Combine:
Congratulations to me on keeping my toughest resolution ever. On this day in 1993 I smoked my last cigarette. Yeah me!
Last year's resolutions were:
1. Stay out of the hospital. -- Mostly successful. I did enter the building, but only as a worried daughter, not as a patient.
2. Wear fragrance and nail polish more often. -- Yup. I've been sparkly and scented all year long.
3. Make and adhere to weekly menu plans. -- Yup. I use Google's calendar to keep organized.
4. Go for more walks. -- FAIL.
5. Go to the gym 1-2 times a week. -- FAIL.
6. De-clutter the house, basement, and barn. -- FAIL.
7. Buy myself a miniature Australian Labradoodle. -- Resounding Success. Oh my goodness, what a good decision that was. Expensive, yes, but much cheaper than therapy and way more effective and fun.
This year's resolutions:
1. Be a kinder, more patient, more fun Mom. Pray for me on this one please.
2. Get the kids up at 7:00 on schooldays in order to get the mandatory work done before we leave the house. Somehow we got involved in lots of midday activities and none of us are any good in the classroom after 3:00.
3. Go for a walk or ride my exercise bike 4 times a week.
4. Go the gym twice week.
5. Grow and preserve more food.
6. Learn to trim Nutmeg's nails, keep the mats out, and do all the other grooming tasks.
Once I ask my children to do something I may (or may not) give one free reminder, but after that I charge management fees for my reminder services. Management fees are payable in small acts of service (fetch things for me, make my bed, etc.), nothing too dire, but enough to make them wish they had just done whatever it was in the first place.
If nothing else, it gets my bed made on most days.
God’s World
O World,
I cannot hold thee close enough
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise.
Thy wood, this autumn day, that ache and sag.
And all but cry with colour!
That gaunt crag
To crush!
To lift the lean of that black bluff.
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough.
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this:
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart –
Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me – let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay
October
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost –
For the grape’s sake along the wall.
-- Robert Frost
I've mentioned this before -- using iPod playlists for instruction -- in my post about Breakfast Devotions. Since then I have expanded it to include:
Memorization Work:
We have just started with this Vocabulary Building curriculum and I rather like it. I download the audio presentation from the Wordly Wise website and add it to our iTunes "Daily Listen" playlist, which I will tell you about in an other post. After a couple of days of listening, we tackle the worksheets. The children get most of the answers right and feel all clever and "Good at English". The webiste also includes fun review games which are a nice carrot for children who complete their lessons promptly.
Besides, what's not to love about a curriculum that includes this sentence: "Only the Congress of the United States has the authority to declare war."
P.S. Just found the Wordly Wise Word Lists here, so if you wanted to you could just work with the word lists and the audio and the games.
Oh how we loved it. It reminded us a bit of a good cheese fondue, but more healthful. I based it on Dorie Greenspan's recipe.
Dice and cook:
3-4 strips of bacon
Cut the top off of, and hollow out:
1 large pumpkin, about 4-5 pounds
Combine, and then fill the pumpkin with it:
the bacon
1 loaf of white artisan bread cubed and dried out in the oven.
1/2 C pinenuts
6-8 cloves garlic,
minced
3/4 C cubed cheddar
3/4 C cubed Swiss
1/2 C homemade soft cheese that I had to make when the yogurt I was trying to make curdled
1/2 C cream cheese, diced
1 C half-and-half
1 T nutmeg
salt and pepper
Bake on foil lined cookie pan for about 2 hours at 350. Serve with apple and tomato slices.
Dorie's instructions are much more detailed, so if you have questions, go see her post, linked above.
I am the wife of a man I call My Gift from a Generous God. I am mama to two lovely children, Dandy and Chickadee that became ours in September 2006 in a court-room in Siberia. I am the daughter of two people whom I love and admire. One of them, my dad, is a new (Dec 06) paraplegic.
In my previous life (B.C. - before children), I was a college English teacher, specializing in composition and ESL composition.
:: click here to read my 8 things meme
