Colourful Threads

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 becuase I have five children:

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)
- encouraging them for how well behaved they really are (they really are great kids)
- extending grace to others when the looks and comments start
- being thankful for the abundance 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!

Related posts:

1. Feed The Teenagers, Luke
2. On My Own

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 mentioned 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)
Home management 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 workbooks, 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!

Related posts:

1. Getting Things Done and Meditaion Day 6

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. May I use my time and talents wisely.

No related posts.

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, a quote came to mind:

“The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory” – Mahatma Gandhi

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.

The innocence of childhood is lost on us. We live in a world saturated with such flagrant selfishness, 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. Believing that will equip us all to make the world a better place.

Related posts:

1. WonderfulPages
2. Library Love
3. Wonderful Books
4. What Exactly is Normal?