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“WORDS TO LIVE BY”

from Virginia Knowles

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Ah, the power of words! And for those of us with scattered brains, a few pithy and profound phrases, rattling around in the gray matter, can suddenly snap us into focus. These words and phrases are ones that make a difference in my daily life as a home school mom:

ORA ET LABORA (PRAY AND WORK)

We learned this phrase a few years back while using the Latina Christiana curriculum. “Ora et labora” was the motto of the Benedictine order of monks, but it’s still a good one for us home school moms and our often distracted and idle children. We pray to God, and we get busy, continuing to pray as we work! Piety gets practical: it is both heavenly-minded and earthly-good. François Fénelon wrote, "Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation — speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be." –François Fénelon

HANDS TO WORK, HEARTS TO GOD

So similar to “ora et labora” – but at least it’s in English already. I first found this saying on a set of pretty dishtowels, which, due to “hands to work” have totally faded out from use. Maybe I should have framed them instead, but that wouldn’t have been the point of buying dishtowels, would it? “Hands to work, hearts to God” is a wise motto for a prudent balance in daily life. The profound infuses the mundane with meaning. One day recently, I was sitting in my van looking at my house, and saw, in my mind, a sign on the front saying, “Blossom Lane Ministry Center.” That’s my dream – that our home can be a place where we minister to one another, and where each one is trained and equipped for ministering in the great world beyond. As naturally lazy and self-centered folk, we have a long way to go! I need to get busy rewriting our chore chart, especially now that one of my adult daughters is moving away. We all need to stay busy over the summer, get some projects done around the house, and keep reading a little each day rather than sitting around watching TV. Ora et labora! So, hands to work, and hearts to God.

KOSMOS

My boys and I were reading the book Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick, and she mentioned that the word cosmos, which we think of as universe, is from the Greek word kosmos, which means an orderly and harmonious arrangement. This is something the Greeks highly valued; they were so pleased that the heavens exhibited this quality. In my life, this inspires me to pursue kosmos. Whatever we do here, whether in home schooling, homemaking or personal relationships, needs to be orderly and harmonious. This will bring both pleasure and productivity to our lives. 1 Corinthians 14:40 says, "But all things should be done decently and in order." (By the way, my sister Barb gave me this book when she was cleaning her basement into a state of kosmos. You go, girl!)

One way that we pursue KOSMOS in our home is by organizing with bookcases. We already had 14 bookcases to store our 2000-ish books, but Thad bought another used one from our church. It’s a huge 7 foot by 4 foot thing! It needed three more shelves, so Thad bought the supplies, and the kids (in this case, Joanna, Andrew, Micah, Naomi and Ben) helped me to sand and stain the wood. Now we have a better place to store our bins of art supplies, puzzles, game pieces (in zip bags), math manipulatives, flash cards, and many other home school resources. My husband, bless his heart, is very safety conscious, so he anchored the bookcase to the wall with a pair of L brackets on top, and each shelf has been stabilized with two extra screws. Are your bookcases and other furniture secure? We never know when one of our children (even the ones who are old enough to know better) will try climbing to reach something, and possibly tip it over by accident.

Oh, here’s a lovely poem that has inspired me toward beauty and order. I found it in Everyday Graces: A Child’s Book of Good Manners. (This terrific anthology is edited by Karen Santorum, and was passed along to me by my second cousin Jean, who is a former home school mom.)

The Blue Bowl

by Blanche Bane Kuder

All day I did the little things,

The little things that do not show;

I brought the kindling for the fire I set the candles in a row,

I filled a bowl with marigolds, The shallow bowl you love the best --

And made the house a pleasant place

Where weariness might take its rest.

The hours sped on, my eager feet

Could not keep pace with my desire.

So much to do, so little time! I could not let my body tire;

Yet, when the coming of the night

Blotted the garden from my sight,

And on the narrow, graveled walks

Between the guarding flower stalks

I heard your step: I was not through

With services I meant for you.

You came into the quiet room

That glowed enchanted with the bloom

Of yellow flame. I saw your face,

Illumined by the firelit space,

Slowly grow still and comforted--

"It's good to be at home," you said.

