New Year – New Hopes, New Goals

This sweet praying angel is one of my favorite things to bring out at Christmas time.  She was given to me by a dear friend, and I imagine her prayers are my own, but she’s a bit more diligent about it than I am.  :)  Doesn’t she just seem so peaceful and trusting, even in the middle of unending supplication?  I may leave her out for all of 2011.

I know what she and I are praying for as this new year begins:  peace, grace, focus… and a little joy would be nice too. (A very little joy, wrapped up in a blanket, and looking an awful lot like a baby would certainly be nice, wouldn’t it? ;) This might take a miracle, but my sweet angel and I will continue to pray.)

I’m in the middle of drafting a post about the routine and rhythm we’ve developed over the past couple of months, so I won’t go into that too much here – but I do hope to use my time more wisely this year; and plan to set aside time on a regular basis to see what’s working, what needs to change, and whether or not my priorities are what they ought to be.

There are a few things I am going to work on, and I’m going to try to schedule most of these into my weekly calendar somehow:

• I need to find make time to exercise at least 3 times a week.
• Read daily to M (the snuggled-up kind of reading, not just bedtime stories or our chapter books at lunch).
• Prepare and actually do more activities pertaining to our faith.
• Organize about 5 areas of our home that really need it and are making me crazy.  Winter should be a great time to do this, but I’m trying to figure out how to do it and still have time for everything else…
• Make a decision about preschool this fall – I really thought we’d already made a decision (to not do preschool outside of home), but an enlightening conversation with family members over Christmas has turned it into a question again (ugh).
• Really sit down and form my thoughts about homeschooling (pros and cons) in a way that will help me explain, out loud, how I feel, and help others to understand. 
• In regards to preschool activities with M:
  • More reading of *good* books – I recently went through the book, Books Children Love: A Guide to the Best Children's Literature, and marked a bunch that sound enjoyable and are on M’s level.  The book was written to help Charlotte Mason followers find good literature for children instead of “twaddle”.  I found it very helpful, and found myself becoming more interested in Charlotte Mason and her ideas about education. 
  • Some book activities, hopefully, in relation to the above.  The planning of this, for one child, is a bit daunting for me.  We’ll see as we read, whether or not I can come up with activities.  (Yes, I know about Five in a Row, and should really look into it more.  I’m kind of stubborn when it comes to spending $$ on things I could do myself, and stubborn about planning activities that I know will appeal to M – he’s a custom-job kind of kid.)
  • More gross motor activities and exercise time with M twice a week.
  • More art (is that possible?) – meaning more looking at beautiful art, learning a tiny bit about various artists, art museum trips, more learning about various techniques, etc.  Books Children Love, was helpful in this area, and lists art books and the ages each one appeals to. 
  • More music – our first step in this is a fun local class once a week.  We may not make it to all the classes, as it falls on the same day that we do other things, but I’m looking forward to garnering good ideas from it when we are able to go.
  • More hands-on work with science, since this is M’s favorite thing. 
• In regards to blogging:
  • More posts about faith-related activities for preschoolers.
  • Posts about depression, especially post-partum depression – there’s a lot of good writing out there about this, and I’m sure I don’t have anything new to add to the conversation, but it’s just something I want to do as it seems there’s a lot of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge among people in my personal life.  It’s another “I’ll write it all out so I know how to explain it out loud” kind of thing.
  • A series of posts about homeschooling books I’ve read – there are 3 very good ones, in particular, that I want to make notes about.
• And, finally, after all of this, I want to work on an opportunity that has presented itself to make a little $$ from home, while working on something I love… again, it’s a matter of working out a time for this and scheduling it in.  I’ll keep you all informed about this as any progress is made, because it may be beneficial to a lot of homeschool mamas. :)

Whew.

Any plans on your part for the new year?  I’d love to hear about them!

I hope your 2011 is off to a wonderful start and that all your dreams for the year will come true. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

♥ School ♥ – week 2, part 1

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”

– Henry Ward Beecher

So, I’m playing around with what to title my school posts.  I’m looking for something catchy, and I’d like to make reference to the quote above, since I love it and it’s what I try to keep in mind while we are “doing school”: listening with my heart, following my maternal instincts, etc.  However, Mama’s School of Love doesn’t quite sound right, hee hee. ;) Any suggestions?

Wondering why this is just “part 1” of week 2?  Well, we started week 1 out with colds, and ended week 2 with an out-of-town funeral.  My husband’s very sweet uncle, Bud, passed away on Wednesday.  So, between recovering from being sick and then packing and heading out of town on the spur-of-the-moment, only a tiny bit of school was actually done.  I’m going to carry my plans for the week over into another week.  Honestly, I’ve been running behind on everything since my grandmother’s funeral at the beginning of the summer.  Another funeral and all the stuff attached to such an event just makes it harder.  I hope to get back on track next week!

