Command Center

Let's just pretend it hasn't been TWO YEARS since I last posted to this blog.  Let's just pretend that I haven't had a new baby, graduated an oldest child, moved to a new home, and a world of other major life changes in that amount of time that are fully blog-worthy but have not made it to the pages of my dear, sweet blog.

Let's also pretend that I haven't been suffering for the lack of therapeutic healing that comes from running my fingertips over the keys as I use up all the words flowing in my brain to process, remember, decompress, relive, cherish, ponder, evaluate, and just *pin* bits and pieces of life in one little place so they stay there in my otherwise fluid and ever shifting chaos of life.

Let's just all agree to pretend, Mmm-kay?

Okay, so now that we are on the same page, literally, let's talk Command Centers!!

I spent the entire summer dreading the Back to School reality that was mine.  So many details I'm going to leave out here, but suffice to say, it's been an emotional heap taller than any stack of laundry I've ever seen my family create.

Huge.

While in prep mode, while nestling into our new home, while dreaming of "smooth and easy days" as Charlotte Mason would chide me to chase after, I landed in Pin-land looking over all those fancy Command Centers and thinking...oh, yeah. I totally need THAT.  Just having that on my wall is going to make everything all Smooth and Easy and Masony.

Just let me live the delusion. It makes me happy.

So began my Command Center, Wall One:

This wall holds a Family Message board, key rings and shelf for husband's personal things, clip boards for each child and myself to hold chore lists, weekly assignment charts, school binders, mail, and other paper trails, and room in the corner for a map of our area. I've got new drivers and we all need to learn the roads in our new area. 

Command Center, Wall Two:

This wall holds, from left to right, a chalkboard frame for posting weekly memory verse, metal trays to hold weekly and daily cleaning chart, weekly menu with kitchen clean up chart, inspirational posters, and our daily "chunking" routine. (I'll explain that below) Far right is another metal tray holding a two-month calendar spread. 

 

 

Okay, now that you've got the big picture, I'll break down the Chunking routine that is a New Thang for me this year.  I'm loving it.

But, really, there's post-it notes involved...what's not to love?? 

I started my planning making the usual color-coded, 30 minute increment, multi-columned spreadsheet for a daily schedule.  Once I got up to a full 9 hour day BEFORE the dinner time routine, I was scared out of my ever-lovin' mind.  No joke. 

A friend gently talked me off the ledge by talking about how she just focuses on sections and subjects in her day. I needed to think on that. And, well, being me, I needed to see it too.

That's when I went hunting and found a helpful article (along with great downloads for some awesome printables) from Kim at notconsumed.com.  She used words like creative, flexible, throw-the-clock-out-the-window, and chunks.  

I was smitten. 

So I took her ideas and grabbed my all-time-favorite-ever-little-bits-of-happiness and went to town creating magic. 

I thought about our days. I thought about how I work. I thought about how I think. I like to box things up. (Well, I DID just move 11 people from one house to another, right?? And I HAVE done that, oh...about 13ish times so far, right??)  

My brain works well putting everything in it's place and as many things in one place as will look tidy and uncluttered.  So, I did that with our day. 

I now have chunks of time that hold like things together.  And because these chunks hold all they need to hold, they are easily moved to one place or another during the day.

"This is genius!" she declared.

Once I saw all those pretty little pieces of life sitting nicely together, not fighting, not fussing, not arguing over who gets the attention first, well, my heart just melted into a puddle of, "Yes, please!" and "Thank you!"

I grabbed the laminator and the magnetic strips (actually, I assigned that fun little task to a very willing 10 and 12 year old duo) and created the cutest little chunks of life you could imagine. 

Yep. There they are all shiny and clean.  They are perfectly movable. They are perfectly willing to shift, take a new place, be set aside, move the front, and even make room for more (which actually happened when I added another Brain Chunk to the day after our first week of school).  

For each chunk there's a corresponding chart, list, or set of instructions so everyone knows how to fill that chunk and where they should be. The system is brilliant!! Getting everyone to USE the system, well, that's the life-long battle, right?

I'm still a scattered mom of many each day. I'm still up to my graying temple hairs with math facts, diapers, laundry, latin tests, piano lessons, kale chopping, permission slips, phonics rules, and piles of read alouds, but..well, the chunking makes it all seem doable.

And if I can just BELIEVE it...SEE it in pretty little squares...FEEL the power of control by just shifting a box, well...that's some percentage of the battle right there.  

At least for now it is.  Talk to me again when the February slump sets in.

