Archive - August 2007

Get Busy Planning!

I’m in a generous mood so I’m going to give something away here on my blog! Two things, actually!

Like many of you, I love a good planner. Over the years I have searched to find the perfect planner which meets my demanding criteria. First, I don’t need a lot of extras which add weight to the planner. I want it to be able to fit into my purse/diaper bag, or at least be easy to tote around. I need room to write down lots of different appointments, but I don’t need every day to be broken down into hourly or half-hourly lines. I need space for a decent size To Do list. Some sort of space for meal planning helpful. A small amount of space for addresses is nice, but not necessary. Cool stickers are a bonus.
Over the last year I’ve been using The Family Organizer by Amy Knapp. The only thing that would make this planner absolutely perfect is the addition of tabs. The included stickers could be cuter, but I can deal with that.

I’ve also discovered the Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner. This one includes a space for a prayer list and has helpful notations like feast days and mass readings. It comes with monthly tabs that you can stick on yourself if you want.

Both planners come with each month over two pages, followed by a two-page spread for each week. The Family Organizer has a To Do list on the left side, with the days of the week on the right with a space for menu planning. This is my hands down favorite layout. I like to keep a running To Do list, rarely assigning a task to a particular day. I like having the menu list along the side so that it stands out. Another plus is that it covers 18 months. This seems to be a growing trend in calendars/planners that are made for families. At first I didn’t like the extra months, but I realized that having calendar in August that extends to the end of the following year was very helpful when looking at schedules for scouts, sports, and various and sundry other activities.

The Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner has the weekly pages over a two page spread, with plenty of writing space in each day’s square. This style is better suited for daily To-Do lists. Menu planning pages are optional and are included at the end of the planner. This planner runs from August to the following July, which corresponds nicely with the school year.

Both planners are available in spiral bound and loose leaf 7 hole punched versions. Both 7 hole punch types fit Franklin Planners. Both spiral bound versions fit into the Black Nylon Cover sold on The Family Organizer site.

If only I could get the layout style of The Family Organizer printed with the Catholic notations of the Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner – then I would truly be in planner heaven!

So in the spirit of getting organized for the upcoming school year, whether you homeschool or not, I am giving away one each of the Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner AND The Family Organizer! This is especially cool because the Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner is now sold out! The small, spiral bound version, that is. I think the other sizes and styles are still available.

Here’s the rules:

1. Leave a comment on this post.

2. You must tell me which planner you want.

3. One entry per person please. If you promote this contest on your own blog and leave me a link in my comments, I’ll give you an extra entry.
4. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, yada yada yada.

5. There will be 2 prizes given away, one Amy Knapp’s Family Organizer July 2007-December 2008 edition and one Catholic Woman’s Daily Planner (with Menu planning pages) August 2007-July 2008 edition. Both are spiral bound.

6. Deadline for entering is August 22, 2007, 5 pm EDT.

7. The winners will be announced on August 23, 2007.

*Comments now closed. Thanks for participating!*

Back To School

It’s that time of year again – Back to School Time! We actually school year round, taking breaks whenever it suits us. But every August I “officially” bump up Boo and Pumpkin Girl to the next grade and we continue on our merry way. This year I did something new before starting the new school year. I sat down and evaluated what we did last year, what worked, what didn’t and what new things I wanted to try for this year. I am so glad that I did this because it really brought many things into focus for me. Most importantly, for those things that didn’t work out so well, I was able to plan how to do better.

The main points – I’m using Sonlight Core 1 with two children, 8 yo and 6 yo. We’re spreading Core 1 over 1 1/2 years and we’ll start Core 2 in February 2008.

What worked:

History. We enjoy all the books that Sonlight provides. We added in Mystery of History, mostly to help us in extending the Core. Boo and Pumpkin seem to enjoy it, but I think they’ll get more out of it the next time we hit up world history.

Science. Again, we enjoy the books that come with Sonlight. We particularly enjoy the Discover and Do DVD that they produce.