Speaking of beauty and flowers, my 12 year old daughter Lydia pursues KOSMOS with cosmos! Cosmos are perky flowers that she grows from seed along our front walkway. After the flowers blossomed, she picked some, flattened them under a pile of encyclopedias, and used Mod Podge liquid to attach and seal them to cardstock. She also made coordinating seed-filled packets to include in the cards. She did the same with morning glory leaves to make two other cards, and gave them to thank her teachers at our home school co-op on our last day of classes. (I’m one of them!) This is a terrific crafty project for kids to do over the summer. Another enriching hobby for teens (and even younger kids) is digital photography. Rachel and Joanna bought a decent Canon Powershot camera on sale at Radio Shack, and they’ve been busy taking hundreds of pictures. You can see some of their gorgeous floral shots, as well as some cutie pictures of Melody, on their photo blog: www.homeschoolblogger.com/pictureperfect  They have also entered some photo contests, and Joanna’s lily picture (“Translucence”) won a Picture of the Day: www.benel.com/powershot/pic-of-the-day.php?day=1&month=05&year=2007

DIAMONDS AND TOADS!

My favorite fairy tale is “Diamonds and Toads” by Charles Perrault. I’ve read it to my kids for years from The Book of Virtues. Recently, we found a slightly different version in the aforementioned Everyday Graces anthology. I often read this book to my younger children, after a Bible passage, and find it a gentle and worthy way to start the day. I won’t spoil the storyline for you, but it makes me think, “What words do I want to hear in my house: diamond words or toad words?” You see, it’s embarrassing for me to admit it, but some of our younger kids have yet to break the discouraging “Shut up, stupid!” habit. As a reminder, when I hear them say something kind, I’m likely to burst out enthusiastically, “Diamonds and pearls!” When I hear the opposite, I’m likely to squinch up my face and croak out, “Snakes and toads!” It makes them laugh; hopefully it makes them think, too. I’ll love them always, either way. Do you want to read “Diamonds and Toads” to your children? You can find one version on-line right here: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/perrault/fairies.html

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

At 45 letters and 19 syllables (meaning: “an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust”) this is supposedly the longest word in any English-language dictionary. How did I ever find this out? I have sons who not only have a penchant for strange factoids, but also love a hefty self-imposed memorization challenge. Yep, they memorized the spelling, and so did I! (After all, I had to check their accuracy at the dizzying rate of 3 letters per second!) How did we memorize this gargantuan word? By breaking it down into logical segments, some of which are words-within-a-word! Pneu -- mono – ultra – micro -- scopic – silico – volcano – coniosis! There now, wasn’t that easy? And don’t let your kids tell you they CAN’T memorize things! After all, in the classical education trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric), the early grades are supposedly when they can pack their little brains with all manner of data. My guys (ages 8 and 6 at the time) once picked off the entire list of American presidents in a day or so. Since one of them did it, of course the other one had to do it too. A little healthy competition works wonders… And yes, they still know them, along with most of the state capitals, and Andrew is also memorizing the list of chemical elements in the periodical table using a song that his teenage sister Rachel found on the Internet. Repetition, repetition, repetition! So, what is the point of memorizing obscure words or long lists? It’s fun, it gives self-confidence, it teaches word-building, and best of all, the strenuous mental exercise is good for the brain cells! And to think that I didn’t even put them up to any of this! It was their own idea! My husband, after reviewing this article, reminds me that we should be spending more time memorizing Scripture. He’s absolutely right! (Thanks, honey!)

QUIDDITY

Here’s another odd word. I confess that I love words beginning with Q because my maiden name is Quarrier. I learned this one because Joanna used it when we were playing Scrabble. I had put down the word “quid” and she upped it to “quiddity” and snagged the triple word score while she was at it. No, she didn’t already know the word. We always break the official rules and allow trolling in the dictionary for new words. It’s a great way to build vocabulary. The words quiddity is an oddity, but what does it mean? Really, two things, and they are quite intriguing. According to our Oxford Complete Wordfinder, “quiddity” means 1) the essence of a person or thing; what makes a thing what it is and 2) a quibble; a trivial objection. If you ask me, those are two very different things, but the contrast begs a question about how we are educating our children. Are we teaching them the essence of life as expressed in each school subject, or quibbling about the trivial? Are we reaching hearts or splitting hairs?

NATIONS AND GENERATIONS!

