Blog move

Hi friends,

I have changed to a different blog name. If you would like to come visit I am over at http://jens-busy-days.blogspot.com/. Some old posts from here may get a bit of spit and polish and be reposted over there but I am also hoping to post fairly regularly this year as a journal. I find looking back over my past is a great way to improve my future.

Best wishes
Jen

My Project List

I recently updated my list of projects. I use the basic system outlined by Mark in this post.

I realised that it wasn't working as effectively as I would have liked. The main problem was flicking through nine pages of writing to find the odd things still needing work. I did what I call a restart and rewrote all the things still needing work onto fresh pages. I managed to shrink 9 pages down to 2.

This system is working for me again.

I find that is the way with most organisational methods I come across. If it works for me at first then when it stops working it is most likely "I" have created the problem, not the system. Sometimes it takes a restart and a return to the basics of the system for it to flow effectively again.

Best wishes
Jen

How has my week been?

So we started back with school last week. The "new" routine is working much better. I do have a straggler kid and he is finding himself "behind" quite a bit. He has spent a big chunk of the weekend getting all this school work for this week finished. I bet there will be tears tomorrow when it all starts again.

I think G-d has been giving me a hit up the side of the head recently. I have had several people and my own ponderings lead me to the same conclusion, I need to be tougher with my kids, not meaner, just stronger and more immovable once I make a decision on how things are going to happen. It sure is nice to know He knows I need some guidance and sends it to me in various forms.

On the househunting side of things (which we have been doing for well over 6 months) we have decided to stay here although this house is wonky (literally falling apart and sloping/bouncing floors in places). The rent is great and will allow us to clear some debts and even create some savings.

Well, baby wants mama to sit lounge. Off to spend some time with my beloved and a baby.

Best wishes
Jen

Just One Thing last list

I had a few slower patches during this challenge but overall I did manage to clear out some tolerances and get a chance to reassess what else I need to do. I was impressed.

There is still another week to go before the end of June so I hope to still get more cleared off the list.

* less than 10 minutes, $ need to buy something, K can be totally delegated to kids, - will need help to get done

1. $ IN PROGRESS 13 JUNE* cover boys’ school binders with fabric and plastic
2. * assess what is needed to complete each Christmas stocking
3. * rewrite contact details onto new pages
4. K * wash air mattress with soapy water, dry then put away
5. - clean front fence
6. $ * buy timber plank to use as height marker for boys (we rent so can’t mark a door frame)
7. create lesson plan in HST for SL PreK
8. enter more into lesson plan in HST for Story of the World 1
9. $ * pay library fines so we can use the library again
10. K * check and toss pens and crayons that are no longer useable
11. * price vacuum filters and purchase if possible

JUNE FOCUS PROJECT
1. sort out outgrown clothing pile in my bedroom
2. * take baby clothes to friend in need
3. tidy current clothing sizes for boys, put away outgrown clothing and cull current selection down to 4 sets of play clothes and 2 sets of going out clothes

Goals are a modern problem!

I was thinking this morning, as you do, about how I never seem to get caught up on the washing up and the washing in my household of 6 people. It tends to create a continual feeling of angst and resentment towards my family becauase I never reach my goal of finishing. I am not the sort of person who just enjoys the rhythms of life and goes with the flow, finding contentment not in completing a goal, but in doing what needs to be done in each moment.

I am wondering if this is a modern problem. We are taught to set goals, to work out how to achieve them, and to work on them in little steps until we reach them. The problem is that some things in life don't fit this type of thinking. Making a home, building a family, creating relationships... all of these do not sit well with the modern goal approach. Maybe I am missing out on the day to day peace of living in each moment, doing what needs to be done, and not trying to achieve some goal just because I am told I "must" set goals to be a success.

In fact I read recently that not everyone who is successful did set goals. In some cases it was more a case of the successful person enjoying what they did so much that they spent a lot of time doing it, learning to better, and by virtue of time they became successful in their area of life. Most of these type of successful people will keep working in their area of interest until they die, or find a new interest. They will never reach their goals, because they know how to enjoy what they are doing with their life. And really isn’t enjoyment of life a much better "goal" than a certain amount of money, or a certain size portfolio, or a certain amount of fame?

Maybe that is something I should consider in those areas of my life that do not fit well with the "goal setting" paradigm. Enjoy what I do, learn to do it better if I am interested, and just keep moving forward.

My 11yo does our shopping!