Reading. Boo and Pumpkin both read way above their grade level. I have them using Pathway Readers and Reading to Learn Readers at their appropriate level. They each read aloud so I can help with pronunciation, phrasing and expressiveness. Boo reads the Sonlight readers that match his Language Arts level as well. He reads those on his own time, then narrates back to me a la Charlotte Mason so I can check his comprehension. Pumpkin Girl will do this as well, as soon as the appropriate readers gets closer to her level.

Math. Pumpkin Girl is doing wonderfully with Horizons. Boo is still struggling with his basic math facts. He is progressing well with Horizons, but essentially, he counts instead of adding. He understands how to add and why, but relies solely on his fingers. At least he stopped thinking the answer to every problem was 20!

Handwriting. We use Handwriting Without Tears and it’s working well for us. I had started using Seton to each cursive to Boo, but he wasn’t getting it, so we’re back to HWT.

Typing. Boo started using Typing Instructor For Kids. He really likes this and he’s up to typing about 12 WPM. His goal is 15 WPM, which he’ll need to reach before the program will let him into the castle at the end!

Seton Religion. This has been a true blessing! We started midway through last year, so we’re slightly behind, but going year round I know we’ll catch up soon enough.

What didn’t work.

Well, mostly the Charlotte Mason suggested activities. We were off to a good start with Picture Studies, Nature Studies, music and art, but they all fell by the wayside.

Language Arts. We tried using Sonlight LA, but LA 2 was a LOT of grammar for Boo andLAK was way too easy for Pumpkin. I dropped it completely for Pumpkin, who after all, has just finished Kindergarten, and adapted it heavily for Boo.

Rosetta Stone Mandarin. Way. Too. Hard. We’ll try again in about 8 years.

What sort of worked.

Piano lessons for Pumpkin. I need to be much more consistent in having her practice.

Science Experiments. I tend not to do these and just watch them on the DVD. I know they children would like doing them, so I need to try harder. I’d also like to have them start science notebooks.

Phonics. We’re using Explode the Code. I think these are ending up mostly as busy work, just worksheets to fill out. I don’t see either child retaining the information. I hate to drop them completely yet, so we’ll see.

What is new for this year.

Sonlight’s revamped Language Arts. We’ve only been using it for one week and already I like it much better. It’s got a much heavier emphasis on creative writing, even at Pumpkin’s level, but less of the endless grammar rules. Boo spells very, er…let’s say creatively, so we’ll need to put some focus there.

Seton Art. Pumpkin is using Art 1, which centers around the Liturgical Year. A short explanation of the week’s feast day and a simple but fun art project. Boo is using Art 3, which uses about 6 different art media throughout the year.

Rosetta Stone Spanish. Already this is a much better fit for us. Pumpkin Girl scored 95% on her first test.

Math-U-See. We need to do something to help Boo master his math facts. This program is highly recommended all over the place, so we sent away for their informational DVD. Boo was very enthused about it, so we ordered the Alpha level. It arrived today and when he realized what it was, he gave me a big ol’ hug.

When I finished my evaluation, I sat down with All Year Round, Boo and Pumpkin’s art book and my notebook and planned out my Year in Crafts. Don’t laugh! I want to do more crafty stuff with the children, focusing on holidays and the church calendar. I can never seem to get organized enough to pull it off, but I’m going to give it a good try this year.

I also wrote out my Weekly Plan for our first 9 weeks of school. Even though Sonlight provides excellent Instructor Guides, we adapt their 5 day schedule into a 4 day week. Plus, we add in enough of our own stuff like religion and art to make having my own schedule worthwhile. In order to stick with our picture studies and music, I added them to our schedule, which I never did last year. I only did 9 weeks in case I need to make changes. I used a planning sheet from Donna Young and just typed it all up. Each week, I’ll just print out the needed plan.

I use Fridays for Art, Nature Studies and all those fun not-so-extras. Using my Year In Crafts notes, I made up a Friday Plan for the entire year.

Boo’s art book came with a supply list, which I copied and took with me to Michael’s last weekend. I added things from Pumpkin’s art book too so I could shop all at once. I dropped Philip and the older children off at swimming lessons and only took Bip so I could shop in peace. $70 later, this is what I came home with:
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And phew! I’m done planning for the year.

