Day 13: Patching up things

We've been battling some bug over the past week, but I still got a few things done.

I sashed my quilt!

I caulked the bathroom.

I puttied some holes in the wall (some were smaller than others). Hopefully that means I can paint tomorrow.

I tried to match the paint in our living room. How can one house have four different colors of yellow paint?

One key I'm finding is to read my list early in the day. That motivates me to tackle projects when I have a little bit of time. When they are already on my mind, they don't seem daunting.

We hit the used book sale today and bought a large box of books for $5. After doing some math and writing, we took the rest of the day off to read. It rained during the afternoon, but it wasn't cold. Ah, fall.

Quilt so far

Should it be a throw or a tree skirt?

Day 9 - Whoops, missed a few days!

The last couple days were down days in this household because various members got sick, and finishing a quilt is low priority compared to caring for sick kiddos.

I have a few bags of kid's clothing next to the door to donate - that'll be high on the list tomorrow! I'm beginning to move fall clothing into the closet and summer clothing into storage.

I began dealing with the sock monster (a large-sized moving box full of unmatched kid and adult socks). I'm about 80% done with that - I'd love to eliminate the box and come up with a sorting scheme that makes sense.

I'm going to be tacking the quilt this weekend. Since we use the guest room for school and sewing, I have to clean it up each night during the week. Leaving it out for the next few days should save some time.

I hope to also spackle and paint some holes this weekend. If we're full of energy, we'll also return unneeded lights to the home store.

Day 7: Sashing the quilt

I made progress today on my quilt! It will most likely be a 4x4 quilt (unless my 6-year-old successfully convinces me to make it 6x4...) and I'm about 75% of the way through sashing.

I've been working on saying "yes" to my kids unless I must say "no", so when my daughters asked to help me today I let them. Anna learned to iron (she pressed a few seams on the sashing) and Molly helped arrange the blocks.

I chose a good stopping point. I know exactly what to do next so there is no mental block.

Unfortunately, reading about how to sash and sew a border for the quilt is leading me to a bunch of wonderful quilting blogs with shiny, new patterns. No new projects this month!

The fireplace is repaired and we're planning our first fire for this week!

I exercised. I found some good online pilates videos for free and am enjoying the variety.

Otherwise, this was a good day for playing in the leaves with my toddler and taking a nap. The weather change is hard.

Day 4 - Burning through that list!

I've been hitting the 15 minute projects today! It has been a busy day, with classes for my kids in the morning, a party afterwards, and then swimming, but I've been using bits of down time to wrap up projects.

I've been squeezing in projects here and there all day! First, we repaired our fireplace as told to by the chimney sweep. We only bought the supplies about a month ago. *blush* The hardest part was finding the putty knife!

Then, I worked on the hole in the bathroom. It'll be nice not to have that staring me in the face!

 I was able to fit in two chapters of Mother's Rule of Life while my son napped this morning!

Off to exercise before cleaning the school room (that counts as upkeep, unfortunately, and not a project). If I can clean it fast enough, I'll sew and iron some sashing for my quilt, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'm focusing on simple meals so that I have more project time. They still taste good and are probably healthier than many of my complicated ones!

Tomorrow is a rest day, so no more projects after that until Monday!

Day 3 - Projects to Tasks

I've gone through my rooms (quickly), opened closets (without judgment), collected projects, and even finished the first three 15-minute-or-less projects (listed shoes for sale online, hung pictures over my dresser, and learned how to properly dispose of used batteries ).

Today I'm going to work on turning projects into tasks, like the method of Getting Things Done.

A project is the big picture: what will the end result look like?

A task is manageable: what can I cross off my to-do list today?

"Finish quilt" is a project; cut sashing pieces is a task.

"Lose weight" is a project; exercise for 25 minutes is a task.

Look through your list - is each of your projects a project? Is it measurable? Can you define finished?

The short projects don't need to become tasks - they already are tasks - and turning them into tasks may take more time than it is worth. However, I'll come back to tacking short projects efficiently later.

