Found- New Favorite Website!

OK- the title isn’t completely true.  Nothing beats cakewrecks.  But, earlier today I went to the blogger choice awards site to see if my beloved cakewrecks won the best humor blog.  Of course itdid!  While I was reading the list, I was overcome by the amount of votes for the winner of several other awards- including best blog about stuff, and best blog of all time.  The blog is about a guy who is married to a woman with cystic fibrosis.  It tells about their daily life, including their new miracle baby who was born when just over 1lb.  I just started looking at it, but at first glance the site is very well done.  And, I predict it to be a daily must read in the near future!  For people like me who are just finding it, there’s a recap to get us up to speed on everything from the beginning of the site.  So, you don’t have to go back and read the whole thing.  But, after reading the recap, I’m even more tempted to go back and read it all.  It seems inspiring and sweet, although I’m sure sometimes scary and sad.  But, the response to the site is amazing and helps to let me know there are good people out there caring for others, praying for others, and are generally good people.  And, if we think we have had a bad day, there are probably others out there who have had worse- and who don’t feel as sorry for themselves as we do!

Creating a Mission Statement

After a particularly stressful discussion, I went online to search for some inspiration.  Trying to regain focus in my life, I referred back to something from my highschool days.  I was in a test program for Stephen Covey’s 7 Habit’s of Highly Effective People.  They were in the process of creating a high school class and I was lucky enough to be one of the guinea pigs!  So, I went online and did a search for his website. The result was that I created a mission statement for my life- in about 15 minutes!  With the philosophy that the first thoughts that come to mind are the most important to a person, they use thoughtful, yet simple, questions to get people to realize thier values and thier purpose.  These answers are then repeated back in order to create action sentences- ways people will live thier values and purposes. Check out this link to create your own mission statement.  You can read mine below.  I might make some changes to it- mainly the order it’s written in.  But that’s ok.  Here is the great quote they gave as soon as the mission statement was saved.  “Creating,defining, and refining your mission statement is an ongoing process because life is an ongoing process.”  Interesting thought.

Your Kickstart Mission Statement:
I will try to respect all people, places, and things.
I will help my son to become the wonderful person he has the potential to be.
I will do what I can to have a happy and loving relationship with my husband.
I will try to laugh rather than cry, to look at the lighter side of things.
I will work to be a person of integrity.
I will put God higher in my life by listening to the direction He is trying to lead me in and by trying to follow it.
I will be honest- both with other people and myself.
I will try to be a good friend to others- listening to them and helping them when they need me.
I will try to listen to what others have to say and put myself in their shoes in order to understand where they are coming from.
I will try to be a happy, light- hearted, likeable person- easy to be around.
I will work to achieve happiness. Whether it is my original plan or I have been thrown a curve, I will try to make the best of the situation I am in.
I will spend time with my family, immediate and extended, knowing that they are very dear to me.
I will follow through with what I commit to doing, and also let others know I expect the same of them.
I will also look at the situation and try to understand if someone does not follow through with their commitment to me- realizing that I cannot change others, only my response to them.

Click here to create your own mission statement- http://www.franklincovey.com/missionbuilder/flash/missionIntro.html?c=MissionStmntC

Conversation With a 3 Year Old

 

Last week while we were on vacation, we went to my parents to celebrate my dad’s birthday (Happy birthday dad!).  My sister and her family were there, as well as my grandma.

Near the end of our visit, I had a very interesting conversation with my nephew- who is 3 going on 30.  It went like this.

Nephew- You’re going to die soon.

Me- Really?  I hope not.

Nephew- Not real soon.  But someday.  Then you can see Lou.  You were best friends.  (Lou was the man I wrote about a few weeks ago who I was very close to and passed away at 97)

Me- Yes, you’re right- someday.

Nephew- When you die, you’re going to be an angel!

Me- Really?

Nephew- Yes.

Me- You are an angel!

Nephew- No I’m not.  I don’t have any wings.

Me- No, I guess not- or a halo.

Nephew- No- I don’t have a halo either.

That was about it.  The simplicity of a child’s mind is amazing!  Sometimes, I think they really do have everything figured out until everyone and everything around them messes it all up!  In his own sweet way, he was trying to cheer me up because he knew I had been really sad about Lou’s passing.  And, for a 3 year old to have a concept of death and heaven and seeing our loved ones, I think that’s pretty wise for a 3 year old.  So, once I realized he wasn’t predicting my death, the conversation was pretty sweet!

lincoln- same as always

I can’t believe it’s already Thursday!  And I really can’t believe it’s been so long since I wrote anything! 

A week of vacation was a wonderful thing!  A week of recovering vacation has not been as wonderful!  I knew it would be a little rough at times- getting back into the groove.  But, not this rough!

Monday morning I gave my son the list of things to do for each subject.  Actually, it’s written on the dry erase board in the schoolroom (Yay for an excuse to visit the office supply store a few weeks ago!).  Then, I went off to do my things for the day.  That was my first mistake- thinking it was ok to leave and assume he would accomplish his tasks.  I came home to pick him up for work a couple hours later- thinking he had done 2 of his subjects.  (that’s our agreement- he can keep his job working 2 hours a day if he has 2 subjects done before he goes and finishes the rest when he gets home)  Then I brought him back home to do his chores and school stuff.  I had a meeting and then made a trip to do go grocery shopping (yuk!)  When I came home, he and my husband were watching something on the computer so I figured all was right with the world and he had completed everything.  That was mistake #2!  Being exhausted at this point, I made dinner and then collapsed for the evening without checking his stuff.  You guessed it!  Mistake #3!

