In Which I Receive a Much-Needed Reminder!

This past I received an email from a friend and fellow HG-mama, in which she told me about all of the things that she is doing to prepare her body for pregnancy, giving her the best shot at avoiding hyperemesis.

And that reminded me... Oh, yeah! There's a whole bunch of stuff I'm supposed to be doing right now, and am not! Talk about procrastination!

Thus, I am here to tell you that I have reformed and repented! I am back on the bandwagon! I immediately dove back into my research and started going over my various pre-conception protocols and supplement plans to start working on weak areas.

There's only one small problem with all of this... and that would be the issue of no money - or rather, no money to spend on extras! With our income still being a great big zero, our expenditures have been reduced to gas-grocery-bills and nothing else until our financial/job situation resolves.

However, this may be one of those non-essentials that is not non-essential. In other words, as I was telling DH the other day, "saving money" by not preparing for (hopeful) HG prevention is like "saving time" by not studying for a test. Yes, there may be some slight and temporal benefits, but the payback will be dire when it comes to the test.

With that in mind, we're trying to determine where to spend and where to save on supplements and diet. I am still in the research stage, and we're trying to make decisions.

Before we go any further, I'd like to discuss magnesium. Have you all done your research on magnesium in pregnancy? Take a look at this article, which I already linked a few months ago, and then go over to this awesome article that my friend sent me this past week. I spent quite a bit of time going through those articles and making notes.

Most of us are magnesium-deficient (due to depleted soil and insufficient dietary sources), and there are many ways to up our magnesium levels in the effort to battle the HG-monster - diet, herbs, Epsom salts, supplements, magnesium oil, etc. I have written most of these into my protocol, so check that out.

Another important point that the author of the latter-mentioned article mentions is prenatal consumption of protein and fat - the more the better, and the better quality the better. I have copied her pre-conception protocol into my own, and that is something that I am actively working on in my own diet. The only issue is that optimal consumption would involve all organic, grass-fed, and pastured products, while my diet right now is strictly conventional. However, I have to work with what I can do.

Anyhow, I have updated my current protocol with all of the supplement, dietary, and magnesium information that I found in those two articles, so check it out here and let me know what you think!

I should note that this plan is my ideal - not currently my actual. I am working on getting to this point, but I am not doing everything listed in this plan, much as I wish that I was. Hopefully I can make some snappy changes and get up to snuff quickly.

Please leave me your input, friends!

Taking a Break, By Force If Necessary! Part 1 of 2 {Plain & Simple}

In our home, we have two main sanity-savers - daily quiet time and weekly Sabbaths. I'll write about our quiet times at another date (soon!), but today I wanted to talk briefly about our practice of making Sundays our family Sabbath times.

The practice of Sabbath is an Old Testament command of God for the Israelites - the command that every Sabbath day should be a day of rest that would be dedicated entirely to the Lord:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)

Modern-day Christians are divided in opinion as to whether the practice of Sabbath ended with the new covenant of Christ, or is still applicable to Christians. But regardless of whether Sabbath is or is not commanded, it is still good! God created and commanded the Sabbath because it was good, so it is still a beneficial practice for those who choose it, regardless of whether or not it's a requirement.

DH and I have wanted to practice Sabbath ever since we got married ten years ago, but we never made it happen until this past year. And the reason for our repeated failure was that we made Sabbath conditional - "If we get everything done by Sunday, then we'll take a Sabbath."

But the problem, of course, is that one is never officially "finished" with all that one has to do, thus Sabbath that is practiced conditionally never happened for us. We always had something that needed to be done, and so we went week after week (and year after year) without ever making our Sabbath goals happen.

However, this past year we have finally made Sabbath a reality! This may or may not have anything to do with our family's preoccupation with watching "Fiddler on the Roof," but the truth finally sank in - to make Sabbath happen, it simply has to happen - regardless of whether or not we're done with everything we want to accomplish. It just is when it is, not when it might be convenient!

We've really enjoyed the practice of Sabbath, and we plan to continue it. Here are a few things that we have tried as we work to construct a meaningful Sabbath observance:

Sundown to Sundown - We modern Americans think of a "day" as "when we get up till when we go to bed," but acting upon the Biblical precepts of "sundown to sundown," we have made our Sabbath 6:00 p.m. on Saturday to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.

