In Which We Try to Undo Sloppy Habits

Yesterday I was asking and wondering about instilling good character qualities in our children. I posted on a Facebook group I am in about what resources there are to use for character training. Boy, I got a lot of responses! I'm going to be going through those and posting the ones I find interesting on here a bit later. As soon as I have time to look up all the links. Sounds like a good summer school study, don't you think? I could incorporate reading (books and stories about characters with good...um...character), possibly writing, and maybe even some good old movie watching could be involved.

We rode the ferry Saturday. Free and fun!

S and I talked about this over the weekend. He and I were trying to remember when we started to "take over" doing things of our own initiative. It was hard to remember. The reason? Because we did things because we had to do them. There was no choice. You came home from school, you got a snack and immediately started on homework. You did the dishes after supper and when everything was done, your time was your own. For him, that meant going outside to play basketball. He was motivated to get finished with his responsibilities before it was pitch black outside.

So we decided that's how things needed to be around here. Playing will happen when you are done with everything else. Now we did take recess yesterday at 10am like we are supposed to. The girls and I all went on a 30 minute bike ride. So it's not like they didn't get a break.

Bee was really excited to be on a boat. Little Bit loved watching the birds. 

Before breakfast I expected them to be up, dressed, hair fixed, and bed made. And their pajamas put away. They were already frustrated with me before we even ate. Then, before school they had to clean up their breakfast, brush their teeth and have anything else done that needed doing. It made the whole day run smoother. 

I know you're thinking....Brenda...this is not revolutionary news. I agree. I was trying to think how we even got into sloppy habits like the girls not making their beds in the mornings. I always make our bed. I always had to make my bed before school growing up.

Did a little rearranging this weekend. Surprised? Now Little Bit has her own desk. She's happy. She has to have things neat.

I believe it began with a pregnancy test. That year I was pregnant with Baby Bee...whew! Mama was tired. We did the basics. Then, of course, I had a newborn. The girls had to be pretty independent for a while there. They got breakfast themselves, they took breaks when they wanted to (I was sleeping or busy with a baby so I didn't fuss). All that to say, I think they slipped into some sloppy habits over the last few years.

So I am staying on them about picking up after themselves at every turn. I will insist responsibilities be finished before playtime. They're going to love me.

Now everyone has somewhere to work. 

This girl sits across from me now. 

But I think it will go a long way towards them looking like responsible people. And perhaps those habits are what turn you into a responsible person down the road?

The Summer So Far

First a note about the blog:

I'm so sorry, blog world. I really miss you. I do. And I miss the readers I used to have which I'm sure have mostly gone away now. 

At one time I had a kind of little bit of a well read blog. Sort of. I was happy. I got comments. We interacted. I read ya'll's blogs. It was a fun little community. 

But I do not dare walk away because this is where I have documented our lives and especially our homeschool for the last what? 6 years? 

Speaking of which, it scares me to think that Blogger could just go away one day and bye-bye blog. I know you can get blog books made (cha ching!). I know you can self-host. (ack!) What should I do to ensure that I have these memories? Start printing? Suggestions?

____________________________________

We have been doing summer school three times a week. We are mainly doing math and language arts. Really we're just trying to get a jump start on the things that fell through the cracks last year. And keep going with math, which is never-ending. The girls have complained a little, but even they realize that an hour or 2 three times a week is not a big deal.

But we are oh so excited about next year! I've been planning and planning. I've had to make myself stop last week. I will resume getting ready for next year when we return from....

our first ever family vacation!!!

Yes folks, I am so excited! Wednesday is our 20th anniversary and so soon we are loading up the family and taking off on a road trip for a week. S has NEVER taken a whole week off of work to my knowledge. So I'm spending my time until then getting the house in order (I even tackled the inside of Little Bit and Bee's closet) and packing, etc. Then when we return, I will resume next year's school planning. 

Nothing but fun in my future! (I love planning.) 

