Our Only Snow

Pooh loves being outside with the dogs.

Our littlest rascal.  She's my escape artist.  Adorable little pain in the butt-that's what I should have named her.

 Here's Chicken Little.  I call him that because he's afraid of brooms, cameras, etc.  Here he's afraid of the camera so he's hiding out in the doghouse.  Stupid dog.

Who is that cool dude? 

A Catch-Up To-Do List

I wish I had taken before and after pictures because it's amazing what we've done.  Just saying it doesn't compare.

Hub and I organized a bunch of stuff in the basement.  It isn't done but it's soooo much better.  Since we will be remodeling down there and had to rip out the carpet over a year ago, it has become a catch all/disaster area.  Our garbage bin is full and we don't get pick up until Thursday.  I have set aside boxes of stuff for a spring yardsale.  (One is full of vhs tapes as I am getting rid of most of those.  Yea Netflix!)

We had a family day over the weekend which was followed by my allergy attack.  I am still recovering from all of that.  However, I did manage yesterday to tear apart the master bedroom-dusting/vacuuming and organizing everything.  Plus vacuumed the boys' rooms, bathroom, hallway and livingroom.

Meanwhile, The King has been working on insulating some things in the attic.  Our free ac unit has the ability to be hooked up for gas heat.  We don't have that part hooked up so it had to be insulated to keep a draft from coming thru our vents.  He also insulated where we put in attic stairs this past year.  I don't think I've blogged about any of that yet.  I'll have to go back and check.  LOL

I've gotten dinner done for today and will be off soon to do my cleaning job.  At some point this week I have to grocery shop because we are running out of food.  I'm trying to use what I have in the pantries, but the boys are complaining.  (Pooh eats A LOT!)  Oh and I also cleaned out my fridge today because it's so empty.  That is the best and easiest time to do it.  :)  

And it goes on.....

Done 12/21/11

I'm just going to jump back in by posting what I've done today.   No explanations of why I haven't been around in a while.  I've discovered that I'm here when I'm here and I'm not when I'm not.  LOL  Hoping that this daily checklist will help keep me inspired to get things done.  It's rainy, cloudy and dark today.  Not a good day for people like me who only do well in the sun.  Bleh.  Anyway, here goes......

As of 10am:

• Breakfast: coffee, tofu scramble wrap, bacon.
• Posted my foods into Weight Watchers tracker.
• Bathroom:  scrubbed shower, wiped down mirrors/sink/toilet, picked towels up off the floor (I have boys.)
• Posted 'Mom's Daily Schedule' at computer, bathroom and message board area.  (see what I'm trying to work on?)
• Emailed owl pellet people to see if my order shipped.

As of 3:30pm:

• Got dressed
• Made bed
• Threw in load of laundry
• Cleaned up dishes: loading dw, putting away those in the drain, washing more for the drain, wiping counters
• Had lunch
• Had a mommy meltdown about the CHAOS (see Flylady on that one)
• Talked with family to try to help with meltdown
• Started organizing Tigger's recently refinished bookcase even though I couldn't find the pegs to hold up the shelf.  (reason for the meltdown beginning)
• Cleaned out and reorganized Tigger's closet
• Cleaned out and reorganized Pooh's closet
• Listened to narrations 
• Checked over math
• Made more coffee
• Ate some chocolate

Not necessarily all in that order.....

As of 7pm:

• Did more straightening in boys' rooms
• Made dinner (chicken and pasta and Wine!)
• Got another phone call
• Received and opened my amazon and owl pellet orders
• Went through the regular mail
• Hubby came home and we ate together and had a loooong conversation (a nice change from normal).  Discussed my meltdown and what we will be doing this weekend with his vacation days.

Now I'm spending 30 minutes on the computer before I leave to do my cleaning job (I clean a bank on business days).

Got home.  Ate a snack.  Watched a show and off to bed!

Patio Project

Last we brought home some dilapidated wicker furniture that had about had its day.   The cushions were disgusting so I tossed those.  One week during the fall I did my best to strip the wicker of its old paint using a type of wire brush The King got me from Lowes and the jet spray on my water hose.  It did a fairly decent job, but I soon realized there was no way I was going to get all that paint off. 

