Keeping It Simple

These are a few of the hurdles we are dealing with for getting family dinners up and running. #1- Schedule. I have mentioned that Mark plays football, so he is at practice every day until 6 p.m. (home around 7). Assuming Mark is the only one who has an evening activity and we have no other obligations that evening, it is doable. But this school year started with a flurry of "other obligations"! #2- What to eat. I prefer no meat. In my ideal world we would all be vegan, but no one in my family is completely on board with that. The up side is that my family loves most of the vegan dishes I make, but they like meat too. #3- Gluten Free. My daughter can not have any gluten. It is always a bummer if she calls and asks if she can stop by for dinner and we are already making pasta (we have started keeping gluten free pasta on hand), but even the meatballs I make have gluten in them. To address #1- my motto is "just do it". It does not have to be pretty. Just mak...

We are holding fast our commitment to prepare and eat dinner at home. We are trying to work the timing such that if we have to take shifts, they are fairly close together in time and we sit with whichever child is eating at the odd time while he eats. It's sort of funny- at different times, especially when our family was younger, there was no question of eating dinner at home all togethe r. In that haze that distance memory permits, those dinners times were idyllic. I'm going to come right out and confess that it's not really coming together that way now, but I'm going to stick the motto that " practice makes perfect ". We are a family of just 3 BIG kids + parents + grandma (on some days) - dinners should be time of peaceful conversation and sharing moments from our day. Eh. Sometimes, not so much. With or without those sought after peaceful moments, we have managed to accomplish our goal of eating at home whenever possible (even if we have to stretch o...

The need to find (re-find) our dinner groove has been going on for a while. For Mother's Day, I requested an afternoon at home to cook! Not just me- for the family to make and dine on a bonafide, sit down, lick your fingers good meal. I went to Patty's blog to pick up some inspiration. Her What's For Dinner Sunday posts always make me want to cook! So there you have it-  Mac and Cheese    Roasted Broccoli    Sheet Cake Since then, with the May/June craziness of plays, graduations, first communions, weddings, ... and then the summer craziness with Mark starting football that was every.single.day. until 5:00 p.m. plus the 30 minutes to an hour it takes to drive home (we do carpool thank goodness!), to now with the beginning of the school year craziness full with outside classes, hosted co op classes, football every.single.day. until 6 with the same stinkin' drive, we have been at loss on how to get this dinner thing off the ground. I guess it must ha...

on our homeschooling journey. Months ago, probably when lots of end of the year homeschool year posts were going around, I took a second to write this down. It sat in drafts for while, but thought I share these scattered thoughts! :)  If you have read this blog, you will have heard some of this already in various posts. Of course, these are my thoughts about my homeschooling experience. Although I use the pronoun "you", I realize that not every item will be true for every homeschool. #1- Stuff will swallow you whole. Keep a minimum of books and supplies on hand. #2- Go for quality over quantity every time (in time and materials). #3- Real books beat textbooks hands down. I appreciate the real books I have invested in (and often find great bargains at used curriculum sales) but most textbooks got/get less use. #4- If you do use textbooks, you don't have to beat your children with them (metaphorically speaking). I use them as a resource or we read them toget...

We had lovely lunch with our Spanish and Art co op kids and teachers-  The picture above includes all but two of the students, past and present, who have attended our little co op Spanish. At one time all of Senorita Joyce's students were shorter that than she is!  The kids love their Art teacher, Mr. Green. He seems to handle their shaningans very well! What happens in art class, stays in art class... 

As I end our 23rd year of homeschooling, I am struggling with what homeschooling looks like in our home now. I confess it does not match my ideal! But, I know that our homeschool has had different seasons and this is just one of them. Although, I suspect it might be the season that brings us through to the end.  I have always maintained, and still do to some extent, that to have a successful homeschool, you have to be home . My ideal has always been to be home for 4 out of the 5 school days of the week. I have settled for 3 out of 5 many years. But those days are gone, and I am struggling with that.  My three boys have knocked me out of my comfort zone and taken our homeschool on the road.   Smee, A.K.A. James, has been bitten by the theater bug. He participates in a fairly low key program, but that is one day a week gone driving to and from theater. Sometimes one of the older boys comes with me to work on school, or I can sit in the car and conference c...

For a few brief months, I decided  got lazy and stopped filling out my calendar. I deluded myself into thinking that I would remember Orthodontic appointments that are scheduled weeks if not months out (thank goodness for reminder calls). But after double booking an evening with two very important events, I decided I had better get back to using my calendar. We are up and running: This is command central.  The calendar is filled out (I made sure to put appointments, with reminders set, in my iPhone calendar).  School calendars that are printed and laminated are just above the calendar- this allows me to see at a glance what Paul's schedule is and double check dates as they come up (Paul belongs to an ISP as well as an on campus Friday school).  Paul's volleyball schedule is printed out and in a magnetic clip above the calendar as well. There are pens, pencils, scissors, note cards, and paper in the white basket next to the calendar....