November 26th, 2008
(the picture was pulled from a post that i drafted just over a year ago on one of the rare occasions that i went overboard and filled my cabinet. many emotions attached to this little picture.)
On this day of thanks I’m finally able to write about it. The full story of what we went through last fall. I shared some it along the way when I could no longer contain my emotions at the time, but as we were brought out from where we were this time last year the memories of it faded away. Until the other day. With a simple prayer it all came back. And then while reading to my children about the pilgrims about how that first winter they lost half of those who had come over from England. How they had starved. How the next spring things began to change. The sun came out and God’s blessings began to flow in abundance. And I began crying over these people from so long ago. I could somehow, kind of, relate. And I realized how thankful I am. How much He has given us. And how at this second Thanksgiving in this home the food and blessings are in absolute abundance. He heard my cry. He answered my prayer.
Please come read my heart that I’ve finally been able to expose.
November 26th, 2008
With the 4 little persons that inhabit my home we have somehow accumulated a ridiculous amount of toys. I have pared them down to their absolute favorites (super heroes, dress-up, Mini-Ponies, etc.), my favorite toys for them (wooden train sets, magnetic dressing dolls, etc.), not to mention all of my learning sets (Cuisinaire blocks, sentence building blocks, math manipulatives, etc.). It had gotten out of control. I’ve tried several different ways to contain them, but I think I’ve found my favorite so far. It has worked for quite awhile beautifully and I thought I’d share!
We have a toy closet.
It’s not pretty, people, but it’s functional. And the boxes underneath the shelf are our clothes for next season, just ignore those! And take a good look at that shelf – I used my first power tool to try to cut that sucker to fit. In.My.Closet. I was so worried about my former mishaps with closets that I took the phone in there and shut the door, so that if there was a bloody accident that I could make an emergency call without my children even knowing. Smart, huh?
Which used to be my sewing closet, but I moved it, I know, shocking. This closet is in my room. Where I have control over what goes in and comes out. With my littlest man, I need to know where every single lego, piece of playdough, and Mr. Potato part is. at. all. times. I separated them into buckets according to sets of toys and then put them away. Now they can ask for a bucket or two at a time and I can monitor the mess and make sure if it’s small toy parts that they don’t make it into busy toddler boy’s mouth.
To the right is a shoe hangy thingy that I have separated puzzles into ziplocks and put into the pockets.
To take it a step further I want to print off pictures and names of each bucket (kind of like I made the chore cards – that didn’t work for me long-term) and stick them in a book with sheet protectors so that they can look through it and pick what they want to play with (like a catalog). This would allow further control of the closet since they want to go in, look around, and in that time TheBaby-est has wandered in and started dumping buckets – argh! But that’s a project for another day.
To read more good ideas – go to Works For Me Wednesday!
(Okay, people, I know that I’m not even on the right wfmw, but c’mon, this is not a “how to make sure you’re on the right day” post. I already had it typed when I realized she had a schedule. Who knew? So, I’m publishing today and then I’ll republish and link on her site on December 3rd. I do love leftovers after all.)
November 25th, 2008
But His. And how thankful I am!
Heart of the Matter is so awesome. Yes, I know, I’m blushing over them again. Please don’t leave, if you normally get fuzzy-eyed when I start talking about them. This is a different, non-look-at-what-I wrote kinda post.
They are so polished and on top of things. But it’s not like a corporation that is distant and business-minded. We are a group of women (and one man now!) that are real people. Just like you. Who love our kids and are doing the best we can. Even when our best is more than a little lacking. We’re sharing what we’ve already learned, are learning along the way, a bunch of printables, ideas, and so much encouragement on those days that you’re thinking, “What am I doing?”
It’s been an honor to write for them. Wow. A year ago, they were a little site with a readership of, like, oh, 5, or something. ;) And then they had a post that asked if anyone wanted to contribute to this great idea of a site that they had been praying over. I jumped up and down and begged them. Really. And they said sure. They started recruiting writers and redesigning and it blew up! I loved everything about them. The Amies, all the sweet ladies that I get to write with, how everything was free and readily available for those who wanted it.
