Small Successes

For more small successes click on the above link.

As for mine this week? They are really small. But that's O.K. It's a good reminder to me that I am making headway on the things I need to do. If you don't move forward you slide backwards....and sometimes I slide backwards...and that's O.K. too.

1. Filled out the US Census Bureau form. I had forgotten it was required :(

2. Sewed 2 patches on Teresa's Little Flowers sash and taught her how to sew the rest on. She's pretty good at sewing!

3. Helped really clean up the basement toy area with the kids, and so far we've kept it clean.

Be sure to check out Crunchy Momma's post below. Hmmmm, so that's what blogging is all about?!

Ok, and now this is Crunchy. I have no clue how to do the little Small Successes button and wanted to participate so I am glomming on to the end of RealMom's post. My tiny successes this week are:

a. I made imperfect cupcakes with the kids. See I have this idea that made from scratch cupcakes do not take all that much longer than box ones. But I never want to get out all the stuff for them, so we do not make cupcakes a lot. This week, I bought box cupcakes (the ones with confetti) and canned frosting. We made cupcakes! It was fun.

b. I called my Uncle, who just lost his wife, just to chat. And really sat down and listened.

c. I started Christmas shopping!

What is a blog again?

Recently while talking to my 104 year old Grandma she said that my cousin got a new dog. Having just talked to my cousin the night before and having her not mention the new pup, I asked a few more questions. Turns out that my cousin actually got a new blog. At 104 you are allowed to not quite hear the difference between "dog" and "blog," especially when you have no clue that "blog" is a word.

After explaining to Grams what a blog is she paused and laughed. "You kids today! You mean to tell me that you want the world to know your business? These blog things sound like The Jerry Springer Show in print form." Uh, yeah, Grams. That one hit a little close to home there.

TV with commercials

Our kids don't watch much tv. In fact, I laugh everytime I fill out the paperwork at the doctors office for their well child checks, "does he/she watch less than 2 hours of tv per day". I'm thinking, how could they watch 2 hours per day? When would they watch 2 hours per day? My kids don't even watch 2 hours most weeks. O.K. Yes, they occassionally watch 2 hours in a day, but that's usually only a movie night or someone is sick or something.

Back to my original story. The kids only watched public television or EWTN through a local Catholic TV UHF station. After the switch to digital TV we now also get Qubo. Now my kids get all those commercials. Personally, I am finding it kind of funny. They occassionally ask for something they see. More often then not they see something that will make my life easier. And they get really excited about it.

"Mom, you gotta come see this, if you call the number right now you get this thing that makes hamburgers into patties for you!" (yeah, our patties come frozen thank you)

"Mom, come quick, you can buy this thing to make the cold air stop coming under the doors!" (what cold air? what doors?)

"Mom, there's this thing you can buy to stick in the dirt of the plants so it will water it for you!" (hmm, we don't have a single inside plant, I tend to kill them, maybe if I bought one of these....)

So, we've had a few interesting discussions like, "Why do you think they will give you 2 if you call in the next 10 minutes?" or "Do we really NEED that?" or "Couldn't we make something ourselves that will do that?"

I wonder what I will get for Christmas this year? How come some of the kids don't think I really like something they make? I really really do!

Dixie Cups

Wyatt was tired before bed and laying on the floor.
I told him to go brush his teeth.
He moaned something about having to go all the way to the kitchen to get a cup (we had run out of dixie cups a week ago).
I told him that Nathan and I bought some this morning at the store.
Wyatt looked at me, smiled, and RAN to the bathroom.

Small Successes

For more small successes click on the link above.

My small successes this week...

1. Bought 10 pounds of fresh ground beef and made meatloaves, meatballs, and mini-meatloaves to put in the freezer and pull out when I am too busy to cook. This truely only took about 30 minutes to make since I had no need to wash the mixer bowl between recipes, and the recipes are pretty much the same anyway.

2. Learned that it is very important to put spray the pans before putting the frozen meat on them if you want to take the meat off. I planned to freeze them on pans and then put them in ziploc freezer bags. We cannot get the meat off without thawing it so I guess we'll just leave them all covered in the freezer until we use them. I guess I'll make my meal plans based on which pan I want back in my arsenol.

3. Made a list of 28 things that NEED to be done soon and marked them all either High, Low, or Medium priority (things like send the homeschool paperwork in, pay bills, etc.) . I am such a list person but when I get busy I tend not to write things down, until I start to feel overwhelmed. Then when I make the the huge list at least I can see what MUST be done right away and push the other things aside without fearing I will forget about them. So far I completed 17 items, added 15, and completed 7 of those. I think I am making headway.

Happiness is....

Happiness is realizing that you are tiny enough to wear all the clothing intended for your Build a Bear.

