The Strategy Was a Success

Well, today was the day I was determined to be ultra-productive!

And, if you remember, I had a little strategy planned to get a certain child moving in the mornings.

I'm sharing this not to shame my daughter, but to offer encouragement to any other mamas who might have a child like mine. The kind where organization is an issue. The kind who need training. I get her. I AM her. It was a mystery to me how my sister kept her half of the room so clean and mine always looked like a bomb went off. A real mystery.

Our brains just don't work the same way as other people's brains do. But that isn't an excuse! It's just a reason. I firmly believe that I can train my daughter and help her to figure out more organized ways of being before she leaves this home. I don't want her to struggle with this her whole life.

And I might feel guilty and like I'm a real parenting failure....except I also gave birth to S's mini-me. Our other daughter keeps her room practically perfect with no prompting. She will never need to be  taught how to be organized--she was born that way.

But for us more creative types--organization can be a mystery. And I? I have unlocked the keys to the universe for my daughter.

I sat up last night and typed up a little sheet with 2 columns:

Place & Activity

I listed, for example, "BATHROOM" and then in the 2nd column, all the things that one should get done while in the bathroom including "take your dirty clothes and wet towels with you when you leave." Then, I listed all the things one should accomplish in their bedroom BEFORE they come to breakfast.

After her shower, I looked into the bathroom and saw this: (cue angels singing)

No puddles of water on the floor. No dirty clothes or towel. No stuff all over the cabinet. Shower curtain closed. Shampoo bottles not laying in the middle of the floor. (Seriously.) That bathroom was left company-ready!!!

And when she came be-bopping to the breakfast table, dressed, hair fixed....I peeked into her room:

Bed made. NOTHING on the floor. Desk ready for school. Oh my word y'all!

Here is the most amazing part: That girl was ready in about 30 minutes and we started school at 9:00am. There was no back-tracking. She did everything that needed to be done in one area before moving on to another area. She was so proud too. I know I always felt relieved when someone helped me be organized. I felt lost on how to get started until someone showed me. I get her.

I don't know if it was a one-hit wonder or the start of something grand, but that little list made a WORLD of difference at our house today.

Just a little help ordering her motions was all she needed. A little logical thinking that would have never occurred to her on it's own.

Thankful and happy tonight!

Tomorrow I'll share about how our plan to be super productive panned out...

New Week = New Strategy

I have such cute pictures to share with you. I just have to go into the other room and get the cord, attach my phone to the computer and load them. Then, I have to insert them into the post. I guess you can tell I'm willing to type all they out more than I'm willing to DO it.

Tomorrow is the start of a new week! Even though it should be week 4 of school, it'll be week 3. We lost a few days in there somewhere. But I'm glad we are starting fresh at the beginning of a new week. We don't have very many places to go this week, so I'm looking forward to being really, really productive!

One certain child of mine is usually the first one up and always the last one ready to start the day. Why? Because she wastes motion. She showers and then leaves the bathroom to go get dressed. Then later she has to go back to the bathroom and wash her face. Then, after breakfast, she has to brush her teeth.

Folks, our home is only 1500 something square feet, but she's walking MILES every day! So I'm going to start working with her on doing things in a more logical order. This is not something you have to teach every kid, but this one? Yes. Back when they had checklists for their "morning chores" or "morning routine", I did this for her. She just needs a little reminding is all.

Also, I'm hoping to spend significantly less time looking for things this week. Do you want to know where we finally found her reading book? UNDER the rug in her room. How does one even DO that?

I'm looking forward to a fresh start, lots of good school work completed (who cares in what order) and lots of time spent with my girls every day. I love my family so much and am so thankful to be here with them. What a blessing!

Tentative Title for Next Post: Reality Hits

If I Ever Get a Spare Minute

Wow. I am really busy.

Not "man I have a lot of things going on and I obviously have over-committed myself" busy.

Nope. I'm just plain ol' "just trying to get the basics done" busy!

Bee has complicated things, is what I'm saying.

(What a wonderful complication!!!)

Little Bit LOVES being a big sister!

I must admit, I had a little bit of sorrow over my inability to really do school well. After a less than stellar year last year due to pregnancy and exhaustion, I was really looking forward to digging back into things this year. Getting back to my old self. I really do love teaching.

But I realized over the first week of school that I just wasn't going to be able to do things the way I used to. And I was a little sad for a while.

Now I have moved past that. I am determined to give my older 2 daughters the best learnin' I can give them, while taking the best care of Baby Bee that I possibly can.

My plan? PRAYER!

By the way, Bee did (accidentally) roll over today AND learn to suck on her toes. So, there's always that.

