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A Bundle of Myrrh

"My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh." Song of Solomon 1:13

Archive for the ‘Organizing or Agonizing’ Category

Of Hearth and Home – Goals

Thursday, March 30th, 2017

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I decided to get crazy and make a more detailed schedule for the day and really try to follow it exactly-ish. So in those “in between fires moments” I can look at my schedule and know what I’m supposed to be doing without thinking about it.

It’s not too much different from what I’ve always had. We have had a daily routine, same things at the same times, for years, but now I’m adding more details to that schedule.

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I want to keep my babies better on track with discipline, chores, individual reading, reading aloud to together, piano practice, memory work. I want to keep making our Bible time the first part of our day, it must be a daily habit.

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With so many children and so much housework I get overwhelmed quickly and the days can slip by easily without making the point of adding something I want to pass on to my babies.

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I had to sit down with all the THINGS I want in our life. The things I want to dedicate time to. I had to fit them into our days and evenings. It helps me feel less frantic when I know I have a designated time for ‘X’ and the ‘Y’ that I’m doing right now is the proper use of my time.

Here’s the list I came up with so far.

“Goals” for our family

For Our Faith:
Catechesis (memorization)
Bible lessons
Scripture Memorization
Hymn singing and memorization
Prayer memorization
Getting familiar with chant using the Psalter
Continue keeping our church year in the home
Obedience and Honor of Parents and other Authorities

For Our Minds:
Reading or Read Aloud
Good Poetry
Recitation Memory work
Supplemental Education – Ancient-Early Modern History and Literature
Good vocabulary

For Our Hands:
Piano/Music Lessons and practice
Stitching
Crafting

For Our Spirits:
Family Game or Movie Nights
Free Play Time
Limit my time on Facebook – FB is fun but many times I let it suck away my time and sometimes it can really make my blood pressure hit the roof.

For Our Neighbor:
Practice Manners
House Jobs
Tidy Times during the day

For Our Bodies:
Exercise – ride bikes, go for walks, dance parties!
Rest – Blanket Time during the week for the littles

That’s not asking too much is it? Now how to designate time for each of these?

 

 

More on Chores and Lenten Cleaning

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

 

Do any of you use Lent as a time to “deep clean” your house? I really like that idea. Though I find just staying on top of the basics takes most of the time I have.

Last year I saw Jessica’s schedule and was very impressed. I used it as a guide on SOME days. I think I’ll make my own version this year.

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Taming the Beast

Friday, November 16th, 2012

 

You got kids, you got toys, you got toys you got mess. The mess we had was driving me to fits. I try to stay on the babies to pick up and we were doing okay with this, at least in our living room, but the downstairs and bedrooms were chaos. Pieces everywhere. I’ve been getting much better at taking toys to Goodwill after we’ve played with them enough and this has helped and I attempted to put some away “for later,” but I forget to get the “later” toys out and the “now” toys just kept growing. I needed to come up with something different. Kids and life create enough mess and stuff without the toys adding to it. I had to simplify and really getting rid of ALL the toys did cross my mind, but probably wasn’t the best plan.

Then I found it, a way to control the crazy that toys can create. I didn’t come up with this on my own. I searched and searched and have been so glad to have discovered this great Toy Rotation System!

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From Grrrr to Great in 30 minutes.

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Since my days of bending over are close to an end, the clutter and toy mess in our living room has gotten b.a.d and driven me crazy enough to finally get the energy to do something about it. I’ve had the mind to get some bins for toys for a while now and we haven’t done it but today on the verge of trashing everything I decided to work with what I had on hand, get some ideas off the good ole internet and just organize already!

This drives me nuts. I’m done standing up the books in nice attractive rows, this aint the library. And you see where my constant effort gets me anyway right? A mess. I realized toddlers aren’t really into book spines, they need the bigger picture. So I wised up and put the books in bins instead of silly rows.

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