We have had a little bit of fun this summer. I was kind of thinking how we hadn't done many fun things for the bigger girls but I looked back at our calendar and realized we had done some things. It would be better if we had other people to go do things with. Sister came over with her girls once and we all went to the splash pad. Those kind of things are much more fun with friends (or cousins). Our church had a swim party on the 4th of July. That was fun. Um.....

Well, we're going on vacation so there's always that!!

Gee whiz. Mama needs to get out more! It's raining this week so swimming is out. We're going to the library today but that really doesn't hold the promise it did when they were little. What do you do with big kids in the hot summer? Maybe other people stay at home a lot too. Maybe Facebook just makes it look like everyone else is out having fun except us. Maybe. 

OK. Some pictures to share:

My parents have been going to the mall to walk early every morning. We joined them one morning but there are WAY too many of these stupid things all around the mall. There was a lot of crying until we finally stopped. The mall is dead to me. 

Splash pad.

Mrs. Carrie had an American Girl party to watch the new Saige movie. 

Sweetheart got rid of her toys this summer.

The girls have helped a lot with Bee. It's getting harder. She's big!

We tried Kool-aid dye.

Keepers End of Year Ceremony

We wrapped up our Keepers at Home club this year by giving the girls all the badges they had earned throughout the year. They earned a lot! We invited grandparents and let them know how proud we were of them all.

Little Bit and Sweetheart posing by the display table. We had the girls' scrapbooks to share.

Carrie made programs. We are very official.

Grandma looking at things with Sweetheart.

We took turns giving little talks to explain some of the activities they had done this year.

Then, they got their badges!

Very proud of these girls!
Emily--10, Little Bit--9, Sweetheart--13, and Kate--14

My parents with Bee.

Matt got a very special award. :) As the only brother who attended every meeting of a girls' club, he was VERY helpful with Bee this year!

In Which Brenda Gets You Caught Up On Her Riveting Life

I just had leftovers for lunch and now I'm eating cake. The big girls are outside playing and, as usual in the spring, I don't have the heart to call them inside to get to work on school. (We already got some done this morning.) And since Bee is sleeping, I thought I'd blog.

I was looking back at our calendar this morning and looked at all the reasons we've taken off of school or missed school this year: my uncle's funeral, a camping trip, a trip out of town to see friends, helping friends move, a few days off here and there to just get caught up on things around the house, etc.

Visiting with friends is > school!

I guess considering it all, we aren't too behind this year. We're still on track to finish in the first half of June, which was the plan all along.

I "attended" my first webinar last week or maybe it was the week before. It was by Lee Binz, The Home Scholar and the topic was high school. I feel much more prepared and glad that I have Sweetheart's 8th grade year to really wrap my head around it all. I cannot believe I will soon have a high school student!

Enough about school--who wants to think about that all the time? I'm working really hard on our finances/budget/bills right now. That's exciting, right?

Little Bit watching a movie.

And when I say "working hard", you do understand that I mean "15 minutes here and there", right? It's challenging to sit down and focus on a pile of paperwork and numbers and think clear, coherent thoughts with 3 kiddos home. It'll get done. Eventually.

We've also been working on the house a lot. S and I have really big plans, but no time or money to actually implement them. So, the LEAST I can do is declutter and clean up. The girls and I took the day off of school 2 weeks ago just to spend the whole day cleaning. And we did. They worked SO hard. We got every room done. Not everything, mind you....like the bill paying desk. Ug. But every room got attention and we threw out 3-4 bags of trash. It felt good!

Mrs. Holiday fixed Sweetheart's hair. Curly hair takes work!!!
 

Bee got her first ear infection this weekend. She's feeling much better now but we've had a line of days of whiny--only want mama to hold me--time. And even through that, I cleaned out 2 boxes of paperwork and filed stuff from the desk.

Bee contemplating which room to mess up next.

 

My life is nothing but glamor, all the time. School, finances, housework....but you know what?

(I actually love it.)
(Because I'm home with my children.)
(I wouldn't trade lives with anyone.)

What glamorous things have you been up to lately friends?

Maybe If We Move Out, Then Back In?

