Mothering Many

So, we made it through the first week of the new term/year with our Google document lesson plans, and the kids all report that they like it. Except Stuntman, who fell far behind when football season started and still has not managed to catch up. But I am not going to get started on that

I put group Bible and singing back in the lesson plans this time, and that has been such a neat thing again, to read the Bible with the children. We just take turns, but it is a nice peaceful break in the day.

Bach is not a great hit. I don’t have the recommended piece on CD, and I have to admit it was mush better than the darker pieces I do have, so when I do the lesson plans sometime this weekend, I will be tracking down the Concerto in D, or whatever it was I listened to a snippet of last week.

I’m finally starting to feel a bit better, too, so I hope to get teh house back on track next week. Just in time to run like a mad woman all next weekend, LOL. Lock-in Friday night, all day craft show on Saturday. What can I say, except that it seemed like a good idea at the time?

This weekend is also busy. Our last games are tomorrow, we need to get Angel Food picked up, the cheerleaders have a hugely long and important practice as well, BECAUSE! SUNDAY! IS! COM! PE! TI! TION! I will be locked in a gymnasium for about 5 hours with hundreds of screaming girl children. And I can’t wait!

I popped in to say that I am still here, and ask if you are. Last Tuesday, after my wonderful tackle, I went to bed around 8pm with a fever and hard chills. And that was the last cleaning I did until today. Nothing like going out in a blaze of glory, eh? I seem to be on the mend, if by mend, I can mean able to get through the day with less than 2 naps, and so I attempted some light housework today, just my bath and bed room, and not even the floors in those rooms. And that is why there is no Tuesday Tackle for you today. The only thing I am up to tackling is a pillow!

We’ve started new years/terms for three students this week, and I am making a more conscientious effort to include the extras that make a CM education so much fun: art and music and Shakespeare and such. To do that, I have back on some of the extra history readings I was requiring. Part of the beauty of CM is the free time it allows to pursue interests that the children have. It took me awhile to see that, to let go of what I think they want/ought to know, to stop trying to make my favorite subject their favorites, too. We’ll see how it goes.

Now, I know that this set of pictures doesn’t seem to indicate much progress, but if you said that, you would be wrong. My 45 minutes of cleaning a day (ok, usually I do an hour) is really beginning to pay off. On Mondays, I start in my bathroom, and I clean it, really clean it. Then I move into my bedroom and really clean it, and then I move into the living room and clean it. When the MP3 player shuts off, I stop, right where I am. On Tuesday, I start in the bathroom again and tidy, then the bedroom and the living room. Today, a Tuesday, I moved from the living room and into the girls room. Those shots are of behind the door of their room! And it is Tuesday. Only Tuesday.

Now, I probably won’t get any further than their room this week, but I have made it into the that room on the second day of the week! Tomorrow, I will start in the bathroom, tidy it, my bedroom and the living room, and work more on the girl’s room. But even as I have a girl room, a boy room, a kid bath, a work area and a kitchen to go, I am able to say that three rooms of my house are totally under control now. In two short weeks. And that, my friends, is a massive tackle.

I think this picture pretty much sums it up, because anything else I could add wouldn’t be for for print.

Yeah, I realize I’m not done–the mower is out of gas and I have to wait until the van gets back to get more.

Aunt Annie’s Alligator A….a….A

That’s the book I read to the littles today before quiet time. It had been a very long time since I had read that book! See, my priorities had gotten a little bit whacked, and the reading had been more miss than hit lately. I decided last week that this was just not acceptable any more. My kids needed raising, and I was the one who should do that. That decision prompted the blog makeover here and it’s prompted a whole lot of other changes, too.

Such as this one to post just a few sentences about that great book and then move on back into the living room with my kiddos.

This week, I am in the living room, and I tackled the bookcases. Here is the before shot:

Here is the after:

You can’t see in the picture, but there were actually four bookshelves involved in today’s tackle. Here is my favorite part:

These are the books that I read to the littles before quiet time. I moved them out of the school area and into the living room. Speaking of reading books to littles, yesterday I read to the babies a book I had read to my oldest. It’s called The Book of Shadowboxes, and it was one of her particular favorites. I almost cried all through it.

You know, I have almost reached the point where I can see the light at the end of the busybabydays child raising tunnel. I thought I’d be glad to get here, but it’s killing me instead.

Lookie what I found today!

It’s my big cookie press. I found it up on top of my kitchen cabinets when I climbed up there today to vacuum them. See, I knew deep cleaning was a good idea! Apparently I put it up there last year when I was cleaning, so the kids would not find it and use it. I guess it worked, they didn’t use it AND I didn’t get to make cookies with it.

Which brings me to my next point: when you are shorter than your kids, the only person you end up hiding things from is yourself.

And my final point: I will be running the 12 cookies of Christmas again this year! Making a note on my Google Calendar right now.

If you remember, I committed last Friday to deep cleaning 45 minutes each weekday. I’m proud to say that I followed through on that, at least Friday and yesterday. Here is what I accomplished in 45 minutes yesterday, minus calls from strangers about boy scouts and from dh about money, plus the baking sheet cabinet under the counter.

There is no before picture, because it is just too embarrassing. As you can see, it might be time to have tacos around here, since I have a massed FIVE boxes of shells. Of course, that is only 2.5 meals worth around here, LOL!

Today, I plan to move on to the snack cabinet. Click the button to join in the tackling fun!

So, the time has come, the time is now. This house needs cleaning and it needs it NOW! (You have to chant that like Dr. Suess’s Marvin K. Mooney, Would You Please GO Now!

Isn’t it amazing how fast a house can get dirty? I started out in January in the kitchen, scrubbing walls and organizing cabinets, and I have made it through the kitchen, my bathroom, my bedroom, some of the living room and the kids bathroom, and you know what? The kitchen needs to be done again. So I started today, and we’ll be spring cleaning until the whole house is done again.

So, who is willing to commit with me to 45 minutes of deep cleaning every day?

And can someone please explain how my kids grew so much in just 5 days? Seriously. And Dababy is speaking clearly with real words, and even pronouncing the “tt” in the middle of bottle.

Oh, stop. When you have 8 kids, you can decide when it’s time for my baby to be off the bottle.

Yk, I said while I was gone that I wondered if the reason I was so outgoing away from home is to make sure I don’t have a chance to miss the kiddos. I think I might be on to something, because right now, I don’t ever want to leave again.

Feel free to ask me if I still feel that way tomorrow, though