Reviewing and Planning

Here I am again, blogging on Saturday morning. I've realized that I've made a lot of promises to myself this year. More than is probably good for me but I'm plodding along. I find in teaching and in life it is good to review the past and use that information to help plan for the future. I try not to have too many regrets or to allow myself to have negative feelings about things I think I've done poorly or wrongly. Instead I choose to look closely at what happened and try to figure out why and how to change for the future. Certainly there are many things I wish I could go back and redo and change but since I don't have a time machine I can't do that and obsessing on the past will do nothing to help my future.

So in looking at the week in review I'll use that information to plan for the upcoming week. 

1. Food and exercise. I've done a good job keeping to my food goals this week. I didn't get to the gym too much but I did go twice which is more than I can say for the last few months. I gave up coffee for 5 days. I have had a lot of trouble with my sleep for some reason (waking in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep) so I'm feeling totally exhausted in the morning. Today I decided that it wasn't the right time to forgo coffee. I'm on my second cup and it's soooooooo delicious! The key here is to not allow this one broken resolution to be a slippery slope into breaking the others.

2. Drawing. I haven't sat down to draw since last weekend. I need to find a little time this weekend and at least once or twice a week to draw. I'm still adjusting to my new schedule and I've tweaked my cooking schedule starting this week so I haven't gotten in a groove yet. Hopefully I can spend a little time in between jobs working on this goal. 

3. Meal Planning. I made a rough plan of dinners for the month. This was very helpful. I need to review the plan, look at the recipes and shop for what I need. Mike and I are going to take a trip to a local grocery store that I discovered sells grass fed beef from a local farm. I'm always on the lookout for places to purchase grass fed food and to see how the prices compare. 

4. Quilting. Yes.....Mike's cousin (who is MUCH younger than he is) is having her first baby and so I will make a baby quilt for her. After a lot of time not wanting to sew, I've been feeling the desire again lately. I'm not sure why. So I've picked a pattern and need to go to the fabric store to pick up the supplies. The shower is in February so I have a little time to work on it.

5. School. I don't really have too much to worry about this weekend for school. I've organized the room so that I don't have to change out the shelves too often. I do need to continue working on some lessons but they aren't pressing. I'm working on academics with the children individually or in small groups to try to get them acclimated to being more independent with their work. Unfortunately, the play areas pull them in large groups and make the classroom very loud. There isn't anything I can really do about this so I'm just trying to separate children who are misbehaving and are having trouble concentrating. That has been helping. I have to remember that it may take awhile to accomplish.

6. Reading. I've been working slowly through 'Positive Discipline for Preschoolers' which is a very good book. I'm just reading a chapter a day or so. I've also picked up 'My life in France' by Julia Child. The book chronicles her life with her husband while they lived in France which is also where she learned to cook. It is very interesting. I've got so many books that I'd like to read but I often fall asleep while reading so it's difficult to read too much at once!

7. Connecting. I've been feeling very disconnected from other people lately. I used to feel so connected at church but have really lost most of the friends I had as a younger mother. It really makes me quite sad. The only place where I have people saying they miss me is in the choir. I'm thinking that perhaps I should rejoin to see if that makes me feel more involved. I'm also thinking about taking a yoga class. I've been having a lot of trouble with my back and I think that Yoga might help with it as well as be an exercise I enjoy more than weight training or using the tread mill. It might also be a place to meet new people. The two issues are money and time with that one so I'm just exploring options. I'm also meeting a friend this morning for coffee. She's been the one consistent friend in my life and I'm glad we can connect every few months.

Well....that's a lot! Luckily I have off school on Monday. It gives me a little more time to organize myself and check off a few things from the list. I guess I'd better get cracking....it's almost 8 a.m.

Frugal Friday

It's June and I've been done with school for about a week. Nolan graduated from Lancaster Catholic and the Lancaster Career and Technology Center. The parties are over. I deep cleaned the kitchen floor. The new school I'm starting (more on this later) is set up and the paperwork sent to the state.  What does all this mean? I'm a little bored. So yesterday it occurred to me that I used to love to blog. I think one of the reasons I stopped blogging was that I no longer had the time to do it. Well, this new found boredom has given me time to blog again!  So I went back to my blog and found this post that never got posted. I think it's a good one so I'm sharing it with you today. It is over a year old but still relevant. Enjoy this one and look for more this summer.

We're still eating the sauce we made from these tomatoes.