I've talked about this a little, but our house really isn't working for me right now.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm THANKFUL for our home. And really, I LIKE our home. But our family has changed a lot and our house is not keeping up.

In 2006 when we bought this house, we had a newly turned 7 year old who attended private school at our (then) church. We also had a 2 1/2 year old who went to day care a few hours a day at the same school and I worked part-time at that church as the secretary. S worked where he does now, plus was the youth minster part-time.

So when we moved in this house, we set it up for a working family with 2 kiddos who went to school and day care.

Flash forward to 2013:  We have three children, all of whom stay home 24/7 and homeschool. A mama who stays home 24/7 and teaches them and keeps house, and a Daddy who still works 2 jobs. Only now he's preaching instead of youth ministering. Which means he's home far more than he was then.

And of course you may know, dear readers, that I'm a bit of a re-arranger. I keep trying to find better ways for things to work in our ever-changing situations. Let me give you an example.

1. We got rid of TV service several years ago.
2. We only kept the TV for the Wii and movies on the VCR/DVD player.
3. So all those electronics are in the front room where S has his office and we keep our bookshelves.
4. We no longer have a homeschool room since we found out about Bee.
5. So now I use the TV armoire/cabinet for our homeschool cabinet. It's my answer to not having a room. Everything is in one place!
6. Now when we need to make more room in the front room for S to have an actual office to work on sermons, we don't have any more space.
7. Of course the TV et all should go in the TV cabinet.
8. But then where would our homeschool stuff go?

What I really need is just one more little extra room. Or a big one. Whichever.

Hold that. I actually do have one little extra room.

It used to be my sewing room. Then, just earlier this year, I put the homeschool cabinet in there, but that's in the living room now. Right now this little room has a lot of junk. Shelves we can't fit in Little Bit's room anymore because Bee's crib is in there now. Some of the shelves have things on them, some don't. And also my antique sewing machine cabinet, which I have always had a place for since we got married, is sitting out there.

I guess basically that room is furniture storage right now.

Do we have too much stuff? Well, yes. I truly think 95% of Americans have too much stuff. S built the shelves. His Daddy built one of them. The sewing machine was my grandmother's. It's not just junk I want to kick to the curb.

It's like a big giant rearranging puzzle THAT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT!!!

So either I need a different house, a room added on to this one, or a new idea.

I'm going to go to bed and pray for a new idea. There HAS to be a way to make this house work for us!

My brain hurts.
**************************************************

OK I'm back. I've been walking around the house in the dark trying to figure this out. Everyone is asleep and I'm the creeper who keeps popping into their doorways to stare at the furniture and see where I can put a bookshelf. I've got it figured out except one little bookshelf.

Seriously, can we just move out and then back in? Where is Ty Pennington when you need him?

Back At It

We just got home from a weekend away and it was wonderful! We went to see our good friends, the Holiday family, who moved away at the end of August. We got to spend the whole weekend together---kids playing, adults talking----so nice. The drive to Louisiana wasn't bad at all and the girls rode wonderfully in the van. Couldn't ask for a better weekend!

And now I find myself refreshed! (Forgot what that felt like!) I actually feel ready to get back to school tomorrow and work on the house (which we left clean--so nice to come home to!) and just get things done.

But tonight I have some questions for you:

1. HOW is it already the end of January????? This school year is flying by!

2. If you really want your daughters to grow up to be wives and mothers and homemakers--then what should their high school credits look like? Mrs. Holiday and I were talking about that this weekend. College is a great idea I suppose. I encourage the girls to think about "careers" or "jobs" where they could earn money and take care of their family such as photography, cosmetology, etc. Flexible things where they could work part time or from home if they needed to. But if we're serious about raising godly homemakers then what does that make high school look like? Personal finance or stewardship courses, homemaking classes, photography as an elective? What do you think?

3. How do you make a 45 year old house look new(er) without spending an arm and a leg? This is the Year of Fixing Up the House here at the House Revised. Thinking ahead to one day getting out from under a mortgage and being ready to go wherever the Lord should lead....no plans mind you just wanting to be not so tied down and burdened...so, where do you start on that? I mean besides pinning stuff on Pinterest. Ha!

