On This Saturday

...I got up at 6:00am. Why? I guess in part because I am old and set in my routine. I wanted to sleep, but I was awake. I've made coffee and had breakfast and the kids are all still sleeping at just after 8:00am.

I'm sitting here thinking about what I want to do today. Of course, there are "have to do" things such as meals and laundry. Thankfully the grocery shopping is done and bills are paid (Thank you, Lord!). I hate spending my weekend doing those things.

I could also work in the garage. I could clean up the extra room. I could deal with paperwork.

But what I think I want to do is work in the youngest child's bedroom. We've had every imaginable room arrangement over the years. Currently, all the girls have their own rooms. Second born talked us into giving her the front room that has, over the years, been a homeschool room, an office (I believe it's intended purpose), and a play room. It doesn't have a door. We hung some beautiful curtains and she has her own space. It's small, but temporary. One day the oldest will move out and then the remaining girls can each have a proper bedroom. For now, second born is just happy not to be sharing with little sister. So we moved all the toys to little sister's room. She's the only one who still really plays so it makes sense. But when the older two were growing up I never liked having toys in the bedrooms. Bedrooms are hard enough to keep clean without adding toys.

The youngest and I made supper the other night. Hopefully, today's task will involve fewer knives.

So today I believe I will channel my younger mom self and get in there and organize. I used to make picture labels for the girls and put them on the toy containers. Then I would label the shelf where they belonged. There was no reason for them to not know where things went. I believe the youngest doesn't know how to clean her room because so many things do not have a place.

Also, there are many things that need to leave the house.

We watched a few Marie Kondo episodes last week and of her own accord, the youngest brought about 10 things out of her room and told me to get rid of them or sell them. This is huge, people!

But I've got to get her room under control. She has 137 baby dolls (maybe that's just a ballpark figure but it feels true) and they need a home.

A home where there is still room for the real human who lives in the room to sleep, get dressed, and play. Is that asking too much?

And also, I need to take some photos of items to sell in my eBay store. Last month, Steve and I listed a few items and with the money we earned I paid for this semester of co-op and will soon pay for our spring break camp we go to each year.

So, my eBay store needs some more stock and I have lots of it waiting in the garage.

Now that I've made my plan-of-the-day with you, I'll come back later and let you know how it all worked out.

Should be good for a laugh or two.

Signing off,

What We Are NOT Doing...

...is getting ready for a hurricane. I feel sorry for the people who live in North Carolina and the surrounding areas. But I am so glad it's not us getting ready for a hurricane. I've had enough for awhile.

Also, ten years ago was Hurricane Ike. I can't believe it has been that long. The girls and I were doing a lesson in History where they wrapped each other up in toilet paper like mummies. We were using The Mystery of History back then. A friend called and asked if we were leaving. I had no idea what she was talking about, but figured it out during the course of the conversation. Told her I needed to talk to Steve.

Hurricane? What hurricane? Our mama was busy looking at lesson plans, not the weather!

After we hung up, Steve called immediately and told us to get packed up. We had a small leak in the living room, half our fence blown down, the playhouse flipped over, and we needed a new roof when we got back home.

It was vertical when we left. 

I don't know how many hurricanes I've prepped for in my life. I probably don't want to know either. Stay safe, you guys on the East Coast!

Steve took off work Monday and Tuesday. We sweated and worked in the garage all day Monday. Boy what a difference! We threw away probably 10 contractor bags of trash. The next morning I took some trash out to put with our other piles as it was trash pick-up day in our neighborhood. There were holes in every bag. We've had a lot of trouble with stray dogs getting into the trash and it's such a pain to pick up after them when they have scattered the contents everywhere. But this looked different. For one thing, a small trash can we had throw into a sack the day before was sitting nicely on the sidewalk. Hmm. Husband came out to help me double bag everything so it wouldn't all fall out when the trash guys picked them up, and we noticed every hole was torn very neatly and carefully. Someone had been going through our bags. We guessed they saw us cleaning out our garage and were looking for personal information. Needless to say, we had NO paperwork at all in those bags and I'm happy they wasted their time.

That, and we will be making good use of our little Amazon Basics shredder when we go through those other boxes! Some people....