This has always been a motto for me as a home school mom. In academics, it gives me a vision for teaching geography and history – learning about people in other times, places and cultures. As a Christian, it gives me a vision for outreach (to the nations) and discipleship (of future generations, starting with my own children). If you click here http://www.virginiaknowles.com/nationsandgenerations you can find an article I wrote about this. Meanwhile, my boys begged for me to hang one of our huge laminated world maps on their wall, and they have colored several international flags to go with it. They love geography! Ben, who is 4, is getting pretty good at the World Discovery Deluxe CD-ROM from www.timberdoodle.com, which has become a favorite in our home. Our older daughters (ages 12 to 19) like to keep up with current events around the world, such as whether a pro-American conservative won the French presidential election or not. Rachel and Lydia told me that Nicolas Sarkozy did (http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/12938), and they were personally excited about it! I’m just glad they care about such things, even though I am not a politically minded example for them. I do, however, have a particularly soft spot for those who are being persecuted for their faith, such as the German missionary and the three Turkish believers who were martyred last month (http://www.worldmag.com/articles/12904) The Christians there ask us to pray, not against persecution, but for perseverance.

LORD, HAVE MERCY!

That’s what I’m likely to plead when “it” is getting to be too much. I need it. He gives it. Our prayers don’t have to be wordy. Let’s not forget to pray for others, too! HARD IS NOT HOPELESS I saw this quote in World Magazine a few months ago, and immediately ran to my journal to jot it down. It’s from General David Petraeus, who commands the American forces in Iraq. Now that’s a hard situation. I certainly don’t envy him. Thank God for the brave men and women who are defending our freedom in the world, so we can do the things God has graced us to do. Let us never squander our liberties! We may not be on the frontlines in Iraq, but we do have our own domestic frontlines here. Your husband or child might be serving in the military and his or her safety weighs heavy on your mind as you try to go about your business – but hard is not hopeless. You may be a single mom lacking time and money to care for your children the way you want – but hard is not hopeless. You may have a child with severe disabilities and you haven’t yet figured out how to teach him – but hard is not hopeless. You may have a rebellious teen and you’re ready to tear hair out – his and yours! – but hard it not hopeless. Or like me, you might be a tired, feisty mama of many – but hard is not hopeless. In light of what so many others suffer around the world, the inconveniences and frustrations I face as an American home school mom seem so petty and puny. But, big or small, they matter to God, and they are being used by God to shape my character. Romans 5:3-5 "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

STAY STEADFAST

I was sitting in a ladies meeting at church a few months ago, minding my own business, when Susan slipped into the chair beside me and whispered, “I barely know you, but I think God is telling me to tell you, ‘Stay steadfast!’” Oh my! Those are not words I had been thinking about, but as soon as she said them, I knew they were for me. God can see right into our hearts, and he wants to do a work in us. Sometimes he uses other people as a scalpel for healing. I’m glad Susan was obedient enough to step out in faith and risk being laughed at. She had been a stranger, now she is a friend. Isolation is deadly: we need the community of faith to encourage us. We also need Scripture. A few days later, I went to www.esv.org (English Standard Version), did a search, and pulled up over 220 verses with the word “steadfast” in them. Most of them spoke of the steadfast love of God. Of course that is where it starts. We can only be steadfast because he is. But I also found nearly 20 that spoke of us being steadfast, too. I printed them out, taped them into my journal, and started scribbling notes of insight about what it means to be steadfast. I’ll give you 1 Corinthians 15:58 to get started: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Here are some others you can look up on your own: Psalm 57:7, Psalm 119:5, Hosea 10:12, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Colossians 1:21-23, Colossians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 2 Thessalonians 3:5, 1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 3:10, Titus 2:2, Hebrews 6:17-20, James 1:2-4, James 1:12, James 5:11, and 2 Peter 1:3-11. As home school moms, we need to be steadfast in our faith, in our home life, in our ministry, and in all we do. We must not give up, we must not give in -- we must give it our all.

Saving Money on Health Care

by Virginia Knowles

     In this article, I would like to share with you several ways our family saves on health care costs, everything from foregoing traditional insurance to doing simple things at home.

