“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Anyone else out there have a Christmas hangover? My life has been going 90 miles a minute since November. It seems like an eternity since I just sat down to do any random blogging. Anyone still out there? ::: crickets :::
We got home with the luggage after our visit with relatives over the holidays and commenced to have the following adventures:
* Daddy caught the cold we had all gotten before we went to Galveston.
* We tried unsuccessfully to catch up on laundry (I’m convinced this is a conspiracy to suck the life out of mothers).
* I celebrated my 29th birthday again in late December, and we went to see the Hobbit TWICE.
* I signed away the Homeschool Post to my partner, Lisa Baldwin (be sure to congratulate her on a super 2013 and her new lone adventure over there).
* I cleaned out the garage and closets, and took down the Christmas tree.
* I posted about our adventure at Moody Gardens during December and shared a new Hummus Recipe.
* Me and my man went to an amazing parenting seminar.
* We started back up with our service projects and co-ops for school.
* We hit the books in our homeschool and have been chasing our tails trying to move forward.
It has been a regular whirlwind of activity over here, and I’ve been wondering when I’ll ever have time to just sit down and TALK to you about things. It seems they happen and are long gone before I’ve got a chance to blog anything at all. Not to mention, there are upcoming events on the calendar that need to be planned and prepped for prior to February 1st, such as:
* My daughter’s 15th birthday
* My 21st anniversary
* My son’s 3rd birthday
* a field trip to the new Austin Aquarium
* the Texas Homeschool Winter Summit
* my great-aunt’s birthday (she’s 90-something)
* my husband’s men’s retreat with our church
And here I thought that life would slow down after the holidays passed and we were in a “routine” again. There’s been nothing slow about this year (or last year). Not at all.
Take for instance, my teenagers’ school assignment list this week (which they are now keeping track of mostly on their own with the help of their 4-Year Planners and mama’s weekly lists):
Bible & Character: 5 chapters Do Hard Things, 5 days of One Year Bible readings, 5 devotionals from Today is Your Best Day, 5 chapters of Eat That Frog, 5-a-day list in Gratitude Journal, Weekly Service Project { Next payday we’re adding another Beth Moore Study! }
Math: 2-3 Lessons per day VideoText Algebra/Algebra II, graded, filed
Chemistry (17yo): Follow syllabus (on your own questions, reading, lab reports, tests, class Thursday w/ lab) – using Apologia Chemistry
Physics (15yo): Follow syllabus, turn in work to teacher via email (reading, lab, lab report, worksheets, etc), additional reading from books mom assigns
Spanish II: Follow syllabus (worksheets, flashcards, projects, memorization, quizzes & tests, class Thursday)
English II/Creative Writing: Homework as assigned in Thursday’s classes
History/World Geography/World Literature: Mystery of History (Vol 1 & 2)
Monday – Pretest 26, L76, 76C (read), L77
Tuesday – L78, Cards, Timeline, Maps, Quiz 26, Pretest 27, L79, 79C (read)
Wednesday – L80, 80A, 80C (read & narrate)
Thursday – L81, 81C (research paper due Sunday), Worksheet 3, Cards, Timeline, Maps, Q4, Pretest 28, L82
Friday – L83, 83C, L84, 84C (map), Cards, Timeline, Maps, Exercise, Extra Credit Reading
Literature List (3 due by Sunday, rest due following Sunday):
Last Days of Socrates
Socrates: A Life Examined (one or the other on Socrates is fine)
Famous Men of Greece
The Republic
Nicomachean Ethics
The Book of Virtues
Art & Music: Work on new piano song, prepare for Art Show this Saturday, gather art for Etsy shop prints, contact local printers to find best priced & closest professional quality printer, contact screen printers to set up class or demonstration for our co-op, participate in daily IG photography challenge
Good Citizenship: Teen Court, Current Events Discussion
Lifeskills: Help with chores, help with siblings, go the extra mile (HONOR), help cook
Speaking of cooking, we’ve been doing the “Scorched Earth Dave Ramsey” thing at our house (well, we’ve been doing the best we can anyway). I’ve been rationing the gas by going to extremes grouping outings and errands, rationing the funds in our bank account by eating almost every meal at home, and trying to shop the pantry. You get a lot more creative with your cooking when your aim is to use up reserve groceries before going to buy new stuff. One of my resolutions for this year is to make this such an ingrained habit that it comes second nature.
By default, I’ll probably end up cleaning out my EXTENSIVE collection of cookbooks and the massive recipe paperwork-dump hiding in the cabinet under the cookbooks! I already went through it once this weekend and tossed a bunch of old Southern Living magazines after tearing out the recipes I’m interested in. It felt very wrong to toss a Southern Living, but it sure made a lot more room on the shelf. Bonus: I now have a lot of new meal ideas.
