Staying Organized for the New School Year

I've been working on my lessons and plans for this year. This year is the first year in 10 years that I am not returning to school as a full-time teacher. Instead, I am staying home and homeschooling and teaching online part-time. Let me just say, it is quite a change. I know I work harder at home than I did at school. For instance, at school, I get a planning period. Home - not so much. I don't even get to go potty by myself!

Rachel has mentioned how she merges her hubby's Outlook calendar with hers and writes notes to herself. It's an awesome idea, and I LOVE it. For instance, last year when I found pumpkins for 1 penny a pound, I wrote myself a note to appear on my calendar this year at the same time, hoping that I don't forget to get that deal again.

Over the summer, I have mastered what I find an easy management method for my home - Google Calendar. For real. I had some doubts when I first read about managing multiple calendars (I can hardly keep track of one!) but now that I've been doing it for awhile, I really like it! Here is the basic idea - you start a new Google Calendar for everything you want to keep track of: Here is the monthly view of mine right now:

It's looks kind of crazy at first....then it starts to be awesome!

On the far left are all of the separate calendars. The ones that I have highlighted in color - show up on the calendar I am viewing. Right now I have 10 calendars that I can look at individually or together with others. They are: baby (as in stuff I should remember about this pregnancy - like how far along I am, which I can never remember), Appointments, Bills, Birthdays & Events, Church & Community, Family, Homeschool Plans, Household Management, Meal Plans, and School Board Business. It seems like a lot, I know. But, here are some reasons why it's awesome.

For Birthdays & Events, I have all of our family birthdays and anniversaries. I have marked these to repeat yearly and have each person's physical and email address in the notes section. Now I don't have to stop and look them up! Also, I can print this calendar alone if I want all that info on one page. Meetings I have because of my online job are under School Board Business, I share that calendar with my hubby and mom (my main babysitters). On the Bills calendars, I mark any specific bill due dates and use the email me a reminder feature for things like property taxes and homeowners. You know, bills I get months in advance and don't have to pay immediately and then, of course, forget about. Not that anyone else does that.

There are a few calendars that I don't have highlighted - basically because it makes my calendar a LOT harder to read all at once. My meal plan calendar is completed 1 month in advance when I make my SHARE order. Then I print it and put it on the fridge. Household Management is basically a reminder for me - what specific tasks I do on a weekly basis - toilets and wipe down bathrooms on Monday's for instance, iron church clothes on Thursday, stuff like that.

Finally, Homeschool Plans. I actually write out my plans every week (and make changes). However, my mom and my hubby like to know what I have planned so they can ask the kids about it. So, I share that calendar with them. The times on that calendar aren't important at all. We do those lessons mixed in with center time, puzzles, dance/music time, etc. Most importantly, it serves at my official record that I can keep as long as I need and print at will if I need to do so for Homeschool record keeping. Now that schedules are starting to get busier with school starting, maybe this is something that will work for you. I feel like a genius now that I am using it. I mean, I know when Ryan's cousin's birthdays are and manage to send them a card! Holy Cow.

We've Moved!

I'm kind of hesitant to even post this, since our posting and reading have gone way down during the summer, but I'm just so excited to be in our new house! It was such a whirlwind - one Sunday we went for a drive and saw a house we thought was pretty cool. Within 3 days we had put down an offer on it, the owners accepted, and we met with a realtor about selling our house. Our house was on the market less than a week when we had an offer. Talk about the hand of God moving! This has truly been God's plan for our family. The house is not bigger, though it is nicer. We lost a little bit of yard space and outdoor storage. But the neighborhood is great. My dad never liked neighborhoods, so growing up I always lived way out in the country, away from anyone else. Our old house is in a neighborhood, but it's not exactly the kind we want our kids growing up in. It's on a busy street, next to a middle school, and it's loud. Kids walking home from school - loud. People driving by with their music thumping - loud. Motorcycles speeding down the road - loud. In our new neighborhood, we are almost in a cul-de-sac. My kids, 2 and 4, can ride their bikes in the street. Our neighbors stop to talk to us, introducing themselves and letting our kids pet their very sweet animals. The teenaged girl next door brought us a giant hunk of homemade cake. It's so quiet you can actually hear nature. Add a cast of wacky characters, and we're living in Stars Hollow! (I'm praying at least one of you is a Gilmore Girls fan.) I guess what's nice out here is that I don't feel like I'm alone in the world. We were so isolated (by choice) in our last neighborhood. I can't wait to raise my kids here!

