Feeling Inspired

A few of the stockings I made over Thanksgiving weekend
(I made six in all!) for the kids.
(The blue one was not yet finished when this picture was taken.)

I have an online friend that I've known for many years. We've never met in person, but she inspires me all the time!

She has a great website called "The Prudent Homemaker" (You can see her link further down in the left sidebar) and now also has a blog where she shares what she's doing every day to live life beautifully, all while being VERY prudent with her family's limited budget and resources.

Her post from yesterday has inspired me to set some goals for myself this week, especially since our family also has VERY limited funds for this year's Christmas presents and celebrating.

So here is my list of goals for this week:

Sewing

• Finish making stockings for Brennan, Lliam, Bonny, and Gavin (I finished Bonny's last night!).
• Cut out dresses for the little girls.
• Decide on a couple patterns for presents for my big girls.
• Figure out what on earth I can sew for my three teenage boys!

Crafting

• Check paint supplies for little peg people. (I think I used up all my paints making a striped jacket for Touchstone in the play "As You Like It.")
• Check my secret Pinterest Christmas Gifts board for ideas for my two little boys.

Organizing

• Finish organizing my closet to fit all my fabric, sewing supplies, and costumes. (I'm almost done! It's a good thing we have a BIG one in this house! I am sooo not a clothes horse. My clothes take up only one tiny rack in my huge closet. I'd rather have more room for the stuff I listed above!)
• Finish cleaning my bedroom, which has yet to be fully unpacked from our move in June. (Yes, you read that right. My poor husband!) My in-laws are coming with our Morganne this weekend, and we want to give them a full tour of our new house. 
• Check and tidy the storage room downstairs.

Home Improvement

• Finish painting Bonny's bedroom ??? (Since Grandma and Grandpa will be sleeping in there!) *Not in the budget this week.
• Patch wall hole.
• Fix light in basement.
• Find warranty for the vacuum *No luck finding it!

Errands

• Take our Lliam for a haircut before his choir concert (per the choir handbook-- hooray for no more shagginess!) *I ended up cutting it myself, and he looks very handsome!
• Take a couple kids to the dollar store to purchase a gift for the sibling whose name they drew in our gift exchange.
• Get paint and primer for Bonny's bedroom (???) *Not in the budget this week.
• Get the vacuum fixed or replaced! *Not in the budget this week.
• Take Brennan to the church parking lot to practice driving.

Cleaning

• Get the house ready for our homeschool group classes here on Thursday.
• Mop ALL floors
• Vacuum EVERYTHING *Still no vacuum.
• FOLD LAUNDRY (The never-ending task at our house)

Okay. Now I'm tired just from thinking about it. I've probably set my goals too high, but I will also prioritize them, and make sure the MOST important things get done first.

Wish me luck?

Love, Mama Rachel

Math In Our Home

Valentine's Day crepes made by Bonny-- She used math!

Lately, I have been meaning to share more of our homeschool experiences here on my blog, but life has been really interrupting my writing time.

True confession: So has the time I've been wasting on Facebook. Bleh...

Anyway, as a way to "get back in the saddle again," I thought I'd share my response to an e-mail I received yesterday. A sweet lady in my community was asking about how we do math in our home. Her specific questions were in regards to our use of Khan Academy.

Here's my response:

I tend to only use Khan Academy with my older kids-- mostly because they have to have a Google account to sign into it, and they can't have a Google account until they're 13. I do have one child who uses my Google account to sign in, but if I have more than one child sign in that way, I can't check their progress or what they are each doing in the teacher portion. This is just for the exercises portion-- ANYONE can watch the videos, of course!

I don't like all of the videos-- I want my kids to stick with the math portion. In the other videos, Sal just teaches what public schools teach about subjects that I think need to come from a different perspective. (History and Science, for examples.) My oldest boys do like to learn about programming, and I am fine with those.

