Saturday, December 1, 2012

December Schedule

Tis the season to be busy!

Every year, December seems to be a very busy time of year for us.  There have been some major adjustments in our life this year that have eliminated some of the busyness.  Even so, I really need to have a plan for this month beyond our normal routine because we will be busy with out-of-town guests and the general hustle and bustle of the season.

In the past I have been lazy about December.  Actually, I might refine that a bit to say I have been lazy because I just haven’t been looking forward to the season. As I mentioned in my post about changing holiday traditions, some of that stress has been relieved.  I am also in general feeling a renewal of spirit the last couple of weeks and so I am looking forward to Christmas more than in past years.
This year brought us a new job which means my husband works from home except for his travel weeks.  The kids and I are spending more time at home as well except for co-op day.  We used to spend quite a bit of time outside of our home, but because we get classes and social opportunities through co-op, I just don’t feel as obligated to get us out as much.  We also have changed churches.  Our new church has a much less demanding schedule.  Not only have we just not committed to as much (nothing at this point because we aren’t members yet), they don’t offer nearly as much for the kids.  Because we are all spending so much more time in our home I really want to make an extra effort to make our home festive.
As I mentioned above, we are expecting visitors in the middle of the month.  I will need to set some time aside to prepare freezer meals for use while they are with us.  I hate spending a lot of time in the kitchen when we have guest, especially when we see them so little and there is just too much to catch up on and fun to be had.

Recently our family has decided to have hospitality night on Thursdays.  Not only does this mean we have to make some time to get the house cleaned and food prepped, it also means that this night is set aside and not available for anything else.  We invite 1 family each Thursday to join us except on my husband’s travel weeks.  On those weeks I will let the kids invite friends over to just hang out and play.  If parents want to drop them off that is fine, or if the mom’s want to stay and chat while the kids play, that is fine too.  We just play that by ear.  We don’t always end up having guests on that night.  Sometimes our invitations are declined or another night works better.  We still go ahead and set the night aside, just in case something comes up last minute. 
Normally I would take a large block of time off from homeschool, but this year we fell behind in math and language arts due to our day at co-op.  I want to devote at least the first couple of weeks before our guest arrives to catching up in that area.  I am going to switch to an afternoon school day and save the mornings for homemaking. 

I also want to make a special effort to spend more time with my mom this season.  She is facing some very serious health concerns and I know it would make her feel better to have us around more.  To make that happen, as soon as the co-op semester ends on the 3rd, we will devote that day to visiting with her either at her home or inviting her over to our house.  Again, we’ll play that by ear.
One last thing that needs to be added to the plan is time to make gifts and decorations.  I have a little extra money this year to work with for Christmas so I would love to devote one of our homemaking mornings to creating new decorations and making homemade gifts.  This might be a little ambitious, but I hope we can pull that off. 

Here is what the weekly routine will look like. 

 
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Morning
Church
Errands and
Planning
Home-making
Home-making
Home-
making
Home-
making
Family Chores
 
Afternoon
Nap
Visit Grandma
School
School
School
School
Evening
Spaghetti
Supper
 
 
 
Hospitality
Night
 
Family
Night

This is a relaxed routine meaning that we won’t necessarily follow it to a T.  I have left most evenings open.  We usually just have dinner and then relax together.  I don’t like to have busy evening away from home every night of the week but this way, as things come up we can be flexible with our day because we have an open slot to shuffle items around.
A note about Sunday: I finally gave up on scheduling anything for us to do after church on Sunday. Our family just simply must nap on Sunday afternoon.  My husband is very tired after a long week and he takes that day of rest very seriously, at least as it relates to his nap.  We used to attend a Nazarene church and that became known as the Nazarene Nap. I don’t always feel like a nap, but I have to say, I enjoy snuggling up with him on Sunday afternoon.  I like to keep the evening meal simply and quick to make, but at the same time I really love to have a big family meal. Spaghetti fits the bill and since we OFTEN has spaghetti on Sunday anyway, I just made it official. This might be another opportunity for us to invite guests over, especially our church family. We don’t have Sunday night church.

