Bringing Good Home

My good friend Tina, from when I used to live up in the big DFW metroplex area, has taken on a 3-Day Challenge for the cure.

From her site:

God has blessed me with many wonderful women in my life, including 2 mothers, 8 sisters, 4 aunts, 8 nieces, 1 BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER and countless friends. I lost one mother to this terrible disease, and if walking 60 miles can help prevent losing anyone else, it is a very small price to pay.

Without a cure, one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. will die from it, and that doesn’t include the rest of the world. Our slogan this year is Everyone Deserves A Lifetime. A lifetime of love, laughther and happiness is my goal, but I will settle for one free of breast cancer. I hope you will be able to help me in meeting the challenge to rid the world of this devastating disease.

Tiny is relying on her friends, family, and complete strangers to rally together in support of her challenge in order for her to reach her goal of $5,000. At this time, she’s raised about ten percent of her goal.

We all know someone who has been affected by cancer.

Any one of us could be affected by cancer at some point in our lifetime.

From the 3-Day Website:

Can you imagine a world without breast cancer? It’s hard, given how pervasive the disease is. But go ahead, let yourself envision that world. Because it’s not a fantasy. It’s a reality within our grasp. Each step you take on the Breast Cancer 3-Day brings us closer to ending the disease forever.

Eighty-five percent of the net proceeds of this event go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Every advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Komen for the Cure grant.

The remaining fifteen percent of net funds goes to the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, which provides ongoing support to breast cancer initiatives, so that strides made today can continue to propel us toward our goal.

Everyone has been touched in some way by breast cancer. And recoiled from the touch. No family should lose a mother prematurely. Or a dear friend, sister, wife, daughter, co-worker. No one of us, just diagnosed, should have to look at the mirror in the morning and say: Will I survive? Everyone deserves a lifetime: We feel it deep in our bones.

Allow yourself to imagine a world without breast cancer.

To read more about the 3-Day Challenge, to support the cause, or to check in on her progress, visit her 3-Day Challenge.

Toys.

They’re like rabbits.

They multiply when you’re not looking. And then those multiply. Next thing you know…

They’re EVERYWHERE. *Insert creepy music from Psycho here.*

(Switch to happy, peaceful music. Think: “The hills are alive or something…”)

It doesn’t have to be that way! Roll up your sleeves and get creative. Organize, organize, organize. Purge, purge, purge.

But the best thing that has ever helped us, ever, is..

CONTAINERIZING. Into individual toygroups.

Little, happy communes of Barbies, Ponies, and baby dolls.

Last December, during “The Elephant Project,” the girls’ toys got containerized. We grouped each into an appropriate box or bucket and gave every single little thing a place to go. Recently, after I reorganized the school area and removed a bookcase, I reorganized some and used the bookshelf to create some vertical storage in their oh-so-tiny bedroom.

The result? Everything now has a place to go, they know where it goes, and it’s actually easier for them to put their own things away. Even if they destroy their room completely (which they still do on an all too frequent basis) - it’s not too difficult to restore order.

For example:

In December, three other ladies and I spent the better part of a day cleaning and organizing their room.

Today (their room was no less worse than it was in December), it took the girls and I about an hour and a half. Maybe two.

And that’s with the three kids’ awake and underfoot.

And that means something.

So here’s what we already had as of December:

The two small striped storage containers hold ALL the Barbie stuff: the dolls, the clothes, the shoes, the accessories, the wedding set, the animals… everything except the horse and wedding carriage which are too large. The large striped container contains all the dress up dresses, shawls, and wings (and it can hold an AMAZING amount of dresses and such squooshed in there!)

This toybox holds all the dolls, doll things, and doll clothes (and if there is anything miscellaneous like a toy camera, that goes in there too.) The yellow hanging Ikea organizer is for the stuffed animals. It seems there are some missing. I bet they’re in the little boys’ room; we haven’t cleaned that one yet.