Until I hear from you on this, I'll just resume pinning.

New Year, New Chores

I had an epiphany yesterday. I realized that my kids no longer need "little" chores. See, I used to assign things like, "clean off coffee table", or "sweep front hallway", or "wipe off light switch plates." But it occurred to me yesterday that they are quite capable, after being home with me all these years, of cleaning a whole room with very little instruction.

In fact, they hate for me to point out what needs to be done. It frustrates them. They see what needs to be done and want to do it in their own order. Fine then.

So yesterday I assigned a room to each girl. It is their job for the year. (At least for the rest of the school year.) Sweetheart, age 13, is in charge of the laundry room. That means:

1. keeping the room clean and picked up (a lot of clutter accumulates on the dryer)
2. washing her own clothes start to finish
3. washing the family's towels, napkins, and washcloths start to finish.

Basically anything in that room that needs picking up or cleaned is her job. I will still do our laundry, and Bee's laundry, and will help Little Bit with hers, but keeping stuff sorted and all is Sweetheart's job.

Sweetheart at the children's Christmas party at church.

She cleaned the room up today and it just makes me smile that it's not my responsibility anymore!!!

Little Bit is in charge of the front room. This room has been everything from a
play room to our homeschool room. It currently has a few uses. Our big black shelves are in there, so it's kind of the family library. All our books are in that room. Also, S's desk is in there for his preaching stuff. And also our TV/VCR/DVD player and Wii are in there. And the birds.

The beach tree we made for Daddy sitting in the front room in front of our bookshelves.

Little Bit's job (age 9) is just to keep the room picked up and tidy. She's to make sure the bookshelves are straight, the floor is swept (birds are very messy), and mess stays out of the room. It's the first room guests see when they walk in and also Daddy needs a neat room to work in. So that's her job.

The living room remains a whole family job. We pick it up everyday at 4:00 before Daddy gets home and again before bed. The girls both also clean up the dining room after meals and take turns cleaning their bathroom. Of course they are in charge of their rooms.

So that basically leaves me the kitchen and my bedroom/bathroom. Such a burden lifted!!

Does that sound like a lot of work for kids? Well the basic premise is: pick up after yourself. The rooms they are in charge of shouldn't take but a few minutes a day to tidy up. Of course they should be in charge of their own rooms--that's called responsibility. I'm working more to having them helping with things for the whole family instead of only worrying about themselves all the time.

Now I'm off to try to locate our bedroom under all the laundry. I just know its under there somewhere!

So When They Ask Me, I'll Remember

**Thanks, everyone, for the comments on my last post!

I've asked several older women about their younger years as a mom. I've asked them "how did you manage when your kids were little?" and questions like that.

They have all given me similar answers:

I have no idea.
Those years were a blur.
I honestly don't remember.

Well. I want to remember how I handled life and what we were doing when I had 3 at home. So today I thought I'd track our day. It was work. But now I've got it for posterity's sake. Can't say this is a "typical" day...but it was a day.

7:30  Wake up. I usually wake up at 6:45, but S got up early and it threw me off. Oh well. Lay in bed and check e-mail, Facebook, etc. Rather, lay in bed and squint at screen because I don't have my glasses.

7:45 get up and feed Baby Bee in the recliner.

8:00 get the roast going in the crock pot, make breakfast (canned biscuits, oatmeal, and green smoothies). What is that smell? Take out trash in kitchen. Oh. Its actually the burnt sweet potato that dripped in the oven yesterday. Nothing like sweet potato biscuits. Put stamps on bills and mail them.

--girls are dressing Bee during all this.

8:30 Sweetheart out of shower and getting dressed. Little Bit playing. Bee is in high chair. Oatmeal is cooling. Biscuits are baking.

Eat breakfast. Have pep talk with girls about Dad's declaration that the weekends are for FUN and the house shall be clean by Friday evening with groceries bought and errands run. Discuss picking things up as we go and how little things add up. Girls leave table immaculately clean.