    When people find that we have a really large family (10 children) I know they often wonder how we can afford medical care without health insurance.  When we lost our group coverage from Thad’s previous employer in May 2004, we looked into the costs of individual policies and found high deductibles at over $1000 a month with no maternity coverage!  Ouch!  So we decided to do something radical -- not get any insurance!  Instead, after looking back over our previous year's medical expenses and running cost comparisons on a computer spreadsheet, we signed up with the Samaritan Ministries health cost sharing plan.   Basically, the concept is that Christians, who generally have a lower risk of health complications because of their clean lifestyles, pool together their resources and share health costs.  This is coordinated by Samaritan Ministries (SM), who validates the medical bills and divvies the expenses between members.   We pay a $125 annual fee, then about $250 per month. The first few months, this fee is sent to SM for administrative overhead, but after that, we pay it directly to the family that SM tells us to send it to.  SM does not cover routine doctor visits or anything under $300, but they will pay the remainder of expenses over $300.  After three such events in one year, they pay the whole thing.  There are exclusions for preexisting conditions, car accidents (you can join an additional SM program for this), and congenital birth defects.  We do have to pay the health care providers by ourselves and then wait a few months until reimbursement comes in, but so far, we have saved a lot of money using Samaritan Ministries instead of paying for insurance.  I could go on and on about the spiritual and financial benefits of belonging to Samaritan Ministries, but I'd rather send you to their web site: www.SamaritanMinistries.org.   If you do sign up, please mention our name (Thad and Virginia Knowles), and we will get a discount off of one month's payment.   Even without that perk, I highly recommend Samaritan Ministries!

    One way that Samaritan Ministries saves us money is that we have the opportunity to keep our own medical costs under control.  I’d like to share several ways we have been able to do this.

    First, we don’t run to the doctor every time we have a sniffle.  Many times, if we wait it out, the illness runs its course.  I usually only take kids to the doctor if they might have strep throat, or if they have a bad sinus or chest infection that won’t clear up in due time. There is not much a doctor can do for viruses the common cold or flu anyway. Many of our friends and relatives swear by an over-the-counter remedy called Zicam for colds.  Decongestants, pain relievers, garlic tablets, vitamins, vapor treatments, warm baths, naps, chicken soup, and lots and lots of drinking water can help, too.  Common illnesses can also be prevented and contained so they don’t spread among family members.  We try to quarantine our children in their bedrooms or at least one corner of the living room when they are contagious, and not let them touch refrigerator handles, milk jugs, etc.  In the past, we also kept their toothbrushes separated, but we haven’t been as careful about this lately. 

    Many health care providers, such as our pediatrician and chiropractor, give a hefty discount for self-pay patients. Florida Hospital has routinely given us a 40% discount for paying right away.   When I was pregnant, my midwife referred us to a sonogram center, operated by a Christian OB, which gave special rates for self-pay patients. Delivering with a midwife in a birthing center at your home may be much more affordable than an OB in a hospital.  She is also less likely to prescribe expensive and invasive procedures, and more likely to suggest good nutrition and other wellness approaches.  Also, when at the doctor’s office we ask them not to order any tests that aren’t really necessary.  For example, when the doctor looked at my throat and said I had tonsillitis, I bypassed a strep test that she offered because I would be getting antibiotics anyway. 

   There are several organizations that arrange for free or reduced cost prescriptions for those who can’t afford it.  One of these is the Partnership for Prescription Assistance at https://www.pparx.org/Intro.php.  (I don’t have any experience with this program, but have seen the ads on TV.  You can also ask your doctor for other recommendations.)   A few of our doctors have been kind enough to offer us enough “sample” prescriptions to last the entire course of treatment.  When you do need to pay for a prescription, you can remember to ask for generic and you can call around to find out what the least expensive pharmacy is.  We have found Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart -- with their $4 prescriptions -- to be the most reasonable.  We also buy generic brand over-the-counter medications, and have been quite satisfied.

    Our county health department provides free immunizations for children, and our doctor’s office charges only $10 per shot if you don’t have insurance.  When our two oldest teenagers went out of the country for mission trips, they did have to pay for some of their travel immunizations, but the health department had the most reasonable cost and even gave a few of the shots for free because they were under the age of 18.   I got my flu shot for a reduced rate at this clinic, too.

