Work And Play, Day By Day

They Grow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:29:00 +0000

I'm not talking about this kind of growth.

I'm talking about all of a sudden realizing how capable your little ones are.

We are sorting, tossing, organizing, and packing a little bit each day. Last week we had a puzzle party and did all of the puzzles so we wouldn't move any with missing pieces.

Do you know how many were missing pieces?

One.

Only one puzzle out of dozens that hasn't been cared for.

All the other times we have moved there have been dozens missing, lost, and broken.

It's silly really, just a little puzzle, but it makes me realize just how much they grow when I'm not looking.

Historical Shift

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:28:00 +0000

For the last two years, we have done a big timeline as our group history project. While certainly a fun project, repeating it for a third year didn't sound too exciting to me. If it isn't exciting to me, I'm positive it is less exciting to the small children I call my students so we have been working on something new.

This year we have been studying the settlement of the Americas and writing our own book about it!

I'm not talking about a history textbook full of dates and details, but rather a compilation of maps, select biographies, illustrations, etc. Instead of Story of the World, we are using a collection of history and geography books put together from major booklists covering American History. We are also using the Pioneers & Patriots textbook. Here is some of what we have covered thus far and what will be included in our "book".

South & Central America

An illustrated list of early explorers (courtesy of Caleb)
A current political map of South America (courtesy of Aidan)
Biographies of two South American Saints (St. Rose of Lima courtesy of Aidan and St. Martin de Porres courtesy of Caleb).

New France

A current political map of Canada (Caleb)
Illustrated explorer list (Aidan)
Saint Biographies (Aidan- St. Kateri & Caleb- St. Isaac Jogues)

The Colonial US

Map of the 13 colonies (Caleb)
Profile of life in the colonies (Aidan)

We are wrapping up our studies before we prepare to move, and this project will not be *finished* for quite some time. We are hoping to finish up these sections and then next year we will move into the American Revolution and other early American history. I haven't decided yet if it will be best to bind them just at a copy store or actually scan and/or type everything up to print more neatly. I think it will depend on how everything looks when we are finished!

On a side note, while writing is still something that is challenging for the boys (and has a ways to go to reach "grade level"), their paragraph writing skills have improved a fair amount through this project. I feel like this will open up a whole new world for us next year!

Weekend Entertainment

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

I've been promising to post a video of myself doing tae kwon do for awhile now. It's a big step for me, so I'm going to tease you with this. This is our demo team performance from our recent tournament. Go ahead and pick me out ;) (Aidan is hiding in here too...)

They Eat Green Food

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:47:00 +0000

This is my adventure into artichockes.

We get a weekly produce basket from Bountiful Baskets and last week I bought 2 baskets because we were hosting a First Communion party. In addition to about 20 onions, I ended up with 4 artichokes.

I had never eaten or prepared an artichoke before in my entire life.

Assured by some excessively patient friends that it would be ok, I searched Pinterest and all of my cookbooks for artichoke pasta recipes.

And then like a good cook, didn't prepare any of them.

Instead I threw together some of the common flavors into a sauce that was a little more to my dietary preferences. Into my Vitamix went chicken stock, greek yogurt, a little lemon juice, artichoke hearts, parmesan cheese, and spinach. I didn't measure anything, just dumped and tasted. I was going for a pesto type sauce....only without any nuts. Or oil. Or herbs. So kind of nothing like an actual pesto.....

I redeemed my not-pesto artichoke sauce by serving it over pasta.

Shirtless blue eyed boy approved.

And all is happy in the house where we don't fear green food.

Caleb's Highs & Lows

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:51:00 +0000

This post is actually not anything about Autism stuff, although with all the stuff I'm about to tell you has gone on with this boy in the last 2 weeks (plus moving craziness) there has certainly been a fair share of those highs and lows as well this week.

Since he was little when Caleb has gotten sick, he has gotten sick. I mean like playing fine one minute, lying on the floor out of it with a high fever the next. I keep thinking that he will outgrow this sudden onset of all illness, but so far no luck. When he laid down on the floor a couple weeks ago, sure enough, his fever was 103.7.

That was Tuesday night, and knowing Caleb and knowing our weekend plans we took him first thing Wednesday morning, and sure enough...strep. You might think strep throat isn't anything to be too concerned about, and certainly not warranting of mention in a blog post, but it gives perspective to the rest of the post. Thankfully he did respond well to the antibiotics and no one else got sick...phew!

Friday we headed up the mountain for a tae kwon do tournament, our last of the year before Worlds in July. Caleb helped with set up and hung out on Friday and then had his own competition on Saturday. He had a great competition, making it through all 4 traditional events without any melt downs. His "reward" for this was getting to play in the bounce houses that were set up at the event. (It wasn't really a reward, I just told him he couldn't play until his competition was finished.)