And now, back to that regularly scheduled pile of laundry I mentioned.

Yep.

Huge. 

Plant Strong!

As I mentioned in a previous post, our family is transitioning to a plant-based diet. 

Some of that is not hard to do for us.  We were eating whole foods before, so our recipes can easily be adjusted to fit our new goals. The primary goal is that we choose foods that have the highest nutritional value per calorie.  That means we avoid foods like oils, dairy, animal products, sweeteners (aside from fruit), and processed foods, of course. We haven't eliminated those completely from our diet, but we purpose to serve them at a minimum and some things on very rare occasions.

This pyramid is our basic family meal plan now:

Here's a view of lunch at our house on a typical day.  Ranch beans with added mushrooms and greens, green leafy salad with shredded carrots and beets and other vegetables for topping or dipping on the side.  Peanut butter and raisins on celery, hummus, salsa, a small bit of yogurt dip for the children, sunflower seeds, and blue and white corn chips for the children.  We add the lunch trays for fun. :)

 

We've been trying A LOT of new recipes over the last couple of months. A LOT.  Most are pretty good, but a few have been hard to get down. I am keeping a binder to keep track of what we try, plan my weekly menus, and make notes on what to keep and what to pitch. I've moved from my paper meal planner to using one I've made online for easier changes and access. You can see this week's menu here.

 

One of the best things about all this is watching the children learn and change as much as we do.  Today Verity and Ruth spent quite a bit of time making "cakes" for me filled with all the new ingredients they hear me talk about.  They wanted the cakes to be extra special so they layered them with "kale" and "flax seed" and "frosting" sweetened only with fruit. Adorable, right??

 

 

I think Ruth got the itch to do some more cooking, because she came in and took on the task of making dessert for our meal tonight.  Out came her trusty kid's cookbook.  She altered the recipe a bit and came up with some mighty tasty apple tarts. 

 

 

The crust was made with garbanzo bean flour, applesauce, and water.  The filling is chopped apples mixed with cinnamon.  They were delicious and followed our meal nicely.

 

Introducing No-Meat Balls served over whole grain pasta and spinach, topped with low-salt marinara sauce with a side of green beans.

 

 

As you can see, it was a hit.

 

 

This meal goes down as a Keeper. :) 

 

I'll be honest and say that not everyone loves everything we try. I know I sure don't! But, everyone has been amazing about trying new things and doing their best to accustom their tastes to our new adventures in food. I sure wish I had been as brave as my children are when I was a child. 

 

It's paying off in big ways for us, too.  Not only are the children learning and developing healthier eating habits, but David and I are getting stronger and seeing the pounds come off. 

 

In the last 4 weeks, while David has been on his juice fast, he's lost 34 pounds and gone down 2 sizes!  In the past 6 weeks since starting to use the principles from Dr. Furhman's book, Eat to Life: End of Diabetes, I'm down 19 pounds. 

 

It's a wonderful blessing to see such progress for both of us in our health.

 

 

We're grateful for all we're learning. We're excited about how life is changing for us.  It's a lot of work, but so worth the effort. Knowing we have the energy to stay fit and active and enjoy this challenge together while being strong role models for our children is the best blessing of all.  

 

 

"'Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth." Jeremiah 33:6

 

 

 

Back to School!

We had a great day. :-)

I mean, A Really Great Day...

I mean, an I Can't Remember Having Such a Great School Day kind of day...

Okay, well...these helped...

But, our new school room and routine works very well. Can you tell how surprised I am?

I still have some challenges with the Littles. But, they did enjoy their play cubby for a while...

I forgot to take more photos.  We started a bit late, so lunch didn't happen until after 1pm. But, when you're not watching the clock, that can happen. ;-) 

Our menu:

Breakfast - Oatmeal, bananas, raisins and grapefruit for Momma

Lunch - Taco Lentils w/ rice (waiting for us in the crockpot when we came up for lunch),

chips, cheese, salsa, fresh cut carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes & dip

Dinner - Salad, spaghetti, green beans, & venison sausage

(all made by my wonderful husband! ::swoon:: )

Our individual and family devotions were a blessing. We got in our morning and afternoon exercise. All lessons scheduled to be done by lunch were done by lunch. The baby napped all through our morning lessons. My oldest wrote a lovely poem that made me tear up. My family *applauded* me at the dinner table for having had such a wonderful day. (no, seriously!)  And I ended the day having coffee out with friends.

