Quin – Page 15

Just a Few Quick Notes

February 27, 2014 by Quin 1 Comment

I don’t have time to write out a full blog post but I want
to share a few quick notes I’ve taken at MOPS this year.

If you are a parent, you are a leader. You will always be a leader.
Put verses where you can soak them in. This is as simple as writing out a verse on a note card
and sticking it at the kitchen sink, on the mirror, or on the door so you see it before you head out.
Praise First!
Don’t keep secrets from your spouse. Share EVERYTHING. There isn’t such thing as sharing too much in
a marriage.
Men, although they are tough on the outside, are fragile on the inside. Remember that, and treat them accordingly.
It’s okay to want good things, but not more than we want to please the Lord.

Challenge: Write A Letter

February 20, 2014 by Quin Leave a Comment

When was the last time you wrote a letter? I mean a real pen and paper letter.
Let’s look beyond a sympathy card, because I’m hoping you still send those without being prompted.

It’s so easy to give a well wish through the internet. But as easy as it is to give, it’s also easy to forget. Especially when you’ve gotten 63 other birthday greetings {notifications} before noon.

I got a simple letter in the mail yesterday from a sweet
older lady I met 9 years ago. She knows
my oldest daughter has dyslexia and sent a note to tell me to check out Henry
Winkler’s books. Henry Winkler was “the
Fonz” on Happy Days. He has a great
story about how when he found out his child had dyslexia,he realized he had
it too! He has written books for children with dyslexia. She just wanted
me to know. The note was literally on a small piece of paper about the size of my hand, tri-folded and put in an envelope. It made my day just seeing her name on the return address. I felt so thankful that she thought of us and
took the time to mail a note telling about the books.

Challenge:
My challenge to you is to write a letter to someone this week. It doesn’t need to be a long over thought masterpiece. But it does need to be real. Real pen, real paper, real words. REALLY mail, or deliver it.

If you’d like to, take a picture sometime during the process and add it to your favorite social media site. I personally am falling in love with Instagram. Add hash tag #ASlightlyBetterWife

Homeschool: Weekly Planner Spreadsheet

February 9, 2014 by Quin Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE to view the planner sheet

For those of
you needing a little help with organizing your homeschool week, I came up with
a silly little spreadsheet.

This is just
the basics. Some weeks we do WAY more
than this, other weeks we get just this done and not an ounce more. I feel pretty strongly that children learn
well when they aren’t in a stressed environment. We try to keep things calm and not get too
worked up over assignments that didn’t get done before daddy came home from
work. We find time after supper or on
the weekend to be sure everything was accomplished that needed to be.

When things don’t get done because of attitude, lack of effort, or that sort of thing, they end up doing double the next day (the assignments they missed, plus the ones that were already scheduled). No one likes this, so usually their work gets done on time. Sometimes we miss work because we have company over, or we were out of the house. For those times we just do what we can with the hours that are left in the day and move on.

You can look
at THIS POST to see what we are using for curriculum. I love that with most of our subjects once we
finish a page or a lesson we just go on to the next one. Almost everything we do is in order. It’s easy to stick a bookmark where we left
off and pick it up again the next day.

This sample
week is a pretty simple one. We have the 100th day of school and Valentine’s
Day this week. I used Pinterest to find
& print activities for each of those days.

My 5th
grader LOVES writing in cursive. I found
some Advent handwriting pages online, so she is working through those. Before you go to check the date of this post
and lose your place, yes it is February.
December was just too busy to remember to set worksheets in her
handwriting drawer. Okay it wasn’t THAT
busy, but it was busy. With these sheets
I love that she’s not only working on her handwriting, but also learning Bible
verses at the same time! When she’s not
doing these she works in her Handwriting Without Tears book and enjoys that
too.

The
Kindergartner loves to learn and picks up more than you’d think. His attention span is still short, as is typical for his age, so we do school in “chunks”. When one subject is done he needs a break to eat something, drink something, or go to the bathroom. Sometimes he just needs a break to lie on the floor for a few minutes. I just go with it and call him back when I think he will be ready again.

If you notice that the kids have some of the same assignments. Even though they are the same I have
different expectations for each of them, based on their level of skill and ability.

This works for us. Maybe it’ll work for you, maybe not.
If you need something to keep you on track try it out. If it doesn’t work, just ditch it and try
something new.

If you are curious, the prompts for their Thankful Journals came from Ann Voskamp’s Joy Dare Challenge. Some days I use what she suggests, other days I pull from the previous month and use one we haven’t done yet.

Homeschool Mascot: FISH

January 21, 2014 by Quin Leave a Comment

You may remember last May/June (somewhere around the end of the school year) I picked up two Betta fish during a quick Wal-Mart run. It was impulsive and not well thought out. We didn’t have tanks, yes I said tankS, because those type of fish have to be kept separate or they’ll harm each other.
Well, it’s been over 6 months and those little guys are still doing great! We ended up putting them in 1/2 gal. mason jars that I already had on hand. They reside on the dining room table for the most part. Occasionally they get moved to the bathroom, or a shelf in the kitchen.