Kitchen Madonna Corner

Waltzing Matilda has asked to see our Kitchen Madonna’s in our homes.  Being happy to oblige, I took this picture:

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She sits on a small Longaberger Baker’s Rack that is the coffee station.  To take this picture, I actually had to move some stuff out of the way and what is that, a ball of twine?  Let’s pull back a little and take a look.

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Well, that doesn’t seem like a very nice spot for Our Lady, now does it?  I can barely see her, let alone be inspired by her, all hidden by who knows what.   So what turned started off as just a simple picture turned into another episode from the Corners of My Home.  This was a quick a simple one.  First, I pulled everything out of that corner and gave the counter a wipe down.  Then I put things back, but only those things that actually pertain to making coffee.  And my Kitchen Madonna, of course.  Everything else got put away.  Here’s my new and improved corner.

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Much nicer, much more user friendly and a much better spot for my Kitchen Madonna.  I moved her to the top shelf, too, so I can see her more easily, especially over the dish drainer.

You can check out my progress in decluttering my house at Corners of My Home.

Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About

I woke up this morning wondering what I was going to blog about.

Every couple of months or so, my mind goes blank and I can’t think of anything worth blogging about. Though lately it’s been so hot, that it’s a wonder my mind is clear enough to even find my way downstairs. Yesterday was the hottest day in DC in eight years. You know why, don’t you?

Because I hate summer and I live in DC. As soon as I leave, temperatures will plummet and snowfall will break centuries old records. It happens everywhere I live. So in the meantime, I just keep cranking up my free air conditioning and turn on every fan in the house.

Your tax dollars hard at work – keeping America’s soldiers and their families needing to wear socks in August.

So anyway, in the absence of anything real to blog about, I look for funny things to take pictures of and post. Did you see my blog yesterday? Aren’t those just the cutest pictures ever? The only comments I got were from my family, who are contractually obligated to comment when no one else has. Except they both thought that I was worried about Bip’s development. Actually, Bip has entered that wonderful toddler stage where he must do everything himself. He’s been insisting on dressing himself lately, but he’s not too choosy with what he wears. The other day it was one of Pumpkin Girl’s dresses. I thought it was hilarious, but I guess no one else did. Oh well.

But the way things work in my family, it’s only a matter of time before someone calls me and asks me what the doctor’s think of Bip’s development, and will the Army pay for whatever early intervention he needs. One of my aunts is bound to email me saying she heard that Philip is planning on getting out of the Army so we can move closer to the best child development specialists.

You think I’m exaggerating, don’t you?

My cousin Mallory and I once plotted to plant fake news with certain family members and see what sort of funky twist they put on it and how long it takes to get back to us. Actually, I think it would be funny to say something totally innocent on this blog and sit back and watch what happens. All in the name of good natured fun of course, not to be cruel. I’ve never played a practical joke on anyone in my family, even though I have pulled off some great ones in my time. Which just goes to show you that you’ve really got to watch out for the ones with the innocent faces. So at great risk of blowing my cover, and because I’m pretty sure most of my family is skimming my blog instead of reading each and every carefully thought out word, I just want to say –

Congratulations, Mallory! I can hardly wait!

Of Course I Do


You Belong in Fall


Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times…

You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings

Whether you’re carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

Exactly what I would have said.  Hat tip to KC!

The Loveliness of Clearing the Clutter

livesoflovelinesslogo200612_2_2.jpgClutter. Most of us have it. We all hate it. Clutter is a thief that robs of us our peace of mind, our self respect, time with our family and friends, and the enjoyment of our homes. Clutter is just bad.

So what happens when we clear the clutter?

Well to start with, Amy at Between Daydreams shows us some of her newly cleared out spaces and gives us a list of the benefits of decluttering, including having space for more children!

Elizabeth at Frabjous Days is also decluttering in preparation for a new baby. She recently discovered an amazing gift while sorting through old photos.

Divina at The Bean Sprout takes her inspiration from one of my favorite shows, Clean Sweep, and takes a crowded office space and turns it into her favorite room of the house, complete with a reading nook!