Not long after he fell out of said bounce house. He was a little sad about it and said his arm hurt, but the medic on site checked him over and said she thought he would be ok. He perked up and played (although NOT in the bounce house...he wanted no more of that) and was fine the rest of the day.

This is Caleb we are talking about, so I should have known. He was ok on Saturday, ok on Sunday, and Monday BAM swollen arm.

Turns out...broken arm.

It's not a bad break, but of course he had black belt testing coming up on Saturday! Thankfully we have some really awesome instructors who came up with a way for him to modify his board breaks and sparring and helped him figure it all out. It was a little dicey and they kind of had to fudge the rules a bit to let him pass, but I think they just knew Caleb.

Instead of sparring with peers, he sparred an instructor with his cast padded and instructions not to use his arm!

Caleb will be Caleb, and even a black belt doesn't make him want me to take his picture.

As if black belt wasn't enough excitement, on Sunday, Caleb received Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist. Such a beautiful Mass.

Or, so I'm told. Afternoon special masses and toddlers don't really fit well together and I listened to what I could through the side doors while Logan talked to himself. We snuck in for the actual communion portion of Mass and the parish hired a professional photographer for the event (do discourage parents with cell phone cameras) so I can see the rest for myself later. Actually I'm quite excited for that CD because Aidan was serving at Mass as well and I am hoping for a few nice pictures of him in that role as well. Part of the photographers deal is that we get rights for the images so I will be able to share them here once they come.

Caleb is not so into having his picture taking these days- at least he was slightly more receptive on Sunday!

He still has a cast for a few more weeks, but hopefully this is the end of all the excitement for Mr. Caleb! He has all of his end of year evaluations for speech, OT, etc in the next month and I need him to participate so we can plan for his therapies once we move to Minnesota.

Where to Start?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:22:00 +0000

I promised a big update with my last post, so here it is.

WE ARE MOVING BACK TO MINNESOTA!

Tim was recently hired by a small university close to our old home and we are frantically planning and organizing a move for this summer. Actually, we are picking up a truck 7 weeks from today. We will caravan our way back and then spend a few weeks with my parents, head to Tae Kwon Do World Tournament of Championships (someone who's name has already been mentioned in connection with this paragraph qualified in third place at the end of regular season competition), and organize our living situation for fall. Tim will also be doing some adjunct work over the summer, which should help him settle in at the university.

As if moving and qualifying for Worlds isn't enough exciting news for one blog post, I'm also beginning a little adventure of my own. Starting this month, I am working towards my Master's Degree in Instructional Design. This is exciting for a couple reasons. First of all, it will give me to "creds" to go with all of my experience when it comes to consulting, writing, and mentoring (all things I have done intermittently for the past 5 years since I stopped working outside the home). It is also exciting for my blog readers, but you will have to wait a little longer to hear exactly how. Look for more information this summer on how you will all be a part of my program.

As we wrap up life in Utah, I am finding myself a little sadder than I thought I would be. We have grown as a family here and met some really amazing people. I can't believe that our time with them is so short. Within a few days of accepting the new position, we were already doing "lasts" such as our last tournament with our tae kwon do family here. It is a bittersweet time for sure!

Look for several posts in the next week or two updating you on some other family things and sharing some posts that I have had planned (but not written) for a while now. Then expect a bit of a blogging break as we wander our way eastward and start to settle in!

Exploring Art Technique

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Over the years, we have done a fair amount of art history and art appreciation through picture study. One thing we have not done much of is art production or art technique. Granted we do little seasonal projects and include drawings with (or in place of) narrations, even a fair amount of exploration of different materials, but not a lot of actual learning about colors and lines and different ways to make a picture.

We have been ordering some of our language materials from Catholic Heritage Curriculum for awhile and this winter I looked a little deeper into some of the supplemental areas. For each grade, they offer an ArtPac. There are 8 levels, but I decided since none of the kids have had any art production type experience it would be something fun to do together so I bought 3 of the 1st grade book (For a PreK/K, 2nd, & 4th).

Obviously each of the kids has different strengths with this approach and I can see differences in their work, but I have been pleasantly surprised how well they work together. It has really been an opportunity to learn together something that was new for everyone. We have been practicing complimenting each other's work and I'm hearing more positive comments in general from the entire group (even outside of art).

Although the primary material needed for ArtPac 1 is crayons, I have incorporated a few other things where appropriate, such as oil pastels. While crayons can be blended, the oil pastels blend much more cleanly and for some projects (such as the sunsets we are working on in these photos) they make sense. I generally pick up this sort of material from Discount School Supply. (I also buy all of my construction paper and glue from DSS, because lets be honest with 4 now doing projects we use it fast enough to justify the bulk purchases!)