I think fish are easy to care for, beautiful to look at, and calming. Feeding them provides a good responsibility for the kids too.

Yesterday The Baby had a check up at the peds clinic (routine check up, she’s growing well & everything is fine developmentally. We are being referred to an allergist for an off-the-wall pear allergy she seems to have. Seriously, pears? Why pears! Little known fact- Pear puree is in SO MANY of those handy baby food type pouches!).

So since we were all dressed and out of the house anyway, I decided I’d make it a fun day and take all 3 kids to Petco. We spent an hour admiring the animals and reading the tags on the tanks and cages, so we could learn more.
My son wanted a froggy (please mommy?, please?????), my oldest daughter wanted a hermit crab or a hamster (either one, I just want to get a pet). The baby wanted to stare at the fish all day. She’s learning to communicate quite well. Any time her stroller wasn’t directly pointing at a fish tank, she let me know she was unhappy by throwing a fit and tossing her socks on the floor (as the Petco employee had to point out to me, as I was too busy worrying about where my big kids were, and what they were touching. Who has time to worry about something as silly as socks?).

In the end The Baby won. We stopped at Wal-Mart, and again, made an impulsive decision to buy two GLOFISH! I am now the “BEST MOM EVER” and the “COOLEST”. I heard “THANK YOU MOMMY” over a dozen times on the car ride home (from the two oldest, the baby was sound asleep from all the morning activities), and probably another dozen times just last night.

We’re still figuring out how to really care for the fish, what kind of water they like, how often to feed them, etc. It may have been impulsive, but it’s also a whole lot of fun!

Ps. So I was a little worried what my husband would say about the fish. He walked in the door, the oldest smiled from ear to ear and said “Dad, do you notice anything different??”, as she’s eying the fish. He says, “ohhh yeah” & then looks at me, “I’m just happy it’s not a dog”. I’d say he likes them! haha. No really, he does approve. Bonus! Welcome to the family Fish 1 and Fish 2!

Picture: Messy Corner

January 2, 2014 by Quin Leave a Comment

I am seeing dozens of posts on Facebook about organization and cleaning. A trip to Target yesterday proved “organization” must be the trend right now. The Christmas items have been clearanced out & many organizational tools now fill their spot.
Well for me, I believe fully in the phrase “the less you own the less that owns you”.
Today I’m creating joy in this messy little corner. This is our “donation station”.
Those little printed signs get taped to the wall each time we do a whole house purge. We’ve been doing this for 5 years now & find it to be good for all of us. Especially after Christmas! The grandparents, aunts and uncles were so good to our kiddos. 🙂 Time to pass on the old things to someone else so the kids can enjoy these new things.

Christmas Cheer: Simple Gift

December 19, 2013 by Quin Leave a Comment

Here’s a very simple gift for anyone on your list.

We won big at our town Christmas Celebration (I’m talkin’ grand prize kind of big. It blessed our socks off, folks!). It was such a great surprise that we chose to turn some of that money back into blessing others.

I purchased some $5 gift cards from the local coffee shop. I also asked for a cup for each card, because I think it makes cute packaging.

We stopped at another local store to buy some candy for filling.

The basics

Put the envelope in first.

Fill with candy and snap the lid on.

Some of the cups have ornaments or other things in them. After looking at these I wish I would’ve bought more candy for filling (or eaten less while we were filling them). I also wish I would’ve bought candy canes to stick in the straw holes. That’s what I did a few years ago, and it really adds a nice touch.

As a bonus, the kids got to help with this project. What kid doesn’t love playing with candy, right? We did color sorting, patterning, adding, multiplication and division. Oh, and a little taste testing. For quality control, ya know?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cheer: Neighbor Gift

December 19, 2013 by Quin Leave a Comment

Here is a simple neighbor gift I saw online a few years ago. I wish I could remember where I first saw it, so I could give credit to the original poster.

This simple gift has helped simplify our neighborhood Christmas giving, but is still a hands on project made with love.

When we first built our home 8 years ago, we had just a handful of neighbors. We also had just one child back then. Making cookie platters and buying cutesy gifts was a breeze back then.

Now, we have over 20 families in our neighborhood! So not only does it get more difficult, it also gets more expensive. I didn’t want to quit gift giving all together, because it’s something I enjoy doing.

I’m sure you don’t need instructions, but I’ll just outline what I did real quick.

Supplies:

Wrapping paper

Tape

Ribbon

Scissors

Cardstock

(a few years ago I hand cut & laminated all of the tags in the shape of gingerbread men. This year, I just chose cardstock & my big straight paper cutter).

What I Did:

I started with a blank word document & typed:

“WE HOPE YOU ARE GETTING WRAPPED UP IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON”

-I also added a family picture & the year, but that’s totally optional-

I printed the tags on cardstock.

Hole punched them (or you can make a little slice with your scissor and send the ribbon through).

Tie it around the roll

add a piece of tape to secure it.

