (3.99), a loaf of ezekiel bread (3.99), organic blueberries (4.19), organic yams (3.89), and a container of organic salad (4.29). Suddenly that 35 dollars looks like a bigger deal to this family of four. Especially because as my kids grow and are more and more active, they eat a lot! :)

So, I'll be going back to eating the way I know we should, and I will still be making those meal plans, but I am not sure how blogging those meal plans is going to look. I am going to try to type them up and schedule them when I go to use the internet.  Who knows; maybe doing it this way will make it so my posting is more regular :D. If not, well, you're used to it right? 

Meal Plan Monday no more....

I did so well blogging last week, you might have wondered what happened to me this week.  Well, let's just say my neighbor made a little boo-boo while landscaping and cut our internet line.

We're back up and running now, but I won't be posting a meal plan. I probably won't be posting one for a good long while. My husband got word that he's being laid off from his second job. Our income is going down, so the variety of our food is going to go down, too.  We'll be tightening our belt where groceries are concerned, so while I am adjusting to our new, smaller food budget, I am just going to skip blogging the food.

I will, however, post tips and ideas I have had to make my family's menu even more frugal every once in awhile.  Today's post will be one of those.

This is Oster brand waffle maker DH picked up for me :)

My children LOVE to have waffles for breakfast. We were buying the organic flax waffles from Whole Foods, but you know what? They're kind of expensive per waffle.  So, because my kids love them so much, we got a waffle iron, and I will be making large batches of waffles from scratch on the weekends, and freezing them. My kids can have toasted waffles until they come out of their ears, and I will only have paid a fraction of the price.

I'll also be whipping up pancakes and french toast on the weekends. I don't have time to make fresh ones everyday. I have to be realistic about my time and where I spend it. I can make big batches on the weekend because my husband is home to spend quality time with my girls while I am in the kitchen. On weekday mornings, I have to feed my husband and children quickly because he needs to go to work, and we have school to get to. (Not to mention my kiddos resemble baby birds in the nest when they wake up. Mouths are open and chirping for food lol ).

By making my own batter for all of these items, I will be able to fit hot breakfast into my new, very small budget.  I like that. :)  So, more posts to come....just not a meal plan.  ;)

Scripture for Little Hearts

This post was originally going to be about how I discipline my girls. I was going to tell you about how we have one major rule in our house that is repeated when necessary, but in thinking about how to develop the post, I realized I really needed to go much further.

You see, our major rule is "Children obey your parents, for this is right," which is a shortened version of Ephesians 6:1.  When the girls are acting up, I ask them, "what's our verse?" and they recite it to me. Yes, even the little one.  They pretty much always stop their behavior right away, apologize, and continue playing in a better way. It amazes me how scripture can cut through a bad situation like that.  We didn't always do it that way, and we didn't always have those good results. It was when we began pointing the girls back to what the Bible says that we saw a change in their little hearts and in our home.

Don't get me wrong; the Bible has always been a big part of our home life. We read it, talk about it, sing about it...you know, all the regular stuff you might imagine a Pastor's family might do. ;)  But we hadn't really considered that the children could memorize and apply it to their lives at this age. I don't know why this didn't occur to us; they can certainly memorize every song they hear on VeggieTales, and the eldest could recite "Where the Wild Things Are" by the time she was two.  I blame my lack of insight on the sleep deprivation.

Anyway, once we started pointing them back to scripture the change was huge. Not just in exacting the behavior we wanted from them, but in the way they looked at a situation.  When scripture is applied there is a realization that their behavior was wrong, there is remorse for the action, and repentance. And that is ultimately what we hope for with our children; repentance. 

The Bible talks about this subject. (Again, why didn't we get this sooner? I Dunno.)  Proverbs 22:6 says.
"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."
Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."  The book of Deuteronomy is chock-full of instructions to parents to teach the word and the law to their children. Hmm...

