If You Give A Mom A Muffin…

Sometimes my life seems so complicated…here’s someone who understands.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin…

If you give a Mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.
She’ll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do some laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan dinner for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She will look for her cookbook (101 Things to Make With a Pound of Hamburger).
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.
She’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year old.
While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring.
Her four year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee on Friday.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.

And chances are……
If she has a cup of coffee……
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

by Kathy Fictorie
(Based on “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff)

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Many times people have asked me what exactly we do during the day. We do not “do school” as such and so they are confused as to what we are really doing.

A normal day in our house! Wow! There isn’t one…

When we do school (at least what the children would call “school”) it is mostly phonics and copywork. One child drills another with some homemade flash cards while I do reading from Mcguffey’s with each child. Then we all sit down at the table to do some copywork – whatever strikes our fancy. We do have the Italic workbooks, but my older ones usually copy out their scripture memory work, or a poem or a quote. They decorate the page and put it in their binders. For spelling, my oldest two work through Rod and Staff workbooks on their own. We use a dictionary constantly in our daily life (my husband included) so my children have naturally picked that up and will use it if they feel the need. Read aloud consumes most of our time. We are currently working our way through:

Story of the World, Vol 3
John Bunyan (Heroes of the Faith)
More All of A Kind Family
Mission Stories from the Millers
Listening to Music (University textbook on how to listen to classical music)
Our Amazing World (Older nature encyclopaedia)
Exploring England: An Introduction to Nature Craft
Little Pilgrim’s Progress (although we’ve already been once through the original)
The Long Winter (by my husband)
The King’s Daughter and Other Stories for Girls
Diana Waring’s What in the World Tapes
Mrs G Tapes
Some bio’s about Bach (he’s our composer this term)
A Child’s History of the World (I use it as a sort of review for SOTW)
The Story of Canada
Plus whatever library books we have out (about 50 at any givien time!)

Laurie Bluedorn once said to read what you want to read and forget about what level your children are at. This has worked well for us. I’ve also abandoned books that I was not enjoying, telling my children as much of a reason as I could. In Charlotte Mason fashion, I mostly read one chapter or section from each book at a time, but we have been known to spend all day on one book!

Around the edges we try to fit in piano lessons (we’re all learning together) and Spanish and French (Rosstta Stone from the library)

We also have a time of worship in the morning which includes Scripture Fellowship Memory books (and prizes) and we are reading through the New Testment this year. I try to do a lap page type craft for the chapter.

While I read, the children work on Postal Bible Studies, a craft, drawing, or an assigned toy. Mostly we just all curl up on the couch and listen. I make it a habit to sit and listen when my hubby reads aloud (even though I could easily find other things to do). I think my children have really learned from this example.

Recently they started writing letters. They couldn’t find any penpals, so they just started writing letters to some other children in the city. The children wrote back, and now a few moms are writing me. This could be fun and a great way to learn copywork stuff!

After my oldest read Little Women, my children started a family newspaper. They often work on that as individuals or together.

We have a chore system in place and my children are responsible for quite a bit around the house although we really fall down in this area. My house is a mess right now - and I am really not exaggerating. Our basement is being built, so everything is on the main floor! Too much stuff, not enough room, and it spells disaster! I should mention that my children help out on house renos on Saturdays (our workday). They are learning to frame, insulate, drywall, paint, level floors, etc. I count this as school!

That’s it. I am trying to get more of a routine going, but I’ve been praying over it for about eight weeks and still have not felt any leading. I think God really wants me to focus on some stuff in my life, and I am trying to be open and honest with the children about this.

Whatever we are doing, we are usually doing it together. Many experts talk about how this is one of the most important things you can do for children (the family that works together stays together!)

My father is a Scotsman, born and raised in Glasgow. He came over in 1959 with his parents and the clothes on his back. He’s worked hard his whole life to make sure my sister and I had what we most needed. In addition to the basic necessities, he’s given me a great pride in my British heritage, the ability to pinch a penny in any situation, and a love of porridge and oatcakes. I truly think that bagpipes make beautiful music (they played at my wedding and they’ll play at my funeral!) I make a good cup o’ tea, even though it never tastes as good as the cup I get at home. And I grew up listening to Max Bygraves (who, even though he was English, is a pretty cool crooner!)I’m a Pink Toothbrush
Val de Ri Val de Ra
Tea for Two.

These songs still come to me almost daily.

And that’s when I remembered.

Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea.

I knew that if God ever blessed me with a cottage that’s what I would name it. I don’t have cottage yet, but a blog seemed pretty close!

My memory is slipping though and I couldn’t quite recall all the words. So I tracked down those MIAs.

There’s a tiny house, by a tiny stream,
Where a lovely lass had a lovely dream,
And her dream came true, quite unexpectedly
In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea.

She was out one day where the tulips grow,
When a handsome lad stopped to say hello,
And before she knew, he kissed her tenderly,
In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea.

The happy pair were married one Sunday afternoon,
They left the church and ran away to spend their honeymoon:

In a tiny house by a tiny stream,
Where the lovely lass had a lovely dream.
And the last I heard, they still lived happily
In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea,

It took me back, as they say, and I smiled as I remembered my Dad’s stereo - a solid wood oak cabinet polished to a high gloss (they don’t make stereos that way anymore) and his easy chair and a pair of leather earphones that covered both sides of my head!

I had dreams back then…great big dreams of being a lawyer, or a writer, or a famous archaeologist, or perhaps an amazing preacher who would bring thousands to Christ! I can’t honestly recall wanting to grow up and get married and have five children and homeschool them all!

And yet as I reflected on my dreams of long ago, I realized that God has made them come true in a most unexpected way.

