January 2013

Here it seems to be my monthly post!  This month I bought a coffee maker.  Which seems silly to some of you.  But, I have been a mostly tea drinker and occasional French Press coffee drinker for the past few years.  I think the French Press was just too strong for my tummy anymore.  But, homeschooling and mothering five children has taken it's toll.  I bought a nice big bag of Organic Coffee, French vanilla Silk creamer, and a coffee maker with a timer.  Now it is waiting for me each morning.

I joined the Book a Week challenge at The Well Trained Mind Forums in hopes that I can get back into reading for myself.  I have been having a difficult time reading in general.  Just fitting it in to my life and then my eye sight bothering me.  I had some reading glasses which my youngest child broke a month or so back.  I was at Costco and found out that my eyesight had weakened a bit, so I picked up a pack of three glasses at a stronger level and they have indeed helped a ton.  And,  three pack means if I forget them and a certain child snatches them up, there is a spare.

I finally cracked my books open.  And, getting up before children with a cup of coffee in hand certainly has helped accomplish that.  I haven't read for personal pleasure in the last two years.  Maybe an occasional article or online junk.  But, a book in hand...no not at all.  I mean to.  But, I end up putting it off or I am too tired.  And, that was a season in life.  One of those times wherever indeed, having a family especially a larger than average size family, does mean you have to set aside what you want sometimes.  Don't throw a big fit.  Just put on your big girl panties, you signed up for this ride.  Some times the ride is going around a swift turn and down a really steep drop.  It is ok.  Life does go on and you will find the time to fit the fun stuff in again.

I used to read a lot to the boys...

then we changed some of our schooling methods.  Then we added a son with some speech and reading difficulties.  Read Alouds fell to the way side.  I miss them though.  I need to find the time to sneak them in again.

What is important. What is doable.

I am reading the above book. I will try to keep track of some notes here. There is this quote from page 18, "What seems the most important is usually not; what is most doable is the place to begin. If. you do enough that is doable, you will get to the important, and your motivation will be fueled byyour success."

I think I try to tell this to my children, but I definitely don't do it for myself. I make countless schedules and routines. Yet, I have yet to work on the things that keep our routines from working. I think it would be better if I worked on improving mealtime and bedtimes. Bedtimes used to include candles and lots of books. Now they are usually TV with Dad at a horribly late time while Mom passes out in the bedroom. Dad misses this time, but no one is doing anything about it.

A Million Miles in A Thousand Years

 I really enjoy Donald Miller books.  I enjoy them because you can read just one chapter and savor it for a week.  That is how I like a book.  I like to read a bit at a time and let it sit on my mind and flow through my body.  I like to apply it to my weekly routine.  See how it filters through our life.  See if it makes a difference.  See if calms me.

In chapter 9, he talks about Jason and how he saved his family by recreating their story.  This is my advice (for myself even) when thinks seem hard.  There are days when the kids won't cooperate.  There are days when I tell my oldest I'm going to send him to public school and see how he can handle it.  It comes out as some awful threat.  It comes out like I hate all public schools and that he will be shamed into a little robot or cast onto the playground.  I'm venting.  It isn't attractive.  So, I re-do.  I let go.  I apologize.  (I mean what happens if they do have to go to school one day?)

But, I don't know if after the apology I really look to make our life better.  I tend to clean up the kitchen or serve them a good pie or something.  Sometimes I try to make up some sort of amazing schedule that gets us all out of bed at 6am and I suddenly feel the urge to study Latin with them.  But, I don't think I really take the time to seek out something exciting.  I don't think I really take the time to figure out a mission for us to accomplish.  A better way to serve God together.

Better-Off and A Little Garden Flower....

I have to be careful.  I will take on a stack of books and not finish one single book.  I don't often purchase books though.  I think it's because, in the past I would devour them in two days and feel like I wasted money.  But, with more children and more to do, books often linger on the bedside table, in a kitchen nook, wander past the toilet, in a full laundry basket...you get the picture.  I renew them three times and pay my 30 cents in late fees.  I renew it three times a year.  Honestly....buy a book every once in awhile.  Savour it, enjoy it.