    We avoid the emergency room as much as possible.  We have found that if we can visit our family doctor or chiropractor first, we may be able to get treatment there.  If not, they can give us a prescription to go directly to labs or X-ray at the hospital so we can skip the emergency room expense and wait.   We also use walk-in emergency clinics for less severe problems when our doctor’s office is not open because the fee is so much lower.  Another way to avoid the emergency room is to teach our children how to be safe so they don’t get injured in the first place.  I can’t count how many times I have had to stop them from some sort of risky behavior saying, “We don’t need an ER visit right now!”  Yes, we have to be a little more cautious, but that’s OK!  We can also work extra hard to childproof our homes by keeping hazardous substances out of reach, blocking access to dangerous areas, or removing items that could fall one on someone or make them trip.  For example, we used to have an iron railing separating our living room from our computer room.  I can’t count how many injuries we had from children running into it, so when we redecorated the house, we tore it out.  (It was really ugly, anyway!) 

    There are times when we don’t know whether we should go for medical treatment or not.  Thad and I carefully observe the symptoms, talk it over, consult with our family physician and knowledgeable friends, check the Internet and our medical reference books for extra information, use our God-given intuition, and pray.  Sometimes we go in with symptoms of a potentially serious situation that turn out to be nothing, but we’re glad we went in anyway because we needed to make sure. There have been other times when we had a concern but then decided to stay home and wait it out – and fortunately, we have always made the right decision with this!   Here are a few good web sites to help you make informed choices about health care:

• Dr. William Sears http://www.askdrsears.com/  (Christian pediatrician)
• Dr. Alan Greene http://www.drgreene.com/ (pediatrician)
• Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/
• Web MD http://www.webmd.com

     Last but not least, we can’t overlook the power of prayer – for God to heal us or for him to lead us on what to do about a medical situation. We want to be good stewards of our financial resources, but we also want to be faithful in taking care of our family’s health needs.  God knows this, and he will help us to do what will please him the most!   Last year, I started noticing signs of early arthritis, which runs in our family and is extremely uncomfortable.  I asked one of our pastors to pray for me during a special time of intercession at church, and shortly after that the pain went away.  When I was in labor with my tenth child, I didn’t want to pay for a $1,600 epidural that would be beyond what Samaritan Ministries would pay.  (Pregnancies are covered based on the number of months you have been a member.)  I made a deal with my husband that if I could go without it, we would send several hundred dollars to a pastor in Malawi.  I came to the point where I faced several hours of excruciating pain after the less powerful IV medications wore off.  I reluctantly called for an epidural, but all of the sudden, God divinely opened up my cervix from 5 cm dilation to 10 cm – in about 20 minutes!  Baby Melody arrived before the anesthesiologist could even get in the room!  Thanks be to God!  He was faithful even when my faith wavered!

      I hope that these ideas will help you save money on your family's health care!  Let me know what you do to cut your expenses in this area!

        A few months ago, I included a review of a book called For the Write Reason (by Marybeth Whalen), which features the stories of several Christian authors. The excerpt I chose was about a lady named Karen Ehman. I thought you might like to hear about her two books, so here’s a blurb!

        Homespun Gifts from the Heart offers over 200 creative ideas for homemade gifts from layered soup, cookie and muffin jar mixes to book basket and theme basket ideas to flavored coffee and cocoa mixes. It also gives over 250 photo-ready instructional and decorative tags to copy and include with your gift. Easy! (The book basket ideas are especially a hit with home school families. They take a work of literature - say Little House in the Big Woods and round out a gift basket by including all of the items Laura Ingalls Wilder received on Christmas morning 1867 - a rag doll, a tin cup, a shiny penny, a peppermint stick, red mittens and a heart shaped cookie sprinkled with white sugar. Book and theme basket ideas for girls, boys and adults are given.)

        Homespun Memories from the Heart showcases over 200 ways to make fond memories with your kids, whether it is a holiday, a Holy Day or just a daily day of life. From the loss of the first tooth, to rainy days and celebrations that pass on your faith, simple, doable ideas are presented along with photo-ready certificates and helps. This is a book to refer to again and again when planning a birthday party, family gathering or just to celebrate the blessed everyday.

        You can order these books for $15 each (tax and shipping included) by sending a check to Karen Ehman, 1155 West Maple Rapids Road, Saint Johns, MI 48879. Her web site at www.karenehman.com will be ready soon but until then you can e-mail her at karenehman64@aol.com. Please tell Karen that you heard about her books in the Hope Chest!