Inspired by a BBC show, Boys and Girls Alone, I allowed my 11.5yo son to do up a menu plan for this week and to do the grocery shopping through an online service while sticking to a budget. He did very well, juggling how many treats and what treats to get for his younger brother's upcoming birthday as well as meeting our family's needs such as TP and tissues in this season of colds and snuffly noses.

I have 4 boys and the long term plan is that by the time they leave home they will be fully confident in cooking at least 5 different types of main meals, 3 desserts, baking of biscuits and cakes and be able to do all that on a budget. I do not want to send my kids off to University (which is likely to be in another town) without these essential skills.

We do our children a great disservice by doing things for them. With our training from a young age they can go through the teenage years and into adulthood with confidence in their ability to look after themselves, and to share in the load of making a home with flat mates and in the future with a wife, and hopefully children.

I do not want them coming home to get their washing done. I do not want to be cooking all day long to feed hungry teenage boys. They are adults in the making and adults should be able to be independant, but that depends a lot on the training I do now.

Best wishes
Jen in Oz

A couple of updates

Well, thankfully the car squeak of last week was just the noises of an old car. They greased it and sprayed lubricant into bits needing it. And all for the great price of Nothing! Wasn't that great?

School has had a little pause while I take into account how my children are coping with the way I am doing things. A little assessment every now and then is a good thing. I have realised that my non-readers (8yo and 5yo) still like to have a list of sorts for the day. I have created a similar system to a workbox system and will post more about it in a separate post.

Financially I have been able to not go into my next week's shopping money early. I do hate how I would always be behind before the week even started. I am going to keep working on this. I know some serious menu planning is required to keep me on track. And also keeping up with my prep work so if the baby is upset around dinner time others can handle getting the meal on the table.

Not being prepared and not having a clean kitchen have been my two biggest hurdles for eating physically and financially healthy meals. The other day we spent $40 on Domino's for pizzas and pasta. What a waste! It has definitely inspired me to put together my own fast meals for the freezer. One idea is frozen cooked chicken meat, frozen homemade tomato basil sauce, fresh cooked pasta from the fridge, and some freshly cut vegetables like mushrooms, tomato and capsicum. I am also wondering about cutting vegetables up ahead of time for salads and keeping them separate until meal time.

Well, that is all for now,
Jen in Oz

Planning for Better Days

I have been trying to figure out why my days don't go to plan. I have worked hard over the years to figure out a loose sort of routine/schedule/flow to my days that would cover everything being done regularly yet still have freedom to follow bunny trails with the kids.

Tonight as I was putting the kids to bed an hour later than I really would like them to be in bed (as usual) I was considering all the things that conspire to the boys going to sleep later than is healthy for them and me and my marriage. A scene from the movie Cool Runnings popped into my head where the leader of the team was studying a set of photos the night before the last race. He was sitting on the floor looking at each photo and moving his body to match what he should do at that curve.

I have read many books about motivation in my life (love Og Mandino especially) and one common theme is that to make changes in our lives it first needs to happen in our minds before it can happen in our physical world. It is not enough that I have made these great plans and I have even prayed over them many times to fine tune them. The reason I have not implemented them successfully is this: I have not been imagining (picturing myself) successfully implementing them. If anything when I look at my schedule I feel weighed down and feel that I will never manage to do it all.

The idea is to imagine it happening, picture each event happening in good order and feel the peace that comes from having a plan. If I add emotion to my imaginings it engages more parts of the brain and it wants to recreate the good feeling so it makes the visualised events happen in reality so that the good feeling can be experienced again.

I am going to sit down with my schedule and nightly go through it, just like the leader in Cool Runnings, picturing in my mind's eye the work I will do and feeling the attitude of busy-ness yet peace I will have when my days run to (or at least close to) my plan. I will also visualise myself reacting calmly to interuptions side-tracks and bunny trails, and will remind myself that I can get back on track again. I will remind myself that I am at home to serve my family in God's way, not to serve my home in my way.

Work before play will pay!

School is starting to roll along nicely. I am finding it a challenge in a nice way to juggle all the boys' needs. So far play dough is working well for keeping my toddler occupied. lol

Today we lost 2 hours to a doctor's visit but still managed to get a decent amount of maths done. Tomorrow I hope to get both maths and language arts done.

