New Blog

I just wanted to let you all know that I have a new blog:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/thejjournal/

I'm not going to close this one down, but I may not post here very often. I'm kind of playing it by ear to see how it works out. Feel free to check it out and leave a comment!

Jennifer

A Question to Ponder

December.....one of my favorite months of the year! I can't believe 2007 is drawing to a close already. We have a busy month ahead, but not so busy that we can't enjoy evenings around the tree sipping hot chocolate or evenings seeing the sights at the mall, then slipping over to Starbucks for a latte or afternoon tea....are you seeing a pattern here? It's cold! Hot drinks are on my mind lately, I guess.

Anyway, I was reading in one of my parenting magazines recently that a myth many couples believe is that your spouse should also be your best friend. They said that having a spouse as a best friend is extremely rare and it's normal to feel closer to your mother or even a woman friend than your husband. Does anyone besides me disagree with this? I understand that I wouldn't necessarily expect my husband to discuss the finer points of cross stitching or afternoon tea, but he is the one I go to for everything! He's my closest confidante and I can't imagine being "best friends" with anyone else. What do you all think? Am I living in a bubble or something?

I've Been Tagged!

The rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people (or less if everyone else you know has already been tagged!) to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is really difficult! Probably this isn't anything new for most of you, but here goes....

1.  My brain/eyes naturally edit things other people write when I read them. Don't worry--I don't do it in a critical way. It's actually kind of annoying, because I'd like to just read things as they are written without the distraction. Wish it would work on my own writing!

2.  I took violin lessons in junior high and could not even learn vibrato. I decided to stick with piano.

3.  My worst subject in school was chemistry. I only passed with a B because it was an honors class and we got a lot of grade curves.

4.  A big pet peeve with me is when people won't use their talents because someone else does it better. This is especially annoying when the talents are ministry or church related because it's not supposed to be about performance but service to God.

5.  To keep myself focused on what I need to do at home, I try to think in 3s. What are the next three things I need to do? Then, when I get those things done I move on to the next three. At times like this, when I am blogging and it's not even naptime, I have totally disregarded my 3 activities. Argh!

6.  I could not live without iced tea, and I have become an every morning coffee drinker as well.

 

7.  My life goal in my sophomore year of high school was to be a single, college music teacher. My life goal in my senior year of high school was to grow old with my husband as a childless, madly in love couple. My husband and I are still madly in love. Just shows you how goals change.  

8.  My wind down habit at the end of every day is to read in a nice hot bathtub with a special treat I save for that time--right now it's my favorite Lindt truffles--dark chocolate, of course, so it's healthy.

I'll let you know on your blog if you're tagged or not!

A Day in the Life Of....

...US!

I'm so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open, but we had a different sort of day so I thought I'd share an "A Day in the Life Of" post.

Due to a late night last night, I was tired this morning and Jeff opted for no breakfast so I went back to bed after he went to work and allowed myself the treat of sleeping until 8. I knew the kids would sleep in late because of our late night, right? Wrong! I was still trying to get woke up when two little grins met me outside my bedroom door. The looked so cute holding hands and looking for me, that I forgot they got up earlier than usual. I had an errand to run at 11, so we decided to get as much school done as possible before I left. Somehow we got it all done. We practiced piano together, did a Bible lesson (Jessica's almost got all the books of the Bible learned again--Jeffery helps her sometimes), did a science experiment on magnets (Jeffery was in awe when I picked up paper clips), practiced phonics and learned ordinal numbers in math. I had to go pick up our car at Jeff's work so he could drive his new truck home. It was actually a nice errand as my dad took me up and we got to spend some time together talking. The kids stayed with my mom, so I got to talk to Dad uninterrupted for the 40 minute drive plus I got to listen to my music as loud as I wanted to on the way home. I could sing along without a "Mommy?" every 2 minutes. Actually, it was kind of boring... 

When we got home, I let the kids play outside for awhile while I did some paperwork on the porch swing. Jessica and I did some cleaning in the playroom while Jeffery napped.

I was so proud of myself. I bought an economony size bottle of bleach and decided to refill a spray bottle of bleach cleaner so I'd have some ready to use on laundry. I got it all set up and carefully set it on the back of the washer out of the way and started taking wet clothes out. I was busy loading the dryer when I noticed a puddle dripping into the washer. Yep! You guessed it....my trusty bottle sprung a pin hole  sized leak and ruined two of Jeffery's nice play outfits plus a new (new to me) shirt of mine before I got it cleaned up. One of those things you sigh about and move on without thinking about too much....or you might cry.

I got a nice black leather full length dress coat on freecycle yesterday. I am really excited about it except the one that wore it before I did must have smoked. Anyone know if professional leather cleaning removes smoke smell? I don't want to pay a lot to have it cleaned especially if it's not going to remove the smell.