But yesterday we didn't do much of anything responsible. We went to our favorite island and ate lunch at our favorite little drug store. And we went to an historic library that the girls and I had toured this summer, but Steve had not seen. It was an enjoyable day. It was really nice for Steve to be off. Preaching pretty much means he works all weekend. Many preachers take Mondays off since Sunday is essentially a work day, but he can't do that because he works another job as well. So the day off was very appreciated.

Also yesterday we found a neat little barber shop here in our city. A guy from work told my husband about it. It was like stepping back in time when we walked in.

Steve got a great haircut and we were noticing how relaxed the atmosphere was. The barber on the right (you can see his back in the mirror) was so chill and I noticed how his job was so very NOT stressful. Told Steve he should become a barber and preach on the side. Or preach and barber on the side.

Cleaning up your hairline and cleaning up your soul.

What do you think? :)

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Signing off,

Almost There (& the Dreaded Garage)

Well, it seems I kinda missed writing yesterday. Short weeks are always so confusing. When we have Monday off, it feels like Saturday and then the next day seems like a Monday.....

I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend. It rained all weekend here. But it was nice to be off.

Next week we are off of school. It's been 5 1/2 weeks already so it's time for our first break. The girls are excited to get a whole week off. Steve took off also on Monday and Tuesday so we can get that great garage clean out accomplished. It's really bad, y'all. I know we will need to move our cars and spread things out on the driveway and I'm afraid folks are going to stop by thinking we are having a garage sale.

I just might sell them some things too, if they do.

It's going to be a struggle. I REALLY, REALLY want to get the garage completely cleaned and organized. Even the workbench and tools, which we never seem to have time to get organized. We're always just hacking a path and straightening. I want more than that this time. But (you knew there was a but coming, right?), Steve and I approach these things differently.

Oh look. Our garage. (Not really. But almost.)

I am going to want to look through boxes. Truly look through them. How can I know if it's trash if I can't look through it? Some stuff needs to be kept. Some stuff needs to go. Steve is more about 1. If we're keeping it, Imma stack it right over here where you can never hope to retrieve it to go through it but at least its out of the way and 2. If it's trash, its going now. All of it.

Doesn't he know there's an in-between?

In other news, today is our first park day with our homeschool group. It should be nice and wet at the park. We also have to go to the library because I am not ahead of my game and keep going to just get what I need right now and not getting stuff a few weeks ahead of time, which would be much better.

All things considered, we probably should have started school by now. Guess I better get the troops up and going since we have a lot of running to do today.

Two more days of school and then a break. We can do this.

Signing off,

Simplicity and Bandages

Second-born daughter is reading a book about an Amish family in school. She's been reading it out loud to me. She didn't know much of anything about the Amish so we've had a lot of learning.

This particular story takes place in modern times. I forgot that as she was reading. As the story was describing a typical Sunday afternoon for this Amish family and their friends, I felt that we were reading a book set in the 1800s. Then an airplane crashed onto their property and I was brought back to reality.

It had been such a nice Sunday afternoon in the book, too. Our Sunday afternoons are filled with work and computers and iPads. Last week I instituted a "no screen Sunday" for the youngest two daughters. They happily filled their day with other things and I was very pleased.

Today's portion of the book talked about the Farmer's Almanac. I know you can just look at the almanac online, but the books are very neat to look through. So, since we were already out running errands, I swung into the feed store to get an almanac--or at least look at one.

They didn't have any. I was very disappointed.

My oldest daughter has always loved the look of Amish furniture. We found that out when they were younger. There was a book at the library about dollhouses they used to love to check out. My second-born loved the pictures of the Victorian dollhouses--"rich" houses, she called them. Oldest said she really didn't like all that fanciness. So I showed her Amish furniture. Yep. That was more her style. And a lovely quilt on the bed. They are so different.

We could stand a little more simplicity here at Project: Family. Today I was out in the dreaded garage trying to wrestle the shop vac into the house and I stepped on a scooter. I have two holes in my foot now that resemble a very wide-mouthed snake bite, and bandages.

September is coming, garage. It might not look like an Amish barn in there when we get done, but at least stuff won't be biting my foot when I walk.

