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Showing posts from February, 2009

Meal Planning: The Rotating Menu Plan

About 9 years ago, I decided to create a rotating meal plan. I was using the crock pot nearly daily at the time. I had 4 children ages 4 years to 10 months, one whom was medically fragile and had lots of special needs and required so much of my time and effort: even more than the baby!! I set up a six-week rotating menu plan using mostly crock pot recipes. I was inspired by two books: Managers of Their Homes by Steve and Teri Maxwell, and The Organization Map by Pam McClellan. In MOTH, Mrs. Maxwell has a chapter about getting organized in the kitchen. In chapter 7, “Scheduling in the Kitchen”, Mrs. Maxwell suggested having two or three family-favorite meals that are the same every week. This would limit how many meals you would have to plan each week, making meal planning easier. She said “this idea works for lunches, too, but with lunch you can take it even further.” She suggested that you plan the same thing for lunch every Monday, and something different for

Bible Reading 1/1 through 2/23

I said that I would like to keep myself accountable for my reading goal. I meant to post this yesterday morning but didn't have time. So from January 1st through February 23, I have read the following as part of my "read the Bible in a year" The book of Genesis Exodus chapters 1-19 Matthew chapters 1-12 Mark chapters 1-4 The following verses really spoke to me yesterday. Our Pastor is preaching on 1 Peter right now and on Sunday, Pastor preached about election from the first two verses of 1 Peter. That sermon caused me to see these two verses from Mark in a whole new light: "And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them." Mark 4: 11-12 I am still "struck" by the "

"Profound" thought for toay.

All of us who have children have experienced that moment when our child says something that is just so precious that you need to remember it. Hopefully, you are not like me and end up NOT writing it down and then try to remember it and realize uh oh .. I’ ve lost it. I decided that now that I have a blog, I’m going to write these precious moments down so that when my children are grown, I’ll have these moments to share to with them. Kind of like a diary or journal entry. A place for me to record something that I’d like to remember that I’m sure that I would forget. So today’s profound statement comes from 9 year old Tailor. I was making Creamy Tuna Noodle casserole to take to church for the fellowship meal. I asked my 13 year old to taste it. She said that she really liked it and that it tasted like Tuna Helper (somehow I think I should be insulted but I know she loves Tuna Helper and so this was a great compliment). That’s when we heard: “I love it when fo

The Perfect Program

As homeschoolers we are always on the lookout for that perfect math program or that miracle spelling program or that ONE phonics program that will be SURE to teach our child to read fluently nearly instantaneously. We also gravitate towards a tendency, if we’ve found that perfect program, to push that program to everyone we know. We overhear a homeschooling mom say that junior is struggling with math and we’re quick to recommend the math program we’ve recently found that has really helped our tator tots to learn their facts. What we fail to see is that each program has its strengths and yet it also has its weaknesses. Just like our children. It doesn’t matter how many (or how few) children we have. Each one is a unique and special individual created by God, in His image and for His glory. They are not clones of each other, nor are they clones of us. So if each of our blessings are different why do we assume that curriculum is a one size fits all affair? Lately, I

Teacher or Mom?

Today, we had unexpected visitors. Miss K stopped by. Miss K usually comes on Mondays to do PT with Supergirl. Today, she didn’t come to do PT. Today, she had her two children and her dog with her. They were in the neighborhood and decided to stop to see if we could play. Tailor loves animals. She was thrilled at the opportunity to play with a dog and to show B her model horse collection. Supergirl was excited to see Miss K and gave her a big hug. They all trooped to the park to play and walk the dog. Supergirl, so used to having Miss K do PT, asked if she could do some of her “exercises”. Miss K said she didn’t mind so Supergirl got some PT today. This got me to thinking. Miss K didn’t stop being a PT even when she was just being a friend. I don’t stop being a mom just because I home school. Miss K didn’t come over to work, but even in playing she didn’t stop working. I don’t have times in my day where I am “just a mom” or I am “just a teac

