Productive

Last week I was talking with a friend about our days.  How we spend them, choices we make and so on.  When she stated she did not want to be productive all day.  Made me think.  Made me stop and think, to be honest.  Made me think about it after she left, when I was weeding, when I was doing some other things, and then I still thought some more.

Then, I stumbled on an article about the same topic.  About what we are teaching our kids.

Made me wonder why I strive to be productive all the time – most often muti-tasking to improve my productive-ness.  Why?  Do I do it so I can feel that sense of accomplishment?  Do I do it because I have 4 kids and I cannot keep up?  Do I do it because so often I have been told what I do is not good enough, that I still hear it all the time in my head?

chores

I love to watch my four kids walk down our driveway, leashes in hand, dogs in tow, dragging sticks, or holding rocks.  It is a sight that melts my heart just a little.  They look like a team embarking on a great adventure armed with weapons and animals, albeit a bit disheveled, but still sweet!

Getting this process started can be a bit annoying, honestly, how many times do I have to remind you “we” (you) walk the dogs every day after lunch?  But, once we get past the, “right now?” or the “ahhh, mom” – they merrily go walking down the driveway all together.   They choose, only 2 are expected to go, but the other two rarely miss out – they could hardly stand it if they did miss out!

They love to go walking down our road – they usually take about 45 minutes to go about 3/4 of a mile.  Kids speed.  Investigating time factored in.  And lots of fun.  Sometimes I feel guilty for their chores, not sure why – I mean we all have chores.  No matter our age.  Why not start them early understanding that and taking some responsibility for the world around them? 

Sunday Summary

Today we were blessed to have sweet friends over to play, eat and talk with!

We enjoyed our slow-cooked pork loin as pork tacos, Spanish rice, and even some homemade tamales!  I may have to post some pics from those and my recipe.  They were not as superb as the ones I made in November with my mom and Louie, but they were okay.  Our friends thought they were great, that inspires me to make some better to show them I really can make some decent tamales.

Thought I would organize my week tonight and look back over my meal plan, get my oatmeal in the crockpot tonight for breakfast in the morning and get some beans soaking too!

Here is my meal plan for this week {nothing fancy – but cheap}

24 ~ Monday: Beans & Rice

25 ~ Tuesday: Meat Loaf

pieces of an incomplete puzzle

 

I love to see the picture beginning to take shape.  The picture is the big picture of our life out here in Malakoff.  We moved out here with numerous expectations, while so many cautioned our excitement and joy.  Not a few people clearly expressed that we were moving too fast, or that we did not know what we were embarking on.  They think we are a little crazy right now.   Boy, are/were they wrong!

 

 Robert & his radishes

(he may have a future in radish farming)

 

This life agrees with us. 

It agrees tremendously with me (i.e. no more anxiety issues, or sleepless nights, or panic attacks), my children are eating it up as fast as they can, and my husband is just plain happy.  This country life, the Saturday mornings of planting flowers, clearing flower beds, cutting acres of grass, it is just what we were looking for. 

N.C Wyeth – Old Kentucky

 

So as we watch different pieces falling into place, my heart is just  about exploding!  We have added a couple dogs to our family and they are just about perfect!  They are the best 2 little puppies, and I have no complaints at all.  I love that we have 2 sisters to entertain each other when we are off to school, or out on a field trip.  I love that they love to romp and play with each other as much as running and playing with the kids!

And we are not done adding animals!!  Stay tuned for the next addition…..

Yesterday, I was able to get away from the family for a couple hours (okay – most of the day) and recharge my batteries at a CM conference.  CM is Charlotte Mason, she is the “designer'” of the style of education we use in our home.  We follow the guide offered by Ambleside but it is thoroughly based on CM and her philosophies about raising children with Living Books.  This was such a great time away, the conference was small with about 15 ladies in attendance.  Sonya Shafer is the woman teaching us (she is from Simply Charlotte  Mason) and she was just wonderful in offering tons of practical ideas and methods.  She offers many amazing resources too, but I did show some restraint in that I only bought a book on Habit Training and a DVD of the conference from today since I was not able to go.

I have been pouring through her website pulling her Book Of Centuries and her Scripture Memory notes too.  I have printed out some maps we will use Monday for our first Map Drill session, and I can hardly wait to “restructure” our days of school basing them more on some of her suggestions than on what I thought I understood before.  I am almost say tomorrow is Sunday and we cannot do school tomorrow (not really though!).

So I am just excited to see how God is continuing to work the details of this new life out here – and teaching me how it should look versus how I want it to look.  I am enjoying seeing it unfold and how my children are responding so well to it all.

I also think I have found a new pick-up location for our favorite organic veggie co-op!!  We loved this vegetable co-op so much in Mansfield and Irving, and I have been missing it terribly these past few weeks!!  I noticed a friend is the pick-up of the same co-op in a town outside of Tyler (an hour away) and thought maybe there would actually be one closer and low, and behold!  There is!!  Just about 10 miles away!! I cannot wait to get back in the habit of getting my ORGANIC veggies from Monica and her amazing co-op!!  God is so good –and let me assure you – HE IS IN THE DETAILS!!!

Note: here is a great post on Map Drills from fellow Ambleside user Amy.

Improving Life ‘round here

So we are 2 weeks into our chore chart that I talked about here,  and I wanted to just say that I LOVE IT!!  The kids love checking things off each morning (that is when we knock most chores out).  I love that I can go in at the end of the week and add new chores (like picking up the poop from our puppies) or something else I forgot.

The best part is that they are in charge of it – I am not trying to figure out what they need to do, what needs to be done, or who is doing what.  And if we stay on track most days, the bathroom (theirs) gets cleaned, their room stays “decent” and the floors stay clean too.  So I am pretty happy.  We have our designated kitchen helper each day and this helps with dumping the compost bin, vacuuming the kitchen floor after meals and the dishwasher.  They also have the honor of helping me cook, and they love that.

So this has made life a bit less stressful around here.  They do not grumble as much when they see their list as when I ask them to do something – so that is nice too!

The garden is coming in wonderfully!  We had a heavy rain yesterday and it looks like it loved it!  I will take pics later today to post – the radishes are coming in like crazy – too bad I don’t like ‘em!!

Another week of school is off to a good start, we so love our Ambleside curriculum!  We love to read all these great books, the kids are learning cursive (they asked, I was not planning on it) and our little girl is begging for her reading lesson each day!  We may have another reader soon!!

We are off today to get involved with 4H – cannot wait for that!  The kids are so excited!  Hopefully we will figure out something we can do with 4H this year to get our feet wet!