Seeeeee???? I told you it was a Really Great Day! :D

A few squeaks still need some oiling: We need to get started on lessons a bit earlier. I need to find some more things to keep the little ones busy during lessons. I have to be sure to get in some reading time with them after lunch. And, we need to not forget our daily cleaning chore tomorrow. (ahem)

None of that deters me from basking in the gift of such a precious day with my family. I began the day tired as all get out, not having had a very good night sleep-wise. Yet, I prayed the Lord would multiply his grace and peace in our home and he certainly did! Praise the Lord for all He does. Every good gift is certainly from his hand.

I hope everyone else enjoyed a great day Back to School!

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord," 2 Peter 1:2



Kitchenally Challenged

If you've known me for any length of time in real life, you know how that I am Kitchenally Challenged.  I can follow a recipe well enough. I even have one or two recipes that people have asked me to share. But, when it comes right down to it, I'd rather be a lot of places than in my kitchen. 

What is a blessing to me is that the Lord has seen fit to refine my selfish heart by providing many, many kitchen duties in this season of life. However, my lack of skill and joyfullness has created some troubles for me in managing our meal times in a pleasing manner. So, after some weeks of frustration, a few more weeks of praying and planning, I've got a new plan that I'm hopeful will give me a better grip on my culinary crutch.

Some basic changes I've made:
>Plan to use the crockpot or make-ahead recipes for *most* of the meals I serve each day, including breakfast and lunch.
>Make a plan to stay one meal ahead throughout the day.
>Create Master Lists for a new menu, Kitchen Day chores, and Grocery Shopping
>Reorganize my recipes

Here's a little step-by-step:

1. Pray and ask the Lord to help me renew my heart and mind for the tasks He has prepared for me to do.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

2. Research a few blogs and ask some seasoned moms for ideas, recipes, tips and ways to think "outside of the box".
3. Revise the weekly menu plan I was using to a Monthly Menu plan, color-coded.



4. Make a color-coded Master Grocery list for each menu week. It's in my computer, ready for any needed changes. I can edit, print and go.

5. Reorganized my recipe box into sections for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. The other sections have recipes I use weekly for condiments, baking, and soups.  A few sections need to be cleaned out once more. I detest a cluttered recipe box.

6. Created a master list of recipes for each meal section for quick reference. (just noticed the spelling errors. Please...PLEASE ignore!!)

7. Created color-coded Master Lists for Kitchen Chores throughout the week. I now have a plan of what to cook, prep and create each day (morning, afternoon and evening) in my kitchen. This is also in my computer, with the print and go option. I plan to print a copy for each week and attach to the corresponding menu that will be posted on the fridge. I'd link a peek of it for you, but I can't get my computer to agree with the internet linky-thing. 8-) 

It's too bad, too, because that's where the real work went in. Let's just say that I won't have to wonder "what should I be doing next?" anymore. At least not in the kitchen. ;-)

So, I've listed myself up again. I'll give an update in a few weeks to let you know how we've adjusted and how we like the new recipes. I'll also update my link on the side bar to give basic changes to our weekly menu. I'll be updating the MOTH schedule too, just so *I* know everything is organized correctly. (can anyone say Control Issues??)

Weekly Menu

Sunday:
B- Granola or Freezer breakfast sandwiches (Jimmy Dean's Turkey and Egg whites on English muffins)
L - Potluck at church - Soup & bread (same as Saturday's lunch)
D - Nachos
Monday:
B - Egg Bake OR (reheated) french toast & hard boiled eggs
S - Fruit
L - Taco Salad OR Chinese Cabbage Salad
S - Baked goods
D- Slow Cooker Pasta meal, vegetable & salad
Tuesday:
B - Baked French Toast or Baked Oatmeal
S - Fruit
L - Slow cooker Soup & bread
S - Granola
D - Slow cooker meal, vegetables & salad
Wednesday:
B - Breakfast Burritos OR Slow cooker Breakfast Potatoes with Sausage
S - Fruit
L - Pasta Salad OR Slow cooker meal
S - Baked goods
D - Make ahead Casserole, vegetable & salad
Thursday:
B - Make ahead Dutch Puff, pinto beans w/ cheese, hard boiled eggs
S - Fruit
L - Make ahead subs or wraps, vegies & dip
S - yogurt
D - Slow cooker meal, vegetable & salad
Friday:
B - Slow cooker Breakfast casserole
S - Fruit
L - Taco Lentils, chips & cut vegies
S - Snack mix
D - Potato bar
Saturday:
B - Omelets, toast or pancakes
L - Soup & bread
S - Popcorn
D - Slow cooker meal, vegetable & salad