Mama Monday: Punching the Homeschool Clock

I was feeling overwhelmed in our homeschool, so I made a drastic switch in how I approached it. The difference has been huge and rippled through our home. If you’re feeling a little stagnant this school year, then maybe the idea that helped me will help you.

Check out my article about treating homeschooling like a job at The Homeschool Post.

Making my job a top priority in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: When Being Perfect Isn't Perfect

As a perfectionist I’ve struggled with becoming immobilized by being perfect my entire life. When I noticed the same tendencies in Chipette, I knew I didn’t want perfectionism to hold her in its grasp.

Check out my article about dealing with perfectionism in your children on The Homeschool Post.

Practically NOT perfect in every way in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: The Measure of a Man

A beginning is always a good time to evaluate where you are and where you want to be. And the beginning of a new school year is a perfect time to focus on our children. As mothers it is helpful to evaluate our children’s strengths and weaknesses. Where are they now? Where do we want them to be?

For homeschoolers, this question is often answered academically.

Chipette knows her addition and subtraction facts. I want her to know multiplication by the end of the year.

Magpie is halfway through her phonics program.  I want her to be finished by the end of the year.

I think it’s pretty common for all moms whether our children attend public school, private school, or are homeschooled to spend the school year focused on academic achievements and overcoming academic hurdles.

Recently I was reminded that there is much more to our children’s education than math, language arts, and science. In fact, I would say the most important parts of a child’s education are not the academics, but the growth of their character.

Use the start of the school year to write out the growth of character you wish to see in your children.

Here are some suggestions to help you:

1. Be specific. Instead of generic statements such as, “I want Monkey to clean his room,” say, “I want Monkey to learn how to put his toys in their proper bins and place his clothes in the cupboard.”

2. Schedule a time to review. Public schools send home progress reports and report cards about ever five weeks. You, also, need to review your goals for your kids. Make note of how things are progressing, or not progressing as the case may be, and adjust. Schedule reminders in your phone or on your computer right now for a once a month character check up.

3. Don’t share with your kids. Okay, maybe this only applies to my family, but I wouldn’t recommend sharing your child improvement plan with the child. This list is for YOU to focus YOUR attention on specific behaviors/character traits you want to develop in your children.

This year as you prepare for the first day of academic success, prepare for a year of character success as well. The measure of character your children possess will define who they are and their quality of life FAR more than the grades on their report card.

Making sure the kids measure up this year in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: Fourth Grade Read Aloud List

It’s been a while since I posted one of these lists, but since Chipette is heading into fourth grade this year, it seems appropriate to share the read aloud list that I’ve compiled from various resources for the coming year. All of these books are chapter books, so no designations are needed. While I haven’t read these as read alouds yet, I have read some of the books on the list personally. I will mark those with an asterisk (*) to indicate a story that I loved. You can download the list at the bottom of this post which makes it handy for placing in your teacher binder or carrying to the library. 

The Bears’ House by Marilyn Sachs

Fran Ellen’s House by Marilyn Sachs

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Peterson

A Blue-Eyed Daisy by Cynthia Rylant

The Friendship by Mildred Taylor

The Dog Days of Arthur Cane by Ernesto Bethancourt

The Hero from Otherwhere by Jay Williams

Soup by Robert Newton Peck

A Taste of Blackberries by Doris B. Smith

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell*

The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry 
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson* (super sad, but so good!)

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis

No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink

The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau* (LOVED this book)

The People of Sparks by Jeanne Duprau

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele

The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs

Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr

By the Great Hornspoon by Sid Fleischman

Humbug Mountain by Sid Fleischman

Chauncy and the Grand Rascal by Sid Fleischman

Holes by Louis Sachar* (I was substitute teaching when I discovered this book. While the students were watching the movie the teacher had left for them, I found this book laying on her desk. I read it that school day. Wonderful story, mystery, and great characters!)