This has worked much better for us than the "Sunday Sabbath" practice, and we really like it. As moms know, the success of any day begins the night before with preparation for the coming day. So Saturday evening really belongs to Sunday, and Sunday evening really belongs to Monday. Using the sundown-to-sundown concept has been very useful, because Sabbath begins when the day is winding down and looking toward Sunday, and Sabbath ends just as we need to ramp up preparations for Monday morning, Plus, it's fun to begin Sabbath as the sun sets!

Sunday Worship - This is a no-brainer, but Sunday is set aside for church and worship of the Lord. After all, that's one of the main purposes of Sabbath practice!

Sabbath Rest - One of the other huge components of Sabbath is a God-commanded rest. Isn't that awesome? God cares about our need for rest. Thus, on Sabbath, we refrain from extra work. Daily things continue on - meal preparation, dishes, laundry, diapers, etc. - but extra things like housecleaning, deep cleaning projects, personal projects, shopping, etc. all come to a halt. This is a wonderful break for me! Even though my Sundays are nearly as busy as other days due to the needs of the family, it is wonderfully freeing to have a day when I can look at the floor and think, "Wow. The floor needs washing. But I'm not going to wash it and I don't have to feel guilty about it! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!" Then I can go sit down and read a book (for approximately 30 seconds until one of the children needs me).

Family Time - We try to do Sunday afternoon family outings whenever possible - to a park (or, during the summer, Bass Pro Shop!) or some such place, or go for a family walk. We try to aim for a super-simple dinner so that I am not stuck in the kitchen and we can focus on time as a family. (As a matter of fact we do this almost every night, but we try to be especially intentional about it on Sundays.)

Nixing Screen Time - This is something that I am trying, that is, a screen-time black-out for 24 hours each week - I do not get on the computer (unless I forget!) during Sabbath hours. It's wonderfully refreshing, though sometimes difficult, and I'm hoping to continue this.

We are not super-strict about Sabbath, though we do our best. It's been a wonderful practice to introduce to our family, and we hope to continue it. If your family practices Sabbath, I would love to hear about different ways that you implement it in your home!

***

One other note: For my own sanity and to rescue much-needed planning time, I am currently on a Facebook and Blog Reader break! Thus, please feel free to let me know if anything big happens in your life (that I'm missing on Facebook) or if you create a new blog post! (I'm trying to check friend blogs individually, but I am sure I'm missing some posts.)

Decluttering, Part 1 of 100 {Plain & Simple}

Decluttering is a subject that I could talk about forever! It is one of my favorite pastimes, not to mention my instinctual method of stress relief. Whenever I'm stressed, I will automatically start diving into cupboards and drawers and throwing things out. The more stressed I am, the more brutal is my treatment of our poor cupboards. And that's a good thing, because our family still has way too much stuff!

That being the case, I thought I'd put a few posts on the subject into this "Plain and Simple" series. There's a lot to say, but I'll do my best to keep it brief.

I'll share my basic principles and strategies of decluttering at a later date, but for the moment, I'd like to talk about one particular subject: decluttering children's books. 

I hear a collective *gasp* - "What do you mean? Get rid of BOOKS? Are you nuts?" 

Well, normally - no, I don't like to get rid of children's books. They're expensive to replace, and so very important in a child's life. I always want to have good collections of books for every age group - a truth evidenced by the fact that at least three walls of our home are completely covered in bookcases!

But lately I'd noticed that our collection of books for young children had become so crammed and cramped that it was difficult to get books off the shelf. In fact, the sheer volume of our books was keeping our kids from reading those books because they were so difficult to access!

It was definitely time to pare down. 

But what to get rid of? I ended up going through our collection three or four times, getting rid of more each time. And here are the types of books that ended up getting the axe:

Books that teach bad words or attitudes - There are certain words that we don't allow in our home, even though they're often found in children's books. And there are lots of books out there that (intentionally or no) teach really bad attitudes - and kids easily pick those things up from the example in books or film. For example, we found that "Thomas the Tank Engine" materials were very problematic in the horrible attitudes and conversations that they modeled (a lot of name-calling, poor attitudes, rude statements, etc.). I gladly tossed all of those books! There's enough of a challenge in parenting without intentionally importing materials that teach bad behaviors.

Poor quality books - There are two seemingly contradictory truths in children's literature: (1) It is very difficult to get published as a children's author, but (2) There is a plethora of really poor quality children's literature on the market. How those two truths intersect is beyond me, but it's true - there are just a lot of books out there that aren't worth our family's time. Almost any book from the grocery store or dollar store falls into this category, as well as plenty of others.

