Revamp my life bootcamp!!! Day Zero

It's been awhile.

Life. Is. Good.

I really can't complain. But something is always just a little bit wonky. The dishes are never fully finished or that laundry pile is just a little too high. I'm just a little bit overweight. (Now. I actually use to be a lot.) A history or science lesson isn't all the way finished. There's one too piles of papers or dishelved closet that I hope nobody open. Some days I hope that I don't have an unexpected visitor! Disorganization haunts me around every corner.  And as that builds up, I get more and more overwhelmed and find myself in a place that I'm frozen. Even a baby step seems useless.

Overall, I can't get it together at the level that I want it together. My desired level is beyond what is realistic. But I know that I'm fed up now and I know that I need to do something different.

But, today I made a decision. I don't want to stay this way. I've been reading Cleaning House and it has inspired me to start my own experiment. It will mostly involve me changing my heart but hopefully that will extend to my own children through example. I'm putting myself through a Revamp My Life boot camp. And it starts tomorrow with the first Revamp. My precious laptop is going to work with my husband. No more getting sucked into hours of pinterest, facebook, reading blogs, shopping online, reading homeschooling forums, reading about cleaning and doing laundry. I'm going to actually do some of this stuff.

Enter this blog. I need a place to record the results of my experiment with unplugging during the day. Track what happens when I make a change as a reminder to not end up back in this same place like I have so many times in the past. And I think that relaying it to the world might just help at holding me accountable (or my readership of two, LOL!) But still. Someday, someone will stumble upon my post and realize that they need to do the same. And hopefully my success and failures will inspire them to jump in as well.

Day One will start where it should. I'm inviting my Heavenly Father into this journey and give the first day to Him. That's right. Part One will be to start revamping my spiritual life. I'll still be working on some of the other stuff, afterall, what else will I do without a computer all day? Yep. All the stuff I haven't been doing.  I still have kids to homeschool and errands to run, too!

So here it goes.  I get the computer back tomorrow evening but I won't even be home until late at night to access it. Do you think I'll get the shakes? ;) Don't answer that!

sick

I didn’t sleep at all last night because of the cough. I went to see a doctor today and she said I’m definitely sick! I have a sinus infection and bronchitis. I was really feeling it today when I went in. So now I have antibiotics and will hopefully be on the mend. DH came home for the day. Overall boring an eventful day since I took some cough medicine and went back to bed. I’m really sick if I go back to bed.

more to come…

another day...

I spend much of my day correct my 9yo who is always asking, “May me and E have a snack?” I always respond with “Who?” “Oh, I mean may E and I have a snack.” So, my blog heading is driving me nuts. I don’t know what I was thinking when I put that together. I know better!!! But the thought of redecorating my blog is up there with organizing my socks, so I’ll just have to live with it.
Today was interesting. In the breaks between hacking up a lung, I managed to get the boys through their lessons. But it can never stay serious around here for too long. E asked me if he could go to the bathroom in the middle of his math lesson and come back looking like this:

He saw the photofunia app on my phone and wanted his picture on a “Billboard”. At first I thought he was asking me to put his photo on a real billboard. I was really confused. I eventually figured it out and this is what he chose. I crack up every time I look at it. This goofball finished two reading and math lessons today so maybe he needs a stache everyday?
I didn’t get much done in the way of housekeeping today. But I found out about a really wonderful feature on my oven! I wanted to make dinner in the crock pot but when I pulled the chicken out it was all freezer burned. I had to toss it. Fortunately, I made a couple freezer meals a few weeks ago. I pulled one out. But then I realized that I would never remember to put it in the oven at 3:30 to cook. So I set it in the oven and programmed the oven to start at 3:30 and turn off at 5:00. It worked perfectly! The dish had some time to thaw before cooking and came out of the oven smelling heavenly.
Laundry was towels. And L helped fold a couple clean loads left over. We have to get better at that. But I think overall the laundry situation is much improved. Tomorrow is L’s turn to wash her clothes.
Tomorrow is a busy day.The kid’s have art class in the morning and A has physical therapy in the afternoon. We’ll have to squeeze in some school work in between all that. There are no plans for tomorrow night.

Here I am again…

I’m blogging again! But I don’t have too much to say. The voice is getting better. But I’m still hacking away.

