Still thinking about turning over a new leaf for the new year!
Health
1) Drink more water - if I drink more I'll be hydrated, this will keep me from overeating (which I do when I'm tired). I'll have more energy and be less creaky in my joints if I stay well hydrated.
2) Eat a salad every day. Gotta buy those big Earthbound Farm containers of lettuces and eat through one every week. I know the containers are made of plastic! But, the company is a very good and conscientious one, using recycled bottles for their packaging and all the packaging is recyclable as well. If I have to make a concession about plastic this would be one of companies I'd like to support.
3) Eat more fruits and veggies.
4) Limit bread - and then limit that to mostly bread that is whole wheat. I think when I'm making my own bread for the most part, this will happen naturally.
5) Make sure helpings of carbs and meat are moderate.
6) Drink homemade bone broth every day - make soup every week. I want to become good at making soup! Like the soup Nazi without the unpleasant attitude! LOL!
6) Desserts only on Sundays.
7) Take vitamins and fish oil every day (why am I so inconsistent with this?)
8) Exercise/move/walk/get outside for some meaningful amount of time as much as possible. Once a week at least, I'd like to go on a walk with the kids, to a park or on the bike path, if the weather allows. A different place a week. We can explore.
9) Get kids involved in this without lecturing about it. If I get excited about cooking, they may as well. I want to have them cook alongside me. I have to make note of everything they like. It is all a process that takes time. I need to not get discouraged if they balk at first. Also, I need to somehow get Rick more on board with all this. Must be subtle in my presentation and make food as delicious as possible! Discouragement is my enemy; perseverance is my friend!
Household systems
1) Must get back to my checklist approach which worked! Certain things I do every a.m. and every p.m. help keep the household running smoothly:
A.M.
unload dishwasher (Mom)
laundry (Mom or kids, depending on whose day it is)
10 minute hot spot (Mom)
kitchen clean up before lunch (Mom)
P.M.
Move laundry/put away (Mom or kids)
sort mail (Mom)
evening tidy up (all)
Kitchen clean up before dinner (Mom)
prep dinner (Mom and kids)
set table (kids)
Clean kitchen (all)
2) Make bread in machine while cooking dinner
3) Make bone broth in slow cooker a la Nourishing Gourmet
4) Daily checklists for kids posted on side of fridge.
_____ Prayer (a.m. with kids; night prayers; decade of rosary when getting in the car)
_____ Studies (for Sean - adding in formal composition/grammar to copywork, Lit., math, Latin, read alouds - this is to prep him for school next year. Josh-study for SAT as well as driver's ed, Latin, Pre-Calc, Shakespeare, Chemistry and he'll also be taking an on line composition course starting in January. Becky-continue with Aquinas Learning, copy work, Life of Fred + ten days to multiplication mastery, read alouds.)
_____ Family responsibilities (chores, helping out)
_____ Hygiene
_____ Exercise (walks, runs, Wii Fit, elliptical, ping pong, gym class, jumping rope, work outs)
_____ Meal planning/groceries (each weekend, clean out fridge and shop)
_____ Read alouds in a.m. and p.m. and set time every afternoon for quiet reading.
_____ Be aware of how much time kids are on screen
_____ Connect with kids each day; chatting, working together, reading aloud, walking, etc. Be truly present to them.
5) I also need a set time to work on Aquinas Learning prep. Now I basically run to get supplies on Tuesdays after I drop Becky off at Art and before I pick up Josh from Chem. Then Wednesday night I usually focus on printing out things and making sure everything is together. I'll be helping to teach art this coming year, so I need to plan for that. I'll try to find some time during the weekend to focus on that.
6) Sean is going to work on cheesemaking as his 4H project. Josh is going to learn carpentry from Rick and build something; a real piece of furniture. The little bookcase in the boys room is inadequate. I'll suggest he build a bigger one.
Showing posts with label Plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plans. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thinking About New Year's Resolutions
Yep. already starting to think about these. I know my resolutions are pretty much the same every year. And in fact I make resolutions all year long at various points. But in the chaos of this pre-Christmas time, I'm looking forward to things calming down a bit. I think I just have three major focuses for January:
Cooking habits - getting into making my own bread, making soup weekly, making cheese with Seano.
Activity habits - We seem to be naturally moving into restricting computer time to 3 hours a day. That allows time for school work and some time for non-school work stuff. But the computer has really become a problem, especially for Josh. It's eating away motivation and time. So it has to be restricted. I've tried the gentler method of trying to woo my kids away from it with other fun stuff, but that is only hit or miss in results. Sooooo, we are going to get formal about this at least for the first 6 months of 2012. We'll see how that works. Josh acknowledges there's a problem so he alternatively thanks us/gets angry at us. When the kids don't have the computer to keep them busy, they'll need other things, so I'm hoping to encourage more reading, exploring hobbies and more exercise/outdoors.