For math, we have actually started using Xtra Math for exercises, because kids can be any age to use it. And we only use it to "close the gaps" and keep track of where the kids may still be struggling. It's just for beginner-type math-- Khan Academy is better for the harder maths. www.xtramath.org

How do these programs tie in with TJEd philosophy? My goal is to keep learning fun, and to inspire my kids to love math. So they do a few exercises on Xtra Math, and we read stories about mathematicians, read some "Life of Fred", and talk through word problems, and cook, and try to help the kids see math in their lives and everything they do.

Personally, math text books give me panic attacks-- and I am not even joking about that! Saxon Math works great for many, but for me, it started me down a spiral of burn-out. Everyone is different, so I think it's important for each of us to follow our own promptings from God. :-)

I have never been a math-lover. In fact, I've been a pretty rabid math-hater for most of my life. Some of my most vivid memories of feeling overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated and worthless have to do with learning math.

(Can I get an "Amen"???)

I don't want to perpetuate a "hate of math" among my own children. I want them to see math as the integral part of life that it is! I want them to understand math principles, and not just keep them boxed into the idea that "doing math" means doing page after page of number combinations that mean nothing to them. I want them to love math and recognize it in their everyday lives.

We love learning!

I love sharing what we do with other homeschoolers! All my mistakes and fumbles over the years should be of some use to someone, I hope...

Since this blog is also for the grandparents and other family, I will end this post with another picture of some cute kids.

Ronan and Cowpoke Davy

Love,
Mama Rachel

Structuring Time in A "Relaxed" Home Culture

I have shared this post in various places, like the Latter-day Homeschooling blog and at various speaking engagements. But for some reason, I have not been able to find it here, on my blog! It must already be here somewhere, but I cannot locate it! So, because it has been requested by more of my readers, I'm reposting it here today.

Love,
Mama Rachel


I am not a "scheduler." In fact, I totally rebel against them-- even when I make them! I've continually looked to outside sources to "fix" me, including great programs like this. But I like to be spontaneous! I like to switch things around randomly. And I like to go with the flow of my children's interests, so I NEED more flexibility in my home.

One day, I decided to simply accept myself and my family as we are, and workwith my natural tendency to work on a relaxed, unstructured-- uh, structure. *grin*

Something I learned from the "Managers of their Homes" program, was to split up the hours of the day into three separate charts. So I sat down and made a list of the things that we need to do during each part of the day, and then I made a chart for each. This way, we have a goal for what needs to get done, but we are not restricted by my inaccurate time estimates.

Morning is from rising to 11-ish, Midday is from around 11am to 5pm, andEvening is from 5pm to bedtime.

See the chart below to see what we work to accomplish in the Morning.:





And here's what we work on through Midday.:





Here's how our Evenings work. (Please note that each of the activities listed under "Inspiration Time" are not done EVERY night. They simply include the things that happen through the week.):




I am a believer that scheduling IS important. but I am also finding that if I want to truly succeed, I need to work with my personality, and make sure that our schedule is working with our family rhythms, and not against them.

I wish you happiness in creating a plan that fits YOUR family's needs!

Love, Mama Rachel

What now?

Life has slowed down significantly since the play ended.

Ahhhh...

I am finally starting to heal, thanks to the rest I'm getting. My ear infections are slowly going away, and I'm almost able to talk like a normal person! (almost...)

"On the other hand," (I just can't help quoting Tevye here!) I'm feeling a bit like a lazy slug.

There's lots of housework to be done, but I'm going to do it little bit by little bit. It's marvelous to NOT be in a hurry!

Yesterday, I was really feeling "the-show-is-over-depression."  I wasn't really thinking about the show, I was just feeling like a failure. My kids missed "Mormon Prom" on Saturday night due to the show, my Morganne will not be graduating from Seminary due to my choice to not send them last year (Home Study does not count, in our case),  and my normally happy time on Pinterest just resulted in making me feel that I could never measure up.

So I pulled myself together and sat down to read some good stuff and make some lists of "what next." ("Large Family Logistics," "A Leadership Education" and "Love of Learning".)

Funny how little things like that can bring much relief!

Washing, drying, and folding a few loads of laundry helped, too. (I can almost see a dent in the laundry room!)

