Daybook for January 8th (my mother's birthday)

Outside my window~ blue skies and cool temperatures.

I am listening to~ not much and it sounds great!

I am wearing~ white silky jammies, getting ready to put on sweats and go to the gym momentarily.

I am grateful for~ my self proclaimed word of the year HOME!!!

I am pondering~ this thought from Deacon Paul yesterday, "we can't solve the problems of the world, but we can make a dent"

I am reading~ blogs.

I am creating~ helpful kids with our new chore routine.

From the learning room~ I had this realization yesterday, we do school all over the place. The loft is supposed to be the "schoolroom" and it is the computer (ie virtual school) room. But I finally realized how to be sure to include the history that we all do together and that is to do it in the kitchen during breakfast or lunch). Jake likes to pick the place to do his work, sometimes his room, sometimes the family room, often the front room (my new favorite room in the house), sometimes outside, almost never the loft. Madi got her much desired "lap desk" for Christmas and she is a mobile schooling unit as well, often choosing a different couch. I'm still not happy with the look and set up of the loft and I'm enjoying the other, prettier rooms much more.

To live the liturgy~ I'm mourning the end of the Christmas season.

Around the house~ the kids have done great with their chores. We are using a month long "zone plan" this month Jonathan is zone 1- kitchen. Now I'm not only not loading and unloading the dishwasher, I'm also not picking out kids at random to do it. He knows it's his job, I know it's his job, we're all loving it! Jonathan even said even though it's a lot of work, he likes it because he knows what to expect! Madi is zone 2- front room and family room vacuuming, dusting etc, also looking good. Jake is zone 3- feed Mickey, downstairs bathroom, and laundry. He's got Mickey covered just fine, but he's "in training" on the other jobs. On the first day he so helpfully threw down all of the dirty laundry and inadvertantly dumped down the stairs two huge baskets of clean laundry as well. After lots of yelling and tears (from me) and lots and lots of appologizing (also from me), we got it all sorted and worked out. We just got a new washer, so I'm enjoying laundry and not ready for anyone to touch the new machine. By the end of the month, I'll be ready to pass the torch, I think Madi is up next for laundry.

From the kitchen~ in addition to cleaning the kitchen, Jonathan and I are in the planning phase of a 1/2 credit "cooking/ home ec" course for him. The fun thing about homeschooling high school is all the real life learning stuff that homeschoolers do naturally with their kids finally "counts" for something. I've been googling different home ec course descriptions, but basically we really are running a home here, so we don't need to duplicate what they do in school which is TRY to duplicate what people do at home. Anyway, by the spring Jonathan will know how to bake the bread and make tons of meals and baked goods all on his own.

From Netfilx this week~ Nativity Story...very good and It's Complicated...very funny!

On my ipod~ a year later, I am still loving this thing, from all my music on shuffle at the gym (each song is a fun surprise!) to the audio-rosary when I'm driving to quick email checks... this thing is the best!

Theatre~ starts this week. They are doing Beauty and the Beast auditions are the
18th.

One of my favorite things~ homeschooling. This week there were a lot of facebook posts about "yeah, it's back to school for the kids", I'm so glad that's not us!

A few plans~ going to Outback tomorrow night to celebrate my mother's birthday. getting Universal passes next week when Mike's brother comes for a visit. Harry Potter World here we come! Basketball practice started for Jake this week, his first game is next Saturday.

Choosing HOME whenever we can!