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

Jason’s Gold by Will Hobbs

Down the Yukon by Will Hobbs

Beardance by Will Hobbs

Bearstone by Will Hobbs

Downriver by Will Hobbs

Far North by Will Hobbs

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight

Loser by Jerry Spinelli

A Corner of the Universe by Anne Martin

Lupita Manana by Patricia Beatty

Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques

The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

Rasco and the Rats of NIMH by Jane L. Conly

R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH by Jane L. Conly

Nothing to Fear by Jackie French Koller

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

Sour Land by William H. Armstrong

Space Race by Sylvia Waugh

Thunder Cave by Roland Smith

Jaguar by Roland Smith

The Last Lobo by Roland Smith

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi* (One of my all time favorite books, even as an adult!)

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt* (A great conversation starter for kids about making difficult choices.)

Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin* (A classic for a reason!)

The Silver Skates/Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

  

Fourth Grade Read Aloud List Download

In case you missed the previous years’ lists from preschool through third grade, they can be found under the Reading List tab.

Looking forward to sharing some of my favorite books with my favorite people in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: One of My Mom Heroes

On Sunday we celebrated the greatest and most difficult calling in the world…being mom. I wanted to use this Mama Monday post as a spinoff of the sermon Preacher Man gave this Sunday about Jochebed, the mother of Moses (Numbers 26:59). When you’re in the trenches doing the most important job in the world, you need all of the encouragement you can get!

Jochebed obeys God.

          In Exodus 1:22 the Bible tells us that Pharaoh gave the command for all Hebrew baby boys to be thrown in the Nile River, but only the girls could live. The reason for this extreme act is because the current king of Egypt was concerned that the Hebrew nation had become too large and powerful. He was afraid that they would rise up against the Egyptians (Exodus 1:8-10). During this time, Jochebed, who had already given birth to at least two children, Aaron and Miriam, gives birth to another baby, a boy. She hides him for as long as she can, but eventually she knows she must do something or the Egyptians will find him and throw him in the river. This mother was willing to stand up against the strongest empire of that time to do what God had said and what her mother instincts told her to do. Protect her child. Today as mothers we are also called to obey God, to do what He commands, not what society or the government says is the proper way to be a mom. Sometimes these spheres may overlap, but ultimately we must obey God when it comes to raising our children.

Jochebed has faith.

          What Jochebed does next sends chills down my spine and puts humility in my heart. She makes a basket for him, covers the basket with tar so it’s waterproof, lays the baby, who is three months old by this time, inside, and then puts the basket in the Nile River (Exodus 2:1-3). Although the Bible doesn’t tell us I’m sure this mother was beseeching God repeatedly to take care of her precious baby, to give him a chance at some kind of life so that he would not die at the hand of the Egyptians. Ultimately, though, this act shows us the depth of Jochebed’s faith. She is trusting God to take care of her son. At some point all of us will have to send our children out on their own as well. At that point, we need to have the faith of Jochebed that God will take care of them. She did everything in her power to take care of her son by hiding him as long as possible and providing him a safe vessel to make his journey, but now she puts her son into God’s care and lets go.

Jochebed takes advantage of her time.

          And God does take care of the baby. In fact, He brings him back to his mother. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the basket holding Jochebed’s son while she is bathing in the river and decides to keep him. At this point we discover that not only does Jochebed love her son, not only is God watching out for him, but his big sister, Miriam, has been following the basket that holds her baby brother. When Pharaoh’s daughter decides to adopt the baby, whom she names Moses, as her own, Miriam steps up and volunteers to find a wet nurse for the baby. Of course, she goes to get her mother and Moses’ mother. At this point Jochebed is hired to take care of her own son until he is older and she brings him back to Pharaoh’s daughter to live with her (Exodus 2:4-10).

