At Home On Basket Flat

I had a fussy toddler tonight. So, what did I do? I thought I'd get down on the floor and try and entertain her and take her picture. I got a couple of good shots when she wasn't trying to climb all over me. But, here are two shots from tonight:

Abigail with her Little People

Midnight The Cat (our Christmas kitten that showed up on our doorstep last year)

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Below I wrote a "Friends Only" entry. If you are listed as one of my "Friends", then just log into homeschoolblogger to read my next post. Thanks!

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We had company last night. These are our friends with SIX boys (as of recently). Their baby is 7 weeks old. Here are two pics of their Little Man, and one of the whole gang (minus the baby).

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OK. I admit it. I am not a neat freak. Not even close. Yet, I try to be a good keeper of my home. In my quest to fulfill that calling on my life, I have to be careful to walk a tight line and not be critical of myself for my shortcomings, yet make progress towards getting it all done.

I can't do it all

Now, the first thing that I have to remember, which would probably be helpful for most of us to remember, is that I can't do everything. No, I am not all powerful. I am not omnipresent. Despite what my sweet husband likes to tell me, I do not have unending energy. So, the first thing I have to remember when it comes to house cleaning, is that I've got to make choices.

I can't do work, ballet, homeschooling, housekeeping, exercising, prayer, bible reading, gardening, keeping up with yard work, hiking, photography, cooking, sewing, co-op, violin, soccer, have a social life, and spend quality time with my children and my husband, all at the same time.

I'm constantly in need of re-evaluating what I'm spending time on right now. Maybe, I can't do co-op and soccer, I've got to let go of the yard, choose easier meals, and not do as much sewing and photography as I'd like. Maybe I even need to set a realistic goal for bible reading time and prayer time - and simply set a goal to make them a regular part of my day - by starting the day with prayer and reading the bible with my husband before bed.

Break It Down

Break down your tasks. Don't get bogged down by how much you have to do. I'm always surprised how things don't pile up, if I just give myself a few minutes to take out a load of laundry, put laundry in the dryer and washer, and fold the laundry right when it comes out. Or, if I just give myself a couple of minutes to straighten the living room. Or, if I give myself a goal to unload and load the dishwasher and clear off the table. Then, when I'm done with that task, I'm glad, because I've crossed something off. I'm not looking at EVERYTHING that has to be done, just what is in front of me.

Get Your Kids Involved

I think the lack of getting kids involved is a big problem in our society. Society tells us that kids jobs are play, play, and more play. I don't disagree that free play is a very important part of kids development. Homeschooling provides ample opportunities for this free play, especially if you restrict or eliminiate television and video games.

Yet, if we don't train our children to work, how shocking is that when they grow up and have a household to look after? "Whoa, this is hard!" Why? It is hard because they haven't been given the tools, the practice, and the discipline.

What's more than this, we really underestimate our children. They are much more capable tha we give them credit for. My seven year old for instance can load dishes, unload dishes, sweep the kitchen floor, clean the kid's bathroom, get clothes out of the dryer, and even fold clothes given enough encouragement. She also gets our egss every day and lets the chickens out in the morning. My ten year old step-daughter is great at clearing the floors and vacuuming in rows. And she likes to do it. My five year old can get clothes out of the dryer, she can unload dishes that are low, she can wipe off the kitchen table.

This really helps when your kids are getting stir crazy and starting to make a mess. The kids don't know what to do? Give them a job. LET them help you.

Do It Fast

I used to work at a busy restaurant bussing tables and hostessing. On a Friday and Saturday night, I can assure you that we didn't move slow. More customers were coming in and the tables needed to be turned. You grabbed as much off the table at once as you could and took it quickly back to the dishwasher. Back you went to your table after this, wiping the table, cleaning the floor, setting and straightening the table and chairs. Do your chores like this! There is no need to spend more time than you need to doing tedious chores. Teach your children to do their work quickly as well. I try and teach my Natalie (7), you don't have to do every step perfectly, but do your job quickly and make sure it is done correctly in the end.

Do It All The Way The First Time

I have to remember this. I also have to remind the children of this. Do your job all the way. If you do laundry and get it folded, but you don't put it away, it will haunt you. It will slow you down later, because nagging at your mind is an unfinished task.