For my quilt project, the tasks are:

 - cut sashing
- sew on sashing
- iron squares
- sew squares together into rows
- cut border
- sew border
- learn how to do the next step, then task it

Although I sort of want to finish PiYo, there are some workouts I just don't like. They don't work with my body type (long torso, recently pregnant) and I don't want to do them. So I'm not going to. However, I'm not going to buy any more workout DVDs until I finish a "PiYo Equivalent." So instead, I'm using Amazon Prime pilates/yoga workouts for my core for the month.

My exercise task is ten 15-minute segments per week.  That means I can exercise five times for 30 minutes, a few times for 45 and once or twice for 15, or twice a day for 15. I need to find 15 minutes, not an hour.

I plugged in the power drill battery today so I can tackle those tasks on Saturday!

Projects Done! - Day 2 - Collect

It was already on my mind this morning as I was woken up by the burglar alarm at 6:55 am! No, not a burglar, just hubby, who had forgotten the code, and toddler, who was crying, "Too loud! Too loud!"

After turning it off and comforting the little one, I ran back upstairs and grabbed my notebook to begin Day 2 - Collect. 

Today is the day to make The List. Don't be creative! Don't be exhaustive! Just write down the things that exhaust you the moment you walk into a room! This task should take less than 15 minutes. If it doesn't hit you over the head immediately, it doesn't belong on this list.

We have a hole in the wall where Someone broke the toilet paper roll out twice. Each time I brush my teeth, shower, or take care of business, I see the hole and think, "Wow, I really should fix that!" I've even bought a drywall patch kit to fix the hole. It would relieve stress to take care of that.

On the other hand, we have a dirt patch in our backyard. We vaguely plan on putting bricks there. I haven't bought bricks. I do not know how to put them in properly. I rarely see the problem and don't really care about it. Tackling this project would create stress with few positives.

After walking through your house, sit down and write a sentence justifying each project. Some of mine are:

"Reattach curtain rod so that it doesn't break more and so that the kids can sleep better."

"Sort girls' clothes to donate so that someone else can use them and so that the girls can more easily keep their room clean. It'll also save me time washing clothing that was left on the floor and never worn!"

"Finish the quilt into a tree skirt so we can use it this Christmas!"

"Keep building my core muscles because then I can sleep better and not have back pain!"

"Read Madita to increase my ability in German."

Some of the sentences were lame:

"Fix ceiling. Yeah right." 

"Decide what to do with the crib so I no longer feel guilty when I look at it.

I have no clue how to fix a ceiling. You can barely see the patches. This is not getting done this month.

Put a star next to any project you can do in less than 20 minutes. If you need to buy anything for the project, it does not qualify! Recaulking a hole in the bathroom will take 5 minutes - once I buy the caulk! But, for now, it doesn't make the short list.

Finally, choose the easiest project and do it today. Why wait for tomorrow? 

For me, it is listing a pair of unworn shoes on e-bay. (And, who knows, maybe it'll snowball and I'll list my craigslist items, too!)

What is your project to finish today?

31 Days of Getting Those Projects Done

The box labeled "Quilt Pieces."

The almost-but-not quite done Piyo Schedule.

The broken toilet paper roll holder in my bath room.

The quarter bushel of peaches on my kitchen counter.

The book, Braving the Elements, sitting half-read, next to my bed, where it has been for three months.

There are a lot of projects that just need one more push to become former projects, sources of encouragement instead of guilt.

This is the month! Why put it off any longer! 

I'm going to be tackling projects head on, defining what is important, ranking tasks based on time and energy required, and then fitting them into my day. 

My tasks fall into a few categories: crafts, books, home improvement, self-improvement, and life-improvement. These aren't new tasks, but ones that I've been working on and that are dying. They are ones that need no (or almost no) purchases, but just that last kick of time to get them done.

While I'd love to have a day to devote to those-things-that-drive-me-batty, I don't have it. I have bits here and there. Those moments I usually - I mean, used to - check Facebook during, could be used for finishing The Mother's Rule of Life. The evening forum hop - cutting, piecing, and sewing the tree skirt quilt (I've made the squares, just need to bind and quilt!). Not sure where to fit in Piyo, but even that I was doing consistently until I overdid it and hurt my knees.