I hesitated to use a prepackaged curriculum like this for art, because I worried it would focus on product more than process, but I think these pictures clearly show the opposite. In learning technique there is still plenty of room for individual variation and choice. Plus the kids are proud of having neatly finished projects, something that rarely happened when I only did open ended art projects. (Not them being proud of their work, but being neat and taking their time....not something my boys have previously highly valued.)

Logan likes to color on paper while we do art, but Lucie just likes to be cute. She especially enjoys eating triangles.

We have some exciting news to share soon, which is part of the reason for my sporadic blogging behavior. We know some changes are coming we just aren't exactly sure which ones yet. I will definitely be back the minute I know for sure! Either way, the changes should give me more time to return to blogging as I have in the past.

A Winner (Finally)

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:05:00 +0000

The winner goes to comment #2- Angie for her share on Facebook!!

Congrats Angie, we will be in touch on the details!

My deepest apologies for making you wait so long. We were struck with what we believe was some variety of food poisoning and then we had our Spring National Tournament for Tae Kwon Do (more about that later).

This was my lowest participation in a giveaway ever (by a significant amount) and I would love to know why! Did you already have this resource? Not Catholic?

Leave me a comment and let me know so I can make better plans in the future!

Movement ABC Game

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:00:00 +0000

As we start reading together, Kylee and I still like to review our letter sounds in new and interesting ways! A few days ago, we spread all of her letter cards on a rug and then did fun actions to find them, such as "Jump to the J". You can use the letter name or the sound (preferred) based on what skill you are working on. Here are some ideas for the rest of the alphabet!

A- Ask

B- go Backwards

C- Crawl

D- Dance

E- Elephant Walk

F- Fly

G- Gallop or Grapevine

H- Hop

I- Inchworm

J- Jump

K- Kick

L- Leap

M- March

N- Nod

O- Obtain (this was a hard one!)

P- Punch

Q- be Quick

R- Run

S- Skip or Spin

T- Tiptoe

U- go Up, Uncover..this was another hard one

V- Visit

W- Walk

X- eXercise

Y- Yodel

Z- Zig Zag or Zip

First Reconciliation (& A Giveaway!)

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:27:00 +0000

Way back this summer, I was contacted by Catholic Family Gifts online store asking if I would do a review and/or giveaway in this little bloggy space of mine. I dropped the ball at the time, but they were ever so gracious in asking me if I would be able to help them out during the First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion gift season.

Caleb is preparing for First Holy Communion in a couple months and we thought he would be the perfect candidate for tying out the Small St. Joseph's Children's Missal (product details). In addition to the prayers of the Mass, this little book also contains many prayers that children often (should) know. He actually brought it with the morning of his First Reconciliation to give it a try! (On a side note, Daddy was not impressed when I asked him to sneakily take photos with his phone.... I have been assured that all photo taking was done before the community service portion of the morning took place.)

The smaller size of this children's missal makes it ideal for little hands and it fits easily in my purse or diaper bag to bring with when we head to church. The front cover has a place to note special dates such as Baptism, First Holy Communion, & Confirmation. I was a little bummed there was no place for First Reconciliation, however.

Catholic Family Gifts has a thorough collection of Catholic gift items for all seasons and occasions. While my order was obviously processed in a slightly different manner, customer service was excellent and I was impressed with the speed of their shipping department. Packaging was protective without being excessive (it is a personal pet peeve of mine when small items come in huge boxes).

The book eventually found a home near our dining room table, where Caleb is diligently attempting to teach us all the Grace After Meals Prayer. Disregard the dirty bib and salad greens....after all, Logan did! (Kylee is reading "her" prayer book, which is actually Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan...anyone know any good Fatima books for a little girl? The stories I have are all for older kiddos......)

So what you really want to know now is how to get your own, right? Well you have two options

1- If you can't wait, Order one RIGHT NOW at Catholic Family Gifts!!!

OR

2- Enter to win one, right on this blog (And then if you don't win you can still order one!)

How to Enter

I haven't really jumped onto the complicated methods of blog contest entry so I'm still in the old fashioned era of leave a comment for each entry. If you don't check back on this blog often, be sure to leave an email where you can be contacted. I would hate for someone to miss out on a prize because they didn't see they won and I had no way to contact them.

How many times can you enter?

1. Because you read this post and are awesome that way, leave a comment for your first entry.
2. If you become a new follower of this blog you can enter again (leave a new comment)
3. If you become a new follower of this blog on Facebook you can enter again (new comment)
4. Share this post on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media site and leave a comment with a link to each share!
5. Follow Catholic Family Gifts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or other social media sites (YouTube, Google Plus) and again...leave a new comment for each site you join.

I will leave the comments open until Monday, March 11th!

Good Luck!

Recycled Mystery Box

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:47:00 +0000

I recently went through all of my Montessori, school supply, art, and toy catalogs that I was saving for ideas. I always see things and think "I could make that for a lot less" or "Tim could make that for me."

This is one of those projects.