I had a quite a bit of frozen meat after hunting season this year; and because we went out of town for the holidays (and were sick during Thanksgiving), I had a small turkey left to cook. When making my menu this week, I decided to start off with my list of meats and branch out from there.
Recipe ideas from my 20-minute de-cluttering episode:
* Chocolate Lumps (easy no-bake cookies)
*Poppyseed Blueberry Bread (because we have a lot of frozen blueberries to use up)
*Rosemary Stuffed Turkey & Provential Turkey (different flavor ideas for roasting)
*Green Smoothie (we have a lot of fresh Spinach)
*Orzo Lentil Feta Salad (if I can swing a block of Feta)
*Lentil Rice Pilaf
*Red Lentils & Rice (I have a bag of red lentils to use in the pantry)
*Tacos (a family favorite, made with ground deer)
*Lasagna (another easy dish, made with ground deer – it comes in 2 lb. tubes from the processor)
*Tuna (something I love, but none of my kids will touch with a ten-foot pole)
*Spinach Artichoke Pasta (to use up the canned and frozen artichokes & frozen spinach)
*Vegetable Kourma (to use up the canned Kourma sauce and frozen cauliflower)
*Mee Krob (be still my heart – to use up the rice sticks and have an at-home Thai night to prevent me wanting to eat out)
*Thai Chicken Soup
*Thai Tea
*Sweet Potato Casserole (to use up canned yams and go with the Turkey and canned cranberry)
*Chicken Nachos (for a quick lunch)
*Overnight Steel Cut Oats (if I can find the recipe)
*Pumpkin Crunch Cake (there went the diet this week – but I have a home made cake mix in the refrigerator, a fresh pumpkin on my counter to cook, and a birthday and anniversary before next payday… plus, hey – it would go great on the night we have turkey, and I have a pan of frozen dressing that I can pop in the oven to bake with it all)
*Blueberry Pretzel Salad (which I’m probably going to spring on my local homeschool co-op girls as a snack for our mom’s fellowship coming up)
*Baked Chickpeas (or hummus if I can’t bring myself to give up the chick peas for something new)
*17 Day Diet recipes (need to do some hunting to help steer my eating in the right direction)
Not to mention the sausage and rice “goulash” we had tonight (suggested by my friend Hannah).
Not sure about you guys, but I tend to not eat as well when I’m more worried about stretching the grocery dollar and eating what’s in my pantry. I eat much more carb-rich foods and worry less about the scale. I think adding more exercise in until there’s more room for produce in our grocery budget would be advisable. Good thing Texas winters are mild and the harsh spots are only a day or two here and there. I’m planning to get out more with the kids now that our crazy freeze has passed.
I hope you snowbirds are thawing out up there. Temps in the 20’s for 2 days wasn’t any fun. I’m loving the highs in the 70’s again this week.
I haven’t just made lists of assignments, to-do items, and recipes. I’m planning on blogging a few things in the near future, so I might as well make a list for that, too. Here’s what I have on my “blog calendar” list for this winter (January and February):
* Word for 2014 and Resolutions Post
* 2013 Recap
* First Semester Review
* Elementary/Junior High Book Give-Away and Short Reviews
* FedUp2Fit Foodie and Fitness Update for 2014 (back in the saddle)
* Planner Review
* 20 Charlotte Mason Principles
* English Essays from my teens
* Introduction to an Etsy Shop
* Field Trip Review on Renfest (why have I not done this yet???)
* Parenting Tips (went to a fabulous seminar this past weekend and read a great book a while back)
* Food Review for GFMS
* Ask the Reader: Becoming a Prayer Warrior
* Ask the Reader: Standardized Testing Tips
* Good Citizenship Ideas: Getting Kids Involved in Community & Politics
* Winter Summit Recap
* My Baby is 3
* My Baby is 17
* Sweet 15
* Recipes… (not sure which, but I have a few to share)
* Daily Art
* Goal Accomplishment Post
* More on my Preschool Series
* Austin Aquarium Field Trip Review
* #HSChallenge January Recap, February Challenge, and February Recap
* Valentines Post & Possibly some crafty ideas or a round-up linky
* … and whatever else comes to mind
Now you can hold me accountable. Well, that is, if I can find time to be at the computer and I can avoid my email when I am.
I’ve got a good feelin’ about this year… and you’ll see more about why I feel that way when you read my New Years resolution and word of the year post.
So…. I’ll let you go while I get my menu sorted out on paper in my day-planner. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” ~ Peter Drucker
[ Let the battle for this week commence! ]
In Him,
Girl when I grow up I wanna be like you! Praying you’ll have a great week this week.