Before I sign off, I have to tell you about our dinner tonight. I had a meal planned for tonight, but I looked in my fridge and I had 3 large pork chops with onion/mushroom sauce and a pan of cheesy broccoli soup leftover so I felt bad cooking something brand new when I had so much left over. I decided to use the "Presentation is everything" trick. Jessica and I pulled out the china, my grandma's silver, a lace tablecloth (with a hole in it---oops!), and my white linen napkins, silver napkin rings and crystal goblets. We set the table all fancy, borrowed a flower arrangement from the living room and some candle holders from the piano and made a centerpiece. With the candles lit and lights out, we didn't even notice the hole. I put honey, butter, and salad dressings in little dishes with spoons---I mean we went all out!  Jessica had so much fun setting up a "fancy dinner" for Daddy. We put some Bach on and the kids started dancing. Now that's a trick! We practiced for when Daddy came home--Jeffery would meet him at the door with a towel on his arm (we actually used an extra napkin) like a maitre'd (can't remember how to spell that, sorry!) and say, "This way, please." He practiced 'til he had it down pat. But when Jessica opened the door to let Daddy in, he got too excited and blurted, "Excuse me, please!" Jessica hastened to correct him and he finally got it right. Then, he proceeded to "seat" Daddy by pulling on his leg with all his might. Jessica asked Daddy what he wanted to drink, then we served our meal in courses. We had salads (made by Jessica with bagged lettuce and fresh-grated cheese). Then we had soup. Then we served the pork chops with peas. All along we had homemade rolls from yesterday on the table. When everyone was done, Jeff said, "You'd never know that was recycled, would you?" It's all in how it's presented, I guess, and we all had so much fun.

We finished our day by having DQ ice cream cake at my mom's for my grandpa's 85th birthday. He is living with my parents now since the sudden death of Grandma last month. We found her wedding dress today, and it brought back memories of her again.

This day is in no way typical of life in the Self household, but then no day is!

My Brain

Anne Ortlund has her notebook, Donna Otto has her daybook, Candy has her Home Management Binder and FlyLady has her Control Journal, but I have my Homekeeper Helper, otherwise known as my brain. Some people look at it and think, "She is so disorganized she needs that to remember a doctor's appointment?!" and others look at it and say, "I can't believe you are that organized!" It's all a matter or perspective, I suppose. Anyways, I love new ideas for my planner (in case you were wondering what I was actually talking about). So, I thought I'd share some things about mine and hopefully get new ideas from you.

I designed the front myself with old-fashioned pictures of ladies doing the things I do. There is one of a lady reading her Bible and praying---my relationship with God always comes first. There is one of a lady with her husband--that is my top priority next to God, my marriage. There is another with a mommy and a little boy and girl---my role as a mother is close behind my role as a wife. All that is on the front. On the back, I have ladies cooking, writing, teaching piano lessons, grocery shopping, setting a nice table and a picture of my dream house's back porch. All those nice pictures make me want to open it, which is essential to having it actually do me any good.

I use a three-ring binder of the 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 size. Staples is the only store in my area that carries page protectors for that size. It has the standard pockets on the inside, but I hope to eventually add a zipper pocket to hold pens and pencils and misc. items. I use some of Donna Otto's forms from one of her books. Although it's a work in progress, my main sections are CALENDAR, HOMEKEEPING, MEALS, SCHOOL, PIANO, GOALS, MISC., PROJECTS, TELEPHONE DIRECTORY, and CHRISTMAS. I haven't filled in all of those yet. That's part of the fun of it.

I know it may bore some, but I wanted to give a brief description of our daily routine. It is working well so far for keeping up the house and homeschooling.

I try to exercise, dress and have my devotions before the kids wake up. When Jeff starts his regular schedule, my day will start at 5:30 so I should have plenty of time then (if I don't fall asleep!). I start my phone job at 8:00 until they wake up. After they wake up, we make beds, dress them, brush teeth and do a room check. We have breakfast, then do our clean up routine. Jeffery is learning to clear the table although he is painstakingly slow right now! Jessica either washes the dishes (I rinse and dry) or loads the dishwasher. I wipe table and counters and sweep the floor. If they do this for breakfast and lunch, I do dinner myself. (It's faster! ) After clean up, we practice piano, then have Bible and Beginnings class (In Bob Jones kindergarten, Beginnings includes English, Phonics, Science and Heritage Studies.), then we take a break. We do our cleaning chores for the day---straightening, empty trash and fold laundry (I boot the washer and dryer earlier in between other things). Then, we clean the room assigned to that day. I do that room and one of the monthly jobs for that room with the kids help, of course. After lunch, we have play time and math. At 2:00, it's quiet time! Jeffery takes a nap (or at least lays in his bed for a good while) and Jessica either listens to story tapes or plays on the computer. I do my phone job, finish up laundry and catch up on e-mails. I do piano lessons on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Then we get baths around 5:30 and have supper around 6:30. Evenings are for family time (or church on Wednesdays) and kids bedtime is 9:30. We get ready for bed and read a chapter out of a "chapter book". Right now we're reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Before that it was Meet Samantha of the American Girls series and before that Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter. I have Pilgrim's Progress on order at the library so that is what we'll do next. We have prayer and then the kids are in bed. After that I prepare for the next day and get my evening bath. I read or write or sometimes (like now) I have a little extra computer time.

If you're still reading, bless your heart! I hope you can get some ideas and I hope you'll share some. Being organized and not stressed is so important to our job as homekeepers, isn't it?