IN PRAISE OF ORDER

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Drop Thy still dews of quietness

till all our strivings cease;

take from our lives the strain and stress

and let our ordered lives confess

the beauty of Thy peace.

(John Greenleaf Whittier,  from the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind)

Browsing through the tables at a used curriculum fair a couple weeks ago, I found an autographed copy of Elisabeth Elliot’s book THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY.   You can be sure I snapped it up since she is my favorite author.  (Her missionary novel, NO GRAVEN IMAGE, totally shaped my world view when I was in college.)  What intrigued me about THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY is that it’s not just a “how-to” book but the story of her Christian family heritage, starting a few generations back.  What is it that made these generations so productive for God’s kingdom?  Mrs. Elliot traces many themes, but one of the most prominent is orderliness – including a respect for authority, disciplined child training, wise time management, and organization of the home.

As most of you know, orderliness and organization are constant challenges for me.  I often have to be reminded that there is no virtue in living sloppily, and so many benefits to getting things together.   We do need structure in life.  Flexible structure, yes, but structure nonetheless.

Home school moms cherish flexibility and autonomy, but some of us overdo it to the point of rejecting any structure.  We try to wing it, making up our lives and school from scratch as we go along.  We end up feeling frazzled, exhausted, unproductive, unfulfilled -- and guilty.  We start to wonder if we really need a system after all, and relish the new idea of taking control of our lives with a schedule, routine, budget, and lesson plan.  We realize that we don't have to be victims of circumstance anymore.  Now that I am finally in the process of putting my life in order, I realize that this gives me peace from the storm.  Life makes sense when I follow a plan, and an added bonus is that I now have more liberty to focus my newfound spare time and energy on creative pursuits.  My brain is less cluttered by loose ends.  Order and organization allow us to live “on purpose,” to see our dreams and goals come to fulfillment.  We can make a plan and make it happen.

I still haven’t arrived.  I have to keep at it.  Summertime and pregnancy provide real temptations to let things slide.  Thad continually encourages me to add structure to our days and keep the kids busy.  I figure that one way I can do this is to have an afternoon cleanup time each day when all of the kids are working together in one room at a time – and I sit on the couch and give out orders while I fold laundry!   In this way, we can grow in four vital areas at once: tidiness, diligence, obedience and cooperation. 

Here are just a few other things that I’ve done to organize our home recently:

• I put a small bookcase in my bedroom near my comfy recliner chair.  This holds my Bible, my Bible study and prayer notebooks, my very favorite books and current home school magazines, and my main “Mom’s Brain” organizing notebook. I also have a small trash can and a few basic office supplies to add functionality.  I do supposedly have a desk in our computer room, but found I wasn’t working at it.  We ended up putting a bookcase on top of it to store commonly used family items.  I am much more comfortable working in my bedroom – a little haven of refuge in our busy house.  DO YOU HAVE A QUIET PLACE TO READ, THINK, AND PLAN?

• I labeled the edges of our wooden inset puzzles, to make it easier to find which one we want or to put away stray pieces.  Then I reorganized our game bin.  Most of our boxes have been squashed and discarded over the years, so I store game pieces in zip-closure plastic bags in a big plastic bin, and put all the boards together on a shelf.  I store puzzle pieces the same way in another bin.   I also moved the boys’ workbooks to a bookshelf in our living room.  We rarely do these at the dining room table anymore since I’m pregnant and will be nursing soon.  It’s much more comfortable on the couch, so I wanted to store the materials nearby.  However, I banned colored pencils, scissors and tape from the living room because they were always scattered on the floor.  Art projects must now be done at the dining room table.  A place for everything, and everything in its place!   HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR LEARNING AREAS MORE EFFICIENT?

• I rounded up my stray paper piles and organized them into their appropriate notebooks or file folders.  I also consolidated all of our immunization records into one notebook, in order by child.  I still have a few bins of papers to go through, but none of them are high priority current stuff, so I can get to them later.  CAN YOU FIND YOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS EASILY?