Then it got cold out and I sort of let it sit in limbo until this past month.  I used primer and a paintbrush to do the majority of it.  It takes a while.  Once that was done I started using white outdoor spray paint and did some of the tiny areas and grooves.  After that, I used an outdoor clear sealer and sprayed them all down.  I hope it holds fairly well.

Here is the new patio set up in all it's glory! 

 That's my rain barrel in the background.  It works wonderfully at helping me keep my patio plants watered.  The recent lack of rain hasn't been helping keep it full too well, though.

 That ac unit isn't going to be there permanently.

I haven't decided for sure yet what I'll be doing about new cushions.  The budget is tight right now, so I won't be paying $80-$100 for a new set of outdoor ones.  At best I'll get a nice set at a very good end of season price.  At worst, which really isn't that bad, is to get some cheaper indoor cushions and keep them in the greenhouse when we aren't sitting on them.  That will require me to have the memory to put them away after each outdoor jaunt.  Let's hope I find a good end of season sale. 

The Wrath of Grapes

I have to say that processing my 15 gallons of grapes was an interesting experience. It would have been lovely to have been able to take readers' suggestion of using a special steam pot to get the juice. Alas, I had no money to buy one and the grapes were waiting impatiently to be taken care of.

Here are my grapes. As you can see they are a white variety. I believe they were either mislabeled or came up from below the grafting area (if indeed these are grafted vines) because they have seeds and have a very muscadiney flavor. Which isn't what they're supposed to be. They do taste good though.

I was unprepared for the cleaning process. You'd think all you have to do is rinse them right? Oh no, once you start rinsing you realize that there are all sorts of insects that come crawling out of the centers. Earwigs, beetles and other 'things'. All my grapes were rinsed and double bathed in the sink. I gathered bunches of earwigs and threw them out. Can we just say a big "Ewwwww" together?

My first try at juicing the grapes was with this JuiceManJr. My theory (laugh, I know you want to) was that I would get the nutrition of the skin and seed along with the juice by using the juicer. Once again, I was unprepared for what happened. Seeds. Yes, the seeds were spitting out of the machine all over my kitchen. Evidently, this juicer isn't capable of handling the seed situation. You can bet I wasn't going to deseed 15 gallons of grapes. In addition, the bag that was holding the discards (grape waste), was actually very juicy still. I wasn't letting that juice go to the garbage! I will, however, be finding grape seeds throughout my kitchen for the next five years.

So I started boiling. I didn't take off the skins like most recipes say. Too much work for me. I just started boiling them and used my immersion blender to whip up the skins in the juice. It made the resulting juice cloudy but I felt better thinking I may have added a bit more nutrition to my juice and jelly. (Hey, if you know otherwise, don't tell me. Ok?)

And straining with the dreaded cheesecloth. (This is actually my tomatoes draining--I forgot to photo the grape mush draining.) My setup was a colander lined with several layers of cheesecloth over a clean 5 gallon bucket. Works great as long as you don't accidentally drop the colander into the bucket. Ask me how I know.

My reward. Several gallons of juice. This will be used for the jelly.

More in the freezer for drinking.

These are my bottles of grape cordial brewing away.

This cordial is from some red grapes that ripened about 6 weeks earlier. Can't wait for my cool winter evening when I pop open one of these!

I realized when getting this post ready that I never did take photos of my jelly. Oh well. I managed to get about 22 jelly jars full, plus 3 quarts of juice canned, plus what is in the freezer. It took two days (and I processed some tomatoes too). I'm a novice, what can I say? Would I do it again? In the phrase made famous this past year, "You betcha." As a matter of fact, my dinner tonight was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with MY jelly. Woo Hoo! LOL

The excitement never stops around here.

Keeping Warm and Saving Pennies

It's the coldest here it's been in 4 years. Tonight's low is expected to be around 9F. Yep, single digits. What's an ex-Florida girl to do???





