Working, working, working

I haven't gotten my 15 minutes of blogging in for quite awhile now.
However, yesterday I started to get plans in shape to change that.  I was working on a schedule, and trying to get one in place.
I was also trying to get my family onto the same page as I was, however they were being confrontational about the whole thing.  There were a multitude of excuses of "why nots".

I hate "why....nots..."

Over half of the day yesterday, I was doing meal planning.  My version of meal planning is trying to get one dinner listed in my calendar for each night.  For the year.  Some nights are easy, like Christmas Eve.  We always have fondue on Christmas Eve.  Holidays are easy too.  It's the rest of the year I have trouble with.
Here's what I do:
Each day of the week is assigned a certain type of meal, generally by the protein, but not always.
Sunday = chicken/poultry
Monday = pork
Tuesday = pasta
Wednesday = soup/stew
Thursday = beef
Friday = sandwiches/pizza/vegetarian/breakfast for dinner
Saturday = leftovers

From there, I hit my cookbooks.  Yesterday I started with one I had only tried one or two recipes from in the past, and worked my way through it.  Now, I know that Wednesday is soup/stew night, so I found all the recipes for soup or stew or chowder or whatever, and filled in as many Wednesday night from that cookbook as I possibly could.
Sometimes, recipes for soup or whatever are in a different section, like chicken.  Or vegetarian.  It can be a hunt to find them, so I go page by page.  I went as far as I could in that cookbook for each day.
Once I had gotten through that book, I picked up another.  One that had a lot of recipes that I know my family likes.  I got all those into my schedule.  This way we have a nice combination of things we KNOW we like, and a whole bunch of new stuff too.
On days when I don't have any writing to do, I can go through and try to get some of these dishes made ahead of time, effectively turning them into freezer meals.  If they don't work as freezer meals, I can at least get most of the ingredients together into one bag, label them and put the date when we're suppose to have that particular meal.
Next on my mass re-organization of my life, I'm going to be coming up with a cleaning schedule.  Let's hope that works, too.

Or at least it's imperfectly perfect.

New Year, With a Difference

So this morning I managed to sleep through my alarm.  Both of them.  And my husband trying to wake me up.  I'm blaming the rainy weather.

Trying to get back into some sort of schedule after two weeks of almost no schedule is really hard.

Yesterday I also took the time to sync up all the calendars in the house.  I look at the month  ahead and discover just exactly how busy I am.  Every day.  For a woman who is suppose to be a "work from home mom", I seem to be never home anymore.   Karate practice, basketball practice, basketball game, doctor's appointments, teaching at the school...  Pretty much, each one of those things takes up one day, and the entire day's schedule must revolve around just that one event.

The upside is that since I'm a writer, I can pretty much write anywhere.  I don't need a computer to do it, I can use a pencil and paper, and then add it into any document later on, when I get home.  This is especially awesome since where the kids have basketball and karate has no wi-fi.  Strange in this day and age, I know.  At the doctor's office I can get wi-fi, but even the guest accounts need passwords and pins and stuff like that.  So, I drop back to a small notebook in which to jot ideas and use my microcassette recorder in the car.

Yeah, remember microcassette recorders?  For those of you too young to remember, it's what we used before we had tablets and phones that could double as a voice recorder.  Mine was really advanced, and could be set to record only when someone was speaking.  That was to save tape space and batteries.  I set mine on voice activation when I'm in the car, which means it runs all the time between the kids and radio.  But I still do manage to get some ideas onto it.  I also set it up to record when I'm in the shower.  Why do I always get my best ideas in the shower?  I don't know.  Once I remember planning out an entire series of novels when I was rinsing dye out of my hair.  I pretty much even had the first couple of chapters outlined out.  It was awesome.  I didn't have a recorder going at the time, so I lost it all.  Taught me a lesson, let me tell you.

At any rate, I'm trying to schedule better, and I'm planning on trying to get more stuff out of the way on Saturdays and Sundays.  I still need to get my dinners planned out for the coming months.   Soon it will be time to hit the cupboards and freezer to do just that.  We'll see how all this goes.

I wish you all luck in the new year for a imperfectly perfect year.  Or at least the next couple of days.

;-)  

Spring Break? What Spring Break?

Ahhhh, spring break... a time for a quick family getaway, or a fun filled week getting ready for Easter.  Time to relax and have fun.
Right? 
Seriously? 
The only thing different different about Spring  Break for me is the kids are home from school. 
The time around major holidays are not a time when my husband can easily take off from work, so it is pretty much status quo around here.  The only real difference is Frick and Frack will be helping me get the work done.  I hope.

