Knowing When to Make A Change

This year with my two youngest children we are doing year three of Catholic Schoolhouse which covers the Renaissance time period through modern history.  We are doing it all at home without belonging to a co-op; mainly because there isn't a co-op around to belong to.

CSH breaks all of the information up into 24 weeks - four periods of six weeks each.  In my original planning I broke it down into four periods with seven weeks each, allowing for that extra week to catch up each quarter.

Well, we're in our third week now and I already know that this schedule is just not going to work.  Instead of just plowing ahead and forcing the issue, which is something that is my first inclination, I've decided to make a change.  This is a hard thing for me to do, but I realize, finally...after 18 years...that it just doesn't make sense to force something that isn't working.  Trust me, I know what I am talking about.  No one comes out ahead by this method.

You see, our life is such that we really need to be done with school, or at least the parts that heavily involve me, by lunchtime.  There is just too much that goes on around here in the afternoon for me to be still working with people.  That's not to say that the kids aren't doing things on their own, mind you.

What happened in the first two weeks was that I felt like we were just cramming way too much into our time slots and just flying through it so that we could be done on time.  This.is.very.stressful.

After two weeks, I was dreading school.  I was hating the pace and hating the fact that our focus was more on the checking off than it was on delving into one of my favorite time periods.  We're studying St. Ignatius, for gosh sakes, and I felt like we weren't even doing him justice.

So over the weekend I decided to take each week of CSH and make it into two.  My kids, of course, were wondering what happened to their schedule, and believe it or not there was some questioning and huffing and puffing, but I explained that I just wanted us not to be rushed and that maybe we would actually retain something if we slowed down.

This is revolutionary for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone here.  I've always wanted to do this, but just never have.  I'm such a list-checking person that slowing it down and spending more time on something just doesn't come easy to me.  

This week is our first week at the slower pace and I already like it more.  We did an art project today (another thing I'm not good at!) and it was nice and relaxed because we had the time to do it.  We went to the library yesterday to look for books on the Renaissance and I wasn't trying to rush them out the door.

Sometimes you just have to look at yourself and what you've set up and ask yourself if it is really working for everyone and then if it isn't, here's the important part, MAKE A CHANGE so that it does work. That is the beauty of homeschooling.  Just because the curriculum is laid out one way, if it doesn't work for you, change it so it does.  

At this new pace, we just might not make it up to modern times and finish the curriculum, but I'm okay with that now.  Here's to slowing it down and having fun learning what needs to be learned!

God Bless!

Nineteen and Counting

Today began our 19th year of homeschooling...at least to the best of my calculations.  It gets hard to remember how long ago we actually started.  Also to the best of my calculations, we have six more to go till the youngest graduates high school; but who's counting?

Am I tired?  You bet I am.  But as I lie in bed this morning reflecting on the past 18 years of starting school, I realized that, as tired as I am, I wouldn't have done it any other way.  Homeschooling is hard, yes, but the rewards are immense.  Have I ever dreamt of putting them in school?  In 18 years, you bet I have, but then I realize that God has called me to homeschool His children and I know that that is what I have to do.  It is what makes me plug along through the difficult times.  Well, that and my innate stubbornness.  

I got up this morning to start the day I always do...a shower, a cup of coffee and some time in prayer (that is THE most important part, by the way.  Not the coffee!).  However, after having made my coffee (which is the part I look forward to - drinking it, not making it) I realized that my filter flopped over.

Not exactly the way you want to start day one of year 19.  I was hoping it wasn't an omen of things to come today.

It wasn't, so that was good.  We made it to Mass, we got through our subjects and here are the smiling faces of me and some of my children while we indulge in burgers at our traditional First Day of School Lunch Outing. It makes it worth the struggle!

I hope the beginning of your new year is off to a great start, too!

God Bless,
Laura

One Month Ago...

We brought my son into the hospital, only to come home with a new way of life. In some ways it is hard to believe that it has been one month.  In other ways it feels like years!  

People keep encouraging us that it will get easier and in some ways it has.  Things are becoming more routine and we pretty much have just figured out that you can never really figure out Diabetes.  One day his body will react this way, the next day it will react another way.  All we can do is go with the flow and deal with the moment.  Isn't that how we're supposed to live anyhow?  In the moment?

