After over 10 years of homeschooling, we've made a big change. Father R is taking over the math reins. (I actually love the graininess.)
Jan 8, 2013
Jan 6, 2013
Menu Plan Monday: 5 Dinners-in-1 Hour
Our menu for the week owes a lot of thanks to 5 Dinners-in-1 Hour, the meal-planning site that provides you with the menu, the grocery list, and all the prep directions to assemble five dinners in--yeah, you guessed it, even though you don't believe it---ONE hour! In fact, several week's worth of dinners at our house owe their thanks to 5 Dinners-in-1Hour. But when I broke my foot on Christmas night, boy was I glad that there were meals filling the freezer that would not need more for me to do than throw them in a crockpot or oven to finish the job. I was also extremely thankful that Father R had planned to take the time off for the holidays, AND that he enjoys cooking. That allowed the freezer meals to wait to be popped out after he went back to work on Jan.2. And Mei got to play Clara Barton whose home and headquarters she had toured last fall. I think the novelty wore off by the end of the week, but if it gave her an appreciation for the profession, then lesson well-learned. Just wish it hadn't been at my expense.
So as we enter Week Three of Peg-leg Mom, here's what's on the menu! I wouldn't dream of sharing the recipes; that wouldn't be fair to Michele at 5 Dinners. But you can try out a week's worth free here. I'm not including the weekend meals cuz that's HIS territory!
Corn on the Cob
Carrots
Sugar snap peas
Brown rice
So as we enter Week Three of Peg-leg Mom, here's what's on the menu! I wouldn't dream of sharing the recipes; that wouldn't be fair to Michele at 5 Dinners. But you can try out a week's worth free here. I'm not including the weekend meals cuz that's HIS territory!
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| Dad's Lasagna. And She Helped! |
Monday
Slow-Cooked Tangy Beef SandwichesCorn on the Cob
Carrots
Tuesday
Asian Chicken LegsSugar snap peas
Brown rice
Wednesday
Dad's Lasagna (NOT a 5Dinners1Hour meal. It really is Dad's!)
Green Salad
Thursday
Slow Cooker Almost Tamales
Black beans
Sliced Avocados
Friday
Slow Cooked Tuscan Bean Soup
Green Salad
Whole Wheat Rolls
Looking forward to a fashionable black-tie party in the neighborhood on Saturday. My long skirt should be able to hide my orthopedic boot!
Check out other menus at Menu Plan Monday! What's cookin' at YOUR house?
Jan 5, 2013
Hoeing a Rough Row
We have been hoeing a rough row the last several years. We are direct casualties of the economic fall-out of 2008, and it has been rocking our boat since then. While I feel the details of this are too personal to share publicly, the result has brought serious struggles to our personal economy, our marriage and family, and even my spiritual life. We have been facing questions daily about our future for over three years now and it is really eating at us. Praise God that Father R followed his wise grandmother's advice and "paid himself first" (not omitting God from that; she was also a believer, but this was just a motto to make a point.) This means saving. Had we been spending as fast as he was making it (like so many were), our lives would have been much more drastically altered already. I'm sure we would have had to sell our home and put me to work, doing what I have no idea. I have been out of anything resembling a paycheck since 1986.
Of course, this would have meant putting Mei back in the high-pressure, award-seeking government school as from which we had just removed her.
Mei came home from there after 1st grade. I knew she was struggling. The pressures were already mounting. Missing the bus because she is a slow eater.Cramming addition facts while driving her to school. Dressing in the back seat on the way to ballet, snack in a bag. Spelling homework at 8 in the car on the way home. Writing exercises for someone who still had trouble forming her letters (This was Kindergarten and first grade, remember.)
And the evidences of it in her behavior: badgered by teachers about her thumb-sucking habit who believed they had her best interest at heart, ("She will be harassed by her peers." She wasn't, only by her instructors.), she took to chewing on her sleeves! When I pointed that out, she was switched to a stress ball. FOR A FIRST-GRADER?? Those things are for powerful, white-collar executives in high-rise offices that are nearing a heart attack!