Mike, my eldest at 11yo, is struggling with understanding why he must buckle down and get some serious work done this year in all areas. These past few years it has been easy enough to only do what school the boys have felt like doing. I have let it go on the basis that we were unschooling (not my first choice) while we dealt with other life issues, but I am seeing that while my boys are still learning and gaining skills I do not see much enthusiasm in them for some of the vital skills they will need to give them options for their future.

I am learning for myself that life is not always about what we feel like doing, or what we like to do. I am learning the hard way that life is more about working to provide for our families (be it as an income earner, or working as a mother providing meals and clean clothes etc due to her home duties). Entertainment, doing what we feel like, even eating what we feel like is not the main goal here. If anything I have found that there ends up being a cost to pursuing these without thoughts to our work first. The cost is both in moral fibre (character/self discipline/sense of duty) and in our physical lives through bad health, bad financial situations and lack of self control.

In my family my boys (and I) need to learn to focus on disciplining ourselves to do what we need to do first before we do what we want to do. By exercising our mental muscles we will have more options to experience fun things later in life, and we will have the pleasure of good character, knowing we have done our best, rather than the weight of guilt of not doing what is needed.

My health is improving recently due to some major dental surgery. I have a plan in place with my GP to further improve my physical and mental health. This is my time, now, to make a difference in both my own life and that of my children. It won't be easy, but then, from what I read, easy is not always the best way anyway.

Best wishes
Jen in Oz

My Plan for School Days

My school year started this last week. We spent some time tidying up our binders and school boxes. I haven't always dated art work, big regret! But at least it is now in a box ready to be sorted and culled at the end of the year.

I have sat down with my two older boys, 11yo and almost 8yo, and explained my goals for them for the year. My eldest, M, was shocked at first that I expected him to get thru Singapore Maths 3A, 3B, 4A and 4B this year, but he was really quite pleased with the challenge of doing 7 lessons a week. I know he knows most of the work in these books.

I try to teach my kids maths principles a lot as we come across them in real life. I love maths! (Yup, loved chemistry, physics and accounting too, but wasn't always great at those like I was at Trig, Calc and Algebra.) He may not have "seen" this maths before but I am sure he will do quite well with the goals I have set.

This semester the goals have been decided by me but I am hoping that as the year develops that M will start to set his own goals to work towards.

Another "fun" thing I have done this week with regards to school is to work out a rotation for our subjects, making sure each covers the basics in the order best for them, and with breaks between "tough" subjects.


I like the Classical method so most of my curriculum is from Peace Hill Press. FLL is First Language Lessons Lvl 1 and 2. I use Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for phonics and have added Sequential Spelling Level 1 and Writing With Ease for my eldest.

Seeing as he taught himself to read and really didn't take to phonics, spelling and composition are going to be interesting subjects this year.

Here is our second page.


I hope these images can be viewed clearly once I publish this. For now they at least give an idea of how I spent well over 4 hours. lol

This whole organising caper is really very full on - what with being a home manager and a home schooling mum. Some days it feels like my head is spinning but it does seem to be coming together. I really hope this year turns out as well as I would like.

Best wishes
Jen in Oz

This year so far!

To date this has been a particularly productive year.

I have
* defrosted my monster of an old chest freezer (the boys loved the "snow"),
* pulled some of the virulent weeds in my large backyard (still need to do some more),
* organised a more efficient way of checking blogs,
* made some new friends,
* learnt more about getting a place of our own (which we can't, so a-renting we will go, hi ho the merry-o for another year or two),
* set some goals with my weight and health,
* started to work on the above goals,
and
*started the baby steps of getting my boys into a routine that will help school go more smoothly when we start back in 1.5 weeks.

I still need to do some tweaking in HST+ for maths but most of our other subjects should be just ready to schedule and go. Hmm, that is something I need to check on soon. I also would like to do a bulk chicken purchase (gotta refill that freezer) and look into a hindquarter of beef too.

I hope your year is going just as well.

Best wishes
Jen

Today's Mission

Today I have decided my mission is to get the little things off my rolling to do list that have been lingering way too long. Most times it seems just normal life just takes up all my time, but with some pondering, I am realising my normal life doesn't have to take up all my awake hours. I just let it.

I am slowly working my way through a long list of projects. Just knocking them on the head! The good feeling I get from finishing some items is motivating me to work on my normal jobs more quickly so I can "finish" another thing from the list.

I use a system called AutoFocus to keep track of my endless ideas and projects. It helps to catch those someday project ideas. And now I am working faster on the mundane so I can get to those projects.

Maybe you can check it out for your projects this year!

Best wishes
Jen in Oz