Prepare lots and lots of hot drinks. Hot cocoa, hot tea, hot SoyFee, even hot water with lemon added.

I mentioned before about how we're trying to cut back on power usage by keeping our house temperatures a bit lower. 64F is chilly to me! Anyway, the way I've figured things is, if the temps are in the 50's or above, we heat the house using our baseboard heaters in the basement only. (We have a split-level with a half-basement.) The heat rising thing keeps the whole house reasonably warm. If the temps are below 50F, then we crank up our kerosene heater and turn off the baseboards. My last power bills shows our usage down from last year by $.88 a day, potentially saving $26 per month. This is all, of course, subjective seeing as how I haven't analyzed the difference in daily temps from last year. However, I love still being able to see a 'credit' on my power bill. We pay equal monthly payments and have a settle up month in August. Usually, we get money back. I'm always aiming for as much money as I can get back. I also try to delay putting in our window AC units for as long as possible in the summer. I usually break down and demand them to be put in instantly by mid-June. :D I just can't sleep when I'm hot.

The 'No Flushing' is still going strong in our house. We're down 5 cu ft per day from last year this time. I didn't have to pay the water bill this month because I make equal monthly payments to them too throughout the year so I don't end up with a whopper of a bill in the summer months when watering the garden. This year I hope to be able to get some rain barrels installed to off-set any drought periods. A dear friend let us have theirs when they had to move. They are just used soap barrels from a car wash, but we're re-purposing them into rain barrels. Here's a great document showing how to do it. (it's a pdf)

I promised some pics of my greenhouse and while it's still a bit of a mess inside and out, here they are:


If you look towards the back, you can see a one white and one blue barrel. These will be the rain barrels. We have a total of seven.



I'll have to make sure and take pics in the summer when there are actually things growing around here. LOL


This is the baker's cart/rack that we got for free. The King then made several 'shelves' with wood and wire that can hold trays of seedlings or plant pots. I wish this picture were better because the King did an absolutely fabulous job on these! I was soooo impressed! (What can I say? I'm easy to please. ;D)




Radishes, brussel sprouts, cukes and cabbage are up. Some other things either aren't going to come up or are just taking their sweet time.


Lettuce that will continue to grow in this window box for fresh winter time salads. (I hope! This is the first year of trying it.)


Going along with the "Keeping Warm" theme, this is how I keep the greenhouse warm enough to grow stuff. I open the basement window and have a regular fan on low to pull warm air from the house into the greenhouse at night. It can get turned around during sunny days to pull warm air from the greenhouse into the basement. The greenhouse can easily heat to 90F-100F on very sunny days where the outside temps are in the 50's-60's. Even today with the outside temp at 28F for a high!, the greenhouse heated up to about 70F.

I also placed a space heater at the window for nights like tonight. It will need that extra boost of heat to keep it above 40F.



Sorry for the quality of the photos. I have a dinky digital camera that was a freebie from the phone company when I signed up for something a couple of years ago. I'm planning on a newer one, hopefully in the next couple of months. One where the batteries last for more than 30 pictures and where automatic picture taking will really automatically adjust the light and everything. I just don't have time to mess with a bunch of controls. If anyone has any suggestions for under $150, let me know!

1/12/09 Menu Plan

Ok, on to week 2 of using a menu plan!! Last week was terrific and made my life so much easier. As one commenter pointed out, the menu plan helps in actually making stuff ahead of time so it's ready and there's no last minute stress on getting things together. The boys continued to be ruled by the planner for the whole week, so hardly any complaining. Which, frankly, is a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned.

I'm currently suffering from a very congested head so I hope that my current plan doesn't fall apart in actually doing it. We'll just have to see. I'm not thinking the clearest right now. I do know that Monday's snack #2 will be on the road. Wednesday I plan on taking leftover drumsticks, carrots and the granola bars with us on the road for munching, but also know that we will be hitting McD's in the afternoon due to several errands I'm running that day (and i'm meeting someone there so pretty much have to plan a meal there ;D).