Then they decided to go to print and keep the blog going. Wow. Again. And I was so excited. Several of you have asked me how I got involved. I begged, they let me. That’s it. I write for free. I don’t get paid. When I link to them or link to an article and beg you to go read – there’s really nothing in it for me – except your sweet words of affirmation. Several of you more go-get-’em minded folks are gettin’ your hackles all raised. Sure I would like to make money, but I believe in these people and their hearts. I’m honored to be a part of them. I want as many people as I can to know that if you are contemplating homeschooling – that you can do it! There is no one less together or incapable of doing this than me, and yet I’m doing it. So when HOTM (Heart of the Matter) was planning to take their free digital magazine to print and the possibility of getting reimbursed for my random goofy dribblings, well, I was giddy.
The thought, ever-so-briefly, crossed my mind that it was kinda sad that such an amazing and free resource would be made private, unavailable to people who don’t have the money to order such a frivolty as a magazine, but my excitement bubbled up again and I pushed the thought away and didn’t mention it to the Amies.
And then I got an email one night. Saying almost verbatim: this. (Go ahead, go read it, I’ll be right here waiting on you.)
And I cried.
With absolute joy and pride in these people and their hearts. My heart was broken for them. I knew they wanted to see this happen. I knew it must be incredibly hard to write such a letter to all of their writers who were so excited to go to print. And we all know what happens when a dream is deferred.
But instead of focusing on that sagging dream, they chose to listen to His voice that was calling them away from this. And they felt freedom. Even in the face of sadness. How can you not rejoice with hearts so full of gladness?!
And as I sat in front of my computer screen reading these words, my apprehensions of those left out by the price tag came back to me and His whispering settled and stirred me at the same time. I love knowing I’m in His will (and let’s face it, folks, alot of times, that’s just not as easy as it sounds). And their support for our perceived competition? Unreal. People, these girls have hearts of gold and are listening to the call of The Spirit on their lives. They make me all the more proud to be part of such an amazing team.
Come over and love them with me. Go over to The Old Schoolhouse and take part in their “Black Friday” sales. I, who don’t have much to blow on “unneeded” items have subscribed to this magazine – and I don’t get any cool deals on it, like I do at HOTM ;). If you want to submit articles, pictures, ideas, tutorials, printables, or just plain encouragement to Heart of the Matter, go here. They’d love to hear from you.
And my dreams? Undeferred, people. I don’t feel shriveled. I feel so full of pride for these girls, that I’m as full as a tick!
November 21st, 2008
My mom called the other day while we were painting a craft outside for Christmas presents and while I had them out there I decided to get some of my spray painting projects done that I’ve had sitting around. My mom asked what we were doing and I told her the two older boys (bigger as in 7 and 5, remember?!) were spray painting with black paint and she said laughing, “You are so brave, I don’t know how you do it day in and day out!” Around here painting is not a quiet sweet adventure like I always envision happens at her house . Around here crafts are a contact sport.
Case in point:
It’s been a long time since we’ve played with cornstarch. And last time I was smart enough to do it outside on a warm day. We tried to go outside, but it was just too darn cold. And by then, I was way in over my head in promises (blasted Time Warp put the idea back into our heads to play with it!) So, I threw caution to the wind and let them loose at the table. I tried to grab back my caution a few times and even found myself saying through gritted teeth at one point, “Can you imagine how Kate from Jon & Kate would be handling this right now?! That’s how I feel, people!”
And if I thought the actual mess making merriment was stressful, when I sent them all off to baths and stood looking at the aftermath, I really realized I was in deep. How do you propose to clean up a non-newtonian fluid? My fun-weary head could only come up with more water. That at least makes it fluid enough to wipe. So I poured a gallon of water on my table and floor, oh, yes, I did. And then I used towels to wipe. As you can imagine, by this time my children were wandering in dripping wet themselves from their recent cleanings and I was in a rush to at least get the bulk of the mess up. I gave up when I got the puddles clean. When my husband got home from work there was a big ol’ ring around the table where I quit wiping and drips from one end of the house to the other. He said, “It looks like flour blew up in here.” Yeah, something like that.
While cleaning (if you can call it that) my mom’s words from the day before came back to me and I thought, “Brave, maybe. Stupid, for sure.”
November 19th, 2008
To see more of these go to Nikowa’s site!
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