Eliminating Distractions

I need to make a confession - the computer, especially the internet, is a large distraction for me during the day. I've noticed that on the days that I feel the most frazzled and as if there's no time to get anything important done... those are also the days I've spent too much - no, wasted too much, time online. And honestly, I have trouble controlling it. A quick "5 minute" email check turns into a 30-minute email/blog/etc. check, and once the time is gone, it is gone.

Ephesians 5:15-16 says "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil" and I've been convicted that I have not been wise or making the most of my time, and have been praying for the Lord's help in overcoming my laziness and struggle with this.

Last week, I came across LeechBlock, a Firefox add-on. It is an add-on that allows you to block specific sites for blocks of time, all of which you can set to whatever your preferences are. This would also be good for helping monitor a child's internet usage, as well, although I wouldn't recommend letting it take the place of good parental supervision.

So I bit the bullet and did it. I've blocked all my of typical-usage sites (email, blog, facebook, message boards, etc) during the hours that the children are awake, except for a small "free time" break from 12:30-1 pm, when the kids are playing and I have a few minutes to spare. This leaves me with a few minutes before the kids wake up in the morning, and whatever time I choose to spend in the evenings after they are in bed, which is also limited, depending on Michael's schedule.

And you know what? Its been hard! I'm being totally honest here. I've found myself wandering around thinking "um... I don't know what to do with myself..." which only proves how badly I needed it. Sad, huh? But I am thankful that the Lord provided me with this resource to be an assistant for me in overcoming my frivolous use of time. And I also know that I'll adjust to life with limited internet, and it will be such a blessing to truly be able to "redeem the time" and take better care of the things I've been neglecting.

Michael asked me why I was posting about this for anyone in the world to read, and I'm choosing to do so for a couple of reasons. One, because James 5:16 says "therefore, confess your sins to one another..." and I believe doing that is a part of repentance. Also, just in case there are others who have the same struggle as I do, perhaps this tool can help you to get back on track focusing on God's work, rather than continuing to be stuck in the rut of wasting precious time.

Remember, no matter how many good, edifying, encouraging blog posts or websites we read about serving God, biblical womanhood, homeschooling, motherhood, and so on... reading about these things will never be able to replace the actual practice of living them out.

Over the River and Through the Woods (or, Roadtrips with a Large Family)

We’re getting ready to go visit my parents for a few weeks, in preparation for my little sister’s wedding (yay, hooray!). However, my parents live a bit far from us – almost 10 hours by car, to be exact. When the kids were little and there were less of them, we made the drive at night for simplicity’s sake. They’d sleep, one of us would sleep, and the other would drive, switching off when needed. However, now that the kids are older and able to amuse themselves and interact, we take the drive by day and enjoy the roadtrip!

In preparation, I’ve compiled this:

No, its not a bunch of Tupperware! (although it is a lovely, large bag I received for hosting a Tupperware party, score!) Inside the bag are all of our “Roadtrip Necessities”. Believe it or not, it contains everything we'll need to stay occupied for the entire trip! See:

OK, that grocery bag is the snack bag, here’s what the inside looks like without the snack bag:

In case you need some ideas for entertaining a large family (or, even a small family) on a roadtrip, I’ll explain everything I’ve got in there.

Each child has a clipboard, with their name written on it:

Attached to the clipboard, as you can see, is a baggie with crayons, pencils, and a wipe off marker.

Underneath the baggie, there are two blank maps – one for coloring in all of the states we’ll travel through, and the other for the License Plate Game. Which, if you don’t know it, you've really been missing out! I’ll go ahead and explain – everytime you see a license plate from a different state, you color in the state that license plate is from. Whoever gets their whole map colored (or the most states colored by the end of the trip)… wins!