For now, I thought I’d give a quick explanation of how I have M’s shelf activities set up each week.  I bought these last spring, but have not gotten around to posting about them until now.  Here’s how they looked over the summer, for the most part (this was right before M’s birthday, so I had cleaned off a couple of shelves to make room for new toys):

I have been playing a trial and error game with rotating M’s toys on these shelves; I’m not sure it’s working like I envisioned, but I plod on anyway.  Now that we are doing more preschool-ish activities again I’m using the shelves on the right for school activities and the ones on the left continue to hold toys.  

Some things are out permanently (more or less): the music instruments and songbook (shown on the top left in the photo above, but have been relegated to the corner on the floor at this point); M’s ABC collage and trace book; his phonics box (mentioned in this post); and whatever math work we are doing, which is currently bead bars and number cards.  I also have his flannel board tucked in beside the shelf, and all our flannel board sets in the folders on the bottom shelf. The remainder of the shelves hold rotated activities.

I’m trying to rotate a total of 6 to 8 activities every week.  I put out 3 or 4 activities each Monday and 3 or 4 every Thursday.  Each activity stays out for one week, unless it’s something he’s really loved and shows an interest in continuing to do.  Or, if it’s a one time thing – a craft or just a little something fun – then obviously once it’s done, it’s off the shelf.  If I have something to replace it with I will, but if not I just move everything around so the shelf looks full again. :)  Initially I planned to only use the top two shelves for school activities, but I can not put out enough activities for M, as he absolutely loves them, so I decided to use the entire 4 shelves of the one unit.

Recent activities on our shelves

I’m trying to use more attractive baskets and trays for his activities and I do think it helps grab his attention when things are presented in a pleasing way.  I made this cute little “work mat” for him too, for when he’s doing something potentially messy (using markers, etc.).

Most of the activities I set out are related to language or math work we’ve done, or are fine motor skill practice of some sort, for which I get most of my ideas from Montessori practical life activities.  I also try to include one sensory bin or sensory activity per week, although this doesn’t always happen.

The activities on M’s shelves are meant to be semi-independent work.  This means it’s something he knows how to do and can do completely on his own, or it’s something he will bring to me for instruction on how to do it, then complete it on his own.  I have to say I am usually in the room with him doing something and we keep up a running conversation regarding what he’s doing and how he’s doing, with a lot of me jumping in and out of any particular activity as needed.  There are a few activities that totally engross him and it’s then that I say a prayer of thanks and try to think in something more than 20 second intervals. ;)  We also have “together” activities, not on the shelves, which are things that we, well, do together.

I think this all sounds like more work than it actually is.  I actually have fun planning and preparing M’s “work” for him, both shelf activities and our “together” activities.  And I love, love, love spending time with him actually doing them.  I just wish I didn’t need to sleep so that I could have everything perfect, all the time.  But I can’t.  I’m already tired enough. ;)

I’m linking this up to Preschool Corner, and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Go check them out to see what other moms are up to with their kiddos!

Have a beautiful day! :)
 

Do Simplicity, Focus, and Recollection Characterize your life?

No?  Huh.  Mine either.  But it kind of sounds nice, doesn’t it?

This is a question that I’ve been thinking about lately, and it came from a list that is used as an aid in an Examination of Conscience. 

An Examination of Conscience is pretty much what it sounds like – taking a few minutes at the end of the day to think about the choices and decisions you’ve made throughout the day, as well as your thoughts and actions, and seeing how they line up with what you believe is God’s will for your life.  Some things are pretty easy – the next time M sprinkles glitter all over the kitchen floor I’ll try to remember gentleness and patience are a better path to take than yelling and turning into Crazy Mommy.  And some things take a bit more soul-searching – did I spend my time wisely today?  Did laziness keep me from completing all the *reasonable* duties of the day, or was I honestly trying to do too much? 

It’s nice to do this on a daily basis – improvement in our (my!) spiritual life will only happen if we are conscious of our weaknesses.  

The main thing to remember in order to not get discouraged when I have several bad days in a row is that there is always grace.  Grace to start over again, and get back on track. 

 

Moderation in all Things

This aid in an Examination of Conscience was written by Joseph Michalak, and based on the virtues (patience, love, temperance, hope, faith, etc.).  It asks a series of questions for each particular virtue, and assists one in thinking about the day.  This particular question comes from the section on temperance, or balance – something we are always talking about and striving for, right?  That elusive balance that will make everything go smoothly and everyone happy forever and ever.  The end. :)

There are several other good questions in this section too; questions like…

• Do I live a blanced and integrated life?  Do I recognize the signs of imbalance?
• What is a healthy pace of life for me?
• Am I gentle, especially in teaching and in giving correction?
• Do I find myself preoccupied with what others think of me?
• Do I aim at excellence in those things God has given me to do?
• Am I at home with silence?

 

Tranquility of Mind

But the one in the title of this post is the one I can’t stop thinking about.  Do simplicity, focus, and recollection characterize my life? I wasn’t even sure what was meant by “recollection”.  Here’s the definition:

Main Entry: rec·ol·lec·tion

Pronunciation: \ˌre-kə-ˈlek-shən\

Function: noun

Date: 1624

1 a : tranquillity of mind b : religious contemplation

Life never seems simple, but why shouldn’t it be?  Why shouldn’t we be tranquil and given to contemplation?  Why should it be so hard to just say no to some things? 