This gives Jochebed precious, little time to teach her son the ways of the Israelites and to teach him about the true God. We aren't sure how long she is his nurse, but we do know that the time Jochebed had with him, she used wisely. Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s household as an Egyptian, but he identifies with the Hebrews (Exodus 2:11). Why? It is easy to see, that it is because of the few years that Jochebed had with him to instill a love of God and his true Hebrew heritage. Even though we may have more time with our children than Jochebed did with Moses, ultimately the time that our children will be under our roof is short. We need to feel the urgency that Jochebed did. We need to make sure that we are teaching our children their true identity as children of God and teaching them to love Him with all of their heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Jochebed is blessed with three powerhouses for God.

          We don’t know if Jochebed is alive when Moses returns 40 years later after leaving Egypt, but we can see the legacy of this godly woman. Not only does her legacy live on in Moses, but she leaves behind Aaron and Miriam too. Moses is the lawgiver; he is portrayed many times in scripture as being second only to Jesus himself. Aaron and his descendents become the high priests of God’s people (Exodus 28:1). They lead the people of God in worship for hundreds of years. Miriam becomes a prophetess of God (Exodus 15:20). Of course, all three of them have their moments of weakness and sin, but ultimately we can see the unifying force of these three servants of God. They had a mother who obeyed, who had faith, and who taught them to do the same. Imagine the power and influence that we have today as Christian mothers. The power to raise our children in the Lord and leave a legacy that reaches far into future generations.

Praying for all mothers everywhere to be encouraged and enjoy this challenging work laid at our feet.

The time is too short with my sweet babies in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: Feeding the Family: It's Time to Cook!

This week concludes my three part series on Feeding the Family. We’ve covered budgeting and planning a menu. This week I’m sharing how I manage to cook while having small children in your family. My youngest is three now, but I still cooked like I do now while I had infants and toddlers. It takes some planning, some practice, and a whole lot of patience to get delicious, home-cooked meals on the table when you have little people underfoot.

When You’re Shopping

If you are privileged enough to get to take your children shopping with you, then you know how traumatic it can be for everyone involved. You need to get in, buy your groceries, and get out (hopefully alive!). Recently I’ve found myself having to backtrack because I forgot to grab something a couple of aisles before. Can I just mention how much I hate this? It adds time to our time in the store, and I’m swooping all over the store with my cart full of kids and groceries like some kind of crazy woman. {Yes, I have a flair for the dramatic. Do you know my oldest child? She takes after her mom.}

Anyway, while I was prepping to write this blog post, I got to thinking about how I organize my shopping list (I don’t), then I started thinking about how I would like to organize my shopping list so that nothing is missed the first time through. I wanted to maximize my time in the store, so I spent about 30 minutes making my own personalized grocery list template.

About two weeks ago when we went shopping, I took pictures with my phone of each aisle and how it was labeled. I came home and created text boxes in a Word document to make my own customized grocery list that was laid out like the store that I shop at the most. Now I can write my list by putting items in the exact aisle or store section where they are! A winning situation for both me and the kids since we’ve been getting in and out of the store faster than ever.

When You’re Storing

So once you’ve bought your groceries now you have to figure out how to get it on the table in a timely manner with small children wanting and needing your attention. The MOST important part of cooking, especially with infants and toddlers, is the preparation stage.

Organized Pantry: I saw this idea recently on Pinterest and knew that I’d want to use it one day. Well, this blog series inspired me to do it, and I must say that it has been super helpful around my house. I have a really small pantry. It’s about 2 feet by 2 feet floor to ceiling. My mom doesn’t even have a pantry; she has to use a couple of cabinets in her laundry room. Fortunately this idea can work for any size or style of pantry. I bought six clear, plastic shoe boxes without the lids. Then I used this free printable labeling template that I found on Pinterest as well {seriously what did I do before Pinterest!}. I labeled each box with a day of the week Sunday through Friday since we do leftovers on Saturday, laminated the labels, and taped them to the front of my boxes.

Now comes the helpful part: fill each box with what you need to make your menu for that day {obviously not perishables!}, the spices and seasonings, oil, flour, canned foods, potatoes, onions, etc. I even include the recipes that I will be using that day.