My goal for spring break this year is to work in the morning, and have time in the afternoon for something fun.  So far, we haven't quite made it.  But we're working on it. 

Today I'm having Frick and Frack go through their bookshelf and get rid of all the magazines that are in bad shape, separate out any books that are too young for them, and basically tidying up that area. 

MUCH more neat and tidy... Now, to get rid of the trash.

I need for them to help me make some room for the pegboard I'm going to be hanging in there for their backpacks, so we aren't tripping over them at the front door anymore.  

They just don't stay on the pegs.  Plus, the pegs are falling out.

This is soooo much better!  And out of my way!

I'm really happy with the way it has turned out.  One side is red, for Frick, and one side is blue, for Frack.  I have a friend who makes vinyl wall decals and sells them on Etsy in her shop, Sunhoney Studio.  She will be receiving a custom order from me for two sets with the kids' names, one for where their backpacks hang, and then one for where their coats/seasonal jackets will hang. I can't wait to see order them and see them!  (Shhhh..... if the boys are still into Minecraft around Christmas time, I'm also going to be ordering some wall decals in a Minecraft theme for them. But don't tell!) 

Tomorrow I will be taking Frick and Frack to the library to drop a bunch of stuff off for the summer program.  They needed a bunch of stuff (tee shirts, fake flowers, embroidery floss....) that I happen to no longer need, so I'm more than willing to donate supplies and stuff to that cause.  (Just wait until I really clean out my craft closet and go through all my beads and stuff.  They are going to have much more than they know what to do with.  Just saying.)  

All in all, we're planning on having a productive spring break.  Some fun, some work.  We're on a time limit for our house, and plan to put it on the market in 3 years, so we have a LOT of work to do before we can do that, so everyday has to be a concentrated effort on one or two projects of home improvement.  It might not always be a perfect way to live for some people, but it's perfect for us.  

Stay perfectly you!

Fast Forward: Where I Want to Be in a Year

Now that 2015 has settled somewhat comfortably around me, it's time for me to figure out where I want to be in a year. 
I'm hoping for better health, once my painful dental problems are cleared up.  (Side piece of advice, kids take care of your teeth.... dentists are your friends, and so is dental floss.)  I'm hoping for less pain, everytime I breathe in.  I'm hoping for no more teeth falling out... You get the picture. 

I'm working towards finishing many works in progress for my house:  the crocheted t shirt yarn rug for my kids room, walls repaired and painted,  bathrooms repaired,  and clutter out of the house.  There are so many projects I've got my fingers into right now, and the number is growing (as always), and I spend most of my time just trying to keep up.  

In a year, I'm hoping that things might be on more of an even keel.  Yes, I know that life will always be chaotic because of my husband's work schedule, my schedule, and the children's schedules.  I'm hopeful, but I'm always realistic.  I'm just hoping that we won't be lurching from one crises to the next, always feeling like the rug is being pulled out from underneath us.

I'm hoping that the garden I put in this spring will be fruitful, and I will be able to put up a lot of veggies for my family, reducing our food bill.   I'm hoping that the weather this spring and summer creates an optimum growing season for all the fruits and berries in the area, so I can make a lot of yummy treats for my children and husband.  I want to spend my summer canning all the fruits and veggies I can so that we will have enough next winter.  

I will sort peacefully through my recipes and get them organized, into binders and folders.  

Basically, in a year, I want to be more organized, on a better financial path, and healthier than I am now.  

Funny, though.... I think that's what I wanted last year, too.

The Law of the Land(ows)

I always used to think the expression "If Mommy isn't happy, then nobody is happy" was pretty silly.
 
Then I became a wife and mother and realized it is nothing but the plain truth.

Not only am I the one to set most of the rules in the house, I'm the one who sets the punishments, too.  There have been a few struggles in our house over things like money and chores over the years, but my family has learned that my ideas are sound, my rules are fair.

My husband and I have had struggles about punishments for the children, stemming from one time when he forbid them to play with their Legos for a weekend.  Since that was their favorite toy, it because a serious bone of contention.  It was winter, very cold and yucky outside, meaning the kids couldn't go outside to play.  I was trapped in the house with two boys, who couldn't play with their favorite toys, and in the end, who really suffered?  It wasn't them.  It was me.  So I told my husband that the new rule was that all punishments had to be okayed by me. There was no point in making me suffer more than the kids were. I was the one who was having to come up with things for them to do.

