Weekly "Big Rocks"

This is part of a series I'm doing on the "Big Rocks" and planning, which is part of a theme I'd like to do more thinking and writing about "Rhythm, Reverence and Time".

A couple of years ago, I tried using Flylady. I found that, once adapted to suit me, it helped me get my days and weeks in order. Recently, however, I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit. The holidays always seem to do this to me…and I’ve been taking my time getting back on. But it is TIME!

Planning out my week’s activities keeps me from getting to the end of the week with only the bare minimum accomplished. Without planning, my days just have a way of slipping by, how about you?

Here’s how I plan:

To Do – Make my “to do” list. Make a plan for what to do when (I put a notation down for which day of the week I plan to accomplish what). Refer to this each day to see what you need to do. I like to transfer those “today” items to a sticky note and stick that on my weekly planner page. I use a priority system: A- for those things that MUST be done today, B- for those things that should be done today, C- for those things I might like to get done today, but can wait on if I need to. I have a LOT of “C”, a number of “B” and just a few of “A”.

Each day, I’ll devote a bit of my time to a certain type of task:
Monday – correspondence;
Tuesday - zone cleaning (a little each day, but a bigger project today);
Wednesday – bills;
Thursday – meal planning;
Friday – household cleaning (the weekly chores);
Saturday – family work day (big, family projects) and errands;
Sunday - planning for the next week; missionary support work

Calendar – Look at my family calendar (hubby, kids’, personal) for events, and thinking about whether or not these events require anything special from me or the family as a whole and plan accordingly. (hubby’s late meeting may mean I need to plan to a late dinner; daughter’s ballet means I need to plan transportation; etc.) I WRITE DOWN those things I need to do – I can’t rely on my memory. Then when I review my calendar each day, I won't make mistakes like I did today. (Missed son's Drama Class!)

School – Plan lessons for the week. I especially note on my calendar those projects or assignments that might take a bit extra of my time…or that need supplies I may not have on hand. Then I need to schedule in the time to work with that child and any errands that need to be done to get supplies.

Chores – Review chore lists. Using Flylady’s Zone system, keeps me on track with getting all the cleaning done around the house. I look over the week’s Zone and note what needs to be done from the suggested list. Also, I’ll make a note of any extra chores (monthly or annual type) that might need to be completed.


Because we get a produce delivery on Thursdays, my meal planning is not done with the rest of the planning. I do this on Thursdays:

Meal plan – Get my meal plan done. I make a note of any food supplies I may need. Also, noting any prep. work I might want or need to do ahead (thawing out the meat; chopping onions early in the day to use later). Then I add the food supplies to my grocery list and the prep. work to my “to do” list. Because we homeschool, I plan out Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and snacks, too. I live by the dinner plan, but the other (breakfast, lunch and snacks) or more like suggestions.

Next time … the daily schedule.

Blogging - why the "mommy blog"?

Jimmie from One Child Policy Homeschool has an interesting post on blogging as Mother Culture. She has hit the nail on the head for so many of us "mommy" bloggers, certainly for me (see that over there in my side bar in my "about me" section!).

For me, blogging and blog reading provides me with a link to the world around me, but not a passive link like television. Blogging encourages one to read, think, and respond in a way not possible for at-home (and especially homeschool) moms in their daily lives. Oh, we might get the occassional coffee date with friends, but that is often devoted to catching up and talking "shop" - and always too short! Here's a sample of some of my recent "mother culture" reading via blogs:

Mere Comments
Behind the Veil
Hearts of Darkness
Child-Men
A Grown Up for President

And you'll see more in my "Recently Shared" list in the sidebar.

So, do you find blogging is one type of Mother Culture for you? If so, in what way? Leave a comment -or if you blog about it, leave a link.

Having Compassion

Have you been following the Compassion bloggers in Uganda? I've been following two bloggers I particularly enjoy: Rocks in My Dryer and BooMama. Their responses to what they've seen in Uganda have been so full of honesty and love. They've done a wonderful thing by bringing us into some some sort of contact with the real lives of the children Compassion helps. They are on their way home now, but you can still read their blog posts.

