Frugal Accomplishments This Week

Inspired by The Prudent Homemaker blog, here are the things I did last week to be frugal and save money!

I aimed for a 'zero food waste' week and managed to only throw out one bag of kale that I forgot about in the back of the fridge.

I went through the children's clothing and pulled out the stained and ripped stuff to dispose of - but first I cut squares of fabric from them for the girls' quilts.

I rooted a bunch of green onions to get a second crop from the same bunch.

I did what I could to remove some stains from a blouse my daughter wears to church and had a good deal of success.

I was diligent in keeping the heat low and the lights turned off when I could.

I bought lemons on sale for a very good price and used some sugar from the last sale to make five jars of marmalade.  Each jar cost just under a dollar, excluding the jars which I already own.

I like to keep track of the things I do to save us money and still give us a full and happy life - maybe posting these on the blog will help.

A list of things to be thankful for, plus music.

It was a day of running around after a few days of more intentional schooling.  We tried a new math program this week and I was so ridiculous, accidentally printing off all these pages I never ended up needing.  Sigh.  There was a lot of back and forth second guessing before I took the jump and actually printed them, too. Should I?  Should I try something like this?  It's a spiral learning technique - do I like that idea?  Do I want to *make* my own workbooks?  Do I want to USE workbooks?  etc. etc.  It's so easy to second guess yourself at this stage of the teaching at home game.  I've done it, albeit with a very very relaxed approach, for two years now but I've never really REALLY thought in depth about curriculum and so forth.  What am I going for?

It ended up being such a teaching moment for me.  We did the lessons on the new curriculum that I had printed (oh, the printing, I can't let it go) and I wasn't sure and I wasn't sure and the backing and forthing, and then the clouds lifted.  Everything just became quiet and simple and I realized I needed to focus on the outcome.  What am I aiming for, here, in all of this teaching?  What is the point of it all?  And things have just been so much more streamlined.

And it's funny but peace and simplicity has just gone into so many other parts of life in the past few days.  The old cloth diapers I was hanging on to - I found myself discussing them with a friend and I said "you know, the new ones are so much better.  I'm so glad I bought these when the baby was born" and I thought 'why am I holding on to the old ones, then?  Why?'  So those will be finding a new home this week.  And David and I were chatting in the car and agreed that there was no reason to keep our stroller - why are we keeping it?  It's been falling apart for years now and the baby will not sit in it next summer I guarantee you, so it should go.  Really it should, and it should take its friend the broken stroller in the garage with it.

In the car I was listening to some beautiful music and it is in my heart right where all the fuss had been.

Purging!

I woke up early this morning, way too early (thank you, small people in my life, for ensuring I never miss a sunrise) but I tried to make the best of it by purging some of the children's clothes.  A big pile gone now, mostly of baby stuff.  Clothing in this house has a tendency to get a stain and then continue to rotate through the wash-dry-put away cycle over and over again.  Anyway, a bit less of all of that after this morning.  And then since I was on a role, and up anyway, I re-organized the homeschool cupboard as well.  All the workbooks that were being stored in other places are nice and neat and in the cupboard.  I've started a list of Things I Will Need For September, but you can probably guess that I'm a fairly minimalist homeschooler.  The list will be small.

And hey, since we're purging, why not feed everyone the collection of leftovers!

Homeschool Update

Here we are, at the end of January, so I guess I might as well do some sort of an update about how homeschool is going, although it really isn't anything thrilling at this point.

Mostly what seems to be happening is we're reading aloud a lot, plus trying to incorporate a daily math lesson, and some weekly art.  On top of that we talk a lot about all sorts of things.  What the difference is between perpendicular and vertical.  Coniferous trees.  The birds at our feeders.  Oh yes, we made bird feeders! Today we did math with skittles - grouping them into piles.  We watch nature shows and read about things that interest us.  The boy got a great book for Christmas - Julia Rothman's Nature Anatomy.  Such fun and a bit hit around here.

We were doing a storytime at the library once a week, but that has ended.  We still try to go to playgroup once a week.  We practice our letters and play games.  It's pretty low key and gentle at this stage.