In the day to day managing of his diabetes, I don't get very emotional.  We just go through the calculations and the processes just like we're supposed to.  Every once in awhile, however, it hits me.  Like the other day when I was at the pharmacy with all of the other chronic prescription picker-uppers.  The lady in front of me was chatting away about her medications with the pharmacist and they were on a first name basis.  I figure that will be me someday very soon.

And when they ask you, as you are about to pay for the prescription, "Did they tell you how much this is going to cost?"  I don't know why, but it gets me every time.

Or last night, at 12:30 when we were sitting in my bed waiting for our 15 minutes to pass after drinking his juice so that I could see if his blood glucose levels came up sufficiently, and he nodded off to sleep next to me.  That's when it hits me what he's going through and what he has to look forward to for the rest of his life.  

But then we both get up the next morning and face the day with a good attitude, and for that I'm grateful.

Another thing that I'm very grateful for is that I have, in a way, been prepared for this over the past 10 years.  When we were in the hospital and the nurses told us about how he would have to eat on a regular schedule, how we would have to count carbs and eat healthy I was so grateful that we had already been doing those things.  

We've eaten on a schedule ever since I can remember.  Breakfast around 7:00, snack at 10, lunch at Noon, snack at 3 and dinner between 5 and 6.  Perfect.  We've cleaned up our eating considerably during those years and all of our kids know what carbs, fats (healthy vs unhealthy) and proteins are.  If I had had to tackle all of that on top of everything else (like injections and monitoring and worrying about those lows) my brain would have exploded.  I can see the beauty of being organized even more clearly now because it has made this chaos much more manageable.  God is Good!  All the time!

So we move forward into our second month of a lifetime.  One step at a time as we cling tightly to Jesus' hand and walk this walk with Our Lady of Sorrows who knows exactly how we all feel and is with us every step of the way.

God Bless!

Peanut Butter Crackers to the Rescue!

Whenever I'm faced with a difficult situation, I've noticed that I tend to do two particular things to help me cope.

The first is to find humor in the situation whenever I can.  It hit me, not too long into our diabetic adventure, that this is just like having a baby in the house again.  We get up in the middle of the night to check on my son, and, if necessary, feed him.  It is quite humorous to wake him at 2:00 am and tell him to get up and eat something.  He usually smiles, gets up, eats whatever we've determined he should eat, smiles again and goes back to bed.  God has blessed him with a good disposition, that's for sure.

My son is not much of an adventurous eater, so we've found a few staples that have been carrying us through the past month.  These babies

have been indispensable.  They are portable, have a the right amount of carbs to boost him up a bit and contain a bit of protein from the peanut butter to level him off, they are inexpensive and most importantly, he likes them.  The other night while we were sitting there at 2 am and he was eating his prescribed 12 crackers, the thought popped into my head, "It's 2 am.  Do you know how many peanut butter crackers your child is eating?"  It cracked me up at that moment, which is a good thing, because you have to laugh whenever you can or you'll cry instead.

The second thing is that I tend to fixate on something else to take my mind off of the situation.  Right now I'm fixating on my house.  Cleaning and straightening have very cathartic effects.  It is something I can physically do which brings peace to my mind.  My kids aren't thrilled because I'm always telling them to clean up their piles of stuff, but to see a very neat house makes me feel more peaceful.

I've also been fixating on my laundry room.  

Specifically, this door.  The room is small and dark.  We have bigger plans for it, but for now my eye is on replacing that door with one that has a window in it.  The good thing about this project is that we have some Menard's rebate money and since the hospital won't accept that as payment, I have to use it for things for the house!  SCORE!  We went this past weekend and got the door, now we just have to put it in.  I just know that the sunlight (of which I am craving, seeing as how it is FEBRUARY in the Midwest) that will stream through that window will bring me great joy.

And so we all cope with difficulties in different ways.  Of course prayer has a central place in this coping, but I've also found other ways that are helpful to me and not harmful to anyone else!  

How do you cope when you're in a difficult spot? 

God Bless!

Another Curve in the Road

Exactly 11 days after my last post, God threw another curve in the road of our life.  I never expected to find myself in the pediatric ICU with my baby boy, but that's where we ended up.