Cheryl at My Thoughtful Spot prepares for a new school year by reclaiming her school room closet. Wait until you see the great space she’s created! She’s got some good advice on handling the clutter, too.

Suzanne at Gladdest Hours has been doing some major purging and organizing all over her house this summer. During the process her children made a very insightful observation. I think it’s great that she had involved her children in decluttering and they’ve really gotten into the spirit of it all.

Over at ChezOuiz, cleaning up the kitchen and around the house sent two 30-gallon trashbags full of stuff to the curb and has led to a greater sense of peace and calm! Way to go Ouiz! And check out the way she uses little Rubbermaid containers for her spices – very nice.

Matilda, at Waltzing Matilda (of course), gets rid of the guilt and the clutter by cleaning up what remains of completed projects and turning her bedroom back into a sanctuary for her and her husband to enjoy.

Michelle at Living Waters reflects on how easily things can turn from blessings into clutter. She’s working on making room for a toddler’s fire truck bed.

Maggie of Crafty in Coffeeland has experienced a very stressful year. But she’s ready to Get Back in the Saddle and start getting her house back in order. Her post is a reminder for all of us struggling with clutter that you can eat an elephant, but you’ve got to do it one bite at a time.

And finally, Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight, is just getting started clearing the clutter in what she hopes to be the first of many posts. This time she tackles the front of her refrigerator and that perpetual pile of paper we all know as coupons!

Goodbye clutter! Goodbye guilt! Goodbye stress and embarrassment and discontent! Hello to the calm, functional spaces that our homes are meant to be. Hello to lost treasures found and more time enjoying our families. Hello to lives that are filled with loveliness. Amazing work, ladies!

King Tut

cartouche boxPart 1 of our Philadelphia adventure is here: Philadelphia

So we were off to a decent start after a rough night. We arrived at the Franklin Institute with enough time to get parking in their lot, pick up our tickets at Will Call and get in line. I am so glad that we got such early tickets because there was absolutely no wait to get in to either the museum or the King Tut exhibit.

The exhibit was amazing! We just wrapped up a year long study of ancient Egypt, which included studying King Tut specificially and watching several documetaries from NetFlix on the discovery of his tomb. Our studies more than prepared us for what we were seeing, and helped me to explain and paraphrase things for Boo and Pumpkin Girl. I was very disappointed that taking pictures was not allowed – we even had to turn off our cell phones and beepers. The ambience of exhibit was carefully constructed with lighting and subtle music. We started off in well lit rooms with treasures of some of Tutankhamun’s ancestors. Displays on the walls helped to establish the political climate that exhisted prior to Tut’s rule and how it effected his reign. This was all familiar to us already which made it even more exciting.

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One of my favorite pieces was the coffin of his great-grandmother and her funeral mask. I like her little smile, like she’s just happy to be here.

The next few exhibit rooms were devoted to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Their treasures were equally beautiful, but then it was time for Tut. The excitement grew as the rooms darkened and the music became more mysterious. We climbed a ramp that led to rooms filled with Tut’s treasures.

coffinette.jpgIt would take me all day to describe everything we saw. Articles that were found on the mummy itself, statues, toys, every day items were all on display. This coffinette, only about 14 inches tall was just exquisite. I could have stayed and looked at it all day. It is inscribed (in hieroglyphics, of course) all over the inside and it once held Tut’s mummified internal organs. Tutankhamun’s famous funeral mask was not included in the exhibit because it is no longer allowed to leave Egypt. I knew this before hand, so we weren’t too disappointed.

Don’t worry, I didn’t take any of these pictures myself.

Two hours later, we were finished with the exhibit. We were all glad that we saw it, all except poor Bip. He was in such a foul mood from having not slept well. He whined through about half the exhibit, not wanting to be in the stroller or in either my sling or Philip’s. He even starting crying until we threatened to stick him in a corner by himself while we finished walking around. Fortunately he didn’t realize we couldn’t actually do that and he quieted down. Eventually he fell asleep in Philip’s sling.