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Seventh grade is really something. The demands are much greater in Core F than they were in Core D+E last year. We are really feeling the change. I love it--Sweetheart is learning to research and write--such good stuff! But wow.

And with all the nagging I have to do at that girl to keep her room clean and pick up after herself and sometimes I feel like I'm the NEGATIVITY CHANNEL--All Nagging, All the Time! With all that, do you know what she is worried about?

Everyone has better handwriting than her!

Sweetheart: Here, Mom, I'm done. It looks awful and I really tried.
Me: What do you mean? It looks great!
Sweetheart: My cursive is not good. Every 13 year old has better handwriting than me!
Me: (wide eyed) Wow--you've seen EVERY 13 year old's handwriting??
Sweetheart: Moooom!
Me: OK--whose handwriting is better that you've seen?
Sweetheart: (lists 3 friends)
Me: Hmm.

Baby Sweetheart--before she had so many concerns. in life. 

So I go digging up my 6th or 7th grade folder. Yes, my mother still had it. My handwriting was pretty bad. Sweetheart said it was beautiful. I told her it wasn't awful, but it sure got better as I got older. Hers will too. I had to write in cursive from 4th grade on, and she's just now being made to write in cursive this year.

Then she asked if she could spend some of her birthday money on a handwriting book so she could practice. Why does that break my heart? I don't want her to feel badly and concern herself over something like that.

Furthermore, why can't she be concerned about her room instead????

Ug. You could not pay me to be 13 again.

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Today I:

*taught school
*cooked 3 meals
*took 2 kids to piano practice
*went to the chiropractor (He said my neck was "pretty jacked up." That cracked me up!)
*wiped the table
*washed the dishes once
*went swimming with the big girls for a few minutes (thanks Sweetie for taking Bee from me!)
*helped Little Bit write a letter

It's after 10pm and I still need to:

*pay some bills
*eat a snack
*go to bed

Accomplishing something every day,

Your busy friend Brenda

I Have Many Titles

Lost and Found.

Stop and Start.

In Which the School Year Does Not Get Off the Way I Envisioned.

Pick one, any title will work. We were off school today to help our good friends pack up and move away. Enjoyed being off school. Did not enjoy why. The collective girls got to play together all afternoon and then we all went to one of our regular hang-outs to eat. And then we said good-bye.

Thankfully, we have reservations to go camping together again this October. So---six weeks or so and we'll get to see each other again.

It doesn't change the fact that we will walk through the doors at church every week now and they won't be there. Our lives just changed for sure. It hasn't fully hit me yet.

While we were at their house today I got the call that my uncle had died. This is the uncle who taught me how to tie my shoes when I was 5. He teased a lot. I always liked him when I was little. I started to tell funny stories about him in the car to the girls and then realized I was going to cry if I kept talking so I quit. But he was funny. Funny and sad.

He was married for a while and we didn't like his step-kids. We were thrown together with them and expected to play of course. Because that's how it is with kids. Mostly, he was a bachelor. And he lived alone. My grandmother worried about him a lot. Everyone else had families. He had a lot of nieces and nephews.

He would hand my older cousin some money and tell her to go buy us all Christmas presents. We found out later that it wasn't much money to buy for that many people. So THAT is why we each got a pair of crazy socks or pantyhose. She did a great job shopping for him.

One year he made the mistake of spouting off that he hated Brut cologne. So we all--every single member of our extended family--bought him a bottle of Brut that year for Christmas. It was beyond funny watching him open them all.

I would go stay with my grandmother for a week or two in the summers when I was 14 or 15 years old. Old enough to go alone and stay but too young to have a life or a job or a car so going there was exciting. One morning when I was there my grandmother went out on the front porch to sweep and nearly had a heart attack. My uncle had brought his laundry by and left it on the porch. He was pretty round most of my life and he had stuffed all his dirty clothes into one pair of his overalls and tossed them up there. She said she thought a dead man was laying on her porch.

He was bald just like my dad, but actually a bit balder. He ALWAYS wanted us to say HE had more hair than our Daddy, but we wouldn't. So one time he met us at the door with a wig on his head and said, "Who has more hair now??" Silly man.

He didn't go to church and I think that worried my grandmother more than anything else. I hope he got things right before he passed away but I don't know.

He was the baby brother. He should still be here. I hate cancer.

And so we will be off school again tomorrow to go be with our family and have a memorial service. Then we will come home and S will start preaching at church. And we will start school (again).

I think I've had enough changes to my life for now.

God Cares About Little Things

Last week I boxed up Bee's newborn clothes and mailed them to a friend. Friend is due in about 3 weeks. Friend needed those clothes.
The postman brought her a crushed, empty box yesterday. All the clothes gone!

Will you say a prayer for those baby clothes to be found and delivered to my friend? The God of the universe is able!