I was able to make it with entirely recycled materials that were around my house, but even if you needed to purchase a few things, it would definitely be less than $10.

Materials Needed
Cardboard box
Fabric to cover and line box (a yard should do the trick unless you have an extra large box)
Adhesive that will work on fabric (I used a spray)
Scissors
Tape
Knife (I just used a serrated bread knife...I guess if you want to be fancy you could use a craft knife)
Pencil
Circle Template (I used a small glass dinner plate)

Trace two circles on the front of the box (or be a rebel and make it a one handed box and trace just one). Cut out the circles using the knife.

Line the bottom and sides of the box with a piece of fabric

Cut a piece of fabric the width of the box, roughly as long as the height plus the length

Glue the fabric along the top edge above the holes, leaving the rest of the fabric lose.

The fabric will hang down and cover the holes, make sure the fabric is hanging pretty side out.

Tape the box shut.

Wrap the entire box in fabric like a present.

You may need to do some trimming to keep it from getting bulky.

Cut out the circular openings and glue the fabric back around the cardboard edges.

This is a tricky step, so take your time!

Ta-da- a free or very cheap mystery box!

Mystery Box Ideas

Basic- Guess items that are in the box from touch only.

Intermediate- Place several items in the box and have the child "find" a specific thing (maybe some letters from the moveable alphabet?)

Advanced- Draw the item in the box without looking at it

Expert- Describe the item in a way that another person can draw the item without looking OR touching!

Our Lenten Prayer Table

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Curriculum Choices & Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:28:00 +0000

Wow is it February already?! I think Lent or something like that might have started today?

How did that happen!

We are really moving along with our little homeschool right now. I have to admit this is probably the best I have ever felt at this point in the year. Which is of course, probably a recipe for a big shake up, but I'm not going to dwell on that. This is where things are right now for the crew!

Lucie
Lucie is cute and blesses me by sleeping all or most of our morning 9-11 school block. Kylee used to do the same thing, and I remember she made it until about 9 months before she gave it up. That would get us to summer, so I am hopeful! When I made our spring curriculum purchases I bought a few new materials for her. 6-9 months is pretty huge in the development of the hand and she is right there! We recently started adding some good broth to her diet with the help and advice of a couple trusted friends as she is having a hard time doing much growing. She is very healthy, but also very very small for her age. We're going to work on that :)

Logan
Logan is two and a boy. Yeah, he has A LOT of energy! We mostly work on basic listening and following directions and I'm happy if he doesn't cause too much mess while we get our work done. We try to include him in projects when we can in his little Logan way. He does have a few works out at any given time that I rotate regularly to give him something new to do that is only available during school time. Potty training is going to happen one day I am sure, but at this point I still don't care enough to push it. The day will come small one!

Kylee
Kylee is ALL GIRL. This child is intelligent and bright and just brings such a joy to everyone in our family. We used to call her Smiley Kylee when she was a baby and for the most part she still is. She is plugging along with her preschool Montessori work and recently started adding in some big girl math and language. There are just too many language and math works for our small house! We have most of them available to support her (and the boys) when they struggle with a concept but for the most part in this season I have learned that Montessori is an ideal, not a necessity, for these core subjects. She is very excited to learn how to sew and tells me that for her next birthday she wants to have lots of sewing things. I probably wouldn't wait that long, but if she wants to make it easy on me... I do have some threading and lacing activities to keep her busy in the meantime and she likes to sort my pins when I am sewing!

Caleb
Oh Caleb! Such a contradiction is this boy of mine. I don't have much to say about his academic school work because he is so smart that the rest of us can't keep up with him. I never have to tell him a fact twice and he reads as fast or faster than I do. Life is hard for him though because he doesn't quite understand the rest of the world doesn't work in facts and absolutes. He plugs away with his MCP math and CHC language, supplemented with Handwriting Without Tears (his OT requested that we go back to that and since she said it, it was ok). He loves science and we are continuing to work through the human body systems which he finds fascinating. Caleb has grown up this year, but the air inversions here in the valley are really hard on him and we are hoping to move him away from them soon and expect we will see more improvements when we do.

Aidan
My usually cheerful super helper. He is actually the hardest to keep focused on schoolwork, except when he is able to venture into his own research. That being said, he loves science, geography, and (especially) history. We were all a little bored with Story of The World so I moved to a more vibrant living history, book based curriculum. We are doing a little writers workshop instead of a timeline this year and can't wait to share our own book on the history of the Americas at some point! Right now we are having a hard time fitting his volume of work into the 2 hour block we have and I think that is something we will need to address in the coming years. Writing is slowly becoming more fluid and we continue to work with both CHC language and Handwriting Without Tears.

So that's where we are with homeschool. We just keep on keeping on!

A little bit of home and a little bit of school. A little work. A little play.