In the fall I'll have a first grader and a junior kindergarten student and it will be a whole 'nother ball game.  I'm already trying to decide on curriculum and writing a scope and sequence and daily schedule.  I'll share them with you once they're all done.

In the meantime we're going to go look at the birds out the window.

Sickness

We've been thinking about having a cold over here for a while now and this morning it really hit us.  Full on pajamas on the sofa and lots of sleeping.  And we had to go to the church, the children and I, to switch all the Christmas decorations around to winter ones (blue and silver, mostly).  But I think children need to get out of the house anyway, even if they're sick.  The endless energy must go somewhere.

Sick time means chicken soup and blankets.  It means hot lemon and honey and warm baths and clean sheets on all the beds.  It is comfort and sleeping.  And hopefully it means getting better quickly.

I suck at blogging

Sigh.  And again.  I just cannot seem to recover from that blogging slump that started up when I discovered I was pregnant with the baby.  Ahem; the baby is now 19 months old and not really a baby, actually.  More like a tornado of energy and destruction.  Well, bear with me anyway friends.

So we're holding on through the winter and it isn't quite as bad as it was last year because this year the really cold weather didn't even start until January, compared to last winter when it started sometime in November and was still going strong into April.  That almost killed my will to live.  This year is better - I don't mind the winter from January thing.

Right now we're in the home stretch to achieve our big ministry goal - David's ordination.  If you've been following us through the journey then you'll know this is several years in the coming and we've worked our buns off for it.  Both of us.  All of us, actually, the children included.  We've all had to deal with David's extended absences because of required classes being held far away from home.  We've had to shoulder a lot of responsibility to get work done, as well as the financial strain of paying for seven courses last year and three this year, not to mention the travel. Last November he had to drive twelve hours just to GET to class.  That's a lot of gas.  And now we're down to the final push.  If the district board of ministerial development approves him this spring then he will be ordained at district conference this summer and all of our hard work will be worth it.

I'm incredibly excited about this but also treading really cautiously because we're not there yet.  David still has to finish the three courses this year (he has just over two months to finish all three courses, one of which can take some students up to six months to finish regularly) and then there is a final week away from us, this time in Michigan state for the in class work for two of the courses, and then receiving our date for the DBMD and taking some of our precious vacation time to travel (plus praying the old car will make it) to wherever that is and hopefully the final class grades will be in by then and the meeting goes smoothly and everything is approved.  Then there's the actual ordination, which after everything we've been through the past few years feels like the easy part.

At least we have everything paid for.  So there's that.

Christmas and The New Year and Learning Notes

Oh my word there are only, what, three days until Christmas?  Ack!  It hits me every single year like this, no matter how well I've planned and how many decisions I've made.  This year we've simplified about as much as you can and still have three young children in the house and not feel like you're 'ruining the holiday' for them.  We have a tiny tree and a few other decorations out, but not the stained glass or the lovely beeswax nativity.  We didn't put the gifts under the tree, nor did we go overboard with purchasing a lot of stuff, but what we did get was well thought out and is already wrapped.  All I need to do is stuff the stockings and that element of the day will be finished.  We're doing Christmas Day lunch over at the church again this year - I'm cooking a huge turkey and stuffing and peas and mashed potatoes and the congregation is bringing side dishes and desserts.  The food is ready is go, and my part in it is pretty simple, so there's not much to think about there.  This year the church decided on a Christmas concert, which was last Saturday, and I sang and did fairly well, both in the choir and acapella with my son.  And now all that's left in terms of services is Christmas Eve, where I sing again in the choir but I'm confident with the songs.

So you can see that it's all pretty streamlined, but I'm still overwhelmed.

I have been feeling pretty unhappy with how our homeschooling is going, so that's something.  Although when I look back I can see real progress.  The boy started out really not able to reliably name the letters of the alphabet, and now he can remember them all, and probably about 50% of the sounds as well.  He can do basic addition and can tell time and his writing is legible.  His art has gotten really cute and lovely as well.  I know he's not even six years old and I'm trying to be patient, but I'm looking forward to next year when he's in grade one and I can start a curriculum.

And David is finished his last course for the year!  That's an exciting one.  He has three courses left to go, one in January and then two more in March, before he can get ordained, and it's all working out and I am relieved so much about that.