Last week's make-aheads included getting the crock pot going the night before for the oatmeal, leftover homemade bread for the french toast casserole, preparing the tuna salad sandwiches while preparing breakfast so they were ready for our lunch out (same day as the nature walk---that worked out wonderfully well!), and muffins made ahead of time. Also, I'm able to see what needs to be thawed from the freezer in plenty of time to use it and marinate if I so desire.

This week I'll make ahead bread, muffins, thaw bagels for Friday's breakfast, thaw this week's meat. Pancakes are already made for tomorrow's breakfast.

Here's the outline for this week:

Monday:
B-pancakes
S-smoothie
L-pb & j sandwiches
S-cheese n crackers
D-bratwurst, cabbage, potatoes, salad

Tuesday:
B-hot cereal
S-carrots
L-tuna sandwiches
S-yogurt
D-chicken drumsticks/veggie/rice

Wednesday:
B-cereal
S-fruit
L-eat out
S-granola bars
D-lamb shoulder/rice/veggie/salad

Thursday:
B-eggs/bacon/english muffins
S-muffins
L-hot dogs
S-rice cakes/pb
D-shepards pie

Friday:
B-bagels/cream cheese
S-muffins
L-cheese tortillas
S-hot tea/biscotti or cookie
D-lasagna/salad

The Power of the Menu Plan

You know, I kept hearing people raving about how wonderful a menu plan is. My response has been characterized by: Uh huh. Whatever. I'll get to it one day. How great can it really be?

There's POWER in the menu plan. Amaaaaaazing power. I'm in awe. And I've only been at it for two days.

There are two powerful aspects of the menu plan that I've experienced so far. (My experience is very limited and there may be many more that I haven't discovered yet.) The first power operates on me. I can look at my simple list located on the frig and know what's happening. So simple and yet so profound! I'm not hunting down recipes an hour before dinner is supposed to be ready, wondering what on earth I'm going to do with the leftover ham. I know! I don't have to think about what I'm feeding the kids for snack. I know! It's so freeing! I have a different breakfast planned for each day. I'm using that butternut squash that's been sitting in the pantry for 3 weeks. I'm using the quinoa I've had in there for forever too!

This was all planned around food I already had in the house. No shopping or even last minute runs. If I didn't have exactly what I wanted, I substituted. My ham and potato casserole turned into a Ham and Sweet Potato casserole. (There's a lot of ham in our menu this week due to wanting to use all our leftovers from baking a spiral sliced ham on the weekend.)

The second power to be noticed was the one that was exerted over the children. Ahhhhh. This is something I've never seen mentioned in the accolades of the menu plan. This is a big secret. Are you ready?

If it's on the menu plan, that's what we eat.

No arguments, no griping. A simple "I'm sorry. Cookies aren't on the plan. It says we have to eat carrots for snack this morning." AND THEY DO IT! No kidding! They may say "ooohhhhh, I wanted something else" but it doesn't change the fact that we follow the plan. I think Pooh will even start reading the plan himself soon. He's kind looking there when I say "hmmmm, it says we're having waffles for breakfast". Pooh is also the child more willing to try foods and will at least partially eat things even when he isn't crazy about them. Go figure!!!

I'm not making two separate sandwiches for lunch. "Today is ham, tomorrow is tuna." I was amazed at how fast they ate. The only thing that didn't go over well was the Crockpot Oatmeal. That's because they both dislike oatmeal. I told them they needed to learn to like it. :D Today they had French Toast Casserole for the first time ever and gobbled it up. They ate the butternut squash. The quinoa was a bit iffy and so was the ham casserole on Tuesday's dinner. BUT, they're trying it and they are eating more than they would have if I hadn't done a menu plan.

So I consider this a success. Now I just have to keep it up. Consistency has never been my strong suit.

For those that wish to know, I'm including my plan for this week. It's only a M-F plan. Also, the meals are listed in this order: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner. They usually have another snack before bed, but I didn't include that one because it's never an issue.