Here it is (from 2015. And, no, it's not Friday. Please don't expect me to post a Frugal Friday post each week this summer. This was the 2015 me, not the new and improved 2016 me who knows better.):

This is the first in what I hope will be a weekly Friday posting. Hope being the operative word here.

I've been contemplating voluntary poverty for the last few weeks. I'm not going to get into that topic right now because it would require more time than I want to give to my computer at the moment. We all know that there are people who live in terrible poverty all over the world, including the town you live in. 

I'm prone to a guilty conscience and so I have to be careful about my motives. I don't want to do something because it seems romantic at the time but is unsustainable.

What I have felt convicted about for a long time is to live more simply. To honor the beauty of the natural world that has been entrusted to us by our creator. What does this mean exactly?

Well, first off: waste not.

I guess that is my basic definition of frugality. So on this and (I hope) subsequent Fridays I'll post something about being frugal. We all know that when one can make a posting alliterative it has universal appeal. Right???

So, my first Frugal Friday post topic is PATIENCE. "Patience,"you may ask? What does that have to do with being frugal and eliminating waste?

1. Impulse buying. It is so easy, isn't it? Let me give you a current example. Yesterday a friend recommended the book 7:An experimental mutiny against excess. I was cleaning out my closet and lamenting the number of skirts in there that almost never get worn. My gut instinct after looking at the book was, "Hey, this is right up my alley. I'll buy it right now. I'm just one click away on Amazon!" Fortunately, the angel sitting on my other shoulder reminded me that purchasing a book immediately because I REALLY wanted to read it was just as bad as those 13 skirts sitting in my closet. Worse, actually, because I still had the option of NOT buying it. So, my friend offered to loan me the book when she was finished with it and my dilemma was over. I'll still get to read the book and glean the knowledge written inside while saving some cash and possibly having a moment to chat with a friend during the exchange. 

2. Savings. I think we all know the cost of buying on credit or buying more than we have income to sustain. Just take a look at the housing crisis in America. How many people were approved for loans that they could not sustain. My parents taught us that if you want something, save for it first. Chances are you may not even want the item you were saving for once you have the money in hand. Being patient about fixing up the house, upgrading the computer, or even that new pair of shoes pays off in the end.

3. Eat real food and cook it yourself. Yup. Cooking takes time. Cooking real food takes extra time. It takes patience to learn to make something from scratch, to use the oven instead of the microwave. No, dinner isn't usually ready in 10 minutes or less. To be honest, the cost of real food isn't always less than processed. Unless you look at the big picture. Most commercially available foods are subsidized by the government along the path from giant farm to your table. Where do the subsidy monies come from? Yup, taxpayer pocketbooks. How about your health? What is the cost in medicine, doctor visits and hospital stays that are directly linked to the poor quality of food that we eat? High. The cost isn't just in money but in time and quality of life. 

4. You. We are all human. We all have our faults. We all need to strive to improve our lives in some way. Be patient with yourself. Nothing changes overnight except the date on the calendar. Every experience in your life is forming you and often those around you. Waste not. Examen yourself but be patient with yourself. If you find you have blessings then give thanks! If you find you have faults, make a plan. If you have faulted your husband, your children, your friend, your coworker: ask forgiveness. Take the time to improve yourself. Give thanks for the many blessings you have in your life and find one area that you can improve upon. Continue practicing patience with it all.

I'm sure there are more areas where patience and frugality meet. If you've got an idea, comment or facebook or post! Send me your links. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Living the Moment

I've always loved seeing mushroom on a tree like this. I like to think they are stairs for little gnomes who live in the trees.

Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking. For so much of a mother's life, we think and plan and work for the good of our family. I think we often forget that we are part of that family. We give of ourselves without asking for much back. We forget, however, that if we feel depleted, we have little left to give. The family is then unbalanced.


When I was home, I was able to find a little time for myself. Or rather, being a homemaker fulfilled me. Now that Mike is home and I am working, my sense of identity has really been shaken. I'm searching for it.


So I think I'm on a journey of some sort. Perhaps all people who have such drastic changes go through this type of self reflection. 


One thing I've come to slowly realize is that I need to be more mindful of every moment. The little pleasures in my day like the shape of the clouds as I drive to work, the birds who gather in our yard as I eat my lunch, the snatches of small talk I have with my teens as we drive here or there. I am striving to enjoy them all. To take my time as I sweep the floor or tear out basement walls. Really, to be thankful.


To live a life of gratitude with joy is my aim. It may be the hardest goal I've set for myself. I think in the journey I'll discover myself again. 


What will you discover today?