And here’s what we’ve added this month:

I added the bookcase to hold the play vanity (which had been on top of the white dressor,) the pink buckets (which had been tucked under the bed each half full of My Little Ponies — now one is full of ponies and the other is full of all the dress up accessories, which had been in white baskets under the tv,) the baby doll carriers (which were also tucked under the bed) and the barbie carriage and pony (which were also, yup, tucked under the bed.) Now it’s all in one place and easy to get to and I even freed up two white baskets. Yay!

Also, check out the inside of the fridge!

Everything related to food and grocery shopping is store INSIDE the fridge. They can pull it out, play with it and put it all back very easily.

Having all these homes for different toys has really helped my girls with learning how to take care of their own space. I’m working on something similar for Little Prince’s room, but it’s not finished yet. Hopefully soon!

NOW… there’s one more thing that really helps with the MESS.

We try really hard to emphasize and remind them to put one group of toys away before pulling out another. When they do (and when we pay attention and remind them to do it) it really works! But when they don’t, well, it turns into a disaster pretty quick.

But having a place for it all to go is the first step.

Working on the habits… well, that takes times but it’s a whole lot easier to work on those with a system they are able to maintain.

And that’s the truth.

Kids’ toys was our assignment for June’s Organizing Round-Up hosted by Laura, the Organizing Junkie. Sadly, I forgot to take before pictures. But it looked a lot like this (taken when I cleaned up their room and worked on their closets for last month’s challenge)…

Recently I told you that I tested Princess for learning style and discovered that she is a visual and artistic learner. I already knew this - but I hadn’t taken that into consideration with her schooling. And it occurred to me: maybe I should.

So how have things changed since then?

Her biggest area of struggle had been math. She hasn’t been very strong in it, from the very beginning. Initially she had trouble making the abstracts of math concrete - which we implemented with the use of manipulatives.

Now she can add and subtract, but she isn’t fast at it and she second-guesses herself a lot. We hit a point mid-year where I wasn’t sure she really had it, and I was hesitant to move on. We began only doing addition drill sheets each day. My thought was that with repetition she would get better and faster.

But things only got worse.

She got slower and slower and started asking more questions that she should have known the answers to. Then she started daydreaming and doodling and asking me unrelated questions about science and other things.

Finally it dawned on me that she probably did KNOW it, she just wasn’t DOING it, but rather she was fighting it instead. I tested her verbally with a couple of math problems, I found a couple of math games for her to play online, I observed a little more closely and then the light bulb came on: “She does know it. She just doesn’t want to do those sheets.”

It was that revelation that led me to test her learning style. And a few other revelations.

1. She may be able to do math well, but she might not ever be exceptionally fast at it or enjoy it all that much.
2. And that’s okay.

Still, I do want to work with her and not against her.

After a bit of brain-storming and consulting with other moms, here’s what the last couple months have looked like for us:

• We’ve used more word problems. I’m not sure why she does better with word problems, but I think it helps her visualize what is going on.
• Throughout the normal workings of the day, I ask verbal math problems related to what we’re working on or what we need to calculate.
• I started giving her shorter worksheets to prevent her from burning out and fighting it.
• I found more math games online for additional work on top of the worksheets.
• We looks for ways to make games out of it. We’ve finally begun working on multiplication (after getting bogged down in drill sheets for a few months - good thing we’re not technically done with second grade for two more months) and we’ll probably make a Memory-like game where you match the equations and the sums

Making a few changes has made a big change in our school day.

There’s a lot less whining and fighting. And there’s a lot more learning going on, too. Which is always a good thing since that’s the point of school, right?

One of the good things about her taking the assessment test is that we’ll see what areas she still needs more work in over the rest of the summer. We’ll take those results, come up with some fun ways to work on those areas and get busy with the visual learning.

A busy week ahead! This week we’ll finish up studying for Princess’ test on Friday, getting ready for the holiday weekend with family, working on our monthly organizational challenge, making a few appointments, going over to my mother-in-law’s to get some sewing done and participating in a homeschool family picnic. Phew!

