House Cleaning Thoughts

Today is a big chore day for us so I thought I would take some time to share my thoughts on the subject with you...

A clean house can be one of those elusive things in the life of a homeschool family. On one hand, when you are at home, it's easier to get things done than if you are out and about all day. But, on the other hand, when you are at home most of the time, more messes can happen more quickly than you have time to keep up with. So what do you do? Here are some things that help us keep things in control and get them back in order when they get out of control. A clean and neat home always helps us get more done in less time and gives us more time to have fun!

Keep things simple. We try to keep our meals, the kids toys, the clothing we own and all else very simple. Clutter can be your biggest enemy when you need an organized environment. Take some time each day to toss things you don't need, donate items that are still useful or if you have LOTS to get rid of, why not bless your family with a little extra cash and have a yard sale or sell some things on Ebay or Craigslist?

Be Realistic. I don't aim for a perfect home. Sure, I would love a picture prefect, magazine style home every day but that is just not practical when we are here working on school art projects, baking bread and chasing an almost two year old from things to thing all day. I try to focus on what matters most like making sure the kitchen stays clean, our clothes are clean, the bathroom is presentable in case we have visitors, etc.

Make It Fun! We make up all sorts of games when we clean and the girls love it, it makes them want to help instead of procrastinating all of their chores. We always get done quicker when we play a game. Music is also good. We like to play one of our favirite CD's and sing along as we clean. It makes the time pass much faster.

Delegate. We have designated chores for each child. My husband and I also have certain chores that we each do during any given week. During times when I am sick or things are more busy than usual my husband always chips in on the day to day chores as well and the girls do a little extra as well. Ask your husband and children for extra help if you need it, I know mine are always happy to help me!

Keep a positive attitude. Daily chores can feel like drudgery if you don't have the right attitude. We like to think of our home as a blessing from God and also everything in it. We strive to remember that God expects us to respect the blessings he bestows upon us and we should be joyful in taking care of them as well as taking care to have a joyful attitude in serving others as well.

Praying your day is a blessed one...

Our Healthy Eating Plan

I got a couple of comments last week (which I have not replied to as of yet - sorry!) :0) about our new healthy eating plan, asking what we are specifically doing to eat more healthy. I have been planning to blog about this for some time now but it has been put off until today. Finally, a few spare moments to share with you what we are doing.

I'll start by saying that this has nothing to do with wanting to lose weight, although that is a nice side effect of how we have started to eat! This plan all stems from my desire for better overall health (I suffer a lot from sinus/allergy problems not to mention trouble sleeping and a few other things). It is also due to some problems my husband has, namely acid reflux. Lastly we aspire to eat better due to some food allergies we found out that our oldest daughter has which led to symptoms of colitis. We knew that based on all of this, that it was time to make some changes.

We never did eat BADLY, really. Just your average American diet. Maybe even better because I do like to get those veggies in there and I have always been health conscious as far as picking and choosing certain kinds of foods and ingredients that I feel are best for us and trying to buy organic whenever possible. But we have found that was not enough and we had to be extremely picky on what we eat for the sake of the health of our family.

To begin, the main plan we are using right now is The Sonoma Diet and The Sonoma Diet Cookbook. This plan works really well to help you get rid of sugar cravings and also helps you to lose weight if you want to. You don't have to exercise but of course it does help if you are after weight loss. After reading those two books I also read through The Maker's Diet and Eat Fat, Lose Fat as well as Nourishing Traditions. I've also been scouring the web for info and have read a lot about coconut products which we have added to our diet. You can read more on this here.

Basically, I have combined what I feel to be the best advice of the above three books with the Sonoma Diet stuff to fit within a few guidelines (our budget, what we like to eat and to address and specific health concerns we have). The basic idea is to balance your meals.