Imagine my surprise when I found only two subjects in the spot I told him to put things for me to check.  I went to the first book- wordly wise- to check his vocabulary.  I found 3 out of the 10- 15 questions that he just hadn’t bothered to do.  I was not happy since he has a really easy time with this so it was obvious it was pure laziness and not something he didn’t understand.  So, I handed it back to him and told him to finish while I went on to check his history.  Since we are using History of Us and there are not questions in the book, I have a list of things he has to write in a notebook for each chapter- vocabulary, famous people, important events, culture, art and literature.  So, since we are studying the civil war, he was on a chapter about Abraham Lincoln.  Here is what he wrote- the only thing on the entire page for the chapter.  Are you ready?  Are you sitting down?  I wish I had been.  Ok.  Here it is!

lincoln- same as always

That’s it!  That’s all he had to say.  What is that supposed to mean?  So, that is what he had spent an entire Monday doing! 

As you may have guessed, Tuesday morning was not quite what you would call fun around my house!  I proceeded to load him down with the work he should have done Monday and the work for Tuesday.  The last thing I wanted was to let him think he would get away with that!

Unfortunately, bombarding him with more work when he was having a hard time handling getting into the routine of a regular day made for a really fun time for all.  It was so much fun that we rolled it into a fun day Wednesday!  This was the day I finally told him to go t bed.  I know, a normal parent thing to do.  But, not at 4:30 in the afternoon!  He was obviously so tired I could tell I wasn’t getting any work out of him until he had some sleep!  The evening was better after his nap.

Today has been pretty good.  He even got caught up on some things and now has the privilege of watching Smallville- one of those father/ son bonding things.

A statement my husband made yesterday got me thinking.  He seemed surprised when i told him a homeschooling friend I work with has these kinds of days too.  “You mean we’re not the only ones?”  I have a wonderful support group that helps me vent.  As a homeschooling father, he doesn’t have that luxury.  Most of the dad’s work alot so the mom’s can stay home.  So, they don’t get together like the mom’s.  So, he had never had the opportunity to hear other horror stories. 

This is where you come in!  Share your moments of stress and chaos- your homeschool horrors!  Vent- just as I have just done (thanks!  I feel better!)!  Give me some stories to share to tell my husband that we are not the only ones with days like these. 

Family Times- The Musical!

Act 1- Fun, Food, and Games with My Family

Scene 1- setting- our good old Toyota corolla traveling 1 ½ hours to my parents for a Labor Day weekend celebration

And… Action!

My husband decided I should drive Saturday.  This is great for me since I would much rather drive than ride.  He has this strange need to drive really fast and then slow down only when absolutely necessary (meaning we are within an inch of the car in front of us!).  So, we piled in after several trips to get things we forgot, checking to make sure the door was really locked, and making sure all of the animals were in their designated places.

The other benefit of driving is that I become the DJ.  Usually, I have to sit quietly and suffer through annoying music that just drives me crazy!  This time, he was sprawled out in the backseat armed with his laptop playing Settlers of Caton.  It’s a great game that we used to play a lot as a family and now he plays on the computer at any spare moment.  So, with the lovely sound effects in the back seat, I was still able to hear my station.  I flipped it to an all 80’s weekend station.  Those were the days- big hair, great music!  So, I drove down the highway singing to my old favorites.  The only other sound was the frequent whines from the back seat- “It’s hot back here!  Are you sure the air is on?”  “Yes!”

Scene 2- setting- my parent’s house

We got to my parents and it was eerily quiet.  Oh- the kids were napping!  That explains it!  (Just kidding, YFS)  Soon, dinner was ready and we all sat down to a yummy chicken dinner with corn on the cob, topped off with brownies and ice cream for desert.  But, before we ate, my nieces sang grace, a very solemn thanks for food.  It is the sweetest music of the day! 

After dinner, it was time for fun and games!  We played phase 10.  Well, most of it anyway.  OK, half.  Actually, we should probably call it phase 5 because it takes us so long we rarely get beyond phase 5! 

And here’s where the music really kicks in.  Now, I must say it usually happens more with my husband’s side of the family.  But, this day we were all in rare form.  There were renditions of Way Down Upon the Swanee River, I want to Be a Pirate, I Say a Little Prayer For You, We Are the Champions, and several others that have slipped my mind.  The thing is that we didn’t start out singing.  We weren’t even talking about music.  We were just talking and suddenly someone would break into song.  It was just like the good old musicals where they would sing at the drop of a hat.  The only difference was that there was no dancing involved.  That would have made us have to leave the table and pause our game!  Not a chance at that until absolutely necessary due to starving kids!

And cut!

Intermission

So, maybe you had to be there to experience the performance live.  But, it was very amusing how everything turned into another song.  And the variety of music- from old to new, including children’s songs- was another interesting plot twist to the day.  So, stay tuned until next time- Act 2 entitled “1^st Annual Labor Day Bocce Tournament”!