Letting go

We are in the midst of the holiday season. The one time of the year that our houses fill with family that you only see once a year, way more food than we could ever eat, and smells of cinnamon and nutmeg.

This year I got to host Thanksgiving! First time ever. I had help though. We planned the meal out and did most of the cooking the day before. There was no stress, no rush. Just cooking.

I let go of the idea of a perfectly decorated spread.

I let go of gourmet dishes.

I let go of the notion of angelic children.

I let go of the idea of thanksgiving homeschool projects.

I let go of things going my way.

And it was enjoyable. I enjoyed serving healthy food, yummy desserts, and spending time with family. We managed to squeeze in Charlie Brown's Mayflower movie. And we took a family trip to a nearby working ranch festival thing. (www.homesteadheritage.com)

Here is to letting go this holiday season and remembering the reason for the season. Focus on Jesus Christ, not what the neighbors are doing. And don't spend too much time on pinterest. ;)

(This is a picture from last year, but it was perfect for "letting go". ;))

The Managed Chaos

So my first week of experimenting with how to tame the chaos in our homeschooling schedule was a success. It wasn't perfect, but it was a success.

The first secret is to lower expectations. I sat down with my hubby and went over my homeschool lesson plans. And we discovered that I was teaching two different science lessons each day. Totally unnessesary however cool they may be. And although history and science are awesome, language arts and math must come first as they are the base to all learning.

The other expectation that needs to be adjusted is the amount of time for seat work. We are a busy family with chores, ministry, and just life. They are all rich learning experiences and should be considered a part of our school day. So seat work is limited to the morning hours. If the work is not finished during this time, and the parent is confident that it isn't caused by over planning, then the school work must be finished before any fun activities. The key to making that work is that mom is finished teaching at lunch. If they need more help with their work, it will be saved for the following school day.

The next secret I discovered is that housework comes before school. Gasp! A dear friend brought this to my attention. And then I realized, if I can't concentrate sitting in a messy house, neither can my kids. So it works like this: Bible study, chores, school, play. They picked up on that real quick. My house stayed cleaned and school was accomplished.

I designated our extra stuff on different days. Sunday evenings are for music, Mondays we sew, and Wednesdays are horse days. Scheduling these things in assures we make time to rest and play together.

I'm much calmer, days are easier, and the kids are less frustrated. To keep this rolling, I also had to admit that keeping a rigid schedule all day long is exhausting to me and destined to fail. So we schedule our mornings, but leave afternoons loosely scheduled. This helps tremendously!

Mixing School and Life

Apparently I am not the only homeschooler out there that is having a hard time balancing school and life. That is how this post has come to be.

Not all moments are that blissful is my house, but we do have a few. I do miss my big cushy chair, but we still enjoy a good book together. It's finding those moments that is getting more and more difficult. (If you notice this blissful moment is back when I only had 4 children.)

I love having a large family and don't regret one moment of it. And to most people's shock, I do want more children. My hard-headed, determined self is gonna find a way to handle all my chaos.

We had much better school days when no one was leaning over my shoulder. I know accountability is a good thing, so I'm not dissing that. But when mama wasn't stressed, the kids weren't stressed and we had much calmer school days.

My other problem is my love of doing and seeing and being. I love being involved in activities, especially when it has to do with my kids. I love leading and teaching. And I love being able to help support my family when the opportunity presents itself.

Every year I start out thinking I will simplify my schedule. I limit myself to this and that. This year I limited myself to Isaiah's Place. Simple enough, right? Well I am also good at creating projects and I have! I love it! But just a couple months in and I am yearning for balance!

I have some great ideas I am going to try over the next few weeks and will be sharing them here if they work! So stay tuned! The Lord has put a few things on my heart and I'm going to listen. 

Simplicity is Calling

For those that have known me a long time, know I am not normal. I don't try to follow the Jones', I don't have a better homes and gardens home, and I don't keep up with the latest fashions. Who says any of that is normal anyway? I enjoy the crazier side of life.

We sold our house in 2006 and moved our family of 5 into a 5th wheel trailer. Story can be found here. We lived in that trailer for the best part of 3 years. Loved it, but moved into a house at our first duty station. There we decided to do the farm thing. That story can be found here. Soon we couldn't afford that and moved into town. Our first time as a family to live in town.

It ruined us! Ugh! I loved being close to friends and driving was much shorter. It was cheaper. But I had to find ways to entertain children. And they became infested with stuffitis and me-attitude. Then you had to deal with the world at your door watching everything you do. Which in turn made me worry about what they thought about this overly sized homeschooling family. And my husband felt like he was in a cage.

Our next move, courtesy of the army, we moved to the country again while my husband lives on post to attend school. We love country life! And Isaiah's Place is a God send. Yet I still find I am fighting stuffitis. Once it has infiltrated your home, it is hard to get rid of. And it moved with us. Plus I'm really tired of picking up the stuff.

I felt the need to keep a showcase home (never achieved that). I felt I had to have high achieving academic children (don't have that either). I had so much performance pressure in town that I never experienced before. No one told me I had to acheive these things. But living in town changed me. Now I'm struggling to let it go and enjoy homeschooling again. Be able to get thru the day and smile at the mess, instead of letting it turn me into a beast. I like a clean house, just like the rest of us. But it shouldn't control me, nor should it zap the joy out of our home.

Simplicity is calling. Having few belongings, having less than 400sqft living space, and having few bills is simple and freeing. I hear it whispering in my ear.

Filling Tummies without Losing my Mind

I love to cook, but even more, I love to eat! And I want real food made from real ingredients. I guess I am a bit of a food snob. I am not a PB/J and mac-n-cheese kind of mom. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I want scrumptious food every time I sit down. Up through 4 kids, this was easily maintained. I menu planned when I had time, but mostly I kept a full pantry and fridge of real foods and would create meals towards whatever I "felt" like at the time. Number 5 was born during a deployment and number 6 is under a year old and I am single parenting it yet again.

Menu planning has become essential, yet it was taking so much time. Time I really don't have. I am not the "let's have pizza every Friday night" type of mom. I have dreamt of it often, but my impulsive desire to try new foods and not get bored with my dinner, prevents me from such menu plans.

This week I came up with something revolutionary  to my meal planning adventures! It is a combination of the "pizza night" mom and my love for cultural food.

Sunday:
B - Egg Dishes

L - Sandwiches

D - Grill

Monday:
B - Cereal

L - Leftovers

D - Crock Pot/One Dish
Tuesday:
B - Pancakes

L - Pasta

D - Mexican

Wednesday:
B - Muffins

L - Sandwiches

D - Wild Card

Thursday:
B - Granola

L - Salad

D - Asian

Friday:
B - French Toast

L - Leftovers

D - Italian

Saturday:
B - Wild Card

L - Wild Card

D - Veggie

I hang up my weekly menu plan on the fridge so that it is easy to reference. My kids can check it too and it avoids the million questions of what's for dinner!

This simple plan gives me flexibility to try new things, yet doesn't require me to do detailed menu planning every week. I can fly by the seat of my pants to do what sounds yummy at the time and use up ingredients needing to move out of the fridge quickly. Yes, some meals require a little more planning ahead, but for the most part I can swing this. For example: tonight is Mexican night. Even though I wasn't sure what I was actually gonna make for dinner, I knew I needed to start beans earlier in the day. And now that my black beans are almost done cooking, I decided to whip up some Black Bean and Corn Salsa! Yum!