Breakfast consists of half protein and half whole grains (if we eat hot or cold cereal) or 25% whole grains and 75% protein if we eat say, eggs or meat. Lunch and dinner are broken down into 25% increments (25% veggies, 25% fruit, 25% whole grains and 25% protein or dairy. Sugar is not included at all the first 10 days of the diet, not even fruit and after that it is severely limited and has to be something like honey or Sucanat or molasses. Refined products like white sugar, white rice and white flour are not allowed not are pre-packaged, convenience type foods. Thanks goodness I like to cook because I spend A LOT of time cooking now, even more than before which was already a lot! :0) I may just have to go back to food blogging again, LOL! We've tried to go 100% organic as well. I'll share some recipes soon, I have been coming up with new ones like crazy to keep some variety in our diet.

So far it's all going really well. Around day 8 of the first phase (which is 10 days total) my husband had only had a problem with reflux maybe once. I'd lost about 12 lbs. (without exercise!) and I am now sleeping better with less allergy problems. I'm also not snacking late at night like I used to because honestly I am not hungry. This is great because I am really bad about late night snacking! My husband has lost a lot, his clothes are loose but he's not tracking his weight so we're not sure of how much he's lost.

I also picked up a couple books and DVD's by Jordan Rubin (Perfect Weight America book plus accompanying DVDs and The Vitamin Code) that Sprouts had for FREE if you buy one of his Garden Of Life products. We needed coconut oil anyhow and I always buy the Garden of Life brand anyhow so this was an awesome deal. If they still have those to offer, go pick them up they have some great info. (just try to look past how much he is trying to get you to buy all of his products on the DVDs and you will see he's got some good info there no matter what brand of products you purchase). :0)

Finally, we are incorporating into this plan my oldest daughter's food allergies. She is on a 90 day plan which avoids foods that she reacted to in a food allergy blood test. There are some pretty common foods she has reacted to so it has been a challenge to incorporate her plan into the diet as well. She can't have potatoes (white, sweet, yams, etc), peppers, citrus, eggs, cows milk or tomatoes... some of our favorite foods! Once the 90 days are up we are going to try to wean her back onto those foods again.

So, that is the long and short of it for now. I will try to post some updates soon.

Romans Bible Study: Update

I do apologize to anyone that has been following me in the reading of the Book Of Romans. I had such intentions to continue it at a steady pace, but sometimes life can get hectic... I'm sure you all understand :0)

I am passionate about reading and studying Romans right now, but I honestly have to say that I am not going to be able to keep up this on-line log of my studies. My computer time is too limited to work on my study the way I have been (taking notes here on the blog as I study via E-Sword). I am back to the old fashioned method - my Bible and a pen and paper - which is probably the best method anyhow!

So, if you have been following, I want to offer you an excellent resource for studying through Romans. It is located here.

I'll be back here as soon as I can with the healthy eating plan info.. I'm so glad y'all are interested in learning more! :0)

Friday at last!

I can't believe it's Friday again, the past two weeks have flown by. Our oldest daughter got sick on my birthday (Feb. 7th) and it has been a long haul since then. After one trip to Urgent Care and three trips to the pediatrician we found out she had strep throat and mono at the same time. We finally had to take her to the emergency room for an injection of antibiotics and praise God she is getting well. It was a scary time because she seemed to get worse each day for about a week and a half, it really had us worried. We were up with her for several night fighting off fever, coughing, chills, etc. As I watch her recover from this illness I am just so amazed at how gracious God is. Our children are so precious and often times that is really made clear when they get sick.

Next week we will be back to schooling. I've got some information to share about a new healthy eating plan our family has been following that has been a true blessing as well as a new Bible study post to put up. God's will, those will come soon.

Have a blessed weekend!

Jesus Loves Me

Our one year old is so sweet! I always sing Jesus Loves me to her before naps and before bed at night. Last night at bed she began to sing along as always and I realized she had created her own lyrics. She even remembered them today at nap time.

"Jesus will help me. Bible, Bible. Daddy, Daddy, me."

Too cute. :0)