Fortunately the stay was short, just two days, but he left with a new normal - Type 1 Diabetes.  Came out of nowhere, really.  It doesn't run in our family, so we were a bit surprised that he should get this.  They say a virus can cause it to begin.  Who would have thought?

People have asked me how I knew.  Because there seems to be quite the occurrence of this nowadays, I'd like to share with you how I knew because the fact that someone had shared their story with me was lifesaving to my son.

My best friend from forever has a son who was diagnosed with T1 last May.  Over the summer we got together and she shared her journey with me.  Fortunately, it wasn't something that my overworked brain forgot.

I noticed on Saturday, the 23rd, that my son had gone to the bathroom two times within a short period of time.  This, for him, was not that unusual so I didn't think much of it at the time.  Later that night, however, I saw him get out of bed and go into the bathroom twice within about half an hour.  I had a quiet voice in my head tell me to pay attention to that.  I immediately thought of my friend's son.  I sat in bed with my kindle that night looking up the common symptoms of Type 1.

- Frequent urination   ✔
-  Increased thirst ✔
- Increased hunger  ✔
-  Fatigue ✔

Although I have to say that he didn't come to me and tell me he was thirsty and hungry, he just kept asking for more to eat and drink.  He had told me all of the week prior how tired he was.  My response?  "Try going to bed earlier!"

It wasn't until I looked at the symptoms all together and thought about the past few weeks that I saw the pattern.  Otherwise, life is life and you tend to ignore all of the "I'm thirsty" and "I'm hungry" statements.

While he didn't have the blurred vision or tingling hands and feet, when he came downstairs on Sunday, he did look like, all of a sudden, he had lost a lot of weight.  His face looked sunken in and his arms looked very skinny.  Just like that!  Some of the kids said they had noticed on Saturday how skinny he looked, but we hadn't.

I thought back to my friend and remembered her telling me about checking her son's urine for ketones.   I knew you could go to the pharmacy and get strips so after Mass we headed to Walgreens and picked up our first bottle of urine strips.  Once home we tested him twice.  Both times he tested Moderate/High.  Yikes.  I called my friend just to go over what was going on and she told us to head to the ER with him now before he started vomiting, which would be the next thing that would begin to happen.

It wasn't long before he was being admitted to the ICU and hooked up to his insulin drip.  At that point his blood glucose level was 524. 

Over the next two days we learned more about insulin, shots, glucose checks and diabetes than I ever wanted to learn.  We were sent home with a dazed look in our eyes.  It was like coming home with your first baby and thinking, "What on earth am I supposed to do with this kid to keep him alive".  

It's been quite the ride these past three weeks.  There's more to be said but, I think that, for now, this is enough.  Please keep us all in your prayers as we navigate this new normal for our family.

God Bless!
 

Around my Kitchen

When we looked at this house, the first thing we did was look at the kitchen and realize that it wasn't going to work long-term for us.  We know there is a remodel in our near future because there just isn't enough counter space and the eat-in section of the kitchen is big enough for a small bistro table and not much else.

Another thing I noticed was that the basement door was smack-dab in the middle of the kitchen.  I had been wanting to have a nice big chalk board in my kitchen for awhile, so I decided to turn the basement door into a giant chalk board.  While it didn't quite work out to my expectations, it does, in fact, serve the purpose of putting that door to good use.  

So far we've used it for a nice Thanksgiving motif, which I can't believe I do not have a picture of because it was so cute, an Advent and St. Andrew novena calendar

and  a spot to count the 12 Days of Christmas.
 

It has sparked a lot of creativity (as you can see above) and has been a fun thing to have in the kitchen.

Now, however, I find myself with this:

a blank door and no ideas for what to put on it.  January means, what?  Ordinary time?  How do you draw that?  It's too soon, in my book, for Valentine's designs so what can we do until then?  Ideas appreciated :)

Another thing I've added to the kitchen to kind of spruce things up a bit is a craft my oldest daughter did at the library one evening.  This idea is so cute that it inspired me to want to have a coffee theme in our remodeled kitchen.  They are pages from a book that they painted coffee/tea cups on. 

She did four of them, so she found some frames in the basement and we decided to hang them up to help brighten up the kitchen.  It doesn't take much to bring some zing to a room.  
 