SHARE is Online now....

Hey Motley Moms! SHARE is now offering online ordering and today (at 5pm)  is the last day to order for July! Pickup is on Saturday, July 31. I pick-up at the Care Center but they have sites all over Florida - check out their website to find the one closest to you.

We purchase the Family Value and the Prime Produce (you get a TON of produce) packages and some additional items to complete our monthly menu. You should give it a try - it's easy and a great value for the money! Happy Monday!

DEADBEAT (motley) MOM

Summer is obviously in full swing with all sorts of special memory-making moments for the Motley Moms. Karly's kiss with a curb and Liz's foray into boxing (in more ways than one) just go to prove how dangerous it is to be a mom. Especially a really motley one who has police chasing her all over town or pictures of her injuries going viral on facebook. It's the stuff summer is made of...ahhhh, memories.

While summer happenings have been heating up, our motley writing has definitely taken a "chill pill" as we said in middle school. I don't feel like such a deadbeat anymore, now that I'm in good company! But I do miss clicking over to Motley Moms for my daily peek into the lives of my mom friends. It's my lifeline to the outside world when I'm up here in the middle of the Adirondack mountains with no cell service all summer...the one-liner quips on Facebook just don't do it for me!

It is nice to take a break from it all, though, every now and then. I'm hoping our little summer break will result in lots of great posts when we've all returned to our regularly scheduled programs. For now, maybe I should find the graphic of the color blocks with the accompanying tone to alert the public that we have no Motley programming during the summer break. That would be awesome.

Have fun with your families, but ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Summer with a Two Year Old!

Summer has been great so far! I am loving it! But I am also trying to get in to an easy routine with my 2 year old. We have some weekly events that we go to: Park outing with other moms from church, library visit to get new books, movies and play with their toys and puzzles, and a Pool party at my house (yes we have a pool). These activities are GREAT! We have a fun time doing all of them.

But I am looking for some ideas for activities that we can do around the house that focus on learning. Something we can do in the mornings when we wake up and are still in our PJ's. Right now we just sort of mosey around playing, making a mess, watching movies, going online... nothing really substantial... I would like to do something more constructive. I would like at least 5 ideas so that I can do them once a week.

That is where the Motley Moms come in. What are some of your go-to learning activities for toddlers?

Want to see what will ruin my summer?

Would you like to see it from a different angle?

Yes. That is my ankle. And really, the second picture doesn't do all the pretty colors justice. Last week I blew out my ankle. Would you like to know how? Or, rather, why? Because I am a big ol' klutz. That's it. I'm clumsy, so I will spend my entire summer in a brace and part of the time on crutches because I can't do plyometrics without turning my ankle the direction it was not meant to turn. The good news is: 1. It's not broken (although sometimes a break is better than a sprain, especially when it's sprained as severely as mine is), 2. I don't need surgery, and 3. School is out, which means my MIL and SIL are able to help me quite a bit. And yes, it is overkill to say this ankle sprain (4 torn ligaments! 3 month recovery!) will "ruin" my summer, but here is a list of things that will just not be the same:

1. VBS. I can't work it because I'm not terribly mobile, even with the crutches, but my kids can still attend. So I get 5 half-days to myself. Huh. Wait, that actually turned out pretty well. Okay, scratch that.

New #1. I'm going to get fat. It's inevitable. I can't do anything physical. No circuit training, no weight training, no running, no elliptical, no kickboxing. I was even considering going back to tae kwon do, but I won't be able to do anything strenuous until September, most likely. This lack of physical activity not only makes me flabbier, but it makes me cranky, too.

2. The Keys. Todd and I are going to the Keys in less than 2 weeks, by ourselves. I still won't be able to walk long distances, although I should be off the crutches by then, so there won't be any walking around Key West for shopping or people-watching. We can't go kayaking because of Todd's recent shoulder surgery (it takes a long time to recover from that) and I can't very well bike. I guess we'll be spending all of our time either in the hotel room or lying out by the pool, reading and sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them. Bummer.

3. Busch Gardens. They have a special going this summer where you can get a year's pass for kids 5 and under for free because they've opened up a new Elmo-themed preschool area. I was planning on going there a lot but I don't think I will now. Can you imagine me on one of those motorized carts trying to chase after 2 kids in a theme park?