My focus this month is daily, consistent, work on irritating projects. I want to do a good-enough job to finish and move on!

Little years - needy years - wonder years

 

 Sometimes we have those days. Those days where everyone seems to go crazy, when the toys have lost their luster, everyone is looking for a way to irritate their siblings, days when craziness takes over. I've noticed a pattern about those days. They are the days I start without reading to my little girl first. 

They are the days we are focused and my goals are set high. They usually come on the heels of a few really productive days. Now that we've been so productive for three days, I think, I should add in an extra history book, or do an extra math project with my oldest. By 9:30 am, the morning has started on its downward trajectory. By 10:30, everyone is frustrated. By lunch time, I'm ready to complain to anyone and everyone.

 

A while back, we started with Circle Time but my kids and I aren't that sort of people. One memorizes best by reading, another by writing, and only my little girl by hearing. Somehow, having your 4-year-old sister outshine you in poetry memorization is discouraging. The chaos that ensued from the way I implemented Circle Time defeated the whole purpose. We still do memory time, but usually in the car, and not in a circle. For us, it didn't work as a way to draw everyone together but as a way to highlight issues. Not the way I wanted to start my day.

 

We're in a rhythm that works now, starting the day off with a book for my little girl, her choice. Often, the big kids are still cleaning off the kitchen table by the time we're done. If the morning goes smoothly, she spends some time with us at the table, then some time playing on a blanket, before we all read together, with her on my lap, at Sonlight history time, and then finish the morning off with the two of us making lunch together.

If the morning goes poorly, I find something independent for the bigger kids to do, like math practice or alphabetizing spelling words, while spending special time with my little girl again. If the morning goes exceptionally poorly, and she has a really bad attitude, we make a coffee cake after I deal with the attitude. The bad attitude is usually the fruit, the root is needing mom. If she can't get mom with sweetness, then sourness comes out.

And so we found what works for us - savoring the little years, knowing they won't last forever, and that she needs me now, and that I am blessed to have her little today.

German has been long neglected...

It is hard to speak two languages at home. Ask a native speaker who lives in a country where a different language is spoken. Unless they have many relatives or a community where they speak their second language, they've probably given up teaching their children their native language.

Choosing to speak two languages at home isn't a one-time choice. It is a daily, hourly, even minutely choice, and for the last few weeks, I've been making the choice to give into exhaustion, excuses, and ease instead of switching into German.

Then, once I've not spoken German for a few weeks, it feels silly to speak it. Why speak it now if I won't be speaking it in ten minutes? How can I tell my children not to fight in German if I am worried they won't understand? Won't it look silly if I say a few things in German and then give up?

Ah, the ease with which I make up excuses!

I got out a book of fairy tales last night to read to myself. No input quickly leads to no output, so I worked on the input last night. It is high time to read a wikipedia article on winter and storms so that I can talk about things that are on our mind to my children (what did people do before wikipedia???).

It is time to just do it again. Steering is easiest while moving.

Math shakeup: Three years into RightStart

I love math. A preschool teacher predicted to my mother that I'd be good at math based on how I built with blocks and I actively remember enjoying first grade math. When it came time to choose a math program for my kids, I knew I wanted them to love math and understand math the way I did. I chose RightStart and have enjoyed teaching it. After nearly four years, I still enjoy teaching it, am surprised by how well thought out it is, and recommend it to anyone who will listen.

John loves math. The program is perfect for him.

About two months ago, Anna told Daddy she didn't like math.

Uh-oh. This was not an acceptable turn of events.

I knew the week prior to this statement had been hard, as we'd worked on some mental math concepts she had disliked and I had gotten frustrated with her. It didn't shock me, but I knew it wasn't only from the prior week.

We spent the next week playing math games. We covered no lessons and did no new concepts, but I spent the week playing games I thought she could do easily, to built up her confidence. It was a good week.

After that, I didn't know what to do, but a friend recommended the MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme) curriculum from England. It is free, and now that we have a printer, I could print out a bit to "try."

