A question that begged to be answered this weekend.

Are you guys daft or incredibly lazy?

This question was directed to my four youngest son's this weekend. I had asked them to clean up the entryway,staircase and their bedroom. When they came down an hour or so later I asked repeatedly if they had done a good job and were they finished. The answer always came back "It is done." I know I should have checked,but I was in the middle of organizing the store . Which translates to, I was knee deep in books and trying to clear a path.

Fast forward to the evening and I am frantically looking for the missing shoes that they have to wear to church the next day.[ I have to digress here as I am wondering how I managed to give birth to eight children with two legs each ,but as they grew-up they all lost a leg. We have tons of shoes that are single ; they somehow lost their mate.] Now, I am not much for tradition,so I figure they could go to church without shoes,but alas it is 0 degrees outside and I might get reported. At this point there is no way to avoid the entryway and I slowly open the door. This can be scary in my house as we are not the most organized people on the planet. Now, as a side note, it is about 6:00 (Montana time) on Saturday,so if you heard someone blowing their stack, it was me. I can not believe that they think it is okay to dump underware, garbage,shoes and dishes into a clothes basket and put it in the corner. On top of that they put toys on the bookcases and shoved things under the coat/shoe rack. It only got worse as I progressed upstairs.
So, this is where the original question comes in. It is hard for me to believe that they are daft,so I am leaning towards the lazy side of the question. As a homeschooler I do not know which answer is worse. Either they are daft and will never make it on the cover of HSLDA magazine or they are lazy and they will never make it on the cover of HSLDA magazine. Not that it is my goal to make it on the cover. I long ago learned that I am not destined for that. But they all could try a little harder to meet the high standards set before us as homeschoolers.

I have tried numerous " programs" and have not yet found one that we can stick to.

1. Managers of the Home- My Hubby actually asked me to stop doing this one. He did not like to be scheduled. But every time I get this book in the store I want to try again. There is something about it that promises perfection and I am game for that. The problem is I can never attain it.

2. Managers of their chores- I did not do this one,but I recently looked at it and I could not imagine the children running around with cards around their necks. One of them would probably get hung up on something, and hurt themselves. My children are prone to finding ways to hurt themselves they really do not need help.

3. Fly-lady- I like this one,but I think I need to make it a Home Economics course,so that everyone can be involved. It is to much work for one person to do alone. Maybe I could make them all wings and wands and they could run around doing the chores happily.

4. Wait until they leave home and miss all the mess- Everyone keeps telling me that I will miss the mess,but I really can not imagine missing 20 loads of laundry a week. I will miss them,but I can't imagine I will miss the mess they create.

At this point I think I am leaning towards #4. Maybe I should just keep wading through my own mess and work on them later.

Blessings,
Jeanie

The New Year

The New Year makes many of us reflective. I know that there are many things that I could have done better in 2009. I can actually say that I left 2009 in worse shape than I started it. I could call it my year of " I should have kept my mouth shut". That pretty much sums up the year.
This year I have plans to leave 2010 in better shape. I am learning to keep the "mouth" shut and to let things slide by. Not an easy task for an opinionated person,but I am making progress. I want to leave 2010 knowing that I was a better wife/mother/homeschooler and friend. I would like to read one inspiring book a month. This month I am reading " Alicia: My Story" by: Alicia Appleman-Jurman. This is a "Powerful,intimate,searingly impressive memoir by a uniquely courageous and unusually intuitive young girl of the Holocolst nightmare and the years following."
This book is a must read for those that love history. I would even venture to say that it is more powerful "historically" than The Hiding Place. This book took me right out of my "poor" me mentality that I have had for a month or so. I love a book that can change who I am and what direction I am going. This book did that for me. The mountains that I have to climb this year look a little easier after reading this book. Alicia's mountains were huge,but she managed to climb them and she managed to become a better person when she reached the top. I think I can do that,too.

Blessings,
Jeanie

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

We are going to start this out with a neat book.

Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards (Hardcover) by Katelan Janke In 16-year-old Katelan Janke's first Dear America book, readers meet Grace Edwards, a little girl growing up in the heart of the Texas panhandle in the midst of ... read more In 16-year-old Katelan Janke's first Dear America book, readers meet Grace Edwards, a little girl growing up in the heart of the Texas panhandle in the midst of the Dust Bowl. Fierce, dust-filled winds ravage the plains and threaten the town's agricultural livelihood. Will Grace's family's farm survive? All you have to do is post a comment and you are entered. We will ship for free to the winner if you live outside of our local area.

Good Morning!

Welcome to my blog. This is the first time I have ventured into the blog world,so have mercy on me and I will get the hang of this.

Blessings,
Jeanie