Monday:
Crockpot Oatmeal
Cheese n Crackers
Mac n Cheese
Carrots
Delicata Delish (allrecipes)

Tuesday:
French Toast Casserole
Carrots
Ham Sandwich
Fruit
Ham & Potato Casserole (with broccoli)

Wednesday:
Waffles
Pb crackers
Tuna sandwich
Yogurt
Split Pea Soup

Thursday:
Eggs & Bacon
Muffins
Mac n Cheese
Carrots
Pasta and roasted root veggies

Friday:
Hot Cereal
Smoothie
Hot Dogs
Muffins
Pizza

No Flushing

Huh? you say. Yes, we did not flush our toilet all day today. Ewwwwwww right?

Wrong. We are saving gallons of water by using our bath water to flush the toilet. When taking a shower or bath, you keep all that water in your tub. Get a bucket, scoop some up and when you 'Go' you pour that 'grey water' into your toilet bowl. Bye bye pee pee. Bye bye poo poo. (anyone who's seen Once Upon a Potty will recognize that one. LOL)

I had a little instruction time for the boys this morning. I showed them how to lift the seat, pour two scoops of water in and then dry up any water spills. The scoops they use are with an old Tupperware container they use for bath playtime. I also put tape over the handle so it would remind us all not to flush. They didn't think too much of it. They just did it. I told them it was to save water and money and we were going to try it and see how it worked.

So far so good!!! Although, I doubt we'll have enough water to get through until tomorrow morning. Pooh accidentally let a lot of their bath water down the drain before he remembered to leave it in there.

Oh well, there's always The King's morning shower to look forward to. ;D

Brrrrrrrr!!!!!

Yep, it's cold. Cold everywhere. This morning was 20F here with a windchill of about 2F. My greenhouse door, although 38F inside, still had an icy layer on it. It's supposed to be even colder tonight. Yikes!

All last week was cloudy, dreary and rainy. You know it's bad when your autistic son (Pooh) asks, "Mommy, are we ever going to see the sun again?" LOL The next day he says to me, "Boy, it sure has been raining this week!" I agreed wholeheartedly. ;D

This past Thursday I planted some seeds in the greenhouse. I knew that Friday was supposed to be almost 70F and decided to get the seeds in so they'd have a blast of nice warm, germinating weather. Yesterday, I saw some lettuce seeds sprouting. So, I thought I'd better make sure they didn't freeze. That meant turning on the heater we had installed in the there. We have an old baseboard heater that I set at about 42F to keep the little things from freezing. Thanks to our getting the roof fully sealed this weekend, it worked.

The King started working on some shelving that I needed. We were given what I think is old baking rack set on wheels. However, it has no shelving. So we bought some cedar wood to make sliding shelves for the racks. This is where I can put trays of seeds. Vertical is always good for saving space. I also used two window boxes for my seed planting and they are on the shelf too.

Our whole house has baseboard heat. It was in the low 70's in the house last night so I decided to turn down the heat in the basement (we only use the basement heat most of the time because heat rises and keeps the rest of the house warm). My goal was for the house to be 68F. A little chilly, but not unbearable when you wake up. (FYI-I'm trying to see where we can cut back on expenses little by little.) Well, this morning I knew when I woke up it had to be colder than 68F in the house. Sure enough, the upstairs was at 64F and the basement at 63F.

Needless to say, the heat got turned up this morning.

This week we're only doing school today and tomorrow. Wednesday and Thursday are The King's days off and Friday is just going to be a free day for a change.

Hope everyone stays safe and warm and if I'm not here before, have a great week!

Making Beds

Tigger's New Bed

The King has been home this week busy with making a loft bed for Tigger. The boys share a room and we decided loft beds would be a great way for us to use the space. They can have their own private areas underneath with their books and all the other paraphanalia that kids seem to collect.

A couple of years ago he finished the one for Pooh. We painted Pooh's a navy blue in keeping with their ocean/boat room. Pooh loves it and usually refers to it as his 'ship'.

Tigger wanted us to paint his black and white like a lighthouse. LOL I told him "no way", that would be too cycadelic for me. ;D However, we have agreed to have a red and white striped area just below the railing area.