I gave Anna the printouts and she ate it up. She loved it. She grabbed it first thing every morning and raved about it each evening to Daddy. I let her do ony MEP worksheets (which is only part of the program) and RightStart math games for another week.

Finally, the time came when she needed a real lesson, not just worksheets and games (although some people can make those into a full curriculum, I love how RightStart is taught). I couldn't bring myself to abandon RightStart philosophy, so I pulled out RightStart again and gave it a try. I rewrote the problems I knew would vex her and decided to work by the clock instead of by the book.

It has worked. She still doesn't say math is her favorite subject.

But math games and math worksheets are.

And she no longer fights the solid foundation she is getting from the systematic teaching of RightStart.

 Our year, not in chronological order. Maybe I'll fix it later...

January 2012: at the cabin with grandparents and cousins

September 2012: moving across the country via the southern route

December 2012: Grandparents from Virginia join us for Christmas!

February 2012: baby spends 5 days in NICU and we decide to take life a bit easier

May 2012: visit to Em's cousins in Oregon

Summer: marshmallows at the cabin with grandma and granddad, rounding out a day of hiking

March 2012: Em travels to Switzerland with Dan and baby

October 2012: at the Art Institute, beginning to enjoy all Chicago has to offer

May 2012: exploring giant redwoods on our way home from Oregon

Summer 2012: learning to rollerskate

November 2012: special Thanksgiving with Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma in Indiana

More Summer 2012: hiking in the redwoods near our house

More Summer 2012: 1930ish Model A at Woodies at the Wharf

Greece!

Examining an Athenian vase. We just read about Sparta and Athens!

Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window they are trimming the trees for winter. The sky is gray and most leaves are gone. The weather warmed up over the weekend and we enjoyed being outside without the heaviest coats. We spent most of Anna's birthday outside!

I am thinking about procrastination. But that'll have to wait until later. :-)

I am thankful for Thanksgiving plans and friends near and far. I'm thankful for our lovely apartment that now looks lived in. It is amazing what a few pictures, organized books, and real chairs at the dining room table can do. We took the folding chairs outdoors on Saturday. Yay!

In the kitchen, I made a cake for Anna's birthday. It wasn't elaborate, but I've learned that elaborate cakes and parties are for the parents, not the kids, and that simpler is often easier, cheaper, and no less thrilling to the kids.

I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt. What's new? But tonight I get to change into a leotard and tights because I'm in a beginning ballet class at the University! The students offer it free to community members. I've been going for a little over a month now and I feel like I'm wearing concrete blocks on my legs for a few days after the class.

I am creating a new Drawing with Children lesson. The kids were asking me for one over the weekend.

I am going to Dan's relatives for Thanksgiving.

I am reading German books to myself, Winnie the Pooh at night to the kids, and The Odyssey adaptation by Geraldine McCaughrean during the day.

I am hoping to do watercolors with the kids. I have the paints and the paper and the plan. Everything is sitting on my desk. We were supposed to make watercolor lanterns for the German group's St. Martin parade last week. It didn't happen. I'd still like to watercolor, though. I've got everything sitting on my desk to make me remember what we should be doing every time I sit down. We made a frog lantern instead.

That's all the time for today! Best wishes for a lovely week.

Fitting it all into our day

Our school days start fairly predictably: after breakfast, I tidy up while John starts math reviews. I do a math lesson with him, then tutor Anna in her math lesson while John does a practice page of math independently. We play math games, then move into the living room for read alouds about history and science, followed by narration (which counts as oral composition). By now, Matthew has joined us and is making things interesting. We move back into the dining room, do some handwriting, spelling, and grammar, and have now covered, more or less, the three Rs as well as science and history. Most of this gets done everyday.

Formal art lessons, however, rarely get done. We can't do them with the baby up because he is too needy and when the baby is down we need to do the basics. By mid-afternoon, I'm working on dinner, laundry, maintaining the house, and trying to get a short quiet adult-time. Art lessons fall by the wayside.

I finally found a solution. The perfect solution for us.