So another day of trying the new routine. Since I end up in a coughing fit every time I talk, my little guys worked on their Classical Conversations memory work on their own.  I put our CC memory work up on the fridge. Our kitchen table overlooks the fridge so we will spend some time at dinner practicing the CC memory work. L doesn’t have to memorize the foundations work in her Challenge class since they are memorizing all the countries, geography terms, pages of Latin vocabulary, and later anatomy. But she usually ends up memorizing the foundations work by osmosis. She even has the Veritas Press timeline partly memorized. Amazing!

I made the boys clean up their room today. What a mess!!! They didn’t get the clean gene either. But our biggest issue is the massive amounts of Lego craziness that is in their room. Couple that with poorly utilized (or maybe even worthless?) storage units and it is an absolute disaster in their room. Most days I don’t even look in their room. It makes me cRAzY!!!

Well, I’m coming clean here and I’m going to post and before and after shot. The sad thing is that there room still isn’t finished. I’m trying to get it organized and cleaned-up because I want to paint the room in the very near future. I bought them cute Camo bedding and the periwinkle walls as just as they were when we moved in. Not “cool” for a boy’s room!

Here’s the mess:

Here’s that corner after. Not too bad for the five minutes it will stay clean!

The other four corners are still in class 1 disaster status. And will be cleaned over the next few days. While working on this mess, I am also switching out their summer clothes to winter clothes. So it’s a huge undertaking!

Sadly the boys are not to get out any more Legos until they keep the ones that are already out on the table off the floor and somewhat organized. It’s such an issue that something had to be done. They are lucky I didn’t just take all of them away.

Today was their laundry day. There were three loads from their room. I still have one to fold and put away. But I broke E’s Plasma Ball and the glass pieces are in that basket. I have to shake the clothes out outside. (and I have to find a new plasma ball.)

And our afternoon/dinner routine is improving. I have to start dinner at 4:15 to have it ready in time. I think tomorrow I’ll do a crockpot meal so I can spend more time in the boys’ room.

More to come…

yeah, well, um…

I've come to terms with my inability to keep up with this blog. ;) But for some reason today I felt the need to come say something. I think it is because I lost my voice and haven't gotten enough words out today. I totally stopped talking at 5:00 after I realized that I was really straining by having to say everything more than once to everyone. This family has ONE volume level. VERY LOUD! I'm certain any other family would wonder why we are always yelling at one another! E says that our family is yell-ful. LOL Anyway, my lack of volume was not getting my point across, so I just started writing everything down on a notepad. Except E can't read fluently so that's been difficult because he is the only one home with me right now. He’s sounding everything I write out and then writing notes back to me.

So, anyway, we've been working on some things around this house. A few weeks ago I read, More Hours in My Day: Proven Ways to Organize Your Home, Your Family, and Yourself.  It didn’t help immediately. In fact, there wasn’t much in it that I didn’t already know. But I was really drawn to her chapter on having a family mission statement. We spent part of this weekend working on that and narrowing some things down about this family. We love to work with kids and our time certainly reflects that. But we need to come up with a way to balance that with the rest of our life. Laundry has to get done. Meals must be cooked. Dishes done. You get my point. So while we can’t cut much out of our scheduled, we had to come up with something to make our house function better. We all agreed that we will stop what we are doing at 4:30 to start dinner and clean-up. The clean-up is based on what is needed. Most nights this means that we are off to swimming, exercising, or scouts by 6:30. So these two hours are devoted to getting our act together. We also have decided that nothing can be added to the schedule unless it fits into our mission as a family. I know it’s easier said than done…

Of course the first couple days of this new plan have been a complete mess. I came down with the killer cold that has caused me to lose my voice. While I haven’t been a totally lazy bum, I certainly haven’t felt like doing much around the house. And yesterday I had to go pick up my glasses (which I’ve been told look really great on me!!!) from Wal-Mart. The only time I could get out of the house was at 4:00. I threw in a couple other errands so we weren’t home until after 5:00. Ooops. And then today, I set the boys to work but my Sudafed stupor has been less than helpful. Plus, I had to leave L and Classical Conversations Challenge class this afternoon. Her ride couldn’t bring her home until 5:30. We would normally be home about 3:45ish depending on how long after CC we chat with friends.