8:50 My turn in the shower. Sweetheart finishing breakfast and taking care of baby. One of the perks of having olders and baby at same time.

9:10 I'm out and dressed. Bee is ready to nurse. Little Bit is playing school with her dolls. Wants preschool workbook. I remember preschool computer games. Find CD and direct girls how to install it while nursing. It works. Can't believe it--it's from 2002.

9:30 Start school.

10:25 Bee falls asleep in my lap during reading.

10:35 Sent Little Bit for play break while I work on reading questions with Sweetheart. She does not remember what she read. I send her teary-eyed back to re-read. Note to self: girls need to go to bed earlier tonight.

11:10 Bee wakes up. Time for math--both girls at once. Otherwise known as suicide.

12:15 Sweetheart is half done with math. Little Bit all done. Play break for all!
Bee plays in her bed while I clean out her drawers. I notice Sweetheart never made her bed which was huge part of our pep talk at breakfast. Sigh.

12:35 Lunch. Leftovers from restaurant for Little Bit, leftover hot dogs for Sweetheart and me, sweet potato and applesauce for Bee. Work on trying to get Bee to use her left hand to pick up cereal. Girls are cheering for right hand. Suckers.

1:10 It stopped raining. Outside to ride bikes because Mama has been thinking Sweetheart needs more exercise.

1:20 Down to Grandpa's house to see if he can raise Little Bit's seat and handlebars. He does, after much searching for the right sized Allen wrench which we find in S's toolbox. Now she can keep this bike a while longer.

Girls ride through rain puddles and get very wet. Bee is at Grandma's playing with her in the floor.

1:45 Back inside for more school. Time for Bee's nap. First, girls must change wet clothes.

2:15 Finish feeding Bee and lay her down in her bed.

2:40 Finish reading and history with Little Bit. Sweetheart finishes piano.

Switch laundry.

2:45 Spelling with Little Bit. Sweetheart working independently.

2:50 Done with school for Little Bit and she is in tears and doesn't know why. Remind self children need to go to bed early tonight. Baby still sleeping. Sweetheart still working. I clean part of kitchen.

3:00 Decide to get read-aloud done while Bee is sleeping.

3:55 Finish reading (we are behind so we read a long time). Finish kitchen. Sweetheart finishes school.

4:05 Bee wakes up. Little Bit practices piano. Sweetheart still finishing school. We didn't finish all the subjects but we seem to have run out of day. Oh well. Tomorrow.

4:20 Bee is finished eating (again). Clean off our bed of all the stacks I made while cleaning Bee's drawers. Finish drawers.

4:30 Girls have abandoned baby to go play. Hear her fuss because she is alone in room. Go sit and play with her.

4:45 Go check on neighbor who is 80, a widow, and has an infected tooth. I worry when I don't see her car move for a day or so. She invites us in. It's a marvelous, breakable, fancy Christmas wonderland in her house. My children are in awe. Little Bit is scared of the dogs though and shakes for several minutes even after neighbor puts them out.

5:05 Home to pick up living room. Contact senator about UN treaty.

5:20 Sister is here. She eats with us every Monday night. She plays with Bee while I peel potatoes for dinner.

And that's it. S got home at 6:20 and we all ate and well...you know how the evenings are. The girls didn't get into bed particularly early, but hopefully they will sleep well and be less teary tomorrow.

Also I think I've figured out why the housework doesn't get done.

And why it can all turn into a blur if we don't slow down and enjoy it.

Fun Fridays

It just sort of worked out this way. Every other Friday, we will be meeting with friends to do 2 fun things.

One thing is our Keepers of the Faith club. Last year, my girls and the girls from our friends the Holiday family formed a Keepers at Home club. It was awesome!

Our girls and the Holiday girls showing off their club work for Pawpaw Holiday last year. 

But the Holidays moved a little over a week ago. What would we do about our club now???