 

Having a Plan

I love to plan.  I actually have been known to spend so much time and energy in making plans that I’m worn out before we even begin doing anything.  I think having a plan for our days is a good thing, to the extent that it brings a sense of order to our life and our home, and leads to simplicity and peace. 

However, this is seldom the case with my planning, and I know I’m not alone here.  Why does having a plan have to mean enrolling my child in every available activity this summer, and then spending time rushing around everywhere?  Sometimes we moms even get anxious if we are facing time alone with our children and have no set plan. 

Well.  I’ve started taking some decisive actions to begin living this kind of life.  It won’t happen all at once, and I’m sure things will have to be tweaked here and there, but I’m aiming for peace in my heart and in my home.  A lot of this will be changing habits, creating a more orderly home, freeing up time, being quieter and more thoughtful throughout the day, focusing on what’s important and trusting that God will help me do what’s necessary each day in order to meet this goal.  Or at least get close to it. ;)

I guess that’s my teaser for the series I’ll be writing detailing these changes.  Stay tuned!

Have a beautiful and peaceful day! :)

Tot School Re-Organization

I’ve been taking a break from Tot School posts the last few weeks, and honestly it’s felt good.  So good in fact, that I’ve been wondering if I should start them up again.  And then, I wonder what would be the point of my blog if I didn’t write about what we do in Tot School?  And then I re-read a lot of comments from previous TS posts and, well, I have to say comment-love is a powerful drug. ;) 

Do your school re-cap posts each week take you forever  to write??  I’ve saved a tremendous amount of energy and time by not writing these posts… it’s really amazing actually.   Maybe it’s just me, but one TS post will take me an entire evening to write.  All the photo editing, photo organizing, linking to other sites, blah blah blah.  If you have any tips on making this simpler, I’m all ears!  Maybe it’s just that I’m a born talker, er rambler. :)

I am in the middle of assessing and re-thinking how we spend our TS time and how I have it organized.  This post will most likely be a lot of thinking out loud and more rambling.  So, bear with me.  :) 

During my pre-Christmas blog break I created a “master list” spreadsheet of all our school items – anything we have that we use for school.  I tagged each item with a subject or skill area (or two), added notes, and a check  box to indicate whether or not it is an activity that M can do independently.  (Whether or not it’s something he enjoys doing independently is another matter altogether!)

So, here’s our new plan…

I’m going to set out 5 to 7 independent or minimal-mama-involvement activities for him each week, changing a few of them up during the week as he finishes the original ones (ie. cut and paste sheets).   Many of these will be things like his Melissa and Doug toys, fine motor skill projects, etc. 

We also re-organized his space with the shelving.  The little cupboard on the lower right houses all our games now, and we are having many fun evenings as a family because of this easy access.  There are matching games, homemade games, card games, board games, dominoes, bingo, Barrel of Monkeys… just lots of fun stuff! :)  The top of the right side holds M’s ABC book, his ABC lapbooks, all our flannelboard sets, a file folder with activities related to our current theme, and our current sensory bin (not all of this is in the pic, sorry).

On the left side, on the top are all his musical instruments (guitar to the side) and our songs and poems binder.

Then, on the shelves below this are his current activities.  I will most likely keep the pipecleaner letters and sand tray on there all the time.  Other than that, the activities on the shelves will be featured on my weekly TS post.  However, because these are things that M will be doing on his own mostly, photos will pretty much be hit or miss.  I’ll try to take pictures of the actual activities, but catching him doing it is another matter.

While we are talking about taking photos I should mention that I’ve decided to always ask M’s permission to take a picture of him doing our school things.  I think the poor kid feels a little pressured sometimes, or less important than the blog, when I’m constantly snapping pictures.  I’ve thought about this and I have to say I would not want someone taking my picture all the time as I’m trying to learn something new.  It’s so easy to forget to respect the fact that kids are little people with feelings too.  So, I’m working hard on this, and you may end up seeing fewer pics of M in my posts.

I’m also going to bring back our one morning a week that we spend about 1/2 hour together “doing” school.  We both used to love this time together.  But M was asking to “do school” all the time!  Hence, the activity shelves.  Yet, it’s not fair to M to set things out on the shelves for us to do together and then not find the time (right now!) to do them; not to mention it’s creating stress for me, what with running around trying to get chores done so I can do these things with M.

The other days I’m going to focus our time together on reading, music, sensory activities, baking, free-playing, art, and our fun science experiments.  Many of these will most likely have their own post if I post about them, and I’m not sure I’ll include them in my TS posts.  It would just be one more thing to link up to. 

We continue to enjoy our calendar and Bible Story time together every morning as well as our quick “morning message”, and I want to make our Bible story activities  a priority over any other schoolwork each week.  So if I have a craft or game or whatever, planned to go along with a Bible story we’ve read, and we only have 20 minutes that week to do school together, then that’s what we’ll end up doing!