A note about Saturday: I spoke with my husband a couple of weeks ago about how we really needed to devote a day to big chores and deep cleaning.  We have fallen behind in so much over this year.  With him being gone for a whole week really bites into what he can do to help.  Plus, when he gets home it takes him a whole weekend to recover and get back into the swing of family life.  He agreed that we could set aside Saturday for that as long as we could sleep in and not get started at the crack of dawn.  I am fine with that. Those who work hard should play hard, or something like that, so we will shoot for a family night after we wrap up our work for the day.
Overall, I am very excited to get November behind us and December going although November has been a great month.  Having a plan for the upcoming month gives us something to look forward to while keeping us on task. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Dishwashing Schedule UPDATE

Just when I finally got around to posting about our dishwashing schedule it will be changing. My husband surprised me last week with the news that he would be getting a Christmas bonus from his employer. He also informed me that with some of that money we would be getting a dishwasher. So the hunt is on. We are considering a water softener too because our water is so hard that it will be a challenge to keep it clean.
 
Anyhoo, this means I need to revamp our dishwashing schedule. I think we will likely get the washer next week so I am going to go ahead and lay the plan now before we even have one meal where there can be arguments over who is going to do what.
 
The schedule will basically stay the same as far as whose day it is to wash and dry, but I need to clarify what the updated jobs are.
 
Dryer
1.       Unload the dishwasher before the meal if there are any clean dishes in the dishwasher.
2.       Clear table of dishes.
3.       Put away food.
4.       Dry any hand washed items and put away.
5.       Take out trash.
I am not big on making someone put away the dishes the moment the dishwasher is done. I will never remember to remind them to do this. It is more realistic to just say the person who is the day's dryer will put away the clean dishes before the meal.
 
Washer
1.       Rinse dishes and load them into the dishwasher. Start when full or at least half full if after the evening meal.
2.       Hand wash pots, pans, and special items (knives, large items, wood items), or any items there wasn't room for in the dishwasher.
3.       Wipe counters.
4.       Sweep/mop floor.
I also am taking away the day off. I know! How terrible am I? But, as I began to think about it, it makes since to have them all contributing. What ends up happening is I try to get all the serving done while I still am monitoring the stove or oven. I end up grabbing one of the passing children anyway, so I might as well just assign the tasks.
 
Server
1.       Set and clear the table.
2.       Serve drinks.
3.       Place condiments on the table.
4.       Help serve the food.
5.       Sweep/mop dining room floor after evening meal.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Wash
D
K
D
D
K
K
D
Dry
J
J
K
J
J
D
K
Server
K
D
J
K
D
J
J
 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Thoughts on the 2012 Presidential Election


I am worn out politically.  For the last 4 years I have been very active politically, at least in the further development of my political opinions, educating myself on issues, and being vocal.  After the disappointment of this election, I am left wondering whether it all makes any difference. Maybe that is a bad attitude but that is exactly how I feel.

The one thing that keeps me going is that I know that if people like me let our guard down our freedoms will be further eroded and there isn’t much more to be eroded before there is irreparable damage.  Especially as politics relates to homeschooling, I know that if I turn away now I may end up having to send my children back into the realm of public schooling. Not only is that not an exaggeration, that isn’t something I am willing to just let happen without a fight.

I have heard many Christians talking about God’s will in this election.  They seem to take the reelection of President Obama as a sign that we should suffer silently or that it is a sign of end times so we should just focus on spiritual matters. Even the Son doesn’t know the day of His return, and although our focus should always be on salvation, we also are called to do His works even to the end. I just can’t square it in my heart that it is God’s will that the ideals of murder and theft be allowed to flourish while we retreat to our homes and churches.   I do however understand that God sometimes allows bad things to happen to his people so that He may be glorified through them.  Make no mistake; the reelection of Barak Obama is a bad thing.  In this situation I believe that it is up to the body to become more active politically, not less, so that He may be glorified. 