 Money has also become my domain, and what I say, goes.  If there is a big a purchase we want/need to make, we talk it over, and figure out how to budget it.  If it is just a want, then there is a lot of compromise that has to go on. We learned that from what I refer to as the "XBox 360 Incident".  The XBox became a serious issue for us, because it was bought without any discussion, and caused us some financial issues, that we are still digging out of, over 5 years later.  It wasn't the main thing that caused the issue, but even though it was a fraction of the problem, it didn't help matters.  It was at that time I came up with the rule that all major purchases had to be okayed by me, especially if they were for pleasure, not home improvement.  

We're still learning, because our kids are growing, and circumstances are changing all the time around us, so the rules have to be as fluid as our lives are.  Old rules go away.  New rules come into play.  It's a learning experience for all us, and it is just perfect.  For us.  

St. Patrick's Day: Wearin' of the Brown?

It's St Patrick's Day.  A day of celebration, green beer, corned beef and cabbage.  Wearing green.  Partying hard, right?
Well, not so much.
See, I was born and raised Catholic, and weirdos that we are, we look at St Patrick's Day a tiny bit differently.  St. Patrick's Day is actually Feast Day.  The Feast Day of Saint Patrick, which is actually not his birthday, but the day he died, and is considered a day of solemnity and holy obligation in his honor.
So, while the rest of the country celebrates with parties, wearing a lot of green, and chasing leprechauns, we spend it quietly, and saying some extra prayers.
Tonight we'll eschew corned beef and cabbage, because corned beef is fairly expensive, and my kids don't really like cooked cabbage.  (I'm sure they will grow into liking it, just like me, but I'm not going to force it.)  We'll probably have pizza for dinner, because that is our treat when my husband works late.
So we spend a quiet day, concentrating on the spirituality of the day, instead of the partying.  It's another peaceful day here (well, as peaceful as it can be), and it is lovely.  Spring is in the air, and we are all feeling so very blessed.

Have a blessed Saint Podraig's Day.

No Electronics? No Problem!

I'm one of those weird moms who has almost no electronic devices for my kids.

They are nine years old, and only just this past Christmas did they each get their own controller for my husbands Xbox 360, and their first games, Minecraft and Lego Star Wars.

Yes, it is odd in this day and age, I know.  And there are several reasons why we haven't given our kids any electronics.  The main being is that they are expensive, and since we have twins, we would really need to get two of whatever device we decided they were responsible enough to have.  And since they have inherited my unerring gracefulness, I can guarantee that the screens would be cracked, or it would be broken, in no time flat.

I have had some moms ask me how I keep the kids occupied without electronic devices.

At home, the boys build and play with Legos, Lincoln Logs,  and other building toys.  Or they spend hours drawing, and creating fabulous comic books.  (Someday when I can find it, I'll post the classic of "Super Foxy and Super Radar Against the Poop Monster".  Seriously.  It's a classic in the making.)

When we travel, or have to go somewhere where there might be a waiting time, they read.  A lot. We have been reading to them since they were born, and both boys are addicted to books, almost as much as I am.  A big deal for them is going to Goodwill and getting "new to them" books.

I have also come up with a notebook for "Travel and Waiting Games".  Some are fun, some are educational, but they all pretty much are things that help pass the time and keep them occupied.

I bought a three ring binder at my local dollar store, and made a really classy cover for it.  

I also bought a pencil bag, along with some dice, dry erase markers, and threw some rubber bands in there too.  (I'm not sure why the rubber bands, but better to have them and not need them....)

One of the games I put in was a game I cut off the back of cereal box.  Heck, it might be a simple game, but it will occupy them for a while.

I also scored a bunch of Mad Libs pads.  When I was a kid, I was always disappointed when we would finish a Mad Libs pad.  I remedied that by tearing up the pad, taping the pages together, and slipping them into page protectors.  The words can be filled in using the dry erase markers, and then erased later on.  Reusable Mad Libs!  How cool is that?

I also have a bunch of shapes that have been cut out of cardstock.  I believe they were used in one of their math classes, but the boys love playing with them, creating little scenes and characters.  If you look close, there are also flash cards in there.  You wouldn't believe how attractive a simple board game looks when being offered the opportunity to run through the flash cards.

Other things I have been known to throw in with the notebook are colored pencils, an odd coloring book, a sketch pad, or a graph paper pad.  Graph paper pads are great for Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, or Dots and Lines.  Pretty much any pen and pencil game.  

So, there you have it.  Simple ways to keep kids occupied when having to wait or travel anywhere.  When all else fails, we talk.  I love learning about my kids' lives, their dreams, their goals.  

How do you help keep your kids occupied without electronic devices?