I am a lawyer - an advocate for my children. I am here to advise, protect and represent them! My job is to sift through myriads of information and ideas and present to my precious babies a true and accurate picture of God’s world.

I am a writer. Everyday I write another chapter in their lives. I give them the stories that will make them who they are, who they will become. I leave for them, within them, a legacy for their children and their children’s children. They are my books.

I am an archaeologist. I am sifting through the past, trying to find the truth and present it to them in way that they will both understand and appreciate. I am also creating history with them. Together we are creating events that will go on to shape the lives of others around us.

And most importantly, I am a missionary. While I may not be bringing thousands to Christ, I am bringing five. God has entrusted me with the lives of five of his most precious beings and He has done so because He knows that something in me is most what they need.

So this lovely lass, had a lovely dream that’s come true, quite unexpectantly. And the handsome lad still kisses me tenderly in

Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea!

Today is Around Town Day.

I look forward to this day because I get out of the house and get to see the real world. I also dread it because it can be difficult to remain cheerful while buckling and unbuckling five small children several times in a few hours. I so want for my children to see that I enjoy being with them, but sometimes it is so tiring and frustrating.

The constant flurry of getting in and out of the car.
The constant reminders of our Out and About Rules:

1. No yelling.
2. No running.
3. No climbing or riding on the cart (although you may ride in it, if size and space permits.)
4. No touching each other.
5. No touching the merchandise.
6. You must keep within eye contact of Mom at all times.
7. No asking for anything. (Why didn’t you go before we left? Not again?!)

The looks and comments we constantly generate and I only have five:

Is this a daycare? Are they all yours? You must be a busy lady. I don’t know how you do it. My two drive me crazy. (This in front of the “two”!)

They all wear me out and make for a frazzled, unhappy mommy. My children deserve so much better from me.

So for today I intend to focus on

- conveying how important my children are to me (more important than my errands)
- enjoying spending time with them (really, they will not be with me for long)
- praising them for how well behaved they really are (they really are great kids)
- extending God’s grace to others when the looks and comments start
- thanking God for his abundant provision which allows me to run all these errands and make the purchases I need (both the necessary and “extras”)

So here’s to chasing the weasel!

Just after I created my blog, I got sucked into visiting other blogs - one led to another and another and another until it was late into the night. I mentionned to my darling Dh that there was an entire world out there. He said it is called the Blogoshpere!

Wow - a whole other world, right at my finger tips!

Well here’s to hoping I can make time in my schedule to get done what needs to be done, and still have time to travel!

Right now I’m working on getting a household routine back up and running. I’ve made Mondays Office Day and my current list looks like this:

Budget
Filing (also clean out/decluuter one file)
Menus (for Thursday to Wednesday)
Grocery List
Price Book (work on this for 5 minutes)
Lesson Plans
Around Town Day Plan (where do I have to go around town)
Phone calls and appointments
Cleaning Plan (what needs to be done on Friday)
Homemanagement Book (work on this for 5 minutes)
Thank-you notes
Clean office area (when I have one!)

My goal is ten minutes per item, but let’s face it - I’ll never be able to keep it to that. Lesson Planning may require a lot more, although maybe not once school is up and going. Maybe if I actually stuck to this plan weekly, they wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes! How I would so love a watch with multiple alarms. I think that might really help me not get sucked in or side tracked….

During this time I hope the children will be kept busy with their Postal Bible studies, board , sorting their school shelves, organizing the books, writing their own thank-you notes, and possibly some computer .

Now I really must get those menus written so shopping tomorrow won’t be so frustrating!

Okay, here it is! I’m finally taking the dive to try writing things out rather than having them rattle around in my head.

I will have to work hard at making sure this does not become a time sink for me. I can so easily be overwhelmed by the day to day circumstances that being a homeschool mother of five can bring that I may have a tendency to retreat here permanently.

Please God help me to use my time and talents wisely - for you glory. Amen

Recently I’ve been spending time pre-reading books for my children. At first I looked on this task with a little annoyance. I don’t have enough time to read the books on my own wishlist, let alone a bunch of children’s books. So a small pile of books sat on my bedside table gathering dust.

Finally I picked one up and turned to the first page with a sigh. I’d just read it and get it over and done with.

Several hours later I closed the book with another sigh. The kind that comes with a smile and a tear in the eye. What an amazing book, I thought. I couldn’t wait for the following evening, to begin another one.

So now I’m choosing to read my children’s literature, before my own. I’m enjoying reading them. They make me frown, and cheer, and smile.

My husband recently joined in the action. My pile had grown considerably larger after a book sale at the local library. He picked up one of the Little House books. For several days, he kept sharing parts in it he loved. He’s planning on reading it aloud. I noticed that he’s working his way through the next one in the series.

As I reflected on this enjoyment we are both taking in reliving our childhoods, rediscovering old friends and making new ones, ones I wished I had made years ago, Christ’s words “such as these” came to my mind.

Children’s books usually retain some element of innocence in them. The really good ones are magical in their sense of goodness and fairness and all that is right.

I think that’s a little of what Christ was trying to convey.

Luke 18:16-17
But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

The innocence of childhood is lost on us. We live in a world saturated with such flagrant sin, that innocence is a foul word.

As homeschoolers we are constantly confronted with the idea that sheltering our children will make them naive. Yes, we reply.

I want for my children to be naive. I want for them to be innocent.

My children are not, however ignorant. They know about death, and war, and evil. They just haven’t encountered it firsthand, or even for that matter, secondhand.

They, like the books I have been reading, believe the good guys always win, in the end. That the “bad guys” can turn out to be okay. That life is ultimately good and fair and right.

And they’re right. God wins. Sinners are saved. And everything turns out alright in the end.

That’s not naivety. That’s the truth.