What I love about this system is all I need to do when it’s time to cook supper is grab my box for that day and cook. This has made my life so much easier since I’m not rummaging through the pantry trying to find that can of green beans that I KNOW I bought. I load these boxes as I unload my groceries from my weekly shopping trip. Easy-peasy! {You could also set up this same system in your refrigerator if you were so inclined to make grabbing the perishables easy as well.}

When You’re Prepping

For me the part of cooking that eats up most of my time is the prep, peeling, slicing, dicing, seasoning, etc. When you have small children around, you need to be able to get dinner on the stove or in the oven as quickly as possible. You never know when a baby might need to be fed, a mess cleaned up, or a catastrophe averted. The easiest way to move things along in the kitchen is to have everything pre-prepped as much as possible. Peel and cut veggies. Season meat (and make sure you let it thaw the day before!).  Measure out spices and flours. You can get all of this prep done during naps, before work, or while the kids are eating breakfast and/or lunch. Prep usually take me anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes depending on what I’m making. That’s quite a bit of time saved!

When You’re Cooking

Some of my favorite memories are with my kids in the kitchen. I am not one to shy away from letting my children around hot stoves or ovens. They learn to cook with me right there to guide them. However, when they are young, you don’t want them underfoot or in danger of accidents. Here are some of the things I do and have done when I need to keep little bodies out of the way to get bellies fed.

For infants:

• Bumbo
• Johnny Jump Up
• Exersaucer or walker
• Swing or bouncer

But the most important thing with infants (at least with my kids it was like this!) is to talk to them while you’re cooking. If anyone had walked in the kitchen when my kids were little they would have thought I was insane!

“Mommy’s putting the green beans on to cook. Green beans are so delicious! You’re going to love them. Now Mommy needs to peel the potatoes. Potatoes are native to the Americas, but quickly became a source of sustenance across Europe after exploration (learned that tidbit writing my history senior thesis paper in college).”

You get the idea. Just talk and talk or sing and sing, do something to let them know that you are right there and everything is okay.

For toddlers:

• Run up some water in the sink and let them play.
• Make a zoo on your refrigerator or any refrigerator magnets.
• Put rice or beans in a dishpan, give them some measuring cups, and let them have fun (make sure they are past the put everything in their mouth stage first!).
• Put a play kitchen nearby so they can cook while mommy cooks.

And again…talk and sing your heart out! Toddlers especially love learning words so show them some kitchen utensils and teach while you’re cooking!

For preschoolers:

I start letting my kids help around this age (if I have the time to do so!). Let them mix, pour, and shake. They love it and it gets them started young on knowing their way around the kitchen.

{Full Disclosure}

I have also been known to put on a movie or send them in the backyard to play so I can cook dinner. I sometimes have to be that mom. No apologies. That’s just life. :)

Feel free to leave some of your tips for entertaining little ones while you cook in the comments.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood stop on by, because something yummy is always cooking in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: Feeding the Family: The Menu

A few weeks ago I talked about budgeting, this week I wanted to focus on how I actually plan my meals.

Rotation is Not Just for Planets

The only meal that I really plan is supper. I have a rotation in place for breakfast and lunch.  Based on what day of the week it is, I know (and the kids know) what is for breakfast that day. Here is our breakfast rotation: Monday and Wednesday, we have eggs and toast. Tuesday and Thursday, we have cereal. Friday is muffins and Saturday is pancakes and sausage. On Sunday, the kids have oatmeal and I have yogurt and a protein bar since I don’t like oatmeal. Having a plan like this in place makes meal planning a breeze! All you have to do is make sure you have your staples on hand for breakfast and you’re good to go.