When Involving Your Husband Make Clear Request

It took me a long time to learn to make clear requests of my husband. I still need to remind myself of this so I don't slip into what comes naturally. Men process differently than women. And, as stay at home moms, we naturally have to do more of the housework than our husbands. Yet, that doesn't mean that we don't sometimes need or want our husband's help. But, telling my husband, "I want help!" does not help. Maybe, at this point, he's learned to figure out what this mean. But, naturally, to him this means I'm disappointed in him. Go figure?! If I asked you women for help wouldn't you just chip in and also ask me if I felt overwhelmed or something? But, to my husband, I need to say, "Honey, could you unload the dishwasher, clean up the baby, and tuck the kids in bed?" He likes that. Then, he can check it off. LOL. I imagine you would need to approach boys in a similar manner, but since I don't have any boys of my own, I really have no idea.

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Here are some Christmas pictures and they are more snow pictures - because mostly we went out to play in the snow on Christmas.

Our chicken coop was entirely surrounded by snow. The chickens didn't even want to attempt to go out and free range. Our eggs showed this by turning their yolks pale yellow, instead of the rich orangish-yellow yolks of a farm fresh eggs.

Rachel's a cutie, isn't she?

Too tired to walk.

Here are the older girls together. I got a Digital Photography book for Christmas. One of the hints in the book when you are taking a picture of several people (3 or 4) is to have them stand my a vertical object and that they will organize themselves around it without standing in a row. It worked well!

I hope all of you were as blessed at Christmas as we were.

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Merry Christmas to everyone! We are enjoying our day. There were no major glitches today, except for forgetting to turn the oven back on for the Turkey, after the power went out briefly. So, our Christmas evening dinner will be a little late. We opened presents last night and then the girls got some things in their stockings this morning. They are in hog heaven. I'll have some more photos for you all as I go on, but I wanted to share two with you now.

This first picture is a panoramic of the hill behind our property. I wanted you all to see in a similar way that you would in person - looking from left to right. No, I didn't get a fancy fish-eye lens for Christmas or anything. I just pieced photos together in Photoshop and attempted to blend them. Do you like it?

The second is a picture of me. Now, that's unusual, since I am the picture taker of the family. I handed the camera over to my step-daughter Mariah, put it on Portrait and had her take my picture. I'm glad, my avatar I've been using is a picture which is several years old and was taken in Maui. Oh, that was nice. We looked on the internet this morning and Maui was 80 degrees at 8:25 in the morning and the ocean was smooth. Perfect for snorkling. One day we'll do it again. But, anyhow, I digress, the picture wasn't very new, nor very wintery. So, I'm happy to get this picture.

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Merry Christmas Eve to everybody out there! This is really a festive Christmas Eve at our house as we still have a tone of snow on the ground. It is warming up a bit, but we should actually get a little more snow tonight. So I wouldn't be surprised if we had 18" total snow tomorrow for Christmas. What a lovely gift.

We are getting present wrapped up today. Is that pathetic? When I was growing up, a lot of the presents were wrapped on Christmas morning. So, I figure I am doing pretty well getting them wrapped up the day before. And, I am terrible about cards as well. It feels like a lot to me. And it's not something my family ever did. It probably felt like a lot to my mom. It is my desire to digitalize it all one of these days. I'd like to take all our family photos and order them over the internet way ahead of time. Once I get the formula figured out I'm usually pretty good about things I can do on a computer and from home. And, I'm usually pretty good about e-mailing people. So, I hope family and friends can be understanding with me and know that my shortcomings aren't because I don't think about them. The traditional Thank You's and Christmas Cards and Gift Wrapping and Christmas decorating and all that are just really hard for me. In the same way I think that some tell me doing this or that on the computer is hard for them.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share some pictures of our Christmas Tree Ornaments, some pictures of our girls, and some tree light pictures. Once again, I've been inspired by Alyssa and Julie and their recent posts.

Which ornament do you like best? The nativity is my all time favorite.

Which face shot do you like best?

My light pics didn't turn out as cool as Alyssa's. I think she was taking pictures of outside colored icycle lights - which are in a row, close together. But, if you have a digital SLR, it's really easy to do and it's fun! Just set a long shutter speed and a low ISO and move your camera around in a pattern that you desire.

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Here are a few more snow pictures. These were from yesterday. This is what I refer to as "in town". We probably have an accumulation of about 12-14 inches total. In town 6-8 inches. And, for around here it was bizarre - going to Target and having packed snow - no dry (or wet) pavement. The snow was before Christmas at that!

Watch For Ice

Driving In The Snow

This is a tree. I thought it looked cool.

This is the snow at the business park where we have our business. I thought the snow was a really cool. Color. Notice the bluish tint. It really did look like that.

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