Curl the ribbon.

Put on a Santa hat and deliver these door to door singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Or, make your kids do it. It’s character building.

Choosing Christmas Cheer

December 19, 2013 by Quin Leave a Comment

Some years Christmas time usually leaves me frazzled, anxious, worn out & disappointed. But this year I don’t feel any of those things! I am so in love with this whole Christmas season & celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I’m most thankful that I had another year of making memories with my little family. Praise Jesus for these good times!

Here is what’s working for me this year:

I chose not to make platters of cookies for all of the neighbors. I did however do simple neighbor gifts (I’ll post this soon!).
The 2 cookie platters that I did make were filled with 2/3 store bought goodies and 1/3 homemade cookies… that were from a mix… yes, I really did that. & they were lovely and appreciated all the same. –Am I really the same person who wrote a few years ago about cutting out processed food and only making all natural? Yeah, well, uh… that girl had a 3rd baby and needs a break right now.
I chose not to worry about putting a price on gifts & trying to keep it even for everyone. Shopping is so much more fun when done from the heart and not the wallet. Hopefully this doesn’t backfire and leave anyone comparing (or complaining).
We are not exchanging gifts between us siblings. This is kind of sad, but it cuts out A BOAT LOAD of stress! Those brothers of mine are already spoiled, and very difficult to shop for!
We are lightly homeschooling through the holidays. Rather than taking a week or two off and trying to get back into routine, we are just lightly schooling through it all. In all honesty, I think we are getting MORE done, when I am more relaxed and not pushing the schedule.
I’m throwing out random acts of kindness every.single.place I can. I don’t want to reveal too much, because that would suck the joy right outta the whole shebang. I do want to encourage you to just bless someone, anyone, in anyway you can. Whether you get to stick around and see their reaction or just imagine what their expression was, it feels SO good either way.

Oh and here’s a silly one:

We put the great big over sized Christmas tree downstairs and let the big kids load it full of ornaments just as they wanted to. The basement is off limits to the toddler, so she and the tree are both safer that way.
We bought a smaller (6.5ft x 3ft) pre-lit tree for upstairs. I only placed one ornament on it. Um, because I bought the ornament, came home, hung it on the tree, and it hasn’t moved yet!

All of these little cut backs have made it easier to put my time, money and energy into the things I feel more passionate about right now. What can you do, or are you already doing, to go LOW STRESS this week and next?

The Work Place

December 17, 2013 by Quin 1 Comment

My home is my work place. I am here more than anyone else. I am in charge of more physical duties here than anyone else. I am not complaining. I take pride in this. God has provided me a beautiful home, and a husband who allows me to be a housewife.

This year we took a leap of faith by also extending my duties to not just at home mom, but full time homeschooling momma as well.
This is just about pure joy!
Along with adding full time homeschooling to my job title, it also added a lot more STUFF to the house.
I mean it..A LOT MORE! Books, printer paper, cardstock, colored drawing paper, construction paper, reading books, text books, teachers manuals, workbooks, pens, pencils, art supplies (this is huge), science supplies, craft supplies. It just goes on and on!
It didn’t have to be this bad. I just let it get this way while I was shopping for the perfect things to help the kids to learn.

I’m a pretty neat person, although all of this stuff is starting to overwhelm me! Another resolution of mine, is to get on top of the clutter! I’ll post little pictures of before and after, or long drawn out blog posts explaining the process to you. Either way, I’ll let you know how I get out from under this STUFF!

Maybe while my hubby is home for Christmas break I can take the time to reallllllly organize. Or maybe not, because I’ll be too busy cleaning up after him snuggling and enjoying his company while he’s here.

Show me the mother and I’ll show you the child quote

December 17, 2013 by Quin 2 Comments

At the suggestion of a friend, I just started watching Army Wives. I really didn’t need another show to watch.

I’m good with just Parenthood.

I love the story lines, even when they make me cringe. um, hello Julia? What are you doing?!

I’m only a dozen-ish episodes in on Army Wives (watching on Netflix) & towards the end of one of the episodes I hear the line:

“Show me the mother and I’ll show you the child.”

O.M.GOSH

That just kept echoing in my head days after I heard it. It made me think about how similar our children are to us.

Good and bad.

My oldest daughter is compassionate and shows great patience.

I like to think she gets those gentle traits from me.

On the other hand, my daughter says nasty things about junk food… in front of people who are eating it! How embarrassing! Naturally, she wouldn’t know how bad junk food was, if it weren’t for me telling her!

It’s not that I want her to think junk food is good, I believe she needs to know the truth.

I realize though, that while explaining healthy food choices to her, I have failed to teach her how to still be respectful of the dietary choices others make (and honestly, we make sometimes too).

Then I realize, maybe I too am too quick to judge. And that is a classic example of:

“Show me the mother and I’ll show you the child.”

So as a resolution, I am going to keep letting this phrase echo through my head and use it to shape myself into a better mother.

Perhaps you’d like to do the same?

Merry Christmas!

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