I'm making plans for our homeschool this summer, and thinking about paint colors and all the sewing projects I can now enjoy.

I really should MOP first, though...

:-)

The Decorating Bug

I love making my home beautiful!

I'm not as focused on decorating my home as some other ladies I know, but I do still catch the decorating bug now and then. Usually, when the seasons change, or as my life and ideas change, I want to re-vamp one or more rooms.

 Right now, my dark living room is totally dragging me down, man! So I'm hoping to brighten things up a bit. I  replaced (well, okay-- my husband and big boys moved them!) my dark couches with the lighter ones that have been residing in my family room. I'm planning on making or buying a white slipcover for the smaller, darker loveseat, and I'm going to re-cover all the pillows on both couches.

 

I'm also going to take down my heavy, dark curtains, and replace them with white ones I'm going to make out of a battenberg lace bed skirt I have that no one is using.

 I took out the dark baskets and other accessories I've had in the room, but my black bookcases and dark piano will remain in the room. I think the black accents will still look nice with all the white I've got planned.

And, hopefully, our landlord will let us paint the room a very light yellow. But don't worry, I'll ASK before I do anything that drastic! ;-)

I'm so excited to share this process with you! I'll post more pictures as I change things.

Happy Autumn!!!

It's Another Wednesday!

To start off, I'm posting pictures of our new tile floors. Yay!!! We're really loving them, especially now that the temperature is on the rise. (111 degrees this week!)


They not only tore out all the Pergo in the kitchen and laid 18 inch tile, they also did the front entryway, by our back door, down the hall, and in the kids' bathroom. We're feeling pretty spoiled around here! :-)

(Photo by Brennan-- this was a Happy Day!)

And in pregnancy news, I'm feeling pretty typically "almost done." I have up days and down days, grumpy days and days with spurts of energy.

When I went to bed last night, I felt GREAT! I'd gotten a lot done, and it was nice to go to bed feeling like I accomplished something. I went to sleep by ten, and was planning on getting up early so I could get one or two things done outside before the temps went volcanic.

So much for well-laid plans! LOL! I didn't wake up until seven, and felt like I'd been run over by a truck. Weird! Oh, wait-- I'm nine months pregnant. It's all weird right now! *hee!*

Monday was my weekly midwife appointment, and it went well. I told Stephanie (the midwife) that I'd been really sleepy and wondered if my iron was okay. So she offered to gently stick my finger and run a quick test. The first results had such a high iron count, that she thought we ought to repeat it. We did, and it was the same! Woot! My blood pressure was also near-perfect. *beaming proudly*

It's funny-- too bad I can't take credit for being healthy! LOL! (Thank you, Mommie, for passing down your perfect blood pressure genes... *grin*)

Baby is looking good, even though he/she isn't as active as he/she used to be. There's not much room left in there...

In other news, Avalon turned 18 months old and attended Nursery for the first time. The experience was a rousing success, though she started out class time looking around at me and her leaders as if we'd all gone mad. (You mean, I'm now free during church to run around and play with toys?! Woah...)

Until next time...

Wednesday Pregnancy Report-- May 26

Well, not too much is going on-- pregnancy-wise. Which is very good. My midwife did mention at my visit on Monday, that this baby will probably be another big one. And seeing how the last two were nine-pounders, that doesn't surprise me. I'm just playing the waiting game, now...

Actually, I have waaay too much to do before the baby arrives, and so I'm not really anxiously waiting. More like trying to get all the things done that I know I won't have time to finish once a newborn enters the picture!

