Confusion
I think the boys are fighting again.
The calendar says January and the temperature is 68 degrees and climbing.  Fine if you live on the California Coast, but disconcerting to say the least if you’re on the East Coast. I want the cold weather back, please. I’ve got some cheesy potato soup and a crunchy french bread waiting in the wings. My children are starting to overheat in their long sleeves. I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t have 2 sets of brand new Land’s End snow pants in the closet that we’d be having a blizzard. Sigh.
Ephiphany Play
I hab a code in by nose.
When I was younger, I could handle colds just fine. They barely slowed me down. Now they make me so tired. Like lay down and sleep all day tired. Or at least sit in bed and look at yarn catalogs while my children bring me lunch. Which is what happened today.
Anyway, what I really wanted to share was pictures of our homeschool group’s Epiphany play. The children wrote it themselves and they acted it out after mass on Saturday. Then we had a pizza party, complete with a Kings Cake.
While not “on stage” the children stayed together off to the side. They sang Christmas songs in between scenes.
The Magi study maps and scrolls to figure out what the star is all about.
Our group has only 3 school age boys, so girls played the Three Kings. That’s Pumpkin Girl as Caspar in the middle. She had some major issues with having to play a “boy’s” role at first. But later, when she learned that she was one of the stars of the show and had a lot of lines, she embraced the role. We were really proud of her, she learned all her lines by herself and really tried to act them, not just say them.
King Herod and the High King discuss the prophecy of the Messiah.
The Star of Bethlehem points the way to the Holy Family. Boo is Joseph and Bip is toddler Jesus. Because of course, Jesus was no longer a baby when the Magi found him.
These pictures are actually from the dress rehearsal, when I was able to move around and get close to the actors. During the play, the greenery in the background was lit up with white lights and Bip refused to play Jesus. “Me no want to!” complete with crossed arms and pouty face! We brought a backup baby, our family doll Pumpkin, who at the age of 37 is quite the veteran of many a church Christmas play and didn’t act up a bit.
More About My Circa Notebook
So, here we are on the last day of the year and I’ve noticed a trend around the homeschooling set on the internet.
We’re looking to be more organized this year. Lots of people like Dawn, are sharing their planning and organizational tools, so we can try to find a system of our own. Yesterday, I shared my love of list-making and how I keep my lists and notes organized. I admit that I went on a bit about my new Circa notebook.
I’ve spent the last couple of days transferring any notes and lists worth saving from my 2007 notebook into my 2008 book. As I was busily writing, it occurred to me that with the versatility of using a Circa, I won’t have to start a new notebook next year. I can just remove the pages that I don’t need, add some fresh pages and I’m ready to go. Cool.
I’ve just got to admit one thing here. I hate having unused pages in my notebook at the end of the year. I feel like I wasted them. I also hate tearing pages out of my notebook. The paper it leaves behind is too messy, even if the pages are perforated. I know, I know…let it go. I’m trying. But of course, with a Circa I can add and subtract pages all day, without a mess.
So by now, you’ve either stopped reading or you’ve clicked over to Levenger to get yourself one of these Holy Grails of Organizational Madness.
Let’s go on a little tour of my 2008 and Beyond notebook.
Here it is.
It doesn’t look like much, I know. I have terrible lighting in my house and the flash didn’t help. I’m using the “junior” size, which is approximately the same size as a half sheet of paper. What you can’t really see is that the cover is translucent and I have 5 tabbed dividers. I’m planning on finding some pretty scrapbooking paper to use inside the plastic cover to make it prettier.
Here’s the first page of my first section.
It’s the current week’s page from Motivated Moms. I printed a whole page of the half page size, folded the paper in half so that one week is showing on each side, and punched it. The rest of this section will be my everyday lists and reminders, including menu plans and shopping lists.
Section 2 is my homeschool plans.
Here you see my Plan from now until the 2012-2013 school year. Remember, I’m using Sonlight, so this is just an outline of which cores and language arts programs I’m planning to use and when. Next is a list of timeline figures I’m using with my current core. Then is our Catholic homeschool group’s plans for the remainder of the school year. Other things I’ll be including in this section are art ideas, school shopping lists, and anything else school related. When it comes time to review our school year, I’ll write my notes here.
The next section is for thoughts, ideas for blog posts, funny things my children say, that kind of thing. Sometimes I use it to maintain a prayer list.
Section 3 is for projects. Right now I have a list of the try-its our Brownie troop will be working on. All Brownie related notes will go here. I also include non-school related projects here, primarily shopping lists or ideas. For example, if I need a certain kind of yarn or needles for an upcoming knitting project, I’ll write it here.
The last section is for anything else, usually something temporary. Christmas lists, packing lists for upcoming vacations or anything that doesn’t fit into any of the other sections. Here is where the Circa is really going to be helpful. Lots of times I’ll start a list, like to-do lists for a vacation, in a different section. Then the project or the planning grows and starts needing a section of it’s own. Now I can just move the pages, instead of having to flip back and forth between sections. Or the opposite will happen, I’ll start notes in the temp section, only to realize that they belonged with my homeschooling notes.
Well, there you have it. The secret to my success. Or the manifestation of my madness. Whichever. If I’ve bored you to tears, blame Matilda. W-a-y back in June, she asked me about my notebook. I bet she thought I forgot.
Notebook Love
It’s the end of the year and time for a new Notebook.
