Enjoying The Day

I am so excited. We have company coming in this evening. The kids are really excited because it is their little cousins. This is going to be so much fun!We are going to have a big homemade pizza party this evening and just enjoy each other's company. These times don't come around often enough! I have enjoyed picking up around the house with my little 14 month old tag-along buddy. He is the youngest of the kids I watch right now...until Monday! He goes wherever I go and I forgot how much I enjoy having kids this young around. He is a delight. I am also thankful my husband would go to the grocery store with two little three year old girls and do the grocery shopping for the week for me. He is so sweet! Off for now! Get out and enjoy your day!!!

My Little Sponge

I never knew Josiah could or would be THIS excited about school and learning. He is literally my little sponge. He has learned all of his letters in upper case and lower case, and he knows all of the sounds of his consonants and vowels. We can't go anywhere without Josiah telling us what letter EVERYTHING starts with. I can almost say it is like a new fixation for him...but this is a good one. He also is counting like crazy and can count by himself to 100 and is so proud of himself. He doesn't really understand what reading really entails, and is not really into wanting to read, but he loves sounding out the letters in words and doesn't realize he is reading some simple words. Josiah also loves teaching Bethany what he has learned, and Bethany loves hearing what he has to teach. At the beginning of every week on Monday, the teacher sends home 5 front and back pages of "optional" homework. It is suggested by the teacher to do the homework one page a night and turn it in on Friday for stickers on his chart and "husky bucks". He begs me every Monday evening to do all of his homework. We do it all that night, and then he begs me for more. He also asks the teacher to send him home extra work because he already finished his. He loves to sit and do what he calls "seat work". Bethany and the other kids love to do it with him too, so I have to keep them all supplied with pages to work on. If there is no homework to do, there is usually some fussing, but I can usually turn the fussing around if I give him some pages to color. Coloring has always been something that Josiah has NEVER liked to do, but now, he loves to color and practice staying in the lines. I let him do it as much as he wants because it improves his fine motor skills and hand strength, an area where he is lacking. So, I am just so proud of my little boy and so glad that he is soooo in love with learning right now. I hope this love for learning and doing things lasts for a long, long time! Happy Saturday and Happy First Day of Fall!!!

Days Two, Three and Four, Week One Challenge

Okay, so Day Two was a big bust...and I mean big! But, what do you do when the kids are lethargic and just want to lay on the sofa after vomiting all night? Well, we put in a few movies until momma regained some energy after being up all night with the sick kiddos. Do I feel bad or guilty about that? Um, no, not really. I was able to stay off of the computer and get some things done...like nasty, dirty laundry, and when the kids napped, I did a little computing. Day Three we went back to no TV and no computer while the kids were awake/around and I got no fussing from the peanut gallery. That is an improvement! We have gotten a lot of stuff done this week. I have gotten some cleaning things done that I have procrastinated on for quite a while, and the kids have found a new interest in old toys and have learned how to occupy themselves with other things. I think we are going to take this on as a Two Week Challenge...maybe even more! Happy Friday to everyone!!!

Week One, Day One of No computer/no TV challenge

Well, I made it through the day with no computer/no tv while the kids were asleep [okay, so they are not here right now, so that still counts, right?]. I can't tell you how many times I turned to go to the computer [okay, so I did turn on pandora and listen to music from the computer, but I did not sit down and vegetate at the computer and waste time!] and then turned back around and decided to do something else. Here are a few of the things I did instead: I began to prepare for dinner, I folded two loads of laundry, I changed three diapers for a stinky Mr. T, I played playdough with my daughter and the other kids, I washed dishes, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, I filled out my fridge calendar for the rest of this month and this following month, and I did a few rows of crochet on a baby blanket. My husband woke up this afternoon and went on and on about how having the blinds up and the windows open makes the house look so much brighter and cleaner...no, dear, that is the cleaning I was doing [I love him, he is so sweet!]! So, Bethany asked me three times if she could watch a movie. I told her: "No, remember, this is no TV or computer week." She responded well when I suggested other things to do. One time I pulled out a slip of paper and told her we were going to do what the paper said, and it said to play playdough, so she was happy. When Josiah got off of the school bus, he said: "Momma, I'm not going to ask you if we can watch a movie, because it's no TV week, right? Well, I am going to ask you if we can do a piece of paper!" So, we went in, had snacks and Josiah got to pull three different pieces of paper for a TV alternative. He got to play on the front porch with Daddy, got to color and he got to play playdough also. I really, really enjoyed my computer free day, and I think I am even going to bed early tonight because I am exhausted!!! Happy TV/Computer free week, y'all!!! :-)

I didn't drop off the face of the earth...

...I promise! Don't you hate it when you follow someone's blog and all of a sudden, after they post on a regular basis, the blogger just falls off the face of the earth and doesn't write anything for months!?!? Well, I stopped blogging for several months, but it has been because I really, really, just haven't had a lot of time. Shortly after my last post, my family went on a 10 day vacation, and shortly after I came home, I started babysitting again. I keep a sweet little girl who is a little bit older than Bethany. Miss E is very sweet, very obedient and easy to get along with. Shortly after Miss E came along, I added two more kiddos to the bunch that I babysit. Mr. J and Mr. J's brother, also Mr. J, added much delight to our spring and summer. One of the boys is 3 and the other is 7. Josiah has loved having the 7 year old around. Seven year old Mr. J has taught Josiah a lot...including how to wrestle and physically fight with others...like the Incredible Hulk...yes, a great part of my summer was spent fussing at these two boys for being too hard and rough on each other. They, I have a little baby I keep every now and then, Mr. T. I have watched him on and off since he was born and now he is starting to toddle around and I am starting to keep him on a more consistent basis. The older Mr. J and Josiah have gone back to school, so I have Bethany plus three other little charges on a regular basis. Soon I will add another 5 year old and his baby sister, a 2 month old to the pack for three afternoons a week. Am I nuts? No, not really, just doing what it takes to be able to stay home with my kids and take care of them, my husband and my home. So, as you can see, I haven't had much time to spend on blogging. I have a purpose in blogging tonight. For the past couple of weeks, I have been convicted of what I consider to be a sin in my life, and that is mis-management of my time. Even though I say I don't have a lot of time, I always seem to find enough time to sit at the computer and spend time answering and writing emails, or sitting on facebook keeping up with friends and family, and basically just dilly-dallying in general. Along with this sitting at the computer and spending too much time on it and not enough time with my family, it seems like all the kids ever want to do is watch movies. We don't have cable TV, but the kids LOVE their movies. I used to only let them watch 30 minutes of movies a day while I worked on dinner, or did other things around the house, but that 30 minutes has morphed into another incredibly terrible waste of time for my kids and the kids I babysit. So, I have been thinking about what I am going to do about this. I think things have been slipping all about me because of this habit I have of spending too much time on the computer. Dinner keeps getting later and later, laundry mountains get higher and higher, and other things just take a second seat, and that is not the way it should be and not the way I want things. So, here is what I am going to do, starting tomorrow. This is NO TV WEEK and NO COMPUTER WEEK in our house [except for Daddy...he can make his own decisions in this area]. Instead of spending time on the computer or in front of the TV, I have made a huge list [a separate one for me and one for the kids] of things we can do. My idea is that when the kids ask me if they can watch a movie, I will remind them this is NO TV week and that we need to find something else to do with our time. I have folded up about 50 different little pieces of paper and on each slip is something we can do instead of wasting time. Some of the kids activities include: ~Sing Silly Songs ~Play with Play-do ~Write a letter to Granny ~Make birthday or holiday cards ~Look for bugs ~Play Simon Says ~Play Mother May I And, these are just a few of the things we will be doing instead of TV this week. Here are a few of the things mommy has been procrastinating over and things I will be doing instead of time on the computer: ~Spend 15 minutes ironing ~Scrub outside of kitchen cabinets ~Read a book for 15 minutes ~Call a family member ~Take church list and pray over church members ~Clean out arts/crafts/preschool cabinet ~Clean out silverware drawer ~Sit down and work on crochet project for 15mins And these are just a few! I came up with 102 different activities for me to choose from. Anytime I find myself gravitating towards the computer and telling myself it would be for just a minute, instead I am going to draw out a folded piece of paper and do what the paper says instead. Now, the only exception I will make to this is that when the kids go to bed at night, if I need some time on the computer, I will take it. Other than that, I will not have any personal time on the computer while the kids are awake. I am pretty excited about this adventure. I am actually hoping that we last longer than a week. I will let you know how it goes. How do YOU manage your time wisely? I would love your helpful hints and advice!