It is an honest and honorable human impulse to want to help when we see someone in need. And even more so a Christian one. However, something that I struggle with is *how* to best help. We've all seen and heard about how help from the West can often turn out badly - through corruption (in country or in the charitable organizations) or by having unintended consequences. Last night I stumbled onto an article in City Journal that brought to mind this other side of charity. The side we don't want to think about, but must:

Kenyan economist James Shikwati agrees that handouts thwart the emergence of a culture of self-reliant problem solving and that they breed corruption to boot. When a drought afflicts Kenya, he says, Kenyan politicians “reflexively cry out for more help.” Their calls reach the United Nations World Food Program...

When the requested grain reaches Africa, a portion of it “often goes directly into the hands of unscrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign.” Much of the rest of the grain gets dumped at less than fair market value. “Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away,” Shikwati says. “No one can compete with the UN’s World Food Program.”

Please don't misundertand me, Compassion and similar organizations that invest in the lives of individuals do a good job of living out the principles of Christian charity without slipping into the paternalism that ruins lives and economies. But, seeing this article just after reading about the work Compassion is doing made me think about how to apply some of the ideals discussed in the City Journal article to the work we do as a church.

How do we ensure that our foreign (and local) mission work is truly uplifting the people we work with? What are some warning signs or pitfalls to avoid? How do we respond to physical needs without falling into the trap of paternalism? One of the ideas the article mentions is encouraging entreprenuers in the population. How can churches do that - any ideas? What are some types of mission projects we could do that would actually inspire and support entreprenuerial activities?

Monthly "Big Rocks"

At the beginning of this year, I posted a bit about rhythm, reverence and time and getting my "Big Rocks " in my jar first. I started with the largest rocks first: the semi-annual ones. For my family, those are the seasonal observances and celebrations relating to the church year. I want these to be what we plan our family activities around, because I believe the church seasons help to shape our theology in important ways. They provide our family rhythm and instill reverence toward the the right things: God and His Church.

Now, I need to spend some time thinking and planning the monthly "big rocks". These are: My personal hobbies; Enjoy God's Creation with family; and Creative, Cultural, Educational events for myself and for the whole family. It is easy to want to do these types of things, but life sometimes just happens and this stuff never gets planned. In my world, if it doesn't get planned, it doesn't get done.

So, I look at the things that are important to meet each of these needs and determine when and how they'll happen. Each "rock" won't happen every week and maybe not even every month. But a plan will help set aside the time to see that they do happen with some regularity. Otherwise, I'll wake up on January 1, 2009 disappointed that I still have not finished that (fill-in the blank with favorite hobby project) done or make it to my local museum.

Here's my basic plan for these monthly "rocks":

• Decide what creative pursuits are the most important to me and my family, and what hobbies I actually have the money, time and space to accomplish. There are many things I enjoy doing, but there is only so much room in the jar, after all! The creative pursuits I've chosen to focus on this year are: scrapbooking, crochet, and photography. I also enjoy sketching, but I'm able to work that in while doing art with my kids. Scrapbooking is the one that seems the hardest for me to accomplish. I've decided to set aside one weekend day each month to spend working on those scrapbooks. This should help me keep this year's up to date. Maybe I'll even be able to catch up from years' past.
  
• Look at our calendar and determine what days we have that make sense to set aside for family "nature days". Hubby in particular is a "nature nut", so I like to save these for when he has a day off or on weekends.


• I've discovered that my local Arts League has a weekly email alert to notify me of upcoming events. I can look over their listings and decide what I might like to take part in. (Many museums, science centers, arts organizations are utilizing email for similar alerts. Check this out in your town!) I'm going to select events each month or so to attend with the family. This month's is an exhibit of Chinese porcelain. The museum hosting this exhibit has FREE admission on Tuesdays from 5-10pm.
  
• Another important aspect is planning some regular cultural or creative time for myself. If I don't plan these ahead of time, I'll never actually take the time to enjoy taking a day to shoot some film or do some sketching, visiting a museum, or attending a concert, play, or lecture. Each month I'm going to plan to take do something along these lines - by myself or with friends (or hubby).

That's my plan, how about you?

Home as a classroom

You know you are a homeschooler when: you covet your friends' playroom with comments like "oooo, I'd love to have this room for school"; you must take meals to the couch because the kitchen table is covered with school projects; your dining room sports interesting decor like timelines, historical maps, art projects; each room has a set of bookshelves (overflowing) - and even some of your hallways have bookshelves!