Making these beds takes The King a lot of time. He finds raw, free wood that a company near here just tosses. It's some type of pallet wood. He then cuts it and puts it together. After that, he takes it apart, shaves it smooth, sands it even smoother, puts on two coats of primer, then finally, two coats of paint.

What we do for our kids!!!

Pooh's Bed

Their new computer desk that sits between their beds. The King made this one too.

Beneath each bed is a short bookcase and one of those convertible chairs. They convert into mini beds. Tigger also has a little dresser under his bed. They each have a shelf above their beds for their boats and whatnot. They are small shelves and we plan on adding more for their little collections. Tigger's bed still doesn't have a real mattress. That will be coming soon. Right now there are these thick pads someone had made for them to sleep/camp on the floor on his bed. He manages to be quite comfy with those.

I really wanted them to learn to share a room. I think that it can teach so many life skills like getting along, compromise and respect. For the most part they do great. Every once in a while someone will complain about a light being on or someone won't stop quoting movies (wonder who that could be lol) or whatever. I love to hear how Pooh will read to his little brother sometimes or how they work things out. All in all, I believe it's working and hope that it continues to do so. We'll take it year by year.


They are both responsible for the appearance of the room and they tidy up daily or it would be a disaster area. Sometimes I have to do a major clear out. That's where I dig up all the little things that crowd in corners and books that are put in the wrong way and I lay them all in the middle of the floor. Then we put things away the 'right' way. I recently had to cull Tigger's drawers because he just couldn't fit all the clothes he had in there and they were a mess. I wash, dry and fold. They put away. It's on their list of morning chores each day to check their baskets. I don't have too many complaints about messes unless I don't check it for several days. Then it's every man for himself in there! ;D

(Note: This post has been sitting as a draft since October. I finally got a few pictures taken to share!)

Summer Days

I have a feeling that this month may be more hit and miss with blogging. We have been having some really nice days with friends to keep us busy in this summer weather. The boys have been invited to a few summer pool parties, several pool days, a nature hike and will be having their own annual summer party at the end of August. This year their party theme is Outer space. So I've got to get my booty in gear for the 24 boys this will involve. (I know. Call me insane. ) Tomorrow we are going to the zoo. Pooh has been asking to go for months, but it has been put off for one reason or another. With the relatively cooler weather we are having this week I thought it would be a good day to go.

RDI wise, I have gone ahead and sent a tape to our consultant to see how we're coming along with framing for roles. I think Pooh was responding well. I just found myself having to walk that fine line between not being the director and also not over compensating for him. I'll wait for the consultant's feedback before blogging anymore on that area.

In getting that new washer and dryer I've talked about, I neglected to mention that this involved tearing everything out of our laundry closet. It is now all sitting in the middle of what was my newly reorganized basement. I'm not happy about this AT ALL! The reason for the chaos is that we decided to have our machines stacked instead of side by side. This meant taking out the generic shelves we had put up when we moved in 4 years ago. We are going to get some type of wire shelving system from Lowe's, but need to measure and go there together (together is the key with men and hardware stores) to decide which system will work. The laundry closet walls are a mixture of the cement block used in basements and drywall. It's never easy. I'm probably looking at another whole week before I get things back together. Meanwhile, I have to keep the boys from destroying any of the boxes sitting on the floor.

I love my new machines though!!!! They are the coolest. LOL I do notice how much cleaner the clothes look coming out of the front loader. They take longer in the washer but are spun so well, even a full load of towels only takes about 40 minutes to dry. Maybe my utility bills will go down. Wouldn't that be nice! I have been making my own laundry soap for a few months now. But I decided to change what I was doing. I had been making a liquid laundry soap and now I'm switching to a powder one. I like it better. I think I'm going to try selling it locally. It is great for anyone wanting to Go Green and/or chemically sensitive. Making an extra little bit of money here or there would really help. We'll see how it goes. Oh and this soap works perfectly with the new HE machines. Very low sudsing.

Well, I better start heading for bed. The zoo is a lot of walking, so I need to hit the hay!