4. Potty training. Micah really is doing great with using the toilet, especially since I started him almost a full year younger than I started Ethan. I can't remember the last time I bought diapers. But he's taking advantage of me. It's like he says in his head, "Hmmmm. Mommy's laid up on the couch with a hurt foot. I wonder what'll happen if I pee on the books."

5. Sleep. Since I'm lying around all day, I'm not expending much energy, so I'm not tired at night. My brain is probably going to turn to mashed potatoes because I'm watching more TV than usual and wasting even more time on the computer. And that's saying something.

All this has made me realize that I wasn't made for sitting around. But I'm sure, like in all things, God is trying to teach me something. Patience, maybe? Loss of control? Or maybe that my problems are small. My last post was pretty dismal and this one is just whiny. But oil is spilling out of control into the Gulf and people are losing their jobs and many in Haiti still don't have homes. I am blessed because I sit here with a brace and crutches that my insurance company (partly) paid for, insurance that I have because my husband has a good job, and my belly is full and my kids are healthy and my house is air-conditioned. Ugh. I'm tired of learning this lesson. I wish I weren't so.....human.

I got my degree on Facebook!

Sorry to hijack Motley Moms to rant a little, but I actually believe this is a topic worthy of a parenting discussion. While most of us reading this did not grow up surfing the Information Super Highway, our kiddos will only know the ease of Google for finding out what they need to know.

In the past few weeks a controversy has erupted on Facebook. Actually, many controversies have exploded on the social networking site, but this one in particular has caught my attention. Have you seen the icky glob the lady down in Miami found in her Capri Sun pouch?

More pics here.

I think we can all agree that, yuck, that is really icky. I wouldn't want to find one of those in my kid's juice box. When the mom who found the mass contacted Kraft, the maker of the juice, they told her they would test it. They did, and they concluded that the mass is mold, and the mold grew because the pouch had a leak. (This is true, by the way--the family confirmed that the pouch was leaking and that is how they found the object.) Kraft offered to reimburse the family for the cost of the box of juice.

Here's where things have taken an interesting turn, though--apparently the appearance of this ugly mass of yuck has turned many people in the Facebook world into biologists. Did you know it was that simple? People whose only contact with mold is with the stuff that grows on strawberries when they sit in the fridge for too long have decided that this could not be mold--it's too icky--it looks more like an eyeball, skin, (insert random body part here)...

Now, with one Google search I was able to find a picture on a blog of a similar glob found in an apple juice box made by an Australian company. There may be some masked villain touring the world's juice factories and depositing masses of flesh he removed from his victims into our children's favorite summer beverage containers, or maybe...it really is a mold that tends to grow in fruit juice.

View site here.

I'm not really bothered by boycotts against products as long as they have merit, and I think social networking sites have given consumers unimaginable power when it comes to being treated fairly. What bothers me is that I have heard several people talking about the glob off-line, and they are sure that indeed it is the missing hand of Osama bin Laden. Let people say what they will, but in this age of information, information tends to spread faster than the speed of light, and before you can say, "Don't take that perfume sample from a stranger at a gas station!" we have a new urban legend on our hands, and in some cases it may actually harm products or companies that supply jobs to our economy and have, in fact, done nothing wrong.

So, as much as I would like to think that my time spent watching Criminal Minds has prepared me to be an FBI profiler (Hey guys at the Bureau--call me if you need a hand!), I can honestly say that it probably hasn't, and on that same note, being a part of the Facebook community (or any other site) has not qualified me to be a scientist or anything else. It is my responsibility to not believe everything I read and to look into things a little before I start a crusade against them. Most of the time, a quick trip to www.snopes.com does the trick. ;)

What's my point and what does it have to do with parenting? Well, I guess my main goal here is to inspire us all to teach our kids how to find the truth no matter how enticing a legend is. Sure, it's more fun to think that the Capri Sun in question came from Hannibal Lecter's jail cell, but really, don't we want our kids to be able to decipher fact from fiction, danger from safety? There's a Facebook community devoted to some new fad where the kids are drinking alcohol WITH THEIR EYEBALLS. I'm sure they think it's perfectly fine to do so. I want our little guy to be able to say, "No, thank you, you're an idiot," when approached with such ridiculous ideas. In short, I want to train our future member of society to be, well, not a moron. Of course, I may need to get a few more Facebook degrees before I can master that completely. ;)