 
Sometimes you just have to take a few minutes to look around your house and find something you could switch to a different room to make it brighter, or, in this case, take a craft someone did and put it in some left-over frames.  I like this kind of decorating; it's cheap and easy!

Need something to brighten a part of your house during these dreary days of January?  Walk around and see if you can't make a small change like this one.

God Bless!

My 2016 Word

Last year I went along with the crowd and picked a word for the year.  The word was "purposeful" and my intention in living this word was to be much more purposeful in what I did with my time and my attention.  Looking back over the year, I would say that I did much better at that.  There were a lot of things that required my attention and I was able to walk away from my distractions (mainly this lovely computer) and get down to the business of doing what needed to be done.

Now, that's not to say I always did that.  No sirree, not in the least.  And, when I did do it, it certainly wasn't always easy.  Releasing ourselves from our mindless distractions is a difficult thing.  That is why, for example, I don't want to have HGTV available in my home.  I know, at least for awhile, that I would be addicted to sitting in front of show after show watching others do exciting decorating things instead of doing them myself.

This year's word is "wisdom":  

wis·dom

noun

the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

 

 

It isn't a new word to me as it began popping up on my radar last year.  I kept reading or hearing in various places how good it is to pray for wisdom.  When Solomon asked God for wisdom he asked for "a discerning heart" to govern God's people and "to distinguish between right and wrong". And God was very pleased by his request.  I figure a mom like me can't go wrong in asking for a discerning heart to govern the people in my charge and it can definitely help me in distinguishing between right and wrong; especially when trying to sift through the myriad of disagreements that go on here every day!

So this will be my prayer, and hopefully my guiding principle, as I go through this year.  Given the events of the world, having some extra wisdom might just not be a bad thing!

God Bless!

Our Friends Were on TV!

While we have not formally resumed schooling yet (still in the 12 Days of Christmas.  Sounds reasonable, right?), we did take some time today to watch an educational program on EWTN.  Well, we also had another incentive to watch it because our good friends, Laura and Mary, were live on the "At Home with Jim and Joy" show talking about the unit study they wrote for the American Life League.  

You might remember that I reviewed and gave away some free copies of this unit study and, since we know them personally, it was so fun to watch them talk about how important it is to cultivate the pro-life mentatlity, especially in our young children.

Another exciting project they just released is a unit study for high schoolers on Euthanasia.  I'm so glad that this has come out and I definitely think it is something we'll have to look into.  Coincidentally, I just finished reading the book "Me Before You", which is about a quadriplegic who wants to die on his own terms.  It was a great book, but if you are not catechized as to why this is wrong, you will definitely be swayed by the emotional aspect of this topic.  This is why it is so important for us to arm our youth with the facts and reasons why the Church teaches as it does, so that they are not swayed by emotions.

To learn more about these important programs that our friends are producing through the American Life League, you can either go to their website, catch the  replay of the show on January 9th at 10:30 am or watch it on EWTN's youtube channel.   

Spread the word about these great unit studies and pray that we can all become ambassadors for life!

God Bless!

A Very Special Intercessor!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope your Advent went well and that you had a beautiful Christmas with the people you love.  We had two days with nice weather, good food and lots of family, as well as a beautiful midnight Mass.  But this post isn't about Christmas.  It's about a story that I've been wanting to tell but just haven't had the time.  It's an intercessory story related to our move.

You see, in our history of moving we've never had an easy time.  More often than not, the first house we would set out to buy would become encased in some sort of turmoil or other and we would end up buying a completely different house.  This happened to us three times.  The last time we moved, we did so because we had lost everything and were moving into a rental.  Needless to say, God had mercy on us and there was no extra drama.

This time, however, we were buying again, and although we did not have a house to sell, I fully expected the experience to be like it had been in the past.  I expected to find a house, fall in love with it, have something happen with the deal, lose the house and then find an even better one.  After all, that's how it had been before.

But God had other plans.  Let me backtrack a bit.  For the past year +, I had been praying, along with many others, for Courtney Lenaburg and her family.  In fact, it was just one year ago that she died.  When she did, I cried along with everyone else.  After her passing, I had read stories of her intercession, one in particular about a family who wanted to move but needed a miracle with their septic field.  Through Courtney's intercession, that miracle occurred.  