Quick Explanation of Chore Breakdown

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:14:00 +0000

I posted a few days ago about my daily block schedule. I referred to my own list of daily, weekly, & monthly chores but I didn't really elaborate. So here you go!

Daily Chores
Meal Preparation and Clean Up
Laundry
Sweep or Vacuum the main living areas (school/dining room, kitchen, & back playroom)
Take out Kitchen Garbage
Make Beds

Daily chores are all designated a specific time during the day, generally around meal times. During my morning preparation block I start the laundry, make beds, make & clean up breakfast, and usually take care of round one of vacuuming. During school time I generally run down once or twice to switch laundry. During kitchen time I clean up lunch, sweep the kitchen, take out the kitchen garbage, and do as much dinner prepwork as I can. Laundry is generally folded and put away during the 3-5 catch up block. These jobs generally take about an hour per day divided up between 3-4 smaller work sessions. If I get nothing else done in the day and do only this much I can avoid feeling (too far) behind even when life is crazy!

Weekly Chores
Clean Bathrooms
Mop Kitchen Floor
Straighten Kid Bedrooms
Vaccum & Sweep Bedrooms
Pay Bills/Balance Checkbook

I mentioned I used to designate a specific day for these tasks, but I have found I prefer the flexibility of committing to do one of these jobs each day. Payday, for example, changes and is roughly every other week but not on the same day. The weeks we host Wednesday playgroup I like to make sure the bathrooms were done on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning and with littler kids straightening & vacuuming kid rooms needs to be done in that time frame as well. Other weeks I might do those jobs at a different time based on our schedule. My general goal is to do one per day during the afternoon 1-3 block, although I often find time in the morning and will get things done early if I can. If I combine my weekly and daily chores onto the same day I can make the house company acceptable in 1-2 hours.

Monthly Chores
Straighten & Vacuum the basement (pantry, Tim's office, lego area, & laundry/sewing area)
Sewing Chores (fixing pants, longer term projects)
Wash bedding
Wash Doboks (Tae Kwon Do uniforms)
Dusting
Scrub Kitchen Appliances (They are wiped down daily as cleaning up from food prep)
Wipe down walls

This list is mostly things that I end up doing based on need every 2-3 weeks but I would not want to go a month without doing at all! I generally work on these jobs also during the 1-3 time frame, aiming for 1-2 per week. As opposed to things that I would want done immediately before company comes, these are things I would want done within a week of a big visit from family or friends (sorry local peeps- I don't care if my basement is clean for you!).

I wasn't really planning on a mini series on our chore and household routines, but I am going to do one more post in a few days on how and where the other members of my family pitch in. While this list is doable on my own, it is more enjoyable together and that leaves more time for fun!

Taking Ownership

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:17:00 +0000

As our prayer table has been a fixture in our home for longer, I have noticed the boys taking more and more ownership of the resources there. Caleb has been copying down the prayers at the end of each of his religion lessons (Faith & Life 2) and posting them around the house, including near the prayer table. He also brought home his outline for Reconciliation and wanted to post that near the table as well.

This week was Aidan's turn to have the RE classroom family activity bag. The activity was focused on learning to pray The Divine Mercy Chaplet and he has carefully laid out the candle, statue, rosary, and pamphlets on the top of the prayer table to use throughout this week. Not only has he taken the initiative to lay all of these materials out, he has been ensuring their use by asking us to pray the chaplet together each day.

Building Blocks of My Day

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:25:00 +0000

As any mom who blogs, reads blogs, or spends any time on the computer, I have read my share of home organization and scheduling blogs. I have read posts outlining the multitude of benefits and drawbacks of a schedule versus a routine and even posted my own schedules and routines on occasion.

I have tried, trashed, and retried more cleaning schedules, meal plans, and daily than one can probably count. Right before life got crazy with the house fire, three years ago now, I started using a cleaning schedule just for myself. I had certain tasks assigned to certain days (like always mopping the kitchen floor on Tuesdays) and certain tasks that I did every day.

This was just enough for that season of my life.

Then came our big move to Utah, another baby, and a husband who was doing PhD work on a variable schedule. Back to the blogs I went.

Around this time I was introduced to the concept of the Managers of their Home style schedule. I had a spreadsheet for every day of the week with who was where at every moment of the day. This worked well during that season when our schedule was so varied from day to day.

Over time, however, this schedule became more of a burden than a blessing. When we got off schedule we were all a little lost! Our days had so much packed into them that was manageable when we were all on our game but the lack of flexibility for changing appointments, etc. was very difficult for us! Even when I could be flexible, we found that Caleb struggled with a schedule because the schedule took priority over everything else. If that paper said we were supposed to do something at a certain time and we didn't it was a recipe for a major melt down!

