Flexibility

Homeschooling is hard.  Don't get me wrong.  There are moments that absolutely rock, but sometimes it is just hard.  Recently I discovered that our seat work arrangement was not working.  Both boys at one table with  me in the middle.  They were spending more time distracting each other than working on anything.  And it was making. me. crazy.  So I changed it.

Instead of having both boys at the table in the school room, I set Luke up at the dining room table with his seatwork subjects and Paul stays at the school table.  Then I walk back and forth between the two of them.  It's perfect.  They don't distract each other.  They learn patience.  And I get in more steps for my fitbit.  Latest obsession.

We were also struggling with how the schedule for the day would run.  Boys were arguing about coming to do school.  Guh.  I tend to take this personally.  I know I shouldn't, but I do.  (Sidenote:  I actually read a portion of Scripture that is helping me hugely with this...Exodus 16:8 when Moses tells the Israelites they aren't grumbling against him, but against the Lord.  Yep.  He wasn't taking it personally.  I don't need to either.)

SO...my amazingly brilliant husband came up with this idea.  What if we create a visual representation of the day so the boys know when they have free time and when they don't?  What if we make it on a whiteboard, so we can change it as needed to accommodate each day's activities?  Brilliant.  Wanna see it?

Okay, so it's not Pinterest-worthy.  I know.  That wasn't the goal.  It's functional and flexible.  And I LOVE it.  We even move it around the house so the boys can see it wherever they happen to be.  It's beautiful for many reasons.

I now schedule my workout into our day, early enough that I still have energy to do it.  No joke.  The biggest enemy of my fitness goals is the couch at two o'clock in the afternoon.  I'm drawn to it like a moth to a big, soft, comfortable flame.  But at ten o'clock in the morning?  It has NO sway, no power, no tractor-beam like qualities at all.  Knowing this about myself (because knowing is half the battle, people) I decided to take a chunk out of our morning to get the workout done.  The fitbit is only happy when I get my 10,000 steps, folks.  And I've already lost seven pounds by making this a priority.  It will continue to happen.  It works beautifully.

Another plus side to the new whiteboard schedule is the fact that we make it together at the beginning of the day while sitting at the breakfast table.  They are part of the process.  They see the day coming together and can ask questions when I'm not trying to get them out the door so we aren't late to piano lessons.  Brilliant!

Finally, the boys are also able to ask permission to do special things during the day while we set up the whiteboard each morning.  On the day of this particular board, Luke wanted to spend some time on the treadmill.  Yes, it's true.  He is nine now.  I stay with him the entire time, but I let him do it.  And he loves it.

True story:  that all started one afternoon when he was running like a madman through the house, clearly so full of excess energy that he couldn't stand it anymore.  The weather was too gross to go outside, so I said, "C'mon.  You need some time on the treadmill."  He was OVERJOYED.  He's always watching me on it.  I knew he would jump at the chance.  And it worked.  Just twenty minutes on that puppy and he was ready to sit at the dinner table and be calm.  I may never win Mother of the Year, but somebody, some day might acknowledge my efforts with the Sneakiest Mom Ever Award.  And I will accept it proudly and with honor.

So happy to be on this thing.  Wish I could love it like he does!

Musings and Pictures

October has been pretty great so far, albeit, rather full.  I'll start with some musings and get to pictures.  I promise.

Musing #1 - Freedoms I take for granted
Grandma and Grandpa are traveling in China right now.  We have been able to exchange a few emails, but they are unable to access the blog while there.  It's not because they don't have the internet.  It's because the internet they have is only through a firewall that bans Blogger.  Pausing to think that through, I became very thankful for our country.

Yes, there are things here that make me nuts.  Yes, there are things on the internet that I find revolting and untenable.  But censorship isn't the answer.  Heart issues just cannot be legislated in my opinion.  It's like when I discipline my boys for being rude to me or some other adult.  I don't want just behavior modification.  I want heart transformation.  Sticky business, folks.  And probably not the realm of government.  Um...if this is offensive to you...just know that I'm not ultra political at all, and I probably don't know what I'm talking about.  I just feel like the freedom to blog is beautiful.  And I'm grateful for it.  Right?  Okay.

Musing #2 - Why moms should do Taekwondo with their kids
Because it rocks.  We have attended four classes over the past four weeks.  It is true that last week I nearly vomited after our twenty-five minutes of calisthenics, but our 4th degree black belt instructor, Master Niranjan, said I was doing fine.  Note to self: no somersaults for me.  They make me ill.  :-/

ANYWAY, the boys think it is so cool that their mom is punching and kicking alongside them.  Seriously.  Today while doing a round of Ax Kicks, I slammed the ball of my foot down as hard as I could onto the giant sparring pad our instructor was holding, and IT FELT SO GOOD.  Did I mention that I get to yell "HI-YAH!" as loudly as possible.  This sport is perfect for moms.  Every moment of frustration you've carried through the week - HI-YAH!  Every time your kids didn't listen and you wanted to punch something - HI-YAH!  Best. Stress. Reliever. Ever.  Cheapest?  Nope.  But the best!

The boys are actually going to start going twice a week.  I am fairly confident that I would die if I tried to go twice a week, but my desire to improve (and my new fitbit) have me working out more often, including push-ups and sit-ups daily.  WHAT?!?  I know.  There's just something about knowing that there is going to be a dude on Friday at 10am expecting me to get better at this stuff.  It motivates me.  I also don't want the boys to pass me up too quickly. Right?  ;-)

And now for the pictures.  I'm sorry I don't have any from Taekwondo.  I'm too busy being awesome to take pictures.

I'll share from our trip down the Gorge to get apples a few weekends ago.

First the view from the apple farm we visit:

 I took this picture myself!  The days was perfect.

After buying LOTS of apples, none of which I photographed, we needed to kill some time before heading to a house warming party in The Dalles.  So we went to this park, just five minutes from the apple farm:

The play structure was fine, but the Daddy-Man found this stream and that is where we spent the next hour and a half.

What is it with boys and bodies of water?

 This one likes to get dirty.

I posed this picture, but I still like it.  I think it captures so much about my boy.