Lunch is not as planned. I stock up on lunch meat and cheese, microwave mac-and-cheese, some Chef Boyardee meals, tortillas and shredded cheese, frozen tortellini, peanut butter, Greek yogurt, diced tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese for a quick pizza. As you can see, this is when I buy my pre-packaged food. We homeschool so I need lunch to be quick and easy so we can get back to work. From these choices my kids can have a sandwich, peanut butter and jelly, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, homemade pizza, pasta with butter and Italian seasonings, macaroni and cheese, or canned pasta. Of course fruit and veggies are always kept around for sides and snacks. Another easy meal to plan, just make sure you’ve got the basics!

Be a Boy Scout

Just like the Boy Scouts are always prepared, to feed your family, you need to be as well. Before I ever put pencil to paper I think about the week. What nights do we have activities? What nights are we going to be pressed for time? Then I make a notation on my page. You should always have a few select recipes for the crockpot or that are quick and easy. Use these recipes for those days. You are more likely to cook on busy days if you don’t have one hour of prepping and cooking staring you in the face when you walk through the door. Check out my Speedy Quick Pinterest board for some of my favorites.

Double Duty

When making my menu for the week, I try to be very conscious of meals that can be used more than once, especially my meat dish. For example, if I make a roast, I plan on making stew or barbecue beef later in the week. I use leftover chicken to make soups or fajitas and leftover pork roast for carnitas.  This helps you out with your grocery budget and it helps you with nights when you need quick and easy. A win-win situation!

Side Kicks

Sometimes the hardest part of planning a meal is not your main dish, but what to pair with it. There are a few methods that I use to choose side dishes:

• Try to Make a Rainbow. I always tell my kids to make a rainbow on their plate. What I’m encouraging them to do is eat vegetables from all the color groups: greens, whites, yellows, oranges, reds. For them to do this, though, I need to make sure and have a variety offered that my family will eat, so try to hit lots of color groups with your sides.
• Notice what Restaurants Pair Together. Lots of times I get ideas for what would taste well with each other by looking at restaurant menus. If you can’t figure out what to serve with fish, pull up some restaurants online that you love. Most have their menus online so you can easily see what side dishes they put with different main dishes.
• Ask Somebody. There is no harm in asking friends and family what sounds good with roasted pork. You don’t become a good cook by never asking questions or trying something different.
• Trust Your Buds. After you’ve cooked for a while, you begin to understand spices and flavors. You start to just “know” what flavor combinations would work well together. Once you get to this point, choosing side dishes and flavor combinations becomes much easier.

My Meal Plan Process in Pictures

First, I write down the days of the week on a piece of paper.

Next, I circle the days that I need a crockpot or quick and easy meal.

Now, I write down my proteins for each day based upon what is in my freezer. I try to never have any of the same meat back to back. It’s just my personal food issues uniqueness shining through!

Once I have my proteins down now I try to find a recipe to fit that protein. I use cookbooks, Pinterest, my own personal recipes, etc. I generally stick to tried and true ones and only spring something new on everybody about once a week. Sometimes it’s good enough to become a permanent fixture in my meal planning and sometimes it’s a one hit wonder. I add a recipe name to my protein.

When I know exactly what I’m making, I can add my side dishes.

Notice on Sunday, I wrote rice x2. That is my double duty item. I’m using rice in a dish later in the week so when I make my rice on Sunday, I’m reminding myself to make a double batch. I’ll store half of it in the refrigerator and pull it out later in the week for my other recipe.

Hopefully this explanation helped you understand exactly the process that I go through to plan our meals. The first few times you do this it will take a while. But once you get the hang of it, it goes much faster. I can plan our entire week’s meals in about 10-15 minutes.

Next week, I’ll be showing how to get all of this on the table when you have little people under your feet!

Planning protein and rainbow plates in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: Feeding the Family: The Budget

While I don’t get requests for posts often, sometimes I do get so many questions about one certain topic that I know I need to address it some way. Most recently I’ve received questions about how I cook on a budget, plan my meals, and with small children underfoot. 

So this Mama Monday post is all about Feeding the Family: The Budget.