We don’t actually give out prizes for winning, but if you have a husband or any male children at all, you know that just the right to be able to say “I won!” gives them immense satisfaction. Oh, and its good geography practice, too! ;-)

Underneath the maps are 8 laminated Car Bingo boards. That’s what the wipe-off marker is for, because the lamination allows them to be reused again and again easily! I got these from a great car trip website called MomsMinivan.com. Each Bingo Board is numbered so that no one accidentally uses the same Bingo Board as someone else at the same time.

Also on the clipboards is some blank paper just for coloring or writing or whatever else one wants to do with it, except for spitballs. Those have been outlawed in the car, for good reason.

Also in the bag is several packs of pipe cleaners. Pipe cleaners are by far the BEST long road trip activity ever. Really! I was AMAZED at how occupied they kept the children the first time we brought some along. They played quietly with them for over an hour! Even Nathan (2 years old) can have fun with them, and there are no small pieces to have to keep track of! They all know to look forward to pipe cleaners on our road trips, now – and I save them for moments of desperation ;-)

Next, we have the ever-popular Mad Libs. This will be our first trip to play Mad Libs, because until now most of the kids wouldn't have played it very well. Now, most of them can!

Finally, there are several books on tape. When we traveled at night, we started The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on tape (although some of us have read them in their entirety several times), but we haven’t finished the entire thing, so we have those again. Isaac insisted it was a tradition, so thankfully, they were readily available at the Library. Also along is the book “Hans Brinker” which was one we started as a read-aloud for school but never finished, so it will be nice to hear the end while we travel.

As for snacks, I’ve got several “dry” goodies and a few cold ones that will be kept in a small cooler. Here are the dry snacks:

Each person has two granola bars, a baggie of pretzel twists, and a baggie of goldfish. The teething bars are for the baby, obviously. I forgot to get trail mix this time, but that's also something we usually have, as well as dried apricots.

Cold snacks include 4 oz containers of Stoneyfield Yogurt and Cheese sticks. We’ve also got a bulk supply of small bottled waters, as well. Our hope is that will prevent us from having to stop too frequently for junky fast food, although we traditionally start out our drive with a breakfast from Chik-Fil-A (which doesn’t quite count as junky, does it?).

With the extra effort I put into preparing for our trip, our roadtrips are so much less stressful! They’re actually pretty enjoyable, with lots of games and fun conversation, and yes, even some quiet moments here and there. Its well worth it!

With that, I will be saying farewell for now. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to do any blogging while we’re away, but I’ll be back sometime next year! Have a blessed New Year!

Wordless Wednesday - We Support

Gratitude

92. lullabies

93. this one

94. and this one

95. this one, too
96. the same for this one
97. the littlest one
98. their daddy
99. stories told

100. a reliable vehicle that holds all of us

See the rest of my Gratitude List here, and consider joining in with giving thanks at The Gratitude Community. Count your blessings, count them one by one...

9 Months

Judah is now 9 months old! I don't know what happened last month, but I missed posting about his 8th month passing. It goes by so quickly!

He now has four teeth, with a few more on the way. He pulls up to standing, can clap and wave bye-bye (sometimes he gets the two confused and tries to do them at the same time, which is pretty funny). The teething issue has caused major sleep disruptions for both of us, but we're surviving... for the most part! Do you see his big top front teeth?

He loves his brothers, and crawls off to wherever they are. When they go outside and he is stuck inside, he will cry about it and stand at the door and bang on it! Poor thing can't wait to be big like the rest of them.

He's eating more solids, and isn't picky about anything at all, thankfully! If he can chew it, he loves it. The only thing he doesn't have alot of patience with his being spoon-fed. He likes finger foods, so we've skipped the whole "baby food" stage. He also has the hang of using a sippy cup for water. He's a hefty 23 pounds already - the biggest of them all at this age! He's still nursing regularly through the day (and night...), too.

This is what has to happen after all of that finger-food self-feeding:

Don't you love how dignified he's trying to look? lol! He's outgrown his tub, do you think? And do you see all of those rolls?!

I can't believe he'll be a year old soon!

My nine year old with my nine month old! (Can you tell we like footie PJ's here?)

