Friday, July 11, 2008
I'm moving...
...on the web. I am trying out Wordpress; seeing how I like it over there. If I do, that will be my new permanent blog home (at least for awhile...)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Out of the Mouth of Babes...
From my 4yo, while I was giving her a bath:
"Did Jesus see our food inside us when He goed in our hearts?"
Me: "Well, He probably did...?"
Her: "He probly saw our blood, too."
Kids...gotta love 'em!
"Did Jesus see our food inside us when He goed in our hearts?"
Me: "Well, He probably did...?"
Her: "He probly saw our blood, too."
Kids...gotta love 'em!
Friday, June 06, 2008
Boot Camp, and Carrie's Challenge
The end of five days has arrived...I will share how things are now after I explain what our "battle plan" was.
I am slightly hesitant to share here because it may seem harsh without first reading the original article, so I will start first off by saying that Boot Camp is as much for Mom as it is for the children. The rules for Mom are:
We cleared everything off of our schedule for a week, with the possibility of two weeks. I planned VERY simple meals and repeated it for week two. (Not necessarily healthy, but necessarily easy and sanity-saving).
Here is what we planned:
Breakfast and lunch were the same everyday of the week--cold cereal with milk and fruit, and ramen noodles and fruit for lunch.
Dinners were as follows, starting with Monday (because that is the day we officially started)
There was no cleaning scheduled besides dishes and laundry; I didn't want to be distracted by it so I just cut it out completely.
Then, I sat down and wrote out our schedule, divided it into blocks for morning, afternoon, and evening, put each block on a 3x5 card, hole punched them and stuck them on a binder ring. I kept this, my watch, and our, ahem, wooden spoon in my apron pocket for quick and easy access.
Here is the schedule:
MORNING
Also, 13yo is with us most, if not all, of this time, but is doing her own work, and assisting me since I injured myself before we started the week!
"Yes Ma'am" Training
This is what it typically was like:
With them standing in front of me, I would give directions such as "touch your toes", "hop like a bunny", etc. They were to answer with "yes Ma'am" and do as they were told.
Then I started on the commands,
ME: "Christian"
HIM: "Yes Ma'am"
ME: "Go and get a cup from the kitchen, and bring it to me."
HIM: "Yes Ma'am."
He carries out the command and goes back to his place.
Then,
ME: "Hannah"
HER: "Yes Ma'am"
ME: "Fill this cup halfway with water"
HER: "Yes Ma'am"
She fills the cup, brings it to me, and goes back to her place.
Then I will instruct another one to pour the water on the floor, another to get a towel, and another to wipe it up. The only acceptable answer is "yes Ma'am". They may not argue, or complain, or have a bad attitude, or else they are rewarded with swats.
I also give commands such as "go and get your sister/self, etc. an M&M", or put a shoe on your head, etc. They actually find this fun!
STOP Training
For this, I let them go one at a time to pick one toy and come back. Then I just let them play. They must stay on the rug. Once they are engaged in what they are doing, I say STOP. I do not yell stop; I use a conversational tone. They are to immediately put down on the floor what they have in their hands and look at me. Then I tell them they may continue with what they were doing. It's as simple as that. I sit in the room with them and watch or read, and continue to practice STOP.
And throughout the day, I will just call out one of their names and they are to answer correctly, and possibly carry out something I have told them to do; or I will say STOP. This is practice at random; they don't know when to expect it exactly. This is so they will know it applies all the time, not just when we are training.
I wish I could take credit for these ideas, but I cannot and I do not have access to the site from where I got the idea or I would point you in her direction--she had many great ideas!
Now, for how it has gone this week, I would say that it did not take as much work as I had anticipated. Once we started, I realized that these were things I had been doing already but that we just needed to buckle down and really focus on it. It made me realize how grateful I should be that my children really are generally well-behaved, not including the normal childhood foolishness! By day 3 I was able to give them a little more freedom, and by today even more. But I am going to stay on course for this second week, and continually loosen the reigns. I will probably add in some school work in the schedule somewhere; only a little though so that our focus doesn't shift. We are training for their character right now and school must take a backseat. I also plan to add in some training for specific "pet peeves" of mine. Two examples are their messy rooms, and not coming to the table to eat when called the first time.