Before you ever set foot in your local grocery store, you better have a budget. You need to know how much you can spend each week to make it through the month. Since we live on one salary, I have to make sure that we can make it through a month without eating beans and rice for a week.

Each month I spend around $600-$700 on groceries for our family of 5. This money is only for food and doesn’t include gas or non-food household items. This averages out to about $150 a week. I try to always have this amount of money IN CASH when I go grocery shopping. I emphasized the phrase “in cash” because if I just swipe my debit or credit card it’s a lot easier for me to go over budget. The weeks that I don’t stop by the ATM to get cash, I almost always overspend which is not a good thing.

I want to tell you right now that:

• I do not clip coupons (too much time involved)
• I do not shop at huge warehouse stores like Sam’s Club or Costco (we don’t have enough storage in our house for 50 rolls of paper towel no matter how cheap they are!)
• I do not drive from store to store to nab the best deals out of each store’s weekly flyer (I am usually shopping with all three kids and getting them in and out of three or more stores without a fight, someone crying, or being nagged to death for candy is never going to happen).

Here is how I try to maximize my budget:

Buy meat only when it’s on sale. Meat is the most expensive part of any meal 99% of the time. I would love to tell you that I cook vegetarian meals once or twice a week, but I don’t because Preacher Man would probably cry if there wasn’t some kind of meat on the table. It’s too depressing to see a grown man cry, so meat shows up at every meal. Our local grocery store puts new selections of meat on sale every Wednesday, so I try to sneak up there after the kids are in bed to look it over. I buy two packages of everything I know we will eat and store them in the deep freeze in the garage. Some weeks this equals two packages of chicken, pork chops, roast, and steak. Some weeks it’s only a couple of different cuts of meat, but I always buy two. I usually do this the first and third week of the month. That way the second and fourth weeks I don’t need to buy meat (or not as much) and can use the extra money in my budget to load up on more of my household needs like cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, diapers, etc.

Keep away from pre-packaged food as much as possible. Not only is this stuff not as healthy for you (just read the list of ingredients, you probably can’t pronounce half of it!), but it’s more expensive. I’ll be honest, we do eat some of this stuff, but I do try to limit it. It’s just not worth it when you can make it much cheaper and much healthier. I also don’t buy snack foods (cookies, crackers, chips) are not happening around here.

Have a menu ready and ONLY buy what you need for that menu or to restock your staples (flour, milk, eggs, bread, etc.). I will talk specifically about how I menu plan next week, but the worst thing you can do is walk into a grocery store without a list of what you need to cook meals at your house. Why? Because you will walk up and down the aisles and say, “That looks good. I’ll get that,” and at checkout discover you have succeeded at going well over budget.

Figure out your items that are non-negotiable and cut out something else to make it happen. I try, try, try to feed my family food that is healthy, organic, and not processed. However, I am on a budget and buying all organic is just not feasible right now. I use the dirty dozen list as my base, but no matter what I try I cannot afford organic meat. It’s just too much, but I am able to buy the rest of the items on the dirty dozen list. However, to be able to do this I decided that this was important to me for my family, so I cut back in some areas to be able to buy organic. I only mention this because trying to buy organic or gluten-free can be expensive. If it matters to you and your family, then cut things out of the budget. You can do it.

One last tip….

If you are getting started on trying to cook more from home, start small. Only cook a couple of nights a week, and then add some more nights the next month. One thing I can promise you is that cooking at home is much, much cheaper than eating out. When our family eats at a restaurant it will cost us about $45-$50 including the tip. I can feed our family steak (bought on sale), baked potatoes, steamed broccoli with cheese sauce, salad, and homemade bread for about $20 with the steak being half of the cost. Or take fast food as an example, for our family $25. If I make burgers and fries (not frozen, homemade), the total cost is around $8. I know the time factor comes into play here, but we’ll deal with that problem in a couple of weeks.

So work up a budget and get excited about feeding your family!