That got me thinking that maybe I should call upon Courtney to intercede for us in this move since I really didn't want to have to go through what we've been through in the past.  

Can I tell you something?  St. Courtney came through with flying colors.  We began our search and had looked at a few houses when something (or someone :) nudged me back to the computer to look at the 90+ listings again.  There I found it, the house we had overlooked the first time through.  We went to see it and we loved it.  We brought our kids (who, being older now, had some very definite opinions about what they were looking for).  They loved it, too.  We put in an offer and at first it didn't seem like we were going to come to terms with the seller, but I called on Courtney even more and before we knew it, the sellers came down in price and then started offering us their furniture...at no extra charge!  We closed in 30 days!  30 days, people!  With not one hitch.

Many times when miraculous things happen like this, I often find that God sends me a confirmation that what I am seeing is real.  The moment this time was when we were at the closing (which only lasted about an hour) and our realtor said, "I don't think I've ever been at a closing that got funded that fast."  From past experience, I know that that was God's way of telling me that I've witnessed something grand.  

We moved into a great neighborhood.  Having not had neighbors for 12 years, and having 7 children and 5 cars, we were a bit leery of what having neighbors might mean.  Our neighbors are wonderful.  Even funnier is the fact that in our small subdivision of about 33 homes, 95% of the people are Catholic. God has chosen a wonderful spot to reintroduce us into communal living.

I write this to let you know, in case you don't already, that there are many saints up there in heaven just waiting for us to call upon them for their help.  There is no other explanation in my mind (based on our past experiences with moving) for how smoothly everything went other than her intercession.  Miss Courtney is up there calling for miracles and how happy I am that we have been on the receiving end of her powerful intercession.  Thank you, Mary and Jerry, for raising and caring for such an extraordinary young lady!  I've been recommending her to others in need, so I think she'll be pretty busy up in heaven for quite some time. 

St. Courtney, pray for us.

God Bless!

Our 30 Day Move

It has now been over two months since I've been here to my good ole blog.  It has been a crazy time of moving our family of nine from our rental house on five acres to our own home in a neighborhood.  In what became a rather fast-paced event, we began looking for a home, found one and then moved 30 days later.  Since I really can't do-it-all, some - no A LOT - of things had to go and anything social media like was at the top of the list.

We're moved now and all settled in so I'm back to share again.  I mean really, I had just decided that turning 50 warranted more blogging and look what happens?  Sheesh.  I'm still 50, though, so I guess it is better late than never.

There's so much to talk about that's happened over the past two months, if I can just remember it all!  Like I said, we were down to a bare bones lifestyle for awhile so I thought I'd share how we handled the whole "move your family in 30 days" thing.  And just to be clear, when our offer got accepted, we had not packed ONE box.  Not even one!  Also, we did all the packing and moving ourselves.  Here's how it went down.

1.  I knew that we needed to keep schooling as long as possible.  With two high-schoolers and two grade-schoolers, I did not want to take off too much time.  The high-schoolers kept to their schedule pretty well, it was the two younger ones that needed a revamp since much of what they did required me.  Right off the bat we put our non-essential subjects on hold until the second semester.  That included geography (which was taking up a lot of time), map skills and Latin.  That right there made a huge difference.

2.  My three college aged girls all have classes and jobs, so I knew they wouldn't be much help.  When they were home and free (about 20 minutes over 30 days :), they were required to help out as much as possible, which they did.

3.  My other four kids were an immense help, especially the two in high school!  We got into a great rhythm of doing our school work in the morning and then packing and moving things in the afternoon.  Because of their hard work, we only ended up taking two weeks off of school!

4.  I made a firm decision to add nothing new to our schedule.  We kept up with what we were already involved in but we rarely did any other activities or events beyond that.  Saying NO was not fun, but crucial.

5.  Once we got in the new house I spent the first week working like a mad woman to get it into a state of readiness.  I knew that that was all the time I had, so we worked morning till night that first week so that everything was put away and in order.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to function for very long with everyone wondering where things were.

So that is how we survived our 30 day moving adventure.  Being organized was crucial.  Also, the fact that I have decluttered on an ongoing basis made things  a lot easier.  That's not to say that we still didn't get rid of a lot of stuff!  There were MANY bags of garbage as well as multiple trips to the local Goodwill.  Hopefully everything that made the cut into the new house is stuff that we need and use and not much that is superfluous! 