Any of that sound familiar?



If you are a homeschooler, you know that one of our perennial questions to one another is: "So, where do you do school?" The most common answers are: kitchen table, dining room converted into a part-time school room, a spare room (basement or playroom) made into a school room, and sometimes - "just wherever we are". That's what makes this meme at The Heart of the Matter so much fun!



In our homeschooling endeavor, we've tried a number of different places around our home, and I'm quite surprised where we've ended up.



When we started homeschooling in 2003, we used our kitchen table. I liked the central location and the way it encouraged us to "school through life" rather than have education be some seperate thing. After a few months, our supplies outgrew the small shelf I had in the kitchen, and we purchased a nice, tall cabinet in which to store books and daily supplies. We stayed at the kitchen table for about a year and a half, when I began having trouble containing my preschooler and toddler while I was doing school with my student. So, one week in the Spring semester of 2004, I bit the bullet...it was time to sacrifice the playroom.



It was actually a bit of a hard decision. The playroom had really become sort of the kids' "zone". How easy it had was to shuttle them off to the PLAYROOM! But, it had to be done we just got too distracted by all the "house" stuff if we were in the kitchen. I found someone selling some nice storage cabinets for our ever-growning supplies. We had an extra kitchen table from my parents we could use for our school table. And it would be delightful not to have to clear the school stuff up every day for lunch and then again for dinner. In fact, I could walk out of the school room, shut the door, and feel "DONE".



I relished setting up our fun school room. We had a futon, table, shelves, radio, white board, maps, and posters. The toddler had her special boxes of toys and the preschooler had his own "school" stuff. I had dreams of them playing so nicely while my student and I worked diligently. Well, the room itself was nice...but by the end of that year, I was waning in my appreciation for the school room.



We stuck it out through the rest of that school year and even started the next school year in our school room. But by the Spring semester of our 3rd year, I'd had it with the school room. When we were in the room we felt totally on top of each other. I was perpetually woried about kids messing with school stuff when friends came to play (I was determined to keep part of it as a play area). And I felt like our school was totally seperate from the rest of our lives. That was definitely not our vision for homeschooling.



Last spring, we abandoned the school room and returned to the kitchen table. The remnants of the school room are still there. The table has become a "drop point" (you know where you just drop stuff you don't have time to deal with) and my storage cabinets now hold books and supplies we don't need very frequently (or are holding for the younger kids). It is slowly evolving back to a playroom



So, we are back at the kitchen table...and on the couch...and in the study...and at the dining room table...and the kitchen counter...and I think you get the picture. We stretch out as we feel the need. In particular, I love being able to run a load of laundry or do some meal prep while still able to answer a question or direct a straggler. It just feels more like what HOMEschool should be.



We've re-enlisted the original school cabinet for school supplies and books we use on a daily basis. Here's a picture of the table in use...and in the background you'll see the cabinet with the doors open for school. When closed it blends right in with our kitchen cabinets:







Those books we use on a weekly basis are kept in our study, which is just a few steps away. I still have to clear the table for meals, but we've begun using the kitchen "bar" area for lunch which eliminates one meal. We LOVE this set up because it suits our family and our visiion for home education.

So where do you homeschool?

Bloggers in Africa

I recently became aware of a program by Compassion International involving a group of western bloggers (maybe all American, I'm not sure). Compassion has arranged to take this group of bloggers to Africa and have them blog about their experiences there.

One of my favorite bloggers, Rocks in my Dryer, is there right now, and she's blogged about her first day. You don't want to miss it!

Valentine's Day Fun for Homeschool!

If you didn't know it already, Thursday is Valentine's Day! Get ready to have some homeschool fun and learn about God's servant - St. Valentine.

Here's a quick round-up from the 'net:

Specifically homeschool-oriented

• The Homeschool Mom - lots of links!
• How much do you know about Valentine's Day? Take the quiz and find out!
• Crafts galore
• The Homeschool eStore has a downloadable.
• A Unity Study from A to Z Home's Cool.

Who was St. Valentine?

• Wikipedia's got an article
• StoryNory's got, well a story!

Some other fun and interesting sites

• Annie has great holiday resources.
• With a name like "St. Valentine's Net" you'll expect lots of links (don't miss the "around the world" link).