Go to Part 2:The Menu

Seeing just how cheap I can feed these folks in the tree house,

Chelli

Mama Monday: Happier At Home Challenge #2

So today is the first day of my Happier at Home Challenge and I finished reading the first chapter, Preparation from Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. In it she lays out her four truths of happiness:

1. To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

2. One of the best ways to make myself happy is make other people happy; one of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy myself.

3. The days are long, but the years are short.

4. I’m not happy unless I think I’m happy.

Next, she fleshes out these ideas a bit and it really resonated with me, so I grabbed a piece of paper and brainstormed some things that I thought of while I was reading:

Feeling Good

• Waking up to a clean kitchen and a clean dining room table: This makes it about 1,000% easier to begin our school day.
• Keeping the house picked up: It doesn’t have to be spotless, but I feel better when I don’t risk breaking my neck to walk across my kids’ bedrooms to kiss them goodnight.
• Having an easy rhythm to our day: I don’t want a strict, timed schedule to follow, but I do love when our days just flow like a gentle stream because we know what we are to be about and we just do it.
• Time to relax with each other: Straight from supper to bed without time to hang out as a family does not make me feel good. I feel like I missed out on something special and wonderful.
• Time to talk with Preacher Man each night: After the kids are in bed, I love when we take the time to sit and chat with each other about our days, what projects we’re working on, or whatever is on our mind.

Feeling Bad

• Unexpected Visitors: Puts me in a funk every time when I can’t even open the door all the way or invite them inside because my house looks like we’ve had tornadic activity in the house.
• Too Much Stuff: When everything oozes onto the floor, counters, shelves, stuffed in closets because our house is full of useless junk.
• Chasing the Clock: I hate days (which are most of them) where I feel like the clock is my taskmaster and I keep pushing and rushing the children.
• No Interaction Beyond School: When the day has ended, it doesn’t feel right if I can’t think of some special time I spent with each of my kids beyond school work.

Feeling Right

• Priority on God: When our home feels the most right is when I’m being diligent with my Bible study and prayer and when the children and I study and pray together.
• Priority on Family: My perfect days are when we do nothing but be with each other all day.
• Priority on Fun: Our house doesn’t feel right unless there is much laughter and happy squeals.
• Priority on Harmony: Not necessarily everyone getting along (although that’s nice!), but when our routines run smoothly, our spirits seem in tune with God, and our down time is shared.

Atmosphere of Growth

• Tracking my Progress: It always helps me to see my improvements visually. It encourages me and lets me know I’ve had more successes than failures.
• Less Procrastination: If I want to grow our home into the good and right things while minimizing the bad, then I have to DO something. I can’t blog about it, dream about it, or whine and complain about it, I need action. Now.
• Analyze Everything in My Home: I ran across this quote the other day which basically summarizes how I want our home to grow and what will encourage us to grow spiritually,

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

Happy Other = Happy Me

• Try to Make Someone Happy: Beyond normal cooking, cleaning, etc. try to make someone in my sphere of influence happy each day. Above and beyond the basics.
• Make Myself Happy Each Day: Be selfish and do one thing just for my sheer enjoyment each day!

Long Days, Short Years

• Focus on Now: As sad as this thought makes me it’s true. Chipette turned 9 in November, which means she is halfway through her time under our roof if she leaves home at 18 to go to college. At the most, we might have a few more years beyond that. I choose to focus on NOW and be in the moment, every moment that I have with them.

Think Happy

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” ~ Book of Proverbs

Even if I don’t feel happy, even if I want to have a pity party, I need to try to think happy as much as possible. If I have to fake it, so be it, but I want my initial response to be happy. No one wants to be THAT person on Facebook whose status updates are always negative and complaining.

So these things are the beginning of being happier at home. I look forward to fleshing some of these ideas out and getting my hands dirty with making home a place where my family wants to be more than anywhere else. Because it’s happy here.

Next month, I’ll be working on chapter two, Possessions: Find a True Simplicity.

Putting on a happy face in the tree house,

Chelli