Whew.  Did I cover everything I want to do?  This is one of those posts that are mainly for me – so I can go back and read about exactly what I want to do and remember my priorities!  Thanks for hanging on to the end. :)  Any suggestions for making things simpler are always welcome!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Our New Morning Routine

http://tiredneedsleep.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-calendar-free-printables.htmlWe’ve got a great new 20 minute routine in the mornings that is getting our days off to a great start, so of course I have to share!

I recently read this very interesting article about helping children develop literacy skills, in particular doing away with “letter of the week” type activities and helping them learn their letters in context. Now, I can’t say I’m ready to do away with learning individual letters… M loves the letter lapbooks I’ve made for him (and I really do intend to make more!), as well as the letter collage pages he gets every week. But, I loved the idea of the “morning message” on the blackboard. I don’t know… call me crazy… but I love using M’s chalkboard – it’s just so teacherish. ;)

So, we start off by putting the current date on our magnetic calendar, and we talk about what day “today” is, what “yesterday” was, and what “tomorrow” will be. (Naptime is making a comeback, thank you dear God, and occurs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – so we discuss whether today is a nap day or not first thing in the morning so there are no surprises later on!)

We sometimes do the weather chart too, but really there’s only so much you can say about winter in Minnesota. Is it cold today? Yes. Is there snow? Yes.
Then we head over to the blackboard side of M’s easel. I write something along the lines of “Happy New Year!” or M gives me something to write, or some days it’s something like this:I say each letter as I draw it, then we go over them together with a cute little pointer (a pencil with an apple topper – also very teacherish, don’t you think?). I do it, then M does it, then I pick a “mystery letter” for him to find. Then he has to find all the “s”s, or whatever, on the board. This is a lot of fun and he always looks forward to it.

Soon thereafter we read a Bible story from this children’s Bible. We started at the beginning and read one short story a day. He is really enjoying this too, and I give a one or two sentence recap of the story from the previous day. We are covering them fairly quickly, but I intend to pick one or two stories every couple of weeks and start doing our “Sunday School on Fridays” again (which I will be posting) with crafts and activities to help reinforce some of the stories we’ve read.

Then we read this rather long prayer that we used to say every morning at breakfast, but somehow had gotten out of the habit. This is also when we pray things like “help us remember to pick up our toys and not argue with Mommy today”. Believe me, I’ll take all the help I can get!

Here’s the prayer, if any of you are interested… it’s pretty sweet:

“Jesus, I thank you for each new day.
I offer myself to you,
and all the things I shall do –
my work, my study, my play.
I thank you for the many good things you give me
and for all the kind people who take care of me.
Bless me as I begin this day,
be with me at home, at school, and at play.

May all I do honor you.
May your dear mother Mary
and my guardian angel protect and help me.
I believe in you.
I hope in you.

I love you,

Jesus, my friend and my God!”

Have a beautiful day! :)

Thursday Thinking – My Top Ten List

Monica wrote a wonderful post here, a long, long time ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. When I am frazzled and feel like I’m trying to do too many things at once (yet without getting anything done) and any sense of priorities and time management have long since been thrown out the window, this idea of a daily checklist pops into my head. I know I need that sense of direction and some sort of guide for how to spend my time.

I had one of those days yesterday. Too much to do and too little time to do it all, and I seemed to be spending all my time and energy on trivial things. M wanted me to spend time with him, and all I could do was get irritated… with him and with myself. I wanted to spend some special time with M, but I also wanted (and needed) to do a dozen other things. I was running crazily around with the subtle feeling that I was, just maybe, making the wrong sacrifices in order to get less important things checked off of the to-do list.

I sat down at the kitchen table and finally just did it – wrote my daily top ten list – and it took me all of 5 minutes. 5 minutes of a little clearer vision and some listening to what my heart was trying to tell my brain. :)

Shortly after writing this, I sat down again and tried to place each item in order of importance. Things like tidying up and making a healthy dinner are not on the list, even though they are important to me, but these are things that are already built into my days and are habit and routine already.

Ready? Here it is…

1. Quiet time for prayer/reflection/Bible – aim for both morning and evening, but at least morning. 10 minutes minimum, most days I should be able to spend a good 20 minutes at a time though.

2. Meaningful time with my husband. Connecting with him and paying attention to him and even (gasp!) doing something nice just for him each day. I have to admit I find it easy to put him last.

3. Morning prayer with M – something short, but to get us both off on the right foot together first thing. And, to raise an awareness in him of the importance of this. We used to do this at breakfast, but lately we’ve gotten out of the habit as M isn’t hungry early on and when he’s ready to eat we just say a quick grace, nothing more (I eat much earlier).

4. Spend 20 minutes, minimum, reading books with M, preferably while cuddling. Books at bedtime don’t count towards this.