You know, I think after ten babies, that I've finally ingrained in my brain how little I'll be able to do once Baby arrives... That's progress! So to all you mothers out there who want to spend the last month pacing the floor, I'm telling you, get busy NOW, because you won't be able to later! Just a bit of friendly advice from a mom who's been there! ;-)

If you're interested-- or very bored and have nothing better to read-- here's my "To-Do List":

• Wash all the newborn clothes.
• Finish rearranging my bedroom to prepare for the birth.
• Wash all the receiving blankets.
• Wash the baby carseat cover.
• Put my house back in order after the kitchen renovation.
• Laundry... Laundry... Laundry...
• Make sure the pantry is stocked with everything needed for the menu. (Russell went shopping for me, so I'm not sure what we have and what we still need to get...)
• Plan the next few Activity Days so I won't need to make decisions as the birth gets closer.
• Finish planning the family reunion I'm in charge of so I won't have to make last minute decisions with a newborn.
• Finalize planning for the Homeschool classes we'll be starting in the Fall. (Location, marketing, enrollment, double check my teachers, setting up systems...)
• Work at adjusting my Shakespeare curriculum for the Fall. (Before I forget the stuff I want to change!)
• Scrub my bathroom.
• Find my "extra" sheets for the birth.
• Gather a bunch of clean, fluffy towels for the birth.
• Figure out how we're going to fill the birth pool.
• Find my labor music and make sure it's on Russell's I-Pod.
• Find Russell's I-Pod cord so we can actually use it.
• Make sure Russell has my "list of approved names," even if he disregards it. ;-D (Just in case, you know...)
• Find at least ONE girl's name that I like. *sigh*
• Read LOTS more birth stories for mental preparation.
• Go through the Sears' "Birth Book" for the nine-hundred-and-fifty-eighth time.
• Go through my other homebirth/herbal books for the nine-hundred-and-sixtieth time.
• Drink more water.
• Make sure I have all the essential oils I'll want or need.
• Think baby thoughts and get excited!

If I hadn't already taken a nap today, I'd be heading to bed now! Hmmm... See why I'm thinking this baby may never arrive? I simply have too much to do! LOL!

More Kitchen Renovation Pictures

Buh-bye, blue cabinets!

Out with the old, and in with the new!

In process...

Nice!

GRANITE?! Are you kidding me?!

This lovely new kitchen makes all my appliances and accessories look better!

I'm in love with the new faucet-- and with this adorable toddler who wants to explore.

See how the Pergo floors have been torn out, revealing the old linoleum?

Tomorrow, we get tile.

(Pray I can keep all my children OFF of it!!!)

*fingers crossed*

Kitchen Renovation!

NOTE: This is just my DREAM kitchen. Not my new one. But I can fantasize... *wink*

So, here's our ACTUAL leaky kitchen story:

Our Pergo floors started seeping water and warping, and it took us a while to find the source-- a pipe in the wall that drained the kitchen sink water into the sewer line. When we took everything out of our lower cabinets and got down to inspect, the wall was coated in mold. Eek! (Well, being pregnant, *I* never get down on the floor to peek in the cabinets! Sheesh! ;-D)







Anyhoo, the pipe got fixed yesterday, (yay!) the cabinets are being ripped out and totally replaced this week, and I'm not sure when the floors will be done. (They ripped up the warped Pergo floors last week.)

Ripped out cabinets, ripped up floor, moldy drywall cut away

This whole thing actually hasn't been a big deal. We're just glad we found the source of the leak and got rid of the mold.

Repaired water line-- YAY!

We are just renting our house, so we won't be picking out the new cabinets, flooring, or countertops. That will be our landlord's job. (Though I imagine his wife might be doing at least some of it!)

I know for sure that they will be replacing ALL the Pergo in the house with tile. (We have it in the kitchen, and some in both the living room and family room, as well as down the hall.) So that's pretty cool!

Here are the current cabinets and counter top.

If I could pick all the colors and patterns out, here are some DREAM examples of what I would choose:

I like the look and feel of wood floors, but I've had them before, and it was HARD to keep them dry and clean! The tile floors they're putting in will be nice!

But I love the white cabinets here and the black island with granite counter top.

I'm afraid Russell would feel this kitchen is too "precious", but I love the distressed cabinets and the antiques. White cabinets, again-- yes...

Here's another view of the first kitchen picture I posted at the beginning of this blog entry. White cabinets: check. Tile floor: check. Granite Countertops: check. European elegance: check. Two ovens: CHECK! ;-)

This next week should be a bit crazy with my kitchen being pulled apart and put back together, but I'll be excited to show you the results of the renovation! :-)

Stay tuned...