I'm really enjoying this book.  I'm so happy to have purchased it, too. I decided it's required reading for High School.  I actually thought it might be dry.  But, Amanda said she devoured it.  I appreciate his style.  I find myself literally laughing.  I don't mind reading it to my children (and yes sex is mentioned once).


My other purchase was A Little Garden Flower Grade 1.  I bought the E-book because I figured I could print just what I want and not get overwhelmed.  I've been wanting to go towards Waldorf for many years.  I'm a bit sad that I never just did it.  I had excuses for years.  But, maybe I wasn't ready.  Maybe I needed to work on myself first.  I needed to let go of stuff and attachments to things.  I needed to purge.

4 January, 2010 Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window...it's overcast, water is sprinkling on the pond

I am thinking...about my second child's birthday tomorrow

I am thankful for...a husband that enjoys me being at home and sleeping with our babies

From the learning rooms...it's the first day of the second half of the school year

From the kitchen...Black Mango tea in my new mug from Christmas

I am wearing...long johns and a Life is Good sweatshirt

I am creating...Window Stars and my Photo Project

I am going...absolutely no where today...ok maybe the library

I am reading...The Compassionate Child

I am hoping...for my bulk tea to arrive, so I can use the new tea pot I got for Christmas

I am hearing...it's really quiet, my husband is just leaving for school, only me and the little one is up

Around the house...August the Cat is comfy under the Christmas tree...I can't take it away from her yet

One of my favorite things...that I don't need my husband's permission to do things...he trusts me so completely

A few plans for the rest of the week:  Get back into our school groove, Get back into our chore & cleaning groove, make Window Stars, Make pinecone birdfeeders

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

I'm not sure what happened with Good Reads. I thought at some point I could just post a review straight from their site. Goodness, I don't have time for all of this.


I've picked this up before. I thought it was time I really read it. It's beside by bed. It's getting a bit of time each night from me. I think my children have a pretty calm and compassionate life. I think I'm the one who needs help to remember to give that life to them. There are definitely some things I disagree with in this book (as a Christian). So, if you are really conservative you might choose to put this book down. Other than that I love the suggestions. I love the stories and personal input.

Todays word is megalomania, n.

If you see a word you do not know then you look in the Oxford English Dictionary. Here you go!!

In Psychol.: delusions of power or self-importance, esp. resulting from mental illness; a passion for grandiose schemes. More generally: lust for power, a desire to control.

1887 Polit. Sci. Q. 2 157 Dr. François Roy of Quebec testified..that [Louis] Riel was..afflicted with a form of insanity known as megalomania, by which he labored under a delusion that he had a mission to perform for the Métis. 1890 J. S. BILLINGS National Med. Dict. II. 723 Monomania involving the idea of a divine or celestial origin or connection..[is] a species of megalomania. 1892 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 166 Here again megalomaniathe desire to ‘do the great’had the upper hand. 1897 LD. SALISBURY in Daily Chron. 17 Nov. 8/2 A common intellectual complaint..which I may name (as I see Mr. Gladstone has consecrated the word) megalomaniathe passion for big things simply because they are big. 1904 A. GRIFFITHS Fifty Years Public Service xiv. 222 Megalomania was strangely prevalent among these criminal lunatics. 1914 W. J. LOCKE Jaffery viii, This is absurd. It's megalomaniala folie des grandeurs. 1959 Listener 17 Sept. 451/3 The later rake's progress toward corruption, aggression, humiliating subjection to Hitler, pathological megalomania and final catastrophe. 1974 F. FORSYTH Dogs of War II. ix. 169 Megalomania..is present in many people outside lunatic asylums and is usually..interpreted, at least when present in the rich and famous, as merely exaggerated egocentricity. 1993 Toronto Sun 17 June 12/1 The Tories reveal their megalomania, insecurity and arrogant intolerance for dissent.

Now I want to see if you are paying attention to everything I write...pardon my grammar. What am I reading?