Well, before we knew they were going to move, Carrie had already asked about maybe joining our club. So...now it's Carrie's family and us. Which, even though we miss our friends, is really nice. I am very glad we didn't have to stop the club because we all really liked it. (And the Holiday family found some clubs in their new hometown they can look into.)

(We still really miss them though.)

So last Friday we had our first meeting of our "new" club. We just sort of explained what the club was about to the girls, talked about some of the badges they will be earning this year, and did a craft. Oh, and I served awesome brownies that looked like meatloaf. Yum!

 Somehow I missed getting a picture of Emily. We had the girls make the first page in a scrapbook for their Keepers activities. Now we just have to be really good about taking pictures at our meetings so they will have stuff to scrapbook about!

 Matt kept Bee busy by reading her a Lego catalog or something. All I know is I overheard, "See? That's the BAD guy. We don't like him!" So, she was really getting an education during the meeting! :)

And when she got tired of Legos, we found a way to contain her.

The other fun thing we will be doing every other Friday is science. A friend from our old church is homeschooling her daughter and niece. This is their first year homeschooling and the girls are really de-toxing from public school. Working together is seen as cheating. She asked them to write 5 sentences in their journal about their favorite color. She told them, "write what you think. you cannot do this wrong" and they were just paralyzed.

Well, we are both using Apologia's Elementary Anatomy and Physiology this year. I really wanted to make sure the first meeting was fun. They need to know school can be fun! (And you can still learn!)

We did the first experiment together, which is to make an edible cell.

Anything involving jello and candy sounds like fun, right?

And then, just to kick things off--we traced their bodies and had them glue cut outs of their organs in them.

So, we will get together twice a month to do the experiments and other fun stuff with them. Oh, and go on some field trips too.

Looking forward to these two fun things this school year!

Oh! And H-Mama, I have a fun field trip planned for us too when we get to Japan, OK?

Keepers of the Home

Not really sure where I first heard about the Keepers of the Faith clubs, but I'm sure it was from blogs. A good friend was also aware of them, having some real life friends in another state who had participated in them. This last fall we decided to start a club for our (collective) 6 girls.

The boys' club is called "Contenders of the Faith" and the girls' club is called "Keepers at Home." The different thing about these clubs is they are parent-run. There is no national or local organization over you. They are completely autonomous. Very appealing to me! You know we did homeschool Girl Scouts for one year. Shudder. And thought seriously about doing American Heritage Girls. While I was a fan of the IDEA of AHG, we weren't a fan of sending our 4th grader (at the time) off on multiple camping trips away from us. Families, just like in GS, were not invited and I have a problem with that.

We kicked our club off in October. There are SO many badges the girls can earn. And that was Sweetheart's favorite part of GS--earning those badges! The great thing about Keepers is that it is for girls ages 4-18. So everyone can participate together. We decided since our families were going camping anyway, we might as well have the girls earn their camping badges.

We had them meet the requirements (setting up a tent, planning meals, helping pack, unpack, and clean up camp) and they were having so much fun it didn't even seem like work. (the 6th child was only 1 1/2 on this trip so she isn't an "official" club member. But try telling her that!)

From there, the other mom and I just got together periodically and planned badges that the girls could meet requirements for quickly. I'm pregnant and we didn't have a lot of time to plan before we started so we were all about getting them some easy badges this year! We found a few they had already met requirements for (hers, because they participate in a music co-op and ours for pet care) and presented all their earned badges in December at a special ceremony.

We mostly worked on crafty-type badges this year (plastic canvas, rubber stamping, etc.) but there are SO MANY other kinds of badges I want to explore next year. There are personal goal badges like organization, Bible study badges, skills (first aid, etc.)...all kinds of things!

We ordered the sashes this year and presented them with their year end badges last week at a restaurant. It was really neat to have the Dads there to pray over them and affirm how hard they have worked on learning skills that will help them as wives and mothers.

I'm excited about next year with this club. We will most likely have some new members. We will definitely be better planned. We did a good job this year, but we learned a lot along the way. These clubs have so much potential and you can just take them in any direction you want to--focusing on what is most needed for your children and family.

Here is the website if you are interested!