Some of my favorite books:

A good, gentle introduction to Saint Valentine with lovely mosaic-style pictures.


Gail Gibbons always does a fine job.


Froggy's special Valentine is a sweet surprise! (hint: you moms will all say "AWWW!")

Happy Valentine's Day!

More on Confession (Updated)

On Saturday, I posted a self-examination I found to prepare oneself for confession (either private or with a priest). Sam and Kate both had some great comments. Today, in my GoogleReader, I came across this story about a resurgence, or maybe a better word is re-emphasis, on confession coming from the Diocese of Pittsburgh (RC). (HT: GetReligion) :

...search for a regular confessor whose spirituality is compatible with theirs, who will get to know them well enough to see their patterns of sin. From such knowledge comes guidance to grow in holiness....

And some quotes from Anglicans:

Thomas Becon (1512-1567), Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer:

There is nothing so good and of so great excellency, but it may be abused. The abuse thereof is taken away, and not the thing itself. That confession hath been greatly abused it cannot be denied...yet ought it not therefore to be rejected and cast away, but rather restored to the old purity, and to the use for the which it was first instituted.
That auricular confession is a thing of much weight and grave importance...it engraffeth in us a certain humility, submission, and lowliness of mind, and sepresseth all arrogancy and pride....

Charles Chapman Grafton (1830-1912), Bishop of Fond du Lac (Wisonsin):

In this holy mystery (confession) Christ comes seeking us. As if we were His only care, He makes search for us as the Good Shepherd. He comes to find us in our wandering, to rescue us from the thickets werhein we have been caught, to take us up trembling and with bleeding feet, and in His own arms to bear us safely back to the Fold.

Herbert H Kelley (1860-1950), Founder Society of the Sacred Mission:

The plain fact is that this intense resentment we feel at confessing to anybody is the very essence of the whole business. Sin is selfness, self-concentration, and that is, isolation. By its very essence it is the secret of the soul....

In very wide circles, the practical loss of the habit of confessing to a priest - as a quite normal thing - has led to an almost complete loss of any sense of sin....Then if we will not face the trouble and humiliation of confession, we take refuge in that indifference which is so terribly common.

These quotes were culled from Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness, which is a compilation of writings from Anglican theologians.

Updated to add: The Happy Catholic has linked to an interesting article on confession. Is it the season of Lent, that I'm noticing articles on confession because it is one the mind....or is the Lord trying to tell me something? Sometimes it does take a good "2X4" as my pastor likes to say.

Indolence vs. Industry

Indolence vs. Industry

Ember Days

One of my Big Rocks for this year is being more purposeful in my observance of the church year, especially traditional days for fasting. I'm particularly interested in observing "Ember Days" as a way to spend regular time is prayer and fasting with the Church.

Ember Days are optional for Anglicans, and Roman Catholics are no longer obligated to observe these days of traditional fasting. The Eastern Orthodox church has never observed Ember Days. Even though Ember Day observance is optional, there is no sense in not making use of an ancient tradition.

Wondering what the heck is even up with Ember Days? Here's some info from Wikipedia:

In the liturgical calendar of the Western Christian churches, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week—specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday—roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer.

These days set apart for special prayer and fasting were considered especially suitable for the ordination of clergy. The Ember Days were known in the medieval
church as quatuor tempora (the "four seasons"), or jejunia quatuor temporum ("fasts of the four seasons").

The Ember Weeks—the weeks in which the Ember Days occur—are the week between the third and fourth Sundays of Advent, between the first and second Sundays of Lent, the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and the calendar week after Holy Cross Day (September 14) (the liturgical Third Week of September).

This week (February 10-16) is the first Ember Week of the year. I will be fasting (one meatless meal) and spending some extra time in prayer each day. Ember Days are traditional time for ordinations, and this website suggests prayer for clergy and Christians in their vocations on Ember Days:

Wednesday:
Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, in your divine providence you have appointed various orders in the Church: Give grace to all who are [now] called to any office and ministry for your people; and so fill them with the truth of your doctrine and clothe them with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before you, to the glory of your great Name and for the benefit of your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Friday:
O God, you led your holy apostles to ordain ministers in every place: Grant that your Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the extension of your kingdom; through him who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saturday:
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Want to read more? Try here. And here. And here, too.

Do you observe Ember Days? Please share!