It's good to be back here and, God willing, I hope to continue on a much more regular basis.  I say that, but we'll see what The Plan really is :)

God Bless!

And the Winners are:

Congratulations to:  

Lori W, Stephanie S. and Chantal C.

You've been notified by email, so look for that email and send me your address so that I can get your unit study out to you before Respect Life month begins.

Thanks to all who participated!

God Bless!

It's Pro-Life Giveaway Time!!

October is Respect Life month and I've got just the thing for you to make it memorable!  I've had the pleasure of previewing the "Life is Precious" unit study from the American Life League, and it is a great resource that you can add to your own homeschool for the month, use it with a co-op or a religious ed class you're teaching.  

The cool thing about this unit study?  I know both of the authors AND the illustrator.  I've watched all three girls grow up and become talented, wonderful, Catholic young ladies.  They've put their heart into this study and I'm happy to share it with you.

We took it for a test run a couple of months back and, even though it is geared for grades K - 3, I used it with my 4th and 6th graders and they enjoyed it.  The unit study is based around four picture books and has easy to do activities and discussion questions to help emphasize the life message in the story.  

 

I have three copies of this great unit study to give away.  Follow the Rafflecopter instructions below to win.  The giveaway begins at midnight tonight and ends on Sunday evening, so hurry and enter as many times as you can.  I'll have it shipped to you before October starts!  Good luck!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Birthday and A Give Away!

It is now officially a new decade around here.  In other words, I officially turned 50 last week.  I don't feel much different, and I certainly didn't feel old until I saw "50" printed on a birthday card.  Looking at it in print, for some reason, made it seem old.  Well, we'll just put those cards away now, won't we?

We did some good celebrating.  Life's been a whirlwind, what with starting school and celebrating big life events, not to mention all of the usual stuff that goes on.  We managed to sneak in some fun and A LOT of good food.  Not only did I get a year older, I got five pounds heavier.  Back to the old grindstone to work that back off.

So I needed to come back here to let you all know that coming soon I will be having a give away.  Now, in the past those haven't worked that well for me as something always seems to get messed up.  However, I am willing to try again and will be announcing the giveaway soon!

What's the prize, you ask?  Well, I just happen to have three copies of the "Life is Precious" unit study from American Life League.  We were privileged to get a copy of it to try out and some other copies to give away.  I love unit studies, especially if you're schooling a handful of kids.  This one is great and is very easy to do, so check back in and get ready to win.

This unit study will be perfect to add to your schooling for the month of October, which is Respect Life month.  

See ya' soon!

God Bless!

A Family Event - An Awesome Outdoor Concert

Having a large family on one income definitely makes things more difficult in a lot of ways.  What the world says you should have and do is far different from what is attainable (in most cases).  The other day I was reading a blog post about how one family paid off their debt of $150,000 in a few years.  The author made a great point about how, when doing something like this, it is important to realize that you still have to go out and do things that are enjoyable that cost money.

Sure there are lots of free things to do, and that should definitely be a priority in terms of planning things for your family if you are tight on money.  But every once-in-awhile you need to do something that you would all enjoy, even if it costs a bit of cash.

For example, we all decided a few months ago that we would love to go see The Piano Guys.  Who?  The Piano Guys.  Seriously, if you have never heard of them, you have to go check out all of their music videos on youtube.  They are incredibly talented musicians who love to have a good time with their music.

Anyhow, they were going to be playing at an outdoor music venue about 1 1/2 hours away from us, so we decided to get some lawn tickets and go enjoy them as an end-of-the-summer fling.

Having older kids who have jobs comes in handy, because one way to make things like this a bit more doable is to have those who earn an income pay for their own tickets.  That cuts down on the amount of money we are responsible for, which helps immensely.

It was a cool evening, with blankets and sweatshirts galore, but it was a great concert.  We were all so glad to have been able to do this together.  With school starting for everyone, and the variety of work schedules in the family, it isn't that often that everyone is home at the same time.  To spend the evening together outside listening to great music, sure was a nice way to start ending the summer.  We hopefully won't be ending it quite yet (although you can't tell by the weather we've been having), but I can feel that it is starting to wind down.