5. Spend 20 minutes playing with M, doing something he wants to do. (Most likely this will be tot school activities, since this is what he loves to do together, but I will not push it… it’s too easy to make that more important than it should be for a 3 year old).

6. Ensure that housekeeping chores on the list for the day are done.

7. Rest/quiet time for M (and probably me) each afternoon – at least 30 minutes.

8. Some sort of art, craft, or sensory activity every day.

9. Music time – anything simple – putting on a favorite cd and playing a game or dancing, learning a new song, playing with our instruments, etc.

10. Outside time if weather permits.

Number 10 will be a higher priority in spring. In Minnesota it just isn’t always possible to go out in the winter… my cut off is 30 degrees, which is actually pretty warm by MN standards. I know kids at school go out in much colder weather. I don’t like to be cold, I’d prefer to hibernate to tell you the truth. ;)

Many of these will be accomplished in the regular course of our day… if we go out and play in the snow, that’s outside time, sensory time, and play time together all in one. And the Art Box will normally take care of number 8. I just like having them written down so I have hard evidence of what’s important to me and a guide for how to best manage my time each day.

And, just so you know, I DO spend time with M each day, usually several stretches of time throughout the day, but it’s hard for me to put that first. I always think I’ll play with him after I get something important done. Having it written down is a reminder that it really is more important than a lot of the other things. And, I’m trying to remember what Maryanne pointed out in this awesome post of hers… that spending time with your child early on in the day makes it easier for them to spend time on their own later. They need that attention and affection from us, and it’s hard for them to do much without us if that need hasn’t been met.

And, as a side note, you can see blogging didn’t make the list at all. As much as I enjoy it, it could become a full-time job if I let it, and that’s not what I want, not to mention not what’s best for my family! However, I’m pretty sure I’ll still find time for it (obviously I did today!). :)

I also have a list of priorities for each week (which I’ve had for years, updating it occasionally)– what needs to be done at home, a meal plan, activities outside of home, errands, etc. I plan to post about this sometime soon. A new year around the corner is always a good time to think about these things!

I’d love to hear what your daily top ten consists of!!

Have a beautiful Christmas Eve! :)

Our New ABC Book

I have finally come to terms with the fact that I just. do. not. have. time. to make lapbooks for M for every single letter of the alphabet. At least not unless I want to take, oh two years, to teach him.

They are fun for me to put together, and fun for him too, so I plan to continue making them as I have time, but they will be for when he is a bit older and we’ll use them more for fun and as a review. As I complete them I’ll post them to the left over there where it says “ABC Lapbooks”. :)

In the meantime we are making a new, no-fuss, quick ABC book. I hope to do a letter per week, but I know realistically there will be weeks when I just haven’t had time to plan anything. The format of this book will work with that because I’m working on getting it all ready at one time.

The format is pretty simple. 3 pages per letter…

1. craft page
2. collage page
3. tracing page

So, right now I’m collecting ideas in a spreadsheet for a simple craft for each letter. This will be nothing fancy! Just something to help M remember the sound the letter makes.

The collage page will be a workbox activity for him, which will look like this: A blank page except for the upper and lowercase letters in the center. And this: Another page with 5 items that begin with the letter, which he will cut out and glue around the letters on the other page. I’ll include scissors and a glue stick in his workbox.

I am having a little trouble coming up with 5 items for some of the letters. For those letters I may do something different… we’ll see. For now, those are at the end of the list so we have time to think of something.

And the 3rd page is this: A tracing page from Making Learning Fun. The yellow dashed line in the letters is there if you look hard enough! I have attached a dry-erase marker to the inside of the binder with velcro. He can use the marker to trace the letters, then erase with a piece of felt which will be kept in the pocket.

I’ll be keeping a list of our crafts on the sidebar under “Our ABC Book”. I’ll also include a link to them in my weekly Tot School posts, where you'll find any other activities we did for the letter of the week.

I’m excited about this, and eager to go through the letters and phonics a little more quickly than we have been. It will be a fun ABC book in the end that M can look through and “read” on his own.

I’d love to know if you have something similar and what you do about those troublesome letters out there like X and Z. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Organizing Ideas

I’ve been trying so many different ways of organizing all the ideas I run across online.  I’ve used Delicious to bookmark pages and add tags, I’ve kept notebooks filled with handwritten lists, and used google reader to tag and star items for later.  It’s all about to drive me crazy because none of it works (for me).  I’ve even looked at evernote, but it isn’t the answer for me either.

I am so embarrassed when I write a post that includes an activity inspired by someone else’s post… and I can’t remember where I saw it.  It’s just polite to give another blogger credit for her ideas. 

Sometimes I actually have ideas of my own. :)  And I need somewhere to keep them.  Somewhere that I have easy access to, and where they are sorted in a manner that makes at least a little bit of sense.  I've been scribbling ideas down in a notebook for a long time now.  However, math activities are mixed in with art and poems and abc’s, and so on. 

So, I decided to make my own organization system.  And it’s actually working.  Yay!  And it’s simple.  Really, really simple.  I turned to my old friend, Excel and made a spreadsheet of ideas and activities. Click on the image to make it bigger.