Laundry and TV

Media and the Mind I read this post from a blogger I just happened to visit-not one I was normally reading (but I will now). I really appreciate how she put into a brief synopsis so much of what I've been reading lately. I've been hearing of this book "Endangered Minds" but haven't read it yet. I HAVE read Waldorf's recommendations on getting rid of "media" ie TV, video games, computer games. RDI recommends cutting way back on screen time (their way of referring to the same things). It's really funny (not ha ha funny) how people can be so horrified at living life without TV. I know to a certain extent I used to be the same way. Live without shows?? You've got to be kidding me. I have actually lived without a TV on two separate occasions in my life. Once, when I moved out and out-of-state from my parents I lived for about 8 months with no TV. I was suffering from depression then, so really once I got the TV it didn't make much difference. I was still sucked into my void. The other time was when I moved into an apartment, right before the King and I got married. We lived without a TV for over a year I think. I got a lot more of my important reading done and the King got a lot more sleep. Now I've just got too much to do to be that interested in TV. Plus, programming has gone to pot. There are a lot of shows that I wouldn't want to be watching if I were watching TV. I seem to have a weakness each year for American Idol. (I just hate when they show commercials for junky shows during this time period. Please, my kids watch it with me!) And in the winter, the King and I do enjoy some of the Masterpiece Theater programs. (of course LOL) But that's been the extent of my TV habits the last few years. Sometimes, hubby will want me to watch a movie with him and I have to make myself sit down and watch something. I'd much rather be reading "Endangered Minds"!


Now with the kids, I'm trying to cut back on "screen time". I've told them that if they watch too much TV their little brains "wont' grow" ;D. We went a week with no TV last year. Pooh did a lot better than I thought he would. I had the days marked on the calendar and he did fine, except he just quoted the movies all day. We recently had to give the kids a No TV day because they had snuck an extra movie while we were doing yard work. I knew they had done it, but decided that instead of going in and confronting them about it, I would just call a No TV day instead. It worked. They promised to "never ever do it again". ;D At least, they got the point for now. No sneaking. We do have the rule that they have to ask first and I have to approve what they are going to watch.

Another thing I've been doing so far is having them pick the PBS shows they are going to watch in advance. We sort of have a little pow wow in the morning and they each tell me which show they want to watch for that day. That way I don't get asked 5 million times if they can watch this or that. They know what time the shows come on and Pooh definitely keeps track of the clock for that. If he misses the show he's picked while we are at home doing something, he will get upset. But, if we're out and about, he's much more mellow that "he'll see it another day." So, there's some flexibility there.

I think I mentioned before about how I've gone through their videos and donated a bunch to the library. That is one way of cutting down on clutter and the importance of hoarding all these movies. I like borrowing the movies from the library because I have a much larger variety there to have them choose from. They have to be turned in within a week too, so that means that there's an end to when they are available. We do still have some movies at home for family movie night, sick time, really bad weather, etc.

This is getting kind of long and I haven't even gotten to the laundry part yet. I'm going to have to do another Media post about what my future plans are too. So, the laundry portion of this is that yesterday we went shopping for our new washer and dryer. Yep, had to get a new set. There weren't any on Freecycle. (Sears had a nice sale, 12 months no interest, plus we had another 10% coupon. So I got a set of front loaders. Whoaaaa! They are cool! The dryer works faster than the washer. The complete opposite of what I had before. Go figure!)

Anyway, I know you're waiting to see what Laundry has to do with TV. Well, when we were talking to the appliance guy at Sears, I mentioned that all the new TV's were cool. You know, big flat screens and the colours are just amazing on them. Not that we were looking to buy, but just saying. He talks about how there was one on a really good sale. Then I made the comment that we only had one TV and we were trying to keep it that way. You should have seen his face. You would have thought I said we used an outhouse instead of a bathroom! It's funny and yet sad. When we did become a society that needed to have one TV per person in the house? It separates Mom and Dad watcing from the kids watching. I think the TV watching should be something planned. That way it helps control the amount of time one watches it and teaches compromise. Mom wants to watch Oprah-Kids want to watch Arthur? Compromise. Or better yet, go for a walk together.