Books about kids' TV characters - I sometimes question whether or not these books actually have human intelligence behind them - they are so bad. It's incredible. Besides horrible art and non-existent storylines, they are usually marketing shows and products, and creating desires for more and more TV viewing - never good. Some book series are mixed - the original series by the original author (like "Clifford" or "The Magic School Bus") can be good, but the books which were made from the TV shows are mediocre at best, and often plain awful.

Bad quality Christian books - There are great Christian books out there for kids, but like secular books, some can be just awful. I got rid of one such book that I've been meaning to read to the kids for years, but just couldn't stomach the poor quality.

Good books that are never read  - There are some books out there that are decent quality but are simply never read. Examples: Lots of ABC books, or collections of poems and prayers for infants, etc. They're cute, but there's no point in giving up needed space to keep unread books.

Books I've never liked! - My mom saved nearly every book from my childhood. While I'm grateful for this, she also saved (unknowingly) all of the books that I never liked, as well as the books which scared me to death. (You remember those books? The ones that made you shiver, and which you hid at the back of the bookshelf so that you wouldn't have to see them?) I still give an involuntary shudder when I see some of those books. Then it hit me - why am I keeping books that I never read to the kids, and which still freak me out? Bye-bye, scary books! What a freeing thing to see those go out the door to Goodwill!

Books that are easily available - If we can easily get the book from the library, and it's not a beloved classic or good quality book that we want to have in our collection, then out the door it goes. Children's informational books are often in this category, especially the less-than-stellar ones.

Books handed out at events - Coloring books from the fire station, books from fast-food restaurants, poor-quality informational books given at events... Goodbye!

Educational books - School-type readers and uninteresting "informational" books. Like educational toys, they get the axe.

Gross books - I have no idea why, but some authors seem to think it's actually a good idea to write gross-out books for kids. Things like "What's In Your Nose" or other wonderful topics. These go straight into the trash, as I have no desire to curse other parents by passing them on. Ditto to any books with inappropriate topics, language, or writing of any sort.

Now that I've gotten rid of several boxes of books, we have a bit of breathing room on our shelves, the children are enjoying pulling books out and reading them, and our collection is much more sane and manageable.

How do you handle children's books?

When Good Intentions Go Bad

Having had a lot of curriculum-choice angst lately, I decide today to sit down with my husband during  our daily coffee time and get more of his counsel on the subject.

When that time comes, I grab my notes and my homeschool notebook and sit down. Before I can even say a word, we hear the one-year-old crying - up from his nap waayyy too early. After twenty minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get him back to sleep, I admit defeat and return to the living room with the addition of a toddler who, due to lack of proper nap length, is extremely cranky.

Try again.

Have you ever tried to have a curriculum consult with an irritable toddler underfoot who is determined to cause every kind of trouble? Oh, goodness. We try to distract with toys.

Try again. 

After a few minutes, I realize that said toddler needs a new diaper. Break for new diaper.

Try again.

Toddler is simply ramping up the crank. Break to get toddler a snack.

Try again.

Toddler decides to eat his snack in massive handfuls, gags himself, and throws up on the carpet. That's a new one. Break to clean up toddler and clean carpet.

Try again.

Toddler resumes former levels of crank. Second baby is now up, and extremely cranky. After realizing that I am trying to shout my questions across the couch to DH, all while trying to deal with two cranky babies, I give up in disgust.

Today has just been one of those days. Thank goodness that God's mercies are new every morning. I'm looking forward to that!

Our Schedule for the Coming Year!

I thought you all might be interested in our schedule for the coming year! It's not super-fancy (like this one from Erica at Large Families on Purpose - wow!), but it is a start! 

With this schedule for the coming 2013-2014 school year (similar to last year's), we have three children - one student (1st grade) and two babies (1yo and 3yo with special needs). My husband is on this schedule too, since he is home right now, but I have blanked out most of his schedule so that you can focus on my schedule and our school schedule.

[Click on image to enlarge]

A couple of notes about our schedule:

- This schedule is more of an "ideal" than an "actual." In other words, it focuses as a guide, a routine, and a goal, but it never actually happens exactly the way it is on the schedule. Life happens. Babies, especially, take a toll on the schedule (diapers, fussiness, messes, naps, etc.). So just in case you're inclined to be impressed and intimidated... don't be.

- One major challenge for me right now is working on wake-times and bedtimes. 