There are some people who would say we should turn the other cheek and not become aggressive. It is true that in everything we do we should reflect Christ; even Jesus overturned the money changers tables.  In our churches, especially in own churches, we must guard against the infectious, destructive ideals of that  public school champions like the blanket ideal that a secular institutional education is better than Christian parental education.

I believe in my heart of hearts that the path God lays before us is not an easy one, but it is one we must travel down. For me, for this one person, I feel God is clearly calling me to take up the fight for homeschooling and championing the family.  I don’t have a clear vision of every stepping stone on that path, but I know God is preparing me for that journey.
Every freedom that is taken from a parent to choose the way that his family should go, takes away our ability to freely commune with God. 

Does this sound farfetched? Ask those in China how easy it is to share the Gospel.  Ask those who meet in basements in secret.  Ask those who are forced to send their children to state schools where they receive a solid education in atheism, humanism, and paganism how receptive their children are to hearing the Gospel.

So, although I am worn out, I find my rest in Christ and I will continue to carry on for the benefit of my family and our posterity.  

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Dishwashing Schedule


We don’t have a dishwasher.  We use to, but our dishwasher finally started getting dishes dirtier instead of cleaner and there was no fixing it.  I think I have written about that before, but needless to say, with 5 people in the house for 3 meals a day, plus snacks, we have a lot of dishes. 

I might write sometime about how moms need to make sure that they train their children to do chores and share in the work of the home, but for now, know that I am firm believer that children should be trained to share the work of the home and then be disciplined to do it. 

Training them is not an easy task.  I have heard every form of whine since I put them on the chore of dishwashing.  I started with my oldest daughter.  She is now 13, but she started washing dishes full time when she was about 11 (which is when the dishwasher started to go caput.  My other daughter who is 8 has been the main dryer and has been a washer in training.  I decided that it was time to promote her to junior washer and bring our 6 year old boy into the mix.  He is now a dryer, albeit slow.
The girls have been on me for a while to make him help.  I just really didn’t want to lose anymore dishes.  We are down to 5 large plates!  But, I agree, he is old enough to start pulling his weight in the dish area so now it is time to get on the rotation.  When it was just two girls, they pretty much did the same task at least once a day (usually).  Now with a 3rd person, we can give each of them a break from time to time.

The other issue we have had is the girls constantly fighting over whose turn it is and what exactly should they do while they wait for the other person. There was a need to create a schedule with some rules.
So here is the new schedule.

 
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Wash
D
K
D
D
K
K
D
Dry
J
J
K
J
J
D
K
Off
K
D
J
K
D
J
J

 

 
 
 
 
D and K both have 5 days, and J has 4.  They will both accept that J is the youngest and can’t wash, so it isn’t completely unfair to have him only do 4 days.  If I were to give the girls unequal days I would be in big trouble!
This is printed and hanging in the kitchens so that there are no fights.  If for some reason dishes get piled up because someone didn’t do their job, the first round of dishes that day will use the schedule for the day before and the second round of dishes will be from the current day. 

There are also rules about what to do when you are waiting for the other person to catch up drying or washing.  The washer is to also wipe down counters and the table, plus scrap and rinse dishes.  The dryer is to bring the dishes in from other locations, put away any food, and sweep the floor. 
As a side note, the person who has the day off from dishes usually is the person I choose to do what we call “deliveries”.  This will be another post, but briefly, we collect items that need to be delivered to another room, then I assign one or more kids to the task of making those deliveries. 

Overall, this has been a God send.  I don’t hear constant complaining now about how it is unfair that so-in-so hasn’t had to wash the dishes, or that so-in-so didn’t finish their job.  We just go to the schedule which is posted on the inside of the cabinet that holds our glasses and see who is up.  I love it!