The overarching theme here is that Scripture is integral in the raising up of our children. Not just in the times of discipline, but simply throughout our daily lives. Deuteronomy 11:19 says "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  To apply this to our lives, we might say we should teach it to our girls while we're eating our toast at the breakfast table, when we're driving in the car, when we've slammed our thumb in the dryer door and we're reciting the fruit of the spirit through clenched teeth (what, you don't do that? ;) ), when we're washing away the dirt from their day of play, or when we're snuggling them close before bed, or when they wake up in the morning ready to do it all over again. In all of it, we are not only living scripture, but we need to tell it to them, too, so that they know that the direction of our lives is not just because we're nice people, but it is because of the direction the scripture, the very Word of the Lord, gives us.

 Please, don't misunderstand me now. I am not saying you should go memorize a few good verses to hit your kids over the head with on a daily basis.  What I am actually saying is that you should immerse yourself in the Word, and let it speak to you, and change your life. It should become such an ingrained part of you and your relationship with God, that sharing it and teaching it to your children  is a natural extension of who you are.  So, it isn't just scripture for their little hearts; It's for your little heart, too.

Learning to Love Art with Little Ones

We love art in our home-school!  My husband has a pile of kid-paintings 4 ft thick in his office to prove it.  He can't bear to get rid of any of the kid's precious projects. It is for this reason (and this reason only!) that we don't do art projects every day.  

But how about you? Do you have a love for art in your home-school?  Not everyone does, but I am fully convinced that everyone could like art if we could address whatever is holding them back.  I'm going to address three of those hurdles today, and see if we can't make believers out of some of you.

Hurdle #1- It's so Messy!

Yes, it really is. It can be horrendously messy.  But what mess can't be cleaned up?  And, really, with a little forethought and preparation, you can cut the worst of it off at the pass. 

Make a plan. Decide ahead of time what kind of project you want to do or what kind of medium you want to explore.  If you are going to be using glitter, cut open a paper grocery bag and lay it under the project. It will catch the glitter, and is stronger than newspaper so you can easily pour the glitter back in the bottle.  Keep a lint roller handy to pick up stray pieces from floor and furniture.  If you are going to paint, put your easel or table on a washable sheet to catch drips, and keep a rag and spray bottle nearby. Dad's old shirts make perfect smocks to keep their clothes clean.

   If you think ahead, you can have everything you need at hand, and that takes care of most of the challenge. After the project is over, make sure the kids help clean it up.  This is a great teaching moment. :)

Hurdle #2- I don't know what to do; I'm not artistic


That's okay! There are a lot of resources out there that can give you ideas as your kids get older, but if your kids are the same age as mine, just letting them explore different mediums is the most important thing.  My girls love to paint. They'll paint with washable tempera, watercolors, fingerpaint, Colorix (which can be used wet) and even with water on their chalkboard.  They think markers of different widths are awesome! They will use them on all sorts of different kinds of papers.  Then there are crayons, pastels, colored pencils, regular pencils, pens, stamps and ink, do-a-dot markers, smelly markers, chalk...and that is just the stuff to draw with.  Then there is playdoh, clay, foam, feathers, glitter, googly eyes, popsicle sticks, paper plates, construction paper, scissors, hole punches, shape punches, confetti, tissue paper, contact papers, sand, beads, macaroni, plaster, papier mache, and wood.  Well, there is about a million other things as well, but I'm not trying to overwhelm you. Even if you just let the kids play with the stuff and take their own direction (supervised of course!) you are set for a while.  For the rest of the time, pop over to pinterest.com.  If you haven't discovered this little gem yet, I highly recommend you toddle over there and get pinning. You can do a search for kids art projects and get all sorts of results.  I like to search for art projects that go with our read-alouds. A lot of the time if you type in the book title and "craft" you can get great results.


Hurdle #3-But it's expensive! 

Yes, just like any part of home-schooling, it can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be.  Here are some of my favorite ways to save on art stuff:

First, reduce, reuse, recycle! (Am I the only one that remembers that being drilled into us in elementary school?) Reuse everyday items as art supplies. Have a sock whose mate disappeared long ago? Hey, sock puppet! Package arrive in the mail? That brown packing paper can be re-purposed for painting, and hang on to that box; dioramas are art, too.  Save the yogurt cups to make banks or instruments.  Only have 3 inches of tin foil left on the roll? Save both the foil and the roll as art supply.  Save buttons, and cut old shirts into squares to use in a collage.  See the value in old greeting cards and magazines for gluing practice.  It just takes a little imagination, but you can really glean a lot from what you already have.