I will not be defeated though! I’m doing what I can to keep it all going. Laundry is pretty simple, so I’m keeping up with that. This summer I made a laundry schedule that worked pretty well (see the picture). But it went by the wayside when L’s schedule became consumed with her CC school work. She really doesn’t have much time left in her day after she finishes her work. She even is doing school work in the evenings which is fairly new to our schedule. So, now I’m trying to get back at it rather than the survival laundry we’ve been doing. I like doing one room per day because then everyone gets some laundry done. When we dump it and sort it into one pile, it seems that my favorite jeans are always on the bottom and never get washed because we just keep dumping and piling.

That’s my housekeeping saga for my 2 readers. Hopefully I won’t go 6 months before another update. Blogging will hopefully help me sort this out and keep on track!

More to come…

Here I go again…

I’m hoping that I can update sooner than every 6-8 months.

A couple thoughts as to why I’m attempting this again. First, I have a million digital scrapbook kits that need to be scrapped with. I’m on a spending freeze until I make a decent dent in this supply.  Warning: The Digital Scrapbooking industry might experience a slight recession because of this decision. So I need to get cracking before National Scrapbook Day or it’s gonna be a sad day for me to stay away from the sales.  And then there’s always a Sweet Shoppe Sale, especially “Going Going Gone!” So! Off to scrapping! I just wish I had the time and energy to scrap a layout a day.  I know some people do a lot more than that!

Life has changed a lot for me since I posted last! First, I’m 2 sizes smaller! I’ve been on a weight loss journey like none other.  And I finally feel like I’m in a situation where those pounds are gone forever! It’s really really really slow. But the scale isn’t moving up and my inches are going down! So that’s what really matters.

Second, our family has moved to another town. That’s been an adjustment. But God has greatly blessed us with a wonderful home and new friends!

I had the pleasure of going shopping tonight. DD had a friend over for a sleep over and they decided they wanted to go to the mall.  So I reluctantly let my DD and her friend shop the mall alone. I ended up at Maurice’s and I have to say that I’m really impressed with their recent clothing line! Really cute stuff!  I haven’t been much for dresses but tonight, the urge struck me to try on a couple. I came home with these:

Very different from my usual style. But I love how feminine women’s clothing is starting to look. It’s o.k. to be a girl again!!!

And I confess to being greatly inspired by the Mad Men TV series.  I love the clothing in that show! I kept telling Allen I was going to have to start shopping vintage stores to find some of the dresses. Turns out that Maurice’s has them!

Alright so now time for a few layouts!

Credits: Sweet Tomato Design's Frolic Kit and I {heart} You Template
Font is Rough Typewriter

credits: Farynar's Wings' Night Sky Kit and Night Sky Sparkle Backs
Font is HP HSG

Credits:Polka Dot Plum Design's (by Lauren and Amy) Sweet Summertime http://www.polkadotplum.com/shoppe/p...amp;amp;page=3
Template by JenCK; Font is SFHelen

That’s enough for today! I’ll post more over the next few days.

{Not} Back to School Blog HOP ~My Curriculum Picks~

 

 

Curriculum. Sigh. Honestly I never thought that THIS would be the hardest part about homeschooling. I have spent HOURS browsing and researching to make sure that I have picked what is the best for my children. And then I read someone say they didn’t like it because ______________. EEEK!

Alright, I took a chill pill and got myself a Diet Coke. All’s good. And I’m feeling more confident and less likely to believe every curriculum success or failure story out there. I’m now basing it on if my children are challenged by the curriculum and retaining what they learn. 

We are in a very weird situation too. We had some circumstances that caused us to have to change curriculum mid-year last year.  So I started a number of things in January. Some subjects we are starting fresh with something. Other things, I decided would be worthwhile to finish up and then move on.

 

So these are what I went with. I know the suspense has been killing you! LOL

5th grade:
Finish TT7 and maybe move on to Saxon 78?
CLE Reading 5 & Language Arts 5
E=MCQ Earth Science (finish from last year)
Story of World 1 (finish from last year)
Power Glide German
Writing Strands 3 (I had to assure her this wasn’t 3rd grade)
Misc. Geography and Civics from some books I picked up along the way
Sunlight & Library Reading lists
Art class at school

2nd grade:
CLE Math 2, LA 2, Reading 2
Real Science Odyssey, Life Science
Story of the World 1
Power Glide German
A lot of reading!
Geography from a book I picked up
Art class at school

Kindergarten:
Learning Language Arts Through Literature
Explode the Code (Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code)
Starfall for fun
Bob Jones Math
Tagging along for Science with older brother
Tagging along for History mostly doing the coloring pages