1.) Bible Study: Morning devotions using this site to study my bible chronologically. (I ordered a new devotional bible, though and it should be here this week!)

2.) “MUST Do” List:

• Stick to my daily schedule (as God allows) for morning devotions, taking care of the home and home-schooling. Working on organizational challenge in between.
• Appointment on Tuesday, then sewing at MIL’s.
• Picnic on Friday, then Princess’ assessment test in the afternoon.
• Early Memorial Day dinner here at our house on Sunday.
• Iron Big Daddy’s clothes for each day, as a labor of love.

3.) Taking Care of My Home:

Daily Chores and then focus on these areas for weekly chores (I’m working out a new system for laundry since giving the girls their own hampers and teaching them to wash their laundry - this week we’ll try it this way):

• Monday - Kitchen; Wash towels, tablecloths, etc.
• Tuesday - Dining Room; The girls wash and put away their own laundry.
• Wednesday - Living Room; Wash Momma’s laundry. Little Prince helps wash and put away his laundry.
• Thursday - Master Bedroom; Wash all bed sheets, put them back on the beds.
• Friday - Kids’ Rooms; Wash Big Daddy’s laundry & Whites
• Saturday - Bathrooms; Clean Up Yard/Car

4.) Training My Children:

• Daily basics for Drama Queen.
• Review for 2nd grade assessment test for Princess.
• Tuesday we’ll make our bar graphs.

5.) Menu Plan Monday

• Monday - Oatmeal; PBJ’s & Apple Slices; Carrots & Ranch; Bean Soup
• Tuesday - French Toast; Chicken Noodle Soup; Dinner at MIL’s
• Wednesday - Oatmeal; Sandwiches; Jello; Potato Soup
• Thursday - Biscuits, Gravy, Turkey Bacon; Mac’N'Cheese & Hot Dogs; Fruit Salad; Quesadillas
• Friday - Cereal & Fruit; Sandwiches; Carrots & Ranch; Family Casserole
  
• Saturday - Biscuits, Gravy, Turkey Bacon; Chili & Cornbread; Granola Bars; Breakfast for Dinner
• Sunday - Cereal; Spaghetti; Fruit Salad; Hamburgers, Potato Salad, Homemade Ice Cream & Cobbler

Monday Meanderings is hosted by Tiany and Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura. Thanks ladies!

Look at these! I mean, how beautiful is that? Doesn’t it just warm your cheeks, make them glow, give you the chills? Honestly it makes me feel giddy.

And they were FREE. A gift from my sister-in-law as she cleaned out her storage shed. She had extra storage bins - and she thought of ME. *sniff* See? *sniff* That’s love right there.

Of course I instantly starting counting off on my fingers all the many ways I could use them. Last week I replaced the two shoe bins in the girls closet with these four.

In case you’re wondering: YES, they are labeled, and the girls ASKED me to do it. Girls after my own heart.

I’m taking the old purple ones for myself, to replace the white ones over the washer and dryer so that they can go in Little Prince’s closet. I mean, really, does he need purple ones? I think not. I’ll just take those, thank you.

We’re reviewing graphing and to make it more fun - YOU get to provide the input for the graph. Come on, don’t disappoint a second grader! We won’t have much to graph if you don’t answer.

Graph #1: What’s Your Favorite Bug?

You can pick any insect, no limitations, just tell us what it is and we’ll graph it in a bar graph.

Graph #2: Cake or Pie?

Do you prefer cake or pie the most? For the purpose of this exercise, you have to pick one or the other. You can’t say “both” - that’s cheating. We’ll use tally marks to see which one “wins.”

Graph #3: What’s your favorite color?

Pick a color, any color, and let us know!

Thanks y’all!!!

*Note: You’ll have through Monday the 19th to answer, we’ll be making our graphs on Tuesday the 20th (We don’t do school work on Mondays.)

During the last Bloggy Giveaways I won a gift certificate to mysigg.com from Lisa at Domestic Accident. I was so very excited! I ordered a couple of kids bottles for Little Prince and also an insulated mug for myself.