I’ve always been a Writer of Lists. It keeps me focused and theoretically organized. The problem was, my lists were never in one place. My homeschooling plans were usually folded into the current Sonlight catalog and my to-do lists were lost in a pile of stuff to do. Holiday plans were who-knows-where.
After Rebecca died, I struggled with my short term memory. I’ve since learned that is a common symptom of grief. I couldn’t remember the simplest of details. The task of planning a funeral while living in a different country overwhelmed me. I started writing everything down. And I do mean everything. Whatever I wanted to remember, I wrote down in one notebook. Later I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, focus on anything more than two weeks in the future. I kept writing things down and it helped tremendously.
The notebook I was using was a steno pad we had around the house. When I filled that one, I bought a medium size 5 subject notebook. Each section was for a different kind of notes – random things, homeschool plans, upcoming projects, our upcoming move. Now I was able to find the information I needed quickly. The dividers even had pockets to keep small papers in. At the beginning of 2007, I started a new notebook with a different color cover.
But early this Fall, I was sitting planning the Brownie year with my co-leader, one of my 7 Friends Named Jen. Jen just happens to be practically identical to me, right down to our husbands who sing. She and her husband, and me and Philip are all working our way through Star Trek Deep Space 9 from Netflix, completely unknown to each other. Which doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but I thought I’d mention it. Which makes twice I’ve mentioned Deep Space Nine on my blog, so I’m afraid I’m starting to look like a Trekker/Trekkie/Big Geek. Which I’m not. Really.
What was I saying? Oh yes…Jen and her notebook.
Jen has a notebook, too, of course, being the Me that lives in New Housing. Except she doesn’t just have a notebook, she uses a Circa. The best was to describe a circa is that it’s the versatility of a three-ring binder with the slimness of a spiral notebook. But better. With a Circa, you can move pages around however you want. You can use any size paper. Did you write an address down on a scrap of paper? Just punch it with the special Circa punch and add it to your notebook. And with no heavy binder rings to bother with, your Circa notebook stays lightweight, slim and portable. Here, go watch the video. I’ll wait.
I’ve wanted a Circa system for years, but they are expensive to get started. But watching Jen moving her pages around her notebook sealed the deal.
When we went on our Disney Cruise, Boo and Pumpkin Girl wanted autograph books. My plan was to carefully remove the pages to include the autographs with the characters pictures in our scrapbook. Phil recommended making circa books, brilliant man. They worked wonderfully. I used scrabooking cardstock and each autograph will just pop right out of the book when I’m ready.
Ok, so I’ve gone on and on about the Circa notebook. I’ve got more to say, but I’ll save it for tomorrow. Let me just fill you in on how to get a Circa system. Right now the best place to get them is through Levenger. If you have a store near you, go in and have them make you a sample book, in your choice of sizes, for free. It’ll be small, but you’ll get the covers and rings that you’ll need to get started, plus a sampler of paper. Close your eyes and buy the punch, and you can punch whatever cheap paper you can find and be all set. Or, order online. They’ve got a $40 sampler that comes with a $40 gift card. You’ll be all set and you can use the gift card to buy that expensive punch or a really nifty leather cover.
Birthday Fun
So yesterday was Pumpkin Girl’s special day. Several years ago, Philip started taking each child out to lunch on their birthday. Somehow that morphed into the whole family going out, if the birthday child chooses, to dinner. Since Pumpkin’s birthday is so close to Christmas, Phil can easily take the whole day off to spend with her.
What did she choose to do? Go to IKEA. Love that girl! More Disney Cruises for her.
Off we drove to our local Ikea, which is about 40 minutes away. We ate lunch there, then dropped Pumpkin and Boo off at the children’s play area while we shopped. I don’t really like most of Ikea’s stuff. I’m more of a country furnishings kind of girl, but even I can manage to spend some money there.
Two bags of meatball for Bip who could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus some more of their bag clippy things (cheaper than Pampered Chef and work just as well). I also found this little magazine rack to hold books downstairs. We used to have a book bin in the living room, but I don’t know when and why it went away. This is cuter anyway.
But the best thing we bought was this ottoman with storage capabilities.
(Don’t you love how with a some careful cropping the living room mess is instantly gone? ) It’s got a washable, denim colored slip cover which has blue piping that matches the couch in the background. It also goes very well with the armchairs (bought at Ikea at last-year’s birthday lunch) in our red, white and blue living room.
But wait! There’s more! Life the lid on this ottoman and look inside:
It’s our school books! No, not all of them, of course. Just the ones currently in use. History, science and religion are in the two bottom piles, with my teacher’s guides and workbooks in the top piles. For over a year now, I’ve been using a rolling rubbermaid bin for in-use books. It was strictly functional and not one bit attractive. It often doubled as a coffee table. It got pushed to an out of the way, but still very visible location during the weekend and school breaks. It worked and when you live in cramped quarters, you do what you can.
But now, our Ottoman of Organization can stay right in front of the couch. Our school books are readily accessible when needed and out of sight when not. Bip can do somersaults from it on to the couch. Philip even put magic sliders under the legs so we can move it when we want. I love it!
We all left Ikea very happy. Boo and Pumpkin had a great time playing, I had a great time shopping. We came home and Pumpkin opened her presents (lots of pink!), then we had cheesecake.
A good day, don’t you think?