I’ve added room for 2 separate tags, a space for notes, and a space for a link if it’s something I’ve come across online.  Now, when I sit down to read my blogs I open my spreadsheet up and just copy and paste away. 

And when I’m planning a week’s worth of activities and art projects, I can sort the spreadsheet by any of the headings -  sensory ideas or counting activities or art – whatever!

Also, I can print it and have it handy in my planning binder.  This is the important part for me because I’m usually sitting in my easy chair drinking coffee, far away from the computer when I’m writing out our weekly calendar.  I’m a hard-copy kind of girl. :) I think that’s why none of the online programs were working for me.  I’ll be able to make notes of ideas that sprout from my own brain right onto my hard copy and add them onto the spreadsheet later.  And I’ll probably be printing the spreadsheet on a monthly basis, which will help me go over all the things I’ve wanted to do but haven’t gotten around to yet. 

I’ll still use Delicious as a bookmarker for resource sites (not specific activities).  And I’ve been taking 5 to 10 minute breaks once a day to go through my Google Reader list.  I quickly star everything that looks interesting (and get rid of a lot that doesn’t), then go back later and  read my starred items.  That’s when I open my spreadsheet and start gathering new ideas.

How do you keep all the terrific online information organized?  I’d love to hear in the comments!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Thursday Thinking – Rethinking our Routines

We’ve been working on setting up a new routine here this week and there’s still a lot of adjusting and fine-tuning to do. 

Setting aside a large amount of time for “school” one day a week just isn’t cutting it for us right now.  We’ve been trying to make sure to spend one day per week at home, which I feel is reasonable, but I’ve been trying to get all the house-cleaning done that day, set aside a large chunk of time for tot school, and stuff in a bunch of other items from the never-ending to-do list… and I’ve been left feeling pretty… well, crabby, to be honest.  Stressed, exhausted, unhappy… that’s just not the mood I want to be in when M and I have special time together. 

So, I’m thinking of having activities that M can do by himself on Tuesdays (or whatever day it ends up being) that I can check in and out of while I take care of other necessary household *stuff*.  I’m not sure how I want to set this up… maybe tot trays or workboxes.  I like the Montessori method of having a specific “work” area that the child brings the work to, and which he cleans up before picking a new activity.  In my mind it works beautifully, but realistically I’m not sure M will really cooperate with it.  He’s not exactly a pick-up-after-himself sort of guy. :)  But we can all learn, right?  I bought a bamboo mat for him to use as his work area at Target this week as an optimistic act of faith. :) 

The other part of the plan is to then have 20 to 30 minutes a day of what I’m calling “circle time” in my head.  I don’t know what I’ll call it when talking to M; circle time sounds a little funny when it is pretty much just he and I!  But it will be time for a story, one or two activities, poems, songs, flannel board, etc.   I plan to make our weather chart part of this on a daily basis, sense we’ve gotten away from doing it.  Also, we will add in prayers, character building lessons, learn the days of the week, and maybe a game once in a while.   I think I will have it all revolve around certain themes.  The current theme is autumn, and I’m thinking there’s enough resources out there that we could easily do seasonal and holiday themes for a very long time! 

We’ll either try to do this in the mornings or after nap time, before it’s time to start cooking dinner.  M rarely takes a nap any more, I just have him rest for a while after lunch – this is when I let him watch a little TV (usually a dvd of Clifford shows or something along those lines), or sometimes he sits in bed and looks at books.  I’ve thought of doing our “circle time” after lunch since it would be easy to fit in then – but after trying it a couple of times I’ve found it to be disastrous.  He may not need a nap, but I definitely need a break of some sort at that time of day.  That is my energy low point and I need to take that time to rest, focus on something else, and just recharge my batteries. 

We’ve got a busy fall ahead of us – Mondays we have a pray/play group with a bunch of moms at church, then we run errands before lunch; every other Tuesday we will have a class at our local nature center (“playful polliwogs” – isn’t that cute?); Thursdays we’ll alternate between story time at the library and another church pray/play group at various moms’ homes;  Fridays will be our days for field trips or play dates with just one or two friends.  There’s also some activities at the local community center scattered throughout the calendar that we want to go to.  Whew.  I hope we can manage it all… and I hope that if we can’t manage it all I will have the presence of mind to rethink things and say no to some activities.  It’s hard to do, isn’t it?!?!

So, just thought I’d spell it all out here so I have a record of my plans, and maybe I’ll even get a few great suggestions!  Feel free to tell me how you get things done and still have time for your child(ren).