Oh, and he has an official nickname. In fact, I don't think any of the kids actually call him Judah. Everyone around here calls him "Bean". How that happened, I'm not exactly sure, but it stuck! He even answers to it!

The Difference

Can you see it?

Here he was, just yesterday:

Here he is today:

Can you see it?

It takes a discerning eye!

Think about it...

Look closely....

Now do you see it?

Its the difference between an 8 year old and a 9 year old!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Enjoy your last year in the single digits!

(You are growing up far too fast for me!)

I love you!!

WFMW - Grocery Shopping Simplified

Grocery shopping is something that has always been "the bane of my existance". Boy, I hate it. Boy, do I get stressed over it. Meal planning, budgeting, list making, shopping, checking out, loading the car, unloading the car, putting things away... every inch of it, I dislike... extremely.

However, being the mother and wife in a family of 7, it is something I have to do. Because of my strong negative emotions toward it, I've come up with a few things that have made the whole process decidedly less stressful and a bit more simplified. Necessity is the mother of invention! Here's what I've done!

• My goal was to only do the main shopping twice a month, since we get paid twice a month. I do have mini-trips to stock up on the staples (fresh fruit, etc), but even then, I'm only going to the store about once a week or once every ten days or so, and only doing a huge trip twice a month.
  

• First, I made several "two week" menus - sets of 14-day meal lists. Some meals we have every week. Every Sunday we have Spaghetti. Its easy and quick to make, a nice way to get ready for the week ahead without too much work or cleaning up afterwards. We have homemade pizza once a week, as well, because its super yummy and fun. Fridays tend to be a soup night, because I make challah for our Sabbath meal, which goes perfectly with some soup. Since we also use Friday for errands, library runs, and a deeper house cleaning, soups are also easy and quick to prepare. The other days I filled in with other meals that have been tested, tried, and approved by all. So in general, each "two week menu" list has about 10 different meals.
  

• Then, I made corresponding grocery lists that contain every. single. ingredient. I need for each meal - spices included! This took some time, but the end result is sooo worth it. I also created a "master grocery list" of the general day-to-day things we always need, such as bread, milk, eggs, fruits, veggies, etc. All of the lists are in excel spreadsheets, so I don't have to rewrite them.
  

• When payday rolls around, I get ready for shopping. I choose which two week menu plan I'm going to use, and print out the grocery list that goes with it. Then I go through the house and cross off the list anything I already have here. I combine what's left into my master grocery list, and I'm ready to go! I also organize the final shopping list by aisle in the store, so there's no more running back across the store because I accidentally listed flour at the bottom of the list and missed it while in the baking aisle. The whole process of meal planning, menu planning, and grocery list making only takes about 10 minutes every two weeks. That's a HUGE reduction in time, and mental energy for me! I literally used to spend days stressing over the whole ordeal. Sad, huh?
  

• Then I make sure me and the kids are well fed, well rested, and ready to go! The big shopping trip twice a month takes several hours (including drive time, as well as loading/unloading the groceries), so its still a bit exhausting, but the satisfaction of knowing I don't have to endure it again for another half of a month is priceless! Before I started this system, I was doing 1+ hour trips to the store twice a week if not more. Yikes!
  

The end results are:

• I no longer stress about menu planning, or the "what are we having for dinner tonight" panic

• Little things like random spices or miscellaneous ingredients aren't forgotten anymore, because I've made sure they're on the meal grocery list. No more sinking-in-the-pit of my stomach feeling realizing that I have to go back to the store for just one silly little ingredient

• I am shopping much less frequently. Oh, the bliss of knowing I don't have to dash out for errands every other day! The freedom in knowing I have everything I need to feed and sustain my family for two whole weeks! It is incredible, I tell you! It saves money and gas, too!

• More time, less stress = happy mama. Happy mama = happy family. Good food fixed on time = happy everyone. Awesome!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, be sure to check out We are THAT Family!