With wake-times, I all-too-often succumb to the temptation to let the kids sleep later... because I can get so much done before they get up, and almost nothing after they're up and the daily whirlwind begins. I'm doing my best to push this back to 7:30 a.m. (I know, that's late for most families, but for us it's a big improvement). I have experienced how badly we run behind when the kids sleep late, and I don't like rushed school days. My eventual goal is probably 6:30 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. for wake times for the kidlets. Unfortunately, I know from experience that I need to be up at least one hour before the first child, more if I want to get any extra work done - as I said, it's a work in progress.

We also tend to let our kids stay up very late. I always start nail-biting when I hear "My kids are always in bed by 7:30 p.m.!" because we are usually barely starting on bath time by then. I know that those kids usually have to be up early for public school, so it's a bit different, but are still late-to-bed with the kids, which translates into absurdly late bedtimes for DH and myself as well. 

One other challenge is our evening schedule - we are always behind. Yikes! 

As you can see, it's a work in progress! I also know that things will have to tighten up as we add additional students - though thankfully we have a few years!

I hope to write soon about the importance of quiet time in our schedule - that is the true sanity-saver around here, and we couldn't function as well as we do without it. 

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please leave a comment!

And now... off to vacuum! Have a wonderful night, all! 

The Joys of Curriculum Planning!

When two homeschooling moms meet, you can count on the conversation following a pretty predictable path. "Oh, you homeschool? That's awesome! So do we!" And within the following thirty seconds (usually less), one or the other mother will burst out with:

"So, which curriculum do you use?"

Thereafter follows an intense and frenzied thirty-minute-minimum conversation in which the two mothers compare curricula, detail which curricula they use, have used, and plan to use for each of their children, and usually branch out into philosophical comparisons of the different homeschooling methodologies, and which they prefer and why.

Any husband or child so foolish to interrupt said conversation will receive a hard stare and a firm, "In a minute, dear!" before the mom dives back into the conversation.

Though I may seem to be exaggerating, I'm really not. Curriculum is a huge discussion topic for home educators, all the more so because there are hundreds if not thousands of curriculum choices on the market today. Combined with the fact that (almost) every family combines many different curricula - different by subject and often by child - there is a dizzying array of choices.

(This did not used to be the case in the early days of home education. I have one (wonderful!) home education book from the 1980's which states something like, "When it comes to curricula, you have two main choices: A Beka and Bob Jones Press." I still laugh uproariously when I come to that sentence, because modern-day home educators could spend their entire lives evaluating curricula and still not come to the bottom of the choice lists.)

Unfortunately, though there are many awesome choices on the market, I am someone who does not do well with too many choices. I tend to become anxious, frantic, and guilt-ridden when confronted with all of the choices out there.

"Oh, no. She uses such-and-such curriculum. Maybe that's THE ONE that we should be using instead of what we're doing now. Maybe we need to switch. Oh dear God, what if I'm using the wrong curriculum and ruining my children forever? (*insert nervous nail-biting episode*)

Thus, curriculum choices are an anxious matter for me, and not something that I particularly enjoy. I much prefer having choices made and sealed. When I ordered our math curriculum this week (spending an exorbitant amount on it, I might add, none of which counts for tax write-offs), I breathed a sigh of relief. No more worrying about math choices! (Now it's just down to language arts.)

With that in mind, I thought I'd share my current basic curriculum outline with you all. It is extremely incomplete, and nothing is set in stone. At this point, it changes on a weekly if not a daily basis - it's a work in progress. But this is a general plan that we are working on (and working on improving). If you have any questions, fire away... and if you more-experienced home educators have any suggestions, please share them! (Really. Bring on the suggestions.)

Here it is!

[Click to enlarge image.]

I am currently planning on starting the 2013-2014 school year a week from tomorrow (June 3rd). This is something akin to utter madness, as we are going to have a crazy month of family visits, birthday celebrations, the AFHE home education convention, and other insanity - not to mention the fact that we will not have our language arts curriculum until the home education convention (we are planning to make a final decision and purchase there). However, to make our plan of an "April Summer" happen, we simply have got to start soon, or it's not going to happen.

I'm hoping to share lots of our plans between now and then!

What Is This "Summer Break" Thing?

Summer break. 

I've been dreaming of it for months. That far-off, mythical time when we'd be done with our home education for the year, and when I'd finally have time to get to all the projects I wanted to complete - decluttering, deep cleaning, planning for next year's lessons. 