Finally Settling In!

I apologize for not updating recently. The basement is almost finished here, and we've finally brought most of our belongings into the house! YAY!!!

The girls room is done, and all 6 girls are snuggled cozily into it. I'm really glad we did so much de-cluttering before we moved, but we could definitely do some more!

Here's some pictures of the paint job in the girls' room:






I also carpeted the girls' room by myself, using carpet my parents have had in their basement for the last couple of years, which they got from my aunt and uncle's house when THEY got new carpet! (Clear as mud? Sorry.) But, apparently, I don't have any pictures of the finished carpet.


As for the yard outside, we waited for a calm, non-windy day, and did THIS:



No, we did NOT burn the house down, we simply burned some big dead evergreen bushes out of our yard.


Here's a better view of what was going on, so you won't think we're super-reckless:



I was standing out there with a hose, wetting down all the things we didn't want burned. Russell and the two big boys were out there with shovels, and we all walked around and around the flames to make sure the fire stayed under control. As cars passed by us, we waved to them, indicating that all was well. It became pretty humorous, as car after car slowed down to see if we were burning down the joint.

Actually, it speaks volumes about how people care about their neighbors around here, and are willing to help others in need-- pretty cool!

In closing-- wait. Did I hear you say that you needed to see some more pictures of our darling baby? Our #10 child? The High Empress of this household?

Alright. I can do that:

I'm always happy to oblige, you know... ;-D

Attempting to Take It All In Stride-- and Failing

I grew up in this Frozen Wasteland that some call "Idaho." I know what -27 below days feel like. I spent the bulk of my childhood wishing I lived somewhere else, and yet-- at age 35, with ten kids, and a house that has no working heater-- I am baaaack.


Why? Every day I ask myself "Why?" And every day the answer seems more distant and less accessible.

After living seven glorious years in the warm Arizona sun, I am freezing to death in mere 35 degree weather and rain.

Did I miss the memo that winter arrives here at the end of September?

Just checking.

Little House in the Big Weeds-- Part Two

Well, we're in the middle of more adventures! Friday morning, our water heater decided to quit working. *sigh* The plumber was supposed to come Friday evening, but he never showed up. So we waited all day Saturday (yesterday) and Russell heated up water on the stove and did the dishes while I was painting primer on the walls downstairs.

Then, because it looked like the plumber was not going to make it, I loaded ALL the kids in the van and took off to my parents house to use their hot water for baths and showers. My mom and dad were so patient and kind with us as we took over both their bathrooms-- as well as the kitchen sink. (Baby's bath) But we all emerged clean, loaded up the van with soggy towels and squeaky-clean kids, and drove home late last night.

About 2 minutes after we got back, the plumber drove up. He and Russell got the radiant heating's water heater hooked up. (The plumber couldn't find his correct tool to look at the regular water heater.) So, we DO have hot water today. Thank goodness!

I think I'll tackle the dishes after lunch...

Here are some recent pictures of our still-unfinished basement. (I can't wait until they're the "before" pictures!):

The drywalling is done and waiting for texture.
(This room will be our Family/School Room.)

Rooms, left to right: future bathroom, boys room, girls' room

Little House in the Big Weeds-- Part One

Because this "moving-to-the-country" experience has been so life-changing for me, I decided that I really should record the lessons I'm learning. So, here is Part One of our experiences adapting from a big city family, to a country-living one.


First, I got an e-mail from a dear friend in AZ, informing me that she had a brother-in-law with a house on 5 acres that needed to rent it to someone at the beginning of August. I was definitely intrigued! So I called Dustin and found out that we had been acquainted with his wife Lindy when we had lived in Arizona. Very cool! We went and looked at the house. Here are the pics from that first tour.

Russell in the Kitchen

The lovely Living Room




The Master Bath

It was not yet finished, and that really concerned me, but Dustin was working day and night to get it done before they had to move. We had a month to think about it, and decide if we really were ready to move out in the toolies, and tackle five acres. Prayer and pondering commenced!