The exhibited conveniently deposited us right into the Tut gift shop. We spent a small fortune, mostly because I couldn’t leave without a hardcover copy of the exhibit catalog. By then Bip was awake and hungry, so we went down to the museum cafeteria, where we spent another small fortune. Actually, it wasn’t that bad and I was able to find something non-fried, yet tasty for myself.

After spending a little more time in the rest of the museum, we took off for New Jersey to see my friend Carol. There we were in NJ and I didn’t make one Sopranos joke.  Nope, I made three.  Just couldn’t help it. We had a great time and Carol made us her famous chicken parmesan for dinner. Yum! Our children had fun playing together and somehow Boo got attacked by a sprinkler and ended up soaking wet. Fortunately, this was after dinner and we had already planned to put the kids in their pajamas for the ride home.

Our ride home was uneventful, which is always a good thing!

Philadelphia

We headed up to Philadelphia the other day to see the King Tut exhibition. We got ourselves 9 am timed-entry tickets, so we decided to take the 3 hour trip the night before. The original plan was to meet up with my friend Carol, spend the afternoon with her family, let her feed us, then go to our cheap airport hotel for the night. Except I didn’t bother telling Carol until like 3 days before and she was way too busy to have us over. Hmph. So we came up with the alternate plan of going to the Academy of Natural Sciences for the afternoon.

It was a great plan, but we failed to account for not knowing our way around Philadelphia and needing to find parking. We located the museum ok, thanks mostly to our GPS. Finding parking was an entirely different story. Parking lots wanted $5 for the first 20 minutes and almost $15 for 2 hours. Ouch. Then as we were wandering around, someone pulled out of a metered space on the street! Yay us! We took our time unloading the children and stroller from the car and then we realized that our meter was out of order! Sweet! The meter maid that was walking along let us know that we still had to comply with the 2 hour limit, which was just fine with us. So off to the museum!

It was a great museum with lots of hands on stuff for the kids and a live animal demonstration. Boo and Pumpkin even got to participate in an archaeological dig for dinosaurs.
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The highlight for me was the live butterfly exhibit. I got lots of good pictures.
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I liked this Owl Eye butterfly having a snack on a banana.(above)

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They were very proud of this Queen Alexandra Bird Wing butterfly which had just come out of the cocoon the day before. These butterflies can have a wingspan of up to 1 foot. I happened to get this picture before I even knew what kind of butterfly it was.

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One landed on me!

We got back to our car just as our 2 hours of free parking were up. My stomach was rebelling against the Taco Bell we’d eaten for lunch en route, so we decided to head for our hotel earlier than planned. I was a bit hesitant about our hotel. It was cheap and near the airport, which made it pretty close to where we needed to be in the morning. It had the usual free continental breakfast, but no pool. Reviews for it and other hotels near it said that the neighborhood wasn’t the best, but the hotel fine. I just didn’t want to be stuck in the hotel with 3 active kids with nothing to do so we had planned on eating an early dinner downtown. But with the parking what it was and having to move the car anyway, plus my touchy stomach, we thought we’d just go to the hotel. We hoped we’d spot some family friendly place to eat along the way.

Well, like the free parking spot earlier, the hotel was a great surprise. The area was far from questionable, in fact there was nothing at all down this particular street but other hotels. Well, that and a Ruby Tuesdays! Our hotel was big, bright and clean and had interior hallways. Our room had two queen size beds and a window seat. We were very pleased. Dinner at Ruby Tuesdays was nice, then we came back, watched a couple of episodes of the Brady Bunch on our portable DVD player, then we all went to bed early. It was a good thing, too, because Bip didn’t sleep well at all. He was up all night. Ug. It was a l-o-n-g night and I was just praying I wouldn’t wake up with a sleep deprivation headache. The only cure for those is more sleep. I woke up fine, if just a little groggy and we managed to get our crew out the door by 8:15 to make it to the Franklin Institute by 9.

Next time: King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

Did we spend more money at the museum cafeteria or the gift store? Did we get kicked out of the exhibit for taking pictures? Who started to cry? Did my friend Carol ever manage to make time to see us? Who ended up soaking wet from head to foot by the end of the day? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

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Standing at the top of the stairs in front of the Franklin Institute

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