And, here are a few things we’ve done for a while to increase our efficiency:

• I log on to our public library’s web site to search for what books I want.  I put them all on hold, and a couple of days later, they are ready for me (or someone else) to pick up at the front desk.  Because it is hard for me to walk around and bend over this late in pregnancy, this simple process has been a Godsend.  And yes, we sometimes check out 100 books at a time!  WHAT ARE SOME WAYS YOU CAN USE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER? 
• I delegate! Our children do most of the housework, such as dishes, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, etc.  The older ones are responsible for their own laundry from start to finish, and the younger ones at least fold and put theirs away.   Some of my girls also know how to paint bedrooms, buzz cut their brothers’ hair, plant flowers, weed the garden, and numerous other valuable life skills.  Mary runs errands for me, too, making my bank deposits and sending out book shipments.  WHAT CAN YOUR CHILDREN DO TO GROW IN RESPONSIBILITY AND LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD?

• I try to organize and simplify grocery shopping.  I have a computerized master grocery list organized by aisle.  I can print it out, check it off, go to the Wal-Mart Super Center with Joanna (12) and Lydia (10) and have them do the food shopping while I pick up what I need from the other part of the store.  It works!  When we get home, I rest while all of the available kids put everything away.  They also help fix meals, though we could do a lot better organizing this.   Lydia and Joanna blessed me yesterday by making whole wheat pizza and peach cobbler for dinner while I was running errands. HOW CAN MASTER LISTS MAKE YOU MORE EFFICIENT?  HAVE YOU TAUGHT YOUR CHILDREN TO SHOP AND COOK?

So is there time for recreation?  Yes!  Thad recently installed an above ground pool in our backyard so the kids could get some fun and exercise without me having to cart them all over town.  This gives me a healthy workout, too!  A few of our kids will attend basketball day camp at church next month.  And there’s often a good Scrabble game going in the afternoon!  The older girls go on frequent outings with friends, but they still take time to read aloud to the little ones.  One book choice this week was FLAT STANLEY, a very old but hilarious picture book.  Mary chose different dramatic voices for each character, which I could hear mixed with raucous laughter from the boys. 

If you’d like to explore the topic of order and chores more, please check out these blog articles by Lori Seaborg (thanks to Cindy Rushton for these links):

Raising Servants (…er, I Mean Children)

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/606/

Chores: You Are NOT Doing Them All By Yourself, Are You?

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1054/

Chores: What 1-2-Year-Old Walkers Can Do

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1053/

Chores: What a 3-5-Year-Old Can Do

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1052/

Chores: What Elementary-Aged Children Can Do

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1051/

Get Yourself Together

You've heard it from me before, and I'm sure you'll hear it again many times.  "I'm trying to get organized..."   This just does not come naturally to me.

Now my husband Thad is organized.  I never ever have to pick up his dirty socks.  He keeps detailed lists that would blow my already addled brains. He has painstakingly supervised our own Extreme Makeover Home Edition construction project -- the conversion of our garage into an extra bedroom, as well as assorted repairs and upgrades throughout the rest of the house.  I wouldn't have even known where to start, but he has drawn up the plans, gotten them permitted, ordered supplies, coordinated contractors and even done some of the physical work himself.  The concrete has been poured, and the framing and some of the drywall is up.  The electricians, AC people and window installers have also been swarming around these past two weeks.  Later this month, we'll be able to start moving people around and ease the space crunch.    Once Ben moves in with his brothers, Thad and I will actually have a bedroom to ourselves -- for six months anyway!  Yes, Thad is very organized.  He can't walk by a sink of dirty dishes and not do something about it.  And again, I'm just not that way.  I'm working on it, though.

I've come to the "divine realization" that 2005 needs to be the "Year of Simplicity" for me -- first things first, back to basics, focus on the priorities, be consistent with a few things rather than sporadic with many.  Specifically, I need to be training my younger children to follow instructions better and we all need to keep the house clean and tidy.  It's time to follow Dad's great example.

So anyway, I had grand plans to whip the house back into shape between Christmas and New Year's Day -- but I got hit with a bad case of the flu on Christmas Eve and assorted other yucky viruses over the next few days. All this in addition to morning sickness, which thankfully seems to be waning now.  I'm slowly getting back to business.  Here are a few of the areas I've been working on lately:

• A Psalm or chapter of Proverbs -- I will cover these twice in a year.  
• Two chapters from the rest of the Old Testament -- I plan to alternate between the historical books and the prophetic books. 
• A chapter from the New Testament, alternating the Gospels with Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.  If I read a chapter a day, I will finish in less than nine months and can start over again.  Or I could slow the pace and read a little less than a chapter each day.