Sleeping habits - I'm going to try to be consistent in getting everyone up at 8:00 a.m. I want to come up with an alternative to doing the breakfast thing. Sean and Becky are NOT hungry when they get up. They do not want to sit at the breakfast table. Added to this is that often we are interrupted by things going on with my aunt and her caretaker. Soooo, I'm thinking maybe the thing to do is to get them up and then have them all lie around my bed or bedroom while we pray and then I read aloud to them. Then everybody can go get dressed and come downstairs, eat breakfast, clear off the table and start on any academic endeavors for the day. Of course this is a bit different everyday. Monday and Wednesday are Latin days, so we have to leave at 10:00 (if they are coming with us, I've started to only make them come 1 day out of the two). Thursdays are Aquinas Days so they are different. Fridays are different too, because some Fridays, Josh has to go to Latin at 8:30. But we still could do this every morning, except Thursdays and those Fridays that Josh is here, if we get up at 8:00 consistently.
Cooking habits - getting into making my own bread, making soup weekly, making cheese with Seano.
Activity habits - We seem to be naturally moving into restricting computer time to 3 hours a day. That allows time for school work and some time for non-school work stuff. But the computer has really become a problem, especially for Josh. It's eating away motivation and time. So it has to be restricted. I've tried the gentler method of trying to woo my kids away from it with other fun stuff, but that is only hit or miss in results. Sooooo, we are going to get formal about this at least for the first 6 months of 2012. We'll see how that works. Josh acknowledges there's a problem so he alternatively thanks us/gets angry at us. When the kids don't have the computer to keep them busy, they'll need other things, so I'm hoping to encourage more reading, exploring hobbies and more exercise/outdoors.
Sleeping habits - I'm going to try to be consistent in getting everyone up at 8:00 a.m. I want to come up with an alternative to doing the breakfast thing. Sean and Becky are NOT hungry when they get up. They do not want to sit at the breakfast table. Added to this is that often we are interrupted by things going on with my aunt and her caretaker. Soooo, I'm thinking maybe the thing to do is to get them up and then have them all lie around my bed or bedroom while we pray and then I read aloud to them. Then everybody can go get dressed and come downstairs, eat breakfast, clear off the table and start on any academic endeavors for the day. Of course this is a bit different everyday. Monday and Wednesday are Latin days, so we have to leave at 10:00 (if they are coming with us, I've started to only make them come 1 day out of the two). Thursdays are Aquinas Days so they are different. Fridays are different too, because some Fridays, Josh has to go to Latin at 8:30. But we still could do this every morning, except Thursdays and those Fridays that Josh is here, if we get up at 8:00 consistently.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Advent School
Advent is the beginning of the new year, liturgically speaking. For the last few years we've had 'Advent School.' This has been emphasized in some years more than others, but usually we consciously focus on doing fun stuff and things that are preparatory for Christmas.
I've already started thinking about it and here are some of my thoughts:
Read alouds: I've been reading aloud Bible History every morning at breakfast, though this isn't written in stone. During November, I read St. Elizabeth and the Three Crowns to B. For Advent school I'd like to read The Little Apostle on Crutches which I got some time ago from Catholic Heritage Curriculum. The kids and I really enjoyed King of the Golden City from CHC last Lent/Easter. In fact we've enjoyed many of the books and resources at CHC so I am hoping The Little Apostle proves a hit also.
I also have arbitrarily announced that in December I will be reading David Copperfield aloud to anyone who wishes to hear it. I love that book and have read it at least 3 times and now I just feel moved to share it with my family. I think it will be a cozy winter eve book!
We do work on cursive, math and Latin anywhere from 1 to 4 days a week. I think it would be fun to change up how we do this. Instead of working on cursive, I thought I'd try Unjournaling; a book that keeps popping up as I cruise the homeschooling/unschooling internet world. So maybe the time is right to try it out? For math, I think I'm going to suggest playing math games and reading neat math literature instead of working through the textbooks as we have been doing. For Latin, I think we might stick to the books we've got but maybe I'll try to splice in games, audio-visual stuff and more fun translating.
We'll also focus on gift-making, cleaning the house (and maybe earning some extra money for gifts), Christmas/Hannukah arts and crafts, decorating the house and focusing on the reason for the Season!
I've already started thinking about it and here are some of my thoughts:
Read alouds: I've been reading aloud Bible History every morning at breakfast, though this isn't written in stone. During November, I read St. Elizabeth and the Three Crowns to B. For Advent school I'd like to read The Little Apostle on Crutches which I got some time ago from Catholic Heritage Curriculum. The kids and I really enjoyed King of the Golden City from CHC last Lent/Easter. In fact we've enjoyed many of the books and resources at CHC so I am hoping The Little Apostle proves a hit also.
I also have arbitrarily announced that in December I will be reading David Copperfield aloud to anyone who wishes to hear it. I love that book and have read it at least 3 times and now I just feel moved to share it with my family. I think it will be a cozy winter eve book!
We do work on cursive, math and Latin anywhere from 1 to 4 days a week. I think it would be fun to change up how we do this. Instead of working on cursive, I thought I'd try Unjournaling; a book that keeps popping up as I cruise the homeschooling/unschooling internet world. So maybe the time is right to try it out? For math, I think I'm going to suggest playing math games and reading neat math literature instead of working through the textbooks as we have been doing. For Latin, I think we might stick to the books we've got but maybe I'll try to splice in games, audio-visual stuff and more fun translating.
We'll also focus on gift-making, cleaning the house (and maybe earning some extra money for gifts), Christmas/Hannukah arts and crafts, decorating the house and focusing on the reason for the Season!
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