Little Prince really likes his “big boy cups.” We purged all his sippy cups except for two insulated ones. These have sports-bottle tops that twist open and closed. They aren’t leak proof while he’s drinking out of them (they only drip a little,) but they’re completely leak proof while they’re closed which is a good thing. Even though his Sigg bottles aren’t insulated, just the fact that they’re made out of aluminum helps to keep his cold drinks cold a little longer than a regular cup.

For myself, I bought the Pastel Pink Metro Thermos. I love coffee, so I was really excited to get a thermos promising to keep it hot for six hours. I’m thinking about Sunday mornings when I have to get up earlier than usual with one eye open. Oh yeah. My only complaint is that it’s not big enough. It’s so cute, though. Easy to hold. And it really works, too. Hot coffee, for hours. Yummmmm.

Works For Me Wednesday hosted by Rocks In My Dryer.

Found by way of Rocks In My Dryer, go waste a few minutes or twenty on this site.

Just so you know:

• I can name 47 colors in 5 minutes.
• I can name 36 countries in 5 minutes.
• I could take 21 five year olds in a fight.
• I got a 93 on the bloggy spelling test.
• I would have a 50% chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse.
• I am 77% addicted to coffee.
• I am 71% addicted to blogging.

And the film rating of my blog is:

Actually that last one is kinda neat - you can type any of your favorite blogs in there to see their film ratings!

And before you ask, no I did not waste all evening on there. Just a chunk of it.

So a week ago my washing machine died.

Yuck!

Amazingly, we found a free one pretty quickly on Freecycle. God is so GOOD! However, when Big Daddy brought it home it looked like this:

Doesn’t look very promising does it? It didn’t come with any hoses, either, and we wanted to hook it up outside and run it first to make sure that it really did work (the lady said that it should.) But just doing that was going to be a little tricky since our drain hose on the back wasn’t the same size. I admit, between the cleaning and the trickiness of test-running it, my first thought was — “I want a NEW ONE!” *Wahhh!* The lady said that it worked, though, and it just needed to be cleaned up. I kept repeating to myself that God is good and I was going to have faith that the washer was a ‘diamond in the rough.’ Even so, I let it sit outside for a whole day before I even began to work on it. After a day of pity-partying, I snapped myself out of it thinking: If this washer really does work and all it needs is some elbow grease but I don’t want to put in the effort, then how Ungrateful Am I for this blessing??

Sad, isn’t it? And so now here’s the “tackle” part.

After I got a holy-spirit-kick-in-the-rear, I rolled up my sleeves, cleaned it off, spent a whole whopping five dollars at the hard ware store to make an adapter for the drain hose, repaired it myself, hooked up outside and ran it through every cycle to make it work. All Big Daddy had to do was help me switch it out with the old one in the house. Well, that, and open the bottle of pvc glue for me. And here it is now, in place. (It sticks out a little too far because the adapter-joint-thing in the back is a little too long. It can be trimmed and a friend has some cutters I can use to do that, so I’ll be fixing that soon and then it’ll scoot back all the way.)

Doesn’t even look like the same washer does it??

And guess what? Putting in the effort to clean up the totally free washer that God sent me actually brought me a ton of joy as well. Huh. Amazing how it works that way.

So now here’s part two of the tackle. I didn’t have a washer for a whole week. I went to a friend’s house once and washed two loads of laundry, and I washed a few necessities in the sink a few times. But other than that, I haven’t washed ANYTHING. And my kids seemed to go on accident-mess-overdrive and dirty EVERYTHING. I have dirty laundry coming out of my ears! I’ve been working on that for the last two days, and I’m going to be working on it for at least two more. *sigh* It’s disappointing since I had finally established such a good routine for laundry and had been staying on top of it so well. But by God’s grace I’ll get there again soon.

I am very thankful for modern conveniences, belive-you-me!!

Tackle-It-Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom.