For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"
Just a few days until a new year begins. 2007. Wow. I remember as a little girl, thinking that when (and if) the world reached the years above 2000, people would be floating about in hovering vehicles and wearing silver and rainbow jumpsuits and dancing with holograms. (Perhaps too much Startrek!) Now, here I am in 2007, and it all seems pretty much the same. (Which is good, because I would much rather be dancing with Matt or my children than with holograms!) For fun, I took a peek at last year's resolutions post and not-to-surprisingly, found that my goals will be followed through with this coming year as well.
It was nice to gauge how well I did this past year. Here is an overview:
Healthy Living:
1) I have worked on this-but admit also to having eaten quite a LOT of pizza since we moved here. I would like to change that this coming year. Not so much pizza and continuing on in this goal! There is STILL lots of work to be done!
2) With Andrew and the move, I haven't been consistent here until Matt began his new job. I have now gotten into the routine (with the exception of a few days) to wake up with him, make his lunch and send him off, exercise, computer, devotions and shower before the kids wake up. I need to work on maintaining my focus though. Just in time to feel like I accomplished this goal a bit! :-)
Gaining Expertise:
1) I have experimented with alternate lighting situations, but am still not entirely happy with the results. I want to continue in this focus as well as on textures and architecture.
2) Regretfully, I didn't even TOUCH this one. Excuses can be made-and good ones. Rather, I will simply say that THIS year I will focus more on this one!
3) Slamdunk! I did TRIPLE the canning I did last year, experimenting with canning FRUIT (outside of jellies) and doing some different types of pickles and relishes. But there is LOTS more to do-even canning meats, which will be a VERY new thing to me.
4) Well, one out of two ain't bad...right?
Responsibilities to Matt:
1) I need a lot of help here...but now is the time to REALLY buckle down. Especially with the dream of purchasing a home. At least we have been able to reestablish a small 'nest egg'.
2)I have been packing his lunches but have fallen short in dinner preparations. (See:pizza.)
Homekeeping:
1) Ba humbug. I guess I had entirely forgotten about THIS one, because no organizing plan has been put into action. But, it is a GOOD goal-and so I am not giving up on it yet!
Christian Strength-Training
1) Well, I have failed MISERABLY on this one so in the coming year, I can only get BETTER, right?
That is how I *did* last year. Some areas show real progress-some need some serious help. But ALL need work-even still. But you know what? Life would be SO BORING and mundane if I were where I needed to be. Right? So, these focus goals are on my list this year as well, with special focus on those things that I BOMBED last year.
Matt works this weekend and so we are going to stay home from New Years. Just as well, too. Tonight we are heading uptown to stock up on candy goods because this week (probably New Year's Eve) we are going to have our annual Gingerbread decorating contest...and guess who will be the judges?!?! YOU WILL! :-) How's THAT for pressure! So come back next week so you can judge for us!
Then, on New Year's Day I will be putting the Christmas decorations away. I hate that. I really truly wish I could keep them up all year-or at least all winter. Probably it is a GOOD thing, not having an artificial tree-or I WOULD! After that, the birdies will be getting a special treat-which will be detailed next week as well so check back. I am VERY excited about this!
Well, that is all the news here today. Have a very happy and safe New Year's celebration! I thank God for the health, love, protection and happiness of the last year and praise Him for the gift of a new one!
So, what new year resolutions will you make this time? Good job at making some of them come true!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing your gingerbread houses- we were going to have a competition this year, and then time just slipped away from us. Have fun :)
Happy New Years to You TOO!!! :)
My resolutions are the same as last year. As I wrote-I will never be WHERE I want to be in these areas so they will be mine for 2007. The only major changes would be in the area of photography where I have a different focus this year.
ReplyDeleteOh-and one more I can think of-is to buckle down and teach Corynn to read!!!! That is exciting and scary at the same time. Ah! Woohoo! and AHHHHHH again!
RYC: No problem on so many questions. I thought I better answer them now before I forget though. LOL.
ReplyDelete1) When we first started HSing I wrote my own curriculum. I used alot of sources and have alot of websites I can share if you are interested.Try out www.letteroftheweek.com and Preschool with Stormie (do a google on it.) I have a few other favorites if you want them too. At her age you may want to think about doing a weekly "theme". Mainly I tried to concentrate on making school appealing without Lizzie ever knowing we were really "doing school". When we had to officially start schooling (registering, etc...) I tried to pay attention to when their best times of day to work were. Don't stress too much about it. Have fun at her age and do lots and lots of activities, games,etc... Do some worksheets but include lots of hands on stuff too.
2)On the book question...we have TONS of books in this house. I am a book freak or something. I love to read and I want my kids to love to read. We are getting ready to start the Prairie Primer next week (year long unit study on the Little House books....I am SO excited)and I am looking for a few "core" books to go along with it for references, etc... We use the library liberally...our system has an online site in which I can go online, browse the card catalog and put books on hold online. This saves me a ton of time as well as allows me to pull books from the various county branches without driving all over the countryside getting them. All my selected books are then sent to my "home library" and Rich generally stops after work and picks them up. Again if you were to go with "themes" at her age then you could. The letter of the week curriculum is a free curr.online and it is geared for various ages and abilities so you could tailor it for her.
3)On the reading question...we tried the 100 EZ Lessons book bc it had rave reviews but it did NOT work for us at all. I gave mine away to a friend. LOL. I started out with letter identification and corresponding sounds. Short vowels first then consonants and long vowels last. The LeapFrog videos/dvds are GREAT! They have a catchy little tune and even Sam knows most of his letter sounds now. Do lots of fun hands on stuff...glue apple seeds to a big letter A when you learn about A. Make applesauce. Look for As around the house, etc... I have a good book called Letter of the Week put out by the publishers of Mailbox which has alot of fun activities in it but you can also find alot of cute ideas online. Once they learned their letter we began to use Abeka which I personally love for teaching them to read. At least their method. You can read about their method at their website: http://www.abeka.com It's probably on their downloads section and it will say something about steps to reading or something. We start out learning our blend "ladders"...for example...for the letter "b" we will learn ba- be- bi- bo- bu-
(the sounds the two letters make together). You can make your own "ladders" easily on chart paper/posterboard, etc... Then we moved onto sounding out simple words. This is when we began to learn simple rules like about when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking (again this is all very reinforced in the LeapFrog videos...check amazon, ebay, etc... for maybe a great deal on them), etc...
Maybe we can make a trip up soon and I'll bring along some of the stuff I have (and copy some) to show you how we do it. You can probably bribe me if you fix that chicken salad. LOL. Seriously I would love to get up to visit with you again soon before I get too close to having the baby and shouldn't be too far from home. I can copy any stuff I need to at church as long as I bring my own paper which we buy by the box at Sams once a year or so!We have a printer/copier/scanner but it uses so much ink. I would SO LOVE to have my own small copier someday....what a dream huh? I am so sad...excited about an electric pencil sharpener and dreaming of a copier. LOL!
We are getting ready to try lapbooking too and there are probably some easy preschool lapbooks Corynn could do if she likes to cut and paste, etc... If you want I'll send you some sites about it. I am so excited about that too. Next year I am not sure what we are going to do as I want to move more into multi age teaching curric. We are considering using http://www.tapestryofgrace.com and continuing with Abeka for math and stuff like spelling, etc... at each of their grade levels along with Apologia Astronomy for science(http://www.apologia.com). TOG follows a four year cycle in history, etc... starting with the ancients and ending in modern day so each child would generally end up with the four year cycle three times throughout their school years.
My philosophy has changed quite a bit this year alone as I've begun schooling two compared to one. I used to be more "school at home" whereas now I want it to be "homeschool" if that makes any sense.
Anyway now who has written a book? If you want to ask anything else ask away. I love to talk about homeschooling or whatver.
Have a great New Years!
Blessings,
Jen
Rebecca! I have some very nice NEW YEAR news for you!!! Please email me at hearthkeeper@superpa.net You have been chosen as my "Home Made" blog pick for the month of January!! My special friend, Anne at Backyard Treasures sent you in as a nomination and I must agree your blog is a treasure!
ReplyDeleteMuch love,
Peggy Hostetler
Home Made Simplicity & The Simple Home Almanac E-zine
I just wanted to pop over and say, Happy New Year, my friend!
ReplyDelete:)
Happy New Year indeed!! I noticed you mentioned that you were going to start canning meats...I just thought that I would say that up here I have found a place that sells boneless skinless breast at GREAT prices, and they sell them at 10# a bag or in 40 # cases. We usually get a 40# case and then freeze freeze freeze...but when Eli is born...my Mom is bringing her canner up, and we are going to CAN CAN CAN...it is soooo delicious!!! I bet you could transport chicken to where you are no problem if you put it on ice.
ReplyDeleteI hope that all of your resolutions turn out well...I am not going to bother making a list...I feel like there are way too many areas that need growth...I am just going to do the best I can and better myself in all aspects :)
A very Happy New Year! And wishes for joyful working on your Resolutions.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Newman clan!!!!
ReplyDelete