Daddy travels. A lot. By 7 pm on days he is out of town, I'm ready to crash but the kids aren't. While he was away a few weekends ago, I did an art lesson as soon as dinner was cleaned up and the baby was asleep. Last night, when Dan told me he'd be gone for dinner for work, I knew just what to do.

I told the kids we could do a drawing lesson once the baby was asleep, the kitchen was clean, their bedroom was clean, and they were tooth-brushed and ready for bed. All these (except the baby sleeping) happened lightening-fast. I haven't seen their room that clean for a month! No nagging or help was required from me because the incentives were perfect.

They got ready so fast that I had to read to them for about a quarter hour while the baby fell asleep.

Then, we did the art lesson. We got out the special paper and the special markers. I showed them the sample I had made earlier in the week, and I walked them through the lesson. They were quiet and happy. I got to relax and draw, too. I let them stay up forty minutes past their bedtime so that they would have enough time to color their designs. Even so, I didn't feel like I was crashing.

We finally found a place for art.

My six-year-old daughter

You're six. Happy birthday, growing one.

Monday morning after a long night

Classy kiddos!

We were up with little baby Matthew until four am last night, so I'm not going to write a daybook! We've had a great week, with Grandma and Granddad visiting. John scored his first goal in a game (and I missed it due to the 40 degree weather!) and we joined the museum down the street from our house, a world-class science museum. We can walk there!

Molly's a basket case.

We took our parents to the museum and made LN2 ice cream with a staff scientist. We made goop there, too. Our front bedroom is starting to look like an office instead of a post-earthquake storage area, thanks in whole to my dad.

John helps blow up balloons that had been in LN2.

Weeks 2 and 3 Wrap Up

Talk to any homeschooler and you'll learn that the "home" part is often the hardest part of homeschooling to fit in. I think this is particularly the case when you live in the city where there are a million wonderful things to do and Dad travels a lot. In the last two weeks, we took a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where we toured the capitol building, sparking an interest in state capitals, and Grandma showed up in town for a visit, leading to much (good) disruption.

We've had a lot of success working on the 3Rs. I'm working through the RightStart math series with John and Anna and I consistently do three to four lessons per child each week. I recently realized that John's math facts are shaky enough to slow him down, so I dusted off the math games book and found a few games that he, Anna, and I can play together to cement his addition facts and to help Anna begin learning hers. Our favorites are Math Grid Bingo and Fill-In-The-Grid. Math games at this age make so much sense to me for fact learning.

Additionally, the kid started tessalation projects with Dan Saturday morning after wondering about the hexagon tiles in our bathroom. Ideally we'd do a math exploration once a week, but often other tings take priority. It is great when an exploration comes naturally and ends up being  a lot of fun.

I am teaching spelling and handwriting using Spalding (Writing Road to Reading). I have a love-hate relationship with Spalding. It takes a good amount of time, but when I use it consistently, John spells like a natural speller and uses beautiful handwriting. When I back off it, he spells poorly and his handwriting gets sloppy. Finally, I realized that if something works very well for us, I need to just use it. I combine the kids for phonogram review and handwriting instruction but dictate the spelling notebooks separately.

We've been reading aloud some time everyday, but not as much as I have planned! The kids also read on their own and we've done narrations about every other day. John took a liking to a biography of George Washington Carver I bought at a used book sale, read it on his own, gave me an amazing narration, and then asked for it to be the evening read aloud. We're getting a lot of mileage from this book and discussion topics linked to it. (Civil war, slavery, Abraham Lincoln, inventions, soybeans...)

The kids developed an obsession with state capitals after our visit to Madison, WI. We've listened to the Animaniacs song on capitals twice each morning for the past few days and know a lot. John decided to make some flashcards, too, to solidify his knowledge. While walking to church this morning, the kids read off the names of states from car license plates and then told me the capitals, so I guess the information is sticking.

We've pressed a bunch of leaves and drawn the only tree in our backyard for science. We know how to identify a Gingko Biloba tree and know that pill bugs are crustaceans. (Who knew?) Bugs caught so far: earth worms, box elder bugs, pill bugs, spiders, and centipedes. All have been released besides one centipede.