Happy fall!  Have a beautiful day! :) 

Our Art Corner

The linky at Teaching My Little Bookworm this week is about art spaces in our homes. Really, if I participate in any more linkies, my entire blog will be made up of link-ups to other people’s blogs, sigh. Yet, how can I resist such great ideas?! They can’t help that they (the other bloggers with these links) are such creative geniuses, right? ;)

So, here goes… our art corner is mainly in our kitchen, although there are other art areas throughout our home. We have a small eat-in area in our kitchen and this is what you normally see pictures of when M is doing art that I post about. Here’s what it looks like from a couple of different views:

Yep, we hang his art up here. Not only is that a little tacky (although we really don’t care, except I have been known to fly around taking it all down before *important* company comes), but it’s pretty much all hung up there with masking tape. Ugly, ugly masking tape. This is one of the many ways I’ve changed since having a child. Once upon a time I would never have allowed my walls to look like this! But I can’t help myself when those blue eyes look at me and say “where can I hang my art up, Mommy? I made it just for you!” So, there it hangs.

We also have a corner of our living room where M has his “desk” with crayons, scissors, lots of paper, stickers, colored pencils, etc. He does what he wants here as long as it stays in this area and he uses it all properly. Like, for instance, smearing the glue stick on the carpet means it will be taken away. ;) This is what it looks like – pretty messy:

There is also an easel in the kitchen. It has a chalkboard on one side and a white magnetic board on the other. He has markers and chalk here, more paper, magnets, and more stickers.

We also have a homemade outside easel that he paints on pretty regularly.

I store most of our art supplies, paint, stamps, do-a-dot painters, various things to paint with, freezer paper roll (we use this a lot to paint on) oil pastels, modeling clay, glue, etc. in a drawer in our entry closet:

I have a big bunch of newsprint and our paintbrushes in the kitchen.

I have a lot more crafty, artsy stuff in our basement in another plastic drawer organizer. This is where I keep our occasionally used items – faom sheets, foam stickers, sand paper, glitter, feathers, colored sand, extra glue, pom poms, and all the grown up craft stuff for me. :)

And I have 2 more of these drawers (I love them!) for miscellaneous stuff that I just can’t throw away. This is where we keep cardboard tubes, jars, bottles, etc.

So, there you have it. It seems like it’s spread out all over the house. We have a tiny home, so we have to make do with putting things where we can. My dream home would have a room dedicated solely to crafting and sewing.

For more posts about art areas go here!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Thursday Thinking – Scheduling My Life Away, part 2

Part one of this post is here.

To be clear, the title “Scheduling My Life Away” is referring to the enormous amount of activities I can try to cram into our days… activities that are offered everywhere I turn; activities that carry with them the unspoken message that my child will be lacking in some serious way if I don’t sign him up for this or that, that if I were a better mother I’d give him these experiences regardless of the cost to my well-being (or sanity). It also applies to all the other things we are asked to do, feel we need to do, etc. The craziness with which we fill our calendar pages.

These are the things that can make us so busy, busy, busy, that while we feel we are being productive (because if you aren’t busy you must be lazy!), we can easily lose sight of exactly what our life is – what is truly meaningful in it – normally that’s the people we love dearly: our families. I don’t want to have such a busy schedule that my family’s needs are not being met in the best way possible.

At one point a while after having M, I realized that our home had become quite chaotic (Really? Why didn’t anyone tell me that could happen with a new baby?!) And I realized that it was up to me, as the mother of the home, to change this. I was happy in a way, but lacking a sense of peace that I truly longed for. Longed for in a way I can’t express. It is deeper than the desire to simply be happy.

And so I began to examine all of my activities and my schedule for our days within the framework of this desire for peace in my home. I began to see that at this point in my life, this is part of my “job description” as a wife and mother.

Really, our gifts and talents are given to us to benefit and serve others. Keeping the house clean and life running in an orderly fashion is not a very glamorous job, but out of the three people who live in this house, I am the one best suited for doing it and I can honestly say, I’m the one who can best see what needs to be done and is capable of getting it done. Yep, yep, yep. :)

For real peace, our priorities must match up with the responsibilities we have at our particular season of life. Blogging, for example, simply can not be first on the list! ;) Neither can anything that is just me pursuing my own interests. Because when I do this, anything that my family needs from me is seen as an annoyance, an irritation, and an inconvenience. It’s a struggle because we do need time for ourselves, and we need time to rest and recharge our batteries, but it is so easy to confuse resting with escaping.

What brings true rest for me? Time alone to think (I’m extremely introverted), prayer, proper sleep. Those are things I have to schedule into my days. Those are things that are so much more important than play dates and shopping and everything else!

What can be ok in moderation, yet easily turn into an escape? Time on the internet, reading, shopping, hobbies… anything that tempts me to skip my duties in order to spend time on it.

If only our hearts were in line with our duties, right? Oh, if only.

I need and pray for a conversion of heart when I’m cleaning the bathroom and hating every single second of it, ready to cut down anyone who dares to need my attention at the same time I’m slaving away for them, knowing I probably won’t get even a simple “thank you”.

Yet, I would do cleaning and laundry and cooking for a friend who is ill joyfully, happy to help them out. Happy to help keep their home running a little more smoothly. Happy to take on extra work so that their family had one less thing distracting them.