Signing off,

Wrapping Up August

I'm sitting here listening to "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel in amazement remembering my friend who made her children learn every reference in that song. History--check! I don't think I caught half of them. I could educate myself. One day. If I have time.

We celebrated our oldest's birthday this weekend.

The little girls and I made her the shirt. She was not excited about being 19. 

So many goodies! It takes 3 different kind of donuts to accommodate all the allergies and diabetics in the family. 

The whole family (grandma, aunts, cousins, etc.) got together and gave her a whole bag of fidget toys and stress relief toys. She LOVES them. They are to help her study this fall. 

 She's 19 now and about to embark on higher education. Gotta get her a house key this weekend as she will not be on our schedule anymore. Growing up is strange and hard and I so remember being where she is. How can it be **cough28yearscough** since I was her age?

The younger girls and I started back to co-op last week. We forgot to take their pictures at home so we took them on the lovely gym wall once we got there. They had a great first day. The youngest is taking choir, general music, P.E., ballet, and art. The second-born is taking choir, band (she plays clarinet), music theory, and drama.

I teach the preschool class and assist the youngest drama class. It's a tiring day, but I can't beat the classes my daughters are getting to take and the friendships they make.

This time last year we were in the middle of Hurricane Harvey and a DIY remodel of our house. When the water got half-way up our front yard that Friday night, but we didn't flood, we figured we weren't going to. So Saturday found us painting during the storm. We were really fortunate to not flood (our old house did flood during a storm).

This shows our rain total during the hurricane compared to our then 5 year old. 

So many friends were not as fortunate. I don't personally know anyone who is not back in their home or a new home, but I'm sure there are many who have yet to re-build. The effects of storms like that are long-lasting.

The effects of remodeling are too, it seems.

See, last summer we packed up 50% of our house belongings planning to hire someone to do the remodel. When that didn't pan out, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. A year later, our garage is still a big mountain of mess. Actually even more so because we moved all those boxes before Harvey. Then we moved them 472 more times looking for things over the last year.

(This is where there will not be a picture. Ahem. Pride.)

So next month we shall embark on a new project here at Project: Family---the garage. Somehow I don't think this will garner as much sympathy or help as Harvey did.

"Help the victims of home remodeling" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Signing off,

The Seat of My Pants

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I used to be pretty good at flying by it--the seat of my pants, that is.

I first discovered this when I became a teacher. If something happened and a part of my lesson plans weren't going to pan out, I was pretty good at coming up with a last minute activity. Sometimes they were really good! Like, really, really good. Kind of scared me, actually.

And something happening out of the ordinary--such as an assembly--did not throw my day off. Boy some teachers would be upset. They liked their schedule and their routine. Me? I liked the occasional "different" day. It kept things interesting.

The older I've gotten, the more I like planning. I still like to think of myself as flexible, but I do like to have stuff planned out.

I make a menu plan every week before I grocery shop. Otherwise we spend $150 at the store and have nothing that makes an actual meal.

I plan out expenses each month and we make a budget. Otherwise we spend all the money and have nothing to actually live on.

I plan field trips. I plan errands. I plan parties.

I try to plan lessons every week. I'm really trying to relax that this year. I have spent too many Sunday afternoons to count planning lessons or at least writing out which lessons I wanted my daughters to do over the years. This year, I really tried to be a "just-do-the-next-thing-open-and-go" kind of homeschool mom. But I realized after the first week that I couldn't do it. The girls both had laminated checklists of what they were supposed to do, but *I* didn't know what we were doing!

So I made a little form and filled in some information. I don't like it just yet. It needs some tweaking. And this last weekend I didn't get any planning in anyway. I hate opening a book and finding out there are materials we need and I haven't gathered them or we don't have them. It's been a frustrating week on that end and it's only Tuesday. Hopefully next week I'll be more together.

My husband is kind of a planner too. He likes to use technology. He uses nearly every feature on his phone. He uses apps. If there is technology out there to help plan something, he uses it.

I think I nearly killed him earlier this month when I went to buy a 5 subject spiral notebook. I'm too low-tech for him.

Of course, he also uses these. So...just whatever. My notebook is bigger, that's all.

I guess what I've learned is....I CAN fly by the seat of my pants. But life works a lot better when I plan.

Adulthood. It sneaks up on you.

Signing off,