Be creative in your what you do for fun, try to find ways to do it cheaply, but realize that, even with a big family, sometimes it is just necessary to splurge and have a good time together.

 God Bless!

Welcome 2015-16 School Year! Yay! Yippee!

So did you read the title of this post with sarcasm or with enthusiasm? Chances are, if you've been at this for a long time, there probably was a hint of sarcasm in your mind.  If this is your first year, or one of your first, then you are probably full of enthusiasm!  Good for you!!  

I spent all of Saturday, from morning till night, getting everyone organized with their books, laying out what needs to be done when and by whom, and making up all of my nice little Excel spread sheets for the various classes.  Excel is my best friend when it comes to homeschooling. I urge all homeschooling mothers to learn how to use it.

Anyhow, I thought I'd lay out what our year will look like since I know it helps me to see what other people are doing.  You can find out more detail about a lot of these books on my website.

Junior:
Math is not her strong suit so we will be spending this year going over things she has already learned to make them more cemented.
Religion - Didache "Understanding Scripture"
English - American Literature using MODG syllabus
History - "Christ and the Americas" book and workbook
Science - Apologia Biology with lab
Spanish - Duolingo

Sophmore:
Math - Algebra II using Teaching Textbooks
Religion - Apologetics using various books
Grammar and Vocabulary - one semester of each
Spanish - Duolingo
Science - Apologia Biology with lab
World Geography 

7th Grader:
Math - LOF Fractions and Decimals and Percents
Map skills
Language of God from CHC
Apologia Animals of the Ocean
Geography unit study
Faith and Freedom Readers
All About Spelling

5th Grader:
Math - LOF Fractions and Decimals and Percents
Map Skills
Language of God from CHC
Geography unit study
Faith and Freedom Readers
All About Spelling

While my 5th and 7th graders are doing many of the same subjects, some of them will be together and some will not.  I'm basing my unit study on the book "Trail Guide to World Geography" and adding in some of my own ideas.  If it turns out good, I'll put it out here to share with you.

Overall, I think it all looks doable.  I don't know that any of us is ready for summer to be over, but like I keep telling the kids, the sooner we get started, the more likely we'll be done sometime in May.   

I pray that your school year is a good one and that you can accomplish all that you want to.

God Bless!

When Your Brain Feels like Molasses

Today I'm starting to finalize the plans for the high school kids' school year, which, incidentally, begins on Monday.  I've been mulling it all around in my brain for awhile, now I'm just pulling the books and putting it all on paper.

It has taken me all morning and into the afternoon to do one child.  My brain feels like it is moving at the speed of molasses, making me feel like I'm trudging my way through a thick swamp.

This used to happen because of lack of sleep due to small children and infants.  Now I'm thinking that it might be because I'm approaching menopause.  Or is it something I ate that is dragging me down?  What about all the stressful situations in my life right now?  Could that be slowing me down?  Maybe it is a combination of some of them.  Or even all of them!

I took a walk to the mailbox (which is actually a bit farther than it sounds) only to find that the mail was outside my front door.  That's okay, the short walk in the cool temperatures and sunshine felt nice.

I feel like gorging on chocolate and just vegging out rather than sitting down to tackle the next student who is eagerly awaiting their school schedule (haha, I know you laughed, too!).  

Some days when I get like this, I forge ahead with what needs to be done, and other days I give in and quit thinking.  This day, after analyzing the situation to the best of my ability, I think I must forge ahead and at least get that next student underway.  Then it's cooking dinner and meal planning for next week; both of which should thoroughly utilize any existing brain cells I have left.

What do you do on days like this?  Go for the chocolate or push through it?  I'd love to hear your insight.

God Bless!

Surviving Grocery Shopping

I was thinking last week, while whizzing through Aldi and Wal-Mart, how my grocery shopping has changed and evolved over the past years.  

I actually detest meal planning and grocery shopping but I know that my life is much better if I take the time to do it.  Well, let me clarify, all our lives are better if I grocery shop, for without food...well, you know.  In reality, I guess all of our lives are better, too, if I take the time to meal plan since I save my sanity, my time and our money.