We ended up settling into a nice rhythm to our day. Certain things were morning jobs and certain things were afternoon jobs. We did things like school at about the same time every day, but if it was off by 15 minutes it wasn't written down, so it wasn't such a big problem. We did things in the same order each day, but not necessarily the same time.

Our days had that rhythm I had read so much about.

Yet, I still felt like something was missing. I didn't have that ease or peace about my day that these blog moms all touted. Was it imaginary? Was it just good persuasive writing? I still felt like I was working from behind most of the time and an "off" day felt like it took a week to recover from.

About six months ago, I took a new approach. I melded the rhythm and the schedule into a block style schedule. I gave each 2 hour block of my day a focus and then built in the completion of my daily, weekly, monthly cleaning and household jobs into the blocks.

So my daily "schedule" looks something like this:

5-7 is my time. My time for quiet reading and prayer, working out, or even sleeping in if the baby had a rough night. If I get up early I might shower and dress during this time, but if I get up later there is room for that later in the schedule as well.

7-9 is preparing time. Preparing everyone for a good start for the day. We eat breakfast as a family 7 days per week, almost without exception. Tim or I makes a heartier breakfast (we don't do cereal as it is too expensive for 7 people and has too much stuff in it we would just rather not eat regularly) and the kids come in as they wake up. Sometimes they help with breakfast, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get dressed before, sometimes they don't. Tim and I usually take turns making breakfast and cleaning up so we help the little two and get ourselves ready whenever the other one is working. One thing we do without exception, before we sit down to eat, is pray our morning offering together. After breakfast is over we clean up the dining room table and the kids have their own list of morning chores (make bed, dirty clothes in basket, brush teeth, brush hair). Once everyone is dressed, Tim heads down to his office and starts his work for the day. I finish up any other daily chores and the kids play.

9-11 is school time. I think this one is pretty self explanatory, but with the exception of cleaning the school room when we are done and me taking quick trips to the laundry room to swap loads, this time is for school only.

11-1 is kitchen time. This section of the day is for making, serving, & cleaning up lunch and doing prep work in the kitchen. Things like putting dinner in the crock pot, baking, and other kitchen jobs. I also do any kitchen deep cleaning and empty the kitchen garbages during this time. The kids help with the first hour (they do like to eat...) and then they play outside for the second hour.

1-3 is flexible time. Two or three days per week we do our afternoon preschool time. I try to schedule doctor appointments and therapy during this time as well. When we are home, I use this time to finish my weekly and monthly chore lists. Things that need to be done regularly, but not necessarily daily. Sometimes if kids are grouchy we incorporate quiet time!

3-5 is catch up time. I finish any dinner prep, usually have odds and ends to do like put away the clean laundry, and do any organizing for evening activities. This is probably the most hectic period of our day but that a day without any craziness is probably an unrealistic goal!

5-7 is family time. We have activities the melt into this time some days each week, but dinner, clean up, stories, & bedtime fit into this period quite nicely even when we have overlap. The older two boys each have an after dinner chore to help this time run more smoothly. Kylee is honestly getting old enough at four that it is time for her to have her own job as well!

After the kids are in bed I am not quite as structured ;) Honestly, if the day has gone well I don't need to be. I like to spend a few minutes doing any daily chores that didn't quite get finished or take a few minutes to think about the next day's breakfast. Tim and I also like to spend some time hanging out together, chatting, etc. I like to be in bed no later than 10, but he often stays up later to work more. Evening is the one time of day that Lucie can be a little fussy, and I suspect it is because I am sitting down and it just isn't as much fun as hanging out in the sling! Either that, or she doesn't know what to do when it is finally quiet in the house... Sometimes I just take her to bed with a book for myself and read or watch a movie on my iPad until someone (usually me) falls asleep.

This schedule works great for me as a morning person. A night owl might prefer to have their "me time" late at night, or even to do most of the preparing work the evening before. Some families have kids who need a more structured rest times. Variations aside, I have really found blocking my schedule helps to provide more focus to individual times during the day. I also have found that within the blocks there is plenty of time to finish both the required daily work and the fun longer term projects.

If you stuck with me through all these wordy words, I hope that at least some of them might be helpful for you! I will write up another post in the next week on how I figure out daily, monthly, weekly chores. It is probably self explanatory, but I will share what I do just in case you need a place to start!

Chop Punch!

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:38:00 +0000

I am super late on posting this, but I advanced to the rank of 1st Degree Decided Black Belt in songham tae kwon do a couple weeks ago. I won't bore you with testing details, but I will share a few pictures from the day.

Recognize my sparring partner?

I have to say it...this picture really shows off nothing other than my baby fat..... Doboks are so flattering!

Bowing in for traditional board break

My foot is still bruised from those boards coming back together on my foot.
(Oh and the holder on the left was Caleb's PCA last summer)

Random toddler thought my instructor needed some help....

The whole crew!