Father R and I haven't made any decisions yet, but his current job leaves us with almost no family time from Monday through Friday. He commutes an average of an hour-and-a-half EACH WAY every day (commute times in the Washington, DC area are the highest in the nation. Woo Hoo! We're Number One!!). He leaves before we get up, and is asleep before we fall in bed ourselves because he knows he's going to be up before the sun again in the morning. At least two nights a week, he works late on top of that. So Mei can go more than 48 hours without even having face time with her dad who she adores. I know there are many, many people in this country that are living like this, so I'm not trying to start a pity party here. But, for us, we keep asking, "Is it worth it? And if not (it's NOT), what choices are we left with?"
I will leave off here. We know God holds us in His hand as He has always demonstrated. And I know that He has allowed struggles to bring us back to Him, which this one does. Secretly I get excited at the possibilities that He may be preparing for us at the end of this Valley. But patience and releasing control are not my strong suits. Yet I will trust in the Lord.
Of course, this would have meant putting Mei back in the high-pressure, award-seeking government school as from which we had just removed her.
Mei came home from there after 1st grade. I knew she was struggling. The pressures were already mounting. Missing the bus because she is a slow eater.Cramming addition facts while driving her to school. Dressing in the back seat on the way to ballet, snack in a bag. Spelling homework at 8 in the car on the way home. Writing exercises for someone who still had trouble forming her letters (This was Kindergarten and first grade, remember.)
And the evidences of it in her behavior: badgered by teachers about her thumb-sucking habit who believed they had her best interest at heart, ("She will be harassed by her peers." She wasn't, only by her instructors.), she took to chewing on her sleeves! When I pointed that out, she was switched to a stress ball. FOR A FIRST-GRADER?? Those things are for powerful, white-collar executives in high-rise offices that are nearing a heart attack!
Father R and I haven't made any decisions yet, but his current job leaves us with almost no family time from Monday through Friday. He commutes an average of an hour-and-a-half EACH WAY every day (commute times in the Washington, DC area are the highest in the nation. Woo Hoo! We're Number One!!). He leaves before we get up, and is asleep before we fall in bed ourselves because he knows he's going to be up before the sun again in the morning. At least two nights a week, he works late on top of that. So Mei can go more than 48 hours without even having face time with her dad who she adores. I know there are many, many people in this country that are living like this, so I'm not trying to start a pity party here. But, for us, we keep asking, "Is it worth it? And if not (it's NOT), what choices are we left with?"
I will leave off here. We know God holds us in His hand as He has always demonstrated. And I know that He has allowed struggles to bring us back to Him, which this one does. Secretly I get excited at the possibilities that He may be preparing for us at the end of this Valley. But patience and releasing control are not my strong suits. Yet I will trust in the Lord.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Psalm 2:1-11 NIV
Proverbs 31 Ministries: God Is Waiting
Jan 3, 2013
Life Lessons from a Broken Foot
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| My instructive left foot. 4 more weeks to go. |
It's given me time to SIT STILL. This alone is a change I could learn to make a habit. While I'm being forced to SIT STILL, I have spent time on things that I've been putting off, like this blog for instance. Can't blog easily if you're always on the move. Or reading my Bible. Editing my thousands of pictures. Playing a board game with my family. These things require me to SIT STILL.
Another thing I'm discovering is that it forces me to change my priorities. Before the break, I would always find something else that needed to be done before I would allow myself to SIT STILL. This usually meant I would go all day without sitting still. How badly does the house need cleaning? Well, if I have to SIT STILL, then I'll have to clean less. And behold, the guilt of a floor needing to be vacuumed vanishes. So I have more time for that stuff I was talking about before. Stuff that requires me to SIT STILL.
I'm also forced to let Mei fend for herself. This is a good thing for someone who has some anxieties. (Hers that is, but maybe a touch of mine too?) And not only does she have to do for herself, she has to do for ME. Some practice in servanthood which I couldn't have taught as well if I hadn't been doing what? That's right.
A recent sermon quoted Tim Kreider about busyness that hit me between the eyes. (Father R was making um-humming noises next to me.)
"Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day." from the NYTimes article onlineOuch! Is that my motivation for being busy? Maybe I need to think a about that. It takes time to think, reflect, ponder...in other words to engage the brain. Which I can do if I SIT STILL.
Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God."
Jan 2, 2013
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