In addition I felt I should take on Carrie's Challenge to not raise our voices at our children, since this is the perfect opportunity to train myself in this. And unfortunately, of course, I did raise my voice today because I raised my expectations too soon. I decided to have them clean their rooms, which is a pet peeve that I plan on working on specifically during this training time, but I handled it in the wrong way. Remember, I said no cleaning! And I focused more on what I wanted the rooms to look like instead of the training process and lost my cool. So I had to apologize and abandon the mission altogether until we can come back to it in the right mindset.
I hope maybe some others can give me some ideas on other specific training situations that would work here. I am forever gleaning knowledge from others!
So that's Boot Camp. I hope you enjoyed reading!
God bless!
I am slightly hesitant to share here because it may seem harsh without first reading the original article, so I will start first off by saying that Boot Camp is as much for Mom as it is for the children. The rules for Mom are:
- smile
- speak quietly (just below conversational level)
- be consistent!
We cleared everything off of our schedule for a week, with the possibility of two weeks. I planned VERY simple meals and repeated it for week two. (Not necessarily healthy, but necessarily easy and sanity-saving).
Here is what we planned:
Breakfast and lunch were the same everyday of the week--cold cereal with milk and fruit, and ramen noodles and fruit for lunch.
Dinners were as follows, starting with Monday (because that is the day we officially started)
- Chicken Nuggets, tater tots, corn
- Cheeseburgers, pasta salad, green salad
- Keilbasa, kidney beans, rice
- Tuna melts, carrot sticks
- Sloppy Joes, french fries
- Frozen pizzas
There was no cleaning scheduled besides dishes and laundry; I didn't want to be distracted by it so I just cut it out completely.
Then, I sat down and wrote out our schedule, divided it into blocks for morning, afternoon, and evening, put each block on a 3x5 card, hole punched them and stuck them on a binder ring. I kept this, my watch, and our, ahem, wooden spoon in my apron pocket for quick and easy access.
Here is the schedule:
MORNING
- 7 am--(I am already up by 4-5) Everyone up and get ready for the day (diapers changed, dressed, etc.)
- 7:30--Calisthenics using "Yes Ma'am".
- 8--Practice STOP until
- 8:30--I fix breakfast and they all sit on the floor in the kitchen or on the sofa. They may talk or sing, but they may NOT get up, or touch each other.
- 9--Breakfast, cleanup, brush teeth.
- 9:30--Play with me in the room, do not leave the room. More STOP and "yes Ma'am".
- 10:30--Change activities, possibly a table activity. More STOP and "yes Ma'am".
- 11:30--Clean up from activities, then sit again while I prepare lunch. They may talk but not get up.
- 12:30--Lunch and cleanup, then story.
- 1:30--Go to bed!--Baby in crib, all others (besides 13yo) on blankets on the floor of my bedroom. NO talking, giggling, or playing. They MUST lay silently with their eyes closed. 13yo works on schoolwork with me on my bed.
- 2:30--Whomever is awake may watch a video until they are all awake.
- 3:30--Wake up and play in my sight, or finish video; snack.
- 4:30--More STOP and/or "yes Ma'am".
- 5--Back to sitting while I prepare dinner. They may talk.
- 6--Dinner and cleanup
- 7--Daddy takes over, I am OFF DUTY for about and hour and a half.
- 8:30--Children to bed. Hubby hangs around upstairs to supervise(so that they don't stay awake and play around) .
- 9--I take over supervision if needed, then
- RELAX (reading, etc.) until 10 or 10:30, THEN I MUST GO TO BED!
Also, 13yo is with us most, if not all, of this time, but is doing her own work, and assisting me since I injured myself before we started the week!
"Yes Ma'am" Training
This is what it typically was like:
With them standing in front of me, I would give directions such as "touch your toes", "hop like a bunny", etc. They were to answer with "yes Ma'am" and do as they were told.