Second, make what you can.  There are recipes all over the internet for DIY washable paint, play-doh, sidewalk chalk, moon dough, modeling clay, etc.  Just do a little research and make what you can. It can really cut down on the cost of things.

Third, know where to buy the rest.  Whatever you can't make with your own two hands, you can find for pretty cheap. Again, with a little planning, you can get some good deals.  Before you start the school year, think about what kind of projects you hope to do. Then make a master supply list. Put everything you could ever hope for on there. Before school starts there will be ridiculous amounts of sales, and a good bit of your list will be very cheap. Namely, glue, crayons, pens, markers, pencils, tape, construction paper, and folders (for lap books).  Pick a bunch of these up while they're so cheap.  For the rest, search for the best price online. I like to go to www.discountschoolsupply.com. They have pretty much everything you could ever hope for there, and the prices are very good. Oriental Trading Company sometimes has craft kits, too, so they can be worth checking out. If you can't make or buy everything on your list, highlight what you need/want most, and buy that first. Then go back to the list every once in awhile and see what you can find on sale when you can afford it.


Kids love arts and crafts by nature. They learn through the fun of it, and it really is worth it to give it a go. Have an art question or hurdle I didn't address here? Leave a comment, and I will do my best to give you a good answer.  ;)

Sending the Pacifier Packing

My kids had an all consuming love-affair with a little thing called a binky  boomboom bippy plug pacifier from the day it first went in their mouth.  It was a comfort to them and a panacea for every less than comfortable feeling. Tired? Pacifier. Sad? Pacifier. Angry? Pacifier. Hungry? Pacifier. Bored? Well you get the idea.  I had read a study that said that allowing a child to sleep with a pacifier reduced the risk of SIDS, so I was willing to risk the scorn and ridicule that often comes with extended pacifier use. I was not, however, willing to risk the girls' oral development.

My eldest is going to be four soon. Not only is she too old for a pacifier, but I was starting to notice an effect on her front teeth. NOT cool. So that was the first big factor in my decision to unplug. The second had everything to do with my second little one. At nearly three, she really is getting too old as well, but the real reason for her was for the sake of her speech.  When she would talk, there wasn't really anything wrong with it. She can form words beautifully, actually. But the problem was that she preferred to have the pacifier in her mouth all the time, so she just didn't talk much.

So on Sunday, I sat down with my girls and told them that they could have the pacifiers for the rest of the day, and that when they woke up they weren't going to have them anymore.  Then on Monday morning, I followed through on that.  I collected both pacifiers...

and.......

cut the tips off! When they asked for them later, I gave them to them just like that. When they discovered they were broken and that they couldn't keep them in their mouths that way, they didn't want them.  Awesome!

But then night fell, and all the success I thought I was having melted away. The little one sobbed like she had lost her best friend and I seriously had second thoughts. She's my baby after all! But I stayed strong. For the first time in her whole life, I had to get into bed with her and stroke her back and hold her hand until she fell asleep.  But then she stayed asleep all night.  It was an easier night than I had anticipated. The older one didn't have a problem at all. I would say the transition is made with her. 

So, now we're pacifier-free.  It was hard, but I think I kind of made it much harder in my head. If you are struggling with weaning from the pacifier, maybe give this method a shot.  And stay strong! :)

Cutting back on the Caffeine...

I briefly mentioned in the Monday post that I am trying to cut down on my coffee intake. I have mixed feelings about this. I love coffee. I love it so much that it could rival my affections for my husband. KIDDING; nothing does that. I sure do like coffee a whole lot, though. I realized last week that I probably like it a little too much.  I drank four strong cups of coffee in one day and still crashed by 10.  I get to a point with my coffee where it stops refreshing me, and I start feeling sad side-effects.  That four cup day I was having heart palpitations from the caffeine. Not okay!  So, I have begun to cut back. I gave myself a strict two cup limit for the rest of the week and set about making a plan.