This was a pretty special day for me. Tim really pushed me to start and I was unconvinced I would enjoy it or be any good at it. I'm still not sure I'm really any good, but hey I must be ok, right?! I love how strong and in control tae kwon do makes me feel. It challenges me physically and mentally and I highly encourage everyone to consider this activity for themselves and for their families.

Like A Dog Chasing His Tail

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Like a dog chasing his tail, so my daughter chases her nuky around the floor...

During the course of a recent riveting game of Yahtzee, Lucie made it from 12:00 counter clockwise to what would you say, about 4:00?

I have no idea who won the game, but she sure is cute!

Prayer Board

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:57:00 +0000

Every year I save all of our Christmas cards from that year with the intention of praying for those families by face and name throughout the year. Know how often I make it past January??

Embarrassingly un-often.

The kids' prayer life has been greatly enhanced by the addition of our prayer table to the school/living/dining room. Mine, however.....

Yup, embarrassingly un-often.

I have to be honest that I find very little I do that doesn't somehow end up as a group activity. I try to get up between 5-5:30 every morning and since we are guessing things in the post, guess how often I am alone during that time?

Forget un-often...more like never.

I have realized (with lots of help from those in my life who I consider good spiritual examples) that I need to focus less on quantity or even perhaps quality and focus more on simply doing. Living, breathing kind of stuff! Like if I am vacuuming for the third or fourth time today, who might need a few prayers lifted up on their behalf?

Obviously the point of this post is coming to our new chalkboard in the above picture, so I won't ramble any longer. Tim brought it home for me from the thrift store, isn't it perfect?? A place to post photos (remember the Christmas cards, don't you wish you sent us one now?), important things happening to our extended family far away, and to jot down general intentions of our local parish and special requests from friends. The white bookmark sized piece of paper next to the photo of Pope Benedict XVI (which ironically came in a Christmas card from a friend who spent some time in Italy this fall) is actually the list of his intentions published each month in Columbia magazine.

It's on the door to the closet where I keep the vacuum, broom, and all of the Tae Kwon Do uniforms. Any guesses how many times each day I open that door?

Suffice it to say, embarrassingly often.

fun with Sandpaper Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Do you know what I've learned about learning to read over the years?

I've learned it is not about having the perfect curriculum or spending a certain number of minutes reading every day. Don't get me wrong, those things are important, but to learn to read kids really need to OWN the letters. They need to interact with them again and again in as many different ways as possible. They need to experiment as letter scientists, fully immersed in their work!

This has been a part of what mainstream education calls a print rich environment for many, many years. Learning about Montessori, however, has opened my eyes to a whole new level of interactions. Not just using the materials, but interacting with letters & sounds in new and interesting ways to explore the ways they all relate together to make something new.

In a Montessori classroom this might look like a child observing an older student using the materials in an advanced way and self-motivating to learn the skills necessary for a new activity. In the Montessori home, it is my job as teacher-mommy-guide to sometimes provide inspiration for new activities. Lately I have been focusing on bringing Kylee back to materials for extra practice with a new twist to maintain interest and deepen her understanding.

For this activity we simply made piles of beginning, middle, and end sounds and then she chose one from each pile and did a crayon rubbing of each letter to "write" her word. Some of her words made sense and some did not, but she was able to read each word as she selected the letters and blended them together...literally.

Winter Science

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:45:00 +0000

As a winter science investigation we are studying the habits of birds around our house. We made pinecone bird feeders** and hung them from a variety of places in our yard. We are checking the feeders daily to see which ones are being consumed most quickly. This is a simple experiment that allows for lots of discussion of hypothesis, gathering data, and making conclusions. Throughout we will also discuss things like environmental impact as we see how our movements around the outside of our house impact the feeders.

List of Feeders
1. House
2. Swing Tree
3. Tall bush
4. Dinosaur Island
5. Jungle Gym
6. Corner
7. Driveway

**To make a pinecone bird feeder, wrap a pipe cleaner around the top of a pinecone to make a hanger. Coat the pinecone in shortening or peanut butter (but NOT peanut butter with sugar in it- it's bad for the birds) and roll in birdseed. We made our bird feeders during our afternoon preschool time as everyone, even the two year old, was able to help.

It's A Long Road

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:30:00 +0000

The road between Utah and Minnesota is long.

Long and boring.

I mean seriously we only take basically 2 roads the entire way.

Suffice it to say there is clearly a reason Wyoming is the least populated state.

Thankfully I gave birth to creative children who have reinvented Rock, Paper, Scissors.

My favorite is the Star Wars version with Force (an open palm), Light Saber (1 finger pointing up), and Blaster (gun fingers). Tim made the kids change it from gun to blaster because evidently that is proper Star Wars terminology.... I wouldn't know.

Instead of saying rock, paper, scissors, shoot to start the game you say,

"Light saber, blaster, force be with you!"