Apparently my delusion is widespread, because I am starting to see "plans for summer break" posts all over the homeschooling blogosphere.

But I'm now three weeks into "summer break," and folks, I'm here to tell you... there ain't no such thing. 

Or if there is, I'm really missing out. 

The problem, of course, is that home education is only a very small percentage of my daily duties. Every thing else - child care, baby care, laundry, cooking, cleaning, church, errands, outings, dishes, etc. - goes right along merrily, forgetting to respect the fact that I am supposed to be on this long-awaited summer break! But nooooooo. Life continues, and so does the somewhat frantic nature of trying to keep up with daily duties and activities, regardless of whether or not we're doing lessons. And for the most part, all of the tasks I had planned for the summer are not happening. 

And so, more experienced home educating mamas, I'd like to ask you, in all seriousness: 

What is this "summer break" phenomenon, and why does everyone keep talking about it when it doesn't exist? (Or rather, how are you all getting so much done with a houseful when I am failing so miserably to make progress with only a small family to care for?)

It sounds facetious, but I'm serious. Really, ladies, fill me in on what I'm doing wrong. I had oodles and oodles of plans for the summer - especially decluttering and planning for next year - but I am seeing days and weeks go by with only tiny and painstaking progress made in either area. 

And really, though my list of summer planning tasks seems (to me, a novice) overwhelmingly long, I'm only planning for one student in the early grades. Goodness only knows what state I'd be in if I were lesson-planning for a houseful! (Hopefully that will come with time.)

When I saw this article, which lists about five million things that the author is planning to do during her children's homeschool summer break, I almost cried. Whatever she's doing, it's different than what I am currently able to make happen during summer breaks. 

{Please chime in, experienced home educators!}

Another source of frustration during the "break" is that I don't so much have a list of things to do as a list of decisions to make - curriculum decisions. And being that I am a person who doesn't do so well when there are lots of choices (and there are thousands of choices out there), I am quickly approaching the hair-pulling stage as I try to determine curriculum choices for our first-grader. 

My primary puzzle is over Language Arts. Should I do it at all in first grade? If so, which one? I'm thinking of Alpha Omega's Language Arts LifePac (based on Erica's recommendation at Large Families on Purpose), but there's also a friend's recommendation for First Language Lessons, along with about a million others. 

If I ever disappear mysteriously, look for me in an over-the-border insane asylum, where you'll find me banging my head into walls and muttering, "Language Arts curricula... Language Arts curricula..."

But I digress.

Besides that knotty problem, I am also trying to make a host of other decisions (thankfully phonics and math decisions are already made):

- Should we try to teach any sort of formal history, literature, or science, or just continue with informal reading? If and when we start formal teaching, which curricula should we choose for each? 

- When, if ever, do I want to teach spelling?

- What extra-curriculars, if any, should we choose?

- Do we want to keep trying to do notebooking? How do we make that work? (For all the praise of notebooking that I've heard, I have found precious little about the actual technicalities of making it work.)

- Whenever I do choose a language arts curriculum, what additional curriculum will we need to fill in the gaps? (Some L.A. curricula teach spelling, composition, grammar, etc.; some don't.)

- Which home education style do we want as our focus - textbook, unit studies, Charlotte Mason, etc.? (Yes, I'm still enough of a beginner that I don't have that figured out.)

- What about the extras, like art?

- When should we start piano lessons?

- Should we start Spanish next year?

- Do we eventually want to include Latin in our curricula?

- Should we consider classical education choices? 

These, and many other questions, are currently swirling around in my head, making me into something of an emotional wreck. Though I am doing my best to bring my questions to the Lord (rather than running back and forth mentally like a rat in a cage) and consult my husband about them, these questions are driving me batty. Primarily it's about language arts, but the others are pretty problematic as well. 

And so, dear readers, that is my ongoing summer break - having no time for any major projects, and driving myself nuts with all of the questions I need to answer. 

Ah, the joys of summer. 

One thing that has become abundantly clear is that I do indeed want to make next year's summer break to be April. Much as I am trying to work on contentment with living in Phoenix weather (when my heart is aligned with the weather of the Pacific northwest), I do not enjoy getting outside in our broiling  valley summers. I would much rather use the summers for hitting the books and take our breaks during the temperate times of the year. With that in mind, I hope to start our school year at the beginning of June, so that we can be done in time. 

Again, more experienced mamas, please feel free to fill me in with your wisdom, experience, and advice! 



One of our summer projects completed - our new compost bucket!