I have a beautiful Keurig that my parents gave me for my birthday (they know me so well!) and I have been using the pre-filled k-cups. They make a pretty strong cup of coffee.  I really need to have a weaker cup, so my solution was to order a reusable k-cup. I got a 2-pack, so that I can prep one for both me and the DH before I go to bed at night. I cannot be fumbling around with coffee grounds and little cups in the morning.  It wouldn't be a pretty sight.  So, that is step number one in getting myself clean tapered off.

Step number two will be reducing the number of cups down to just one weak cup in the morning.  yay. (sense my sarcasm)

So, if I like coffee so much, why torture myself and get off it? Well, firstly, that whole heart paliptation and energy crash thing is kind of a kill-joy,  Secondly, I'd like to have another baby at some point, and trying to come off coffee when you have morning sickness stinks. Better to do it now, and be at that good level should God ever give us another miracle.

So, that's that. I'll be replacing my coffee with various caffeine-free herbal teas, and I promise to review those for you.  There will also be lots of water consumption going on.  We've been planning on using our tax return for a certain wonderful kind of water system (I love good water even more than I like coffee!) and we should be able to order that soon.  I can't wait for that. We've had to buy water because ours is nasty, and we often run out mid-week.  More on that later!

Meal Plan Monday...actually on Monday!

Hey look at me! I am posting on the correct day! :)  It's the little things in life....

Anyway, I have the meal plan for this week all worked out. I went shopping on Friday and got all my ingredients for the week and spent Saturday prep-cooking. I love having things prepped and ready to go. It helps immensely when I am trying to homeschool my very spirited ladies.

Breakfasts are either heritage flakes with milk and fruit, ezekiel toast and fruit, cinnamon raisin ezekiel toast or organic flax waffles with fruit. Simple! I usually have a couple of cups of coffee, but I am starting to wean myself down again. (I'll have a post on that soon)

Lunches (and these are in no particular order...)

Red beans and rice on salad

Lentil Soup

Beef Barley Soup  (this recipe made a huge amount. I made it Saturday, and it turned out 16 LARGE portions. So we'll eat this at least twice this week. I put the rest in the freezer)

White Bean Farro Soup

PB&J, apple and carrot sticks

Dinners

Pot roast with onions, fingerling potatoes , fresh green beans

Grilled Chicken, brown rice pasta salad and roasted asparagus

turkey veggie meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli

  

thai turkey meatballs with thai noodles and broccoli

Spaghetti with turkey sauce and side salad

hamburger (grilled) on an ezekiel bun with lettuce & tomato, with coleslaw, pickle and popchips

air-popped popcorn, yogurt and fruit. (we still like to do this on Sunday nights because our day is so crazy on Sunday)

Snacks and Desserts

My little ones get a snack every afternoon. I often do, too, but mine is almost always an organic apple or other piece of fruit and a small serving of almonds.  I like a cup of tea at this time, too. The kids snacks vary.

This week's snacks
 organic kids juice (very watered down) and some Annie's Organic Bunny Snack Mix
organic apple and organic cheese, water
chocolate chip cookie made with coconut flour (coconut flour has a lot of fiber) and organic milk
oatmeal buckwheat raisin cookie made with bananas (again with the fiber) and organic milk
air-popped popcorn and "chocolate" milk...(this is really organic milk mixed with about 2 tbsp dark chocolate almond milk. It is high in protein)
 small group dessert: this is the only night we have dessert. I always make it so I know what is in it. This week is raspberry buckwheat cobbler.  (The recipe calls for hemp, but since I have people that are on medications in my group, I skip that. I also skip grapefruit because it interferes in a lot of meds. Just some good info there.) 

And that is it for this week.  Let me know if you have any questions on this stuff.  Eventually, I will get a nice little template set up again for this, but the computer I have now is pretty bare bones. So until then, please be patient with my list.