Then I started on the commands,
ME: "Christian"
HIM: "Yes Ma'am"
ME: "Go and get a cup from the kitchen, and bring it to me."
HIM: "Yes Ma'am."
He carries out the command and goes back to his place.
Then,
ME: "Hannah"
HER: "Yes Ma'am"
ME: "Fill this cup halfway with water"
HER: "Yes Ma'am"
She fills the cup, brings it to me, and goes back to her place.
Then I will instruct another one to pour the water on the floor, another to get a towel, and another to wipe it up. The only acceptable answer is "yes Ma'am". They may not argue, or complain, or have a bad attitude, or else they are rewarded with swats.
I also give commands such as "go and get your sister/self, etc. an M&M", or put a shoe on your head, etc. They actually find this fun!
STOP Training
For this, I let them go one at a time to pick one toy and come back. Then I just let them play. They must stay on the rug. Once they are engaged in what they are doing, I say STOP. I do not yell stop; I use a conversational tone. They are to immediately put down on the floor what they have in their hands and look at me. Then I tell them they may continue with what they were doing. It's as simple as that. I sit in the room with them and watch or read, and continue to practice STOP.
And throughout the day, I will just call out one of their names and they are to answer correctly, and possibly carry out something I have told them to do; or I will say STOP. This is practice at random; they don't know when to expect it exactly. This is so they will know it applies all the time, not just when we are training.
I wish I could take credit for these ideas, but I cannot and I do not have access to the site from where I got the idea or I would point you in her direction--she had many great ideas!
Now, for how it has gone this week, I would say that it did not take as much work as I had anticipated. Once we started, I realized that these were things I had been doing already but that we just needed to buckle down and really focus on it. It made me realize how grateful I should be that my children really are generally well-behaved, not including the normal childhood foolishness! By day 3 I was able to give them a little more freedom, and by today even more. But I am going to stay on course for this second week, and continually loosen the reigns. I will probably add in some school work in the schedule somewhere; only a little though so that our focus doesn't shift. We are training for their character right now and school must take a backseat. I also plan to add in some training for specific "pet peeves" of mine. Two examples are their messy rooms, and not coming to the table to eat when called the first time.
In addition I felt I should take on Carrie's Challenge to not raise our voices at our children, since this is the perfect opportunity to train myself in this. And unfortunately, of course, I did raise my voice today because I raised my expectations too soon. I decided to have them clean their rooms, which is a pet peeve that I plan on working on specifically during this training time, but I handled it in the wrong way. Remember, I said no cleaning! And I focused more on what I wanted the rooms to look like instead of the training process and lost my cool. So I had to apologize and abandon the mission altogether until we can come back to it in the right mindset.
I hope maybe some others can give me some ideas on other specific training situations that would work here. I am forever gleaning knowledge from others!
So that's Boot Camp. I hope you enjoyed reading!
God bless!
Monday, June 02, 2008
Boot Camp, and Injuries
The children and I are going through our own version of "Boot Camp" this week to deal with some behavioral issues. I planned on sharing our plan, schedule, menu, etc. for "Boot Camp", BUT, I had a nasty fall yesterday and injured my left wrist. Consequently, I am only able to type one-handed and am moving at a snail's pace!
Anyway, I can't wait to share how our week went/was supposed to go, when I am actually able to type again. I wish I could link you to the original BOOT CAMP article, however, the source has password protected her site and is no longer available to us! :-(
I will catch up as soon as I am able!
Anyway, I can't wait to share how our week went/was supposed to go, when I am actually able to type again. I wish I could link you to the original BOOT CAMP article, however, the source has password protected her site and is no longer available to us! :-(
I will catch up as soon as I am able!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Highly Contagious!
Well it started with Baby Stuff, then spread to 3yo, then 4yo, then 13yo...Conjunctivitis--more commonly known as Pink Eye! So far Hubby, myself, and 7yo haven't gotten it. We are doing lots of hand washing and trying to keep Christian away from the other children. It was easy enough to do when he could play outside, but now it's raining; so we'll see...He's old enough, though to be able to keep his distance. It's the babies staying away from him that will be tough.