Why can’t I feel the same joy in taking care of my own home and my own family, the people I love more than anyone else? Why is there this disconnect between my heart and what I do for my family?

I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m still trying to live my own life, pursue the things I want to. It’s because I’m selfish. Apparently I have not yet learned that happiness is not to be found in doing my own thing, it’s to be found in loving others through our actions.

I’m working hard on spending the time at home to do what needs to be done. I don’t want this to just be a place where we sleep and a "base station” for all the running around we do. I don’t want to be so tired all the time that we eat whatever we can find or fast food.

I want to bring peace into our life together, then we can go do all that fun stuff and know that things are ordered correctly in our lives. The opposite of peace is disorder and chaos, after all. The one is achieved only by fighting the other.

I believe I veered away from the track I was on when I began this post… and I know I can be a bit of a chatterbox! If you’ve made it to the end, congratulations!

I hope you have a beautiful and peace-filled day!

Thursday Thinking - Scheduling My Life Away - part 1

Ideas for this post have been floating around in my head for weeks. Before I even started a blog I was thinking of how I would write out all my thoughts about schedules, routines, and such. I love organizing - organizing space, organizing people, organizing time - I'm an organizer. Not that I am organized, but I seem to be perpetually organizing something.

Just like life, it's an on-going process of learning, re-doing, and trying something different, until you find what works.

It looks like a lot of bloggers are thinking about the same thing lately. I've read several just this week questioning how to fit everything into an already busy life. I think the fact that school is starting up soon for many families has spurred a lot of moms into action as they try to get a hold on how to manage their households and too-busy lives. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Actually, when summer began I had, oh, about a million plans for what we were going to do. We were going to go on field trips to museums, go to puppet shows in the park, to special events at the library, to prayer and play groups on every Monday and Wednesday every week, keep the house clean, keep the family fed (healthy food of course), do planned tot school activities several times a week, daily art projects, clean out the basement, etc. etc. etc.

And, somehow I also envisioned lazy days hanging out in the backyard, with nothing to do, as well as a perfectly-content-and-at-peace-mama who never lost her temper or sense of pure serenity, always patient and gentle and kind.

What was I thinking?!

It wasn't too long until those pretty pictures in my mind weren't so pretty anymore and were actually causing a whole lot of stress. And I was tired. T-I-R-E-D. Tired just from thinking about all of these plans, and wondering what was wrong with me - I only have one child! I know mothers who are on the go all the time with 4 or 5 children! How do they do it?

These questions swam around in my head one morning as I prayed for the energy just to get out of bed and maybe get the laundry done. My 2 year old came in the room and climbed up in bed with me wanting to play and snuggle. That's when I mumbled something about "Tired. Need sleep." (And so, a blog was born.)

My favorite, non-child-centered, blog is conversiondiary.com. The author, Jennifer, had this great post one day. In it she mentions finding out what restores your energy when you are feeling drained. Is it relaxing with friends, chatting, socializing? Or is it being alone, quietly working on some project or just thinking? If it's socializing, you are an extrovert. If it's quiet time alone, you are an introvert.

I, most certainly, am an introvert.

I've had to realize being on the go all the time is not healthy for me.

And I don't think it's necessary for a 2 year old to do everything available for them to do. If we are always doing special things, they aren't special any longer. He may decide it's the norm, and there we are - stuck trying to do bigger, better, more-special things.

A 2 year old needs a mother who is at peace within herself, so much more than he needs fun activities to do.

I started asking myself a few questions when planning our activities for each week:

• Will he have more fun going to this particular activity than he would just staying at home and playing?
  
  
• Is there anything extraordinarily important about this activity? (Is it a once in a lifetime opportunity? Is it a great chance to learn about something he's shown an interest in?)




• Do I feel that this would be an enjoyable outing for us and a chance to get out of the house (which we occasionally really, really need) or would preparing for it, messing with routines, missing naptime, etc. just bring a lot of stress into our lives?



• Do I feel I have to do this because others are doing it? (If that's how I'm feeling, and the only reason I'm contemplating doing something then it's a major red flag that I'd be happier not doing it. And Mama's happiness is what it's all about. Seriously.)

• Will the needs of the family as a whole still be easily met if we do this? This includes having basic housework and chores done, meals planned, laundry, etc. It's ok to plan time to do these daily things that must be done in order to keep a house running in a non-chaotic manner. It's ok if other things have to go in order to do these things. Taking care of my home and family should be a joy and a privilege, not something I do with my leftover time after running us all ragged.

They've made a difference, these questions. We've chosen to not do at least 5 things on our original summer activity list in the last 2 weeks. And it's been great. Homelife is under control. We've spent more time playing outside (and in Minnesota, we have to make the most of these warm days; they don't last very long!), more time on normal, every day fun things, and more time just plain being together.

I also want to talk about how I'm working on setting up my schedule in a way that takes into consideration my priorities, child development and child stress, as well as actual time-management for the things that must be done, but that will have to wait for part 2, and maybe part 3. :)

Have a beautiful, lazy summer day! :)