This is Esme as she discovered that her wardrobe just got a little bigger. The pink vest is from her Build a Bear and she wears it a lot.

Remember me??

My apologies. I have not posted in forever. We had a death in the family and unexpected company. Combine that with a bumpy start to our school year and I am just now digging out. Thanks to Real for holding down the blog.

Small Successes

Isn't it funny how our small successes can get very very small during certain periods of our life (like homeschooling). It's seasons like this that I find it really helps me to see my tiny successess. I did accomplish something this past week other than feeding, clothing, loving the family. And, on weeks when that is all I accomplish, I am thankful for that because sometimes even those things take a huge amount of effort. To see other people's small successes, or to record your own, click on the link above!



1. Investment cooked/froze one meal of lemon chicken.


2. Solved our perpetually late to homeschool problem.

3. Got creative with our laundry problem this week. Usually we stay fairly well on top of things. But, with a family of 9 it doesn't take much to get behind. I washed like crazy Tuesday and had 4 baskets for my folders to fold during dinner prep time - the laundry room was a mess and they only saw one of the baskets (I found the other 3 Wed morning). Wed I washed lots more and last night they carried up 8 baskets to fold plus all their laundry baskets. I had them sort everything by just throwing it into the correct persons basket and the basket owner can fold their own clothes when putting them away today. Yes, they are a little wrinkly, but it'll do.

Kids playing Mass

Cantors/Lectors stand.

Altar.

Altar servers table.

Gifts to be presented.

Make shift Tabernacle and candle.

Last year for Christmas we bought the kids a Mass kit. I love it when they pull it out on their own to play Mass. Nathan is an altar server and was doing his best to assign everyone and everything to their proper locations. He did say things weren't ready yet, he was still relocating, but in the intereste of NOT losing the interest of the younger ones I suggested we just go with it.

From big chalkboard and empty wall to Giant Whiteboard Wall

A couple weeks ago we bought 4 - 4 X 8 sheets of melamine tile board to be used for white boards. They cost $12 each! It took awhile to cut them and hang them in our basement. We've been having a blast! We even moved our schoolwork area to the basement because the boards were so helpful and we could leave our work on there (making words plural, artwork, Spanish, word roots, etc.). We went with the cheap version and it's been working just fine. There is another, better version that apparently costs about $200 per board. This is where I found the information http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000679.php

PVC Sprinkler toy

Awhile ago I blogged about the PVC pipe sprinkler toy the kids made. Crunchy Momma, you asked for pics. Here are just one to give you the idea. The pipes are put together differently every time. And this is only about 1/5 of what we have to work with. It's been worth money and the kids find something new to do with it all the time. Today they were making a "tent" frame.

Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/

Check this out. It's really cool. I haven't tried it but my dh and oldest dd had a lot of fun with it. Apparently you load a document into it (or download it - like I said, I haven't done it). And you get really neat word pictures based on your word usage. Most common words appear biggest, etc. Just fun!

Small Successes

This week I have very small successes. But, hey, that's what this is for isn't it? Sometimes our successes are a bit bigger and sometimes just surviving the week is a successes in and of itself.

What are your small successes? Click on the click above!

1. Used our snack break today to watch a magic show the kids made (along with a snack) in the living room - on the carpet!

2. Went to an evening of recollection for women. I love these monthly meetings but haven't gone for almost a year.

3. Kept a better attitude myself. Smile it's contagious (that is sooo true).

Small Successes

Click on the above link (picture) to go to Faith and Family's site for more small successes - or record your own!!

1. Took the kids plus one neighbor boy to Fun City (mini golf, bumper boats, batting cage, slurpies) for my 12 year olds birthday. He's been wanting to go all summer. It was supposed to be a surprise but he wore me down with his incessant pleading, it was the last thing on our list we wanted to do before school started, and we started 8/31.We decided his birthday (9/1)would be a good day. Why is it that no one ever asks , "are these all yours", when there really is someone in the mix that is not mine. I never get to honestly answer ,"No."

2. Said yes to the piano teacher when she asked if she could come today instead of usual day. Success for me because I try very hard to stick to a routine and don't do so well on the fly.

3. Resisted all urges to jump on the computer and do what I wanted to do. Instead I kept to our routine and helped everyone with their school work and did some things with my preschooler and toddler.

Bananas vs. Banana Bread

Bananas are a favorite around here. It is rare that one goes uneaten in it's prime. But this time of year I seem to notice that more and more bananas begin to freckle and then age just a bit past their prime. In the past I have always wonder if this is not a vast conspiracy to get me to make banana bread. Today it has been decided.

I held up the over ripe bananas and asked "Why did no one eat these?"

Jack said, "Someone said that we had better luck of getting banana muffins if we let the last three get too brown."

Conspiracy confirmed.