Be Still and Know

How is your quiet time? I am ashamed to say that most days mine is non-existent. Oh I don’t mean that I don’t pray and I do have a bible reading plan ( see my blog post on goals) but I can’t say that I have been consistent lately with a daily QUIET time to be still and listen to Him. I’ve not taken the time to sit at His feet and drink from the Living Well. Quiet time, for me, can include reading scripture. It can include praying. It could even include memorizing scripture. But there is something else. Something more. I do the above things. But they are not necessarily “quiet” and they are not necessarily “alone”. There is something wonderful about praying with someone else and memorizing scripture with others is helpful. I enjoy reading scripture with my family, but those things, while very good, are no substitute for going to the Father and spending some quiet- one on one- time with Him alone. Being still and knowing that He is and that is all that I ne

Goals for 2009

I didn’t start this blog until February but I did set some goals in January for 2009. I have two goals that I plan on blogging about in order to hold myself accountable. The first goal is to read the Bible in a year. Yes, I have an unwritten, unspoken goal of reading SOMETHING (even if just one verse) from scripture each day but when praying through this goal and trying to set up a reasonable expectation, I realized that when I think of reading “the bible in a year” I have this idea or image that I must read some bible plan each day that requires so many chapters from the OT and the NT so that I read the entire Bible in one year. I put stress on myself because I get “behind” and then I get discouraged and eventually I give up. So this year I have the goal of reading through my One Year Bible in a year but *ignoring* the day designations. That means that some days I may not read that particular Bible book at all and some days I may read two or three or more “days” wort

Family Traditions, The Building of Treasure

Today is Valentine's Day.. well what's left of today. We don't really have any specific Valentine's Day traditions in our family but we try to have a nice meal. Tonight we served shrimp (not for me.. I had steak LOL), Gourmet Pototoes, and fresh steamed asparagus. This is NOT everyday fare for us. This is special. Last night was pizza night. That's a family tradition for us. If it's Friday night, it's Pizza Night. SpecialGirl is learning the days of week. She's knows her days like this: Monday is "Therapy Day", Saturday is "Daddy stay home day", Sunday is "Church Day" and Friday? yup you guessed it.. Pizza. Conversations like this happen nearly every week: SuperGirl "Is it Friday?" Me: "Yes" SuperGirl "Daddy make homemade?" Me: "Yes". Then SuperGirl does her little happy dance and says "I'm so excited". (I am going to have to videotape it!) Friday Nig

"What do you like best about homeschooling?"

This afternoon BooBear, my oldest daughter, asked me "Mommy, what do you like best about homeschooling your children?" Hmmm, good question. I told her I wasn't sure. I had to ponder that one. I really enjoy homeschooling, there are lots of things I like about it. I like that I get to choose what kind of math program or history program to use. I like that I get to sit on the couch and read. I love reading. I like that I get to do Algebra problems. Ok, so I'm kind of geeky that I get thrilled when BooBear needs me to help her solve for x. But what do I like best about it? Then it hit me. I like best that I get to be with my daughters and I get to guide, direct and teach their hearts. I get the opportunity to share my faith and my values with them. I like that I can stop in the middle of a math lesson and talk about scripture and take the time to pray with my daughter. I like that they ask me questions like "what do you like best about homeschooli

Taking Every Thought Captive

Today, I've been feeling... I don't know.. not quite depressed, not quite angry... maybe more like something restless in my spirit. I've struggled today with thoughts like "he never does what's he supposed to" or "if only he would do this or that". (He of course being honeybear and my best friend). I wrestled with myself trying to reign in those thoughts. I'm reminded of the analogy I gave Rosenburger yesterday. She's my "stuck in the middle" daughter. She's been struggling with feeling left out and unloved. So I told her that she needed to change her perspective. Our emotions, thoughts and feelings are driven by what we perceive. If we perceive that we are unloved, we will feel unloved. Our feelings though are NOT an accurate measure of truth or reality. The Truth is that my daughter is loved. She is loved by One who loves her more than I could ever love her. He is faithful and true and will never leave her nor fo

Starting Down the Blogging Path

I've gone and done it now. I've entered a whole new world. I thought this first post should be a musing about the title. I once wrote a poem that had the line: we go round and round, circling through this life, some people life their life in a dream. The poem was about people who spent so much time "dreaming" that they missed out on the wonders of life happening in the here and now. I don't remember all of the poem and I don't remember if I even have a copy of it anymore but as I pondered what to name this blog I kept coming back to "and we go round and round circling through this life". I make no promises as to the frequency of posts.