On top of that, 3yo has a double ear infection, and Baby Stuff has a double ear infection in which her right ear drum ruptured, plus a sinus infection. Needless to say, they are miserable although they never give me any indication that their ears are bothering them.
So no church for us tomorrow--we need to keep this gang quarrantined (?) for 48 hours before they aren't contagious anymore.
On top of that, 3yo has a double ear infection, and Baby Stuff has a double ear infection in which her right ear drum ruptured, plus a sinus infection. Needless to say, they are miserable although they never give me any indication that their ears are bothering them.
So no church for us tomorrow--we need to keep this gang quarrantined (?) for 48 hours before they aren't contagious anymore.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Spend a Day With Me
Here is how my day went today:
After waking up, doing my devotions and seeing Hubby off to work, I got back into bed for awhile because I had a bad headache.
3yo woke up about 15 minutes later and decided to join me in bed, but she did not go back to sleep! She lay there with me for another maybe 10 minutes, and then we had to get up. I stripped my bed for the wash, went downstairs and started the washer.
4yo joined us, and I put on a Baby Einstein DVD for them while I showered and dressed.
This is what I wore today:
When I came downstairs, 7yo was up and digging in his Pirate treasure kit from Usborne. Our order arrived yesterday with books for all!
I took this opportunity to run next door and let our neighbor's dog out and feed her.
Then I came back, switched the laundry, started the next load, and started breakfast.
We had migas and toast with butter. (Migas are fried, cut up corn tortillas with scrambled eggs).
The littles helped crack and scramble the eggs. We read Psalm 5 at breakfast.
After that we cleaned up from breakfast, then brushed our teeth and the kiddies dressed, and then went upstairs for the children's chores. This took waaaaayyy longer than it should have because they all had bad attitudes today! I didn't get my regularly scheduled cleaning done because I was supervising them more than I should have had to. But I took the opportunity to clean some under my bed and the master closet, so all was not lost!
Christian cleaning the table and chairs after breakfast:
Are we supposed to be cleaning here? I should have taken an after picture. I promise it was clean afterwards!
Mia scrubbing the walls and door jamb of the upstairs bathroom.
Somewhere during this time I got a call from my neighbor. She had gotten a call from someone in the neighborhood who had their dog--apparently she had somehow gotten out of the yard. So I had to go check on that. Strangely enough, the dog was in the yard, and I could find no sign of how she got out of the yard. But I put her on her leash and brought her on over to play at our house.
After that we took a short break, then had a snack and read aloud. We read from The Wind in the Willows and Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (see sidebar under "Current Family Read Aloud").
The littles spread blankets on the floor to have their snack while they listen. Mia sat on Hubby's chair and drew the story as she listened. (She's always singing, drawing, or reading!)
Then we moved into Circle Time, and then school work. Baby Stuff, 3, and 4 yo played in and out of doors while I worked with the other two.
One of the books that came in yesterday was about Anne Frank. Mia read the entire book yesterday and last night, and decided today that she wanted to read some more about Hitler, which is what she is doing here.
She aslo did some math, spelling (above), and writing.
Christian filled in his weather graph, worked in his arithmetic workbook, a few pages in Explode the Code, and read some Bob books.
Reading the New Testament at 3 years old! ;-)
Destroying the living room but playing ever so nicely together!
I switched more laundry and folded my sheets until I could put them on the bed later in the day.
When we were finished I started lunch on the grill.
We had cheeseburgers, steamed mixed veggies, and potato chips. The littles wanted to eat outside on their picnic table since the weather was so nice. So I let them, although I think the dogs ate more than the children!
Mia and I ate inside and watched Samantha Brown on the travel channel. She loves that show and I don't mind her watching it because it is very educational. Although I didn't get a picture of it, Baby Stuff fell asleep in her highchair waiting for lunch, so she didn't get to eat! I moved her to bed before we ate.
