Current Reads

I just had to share my current reads(anyone who knows me knows that I read about 4 books at once and it doesnt take me more than 1-2 weeks) I am quite an avid reader. Anyhow my current reads right now are

The Happy Child

Created to Be His Helpmeet

The Charlotte Mason Companion

and

Nate and I are reading a chapter a day together of Biblical Parenting.

Created to Be His Helpmeet is an amazingly funny, but realistic picture of how a marriage can work. Its opinionated and witty, but I do find a lot of truths in it.

The Happy Child is a book that has so much good meaning, but is a bit too liberal in viewpoint and his extraordinary vocabulary could stand to tone it down a notch. It makes for a slow read because of the all the interestingly chosen words.

The Charlotte Mason Companion is really well written and down to earth and has so much in it. I am only 4 chapter into that one. I just started it 2 days ago, but I can tell I am going to love it. Its somewhat helping to convict me to tweak our homeschooling a bit. We have mostly completely unschooled and/or used Charlotte Mason style homeschooling with the one excpetion of that 7 weeks of Abeka that we hated(yes hate is a strong word...fully intended it that way). I am thinking we could add a little more structure without killing their drive and curiosity for learning. Sometimes the eery transparency of unschooling makes you wonder if anything is at all going on inside their brains, especially when they are watching TV for 4 hours a day like they have been lately. I have really had to step it up to get us out and about, riding the horses lots, walking, playing and just being outdoors in order to help the temptation of hours of TV to come to an end. I want to respect my children yes, but I feel I am respecting them by keeping them active and healthy moreso than encouraging more TV as some radical unschoolers would suggest.

Anyhow, last review....Biblical parenting. This is such a great book so far. I knew we would love it because we love her website and this book is all about grace being the motivator for discipleship of parents, not punishments or rewards or even discipline in a sense that many see it as. Its very eye opening and she is quiverfull which also makes the book more appealing because I know she has her heart in a similar place to our own. Speaking of Quiverfull: Did you all hear about Tuesday evening, the Jeub family and a few others will be profiled on Womens Entertainment chanel to speak about being Quiverfull? I am so super excited to watch. It will be on here on Tuesday evening at 7. Its on the "Secret Lives of Women" series they air. The only sick part, the show was first titled, "Born to Breed." They have since changed it thankfully as that sounded a wee bit degrading.

FlyLady Update

I want everyone to know I am still doing it all and still keeping up. I really love flylady. I have had 2 days where my sink lost its shine, but I got back at it the next day. I am tired yes, but I am making it work and Nate is happy for how clean the house has been. The only issue I see with her is that 1 load of laundry a day WILL NOT I repeat...WILL NOT keep chaos away for a large family. It takes more like 3 for me at least. Also, the home blessing she suggests 2X a week has to be done daily in my home. Maybe I am a cleanFreak or something, but I just dont think a house blessing 2X a week is even sanitary for a large family:)

Flylady Day 9

Nothing too exciting today. I added a 5 minute room rescue to my morning and cleaned up high(cobwebs) in living room areas. All in all, I am keeping up with EVERYthing she says to do and its all just becoming very habitual and I love it. I LOVE having a shining sink each day and being up and dressed bright and early and having my work out done and out of the way for the day. My home feels so in control and I can't imagine my sink being constantly full of dishes anymore. Its exciting.

Flylady Day 8

Flylady.com "Here you are; you have been FLYing for a whole week. I am so proud of you. Lets review your new habits. I am going to break them down into what you do each morning and what you do each evening.

Morning Routine
- Get up and get dressed to lace up shoes; fixing your hair and face- Looking at your posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom- Reading 2 minutes of reminders- Recognizing the negative voices and changing them; YOU ARE FLYing NOW!- Put out your Hot Spots for 2 minutes
Before Bed Routine
- Keep your sink shining- Lay out your clothes for tomorrow- Put out your Hot Spot (I have to do this twice a day) It makes me smile in the morning!
Over the last week we have introduced you to our reminders and the basis of our routines. As you establish these habits it will become easy to add another habit for you to practice.
Today I want you to find an old three ring binder and just put some paper in it. Then at the top of one page write Morning Routine and on the top of another page write Before Bed Routine all in pencil. This is a working document; do not allow your perfectionism to interfere with the process. Now you can write your simple routines on each page. "

So, I added the paper to the front of our unschooling notebook and wrote my new routines. Today was pretty simple, the big job was to go through the living room and dust all the nick knacks and pictures and clean off hard surfaces so I finished that in 10 minutes or so. Its nice to move through the house and do little bits every day that keep your home from ever becoming completely nasty all at once. It is done in little steps each day so you never get totally behind and overwhelmed, though I wish 1 load of laundry a day kept chaos away. In our house 2-3 loads a day will barely keep chaos away so I try to force at least 2, usually 3 and I usually do around 2 loads of dishes each day here too. As for flylady being unschooler friendly??? Well, I do it because I like it so I am not sure why that would jive with our lifestyle?

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We went to two different pumpkin patches over the last week because we just enjoy being outdoors so much and we are so blessed to have two very large pumpkin patches within 5 minutes drive time. I love the pictures we got to take and all the experiences we enjoyed together as a family creating memories. Just wanted to share some of those memories with you all.

FlyLady Day 7

no more toys or ick under the chairs and couches YAY
Awww all clean underneath everything

- "Getting Dressed to lace up shoes

- Keeping our sink shining

- Reading 2 minutes of Reminders

- Looking at our posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom

- Recognizing the negative voices; change them and FLY!

- Put out your Hot Spot for 2 minutes; just pick one. "

- Get tomorrows clothes picked out tonight before bed. http://www.flylady.com/

So that is where I am now with baby step number 7. For my big job of the day, I cleaned the living room floors, moving all furniture and sweeping and mopping every area. This was a huge almost hour long job, but gosh I am so glad I did it! My hot spot for today was my computer desk drawer and yes its overwhelming so I stuck to the 2 minutes.

FlyLady Day 6

The after! I admit, I cheated and spent about 4 minutes instead of 2. I was on a roll
Before...ICK!

So today was all the baby steps mentioned before, + the 2 minute hotspot. My hotspot is my kitchen counter in the corner. Its a catchall. I am feeling very proud of my efforts thus far. Then, today was clear the clutter from flat surfaces in your living area day. I didnt have much because we just moved in thankfully. Just threw out a few magazines and WALA!