Gratitude

77. eyelashes

78. little feet with ticklish toes

79. giggles

80. wool socks

81. sleep

82. crocs

83. central heat

84. brisk air

85. snuggling

86. knowing He is strong, even though I am so very weak

87. the internet

88. the satisfaction of cleaning house

89. his warmth, keeping me warm as we sleep

90. the contagious curiosity of children

91. my sister

Works for Me Wednesday - An Alternative to Construction Paper

This may not be a new revelation for anyone else, but its something that has helped my sanity alot!

My children love to create. We have loads of construction paper, which is perfect for cutting, tearing, gluing... creating! However, as a background, it is not so great - if they happen to make a work of art I'd like to keep, construction paper is too big to fit into a binder or sheet protector! Not to mention its a bit flimsy, so it tears or crumples easily.

My solution to this problem is to use colored cardstock as a background for pictures. I buy multi-color packs from JoAnn's Etc, they're relatively inexpensive, especially if I use a coupon or stock up when they're on sale. Cardstock comes in even more colors than construction paper, is much more sturdy, and fits perfectly into binders, sheet protectors, and laminating sheets!

Its a simple solution, but it works for me! Check out other WFMW posts at We Are THAT Family!

A Little Science

As I've mentioned before, we love Apologia's Exploring Creation series for Elementary-aged children. Last year we worked our way through Astronomy, and this year we've slowly but surely been learning about the world of plants through their Exploring Creation with Botany book. Its been a lot of fun, and we're learning tons. Isn't that half the fun of homeschooling as a parent - learning things you never learned yourself, or at least had forgotten?!

We recently conducted an experiment. Each of the three boys (we do Science while Nathan and Judah are napping, so its just Isaac, Ezra, and Joel) placed bean seeds (which are actually just dried beans, you know!) into separate plastic baggies, along with a wet paper towel. One baggie we placed in a dark closet, another was hung in a window, and the third was placed in the refigerator. Each boy made a hypothesis about their particular seed and whether or not it would grow, how much, and why or why not.

One of the funniest thing about this is the boys kept calling their hypotheses "I hope these..." as in "My I hope these is that I hope these will grow". LOL!

Anyway, we were supposed to chart the progress daily, but since it was Thanksgiving week, we didn't. But it was an even more interesting discovery to see what had happened in the week that the seeds hadn't been monitored.

Here are Ezra's seeds - his were in the refrigerator (see the little white beans at the bottom?):

His hypothesis was that they would not grow because it was cold and dark, and he was correct. He was a little disappointed that he was correct, though.

Here are Isaac's - his were in the window:

His hypothesis was also correct - he guessed they would grow well because they were in a sunny window.

Joel's are the ones that surprised everyone. His were in a dark closet, where no light ever gets to (in the basement next to the furnace and water heater). Joel's hypothesis was that they probably wouldn't grow, of if they did, it would be very little. The other boys agreed with him. Surprise!

However, we did notice that while they grew the biggest of all of them, they weren't a nice healthy green color like the ones that got sunlight. We also had to determine why they grew so big, despite the lack of light. We finally came to the conclusion that they grew so big beacuse they were searching for light!

This experiment really helped reinforce the fact that the only things seeds need to germinate is warmth, water, and air - light isn't actually needed! However, once they start growing, light becomes a necessary resource to help them be green and healthy. It was interesting to see how the beans kept in the closet were trying to burst out of their baggie in their hunt for light, but the ones in the window just grew at a normal rate as happy little beans.

Just another day in the life of homeschooling :-)

Wordless Wednesday - High Hopes

Treasures of November

20 Things I Learned in a Week Without My Computer at Conversion Diary

Never Enough at The Family Revised

Perspective. Or How I'm Learning Not to Sweat the Small Stuff at Breathing Grace - excellent!!!

Tough Questions, Easy Answers at Joyfully Home

Children & Chores at Raising Arrows

Breastfeeding: The Memory of Emily at Raising Arrows

Quote of the Day at SpunkyHomeSchool