When my kids were much smaller, I would go grocery shopping in the evening so I could leave them home with my husband.  It would be a grueling task to drag my tired body through Wal-Mart for hours on end; because, really, who gets out of there in under an hour?  But far worse than trudging through the store at night was trudging through the store during the day with seven children.  This happened ONLY in extreme emergencies.  If this is your only option (taking everyone with you) then I will pray that another option makes itself available to you!

Once I had some old enough to stay home with the littles, I moved my shopping to the daytime hours.  I still went by myself whenever possible, but doing it during the afternoon made it go a little bit faster because I wasn't quite as tired.  If needed, I would still go in the evening.

Now that I've transitioned into older children, I still go during the day, but here's the difference.  I now try to take one of them with me.  Why, you might ask?  Well, because I despise standing in line at the deli counter and so I take said child with me, give them the deli list and send them on their way.  Usually by the time they are done at the deli, I've completed 90% of the shopping.  The only thing left is to stand in the checkout line, which can usually take as much time as the shopping did.

I've also begun shopping at Aldi again because the quality of their food choices has gotten much better over the past few years and the lower prices help in the budget area.  It has become a challenge to me to see how fast I can do my Aldi shopping because, well, you have to make it interesting somehow.  Last week was my personal best:  22 minutes.  It is also important to be accurate and last week I actually didn't forget anything even though I flew through the store.

My daughter and I then moved on to Wal-Mart, where I know the time is at least double that of Aldi.  I asked her if she was up to the challenge to make it another personal best time and she said she was, so in we went.  Now granted, I didn't have that complicated of a list, but many times that doesn't mean anything.  So I sent her off to the deli with her short list and before I had even made it out of the personal and household sections, she was done.  It was looking promising at that point.  We made our way through the food aisles and then headed to the checkout, where I knew that everything we had accomplished thus far could be thrown out the window.  Miracle upon miracle abounded and we were out of the store 35 minutes after we entered.  Our entire trip, from leaving to getting home, was 1 hour and 40 minutes.  Unbelievable!

So if you hate this whole process as much as I do, then try to find ways to make it easier and more fun.  Take a helpful child along with you, make it a game, buy yourself that special treat once a week, whatever it takes to make it more tolerable.  

As always, feel free to share your favorite shopping tips so others can benefit.

God Bless!
 

Join in the National 54 Day Rosary Novena

I just wanted to jump in and encourage you to join in the National 54 Day Rosary Novena.  If you aren't sure what that is, it is a series of 6 novenas of rosaries.  The first 27 days are days of petition and the second 27 days are days of thanksgiving.

The novena starts today, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and ends on October 7th, the Feast of the Rosary.  How providential that these two Marian feast days are 54 days apart!  Coincidence?  I think not.

If you've been wanting to start praying the rosary together as a family, then now would be a great time to start.  This website has all of the information about the national novena, including the intention and the prayers (in case you are unsure of how to pray it).  You can even sign up to get  email reminders, which I did, of course!

Happy Feast day and I hope you'll join in this national effort to bring our country back to God.

God Bless!

A New Venture

Recently I did some cleaning up on my blog.  I removed and reassigned my labels so that there were fewer of them.  This, of course, meant that I had to skim through all of my almost 2000 posts and made me realize that I've been at this blogging thing for a very long time.

I'm also about to turn 50.  I'm not really bothered by it because I've always felt that age is more about how you feel about it than what the number says you are.  I still feel a lot younger than that, so turning the numbers up one digit higher doesn't really bother me.  Now my youngest son, it bothers him.  He says it kind of "creeps him out" to think about me and his dad being 50.  

So, after much pondering about this space here, I've decided that I'm old enough now to be more of a mentor, so I'm looking to have the posts in this ole blog be more in line with my organizing book "A Plan for Joy in the Home"; which is why I reassigned all of my labels.  I'm hoping to help people more than just keep them up to date on our doings.  Of course, that will all still find its way in here, but maybe with more of a purpose.

I hope you'll join me on this new venture and share this space with your friends and homeschooling groups.  It's so much more fun when we can interact and share, so I'm hoping you'll be game to do that.

Hopefully, God willing, this will also mean more consistent posting.  I won't be surprised, however, if there is still some sporadic moments!  Overall, I'm looking forward to see what comes of this space in the future.

God Bless!