After cleanup, Mia changed Charlotte's diaper while I made my bed. I ran the neighbor's dog (Gracie) back next door quickly. Then Charlotte decided that my bed would be a good spot to rest, so she snuck right up in there and made herself quite comfy!
See her big blue eyes peeking from under the covers? And of course, twirling her hair as she always does when she's tired.
Now all this time my headache never went away so I laid down with her and went to sleep instead of reading. I also slept much longer because of it. Baby Stuff and Charlotte got up before me. During my nap, Mia read and Christian and Hannah played nicely together. (They were allowed one snack, though, and they managed to make quite a mess with it. 8-$)
When I woke up Hubby was home and was playing with the little girls and watching an old black and white Dennis the Menace episode. I joined him for a little while after taking some Tylenol for my headache. Mia was checking her email and Christian and Hannah were playing outside.
When I felt a little better I started dinner (homemade pizza) while the kids all cleaned up (themselves and the living room).
Here is the sauce and sausage cooking:
The crust:
I quickly finished the first pizza to get it finished right away while the littles helped me with the other one.
Before the oven:
After the oven: YUM!
Cheese:
Sausage:
And the finished product:
After dinner I strapped Baby Stuff to my back and headed out the door for a quick mile walk, while the kids did their table/kitchen chores. After Mia finished the dishes she practiced her violin.
Then I read to the kiddies while Hubby relaxed and watched some t.v. No baths tonight--due to my headache and Hubby being extra tired after washing an airplane today. So after reading Hubby tucked all the littles in while I nursed the baby and hung out with Mia.
Then, since he was so tired, he watched a little baseball on the computer while I got some cleaning done that I didn't get to do earlier. I mopped the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, and wiped down some of the kitchen walls and the stove and dishwasher. I also did some more laundry.
Voila! A beautifully clean kitchen:
Now I am on the computer and then it's off to bed once I am finished here. Tomorrow is Friday and hopefully Hubby and I will get to watch a movie together tomorrow night.
What I didn't get done today:
Preschool
Science and History during homeschool
Playing outside with the kids
Bathe littles
Spending a little more time with Hubby
These are all part of our regular day but because of my headache I needed some extra rest. But that is the beauty of having a plan. If I didn't have one I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done as I did. My head was pounding so hard I wouldn't have been able to think about what to do next, but since it was all laid out for me I didn't have to think.
Now, I must be off to bed!
Goodnight!
After waking up, doing my devotions and seeing Hubby off to work, I got back into bed for awhile because I had a bad headache.
3yo woke up about 15 minutes later and decided to join me in bed, but she did not go back to sleep! She lay there with me for another maybe 10 minutes, and then we had to get up. I stripped my bed for the wash, went downstairs and started the washer.
4yo joined us, and I put on a Baby Einstein DVD for them while I showered and dressed.
This is what I wore today:
When I came downstairs, 7yo was up and digging in his Pirate treasure kit from Usborne. Our order arrived yesterday with books for all!
I took this opportunity to run next door and let our neighbor's dog out and feed her.
Then I came back, switched the laundry, started the next load, and started breakfast.
We had migas and toast with butter. (Migas are fried, cut up corn tortillas with scrambled eggs).
The littles helped crack and scramble the eggs. We read Psalm 5 at breakfast.After that we cleaned up from breakfast, then brushed our teeth and the kiddies dressed, and then went upstairs for the children's chores. This took waaaaayyy longer than it should have because they all had bad attitudes today! I didn't get my regularly scheduled cleaning done because I was supervising them more than I should have had to. But I took the opportunity to clean some under my bed and the master closet, so all was not lost!
Christian cleaning the table and chairs after breakfast:
Are we supposed to be cleaning here? I should have taken an after picture. I promise it was clean afterwards!
Mia scrubbing the walls and door jamb of the upstairs bathroom.