There's so much out there besides TV. It's time to get out there and experience it.

The Great Clean-Out

So this past weekend I went to work on filling up that 10x12 shed storage building the King and I put up the first weekend of July. It's now about 1/3 full. My basement (otherwise known as family room, laundry area, school room, etc) is now about 1/2 less full than before. It's also completely rearranged. I kept telling hubby that it was good to do all this decluttering just in the amount of dust we were able to clean up. It was a late spring cleaning for sure! I also got rid of 6 walmart bags full of paper from my office and completely cleaned and rearranged our living room. The basement looks great but still needs some organizing. I need some different clear containers to label for pens, markers, different activities for the kids, etc. I made a crash area near the kids bookshelves. This consists of large pillows then can lay on, wrestle on and sleep on. The tv got moved and I've gone thru most of their videos. There were two boxes full that I've gotten rid of. Some were returned to my sister, who gave many to me in the first place. Others will be donated to the public library. That way, if they really want to see them again, they know they can find the movies to watch. We like to get our movies from the library anyway. They're free (as long as you turn them in on time--super big plus for us) and there is usually something there for everyone. I also don't have to store the movies myself any longer.

Their homemade train table is going to be their main art area. So it's near the shelves of art supplies. I want them to be able to get out and create whenever they feel like it. There are special materials I'm keeping for "you ask first" only, but most things they should be OK with now that Tigger is a little older. I have plenty of copy paper that my hubby got for free. It's amazing what people are willing to throw out. Two huge boxes, one of which is going into the shed, of good size copy paper perfect for pre-k art.

The basement is so clean (compared to before--there are a couple of areas I still need to tackle) that I actually got out my beads last night and made a few pieces of jewelry. That's something I started about a year and a half ago. I've sold a few things, nothing big time. I've just rarely had the time to take my stuff out and get going on it. There's usually so much picking up I need to do. Hopefully, the reorganizing, decluttering and retraining of my children will help with all of that.

I'm so very happy and thankful that the King and I have been able to accomplish so much these last two weeks. It makes up for the months I've been waiting for this to happen.

Simultaneous RCR

The last several days I was concentrating on this latest RCR pattern. Simultaneous = at the same time. Having Pooh try to follow my pattern at the same time I was doing it. We did the soap bubble blowing incident, never to be repeated. We also did a stamping activity, putting little stickers onto paper, jumping on the mini-trampoline, drumming, scooter riding, throwing balls that Dad had to catch and a couple different activities with toy cars. Another thing we did that I personally liked, was to paint one of those hanging wooden butterflies from the Wal-mart craft section. I had one wing and he had the other one and he had to paint his side the same as mind. He seemed to follow my lead really well. The one thing I noticed about myself as I was transferring to a VHS tape for our consultant, is that I was talking too much. I also wasn't waiting long enough for Pooh to reference before I started clearing my throat or acting impatient, etc. So I think this pattern was the hardest for ME. I need to work on my patience and enjoy the moment more than worrying about finishing the activity.

Sometimes, I think the way I as a parent handle our RDI program depends upon how much I've got on my mind. How much I'm thinking of all the things I have to do. I think I had a bad week in that regard. My goal for next time will be to reset my brain to only focus on the kids and enjoy what we're doing together.

I've sent the current tape off to the consultant and will be eagerly awaiting what she has to say. Hopefully, we'll be able to move on to some of the objectives for Stage 1.

On another note, The King and I actually finished raising our storage shed this weekend. We worked for two days. There sure are a lot of screws that come with those things. I had no idea. I now have much more respect for anyone who says they will be erecting one. The thing must also be perfectly level and perfectly squared. Sometimes, a little brute force doesn't hurt either.
The whole purpose of this thing is to get most of their toys and clothes I'm storing out of the house. I HAVE to declutter. There's just no way I can continue like this. It's too distracting for me and I'm sure too distracting for the kids. I'm going to rotate their toys and movies. I'll also pack away any academicky stuff I've acquired that they're just not ready for yet.

This momma is ready for change.