There is also a Harry Potter edition and an Avengers edition which evidently has 5 options that I can't really understand quite yet!

3 Period Lesson Game for Sight Words

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:52:00 +0000

In the English language there are many words, often referred to as Dolch words, that occur frequently. We read faster and better when we see and then know these words. Memorizing these words individually is often helpful as many of them are not pronounced phonetically.

Over the years, I have found the 3 period lesson to be the most effective way to teach sight words. (At our house we call them see-it-know-it words.) As a quick review, the 3 period lesson is 3 steps of learning beginning with the teacher presenting the information and the student telling back. I like to remember them with vocal cues.

Step 1: This is....
Step 2: Can you find the....?
Step 3: What is this?

When teaching with 3 period lessons, there is a lot of cycling through. For example, with sight words, I start with just 2-3 words per lesson going through the 3 steps. After each new set of words is introduced, we go back to a 3 period lesson with more words.

This can get a little bit long and tedious for student and teacher!

One of the games we play as a part of step 2 to keep things interesting is the "Mix Up" game (I am, as you can see, very creative in game naming). We spread out all of the words that have been introduced, reviewing step 1 as we go.

Spreading out the cards helps recognize words that are upside down.

Then we choose a word to remember (for example, and). Then Kylee mixes up all the cards and spreads them back out and races to find "and" as fast as she can.

After a few rounds, we add a second word to look for. Once we work up to 3-4 words we are searching for, I lay the words we have been searching for and move to step 3.

Once enough sight words have been introduced, Sight Word Bingo is another fun game to play! It can easily be adapted based on the step the child is working on. (Match the word, find the word, or read the words drawn from a bag!)

Networked Mommas

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Let's face it, this parenting business is hard work. It is exhausting work and we often don't see the fruits of our labor for many months or even longer. Parenting can even be lonely work when we are stuck inside for days on end with sick kids or inclement weather. I've been reflecting lately on the various networks of moms that encourage me as I walk this crazy road of large family mothering.

The first to come to mind are always my oldest and dearest friends. We became parents together, going on 10 years ago now and survived the crazy days of being married students, new moms, and wives of students (although I would interject that I seem to STILL be doing this role). In some cases we stood up for each other in weddings and now share milestones of life and faith together. These friends are the ones who have had an angry grief filled Heidi slam doors in their faces and then sat with me on the couch only hours later as I cried tears of apology. Even though I am far away from these friends in geography now, we are as close as we have ever been. We can not talk for weeks or months and pick up right where we left off. They support me in their constancy. I know that they are rocks and if they have it in their power to help me through something they will. I feel the same way about them. I treasure the emails I get from these friends requesting prayers for the challenges in their lives and I am honored to pray for them.

Moving often, as we have, I am also blessed to continually find myself in the company of new friends. Here in Utah I have my playgroup moms and my karate moms! These are the moms sweating it out (literally in some cases) with me every day. The ones that offer to hold a baby, bring a meal, and tell me how to navigate the crazy world of tae kwon do competitions. They give me recommendations for health care, grocery stores, and things in between. They certainly do not know me as intimately as the old familiar friends, but in walking this road together each day and week we are making new memories. One of my favorite parts of this diverse new group is that unlike many long term friends many of these women became moms for the first time either much sooner or more more recently than I did. They have so much to teach me! I do not doubt that many of these new friends will soon be counted as old friends!

What kind of networking post would this be if I didn't acknowledge the many amazing people I have met through blogs and other online ventures. Through this blog I have met many friends of friends who I now count as friends (that's a lot of friends in one sentence). Through online groups, I have become connected with women from all corners of the country. We have had the opportunity extend hospitality to travelers and been hosted by some of these women. I have virtually been a part of supporting families in hardship in a variety of ways. They are also a virtual sounding board for my frustrations and questions. No matter what I am experiencing, there is someone who has been there that is quickly available.

When I am feeling frustrated or alone, it is comforting and helpful to think of the women who surround me in so many ways. Take some time to think of your own mom networks and be thankful for them this holiday season!

(PS: Can anyone name the babies in each of the images from this blog post?)

Logan's First Science Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Heidi) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:24:00 +0000

One of our afternoon preschool projects last week was a surface tension demonstration using simple materials: water, pepper, & dish soap. The basics of the experiment is that the pepper will float evenly until the soap disrupts the surface tension and then it will disperse away from the soap, looking something like this.

When we do experiments, I like to make the materials available for the kids to follow the steps on their own during choice time. Recently, Logan made a big jump to try repeating an entire experiment on his own.

Actual Procedure
Fill water pitcher
Pour into bowl
Sprinkle surface of water with black pepper
Pump in a small amount of dish soap
Observe

Logan's Procedure in Pictures

I can't even begin to guess at all that went on in this little boy's mind this day, but the pictures tell the story better than I ever could!

My boy is growing up to be sure.