Somewhere during this time I got a call from my neighbor. She had gotten a call from someone in the neighborhood who had their dog--apparently she had somehow gotten out of the yard. So I had to go check on that. Strangely enough, the dog was in the yard, and I could find no sign of how she got out of the yard. But I put her on her leash and brought her on over to play at our house.After that we took a short break, then had a snack and read aloud. We read from The Wind in the Willows and Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (see sidebar under "Current Family Read Aloud").
The littles spread blankets on the floor to have their snack while they listen. Mia sat on Hubby's chair and drew the story as she listened. (She's always singing, drawing, or reading!)
Then we moved into Circle Time, and then school work. Baby Stuff, 3, and 4 yo played in and out of doors while I worked with the other two.
One of the books that came in yesterday was about Anne Frank. Mia read the entire book yesterday and last night, and decided today that she wanted to read some more about Hitler, which is what she is doing here.
She aslo did some math, spelling (above), and writing.
Christian filled in his weather graph, worked in his arithmetic workbook, a few pages in Explode the Code, and read some Bob books.
Reading the New Testament at 3 years old! ;-)
Destroying the living room but playing ever so nicely together!
I switched more laundry and folded my sheets until I could put them on the bed later in the day.
When we were finished I started lunch on the grill.
We had cheeseburgers, steamed mixed veggies, and potato chips. The littles wanted to eat outside on their picnic table since the weather was so nice. So I let them, although I think the dogs ate more than the children!
Mia and I ate inside and watched Samantha Brown on the travel channel. She loves that show and I don't mind her watching it because it is very educational. Although I didn't get a picture of it, Baby Stuff fell asleep in her highchair waiting for lunch, so she didn't get to eat! I moved her to bed before we ate.
After cleanup, Mia changed Charlotte's diaper while I made my bed. I ran the neighbor's dog (Gracie) back next door quickly. Then Charlotte decided that my bed would be a good spot to rest, so she snuck right up in there and made herself quite comfy!
See her big blue eyes peeking from under the covers? And of course, twirling her hair as she always does when she's tired.
Now all this time my headache never went away so I laid down with her and went to sleep instead of reading. I also slept much longer because of it. Baby Stuff and Charlotte got up before me. During my nap, Mia read and Christian and Hannah played nicely together. (They were allowed one snack, though, and they managed to make quite a mess with it. 8-$)
When I woke up Hubby was home and was playing with the little girls and watching an old black and white Dennis the Menace episode. I joined him for a little while after taking some Tylenol for my headache. Mia was checking her email and Christian and Hannah were playing outside.
When I felt a little better I started dinner (homemade pizza) while the kids all cleaned up (themselves and the living room).
Here is the sauce and sausage cooking:
The crust:
I quickly finished the first pizza to get it finished right away while the littles helped me with the other one.
Before the oven:
After the oven: YUM!
Cheese:
Sausage:
And the finished product:
After dinner I strapped Baby Stuff to my back and headed out the door for a quick mile walk, while the kids did their table/kitchen chores. After Mia finished the dishes she practiced her violin.
Then I read to the kiddies while Hubby relaxed and watched some t.v. No baths tonight--due to my headache and Hubby being extra tired after washing an airplane today. So after reading Hubby tucked all the littles in while I nursed the baby and hung out with Mia.
Then, since he was so tired, he watched a little baseball on the computer while I got some cleaning done that I didn't get to do earlier. I mopped the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, and wiped down some of the kitchen walls and the stove and dishwasher. I also did some more laundry.
Voila! A beautifully clean kitchen:
Now I am on the computer and then it's off to bed once I am finished here. Tomorrow is Friday and hopefully Hubby and I will get to watch a movie together tomorrow night.
What I didn't get done today:
Preschool
Science and History during homeschool
Playing outside with the kids
Bathe littles
Spending a little more time with Hubby
These are all part of our regular day but because of my headache I needed some extra rest. But that is the beauty of having a plan. If I didn't have one I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done as I did. My head was pounding so hard I wouldn't have been able to think about what to do next, but since it was all laid out for me I didn't have to think.
Now, I must be off to bed!
Goodnight!
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