At the State Supreme Court, Madison, WI

A homeschool book I read recently talked about starting your week by looking at an art print, narrating it, and then spending some time copying part of it. We've done that for the last two weeks with prints of Renoirs from the Art Institute. When we're done with all the Renoirs from AIC, we'll go visit them. Before this schedule change, we never got around to art.

That was our week!

FOR TODAY
Outside my window... 


There is a heat wave! It is supposed to be in the seventies all week long. Mom is here in town and disappointed that the weather isn't more extreme, but I'm happy because the kids can play outside without putting on lots of layers and I know extreme weather will come eventually.

I am thankful...
For my mom's visit. It is so much fun to have her around! I'm also thankful for the huge amount of winter clothing a college friend gave us. I don't need to wonder about how to clothe my littler two for the winter at all (and, since the older two give good feed back if they are too cold, I don't need to worry about them, either).
 
In the kitchen...
I'm going to be making a Shepherd's Pie from Cooks' Illustrated this week. Hopefully I can make the dacquoise from this month's issue this coming weekend, too. We'll see. I like experimenting in cooking when I can take my time and there isn't a lot of pressure.
  I am wearing...
Jeans and a beaded t-shirt. It is summer weather!
  I am creating...
I'm looking through some crochet patterns. Since I worked on the Rubik's cube for seven hours straight one day, I can't knit without repetitive stress pain. Will crochet work, or should I stick to sewing? 

I'm still working on order in the house, but some things take time and it gets frustrating. Like finding a dining set with eight chairs on craigslist within a one hour drive. :-)
  I am going...
To a free ballet class for beginners at the University tonight!
 
I am reading...
Kid books, of course. I'm going through books I bought at our neighborhood used book sale so that I can confidently hand them to my children.
 
Around the house...
I'm working on the binder system for homeschooling. I've got 3" language arts binders set up, with five sections per child. I'm putting the math explorations into the pockets for now, but I'll probably set up a nature study/math binder for things like that. Narrations are currently going into the language arts binder but they could probably go into a history binder along with map work we've been doing. I've made some progress, but there is more to go.

I've been looking for ways to store arts supplies that make intuitive sense to my children.
 
One of my favorite things...
Little kid hugs.
  A few plans for the rest of the week:
Ikea (Tuesday is kids-eat-free day and I have hope for art supply organization here), Dad coming, and the normal ballet-for-Anna and soccer-for-John second half of the week.

A peek into my day...
 

Anna checking out a Persian artifact at the museum.

from thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com

Pie Dates

One of the fun things about my family growing up was that we liked to make up silly traditions. 

One year, we decided we should take our picture with the person who sold us our Christmas tree, so we have a bunch of photos with Christmas-tree-guys.

Another year, we decided to name our Christmas tree "Irmagarde." We even wrote up a sign and introduced visitors to her.

Until sixth grade, I went out to breakfast with my dad before my piano lessons nearly every week. This great tradition we revived when I was home from college during the summers. (I even took piano lessons one summer, but the breakfasts were scooted to before work.)

Our family has a new tradition that I don't think the kids will let me forget: Pie Dates. 

Anna's Banana Cream Pie

It started a few weeks ago when John was jealous that Molly always cooks with me. She loves cooking and is willing to give up playing to cook, whereas he waits until play is dull to ask to cook.

"I never get to cook with you, Mommy!" said John, close to tears.

"Alright, we'll make a pie on Saturday," I told him, thinking about the recipe I'd seen for Cheddar Pear Pie and the over-ripe pears on the counter.

Saturday came and we started work on the pie as Molly stood outside the kitchen crying because she couldn't cook with us. 

"We'll make a pie together next week," I told Molly.

 

"Me too!" yelled Anna from the dining room table.

Molly's Sweet Potato Pie

And thus, a tradition was born. Each week since then I've made a pie with a child. So far we've had Cheddar Pear, Banana Cream, and Sweet Potato pies. Now that each one knows they will have a turn, there isn't a crying child looking on.